* - * - *
She stumbled upon the dagger quite by accident.
Dusk had settled in, and the light, cheerful atmosphere of the past hours faded into nothingness along with the last of the sunlight. Tohru could feel a cold dread begin to spread to her limbs as the darkness deepened. Darkness in this realm seemed so—so absolute somehow. As if it was only at its whim that daylight intruded at all, and it might just decide to stay around for good.
Ritsu had left long before twilight, and the drawn, frightened look on his face was something Tohru hoped she would never have to see on anyone ever again. Dread trailed icy fingers down her spine. The thought of returning to the tower had all but drained away Ritsu's spirit, and Tohru found her once-vague fear of Akito swiftly taking on form.
But if Ritsu's terrified subservience had disturbed her, Yuki's reaction to the creeping darkness nearly caused her physical pain. All light and warmth died inside him, leaving his beautiful violet eyes empty and bleak. Despair and a sense of defeat so complete it brought tears to her eyes wrapped around the small, silvery-white form like a shroud. She'd come so close to begging him to stay with her again, but she hadn't wanted to hurt him that way, to tear him up inside even more. He had been desperate to leave; his fear for her, for what might happen if he remained any longer, had overridden his desire to stay.
"And at night?"
"I become a monster."
She sat alone in the darkening cave, feeling small and lonely and bereft. She rubbed her palms together absently. His fur had felt so soft against her skin. His warmth and solidity comforted her, reminding her of how she used fiddle with her charm necklace whenever she felt troubled. His voice lingered in her mind, a gentle, even tenor that could turn as hard as frozen steel in one moment and as warm as a summer's day the next. He was cursed with a form that was capable of only a limited range of expressions, but his eyes more than made up for it. There were layers and layers behind those violet depths, inviting her to lose herself in them, and she wanted to know more and more about him, to find out how he felt and what he was like behind those barriers. She smiled a little. Given the wall of cool composure he'd erect around him at the slightest attempt to get him to open up, she didn't think he'd appreciate finding out how much his eyes betrayed him to her. But that's all right, she thought resolutely. With all the strength inside her, she would protect those precious glimpses into his inner world that he offered, whether intentionally or not. She would protect him.
Could she protect him from Akito?
She shivered and huddled into a tighter ball. She wished they'd had the presence of mind to build another fire before darkness set in. They had gathered enough firewood from the fringes of the clearing, but with the descending darkness driving all other thought from her companions' minds, they never got around to actually starting a fire, and Tohru didn't know the first thing about starting a fire with no matches. After a brief, internal debate and much chewing on her lip, she raised a hand and waved it over the small pile of sticks the way she had once seen a magician wave a hand over a hat before producing a rabbit. Nothing happened.
She tried again, this time muttering underneath her breath: "I order you to make fire…um, please."
Not even a single blue spark. The pile of sticks remained distinctly unburned. She groaned, partly in frustration and partly in relief. Once again, the Sun Stone refused to cooperate. Ever since it had come into her life, it was either trying to kill her with its zeal or stubbornly ignoring her commands. In fact, the only time she'd ever gotten the Sun Stone to work in a non-lethal manner was when Yuki was with her. The whisper of a thought seemed to tickle her awareness, but faded away before she could examine it. She sighed ruefully. She supposed she ought to be glad the Sun Stone wasn't turning her into a bonfire again and content herself with that.
She had food, at least. Yuki and Ritsu had seen to that. And with the lake nearby, she wouldn't be running out of water anytime soon. She recalled the gnawing hunger and desperate thirst that were their constant companions during their trek through the Deadlands, and shuddered. She didn't think she'd ever be able to look at a single chunk of bread and a cup of water without feeling heartrendingly grateful from now on.
Picking up the cooking pot, she pushed herself up and headed toward the lake to fetch some water. She had nearly reached the shore before she slowed to a stand-still, gazing across the lake with awe and dread. Beneath a swirling mass of storm clouds, the tower's looming form thrust up from the surface of the lake, blacker than the night. Green-tinged lightning forked down and struck at the tower as if summoned by an unseen force, sinking into the island like cracks on a broken mirror before vanishing into the tower's ever-deepening darkness. Tohru stared at the tower, feeling her skin prickle and grow cold as the darkness seemed to creep over the lake and wrap around her. She could feel him in the darkness; his power, his presence, the very brush of his thought against her mind made her want to shrink into herself and whimper in fear. It pleased him, she knew. He could taste her fear in the very air she breathed.
