thank you reviewers!! as always, your reviews make me
feel warm and fuzzy inside. i lurve you guys. here's chapter
21 (i'm not even gonna comment on the number this time. not even that
i'm amazed it has been allowed this far. whatev). Disclaimer:
I don't own Fruits Basket, or The Wizard of Oz, which i am blatantly
ripping off in the title of this chapter, OR the book
Chapter 21 - Not in Japan Anymore, Toto
Kyo peered down at the girl sitting next to him in the cozy dark room. The elegant headdress she had donned at the beginning of the night had been lost somewhere in the process of the party, and her shoulder-length black wig was sitting in her lap looking not unlike a gutted stuffed animal. She heaved a heavy sigh, then turned her attention to Kyo and started slightly when she saw he was looking at her. They both quickly looked away.
There was an awkward silence for a few beats until Kyo couldn't take it anymore and cleared his throat loudly and determinedly. "So, um... " He sweatdropped, not being able to think of anything. Well, what could he talk to her about? It wasn't as if they had tons of things in common. He stared at his feet. Come to think of it, did they share anything in common? "Is there... anything you want to talk about, Tohru?" he mumbled lamely.
She smiled shyly. "Actually, there is something I've been wanting to do." She shifted her weight so that she faced him. Staring at him with eyes misted over with something--Kyo had decided he would never understand what went through females' minds, especially Tohru's--and her lips, still painted red, parted slowly, delicately even. Something about her expression made Kyo anticipate an uncertain discovery or confession. His heart sped up as he prayed to whatever gods were up there and listening that it was the confession he dreamed of nightly.
"Kyo-kun... "
Rewind: Before anyone hid in a dark room or shed their headdress, the party was in full swing as Izi-chan & Co. arrived fashionably late to her friend's Halloween party. Tohru gazed in wonder at the dark atmosphere and... colorful party-goers. They all had very interesting costumes, of course, but most of them looked so impossibly cool--or "anti-cool," as Izi-chan had said--and artistic and just effortlessly sophisticated and intimidating that Tohru felt suddenly very small. She was vaguely reminded of the scene in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy first arrives in the strange new land.
Apparently Izi-chan saw the discomfort on her face, because she smiled warmly at Tohru and took hold of her hand. Feeling slightly better with Izi-chan by her side--since Izi-chan most definitely fit in with these people--Tohru smiled back. Their group strode into Izi-chan's friend's Victorian-style house, the party abode for the evening (and probably early morning).
Immediately, Izi-chan pulled her friends over to several people lounging on an aged settee. Pungent smoke lingered in the air around them--actually, Tohru realized, the whole place smell like smoke. Not tobacco smoke; somehow it was sweeter. Hanging in the air along with the smoke were the smells of alcohol (this was expected) and oranges (some confusion there).
Lolling on the odd-smelling settee were five or six post-college-age-looking people in costumes: a tiny, giggling green-haired girl with a pixie cut and chin stud was draped in ragged strips of cloth, holding a cigarette to her lips; a boy with beautiful chocolate-colored skin and dark dreadlocks wore camouflage army fatigues splattered with fake blood; a boy and girl with matching French maid uniforms and faces full of freckles had their heads together as they conversed with lips trembling with laughter; an extremely thin, shockingly pale girl with wavy, unnatural-looking fiery red hair was dressed in all black, holding a beer and scowling at everyone; finally, a girl with piercings and tattoos covering every visible surface of her skin sat in a flesh-colored leotard and curly blond Lady Godiva wig that touched the floor.
"Hey guys!" Izi-chan yelled over the loud music. "What's good?"
The boy with the dreadlocks and army fatigues jumped up--standing, he looked about ten feet tall--and engulfed Izi-chan in a bear hug, lifting her off the ground and spinning.
"Iz!" he yelled. "How the fuck have you been, girl?" He set her back down on the floor and grinned hugely when he caught sight of Tohru. "What a cutie!" He scooped her up in a hug not ten seconds after letting Izi-chan go.
Tohru, not knowing this man, did not react in the same way Izi-chan had, i.e. squealing and hugging back. She stiffened and attempted to push his (enormous) shoulders back, but to no avail.
