Disclaimer : Furuba's not mine!
AN: Wow, it's been quite a while since I've posted something ;;; My English is still rather crappy and I still make a lot of mistakes. So, don't blame me for bad grammar or false expressions...what I need would be an English-speaking beta-reader - But anyhow. This ficcie is shonen-ai, so don't like, don't read .- Reviews would be great :D and sorry, if the text's smashed together...not my fault --
5 a. m.
Early morning hours always irritated Kyou a bit. Just the slightest bit. Covered by his blanket, still half asleep, he felt that warm soft body behind him, which would climb into his bed and stick to his back. Always somewhere between the last traces of night and the first signs of dawn.
He couldn't remember when it all had started. Only that one morning, there was this warmth and that ticklish breath on his neck and he knew immediately who his unbidden guest was.
Yuki stirred behind him, sliding his long, pale fingers under his cousin's permanently weared bracelet and tugged at it absentmindedly. Kyou moved his legs a bit, feeling how Yuki adjusted himself completely, his slender limbs building a unity with Kyou's own. The cat sighed. Yuki rubbed his nose up and down his neck, as if it would itch and he was too lazy to scratch it with his hand. The tugging on his bracelet never stopped. It was sometimes driving him crazy how those fingers caressed the inside of his wrist, never ever ceasing.
He shuddered and tried to turn around but his cousin wouldn't let him, like always.
"Shh" he murmured "sleep, Neko-chan." Kyou frowned at that but obeyed. Yuki snuggled even closer, one leg already between the cats'.
Kyou drifted back into a deeper state of sleep and when he heard Tohru calling for everybody to come down for breakfast, he was fully awake. And alone in his bed again.
Rubbing his eyes, he wondered if he hadn't just dreamed about Yuki's visit. He could never really tell for sure.
Those damn early hours didn't make sense. It was silent, the sky a dirty grey from lack of sunrays, only here and there the annoying cry of a crow, probably stopping by and sitting on the Sohma's roof.
He felt cold without the additional warmth at his back and he – in a crazy way – missed it a lot. He caught himself thinking that he'd like Yuki to still be with him when he was completely awake and could make sense of the whole strange situation.
But Yuki was like a ghost, leaving him and haunting him over and over again, always gone before the sun could rise completely from her sleep. It was the only time when he didn't have to think of Yuki as his constant rival and when all of his worries were still scattered. And the only time he could allow his cousin (and himself) to let go of all the rules, written and unwritten, and just feel that body and that even breathe. Kyou longed to turn around and hug Yuki, but the mouse would never let him do that. As if turning around would destroy this special moment of peace.
So Kyou never overstepped the border-line. This contact was precious to him, although he wouldn't even admit it to himself. And actually he was never really interested in knowing why Yuki suddenly started this whole thing.
Because the rest of the day everything would go its normal ways, including quarrels and fights between him and the mouse. But in the back of his head he knew, that Yuki would caress and kiss the bruises he left on Kyou's fair skin the next morning. He sometimes even nibbled on his ear or brushed softly over the front of Kyou's boxer shorts, as if unintentionally. But after that they would lie in silence, half-awake and still half-asleep, listening to each others rhythmic breathing.
Sometimes he looked at Yuki but the other pretended not to notice those uncharacteristic glances his cousin send his way. And sometimes this even unnerved Kyou a bit because he couldn't tell where he and Yuki stood at that point. It was – in a way – a vicious circle.
He'd never have the courage to ask Yuki about their "5 a.m. – relationship". If you could call it that anyway. A relationship. Kyou wondered if the mouse just played with him, mocked him, like in the actual legend. Fooling around to trick the stupid cat. To deny that maybe they had already started a process which couldn't be stopped again.
But even more often than thinking about all those problems, Kyou would find himself tugging at his bracelet, slipping his fingers under it and stroking the soft flesh, mimicking Yuki' gentle touches.
But it was never enough.
They would sit at the table, Kyou throwing angry looks and leeks at his cousin earning a laugh from Shigure and a shrieked "Kyou-kun!" from Tohru. They would fight about who would first use the bathroom before sleep, Yuki always leaving his fuming cousin outside, with half of his face in tooth-paste. They would murmur curses about that "Kuso nezumi" and that "baka-neko" while turning the lights off and slipping under the sheets.
And Kyou couldn't help but smile when he felt that familiar warmth and that embrace again, keeping him safe and warm from those early morning chills.