Title: Self-Defense

Summary: Yuki has been trying to teach Tohru self-defense for the past few weeks, and an accident leaves him bruised and the rest of Japan wondering.

Genre: Romance/ Friendship

Rating: T

Word Count: 4,080

For the past three weeks, Yuki and Tohru had been meeting at midnight after she returned from work. They'd sit together for a while first, allowing Tohru to rest and get a snack, then head out to a small clearing a quarter of a mile into the forest behind the old-fashioned house they lived in with Shigure and Kyo.

Although Yuki and Kyo always tried to pick Tohru up from work since she worked so late at night and though at least one of them usually did accompany her on her walks home, Yuki still worried about Tohru walking home alone at night, or anywhere for that matter. Tohru was too trusting and kindhearted for her own safety. She was more likely to approach a suspicious prowler than to scream, and with her grace, an attempt to run away would likely endanger her more, so Yuki decided to train her, and though Tohru was wary of anything involving violence, he had somehow managed to convince her to learn self-defense.

So far, Yuki had only managed to teach Tohru how to break out of various holds due to her reluctance to learn how to hurt an enemy. Even though he had talked her into trying a few punches and kicks, he could barely persuade her into using enough force to at least hurt a fly. Although her progress dismayed him a bit, he persisted in teaching her the correct formations and stances in hopes that if she were to encounter a situation requiring self-defense, she'd actually use the needed force to escape, so here he stood, helping her form a fist, regardless of how her fingers were so loosely gripped that he could have pried them apart with a brush of his pinky.

Evidently, with her lack of willingness to use much prowess, Yuki had let his guard down, though he shouldn't have since they were in the middle of the forest where strange prowlers could have been wandering, the kind of ones Yuki was trying to get Tohru to defend herself against. Yet he had let his guard almost completely down, so when Tohru jumped into her fighting stance with her fist extended and slipped on a small rock, he wound up throwing his left eye into her fist as he tried to catch her. Despite his efforts, he hadn't even managed to keep her upright, and she knocked him to the ground. Though, her fist held her off of him, so he didn't transform, this dug her knuckles deeper into his eye.

Maybe her grip was better than he had assumed?

She, of course, jumped off of him as soon as she realized what had just transpired, hopping around frantically with her hands over her mouth, gasping and shrieking out incoherent apologies as he laid there, clutching his eye. It took her half a minute to settle down enough to kneel down beside him and help him sit up, supporting him with one arm around his back and her hand on his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, Yuki-kun! Are you okay? Does it hurt? Of course it hurts! I'm so sorry! I should have been more careful! Can you even see anymore?" Tohru cried.

"Yeah… I'm fine, Honda-san. Calm down," he muttered slowly.

He sat up straighter in attempt to reassure her that he wasn't dying as he slowly lowered his hand from his eye. Tohru cringed at the sight of his quickly darkening eye and at his wince as he tried to blink his left eye.

"Come, Yuki-kun! Let's go back inside! I'll get some ice for you!" Tohru suggested.

She offered him her arm, helping him to his feet. They walked slowly, and it took them twice as long to reach the house, and though Yuki's hand hadn't returned to his face to cover his eye, she noticed that every time the wind blew, he'd cringe, and the movement made him flinch with pain. Tohru's frown deepened by the second, and by the time they were in the kitchen, tears had begun to spill from Tohru's eyes. Under the bright fluorescent lights of the kitchen, Tohru could now see Yuki's swollen eye, the skin around it darkening from a dark pink to a purplish shade of dark blue. Quickly hurrying to the freezer, Tohru emptied the tray of ice into a small plastic bag and wrapped in a thin towel before pressing it against Yuki's eye gently. At first, Yuki drew away in pain, but soon the contact of the cool ice pack and the warm hand Tohru had pressed against the back of his head soothed him into a dull state of relaxation.

Once he decided to hold the ice pack himself, Tohru helped Yuki onto the sofa in the living room.

