Post by Hayate on Jan 23, 2009 19:28:20 GMT -5
Shades of Grey
[/b][/i][/center]Chapter 2[/u]
Tuesday, April 21, 2037.
Xion house.
An alarm clock blares its morning buzzer on the nightstand in Shiro’s room. A soft, delicate hand swings over and comes into contact with the clock’s snooze button. A quiet yet cute moan echoes from underneath the bedcovers.
Pulling the sheets off her head, Kyoko parts her lips to yawn and rubs the crud from the corners of her eyes. ‘Ugh… My head’s freakin’ killing me…’ Shuffling around and rolling over in the bed, the blonde with bed hair discovers a large mass lying in slumber beside her. ‘…The hell?’ Pulling the sheets away, Kyoko goes wide-eyed as she sees Shiro sleeping at her side. He didn’t have a shirt on.
And to her shock even further…neither did she.
‘Wha…!? What’s Shiro doing here!? Wait a minute… This isn’t my bedroom! Didn’t I go home last night!? What am I still…!? …D-Did we…!? Oh, God… Oh, God, I gotta… I gotta get out of here!’ Frantically shoving the bedcovers off her, Kyoko jumps up and, in her haste to flee, noisily thuds onto the floor. “Ow!”
Awakened by the sound of Kyoko’s pain, Shiro stirs and sits up in the bed. “Kyoko…?”, the platinum-haired boy mutters as he looks at her.
“!!!” With Shiro’s eyes rested upon her, Kyoko’s heart races even faster. Leaping to her feet, she grabs her clothes and bolts out of the bedroom.
“K-Kyoko! Wait!”
Now in the upper-floor hallway of the household, Kyoko hysterically throws her shirt on and makes for the staircase. Right now, all she was concerned with was getting out of the house.
Of course Shiro would be right there on her tail. “Wait, Kyoko, don’t run!”
But the panicked blonde refused to listen or stop running. As she dashes down the stairs, she lifts her feet up to put on her skirt. Unfortunately, she was unable to concentrate on running and getting dressed at the same time, and stumbles forward to the bottom of the stairs. It wasn’t too big a fall, so she wasn’t hurt too greatly. Grabbing her shoes by the door, Kyoko grasps the door handle.
“Kyoko, stop!”, shouts Shiro as he reaches the bottom of the stairs shortly after her. “Let me explain!”
“STAY AWAY FROM ME!!!!”
“!!!” Wary of Kyoko’s current mental condition, Shiro keeps his distance. “Please…just let me explain…”
“Explain what!? How you tricked me into having sex with you!? Even after I said I didn’t want to!? What’d you do to me yesterday anyway!? Why can’t I remember anything!?”
“Please, Kyoko, just…calm down, okay?”
“I SAID, STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!!!”
“…” Shiro had never seen the look in Kyoko’s eyes that she had at that moment. It scared him considerably. And the feeling worsened because he knew full well he was the cause.
Quickly unlatching the locks on the door, Kyoko dashes out of the house…
…leaving Shiro standing there, filled to the brim with guilt. “…What’ve I done…?”
~*~*~*~
Takeuchi house.
As he descends the stairs and makes his way towards the front door, the Takeuchi youth known as Kazuto picks up his school bag, slips on his shoes, and grasps the door knob. Opening the door, Kazuto is surprised to find that Shiro and Kyoko weren’t waiting for him outside like they usually were every school morning. It both puzzled him and sent a chill down his spine. “…Hmm. Guess I’m hoofin’ it alone today.”
Closing the front door on his way out, Kazuto breaks into a light jog towards Fujimino High.
…Some 15 to 20 minutes later, Kazuto arrives to homeroom with plenty of time to spare. He was still rather confused by the fact that Shiro and Kyoko were nowhere to be seen. Even as the teacher was taking roll call. All the usual names were called -- from Aihara to Calahan, from Edogawa to Ishida. “Kazuhiko.”, the teacher calls then. And much to his surprise (as well as Kazuto’s), no one answered back. “Kazuhiko? …Hmm. Looks like she’s out today. …Kitamura.”
In his seat, Kazuto fiddles with his pen unnervingly. Something was wrong. He could feel it.
