Little Tiger

A walk in the park

It had been a week since my encounter with Akito and I had been doing an excellent job at avoiding her entirely. Fortunately, I was busy enough with school that I didn't have to go too far out of my way to evade her. 

I received a letter from my school that I needed to be in at least one club or student council. I was not fond of either option, but I had no choice. Callie approached me the same day, saying that she needed to join a club as well. I accompanied her to the art room where we joined the painting club. I thought it was a wise choice because painting didn't really require much skill if it was only an after school club, but I did not realize that we had to meet four times a week. I joined the manga club as a first year because it only met once a week, but it got shut down when there were only two members in the group (me and the third year who created it because she could make up her own rules and we wouldn't have to meet at all if that's what she wanted), because our sensei realized we weren't actually participating in any club activities. 

I had a lot of homework these days so I spent the majority of my evenings at my desk underneath the lamplight, working until I couldn't see straight anymore. I also spent more time at Akari's house: sometimes he was home, sometimes he wasn't. One night he made up the futon in my old room and I slept there. But he used the room as his personal office so I was quite unsettled when I woke up the next morning to find him sitting at the desk beside my futon. 

Today was Saturday and it was the first time in weeks that I had nothing to do. I stayed in my bedroom as long as I could. I read a book, filed my nails, and stared at myself in the mirror. They weren't very fulfilling activities and I was getting bored so I left my room. Akito happened to be out to lunch today with some company that was supporting the estate. All of the companies and generous individuals that fund the Zodiac's housing, school, and up-keep of the estate in general know about our curse. That is, if they didn't, we wouldn't have any funding. Akito took care of all of that along with her team of people---whom they were, no one knew---and she completed that mostly through private rooms in fancy restaurants. I've never been able to fully understand what it was that Akito did and how we even received money from these various people. The only thing that mattered to me was that Akito was out of the estate so I was free to do as I pleased. 

There was still a burn mark from the tea Akito had spilled on me. It was getting better but it still hurt when it brushed against something. It was ugly too; big, red, scabbing over. I didn't like to look at it because it only reminded me of that night and then I just got angry. 

I went into the kitchen and grabbed an apple before the cooks could notice. They didn't like it when we took food without permission, we weren't even supposed to be in the kitchen. I was supposed to take Yuki out of the estate today. I didn't realize until last night that Akari had planned this day because he knew Akito would be gone. 

I slid Yuki's bedroom door open. I didn't care to knock first. 

"We're going out today," I announced. 

Yuki was shriveled up in the corner of his room with his knees up and a book against his legs.  

"Why?" he asked. If he was excited about this, he didn't show it. 

"Don't you want some fresh air?" I asked, sauntering towards him. 

Yuki nodded. He looked like he needed a haircut; his bangs were falling in front of his eyes. 

"Alright, then, let's go while Akito's away." I waved him towards me. 

Yuki lumbered to his feet, setting his book down in the corner. He was wearing a kimono that practically swallowed him whole. I didn't know if it was big on him because he was losing weight or if it was one of Ayame's hand-me-downs. Either way, he had to change.