(Outdated) The King of Elements (part 2)

Chapter 66

There was a small knock on the door, which was uncommon for Kamatsu. Katherine frowned at herself in front of her mirror and stopped her brush midway down her hair. Megumi wasn't supposed to show until much later, and that was too polite of a knock to be from her brother, yet too rough to be their roommate, Connie. "Who is it?"

"The tooth fairy," Kamatsu said in a high pitched voice, "coming to check for any lost teeth. Who do you think it is?" he asked in his normal tone.

"To be honest, I thought it was Megumi. I expected you to drunkenly beat on my door at four in the morning. Again!"

"Once," he claimed. "I only did that once. I'm coming in." He opened the door before Katherine gave him permission to enter. He looked as if he'd just woken up seconds ago. His silver, unkempt hair was draped over his shoulders, and his gray eyes squinted at the sunlight bathing her room. It amazed her that Kamatsu had even woken up in time, since he blocked out the sunlight in his room with a thick blanket over his window.

His headband, she noticed, wasn't wrapped around his head, showing the word "Retribution" burned into the center of his forehead in Kanji. "Do I still have time to pack?"

"You should. Megumi just texted me about five minutes ago. She said that she was just leaving." She turned back to the mirror and finished running her brush through her hair. "I don't see why you're coming anyways. You know that Dre is going to be there."

"And? You know how much I love the outdoors, and since I've pretty much exhausted myself at the academy, I think I deserve to have a little camping trip with my baby sister."

"If by 'exhausting myself at the academy' you mean 'sleeping with our roommate every day,' then sure, I can see why you'd need a break from such an exhausting experience." She gave him a droll stare through the mirror. He really hadn't applied himself to his time in the academy as he should. Oftentimes, he'd be asleep in the courtyard or, if the gossip he'd heard during lunch was true, he'd be hitting on his female classmates rather than trying to make himself a better Elemancer.

"It's not my fault that we managed to get a nympho as a roommate," he shrugged.

She knew he was lying. It seemed like too much of a coincidence that two nymphomaniacs happened to live under the same roof, especially considering that he and Connie had met at college. "Anyway, I expect you to be on your best behavior on this trip. Dre's going to be there, as well as his brother, and I don't want anything to get out of hand."

"Don't look at me. I tried to apologize to Basura. On two separate occasions, no less. You saw how bad that turned out. I tried to be buddy-buddy with him, but he just wanted me to be a Class-A asshole, and well, I'm a pleaser, so I just gave him what he wanted."

"Oh, God, you need to work on your phrasing," she said. "Just try to be patient with him. Become one with the outdoors like you always do. Meditate if you have to. Just don't try to start trouble with him or his brother."

He waved a hand. "Yeah, yeah. I'll try it one more time. If it still doesn't go through, don't expect me to try it again." He left without closing the door.

She gave a frustrated groan. Using her telepathy, she slammed the door shut before she continued with her hair. Geez, with someone who was always adamant about privacy, you'd expect that he would remember to shut the door whenever he left. She went back to brushing her hair, thinking about how it'll be to go camping with-

"Oh, crap," she said aloud. She hadn't told Kamatsu about her yet. He didn't know how he would react to the news, and didn't want to risk losing the only family that she had left. He was annoying, of course, but he was her brother. He'd have to find out sooner or later.