Author's Note: So, don't worry! I haven't forgotten about this story! It's been on the back of my mind and since I got stuck on Chapter 5 it took a little longer. However, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with this chapter. It was a lot of fun to write and I think it shapes how the rest of the story will go. I know Yuki and Kyo are frustrating right now, but don't worry it gets better. Don't get attached to Haru and Yuki, even though they're cute. As aforementioned, this is a Yuki/Kyo story. Anyhow, enough blabbing. Enjoy the chapter! Make sure you review!
Chapter Six
In Which Yuki Gives Haru His Answer
Yuki couldn't believe what had just happened. He wandered into the house and up to his room in a daze. Was now the right time to think about it? Surely he knew a glimpse of Haru's intentions by now, so it seemed highly appropriate, and respectful to Haru, that he at least toyed with the idea in his mind. He first thought about the kiss and...wow! How did Haru learn to kiss like that?! Granted, the last time Yuki had been kissed, it had been by Haru when they were children, but he had gotten so much better. It took his breath away just thinking about it! He brought his fingers gently to his lips to make sure that they were still there. It took a second to realize that he was still wearing Haru's jacket and buried himself into Haru's scent at the acknowledgement of it. He smiled and swooned and sighed. Great, he thought, it's good to know I turn into a teenage girl when I get kissed. He rolled his eyes at himself. Because of his reaction did that mean he liked Haru? Well of course he did! The boy was only there for him throughout most everything in his life, not to mention the fact that he knew him better than anyone. If he got together with anyone, wouldn't it be with Hatsuharu? Didn't he owe that much to him? He threw himself onto his bed, on his back and looking up at his ceiling. He drew a deep breath and closed his eyes. It was apparent that he did have feelings for Haru; how much, he didn't know, but they existed and they were pretty intense. Didn't he owe it to himself to at least explore these feelings?
"Yuki! Dinner!" Tohru's angelic called up the stairs to awaken Yuki from his dreamlike state. He sat up and shook his mess of silver hair, hoping this action would shake away the euphoria he was feeling. Standing up, he realized that he felt weightless to himself. He walked downstairs, still in a trancelike daze, he was sure a hopeless grin was still plastered on his face. He made his way to the table, somehow, and sat down. He wasn't really aware that all eyes were on him, all except Kyo's, nor did he really even care. He pulled the sleeves of the jacket over his hands and brought his hands to his face. He was acting completely irrationally, but the cares he did not give were ubiquitous.
Kyo cleared his throat and Yuki immediately was pulled from himself. Yuki looked down at the jacket and slowly he brought his eyes to Kyo. He looked towards Kyo and instantly their eyes met. He wasn't expecting that the cat's crimson eyes would instantly lock with his, and found he was unable to look away after he was appalled to find what emotions lay apparent within the crimson orbs he became familiar with possessing a lack of emotions. But instead of finding a mask painted over his brilliant and stunning eyes, he found pain, hurt, anger, and defeat. Yuki had never seen such eyes come from the cat and he wondered what could inspire such feelings. The expression was devastatingly heartbreaking and Yuki could do nothing but stare back into those eyes returning with a look of confusion in his own usually masked eyes. What could have happened to Kyo that he could let his guard down like this? He always had that damaged demeanor, but he never dropped the mask from his face as Yuki rarely dropped the mask around his. But now Kyo was an open book of pained emotions and he couldn't fathom why. He remembered how Kyo was looking out his window at his encounter with Haru just minutes before and realized he hadn't even given two thoughts as to why he was so quick to look away. What could the cat possibly care about Yuki's potentially burgeoning love life? Maybe he was against gay love? Looking into his eyes he realized that that wasn't the right answer. He looked down at his plate and began to stir the rice around with his chopsticks, unable to notice any sort of appetite.
Dinner was weird, to say the least. He didn't pay any mind to Tohru and Shigure discussing, at length, how he could turn his romance novel from sounding like a porno to an actual story with an actual plot. But more than that, his good mood was overshadowed by Kyo's downcast one. It perturbed him that it was ruffling him that much, but he didn't make it seem like it had. However, he was sure it was pretty apparent that he wasn't as up in the clouds as he had been before. Kyo was as silent as Yuki, but Yuki dared not look back up at the other boy despite the fact that he could feel his eyes on him most of dinner. It wasn't long of Yuki pushing his food from one side of his plate to the other before he decided he didn't really want to be at the dinner table anymore. He stood up and was surprised to find Kyo do the same. The two boys took their dishes to the kitchen without saying a word and parted their separate ways to their bedrooms across the hall from the other. Yuki was off to try and escape to find comfort in his homework while Kyo was off to…well he didn't know what Kyo was up to. Probably some more brooding.