"Do you need anything else, Yuki-kun? A cup of tea? A snack? Pain medication? A new icepack?" Tohru offered.

Yuki shook his head with a slight smile, "I'm fine, Honda-san. Please don't worry about me. It's just a small bruise."

Glancing at the clock, he added, "But we should head to bed. We have school tomorrow."

Tohru nodded uneasily in reluctant agreement. She stood beside him, offering him her arm again, and he accepted with a small shake of his head, not because he really needed the help (he had had far worse during his childhood with Akito) but because he found he liked the feeling of her hand wrapped around his and because it lessened the frown that plagued her face a tad. She carefully led him upstairs, making sure he kept the ice pressed firmly against his face and that he took slow steps. Tohru paused to open the door for him and even eased him gently into bed, going as far as tucking him in, fluffing his pillows and pulling the covers to his chin. He didn't have the heart to tell her that he still needed to change into his pajamas and brush his teeth, so he just laid there, beaming at her.

"Goodnight, Yuki! Please feel better soon! Don't be afraid to call me if you need anything! Even if it's in the middle of the night!" Tohru told him with a determined fist raised.

"Goodnight, Honda-san. And please, don't worry. This is nothing. Just try to get some sleep," he assured her.

He could tell his words didn't have much of an effect on her worries. It took her two minutes to actually shut his door and another before he heard her own door open and close. She crept so slowly out of his room as if she were afraid her footsteps would make his eye swell more, and she looked back at least twenty times, and by the time she had actually stepped into the hallway, she had to peek in through the door for half a minute before she gingerly closed it. Though he believed her concern excessive, he'd be lying if he said he didn't appreciate it. Nobody had ever expressed this much concern over him, even when he was six and half-dead after one of Akito's beatings, so he had to smile, despite how the upturn of his lips strained the tender area around his eye.

When he awoke, the ice pack had melted, leaving a wet stain on his pillow and mattress, and he could only manage to open one eye. Bring his hand to his face, he found the area surrounding his eye had doubled in size. He flinched as his fingers grazed the skin. Sitting up, Yuki climbed to his feet and glanced at the small mirror in his room. He gawked at the sight. A giant mass of blue, red, and purple had overtaken his eye, forcing the lids squeezed shut. Grimacing, he tried to comb his long bangs over the left side of his face, but his light, silvery hair only seemed to make the bruise seem darker. His pale skin already drew enough contrast with the dark injury. With a sigh, he shook his head, sending his bangs back into place, and after changing into a clean uniform, he headed for the kitchen, knowing that Tohru would soon shriek with concern.

Said shriek made Shigure spit his mouthful of tea all over his newspaper.

When Shigure ran into the kitchen with an uncharacteristically serious expression across his face, Tohru had Yuki basically pinned against the refrigerator with a new ice pack pressed against his eye, hiding the injury from Shigure's prying eye. Seeing that no one was dead, a grin returned to Shigure's face, making Yuki roll his one free eye in annoyance. Tohru, however, didn't notice Shigure's entrance until he was behind her and spoke, which made her let out another small shriek and almost drop the ice pack.

"Run into the wall again, Yuki-kun?" Shigure asked with a chuckle.

"Shut up, Shigure," Yuki nearly snarled.

Tohru turned around towards Shigure, worriedly stating, "Shigure-san! Please don't tease Yuki-kun! This is all my fault!"

"Have you and Kyo been fighting again?" Shigure questioned with a frown of disapproval as he scanned his house for damage, assuming Tohru took blame for not mediating the fight better.

Before either Yuki or Tohru could clarify, Kyo walked into the house with a towel draped over his shoulders. He meandered into the kitchen to drink milk from the carton but was halted by Yuki and Tohru who blocked the refrigerator. Before he could get out a snarky comment to his nemesis, Tohru's hand slipped a bit, letting the ice pack slide down Yuki's face just long enough for Kyo and Shigure to notice the large bruise before Tohru quickly readjusted the cool compress back into place. Kyo's brows furrowed and his mouth slowly opened as he quizzically stared at ice pack covering Yuki's eye.

