Hiya, SakuraBubbles here with the ever eventful chapter four. I've
deciiiided… to spppeeeeeeeeeellllllllllll… Honda's name… as…
Tojhdgkjfdagru. Haha, kidding. I'll spell it Tohru from here on. I
think I'll keep Souma as 'Souma' because I… said so. :D I'll be going
back and redoing Tohru's name, okay? ... By the time you read this,
it'll already be done. SHHHHHH...
Oh yeah, haven't done a disclaimer in a while but it's still the same as chapter one. I may own a basket of rocks that I've named after the characters (yes, I'm crazy), but I don't OWN the actual characters. Silly you, for thinking that.
Boys kissing in this chapter. Don't like, don't care, it's there. "It's here and it's queer!!" XD
Chapter Four: Inu
Things were pretty silent the next day until the afternoon. For the majority of the day, thanks to the "incident" outside, Haru wisely stayed away from Yuki around Shigure, for the dog would grin and chuckle continuously until one of them left the room. Yuki hadn't told Kyo or Tohru what had happened outside, and he was grateful to both Shigure and Haru for doing the same. Yuki was suspicious, however, of Kyo. It was just odd that he just happened to meet Tohru inside of the grocery store. He never went grocery shopping unless ordered to accompany Tohru by Shigure.
He had been giving Kyo glares all day long, and frankly, Kyo was getting annoyed.
"What the hell is your problem?" he finally asked of the rat boy. Yuki grabbed him by the shirt collar.
"You did something with Honda-san behind my back yesterday, didn't you?"
"Feh, so what if I did?" Kyo replied cockily.
"What did you do?"
"Does it really concern you?"
Yuki threw him across the room and like his feline counterpart, Kyo landed on his feet, ready to fight back. Haru, on the other hand, had to jump out of the way, skidding across the floor.
"JEEZ! Can't you two take it outside??"
"Shut up, Haru," snapped Yuki, though he instantly regretted it. Haru looked at him with a hurt expression on his face, then left the room with a few words, "Make sure I still have a couch to sleep on tonight…"
"Did you make Honda-san lie to cover you?" Yuki wanted to know. Kyo didn't deny it, but he said nothing to prove it. Yuki rushed at him. "You piece of filth!"
"You're worse than a piece of filth! At least I know enough not to hurt her!" yelled Kyo, blocking Yuki's advance and countering with one of his own.
"The very first time you met her you knocked her with a table!"
Kyo just hollered in response and continued attacking.
And well… by the end of the fight… Haru no longer had a couch to sleep on.
/-/
"I can't believe you two; this is the worst yet!" Shigure scolded them. Tohru was trying to calm Haru down over the loss of his precious couch, or more so to prevent him from going black.
"This isn't just something we can repair," said Shigure. "We're going to have to get a new couch."
"That's no trouble. Can't the main house supply us with one?" asked Yuki. Shigure sighed.
"It's a matter of explaining. This is a couch."
Kyo stayed silent during most of the discussion, holding an ice pack to the side of his head.
"I'll put a call into the Main House tomorrow," said Shigure. He looked to Haru. "As for you… why don't you stay with Yuki or something?"
He started to laugh, but Yuki, unsuspectingly didn't say any sort of retort to the dog. Haru glared in Shigure's direction to try to overpower the blush he gained from the thought of sharing a bed with Yuki.
"You do owe him, stupid rat," snapped Kyo. "You broke the couch."
"No, you did."
"Only 'cause you threw me!!"
"Enough," Haru warned, his eyebrow twitching. "I'll sleep on the floor down here."
"No, no, it's fine. You can sleep in my bed and I'll sleep on the floor," Yuki offered. Haru shook his head.
"You'll get the bed, I'll get the floor. Sometimes, I find that beds are too soft for me. I'm a cow, remember?"
