Hi all! Yes! Finally another chapter is up! I hope everyone enjoys it and I'm so sorry for the long wait. Thank you so much for the reviews! It made me feel warm and fuzzy when I checked my email at school and saw all the nice things people had written about my latest chapter. Please let me know what you think about this one!
Warning: A lustful OC and an obnoxious shrieking OC. They probably won't show up after this, don't worry.
"We have to do a report on what!" Kyo shouted, leaping up in horror and nearly knocking the dining table over in the process.
Yuki sighed. He'd pretty much foreseen this reaction from Kyo. "Human anatomy. It's for life science class. Weren't you paying attention when our teacher described it?"
"Um, no, not really," mumbled the blushing cat, remembering who he'd been focusing on instead.(Refer to ch.1)
"Yuki gave Kyo a strange, scrutinizing look, but all he said was, "Well try to be mature about this, please. It's going to be awkward enough as it is."
Now it was Kyo's turn to sigh in resignation. "Human anatomy? Geez. And over break, too! Sometimes I think they do stuff like this just to torture us and make sure our time off isn't overly pleasant."
Yuki gave one of his rare smiles and Kyo's heart rose into his throat at the sight of it. He'd never realized how such a small bit of movement (for Yuki's smile was really only a slight upturning at the corners of his mouth) could light up his face entirely. It wasn't the mouth that did it, he decided, but Yuki's violet eyes. When Yuki smiled, his eyes seemed to shine with a tranquil glow.
"I wish you'd smile more often," Kyo thought to himself. Or maybe not to himself because Yuki looked up from the rubric he was studying in surprise.
Ah crap thought Kyo, somewhat panicked. I said that out loud!
But Yuki merely smiled at the flustered cat. His mind, however, was in a turmoil. Kyo likes it when I smile? What the hell is that supposed to mean? He's seemed a bit odd lately…Come to think of it, Yuki had been feeling somewhat strange himself recently. The emotions he'd been feeling, especially concerning Kyo, could hardly be considered normal. What was going on?
In order to cover his confusion, Yuki quickly tried to compose himself and said, "In my opinion, the best way to get started it to buy our supplies first. Does that sound okay?"
Kyo blinked. Did Yuki just ask my opinion on something? That never happens! Unfortunately for Kyo, though, he'd been so focused on this detail that he'd missed what Yuki had said and ended up looking stupid yet again because of it.
"What?"
Yuki refrained from rolling his eyes. This guy's got a gift he thought and yet…Not wanting to continue that particular introspection, Yuki repeated, "We could start by buying the supplies we need for our project. Part of the grade includes a display, so we'll need poster board and things."
"A display?" Kyo groaned. "I assume that includes drawings? Diagrams?"
"Yep," replied Yuki, unable to suppress a small smirk from crossing his face. Noticing it, Kyo raised his eyebrows incredulously before dropping his head onto the table.
"You're sick, ya know that?" he muttered.
On the way to the store, Yuki tried his hardest, but couldn't get Kyo out of his head. He desperately wanted to know how the other felt about him, but couldn't imagine why this could be. He'd never cared about Kyo before, so why start now? But Yuki couldn't help it. He kept noticing the cat – things he said and did, the way he turned pink when he was flustered, the way his crimson irises changed color subtly when he was out here in the sun.
Angrily Yuki shook his head and cut off this train of thought. This was getting him nowhere! Maybe by talking to Kyo he'd be able to sort some things out.
Yuki mustered as much courage as possible and began, Hey, Kyo, I was wondering"-
"What are you looking at?" Kyo demanded loudly, cutting Yuki off. Yuki felt like he'd received a physical blow and his mind reeled. Had he been totally wrong about all this? He looked at Kyo with pain in his eyes, ready to ask what he'd done wrong. Then he noticed that the other boy wasn't looking at him, but at someone over to the left of them. He breathed a sigh of relief, but his peace of mind didn't last long.
"Oh, just your friend over there," said the girl to whom Kyo had been speaking, nodding in Yuki's direction. "He's cute," she said, grinning. With a toss of her blonde hair, she turned and walked away, pausing once to wink at Yuki over her shoulder.
Kyo scowled after the girl and then turned back to Yuki once he was satisfied that she was gone and said, "Hey, were you gonna say something?"
"What? Oh, no," Yuki mumbled distractedly. There was something weird about that girl. He sincerely hoped that was the last he'd see of her. The way she'd looked at him had been unnerving.
"Yuki, are you okay?" Kyo asked as they walked through the automatic doors into the office supply store. The other boy looked perplexed about something and Kyo put his hand on Yuki's shoulder, concerned.
