Blue Heaven, chapter 9
Chapter 8 was here.
Chapter 9
by cinnamongrr1
The time came for Tohru to deliver her “baby”, and she and Kyou had to roll dice to see if the birth would have complications. Kyou rolled a two, which meant the baby was breech and delivered via Caesarian section. With key phrases like “four-way spontaneous episiotomy” fresh in her mind, Tohru couldn’t find it in herself to mind overmuch.
Then she rolled a five, which meant the baby was a boy. When it was all over, Mr. Kurosaki handed them (and the few other student couples who’d been “pregnant”) a three-kilo sack of flour and told them they had to treat it like a baby, never leaving it alone a single moment.
“Unbelievable,” Kyou muttered, hefting the flour into his free arm at the end of class. “Ridiculous.”
“So, what’d you name it?” asked Momiji around a mouthful of lunch, later on. He’d already found a scarf at the bottom of his backpack and wrapped it lovingly around the flour in a rough approximation of a onesie.
“Raidon!” Tohru exclaimed. “Don’t you think that’s a wonderful name?” She gazed happily around at her friends, not seeming to notice how Kyou had dropped his head in his hands and sighed.
“Sohma Raidon,” Hatsuharu said slowly, as if tasting the words, and Momiji giggled. “That’s… unique.” He turned to Kyou and tilted his head as he studied him. “Though I’m surprised you’d go for calling your son ‘thunder god’.”
“I like the name,” Yuki said, smiling at Tohru, before shooting a sly look at his cousin. “And Kyou, I think he has your eyes.”
Kyou mumbled something that could have been either, “wasn’t my idea” or perhaps “fuck off, stupid rat” and took a vicious bite of his lunch, stubbornly staring off in the opposite direction. Uotani had already told him the sack of flour “looked just like him” and it hadn’t been any funnier then, either.
“Uo-chan, are you free after school today?” Tohru asked her friend. At Arisa’s nod, she continued, “Great! Can you come over, then? Kyou and I would like to show something to you and Yuki-kun.”
Arisa and Yuki both seemed a little confused, but Arisa agreed readily enough. At Shigure’s that afternoon, then, they watched with wide eyes as Tohru began the folding process with her fluffy blanket.
“Watch this!” she announced, holding the blanket up over her chest. Kyou stepped forward and took her in his arms, tucking her closely against his chest and resting his cheek against her head. Tohru, for her part, slipped her arms around his neck and clung like a limpet, emitting a happy sigh.
After a few moments, Arisa gave a very fake-sounding clearing of her throat. “Happy as I am that you two have finally gotten past all that pesky denial,” she drawled, “exactly why is watching you hug interesting for us?”
Rosy-faced, Tohru and Kyou pulled back. “Don’t you understand?” Tohru asked, eyes shining with enthusiasm. “I’ve found a way for the Sohmas to hug us!”
Arisa glanced to Yuki; unlike her, his face was quite serious, and he seemed very interested in this new development.
“Here,” Tohru said, shoving the blanket at them. “Start with four, I don’t know if it’s the same with Yuki-kun as it is with Kyou-kun.”
Yuki held up the quadrupled blanket and smiled tentatively at his girlfriend. Arisa returned it with a grin and, rather than merely embracing him, slid her arms around his neck and planted a substantial kiss on his mouth.
Kyou and Tohru watched, gaping, as Yuki (rather than pulling away embarrassedly as they thought he would at such a display) returned her embrace just as fervently.
“Wow, Uo-chan!” Tohru exclaimed after a moment. “It’s easy to see how much you care for each other.”
That succeeded in interrupting them; Yuki and Arisa pulled apart, blushing slightly. “Now what?” she asked, rubbing the back of her neck. “Three?”
Tohru nodded. “That’s as low as Kyou-kun and I got,”
The blanket was rearranged, replaced, and once again, Yuki and Arisa were in each other’s arms. This time, instead of a passionate clinch, they were content to simply hold each other close as they had not been able to before. Arisa loved holding him like this; she’d thought they’d never be able to, and the feel of his slim, wiry body against her was like an unexpected gift.
Tohru watched them with a wide smile, hands clasped to her chest in delight. “Look, Kyou-kun!” she said, bouncing on her toes as she turned to him. “It’s working for them, too!”
“I can see that,” he said acidly, arms folded over his chest as he watched his cousin embrace Arisa. “Can we get moving on this before my entire appetite is ruined?”
Yuki shot him a nasty look over Arisa’s shoulder, and detached from her. “If three layers is as low as you two were able to go, then I think we should stop there, too.”
“All this cloak and dagger mystery would be fun if I could be a part of it, too,” Arisa said mildly. She felt distinctly peevish at being the only one of the four unaware of the repercussions of getting too close to Yuki.
