We're All Just Stupid People Doing Stupid Things in a Stupid World

XO'MagickMoon'OX

A/N:

Plushie Soup for the Reviewer Soul

Mokimo: Momiji in bunny form... :D Kawaii!

golden-kitsunebi: A cute, little smiling Momo. Awww. :)

Tyleet27: Akito dancing! XD Oh the craziness!

Sayonara: Kyo studying hard from a textbook and Yuki hugging him from behind and trying to study, too. But of course he's more interested in hugging Kyo. Of course. ;)

Shiro Ryuu: One of each of the Mabudachi Trio... in tuxes. And, naturally, with Aaya holding a rose. White, to go with his hair? XD It is a good look for them.

IloveMoony04: Uke!Ayame blushing nervously and looking down, with a smiling Hatori looking at him fondly with his head to one side, with one finger under his cheek making him look up at him, going to kiss him. I can picture it perfectly, too. :)

Jayd Hood: Yuki tending to Kyo's wounds. Aww, so kawaii. :D

Queen Blood-Ruby: Yuki wearing little toy mouse ears. Aw, I want to glomp him!

KuramaHiei4ever: Kyo and Yuki in Zodaic form, with Kyo wrapped around Yuki when they are asleep. Where do you guys get all these adorable ideas?

scarlettHuntress: Kid Yuki carrying Neko-Kyo around in a bucket. 8D So kyute.

Sabrechan: One of Kagura, who is holding on to Kyo-kun's ankle and waving him about like the crazy person she is, and Yuki standing by wantching helplessly. All in chibi form, of course. ;)

Mercurial Phoenix: Whoo, 3 plushies and a painting! Coming right up!

1) A plushie of Kyo-Neko and Yuki-Nezumi asleep in their Zodiac forms, with Kyo-Neko curled around Yuki-Nezumi, and Kyo-Neko's tail serving as a blanket for Yuki-Nezumi

2) A plushie of Tohru surrounded by all the Zodiac in their animal forms, and Tohru looking like she's been dropped on Jupiter. Hehe. :D

3) A plushie of Yuki and Kyo staring at each other just seconds after their first kiss.

And a painting of: Five-year-old Yuki-chan and Kyo-chan climbing a tree, with Kyo-chan on a really high branch, smiling. And reaching down with one hand to help Yuki-chan up. Because poor cute lil' Yuki-chan is too short to reach. With both of them in summer yukatas, stained with dirt and tree sap and what appears to be some sort of purple juice. Adorability all around!

And you don't have to give me any plushies or pictures in return (I can't think of any that I want :D;;). A review is enough for me!

Queen of Yaoi: Kyo plushie. Nice and simple, and yet so kyute. :D

Okay, well, soooooo sorry it's taken me a loooooong time to update. This chapter is un-beta'd, for my beta is currently preoccupied. Which is understandable, especially for me, whom often finds myself preoccupied. :)

I know I said there were going to be two chapters here, and I had two chapters posted, but then I realized that they were both from Yuki's POV, so I deleted the second one and replaced the first one with a combination of both chapters. Ehehe...oops. Sorry about that!

Well, after this, there are only two more to go. The dance, and then the Akito/lemon chapter. And that's the end! Enjoy it while it lasts!

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Monday came all too quickly. It was with a despondent sigh that I walked down the beaten path to school, my hand laced in Kyo's. It remained that way until we reached a particular tree with a crooked branch that marked our close proximity to the school.

Sometimes I really wished we would just stop at that tree and go no further.

"Yun-Yuuuuuun!"

Correction: I really, really wished we would just stop at that tree and go no further. Really. Really. Really.

"Yun-Yun!" An arm was tossed haphazardly around my shoulder, and I mentally smirked at the stab of jealousy that I knew Kyo was spearing Manabe with.

"Oh, good morning, Manabe-kun!" Honda-san greeted brightly.

"Hiya, Honda-san!"

"Can I help you?" I asked, my expression something akin to cantankerous.

