Hiya, SakuraBubbles here. Thank you muchly for the reviews. Muchly isn't a word. I don't care.
((There used to be a rant here, but I have since deleted it. ::cackles:: ))
Fluffy Haru/Yuki scenes AND fluffy Kyo/Tohru scenes. YAY!
Chapter Three: Neko
Tohru giggled as Kyo tried to swat at the cats following them through their walk in the park.
"Leave us alone!!"
They continued meowing and purring after Kyo and his laughing companion so eventually, Kyo just gave up. He was sick of the odd stares from everybody, but Tohru's laughter calmed him. So far, it had been nice. It was hot but there was a pleasant breeze that lightly tossed Tohru's long locks out of place. Everything was so perfect—Kyo desperately hoped that nothing would ruin it.
"Have you thought of a place where you want to eat?" Kyo asked. Tohru smiled to him, beaming.
"Perhaps we should look for a place that allows pets?"
"That's not funny!" Kyo hissed, but found himself laughing. "Seriously, though. Where do you want to eat?"
"Wherever you want to, Kyo-kun," Tohru answered. He knew she would say that. His eyes roamed around, searching for a place they could eat. He looked over to one place that had tables and chairs set out under a green awning. Smiling, he gripped her hand.
"There's a nice looking place," he pointed with the very same hand that he had intertwined with Tohru's. She followed his finger.
"Ah! Could we eat outside?"
"That's what I had in mind," Kyo told her. She smiled and they walked over, hand in hand. Kyo looked over to a convenient store and he swore that he saw Haru exit, a carton of milk in his arm. Kyo blinked and looked again, but the person was no where in sight. He figured that might have just been some old man still earning grays.
As he and Tohru entered the restaurant, they were greeted with a fat little man.
"Welcome, welcome, and congratulations!" he greeted with a small bow. Tohru returned the bow, a bewildered expression on her face.
"Congratulations?" she inquired.
"That's right!" the man exclaimed cheerfully. "Today, in this restaurant only, we're having our Couple's Day Sale! Everything on the menu is thirty-five percent off! But, it's for couples only."
"Th-thirty-five?" repeated Kyo, matching Tohru's face with one of his own.
"You got it!" said the man, his eyes twinkling. "You two make a very nice couple. So, will you be dining inside or out?"
"Outside, please," Kyo answered. Tohru smiled at him, staring admiringly. Kyo really was a good person. He acted like such a gentleman in front of her—it was nice. He hadn't even denied the fact that they were a couple even if they weren't officially one yet. Kyo, although sometimes harsh, was always very sweet to her and did things for her without her knowing it. For now, Tohru didn't know that he had her on his mind all of the time (when it wasn't occupied by how to beat Yuki), but he vowed to himself that he would tell her one day.
And that day may come sooner than he thought.
Tohru and Kyo sat down, the wind almost lifting napkins right off of the table. Tohru giggled at this as she saved them from their dirty demise, thanked the fat man, and began to study the menu.
/-/
Yuki was cautious as he exited the bathroom, looking around for a certain two-toned hair colored young man. He saw no one and stepped into the hall, clad in fresh clean clothes.
"Haru?" Yuki called as he was greeted with an empty living room. He padded over to the couch and saw Haru's CD player. The song he was listening to was on pause, and as such, the CD player was lightly beeping.
"Haaaru…" he called again. After getting no answer, he shrugged and shut off the player. He walked into the kitchen and found that it, too, was empty. Eyebrows furrowing in thought, Yuki wondered where that stupid cat and Tohru were. Maybe Tohru was off with of her friends from school—but she always told them about that sort of thing before doing it to okay it with Shigure.
Aimlessly, Yuki opened the door of the refrigerator. He remembered that there wasn't anything drinkable inside of it and began to shut it when he froze and stretched the door back open. There was a brand new carton of milk sitting right smack in the middle of the shelf.
