Chapter 6 - Locked Up

Ever since that day, I had skipped tutoring with Princey. And not because of my dislike of him either. I just couldn't face up to staying around someone that reminded me of him. I couldn't do it no matter what.

I was sitting on the floor leaning against the wall of they gym, dressed in my P.E. uniform as everyone played basketball. Leaning my head back, I closed my eyes with a sigh, relieved that this was my last class of the day. I winced a bit as a sharp pain shot through my stomach, which has been happening a lot more recently...I should probably go to a doctor, but hey, where would I get the cash for that?

Expectedly, my teacher came over with a frown, shouting in his deep voice, "Kobayashi! Why aren't you participating in the game with the rest of the girls?!"

Crossing my arms over my knees, I looked up at him, speaking blatantly "I don't feel well today, so I thought I'd just sit this one out."

"Oh I see, you thought you'd just 'sit this one out', okay sure. No problem, then." He replied sarcastically.

I nodded, "Thanks for your understanding."

The teacher gave me a deadly glare, urging me to get up. However since I remained unmoving, he gave up, proceeding to walk away and calling over his shoulder, "Well, whatever. It's your grade anyways."

"Like I care." I muttered, rolling my eyes, sliding more down the wall.

"BRINGGGGGGGGG" The P.E. bell sounded, directing everyone to go to change so we would be fully changed and ready to leave by the final bell.

Beginning to stand up, I made my way towards the girls locker room before a hand appeared right in front of my face, "Just where do you think you're going?"

Looking up at my P.E. teacher, I responded, annoyed, "To change?"

"I don't think so, Missy. You're going to take these up to the back of the shed on the field for me, alright? It's the least you could do since you didn't do anything…that is, if you want at least some sort of credit for coming to class today." He spoke firmly, passing me a cart of basketballs to roll there.

Glaring at him, I deadpanned, "Fine."

I began trudging on my way with the cart before I stopped and realized that the way I was going only had stairs to get up. With a groan, I turned the wretched cart in the other direction and proceeded to go the way that had a ramp leading up to the top of the field.

Once I had finally arrived, I attempted to fit the cart through the shed but clearly would not work because the cart was too wide to go inside.

'How the hell did they even get this stupid thing in here in the first place?!' I thought to myself, kicking the damned cart into the shed in a moment of frustration. To my surprise, it went inside but it had also proceeded in knocking over a net full of tennis balls, thus leading to the balls landing all over the floor.

"God damn it!" I cursed, moving to get inside the back of the shed to pick up the mess I made.

Slowly, I started to place tennis balls in the net a few at a time before another person came in(my guess to put something away). Looking up, I soon recognized the person to be the one and only Prince of Kaibara High School, putting away sticks from lacrosse.

Looking down, he voiced in surprise, "Kobayashi-san?"

I didn't respond, and instead looked at the ground, proceeding to pick up the balls. Coming over to where I was, Princey started to pick them up as well which had irked me.

"What are you doing?" I spoke up, clearly pissed, my cold grey gaze staring directly at him.

He replied, carefully with his "usual politeness", "Oh I'm sorry… I thought you might need some help since there's such a mess in here."

"Well, I do not neither need nor want your help so you if you could just leave me al-" I was cut off as both of us turned our heads to the sound of the shed's door closing and locking.

Getting up quickly, I worriedly ran to the door, proceeding to yank on it without it budging. "It's locked." I uttered aloud to myself.

Slightly panicked, I began hitting the metal doors, shouting, "Hey! Open the fucking door! We're still in here! HEY!"

I continued doing this for about ten minutes. Taking a break, I leaned my head against the wall, huffing audibly.

"No one's there. I can't see anyone in sight from here." The Princess quipped from beside me, peering through a crack where you could see outside, nearly making me jump.

"How are we supposed get out of here then?!" I questioned incredulously.

"Seeing as the school day is over for today… they'll probably be back here in the morning." The Rat estimated.

Shakily, I slid down to the floor resting my head over my knees, letting out a deep sigh.

"Great, just great. Now not only do I have to stay in this little shed for the night, but the Prince is going to accompany me as well here! Aren't I lucky?" I remarked sarcastically.

"You do realize I dislike that title a lot, don't you?" He quipped, looking towards me.

I rolled my eyes, "Oh yeah, I bet. You just hate attention."

Seemingly frustrated, Princey countered sharply, "Well, staying in this tiny room with you isn't exactly my cup of tea either, okay?"