"The dance!" he chirped, smiling broadly. "We have to start working on the dance! The committee has all sorts of ideas they want to run by us and…"

He continued rambling for another few minutes as we approached the school. I noted that the sky was still somberly gray and began to wonder if it was ever going to clear up. To say that it was just a little bit portentous would be an understatement. I could feel Kyo tailing Manabe as we stepped through the double doors into the building, greeted by the din of the students as they milled about, getting along to their homerooms.

And Manabe was still talking.

"…and then he's like, 'What banana?', and we all just started laughing. It was hilarious!"

"I'm sure…" I grumbled. I really had no idea what he was talking about anymore. I wondered if he even knew what he was talking about. I highly doubted it.

He stopped at the corner and looked around. "Well," he said, turning back to me, "this is where we part ways, Yun-Yun."

Thank God.

He gave me a two-fingered salute. "Don't forget! After school today!" He winked, and with that, he was gone.

Kyo sighed heavily behind me. "How do you put up with that guy?"

"I frequently as myself the same question." Watching Manabe as he disappeared down the hall, I added offhandedly, "But he's really not that bad after you get to know him."

I could feel Kyo's eyes on me as he hummed thoughtfully.

The bell rang as we sank down into our seats in homeroom. Sensei walked in and passed Kyo and I an indiscernible glance before sitting behind her desk and beginning to take attendance. I didn't give it much thought.

Later that day, halfway through sensei's History lecture, something landed on my desk. I looked up to make sure that sensei hadn't seen before taking the note and unfolding it in my lap. Scribbled across the paper was a doodle of Kyo (I could tell it was him because of the cat ears) apparently beating sensei over the head with her History book and then…

I blushed, suppressing the smile that threatened to overtake my face. I took my pencil and wrote underneath his second doodle: Pervert.

I tossed it back to him when the teacher wasn't looking. He read my reply and smirked, scrawling something beneath my writing. Dropping it to the floor and kicking it sideways to my desk, and let my pencil roll off my desktop and, when I stooped to pick it up, I grabbed the note. I'd never felt so much like an eight-year old since I was, well, eight years old. And even then, I don't think I was ever this immature. It was fun. The note read:

You love it.

I stopped the chuckle crawling up my throat before it reached my lips and turned to him, nodding with a coy smile, which was quickly preceded by the most seductive expression I could muster at that moment, my eyes half-lidded and my tongue darting out to wet my lips, gaze saturated with wanton desire. Kyo bit his lip, and I knew that I had succeeded. Smirking self-satisfactorily, I tuned back into sensei's lecture, finding that I had no idea what she was talking about.

I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make it through the week with my sanity still intact.

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"All right, ladies! Get into your positions!"

I scowled at the coach. Despite the fact that I knew he was just trying to egg us on by calling us ladies, because I was often mistaken for a girl I was all the more resentful of the comment. I sighed and bounced the basketball, listening to the hollow smack of it hitting the lacquered gymnasium floor. I looked across at Kyo, who was on the rival team. I could hear the girls on the other side of the gym playing volleyball and was able to discern Honda-san's voice as she yelped, "O-Oh! I'm so sorry!"

The coach jarred me from my thoughts as he took the basketball from my hands and looked between me and Kyo. "Ready?" he asked. Upon receiving the affirmative, he nodded and tossed the ball in the air, blowing his whistle.

Damn Kyo and his height advantage.

He slapped the ball out of its freefall and quickly gathered it up, dribbling it down the court. I scowled at his back and took chase as the other members of my team did the same. I caught up to him and spread my arms wide, trapping him. I pressed close to him, watching him turn this way and that, looking for someone to pass to.

Well, if he was going to use his advantage, then I would use mine.

I brought my mouth as close to his ear as I could get without looking suspicious and breathed hotly across it, "Kyo-koi…"

I saw him freeze for a split-second, his eyes widening just so. I smirked.

"That wasn't very nice of you to take the ball from me," all but whined in a sultry voice. "I might have to punish you later for it."

