Chapter 4- Find it Hard to Breathe While Staring at the Sun

Kyoko didn't react negatively to Haru's impulsive action. She was simply too stunned to do anything. It was true that she had been thinking about what it would be like to get a first kiss, but never in her wildest dreams did she think it would come from her younger cousin. Not that Haru was hideous by any stretch of the imagination. No one in the Sohma family could be.

It was simply the fact that when she imagined her first kiss, she had always imagined Kyo Summers having that honor. Or maybe that grey haired boy possessed by the rat she had only seen once at the banquet... So that was why when Haru's tongue parted her lips, she simply obeyed the unspoken command and let him in to explore every recess of her mouth.

Taking it as encouragement, Haru's kiss became more forceful and harsher. He pressed himself against her, pushing her until she was lying underneath him. As his mouth worked at hers, his hands worked busily under her shirt, his cold fingers eliciting a hiss from Kyoko.

(Line Break)

Kazuma found the ladder easily enough and proceeded to climb to the roof. He was humming to himself as he anticipated telling Haru and Kyoko the news. He was sure that both of them would be happy since neither liked the schools that they had been put in as per Akito's orders and had often expressed a longing to go to the local middle school with the friends that they had made from the neighborhood.

He had just reached the top of the ladder and was about to make a comment to get their attention when he caught a glimpse of Kyoko lying underneath Haru; both of them kissing avidly, or rather Haru kissing his cousin avidly as his hands crept up under her shirt. Kyoko seemed to respond…somewhat gamely, but not with the same intensity as her male cousin. Kazuma stood on the ladder, his mouth hanging open as he watched the display of adolescent fumbling going on his roof and quietly resolved to hide all of the ladders and to put locks on her door once he managed to get over the shock of seeing his two children in the throes of semi-adult passion.

"Hatsuharu!" He yelled out, making both of them freeze at the sound of his voice. Haru's shoulders slumped and he pulled away to stare at Kazuma with a coolly feral look that made Kazuma feel a small frisson of fear. Not at what Haru could possibly do to him, but at the fact that the look was simply too adult for a twelve year old boy to have. Even being as mature as he was, Haru should still had had the open look of a boy who was just learning what pleasure the opposite sex could give him. The look he had was of a man that had claimed his territory and would fight any outsiders that would either interrupt his time with his prize or outsiders who would try to claim it.

"Oh! Shishou!" Kyoko called out, her face a bright red shade as she sat up and pushed Haru's hand away. "When did you get back?"

"Just now, Kyoko. Can both of you come downstairs? There's something I want to discuss with you." Kazuma replied calmly as he descended down the ladder first, a tactful maneuver to give both of them the chance to put themselves in a bit of order both physically and mentally.

"We'll be there shortly." Kyoko replied as she smoothed back her rumpled shirt and hair. "Right, Haru?" she asked her cousin, poking him with her elbow when he remained silent, his eyes still on the spot recently vacated by Kazuma.

He didn't reply right away and that made Kyoko worry slightly.

"Haru?" she asked, touching his arm lightly in case he did something unpredictable.

"Huh? Oh yeah. We should go down now." He answered, his eyes going to their usual warm grey, making Kyoko give out a silent sight of relief as she followed him down the ladder.

As she climbed behind him, she had to wonder why she had been so relieved. After all, nothing had happened in her past to make her afraid of any man…hadn't it?

She shook her head and kept on climbing. Haru's kiss was making her act weird, she decided and firmly resolved to push the incident out of her mind.

For now.

(Line Break)

"Are you joking, Shishou?" Kyoko asked after they had sat down for some tea while Kazuma gave them the news of their changing schools.

"But it's the middle of the school year." Kyoko argued, not really believing her good fortune at being able to finally shake off Kagura and her annoying and unwelcome overtures of friendship that had been plaguing her since she was able to go to school.

"It doesn't matter. It would be much better for the both of you to be in the same school rather than be on opposite ends of the city. Besides, even though your schools have normal people that aren't Sohmas, it would benefit you both to be in an environment closer to the normal world. Being in one gender schools isn't exactly preparing you to face the rest of the world." Kazuma replied, carefully sipping his tea.

Kyoko frowned to herself as she took a long swallow of tea. Why would Akito not care about having them in the same net as the others? Would she demand something much higher in payment for that small simple freedom?

