A/N: Here's the next update luvs! Btw I recently got a job and ouch I'm so sore from it! I'm making good money though so yaaayy that's exciting. It was really busy at work today though and as soon as I got home I fell asleep on my laptop before I could even get to updating this :P
Now, I do believe I was promised a cookie? :3
And, could I have Sebastian sic me anyway, even though I posted the update? Pretty please? xD
Hahaha I love you reviewers. You're seriously the best! Such entertaining and sweet peasants. Like fools of the court, really! ^_^
CK:*
-Extras-
At the Wedding: Killer Tiger or Kawaii Tiger?
Literally two seconds later, Akari was slammed into the nearest wall.
Golden eyes bore into her, scooping into her soul, delving into her gaze as if searching for a lie somewhere hidden in there.
"You and I," he growled at her. "are going to have a little chat."
...
Akari shivered beneath his cold gaze, trying not to move as his iron-like grip on her shoulders tightened so much that dull fingernails were digging into her skin. She felt truly terrified of him right then, if only for a brief moment.
"What the hell were you doing in here with him?" He was barely speaking. It was more like rumbling, coming from deep in the chest.
"There is a very good explana –" She winced as his grip got impossibly tight.
Seeing the pain etched into her features, a flash of worry and penitence crossed over Tora's face for a split-second, but it was gone all too quickly and replaced by a snarl. However, after that, he did ease up on his hold on her.
Akari breathed a sigh of relief and tilted her chin up, so that she could look him in the eye. Carefully, with another shiver running through her body as his eyes sent her his most poisonous glare, she reached out a hand and placed it gently on his arm.
"Tora." She gave him a pleading look, and when he responded with yet another growl, she morphed the look into a sarcastic grin. "I thought you were supposed to be impervious to jealousy, hmm?"
Scoffing, he released her and stood across the room in the blink of an eye. He turned his back to her, shoulders heaving and fists clenching and relaxing as he tried to calm himself.
"You shouldn't be giving me any reason to become jealous in the first place." He scolded her harshly, whipping around to shoot another glare her way. "Tell me what happened. And if I think you're lying, even a little bit..." He trailed off, letting the end of that comment hang in the air, turning it heavy and hard to breathe in.
"I promise you, with everything in me, I promise. I would and will never cheat on you." She met his gaze with a determined expression – she had to get him to believe the truth, instead of believing his own assumptions. "I know we're in the middle of a fight right now, but that makes no difference. I can be furious with you and still love the hell out of you at the same time." Turning her head to the side, she shrugged a bit in embarrassment. "That's just one of the things I've never been able to help, when it comes to you..." She cast him a small glance. "I can't stop these feelings. My loyalty will always be with you, even if you were to cheat on me –"
Tora took a step forward. "I would never –"
"I'm just saying, if that were to happen, even then I'd still love you and be yours."
The two stared at each other, the tension slowly dispersing the longer their eyes connected. Tora started to forget why he was even mad at her, when he saw the way she was looking at him right now, in this moment – her gaze was soft, and so honest it was remarkable, really. Honesty always surprised him, because for so long he had lived a life buried in lies. He still did, but not around Akari.
It was always real with Akari.
"Despite the fact that I believe you," He smirked, straightening up and taking on his usual intimidating stance. "there's no getting around the fact that you were alone in a room, straddling another man, a man who is not me."
Akari moved towards him, immediately going into a quick explanation. "The water fountain sprayed my dress, he followed me in here to keep me company as I cleaned up and then I slipped in my heels, and he saved me from taking a bad fall."
She was about to say more, but just then Tora held up a hand for her to stop. He had closed his eyes and calmly listened to her, and now he opened them again and caught her staring at him fretfully. He smiled.
"If that's all it was, fine then." His voice was smooth and velvety, but his smile...
Akari took a step back, her eyes now full of suspicion. "'Fine then'? So... what, you're not mad anymore? Just like that?"
His smile only brightened. "Oh I'm plenty mad. The fact that you were in another man's company at a wedding, and that he had been the one to save you instead of me," He started stepping towards her as he spoke. "the fact that another man so much as touched you," Akari gasped as he suddenly pulled her to him, the smile on his face becoming instantly evil and merciless. "that enrages me more thoroughly than anything else will ever be able to."
She felt his breath at her ear as he leaned over her, his lips curving at the feel of her flushed skin as he nipped at it teasingly. "Because," He purred with power and conviction. "You are mine."
"So what happened between you and that young man makes me want to level the playing field." He whispered, feeling her tense up in his grasp as his cheek grazed her own while he positioned his head so that he could look directly into her eyes.
