𝒢𝑜𝓁𝒹𝑒𝓃 𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓇 {𝕂𝕪𝕠 𝕩 𝕗𝕖𝕞 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕣}

Chapter 20

"Isn't this great?" Tohru exclaimed, all excited for Kyo. He didn't want to worry her probably since all he did was faintly smile at the girl. I felt bad for him, but also anxious. I knew that his dream was to be included in the zodiacs so just like Tohru, I should be cheering at the news. But, I knew way too well what Akito was capable of.

This whole thing felt wrong. For as long as I can remember, Akito despised Kyo and bullied him for being the cat spirit. Why was he now invited specifically? I didn't like that. Nothing good will come out of this reunion. Alas, I am very much powerless here. Even if Kyo were to refuse, he would eventually regret it because Akito won't leave him alone. He had to go, it was an order from god.

I looked up at him and, though he showed distress in his facial expression, I could see in his eyes that he was not looking forward to it. He noticed me staring in worry and I noticed his facade melt away for a second. But just for half a second. He then excused himself and went to his room. I helped Tohru at cleaning the dishes and soon went upstairs after him.

Arrived at the closed door, I knocked but no answer came back. I opened the door just a tad bit just to let me peak through. He was no where to be found. I walked in to make sure he wasn't on the balcony but he wasn't there either. I walked back to the hallway and that's when I heard the shower running. I didn't even have time to walk away towards my room the water had stopped running and he bumped into me, walking out with just a towel covering his bottom half.

I took a step back and turned around to give him more privacy. "[Name]?! I'm so sorry! I didn't know you were there I-" I cut him off. "No it's okay, go get changed first, I just came looking for you." He hummed in agreement and rushed to his room to put on some clothes. I could feel my cheeks burning. He came back out moments later, his hair still dripping wet. He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and apologized again.

His cheeks were pinkish too. He seemed embarrassed so I had to change the subject. "Lets go dry your hair before you catch a cold tonight" I grabbed his wrist and led him towards the bathroom. I made him sit down on the floor and plugged in the hair dryer. I started drying his hair. I could see his little blush still on his ears as I carefully blew dry his orange locks.

I stopped the blow dryer and put it away at its place in the drawer and took out a brush. "Can I brush your hair? It's kinda all over the place right now" He simply nodded and I got to work. The silence settled in and I was brought back to my thoughts. He has to go see Akito tomorrow...

I just had to ask him. "Hey, so....are you going to be okay?" "....yeah." Silence, again. I didn't know what to say and he seemed to be in having the same problem. I finished brushing out his hair and walked up to now face him. I grabbed his hands and held them in mine, looking him straight in the eyes. "I'll be waiting for you to come back. Me and Tohru. Just make sure you return."

I could see some sort of relief in his eyes make the stress slowly dissolve. He smiled at me and we walked back to his room. We said our good nights and I left to go sleep in my room with Tohru. When I walked in, she was sitting on the bed. "Hey, do you know if I said something wrong? Kyo seemed.....strange" She asked me, cause even though she can be quite the airhead at times, she is also very good at discerning people's feelings.

I tried my best explaining to her how delicate the situation was for him. She eventually understood the situation and felt bad for encouraging him to go earlier that night. I reassured her that he wouldn't blame her for saying that if she didn't know. We chatted a bit more and then went to sleep.

I ended up having the worst nightmare. It was about how Akito would make Kyo transform forcer in his cursed form and have him locked away in the zodiac cat cage for the rest of his life. I couldn't talk to him since he would ignore me and keep saying he doesn't remember me. I woke up, having sweated, in chills and tears on my cheeks. I went to quickly freshen up in the bathroom and when I looked at the time, it was already 12pm.

I felt distressed at the thought that I didn't get to say goodbye to him before he left. I kept praying in my head that nothing too bad would happen to him. Obviously, he wasn't going there for fun, Akito was known for being a huge manipulator and good at bullying mentally. I hoped that at least he wouldn't get the same physical abuse as Rin.

It was only after dinner that he came back. The sun was setting in front of me. My thoughts were way too overwhelming for me to be around people so I had gone by the beach to get some fresh air. I was sitting on the warm sand, back leaned against a big rock. I made sure not to sit too close to the water in case the waves would come splash me.

I was looking at the bright orange colour on the clouds, when Kyo came to sit next to me. I turned to him and almost started tearing up from relief that he had come back safe. Though there was this bruise on his cheek. Without thinking, my hand reached for the wound and grazed his skin. He winced slightly and took a hold of my hand, pulling it away from his cheek. "What happened?!" "It's nothing, don't worry about it."

I stayed silent, now looking him straight in the eyes, obviously still worried about it. I eventually let it go because of his convincing charm in his gaze. We stayed in comfortable silence, watching the sun go down on the horizon, slowly disappearing behind the waves. Everything was perfect, and the only thing that could've made it better was what happened next.

Sitting down so close to each other feels so nice. Just us two, enjoying the sky almost as orange as his hair. All of a sudden, I felt his fingers laying on top of mine. I looked to my left to look at him and saw his rosy cheeks looking forward. I turned my hand and intertwine my fingers with his. Sort of surprised, his face flipped over to look at me. We locked eyes, falling ever so deeply in each other's gaze. Our faces slowly grew closer, our lips now less than an inch away.....