"What, you stupid cat?" Yuki queried with his eyebrow raised in annoyance.

"Did I finally hit you?" Kyo asked, somewhat in a daze.

"No. You've never managed to hit me before. You're too weak, stupid cat," Yuki snapped at Kyo angrily before adding, "I was training Honda-san so she can protect herself. She accidentally fell, and her fist landed in my eye."

"Oh. Tohru-kun beat you up. Much better, Yuki-kun," Shigure chuckled.

Yuki pulled the ice pack off his forehead and whipped it at Shigure's face, hitting him in the forehead. Tohru squeaked, flipping her head between Shigure, who had dramatically dropped onto the kitchen floor and was rolling around and whimpering, and Yuki, who was currently stalking out of the room with his hands clenched into fists. After another second passed, she spun around, grabbed the freezer handle and quickly made two ice packs, shoving one into Shigure's outstretched hand before dashing after Yuki. When Shigure and Kyo joined them a minute later, Tohru had managed to convince Yuki to sit down at the table and had the ice pack pressed against his face. Shigure gave them a suggestive grin and winked, though only Yuki could see since Tohru had her back towards the kitchen doorway. Yuki's one showing eye narrowed into a glare at Shigure, but Tohru mistook it for a wince and shifted the ice pack worriedly.

"Maybe you should stay home from school today, Yuki-kun," she suggested.

"I'm fine, Honda-san. A bruised eye is not going to kill me," he replied.

By the growing frown across her face, he could tell that idea did not please her though she did back away to let him tend to the injury himself, but that didn't stop her from rushing back to the kitchen, bringing back the platter of food she had just finished preparing before he came downstairs, and serving him food, arranging everything for him and even cutting his pancakes for him. He could tell that Shigure was trying to muffle his laughter by the way he held his ruined newspaper before his face, and he would have beat his older cousin if Tohru hadn't been kneeling beside him, holding a fork out to him with her eyes practically watering in guilt. With a soft sigh, he took the utensil from her, purposefully grabbing her hand before and giving it the best reassuring squeeze he could manage. It seemed to help somewhat as she turned back to her breakfast and began to eat, managing to only glance at him every minute rather than every ten seconds.

He had to assure her over ten times that he could go to school by the time they finished washing the dishes, three more times as they were putting on their shoes to leave, twenty times on their walk to school, and another five times while they were walking past the school doors. When they were finally inside and heading towards their lockers, she had settled for uneasily staring at him, which happened to be what everyone in the school had started doing the moment he had set foot through the school gates. Noting the strange and somewhat alarmed gazes following him, he started wondering why he had been so adamant earlier about going to school. He could have skipped a day without missing too much, and perhaps those twenty-four hours would reduce the swelling enough so that he could actually open his left eye and lighten the bruise just enough that one couldn't notice it from the other end of the hallway.

With a loud mental groan, Yuki buried his head in his locker, dragging out books as he hid the left side of his face behind the small metal door. He tried to shove his head in deeper when he heard several pairs of loud footsteps draw nearer, but his head wouldn't fit inside, so he settled for smacking his head against the top of his locker when the footsteps stopped a foot behind him, causing Tohru to turn towards him, concern evident in her large eyes as she shut her locker that was conveniently two lockers away from his.

Yuki slowly turned around to face the four girls that stood there, chanting a rather annoying song that stopped as soon as they saw his face, despite how he tried to keep only his right side before them. They gasped in unison, dramatically raising shaking hands to their gaping mouths and taking two wobbly steps backwards.

"Prince Yu-Yuki! What happened to you?"

"It was an accident," he answered simply.

They didn't seem to notice how Tohru's head was bowed apologetically or the mumbled strew of apologies spurting forward from her downturned lips.

"Do you need us to get revenge for you?"

