Phase 4: Never Again Face Down, Her Life

Kitsune woke up with the frozen dawn. The sun was not seen since the clouds had refused to let him shine on the snow covered earth. But Kitsune couldn't care less about that. Last night she fell asleep in the arms of the boy she thought was a leech. Yet wasn't a leech, he was the one that let her emotions flood into him, he let her anger loose on his face, he even listened to her as she sobbed through the long night. Kirie looked to her left and found Yue sound asleep next to her. She smiled at him; she even blushed as she touched over her chest to feel the overcoat that he had cast over her. The room was cold, but the warmth she felt stayed with her all night long…

Kitsune wanted to tell him everything about her. Why she looked the way she did in the dead of winter, why she was walking aimlessly on the sidewalk, and why she ran away from the man she had hated the most - her father. But she didn't want to wake him. So she just sat there, gazing at his face and how she had abused him… She felt remorse, but she felt affection even more. Kirie laced her fingers across his face; touching each and every bruise, cut, then even went on to try to rub off the pain she caused. Yue awoke to her tenderness.

"What are you doing, Kitsune-nechan?" Yue didn't open his eyes. He just let her to continue stroke his face.

"Nechan? Since when did I become your older sister?" Kirie asked in a sarcastic manner.

"Should I call you Kitsune-san then?" Yue replied.

"Nechan is fine. I'm trying to get rid of all the little mares that I inflicted on you last night if you must know."

"Is that so? I think I'd rather keep the 'little mares' so that you won't do it again." Silence fell over the room. Kitsune put her hands on her lap.

"I'm sorry for hurting you… Yue-kun…" Yue sensed the regret in her voice and opened his eyes. He got up and leaned on her shoulder.

"Don't be; I shouldn't have said that… I'm sorry." Kitsune grasped her hands over his and let her head rest on his.

The atmosphere in the room was quiet. The penetrating cold may have entered, but it dared not to disturb the couple. They were so close that they could feel each other's warmth. Kitsune had not felt the gentleness of someone else's warmth in such a long time that she had almost forgotten the joy. She liked the sensation of knowing that someone else was there to feel her sincerity. Kitsune dared not sleep again, for fear that Yue would leave her and she would be alone again. But she drifted into her own pleasurable fantasy…

Yue was confused with his emotions. He was asking the question, "What am I doing?" He wasn't her friend, she wasn't a family member, and they certainly weren't lovers…But even still, Yue felt an impulse to be with her.

"Oh my… what have we here?" Yue turned to see Kyo, with a laughing grin on his face.

"Well, well! Well-well-well!! I wonder what Haruka ojou-sama would think is she saw this! Would she laugh, would she be angry, or will she cry tears of joy at how you've grown into such lecherous male?!" Yue was trying very hard not to put Kyo into a body bag in his own clinic. Kitsune on the other hand was totally oblivious.

"Yue, what happened to your face?" Kyo was stunned for a moment and came to his own conclusion. "Oh! My! God! Did you do the na-"Before he could finish his sentence, Yue was already there to punch him in the face.

"Die-die and die again!!!" Kyo was laid out on the floor. (P.S. Comic Relief)

Kirie then came to her senses and noticed that Yue wasn't next to her. She looked around and saw him arguing with a doctor. "Umm…"

"You're such a pain! Haven't you heard of someone being sarcastic?! I was trying to complement you!"

"Shut up! I didn't like the way you said it!"

Kitsune couldn't ignore it any longer. "WILL YOU PLEASE LISTEN TO ME?!?" The building echoed with her screaming.

Kyo and Yue regained composure. Yue walked over to Kitsune and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Let me introduce myself, I am Kyo Hanabishi, head doctor of this clinic. May I ask for your name?"

"Kitsune Konno."

"Well than Konno-san, if you would be willing, please elaborate as to why you were brought here by Yue-dono."

Kitsune didn't answer; she just stared at Yue's back.

"Konno-san?" Kirie moved towards Yue, as if to hide behind him.

"Stop badgering her, oji-san. Can't you see that you're scaring her?" Kyo had a look of annoyance on his face.

