[FB] A Little Stress Relief - chapter 10
Dec. 31st, 2005 08:43 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
meiface.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
chineseink[A Little Stress Relief]
[A Kyo/Yuki Fruits Basket fic]
[R to NC-17]
[Table of Contents]
Warnings: boy x boy, explicit content, incest (of a sort)
Disclaimer: I don't own and never will own the rights to Fruits Basket; I write not for profit but only to entertain my personal muses. Oh, and ANIMEVERSE.
Notes: Previously posted on Fanfiction.net, but it was removed due to content. Also seen at Kyouke. If you wish to archive, feel free. Just let me know. :D
Thanks be to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
th_nightengale and forochel for being there as I plodded through this pretty much all in one night (I had a beginning but I scrapped it and started fresh), whining and sporking at will. ♥
Feedback would make the hell that was finishing this worth it~
A LITTLE STRESS RELIEF
by Ryuuza/meitachi
/ chapter 10 koibito /
Daylight hung tentatively around the edges of the windows, gilding the shut blinds with a golden glow that dared to venture no further into the otherwise dark room. A gloomy, oppressive feel draped itself over the room, but the single occupant was not concerned; he welcomed the atmosphere, in fact, as it often suited and reflected his mood. The tumble of silk comforters over the futon shifted as he eased himself into a sitting position.
“I want to see Shigure,” he said quietly but distinctly, eyes hooded as he gazed into the sparsely furnished nothingness he’d surrounded himself with.
And though there was no one inside to serve him, his request was nonetheless heard and carried out. Servants were meant to be discreet, after all.
--
Kyo lay on his side on his futon, curled into a fetal position and feeling every bit as defensive as his posture intimated. It was late morning but he hadn’t moved far since awakening that morning, only shifting around on the futon, kicking the blankets into a pile at the foot, and determinedly ignoring Tohru’s cheerful cry of “Breakfast!” He needed time to think, something he rather he’d been spending too much time on lately to be healthy, but—
Yuki.
Even Kyo couldn’t deny any longer that there was something between them more than just—whatever it was that’d drawn them together in the beginning, the physical relief and pleasure they found in each other. As strange as it was to admit it, even to himself, Kyo knew that he actually cared about that damned rat now.
It was unsettling, to understate things, but at the same time it felt…right in a way Kyo had rarely experienced before. This, perhaps, was even more unsettling in itself.
He rolled over onto his back and stared at the ceiling, listening to the soft, muffled sounds of footsteps and voices downstairs. Shigure was in his study, presumably writing, and Tohru and Yuki were doing whatever it was they usually did on a lazy Sunday morning.
Idly, Kyo wondered what Yuki thought of—all of this. Their not-quite-relationship-turned-something else. He had kissed Kyo back last night, softly, the same confusion and hesitation in his touch that Kyo had felt in himself. It had been heartening in a way to know that he wasn’t alone in his…feelings, whatever they were, so gentle and tender that Kyo almost didn’t recognize them.
Yuki had looked at him with those wide violet eyes and Kyo had hated himself for the way his heart fluttered, that stupid cheesy thing straight out of a damned shoujo manga, and he’d immediately removed himself from the other boy, practically tripping down the stairs in his rush to get to the dinner table and away from Yuki. But he hadn’t escaped his own questions and all throughout dinner, he’d flashed looks at the other boy, doubting himself. He’d been unusually clumsy too, dropping the food between his chopsticks at least a good three times. Shigure had poked fun at him, laughing along the lines of “So much for the grace of cat, huh?” Ayame’s smirking presence hadn’t been entirely welcome either.
Kyo grumbled and slung an arm over his eyes. Yuki had spent nearly the entirety of dinner glaring at his older brother and avoiding Kyo’s gaze. It had been uncomfortable, to say the least.
The door rattled and slid open. Kyo opened his eyes.
“Get up, lazy cat.” Yuki stood in the doorway, dressed in simple jeans and a button up shirt and looking as neat as usual. Still, something was off, Kyo immediately noticed, and his sharp cat-eyes caught the softer-than-usual expression on the other boy’s face. His words were still sharp and inflected with the same impatience they usually were, but there was a hint of a smile on those lips—
Kyo sat up, his stomach twisting uncomfortably at the tiny smile. “Shut up, rat,” he snapped back.
Yuki just looked at him for a moment and then stepped inside the room, sliding the shut behind him. “Kyo,” he said quietly. That same softness in his eyes carried in his voice, warmer than Kyo remembered it. This was what was different now, he thought. We’ve changed. He’s changed. I’ve changed. The way we deal with each other has changed.