But at that moment, the classroom door slides open and Shiro creeps inside…
…and for just a brief moment, Kazuto assumes his fears were put to rest… “…?” …but they quickly come back with a vengeance when Shiro enters the classroom alone. Where was Kyoko?, Kazuto’s first thought was.
“Comin’ in alone, eh, Shiro?”, comments Kyoya as Shiro walks by. “Where’s your ‘girl toy’?”, jokes the black-haired class rep, thinking he was being clever when in actuality he was just being an idiot.
Saying nothing in response to Kyoya’s wit, Shiro takes his seat and lowers his head.
Kyoko was absent, and now Shiro comes in looking dead inside. Without a doubt in Kazuto’s mind, something was definitely wrong.
~*~*~*~
“…Hey, Shiro.”
Just after the sounding of last bell, Kazuto approaches Shiro. Right then and there, Shiro knew what his friend was gonna ask. As he innocently packs his school bag, the white-haired teen replies, “Y-Yeah? What’s up, Kazu?”
“Somethin’ up with Kyoko today? I tried callin’ her during lunch, but it went straight to voice mail. She sick or somethin’?”
“Uh…maybe. I dunno. She didn’t say nothin’ to me about how she was feelin’.”
“Oh. Alright then. I’ll go pay her a visit then to see how she’s doin’; you wanna come?”
‘!!!’ For someone in a position like Kyoko’s, seeing Shiro would likely be the last thing she needed. “…Wish I could…but I’m meeting up with Serena at the mall.”
“Alright, that’s cool. See ya later then.”
“Later…” It pained Shiro to have to lie to his best friend, but how would Kazuto take it if he found out he and Kyoko slept together? A mountain of guilt was already riding on Shiro’s shoulders; he was unable to bear any more of it.
…Nearly a half hour later, Kazuto stands on the front porch of Kyoko’s house, ringing the doorbell. Sadly, no one answered despite his five minutes of ringing. “Hey, Kyoko!”, Kazuto calls out. “Anyone home?” Even if Kyoko herself wasn’t present, Kazuto would have settled for her mother, father, one of her sisters -- anything that would give him a clue to how Kyoko was feeling. “…” Defeated, Kazuto turns to her rear and starts to walk away.
Just then, something would fall from the sky and plops onto Kazuto’s nose. It was cold and wet. “Hmm?” A drop of rain. Looking up, the brown-haired boy sneers as rainclouds gather overhead. “Aw, dammit! I knew it was gonna rain!” Using his school bag to shield himself from the budding rainfall, Kazuto heads for home.
Meanwhile, in her darkened bedroom, Kyoko watches the boy leave from behind the concealment of her window curtains. “…” After he falls out of her line of sight, she curls up into a ball on her bed, her whole body wrapped tightly in the covers. The vivid images of her and Shiro having sex were starting to plague her mind. As tears begin to fall from her eyes, Kyoko wraps her arms around her legs and has herself a silent cry.
~*~*~*~
Wednesday, April 22, 2037.
Fujimino High School.
Lunch hour.
Past the double doors leading outside, Shiro walks out onto the school quad where dozens of other students had gathered to have lunch together and converse freely. Ever since the ‘incident’, Shiro had kept his distance from both Kazuto and Kyoko. He had no idea on how to approach them now that the deed had been done. Would things ever go back to the way they were before? “…” Exhaling a heavy sigh, Shiro finds shelter from the sun in the shade of a nearby pine tree where he could enjoy his lunch. Opening up his bento and picking up his chopsticks, he softly utters, “…Itadakimasu.”
“…I didn’t think anyone else used this tree…”
“Hmm?” Glancing behind him, Shiro comes face-to-face with a student with short neatly-groomed blue hair wearing headphones. He had apparently been napping on the other side of the tree. Shiro recognized the lad from algebra class. “Oh. Aogami-kun.”
“…” With a slightly pissed expression, ‘Aogami’ says, “Don’t call me that. It’s Minato, alright?”
“…My bad…” Facing forward once again, Shiro quietly resumes eating.
The forlorn look on Shiro’s face had caught Minato’s eye. “…You’re gonna make me ask, aren’t you…?”
“Ask what?”
“What’s up with you? You look like you just got dumped. Badly.”
“Tch. I wish that were the case. …I did something I shouldn’t have done.”
