The Universe
Chapter Eleven - Give Me One Good Reason
By Djinn Hashiba-Maxwell



Mom and Dad, they don't quite understand it
All the kids, they laugh as if they planned it.
Why do girls wanna pierce their nose
And walk around in torn pantyhose, oh yeah

I like the ones who say they listen to the punk rock
I like the kids who fight against how they were brought up
They hate the trends and think it's fucked to care
It's cool when they piss people off with what they wear, oh yeah.

So give me one good reason
Why we need to be like that
Kids will have fun and all that
They don't want to and don't fit in . . .

*~ Give Me One Good Reason ~*
*~ Blink 182 ~*

Touma was irritated.

No. That was not the right word. 'Irritated' was not the right word at all; it suggested more anger than unease. Touma was not angry, not at anyone other than himself, anyway. No, what he was, he decided, was agitated. 'Agitated'. That was a good word. Let's start over.

Touma was agitated.

After all, it wasn't every day that he woke up in a mansion in the middle of nowhere, in a strange bed, next to a startlingly gorgeous and completely nude girl.

K'so! Next to an overly pierced lesbian who he'd known for years!

Damn it, get it straight, Hashiba.

Straight? You're gay and she's a lesbian and you want to 'get it straight'?

Damn he needed a drink.

"Stop fucking pacing, you're making me dizzy! You need a drink." Kaiya snapped, coming back from the kitchen with a bottle of dark, bitter liquid.

"I don't want a damn drink! In case you forget, that's how this whole thing started!" He snapped. "Liquor does not solve everything, Kaiya!"

Kaiya sighed and wiped at her eyes with the back of one hand, as if she were tired. "Liquor solves nothing, Touma. And it causes more problems than it's worth. But it helps me not have to deal with things I don't know how to quantify." She took a glass off a shelf and poured a rather small amount of rum into it, then sat on the couch, leaning into the plush cushions as far as she could and sipping the alcohol delicately. Touma found himself, quite unintentionally, noticing the way the light shimmered on her wet lips.

"I need to get out of here."

Kaiya grinned. "That makes two of us, babe."

"Kaiya." Touma said, rather desperately, "Do you remember anything that happened last night?"

She grinned wider. "Not an ever-lovin' thing, dear. And too bad too, cuz I'm sure there was a lot to rememba'."

"Kaiya, be serious." Touma growled. "This is no laughing matter."

"Really? Because, not to be overly casual or anything dear, but I think it's absolutely hilarious." She dipped her finger into her rum and swirled it around the lip of her glass. "I mean, think about it. I'm not the least bit attracted to guys and you're not the least bit attracted to me, yet when we're completely pissed we sleep together!"

Touma didn't think this was the time to admit that he actually was rather attracted to Kaiya, and indeed almost always had been. Touma wasn't entirely certain that it possible to dislike Kaiya, unless of course you were a bigot, like Nai's sister. But Touma was obviously not a bigot, and aside from Seiji he really did not consider himself gay. It's a cliché to say 'it's only him', but it was - it didn't matter to Touma that Seiji was a man, just that he was Seiji. His comrade, his ally, the person he could trust with his very life without the slightest hesitation.

The thought of Seiji rightfully gave Touma pause. What would Seiji say if he discovered that Touma had slept with Kaiya? No - not discovered. Touma would tell him, in his own words, under his own circumstances. It was the only possible way to lessen the damage.

It couldn't hurt that Seiji knew Kaiya for a ferocious bull dyke.

"This is just BIZARRE." Touma groaned, finally giving in and collapsing on the couch next to Kaiya. He supposed that he ought to feel weirder than he did about sleeping with Kaiya, but he just couldn't bring up any self-disgust. This was Kaiya, Kaiya would never judge him, never think less of him for anything. Okay, yeah, Touma hadn't slept with a girl since . . . yeah, since the sixteen year old fling with Natsuko Miyuki on a visit home. (The girl had a crush on him since the day she moved in, and in the confusion he had been feeling after the youjakai, and what he now knew to have been strongly concealed affection for his best friend, he had slept with her one night, in her room, with her parents two rooms down making dinner.) Still, girls were what he was - generally speaking - attracted to. So It wasn't that odd that he'd entertained the occasional impure thought about Kaiya, but that he had acted on them without even the benefit of remembering them . . .

"Touma, stop thinking so loud! You're giving me a headache." Kaiya complained. "Look, never happened, right? What happened here stays here, okay?"

Touma was shaking his head before she even finished. "Kaiya, I can't lie to Seiji, and you're the one that told me I shouldn't run away from things like this."

"Bein' kissed by your best male friend is slightly different from sleepin' with your best female one." Kaiya muttered. "Lesbianism notwithstanding."

"I have to tell him, Kaiya. I have to."

The purple-haired girl sighed softly, leaning her head back against the couch cushions. "You're gonna be the death of me, Touma-chan." She muttered in a tone laced with affection. "You don't understand. Nai slept with a guy, that's why I'm here, remember? What's she going to think if she finds out I slept with you?" She raised her head to look at the boy beside her. "I'll tell you what she'll think - petty revenge. And it'll sound pretty damn plausible. And Touma-chan - I couldn't stand for Nai to think I was shallow enough to use my best friend to make her jealous."

