Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Fire Doesn't Burn Like Ice ❯ Chapter 2

I don't own anything but my ideas.

 

XXX

 

That day had been… fine. And needless to say, that surprised Yuki. There was usually always at least one thing wrong with his day. A fight with Kyo, scaring Tohru, some sort of tiff with Arisa Uotani about Tohru, Shigure saying something stupid, student council exhausting him, a “call” from Akito.

 

But today had been fine. No rogue girls running into him. Tohru wasn't working late, though she had gone home with her friend Hana so Tohru wouldn't spew apologies to him for something. He would miss her, like he always did when she was away at her grandfather's or a friend's, but it meant he wouldn't have to try and tell her that what she did was so miniscule he would have forgotten it instantly if she hadn't started apologizing.

 

Things had actually been a lot better with Kyo after the little confession from the cat. They'd started living normally around each other again, and even occasionally meeting eyes. There had been small squabbles, which oddly—and not oddly at the same time—seemed to relieve Tohru and Shigure because they hadn't been fighting at all before that, but Yuki couldn't help but notice how insignificant they were. Something about him leaving his bag in a bad place in the hallway that Kyo had almost tripped over, Kyo dropping a dish even tough it didn't break, he didn't even really remember what they had been about.

 

Only one thing stuck in his mind from the fights, and it was the life in Kyo's eyes again. Not avoiding him, not trying to hide something, actual relief, and that was enough to make him relax too.

 

Yuki pulled open the door and stepped into the dark house. It was mid fall now, but was it really this late to be this dark? He hadn't even noticed student council had gone past five.

 

Yuki slipped his shoes off by the door and stepped into the house, wondering what Tohru had left for dinner and how he was going to heat it up without setting fire to the house. Maybe she'd made something that didn't need to be heated, like sushi or some sort of fish.

 

Yuki walked slowly into the dining room, pausing at the doorway at what he saw.

 

Kyo's homework was spread out over the table, with Kyo asleep on top of it, his pencil still in his hand. From the looks of his filled papers, he had just barely finished before he fell asleep, and had decided it was too much effort to put it all back in his bag and go upstairs.

 

Yuki's feet pulled him forward unconsciously until he was standing over the red-haired teen, looking down at him.

 

Kyo looked so calm, his toned shoulder blades relaxed, unlike when he was awake and always prepared for a fight with either him or Haru. Heck, he was always prepared for a fight. His hair was beautiful, like fire; even in the moonlight it glowed like embers.

 

Yuki reached down, only half aware of what he was doing, and reached out. His fingers ran lightly through Kyo's bangs, brushing them back out of his cousin's eyes before he stood again. Dinner forgotten, he walked quickly up the stairs before he did something else that he would regret later. Things were fine with Kyo now, he didn't need to go and ruin them again.

 

From his study, the door cracked, Shigure watched Yuki go upstairs before his eyes flicked back to Kyo and he rolled his pen around in between his teeth, chewing on the end for a moment before he smiled.

 

Maybe he could help a little.

 

XXX

 

Yuki was buttoning his pajamas, about to climb into bed when Shigure suddenly appeared at his door, stretching and yawning. Instantly Yuki was braced for whatever stupid thing the dog was going to say.

 

Shigure let out a huge yawn, cracking an eye to peak at Yuki to gage his reaction for how thick he would have to lay it on. Yuki was suspicious, anyone could see that, meaning he couldn't say anything about the touch to Kyo's hair at all. Well, he could work with that, years growing up with Ayame hadn't taught him nothing.

 

“Well,” Shigure said around another yawn, letting his arms drop tiredly, “I'm going to bed.”

 

Yuki nodded, his eyes narrowed slightly, looking for what Shigure was planning.

 

Shigure chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. “Did you see Kyo downstairs?”

 

Yuki tensed. What did he see? Whatever is was, he'll say it—

 

“Cute, isn't he? I hope he doesn't get cold down there,” Shigure said simply before walking away down the hallway.

 

Yuki couldn't help but blink. …He didn't see anything? Then what was that about?

