Chapter 8 – Aroused Emotion
Shigure woke up to find the kitchen empty. There was no sweet scent of Tohru or her wonderful cooking. The hungry Shigure came in contact with his younger cousin in the hallway and asked, "Yuki, have you seen Tohru?"
Yuki was still trying to wake up. He rolled his eyes at the annoying cousin and shook his head.
At this moment, Tohru rushed out from her bedroom and fumbled down the stairs; she dropped face down and landed her forehead on the hardwood floor. "Oh…" She sighed. Her fall made a racket and the two cousins came to find her sitting on her butt, rubbing her head.
"Are you okay?" Yuki asked offering her a hand to help her stood up. She wobbled and fell right onto his chest. "Tohru… you're burning up!"
"No, I'm okay. I need to start breakfast and get ready for school." She replied.
"You can't go to school like this." Yuki said holding firmly to her warm body.
"But, I need to… for mom and everyone… and the questionnaire are due today…"
"Give it to me and I can turn it in for you."
"But…"
"No buts… You need to rest. Come, I'll take you to your room." Shigure said earnestly and Tohru accepted his welcomed arms wrapped around her. "Yuki, I can handle it from here, so you can go now… leave."
"Where did you put your survey? I'll go get it." Yuki asked Tohru.
"I left it on the kitchen counter last night when I was fixing dinner. I think that it's still there. Thank you so much, Yuki. I'm so sorry to have trouble you." Tohru smiled tiredly.
"No, it's no trouble at all." He replied to her and locked his eyes fiercely on his older cousin, "Don't you think of any dirty while I'm gone."
"Don't worry. I'm not gonna do anything, not when she's sick anyways." He snickered back.
"Okay. I'll see you later." Yuki said to her and left.
"Come let's go to your room." Shigure escorted her upstairs.
"What about your breakfast?"
"I'll find something, so don't worry." He opened the door and a breeze immediately showered his face. "Oh my, you left your window open."
She looked up to the opened window. "I guessed that I fell asleep and forgot to close it." She replied.
Shigure walked her to her bed and then shut the window. He got curious and asked, "What did you mean by falling asleep and forgot? Did you left the window open all night? What were you doing? You didn't sleep by the window, did you?"
Tohru peeked up from her blanket looking distressed. "This is all that I can do… I'm not as outgoing as Kagura. She is able to go out on her own to look for Kyo, but I can't. I don't have the courage to leave and go look for him, so instead I wait. I've been staring out my window hoping that Kyo will just pop his head through it and greet me with his smile. Am I a fool to be doing this? I got sick over my own carelessness."
"Everyone becomes a fool when he or she is in love." Shigure stated.
"Love?" She questioned. "Is that why I'm acting this way? Am I in love? How can know which is which? I mean… I know that I love you and Yuki and Kyo, but how can I know who it is that I'm in love with? I mean like a boy girl relationship kinda love." She asked Shigure.
He came and sat next to her. "How should I say this? Love is a very tricky emotion. There are so many ways to love and each person expresses it differently. There is a kinda of love that you share with your parents and it's a special bond between parents and child that can never be broken. There is also a love that you share with your friends where you find interaction, amusement, comfort and development of your growth and experience together. Then there is another love that you share between just you and one other person. This person may or may not be chosen by you, yet somehow you'll become affectionate to him or her; the love will build up intimate desire, longing to be closer and to be acknowledged by that other person. This one can be very demanding and challenging to keep up. This love is different for everyone, it can bring you laughter, it can bring you the most memorable moment in your life that you can cherish forever, but it can also bring your tears and sometimes it could even bring you the most painful and unbearable moment of them all." He paused and placed his hands on Tohru's, "Basically, it's different for everyone. Yet the core still remains a single question."
Shigure was so serious that he got Tohru fluttered and her head sank deeper into her pillow. "A question?" She managed to ask.
