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The usual disclaimers apply.
The rain beats against my window like tiny, angry fists. Where I lie, the air is lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, but still seeming dense around me. It's been raining for a while, I can tell because the entire house smells of it. I take my time checking in the guest rooms, looking at Haru's bags, but finding no sign of the actual person, and taking great pleasure in finding neither Yuki, Shigure, Uo, Hana or Tohru around. Where I am, this house is mine.
I step outside and onto the deck, stretching my arms. The ground under my feet feels warm but solid, like the rain has no effect on it.
Mist wraps around everything, leaving only the tips of the trees, black and stark against an autumn sky indistinct. The path leading from the house is a white avenue that seems to lead off into eternity. The rain is only a mild annoyance, and I brush it away as one might do with a fly.
A gentle wind stirs against my moist skin, and I can feel Breeze around me.
'Mists cover you mind. They are of your making, and you will never succeed unless they are removed. This rain that you feel is malleable. It wants you, but cannot reach you when you hide in shelter. Let your spirit guide you through the recesses of your mind.'
Breeze caresses me gently, and I speak to it out loud, breaking the peaceful solitude that has always been present.
"Breeze, move this fog. Make it move."
I feel something building up behind myself. The air seems to tingle with energy, and suddenly a gale blows past me, and into the still air in front of me. I can see the indistinct form of Breeze as the corners of the mist start to move, then it seems to lash out at her in return. The wind falters, but then returns in greater strength. A clear path is cleaved through the middle of the fog, scattering it.
"Bright!"
The land lights up with incandescence, and I feed my power through our link into my Elementals. The vapour shows up suddenly white against the land and it breaks up into small groups. The wind slackens from a second, then at my command, pushes in from all side, forcing the mist into one place, and the pressure created there booms, and spreads out over the clouds, rippling like a stone dropped in calm water. From the depths of the forest, I can hear Tempest and Fauna returning the calls, one like a roaring tiger, and the other an inhumane bellow that I can only place with the dragon made of lightning that I had only seen for a brief instance.
The woman formed there glares at me with milky eyes, her long body stiff with anger as her hair flows out from behind her tiara.
I meet her gaze and bow slightly, waiting patiently until she bows grudgingly back.
"Fog. You may spread over this land, but no longer cloud my eyes. By this name I bind you, and my call you must obey."
If anything, she becomes more hostile, but knows as well as I do that she can do little about it, as I have named her.
"If you must obey me, for I may have need of you," I suddenly drop the formality that my Elementals seem to respect before continuing, "could we at least try to get along?"
Fog bows again, then with a snap then boom, it is spread across the land once more, but lighter, thin enough that I can see through it. The air feels thinner, no longer pressing in on me, but still it's rather vague temperature.
I turn my eyes to the heavens, and Tempest burst out of the forest with a bellow. It drives its long and winding body into the clouds, and thunder rumbles, loud enough to shake the ground. Lightning arches out of the sky and hits the ground at my feet, and once it clears, there is a small blue creature sitting on a piece of charred land.
It's head is almost triangle shaped, and covered almost entirely by huge, liquid blue eyes. It opens it's muzzles and whines pathetically.
With a smile, I crouch down next to it. "Hello, little one. Are you the rain?"
It looks up at me with its huge eyes, almost accusing.
"I'm sorry. I knew no other way of getting your attention, not that I am very interesting compared to your wonderful clouds,"
Flattery never hurt anyone, and this little Elemental's ego was fried. Literally.
It made a happy noise, and bounced onto its feet.
I offer it a hand. "Well Downpour, it is nice to meet you."
It places its small fuzzy blue paw in my palm, and we shake.
It only strikes me later how bloody ridiculous this is.
I open my eyes again once I have returned to my bed, and am hit with a sudden layer of fatigue.
My eyes feel gluey, and after only a few seconds, they close again, the pounding in my head relentless until I finally sink into dreams.
*~*~*~*
24.10.03 4.17 PM
Avoiding everyone has to be one of the hardest things I've ever done. There's a lot of subterfuge and sneaking involved, which I am not good at. Thankfully enough, as the cat, I have fairly quiet steps. Shigure's still playing recluse, and Tohru's disappeared into her room with her scary little friends. That only leaves Yuki and Haru to deal with. Generally, I can outsmart Haru, but Yuki is one tough cookie. I doubt Shimo would help me keep away from him, because lately all he's good for is looking pretty. He tells me if there is ever any real danger he'll be there like a flash, but for the last several Elementals he's either let Yuki help me, or let me deal with it on my own. It is getting easier now though, as I have more and more Elementals under my control that I can use.
But that's still not the point, I'm starting to feel both severely under appreciated in one circumstance, and crowded in the other. In one sense I'm being practically stalked, and in the other, I feel like I'm in it on my own.
It's just too much for my brain right now, which is still doing flips. I need a shower.
*~*~*~*
Shade slips out under my door, and comes back a few seconds later to cast itself on the wall, and give me the 'all clear' signal. With clean clothing in one hand and my towel in the other, I sneak out, and then shimmy in the bathroom door so it doesn't creak, before locking it securely after myself. With a relieved sigh, I drop my bundle of clean things near the door, and strip off.
A quick glance in the mirror confirms that I have lost weight, I'm teetering on the edge of skinny instead of just wiry, and so as not to dwell on this thought, I turn on the shower with a twist of a faucet.