“…You knocked a girl up?”
“W-What!? Hell no!”
Despite the conversation’s rather rocky start, Minato lends a sympathetic ear to Shiro’s troubles. Shiro tells him about how he ‘convinced’ Kyoko to sleep with him and the aftermath of the incident in question: Kyoko holed up in her house, avoiding Kazuto, etc. From Minato’s point of view, it was an almost whimsical tale -- a fairy tale from hell, if you will. Needless to say, it had caught the blue-haired kid’s attention. “…Wow. You for real?”
“Yup… What do you think I should do now, Minato? I can’t face Kyoko, and if I tell Kazu, he’ll hate my guts.”
“So? Let him. You gotta be straight-up with your buds, man -- that’s all that matters. The longer you keep it from him, the more it’s gonna hurt the both of ya in the end. He’ll get over it.”
“…I guess.”
“…But hey, it’s none of my business, right? You do what you gotta do, whitey.”, remarks Minato, placing his headphones back on.
The boy’s sudden display of disinterest was laughable. “Heh. Thanks, Aogami-kun.”
“…Call me that again, and you’ll be eatin’ those chopsticks for dessert.”
~*~*~*~
Kendo club building.
As is customary of his Wednesday and Friday afternoons, Kazuto attends a session of Fujimino High School’s kendo club. A little over a dozen other students were present as well. Scattered about the building, the club members practice amongst themselves with their shinai (bamboo swords).
Near the southwest corner of the building, Kazuto himself is seen. Dressed in a typical kendogi (kendo uniform) consisting of a white jacket and black ankle-length trousers, he stands in a standard attack stance with his shinai in hand. But judging from his facial expression, Kazuto didn’t seem too interested in kendo practice. He was lost in thought, and his mind was clearly somewhere else at the moment…
…and it was up to his teacher to snap him back to reality. With a light yet swift swing, she connects her shinai with the top of Kazuto’s head.
“Ow!”
“Daydreaming again, Kazu-kun?”, queries the boy’s teacher.
“Huh?” Turning to his left, Kazuto faces his kendo instructor -- the blond-haired Arturia Pendragon. “O-Oh. Arturia-sensei. Sorry, I was just…”
“You look distracted today, Kazu-kun. Not feeling well?”
“Nah, I’m fine. I was just thinking. Kyoko hasn’t been to school for a couple days, and Shiro’s been avoiding me. I’m worried about them, and no one’s telling me anything.”
“I see… Well, Shiro no doubt has his reasons; I’m sure he’ll tell you everything when the time is right.”
“Yeah. Thanks, sensei.”
“However…there is still the matter of your daydreaming.”
“H-Huh? Aw, c’mon, sensei, can’t you let me off with a warning or something…?”
“You’re not getting off that easy. Now raise your sword.”
“…Oh, crap…”
“HAJIME!”
“AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!”
~*~*~*~
A couple of hours later, some time after Kazuto’s kendo lesson had come to an end, he returns home and retires to his bedroom upon coming out of the shower. With moisture still caking his hair, he walks into the room while vigorously drying his brown locks with a light-blue towel. “Man, Arturia-sensei really did a number on me today…” Dropping the towel on the floor, Kazuto plops down onto his bed. “Ahhh…” Turning his neck ever slightly, Kazuto gazes out the window, the sound of heavy rainfall drawing his attention. “Damn… It’s sure coming down hard out there…” Reaching over to his right, Kazuto picks up his cell phone, flips it open, and dials a number. “…Pick up, pick up, pick up…”
“Heeeeeeeeeey! It’s Kyoko! You know what to do! Ciao!”
“Voice mail again? Come on already…” Defeated yet again, Kazuto closes his cell phone and drops it, allowing it to slide off the bed and hit the floor. Rolling over, Kazuto blankly stares at the ceiling. What could he do now? Try to reach Kyoko again? Or maybe Shiro? Neither of them was talking to him, and right now he wasn’t sure they were even talking to each other. “…Guess I’ll play The World for a little while…”, the boy finally decides…
…when, all of a sudden, his otherwise half-assed plans are interrupted when the doorbell rings.
“Hmm?”
