Fight!

Lianne hummed while the sounds continued outside. She blocked it out by putting her earphones on and listened to music while doing some drawing.

Once engrossed, time flew by.

It was only when her stomach started growling did she stop and come out of her zone. Tilting her head, she didn't hear any more noise outside. Looking at the time, she was surprised to note that several hours had passed.

Dang! It was only then that she realised that she had missed lunch.

Stretching her aching body that had been in one position for long, she rubbed the back of her neck. Heading towards her closet, she started changing, and once done, went out of her bedroom.

As she expected, Kai and Zero were still here, both standing up upon her leaving her bedroom. She just gave them one bored look, taking into account that they had cleaned up the place - and themselves.

Both had several bruises on each other - a sign of their 'manliness' - which she ignored.

Without a word, she then turned towards the exit.

Zero and Kai looked at each other, then Kai ran over to Lianne.

"Sayang!" he called out desperately.

Lianne gave a smile as she turned to face him, "Yes?"

"Erm," Kai began, unsure where to start, but upon seeing his dejected puppy face, Lianne melted inside.

She had planned to give him the silent treatment for a bit, as they began fighting in her apartment. But how is she supposed to stay angry at this man when he gave her that expression?!

Giving Zero the silent treatment never worked because heck, it was Zero. He's just sit there, quiet as well and both of them could go days without talking to each other until one day, one of them just talked.

Then they were back to normal.

Lianne thought at least, with Kai, it could work.

"Let's go eat," Zero said as he came by.

"Together?" Lianne asked, tilting her head as he passed her to get to his shoes.

"Yes," Zero replied, wearing his shoes then looked at Kai.

Kai nodded, went back to the living room to grab his wallet on the table and joined them.

"Buddies now?" Lianne asked, her arms crossed against her chest.

Zero shrugged nonchalantly, indifferent, while Kai nodded vigorously.

Lianne couldn't help but laugh a bit at that.

So Zero was taking that stance, huh?

Suddenly, she wanted to tease Zero a bit because of him being over-the-top earlier.

She she went closer to Kai and hugged him, while looking at Zero, "So you don't mind me doing this?"

Zero didn't even have a change of expression.

Kai was too happy to mind being used and he hugged her back, content.

"That's good, Zero," Lianne said smilingly, leaning on Kai, "Because though I told Kai not to have any PDAs in front of you …"

She tip-toed and kissed Kai softly on the lips, "I never said I wouldn't."

Zero was straight as a lance, staring at Lianne and she gave him the peace sign. Getting out of Kai's embrace, she then patted Zero on the shoulder, "Just testing you."

Then, looking at him seriously, Lianne held his hand and said, "Thank you, Zero."

Zero then softened his rigid stance and sighed, putting his hand on top of Lianne's. He nodded, shrugged, and gave one last glare at Kai before all of them headed out to eat.

She had her beloved, and her brother, finally at a truce.

Whatever it was, this should mean peace at last.

✿ Author only posts on w.e.b.n.o.v.e.l. ✿

A couple of days later, it was time.

Time to meet the Grandmother.

Kai still spent the nights at Lianne's apartment, on the excuse that he wanted to be there at her beck-and-call should she need any information or question about his grandmother.

Of course, as expected, Lianne slept in her bedroom while he was all alone in the cold, empty sofa-bed. (It wasn't really cold but Kai was just being melodramatic about it all).

One thing Kai found rather perplexing was that Lianne would change his pillow every night. She didn't appear like a clean freak, but that's what she did.

It was only the pillow he used, though. The blanket remained untouched.

Though he found it a mystery, Kai felt that if that is what made his Angel more comfortable, then he wouldn't say anything about it.

Her house, her rules.

Right now, he was waiting for his Angel to finish getting ready.

When her bedroom door opened, Kai stood up to greet her.

His eyes lit up, as always, when they landed on her.

She was especially sweet today.

She had on a white blouse with short sleeves, tucked into a cream coloured cropped pants. Her hair looked shiny as it fell on her shoulders; not too curly but not straight either. Like waves bouncing on her shoulders. She had a cream coloured jacket flung over her arm that was also carrying something.

Kai quickly came over and took what she was holding, which turned out to be a slightly rectangular-shaped item, wrapped in a plainly decorated wrapping paper with a small bow at the side.

"Something for your grandmother," Lianne said, "Since we're visiting her for the first time."

Kai raised an eyebrow.

When did she have time to buy this? Granted, he wasn't around all day but he knew she wasn't the type to go out shopping either.

"What is it?" he asked curiously.

"Nothing much," Lianne answered as she put on her jacket, flipping her hair out, "Just something I sketched."

"I'm sure grandma would love it," Kai said.

"Maybe, maybe not," Lianne answered.

Sketching that in two days had been hard work, but she had put her heart into it. According to Kai, his grandmother was the type that was harsh on the outside, but warm inside.

So, she thought something that was homemade was better than store-bought, even though she had the money to buy anything she wanted. After all, she wanted the grandmother to acknowledge her, not the money or power that she had (but they didn't know).

If his grandmother was the type that valued wealth, then they wouldn't get along anyway.

It would be a lie to say that she wasn't nervous. Anybody would be.

This was, by far, the first and biggest, hurdle that she will face.

What she feared for the most, was that her uncomfortableness with social interactions would show on her face, and have that misunderstood. It was the cause of many additional lectures by her father, who took it as defiance and anger when it really was just her showing openly her dislike of what she heard.

If a person was being scolded, naturally, they would either be unhappy or sad about it. Who likes to be scolded, right?

But unlike most people who can just seem to take it with a contrite look, Lianne couldn't. She could not fake her expressions. If she felt bad, it showed. If she was happy, it showed. The more she tried to control it, the worse her expression got.

It just triggered her father more.

She tried hard to learn not to look so 'defiant' and 'angry', but she never could.

So Lianne was worried to death.

If his grandmother said something that she didn't like, it would show on her face. That, in turn, would most likely trigger the grandmother as well.

She sighed inwardly.

First battle.

She looked at Kai and took his hand.

She can do this.