A/N: Thanks for all of those who have reviewed and/or alerted or faved this story! Here's the second part, hope you enjoy it. On with the show!


Your Room Or Mine?

- Part 2 -

by eishi (2007)


"You there, honey? I still see a handsome body, but there's nothing inside of it…"

"You know, if you're that frustrated, go and get laid."

Uo laughed. "Finally awake, are you, Carrot? Let's go, the lesson's about to start."

Kyo sighed and followed his friend. He hadn't been able to sleep a wink last night – the pictures and feelings of him and Yuki kissing were stealing his attention from healthy sleep. Every time he tried to close his eyes, a close-up of Yuki's eyes would suddenly appear and make him lose all his weariness. Damn rat was still haunting him.

It was weird feeling, actually – just yesterday he had been whining to Uo how he longed for human contact, and now that he had finally received what he had been craving for many, many years (starting from that one particular PE lesson in junior high...), he didn't think anything had changed at all. He was still the same old person, still the same old Souma Kyo that blushed every time someone would casually throw a perverted joke and hid his embarrassment by acting bold. Somehow the fact that he now knew what it meant to be close to someone (why was it so hard to use the term "make out" even in his own head?) made him proud and yet, it hadn't affected his life at all.

... Except for the fact that from now on, he wouldn't ever be able to think about his cousin normally. Every time he saw the rat, heat would suddenly creep up his neck and coherent thoughts would leave his head. This had to be some awful trap planned by the rat... It had to be! Why else would the rat smirk at him when no one noticed and let their sleeves brush when they were close?

You freaking rat, Kyo cursed in his mind, you've destroyed all of my intelligence! It's your fault that I no longer have the ability to concentrate!

"Kyon-Kyon? Earth to Kyon-Kyon?"

"What?"

Uo gave him a funny look. "Do you have fever?"

"Huh? No!"

"You're really not paying any attention. The lesson ended a long time ago."

The tenderness in Uo's voice was what really brought Kyo back to his senses. If Uo was ready to show her anxiety, it meant that things were in really bad shape.

I must really look like a mess, Kyo thought.

"I'm okay," he murmured, gathered his things and stood up. "Just a little tired."

Uo smirked. "Good for you, then, that the English lesson is cancelled."

"How come?"

"You never pay attention, do you?" she growled. "For your information, handsome, Miss Spell Checker announced last lesson that today's lesson will be cancelled, because she wants us to study for that stupid test."

"I recall something like that..."

"My ass you are. Stop pretending, you freaking gay."

"Stop using that term! I'm not gay!"

"Whatever you say, my love..."


The weekend was mixed blessing for Kyo. He now had time to study for that test, but on the darker side, he was also forced to see the rat more than at school. After spending two and half hours at his room studying (which was his personal record), he had to give up and go downstairs. He just couldn't take the blank walls and the irregular verbs anymore – the invincible trio of "leave, left, left" was still ringing in his head and making him slowly but surely even madder than he already was. In both meanings of the word.

"Kyo-kun!" Touru chirped when he arrived downstairs. "Good thing you came here – I was just about to come up! I mean, um, it's not like you had to do that for me or anything, I just—"

"Spill it out, already," Kyo snapped. He wasn't in the mood to listen Touru's ramblings. The girl sent him a shocked look, then calmed down.

"I just wanted to let you and Yuki-kun know that Haru-kun will pick me up at five o'clock, and I'm going to spend the night at his place..." Her last words were more like murmuring than talking, and Kyo could wholly understand: she was implying that this was the night in her and Haru's relationship.

Oddly enough, that insight didn't send him to a trip through the nine circles of Hell like it had before. Now he found himself merely nodding and telling her that it was going to be fine. She blinked – seeing Kyo so calm was something she wasn't used to, especially when the boy had earlier on tried to murder Haru on several occasions just because he had found it irritating to watch the two lovebirds. Kyo noticed Touru's confusion, and continued quickly:

"So where's Shigure?"

"He's visiting Ayame-san. I think they're going to go later on to Hatori-san's, and spend the night there."

Thank god Touru was too naïve to understand the perverted tone of her innocent statement. Kyo was pretty sure that he wouldn't have been able to keep his face straight otherwise. Then he realised something else: out of the four inhabitants of the house, two were now going out... which left him and the rat being alone.

Oh no.

"Um, Touru, are you sure you want to spend the night at Haru's? I mean, if you're not comfortable with that idea..."

