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Chapter Five of Flowers in Snow: Your Heart Gasps
Shigure leaned heavily against the front door, and, as he watched Yuki approach, sighed mentally. The boy was almost out of the woods, and by the look of things - his down-turned gaze, inattentive eyes - not in the all-time greatest mood, either. In fact, he looked downright depressed, which, it went without much saying, was bad news.
A depressed Yuki coupled with an angry Yuki had the habit of quickly becoming an extremely lethal Yuki. And if Shigure didn't believe that Yuki was going to get angry - very angry - well, he was fooling himself.
Yuki arrived, looking at Shigure blankly. "You were waiting for me?"
"Ah, yes. There was something I wanted to talk to you about, before you got into the house."
Yuki waited. To him, there was no point in saying anything else. Which was a shame. Shigure wouldn't have minded terribly if the main topic had been temporarily delayed by something ultimately pointless - pointless but, in its simplicity, somehow relaxing.
He cleared his throat. Even after mulling it over for the last few hours, he still wasn't quite sure how to phrase this. He just hoped it would go better than it did with Kyo. His hand still hurt, a little teeth-mark evident.
"What?"
The tone was surprisingly quiet, even though he was screaming on the inside. His eyes had widened uncontrollably, however; at least in that respect, he couldn't manage to hide his shock.
"I said, Akito is..."
"I heard that part," snapped Yuki. "Why?"
"Oh." Shigure paused, raising an eyebrow. "Well, I don't know."
Yuki wanted to punch him. But somehow, he resisted. "What the hell," He said, appropriate emotion finally entering his voice, "are you two planning?"
"Yuki, I know you're not going to believe me, but I honestly don't have anything to do with this. It's as much a mystery to me as it is to you."
"You're right. I don't believe you."
Wait. I shouldn't be worrying about this right now. The question is, where is Tohru, and where is Akito, and are they anywhere close to each other? Since the only way of answering that particular question was with actual investigation, Yuki moved to head into the house. But Shigure's arm came down, successfully blocking his entry.
"Hold on, Yuki. I can see the way you're glaring at me, so stop it. Tohru and Akito are in separate rooms now, and for the time being, there they'll stay; Kyo's seen to that. He's..." Shigure stopped to smile painfully: "'contanimated' Tohru's area. Or at least, that's how Akito put it to me. I should tell you, though, that Akito's taken Tohru's room - Tohru is in the other guest room, now."
Yuki scowled. "Don't say 'other'. Tohru's room was never a guest room. She was never a guest."
Shigure moved his arm, and grinned, shrugging. "Oh, I don't know. Surely, in the beginning, she -"
Passing the threshold at last, Yuki sent a backwards glare over his shoulder. "Clearly, you didn't hear me the first time. I said never."
He didn't wait around for Shigure's response, because they'd just be caught in some useless, dead-end argument. He marched through the house, though really, he walked normally; as much as he'd love to put on a little demonstration of his anger, release his steam, he'd caught onto the idea rather quickly that they were now tip-toeing around Akito's watchful, malicious wrath.
As he advanced down the main hall, he spotted Kyo, standing on the steps. Their eyes locked.
It didn't take a genius, or even an unusually perceptive person, to realize that Kyo was as enraged about this as he was. Or that, quietly, they were both blaming the other - because Akito had obviously come here to target somebody. Akito barely knew Tohru, and seemed to get on amicably enough with Shigure (frankly, too amicably).
Yuki could feel his gut sink into his knees. It was probably him. Kyo being the resident monster of the Juunishi, Akito actively avoided him like the plague.
If this is all my fault...
...I'll fix it, thought Yuki determinedly. Somehow.
As the cat and the rat passed each other on the steps, Yuki could feel Kyo's tension building. He was so easy to read, just like a snake coiling before striking. That was why he would never win a fight with someone like himself, who was able to predict an opponent's actions and compensate for them. Kyo was compulsive, right down to his soul. Yuki braced himself for the blow, already possessing a planned counter-move.
Except that it never came. It simply didn't happen. Kyo stepped off the last step, and left. Uncomprehending, Yuki stared after him.
Odd. I thought that, given the situation, and its implications for Tohru, he would be angry enough to -
Unless...he...
For Tohru...
He's actually not fighting, even when he really wants to. To protect her.
This was all getting too complicated. Between Machi, Tohru and Akito, Yuki didn't know what to do.
"Yuuuki." Appearing suddenly behind him, Akito draped both arms over Yuki's shoulders. "Talk to me."
Turning, Yuki smiled. "All right. What do you want to talk about?"
Strangely enough, Akito only wanted to talk about the weather. But Yuki wasn't complaining.
Come sunrise the next day, the snow began to burn with a golden glow. Tohru woke up with a yawn, and thought to herself that, all in all, this new room wasn't that bad. She had a better view of the woods from here, and at the moment it was a very pretty winter scene.
Oh, no! I left my brush in Akito's room!
Akito's room was the last place she wanted to be, especially after the scathingly icy mood Akito had been in yesterday. But she had no choice; that was her only brush, and she had no available money to purchase another. There was no way she was asking any friends for help, either, not when she actually hadn't lost it, not permanently. So, dressing quickly, she stepped into the outside hall, making sure to stay quiet in case people were still sleeping. It was a weekend day.
Tohru tried knocking on the door, but no one answered. "Akito?" Again, she tried knocking. Still no answer. Slowly, she opened the door. Just as it'd seemed, nobody was here - but neither was the long sought-after brush.
Oh. It's probably in the connecting bathroom.
And without thinking, she opened the bathroom door.
Almost instantly, her eyes widened, and a gasp caught in her throat.
Akito is...!
A/N: I'm so ADD with the character POV's. And if you haven't figured out what Tohru sees in the bathroom, I hit you. Hard. This is probably the most predictable thing I've ever done.
