"We could watch Princess Bride again." Sakura pulled the dvd from the shelf and looked back at the boys, "though maybe something else…"
"What about that one that your brothers friend translated?"
"The reunion one?"
"Yes, I don't think we've watched it all the way through yet."
"Meilin?"
"Sure."
"Yuki?"
"I guess…" Yuki sat on the corner of the couch as Meilin seated herself on a pillow on the floor in front of him. "What's it called?"
"It doesn't look like the translations correct on the cover."
"What does it say?" Sakura flipped the case over and studied the Japanese title that had been placed over the English version.
"It actually says Reunion Blank. I don't think that's the real name." Sakura shrugged. "But Yukito told me that the voice over's were actually really good. Like the Princess Bride ones."
"Lets try it." Meilin shrugged and leaned back against the couch, her head "accidentally" brushing Yuki's leg. He shifted slightly, but she patted his foot. "Is it going to cause any problems if I fall asleep on your leg?"
"No." Yuki felt himself flush. Meilin deliberately let her head rest on his knee.
"Okay then." Sakura flipped off the lights and joined Li on the other end of the couch just as the music began and the scene opened on a man talking to his secretary over an ear piece. He quickly assembled a sniping gun while she taunted him with a letter concerning his high school class reunion in Gross Point, Michigan.
Kyo held Tohru's hand as he walked her home.
"I feel kind of weird setting rat-boy up like that."
"Its was nice Kyo." Tohru squeezed his hand reassuringly.
"I know. But I'm not supposed to be nice to him, or actually enjoy myself around him. Dinner was fun, even with Yuki around."
"Yes, I was impressed by both of you."
"Why does it have to be both of us." Kyo muttered and kicked a rock from the path.
"What was that?"
"Nothing." Kyo looked over and smiled. Tohru smiled back. She liked him best like this, when there was noone else around he forgot sometimes to be tough and just was. It was a side of his that she fell for every time. She wanted nothing more than to just wrap her arms around him and hold tight. She cursed the circumstances that kept them apart. She looked away and let her hand drop from his.
Kyo stopped walking, but she kept going for a few steps before she realized he was no longer by her side.
"Whats wrong Kyo?"
"I was about to ask you the same question Tohru. You've never let go of my hand before." he almost couldn't breath. Did he do something wrong? Why was she stepping away from him?
"I'm sorry Kyo, I didn't realize…" she cut herself off realizing that she had hurt him. She was so sure that she wouldn't be able to…
"If you don't want to hold me hand you only have to tell me Tohru." he struggled for a smile to hide the hurt. He started walking and didn't speak again until he was a few steps beyond her, "I'll stop reaching for it."
"I'm a killer."
"Do you get dental with that?"
Meilin laughed with her entire body. For the last half hour Yuki had forgotten the movie and watched Meilin instead. Her entire focus was on the movie, as if she were going to be tested on it later. As the hit man on the screen continued to tell his friend that he was in fact what he said he was, and the high school classmate continued to crack jokes about it. The girl he loved in high school and disappeared on didn't believe him either, but proceeded to humiliate him over her radio show.
"…and dude I think you should make him wear that prom dress!"
A call in to her show made Yuki laugh absently, picturing his brother in a long white wedding dress and finally realizing that it was funny instead of humiliating. But it didn't look like the man on the screen agreed with the sentiment. He watched as the man progressed from being humiliated on the air, to finally asking the girl he ditched on prom night to go to the class reunion with him.
"I should have worn a skirt." she muttered.
"I should have brought my gun."
"What?"
"Should be fun!" he corrected himself brightly.
Yuki found himself smiling absently as Meilin sighed over the romantic scene with the two on the balcony and blushed a little at the scene were they "catch up" on missed time in the locked nurses office. Li and Sakura laughed over the drunks bumbling attempts of poetry and critiqued the kick boxing scene between the two hit men in the hallway.
"He just stabbed that guy in the neck with a pen." Yuki frowned.
"Ingenious." Li agreed, though Yuki hadn't complimented the technique.
