Author's Note: First off: Hebi ni Piasu is a real book by Hitomi Kanehara. Translation is "Snakes And Earrings." It's a crazy book but also addictive.
Secondly: I actually have some drawings I did for this chapter. I'm not the best artist in the world but if you would like to see them, send me a message or review or soemthing. Since I can't postthe links here and have it show up. Damn thing.
Thirdly: I would like to thank KentCharm, Laochra, and TheBloodyBlackRoseOfHiei for making me happy.
Chapter 22 (Boyfriend)
Early Friday morning while everyone was trying to grasp the concept of charged particles and convection versus conduction, Kita was hiding a book she had borrowed from the library in her physics notebook and pretending to take notes. She had finished the books Shigure had given her for her birthday a while ago and she was convinced the one he wrote was loosely based on her situation. The heroine was a shy girl who is seduced by a dark figure who wants her so much that he locks her up. Had she been unable to relate, she would question Shigure's new approach to his smutty stories.
Now she was morbidly enthralled with Hebi ni Piasu which she had dubbed one of the strangest books she had ever read. Just reading the first few pages made her cringe, not being able to understand how someone could be a masochist but she had continued reading anyway and now she couldn't put it down. She found the main character, Lui, to be clinically insane and that almost made her feel better about herself. Lui didn't seem any worse off than Kita but she had resorted to cheating on her boyfriend with the sadist tattoo shop owner, thinking about death and which of the two guys should be given the honor of killing her should she decide she wanted to die, and drinking sake 24/7. Although Kita always thought of herself as being a weak person, she clearly had strength to not resort to such things no matter how difficult her life became.
During a particularly graphic sex scene between two of the characters, the intercom came on causing Kita to practically jump in her seat.
"Sohma Kita. Sohma Kita of class 3-A, please report to the office at this time." the monotonous voice droned. Everyone in the room turned to look at her as she quickly shut her notebook so no one could see that she hadn't been paying attention. Hoshiko and Raidon gave her looks asking what it was about. She shrugged ignorantly and looked up at the teacher for permission to leave. He motioned that it was okay for her to go so she left her books on her desk, thinking she would come back soon, and walked out of the room.
As she languidly strolled down the lonely, empty hallways, past classrooms active with lessons and writing, she found an increasing sense of trepidation inching up to the apex of her thoughts. Did I do something wrong? I couldn't have won an award or anything like that; I never entered any contest. And I haven't done anything wrong. I meet the graduation requirements too so that can't be it. At least I don't have to worry about news that my parents have died, she thought disconsolately.
She stopped moving. Died. What if someone has died, she thought terrified. Akito.
She broke into a frantic run down the hallway, her long, purple hair flailing about behind her as she stirred up discarded sheets of paper that had fallen out of notebooks, sending them into a whirlwind. No, he can't be dead. He can't. Please tell me he's not dead.
Kita reached the office out of breath as a woman who she recognized as being some sort of secretary left the room.
"Sohma Kita?" she asked when she saw her. She was an older, stern-looking woman who seemed like she was ready to retire years ago. She held an empty, porcelain cup loosely in her wrinkly hand.
"Yes, that's me." Kita spat out, wanting to yell out, 'why have you called me down here?' but was, as usual, able to contain herself.
"Do you know that young man in there?" the women asked, pointing into the small window of the office door. Facing the outside window was a diminutive frame with dark mop-like hair and an entirely black outfit from his turtleneck to his shoes. He's okay.
"Yes, I know him." Kita said relieved.
"He claims to have the same last name as you." the women mentioned suspiciously, raising an eyebrow.
"Um, yes, he's my...second cousin." Kita lied. She figured that no one would attempt to trace her relation to him if he's as distant as a second cousin but that was a close enough relation that it wouldn't be unusual for him to be delivering news to her. In reality though, the two were barely related at all.
"Okay." the secretary said, frowning a little out of disbelieve and a little out of irritation. "I'm going to fill this up and use the bathroom. I'll leave you to discuss the matter at hand with him." she said, genuinely sounding like she didn't care. She walked away brusquely like she had no intention of returning.
Kita turned her attention back to the door and swung it open. Akito turned around and smiled at her, a smile that was both warm and lusty, a combination only he could achieve. He walked over to her and placed a demure kiss on her lips as an uncharacteristically shy hello.
"So what did you tell her?" he asked, referring to the secretary. "She seemed to not believe my honest face when I said my name was Sohma Akito." He pulled a look of false innocence and dismay that anyone wouldn't think him to be so.
"I told her you were my second cousin." Kita said flatly, wanting to get to the part where he tells her why he's here.
Akito smirked and leaned into her ear. "You could have just told her that I'm your lov-..."
"No, I couldn't have." she said, cutting him off. This was hardly the time and place for him to be acting lecherously. "So, why are you here?" she asked, leaning against the desk in the corner of the room. He never leaves the house; he's usually too sick to. In fact, it was the first time Kita had seen him wearing anything other than a yukata.
"I missed you." he told her as he stepped in closer to her so that only an inch of space remained between them.
"Y-you d-did?" Kita asked, finding his current behavior very intimating and also oddly attractive. His cold, steel eyes bored into her, making her feel small and without an iota of control. Cursed. I'm cursed too, she thought to herself as he reached behind her and picked a small piece of paper off the desk.
"That's why I have this." he said, handing her the paper. She opened in up and noticed Hatori's letterhead almost instantaneously.
"Please excuse Sohma Kita at ten o'clock today, March 6th. She needs to have many thorough examinations conducted in regards to a few suspicious growths on her body that could potentially be very serious matters. Signed, Sohma Hatori, Sohma family medical practitioner." Kita put the note down on the desk and looked up at Akito, torn between wondering if he had to play the God card in order to get Hatori to write the note and not really wanting to know.