As Kazuto makes his way down the stairs and towards the door, the bell rings a second time. And a third time. “Alright, alright, I’m coming! Jeez!” Unlatching the locks, Kazuto opens the door to be greeted by… “…!!!”
…a rain-drenched Kyoko.
~*~*~*~
Just a short while after, Kyoko is seen taking a bath that Kazuto had run for her. With her head held low, she lets the warm bath water caress her smooth skin. Loose drops of water drip rhythmically into the water-filled tub from the tap. Cupping a small amount of water into her hands, Kyoko gazes down at her reflection. Perhaps the fact that she was bathing in Kazuto’s home had finally sunken in. Lifting her hands up, the traumatized blonde soaks her face in water.
Kazuto, in the meantime, hangs Kyoko’s soaked clothes on the balcony clothesline where they could dry. Like earlier that afternoon, Kazuto was deep in thought. ‘Okay, this feels really weird… It’s been so long since Kyoko’s been in my house, I forgot what it feels like… What’s she doing here anyway…? She hasn’t said a word since she got here… Did something happen with Shiro…?’ Obviously the boy had a lot of questions, and only Kyoko had the answers. But he wasn’t going to force them out of her.
Returning inside from the balcony, Kazuto goes back to his room and straightens his bed for Kyoko to rest in. And just in time too, as the blonde girl enters the room upon exiting the bath. “Oh, there you are. …Aah!” Turning around, Kazuto’s face goes beet-red when he realizes that Kyoko had walked in wearing nothing but a towel. Its tight wrapping around Kyoko’s torso showed off her cleavage rather nicely. Shielding his eyes like an innocent boy, Kazuto spouts, “K-Kyoko, I left some clothes for you outside the bathroom door; didn’t you see them!?”
“…”
The girl’s ‘vow of silence’ was starting to get to the boy. “Oh, never mind… Here, if you’re tired, you can lie in my bed if you want. And whenever you’re ready to talk, I’m ready to listen, okay?”
“…” Saying nothing, Kyoko steps forward…
…until she and Kazuto were mere inches apart. “…Uh… K-Kyoko?”
Then, reaching out her hands, Kyoko grasps Kazuto’s shoulders, rises up on tiptoes…and kisses him.
“!!!” Kazuto attempts to free himself, but the girl’s arms were already wrapped around his neck at this point. Just then, Kazuto could feel himself fall backward, as Kyoko was leaning forward and applying her weight onto him. “A-Aah!” And before he knew what was happening, Kazuto was lying on the bed with Kyoko hovering over him. Due to her horizontal position, Kyoko’s towel had loosened enough for her breasts to be completely exposed. The auburn-haired boy’s thoughts were all over the place. “K-Kyoko…w-what are you…?”
“…Kazu…”, Kyoko says, finally opting to speak out. “I know how you feel about me…”
“H-How I feel about… What?”
“I’m bored with Shiro now… So…you can have me if you want…”
Kazuto’s nose hairs twitch at the scent of Kyoko’s breath. “…Kyoko… Have you been drinking?”
“Well…? What are you waiting for…? Take me, Kazu…”
The boy on the bottom turns his head away. “Get off of me, Kyoko. You’re acting crazy.”
“I’m practically throwing myself at you, and you’re saying ‘no’…? I thought you loved me…”
“…I… I dunno what to feel right now, okay?”
Not to be denied, Kyoko lowers down onto Kazuto’s body, pressing her breasts against his shirt, and cups his cheeks with her hands, meeting him in a deep, sensual kiss.
“!!!” Kazuto tosses and turns to break free, and shoves Kyoko aside, eventually rising to his feet. “The hell’s gotten into you!?”
“…Shiro… He…”
“What!? What about Shiro!? Tell me!”
“…”
“…Argh! Forget it!” Picking up a nearby umbrella, Kazuto storms from the room and out the house. After something like this, he desperately needed some air.
“…” As Kyoko lay on the bed naked, the tears come forth once again.
~*~*~*~
The streets of Fujimino weren’t as packed as they usually were this Wednesday evening. As expected, mostly everyone was focused solely on getting out of the rain.