"What are you planning?" Akari tried to push him a step back, but he pulled her even closer to him, continued to let his hot breath blow into her face. Somewhere in the back of her mind she noted that it smelled purely of grapes and nothing else, probably due to the wine and fruit he'd been consuming earlier.
"You'll find out soon enough, darling." He hummed as she once again struggled in his grasp, this time trying harder to break free. With a glint in his eyes, Tora drawled out, "You know I like it when you get feisty. Are you sure that struggling is such a good idea?" His smile showed his canines this time as she looked up at him with a look he hadn't seen in her eyes for a long time – fear. Not of him as a person, but of what he could do, his abilities. He could tell that she was wondering how far he was willing to take things when extracting his revenge.
That look of fear, of utter dread, because she knew him well and knew exactly what kind of payback he was capable of, was the perfect start to the remedy for his jealousy.
Without words, Tora pulled her chest flush against his, not caring that her dress was still damp and that his suit might get wrinkled. He leaned down and bit deeply into her pale skin, aiming for that especially sensitive place where her pulse was beating rapidly now against his lips. His ears were graced with the sound of her slight moan, and he bit down harder, turning that moan into a yelp of surprise.
Akari placed a hand in his hair as he slowly moved his lips down, down, going further south, teeth dragging along her skin until they reached the neckline of her dress. That didn't stop him for long – he hooked a finger into the silken fabric and lowered it, stretching it out until it was at a very inappropriate angle, showing the rise of one of her breasts, and then some.
She gasped loudly, a burning flush spreading over her skin as he pressed his lips together and gave the slowly hardening pink bud a quick kiss, chasing it with a long, languid lick. Akari placed her other hand over her mouth, trying to stifle herself, and Tora roughly grabbed it and pulled it away. She looked towards the unlocked bathroom door, inwardly freaking out about the moment that someone would walk in and see such a lewd scene. There were kids at this wedding! What if one of them were to walk in?! Didn't her idiot husband know how bad that would be?!
Her nails scraped desperately against the back of his head as he continued torturing her left breast with his tongue, and groping the right through the fabric of her dress. Tora groaned deliciously at the feeling – the nape of his neck was one of his rare and few sensitive areas, and her fingers were just missing it...
Those nails scraped a second time, again, just above the nape, and he began to think she was doing it on purpose. Growling, he lifted his head and bit her lower lip as punishment, right before latching on and shoving his tongue into her mouth, being completely relentless in his assault.
"To –" His name broke off on her lips as his tongue began to play with hers, tickling the roof of her mouth and caressing her own tongue in a way that sent a pang of lust shooting straight through her to her core. The feeling caused a knot of anticipation to form in her stomach, and her head went light and airy for a moment. She felt helpless, collected into his strong arms as his mouth dominated hers. He really was striving to show her exactly who was in charge of who here.
And thinking of that is what helped Akari to shovel some coal into the furnace of angry determination that always seemed to be boiling somewhere deep within her.
Her tongue wrestled with his, suddenly pushing him out of her mouth with a force both of them were surprised at. Tora didn't have enough time to retaliate before she brought her arms up and – using a self-defense move that he had actually taught her, how about that? – knocked his arms off of her, effectively breaking through the firm grasp he had been maintaining up until now.
Their eyes met, gold and silver battling intently. They each opened their mouths at the same time, ready to spew out some sort of argument, when the bathroom door suddenly opened and one of the best men waltzed inside.
"Ah, there you are!" He exclaimed once his eyes landed on Akari. "The bride's been looking for you –"
She was out of there before he could even finish his sentence, adjusting her dress and fixing her hair while she hurried by.
The man blinked rapidly at her swift exit as she swept past him like a light breeze. His eyes then focused on Tora, who was standing across from him, arms folded, scowl set in place on his handsome visage.
"Great job." Tora told the other. "You let my meal get away."
Not understanding the innuendo, the other man turned and watched with a puzzled look on his face as the blonde strutted past him and back into the dining area/dance hall, off in pursuit of his wife.
"Why is it that we are the ones who have to do this job?" Seiji complained. "We're her friends!"
"I'm thinking it's because we're her friends that she's having us do it." Akari answered him, gazing uneasily around the room. Tora wasn't anywhere in sight, and that was really fraying her nerves. "She trusts us most out of anyone. And she likes to torture us. It's how she shows her love."
"That's a seriously messed up love language..." Seiji muttered, sweeping up a particularly large piece of glass into the dust pan Akari was holding steady on the floor.
Those pesky kids that had messed with the drinking fountain had also made a huge mess on the dance floor, having knocked over two of the many vases in the room holding the centerpieces for the tables. The glass was everywhere, scattered about the room, and as a result mostly everyone had relocated back outside.
