"Kyo?"
Tohru stood at the edge of the roof, nervously pulling at her sleeve. She had been sure that she'd seen the fiery redhead come up here after storming out of the house. He usually did...
She didn't get an answer, but spotted him in his usual sitting spot, so she crossed the roof carefully and sat down next to him. He didn't look at her, but instead started at the sunset, an orange glow covering his face.
"What do you want?"
"I...I just wanted to make sure you were okay," Tohru said softly.
"Yeah? Well I don't need you looking after me. I'm fine," Kyo snapped, before thinking.
"Oh..."
It was silent after that. Tohru's heart felt a little broken, though she would never admit that to anyone. She didn't want to make Kyo feel any worse than he probably did now. She could tell that he thought that he and Yuki were starting to become friendlier, and that today's outbreak had surprised him. So she sat there quietly. Finally, she figured Kyo didn't want her there anymore and stood to leave.
"Wait," Kyo said, his voice still a little harsh. Tohru looked back over her shoulder at him. He cleared his throat and spoke again, trying a gentler tone. "I didn't mean it like that...it's just, I don't know, it's sometimes...hard for me to open up to people...you know?"
Tohru was surprised. Kyo often tried to be nicer to her, but this was different than usual. She gave him her famous Tohru smile and sat back down.
"I understand, Kyo. It's okay."
She hadn't said much at all, really, but Kyo felt like a load had just been removed from his heart. He really had grown quite fond of Tohru, and he was glad that she was so patient with him. He'd never been close to anyone...except for Sensei.
"Thanks," he said. It was quiet for awhile longer, but it was a different silence than the one before. Once the sun had gone down, Kyo stood and held out a hand to Tohru to help her up. She took it happily, and held onto it while they walked to the ladder.
But Tohru, being Tohru, tripped.
There really wasn't anything to trip over, except for herself, and before she knew it, she was tumbling off of the roof, her hand being torn out of Kyo's, and plummeting towards the ground. She couldn't help but scream, but that was probably what saved her.
She didn't land quite as hard as she'd expected, but she realized that it was because she fallen into Yuki. They looked at each other for a moment before, with a poof of smoke, Tohru found herself sitting on top of his clothes next to the rat version of Yuki.
"Miss Honda! Are you okay?"
"Oh, um, yes. I'm fine, Yuki, it's okay!" Tohru said, smiling and waving away the problem nervously. Even in his rat form, he didn't look convinced.
"Well, Tohru, the important thing is that you're okay! How about we all go inside and finish dinner?" Shigure said quickly, trying to break the tension as Kyo jumped down from the roof.
"You stupid cat! You can't even keep Tohru from almost dying for five minutes?" Yuki hissed.
"Shut up, it's not my fault she's such a klutz," Kyo said, his voice, once again, harsh. Tohru turned red, but neither Yuki or Kyo noticed. Shigure seemed to, though.
"Oh, Tohru, let's go back inside and leave these two to bicker, shall we?" He asked kindly, reaching out a hand to help her up. She gladly took it and they went inside.
They ate in silence, the only noise being that of the muted argument taking place outside. It sounded as though Yuki was a human again, as his voice was louder, and he seemed more prepared to fight. Tohru finally sighed.
"I feel like it's my fault they're fighting all the time," she said softly.
"Tohru, it's not your fault. They feel that they're sworn enemies, being the rat and the cat, you know that."
"I know, but ever since I started living here, almost all of their arguments seem to be about me."
"Tohru, before you started living here, they didn't just argue every day. They fought. And not only has that stopped, but the bickering has lightened up quite a bit."
Tohru wasn't quite sure what to say to that, so the rest of dinner was in silence again. By the time Yuki and Kyo came inside, the girl had already gone to bed.
"Where's Miss Honda?" Yuki asked, sitting down and beginning to eat his (now) cold dinner.
"She went to bed. You two have been arguing for over an hour," Shigure said, not looking up from the book he was reading. "You know, she's starting to think that she's the reason you fight all of the time."
"Why would she think such a stupid thing like that?" Kyo asked, shoving his leeks to the side and starting on the noodles.
"Because you never stop to think about what you're saying around her," Shigure answered. He looked at the clock on the wall. "It really is late. I should be getting to bed." He stood up and left, leaving Yuki and Kyo alone.
"He's right, you know," Yuki said after a moment.
"What?"
"You say a lot of careless things around Miss Honda. You don't seem to realize this, but she does have feelings."
"Shut up. What do you know? Stupid rat."
Yuki decided that Kyo was probably just a lost cause not worthy of his time and soon followed Shigure's example and went to bed. Kyo had finished eating, but sat at the table, staring at his cold leeks for awhile longer. Finally, with resolve, he stood and put his dishes in the sink before going upstairs, down the hall, and to Tohru's room. He knocked on the door twice.
It was a moment or two before a tired and slightly bed-headed Tohru answered the door. She looked surprised to see Kyo standing there.
"Oh, hi, Kyo," she said, not seeming like she knew what else to say. She opened the door wider for him and he stepped inside, closing behind himself. "Was there something you wanted to talk about?"
Kyo tried to pull himself together so that he could tell her how he felt, but it really just didn't come naturally for him. After a couple minutes, he began to struggle through the words. "It's just...Tohru...why do you have to go around feeling like everything's your fault all of the time?" The question came out harsher than he'd expected, but he didn't apologize. Instead, he continued. "Yuki and I don't argue because of you, we argue because we hate each other, and..." He stopped when he looked at her and saw the look on her face. She seriously looked like she was about to cry. His heart dropped.
"Now what's wrong?"
"It's nothing...I just...I just don't like when you two fight...I really do think you could be friends..."
"Tohru..." It was times like these that Kyo hated being cursed. It was the only thing keeping him from pulling the small girl into a hug right now, but instead he settled for wiping away the tear that had escaped her eye.
"I'm sorry about everything...just stop crying. I hate seeing you upset..." She looked up at him. He looked back down at her. Time stopped. He bent lower...she reached up...and their lips met.