HO HO HO. I WROTE THIS BEFORE CHRISTMAS AND I JUST WANTED TO TORTURE YOU BY MAKING YOU WAIT.
"Now, you see, class, I am not a man of many words. I am a man of coffee, because I drank about six canisters ofMcDonald's brew this morning and I'm actually hyped." Mr. Caulfield explained while sipping some coffee from a McDonald's cup.
"Really?" Brantely asked. Mr. Caulfield just looked at him like he was half asleep and continued to stare at him while drinking his coffee more slowly. This shut Brantely up, and Caulfield continued.
"Anyways, today's book assignment is going to be over the book Of Mice and Men. You've all probably read it at this point, but you're going to read it again and this time, it's going to contribute your way to college!" You noticed that Fluffy was gone from it's cage. Presumably, from what Caulfield barely spoke about the matter, the school board deemed that keeping Fluffy would concern parents. In the end, he had to release Fluffy to the wild. Now there was a bunch of planning folders from Caulfield's jammed into the tank. He said that it was "conserving space," but it seemed more like pure laziness to you.
"Now, I want to give a little sermon over a theme in this book that may or not apply to real life. Sometimes, life can be hard, and we all know that. Life can throw many things our way that make us just want to give up everything. One minute it's great, and the next it's in the toilet. But even so, you really can't give up. Life has its way on improving things one way or another. You just have to wait and find out what that improvement is." There was a long pause. "Except for Courage the Cowardly Dog. His life just sucks."
Laughter rang through the classroom, but you weren't paying attention like usual. Well, you were, but then you weren't. Right now, you were thinking about your own life. What college would you go to? What were you going to do after high school? What were you going to do with Kuroha once school ends? Soon, you were going to graduate, and he would have everything to do with screwing your life up. He already was being talked about by the media (He even had his own tag on Twitter, but no one knew that it was Kuroha.) and tried to feed laxative cookies to high schoolers. What's next, setting the school treasury on fire?
When you got home, you had the assigned book in your hand and pushed open the front doors. Your father greeted you and your mother set out a plate of food for you. You've been making excuses to eat up in your room so you could talk to Kuroha more. This time, you lied and said that you had Geometry to work on. You walked up the stairs and knocked on your door three times. That was the special key Kuroha gave to you so he knew that you were the one demanding entrance to his - I'm sorry, your room.
As per usual, he was reading a book that he borrowed from the library. Without permission, of course. He said that there were hundreds of books in there, so they wouldn't mind one of them being taken. It was still wrong, but who were you to argue? You sat down at your desk and began to eat silently. The only noise that filled the tension ridden atmosphere was the clicking of your fork and the flipping of the pages.
"Master, I'm bored." He informed you at last.
"What do you want me to do about it?"
"Something. Do you have some person I need to beat up?" Your mind flashed to many people at once, but you couldn't say yes to that.
"No, I'm good. Really." He shut his book. Kuroha flipped the pages rapidly with his thumb.
"Is there someone you want me to beat up anyway?"
"Kuroha, if you want to punch something, there is Andrew's car. Mom says that he spends too much money on gas for it, and it's better if it gets broken." You said halfheartedly.
"Punching your brother sounds like a good plan. Man, if I had the heat haze..." He trailed off, flopping back onto your bed and holding up his hand in the air. "I could have killed him repeatedly by now."
"Well, you can't, so you didn't." You finished eating and pushed the plates aside. Kuroha put his hand down. He just looked at the ceiling with a blank expression.
"I always wondered how many wishes people make a day, and which ones they really mean. The human mind is fickle with what it wants. It demands more than what it needs. "Oh, I wish that person would drop dead!" "I wish they would fall off a cliff." But let's say that one day, those wishes all come true. All these misfortunes that people wished upon you are granted, and the Earth is converted into a container of pain and suffering. The saying "When you wish upon a star' doesn't sound as pleasant now, does it." Kuroha thought aloud.
"But what if wishes never did come true? The heat haze would have never happened, and neither would you." You sassed.
"If wishes didn't come true, you wouldn't be passing your classes right now, would you? You dump all your work on me and expect me to do it. You're one the greediest and laziest human beings I've ever met." Kuroha grinned.
You fumed. "And you're one of the shittiest! All you do is talk about death and misery and think that you're soooo deep, when in really you're nothing but a bad scene phase that'll soon go away!"
"If I had known that I was going to meet you, I would have stayed in that blank void for the rest of eternity."
"If I had known that I was going to meet you, I would have sent Andrew in my place to be your Master." Kuroha's eyes widened.
"You are asking for it, Master."
