AN- I dont own Fruits Baskets. Please enjoy:

Chapter Twenty Six

(Yuki's POV)

I swallowed my food before answering Tohru's question, "My Student Council will probably take place after school everyday for a while now since we have so much work to catch up on, so you wont need to wait up for me."

Tohru nodded, "I just hope you will be able to relax this summer," She said gently. I gave her an appreciating smile. It had been a bit of an exhausting day, and her kindness defininetly helped my day. "I'll see if Kyo will walk home with me-"
We both looked over to Kyo expectantly, who had an indifferent look on his face- "I don't care... just don't bring along that damn Yankee, she keeps pissing me off."

I shared a glance with Tohru- Arisa had been crawling all over Kyo's back ever since she heard about how he and I were... on a more friendly base. I guess that was pretty good though, because it had Tohru defending us (in that panicked way of hers) and while so she became more accustomed to the idea. I was really glad she was still the same- with the occasional nervous glance between us when something seemed to flow through the air.

"You know she means no harm, she's really a nice person," Tohru reassured him, "But I dont walk with her after school unless we have plans, so you don't have to worry!"

I placed down my bowl and looked at Kyo- and at the same time Kyo glanced over to me through the corner of his eye.

"Oh, she's not that bad!" Shigure flapped his hand, "She's a little bit aggressive and violent, but nothing Kyo can't handle, I'm sure!"

We finished our supper, and I was quite aware of the consistant glances Shigure seemed to be trying to sneak in between Kyo and I, but I only brushed it off. I helped Tohru bring the dishes into the kitchen to clean, and she told me about the time she and Momiji spent together and her work while I scrubbed the dishes underneath the soapy water... I've appreciated how easily it is to clean up since I had the bandage on my wrist removed after the bites Kyo had given me healed... it seemed like yesterday, but at the same time it felt like years...

I let my thoughts slip through my mind like the soap slipped along the wet plates.

I dried them all off, and after thanking Tohru for a lovely dinner, I disembarked to the washroom to take my long awaited bath. I had the water run warm so it would loosen the tension within my shoulders without much effort, and soon I was nearly drifting asleep in the relaxing wamrth... But when I started to feel a bit nauseous from it, I lifted myself out of the water and dried off quickly.

I couldn't fall asleep now, I still had my homework to finish- so I made my way to my room, closing the door silently behind me, and seated myself at my desk, the stack of papers and textbooks eagerly waiting to consume my valuable energy. I had been so distracted by Kyo and all my racing thoughts for the last month that my homework had unresponsibly been pushed to the side at my lack of concentration.

I wasn't quite sure how long I had stayed up trying to finish it, and I'm not sure how much I got done, but my eyes began to droop heavily and I couldn't stop myself from letting my forehead rest ontop of my homework after a while. I shook myself awake before lifting my tired body out of the chair and letting my body slump into the softness of my bed.

So here I am, exhausted, worn, laying awake on my soft bed that didn't give me the warmth I was wanting. The past three days had gone by nearly exactly like this one had: get up, school, dodge fan girls, lunch, classes, dodge fan girls, Student Council, home, dinner, clean, bath, homework- and finally sleep... before getting up again.

Each day only involved Kyo when we were surrounded by people and friends... and even though they all knew and I had every reason to be near him the way I wanted- I didn't. Whenever I was, I tended to lose my sense of reality... that's why I haven't attempted to acknowledge him very much infront of people since the Grocery Store incident- I thought I would be able to keep myself in control more if I knew other people where around... but I just lost my head like every other time.

And so, for that reason- the only interaction I have had with Kyo was the occasional glance, the sneaked look, the subtle gaze.

Although it has only been three days of this routine, it still seemed like an agonizingly long time to go without actually being with him.

I was contemplating lifting myself out of my bed and going to his room right now, actually… but how would that look? And I was already so exhausted; I could barely keep myself conscience just lying here.

And with that final thought, I drifted off to sleep until the morning sun invaded my room.

(Kyo's POV)

A Ruler slammed onto my desk and I jumped up with an odd noise. I looked up to see my teacher glaring at me.

"Pay attention, Mr. Sohma."

I felt my eye twitch at being formally addressed- but she was already down three desks ranting about whatever the hell teacher's rant about before I could throw back anything.

Something hit me in the head and I let out another noise, but everyone ignored it this time. I rubbed at the spot where the item hit and looked over to who threw it- and was greeted by violet eyes,

"Beka Neko, don't give me a bad name."

I glared at Yuki, "No one could scar your name, Prince." I shot.

"You're testing it pretty diligently, aren't you?"

I didn't reply. I was feeling very stubborn and defensive at how he seemed to be ignoring me for the past three days… at first I had gotten a bit nervous about the whole thing- maybe he was a bit offended by how I reacted with Momiji and the fangirls... but that was his problem, not mine! Now I was just getting pissed of. He stays clear from me for three days, and then he decides to instigate me in the middle of a goddamn classroom?

I gave him an intense sneer, and turned away. I noticed a pencil on my desk- He hit me with a pencil.

Classic, Yuki.