Akito. She could feel the dark sorcerer's aura everywhere. For some reason, the chilling presence formed an image behind her eyes: a silver-haired boy dressed all in white, standing at a window and gazing across the lake in her direction, ice-gray eyes watchful and knowing, lips parted in a small smile. Akito, who ruled this realm and everything in it. Akito, who had brought her here. Akito, who in the end would decide whether they all lived or died.
No, a voice inside her whispered. No, something's wrong. This is all wrong.
The thought was jarring enough to break her trance, and she tore her gaze away from the tower, taking an involuntary step back. Her foot landed on something that made a faint clinking noise. Puzzled, she glanced down and picked up the object lying on the ground. It was a long, thin dagger with a blade that ended in a curved point and hilt of black steel shaped like a hawk's head. The blade gleamed preternaturally bright against the darkness and felt icy cold to the touch. She held it gingerly with both hands, frowning, and wondered if she'd imagined the faint shadowy streaks that crisscrossed over the gleaming whiteness of the blade.
"How strange," she muttered out loud. "How come I didn't see this befo—ite!"
She jerked reflexively. A gash appeared on her left palm, and blood began to trickle down her arm. "Oh no," she moaned faintly at the sight of the blood, then moaned again when the pain hit her. She stared suspiciously at the dagger in her right hand, wondering how it could have slipped from her grasp like that. The dagger merely burned brighter, as if mocking her. She willed her hand to open and let the nasty thing fall to the ground, but her right hand seemed to have gone numb, just as the pain in her left hand grew piercingly cold, as if a shard of ice instead of a blade had cut her. Tendrils of darkness wrapped around her left hand, mingling with her blood, and she cradled her hand against her chest. The chill spread upward until her eyes seemed to grow dim.
Serves you right.
She could hear her heart pounding in her ears.
Why did you come here? What did you think you could do?
She fell to her knees, feeling her blood seeping through the cloth of her dress.
You have no power here. You are nothing.
No, she answered, fighting against the chill. No, I won't accept it. I won't.
You deserve to die.
She gritted her teeth. You can't keep him imprisoned here forever. I'll save him. Somehow, I'll save him and Kyo-kun and Rit-chan as well. I swear it.
Save them? You will destroy them. And they will destroy you.
No.
You will see.
"Tohru!"
Something cracked sharply against her right hand, knocking the dagger out of her grasp. A pair of hands grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her up, and she found herself blinking into Kyo's white, furious face. "Kyo-kun?" she whispered.
"Idiot!" he shouted. "Don't you ever touch that dagger again!"
He picked up the dagger, and with a grunt flung it into the lake as far as he could. There was a flash of white, and the dagger vanished with a splash. He spun around to face her, the anger blazing from his crimson eyes dispelling the last of the chill. "What the hell did you think you were doing? You don't go around playing with strange knives, you idiot! Don't you have the sense you were born with?"
"I'm sorry," she said meekly.
"Now you're sorry, you—what's wrong with your hand?"
He was staring hard at her left hand, and she flushed in embarrassment. "I, um—the dagger slipped," she said, wincing at the lameness of her explanation.
Kyo gave her another scorching glare, then his hand closed around her arm and pulled her hand away from her chest. At her hiss of pain, he gentled his hold, but the sight of the bloody gash made him look as if he sorely wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled.
"E-etoo, it's not that deep, I think," she said hastily. "And it doesn't hurt that much anymore, really."
"What're you doing out here, anyway?"
"I was going to get water." She pointed at the cooking pot, which had fallen at her feet. "But I got, um, distracted."
He followed her gaze toward the tower, and his face darkened. "The last thing I want right now," he said tightly, "is a reminder of that damned conjurer. Go back to the cave. I'll get the water, then we'll see to that wound."
She nodded and turned, then paused. "Kyo-kun?" When he glanced back at her, she gave him a sunny smile. "I'm really glad you're back."
He scowled. "Just go, will you?"