"Yes, to help you answer your question; you must answer this question. Who takes your breath away? What I mean is the one person that made your heart pound so hard that you felt that world doesn't exist; you can only hear your heart beats and your craving for more and you don't want to stop, but yearning for more and more."
"Have you ever felt this way about anyone?" She asked him.
He looked at Tohru's flushed expression and answered her, "Yes, I have and still am." He smiled.
'Should I ask him who it is?' She thought. 'Or is it me?' Her question showed on her face.
"Oh Tohru, you want to you who it is, don't you?" He laughed.
She nodded.
He sang. "It's a… se…cret."
"Shigure!"
"Now, you should sleep. Don't strain yourself and I think I know where we can find Kyo, so once you're all better, I'll go and get him."
"Really?"
"Yes." He leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Tohru smiled while he left and closed the door behind him.
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"Kyo! Don't walk away from me!" Kagura grabbed onto his sleeve.
"Leave me alone!" He shook her off.
"You've been ignoring me for days, so you better be nice to me now!" She demanded.
"I don't care! Just leave me alone!"
"Kyo!"
"Stop following me!" He hollered to her face. She looked hurt.
"Kyo, you jerk!" She sent him flying from a ferocious punch into his abdomen and he landed twenty feet away from her. She quickly ran over and sat on his stomach spreading her thighs against his waist and her knees bent back on each side lied flat on the ground as she stared at her love. "Kyo, you know that I love you, so why do you treat me like this? Why do you always push me away? Why can't you accept me?" She asked looking straight into his angry red eyes.
He growled, "I just… I just don't! I don't like you! Who but in hell can be in love with your torture!"
"Why do you have to be so mean?" She cried. "I need you… I…" She leaned forward and kissed him right on the lips.
Kyo eyes widen and pushed her off and got up onto his feet.
"Kyo! I love you!" She shouted to the back of his orange hair.
"I've already said that I… I can't!" He walked toward his master's dojo.
"Then why do you love her? Why her? And not me?"
The thought of Tohru struck his mind, yet he tried to pretend to be ignorant. "Who are you talking about?"
"Don't play dump with me. You know who I'm talking about. There is only one person between us."
He sighed and lowered his voice. "Just leave me alone, okay? I need some time to think."
Kyo walked into his the dojo and Kagura followed behind.
Their master greeted them as they came in. "Kyo. Kagura." He continued, "Kyo, I have a message for you from Shigure."
"But, how did he know that I'm here?"
"I think that it's pretty obvious. You don't have anywhere else to go to and it's been almost week, so I guess he's worried."
"That damn dog worried, yeah right." Kyo smirked.
"He said that he can care less about where you go or what you do, but Tohru is sick and…"
"Tohru is sick? No…" Kyo's voice dropped.
"He said that your absent had a great effect on her. She couldn't sleep, she couldn't eat and she often spaced out and couldn't concentrate." His master continued.
Kyo couldn't believed what he had just heard, 'Tohru, why? Is it because… No... That girl worries about everyone. Anyone's absent would worried her the same.' He thought. 'Stupid! Stupid! I should have known better than to let her worry herself to sick.' He threw his fists together, 'I didn't even think about her; all I thought of was me… I'm such an idiot!' He paused in his thoughts and remembered the reason why he left and groaned, 'But what is it that she's hiding something from me. Why couldn't she tell me? I've been cracking my brain out trying to figure out why.' He finally exhaled his overheated tension. "Arrrr! Why? Tohru!"
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"Kyo? It couldn't be. I've must be imaging thing." Tohru spoke sleeplessly to her pillow. For some reason, she thought that she heard his voice calling her name. Slowly she drifted to sleep.
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"Kyo, are you going back to her? Please don't… Yuki can take care of her. I want you to stay here and we can be together like this, just the two of us. Please…" Kagura begged.
"Can you just quit it? I'm tired and whatever I do is my business." He left her and walked away to find the roof top of the dojo. He lied staring at the blue sky, 'Should I go back now?'
