Disclaimer: Seriously, you know I don't own anything, quit looking at me like that.
"Summer Rains"
Chapter 5~
As soon as Tohru turned the corner to head to her work, Yuki appeared out of nowhere.
"You and Shigure sure love doing that to me, don't you?"
"What?"
"That appearing out of nowhere thing. Like Hanajima."
His confused look disappeared, replaced with a serious one.
"I needed to ask you something," he said, turning his attention to some far-off object, "about Honda-san."
"I don't know why I should tell you anything, but you've caught me in a good mood, so...what is it?"
I could tell easily he wanted to make a smart comment, that condescending smile had already spread across his face. With a slight shake of his head as he caught himself, though, it was gone. Like how a line disappears when you shake an etch-a-sketch or something.
"Kyo...Tell me, does Honda-san...hate me?"
"W-what? What the hell are you going on about? She couldn't hate you, or anybody else for that matter, even if she wanted to!" I exclaimed, not really believeing he was asking me this.
"Are you sure about that?"
"How could she hate you, you stupid rat! She only loves you, after all."
That confused look reappeared on his face.
"What are you talking about, baka neko?"
"Didn't you hear me? I said she loves you! Don't you realize that?"
"Me?" he said, with a small, odd laugh, "What about you?"
"What are you trying to say?" I asked in an annoyed tone. I hated it when he wouldn't get to the point.
"She loves you, baka neko, not me, the "stupid rat.""
"How is that even possible! Nobody gives a damn about me! It's probably just pity on Tohru's behalf and insanity on Kazuma-sensei and Kagura's!" I yelled, knowing full well it wasn't true but saying it anyway.
A slap in the face, courtesy of Yuki brought me back to reality. I would have thanked him, I did need that, but, well...no.
"Don't be stupid!" he hissed, "She does love you instead. That's why she favors you."
"Tohru doesn't favor anyone," I protested, "it's not in her nature. She feels she must treat everyone equally and with kindness, even if they don't deserve it."
"You're not going to start feeling sorry for yourself, are you, baka neko?"
"I was talking about you, idiot!"
"Baka neko..." Yuki sighed. He ran a hand through his hair and continued, "In any case, I suggest you wake up and realize she loves you before you hurt her."
He walked off then, just like that. I didn't know whether to believe him or not. But all that time I'd searched for a hint of insencerity in his face, I'd found not the slighest trace, I tried to use the excuse his face never gave emotion of any kind away anyway, but then I remembered his emotions had been very readable lately. And the look on his face as he talked to me had been nothing less than truthful. The only way to resolve this was to talk to Tohru and find out the truth.
"Will you stop pacing and wandering around the house?" Shigure complained, sticking his head out of his office door, "You're making me nervous and I can't concentrate."
"I can't help it!" I practically whined, "I need to talk to Tohru now, it's four, and she doesn't get off until seven!"
"It's only three hours, Kyo-kun, calm down."
"Three hours is a damn eternity right now, Shigure."
"Whatever, just settle down, or pace outside, or something. I have to turn this in by tomorrow, or my editor will kill me."
"It's not my fault you procrastinate. I thought you lived to torment the woman anyway?"
"Just go, okay?"
"Fine, fine."
I headed outside, feeling restless as hell, and briefly considered just running to Tohru's work from here and asking her. I decided against it and sat down on the back step, trying to think of something to remedy this annoying restlessness that was making me feel on edge. Kagura, with her wonderful timing, appeared to help me with my problem.
"Kyo-kun!" was all I heard before she collided into me, wrapping her arms tightly around my waist as she did.
"Hi, Kagura."
"Hi!" she said happily," I missed you so much!"
She then demonstrated her death grip and I found it difficult to breathe.
"Kagura...Kagura, I can't breathe..."
"You're so silly, Kyo-kun!"
"How could you miss me so much? You just saw me this morning."
"I know! But I did! I missed you a lot!" she insisted, using her deathgrip again.
"Okay, Kagura, okay..." I said with a sigh. I felt annoyed with her for some odd reason.
...Maybe it was because it felt like she was trying to crush my windpipe.
"What's the matter, Kyo-kun?"
"Nothing, Kagura, I--"
"What happened, Kyo-kun? Tell me! Did Yun-chan hit you too hard?" she looked up at me briefly before grabbing me in a headlock, "Teeell meeee!"
"Kagura! Come on, let me go!" I protested, trying to escape her grip.
"Tell me, Kyo-kun! Now!"
"Nothing! It's nothing! I'm just waiting for Tohru to get home so I can talk to her about Yuki! He's been such a jerk to her lately and all..."
"Oh. Okay!" she said, back to her cheerful side, letting me go and making me fall over backwards since I was trying to escape her deathgrip. I swear, sometimes she as bad as Hatsuharu with his "black" side.
"Um...Kyo-kun?"
"What, Kagura?"
"You won't hate me like Yun-chan does...will you?"
I looked at her surprised, but not because of her rapidfire changing from cheerful, to psychotic, to cheerful again, and now saddened. Did she really believe he hated her? Yuki was really causing a lot of damage. First Tohru, and now Kagura. Who else was he planning on isolating? For someone who wants so much to learn to live with other people, he sure is working hard to push them all away.
"Kagura...what?"
"He hates me, Kyo-kun! He won't even talk to me anymore! At all..."
"He doesn't hate you, Kagura..."
"But, Kyo-kun..."