With a small umbrella shielding him, Kazuto exits a music store with a bag hanging from his umbrella-free hand. He had apparently just purchased something. Now that he had bought what he set out to buy, the boy with brown hair could focus on other things, such as the blonde that was currently taking residence in his home, and the best friend who was avoiding him. What was happening?, Kazuto pondered. Just the other day, he, Shiro, and Kyoko were the best of friends, and now they were drifting apart.
“…Shiro… He…”
Shiro. For some reason, Kazuto felt that everything that was happening was tied to him. But would Shiro talk to him long enough for him to obtain the truth? And what of what Kyoko had said before?
“I know how you feel about me…”
How he felt about her? Kazuto hadn’t really felt anything for Kyoko. Why would he? She was dating his best friend. Although…
…Shiro’s and Kyoko’s kiss in Chuo Park.
Kazuto may not have realized it then, but the kiss Shiro and Kyoko shared that day was the day everything changed. The day everything started to fall apart. But was it possible? Could Kazuto have had feelings for Kyoko that even he himself didn’t know about? Was he just denying them until now? Too many questions, and not enough answers.
“…Hmm?” Then, as fate would have it, in the rain-covered streets of Fujimino, Kazuto crosses paths with a certain white-haired teen. “…Shiro!”
“Kazu…” Just a few feet away, Shiro gazes straight towards Kazuto. He too was holding an umbrella.
“…” Desperate for the answers he sought, Kazuto walks up to Shiro and confronts him up-close “Okay, Shiro, I need to know once and for all! What’s goin’ on with you and Kyoko?”
Surprised by his friend’s sudden approach, Shiro is forced to take a step back. “U-Um…”
“First she’s absent from school! Then she doesn’t return any of my calls! Then you start avoiding me all of a sudden, and now Kyoko comes over to my place and--!”
“Wait… What’s Kyoko doin’ at your place?”
“That’s what I wanna know! She falls off the face of the earth for two days, then shows up out of the blue practically begging to get in my pants!? What’s up with that!?”
“She what!? …Oh, man… I did this… I messed everything up…”
“C’mon, Shiro. Just tell me what’s going on.”
“…”
“You gotta be straight-up with your buds, man -- that’s all that matters. The longer you keep it from him, the more it’s gonna hurt the both of ya in the end.”
‘…He’s right… I can’t go on keeping it a secret like this…’ Shiro slowly exhales a held breath as he prepares to tell his friend everything. “…Kazu… Kyoko and I, we…”
…Just then, from down the street approaches Kyoko -- fully clothed -- without an umbrella to protect her from the rain. Judging from the pace at which she ran, she really wanted to find Kazuto. “…Ah!” There, as she runs down the sidewalk, each of her steps generating a tiny splash, she draws near Kazuto from the rear and calls out. “Kazu! Kazu, wait up!” But then, Kyoko would be treated to a most fear-provoking sight. “!!!”
Umbrellas flying into the air.
Trace amounts of blood spattering onto the ground.
Kazuto laying harshly into Shiro’s face with his fist.
Shiro falls back hard onto the ground after Kazuto punches him. He sits up on the cold, wet concrete wiping the blood from his nose.
Kazuto raises his hand to strike Shiro a second time…
…when Kyoko suddenly grasps him by the arm. “Kazu, what are you doing!? Why’d you hit him!?”
“He told me everything, Kyoko! You… You slept with him! Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t grind his face into the dirt!”
“He’s your best friend!”
“Best friends don’t keep secrets from each other!”
Spitting blood from his mouth, Shiro glares at Kazuto with contempt. “Don’t you think I feel crappy enough about this already, Kazu!?”, snaps the white-haired kid. “I didn’t want to keep it a secret! I didn’t know what to do!”
“So you were just gonna pretend like nothing happened!?”
“What would you have done?!?”
Kyoko couldn’t bear to watch her best friends in the world lash at each other. “…Stop it…”
“I’d have owned up to what I did! I wouldn’t have kept my friends guessing!”
“…Stop it…”
“So you think you’re better than me!? Is that it?!?”
Kyoko had to cover her ears just to block out the furious noise. “STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT!!!” Swiftly turning to her rear, Kyoko flees the scene, stepping off the sidewalk and dashing into the street.
A pair of blinding headlights flashes upon her.
The sounds of car horns and screeching tires pierce the air.
And then…
“KYOKO!!!!!”
…the collision.[/font][/size][/color]