I picked the pencil up and begin to twirl it around in my fingers, too bored to concentrate on the teacher, and too angry with myself to look over at Yuki. If he could ignore me, then I can ignore him.

I felt something kick my chair and I looked over, agitated, at Yuki.

"What?" I hissed.

"Give me back my pencil," He said in an obvious tone. I twirled it impressively amongst my fingers,

"Nope." I popped the word out of my mouth, over-exaggerating the "p" in it.

"Don't make me come over there."

Over where? If he reached across he could dig his nails into my forearm, no effort in. I put the pencil in between my teeth and smiled in an instigating way at him.

"That's disgusting, cat, get it out of your mouth."
Hah. Disgusting? Did he want me to recite how many times I had my tongue in his mouth? He didn't seem to mind my saliva then.

"Nuh-uh," I pushed at one end with my tongue so only the eraser end was in my mouth, "You srew i' a' me, iss mine."

He tilted his head slightly with a smirk on his face. He placed his elegant hand on the side of his seat to balance him as he leaned across the space in-between our desks--

He was coming awfully close and I was getting feverishly nervous, I definitely didn't expect him to do anything like this in the class room-

He was close enough that I could smell that sweet, luscious smell of his that sent my blood of fire, when he parted his mouth and gently brought down his white, straight teeth on the lead-end of the pencil.

The whole world stopped.

He looked totally at ease, pleased by himself, even- whereas I could feel the shock plainly on my face. This was the closest we have been to each other for three whole days and I could feel my heart start to flutter as his sweet, sweet smell started to fog itself into my mind…

He started to pull back, not releasing his bite on the pencil, and I felt it slide out of mine.

He relaxed back into his seat, put his long pale fingers around the pencil and slid it out of his mouth with that same smirk on his face before returning his attention to the front where the teacher was.

I was still in shock.

I could feel eyes on me, on us, I had no doubt that our side of the classroom was watching our little… transport… so I snapped my head back to the front as well, trying my hardest to keep my blush down.

Dammit dammit dammit!

That was not fair!

I felt myself start to fume, and rage was building up in me-why that goddamn rat—

My hands were clenched into fists and my teeth were drilling together. You would've thought that all the rage inside of me would have stopped all the butterflies in my stomach from fluttering like mad…

I can't stand this! Being so damn close to him- but so disgustingly far away- I've been trying to avoid his presence the whole time, knowing something like this would over-come me, and now I'm hyper-aware of how he was only an arms length away…

Then I heard the bell, it seared into my ear and tore through all my thoughts. I pushed myself up-

I had so much building up over Yuki from the past three days- and I was not going to allow myself to let it out in this stupid classroom… So I turned away from him and left the classroom before I did anything stupid.

I made my way to the last class I had before lunch, in which I spent most of my time trying to calm myself down. This was stupid and aggravating, if he thinks that he can ignore me for this long without giving me one stupid excuse, he had another thing coming to him.

I was feeling a bit better being in a room without Yuki, I found that I could start breathing effortlessly if I kept him out of my mind.

After the class had ended and I was strolling in the hall when I caught sight of Haru making his way up to me. I really didn't feel like talking to anyone, I was in such a putout mood, but Haru still reached me no matter how much I mentally wished him away.

Suddenly I felt something hit my chest, and looked down to see a water bottle against me in Haru's grasp. I raised an eyebrow at him, "The hell is that for?"

"You look like you need to cool off- I can see the steam coming out of your hair... dont worry, I unscrewed it for you."

"Good morning Kyo!" Momiji jumped out from behind Haru and I jumped back, startled as to how I hadn't noticed him before-

"Dammit, you stupid kid, don't go popping up all over the place!" I snatched the water bottle from Haru's still outstretched grasp, unscrewed the lid, and tipped the bottle to my mouth as I made my way to the entrance doors.

I heard Momiji pipe up a conversation eagerly with Haru, but I ignored both of them as I shoved the door open and was welcomed by a warm breeze and comforting heat of the air. Catching sight of Tohru, Wave girl, and the Yankee, I made my way over to them.

I lifted the bottle to my mouth again and drank the cool water, feeling it slip down my throat effortlessly until there was not one drop left.

"I bet Kyo didn't know that!" Momiji said enthusiastically.

"There is not a lot that Kyo knows." Haru said solemnly, and I turned around and whipped my empty water bottle at him and stormed my way to Tohru- who, on noticing my approach, looked completely panicked at my fuming state. I dropped myself down on the ground and shoved my arms across my chest stubbornly.

"K-Kyo, are you alright?" I heard her say uncertainly.

"Fine." I grunted, looking away from them all.

If I hadn't had such awesome good hearing, I wouldn't have caught Momiji's whisper- "Kyo's in a bad mood cuz Yuki hasn't talked to him lately-" I whipped around in shock-

"WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GET THAT IDEA?"

Momiji looked a little startled, but gave me a smile, "Haru told me that you and Yuki are-"
Momiji didn't finish because I had lunged towards him and had my hand sealed over his.
I was in complete shock- but after that settled in, I shot a death glare at Haru stabbing him with my eyes, "WHAT THE HELL, HARU?"

"Calm down, stop acting like it's a big secret."