 

Yuki watched until Shigure's door had closed behind him, and he stood there for a moment before walking silently so Shigure wouldn't hear him into Kyo's room. He looked around, giving up when he couldn't find it and dashing back to his room. He would never hear the end of the questions if Shigure saw him in his rival's room.

 

Yuki pulled the chair from his desk and pushed it up to his closet, climbing up on it to look around. There, in the back, shoved into a corner over two years ago, was a sweatshirt he had never worn except on ridiculously cold nights in winter because it was black and too big for him.

 

He grabbed it and shook it out to get rid of any excess dust—there wasn't much because his closet was closed and it had been buried under other old clothes of his—before climbing off the chair, not daring to jump incase Shigure heard him and came to investigate.

 

He checked the hallway a few times before slipping out silently and down the stairs to the dining room.

 

He stood there for a moment, admiring how relaxed and stunning Kyo looked in the moonlight, and draped the sweatshirt over Kyo's shoulders, making sure to cover his arms with the sleeves and his head with the hood. Yuki's fingers lingered there for a second, and then without order from him, drifting upwards again to slide into Kyo's red hair.

 

…It was soft.

 

He yanked back as if Kyo's hair really was as hot as fire, realizing what he was doing. He whirled and dashed quickly upstairs and closed his door, climbing into bed before he did anything else and Shigure really did come to see what all the noise was about.

 

Shigure looked up from his book in his bed, tracking Yuki going up and down the stairs and then his door shutting. He waited for something else, and allowed a smug smile to creep onto his face when he didn't.

 

Morning

 

Kyo awoke sharply with a shiver. He blinked the sleep from his eyes, trying to get his bearings on where he was. He sniffed to clear his breathing, spotting the open veranda door, the source of his chilliness, and stood slowly to go close it.

 

Did I fall asleep downstairs last night? Why didn't someone wake me? Oh yeah, Tohru's at Hana's.

 

The air outside was cold and misty in the morning breeze, and Kyo didn't guess it to be later than four in the morning. Maybe it would even out because of how early he had fallen asleep last night.

 

It wasn't until after he had closed the door and lifted his arms to stretch that he noticed something starting to slip off of his shoulders. Instinctively he grabbed it, pulling it around to look at it; he didn't remember putting on a sweatshirt yesterday night, and he knew he didn't wear one at school, so…

 

Kyo held up the sweatshirt, looking at it with one eyebrow raised. It was black and too big to be Tohru's, so his immediate thought was Shigure, but why would the dog…?

 

Kyo held it to his face experimentally. It didn't feel like it had been worn or used before, and—

 

Kyo blinked in shock, holding it back to look at it again.

 

It smelled like Yuki.

 

 

 

Yuki stumbled down the stairs around nine, much later than he ever got up, courtesy of Tohru not being there. He stepped into the kitchen and instantly jolted to a stop. He wasn't tired anymore, he was wide-awake.

 

Kyo stood at the fridge, pulling the carton of milk off the shelf, his orange hair glowing in the sunlight, but that wasn't what caught Yuki's attention.

 

Kyo was still wearing his sweatshirt.

 

Later

 

This was awkward. Yuki and Kyo had been standing outside the shopping market for about a half an hour now, waiting for Tohru. Neither had said a single word, or even coughed though it was cold enough to irritate Yuki's asthma.

 

Yuki tried to busy his eyes with everything, a bug, someone eating their dinner out—

 

“Thanks… for the sweatshirt.”

 

Yuki turned in shock to Kyo, who looked as flustered as if he were naked now in the middle of the downtown area. Kyo was glaring at the ground, but Yuki was surprised he had even said something.

 

“Y-You're welcome,” he stuttered back.

 

“…Why did you do it? I mean, if you knew I would go crazy because of the first time in the hallway…”

 

Yuki swallowed and pulled up the same courage it must have taken Kyo to thank him and admitted, “…I… liked it… the first time.”

 

He looked up again to find Kyo's cheek tinged red, and not from the cold, and his lips moving as he muttered slightly.

