Rose of Jericho

by peterpauper

Would we laugh at gilded butterflies? Sequel to Chrysanthemum.

18. Chapter 16

-

Chapter 16

-

Red busses. Kyoya discovered that Yuuki had a thing for Red Busses and refused to travel anywhere touristy unless she was in one. She told him 'When In Rome.' Countless times, to which is reply was always. "We're in London."

Yuuki looked over her shoulder as she climbed onto a bus. "You know what I meant." Pause. "And, if your perfectly upper-class hands get any germs on them, I have hand sanitiser in my bag."

Kyoya scowled and followed her up the steps and into a seat. "Where are we going?"

"Museum."

"Which one?"

"I don't know yet. This bus said 'museum' on it, so, we're going to a museum."

The Ootori couldn't help but smile. He didn't like not knowing where he was going, but neither did she. She just got a vague answer where he got to the details.

Kyoya was staring out a window when he felt himself being encircled. His smile remained as Yuuki locked her arms around his chest and put her chin on his shoulder. "Interesting outdoors?"

"It's overcast."

"Wow, shocker."

Silence. The girl watched the world from his view, literally. Them, behind glass. Protected. Sheltered. But knowing of the goings on outside of their capsule. They had experienced it. Kyoya twisted in his seat and turned to face her, his gaze steady.

Yuuki smiled. "Why so serious?"

"Showing you Batman was a bad idea."

"It was not."

"It was."

"How?"

"You're making comedy of a serious matter."

"And you're making serious of something that's not."

He sighed. "Do I look like a Joker to you?"

Yuuki picked up on his pun. Kyoya trying to prove he could be light natured without actually saying so. "That was a terrible joke."

"Better than yours most days."

"At least I'm amusing."

"You don't try to be."

The girl glared, except she was trying not to smile. In the end, she turned to face the front and crossed her arms stubbornly.

Kyoya pushed his glasses up. "You want to get off now?" They were outside Trafalgar square.

Yuuki looked out the window and her eyes lit up for reasons the Ootori didn't know. "Yes."

She pulled him off the bus and to a stall on the side of the square. There she paid for a cup of birdseed and put her hand firmly over the top. The whole area was full of tourists and pigeons.

"You're not that hungry I hope." Kyoya put a hand on his hip and leaned on one leg, watching her.

"Haha." Pause. "You've never been inducted into Trafalgar square?"

"No."

Yuuki smiled, pulled the hand away from his hip and poured some of the seed into it before putting her own hand over the cup firmly. The Ootori's face was blank. And then shocked as pigeons attacked him. Even the ones that couldn't get to the seed just used the man as a perch while they wanted for an opening. Wings flapped everywhere. Birds climbed on top of each other trying to get to the seed.

Kyoya stood for a moment, not knowing what to do. Then pigeon pecked at his arm instead of his hand. Instinct took over and he almost threw the birds off him. Dropping the seed, Kyoya took a few steps back and tried to look slightly together.

Yuuki was standing with her hand still firmly on the cup, smiling mischievously. Ever since her first Trafalgar Square experience, she had wanted to share it with someone special. The first time, she had been six and her mother had done the same thing to her.

"That wasn't funny." Kyoya was obviously trying to recover.

"Oh, like you didn't see it coming." She scoffed. "The seed, the man selling seed, the others with little paper cups, all getting mugged by pigeons."

"At least they didn't go to a planned mobbing." He brushed himself off.

"It was not planned."

Kyoya raised an eyebrow.

Yuuki tried to stop smiling, but failed. "Okay, it was planned, but only when you said we should get off."

"I didn't say we should get off, I asked if you wanted to."

The girl tried to work out how he only got away from the event with just dishevelled hair and not a drop of white sludge down his shoulder like she had had a couple times before. "Well...whatever. You lined it up."

"I taught you well." Kyoya put his hand back on his hip and cautiously watched the masses of birds as they perched nearby. He smiled slightly.

She made a sweeping bow. "You are now, officially, British."

"No I'm not."

Yuuki stood up and put her hands on her hips, scowling playfully. "Yes, yes you are."

"I wasn't born here, and I don't have the passport."

"Irrelevant." She waved a finger at him. "You were inducted at Trafalgar Square, by someone of immense importance."

The man glanced around. "Who?"

Yuuki shoved him lightly in response. Or, what came across as lightly. She knew he had a subtle sense of humour, but he also had a quick mind that was often closed. Thus, whenever they had a playful bicker, he always won. Kyoya caught her wrist and she pushed him and pulled her close. The cup of seed in her other hand fell as a result.

The girl heard the clatter of paper cup on cobble stones an squeezed her eyes closed and pressed against him as the flurry of feathers surrounded them, dreading the wrath of London's aviation populace. She covered her face with her hands and felt Kyoya wrap both arms around her. All that they could hear was the thin whistling and battering of wings and the cooing of pigeons. The unsteady air was filled with a bird and seed smell. After two minutes it was all over. Yuuki peeked out from her hand and saw that the ground directly around them was empty.

She relaxed. "I hate pigeons. All the diseases they carry."

"Oh, so, its okay that I contract Bird Fl, it's funny. When it happens to you, you seek human shields." Kyoya didn't sound pleased this time. Not at all.