I was surprised to hear a female voice that wasn't Tohru's saying that and I glanced weakly over to see that damn Yankee looking at me with her eyebrow raised.
I felt a massively embarrassing blush over come my face, and my throat suddenly became so thick that it was hard to swallow, let alone breathe, and I didn't speak in fear that my voice would crack.

So I just sat there- my body stretched over the grass with my hand over Momiji's mouth, cheeks crimson red, eyes bulged out like a stupid owl…

But the thing that pissed me off was that Yuki wasn't the one who had to endure this…

It was me. ME, DAMMIT, WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE ME?

"H-how long did you-"

"It was a bit obvious in your waves." I heard a haunting voice loom from that creepy wave-girl. "I couldn't sense any of the intense anger and resentment you held towards him after a while, and they soon turned into a more passionate and affectionate-"

"MY WAVES ARE NOT AFFECTIONATE!" I roared, causing most of the students occupying the school grounds to peek over in our direction out of curiosity.

"Oh… I wasn't aware of that. I suppose his waves wouldn't matter much to you, then." She tipped her drink to her lips and took a sip, "Pity, it even took me by surprise…"

I felt every muscle in my body tighten- I was startled, taken aback… I usually didn't believe in her weird waves or anything superstitious like that, but what she had just said caught my complete attention.

"Tohru, you're cooking is so beautiful, it warms my cold heart." I heard her turn to Tohru-

"Hey-Hey!" I let go of Momiji's mouth and turned onto her, "Tell me! I want to know!"

She looked at me with a confused expression, and then sighed,

"It's too personal, I would be abusing my gift if I told you of such waves."

"WHAT? BUT YOU CAN GO YACKING TO THE WHOLE WORLD ABOUT MINE?" I was furious- if everyone could hear about my waves, I could hear about Yuki's, DAMMIT!

But she just simply shook her head wistfully, "If you want to know, you'll have to ask him."

"GAH! Give me something!" I said desperately, "Can you read his thoughts? Just one thing, just tell me one thing!"

"I can only feel the waves that emit themselves from a human being. Reading thoughts is a very different and highly more complicated ability that is quite rare."

"THEN JUST TELL ME HIS GODDAMN WAVES!"

"Who's 'goddamn waves'?"

"Gwa!" I flipped over and landed on my back, startled by the sudden familiar voice. I looked up and saw Yuki, just as startled by my reaction, looking back down at me. "NOTHING!" I yelled, "I MEAN, NO ONE'S!"

He looked over to Haru, and pointed at the bottle he was holding- "Isn't that mine?"

I left my intestines tangle. Groaning, I rolled over to my stomach and hid my face in the ground. This was too much.

"Yuki-san, would you like some lunch?" I heard Tohru pipe up, and I kept my face hidden by my arms.

"Yes, please, I am hungry." I heard the transfer of food and a light conversation pick up between the circle of friends- but I wasn't listening, because my mind was concentrating on the sound of someone sitting down right next to me.

I hide my face in my arms as I let my hands grab fistfuls of my hair.

Ignore him… ignore him… ignore him…

Despite myself, I peeked at Yuki through my orange hair. He had his lunch in his hands, and was carrying out a conversation effortlessly with the girls… but I didn't know what they were talking about, because I was trying to mesmerize the sound of his voice. I hadn't heard it so close for so long. It was soft, and gentle, like silk- and I watched his lips as they formed his words, the corners pulled slightly up in a pleasant manner. I furrowed my brow… even through his little, simple smile, I could still see a little bit of honesty in it.

It was an odd feeling, being with him but not really being with him. Maybe I was growing a bit tired of ignoring him...

I exhaled a groan, and leaned over a bit to rest my forehead against his knee.

(Yuki's POV)

"I do have student council after school, again, we have a lot of things to sort through since this year is coming to an end." I said to Tohru. I felt so much better being out of a stuffy classroom. The slight breeze felt good as the warm sun beat down on the six of us, and the air was so easy to breathe. I tried not to glance down at Kyo who was lying down on the lush, green grass. He really sounded flustered when I had spoken to him, so I decided not to press, and I kept my attention on everyone else with effort.

"I hope it's not going to be too stressful- I don't think that's really good for them to pile you with so much work near exams…" Tohru said sympathetically.

I let a smile tug further on my lips, "It's alright, I really don't mind. I signed up for the responsibility, I can handle it-"

And then I felt something against my knee.

I looked down- and saw Kyo's hair splayed across my knee as he kept his forehead against it… and suddenly, a huge burning erupted at my cheeks. Electricity shot through every inch of my skin, crawling up from my knee to my heart, causing it to beat a thousand times faster. My pulse fluttered through my body, and I felt my insides tighten with the bashful feeling that was skittering across my skin like frantic centipedes.

Haru saved me, starting up a conversation between the girls immediately, and I felt a huge feeling of relief flood over me-because I couldn't find my voice.

My stomach filled up with ecstatic butterflies that flittered their tickling wings against the soft walls of my stomach… I was not used to any kind of sincere affection- and at first I thought Kyo was just joking, but he kept himself there, against my knee.

And that was enough to send me flying.

-End-

AN- thank you for reading, please !Review!