Akari sighed, catching sight of the rest of the mess in the corner of her eye. A plate of food had also fallen off one of the tables, and they had to clean that up as well – mashed potatoes, a puddle of gravy, and even more shards of glass. Fantastic. "I guess something always has to go wrong on people's wedding days, don't they?"
Seiji stopped his work for a moment and leaned forward on the broom, looking down at Akari curiously. "I don't recall anything going wrong on your wedding day."
That comment caused Akari to crack up in a fit of laughter. She lifted up the dust pan, walking over to the near-by trash can and dumping the glass inside. "Oh if only you knew. You weren't caught up in the thick of it, Seiji. I was the bride, which means I was cursed that day to be hyper-aware of every little thing that went wrong."
"What went wrong?"
She looked up thoughtfully, thinking back to hers and Tora's special day. There had been a lot of ruckus that none of the guests ended up being informed of, and she had had to deal with it as calmly as possible while her wedding planner frantically tried to solve all the problems before they evolved into catastrophes. "For one thing, my wedding dress ended up getting ruined. I had just changed into it and started to walk out of the changing room when a waiter came by pushing the cart that had our wedding cake on it. The cart tipped, and the cake flew at me and landed all over my front."
"No way." Seiji chuckled in disbelief.
"Yep, it's true. We had to order a new cake as quickly as possible, and get me another dress. Luckily, the wedding planner somehow came prepared with an identical back-up cake, just in case. And she only had to make a few calls to get me a new dress in my size. Tora hired the best wedding planner he knew of, so it really came as no surprise that she was so good in a crisis. She was weirdly prepared, it was almost as if she was expecting the worst to happen."
"The dress you wore on your wedding day wasn't the one you had picked out?!" Seiji balked, more upset than most men would be when it came to sentimental, 'girly' things like that.
Akari just shrugged. "I was more worried about actually getting down the aisle than what I was wearing when I walked down the aisle."
"What does that mean?" He gave her a knowing grin. "Were you having second thoughts about that bastard?"
A scowl appeared on her face. "Oh, you'd like the thought of that, wouldn't you? No, I wasn't having second thoughts. I was ready. But there was this problem that popped up with one of my friends, Teruko."
Seiji, for some strange reason, immediately knew who she was talking about. "Your other bridesmaid that kept pissing Aika off?" He gestured to his hair. "Light blonde hair, pretty green eyes..."
She gazed at her friend in wonderment. "Yeah... her boyfriend had broken up with her on the phone right before the ceremony, and she came to me in tears. I had to stop her from drinking herself to death so that she could cooperate in the wedding still. Did you two hit it off or something?" She peered more closely at him as he stepped from side to side uncomfortably under her intense stare.
"We had a few dances together... And she might have... come to me after the wedding was over... and asked me if she could come over to my place..."
"Seiji." Akari's eyes widened dramatically. "She's freakishly bipolar. It's scary." Her tone was one of warning.
"And I have a dual personality, also scary. So what?" He snapped back, a little defensively.
She blinked. Oh? "So nothing, I guess. You have a point there, sorry."
He was quick to divert the subject from himself and Teruko. "So what else went wrong on your big day?"
A small smile made its way onto Akari's face, as if she was inwardly laughing at her own little joke. She leaned down, setting the dust pan at the ready again. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me!"
Seeing that he was far more interested in her wedding stories than the cleaning they were supposed to be doing, Akari straightened back up and gave him a look. "Okay, I'll tell you just because I know you'll get a kick out of it, and I need someone to laugh with about it. But do not tell Aika, she'll harass Tora with it nonstop and in turn Tora will harass me nonstop." She pointed a finger at him. "Not a word, got it?"
Seiji pushed a chunk of blonde hair behind his ear and smiled deviously. "Now this, I gotta hear. What happened to him?"
"Promise me you won't tell Aika."
"I promise I won't tell her."
Akari breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright. You know how we had our wedding at the beach?" She started out casually, re-imagining the sunny day, the warm sand, and walking down the aisle in bare feet (she really had to fight Tora on that one – he kept reminding her that they had to maintain a professional image in front of all the paparazzi but she said she wasn't having a wedding on the beach in high heels).
"Yeeeah..." Seiji answered, impatient.
"And remember when it was time for the first dance, and Tora had disappeared?"
"Yeah yeah, get on with it!"
"Well," Akari leaned in close, laughter in her eyes. "He left to go wash up. Y'see, while we were walking around outside, a gull flew by and let it rip, right on his head."
Silence.
And then,
"A bird..." Seiji began slowly. "Pooped on his head?"
She nodded.