Apparently, she didn't have to do anything anyway. "Put her down!" Kyo howled, thoroughly enraged to see Tohru manhandled (womanhandled?) by a complete stranger.
Dreadlocks put Tohru--dizzy and confused--down and looked innocently at Kyo. "Whoa, sorry, dude. Is she yours?" He put his hands up in front of himself. "Chill, I didn't know."
Izi-chan smirked and looked at Kyo and Tohru, who both blushed, but froze when she felt an urge to punch herself in the neck. Tohru was right, she thought. This does get old. She sighed. I'm being so sadistic. Aren't I supposed to be helping them?
Back on Earth, Kyo glared at Dreadlocks. "No," he growled. "She isn't anybody's. She's a person, not an object or a piece of property."
His cousins were slightly surprised that something so... politically correct would come out of Kyo's mouth, but once the Tohru aspect sunk in they shared a mental group "Oooooh" and subtle nod.
The Sohmas weren't the only ones who noticed Kyo's surprising morality: Dreadlocks smiled again and attempted to give a third bear hug to Kyo. The Cat jumped back yelling something that sounded like "Don't touch me, freak!"
Izi-chan shushed him and pulled him away from Dreadlocks' arms. "He's shy," she apologized. ("The hell I am!") Her eyes lit up and she turned to her cousins and Tohru, pointing to them as she introduced them to her group of friends. "This is Momiji, Hatsuharu--call him Haru--Yuki, Shigure--you guys know Shigure--and Kyo and Tohru." She used her other arm to point to her... artistic-looking friends. "Guys, meet Marek, your host," Dreadlocks waved, "Keiko," the green-haired girl grinned, "Takami and Leah," the French maid twins yelled out hellos, "Misaka," the girl with the tattoos and piercings nodded her acknowledgement, "and Tarai," the pale redhead ignored them and took a sip of her beer.
"It's cool to meet more Sohmas," the girl named Keiko chirped, taking a drag from her cigarette. "How come Hatori-san and Aya-san didn't come with you guys?"
"Poor things were exhausted." Izi-chan sat down on the settee and gestured to her cousins to make themselves comfortable. "Is Z here yet?"
The pair of Takami and Leah laughed. "Oh, God," Leah said, touching Takami's shoulder subconsciously. "Didn't you hear? He and Ina eloped a couple weeks ago."
"No!" Izi-chan gasped.
"I know," Takami agreed, "isn't it crazy? Evidently, they were completely plastered when it happened. Now they're off 'honeymooning.'" He rolled his eyes. "There's a pool going around about when they'll get an annulment, if you want in."
Izi-chan looked at Tarai, her mouth a perfect 'O.' "But I thought you two were going out!"
Tarai glared at her, and for the first time Tohru noticed the girl's ice blue eyes. She wondered why such a pretty girl was so angry.
"We were just fucking," Tarai mumbled. She reached into her mouth and pulled out fake vampire fangs. Feeling Tohru's gaze on her, she whipped her head around and sneered at the brunette. "What the fuck are you looking at?" she snapped.
Flustered, Tohru looked away and mumbled something incoherent.
"I said, what the fuck are you looking at?!" the redhead repeated angrily.
"Leave her alone, Tara." This came from Izi-chan, whose attention had finally been pulled away from her friends' conversation. "She's not looking at anything." Rolling her eyes, she quickly downed a shot of questionable pink liquid and continued her tirade. "Jesus, smoke a bowl and take that stick out your ass, will you?"
Tarai glared. "I quit."
"So did I! Go us!" Izi-chan chirped and slapped her friend on the back from her perch on Marek's lap. This seemed to irritate Tarai further: she leaped up from her seat--Tohru was floored by how tall she was, almost as the same height as Marek--and stomped out of the dark room with a few growls.
Instantly, Tohru was worried. "Sh-should someone go after her?" she stuttered to the group on the sette. When they shrugged her off ("She's a big girl, she can take care of herself."), she looked to the Sohmas. Momiji and Hatsuharu were mingling with some guests dressed as what looked to be pieces of fruit (so that's where that orangey smell came from), so Tohru felt it would be rude to pull them out of a conversation; Yuki stood uncomfortably in a corner of the room, a strained smile pulling at the corners of his lips as girls old enough to know better fawned over him; Kyo looked away and then quickly back at her as if he hadn't been staring at her the whole time and raised his eye brows, like "It's your choice;" Shigure simply smiled at her with vaguely chilly eyes she didn't understand.