I stayed silent, before a near smirk grew on my face as I sat up, looking into his eyes, "Ah, finally, the truth escapes from the Yuki Sohma. It's nice to see you acting your real self."

Glaring at me, he questioned brusquely, "And just what does that mean?! I'm only like this because you dislike me so much…Why are you so bent on not liking me in the first place anyways?!"

Dropping my hand on the floor I spoke up, "Oh come on, who do you think you're kidding? You don't like people like me... people who know the real you isn't as special as everyone likes to think. People who know that you just love the attention others give to you and the boost it gives to your already over inflated ego." I paused before continuing to answer his question, "I don't like you because you're a liar in the worst form, a person who smiles and pretends to care about others when they honestly couldn't give a damn about anyone other than themselves."

He stayed silent for a few minutes before stating, "I don't have a big ego."

"Mhm, okay. And I'm not a complete apathetic bitch, right?" I countered sarcastically as I pulled my pack of cigarettes out of my jacket pocket and slipped one between my chapped lips.

Watching me, he tentatively asked, "You smoke cigarettes?"

I looked him in the eye, relieving some of the dark, grey smoke from my mouth, "What does it look like, Sherlock?"

"Sorry…it's just a bit surprising. Did you really bring those with you to PE class?"

Breathing out more smoke out into the open, I answered, "Well, when you have an addiction this bad, you don't go anywhere with out 'em."

"Shouldn't you try quitting then?"

I chuckled bitterly, "Why would I ever do that? Smoking is the only thing that helps."

A bit perplexed, he asked, "Helps what? Don't they just bring you closer to death?"

"Exactly." I spoke emotionlessly.

We sat in an uncomfortable silence after that for awhile, with me chain-smoking cigarettes one after another, as the sky outside began to grow darker. Suddenly, a loud rumble of thunder sounded from up high and I straightened out immediately, the hairs on my neck standing up.

"Was that thunder?" I questioned urgently.

"Probably… Now that I think about it, the forecast did say there was a high chance of rain and lightning tonight…" The Prince concluded.

My lightly shaded charcoal orbs grew wide as the realization donned on me. 'Oh no… Fuck, fuck, fuck…Where am I going to go? Storms always bring bad memories back… Wait, shit, I can't leave this stupid room! I need to find something to distract me while the storm goes on… Usually there's my MP3 Player but I left that in my locker…'

I then jumped up and began to search desperately for an object of sorts to distract me from the approaching storm. I guess The Prince figured I was looking for a way out again, so he didn't question me, thankfully.

Instead, he merely stated, as I internally freaked, "You can think what you want about me… but I just want to say that I don't believe you're apathetic and I don't even believe you're a bad person."

"Wow, why thank you, Yuki. That just completely changed the way I see you and myself. How can I ever repay y-" A bolt of thunder sounded and I immediately jumped up and covered my mouth as I let out a loud yelp.

"You." I finished, after I calmed down. I resumed my search of the room, but only to find heaps of basket balls and other various sports equipment.

'Jesus Christ… Why isn't there anything?! Fuck,fuck, fuck…'

Knowing and hearing the thunder was coming closer and closer, my hands began to shake as I started throwing things around in a rush, unknowingly muttering to myself, "Fuck, fuck, fuck,fuck" over and over.

"Kobayashi-san…"

Out of nowhere, heavy rain began to hit the roof of the shed and I immediately lost control of my body as a shiver traveled up my spine and I fell onto my hands and knees on the floor. My entire body shook as a blast of thunder sounded, louder than before and I clenched my eyes tight shut, panic flooding its way through my veins.

"Kobayashi-san… are you alr-" The voice in the background was soon replaced by another.

"LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" A voice echoes throughout my head as I curled up into a ball against the wall, my eyes beginning to water.

I shook my head furiously, trying to rid myself of the memory. 'It's all in your head, Airi, just calm down… Just-'

Another rumble continued as my thought process stopped and I glanced out ahead of me, just to see the face I've been trying to forget for years. A face that bears such similarity to my own, it frightens me to look in the me for too long. All of the sudden, I could feel my chest tighten up as I struggled to breathe. My fingertips began to tingle and soon, I began gasping for air, hyperventilating. The room beginning to blur from the tears streaking down my face while I trembled.

The face remained, "Come on, Onee-chan… Stop playing around. You know what you've done. Did you really think I would just leave you alone like you did to me?" He smirked.

