"Let's go!" Momiji drags me along excitedly down to the beach once the rain has stopped pouring. The sand is still damp, and the sun hasn't finished setting to an orange glow yet either. "I can't wait until night! Cant wait any longer!"
By some miracle, Akito had to return back to the main estate and the horrible knot winding in my stomach was able to subside for today. My cheek throbs from where she decided to sock me, Hatori having bandaged it before I passed out... I had no clue such a fragile woman had that in her.
"Kuroi, you like the pink one, right?" Tohru asks me, passing a sparkler into my hand.
"Uh..." Hiro stops us. "Why are you both hurt?"
I awkwardly turn. "A... um, a flowerpot fell from the balcony and hit me and smashed and cut Tohru-kun too last night."
"They're like two bees in a pod!" Momiji says.
"You mean peas," Hiro retorts.
"C'mon. We're setting off fireworks. Which one first?" Kyo demands.
"I've already decided!" Momiji proclaims. Except his choice is one of those snake ones that just fizzles up without much showy lights or anything. Just smoke. Extremely disappointing.
"It was worth seeing it once!" Tohru declares, just to lighten the disappointment.
I grab one of the sparkler ones that sets off all kinds of smoke colours. "Mi-chan, let's do these ones!" We set them off with Hiro and Kisa and start running around to get the lights to trail behind us until they run out.
"Don't point that at people!" I hear Kyo yell at Haru, and I turn to see him trying to light a firecracker stick that shoots off. Pointed at Kyo.
"I know you can dodge."
"Don't do that!!"
Haru sets off a bunch more out of curiosity, some crackling and making my skin crawl. "Fireworks are supposed to be loud," he says to me.
"I said I don't like it!" I retort. He starts chasing me around, finding it more amusing than Kyo as I cover my ears and run for dear life at his cheap shots. "Yuki-nii!" Yuki doesn't come to help me at all. So I think. He passes me ammo, and I go on a rampage back at Haru.
"Why is she so scared of these things?" Hiro asks.
I point my finger at him. "You're gonna be subject to the hug penalty if you make fun of me!"
"It's not easy to protect someone," Haru says to me, poking my cheek gently but I still wince. "Brave little birdy." He hands me another sparkler, lighting it so it starts spraying brilliant colour. His appeasement is mediocre at best. He goes over to his dear, beloved Yuki to also give him one, which in turn he wants to bring to Tohru.
We both look defeat. "I wanted to bring one to Tohru—!" I whine, going over to join her once she has sat with Yuki and her sparkler finishes, and Mi-chan is trailing behind me. For some reason, even though I'm more scared than I've ever been, I feel relief to have this secret out to Tohru, and to Momiji. To at least know that it's okay for things to not be okay between me and Kureno, and not beat myself up for dreaming. I smile at my sister, our foreheads touching and hands clapping together when I join her. "Tohru-kun~ light more sparklers with me," I lament.
"Okay!"
Momiji has better things in mind, such as setting off the large and colourful fireworks and I have to just grit my teeth and bear through it while covering my ears. They light up the night sky and bring a smile to everyone's faces. Everyone together happy.
"You're so picky about animals and noises, it's kind of funny, isn't it?" Tohru asks me.
"Are you making fun of my, Tohru-kun!"
"No, no!!" She starts to panic but I smile, which makes her breath hitch. I start to laugh, granted it's at her technically I'm laughing because I'm happy that I haven't been repelled and rejected the way Akito led me to believe. That counts for something, right? The real me is someone worth showing. She can't continue to cage me away. I'm going to make a change too. I laugh and laugh. I'm laughing because I was naive to believe a child like Akito would keep a promise, and laughing because I'm filled with relief that I have nothing to hide anymore.
Operation Real Smile... success?
-
We come home the next day to a disgusting mess of beer cans, take out, and coupon flyers over the table. And Ayame.
"You forgot to lock the door, didn't you..." Kyo growls at Shigure, who is totally caught in the act. Tohru heads off to use the phone.