He felt his spine ripple as he shook off the strange shudder. Him. And Yuki. “What?” he said shortly. The idea still hadn’t fully wrapped around his mind. He still didn’t know if it would work. Taking in their history and their present and their goddamned relatives. Oh. Kyo paused on that thought and the momentary flash of panic caught him low through his belly. We’re cousins.
Yuki leaned down, suddenly in his personal space, moving before Kyo had the time to react, and threaded his hands through Kyo’s hair, tilting Kyo’s head back to look at him. “It’s okay,” he said, in response to the unasked question from the night before, when their lips had for once not collided but drifted slowly together, before dinner, before more endless doubt. Yuki’s breath was fanning over Kyo’s skin, his violet eyes serious, still holding emotion far softer than Kyo was accustomed to.
His lips were a centimeter away, hovering, and Kyo decided that he’d played the wondering game too long, too often, too frequently. Every other moment, it seemed like, his head was assaulted by a stampede of “what if” and “can we really” and “but what about”— What about us? Screw the consequences. Kyo had always been one to act first and think later. Clearly all his recent overthinking had been a result of spending too much time with Yuki.
As he closed the narrow distance between them, lips already parted, Kyo noted in the back of his head, a little bit to the left of where Yuki had slid his hand over, that he would probably have to resign himself to even more thinking in the future.
--
Two days later, Shigure set his mouth in a grim line and told Yuki that Akito wanted to see him. Hair still tousled from sleep—and other activities that Shigure would have usually leered about, but teasing was heavily, conspicuously absent today—Yuki did nothing but drop his gaze and his shoulders. He finished his dinner without a word, sliding back from the table and to his feet when he was done. There was only the faintest of smiles directed at Tohru, to appease her worried frown, as he gathered his bowl and chopsticks to put in the sink.
Kyo was torn between being angry and being sick.
Akito, he thought viciously, scraping rice into his mouth with his chopsticks. He could feel his hackles rising. Then a leg brushed past him, pressing briefly into his back, denim against the cotton of his shirt, scent familiar and suddenly soothing.
Kyo breathed out and scratched the back of his head, relaxing.
Shigure scolded him for using the hand that was still holding chopsticks. “No manners,” he said, shaking his head.
As Kyo shouted back, offended, the crease between Shigure’s brows vanished, replaced by the smirk on his lips as he fell easily back into the role of taunting the cat. Tohru intervened as best as she always could, hemming and hawing a bit, still flustered about what she now recognized as good-natured teasing, but firm in her gentle reprimands. She was shamelessly ignored the first few times and by the time Kyo wound down, he could see Yuki in the corner of his eye, standing near the doorway. He let Shigure have the last word about cleaning himself with his tongue, just this once.
“I’ll be upstairs for a bit,” Yuki said with a faint smile on his face. Real amusement faded too quickly when he added, “Tell me when it’s time to leave for the main house.” He headed for the stairs.
“Hatori will be by to pick you up,” Shigure said and the laughter had faded from his voice too.
Kyo and Tohru both turned to see Yuki head up the stairs, tense. “I see,” he said and Kyo thought about that voice when it hitched in the middle of a moan, of those eyes when they were hazy with lust instead of shadowed as they were undoubtedly now. He thought of the curve of that back, bare and arched into him, not taut with tension that played havoc with those fragile bones. He thought, then, of not just the way Yuki felt when he came, shuddering, all over Kyo’s hand, but the way he’d kissed Kyo just this morning before they’d come down to breakfast—a swift kiss, almost chaste except for that little flicker of tongue at the end—and the way he’d calmed Kyo down just now and Kyo realized he was thinking too much again.
He helped Tohru clear the table, shaking himself out of his thoughts.
“Kyo-kun,” Tohru suggested as he dumped everything in the sink, idly hoping that nothing had broken, “why don’t you go talk to him?”
Kyo’s heart gave a wild, panicked leap before he remembered that she knew—and what had he expected, really? She was Tohru. He mumbled something unintelligible about the dishes.
Her smile was sweet. “I’m fine. Please go talk to Yuki-kun. I’m sure he’d be happy to have some company.” She took the bowl he’d picked up away and gave him a warm look, so bright and cheerful and utterly naive that he would’ve taken her for clueless had he not known that she knew.
Slender fingers pushed gently at his arm. “Go,” Tohru said and, with a darting glance at Shigure, half visible in his study from the kitchen, diligently twirling his pen and not writing, Kyo dashed up the stairs.