He clenched his eyes shut, probably against the images I was stirring in his mind. Finally, opening his eyes again, he found someone and threw the ball, almost desperately, but one of my teammates leapt up and blocked the pass. I chuckled.

"Damn Rat…" he growled, halfheartedly glaring at me.

I just smiled cutely and stuck my tongue out at him, taking off down the court. Hearing the rubber of my sneakers protest against the polished floor as I stopped just short of the basket, I raised my arms and called to my team. One of them looked up and brought the ball to their chest before launching it my way. I caught it with ease, pivoting on my heel and shooting the orange sphere into the net, which it slid neatly through. My team cheered.

I turned and saw Kyo with his eyes narrowed. Amidst the flickering fire in his eyes, I could also see the shadowy garnet of lust. Oh, this was going to be fun.

The game continued. Kyo's team took the ball and began dribbling it up the court. Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce. Then, his teammate stopped mid-step and lobbed the basketball to someone else, who then passed it on to Kyo, all too fluidly to stop. But now Kyo had the ball, and I could surely stop him.

I was on him in a heartbeat, once again pressing close to his body. His breathing was ragged and his face flushed, and I suspected that it wasn't just from the exercise. "G-Go away… you damn Rat," he growled.

"I'm sorry, Kyo, but I'm guarding you. It's my job to be up in your face." Discreetly, still sort of dancing around Kyo as he frantically searched for a way to divest himself of the ball, I pretended to loose my footing and my thigh found its way between his spread legs, applying just enough pressure to spur a reaction. He gasped and jumped back, taking a few steps and therein causing the coach to tweet on his irritating whistle and call a traveling offense on Kyo.

I smirked and chuckled. Kyo just glared and carried on with the game.

The minutes ticked by. My team was winning, eight to four. And then something happened that I seriously hadn't planned. Kyo was in possession of the ball again, and as he moved to pass it to someone, my teammate and I simultaneously jumped to block it. I tripped over my teammate's foot and, before the ball had left the cradle of Kyo's hands, I was on top of him, and he was flattened between me and the squeaky, wooden floor.

The ball bounced shallowly for a few seconds before innocently rolling away. Everything was eerily silent as the resounding rubber boings echoed away into oblivion, and the cheers and squeals from the girls' side of the gym were only there to fill the void. I opened my eyes and realized that I was straddling Kyo's hips, our lower bodies colliding in a very compromising way. I felt sparks shoot through my system and a healthy flush bloom across my cheeks, but I was grinning nonetheless. His arms were stretched above his head, one knee bent and pressed against my back. He was breathing shallowly and looked incredibly flustered, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Sohmas!" the coach yelled. "Come on, get up! Penalty on Yuki."

I fought back a laugh and scrambled to my feet as my teammates protested with things like, "It was an accident, Coach!" and "That's totally unfair!", but I wasn't protesting. I held out my hand and helped Kyo to his feet. He was muttering something about revenge and "Just you wait, you damn Rat." I just replied with a chuckle and told him that I couldn't wait for the anticipated payback. At that, he let a smirk crack the scowl on his face, his eyes glittering.

---

The rest of the day passed fairly uneventfully, much to my dismay. And, despite all of the teasing and mild foreplay earlier, we didn't do anything that night. We just curled up into Kyo's blankets after finishing our homework and fell asleep, warm and comfortable, and

everything

was just beautifully perfect.

Sometimes, when I'm with Kyo and life feels this wonderful, I feel like I'm living in a dream. And, God, if this is a dream, then I never want to wake up.

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"Sohma-kun, which color? Pink or red?"

I looked up to see one of the girls on the committee, a girl with cute, black pigtails, holding up two rolls of streamers in front of my face. "Um…why don't you use both?" I supplied, thinking that, indeed, both choices were appropriate for the holiday.

She smiled and nodded, chirping, "Good idea, Sohma-kun! Thank you!" She bowed and returned to her friends. I heard one of them giggle and whisper, "He's so smart!" and rolled my eyes. It wasn't rocket science or anything, just coordinating the decorations for the dance. Why that deserved such praise was beyond me.

