Chapter 2 – Independence
Tsukune shot up and grabbed his face, only to realize it was a dream. A dream of memory, a memory of Kyoko and himself playing in the wood. He hadn't listened to her warnings and he ended up with a decent scar on the side of his forehead. However, the end of the dream was not part of that memory. That day he had looked in the mirror and his cousin had sterilized and bandaged his wound for him. The jump-scare of having red eyes was not part of that time. Kyoko had fixed him up, then verbally beat the hell out of him for disobeying her and getting hurt. She always treated him as though she was an older sister, rather than his cousin. His parents had also been upset with him that night, but just like Kyoko, were more concerned that he was okay.
Tsukune couldn't get over the red eyes. His eyes; the color of blood. Lately he had been having these strange dreams that seemed to involve blood in some way. Sometimes it was his own, sometimes it was not.
He, like most days, decided to continue with his day, ignoring the strange dream. He sat up and stretched, preparing his mental status for the day. Realizing he needed to relieve his bladder, he got up to go to the bathroom and then do hygiene. Taking time to look over his face; the scar from that day had faded, but the memory hadn't. He traced the spot where the scar was, just barely visible along his hairline. He imagined the dream again, picturing the crimson eyes staring back at him like some sort of beast. "Hmph, rawr. Tsukune; demon vampire, monster of the night!" He laughed to himself at the joke.
Finishing up his personal business he then got dressed. Deciding to go with something warm, put on some Black cargo pants and a Band T-shirt with his favorite hoodie. Slipping on some socks, he then headed downstairs to the kitchen for breakfast. He could smell the food in the air. "Kyoko must be cooking, it smells good."
Per the usual, his parents weren't home. They spent most of the days of the weeks at work. His father is a businessman, a salesman for a company. His mother owns a small cleaning company. Between the two, they make good money. The family lives in a decent two-story house. The neighborhood was a nice place as well. His cousin: Kyoko, lived with them. Her parents had died when they were young. The couple had gone on an anniversary date, only to find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. A yakuza gang had robbed a store, and since the couple witnessed the event, the yakuza shot them both. They both died before an ambulance could get there to save them.
Tsukune yells for his cousin. "Kyoko! Are you here?!" He knew she was but asked anyway. "Yeah, I'm in the bathroom! Can you watch the food? I'll be out in a moment!" Shaking his head, he went to the stove and saw the bacon cooking, and the eggs scrambled on two plates. There were also some grits in a pot ready to be served. The bacon must had just been put in because it was still closer to raw than cooked. "No wonder it smells so good. I love bacon. Kyoko I'm cooking more bacon than this!" She responded with a positive, so he threw a few more pieces in the skillet to cook.
At that moment, Kyoko reentered the kitchen wearing some sweatpants, socks, and a pink t-shirt. She was rather happy this morning. Her cheerful demeanor immediately rubbing off on Tsukune. The dream had him feeling weird this morning, but her cheery smile made him forget his trouble.
"We're having bacon, eggs and grits today, hope your hungry." Tsukune nodded in confirmation. "Hell yeah! I'll set the table if you want to finish the cooking. What do you want to drink?" Kyoko smiled at his enthusiasm. She had noticed how his mood changed when she entered the kitchen. Something must have been bothering him this morning. "Orange juice please." Kyoko set out to her task as Tsukune set the table with silverware and drinks. Kyoko finished cooking the bacon and made the two plates, extra bacon for them both. She then set the skillet and pot to soak while they ate their breakfast. Once she sat the plates down, they both took their seats. "Itadakimasu!" They began chowing down.
While eating the two struck up a conversation. Kyoko started. "What time do you think your parents will be home?" They both knew the parents wouldn't be home till late, however it normally varied. Sometimes one would show up early from work. They expected after dinner. "Not sure, likely after dinner again." Kyoko nodded, then paused considering how to ask her next question. This would be a sensitive subject. "Oh, hey Tsuki, have you gotten a response from a school yet?" Tsukune frowned. She didn't want to upset him, but she really wanted to know if anything had changed since she had last asked. She knew if he ignored the problem, it wouldn't solve itself. The best way to deal with it, was head on. Plus, sometimes she didn't have the sense to just keep her mouth shut, one of her weak points that had gotten her in trouble before. "No, not yet. I turned in two more applications about a week ago... but I haven't heard anything back yet. I failed the damn entrance exam for the local high school so that was a no go. Honestly, I'm not sure what I'm going to do at this rate."
