The Capital of Brazil is not Buenos Aires. (Closed to Ember)

It was actually currently Brasilia. It was a somewhat large and crowded city, one that was incredibly scenic and warm this time of year, with the warm sun beating down on the equally warm people, personality-wise. The largely Catholic city was an excellent tourist attraction for people at this time of year. So Sachin's family had decided to set up their semi-regular family reunion. Mankar family reunions were mandatory, set down in tradition. They were looked forward to by all. Especially the part where the reunion ended.

As the plane began to descend into Brasilia, Sachin put down his notepad into his backpack, then grimaced. "This will be something to be remembered...so that we can savour the moments we aren't there." he said. He turned to his unofficial girlfriend of sorts, Gracie. "Sorry for dragging you here." he apologised. "It seemed like a good idea at the time. Then I remembered how much I hate these fucking things myself."

An voice came over the intercom, speaking in Portuguese. Fortunately, it was spoken relatively slowly, so he could use his knowledge of Spanish to follow along. It was the usual- sit in your seats, fasten your seatbelts, so on. Sachin leaned back in his seat a bit moodily. "I'm never sure if I'm back in school or not during these bloody things. Critcism is the only fucking thing I get here. But it isn't always bad. Has it's fun parts." he said, brightening up a bit. "Cricket and stuff- you know how to play?- and football, the soccer one." He took a sip of the Coke he had gotten. "Besides, I got you this time." he said with his awkward grin.

The plane descended and Sachin took some breaths. "We'll be taking a cab there. To the family mansion. My dad's, er, summer home." he admitted. "You probably did a Google search, you know Dr. Mameet Mankar is rich. Sorry." he said, not sure why. The phrase was just a natural one for him, he who had been apologising most of his life.

They picked up their stuff at baggage claim. Sachin hadn't brought very much- just a suitcase for some clothes. Rest of everything was in his bag, such as his laptop and pad. He walked around, showing no signs whatsoever of jet lag, despite the long and exhausting flight. The other passengers visibly weren't in the same boat, some downright glaring at Sachin for being immune to these things.

"I swear to God, the kid never slept even once on that plane." one man complained to his wife, speaking in French. Sachin laughed.

"Some people just don't take these rides well." he said, not considering Gracie might not have taken it well either. "This is it." he warned her, picking up both their bags. "Last shot to back out."

Sachin blinked in asthonishment. "Err...wow. Really. You didn't have to do all this." he said, but gave her a hug. "I appreciate it though. My eyes certainly do." he said with a grin. "Anyway, I suppose we should get the cab and-"

"Little brother!" a voice yelled in clear cut English, with an Indian tinge.

"Ah shit." Sachin said, looking tired for the first time. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands, and turned to the source of the voice. "Hello Dharun." he said through gritted teeth. The source of the voice, Dharun, was a twenty five or perhaps twenty six year old man. He looked rather like Sachin if Sachin was older, bothered to wear expensive and fashionable suits, and kept his hair groomed. While Sachin's hair was long and thick, Dharun's was short and obviously well gelled. But there was one thing. Dharun walked with a swagger, confident that whatever that might happen, he'd have nothing to be sorry for. Sachin looked like he was constantly looking for escape routes, and the word 'Sorry' was constantly on his lips.

He soon arrived upon them, shaking Sachin's hand. "I haven't seen you in a year, mate."

"I was hoping for a new record." his brother replied. Dharun laughed.

"Very funny, brother." he replied, then turned to Gracie, his eyes widening a slight bit. "And you must be the Miss Daniels he mentioned. He did not mention how beautiful you were though." Dharun said, shaking her hand and giving her a gentlemanly kiss on it. The hand, that is.

"Now, you need transport? I got a new car for my birthday-"

"You got a car?" Sachin asked, surprised, not mentioning all he got were some happy birthday Hallmark cards. Dharun gazed at his brother in amusement.

"Come on, brother. You know you get all sorts of privileges in this family if you have a job like a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer. I went to Harvard, got my law degree and got a car. You dropped out of medical school. I can't recall why, mind refreshing my memory here?" Dharun glanced at Gracie's surprised face. "Oh yes. Sachin here was in medical school and doing great there when he suddenly dropped out. Remind us why, brother." Dharun said, now almost openly mocking his brother.

"Nervous breakdown." Sachin muttered, blushing furiously and looking like he rather wanted some cyanide pills. He didn't know how Gracie or Dharun were looking like right now, but he rather suspected Dharun was grinning.

