Chapter Fifty-One
The next morning was a rush as everyone tried to pack and get ready for the wedding at the same time. Ichiro and Juri, being somewhat old-fashioned, had decided that the town's priest should lead a short ceremony in Juri's back yard so that they could feel officially married before taking up any of the actions of marriage. Kyo thought it was a ridiculous notion; legal documents didn't exist anymore, not that they kept people true or faithful, or caused emotions to suddenly appear. If they wanted to be husband and wife, they should just declare it themselves, without law or religion. It was fairly obvious Kyo had no notion of a religious life as he furrowed his brow when Ichiro asked him to be the best man.
"Why not Kazemichi?"
"Juri wants to ask Saya to be her bride's maid, and Mahiro would be jealous if Kazemichi was paired with Saya." It made sense. Kyo told himself it was the logic of the reasoning that he caved into.
The wedding was that evening, after most things had been packed away into Juri's van and Ichiro's truck. Kyo would take his motorcycle. Kyo felt bad about wearing his sunglasses, but he was almost out without anyone saying anything about his eyes, and he wasn't going to disrupt the ceremony by removing them. Besides, he really didn't need a priest to declare him the progeny of the devil right now. He looked up to see Saya standing across from him in a nice dress, holding a small bouquet of wildflowers the twins had picked in the fields.
They didn't have to stand there long before it was all over. Ichiro and Juri exchanged rings, and she was no longer "Mrs. Aizawa." Kyo hoped Ichiro would remember that and didn't call her it to her face anymore.
Inside Saya had made dinner again; the last dinner they would eat in this house. After everyone had gone to bed early, including Juri and Ichiro, only Kyo and Saya were left to finish cleaning and packing the kitchen.
"You don't have to stay, I can wash the dishes."
"Yeah, but I doubt you can pack the box to the car." Kyo was right; they had put practically all of their dining-wear in one box, and it was far too heavy for her to lift. She finished filling it and Kyo took it outside to load into the van, where they were putting all breakable things. Saya had followed Kyo out into the street, which was completely devoid of life at this time of the night. As he turned to face her, he caught a glimpse of a worried look again. She seemed to be spending an awful lot of her time being upset these days.
"You're leaving tomorrow, aren't you?"
"I could ask the same of you, couldn't I?" Saya looked off, down the street.
"I mean you're leaving us." It wasn't a question.
"I told Ichiro I'd travel with him for as far as I could."
"What does that mean?" Saya said, still not looking at him.
"Exactly what it sounds like," Kyo stated flat out as he walked past her towards the garage entrance. Saya looked exactly the same as she had at the wedding; Kyo could also smell something like perfume as he walked past her. He had been noticing it all day, waiting to get close enough to breathe it deeply. After he had taken a few steps, he noticed that he heard no footsteps following him. He turned to see Saya still standing in the driveway. "Come'on, you gotta leave early tomorrow." She didn't move. He rolled his eyes as he walked back towards her. She turned away from him, lifting a hand to her face, brushing her cheek as she looked away, avoiding eye contact. She was crying. Kyo was a mixture of pissed off and upset, which lead to one very confused man. As neither moved or spoke, he did the one thing he thought had solaced her before. He moved in slowly and wrapped her in his arms, placing his chin on top of her head. She grabbed onto his shirt and started to cry harder. They stood there a long time, just like that. Kyo had no clue why he tolerated all this nonsense emotional stuff-he figured it must come from some sort of attraction to the exact opposite of his own personality, chalking it up to some sort of mystery of the unknown.
After she stopped crying, she backed away from Kyo and wiped her eyes, looking away from him. She couldn't believe she was not only growing this attached to Kyo, but was being silly enough to cry on him. Certainly no one else would try that stunt unless they were out of their mind. Or had a death wish. Kyo just gently took her forearm in hand and led her to his room, where he went to sleep with Saya in his arms again.
'This is getting to be a bad habit,' was Kyo's last thought as he drifted off into the unconscious.