Tsukune had failed his exam, this on top of a mishap with some bullies in middle school had left a stain on his records; probably the reason he hadn't heard back from the two school he put an application in for. In grade school, a group of bullies had framed him. He ended up getting suspended from the school for a week. Not to mention his parents freaking out until he managed to convince him he had been set up. To this day he didn't understand why the bullies had to pick him to mess with, however they had; and it took a toll on his life.
The group of middle school delinquents had planted some photos of nude girls into his locker, then went and told on him. The principal herself had come, pulled him from class, then demanded he open his locker. Naturally, being a woman, she was furious when he had denied the accusation. In her eyes, he had been caught red handed then lied about it to her face. She hadn't taken the time to listen to his pleas despite his claim of innocence. He was suspended, and now any high school who investigated his record saw this report. Nobody wanted to accept a 'perv' who failed the entrance exam. Tsukune absolutely hated this, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. Later he found out that the bullies that had 'snitched' were the ones to plant the porn.
"Unfortunately, it's the same old shit." Kyoko felt bad for bringing this up, she knew he hadn't done anything wrong, yet he got the crap end of the stick. If she had her way, the bullies would have been expelled for their lies. "Don't worry Tsuki! You'll get accepted somewhere! You're a good guy, and any school will be lucky to have you." Tsukune sighed and shrugged. "I hope so, I don't want to be an uneducated bum. Nobody will accept me then."
Kyoko scoffed and smiled, ready to prove him wrong. "Your parents would take care of you! They could get you a job with either of them. Your mom owns her own business, and your father is successful as well." Even though Tsukune knew it was true, he didn't want to be dependent on others. He frowned. "I don't want to live off my parents, I know they would support me, but I know that I can do better then that." Kyoko smiled genuinely. He was always like this, even if he was down, his attitude was always 'can do'. She respected this. Tsukune's father had drilled that lesson into him after the bully incident. That was the only time she had seen him seriously mope around. That week had been terrible for him until he recovered.
"I know that positive attitude will get you a long way. You're going to accomplish your goals Tsuki, I believe in you!"
They sat there eating for a moment. His thoughts eventually returning to the dream he had that night. Kyoko noticed his mood returned solemn, and this confused her. She was good at figuring out what the problem was. Surely, he wasn't still torn up about the schooling issue.
"Tsuki, a penny for your thoughts?" He wasn't sad, but something was on his mind. "Kyoko, do you ever dream weird stuff?" She took a second to ponder the question. This topic could be a multitude of things, woman, life, something scary or maybe random. Her guess was woman as he was old enough to have those kinds of thoughts. And he had a good friend of theirs who was constantly flirting with him, perhaps that had made its way into his subconscious, thus his dreams. She put a finger to her lip while in thought. She wasn't sure how to approach this, so she'd wait and see if he would tell her. "Yeah, especially when it's hot, why do you ask?" He paused. "I keep having weird dreams, I suppose it could be the heat. It does get warm in the bedrooms at night." Kyoko decides to let it drop, if he wasn't going to tell, she wasn't going to push it. She'd already upset him once this morning.
The cousins eventually finished off their plates and brought everything to the kitchen. They worked as a team to clean the kitchen and dishes. Tsukune's parents had taught them that teamwork made the chores go by faster, so they could go about their day.
Today was going to be a lazy day. Neither apparently felt like doing too much. They would spend the day lounging around the house, playing games, or in Tsukune's case, study. Tsukune studies for about an hour then decides to go take a shower. When he gets out, he sits down to study some more, but finds himself to distracted by the dreams.
"Why are these dreams bugging me so much today? I normally don't care this much. My heads in the clouds today! Ugh…"
Kyoko knocked on his door at this moment. "Tsuki, can I come in?" He cursed his luck; Kyoko had probably heard him. "Yeah, I'm decent." Kyoko opened the door and stepped into his room. She had indeed heard him, but still didn't know what the dreams were about. He still hadn't told her, and she respected that. However, the 'dream' was becoming rather intriguing.
"Hey, do you want to smoke? I don't plan on doing anything important today." Tsukune thought about it a moment, deciding today he would relax. He had been studying quite a bit this week, determined to never fail another test. Plus, the dream kept him distracted from memorizing anything. "Yeah, I'm game. I'll rollup." Kyoko smiled. She noticed him think about it for a moment, then saw the look on his face change when he decided he wanted to smoke. "Tsuki, what's up with your dreams? Are they bothering you? I heard you before I knocked…"
Tsukune rolled his chair over to the dresser and pulled out his tray with a small intricately carved box, locked by a key. He unlocked it and pulled out his ingredients. "Well, I've had a few dreams they have been bugging me. Nothing to serious. They're just strange. Like last night I dreamt about us playing hide and seek as kids. The day I fell. It was just the memory, until we got back to the house. The dream just got weird after that. The color drained out the world, except for the blood on my face. In the mirror I had red eyes like a demon. The other weird dreams normally involve blood in some form or fashion. I don't really understand it. Been trying to figure it out all morning."