Tohru shot her a sympathetic look, but Yuki said, “Trust me, I would if I could, Arisa-san. It’s for your own protection.” He softened it with a small, hopeful smile, which she grudgingly returned.
“It’s not like it’s a good secret,” Kyou grumbled. “You’re not exactly missing out on something wonderful. And-“
He abruptly fell silent as a footstep sounded on the veranda outside. A moment later, the shoji slid open and Shigure entered the room.
“Ah, Tohru!” he exclaimed merrily. “I’m so hungry, after that walk! When are we having dinner?”
“It should be ready just about now!” she answered, spinning to face him. “I’ll set the table and serve it as soon as it’s done!”
“Good, good,” he replied, patting her fondly on the head as he passed. “I’ll be in my office. Just let me know when it’s time.” She nodded, and he ambled from the room.
Not long thereafter, they heard a ding, and Tohru hopped to her feet. “It’s done earlier than I thought.”
“Tohru-chan,” Arisa said with a grin, “that’s the doorbell.”
Tohru turned to answer the door, but then a timer buzzed, signifying that dinner was ready. Conflicted, her head swiveled back and forth from foyer to kitchen until Kyou stood.
“I’ll get the door,” he told her, tracing a finger down her cheek. He knew he shouldn’t be so free with her in front of others, but now that Yuki and Uotani knew about them, he felt almost comfortable. She beamed up at him, nodding, and that familiar rush of sentiment-love, devotion, gratitude all tangled up in one warm knot-clutched at him.
It swiftly turned to a sinking, leaded sensation when he swung open the door and found one of his cousins standing in the pool of light thrown by the porch lamp. “Hatori? What are-“
Hatori stepped to the side, and the sallow light fell on the faces of Akito and Kureno.
“I’m sorry for the suddenness of this visit,” Hatori began, but Akito shouldered him aside to stand practically nose-to-nose with Kyou, and his smile was like the blade of a knife.
“Ah, my monster,” he murmured. “You looked so happy, just then. How touching.”
“What do you want?” Kyou was amazed at how steady his voice seemed, how clear his head, when the panic felt like it was streaming from every pore. What was Akito doing here?
“I’ve heard that love is in the air, here at Shigure’s,” Akito replied easily, “and wanted to see a bit of it for myself.” He tilted his head to one side and pursed his lips, almost grotesquely coquettish. “I want to see how dear Honda-san acts around her beloved monster.”
Foreboding crawled up Kyou’s spine to lodge between his shoulder blades. “Is that it?” he asked tensely. “You just want to make fun of us for a while?”
Akito’s smile twisted. In the yellow light, he looked feral, like an animal with its teeth bared. “And to see the girl who’s stolen the heart of the rat,” he said. “It’s come to my attention that one of that ugly girl’s friends has become closer than she should to my Yuki.”
Kyou bristled. “She’s not ugly,” he growled. “She’s-“
“Kyou-kun? Who’s at the door?” Tohru peered over his shoulder to see who was there. “Oh! Akito-sama!” Kyou could feel the tremor of her hand on his arm. “How-how kind of you to come visit us!”
“Yes, isn’t it?” Akito’s smile turned false, a hard bright mask behind which he mocked Tohru’s oblivious innocence. “Won’t you invite us in?”
“Oh, yes! Of course!” She stepped aside and bowed. "Please, come in.”
Kyou shuffled to the side and watched, eyes dull, as Akito sauntered past with Hatori and Kureno in his wake. When Tohru would have followed, he stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” he muttered in her ear, and jammed his feet into his shoes. “Be ready for something to happen.”
Her eyes, turned so trustingly up to him, widened in dismay. “Kyou, you’re scaring me.”
“I’m sorry.” He dropped a kiss on her lips. “If I’m wrong, I’ll make it up to you in spades.”
Tohru stretched up on her toes and kissed him back. “I trust you.”
His heart clenched, and he kissed her again. “Let’s get in there.”
In the dining room, the scene was anxious, as Kyou had expected. Yuki was standing, trying not to look nervous, between Arisa and the newcomers, while Shigure cracked lame jokes and generally was obnoxious.
“Ah, and here’s our Kyou and his little flower,” he said as they entered, and everyone turned to see them. Tohru’s hand curled harder around Kyou’s, and he squeezed back to reassure her.
“Akito-san, Hatori-san, Kureno-san,” Tohru began, “We were just about to have dinner. Would you like to join us?”
“Ever the hostess, hm?” Akito’s lip curled in what could loosely be termed a smile. “No, we are not here to eat your food, merely to investigate the girls who would presume to be good enough for two of the most… special of the Sohmas.”
