log - Noriko and Logan

[x-kaminari.livejournal.com]

Nori drops in at home and brings a friend to meet her family. But have they already met?



Noriko was of two minds about going home. On the one hand - it was home. Even when she'd been living on the street, part of her heart had been here with her family. At the same time, though, they'd sent her away. It was easier for them to fob their problem child off on a bunch of Americans than deal with her. They were family, so she had to come visit them, but she wasn't sure how she felt about it, so she'd brought Logan.

Yes, certainly, of all their chaperons on this trip, he was her favorite. But he was also the one most likely to scandalize her family with his foreignness and Nori was kind of hoping for that reaction.

Logan knew damned well Noriko wanted him along to be the Ugly Westerner. And he'd had his fill of these tiny little painfully-polite people so he was more than ready to play the role. To help her out he'd dressed in his traditional flannels, boots, and Stetson, a cigar clenched between his teeth. "~All right, kid,~" he said around his stogie. "~Tell me about your folks.~"

His accent, as ever, entertained Nori. And she wasn't sure if her parents would be more glad that one of her teachers spoke Japanese, or shocked that he sounded like a farmer from Okinawa. "~I don't know, they're normal parents. My dad's a doctor so he's always busy, and all my mom cares about is what college we'll go to or whatever.~"

"~Any brothers or sisters?~" he asked as he looked around. Pretty nice part of an otherwise shitty town, this. How they could stand to all live on top of each other Logan had no real idea. Seemed pretty hellish to him.

"~Un,~" the noise was a remarkably sullen little grunt. "~Kenta. He's perfect.~"

Logan grunted at that. He had no idea if he had siblings or not, and Marie was an only child, but he'd seen enough of the other kids at the Mansion to know sibling rivalry when he heard it. "~He a mutant too?~" Logan asked.

"~Hardly.~" Noriko snorted. "~That would decidedly not be perfect.~" Her steps drew to a close and Nori stopped in front of a well kept, tiny garden which separated a fairly sizable (for Tokyo) house from the street the two walked on.

Logan let his hand rest on the girl's shoulder as they stopped at what must have been her parents house. "~Strength.~" he told her softly before they set foot onto her parents' property.

Nori nodded, squaring her shoulders. A deep breath and then she headed straight to the door, gently pressing the bell. What was the worst that could happen, really?

Like most Japanese families, Noriko's parents were still very close with her grandparents. Her father's family lived only a few subway stops away, and her maternal great-grandmother had actually moved in with them a few years before when her grandmother died. So it wasn't that surprising when a grey-haired little old woman answered the door. "~Nori-chan? You are home? It is good to see you, sweet heart.~"

What was a surprise was when she turned to bow slightly at Noriko's companion and stopped. And blinked. "~Logan-sama?~"

Logan blinked. Then recovered and grinned at the little old lady. "~That's me,~" he said around his cigar, playing his role to the hilt. "~And you are?~" He was being rude, but then again he'd never had a problem with being rude when needed.

Nori was more than a little surprised. She'd not called ahead, rather wanting to take her parents by surprise, but perhaps one of the chaperons had? How else would her great-grandmother know Logan's name?

The old woman in question paused at Logan's response, peering at him, then finally said, "~Please, forgive me, I thought you were someone else. I am Watahiki Keiko. Noriko's great-grandmother.~"

"~Pleased to meet ya,~" he said, offering the old woman his hand. Creepy how she'd picked his name out by that and judging by the kid's surprise she hadn't spilled it. Weird. Women smelled solid, though. Unyielding. He liked that about her almost instantly.

He'd put money that she was a real little hellion back in her day.

There was a hesitation, then Keiko took his hand, shaking it somewhat awkwardly. "~Please, come in. I will make tea. Nori-chan, your parents are out,~" she added, looking at the girl.

"~S'alright,~" Nori mumbled, her lanugae informal, but not actually rude towards her great-grandmother. "~Didn't want to see'em much, anyway.~"

Finally! Someone who shook hands in this weirdo nation! Logan obligingly took off his hat and followed Nori back into her house. House felt solid, sturdy in the way that some houses had. Especially in the land of rice paper and reed mats. Logan turned back to look at the little old woman. "~Want some help with that tea?~" he asked in his accented Japanese.

