On Names, the Flu, and Other Things
A small FB fic from Oddzilla Productions that was only going to be a
ficlet, but life is like that sometimes.
Chapter 3
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Kyou realized one thing: he hated that Yankee.
He really hated her. He wanted to kill her. He'd go and find her, and
strangle her, or beat her into a pulp, or something violent. He wouldn't
usually hurt girls, but hell, she was barely a girl, more like a gorilla.
He--
He sneezed.
"DAMN YOU, ARISA! You gave me your flu! Nnnnnrgh."
Kyou flopped back down on his bed heavily. He'd started feeling strange
the day after walking her to the nurse and then home along with everyone
else, and now, here he was. A wreck. Bedridden for two days, on orders
from Hatori--not that he'd have the energy to defy the family doctor
anyway. Maybe three days if he didn't get better by tomorrow.
And he'd had to put up with Shigure the whole time. It was enough to make
him wish for death--his own and Arisa's.
At least, when she was home, Tohru was wonderful. Making sure he was
comfortable, changing the moist cloths regularly, and keeping the crazy
dog away as well. And while his appetite was mostly dead, her hot
nourishing soups were absolutely great. Though he did have to draw the
line at leeks, no matter how good they supposedly were for sick people.
Too bad she was only there for a couple hours out of the day, between
school and her part-time job.
It was also getting a little bit boring. Spending several hours straight
cooped up in his room with no one around--Shigure didn't count, and
fortunately was being chased around by his editor today--was really
starting to get to him. He was actually starting to miss school and the
people he'd be around while there. Tohru, of course. Yuki...well, maybe
not. Hana...hm. Scary, but occasionally made for good company and a card
game. Momiji and Haru--they were tolerable, as long as Momiji wasn't
acting stupid and Haru did not turn to the Dark Side.
And. Er. Well. Arisa, too, when it came down to that. Except that he
wanted to murder her at the moment of course. He'd reach out for her neck,
her long, slender neck, with its smooth skin, leading up to the
surprisingly delicate line of her jaw, one that you could easily trace
your finger along to the point of her chin, set just below her mouth, her
full pink lips that could be so very harsh or so very gentle depending on
what she wanted to be, and above that her nose, a well-shaped nose, not
that he paid much attention to noses anyway especially when just above her
nose were her deep blue eyes that alternately burned like ice or enveloped
you like a pool of deep ocean water...all in all, a face that was--
NO! It was the fever talking again, the fever making him delirious! Her
neck, that was his focus, her long, slender neck, with its smooth skin,
leading down to her toned shoulders, evidence of her quietly impressive
strength, a part of her well-built frame, of course she wasn't a girl, she
was a young woman, her very well-built frame indeed, just the right shape
and....
Kyou whimpered, pulling the sheets over his face. He was going mad. That
was it. He couldn't stand her before, and she drove him out of his mind,
and now...well, she was still driving him out of his mind, only she didn't
have to be in his presence to do that.
Then came the sound of salvation: the front door opening and muted voices
from downstairs. Tohru, Angel of the Soumas, was back from school. Yuki
probably was as well, but you learned to take the good with the bad. He'd
now be distracted from strange and unusual thoughts by her comforting,
peaceful presence.
Sure enough, there were footsteps coming up the stairs, and now
approaching his room. Kyou smiled and sat up slightly. The door opened,
and...the smile disappeared.
"What do you want, Mouse?"
Infuriating, that look on his face. Smugness asking for a punch; Kyou
added to his mental tally of how many nosebreakers he owed Yuki, currently
running in the high hundreds. "Just wanted to tell you that Tohru's
pulling an early shift today, so she won't be home until much later."
Kyou's heart sank. The thing that had given him hope through
misery--vanished, snuffed like a flame. At least until tonight. But he
didn't know if he'd last that long.
"But you've got a visitor in the meantime."
...eh?
"You look awful, Carrothead. Are you sure you washed your hands properly?"
......eh?
Arisa strode past Yuki into the room, her long legs carrying her quickly
within. She took a quick, appraising look at the contents, and appeared...
disappointed? "You know, your place is pretty bare. Wouldn't be able to
tell that anyone actually lived here. Well? Aren't you going to welcome
me? At least offer a greeting or something."
"What the hell are you doorrgh--"
She stood back and waited for his coughing fit to pass.
"Damn, you are pretty sick. Man, I'm sorry."