Ignoring the lack of anxiety on the part of her friends, Tohru debated the case in her head. On the one hand, she knew nothing about this girl--maybe storming out of rooms was normal for her--and in the short period of time she been in Tarai's presence, she'd been ignored and then treated rudely. Many more reasons not to go flooded her mind (what if she just got angrier at Tohru for trying to help! What if she was an ax murderer and this was how she reeled in her victims!), but the picture of the redhead's sad, hurt face stood out like a buoy in the sea of pessimism that currently invaded her thoughts.
With her customary I'm-Tohru-Honda-and-I-Never-Give-Up! determination now with her, Tohru sped out of the dark room after a stranger named Tarai.
The second she was out of sight, Kyo looked nervously at Izi-chan. "Will she be okay by herself?" he asked.
Izi-chan rolled her eyes at his unease. "Kyon," she sighed, "I'm going to say the same thing I said to Tohru, like, two seconds ago: she's a big girl, she can handle herself. If you feel concerned for Tohru's well-being, then go after her. But don't just go because you think she needs you babying her all the time. She's a lot stronger than you give her credit for."
Kyo felt his face crumple. Of course Tohru didn't need his help; that much he knew. Why would she need anything from him? God, he thought, I know she isn't some fragile little China doll. I know she can take care of herself. She takes care of three huge men on a daily basis, so why wouldn't she be able to take care of herself? This much was reasonable. Then why do I feel like she'll break if I don't protect her? Why do I want to protect her so badly?
Izi-chan's voice rang his ears, loud and clear like she was standing right next to him, whispering obscenities into his ear the way she did when he was fourteen. "Come on, Kyo," it said. "I think we both know the answer to that one."
It sounded so much like her real voice that Kyo glanced frantically at his cousin to make sure she wasn't tricking him again: sure enough, she was still perched on Marek's lap with a expression of confusion and a little pity.
"Look, Kyo," she started, "I'm sorry. If you want to go after Tohru, go after her. It's actually pretty easy to get lost here, and you know how she is." She cracked a half-smile at the way he jumped up and practically sprinted out of the room after the girl he loved so much.
She sighed. "Ah, to be young and in love." Looking at her friends, who by now were all smoking cigarettes, she shrieked, "When did we get old?!"
"Speak for yourself, Iz," the tattooed girl named Misaka scoffed. "Youth is a mentality."
Yuki pushed his way through a throng of people, narrowly avoiding changing into his Rat form, and frowned at Izi-chan. "Where did Honda-san and that baka neko go?" he asked loudly over the music playing--music that sounded not unlike shrieking animals.
Feigning innocence, Izi-chan shrugged. "I think..." She paused, as if racking her brain for where one of the two had said they were going, and put a finger to her chin. "I think it was either 'bathroom,' or 'subtly leaving to make out in privacy AGAIN.'" She grinned at Yuki. "Ah, well. Whichever."
She cackled as he ran out of the room in exactly the same way Kyo had, and ran after him to share the fun.
"Tarai-san!" Tohru called through the dark. "Tarai-san! Are you here? Hello? Are you alright?" She looked around her bleak surroundings and felt very lonely for some reason. All these damned hallways looked the same, dark and long and too easily confused with the next.
Why did she go after Tarai again? Something about the look on the girl's face... Standing in the inky hallway in the unfamiliar house on the night when all evil and spirits supposedly came out to play, Tohru was at a loss to remember her specific motivation for diving blindfolded into gloom and shadows.
She leaned against a wall and let herself slide onto the ground. She felt her gold and garish headdress slip from the black wig, but did nothing to put it back in it's rightful place. Hearing it drop to the floor, the echo bouncing off the walls of the empty corridor, she felt even more alone. She hoped the Tarai girl was feeling better, wherever she was.
Tohru sighed loudly and pulled her knees up to her chest, resting her head on them and mumbling a weak, "Happy Halloween to me."
