Author's Notes: Alright! Here's chapter three! Hope you enjoy it! Thankyou
to all who have reviewed so far!!! I really appreciate it! Also, thanks to
Foxy and Kouji for all of their inspiration!
Disclaimer: I wish...
Warnings: No real warnings for this chapter...the beginnings of Shounen-ai I guess...some Kyo-mouth ^_^
Chapter Rating: PG-13
********** 7 Days
By: Genki Ichigo
**********
Saying goodbye to Tohru that night, was, and still remains one of the most difficult experiences of my life. At first, it seems like such a small thing, but, we had come to rely on each other so much, that even being apart for a few days was hard. Somehow, though, I managed to do it, and made my way back up to my room to get Yuki. Of course he was still there, waiting for me. I could almost feel the heaviness of his heart as soon as I entered the room.
"You ready?" I asked, wanting to keep our conversation to a minimum, so that we didn't find something to argue about. At that point in time, that would have been the last thing that I would have needed.
"I think so." He said softly. I could barely hear him, the only reason that I heard him at all half of the time anyway was because I had cat's ears. To say that what I said next had a begrudged tone to it, would be an understatement.
"Then...It might be best if I carried you." I spat out quickly, not happy in the least, but fully realizing that he would have to be carried if he were even to have a chance of keeping up with me.
"What are you talking about?" He asked, his voice conveying a level of shock that I didn't know was humanly possible. Or rodently possible...if you can call 'rodently' a word... Even if you could, it probably has a different meaning anyway....
"Listen, k'so nezumi, I don't like this. I don't like it at all. But if you're going to keep up with me, you're going to have to do this. I'm not gonna wait for you, so either get on or stay here and see what Akito has to offer you." I could feel myself glaring at him. I could already see that this wasn't going to be easy at all.
It seemed for a moment, as if he were considering my offer. "Fine." He finally said, his voice low. I'm fairly sure that it may have been threatening, had he not been a mouse at the moment. I lowered myself to the ground. Not to make it easier for him you see, but so that he wouldn't have to pull my hair to get onto my back. I don't know if you've noticed, but cats are very sensitive to any sort of physical touch, which is why even the slightest tug on their hair, if done in the correct manner, may hurt them.
Shortly after, I felt him scurry up onto my back and settle down a little bit below my shoulderblades. "Are you ready?" I asked. I'm sure that my voice was tense. No, more than sure. I'm positive.
"Yes." That was all the confirmation that I needed, and I was glad that it was, as I am sure that he wouldn't have said anything more if I had asked him to. He was just as upset with the way things had turned out as I was. Atleast I think that he was. I can't be completely sure afterall.
"We're not going out the front. Shigure will have to stop us if he catches us. We're going through the window. If you don't wanna fall off, then you better hold on." If he didn't listen, and he fell off anyway, that would be his problem. It wasn't as if I cared anyway. Well, maybe I did, a little bit. I was letting him come along with me instead of forcing him to find his own way away from Akito.
It wasn't long, before we found our way out onto the roof and down to the ground. Luckily, Yuki had listened to me, and by the time we were speeding through the woods, he had established quite a grip. I was fairly certain that he wouldn't be falling off anytime soon. Where we were going to go for the night however, was the burning question in my mind at that moment. I couldn't think of anyplace nearby. I decided that going directly to Shishou's would be our best bet.
I hadn't counted on having to cross the city to get there. As we came out of the woods near the house, and my feet hit the hard concrete of the sidewalk, the full reality of what we were doing suddenly hit me. We were alone. A cat and a mouse in a city full of people. Cruel, heartless people at that. I'd seen what had happened to strays in this city. I only hoped that we could make it through before anyone noticed us.
"What's wrong?" I heard suddenly. I'd almost forgotten that Yuki was with me. If it hadn't been for that constant tugging on my hair, I could have forgotten completely.
"Nothing. We need to get through the city before morning." Easier said than done. I was already getting a bit drowsy. It had been a long day, plus, I tend to sleep longer in my other form. I guess that it comes naturally to a cat to sleep so much. Steeling myself against the feelings and the fatigue, I began forward again, finding my way to a dark alleyway. I knew that it wasn't the best idea to be in a place like that, but travelling the main roads would have been too much of a hazard. Not that the cities alleys were any safer, but atleast we wouldn't be in danger of being run over or trampled... In fact, at that point, all we had to worry about was....
