Work Text:
"Kyoko!" Kyo shouts sitting up right from the couch he fell asleep on. The T.V screen is still glowing from the movie they all were watching earlier, lighting Kyo as he pants from the nightmare.
"I'm sorry," he sobs quietly. "And I know what you would say right now, something about losing people and the a big ole life lesson. Then you'd say 'that's just my theory' isn't that right?" he spoke quietly to the ceiling as if his words could reach Kyoko herself. Kyo rubs the tears from his eyes and groans. "Can't this process go any faster? It sucks Kyoko, it really, really sucks." He falls back onto the couch looking across the room to all the other people who fell asleep through the movie. All sleeping except Hanajima. His eyes widen as he looks at her, fear and anxiety taking over his body. He sits up and looks directly at her.
"Did you, uh, Did you hear any of that?" He asks brows furrowing together.
"All of it," Hanajima confirms. Kyo pauses thinking over his next move. He's unsure of what to do, this is one of his biggest secrets after all. Not only did he know Tohru's mom, he watched her die. He scratches the back of his head.
"Do you want some tea?" He asks standing up from where he was sitting.
"I would," she nods as Kyo walks into the kitchen and started the kettle. He stood there watching it, rubbing his eyes. He wonders how he was going to explain all of that. How he could explain all of that with out giving the full honest truth. He wasn't sure. His hands balled into fists as he bumped his head against the wall. Sighing, Kyo starts grabs the white tea pot from the counter and the container of loose leaf black tea. He adds two scoops of the tea leaves into the pot before the electric kettle turns off. Pouring the water into the tea pot, Kyo wonders to himself, how the hell did I get here. Once the tea pot was full, Kyo places the kettle back where it belongs and grabs two cups.
Hanajima is already at the table sitting crossed legged with her hand folded neatly in her lap. She looks at Kyo expectantly, as he sets the tea pot down. He already knows what she wants as he places a cup in front of her. He sighs.
"What are you doing up anyway?" Kyo asks avoiding what he knows to come as much as possible.
"Your waves," she explains, "They were so loud and chaotic that i could't block them out. There's something dark troubling you. It has something to do with Tohru's mother doesn't it?"
"What gives you that idea?" He sighs sarcastically.
"Well you did scream her name when you woke up just now, and began-" She's cut off.
"Yeah, yeah I know that" he sighs aggravatingly. "Do you want any sugar for your tea?"
"No thank you," she watches as he pours both her and himself a cup. The steam swirling in the air before her. "I would like to know, however, why Kyoko bothers you so much."
Kyo sighs and pauses for a moment. "I watched her die," he says frankly. "I was there during the accident, happy?" he brings the tea to his lips taking a sip.
"Is that so? There's more to that isn't there. I do not believe your waves would be so mangled if you did not have a connection to her. They would not be so, troubled if Kyoko was a mere stranger," Hanajima pries.
"Well she is Tohru's mom, isn't she" Kyo says shifting awkwardly, "Of course I feel extra bad! I didn't do anything to stop it."
"I suppose that is true, however, your waves still tell me you're hiding something, Kyo. Something you do not really know how to talk about. Every time Kyoko is brought up, your waves are burdened with grief, and guilt. Sometimes I feel some nostalgia and fondness come from you as well. That is quite an odd combination for somebody who's just a friends mom. Somebody you never really knew. I have always wondered why that is," she gives him a small curious smile. Kyo stares into his cup. longing for the timeline where she was still asleep, and he would't have to say anything.
"Not to mention last year, when we visited her grave, all of us. You asked me, if I could speak to the dead. What were you afraid of Kyo? What were you afraid of her telling me?' She leans into the table, still prying for the unabridged truth.
"It's a long story," he states, still looking at everything except for her.
"I do believe we have all night, why don't you tell me it?" she asks him. He sighs looking back to the sleeping group, making sure that they are in fact asleep.
