Title: Underneath Golden Skies

Rating: K

Pairing: Kyou/Tohru

Genre: Romance

Spoilers: Slight and indirect

Number of words: 1000

Prompt nr. 8: Unheard things

Summary: The absence of one thing in your life, leads to discovering the presence of many others. Kyou wakes up one early morning and finds out what he was missing out on.

A/N: Hi, everyone! It has been a while. I had this ficlet hidden somewhere in the dusty corner of my old desktop and thought I might just upload it for you all to read. For the few of you who have read some of my previous works: Thank you for reading/reviewing/favouring and I'm sorry for the clichés, sappy moments, typo's, grammatical errors, etc.

Disclaimer: I own nothing recognisable. That clear?

Please enjoy this short piece of art and award me with a review if you think it is worth the trouble.

Tip…

Tap…

A pair of crimson eyes shot open and glared across the room.

What was that sound he had just heard?

Tip, tap…

There it was again!

Sleep tried taking him over, luring him away from the sounds and back into the comfort of his futon. However, he was too curious about the pit-patter that he heard, so he sat up. It was dawn and the sun-rays were attempting to break through the curtains.

He stifled a yawn, but his senses were focussed on the noises outside that seemed more frequent. What was it? It seemed so familiar yet unreal… As if the sounds were a ghost of someone you used to know trying to get your attention.

When he could not put up with it any longer, he stood up from his bed – only to trip over his own feet and fall flat on his stomach. A curse escaped his mouth.

Curiosity killed the cat, except he was not… not any more.

He stood up and walked towards the window. He pushed the curtains aside, expecting to see something wondrous, something enthralling. What he saw was… rain.

A sweat drop appeared on his forehead. He could not believe himself. All this fuss about the stupid rain. After releasing a deep sigh, he turned around.

Suddenly two big, brown eyes appeared in front of him.

'Kyou-kun? Is something wrong?'

Tohru was standing on the tips of her toes in order to examine his face carefully.

'Sheesh, Tohru,' muttered Kyou and brushed her cheek softly with his knuckles, 'don't appear all of a sudden like that.'

The petite girl immediately started to apologise. 'Gomen nasai! I was awoken by a crashing sound-'

The sound of Kyou falling.

' –and I looked next to me to see that you were not sleeping, so I could not help but to look for you.' Tohru pouted cutely.

Kyou rubbed his face, trying to hide his blush that was visible in the morning sunlight. ''S okay… Don't worry about it. I was just going to lie down again.'

The young woman nodded. 'Hai… Uhm, why – what were you doing anyway?'

'I was just…' Kyou looked out of the window into the rain. '… just looking what that sound was.'

'Sound? Do you mean, the sound of the rain?'

'Yeah… Let's sleep, okay? We don't have to wake up till ten o'clock, so…' he tried to distract her from questioning him further.

Tohru, however, was rather persistent in her inquiry, even in the early morning.

'Could it be that you are starting to appreciate the rain?' she asked, her ogling eyes focused on his face.

'Appreciate…' murmured Kyou, 'who said anything about appreciating something? I just…'

'Yes?'

'Wanted to know what was making that annoying sound!' He was having a hard time controlling his embarrassment. Why could she not just go back to sleep?

'Oh,' the young woman exhaled, 'Kyou-kun!'

'W-what?' stuttered the orange-top on hearing her emotional sigh. She had bent her head, so he could not see her expression. When she kept quiet for a stretched moment, he began to panic. Had he said something wrong?

'Tohru? Look, I did not mean to raise my voice at you, I just –'

'Let's go outside!'

'Huh, what?' Kyou looked at her, befuddled.

Tohru's eyes were glistering with determination. 'Let's go outside!' she repeated enthusiastically. Boldly, without waiting for an answer, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards the balcony.

'Tohru, you don't have to do this, you know,' he softly said to her, his eyes trained on her back as she unlocked the balcony door and opened it.

The sound of the rain grew louder and a sweet, cool breeze swept past them into the room, causing them to shiver slightly. Tohru stepped out into the balcony and motioned for him to come with her.

After heaving a last sigh, he joined her outside and looked at her sparkling face. It was impossible to refuse her anything.

'Kyou-kun?'

'Yes, Tohru?' he replied, smiling gently, and wrapped his arms around her waist. The wind was cold and she was wonderfully warm.

She said nothing, but kept looking at the rain, so he decided to follow her gaze.

The sky was yellow. Kyou blinked. Yellow? How could the sky be yellow? His mind began to wander.

The girl could feel him tense up and squeezed his arm lightly. 'Today is going to be a unique day. Something good will happen.'

'Why is that?'

'The gods are blessing this day, which is why the golden sky is showering raindrops. That is what mother told me once. '

Not knowing what to say, he continued to watch the sky. The rain was pouring even more now. He felt and heard Tohru inhale deeply and sigh out loud.

'Kyou-kun?'

'Yes, Tohru?'

'The air is so tasty this morning. Why don't you have a breath of it yourself?'

'Really? I mean, it's just air.'

She shifted in his arms and looked up to him with puffed up cheeks. Her eyes were twinkling teasingly. After releasing another helping of airy goodness, she smiled. 'If you don't hurry up, there won't be any left for you!'

He moved his head back as he chortled at her cute behaviour and once again draped his arms over her small frame. While pressing his cheek to hers, he took a deep breath.

A kind of sweet, fresh yet earthy smell mixed with Tohru's light, flowery scent.

'It's delicious,' whispered Kyou in her ear, 'I like it.'

'You do? That's great!'

'Don't get me wrong!' he whispered, realising the implication. 'I still don't like the rain... It's noisy. I just like the smell of it, but only...'

'But only what?'

His arms wrapped around her more tightly and he rubbed his stubbly cheek with hers.

'Only if it mixes with your tasty scent, when I can hold you like this. With you, things can only get better.'

The end.

I hope you enjoyed this. If so, please leave a review. Have a great day!