Voice of the Mind

Chapter 14 – Christmas

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Author Note

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It's been awhile! Yes, I have been busy with other things IRL, so this story kind of got onto the back seat. Yet, it kept nagging at me, since it didn't really end properly. So I'm going to finish up to get it to at least some decent closure. Hope that you enjoy these parts!

Chapter 14.1 – Visitors

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It was chilly at the airport when they made their way to the entrance. Vincent had promised that his sisters could come over for Christmas and both he and Nicole were there to pick them up.

It had been a few days since the threesome – if you can call it that – had happened and the past few days have been a little awkward when they were around each other. It wasn't like they hadn't done it before – they had – but the fact that Jenny had initiated the whole thing was a bit – actually, a whole lot – weird. Not to mention that Jenny had kind of joined in. All just because she wanted to know whether she would be disturbed by him having sex with his sister. Which was disturbing in its own way anyway.

The awkwardness had dissipated slowly and by the time it was Christmas they could almost be natural around each other again. It was for the better, because it would really be awkward if their sisters would drop by when they would be like that. They would definitely suspect something and they really couldn't use any of that.

Nicole looked at the notebook she had written down the flightnumber on and guided them towards the right path. When they arrived the gates just opened and people streamed out of it. Only a few moments passed until Nicole saw them.

"Over there," she pointed her finger towards a girl with a cap. "You can hardly miss that sport fanatic."

And indeed, Vincent saw Patricia the moment Nicole pointed her out. Patricia had an athletic build, despite being only 1m63. But she was agile and strong to boot. Her complexion was a shade darker than Vincent, although one wouldn't exactly call her skin brown; it was more like she was Latin, or perhaps born in Spain. The dark brown hair was bound together into a ponytail which was sticking out of the back of the cap she was wearing. A red cap with an emblem at the front of some sports team he didn't know – but then again he never really followed sports.

She had large brown eyes and an excellent sight. She liked baseball, played basketball, played soccer and had a brown belt in karate. She had also played tennis for a few years but that didn't stick with her. She missed the team spirit for that, she said at some point after having won several youth tournaments – one of them a national one. Even now those coaches still approach her to ask if she wouldn't come back to playing tennis, but she had declined them all.

Patricia had been known as a naturally talented girl. The two years she had been doing karate she had managed to achieve a brown belt and when she had taken up swimming it took only three months before actual scouts showed up. Tennis was the follow-up and she'd enjoyed that for almost a year and a half until deciding halfway a match that she was quitting. Her opponent was flabbergasted when she stopped her serve and called out at her that she was quitting. She had been winning 6-2 and 5-1 when she quit.

Last year she had been captivated by cars and while being seventeen years old her parents were worried that she might want to go through with it. She had been practicing with go-karts and was beating everyone on the course. They wondered if she would step up and aim for a Formula 1 position, which was pretty uncommon for girls.

But right now she was playing basketball, which was pretty uncommon as well for a girl her height. But the moment she started everyone shut up and she usually ended up scoring plenty of three-pointers due to her excellent ability to judge distance and how much power and technique was necessary to achieve whatever she wanted to achieve. She wasn't a star, certainly didn't have that aura of one, but she was talented alright.

And there she was, looking around once and the moment her gaze came their way she waved at them.

Excellent eyesight alright,

Vincent grinned and waved back.

Patricia turned around and urged her sisters to hurry up. The ones following her were a Japanese looking girl in an outfit which wouldn't be misplaced in a company which required formal wear and a younger girl who was a little eager to see where her older brother and sister were.

If one wouldn't know any better, they would think of them as normal people.

he mused.

When they approached, Patricia hugged Nicole and Vincent first, followed by Seline and Yume. As always Yume seemed to force herself into engaging in physical contact, but she did it nonetheless.

She had always been aversive to physical contact and seemed to avoid it whenever she could. Even after all these years she had maintained that stand, although she managed to do it ever since she hit puberty.