She snapped her head back up when she heard footsteps, light at first but slowly getting louder. Closer. Her whole body was gripped with fear--silly, irrational fear, the logical part of her brain reminded her--and she felt goose bumps erupt along the length of her arms. That small, reasonable part of her brain (was that the left or right side of the brain?) told her that there was no reason to be scared--it was probably just another party guest, or--and she knew this was a bit of a long-shot--Tarai herself. Still, the cold fear dropped into her stomach and she tried to move her legs.
Okay, Tohru, just relax, she thought. Count to ten and calm yourself down.
One...
The footsteps were getting louder. How close was this person?
Two...
Damn these dark hallways! If it were lighter, maybe she'd be calmer.
Three...
She struggled to remember the few self-defense moves Kyo and Uotani had taught her. Not that it was doing much goof; her fight-or-flight sense was screaming out "FLIGHT!"
Four...
Maybe if she made lots of noise, someone from the party would hear her? No, should she stay as quiet as possible?
Five...
The footsteps sounded like they were right next to her.
Ten!
She jumped up and started running and baning on the walls, praying for a door. Tears stung her eyes and made it even harder to see in the darkness, but she kept running. Finally, she felt something cold, metal, and circular--a doorknob. She gasped with relief and puled and pushed and turned it, nervous sweat on her hands making it difficult. She heard the footsteps get too close and turned her head in the direction they were coming from. Another gasp, but this was from horror: a faint outline of a man stood about a yard away from her, a hand outstretched.
Terrified, Tohru kicked the door open and rushed inside as fast as she could, then immediately threw all her weight against the door to keep the shadowed man out. But he pushed back, and he was much larger and stronger. She felt her feet slide on the floor, giving way to the door and the stranger. She wondered, more calmly than she thought was possible in this situation, if she was going to die--or worse. She'd never get to see Uotani or Hanajima again, or Yuki or Shigure or Momiji or any of her friends. Including Kyo.
Oh, God. Kyo. She'd never get to tell him how much she loved him. What if he'd felt the same way this whole time? She felt the hot, frightened tears slide down her cheeks as the shadowed man pushed harder on the door.
"Get away from me!" she screamed, but her throat felt clogged and it was hard for air to get through.
"Tohru!" She froze. How did this man know her name? And why did his voice sound so familiar? "Tohru, open the damn door! It's me! Kyo!"
Kyo.
The fear immediately released it's grip on her body. The corners of Tohru's mouth twitched upward. It's was Kyo. She was one hundred percent safe. Standing up straight, she opened the door completely and looked at his darkened form. Although it was still dark, she could now easily recognize him: his silhouette unconditionally familiar and his orange hair practically glowed.
Now she felt stupid and embarrassed.
"Tohru," Kyo said, "are you okay? Why are you crying?" He sounded so much more compassionate than he would have been if speaking to... anybody, really.
"Oh!" She touched her cheek and came away with wetness. She'd completely forgotten her hysteria only seconds earlier. "Well, I was scared, of course."
He was confused and a bit hurt. "You were scared of me? Why?"
"No, not of you!" she rushed. "I was scared because I thought you were a murderer!" She smiled like everything was all clear now. Kyo frowned.
"I think I'm having déjà vu..."
"Pardon me?" Tohru asked.
Kyo shook his head. "It's nothing. Now, let's get back to the party before that kuso nezumi comes looking for us and starts yelling at me again."
"I--!" Tohru yelped, grabbing the back of his costume. When he looked at her, surprised, she felt the blood rush to her face and she smacked her hand over her mouth, regardless of the fact she hadn't said anything embarrassing.
"What is it?" he said gently. Subconsciously, he unlinked her small fingers from his costumes and placed it in his much bigger hand. Tohru, however did not miss this action.
"I--well, uh, if you don't mind..." She bit her bottom lip. "Could we not go back to the party? I... It's not that I don't like Izi-chan's friends or anything, but they... I feel like this tiny little nothing next to them and Izi-chan." A sigh. "They're all so cool and confident. I'm not."
Kyo exhaled loudly and started stroking the back of her hand with his thumb. "Tohru," he said, "don't be an idiot. Those people are just that--people. Same as you and me." He smiled dryly. "Well, maybe not me, but definitely you. There's no reason for you to think you're inferior to them, because you're not. You're the most interesting and cool person I know, not to mention the kindest and most beautiful." Through the dark, he looked straight into her eyes. Both were grateful for the lack of light, for they wore matching vermilion masks.