Kagura was left behind feeling aggravated. "Kyo, you jerk! Can't you see that I love you?" She fell onto her knees, "I need you… you're my only love."
"Kagura, I know that you have great feeling for Kyo, but you shouldn't force him to return those feelings." Her master said.
"Master? I don't understand." She said. "Why? Am I not better than Tohru? She isn't as pretty as me nor doesn't she know more about Kyo than I do, so why does he like her more than I?"
"Love is an explainable feeling; it has no boundaries or comparison of any source. I can see that you love him, but he's disturbed and confused right now. He's been here training for a week, but what I've seen so far were not any training that I had given to him. He's lost his center and his perplexity is building up. You need to give him time for him to straighten out what's bothering him. Try to reach him slowly and maybe approach him in a different way. He may appreciate that better."
"But…" She said and her master shook his head with the lightest motion and smiled. 'But, I want him now. I've waited long enough.' She thought to herself.
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School let out and Yuki ran home as fast as he could. On his way home he stormed by his garden, he realized that he had planted some leeks and thought, "Maybe I could cook these for her." He said to himself as he pulled out the vegetables. He came home and found Shigure sitting in the living room with his face in his palm and his finger tabbing the table above his legs.
"Hey, Yuki wanna go out and get some dinner. I don't think Tohru will be able to cook tonight."
"Yeah, sure. How is Tohru doing?"
"She's sleeping." Shigure replied and saw Yuki was hiding something in his hand. "What's that you've got in your hands? Leeks?" He examined Yuki's sudden embarrassment. "Are you going to cook that for Tohru?"
"Mind your own business." Yuki snapped and walked away. 'I'm not sure if this is a good idea. The stupid cat is better at this than I am, but I need to try… for her.' He went into the kitchen and started cooking.
Shigure came in later to find a burnt pot of leek soup. He covered his mouth and chuckled, "You've just can't cook, could you? It's not part of your gene."
"Shut up! Like you can do better?" Yuki shouted back at his annoying cousin.
"Okay let go and get dinner. We can get some soup for Tohru, so what do you say?"
"K."
They ate out and brought home some porridge for Tohru. Yuki came up to her room and knocked on her door.
"Come in." She said.
"Hi, Tohru, are you feeling any better?" He asked.
"Yes, much, thank you." She sat up and smile.
"We've got you some porridge." He brought it to her bed stand. She smiled again. Yuki approached her and checked her temperature. "Yeah, it's cooler now."
"Yeah. A whole day of sleep helps." She said in her sweet voice, "Thank you for the food." She helped herself with the soup.
"Tohru, I kinda read your survey this morning…"
"Yeah?"
"So you want to be a Veterinarian and maybe do something that involved with taking care of animals. May I ask why?"
"Remember that orange cat that jumped out the other day?" She asked.
"Yah?" He replied as he narrowed his eyes and thought, 'That stupid cat!' He felt like grinding his teeth together and let irritation out, but manage to hold it in and exhaled.
"He appeared out of nowhere and it was on the day that we received the survey. He scared me half to death, but he was so cute. He reminded me of Kyo and of the Sohma's curse. Remember how you and Kyo used to transform into animals, you guys were sooooo cute. Then there was this one time with Hatori when he transformed and I couldn't do anything to help him and I felt so helpless. This made me realized that I love animal, but don't know much about them, so I decided I'll continue working and manage me way through college. If possible then I'll become a doctor, if not then I'll settle with working in a pet shop and maybe earned enough money to open one of my own someday. What about you? What are your plans?"
"I'm thinking of something in martial art. Since that's the only thing I can do without breaking or burning anything." Yuki sighed. "I tried to cook you some leek soup earlier today and ended up burning the thing to a crisp."
"It's the thought that count. Thank you." She smiled. "I remembered the last time that I was sick, Kyo made me some leek soup and it was so nice of him." She peeked at the window and let out a little sigh.
