Disclaimer: Takaya Natsuki is the rightful owner. I'm merely borrowing her creations for my own diabolical ideals. No, really.

A/N: Thank you, everyone. Your reviews have made me happy. Please keep them coming . . .? By the way, what do you all think of this chapter? XD

Life's Many Indulgences
Chapter 2: Out Of the Blue

Yuki was quite nervous when it came to the actual confession he was going to make to his parents. He was sure they had raised him to be a good child, and even though this might be against their wishes, he felt that they had the right to know. Besides, keeping it all to himself was not making him feel any better, either.

Looking at either parent situated on the couch across from him, he began . . .

"Mother, father, I've gathered the both of you here to tell you that I am attracted to other males." He waited for a response. Waiting seemed like the hardest thing to do. When none came, he decided to continue. "Does . . . Does this unraveling of me disgust either of you?"

"Ah, well," Mr. Usuda looked to his wife, and then back at Yuki, "this does come to us as a surprise, but it will not make us love you any less. If you feel that you are a homosexual, then your mother and I shall hold nothing against you. You're at a age where the things you feel are what may define you for life. "

"You're both too much." Yuki felt like crying. He really did. "I thought this would be a lot harder on you, father, than on mother."

"It's all right, dear," Mrs. Usuda said. She gently smiled at her son. "I'm just glad more than anything else that you didn't keep this to yourself."

"Thank you." Yuki smiled back.

He really did have such loving parents, even though they were not bound to one another by blood. A child was still a child, and a parent was still a parent no matter what.

XOXOXOXOXOX

"Wasn't mom expecting me today?" Kyo asked. It was quite out of the blue, really, and that earned him a curious stare from his sister. "I remember her telling me last night that she was expecting to see me at home."

"Maybe her plans got twisted around. As a nurse things like that tend to happen, so she probably couldn't come home on her intended time to."

"Twisted around, huh?" Kyo looked down at his plate full of rice and chicken curry. When his mother had said that to him, he felt like there was something important she was going to tell him - that was merely what he considered it to be, but that might have not been the case to begin with. There were many reasons as to why she'd want to see him home. "Makes me wonder though, you know; why'd she want to see me and all."

"Achoo!" Tooru rubbed at her nose gingerly. Her cheeks were completely flushed and it looked like she was about to fall over at any minute. Kyo noticed this and was at her side immediately.

He placed a hand to her forehead. "Geez, Tooru, you're burning up and you didn't even say anything! Do you want to become more sick? Don't assume that I'm a health psychic or something, because I can't always tell!"

"I'm sorry, Kyo." She reached a hand down to her spoon and scooped up a good amount of rice and curry onto it. "I didn't want to go to bed just yet, because I'm not done eating. Even if I have a cold, and am very tired, it wouldn't do me any good to go to bed on an empty stomach. Although I am sorry that I have caused you to worry."

"No." Kyo closed his eyes and sighed. "No, it's okay. I was overreacting, I suppose."

"You'd better eat your rice and curry before it gets cold," Tooru told Kyo.

"Ah, right."

Kyo was always known to act strongly towards his sister whether she cared for his protection or not. His feelings for her was like no other, and at school she was the only person he was obviously really close to. All the fan girls of Kyo were jealous, but they would never dare dream of harming the brunette-haired teen, because Kyo would definitely not forgive them. Yes, despite his cold exterior and brash natural tenacities to speak in such unpleasant ways, there was always something each girl that liked him found good within him.

It was only a matter of whether Kyo would realize such traits within himself. Others may see it clearly, but Kyo was one for sore eyes when it came to himself.

XOXOXOXOXOX

The very next morning Kyo was awoken with a start when his step-father came bounding into his room with a large speakerphone.

"WAKE UP, SLEEPY HEAD!"

"Aaaaauuhuhhhhhh!" Kyo literally jumped from his bed out of surprise. "What are you yelling about so early in the morning, dad!"

"I THOUGHT I'D TRY OUT THE NEW SPEAKERPHONE THE PRESIDENT GAVE ME. NEAT, ISN'T IT?"

"Can you stop speaking through it, because I'm pretty sure you've woken up the neighbors, as well."

Kyo's hair was substantially ruffled and there were stray strands sticking out here and there atop his pretty little head. His ears were ringing from the loud speakerphone his step-father was speaking through only moments ago, and it wasn't helping that he was feeling a headache coming. Perhaps he had gotten too close to Tooru last night, and the price he was going to pay for it was getting a cold himself. Nothing looked too promising today; not at all.

"GET UP, KYO, YOU DON'T WANT TO BE LATE TO SCHOOL, DO YOU?"

"Dad!" Kyo stood up and snatched the speakerphone away from his grinning step-father. "Didn't I just say not to speak through it? You're being too loud, you know?"

"Sorry, sorry, Kyo, just calm down for your pathetic old dad, eh?" Kyo frowned at the man's vocabulary when it came to him describing himself. The red-head didn't understand why his step-father would put himself down everyday. "In any case, your mother has breakfast ready on the table for you, so don't take too long fixing up your appearance."

"I'm not a girl. My appearance doesn't matter to me as long as my hair and teeth are brushed, and my face is washed."

By the time Kyo actually got downstairs, his head was pounding with pain. A sluggish look came to his face, as he sat down at the breakfast table. Tooru was sitting across from him, and she was looking at him strangely. He glanced back at her and tried not to frown, because his sister was doing it again - she was more concerned about him than she was for herself. That was a really bad trait she possessed, but then again, she probably inherited such an abomination from her father because he was the same way, as well.