He glared up at her. "All your fault," he rasped. Though he was slightly
surprised at just how concerned she looked at the moment.
But then she laughed. "I guess you aren't that badly off, though, if you
can still say stuff like that." She glanced around again, grabbed a nearby
chair, and plopped down on it at his bedside.
"How the hell are you already recovered like that? You were half-dead a
couple of days ago."
She shrugged, a rather interesting motion. "I dunno. I've always gotten
over illnesses pretty quickly, even if they hit me hard at first. Guess
I'm lucky that way. Though I still have a little bit of the cough." She
cleared her throat, as if to demonstrate. "But otherwise...."
Kyou sank further into his bed. "I hate you."
Arisa raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, I already said I'm sorry for giving
you my flu. Sorry for recovering so quickly? That better?" He just
grumbled, and she chuckled again. "Anyway, Tohru told me how you were
doing, so I decided to drop by and see how you were. And I don't have to
worry about getting sick from you, since I already got over this virus."
She sat back and grinned.
He struggled internally for a short while. Then, with great reluctance, he
managed, "...thanks."
She tsked. "Such little gratitude. And I'd brought you some medicines,
too." Said items were pulled out from her bag and placed on his
nightstand. "Some things my doctor recommended. He knows his stuff, too.
Worked pretty well for me."
Kyou looked at the powder packets and pill bottles a bit dubiously. Then,
he said again, "...thanks."
She rolled her eyes. "What is it with you? Tohru told me you needed some
company, that you were getting bored. So here I am. Or should I go?"
"No! No. Um...stay. Please." He sighed, sat up, and tried to clear his
head, such as it was. "Sorry. I...I do appreciate you coming. It helps."
Now she smiled, the same smile he'd seen only a few times before. "All
right, that's better. So! Wanna play some cards?" She flourished a deck.
He blinked. "Um...what should we play?"
She pursed her lips, another interesting thing, and considered. "Can't
play Dai Hin Min with just the two of us...we can get the Prince and
Writer-boy in here to...okay, that look tells me you don't want them
around. Well...you know poker? No? Blackjack? Erm...need more people for
Hearts and Spades too..."
As she spoke, Kyou watched her with fascination. She was doing some tricks
with the cards--not the "pick a card, any card" type, but getting them to,
well, dance. Her hands moved fluidly, flipping them back and forth through
the air, making them fly. She was pretty adept at manipulating the cards,
and without even paying attention.
"...they that intriguing?" The cards suddenly stopped.
"Huh?" He looked up.
She eyed him closely. "I said, are they that intriguing?"
"Um, uh--"
He was cut off by a card bouncing off his nose.
"Hey!"
She flicked another card out with deadly accuracy, as if it were a
throwing star, and caromed it off his nose again.
"Stop--that--"
She didn't, of course, and so he rose to the challenge, grabbing the cards
that were now lying on his blanket and sending them back at her. His first
throws weren't too good, missing her completely, but he was a fast
learner. Soon, a full-scale war was in progress, with the two of them
laughing and dodging as best they could while still seated.
Until Kyou's laughing turned into coughing, as might be expected. The
card-throwing subsided while he hacked up half a lung and then wheezed for
breath. When it ended, he slumped back down on his pillow. "Urgh."
Arisa sighed and reached for one of the packets she'd laid out on the
nightstand. "Here, let me get you something hot to drink. This should take
the edge off the cough." She stood, then looked at the bowl of water and
moist hand towels next to it. "And I'll change this water while I'm at
it." With that, she vanished out the door along with those items.
He listened carefully to her footsteps going back down the stairs, off
toward the kitchen. This...was nice. Very nice. She wasn't as gentle as
Tohru, but she was helping, and she really seemed to care. And that was
the important part, in the end.
His thoughts were interrupted by the lights in his room suddenly going on.
He blinked and squinted a little bit at Arisa, who was balancing a
steaming mug and the bowl of water and towels carefully.
"Hadn't realized it was getting that dark."
"You haven't been here that long...."
"No, but it's looking like a storm outside. Hope it's not too bad; I
didn't bring an umbrella. Here you go."
"Could borrow one from us." He accepted the mug from her and sniffed
cautiously at the steam rising from it. A bit lemony. He sipped and
grimaced.
"Yeah, it doesn't taste that great, but you get used to it." She now put
the bowl back down where it had been and dropped a towel into it. "Tohru's
been taking care of you this whole time?"