Huh? There wasn't any before…
And then Yuki thought about it more. Haru must have gone out to get it in order to apologize. It didn't excuse his behavior, not nothing actually did once he went black. Looking around for the milk buyer, Yuki finally slid the door open to the outside. He saw Haru lying on the grass, his knee bent up and his other leg draped over it lazily. Yuki smiled, walked over, and knelt down behind Haru's head. He leaned over and hung his head over Haru's face, his hair dangling down.
"Hello," greeted Haru to the beautiful face above his own. Yuki was still smiling as he asked, "You bought some milk?"
"It's the least I could do to prevent you from having to bathe again."
Yuki chuckled. Haru used to always make him laugh at the Main House. Yuki noticed suddenly that Haru seemed to be looking past him although he was the only thing he could see. It was a strange feeling that enveloped him as he noticed it, so he tried to ignore it.
"I'm sorry I attacked you like that," Haru told him softly.
"It's fine now. You weren't really yourself," Yuki replied. He then looked forward and up, exposing his neck to the one below him. "What were you doing out here anyway?"
"Watching the clouds."
Yuki tilted his head up and realized that he was probably interrupting Haru's solitude so he sat up.
"You don't want to stay?" Haru asked as he heard Yuki start to get up.
"Wouldn't I be disturbing you?"
"You couldn't do anything to disturb me…"
Yuki translated Haru's reply to "Lie down next to me and watch the clouds, too," and did just that. Together, they watched the clouds pass by.
"That one there looks like Kyo," Haru pointed past Yuki's head. Yuki sniffed a bit at Haru's scent instinctively as a rat and noticed that he smelled a bit like hay and frankincense. It was an odd but satisfying smell. At last, Yuki looked in the direction in which Haru was pointing toward and started to laugh. It really did look like Kyo. The cloud was lumped together to make the head and body of what could be a cat with its tail erect in anger. They laughed at this, figuring that somewhere there was a Kagura cloud chasing him. Yuki looked over to a different cloud that was stationed above his head.
"That one reminds me of Momiji," said Yuki, pointing. He was right—the cloud itself was a large, circular clump with long ear-like strands protruding from it. After a bit, they could find no more shapes but stayed outside anyway, talking and enjoying one another's company. The sun was pleasantly hot on their faces and they loved it. Finally, Yuki pointed over Haru's head.
"That one—what does it look like to you?"
Haru trailed his eyes from Yuki's arm to where his slender finger was pointing and saw a large blob of a cloud next to a smaller one. The smaller cloud was curved like a rat standing on its hind legs while the other cloud seemed to resemble a small calf sniffing the ground. Even though the "calf" had only two "legs," Haru chuckled, seeing the resemblance.
"It looks like you and me," he said. Yuki nodded and dropped his arm. It was draped across Haru's chest, which made the ox very nervous and excited at the same. Yuki was just too tired to move it. The heat was making them both tired, as Haru proved with a yawn. Yuki looked to him. This… isn't so bad… And like that, they fell asleep.
They only awoke thanks to Shigure's loud laughter. Haru noticed that Yuki's arm was still around him and Haru's own hand was laying over Yuki's. Yuki twitched and sat up, glaring at Shigure, who was hunched over, clutching his sides with laughter. Haru matched Yuki's glare with one of his own, giving it to Shigure, and then faltered as he noticed Hatori standing beside Shigure, his lips twitching as a mockery of a smile.
"I'm… haha… I'm sorry… did I interrupt anything? Hahahaha!" Shigure laughed out loud. He ducked as a rock flew by his head. "Thanks, Yu-chan, we needed stones for the—"
This stone (which happened to be much larger) whacked him straight in the gut, knocking him over. Haru had thrown it.
"All right, that's enough, I'm heading home," said Hatori. As he turned, he added, "Yuki, Hatsuharu is a good choice. He will always stick by you in all of your times of need. Plus, he seems to be excitable—"
Yuki jumped up and chased Hatori, who was quicker on his feet than one would think. Haru sighed and pushed himself up. By that time, Shigure was done with wiping his tears of laughter out of his eyes and was looking up at Haru with a "love meeeee" face. Haru rolled his eyes and continued inside.
/-/
Although Kyo had a difficult time carrying all of the groceries, he didn't mind doing it. Tohru lent the hand that she could, for her other was in a loose sling around her shoulder. She made a happy sound as she saw the house below them.
