Let me just say now that I am eternally sorry for taking to damn long with this God-accursed chapter. First, there was an entire wekk of non-stop work, then when the holidays rolled around, I instantly left for a week with my friends in a batch by the sea that didn't even have a telephone, let alone a computer, then when I finally got home, there were about two days at home then I had to leave for a week-long family thing. Then I got home Sunday, and had a writing block. I basically wrote this entire bloody thing in one day, after some slow-coming inspiration while lying in bed at nine-o-clock in the morning. Either wa,y here it is, a new chapter. Whoopee. I hope I'm the only one who wants to bang their head against a wall after reading te way I write Kyo's father.
2.32 PM
Itchy itchy itchy! Motherfucker!
I woke up this morning all ready to take advantage of the dragon's offer for time off school to find my wrist trying to kill me! It burns, it itches, and it fucking trapped under my god-accursed bandages, so there's little I can do about it. That's the most infuriating thing about being wrapped up like a half-finished mummy, scratching irritating spots with wrapped fingers on a wrapped arm is nowhere near satisfying. It's muted, and it creates more friction, which burns.
Then there's the bloody problem that the beads are in the way. I've never loved that bracelet even at the best of times, but right now they seem about ten times larger than they physically are, and because of the bandages stopping me from moving them more than about two millimetres either way, I have taken to calling them the Great Immovable Lump. Why the hell does it have to itch right under them?
I hate itches. They always appear at the worst times, like when you've just picked up three cartons filled with heavy items, or when you're watching a documentary or movie about spiders. They're all in the mind. I have to keep telling myself that. Itches are in the mind…. And wrist… Aw, fuck it!
Stuffing my crutches violently under my arms, I do my best to stalk out of my bedroom, which ends in me over balancing, and sliding with a yowl into the door opposite. There's a distinct thump then a clatter as my arse then crutches hit the ground.
"KYO! KILL YOURSELF WITHOUT DAMAGING THE HOUSE, PLEASE!"
I snarl at the pointed comment about me trying to off myself (of which there are many now, as just as I predicted, if one family member knows something, everyone else will in about three seconds flat), and crawl around on the floor until I manage to collect both my crutches, and lever myself upright with the help of a bit of wall-clinging.
Of all the people who are known to blather about things that most people shouldn't in polite company, I just have to be living with the worst. I haven't been able to escape the various remarks about hanging, and knives, and toasters with bathes, and anything else that Shigure's twisted mind can come up with. God damn, he's an annoying one.
I clamber downstairs as best I can, and head for the kitchen. I need some sort of poking implement, something that can get through the bandages but won't cut me as well.
I pause on the bottom step, and listen for dog-related noises. I don't particularly need him leering at me right now, I think I might snap and beat him to death with a crutch.
That thought entertains me quite well as I hobble through the house, and I walk into the kitchen with a smirk on my face.
As I root through the cutlery draw, I hear the gravel in the driveway crunch under tire wheels, and assume that it's Ayame to see Shigure or something. Someone would have told me if it was Hatori again, or yet another great-aunt twice removed that's finally come to see her 'dearest Kyo in his hour of need', which basically means yet another family member that I've never heard of and will never again come to stare at the infamous freak of the family. The cat, and a suicidal maniac.
Finally finding what I wanted, a fork, I shuffle on one crutch over to the kitchen table, lay my write down palm up, and raise the fork.
The kitchen door slams open.
"KYO!"
I don't even manage to draw in a breath to make a pathetic noise as Kazuma, my father, storms into the room, and hits me close-fisted across the face.
I land, sprawled against a wall, with the fork about three feet to my left.
The look on my surrogate father's face is one of the scariest things that I have seen in quite some time. I have seen very many people angry in my time, but not very often have I seen such a mixture of fury, outrage and hurt on one face.
"I was…"
"When Shigure first told me what had been happening, I didn't want to believe him! I thought you were smarter than this, stronger than this!"
"I wasn't…"
"I don't know what's gotten into you, first you change you mind completely about your supposed mortal enemy, now I hear that you're trying to kill yourself?!"
"If I was trying to kill myself, I'd already be dead!"
I manage to regain my footing in the shocked silence, heavily favouring one leg, my crutches abandoned to one side.
"It's an occupational hazard! I thought that you, of all people would know me well enough to know that I would never hurt myself voluntarily, father."
