Yui Miyamoto 
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Disclaimer: FruBa isn’t mine.Music Without Words
Chapter 14 – onaji no chi. (the same blood.)
When we went back
to the beach house, Yuki leaned down to kiss my wound while re-patching the
bandage after I had taken a shower.
When Hatori picked us up that
morning, Yuki was still taking a shower while I made us some tea. While pouring
some in a cup for Hatori, he lit up a cigarette and puffed on it before asking,
“I assume you’ve worked things out?”
I nodded slowly as I took a sip of
my tea while looking out onto the patio instead of at him. If he asked me
anything else, I would have been embarrassed to reply.
Sensing my
apprehension, he didn’t ask me anything further. He just sighed as he lifted his
cigarette to his lips. “Yuki knows. I can’t imagine what will happen
now.”
Then, he patted me gently on the head. “And I don’t want to imagine
what Akito will do when he finds out Yuki returns your feelings.”
At that
moment, I noticed something on his neck as he turned to look out to the patio.
My eyes instantly became suspicious as I pointed at the wound before me. “What’s
that?”
“Akito’s love mark,” Hatori answered without
hesitation.
“Do you honestly love that bastard?” I asked as I looked at
him baffled at this reality.
Hatori, at that moment, smirked at me while
taking another puff of his cigarette. I didn’t know what to make of that and I
couldn’t question him further as Yuki came down with his things, ready to go
home.
We were silent in the car, but as soon as we went through the front
door, Momiji jumped into my arms and said, “Haru!”
I smiled as he patted
my cheek softly. “I’m sorry about that.”
I shook my head. “No, I needed
it.”
As we gathered for breakfast, Tohru and the others sat around the
table. We ate until Momiji said, “I’m not beating around the bush. What are we
going to do?”
“We can’t exactly do anything to Akito,” Kyo said as he
drank his miso soup. “And they can’t run away. So, the only thing to do is
endure it.”
“But the terms were met,” Tohru commented as she poured rice
into her own bowl. She looked at Yuki and smiled at him quietly while the others
were wondering what to do.
“I know Akito the best,” Yuki spoke up as he
lifted up his chopsticks to eat his fish. “He will do his worst to get his
way.”
“Akito will do something regardless.” Shigure agreed as he took a
sip of his tea. “After all, Haru wasn’t supposed to let Yuki know.”
“How
could I avoid that when all of you were talking?” I said in a monotonous
tone.
We all sighed.
Then, Hatori said, “Just do as you’re told.
If you guys get involved, it will only aggravate him more. The only thing I can
advise is to just to do as Kyo said. Endure it.”
“Thank you, everyone,” I
said with a smile as I looked at each of them. “But please, let’s just make the
best of what we have…”
I glanced at Hatori as he turned away from
me.
Somehow, I had a feeling he knew what the hell was going
on…
And I didn’t like it.
When these things happen in
some movie or tv show, you expect something spectacular to happen. You kind of
wish that you were on a show that you wouldn’t really have to feel your way
through.
But this isn’t made up.
It’s real.
And it’s
happening to me.
I went to school on Monday and as I had wished, things
went as ‘normal’ as they possibly did. No one mentioned anything and we ate our
lunch together. Yuki and I still hung out on the roof while looking down at the
students playing different sports below us.
When I was going to ask him
what he said on Saturday night, someone came to him to ask an emergency question
about student council. So, I was alone on the roof not knowing how to
feel.
Why should I be punished for something like this?
Because I
am under Akito’s jurisdiction.
We of the zodiac may have human hearts,
but we cannot completely control our own lives. That was for Akito to
decide.
Long ago, therewas a time when I looked at him in awe. I would
watch him when he went to look out the window. For some reason, he reminded me
of Yuki.
There’s a saying that when you look at some people, their beauty
becomes enhanced the more you look at them. You want to look at them more and
more. But then, there are people that you look at and even though they are
beautiful, you’re repulsed by it. You become disgusted by it. That’s how I
looked at both Akito and Yuki.
They could have passed off for brothers
just because of the way they looked, but I could see from Akito’s eyes that he
loved and despised Yuki for being his ‘twin’. Yuki could do all the things he
never could do, but he loved Yuki enough to give him the most
attention.
Awful as it was for torturing him, this was Akito’s form of
love.
That’s why I couldn’t learn to look at him in any other
way.
I feared him.
I feared his way of affection.
So even
though Momiji held my hand while going to school, he didn’t say anything. Tohru
tried her best to smile during lunch while Kyo punched me on the shoulder in
frustration.
Yuki just leaned his head on my shoulder and patted my knee.
“There’s nothing to be afraid of. Isn’t that what you told me?”
I smiled
as best as I could through all my nervousness.
And when we said goodbye
to everyone, I just said with a calm smile, “I’ll see you later.”