 

“What?” Yuki asked after a moment, not entirely sure Kyo wanted him to hear him at all.

 

Kyo clenched his teeth before repeating in a strained voice, “I said I'd rather do it when I knew what the hell I was doing.”

 

“Sorry I took so long!” Tohru said cheerfully, walking out of the store. She blinked, her smile dropping to a confused look at the sight of both Yuki and Kyo beet red.

 

Two Days Later

 

Yuki walked in the door and turned the lights on, the immediate signal that Tohru wasn't home. Actually, she was at Uo's house that evening working on a project due in a few days, but three bowls of pre-made food were wrapped out on the counter with a note asking if someone could take Shigure his bowl because he would be working that night in his study. Yuki chuckled at the thought that Shigure would put aside even food to work, but decided he would take it to Shigure anyways because Tohru had asked.

 

Yuki set the note down and dropped his bag off by the table, slipping out of his tie as he uncovered one of the bowls.

 

Maybe… maybe fifteen minutes in the microwave? Or will that be too much…

 

“Let me,” Kyo said, pushing Yuki out of the way and unwrap the rest of the bowls. “I already read the note and you'd burn it so bad that we wouldn't be able to salvage anything.”

 

Yuki stood back, watching Kyo work.

 

When Kyo pushed me…

 

There hadn't been any force behind it. It was almost like as how Kyo would nudge Tohru aside to help her with something she couldn't get.

 

That thought almost pulled a smile onto his lips, but he decided to smother it.

 

Yuki leaned back against the wall, watching Kyo. Even with the smallest movements, he really did look like a cat. Everything he did was fluid and graceful, and even though he was clumsy, like when he let Tohru fall into him the first day they had met, he really did move with a lot of grace, his feet balancing his body in the best ways even in the tiniest shift of his positions.

 

Kyo set down a steaming bowl of food on the counter and picked up the next one. Yuki stepped forward and picked up the bowl, telling Kyo he would bring it to Shigure before he walked out.

 

Yuki didn't bother to knock and slid the door open with his foot, placing the bowl on Shigure's table without look at the dog.

 

“Yuki,” Shigure said just as Yuki was about to close the door behind him again, and Yuki paused, looking back over his shoulder.

 

“Try not to destroy the house tonight, what with Tohru not being here and all I know you both don't really have to hold back, but I do like my house—”

 

“Stupid dog,” Yuki cut him off and slammed the door on Shigure's smug smile.

 

Kyo had already put his bowl at the table, so Yuki sat down across from his cousin and picked up his chopsticks. It was good, but Yuki couldn't focus on what it tasted like. Some sort of fish. His mind was too busy trying to keep him calm.

 

Kyo was sitting across from him quietly eating his food as well, his eyes on the table. Yuki dared to glance at him once, but they never met eyes so it didn't seem like Kyo's was looking at him. Just as well.

 

Yuki swallowed his last bite, trying not to choke on it as he remembered what had happened two days earlier, and he set his chopsticks down so they wouldn't shake. He felt calmer now than he did just eating, which was odd, but it made things easier.

 

“…Did you mean it…?”

 

Kyo looked up confusedly, one eyebrow cocked as he looked back at Yuki, some noodles hanging out of his mouth.

 

“When…” Yuki clenched his hands to steady himself. “Did you really want to do it without the catnip?”

 

Kyo lurched forward, his food falling out of his mouth as he hacked, trying to get the rest of his food unclogged from his throat, and managed to splutter, “D-Damn rat!”

 

The silence fell again, deadening in the almost empty house. Yuki quickly picked up his chopsticks and took another bite of rice before he said something else.

 

He didn't dare look up to the sound of clothes shuffling, assuming Kyo was leaving, and he tried to ignore something sinking in his chest. What was wrong with him?

 

His sixth sense prickled again and he looked up slowly to find Kyo standing over him. Yuki gasped, dropping his chopsticks and scrambling back as Kyo got on his knees and crawled toward him.

