Next chapter!! Finally ... Thank you for all you reviewers and to everyone who put me on their Favorite Writer, Favorite Stories and Alert lists! I would list all of you but its midnight so I think I'd better go and sleep

Disclaimer: I do not own Samurai Deeper Kyo.

Chapter 7

Change

When Kyo entered the kitchen on Thursday morning, he found his father there, gazing out of one of the high windows. There was anything strange about that. Muramasa was an early riser and rarely had breakfast after the rest of the house's occupants. What he had to say today, however, was slightly out of the ordinary.

"You've received a message by now, haven't you, Kyo?" he asked Kyo after some time, still with his back to the room.

"You'll have to speak more clearly than that if you want me to understand you."

Muramasa turned around and watched his son with an amused smile.

"Come on, Kyo, you know exactly what I'm talking about," he said.

The boy shrugged and opened the fridge.

"Yeah, I have." he finally said while pulling out a bottle of milk. "From Shinrei."

"Shinrei?" Muramasa asked pleasantly. "Tell me, how is he these days?"

"Retarded." his son said and closed the fridge, perhaps with a trifle too much force than normally required to close normal fridges.

"Ah … well, some things never change … " Kyo's father remarked and sighing, he went to sit at the kitchen table. "But what has he done?"

"What should he have done?" Kyo demanded, sitting down across from him, holding a bowl of cereals.

"Kyo," Muramasa said, now positively laughing at his son's attitude, "you have always been bad at concealing your emotions - from me." he added after a look at Kyo's face. "So tell me, what did he say?"

Kyo shrugged again, annoyed by the little knowing smile his father wore and chose not to answer. Unabashed, the 'old man' watched him until he finally accepted defeat.

"Hey, you."

Kyo's head turned slowly, very slowly, while he wondered which student of Mibu High School could have the affront of addressing him so carelessly. His face darkened as soon as he saw who was leaning against the car parked next to his.

"What do you want, Shinrei?" he snarled.

"There's a few things we need to clarify." Shinrei answered seriously.

Kyo raised his eyebrows in scorn and casually went to position himself next to his own car so that they faced each other. He glanced around. The school parking lot was deserted. Perfect.

"That Shiina-girl." his opponent began and Kyo's eyebrows descended. "I hope for your sake and hers that she will never find out anything. We are prepared to tolerate the situation as long as she ignores the implications of her brothers death. Should she come to know anything, we cannot guarantee - "

"You sound like you've swallowed the rule book or something." Kyo interrupted dismissively. "Tolerate the situation? Never knew Corp to be so lenient, either. Looks like old Aka's lost his grip somewhat to me."

Shinrei's cheeks flushed with anger at Kyo's blatant disrespect.

"Fool." he hissed, "Do you want her to die?"

Kyo smiled evilly, his eyes and hair glistening scarlet in the sun.

"I don't think there's any danger of her dying in the near future." he countered. "Anyways, don't you think she might have recognizedus by now?"

"We cannot help that." Shinrei promptly answered. "Should she have, then there is no real harm either. We used to go to the same school, so what? She can make nothing out of that lest you should tell her. So you guys'd better keep your mouth shut."

"Hmm, Shinrei does not seem to be aware of how resourceful Yuya-san can be." Muramasa remarked after Kyo had finished recounting the incident. At this, Kyo only snorted although he wasn't quite sure who (Shinrei or Yuya?) he was intending to mock by that. He settled for both.

"So that's all he said?" his father asked and distracted him from the question.

"Yes."

Muramasa raised one quizzical eyebrow.

"Everything?"

"Everything." Kyo answered, wondering what his father was on to.

He put his head to the side still looking at Kyo, thus bearing a slight resemblance to his birds, those that spent their time ogling at Kyo every time he went out to train.

"So that's all he did?" he asked. Again.

"What do you want old man?" Kyo snarled.

He eyed his father suspiciously – it was not the first time that he got the feeling Muramasa was omniscient.

"Aah, I know you so well, Kyo. " the latter sighed but dropped the subject. "Well, I got a message too, a phone call - " his tone had grown serious again and Kyo let his irritation flow away to listen. "Although from a significantly higher level - the Aka No Ou."

