A/N

Dedicated to all the lovely readers of Love Can Ignite the Stars, after this story the sequel's on its way, I PROMISE! This differs slightly from LCITS in that it's just from Kyo's point of view.

Thanks for reading, please review ;)

Disclaimer: If it was, I wouldn't need to write the story, would I?

Warning: profanity.

Yuki

This story isn't a fairytale.

This story is about life. Real life. My life. And as you all know, in real life there isn't a prince, a princess, a big castle and a happy ending. In real life, people get hurt. In real life, we hurt people, and we feel bad.

In real life there are no happy endings.

"DAMMIT!"

Life sucks enough without being woken by a cry of "Kyonkitchi!" from the last person you want to meet on your only day off for three weeks. I glared across the table at the man staring back at me, entirely too much amusement in his eyes for me to be at all happy.

"Why the hell are you here, today of all days?"

Ayame mock-simpered, and looked balefully at me. Shigure wrapped an arm around his shoulder, and glared at me. "He d-doesn't like me, 'Gure…" he sobbed theatrically, looking at me with large, gold eyes.

"That's ridiculous, Aaya! Who wouldn't like such a gorgeous man as you?" he asked, and leant in to rub their noses together. Aaya beamed, me now forgotten, and turned back to gabble at the dumb Dog.

I stormed out of the room and, guess what, bumped into Yuki. I glared at him accusingly. "For God's sake, sort him out."

Yuki glared back just as hard. "Why me?"

I snarled slightly under my breath. "He's your brother. He's here to see you."

Yuki looked at me coolly. "He's your cousin. And he's here to see Shigure."

I snarled under my breath, my hands hot and itchy as I pictured laying them into his perfect body. He merely raised an eyebrow and pushed past me, facing the full onslaught of Ayame Sohma. I glared at his back and ran up the stairs, collapsing onto my bed and gripping my pillow angrily.

God, how I hated Yuki Sohma.

Duck, weave, bob, block, block. Right hook, right hook, duck. Left foot, left foot, palm – hit the floor. Stand up. Kick. Push. Thrash.

Tohru walked in, and both of us froze in the moment, my foot spinning towards her – where his chest had been merely seconds before – and with a smooth coiling of his legs Yuki jumped to protect her.

But he misjudged the jump, slipping on the groceries Tohru had bought, and instead of moving them to a smooth safety he landed straight in the path of my foot, sending him spinning into a nearby window. Tohru screamed and fainted, and I swore under my breath, running forward and pulling him onto his back. He whimpered softly, his eyes fluttering and closing. I swore again, my hands slipping – I realised then, with a numbing fear, that they were covered in blood. I turned him over as gently as I could, to find millions of glass shards forced into his back. I swore again, ripping the remains of his shirt off to try and staunch the bleeding.

Shigure was on the phone to Ayame, so I scooped Yuki up into my arms and began to mount the stairs, wobbling slightly. I dumped him on my bed and ran into the bathroom, fetching a bucket and a cloth, and at the last moment locating Tohru's eyebrow tweezers (God knows what Shigure had been doing with those) and running back into the bedroom. I propped him up on his side and gently began cleaning the blood off, rubbing in soothing circles against his skin.

None of the pieces of glass were in too deep, and I methodically began removing each little piece and staunching the blood as it began to heal. Shigure glanced in and his eyes widened at the sight of me crouched over Yuki, covered in blood and a manic look in my eye as I continued to remove the tiny little fragments. I glared at him. "Call Hatori!" I snapped, and the Dog whimpered.

"There's n-no need, I'm fine," the Rat snapped from underneath me, and I swore under my breath. I hadn't felt him wake up, but as he straightened up he winced, and I rested a hand on his shoulder.

"You probably shouldn't move." He glared at me for stating the obvious before turning towards Shigure in the doorway.

"If you really want to help – which I sincerely doubt – go get some bandages. And make sure Honda-san is alright." Shigure's eyes glittered at the idea of being alone with Tohru as he pranced off, and I glared at Yuki.

"What did you do that for? He'll be molesting her or something by now!"

Yuki glared back at me. "Well, you can't go because you're helping me. I don't trust Shigure to do it, and Honda-san would probably faint from all the blood. Now get on with it. Your hands are beginning to make me feel dirty."

I gave him one last scowl before returning to my duty, hands ghosting over his back as I tried to remove the shards as gently as I could. I did try my best, but occasionally his back would shift slightly under my fingers as he gasped, or winced, and at those moments I rested my hand on his shoulder briefly in reassurance and a silent apology before returning to the task in hand. It took us well over an hour to completely remove the pieces of glass, by which time we were both exhausted and covered in his blood.

His eyes were blurry and out of focus, and I frowned at him. "We should probably call Hatori. You've lost a lot of blood."

His response was a glare. "I'm fine. What do you care, anyway?"

It took me a moment to respond, partly because I had to ask myself that question. "'Cause Tohru'll be freaked enough already without you transforming," I muttered, but it was a pathetic excuse.

He rolled his eyes. "I'm going to get a shower." He stood and walked towards the door, pausing for a moment as he slid the door open, not understanding why he was three doors down from where he normally found himself.

"I didn't think you'd want to get your sheets messy," I mumbled, and began balling my own up with our blood-soaked clothes, and I felt a hot gaze slowly dwindle and leave me as he slid the door shut. I glared at the sheets in my hand for a moment, my body on fire with disgust at the blood covering my hands and my room and covering everything in a gut-wrenching stink. I threw it in an angry bundle in the washing machine, put it on a thorough wash and stomped back upstairs angrily.

Yuki walked out of the shower as I got to the top of the landing, and after sending me one, last evil glare he turned towards the door to his room and walked inside, giving me a clear view of his marred back as he entered. I ran into the bathroom and tore off my clothes, scrubbing at my body to try and get rid of the stench covering me that was making my stomach turn. I spent at least an hour in the shower, despite Shigure's complaints about the water bill, before stomping back into my room and sitting on my bed, glaring angrily.

I couldn't spend long in my room, however, because it positively reeked of Yuki. His blood appeared to have got everywhere, especially on my bed – even after I'd changed the sheets. With a snarl I flounced up and raced out, clambering swiftly onto the roof. I sat and stared angrily at a nondescript patch of tree for a while, hating my life.

God, how I hate Yuki Sohma.

I walked along the corridor some hours later, and tripped over a pile of bandages in the middle of the hallway. I swore, falling to the floor with a curse and landing flat on my palms. They stung angrily at the contact and I rubbed them, trying to get the blood moving again, before turning to look back at what I'd tripped over. The damn dog had fetched the bandages a mere three hourslate. I sighed and scooped them up, walking into Yuki's room.

He was turning and moaning on his bed, a soft sheen covering his forehead. I scowled and threw a bandage on his chest, causing him to gasp and shoot up, his eyes spinning wildly around the room. "What do you want?" he snapped after a moment of regaining his composure.

"You left the bandages off. It won't heal unless you bandage it." I waited for another 'why do you care?' but it didn't come, him being too tired and too annoyed and merely snatching them off me.

I watched with some amusement as he tried to bandage his own back for a few moments, before he turned and glared at me. "Come on then. Stop being a stubborn idiot and tie these for me."

Smirking at his defeat, I walked forward. He turned around and I crouched behind him, running my hand across the scars softly. His breath hitched slightly at my touch, but my stomach churned in revulsion at the touch. I quickly and efficiently tied him up and backed off, not looking around as I left the room.

As I lay in my bed I tried very, very hard not to think about how vulnerable Yuki had looked lying in that bed before. I'd never really considered it before, but Yuki was so very weak when he was asleep. It would give me the perfect opportunity to attack him, if he was asleep, and too damn lazy to defend himself.

Then again… the last time I tried that I ended up getting even more humiliated. But… today I'd actually hurt him, cut his skin. I'd made him bleed. But even that was because he was protecting Tohru. I shuddered at the memory. I'd come so close to hurting her… I had to end this, and fast. If I didn't beat him soon, not only would I… I… lose the bet, I'd end up killing all three of us.

I frowned for a moment, thinking back to when I'd entered his bedroom. His body had been on fire… and the way his body trembled under my touch…

I think I'd found out my way to beat Yuki Sohma.

"God knows where the bastard is, and God cares either." I smirked slightly at my little joke, and slumped back onto the grass. Haru glared at me for a moment, before letting out a slow sigh and sitting down beside me. I pursed my lips slightly, ruffling a hand through my hair and glaring out across the playing field. I watched the younger years making a fool of themselves with a ball, suppressing an ironic smirk. "If you're going to sit there and stare at me, do it where I can't see you. It's beginning to annoy me."

Haru jumped slightly beside me, looking away with enough embarrassment to tell me that my suspicions were right. I smirked slightly and looked aside, running a hand through my hair again. "I'm not staring at you," he muttered, but I didn't waste myself on a reply. He sighed and fidgeted with the grass, pulling out a few idle strands. "I was just wondering…"

I rolled my eyes. "If it's about the scars on Yuki's back, it was his damn fault, so don't get onto me about it."

Haru's eyes went wide for a moment. Shit. He didn't know about the accident yet. I coughed slightly and looked aside. He blinked, shook his head slightly and sighed. "Stopping you guys from fighting is not going to happen, is it?" I gave him a customary 'I-am-going-to-rip-out-your-insides-and-eat-them-in-front-of-you' look, the one I tend to give when the Rat is mentioned, and he rolled his eyes. "I didn't think so." He sighed slightly. "I just… wondered… whether…"

I groaned slightly. "For crying out loud, jump the bastard already and stop shitting around. I'm sick of trying to encourage sideways glances."

He flinched. "Whatever. I just… thought… whether you thought you thought he was, you know…"

My eyes went wide for a moment, and my heart accelerated. No… I didn't want to talk about that… I can't think about that… "Look, I'll admit, out of the two of you, he's more fuckable. But that's not a good thing if he's a guy. So can I be alone now?"

He glared at me for a moment, before sighing and standing up, gazing over the playing field.

"I love him too, Kyo."

What the hell had he meant by that?

A/N

Ok… that didn't really push 6 pages, but it kinda did… aww, leave me alone, I have no inspiration…

The chapter name was supposed to be referring to Yuki's smell... shrugs

Review? Pretty please?