KOF School

Last Day of Break

"So it finally happened, then," Kay chuckled, sipping his cup of mugicha. "And she fainted?"
Iori nodded, reaching for the box of shortbread that the brothers brought. "She was just so shocked, apparently."
"Oh wow, it must've really threw her back," Zayn smirked, downing his tea in one go.
"You guys know too?!" Kazuhiro groaned, poking his head out of his room doorway. "Oh, come on!"
"Come on, Uncle, literally everyone knew besides you," Iori chuckled.
"Yeah, we actually noticed the instant she mentioned you when she recognised Iori," Kay added. "That was the first thing she asked him."
"She did?" Kazuhiro said in surprise, stepping out of the room and coming over to join them. "Darn..."
Zayn smirked. "You're famous, Uncle."
Kazuhiro shrugged, pouring himself some tea as well. "I guess I am. Anyway, how's your family, kids?"
Kay nodded. "Good. Kriz actually wanted to come, but he had to follow Dad to go to Zero's house. He's actually Dad's distant cousin, thus why he actually helped us during the Igniz stuff."
"You guys didn't go?" Iori said in surprise.
Zayn shook his head in disgust. "Nope. His son is a whacko. They used to force me to hang out with him, but I don't like him."
"His name is Krohnen McDougall, sounds like a person that gives you burgers, right?" Kay smirked, taking a long sip of his barley tea.
Iori snorted. "So that means... Zero's surname is... Zero McDougall? Wait, no. Zero is his surname and his first name is Geronimo or something?"
The brothers frowned, exchanging confused looks.
"To be honest, we have no clue," Kay shrugged. "I think he chose his mother's surname instead since he thought people will think he has nothing in his brain or something."
"Well, changing his surname didn't do him any good with that," Zayn smirked. "He does still have nothing in his brain."
Kazuhiro shook his head. "You guys must really hate him."
"We have a good reason to," Kay reasoned. "Krohnen used to bully poor Zayn when they were little, but then this guy scared him one day with a toy drill."
"I'm actually surprised that it worked," Zayn laughed. "But his sister is actually kinda nice. Her name's Sylvie but she calls herself Paula Paula."
"She's adopted, Igniz messed with her too," Kay added. "Zero wanted to reunite her with her parents, but then found that she was actually an orphan. So he took her in instead."
"That's so sad," Kazuhiro added, sipping his tea. "But isn't it bad that he put her with his son? Like he sounds unpleasant..."
Zayn shrugged. "They're surprisingly good with each other, quite close even."
"An odd combo, but okay," Iori chuckled. "I'd like to meet this cousin of yours one day."
"You better bring a stock of popcorn and other snacks because he's crazy dramatic," Kay snorted.
"More like crazy and dramatic," Zayn corrected, nibbling on the shortbread. "Also, any new year snacks?"
"Ah, there's still some Ozoni," Kazuhiro said. "You guys hungry? Iori, bring them over to the dining hall."
"Not really hungry, but I guess we can squeeze in a New Year's meal," Zayn grinned, getting up. "Anyway, correct me if I'm eating it wrong, I haven't really had this stuff before."
"Me neither," Kay admitted.

"See you at school tomorrow," Zayn dolefully said as they were about to part with the Yagamis on Kay's bike.
Iori sighed. "The holidays, they go by so fast."
Kay sighed as well. "Well, at least our class is eventful."
"Yeah..." Zayn snorted. "Especially because of the two of you."
"And Kyo," Iori added. "But yeah. At least our class is fun."
He waved at them as they rode off, leaving Iori standing on the driveway. His family's Nissan Sunny suddenly pulled up in front of him, Aiko getting out before it was parked in the garage.
"Where did the two of you even go?" Iori asked. "Kay and Zayn just left, you've been gone for more than two hours!"
Aiko grinned, holding up a decorative Posiden Coffee bag. "Got us some drinks. We also went and got some roasted pork sandwiches."
"For more than two hours?" Iori said in surprise.
Aiko shrugged. "We also had to get some groceries."
Iori watched as Aiko pranced past him into the house, announcing to Kazuhiro that they got some stuff. Iori went over to the garage to help Masaomi unload the car.
"You guys must've been real busy this past two hours," Iori remarked, seeing how they shopped for tons of things on sale for the Christmas and New Year season. "And let me guess, they were all on discount?"
Masaomi nodded. "We also got some chicken pies and cream puffs half-off! We can have those for dinner."
"That sound good," Iori nodded, grinning. "Anyway, you got anything for us to take to school?"
"Yeah, got some Mexican buns and some meat too. Maybe I can make you a burrito tomorrow or something like that."
"Sounds fun," Iori somehow managed to hoist three heavy bags up his arms. "Come on, let's go put this away. Dash and Zayn brought shortbread, by the way."
Masaomi lit up at that information as he closed the boot. "Shortbread? How much did they bring?"
"Quite a lot," Iori smirked. "Auntie Erin made us a big batch."
"Ah..." Masaomi grinned. "Let's eat some together with the Posiden and the pork sandwiches."
"Sounds like some nice lunch," Iori agreed.