"We wouldn't want you to get hurt anymore! You're just so delicate!"

"Yes! We can protect you-!"

"I don't need your protection. I'm not delicate, and I already told you; it was an accident," he retorted coolly, in a sharper tone than he had intended.

For a moment, there was only silence in what seemed like the whole school. Even Tohru stopped bowing to peer up at the silver-haired boy beside her. Only because she knew him so well, Tohru could see the slight drip in Yuki's nearly straight lips and the slight wrinkles creasing his forehead due to the minutely furrowed eyebrows that made his expression regretful rather than infuriated, though she had to admit his expression contained more than a taint of annoyance. Though perhaps it was hard to read Yuki's emotions clearly, the feelings of the four fan girls and the rest of the school were easily identifiable as shock with their round, large eyes and their lowered jaws, and in the fan girls' cases, traces of hurt evident in their downcast, watering eyes. Yuki opened his mouth to respond, to apologize, to absolve himself with excuses of lacked sleep, annoying cousins, and pain, but the school bell rang, and they were all ushered into class, where he only received more stares.

Of course, the comments and questions had to wait until lunch for as curious as Mayu was, she didn't pause her lectures for what she knew would be a long distraction, but that didn't deter anyone's wandering mind, and as soon as the bell rang for lunch, Uo was the first to blurt out from beside Tohru before anyone could even drop their pencils or Mayu could finish her last sentence.

"Woah! Prince! What happened to your eye? You and orange-head get into a fight again? Or did your fan girls lose control?" Uo questioned with a smirk.

"I sense guilt from Tohru-kun," Hana commented nonchalantly, quietly enough that only Tohru and Uo could hear.

"Pfft! Don't tell me! Tohru beat you up?" Uo snickered with her thumb thrust towards a shrunken Tohru.

"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! It's all my fault!" Tohru squeaked.

Before any of the students could fully process the implications of Uo's careless words and Tohru's sputtering, Tohru had hopped to her feet and had started bowing in Yuki's directions again. Yuki grimaced, sinking his face into his palm with a muffled groan. Tohru took this as a negative sign and bowed more frantically as the other students began muttering to one another with suspicious glances towards the pair in the center of the room. Hearing at least one vow of vengeance against Tohru, Yuki finally stood, grasping Tohru's hand in his and dragging the shocked girl who hadn't completely stopped bowing out of the room and out the school, abandoning their belongings in the room. She remained silent out of bewilderment, stumbling and tripping behind him until he finally let them stop behind the school in a deserted area by the dumpsters.

"Honda-san, please stop apologizing. I don't blame you. And this isn't good for either of us. This is just going to start rumors," he told her firmly.

"Sorr-" she started but he cut her off, placing his index fingers against her mouth.

He shook his head, repeating, "Please stop apologizing. It's not your fault."

She nodded, and he removed his finger from her lips and his hand from hers when he noticed how dangerously red her face grew, though not after smiling to himself in a somewhat proud manner. He'd never seen her blush so, not even for Kyo, but he didn't have much time to praise himself before Uo and Hana tracked them down, carrying their forgotten lunches in tow, and demanded the full story from them. So, despite the stench of garbage, the small group settled by a large tree nearby to eat. Yuki let Tohru tell the story between bites and apologetic glances his way. He only piped in occasionally to correct her depiction of herself as a cruel monster who had pummeled him to the ground, too busy checking their surroundings for anyone who might have spotted them to add in much else.

Though Uo obnoxiously broke out in hysterical laughter and even Hana smiled in amusement, Yuki was grateful they learned the story. Their presence kept everyone at bay, keeping those offering muted comments and snickers from confronting him with dramatic proclamations of despair and grief for his injury or outright jabs at his masculinity and those seeking harm against Tohru from coming within twenty feet of her, but they didn't save him when he was alone, sneaking into the student council room. He didn't have a meeting today. He had just left a notebook in there and needed it for tonight's assignments and prayed to get out without running into anyone, but with how today was going, he shouldn't have expected to be that lucky, so it shouldn't have surprised him when he found Manabe awakening from a nap inside just as he was about to slip out the door safely with his journal.