That was when I first spotted them. Glowing, yellow eyes not too far off. I felt the hair on my back instinctively standing up, as a low growl issued from the eyes' owner, and a few more pairs of eyes appeared around the initial pair. For a moment, all that I was capable of doing, was staring, and silently asking myself what I had done to deserve such a misfortune. That was about two seconds before I decided upon what my best plan of action would be.... I whispered a couple of words to Yuki, and within moments, I was tearing down the streets as fast as my short legs would carry me. That was pretty fast, considering that I was a cat. I guess that I didn't count on the other cats following me...
It's strange. I can't remember any cats disliking me previous to that time. And never has one disliked me since. I guess that it might be because I don't usually carry mice around on my back. That had to be it. In fact, that's probaby why I ran in the first place. Usually the other cats showered me with affection.... In fact, they still do, when I happen to see them.
Anyway, back to the story before I get too off track. We were tearing down the street, the other cats close behind. As embarrassing as it is to say that I was running away, that's exactly what I was doing. Though now that I look back, I think that it may have been better had I stayed and fought may way through... Better for who, I'm not sure. But what happened next, leads me to believe that it would have been.
I had been running for quite a while, and my legs were starting to hurt. I figured that I had finally lost the other cats, because I couldn't hear or sense them behind me anymore. Finally, I managed to slow myself down, and I leapt up onto a low bench off to the side of the sidewalk, almost completely forgetting that I still had Yuki on my back until he issued a small sound of surprise.
"What!?" I snapped back at him, between panting breaths, making it a point to sit down rather roughly.
"Excuse me for wanting to stay alive. You jumped and I wasn't ready for it." He said, his voice as soft as usual, though I could hear the icy undertone that he reserved especially for me. I turned my head to look at him, only to see him waving two tiny handfuls of my hair back at me. Funny. I hadn't felt him pull out any of my hair. Maybe it had been the adrenaline...
"God damn it, k'so nezumi! Can't you be a little bit more careful!?"
"Can't you be a bit quieter? What if someone hears you, baka neko?" He spat back at me, once more narrowing his beady little eyes.
I looked around to make sure that noone was near. Of course they weren't. Who in their right mind would be out walking at what must have been after midnight? Instinctively I ducked, as a solitary car made its way past us, even though its lights never once reached our position. Who would have cared anyway? It wasn't as if a cat and a mouse had a curfew. Beyond worn out, and completely drained of any bit of tolerance that I might have once had, I turned back to Yuki, only to see him shaking my pulled out hair back onto me. For some reason, beyond my comprehension now, that did it.
"What in the hell do you think. You're. Doing?" I ground out through clenched teeth, my body tensing with rage.
"Baka neko. It isn't as if I'm getting hair all over your clothes."
'No, just hoping to give you a massive hairball.' Was the hidden message in that statement. I felt a growl starting low in my throat, and before I could control it, it had escaped. "Damn you. This is IT! I've taken you far GODDAMNED enough!" I stood up, shaking my body until I felt the almost non existent weight of Yuki dissappear. I turned around, guessing that he must have landed behind me, as I couldn't see him on either side of myself. Spotting him, exactly where I guessed he had landed, I opened my mouth to give him a piece of my mind. "WHO do you think you are!? No! WHAT do you think you are!? Some kind of prince!? Oh wait! Of course you do! You think that just because you're popular, just because all the girls like you, just because you have the best grades, that you can walk all over everyone!? Well I have news for you, you stupid little piece of crap! I-" I bit off my words, realizing that I wasn't getting a response out of him.
Upon further inspection, I noticed that not only was he being quieter than usual, but he was shaking, his tiny form curled into a ball. "What's wrong, k'so nezumi!? Can't handle the truth!?" I snapped as an afterthought, trying to get him to do something other than just sit there shaking. When he didn't say anything for a few moments, I decided that something really must have been wrong. Sticking one of my paws out, I gently nudged him.
"D-don't..." Was the shaky response that I received. Now I may have been a cold hearted bastard when it came to Yuki, but I wasn't so cold that I wasn't worried about him when he didn't fight back.
"What?" Hey, what can I say? I was trying to ask him if he was alright. I wasn't that good with words... It must have been enough though, because slowly, with a soft moan of what sounded like pain, yuki moved a bit to show me what excatly was wrong with him.
"I...I think that you just...broke my leg, baka neko..." He said. That was when I realized that his voice wasn't shaky because he was scared. It was because he was crying.
