{FIC} When you know 2/? TK tinges

[jade]

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of FB. The song, When You Know is Shawn Colvin's.

Chapter 2 Actions and reactions

Tohru skipped down the hallway, eager to spend the rest of the afternoon with Kyo. Since she didn't have to work that evening, she had bashfully asked the orange haired Sohma if he wanted to spend the after school hours with her. She was overjoyed when he agreed and would have left the building with him if she hadn't stopped to do a quick favor for Yuki. She practically soared in the building. But, upon gliding out the school's front doors, her flight was cut short at the sight before her.

There, leaning against the gate, was Kyo?one hand stuffed casually in a pocket, the other slinging his school bag over a shoulder. In front of him, barely a curse triggering breath away, stood Kiyone. She was flashing what Tohru figured must be her most flirtatious smile at Kyo, nibbling on just enough of her lip to look tempting. To Tohru's growing horror, Kyo was not ignoring the girl with his usual gruffness. Instead, he seemed to actually be speaking to her?and enjoying the conversation. The feeling that had consumed Tohru the day before slowly began to resurface. She began to stride determinedly towards the couple. As she closed in an easily recognizable cry thundered through the air.

"KYO!!!!" the quick thumping of Kagura's footsteps was immediately followed by a screech as she came to an abrupt halt.

At Kyo's, "Aw, CRAP!" Tohru couldn't stop herself from holding back a tiny giggle.

"Kyo!" repeated the other Sohma zealously. "I rushed out of class just to see you! Aren't you happy to see me?"

"Gee, let me think?" Kyo replied sarcastically. "Am I ever happy to see you?"

"Oh, Kyo!' Kagura threw her arms around the reluctant boy from behind. "Of course you are. Why wouldn't you be? I'm always happy to see?" she stopped when she noticed Kiyone. "Hello. Who are you? Are you a friend of Kyo's?"

Tohru sensed trouble. She hurriedly resumed her path towards the growing group. Kiyone grinned slyly, her eyes narrowing into feral slits. "You could say I'd like to be a friend of Kyo's." Lightly, ever so lightly, she ran a finger down Kyo's chest, sending the boy into tiny tremblings (an uncertain mixture of desire and fear). "You could also say I'd love to be more."

Kagura released Kyo. Tohru began walking faster. "Oh, REALLY? Just what is this MORE you'd like to be to MY Kyo?"

Kiyone raised an elegant eyebrow as she regarded the smaller girl. "YOUR Kyo?" She turned to the boy in question. "Is this true?"

"Hell no!" Kyo shouted. "In her dreams."

Kagura's eyes widened. "Oh, Kyo! How could you say that?"

Kiyone stepped in. "You heard him, little girl. He doesn't want you here."

Tohru watched, transfixed as every hair on Kagura's head seemed stand on end. Kyo noticed also. "Kagura," he cautioned his cousin. With a flick of her wrist, she shoved him carelessly, flinging him almost casually onto the ground.

Kagura glared up at Kiyone, her eyes black with boarlike temper. "Just who do you think you are, touching MY Kyo, telling me MY Kyo doesn't want me here? What do YOU know about MY Kyo??

"Kagura," Kyo said again, the warning in his voice even heavier than before. He took her arm. "Forget this. Let's just go to Shigure's, okay?"

"Stay out of this, Kyo."

"Kagura?"

"I SAID, STAY OUT OF THIS!" Both Tohru and Kiyone gasped when Kagura booted Kyo into the air. The zodiac boar sighed. "I'm so sorry I had to do that, Kyo darling," she called out. "But now," the petite girl turned towards her newest rival with an unholy glint in her eye, "back to business."

Tohru opened her mouth to yell something, anything to stop Kagura when a whoosh of air whizzed by her. She blinked to see Yuki sprinting towards the soon to be fighting pair.

"Kagura!" he reprimanded. "What's going on out here? I could hear the yelling from inside the school."

Kagura, in an about face, immediately burst into tears. "It's not my fault, Yuki. It's that girl's! She's trying to take Kyo away from me!"

Yuki sighed with miserable understanding. "I see. And where is Kyo?"

"I?sniff?I?sniff?"

"That?that?maniac kicked Kyo into the sky!" Kiyone interjected.

Yuki pressed his fingers against his temples. He looked up, flashing Kiyone what he hoped was a charming smile. "Miss Kobayashi, I must apologize for my cousin's behavior. She tends to get a little...possessive when it comes to Kyo." He turned and, spying Tohru, gestured her over. "Kagura, why don't you and Tohru go on home? I'm sure Kyo ended up there somehow. Is that okay with you, Miss Honda?"