Abruptly, Kaiya stood. She turned so that she was standing over Touma, the light behind her causing her hair to glow in an ethereal halo around her pale, momentarily piercing-free face.

"I would never do that, Touma." Kaiya said, desperately needing the boy to acknowledge that he understood, that he trusted her. "Not to you, not to her . . . NEVER."

Touma was possessed by the sudden urge to hug her. "I know that, Kaiya." He said easily, meaning it. "And if Nai doesn't, then I don't know what the hell you're doing with her in the first place."

Kaiya's face fell, and suddenly she looked very near tears. "These days, I don't know how if she cares about me at all . . . I mean, I know I'm nothing special, but still, I thought that if I loved her enough, that could keep things from getting completely f*cked up . . ."

"Stop it, Kaiya." Touma said suddenly, his voice harsh. "Just stop it. If Nai doesn't love you then she's the one that's f*cked up, not you. And don't start in with this 'I'm worthless' bullshit. It's so not you and we both know it's not true."

Kaiya, quite unexpectedly, laughed aloud. "What would I do without you, Touma-chan?" She asked rhetorically.

Touma replied, quite seriously, "I hope you never have to find out."



"I'm home." Touma said softly, feeling obliged to announce his presence, but not actually wanting anyone to know that he was back yet. Kaiya had protested at leaving him to go home alone, but only at first. She knew that one of the first things Touma would do - in order to appease his conscience - would be tell Seiji every detail (those he could remember, anyway) about what had happened over their weekend. Kaiya didn't fear a lot, but a pissed off Seiji was something she did not want to experience firsthand.

"TOUMA!!"

Unfortunately, despite his stealthy entry, he was living with a group of former warriors. Good hearing came with the package.

It was Shuu who burst out of the living room and grabbed him by the shoulders, giving him one good shake before releasing him. "Where have you been? Everyone's been worried sick!"

"Er . . . ah . . . I went to the, er, mountains with Kaiya . . ." Touma tried to give him a typical smirk and chuckle, but was still a little too rattled and entirely too worried over what he was going to say to Seiji. The whole affair with Ryo only three days past and now this?

"Geez, Seiji's been a wreck! You better go right upstairs and tell him you're here." Shuu scooted him along to the foot of the stairs, motioning for him to ascend. Touma hesitated, eyes searching pleadingly for anything to delay him, but nothing presented itself. Slowly, like a man being led to the gallows, he ascended the stairs.



Seiji barely raised his head at the knock on the door. "Not now, Shin." He called. He had a good mope going, and he wasn't inclined to have it ruined by his auburn haired ally.

There was a lengthy paused, and then a sigh. "Not Shin." Touma's voice said.

Seiji was off the bed and had the door flung open in about half the time it took for him to say the words. In a heartbeat he hand the blue haired boy firmly in his arms, clutching him as if he might never hold him again. "Kami, Touma, where have you been??" Seiji demanded, not releasing his hold on the archer in the slightest.

"If I could . . . get some air . . ." Touma laughed slightly, nervously.

Seiji released him just enough that he could look at the other boy. "Touma . . ." he said, reading the other boy's expression easily, ". . . what's wrong?"

Touma looked away, wondering how he was supposed to tell this. "Seiji, I . . ." first things first, he supposed. "I was in the mountains with Kaiya. But while we there, something happened." He whispered.

Seiji's brow furrowed for a moment, as if trying to understand what Touma was saying by this. "Was there an accident? Was Kaiya hurt?" He ventured, concerned. Touma let out a nervous laugh.

"No. Kaiya is fine. It wasn't that kind of something." He let out another choking laugh. "Oh Seiji, I wouldn't blame you if you never spoke to me again. First Ryo and now . . ."

The mention of Ryo made something click in Seiji's brain. He took a step back and blinked in surprise. "You're not saying . . ." He shook his head, as if trying to make the thought more clear, ". . . you and Kaiya?"

"We were both really upset and we decided to get really drunk and then . . . oh god, I don't even know what happened." Touma was desperately trying not to cry. The look of complete and utter shock on Seiji's face was too much for him. "All I know is, we woke up together . . . gods Seiji, I was completely pissed, I don't even know how it happened . . ."

Seiji blinked blankly a few more times, and then he did something that took Touma completely off guard.

He laughed.

Seiji suddenly threw his head back and let out a peal of easy baritone laughter. Touma was abstractly offended. Here he was, trying to explain a transgression like a good little boyfriend, and Seiji was laughing at him. Then it occurred to him that Seiji laughing was not Seiji telling him he never wanted to see him again, and he relaxed a bit.

"I fail to see what is so funny." Touma said dryly.

Seiji grabbed Touma without warning, tugged him close and sealed his mouth over Touma's, so unexpected was the action that Touma forgot to even close his eyes. Strong arms held him against a warm body and Touma desperately struggled to remember what it was that he was so worried about to begin with.

"I forgive you." Seiji breathed against his slightly parted lips when they finally came up for air. "That's what you wanted to hear, right?"

Touma swallowed. "Yes . . ." He said uncertainly, before Seiji's lips came down on his again.

It was the last coherent word spoken that night.