Skylar nodded, looking her over. "Ah, that's what it is. Well, if you ever need me, this is usualy where you'll find me." Skylar laid back down, watching the sky. "Saki...about yesterday...what happened in your bedroom..." Skylar wasn't sure how to say what he felt needed to be said. "What happenes now?"


Parker smiled as he looked at her. "You know Miss Hidaka...if you blush anymore, you're going to have me worried that you're ill." He laughed softly, and then said, "As for what appears to be you aksing me on a date, if I may be so bold as to venture, where did you have in mind?"

((I love Parker! I've made him so dang eloquent, and teasing at the same time! XD))

Misaki turned red again "Ummm-uhh I d-don't know Tora-kun, what do you w-want to happen?" she asked flustered yesterday was the first time she had kissed a boy.

Yoshiko

Yoshiko, smiled he was teasing her, "Oh maybe to go see a movie or something, I don't know what do you like to do Parker-kun". She didn't know much about the Sohma's but she did know they didn't get out much, for what ever reason that was.

Skylar pushed himself up on one elbow in order to look over at her. "Huh, you're as nervous as I am about the whole ordeal. I honestly have no idea. I've never been in this situation before, as for reasons you know of I avoid girls...so this whole relationship thing is complete uncharted territory for any of the Sohmas."


Parker smiled. "I must say, any adventure out of this dark cage of mine would always be a pleasant ordeal, but I daresay what would make it most pleasing is that it would be with you." He knew he was walking a thin line as it was, but being cooped up in that house as Leon had him he had grown weary of his life, and wanted no more of it. Yushiko offered him escape, and he was glad to risk it with her. "So, I have no objections. Simply name the time, I shall be there. And I must say, though it could possibly come off as rude, being together with a female in public shall hopefuly fend off the hoarde of fangirls I seem to have acquired. And for that, I thank you, Miss Hidaka."

Yoshiko

Yoshiko chuckled, "You know I think you can call me Yoshiko now especially if are we're going to go out together", she smiled. She thought for a moment perhaps we can just go for a walk in the park this afternoon. I'm sure the cherry blossoms are lovely right now". She stood up and gathered up her art, then she reached out her hand to him, "Well lets go and get you out into some fresh spring air".

It was extremely rude to stare. She knew that. But still, Bella stared. Perhaps that look in her eyes was one of awe and shock, though between the tears and the constant avoidance of his eyes he might have not seen it at all. She swallowed thickly as he squeezed her hand. It was meant to be comforting. It still didn’t feel right. But then again, nothing truthfully felt right about guys anyway. It was hard for her to even comprehend that any male could be so gentle. The scars and bruises tattooed across her arms were the writings in stone that clearly emphasized this. And it was utterly confusing to her that all she’d known for the last couple of years had been a complete lie. That everything had been blown away in a rush of wind as soon as Haizen had jumped to her aid. She attempted to take in everything he was saying, though she figured half of it was floating out the other ear. As soon as his cheeks flushed, her own face took on a light shade of pink. “Sorry, I won’t…” she mumbled.

The fact that she was still bristling slightly almost angered her – no, it did anger her, and greatly at that. Why couldn’t she accept this? Why couldn’t she accept that he wasn’t going to hurt her? A mouthful of apologies had lodged itself into her throat, almost rendering her speechless. But she forced herself to swallow once more. She forced down those wants to cry and to express her pity for herself. The brunette forced herself to look at Haizen. She forced herself to meet his stunning gaze. And despite the fact that she was still frightened – even if only mildly – she forced her mouth open. “Why?” she asked in a small, almost groggy voice. Heat had started to hit her in waves once more. Was the fever coming back? Perhaps. Maybe she was embarrassed. That was another possibility. “Why do you go to such an extent to help me? Haizen-kun, why hasn’t anyone helped you? Why do you live by yourself and not with the other Sohma’s? Why hasn’t anyone gone to this extent for you?” It all came out exceptionally fast and as soon as she managed to close her lips the blush deepened.

