Kyo sat under a large tree, the lunch Meilin had made for him sat on his lap as he leaned back against the trunk. Everyone was being so nice to him, he wasn't used to that at all. At his school the other boys watched for him at the beginning of lunch and teased him mercilessly throughout it. Kyo wondered how Li was doing, it was probably a rude awakening to see how Kyo lived compared to the Chinese boy.
"Kyo!" He jumped as Sakura waved at him.
"Shush!" he looked around for observers.
"Don't worry, for some reason we're the only ones who ever sit under this tree." Tomoyo smiled serenely as she set out a small blanket to sit on. She pulled boxes from the bag at her side and offered selections of rice balls and deserts to her friends. Sakura and Meilin sat down next to Kyo, making a circle of the four children, and proceeded to trade and eat lunch while discussing class earlier.
"I thought Mr.Terada was going to give us a spelling test today." Sakura commented as she picked up an octopus hot dog from Meilin's lunch.
"There was one scheduled today." Tomoyo checked her calendar and nodded thoughtfully.
"What kind of spelling test?" Kyo asked nervously, spelling was not a strong subject for him.
"Names of American States, I think it was." Meilin nodded, "Yes, that was it."
"Oh, well I guess that'll be ok..." Kyo thought furiously back to the previous semester, he knew names of European Counties... had he studied American States?
"Don't worry about it Kyo, I'm sure you'll do fine." Meilin took a bite from her own lunch and stuck her nose in the air, "after all, State names should be simple, you just have to sound them out. Americans write very simplistically."
"Right..." Kyo drawled, suddenly remembering that he had had a spelling test on them already, "Spell Mississippi."
"Wha?" Meilin looked over at him with a worried expression on her face, "Meeseseepee?"
"Yes." Sakura smiled gently and ducked her head as Meilin struggled to remember. Her face was a study of frustration, not unlike the face she made whenever a captured card returned to Sakura instead of Li.
"Don't worry Meilin, I don't think Mississippi will be on the test." Tomoyo patted the Chinese girl reassuringly. "Come on, I'll help you study some more." And with that they excused themselves, leaving Kyo and Sakura alone with the finished lunch.
"Lets clean up." Sakura reached for the same bowl as Kyo, their hands brushed slightly.
Kyo snatched his back, not unlike Li was prone to do, and the gesture for some reason depressed the perpetually sunny Sakura.
"I'm sorry." Kyo muttered as he cleaned to one side and stacked the dishes to wrap for their return journey home.
"No, its all right. I just miss Syaoran, I guess." She shrugged and finished tying the cloths around the dishes.
"You two are close huh?" Kyo smiled gently, Sakura shrugged and looked into Kyo's eyes. They were Li's eyes, but Li was not in them. While Sakura realized that Kyo was very much like Li, he was also very different. Kyo's small smile hid a hurt that she knew she couldn't even begin to understand. But the wound needed cleansing, and she was not one to stand idly by as a friend bleed to death.
"We're close I guess... But Kyo," she deliberately placed her hand on his and patted it gently, "You can't keep all your pain bottled up inside. You need to talk to someone. I'm here if you need me."
Kyo blinked, snatched his hand back and stood as the school bell rang. "We need to get back to class." He looked away and clenched his hand, sticking it in his pocket as he walked away.
"Kyo?" Sakura got to her feet, concerned as she saw the faint glow around his fist before he concealed it. What had she said to anger him so?
"Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself." He spat out. "I always have, and I always will. I don't need anybody." He couldn't look at her, if he did she'd know what a bald lie that really was.
"And we need to get back to class." Sakura agreed, she didn't need to look him in the eye to know how lonely the boy was, she could feel it in the pit of her stomach, how the boy ached. But she knew he wouldn't accept help from her.
Li now knew why Kyo kept his hands in his pockets. The first time he'd been shoved into a wall he'd thought it was just that the hallway had been crowded and somebody had stumbled. He promptly forgot about it... until the second time he was shoved into a wall and a small snicker followed it. The third time he braced himself, but he only succeeded in hitting the wall harder and at a downward angle. He bumped his shoulder against the wall and scraped it a bit as he slid down. All the training he'd had in controlling his temper he had to fight to remember. He needed to stay calm, these boys did not know whom they messed with.
"Hey orangey." The boy stood a full head taller than Kyo, who was tall for his age, and his death black hair was pulled back from his face in a tiny braid that traveled down his back.
