Silver Lining.

Oh, Calamity

  "Nn...?" Kyo said drowsily as he woke up the next morning. I was awake, too, but only barely. Not even a minute later, I could feel him stiffen up as he realized that I was lying beside him.

"Auhg! Why are you laying down here?!" he exclaimed, jumping out of the mountain of quilts at lightning speed. He quickly began feeling at his wrist, calming a bit when he could feel his beads still in place.

I was sitting up, about ninety percent awake due to Kyo's sudden outburst.

"I-I'm sorry. I just had a really bad dream, so-"

"Well I'm not allowed to sleep in the same bed as people, not even Master! It makes it too easy for my bracelet to get knocked off..."

He said the last part quietly and to himself, almost as if he regretted saying it out loud at all in the first place.

"Oh, I didn't know. I won't do it again," I responded. My voice was distant, though. A part of me still felt like I was in last night's nightmare, unable to escape. I just couldn't shake the thought.

"It's okay..." Kyo mumbled, not looking at me. I stood up so that he could gather the quilts off of the ground and put them back into his closet.

"After this, we gotta go eat breakfast. But then, we can go play outside, if you want," Kyo said as he waddled over to his closet, dropping the last of the monster-sized quilts on to the floor.

"Okay," I said.

And that's exactly what we did - we ate two pieces of toast each, put on our socks and shoes, and headed outside.

"Shouldn't we have put on clothes before coming out," I asked. We were still in our pajamas.

"Well, yeah, but Master said that he would go out and buy you some clothes while we're out playing," Kyo responded.

"Oh, okay," I said, and continued walking.

The cold air was nipping at my nose and making my cheeks burn, but that was the least of my worries. My biggest worry was probably that we were walking right in the direction of the main Sohma estate.

"Um, we aren't going to the Sohma house, are we...?" I asked nervously.

"Huh? Oh, no. I'm not allowed inside the gates. I'm only allowed to go to the park, and that's it. If I go any further, I'll get chased off."

"Oh," I responded. I now felt like an insensitive idiot for even asking such a thing.

"Yeah," he said, and sat on a swing. The park was quiet and empty, which was a good thing.

I sat down, too, and asked a question.

"Hey, do any other Sohma kids come to this park? Like, the ones from inside the gate?"

Kyo looked down at his feet for a moment before answering.

"Yeah, sometimes. There used to be a girl that came a few years ago named Kagura. She was the boar. Me and her became friends, and she always read me stories and played tag with me until the sun went down. It was really fun. But then one day, she..."

Kyo looked away. I could hear him trying not to cry with all of his might. His voice became shaky and broken.

"she saw something that scared her so bad that she never came back, and never talked to me again!"

His knuckles whitened as he gripped the swing's chains tighter and tighter, seemingly trying to push all of his anger and sadness into them.

I frowned. I knew all about this. Akito had told me. It happened about four years ago, when Kyo was five. Akito told me about how the big, disgusting cat monster had scared away the poor little boar, and how sickening it was to see his precious zodiac being frightened away by the bothersome beast. I got up from my swing and walked over to Kyo, wrapping my arms loosely and slowly around him. He tensed up at first, but then fell into the hug, wrapping his arms around me too. This was the first time that I had ever given a hug in my entire life. Normally, I would have never dreamed of doing something so forward and invasive in a million years, but Kyo seemed so small and defenseless, and like he really needed it. I could feel his tears and snot soaking into my pajama top, and his body shaking, and his fingers grabbing on to my shirt like it was his only life support. We went on like that for a good few minutes, and his crying almost made me want to cry, too. But I didn't, because it wasn't my turn to cry - it was his. So I just let him cry it out until he couldn't cry anymore. And when he was done, he sat up, wiped the last of his tears away, and gave me a weak smile.

"I'm sorry I brought it up," I said, "I didn't mean to make you cry."

"it's okay. You didn't know," he responded.

Except, I did know. I felt a bit nauseous. I felt like I was lying, without even lying. But before I had enough time to feel sufficiently bad about it, Kyo changed the subject entirely.

"By the way, if you have another nightmare, you can sleep with me, 'cuz I know what it's like to have nightmares, too. I can just tape my bracelet to my wrist or something."

"O-Oh, okay," I said, and gave a slight smile.

"So, do you wanna play tag now?" Kyo asked. He stood up and wiped his nose with his sleeve.

"Mhm," I said.

He ran up to me and tagged me before running off in the direction of the slide. I chased him, he chased me, and we played like that for the entire day, only stopping once for lunch. Even as the sun met the horizon, we were still running through the maze of playground equipment, trying ever so desperately not to be 'it'. But soon afterwards, we had to take another break, due to my asthma acting up. It wasn't an attack or anything - it just felt increasingly hard for me to take in enough air.

"Are you okay now," Kyo asked a few moments later. We were sitting on a hillside, facing the Sohma gate. The swings were just behind us, creaking and groaning in the late evening air.

"M...Mhm, I think so."

"Okay. Maybe we should go home now. It's getting kinda late," he said, and helped me stand. But before we even took one step, a shrill voice called out to me from behind.

"YUKI!"

I turned around slowly. I knew that voice, but only barely. It was my mother.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN FOR THE PAST TWO DAYS!? AKITO IS FURIOUS! YOU'RE THE RAT, FOR GOD'S SAKE! IT'S YOUR JOB TO STAY BY HIS SIDE, NOT TO RUN OFF AND PLAY WITH YOUR STUPID LITTLE FRIENDS! FORGET IT, YOU'RE COMING WITH ME RIGHT NOW!"

But before I could run or move at all, Kyo grabbed my hand and sped all the way home. I could hear my mother's screaming slowly fading away in the distance, and finally, we stopped in front of the front door, and I tried my best to catch my breath.

"Th...Thank you..." I finally managed to say.

But my words were met with a punch to the stomach.

"Just don't talk to me ever again, okay!? I hate you!! I HATE THE STUPID FILTHY RAT'S GUTS! HE RUINED MY LIFE! YOU RUINED MY LIFE!"

He started crying again and slammed the door in my face. I just lay on the ground, trying to breathe. But I couldn't, and it really hurt. Everything hurt. The world went black, and everything hurt.