OMG! I got home from art class today and I was like swamped in emails telling me you awesome peoples reviewed and alerted and favorited this story. Me being swamped by reviews is a good thing -swimming through sea of reviews a.k.a. ocean of happiness-. Thank you guys so much. You rule! A lot of people said they were addicted to the story...haha, look at me, I'm like crack.
By the way, about the cover switch, I just couldn't resist...oh, and by way of warning, I made Yuki very emo. So, be afraid, be very afraid. Ooooh, scary ghost noises!
And I also thank Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire.
Hampster dance, everybody now!
To leave or not to leave...Kyo thought, glaring at the book as though it had personally offended him. He really wanted to keep reading it, but he was leaving for school in about five minutes and he didn't want to risk it getting lost, or stolen...or worse, for someone to see him reading it, and ask him what it was about. What would he say?
"Kyo-kun, are you ready?" Make that half a minute to make up his mind.
"Coming!" Kyo shouted, stressed. He glanced from the poem book to the novel on his bedstead, and back to poem book. Struck by sudden inspiration, he dove for both of them, and in a sudden flurry of activity, managed to pull on his socks at the same time. Aaah. Kyo sat back for a second, admiring his own work - two neatly Nike sock-clad feet, a 652 page book looking like a diary, and his own dear poem book looking magically different - the cover read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
"Stupid cat probably forgot how to breathe again," Yuki's taunting voice was obviously meant for Kyo to hear, despite the fact that he and Tohru were downstairs, while Kyo was quickly grabbing all his stuff in his room. He felt the anger rising, tight in his throat. The cat bounded downstairs, book clutched in one hand, knapsack in the other, teeth bared in a feral grimace.
"You're the idiot!" Contrary to his words, Kyo's witty remark put the phrase "witty remark" to shame.
"I'm not the one who couldn't tell the teacher when the war of 1822 was fought!"
"Yeah?! Well-"
"Yuki-kun...Kyo-kun..." Kyo was ashamed to see that Tohru that sparkling tears were pooling in the corners of Tohru's wide, expressive eyes, and instantly stopped his rant. Tohru's pleading was almost heart-breaking. "Could we...could we please get along, just for a little? I don't...I don't want to...just, I hate all this trouble."
At Tohru's words, Yuki turned quickly, on the spot, and strode to her side. He reached up one long-fingered hand to gently wipe away the glistening tears from her cheeks, leaving Kyo out in the cold. He glowered, as Yuki murmured something calming, making Tohru smile a little and blush sweetly. How dare he touch her?!
"Let's just go," Kyo spat, turning disgustedly and storming off in the general direction of school. Tohru tried to exchange a worried glance with Yuki, but it was obvious enough he didn't care about the cat, so she just let her worried glance bounce off him, and ran after Kyo, telling him to wait up. Uncharacteristically, Kyo didn't think it was cute, sweet, or anything - he was just pissed off. She was always fussing, always worrying about the silliest things.
"It is common knowledge that when observing a person of great skill doing their work for a long period of time, some of the knowledge is sub-conciously passed to the observee. This is why it's important..." The teacher trailed off. Actually, she was still speaking about something so very important that it would be on their psychology term test that would account for a great part of their grade. Kyo was not listening, and so it seemed that she had stopped speaking, for the words trailed off in his head, leaving him in peace and quiet to scratch out something random on a scrap of paper.
I should tell you, I'm disaster
I want to stop, but I wanna go faster
I want more, but I want less
I wanna do pretty-boy in a dr
Kyo stopped writing. Abruptly. Very, very, deliberately, he began methodically scratching out the last line, until there was a huge smear of ink across his paper. Yes, that was good. No one would be able to read through it. Just to be safe, Kyo crumpled the paper and was about to throw it at the trash can, but he remembered something. He was supposed to be listening to sensei, not scribbling. Crimson eyes glanced around furtively, and when no one was looking, Kyo crammed the paper in his mouth - it wasn't that big a piece, and while paper wasn't good for you, it wasn't that bad for you either.
I'm eating my words, Kyo chortled to himself. The slip-up wasn't written in stone, in fact, Kyo's stomach acids were already devouring the last, mistaken line. Kyo had already forgotten about that, and had started a little doodle of a snowflake in the corner of his notebook, mind skipping over unpleasant ideas like his poem. Damn rhymes.