When he returned to the cave he found her kneeling in front of the firewood rubbing two sticks together, although her wound made her movements slow and clumsy. She smiled again when he sat down. "Thank you, Kyo-kun. Anoo, I've set out some bread and cheese for dinner, and a few sweetberries for dessert. I'm sorry we don't have any more salted pork. Rit-chan said we'd eaten the last yesterday, although I wonder where he'd gotten the salted pork in the first place. Yuki-kun said they keep a gar—"
"What the hell are you doing?" he demanded, interrupting her stream of chatter.
She glanced down at the sticks in her hands. "I, um, I'm making fire."
"Why don't you just summon the power in this clearing to make fire? Isn't that what you did last night?"
"'The power in this clearing'?" she echoed, confused. "Oh, you mean the Sun Stone. I tried but it didn't work. I can't control it, you see."
He frowned at the unfamiliar words, then shook his head as if dismissing them. "Whatever. That's not how you make fire, anyway."
Her hands stilled their motions. "It's not?"
"Oh for Kami's sake," he muttered disgustedly as he stood up again. He came back with a handful of dried grass and two stones that made sparks when he struck them together. Minutes later, they had a healthy blaze going. He nodded at the fire in satisfaction before turning to her. "Now give me your ha—what're you looking like that for?"
Tohru's eyes were bright with admiration. "Kyo-kun, that was amazing!"
"Huh?"
"I've never seen anyone start a fire as quickly as you did," she exclaimed. "You knew exactly what to do. I'm impressed!"
Kyo gave her an incredulous look. "I've been training in the fighting arts ever since I was a child," he explained gruffly as he cut more strips of cloth from her much-abused shift, which had been draped over the cave. "Much of the training meant having to camp out in the wilderness with my master, so of course I'd had to learn something as basic as starting a fire. Give me your hand." He inspected her wound, then cradled her hand in his left and placed his right hand over hers, palm to palm, not close enough to touch but enough for her to feel the heat radiating from him. A look of concentration passed over his face, and as Tohru watched in amazement, his hand glowed with a faint reddish-gold light for a moment, and a soothing warmth seeped through her skin and spread through her hand, making the flesh around her wound tingle a little. Only then did he wrap the makeshift bandage around her hand.
Tohru blinked at her hand, then up at him. "Kyo-kun, what—?"
He shrugged. "I speeded up the healing process a bit." He noticed the expression on her face, and instantly bristled. "It's not magic, all right? I already said it's all done by prayers. There's nothing magical about a bunch of prayers and rituals."
"But—but to know how to heal someone, to make someone feel better, how wonderful that must be," she insisted. "You could help so many people with a gift like yours, Kyo-kun."
He rolled his eyes. "I don't know why you people keep seeing magic everywhere. Healing has nothing to do with sorcery. If I seem to know stuff it's because I used to hang around an old healer in our village so I picked up a few things. But almost anyone can heal others to a certain degree. I bet even you can."
"Really?" she said, her eyes widening. "Do you really think I can, Kyo-kun? Would you show me?"
He stared at her then nodded, his lips twisting upward in a crooked smile. The sight of the smile, the first she'd seen on his perpetually angry-looking face, made her suck in a breath in wonder. Why, he hides his smile underneath, she thought, nearly missing what he said next. "Sure. Here, I'll show you how to do a simple technique."
For the next hour or so, he proceeded to show her how to breathe in the right way, then taught her a few words to focus her concentration on the energies within and around her. "You don't have to believe in Kami but it helps if you do," he explained as he munched on a couple of sweetberries. "Think of it this way. Whoever created the earth used a near infinite amount of power to do so, and that same power is locked inside every stone and grain of sand. In fact, a priestess in our village used to say that faith and proper prayer could call forth the energies even in the empty air or deep within the earth. That's what most rituals do, anyway, invoke power. And not just stones and sand. All living creatures, including humans, contain the same forces. More than that, we control it through our wills and emotions, like water in a glass, although most of us aren't aware of it. Sometimes there's more, sometimes there's less, but too much or too little results in sickness. As a healer, you need to sense the balance of energies, then tweak that balance a bit."
