The Universe
With special and well-deserved thanks to Wildefyre, who's a hell of a gal. ^_~
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I water'd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears;
And I sunnèd it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright;
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine.
And into the garden stole
When the night had veil'd the pole;
And in the morning, glad I see
My foe outstretch'd beneath the tree.
A Poison Tree
William Blake
"You uh . . . had something you wanted to say to me?"
Seiji turned from the porch railing as if he had not been aware of Ryo's approach, though of course he had noticed every step the other boy took. The blonde had been waiting for quite some time, knowing that Ryo was doing anything possible to delay their 'discussion'. He would have been a tad nervous himself if her were in Ryo's shoes. He knew himself to be a bit intimidating if he so chose.
"Relax, Ryo - I'm not mad at you."
Ryo gave Seiji a skeptical look and for a second the violet eyes flashed something darker, like black.
"Okay. I am mad at you."
Ryo was at least glad to have that in the open, even though the admission did not bode well for him. He swallowed convulsively, shifting his weight from his right leg to his left, trying to gauge Seiji's mood from his expression. A lost cause.
"In fact, I'm very mad at you. Furious. You knew that Touma and I were together, and then you went and did something like this. But Touma made me promise to be civil." He paused. "I'm sure you think that you have a good reason. I'm also sure that it isn't a good reason at all."
"I'm in love with him." Ryo said suddenly, his voice barely making it above the tone of a whisper.
"No." Seiji said firmly. "You aren't."
"How would you know??" Ryo demanded. He could tolerate Seiji being pissed at him, and he had EXPECTED to get beat up, but he was not going to have Seiji presume to know how he felt about Touma. "You wouldn't know love if it bit you on the ass. I'll bet good money I care more about him than you!"
"That is not true." Seiji said, obviously struggling to keep his cool.
"Oh isn't it??" Ryo challenged. "You'll happily f*ck him but aside from that I've never seen you treat him any different than you ever have! You won't even so much as hold his hand in public! If I was in your place I'd be happy having the entire world know he was my lover! You act like it's some kind of dark secret!"
Seiji took a deep, calming breath. "You know as well as I that my family . . ."
"Oh yes I almost forgot." Ryo scoffed. "Your family comes before everything else. You'll wait till your grandfather chooses a wife for you then you'll drop him like a hot potato. Something I would never do. You would never go against your family and we all know it! So how can you ever say you truly love him? You're too self centered for that Seiji!"
"How DARE you accuse me of not loving him!" Seiji said, uncharacteristically abandoning courtesy. "Touma is EVERYTHING to me!"
"Even if that WAS true - which it obviously ISN'T - you sure have one hell of a way of SHOWING it!" Ryo responded. "I didn't know how Touma put up with you BEFORE you two were lovers - I sure as hell can't figure it out NOW!"
"My relationship with Touma is none of your business." Seiji said dangerously.
"My best friend most certainly is my business." Ryo replied. "And to be quite honest, I don't see what Touma ever saw in an ice cube like you. I guess the sex is amazing, huh?" Ryo resulted to lewdness, knowing full well that it always irked the blonde.
"Ryo . . ." Seiji warned, his fists clenching and unclenching spasmodically as he tried to keep his temper in check, but Ryo knew he was already past the point of easy forgiveness and decided he might as well continue.
Ryo knew he'd gone too far quite a while ago. He knew that he didn't believe what he was saying. Seiji was his friend, and he wasn't as cold as an outsider might think. He was intelligent, collected, reliable and - yes, he'd admit it - attractive, and he knew EXACTLY what Touma saw in him. He saw the warmth that Seiji so rarely exuded, yet it was there just under the surface, as much a part of him as anything else. Ryo knew all of this, but he just kept going, pushing the swordsman's eerie calm to it's limits. He wanted Seiji to snap - wanted him to give in and belt him. He would feel mollified. It would prove that Seiji wasn't really the person he so easily pretended to be.
"Touma deserves better than someone like YOU."
And Ryo succeeded.