She was staring at him. She was staring. It was impossible for him not to notice. Haizen watched her through the curtain of messy brown hair, thankful that it somewhat obscuring his vision. He didn't want to stare back, couldn't bare facing her while tears welled and spilled from her chocolate eyes. Solemn embarrassment shone in his mismatched eyes. Those eyes, so young, filled with a maelstrom of emotions: pain, confusion, sadness, and yes, anger. An anger that he grew accustomed to showing around anyone else. And he tried so hard; keeping people away was a reflex, a defence. The only thing he truly knew how to do. Now, he fought the urge to keep such inappropriate emotions at bay. They weren't welcome. Not right now, anyhow. Haizen kept hold of her fingers with his own, still slowly pulling them up until they rested safely in front of him and away from the dangerous shards of clay. Everything felt wrong. Holding her hands as if she would plunge them onto spikes, was also wrong. Haizen couldn't remember the last time he held someones' hand, or if it had ever happened. Had he held his mothers' hand? Fathers? He didn't know. Yet, he didn't retreat.

With scraps of his own stuttering heart, Haizen didn't move away from her and kept his shaky hands in front of him as if he was a beggar—with her bloodied hands held captive. His eyebrows knit worriedly as he finally shook the mess of hair from his sleepy hair, to look at her. Even if he didn't want to. A small murmured word in the back of his mind: coward, caused him to raise his eyes. There was something familiar bristling behind her sorrowful gaze, something he could connect with. Certain unexplainable emotions; anger, frustration, annoyance, all because she was shaking and she felt vulnerable. It might've been the first time he realized how angry she was at herself. Weakness was the absence of control, it was the worst thing one could suffer asides from betrayal. Both of which he was familiar with. And she hated displaying those to him, to anyone, for that matter. His own throat tightened uncomfortably, choking any comforting words he couldn't even find back down into his gullet. Never was he good at these situations. Never had he even been in this type of situation. Muffled laughter rose through his open kitchen window, the indication that the morning runners were slapping their sneakers against the cobble stone in front of his home. Already, it was morning.

As soon as Haizen met Bella's gaze, he fought the ungentlemanly urge to tear his eyes away. Remaining tears twinkled at the corners of her eyes, threatening to spill but teetering on the edge. He could tell she was holding everything in, and when her question sputtered from her lips, his eyes widened. Why? Just before he was about to ask her: why, what? It was answered. A plenitude of questions escaped her mouth, causing Haizen to rock back on his heels in surprise. In doing so, his hands dropped away from hers and he huffed quietly, regaining some of the oxygen he'd been laboriously holding in. Bella's face flushed with heat, drastically looking more drained than before. He eyed her through lidded eyes before his mouth formed a thin line. Another blush coloured his features and he looked towards the oven, anywhere to escape her fevered gaze. “It's how things are, it's what was decided a long time ago,” He finally said, clearing his throat lightly. “I helped you... I helped you because—...” Haizen faltered, dropping his hands to his sides. “No one deserves to be alone, not even me. People don't know. We're not normal.”

The brunette combed his fingers through his hair, looking back towards Bella. “Now, are you OK?” His worried eyes danced against the sunlight peeking through the rice-papered shades. “That's why you have to go there, to the Sohma house.”

It didn't make much sense to her, but Bella decided that it didn't have to. People had given up on her a long time ago. They'd turned a blind eye, pretended she wasn't suffering while they thrived. And it was odd that Haizen, someone who she wouldn't have bothered to even look at two days ago, wasn't following the flow. He was that stupid fish that was swimming against the current instead of with it; the one that knew the same suffering as the one he was trying to reach. And suddenly, him being that stupid fish didn't matter to her. He was helping her and she was fighting it. Why was she fighting it? Maybe because she'd grown up with the thought that nobody cared, and if they did it was because they wanted to take advantage of her. She had to stop fighting him. She had to let him in. Why was it so difficult to open the door?

