This is the PREQUEL to 'Yours and Mine' so, uhh. . . I guess you can read it without reading Y&M. I don't think there will be any spoilers to Y&M or the companion fic, Retrospective Proposal. But if you like this one, then you should read those too! Also, please review ~
"Please, Yuki, you'd be saving my life on this! You know I wouldn't ask if it wasn't absolutely necessary!" Ayame dropped down on his knees, sunshine eyes gazing up pleadingly at his younger sibling.
"Absolutely not." Yuki growled out between his teeth, feeling his cheeks heat up at even the mere suggestion. He sincerely wished the snake had asked him about this in private, not in the middle of his living room with Shigure and Kyo, albeit very different expressions. Shigure had a voyeur's grin, eyes sparkling with amusement, and Kyo was scowling, eyes fixed pointedly at the ceiling as if he were not listening or watching the exchange between the brothers. Kyo, the bane of his existence, rival, and insanely embarrassing crush. The co-star of his most ridiculously romantic fantasies. Why did this conversation have to be happening in front of him?
"Why are you so opposed to this?" The white-haired man demanded. "You don't approve of my career?"
"I didn't say that." Yuki answered with a huff. "Whatever you do is fine, Aya. But I'm not going to wear one of your little. . . outfits and splay myself out in some racey magazine for perverts to-"
"You're judging me!" The man cried out, clutching his chest as if suffering a massive heart attack.
"I'm not judging you!" The rat assured him, covering his hands with his face.
"My model for this shoot cancelled and it's too late for me to find someone else, Yuki! The shoot is in 2 days!"
"What makes you think I would even be able to do this, anyway?" Yuki ground out, trying not to blush again. Willing himself with every fiber of his being not to glance back at Kyo's expression. How humiliating.
"You're the perfect size, first of all. He and your body type are almost identical. Secondly, you don't have to do anything. My makeup team will take care of everything. All you have to do is look gorgeous and sexy and let them take pictures."
"I don't know how to be sexy." Yuki confessed, unable this time to hide the blood rushing to his cheeks.
Kyo had to physically stop himself from scoffing. He had been uncomfortably aware of his cousin recently, and had to admit that the student council president was almost unbearably sexy. He had taken to avoiding rooms Yuki was in by himself, somewhat paranoid that the rat may be able to read his perverse thoughts, and would be disgusted or enraged.
"Oh, pshaw!" Ayame made a noise in his throat, waving the thought away. "I'll direct everything myself. It's for a magazine overseas, so nobody you know would even ever see it! You have nothing to worry about." He promised, tugging on the hem of the boy's shirt. "Just say yes."
"I. . . I don't know." He shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "What is the outfit I'm supposed to be wearing?"
Ayame hesitated, covering his smile with his hand. "Well. . . It's not pornographic. Since you're underage. I would just call it. . . Suggestive."
"You're pandering me to pedophiles, basically." Yuki said dully, frowning.
"You're judging again." Ayame reminded him, waving his finger back and forth. Yuki heaved a sigh, discomfort more than obvious in his face. "How about this, I will take you down to my shop tomorrrow, you can try it on, and you can decide then. Deal?"
Yuki eyed him apprehensively, chewing his lower lip in a habit he thought he had broken years ago. "I. . ."
"Please, at least give me a chance. You'd be saving my life. These pictures in this magazine are going to generate a lot of sales for me."
"Fine, fine." Yuki gave up, throwing his hands out. "I'll try it on."
"Thank you so much, wonderful little brother!" He sprang up, wrapping the boy in a tight hug, making the rat wince. "Hmm. . . I could always just bring it by the house tomorrow, and you could-"
"NO!" Yuki cried out suddenly, alarmed. The 3 Sohma males jumped visibly at the suddenly loud tone. The thought of trying on what he knew would be insanely revealing outfit and risk the cat even getting a peek at his figure nearly gave him cardiac arrest. Completely insecure with his body, something like that happening was one of the worst case scenarios Yuki could think of. Especially when it was showcased in something Ayame had made.
The rat froze suddenly, lowering his eyes before squeezing them closed. "Wait. Aya. . . " He said it so quietly, his tone so full of despondence that it stopped the snake cold in his movements.