Noriko toed her shoes off in the entrance way before stepping up into the house, her automatic actions checking slightly as she noticed that her slippers weren't in their usual place. She shot an unreadable look at her great-grandmother, then reached over to pull them away from the wall and slip into them, nudging the guest slippers over so Logan could reach them easier. "~Gonna look at my room,~" she told Keiko, face expressionless. If she remembered right, there were sleeping pills she'd stashed in her dresser...

Keiko nodded and moved elegantly out of the way, gesturing for Logan to follow her down the hall and into a tatami room, stepping out of her own house slippers before moving onto the woven rice mats to collect a pillow for Logan and herself. "~Please, make yourself comfortable.~"

It took Logan a little bit of time to get himself out of his boots and into the house slippers but once he'd accomplished that little trick - and the slippers weren't that horrible a fit - he followed Grandma-san into the tatami room. He sat in seiza on said pillow, watching grandma-san to see what was next. "~She's a good kid, Nori,~" he volunteered.

There was a kerosene heater in the corner of the room providing heat, with a kettle of water boiling on top of it. Keiko collected a small clay teapot, adding fresh tea leaves and hot water, then placed it and two small porcelin cups, all of which she set on the low table by the two pillows before kneeling down herself. "~I am glad to hear you say that, Logan-sama. I know Nori-chan tries very hard.~" The old woman's voice was gentle, but she did keep shooting Logan curious glances.

"~The doctors got her on the path to getting her shit together,~" he said blithely. This old woman was driving him nuts - she kept looking at him like he was some kind of howling weirdo.

Maybe she didn't like Westerners.

"~I don't mean to be rude, but is there a problem?~" he asked after the fifth looking-not-looking look he got from this little old woman.

The comment about the doctors didn't even phase the old woman, nor the profanity, but she pursed her lips at the direct question. "~I am sorry, Logan-sama. No, there is no problem. You... you look very like someone I knew a very long time ago. That is why I spoke to you so informally at the door. It is strange that you should have his name, as well.~"

Logan blinked and had to restrain his urge to get this old woman to 'fess up. "~May have been me,~" he confessed. "~You know what a mutant is?~" he asked her abruptly.

The woman's face went blank at the admission that it might have been him, but at his question she raised a delicate eyebrow. "~You have met my great-granddaughter, have you not?~" Keiko asked, voice almost wry.

Logan just had to laugh at that. "~She's not the only one,~" he said, lighting a match to light his cigar, then grinding the cigar into his palm so that Keiko could watch it heal. "~I heal,~" he said. "~I also don't get old.~"

There was a touch of alarm and confusion in Keiko's face as she watched the burn heal over in seconds. She was silent a long time, then finally said, "~It was after the war. My Logan was an American soldier and we met in Kyoto, my old home. He could heal, too, but not so much, I do not think. Perhaps he was your grandfather?~" There was a deep sadness to her eyes as she said this.

"~I wish I could tell you for sure,~" he said. "~I got involved 'bout ten years back or so with a project. Wiped my memory. So I can't tell you if I'm that Logan, if he's my grandfather, or if it's some other guy who could heal,~" he said. "~I'm sorry.~"

She was silent again and though the old woman's back was perfectly straight, there was a sense of the resigned, almost as though she'd allowed her shoulders to slump. There was another long silence as Keiko cradled the small, hot cup. "~I always hoped he would come back to me,~" she said eventually. "~It is why I never married.~"

"~Tell me about him,~" Logan asked. "~I got nothing of who I was. Maybe something you say will jar something loose,~" he said. "~And maybe it ain't me at all. But hey, sounds like you two were pretty tight,~" he said as casually as he could force it. "~Couldn't hurt, right?~"

Keiko regarded the man for a few moments, once more falling into that quiet which seemed to come to her so easily, but then she nodded, smiling gently. "~He looked very like you do. Maybe not so rough mannered, but he was very American. And his accent was almost as bad as yours.~" There was a hint of laughter in her eyes. "~He was funny and charming. Japanese men... are not charming, and very few people had reason to laugh back then, but Logan always did.~"

"~Sounds like a good man,~" Logan added quietly, pondering this new development. He could hope, but he'd hoped before just to have them smashed. Still, a part of him wanted this stranger from - fuck, what was it, sixty years ago? Fifty? To be him. "~When did you know him?~" he asked.