His request urged Tohru into action. "Of course," she replied softly. "Come on, Kagura. Let's find Kyo."

"I'm sorry, Tohru," Kagura sniffled as they made their way down the street. "It's just?"

"I know," the other girl replied comfortingly, "It's just that you love Kyo so much you can't help yourself." She immediately tried to fight down the feeling that, had she been in the same place, she would have done the exact same thing.

*****

"But Kyo," Kagura whined, "I've apologized a hundred times! Why won't you just forgive me?"

"I already told you, I forgive you!" Kyo exclaimed. "Will you leave it alone already?"

"But Kyo, I don't believe you! How can I believe you when you refuse to kiss and make up?"

"Kiss? You have got to be kidding me!"

It was a dinnertime filled with distractions as Kagura both pleaded with and punched Kyo in the hopes that he would, in fact, kiss and make up. Kyo was, somehow, fending off his suitor's attempted kisses while managing to enthusiastically scarf down his dinner.

"Thanks for dinner, Tohru," he mumbled around the food in his mouth. "It's really good."

Tohru grinned her thanks and refilled his soup bowl. "I'm glad you like it, Kyo."

"It IS quite delicious as always, Tohru," Shigure added, tapping his chopsticks against his mouth contemplatively. "Have I missed something?"

The Sohma cook's eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Well, since all of these foods are Kyo's favorites, I'm wondering if I forgot something. It's not your birthday is it, Kyo?"

Kyo looked puzzled. "No, it's not."

The elder Sohma wagged a teasing finger at Tohru. "Tohru," he sang, "is there something you aren't telling us? Did Kyo do something to deserve such a special meal? Hmm?"

In an instant, the family's attention shifted to the Honda girl. Embarrassed, Tohru shot to her feet. "It's nothing, nothing at all," she protested bumblingly. "Just a coincidence. Oh, it looks like we are almost out of rice! Let me get some more." She began to back her way into the kitchen.

"Kagura!" Tohru stopped at Kyo's frustrated shout. She turned to see Kyo brushing angrily at his pants. His soup bowl lay upturned on the floor. It wasn't hard to figure out what had happened.

"I'm sorry, Kyo! I was just trying to feed you some soup! Here, take off your pants so that I can wash them for you," she reached insistently for Kyo.

Tohru found herself caught in a sort of time limbo. She felt as if she were split into two parts. One of her parts watched Kagura close in on Kyo in painstakingly slow motion. Every second of the female Sohma's movement seemed to take an hour of heartbeats. Part of Tohru could only watch, shocked in suspended animation, as Kagura's hands made slow contact with Kyo's waist.

The other part of Tohru floated out of her physical person, moving with hummingbird like speed. Slipping so quickly out of her control, this other Tohru crossed the room like lightning and brought the rice serving bowl down onto Kyo's unsuspecting head with a thunderous crash.

Just as quickly as everything seemed to slow down, life resumed its normal pace. Just as slowly as everything began to speed up, Tohru blurred into coherence. There was Kyo, jumping up dizzyingly, crying out, "What the hell was that for?" There was Yuki, his hand at her elbow, worriedly asking, "Miss Honda, what's the matter?" There was Shigure, too surprised to even poke fun at the situation. Finally, there was Kagura, watching her pensively.

Tohru rediscovered her voice, her words burst out of her in distressed exhalation. "Oh, Kyo! I'm SO sorry! I don't know what came over me!" The bowl turned weapon clattered onto the floor beside the soup bowl as she fled the room.

When you feel in your skin in your bones and the hollow
Of your heart, there's no way you can wait till tomorrow.
When there isn't any doubt about it once you come this close
Cos you know and you know that you know.

Tohru sat on the roof in the spot normally occupied by Kyo, her face buried in her hands. Mom, what's going on with me? Why am I acting this way? It's like there's something deep inside me trying to claw its way out. I feel so out of control. What do I do? What's happening to me?

"Hey," Kyo called out, his voice almost too intentionally subdued. "Can I come up?"

Tohru forced a shaky smile. "Of course. The roof is your place after all."

Silently, he settled himself onto the roof beside her. They sat there, soaking in the quiet of the stars, basking in the temporary necessity of words.

"Kyo," Tohru began, then stopped abruptly. She bit her lip. "I'm sorry?I really don't know what happened?I?"

"Will you stop apologizing already?" Kyo interrupted. "I know you're sorry. It's not like you do it on a daily basis or anything. You just caught me by surprise, is all." He rubbed gingerly at the crown of his head. When Tohru began to make apologetic noises, he waved them off. "I told you, I'm fine. You didn't hit me any harder than that damned Yuki ever has."