Kyo raised his brows. He wasn't and had never been - even back in the days when his family had still belonged to the Mibu Corporation - one the Aka No Ou's admirers. Shinrei, however, followed the boss' word to the letter – like a lapdog, Kyo liked to think.

The Mibu Corporation was by no means some obscure organisation working in the background, making shady deals. No, everyone knew that its headquarters sat right in the middle of Tokyo's political district and that it was one of Japan's most powerful firms. What less people knew was that it owned almost half the country's industries. What even less knew was that if it wanted to, it was mighty enough to overthrow the government although it had, up to now, contented itself with manipulating it from the sidelines.

And then there was what no one except its most important members knew: it harboured some of the strongest, most ruthless killers in the world – and did not refrain from making use of them.

Kyo and Kyoshiro had been born into Mibu Corp and had sucked in the art of killing together with their mother's milk. Their training was cruel but thorough: after eight years of existence, they could end someone else's with one blinding slash of the blade.

"What did that bastard have to say?" Kyo asked.

"Oh, pretty much the same." Muramasa said. "Only that he thought Yuya-san might know something."

"Know something?"

"Know something about the Corporation. You know why Nozumu-san was killed, don't you?"

Kyo gave a short, almost exasperated nod – of course he knew! - and waited for his father to elaborate.

"Well, they think he might have transmitted information to Yuya-san before the Corporation got to him." Muramasa concluded.

Kyo felt the anger filling his chest like hot lead and his voice had a steely edge to it when he spoke.

"And what are they planning to do?" he asked and noticed yet another new feeling – fear, icy, creeping into his mind through a gap that had never been there before – or perhaps he had just never noticed it ?

"Nothing for the moment" Muramasa said calmly. "As it seems, the idea has been dismissed after a report Shinrei filed about Yuya-san."

Muramasa watched the tension slowly drain out of his son and although Kyo regained his stoic appearance quite professionally, they both knew there had been cracks in the armour.

Both father and son sat silently until the latter got up to leave the kitchen a few moments later.

"Take care of Yuya-san" his father sent after him.

As if he wouldn't.

Something loud came trampling into Kyo's room; it was most probably blonde and dog-faced too. He stepped out of the bathroom annexed to his room and almost instantly, there was a sharp intake of breath from the door, confirming his previous assumption.

Yuya had come to – to what, exactly? Her mind felt suddenly quite empty. To be exact, it had begun feeling that way when she Kyo had come out of his bathroom. A black towel loosely draped around his hips exposed his tanned torso; she couldn't help focusing on the way his muscles profiled under his skin. The towel hung so low she could see the tip of his hip bones.

Entranced, she did not notice how he had settled to leaning in the doorway, watching her, his usual cocky grin on his face.

"You likin' what you see, Dogface?"

The red shot to her cheeks an she quickly averted her eyes. His smirk grew wider still. Slowly he drew nearer until they were less than half a meter apart. She held her breath as his head tilted downward -

"Drool." Kyo said and pointed at the carpet at Yuya's feet.

"What?" she asked, confused.

He rolled his eyes.

"Drool, Dogface. You were drooling."

"Was not!"

"Perhaps I should get dressed so as to save my carpet?" he asked, his voice full of malice.

"I was not drooling!"

Kyo only pointed at the floor again – there was one, small dark stain there. Next to an open sake bottle.

"Grrrrrrrrrr, Kyo, you're such an asshole, could you just for once stop making fun of me?" Yuya bellowed as he went to open a drawer and pulled out a pair of boxer shorts – black of course. "For once in your goddamn life, could you just be nice? Perhaps it's you who has a problem," she pursued shrewdly when he didn't respond. " Perhaps you feel bad about yourself and that's why you have to be awful to others to vent out your frustration!"

"Aaah ... how dazzlingly acute of you - there's only one problem with your little theory, " Kyo said, contained laughter almost ruining his sarcastic tone. "I'm perfect."

Yuya only huffed at this and threw herself onto his bed as she always did when she came into his room.