 

Kyo kept coming the farther back Yuki went, and then all of a sudden Yuki hit the wall and his muscles went stiff as Kyo appeared inches from his face. Kyo leaned in slowly, dipping into Yuki's neck. Yuki couldn't help the rush of air escaping from his lungs when Kyo's lips brushed over his collarbone.

 

Yuki didn't know how long he'd been there, shivering and breathing hard under Kyo's touches and caresses. He quivered pleasantly every time Kyo's warm breath rushed over his skin, his spine arched every time Kyo's lips touched his shoulders, he gasped every time Kyo's teeth grazed over the back of his jawbone right below his ear and he bit back moan after moan every time Kyo nuzzled him with the tip of his nose.

 

His muscles were tense with pleasure and he was vibrating in his skin again. Kyo's lips and nose danced over his skin with feather-like touches.

 

Even after shoving his feelings into a corner and smashing them with a rock, this feeling was coming back, the flame burning in his chest. He couldn't stop it, just like when Kyo told him he couldn't get him out of his head.

 

W-What does this mean? I don't feel anything—a moan slipped through his lips when Kyo nibbled on his earlobe and traveled down his skin to wear his ear met his jawbone, sucking on the sensitive skin—for Kyo. The cat.

 

And then Kyo pulled back, and Yuki pried his eyes open just in time to see Kyo move into his face, and then the cat's lips were pressed against his own.

 

Everything stopped. The wind from outside. The noises coming from his chest. Both of their breathing. There was no sound or movement anywhere.

 

Kyo's lips were hot and slick with saliva from what he had been doing to Yuki's neck, and Yuki was frozen against the wall, looking back at Kyo's closed eyes, his eyebrows narrowed like he was fighting with himself. The cat was always fighting, it was his nature, but Yuki could barely get his mind to think even that as he stared wide-eyed at Kyo.

 

The cat growled suddenly, pulling back and moving to stand, his face getting redder by the second, and something in Yuki screamed. The touch was gone, Kyo was gone, and he didn't know what was making him so desperate, but his hands shot out before he could blink and latched onto Kyo's shirt, yanking him back in.

 

Yuki pressed his lips back against Kyo's, closing his eyes and just letting the warmth and feelings swallow him whole. It took a moment, but then Kyo relaxed, his lips moving against Yuki's slowly and nervously.

 

There was only one thing Yuki understood beyond a shadow of a doubt during this entire thing.

 

He wanted this.

 

 

 

Shigure yawned silently and stepped into the kitchen for the fridge. Dinner hadn't been enough surprisingly, but maybe that was because he hadn't had seconds like usual.

 

Ah, my dear sweet Tohru, when you are gone I—

 

Shigure ground to a halt in the kitchen doorway, looking down to a corner of the room to the side of the table.

 

Yuki was pressed up against the wall, his hands tight in Kyo's shirt as the cat leaned forward on his knees, his hands on the floor keeping him from falling onto Yuki, their dinners abandoned on the table. Even in the dark of the night, Shigure could see clearly that their lips were locked together.

 

He blinked for a moment, watching the two move against each other before he smiled and walked back out of the kitchen.

 

So he had been right. His smile grew as he silently shut the door to his study so as not to disturb them. And maybe now they wouldn't destroy his house.

 

Next Day

 

Yuki held up his clippers, weighing them in his hand and looking between them and the temperature gage on the outside of the window. His clippers were rusty and old. It was thirty degrees outside. He needed to prune his plants now or some of them wouldn't make it through the winter.

 

Yuki sighed and placed the clippers on the table, reaching for his coat and slipping it over his shoulders. He did every button from the bottom up before putting on gloves and a scarf as well as his warmest shoes. He really hated asthma, but it wouldn't be a problem if he got something hot to drink out… then he would be able to get home with almost no problem except for a little discomfort. He could deal with that, he got it every time running.

 

“I'm going out,” he called into the kitchen, making Tohru burn her fingers on the pot she looked over so fast.

 

“Ah!” she yelped, leaping back and cradling her hand. “Ouch! Oh, I'm so clumsy, I don't know why I touched the pot!” she was trying to laugh to cover up her pain. Yuki moved to step forward, not exactly sure about what he should do, when Kyo stood up from the table and walked over to her, rolling his eyes.