I attempted to wheeze out, although it felt as though my throat was closing up, "I... I-I-'m s-s-or-..ry. I-I... th-th..ought..."

"YOU THOUGHT WHAT?! YOU'RE DISGUSTING! YOU KILLED OUR BABY! THE ONLY GOOD THING WE HAD LEFT IS GONE BECAUSE OF YOU!" My mother appeared before me, screeching at me the words from that very day.

Shaking like a leaf, I tried to cave in on myself, breathing heavily in an effort to get some oxygen into my lungs but desperately failing. Tears rushed down my face even faster than before so I squeezed my eyes tight shut, grasping my head in my hands.

She laughed at me sinisterly, "Silly Airi, you really think you can just ignore me? Maybe if you just ended everything, everyone else would be at peace. You would too, don't you think?"

Unable to speak let alone barely keep conscious, she continued, "I can't believe you left your own brother to die. What kind of person are you?! You wanted him to die, didn't you?! DIDN'T YOU?!"

"N-n-n-...o." I managed to choke out between inhalations.

"DON'T YOU TALK BACK TO ME!" She shouted, winding her arm back about to hit me.

I screamed bloody murder as she swung at me, trying to curl into a ball as much as possible but instead of a sharp stinging feeling, I felt a hand grasping my arm. I stopped shrieking but mainly because I was still hyperventilating.

"Kobayashi-san! Please, look at me! What's wrong?!" I heard a heavenly voice call out while I continued shuddering.

Refusing to open my eyes, I shook my head, tears continuously pouring and sliding down my cheeks.

Letting my head sink, I cried pleading out loud, covering my face with my quivering hands, "D-d-on't... h-hur-t m-m-e... p-p-puh-"

Grabbing the sides of my face in both hands, and wiping the tears as they slipped out, a gentle voice chided, "It's okay, it's okay… I won't hurt you. Everything is fine. Will you please open your eyes…?"

Slowly, I opened my eyes to meet the calming amethyst gaze of Yuki Sohma. My orbs pierced into his own as I oddly enough, immediately found comfort in them, "Okay, good. Now we need to get you to slow down your breathing, okay? I'll do it with you."

Letting his hands slide down to my arms he spoke slowly, "Breathe in..." He slowly inhaled some air, as I attempted to mirror him, "...Breathe out." He released the air, as we stared deeply at eachother.

"Breathe in...Breathe out...Breathe in...Breathe out...Breath in..." This continued on for about a few painstakingly long minutes until I finally caught my breath.

Still making direct eye contact, he let go of me and I felt so exposed until he smiled softly at me, "Good. You've seemed to calm down..."

The storm bellowed once again, the room flashing with color all of the sudden, and I clenched my eyes shut, burrowing my head into my hands. 'It's okay… None of that was really happening. You're fine so just calm down...'

"Are you really this terrified of storms?" He pondered aloud.

Too frightened and exhausted to give one of my usual snarky responses, I simply nodded before tensing up as another bolt sounded outside.

He then asked, "How do you usually deal with them when they happen?"

Taking in a deep shaky breath, I mumbled out, "Really loud music..."

He was silent for a few seconds as I still shook slightly, wetting my hands with my tears, terrified from the events that just occurred and all the dark memories that seem to follow me where ever I go.

'For a second there, I really though I was going to die... I don't know why I'm always so shocked afterwards... that always happens to me whenever there's a storm...'

Clearing his throat, Yuki voiced, "Um… I have an MP3 Player in my bag, over there if you want to use it?"

I nodded again into my hands and proceeded to lean against the wall next to me.

When he returned he hurriedly placed the headphones over my ears, the classical music already blaring through the mini speakers. I let out a shaky breath as Yuki took a seat beside me.

"Thank you." I voiced sincerely, staring at the ground before me, feeling his gaze on my face.

We sat together like that for awhile before a wave of drowsiness fell over me and I began to close my eyes. Slowly, I felt myself lean my head on Yuki's shoulder. And for the first time in a very long, long time… I felt safe.

Feeling someone stir, my eyes jolted wide open. Lifting my head up, I realized I was leaning onto someone very surprising, not Aki, but The Prince.

'What the hell? How come I'm so close to Princey right now?'

With a quizzical expression, I continued to look around the room before finally putting together the pieces of what happened last night.