The Cunxin looked up; the shoulder she hadn't been cowering against had a line of white down it. She laughed. "Okay, its official now. Admit it." He was inducted.

The Ootori stood stony silent and glared down at her. He didn't let go.

"Okay...I'm sorry." Yuuki tried to back away but couldn't. She also couldn't stop smiling. As much as she hated being attacked by birds, seeing Kyoya get attacked was worth it. He handled it so well. Until they both got attacked and their little world got its first invasion.

He didn't let go.

Yuuki cringed and leant away from him as far as she could. "I said sorry."

"Are you sorry?"
Pause. Thoughtful silence. Coy smile. "No."

Even when he was mad at her, Kyoya craved Yuuki's company more than he should. Even when they were in each other's company, they craved it. The Ootori raised an eyebrow at her but didn't let go.

Yuuki tried to get away. "I'm not a bird. Let me go."

Kyoya smiled smugly. "Why should I? This is profitable."

"How?"

"If I can't announce our engagement with words, then I'll do it in other ways."

The girl scowled. The ring plan had been put on hold. When they went into Tiffany's, Yuuki had seemed nervous of the section she was supposed to be in and ended up buying a bracelet for her friend, Suki, and leaving Kyoya's savings intact.

"How is it profitable?"
"Because, being human gets advertising. Since that night at the ball, our merit as a family has sky rocketed. I'm the only son not courting with a high-toned and fancy to do heiress. I'm dating the normal girl from next door who made her dreams come true."

Yuuki glared at him. "Oh, thanks very much."

"I didn't say that was what I thought."

"You don't often say what you think."

Kyoya answered her with silence.

"Normal isn't really a compliment. Enchanting, captivating, beautiful, lovely, precious...now those are words I could get into." And yet, she was just...Yuuki.

"You're hardly normal. You just tried to kill me with an overpopulation of birds. You are an Olympian. You have a very unique intellect." Odd way of putting it, but it was true. "You have absolutely no sense of humour to yourself, but you make people laugh anyway..."

"Okay. Thank you Mr I-can-calculate-and-analyse-things-to-a-tee." Yuuki wished she could do the same for him.

"But I can't." Kyoya seemed a little take aback. "I can't do that."

"Yeah, right."

"I can't do that with you." His frankness never ceased to amaze Yuuki. From a cold demeanour came something warm and unexpected. The good looking Frankenstein with a fetish for calculators.

The girl stopped trying to get away and stopped squirming. "Really?"

"Really."

"I thought you had googled me and knew every intimate detail."

"I did. But the internet was wrong. Your nothing like it says."

Silence. "What am I then?"

Kyoya brought his mouth down beside her ear. "Enchanting, captivating, beautiful, lovely, precious...just Yuuki." Just Yuuki. Just normal Yuuki. Unique to everyone but herself. The only person he could ever say the sorts of things he said around her to. She was his little box of secrets.

The girl stood and let him hold her. He was her enchantment and she knew that, even though enchantment got sickening, annoying and generic; she would never get sick of it. Yuuki could never get sick of him. Never work him out entirely. He was too subjective. Calculating and menacing one minute and warm and affectionate the next. Needless to say, the former minutes last longer than the latter, but the latter last longer when he's with just her. His masquerade of Ootori comes down and he just is.

The girl turned her head to his and kissed the corner of his mouth. Thanking him. Blessing him. Kyoya turned his lips to hers in response and pulled her closer.

Quiet suddenly there was a high-pitched, over excited noise and a third party clinging to the couple. Yuuki was surprised and a little embarrassed where Kyoya just looked pissed. Hunny was a magnet in any situation. The sniffer-dog of the world.

"Kyo-chan! Yuu-chan! Isn't Trafalgar great! With the Big Lions to climb on and the museum over the road and the birds everywhere and that fountain in the middle and they really should have a cafe in here with cake. Oh, and the ..."

Mori tucked his hands under the little blonde's armpits and lifted him off his holding. "Wrong moment."

Yuuki went scarlet and stepped away from Kyoya. If Mori knew it was the wrong moment, then he had been watching. She wondered who else had been. Self conscious, she tucked her hair behind her ear. "What are you doing here? Weren't you going with Hikaru and Kaoru to Harrods?"

Deedle De and Deedle Dum appeared as if on command. "Harrods is boring." Pause. Impish smiles. "You two didn't look bored though."

The girl's cheeks flashed again, as did Kyoya's eyes. His voice though, was smooth, controlled. Normal. "Well, most of the time people pay to watch that sort of thing."

Hikaru and Kaoru froze, knowing he would follow that through. Then everything melted. Their roguish nature reappeared. "Well, whatever. It was worth it."

Yuuki took a threatening step towards them only to have her arm caught by Kyoya, holding her back. "Where are Tamaki and Haruhi?" She asked instead of trying to erase their memories.

"They both decided to stay at the house." Mori said flatly, knowing the twins would make the statement a little suspect. "Haruhi had a headache."

Before anyone could say anything else, a man dressed in a police uniform appeared. "Sorry folks, we're clearing the Square."

Hikaru seemed disappointed. "Why?"

"Safety precaution."

