Chapter Thirty-Three: A Lesson in Love
Author's Note, people:
Sorry that I've been 'remaking' all of my chapters; my computer's been messing something up, so just try to bear with me here. As for Ryou X someone…well, you're about to find out. ((winks)) (Yes, I've been planning it for a while)
Kiyoshi and I stood next to each other in silence as we watched Yuri swiftly leave.
"That's strange: I thought she would've stayed regardless of what I said. She's got to be planning something with Ronin. Got to be." Kiyoshi mused.
"I'm completely lost here." I said flatly.
"Yuri is Ronin's…girlfriend, you could say. I thought I got rid of her for good, too. She just keeps coming back. If you thought Ronin was bad before, just watch what he does when she's around." Kiyoshi said solemnly.
"What do you mean?" I asked. Kiyoshi grabbed my hand and led me into the chilly night.
"She brings out the worst in him and is an inspiration for half of the horrible things he has already done… Komori, we're going to be putting in a lot of extra superhero hours." Kiyoshi sighed. I never had realized how much Kiyoshi worked to control Ronin and how much it took out of him. I pulled him into a tight hug.
"We'll find a way. I know we will." I whispered encouragingly. Kiyoshi's soft laughter tickled my ear.
"I love you." He cooed happily.
"Same here…Um, look, we should head home and tell Ryou about Yuri." I grabbed Kiyoshi's hand and led him to the sidewalk.
"Woah, this is going to be our only night off for a while, you know." Kiyoshi reasoned, pulling me to him. "And it's probably the only occasion that I'll get to see you wearing make-up." I laughed heartily.
"You're probably right."
"But you look so pretty when you do. You should wear it more often." Kiyoshi murmured, lightly stroking my collarbone. I brushed his hand away gently.
"You're making me feelawkward. Look, we really have to tell Ryou about Yuri." I tried to reason with him. He hung his head down in defeat.
"Okay, fine. We'll have to hurry." Kiyoshi grumbled, snatching my hand and whisking me down the sidewalk without another word. We continued home in heavy silence; I could tell that Kiyoshi was angry with me. But why couldn't I make him understand that telling Ryou was more important than some silly school dance?
The yellow glow of the porch lights from the house was warm and welcoming from the nippy air outside. Kiyoshi was still refusing to look at me; I tried to get close to him, but he pushed me away. He must be pretty mad… When we reached the door Kiyoshi flung it open and pushed it behind him, not bothering to hold it open for me like he usually did. This is definitely not good. I slowly reached for his hand and grasped it between my own.
"Kiyoshi, why're you mad at me?" I questioned, hoping for him to lift his head so I could see his expression.
"Go to Ryou; telling him about Yuri is more important than being with me!" He growled, stealing back his hand and storming up the stairs. Oh no!
"Please, Kiyoshi! I didn't mean it like that!" I called to him. It was no use, though; I might as well have been talking to a brick wall. Tears welled up in my eyes and began to flow freely down my cheeks, smearing the mascara Takara had applied to my eyes so carefully. My lip trembled slightly. Our first fight…I hate this. I pulled off my gloves and wiped away the black streak that ran down my face. I might as well tell Ryou, or all this would have been for nothing.
"Ryou?" I called out feebly through the living room. A round of booming laughter came from the parlor. Does he have guests over? I weakly pushed through the swinging doors to find Ryou, Keiichiro, Ichigo and Masaya, and four other women I vaguely recognized as the older Mew generation. The laughter ceased as all eyes rested on me. Ryou stood and swiftly came to me with a concerned expression.
"Komori? Are you okay?" he asked quietly. I guess I didn't hide the tear-marks that well. I forced a smile onto my face.
"Yes, I'm fine. But I have some pretty bad news concerning Ronin." I breathed.
"Right, right. Where's Kiyoshi?" Ryou asked worriedly. It took all the self-control I possessed not to fall onto the floor weeping.
"Oh, he's upstairs. He…wasn't feeling that good." I lied. Ryou put his hand on my shoulder to comfort me.
"Okay. Here, just sit down and tell us what you found out." He said putting me into the squishy red armchair he had previously been sitting in. I sniffled slightly and took a deep breath.
"While we were at the dance, I went up to this girl and started talking with her; her name was Yuri. Then Kiyoshi sees me and comes up to her, being all rude. As it turns out, Yuri is Ronin's girlfriend and was there to do something Ronin was supposed to do. I haven't figured that part out yet… But what really scared me was what she said before she left: 'The war is far from over…'" I explained. Everyone just sat there for a second attempting to grasp everything that I had just crammed into that one semi-paragraph. The four other Mews sat there, completely baffled by everything; Keiichiro stared off into space; Ryou put his hand on his chin, a sign that he was thinking.