"I tried to believe that, but seeing you with a fork hovering above your wrist doesn't help your credibility!"
"Another thing that you haven't given me the time of day to explain!"
I dash out a hand angrily, and out of force of habit, my crutches fliy to me to nestle in my armpits. Kazuma's eyes widen, and he sharply draws in breath.
Shit. Shitshitshitshitshitshit…
I about-face, and hobble out of the room as fast as my legs will take me, practically colliding with Shigure. The bastard's been listening at the door.
Shitshitshitshitshit…
"Kyo, what did you do?" my father demands from the bottom of the stairs as I limp up them, crutches first on the next step, then good leg, then finally towing my injured limb, making for slow climbing.
"Go home!"
"Kyo!"
I scuttle into my room, close the door, then lean on it in an attempt to keep it closed.
"Answer me!"
I growl as the door starts to prize open, and push back.
"Go home, and leave me to it!"
"Not until you tell me what's happening!"
"Bah!"
Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a screen door closed? Western doors can have chairs inserted conveniently under doorknobs, but sliding doors are different altogether. I'm half-dreading that Kazuma will just give up on trying to open it, and put a hand through the rice paper. The way things are going, I wouldn't put it past him.
"Kyo, let me in!"
"What are you trying to do, father? Force an invalid to sit down? Hit me until I start talking sense?"
The pulling on my door stops, and with a heavy sigh, my door sags in slightly with new weight leant on it.
"What do you want me to do?"
I shrug, though I know he can't see it, and lean into the doorframe, the foot of my injured leg propped on the frame opposite me, about level with my crotch. "Trust me or go the hell home."
"You know that I want to be there for you."
"… Yeah."
He really tries to be a good father. He was my world when I was a kid, but now we've each made all sorts of changes. It's like trying to feel you a person you haven't seen for ten years, not like a son talking to a father.
"Are you going to let me in so we can talk?"
I kill a rising groan. "You know I suck at that." Not to mention how uncomfortable it'll be.
"We have to try," Kazuma said patiently, "Or I'll never know what's really happening."
"You're gonna insist on this, aren't you."
"Shouldn't I?"
With a sigh that rivals the one that my father gave before, I step back, and away from the door.
"It's open."
I hobble over to my bed and sit down glumly as Kazuma slips into my room and closes the door after himself.
He takes a quick glance around the room, then his eyes focus on Yuki's sword, which is still collecting dust.
"That's not mine."
"Whose is it, then?"
"Yuki's."
"What is he, moving in?"
Hmmm, narky. Is it possible that father-dearest doesn't approve?
"No, I'm just minding it for him."
Kazuma takes a sep towards it curiously. "What are those designs on the sheath and hilt?"
"Erm, nothing… Don't touch it."
"Why not?"
Because it's a sword with a mind of it's own that might slice your nose off if it doesn't like you.
"Because it's not mine."
"And Yuki doesn't like you touching his stuff?"
I give my father an unimpressed look for the pointed question. "If we're going to talk, then talk."
The taller man pulls out my desk chair and drags it closer before sitting. "Why don't you start with what you were doing downstairs?"
"My beads are itching. I think it's just the healing skin, but it's bloody annoying. I was just going to scratch my wrist."
A raised eyebrow.
"What? If you're not gonna accept it, that's your problem." I mutter, absently grating my wrist against the side of my leg.
"I see. Well, then, if that was perfectly innocent, what has been happening lately to make even Hatori think that you're trying to…"
"Open a vein?"
Kazuma nods, a funny look on his face.
I shrug. "A whole bunch of flukes."
"Before you said it was an occupational hazard, now you say it's just flukes?"
There's silence while I try to find the best way to say what I need to: "…Yeah."
"So, which is it?"
"A little of both."
"What do you mean?"
"The injuries come from my occupation, and it's a fluke that they think I'm hurting myself."
"So no one knows about your occupation?"
"Only me, Yuki, Hatsuharu and Momiji."
"And you didn't think it for to tell your father?"
"It doesn't really concern my father."
Kazuma has the sense to ford off another potential argument by changing the topic completely. "So then, what is your occupation?"
"Well… I…" My sentence trails off into a strangled noise. Father gives me a penetrating look. "Yuki's home!" I cry when I feel a familiar presence enter the house, jumping to my feet as best I can.
"Sit down, Kyo."
Cowed, I retake my place on my bed.
