New Beginning
Sera looks out the window of the taxi sadly and sighs, softly.
"What's up Sera? You seem sad about something. What is it?" asks Ignatius quietly, so Asia doesn't hear him from the front seat.
"I don't want to be here. Why couldn't I stay with Angela? I was happy in L.A," Sera replies, with a sad smile.
Just then Asia turns around with a worried look on her face and says, "We have to stick together Sera. Mum, Dad and the twins are gone. Uncle Michael and Kai are our only relatives now. Families stick together!"
The taxi pulls up out front of a strange house with Michael, Kai and a stranger that only Sera recognises, waiting for them.
"Thank you for the lift," says Sera, and goes to pay the taxi driver what they owe.
"No problem Miss. Don't worry about paying me, anything to help Michael's nieces and nephew," replies the taxi driver in kind.
"Thank you," stutters Sera, taken aback by the kindness of a man she met half an hour ago, "Thank you very much sir"
"No problem," smiles the taxi driver, "Have a nice day, see you Michael."
"Bye John, say hey to the missus," calls Michael.
"Will do," calls back John the cab driver as he drives away from the house.
Michael, Kai and the stranger walk over and pick up the trio's luggage, and Michael starts the introductions.
"Kids, this is Seth. He's lived with Kai and me for the past 6 years, since his parents passed away. Sera, you remember Seth from your holidays here don't you? Anyway, Seth, this is my other niece and my nephew, Asia and Ignatius. They are my brother's children."
Ignatius and Asia both say hi, but Sera doesn't seem to notice anything and continues to avoid Seth's gaze.
"Sorry about this but Ignatius, you and Asia are gonna have to share with Kai. Sera, sweetie, are you listening? You're going to have to share with Seth. Is that okay with you?" inquires Michael.
"What? Oh, yeah what ever is going" Sera replies in a monotone, looking at the ground, after meeting Seth's eyes, and blushing, slightly.
Seth picks up Sera's suitcases and proceeds to the house with Sera following him quietly. As they get to their room Seth says quietly, "Hey, sorry bout the limited space here, ummm... do you want the bed?"
Sera looks Seth in the face and smiles when she hears the insecurity in his voice.
"Do you want to share it with me?" she asks, coyly.
"If you want me to" he replies, unabashed.
Sera sits down and motions for Seth to join her. When he does she gives him a hug. Seth looks at her in surprise, but hugs her tighter to him.
"Are you ok Sera?" asks Seth quietly
"Define ok. If your definition of ok is, 'Am I handling moving from L.A to Dreightonsville because my parents died and it was against my will?', then no. If you mean am I glad I moved, then yes," Sera said so quietly that Seth had to lean closer to Sera to hear what she was saying.
Seth looks down at Sera and asks in a confused tone, "Why are you glad if you didn't want to move? I mean, that's kinda contradictory isn't it? So why the contradiction?"
"Because I got to see you again," Sera said, looking embarrassed.
"What do you mean you're glad you moved here so you got to see me again? I'm just another body," Seth asked, looking even more confused.
Sera answered his question by leaning up and softly kissing him on the cheek and then pulling back smiling at him, blushing slightly. Seth looks down at Sera, smiles and gently kisses her on the mouth. As Sera responds Seth pulls her onto his lap and they kiss until they start gasping for breath. Seth kisses her on the tip of the nose and pulls back, smiling.
"Seth, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to..." Sera started to say before Seth kisses her again, therefore causing her to shut up.
"Don't be sorry, we've known each other for nearly 6 years and every time you went home, I would miss you so much. It felt as if a piece of me was missing. I would spend hours on end just looking through the photos your parents sent to Michael, let alone the pictures we would take. Besides, I've wanted to kiss you for a long time now. I'm glad I finally had the guts to do it," Seth replied, with a hint of a smile in the corner of his mouth and he watches the blood rush to Sera's cheeks as she blushes again.
Just then there was a knock at the door and both Seth and Sera called out, 'Come in!' at the same time. At this, they started to laugh at each other. Kai, Ignatius, Asia and Michael come in and stop suddenly when they see Sera in Seth's lap
"What's going on here then? Sera, I've told you this before and I'm not going to tell you again, but if there's an orgy happening in this house I want to join," Asia laughed, smirking at Sera.
"Screw you Asia, there's no orgies in this house unless I'm watching, or perhaps even part of them," remarks Kai.
Ignatius looks at Seth before saying "Seth, come with me. We need to talk,"
Seth moves Sera off his lap and kisses her once more, gently on the lips, before following Ignatius downstairs and out the back door away from the house.
"Seth, you noticed that Sera's left forearm is bandaged?" asks Ignatius quietly.
"Yeah, what about it? She's likes to play doctor and she's 18? I've known her for nearly six years Ignatius, I think I might know her pretty well by now," replies Seth, in a joking tone.
Ignatius looks at Seth like he's in idiot and replies in a dry voice with an underline of anger, "No you jerk-off, she sliced her arm open with a carving knife the day our parents died. It's been 6 freaking weeks and the cut still hasn't healed. I'm worried she's doing something to stop it from healing, just as a reminder of what happened. She's also been having bad nightmares and wakes up screaming every other night. Do you think you'll be able to sleep with all that going on?"
"Ignatius Marcus Blaire, there is a few things about me you don't know, and as far as I'm concerned, I don't think you need to find out at all, but I will be able to take care of your sister ok? I'm not an idiot!" Seth replies angrily.
"I never implied you were an idiot Seth, I just don't want to have to worry about you as well as Sera, because Asia's started to have nightmares as well so it's stressing me out," Ignatius said carefully.
"Don't worry about me, worry about Asia, I can take care of Sera. See you at dinner," Seth calls, as he walks away
Seth turns and walks back inside, laughing quietly. He gets to his and Sera's bedroom and finds her crying. He sits down on the bed and pulls her into his lap, hums a lullaby he wrote. He hugs her until she stops crying.
"What's wrong Sera?" he asks quietly, after she's stopped crying.
"Michael just showed me my parents' will. They left the house to me but that's never going to happen, given the house is a pile of dust, nothing else. They also left almost all of the money to me because according to them I'm the more responsible one out of me, Ignatius and Asia. Explain to me how that works. How am I more responsible than my big brother?" Sera sobbed quietly.