"You seem a little--"

"I'm fine, Tooru." Kyo took a bite out of the deep-fried tofu on his plate. It tasted oddly bitter for some reason. "Mom, did you put something weird into the tofu?"

"No."

"Then why does it taste bitter . . .?" Kyo eyed his fried tofu warily. It looked absolutely normal, yet he couldn't understand why he'd find it bitter tasting. Thinking that it might have been lacking some sort of flavoring, he decided to sprinkle some salt onto it. When he tasted it again, he still found that it was bitter to the tongue. "It really is bitter, though."

Not understanding why her son would say such a thing, Mrs. Mizunashi walked towards her son's plate and nipped off a piece of his tofu with her fingers. When she tasted it, all she could sense was saltiness, but that was about it.

"It's not bitter, Kyo. In fact, I think you've put too much salt on it."

"Kyo, you do seem a little red in the face . . ." Tooru began.

Sighing, Kyo said, "I said I was fine. Well, I don't want to be late, so it'd be best if I left for school now. And, Tooru, I don't want you going to school until you've completely recovered, okay?" Tooru nodded. "All right, I'm off."

Standing up from his chair, Kyo walked towards the front door to slip out of his house slippers into his school shoes. It was really tiresome, though, because by the time he got to school he was going to have to change into another pair anyway. It was the school's policy that everyone wore the same thing, and it was to help keep the school as clean as possible. It wasn't that the students didn't clean it daily, but it was just that their workload would be lessened if they weren't prancing around the place with dirtied soles.

"Bye, Kyo, have a good day at school!" Tooru called from the kitchen table.

XOXOXOXOXOX

There was no way he was going to be able to avoid the rabid fan girls today - he never could avoid any of them in the first place - running seemed like a likely option. He was hiding behind the base of a large magnolia tree, as he thought out his limited options.

"What are you doing standing there?"

"Ack! Usuda!" Kyo whirled to the side to see the gray-haired teen smiling at him. "Don't scare me like that, dammit!"

"The bell's going to ring soon."

"I know that."

Now was a good time as any for Yuki to say something about how he felt - anything, really. Yet, nothing would come forth from his lips when he tried to speak of it. The expression on Kyo's face didn't warrant him the right to say it. It'd be too wrong, and it all seemed to awkward and rushed. Instead of saying anything Yuki bravely held Kyo by the wrist, and tugged him along towards the school's entrance. Fan girls were sure to come flooding up to them, but Yuki never really worried too much about it like Kyo did.

"Prince Yuki and Kyo are together! Oh my god, this is like a dream come true!" a girl shrieked at the top of her lungs.

"Please excuse us, ladies, Mizunashi and I have something we must attend to, and it would not be in our best interests if we were late."

"Ah, that's right! Prince Yuki's in the student council!"

"Let 'em through, girls!"

"Wait a minute," one girl said, "Kyo isn't in the student council, so why is he going with Prince Yuki?"

Snatching his wrist away from Yuki's grip, Kyo made a mad dash towards the school. Several girls chased after him, while the rest stayed beside Yuki. The gray-haired teen shook his head in dismay - Kyo really was too hasty for him own good - if he had remained with Yuki a bit longer, he would have been able to make up an excuse for him, as well.

"Quit chasing me, dammit!" Kyo shouted. And stop addressing me by my first name!"

"Please be my boyfriend! If that happens I'll make sure no one lays a finger on you!"

This was getting him nowhere with the way he was running in circles. He wasn't allowed entry into the actual school until his school shoes were slipped on. So, in other words, he was running round and round the shoe lockers, with a flock of girls closing in on him. It was stranger still that he was losing energy so much quicker than he normally would have . . .

"What is all this ruckus so early in the morning?"

All the girls stopped running to look at the person who had just spoken. He literally came out of the blue, and to Kyo's delight, put a stop to this silly game of cat and mouse. Breathless and sweating, Kyo went to his shoe locker to switch shoes. Yuki was watching him from afar, but he did not approach the red-head.

"Mr. Katamura, good morning," all the girls chorused. They all wore fake smiles on their faces, which disgusted Kyo to the core.

"Good morning, girls." His eyes wandered to that of the red-head, who was standing by his shoe locker. "Mizunashi."

"Y-yes, sir!" Kyo turned to face his teacher, even though they were a good few feet apart from one another.

"I heard your voice from all the way down the hall ways. Is that some way to behave right before the start of the school day?" he scolded.

"No, Mr. Katamura."

Kyo didn't know why the girls weren't being reprimanded when they were making a whole lot of noise, too. It all goes to show that his homeroom teacher favored the female students over the boys, yet it seemed like the student he had the most problems with was Kyo. Each day the teen was always starting up a commotion when it could have been easily avoided, or dealt with on his own. Mr. Katamura knew that, but Kyo was far from being competent enough to handle such a task.

"All right, students, please assemble within your classes before the morning bell," Mr. Katamura said.

"Yes, teacher!"

All the females marched past him into the school building. Mr. Katamura waited until Kyo caught up to the girls before he himself walked inside the building. Yuki soon followed suit after several seconds.

Kyo was already sitting on his desk moping by the time Yuki came inside their classroom.

"Morning, Yuki," several of the students said.

"Good morning," he replied. "And good morning, Mizunashi."

Kyo turned to look at him. "Didn't I just see you not too long ago?"

"Yes, but I didn't greet you, so I'm doing it now."

"Morning, Usuda." Kyo's headache was really getting on his nerves now, and he felt that he was lacking much needed energy no matter how he looked at it.

Yuki smiled - he liked it when Kyo responded. It made him feel all warm inside.

Chapter 2: END