"Is this girl any threat to us?" Keiichiro asked.
"Kiyoshi said she was."
"Then we've got to put her up on the 'Wanted List' next to Ronin. Yay, more work to do." Keiichiro grimaced.
"We'll help, too!" the rather energetic blonde woman said. Her name was…Pudding, right? I gave her a warm smile despite how cold I felt on the inside. Kiyoshi's words were still buzzing around in my head like an angry wasp, stinging me: Telling him about Yuri is more important than being with me! I felt absolutely horrible.
"Yes, I want to help." The quiet green-haired woman said from the seat next to Pudding. Lettuce. Ichigo stood up and raised her hand in the air.
"YEAH! Mew mews together until the very end!" she hollered vigorously.
"What angel's voice beckons?" Kish's voice sounded out of nowhere, materializing directly in front of Ichigo.
"WAAHHH! GET AWAY! GET AWAY!" Ichigo screamed as she throttled Kish with the lamp that had been sitting on the coffee table.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Cut it out!" Kish yelled back, blocking her blows. Pai and Tart appeared next to the fireplace with amused smiles.
"I find Kish getting beat with a lighting fixture quite refreshing." Pai grinned. I couldn't help but give a small laugh as Kish's expense. What on earth did he do to her? …Never mind, I don't want to know. Kish snatched the lamp from Ichigo and placed it back on the coffee table as he gave her a dirty look.
"I missed you too, sweetheart." He grumbled. Ryou clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.
"Come on, guys! We have to focus on the problem at hand." Ryou yelled over the small pandemonium. Might as well leave… I faked a tired yawn.
"Ooh, man, I'm tired. I'm going to go to bed and getting all this stuff off." I waved to Ryou and everyone and walked out without another word to cease their looks of bafflement. As I walked out the doors, I felt a soft hand clutch the top part of my arm. I turned and saw Ichigo smiling at me. She put her hands on my shoulders and steered me to a chair.
"Ichigo--?" Ichigo put her finger to my lips to quiet me.
"Okay, Komori. Tell me what happened." She said calmly.
"What do you mean?" I asked innocently.
"Tell me what happened between you and this Kiyoshi guy." Ichigo said. Crap, she knows.
"Is it that obvious?"
"Only to a girl. Ryou's so oblivious, I swear. But that's men: ruthless, uncaring, and the compassion of a rock," Ichigo winked, "So let's hear it."
"Well, it's really my fault: It was right after I found out about Yuri. I told Kiyoshi that we had to leave right then and tell Ryou, but he wanted to stay at the dance. I convinced him to tell Ryou…but he took it to mean that I didn't want to be with him." I sniffled. Whoever said talking about your problems makes you feel better should be dragged out into the street and shot. Repetitively. Ichigo thought for a moment.
"I don't think it's really anyone's fault; it was just a misunderstanding. He'll get over it." She smiled kindly.
"I'll apologize anyway."
"That would be best, I guess…Um, so how's the alien hunt been? Ryou already told us about your little 'incident' in his lab," Ichigo chuckled, "It's always good to have a new addition to the Mew family… I just wish I still had my powers; I sort of miss them."
"I was wondering about that: how are you guys going to help if you don't have your powers anymore?"
"Well, actually, Masaya's still got his powers (and I suspect he always will). Me and the others will help out Ryou with all that…scientific junk." She ruffled my loose bun slightly. Masaya… I felt a surge of pity and sadness for Ryou: he wouldn't ever have a chance because of Masaya. I could tell he really did like Ichigo by how his face just lit up when she walked in, and how it darkened when Masaya followed in behind her. He would never have her. Time to play as the advocatus diabolis
"Do you really love Masaya?" I asked. I knew Ichigo would think that I would somehow relate this to my Kiyoshi problem. Her smile reached up to her eyes.
"Yes. Very, very much. Whenever he's around I get that feeling of security; that everything's going to be okay. I just want to be with him all the time. But I think that there's different ways people define 'love'. It's like there's different varieties of it." Ichigo gushed. I can't just ask her if she likes Ryou… I simply nodded.
"Everything'll work out. Don't worry too much over it." She assured me.