Touru flashed him a smile that would have stopped anyone from doing anything. "That's so sweet of you, Kyo-kun, and I really appreciate your concern, but..." She tilted her head upwards. "I... I really want to do this. Haru-kun's been waiting to see that movie for so long!"

"What... movie?"

"We're going to watch a movie he picked!" Touru's big blue-green eyes were now gleaming with enthusiasm. "I can't wait to see it!"

Kyo resisted the urge to bang his head on the wall. What had he been thinking of Touru – the most naïve girl on the planet? It would take the cow endless patience and over two years before Touru would even consider the idea of kissing... let alone doing something else.

"The tea kettle! I left the tea kettle on!" She rushed back to the kitchen and left a very humiliated Kyo standing in the hallway.

Well, at least she would be the perfect wife material. Her good qualities at cooking and behaviour would make up for the lack of her skills as a lover.

What am I thinking? Kyo shook his head and followed Touru to the kitchen. It must be the perverted air of the Yankee that's making me so weird...


At five o'clock Haru arrived, greeted an annoyed Kyo (because he would soon be left at the rat's mercy... since he was merely the victim, and not definitely begging for it) and an indifferent Yuki (because he was just glad to have a break from studying, even for a minute or so) and lead Touru by hand out of the building so quickly that she barely managed to utter a hasty "bye". Stupid horny cow.

Then Kyo realised that he was standing next to Yuki, who wasn't seemingly planning on moving away anytime soon. He jumped a bit, tried to look normal and escaped to his room. When he had seated himself and taken up the list of the verbs he didn't know yet, he stopped to think. Why was he intimidated by the rat, anyway? They had been left to spend the night alone millions of times, especially last year, when Touru had been busy with her new job and Shigure had been busy travelling in Europe to market his newest book. (His editor had finally convinced him to accept the translation contract that involved several European countries, and thus Shigure had become an international star. Stupid mutt was nowadays one of the richest men in Japan, and he still didn't bother to repair his house with his own savings.) The point was that there really was no sense in thinking that that short make-out session with the rat had changed anything. Hell no – it must have been a plot by the rat...

The verbs, Kyo's sensible side snapped. Study the verbs, or you will die on Monday.

He was able to study for a relatively long time without being interrupted, but then he heard the footsteps of the rat. The stairs gave a whining sound as the rat went downstairs.

Kyo stared at his notes. Light, lit, lit...

The stairs creaked again when the rat came back. Lie, lay, lain...

He heard a muffled click when the lamp was switched on. Let, let, let...

The papers rustled as the rat went them through. Lend, lend, lend...

A pen was picked up. Leave, left, left...

The rat started to write. Yuki, Yuki, Yuki... wait, what?

Kyo threw his notes aside and banged his head on the desk. How stupid could he get? There was no way that the rat would care for him, and likewise there would be no way that he'd start to care for the rat. The cat and the rat. Eternal hate. Nothing more.

Then why on earth had the rat go and make things complicated? Why on earth had the rat tried to woo him in the first place? Sometimes Kyo just wished that he could read people's minds – he wasn't as good with people as Touru proudly claimed him to be. He managed with them and learned to predict their moves after some time, but he was never able to understand really why did people do what they did. Touru had told him that it was out of pure feelings; Uo had given him a very long and philosophical answer about how people tried to balance their needs and wants, and neither of them had made any sense. Why wouldn't people just freaking say what they wanted instead of beating around the bush and hiding stupid hints in their speech for ages before finally getting the message through? Was it really that hard?

That's it. I'm going to settle things with him right now. Kyo stood up so quickly that managed to knock down his chair and drop his notes to the floor, but he didn't even notice that. Instead, he stomped out of his room and kicked the rat's door open with a cruel kick.

"Stupid rat, what do you—"

The rat wasn't in his room. Coward. Kyo fumed at the threshold for a while, then strode down the stairs. Hallway, check. Living room, check. Shigure's library, check. Bathroom, check.

Kyo grimaced. Was the rat really plotting against him? Did he have to be in the kitchen when it was the last place on earth where Kyo wanted to be alone with him? Gathering his courage, he straightened his back and peeked in the kitchen.

Lo and behold, and there the rat was, sitting on the desk next to the sink. He was smirking and playfully waving his legs – Kyo instantly understood that it had been a very bad idea to wilfully step into his trap. Now there was no way out of it.

"Looking for something?" Yuki asked, his lips curving now into a deeper smirk. Kyo blinked; he had decided to clear up things between them, and wasn't ready to give up just yet.

