Part 11

"Let's go outside," said Kyo, offering a hand to me.

I hesitantly accepted his hand and he carefully pulled me to my feet. If Hatori had any objection to us leaving, then he didn't voice it. He briefly glanced at us, then quickly returned to his conversation with Shigure.

Kyo helped me towards the front door, Yuki and Ayame's loud voices fading behind us.

"Ugh, I'm so glad to be out of there," said Kyo once we were outside. I could still hear Ayame and Yuki, but not as loudly as when we were inside.

"What did you want to talk about?" I asked calmly.

"Hang on," said Kyo. He moved me over to a tree and sat me down against it. I half-expected him to sit down next to me. But he remained standing and started pacing around.

"Is something wrong?" I asked again, wondering why he was acting like that.

He stopped pacing and turned to face me.

"I wanted to thank you for being a good friend to me," he said. "You've been a greater friend to me than anyone ever has."

A disappointed feeling squirmed in my stomach. I was hoping for something bigger. "You didn't need to bring me outside to tell me that. I'm sure everyone—"

"Dammit, that's not why I brought you outside!" Kyo snapped. He redirected himself. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell."

"It's all right. Do you want to tell me why you wanted our conversation to be private?" the feeling was gone, but I didn't want to get too hopeful.

"Um…" Kyo trailed off and started pacing again. I watched him patiently and hopefully. Surely something making him this edgy was…

"I-I-all right," he said after ten minutes of pacing. "I wanted to talk about that phone conversation."

"You mean the one…"

"Yeah, when the power went out at the Sohma house. I wanted to tell you something then."

I nodded, my hopes rising against my will. "You've been avoiding the topic."

"Well, I'm not now. What I mean is…what I said was…"

Whatever he wanted to say, he was still being hesitant about it. But I could also tell that he really wanted to spit it out. When he decided to speak again he sat down in front of me.

"Do you still care about me?" he asked.

I blinked, surprised. "Kyo-kun, I've always cared—"

"I mean, love me?" he was starting to turn red. "I mean that obsessive-compulsive love?" he added before I could say that I always loved him.

I blushed a little. "I can't really say. I can't beat you senseless because I don't have the strength to anymore. But it was pretty self-explanatory in the letter I wrote to you."

"Tell me then."

I stared at him. I've told him I loved him nearly a billion times in my life. Most of which was during the times I was beating him senseless.

But this time…saying it seemed to matter more than those billion times. Saying it then seemed to make me more nervous than anything before. But it wouldn't help me to hide from my feelings. And being a naturally open person, I wasn't about to hide it.

"I love you, Kyo-kun," I answered, staring him straight in the eyes. "I've always loved you. I'll be honest; when you rejected me I tried to squash my feelings. Even more so when I discovered I had cancer. But this feeling…it gave me more comfort than words ever could. It didn't matter that you didn't feel the same way; knowing that my love could survive even the worse of crises was comfort enough."

Kyo remained silent. I really wished that he would speak, especially since I just bore my feelings for him.

Then he did something that startled me. He reached out and took one of my hands. He held it gently in both of his hands.

"I'm not good with feelings," he said softly. "Even when I confessed to Tohru, it was hard. It took all my self-control to keep from pissing myself. When those two first hooked up I would get so angry and depressed that I couldn't leave my room. But, you helped me to deal with some of my feelings…even though I'm still bad at them.

"What I'm saying is…ever since we became close friends and had phone conversations, I've had this feeling. It's similar to what I felt for Tohru, but different at the same time. I want to say that it's love, but I can't be sure."

I gasped loudly. Love? For me? Did Kyo just say…?

"I…I want to go out with you. I think this feeling is love, but I want to make sure. So…I figured if we were a couple I could figure it out. And from there…we can figure it out together."

This wasn't real. I mean, it couldn't be real. This had to be a dream. I mean, I had always dreamed that Kyo would return my feelings and here we were, with Kyo confessing to me.

The emotion got to me and I burst out crying. Kyo yelped in surprised as I grabbed him and hugged him tightly. He panicked, probably thinking that he had offended me, and tried to comfort me.

"I'm sorry. I-I-I didn't mean to rush it like that. Please, please don't cry. I didn't mean to scare you…"

I laughed through my tears and pulled away. I quickly got in control of myself and wiped away my tears.

"I'm crying because I'm happy," I gasped. "You have no idea how long I've waited for you to say that to me."

Kyo looked relieved that he didn't hurt my feelings, but also very embarrassed about his confession and my emotional outburst.

