Thanks for the reviews! Tsh, a random funny bit, in reply to Mousecat's review...
Kyo: I am not melting!
Yuki: -pokes Kyo-
Kyo: -sighs and faints-
Yes, now on with the poetry! -puts on one of those french hat things and pulls out a quill from pocket- Exactament!
And in case you haven't noticed, the chapter titles are all of a book or song that happens to go with the chapter, considering the fact that the title of the fanfiction is The Half-Blood Princess, I thought it was appropriate. By the way, the title was originally Ignorance Is Bliss, but then I was like "Nuuu...a'cause Kyonkichi has to be all, like, happyish, and not, like, kill himself, because of, like, too much depressing poetry..." and they're not really happy normally, and they're all ('cept Shigure) very ignorant of the ways of the world. And other things. That involve Akito. Not as in, Akito-when-you've-both-had-too-much-sake-and-are-handily-in-her-bedroom, as in, normal I'm-gonna-mentally-torture-you-until-I've-had-my-fill,-got-that,-bitch?-Akito
I'll just shut up now.
Y'all.
Extra disclaimer: Five For Fighting wrote 100 Years, not me. In Furuba, it's more like two for fighting...-pokels Kyo and Yuki-
Kyo was tired. Kyo was very tired. His eyelids were drooping, his head was lolling, and every so often he had to jerk his eyes back to the page. He couldn't put the book down. It felt as though his hands were glued to the binding. He should have been asleep hours before, in fact he should have been asleep so long ago that his alarm was due to go off any minute. But he just couldn't drop the book.
You're ten years old, for a moment
Caught in between him and your master
And you're so frightened
You could kill yourself
You're seven years old, for a moment
You're telling me I'm only bringing grief
You're reinforcing that knowlege
You're only helping him destroy my spirit
Fifteen, there's still time for her
There's still time to make her your girl
Before it'll all be torn away
I wish I could help save you two
But there's no way
Eighteen years, you've only got eighteen of 'em
Eighteen years before you're behind bars
Eighteen years to conquer the world
Eighteen years to find love
But eighteen years is far too short
I'll never find the courage
You'll never break free
She'll never manage to help us
He'll keep on doing what he does best
Destroying spirits
You've got eighteen years
But it's eighteen that matter to me
Eighteen years for me to find the courage
For me to tell you how I feel
Eighteen years...
I wish for number nineteen
#Based on the song 100 Years by Five For Fighting, although this is not meant to be a song. It's a poem. Deal with it, bastard.
Kyo blinked at the odd footnote. Yes, it actually said that. He re-read the poem, pausing every so often - this was certaintly an odd poem. Alarm bells went off in Kyo's head - there was something too familiar, too insightful about this, but Kyo brushed off the alarm bells, telling himself he was imagining them, telling himself he was making it up. It was just a conincidence, just a sick coincidence, that he was to be locked up on his eighteenth birthday if he didn't defeat Yuki by then.
Speaking of...
Kyo glanced, warily, at the set of weights in the corner of his room. He used to work out every day, he used to dedicate so much of his life to training, to trying to beat Yuki - but now he was spending almost half of that time reading this excellent book - he was a little over halfway done with it now, which he prided himself on. Normally, he couldn't even half-finish books of this length, but this one was just such a good book. Which he turned back to, thinking absentmindedly, I'll train...later...in a minute...a couple of...poems...or hours...
The next page was chock full of haikus, one of the hardest kind of poems to write. Kyo really did admire this person. But the poems were blurring in front of his eyes, a result of the fact that he hadn't any sleep to begin with and was rapidly losing what he didn't have, so instead of trying in vain to read them, he rolled over, hand searching for his best silk bookmark (no way was he going to dog-ear this book!), and slipping it inside. Ironic that his best silk bookmark depicted a yin-yang symbol - exactly like him and Yuki.
Now that the book was safely by his bedside, covered, of course, by a scarf Tohru had knitted for him, Kyo could finally sink into his bed. He was asleep almost instantly, dreamlessly.
The next day was Sunday, so Kyo slept through most of it, only waking at noon for lunch and the karate tornament on T.V., falling back asleep at ten p.m. Tohru was worried, but Kyo managed to convince her that he was fine, just a little tired, and needed to catch up on his sleep. He had only one thought, before falling back asleep, which was "Where did my day go?"
