Chapter 4: The Long Walk Home
When Tohru walked out of the school building, Haru was sitting on the bottom step, head propped on both hands. She walked up to him and stood looking down at him. Haru looked up and caught long bare legs, short skirt, and pink polka-dots …uh… looking away and blushing, he patted the step. "Tohru, sit down. It's not a good thing for me to look up at you today."
"What's wrong?" She leaned close, making sure not to touch him. She suddenly took in his face. "And what happened?" She pointed at his eye.
"Just waiting on the rest of the group to show up, you're the first one. Yuki said that we all needed to come over for dinner and get everything straightened out. And I picked a fight with Kyo today, he won."
"Are you mad at Kyo?"
He smiled. "No. It was a fair fight."
Suddenly she remembered the first part of his statement. "Oh! I'll go by the store and pick up more food then." She started calculating amounts in her head. I should have just enough money to pay for it.
Haru smiled. "Gure is ordering out. Apparently his editor is happy with his progress and sent him a nice advance."
"Really?" She smiled at Shigure's fortune.
"Surprising huh? Usually Micchan-san is so upset with him that she borders on suicide."
"Or Homicide." Yuki said from above her. She looked up and smiled into his calm face until she realized what he said.
"Homicide? She'd kill Shigure-san?" Here eyes were wide with worry.
"Not really. Thinking about it and doing it are two different things." He threw Haru a cutting glance. "Aren't they ushi?"
Kyo sure didn't wait long to talk to Yuki. Haru decided not to dignify that with a response. "Where are the others?"
"Kagura was getting her books out of her locker, and Kyo was fending off some female attention. Apparently I'm not the only one with a fan club." He smirked at the neko's luck. Yuki hated having girls follow him everywhere, and Kyon had much less patience than himself.
"Get away from me you stupid girl!" Speak of the devil. Kyo ran out of the door, shrugging off a hand that was trying to grab his shirt.
"But Kyo-san…" A cute little girl was following him. "I am supposed to get a picture of you."
"I don't want a picture of me taken. Leave me alone!" He put Yuki and Tohru between himself and the girl.
When she realized she wasn't going to be able to get his picture, she sat down and started crying. Haru looked at her and back at the cat. "Now look what you did. First you beat me up…"
"You deserved that, and you went looking for it." He stood with his hands on his hips.
"Now you're picking on poor defenseless girls." Haru stood and walked over to squat in front of Myosi. "It's okay. You don't want to worship that baka. He's not good people."
"What?" Kyo was now standing in front of Myosi too. "I am a much better 'good person' than you are." He poked Haru's chest with a finger. "I'm not given to mood swings."
Tohru had been watching with big eyes; but when he said the last statement, she couldn't help but laugh.
Kyo turned to see a grinning Yuki and an Onigiri who had tears running down her face. "What?"
Tohru laughed. "Not given to mood swings?"
Yuki smiled at her. "Kyo, give the girl her picture. We're leaving." He turned and held a hand out to help Tohru up. "Come on little one, let's go home."
ssssssss
He barely had enough time to explain what Haru had done this morning and why he'd done it when the other four caught up. Sighing at the end of his private time with Tohru, he listened while everyone else monopolized her time. The more Sohmas she meets, the less time each of us gets to spend with her.
Meanwhile, Haru was dealing with his own inner conflicts. Was Kyo being honest with me earlier today when he said I got a hard-on for Tohru every time I turned black? Yuki hinted at it too. Does anyone else notice? Is Tohru horrified by my behavior? Finally deciding he needed to know the last question more than anything else, he walked up to Tohru and pointedly swung a hand around her waist. "Hello Honda-san. How has your day been?" Two pairs of eyes glared daggers at him, Momiji looked like he was going to pass out, and Kagura was looking at him wearily. The only person not looking at him was Tohru, and she had her gaze on the ground, cheeks bright red.
"Ano…"
"Yes…"
"Haru, are you black again?"
"Why?"
"Umm…"
"Just tell me already."
"Okay." She took a deep breath and spit it out. "Youonlytouchmelikethiswhenyou'reblack."
"What?"
Kyo bashed him in the head. "Surely you are aware your hand is holding her breast." He whispered in Haru's ear.
Haru froze, jerking Tohru to a stop. A quick inventory revealed that the cat wasn't lying. What the fuck! I can't get my hands to behave even when I'm white. What the hell am I like to her when I'm black? "Sumimasen Honda-san." He released her entirely and walked ahead at a quicker pace.
Kagura ran to catch up to him, and they both talked quietly with his head bent so no one would hear what was being said. Momiji ran to join; but walked just behind them, affording them the privacy he knew they needed. He knew that Haru was having a rough time, and he was aware of why Kagura was posing as a first year. Although he wasn't sure which topic was under discussion, he knew they needed privacy.
Kyo was staring at Tohru. She was still walking with her face tilted down, almost like she was lost in herself.
That was…not scary. Tohru wondered if that made her a loose woman for enjoying the feel of a man's hands on her breast. Yuki came to her rescue before she could freak out.
"You know…I don't condone guys feeling up girls in public, and I don't agree with people looking for pleasure as a substitute for something they may be lacking." He stopped and looked at Tohru, who was still looking at the ground. When she didn't look at him, he tilted her face up. "However, there is nothing wrong with feeling pleasure when something pleasurable happens to you." He took in her bright eyes and flushed cheeks. "Haru didn't mean to do that to you to embarrass you. He didn't even know he'd done it."
"You saw?"
He smiled. "I'm walking right beside you. It was hard to miss." He grabbed a hand and cut a glance at Kyo who then came up and grabbed her other hand. "I just wanted to let you know that your reaction was normal, and you don't have to be embarrassed around either of us because of a natural reaction."
"Oh. Ok."
"How long is this friggin' road today?" Kyo was swinging the hand that was holding Tohru's, and secretly hoping this part of the trip lasted forever.
"Long enough Neko…long enough." Yuki looked at the others as the three of them continued down the path.
A/N: G'night all! -TK