Title: Boys
Warnings: Cheating (romantically, not on a test), parental disputes, hints of things of a sexual nature, rough making out? (honestly I don't know how to describe it...), OCs.
Rating: PG-14
Author's Note: Long updates after long waits are good, right? That said, I've noticed that each chapter has grown by approximately a thousand words. I hope this stops happening soon otherwise chapter 26 will be ridiculously long. Four OCs in this chapter, two you've seen before, one you haven't (and probably won't see again), the other you may see again but probably not. Thank you to everyone whose favorited, followed, and left feedback. You all are too kind.
3. Her mother warned her that "boys will only break your heart." She wanted to prove her wrong (she still hadn't).
Hiroki was asleep on the sofa, head pillowed on a folded arm. Her parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins, laughed and chatted as they drank and sampled from the osechi. Her mother had already forced her to eat two helpings of kuro-mame in order to hopefully prevent illness in the New Year. She still maintained that it wasn't her fault Hina had given her the flu three times.
Yumi sighed and stared out the back doors at the sky. The clouds were sparse and the stars shone brightly tonight. She checked her watch and saw that it was almost midnight. "Yumi!" her father called.
"Yes?" she asked.
"Could you fetch more sake from the kitchen?"
"Sure," she called. She stepped over Hanna and Cho's legs. They didn't look up from where they were drawing on each other's arms. Kyou gave her a smile as she passed and she smiled back but he'd already returned to the game in his hands. Kyou was two years older than Hiroki and much better at staying awake.
A knock sounded at the door and she frowned. The adults hadn't heard over the sound of Beethoven and the talking and excited laughing. Yumi opened the front door and frowned. "Kaito?" she asked.
"Hey, Yumi," he replied. He was bundled up from the cold and he shifted awkwardly from foot to foot. "Can you come out here for a moment?"
"What are you doing here?" she asked. She stepped out, shutting the door behind her.
"I slipped out," he admitted. She frowned, confused, as he grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the porch rail. "The stars are pretty tonight."
"Yeah…do you want to come in?" She wasn't sure what to do. She'd never had someone not related to her appear on New Year's eve. "It's almost midnight."
"I know." He shifted again. "Let's just stand out here for a moment, okay?"
"…Okay." She leant on the rail next to him. He took her hand again and she looked at him curiously. "Kaito?" He was acting odd, definitely not his usual cool self. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, great…I…" he trailed off as the bells began to ring. All over the temple bells rang, filling the night air as people cheered. She wondered if her family had noticed her absence yet. She wondered if…
Kaito kissed her.
She froze.
He pulled back, face red and eyes wide. "I'm sorry…I just. I really like you, Yumi and…and…"
She smiled and blushed, fingers automatically playing with the strands of hair too short to be tucked behind her ear. "Really?" she asked over the sound of the bells.
His face turned redder. "Yeah, really." He shifted and tugged at his jacket sleeves. "Are you upset?"
"No," she said. She gave him a shy smile and then addressed the post behind his left shoulder, "but we might have to try that kiss again."
He grinned, and as the bells faded away, leaned in and kissed her again.
/
"You're really moving?" Kaito asked.
"Yeah."
They sat at the koi pond and she tossed bits of bread to the fat fish. "That sucks," he groaned. Yumi shrugged and let him pull her tight against him in a one-armed side hug. "Will you come back?"
"Of course I will." She wouldn't look at him because then he'd see the tears and she didn't want him to see her cry. "I guess this means we'll be breaking up, huh?" They'd only been together six months anyway. It wasn't a big deal, she tried to tell herself.
"What, why?"
"I'm moving. To France. It's not like I'll be an hour's train ride away," she replied irritably.
"So?" He tightened his grip on her. "Yumi, look at me." Reluctantly, she met his eyes. They were dark and glinting with something she was still too young to identify. "I love you-"
"My mother says we're too young to know love," she scoffed, eyebrow raised.
"What does she know about how I feel?" he asked. "I care about you a lot. I'll see you when you come back and maybe I can come visit you, yeah?"
"You mean it?" she asked. She fought the bubbling feeling but could feel it manifesting itself as a smile.
"I mean it."
She grinned as she kissed him.