As steam fills the room and I stand there and enjoy the changing temperature and the mirror glossing over with moisture until the shower reaches as close to the perfect temperature as I can get it, warm, but not too warm as to scald.
I gratefully step into the stream of steaming water and feel my body relax almost instantly. I turn around away from it and tip my head back until water is running in rivulets down my face, and reach for the shampoo.
"AAH! COLD!"
My feet slip on the ground as I rip open the shower door and jump out like I have been stung. The water had become suddenly icy.
Suspiciously, I place my hand back into the flow of water, and stare at it with confusion as it runs warm again.
"Kyo? Daijoubu ka?" Yuki yells through the door.
"I'm fine. It's just the fucking shower."
Footsteps move away from the door and I let out a breath I hadn't realised that I had been holding. Gathering my nerves, I step back into the shower.
"EARGH!" I scream, once again abandoning the shower, "WHO THE HELL IS PLAYING WITH THE FAUCETS?!"
I reach in, keeping the bulk of my body behind the glass door, and turn off the taps. I stomp over to the towel rack muttering darkly, and wrap my towel hastily around my waist. The door slams open in front of me, and I stalk out and down the hallway for a few paces to the closet, which houses the water heater for the house. I rip the door open, and stare in shock at the ice-covered cylinder.
"Kyo-kun? What are you doing?"
I slam the door shut and turn around, pressing myself against it and trying to hold my towel up at the same time. "Nothing, I'm not doing anything, Tohru, why would you think that?" I laugh nervously, and hitch my towel up once more.
Tohru gives me a strange look, and with a slightly worried smile turns and walks off.
I hold my breath until I can't see her anymore, then with an explosive sigh; I spin back around and glare at the source of my discomfort.
Opening the door confirms it; the entire cylinder is covered with ice about three inches thick.
Yuki walks up behind me, and in business mode, I mutter, "Shimo, how am I supposed to deal with this? If it was an elemental it would be fine and dandy, but this is just one's handy work. It's gone now."
Yuki's body shrugs it's shoulder slightly, taking on the mannerisms of Shimo. "Wait for it to defrost?"
I turn around and glare at him. "Do you have any idea how long that will take, and what kind of mess something like that would leave?"
"Well, unless you've caught the defrosting Elemental without telling me, I believe that's all you can do." Shimo tells me dryly.
"This sucks." I growl. "How am I supposed to have a shower now?"
Shimo's face looks almost pained. "I think that's the last thing we need to be worried about."
"Oh yeah? And what's the first thing?"
"How you're going to explain to Shigure, Tohru and Hatsuharu why the hot water cylinder is like that."
With a groan, I massage my eyes with one of my hands. "I'm too young to die of stress."
"And too old to sulk." Shimo reprimanded, before closing his eyes and opening them again when they had returned to their usual shade of dark violet. Yuki blinked at me blankly for a second, then his face took on a more determined look.
"Kyo…"
My towel slips and I hastily catch it, then burst in with, "Is wearing little to nothing! I have to get dressed now!"
I slip past him, clinging to my towel like it's a safety blanket, and quickly close the door to the bathroom behind myself.
I hear Yuki's steps stop outside the door as I hover near it, and I flick the lock into place.
There is silence for a few more moments, before I hear him sigh, and move off.
I glance down at my pile clothing, and resist the urge to scream. They're coated in ice.
I grab Shigure's dressing gown from the hook on the back of the door and slip it on, hurriedly tying the front, and ply my clothes-sickles from the floor with a quite a lot of cursing and swearing.
I wrap them in my towel, send Shade out to scout again before scampering back to my room and shutting the door with a sigh after me. I lean against it for support, and stare up at the ceiling for a moment before dropping my bundle to the floor with a thump, and walking slowly over to my wardrobe for more clothing.
Someone knocks on my door, and then Yuki's familiar voice calls through to me. "Kyo? Can I come in?"
There's silence for a heartbeat then I reply. "If you insist,"
The door slides open, and Yuki enters. "Kyo, I know why you've been avoiding me,"
My face reddens slightly, and I refuse to turn around. "Well, then? What's this grand revelation that you've had?"
His arms slip around my waist from behind and he steps forward, pressing his body loosely to mine and leaning his head on my shoulder. "When you fell asleep on me when we were looking after Tohru."
If I had been stiff before, my limbs are locked even tighter before, and I try to force the rising blush on my face back down. My voice breaks slightly. "A-and?"
"Kyo, I want to get to know you better. You should know now that I like you… a lot, and Shimo tells me you feel the same."
Why that stinking, conniving little spirit.
I pull away, and turn around to face him, trying to look furious but failing miserably. "What would Shimo know on the matter!?"
Yuki, unfazed, steps forward again, and kisses me lightly on the lips. "Just as much as you do." He steps back again, and runs a shaking hand through his hair. I only just realised how nervous he is. "Think about it, would you?"
*~*~*~*
24.10.03 8.52 PM
'Think about it' he told me. And I have. So has my fucking libido as well though. The memory of his lips pressed against mine is just…
Nyah. I doubt I'll sleep much tonight.
Damn him, damn him to the fiery depths of hell for making me feel like this. Everything is scattered, just floating loosely. I can't remember what I just wrote, all I do if left alone is just sit here.
It's pathetic.
Damn him.
*~*~*~*
A big thanks to Crystal for offering me a place in her archives, Yamatoforever to be my most faithful reviewer, and Caer, for being relevant, leaving nice reviews and returning to me. ^-^
