Title: Amai
Pairing: KioxYayoi , implied SoubixRitsuka
Rating: T
Warnings: Shonen-ai, possible OOC- ness, gratuitous use of the word neko
Disclaimer: I do no own Loveless or any of its characters.
Enjoy!
xX~Xx
Amai
xX~Xx
Sou-chan must have been rubbing off on him.
Why else would he, Kio Kaido, twenty-one year old college student, be standing outside of the local elementary school on a Saturday, when he should be catching up on his art project due within the next, oh, two days?
Waiting. That's what he was doing. Leaning against the wall separating the school from the street and sucking on a raspberry lollipop-but not biting it! Damn it, that grating sound annoyed him so!
He leaned his head back against the cool concrete and sighed, rolling his tongue around the sugary confection in his mouth, violet eyes trailing over the sunny sky in disinterest. Lazily he glanced at his watch, a small smile lifting his lifts as the hands drifted past 12:30.
'Finally.' He heard the muffled ring of the school bell and poked his head around the wall. The school doors swung open and out shuffled a group of preteens, noisily chatting with each other and racing down the front steps to freedom.
Kio cringed at the squealy voices, unintentionally biting down on his lollipop. A muffled 'crack' reached his ears and he glared at the pint-sized fiends who had caused him to ruin his treat, sliding his tongue along the crack in the lollipop as though soothing a savage wound.
'Damn kids.' He thought irritably, crossing his arms as he seethed. 'Don't know why I even bother...'
His thought processes stopped abruptly as a familiar head of silky black hair came into sight. Almost eagerly he pushed himself onto his tiptoes, peering over the mass of students to try and get a better look, all thoughts of his ill-fated sucker gone from his mind. A passing pair of women, probably mothers of some of the little hellions, eyed him with a strange look, but he ignored them, far used to it by now.
'Stupid Sou-chan,' He groused, a hand shielding his eyes from the sun's rays as he continued his search. 'It's all his fault I'm like this! I've spent too much time around him-his bad habits are rubbing off on me!' Cursing his friend's ability to corrupt him so easily, Kio's eyes sought out another flash of black hair -even pink would do- before finally spotting who he was looking for.
"Rit-chan!!" He chorused, waving his slim arm in the air rapidly. "Oh, Rit-chan!!" The lavender-eyed boy paused from rummaging around in his knapsack to peer towards Kio curiously, before a small grin spread across his lips. He gestured to the pink-haired girl at his side and spoke to her, before waving a goodbye and making his way through the thinning crowd of students towards Kio.
"Kio-san?" He glanced around, probably looking for a familiar swirl of purple leather. "Where's Soubi? He's usually here with you..."
"Oh! Don't worry, Rit-chan!" Kio ruffled the thin neko-boy's hair, making him scowl. "Sou-chan had to catch up on a art project-" 'Like I should be doing' went unsaid. "-but he told me to tell you to come by his apartment once school was over."
Ritsuka sighed, muttering something about 'Stupid Fighters' and their 'stupid habit of putting things off until the last minute.' Kio chuckled, though his attention was stolen by the school's doors opening. His heart did a double flip and landed somewhere in the vicinity of his throat as he waited. It landed back in his chest with a muted 'thwump' as an unfamiliar boy walked out.
Ritsuka noticed his lack of focus and quickly hid a smirk, glancing over his shoulder briefly before shifting his bag further up his shoulder and flipping open his cell phone. He typed a brief message to Soubi, saying he'd be there within a few minutes time -and he better still be working when he got there, dammit!- before closing the phone with a snap and coughing lightly to get Kio's attention.
"Thank you for telling me, Kio-san," He bowed politely, though he was inwardly fighting off that irresistible urge to smirk again. "I guess I should get going then."
Violet eyes strayed to the neko and he waved a hand, distracted. "Huh? Oh, oh yes. Sure thing, Rit-chan. Have fun."
This time the smirk could not be swayed, and Ritsuka coughed into his palm, trying unsuccessfully to cover it up. "Alright then," He called, turning and beginning to walk away. He paused and glanced back at the college student, whose eyes were still glued to the doors. "Oh, and Kio-san?" He grinned as the man's eyes turned toward him. "Don't worry. Yayoi will be out soon. He had a club meeting that's running late." He waved jovially and turned away, but not before seeing Kio's jaw drop and a furious blush spread across the man's face.