Homework provided little solace or distraction from the thoughts whirring around in his brain. He was still euphoric about Haru and their kiss, but what of Kyo and his heart wrenching expression? What was Kyo thinking? Did it have something to do with his odd behavior? He had noticed that Kyo had been becoming more and more irritable lately. He had thought back to when he started noticing it again and realized it was right around the time Haru started coming around more often. Weird, he always thought the two of them got on pretty well. With a heavy, jumbled, mixed up head Yuki finally drifted off into slumber.
Yuki woke up still in Haru's jacket. It brought an instant smile to his face as he rose out of bed and began preparing for school. He left the jacket on over his uniform shirt, grabbed his backpack and walked down the stairs to get some breakfast. Kyo was already downstairs, which was unusual considering he wasn't an early riser. Ever. He sighed and rolled his eyes at Yuki and walked out the kitchen and into the study. Tohru smiled and greeted him brightly as normal. Yuki returned the smile full in return.
"It's good to see you in such a good mood in the morning, Yuki!" She said cheerfully. "Is that a new jacket?"
Yuki didn't know how to respond. Did he tell her about Haru and the kiss or did he keep it to himself? Maybe it was best to keep it on the down low since he didn't know where this interaction was going yet. "No, it's not mine. I just borrowed it from a friend and I forgot to take it off, I guess," He explained, still not taking it off and helping himself to a plate of scrambled eggs Tohru had already prepared. Did boys borrow each other's jackets or was that just girls? Yuki plagued himself with more worry that he had said the wrong thing and made himself more effeminate than he already was. The trio made their way to school not saying much; well, Kyo and Yuki were not saying much, but Tohru was rambling amiably oblivious to the two brooding lads on either side of her. The boys just nodded and grunted when necessary, both apparently too wrapped up in their own thoughts to provide much better answers. Yuki certainly didn't trust himself talking especially around Kyo, not now anyway.
When they got to school, Kyo quickly trailed away from the group and Yuki politely accompanied Tohru to her locker before stopping at his. Upon reaching his own locker, he found none other than Haru leaning up against with a smirk on his face. Yuki was half aware that the jacket Haru had lent him was still upon him, but wasn't sure the full reason for the smirk which played upon Haru's lips. Yuki walked right up to Haru and grinned, suddenly the troubles on his mind dissipated, mostly.
"Excuse me, sir, I need access to my locker," Yuki said with a smile.
Haru grinned in return and pushed himself off the locker and right in front of Yuki's face. He planted his lips gently against Yuki's only to have Yuki return the kiss. He pulled away all too soon. "So, like my jacket, do you?" He replied in a light tone as he maneuvered aside to allow Yuki to get to his locker.
"It is rather comfortable, I suppose," Yuki returned as he opened his locker and shoved his backpack inside. "Not as worn as I usually prefer them," He added playfully, his eyes twinkling as he looked over at Haru.
Haru sighed. "Well I guess it's a good thing that it's my jacket and not yours," He reached out to where Yuki was and instead of pulling him in for another kiss, as the romantic side of Yuki suspected would happen, he started pulling the jacket off of Yuki. It was off in less than two seconds. Haru held it in his hands with a slightly disappointed look on his face. "My, my, my, dear Yuki, and I thought it would take more for you to get your clothes off," He clicked his tongue and shook his head, trying not to smile.
Yuki chuckled. "That's all that's coming off…for now. Buy me dinner and a movie and we'll talk about taking off more," He pleased to find Haru beamed, his smile stretching all the way up to his eyes. He met the smile with the same enthusiasm. The two boys stared at each other for a beat before the bell rang and woke them out of their trance with each other. Yuki blushed. "I've got to get to class," He started to walk past Haru to get to homeroom. He knew Haru's homeroom was the opposite direction, but Haru turned around and grabbed Yuki's hand lightly and began to walk alongside him. This only proved to turn Yuki into a darker shade of red, his face now resembling an apple. Haru chuckled.