As he reached the second floor, it hit him that not only Tohru knew about him and Yuki. Everyone knew. From Hatsuharu to Hatori to Shigure…
Which meant that…
“Oh, shit,” Kyo muttered, fighting the urge to slam his fist through something. “Akito knows.”
“Why do you think he wants to see me?” Yuki was standing in the doorway that opened into his bedroom, framed by the open sliding doors, his smile insincere and bitter. His eyes, as Kyo had predicted, were shadowed. He looked…young. Helplessly so, like the first time Kyo had seen him, when they were children. The delicate, frail boy dressed in a formal kimono watching him through the window, smiling that smile that no child should know.
Kyo’s stomach clenched. “If he,” he started, a growl forming low in his throat. He fisted his hands, staring across the three meters of hallway that separated him and Yuki. “I’ll kill him.”
Yuki’s laugh was soft and sad. “Stupid cat,” he said in his affectionate voice. His eyes locked with Kyo’s, sharp beneath his silver bangs. “You’ve never wanted anything but his approval. His acceptance.” The sound of tires on gravel, the quiet rumble of an engine pulling near, and Yuki turned back into his room. “Hatori’s here,” he told Kyo, voice drifting from inside his room by the window to Kyo, who had still not moved.
Yuki brushed past him and down the stairs, fingers trailing down his arm and resting fleetingly against his own.
And under the barbs of his last words, buried under even his hidden fear, memories from years ago rising up, Kyo could sense the determination in Yuki. He would make this time different. Akito couldn’t have this power over him any longer because Yuki wouldn’t allow it. The question in those trailing fingertips had been Are you coming to watch?
Perhaps, in away, Yuki was trying to free Kyo from Akito, as well as himself.
Shuttering his eyes, Kyo clomped noisily down the steps, clattering to the entranceway beside Yuki and pulling on his shoes. Neither of them said a word. Shigure, who had come out of his study to greet Hatori, stood on the front porch and only raised an eyebrow when Kyo, scowling, climbed into the backseat of the car and slammed the door. Yuki slid into the passenger seat and gave Hatori an expectant look.
“Good luck,” Shigure said, tucking one hand in the folds of his kimono. He gave a the two boys in the car a half-joking salute as Tohru came out beside him, a rag tying her hair back and another in her hands. She blinked at the car for a moment before waving at Yuki and Kyo.
“I believe in you!” she called as Hatori opened the driver’s side door and slid in. “You’ll be fine!” she added with a beaming smile.
Kyo watched as she and Shigure grew smaller as Hatori pulled away from the house. Then the car turned and they were out of sight behind the forest of trees, trunks of varying sizes bearing leafy branches to obscure his view. With a long sigh, Kyo slumped against the seat and looked around insolently, arms crossed over his chest, hoping to at least fool Hatori into believing that his stomach wasn’t tied in knots. When he caught the eyes glancing back at him via the rearview mirror, however, he gave it up as a lost cause.
The drive wasn’t long but no words were exchanged during the trip. All three of them knew the reason Akito had called for Yuki and all three knew why Kyo was tagging along.
They were quiet walking through the gates of the main house as well. Kyo glanced around, interested, because the main house was not a place he visited, or more accurately, was allowed, often. He was distracted, however, by what he knew was awaiting Yuki and him. Well, only vaguely. He’d never seen Akito more than a few times when he was younger and had been given a disgusted look and a command to never appear in Akito’s presence again, as if he were some disgusting vermin. Kyo grit his teeth as Hatori led them past wide-eyed servants who faltered in their tasks as Yuki and Kyo passed.
Kyo did his best to pretend he couldn’t hear the whispers. He was here for a different reason today. He wasn’t here because he wanted to get Akito’s approval; he was just here because that damned rat had asked him to be. Because Yuki was going to do something dramatic again and Kyo wasn’t going to miss it for the world. Because he was going to make a stand for himself, goddammit, and show Akito just what he thought of his stupid demands.
Just because I’m not a member of the zodiac, Kyo fumed. Fucking bastard. I’ll show him. He was determined to show Akito that he didn’t need the approval of the glorious “head of the family.” He had Tohru and he, well, he had Yuki too, didn’t he? And Shigure too, in a warped way, and maybe Hatori and Momiji and Hatsuharu. He didn’t need some stupid approval from Akito. He was just here to support Yuki—
His mind emptied in an instant, flooded over by sheer rage and disbelief when Hatori came out of Akito’s room and said quietly that only Yuki was to go in.