Although his eyes drooped with their usual sleepiness upon waking from his deep naps in the student council rooms, Manabe didn't require his usual half an hour or even his typical aggressive eye rubbing before he hopped up, eyes glimmering with shocking recognition as he bounded over to Yuki, grabbing him by the shoulders with both his hands and dragging a reluctant Yuki away from the door before he could pass through and escape.

Yuki deeply regretted not beating him and running out before Manabe opened his mouth.

"Ah! Yun Yun! I heard you got in a fight with your girlfriend! If she's abusing you, you really should end it, you know?" Manabe advised him with an almost serious look across his face.

Yuki offered a sarcastic laugh before his fake smile deepened into a malicious scowl. He tossed his prized notebook aside and grabbed the nearest desk, whacking the student council vice president with it. Neither the chair, the desk, nor the unconscious brunette male could clatter to the ground before Yuki had picked up his journal and slammed the door shut.

After a few more punches and getting a week's worth of detention after a mild scolding from the principal (a week only because the principal didn't exactly believe the accusations that the class president had been beating people up all day), Yuki was finally seated in his room with nothing to deal with but the usual piles of homework and his pestering cousins (all of whom had decided to visit today with supposed concerns about his wellbeing, though he questioned the intentions of at least half whom he suspected had come to hear what they must have suspected to be an amusing story by the cackles he could hear from his room, though Tohru was seriously and guiltily telling the story in the living room downstairs each time).

He received no relief from their torturous concern, not even during dinner, despite how delicious the food was and how Tohru had decided to cook all his favorite foods, until midnight when all guests had finally decided to leave and he was finally alone in his room with his untouched homework.

He had only finished one assignment when Tohru knocked quietly on his door, bearing a tray of snacks and a cup of tea. She stepped inside meekly when he waved her in and carefully set the tray on his desk before uneasily stepping to the side, rubbing her left arm in clear discomfort.

"Are you feeling okay, Yuki-kun?" she queried.

"Yes, Honda-san. Don't worry."

"Does it still hurt? I can get you another ice pack if you need," she offered.

He shook his head, and there was a minute of silence before Tohru added, "Shigure told me something that might make you feel better."

He took a cookie but raised a quizzical eyebrow at her, untrusting of any advice from Shigure, but after eyeing the desperation dripping off of her large watery eyes and watching her nervously rock back and forth on the heels of her feet, he silently succumbed with a slight bow of his head. She practically jumped up with joy, clapping her hands together in excitement, but as soon as she took a step towards him, she seemed to falter, stumbling closer to him than he had expected. He opened his mouth to question her actions, but her quivering lower lip begged silence from him. With a quiet sigh, he closed his eyes, and he could practically feel some tension ease from the room.

He waited for what seemed like an eternity until he felt something wet and soft press against his swollen eyelid. Jumping back in shock, his eyes shot open, and his jaw hung open in shock. It didn't take long for most of the blood in his body to shoot to his face, darkening every inch of skin in site. He almost fell out of his chair, but Tohru only seemed to grin at him, despite the matching blush across her face. Despite her clear embarrassment, she brought her face close to his, staring in his wide eyes, and then it hit him.

His eyes.

"Wow! I didn't think kisses worked that well! I had always just assumed mom did that just to make me stop crying! And to think it actually works!" Tohru cried with obvious exuberance.

She grasped his arms, tugging him out of his seat in a celebratory manner, but she seemed to catch him off guard for the next thing she knew his nose collided with her chin, sending her head back and a gush of blood from his nose. As a frantic Tohru grabbed a handful of tissues from the tissue box he kept on his desk, he could only wonder if she really needed to learn how to defend herself.

I was supposed to put this up half an hour ago on my birthday, but alas. Laziness. Enjoy.