 

“Jeez,” Kyo bent to pick up the spoon she had dropped and took her hand, turning it to look at the burn. “You're a real klutz, you know that?”

 

“I-I know! I'm sorry!” she spluttered, trying not to cry from the red mark on her fingers.

 

“It's not bad,” Kyo said, turning on the water and holding her fingers under the cold water.

 

Yuki winced, his eyebrows furrowing as something clenched sharply in his chest looking at Kyo holding Tohru's hand.

 

“I'm sorry, Miss Honda, I didn't mean to distract you,” he said, walking over to her and trying not to look at her hand and just at her face. Just at her face. Kyo wasn't holding her hand.

 

“It's ok, I just grabbed it, and I don't know why, but it really doesn't hurt anymore. Thank you, Kyo.”

 

Kyo nodded and Yuki flicked his eyes away, looking at the dew and trying not to chew through his tongue. What was wrong with him? Tohru was hurt and all he could think about was… what? What was that?

 

“Yuki, did you say you were going out?” Tohru asked, looking warily to the bare trees outside. It hadn't snowed yet, but it was on its way. She was worried about his asthma too.

 

He smiled. “It's all right, Miss Honda, I'll get something warm to drink while I'm out.”

 

She nodded, but didn't seem too convinced. Yuki watched her expressions flick across her face, and he was pretty sure she was just about to offer to go with him when Kyo suddenly spoke up.

 

“I'll go with him.”

 

Tohru hid the shock on her face about as well as she would have hid a black eye.

 

“…You'll go with him?” she repeated dumbly.

 

“Do you want him to die because of his damn asthma?” Kyo snapped, letting go of her hand to march out of the kitchen. “Keep your hand under the water until it feel better!” he barked from the other room. Yuki was sure if he didn't have more self-control he would have looked as dumbfounded as Tohru did now.

 

She turned back to him warily. “Um, Yuki, is that…?”

 

Yuki paused for a moment, making sure his voice wouldn't betray him before he just blinked. “It's best not to argue with the stupid, Miss Honda.”

 

“I heard that!” Kyo yelled from the front room.

 

“W-Well, I guess it's better, I mean, I would go but—”

 

“You stay and finish dinner, Miss Honda, or Shigure will get irritable,” Yuki smiled, trying to reassure her.

 

…Kyo wanted to go with him? The thought almost made him smile, but he was more confused than anything else.

 

“Well… all right,” she smiled and turned back to stirring the food with her good hand, as the other was still under the faucet.

 

Yuki walked to the front door, waiting until Kyo had come to join him, pulling his coat on and not looking him in the eye, before he slipped out of the door, trying not to let in the cold air.

 

“…What do you need?” Kyo asked when they were halfway down the drive.

 

“Clippers, I need to prune my garden or some of the plants will die this winter,” Yuki nodded to the small patch of greens as they passed it.

 

He blinked at Kyo's odd expression, and then the cat said quietly, “You think that's what Akito thinks about us? He has to prune us or we'll die?”

 

Yuki's lunged clenched, his throat going so tight he couldn't breathe. He closed his eyes, just listening to his and Kyo's steps on the cold, hard ground before his throat opened again and he could answer.

 

“No, I think he thinks we're like wild horses… and we have to be broken so we can be trusted and put to use.”

 

Kyo nodded and licked his lips. Yuki wondered if they were as dry as his because of the mention of Akito. Kyo looked just as flustered as him, but it could have been because they were out together. He didn't think they had been out alone like this since… since they went to retrieve Tohru from her grandfather's. Almost three years ago now.

 

Most teenagers his age were looking forward to the eighteen-year milestone, but… it didn't really have any meaning for him. Nothing would change, except that maybe Akito would force him to move back into the main house. It wouldn't be a milestone then, it would be the end of his life.

 

His throat was still that much tighter from Kyo's question, and the cold, dry air wasn't helping, and he had started coughing even before they had reached town much to his annoyance. His chest was tight, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle.