"And you know what he'd do? He'd make you his bitch. Andrew would have you pretend that you're Danny Phantom for an entire day and then have you marathon Glee with him." Kuroha unexpectedly grabbed your arm and pulled you onto the bed where he was. Your breath hitched when he held down your arms and sat on your legs. "Oh, what. I'm not afraid of you!"
"You should be. Because who else is going to save you from this?" Kuroha began ticking your sides. You tried to get away from him while laughing into your mattress. "The human weak spot!"
"Stop it! Stop it! P-Please!" You begged. Kuroha smirked and got off of you, leaving you to gasp for air and let out a few last cackles. You just laid there for a few more seconds before rising up.
"Now that you've had your fun, let's get down to business." Kuroha undid his hair and started to redo it into it's ponytail. "Earlier, your brother called about going to this band house warming party. He said not to worry, but 30 minutes ago, he called and said that he needed an escape hatch and I'm the only way he's going to survive "a bunch of drunk hippos." So, I did the only logical thing possible. I ignored him."
You groaned. "Kuroha! You should have told me! We have to go get him now!" You were already putting on your coat. Kuroha eagerly walked to the window and threw them open.
"About time we get to do something exciting around here!" He exclaimed. Picking you up, he jumped out the window and began hopping over rooftops again. You grinned with glee.
"Kuroha, do you even know where you're going?"
"Nope, but humans say that that's the fun in life! To be frank, I've never witnessed a gathering of human trash, but I suppose today wouldn't hurt finding out." You looked up at the night sky and realized how pretty it was. You never really believed in wishing upon a star, but now you hoped that the burning hydrogen and helium gases light years away would hopefully hear your plea to never make this moment end, and keep you with Kuroha as long as eternity lasted. He had made your life better, and if he ever left you, well... you weren't sure what you would do. But now wasn't the time to consider the fact that Kuroha might leave you. You just wanted to make the moment last.
After searching the city from rooftops, Kuroha located a giant house with cars parked all around the building. He grinned and jumped down behind it. You began to walk around to the front, but he stopped you and forced your jacket's hood over your face.
"Trust me, you'll need this." Kuroha assured you. "You're also going to have to hold my hand so I won't loose track of you in this rut, and so no one will try anything with you." You nodded and took his hand. Hand in hand, you both walked to the front of the house. A couple, presumably drunk, leaned against the front of the house making out. Rather sickeningly, might you add. Kuroha rolled his eyes and kicked the female's leg and sent her crashing to the ground. He pulled you into the indoors of the house before they came to what was left of their senses.
To be honest, you've never been to a party in your life. You've seen a bunch of parties on TV for dramatic and stupid scenes, but this was quite the opposite of the safe stereo in your living room. Loud music hurt your ears, and people were cramped up. It seemed like an endless sea of humanity, if that's how you were supposed to describe it. You noticed that your shoe was planted firmly in tobacco spit. You scratched your heel onto the damp welcome mat in disgust. Kuroha allowed you to do so and began shoving his way through the crowd with you in front of him.
"I swear to God, if this is the wrong party, I'm wreaking his car into the tree he parks by!" Kuroha yelled at you. You had no complaints there. "There's no way that I'm going to get through this with you intact. We're going to stick to the walls!"
"Whatever you want!" You yelled back. Kuroha pushed a jock out of the way that produced some profanities at you both. Now you both hung by the apricot coloured wall in disgust. The air was getting hot, so you took off your jacket.
"You see him anywhere?!" Kuroha asked you. You shook your head and tried to sift through the crowd. Knowing Andrew, he was most likely hiding somewhere while praying to Santa Christ to save him. You watched a bunch of people defined by society as "adults" jamming out to the music. You couldn't even tell what song was being played from the blend of human voices.
"Was the Heat Haze better than this?" You answered him with another question.
"Between sweaty bodies, disgusting chemicals being spilled everywhere, and the disgusting concept of lust being spread like a disease, I think I prefer the sanctuary of the Haze."
"Who wouldn't?" You muttered. You crossed your arms and watched the ongoing disgrace to humanity proceed on until you heard rash yelling from around the room. You couldn't make out what was said, but apparently Kuroha did. His eyes widened and his head darted around for something. He spotted a closet besides you two and opened the door, pulling you inside of it with him. It was pitch black. You pressed your back against a wall, plus several coats, and gasped for the fresh air stored up in there.
"Why are we in here?" You asked. Kuroha shuffled to the other side of the closet.
"In case you didn't hear, a human male yelled about sifting the party out for people who weren't invited. I pulled us in here before we were kicked out." He explained.
"A closet?! That's the most CLICHE hiding place there is!" You scolded him.
