Standard disclaimer applies.
That Which Feeds the Inner Flames
Chapter Three
By: Luna
...
Yuya was not a happy girl.
Kyo disappeared again for god knows what, Yukimura has seriously been starting to get on her nerves from hovering around her shoulders all the time, and Sasuke is too busy brooding to even have a decent conversation with her. Not only that, but Yuya was beginning to feel restless again, and she wanted to move out of town as quickly as possible.
Sighing, she propped her chin in her palm and stared at the road, waiting for Kyo to return. It could be possible, she supposed, that Kyo was coming back from the opposite side of the village and she could have missed him entirely, but at the moment she felt too lazy to walk to the other side of the village and wait there, and she doubted that he had returned yet because she was sure he would do his best to make his presence known. She drummed her fingers a bit, sighed, and closed her eyes.
And felt the icy sting of a blade resting against her throat.
"You'd think that after all these years you'd learn something." A husky voice said amusedly.
Yuya rolled her eyes at this and didn't move or flinch away from the blade. "You'd think that after all these years a grown man would grow out of trying to scare women for sport." She smiled a bit. "And here I thought I'd married a matured man. What on earth was I thinking?"
There was a beat of silence. His next words, however, stripped the amusement from her. "I don't know. What were you thinking?"
She opened her eyes and stared at the ground before her, ignoring how the villagers were staring at them with something akin to wariness and unease when the man behind her didn't remove his sword from her neck. No one tried to interfere. It made her smile ruefully before she answered. "I was thinking that I was in love."
"And are you still?"
There was another moment of silence before her voice came, achingly sad and confused. "I don't know. What were you thinking when you married me?"
Slowly, the blade slid from her neck without even a scratch, and she heard the hiss of metal against metal when he sheathed his sword. She felt his dark presence move close behind her; so close that she felt his body heat emanating from him, but he didn't touch her. "I suppose I thought the same as you."
Freezing, Yuya held her breath and waited, but nothing happened. She stood and turned to face him, the only thing between them was the rock she had been sitting on moments before. She wanted to believe she still loved him, but she was still unsure. Ever since she met up with Yukimura and Sasuke, she has been having second thoughts. Before, she was convinced that when and if Kyo ever returned to her, they would pick up where they left off and she would only ask him questions when the time was right. But now... things were different.
Every time she thought that she'd give in, every time she thought that she would go to her husband – for reasons she couldn't understand, she would hear Yukimura's laughter ringing in her ears, or his voice filled with a warmth that Kyo would never dare express openly even when they were alone. Could she go back to a husband who never laughed except when he's killing? Could she live with a man who only smiled when she made the extreme effort of making it happen?
She didn't know. It scared and broke her heart whenever she thought of it.
Kyo straightened, and when she looked up her heart lurched in her chest when vulnerability flashed in his red eyes before it was gone. "We should get going." He said curtly. "I want to leave this town."
Yuya nodded, a little uncertain. "And Yukimura? What if he plans to come with us?
If possible, Kyo's expression darkened and turned even more glacial than before. "I'll kill him."
She waved a hand breezily between them as she lightly side-stepped the rock between them and made to move past him. "Nonsense. I say we invite him to come with us. It'll just be like old times when there were six of us all together!" She sighed. "I miss those days sometimes."
When she would have passed him, Kyo reached out and grabbed her wrist. She froze and her breath caught in her throat when a heat she had thought no longer burned raced through her in a blaze of fiery sensation, and Yuya felt inexplicable tears prick at the corner of her eyes. Oh, how she missed how he burned...
"No, Yuya. It won't be like old times. Everything is different now." His voice was quiet. Damn him for being right.
Slowly, achingly, she pulled her arm away from him and nearly cried out when the flames inside her vanished, leaving only the sizzling remembrance of how the mere touch of his hand burned her to the core. "I know, Kyo. I know. Why did it have to change? Why did you have to leave me for so long? Why did you come back?" She shook her head slowly, miraculously keeping her tears from falling. "You won't answer any of my questions Kyo, and I can't trust you until you do."
When she turned away, she fought to ignore the way his eyes seemed to physically touch her, and she bit her lip in a valiant effort not to look back. She had vowed long ago not to do that, after all. By the time she reached Sasuke, any traces of her sadness were expertly covered.
Sasuke raised a brow at her when she started shuffling through her bags that she had packed the night before, pulling out a mirror and setting it up in front of her before she started to comb her hair. "You sure are obsessed with that, you know."