"That's something to keep in mind later on," Shigure said, covering his mouth with his hand. Yuki stood up and yelled at him while Haru threw whatever he could get his hands on, which happened to be a folded up towel. Shigure caught it and then yawned, covering his mouth with the object he caught.
"Well, I'm insanely tired. I don't care where you sleep, Haru. If anything, kick Kyo out of his bed and have him sleep on the roof."
"Not before we build a dog house for you!" Kyo spat.
/-/
Yuki tossed his covers to the edge of his bed and crawled into it, looking down to Haru. "Are you sure you're okay down there?"
"I'm fine," Haru answered with a calm smile. His "Yuki-chan" was placed secretly in his pillow as usual—that's all he needed. And jeez, the real Yuki was in the bed above him.
"Your back won't hurt if you stay down there?" asked Yuki. It was sort of strange—Yuki felt like he wanted Haru to come into bed with him… like some odd desire to get harassed in his sleep or something. He shivered and pushed the thought out of his head, tangling himself in his covers. How could he be so stupid? He's not interested in Haru—or any boy—at all. Still… his skin started prickling and he yelled at himself mentally.
"Well, if my back hurts in the morning, you can give me a massage," said Haru. Yuki blushed.
"I… don't think I can."
"I won't seduce you."
"Stop talking like that."
Haru apologized and turned over, leaving Yuki to stare at his back. The crickets outside were hushed so the both of them could hear the other breathing. It was very awkward for Yuki, who kept having those thoughts in his head, and very difficult for Haru, too, because he was so in love with him.
"Um…" Yuki breathed. "I can't sleep at all…"
"Yeah, it's sorta stuffy in here… maybe if I…" Haru replied, tossing his only blanket off.
"You're hot?" asked Yuki. Haru grinned.
"I'd like to believe so…"
"… As in temperature."
"I know, I was teasing. I'm sort of hot. It's colder downstairs."
"I'm always cold," Yuki replied almost bitterly. Haru gazed up to him and Yuki anticipated what he was going to say.
"I could always keep you warm…"
"I knew you were going to say that…"
Haru chuckled and turned over, facing him.
"Well? Do you want me to?"
"H-Haru, shut up."
Haru laughed quietly and stretched, leaving Yuki to think about it more.
"I wouldn't do anything—"
"Go ahead."
The words slipped from his mouth, but he didn't necessarily regret it. Haru thought he was joking and continued laughing. Yuki smiled slightly and turned onto his back, staring up to the ceiling.
"Yuki, how do you feel about Tohru?" Haru asked, though he already knew. Yuki swallowed.
"I… I want to look at her all the time… and I want to run my hand through her hair then kiss her on the forehead. I want… to be with her all the time. Most of all, I want to hold her, but I can't thanks to the curse…" he answered. He found it odd that he was hesitant to tell Haru all of this, but Haru simply nodded.
"I see…"
Yuki said nothing in response. Haru sighed.
"It's the same with me to you…"
"What?"
"… I love you, Yuki," Haru informed him, as he did often. Yuki sighed and turned—wow, how did Haru appear right beside him like that?
"Haru, no you don't," he said. "I'm a boy. You're a boy. Do the math."
"That's the problem?" Haru asked. "Gender shouldn't matter. I fell in love with you, Yuki, the person. You just happen to be a male."
"I 'just happen to be?' How does that not bother you?"
"Why should it? I would do anything for you…" He hesitated as it ripped through his heart. "… Just like you would do anything for Tohru…"
Yuki stared at him, mouth slightly gaped.
"… You really love me?"
"Yes I do," Haru answered, his voice serious. "If you were a girl, a boy, part of the Souma family or not… I really do."
"But why? I'm mean… I'm bitter… I use people… I'm the rat. And I hate it. I hate being the rat," Yuki confessed, surprising himself. He hadn't told anyone this, not even Tohru. "It's a horrible thing to be. Just by being me, I've gained so many enemies for no reason other than 'you're the rat, Yuki, I hate you.' I'm so sick of this. Even you hated me at one point, Haru." Yuki's eyes trailed away from Haru's face, as he found he could no longer look at him. "That's why it's so hard to believe that you could love me. Back then, the rat used the ox. Who's to say that I won't do the same to you?"