I checked over the list of things to do in preparation. There was still quite a lot left.

"Yun-Yun!"

Now, that voice wasn't in the slightest bit male, so I knew it had to be the only other person who referred to me as "Yun-Yun".

"Kimi wants to ask you a question, Yun-Yun!"

And with that, a slender arm was slung irritatingly around my shoulder, and the flowery fragrance of Toudou-san's perfume assailed my nose. I stiffened, half-expecting to feel the familiar, sickening tingle that prefaced my transforming into a rat, but it didn't come. The one arm must not have been enough to be considered an embrace. "What is it?" I asked glancing back at her and politely relieving myself of her hold.

"Yun-Yun," she said, "who are you going to the dance with?"

"Uh…" I fought back the blush threatening to overtake my face and said, "just…someone-Why?" I hurriedly pressed on. "Why do you want to know?"

She smiled cutely and shrugged her narrow shoulders, tossing a raven ringlet over her shoulder. "Kimi was just curious."

I nodded slowly, not feeling quite out of the danger zone yet. "Well, if that's all…"

"Yup!" She giggled and pranced over to Manabe and whispered something that made him look up at me and grin that annoying grin of his.

And then he came over to me.

I looked around for something to busy myself with. I thought of going over to the group where the girl who'd approached me before was working and asking them how progress was coming, but before I could take another step, Manabe was on me. I groaned internally, really wishing he would leave me be.

"Sooo, Yun-Yun!" he said a bit too casually. "Who is it that you're going to the dance with?"

I didn't answer, only felt that accursed heat rise in my face.

"Who is it, hm? Is it Honda-san?"

My lips were firmly sealed.

Manabe pouted, his amusement slightly put-out. "Well Yun-Yun? Out with it!"

I shook my head, and he grinned.

"Why? Are you embarrassed?"

And that hit home. I shook my head vehemently. Never would I be embarrassed about my relationship with Kyo, but we couldn't tell anyone yet. This, Manabe didn't understand. No one did. My chest felt tight, as if someone were pushing a weight against it, trying to force me down and keep me there. I hated it. "Drop it, Manabe-san," I growled.

He frowned, concern flickering through his eyes, but he quickly covered it up with a sulky sort of disappointment. "Fine, Yun-Yun," he said teasingly, "keep your secrets. We'll all find out soon enough!"

I inwardly cringed, thinking of how true that really was.

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"Kyo…"

"Mm?" He opened a tired eye and regarded me inquisitively.

I sat up in bed and looked down at my hands folded over the ripples of fabric in my lap. "About the dance…"

He shook his mind clear and sat up next to me, his head tilted. "What about it?"

"We… We are going together, right?" My voice sounded pathetically small, ensconced in the oppressive silence of the night.

I waited for his answer with near-bated breath. His arm snaked around my bare shoulder and he pulled me close. I could feel his heartbeat through his chest, and it comforted me. "Of course," he finally replied.

My head jerked up. "We are?" I couldn't help but smile.

He nodded, kissing my forehead. His lips continued down my nose and quickly found my lips. Gently, he pushed me back and I felt myself melt into the mattress, enfolded in the sheets and Kyo's arms. His lips moved slowly, lovingly, and I briefly remembered a time that seemed so far away when I could only receive a kiss like this in my fantasies. But this was real. Very real.

I kissed him back, lacing my arms around his neck and pulling him as close as possible. I teased my tongue between his lips, savoring the taste as it filled my mouth and mingled with my own. He accepted my tongue greedily, biting and sucking on it, and a moan flew up my throat, barely escaping between our joined lips, my spine arching at the pleasure that careened through my system. As we parted for air, a glittering thread of saliva spread between our mouths, quickly disconnected as Kyo leaned down and kissed along my neck. His name danced sensuously across my lips as I reached for the hem of his shirt and traced beneath it up his spine, my nails dragging across his skin desperately.

Breathing heavily, he sat up a little and looked down at me, his fiery hair framing his tanned face and accentuating his glittering, ruby eyes. An affectionate smile quirked his lips as he said, "If we keep this up, I doubt we'll be getting much sleep."