"Oh, I'm sorry, your majesty! I'm sorry that I couldn't produce a magical wormhole out of nowhere like I should be able to and flee to another dimension!" He yelled at you. You both became quiet for a while, not sure of what to say. Only the background music and yelling was able to make up for the tension shared between you both.
"Kuroha, this is all my fault. I should have never forced you into this stupid contract." You confessed to him. He gave a low "hm." Now that your eyes adjusted, you could make out that his gaze was directly focused onto you.
"I keep telling you, you shouldn't blame yourself for something I reeled you into. If anyone considers the actions of the past that we now call the present, then the fault is within my hands. I'm the one that took the actions of forcing you to make a wish, thus the evidence racks against me. Now that we've settled that argument, I don't want to hear you apologize for this ever again." Kuroha paused. "But I find it flattering that you'd want to take the blame onto your shoulders. I find that an interesting human habit. What makes you all want to take such a burden and carry it for other people when you know it's not yours to care about? I'll tell you why. It's a trait called "love," something that humans take for granted."
He continued on. "I've always laughed at the idea of love. It's done nothing but bring humans down to their knees and gnash their teeth as they beg for the tedious feeling. There's only one love I'll truly tolerate - absolute clarity. If both humans can truly prove that they'll defend the other person willingly, without a thought, throw everything away for the other being, then I'll consider. It's still a foolish way to live, but it's living through life with proof that you're a strong being. That's why I respect the last 3 of my Masters, I'll tell you that. Their decisions led them to devastating outcomes on my behalf, but they did so willingly through the power of love. I always wondered why such an emotion could lead people to do something so foolish, and I've never been able to figure out the answer."
"I never would have thought about it like that..." You told him. "I don't want to be rude, but I thought that you considered love to be stupid in general."
Kuroha smirked. "Did you not just hear what I said? I do. I just admire the beings whom's love is so powerful, it creates a bond with the significant other. As a snake, I can't feel such an emotion. You just have to sit back and watch their mistakes, I suppose. I can pull you up a chair and we can laugh at them together."
"That sounds marvelous." You agreed, but your heart ached inside of your chest. You had fallen so helplessly in love with Kuroha over the past two months and it hurt so much to hear him say that. You were now just finally admitting your true feelings in this tiny space with him in front of you. You kept denying yourself of what you truly felt for a month in a half, but your emotions finally hit you a week ago when you were doing homework. Kuroha leaned over your shoulder and was tutoring you like usual on what you did wrong. It was a simple x-x=m(y-y) equation, and you couldn't get the concept down. As his voice informed you on your mistakes, this unexplained feeling began welling up in your chest. You wanted to cry from how much it hurt you. It only got worse as time went on and you spent more time with Kuroha. Yes, you, _ , had fallen for the bastard snake of the Heat Haze. So hopelessly and strongly that it hurt to live.
"So, do you think that a couple bullets in Andrew's legs will keep him from having events like this happen?" He joked. You smiled sheepishly and shrugged. You heard more yelling from outside. Kuroha's breath hitched. "They're coming to the closet."
"What? What do we do?!" You panicked. Kuroha bent down to your height and looked towards the door.
"We blend in, of course. Don't panic, _." Kuroha said your name in a rushed tone. His hands came up to your face and his thumbs stroked your cheeks. You squeaked a bit, and Kuroha smirked. "You have to forgive me for this."
It was something you would never dream of happening to you, something that would never happen, but this happen was something... you couldn't even describe the feelings that welled up into your chest. Kuroha pressed his soft lips against yours, nose touching yours. You felt the tears leak out from your eyes, the emotions that you couldn't hold back any longer. Your eyes were firmly closed to keep the tears from leaking out, but it added to no prevail. Kuroha's hands trailed to your hair and began messing through it as your lips parted, then greeted each other once more in a more greedy action. The door opened, and the light stung your now opened eyes. Kuroha pressed you up against his body, head close to his shoulder. You could't tell who answered the door.
"Can I... help you?" Kuroha said in a drunk voice. You now noticed that he had taken down his hair to give him a more sloppy appearance. You figured out what he was doing. He was playing the part of a drunk college student, with you as his equally tipsy girlfriend. You slowly hugged him back and buried your head into his chest, still tasting his saliva on your tongue. The person apologized and shut the door, leaving Kuroha to exhale in relief.
"Well, that took care of things." He whispered, wiping the drool off of the corner of his chin. You bet he felt the dampness of your tears on his shirt. His hand stroked your back in a comforting manner. "That must have been your first time, huh?"
You couldn't respond. You just let out a loud sob and buried your face in deeper. Kuroha kept stroking your head.
