Chapter 11
He knew, on some level, that he must've fallen asleep. This was apparent when he opened his eyes to find moonlight, spilt like milk across the floor of his room. He didn't care to move and just watched it bleakly through his red and tired eyes. Twin blotches of red remained around the edges of his eyes, shadowed and lightless. He watched the contorted shadows of the furniture drift as a cloud passed over the moon.
One shadow began to recede, and Yuki idly followed the motion. He absorbed the sound of his door opening, so very slowly - in a way that he would've never noticed had he not been on the ground himself.
"Hello?" asked Yuki, his voice rough and hoarse from salt. "Who's there?"
The shadow darted across the room and out of Yuki's field of vision. The prince blinked once and buried his head into his arms. He closed his eyes and rubbed his cold nose against the inside of his elbow. "Please," he murmured, only half-trusting that he'd seen anything at all, "Do your worst. Kill me. I don't care."
Nothing moved - except for Yuki, who curled deeper within himself, and the white cloud in the canopy of stars, outside the window.
Maybe Kyou was dancing there, too.
"I knew something was wrong," said the shadow, softly. Yuki's eyes suddenly widened, and he began to shake.
"...Why are you back here?"
Kyou, still somewhere behind the prince, began to pace on the wooden floorboards.
"Well, you never answered my question, you damn rat," said Kyou in frustration, "And what the hell are you doing on the ground? Don't you sleep in your bed?"
"Go away, cat," Yuki hissed. He had opened his eyes and cast his trembling - angry? passionate? - gaze out the window. "What, are you stupid? Leave!"
"No." Kyou said, and stepped closer to the rat, and his scent began to filter it's way through the air and towards the rat. Yuki cringed in discomfort.
"I figured out what happened. On Sunday, I mean. I'm still stupid, though." He laughed bitterly, "When... I left, I still could smell that... strange thing in my nostrils. I didn't know what to think, until I stumbled upon the source of it. The garden. Your secret base, right?"
Yuki remained silent.
Why did that damn cat have to ask so many questions?
"I tried to go there and yell and kick your damn ass. Or piss you off by doing something to the garden, I'll admit it, okay? But... But I couldn't. The smell there, it was so strong that my body - not me but something else - couldn't take it. I don't remember anything, for hours. You were the one who woke me up. I mean, I heard you. Talking to yourself and to your vegetables. I was so angry at you. I just wanted to scream and hurt you, like I'd never hurt you before. For making me feel so confused. For nurturing those damn plants in your garden. And then... I was getting up to attack you... And I saw you, bent over like that. Kind of like you are, now. With all that dirt on you. Except you got angry, and... you destroyed it. Everything. The cabbages, the crysanthemums, and the cat..." Kyou trailed off, and was silent for a moment. "I thought you were trying to humiliate me.
"To be completely under your control, under a drug, just by walking past a single leaf? I can understand why you would plant the catnip to blackmail me. I mean, I can't even think, you saw that yourself. What would Akito say, to know that I became putty in your hands?
"But after three days... you didn't say anything. Even when you had so many chances. It wasn't to humiliate me, then. You were the one who acted like you'd been mortified. So why else would you have catnip, you damn rat?"
The silence was pronnounced enough that Yuki understood the question. The interrogation Reluctantly, Yuki stirred from the safety of his folded arms. "If you expect me to answer you, I won't."
Kyou stretched out, still safely hidden beneath the shadows. "You wanted to know why I came back here, didn't you? So I told you."
The prince twitched, uncomfortable with being out of control. He closed his eyes tightly, refusing to accept the looming darkness that surrounded him in the center of the moon-basked room.
"But you haven't told me... why you did it yet..."
Kyou's next move took him entirely by surprise.
"... Yuki," whispered Kyou, and as Yuki's head shot up in shock, Kyou stepped forward, and the veil of darkness slid off of his shoulders and fell in a puddle at his stockinged feet.
What a place to leave you hanging, ne? Anyway, the conclusion fast approaches! I'd like to say that y'alls reviews left me in puddles at my desk. Thank you so much! In reply to Caer (who is infinitely more talented and makes me utterly embarassed), you're right! I take traditional Japanese Karate. Our sensei has been making us practice very intensely this past week, and on Friday, it had left me limping on both legs. It hurt to stand, sit... breathe... Haha, I often feel like Kyou - "I've trained in the mountains!" yes, and there were bears AND a waterfall! I didn't bathe/fight either of them, though. "Why can't I beat him? I've been training so much longer..." Well, that applies to me when I spar with my best friend in the world. I have to work so hard but I can't even get close! Blah. Anyway, because of that and some other stuff, I relate to Kyou quite a bit. Writing Yuki is so much more difficult... So I'm done with my ramble! You guys rock. And I think y'all will be surprised with what happens in next chapter. Insert evil laugh - here -.