The hallway in front of Akito’s room was particularly silent, empty of bustling servants common in other areas of the house, and the bang of the door when Hatori slid it shut echoed in Kyo’s ears.
--
We’re cousins. I’m a monster. He’s…president of the student council. So damned perfect all the time. What are we doing? We’ll hurt Tohru. But she seems okay with it so far. But what does she know? We’re cousins. I’m a monster. I can kill—not that I would, but… Not that he seems to care. He—that one time— What the fuck is going on in there?
Kyo jerked violently when he heard more than just raised voices. Something had broken, tinkling as it met the floor. Had Akito thrown something at Yuki? Had he? Well, Kyo would rip him— Kyo took a deep breath and fought down the killing instinct, growling, hands clenched in fists so hard that his nails were digging deep into his palms.
Breathe, he told himself and it was only the warning look Yuki had given him before walking, head held high, into that room that kept Kyo from ripping the door down and attacking. He could feel the edges of himself blur because that was just under the surface now…
No. No, he would keep it down. He would stay human. Because he was in control.
Kyo paced the hallway and had he been in cat form, his tail would have been swishing madly, edgily.
Fourteen minutes and another crash later, the door slid open. Kyo whirled around.
--
Yuki almost chuckled at the wild look in Kyo’s eyes. So familiar, he thought. I felt like that just moments ago. He wiped his cheek gingerly, feeling blood stick to his fingers. He shook his head when the other boy’s eyes zeroed in on it, mouth opening surely to rage. “Hatori will be out in a minute,” he said. “He’ll clean me up.”
And, indeed, ten minutes later the cut had been properly cleaned and a bandage placed over it securely. Kyo was also ready to gnaw off someone’s arm, possibly his own. “Tell me what happened,” he demanded, voice low and dangerous.
Yuki tilted his head up to look at him as Hatori replaced the cotton swabs in the first aid kit and moved discreetly to the other end of the hallway.
“I told him I wasn’t his anymore,” Yuki said simply, though his voice wavered a bit. He swallowed and held Kyo’s hard gaze. “He wasn’t happy about it. He threw his teacup.” His fingers touched his bandage lightly. “He yelled. He grabbed my hair and tried to shout me into changing my mind.” Yuki’s hand fell back to his side. “He blamed you. He said all sorts of things about you and tried to make me see how horrible you were, what a terrible influence.”
Getting to his feet, Yuki approached Kyo and stood in front of him. He said, “I told him to leave me alone. To leave you alone. I said that if he didn’t, I’d never come see him again.” Yuki’s gaze was steady but his heart was pounding, smile pained. “I hadn’t thought before that I had that sort of power over him.”
Kyo sucked in a sharp breath. “You’re going to go to him again?”
“He’s the head of the Souma family,” Yuki said softly and broke eye contact with Kyo. “I will have to see him. Though he did threaten to kick me out of the zodiac.” A corner of Yuki’s mouth lifted again. “I told him I was fine with that. That was when he threw the teapot,” he added. He turned slightly, presenting Kyo with his side as he crossed his arms, shoulders high and tense, feeling ill. He couldn’t believe he’d finally done it. Had finally faced Akito.
He still remembered the little boy he’d been, terrified but alone. So alone.
Kyo grabbed a fistful of his shirt. “You damned stupid rat,” he shouted, and pushed Yuki until his back hit the wall with a thump, and right across the hall from Akito’s room, Kyo pressed his mouth over Yuki’s, kiss hot and relieved and desperate.
Yuki heaved a sobbing breath and poured out all his worry and fear and anxiety into that kiss. Until it changed, softened, and he realized Hatori was watching them, a small smile on his usually stoic face.
Breaking away, Yuki leaned against Kyo. “Stupid cat,” he panted. “Don’t do that in public.”
“We’re not in public,” was Kyo’s automatic snarl, even as held Yuki carefully, supporting him, a little bit awkwardly like he didn’t know what he was doing.
Yuki breathed again and smiled back at Hatori over Kyo’s shoulder.
-
-
-
The. fucking. end.
Yes, after 10 very long months, I've finally finished this chapter. I'm so sorry that it took so long and all of you who've been waiting so patiently--thank you. This is the last chapter of A Little Stress Relief...but it's not quite the end yet. An epilogue will finish things off. Expect it before January 11 because I promised myself that I would finish ALSR over break. I also promised myself chapter ten before 2006 and I did manage to keep that promise, right? ;D So expect the results of the bet (who still remembers what bet?) and some more smut in the epilogue!
For now, feedback would be happily received, and because I stressed so much over this, comments longer than one or two lines would be especially appreciated. ♥ Happy New Year!!