"If I do tell you, you have to promise me not to tell Tohru. I want to tell her myself, I just, I just don"t know how to yet." He looks her directly in the eye this time, almost pleading. She smiles back at him.
"I promise" She says. He looks back to the group again, just to make sure they were all asleep. The he reaches out his pinky, a pinky swear. She chuckles softly at the jester before wrapping her pinky around his. "I wont tell her, that is your job after all." He nods before dropping his hand just to wrap it around his tea once again.
"Okay," He sighs, "Okay, I uh don't really know how to start this"
"Every story has a beginning, middle and end. I suppose you should start from the beginning, you already told me how it ends," She says softly.
"The beginning huh? I guess that makes sense," He sighs deeply shifting in his spot. He straitens up a bit before starting his story. "When I was five years old my mother killed herself."
"I fail to see how that applies" Hanajima interjects.
"You said to start from the beginning, this is the beginning. let me tell the damn story!" He exclaims. She nods.
"I'm sorry," She says looking into her tea. "Continue."
"Right, right, where was I?" He says sighing before starting again.
"When I was five years old my mother killed herself. The Sohma's already shunned our family, shunned me I guess. After her death, the entire family blamed me for it. I mean why would they, she said it in her damn letter that it was my fault, so why wouldn't it be? At her funeral I didn't even cry. I could hear their whispers about me. It made me so damn angry that I couldn't even focus on my mothers death. After her funeral, Akito, the head of the family, she forced me to memorize that letter. Had me read it over and over and over again, until i could recite it back to her word for word. I wasn't allowed to speak to anybody until I did. And so, I did. I memorized it and read it back to her. She told me how well I did, before telling me the rest of my punishment," Kyo poured himself another cup of tea before continuing.
"I was banished from the Sohma home until she decided that I could come back. Nobody in the family was allowed to keep me under their roof, or risk a punishment of their own. And so I left that damn place, not before telling my old man that I'd kill him and then kill my self just to satisfy him. He just laughed in my face while drinking strait out of the bottle." Kyo shook his head taking a sip out of his tea.
"So without a roof over my head, the fates had me find shelter under a roof beside this business, and there she was. Kyoko, that is. She probably didn't think of it. Just a punk kid hanging out there. That is until she noticed that I was there for three days strait. That's when Kyoko came up to me, asked me where my parents were. I told her that I didn't know, obviously, 'cause I did't really know what my old man was doing. Hadn't talked to him in three days. She, of course, called the police. Who wouldn't figure I was just a lost little kid, who didn't know how to get back home. Unfortunately, for the both of us, the Sohmas are in control of the police. She kept calling every day, until she realized that nobody was coming for me."
"So Kyoko being Kyoko, decided to take it into her own hands. She tried to get me to go to her house, for a warm bed. I wouldn't go. So instead she made a bed for me in her office, at work. and that's where I slept for the next two months. Until Hitoshi came to retrieve me. The punishment was over. He found me outside her work, soaking up the sun in the near by tree there. I went home after that, I had written her a note to let her know what was happening, so she wouldn't go looking for me and that was that," he took another drink of his tea.
"Seems like she saved you just like she saved the Uo and I" Hanajima says softly.
"She would soon give me the nick name of ally cat. The next time I got kicked out was two months later. Turns out my mother didn't jump in front of that train, she was pushed. My dad actually killed himself, due to the grief and guilt of killing his wife. You see my old man he hated me, fucking drunk, and he especially hated the fact that mom was so attached to me. So he killed her, because he believed everyone. He believed that I didn't deserve to be loved, by anyone. So once again, I was Isolated and kicked out. This time only for a week, but I sill went to Kyoko's work, because I knew I'd have a roof over my head and where else was I going to go? And again, she took me in. This happend a lot over the ten years that I knew Kyoko." He poured another cup of tea.