"I heard the head of the house came to the vacation home," Ayame says, shutting his fan and undoing his slutty little man hair twist. "I couldn't help you again, my little brother! So to make up, I will hold you in my arms tonight!"
"No. Never! No way!" Yuki cries.
"How does that help?!" I demand, and he grabs me in a locked embrace, curled around me like a snake would.
"Fine! I will have to hold Kuroi all night instead!"
"How does that work?!" I cry, freaking out and trying to wriggle out of his grip. "Help me, I'm hostage!"
"Oh my, my, your secret is out isn't it? They aren't reacting at all!"
I manage to free a hand and hit him on the head, so he lets me go and he runs the bump left over. "Doesn't mean you get to embrace me, you slimey snake! Stop running to me when Yuki doesn't agree to your antics!"
He leaps over to the hall, where Tohru is finishing up her call. "I'll just have to hold Tohru-kun all night, then!"
We crack our knuckles at that. "Why would you come to that conclusion?"
-
I dye my natural hair back after returning from the sea. Though I'll miss the strawberry blonde, that strange light disguise, it's too much to upkeep any longer.
I lean into Tohru's face as she looks troubled at the table. "You're thinking too hard, you're going to get a headache, ya know?" I remark, startling her.
"Ah! Kuroi-kun! Wh-what do you need?"
"Is what Akito-sama said troubling you? About not meddling?"
She looks up at me, with less of a mask as before. But she doesn't seem meek or terrified either.
"I realize now my "protection" was selfish, I somehow wanted to keep your eyes shut and keep you close to me. But that was wrong. And you still got hurt by Akito, so I'm sorry. I never properly told you." I look at her. "It's not good to lie. But it wasn't only for your sake. I hid it from everybody else too, because I made a promise with god. But Akito-sama showed up that night... so the promise is broken."
"Does that promise have to do with the curse?" she asks, and she has a different look in her eye. "Do you know something about the curse?"
I'm surprised. "I suspect things but... with that "promise" I think I thought about the curse wrong as a child. It's me, not Kureno, who is the rooster... but our circumstances are very strange in comparison to the others of the zodiac. Kureno was born with the spirit, and ordinarily, that would mean no other rooster would be born. But one day, his "bond" broke. God cried so much, cried and cried and begged him to stay forever and don't leave, but then... I was born. Kureno had almost escaped. I was born and raised with that guilt drilled into me by my parents. If I stayed by Akito-sama's side, I was promised the others wouldn't be hit or hurt, that Kureno and my family would still be loved by "god". To convince me I was unloveable, so that I would have no one else but Akito, so that the bond couldn't be broken again. My brother promised not to love me, which let me run away. For some reason... the other members had this undefinable affection towards the rooster that Akito sought to break and destroy. "The bird that ties heaven and earth together". My brother suspected if he could get Akito-sama to let me go like he was forgotten, that my curse might break. But Akito won't let go of me now. Now, more than ever, I realize how hard god is holding on to all of us, and my promise made it worse. I tried to deny god, but I couldn't. I couldn't speak my mind at all."
"Let go? Akito needs to let go of "bonds"... Kuroi." She looks up at me determinedly. "I want to break the curse. That's what you inadvertently wanted with your promise, that Akito broke?"
"Yes." I take up one if her hands with both of mine. She looks so saddened by my story, but it doesn't make me cry anymore. It won't make me feel down or confined. I was never truly free, and it's a twisted relief now that the other members aside from the young children know that. My face is determined. "I want to break the curse too. I want everyone to be free. I don't want Kyo to be confined, or for anyone to go back." I squeeze her hand. "I don't want you to push yourself for our sake, but to me, you are what a "precious" bond should be. I think it would be wrong to try alone." My smile shines at her face, as she presumably thinks about a precious bond of her own. "I don't want to hold you back from what you think is right. I'll help you in any way I can. We're sisters."
She grabs my hands with her other, grasping each other tightly determinedly despite her tears at my story. "I'm sorry for my selfish request. I want your help!"