Seiji's gleeful laughter burst forth so suddenly, Akari had to narrowly dodge a few droplets of spit that had become airborne as he cracked up.
"Ain't Karma a bitch!" He laughed out, holding his side as he began to laugh even harder. "That's... so... FUNNY! Ohh, I wish I could've seen it!"
Akari had on a shit-eating grin now. "It is funny, but he's extremely wary of birds now. It would almost be cute, if he didn't position me to be his human shield every time a bird flew overhead."
She might have been exaggerating a little, (Tora didn't use her as a human shield but he did have an umbrella on hand now wherever he went) but when Seiji started choking and wheezing, waving his hands at her franticly and dropping the broom, she knew it was worth it just to hear more of his contagious laughter. It brightened her spirits a lot.
"No... please, stop..." He begged. "I laugh any harder and I'll puke." His fingers dug into his side, clenching the painful stitch that had formed there from laughing too hard and too long.
Akari decided to spare him of more laughter and the possibility of puking, and did not tell him of the story about one of Tora's business partners whose wife was crazy about birds, and kept several as pets; and the fact that Tora didn't know that when he went over to have dinner with them.
A few minutes later, once the laughter had died down, she brought up the topic of Teruko again. Seiji was a bit more open to talking about it now, since he was in a far better mood after laughing so much.
"Have you met her father yet?" She smirked knowingly. "He's a tough nut to crack. She's a total daddy's girl, you know, and if he doesn't approve of you then you're screwed."
Seiji's face paled noticeably. "It's not like I'm her boyfriend or anything, but... I've met him once. Her old man. I was dropping her back off at her house and he was just leaving... when he saw me, he asked me how I knew his daughter."
Akari cringed just picturing the awkwardness of the situation. "Oh god, what did you say? How did you introduce yourself?"
"Well obviously I told him that I'm the rebound guy his only daughter is having sex with in order to get over her last relationship." He said sarcastically, causing Akari to have a short giggle fit. "What?" He chuckled a bit as well. "Honesty is the best policy!"
"Alright I get it. You choked, unable to properly answer the question." Akari ceased her laughter, grabbing the broom since he wasn't doing much with it. "And her dad thinks you're an incompetent fool now, and you haven't seen Teruko since."
Seiji pouted, taking the broom back from her and starting to sweep furiously, grumbling something about how poorly she and Aika always treated him.
Akari turned around to start taking care of the mess of food on the floor, when she saw her husband hanging back in a corner of the room. Instantly, she froze, staring at him and meeting his eye. She could've sworn he wasn't there a few seconds ago.
Tora returned her stare with a smirk, and then a very tall, beautiful girl that Akari barely recognized as someone from Ryuunosuke's family – his half-sister, if memory served – walked in from outside and his unnerving golden gaze switched over to her instead.
And then, he was approaching the other woman.
"Shit, so this is how he plans to do it then..." Akari muttered, watching the young woman look Tora up and down once and immediately jump into a very lively conversation with him.
Seiji seemed to notice what his friend now had her attention on, because he came up behind Akari and leaned in to whisper, "You guys are monogamous, right?"
She turned around in a flash, beet red at the question. "Of course we are! Baka!" She bonked him on the head, earning a hiss from him as he rubbed out the pain with a hand.
"Oi, I was just asking because he's looking kind of friendly with that red-head."
Akari huffed, refusing to look back at her husband and what's-her-face with the obviously fake ruby red hair. "It's just one of his tricks. He's being an ass and trying to get back at me for something I did, which was actually an accident, but he doesn't care." Without another word about it, she crouched down and started swiping up the spilled food with a nearby rag. "Just ignore them."
With a sigh, Seiji shrugged and crouched down beside her, getting back to work as well. He kept glancing over his shoulder though, frowning the more he stared at Tora and the woman.
"He's acting awfully flirty with her." He muttered, not paying any attention to the task of cleaning up the food and glass on the floor.
His hand was suddenly in Akari's grasp as she pulled it back when he was about to run it over a sharp shard of the broken plate. She narrowed her eyes at him as he looked up at her sheepishly, knowing that a scolding was coming. "If you are going to be more of a hassle than a help, then leave. I can clean this up on my own."
Blue-green eyes met her own, looking slightly apologetic but mainly amused. "Oh dear, I seem to have brought a much uglier side of you out."
Her grip tightened on his wrist. "Who has an ugly side?"
Gulping, Seiji pulled away from her and got back to work, wordlessly wiping up the small puddle of gravy.
And that's how things continued on for some time after that. Akari and Seiji continued to gradually erase the mess on the floor, while Tora and the red-head could be heard laughing and chatting jovially in the background. With each flirtatious comment that Akari heard leave her husband's lips, her work became slightly more hurried, more vigorous as she scrubbed at the floor with as much force as she could muster.
