A/N- Kozue is sorta scary. My own creations frighten me sometimes.
Kozue: I frighten you, dear creator!? Gomen nasai! I...I didn't mean to.
Morgan::gasp:: Kozue! Forgive me. I didn't mean it.
Kozue: Dear creator. Forgive me. I only want to please you. But perhaps you hate me now. ::turns away::
Morgan::bursts in to tears and hugs her:: Never, never!
Kozue::compresses the pressure points on the author's neck to immobilize her:: Creation am I?
Morgan: Wha! AMATSUKA!!
Kozue: Disclaimer time, once again. The song used here does not belong to the writer, it is by Toybox. Now on to the fic.
CHAPTER SIX
He's My Bestfriend
If rape and dagger, fire and hellebore, have not yet prinked out with designs ornate the common canvas of our wretched fate, it is, alas, that our faint soul demurs.
And yet among the jackals, panthers, dogs, the monkeys, serpents, vultures, rats, the beasts which howl and growl and crawl and scream and in our heinous zoo of sins abound. There's one more hideous, evil, obscene! Though it makes no gesture, no great cry, it would lay waste the earth quite willingly, and in a yawn, engulf creation.
Boredom! Its eyes with tears unwilling shine. It dreams of scaffolds, smoking its cheroot.
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"He's my best friend! Best of all, best friends. Do you have a best friend too?" Kozue pumped a hand into the air as she sang, a charm bracelet on her lefts wrist flashing in the lights of the small karaoke room as she danced. Her hair flared around her with each little spin she did with the music, injecting all the energy that the upbeat song deserved into her movements. Yuki lacked less energy, however, distinctly uncomfortable standing next to her lively antics staring at the screen where the song's lyrics flashed in bold blue letters. "It tickles in my tummy. He's so yummy, yummy. Hey, you should get a best friend too."
"This is ridiculous. I don't want to be here." Kyo grumbled from his spot on the floor at the edge of the small platform that served as the karaoke stage.
"Hello baby can I see a smile." Kozue sang in a voice forced into ridiculously high pitch.
"I'm going to a party and it's gonna be wild." Yuki lack-lusterly recited the words.
"Can I come, I am sitting alone."
"Things are never alone."
"Oh the other hand, it's also very entertaining." Kyo affirmed, enjoying Yuki's discomfort and was rewarded with a look like a December midnight from the dark haired boy.
"I think its fun." Tohru argued, smiling in an effort to raise Kyo's spirits. The combination of Yuki's strange mood and Tohru's enthusiasm had effectively roped him into the event, but he was far from happy about it.
"Well, you and Amatsuka make two then."
"I don't know." Tohru smiled a bit to herself glancing back at the stage were Kozue and Yuki had progressed steadily into the second verse of the song. The tawny haired girl moved with animated, ballet like moves around him and sang with such emphasized liveliness that is was at once entertaining and humorous. Yuki, meanwhile, at some point had started to make an effort and while he couldn't inject that same errant energy the glimmer of a distracted, absent smile had started. It was slight and hard to see but Tohru had learned how to spot it. "I think Yuki's having fun too."
"What are you talking about? He's miserable."
"Do you think so?" She just smiled brighter, which only made Kyo's confused expression increase. 'Yuki said how he wanted friends. I think that, doing things like this, things that regular students do, I think that he likes that. He and Miss Amatsuka must have become such good friends. I'm so happy.'
"What are you grinning about?" Kyo questioned irritable.
"This means I don't have to make Arisa-chan and Ha-chan's lunches!"
"…wha?"
"Maybe, some pretty girls are in your world. Excuse me, but I could also be your girl. Lately, everyone is making fun. He's my best friend. Best of all, best friends! Do you have a best friend too? Tohru!"
Kozue reached out and dragged a surprised Tohru onto stage, giving her the microphone and jumped down, leaving her on stage with Yuki.
"Oh, not going to sing, Sohma Kyo?"
Kyo cut her a suspicious look from the corner of his eyes. "You look cute…but you're full of evil aren't you?"
She nodded. "Uh-huh."
"I had a lot of fun. We should do it again, real soon."
"Are you going home now?"
Tohru nodded at Kozue. "Yes. I have to go grocery shopping so I want to get it done before it gets dark."
"Um…" Kyo started, making Tohru's eyes swing towards him. "I'll help you carry them."
She stared in surprise for a moment the rewarded him with a smile. "Thank you! Kyo-kun."
Kozue maintained a small wave as the pair walked off down the side walk, waiting till they were out of ear shot before she glanced at Yuki. The summer smile she'd maintained in Tohru and Kyo's presence turned wicked, that bladed grin again.