"Oh good—we're home!"
Kyo witnessed Haru suddenly chase Shigure out of the door, yelling something. Kyo ignored them and looked to Tohru.
"Can you promise me something?"
She returned his gaze. "Eh?"
"Tell the others—especially that damn rat—that we met up in the grocery store. We can't have them finding out about anything before that, okay?"
Her lip trembled slightly in confusion.
"Ehh? Why?"
"Because…" Shit, now to think up a reason. "Because they would tell Kagura or Akito—both are equally bad—and they would… uh… well, it'd be bad."
Tohru didn't like it, but agreed.
"Come over here and fight me, dog breath!" they heard Haru threaten as they were closer to the house. He had obviously gone black. Shigure's chortle echoed.
"I think not!"
"You sure you're the year of the dog and not of the chicken?"
Hatori, having finally escaped from Yuki, decided to intervene. He grabbed Haru's arms and thrust him down on the ground, pinning his arms up against his back.
"You bastard! Let me go!!" Haru shouted. Hatori didn't move.
"Not until you calm down."
"Nyaaargh……"
Tohru and Kyo arrived the moment Yuki stepped outside, eyes narrowed at Hatori.
"Hatori… I'll—eh, Honda-san??" he saw Tohru next to Kyo and grew significantly angrier. "Stupid cat… what are you doing?"
"Shut up, rat! Can't you see that I'm helping with the groceries?! It's more than I can say about you!!" Yuki didn't hesitate in running over and grabbing what Tohru held in her left hand.
"Honda-san, why didn't you tell us that you were going out for groceries? No wonder it took you all day…"
"A-ah, no, I wasn't at the grocery store all day… I was with Hana-chan at her house until I went to the grocery store. I met up with Kyo-kun there. I must've forgotten to tell you that I was going over there today…" Tohru lied. She didn't like lying to Yuki, but Kyo said…
"Ah, Tohru-kun, it's okay!" said Shigure, stepping over to Kyo and snatching some of the groceries to help bring them in. Kyo mentally thanked them and looked down to Haru, who was now calm and white.
"Hey, stupid," he said to him. Haru looked up to him blankly.
"Don't call me that…"
"Yes, don't, we don't need him going black again," warned Hatori, letting go of said ox. Haru pushed himself up and brushed off the visible dirt off of the front of his black shirt.
"… My head hurts…" he spoke after tucking his thumbs under his belt. Yuki looked to him before entering the house. Hatori eyed Shigure.
"I'm heading home. Be good—all of you."
But before he got into the car, he inspected Tohru's arm.
"Good, you've been taking good care of yourself. A little more than a month and a half left."
Tohru thanked him and went inside.
/-/
An hour after Tohru got back, it started to rain. Kyo was hiding up in his room, Haru was out on the porch, reading and listening to his CD player, and Shigure was with his editor, writing. Tohru was on her way to the bath when she met Yuki in the hallway. She couldn't exactly avoid him in the narrow hallway so she looked up to his face.
"Souma-kun, I'm about to bathe, is that okay?"
"Of course it is," Yuki said softly. He held something up. "Honda-san… I've been waiting to give you this…" She looked at the item. It was a small container.
"Eh?"
He opened it and she gazed at what was inside. She smiled and her eyes brightened.
"Strawberries!"
"I was waiting for them to ripen. They finally did today. I'm glad I checked—I almost got caught in this sudden rain," Yuki told her. She giggled.
"They look tasty…"
"I'm sure they will be. They are for you, after all."
Tohru blushed and said nothing. Yuki nodded and closed up the container.
"I'll put these in the fridge so you can have a nice bath," he offered, moving out of her way. She put her hand to his shoulder and he turned back around.
"Th… Thank you, Souma-kun."
He knew that she was thanking him for more than just putting away the strawberries, but he simply smiled and walked away.
Well! I am pleased, I suppose. I love this chapter because of when Yuki falls asleep with his arm around Haru. YAY. Next chapter in a week. It's FUN. Almost as fun as… FUN. I think.