Kyo let the towel slip down from his hips onto the floor and saw how Yuya quickly hid her face, which had grown bright pink, in the blankets. Chuckling, he put on his boxers, sat at his desk and turned on the computer.

"I've got a maths test in a few days." Yuya said after some time, remembering what she had come for. "Could you help me?"

He grunted and she took that as a yes. When she came back from her room with her course book she gingerly pulled a stool next to his and sat. Immediately, his scent filled her nostrils, musky, manly; the same one that lingered on his bed and clothes. She loved it. His attention was still on his computer screen and unconsciously, her body curved nearer to his. When he finally turned, she hastily jerked back, feeling slightly inebriated.

"Why can't Kyoshiro do this?" Kyo asked ungraciously.

"Because he's at Sakuya's house." Yuya replied. "Besides, he's hardly got more clue than I do."

"Hn. That wouldn't be to difficult, though." Kyo said, rubbing his forehead and taking a swig of sake.

"Ha ha ha. That wasn't funny."

"You want me to help you or not?"

"I ... want you to help me. " the girl conceded grudgingly.

"Then shut up, activate that lonely brain cell you've got and listen."

Okuni's fingers ran through his hair, down his back, underneath his shirt, came to rest on his chest ... Abruptly, he turned away and stopped her kisses. Her hands left him; she drew back and looked up at him questioningly.

"I'm going." he said, got off the couch and went for the door.

"Going?" Okuni asked and stood up too. "Aren't you gonna stay the night?"

But he left the room without answering her question and Okuni stayed were she was, listening to the sound of his footsteps crossing the hall, shocked because what she had thought would never happen to her was doing so right now. Then, slowly, she went to stand in the doorway of the living room Kyo had just left. It opened onto the small hall of her apartment so that she could see him, his back to her and his hand on the door handle.

"It's because of Yuya, right?" she asked quietly.

Composed, she waited for his reaction and any onlooker to the scene would have wondered how any man could choose to leave when a woman like Okuni so obviously wanted him to stay. Even now, her mouth curved wistfully, she seemed the height of perfection, standing there in a long white nightgown draped loosely around her body. She seemed the very symbol of the geisha whose every smile, pose and bat of eyelashes was aimed at seduction.

Kyo, however, was hardly any man. He had grown weary of her like of any other woman. Simple enough. He surely hadn't loved her. And yet, when Okuni pronounced that particular girl's name, he halted and mentally cursed himself for doing so. Disguising his reaction from her would be impossible.

"Dogface? What about her?" he demanded at length, when he was sure his voice would carry enough indifference.

But Okuni was not to be fooled. She had learned to read is every movement, during all those years she had adored him, as she still did.

"You like her, don't you? I know you, Kyo, there's no need to deny it."

Kyo scowled.

"Leave me alone, Okuni. You bore me."

If he had hurt her with this, she didn't show it, but he surely had because, he knew, she loved him beyond reason. He still could not fathom how love could make you truly happy, when at the same time it made you so vulnerable, when with a few words, the other could tear you to pieces and leave you miserable and broken.

Okuni watched the door close behind him and cursed herself for being foolish enough to think she had been the one. He had left her as easily as any other.

Well, then, Yuya-san ... I hope for you that you are the one ...

Saturday morning. That dream again. It pursued her relentlessly, every night. Yuya turned on the shower to the highest possible temperature and let the water cascade over her sweaty body.

It was almost as if her subconscious wanted to show her, make her realize something. Trouble was, all she remembered when she snapped out of sleep every night was the sight of her brother's mangled body.

And yet there seemed to be something else. Something she was obviously to dumb to spot, Yuya thought angrily. If she only just got there, the dreams might stop.

She stepped out of the shower and dried her now fiery red skin. Still scowling, she slipped on a pale blue yukata, left the bathroom and grabbed her cell phone from her desk.

"Kyo-chan!"

Now who the hell was that? A frown already forming on his forehead, he slowly opened his eyes. A girl was leaning over him, her long blond hair tickling his cheek. She was naked. Suddenly recalling who she was and why she was there, he shot her an irritated look and swiftly left the bed.