 

“You ok?”

 

Yuki looked over and nodded, cursing himself when he immediately had to cough into his arm again from trying to answer.

 

“…You sure?”

 

Yuki blinked, looking back up to Kyo's flustered expression.

 

“…You're pink is all! Like you can't get any damn oxygen!” Kyo snapped in his defense, looking away from Yuki and jamming his hands tightly into his pockets.

 

Yuki tried to answer, and the words got halfway out of his throat before another hacking cough invaded his throat, leaving Kyo looking even more ticked off.

 

“Ah hell with it! Wait here!” Kyo barked suddenly, stalking off down the row of vendors lining the street.

 

Yuki watched him leaving until he had disappeared into the crowd of people. He stood there for a moment and sighed in annoyance after Kyo wasn't back a good five minutes later.

 

Stupid cat. He sat down on the bench behind him and pulled his scarf of his mouth and nose, covering his mouth with his hand before he inhaled to try and warm the air up when out of nowhere a travel cup appeared out of nowhere in front of his face.

 

Yuki blinked, looking up to see Kyo glaring down at him, holding out the mug of steaming tea, his own in his other hand. Except that he wasn't glaring, Yuki could see clear embarrassment in Kyo's flaming eyes.

 

That's right, he's never done anything like this. Yuki realized, reaching up for the cup with a nod as thanks. Kyo nodded in return and sipped his drink, his other hand back tightly in his pocket.

 

“Aww, how nice.”

 

Both looked over to an older couple cooing in their direction. Kyo looked around, but Yuki could tell by the confused look on his face that they were the only ones on the frozen street. Everyone else thought it was too cold to be out.

 

“Remember when we were like that?” the woman asked her husband, who nodded happily.

 

“They're such a cute couple,” he agreed, and the woman waved to them as they walked by.

 

Yuki swallowed the sip in his mouth, realizing that he had already burned his tongue in the time he was sitting there gaping after them, and just sat there. He didn't even know what to think.

 

Couple?

 

“How did they think that?” Yuki asked stiffly, taking another agitated sip as he stared at the ground, his gaze hard.

 

“Well no wonder, you look like a girl in that damn coat,” Kyo answered easily, like he'd been thinking it even before the couple came along. Yuki's look dropped to a glare and he faced away from Kyo, deeming it not worth it to answer. He needed to save his throat as much as he could.

 

Stupid—

 

“Cute though,” Kyo whispered, so suddenly Yuki wouldn't have been sure he actually said it if he hadn't looked up at the last second to see Kyo's lips moving.

 

“…What did you say?” he asked breathlessly.

 

Kyo's eyes narrowed again, the embarrassment flashing behind his eyes as he snapped, “Nothing.”

 

 

 

The clippers were in Yuki's pocket, Kyo in step next to him. He couldn't see the house yet, but it had taken them longer to get to town because he had needed to walk slower, so he assumed it would take even longer getting home. There was also the small fact that it was night now, so maybe that's why he couldn't see it, but Tohru was home so he doubted the lights would be off.

 

Yuki blinked suddenly, slowing when Kyo suddenly stopped. The cat's hands were tight in his pocket again, and he wouldn't meet Yuki's eyes.

 

“Kyo?”

 

Kyo's eyes were locked on the ground for the first moment, but then he reached up and hooked his finger in the top of Yuki's scarf, pulling it down to reveal his face. Yuki was about to protest, saying that he would need another tea, when Kyo leaned in and pressed his lips gingerly to Yuki's.

 

Yuki's eyes popped and his muscles locked, and then the buzzing started from his toes and worked its way up his body, massaging into his muscles and skin and making his legs wobble. He reached up tentatively and gripped Kyo's shoulders, pulling the cat in tighter to his body.

 

And then Kyo pulled away and started back toward the house, leaving Yuki stunned on the road. Yuki only moved, jolted out of his stupor when Kyo barked, “Hurry up before your damn asthma kills you,” and he forced his feet to move, following the flaming hair through the night.

 

He hoped he wasn't too flushed. He felt it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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