The next morning, Kyo was up as usual, with the dawn. He had several hours to waste before school, and that was the way he liked. The cat took his time, taking a long shower to ease his tired muscles, straightening up his room a little, and once caught himself staring out the window, just admiring that mixture of dark and day that filled the sky at this time of day. Kyo loved this.
The rest of the house wouldn't be up, but Kyo was getting hungry, so he decided to make his way downstairs for a carton - er, glass - of milk. Passing Shigure's new office (his old one was now known as Kyo's room), Kyo paused, feeling a slight pulse through the wood doorframe. Someone inside was listening to music - music turned on so softly that no one asleep would be woken up by it, music so soft, in fact, that if Kyo hadn't had kitty hearing, he probably wouldn't have noticed it.
Kyo had never heard this song, they never played it on the radio. The thing he noticed first about it was that instead of the usual grunge, drums and electric guitairs, this song was accompanied by a piano, or maybe two pianos, softly playing a solemn rhythm, a melody that sounded to Kyo like teardrops falling on water. The guy singing was singing in a high voice, but he could hit all the notes, and he hit them well, at that. It was indeed, 100 Years.
Fifteen there's still time for you
Time to buy and time to lose
Fifteen, there's never a wish better than this
When you've only got a hundred years to live
Kyo felt himself melting into the music, he felt his soul (or heart, whatever) responding to the melancholy melody. What CD was this from? Kyo needed it. He needed it as much as Hana-chan needs chocolate, as much as Uo needed Kyoko, as much as Rin needs Tohru, as much as Mi needed those drafts, as much as Akito needed her little puppets to dance and cry for her, as much as he himself needed the poems.
Maybe whoever was listening to the music - most likely Shigure, as it was his office - would be able to tell him. Kyo cracked open the door cautiously, breath coming faster now, although he had no reason - Kyo was perfectly within his rights to open doors in the house he was living in...right? The glowing computer screen lit up a squared-off section of dark, a silhouette blcoking off the right half of the slightly blue, radiant screen. Kyo sucked in a breath. He couldn't tell who it was, sitting at the computer at five A.M., before even Tohru was up.
The person's head lolled back, and Kyo could see now - butterfly eyebrows, long, thick eyelashes, porcelain skin, a delicate chin, a full, pouty mouth, and a small train of drool visible in the corner of the open mouth. For a moment, Kyo thought it was Tohru, for who else was this beautiful? but, no, since when had Tohru had thick, storm-colored hair? How is it possible for someone who is so damn aggravating when he's awake to look so peaceful - um, yes, something else, too - when he's completely zonked out?!
Kyo let the door drift shut, and with relief, noted that the slight click it had made had not alerted anyone to the fact that he was there and spying. His sock-clad feet made almost no noise on the polished stairs, just soft, calming, rhythmic padding. He downed his glass of milk in one go - it was silky, cool, and sweet, like the feel of a chinchilla's coat underneath fingerips.
He had two years to enjoy this. Life was good. He had two whole years to conquer Akito. Two whole years to break the Curse. Two whole years to tell Tohru...two whole years to defeat Yuki, before then defeating himself - that was what he'd sworn to do, on his mother's grave, he'd sworn to kill Yuki, and then himself. He had two whole years. Two whole years to make Tohru his. Two whole years to finally give his rival what was coming to him - it'd been building up for a whole lot longer than two years. He had two years...
Suddenly, what had seemed like an eternity seemed like the blink of a cat-slitted eye.
Mou...whadda ya think?
Kyo really is an idiot, neh? The first paragraph was kind of about how I felt after I pulled an all-nighter at a sleepover...more like wakeover. 'Cause we were idiots and didn't get one wink, much less forty. The next day I was dizzy, had fainting spells, and was running a huge fever. It was like I was hungover.
I give Maggie-chan a lot of thanksies for introducing me to the song 100 Years!
I can do anything better than Yu...I have a friend who's last name is Yu, so we make a lot of jokes like "Yu and me". Teh. I'm evil. I'm going to hell. And I'm bringing my computer. See, that's why I'm eternally damned - because I will bring my laptop with me. So you guys can here about what a scorcher of a day we just had down here.
Give me some reviews, or I'll set the guy with horns and pitchfork, here, on you! And a chimera!