Chapter title "koibito" translates to "lover."
[A Kyo/Yuki Fruits Basket fic]
[R to NC-17]
[Table of Contents]
Warnings: boy x boy, explicit content, incest (of a sort)
Disclaimer: I don't own and never will own the rights to Fruits Basket; I write not for profit but only to entertain my personal muses. Oh, and ANIMEVERSE.
Notes: Previously posted on Fanfiction.net, but it was removed due to content. Also seen at Kyouke. If you wish to archive, feel free. Just let me know. :D
Thanks be to
th_nightengale and forochel for being there as I plodded through this pretty much all in one night (I had a beginning but I scrapped it and started fresh), whining and sporking at will. ♥Feedback would make the hell that was finishing this worth it~
A LITTLE STRESS RELIEF
by Ryuuza/
meitachi/ chapter 10 koibito /
Daylight hung tentatively around the edges of the windows, gilding the shut blinds with a golden glow that dared to venture no further into the otherwise dark room. A gloomy, oppressive feel draped itself over the room, but the single occupant was not concerned; he welcomed the atmosphere, in fact, as it often suited and reflected his mood. The tumble of silk comforters over the futon shifted as he eased himself into a sitting position.
“I want to see Shigure,” he said quietly but distinctly, eyes hooded as he gazed into the sparsely furnished nothingness he’d surrounded himself with.
And though there was no one inside to serve him, his request was nonetheless heard and carried out. Servants were meant to be discreet, after all.
--
Kyo lay on his side on his futon, curled into a fetal position and feeling every bit as defensive as his posture intimated. It was late morning but he hadn’t moved far since awakening that morning, only shifting around on the futon, kicking the blankets into a pile at the foot, and determinedly ignoring Tohru’s cheerful cry of “Breakfast!” He needed time to think, something he rather he’d been spending too much time on lately to be healthy, but—
Yuki.
Even Kyo couldn’t deny any longer that there was something between them more than just—whatever it was that’d drawn them together in the beginning, the physical relief and pleasure they found in each other. As strange as it was to admit it, even to himself, Kyo knew that he actually cared about that damned rat now.
It was unsettling, to understate things, but at the same time it felt…right in a way Kyo had rarely experienced before. This, perhaps, was even more unsettling in itself.
He rolled over onto his back and stared at the ceiling, listening to the soft, muffled sounds of footsteps and voices downstairs. Shigure was in his study, presumably writing, and Tohru and Yuki were doing whatever it was they usually did on a lazy Sunday morning.
Idly, Kyo wondered what Yuki thought of—all of this. Their not-quite-relationship-turned-something else. He had kissed Kyo back last night, softly, the same confusion and hesitation in his touch that Kyo had felt in himself. It had been heartening in a way to know that he wasn’t alone in his…feelings, whatever they were, so gentle and tender that Kyo almost didn’t recognize them.
Yuki had looked at him with those wide violet eyes and Kyo had hated himself for the way his heart fluttered, that stupid cheesy thing straight out of a damned shoujo manga, and he’d immediately removed himself from the other boy, practically tripping down the stairs in his rush to get to the dinner table and away from Yuki. But he hadn’t escaped his own questions and all throughout dinner, he’d flashed looks at the other boy, doubting himself. He’d been unusually clumsy too, dropping the food between his chopsticks at least a good three times. Shigure had poked fun at him, laughing along the lines of “So much for the grace of cat, huh?” Ayame’s smirking presence hadn’t been entirely welcome either.
Kyo grumbled and slung an arm over his eyes. Yuki had spent nearly the entirety of dinner glaring at his older brother and avoiding Kyo’s gaze. It had been uncomfortable, to say the least.
The door rattled and slid open. Kyo opened his eyes.
“Get up, lazy cat.” Yuki stood in the doorway, dressed in simple jeans and a button up shirt and looking as neat as usual. Still, something was off, Kyo immediately noticed, and his sharp cat-eyes caught the softer-than-usual expression on the other boy’s face. His words were still sharp and inflected with the same impatience they usually were, but there was a hint of a smile on those lips—
Kyo sat up, his stomach twisting uncomfortably at the tiny smile. “Shut up, rat,” he snapped back.
Yuki just looked at him for a moment and then stepped inside the room, sliding the shut behind him. “Kyo,” he said quietly. That same softness in his eyes carried in his voice, warmer than Kyo remembered it. This was what was different now, he thought. We’ve changed. He’s changed. I’ve changed. The way we deal with each other has changed.