"Kyo-kun?" she asked, eyes widened and a pouting.

Kyo ignored her and crossed the room to awaken his computer from sleep mode. He glanced over his shoulder at the girl and his scowl deepened. She hadn't even pulled the covers over her body to hide her nakedness. Not that he would have minded if the person in her place had been - He let the air hiss out through his teeth in annoyance and forbade himself from finishing the thought.

"Woman," he said. "Get dressed and go."

His words seemed to have stunned her for he didn't hear her move. Aggravated, he turned and repeated his sentence. She (he didn't even remember her name) slumped, her eyes filling with tears.

"Hey, Tora – It's Yuya."

"I knew that." came Benitora's stiff answer.

Yuya sighed and sat cross-leggedly on the floor in her room.

"Hey, look, man – please, I just wa - "

"You just wanna what, exactly?" he asked and although his tone was cold, he couldn't keep her from guessing the hurt underneath.

"Talk. I just wanna talk."

"Look, Yuya, I ain't got no time for this, " Tora said and there was the sound of his apartment door snapping shut. "We're busy here, you know, I ain't gonna get no money from doing nothing. But you wouldn't under -"

"Now listen, Benitora!" Yuya bellowed, sprang up and started pacing the room, infuriated. "Can't you just give me a break? I don't like the way you found out about the whole thing either but that's the way it is, okay? I still want you to be my friend though. Hell, yeah, I love money but that doesn't mean imma ditch you for it, I thought you knew that! Even Chaz was real great about it and - "

"Ooh, yeah, Chaaz." Benitora said pointedly.

Over at the Mibu house, Yuya stopped short.

"Oh, yeah, Chaaz - " she mimicked. "Just what is that supposed to mean?"

For a few seconds there was silence, then he said, in what she felt was an unnecessarily accusatory tone,

"Well, I know what happened that one night after the Overdrive ... between ... you and him."

"So what?" the blonde immediately asked although her insides seemed to squirm with embarrassment. "That was ages ago! Don't tell me you're jealous!"

"But I am !" he said earnestly and Yuya rolled her eyes. "I love you, Yuya! We're made for each other!"

"Benitora, stop."

" ... we could build up a life together, we could - "

"Benitora!"

"... I have it all planned out, the wedding, the ... "

"Benitora!"

The girl's voice now carried so much foreboding anyone but Benitora – who jabbered on, lost in his romantic vision – would have wished her a good-day and hung up as quickly as possible. Perhaps if he had been able to see the way her eyes had narrowed to form devilish cat-like slits he would have thought better of it. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't.

"BENITORAA!"

Yuya's scream rang through the house.

"Uh – oh ... I feel sorry for Hidetada ... "

Yukimura chuckled, threw the bottle he was holding into the air, caught it again, took off his shoes, crossed the wide entrance hall and headed into the direction of the yelling. A few weeks ago, he had managed to get hold of a key to the Mibu house (a feat no other would dare accomplish); it did help to have a little ninja like Sasuke in the family.

Yukimura had not got far, however, when he was met by a young girl carrying a purse and hurrying down the corridor.

"Now who do we have here?" Yukimura asked, peering at her curiously. The girl stopped and lifted her head. His eyes moved to take in her wet face, the hastily thrown on clothes ...

"Aah." he said softly.

He put an arm around her twitching shoulders, and steered her back the way he had come. She readily accepted the bottle he handed her.

Kyo had left his room for what he planned to be a short stop in the kitchen and then a very long one in the living room in company of a bottle of sake. That girl had overstretched his nerves with her sobbing and pointless accusations.

'Pervert', 'Jerk', 'Bastard'.

He didn't mind Yuya calling him that, her rants and his insults and occasional groping had slipped into normality during those few days she had spent at the Mibu Residence. Occasionally, it was even amusing. To him, at least.Perhaps you should have thought of that before bringing that girl,his brain lectured him.

After leaving Okuni the day before, he had stopped at a downtown bar. She had been sitting a few seat away from him, casting him covet looks every now and on a mere whim, desirous to prove to himself he had conserved his notoriety, he had brought her home with him.