"I couldn't have." I hissed, moving so that I had a better view of the injured limb. How could I possibly have hurt him by shaking him off when we threw each other around every single day and he never came out with more than a mere scratch or two? But then, I didn't usually throw him around while he was in that form... Come to think of it, usually he was the one doing all of the throwing around...
"I...I think you did..." He said, his voice strained and barely above a whisper. Moving a bit closer, so that I could see through the dim light, I noticed that indeed, something about him did seem off... Maybe it was the way that one of his hind legs was bent at a completely odd angle. "I...I got caught when you shook me off...Caught on your hair..." Maybe it was my hair's way of getting revenge. Who knows, but suddenly, I felt horrible. Far be it from me to say why I felt horrible for finally having beaten Yuki. Maybe it was because I knew that it wasn't fair. That had to be it.
"I..." Suddenly, I found that I didn't know what to say.
"Don't talk!" He yelled, curling back up. "Just get someone or something!" I realized that he was crying again, and trying to hide it by not looking at me.
I'd like to know who he thought it was that I was supposed to get, yet even now, I think that he was just in some sort of shock and speaking nonsense.
I stood up, fully prepared to go get someone, until I remembered what we'd had to do to get to where we were at that point. "Yuki..." The name felt strange rolling off of my tongue in the tone of voice that I was using. "I can't leave you here, because the cats that we ran from might follow our scent. And I don't know who I would get anyway. Hatori? Do you know how far away that is? And I can't exactly use a phone like this!" I stopped talking, realizing that I was losing my temper again. "You're going to have to go." I said after a few more seconds of staring at him. How I was going to carry him was definitely going to be a problem though. I couldn't exactly see him hanging onto me after what had happened...
Not that he would have felt any pain though. As when I came out of my thoughts, I noticed that he had passed out. I almost panicked, thinking that I had killed him before I noted the tiny rise and fall of his chest. Who knew that "prince" Yuki would have such a low tolerance for pain? For some reason, the knowledge didn't make me feel any better as I scooped him gently up into my mouth, fighting the natural feline instinct to bite down. Carrying him back to Shigure's house, which is where I assumed would be the best place to go, would atleast be easier that way.
Or, should I say, it would have been, had I been a little bit more alert. Because, had I been a bit more alert or my cat senses more in touch with my surroundings, I would have noticed the figure walking slowly up behind me. I would have noticed the net, before it fell down around me, trapping Yuki and I within it's inescapable mesh.
************* TBC....
Disclaimer: I wish...
Warnings: No real warnings for this chapter...the beginnings of Shounen-ai I guess...some Kyo-mouth ^_^
Chapter Rating: PG-13
********** 7 Days
By: Genki Ichigo
**********
Saying goodbye to Tohru that night, was, and still remains one of the most difficult experiences of my life. At first, it seems like such a small thing, but, we had come to rely on each other so much, that even being apart for a few days was hard. Somehow, though, I managed to do it, and made my way back up to my room to get Yuki. Of course he was still there, waiting for me. I could almost feel the heaviness of his heart as soon as I entered the room.
"You ready?" I asked, wanting to keep our conversation to a minimum, so that we didn't find something to argue about. At that point in time, that would have been the last thing that I would have needed.
"I think so." He said softly. I could barely hear him, the only reason that I heard him at all half of the time anyway was because I had cat's ears. To say that what I said next had a begrudged tone to it, would be an understatement.
"Then...It might be best if I carried you." I spat out quickly, not happy in the least, but fully realizing that he would have to be carried if he were even to have a chance of keeping up with me.
"What are you talking about?" He asked, his voice conveying a level of shock that I didn't know was humanly possible. Or rodently possible...if you can call 'rodently' a word... Even if you could, it probably has a different meaning anyway....
"Listen, k'so nezumi, I don't like this. I don't like it at all. But if you're going to keep up with me, you're going to have to do this. I'm not gonna wait for you, so either get on or stay here and see what Akito has to offer you." I could feel myself glaring at him. I could already see that this wasn't going to be easy at all.
It seemed for a moment, as if he were considering my offer. "Fine." He finally said, his voice low. I'm fairly sure that it may have been threatening, had he not been a mouse at the moment. I lowered myself to the ground. Not to make it easier for him you see, but so that he wouldn't have to pull my hair to get onto my back. I don't know if you've noticed, but cats are very sensitive to any sort of physical touch, which is why even the slightest tug on their hair, if done in the correct manner, may hurt them.
Shortly after, I felt him scurry up onto my back and settle down a little bit below my shoulderblades. "Are you ready?" I asked. I'm sure that my voice was tense. No, more than sure. I'm positive.
