Author's Note: sorry this is late. i wanted to see if this is really what i wanted to do. and i wanted to get chapter five finished before i posted this but that obviously isn't happening at the moment soooo here's chapter three. this is kind of a transition and filler chapter.
Chapter Three
In Which Haru Catches Yuki's Attention
"Yuki. Yuki? Yuki! Yuki…YUKI…YUKI SOHMA!" A voice was yelling at him from somewhere behind him. Yuki stopped walking and turned around to see who was calling his name so desperately only to find Hatsuharu. Haru jogged a few paces before catching up to Yuki. He greeted his silver haired companion with a pat on the shoulder. "What? You off in your own little world or something?" Haru asked with a grin visible on his face.
Yuki chuckled and grinned easily back. For some reason he instantly relaxed around Haru. "Yea, something like that," Yuki replied and turned to walk in step with the cow.
"Where you off to?" He stuffed his hands into his pockets.
"Math class," His voice became a bored monotone even though it was his favorite class.
Haru laughed and ruffled Yuki's hair. "Don't lie. You know you love math,"
"You know me too well," Yuki looked sideways at the other and grinned. They conversed in small talk until Yuki got to his math door. Haru leaned against the wall just outside the door frame, hands still in his pockets.
"Hey, Yuki, I miss hanging out with you," The cow said softly, tilting his head ever so slightly to the side.
Yuki blushed faintly at the random comment. "Yea, me too," He replied delicately.
"We should hang soon."
"Yea. Let me know," Yuki blinked and rushed into his classroom. It was all completely normal until the end. The way Haru looked at him. Something was up. What was up with the people in his life lately? First Kyo was acting weird with his sitting on the bed the other day, and then Tohru randomly commenting on his behavior, and now Haru. The only one that was really acting anywhere near normal was Shigure and he was as far from normal as they come. Yuki tried to shake off his thoughts during class but something kept gnawing at him. He was dismayed to come to find that it was Kyo's eyes boring into his the other day that was occupying the majority of his thoughts. What was wrong with him?
"Yuki? Yuki Sohma?" A voice called to him, pulling him from his thoughts. He shook his head and came back to consciousness. He looked around only to notice that all of his classmates were out of the room and it was only him and his teacher. His teacher raised an eyebrow at him and Yuki smiled sheepishly. "Is there anything you'd like to discuss, Mister Sohma?" He asked quizzically.
"No, not right now, thank you," Yuki answered, quickly gathering his things from the desk and shoving them into his schoolbag. He walked out the door and found Haru leaning against the wall as he had done earlier. Now that was weird. Haru hadn't met Yuki outside his classroom in a long time. Yuki looked at Haru and continued walking, knowing Haru would catch up. "What's up?" Yuki asked the other boy who fell into step with him.
"Oh not a whole lot," He replied in a bored tone, staring at his fingernails. Yuki shook his head and grinned.
"You're worse than a girl sometimes, you know that?" Now it was Haru's to smile.
"Yea, shit happens," The pair continued to walk together. Luckily school was over and they got to go home. Yuki went to the entrance of the building and stopped as usual. He normally stood and waited for Tohru and Kyo so they all could walk home together. Haru, of course, stopped and waited with him, for reasons completely unknown to Yuki. Yuki nodded his head absently to a story that Haru was telling, searching desperately for his two home companions to appear. It wasn't as if he necessarily wanted to part Haru's presence, it was just that he needed to get home and think. His brain was whirling with Tohru's words, Kyo's actions, Haru telling him he wanted to see him more, the energy he felt when he punched Kyo's nose, the stupid romance movie playing last night, Haru's smile, how easy it was to hang with Haru, his garden, Kyo's beautiful crimson eyes…wait, Kyo again? His beautiful crimson eyes? Did that thought really just happen? Yuki shook his head violently, causing Haru to take a step back.
"Yuki, are you ok?" He asked in a concerned voice, taking a cautious step back towards Yuki.
"Yea, I'm fine. What were you saying again?" He said convincingly enough, apparently, because Haru continued right where he left off – or maybe it wasn't where he left off seeing as how Yuki really wasn't paying that much attention.
Tohru eventually sprouted from the crowd. Unpredictably enough Kakeru was right there along with her. It was quite a curious endeavor considering they only had their first real conversation the night before. But Yuki pushed all this aside to think about later. All he could think about was the cat and his tardiness. Great, Yuki thought. Of course the damn cat takes forever in a day to do anything. Yuki sighed heavily and leaned against the wall. Finally Kyo emerged with a bunch of kids around him, obviously bothering him. Yuki could easily detect Kyo's seething nature.
