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A Thousand Cranes
Chapter Five - Prom Night
"Honda-san!"
Tohru turned around at the sound of her name being called out by a famliar male voice, she turned around to see Yuki jogging up from a few feet behind her. When he finally caught up to her, he slapped his lips over her forehead to plant a kiss there and she couldn't help but grimace at the small gesture, but he didn't seem to notice her little look of disgust so she sighed with relief when he detached his lips from the top of her head. He smiled at her and she smiled back as tightly as possible as he held up two pale yellow tickets in front of her face. She lowered an eyebrow and asked,
"What's that?"
"Two tickets to the prom tonight, princess, and you'll never guess who I'll be taking to this joyous occasion."
Tohru blushed while scoffing up a small laugh as she said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice,
"I have no idea!"
Yuki grinned at her and swung an arm over her small shoulders while walking her the rest of the way home and he said jocularly,
"Well, it's for this really cute girl with long brown hair and ribbons in her hair... hmm, I wonder who that could be?"
Tohru grinned back at him and smacked him lightly on the shoulder while sticking out her tongue slightly in his direction to show mock anger. Yuki handed her a ticket when they reached the front of her house and kissed her quickly on the cheek before informing her,
"Meet me outside of your house at seven tonight okay? See ya later,"
While he was walking away from her house, Tohru remembered that she had one sitting on her desk so she flailed one of her arms out in front of her and called out loudly,
"Wait! I already have a ticket at home though!"
Yuki turned around to face her, raising his eyebrows with a shrug and said to her casually,
"Oh, well I guess you can give it to someone else or something...well I gotta run! See ya!"
He waved at her widely and she waved back at him, calling out to him,
"Bye!"
Tohru blew out a long heavy sigh and stared down at the ticket that was sitting between the middle of her thumb and index finger. She bit her lower lip and then stuffed the extra ticket into her back pocket, thinking to herself,
Can I really get through this whole prom thing?
She squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them again, hoping for an answer to her question, but all she saw was the sun glaring back at her as if to tell her to stop being such an idiot. She smacked herself on the head gently with the palm of her hand and then rubbed her temples to get her mind back on track again. She took a deep breath and walked down the windy streets of her neighborhood, stopping in front of Kyo's house. She found herself staring up at it for a while before walking up the stone steps and ringing the doorbell with a shaky finger.
What am I so nervous about?
She waited a little while and got a little restless after a minute so she turned her back, but when she heard the sound of footsteps approaching, she turned back around to face the doorway, ready to greet him. To her surprise a man with long gray hair answered instead and she nearly fell over from the shock of someone else in the house. That's when she realized that it was Kazuma, the man that had taken Kyo under his wing after his hardships. The man that had suffered a heart attack. Tohru smiled widely at him and gave him a little wave,
"Hello! Nice to meet you, I am Honda Tohru, how are you feeling Kazuma-san?"
Kazuma's eyebrows raised at the extreme politeness of this complete stranger and he said to her,
"I'm fine, thank you for asking... may I help you?"
"Oh! Sorry, um... is Kyo home?"
Kazuma smiled warmly at her and chuckled softly before calling out in a calm manner,
"Kyo, you're girlfriend is here!"
Tohru froze and her heart froze along with her body at the sound of the sentence. Moments later, Kyo appeared with a completely red face as he folded his arms over his chest and said with indignation,
"She is not my girlfriend!"
Kazuma put up his hands in defense and chuckled again,
"Don't need to get all worked up about it."
Kazuma then gave Kyo a little shove out of the door before shutting the door on them, leaving the two out on the porch alone. Kyo looked down at his shoes and said with a low tone,
"Ah... Kazuma came back out of the hospital today... they said that he was in a better condition and that he just had to watch what he eats and some crap like that..."
Tohru nodded and smiled at him with optimism,
"I knew that he would get better! I'm so happy for you."
Kyo felt like his heart was going at the rate of a jackhammer when he slowly raised his head up to level his eyes with hers,
Should I tell her now? Damn... I don't have anything planned though. Man, I'm acting like such a wuss.
He cleared his throat audibly and she saw that he was at some discomfort so she asked him with concern filling her voice,
"Are you okay Kyo-kun? You seem like you have something on your mind."