She glanced over at him with a raised brow. "What?"
"Brushing your hair. It's just as untangled and silky as before."
"What's so wrong about me wanting to look nice?" She said defensively, self-consciously setting down her comb.
Sasuke shrugged, hiding a grin. "Only that I think you're vain."
"I am not vain." Her voice was flat, but her eyes threw daggers.
"Sure you are. Me, I don't really care about my appearance. If somebody doesn't like the way I look, I tell them to go to hell."
She threw a side-long glance at him, her raised brow arrogant. "Why? So you can meet up with them later?"
Sasuke's mouth dropped open, but before he could make up a retort, a loud, dark laugh filled the room, and they both turned towards the open entrance of the room to find Kyo standing there, grinning in his devilish way. Yukimura peaked over his shoulder with a catty smile. Yuya found herself grinning, happy that for the moment everybody seemed relaxed, smiling and laughing just like they used to when there was more to the group then just the four of them.
She couldn't have been more wrong. How could she have known that darker feelings were hidden underneath such easy smiles?
Kyo moved stealthily across the cool grass of the inns garden, stopping only when he could lean against the tree that stood in the middle of the small clearing so he could sit at its trunk and smoke a pipe while he waited. He pulled out the pipe, stuffing a few finger fills of tobacco in it before lighting it.
The stupid bitch spent the rest of the day with that damn Yukimura, laughing and flirting as if they were lovers. He burned with the resentment, but said nothing as he had watched her flounce. To punish him, he was sure, but he would be damned to let her know her little ploy worked in needling him.
Why did you come back?
Her voice still haunted him. He came back because he had to. He came back because he could no longer force himself to stay away. She wouldn't understand. She couldn't understand. The day he had left... he had been angry. No, that wasn't quite true—he had been furious. Damn her for acting innocent in not knowing why.
Yes, one of the reasons he had left was because he had done something that he thought he would never do with the intention of carrying it through, and he had raised his sword to her. Yes, he was selfish when he left and damn satisfied when he did, if only momentarily. But she... she had betrayed his trust first in the cruelest blow to his heart and to his pride, and she didn't seem worse for wear. In fact, she did a pretty good job of acting innocent when faced with his fury.
Weeks before he had left, he had been content. They lived alone in the mountains with only a few visitors from the village every month. It had only been the two of them, and though he had still trained every day to keep himself up to par, he had also took on the chores of a normal man, chopping wood and hunting for food and enjoying the company of his wife.
He absently rubbed his hand over the part of his chest that covered his heart, remembering that day as vividly as if only a mere hour worth of time passed by, and he was back at his house with his wife and his fleeting happiness.
Yuya looked up as he approached, a smile lighting her features instantly. "Hey there! You'd never believe what happened today." She stood up from her position by the leaves she had raked into a pile and started burning, carefully moving around the low blaze to stand by his side.
He raised a brow at her in question, unsmiling. "You're right. What is it?"
She rolled her eyes at him and nudged him with her shoulder before leaning up against him. "Oh, you're no fun. You remember Yukino from the village? Well, she's pregnant again! Can you believe it? I swear, her and that husband of hers are like rabbits in the spring time." She laughed. "Only they stay in heat all year."
Kyo smirked down at her as he wrapped a possessive arm about her waist, ignoring the longing in her voice for the child he was not yet sure he wanted. "They certainly resemble the rodents."
She smacked at his chest. "Kyo! Watch what you say! They're my friends, remember." She tried to sound disapproving, but the smile tugging at her lips gave her away.
He pulled a strand of her hair away from her face. "I'll say whatever the hell I want." He then stared down at her with his cold eyes emotionless as always, his brows raised superior. "The cherry blossom trees are about to bloom within a few weeks. You should get ready for the celebration they're sure to have."
Hope brightened her eyes. "Will you come with me this year?"
"No."
Only to be deflated. She sighed. "Oh, come on. There'll be plenty of sake for you. You won't even have to join in the festivities."
"I said no." Kyo tried not to be affected by her disappointment, but he had no wish to go to some godforsaken festival with her just because she wanted him to. As a sort of apology, he tugged her closer and wrapped his arms tightly around her, resting his chin on the top of her head. The wind blew his hair over his shoulders, mixing in with the golden strands of her hair and looking down to find Yuya playing with the tresses that had blown somewhat in her face.