Thanks, everyone. :D See you next chapter. ::bows and runs away::
((There used to be a rant here, but I have since deleted it. ::cackles:: ))
Fluffy Haru/Yuki scenes AND fluffy Kyo/Tohru scenes. YAY!
Tohru giggled as Kyo tried to swat at the cats following them through their walk in the park.
"Leave us alone!!"
They continued meowing and purring after Kyo and his laughing companion so eventually, Kyo just gave up. He was sick of the odd stares from everybody, but Tohru's laughter calmed him. So far, it had been nice. It was hot but there was a pleasant breeze that lightly tossed Tohru's long locks out of place. Everything was so perfect—Kyo desperately hoped that nothing would ruin it.
"Have you thought of a place where you want to eat?" Kyo asked. Tohru smiled to him, beaming.
"Perhaps we should look for a place that allows pets?"
"That's not funny!" Kyo hissed, but found himself laughing. "Seriously, though. Where do you want to eat?"
"Wherever you want to, Kyo-kun," Tohru answered. He knew she would say that. His eyes roamed around, searching for a place they could eat. He looked over to one place that had tables and chairs set out under a green awning. Smiling, he gripped her hand.
"There's a nice looking place," he pointed with the very same hand that he had intertwined with Tohru's. She followed his finger.
"Ah! Could we eat outside?"
"That's what I had in mind," Kyo told her. She smiled and they walked over, hand in hand. Kyo looked over to a convenient store and he swore that he saw Haru exit, a carton of milk in his arm. Kyo blinked and looked again, but the person was no where in sight. He figured that might have just been some old man still earning grays.
As he and Tohru entered the restaurant, they were greeted with a fat little man.
"Welcome, welcome, and congratulations!" he greeted with a small bow. Tohru returned the bow, a bewildered expression on her face.
"Congratulations?" she inquired.
"That's right!" the man exclaimed cheerfully. "Today, in this restaurant only, we're having our Couple's Day Sale! Everything on the menu is thirty-five percent off! But, it's for couples only."
"Th-thirty-five?" repeated Kyo, matching Tohru's face with one of his own.
"You got it!" said the man, his eyes twinkling. "You two make a very nice couple. So, will you be dining inside or out?"
"Outside, please," Kyo answered. Tohru smiled at him, staring admiringly. Kyo really was a good person. He acted like such a gentleman in front of her—it was nice. He hadn't even denied the fact that they were a couple even if they weren't officially one yet. Kyo, although sometimes harsh, was always very sweet to her and did things for her without her knowing it. For now, Tohru didn't know that he had her on his mind all of the time (when it wasn't occupied by how to beat Yuki), but he vowed to himself that he would tell her one day.
And that day may come sooner than he thought.
Tohru and Kyo sat down, the wind almost lifting napkins right off of the table. Tohru giggled at this as she saved them from their dirty demise, thanked the fat man, and began to study the menu.
/-/
Yuki was cautious as he exited the bathroom, looking around for a certain two-toned hair colored young man. He saw no one and stepped into the hall, clad in fresh clean clothes.
"Haru?" Yuki called as he was greeted with an empty living room. He padded over to the couch and saw Haru's CD player. The song he was listening to was on pause, and as such, the CD player was lightly beeping.
"Haaaru…" he called again. After getting no answer, he shrugged and shut off the player. He walked into the kitchen and found that it, too, was empty. Eyebrows furrowing in thought, Yuki wondered where that stupid cat and Tohru were. Maybe Tohru was off with of her friends from school—but she always told them about that sort of thing before doing it to okay it with Shigure.
Aimlessly, Yuki opened the door of the refrigerator. He remembered that there wasn't anything drinkable inside of it and began to shut it when he froze and stretched the door back open. There was a brand new carton of milk sitting right smack in the middle of the shelf.
Huh? There wasn't any before…
And then Yuki thought about it more. Haru must have gone out to get it in order to apologize. It didn't excuse his behavior, not nothing actually did once he went black. Looking around for the milk buyer, Yuki finally slid the door open to the outside. He saw Haru lying on the grass, his knee bent up and his other leg draped over it lazily. Yuki smiled, walked over, and knelt down behind Haru's head. He leaned over and hung his head over Haru's face, his hair dangling down.