Kyoya pressed his glasses up. "Has something happened?"
"Sorry sir." The policeman said politely, motioning to the street. "I'm not allowed to say anything else."

The Ootori nodded and walked in the direction the man indicated along with the rest of the host club. Yuuki was slightly in front of him. "What was that all about?"

"I have no idea." He glanced around, trying to work out what had happened. There were numerous people besides them leaving the Square, all headed to the busses, the museum, the cafe's across the road. "Let's just go home." There was a feeling he couldn't ignore. Something was terribly wrong.

Terrible things always happened suddenly. The girl turned and walked backwards, knowing the ground was smooth until the bus stop. "Nah. Let's do something else."

Kyoya rested his finger on the nose of his glasses. "I think we should go home."

"Why?" Her face was confused, but compassionate. He was tense and she knew he didn't know why. All his walls had gone up.

"Something's going to happen."

"Alright. Let's get a cab then." Yuuki saw Kyoya was in no mood to argue.

There was a single black cab waiting about fifty meters from the bus stop. As the group reached it another man cut in front of them and sat down. The twins were not pleased. "Excuse me, sir, we were about to take the cab."

The man turned around. "There are too many of you. This has four seats available, there are six of you." He paused, the group was obviously connected, the way they held themselves was very proper. "If you really want it though, you were here first." He smiled.

Yuuki put a hand on Kyoya's arm. "Let's get the bus to the station, we can catch a cab from there, there's always a lot at the station."

The Ootori felt reluctant. He couldn't explain it and was frustrated with the fact. Throwing his tension off, Kyoya nodded silently. "We'll see you guys at the house."

The Cunxin turned to the man. "Thank you sir."

He bowed, flashed a set of teeth and walked across the road and down the street, instantly getting lost in the crowd. Yuuki frowned. Something was not right there. He had moved just a bit too fast and had been prepared to push in front of a group of guys to get a cab before them. He had wanted to get away. Suddenly the girl felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise. She calmly said goodbye to those in the cab and watched them go.

-

The cab driver glanced over his shoulder at the passengers. "Lucky you got this one, hey?"
"Yeah." The twins answered. "That jerk tried to push in front of us."
"Well...you picked the safest method of transport."

"Its the safest?"

"Much safer than the busses. Much safer."

-

I thought I'd live forever, but now I'm not so sure.

I thought danger was not a cause

I thought you were all there was in the world

I thought we had it all

My guardian angel, my life-filled lover

Please don't ever leave me. Let's keep this world of ours and ignore the rest.

Now, I'm sure about you, but I'm just not sure about it all

-

Big Ben tolled midday. The pigeons took off in a flurry. Yuuki looked up, searching for the noise. Kyoya stiffened just behind her. Big Ben sang. On the last tole, her song rent the sky.

The bus waiting at the stop exploded.

Yuuki felt the heat from where she was standing and then felt that she wasn't standing but laying against the side of a car, its wheel still and cold against her back. There was a loud thunk on the hood of the vehicle and the girl covered her head as pieces of road hurled themselves through the sky.

Sometimes, travesty is sudden. Most often, terror is.

Yuuki's head spun. Her ears rang. Her vision was blurred. All she could make sense of was the constant lub-dub of hear heartbeat. Steady within her, not having registered what had happened. Then, as suddenly as it started, she could hear everything again. See it. Smell it. Everything smelt like burning fuel, burning clothes, powder. Everything sounded like screaming, cars wailing, people crying out for help and yelling in horror. Even those standing away from the explosion, as she had been, had been injured by the pieces of molten metal that had whizzed through the air.

The girl brought her hands down and looked around. She had been thrown back into a car that had pulled up at a stop sign, a few meters away from the curb that the cab had stopped on. The door flew open and a middle aged man threw himself onto the pavement. He went straight around the side of the car to where he knew the girl was and knelt by her.

"Miss? Miss? Are you alright?"

First come, first served. Yuuki swallowed in shock. "Yeah. I'm fine." She sat up, sudden desperation clinging to her throat. "I'm fine." She put a hand on the top of the wheel and lifted herself up, transferring her grip to the bonnet as she found her feet. "Thank you, sir. What...wh..." Kyoya.

"The terror threats that have been in the news, I heard about safety precautions, but Jehosephat...for it to come to this..." The man shrank to the sidewalk and put his head in his hands and began to weep for the horror.

Yuuki was looking around. Searching. Kyoya.

I can't live in a world where you don't exist.

The girl stumbled away from the forlorn driver and turned around, trying to find the familiar face. A familiar face stands out against anything, and she couldn't find it. Kyoya. Yuuki raised a hand to her mouth and tried not to cry out. She couldn't lose him again. Not again.

"Kyoya?" The girl spun in a circle, frantically searching for him. What she saw caused her fear. There was a skeleton of a bus, smoking fifty meters away. Parts of its body lay scattered around. The lions guarding the square seemed ashamed and the fountain dripped water on a stark reflection of life's realities. Everywhere people were running, running away. Laying on the ground. Scrambling. Fighting. Screaming. The sights, the smells, the noises; Yuuki prayed Kyoya wasn't part of that picture. "Kyoya?" Her voice was desperate.