Though Tohru didn't consider herself any of those things, hearing it fall from Kyo's beautiful lips made her almost believe it. "Kyo-kun," she whispered, grinning.
He grinned back. "If you don't want to go back to the party, then we won't. We can just stay in here."
Tohru, in her haste to escape being murdered, hadn't bothered checking what was in the room--or even if it had working lights. Kyo, with his Cat eyes, easily found the light switch and flicked it on, illuminating the room with a rosy glow barely brighter than it was seconds before. The furniture in the room was pretty minimalistic: black and red color schemes, a few chairs, a small table, and a low, wide bed. The main aspect of the room, however, was the bookcase overflowing with novels and notebooks and sketchbooks. Whosever room this was was very passionate about their books.
Kyo walked over to the bed and sat down on it so that his back was against the wall. Tohru soon followed and sat next to him, pulling her black wig off in the process and dropping it onto her lap. She wondered absently if someone had found the gold headdress she'd left behind in the hallway.
"Hey, what happened to that gold thing that went over the wig?" Kyo asked. Tohru smiled; he always seemed to read her mind.
"I dropped it in the hallway."
"When you were running from Kyo the Murderer?"
She giggled. "No, it was before that."
"Oh."
The conversation seemed to halt after that. For what seemed like hours, they kept quiet. It stayed that way until Kyo stuttered out his "Uh, anything you want to talk about?" (see above) and Tohru turned her body to face his.
"Actually, there is something I've been wanting to do."
The scarlet lips parted as Kyo felt himself become very, very anxious. He mentally crossed his fingers and swore if this turned out to what he wanted, he'd never challenge Yuki to a fight ever again. He wouldn't have to; he'd have Tohru, and all anger and fighting spirit would disappear.
"Kyo-kun..."
I love you. I love you. I love you, he thought. I am so in love with you.
"... let's play Truth."
Kyo blinked. "What?"
"Truth. It's a game," Tohru clarified, cracking a half-smile. "Izi-chan told me about it--"
"Oh God," Kyo groaned. He was more than disappointed--even though he knew he had no right to be--and adding in a game taught by Izi-chan would surely set off his temper.
Tohru laughed. "No, no, it's nothing weird, I swear! It's one of those slumber party games girls play at three in the morning when they've had too much junk food and not enough sleep."
Kyo blinked again; Tohru's answer had sounded almost sarcastic. She must have been spending too much time with Izi-chan--a scary thought if there ever was one.
"So how do you play?"
"You only have to tell the truth. But if you choose not to answer , you lose." She smiled her hundred-watt smile. "Are you up for it?"
He didn't respond quickly--this seemed very tricky. What kind of questions would she ask? Would they both really tell the truth? What if she asked if he liked anyone? For that matter, what if he asked if she liked anyone? He foresaw many ways this could destroy their friendship.
He frowned. Wasn't friendship exactly what he didn't want with her? Didn't he want so much more than that? Yes, he thought. But he knew that was more than he could realistically hope for--he ignored the earlier situation--and, really, if he had to choose between Just Friendship and Tohru pointing him out to people as That Guy She Was Friends With Until He Went Crazy and Proclaimed His Love For Her, he'd gladly take friendship.
Taking his silence as not wanting to play, Tohru stared at the wig lying in her lap. "Erm, I mean, we don't have to play if you don't want to," she stammered. "Actually, you know, we should probably go back to the party anyway, because I wouldn't want anyone to worry about us or wonder where we'd gone, so--"
"Tohru." She looked at to see Kyo grinning and struggling to hold his laughter in. "You really are cute when you're all flustered like that." She was grateful for the rosy glow of the room covering up her blush. Kyo continued with a soft smile. "We can play Truth if you want to."
"Oh. Um, okay." She decided to start with something easy. "What's your favorite color?"
Kyo frowned. "Don't coddle," he scoffed. "It's insulting."
She giggled. "Okay. How about..." She paused to think again. "Do you really enjoy doing martial arts, or are you just dedicated to it so you can beat Yuki-kun?"
