Chapter 3-Bohemian Like You

"What's this?" Akito asked as Kureno put the paper in front of her. She knew she was the goddess and the head of the house, but right now, she simply wanted to sleep away the headache that was throbbing in her temples. In the corner of the room, Yuki sat and watched with wide eyes, but made no movement or no noise. It was as if he was nothing more than a doll in the room that would occasionally move, but only when Akito willed it. He had been perfectly trained for his task as Akito's doll and hadn't forgotten his lessons.

Although Kureno despaired for the young adolescent, he knew that he couldn't do anything for him. Not if he wanted Akito to fly into an uncontrollable rage and make the boy's life more of a living hell than it already was. She had already taken out her anger on Isuzu and he didn't want to be responsible for sending another family member to the hospital. He wished he could do more than look away from everything, but he was as trapped as they were. He had made a promise without thinking the consequences through. He had been doing it out of the goodness of his heart, but that had backfired on him.

He stifled his sigh of regret yet again and bent down to read the petition to the sulky adolescent girl in front of him.

"Kazuma is requesting permission for Haru and Kyoko to be sent to the local middle school in their area. Since he is their…"

"I don't care. Have him do whatever he wants for those two insignificant idiots. They are his concern, not mine. He's had them for what? Four years now? I could hardly care about them. It's all in his hands and if there are any repercussions to his actions, he will have to answer for them. Now go and call Hatori for me. My head is killing me."

Kureno acquiesced and bowed, leaving the room as silently as he was able.

On his way out, Yuki caught his gaze and for once he could see some kind of emotion in those silver eyes.

He turned his head quickly and walked out of the room as fast as he could without arousing suspicion from Akito. He knew that he had probably hurt the boy's feelings, but he simply couldn't bear to see that naked look on longing on that pale, almost corpse-like face. He would probably go to hell for his actions, but he was human after all and had his own demons to deal with. He simply wasn't strong enough to add anything else to his burden.

(Line Break)

Yuki waited patiently until Hatori arrived before taking his leave. He wasn't upset at Kureno ignoring him. He knew why they were all so careful to not disturb Akito.

"Rin." Yuki murmured under his breath as he rushed away to the wing of the house designated for Akito's pets. Oh yes. Even though the servants would deny it if he pressed them, he knew that was what they called him and Rin.

"As if we had a choice." He snorted quietly as he closed the door and latched it. They all watched him and Rin. They could sense something wasn't quite right, but they hadn't enough ammunition to raise any suspicions to Akito. They weren't that stupid. Or at least they had learned the hard way that Akito would always side with the pets.

Satisfied that the door was secured, he went to the bedroom. He stood in the door way for several minutes and waited until Rin woke up.

"You're back early." She commented quietly as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and got out of bed, not caring that the robe she wore slipped off of her thin shoulder to reveal a portion of milky breast.

"Mhhmm. Kazuma had a petition and Akito had one of her famous headaches. She's got Hatori playing doctor with her at this moment, so here I am." Yuki explained impassively as he walked over to Rin and slipped the robe off, leaving only her lower body clothed.

Rin smiled and guided his hands to undo the belt of her robe.

"So how long does that leave us?" she asked as Yuki complied with her request and let the garment pool around her slim legs.

"I'd say about an hour." Yuki replied as he wound his hand in her long hair.

"Good. Let's make it worthwhile then."

(Line Break)

"Akito said to do what you want, but you will have to pay for any repercussions that may arise from that." Kureno informed him as neutrally as he could.

Kazuma smiled coldly and pocketed the stamped paper.

"Gladly. Thank you, Kureno. If you'll excuse me, I will be going now."

Kureno bowed respectfully.

"I understand. May you have a good day."

"Likewise." Kazuma returned the greeting and left as politely as possible without seeming hasty.

He knew it wasn't Kureno's fault that things were playing out as such, but he personally couldn't stand to be in the main house for any more time than he had to. Not only did it bring back the guilt associated with his treatment of his grandfather, but it also reminded him that when the time came; He would have to have a plan or else the girl he was sheltering from the cruelty of her fate would be locked away until she either went mad or died. And he was damned if he was going to let that happen. That child deserved to have a life spent in freedom. She deserved to have a life as happy as he could make it for her and he was determined that she would know as much of life as possible.

And that started with being in a normal school for once.

"I'm back." He announced as he entered the foyer and slipped off his sandals.

"Where did you go, Shishou? Kyo asked as he helped Kunimitsu arrange the paperwork for the daily going-ons with the dojo in the small room that Kazuma had designated as his office.

"I had to arrange a few things for Kyoko and Haru's schooling. It would make sense for Haru to go to the same location. Kyoko can keep him from getting lost and both of them can keep tabs on each other's tempers. I'd rather not get used to having to schedule time to meet with teachers because either of them or both of them got into fights during that week. I just hope that being in the same Middle school will calm them down somewhat."

