Chapter 40

"Are you sure you don't want to come along, Kazimirie? We can always reschedule the flight."

The young man shakes his head, giving both of his parents a hug.

"It's fine, I plan to finish my week out here. Dad, make sure you find mama the biggest house in St. Petersburg."

"Arf!"

Looking down, Kazimir chuckles and pets Caramel-Strawberry from the inside of the dog cage.

"Goodbye for now, Carabelle. I promise, once I have free time, I'll visit you."

He watches as his parents make their way over to the boarding gate, the airplane taking off a couple minutes after.

Walking out of the airport, the young detective walks into a toy store, looking around.

He picks up a small Hello Kitty figurine, looking down at the price tag.

"¥64,521, huh?"

Sighing, the young man quickly picks up seven girlish toys that the little Khristina-Bella would like, before walking over to the cash register.

"Are you a first time father, son?"

Looking up at the older woman, Kazimir shrugs.

"I guess you could say that."

After handing the woman the money, the young man quickly leaves the store, quickly walking to catch a taxi cab back to his hotel.

*CRASH!*

"My bad." Kazimir says, brushing the person aside.

"Woah, woah, woah! That's not a proper apology!"

Rolling his eyes, the young detective turns around, before scowling.

"Not you again. What was your name again, Haro, Hayato, Hir-

"It's Haruki." the young gamer replies, crossing his arms. "I heard about the fire, how're your parents doing?"

"They're doing just fine." Kazimir says, taking a seat on a bench to check his phone for any missed calls.

"Then where'd they go?" Haruki asks, taking a seat next to the young male. "Are they safe?"

"None of your business."

Standing up, Kazimir begins to walk down the sidewalk and Haruki runs after him.

"Do you need a place to stay? I'm visiting my mom and we like having guests over! Makes the home more cheerful!"

"No, I don't."

"Are you sure? Those-

Raising a brow, Haruki lightly shivers as Kazimir's eyes turn a dark red, a weird feeling overcoming the atmosphere.

"Uh, right. See ya!"

Groaning, the young detective continues down the sidewalk and to his hotel building.

Setting the shopping bag down, Kazimir sits down in a chair, slightly slouching a little, before his eyes slightly widen.

"The house fire was never reported anywhere, so how'd that-

Kicking the floor with his shoe, the young detective gets up and runs out of the room, down to the foyer.

Walking out of the hotel building, Kazimir scans the busy street, looking for the blonde-haired man.

"That little bastard wants to hide now?"

-------

"Khrissy, you gotta eat something."

Staring at the plate of spaghetti in front of her, Khristina shakes her head.

"I wanna call Mr. Kazimir. And plus, I don't like spaghetti! Give it to Chantelle!"

"That man is on vacation, he ain't trying to talk to you." Dréy replies, scooping some of the spaghetti up with a fork. "Now eat up, Chantelle is sleeping right now anyway."

Khristina turns to the side, refusing to eat.

"Aye, is that who I think it is?!"

Dréy points at the window and Khristina quickly looks up, smiling.

"Alexei!"

"Wait, for real?" Dréy asks, not actually expecting any guests.

The young girl runs out of the house and out into the front yard where her other brother stood with a box of pizza.

"Alexei, Dréy tackled me and tried to make me eat spaghetti that fell onto the floor, but I put up a good fight and started to scream. And then you showed up and saved the day!"

Dréy sighs, taking the box of pizza from his brother.

"I ain't do any of what Khrissy just said, she just mad-

"Mr. Kazimir's here!"

Jumping down from her brother's arms, Khristina runs over to where the young man's car stopped.

"Hello, Khristina. Have you been good to Dréy?" Kazimir asks, stepping out of the car.

"Yep, I treated him with my utmost respect!" she replies, giving the young detective a hug.

"That's good to hear because I wouldn't know what to do with this if I heard otherwise."

Khristina watches as Kazimir takes the gift bag from the passenger seat, giving it to her.

"My gifts! Thank you, Mr. Kazimir! You're the best!"

He chuckles, picking the young girl up.

"It's no problem, really."

"Aye, wassup Kash! You want a slice of pizza?" Dréy asks, holding up the pizza box.

Kazimir smiles.

"Hey, Dréy. Sure, I'll take one."

"So, how was Yamagata?"

"It was pretty nice, other than a few mishaps here and there." Kazimir replies.

Holding up a princess figurine, Khristina shoves it into her brother's face.

"Dréy, look what Mr. Kazimir bought me!"

"Yeah, I can see it." Dréy says, taking a bite from a slice of pizza. "How about you show Alexei?"

He turns to his younger brother, who was currently on the phone and frowns.

