Taming a lion with words - Kyo Sohma x Reader

Chapter 5

Your POV:
I chose to go to school the next day, even though I skipped a day to stay at home.

"Where is he?" One of my female classmates said.

"Look, over there! The boy with the orange hair!" Another said.

"Think it's his natural colour?" A third added.

"He's cute." A fourth spoke out.

"Say, are you Soma-kun's cousin?" Someone asked Kyo.

"Are you two close?" Someone else asked.

Everyone was bombarding Kyo. That's how I felt the other day when I was the transfer student.

"He's afraid..." I heard Tohru mutter.

"And he has every right to be." I reply.

"Yuki-kun. I hear your cousin transferred here?" I heard someone ask from the door.

"Introduce us!" Her friend added on.

"I'm sorry, Senpai. We're technically cousins, but we're not close. I've never even spoken to him." Yuki replied.

How cold.

"I like his hair colour. It's a little like Kyoko-san's." I heard Tohru's friend say.

"Now that you mention it, it really is." Tohru replied.

I could see how annoyed Kyo was getting and had a feeling any minute and he'd burst out of the classroom. To be fair, I'm thinking of slipping out as well.

Sighing aloud, I manage to slip out of the classroom without anyone noticing me and head up to the roof of the school. If anything, Kyo would think to come here if he decides to leave the classroom.

After a while, I realised that maybe Kyo might not be heading up to the roof and when I heard a bunch of girls "screaming" my thought confirmed it. I headed somewhere, nowhere in particular and saw Kyo sat down, trying to get his breath back slightly.

"Hey. Would you mind thinking a little more before you act?" I heard Yuki say.

"Why are you going to a school crawling with girls like this? Are you insane?" I heard Kyo counter.

"It's a lot better than being forced to go to Akito's chosen boys' school. I want to get at least one foot out of the Soma cage. I don't understand why you actually want to go inside it." Yuki replied.

"You... You would never understand!" I heard Kyo say in a raised tone of voice.

"I'm gonna win. I'll win against you, and become a full-fledged member of the Somas! I won't let them ostracise me anymore!" I heard Kyo declare.

As Kyo gripped Yuki's shirt, Tohru came out of nowhere and sort of tripped, hugging Kyo and causing him to transform.

"I-I'm sorry. But fighting... Fighting is no good. I-If you fight at school, you'll-" Tohru went to say before Kyo cut her off.

"Can it, you! All I care about is beating Yuki! Don't get in my way. What's your problem?! Get out of my sight!" Kyo said, almost shouting at Tohru.

"Oi, Kyo." Yuki said, trying to get Kyo's attention.

Tohru seemed somewhat disheartened I guess by what just happened because I heard her say "Max Rage... He hates me... I just earned his complete hatred..." as she walked away.

Kyo somewhat "deflated" slightly as Yuki spoke up.

"You really are an idiot." Yuki said.

"I, somehow, attest to that." I say, coming out from where I was.

"Ehh? How long have you been stood there?!" Kyo says, slightly raising his voice.

"Long enough to know you shouldn't have taken that out on Tohru." I reply.

"You're not gonna punch me?" Kyo asked as Yuki was walking away.

"Sometimes, not getting punched hurts more." Yuki replied.

Kyo's cat ears flopped slightly as he was staring at the ground. I can't tell if he's realised that he's messed up or not.

After school had ended, I headed back to the Soma's house with everyone before hearing Kyo get an earful.

"You skipped out on your very first day?" Shigure asked.

"I want to leave this house." Kyo replied.

"It's only your third day here. Think of this as a form of training, and suck it up." Shigure said.

I was listening in from the porch, but no one knew I was there.

"I always end up saying mean things to them." Kyo somewhat whispers.

""Them"? You mean Tohru and Y/N?" Shigure asks.

"I can't do this, okay? I'm not cut out for living around other people." Kyo replied in the same tone.

"You just don't have enough experience, that's all. Take Y/N as an example. She's cut from the same cloth as you." Shigure says.

"Why are you comparing me to her?" Kyo asks.

"Because she too lived and is living alone. I offered her to also move in yet she refused. Said she had an apartment with no one to go back to." Shigure elaborated.

"Here's an analogy: You can break a table with one punch, but you can also pull back that punch just before it lands. Getting along well with other people works there same way. You need to interact with strangers, hurt them, get hurt by them, learn about people, and learn about yourself, too or else you can't become capable of true empathy. Keep training now and don't run away, so that one day when you meet a girl who says she loves you, you'll be able to treasure her." Shigure adds on.

"Like there even is such a girl." Kyo says, rolling back to face away from Shigure.

"You and Y/N are cut from the same cloth, remember? You two are very much alike." Shigure says.

"How?" Kyo asks.

"You aren't the only one who fell off the map for a long period of time." I chime in.

"How do you always appear out of nowhere?!" Kyo exclaims.

"Oh, she's been there a while." Shigure replies.

I nod as if to say he's right before taking my leave.

"I'm heading home now." I call out.

"This can be lesson one. Kyo, walk her home." Shigure asserts.

"Why can't the stupid rat do it?!" Kyo counters.

"Because I asked you to do it." Shigure replies.

Kyo let's out an annoyed sigh before coming up to me and just walking away. Having no clue where we are actually headed.

"Do you even know where we're going?" I ask.

"No." He replies, seemingly annoyed.

"If you don't want to walk me home then, to satisfy Shigure, you can just walk at a distance. You don't have to literally walk next to me." I point out.

As soon as I said that, he slowed down his pace so he was walking behind me before asking a question.

"What did he mean, cut from the same cloth?" Kyo asks, matter-of-factly.

"Just that, we're similar in some ways." I say.

We both fell back into silence for a while before we finally reached my apartment complex. As I went to walk in, Kyo asked another question.

"I know I was sort of harsh when I asked why Tohru was staying at the house. But why did you decline?" Kyo asks.

"Why did I decline? I guess, I just have a connection with this place. Even if I have to work two jobs just to stay there, I don't mind. As long as I get to live there, that's all that matters to me." I say before heading inside, leaving him speechless.