A girl in a feathered dress stood at the window of a hospital suit. The heartbeat inside was assured by constant beeping. When it flat-lined, so did hers. She gripped the glass, tore at it, trying to reach him. To give him her heart back.

"Clear."

He didn't take it.

"Clear."

He held her as the birds fluttered around them. He held her in the snow. He held her. But she couldn't hold him. She couldn't get to him.

"Clear."

He didn't come to her. He didn't come to find her.

"Clear."

This time he did. Yuuki felt a hand spin her back around and then heard a gasp of relief before being pulled into a familiar frame. She gripped his shirt and pressed her face into Kyoya's chest before beginning to shake. The shock wearing off.

"Don't do that." She accused him. "Don't do that. Don't leave me." She was trembling.

Kyoya ran a hand over her hair. "Shh..." He had lost her. He had lost himself in doing so. He had never experienced such desperation. Such need to find something. "Shh...I'm here." She was here. "Its alright."

All around them people were screaming, sirens were blaring, a bus was burning. There was a smell that Yuuki didn't recognise. The reality hit her. It wasn't just objects that were burning. Lives were too. She pulled away from Kyoya suddenly and stared at him, her eyes distressed. She ran her hands down his sides, down his chest, down his arms, praying he was whole and alright. "Your okay? Please tell me your okay." She looked at his face, his glasses had survived. If they had survived, he would too.

The Ootori captured her hands and held them in front of him. "I'm fine. I ended up in the street."

Yuuki glanced over his shoulder; behind the car she had hit was another, in the opposite lane. It hadn't stopped on the line as it should have, but meters before, as if it had braked to avoid something.

"Kyo..."

He dropped her hands and pulled her into him again. Fighting the world to try bring their own back. He thought he had lost her. For a few minutes, she hadn't existed, and he hadn't wanted to. He wanted to say so many things, but couldn't. It was as if his throat had been stitched shut. The world yelled at him.

After a minute, Kyoya pulled Yuuki away again and stared her in the face. "Help me."

She stared back. She didn't ask why. "How?" She knew what he was getting at. He could help. And he would, without profit, he was human.

The man grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the mass of writing metal and crouched near the closest broken body. It was a woman dressed in what had been a cream dress, she was bleeding from her leg, profusely, her body already pale. Yuuki hated blood. Kyoya did something unprecedented. He put his hand firmly over the wound and pushed down hard. The woman cried out. The Cunxin quickly stopped standing around and went to her knees at the woman's head. Yuuki and Kyoya had been lucky. They weren't hurt. This woman was. Like many others.

"He's a doctor." The girl said. It was half true. He was studying medicine. She didn't say he was a businessman though. "He's a doctor."

The woman gripped Yuuki's hand. Kyoya was looking around for something. The girl knew enough first aid to know what. He needed something to replace his hand. Yuuki looked down at her chest and wrapped her spare hand around the necklace before tugging it off and handing it over. They were both running on adrenaline. Nothing made sense, and no one wanted it to. Kyoya looked at the offering and then at the one holding it out.

"Take it." She said firmly. It was just a symbol, it wasn't them. "You can buy me that ring as soon as this is over. Just take it."

Kyoya snatched the necklace away and linked it above the woman's cut. It was tight. Too tight probably. It slowed the flow of blood. The paramedics had arrived. The Ootori motioned his head at one of them and Yuuki peeled her hand away from the woman's and ran to the man indicated.

"Sir. Sir." She gripped his sleeve. "Sir, the woman over there has cut an artery in her leg. Please, we did what we could for her." The girl turned around to indicated the woman and saw Kyoya had moved on to another patient. A man about his age.

The paramedic nodded once and jogged over to where the woman lay. He looked at the necklace and knew he would find reason to smile now, even though the horror. The man glanced over his shoulder to where the girl was joining the man she had talked about, she was pale, the sort of pale you see before they faint at the sight of something they fear. But she was holding it together. For him.

Yuuki knelt at Kyoya's side and saw he wasn't doing anything. "What?"

He hung his head. The severity of the situation hitting. Sighing he wiped his hand on his shirt, cleaning it before running his fingers over the boys lids, closing his eyes that would forever be stuck staring at the dark. Yuuki stared. She didn't know what to fee. Everything had gone numb. Everything except the need to be by Kyoya. The Ootori looked at her and then stood, not knowing how to deal himself and feeling useless not being able to help her. She was the one he needed to help and he didn't know how.

-

And we're all to blame,
We've gone too far,
From pride to shame,
We're trying so hard,
We're dying in vain,
We're hopelessly blissful and blind
To all we are,
We want it all.
Everyone wants it all with no sacrifice

And now we're all to blame,
We've gone too far,
From pride to shame,
We're hopelessly blissful and blind
When all we need
Is something true
To believe,
Don't we all?
Everyone, everyone,
We will fall.

(All to Blame, Sum 41)

-

"Kyoya." Yuuki had stopped. "I can't do this." She was staring at the man they had just been with. They had been the same. He and the son now gone. Someone had lost something. A son. A lover. A life. The blood. The smells. The sights. The shock. Everything was too sudden. To unexpected. "I'm sorry, I..." She raised her hand to her neck as a habit but couldn't find the necklace.

