Sumimasen! Times a million! I said I was gonna get better about this! T.T You wonderful readers deserve quicker updates. I'm so sorry. I just finished my first paper, and I'm not tired yet, so I thought I'd post this chapter before I went to bed. First, a couple quick replies.
(a.k.a. LuvKillz): xD I love how Yuki says that line. It's just like, "Kyo, you should know by now that anything you do is stupid. So of course I think your voice is stupid, and of course your stupidity woke me up." Seems like something he'd say xD Yeah, it does seem kinda more of a Kyo line *shrugs* Guess Yuki needs some lines like that, too haha
EmiShae: I laughed SO hard the first time I watched that. I replayed it so many times XDD Poor Yuki with the jelly buns... Haha, glad you liked the title! I'm having a heck of a time picking some of 'em haha Thanks so much!
Mommiya: Don't worry about it! And you ARE awesome :3 WOOO The otakus' landing at Ouran! Can't wait! I sent you a message with the info for my character, but I wasn't sure exactly what you need, so just ask me anything that you need and I'll do my best to help ya out! ^.^ I read your Ouran fic! Really good so far! :D BAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA! XDDD Broadway-worthy indeed! rotflmho XD Holy freakin' banana muffins... I can see him saying that xDD Flirting with your mom? ! O.o Out of line, Tamaki! hahahaha! Don't kill him, watashi no tomodachi (translation: my friend)! We need him for the...plan *shifty eyes* XD Hope to hear from you soon!
Okay...maybe that wasn't your definition of "quick," but be grateful I didn't go into a whole rant with Tamaki about why it's wrong to flirt with girls' mothers. It is wrong, you know. I mean, if you're that age. -.-'
xD Anyway, on with the story! Sorry if this chapter's a little short! More will come soon, I promise!
-XXI. More Like You-
After all the drama of Hana and Uo's visit, it was time for a big celebration at school known as the Cultural Festival. What with getting ready for it, things were pretty hectic at school. Everyone was helping to get ready for the day of fun.
Of course, that went for my class too: 1st Year, D-Block. Our assignment: Refreshments. In other words, food.
"I'm pleased to announce," Yuki (duh) announced from his place at the front of the class, "that the health inspections have been completed and we've been given permission to open our rice ball stand. All that's left to decide is what flavor of rice balls we'd like to sell. Any suggestions you may have on the matter would be more than welcome."
Rice balls, I thought. Funny how some things keep turning up.
I raised my hand and stood. "What if we tried making three-flavor rice balls? We can use three different ingredients, and it'll be like getting three rice balls in one! It could be fun!"
Yuki smiled. "How nice. A fine idea."
I smiled back.
"Eww!" one of the fan club girls, Minami, cried. "I think you mean, 'How disgusting!' No way!"
"Like if you had salmon, and miso, and pickled plums all mixed together?" another fangirl (her name slipped my mind) said.
Minami made a disgusted sound. "That'd be the sickest thing in the world."
Miki jumped up from her seat, and, seemingly from nowhere, produced a lead pipe, and smashed it down on Minami's desk, between the girls. "It couldn't be any more sickening then your crappy attitudes...could it?" she asked, leaning down between them.
"Don't they have rules against bringing lead pipes to school?" Minami asked nervously.
I got up and pulled her back to her seat.
"Let me at 'em! Let me at 'em!" she hissed.
I shook my head.
"I say we make it a rice ball battle," Kyo said.
Everyone turned to look at him.
"A battle?" a boy asked.
"One-on-one," Kyo continued, clenching his fist and grinning. "One round. No holds barred." He stood up, assuming a fighting stance. "And even if they get bloody noses, or pull each other's arms off, they have to fight for the prize- rice balls!"
Even I was looking at him wide-eyed.
"No way," everyone said.
"Hmm..." Yuki mused, ignoring Kyo like he always did. "What about...a 'Hit-or-Miss'?" he asked.
"Interesting," a girl at the front of the class (one of the class leaders, and certainly not a fangirl) said.
"We'll have a special offer," Yuki continued. "Anyone who buys three rice balls can choose a fourth for free. Only we'll have some 'misses' mixed in that we can make with some strange ingredient or something."
The class wholeheartedly agreed that it was a good idea.
Kyo looked around at the agreeing students from his place, standing half on his desk. "Oh, sure!" he yelled, pointing at Yuki. "So you're all just gonna follow whatever dumb idea he says? !"
"You can't call us followers for knowing a good idea when we hear it," a boy said.
"Yeah, your idea was too weird!" another said.
"How so? !" Kyo asked angrily.
"Who wants to get all bloody over a couple rice balls?"
Kyo sat back down in his seat with a thud.
"Aw, don't get mad, Kyo-Kyo," a boy said, ruffling his hair.
Kyo slapped his hands away. "Hey! Don't call me Kyo-Kyo!"
"What's wrong with that?"
I had to admit, if only in my head, the name was kind of cute. But, then again, it was a little too...cutsie.
I happened to glance at Yuki, and I had a feeling I knew what he was thinking, from what Miki had told me. About what he had said about admiring Kyo.
"I have a student council meeting to attend, so if you wouldn't mind handling the arrangements for building the stand?" Yuki asked the girl.
"Sure!" she said happily. "Just leave it to me!"