Tohru spoke, her voice shaky with remorse, "Are you sure you're all right, Kyo?"

"Yeah," he shot a reassuring smile. "Now I know how all those anime characters feel."

Tohru giggled as the guilt slowly receded. They continued to sit quietly and she found that the nearness of him soothed her. Despite the lightest of evening chills, an increasingly familiar warmth began to buoy rise slowly from her toes, gliding a gentle path upwards into her heart.

When Kyo spoke, she was almost disappointed as the comfortable peace that had generated between them dissolved. "Tohru?about tonight," he began then stopped, fastidiously weighing his words. "If I did anything to piss you off?well, I'm really sorry."

"No, it wasn't you, Kyo," she broke off as the image of Kagura intimately stripping Kyo off his pants reemerged in her head, "it was me?totally." What could she tell him? Could she even begin to explain the tornado of feelings building within her? She fretted, and then instantaneously pushed all doubts aside. This was Kyo, after all. She could trust him with anything.

"It's just that?lately, I think I've been getting tired of just sitting back and watching things happen. Tonight, when Kagura tried to take off your," she cleared her throat, "pants?something inside me snapped. I think I thought, 'This isn't fair. Why doesn't she just leave him alone?' and then?I just acted on that, I guess."

Kyo considered this then nodded. "I think I see where you're coming from. But," he added with a rueful smile, "did you have to take it out on me?" His grin widened at Tohru's laugh and, once again, quiet ruled the night.

"But you know," his voice was even softer than ever, "it was kinda nice to see you lose it." He met her curious glance, his eyes dark with meaning. "I mean, you're always so NICE and?controlled, I guess. It was?different to see you let loose that way."

"Actually," Tohru replied thoughtfully, "it was kind of nice. It was almost?relieving to hit you with that bowl." If anything, she added to herself, it got Kagura away from you. She started at this thought and began to probe reflectively at the emotions it stirred up. Her meditation was interrupted when Kyo shifted uneasily beside her.

"Well, I can't say I understand WHY you did it, but thanks. I mean Kagura's done a lot of stuff to me but that," he shuddered. "Well, it hurt, but I'm glad you did it. And?uhm?just so you know. If you ever want to?you know, talk or some junk like that, you can come to me. I'm not good at giving advice or anything, but I'll listen."

Inexplicably moved, she touched a hand to his. His gratitude, his hesitancy, his being, made her heart sing with an unrecognizable song she realized she was most eager to learn. This feeling, this almost unbearable lightness, was a feeling she wanted to capture, to hold close that she could continue feeling it always.

She sought out his gaze, sighing contentedly when their eyes met. Her attention became focused on his mouth and she suddenly wondered what it would be like to feel her mouth on his. A tugging deep in her stomach eased her closer to him. With subliminal delight she noticed that he had begun to lean forward as well and her blood began a slow throbbing.

Her eyes fluttered dreamily to a close as she moved even closer. When she felt him shift ever so slightly beside her, she thought she would suffocate with anticipation. Low boiling need pulled her slowly forward and their lips just barely touched in a hummingbird of a kiss before a shout shattered the heated silence.

?KYO!? Kagura?s famous summons startled the pair out of the haze. ?Are you up there? I?ve been looking for you for ages. You were going to walk me home, remember? Kyo? I?m coming up!?

Every fiber of the cat?s being screamed panic. As much as he hated to admit it, Kagura knew him all too well. She?d see that his heart was in his eyes, the desire that seemed to dribble off his lips. If Kagura saw, if Kagura suspected anything, if Kagura knew, if Kagura acted in typical Kagura fashion?he didn?t even want to think about it. He sprang to his feet. ?No, no?don?t come up. I?m coming down.? In his agitation he completely ignored the ladder and leapt off the roof.

Kyo?s actions (and the loud grunt that followed) woke Tohru from her stupor. ?Kyo!? she called out as she rushed to the edge of the roof. ?Are you all right?? She peered over to see Kyo lying prone on the ground below, Kagura kneeling concernedly beside him.

?I?m fine,? Kyo growled, snarling at Yuki?s snide ?I thought cats were always supposed to land on their feet.?

?I don?t understand, Kyo,? Kagura started, her face wrinkled with confusion. ?Why didn?t you just use the ladder??

?I?just forget it,? he grumbled as he stood. ?Come on, I?ll walk you home.?

As they walked off, Tohru sat back on her haunches, her fingers tracing her lips. They were just barely warm. Although only the slightest impression of Kyo?s lips on her remained, the feelings he had awoken in her remained. Her head buzzed with it, her skin tingled, her chest ached with it. She buried her head in hands.

Mom? What?s happening to me?