Tsukune spoke and rolled up a spliff at the same time. Tsukune had picked up smoking the herb from one of their friends when he had been suspended. It had been what snapped him out of his depression from the event. Kyoko started smoking with him when she found out about this. Since then, the two would smoke if they wanted to relax.
Kyoko wasn't sure what to say about the dreams, she obviously knew the event he mentioned, but the blood and red eyes was strange. "Yeah, I'm not sure what's up with the blood and eyes thing. Kind of weird."
Tsukune finished rolling and the two stepped out the house to find an isolated spot to smoke. Neither wanted a neighbor to tell their parents that they smoked. That would be a bad day for them both. They decided to go to the park not to far away, the woods there was perfect cover. If anyone smelled it, they probably wouldn't care, or wouldn't know where it was coming from. The two spent the next hour or so at the park smoking and playing on the jungle gym. There wasn't much better then being a child while stoned.
Once they made it back to the house they decided to go ahead and knock out house cleaning chores so they could relax the rest of the day. House chores were simple and would kill time until they would start lunch. The cousins had a simple sandwich and chips for lunch. After which they went their separate ways. Tsukune went up to his room to play video games, and Kyoko went to watch tv and read.
Time flew for Tsukune. He had a new game he had bought the week prior, a fighter-based game with different puzzles mixed in. Before he realized it, it was time for dinner. He figured they should make something incase his parents were hungry when they got home, so he went to find Kyoko.
"Hey, what do you want to make for dinner?" She shrugged. "I still feel pretty lazy. We can just grab something quick out of the freezer. I'm sure your parents wouldn't mind an easy meal tonight. Tsukune agreed, and the two went off to the kitchen. After a small debate on what to defrost, they decided on spaghetti with fried eggplant. A strange combination that Tsukune's mother loved.
Once they cooked the frozen meal and ate, Tsukune went off to change. Kyoko offered to do the dishes, as there was little to clean. Kyoko took the leftovers and put them in the microwave for the parents.
Just as Tsukune went upstairs and into his room, his parents walked through the front door. "Tsukune! Kyoko! We're home!" His mother calls. Kyoko comes out the kitchen to greet them. "Hello auntie, uncle, did you have a good day at work?" Kyoko asks in her normal chippy voice. Tsukune's father replies first. "Yes, I did, well enough at least." The mother then chimes in. "Today was great. I'm sorry we're always gone. The bills don't pay themselves. However, wait… where's Tsukune?"
"Oh, he's upstairs. I think he went to change. TSUKI!" The group waited a moment as Tsukune came back downstairs. He had changed into some red athletic shorts and a white T-shirt.
"I'm here, I was changing. Hello Mom, Dad, how was work?" Both parents gave the same answer they gave his cousin. Tsukune's father then smiled a large grin. "We brought some treats home since we're always late. I hope you both enjoy them. We got these from a small mom and pop shop a customer recommended." He then sat a white to go bag down with some writing and a basic logo.
Tsukune motioned for Kyoko to open it up. "ladies first." She grinned, ready for whatever the snacks were. "Don't mind if I do, hey auntie, uncle, the leftovers are in the microwave if you're hungry. It's spaghetti." The parents admitted to eating at the small restaurant but thanked her anyway. The cousins thank the adults as Kyoko dug into the bag to reveal the to go box full of sweet sticky rice balls on a stick, dipped in hazelnut chocolate. "Itadakimasu!" They yelled in unison as they began chowing down on the treats.
"Oh, hey did you both preform chores today?" Tsukune's mother asks. They both respond with a positive. "Okay, awesome. Then you know what time it is. I'll transfer money to you both later tonight, okay?"
Mouth full of food, both gave a thumbs up, and a big hug to each parent. After which the parents made their way to the bedroom to change out of the days attire, and to relax.
The cousins finished the treats, then put up the leftovers. "Tsuki, are we still going to hang out tomorrow?" "As far as I know, yes. Has anyone bailed?" The cousins and their group of friends had made plans earlier in the week, when they got paid, they would all go out to enjoy a movie and some shopping. With the plans confirmed for the next day the two went off to their rooms for the night.
That night Tsukune didn't dream. Thankful for no blood or red eyes to haunt his memories.