"You betrayed me! You used me!", she had told him.

Betrayed. Please. His full lips curled disdainfully. Had he promised her anything? How could they all be so incredibly stupid and naive? Of course, he had used her. Women -

"Oh, yeah, Chaaz – Just what is that supposed to mean?"

The door to Yuya's room was ajar and her voice floated through it into the corridor. Kyo stopped to see her standing with her back to him and her cell phone pressed to her ear. He could see her in the mirror facing her, eyebrows raised high, one hand on her hip, waiting for an answer. Her reflection's cheeks flushed crimson and she bit her lip, visibly embarrassed.

"So what?" she was saying now, sounding a lot more confident that she looked. "That was ages ago! Don't tell me you're jealous!"

There was a short pause and her face fell in irritation.

"Benitora, stop."

Benitora! So she was talking to him. He sniggered quietly and carried on. Benitora, the weakling, he thought but a smile slid across his features. She probably had no idea who he was.And you've got no idea who that Chaz guy is, Kyo's snide brain told him.

When Kyo finally entered the living room, he found Kyoshiro there, sitting on the rug in front of the television and doing homework.

"Another word for someone you know, a friend or a ... a " he was muttering, biting on his pen.

"And now our star guest, today, you all certainly know him, Tokyo's 'Bachelor of the Year' and -" the ecstatic and slightly breathless talk show host was shrieking, straightening her top. Kyo grabbed the remote from Kyoshiro's side and the screen went black. He shrugged, casually let himself fall into a sofa and rested his legs on the coffee table.

"Acquaintance."

"Acquaintance?" Kyoshiro frowned, mouthing the sentence he was going to write, then his face lightened up. "Yup, that works!

There was a long stretch of silence while Kyoshiro finished his essay and Kyo glared into space, then he asked,

"Where's the old man?"

"Dad, you mean?" Kyoshiro closed his notebook and rummaged around in his schoolbag. "He's on a business trip for a few days."

"Hn." His brother frowned, then took a swig of sake.

"Kyo! It's early morning and you're drinking ... Tut tut tut... It's time someone blows some sense into you!"

There was moment of dumbstruck silence while the two brothers stared at the person that had just spoken.

"Blows some sense into him?" Kyoshiro finally repeated incredulously. "Blow?"

Yukimura, for he was the new arrival, bounced into the room and went to sit on the second of the three sofas.

"Kyoshiro, your mind seems to work in a curiously sex oriented way, don't you think?" he asked cheerfully.

Kyoshiro scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly, mumbled something that resembled "Blow ... any guy with a working (unintelligible word here) would have thought - " and changed the subject :

"What are you doing here, anyways? How did you get in? I didn't hear you ring."

Yukimura laughed.

"Got a key!" he said, and twirled it teasingly around his finger.

"Idiot" Kyo growled.

"I just had to walk out one of your victims." the raven-haired boy remarked, let the key slip into his pocket and grabbed one of Kyo's bottles, watching him out of the corner of his eyes.

"Excuse me?"

"Aaah, you know who I'm talking about!" Yukimura said cheerfully. "That blonde chick. I drove her to the next bus stop."

Kyoshiro looked up from his math.

"Blonde chick? What blonde chick?" he asked eagerly.

"I have to say, she's not that bad, " Yukimura went on, giggling in this feminine way only he could achieve without seeming gay.

"Out-of-bounds for you, though, Kyoshiro! But really," he continued, turning back to Kyo "She does not compare to our magnificent Yuya-san, don't you think?"

But Kyo stood up and left the room, leaving the question to hang, unanswered, between Kyoshiro and Yukimura. Both smirked.

This had gone thoroughly wrong. Bringing that girl with him had only given him more reasons to accept things had changed. It was no wonder, Kyo thought as he walked walked down the corridor leading to the kitchen, that the girl he had picked had been blonde. And green-eyed. Besides, the night had not even been enjoyable although the girl had been much better endowed than Dogface. He hadn't been able to prevent himself from substituting the girl's face by Yuya's, her body, by the parts of Yuya's he had explored once and those he only imagined, the feel of the girl's skin by Yuya's, which he knew to be so very soft. And even so, he had not been able to enjoy it for it had left him with unextinguishable yearning for the real Yuya.

