Little Tiger

Why I did it.

Shigure's POV

"Gure, what did you say to her?" 

I still had my phone in my hand, watching the train roll away with my little tiger on it. She was still looking at me through the window, those piercing, all-consuming tiger eyes on mine. She looked sad as I watched her pan out into the abyss, the train taking her far away. She was still the scared girl I remembered from childhood at that moment. 

"Gure, I don't wanna go in the basement. It's dark and scary." 

"Relax, Ko, you think everything is scary. C'mon, it won't take long, we just have to get the birthday decorations." 

"No, I'll just wait at the top of the stairs, you go." 

"Fine. But what if something comes to get you up here while I'm gone?" 

"Okay, I'll come with you." 

The words I'd mouthed played over and over in my head. I love you...I love you...I love you? I love you? What the fuck was I saying? 

"Gure? What did you say to her?" Hatori was behind me, prodding my shoulder angrily, afraid I'd managed to piss her off again just as she left for school. 

"Tori, it was an 'A' and 'B' conversation. I don't have to disclose anything if I don't want to." 

"Don't be silly, Tori. You know he said 'I love you'. Either that or...'olive juice,' I suppose...either one of those would have matched his mouth movements. And the latter is unlikely, what the hell is 'olive juice'?" Ayame mused with his pointer finger pressed against his chin, analyzing a situation that needed no analyzing. 

"Yeah, Aya, I said 'olive juice,' how did you get so good at reading lips?" I tossed my arm over his shoulder, roughly rubbed the top of his head with my knuckles. 

"You said 'I love you'?" Hatori couldn't seem to fathom this. "You surprise me every day. I didn't think you loved anything or anyone, let alone Koharu." 

I shrugged, masking my shared surprise. Ayame was yelling at me to stop my rubbing of his 'poor little head'. "Of course I love Koharu. She's the only one I would love out of the three of you." If I had truly meant it, I don't think I would have mouthed it. On the other hand, maybe those words were too important to me to admit them aloud. Or, maybe, my feelings were too strong for such arbitrary words. I released Ayame, watching him jump away from me. 

"I love Koharu?" Momiji said, tugging on my shirt sleeve. "Doesn't everyone love Koharu?" He looked around at the rest of us, finding it hard to believe I was so unsure of my feelings towards her. 

After some careful consideration, the rest of us nodded and mumbled in agreement. 

"Momiji, Shigure's love is different from our love," Kureno said, a crooked smile on his face. 

He shook his head. "I don't think so. If Koharu were my age, I'd love her the way Shigure does." 

I found myself getting somewhat jealous of this. He was still a child, he didn't really mean it and it's not like he posed any real threat to me. Still, I didn't like it much. "I doubt it, Momiji. You don't understand my complicated feelings." 

Hatori slapped me in the back of the head. "Complicated feelings, you say? I don't think they're complicated at all."

I shrugged again. "Tori, you certainly wouldn't understand. The most complicated feeling you've ever had never pertained to love." Outsmarting him was my only route, but I hadn't done a very good job and got another slap on the back of the head.