Kyoya stood in front of her and hovered above her. "Yuuki. Get a grip."

Her head shot up at him.

"Seriously. Get a grip. You can have an all-fall-down later, but right now you need to help me. Alright?"

Yuuki stared.

"Alright, I'm sorry." Kyoya sighed. "I didn't mean that. I'm...I'm coming apart too. It's scary. I know."

"The man...he was...you and him are..." The girl tried to point out the similarities.

The Ootori finally discovered why she was having a problem. "I'm right here. Look. I'm right here. With you. Okay?"

"Okay." Yuuki nodded, she didn't know if she meant it or not though.

"Yuuki..." Kyoya went to hold her. He needed her comfort. She needed his. But he saw his hands first, stained in blood. Their lives had always been abnormal, but sometimes he just wanted normality. To maybe just live life, get a job, retire. Just like every other person. But they couldn't. They had different parents, different lifestyles, different education. Life for Yuuki and Kyoya would always be abnormal. It would always be strange. "I...just..."

The paramedics had arrived; they swarmed the area like bees in jumpsuits. The cops arrived, the firemen. Soon, personnel outnumbered civilians. Yuuki and Kyoya just stood, trying to stay together for a little bit longer. Smoke wove between them, and that was scary; seeing the other through a mist of destruction, not knowing it everything was alright.

A man with a first aid kit jogged up to the pair. "Hello folks. I'm here to help."

Yuuki turned her gaze to the paramedic.

He watched them. "Are you hurt?"
Her voice was still, silent, smooth. Wrought through a numbness that had taken over. "No."

"And you, sir?"

"No. I'm alright." Pause. "I can help."

"Are you a doctor, sir?"

"No." Came the flat reply. "I'm Kyoya Ootori." He wasn't a doctor, that's not why he was studying medicine. Other people studied medicine to be doctors. An Ootori did it so that he could rule over doctors.

"As in the sponsor?"

"Yes."

The paramedic's eyes suddenly filled with relief. "Do whatever you can."

"Yes."

"Sir." The man held out a towel.

Kyoya took it and nodded his thanks and began to clean his hands. Yuuki dug in her pocket for her mobile. He would need it. He wanted to help and didn't know why. But he defiantly knew how to in the best way possible. The iPhone betrayed her. The screen had cracked and it didn't respond. In frustration, Yuuki threw it to the ground.

The Ootori threw the soiled towel on top of it and reached into his pocket. His mobile was working.

"Hello. Father." His tone was hard. Menacing. Stressed. "I know it's the middle of the night there. Okay. Yes. Stop talking. No, I don't mean to disrespect you but you have to put every single doctor that is not a necessity on a plane, right now. Right now. I don't care. Father, I don't care. Why? Turn on your TV and it will tell you why. A bomb has gone off. No it was not expected. How is something like this expected? No. No. Just send them." Pause. "Oh, and yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for asking." Click.

Yuuki could only look at him. Looking at everything else hurt too much. "That was really cool of you."

Kyoya glanced up at her. He knew she was referring to his type, trying to help him. He responded by opening his arms. That would be more effective in making him feel better. The Ootori felt his heart rate begin to slow as the pressed into him. He began to relax. No matter how sudden or horrifying an act, Yuuki could always make it better. She could always heal him. The girl pressed her face into the curve of Kyoya's neck and began to cry. It was just too much. It was just too sudden. To unexpected. No one wants their world rent in two. No one wants to think they've lost a loved one, or to actually lose them. No one wants to see the person they love struggling in a situation that everyone else had already begun to drown inside of. But everyone wants to see that they are the cause of the others buoyancy. Yuuki wanted to be Kyoya's life ring. He had fixed her devastation, and now she could fix his. They could fix each other. He had her heart to work on and he had his, there was no barrier. Kyoya held Yuuki firmly against him. He tried to build their world back up. He wanted to put their walls up around the both of them and protect her. The man breathed her in. He cradled her. He could feel her trembling against him. He was breaking down to, but in his own, silent way. In front of her. With her. So that the other knew the process and could undo it.

"Why us?" She said against his skin. "Why when things were going so perfectly."

Kyoya paused. "Nothing's perfect without flaws."

"This isn't a flaw. This is a terror."

There was a long silence. "Let's go home."

Yuuki pulled her face away and looked at him. "Where?"

"Anywhere but here." Home is where the heart is, and neither resided in the destruction.

"How do we get out?"
"We walk."

The girl loosed her grip. He was right. They had to get away.

"Oh, Yuuki." Kyoya said. His voice had only changed to display anger and stress. "I'll buy you another necklace."

She gripped his hand. "It's alright. It signified something that we had, but I don't need a reminder anymore."

Pause. "We're, okay, right?"

"In the midst of this, you're asking if we're okay?"

Pause. "Yes."

"If you can still give me hope when surrounded by this, then yes. We're okay. We will be okay. Eventually."