"I have to warn you, though," I continued, sobering. "It probably won't be fun to have me as a girlfriend. I'm still recovering from the surgery and it'll take a little more than a year for me to fully heal. Not to mention Hatori will restrict any activities I do."

Kyo nodded. "Yeah, I kinda figured that. But I'm not gonna back down because of that. We can still be boyfriend and girlfriend, even if we can't do too much together."

I laughed again. "I guess so. It'll still be hard though."

Kyo was silent. But he still held onto my hand and smiled a little.

It was then that Hatori came out of the house, announcing that it was time to go home. Ayame was in toll, hopping about merrily. Yuki stood not too far away, blue in the face while Tohru tried to fan him. Shigure cheerfully saw them off.

Kyo helped me stand up and walked me over to Hatori.

"I'll call you later," he said. Then, with a bright red face, he gave me a quick kiss on the cheek!

I don't remember too much of what happened after that. I was floating around in a pink haze and my mind had gone blank. Surely it had been the best day of my life. Not only did Kyo confess his feelings for me, but he asked me out! It couldn't get any better than that!

You're so naïve, said a small voice. Do you think Kyo-kun actually loves you? He's on the rebound after being rejected by Tohru! He needs someone, and you happen to be the only person available. Besides, he can hug you without turning into the Cat. He isn't going after the other girls; Kisa kinda has Hiro and Isuzu has Haru. Not too many options left.

You may be right, I snapped back. Kyo-kun might be doing this on the rebound. But I can tell that he truly does care about me. And if you're right and he doesn't love me, then he'll grow to love me as a couple. And if that doesn't work, then I'll let him go. But that doesn't mean I'm going to throw away this only chance to be with the one person I love more than anything in the world!

So, even my own self-doubts couldn't spoil my mood. I finally got what I wanted.

---

"Did something happen?" asked Isuzu. "You've been awfully happy lately."

My pink haze hadn't faded, even after several days. But I was more alert as to what was going on as those days went by.

"Kyo-kun said something to me," I said dreamily.

"Uh huh. Judging from your sudden burst of cheerfulness over the past several days I can guess it was something good."

I nodded. "He asked me out."

Isuzu's jaw dropped. "What?! Are you serious? The same Kyo who treated you like shit and rejected you?"

I nodded.

Isuzu rubbed her forehead. "I don't mean to spoil your mood Kagura, but Kyo might—"

"Be just going out with me on the rebound," I finished for her. She blinked several times before nodding. "I know that. I had to take that into consideration when I agreed to go out with him. I think he wants to really let go of Tohru, and hopes that by going out with me his feelings for me will grow and he can let go of her."

"Kagura—"

"If Kyo-kun doesn't love me when everything is said and done, you know he'd tell me and not continue our relationship. But I think this is a good chance for me."

"Are you sure?"

"If all Kyo-kun wants is some girl to nurture and mother him, then I'm not that girl. I told him straight-up that I wouldn't make much of a girlfriend right now because I was still recovering. But, he didn't care and still wanted to go out with me."

Isuzu closed her eyes and laughed a little. "That doesn't sound like something Kyo would say. Okay, you might be right. I just don't want that jerk to give you a hard time."

I laughed too. "Don't worry. I'm sure he won't."

---

The next few weeks flew by like a breeze to me. I was so happy and having so much fun that I didn't notice the time had past.

Kyo called me three times a day practically, each conversation longer than the last. I think it was because we were going out, but we were a lot more comfortable talking to one another. We seemed more open with what was on our minds.

My checkups with Hatori were going smoothly too. I was being extremely careful with myself so I wouldn't get an infection.

Kyo seemed nervous about each of the checkups. Once he even tested Akito's wrath and came over to the Sohma house to be with me during one of my checkups.

"Very nice," said Hatori, closely examining the stitches. "They're not a delicate as before, but I still advise against bathing yet."

"So she's still all right?" asked Kyo.

"Yes. I would say if something was infected or not."

Kyo gave a little sigh of relief.

Hatori quirked a tiny smile. "I think what Kagura needs is some hot food."

I laughed. "All right. I think my Mom has—"

"There's a diner not too far from here. Only five minute walk. Can I trust you to be careful, Kyo?"

"Yeah," said Kyo.

"All right." Hatori pulled out a credit card and handed it to Kyo. "Both of you can get some hot food. Just don't get anything too expensive."

I gaped at Hatori. Was he letting me go outside without his supervision? And was he lending Kyo his credit card?

This is too strange, I thought. Hatori is the family doctor, and he's stressed the importance of staying in my house! Yet here he was, sending Kyo-kun and me out on a date!