Yuki turned to walk away.
"Ah, hold on!" a boy called. "There was still something I needed to ask you."
"Yeah, right," another boy said, "me too, Yuki. I have a question about the stand."
"Yuki, I have a question!" a girl said.
I could feel Kyo's anger rising from across the room. I guess, living in the same house with him, my senses had become more familiar with it, like with Miki's. Or something like that.
Suddenly, I looked at Kyo to see that at least five cats were hanging from his shoulders and head.
"Ah, look!" a girl said.
Miki and I sucked in a breath.
Cats? I wondered. What the?
The cats mewed happily. Kyo looked ready to kill them.
"Whoa, how did they get in here?" a boy asked.
"And so many!" a girl said. "How cute!"
"Kyo?" I asked. "Oh, no..." I said quietly.
He yelled and jumped up out of his seat, the cats still hanging from him. "Damn it all!" he yelled as he ran out.
Yuki glared after him, then sighed.
I heard one girl comment that he was the complete opposite of Yuki, and it was hard to believe they were related.
Not once you get to know them, I thought.
"Kiku?"
I didn't reply to Miki as I ran out of the room. If I know Kyo, I thought, there's only one place he'd go.
;;;;;
This roof was just a little higher up than the one back home, so I voted to take the ladder. There was Kyo, laying on the roof, staring angrily at the sky, the cats laying all around him.
"I was right," I said.
He cried out in surprise, sat up, then looked at me.
"I had a feeling you'd be up here. Always look in the highest place, I guess."
"What is it with you? ! You always gotta sneak up on me like that? !" he asked angrily.
"You ever think that you never hear me coming because you're so lost in thought that you can't hear anything besides what's going on in your head?"
He started and looked at me.
I picked up the cat nearest me and smiled a little at him. "I know the feeling."
He sighed.
I smiled at the white cat in my hands. "Hello, Mister Cat! You're so cute!"
He mewed and rubbed his head against my cheek.
I laughed a little. "These cats really like you, huh?" I asked.
He sighed and looked away. "Yeah, yeah. Don't ask me why. They just show up on their own. Same with rats for Yuki and dogs for Shigure."
"I think that'd be fun!" I said.
"How the hell is it fun? !" he asked. "This one time, I was walking in the mountains with Kagura-"
I gave him a look.
"Don't say anything!"
"I didn't say anything," I said.
"You were thinking something!"
"Oh, so you read minds now?"
"Anywaaayyy!"
I nodded for him to continue.
"Kagura and I were walking in the mountains this one time, and we got surrounded by a whole pack of boars! I thought they were gonna eat us!"
I laughed.
"It is not funny!"
"I'm sorry," I said, calming my laughter.
Kyo sighed and looked away again. "Well?" he asked. "What did you want?"
"Nothing, really," I said, shaking my head and holding the cat closer. "I was just worried about you... That's all. You seemed really upset when you left." Since you swore and ran out, I thought.
He looked back at me.
"Don't you want to help out the festival preparations?" I asked.
He looked away again, then grunted. "What do they need me for? They've got Yuki, don't they?" he asked dryly. "I doubt anyone's gonna miss me."
I looked down at the ground as I let the cat go. He ran back over to Kyo.
"They're all too busy looking to him. That's the way it always is. Ever since we were kids. He's always been the smart one, and he knows how to get stuff done, and he's good with people. All that." He was completely faced away from me now.
"And everybody around him's always telling him how talented he is and stuff," he continued. "He doesn't even have to try and they all look up to him. Anyway..."
His tone wasn't exactly angry. I couldn't put my finger on it exactly, but I could tell he had a bit of anger mixed in there.
"It's just like with martial arts. I've been training way longer than he has, but he's still better than me."
3_3_3_3_3
Kyo could hear the adults' voices in his head as clearly as he had when he was little.
"It's true, huh? The children of the Rat really are special, aren't they?" they had said. "And compared to them, the children of the Cat are..."
3_3_3_3_3
"It makes me sick!" His voice was low, disgusted. "I mean, what do I gotta do to be someone like that, you know?"
I placed it now. He was...frustrated. Exasperated.
"Why can't I be more like...like him?"
Kyo... I thought.
Yuki's words as Miki had told us ran through my head.
"Kyo. He's shy when he first meets people, but after he gets to know them a little, he can open up and be himself. Because of what he is, Kyo can never be accepted into the Zodiac. But isn't it better than he can be accepted by normal people for who he is? That...is exactly what I've always wanted."
So, I thought, Yuki wants to be like Kyo, and Kyo wishes he could be more like Yuki. So why is it, that even though they both secretly admire each other, it just pushes them farther apart?
I contemplated this as Miki, Sachiko, and I worked that night, scrubbing and sweeping.
Miki and Sachiko could tell something was on my mind, so I told them. They thought about it, too, but none of us could come up with an answer.
We changed and headed out of the building later that night.
"Thanks!" I called as we clocked out. "See you next time!"
I looked up at the moon as we walked home.
Why is it, I wondered, that people feel they have to be like somebody else? Why do they have to feel jealous? If they can see the admirable qualities in someone else, why can't they see the admirable qualities in themselves?
I know that I have trouble believing that I have them myself, but I strongly believe in being happy with who you are.
"Complain a little, get upset or something. Let people know what's on your mind."