Third Person
Paris, France: 2nd Street Subdivision
8:34 A.M.
They traveled by bus for 2 miles and walked down a fancy Subdivision from 2nd Street. The neighborhood seemed friendly so are the dogs on their leash. One of the old ladies greeted both of them while one man offered them a piece of his freshly baked macaroons. After a wonderful walk towards the address, they stopped in front of an odd-looking house. Apart from the shiny tan exterior design, the house was unique from the bleak-colored houses beside it.
Raine fully remembered this house. This was the first house she ever visited when she arrived from New York. Phoenix gave her the initiative to ring the doorbell. They heard a man's gentle voice from inside before the oak door opened and a middle-aged man was in front of them.
"Hi, Tito..." greeted Raine before holding the man's hand and touching it with her forehead as a sign of respect.
"Attorney Arturo Narcisso Dimatulac - Bolucboluc," Phoenix mentioned the man's full name and nodded as a sign of greeting.
The man in his 40's smiled as his dark eyes sparkled at the sight of the girl. His face wrinkles were minimal as he was evidently smiling most of the time. He didn't possess a muscular body but was still fit for the average body mass. His tanned skin stood up from his features while he wore a simple white sleeveless shirt and Hawaiian shorts.
Klavier's father known as Attorney Arso gave the girl a bear squeeze before rejoicing, "Raine! What a pleasant surprise!"
Then his eyes caught Phoenix. That's when he frowned and all of a sudden, the wrinkles dictated his age, "Oh no... Did this punk ask you to talk to me about your boyfriend's case?" He asked Raine after keeping the girl on his side from the boy.
The girl walked near Phoenix to reassure the man he was safe to trust before saying, "Actually, I wanted to. Please, Tito Arciso..." she talked with her eyes like that of a poodle, "I never knew you were a lawyer! It's amazing..."
Attorney Arso laughed and patted the girl's messy hair, "Ah! Who am I to deny such cutie pie?" But he also warned both of them before letting them enter, "But I can't promise anything. His case almost has no winning rate at this point and he already admitted he did it so, it will be difficult to deal with."
Raine sighed while Phoenix agreed.
The older male welcomed the two inside his house. It's not the usual house. Everything was unique, most of the furniture has their plastic wrappings on them, their broom on the side of the door looked odd too. The shoes and sandals were sorted and labeled professionally. Mothballs scent filled the air and the centralized aircon was turned off while three fans were plugged for their comfort.
"Thank you..."
Both of them sat down on the couch after their shoes were replaced with comfortable fuzzy inside slippers. The rules inside their house were simple yet, strictly implemented.
Attorney Arso kept a close gaze at the blonde boy before calling his attention, "Hoy! Don't feel comfortable in my house just yet, I held grudges because of your tone yesterday," he warned him.
Phoenix took his cautious behavior admirable and calmly replied with a smile while nodding until he went away. They were served with iced water as the first refreshments by a maid. Raine drank the water and avoided the ice cubes. She blushed after remembering the lewd thing Saccharide did with them.
"Topicolo! Nandito si Raine! Lumabas ka diyan at tumigil ng kanonood ng -" he paused for a while, "Anong tawag dun? Yahweh!" called the man upstairs before sitting in with them.
"I'm sorry Tito, but may I ask?" Raine excused and asked, "Wha-"
The distinguished Attorney answered without letting the girl finish, "Ah! I'm sorry I always forget that I should talk in English whenever there are visitors - You see, I called him and said you were here. He spent all day in his room watching those animated people called Yahweh."
The female giggled at how fast he explained the verse, but he shyly asked again, "No, I was going to ask who's Topicolo?"
The man was shocked, but he answered anyway, "My daughter. You know her, but I don't know if he's a friend with this d- bag," he referred to the boy beside Raine, "It depends on her mood, really. If you know what I mean..."
He didn't directly answer and his accent was new to their ears so, both teens were confused. Raine didn't know Klavier had a brother with a silly name. He couldn't have been embarrassed about that, could he?