"What is it, Yuki?" He asked quietly, leaning in so their faces were closer together, trying to read the reason for the sudden stricken look in the violet orbs.
"I can't model for your shoot." He whispered in a nearly inaudible tone.
"Why do you say that?"
"What about. . . my scars?" He forced the word out, repulsed with himself and his body, knowing that everyone else had to be too. He couldn't bring himself to turn and meet Kyo's eyes, knowing they would be full of repulsion as well.
"Ah." Ayame looked surprised for a moment, lowered his forehead to his brother's. "Don't worry, my makeup team will take care of that. And the magazine has to airbrush almost everyone's skin, anyway. It will be fine."
"If you say so." He said, suddenly annoyed with himself for agreeing to this whole thing. What a terrible idea. "I'll see you tomorrow." Turning without warning, and dashing up the stairs to his bedroom, he left Ayame staring up cheerlessly after him. The snake glanced back at Shigure somewhat guiltily, feeling dejected.
"Don't feel so guilty, Aya." The dog laid a hand on his shoulder. "He'll be fine. He's strong."
"You're right as usual,'Gure." The snake sighed, tossing his mane of hair behind him.
"Why don't you leave Hatori and marry me?" The dog invited, giving him an expression of mock seduction. "It would be so much easier, wouldn't it?" Ayame laughed into his hands, shaking his head.
"It'd be kind of hard to marry someone when you're dead." Hatori piped up from the doorway, where he had been standing for the last several minutes, but he was smiling. Not the jealous type, he took pride in the undisputed fact that his husband was extremely beautiful.
Shigure whirled, giving him a shit-eating grin. "Wanna fight to the death, Ha'ri?"
"You guys are idiots!" Kyo burst out, snarling. He threw the pillow he had been holding down onto the couch and stormed out, slamming his bedroom door behind him.
"What's with him?" Ayame questioned, raising his eyebrows.
"He's been very. . . Edgy lately." Shigure explained, failing to hide a smile. "I can't say for sure, but. . . It's been very tense in this household as of late, gentleman."
"Wasn't it always?" Hatori asked, after puffing a lungful of smoke, politely blowing it out the open doorway.
"I don't mean that kind of tension." He answered, eyes dancing. "I'm actually referring to tension of the sexual persuasion."
"From Kyo? He. . . " Ayame's eyes narrowed as the full implication of the words hit him. "Kyo, and Yuki?" He asked again, wanting to be sure he had understood correctly.
Shigure raised his hands in surrender, smiling good-naturedly. "Like I said, I can't say for sure. But as a professional writer of romance, I have to say that I have sensed something between the two of them lately."
"You must be mistaken." The dragon snorted at even the idea of the two of them harboring torches for each other.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Ayame snapped, a hand flying to his hip. "Yuki is absolutely breathtaking, a completely attractive specimen! He takes after me, you know."
"Nobody is arguing that." Shigure replied.
"So then why is it so hard for you to believe that Kyo may be having. . . Feelings towards him of that nature?" He questioned his husband angrily.
"Well, I would start with the fact that they seem to loathe each other's very existence." Ha'ri answered flatly.
"Details, details!" Ayame scoffed.
"Secondly, from what I have witnessed of Hatsuharu's fumbling and frankly somewhat pathetic, attempts at romance towards Yuki, your brother isn't exactly interested in dating or sex."
"Oh, please. Kyo and Haru are on different planets in terms of what would be good for Yuki."
"So wait, you seriously think the two of them would be good together?" Shigure asked, surprise evident in his voice.
"Kyo would certainly be good at forcing him to open up, and possibly chip away at some of his guarded emotions. And only someone like Yuki could calm some of the cat's more. . . radical impulses." He answered thoughtfully, toying with a strand of his ivory hair. "Maybe we could- "
"No." Hatori interrupted, shaking his head. "Don't even think about it, Ayame. I mean it."
The snake batted his lashes innocently. "I'm certain I don't even know what you're talking about, darling."
"You and Shigure are not concocting some half-baked scheme to force the two of them together. I forbid it."
