Kindred Part 3

If this is your first look at the series, skim "Kindred Part 1"  and "Kindred Part 2"  for character backgrounds and all that crap.

When I walked in, I tripped over my feet when I stepped into the genkan, the traditional Japanese entryway that was made of a series of steps. "Ah crap!" I said, trying to keep myself from falling on my face.

"Careful." Oyoko had her back turned to me, covering herself with a black silk robe emblazoned with silver and gold asian dragons.

"Thanks for telling me after I almost broke my neck!" I hissed.

"Broken necks can be fixed. Bruised egoes...not so easily." she sighed, like she was catering to a little kid. "I apologize." I could tell she didn't mean it.

"Look, I'm sorry that you didn't get your 'birthday drink', or whatever. I didn't know about Brice being here, or what he was." I tried to explain.

Oyoko leaned closer to me. I couldn't tell if she was smelling me or looking at me, but she was definitely checking me out. "He brought you over!" When she leaned back, she had a more readable expression on her face. To put it in human terms, she had a happy expression. But saying she was happy would be like saying Socrates was just a philospher. Gross understatement. "Would you like a bath?"

"Not really." She had just been with two...'males' I guess you could call them, at the same time, and I still didn't know whether or not she liked me 'in that way'. I wanted to remain fully clothed at all times when I was in her presence.

Oyoko shook her head at me. "There are no beds to sleep on here. I can't let you dirty my tatami mats." She had a point. The only things she had on the floor were the woven straw mats and one traditional Japanese futon. I guessed she wouldn't let me have her bed.

"Then I'll just go sleep on one of the couches. I don't want to mess up anything in here-" I started to say.

"Sorry. Us Japanese are very clean." She wasn't going to take no for an answer.

I bit my lip, not sure what to do. "I'm not a lesbian!" I blurted.

Oyoko rolled her eyes. "You Americans are too damn homophobic! Like I give a shit if you're a lesbian!" She slid aside a rice-paper door to reveal a steamy bathroom. It didn't take much imagination for me to assume that Oyoko and the guys had already used it. Oyoko handed me a towel, and some soap and almost dragged me to the bathtub. It was big enough for at least four people, making it look more like a hot tub.

"You have a jacuzzi?" I asked dumbly.

"What were you expecting?"

"An ofuro. Everything else you have is traditional." I pointed out. She started taking off her robe. "What are you doing?!" I shrieked at her, freaking out.

"I haven't bathed yet." She informed me, slipped into the water.

"Well, that's just great." I muttered.

Oyoko sighed again. "Grow...The...Fuck...Up! You're acting like I want to rape you or something."

I took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Then I quickly took off my clothes and got into the jacuzzi. "Don't try anything."

"You wouldn't be able to stop me if I did." Oyoko shot back.

I was getting sick of being treated like a kid. "I didn't ask for this! Just give me my fucking space, alright? I'm not the touchy feely type."

Oyoko twitched her lip. "Pity."

I kept my eye on her until I could relax. "So you're turning eighty?"

"Yes. I was born in 1924 in Nagano."

I tilted my head. "Wouldn't that make you eighty-one?"

"Not by Japanese standards." She sighed and continued with some information on herself, to my suprise. "My family was poor, so I was sold to a geisha house in Tokyo, and trained until I became an assistant to a popular geisha."

"That was around WWII."

"Yes. Brice was a soldier in the U.S. Army after the invasion."

My mouth dropped open. "Brice? A soldier? He doesn't strike me as someone who takes authority too well."

Oyoko smirked. "He never has. He was drafted into the US Army, and he went kicking and screaming. It's probably the only thing he hasn't been able to talk his way out of."

"That sounds like him. How did the two of you meet?" Oyoko looked away and didn't answer, getting out of the tub. "Were are you going?" She wrapped the towel around herself again and left the bathroom. "Weirdo." I muttered, but I didn't follow.

I lay back in the jacuzzi and let the hot jet of water knead my body like dough. My mind drifted off, and I started wondering about this new life. Could I talk to anyone I knew back when I was human? I thought about my old family and friends, and I wanted to cry. I tried to, but it was like my tear ducts were as dry as sand dunes.

I turned off the jacuzzi and dried myself off, following Oyoko into her bedroom. She was sitting on her futon, combing out her long hair with a far away look in her eye, totally in another world. I wasn't sure if she'd heard me come in.

"I don't like talking about the war. It brought me great shame." she said stonily. "I don't expect you to understand about honor."

"Okay. Keep it to yourself then."

Oyoko chuckled. "Someone's trying to be a hard ass."

"I just want the truth. I want to know what's going to happen to me. Rick said you would explain everything." I sat down across from her on the floor.

Oyoko seemed amused. "Because I'm a woman."

"That's what he said."

Oyoko nodded. "I am older than he is. And it is traditional for women to hold the most power in our...culture. He showed me the proper respect by telling you to come to me." She held up her hands to me, palm side up. "Come closer."

I hesitated. "Why?"

"Tradition." I reluctantly got up and got closer. "Cover my hands with yours."

I held my hands palmside down on top of hers. "What are you going to do? Show me the ancient game of Slaps?"

Oyoko wasn't amused. She dug one of her nails into my hand. She did it so prescisely, I didn't feel anything until I felt my blood dripping onto the tatami mats. It was a brighter color than usual, more vermillion than crimson. Not backing off, I cut her back. Oyoko nodded approvingly, clinching my hands tightly as our blood flowed together. "My blood is the same as your blood. Brought to us by Brice, whose blood was brought to him by Shahrazad, whose blood was brought to her by Li Ch'ing-chao, whose blood was brought to her by Kentakes Shipushikomisa-shak, whose blood was brought to her by Socrates, whose blood was brought to him by Quetzalcoatl, whose blood was brought to him by Nehsy, whose blood was brought to him by Imhotep, whose blood was brought to him by Seshet Kish, whose blood was brought to her by The First."

By the time she released my hands, I realized that the wounds we had given each other had healed. "How-?" I asked, holding up my blood streaked hands.

Oyoko continued, ignoring my interuption. "Humans would say this makes us a family...of sorts. We call ourselves Kindred."

"Kindred? That's it?"

Oyoko smirked. "What were you expecting?"

"I don't know. Maybe something in another language."

"The key to our survival has been change. If we all looked the same, talked the same, we would be easier to kill."

I gulped. "Slayers are real?"

"In a manner of speaking. Every living thing has an enemy. Lions have hyenas after all."

"So we have humans."

Oyoko nodded. "And others, though humans would be the ones you would be most familiar with." she chuckled a little, moving her futon aside to reveal a spare one. "Here."

"Thanks!" I had really expected to be sleeping on the floor for the rest of the night. I took the futon and laid it on the other side of the bedroom. "No offense, but I still don't trust you."

Rather than looking annoyed, she seemed okay with that. "Good. It would be a shame if you were that stupid." I growled, showing my bites, but Oyoko just ignored me, combing her hair again. I kept an eye on her until she lay down on her futon to go to sleep, and then I did the same.