"Yes. You."

"Well, you've found what you were looking for. May I inquire why?"

The mock-tone and the unbearable smirk on the rat's lips made Kyo lose his temper completely, even though he knew that he shouldn't get so riled up if he wanted to have a real conversation with Yuki instead of an insulting contest. He fisted his hands and shouted: "Stop being such a pain the ass, rat! You know perfectly well why!"

"Oh, do I?" The rat was clearly enjoying his rage, and that thought helped Kyo calm down a bit. "Then there's no need to talk."

He jumped down and walked slowly to Kyo. Actually, a little too close to his liking – Kyo was almost able to count his eyelashes, which, of course, made him forgot for a while why he had come here in the first place. He backed up, Yuki came closer... and suddenly they were in the exact same situation as before: Kyo was cornered, and Yuki was too close for comfort. Kyo's breathing sped up, and he had suddenly trouble in producing whole sentences.

"You—rat... get away..."

"Why?" Stupid rat, did he actually enjoy seeing him so trapped? "You seem to be having fun."

"No! Get—get aw-away..."

Their noses brushed; Kyo closed his eyes, since he couldn't take the close-up of Yuki's impossibly bright eyes anymore. Yuki leant even closer, his hair tickling Kyo's cheeks. Kyo started to tremble. Yuki finally stopped, and whispered into his ear: "You know, you could just push me away. Nothing's keeping you... and yet you aren't exactly trying to escape..."

"I... you..." Kyo tried to pull himself together, but the last intelligent thoughts disappeared from his mind when he felt lips pressed against his. He instantly gave in, grabbed Yuki's collar and corrected their angle. He could feel Yuki smirking again, but couldn't have cared less. Yuki pinned him tightly against the wall, softly stroking his hair and deepening their kiss all the time. Kyo shivered – just the scent of Yuki was able to make him light-headed, but the taste... was beyond words.

Yuki broke their kiss for a while – after the need of oxygen became an issue – but his lips never left Kyo's skin. Kyo trembled, trying to keep his balance by holding onto Yuki. Yuki's hands roamed on his hips, until the shirt was finally lifted and warm palms pressed against Kyo's stomach. Kyo tried to keep himself from gasping, but to no avail. Yuki just smirked and tugged his shirt farther. Kyo wrapped his arms around Yuki's neck and took a deep breath of his strange scent – it was weird that this was the very same scent he had smelled each and every time they battled, but this time it felt different nonetheless. Yuki trailed kisses down his neck, drawing invisible curls to his skin, and Kyo tensed a bit. Noticing this, Yuki leant against closer and started to kiss him furiously on the lips, making Kyo forget completely for a moment who he was and what he was doing.

Then realisation hit him, and he pushed Yuki away abruptly. "Wait a minute, rat…" He couldn't manage any more words, since he was still panting and trying to remember what he was supposed to say. Yuki stopped, panting too, and a smirk on his lips again. Kyo ignored that. "Why… why are you doing this?"

"Making-out usually involves two people, in case you haven't noticed, cat," Yuki sneered, "and the other half in this case is, if I recall clearly, you."

"I know that!" Kyo snapped. "Just… why?"

Yuki smirked again, and then stepped away from him. Kyo stared as he returned next to the sink and leant onto the desk. "I think it's called attraction, cat… And that's the other think you should know by now."

"The other?" Kyo had to lean against his hands to keep himself from punching the rat. Why in the fucking world did he have to force every single stupid word from his cousin? "What 'the other'?"

"Form complete sentences, cat, unless you're too stupid to do so. The other thing is of course that you're the other one that wants to make out."

"Stop using that term!"

"What, 'making out'?"

"It sounds—sounds stupid!"

"You're embarrassed, aren't you," Yuki chuckled. "Are you ashamed of me?"

"No! It's… just…" Kyo sighed. "Whatever. Let me ask you this in terms that even a prick like you can understand: why-did-you-kiss-me-in-the-first-place?"

This seemed to take Yuki aback, since he suddenly hid his eyes by starting to play with his hair. A moment of awkwardness passed. Then Yuki suddenly looked up, right to Kyo's eyes, and said with a low voice: "Because I never hated you, and I never want to. Is that clear enough?"

Kyo fisted his hands behind his back. "No! Where is this thing leading? What do you want from me?"