Which he was. Showing his White teeth in the grin, he clapped Sachin's back. "Ah well. Some just aren't cut out for these sorts of things. No shame in that. Now, would the two of you like to come in my car-"

"We'll just take a cab." Sachin said firmly.

"Suit yourself." Dharun said, walking outside and immediately started walking toward the sexiest car in the lot. This narrator does not typically describe cars as sexy, but this red lean and mean machine made Sachin's jaw drop, and attracted the attention of every male in the radius. Dharun drove up to them, smiling again. "Miss Dsniels, you're always welcome to my mansion if you need a place to stay." he said. "You too, brother." he added as an afterthought, then drove off. Sachin sighed as a smelly, worn-out cab came up. Giving the driver some money, he got in, helping Gracie in.

"So, did you like him?" he asked, trying to disappear into the seat. He muttered under his breath, not even aware of it. "People always like him more." He seemed to hear what he said, and fired another question right afterwards. "You have any siblings? I mean, I know you're a good Catholic girl who grew up in that orphanage, but you had any friends who were like siblings?"

Sachin thought about the mental image of Gracie beating up his brother and gave a wide grin. Then he laughed. "Dharun's a horrible fighter. I always managed to beat him up whenever we got in a fight, though I'd always get blamed for all of them. I took offense to that, since I only started half of them. He has no spine- he just goes and complains when things don't go his way. Maybe that's why he became a lawyer." he said with a chuckle, his mood brightened and that dorky smile on his face again.

Then Gracie mentioned how her sibling died that Wednesday and his face turned serious. "My God, you alright? I mean, George told me you went out- did you know he plays D&D?- on private business, but I thought it was about your parents. I'm such an idiot, I can't believe I didn't ask! Are you OK? What happened?" he asked, now his turn to be concerned. "I'll get Dharun's car's engine for you, don't worry on that." He said, hugging her a bit.

Sachin looked at her with eyes full of worried concern, but gave a nod when she decided to avoid the subject. "Alright. But I'll be here for you whenever you need me. Well, not here-" he gestured outside toward the Brazilian trees. "But you know what I mean." he said, gesturing toward his heart.

"As for my brother, if you beat him up, i'll put it on YouTube. We'll see how he enjoys that." the car stopped. "We are here, señor." the man said in very accented English. Sachin started, having forgotten about the driver.

"Err, thank you." he said, opening the door, but the man spoke again, glancing toward Gracie. "Your sister and your other friends from orphanage. I will pray for them and pray for the man who want to hurt them. I sorry for your loss." he said, crossing himself and then placing a Cuban cigar in his mouth. Sachin walked out and helped Gracie out as well. The driver nodded and then drove away.

"Glad there are nice people left here." he told her. Sachin then gave a sigh. "Well." he said, turning around and gesturing. "My summer home."

It was a huge, marble white house. At least forty rooms in this mansion. At least. Loud noises were heard, and a noise that sounded like a crack of thunder. "They're playing cricket." Sachin noted. He then sighed. "Get ready."

A middle-aged Indian woman was rushing toward them. She was actually quite short. 5'2 or 5'3 at the most. But in presence, she loomed over Sachin, who visuably flinched. "This is my mother, Gracie." he said, introducing them. "Ma, this is Gracie, my girlfriend."

"I am very pleased to meet you." the woman said very politely, shaking Gracie's hand. "How did you meet my son, Gracie? And I want you to know that any friend of Sachin's is a friend of all Mankars."

The woman nodded approvingly toward Sachin. "Do you see? Medical school pays off. You saved this girl's life." his mother told Sachin. "Imagine what else you could do had you completed your education." she said, turning praise into criticism in that unique way parents have.

"Thank you, ma." Sachin said with a sigh, leading Gracie and himself toward the mansion.

"Oh, Sachin!" his mother called. Sighing, Sachin turned around.

"Ha, Ma?" he asked.

"Ap ka bhai kae he? (Where is your brother?)"

Sachin kept a good poker face. "Not the slightest idea." he replied in English, and turned back to the mansion. "That was a naughty thing you did with my brother's car." he noted in a mixture of French and Spanish, which would confuse most outsiders listening. "I approve."

They entered the mansion, and were instantly swarmed by a sea of brown, chattering wildly in Hindi and English about goddamn anything. "Oy, Sach!" an Indian with a rather Irish accent said as he passed, "Nice catch!" he said with a whistle. No guesses for what the catch was.

There was a cricket match on one TV, football on another, and Tom and Jerry on a third. It was incredibly loud, but surpringly not cramped. The living room was large enough to accomodate a small country, which is rather what the Mankars seemed to be.