They reached Yuki's classroom and Haru stopped Yuki with a tug of his hand before he could enter the room. Yuki looked at Haru with big eyes. Then, for the third time in twenty-four hours, Haru's lips gently caressed Yuki's in such a way that his butterflies resurfaced from the night before. "See you later," Haru murmured in his ear as he let his hand drop from Yuki's and pivoted to turn the other way. Yuki smiled like a goon for a second before entering the room, but then remembered last night's events. He didn't want everyone staring at him like he was a madman, so he painted a mask over his features so as to avoid questioning.
It was during homeroom that he realized that he wasn't ready for everyone's attention to be on him and Haru, especially when he wasn't even sure what was going on. It wasn't as if he hated Haru and wanted nothing to do with him, he just didn't want everyone asking questions or thinking he was weird. He hated that other's opinions of him affected him so much.
Haru met Yuki outside of class and walked him to his next one. He tried holding hands with Yuki, but Yuki made his hands unavailable to the other. Haru made it seem like he wasn't trying to do anything and didn't say anything about it. It wasn't until lunch that Haru's pouty nature took over because Yuki was trying not to draw attention to him and Haru. Still, Haru said nothing about it, just flared his nostrils and huffed, it kind of reminded Yuki of Kyo. He smiled slightly to himself. Unfortunately, this made Haru stand off a little bit the rest of the day, much to Yuki's disappointment.
Mathletes was that afternoon. Yuki made his way to the Math room with new problems on his mind that he didn't really want to think of because he had some first day jitters. It was the first day he was going to Mathletes and while he knew he would be fine, it was his first extracurricular activity the he was going to voluntarily and not just because he got elected in. It was completely new and he didn't really know what to expect, that only added to his nerves. Mr. Ajibana greeted Yuki warmly and guided him to his seat next to this boy he had seen a couple of times, but whose name had seemed to slip his mind. There were only two girls that were in the club, the rest were all boys. A fleeting thought wondered if that would upset Haru, but it disappeared as quickly as it had formed.
Mathletes was pretty intriguing, at least to Yuki anyways. They did math for a solid hour and a half, and it was apparently a race to solve problems. Yuki aced all of the questions and won a few times for his team. The boy he was seated next to was named Kane and he seemed to be in Yuki's year. They made a pretty decent team. Apparently they went around to different schools and competed. Competitions? For math? It all seemed a little weird, but it was a weird that Yuki could get into so he didn't mind.
When the hour and a half was up, Yuki packed up his belongings and started to mentally prepare himself for the walk home. He knew he was going to be plagued with thoughts concerning Haru and Kyo and he wished more than anything that he could figure this all out. If there was an "easy answer" button for life, Yuki sure could use it. He walked out of the room and jumped a couple inches back when he found none other than Haru sitting against one of the lockers next to the door.
"Haru?" Yuki said, flabbergasted. At that, Haru stood up and brushed off his butt from sitting on the floor.
"God, that took forever. My ass was starting to get numb," Haru returned, stretching a little.
"What are you doing here?"
"Well, waiting for you, of course. I swear, Yuki, sometimes you can be a little dense," He answered with a wry smile as he pointed to his head.
"I thought…I thought…" Yuki stuttered in confusion.
"You thought what?" He asked, taking a step forward towards Yuki. He lightly started to wrap his fingers around Yuki's hand and brought his face just inches from Yuki's.
Yuki had a little trouble breathing at that point, the last thing he was thinking about was what he thought earlier that day. "I thought you were mad at me," He whispered eventually.
"Me? Mad at you? Oh my dear, Yuki, I thought you were mad at me!"
Yuki breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. "Oh," He decided it was time to start walking home, dinner would be ready soon and Yuki was starting to get hungry. Haru followed along faithfully, his hand still holding Yuki's. He waited until they got out the school to begin the discussion.
"So, are you?" Haru inquired softly.
"Am I what?"
"Mad at me?"
"Of course not!" Yuki wasn't sure if he should continue opening up to Haru about this or if he should wait until Haru brought up where this was headed, unfortunately his mouth didn't have the same questions. "I just didn't know where this was headed and I didn't want to show us off to the whole world if this is…not something," Yuki blabbered out and trailed off at the end. He lowered his eyes to the ground, afraid that Haru would laugh at him for being a hopeless romantic. What Haru did next was the complete opposite of what he was expecting. They were far enough off the grounds that no one they knew was wondering about. Haru stopped and pulled Yuki to a stop with him. Yuki stumbled backwards and steadied himself using Haru's shoulder. He turned to look at Haru and got lost for a moment in his grey eyes.