With Seiji, you could go a certain distance and receive almost no reaction, no matter what you did. But when Seiji's temper flared - which was rare as an eclipse - then look out. When Seiji was mad - I mean REALLY mad - there was almost nothing he wouldn't do. Whatever was learned about the blonde through prior observation was worth jack shit. Seiji would become just your average teenage boy, susceptible to all the emotional highs and lows that came with it. And he illustrated the fact by balling up a fist and punching Ryo. Hard.
Ryo stumbled backwards and likely would have fallen if not for the wall of the house, which he leaned against for support. His hand went reflexively to his nose, not surprisingly finding blood dripping down over his upper lip. He blinked, once, at the sticky redness on his fingers, and then looked up to find staring back at him. His expression was one of shock, as if he had no idea what had just happened. He probably didn't.
Touma, on the other hand, had a fair idea.
The archer had been standing in the doorway since their raised voices became audible from inside the house. He had one hand resting casually against the door frame, the look on his face was strangely indifferent, only the barest hints of emotions rather than full-fledged anger or surprise. Shin stood behind him, and in contrast he looked completely overwhelmed. His aqua eyes were wide and sparkled with the very beginnings of what might be tears, eyes flickering from Ryo's blood face to the few flecks of blood on Seiji's hand.
Suiko quickly pushed past Touma and the archer let himself be moved to the side as Shin moved to Ryo, grasping their leader's face between his palms to assess the damage. Ryo's tiger-blue eyes never left Seiji's violet-grey ones.
Touma's eyes flickered over Seiji. His right hand was still clenched into a tight fist but it was the only sign of tension left in his body. He looked tired, and his gaze flickered only briefly to Touma's eyes before shying away guiltily.
Touma sighed and then turned back inside without having said a word to either Ryo or Seiji.
Kaiya sniffled as she leaned over the steering wheel of her jeep, arms crossed on the worn black faux leather. She watched the argument dispassionately from the driveway, going unnoticed by any of the players. She was sorely tempted to go and carry out her earlier threat to kick the sh*t out of Ryo, but decided that she wasn't really in the mood to anyway. She felt someone vindicated when Seiji hit him, pleased to see blood. She knew that Touma wouldn't want it to happen, but friends didn't do things like what Ryo had done, in her opinion.
Only when she saw Touma disappear into the house did she exit her car, making sure to stay out of sight of the three that remained on the porch. She went around the back to avoid the rest of the household, wanting to see Touma without dealing with his friends. She most definitely was NOT in the mood.
The back door, she knew, was almost always unlocked and today was no exception. She let herself into the kitchen silently, relieved that the only person in the room was the object of her search. His arms were crossed on the wood with his face buried behind them.
"Hey." She said softly, her voice scratching painfully in her throat.
He looked up slowly, surprised but not startled. He quickly took in her worn appearance and the rims of red around her eyes. "What happened to you?" He asked quietly as she came to sit on the tabletop beside him.
"Nai got back from Tokyo today." She said.
Touma didn't understand the significance of this revelation. If he girlfriend was finally home from her art show, shouldn't Kaiya be overjoyed? "And?"
"I wish she hadn't told me." Kaiya choked, a single tears sliding down her pale cheek. "But she did. Confessed right away. So flippant about it too, as if it didn't mean anything. As if she thought it wouldn't really bother me."
Touma had the distinct feeling he knew where this was going. "She cheated on you?" He guessed hesitantly.
"With a guy!!" Kaiya exclaimed. "She cheated on me with a guy!! With a girl would have been bad enough, but I mean . . ." She buried her face in her hands, her voice sounding muffled. "What if she decides that she wants a boyfriend? What if I'm not good enough, Touma?"
Touma sighed, leaning his head in his hand, his elbow on the table, regarding his friend with empathy. "Well if you ask me, guys are more trouble than they're worth."
Kaiya half snorted, half sobbed. She rubbed at her nose, irritating the already raw skin. "We make quite a pair, don't we?" She said with dry humor.
Touma half smiled. "Yeah. Something like that."
Suddenly she jumped to her feet. "Touma. Let's go somewhere."
He blinked. "Like where?"
"I don't know. Just somewhere far away where we don't have to deal with sh*t. Just the two of us. Not tell anyone where we're going, just disappear. Just like that."
Touma blinked at the violet haired girl for a minute as if she were mad, and then he slowly nodded.
"Okay."