"I don't know, okay?" he snapped – the sudden change in Yuki's tone caused Kyo finally forget his anger and concentrate on his cousin's words. "All I know is that… that I… fuck it, can't stop thinking about you!"

What a romantic confession, Kyo's evil side snarled, but he pushed it aside. Despite the circumstances, it was the most beautiful thing that had been ever said to him. Yuki avoided his eyes now, and silence fell over them. Kyo tried to sort his feeling quickly – what to answer?

"How long?" he finally asked. "I mean… how long have you been—"

"Addicted?" Yuki said sarcastically. "Over two years or so."

"Two years?" Kyo gasped. "Why didn't you—"

"Because of her," Yuki interrupted coldly. Then he sighed, straightened his back and pushed his forelock away from his eyes. "I have to finish studying."

Kyo really wanted to stop him, say that there was no need to run away, but he had no words. He didn't know what to say, and thus let his cousin slowly walk away and leave him in the kitchen dumbfounded for the second time.


When Kyo entered Yuki's room few minutes later, he didn't knock but instead stepped right into the room and slid the door close behind him quietly. Yuki was sitting by his desk and tapping his pen against an open book – which was assumingly his English grammar book – but didn't look like he had been studying at all. He glanced at Kyo quickly, but then turned back to his notes. This time, Kyo didn't feel like losing his temper. He was actually feeling a bit sad for the rat.

"You were right about one thing, rat." Kyo scratched his neck, feeling a bit awkward. He hated telling people what he wanted in words when it would've been so much easier to just act. "It really gave me something else to think about… for a while."

Yuki looked at him, an odd look on his face – like he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Kyo continued quickly:

"Er… just so you know… I'm still not over her, not completely, anyway… But, um, I…" He took a deep breath. "I don't hate you. That's all."

To anyone else that ridiculous confession wouldn't have meant anything, but Kyo knew that between them it was a huge step. He felt a headache coming: too much had happened during the last few days. Stupid emotional rollercoaster trips that he had never been able to deal with properly…

Yuki's blank gaze was too much for him, so he quickly backed out of the room and closed the door after him. It would be much, much better if they'd be separated for the weekend. After all, with that stupid life-threatening exam coming up and all, the last thing Kyo wanted now was more confusing thoughts to his already messed up head.

Light, lit, lit… he vaguely repeated in his mind as he started to slouch back to his room. Give, gave, given…


"Have you been sleeping at all lately?"

"How come, Yankee?"

"You look tired. You, of all the people, actually look tired." Uo faked a shocked expression. "Oh no! The world's coming to an end! Souma Kyo has no more energy left!"

"Shut up," Kyo said half-heartedly, "I can be tired too. It's not just your privilege."

"How 'bout then telling me why you're looking like you could fall asleep any minute?"

"I was studying last night," Kyo replied. The suspicion on Uo's face would have normally ticked him off, but this time he was too tired to hit his friend. "Yes, even I study sometimes."

"I never said that you didn't," Uo replied dryly. "I was just wondering why would you bother, but then I started to think. It's Miss Spell Checker's exam, after all."

"Tell me about it," Kyo grumbled. "I think I'll die of the humiliation if I don't pass this fucking—"

"Watch your language, sweetie. There are children nearby."

"Momiji hardly counts as a child," Kyo rolled his eyes at the jumping and shouting boy who was trying to make friends with some second year students few meters from them. Uo leaned on the corridor wall and grinned.

"Just look at him. Such a sweet, innocent and enthusiastic child. Just tell me…" She pointed directly at Momiji with her thumb, and Kyo quickly hissed her to stop doing so. "Where do you find 'maturity' in him?"

"You have no idea," Kyo said, reluctant to explain to Uo about Momiji's curse, traumatizing relation to his mother and sister and how he was acting like a brat to hide all his pain. "Anyway, where is that stupid teacher now? First she preaches us to be in time, and then she's late from her own class. What a dork."

"You're running out of good insults, honey," Uo laughed. "And don't you dare complain. Every minute that I get to spend here at the corridor and away from her lesson is heavenly."

"And your extra minute in heaven is over now," Kyo growled when Miss Spell Checker's loud steps started to echo in the corridor (she always wore high heels of twelve centimetres). They shared a quick look that said 'good luck… I know you'll be needing it more than me' and stepped into the class.