"Yuki," He started, his voice low and unwavering. His eyes seemed to be endless pools of patience, and at the very edge he could see excitement afoot. All of this made Yuki nervous and restless, his breath was already having trouble happening. He was surprised he wasn't shaking and falling over and more, he was scared to think of what his voice would sound like if he had to speak at that moment. "Do you want this to go somewhere?" Haru finished, he leaned in a little as if he was impatient for Yuki to give an answer.
"What do you mean, Haru?" Yuki responded, knowing what he wanted to hear but not what Haru was expecting of him. He wanted so desperately to not look like an idiot for something more if the something more wasn't what Haru intended this whole time. However, he figured if Haru didn't want the same thing, he wouldn't have started anything.
At this, Haru grinned and took another half-step closer to Yuki. He reached up and stroked his face, the interaction sending chills down Yuki's spine. "Yuki, I want you, more than anything. I want to be with you," He said breathlessly. "Will you be with me? Will you be my…" He hesitated and looked to the ground for a second and reunited his eyes with Yuki's. "…boyfriend?" He murmured the last word, but Yuki still beamed at it.
"What do you think?" Yuki retorted in a joking manner before he leaned towards Haru. He wanted to make Haru get butterflies by his kiss as he did the night before and earlier that day. It seemed to work because Haru's breath had an erratic pattern until Yuki bridged the gap separating their lips. He met their lips gently and pressed them together in semi-firm manner. Yuki wrapped his free arm around Haru's waist and pulled him closer. He felt Haru breathe deep and sink into the kiss before Yuki made his kisses a little shorter and dwindled to just pecks. He pulled away and smiled happily.
"Does that mean yes?" Haru whispered breathlessly, a smile plastered to his face as well. Yuki chuckled and nodded his head.
"Of course, Haru," Yuki replied with a smile. He started walking again and was slightly thankful that Kyo wasn't there to ruin the moment.
The two boys continued their walk home, not saying much but instead smiling a lot more than they normally would have. Yuki had invited Haru to stay for dinner, and he agreed cheerfully. He was toying in his head how he would tell his housemates that he had a boyfriend. He had never pictured himself with a boyfriend before; he didn't know he swung that way until Haru kissed him. Would they be okay with it? He wasn't too concerned about Shigure because he was sure that there was some weird triangle between him, Hatori, and Ayaa; they were just too flirtatious and comfortable around each other and that wasn't normal with most people, there had to be something else going on. But would Tohru be affected? Would she alienate them? What about Kyo? Would he act even weirder because of it? Would he be so disgusted with him that he wouldn't even want to speak to him again? Yuki couldn't understand why Kyo's opinion mattered so much to him, but it did. In fact, it was in the foreground of his thoughts on the opinions of his and Haru's newfound relationship.
They arrived home in no time at all, to no aid of Yuki's nerves. He didn't let on that he was completely petrified of telling his housemates what was new in his life. Haru gave his hand a little squeeze and guided them into the dining room. Yuki let go of Haru's hand and walked into the kitchen to find Tohru bubbling around the kitchen cooking. He was surprised to also find Kakeru standing next to her, jabbering away about baby seals and the progress her had already made with his campaign. Oh great, he thought to himself, I'm supposed to be giving this huge news tonight and we have a house guest. Do I even want him know about it? The answer was that everyone would know about it sooner or later, so what did it matter if Kakeru figured out now or later?
Tohru whirled around and saw Yuki standing against the doorway. She beamed at him warmly. "Yuki! You're home! How was Mathletes?" Tohru asked happily.
Yuki smiled back at her. "It was fun. I met someone new that was pretty interesting," Yuki said. He was quickly joined by Haru. "Oh, and is it okay if one more joins us for dinner?" He asked Tohru after a quick look at Haru.
Tohru smiled and nodded. "Of course! Haru's always welcome with us! I'm so happy you made a new potential friend, Yuki!"
Yuki grinned and pulled Haru upstairs into his room. They sat on the bed next to each other, still holding hands.
"So what does Yuki Sohma do for kicks once he gets home from school?" Haru asked, squeezing Yuki's hand a little. Yuki smiled a little and blushed.