It took some convincing to get her to practice on him. The first few times yielded nothing. They sat facing each other, with Tohru's hands outstretched and held palm-downward less than an inch from Kyo's. She screwed her eyes shut, counted her breaths as instructed, and chanted the words inside her head, pleading with the energies to respond to her. All her efforts resulted in nothing but a sigh from Kyo and a growing numbness in her arms. "You're trying too hard," he said at one point. "Remember the words. You're supposed to want to heal; just calling on the power is useless if you can't focus it."
"Yes, sensei," she said, earning another crooked smile from Kyo. She closed her eyes again, thinking about what she wanted. I want to help, came the thought. I want for people to be happy, for them to be safe. An image of a silvery-white, amethyst-eyed mouse drifted through her mind, and she smiled. Yuki-kun. The image was followed by that of a crotchety, red-haired boy who was also a crotchety, red-orange cat, and a pretty girl who was actually the first kitchen-boy she'd ever met. I want them to be safe. The memory of the chilling darkness returned—of the voice whispering in her mind, full of malice and contempt. Of the vision of a handsome, silver-haired boy gazing out from a window of the tower. Her pulse jumped. I want Yuki-kun and Kyo-kun and Rit-chan to be safe. I want them to live and be free. You can't keep them imprisoned here forever.
Please, Akito-san. Let them go.
"Oy! Snap out of it!"
Her eyes flew open and she instantly pulled her hands back. Kyo had also withdrawn his hands, and were rubbing them together, eyeing her bemusedly. "I'm sorry," she blurted, bowing her head. "I don't think I can do this after all. You're a wonderful teacher, Kyo-kun, but I—"
"You glowed pink," he said bluntly. "Waves of pink, like rose petals. I felt your power spread all around us, surrounding the entire cave. It felt warm and—and nice," he added, turning away to hide his blush. "I don't even want to know what you were thinking," he grumbled.
She gaped at him. "Eh? I'm sorry, I don't understand."
Instead of replying, he pointed wordlessly at a spot beside him, where he'd carelessly flicked the sweetberry seeds some time ago. Already, a pale green shoot was poking its way out of the earth and putting forth a tiny pair of leaves. Tohru stared at the plant in shock. "I—I did that?"
Kyo nodded.
"Me?" she squeaked.
"Yeah." He gave her a piercing look. "How did you do it?"
"I don't know," she answered, still trying to grasp the idea that she'd actually done magic. Or not magic, she added hastily, recalling her companion's vehemence on the subject. "I just did what you told me to. I didn't even feel anything."
He shrugged again. "Yeah, well, you're stronger than you think, is all I can say."
"But I can't do magic," she said, bewildered. "I've never done any magic until—oh! It must be the Sun Stone." She nodded decisively. Yes, that made a lot more sense. The Sun Stone was the only thing magical about her. But you know it isn't, a voice whispered, which she tried to ignore.
"The what?"
"The Sun Stone. It's a magical stone that I, um, carry around with me," she explained, blushing. "Its magic was the one I used to create the fire last night." There it was again, the strange, vague thought just dancing at the edge of her consciousness, but before she could track it down she was distracted by Kyo shaking his head.
"No, it's not," he told her. "The magic I felt around that weird blue fire felt different. It felt like some of that exotic mind-stuff. Real, honest-to-Kami sorcery. And it isn't just coming from your magic stone. It's all around us. This entire clearing is soaked in it."
Tohru blinked.
"I've been trying to figure out why this clearing feels so different from the rest of the forest," he went on. "Its energies are different, more like your magic stone than the rest of this godforsaken place. That's why none of those—those things in the forest dare come in here. That's why this clearing feels…safe…" He tensed for a moment, his gaze turning distant as if listening to something only he could hear, then he growled and shook his head. "If I didn't know better, I'd have thought that your magic stone actually came from this place," he added, "and that this clearing was created when magic leaked out of that stone." He paused. "Oy, I want to see it."
"Eh?!" Tohru's eyes nearly fell out of her head. "Y-you want to see the Sun Stone?"
He gave her a strange look. "Yeah. You have it, don't you?"
She moved her head jerkily, on the verge of panicking. "A-anoo, Kyo-kun, ah, you see—"
"For Kami's sake, I'm not going to steal it," he said exasperatedly. "I just want to see it. From what I can tell, that stone has some damn powerful sorcery inside it. I want to check it out." His brows drew together. "What's the matter with you, anyway?"