"Yes." That was all the confirmation that I needed, and I was glad that it was, as I am sure that he wouldn't have said anything more if I had asked him to. He was just as upset with the way things had turned out as I was. Atleast I think that he was. I can't be completely sure afterall.
"We're not going out the front. Shigure will have to stop us if he catches us. We're going through the window. If you don't wanna fall off, then you better hold on." If he didn't listen, and he fell off anyway, that would be his problem. It wasn't as if I cared anyway. Well, maybe I did, a little bit. I was letting him come along with me instead of forcing him to find his own way away from Akito.
It wasn't long, before we found our way out onto the roof and down to the ground. Luckily, Yuki had listened to me, and by the time we were speeding through the woods, he had established quite a grip. I was fairly certain that he wouldn't be falling off anytime soon. Where we were going to go for the night however, was the burning question in my mind at that moment. I couldn't think of anyplace nearby. I decided that going directly to Shishou's would be our best bet.
I hadn't counted on having to cross the city to get there. As we came out of the woods near the house, and my feet hit the hard concrete of the sidewalk, the full reality of what we were doing suddenly hit me. We were alone. A cat and a mouse in a city full of people. Cruel, heartless people at that. I'd seen what had happened to strays in this city. I only hoped that we could make it through before anyone noticed us.
"What's wrong?" I heard suddenly. I'd almost forgotten that Yuki was with me. If it hadn't been for that constant tugging on my hair, I could have forgotten completely.
"Nothing. We need to get through the city before morning." Easier said than done. I was already getting a bit drowsy. It had been a long day, plus, I tend to sleep longer in my other form. I guess that it comes naturally to a cat to sleep so much. Steeling myself against the feelings and the fatigue, I began forward again, finding my way to a dark alleyway. I knew that it wasn't the best idea to be in a place like that, but travelling the main roads would have been too much of a hazard. Not that the cities alleys were any safer, but atleast we wouldn't be in danger of being run over or trampled... In fact, at that point, all we had to worry about was....
That was when I first spotted them. Glowing, yellow eyes not too far off. I felt the hair on my back instinctively standing up, as a low growl issued from the eyes' owner, and a few more pairs of eyes appeared around the initial pair. For a moment, all that I was capable of doing, was staring, and silently asking myself what I had done to deserve such a misfortune. That was about two seconds before I decided upon what my best plan of action would be.... I whispered a couple of words to Yuki, and within moments, I was tearing down the streets as fast as my short legs would carry me. That was pretty fast, considering that I was a cat. I guess that I didn't count on the other cats following me...
It's strange. I can't remember any cats disliking me previous to that time. And never has one disliked me since. I guess that it might be because I don't usually carry mice around on my back. That had to be it. In fact, that's probaby why I ran in the first place. Usually the other cats showered me with affection.... In fact, they still do, when I happen to see them.
Anyway, back to the story before I get too off track. We were tearing down the street, the other cats close behind. As embarrassing as it is to say that I was running away, that's exactly what I was doing. Though now that I look back, I think that it may have been better had I stayed and fought may way through... Better for who, I'm not sure. But what happened next, leads me to believe that it would have been.
I had been running for quite a while, and my legs were starting to hurt. I figured that I had finally lost the other cats, because I couldn't hear or sense them behind me anymore. Finally, I managed to slow myself down, and I leapt up onto a low bench off to the side of the sidewalk, almost completely forgetting that I still had Yuki on my back until he issued a small sound of surprise.
"What!?" I snapped back at him, between panting breaths, making it a point to sit down rather roughly.
"Excuse me for wanting to stay alive. You jumped and I wasn't ready for it." He said, his voice as soft as usual, though I could hear the icy undertone that he reserved especially for me. I turned my head to look at him, only to see him waving two tiny handfuls of my hair back at me. Funny. I hadn't felt him pull out any of my hair. Maybe it had been the adrenaline...
"God damn it, k'so nezumi! Can't you be a little bit more careful!?"
"Can't you be a bit quieter? What if someone hears you, baka neko?" He spat back at me, once more narrowing his beady little eyes.
I looked around to make sure that noone was near. Of course they weren't. Who in their right mind would be out walking at what must have been after midnight? Instinctively I ducked, as a solitary car made its way past us, even though its lights never once reached our position. Who would have cared anyway? It wasn't as if a cat and a mouse had a curfew. Beyond worn out, and completely drained of any bit of tolerance that I might have once had, I turned back to Yuki, only to see him shaking my pulled out hair back onto me. For some reason, beyond my comprehension now, that did it.