/
Her mother hummed and ran calloused fingers through her hair. Yumi curled in a ball and sobbed into her pillow. The letter Hina had sent clutched in her hand. "How…how c-could he?" she hiccupped against her mother's warm leg.
"You didn't really think this would last, did you?" her mother asked. Yumi sobbed harder, the paper crumpling in her hands. Her mother's hands moved to her shoulders, massaging gently. "I'm sorry, Yumi. Boys, especially at this age, do stupid things. You must realize this. It'll get easier, you'll see."
"He said he loved me!" she protested. "And Hina said he went off with Mei and…and he said he loved me."
She heard her mother sigh. "Boys will say many things, Yumi. You have to learn how to tell what's true and what's not. It's a hard lesson, but everyone goes through it. Listen to me; I'm not trying to be mean. Boys will break your heart. And you'll break theirs…"
"Not like this! I wouldn't cheat on someone!"
"No, you won't," her mother said. Yumi sat up, wiping at her face and tossing the letter aside. "You're barely thirteen, Yumi. You'll move past it, and you'll remember this the next time a boy breaks your heart. And it might be worse then, or it might be easier. But you will always feel pain, that's the way of relationships."
Her mother pulled her into a hug and Yumi curled up against her. She breathed in the scent of tea and cleaning supplies and lavender soap and wished she were still Hiroki's age.
The next day she burned their photos and the printed emails in the rubbish bin out back.
. . … . .
Robert Nattier had those dark eyes she'd always been drawn to. The brooding ones. The secretive ones. He launched paper balls at her hair at lunch and accidentally spilled juice on her new sweatshirt. Shannon blew a pink bubble and kicked her shin under the table.
"What?" Yumi demanded. She was already irritated by the paper balls and juice spilling. Shannon rolled her blue eyes and beckoned Yumi to lean in. "What?" Yumi repeated, obediently leaning forward until the table bit into her stomach.
"He likes you," Shannon said. Yumi's eyes narrowed while Shannon's widened. "You're so flipping lucky. He's a year older and almost as hot as Johnny Depp."
"I don't like Johnny Depp," Yumi protested. Shannon gave her a sad look and shook her head. "Anyway, why doesn't he just ask me out?"
Shannon rolled her eyes. "Because he's a boy, duh." She popped another bubble while Yumi chewed her lip. "Don't blow it, Yumi. He's Kadic's number one hottie."
/
Don't blow it, Yumi.
Shannon's words echoed in her head as she sat in the dark cinema with Robert. He gave her a grin as the previews started and she mustered a small one in response. She still wasn't sure what movie they had actually agreed on seeing.
Don't blow it, Yumi.
Her face heated as Robert wrapped an arm around the back of her chair, his fingers rubbing at her shoulder and playing with her hair. She focused on the screen, watching two children holding some kind of tin box and talking of dares.
Don't blow it, Yumi.
Robert's hand shifted, moved down her arm. She shifted in her seat and dropped her phone. Quickly she leaned forward to find it on the ground. When she sat up again, his arm was gone. With a half-suppressed sigh she settled back and tried to focus on the movie again.
Don't blow it, Yumi.
Marion Cotillard made an appearance on screen about the same time that Robert's hand made it's appearance on her leg. "I'm glad you agreed to come with me," Robert breathed into her ear.
Don't blow it, Yumi.
"Please, stop. I'm trying to watch the movie," she hissed back. She grabbed his hand and he leaned in and managed to kiss her in the near-dark. Her head spun as he pressed in. He wasn't like Kaito. He wasn't shy. He was demanding and pushy and her gasp was all the invitation he needed to stick his tongue in her mouth.
Don't-
Her slap echoed in the crowded cinema. The people nearest her looked over in surprise as she untangled herself from his shocked grasp. How many hands did he have anyway?
She never got to see the end of the movie.
/
"How was your date?" her mother asked.
"Date? What date?" her father demanded. He looked up from his dinner and frowned. "I thought she was seeing a movie with a friend?"
"Hush, Takeyo," her mother admonished. "Yumi?"
"Fine," she replied. She ignored the way her mother's eyebrows drew together as she stormed past the living room.