"One time when I was pretty young I was out with Yuki, we were doing something, I forget the details, but we ran into Kyoko, I don't think that dense rat realizes that it was Kyoko. But Tohru had gotten lost, I ended up just making a circle and Yuki, Yuki found Tohru, because of course he did. That was the day I told Kyoko that I would protect her daughter until the day I die." He sighed. "And I meant it, I mean she could use all the help she can get," he chuckled softly looking back at Tohru.
"Anyway, we stayed in contact after that, I wasn't kicked out as often, I kept to myself a lot really after all of that. I went to go to live with my master at the dojo. Bu every time Akito decided that I couldn't stay with any of the family I was in Kyoko's office. I spent most of my birthday's there, except for that year. She had missed my birthday that year, because i finally was allowed to stay home." He pauses
"It's my fault," he continues "It's my fault that she's ... dead." Kyo takes a shaky breath. "I was across the street that day, I was suppose to go to her house that day. I had finally agreed to have dinner with her at her place. She was crossing the street to come talk to me. And then it happened, the accident. She was halfway across the street, when the car... and I ... I hesitated. If I hadn't hesitated I could have pushed her out of the way. Instead all that happened was I got a broken hand, and she got a broken body. Before she died she gave my this necklace. Amethyst for protection... Her last words tom me were ... 'keep your promise or I'll never forgive you'" he took another shaky breath looking at the wall as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.
"So yeah, that's the story. She took me in like a stray cat and I didn't save her life. Happy?" He asks wiping the tears that were falling down his face. Hanajima put down her cup looking back up at him.
"You know if Kyoko were here, she would be scolding you for blaming your self" she says after a moment, "She knows that it not your fault."
"I know" he says sniffling. "I know, but if I'm not to blame who is?" Hanajima nods at that comment.
"Nobody. It was an accident after all." she sighs. "A very unfortunate accident"
"It really should of been me ya know? She had so much. A daughter and her daughters gang of misfits, I had nothing ya know?" He says laying down. Hanajumi lays down as well, looking at him through the space between the table and the floor.
"Before I could control the waves, I almost willed a kid to his death," She offered her own story to him.
"You did?" He asks looking back to her.
"I really wanted him dead. That's the entire reason why I transferred schools. He tormented me before hand. Calling me a witch. The event that made me snap, was when he mad me eat a live newt. I chanted for him to die over and over again in my head, and then he collapsed" she continued. "The tormenting got worse after that. I ended up transferring schools when a few girls tried to get me to make one of them pass out. I didn't want that. I never wanted to hurt anyone."
"Well that kid sounds like an actual asshole. I probably would have actually killed him. I mean I tell Yuki everyday that I'm going to kill him and I don't actually want to do that. Sounds like that kid deserved a scare." Kyo stated shrugging his arm extending under the table as he got more comfortable.
"He's the reason why I wear black, because of the sin I committed," she says her arm extend under the table as well
"I think you know what Kyoko would say if she heard that" Kyo offers
"I do, she'd tell me that I can't dwell on the past, or it will consume me" she lets out a soft chuckle. "Can I ask you a question?" She asks softly
"Sure I basically just told you my entire life story, so go ahead," Kyo says.
"Why does your family out cast you?" she asks. Kyo sighs thinking of how to tell her without completely telling her the truth.
"They believe there is a demon inside of me. They have me wear this bracelet to contain it," he says carefully.
"There's more to that" she pried.
"You don't let up do you?" He asks shaking his head
"No I don't" she confirms.
"I really can't tell you. If I did and they found out? They'd make sure you'd forget it. Forget everything that has to do with it, and that includes Tohru. I think you need her, and I think she needs you, I think losing someone else would completely break her. And I think you need her to forgive yourself of your self proclaimed sin. So because of that, I won't tell you" he explains. She nods and doesn't push it.
"I suppose you're not as dense as I thought you were before" she says not pushing it any further. A few moments of silence pass.
"We're just a couple of damn outcasts huh?" he says opening his hand up. Hanajima goes to high five him, and he just wraps his hand around hers.
"Yeah, you could say that," she smiles, closing her eyes. They both fall asleep with only their pinkies intertwined.