"I'll tell you a story to make you feel better. Your brother can wait a few more minutes. When I first possessed this body in some time loop, I was ecstatic with the amazing feeling this body had. So before resetting the time line, I got into a truck and drove over a cliff before warping out into the next time. It was the best thing I have ever done." You looked up and giggled a bit, imagining Kuroha with some pixel shades, falling off of a cliff. "You feel better now?"
"... I-I-I'm sorry for..." He cut you off with his hand covering your mouth.
"Not everything needs an explanation, so don't bother. Let's just get your brother and leave this meth lab." Kuroha helped you up and opened the door. There were less people now, but still more than necessary. You pulled your hood up over your tear streaked face. You were so embarrassed that you had cried in front of Kuroha that it made you disgusted with yourself. You both managed to haul your beings over to the stairs and carefully made your way up. Walking down the narrow hallways, Kuroha noticed that one of the doors were locked. He shook his head.
"Either he's in there, or something explicit. Pray to your God that it's not the latter." Kuroha backed up and kicked the door down. A girly scream rang out of the room. Yep, that was Andrew's scream. Kuroha leaned in the door frame with a sly smile aimed at your cowardly brother hiding behind the bed in the room.
"Heeeeeeere's Kuroha." Andrew sprang up and ran over to Kuroha, bowing down at his feet. Kuroha looked entirely confused and stepped backwards.
"Santa Christ! Thank Santa Christ you've come! I thought that you'd leave me here for dead or something!" He looked up with a cheeky smile, when he noticed your red face. You turned away too late. Andrew got on his knees and grabbed your arms. "_? What's wrong? What did this Fuckboy do you you?!"
"Nothing." You hoarsely replied.
"She tripped outside and scrapped her knee, that's what. It doesn't matter. I disinfected the wound, and now we're here to disinfect another." Kuroha slapped your brother's face roughly. He fell to the ground and whined. Kuroha turned around. "Now, hurry up and contain your ridiculous crying and let's leave." He left to lean next to the stairway. This left you to help up Andrew and help him down the hallway.
You were almost to the exit. The only thing that blocked your path was a female dancing obnoxiously with her muse. Kuroha looked over to see a guy holding a red solo cup. He yanked it out of his hand and tossed it onto the girl's head. She screamed and stepped backwards with her mouth wide open, hands in front of her with the fingers slightly bent. The man she was dancing with stepped forward with a furious expression. You knew something bad was going to happen. Suddenly, Caulfield's words of wisdom rang in your head from earlier. The Courage joke, to be specific.
"The fucking hell do you think you're doing, you piece of shit?!" He yelled. The crowd began to depart for a possible fight to begin. Andrew pulled you backwards with him, and now it was just Kuroha and this blonde buzzcut male.
"That's Jacob Cummings. He's known for being good at fights. This is going to end up nasty. For him." Andrew chuckled as he whispered this information to you. Kuroha stuck his hands in his over sized jean pockets.
"What I think I'm doing is departing this awful place before I become garbage, like the words your protrude from your trashcan of a mouth daily. If I wanted to hear an asshole talk, I would have farted." Kuroha sassed, cocking his head slightly. Andrew began wheezing uncontrollably, and you weren't far behind from laughing like a maniac yourself. Jacob's face turned a bright red from anger, and he leaned back, charging a punch at Kuroha. Kuroha quickly took out his beloved pistol from his pocket and shot one of Jacob's feet. The noise that erupted from the pistol, and the pistol in general, made the crowd shriek. Kuroha stuck the pistol back in his pocket and casually walked over to you, thankful that your hood was over your face. People began dashing all over the place, creating a new revolution of the Hunger Games. Andrew had already fled out the front door. You didn't blame him. Kuroha took your hand once more and hurried you out of there.
"You shot his FOOT. HIS FOOT." Andrew yelled once Kuroha and you ran up to him by a tree in the backyard. "Like, you could have at least punched him!"
"I wanted to get things over with quickly, and he had it coming, not to be ironic." Kuroha scooped you up into his arms. "We're getting out of here. Now, enjoy this while it lasts, but I'm going to give you a piggy back ride out of here." Andrew's face brightened up, and he jumped onto Kuroha's back roughly. Kuroha hissed, literally hissed, but waited until Andrew was situated before jumping up inhumanly high. It was like he drifted into the air a few minutes. Andrew screamed, the gazed at the large full moon above him.
"OH MY GOD, THIS IS E.T." He screamed. Kuroha grinned, showing off his fangs. He landed on a roof top and jumped up high once more. You could tell that at this point that he was just showing off to entertain Andrew. It felt like this amazing moment shared between all three of you erased all of your worries in the world. And you wished that it would be like this forever.
"WE ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE."