After the Storm

She'd come upon Kyo's Uncle using the mara he had inside him to throw Kyo around the room. Alice began to run towards him hoping to help him, but a hand came down on her shoulder pulling her back. She spun half around so she could see who it was that was keeping her from Kyo.

"Frey?!" If Frey was here, why wasn't he helping Kyo?! Wasn't that what he was in Japan for in the first place?

"It's too dangerous! That's the fire of Sura (anger)! My Lotis won't work on it! An outsider can't intervene. It's terrible!" Aparently he had tried to help Kyo, and gathering from the fact that his clothes and face were dirty, it looked like he hadn't been very successful.

"Kyo! Only your words can snap your uncle out of this! You three are more of a family than you think!" Frey called to the boy being tossed around like a hackey-sack. Kyo's eyes narrowed, as if contemplating what Frey told him. Then he spoke.

"If we were a family, then Maki would never have said those things…And uncle wouldn't be trying to kill me! They're just like the others! Why did they take me in if I'm such a burden? I'm moving out!"

While Kyo was talking, Frey's arms had moved around her shoulders, and he pulled her close to him. His breath tickled her ear as he whispered, "Let them sort this out on their own. They have to do this as a family. You stay back here with me where it's be safe."

"But--" He cut her off with his lips. She let out a small whimper, but let him do what he wanted. She only prayed that Kyo didn't see them, because she doubted that he would fall for any excuse she gave him as to why she was kissing his best friend while he was fighting for his life.

This kiss was different than the one in the bedroom for many reasons. There was a different feel to it. The other had been full of passion, and this one was more like he was trying to distract her from the fight between Kyo and his aunt and uncle. Well, it was working. Somewhere in her mind, she could hear that Kyo's aunt had awoken, and was yelling at her husband to stop hurting Kyo.

As the family fought, none of them noticed the two teens desperatly trying to forget what was happening.

When Alice felt the power of the Lotis, she broke away from Frey and looked at Kyo just in time to see the mara be banished from Yuki's body. She voiced her awe, and Frey replied that it was Uido (trust). She refused to meet Frey's eyes, because she was afraid of what she might find there. She knew from their last encounter that he wasn't just joking when he said that he had feelings for her. She didn't want to see that reflected in his eyes.

She watched as Kyo thanked Maki and Yuki, telling them that he was happy, because no matter where he went, he had a family. She watched as Kyo and Yuki embraced, and Maki came over to lay a hand on her husband's back.

Arms circled her waist, and she looked up at Frey. He smiled at her, then turned his gaze to the scene before them. In that breif second when he looked into her eyes, she saw the very thing she didn't want to. Love. Oh, God. He loves me. She thought as she quickly averted her gaze to anywhere but him. Her eyes landed on Kyo, still wrapped in his aunt and uncle, and she studied him. He looked the same as he did when she first met him—ignoring the scrapes and dirt on him, that is. And yet, though he looked the same, she didn't get that feeling that she always got when she had watched him in the archery club. The feeling that made her heart take residence in her throat, and made the butterflies do their olympics. He looked the same, but that feeling just wasn't there. Alice turned in Frey's arms, so that she was facing him, and he looked down at her in surprise.

"What are you doing?" He asked her quietly, so as not to disterb Kyo, Maki, and Yuki, who were now talking quietly about when to move all of Kyo's things out of the house. Alice shook her head, and placed a finger on his lips to silence him.

She looked at him, and studied him just as she had Kyo. The difference was that all of the things that should have happened with Kyo, decided to happen now. The butterflies started their olympics, and her heart started it's journy to her throat. She was suddenly aware of how soft Frey's lips under her finger were, and quickly pulled it away.

"Alice? What is it?" He asked, still whispering, though she said nothing in return. She placed both of her hands on his chest and pushed away from him, trying her hardest not to notice how firm his muscles were under her touch. She needed some time to think about everything that suddenly made sense to her today, and she couldn't think with people around.

Alice turned to leave Kyo's house, and saw that Kyo and his family had gotten off of the floor, and had all focused their attention on her. She made her way towards the door and left quickly, hoping to any god that might be listening that none of them would follow her and ask questions.

"Frey, did something happen while I was preocupied?" She heard Kyo's voice ask from her current positon just outside of the door. Unfortunatly, all of the gods or goddesses that might have been able to answer her prayers were all playing bingo at the moment, and she also heard the door opening and someone coming to talk to her.

"Alice! Wait up!" She almost cursed as she recognized the voice as Frey's. Alice sped up, but it was no use, because she knew that he would catch her, and he did.

"Alice what was that?" He asked her, not sounding at all out of breath.

"I don't know what your talking about." She responded, hoping that he suddenly got really stupid and would fall for it. One thing she had learned from this whole Lotis buisness was that anything was possible.

"Sure you don't." Frey rolled his eyes. "Now, what was that all about?" He asked again. Darn, she thought, Stupid Frey was on vacation.

"I…I just realized some things. Now I want to think about them and I couldn't do that with everyone around me." She told him all of this very fast and in a very small voice.

"What things did you realize, Alice?" He asked, his voice dropping so that it was lower, and slightly husky. If she didn't know any better, she would think that he was trying to hypnotise her. But he wouldn't do that…would he? Gah! It was working.

"Things…about you…and Kyo…" Alice's small voice became smaller as she told him. The bracelet representing Rangu pulsed around her wrist, and she felt that little boost of confidence that she needed to tell him exactly what she had been thinking of. "About how I feel about both of you." Ok, so she didn't get very far with this whole 'confidence' thing.

"And what do you feel for us?" He asked her, his voice still low and husky as before.

She blushed under the heated gaze he was giving her, and looked away, before she did something stupid, like kiss him. "With Kyo I feel…warm. But not the way I used to when I looked at him. I don't love him anymore. And with you, I feel…the things that I felt for Kyo." Oh, Hell with it! "I love you, Frey. I only just realized it." Frey's eyes widened in shock, and his mouth opened to reply, but before he could, she cut him off. She had to finnish this before she lost her nerve. "I love you, but I got into this mess with Mayura because I loved Kyo. And I'm pretty sure that he loves me. I can't just let Mayura take him, when he obviously doesn't want to be with her. But I'm sure that she wouldn't listen to reason, and let him be. And I wouldn't know how to tell Kyo that I'm not going to fight for him anymore. I've loved him for so long that I wouldn't know what to do with myself either. I--" Alice never did finnish that sentence.

Frey had apparently gotten fed up with her babbling, and kissed her to shut her up. It was nothing like either of their previous kisses. This one was short, but still got the point across. He pulled away, and she was left staring at him, unable to make any sound at all. He leaned over to her ear, and whispered, "I love you too."

The he was kissing her again. This was very much like their first one, in that it was full of passion. More so now that she returned his feelings. Soon he had her backed up against a building that was on the edge of the sidewalk they were on, and their hands were exploring each others bodies.

They didn't notice anything going on around them. Not the cars that were honking at them, nor the mother who covered her childrens eyes and hurried them past, or the old lady who looked repoachfully at them and muttered under her breath, "Kids today…". They especially didn't notice the voice that was calling, "Alice! Frey! Where are you?!" Alice and Frey didn't notice this until the owner of the voice gasped loudly from a few yards away.

Alice and Frey broke apart and looked to see who had interrupted them. Alice gasped. Kyo was standing there looking heartbroken. He looked at Alice, taking in her swollen lips, flushed face, and messed up hair. Then his eyes turned to Frey, and his brown orbs took on a look of betrayal.

"What the Hell is going on here--" He demanded. But he was cut off by the honking of a horn. The trio looked towards the sorce of the sound and saw Chris's blond head sticking out of the limo being drivin by Stewart.

"Where've you guys been? I looked at Kyo's house, but your aunt and uncle said you three left in a hurry and that they had no idea where you'd gone or when you'd be back. So what happened?" Chris asked, looking at them. Alice had a guilty look on her face and was looking at the ground, Frey looked calm, but if you looked hard enough, you could see that he was slightly nervous, and Kyo was refusing to look at either of the two people standing next to him. They replied as one, "Nothing."

Now Chris was not born yesterday, not did he fall of any turnip trucks lately, so he knew very well that this was not 'nothing'. But they obviously didn't want to tell him about it, so he wouldn't pry into something that wasn't his buisness….yet. Bwaha.

"Well, get in then." He told them, rolling up the windows. Stewart got out to get the doors for them, but Frey beat him to Alice's. Chris took notice that she blushed bright red and quickly got into the limo. He followed her and shut the door. Kyo looked at them with a mixture of disgust, betrayal, and sadness. Yes, Chris thought as the limo started to move in the direction of Alice's house so that they could get her things. I'm definetly going to have to find out what happened between them.

::tears up:: You like me! You really like me! I never thought I'd ever ge this many reviews in my life! I didn't even thing that the story was that good! ::sobs for a few minutes:: Ok, I'm better now.

This was originally a one-shot. But I got so many responses and requests to continue, that I decided to add another chapter. I'll try my best to add another one after this at least, but I wasn't too happy with the way that this one turned out. I liked the first chapter better. Meh.

I'm not going to do individual responses to reviews, because I always hate it when other authors take up half of the space in the chapter with them.

Review, my pretties! Review!