'Right… there was a storm and I was locked in here with him… After watching me freak out, he still for some reason decided to help me even though I was a complete asshole to him…'

Realizing the headphones were still on my head, I began to sit up straighter and pull them off. This, however, woke Yuki up as he slowly opened his eyes to reveal a lazy gaze drifting towards me.

"Ah… Kobayashi-san… you're awake." He stated drowsily with a tired smile.

Nodding slowly, my eyebrows scrunched together quizzically 'Why the hell did he help me last night? He hates me…doesn't he? Or maybe… I'm the one who's been wrong all along?'

Sitting up fully, he yawned into one of his hands before noticing the headphones on the floor, "Oh, I'm sorry if you didn't like the music… I just had bought it and only had a few CD's of classical music around…"

"It's fine…" I trailed off not knowing what else to say but soon cursing at myself. 'All the help he gave you and you're just going to let him apologize to you for no fucking reason? You're seriously just going to say 'it's fine'? Come on, Airi…'

With a sigh, I gazed at the ground, "No. Actually, it's a lot more than fine." Meeting his eyes I continued, "I'm really sorry I was such a bitch to you… You're really not all of those things I said you were, in fact, I'm pretty sure you're just the opposite… I'm really thankful for your help last night and I honestly don't understand why you're apologizing to me when it's supposed to be the other way around."

Seemingly awestruck, a few moments passed before he said, "It's fine... To be honest actually, I believe you were right about some of the things you said about me… I do crave attention and I am a bit selfish for hiding behind a mask... but it's primarily because I just want people to like me."

"No, I was wrong. I completely misjudged you and thought that you had it really easy compared to me… that your life was fantastic and that you were full of yourself because you felt you were higher than everyone else… but now I've realized. It's not like that at all- You're not like that at all. Do you really think people won't like you the way you are now?" I questioned.

"Truth be told, no. I always have to think before I act, that's just the way it is. I thought that moving out and living at Shigure's would help me to live a "normal life" with "normal people", but even doing that couldn't help me. I may have escaped the prison of the main house...but I'm still living in a Sohma house. I'm still bound to the confines of my curse. I'm still unable to deal with "normal" people." He focused at the ground, "It's just because I want people to like me, that I wear a mask. I'm only kind for myself."

I pondered this for a bit, "That's not true. From what I have seen… I like you a lot better when you're not faking it. You're definitely a kind person in my eyes whether you believe it or not. Don't let the curse hold you back."

Very slowly, a small genuine smile grew on his lips as he nodded, "I guess you're right. Thank you, Kobayashi-san."

Biting my lip, I couldn't help myself from spewing out, "Also, from now on, you really shouldn't call me that anymore. I hate the name… so you can call me Airi or Ai, okay?"

"Okay, Airi-san." He tried it out.

I still hated the -san and was about to tell him that I don't like any formalities when the door to the shed opened up. Lo and behold appeared my PE teacher, with the most perplexed look on his face, "What are you doing here...Oh wait...", before it dawned on him that he locked us in the shed.

"Forget something, did you?" I bitterly remarked.

"Oh god... Oh my god! I am so sorry! I really am! I didn't know you were both still in here..." He then proceeded to go on a rant about how he was in a rush to pick up his kids and didn't look inside before locking up etcetera, etcetera... I kinda tuned him out until he finally finishing up by saying, "-so I would really appreciate it if you didn't tell the school board about this! It really isn't that big of a deal if you think about it."

The Prince opened his mouth to say something, but I beat him to the punch, countering angrily, "Not a big deal?! There was a storm outside the whole night, and the shed has metal pillars... what if lightning struck it and we both died? Would it still not be a big deal then?"

"Uh...um...well..." He trailed off.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. But hey, I'll make you a deal. We won't go to the school board if you give me an A in your class in exchange." I offered, trying to reap the benefit of this situation.

"You know I can't do that..." He tried to argue.

"That doesn't sound too convincing to me..." I began to walk past him and outside, throwing my hand over my shoulder nonchalantly, "Whatever, I guess. I'll just head over to the office now to tell them."

"WAIT!" He shrieked from behind me as I smirked, "I'll do what you asked just please don't tell them!"

Turning around, I grinned devilishly, "Thanks coach! We promise not to tell!" Before resuming on my way to exit the school...hey, it was about 6 in the morning for christ's sake! School wouldn't start for another three hours anyways.

Yay, finally updated! Thank you all so much for the positive reviews and feedback, it really motivates me to write more! This chapter you can probably guess, shows a lot about Airi and her deceased brother... Hope you like it!