"Yuki, come and join my in my bedroom?"
"Why?"
I frown mentally. "Does a guy need a reason?"
"Well, it's just that your father's car is parked outside."
Busted.
"Fine. He's asking uncomfortable questions. Emotional support is a good thing."
"He's not letting you change the subject, is he?" Yuki asks, amused as he comes up the stairs. "Shut your pie hole and come!""Yes, master."
"Fall off a cliff and die, rat." I accidentally mutter out loud, interrupting one of Kazuma's long-winded speeches that I should have been listening to.
"What was that?"
"Nothin'. Keep going."
Another suspicious look.
My door slides open, and I stand up to welcome my cousin.
I limp over to Yuki and hug him as he start off with some small-talk, masking our true converstation.
"How are you?"
"Usual. How was school?"
"When people designed the word 'bastard', they had you in mind."
"Can't complain. Had another council meeting this lunchtime."
"I'm here, aren't I?""Ahem."
"True. Remind me to be nice to you later, when I don't have my arse in a vat of boiling water."
I step away from my taller cousin, with his hand firmly wrapped around mine, facing my father, who gives us a look somewhere between confused and… angry?
It's been very strange today. Father has always been a very tranquil person, always had a smile, and very serious. Now he's flustered, confused, and angry at the drop of a hat. I really must have tied him up in knots, then.
"Kazuma, nice to see you again." Yuki says evenly, like he didn't think he had done anything wrong.
Kazuma inclines his head, polite by habit. "Yuki."
We sit a respectful distance from each other on my bed, our hands almost touching.
"I suppose you want to know where the fighting stopped and… other things started?"
Kazuma opens his mouth, but I keep going.
"A few months ago, I was forced to trust Yuki with something. Something big. He never even tried to betray my trust. We stopped trying to kill each other. We realised that we had more in common than we thought. Things went from there."
"You say you trust this boy?"
I nod without hesitation. "With my livelihood."
"And you, do you like my son?"
Another nod. "Very much."
"Would you commit yourself to him?"
"I already have."
Kazuma nods. "Well, I must say, Yuki has appeared to have a good influence on you."
"I have good friends."
"I can tell."
Father shifts, into a less guarded position. I relax. Yuki's passed his test. I reach my hand over and squeeze my cousin's, before dropping it and relaying my attention back to the man in my desk chair.
"Right. Kyo, you were explaining how you keep getting hurt?"
I was?
"Right. I'm getting hurt because… I… have to do things… which are…dangerous…"
"Why do you need to do these things?"
Because shit keeps happening to me? Because I'm the only person that I'm aware of that can?
"Uh… Yeah…" I trail off, and reach a hand over the scratch my wrist. "That's because…"
"I always knew you sucked at lying, but this is just painful."
"Shut your flip-top! I'm trying!""He's doing it because he's the only one who can."
The being in Yuki's flesh squeezed my hand as a greeting, then kept his hand over mine. Enter the clued-in celestial being.
"But what is he doing?"
"That's classified. Didn't you have any secrets when you were younger? Our Kyo is just learning how to grow up. I can't do Kyo's job for him, but be aware that I'm with him every step of the way, and try to prevent injury when I can. We can't run the risk of anything that we do not intend to happen to occur, so we are trying to keep this as secret as possible, from people that we know might tell Akito. We don't want to have to hurt family members, so it's better that they just believe what they want to."
"In this case, it's that I'm hurting myself. SI is much easier to explain than an occupational hazard."
"I don't think I approve of this."
"It's not up to you to decide. It's my choice to keep this up. Trust me."
Kazuma shook his head incredulously, as if trying to deny that he couldn't do anything.
"I still don't understand why you two are so convinced that you are the only ones who can do… whatever it is you're doing."
"We don't know either. But trust us."
Kazuma shook his head again, and my rising impatience burst out of me.
"Trust us, or go away, father!"
My father smiles, that slow, gentle smile, for the first time this visit. "Well, I guess I can't argue with that."
"No you, shouldn't."
Patented Kyo Glare.
"If you two are so convinced that you can handle this, I guess I had better tell Shigure to stop hiding all the sharp objects again."
Kazuma stood up and left the room.
"Hey, Yuki, are we so convinced we can handle this?"
"Not that I know of."
"Good, so it's not just me."
I could have gone further, but I though this was a funny end. I still feel like introducing my head firmly to the wall.