I smirked through my staggering breaths. "I don't mind. You still haven't exacted your revenge on me for my behavior on the basketball court," I reminded him coyly, twining an orange lock seductively around my finger.

He matched my smirk and murmured, "I haven't, have I?" He leaned down again, whispering, "We'll have to fix that," before capturing my lips in another heated kiss that would be one of many shared that night.

And what a good night it was.

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The rest of the week passed in a blur. Before I knew it, it was Friday evening. The gymnasium had been decorated. I'd seen the final product, seen the space saved for the DJ, seen the refreshment table, seen the lavish, Valentine's Day-centric decorations, and I must admit that the school committees did a very nice job. Nothing had been done without my approval—I should have been the mellowest of them all—and yet I was a nervous wreck.

I searched through my closet and withdrew a powder-blue cheongsam top, running my fingertips over the violet thread stitched against the pale azure silk to create a picturesque cherry blossom tree weaving up the side, the petals drifting down to decorate the front. I undid the fastenings from bottom to top and slipped my arms into the shirt, the fabric sliding like water against my skin. I deftly redid the ornate fastenings from the first one just below my chin to the last that fell over my waistline, the hem of the shirt ending mid-thigh. Then I pulled my pants from the closet, black and loose-fitting and probably one of the most comfortable, yet formal, pair I owned. I slipped them on and smoothed down the legs, then checking myself in the mirror and smiling satisfactorily.

I looked pretty good.

Then, there came a knock on my door, preceded by the soft call of "Yuki?"

I smiled and replied, "Come in."

Kyo slid the door open and stepped inside, shutting it behind him. His eyes found mine first before they trailed the path of my nose, down to my lips (and lingering there, harbingering a certain kiss I was sure to be receiving in a matter of minutes), down my chest to my waist to my feet and then back up again. While he looked me up and down, I did the same to him, taking in his sleeveless red shirt and familiar khaki cargo pants. The shirt was pleated down the middle, tassel-ended strings draped casually around his collar that was half as high as mine. I smiled and stepped forward, taking his hands in mine.

"Aren't you going to be cold in that?" I asked teasingly.

He smirked. "'s okay. I have you to keep me warm."

"Hm, good point." I placed chaste kiss on his lips before going to pull him out of the room.

Before I could get him into the hallway, he'd averted my course and pinned me to my wall, whispering in my ear, "You look beautiful."

I giggled and blushed, replying, "You don't look half bad yourself." From the look in his eye, I could tell that he knew I was purposefully understating. And then he leaned in and kissed me.

"Yuki-kun! Kyo-kun! I—oh! O-Oh, I'm s-s-sorry!"

We broke apart and went into the hallway to find Honda-san blushing heatedly and trying to hide it, to no avail. Apparently, she'd walked in on us. I smiled amusedly and put my hand on her shoulder.

"Are you ready, Honda-san?" I asked.

She nodded, her blush receding. Together, we went downstairs and grabbed our jackets before heading outside.

We were greeted with…white.

"Oh, look! It's snowing!" Honda-san exclaimed, her voice light and awed.

And so it was. The snow was falling in gentle flakes from the nighttime sky, blanketing the world in a thin, gossamer layer, laying the patchwork for a beautiful, white quilt. It was so breathtaking. I felt Kyo's warm hand slip into mine and I turned to him, seeing him smiling softly. I smiled, too.

"It looks like it's your lucky night, eh, Yuki?"

I nodded. "In more ways than one," I replied quietly.

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Note that "Yuki" means "Snow". And so, the long-awaited storm begins. Literally, it doesn't seem so bad, eh? But who knows what it could bode symbolically. ;)

Well, if you didn't review the last chapter, review this one, please! ... :) Much love to you all. And again, sorry for the long wait! Hopefully the next wait won't be long.

A picture of Kyo's shirt can be found here: http:(slash)(slash)kisa(dot)kun(dot)free(dot)fr(slash)Kyo(slash)kyou05(dot)jpg

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