Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Furuba Love Stories ❯ Kyo and Uo ( Chapter 12 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket.

Chapter 12: Uo and Kyo

Setting: Uo and Kyo end up being partners in a history project, much to their mutual dismay.

"Why the hell do I have to work with the damn Yankee?" Kyo groused, his face contorting in his typical rage. He stared at the list of names on the board, Arisa's paired with his own for their history project.

"Nobody else seems upset about who they're partnered with, Kyon-kyon," the blonde ex-gang member said teasingly.

"Yeah, they're relieved not to have to work with you!"

Tohru piped up, trying to make the situation somewhat brighter. "I'm sure Kyo and Uo will make the best project, because you are both so creative."

Kyo's glare met Uo's and both of them bared their teeth and snarled in unison, "Creative? Ha!" At that they glared even harder, daring the other to blink first.

"The vibes are so intense," Hana moaned ecstatically, swaying from side to side in delirium until Tohru steadied her.

Kyo covertly eyed the electrical freak. He wasn't about to admit that he was jealous of the denpa for getting to do her project with Tohru. No way!

"Hey, Orangetop, it could be worse, right?" Arisa laughed. "You could have been paired up with the Prince."

Kyo just frowned. The damn rat was already deep in conversation with his partner, Manabe, on the other side of the room. Why did everyone have to get good partners except him? "Shut up, Yankee. When are we going to get this stupid thing done? We only have three days."

"After school today is best for me," she answered as though it wasn't a big deal. Her lack of a temper about it just aggravated his more.

"Fine. You can come home with us." He flicked his fiery eyes to Tohru, who was still just standing there innocently.

"No, I don't think that's going to work," Uo told him nonchalantly. An evil smirk came over her face making him angrier again. "That writer guy will just bug us the whole time. Why don't you come home with me? My dad doesn't get home until late."

Uncontrollably, Kyo's mouth dropped open in disbelief. He didn't even want to imagine being trapped with that girl in her apartment all afternoon and probably all evening, too. She would probably try to beat him up all day or want to arm wrestle or something else that normal girls didn't do. Even so, he wasn't going to let her intimidate him; he could handle her attitude for one day to prove that he wasn't scared of her. "Let's go, then," he said in his most confident tone, the one that he used to challenge Yuki with. He grabbed his bag and looked down on her defiantly.

"Kyo?" Tohru was tugging on his sleeve. "Class isn't over yet."

Beet-red, he sat down in his desk, fixed his fierce gaze in front of him, and tried to ignore Uo's mocking laughter.

"Oi, where is your house? Do you have supplies there for the poster? Should we stop somewhere to eat first?"

Arisa looked back over her shoulder at the redhead. "You ask a lot of questions, Kyon. My apartment is around the corner, I have stuff for the poster, and I can feed you when we get there. Anything else?"

She was answered with a grunt. Ignoring him, she continued until they reached the door of her apartment, where she stopped to bend down and fish in her bag for her keys. "I always lose those dumb things," she mumbled to herself. "Ah, here they are…. Oh, wait, no…. Finally!" A jingling noise accompanied her as she stood back upright, her hair trailing through the air behind her. Uo grinned and opened her door. "Welcome to my pad."

Kyo suddenly felt a little awkward being alone with her in her house. Shyness seemed to creep in from somewhere and he almost viewed himself as intruding on her life, or at least treading on her turf. He wasn't about to show it, but he knew that she would have the upper hand here somehow. It was hard for him to make sense of.

Uo had taken off her shoes and thrown her bag on the floor, so Kyo followed her example and doffed his, as well, only in a gentler fashion. Even if it was the Yankee's house, he knew how to be polite.

"What do you want to eat?" she called from what must be the kitchen. Hesitantly, he followed her voice until he stood in the doorway, watching her search through the cupboards, which looked mostly bare.