Kay and Zayn returned home and found their sister doing something in the living room. She was seated on the couch, fiddling with something that looked a lot like a handkerchief.
"What are you doing?" Kay asked as he curiously bent over to see what it was that she had in her hands. "Is that... a hanky?"
Seirah frowned. "It's not. I'm trying to recreate this embroidery I found in Mom's old book." She gestured towards the instruction book lying flat on the table.
Zayn picked it up and looked at it, then took the square piece of cloth from her hands to compare. She had drawn something on it, something that only slightly resembled the image on the book. "This isn't even the same thing."
Seirah scowled and snatched the cloth from him, proceeding to continue whatever she was doing.
"Aren't you supposed to use a hoop?" Zayn asked, seeing how she was working with nothing but the cloth itself besides needle and thread. "That's not gonna work."
"Who needs a hoop, I can do it by hand," Seirah said, continuing with her stitches.
Zayn turned to Kay, who just shrugged. He turned back to Seirah. "Then what about lining? You can't just sew this on a single piece of cloth, it will tear!"
"It won't," Seirah said. "The book said it's optional."
"That's if your cloth is super thick and super strong," Kay added. "This one's velvet!"
The younger brother frowned and lifted the book in his hands to look at it. "Seirah, you mind if I borrow this?"
"Take it and go," Seirah said without looking up from her needlework.
Zayn motioned for his brother to follow him and made a beeline for the master bedroom where Erin sat reading a book. She looked up at them with a smile as soon as they entered, placing a bookmark between the pages she was reading.
"Mom, can I borrow your embroidery supplies?" Zayn asked, much to Kay's surprise. "I wanna try this out." He tapped a finger against an image on the book he was holding.
"Isn't that the one I gave Seirah?" Erin said, placing her book down on the bedside table.
Kay snorted. "It is, but it seems like she isn't doing a very good job with it."
"Well, it can't be that bad," Erin chuckled as she got up and made her way towards the cupboard. "It's a good thing your father kept them." She opened the cupboard door and gestured towards a fairly large plastic box.
Zayn gasped and pulled it out, seating himself on the ground to rummage in the box. He found whatever he needed and got up with the whole box. "Can I take this with me?"
Erin shrugged. "Sure. I think you'll do good with embroidery."
Zayn grinned and cheerfully left the room. Kay snickered when he remembered what Seirah was doing.
"Mom, you should see what Seirah is doing with your velvet cloth," he grinned, taking his mother's hand. "She's in the hall."
Erin eagerly followed him to see what her eldest was doing. The two of them spotted her painstakingly stabbing the needle into the cloth, going in and out with it, but not in the least following the lines she had made. Erin burst into laughter as she took it off her daughter's hands to look at it.
Seirah sighed and leaned back in her seat. "Fine, I give up, okay?"
"Oh, Seirah," Erin chuckled. "You're supposed to use a hoop, lass. And where's the lining at the back? This cloth's gonna rip into shreds!"
"We told you!" Kay added, laughing as he pointed at his sister.

Also, for those of you who think that it's weird for Zayn to do embroidery, please remember that UKYO TACHIBANA's special skill was embroidery, which he modestly refers to as 'rags'. He is the fastest swordsman of Samurai Shodown, and that's his hobby. I think I've even heard of a man who does crocheting for a living and actually built MUSCLES out of doing just that.
It ain't just for girls, y'all.