"Hello," greeted Haru to the beautiful face above his own. Yuki was still smiling as he asked, "You bought some milk?"
"It's the least I could do to prevent you from having to bathe again."
Yuki chuckled. Haru used to always make him laugh at the Main House. Yuki noticed suddenly that Haru seemed to be looking past him although he was the only thing he could see. It was a strange feeling that enveloped him as he noticed it, so he tried to ignore it.
"I'm sorry I attacked you like that," Haru told him softly.
"It's fine now. You weren't really yourself," Yuki replied. He then looked forward and up, exposing his neck to the one below him. "What were you doing out here anyway?"
"Watching the clouds."
Yuki tilted his head up and realized that he was probably interrupting Haru's solitude so he sat up.
"You don't want to stay?" Haru asked as he heard Yuki start to get up.
"Wouldn't I be disturbing you?"
"You couldn't do anything to disturb me…"
Yuki translated Haru's reply to "Lie down next to me and watch the clouds, too," and did just that. Together, they watched the clouds pass by.
"That one there looks like Kyo," Haru pointed past Yuki's head. Yuki sniffed a bit at Haru's scent instinctively as a rat and noticed that he smelled a bit like hay and frankincense. It was an odd but satisfying smell. At last, Yuki looked in the direction in which Haru was pointing toward and started to laugh. It really did look like Kyo. The cloud was lumped together to make the head and body of what could be a cat with its tail erect in anger. They laughed at this, figuring that somewhere there was a Kagura cloud chasing him. Yuki looked over to a different cloud that was stationed above his head.
"That one reminds me of Momiji," said Yuki, pointing. He was right—the cloud itself was a large, circular clump with long ear-like strands protruding from it. After a bit, they could find no more shapes but stayed outside anyway, talking and enjoying one another's company. The sun was pleasantly hot on their faces and they loved it. Finally, Yuki pointed over Haru's head.
"That one—what does it look like to you?"
Haru trailed his eyes from Yuki's arm to where his slender finger was pointing and saw a large blob of a cloud next to a smaller one. The smaller cloud was curved like a rat standing on its hind legs while the other cloud seemed to resemble a small calf sniffing the ground. Even though the "calf" had only two "legs," Haru chuckled, seeing the resemblance.
"It looks like you and me," he said. Yuki nodded and dropped his arm. It was draped across Haru's chest, which made the ox very nervous and excited at the same. Yuki was just too tired to move it. The heat was making them both tired, as Haru proved with a yawn. Yuki looked to him. This… isn't so bad… And like that, they fell asleep.
They only awoke thanks to Shigure's loud laughter. Haru noticed that Yuki's arm was still around him and Haru's own hand was laying over Yuki's. Yuki twitched and sat up, glaring at Shigure, who was hunched over, clutching his sides with laughter. Haru matched Yuki's glare with one of his own, giving it to Shigure, and then faltered as he noticed Hatori standing beside Shigure, his lips twitching as a mockery of a smile.
"I'm… haha… I'm sorry… did I interrupt anything? Hahahaha!" Shigure laughed out loud. He ducked as a rock flew by his head. "Thanks, Yu-chan, we needed stones for the—"
This stone (which happened to be much larger) whacked him straight in the gut, knocking him over. Haru had thrown it.
"All right, that's enough, I'm heading home," said Hatori. As he turned, he added, "Yuki, Hatsuharu is a good choice. He will always stick by you in all of your times of need. Plus, he seems to be excitable—"
Yuki jumped up and chased Hatori, who was quicker on his feet than one would think. Haru sighed and pushed himself up. By that time, Shigure was done with wiping his tears of laughter out of his eyes and was looking up at Haru with a "love meeeee" face. Haru rolled his eyes and continued inside.
/-/
Although Kyo had a difficult time carrying all of the groceries, he didn't mind doing it. Tohru lent the hand that she could, for her other was in a loose sling around her shoulder. She made a happy sound as she saw the house below them.
