Chapter 11
Kagura spotted Kyou go into the store and followed him, "Hey, Kyou."
He looked at her with an odd look that she couldn't interpret.
"What are you buying?" she asked.
"Nothing," he said.
"But you got a basket with stuff in it."
Kyou dropped it, "I got to go."
He ran off. Kagura looked at his retreating back. She could take the hint, she felt quite hurt. Kyou's been ignoring her all week: she went to catch him after his morning jog and he ignored her and actually began sprinting. When she went to Shigure's house, he'd go outside, to his room, or went to take extremely long baths. She didn't understand what she did wrong.
.
Kyou felt extremely bad about lying to Kagura and avoiding her; which he didn't understand, since he always avoided her, but never had he felt bad about it. But he made a promise to Kagura's mother…and he was determined to keep it.
.
"Try Sweets for the Soul," an all too familiar voice said.
Kyou frowned, 'Her again? Why do I keep running into her everywhere? At the park, the grocery store, now on the streets. What is she doing? She's handing out flyers?'
"Unique flavours like mango bread, grapefruit pie, tomato cake."
'Sounds weird and disgusting,' Kyou thought, prepared to run the other way before she spots him.
"Does the unique flavour include you?" a guy asked with dyed green hair asked.
"No," Kagura said walking away from them.
But the guy grabbed her, "Leaving so soon? My friends and I got more questions."
"What…what do you want?" Kagura asked.
"What do you think cutie?"
'Hit him, you can take them on,' Kyou found himself thinking, 'and what are all those people doing? What kind of people stand around and watch a group of guys pick on a girl?'
Kagura knew she couldn't accidentally transform here, if she did the whole Sohma secret will be exposed. She frowned, "Can we not do this here?"
"Oh, you want to go somewhere more private, huh?"
Actually she didn't, but what choice did she have? She remembered everything Kazuma taught her, now she just hope she could execute it. She never had a need to do so before, so she felt really nervous. She swallowed and was about to nod when someone said, "Four guys picking on a girl, how pathetic."
She immediately felt relieve and perked up, 'Kyou!! You always appear when I need you.'
"Who are you?" one of the guys asked.
Kagura fling away the guy's hand and ran behind Kyou, "I'm so glad you're here."
"Why didn't you hit them?" Kyou asked.
"…"
"You want to play hero? Well, you got to pay the price," the guy holding her said and attacked.
Kyou was much quicker than the guy, partly in due to his training with Yuki. Kyou was able to block the punch, while sending a kick into another guy's stomach.
'He's fighting for me…' Kagura thought, 'he's so cool!'
Kyou was blocking all the attacks and landing all his kicks and punches. Kagura felt her admiration for him go up with each successful strike. But then she spotted the guy laying on the ground crawl up with something shiny in his hands, 'A knife?!'
Instinct took over and she rushed at the guy, "Don't touch Kyou-kun!!"
She sent the guy flying into space with her punch. Kyou looked at her with this odd look. The other guys were frozen in terror. She grabbed Kyou and said, "Come on, let go!"
-
Kyou looked at Kagura's hands around his, as she led him away. The feeling was familiar to the one he had when they were kids. It was weird but he felt like he did back then, happy, warm… He shook his head, 'Why do we have to run? We could take them on.'
"I think we ran far enough," Kagura said as she stopped and panted slightly, then began laughing, "actually that was quite exciting, ne?"
Kyou looked at her, she looked radiantly at the present moment, "Eh, why are you looking at me like so?"
"…"
"I didn't mean to punch the guy so hard," Kagura said, "I don't know what happened…he wanted to hurt you so-"
"Baka, that's not why I'm staring," he interrupted as she began looking guilt-ridden.
"Oh…then why are you staring?"
Kyou felt hot, "Never mind, that. What were you doing?"
She held out a flyer, "Helping Teinosuke-san with his promotion. Arigatou, for helping me. Kyou-kun."
'Kyou-kun? She's calling me Kyou-kun again?' he thought, "eh…don't mention it."
"I'll treat you to lunch." Kagura said.
"It's almost four."
"But I haven't ate lunch yet," Kagura said.
.
Kagura looked at Kyou, "Arigatou, for taking me home."
"Forget it."
"It lessen my kaasan's worrying, knowing I'm not walking alone."
He nodded but looked very gloomy. When they got to her house, her mom was waiting on the porch, "Kaasan."
Her mother looked at Kyou oddly, even angrily. Then turned to Kagura and hugged her, "I'm glad you're back safe and sound."
Kagura smiled, "Well, of course."
"I think I'll accompany Kyou to the bus stop. Why don't you go inside first?"
Kagura could sense something was wrong. The way her mother glared at Kyou, who looked guilty and was avoiding eye contact. She speed dialled her home phone, on her cell phone, put it on speakers, and hugged her mom, "Ok, guess I better go get the phone."
Kagura slipped her cell phone into the pocket on her mom's jacket and went inside, 'Gomen, kaasan but I want to know what's going on.'
She picked up the phone.
.
Kagura was so angry, how could her mother treat her friends like so?!
Her mother came in the door, "Kagura, are you waiting for me?"
"Why are you doing this?"
"Huh? What?"
"Telling my friends to stay away from me. Why were you so mean to Kyou?!" Kagura demanded.
"What do you mean?" Natsuko asked.
Kagura pulled out her cell phone, "I heard everything!"
"You were eavesdropping on me? That's rude."
"If that's rude, what do you call what you said to Kyou? I'm not a kid anymore, I'm 19, I'll be an adult in two years!" Kagura screamed, "so you can't be telling me what to do, who I can be friends with and who I can't anymore!"
"For him, you're yelling at me?" her mother asked softly.
The sorrowfulness in her mother's voice made Kagura feel guilty. Natsuko continued, "I just didn't want to see him make you cry anymore…"
"You mean that incident a few days ago? It's not his fault, kaasan."
"That's not the only time…" Natsuko said softly, "but you just don't remember."
"You're right, I don't remember. But I know what, in order for someone to make you to cry, he or she must mean something to you. And had the eyes no tears, the soul would have no rainbows. When I don't see him and know he's avoiding me, I feel sad," Kagura said, "I like him."
She did like Kyou, she liked him a lot or she wouldn't have yelled at her mother like so.
"You only think that. If you gave Yuki a chance and got to know him, you'd like him just as much. You only feel that way because you've been hanging out with him so much, that when he ignores you, you feel hurt and alone."
"That's not true, kaasan," Kagura said, "my feelings for Kyou is different. I think…it could be…maybe…love…"
Her kaasan was very silent.
"Or maybe not love…I don't know…I only know I like him a lot."
Natsuko let out a sigh, "I can't stop you from seeing who you like. But Kagura, I want you to promise me that you'll make sure your feelings for Kyou is real. Give yourself a week, get to know Yuki and confirm your feelings."
Kagura nodded, 'I believe my feelings to be real, but if doing this will comfort you, kaasan, then I'll do it.'
TBC
A/N: Next chapter will be a realization chapter for Kyou. Muwahahaha.