Blue Heaven, chapter 7
Chapter 6 was here.
“Evening Is Nigh”
by cinnamongrr1
Kyou hadn’t wanted the rat and his class partner to join them, but it had been over a month since they’d begun studying together at the Yankee’s apartment and Tohru, missing them both, had asked Kyou so sweetly that he found himself agreeing before he really knew what had happened.
“This is so nice!” Tohru enthused when the four of them were settled around the kotatsu and had been poring over their respective books for a few hours. Shigure had gone to the Honke and wouldn’t be back, he said, until well after dinnertime.
“I’m glad you were able to convince the stupid cat,” Yuki replied, slanting a look at Kyou. “I don’t know what he’s so worked up about, having people in the room while you’re studying; it’s not like you’re doing anything else, right?”
Kyou felt a muscle in his eyelid start to twitch, and his hands gripped his knees as he fought to keep his temper, as he’d promised Tohru he would.
Tohru frowned as she tried to puzzle it out. “No, just studying,” she said, sounding lost. “Kyou’s been so good to help me with the trigonometry, I’d never have gotten it without him!”
“I know what you mean,” Uotani replied with a smirk. “There’s no way I’d have passed the last physics exam without Yuki.” And she leaned to the side to nudge him with her elbow, her head falling for just a moment to his shoulder.
“You would have done fine without me,” Yuki demurred, smiling down at her and brushing his hand over her knee. “I just explained it a little differently, is all.”
Uotani shot him a mock-glower. “You’re always so modest,” she complained, waggling a finger in his face. “Why not accept the praise you deserve? There’s nothing wrong with receiving compliments. You’re good at so many things, after all.”
There was an odd quality to her tone of voice, like she was implying something past the face value of the words, that had even the oblivious Tohru peering closely at the two. Kyou had noticed in the past few weeks how comfortable his cousin seemed with the Yankee, but attributed it to the Family Life class-they were bound to get to know each other, perhaps even become friends, after working so closely for so long.
But now, he saw, it seemed to have progressed beyond that point. They were looking at and touching each other far more often than mere friendship warranted, and if he weren’t mistaken, there was a distinctly flirtatious lilt to both of their voices when they addressed each other, more often than not.
The most damning evidence of all was Tohru; as Yuki and Uotani traded banter back and forth, her gaze was flicking back and forth between them with a growing expression of delight spreading across her features. She knew both of them very well; if she was suspecting something between them, Kyou was willing to bet she was right.
“So,” he said gruffly, shooting a grin at Tohru, “how long have you two been dating?”
They both froze, at the same time and in practically the same position, as twin expressions of shock and embarrassment crept over their faces.
“We-we’re not-“ Yuki protested faintly, going quite pale, while Uotani went with the “best defense is an offense” approach and slammed her fist down on the table, leaning across it to glare furiously at Kyou.
“You idiot!” she yelled. “What a stupid question, why would you even think-“
“Uotani-chan,” Tohru interrupted gently, “you are dating Yuki-kun, aren’t you?”
Uotani visibly deflated; she might be able to be rude to Kyou (in fact, she enjoyed it greatly) but Tohru was a different story. Saying nothing, she looked Yuki’s way and exchanged a long, meaningful glance with him. Yuki gave a tiny nod, and Uotani sighed.
“Yeah,” she said at last. “We’re dating, if you call studying together all the time ‘dating’. Having to keep it a secret sort of restricts where we’re able to go together.”
Tohru launched herself at her friend, tackling her in a hug so enthusiastic they both tumbled over to the floor. “I’m so happy!” Tohru shrieked.
“Get off of me, you lunatic,” Uotani grumbled, pushing Tohru off, but she too was smiling stupidly.
Tohru’s next target was Yuki; she grabbed his hand and clasped it between both of her own, gazing earnestly at him with shining eyes. “Oh, Yuki-kun, I’m so happy for you! Uotani-chan is a wonderful girl, I know you’ll be happy together!”
Yuki’s colour had returned with a vengeance; blushing furiously, he glanced over at where Uotani was still sprawled across the floor. “Er, yes, I know,” he said. “Thank you.”
“But why didn’t you tell us?” Tohru asked, looking back over her shoulder at Kyou. “I think I know why you don’t want a lot of people to know-- Akito-sama won’t like it, right? But you know you can trust us, don’t you?”
She looked close to tears that two of her closest friends didn’t think her trustworthy. Kyou glowered at them for making her feel bad.
“It’s not that, Honda-san,” Yuki hurried to say, patting her hands with his free one. “We just didn’t want to involve anyone; we wanted you be able to say truthfully that you didn’t know anything about it, if we were discovered.”
The worry lifted from Tohru’s face, replaced by a luminous smile. “Yuki-kun is always so considerate,” she announced.
“Yeah, ain’t he?” Uotani agreed, shooting a grin her boyfriend’s way. “Keeps giving me flowers. I don’t have a single bare surface in my apartment anymore-flowers everywhere. And when I run out of vases, he buys me another one.”
Tohru squealed, clapping her hands with glee. “I always knew Yuki-kun would be romantic!” she enthused.
Kyou was feeling distinctly nauseous by this point. “Enough already,” he muttered. “I can’t take any more of this.”
“That’s fine,” Yuki said coolly, standing and holding out his hand to help Uotani to her feet. “We were hoping to have dinner out, and maybe see a movie.”