Yuki was startled by Kyo's touch. Since when did Kyo care this much? But he decided he didn't mind Kyo's hand being there – quite the contrary.
Feeling a bit better, he said to Kyo, "Yes, I'm fine. Now, we'll be finished faster if we split up." He folded the list of things they needed in half and creased it with slender fingers. Ripping it down the fold, he handed Kyo one half. "You find these things and I'll get the rest." Kyo nodded and set off down the aisle with the glue sticks, glancing back at Yuki one more time.
Yuki headed toward the poster board. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he glimpsed a familiar blonde girl entering the store, but when he turned to get a proper look, no one was there. The silver-haired boy was filled with foreboding and suddenly wished Kyo was still with him.
The rat breathed a sigh of relief as he took the last item on his list off the shelf. His shopping trip had passed without incident and he'd seen neither hide nor hair of the scary blonde girl. He turned around, placing the printer paper in his basket and froze. There she was, walking towards him with that disconcerting, almost hungry look in her cold blue eyes.
"Hey, cutie," she said, advancing towards a petrified Yuki. "I see your orange-headed pal isn't here to watch your back. How'd ya like to go somewhere, then? Just us, eh?" She stepped closer and grabbed Yuki's hand in a terrifyingly strong grip.
"Um, no, n-no thanks. Please, I have to"- Yuki protested, but he was cut off.
"Oh come on. You know you wanna," persisted the girl, moving in even closer. She was so close that Yuki could smell the cinnamon of the gum she was chewing on her breath. She grinned maliciously when she noticed the fear in his eyes and the beads of sweat on his brow.
Then several things happened in quick succession. Her icy eyes glinting, the blonde girl snaked her arms around Yuki's waist. He transformed instantly and dropped his shopping basket right on her flip flop-clad foot. The girl howled, both at the pain in her toes and at the cute, helpless, purple-eyed boy's escape.
"Owww! Shit, where did he go?"
Hearing the girl's outburst, a portly clerk rounded the corner, unfortunately from the direction to which poor little Yuki was escaping.
The clerk said sternly, "Now, missy, this is a public establishment and I'll not have" – But at the sight of Yuki, she interrupted herself with an ear-splitting shriek. "Eek! A rat! Shoo, shoo!" With that, she began chasing the terrified Yuki with her broom and the poor rat ran for dear life.
Kyo happened to be picking out construction paper a few rows over and would have had to have been deaf in order to not hear the racket from the other aisle. At the word 'rat', his ears pricked up and he knew that something must have happened.
"Yuki!" he exclaimed under his breath and raced towards the source of the noise.
Reaching the row with the still howling blonde and the clerk, whose screams had gone up another octave, Kyo saw that Yuki wasn't there. Judging by the way the clerk was shoving her broom handle under the shelving unit, Kyo figured he must have fled to the next aisle over. He tore down the row he was in and scooped up Yuki's shopping basket and clothes on the way by. He dashed to the end, skidded around the corner, nearly colliding with a display of Sharpies and ran toward the fuzzy shape huddled in the middle of the floor. Kyo picked up the quivering rat and placed him securely in his breast pocket.
"Kyo," Yuki said, weak with relief."
"Shhh. You're fine now. Let's get outa here."
The cat walked briskly up to the check-out counter and paid for their purchases. Ignoring the man's raised eyebrow at his armful of clothes, Kyo headed back out the automatic doors.
Kyo let out the breath he'd been holding and peered anxiously into his pocket. "Are you all right, Yuki?"
"Yes, I think so. Thanks to you, anyway," said the still shaking rat.
"What happened? Was it that blonde girl?" Kyo inquired.
So haltingly Yuki told Kyo the story. He was concluding as they walked down the wooded drive leading to Shigure's house, when he suddenly transformed back into human form. Kyo blushed furiously and thrust Yuki's clothes at him while averting his eyes. Yuki blushed, too, and darted behind some bushes to get dressed.
They walked the rest of the way to the house in silence. Upon reaching the door, Yuki turned to Kyo and said, "Thanks for saving my skin." With that, he kissed Kyo gently on the lips and walked inside.
And there you have it! I know I am a horrible person for not updating sooner and that if I try to explain myself it will sound like I'm just making excuses. But please have mercy! It was my first year for having finals, so I was kind of freaking out and studying every spare moment. Now I'm on break, though, so the chapters will hopefully be coming thick and fast!
Hey, I was wondering if I should put in a previous section to remind people what happened at the end of the last chapter. Would that help people? Because if it would, I'd be glad to add one, but if not, I won't bother to add one because I am lazy and on summer break. Let me know .