"Hey back." Li answered in the most civilized tone he could muster.
"Didn't I tell you I didn't want to see your ugly face until you'd fixed that mop of yours you call hair?" He sneered. The boy might have been handsome, Li supposed, if it weren't so full of itself.
"Its my natural color." Li defended, then smirked calling the boy a pansy in Chinese.
"What did you call me?" the boys face turned red, not having recognized the word, but knowing the insult for the tone Li used.
"Nothing that would challenge your mental skills if you'd bother to look it up." Li got to his feet, only to be pushed back down the wall until the other boy loomed over him. It might have been menacing to Kyo, Li supposed, but Li was an old hand at the intimidating stare.
"Boys. Class." The teacher stood in the doorway and nodded at the other boy. "Kyo, get off the floor." He frowned at the boy and shook his head, not knowing what was ever in that sullen boys head.
"Oy, Sensei." Popped out of Li's mouth before he could stop it, he remembered Kyos "Oy" from the previous night.
"Come on Kyo." The teacher shook his head again and disappeared into the classroom, clearly expecting the boys to follow. Li tried to get up, only to be pushed back down.
"I'll get you at lunch coward." He hissed, then entered the classroom. Li took a folded piece of paper from his pocket and studied the layout Kyo gave him. His seat was front row, next to the windows. There was also a chart of other students. He'd told Li that the red desks where to be avoided or ignored and low and behold the kid who seemed to be out for Kyo's head sat in one marked red with several arrows pointing to it. "If you have to hurt anyone to get through the day, it'll probably be this guy"... Kyo had warned him, and as Li sat down passing the boy on his way, he figured the cat boy was probably right.
Li bent his head to the desk, studiously reading as the teacher droned on about the Revolution preceding the Meiji era of their government. "And the Battosai practically carved the death swatch through the remaining corrupt officials..." The teacher x'd out several diagrams to show the balance of power, and managed to suck Li's attention up like a sponge... it was interesting to know that one man could do so much...
A paper ball hit Li on the back of his head. He ignored it, trying to regain interest in the teacher's lecture. Another joined the first, rolling pitifully on the ground as Li snapped his head back to catch the next one fully on the forehead. He smiled at the boy behind him, for obviously that was where they'd come from seeing as how he'd grinned as the ball left his fingers and plopped between Li's brows.
"Why do you find this so amusing Wataki?" Li frowned, hoping he'd remembered the correct name.
"Freak." The boy answered.
"Kyo, eyes front." The teacher snapped. "Don't disrupt class today." Li's gaze traveled around the room as he turned around. The tall boy was smug, sitting perfectly straight and watching the teacher as if the lecture had enraptured him. "Why can't you be more like Kehji? Try to pay attention." Li returned his attention to the front, and suffered the paper balls in silence.
OH WOW! This is so awesome! I like, just put up my last chapter and already, three reviews!! You guys totally ROCK my SOCKS!
sakura no kaijuu -Um, no, tohru will not be appearing in THIS one, but I have plans for a second crossover, set after the events of the first season of Fruits Basket anime... not the manga, cause I haven't read all of it yet... (that's only cause not all of it is released in the US yet... damnitall... I've got up the #3 but the fact that I don't have all of it is depressing... ) but thanks for reviewing... (oh, dude, actually you might see a flash of her, but it won't be a speaking part or anything... just something to make you giggle )
Swt-Anime-Angel – you are such a COOL person to keep reviewing!! Tanks!! Keeps me going!
Ghoulee - Thanks for the non-pressure! But I really do like updating as fast as possible... if only because people like you read and are so nice to me!
I have a head full of so many possibilities, and I'm going to try to write them out fast cause I have a couple of crazy weeks ahead of me at work... I swear if one more person asks if we sell medicinal weed I'm gonna scalp 'em... ( no we don't, only pharmacies at hospitals can do that... ya know?? Not CVS's...)
But oh my gods! keep tuned in 'cause Li is going to go into total un-like Li moves in the next couple of chapters!! (Ahhh! Li! i swear he's my fav! Kyo is a close second... and i do like Shigure an aweful lot ("High school girls, high school girls, all for me! high school girls!)... I think i'd like Yuki a bit more if he hadn't creeped me out during the first episode... you know, when he goes to get Tohrus things and he's like, "I'm not going... alone..." and his eyes start to glow? (Shudder!)