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WILTED FLOWER

Chapter 9 - Running

The scent of fresh flowers filled Kyo's nostrils as he took his first morning breath. He opened up his squinting eyes and rubbed his tired eyes, taking in the fragrance that caused remnants of the night before to enter his foggy mind. He smiled a little from the memories and looked down beside him to see only empty space. Kyo frowned and touched the wrinkled bedsheets, wondering where Tohru had left to. He got up and threw his black sweatshirt over his head before padding down the creaky wooden steps, a new scent rushing through his nose, the scent of sweet green tea leaves. He frowned when he heard the voices of the bandits talking loudly in the kitchen, and he walked cautiously into the kitchen to see them all sitting down at the small round table, while Tohru was serving each of them a hot cup of steaming green tea. Tohru spotted Kyo standing at the doorway with his tousled orange hair and she smiled brightly up at him, setting down another cup in front of Shigure.

"Thank you princess!"

exclaimed Shigure happily as he sniffed up the sweet smell of the tea that was slowly slithering its way up into his nose. She continued to give him that toothy smile, making him blush a tiny bit in the cheeks, and she announced happily,

"Good morning Kyo-kun!"

Kyo stepped into the kitchen with both feet and then walked over to the table, pulling out a wooden stool, plopping down onto it and grunted back in reply to her elated greeting.

"Would you like some tea?"

asked Tohru with a saccharine grin pasted on her perfect pink lips. Kyo bent his head lower, feeling flustered as he muttered out in a low voice,

"Fine.."

Tohru continued to smile as she turned back to the whistling pot, humming a nonexistent tune and preparing another cup for him. He looked at the rest of the people surrounding the table and Momiji suddenly piped up with all smiles,

"Tohru-san makes wonderful tea!"

Momiji proceeded to slurp with exaggeration, announcing with a look of pleasure crossing his overly excited features,

"Mmmm, tastes so good!"

Shigure put his cup down and winked at Kyo subtly before flashing him a cheesy grin,

"You've got a good woman here, better hold onto her."

Kyo's face heated up like a fire and he immediately barked out,

"Shut up!"

"Look at how red he's getting! He's like a lobster!"

cried out Momiji with jubilance as he laughed and pointed at the frustrated boy who was steaming on his chair. Kyo growled dangerously and held up his fist at Momiji, screaming loudly,

"How would you like a fist in your stupid face?!"

"Waaaaaaa... Kyo's being mean..."

Tohru turned around with another steaming cup and placed it right in front of Kyo with a huge smile still plastered on her face, causing half of his anger to float right out of his system as he couldn't help but smile back at her with tight lips. He then glanced at the rest of the group who were now quietly staring intently at the two of them. Kyo cleared his throat loudly a few times to get rid of the tension, and then he glared at the rest of them angrily before sipping the tea loudly.

"Is it good?"

asked Tohru with hope filling her brown eyes. Kyo grunted back in reply again, continuing to sip the tea with loud sloppy slurps to fill in the deepening silence. Tohru looked down at her watch that was wrapped around her thin wrist, and she slapped her forehead lightly, untying the white apron that she had put on before to prepare the tea. She gave them each a wary last smile and put her hand up in a wave,

"I'm sorry guys, but I have to go right now. I have to go to school and then work. Um...I just want to say that I'm very thankful that you guys let me stay here for the night, thank you very much!"

She bowed to them curtly and then rushed out of the front door without another word. It was all silent for a short moment, and then Ayame shot Kyo a chesire grin,

"She's so sweet! Where'd you find her?"

"So is she your girlfriend now?"

asked Shigure with his hands on his chin as he feigned excitement, while batting his eyelashes mockingly at Kyo. Kyo banged his cup down, causing a few droplets of tea to land down onto the wooden surface of the rickety table, and he stuttered out a bit too loudly,

"Wh-what?! No way!"

Momiji giggled and piped up in a sing a song tone,

"She sure looks at you in a lovey dovey way though!"

Ayame nodded with agreement and added,

"Yea, you two are cute together!"

"SHUT UP!"

Ayame puckered up his lips and prodded further with a mischevious grin,

"Oh ho, so then what were you two lovers doing together in the SAME ROOM?"

Hatori raised his hands up in midair and closed his eyes calmly,

"Alright, alright, let's not go into detail... but all I have to ask is, are you going to be able to keep a relationship with this girl?"

"I... told you, I don't like her in that way."

Hatori opened his eyes and looked straight at Kyo suspiciously,

"Really, then you wouldn't care if we all moved into another city... like Tokyo or something?"

"I..."

"Would you?"

The rest stared silently at the two and waited for Kyo's reply. Kyo's fists were balled up underneath the table and he said through gritted teeth,

"I... don't...care."

Momiji declared with his fists pumped into the air,

"He cares! He cares!"

Kyo stood up from his spot, yelling back with denial,

"NO!"

Hatori leaned back in his chair and said with a small shrug,

"So then let's move tonight."

Kyo's head whipped around quickly to face Hatori, his eyes burning with fury as he asked with a crestfallen expression,

"Wait... why the hell are we moving?!"

Hatori shrugged again and stated simply,

"New terrain to pilfer stuff from, this place is getting dull isn't it? It's about time we got the hell outta this town."

Kyo argued back strongly,

"There's plenty of houses here that we haven't gotten to yet!"

"No good ones."

Just tell him... tell him the truth!

Kyo backed up to the entrance of the kitchen and eyed Hatori with shaking eyes,

"I... I can't do this anymore..."

Momiji asked with confusion,

"So you admit that you love her?"

Kyo glared at Momiji with so much rage that Momiji cringed backwards a bit from his look,

"No!"

His voice lowered as he confessed shakily,

"I can't go on with this stealing business anymore."

Haru spoke up for the first time that day and muttered out,

"I knew you'd grown soft..."

Kyo looked up at the rest of them and said,

"Look, can't we all go out and find real jobs and stop this charade of stealing other people's valuables? This is not who we're all meant to be..."

Hatori stood up from the table, planting his hands firmly down on top of the table, yelling out with genuine anger,

"Save the lecture! We don't need it! So you've been with this girl for what, a few weeks and now you decide to back out on us? People you've beein with your whole damn life? We picked you off the streets and made you a man!"

Kyo swallowed hard and looked away from the rest of the group as he uttered out guiltily,

"This is not the man that I want to be...I don't want to live as a criminal anymore... I want to be someone that can do something more meaningful with his life."

"So you're saying that you don't want to be a part of the gang anymore?"

Momiji stared down at the table sadly and whispered out dolefuly,

"Kyo..."

Kyo shook his head,

"No... that's not what I'm saying... I just don't want to go on living like this, why can't we all change?"

Shigure spoke up angrily,

"You're so selfish, only you want this change, and so you think that you can just go around preaching and thinking that we'll all change along with you just because you want to? Why don't you grow up?!"

Kyo was shaking with fury as he punched the wall nearby, causing all the furniture to rumble apprehensively,

"Dammit! Don't you guys have futures that you want to live out?!"

Hatori's chair scraped back as he stood up from his chair, banging his fist down on top the table as well, causing the cups to all tremble as he screamed out with fierce eyes,

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! Just get out!!"

The rest of the group just stared with wide eyes, so shocked to see Hatori shed some real emotion. Kyo's heart skipped a beat as his throat tightened along with his chest,

"Wh-what?"

"I SAID GET OUT!"

Heavy breathing was the only noise that was left as Kyo turned his heel and rushed out of the open front door. Running... once again.

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