He chuckled. No wonder Soubi so loved to call him devious...
Kio watched Ritsuka walk away, the flush across his cheeks more from embarrassment than anything else. He rubbed a tan hand across his face and sighed, chewing lightly on the stump of sticky lollipop stick still in his mouth. He pulled another sugary treat out of his pocket and unwrapped it, popping the lollipop into his mouth and discarding the trash in a near wastebasket.
'Am I that obvious?' He wondered, resuming his position of leaning up against the concrete wall. 'It's not like I'm like Sou-chan and stalk the poor thing relentlessly, or send him crazy, inappropriate text messages...'
Okay, there had been that ONE time! But Yayoi had looked so cute wearing that furious blush the next day...
Alright, so maybe Soubi was rubbing off on him a little too much...
He had no idea when he had fallen for the slight, aqua-haired boy. At first, there had been nothing but a mutual acquaintance between the two-he knew Soubi, who knew Ritsuka, who knew Yayoi. Simple as that. They tolerated each other's presence but said nothing to the other on the rare occasions that they would meet, usually in some group outing or other that Sou-chan dragged him off to-to watch Ritsuka, of course, the closet perv.
He wasn't sure when it had changed. Not really. But, on the random outings they would venture into, Kio found himself studying the boy. Not out of interest, per se, just a natural curiosity. He was an artist, after all. He liked to pay attention to his surroundings, take in each and every detail. One particular day, it just so happened that Yayoi had been the object of his scrutiny.
-----
The kid had been sitting beside Ritsuka and that hyper pink-haired girl while they waited for the bus to take them to the theme park for the day, the same one he had followed Soubi around looking for Ritsuka so long ago.
Yayoi had taken to staring straight ahead, sea-blue eyes gazing at nothing. Occasionally a gust of wind would pick up and lift strands of his dark hair, playing with the light tips and playfully blowing them about his head. His ears, the same odd two-tone color as his hair, twitched every so often, then lay flatly against his head. Kio noticed how his eyes would stray to the pink-haired girl-Yuiko, wasn't it?-who was practically smothering Ritsuka with a bone-crushing glomp, chattering on and on about what they should do once they got to the park, and what rides they should ride, while Soubi looked on, amused. Yayoi's eyes would flicker, then narrow, then stray back to the ground as his ears would droop even more, a tired sigh escaping lips shaded a light, pale pink.
It wasn't long before Kio knew why. It was obvious the way Yayoi pined after the slightly naive girl, if the long, furtive glances and flustered sighs were any indication. Kio prided himself on his knowledge of all things love, unrequited or not, and knew the signs of a doomed romance before it even began. Yayoi and Yuiko were the prime example.
For some reason, it irked him when Yuiko would ignore Yayoi, even when he was right there in front of her, blue eyes big and pleading, asking her to ride something with him only to have her politely decline his offer and bounce off to Ritsuka's side. Yayoi would stare after her with something akin to devastation on his face, until he would smile, a smile so false it must have made his lips ache. He would go on as though nothing had happened, and the cycle would begin again.
Maybe it was because Kio had had his own run-in with one-sided love. Maybe it was because he had lost that love to the same Aoyagi...Either way, Kio found himself gripping Yayoi's hand and dragging him away to the ferris wheel, shouting over his shoulder that they'd be back later and to wait up for them.
Yayoi had looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "K-Kio-san?! W-where are we going?"
"The ferris wheel," Kio had answered, a small grin on his lips. At Yayoi's questioning gaze he sighed, grin sheepish. "I want to talk to you about something, Yayoi-kun."
Yayoi blinked in confusion, eyes settling on the ferris wheel. "But..what...?"
"You'll see." Kio said, and heard Yayoi sigh behind him. Within a few minutes they were both seated in the plush seats of one of the ferris wheel carts, on opposite sides of each other. Yayoi had taken to staring at the ground again, feet shuffling on the carpeted floor.
Kio held back a grin at the kid's nervousness. "Yayoi-kun?"
Yayoi jumped and blinked his blue-gray eyes, mumbling a shaky, "Y-yes?"
"I won't bite you, you know," Kio chuckled. "I just wanted to talk to you."