"So, I was thinking we could go somewhere." he said, putting his hands on her hips, the icy chill running up her back. "Not for very long, but maybe a little while. You haven't been out much." And I don't want you getting the desire to run away from being shut up inside the Sohma gates for so long, he mentally added.
Kita smiled and Akito kissed her, gently at first like he did when she had first come in but gradually increasing in passion to the point where she started to wonder about his motives. Kita opened her eyes and peeked at the door through the corner of her eye, afraid that someone might come in. His sinful hands moved down over her pelvis to cup her bottom so he could hoist her up onto the desk, something he probably wouldn't have been able to do a month and a half ago but she had become so scrawny from her lack of food that she felt weightless to him. His hands went up to her shoulders as he tried to carefully push her down onto the desk so she would be laying horizontally but she resisted.
"No Akito. Not now. Someone could walk in." she pleaded. He gave her a 'so what' kind of smile but stopped pushing her anyway. As an alternative, he sneakily ran his hand up her inner thigh. Kita's breathing faltered as he stroked her gently through the fabric of her underwear.
"Oh God. Please stop." she whined, her body instinctively moving forward even though she was telling herself to pull away. Akito smirked as if she had been calling him God even though that wasn't how she meant it. They were both so lost in what was going on, neither of them happened to hear the door to the office creak open.
"What the fuck!" shouted a voice from the door.
Catching them in the act, Hoshi stood there with her hands cupped over her mouth in shock. Akito smirked at the girl, recognizing her from Kita's picture. Kita wanted to kick him in the groin for not taking his hand out from under her skirt but instead blushed bright red.
"Um, yeah. I'm going to, uh, go now." Hoshi said, shutting the door. Kita hopped off the desk and chased after her, not really thinking about what Akito would think of her for leaving him to talk to her friend.
"Hoshi! Hoshi, stop walking!" she shouted as she raced down the hall. Hoshi complied and turned around promptly.
"Why didn't you tell me you have a boyfriend?" she asked angrily. "We're friends! Friends tell each other things like that. Especially if it's serious enough for him to practically finger you in the office during school hours!"
Kita cringed at her tone and use of words. "I'm sorry." she said, sounding meek and embarrassed. "I guess I just didn't want anyone to know because I wasn't sure how I felt about our relationship. I didn't want you and Rai to read too much into it." she said, staring at her clean white school shoes.
Hoshi's face softened. Kita was her best friend. She couldn't stay mad at her, especially when she looked so remorseful. "That's reasonable." she said earnestly as she gave Kita an apologetic hug. "I'm sorry too."
Kita half-smiled at her and the two girls started to walk back to the office together.
"So..." Hoshi said, breaking the silence with her hands out and her palms up.
"So what?" Kita asked.
"So, tell me about him!" she said, as if that had been what she wanted to know from the beginning. "He's cute. He looks like your type too. I know you like that whole quiet, mysterious, older guy thing. I know you wish I would but I haven't forgotten when you were fifteen and had that little, secret crush on Hatori. How old is he anyway? Your boyfriend, not Hatori."
"He'll be twenty in a few months." Kita said, realizing that she never really associated Akito with an age. He seemed ageless.
"Good age for you. What's his name? What does he do?" Hoshi continued avidly since Kita wasn't going to spill the information without her asking first.
"His name's Akito and he's the head of the family." she said, wondering how Hoshiko would react to that.
"Oh yeah. You and Shigure were talking about him on your birthday. Hm, so you're dating the head of the family. Does that make you, like, regal in your family or something?" Hoshi joked.
Kita had never heard the words 'boyfriend,' 'dating,' and 'Akito' all being referenced in the same breath. She never really thought of him as a boyfriend and they have never actually gone on a date.
"Funny, Hoshi." Kita said, sarcastically. "Well, I'm going to be out the rest of the day. Akito wants to spend some time with me." she said as they closed in on the office door.
"That's so sweet!" Hoshi chirped. "I'm so happy for you. You need someone and this guy seems to bring out a more lively side of you. You're smiling again." she said with a wink. "Bye Kita." she said, turning around and walking back to their classroom. Kita entered the office where Akito was sitting in a brown leather chair facing the desk.
"I'm sorry." she said to him softly. "I just wanted to make sure she was okay. That's my friend Hoshiko."
"I know." he said, secretly wondering why she needed friends on the outside. Kita didn't ask how he knew. She had just accepted the fact that Akito was omniscient when it came to people even though Kureno was probably a big part of that. "So let's go get your things. You need to change your shoes." he said, glimpsing at her school shoes as he stood up and wrapped his arm around her waist to direct her out of the room.
After going to her locker and changing from her white school slippers into her black boots, they stopped by her classroom so she could get her books. Once she walked in, Hoshi nudged Raidon and whispered into his ear while pointing towards Akito who was lurking outside the door like a butler in a haunted house. Rai's eyes widened and he smiled at Kita, knowingly. Her face flushed ruby-red, afraid of how much Hoshi had told him, and waved goodbye.
As the couple walked towards the school's front door, Akito's arm snaked possessively around her waist, they passed room 2-D, Yuki and Kyo's room. Yuki noticed them and Akito smirked at him, causing his eyes to broaden in fear. Kita pretended not to notice even though she sensed the tension. She pretended not to see the short, brown-haired girl sitting near him tap him on the shoulder and ask if everything was okay. She pretended not to see Kyo raise an eyebrow at Yuki and glance towards the door, only to see no one there. She had forgotten that just because Akito was being nice to her, it didn't mean he was to everyone. She shook her head to dispel the thoughts.
"So where are we going anyway?"