Kazuma replied as he then handed the paperwork over to Kunimitsu to file in the proper location.

"True. Those two are hell spawn alone, but together they are angels. It's strange to think that they would get so close. Especially after they tried to knee-cap each other when they were what? Seven? Eight?"

Kyo asked Kunimitsu, who shrugged.

'Eight or so, I think. It hadn't been long after Kyoko came to live with Kazuma-sensei." Kunimitsu replied thoughtfully.

"Speaking of those two, where are they? I didn't get the chance to see them before I had to leave."

"They were in Kyoko's room last time we saw them." Kyo informed him.

Kazuma nodded and went to search for them. He stopped in Haru's room first and was surprised to not find them there. Even though Kyoko was at the stage of wanting to have her privacy, she was more often than not found in Haru's room either talking or reading with the boy. Once in a while, if her nightmares were bad enough, he found her cradled in Haru's arms. Even though the boy was a year younger, his gravity and steadfastness had proven an asset when Kyoko would occasionally simply fly into intense fits of emotion. She would either hide herself into the smallest space available and be unreachable to anyone, or she would only cling to either Kyo or Haru and be afraid of him.

He had tried in the past to reach out to her during those times, but she had drawn away in fear and not let him near her at all. The first time it had happened in front of Haru, he had had to contend with an angry little boy who was convinced that Kyoko needed protecting from him. He winced in remembrance of that time (he still had the bite marks on his knees from that time) and vowed that he had learned his lesson, even though the rejection had hurt. But not as much as when the realization of what had made a little girl lash out so violently at an adult man.

He shook his head to clear it and walked out of the cluttered room. He went to the next one, which was a marked contrast to Haru's. Despite Kyoko having had lived at the house longer, her room was barely lived in. A bookshelf and notebooks on the desk along with a couple of framed prints were all that decorated the walls and Kazuma made a mental note to ask one of the Sohma women what exactly a close to thirteen year old girl was supposed to be like.

Sighing, he went outside again and walked towards the dojo. He had a pretty good idea as to where Kyoko and Haru where hiding at that point.

(Line Break)

"What are you thinking about?" Haru asked Kyoko as he climbed up to Kazuma's roof. He didn't like heights, but when Kyoko was all quiet and moody, he didn't want to leave her alone. He sensed that she had something dark that was always there, like a ghost at the edge of her vision. She wasn't as strong as she pretended to be and the longer he knew her, the worse the fear that she would break irreparably became.

In a way, he reminded her of another long haired girl he only met briefly. He knew she was also part of their curse, but that was all. Her parents had taken her somewhere and he hadn't seen her again. He thought of her when Kyoko was lost in her memories and he hoped that she was doing well.

"Do you miss your parents, Haru?" she asked him as she sat back and looked up at the sky, which was a fairly brilliant blue and only smudged with the barest hints of clouds here and there.

Haru blinked at the unexpected question.

"Not really. They kind of aren't around much. I've spent more time with Kazuma and Kyo than I have with my mother and father."

He replied as he thought it over. It was true, he mused. The only times he had spent more time with them probably had been when he was too young to remember. It seemed that they were always busy and hadn't much time for him, so he wasn't really missing them much. He simply didn't know how.

"Do you miss yours?" he asked her as he moved closer to her, since he found that even though she probably wouldn't be able to do much if they tumbled off the roof, the warmth of her body was enough to keep those thoughts at bay.

She shook her head and looked at him, her eyes narrowed to orange slits that made her look like a feral cat.

"Is that a bad thing? Not missing your parents?"

Haru tilted his head up at the sky as he pondered her question.

"I don't know. I mean…It's wrong…but then if your parents really weren't there for you…I don't see why it should matter." Haru finally replied. Kyoko nodded.

"I wonder sometimes, when I see other children with their parents, whether I would be a good parent…if I had the chance…you know?"

She asked Haru, who was looking at her curiously, his expression bland as he wondered where the idea had come from. He knew that Kyoko was getting different as she got older. She didn't hit him as often and was much more nicer to him. Not that she wasn't before, but it was different between them.

He vaguely was aware of the way he was responding towards her and it kind of worried him. Was he supposed to look at her that way? Notice her hair and the way that her shirt clung to her body? Not try to inhale her scent whenever she crawled into his bed for comfort? Was it wrong?

He thought about her question, but he didn't get any images of her with children. Instead, he got an unbidden image of her flushed and lying underneath him, her hair spread all over his pillow.

Acting on impulse and impetus of that image, he leaned over and kissed Kyoko full on the mouth.

Notes- Okay. Sorry it took so long to get this out. The characters are a little older this time around because…well, the characters need to grow and it's falling into place what the parallels and foils are going to be.