She listened to his words carefully, trying to take them in without denying that he was right. Nobody deserved to suffer, to be alone. He was right. Bella felt her stomach churn as she sank deeper into the realization that he knew exactly what she was going through. Is it because he's the cat? she thought. Do they shun him because he's not considered one of the Zodiac? That hurt. It angered her that people treated him like that just because of his own curse. Why couldn't they embrace that he was in the same boat as them? He needed just as much support as everyone else did. He wasn't some monster. Right...?

"I'm fine," Bella murmured, swallowing down her embarasement. There was an unbelievable want to hug him then. So many emotions could be passed to him just by that. But she knew she couldn't. He'd change into a cat. That frustrated her more than anything. "I... I guess I'll go to the Sohma house.."

"Oh?"

She looked up and over Haizen's shoulder, stomach dropping.

"Hello, Bells," Leon said with a dark smile. "How are you doing?"

Truly, it didn't need to make sense. Haizen could hardly wrap his head around things as it was, let alone taking care of someone else who wasn't a stray feline. Friends—it had been a term long forgotten, something he no longer wished for because it had been impossible to achieve. Anyone who had lingered long enough had soon realized that Leon wouldn't allow it. Leon was an unfortunate God, no one had ever asked him to step up to that fatal task. Even when the head of the Sohma' family brutalized them, he couldn't help but pity the older boy. To be born, only to die, it wasn't a state of living. Sometimes, he forgot all about the predestined death in his bouts of anger towards the boy—towards all of the merciless things he'd done to them, and out of what? Love, respect, and trust towards their family name? Even if Haizen was a family outcast, he was still by blood: a Sohma. He hadn't even had the chance to experience people outside of his added family. Eyes weren't just blind, they were forbidden fruit hanging ripe on the tree of Eden, just out of his reach. Poison.

The stupid fish was floundering on land just to help Bella. Even he couldn't understand his desperate actions, couldn't understand why his shaky hands wanted to take hold of Bella's so badly, just to make her feel a little better about her horrible situation. Sitting there on the hardwood floor, he looked at Bella and thought of all the homeless kittens he'd brought home from the streets. His need to save them rivalled any other feeling he felt. Having hurt so badly in his time, Haizen understood the way she quaked and flinched whenever someone tried to reach out to her. Much like suffocating, it was a long road to reach the level he'd reached. Either that, or he was desperate for some kind of social connection. What did he have? His cats. For the time being, they had always been enough. What was different?

Again, Haizen's fingers combed through a shock of brown hair until they rested at the nape of his neck. It was hard enough not to fidget when Bella was staring at him, trying to figure out his lame sentences. He coughed awkwardly, adding some type of noise to the silence that had fallen between them. An orange figure loomed in the doorway, lazing in the filtered beams of silent sifting through the window. The feline arched its' back, meowing softly at their odd human attempts at conversation. Haizen only shot him a baleful stare, straightening his posture so that he was sitting more comfortably on the ground. “Good, glad to hear—,” he began, gathering himself up from the floor until he heard the grating voice that haunted his dreams.

Leon. No—couldn't be, how long had he been there? He couldn't lock his doors on the cruel God. His cursed doors would only be open to them, even the other Sohma' were warned against visiting him. For a few stuttered heartbeats, he wished Skylar or Hiroshi were here—damn, even Parker. Anyone but him. “L-Leon?” He stammered, rocking back onto his feet as he turned to face the boy. He tried not to cower. Tried to face him with a stern look, but it was faltering. "She's going to the Sohma house, the other girls are there, too."

