Author's Note: Dear everybody who has written to me to update and has supported my story….thank you all so so so so so so much! I have finally updated after seeing that 52 people have favourited Unexpected. I have, for the past three years, been experiencing a major author's block. The plot has been running around my head for a while but after three years, hey, there's gotta be some changes. So I hope you all will enjoy this story and give lots of positive feedback. Thank you.

Obsession

It's something so painful

I want to rip out of my soul forever

Not able to have what I want

When I want it

Drives me insane

Your eyes

I long to look at

Your mouth

I long to drink from

Your hands

I long to chain to mine

Obsession is a frightful thing is it not?

It makes me captive

And in turn it makes me want to

Capture you

CHAPTER TEN
Kyou could not fall asleep tonight. His blanket was warm and his bed was filled with luxurious goose feather but he could not sleep.

To be precise, he would not sleep tonight.

A face was haunting his every thoughts. A face framed with long hair and accompanied by a sweet, caressing voice. He kept thinking about the mysterious stranger he had met weeks ago back at the castle. The encounter had brought out a different person in him. He became attentive to things he never took notice of. The other day, he had stopped to ward off the captain's mean dog from attacking a little kitten. He would unconsciously help take an extra plate of food from a maid carrying to heavy a load. In turn, the maids were horrified that a prince was helping them do servant's work.

The others were starting to notice something was amiss in him. Shigure would wave his hands in front of his eyes when Kyou lapsed into his frequent blanking out modes. Kagura would hit him and he wouldn't even flinch. Even Hanajima had been asking about what was making his brain waves off balanced.

Her hair….Her voice….Her shoulders which were so soft and sweet under his arm. The warmth she gave him that night was impossible to forget. Without knowing who she was, he was already drawn to her so deeply against his will it was impossible to ignore the aching in his body. He wanted her!

With this realization he sat up in furious passion and shaky breathes.

What was he doing? He questioned himself over and over again. It was not like him. He knew how much to give in to his desires without losing control.

He fell back into bed and pressed a cold hand against his beautiful face. Surely tonight the minutes would drag on like hours.

"Your highness!" A court jester with his head bowed addressed King Issaru. "May we humbly present you a show of little talent that we hope you will enjoy?"

The jester speaking was named Kintaro, who was the leader of the king's personal performing company, was just speaking out of the humility as a servant would address his master. Kintaro knew his performing company was one of the best in the country.

In an extravagant stage room, with his three lovely daughter sitting beside him and the guests shingure, Hanajima, Kagura and Kyou sitting behind him, King Issaru was in a excellent mood. His council members and their family were also sitting in the crowd, the room was full and the atmosphere was cherry. King Issaru could enjoy a relaxing day at the theater and show off to his guests how well his performers were.

"You may." King Issaru impatiently waved away the formalities.

The jester hopped away playfully to the center of the stage and cried out in a loud voice.

"Oh Lora! Lora! Let me hear your sweet voice!"

A beautiful temptress clad in black lace swayed on to the stage.

"Who is it that calls my name?" She asked.

"It is I, one of your many admirers!" He hopped closer to her.

"And how will you woo me?" She asked while turning away her face.

"I will praise you using every word that has a meaning for beauty in literature! Oh rose! Oh goddess! Their colour does not match your lips and neither does their radiance match yours! Oh my lady would you surrender to me?"

"Oh words do not change my heart as even children uses words of admiration!"

"Oh would anyone ever tempt this proud one's heart?" Kintaro asked the crowd before him.

"I can!" A young man named Tinith, who was the High Chancellor's son, stood up and headed towards the stage.

"You there dear maiden, have a heart too proud…why waste your good looks and youth when you could give them to me…one who will reward you with jewels?"

"Dear sir…" The temptress gave a coy smile, "All the diamonds in the world would not be enough to buy my love…you'd best keep your jewels."

The young man stalked away in anger off the stage at this rejection.

"Ah…the miss strikes again and wounds another man's heart!" The jester laments with a hand over his heart.

Many had the confidence in their looks and their wealth…but were all turned down.

"Is there no one fit enough to be with me?" The temptress asked naughtily.

