A/N: Sumi101 - Nope, in this story Yuki and Kyo are not related because its AU xD Plus, Kyo's way too hot to be related to that girly woman hahahs :] btw, thanks for reviewing :D
NOTE TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED: THANK YOU SOOOOOOO SOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!! The reviews made me super duper HAPPYY!!! :D I hope you guys will enjoy the rest of the chapter that are coming, and I will try to make the chapters longer... but I can't guarantee oO anyway.... ENJOY!
A Thousand Cranes
Chapter Three - The Old Days
It was a Saturday afternoon and Yuki and Tohru were returning from a lunch at some cafe. Tohru seemed to be so sidetracked the whole time so Yuki finally asked with concern,
"Are you alright? You seemed so quiet today..."
Tohru looked up at him and felt immediate guilt enter her as she said apologetically,
"Oh! I'm so sorry... It's just I was thinking about um… well, there is this boy from the first grade that I was really good friends with, but he moved away. The thing is, he just came back a few days ago after so many years and I'm just… overwhelmed I guess."
Yuki felt a tiny bit of jealousy rise up from his system when he thought of Tohru talking to other guys, but he covered it up quickly with a smile and said,
"Wow, it must be so nice to meet an old friend again."
Tohru replied shortly,
"It is."
When they both reached her house Yuki gave her his signature smile and leaned in to give her a kiss goodbye on the lips, but she tilted her head to the left slightly so that his lips landed softly on the corner of her mouth. He leaned back and gave her a weird look, but he ended up not questioning her odd behavior. He raised his hand up and waved goodbye to her and she waved back warily, feeling horrible inside. Tohru stood at her front porch for about a minute or two with a totally blank mind and then she looked up at the sky and saw that it was still light outside. She looked into the direction of where Kyo lived and decided that she wanted to talk to Kyo, because she felt like she just had to. She walked the short distance to his house and lifted her hand to knock on the door but the door flew open before she could even touch the wood of the door. She fell backwards and nearly tripped over his staircase, but he caught her by the wrist and asked,
"Whoa! You okay?"
Tohru blushed and regained her composure, embarrassed at her own klutziness and answered with a small voice,
"I'm okay."
Kyo let go of her hand slowly and turned red when he realized the scene that had just took place. Tohru looked up at him and saw that he was all dressed up and ready to go someplace so she asked,
"Are you going somewhere?"
Kyo looked away and muttered,
"Well... I was just gonna go to the hospital and see how Kazuma was doing..."
Tohru felt bad about the whole situation and clenched her teeth together, not knowing what to say to make him feel better so she just settled with an,
"Oh..."
Kyo saw that she looked like she was extremely uncomfortable so he asked her tentatively,
"Do you...want to come with me? I'm sure that he'd be glad to see that I have at least one friend in this town."
Tohru's face brightened up and she said happily to Kyo,
"Okay!"
Kyo smiled and he skipped down the steps and waited until she fell into step with him, then they took the bus to the hospital near Tokyo University. They both walked through the fluorescent lighted hallways of the hospital until they reached Kazuma's room. Kyo walked over to the bed where he lay peacefully, sleeping. Tohru watched timidly from behind Kyo and felt her heart churn with emotion, she hated to see anyone in this state; it made her want to cry. Kyo slowly reached out and touched Kazuma's forehead, then he sat down on a stool next to the bed and sat there for a while, without speaking. Tohru leaned down next to Kyo and asked with concern,
"Do you want anything to drink? Or eat? I'll go and run down to get something..."
Kyo shook his head and smiled up at her, then got up.
"Nah, I was just about to leave anyway, I just wanted to check up on him and see how he was doing."
They both left the hospital with a comfortable silence lingering between them and when they got off the bus and back to their neighborhood, Tohru turned to Kyo and asked as cheerfully as she best could,
"Hey! Do you want to go to the park?"
Kyo blinked back with surprise from her sudden randomness and asked,
"What?"
Tohru said with less energy and more bashfulness as she continued with her offer,
"You know... the park that we used to always go to when we were little, remember?"
Kyo's lips turned upward and he nodded at her,
"Okay."
Tohru beamed back at him and felt lighter as they walked their way to the park together.
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At the park the first thing the two raced for were the swings that they used to always swing on when they were children and immediately began to push themselves forward with their feet. They both laughed childishly to each other and Tohru asked Kyo breathlessly,
"Do you remember how we used to always have swinging contests whenever we sat on these things?"
Kyo broke into a grin and said cockily,
"Yea, and remember how I used to always cream ya?"
Tohru scrunched up her nose and said laughingly,
"Well, I'm going to try my best to beat you this time!"
Kyo gave her a challenging stare and said with confidence,
"You're on! But I'm not going easy on your just 'cuz you're a girl!"
Tohru and Kyo began to swing higher and higher like a pendulum in a clock, but both of them ended up swinging the same height. They both laughed loudly as they stopped moving their feet and slowed down before jumping down from their swings and onto the grassy field below, rolling on their backs and giggling like maniacs. After the laughter died down Kyo croaked out,
"I totally won..."
Tohru opened her mouth in disagreement and protested,
"I believe we were going the same height!"