Tohru felt as if every drop of her blood had gone rushing to her head. "Ah, ah—" she stammered, unable to think of a good reason for refusing to let him see it. He continued to glare at her until she gave up with a sigh and a scarlet blush. There's no harm in showing him, is there? she decided, before lowering her head and undoing the top buttons of the kitchen-maid smock.
This time, it was Kyo who panicked. "Oy, w-w-what the hell're you doing?!" he spluttered, backing away from her and turning as red as she undoubtedly was. "It's the stone I want to see, not—what the—?"
The firelight fell upon her chest as she parted the folds of cloth to show him the outline of the Sun Stone. She gave him an apologetic, embarrassed shrug. "It's right here inside me."
Kyo's mouth hung open as he stared at the blue lines between her breasts. "Shit," he declared. "I've never seen anything like that before." His gaze drifted upward, and his eyes suddenly narrowed. "How did you get those?" he asked in a low voice, pointing at the three parallel lines stretching from her throat to her collarbone.
She glanced down, feeling uneasy. "Oh, um, that was my fault, really."
He grabbed her, shaking her a little, and she was taken aback by the anger and terror warring in his face. "I did it, didn't I?" he rasped, his fingers digging into her shoulders. "I remember…Kami, I remember…"
"I-It's all right, Kyo-kun," she told him, alarmed by the storm raging within him. "You didn't know what you were doing."
He didn't seem to hear her. "I—I was furious. I wanted to kill…but you tried to stop me. And I hurt you. I hurt you." He released her so suddenly she nearly fell against the cave wall. He shot to his feet, gazing at her with indescribable pain in his crimson eyes. "He did it," he whispered. "The curse—" He abruptly turned away. Quick as a flash, she leaped up and practically tackled him before he could flee into the forest. "Kyo-kun!" she cried, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt and pulling him back. "Kyo-kun, please. Stay in the clearing. Please."
He stiffened at her touch. "Stay away from me," he said in an odd, dull voice. "I'm dangerous. I'll only hurt you again, or worse."
"But it's all right, really!" she protested desperately. "You were a cat then, and you only did what comes naturally to a cat. It's my fault for catching you when you were so obviously angry."
He spun around to face her. "A cat? A cat?!"
"Yes!" She nodded, relieved that he had finally stopped looking as if he were about to bolt. "Yes, a cat. You were a cute, orange cat all day, and you stayed with me and Yuki-kun and Rit-chan. It's your curse, Kyo-kun. A cat during the daytime, and a human being at night. Yuki-kun warned me that you might not remember, but—but I guess you do now—"
"Yuki!" The name emerged from his lips in a virulent hiss. "That shitty conjurer! What was he doing here?! And who the hell is Rit-chan?!"
She shook her head frantically. "No, no, please, Kyo-kun, it's not what you think! Yuki-kun isn't Akito. Yuki-kun is a mouse."
Kyo stared at her as if she'd just announced her intention to grow roots and sprout leaves. "A mouse," he echoed flatly. "I'm a cat and he's a mouse."
She nodded again. "A silvery-white mouse with the most beautiful violet eyes you've ever seen. He's so kind and sweet and giving, Kyo-kun, just like you. And like you, he's cursed, too. Well, Rit-chan isn't cursed, but he's—um, maybe I'd better explain." She tugged him back to the cave and sat him down, and once again she found herself retelling her mother's story about the Prince of Snows, adding the details she'd learned from Yuki later. Somewhat to her surprise, Kyo remained silent for the most part, aside from the occasional snort and muttered "hah!" when she spoke about the lost Prince Yuki. But he listened carefully when she told him about Akito, frowning thoughtfully into the darkness. When she asked him what he was thinking, he glowered at her to indicate that she should keep talking, and so she did.
"I—I was thinking," she began hesitantly when she'd finished her tale. "About Yuki-kun, I mean. I really thought it was him, the prince I saw in my dreams. I made a fool of myself about that, and I hurt him, too." She ducked her head, remembering the look in Yuki's eyes. "But something tells me I was right, that Yuki-kun is the long-lost prince that Akito had captured and put a curse upon. The way he acts is exactly the way a prince would act. Even Rit-chan called him 'Your Highness.' I really believe it's him, Kyo-kun," she said, turning earnest eyes on her companion. "I really believe that Yuki the mouse and Yuki the prince are one and the same. Only—only something feels terribly wrong about it—"
I become a monster.