"That boy can't even complete a proper visit without being busy. A'ight, let's go inside, it's cold out here."

The three walk in and sit down, Khristina playing with her figurines.

"Feel free to get whatever from the kitchen if you feel hungry or thirsty, Kash." Dréy says, picking up another pizza slice.

"Meow!"

Kazimir turns to the hallway and watches as a gray Persian kitten enters into the living room, slowly making her way over to Dréy.

"Wassup, Chantelle? You see that man over there, his name's Kazimir. He's one of my friends."

Kazimir smiles and waves at the kitten.

"Hi there, Chantelle."

"Meow." she responds as a hello.

"Look Chantelle! Look what Mr. Kazimir got me!" Khristina says, shoving her new figurines in the small kitten's face.

"Well, damn. It's about time you stopped being so busy."

Kazimir, Khristina, and Chantelle look over at the front door, the little kitten sprinting across the room and to Alexei.

"Yes, my apologies. Good afternoon, Mr. Cizetto."

"Hello, Alexei. How's school?"

The young law student smiles, picking up the kitten that clawed at his pants leg.

"It's been quite the challenge recently. Fortunately, I'll have enough time to catch up since some of the students caught the flu and we'll be out for a few days."

"Yeah and you should take this time to relax." Dréy says, sliding the box of pizza over to his brother.

"I know. I can't right now, but I'll try my best. Remember, we have a meeting in less than two hours with our agent to finalize the sale of the estate. After that, I have another meeting with the board of directors from papa's company." Alexei replies, picking up a small slice of the pizza.

"Bruh, you can't be for real." Dréy says, opening a can of soda. "First off, you only been on the earth for two decades, they ain't letting nobody your age get on the team; Pops even said that himself."

The young law student nods, feeding Chantelle small bits of the pizza slice.

"Well, I am. Since Brent Domonkos moved up to co-CEO, they're looking for a new chief operating officer. I realize that I'm young, but nothing's impossible, Dréy."

"Meow."

Looking down at the little kitten, Alexei smiles as she licks the sauce from his fingers.

"Done already? How'd you like the pizza, little kitty?"

"Meow." she replies as a way of saying delicious.

With a deep yet soft chuckle, he grabs Chantelle's milk bottle from the table.

"I swear, you the only person she wanna cuddle up with." Dréy says, sighing. "Anyway, you free tomorrow?"

Alexei nods, petting the small kitten's stomach as she calmly drank from the baby bottle.

"Yes, I should be."

"Yay!" Khristina says, throwing her hands into the air. "Now we can all hangout together! Let's go to the zoo and then later on we can have a movie night and build a blanket fort!"

"That sounds like fun." Dréy says. "What the rest of y'all think?"

"I can't. I have work, unfortunately." Kazimir replies.

"Damn, on a Saturday? That's too bad. What about you, lil bruh?"

"That sounds nice." Alexei replies, handing Dréy the sleeping kitten. "However, I should get going now. I still have some things I need to review before the meeting starts."

"A'ight, I'mma catch you in a few." Dréy says.

Alexei nods, before turning to Kazimir.

"Goodbye, Mr. Cizetto."

"Goodbye. I give you my best wishes." Kazimir replies.

"Sheesh, that boy ain't gonna have any time to even sleep." Dréy says, watching as his younger brother made his way over to his car.

Khristina shakes her head.

"No, Dréy! Alexei will have time to sleep! He's my second oldest, bestest big brother ever! He can do anything!"

Dréy laughs, hugging his little sister.

"If you say so, but I'm just hoping he don't drive himself to early heart failure."

"What's heart failure?" Khristina asks, looking up at her older brother.

"Uh, it's when your heart becomes sad and then the person with the sad heart also becomes sad and never becomes happy again."

"So is Alexei really gonna have heart failure?!"

Dréy quickly shakes his head.

"Nah, of course not! Khrissy, you know I like to joke!"

"Oh." she replies. "Okay then!"

Kazimir softly chuckles and stands up from the couch.

"I'll see you two soon."

"A'ight, bye!" Dréy says.

"Goodbye, Mr. Kazimir!" Khristina says, hugging the young man. "I really wish you could come hangout with us on our day out!"

The young detective smiles.

"I think that what you should focus more on is the fact you finally get to spend time with the two people who know you the best."

"I know, Mr. Kazimir!"

Waving, the young man walks out of the house and over to his car, starting it.

After driving a couple of miles down the road, he realizes his gas tank was nearly on E.

Sighing, Kazimir pulls into a gas station, frowning at the cost.

Putting the pump back into it's place, he takes out his card, another one entering to pay instead.