"You know, I remember a time when someone once asked me to watch the cherry blossoms with him. He was the last man to ever do so." Her voice was dreamy, as if she were captured in some long lost dream or memory. Kyo stiffened, a fuse of anger striking inside of him and slowly start to burn. How dare she. How dare she think of that fucking bastard while he held her in his arms?
His arms tightened around her to the point where she squeaked and dropped his hair. "Uh, Kyo?"
Slowly, he loosened his grip until she stood away from him, eyeing him warily. "Kyo? Are you okay? You look kind of pale."
He looked down at her, furious beyond belief, and curled his lips. "I'm fine."
And then he walked away from her.
After that, he started leaving the house for hours, even days at time, going away from it as far as he dared before turning back. Funny, but even now that wound hurt him. He had thought she had been happy with him. He had thought that he would be enough to erase any memory of that bastards face from her mind. But it hadn't. Her memory seemed as fresh as the flowers blooming outside their house, and she had dared think of him while in his arms.
He had said nothing, building up his bitterness and his resentment inside of him until his already sore wound began to fester, so when thieves graced their path on the way home from the village one day, Kyo rose to their challenge and killed them one by one, needing some sort of outlet for his frustration. He remembered he had stared at the pieces of their bloody corpses at his feet, smirking in satisfaction.
Until he felt her eyes on him.
Slowly, he turned and faced her. She stared at him as if she didn't recognize who he was. Horror was painted in her jade eyes, and her mouth was slightly gaping open in repulsion. Without a word, she turned on her heel and again started home. He had thought she would keep quiet, but he should have known better. Once an hour had passed inside their house without a word to each other, she exploded in furious temper, glaring at him for all she was worth.
"How could you?" Accusation rang sharply in her voice. "How could you slaughter those men like that?"
He shrugged as if unconcerned. "Quite easily, actually. They weren't much of a challenge."
"Then why kill them at all? They were terrified of you, Kyo! And still you killed them one after another as if you were enjoying it!"
Again, he shrugged. "I was."
"Why are you being like this? Are you so stupid and pigheaded you can't see what's right in front of you? You promised Kyo! You promised you'd try to never kill again, and you slaughtered those men right before my eyes!"
They were angry, and they were both hurt, and they punished each other with words, not really understanding what they were feeling and filled with too much pride to ever ask forgiveness or show enough weakness as to allow themselves to ask each other what was bothering them. In the end, she spoke the one sentence she must have known would make him snap, reminding him of a past he cared not to acknowledge.
"... Though, with your so-called heritage, I guess I can understand your need to hide things!"
And then he had done the unfathomable, and had raised his sword to her, and then he had left. He never felt regret as strong or as thick as the weight he felt right then. When he finished his pipe, he blew out the last of the smoke and leaned his head back against the tree and closed his eyes. He felt her hesitant presence before she even made it off the porch.
"Kyo?" Her voice was timid.
He didn't bother opening his eyes even after she stood uncertain at his side. "What the hell do you want? Shouldn't you be hanging on Yukimura's arm somewhere?"
Definitely not the right words to start off with, judging by the sudden redness of her face. From anger, not embarrassment. "You gave me the choice to choose, Kyo! And with you acting like this, I'm going to take it!"
He snapped his eyes open then, standing abruptly and glaring down at her with festered anger. "I changed my mind, damnit."
She gaped at him. "Y-you can't do that!"
His lips began to curl as he moved until he was at the point where he could back her up against the tree, trapping her. "Yes, I can."
Belatedly, she realized that she no longer had an escape route. He spoke slowly, deliberately. "I'll not stand around while you try to replace what's in your life whether you like it or not."
She tried to dodge to her left, but his arm snaked out and caught her wrist, yanking her back and slamming her against the tree roughly. He held her arms above her head while his free hand gently roamed the lines of her face. He touched her with his fingertips; the merest touch of flame licking her skin across her forehead, her cheeks, under her eyes, and down the bridge of her nose. Across the smooth skin of her lips and tracing the curve of her jaw.
But when she opened her mouth in a useless effort to speak, she was silenced with the hard crush of his lips against hers. He ravaged her mouth with a vengeance, somehow punishing her for whatever inner torment he seemed to have held deep inside him, blaming it on her for whatever reasons she could not understand.
He pressed her hard against the tree, her hands caught painfully in one hand and held above her, while his other hand lifted her leg to wrap it around his waist. His hand wreaked havoc on her, and she gasped at the hot, burning sensation of pleasure as he reawakened the embers that still burned inside her for him, fanning the flames to an all out inferno as he ground himself hard against her very core over and over. There was no gentleness in his embrace like before, but this time she didn't care; craving the hardness of him with an intensity that left her breathless.