Kyo laughed a bit too loudly and put his arms behind his head as casually as he best could and said while laughing nervously,
"I'm fine!"
Tohru shot him a strange look and then said to him with comfort,
"Okay...just remember that if you ever need to talk, you know who to come to."
Kyo muttered back in reply,
"I know..."
Tohru was about to turn to leave when she whipped back around as if she had just remembered something important. She held up her index finger with bright eyes and asked excitedly,
"Oh! I almost forgot what I came here for, umm... the prom is coming up at school and I have this extra ticket... sooo, would you like to come?"
Kyo was at loss of words for a moment and he scratched the back of his head nervously as the words tumbled from his mouth,
"But I don't have a date..."
Kyo looked up at her hopefully and thought to himself,
Please say you're not going with that Yuki guy...
Tohru averted her eyes from his and gulped as she croaked out,
"You don't really need a date or anything, it's just for fun."
She handed him the pale yellow ticket and he took it from her hands tentatively, nodding his thanks to her. That's when another doubtful thought entered his brain,
"I don't know... but I'm not a dancing kind of guy..."
"You mean... you can't dance?"
Kyo turned beet red and he stuffed the ticket deep into his pockets while yelling out,
"Well if you put it that way, yes!"
Tohru giggled at his confession and said to him between giggles,
"I can teach you."
Kyo clenched his teeth together and thought to himself with determination,
Maybe... at prom I can tell her.
Kyo sighed loudly and muttered out,
"I don't know..."
Tohru looked at him with a small pout and he groaned out with frustration,
"Not the pout!"
Tohru stuck out her lower lip even farther and blinked a few times, making him bow his head down in defeat, muttering out,
"I'll think about it, okay? Just stop pouting alright?"
Tohru's lips formed into a giant smile as she clapped her hands together with joy, skipping down the steps of his house. She then stopped for a moment and and said with hope crawling in every inch of her voice,
"I really hope that you will come..."
With that, she turned her back to him and walked quickly back to her house, leaving him there, pondering.
One hour before the prom
Kyo was sprawled out on the couch, reading a comic book when Kazuma pulled the book out of his hands. Kyo sat up quickly and tried to snatch the book back from Kazuma's hands, but he was too quick and he dangled the book far away from Kyo with a jesting smile,
"Don't you have a prom to go to?"
"How do you know?"
"I'm smart."
More like you were eavesdropping...
Kyo rolled his eyes and blew out a sigh of irritation while placing a hand behind his neck,
"I don't feel like going too much anymore..."
"Why not? What about that girl?"
Kyo stood up from the couch and asked with exasperation,
"Can't we just train instead?"
Kazuma shook his head good naturedly, pulling out a tux as if from thin air and held it up in the air, waving it around. Kyo looked at it with one eyebrow raised and he waited for Kazuma to say something to fill in the gap of silence,
"You can wear one of my old tuxes. You're going to this prom whether you like it or not."
Tohru was looking at herself in the full length mirror located near the closet in her room. She fanned out her dress a little, and turned a bit to the left and a bit to the right, to see every angle and side of the dress to make sure that it was perfect. Her dress was a pure white color and her hair was held up by two long white ribbons that cascaded down to her shoulders. The dress had two straps on top and the bottom was ruffled at the edges with satin material. She smoothed out her dress and was startled when she heard a soft tap on her window. She turned her head around slowly to see Kyo crouching down at the window with a bouquet of pink flowers in his hands. He tapped again with a gentle grin on his face and she ran to the window, opening it up fully to climb out onto her balcony. He was about to take her hand to help her, but then a beep at the front door made her gasp and the image of Kyo fade away.
It was just a daydream...
Tohru stared out at her empty balcony, feeling empty herself, and climbed the rest of the way out of her window to stare down from up above to see a giant black limo parked outside of her house. Yuki spotted her from the balcony and held up a white corsage in the air for her to see and smiled with charisma as he beckoned for her to come down,
"Come on princess! We're going to be late!"
Tohru took a deep breath and pasted on her happiest smile, while yelling down to him apologetically,
"I'll be right down! Sorry for making you wait!"