They were waiting for a while before the man lost his patience and excused himself from them, "Mahal! Pababain mo nga yang si Topicolo!" He shouted in his dialect and made his way to the kitchen. Phoenix and Raine followed his actions as he walked out of the living room before they looked at each other awkwardly because they could still their conversation.
Clearly...
Very clear...
"Love, I'm cooking for the visitors!" her wife shouted.
"He doesn't listen to me!" he shouted back, "Sige na! Hindi naman siya nakikinig sa akin, kahit sa hanger hindi!"
...
Raine cleared her throat to drink from the ice water again before saying to Phoenix's confused face, "He's Filipino..."
"That explains why I didn't understand half of the words he said while his middle finger was up when I visited him yesterday," Phoenix said and took a sip out of the cold water, his eyes lingered at the small melting pieces of the ice cubes.
"Woah..." Raine reacted.
Phoenix took another sip before facing the girl, "It's reasonable. I called him coward and spineless," he said.
Raine's jaw dropped and the only sound she can get out was - "Ah."
Phoenix drank from the glass again, he was ecstatic that he could finally drink without worrying that it might be urine or filled with Dione's liquid bomb, "But I'm confused," he stated, "I thought your friend's name was-"
"Klavier!"
The room and both of the teens fell silent when a beautiful woman entered the living room. The woman has short brown hair, her face was full of freckles, while her voice is gentle, and her eyes were a deep brown. Lastly, her curves were hugged tightly by a shirt tied in a knot at the back, her hips were broad that it stretched her sweatpants' waistband.
It was Klavier's mother.
The beautiful woman noticed Raine on the couch so, she softened her expression and hugged the girl like she was the daughter she never had. Too bad Klavier already took that position. She also greeted the male with a warm smile. Noticing that his son didn't respond to her call, she excused herself from the two and started climbing the stairs to get her son out of his room. Phoenix's confusion heightened when she took the broom with her.
"Don't bother asking," replied Raine when he looked at her, asking for an answer.
...
They waited until they almost emptied the glass of water.
"Mom, please tell Daddy that I do not like my second name. I curse it!"
Someone yelled from upstairs which made the two of them look up at the maple wood stairs.
Minutes later, a boy with greasy looking grey locks, just wearing a white t-shirt and black boxers. He looked different without his amber contacts, revealing his natural brown orbs. He lazily climbed down the stairs with his anime body pillow of Levi Ackerman from his favorite anime show, 'Attack on Titan'. Klavier's half-opened lids widened when he witnessed the visitors on the couch. He bent down to catch the body pillow when it stumbled down the 3 remaining steps.
"Oh!" He straightened his posture and glared at Raine and Phoenix.
"Raine and the birdie..." he mumbled without a formal greeting.
He stayed on the staircase, elongating the awkward silence between him and his beloved best friend. Raine opened her lips to apologize. Klavier smiled when the girl stood up and looked like she was about to reconcile with him. But then his smug smirk disappeared when she stopped closed her mouth and sat on the couch before crossing her arms sternly.
Not because Dione might appear and bite her, but because she wasn't in the wrong. She has nothing to apologize for.
The grey-haired boy fell silent with his gritted teeth. He locked eye contact with the other visitor and was pissed when the blonde boy mocked him with a devious sneer on his face. Klavier turned away and changed the direction of his body in climbing back stance whilst looking on his shoulder to see his best friend's reaction to him leaving.
"I'm going to go back upstairs. It's 3 hours away from the Hearing of the Century," Klavier teased then watched how Raine looked down on her lap and clutch the fabric of her denim shorts. The grey-haired boy scoffed at her expression and rolled his eyes. He had to take not more than 3 steps when his father came out of the kitchen wearing a 'The Baker of Croissant' apron while holding a bowl of beaten egg whites.
"Here he is!" Attorney Arso cheered as he continuously beat the egg to form a foam, "Are you done watching Yahweh?" he asked after eyeing the body pillow in Klavier's embrace.
"Yahweh means God in Hebrew," Phoenix joined the conversation while looking at his phone. Raine peeked and saw a search history of the word. Raine turned to the flustered male and asked with a raised brow, "You're watching that?"
