Kyo barged into the Sohma main office, uncaring whether his Nike shoes were smearing mud on the carpeted floor of the CEO's office. "You goddam mouse! Get out of that room and face me like a man!"
Tohru nervously opened the door. "Ah, K-Kyo!"
"Where is that damn mouse?" he asked, for the first time forgetting to greet the onigiri hello. He was still fuming over what his cousin did.
"Um, he's busy…in a meeting," said Tohru helplessly.
"Meeting my ass! Show me that sissy and I'll give him a piece of his mind!" bellowed Kyo as several employees stared at him in horror.
"Um, Kyo-kun, calm down," pleaded the girl beggingly.
He exhaled sharply. "Calm down? Calm down?! God, that damn nezumi gave me a driver! And a female driver at that!"
"Don't take your anger out on Honda-san," said the familiar authoritative male voice. It was Yuki, who just came out from the conference room with Hatori. The nezumi crossed his arms in front of his chest. "We thought that it would be best for you to have a driver. Just so you can go to important places quickly without having to commute. A subway-taking Junior executive officer of a successful car manufacturing franchise can hurt our reputation very much, you know."
"I do NOT care about the reputation of the company or of the family. I do NOT want a driver, least of all a Yankee! I will pass the next driver license exam, and I'll show you how wrong you are for underestimating me!" vowed Kyo.
"Kyo-kun…"whispered Tohru.
"Take note that you stated that in future tense, meaning it's not going to happen yet anytime soon." Yuki sighed. "Look, if you do not need a driver, we do. We do not find your car accidents very cute anymore. Sure, two trips to the hospital for a blockhead like you is entertaining, but more than that, I cannot allow anymore."
Kyo clenched his fists. "I do not need your concern, damn mouse."
"I'm not concerned about you, stupid cat. I'm worried about the cars. We cannot afford to lose some more of our products because of you," said Yuki. "And as the head of the clan, you must yield to my wishes."
"Blackmailer! You're using your rank to force something undesirable on me!" yelled Kyo.
"Stop acting like a brat!" said the clan doctor, groaning.
"Alright, I'll play along with your game for a little while, damn mouse. But you should know, this incident will fuel my desire to wipe your face on the floor someday."
"Someday," smirked Yuki. "Now, why don't you and Hatori get started on the training-"
"I will not train today!" yelled the neko before running away, fuming.
"He's impossible!" exclaimed Yuki, brushing his stray bangs off his forehead.
Tohru's eyes followed the retreating figure of her friend. I hope he and Uo get along fine.
Kyo spotted the black convertible in front of the office building, deliberately putting the No Parking signs to shame. This made him even angrier. He decided to sneak left, hoping that he could escape this torment.
But to his dismay, he found the black car roaring back to life and sprinting towards him. Cursing, he tried to march away, but he could see that the car would follow him even if he tried to enter another building. He decided to stop walking and just wait for the car.
It rolled right beside him. The driver's door opened and out came Uo, eyebrow raised. "So you were able to talk to the Prince?"
He grunted.
She gave him an I-told-you-so smirk before going to the other side of the car to open the passenger seat for him.
This made Kyo fume even more. He grumpily sat down inside the car as Uo started the engine again.
"Where to, Boss?" asked his driver.
"Back home," he grumbled.
She shrugged, then started back to the Sohma house.
"Know what? I hate you," hissed Kyo as he reached for the mineral water inside the car's compartment.
"The prince told me to prepare myself for your tantrums," she told him wryly. "I'm bringing a whip with me just in case. They say that whips can tame even the wildest of felines, like the roaring lion, and make them purr."
Kyo's grip on the mineral water bottle tightened. "Shut the hell up."
"I can't believe it. You can't pass a simple exam like a driver license one? Man, you're hopeless!" she cried. "You really are a loser. If I were you, I would find myself a rope and hang myself. My masculinity is worthless without the knowledge on wheels."
"Who asked for your opinion?" he asked sourly. In a span of two hours, his whole life had been turned around by one simple manipulative trick from the damn mouse. One minute he was at home, mourning on the disappointing result of his exams, and the next minute, he was conversing with a Yankee whom he had not seen since second year high school.
He hated Yuki's guts, before, but now, he was obsessed more than ever to tear his guts out in savage glory.
"No one. I gave it for free, so you should be thankful," she retorted.
"Hah! Thank you?! That's the last thing on my mind right now," he yelled. Murder sounds good right now.
"What are you so mad about anyway?" she wanted to know. "Is your overbearing ego too swelled up to accept the fact that you can't drive while other men can? And that the weaker sex would have to be the one to do that activity for you?"
He looked away. "Are you paid to psychologize me too?"
"It doesn't' really take a rocket scientist to know what's killing you," she said, shrugging carelessly. "OK, Boss, we're home."
He paused. "What did you just call me?"
"Boss."
"Is that how Yankees call their superiors?"
