The Right to Privacy

Author's Note

Yeah… I know. I have another fic which has not been updated for months. sigh I actually re-wrote the 3rd chapter for that one several times… and I still don't like it. So I'm not going to update it until I can do it right. Which may be never, for all I know. .

But then my fingers were itching to type something, and out this piece came. It was totally random, I didn't even have either Sendoh or Rukawa when I was writing it… which explains the OOC-ness. I lost the flow towards the end, so it's rather rushed and botchy. Ick. Oh, well.

I used first names… I think it's weird to use 'Sendoh' and 'Rukawa', because those are actually their surnames, right? But then… when I read it, or type it out… feels kinda weird. lolz

I'll be going away to university in a couple of weeks, so… no more fanfics then.This may probably be the last one I'll be writing in a long while... unless I come up with another one-shot later.

And, why, I thought. Why not?

My hand reached out... and then paused.

Should I, or should I not?

I was well near the point of mental exhaustion carrying on this moral debate with myself. On one hand, I knew it was wrong, and yet -- and yet! My curiosity was certainly getting the better of me.

Just as I had made the decision to grab it once and for all with my own hands, the door was flung open, and the last person I wanted to see at that moment burst into the room.

"What are you doing?" he asked me, glaring, though I could see from the look on his face that he knew well enough.

I withdrew my hand as quickly as if I had been stung.

"I didn't touch it, I swear," I said guiltily.

He let out an impatient noise and approached. "Sure you didn't," he said sarcastically.

"I swear I didn't!" I protested. "You came in before I could..." I stopped, blushing slightly.

Akira groaned and shook his head. "Dammit, Kaede..." he growled. "I already forbid you from touching it, and yet...!"

"Oh, what's the harm of it?" I argued. "What could you possibly have in there that's wrong for me to see?"

He frowned. "You and your damned curiosity! Haven't you ever heard of Pandora's Box? Or Bluebeard's chamber?"

I gave him a sideways glance. "Surely you can't possibly have anything so dreadful in that tiny little thing?" I said skeptically, pointing at the small leather-bound journal which he now held in his hand.

"You'd be surprised," he said darkly. "There might be things in here which you might wish you had never read."

"Oh, come off it! You and your jokes!" I said, annoyed.

"Well, you should at least know how to respect the privacy of others. Or haven't you been told?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.

I bit my lip, not being able to quite look at him in the eye. "Damn..." I mumbled to myself.

"Hm?" he said, narrowing his eyes at me. "I didn't quite catch that."

"I said, 'I'm sorry'," I repeated sulkily, feeling remarkably foolish and childish, as though I were a small child caught with its' hand in the cookie jar.

"That's better," he said, tucking the small journal into the pocket of his jacket. "Well, I'd like to see you get at it now," he smirked.

I just glared at him.

"Oh, come on!" he laughed, and, to my great annoyance, patting me on the head as if I were a kitten. "Cheer up! No harm done, let's go get some ice-cream!"

"Stop treating me like I'm some kid!" I said angrily, swatting his hand away.

He blinked. "Wha-"

Too tired to bother anymore, I just plopped myself down onto the bed. "Forget it..." I said, lying on my back.

"Hey, I'm not going to let it go just like that. What is it, Kaede?" he asked, his tone serious. He sat down on the bed next to me and stared earnestly at my face.

I turned away from him, embarrassed. "Well... it's just that... I never know, with you... What you're thinking. You're always smiling, always joking... and yet... I feel sometimes as if I don't really know you... or what you really think of me... I just wanted to know for sure..."

I bit my lip again, this time blinking furiously as well.

At that moment, something landed rather abruptly on my cheek.

I sat up. "Wha-" I exclaimed, and then spotted something black lying on the bed next to me. He was standing now, his back turned towards me.

"Read it, then," he said quietly.

"Akira... I..."

"Didn't you want to?"

Hesitantly, I reached out for the book and picked it up; I turned the pages slowly.

There weren't all that many entries; this particular journal must have been started sometime recently, when...

"I started this journal when I first met you," he said. I look up and find him staring out the window, avoiding my gaze.

As I continued reading, I felt a heat rising up in my cheeks.

"This..."

He turned to me, an unreadable expression on his face. "Have you... read the last entry?" he asked me.

I turned towards the last page I could find that had been written on and read it -- every word, slowly, painfully. Words that I had been longing to hear, words that I had never even dreamed of hearing... they were all there.

I looked up at him, though I could not clearly make out his face; the day had slowly ended whilst I read, and now night drew its shadows about the room.

"Well?" he asked, a pained expression in his voice that I was not used to hearing. "Can you look at me the same way again?"

"Probably not," I admitted, closing the book gently.

"I thought not," he said. Snatching the book from my hands, he threw it violently across the room.

"Well," he said. "Will you leave me now?"

I looked at him, surprised. "Why would I...?"

"After reading what you just read..."

"I know now, more than ever…" I said, hardly daring to believe that I'd finally dared to. "I love you..."

The rest of that night, I tasted for the first time… the warmth of a person.

I'd tell more… but then we have a right to privacy, don't we?

Author's Note

Yeah. I know. . But let me know what you think anyway.