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Part Six

Nick arrived at a place he hasn’t been in a year.

He felt like it has been ages since he last step foot in this place, but he always knew he would return. A long flight of stairs led him up, with statues of different animals appearing every five steps.

When he reached the top step, a large wooden house came into view. It was an old house that was built years ago, yet the outside of it made it seem like it was built yesterday.

Nick remembered the many times he spent here, training, sleeping, eating. It was a second home for him.

Walking past the small pond, Nick stopped and glanced down.

He grinned as he realized that his sensei didn’t fix the broken swan in the pond.

It brought him a bit of joy as he walked down memory lane.

He was young and built up a lot of courage to confess his love for his teacher. At the time he was listening to her son who encouraged him to act on his desires. He told Nick where he could find his mother, and Nick followed his instructions.

Although Nick confessed, he got tossed around and threw into the pond. His sensei’s son laughed at him saying he didn’t believe Nick would actually do it.

That was years ago, now things were different.

Nick walked up to the door and opened it. The door to this place was always unlocked, it was not likely that many people would come up to the shrine.

Those that did came to pray, or ask for advice. However, since Nick’s sensei was busy most of the time she did not give advice that often.

“Vance, you here?”

Nick yelled out, as he took off his sneakers at the door.

There was no reply right away, so Nick took a walk through the house.

The inside of the house had a minimum amount of decorations. His sensei did not like material things.

Nick made his way to the living area, where he found a figure laying down on the couch with a blanket over their head.

Nick looked at the table that had a few cans of alcoholic drinks on it.

He couldn’t help but shake his head when he saw how Vance became.

Nick could even hear him snoring through the blanket.

He saw another figure leaning back in a chair with a book in her hand. She flipped to the next page of her book, as she looked up at Nick.

It was Katherine.

She did not say a word to Nick but focused her attention on the book.

It’s been four and a half months since that training camp. Besides Freya and Matthew, Katherine did not talk to others much. Although when she said something to them it was still a few words.

She was not a talkative person.

“What are you doing in here?”

Nick asked her.

Katherine showed Nick the book in her hand.

“Reading. Also, do you think that you are in a position to ask me that question? When you are the one wandering into someone else's home?”

“Not really, I've been here longer than you have.”

He told her as he stood next to the sleeping figure. He removed the blanket, revealing a handsome face. Freshly cut hair, with a caramel skin tone.

While pulling his hand away, Nick’s wrist was grabbed.

“What are you doing?”

“Bothering you Vance.”

Nick replied with a grin on his face.

Vance was not that much older than Nick and acted as an older brother at times.

He was not his sensei’s biological son, but they really never talked much about how he became her son. Nick did not really care much about it either.

Vance leaned up and brushed his black t-shirt before he yawned.

Vance was lazy, but he was a powerful EXO user. The only thing Nick could recall him participating in was searching for a new female to score every so often.

Vance looked at the watch on his wrist.

“I’ve had a long night Nick, and I plan to have another one. So what do you want? You wouldn’t show up here for no reason.”

Vance reached out his hand and grabbed a bottle of wine along with a glass cup. He tried to pour himself a drink, but the wine bottle was empty.

“Actually, I could use your help on a matter.”

Nick said as he took a seat next to Vance.

Vance raised his eyebrow as he sat the bottle and glass down on the table.

Nick does not talk about his own problems much, so it is nice when he does. It makes Vance feel like they are actual brothers.

Vance did not have the ideal family he dreamed of, but it was good enough for him.

Vance did not want too much out of life, maybe a brother or two who he could hang out with. A sister he could protect and watch grow up. A couple get-togethers every now and again with other family members.

That was not the case, the closest thing he had to a family was his mother who was not even his real mother. They looked nothing alike. As for a brother, he treated Nick like one but Nick was younger than him and in school. It was hard for them to connect with each other now.

Now Nick came to him, Vance couldn’t help but smile. Seems he wasn’t forgotten after all.

“Sure, tell me what old bro can do for you. Need help beating someone up? Just tell me who! Female trouble? You’ll be in her pants before the night is up.”

“Not anything exactly like that. Do you know if your mother had any plans to set me up for a marriage?”

“An arranged marriage?”

Vance rubbed his chin as he thought about it.

His mother did a lot of things, an arranged marriage was right up her alley.

“Yeah, I remember. But, I told her it was best you look for someone yourself. Arranged marriages aren’t for us, we are not from the high-class families. I remember when she wanted me to get married, turned that crap down the same night.”

Nick pulled out his phone.

“What about this? Your aunt did me a favor and looked into something for me. She’s still working on contacting your mother but there hasn’t been much luck.”

Vance grabbed Nick’s phone and read the message.

“Who is this? She’s gorgeous.”

Vance paused for a moment as he passed the phone back to Nick.

“My mom went home for something, it would be difficult to contact her. She’s not exactly there for a vacation… but anyways is this all the information you have? A name, birth, and where she’s from? That is not a lot, the way this is presented it is like she has barely left the house.”

Nick pocketed his phone.

“Considering she is a princess, you can imagine that she would appear at many gatherings. Your aunt, could not find out much about her besides this little bit. Either her family is keeping her on a close leash, or..”

“Or what? With this little bit of information, she could be lying, or she is very good at avoiding the public eye. Don’t tell me you’re engaged to her?”

Vance asked as he eye’d Nick.

Nick gave him a grin but said no words.

“Wow man. I think you might need a drink more than me.”

Vance grabbed another wine bottle and poured it into the glass cup. This time red liquid flowed out and filled the cup.

“So, what do you want my help with? If my aunt couldn’t find much about her, I don’t think my resources will be much of help.”

Nick shook his head.

“No, not exactly. A day ago Klyde came to my hous-”

Vance choked on and started coughing.

“Klyde came to your house?! Man, I can’t even imagine what he could be scheming.”

“Yes, I thought he was up to something as well when I came home. I checked my mom, nothing was wrong with her. At least he did nothing to her that I can see. She has been acting a bit strange. And then Celia, my fiancee appeared.”

Vance sat his cup on the table and sighed.

“First, I don’t see anything wrong with her.”

“She’s blind.”

“Ok, so that changes things. Why would you marry a blind girl?”

Vance thought about how she and Nick would even… nevermind, he shook his head to get rid of the thought.

“Second, Klyde is the devil, he is always up to something. Everything he does, he does for a reason. The timing of his visit and the announcement of your engagement is strange.”

“I know Vance. I know. That is why, when I'm gone back to the academy I need to you keep a watch over my mother and Celia. Klyde is up to something, but it won’t go as he plans.

I don’t know what he wants, nor why this marriage is coming up so suddenly. It is not like I would marry her and me and Klyde would reconcile. The part that I can’t figure out is what does he have to gain by me marrying her. If I can figure that out, I might be able to ruin whatever he is cooking up. I don’t like being used for someone else’s gain.”

Nick got up from the seat.

“You should clean up, she’d kill you if she found out her house was like this.”

Vance laughed a bit when he heard Nick.

His mother was nowhere near the United States, if she wanted to kill him, he’d have all the time in the world to run away.

“Wait. What are you going to do about her?”

Vance asked as he was curious about how Nick was going to handle Celia.

“Nothing, she does not seem to be involved. When we get something, i’ll let her know.”

Vance chuckled.

“Since when are you so soft on people? Don’t tell me it’s because she looks like Alex?”

Nick shook his head.

“I just don’t want her… no. You’re right, it may because they look alike.”

“Are you going to see Alex again? Pity, she died, or you two would be inseparable.”

Katherine lowered her book and glanced at Nick. She wondered who this Alex was and what was her relation so Nick.