"Oh good—we're home!"
Kyo witnessed Haru suddenly chase Shigure out of the door, yelling something. Kyo ignored them and looked to Tohru.
"Can you promise me something?"
She returned his gaze. "Eh?"
"Tell the others—especially that damn rat—that we met up in the grocery store. We can't have them finding out about anything before that, okay?"
Her lip trembled slightly in confusion.
"Ehh? Why?"
"Because…" Shit, now to think up a reason. "Because they would tell Kagura or Akito—both are equally bad—and they would… uh… well, it'd be bad."
Tohru didn't like it, but agreed.
"Come over here and fight me, dog breath!" they heard Haru threaten as they were closer to the house. He had obviously gone black. Shigure's chortle echoed.
"I think not!"
"You sure you're the year of the dog and not of the chicken?"
Hatori, having finally escaped from Yuki, decided to intervene. He grabbed Haru's arms and thrust him down on the ground, pinning his arms up against his back.
"You bastard! Let me go!!" Haru shouted. Hatori didn't move.
"Not until you calm down."
"Nyaaargh……"
Tohru and Kyo arrived the moment Yuki stepped outside, eyes narrowed at Hatori.
"Hatori… I'll—eh, Honda-san??" he saw Tohru next to Kyo and grew significantly angrier. "Stupid cat… what are you doing?"
"Shut up, rat! Can't you see that I'm helping with the groceries?! It's more than I can say about you!!" Yuki didn't hesitate in running over and grabbing what Tohru held in her left hand.
"Honda-san, why didn't you tell us that you were going out for groceries? No wonder it took you all day…"
"A-ah, no, I wasn't at the grocery store all day… I was with Hana-chan at her house until I went to the grocery store. I met up with Kyo-kun there. I must've forgotten to tell you that I was going over there today…" Tohru lied. She didn't like lying to Yuki, but Kyo said…
"Ah, Tohru-kun, it's okay!" said Shigure, stepping over to Kyo and snatching some of the groceries to help bring them in. Kyo mentally thanked them and looked down to Haru, who was now calm and white.
"Hey, stupid," he said to him. Haru looked up to him blankly.
"Don't call me that…"
"Yes, don't, we don't need him going black again," warned Hatori, letting go of said ox. Haru pushed himself up and brushed off the visible dirt off of the front of his black shirt.
"… My head hurts…" he spoke after tucking his thumbs under his belt. Yuki looked to him before entering the house. Hatori eyed Shigure.
"I'm heading home. Be good—all of you."
But before he got into the car, he inspected Tohru's arm.
"Good, you've been taking good care of yourself. A little more than a month and a half left."
Tohru thanked him and went inside.
/-/
An hour after Tohru got back, it started to rain. Kyo was hiding up in his room, Haru was out on the porch, reading and listening to his CD player, and Shigure was with his editor, writing. Tohru was on her way to the bath when she met Yuki in the hallway. She couldn't exactly avoid him in the narrow hallway so she looked up to his face.
"Souma-kun, I'm about to bathe, is that okay?"
"Of course it is," Yuki said softly. He held something up. "Honda-san… I've been waiting to give you this…" She looked at the item. It was a small container.
"Eh?"
He opened it and she gazed at what was inside. She smiled and her eyes brightened.
"Strawberries!"
"I was waiting for them to ripen. They finally did today. I'm glad I checked—I almost got caught in this sudden rain," Yuki told her. She giggled.
"They look tasty…"
"I'm sure they will be. They are for you, after all."
Tohru blushed and said nothing. Yuki nodded and closed up the container.
"I'll put these in the fridge so you can have a nice bath," he offered, moving out of her way. She put her hand to his shoulder and he turned back around.
"Th… Thank you, Souma-kun."
He knew that she was thanking him for more than just putting away the strawberries, but he simply smiled and walked away.
Well! I am pleased, I suppose. I love this chapter because of when Yuki falls asleep with his arm around Haru. YAY. Next chapter in a week. It's FUN. Almost as fun as… FUN. I think.
Thanks, everyone. :D See you next chapter. ::bows and runs away::