Patricia and Yume were adopted by their parents when they were 8 years old and both had trouble fitting in. Patricia because she was headstrong and seemed to know exactly what she wanted, which made her clash with their parents pretty often. She had a different kind of morale as a teenager than their parents had; she didn't feel a curfew of 21:00 felt reasonable and had been out way more often than any of the others did. It landed her a bunch of chores and weeks of grounding after she had broken that curfew again and again.

Yume on the other hand was guarded and simply didn't feel like she had to give any effort in blending in. She stuck to herself and more than once went into a solitary state where she didn't mingle with the rest of the family. They had a lot of trouble getting her involved with any kind of family events. During Christmas she locked herself in the room while the others were exchanging presents and when they would go to an amusement park she wouldn't say anything during the whole trip. She would go to the bathroom and not come back; they would find her an hour or so later on some bench with a book, or simply observing other people.

Yume had never opened up to them like Patricia had, but she had learned to participate. Whereas Patricia got into trouble almost on a daily basis, Yume never did. She was a perfect daughter in obedience, in chores and in anything at school that got graded. But her distancing herself from the family had made her parents pulling out the hairs on their heads. They loved her and they never forced her to do anything, but Yume never displayed any kind of assertivity or familiarity. When her siblings were angry at her for being miss perfect they called her 'the robot', which wouldn't even warrant a flinch from her. She just took it without any kind of emotional response.

In all these years Vincent had never seen Yume getting angry or elated by something or someone. She did manage to open up a bit to them though. At times she had participated in doing mischievous things and when they got caught she'd never ratted them out. She had shown a talent for dry or sarcastic remarks which

could

come across as harsh and mean, but they had learned that it was her way of showing humor. Nowadays they could handle it just as well as any other joke and every now and then in such interactions Yume actually smiled. Which still seemed creepy at times because although her laugh did reach her clear, slanted darkbrown eyes, it was a facial expression they weren't used to.

In her own way Yume was really pretty, but because she had such a guard up she had a tough time making friends, let alone getting a boy try to date her. It had happened once, but on their first date he had claimed he was set up by his friends. He had lost a bet and he had to take her out for a date.

Vincent could only imagine the daggers her eyes would've thrown at him. But she had stuck by him for the rest of the evening, returning squarely at 21:00. Vincent had always wondered whether she would've kept silent for the rest of that date, making the guy entirely uncomfortable and miserable. She had only admitted that he had said that after Seline had pressed her for days, but she had never spoken to any of them what had actually happened during the rest of the date.

Seline was the proverbial Benjamin, the youngest and the most spoiled one. Her pitch black hair was straight and her skin color was much lighter than her other siblings, which got her the nickname Porceline. Her skin was beautiful and she didn't have to do anything for it, which caused Nicole to scorn her when they were younger. Nicole had to take really good care of her skin to keep it pretty whereas Seline did whatever she wanted to and still got away with it.

She was also the one who would prank her siblings the most, but never to the point where they would get really angry at her. Everything she did was playful and innocent to the point where she seemed to be a fairy and she was the one who managed to become friends with Patricia and Yume before anyone else did.

But once she hit fourteen that gradually stopped and she became a little bit of a gothic. Her dress style changed and she got more moody and sour, but she almost never fell out towards her siblings. She turned solitary like Yume and broke rules like Patricia, but that seemed to end when she turned sixteen. Things got to more normal proportions and while she was still high on the black dress code, she didn't try to dress outrageous anymore. Just like how she was now dressed in black jeans and a black shirt with a green cardigan. That green cardigan was so out of place with the rest of her attire that she must've intentionally chosen to wear it for that reason. At least the laced boots were replaced with dark purple sneakers, which Vincent believed was an incredible improvement.

She was only a bit younger than Yume and Patricia, but she had gone through so many more changes that Vincent had wondered at the time if she was trying to find her own personality in a family this large and with such different personalities. He liked her current personality a lot more than the other excentric ones before.

And right now he was being hugged by her.