Just then, Kyou stood up. With his tall, slim frame and the intensity burning in his wide set eyes…the temptress( and several other ladies in the audience) couldn't help but feel something fluttering in their stomachs.

He sauntered on the stage lazily with his long finger resting casually on his hips. He stopped right in front of the temptress and stared for a long moment, which caused her to feel threatened in spite of herself.

"What does this handsome sir wish to say?" She asked coyly, gathering her confidence back.

He traced his slender fingers over his lips and glanced at her face in curious speculation. Finally his lips slid up sideways into a crooked grin.

"You're face is one many would agree is beautiful…but I have had the pleasure of encountering a far more enthralling creature."

The temptress's face turned stark red at his comment.

"On the question of your beauty…" He said slowly while circling her, like a vulture stalking its prey. "It is unmistakable in the least."

"You are so hesitant to give yourself up, but look here…" His face turned in to one of concern, then leaned in and brushed the spot above her cheek. She shivered at his touch.

"You've been bitten by a flea." He smirked and then pointed to his neck, "As have I."

"Now we have bloods mixed together…the flea has accomplished what I and the many men before me have set out to do with out a single moment of wooing you."

The temptress blushed and cast her eyes down. Kyou at this moment leaped close to her to reach out a hand to stroke her neck. His hands grasped her face and whispered.

"Why must you deny me what a flea has already taken away from you?" To this the temptress no longer became a temptress, but instead a young girl melted in the submission of desire.

She leaned in to kiss him, but just at the last moment…Kyou drew away.

"Although you are a beauty…I did say I have met better…" He winked at her before returning to his seat. Kagura and the princess all stared at him with their eyes and mouths opened.

After this performance, word spread like wild fire of the prince's wild charms. Court ladies secretly gossiped over wanting to be in his favor and the extents to which they would be willing to go to. But no matter what anyone did, Prince Kyou was immune to anyone's attempts to win his affections.

No one knew why Kyou kept his heart so distant, except you, who is reading this story right now. You are probably thinking about a girl who's name begins with T and ends with u. Indeed Tohru is the one who already has Kyou head over heels in love with her. But unfortunately now, Tohru has no clue of that. She is still in the company of Princess Emiko.

Tohru's job upon coming on the ship was to style Emiko's hair and pick out her outfits. It was not a tiring job and her master treated her very kindly. On the outside Tohru looked very carefree but she kept a secret very close to her heart. It was the secret of meeting Prince Kyou and falling in love with him. She was not by nature a person with many wants, but lately she has been trying her best to suppress some urges.

For example, a few days ago as she had retrieved a special cloak from Princess Emiko's sister she did something she has never done before.

"Oh I feel so lucky! I got to clean Prince Kyou's bed chamber yesterday!" A girl said.

"Oooooh!" Her friend squealed in excitement, "was he there?"

"No..." The first girl whined, "But I did get to touch his teacup!"

"His lips have touched it!!" Her friend clapsed together.

For some reason, when this maid, one who Tohru doesn't even recognize said this Tohru dropped the cloak and rushed up to the girl.

"Could you please tell me where his bed chamber is?" Tohru cried with shining eyes and a flushed face.

After she had calmed down (which was after she found out where he lived), she thought herself silly for being so emotional and wondered why she wanted the information when she was hardly ever going to see him again.

Then, an even more shocking thing happened. Last night she suddenly bolted out of bed, dressed quickly and headed towards Prince Kyou's bedroom!!!

She didn't even have time to think about what she was doing before her feet were carrying her towards his direction.

What are you doing? She wondered in a daze…Where am I going? Why am I going there? She found her thinking had become very numb and slow. All she could concentrate on was this aching in her body that was urging her to run faster.

"Ah!!" She cried as she tripped over a step.

"Are you alright?" A servant who was lighting the nightly candles asked her in concern. Tohru climbed up with heaving breaths and forced out.

"Yes."

Then she limped slowly back towards the way she had came from. She had snapped back to reality and her senses have gained control over her emotions. She realized what she was doing and headed back. But as she was hobbling back, her eyes became more and more misty.