He reached the kitchen, glanced into it and came to a halt in the doorway. She was there, leaning against a counter, one hand curled around a steaming mug of tea. She had his back to him and was staring out of the high windows. Clad in her morning yukata, her whole posture was smooth and her face, which he saw reflected in the glass, softened by reminiscence. She was beautiful like that. His gaze slid down her spine, to her rear and then to her long, firm, calves. Maybe the change wasn't so bad after all, he thought with a small smirk.

What was on her mind? He thought of the nightmares and the smile slid of his face. She had stopped herself from screaming after the first night but he knew they were still there. She acted tough but he knew that every night she transformed back into that scared little girl, as helpless as she had been four years ago. And he cared more than he would have thought could.

Or was it Benitora she was thinking of? Or ... Chaz? He felt his muscles tense at the name. Expiring slowly, he relaxed and finally entered the kitchen.

At the sound of his steps, Yuya turned, her face still relaxed albeit slightly melancholic, he thought.

"Morning, Kyo." she said, and smiled.

"What were you thinking of?"

Her eyes widened in surprise. Clearly, she wasn't expecting to ask or to even want to that. Kyo himself could not quite remember deciding to ask the question.

"Um ... Just, stuff ... you know, ... " her voice trailed off uncertainly.

Kyo grinned and drew nearer, so that she would have to tilt her head upwards to meet his eyes but her gaze dropped to the floor. He took a strand of honey-colored hair and twisted it around his fingers. She let him and he admired its silkiness as it slid through his fingers.

"Not, by any chance, Chaz?" he asked provocatively and her face finally jerked up to him, astonishment written all over it . Her cheeks were rosy and he grinned because he knew that his touch had caused it.

"How do you know - Hey! You listened to my phone call!"

"That Chaz ... he showed you ... things, right?" Kyo asked, ignoring her yelp and putting a bizarre stress on the word 'things'.

Yuya did not answer, she knew her expression carried too much truth for her to disguise it by words.

"I don't know how far he went ... " the red-haired boy continued musingly, looking down at the hair spilling over his hand, and his voice sounded somewhat deeper than normal.

Yuya kept her silence. Her thoughts seemed to wade through quicksand and hoping to produce anything coherent now seemed simply utopian.

Kyo flashed a wide grin.

"But I'm gonna go much further." he concluded, his face dipped down and his lips made contact with hers. Yuya's startled eyes were opened wide but her eyelids closed as she felt his lips move against hers and they were soft, so very soft ... Kyo pulled her closer, she was pressed against his chest and her arms moved upwards to snake around his neck, willing him to continue, to hold her even closer although the heat he radiated was stifling... They stood there wrapped around each other and their kiss deepened, each immersed in the other, all her thoughts swept away.

When Kyo finally broke away, it felt like an eternity had passed. Slowly, Yuya's eyes fluttered open to see him looking down at her lips, one arm around her waist and the other hand still in her hair. Her mouth stood slightly open and she quickly closed it.

"Could be better but, " Kyo licked his lips. "he did an okay job, I guess."

"What are you talking about?" Yuya asked, who the kiss had left in kind of a light, sweet torpor.

"That guy ... You're not exactly a good kisser but at least he's shown you the basics." Kyo said, smirking in a maddeningly superior way and disentangled himself from their embrace so that the blow she aimed at him merely stirred his red bangs.

Sooo???? How d'you like it? Hope you enjoyed it ... Please review to let me know and so I know what to improve! Yeah, so finally, some more KyoYuya action Was it fine? I wasn't sure about it but some of you wanted more of it (and me too!) so there ... That's why updating took so long too, I wasn't sure if it wasn't a bit too soon in the story or... well, I dunno... And yeah, I know, the drool-thing is typical but I had writer's block! I'm not really happy with that part.. Oh well, let me know what you think!