[[sorry it's short -_- I don't have a lot of time this week]]

Leon watched Haizen with cold emerald eyes on his stoic young face. He remained still for several moments, even as the Sohma attempted to keep himself straight as he spoke. He had a hand on one hip and the other dangling at his side, fingers twitching ever so slightly. It was almost as if he was holding himself back - almost. He tilted his head slightly before a little grin lifted the corners of his taunting lips. "Yes, dear cousin?" he asked in sheer delight. "Oh, my dear Bells is going to live with the naughty boys at the Sohma house? How disappointing."

From where she now stood (she'd rose to her feet rather quickly), Bella had stiffened completely. She forced herself to swallow down the desert in her throat before nodding lamely. "Yes, Sohma-san," she murmured in a futile attempt to sound proper.

"Oh dear," Leon clucked and folded his arms over his chest. "Haizen-kun, did you hurt my dear Bells again? You really shouldn't be around her. You're too clumsy. You might hurt her." He approached then, chin held high and eyes as chilling as ever. Despite the fact that he curved around to stand directly behind Bella, his gaze never left Haizen. As he stopped behind the brunette, he reached out and took hold of her wrist so he could lift up one of her bloodied hands. "Tsk. This is how Mr. Alley-Cat treats his guests?"

"I-It's my fault," Bella blurted quickly, face flushed and heart racing. "Haizen-kun stopped me before I did any damage, Sohma-san.."

The boy frowned lightly while leaning to the side to observe her expression. "Bella-chan, please," he said. Frown turning upside-down, he leaned back straight so he could rest his chin on her shoulder. "Call me Leon."

Leon's stilled hand caught Haizen so off guard that he promptly sucked in a sharp involuntary breath, stumbling back a few steps. His eyes simultaneously went wide as the rest of his body froze completely in place. He stared at both of them, his pupils flickering back and forth wildly between the two. He could see Leon's fingers twitching at his sides, drumming—as if he were holding back, as if he wanted to pummel his fist into his face, anything to quell his insatiable anger. He knew that there would be repercussions after Bella was safely in the Sohma household. He knew that in the morning his cheeks and eyes would be a new shade of blue and purple and healing yellows, swollen from the impact. He knew that he'd have to lie about it and say that he'd fallen. Poor klutzy Haizen and his bad luck, falling all over himself. The fawning girls would laugh, patting him on the shoulder to comfort him, while he brooded. The jealous boys' would only murmur their annoyance at all the attention he got but they'd never question his lame story. No one really cared. If they believed such a poorly sewn story, it meant that they didn't really care.

He felt his heartbeat thrum like a rabbits as he continued staring at them with frantic eyes, unsure what the hell to do, let alone say. "I…" Haizen found himself saying without even realizing it, “I mean…" His voice trailed off as he raked through his mind, trying to search for the right words. Words that could defend Bella's honour and save himself. Scratch that, he couldn't ever truly save himself. All he could manage to do was swim upstream like the stupid fish he was to fend off the approaching sharks. He let out an exasperated noise. Haizen absentmindedly clenched his hands into fists, his fingers so tightly curled that his knuckles were starting to turn white. Even though he was terrified, anger swelled in him—filled with oxygen, fed his spiteful mood. He was coming dangerously close to losing it, too. He felt his blood angrily rush throughout his entire body, boiling with more and more pent-up rage that was getting ready to be unleashed at any given moment. His hands shook as he tightened his fists even harder, his muscles so tense that he felt like his body was literally about to snap like a rubber band. “Yeah...” He began, and then stronger, “Yeah, she's going to live with the other girls.” There's nothing you can do, Haizen wanted to add, but held his tongue.

Bella's politeness was wasted on such a cold person. Leon would devour it, and spit it back into her face. The Head of the Sohma's exuded a curdled kindness that was glazed in cruelty, a need to destroy anything happy around him because his life was doomed. His heart sank. Sorry, sorry for involving you in this, Bella. And then he was being accused of hurting Bella, like he would ever do such a thing. Immediately, Haizen clenched his teeth to keep from any biting comments that could dig him deeper in the ground. “You know—I didn't, I wouldn't,” He stammered, managing to stand his ground without shaking like a leaf. Alley-cat. What a piss poor excuse for a nickname. He watched as his cousin circled around Bella like a predator, slinking behind her as if she were his prey. Reality seemed to be slipping completely away from him, and fast. He was no longer thinking clearly, no longer seeing the world around him clearly. All he felt was an intense heat of overwhelming anger rushing throughout his entire body that was in desperate need of a release.

