"Kinomoto?"Eriol stood in the front of the class and frowned at the girl. "Kinomoto!" he shouted.
"Pweeeee?" she yanked her head up from the desk and looked around in shock. "Pwee?" Kyo hid his grin as the teacher repeated his question and Sakura answered sheepishly.
"Good. Now no more sleeping in my class."
"Hai sensei." She hung her head, just enough so that the desk looked comfortable again, but she forced it up and kept it up as Li snuck his hand over to lay quietly on her shoulder.
"Just get through this period, then I'll take you home." He whispered.
"No, I'll be fine Li, I just have to… I have to …to…" she yawned hugely, causing giggles to erupt all over the class.
"Kinomoto."Eriol frowned again, with just a hint of a smirk. "Go to the nurses office and sleep it off, if you can't concentrate."
"I'll take her." Kyo nodded to Li andEriolagreed.
"That's fine, but come right back Sohma."
"Hai, sensei." He nodded.
Once in the hall Sakura grinned as Kyo took her arm.
"How does it feel?" she asked, leaning her head against his shoulder. Just the day before, he'd have been a cat, instantly. He still stiffened, but relaxed as he helped her down the hall.
"It feels weird." He admitted, "It's funny how many of my emotions where enforced by that damned curse. I looked at Yuki this morning, and I just couldn't drum up the energy to hate the guy. And when Shigure started teasing me this morning, I didn't grumble. He seemed slightly put off though. Like he thought maybe I was sick or something." Kyo laughed.
"So you haven't told them?"
"For some reason I thought it would be obvious. You know?" Kyo shrugged, "Are you all right though? You look like you've been hit by the semi-truck of dreams."
"It was a major casting last night Kyo, I'll be feeling a little sleepy until the power overload wears off."
"Overload?" Kyo helped her into the office and searched around for a nurse. Apparently the one on duty was taking a break. So he sat next to a cot after settling her in, and found a blanket to lay over her. "I would think that something like that would drain you."
"Yeah, well, there was so much energy being produced, that it all had to go somewhere…" she yawned again and closed her eyes, "You could probably ask Li what… what…" she yawned as Kyo chuckled.
"Never mind, I'll talk to Li. You get some sleep."
"Kyo?" Sakura asked as he turned to leave.
"Yeah?" he paused at the door and looked back at her. Her face was too pale, but the grin on it was totally Sakura.
"Are you happy?" It was such a small question, but it was something he could never remember anyone asking him before. So he stood there and searched, carefully for the answer.
"Sakura, I can truthfully say, that for the first time in my life, I Am." When she smiled, he turned away, and closed the door quietly to let her sleep.
"Oi, Tohru!" Kyo ran through the house, looking for the girl. She seemed to have disappeared since they'd walked home together.
"I'm in here Kyo." she called from the kitchen, the sunny day had perked her up a bit. For some reason Kyo seemed really off that day, thinking she might have done something to upset him had her worried. Suddenly she felt a tear drip onto her cheek.
"Tohru? You're crying?" Kyo's eyes narrowed as they swept the empty room. For some reason, coming across a distressed Tohru never failed to make Kyo feel as if he were a white knight on some valiant steed.
"No!" she sniffed, giggled forcibly, wiped away the stray tear, and smiled brightly.
"Don't cry." she sniffed again as he ran his hand over her eyes.
"I'm not."
"I have a surprise for you." he smiled gently. "But you can't get it if you don't tell me what you're crying about."
"Oh, Kyo, you didn't have to bring me anything."
"Well, I got you something that you'll never see unless you tell me why you're upset."
"You're being really nice to me Kyo!" Tohru felt the tears start up again.
Kyo just blinked. "Your crying because I'm nice to you?"
"And everybody else too! You didn't yell at Yuki this morning! And during lunch you let Momiji hug you! Are you ok? Are you getting a fever?" suddenly her hands were on his forehead.
"I'm in a good mood and all of a sudden I'm sick?" Kyo tried to work out the logic and failed miserably. "All right, stop crying, I'll tell you- or better yet, I'll show you why. But I want to talk with you first."
"Talk?" she asked in a small voice as he took her hand and led her to the porch. He sat her down on the edge and went out to pace in the yard.
"Li and Sakura have been helping me with this, so it might sound a little weird…"
"Kyo…"
"My life was really dismal before you showed up."