Kyoya wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into him before beginning the walk across the square. It was the longest walk of their lives. Everywhere people were working. The yelling had died down and the only noise came from sirens and the urgent chatter of emergency crews. They had survived. Physically and emotionally. They had survived, but would come out with scars. It hadn't even hit yet, the extent of the event. The sky opened and it began to rain. Already washing things anew. Already trying to ease the pain. In a world of so much hurt, the balms had become easier and more readily available to use. Yuuki and Kyoya didn't notice. They were too bent on getting away. Getting away from a world other than reality. A world other than their own that lay amongst the broken bodies. They just wanted a world where the other existed. Perfect with their flaws. Compatible.

They were both scared, both in shock. Nothing registered. Yet. He had wanted to help, but staying seemed to only cause more hurt. The emergency crews had acted fast enough. The hospital would have a busy night. And yet...it felt like there should be more. There should be more...terror. There should be more emotion. But there was. It had all been there, all of it. Only, the pair had been so tightly wrapped in their own world that the only time when things had been at their worst was when they couldn't find each other. And that should have felt wrong, but it didn't. The attack had not been major, it had not killed thousands, it had been a warning. A warning in their district anyway. How many more had gone off, no one knew yet.

Once, the girl glanced over her shoulder. It hurt her to look at it. She had been a part of that. Of that horror. Of a terrorist attack. She had been there and somehow miraculously come out unscathed physically. Kyoya stared back with her and clutched her frame tighter to his own

-

Look at us here today
Lots of talking with nothing to say
And if I seem somewhat afraid
I'm surviving, that's all I am
I'm surviving to be a better man
I'm surviving, that's my plan
Just surviving

Yesterday, I was sure
But today I don't know anymore
Thought I was brave till I saw
My frightened reflection in a dark corridor
Now I'm surviving to be a better man
I'm surviving with an emotional plan
I'm surviving, so please understand
I'm surviving, surviving

There are millions of people out there
Trying to get by in a world that don't care
People smiling through clouds of despair
Protecting the wounds until they repair
They're surviving the best way they can
They are surviving every woman and man
Just surviving with an emotion plan
So keep surviving

Maybe it's my shattered pride
That's why I get scared of emotional ties
Don't let them in, otherwise
You'll smile like a fool
But you'll be hurting inside
So I'm surviving through the insecurity
I am surviving, I got hope inside of me
So I'm smiling through all the insanity
I'm surviving, surviving

I was moved by the way that you said
Don't be afraid, I won't leave you for dead
You took my soul and mixed up my head
You left me alive
You should have killed me instead
Now I'm surviving, that's all I am
I'm surviving to be a better man
I'm surviving, that's my plan
I'm surviving, surviving
Surviving

(Surviving, The Kinks)

-

It took two hours to reach the apartment. It had rained harder. On the way, the pair found out that the stadium had been attacked and other busses had exploded. It was surreal. This sort of thing didn't happen. Not unless it was a world away or on TV. Kyoya didn't let Yuuki go the whole way. She wrapped an arm around his waist and tried to disappear into him. To see the world through him. He was so level headed, he seemed so brave. She knew he was afraid inside, everyone was, but he could hold himself together even when he was falling apart. However, Yuuki did not know that she was the one keeping him intact.

The empty flat seemed welcoming. It was them. Waiting for them. The couple went to the kitchen and Yuuki sat on the counter and made tea in silence, sweet tea, for the shock. Kyoya hated it. The sugar did not agree with his tastes and Yuuki found herself smiling at him.

"You don't have to drink it." She said, putting her own down.

The man pushed his glasses up and looked at her. "I'm just trying to understand..."

"There is nothing to understand. The world is messed up and it decided to air its opinion."

"Are you alright?"

The girl drummed her legs on the cupboards. "No. I'm scared."

"Yeah. Me too."

Yuuki looked at him as he admitted that. "Really?"
"Yes."

"Why? You seemed so unfazed."

"No one was unfazed. No one will be. But, I think what shocked me most was not that a bomb had gone off, but rather that, I thought I'd lost you. Again."

Yuuki stopped drumming her feet and stared at her knees. "I know what you mean." Pause. "It was horrible though." She couldn't get the screaming out of her head. The images of the dead man. "It is horrible."

Kyoya stared at her. The phone rang. The girl started. Sudden noises would not sit well for the next few months.

"Hello?" The man picked up. "Yes, its Kyoya. Yes, Yuuki is here. Tamaki, slow down. Everyone's home?" Pause. Yuuki relaxed as he said yes. "Okay. Okay. Come fetch us, we'll stay with you until we can get a plane out, okay. Okay. Yes. We're fine. We're alright. I'll tell you later." He hung up on the blonde. "Call Tachi, get your horse on a plane."

Yuuki picked up the phone. "I don't think any planes will be going out." She dialled. Someone picked up on the fifth ring. "Hello? Tachi?"

"Yuuki? Yuuki. Oh my gosh, your alright?"

"I'm fine. Are you?"
"Yes. Yes. I was at the stables and someone rushed in to tell me."

"I need Zero on the next plane out, with you."

"My thoughts exactly." Pause. "I have a pilot friend."

"Good. Talk to him. He'll be taking a Host Club as well as equine cargo. Come to the Hitachiin Mansion tonight. We'll all be there."

"Alright."

"Tachi?"
"Yes?"

"Get there."

"Don't worry kid, I will."

Click.