He felt his spine ripple as he shook off the strange shudder. Him. And Yuki. “What?” he said shortly. The idea still hadn’t fully wrapped around his mind. He still didn’t know if it would work. Taking in their history and their present and their goddamned relatives. Oh. Kyo paused on that thought and the momentary flash of panic caught him low through his belly. We’re cousins.
Yuki leaned down, suddenly in his personal space, moving before Kyo had the time to react, and threaded his hands through Kyo’s hair, tilting Kyo’s head back to look at him. “It’s okay,” he said, in response to the unasked question from the night before, when their lips had for once not collided but drifted slowly together, before dinner, before more endless doubt. Yuki’s breath was fanning over Kyo’s skin, his violet eyes serious, still holding emotion far softer than Kyo was accustomed to.
His lips were a centimeter away, hovering, and Kyo decided that he’d played the wondering game too long, too often, too frequently. Every other moment, it seemed like, his head was assaulted by a stampede of “what if” and “can we really” and “but what about”— What about us? Screw the consequences. Kyo had always been one to act first and think later. Clearly all his recent overthinking had been a result of spending too much time with Yuki.
As he closed the narrow distance between them, lips already parted, Kyo noted in the back of his head, a little bit to the left of where Yuki had slid his hand over, that he would probably have to resign himself to even more thinking in the future.
--
Two days later, Shigure set his mouth in a grim line and told Yuki that Akito wanted to see him. Hair still tousled from sleep—and other activities that Shigure would have usually leered about, but teasing was heavily, conspicuously absent today—Yuki did nothing but drop his gaze and his shoulders. He finished his dinner without a word, sliding back from the table and to his feet when he was done. There was only the faintest of smiles directed at Tohru, to appease her worried frown, as he gathered his bowl and chopsticks to put in the sink.
Kyo was torn between being angry and being sick.
Akito, he thought viciously, scraping rice into his mouth with his chopsticks. He could feel his hackles rising. Then a leg brushed past him, pressing briefly into his back, denim against the cotton of his shirt, scent familiar and suddenly soothing.
Kyo breathed out and scratched the back of his head, relaxing.
Shigure scolded him for using the hand that was still holding chopsticks. “No manners,” he said, shaking his head.
As Kyo shouted back, offended, the crease between Shigure’s brows vanished, replaced by the smirk on his lips as he fell easily back into the role of taunting the cat. Tohru intervened as best as she always could, hemming and hawing a bit, still flustered about what she now recognized as good-natured teasing, but firm in her gentle reprimands. She was shamelessly ignored the first few times and by the time Kyo wound down, he could see Yuki in the corner of his eye, standing near the doorway. He let Shigure have the last word about cleaning himself with his tongue, just this once.
“I’ll be upstairs for a bit,” Yuki said with a faint smile on his face. Real amusement faded too quickly when he added, “Tell me when it’s time to leave for the main house.” He headed for the stairs.
“Hatori will be by to pick you up,” Shigure said and the laughter had faded from his voice too.
Kyo and Tohru both turned to see Yuki head up the stairs, tense. “I see,” he said and Kyo thought about that voice when it hitched in the middle of a moan, of those eyes when they were hazy with lust instead of shadowed as they were undoubtedly now. He thought of the curve of that back, bare and arched into him, not taut with tension that played havoc with those fragile bones. He thought, then, of not just the way Yuki felt when he came, shuddering, all over Kyo’s hand, but the way he’d kissed Kyo just this morning before they’d come down to breakfast—a swift kiss, almost chaste except for that little flicker of tongue at the end—and the way he’d calmed Kyo down just now and Kyo realized he was thinking too much again.
He helped Tohru clear the table, shaking himself out of his thoughts.
“Kyo-kun,” Tohru suggested as he dumped everything in the sink, idly hoping that nothing had broken, “why don’t you go talk to him?”
Kyo’s heart gave a wild, panicked leap before he remembered that she knew—and what had he expected, really? She was Tohru. He mumbled something unintelligible about the dishes.
Her smile was sweet. “I’m fine. Please go talk to Yuki-kun. I’m sure he’d be happy to have some company.” She took the bowl he’d picked up away and gave him a warm look, so bright and cheerful and utterly naive that he would’ve taken her for clueless had he not known that she knew.
Slender fingers pushed gently at his arm. “Go,” Tohru said and, with a darting glance at Shigure, half visible in his study from the kitchen, diligently twirling his pen and not writing, Kyo dashed up the stairs.