"Now wait a moment, I have a right to know what goes on in my own house!" her dad exclaimed.
"Do you now?" her mother demanded. Hiroki kept his head ducked as he stacked rice with his chop sticks. "Well then, the roof is leaking over the spare room again and I have to call in a specialist because you never bothered to get rid of the rodents-"
"Not now, Akiko!"
Yumi took the stairs two at a time and slammed her door shut. She collapsed onto her bed, already calling Shannon. "How'd it go?" Shannon squealed.
"I blew it," she sighed.
. . … . .
"I wouldn't hurt you," he told her. "I'd never hurt you."
Her smile was twisted a little as she touched his hand. She wanted to believe him, she really did. "I know you wouldn't," she replied. Not intentionally, she thought. "But I'm not ready for another relationship. I just like being your friend."
Ulrich nodded and his fingers laced with hers. "I understand." He gave her a small smile and she smiled back.
/
She wasn't sure how it happened. One minute they were sitting and talking, laughing about Odd's latest prank on Jim. The next thing she knew her lips were pressed against Ulrich's and his hands were knotted in her hair. She pressed against him, kissed him hard, and he didn't back down.
When they pulled away for air he gave her a tiny smile and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Well," he said.
She doubled over laughing until he followed suit. They leaned together, her forehead pressed to his shoulder and his fingers dancing across her shoulders, until they caught their breath. "I don't usually kiss on a first date," she groaned, wondering what he'd think of her.
Below her forehead his shoulder rose in a shrug. "Good thing this wasn't a date, huh?" he teased. "How about Friday night, seven-thirty? We can have dinner in town."
She liked that it wasn't a movie theater. "Sounds good," she agreed.
/
She couldn't place her finger on it. On what it was that made them combust. Or maybe she could, she'd just need more than one finger.
Ulrich held her hands but didn't meet her eyes. "I don't want to hurt you," he repeated. "I never wanted to hurt you."
It was so much like the first time he asked her out that she wanted to cry. Or laugh. "I know you don't," she murmured finally. "But we don't work, do we?" She'd seen this coming. She'd seen it coming but denied it for so long that she'd forgotten that they didn't work. They were too stubborn.
He looked relieved and that hurt more. He wasn't going to try to fight for them. And he didn't care that she wasn't fighting for them either. "We don't," he agreed. His eyes met hers and he looked so serious, so final and now the tears did come, gathered at the corners of her eyes and threatened to fall. Her fingers clenched around his. "I'm sorry, Yumi."
"Me too, Ulrich." He leans forward and kisses her forehead while slipping his hand out of hers. "Ulrich!" He met her eyes again. "Tell me it isn't Sissi."
He gave her a twisty smile. "It isn't Sissi," he agreed. "I have to get back, I promised Odd-"
"It's okay, go on. I'll see you at school," she interrupted. Again that relieved look and she felt her heart twist.
"Ulrich's not coming in?" her mother asked when she entered the house alone. Yumi shook her head and wiped at the stubborn tears that still clung to her eyelashes. "Oh, Yumi!"
"What? What happened?" her father asked. Her mother shot him a dark look as she hurried across the room to hug their daughter.
"It's okay," her mother soothed. She ran her fingers through her hair and rubbed her back. "I told you boys couldn't be trusted, they only break your heart. But you'll find one someday. I know you will."
Yumi sniffed and breathed in her mother's perfume and didn't argue.
. . … . .
Will's all dark eyes and secret smiles. He's the type of boy she promised never to get involved with again. But he sent her poetry and funny cartoons, hummed songs that she hadn't heard before and talked to her about history and messed up families.
Two weeks after she and Ulrich broke up she gave in. She wondered what that said about her.
/
Will's hands were tight on her upper arms, pinning her against the door. She reached up, fingers dug deep into his shoulders as she tugged him closer. Their mouths crashed together again-again-again. She could feel her heart race, could feel his pulse pound beneath her fingers. They were racing-racing-racing but not in sync like in all those stories she'd read.
He pulled back, panting hard and she pressed forward automatically. His grip stopped her and she glared at him and huffed. "Yumi," he said. His eyes were dark, darker than Kaito's when he lied to her at the fishpond, darker than Robert's when he whispered in her ear, darker even than Ulrich's when she struck at him and he fought back until they lay panting on the ground.