Kyo couldn't concentrate before the papers were handed to them. The pictures of the weekend kept playing themselves in his head, all the way from Touru's leave to the moment he escaped Yuki's odd look. After that short conversation – or, more accurately, his short monologue to Yuki – they hadn't exchanged a word and hadn't even seen much of each other. Shigure had returned Sunday morning, and only his return had been able to encourage Kyo to come out of his room. He didn't know what Yuki had been doing Saturday evening or had he even slept at night… Kyo, on the other, hadn't slept at all, and it somehow felt safe to assume that Yuki hadn't slept either.

He stole a quick glance at his cousin, who was carefully listening to the same instructions Miss Spell Checker gave them every time, and sighed in his mind. Yuki looked perfectly alright – just like he always looked. There was no way of knowing what he was thinking about or what he was feeling right now. The only way Kyo was able to read him was through fighting and, rarely, from his body language.

Pitiful. I can read his mood only when I can measure the force of his punch. Kyo had to force himself to stay still and not shake his head, even though he urged to do so. Maybe that dumb psychiatrist he goes to see weekly was right. We should learn some 'anger management' or whatever that crap was called. Pictures of them talking side by side about their worst fears and deepest wishes suddenly appeared to his mind, and this time he couldn't help but shake his head. No thanks. I'd rather take the blood and sweat and bruises.

When the exams were finally given to them, Kyo pushed all his ridiculous thoughts about his cousin aside and focused on recalling the past tenses of 'to weave'. (He had no idea what he would gain by remembering that verb, but scribbled the answer nonetheless.) The forty-five minutes they had to complete the task were soon gone by, and Kyo let out a sigh of relief when the bell rang. Uo scowled at him when they were outside the classroom.

"What. The. Hell. I didn't know any of those verbs!" she shouted. "Seriously, who needs some random verb like 'to grind'? What does is even mean?"

"Uo-chan, just relax, I know you did much better than you think!" Touru tried to convince her friend. Hanajima, who seemed to have appeared from nowhere, nodded.

"Your brain waves during the exam were calm as always. You did well."

"That's not something you can define by checking my brain waves!"

"Oh, Yuki-kun! How was the exam?" Touru chirped as soon as she got a sight of the rat. Kyo gulped – they were already on the rooftop for lunch, and there was no way he could sneak away. Yuki smiled politely at Touru.

"It was fine, thanks for asking, Honda-san."

"You were slamming your head to your desk several times after the exam," Haru reported dryly and took his place next to Touru. They settled down and opened their lunch boxes. "I happened to walk by and see."

"Thanks a lot, Haru," Yuki growled. It was so unlike him that they all began to stare at him right away, Kyo included. Yuki smiled again, like he hadn't even said anything. "Honda-san, could you pass me the Soya bottle, please?"

Kyo seriously wanted to punch Yuki more than once during the dinner just to get him angry and respond with a kick – that way Kyo could've told what was going on in Yuki's mind. Was he angry? Was he sad? Disappointed? Tired? Feeling anything at all?

He needs to get laid, Kyo thought sarcastically. Then he paused to really consider the matter. That short confession Yuki had blurted out had actually told him more than the rat realised – hadn't Yuki said that he had been "addicted" over two years? And hadn't acted on it because Kyo had been too busy pining for Touru?

Suddenly the sight of Touru and Haru sitting side by side, holding hands reduced into the level of being neutral and the sight of Yuki eating silently, legs crossed and holding his chopsticks gracefully became the most depressing sight of the universe. All this time he had been whining to Uo that there was no person on earth who would accept him, and paradoxically a person that mad had been alongside him all the time. He had known at least on some level that his and Yuki's relation had changed right after that notorious day he had transformed to his final form. Yuki and Touru going after him, Yuki and Touru calming him down, Yuki and Touru accepting him, Yuki and Touru being there all the time… Even if he had never said that aloud, his anger had died that moment and at the latest when they had finally fought their one and only serious fight after visiting Akito.

Was he holding back even in that fight?

He remembered Yuki's shocked face and the blood dripping from his nose, the sweat on his forehead and the two syllables he had managed to utter before passing out. The thump, the loud silence after that, the upset cry Touru let out—

"Do you…"

Kyo had never found out what Yuki had meant to say before passing out of blood loss, and had never asked. Now it seemed to be just a one more thing to add on his list of the enigmas of Souma Yuki.

Does he hate me? Does he care about me? What did he intend to say? Am I the reason he rejects everybody? Am I the reason he tries to be perfect in everyone's eyes?

Am I just selfish to think so, or—he stole a quick glance at his cousin—am I right nonetheless?


TBC