Then again, maybe he just wants me to have a break. The only time I've left the compound since my surgery was when he drove me to Shigure's house.

"If she's starts hurting, bring her back here right away," warned Hatori. I couldn't help but smile. More and more he seemed like an older brother to me.

---

The trip to the diner was easy enough. I checked in with Isuzu about it and she told me to have fun. I caught Mom out the door as she was leaving to go grocery shopping. She was a little worried about me being so far away from home, but still told me to have fun. Kyo "borrowed" Haru's bicycle and we rode there. Even if the idea of  "borrowing" didn't appeal to me, it was still easier and quicker to get there than on foot.

It was a fun date. Kyo ordered something small for himself while he pushed me to get a large meal. I personally didn't want to charge anything too big onto Hatori's credit card, but Kyo said he would understand. So I complied.

"The idiot's really pissing me off," mumbled Kyo as he chewed his food.

"Well, Momiji has a hyperactive personality," I responded. "Whatever he does is just a normal routine for him."

"Yeah. Pissing me off seems to be his ritual. So I smack him around for it."

I laughed. "Aw, poor Momiji!"

"Poor me! I have to put with it everyday at school!"

"Is he still wearing a girl's uniform?"

"Unfortunately."

I laughed again. I knew that Kyo kinda doted on Momiji. He didn't really hate him, but his cute hyperactive personality was too much for him to handle.

It wasn't too long before we were finished and paying for our meal. Hatori had been right; what I really needed was some hot food. And it had been a long time since I had been able to finish a meal.

The ride home was spent talking about one thing or another. I was really having a lot of fun. I was afraid that any date we would go on would turn out to be boring, but I had fun.

Kyo entered the gates of the Sohma house and rode all the way to Haru's house. He parked the bike as quietly as he could so Haru wouldn't see that we took it.

"Do you want me to walk you to walk you back to your house?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Hatori told me to be careful, but I think I can manage walking a few feet without help."

Kyo nodded. Then he did something surprising. He pulled me close and kissed me full on the lips! I was in shock so I just stood there and did nothing. The kiss ended just as quickly as it started, both of us with red faces.

"I'll call you later," he said. He turned and ran towards the Sohma house gate.

I laughed a little and walked back to my house. Or, at least I thought I walked. It kinda felt like I was floating again, much like when he confessed to me. Kyo never was this direct with feelings. Now that he was, I had no complaints.

"I'm home!" I called as I entered my house. The walk put no strain on my stitches so I wasn't worried.

"Welcome home!" Mom called from the kitchen. "How was your date with Kyo?"

I laughed as I passed the kitchen. "It was all right. Remind me to give Hatori his credit card back tomorrow."

"I don't think I'll need to. He'll probably stop by to pick it up."

"Okay." I headed towards Isuzu's room, since she wasn't in any of the other rooms. Maybe she decided to turn in early? I knocked and opened her door. "Isuzu, I'm ho—"

Her room was empty. A worried feeling coursed through me. I checked the other rooms in my house, even my own. But she wasn't in any of them.

Calm down! I ordered myself. She's probably out with Haru!

But Haru was at home. All the lights were on in his house!

I headed back towards the kitchen. "Mom, have you seen Isuzu?"

Mom shook her head. "I told her to stay here while I was shopping since we were having an early dinner. She said okay, but she's not one for the rules, is she?"

A foreboding feeling passed over me. Just like the night that Haru kidnapped her.

Haru…

I hurried towards the front door, not giving Mom a chance to ask where I was going. I half-ran, half-walked to Haru's house. I didn't want to overexert myself, but I had to speak to Haru.

I hurried up to his door and banged on it. "Haru!!"

Moments later, Haru came to the door. He looked shocked to see me. "Kagura, what—"

"Where's Isuzu?!" I demanded. "She was at my house, and then she was gone!"

"What are you talking about?!"

"She's gone missing again!!"

Haru's eyes widened. "Missing?! You can't find her?!"

I gaped at him. "You mean you don't have her?"

"No! What reason do I have now to kidnap her?!" Haru ran a hand through her hair. "Where could she have gone? She promised me she wouldn't run away!!"

I didn't know what to say. When Haru kidnapped Isuzu, he acted completely neutral when the others talked about it. Now he was panicked. This clearly meant he had no idea where she was.

"I'm going to go look for her." Haru threw on his coat and shoes and ran off. I sat down on his porch, not having the energy at the moment to walk home.

I have a very bad feeling, I thought. I was scared when she disappeared the time Haru kidnapped her. But it feels different this time. Very different. And I can't help but think that something terrible is going to happen…