Keeping his eyes focused on the black-and-white-striped comforter on the bed, Kyo sighed. "Well, I originally started it because Shishou offered--back when I first moved in with him--and I continued doing it because of Yuki, but I just really love doing it." (a/n: that's what she said. sorry, had to say it.) He gave a small smile. "I feel very powerful when I practice, you know? It's like... I don't know. Not like anything else. The rush I get is... it's great. It really is." He turned to her, the smile still on his face. "Okay, so my turn now right?"
She nodded, slightly dazed by the depth of his answer. "Ask anything."
"Anything, huh?" he mumbled, narrowing his eyes. "Why do you let Izi-chan boss you around so much?"
Surprised, Tohru widened her eyes. "Izi-chan doesn't boss me around," she said. "We're friends, so we just kind of go where the other one goes. I do the same thing with Uo-chan and Hana-chan."
"But Izi-chan always makes you do weird stuff--treating you like a little doll or something."
Tohru chuckled. "I suppose it would look like she treats me like a doll, huh?" She shook her head. "Well, most of the time, I'm fine with whatever scheme she has in mind, but when I'm not, I try to find the reason she's doing what she's doing."
"What do you mean?" Kyo asked quietly.
"Well..." Tohru hesitated; this was Izi-chan's Truth she was exposing, not her own. Was that allowed in the game? "Izi-chan--she reminds me of a child in some ways. She says mean things without thinking, to protect herself, but I know for a fact that she often feels guilty afterwards." Seeing Kyo's unbelieving expression, she added, "Okay, you know that time when I fainted, when Isuzu-san came over?" Nod. "And how you brought me that leek soup you made?" Nod. "And how, after you gave me the soup Izi-chan made a... rather crude comment about us?" Colder nod. "Well, when we finally talked in private, she apologized for it. And it really was sincere," she rushed as Kyo opened his mouth to retort. "Really. I'm sure I saw tears in her eyes. She's just afraid of being disliked. She's only human."
Kyo frowned. "See, I don't believe that. If Izi-chan was afraid of people not liking her, she wouldn't say the type of things she says. And what about her whole big feud thing going on with Kagura?"
"That's different," Tohru replied quickly. She knew she'd said too much about Izi-chan. "But, to answer your original question, I don't let Izi-chan boss me around. If anything, I boss her around."
"You bossing people around?" Kyo laughed; Tohru let the melodic sound wash over her. "That's something I can't picture."
"It's true!" she laughed back. "I think I affect her decisions more than she's aware of."
"I can just see it: Tohru, manipulator extraordinaire."
"But you know," Tohru continued, still smiling, "she's also a really good listener. She's knows a lot of my secrets." Her smile faded a bit when she remembered the most important secret...
Kyo nodded in agreement. "Yeah, she is good with secrets." The laughter in his voice seemed to dissolve with Tohru's smile--he was also thinking about that secret.
"Anyway, getting off the subject of Izi-chan, what super power would you choose if a radioactive spider gave you the choice?" Tohru clapped her hands together, not-so-subtly changing the subject.
The orange-haired boy grinned and said, "That's easy..."
"I swear to God, Izi-chan," Yuki growled, marching through the dark hallways with a flashlight in his firm grip, "if we walk in on them half-naked and making out again, I'll skin you alive."
Izi-chan rolled her eyes but followed him. "Oh, please, Yuki. I know you. You're too much of a sweetheart to ever touch a girl in that way--or, you know, any other way." She smirked at his blush, illuminated by her own flashlight. "Besides," she continued, shining the beam of light every which way, "even if you did work up the balls to lay a finger on me, I'd put you in the hospital without breaking a sweat. Most likely because those balls you spent so much time working up would be ripped off and sitting in this hallway." Smiling sweetly, she paused--the flashlight had picked up the shine of some gold jewelry-like thing. She sat on her heels and inspected it closer, then gasped when she realized she recognized it.
She held it up for Yuki to see.
"Is that...?" He trailed off. Izi-chan nodded. They looked at each for practically a full minute, thinking the same thought.
Tohru. Kyo. Both missing. Shed clothing.
It wasn't hard to guess where that was headed.
"Kyo!" Izi-chan hollered at the same time Yuki shouted, "Honda-san!"