"Well, forget this!" I said, standing up suddenly, "I'm sick of him! I'm going to go teach him a lesson."
"Kyo-kun--"
"I'm not going to let him keep doing this to everyone, Kagura. He's done it to Tohru already, now you, and I can't take it anymore! How many more is he willing to hurt by being goddamn selfish!"
Storming back through the back door, Kagura trailing me, pleading with me to stop, I headed for Yuki's room. Slamming the door open, I declared, "I am going to kick your ass, rat-boy!"
This earned a complaint from Shigure about the noise, but he stopped in mid-sentence as Kagura grabbed onto his arm and frantically told him he had to stop Yuki and I from fighting.
"What's your problem now, baka neko?"
Why in the hell was he so calm?
"You," I hissed, you and how you're hurting everyone who cares about you! Tohru and Kagura already, and who's next, huh? Are you going to start pushing Hatsuharu away too because he's trying to help you like they were? Hatori when he comes to check on your condition tomorrow? Even Shigure?"
"What are you talking about?"
God, he made me so mad. I just wanted to strangle that skinny neck of his sometimes.
"Damnit, Yuki!" I yelled, slamming a fist into the side of the doorway, ignoring the dull, throbbing pain that arose in my fist as the wood cracked and splintered, "How can you stand there with that goddamn condescending smile on your face and tell me to wake up? Do you know what you've done? How can't you!"
"Get to the point!"
"First it was Tohru who thought you hated her because you wouldn't even answer her when she was only trying to find out what was wrong with you!" My other fist slammed into the other side of the doorway just as hard. "Now you've done the same to Kagura! I will absolutely not stand for this! Just because you're having some kind of drama doesn't mean you've got to cause everybody else grief! What the hell is wrong with you and why do you wonder why you can't get people close to you! Because of things like this, damn you!"
There was a silence, and I could hear Kagura still pleading with Shigure. I could imagine clearly her tear-streaked face as she stood with him in his office, holding onto the front of his shirt and looking up at him, as I heard her saying,
"Please, Shi-chan, please…don't let them fight…"
The silence persisted and I heard his reply.
"It will be alright, Kagura…"
"You have to stop them!" she said desperately with a sob, and I could just see them as he pulled her closer, holding her tightly to comfort her.
"It's okay, Kagura, it's all okay…"
"It's not…" she said quietly, but starting to give up as she realized he had no intention of stopping us, "It's all wrong…Shi-chan…"
"It will get worse if they don't fight it out…" he reasoned.
The tense silence dragged on for a few more minutes, though it seemed like an eternity. The only sound to be heard was Kagura's quiet crying, muffled due to the fact her face was buried in Shigure's chest. I caught a look of regret in Yuki's eyes, but it was too late, the damage was done. As he took a step as if he was planning on going to Kagura to apologize, I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, talking in a low tone.
"Don't you go near her, Yuki. Don't you even dare. You've done enough already."
"Let go of me," he hissed. Even as he said it though, I think he realized that I wasn't going to, and that he wasn't getting anywhere unless he went through me first.
"I don't think so."
"Get out of my way, Kyo."
"You're not going anywhere."
I realized what he was doing as he pulled back his fist, but it was too late to attempt to block, and I wasn't about to back down, so I took the hit.
His punch hit me hard in the stomach, making me double over. He always managed to hit harder than me, somehow. He had always been stronger… But I didn't care right now, I swung my fist in an uppercut, hitting him in the bottom of the jaw and making his head snap back. He was thrown off-balance, only for a second, but it was enough to take advantage of anyway. My punch missed, it only clipped his shoulder. He was recovering fast and had regained his balance.
I'm not too sure on the rest of the details of the fight, I just remember scoring hard hits and receiving them, sometimes at the same time. I do remember, though, what stopped the fight. We were both down, probably on the verge of collapsing anyway, but somebody sped the process up. You probably suspect I'll say Kagura tackled him, or me, or somehow both of us, since she is psychotic and would do that kind of thing, even if it put her at risk, but it wasn't.
"Kyo-kun! Sohma-kun! Stop it!"
I turned around quickly, surprised to see Tohru. She was home early? Unfortunetly for me though, Yuki had been in mid-swing as she ran in, and me not paying attention led to taking a hit in the side of my head. To make things worse, I then collided into Tohru as I fell back, since she had been standing right behind me, and was promptly transformed.
Holding the orange cat that was now me in her arms, she glanced at Yuki with a strange, unreadable expression. He had a similar expression, and I wondered briefly in my pain-stricken daze what thought passed between them. Tohru grabbed my clothes from the pile they had fallen into on the floor, and walked out of Yuki's room without a word.
Tohru headed upstairs to her room, and said she'd be right back as she set me on her bed, putting my clothes on the edge of the bed. I wondered why, and heard her talking with Kagura. She told Kagura I was okay, and patiently answered all of Kagura's rapidfire 'are you sure?' and 'what happened to him?' questions. That may not be a big deal, but then I heard something that just about tore me apart. Even though it was muffled, due to the fact the door was closed, and Tohru was halfway down the stairs, I heard every word of Kagura's clearly.
"It was…my fault…Tohru-chan…I brought it up in the first place…"
Tohru tried to tell her otherwise, but Kagura suddenly interrupted her. She asked Tohru to tell me she was sorry, and I could hear her running footsteps followed by the sound of the front door slamming shut.
I had gone in the fight with Yuki standing against his treatment of Kagura and Tohru, but I had done was make things worse. Was I really any better?
…
No.