Aaah. A quiet corner of the library, one he'd just discovered, considering the fact that previous to the Great Book-Finding he'd never have been caught dead amidst the forest of shelves. Lunchtime found Kyo, illuminated by sunlight, curled up in an armchair with his love.
Excalibur slips
A moment of silence
I wait, dreading
The red dragon arcs up
Pauses
Before sliding across the ground
It collides with the white dragon
They both crash to the floor
Red on white, fire to snow
I don't cry
I never cry
I don't think I can
I just stare
I don't feel pain
I don't think I can
Cold as ice
Red on white
Blood on skin
Below was an illustration of a person's (a woman's?) arm, amazingly detailed, lying, palm-up, against an illuminated book of myths. The arm had several scratches on the inside of the rounded curve, an interesting pattern - a pinwheel, or, Kyo realized, looking closer at the little nicks, a snowflake. Razor cuts, on a woman's wrist, in the shape of a snowflake. Suddenly the meaning of the poem, which had been fuzzy, as though looking through heated glass, had become crystal clear. It was a metaphor.
How did I figure that out in about a minute, considering my literature grade?
Perhaps it was just one of the those things - it's impossible to understand the words until you see the full picture.
"Sohma!" The rolled-up magazine collided with the back of Kyo's thick-skulled head, sending him crashing foward onto the desk. Mayuko-sensei stood above him, eyes ablaze. "And when I tell you to do the reading, it means you do the reading, not moon over some sappy love poem!"
Kyo glanced at the page he'd been on. She couldn't mean the poem he'd been reading, when she said "sappy love poem", could she? The poem he'd been "mooning over" was a truely sad one about a cloudy night sky.
The clouds waft over the clear midnight moon
I can cover up just as easily
Artemis, goddess of the moon and the hunt...
She swore off men
I can do the same
A storm brews angrily
I can put up as good a front
Rain pours down, shielding things from clear view
Just as well as I hide myself from you
His lovely teacher smacked him again.
"This is what I mean! Pay attention, or detention!" Mayu shouted. Kyo sighed, resigned. He might as well do the reading...wait a minute. The textbook was rather large, in fact, large enough to hide a small book of poems in, if, say, a small, helpless boy was being forced to read boring text instead of indulging in soul-scouring goodness. Kyo settled back into his chair, giving the "textbook" a rare, heartwarming smile. Mayu, of course, was suspicious.
"I'm serious! I mean, I'm glad you're finally actually reading something for a change, in fact, I didn't think you could read, but DO THE ASSIGNMENT!" Mayu screamed, making the small, helpless children all around her flinch. "I'm gonna have to confiscate that book if you don't sharpen up!"
My lovely book of poems being held hostage by Mayuko-sensei?! Kyo thought, distraught. I don't know what Shigure sees in that woman.
Needless to say, he did the assignment.
"Hey! Guys - wait up!" Kyo yelled at Tohru and Yuki, who were a bit ahead of him on the way home - probably the ever-inconsiderate Yuki had convinced Tohru to go ahead with out him, leaving kitty in the dust. Kyo sped up, hoping to catch up to them and not let the damn rat hog all the attention, but his foot slipped, catching on a rock, throwing the redhead sliding across the thankfully soft grass. He hadn't properly closed his bookbag, and all his textbooks and things tumbled haphazardly across the field.
Kyo's nose was buried in the mud, but he quickly jerked it upward. Where was his book?! The poem book?! It had, ironically enough, landed right at Yuki's feet, like a loyal dog returning to it's master. The Half-Blood Prince cover slipped a little, revealing one brown corner. Yuki bent down, an oddly intense expression furrowing his brow, but Kyo darted foward, splattered in mud, and snatched the book back before Yuki could pick it up, tossing it back in his bag. Tohru was already helping to retrieve the rest of his things.
Yuki gave him a weird look.
Kyo shuddered.
Must be imagining it, Kyo convinced himself. He couldn't have recognized a book by one freakin' corner. No way in hell.
Sorry...these are getting progressively shorter. But I just wanted to stick all the school stuff in one chapter. I'm sorry, but I put it up and then took it down again 'cause I wanted to edit it more...for those of you who couldn't get it...I'm not gonna explain it. I'm gonna sit here, point at you, laugh, and call you a dumbass. Soo...-sits, points, laughs - "Dumbass."
Just kidding.
Or am I?
-air guitair- You're it...you're the ultimate, it's automatic, I'm sure of it, no lie, so don't even try, to tell me that you're not the guy...