"You want to head outside, or go upstairs or watch TV?" he yelled to Gracie over the noise. "This is everyone getting used to being together again. It really gets nutty later."

There were actually two men, both clearly Indians, though somewhat darker than Sachin. This seemed to be because they were quite tanned. Both looked as though they were pushing sixty or sixty five. As they passed, one of the old men tipped his small hit toward Gracie, saying 'Afternoon, ma'am.' politely as can be in English, albeit accented English. Then he turned to his friend and muttered 'So, Sachin got himself a pet Kafir, eh?' he said in Hindi, both men laughing as they left, returning to cricket talk.

The game itself was pretty interesting, so not many people bothered to pay attention to Gracie. Other than one. Meera, otherwise known as Sachin's ruined date, walked up to Gracie, sipping a Pepsi. She looked good, wearing a red t-shirt and short black jeans. Normal, casual clothes versus her dress. "Hello." she said simply. "Enjoying the game?" she asked as a player on the blue team and a player on the red team broke out into a fight. "Well, most of it?" she amended, acting like she hadn't seen Gracie before, though their last meeting hung around like an elephant in the living room making itself comfortable. No offense to Ganesh.

She gave a shrug. "I prefer football-soccer." she added, noting she was talking to an American. "In Maruitius, cricket is popular, but not as popular as football." It was an an awkward quiet. The aforementioned elephant stretched out and started to watch some TV.

Meera broke the silence. "I don't really blame you for what happened that night." she said. "It wasn't your fault. Though Sachin should have mentioned he already had a girlfriend before agreeing to his mother's date."

Speaking of Sachin, he was returning with two drinks when he saw the two girls. Suddenly his brisk trot mysteriously turned in a grudging trudge.

The match continued, but blue team seemed to be the obvious winners at this point. People were now hardly focusing on the game, instead discussing meaningless other things. Occasionally Gracie caught mentions of 'Sachin's American girl', with tones ranging from bemused to disapproving.

Meera laughed, a melidious sound, not too different from Gracie's own. "I'm not actually angry at you for ruining our date- that was our parents who cared more. Do you know how these marriages work? After I turned nineteen a year ago, my parents actually wrote up a full profile of me, a bit different than the one I would have written myself, and shared it with family and friends to see if they had any guy who was compatible. Sachin was one my parents and his had high hopes for, since they've always gotten along- my father and Sachin's both worked in Khan Industries until mine died a few months ago." Quiet for a short bit.

Sachin walked up and handed the drink. Having caught none of the conversation, he just seemed relieved Gracie and Meera weren't trying to kill each other. "Bonjour, Meera." he greeted.

"Hello, Sachin." She replied, smiling. "I see you had some luck after I left that day." she said, gesturing to Gracie.

Sachin stammered awkwardly "Yeah, err, yeah, you know, about that-"

"Don't worry, I was just telling Gracie I don't give a shit about what happened. I don't blame you at all and I don't blame her. The person to blame is the arse who Gracie had to attack- good work with that- and the other arse who screwed up the airport computers and put my flight a few hours earlier than it should have been. I had to run to make my flight."

Sachin nonchalantly sipped his drink in that way of people who were guilty and tried to seem innocent. He changed the subject. "Who's the next guy your parents have set up?" he asked.

"Truthfully? They're still hoping on you. My father thought you'd be the best bet and my mum is trying to go by what she thinks he wanted. Of course, you threw a chink in those wheels." Meera told Gracie with a stunning smile. "So they're just waiting for what they feel will be your inevitable breakup."

"Oh, how absolutely joyful. Remember when Ravi had a girlfriend?" he asked.

"And they dug up information on her and started sending those bloody notes, trying to scare her off?"

"It worked damn well." Sachin sighed. "She left after just the first one." Here he blinked. "Ay, my dad!" he waved a hand. "Ay, Papa!" he yelled, greeting his dad far more warmly than his mom or brother.

Mameet Mankar was a middle aged man who wore spectacles and a White shirt, impeccable looking. Not a single crease. "Hello, son." he said in Hindi, shaking his son's hand. "May you live long." he said, delivering a standard blessing.

He then looked at Meera. "Meera, darling!" he said, greeting her with a hug. "I am very glad to see you." he smiled.

Then he saw Gracie and kept the smile. "Ah...Grace, isn't it? Grace Marie Daniels. It is very good to meet you." he said, switching flawlessly into English with a decidedly English accent.