"—as if something important is missing, and I—"
You will destroy them. And they will destroy you.
"—I don't understand what it could be." Her voice died away and she bit her lip, unsure about Kyo's reaction to what she'd said. She couldn't help noticing that he'd grown stiffer and stiffer as she spoke about Yuki, his hands curling into fists and his jaw tightening until she could almost hear his teeth grinding together. She was wondering what she could do to ease his tension when Kyo himself broke his silence.
"Are you done?" he asked curtly.
"Yes," she murmured.
"Then let me tell you about the Yuki I know." He turned to her then, his crimson gaze intense, his words slow and deliberate. "He's handsome, all right, if you can call a block of ice handsome. Every inch a prince, but if you open him up, you'll find nothing but corruption. His eyes are cold, his smile is cruel, and his power over lightning and darkness is strong. He commands an army of demons he calls the tower-guardians, but they hide in shadow and you won't see them until they've already gutted you. He has no respect for life, only a taste for power. I've seen him nearly kill this Ritsu so many times; the only reason he's still alive is because Yuki finds abject spinelessness amusing. He thinks nothing about destroying and manipulating everything he comes into contact with. This place, this forest—it's like a disease upon the earth, and Yuki is its source. You tell me that this is all the dark sorcerer Akito's work. If that's true, then all I can say is that your Prince of Snows is long gone. Yuki and Akito are one."
Tohru had grown steadily paler throughout Kyo's speech. "No," she finally whispered. "It can't be. I saw him. In my dreams, and—and Hatsuharu-san did, too. He's here, Kyo-kun, I know it."
I become a monster.
She gasped. "No. I won't accept it."
What did you think you could do?
Kyo rolled his eyes. "He's gone, all right? And on the off-chance that you're right, then the only thing left of this prince of yours is that mouse. That damned annoying mouse who keeps running away from a fight," he added, his lip curling in a snarl, before turning to her, pinning her with a sharp stare. "Don't trust him. Be friends with the mouse if you have to, but don't trust him any further than that. I don't know what game Yuki or Akito or whoever is playing, but you can be sure it won't be good. He'll kill you the minute you lower your guard."
She shook her head. "No, I don't believe it. Yuki-kun saved my life. He's my friend, Kyo-kun. You both are."
"Then don't trust me, either!" he snapped, then sucked in a breath and thrust a hand through his hair. "Listen to me. That damned mouse said it himself: Akito's keeping you alive for a reason. He wants something from you, and you're a fool if you haven't figured out what it is yet."
She stared at him.
"It's that thing inside your chest, you idiot," he all but growled. "That Sun Stone's sorcery must be powerful stuff if can hold back even this forest, and I can bet that's what he's been slavering after. Fucking coward. And he sent me to—"
"Kyo-kun?"
"Don't give it to him, do you hear? I don't know much about sorcery, but magical objects don't just merge with living creatures for no reason at all. Your life is bound to that Stone. Don't give it to him, no matter what. Not even if he begs for it."
The thought that had been playing at the fringes of her mind suddenly made itself heard. "But it's his, Kyo-kun," she said wonderingly. "I remember now. Yuki-kun could control it. He was the one who created the fire, not me. The Sun Stone obeys him." This stone belonged to the last king, Senmaru. Shigure's words drifted back into memory. It was believed that the Sun Stone would always find its way back to its rightful master. "The Sun Stone belongs to Yuki-kun," she breathed.
"All the more reason you shouldn't give it to him," Kyo yelled, throwing up his hands. "For Kami's sake, don't you get it? For half the time, at least, Yuki is Akito. You give it to him, and you might as well gift-wrap it for Akito. If you have to give it away, give it to someone who'll use it for good, not for evil."