Arisa was beginning to understand why Tohru’s face was so pinched, and why Yuki and Kyou and even those two men with this Akito guy were fairly vibrating with tension. Akito was a total jerk, and not in the way that Ayame had been-Yuki’s brother was overbearing and fairly insane, but he lacked the air of outright malevolence that Akito had. Staring him down wasn’t going to work.
She got to her feet and came to stand beside Yuki, shoulders back. She opened her mouth to speak, but his hand on her wrist was a steady, warm pressure to keep silent.
“We’re honoured you’d take an interest,” Yuki said, just the slightest tremor in his voice.
“An interest? Yes, you could say that.” Akito stepped closer, his eyes glittered with dawning rage. “I, who suffer and die for you and the rest of the Jyuunishi, have indeed taken an interest in how you would desert and betray me and the others.”
Arisa wondered what the hell he was talking about-suffering, dying?-and glanced at Tohru to see how she was taking the crazy talk. She was shocked to see no such similar confusion on her friend’s face; Tohru looked apprehensive and sad, but entirely unsurprised by the events unfolding before them.
“There’s been no betrayal,” Yuki protested. “You know we are loyal to you, as we always have been.”
“So loyal you’d take up with these common girls?” Akito spat. “I can see why the monster would settle for her.” He flicked a shoulder in Tohru’s direction. “Only someone as simple and ugly as she would have anything to do with such a hideous, foul beast.”
Arisa felt her temper soaring to blistering levels at this insult to her best friend and even to Kyou. She didn’t know why anyone would be calling him hideous or foul, since he was actually a handsome kid (not that she’d ever admit it aloud) but the tightness around his eyes was making her feel almost sick with anger.
Akito flicked a contemptuous gaze over at Arisa, who bristled to be examined like a horse for purchase. She clenched her fists and met his stare with her own.
“But you…” he continued, taking a step closer. “You’re better. Not much, just a little.” His expression turned contemplative as he glanced at Yuki, a sly smile curling his lips. “I wonder if she’ll feel the same about your pretty face and sweet smiles when she knows the truth?”
“The truth?” Arisa was getting tired of all the cryptic speech and mysteries. “What can this secret possibly be for it to scare me away?” She planted her hands on her hips and glared at everyone. “After all, Tohru seem to know and be okay with it. If she can handle it, I think I can, too.”
“Are you sure?” Akito sidled closer, reaching out a hand to touch her face, but Yuki placed himself between them once more. “Yuki, so protective. Do you think I would hurt her?”
“Like you wouldn’t hurt Tohru?” Kyou retorted. “Like you wouldn’t hurt Momiji, or Rin, or Kisa? Like you wouldn’t hurt Yuki?”
The question, coming from the despised Cat, seemed to unhinge Akito. “They deserved it!” he shrieked, hands curling into claws. His eyes were glassy with rage and, Arisa was coming to see, a distinct lack of sanity. “You all deserve it, anything I do to you! Traitors! Traitors!”
Both hands outstretched, Akito launched himself at Yuki, shoving him so hard he fell back into Arisa. There was a poof!, a thick cloud of smoke, and Yuki just sort of disappeared.
“Yuki?” Arisa said, her voice rising when there was no answer. She waved her hands through the smoke to get it to dissipate. “Yuki!”
“He’s down there,” Akito crowed, pointing with a bony and imperious finger. “Paw through the pile of clothes at your feet, and you’ll find him.”
Arisa stared at him a long moment before her attention was caught by a squirming in the fabric on the floor. Bending down, she rummaged through the garments until her hand touched something furry and warm. Lifting it out, she saw a large rat, silver in colour, with limpid violet eyes.
“There’s your beloved Yuki,” Akito said, and began to laugh. “Your handsome prince, nothing more than a nasty little rodent. He’s the most pathetic of them all, isn’t he?”
Arisa didn’t say a word, just stared at the rat in her grasp. Her mind was whirling, panicked. She was angry, and scared, and horrified. Looking at Tohru, she saw the anguish and pleading on the other girl’s face, and remembered her words.
“It’s easy to see how much you care for each other.”
She did care for Yuki, more than she cared for almost anyone else, and she thought he loved her, too. Arisa didn’t know what was going on, but she wasn’t going to let this horrible man do anything else to Yuki. Even as a rat, the misery and humiliation plain in his eyes tore at her heart.
And so, clutching him to her chest, she turned and bolted, stopping only to jam her feet into her shoes at the front door before running out into the night.
Behind her, she could hear Akito screaming. “Stop her! Get him back! Don’t let her take my Yuki, get him back!”
Chapter 10 is here.