Seiji began to worry for her. He thought her skinny arms might break if she kept that up.
She jolted when feeling someone's touch, and turned her head to see him looking down at her in deepening concern the more she tried to shake him off and keep working.
"You're done." He said finally, pulling the rag and dustpan away from her. "I'll take care of the rest."
"Seiji, it's fine." She tried to take back the cleaning supplies, but he stood up and skidded out of her reach, a wry smile playing at his lips. She growled. "Seiji..."
"Such a strange girl you are, Akari." He whipped the rag around in a circle, taunting her as he spoke. "Why would anyone want to clean so badly? Baka."
"It's not about that." She grunted, standing up and walking over to him. It was actually about keeping herself busy in order to ignore Tora and his new 'friend'. "Gimme the rag!"
He turned his back on her and started to run between tables and chairs. "Nope! You'll have to take it from me if you want it baaack!"
Part of Akari knew this was all a ploy to make her feel better about her asshole husband. Another part of her wanted to chase after Seiji and pull his hair out until he begged for mercy and stopped acting like a two year old.
And so they started a game of cat and mouse, which Seiji was weirdly good at. Every time Akari got close to him, he'd maneuver just right to place many obstacles in her way. They ran around the entire room, Seiji laughing his head off like a madman and Akari speeding after him, cursing every time he suddenly switched directions or pushed a chair in front of her.
At some point, the game started to make her feel better. Maybe it was the running, since the releasing of endorphins always has a positive effect on the body, or maybe it was because she realized just how good of a friend she had, for Seiji to do this for her sake because he didn't like to see her upset. But she began to smile and laugh and shout harmless threats at him every time he slid across the floor and barely escaped her grasp.
Suddenly, a foot came out of nowhere, tripping up the dirty blonde and causing him to land, hard, sprawled out on his stomach on the floor.
"Seiji... whoa, are you okay?" Akari panted, running up to him and watching as he groaned and couldn't move for a moment.
"You didn't have to trip me." He whined, rolling over onto his stomach and groaning even more, eyes squeezed shut as the pain began to register. "Sheesh, it was just a game..."
Akari's brow furrowed. "Trip you? I didn't..." It dawned on her suddenly, and she whipped around to see Tora standing close by, the tall red-headed lady leaning against the wall by his side.
"You." She stomped up to him, ready to wipe the smirk off his stupidly handsome face. "Tora! What the hell?!"
He gave a short, charming laugh. "I didn't do anything." He lied, and it came out so smoothly Akari had to really think about it for a moment, blinking several times.
And then, she remembered to be mad at him for an entirely different reason.
"Who's this?" Her eyes drifted over to the other woman, who was looking between Akari and Tora with great, shining interest in her dark eyes.
"This exquisite young woman is Hotaru-san." He gestured to the red-head, all the while keeping up his gentlemanly façade. The girl smiled brightly when Tora spoke such words, and Akari wanted to dry heave.
"Hello Hotaru." Akari said boldly, taking the red-head off guard. "My name is Akari Igarashi." She made sure to emphasize her name, then reached out and took the girl's limp hand, shaking it. "Pleasure."
For a moment, the woman just stared blankly at her. And then, she tossed her hair over her shoulder and giggled. Akari had not been expecting that high-pitched sound to come out of the woman, she was so much taller than her, and more... well, womanly.
"The pleasure's all mine. Tora-san and I haven't been speaking for long, but he's told me so much about you. I can't believe it! I met two Igarashi's in one day, it's like a dream!"
Akari confusedly looked from Hotaru, to Tora. He had a smug look on his face, knowing just what assumptions she would make and knowing how to make her both feel, look, and act like a fool. She grit her teeth. That bastard...
"He also told me how you get easily jealous." The woman was speaking again, rapidly now. "I hope you didn't get jealous of me! You see, I was just having a friendly conversation with your husband, nothing more. I don't wish to pose a threat."
A blush willed itself onto Akari's face due to the embarrassment and frustration she was feeling. She tried to make her smile stick on better, and alter it to a more easy-going one than the tight one she'd been showing up until now. "I'm sorry if I have come across as jealous. I can assure you that it's quite alright, you may talk to my husband if you want to. I did not mean to interrupt your conversation, so if you'll excuse me, I'll just get back to my friend now."
Before Hotaru could speak another word, Akari spun around and rushed over to Seiji, who was now sitting on the floor, staring up at all of them with his head cocked to one side as he watched the uncomfortable scene unfold.
He yelped as Akari latched onto his tie, dragging him after her as she walked back towards the unfinished clean-up they'd been doing at the other side of the room. "C'mon Seiji, we have a job to do. Stop messing around."