"You look great, bro," she said. "And you smell like girl."

"Has nobody told you yet that that aftershave you use is a girl's perfume?" Yume remarked with a dead serious face.

"Gimme a break, will ya?" he exaggeratedly scowled.

Nicole pointed with her thumb at him. "I just hugged him to mark him taken. Wouldn't want the dogs to believe he was still up for marriage."

He let his shoulders sag while Patricia and Seline burst out in laughter.

They left the airport in a rented car. Vincent drove as he believed he should be driving, with the others having travelled and all. Nicole sat shotgun and their sisters were sitting in the back, a little tighter than they were expecting.

"You really couldn't have taken a bigger car?" Patricia enquired. "You know, one which didn't specify child seats?"

"I would've, if I'd actually have adults to pick up," he bounced back, fully knowing that Patricia was 18 and a half and Yume had turned 18 early October. "But seeing how you're still a cheeky brat I felt this would be more suitable."

"Lemme get that baseball bat out of my bag and I'll show you how much of a cheeky brat I am."

He laughed. "No, really, this was the only one they had which was 'big enough' for five, but in hindsight I believe they counted the trunk as well. I didn't know I looked like a criminal who'd have to carry a person in the trunk."

"Must be those sunglasses you wore," Nicole added. "Those look like they belong on a gangster."

"It's about the only cool thing I have," Vincent whined.

"Well, not the only thing ..." she replied, but her voice trailed away. Vincent felt a little uncomfortable, knowing what she hinted at, but at the same time he felt proud for hearing her say that.

"... which is?" Seline wanted to know.

"The newest playstation," Nicole said, getting them out of jail. It wasn't a lie either. He really had bought that console to play games on, but he never had time to actually play them. There were six games gathering dust on a bookshelf which he hadn't even unsealed after buying.

"Now that's a cool brother," Seline complimented him. "Looks like this trip'll be worthwhile."

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Chapter 14.2 – Gift exchange

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Jenny had insisted that she wouldn't come over for Christmas because she believed that Nicole and Vincent should spend some time with their sisters rather than with her. They would catch up with her after the girls would leave, which would still be Christmas considering the girls would leave on the 26th.

It was a different kind of Christmas anyway, as this was the first one they would celebrate without their parents. They had allowed them to go over to Nicole and Vincent instead of celebrating with them and simply split their celebration across two days. When they would get home on the 26th they would celebrate with their parents, which was the best solution in the end.

Nicole had set up an artificial tree in the living room – a small one as they believed it shouldn't greatly occupy the space they required to live there – and after dinner made by Vincent they had gathered in the living room. Nicole had provided snacks – bought them, not made them – and beverages and much to the dismay of Patricia and Seline she hadn't provided any alcoholic drinks.

"Since when did you start drinking alcohol?" Nicole asked.

"I don't regularly drink it, but when I'm attending a party I'd like to drink a few. Besides, it's not like we can actually drink alcohol at home freely." Patricia winked.

"Not to mention you're underage," Nicole said disapprovingly and switched her gaze from Patricia towards Seline.

Vincent knew that the stern stare was a farce; she wasn't angry at them or even disappointed, but she was acting the big sister role.

"18, 21, does it really matter?" Seline muttered. "What matters is how well you know how much you

can

drink and

should

drink."

Vincent smiled. If there was one thing they all had in common as a family – adopted or not – it was their common sense and their feeling of responsibility. None of them would do anything that would be called irresponsible. Well, no serious things at least.

Alcohol was one of these things. Their parents weren't hard on the age limit for alcohol – Vincent recalled having drunk champagne on new years eve at the age of 14 – but never tolerated that they would get actually drunk. Or rather, they would tolerate it

one time

to experience it and if you hadn't learned your lesson by means of the headache the morning after, they would make sure you wouldn't do it again. None of them had come home drunk more than once – except for Patricia, who had done it twice and was punished for it. Yume had never even been drunk once, but she had also rejected any kind of alcoholic drinks whenever they were offered. She had explained that she didn't have any need for something that would cloud her judgement.