"Ouch." Sakura winced when the girl walked into the bloody scene.
"Its not me." the hit man denied.
Tohru walked behind Kyo until they got to the house. They didn't have a fight, so why did it feel like something horribly wrong had just happened? He opened the door for her, slid out of his shoes and went upstairs, leaving her frozen just inside the door.
"Torhu? Yuki? Kyo?" a thin reedy voice came from Shigure's study. Tohru followed the voice until she stood just outside the room. Shigure continued to talk though she did not say anything.
"So how was the double date? Wonderful huh? Perfect! Its about time you kids made some friends outside of this house you know…" he looked up from his computer and finally took in the silent Tohru.
"Shigure?" Tohru felt the tear slide down her cheek, but did not have the strength to wipe it away herself.
"Tohru, you look like death." he got to his feet and held her shoulders gently. "What happened? Where are the boys?"
"Kyo's upstairs… Yuki took Meilin home…"
"Then whats wrong? You can tell me sweetie."
"Kyo doesn't…"
"What did he do?" Shigure knew for a fact that the boy would never harm Tohru, but he did know that his cousin was sometimes stupid and careless with his words.
"He doesn't want to hold my hand anymore."
"Huh?"
So she sobbed out the story to him and let him rub her back gently bringing her attention back to something besides her own confused grief.
"Tohru, darling. I don't think that's what he meant." Shigure allowed himself to be amused by the miscommunication.
"What?"
"I think he thinks that you don't want to hold his hand anymore."
"What? But…" she started to argue, then remembered that she dropped her hand first…
"And we both know that's not the case… right darling?" Shigure laughed as she blushed bright red.
"Ahhh… right." she nodded.
"Go on upstairs, take a bath, sleep on it. Morning is soon enough to mend matters."
"Its not me." Yuki pondered over the line. The man was so certain that the career he'd chosen had nothing to do with what he really was. He denied it, over and over again, that he was not a murderer. He was a tool for the one who wanted the victim dead. But did that absolve him of guilt? Of course not, and that was what the entire movie was about. Absolution. From the scene in his psychiatrists office… which Meilin had stopped so she could control her giggling… Yuki smiled absently, pig snorts, he teased her, only to have her deny it, then snort again…
But what was his point? He found himself remembering how Meilins eyes shined as they waltzed, then how bright her smile was as she laughed over the movie, then moved to how her hands fluttered to express herself when she was out of breath. Soft hands, delicate…
He shook his head and tried to find his line of thought again. But it was no use, he couldn't get her face out of his mind. He kicked a rock before bounding up the steps with more energy than he had left the house that night. He slipped out of his shoes at the foot of the stairs and glanced at Kyo's open door as he walked toward his own. The cat had a frown on his face as he stared at a text book. He wasn't reading it, Yuki could tell, his eyes didn't move.
"Bout time you got home."
"Watched a movie." Yuki replied.
"Good."
"What?" Yuki had continued walking as Kyo talked, but had to turn back. "What do you mean?"
"Nothing much, lover-boy." Kyo sneered.
"Explain before I kill you." Yuki's pleasant mood had been shattered as his cousin ignored him and continued not reading his homework. "Kyo…" he hissed.
"What! Leave me alone!" Kyo couldn't believe he'd started this fight. It was pointless.
"I want you to explain that comment."
"You can have anyone huh? Tohru. Meilin. It doesn't matter, they all like you better, it doesn't even matter if they were my friends before you even knew they existed."
"You're mad at me because you think everyone likes me more than they like you? Is that it?" Yuki shook his head. "You stupid cat."
"Why am I stupid?" Kyo got to his feet and almost relaxed into a fighting stance, but held himself back with a thin control. He felt ready to snap.
"Can't you see it? They'd do anything for you." Yuki frowned in disgust. "That's why your stupid. They only accepted me because of you. So if anyone should be pissed… It should be me. Go to bed you idiot." He turned on his heel and went to his room. Sliding doors couldn't really slam, but he gave it his all. Kyo heard and for some reason, pissing Yuki off like that had made him feel a little better.