Haru was silent for a moment before running his hand through Yuki's hair, mimicking what the boy said he would do to the one he loves. Haru pressed his lips to Yuki's forehead and the older boy found that the action warmed him—Haru had never been so bold. Haru looked at Yuki, his gray eyes smiling just as his mouth was.
"Yuki, you are you. You are different from the rat. Do you think that anyone else with the rat's curse could ever live under the same roof as the one with the cat's curse? Let alone in the same room with him without starting a fight? I've seen you two—that and Tohru has told me—get along so well. You've even worked together for the same goal. And it's because you're not just the rat. You are Yuki. You are the one who tends to a vegetable garden everyday. You are the one who will play Rich Man, Poor Man with a bunch of people and learn to have fun with it."
"I'm also the one who destroyed the couch downstairs," Yuki added. Haru chuckled.
"Well, minor details aside, you're still separate from the tricky rat from the stories. You are Yuki."
Neither of them expected the following to happen. Haru had always hoped it would and Yuki never thought he'd give Haru more than a hug or two. However, it actually happened. Perhaps he had meant to thank him for cheering him up or maybe it was something else.
Yuki put his hands out and cupped the sides of Haru's head, catching his ears under his index and middle fingers, his thumbs on his smooth cheeks. He leaned upward and met his lips with Haru's. It was amazing, to say the least. Haru was surprised but happy that Yuki was the one doing the kissing, and even more surprised and happy when Yuki slipped his tongue into Haru's mouth. Haru almost lost his grip on the edge of the bed in near ecstasy before Yuki broke the kiss, staring at, but not into, Haru's eyes. When he let go of Haru's head, the ox boy promptly fell onto his back. Yuki laughed as he got back up.
"No cow tipping…" Haru ordered. Yuki laughed harder. Haru acted hurt. "You're so cruel to me, Yuuuuki… I should go out and die!"
"No you shouldn't. And weren't you going to keep me warm?"
A nervous sort of giggle escaped Haru's lips.
"Ehehe… you still want me to?"
"Sure."
Haru didn't hesitate in climbing into bed with him, bringing himself over Yuki and plopping down between him and the wall. He took a moment to settle before nestling his head on Yuki's shoulder and wrapping one arm under him and one arm over his chest, holding him close. Haru's cowlick ridden hair was tickling Yuki's neck a bit and his breath was warm against his skin.
"I don't see how you could be cold," Haru sighed, sliding his eyes shut. "It's summer time."
Yuki smiled and brought one of his hands up to Haru's arm, resting on it.
"I'm not cold anymore…"
/-/
In the morning, Haru and Yuki acted no different from how they usually acted toward each other, so no one suspected that they shared a kiss and that Yuki fell asleep in Haru's arms willingly and knowingly. Tohru smiled to Yuki when he woke up and first came downstairs.
"Good morning, Souma-kun."
"Oh… morning," Yuki mumbled tiredly.
"I'm… I'm sorry I lied to you," she said, bowing down. "Kyo-kun said that it'd make people mad if they knew that we spent a day together."
"What did you two do?"
"Went for a walk, ate at a restaurant, went grocery shopping, and then headed home," Tohru explained.
"Oh… that's it?" Yuki asked, puzzled.
"Yes."
"Kyo made it out to be a big deal… but so did I, I guess."
He brought his hand to the top of her head and smiled.
"I'm sorry that Kyo and I fight over you," he said and went into the kitchen, leaving her behind with the cutest, saddest, most bewildered expression anyone could ever see.
"… Over… me?"
Ah, Tohru. Clueless as ever. But we love her anyway.