“Oh, so you do go out!”
Yuki nodded. “We take the train to the other side of the city, where we don’t know anyone.”
“Sometimes we wear hats,” Uotani said with a smirk as she headed for the foyer. “Yuki’s big with the cunning disguises.”
As Uotani put on her shoes, Tohru pulled Yuki aside. “Does she know about the curse?” she whispered.
“Only that I can’t hold her,” Yuki replied, just as quietly. “I haven’t explained why. But she knows that Akito wouldn’t approve, and that’s why it has to be kept a secret.”
“I’m so sorry for you,” Tohru told him sadly, at normal volume. “You must want to hug each other a lot. Not being able to must be so hard!”
“It stinks,” Uotani said flatly, popping her head around the corner. “But we’re learning to make do.” And she flashed Yuki a grin so lecherous that it had Yuki, Tohru, and even Kyou blushing scarlet in under three seconds.
Yuki coughed and went to put on his own shoes. Tohru trailed behind them, firing questions. Finally, shoes on and books packed, they left, and Kyou was left alone with her.
There was a dense, dissatisfied lump of fury firmly lodged in his belly. All that shitty rat had to do was deal with avoiding being hugged by his girlfriend, and if the way the Yankee had looked at his cousin was any indication, she wasn’t going to be too upset when she learned her boyfriend turned into an animal. Uotani seemed the type to take almost anything in stride.
For Kyou, however, it was a different-hopeless-- matter. He knew Tohru didn’t care about his being a cat, or even a monster; but the cage that awaited him upon graduation loomed, omnipresent, in his mind. It was a relentless spectre, always haunting him.
It was wrong to try to build something with her; bad enough she’d be upset when he was locked away, as just his friend. But Kyou knew Tohru; when she loved, it was completely, with everything that she was. If they became romantic, his incarceration would devastate her. He couldn’t bear to be the one to doom her to it, by instigating a deepening of their relationship.
If he were smart, or strong, he’d have left Shigure’s house years ago, as soon as she began to really matter to him. But he wasn’t either of those things, apparently, because he’d stayed, and had fallen more and more in love with her until it sometimes felt like his very soul was entangled with hers. To pull them apart would kill him, he was sure of it.
He went to fetch her. She was standing on the threshold of the open front door, still waving energetically as Uotani and Yuki rounded the bend in the path.
“Come inside,” he said, placing his hand on her shoulder. She was so slight, her bones seeming incredibly fragile, and it just reinforced his determination to protect her. There was no telling what Akito would do if he found out how much Kyou cared for her. No, it had to stay a secret, hidden even from Tohru herself.
They spent an hour poring over a “human reproduction” textbook, learning exactly what they could expect when Tohru had “their baby”. However, phrases like “four-way spontaneous episiotomy” and “clitoral tearing” soon had her muttering, “Adoption. Adoption is a noble and practical solution. There are thousands of children who need good, caring homes…”
They decided a break was in order, after that, and soon were immersed in homework for their other subjects. Well, Kyou was, at least; after about a half-hour, he noticed that Tohru was doing more staring at the wall than studying.
“Is something wrong?” he asked, curious. She had that glazed look in her eye that said she was thinking deep, and doubtlessly bizarre, thoughts that no sane person would have been able to follow.
Tohru whipped her head around to face him, hair flying. “Yes! No! Yes!” she exclaimed.
Kyou sighed. “Which is it?” he asked patiently.
“I was just thinking how sad it is to want to hold the one you love, and not be able to,” she said, looking very sad indeed. “The look on Uo-chan’s face is very hard to see. And I know it hurts Yuki, as well.”
To hell with Yuki, Kyou thought savagely. What about me? He wanted to hold Tohru, so much that sometimes he ached from it. Those split-seconds that he could feel her warmth against him, could close his arms around her before the curse asserted itself and he changed into a cat, counted as some of the most splendid of his life.
“There’s nothing you can do about it,” he muttered sullenly. “Don’t get yourself upset.”
“I wonder,” she said thoughtfully, staring at the wall once more.
Kyou took the opportunity to watch her. Her hair fell, straight and shiny, over her shoulders. He never could decide what colour it was: too dark for caramel, too light for chocolate. It darkened over the winter, but by the end of summer it was streaked with gold.
She turned to him with a wide, sudden smile. He was startled out of his reverie, and blushed to be caught staring, but she seemed to be too excited to notice or care.
“I’ve got it!” she declared, pumping one fist into the air as she hopped to her feet.
“Got what?” Kyou asked, mystified, but Tohru was already running out of the room.
“Be right back!”
He heard her footsteps pattering up the stairs and into her bedroom, then back again, and wondered what in the hell she was doing.
“Here!” she exclaimed upon reentry of the room, breathless from her dash. In her arms was the fluffy pink blanket from her bed, most of it trailing behind her on the floor.
Kyou stared. “What are you going to do with that?”
“I want to try an experiment!” She began to fold it, struggling a little until Kyou got to his feet and helped her with it. “Okay! It’s in sixteen layers now.”
He just blinked. “And?”
“And, we’re going to see how few layers we can get down to.” She held the folded blanket in front of her torso, then looked hopefully up at Kyou. “Okay, hug me!”
Chapter 8 is here.