Chapter 48

--- a few days later ---

*CRASH!*

Kazimir watches as the small girl dumps the large pile of snacks into the shopping cart.

"Khristina don't you think you this is a bit much?"

Picking up the ice cream, she shoves it into Kazimir's face.

"Did you know that chocolate ice cream is really healthy, Mr. Kazimir? Plus, you need to think of this as a celebration for us officially getting to live in my new dollhouse!"

The young man sighs. In less than a week, Khristina had somehow managed to convince her two brothers to move every bit of preferred furniture into her new house. Now, here he stood; finishing up her wishlist.

"Okay, we can keep the snacks. What's next on the list?"

"That's all!"

"That is not all, Khristina." Kazimir says.

"Yuh huh, Mr. Kazimir! See, look!"

Taking the list from her hands, Kazimir shrugs.

"Guess it is all. Is that all you wanted?"

"Yeah, now let's go to the check-out! You gotta see inside the new house!" Khristina replies, running forward.

After putting the items on the counter, the small girl happily jumps up and down.

"Can we buy a yacht to sail on the lake, Mr. Kazimir?! We can invite some of my friends over and you can invite some of your friends over!"

"Why don't you ask Alexei or Dréy?" the young man replies, swiping his debit card. "Mr. Kazimir doesn't have money for a yacht."

"So what happened to the money Alexei gave you?"

Kazimir looks down, giving the young girl a tired smile.

"Why don't you ask your rare doll collection?"

"It couldn't have been that much!" Khristina says, standing on the edge of the shopping cart.

"You'd be surprised."

The young detective picks up the little girl, exiting the store and pushing the cart to his car.

"Can we go pick up food to celebrate?! Like cheeseburgers?!"

"Why don't I just make some for us?" Kazimir asks, putting the bags in the trunk.

"Can I help too?!" Khristina asks, helping the young detective close the trunk.

"If you want."

The small girl happily cheers, before getting inside the car and happily singing her children's songs until the two arrived home.

"Let me unlock the door!"

After handing the keys to Khristina, Kazimir takes the grocery bags from his trunk and walks inside the house.

"Ta-Da!" Khristina yells, twirling around in the foyer. "I picked out the wallpaper color 'cause it was really pretty! Isn't it, Mr. Kazimir?"

"It's really pretty, nice border trim, too." the young detective replies, looking at the wall in front of him.

"Thank you! Okay, okay, come and see my room!"

She grabs the man's hand and drags him upstairs to a large room, running in.

"Look at the plushy carpet! I got it in créme 'cause I wanted it to match my old room! And look at the large bed that I can jump on day and night!"

"Why don't you take your shoes off first before climbing on, Khristina?" Kazimir asks, quickly blocking the small girl from jumping on top of the bed.

"Oh yeah!" the little girl replies, quickly removing her boots. "Look, it's very bouncy! Alexei said that the mattress is of good quality, so I can jump whenever I want! You can even jump too, Mr. Kazimir! Come on!"

"I'm fine, Khristina."

"You must wanna see your room now!" Khristina says, jumping off the large bed. "Follow me!"

The young man walks after the skipping little girl, stopping in front of a room further down the hall.

"See, your bed is over there! We got you a new one 'cause Jai spilt nacho cheese sauce on your mattress when we were moving all of the furniture in!" Khristina says. "Oh yeah, that reminds me! I gotta show you your special room that I decided to give you!"

Leading the man back downstairs, the two go down to the basement and walk down a narrow hall, entering a room on the right.

"And this is your game room! I wanted to give you something special for taking me in and Dréy told me I should get you this, so we did! See, it comes with a big red couch where you can sit! Here's the flat screen T.V. that comes in 16k HD, the very, very loud speakers on both sides, and we even got you the newest PlayStation! Also, Jai got you the whole Call of Duty series, too! He said you two can finally be gaming buddies!"

The young man takes a seat on the couch and looks around the room, nodding.

"It's very cozy. I could use a room like this to wind down in after work. Thank you very much, Khristina. I'm very grateful that you thought of me."

The small girl smiles and jumps onto the couch to give him a hug.

"You're welcome, Mr. Kazimir! Can we test the big speakers out now?!"

"Sure. Have a song in mind that you'd like to play?"

Khristina nods, grabbing a tablet from a table.

"This is yours too! It's automatically connected by, um, toothblue! Jai set it up!"

She clicks on the "music" application icon and selects an album.

"Dréy told me to test his newest album! He likes to make music in his spare time!"

She taps a song and immediately the room is filled with a loud 808 drum beat and an air raid siren, followed by Dréy's voice.

"What do you think about it?!" Khristina asks, turning to Kazimir.