He just sighed and allowed himself to be dragged away, sticking out his tongue at Tora, who was glaring at the two of them while his ruby-haired companion wasn't looking.
"Oooohhh honnneeeyyy~"
Looking up from his phone, the tiger raised an eyebrow at his wife, who was approaching him with a smile he knew meant trouble. "Yes?"
She slipped in beside him where he was leaning against a wall, placing a hand on his chest and rubbing her fingers around in miniature circles. "Do you remember our bet?"
He smirked down at her. "Oh, how could I have forgotten?"
She stopped her little caresses and smacked him in the chest instead. "Not your part of the bet, my part."
With a slightly disappointed sigh, he nodded. "Something about a hat to wear at this wedding." Due to the fight they'd had though, that hadn't really been set up yet. "But I don't see your hat of choice anywhere, so –"
"Ah ah ah," She interrupted, having the gull to poke his nose. "I've been waiting for the perfect moment, and that moment has just now arrived."
Tora snarled, moving quick and catching the tip of her finger between his teeth. Akari pulled back with a small shriek, and smacked him again as he began to laugh.
"Oi! Listen to me, this is important."
"I can tell, which is exactly why I'm trying not to listen."
A third time, she smacked him, but only with the one hand that she'd been using to touch him this entire time. He was starting to wonder why the other was being kept behind her back.
"Let me finish what I was saying! So, Aika didn't want you in most of the pictures, but I convinced her to take a few more with you in them." She smiled brightly at him, although it was a sly little grin that made Tora the tiniest bit uneasy.
He kept his tone bored and controlled though. "I suppose the plan is for me pose for pictures in whatever hat you were talking about when we made the bet?" Smirking again, he bent down and breathed into her ear. "You really think that will satisfy you?"
Akari moved swiftly, pulling her free hand around from behind her back and placing something on his head, over his ears. Tora blinked, taking a step back and reaching up a hand to touch whatever object it was. It felt soft, and... his eyes widened.
Oh dear god, were those ears?!
"Ohh, yes." Akari lifted a hand underneath her chin as she examined him. A light laugh passed through her pursed lips. "I really think this will satisfy me."
Tora pulled the thing off his head, turning it around in his hands to get a good look at it.
It was a tiger.
A fluffy, fuzzy, completely un-manly, tiger. In hat form.
Akari grabbed it from him and, before he could voice each and every single one of his protests and complaints, placed it back on his head and grabbed his arm, pulling him towards the big area cleared out on the lawn that was just for picture taking; with all the camera equipment set up and a large cluster of people ready for the photos.
Before Tora could rip the hat off of his head once more, throw it in the dirt and stomp on it like he so very much wanted to, Akari went up on the tips of her toes, kissed his cheek, and whispered darkly in his ear.
"If you don't follow through with my part of the bet, then I don't follow through with yours, love."
He growled, and Akari laughed, dragging him to a spot that would place him almost in the dead center of the photo.
"OH MY GOD!"
The bride bounced over to them, and Tora immediately felt the strongest urge to throw her in front of an oncoming bus as she pointed a finger at him and began laughing like there was no tomorrow.
"THIS IS THE GREATEST WEDDING PRESENT EVER!" She placed a hand on Akari's shoulder, laughing and crying at the same time. "This is... this is... oh god, I can't even. This is hilarious. So fucking funny, I just..." She suddenly turned to the camera man, shouting clearly for both him and Tora to hear – "Make sure to take lots and lots of pictures! Feel free to zoom in on the idiotic bastard in the tiger hat!" Aika looked back at Tora and smiled evilly. "I'm making flyers and posting them all over town."
Tora took a step forward. "You wouldn't dare." His voice held the deadliest of tones to it.
The other only laughed in his face. "Oh wouldn't I?"
Just as the two were about to throw themselves on each other and begin brawling like a pair of wild dogs, Akari stepped between them and stopped anyone from getting injured. "Alright, that's enough. This is only part of a bet, there's no need to be so extreme about it."
The music-lover pouted. "So... no making flyers? Not even just a handful of them?"
"No." Akari and Tora both said at the same time.
"But you can keep the pictures. Oh, and mail me some as well." Akari added on. She looked up at her husband, who, even though he was looking down at her with murderous intent in his golden eyes, she just couldn't take seriously with a super cute fluffy cartoon animal hat on his head. "I want to remember this moment for many, many years to come." She tried to contain it, but soon joined Aika in her laughter.
The two friends high-fived, and Tora snarled as Akari beckoned him to stand by her side for what would be the longest, most unpleasant photo shoot of his life.