"Why do you have to bring up that stupid cat every time?" Yuki couldn't hold it anymore and he snapped at her. He grabbed hold of her arms, "Tohru, look at me! Am I not good enough to replace that orange cat? Where is he now? He can careless about you. He abandoned you. If he loves you, then why hasn't he come back yet?"
"Yuki, I'm sorry… I didn't mean to…"
"Since he left, all you've been thinking of was that stupid cat!" He continued. A thought struck his head, 'Could this be the cat's strategy to get to Tohru? No, it couldn't be; he's too stupid to plan this, but his absent had a great effect on her. Could it be that she…? No… not that stupid cat!'
"Yuki, what are you doing?"
He climbed onto her bed and sat in front of her. He examined her; he could tell from the look of her eyes that she was still confused and hesitant. "I want you to think of me and only me." He said as he reached for her shoulders and slid her body down on her back. "I want you to be mine." He dropped his head down to brace her lips with his. He kissed her warm and gently.
After a few seconds he moved down to her neck. "Yuki…" She felt her body burning up again. She closed her eyes, 'This is not right.' A strong urge inside of her was telling her to stop. "Yuki, please stop." She tried to push him off, but he seized her arms and legs with his and continued kissing. "No!" She cried and an image of an orange cat appeared before her. He was sitting on her window panes looking straight at her. He had the same intense red eyes as Kyo had. "Kyo." The name slipped out her pink lips. Something inside of Yuki broke when he heard that name, the name of his rival; it took control and got him more aggressive. "Yuki, please…!" He couldn't hear her and continued on, going lower toward her chest. Tears broke out and Tohru sobbed. She somehow managed to pull away, hugging herself on the edge of her bed. "Please… (hic-cup) this (hic-cup) is (hic-cup) not you…" Her words came in slow, but were as loud as day.
Yuki was left on his hands and knees. 'What have I done?' He thought. He shook his head and quickly lifted his body to see Tohru; she was shaking her eyes looked frighten. "Tohru, I'm so sorry. I didn't know what came over me." He felted disgusted.
"Please… just leave… I want to be alone now." She managed to say in between her cried.
He apologized again, "I'm sorry," then whispered as he left the room, "It's just that… I love you so much."
Tohru met his eyes before he left, he looked miserable. She understood how much he loved her, but her heart wasn't responding; it was pounding, but the beats were irregular and they confused her. The moment that she saw the cat's image something deep inside of her arouse. She rolled up her knees and hugged them tightly in her arms. She tried to shake off what happened and whispered to her arms, "Kyo, I want you here…with me…now."
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It must be the middle of the night. Someone was pounding on the window of Tohru's bedroom. The noise woke up the restless Tohru as she looked up her eyes formed a thin layer of shiny mist and she opened the window. The tall figure climbed in. "Kyo!" She threw herself into his arms and sobbed. "Why did it take you forever to come home?" He immediately held her in his arms, squeezed her fragile body as tight as he could and inhaled deeply. The breeze from the opened window helped them clung onto each other warmth. Tohru rubbed her head against his chest soaking his shirt with her tears. "I'm so happy." She said. Kyo remained silent and held her close; he didn't want to let her go. She could hear his heartbeat as it grew faster and faster every second. She lifted her head up and saw the disoriented expression from Kyo's eyes; he looked hurt. 'Did I hurt him? I'm hurting everyone around me.' Her eyes narrowed as she thought of the pain she given him and everyone else.
"I didn't want to come back." He said.
"No, please don't say that." She said softly to his shirt.
"I've been thinking a lot… about us… Yuki and Shigure…" He continued. "I decided… If you can't give me a straight answer, then I'll… I'll leave you alone. I don't want to hurt you and I don't want to be in this love triangle or square or whatever shapes it formulated."
"Kyo, please…" She begged. 'I won't be able to control my feelings if he goes on like this. What about Yuki? What about Kagura?'