"Kyo…"
"Let me finish." he glared then cursed himself for glaring, which only made his eyes fiercer. But Tohru relaxed, this was the Kyo she knew, the one pissed off for what ever reason. She could handle this Kyo.
"Go on." she grinned.
"My life basically sucked, then I fell on you and everything started to change. Some mornings I would wake up and I wouldn't know why I should be angry, because I could hear you in the next room, singing." he pushed his hands through his messy orange hair before shaking his head and cracking his neck. "And then you'd make me breakfast and start talking about really inane things, and it didn't even piss me off. It would piss me off when you treated Yuki the same way though. And then I realized that it didn't matter. I really want to say this Tohru. When I first met you I thought that you'd go for Yuki."
"Yuki isn't…"
"I know." Kyo cut her off, "I know that now. Like I know that Yuki and Meilin are starting to shape into a pretty stable thing…" he shook his head, he was getting off track.
"Yes, they're very sweet."
"Whatever." Kyo growled. "I'm through talking." he stomped over and leaned down. Captured Tohru's cheeks against his palms and pressed his lips to hers. He ripped himself away just as hastily and rested his forehead against hers. "I love you Tohru." he whispered. She was frozen, her chocolate eyes blinked slowly as she took a deep breath. Then she smiled.
"Oh… ok…" she closed her eyes and took another breath. Kyo was rooted in place.
"Ok?"
"Ok."
"Good then." suddenly he swept her up and off the porch. He was strong enough to hold her like a doll for the few seconds when his smiled grew to the size of the chessire cats. "Here's my surprise!" He swept her in, holding her fast against his chest. Tohru held her breath, waiting for the POP and the cloud of smoke. She was waiting to catch Kyo into her arms with such concentration that she didn't notice that he didn't change until a full minute had passed.
"Kyo?" she pushed at his chest, marveling at the muscles that were clenched under his shirt. She couldn't suppress the laugh. "Oh wow!" she flung her arms out, knocking his from her body, but only so she could fling herself back into his embrace. She wrapped her arms around his neck, while his snaked around and wrapped around her waist. He savored the feeling of a warm body next to his. Of her soft curves against his stomach, her breasts pressed against his chest. Her heart beating in time, pounding against his own.
"I can't believe it." he muttered, taking a deep breath and smelling the strawberry shampoo that seemed to define Tohru. "It really, really worked!" though Sakura had leaned on him he hadn't been convinced. He wanted his final proof to be Tohru, and there she was, wrapped around him as he had only imagined in the past.
"Kyo?" Tohru was suddenly very still.
"Oi?"
"Do you mind if I tell you something?" She hesitated, pressed her cheek against his.
"Go for it, nothing could ruin my mood right now."
"I didn't want to tell you before because I thought you'd get sad." she sighed, "But now I can tell you this… Kyo, look at me."
They both leaned back and stared into the others gaze.
"I love you."
He could almost feel time freeze. Every part of his body stiffened as he struggled to draw breath. He hardly realized when he shifted, holding her head as he angled to capture her lips with his own. She tried to mutter against his lips, but gave up and sank into the embrace. Wrapped in each other they failed to notice the door slide open.
"Oh, excuse me." the door slid shut again… for a grand total of 5 seconds, then…
"WHAT THE HELL?" the door crashed open again. "Kyo? Tohru?" a hand clapped on Kyo's shoulder, his lips broke from Tohru's as he glared at Shigure and growled.
"Go away. Go very far away!" Tohru just giggled breathlessly, nervously as she caught the expression on Shigure's face. It was pale white with shock, his eyes larger than dinner plates.
"But how?" his gaze traveled down to where Kyo and Tohru looked to be hooked together at the waist. "WHATS GOING ON HERE?" his voice broke as he hit the upper register.
"Yeah, Kyo, did it work?" Yuki walked in behind Shigure, he too noticed Tohru, "stupid question?"
"It worked." Kyo was smiling stupidly. "Li said it should only take about a week for the overload to drain. Then its your turn rat-boy."
Yuki walked into the room and sat at the table. Kyo pulled Tohru down into his lap and the three waited for Shigure to calm down and sit with them. Kyo smiled and looked at his older cousin.
"I think we all need to have a talk."
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!
ONE MORE! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I've gone insane. please review to make me better!
epilogue goes up tommorrow!