"No, but I feel comfortable calling you that."
He groaned. "You act like a gangster."
"You're just insecure," she said. "Because you're afraid that I may be more masculine than you are." She gave him a smart salute. "Call me in my CP if you need me."
"Dream on," he muttered.
"Hey Kyo, you're back so early!" remarked Shigure when Kyo entered the living room grumpily. "Usually, Hatori's torture sessions last for 5 grueling hours. Don't tell me that he let you out on a parole or something."
"Leave_me_alone."
"I saw your driver. A girl, eh? Do I smell romance here?" he asked, his mouth twitching.
"Correction. She is not a girl. She is an Amazon! A total tomboy! A-A…"
"Xanthippe," caught Shigure, grinning. "The notorious wife of Socrates."
"Soc-who?" asked the neko blankly. "Is he a politician or something?
"Never mind," said the novelist, grinning. "Anyway, you gave me a good idea for my romance novel. It's about an arrogant, immature, and ill-tempered idiot who didn't know how to start the car engine to save his life that will meet a tomboyish woman who would be his driver, but later would be his best buddy, then his ladylove-"
"Get real , you stupid dog!" yelled Kyo. "Stop making fun of me!"
"But it's fun," protested his elder cousin.
"Besides, I'll never fall in love with someone more masculine than me! I want girls who are-" He stopped in the middle of his sentence when he realized that he had said too much.
"You want soft, gentle girls like Tohru-kun, eh?" asked Shigure, his grin widening.
"Damn!" Kyo marched back up to his favorite spot in the house – on the roof. This day would go straight to the books as the crummiest day in his life.
"But beware, sometimes, the things in life that you want are not the ones you really need. Sometimes, the ones you hate are the missing essentials of your life," said Shigure.
No reply.
"I wonder if he understood what I said." The novelist then shrugged. "Heck, I better get started on that new novel."
"Your advance salary, Arisa-san," said Yuki, handing Uo a fat stack of yens. "For surviving the whole trip home with an explosive Sohma Kyo in the car, and for preserving the car."
"The fellow's really pissed off," she remarked. "I won't be surprised if he starts cooking up assassination plans for you."
"He's too stupid to even know how many S' are there in assassination, so I'm not worried," said the Sohma clan head confidently. "Anyway, he will be taking another exam, a special one, within 3 months. Within that period, you will be his personal driver."
"No problem."
"Nice job today. Keep it up!"
"Thanks, Princey!"
Uo was driving Kyo's car back to her flat – Yuki entrusted her with the car already- when she remembered how Kyo reacted when he discovered that she was his driver.
"You?!!!" Kyo was able to exclaim at last. "W-Why you?!!"
"Because I was the one sent here by Princey, that's why," she said.
"No…God, no, it's a lie!" He tried to grab the car keys away from her, but she held them out of reach swiftly. Kyo then accidentally lost his balance and slammed right in front of her chest, making him poof into a cat.
She picked him up, eyes rolling. "Still a pervert, I see." At first, when Tohru told her and Hana finally about the Sohma clan secret, she couldn't believe her. But when she saw Yuki and Kyo turn into their animal forms when Tohru hugged them, she had no choice but to believe.
"Women! You are jinxes!" yelled the annoyed orange cat.
She placed the animal on the backseat, then locked the doors. "So how are you? It's been four years, right?"
"Well, as you can plainly see, I'm still breathing. How about you, Ma'am?" he asked sarcastically.
"Same thing for me here." She continued to drive. "Thank god I was born talented, so I easily learned how to drive, and drive safely, if I may add. How about you, Sir? The Princey told me that you frequent hospitals whenever you're in front of the steering wheel."
"Take me to that damn mouse!" he said immediately.
"As the Boss says-" Her words were cut off by another poof. The smoke evaporated, revealing a naked Kyo. She nearly lost her grip on the steering wheel, but she managed to take hold of her composure. Instead, she wiggled her eyebrow at him on the car mirror suggestively. "Such tight muscles. Bet you take precious time building those, eh?"
He sank to the carpeted floor of the car, searching for his clothes desperately. "Damn, where's my-" He stopped when he felt the car stop. "Hey!"
She gave him a very quick glance, but long enough for him to see her smirk. "It's heavy traffic."
Kyo slowly looked up at the vehicle beside their car and nearly fainted when he saw a school bus with teenage girls and some serious-looking nuns aboard a bus.
"You'll make a nice tourist spot here amidst Tokyo traffic," she said before whistling.
She heard him mutter profanities that the nuns would have suffered epilepsy for, then burst into laughter.
"The glasses are heavily-tinted, don't worry!" she said as she tossed him some fresh change of clothes. "The Princey had prepared for these circumstances too."
A replay of the profanities, only much more colorful, and were now aimed at her.
Uo slowed down when she saw the garage. She was dead tired, and she needed all the rest she could get, for tomorrow would be another day in trying to survive Kyo.
tsuzuku