Kyo leaned down and whispered into her ears, "I love you." She gripped firmer onto the back his shirt and formed two fists. She realized now that she had strong feelings for him. He walked forward still holding onto her waist as she stepped backward until there was no more space between her legs and her bed frame. She dropped down onto her bed and Kyo followed her. Kyo lied on top of her and she remained still as her heart pounded quickly and louder…thud thud...thud thud…thud thud. He could her heart beat raced, 'What does this mean?' He risen his head; his crimson red eyes met Tohru's blue ones. "Tohru do you love me?" He asked.
"I… I…" She said quickly as she grasped for air. Her heart pounded so hard that she felt that it could have jumped out of her body.
He leaned forward and gently pressed his lips against her and drew back. "Tell me, am I such a fool like the rat said? Am I not worthy for you to trust me? Why couldn't you tell me what happened? Did Shigure do something inappropriate to you? Or is it Yuki? Do you love him? Is that it? I am such a fool that I'm not worthy of your love…" Kyo said with such bitterness in his voice.
Tohru couldn't help but felt her heart broken at his word, her eyes narrowed and tears came upon her face, 'Why do I always cry when it comes to Kyo? Please… stop, you're going to worry him with your tears…'
"Why?" Kyo shouted with a hard punch into the bed. The bed responded to the pressure of his force and Tohru's body bounced up and quickly back down. "I understand… this is how it is… you can't accept me…" He slowly pulled away. "I guess this is goodbye then. I'll leave you alone."
"Kyo!" She grabbed his hand and pulled herself up. Instantaneously, she pressed her lips against his. He fumbled back a few steps, surprised as his eyes opened up and glowed. He returned her kiss and squeezed her hips against him. Her body was so warm. He deepened the kiss as she welcomed him entered her mouth. Tohru gripped on tighter as Kyo sank deeper into her. Their hearts rose in the same rhythm and they continued to share this moment together. They learned each others lips until their lungs collapsed. They dropped down onto the floor and grasps for air. Kyo ran his fingers into Tohru's dark long hair and smiled. "I love you."
Tohru returned his smile and wrapped her arms around him and breathlessly she said as tear drops made their way out, "I love you. I love you…" She cried against in his chest.
The three words that he wanted to hear had finally escaped her soften lips. He embraced her closer and inhaled her scent. "Tohru…" He said her name and felt at ease, contented and relieved.
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Back Stage Discussion:
Ayame: Oh no! I think that I've made dark ember flames upset. I'm soooooo sorry! Yes, you did ask Shigure if he was bie, but I guessed that I've missed that! My bad! (sniff sniff) Please forgive me!
Shigure: Calm down.
Ayame: It's all your fault! You had me stayed up all night! I think I'll write a letter to apologize.
Shigure: I couldn't let your beautiful face sleep without getting a moan out of you. The sound of your voice was so… intriguing… succulent… so ripe that it kept me going. I thought you liked it.
Ayame: Well…I.
Shigure: Admit it! You're the one that turned me on! You started it!
Ayame: I just couldn't get enough of you…
Kyo: OH HELL! Just kill me now! My skin is crawling!
Shigure: And, Aya… you don't want to write her that letter.
Ayame: Why not?
Shigure: She might misunderstand that thinks that it's a love letter and you're not interest in girls are you?
Ayame: Then you do it, for me?
Shigure: No, I'm still fluttered about hyper-writer14.
Ayame: Shigure!
Shigure: You'll need to help me forget… again… tonight…
Kyo: Quit this nonsense! You guys are driving me crazy!
Tohru: What is wrong with them? Can I help?
Kyo: No! You stay out of this!
Shigure: Oh, Tohru… You'll know very soon once you get married.
Tohru: Okay… Kyo, should I tell Shigure about us?
Yuki: About us? What do you mean? Did you choose that stupid cat?
Kagura: Don't call him stupid! And I'm not going to let Tohru take him… just you wait…until the next chapter…
Kyo: Damn it! I've just got back with Tohru! Don't you dare messing with me! SEND IN YOUR DAMN REVIEWS! I need to know what's next!