He sipped some more of the medicine and grunted. "When she's been around,
yeah." He paused, and frowned. "How'd you get by when you were sick? You
live alone, don't you?"
"Hana came over after school to help out a little bit." She looked at him
strangely for a moment, then shrugged. "I managed. Slept most of the time
anyway." She chuckled. "I remember the last time I got sick, and Tohru was
the one who came by to take care of me. You're a lucky guy to be under her
care now."
Kyou stared at the mug in his hands. After a few moments of silence, he
nodded and said, "Yeah. The...the three of us, we're really lucky to have
her with us now. Shigure and Yuki, they...well, I didn't come to live here
until about the same time that Tohru did, so.... But I guess they must
have had it a lot harder before she arrived."
"That Tohru, she's really something."
"Thank you, Arisa."
"Huh?"
He frowned, wondering why he said that. But in truth, he did know why.
"For taking care of Tohru before we ever met her. Especially when her
mother died. I mean...I can't blame you for not taking her in, it was her
choice to hide that from you and go live in a tent near this house. And if
she didn't do that, well--" Kyou shook his head. Tohru not being in their
lives now was something he didn't want to contemplate. "You and Hana
protected her before, the way that...that we try to protect her now. Maybe
she'd be the same person she is now if she'd never met you. But I know she
did meet you, and I know she's a wonderful person, so I guess...." His
thoughts ran out, and he struggled. "You know. Well. Thanks." He drank
what remained in the mug to try to hide his sudden discomfort at saying so
much, perhaps too much.
Then he realized that she hadn't said anything. No response. He glanced
over nervously.
She was staring at him blankly, hands resting on her lap. Her mouth was
opened slightly, as if arrested in mid-word, or probably more accurately,
pre-word. Great. He had said too much after all, hadn't he? His fingers
clenched around the mug, but he was now also at a loss for words himself.
Or action.
Then she stood up suddenly, and he jerked his head to look at her.
"A...Arisa?"
She took a step forward from the chair, bringing herself right up to his
side. He felt paralyzed, pinned down by her gaze. There was a slight
wrinkle on her brow, as if she were slightly perplexed. Then she reached
out and brushed his hair away from his face, making his eyes go wide, and
bent over and placed her lips against his forehead.
Now he truly knew paralysis, as time seemed to stop.
When she finally withdrew, Kyou found his voice after several attempts.
"What...why...what was that for?" He sounded hoarse, which annoyed him.
She smiled at him faintly, touched her lips, touched her own forehead.
"Well, I could say I was checking your temperature. The lips are a more
sensitive part of the body, after all. You're still running a temperature,
I do believe."
He gaped at her, and she laughed, even as she reached over and wrung out
the towel in the bowl, then folded it.
"Or maybe it was for another reason. Here, lie down."
He did as ordered, and she leaned forward to place the moist towel on his
forehead, right where she'd--well, where she'd kissed him. "So...I guess
it was the fever talking just now?"
"No, I don't think you're that feverish, Kyon-Kyon," she answered. "I
think you really are that sweet sometimes."
You're cute sometimes.... "That's--that's...the other reason?"
"It just might be." Those blue eyes sparkled as she grinned.
"Oh." He felt stunned. And really tired.
"Rest," she said, gently; apparently it showed. "I'll stay here with you a
while; don't have anything else to do today. You get better soon, okay?
Tohru said you seemed bored here, but it's a little boring for us at
school with you not there."
"All right," he murmured. "And...."
"What is it?"
"You don't seem to care when I call you 'Arisa' now."
"No. I guess I don't. You don't seem to protest 'Kyon-Kyon' much anymore,
either."
"Drop dead, Yankee."
"Yes, yes, of course."
He smiled, and slowly drifted off to sleep, to the sound of rain hammering
on the roof. And his dreams, while still interesting, were rather
innocent.
Mostly, anyway.
End chapter 3.
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Erm. I still am not quite done, I think. There'll be a short epilogue. Or
so I think. When I finish the next part, that's when I'll know for sure,
eheh.
Yes, I know I'm taking things slow. I'm vaguely frustrated myself, but
I've always been a believer in love not being an easy, fast thing; if
you've read my other fics, that much is rather obvious. While things can
move fast believably (one of my favorite Uo-Kyou stories moves much more
quickly indeed; check out Firsts, in my Favorite Stories section), I
prefer to take my time and develop them gradually.