"~Oh, it was 1948. Very soon after the war ended. We were only together about a year and then... I think the Americans said he had to go home. I don't know. One day, he just was not there.~" She fixed Logan with a steady gaze and added, "~He never knew about Eriko. Nori-chan's grandmother.~"

Logan nodded to this information, locking it into his memory. "~And is she still with us?~" he asked as delicately as he could.

"~No,~" Keiko said, some sadness in her eyes. "~Eriko died in 95. It was after that I moved in here with my granddaughter and her family. It is good to see Noriko and Kenta more.~"

Logan inclined his head in a quasi-respectful bow. "~I'm sorry.~" he said after a moment. "~Pretty sure Nori's only visiting, though.~" he added after a moment.

"~Un.~" If the dark, suspicious sounding voice from the doorway took Keiko by surprise she didn't show it. Noriko stood there, body language tight, watching the two of them, eyes narrowed. "~Neh, granny, so why didncha tell me I had a dirty foreigner for a grandpa, or that you had a bastard?~" Her language, which had at been informal before, had dropped to the down right rude, but Keiko didn't even blink.

Giving her great-granddaughter a level look Keiko said, "~Perhaps you might want to ask your mother that? She knew - Eriko was not ashamed of her father, or me, and would have told her.~"

Logan couldn't resist putting his two cents in. "Relax, kid," he said in English. "No proof one way or the other. It's a big world, could be a coincidence."

The English was too hard for Noriko to understand, although she seemed to bristle at the word 'relax'. But Keiko, it turned out, spoke better English than her great-granddaughter. "~Logan-sama is right. It could be coincidence. He may not be your great-grandfather at all.~"

At this Nori's mouth fell open and she flat out stared. Apparently, she'd missed that part of the conversation. "~You think he might be my grandad?~" she boggled.

Logan just had to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Sitting here with a wizened old Japanese lady who may or may not have been his lover back after World War 2 and a girl who just might be his drug-added mutant great-granddaughter. "Ain't it a pisser?" he said with a laugh, forgetting his Japanese. "~Either of you two smoke?~" he asked in Japanese this time.

"~No, but my Nori-chan's father does. Do you need an ashtray?~" Keiko was perfectly calm as she considered him, her face betraying not a whit of what she might think.

Nori, on the other hand, was as easy to read as an open book with her anger and confusion. "~You two are insane,~" she said, thumping down onto the floor with a sigh.

"~Yes, please,~" he told Keiko. He pulled his cigar out of his pocket and got his matches out as well. Finally he reached out and took a drink of his tea. Surprisingly, it was very tasty indeed. He'd have to ask her where she got it so he could bring some back with him.

"~You have got to be kidding,~" Noriko said, watching her grandmother stand up and go collect an ashtray and a third tea cup, which she filled and placed before the girl. Her fingers were drumming madly on her thighs. "~You two are just gonna sit around, drinking tea and smoking and not do anything about this?~"

"~And do what, kid?~" he asked, lighting his smoke and taking a drag. "~You figured out a way to travel back in time yet, or a way to pull memories outta my head?~" he grumbled. "~There's nothing to do.~"

Nori blinked at him. "~Ok, have you forgotten what century it is? Are you completely stupid? Do you not know what DNA is?~"

"~Nori-chan. Manners. Logan is our guest.~" Keiko's voice was calm and quiet, and she didn't respond when Noriko glared at her.

"~I know what DNA is,~" he said. "~I also know what a healing factor is. Jeannie had a helluva time analyzing my blood the first time around,~" he pointed out. "~Still - might be worth a shot.~"

Noriko rolled her eyes at the mention of the 'bitch doctor', but she'd learned not to call the red-head that around Logan. "~I want to know,~" she said, voice unequivical.

"~Yours isn't the only voice that needs to be heard,~" Logan reminded her, then turned to Keiko. "~Do you want to know?~" he asked.

Keiko was the embodiement of calm placidity, her eyes unreadable. The pause before she answered, however, suggested she was thinking the matter over very thoroughly behind the polite front. Finally she said, "~I have found peace with myself over the years. Find the answer for yourself, or for Noriko and Kenta - their mother won't care.~"

Logan nodded. "~As you wish,~" he said. Not that he had any intention of honoring his word - no matter what he found he'd find a way to get news to her. She deserved to know, one way or the other.