"The speakers work very well, Khristina!"

"No, about Dréy's rapping?! How does it sound?!"

"It's not that bad!" Kazimir replies, smiling.

Khristina nods, turning the music off.

"I can't understand what he's saying, but it's okay 'cause he's my brother and I wanna support him! Alexei sent me a lot of audio recordings of him singing lullabies so that I can listen to them whenever I want!"

She taps one of the recordings and lightly dances to it.

"What do you think of-

Turning to Kazimir, Khristina smiles as she watches the man lightly snore and puts a Hello Kitty blanket over him.

"Wow, Mr. Kazimir must be really tired. Oh well, guess I'll see how his new PlayStation works!"

---------

"Hey, dumb dumb! Over here!"

Milette watches as her cousin sits at an outside café table, motioning for her.

"I thought you didn't like ice cream." the young woman says, taking a seat in front of him.

Haruki shrugs, licking part of the ice cream.

"Following Khristina and what's-his-face around, I've kinda picked up a liking. Here, I got you some cheesecake."

Milette takes a bite out of the cheesecake, before checking the time on her phone.

"So what did you want to talk about? I can't stay long, this is only my lunch break."

"I'm getting impatient, Milette." Haruki says, his purple eyes seeming to glow a little.

"With what? I already sent you everything I had on Kazimir."

"That bastard being in a psych ward for two months and then being let off for "exceptional behavior" is not going to help me! What I meant is that I need an address!"

The young woman sighs.

"You can't stalk him?"

"I don't have time! I'm going to an MMA competition in London tomorrow, remember?" Haruki asks, finishing his ice cream cone. "That's why I need you to-

He stops talking, a big smile forming across his face.

"Here we go." Milette whispers to herself.

The young man gets out of his seat, putting his laptop back in his laptop bag.

"Forget everything I just said! You just take care of the house while I'm away for the week!"

She watches as her cousin runs off and sighs, before turning back forward.

"Excuse me?"

Looking up, Milette smiles.

"Your name's Nia, right?"

Nia nods.

"I'm sorry if I'm bothering you, but do you mind if I sit here? It may just be my nerves, but I feel as if I'm being followed."

"No, I don't mind." Milette replies.

"Thank you so much!"

"You're friends with Kazimir, right?"

Nia gives her a nod.

"Only friends or more than friends?" Milette asks, nervously tapping her thumbs together.

"We're just friends." Nia replies, smiling. "He's like a little brother I've never had, a sweet boy. I'm assuming you must have some sort of crush on him?"

"Uh, well, it's not that big of a crush. He's very cute, but my cousin doesn't like him, you see. I don't know why, Kazimir's never done anything to wrong him."

"You should try sitting down with your cousin and talk with him about it." Nia replies. "I don't think he'd just hate him for no reason. Or maybe he just thinks Kazimir isn't good enough for you, you know how male relatives can be when it comes to that type of stuff."

Milette nods.

"I hope it's the last thing, I'd hate to find out if my cousin and Kazimir have some type of rivalry going on."

She turns to her left, tilting her head a bit.

"Isn't that the guy from work? Caio?"

Nia turns to where Milette was currently looking and smiles.

"Funny seeing him here, I suppose it really is a small world."

The two turn back forward and Milette points at one of Nia's books.

"Do you like reading?"

"Oh, yes! It helps me calm down a lot."

Milette smiles.

"Romance is my favorite genre! I like picturing stuff that I wish to do in the future. What's yours?"

"I like fantasy. Making illustrations in my head about the different worlds and creatures is quite fun." Nia replies, taking a book from her bag. "Actually, I have one that you can read. It's about a woman who falls in love with her neighbor, only to realize he doesn't exist. It's really good!"

Milette takes the book and smiles down at it.

"Thank you, Nia! I'll return it as soon as I'm finished."

"No, no! Take your time, I'm not in a hurry to get it back."

"Ms. Nia?"

Looking up, Nia and Milette turn to Mihajl.

"Hello, Mihajl. This is one of my coworkers, Milette Feliano. Milette, this is Mihajl Hatmanu, a new acquaintance of mine."

Mihajl shakes Milette's hand.

"A pleasure meeting you, madame." Mihajl says.

Milette lightly smiles.

"Oh, no. It's nice to meet you."

"Well, if you'll excuse us, Ms. Nia and I were planning a small read in the park."

"Of course! Please enjoy yourselves!" Milette says, opening the book.

"Thank you, Milette. And thank you for letting me sit with you, I really do appreciate it. See you!" Nia replies, waving as she walked off with Mihajl.

Waving back until the two were out of sight, Milette turns back to the book and smiles.

"Quite a long book. I guess it really will be an interesting read."