She ground her hips to his, almost frantically, her mouth seeking his. With her hands still caught above her and Kyo's hard length pressing her to the tree, she lifted her other leg and wrapped it around his waist, tightening them around him as her yukata was practically torn apart by his crazed hand.
She moaned, burning with the heat he never hesitated to inspire inside of her; burning her with a heat that only he could evoke. His hand trailed down her stomach, and farther still until she gasped, and she lurched against his touch frantically. He held her still, his hand tightening around her wrists and his eyes glowing with lucid pleasure as he watched her face.
But then his touch was gone, and for an instant she thought she would drop to the floor in a half naked, undignified heap, before she felt his hands slam her against the tree again and once again holding her hands on both sides of her head with his own. He leaned in close, his forehead resting against hers. His expression had changed, and his once lucid eyes were burning with red with an intensity she craved, and she arched her body towards his wantonly. He didn't move away from her, but he didn't do anything to alleviate the sudden fierce pressure that ached deep inside her.
When she tried again to set her hands free, Kyo growled low in his throat and once again slammed her roughly and harshly against the tree, rattling her senses and slowly clearing the passion from her eyes. "You're mine, bitch. You can deny it all you want, but you're mine and that fool Yukimura is going to die before he has a chance to take what doesn't belong to him. And you'll die, too, before you have a chance to give it."
She stared up at him, shaken. "You won't kill me." She was utterly sure of it.
He sneered down at her. "Can't I? I don't like the fact that my wife flirts with the very man that wants to have her for himself." When she opened her mouth to protest again, he shook her abruptly. "I don't like the fact that the last time I held my wife in my arms, she had been thinking of one not her husband."
Yuya watched him, confused yet fascinated. "I don't know what you're talking about." She whispered.
"Don't you?" He demanded, his breath hot against her cheek. Staring at his lips, she felt the heat rise in her once more, and she lifted a long, smooth leg until it wrapped itself around his waist and pulled him unresisting to her body.
She needed his warmth. She needed his darkness and his light and his passion. She needed him with his killing and his anger, and the shadows that darkened his gaze when he was left alone for too long by himself. She needed to feel his hard length pressed against her very core, and she needed to breath in the scent that only he possessed, making her life as complete as it had been before this horrible misunderstanding that had needlessly separated them for so long.
"Tell me, Kyo." She gasped as she ground herself against his unmoving form, watching as his eyes closed in pleasure. "Please, tell me why you left." She stopped. "I need to know, Kyo."
He opened his eyes slowly. "You want to know?"
He let go of her arms then, pushing down her leg forcefully and tucking her head underneath his chin as he wrapped his arms around her. And just as suddenly, she remembered. She remembered how she had asked him to go to the festivals with her, trying to lure him into going with an offhand comment about another male taking interest in her, and somehow he had known that she had been talking about Kyoshiro.
She closed her eyes. Of course. He had shared a body with Kyoshiro at the time, and he had heard every words spoken and every word heard. With trembling fingers, she reached up until her fingertips lightly touched either side of his face. Her eyes glimmered, and her smile was tremulous. How could such a thing have separated them? It was so small and insignificant, but it had created such a chasm between them that left them both feeling barren.
"I'm sorry." She whispered. "But if you would have just explained, if you would have just told me what you were thinking and feeling, I might have had a chance to remind you that my heart had belonged solely to you. I belonged solely to you. Kyoshiro was nothing but a fragment of memory that we both left behind in our pasts. Oh, Kyo!" She threw herself against him, burying her face in his strong chest.
His arms were steel bands around her, holding her so close that she could feel every line and every ridge of his body. Slowly, unaware that sad eyes had witnessed the last of her testimony, she stepped back and held her hand out to him. "Come, husband. It's high time we got reacquainted with each other."
But he hesitated, and she knew what he was asking. "Yes, Kyo. I'm yours. I'm just as much yours as I was then as I am now, and that will never change. Just... don't leave me again. Don't leave me ever again, I'm begging you."
Gently, he took her proffered hand and drew her to his chest. "I thought you didn't beg scum like me."
Her laugh was watery. "I guess I can make an exception just this once, as long as you promise."
He was silent for three heartbeats. As she stared up at his face, she wondered how she could discern his emotions when his facial features never changed expression. "I swear." His voice was quiet, and she knew his words were to be true because he said them, and he was Kyo.