"Sh," she murmured. His grip relaxed enough for her to press her fingers to his face, to tug him back toward her. "Sh," she repeated. She pressed kisses to his mouth once-twice-thrice and then he was kissing her back. Groaning into her mouth and she thought finally but she wasn't sure what she'd been waiting for.
She pushed him back until they collapsed on her bed and she never found out what he'd wanted to say to her.
/
"I can't do this anymore," Will told her. She scuffed a sneaker along the carpet in his room and ignored the annoyed look he shot her way. "I love you, Yumi. A lot. But you don't love me and you're going to Paris in three months. It's time we stopped pretending, isn't it?"
Her eyes rose to meet his and she leaned back against the wall. Idly she scratched along the black ink permanently staining her wrist. He reached over and took her hand, pressed his lips to the words written there. "The fact that you're not even going to argue…it tells me a lot," he murmured against her skin.
"It sounded like you'd made up your mind," she replied. She pulled her hand away and plucked at the tartan quilt. Will heaved a sigh and reached for her again. "Don't touch me," she snapped. "Not after what you just said."
"Yumi, please," he said.
"Forget it." She got up and grabbed her bag. "You're right; I'm leaving in three months. Wouldn't want you to have to pretend anymore." She stomped across the room to the door.
"Yumi, damn it, that's not what I meant!" Will protested. He grabbed her arm and spun her around, pressed her against the door.
"Careful, Will," she cautioned. He searched her eyes, brushed the hair out of her face. "What are you doing?"
He leaned in and kissed her hard. Hard enough to bruise, to cut lips against sharp teeth. His grip left purple marks on her arms for days afterward. He pulled back and studied her face again. She raised an eyebrow curiously. "Nothing," he said and his tone was just shy of despondent. "I loved you, Yumi."
"Obviously," she snapped. She elbowed him before opening the door and storming out. She didn't stop running until she got home.
"Yumi?" her mother called. She had a pencil behind her ear and a red pen in her hand. She was in the middle of editing. "Are you okay? What happened?"
"Will dumped me."
"Oh, Yumi, I'm-"
"Save it," she snapped. "You were right, guys will only break my heart."
"Yumi, I didn't-"
"I'm going to bed."
. . … . .
"Hey, Yumi, right?" She looked up at the voice. "Let me help you with that." The cardboard box she was struggling with was suddenly pulled out of her arms.
It took her a minute to place the face. "…John?" she asked.
He gave her a slight smile. "Close. It's Sean." She flushed and nodded. "You moving in here?"
"Yeah, school…"
"Cool." He hitched the box higher and nodded to the door. "Lead the way."
"Oh, no, I can manage…"
"Yumi, it's fine."
"Oh, okay. Thanks." She led the way so he wouldn't see her flushed face. His eyes dropped to her wrist.
"So I guess no more mistakes, huh?" he asked.
She gave a smile as she fumbled with her key and the door. "None worth remembering," she replied. She managed to get the door opened and sighed. "Sorry for the mess."
"Can't be worse than my place." He entered and ignored the piled boxes and clothes and scattered dishes. "Where do you want it?"
"On the table's fine." He placed it carefully on top of a stack of newspapers threatening to slide sideways off the table. "Well, thanks again."
"No problem." He gave her an easy smile. "You want to get some coffee? I know a café down the street-"
"Oh, well I'm not…I mean…"
"Yumi, it's just coffee. Just to welcome you to the city. It's okay." He hooked his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans and bounced up and down on the balls of his feet, watching her intently.
She blew a strand of hair out of her face. "Yeah, sure, okay." He broke out in a wide smile and she couldn't help but grin back. "It sounds really great actually."
She reached for her purse and he shook his head, grabbed her arm and pulled her out the door. "Nah, I'm buying."
"But-"
His dark eyes twinkled as he smiled down at her while she locked the door. "If you have to then think about it as a welcome-to-Paris gift."
"Is that what it is?" she asked, pocketing her key.
"Doesn't have to be," he agreed. He held the outer door open for her. "But we'll have to wait and see, won't we?"