He had never really thought about her home life before. He knew that she lived in this tiny apartment with her dad, but he was struck with the thought suddenly that her life was kind of lonely. She worked all the time, and he supposed her dad did, too, and the apartment was empty and oppressive. The only food he saw was ramen and some udon, aside from the half-empty liquor bottles on the counter.

"You gonna have sake or ramen?"

"Huh?" Kyo asked, bringing his attention back to his hostess. She was holding up a pot of water and a packet of noodles, staring at him as though awaiting a response.

"I asked you three times if you wanted noodles, but they way that you've been staring at the bottles, maybe you'd rather get drunk?"

Kyo frowned and shook his head. "Noodles are fine. I was just thinking about something, is all."

Uo went about turning on the stove and looking for seasonings before she said anything. "Those are my dad's."

"What?"

"The alcohol," she said in a more serious tone than he had ever heard from her before. "He started drinking a lot when my mother left."

The subject seemed grim, and Kyo could understand. Uo had a mother who left her and a father who wasn't really there. "Oi, Uotani," he began, fumbling for the right words in his head. "I know what that's like. Without…. Without my Master I wouldn't have a parent."

He expected her to laugh at him, but she didn't. She just stirred the ramen into the boiling water and lowered her head. "That's like Kyoko. Tohru's mom was to me what your master was to you." Smiling slyly, she turned to look at him. "You look shocked, Orangetop. Did you think I was going to make fun of you."

"No! I don't make fun of you for liking Tohru's mom!" His face heated in anger. "Why would you make fun of me?" He felt his fury building in him and he didn't know why. He was so confused and it just set him off, because he felt weird being in her house and he normally didn't get along with her at all, and here he was feeling sorry for her and identifying with her. It was all too much for him to comprehend, which triggered his anger. "Listen, Yankee, I didn't come here for you to treat me like an idiot! It's not my fault if your life is crappy and your dad is an alcoholic! I've got my own problems without you trying to get under my skin!"

In jerking motions, Uo strode to stand in his face and crossed her arms. "Don't try to feel sorry for me!" she growled in a dangerous voice. "You're the one who is in love with Tohru and can't admit it! If anyone has a pathetic life it's you! You don't even have the guts to make a move, Kyo. Maybe I should show you how!"

Kyo opened his mouth to yell back at her, but she grabbed him painfully by the ears and pulled, giving him no other choice but to move as she directed. He was stunned when she kissed him, hard. Her lips crushed his and attacked them with vigor, not at all like an act of passion but rather one of aggression. Forceful and unyielding, Arisa made sure Kyo couldn't do anything except shriek protests into her mouth and attempt to keep his ears firmly attached to his body. His arms hung forgotten at his sides.

Time lurched and he didn't know how long she had been mauling him, but he eventually came back to reality and what she was doing came into focus. Her eyes were closed tightly, brows furrowed in concentration. Droplets of moisture leaked through though, and he realized they were tears that correlated to some emotion, whether happy or sad or angry he wasn't sure. Her nails were biting in his ears, the pressure attracting more blood flow and heating them. Heat. Kyo could feel her body heat coming toward him, so he finally used his arms and pressed them against her midsection, pushing her away, and yet her hands held their ground and he moved with her, her back now pressed against the refrigerator. His hands remained, though, to keep the transformation from occurring.

The next thing he put his attention to was the kiss itself. Uo was making little sounds in his mouth, much like the ones that he had initially made into hers, only pleading, not protesting. She ran her tongue over the front of his teeth and around to the back of his cheek, then down around his own tongue, which responded of its own accord. He discovered that his lips were also moving with hers, kneading back with the same pressure. He couldn't help his eyes from closing, either, or his hands from moving up her stomach to rest beneath her breasts, clutching her possessively around her ribcage. At last, he let out the breath that he had been holding and sunk fully into the kiss.

Kyo had no idea what he was doing or why, but nothing in the world was going to stop him now, not even that pot boiling over on the stove.