Without thinking twice, he brought up his fist and slammed his fist against the table, toppling the tea set over. The deafening sound echoed throughout the bathroom as a large, clay teapot teetered from the counter and dropped to the floor below him. Blood immediately began oozing from his knuckles as he withdrew his fist from the table He ignored the wound, however, as he slowly breathed in and out, staring down at the shards now joining the pile on the floor. “Don't mess around, Leon!” He hissed, raising his chin. “She's not yours to play around with, goddammit.”

Bella had never been good at reading people’s emotions. She’d never even been patient enough to figure out exactly what the hell was running through her mind. But at that moment, she could see exactly what was going on behind Haizen’s eyes. The anger terrified her. The terror terrified her. It never truthfully occurred to her how horribly this boy – Leon – had treated his cousin. Abuse? The word was a speck compared to the reality of it. Cruelty? You had to be joking. She couldn’t come up with a word that could describe it and personally she really didn’t want to. He’s suffering because of me, she found herself thinking between the quaking struggles of Haizen and the present but almost inaudible purrs of Leon. She hated it. She hated all of it. But what could she do? What could she, the one who was causing the problem, possibly do to help? I’m so useless. Useless…

The sudden toppling of the tea-set and the fit slamming to the table caught her off guard. She let out a squeak and flinched, almost jumping backwards out of pure instinct. Leon, however, held her firmly in his grasp. It was almost painful, his hand on her wrist and the other arm wrapped around her waist. His grip was ruthless, uncaring, dry. Haizen’s anger was bubbling over the edge and she could do nothing but dance away so she wasn’t scorched. Her throat constricted at the blood dripping from his knuckles. She couldn’t help but stare. It was impolite, but she couldn’t help herself. He’s bleeding. Make it stop. Someone help him. Please. Tears packaged themselves in the corners of her eyes.

“Please let me go,” she said quietly, voice shaking. Bella squirmed slightly, open hand pushing at the arm around her waist. It was becoming exceptionally hard to breathe at this point. She found her breaths becoming short and hacking. Being so useless was heart-wrenching. Why couldn’t she fight back? Why couldn’t she say something? The only think she could think to do was sink down so his wrestling hold would become a hug. But what was she to expect to come out of that? What zodiac was he anyway?

“Ah, and he finally breaks,” Leon chirped, sounding no less than utterly delighted. “And see, this is where you begin to say stupid things, cousin. Anything in this house belongs to me. The sink, the fridge, the tea, the furniture, the cat, and yes, Haizen-kun, you all belong to me. From the moment that this girl stepped into this house, she became my property. I can do whatever I want to my property when I want and you have absolutely no right to defy me.” He released a bone-chilling chuckle before his grip on Bella tightened, making her wince. “Isn’t that right, Bells? You’re all mine.” He twisted her awkwardly to the side and without a hint of humility planted a kiss at the base of the side of her neck. “My little alley-cat is jealous, Bells…”

The brunette stood in Leon’s grasp completely petrified. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him in fear that if she didn’t he’d pull something immediately. It was like dealing with her father, just a younger and stronger man. Bella flinched as he placed another kiss at her jawline. “H-Haizen-kun, j-just grab my things and I-I’ll be on my way, o-ok?” she stuttered, tears rolling. “I’m alright. I’ll find somewhere else to stay.” Her clouded eyes took on a sky of alarm. Leon, eyes never leaving Haizen, drew his tongue up the side of Bella’s neck before nuzzling it gently so he could gaze at his prey – his cousin – from a comfortable position.