Patterns - An Academy Story

Sasuga!

Thank you to 0Restart for her immeasurable help with the Japanese! I took a few liberties, so any errors are mine.

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I stepped into the room and looked around in disbelief. By sheer luck I was able to keep myself from asking if all of this hotness in one room was legal. Their voices were a jumble. After Sean called me Pookie, I heard my name called out by several more of the guys. I had to laugh. I even heard Luke from the cooking class call me Cupcake again.

"Mmm. Hello everyone. Nice seeing you all again." I still couldn't believe that they all knew each other. Wait, Loki said the Blackbourne 'team.' No wonder they all knew each other. They were a family.

Not sure who was in charge, I looked around to each of them. "I understand from Loki that you need my assistance on a project?"

"Miss Sorenson?" the tall, gorgeous, dark haired man I practically ran into in the office the other week stepped forward with his hand out. "Owen Blackbourne."

I reached out my hand to shake his, I almost gasped at the tingle that ran through my fingers where our hands touched.

"Yes, I'm Sang Sorenson," I replied. Just then a very familiar voice came through the speakerphone.

"Sang-chan! Kon'nichiwa. Genki?" Renji asked. (Sang! Hi. How have you been?)

"Un! Renji-kun wa? Hisashiburida ne." (I'm good! How about you, Renji? It's been a while, hasn't it?)

"Soudayone. Watashi mo genkida. Sean-kun wa Sang-chan ni meiwaku o kakete ita?" (It has, right? I'm fine, too. Has my cousin Sean been very troublesome?)

His cousin? I looked over at Sean and saw the expression on his face. Oh, this was priceless. Sean and Renji were cousins! He didn't know until just now that I understood everything he'd said to me during the CPR class. All of his flirting couldn't go to waste. I almost laughed when he groaned and put his head down on the table.

"Uun, Sean-kun wa totemo shinsetsudattashi, atashi ni puropōzu shitan datta!" (No, Sean has been very nice, he even proposed to me!)

"Ara! Omedetō! Yoroshiku ne, imōto-chan!" (Oh, my! Congratulations! Welcome little sister!)

"Sean-kun!" Renji called.

I looked over at Sean as his head quickly lifted and he looked up at the phone.

"Sasuga!" (I'm impressed.) Renji said to Sean.

Renji laughed and said goodbye after officially introducing the team and signing off.

The others turned to Sean and looked at him suspiciously. Owen spoke up first. "What on Earth was that about?"

If Sean could turn any redder from embarrassment, I'd be surprised. The laughter I'd been holding inside couldn't be contained any longer and I started giggling.

"That was Renji offering Sean his congratulations," I told Owen.

"His congratulations on what?"

I tried to bite my lip to keep from laughing more.

"His engagement," I snickered.

"To whom?" Owen asked.

"That would be to me," I replied with a grin on my face.

Owen pushed the edge of his glasses up and sighed.

"Sean, would you care to explain?"

"Um. No, not really," he responded, looking up at the ceiling as if he suddenly found it fascinating.

"Sean!" Owen barked.

Sean sighed.

"She was in the CPR class I taught the other day. I was... I was sort of flirting with her."

"For goodness sake. Of all the..."

"Well how was I supposed to know she understood Japanese?" Sean interrupted.

Owen turned and fixed his gaze on me. I could swear I was still tingling from our handshake. His gaze was something else.

"He was flirting with you in Japanese?"

I nodded my head.

"So, Miss Sorenson," he asked dryly. "Do you have any other interesting talents besides a way with royalties and speaking Japanese?"

I blushed.

"She can cook Indian food really well," Luke said. The others looked at him questioningly. "Well she can. She was in the cooking class with me."

"That was her?" Gabriel asked Luke in a loud whisper.

"She's really good with power tools," the dark haired one in black called out. I believe his name was North.

"She is good at hanging dry wall, too," Silas chimed in.

"Fuck. She can drive like no one's business," Gabriel said. "Her official lap time at the track is better than Marc's."

"We tried to catch her Mini during our pursuit test," Victor remarked, "but there was no way my BMW could keep up with her."

Gabriel laughed. "I still want a rematch!"

"She drives a Mini?" I heard North ask.

Owen shook his head. "Anything else?"

Kota spoke up. "She's an excellent shot."

"Even at 50 yards with open sites," Nathan added.

Owen looked at me, his eyes had gone molten.

"And you like classical music, too, don't you?" he asked.

I lifted my eyes to look at him and tilted my head slightly to the side and smiled at him.

"Why yes, yes I do."

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