I also wanna say that I must thank you all for the great reviews. I've worked hard at keeping everyone in character (oddly enough, Tohru is the hardest) and it makes me proud when people say that I've done a good job at it. ::bows:: Thank you very much! ::hugs Haru and rides him off into the sunset::
Oh yeah, haven't done a disclaimer in a while but it's still the same as chapter one. I may own a basket of rocks that I've named after the characters (yes, I'm crazy), but I don't OWN the actual characters. Silly you, for thinking that.
Boys kissing in this chapter. Don't like, don't care, it's there. "It's here and it's queer!!" XD
Things were pretty silent the next day until the afternoon. For the majority of the day, thanks to the "incident" outside, Haru wisely stayed away from Yuki around Shigure, for the dog would grin and chuckle continuously until one of them left the room. Yuki hadn't told Kyo or Tohru what had happened outside, and he was grateful to both Shigure and Haru for doing the same. Yuki was suspicious, however, of Kyo. It was just odd that he just happened to meet Tohru inside of the grocery store. He never went grocery shopping unless ordered to accompany Tohru by Shigure.
He had been giving Kyo glares all day long, and frankly, Kyo was getting annoyed.
"What the hell is your problem?" he finally asked of the rat boy. Yuki grabbed him by the shirt collar.
"You did something with Honda-san behind my back yesterday, didn't you?"
"Feh, so what if I did?" Kyo replied cockily.
"What did you do?"
"Does it really concern you?"
Yuki threw him across the room and like his feline counterpart, Kyo landed on his feet, ready to fight back. Haru, on the other hand, had to jump out of the way, skidding across the floor.
"JEEZ! Can't you two take it outside??"
"Shut up, Haru," snapped Yuki, though he instantly regretted it. Haru looked at him with a hurt expression on his face, then left the room with a few words, "Make sure I still have a couch to sleep on tonight…"
"Did you make Honda-san lie to cover you?" Yuki wanted to know. Kyo didn't deny it, but he said nothing to prove it. Yuki rushed at him. "You piece of filth!"
"You're worse than a piece of filth! At least I know enough not to hurt her!" yelled Kyo, blocking Yuki's advance and countering with one of his own.
"The very first time you met her you knocked her with a table!"
Kyo just hollered in response and continued attacking.
And well… by the end of the fight… Haru no longer had a couch to sleep on.
/-/
"I can't believe you two; this is the worst yet!" Shigure scolded them. Tohru was trying to calm Haru down over the loss of his precious couch, or more so to prevent him from going black.
"This isn't just something we can repair," said Shigure. "We're going to have to get a new couch."
"That's no trouble. Can't the main house supply us with one?" asked Yuki. Shigure sighed.
"It's a matter of explaining. This is a couch."
Kyo stayed silent during most of the discussion, holding an ice pack to the side of his head.
"I'll put a call into the Main House tomorrow," said Shigure. He looked to Haru. "As for you… why don't you stay with Yuki or something?"
He started to laugh, but Yuki, unsuspectingly didn't say any sort of retort to the dog. Haru glared in Shigure's direction to try to overpower the blush he gained from the thought of sharing a bed with Yuki.
"You do owe him, stupid rat," snapped Kyo. "You broke the couch."
"No, you did."
"Only 'cause you threw me!!"
"Enough," Haru warned, his eyebrow twitching. "I'll sleep on the floor down here."
"No, no, it's fine. You can sleep in my bed and I'll sleep on the floor," Yuki offered. Haru shook his head.
"You'll get the bed, I'll get the floor. Sometimes, I find that beds are too soft for me. I'm a cow, remember?"
"That's something to keep in mind later on," Shigure said, covering his mouth with his hand. Yuki stood up and yelled at him while Haru threw whatever he could get his hands on, which happened to be a folded up towel. Shigure caught it and then yawned, covering his mouth with the object he caught.