The stone isn't meant for me, Shigure had said, once upon a time. It belongs to Ha-san, and if anyone knows how to get the stone out from Tohru's body and use it, it'd be him. "Lord Hatori…san," Tohru mumbled, lost in thought. The Duke of Ryuukama, who was fighting a losing battle against hordes of demons, who was searching desperately for a cure for his daughter. Kisa-san! Memories tumbled through Tohru's mind. She'd been journeying to Ryuukama to help poor Kisa, but disaster had struck, leading her into the cursed forest—and to Yuki and Kyo. She wanted to save them, to set Yuki and Kyo and Ritsu free, but she couldn't forget that Kisa was still waiting for her, and that she was carrying a magical object that could mean survival for so many of the Duke's subjects. Save my city, the knight Touma had asked of her. He'd given his life for her so she could carry out her promise and help save the city he loved. She wouldn't, shouldn't forget.
But…Yuki-kun…
"You've got to get away from here. Before anything else happens to you." Her head snapped toward Kyo, wondering for a moment if he'd somehow read her mind. "Find a way to get out of this forest," he went on, his face deadly serious. "Use the Sun Stone if you have to, just get as far away from this place as you can."
She gazed at him in astonishment. Kyo's usual scowl was laced with worry, and it struck Tohru then how similar Kyo and Yuki really were. Both hid their deepest thoughts and emotions behind barriers—cold courtesy in Yuki's case, and constant anger in Kyo's—but neither of them could quite conceal how much they cared for other people. They had both suffered terribly, even now as Akito's prisoners, never sure which direction the dark sorcerer's will would turn, but somehow they both managed to hold on to the essential goodness in their hearts. They seemed to hate each other so much, but she realized that they hated themselves even more, even the parts of them they could see reflected in each other. Tears stung Tohru's eyes. Mother, why can't they see? she wondered silently. Why can't they see how strong they really are?
"Not tonight, though." With a jolt, she realized that Kyo was still speaking. "Taking on the forest at night would be suicide. You stand a better chance of escaping with daylight to guide you."
"But—but what about you, Kyo-kun? What about your curse?"
Kyo flinched. "Don't be a fucking idiot," he said sharply. "I can take care of myself. Just get the hell away from here. The sooner you leave, the simpler everything will be for the rest of us."
His words were meant to hurt, but she knew him well enough now to understand what he was trying to say. Forget about me, his words meant. Just get away if you can. He was protecting her, just as surely as Yuki protected her from the giant spider. A teardrop trickled down her cheek, and she quickly brushed it away, but not before Kyo had seen it.
He pulled back, the mask of horror on his face nearly making her laugh. "Oy! S-stop crying! What's wrong with you? Oy!"
"Oh, Kyo-kun," she sighed, then smiled warmly at him.
The important thing is to choose to live.
On impulse, she reached out and took his hand, wrapping it in hers. "Thank you, Kyo-kun. Thank you for being such a good friend. I know you're only trying to protect me, but I won't leave here without you. When I do, I'll take you and Yuki-kun and Rit-chan with me. We'll all leave this place together. We can go to Ryuukama, where we'll be safe. Nobody has the right to keep you imprisoned, nobody."
"You—I—" Kyo stuttered, choking on the blush surging up his neck.
She smiled again. "Mother once told me that the lives we are living have a purpose. I won't leave anyone behind, not anymore. We'll all leave together and be free, you'll see."
He stared at her for a long, stunned moment, crimson eyes wide underneath the red fringe of his bangs. Then he turned away, snatching his hand out of her grasp. "Idiot," he said again, without any heat. "And here I thought nobody could out-stubborn Kagura."
"Kagura?"
He waved a hand impatiently, then huffed out a breath. "Well?" he finally said, looking at her from the corner of his eye. "You going to practice those healing techniques or not?"
She blinked, then giggled. "Yes, sensei!"
He shook his head at her, but the little crooked smile had returned, and it stayed with him for the rest of the night. And it seemed to Tohru, for the second night that Kyo stayed with her in that little cave in the strange little clearing, that the darkness felt a little less dark than before.
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Author's Notes:
I'm not dead! Don't kill me! Please!
I know I owe you guys a huge apology for the centuries-long hiatus. Bizarre stuff just happened in the past months since the last update, and I sort of lost my train of thought. And it was unbelievably hard trying to find it again. I'm really, really, REALLY sorry, and if you guys are still waiting for the update, well, here it is. No pompous promises, this time, but I think I've gotten my groove back somewhat, although this last chapter doesn't quite ring as true as the previous ones, does it?
Sigh. Anyway, like before, reviews are more than welcome. Er, just please don't kill me.