Yuuki stared back at Kyoya. She slid off the counter and leaned against him. "How did such a good day end so horribly?"
The man ran his hands through her hair. "How did a good world end so horribly?"

"Yeah." Yuuki gripped his shirt. "I'm sorry that it all happened."

"Why are you sorry?"

"Because I don't know what else to be."

"Be you." He pulled her right up against himself. "Don't change."

"Don't you change either."

"Alright."

Deep down inside, both of them knew they had changed. Dramatically. But that they were still the same to the other. The same. Experiences alter lives, their lives had been altered and wouldn't be the same again. But they had been there for each other and would continue to be.

-

Sometimes it take a storm
To really know the light
The scent of rain, the weight of clouds
Pulling down the sky
Sometimes it takes a storm
To know how you feel
To understand indigo
And the varnished sun
Lighting up the fields

It takes the rain between the lines
To know what sorrow finds
The way a cloud divides sometimes
The clearing and the blue

I love you

I was just passing through
And taken by surprise
Between the black sky and the blue
Between the black sky and the blue
I love you
I love you

(Storm, Fernando Ortega)

-

A few hours later, at the Hitachiin mansion, Tamaki was causing an uproar. Pacing around the living room like a maniac, he ranted about the injustice of the world. The twins sat on the couch and watched the news report. A driver had been sent for Kyoya, Yuuki and Tachi an hour ago and the Suoh was agitated to the point of lividly enacting his monologue.

"If you break something..." Hikaru. "You will pay for it." Kaoru.

Tamaki stopped waving his arms and continued his frantic chant. Haruhi continuously tried to calm him down, to no avail.

"WHERE IS THE DRIVER!? If he was one of the bombers...I'll...Why did this have to happen when WE were in London. Or at all? All those families! Mothers, Fathers, Sons, Daughters, Husbands, Wives...."

A small noise carried down from the foyer. A minute later, those lost in question appeared in the doorway. Tamaki's eyes almost exploded, he threw himself at his friends, one arm around Kyoya, the other around Yuuki. Exclaiming. "Oh! You're alright! You're walking! You're breathing! You're alive! You're alright, right? Oh, do tell me you're alright?"

"Dad, shut up." Kyoya growled, expressing his annoyance and happiness at the blonde all at once. They were going to be alright.

Tachi took control. "Alright folks. We have a plane out tomorrow at three."

"In the afternoon?" Hunny was sitting on Mori's lap.

"In the morning. No planes are going out or coming in. We have to use a private runway. Fortunately this house is only an hour from there so...everyone is up at one, there at two, loaded and off by three. Savvy?"

Yuuki was the only one not mortified at the time they were leaving. Protest arose that were quickly quelled by Kyoya. "Consider yourselves lucky we even have a way out. If you had been there, you would not want to be here anymore."

Silence descended. The Ootori always spoke in a dignified manner, but this time it only enhanced the severity of the situation. Like the policeman earlier the day, telling them to leave. He hadn't said why, but everyone knew it was sever.

It was currently five in the afternoon, seven hours. No one moved from the lounge, it became the waiting room. The waiting room of the fight or flight simulation in everyone. They had to fight the time in order to fly. Everyone knew they had to get out or be tangled in a web of politics, law and basic dissention of the ranks. Of course they all were shaken by what had happened, relieved that none of them had been seriously hurt, but every single member of the Host Club couldn't comprehend such an act; they had been raised in a society where that sort of thing didn't happen. Their closed worlds had all opened and let in a draft of stale air. No one liked it. Everyone was trying to close the doors again, but everyone knew that a slight, stale background smell would remain.

-

That night, when everyone had retired to their rooms, Yuuki and Kyoya sat in the lounge. They waited in the darkness.

"Kyoya?"

"Yes?"
"Are you alright?"
"As can be expected." Pause. "You?"
"I'm fine. Shaken. But...alive." The face of the dead man flashed through her mind. "We were so, so, so, so very lucky."

"Yeah."

Yuuki smiled. "You mean, 'yes' right?"

Kyoya pushed his glasses up. "Yeah, I do."

"Can I start saying 'yeah' again now?"

"No."

She breathed and leant against him. He was comfortable and a comfort. He helped her deal, sort through the mess that her mind had just become. "Can I ever cal you hubby?"
Kyoya smiled, it felt like his face was cracking. It felt right, but it shouldn't have. He was still distressed. "No." Pause. "Did you ever want to?"

"No."

"Exactly."

They tried to ignore the dark emotion that dwelled somewhere in the background. They would leave it until they were a world away from the place that put it there. In a place they could recover. Hours later and it didn't register. There had been an attack. One that had caused Kyoya to have to get covered in blood and have Yuuki give her necklace away to stop the woman's life from continuing to seep into the cobbles. Neither of them wanted to talk about it. Not yet. They didn't want to think about that moment in time where the other hadn't existed, where the world had been rent in two by the acts of those who called it home. How nothing could be explained.

Kyoya wrapped his arm around Yuuki's ribcage and waited for her to say something. She didn't, she just brought her head to rest on his shoulder. Eighty percent of conversation is unspoken. The girl was trying to tell him she was alright, and assuring herself that he was; even though their world wasn't. Words wouldn't work. Words sometimes weren't enough.