"What in the hell do you think. You're. Doing?" I ground out through clenched teeth, my body tensing with rage.
"Baka neko. It isn't as if I'm getting hair all over your clothes."
'No, just hoping to give you a massive hairball.' Was the hidden message in that statement. I felt a growl starting low in my throat, and before I could control it, it had escaped. "Damn you. This is IT! I've taken you far GODDAMNED enough!" I stood up, shaking my body until I felt the almost non existent weight of Yuki dissappear. I turned around, guessing that he must have landed behind me, as I couldn't see him on either side of myself. Spotting him, exactly where I guessed he had landed, I opened my mouth to give him a piece of my mind. "WHO do you think you are!? No! WHAT do you think you are!? Some kind of prince!? Oh wait! Of course you do! You think that just because you're popular, just because all the girls like you, just because you have the best grades, that you can walk all over everyone!? Well I have news for you, you stupid little piece of crap! I-" I bit off my words, realizing that I wasn't getting a response out of him.
Upon further inspection, I noticed that not only was he being quieter than usual, but he was shaking, his tiny form curled into a ball. "What's wrong, k'so nezumi!? Can't handle the truth!?" I snapped as an afterthought, trying to get him to do something other than just sit there shaking. When he didn't say anything for a few moments, I decided that something really must have been wrong. Sticking one of my paws out, I gently nudged him.
"D-don't..." Was the shaky response that I received. Now I may have been a cold hearted bastard when it came to Yuki, but I wasn't so cold that I wasn't worried about him when he didn't fight back.
"What?" Hey, what can I say? I was trying to ask him if he was alright. I wasn't that good with words... It must have been enough though, because slowly, with a soft moan of what sounded like pain, yuki moved a bit to show me what excatly was wrong with him.
"I...I think that you just...broke my leg, baka neko..." He said. That was when I realized that his voice wasn't shaky because he was scared. It was because he was crying.
"I couldn't have." I hissed, moving so that I had a better view of the injured limb. How could I possibly have hurt him by shaking him off when we threw each other around every single day and he never came out with more than a mere scratch or two? But then, I didn't usually throw him around while he was in that form... Come to think of it, usually he was the one doing all of the throwing around...
"I...I think you did..." He said, his voice strained and barely above a whisper. Moving a bit closer, so that I could see through the dim light, I noticed that indeed, something about him did seem off... Maybe it was the way that one of his hind legs was bent at a completely odd angle. "I...I got caught when you shook me off...Caught on your hair..." Maybe it was my hair's way of getting revenge. Who knows, but suddenly, I felt horrible. Far be it from me to say why I felt horrible for finally having beaten Yuki. Maybe it was because I knew that it wasn't fair. That had to be it.
"I..." Suddenly, I found that I didn't know what to say.
"Don't talk!" He yelled, curling back up. "Just get someone or something!" I realized that he was crying again, and trying to hide it by not looking at me.
I'd like to know who he thought it was that I was supposed to get, yet even now, I think that he was just in some sort of shock and speaking nonsense.
I stood up, fully prepared to go get someone, until I remembered what we'd had to do to get to where we were at that point. "Yuki..." The name felt strange rolling off of my tongue in the tone of voice that I was using. "I can't leave you here, because the cats that we ran from might follow our scent. And I don't know who I would get anyway. Hatori? Do you know how far away that is? And I can't exactly use a phone like this!" I stopped talking, realizing that I was losing my temper again. "You're going to have to go." I said after a few more seconds of staring at him. How I was going to carry him was definitely going to be a problem though. I couldn't exactly see him hanging onto me after what had happened...
Not that he would have felt any pain though. As when I came out of my thoughts, I noticed that he had passed out. I almost panicked, thinking that I had killed him before I noted the tiny rise and fall of his chest. Who knew that "prince" Yuki would have such a low tolerance for pain? For some reason, the knowledge didn't make me feel any better as I scooped him gently up into my mouth, fighting the natural feline instinct to bite down. Carrying him back to Shigure's house, which is where I assumed would be the best place to go, would atleast be easier that way.
Or, should I say, it would have been, had I been a little bit more alert. Because, had I been a bit more alert or my cat senses more in touch with my surroundings, I would have noticed the figure walking slowly up behind me. I would have noticed the net, before it fell down around me, trapping Yuki and I within it's inescapable mesh.
************* TBC....