"I feel like it's a trap, Akito letting us go and all that." Kyoko finally burst out after going over all the options in her mind. "She hates me. Why would she even want to grant something that's clearly a boon?"

Haru looked at Kazuma, his eyes narrowed as he too sought the answers from his father figure. He too, wasn't fully prepared to accept that Akito had done them a favour, however unwittingly, without having an ulterior motive.

Kazuma sighed and put his cup of tea down. He had guessed many reasons as to why Akito's gaze hadn't fallen on his two children yet. He suspected that it was possibly due to Akito knowing she had very little if no influence on what the outside of the family chose to do. He was an odd breed in that he had been spawned from an inner and hated member, yet was on the outside. One of the very few that knew without really being touched by the curse.

The other suspicion was that Akito hadn't found any particular uses for them yet; since she was terribly preoccupied with the other, more "intelligent and charming" members of the zodiac. Like figurines, she had them close to indulge the whims that where a pathetic attempt to mask the insecurity that was like a miasma over the child.

He hated seeing the broken down toys that they all had become. Jaded porcelain dolls that were no longer children or youth, just decadent and bored pseudo-aristocrats that were possibly even more damaged than she was. Hated it with a passion, but even though the disgust and pity was there, he would thank the fates that his little girl and Haru hadn't caught her eye just yet.

He was also glad that Kyoko had been slow in becoming aware of what it meant for her to be a woman and how to exploit that. He was sure that despite the age difference and the snapping at each other that Haru was the one that had initiated the little interlude on the rooftop. She was still too wrapped up in her inner demons to actually grow up. Not like Rin, who had tried to use her sexuality as a weapon and it had ended up making her its prisoner instead.

"Because she doesn't see us." Haru ended up putting the answer on the table in that coolly disaffected voice of his.

"She doesn't concern herself with us because we aren't worth the time. We're too far away from her grasp and we aren't what she fancies." Haru answered, his eyes fixed on the cup of tea in front of him.

Kyoko blinked at that answer as she took a quick gulp of tea. She knew what Haru meant. She had heard him talk about the empty eyes and bruised flesh of the "toys" when he came back from the banquet every year. Although he didn't care to go to the banquet, Kazuma took him to make a perfunctory appearance to please his parents. Despite not having Haru around, they still felt the need to keep up the charade just in case.

Thinking about the travesty of a life that Isuzu, Kureno and even Yuki were living made her insides clench in fear and anger as it hit her that once Haru's beauty was realized, he too could join them and be one of those soulless toys.

As she thought about that, the memory of his lips on hers, his hands on her heated skin assaulted her mind and something in her snapped into place. Like the rusty tumblers in an unused lock, she understood what he had been doing and why she hadn't pushed him off. If Akito took him…

"She'd better not try and take you, you dumb cow! I won't forgive her if she does!" Kyoko suddenly burst out before stalking from the table and walking away to her room. Haru and Kazuma watched her go, wincing only when a door was slammed with such force that a picture fell off the wall.

The two males looked at each other in surprised silence, before Kazuma broke it.

"I guess she's finally realized you are a male." Kazuma commented dryly before going to the closet where the broom and dustpan were kept.

"Huh." Haru replied as he helped clean up the mess the shattered frame had caused.

"It's about time she did." Haru finally replied after they had cleaned up the shattered frame.

Kazuma's eyes narrowed slightly at that comment.

"Hatsuharu-ku…"

"You said it yourself. She's realized who I am. She's not a little girl any longer. Let her grow up if she chooses to, Kazuma-dono."

"You won't make another choice even if I beg it of you?" Kazuma asked quietly.

Haru looked at him levelly, his eyes going a gun-metal grey as he did so.

"I won't. I can't. So don't stand in my way. Or hers."

Kazuma only nodded as he watched the boy knock on Kyoko's door and gain entrances, his grey eyes gleaming with an undefined emotion as the door opened and he stepped inside.

The door was quietly shut and Kazuma couldn't help but to think that even though he was still part of their lives, he was now on another level. Still loved, but separate.

Notes: As stated in the interlude, this story is going to get darker and deal with more adult situations. Haru will more or less be the adult and act more like a protector than even Kazuma because even in the series, Haru is much more than even the so-called smart ones and he is pretty much one step ahead of Kyoko emotionally and mentally. Kyoko isn't stupid, just damaged and too caught up in that to realize what is really going on around her, since Kazuma and Haru have been shielding her from most of it.

So that's it and thanks for reading.