The man pressed his lips to her hair. Even though she had showered at the village when she had collected her luggage, it still had the faint scent of smoke. The sort of smoke that lingers. He didn't mind though. What had happened was now a part of her and a part of him. However, Kyoya missed the original, sweet smell.

"You should go to bed." He said quietly. "You don't do well when you're tired."

Yuuki shook her head. "No." He did worse when he was tired.

"Why?"

The girl pressed her face into his shirt, hiding in her own way whilst still showing him where she was.

"Darling," Kyoya stroked her hair. "I'm right here. I didn't leave you. We're fine."

Yuuki's voice came out muffled against his shoulder. "But that man, he was like you. I know you didn't leave me, but I don't want to leave you." She sniffed.

"I don't want that either."

"I don't want to die Kyoya." Yuuki admitted. "I don't want to die. I realised that today. I don't want to leave you behind, or be left behind." When she said she didn't want to die, she meant them both.

The Ootori paused and contemplated this idea. "Do you think I love you?"
"Yes."

"Do you think our love could take us away together?"

Yuuki lifted her head to look at him; there were little diamonds on her face. Like when he had seen her in the window. His angel. "I..."

"I think it can do anything we want it to."

The girl smiled in a melancholy manner. "Just...make sure it happens. Your good at making sure it happens."

"I will. But..." Kyoya traced the line of her cheekbone. "...you're going to have to help me. It's going to be really hard; we're going to have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, everyday. I worked my whole life to be the bottom line and then I pushed it further and got the top. But it's not enough. I got there and I had money, power, inheritance...but I didn't have you. And it scared me. You had existed, and you didn't. So don't think that you're the only one wanting to leave together. If a bomb couldn't tear us apart, then, what can?"

Yuuki returned her head to its original position and sighed. "You and me... every day."

"Every single day of forever."

There was a long silence. "Kyoya?"

"Yes?"

"Why did someone blow up a bus?"

"They had a point to prove." They finally got to the point where they had moved far enough from the events to discuss them properly.

"How is killing people making a point? All the people you were proving something to, die."

"Inevitably." Kyoya knew Yuuki didn't just mean in the blast.

"I mean..." She pulled her hand inside the sleeve of her shirt. "Why can't people just...live life without...fear."

"Because fear is an emotion. Life is emotion. You are life."

"And thus, I am part of what happened today."

"Yes. And me."

"But, I don't want to be."

"Just because you were a part, does not mean you were a bad part. You sacrificed something to save someone else."

Yuuki sniffed again, her tone came out light. "Yeah, and you woke your dad up in the middle of the night and yelled at him." There was a little laugh at the end of the sentence.

Kyoya rested the hand that was not around her on top of the girls head. He knew what it was like to stay up all night, contemplating the certain agony he knew would be his if he were to lose her twice. Which is why he let himself go around her. He opened the gates and let her in and then closed them, locking her inside so that she would know what was going on even when the world didn't. But in the quiet, in the dark, in the private moments, they would both meet in the middle of their two worlds and create their own. Each with respective keys to the secret place, keys no one else had. Keys that led to a place so...it was not wonderful. You could not call it that. Their world was impacted by reality. But it was a sanctuary, where one could come with the world and begin to understand it. By having the keys to each other, they had the keys to a different perspective and an alternate look on life.

"Go to sleep, Yuuki."

The girl exhaled softly. "No."

"Why?"

"I'm not ready to say goodbye." Thoughtful pause. "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."

Silence. Kyoya thought a moment about her statement. "If I tell you I love you, can I keep you forever?" No matter what tears into life. No matter what.

"That's silly. You already did that."

"Did I really hurt you...back then?" He wanted to ask if it was worse than today, but didn't know if that as right. He didn't have the answers around her, she had them.

"Yes."

"But, you survived."

"Just because a heart is broken, doesn't mean it stops beating."

Kyoya loved learning from her. There once was an Italian painted, Carlotti, who defined beauty by the summation of parts working together in such a way that nothing needed to be added or taken away or altered. It was beauty and it was life. That was them. Like clockwork, even when it had been broken. It could be repaired. They could be repaired again. There would be scratches, little nicks in the timeframe; but that's what made life beautiful. Flaws make perfection.

-

When you love someone, and you love them with your heart, it never disappears when you're apart. And when you love someone, and you've done all you can do, you set them free. And if that love was true...When you love someone, it will all come back to you.

(Forget Paris, 1995)

-

-------------------------

-

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience by which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along

(Eleanor Roosevelt)

-

----------

Funny ol' world, ain't it?

I don't like writing about things I don't know. Hence, the bus. I do know a person who was across the street when a bus exploded. They were fine, they are fine now. So...just letting you know I didn't put that in for dramatic effect, I put it in for experience. This story is about two people in the world and, terrorism is, sadly, a part of this world. But so are we.

Anyway.

Reviews much appreciated, I would really like to know your honest opinion of this chapter and any constructive criticism you may have. You are all very valuable, thank you.

Just reminding everyone that I'm going away from Tuesday till Friday. I'll post as much as I can before then. Sorry this post was late; I haven't had a chance to put it up until now. It is the longest so far though.

Blessings,

-pp