"Whaaat?" He gasped, mouth round with shock. "How can you even suggest we would do something so salacious!?"
"Cut the bullshit." Hatori deadpanned, eyes narrowed. "It would end up being the most contrite, obvious ploy ever known to mankind and would more than likely succeed in causing something so awkward that the pair won't even be able to look each other in the eyes, let alone experiment with dating."
Ayame sighed in defeat, making an annoyed noise in his throat. "You have no faith in my abilities."
"Damn right. Now get in the car, you half-assed cupid. I have to get up early in the morning." He left the door open behind him, motioning for the snake to follow him.
Ayame shot a look ripe with irony at the dog behind him, his eyes clearly stating that the two of them would discuss any future plans of matchmaking later.
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Kyo growled, rolling over in his bed for what seemed like the hundredth time in ten minutes. He couldn't get comfortable, and who the hell could blame him? Being forced to listen to the mindless chatter of Ayame was one thing, but when the central point of the conversation was Yuki, clad in nothing but one of the snake's racy excuses for lingerie, it was basically like a form of mental torture. Mental? He scoffed at himself. It had been just as much a physical torture. It was insane, having to sit there in complete terror, visions of the rat's lithe form invading his mind, fearful that one of them would observe that he had one of the couch pillows in an iron grip in his lap to hide his noticable erection. He had only been able to will it down to be able to leave after Yuki had suddenly gone so melancholy. About his scars, Kyo remembered, frowning. What scars?
Whatever, or wherever they were, Yuki had certainly gotten sensitive about them, he recalled, doubting they detracted from the rat's stunning beauty too much. Probably just one of those stupid, whiny uke body issues. Like when they whined about being fat when they hardly enough fat on them to feed a dying sparrow, he scoffed. That kind of shit annoyed him to no end. Fishing for compliments, no doubt. But it definitely hadn't seemed that way with Yuki. . . His eyes had been so wounded and vulnerable, it had shocked the cat to the core. And as much as they argued and criticized each other, he had to admit that Yuki was anything but a whiner.
"God!" The cat groaned his frustrations out into his pillow, pummeling it with his fists. "Why can't I stop thinking about him?" He wondered aloud, glaring up at the ceiling as if angry with his creator for cursing him. Sure, he was hot and Kyo wasn't exactly rolling in sexual encounters. . . None, actually, he admitted wryly. But still, that was hardly a reason to be so hung up on the damn rat.
Forget it, trying to lay in this bed and sleep was a total charade, he scoffed, throwing the cover off himself and pulling on a pair of loose jeans. He would go up to the roof and stargaze, and maybe he'd fall asleep that way. . .
He closed his door quietly, so as not to wake anyone else up, and lifted himself up through the hole in the ceiling, carefully closing the latch behind him, breathing in the warm summer air. The wind whipped his orange locks around his forehead, and caressed his bare arms and chest with cool fingers.
"I'm sorry." The quiet, breathy voice startled him so much he nearly toppled off the shingled roof.
"Christ!" Kyo snapped, panting with the effort to right himself. "You scared the shit out of me. What are you doing out here!?"
"I. . . I thought you were in bed." Yuki stammered, eyes wide. He was more than aware that this was the first time the two of them had been alone together in over a week. "I just needed some air. I didn't mean to take your spot. . . " He apologized. "I'll just. . . Go." He decided quickly, standing quickly and scurrying toward the latch to let himself back in the house. Where it's safe, he thought timidly. "Ah!" He gasped out loud, his sock-clad foot slipping off one of the slick shingles, slamming his body down onto the hard panels.
The damp surface of the summit rolled his slim body down the slope. He spiraled toward the ground, stomach rolling at the sight of it rushing toward him. Squeezing his eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable collision with the hard dirt, he fleetingly wondered if he would survive the fall, or if he'd have any broken bones.
This chapter was so much longer, but I had to chop it in the middle because it was getting ridiculously lengthy ~ So the next chapter will just start off exactly where this one left off. Let me know what you think, in a review! I love writing Ayame in my fics, he's just so energetic and fun! I hope I kept everyone in character. . .