He had never before had the feeling of wanting to dig a hole for himself and hide there, unseen by everyone. But now, in this god-awful moment, with this devastatingly, sickeningly adorable hat perched on his head, Tora felt that for the first time he did not want all eyes on him.
"WHAT THE?!" Seiji's voice suddenly broke through the crowd of people. "HOLY HELL, IS THAT A PLUSH TOY ON TORA'S HEAD? I DIDN'T KNOW HE WAS INTO THAT KIND OF STUFF! HAHAHAHA!"
The tiger leaned down, voice rumbling with imminent danger as he told his wife, "If he keeps it up with those comments, I will not refrain from punching him in the throat."
"I can't believe you actually punched him!" Akari scolded her husband as he, herself, Aika, and Ryuunosuke stood in a small circle around Seiji, who was doubled over on the ground, nursing his bruised jaw with a hand. The picture-taking had stopped after only a few shots, because Seiji just couldn't keep his damn mouth shut.
"I told you I would." Tora said simply, but then his eyes narrowed on the other blonde. "I missed my mark though. I was aiming for his neck."
Just as Akari was about to smack him and order him to apologize, he grabbed her raised hand quickly in his and sharp, gold eyes met her own. Tora purred, too lowly for anyone else to hear, "Don't push your own luck, love."
After that she went silent, lowering her hand when he released it and staring down at Aika, who for some reason had a hand on Seiji's back and was... comforting him? Seiji whimpered, like a wounded puppy would, and Aika let out a troubled sigh.
"What's going on?" Akari asked, while the bride glanced up at her with wariness in her gaze.
"I think he might be reverting to his other personality." She looked back down at Seiji, who had gone strangely still where he sat on the ground.
Simultaneously, Tora and Akari spoke. "What?!" It hadn't happened in so long, no one had been expecting this.
Ryuunosuke bent down next to Seiji, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Hey man, are you doing alright?"
Silence.
"Seiji?" Akari asked quietly, worried for her friend. At the same time though, she took a step away from him.
The dirty blonde's hand suddenly moved up, and tugged at his ponytail until he ripped it out and allowed his hair to fall down into his face. He stood up then, and turned towards the sound of Akari's voice as she called his name a second time.
His eyes were murky and his smile was perverse. "Mana-chaaan~" He greeted her in a sing-song voice.
Aika looked Akari dead in the eyes. "I think you should run now. Maybe even leave the wedding early, it's ending soon anyway so we wouldn't mind." She turned and grabbed Ryuunosuke's arm, her demeanor changing from serious to oblivious to the current situation. "Let's go eat more of that cake! It was fucking delicious!"
The two of them walked off, leaving Akari alone with the two most troublesome blonde men on the planet.
Tora protectively latched on to his wife's arm as Seiji took a step closer.
"Oh come on!" Akari let out in exasperation. "You... you can still revert back, right? Seiji, listen to me. You don't have to – gaaahh!"
He suddenly lunged at her, and started chasing her in a circle around Tora as she ran, using her husband as a shield. Tora grunted as he was turned this way and that, Akari's hands wrinkling the pristine fabric of his suit.
"How many times do I have to tell you, Mana! My name is not Seiji!" Kai grumbled, trying to push past Tora as Akari decided to hide behind his back.
Very abruptly, a fist came up and caught the dirty blonde, this time right in the neck.
"Kai!"
He stumbled back and fell onto the ground, coughing and trying to gain back the air that was just knocked out of him. It was clear he wouldn't be getting up anytime soon, though. Akari was about to go help him, when Tora put out an arm and stopped her.
She glared up at him. "Really? That was really necessary?"
"I felt it was." He grabbed her, pulling her away. "I didn't like having him chasing you around me, it was extremely aggravating. Would you rather me have taken my frustration out on you instead?"
She gulped, going quiet and allowing him to drag her away.
"I thought not."
Tora took her past the alter, through the crowds, past the photo area and across the lawn towards where their car sat waiting for them at the curb. Every person they passed looked at him and snickered, but he tried his best to ignore it and focus on getting his wife in the privacy and safety of their vehicle.
As they reached their car and he moved to open the door for her, Akari turned and placed herself in front of it, stopping him.
"Wait."
He looked down at her with tic going off in his jaw as a group of men passed by them, one of them calling out "Hah, hey dude, nice hat!"
"What." Tora grit, glaring at the object of his affections with a look that would surely have been her demise, if looks could kill.
Without words, Akari reached up and laced her fingers behind his neck, pulling him down to her in a sweet, slow kiss. Tora allowed it, groaning almost inaudibly as her thumb stroked the back of his neck teasingly, lovingly.