"A-about what?" Kio was glad to hear Yayoi's voice grow a bit stronger, despite the nervous stutter.
"Yuiko-chan." The affect was immediate. Yayoi's eyes widened to an almost comical level, a flush stealing across his cheeks.
"B-but...why? Why would we need to talk about Yuiko-?"
Kio cut him off. "I see the way you act around her, Yayoi-kun." His smile turned wistful, and a bit hesitant. He knew Yayoi wouldn't like what he was about to say..."I think you should give up on her, Yayoi-kun." His violet eyes raised-when had they fallen to the floor?-back to Yayoi's prone figure, expecting an outburst, an outraged cry.
Instead, what he saw made his heart clench in his chest.
Yayoi's small shoulders were shaking, though his pale hands clutched at his arms as if to still them. His dark hair fell in a sheet around his face, his long bangs shading his face from Kio's view. It wasn't hard, however, to see the drops slipping down his cheeks, falling silently onto his knees.
"Yayoi-kun..."
"I-I know," Yayoi's shaky voice was so meek, it was hard to hear him. Kio strained his ears, leaning toward the neko. "I...I don't know why I c-can't seem to g-get over h-her...I mean, it's not like she e-even notices I'm alive..A-always fawning over R-Ritsuka-kun..." He sniffed quietly, thin fingers tightening in the loose folds of his shirt. For a moment Kio wondered why the boy looked so sickly, so small in the too large sweater that hung off his frame. "I-I've known I had no chance..ever since she told me I was too s-short..."
'Too short?!' Kio thought, almost angrily. 'What does that have to do with anything?!'
"It's pathetic, to k-keep pining away after her, i-isn't it, Kio-san?" He sniffled again, hastily wiping at his eyes. Kio forgot his anger for a moment, leaning further towards Yayoi's bent head. Carefully, hoping he didn't startle the neko, Kio slipped a long finger underneath his chin, lifting Yayoi's tear-strained face to his.
It was strange, Kio would think later, working on an assignment and contemplating the vast arrays of blue set out before him, how Yayoi's eyes were so much more vivid when soaked with tears, the sky-blue melting into a deep azure. Tears, as strange as it sounded, suited Yayoi.
"K-Kio-san?" Yayoi's breath came out in a half-sob, hands rising to wipe his tears away. Kio stopped them with his own hand, thumbing away the boy's tears with his own fingers, pausing as a shudder wracked through the boy's frame.
"Why?" Yayoi whispered, eyes closing of their own volition as his tears were gently chased away. "W-why are you being so nice to me, Kio-san?"
Kio's motions stopped altogether, and Yayoi's eyes opened slowly, blinking through the film of water. Kio smiled warmly, thinking vaguely that he must have been spending too much time with Soubi, caring about the welfare of a brat he barely knew. He could imagine his friend laughing at him down below, where he was no doubt waiting by the park's entrance with the other brats.
He shook the thought away, wiping one last tear from Yayoi's face. "I know what it's like," he murmured, voice soft. "I know what it feels like to love someone for so long, only to realize they weren't really meant for you." He paused, seeing wide azure eyes. He grinned. "It's hard, I know, to imagine letting that part of you go, when it's been there with you for so long. It's a big change, a scary one. But-" Here he paused, remembering a time when he, too, had fought to let that part of him die, to finally realize that Soubi hadn't been meant for him. "-I promise you you'll feel so much better."
There was silence in the cart after that, the gentle rocking of the ferris wheel a distant thought in both their minds. Kio stared at Yayoi, and wondered if he had revealed too much...
But then Yayoi sniffled, and slowly, oh so slowly, a smile spread across his lips. A genuine smile, one Kio had never seen before. For some reason, a tiny bit of warmth blossomed in his chest, spreading slowly through his veins and warming his blood. It was almost a...giddy feeling, like he had ate one too many lollipops and suffered from an ache that was too sweet to really hurt.
"T-thank you, Kio-san." Yayoi's voice was quiet, and thankful, and Kio decided, as much as tears seemed to make Yayoi's eyes glisten, his smile was what really stole the breath from your lungs.
"No problem," he had whispered. They had ridden the rest of the ride in a companionable silence, and, when they finally touched the ground, Yayoi's tears had all but gone. Kio secretly reveled in that. It had warmed his heart, however cliche, to help the boy. The warm feeling stayed in his limbs throughout the entire day.