"Well, I'm insanely tired. I don't care where you sleep, Haru. If anything, kick Kyo out of his bed and have him sleep on the roof."
"Not before we build a dog house for you!" Kyo spat.
/-/
Yuki tossed his covers to the edge of his bed and crawled into it, looking down to Haru. "Are you sure you're okay down there?"
"I'm fine," Haru answered with a calm smile. His "Yuki-chan" was placed secretly in his pillow as usual—that's all he needed. And jeez, the real Yuki was in the bed above him.
"Your back won't hurt if you stay down there?" asked Yuki. It was sort of strange—Yuki felt like he wanted Haru to come into bed with him… like some odd desire to get harassed in his sleep or something. He shivered and pushed the thought out of his head, tangling himself in his covers. How could he be so stupid? He's not interested in Haru—or any boy—at all. Still… his skin started prickling and he yelled at himself mentally.
"Well, if my back hurts in the morning, you can give me a massage," said Haru. Yuki blushed.
"I… don't think I can."
"I won't seduce you."
"Stop talking like that."
Haru apologized and turned over, leaving Yuki to stare at his back. The crickets outside were hushed so the both of them could hear the other breathing. It was very awkward for Yuki, who kept having those thoughts in his head, and very difficult for Haru, too, because he was so in love with him.
"Um…" Yuki breathed. "I can't sleep at all…"
"Yeah, it's sorta stuffy in here… maybe if I…" Haru replied, tossing his only blanket off.
"You're hot?" asked Yuki. Haru grinned.
"I'd like to believe so…"
"… As in temperature."
"I know, I was teasing. I'm sort of hot. It's colder downstairs."
"I'm always cold," Yuki replied almost bitterly. Haru gazed up to him and Yuki anticipated what he was going to say.
"I could always keep you warm…"
"I knew you were going to say that…"
Haru chuckled and turned over, facing him.
"Well? Do you want me to?"
"H-Haru, shut up."
Haru laughed quietly and stretched, leaving Yuki to think about it more.
"I wouldn't do anything—"
"Go ahead."
The words slipped from his mouth, but he didn't necessarily regret it. Haru thought he was joking and continued laughing. Yuki smiled slightly and turned onto his back, staring up to the ceiling.
"Yuki, how do you feel about Tohru?" Haru asked, though he already knew. Yuki swallowed.
"I… I want to look at her all the time… and I want to run my hand through her hair then kiss her on the forehead. I want… to be with her all the time. Most of all, I want to hold her, but I can't thanks to the curse…" he answered. He found it odd that he was hesitant to tell Haru all of this, but Haru simply nodded.
"I see…"
Yuki said nothing in response. Haru sighed.
"It's the same with me to you…"
"What?"
"… I love you, Yuki," Haru informed him, as he did often. Yuki sighed and turned—wow, how did Haru appear right beside him like that?
"Haru, no you don't," he said. "I'm a boy. You're a boy. Do the math."
"That's the problem?" Haru asked. "Gender shouldn't matter. I fell in love with you, Yuki, the person. You just happen to be a male."
"I 'just happen to be?' How does that not bother you?"
"Why should it? I would do anything for you…" He hesitated as it ripped through his heart. "… Just like you would do anything for Tohru…"
Yuki stared at him, mouth slightly gaped.
"… You really love me?"
"Yes I do," Haru answered, his voice serious. "If you were a girl, a boy, part of the Souma family or not… I really do."
"But why? I'm mean… I'm bitter… I use people… I'm the rat. And I hate it. I hate being the rat," Yuki confessed, surprising himself. He hadn't told anyone this, not even Tohru. "It's a horrible thing to be. Just by being me, I've gained so many enemies for no reason other than 'you're the rat, Yuki, I hate you.' I'm so sick of this. Even you hated me at one point, Haru." Yuki's eyes trailed away from Haru's face, as he found he could no longer look at him. "That's why it's so hard to believe that you could love me. Back then, the rat used the ox. Who's to say that I won't do the same to you?"