When they pulled apart, she looked up at him with amusement in her eyes.
It was great fun torturing him like this, she had decided that the moment she placed that hat on his head. But she didn't realize how cute he would actually end up looking in it! His golden eyes were fierce and his face was as harsh and handsome as ever, but the tiger hat hid his hair and covered his ears and made him look a heck of a lot less intimidating.
Akari ran her hands smoothly up and down her husband's muscled arms, rubbing them with greed. She could imagine that the want was written all over her face, and that was probably why he was smirking at her now.
"Oohhh, what's this?" Tora moved in closer, pinning her against the car. "Do you actually like how I look right now?"
"You look..." She muttered the last part so that he couldn't hear it, glancing to the side.
He raised an eyebrow. "I look what? Cute? Adorable? It's alright to express it darling, I won't bite... for the time being."
Akari looked back up at him, and giggled at the fluffy hat that stared back at her with unseeing eyes. She reached up, stroking the soft ears between her fingers. "You do look cute. Impossibly cute! It's actually impressive, because it's a very unnatural look on you, yet you manage to pull it off. This is... extremely strange. I never, not in a million years, would have described a vicious Igarashi as being cute!" She trailed her fingers across his cheek, laughing at the look on his face. "It's like you're my pet!"
"Your, pet?" He echoed coolly.
Akari made the mistake of laughing at his expense again. "Yeah, the cute little tiger that only I could tame."
Tora felt he had to reassert his manliness and dominance somehow. "You know how I like a good challenge, Akari?"
She couldn't take him seriously, and had to laugh even more as she reached up to stroke the hat on his head again. "Yep."
He suddenly yanked her aside, opened the car door, threw her inside, and moved over the top of her. The door slammed behind them, locking them in.
"Well, right now I'm wondering how much of a challenge it would be to make you ignore how I look in this ridiculous hat, and instead beg for my forgiveness and scream my name." He leaned down and bit her pulse point, making her shudder. "Let's see if you still think I'm so 'cute' when I'm done with you."
"The hat is a huge distraction –" He cut her off by growling something all too tempting in her ear, his fingers drumming over her lips in order to shush her.
"How long has it been since I've given you pleasure in a car?" He murmured hotly against her throat, drawing a moan past her lips as he trailed his teeth up underneath her jaw and over to her other ear. "Mmm, I'd say it's been far too long, and from the looks of it, I think you agree..."
He licked down her neck, slowly making his way to the neckline of her dress. While he did that, Akari reached up and tried to unbutton his shirt for him, wanting to see his naked skin, but he lunged forward and pinned her down with a snarl.
"I want you to stay still. You are not allowed to touch me unless I say so." His lips curved into a knowing grin the moment he saw the clear devastation in her eyes.
"But, Tora..." She trailed off when she noticed the hat again. The way she tried to hide her sudden smile did not go unseen by him.
"Hn." Slowly, a strong hand rubbed over the creamy skin of her leg, and then traveled up underneath the skirt of her dress. His eyes were fully feral now. "This will take more effort than I first thought it would." And then, he was shrugging, drawling in that lazy tone of his. "Oh well. Either way this ends, we'll both be fully satisfied."
"Oh come on, baka! You don't need to prove anything if that's what this is all ab –"
He cut her off with a kiss to the lips so hard and demanding, so rough and dominating, wild, and powerful, that she instantly melted against him; all too soon becoming nothing but putty in his hands.
"Now," He breathed, hooking a finger into her panties and dragging them down off her hips. He nuzzled his cheek against her collarbone, and then placed a wet, open-mouthed kiss right above her dress' neckline. "let's finish what we started in the bathroom." He smirked. "Pet."
Needless to say, the ride on the way home for Akari was very pleasureful. And even with that crazy-adorable hat on his head, Tora managed to show his wife that he was anything but cute, and anything but tame.
A/N: Remember in chapter thirty-nine: 'Her eyes caught sight of a tiger hat – complete with ears on top and fuzzy-looking stripes. A sly smirk crossed over her face as she looked at it. "I know Tora would never wear that in a million years, but I would so love to see that..."'
*smiles deviously* Hehehe... I REALLY wanted to incorporate that later on... and now I have! ^_^
Tora: Grrr...
HAHAHA look! It's a cute lil' tiger! Awwwwww~
Tora: I am going to pay some very bad people to do very bad things to you, dearest author...
*gulp*
Uhhh... T-thanks for reading, peasants!
Reviews make me uber happy xD
CK:*
P.S - (Save me! I'm scared!)
Tora: *smiles charmingly* No need for any saving here! Please, go about your own business. Everything is just fine.
(Gaaahhhh heeelllpp meee!)