CHAPTER FIVE
Magic Genie

Folly and error, sin and avarice work on our bodies, occupy our thoughts, and we ourselves sustain our sweet regrets as mendicants nourish their worms and lice. Our wrongs are stubborn, our repentance base; we lavishly pay for confessions, and to the muddy path gaily return.

Our ravished senses at his leisure lulls, and all the precious metal of our wills is vaporized by this arch-scientist. The Devil holds our strings in puppetry. In objects vile we find attraction; each day we sink nearer perdition, unhorrified, through rank obscurity. As some poor libertine will bite and kiss the bruised breast of a courtesan, we catch a passing pleasure clandestine, like an old orange squeeze out all its' juice.

And like a million helminths swarming, dense, a world of Demons tipple in our brains, and, when we breathe, Death in our lungs remains, river invisible, with dull complaints.

&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&

"A what?"

"Ma-gic ge-nie. Like the kind that come out of magic lamps when you rub them and grant wishes." Kozue smiled at him as she traced the curve of a bottle in the air with her fingers. "From now on you have to be my personal magic genie and do whatever I say. As long as you do then I won't tell."

Yuki leaned against the phone pole wearily. "How do I know you won't?"

"It's common sense really. As long as I'm getting what I want, why should I? If I tell then I loose my genie. Besides if you don't then you know for sure I will, so it'd be a loose-loose situation even if I were being dishonest."

"Do you think this isn't dishonest?"

She frowned at him critically, her eyes registering real insult. "Of course not. I've never lied once, have I? I never pretended to have a good personality and I didn't trick you in any sort of way. And you should be the last one to talk about dishonesty when you're keeping such a secret."

That remark struck home and he turned away from her, annoyed at the shame that rushed through him. But she was right, wasn't she? If anyone was deceitful, it was him after all. The things about who he was…it caused trouble. Just like now.

"It's not your fault, though." He glanced at her from sheer surprise. She'd sat down on the middle step, leaning back on her elbows. "We really can't help the way we're born. What we look like, who we share blood with, what we can do—it's not something that we have the power to choose. And sometimes we're given things that many other people around us can't handle. I suppose, in a way, hiding those traits is the same as wearing clothes to cover your naked body. There's nothing wrong with it and it's not something horrible but…it's also not something that everyone would accept seeing so openly. But, it's also something that you can keep special too, for someone special."

He stared at her, as understanding teased the limits of his perception. "Amatsuka…"

She flashed him a razor blade smile. "Don't get me wrong though. I've seen your naked body and your rat form and I'm definitely not the special person."

He exhaled his disillusion. "You really do have a bad personality."

"What a mean thing to say, magic genie!" She wagged a finger at him. "You should be nicer or Amatsuka won't be nice either. So then, we have a deal?"

"I don't have a choice."

"Yay!" She clapped her hands together in exaggerated delight. "And you have to say 'abracadabra' after I make a wish!"

"What!?"

"Do it! Do it!"

Yuki turned away, letting a moment of sullen silence stretch out between them. "Abra…cadabra."

Kozue smirked, lowering her lashes briefly over pewter eyes and then rose to her feet. Her hair streamed over her shoulder and banner like caramel and her skin was made all the paler under the moonlight. She looked made of moonlight herself, at once pale and dark like a cursed goddess.

"Right then. I'm going home now."

"You mean this isn't your house." He glanced up at the apartment she'd chosen as their base of negotiations.

"Here? Of course not." She looked amused again. "Do you think I would show you where my house was so that you could come back and erase my memories. It'll take you at least until tomorrow to figure out my address so I don't have to worry about anything for tonight at least."

Yuki felt the prick of a grudging admiration. "You really are too clever."

She laughed, lifting a hand in a wave. "Ja ne. I'll see you tomorrow, magic genie."

"Oh, Yuki! You're back."

Tohru looked up from vacuuming as he slid open the doors and stepped into the house, greeting him with her usual warm smile. Kyo, sprawled on the floor near the table didn't even turn his head and Shigure turned a page in the newspaper he was reading.

"Yuki. You shouldn't leave so suddenly like that." His glasses glinted in the lamplight as he looked up. "Did you finish your business for the Head Teacher?"

"Yes. I'm going up to my room now."

"Oh, um…" Tohru glanced in the direction of the kitchen. "Don't you want dinner?"

He managed the motions of a rueful little smile. "I'm sorry Tohru but I'm not really hungry. I'm just going to bed."

"Are you feeling alright? Should I make you some tea? Or soup?"

"There's no need for you to worry. I'm just tired from the errands I had to run for Yamaguchi-sensei."

"Oh, I understand! Well, sleep well then!"

He nodded. "Arigatou. Good night."

It was like a haunted house. Darkness filled the room as if the night spilled in through the windows and smothered any illumination. The portraits on the wall had a shadowy cast and angled forms of the busts and statues created ominous silhouettes against the wall. Like a haunted house.

Kozue slammed the door behind her when she entered and the noise echoed through the corridors then fell away into silence. She let her jacket fall to the floor, a foot away from the rack and slipped her feet from her shoes to move barefoot across the hall. The room in the back was cracked and the bluish glow of a computer screen illuminated the carpet in eerie invitation. She pressed her face to the space between the door and the jam. Her mother was bent over a keyboard, her short, chocolate brown hair held back with clips. She wore her black suit, immaculate as always, and her face was a mask of focused attention on the screen in front of her.