Tohru went back through the window and back into her room, feeling a little sick deep down. She inhaled and exhaled a few times and then ran out of the front door and to her prom, with Yuki.
At the prom
There were many laughs and voices echoing and bouncing off of the high ceilings along with the many dancing couples that were jubilantly twirling around to the music that was pumping from the sound system. It was all very gleeful and joyous at the prom, but instead of dancing and or having fun like she was supposed to, Tohru found herself stuck at the table covered in large dishes of food and drinks, sipping on a cup of fruit punch. When she had first gotten into the giant limo, she had actually felt some elation fill her body. She had actually looked forward to a wonderful night, but once Yuki and her had reached the prom, he immediately separated from her, telling her apologetically that he just needed to talk to his student council buddies for a quick moment. That quick moment had transformed into fifteen long minutes of sipping sweet punch. Tohru sighed and finally finished draining the small cup of fruit punch and she felt her mood soar lower when she spotted Yuki smiling with a bunch of people that she didn't even recognize.
I wish Kyo were here...
She tried to block out those thoughts of Kyo and assumed that he didn't even come, because she hadn't seen him all night. She was about to pour herself another cup of punch when she suddenly spotted a flash of orange hair from the garden. She craned her neck forward to look over the swarm of people and get a better look. When she looked again, she saw that it really was him standing there in the garden all by himself, with his head lowered to the ground, just standing there. Tohru placed the cup on the table and took one last glance at Yuki before rushing out through the double doors that lead straight to the garden. Once she saw his full profile her whole body stopped functioning and she could only feel her heart beating faster and faster. If it was possible, he looked even more handsome than he usually did. He was sporting a sleek and ironed black suit, and his shoes were shining with the reflection of the stars and moon. His hair was neatly brushed and his eyes were twinkling when he turned his head to catch her standing there openly and blatantly staring at him. When she finally found her voice she managed to squeak out,
"You look... nice."
Kyo stepped towards her until he was close enough to place his warm hand on the tip of her chin, raising her face up so that her eyes were looking straight into his crimson ones, causing both of their hearts to stop beating altogether. He felt his palms begin to sweat as he croaked out in a low and gravelly voice,
"You look... beautiful."
Tohru felt herself blush at the comment, and couldn't help but feel so touched and flattered. She wasn't used to being called beautiful by people. Yuki had always called her cute or pretty, but whenever he said it, it had always seemed like he was just joking around or making up nicknames just to please her. But the way that Kyo had said it to her at that moment, it had sounded so honest and genuine. Her eyes darted around with humiliation and that's when she realized that the whole garden was empty except for them two, standing there in the moonlight. Kyo placed his hands back to his side and looked down at the freshly cut grass, asking bashfully,
"Do you... wanna dance?"
Her head perked up at his offer when a slow song came on the sound system. Kyo held out a trembling hand to her and she reached for it tentatively and said with a grin,
"I thought that you couldn't dance."
Kyo pulled her closer to him and asked,
"It can't be that hard right?"
Tohru laughed as he tried to twirl her but it turned out to be half of a circle instead. He took one of her hands in his and put his other hand awkwardly on the small of her back, not exactly knowing what to do next. Tohru smiled up at him gently and asked,
"I'm really glad that you came tonight..."
Kyo gulped a lump down from his throat and he gave her a full fledged smile, making her heart flutter,
"I'm really glad that I came tonight too."
Tohru let go of his hands and laced both of her arms around his waist, laying her head on top of his chest. She had never felt so safe in her life. She closed her eyes took in his scent, it was so familiar... and right. Throughout the song they continued to sway slowly in that one little spot for a long time, not saying a word to each other. A comfortable silence.
Yuki was scanning the room frantically for Tohru, but no avail. He had just finished a delightful conversation with his friends and was now searching for Tohru, but she was nowhere to be found.
I wonder where she could be?
He asked a couple of other students if they had seen her around, but no one seemed to know where she was so he gave up and assumed that she had probably went to the bathroom or something. As he was walking past the table with food, he stopped in his tracks. His jaw dropped open at the sight of Tohru and another guy dancing outside in the garden together...
TO BE CONTINUED
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