Chapter Nine
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"I have to cover for a friend!" she had exclaimed, hurriedly taking a pot out of the refrigerator. Yuki stared at the floor panels while she rambled. "It will be fifteen minutes when I have to arrive! I can't cook tonight, I'm so sorry! Demo, I have some leftovers from two nights ago, remember? Kyou-kun is a very good cook. He can make riceballs and soup with this, or he can make a rice bowl from last night's meal if I ask him. I am so sorry, Sohma-kun..."
"It's alright," Yuki remembered saying.
He did not come down for dinner.
Shigure, wisely, said nothing of it. Yuki didn't know what to think about this new attitude. He sat at his desk and lightly rapped his mechanical pencil on his math book. Perhaps the dog knew better than to risk his life with a stupid comment. After all, Shigure wasn't too stupid. And it would be impossible for him to ignore the fact that Yuki and Kyou had not fought for nearly two entire days, nor even acknowledged each other's presence, and wouldn't even walk to school together. The dog, in an uncannily polite and sympathetic manner, seemed to respect the situation. Yuki was grateful. That cat, he speculated, would probably be more irritated by Shigure than ever. He nearly smiled before he stopped himself.
Yuki's thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a gentle knocking on the door. His hair stood on ends and he froze in his seat.
"Yuki-kun," the voice sang out softly, and immediately Yuki's shoulders dropped in relief to hear Shigure's voice. "Yuki-kun, I brought you some dinner."
When Yuki opened the door a moment later, all he found was a half-cold ricebowl and three creamcorn croquettes on a tray. After looking down the hallway in both directions, as if worried that someone could be watching him, he picked up his meal and softly closed the door behind him.
He did not eat the food immediately. After all, Kyou had made it, hadn't he?
Thirty minutes later, he had looked up to the food over his math homework, a couple of times between algebra sets. A wisp of hopeful steam rose from the three croquettes, and to Yuki's surprise, his stomach growled in response. The prince suddenly remembered that he'd forgotten - or chosen not - to eat lunch that day. He picked up the croquettes with his chopsticks and looked at them curiously. He paused a moment before bringing them to his lips.
They melted in his mouth like warm honey.
The rice bowl was bland.
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Besides, she responded to his challenge in a way that Yuki had come to expect. She grabbed him by the shoulder, and pulled him up to look at her, with a feral glint in her eyes.
"Hey. What's wrong with you. Tohru's been worried sick," said the yankee, a scowl deeply embedded onto her face. Yuki refocused his attention to the roots of her bleached blonde hair.
The words came without him needing to pause.
"Tell Honda-san that I'm fine."
"That's bull-shit," Uotani growled, dropping Yuki's shoulder and letting him slump back onto the desk, "And I'm not gonna lie to Tohru. She's my friend, and that's not right. It's not right for you to act so indifferent about lying to her either! You need to fix that damn attitude or else-"
"I don't care."
"... What?" Uo was honestly taken aback. "What the hell does that mean?"
Yuki blinked slowly, still partially absorbed in his nap. "If Honda-san is worried, she can talk to me herself. Besides, I haven't been doing something wrong, have I?"
"What - You - Damnit, don't try to lead me off track! I know something's going on with you, and that catlover is involved in it too. I haven't seen you two fight all week. I've barely heard you talk at all. It's unnatural."
Yuki frowned and sat up from his desk. Unnatural? She had no idea what unnatural was. She had no idea what was worse that not fighting; what could be so unnatural and cruel what it made giving up the only way to survive. But still, knowing that she could never understand, she insisted on caring about Tohru - and through her love of Tohru, she cared about the Sohmas. And whether Uo knew it or not, caring about the Sohma meant caring about their dark secrets. How could she have so much empathy? Why was this, to Yuki, the most unnatural thing of all?
"It doesn't involve you," Yuki said.
"Like hell it doesn't. Tohru is my friend," Uo replied immediately, "You're hurting her by suddenly acting so cold to her, not just everyone else. And - and that pisses me off. So whatever's going on, I don't care. Just get it worked out, or there will be blood to pay!"
With that final threat, Uo turned around and stalked off to where Hana was waiting at the door. Yuki trailed her with his eyes until she was out of his field of vision, at which point he collapsed onto his desk once again and tried to remind himself that Honda-san did not deserve to be treated coldly.
He just didn't know what else to do.
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