Kyo sat up with a devilish grin and shrugged,
"Whatever makes you feel better,"
Tohru was about to pout again when he said with a smirk on his face while staring at the top of her head,
"Hey, hey, you got some grass in your hair."
Tohru blushed and searched her hair wildly with her fingers while Kyo watched with amusement. He smiled and reached his hand out and brushed her hair gently so that the grass pieces fell softly to the ground. When he had gotten every piece out of her hair his hand lingered in her hair for a while, and then he gently tucked a stray strand of chestnut hair behind her petite ears. He whispered out to her,
"All gone..."
Tohru could feel her face go up in flames, and she swore that she could feel the beads of sweat trickle down her forehead as she thanked him in a soft voice,
"Thank you."
Kyo withdrew his hand from her hair and cleared his throat audibly; then Tohru asked nervously to fill in the silent gap,
"So...um… do you still make those cranes?"
Kyo smirked and looked up at the moon shining down on them and said with a faraway voice,
"Well... I stopped making 'em when I was about eight 'cuz I got pretty tired of making them at that age... but now I've started up on it again."
He looked down at the grass and picked at them relentlessly with his hands,
"I want to finish them and make my wish… for Kazuma to be healthy."
Tohru looked at his side profile and said after a long while,
"I'll help you."
Kyo rose an eyebrow at her and chuckled softly,
"Last time I taught you, I remember you making a crumply ball instead of a crane."
Tohru heated up and looked away, embarrassed,
"Well... I was little! Now that I'm older, I'm sure that I can make it if you teach me."
Kyo shook his head and insisted stubbornly,
"No way! You suck at it!"
Tohru bit her lower lip and bowed her head down with a pout, making Kyo give up and grumble with irritation,
"Alright, fine, I'll teach you okay? Just stop your damn pouting..."
Tohru lifted her head up with a new liveliness in her features and she exclaimed happily,
"Thank you very much! I won't let you down!"
Kyo smiled at her and patted her on the head gently,
"I know you won't."
A raindrop then fell down from the darkening sky, causing them to both look up at the same time to see many more drops of moisture falling down after one another from up above. They both shot up quickly from their spots on the grass as the rain began to suddenly pour down on the both of them. They laughed while standing there, getting soaking wet with their heads lay low. They both began to jog out of the park when Kyo jumped up ahead of Tohru and got into a running position, announcing in a loud voice,
"Hey! Let's race!"
Tohru's mouth dropped open in dismay while watching as he ran up ahead with a head start. She felt her lips spread into a smile as she raced after him as fast as she could screaming out,
"No fair! You had a head start!"
They both laughed loudly throughout the lighted streets and raced each other back to Tohru's house in the pouring rain.
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After drying off from the sudden downpour, Kyo followed Tohru up to her room where she told him to hold on while she got the origami paper. Kyo nodded and sat down in the middle of the floor in her room, unconsciously scanning the room with his eyes. That's when his eyes fell on top of her desk which had his crane sitting there, all by its lonesome. He recognized that it was his because he remembered that it was the same paper that he had used when he had given it to her.
She kept it for all these years? Does that mean… that she really did think of me after I left?
Kyo felt his skin tingle from the thought and he sat down on her chair, picking up the crane gingerly between his thumb and index finger. He examined it for a while and smiled to himself, feeling a strange high from knowing that she had thought about him. His ears perked up when he heard footsteps coming up the stairs so he dropped the crane immediately and scrambled back to the spot he had originally been sitting on. The door opened and Tohru entered with a big smile on her lips as she said to him,
"Sorry for making you wait. Here you go!"
She handed him a piece of colorful paper and kept one for herself while sitting down across from him, Indian style. She held the paper taught in her fingers and she said with pure determination,
"I'm ready to learn!"
Kyo shot her a serious look and began by guiding her step by step, just like on the first day that he had attempted to teach her. This time, instead of making a crumpled ball, she finished with a tilted crane. Tohru didn't seem to care that it was tilted though because she jumped up from her spot with joy and held out the tilted crane for him to see,
"I made one! I finally made one!!"
Kyo smiled with amusement when she sat back down with twinkling eyes and admonished,
"But now you gotta keep practicing until you can do it without even thinking."
Tohru nodded sincerely and patted her hand over her heart,
"I will definitely practice as much as possible!"
"Gee, you're seriously getting worked up over this."
Tohru pursed her lips together and paused before saying with honesty,
"Well... I really want to help Kazuma get better."
Kyo looked at her for a long while and then muttered under his breath,
"Thanks..."
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After Kyo left her house to go home, Tohru admired the tilted crane that she had finally accomplished and smiled. She then glanced at her table and saw Kyo's old crane sitting on top of the wooden surface by itself so she placed her tilted one right next to it. She smiled to herself and then walked out of her room, feeling extremely happy.
Hmmm...okay, so this chapter didn't turn out to be as long as I wanted it to be, but you've got to bear with me okay? anyway, I'll try my best to update ASAP, okay?
IT'D BE GREAT IF YOU WOULD ALL DISH OUT PLENTY OF WONDERFUL REVIEWS!! :D THANKS A BUNCH EVERYONE. 3 3 LOVE TO YOU ALL! :D