Haru was silent for a moment before running his hand through Yuki's hair, mimicking what the boy said he would do to the one he loves. Haru pressed his lips to Yuki's forehead and the older boy found that the action warmed him—Haru had never been so bold. Haru looked at Yuki, his gray eyes smiling just as his mouth was.
"Yuki, you are you. You are different from the rat. Do you think that anyone else with the rat's curse could ever live under the same roof as the one with the cat's curse? Let alone in the same room with him without starting a fight? I've seen you two—that and Tohru has told me—get along so well. You've even worked together for the same goal. And it's because you're not just the rat. You are Yuki. You are the one who tends to a vegetable garden everyday. You are the one who will play Rich Man, Poor Man with a bunch of people and learn to have fun with it."
"I'm also the one who destroyed the couch downstairs," Yuki added. Haru chuckled.
"Well, minor details aside, you're still separate from the tricky rat from the stories. You are Yuki."
Neither of them expected the following to happen. Haru had always hoped it would and Yuki never thought he'd give Haru more than a hug or two. However, it actually happened. Perhaps he had meant to thank him for cheering him up or maybe it was something else.
Yuki put his hands out and cupped the sides of Haru's head, catching his ears under his index and middle fingers, his thumbs on his smooth cheeks. He leaned upward and met his lips with Haru's. It was amazing, to say the least. Haru was surprised but happy that Yuki was the one doing the kissing, and even more surprised and happy when Yuki slipped his tongue into Haru's mouth. Haru almost lost his grip on the edge of the bed in near ecstasy before Yuki broke the kiss, staring at, but not into, Haru's eyes. When he let go of Haru's head, the ox boy promptly fell onto his back. Yuki laughed as he got back up.
"No cow tipping…" Haru ordered. Yuki laughed harder. Haru acted hurt. "You're so cruel to me, Yuuuuki… I should go out and die!"
"No you shouldn't. And weren't you going to keep me warm?"
A nervous sort of giggle escaped Haru's lips.
"Ehehe… you still want me to?"
"Sure."
Haru didn't hesitate in climbing into bed with him, bringing himself over Yuki and plopping down between him and the wall. He took a moment to settle before nestling his head on Yuki's shoulder and wrapping one arm under him and one arm over his chest, holding him close. Haru's cowlick ridden hair was tickling Yuki's neck a bit and his breath was warm against his skin.
"I don't see how you could be cold," Haru sighed, sliding his eyes shut. "It's summer time."
Yuki smiled and brought one of his hands up to Haru's arm, resting on it.
"I'm not cold anymore…"
/-/
In the morning, Haru and Yuki acted no different from how they usually acted toward each other, so no one suspected that they shared a kiss and that Yuki fell asleep in Haru's arms willingly and knowingly. Tohru smiled to Yuki when he woke up and first came downstairs.
"Good morning, Souma-kun."
"Oh… morning," Yuki mumbled tiredly.
"I'm… I'm sorry I lied to you," she said, bowing down. "Kyo-kun said that it'd make people mad if they knew that we spent a day together."
"What did you two do?"
"Went for a walk, ate at a restaurant, went grocery shopping, and then headed home," Tohru explained.
"Oh… that's it?" Yuki asked, puzzled.
"Yes."
"Kyo made it out to be a big deal… but so did I, I guess."
He brought his hand to the top of her head and smiled.
"I'm sorry that Kyo and I fight over you," he said and went into the kitchen, leaving her behind with the cutest, saddest, most bewildered expression anyone could ever see.
"… Over… me?"
Ah, Tohru. Clueless as ever. But we love her anyway.
I also wanna say that I must thank you all for the great reviews. I've worked hard at keeping everyone in character (oddly enough, Tohru is the hardest) and it makes me proud when people say that I've done a good job at it. ::bows:: Thank you very much! ::hugs Haru and rides him off into the sunset::