"I'm sorry; if it is personal I will not persist. But I must ask for your address and phone number so that I can-"

"NO!!!" Kyo was startled as was Yue. The reverberation in her voice carried feelings of fear and anguish. Kitsune wrapped her arms around Yue and pulled him closer to her. The world was mute, if only for an instant.

"Oji-san, can we talk about this later?" Kyo turned around and headed out the door.

"I have no choice right now, but I will have to contact your parents very soon. Keep that in mind." With that Kitsune and Yue were alone again. The room had become colder. Even the light that entered was icy to the touch.

"I-I'm s-sorry… Yue…" her voice was unsteady, as she breathed and talked between gasps. Yue didn't respond, he turned his body around and held his hands over hers.

"Don't be afraid of me Kitsune. I'm here for you. You can tell me what happened; I promise that I won't judge you. Just start at the beginning, slowly."

"Yue… I'm a bad person… I… I'm living a fake life. I don't know who I am… anymore."

"Kitsune you're not a bad person…"

"How can you say that?! You don't even now me! You think that just because I cried into your arms like some school girl that you figured me out?!"

"That's not it… It's because you trusted me and now I'm going to trust you."

Kitsune didn't want to believe him and yet she did. Yue held her in his arms and she began to talk.

"It was three years ago now… My mother had had enough of the alcohol, the abuse, but most of all, she had enough of him. My step-father… I hated him. He would come home late at night and start screaming. My mother was always arguing with him when he came home drunk. When my step-father would have enough, he would start beating her. I heard everything in my room… I tried to think of something happy, but it would never work… I would hear the screams from down the hall. Once I came out and she said 'go back to bed.' I was terrified that she would die in his hands. The next day we would always go to the hospital. She'd come up with some lame excuse like 'I fell down the stairs', but the nurses never bought it. They knew who did this to her; he always stood out there in the waiting room, trying to look as innocent as possible. To me, father was a name that I never wanted to call him, he was just a spoiled kid with a temper, and I wanted justice for what he did to my mother. But I never got it, it kept on happening and nobody did a damn thing to stop him until my mother met a younger doctor at one of her 'periodic checkups.'

She was gone. Just like that my mother was gone. She called three days later and told me that she was going to get re-married to a doctor, a young doctor. I was rapt; I couldn't believe that she would leave me behind. I wanted to ask her 'Why didn't you take me with you, you selfish bitch!?!' I felt betrayed, by my own personal protector. My life fell apart after that.

I refused to live with my step-father since my mother had left me. I was living in a fraternity that had a habit of getting 'to friendly' with the ladies. But it seemed better than where I was right now. I had to lie about my age to get in. Everything was alright for a while, but then last night there was a party and the guys had a little bit too much to drink. I was forced onto a bed. He tried to rip my clothes off, I fought back, but it wasn't enough. Luckily I grabbed onto a glass bottle and smashed it on his head. I ran out the dorm with nothing but my torn bits of clothing. Wandering around all night in the frozen cold I thought about where I would go after this. I couldn't think of anything so I just kept on walking. Then you found me and I collapsed into your arms…"

Yue forced Kitsune to his shoulders, making her express all the pent up emotions of years past. The tears came out like frozen torrents, crashing down the back that was her support. Wearing him down, Yue could feel it: her rage, her sorrow, and… her anguish. Never again did he want her to hold her head face down. Kirie held wrapped her arms as though she would die if she let go. It was painful, but Yue didn't want her to bear the burden all on her own.

"Kitsune-nechan… you were alone for such along time that you wandered aimlessly through life. I'll take care of you from now on… I won't let anybody hurt you again. You'll live with me in a place that's a safe haven from the garbage that is human refuse… This is my promise to you." Yue wanted answers to why Kirie had to endure through such hardships alone. How can humans be so wicked to their own kind? How can men thing of nothing other than the need to satisfy there own twisted desires? To make a person live through the pain of being taken advantage of; to think of nothing but material gain? How can a mother abandon there own child to run off to a better life on there own? To have them suffer through the emotion called loneliness? To further open the abyss that is SIN

Yue made a vow that day; to make certain that nothing like that occurs again to his her…

Sorry for the long update. I've been kinda busy with my assignment for AP Literature. You guys know how it is with KP, but anyways I know that this story is fast-paced (at least I think it is.) and vague. So if you have any question just send me an e-mail.