He watched as Kyo tried to tell them – or, more correctly, yell at them – to leave him alone and that he had to go, but they wouldn't detach themselves from him. What was it about Kyo that attracted others to him? Was it his hair because it was so unnaturally orange? He was always mean to everyone. Was that the key to acceptance: being mean? Yuki walked evenly over to the other boy and his gang of followers. He knew his rival would explode at any moment and he really didn't want that to happen, especially at school. The more opportune place would be their eventual destination.
"Guys, please, kindly, back off of Kyo. We really need to get home," Yuki said in his silky voice. All eyes turned to his, including Kyo's, and Yuki couldn't help but try to disguise a faint blush. His eyes, so quizzical and questioning. What would he tell him when they got home? Yuki looked at the inquiring eyes and touched his shoulder. "Let's go," His voice so quiet it was barely audible. Surprisingly enough, Kyo walked with him in a daze. Thankfully that happened without a hitch because Yuki's hand was getting too electrified. As soon as the cat started walking away with him – the other students staring at their backs – Yuki took his hand off his shoulder as if it was on fire.
Haru, Kakeru and Tohru looked just as surprised as Kyo did, Tohru a little more overjoyed than Haru, considering her opinions on the duo. Kakeru left in a hurry after saying good-bye to Tohru while Haru simply raised an eyebrow and stared at Yuki. "Curious indeed," He muttered when Yuki got close enough to hear him. Then he leaned right into Yuki to whisper in his ear, while lightly grabbing his hand at the same time. "I'll see you later," He whispered with a smirk and turned out the door. Yuki just stood there, his large, purple eyes even wider than they normally were, his heart racing a mile a minute. What just happened? Before he could even think about analyzing it he remembered Kyo and Tohru had already started walking without him – go figure – leaving Yuki to jog a few steps to catch up.
"So what was that all about?" Kyo asked in a snarky tone.
"What was what about?" Yuki responded, slightly dazed.
"That thing between you and Haru,"
Yuki sighed a breath of relief. "I really don't know," And his reply was an answer to both the voiced question and the question not asked.
It was a lazy, sunny day at the Sohma residence. Tohru was out with Kakeru and Shigure had gone off with Ayame to get new ideas for his romance novel. How they were going to go about getting these ideas was not something Yuki particularly wanted to know. However, the absence of their housemates left Yuki and Kyo to fend for themselves. Early in the morning, Yuki had wandered off to his garden abandoning Kyo to take a catnap on the roof. His flowers were getting along marvelously, reaching out towards the sunlight. Yuki smiled faintly at them. It made him despondent to think that it would be fall soon and he wouldn't be able to take care of them again until the spring. But it was quite alright; it reminded him that everything has their season and nothing can last forever, no matter how much he wanted it to; it kept his realities in check.
Around lunchtime he made his way back home to appease his growling stomach. He was starving! When he got home he noticed Kyo sitting at the table with a bowl of soup in front of him. The smell wafted to his nose, making his stomach growl louder. He grabbed his stomach as if this would save him from the embarrassment of his speaking appetite.
"Where'd you get that?" Yuki asked, trying his hardest to be civil so as not to cause another fight.
Kyo turned his head quickly at Yuki, as if he didn't even know he was there or even came into the house. How could he not hear his stomach growling? If he didn't know, maybe he really was as dumb as Yuki thought him to be. But then again he did come in rather deftly; maybe he should cut him some slack. Kyo glared and popped one eyebrow up. This action alone caused Yuki to blush a little. When did he learn how to make him blush with a simple brow raise?
"Well wouldn't you like to know," Kyo sneered. Yuki sighed and tapped his forehead to his palm. "DON'T GET THAT ATTITUDE WITH ME, YOU DAMN RAT!" He screamed, jumping to his feet and getting in his usual fight stance.
"Kyo, I don't know what kind of sick pleasure you get out of being beaten to a pulp, but-"
"I don't get beaten to a pulp! I recover quite quickly, Hatori said so!" He continued in a seemingly proud voice. Yuki just smirked and shook his head gently. Immediately after Kyo's attitude changed drastically. He was in his 'okay, Yuki, I'm going to kick your ass' mood. "Alright, your royal highness, let's do this. Today is going to be the day you meet your maker!" Then Kyo ran up to Yuki and was about to hit him in some way shape or form when Yuki extended his arm and held on to Kyo's head with his hand, holding him at arm's length. Kyo struggled against his hold as if he didn't realize his head was being held. "Quit being a wimp, Yuki. You know you're not even fighting me because you know I'm going to kick your ass today," Kyo snarled.