"Maybe... Maybe not..." Klavier gulped while his eyes can't make any surface contact, "It's not of this stranger's business!" he angrily responded and stomped his way to the stairs.
His father called him and there is no joy in his tone. The boy froze as his shoulders tensed in fear when his father's voice boomed. Attorney Arso looked up at Klavier and said, "Klavier Topicolo Baernaise - Bolucboluc," he called from it seems his full name.
"Pfft -" Phoenix held his laughter while Raine kept a smiling face, but in reality, she was holding a huge fit of laughter by squeezing the fabric softener out of her cotton shirt.
No wonder he chose to lie about his surname at school and in ceremonies, he wants his name to be addressed as Klavier B.
Upon hearing Klavier slowly turned to look at us like a ballerina doing a pirouette, but with both feet on the ground. He looked like his fuse is about to blow up.
"I don't understand your hippie talk, but I don't like your tone towards your best friend!" burst the older male.
"Dad! What the hell?!" Klavier threw a tantrum and hopelessly sat on the steps while hugging his pillow, "My name is purely confidential. Now it's fucking exposed!"
"Your ass will get hella whooping if you don't fix your tone!" Her mother came down from upstairs, still holding the broom which struck fear in his heart as he moved to the side of the stairs to make way for his mother, "Now go socialize!" she commanded before taking the apron and the bow of egg whites from his father. All the people inside the room were rendered silent even after the woman left the room.
...
The sounds of her footsteps faded.
That's when Klavier cursed and screamed, "Shit!" His voice echoed across the room.
His father's face turned grim. And before they knew it, Klavier was hit at the back of his head, "Klavier Topicolo Baernaise - Bolucboluc. Please stop that! Don't say bad words to your parents," lectured Attorney Arso while rubbing the fist he used to teach his son a lesson.
"I agree," Raine stood up and joined, biting her lower lip as she said his full name loudly, "Klavier Topicolo Baernaise - Bolucboluc."
She may be seen as a saint, but she'll never take this opportunity down to tease her stubborn best friend.
"Raine. I never say the b-word to you!" Klavier pouted, "Why are you doing this to me?"
"Because you're crossing beyond the line, Klavier..." Raine's face became sharp as she responded.
"It's my house," the male stated before standing up, "I didn't cross any line. If someone did, It was you, Raine Yuck- senov!"
This house has never been silent before. Not even for a minute. Even at night while everyone was asleep, this house was the loudest. But today was the exemption when Klavier stomped his way up to his room and slamming the door so hard.
...
His mother just happened to witness that with a tray of baked pastries on her arms. Raine felt upset and the emotionless boy beside her remained monotone as he ogled at the treats on the tray. Finally, he can eat without checking if there is an eyeball among the cookies and hair on the chocolate chips.
"Who wants Oreos?" she broke the silence and set the tray down.
"Thank you, Honey..." muttered Attorney Arso before he kissed her wife passionately on the lips. Raine blushed and looked away, the sight of it makes her remember Saccharide badly. Phoenix already finished one-fourth of the tray as he gobbled the strawberry quick on the center of the tray.
'He must be starving...' Raine frowned and pushed the glass of strawberry beverage towards Phoenix's direction. The boy shrugged and accepted her kind gesture without saying anything.
After the calorie melting kiss, the husband hugged his wife by the waist and requested, "Please talk to him. He's going at his tantrums again..."
"Why don't you talk to him and I'm going to talk to them about their concern," The woman suggested and let her husband walk up the steps.
...
Phoenix stopped munching and called the man after wiping his sweet covered lips, "Mrs. Baernaise," he called, "We actually wanted to ta-"
"Kids! Trust me..." The man smiled reassuringly and looked at the beautiful woman sitting opposite them, "You want to talk to her more than me..."
"Presenting my lovey-honey bee," he threw her a flying kiss and smirked when she pretended to catch it, "Attorney Ameurfina Baernaise - Bolucboluc."
The teens didn't know what is more baffling-
Klavier's full name
The number of sweetness Klavier's parents have for each other.
The fact that his parents are both lawyers.
Or
The use of the weird-looking wig like a broom.
And the reason why did Attorney Arso came upstairs with the broom in his possession again?