And Yayoi's smile never left his face.
-----
Kio sighed, his lips curving into a smile as he lazily watched the clouds. Here he was, weeks later, waiting by the elementary school, as he had been doing ever since he and Yayoi had become an 'item.'
He frowned. Boyfriends, maybe? Lovers? It was difficult to put a name to what they had. With their age difference, it was a bit...strange, to be with each other as they wished without the prying, disapproving eyes of the public getting in their way. He supposed, once Yayoi was older it wouldn't really matter all that much. But, for now, he was content with what he shared with the neko-boy. A warm arm slung around the boy's thin shoulders, small, pale hands gripping his own whenever they walked side by side, a embrace every afternoon before he saw the boy home, and an occasional sweet, sugary kiss goodbye.
Kio gave into the cliche-ness of it all and admitted he lived for those moments, those rare moments when Yayoi would smile like he had at the park, genuine and true and without that false sweetness.
He glanced at his watch, stifling a sigh. How long was that club meeting supposed to-!
A small, warm hand slipped into his own. Kio fought back a smile and turned around, seeing a flash of sky-blue before a warm body fit snugly into his own, thin arms wrapping around his torso.
"Kio-chan." Yayoi's voice was muffled against his sweater, dark ears twitching atop his head.
Kio chuckled and ran his calloused fingers over the silky fur, grinning when Yayoi shivered against him. He wrapped one long arm around Yayoi's waist and slipped the other around the boy's shoulder, long fingers threading through the neko's hair.
"Yayoi-chan," He murmured. A grin spread across his face. "Did ya miss me, koi?"
Yayoi's head popped out of the circle of Kio's arms, a furious blush spread across his cheeks. Kio chuckled again at the sight, pressing a gentle kiss to the boy's forehead. "What's wrong, koi? You feel a little warm..."
If possible, Yayoi's face resembled a blood red tomato, the blood rushing to his face. "B-baka! Don't...do that!"
Kio's grin could not be swayed. He trapped Yayoi in the circle of his arms as the boy tried to flee, laying his head on his shoulder. "But, Yayoi-chan!! Why do you have to be so mean?! Have you been spending too much time with Rit-chan lately?"
"W-what?!" Yayoi spluttered, eyes wide. "No! I have not!" He struggled to free himself from Kio's grip and failed miserably, especially as he was slowly turned around to meet the older man's gaze, sky-blue clashing with deep violet. He gulped audibly, skin flushing an even deeper shade of red as Kio's face grew closer. "K-Kio-chan..."
He was cut off by a pair of warm lips gently sliding over his own, a pair of gentle hands slipping on either side of his face to rest lightly on his cheeks, guiding his head to tilt to the side. Yayoi sighed and gave in, his earlier ire forgotten entirely as a steady warmth thrummed though his veins, his heart giving a frantic 'thump, thump, thump'.
His fingers curled loosely in Kio's jacket as the older man moved away, grinning triumphantly. Yayoi chuckled at his koi's expression, licking his lips and tasting raspberry, along with something distinctly Kio.
"Now," Kio started, rummaging around in his pockets for a moment before pulling out two wrapped lollipops, one pink and one red. Yayoi scowled at the sugary treats.
"You know that's a horrible habit, Kio-chan! You're going to rot your teeth-mnph!" His lecture was cut short as a strawberry-flavored lollipop forced its way past his open mouth, followed by a tan hand gently closing his jaw around the sucker. He sighed, and licked at the sweet candy, a glint appearing in his eye as Kio gripped his hand and began to pull him along on the familiar path home.
crunch
Kio glanced at him, unconcerned, before his eyes trailed back to the road. His hand tightened around Yayoi's, however.
crunch crunch
-twitch- "Yayoi..."
crunch crunch crunch
"Yayoi-chan, I mean it..."
crunch crunch CRACK
"Argh!! Yayoi!! I hate that sound!!!"
Yayoi fell into a fit of laughter, racing along the sidewalk with a very angry koi in tow.
end.
A/N: Ending is kind of abrupt, but as a whole I'm rather happy with this little one-shot. I hope all of you who took the time to read it enjoyed it as well. Feedback is appreciated!
Notes: 'Amai' means 'sweet'.