I staggered up the stairs (courtesy of my floor-length dress), not bothering to turn on the lights. It was cool that all of the Mews were here and ready to help. I couldn't help but wish that they still had their powers so they could help me with Ronin. But it's not fair to them; they've already conquered their alien problems. Although they had had more advantages: There was more of them and the aliens weren't anywhere near as strong. Stop complaining. When I reached my room I felt a rush of relief to be away from all the bustle downstairs. I was also grateful that I could finally get out ofthe dress that had been squeezing my waist all night. I slipped into a long nightdress and pulled off the sneakers I had worn. And no one even noticed. Now I see why they call them 'sneakers'. I unclipped the flower from my hair and retrieved all the bobby pins from the bun. I flopped down on my bed and screamed my lungs out into my pillow. I thought tonight was going to be perfect…
The whispery sound of chimes jangling came to my parted balcony doors accompanied by a gentle zephyr. I have got to learn to close that stupid balcony door. I pushed myself up and went to close the doors. Through the see-through silken curtains I spotted a shadow leaning over the railing of the balcony. Please be Kiyoshi. Please be Kiyoshi. Please be Kiyoshi. Who else would be sitting on my balcony? I opened the door ajar and tiptoed out to the balcony. Kiyoshi was facing outward, away from me. His hair blew around slightly in the light breath of wind. "Kiyoshi?" I asked cautiously. His head turned to face me. He still wore the expression of controlled anger.
"What?" he grumbled, turning his back to me. I leaned over the stone railing next to him.
"I'm sorry." I looked over at him: his expression softened but he still continued to stare away. A few seconds of constrained silence engulfed us before I chose to lay it on a little thicker. "I didn't mean to make you upset…I just want to get this whole ordeal with Ronin over with as soon as I can. I was just being--."
"I know."
"Then why are you--?"
"I'm just having a spurt of anger. More at myself than you. Don't worry about it." Kiyoshi interrupted, turning back to me and finally smiling.
Later, downstairs 更迟,楼下
A.N:
EEEE:-) ((Falls out of chair)) It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to, but it still worked out, I guess.
Ryou had assigned everyone to their own room (except for Ichigo and Masaya) and he now folded into his cushy red armchair. The hateful thoughts of Masaya and Ichigo being together swarmed through his head. He just wanted to kill Masaya. He doesn't know how good he has it. He has no idea. He longed to tell Ichigo how he felt. But what good would it do? She was already married to Masaya. I just have to stop thinking about her and I'll be fine. He knew it wasn't anywhere near that simple, but it was nice to cling to the thought for a while.
The quiet pat of bare feet came on the tile floor around the corner. Hm? Ryou tensed up in his chair as the footsteps grew louder. Lettuce's head peeked around the corner.
"GAAH!" Ryou screamed in surprise. Lettuce giggled shyly.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to frighten you."
"Bah, you didn't surprise me." Ryou bluffed.
"Riiiiight." Lettuce grinned as she took a seat on the floor next to where Ryou sat.
"What're you doing up so late? You've traveled a pretty long way; you should get some rest." I want to be alone right now.
"No. I'm not tired at all, actually." Lettuce replied. He could tell by the determined look on her face that nothing he could say would make her leave.
"Well…ahem, I guess I'd better get down to the lab to fix that…thing…" Ryou said awkwardly, getting up from his chair. Lettuce grabbed his hand before he could go farther.
"Please don't go; I really want some company and everyone else is asleep! And…I wanted to talk to you…" Lettuce begged. What's her deal?
"Um, okay. I guess the …thing can wait," Ryou said, sitting back down in his chair, "What do you want to talk about?"
Later in the Upstairs Hallway, 更迟在楼上走廊
It was the middle of the night and I found myself having a BIG fruit craving. I haven't had one of these in a while…Better go get an apple or something so I can go back to sleep. I yawned and attempted to march downstairs without bumping into the wall. I reached the kitchen and attacked the fruit bowl when I saw a light coming from the parlor. Who would be awake at this hour? Paranoia and curiosity claimed me and pushed me toward the door. No noise came from the room. Ugh, Ryou must have left the light on. Moron; you'd think he'd learn to be energy efficient, being a genius and all… I decided to be nice and turn off the light for him so he wouldn't have to suffer a high electricity bill…then again; he was filthy rich, so it wouldn't have affected him that much anyway. I pushed open one of the doors to the parlor to find one of the most disgusting things my eyes had ever beheld. I withdrew my head slowly and as quietly as I could. I covered my mouth with both my hands and commenced in a silent scream of pure horror. Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, OH MY GOD! I felt so completely filthy that I needed to take a shower. I have been permanently scarred.
My mind had never really registered the fact that Ryou was in his low twenties and was still…'on the market' you could say. Seeing him with Lettuce was like seeing an old guy making out with a teenager; disturbing, scarring, wrong, and horrifying. I shuddered and headed back to my room. I don't think I'll be getting any sleep after seeing that…