Tohru
started to cry and wouldn’t look back at us while we parted ways. Momiji walked
with Kyo and Tohru while trying to console Tohru.
He was the one with the
strongest face for me.
That’s why he was my best friend.
Yuki and
I just walked silently towards the main house, but Hatori picked us up in his
car as soon as we turned one corner. Again, the frigid air among us was restless
and silent.
I just took deep breaths while Yuki looked out the window.
Poised as ever.
It made me wonder how long it had taken for him to open
himself up to be able to say anything that was in his head.
We entered
through the gate and were instructed to go to Akito’s room. Hatori was our grim
reaper who led us through the familiar hallway that made everyone shudder. I
often wondered what did Hatori think whenever he had to go to Akito.
How
could he learn to be so patient with him?
Hatori opened the door and
closed it behind him as Akito stood before us while we knelt to the floor. He
looked at us for a long minute and smirked while tilting his head playfully.
“Arrogant, are we?”
No one said anything, but I just kept my eyes clear
and determined. I was looking straight at him with no shame on my
face.
“You think Yuki loves you? We’ll see.” He knelt before me and took
my chin. “We had some terms, Hatsuharu and this is my first request: Yuki has to
kiss me as if he were kissing you.”
I twitched as I looked at Yuki. “You
said requests for me, not Yuki.”
“I said I had requests, but I never said
they all had to be done by you.”
Yuki’s hands became tight fists as he
looked at Akito with hatred in his eyes. I glanced at Hatori, who seemed so
indifferent when you looked at his face, but I now could tell. He was looking at
Akito so closely while Akito himself stole a glance at Hatori, almost delighted
at the response this had caused.
He then went to kneel before Yuki and
touched his face. “You don’t have to do anything. Remember I told you that? But
at the moment you defy me, I’ll take away Honda-san.”
My eyes opened wide
as I looked at Yuki, who was avoiding my eyes as he stared straight into
Akito’s.
This was their agreement…?
Akito held Yuki’s face like a
fragile vase in his hands. He turned his head to me and smiled triumphantly,
“Honda-san came here without anyone knowing. And I said that if she took Yuki
away from me, she would never see Yuki again. No one would.”
I took a
deep breath while Yuki still looked at Akito as if he had instantly turned into
stone.
He began to laugh. “I didn’t tell her how…Oh, how fragile the
human heart is when the object of their affections is in danger.”
“So you
see, Yuki?” He turned back to Yuki as he came closer to him. “The girl whose
honesty you love, actually has lied to you. She pushed you away to save you. She
really does love you. What do you say to that, Yuki? She was ready to marry you,
asking me for permission without you knowing.”
I held my breath and my
heart began to become harder and harder…
That’s why…
That’s why
she kept on crying…
She really did return his feelings…
Yuki
looked as if he had stopped breathing.
I was so speechless that I just
shook my head. I looked at the ground as I whispered, “Then why…why did you do
all this?”
Then, I glanced at Hatori and my heart fell. “You
knew…”
For the first time in my life, Hatori had lost his calmness. He
turned his eye away from me in guilt.
“By the time this ends, I want to
know who you want to live: Tohru or Haru.” Caressing Yuki’s cheeks, he said, “I
want to see who you love the most. But no matter who lives, I want you to know
you’re always mine, Yuki.”
Akito leaned forward while saying, “Didn’t
you know? Love is like music without words. It comes unexpectedly in a moment of
inspiration, whatever that may have been triggered from.
“The
instrumental is uncontrollable, and it’s like karaoke. You know the words, and
you can hear them in your head. It’s just you can’t sing them aloud. Even if
they’re right there on the screen.
“It’s a beautiful, familiar melody,
but it’s so hard to follow. So cruel that it will rip your heart out by the time
it is done.”
At that moment, Akito closed his eyes and kissed
Yuki.
Yuki lifted up his hand as began to push his shoulders to the
ground. He was actually kissing him back…
My eyes were plastered on them
kissing.
But, I was watching as if this were someone else inside of
me…
Who was going to live, Tohru or me?
I watched them as I became
numb from the inside out…
I realized it now. Sometimes the
characteristics you hated about someone else were actually your own, but you’re
blind to them…
This is what all of us in the zodiac had in common with
our ‘core’…
In this sense, I was no different than Akito.
I
mumbled as if to myself, with a self-mocking smile,
“We’re all the
same.
We would go so very far for the person we care for.
Even if
it leads to our own self-destruction.”
Tsuzuku…
--
Author’s
note: Twisted? You bet. I don’t like making things too predictable or else it’d
be boring, ne? How will I resolve this? Hee. I just hope I’m able to do it
well.
I’m always weary of making a bad ending.
Yui Miyamoto
Author
Pairing
Rating
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