"Why?" She asked out loud. Then she touched her fingers to her eyes and realized with a start she was crying. With a shock of realization, she sank on her knees, huddled together, and wept.

Back in his room, Kyou suddenly woke from a dream.

In the dream, a girl was calling out his name. Now awake, Kyou strained his ears, to his surprise…he heard someone sobbing.

He rose partly from curiousity and partly because he had been having trouble falling back asleep lately. His thoughts were his biggest barriar to a peaceful sleep these days. So while his thinking kept him from sleep, his infatuation kept him from what he had guessed as sanity. So he slipped on his shoes and slipped quietly out the door. It was around midnight and Kyou could see by the waning crescent that it was almost time for a new moon.

Before he could take two steps away from his room he stumbled over something.

Kyou grimaced at the pain that climbed up from his hands to his arms. Brushing the hair sprayed across his eyes he noticed a lying figure beneath him. He turned over a face that was covered with a mass of auburn hair and saw a sweet little face with doe like eyes glancing up at him. Her breathing was quick and soft, and Kyou had the strangest feeling that he was holding a white dove in his hands. He lifted her up to her feet and was about to brush the hair out of her eyes when he realized how frightened she seemed.

Tohru tried her best to smooth the wrinkles out of her apron. She had thought she was heading in the direaction of her bedchamber, but in her emotional state she must have turned the wrong way! Somewhere in the back of her mind she remembered how she decided not to see Prince Kyou because the relationship would never work out, how she owned her loyalties to Princess Emiko, who had been so kind to her. Now these thoughts were overridden with the enormous amounts of emotions she was feeling. She wanted to hold his hands to her face again, to feel the warmth of his skin against hers. She wanted to tell him that it was her he had met at the ball and how she had never forgotten him. These wants churned so deeply within her she felt her knees weaken. Her hands quivered as she forced herself to speak.

"Good evening Prince Kyou. I'm very sorry I caused you to fall down." She was so embarassed with her feelings for such a high-status person she felt herself very awkward.

Kyou stared at her flushed cheeks and wet eyes. Tohru's face was bowed so low because she was afraid if she looked up he could read all the things she was thinking about him.

Then something happened that Tohru didn't expect, Kyou bent his face to peer into hers! Tohru was so surprised she jumped backwards and covered her eyes. Kyou laughed at this.

"You're rather timid aren't you?" He asked kindly. Tohru didn't trust her own voice to speak so she nodded, which Kyou responded by laughing.

"Wah!" Tohru covered her face again, she felt so embarassed that he was laughing at her that she didn't know what to do. This made Kyou laugh even harder. When Tohru's face was red as an apple, Kyou made a very hard effort to control his chuckles.

"I'm sorry." He said breathlessly with a hand covered over his mouth, "I shouldn't have laughed at you."

He took a step closer and said, "Uncover your face."

Tohru slwoly withdrew her hands and to her surprise saw a tender smile trace Kyou's lips.

"Wait..." Kyou suddenly remembered, "you're that girl who made my sea-sick medicine."

"Yes." She nodded and gave a smile, happy that he remembered her.

"They worked very well."

"I'm glad. I will make some more if you wish it."

"Not now. But maybe when I need it I will send for you...wait..I have a question for you. Do you have some medicine for curing insomnia?"

"...no."

"That's too bad." Kyou frowned and massaged his temples. He really wished for sleep.

"What's keeping you from sleep?"Tohru asked hesitantly. Kyou didn't reply. Tohru quickly apologized.

"I'm sorry..I shouldn't pry."

"It's alright..." Kyou walked towards a bench and beckoned for her to sit down. "I just don't want to bore you." He said as she sat next to him.

"No..not at all!" Tohru protested frantically.

Kyou laughed at her worried expression. "Alright...I'll tell you. I am thinking about someone so much I can't sleep at night."

Tohru felt her heart leap to her throat.

"My thoughts are haunted by a one night meeting with an angel." He whispered with a lonely smile.

Tears flooded to Tohru's eyes. She tried her best to keep her joy in her heart and said.

"Tell me about her."

END CHAPTER TEN.