"So. Are you in love with Tohru-chan?"
"No."
His answer was so point and frank that it surprised her momentarily. His face had become speculative and he watched the corner the two had disappeared around. She didn't think he was lying, but she also thought the truth was newly found. Curiosity made a brief cameo in her thoughts and then she shoved it away violently. She didn't want to get involved in Sohma Yuki's problem. She just wanted him to grant her wishes for a while. And nothing more.
"Alright then, magic genie! It's time for my next wish."
Yuki sighed. "Alright. What is it?"
"I'm hungry." She turned and walked pass him. "And I want sushi. So say the magic words and take me to a restaurant, magic genie!"
He slipped his hands into his pockets without protest. "Abracadabra."
"Oh. You're getting better!" She fell into step next to him.
"What did you think of Mr. Nakamora not being in school?"
"Mr. Nakamora? Oh, you meant that teacher. I really would have been surprised if he was. After the little incident. That's what usually happens."
He looked up at her in surprise. "Usually?"
Her lashes lowered in venomous amusement. "Did you think that that was the first time I've done that to a teacher? There are dozens more just like him." She shrugged carelessly. "Because of my IQ, school is only a formality. But there are teachers who don't accept that and so it becomes necessary for me to give them a demonstration. Although I can't say I don't enjoy it."
"Do you hate teachers, so much then."
She glanced at him sideways and her pale eyes glowed, flickered and shifted like white shadows. Her lips parted in a weary sort of sigh and she looked away again, fixing her eye straight ahead of her. "You give them too much credit, to be worth singularly worth so much of my emotions."
"What do you mean?"
"I hate teachers, I hate doctors, I hate police, and lawyers and scientists. I hate students and models and singers and actors. The whole world could disappear, just evaporate and…I wouldn't shed a tear." There was something in the smile she gave him. "That's the problem when you know too much. You get so jaded that, you just stop caring. So if the world stops spinning or if it goes on, I wouldn't care either way. Like I said, people are just protein and atoms. I don't consider them to be anything more."
"What made you like this?"
"I told you. When you know too much, everything becomes tiresome. Why, do you know something that I don't? I'll make you a deal. If you can teach me something worthwhile that I don't already know about then I'll be your magic genie. I'll keep your secret and do what ever you say. I'll even be nice to the teachers. Well? Sohma Yuki."
He was silent for a long while and Kozue smirked into the quiet, stringing slender fingers through her lions mane of hair.
"There are some things that can't be taught."
She turned her head in surprise. "What?"
"Everything you know…it comes from a book doesn't it? So what are the things that make you different from the books that you learned from?"
She stared at him and then finally her lips curled in a bitter smile. "Now you understand. There isn't anything. Anything at all."
He started, and met her dark gaze with quizzical speculation. "Amatsuka…"
"I've changed my mind!" Her voice was sharp. "We're going there." She lifted her arm and pointed across the streets towards a building whose lights had just come on as the sky started to welcome the darkness of dusk.
"But…that's a host bar."
She grinned. "I know."
He didn't understand her. Every time he thought he had a piece of her personality set it changed and he was left empty handed again. Was that how she really felt? Or was she wearing a mask? Or was it only part of the truth. He didn't know. He couldn't even begin to guess. But the worst thing of it all was that he wanted to know. He wanted to know why someone else could have eyes that seemed even more lonely then his own. He wanted to why she could seem so cold and hateful but so full of animation at the same time. It was an enigma that made him restless.
"Ah!" It was reflex only that kept him from walking into her when she stopped abruptly outside of the host bar and he stared at the back of her neck. "I thought you wanted to go in here."
"Not exactly." She turned, one hand closing the flap of her school back and the other around the neck of a half empty bottle with a rag stuffed into it.
"What is that?"
She didn't answer him; instead she pulled a lighter from her pocket and touched the flame to the end. "Bombs away!" Her shout an airy laugh as she tossed the bottle at the black Mercedes that had just pulled up in front of the bar.
The bottle struck the windshield of the car, splintering it in a chorus of cracking glass. It rolled, catching in the windshield wipers and shining innocently for a moment and then…exploded.
Yuki stared in horror Kozue smiling enigmatically at his side.
The car was motionless for a moment, aside from the bramble of the hood. Two motorcycles pulled up behind it and the riders dismounted. And then the doors opened and six black suited men emerged from either side, their hair slicked back and their faces dimpled by the results of some old knife fights. One wore a westerner fedora and held a cigar, unlit.
"Yakuza."