"No, actually," Yuki maintained an even tone. "I don't want to fight you right this second because I am hungry," He replied, letting Kyo's head go, pushing it ever so slightly whilst doing so. "Now, where is the soup?" He looked Kyo straight in the eye which seemed to surprise the other boy. He looked taken aback, as if he wasn't expecting to see Yuki's eyes just then. Yuki simply tilted his head slightly to the side, trying to figure out the cat's strange behavior. "…Kyo?" Yuki continued, waving a hand in front of his face.
"Huh?" Kyo said, snapping out of his daze.
"Soup. Where is it?" Yuki replied in phrases to the dumbfounded Kyo. All Kyo did was shrug and sit back down and point to the kitchen.
"Fridge." Was all he said and went back to his soup. Yuki nodded in his direction as he shuffled to the kitchen. Well it's nice to know that Kyo is sort of becoming his old self again. Yuki thought to himself as he heated up some soup.
Then, all of a sudden, a loud crash came from the front of the house, followed with a curse from Kyo. Yuki jumped a foot in the air in surprise and turned around wide eyes to stare at the doorway to the dining room. Kyo stood up as well and turned around to look at the front of the house. Both of the boys knew that it was most likely someone from their family and from the terror on Kyo's face Yuki assumed he feared it was Kagura. However, his assumptions were way off the mark when none other than Haru walked in with an eager Momiji traipsing along behind him. Yuki shook his head and pushed his hand to his forehead. What were they doing here? Yuki sighed while playing a friendly looking smile on his face. He was far from patient. It wasn't even the fact that Haru was getting on his nerves; it was simply due to the fact that he was quite confused by Haru's actions, and his feeling on these actions. Were they completely unwarranted or did they have a purpose? Why was Haru acting so weird? And did Yuki like how he was acting? The truth was he didn't know. All he knew that odd things were happening with Haru and Kyo and Yuki wanted nothing more than for everything to go back to normal. Back to when Kyo hated him. Back to when Haru didn't flirt more than usual. Well, it was actually kind of nice not being harassed by the cat day in and day out. Maybe just a few squabbles here and there would suffice, especially after he realized he needed the violent interaction.
"Why hello there, Yuki," Haru said amiably. He walked over to Yuki and stood next to him. Yuki raised an eyebrow and looked sideways at him. What was going on here? He thought to himself. It wasn't as much the action as the feeling he got from the action. It was almost as if Haru had underlying intentions for being around Yuki so much.
"Hullo, Haru," Yuki mumbled. He wasn't exactly sure how to act in response to all this attention. It was unusual. He hung out with the other zodiac, sure, but he wasn't usually the main attraction to seek out. Haru was beginning to make Yuki feel like the main attraction. "What are you doing here?"
"Momiji wanted to see if Tohru was around and I decided it would be a wonderful idea to accompany him," Was his reply as Momiji shadowed Haru and walked over to the two boys. Kyo sighed and turned to walk up the stairs to his room, leaving his bowl where it rested on the table. Of course, leave it to him to be a slob. Yuki sighed after him and shook his head with a roll of his eyes. He turned to his guests.
"Well I'm sorry to tell you that Miss Honda isn't in today. She's out with a friend from school," Momiji's face fell at the news. He didn't mean to be so formal. Even to himself he sounded cold and annoyed.
Haru simply shrugged as if he hadn't even noticed. "Well that's disappointing news," He started. "Do you mind if we hang out with you instead?" He asked with a wicked grin. Yuki's heart started beating fast in a panic. Could he hang out with Haru with all these questions bubbling around? Could he trust himself?
"I-I have to do homework. Sorry," Yuki replied with a slight stutter, trying his hardest to remain normal and casual. "That and I have to fix the door you broke down," He added with a sheepish grin. Haru grinned fully back at him. Something about it gave Yuki a shiver.
"Understandable. Maybe another time then?"
"Definitely. Rain check," Yuki replied with a sideways grin and walked the two boys to the broken in door. He sighed and made his way to the phone. He might as well start calling a handyman to fix this mess.