"I'm home." No response. She opened the door a bit wider, just enough so that, if she wanted, she could slip inside. "Mother?"

"Who? Oh! Not now Kozue. I'll take you out later."

"I was just letting you know I was home."

"Hmm? Alright. You'll have to make your own dinner tonight."

She stared at the back of her mother's head. "I see…" And shut the door.

The clicking of computer keys permeated the flimsy barrier of the door and Kozue leaned against it, sinking down until her knees brushed the soft fabric of the carpet. Her head tilted and her eyes went to the cherub motif of the tiled ceiling. She lifted her hand, spreading her fingers so that one dark haired angle looked caught between them.

"Abracadabra. Poof; it all disappears."

"Are you alright, Yuki?"

Tohru glanced across at the boy on her left side, her eyes dark with concern. His silence all morning had been disconcerting. She knew that Yuki wasn't a morning person, she'd seen it a million times but he was usually more awake and animated by the time they got to school.

"I'm fine." He tried a smile a reassure her as they entered the school yard. "I just have a lot to worry about."

"Oh, I forgot. You're the student council president, so you must have so much more work to take care of then before.

"If you ask me, judging from the president last year he shouldn't be having so big of a problem." Kyo intoned with his usual disconcertion when the topic under discussion was Yuki. Or anything that had to do with Yuki, for that matter. Tohru hurried to diffuse the situation before it even began.

"Let's not start anything today, Kyo. Yuki has a lot of responsibilities to think about."

"Yeah, well. I have things to worry about too, you know!"

Tohru gave him a surprised look, tilting her head with genuine curiosity. "Really? Like what?"

Kyo fumbled. "Like…ah…I…just stuff, okay!"

"I…see."

"Yuki-san!" The voice that cut across the yard made the trio look up. Two pairs of eyes flickered in surprise and one in apprehension.

Amatsuka Kozue looked to bear no ill-effects of her brush with death. Her hair hung in waves around her slender form and her lips were curved into a warm smile that was completely unlike the icy quirk she had shown during her introduction the previous day. She moved with graceful confidence across the yard in a way that made her seem somehow even prettier and a number of students turned to watch her as she passed. But her eyes, they gleamed as the lining of storm clouds before a storm, the shade of a maelstrom ocean before the sea monster rose from it.

"Ohayo!" She directed her grin in Yuki's direction and he stared back at her, unsure of how to act. She noted his silence and lifted an eyebrow. "Wha? I don't even get a good morning?"

"Ah. Gomen. Ohayo."

She flashed a smirk that only he caught before she turned her attention towards Tohru and Kyo. Her demeanor was warm and all sunshine, she hardly looked like the girl that had mortified their teacher or blackmailed him the day before.

"You must be Yuki's friends. I'm Amatsuka Kozue. Pleased to meet you." She bent her head with the greeting.

Tohru's eyes widened and she flushed quickly. "Me, as well!" She gave an answer bow. "I'm Honda Tohru."

"Sohma Kyo. And I'm no friend of his."

Tohru sighed in Kyo's direction before she looked to Kozue again. "You're the new student that Yamaguchi-sensei asked Yuki to show around."

"Yes. I was really nervous my first day, but Yuki really helped me. Now we've become such good friends!"

"Oh! Really? That's wonderful!" Tohru's smile multiplied in wattage and Yuki resisted the urge to press his palm to his forehead, instead he settled for looking away from the scene. How could Kozue lay it on so thick? "Kozue, let's be friends too, okay?"

"Oh, really? I was really worried you wouldn't like me."

Yuki's head snapped back around.

"What? Why?"

"Well. Some of the rumors I heard said that you were Yuki-san's girlfriend."

Three uncomfortable expressions blossomed in perfect unison.

"No, no, you've got it all wrong. We're just friends." Tohru protested while Kyo simultaneously defended with a stuttered. "What kind of rumor is that!? It's ridiculous."

"Oh, I see." Kozue grinned, clasping her hands together apologetically. "So then the other rumor must be true. You're Sohma Kyo's girlfriend."

"WHA!?"

"Silly me."

"No, no. That's not it either!"

The ring of the bell echoed across the thinning school yard and Kozue turned, deaf to the duo protests.

"We'd better get to class. Oh, I know." She glanced back over her shoulder. "Let's all go out for karaoke after school. The four of us. How about it, Tohru-chan?"

"Yes! That sounds like fun!"

"I'm not going." Kyo said flatly.

Kozue stuck out her lower lip in exaggerated disappointment. "No? But I really wanted all of us to go." She slanted her gaze in Yuki's direction and he felt a chill slide down his spine. "Yu-kinie."

"Yukinie?" Kyo questioned in evident confusion, which slipped into irritation when Yuki reached out to grasp his collar and pull him back. "What? What are you doing?"

Violet hair obscured his eyes and he moved like a marionette on stiff strings, slamming Kyo to the ground with a flick of his arm. Dirt flew up around him and that aura of violence started to radiate from Kyo's exhumed form.

"What was that for!?"

"You're going."

"Like hell, I am! If you want a fight you've got one but there's no way in hell I'm going to some karaoke place."

The face of Kozue's cell phone flashed as her fingers moved over the keypad. "I wonder if the news paper is interested in an exclusive story."

Yuki clenched his hand into a fist…and proceeded to thrash the cat.