"Where the fuck are you two?" she shrieked. She ran down the hallway with Yuki a step behind her, banging on the doors that presented themselves and looking for some sort of light to peek out from under one--would they have bothered turning a light on?
They came to a halt when they saw a crack of rosy pink from under one of the doors. Not sure what they would find inside, Yuki raised his fist to knock, but Izi-chan stilled his hand.
"Maybe we should listen to see if we hear make-out sounds?" she suggested in a whisper. Yuki nodded reluctantly.
They pressed their ears lightly to the door and struggled for some sounds--preferably non-make-out sounds. Almost immediately they heard a high-pitched "Kyo-kun." Definitely Tohru's voice.
"Kyo-kun," the voice continued in what sounded like nervousness, "you wouldn't!"
"Yes, I would," came the smug reply from who they assumed was Kyo.
Izi-chan was curious as to what he would/wouldn't do, but this exchange had been enough for Yuki. Enraged, he fumbled for the doorknob--not unlike Tohru had when it was her at the door--and tore it open with much more force than necessary.
"Get off of--" he started loudly, but stopped abruptly before he was even two steps into the room. Tohru and Kyo looked up, surprised.
Kyo frowned when his eyes found the Rat in the dim pink light, and his frown deepened when Izi-chan pushed her way in past Yuki. "What the hell do you two want?" he snapped.
Yuki still stood there, a bit shocked. "Y-you... you weren't... uh, what exactly were you two doing?" he stammered.
Kyo rolled his eyes like it was obvious and didn't respond, but Tohru chirped a seemingly-cheerful, "We were just talking." In reality, she was far from cheerful--this interruption was that much more time she was wasting not learning new things about Kyo. "We were playing Truth," she provided politely.
"Oh!" Izi-chan exclaimed, somewhat more relaxed. "I can't believe you remembered that from when I taught it to you." She looked around the dimly pink room curiously. "Yeah, I'd always lie when I played."
Tohru sweatdropped and gave a nervous smile. "Izi-chan, what about what you told me? That you had no secrets? What happened to that?"
"When did I say that?" she asked blankly.
"Um, the first day we met?"
Izi-chan continued looking blank, then nodded and waved her hand as if to say, Oh yeah, that time. "Oh yeah, that time. Yeah, I lied."
Sighing, Tohru looked at Yuki exasperatingly. "Yuki-kun, is something wrong? Why did you and Izi-chan go looking for us?"
Izi-chan rushed in with, "Everyone's drinking and smoking and popping God knows what kind of pills and readying up to sing Queen songs. We didn't want you two to miss out on the fun."
Seeing the identical expressions of horror and distaste, Yuki almost laughed. "Actually," he snickered. "We just wanted to tell you guys... er, happy Halloween?"
okay, so sorry if the OCs came on too strong, i was trying my best to include inu-rulz's guest character. gold star to whoever guesses which one of izi-chan's weird indie friends was our winner. and another sorry to anyone who might've gotten offended by the 'smoke a bowl' thing. i know lots of peeps don't dig that, but in my opinion it's inevitable that people will do drugs, whether to alleviate pain, enhance an experience, feed their own masochism, or just plain boredom. whatever, what you do and don't do is your choice. i'm not trying to turn this story into a 'DON'T DO DRUGS OR YOU WILL DIE AND THEN BURN IN HELL' lecture, which is pretty much the gist of what they teach you about it in school (same with sex ed., just substitute 'do drugs' with 'have sex' and add 'get pregnant' to the list of bad things that will happen to you). as i said, what you do and don't do is your fucking choice. so, getting away from the suckiness that is school lessons (DON'T END, SUMMER, JUST DON'T!!)--wow, was that really my point in that entire paragraph?--remember to review!! i'm gonna say 15 reviews again, just cuz. Your Favorite Drugged-Up Authoress, Jax (KIDDING KIDDING KIDDING. i know i'm nobody's favorite XD. yeah, you can just ignore my pathetic attempts at humor in that sign-off.)
it's called irony people. don't judge me. (wow, PMS much?) sorry, this FUCKING AWFUL HEAT is driving me insane, and it does little to improve my mood. i've been snapping at my friends all day. anyway, this ending probably would have been better if it was actually halloween, but what-the-fuck-EVER.