Vincent realized amusedly that if anyone would break the rule, it would've been him for having been drunk

twice

ever since he had attended college. But he supposed he wouldn't do that ever again. Not with all the stuff happening nowadays.

Bringing up the subject of alcohol was merely a jest from Patricia, as she didn't even like the stuff. She had tried a couple of things – champagne, a couple of beer brands and a bunch of exotic drinks – but generally she stayed away from them, opting for a pepsi instead. She

did

try a single alcoholic drink on any kind of party though, but generally only to sample one she didn't know yet.

He didn't really know about Seline because she hadn't yet reached 18 and during the rebellious years as a goth she had often been away for an entire day, coming back early afternoon instead of the evening before. He still remembered the first time she had done that; her father had pulled her aside and told her: "If I say you should be home by one ... I didn't mean one pm." They all had been cracking up by that dry remark. But since then he hadn't known how her alcohol consumption had been, nor had their parents known.

The alcohol issue got dropped and they all retrieved the presents they had bought for each other. It was a simple gift exchange and usually there weren't any expensive ones inbetween. There had been some exceptions, like when Patricia had been playing tennis and her racket cover had been torn. Selene had bought a new one for her, but it hadn't been a regular one; it was a professional. It had cost her almost as much as all the other gifts together, but Patricia had been over the moon and even though she had stopped playing he had caught her several times sitting in her room just admiring the thing.

Vincent had done a similar thing for Nicole as well and even Yume had given Selene an expensive gift when she had turned fourteen, something none of them had believed Yume capable of. Back then Yume was reserved, never really showed much interest in what others liked and mostly looked like she was listening politely.

After dinner, which Vincent had cooked, he had gotten compliments about how good his cooking had become. Back when he had lived with the rest of the family he had never cooked, so he had learned to cook only after he had started to live on his own. Well, together with his twin sister that was.

But after dinner it was time for the gift exchange. Everyone had brought a couple of packages into play and although they had set a maximum price for each gift, nobody really kept at it. The presents always were little gifts but every now and then one of them had pulled their wallet to splurge the cash into gifting a present remarkably more expensive. Sometimes that worked out really well, other times it was just because they couldn't find something the other wanted in the price range. None of them complained about the little gifts simply because it was merely a fun way to spend some time with each other and it didn't really matter what you received. But sometimes one of them just found exactly the right present.

When they sat in the living room Seline immediately presented a wrapped gift to Nicole, who let out a little yelp.

"You're going first," Seline smirked, which got her a remark from Patricia: "You're just scared that your present will be the least interesting one, so you thought being the first will get you at least a smile back."

It earned her a slap on the shoulder from Seline, but when Nicole opened the package she appreciated the cardigan nevertheless.

"I didn't have this color yet, so much obliged," she said with a smile, holding it in front of her to see how it would look.

The next present was from Yume, who – professional as always – had gotten her a new pencil-set. Vincent managed to produce a grey sweatpants which she had immediately tried on and kept on for the rest of the evening, claiming it was pretty comfortable. Moreover, it suited the color of the cardigan, which she put on as well. Patricia got her a cap similar to the one she had on herself, which confused Nicole as she never wore a cap.

"Why would she get a cap?" Vincent asked her.

"Why wouldn't she?" Patricia countered. "She really should use it when she goes jogging. It really helps in getting you focused."

Nicole put on the cap and although Vincent knew she'd probably never wear the thing, he did feel it made her feel more sexy. Probably because it was so out of character for her that it made her look more conscious of herself.

When Seline opened her first gift, she found it was a hairband Yume had bought her. Her smile was dazzling, since her old one was a little dented and she had tried it on immediately, resulting in an appreciative applause from the others as she paraded around the room. It was soft green and somehow it complemented her all-black outfit perfectly. Vincent didn't know much about fashion, but it suited her, giving her a more alternative look.