As he reached the second floor, it hit him that not only Tohru knew about him and Yuki. Everyone knew. From Hatsuharu to Hatori to Shigure…
Which meant that…
“Oh, shit,” Kyo muttered, fighting the urge to slam his fist through something. “Akito knows.”
“Why do you think he wants to see me?” Yuki was standing in the doorway that opened into his bedroom, framed by the open sliding doors, his smile insincere and bitter. His eyes, as Kyo had predicted, were shadowed. He looked…young. Helplessly so, like the first time Kyo had seen him, when they were children. The delicate, frail boy dressed in a formal kimono watching him through the window, smiling that smile that no child should know.
Kyo’s stomach clenched. “If he,” he started, a growl forming low in his throat. He fisted his hands, staring across the three meters of hallway that separated him and Yuki. “I’ll kill him.”
Yuki’s laugh was soft and sad. “Stupid cat,” he said in his affectionate voice. His eyes locked with Kyo’s, sharp beneath his silver bangs. “You’ve never wanted anything but his approval. His acceptance.” The sound of tires on gravel, the quiet rumble of an engine pulling near, and Yuki turned back into his room. “Hatori’s here,” he told Kyo, voice drifting from inside his room by the window to Kyo, who had still not moved.
Yuki brushed past him and down the stairs, fingers trailing down his arm and resting fleetingly against his own.
And under the barbs of his last words, buried under even his hidden fear, memories from years ago rising up, Kyo could sense the determination in Yuki. He would make this time different. Akito couldn’t have this power over him any longer because Yuki wouldn’t allow it. The question in those trailing fingertips had been Are you coming to watch?
Perhaps, in away, Yuki was trying to free Kyo from Akito, as well as himself.
Shuttering his eyes, Kyo clomped noisily down the steps, clattering to the entranceway beside Yuki and pulling on his shoes. Neither of them said a word. Shigure, who had come out of his study to greet Hatori, stood on the front porch and only raised an eyebrow when Kyo, scowling, climbed into the backseat of the car and slammed the door. Yuki slid into the passenger seat and gave Hatori an expectant look.
“Good luck,” Shigure said, tucking one hand in the folds of his kimono. He gave a the two boys in the car a half-joking salute as Tohru came out beside him, a rag tying her hair back and another in her hands. She blinked at the car for a moment before waving at Yuki and Kyo.
“I believe in you!” she called as Hatori opened the driver’s side door and slid in. “You’ll be fine!” she added with a beaming smile.
Kyo watched as she and Shigure grew smaller as Hatori pulled away from the house. Then the car turned and they were out of sight behind the forest of trees, trunks of varying sizes bearing leafy branches to obscure his view. With a long sigh, Kyo slumped against the seat and looked around insolently, arms crossed over his chest, hoping to at least fool Hatori into believing that his stomach wasn’t tied in knots. When he caught the eyes glancing back at him via the rearview mirror, however, he gave it up as a lost cause.
The drive wasn’t long but no words were exchanged during the trip. All three of them knew the reason Akito had called for Yuki and all three knew why Kyo was tagging along.
They were quiet walking through the gates of the main house as well. Kyo glanced around, interested, because the main house was not a place he visited, or more accurately, was allowed, often. He was distracted, however, by what he knew was awaiting Yuki and him. Well, only vaguely. He’d never seen Akito more than a few times when he was younger and had been given a disgusted look and a command to never appear in Akito’s presence again, as if he were some disgusting vermin. Kyo grit his teeth as Hatori led them past wide-eyed servants who faltered in their tasks as Yuki and Kyo passed.
Kyo did his best to pretend he couldn’t hear the whispers. He was here for a different reason today. He wasn’t here because he wanted to get Akito’s approval; he was just here because that damned rat had asked him to be. Because Yuki was going to do something dramatic again and Kyo wasn’t going to miss it for the world. Because he was going to make a stand for himself, goddammit, and show Akito just what he thought of his stupid demands.
Just because I’m not a member of the zodiac, Kyo fumed. Fucking bastard. I’ll show him. He was determined to show Akito that he didn’t need the approval of the glorious “head of the family.” He had Tohru and he, well, he had Yuki too, didn’t he? And Shigure too, in a warped way, and maybe Hatori and Momiji and Hatsuharu. He didn’t need some stupid approval from Akito. He was just here to support Yuki—
His mind emptied in an instant, flooded over by sheer rage and disbelief when Hatori came out of Akito’s room and said quietly that only Yuki was to go in.
The hallway in front of Akito’s room was particularly silent, empty of bustling servants common in other areas of the house, and the bang of the door when Hatori slid it shut echoed in Kyo’s ears.