"Not much," He started, running a hand through his silver hair. "Mostly just homework, and sometimes read," He didn't want Haru to know that he was such a geek, but it was a little late for that.
"Well, how about we switch it up a little bit," Haru breathed and leaned in closer to Yuki. He placed his hand on his cheek and turned Yuki's face to face his. After a breath, Haru's lips was upon Yuki's once more and they were once again making out. It ended all too soon with Tohru's voice calling for everyone to come down to dinner. Yuki's heart sped up as he leapt off the bed, he was so nervous. "Are you okay, Yuki?"
Yuki ran a nervous hand through his hair and nodded. "Yea, yup. Just fine. I'm just really hungry," Yuki said really quick as he went to the door. He was determined to beat Kyo down to the dinner table so he wouldn't suspect they were doing anything besides talking. Why did he care so much?! He shoved the thoughts from his mind and moved towards the door. "You coming?"
Haru nodded dazedly and stood up. "Yea, sure," He said slowly as he followed Yuki out the room and down into the dining room. Yuki breathed a huge sigh of relief when he found Kyo not down at the table. He heard his footsteps coming slowly down the stairs while he and Haru sat down next to each other. Haru placed a hand on Yuki's leg, giving him butterflies. He looked over at Haru and grinned.
Shigure came in with a flourish followed by Kyo who trudged along behind him. Yuki looked into his lap, he couldn't look at him. Everyone sat down at the table. Tohru was all smiles, and so was Kakeru, as she started serving everyone dinner. "So how was everyone's day?" Shigure asked the entire table. Kyo just grunted in response.
Haru was the first to speak. His smile was big and goofy as he exclaimed, "Yuki and I are boyfriend and…boyfriend!" Yuki looked at Haru with large eyes and blushed. Kyo's eyes went instantly to Yuki and everyone else looked at them as well. Haru gave Yuki's hand a squeeze. He looked at him and smiled. Yuki tried to give him a reassuring smile back, but he wasn't sure. Of course he was happy about it, but he wished it could have waited a little longer. He was terrified to look at Kyo, or at anyone, so he just looked at his food and tried to push it around the plate as he did the night before.
"Well," Tohru said slowly as if she was trying to form words that were positive. "That's so great!" She finished with a smile. She and Kakeru both exchange a smile to each other and turned to face Haru and Yuki. It comforted Yuki a little that Tohru and Kakeru were okay with him and Haru.
"Oh, dear Yuki! I didn't know you liked boys! That's so cute! Well, you and Haru make a fantastic couple!" Shigure gushed, making Yuki turn a deep shade of umber. It was Yuki's turn to give Haru's hand a squeeze. He looked over at Haru and gave him another smile. Haru seemed comforted by that, or so Yuki thought because he leaned over and kissed his cheek.
Kyo cleared his throat, just as he did the night before, and Yuki had to fight himself not to look up. He couldn't, no wouldn't, look at him. Haru did, apparently. "What's wrong Kyo?" Haru asked gently.
"Nothing," Kyo said, his voice a little shaky. Yuki had never heard his voice sound like that before. It was weird, he didn't even have to look at Kyo to know what was going on. He was sure his eyes were the exact same as they were the night before.
The rest of dinner was filled with conversation about Shigure. Kakeru apparently was fascinated with everything about Shigure, which did nothing for his ego. Shigure bragged all about himself and what he did with his days and time as a writer. He mentioned the books he had written and what they were about. Kakeru ate it all up with a smile. For someone who didn't know Shigure and how perverted he was, Yuki was sure that Shigure was pretty interesting. To Yuki, it was just background noise for his thoughts.
After dinner, Yuki sent Haru out so he could start on his homework. "I'll see you tomorrow," Yuki said softly. He smiled at Haru reassuringly as he leaned in for another kiss. Haru grinned back before their lips met one more time. Haru wrapped a hand around Yuki's waist and pulled him right up against his body. Yuki sighed into the kiss and pushed back against him, loving the contact. Haru pulled away and gave him a quick peck.
He looked at Yuki and beamed. "I'll see you tomorrow," He answered back as he turned away to walk home.
"Be careful and don't get yourself lost," Yuki called after him. To which, Haru just looked over his shoulder and grinned back at the rat. Yuki went inside and started on his homework, trying not to think about anything else except the task at hand.