--
We’re cousins. I’m a monster. He’s…president of the student council. So damned perfect all the time. What are we doing? We’ll hurt Tohru. But she seems okay with it so far. But what does she know? We’re cousins. I’m a monster. I can kill—not that I would, but… Not that he seems to care. He—that one time— What the fuck is going on in there?
Kyo jerked violently when he heard more than just raised voices. Something had broken, tinkling as it met the floor. Had Akito thrown something at Yuki? Had he? Well, Kyo would rip him— Kyo took a deep breath and fought down the killing instinct, growling, hands clenched in fists so hard that his nails were digging deep into his palms.
Breathe, he told himself and it was only the warning look Yuki had given him before walking, head held high, into that room that kept Kyo from ripping the door down and attacking. He could feel the edges of himself blur because that was just under the surface now…
No. No, he would keep it down. He would stay human. Because he was in control.
Kyo paced the hallway and had he been in cat form, his tail would have been swishing madly, edgily.
Fourteen minutes and another crash later, the door slid open. Kyo whirled around.
--
Yuki almost chuckled at the wild look in Kyo’s eyes. So familiar, he thought. I felt like that just moments ago. He wiped his cheek gingerly, feeling blood stick to his fingers. He shook his head when the other boy’s eyes zeroed in on it, mouth opening surely to rage. “Hatori will be out in a minute,” he said. “He’ll clean me up.”
And, indeed, ten minutes later the cut had been properly cleaned and a bandage placed over it securely. Kyo was also ready to gnaw off someone’s arm, possibly his own. “Tell me what happened,” he demanded, voice low and dangerous.
Yuki tilted his head up to look at him as Hatori replaced the cotton swabs in the first aid kit and moved discreetly to the other end of the hallway.
“I told him I wasn’t his anymore,” Yuki said simply, though his voice wavered a bit. He swallowed and held Kyo’s hard gaze. “He wasn’t happy about it. He threw his teacup.” His fingers touched his bandage lightly. “He yelled. He grabbed my hair and tried to shout me into changing my mind.” Yuki’s hand fell back to his side. “He blamed you. He said all sorts of things about you and tried to make me see how horrible you were, what a terrible influence.”
Getting to his feet, Yuki approached Kyo and stood in front of him. He said, “I told him to leave me alone. To leave you alone. I said that if he didn’t, I’d never come see him again.” Yuki’s gaze was steady but his heart was pounding, smile pained. “I hadn’t thought before that I had that sort of power over him.”
Kyo sucked in a sharp breath. “You’re going to go to him again?”
“He’s the head of the Souma family,” Yuki said softly and broke eye contact with Kyo. “I will have to see him. Though he did threaten to kick me out of the zodiac.” A corner of Yuki’s mouth lifted again. “I told him I was fine with that. That was when he threw the teapot,” he added. He turned slightly, presenting Kyo with his side as he crossed his arms, shoulders high and tense, feeling ill. He couldn’t believe he’d finally done it. Had finally faced Akito.
He still remembered the little boy he’d been, terrified but alone. So alone.
Kyo grabbed a fistful of his shirt. “You damned stupid rat,” he shouted, and pushed Yuki until his back hit the wall with a thump, and right across the hall from Akito’s room, Kyo pressed his mouth over Yuki’s, kiss hot and relieved and desperate.
Yuki heaved a sobbing breath and poured out all his worry and fear and anxiety into that kiss. Until it changed, softened, and he realized Hatori was watching them, a small smile on his usually stoic face.
Breaking away, Yuki leaned against Kyo. “Stupid cat,” he panted. “Don’t do that in public.”
“We’re not in public,” was Kyo’s automatic snarl, even as held Yuki carefully, supporting him, a little bit awkwardly like he didn’t know what he was doing.
Yuki breathed again and smiled back at Hatori over Kyo’s shoulder.
-
-
-
The. fucking. end.
Yes, after 10 very long months, I've finally finished this chapter. I'm so sorry that it took so long and all of you who've been waiting so patiently--thank you. This is the last chapter of A Little Stress Relief...but it's not quite the end yet. An epilogue will finish things off. Expect it before January 11 because I promised myself that I would finish ALSR over break. I also promised myself chapter ten before 2006 and I did manage to keep that promise, right? ;D So expect the results of the bet (who still remembers what bet?) and some more smut in the epilogue!
For now, feedback would be happily received, and because I stressed so much over this, comments longer than one or two lines would be especially appreciated. ♥ Happy New Year!!
Chapter title "koibito" translates to "lover."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}