GARO fanfic - Anguish (3rd and last chapter)

Fanfic placed after chapter 15th and before the 17th.


One afternoon Kaoru was leaving her job and found them, facing each to another in the alley, their swords out. Both of them turned toward her at the same time. Kaoru became rooted to the ground. She had expected to see Rei, like almost every day, but she never would have dreamed she could find Kouga there.

Rei sheathed his swords, and hurried to extend his arm to her.

“Come on, princess. The cinema waits for us”.

But she did not dare to move, she did not how to react, as her eyes and mind were focused on Kouga.

“Do you want to go with him?” His voice and look were very hard, as so many times before. He turned his face to Rei slightly. “It looks like not”.

Rei came even closer to her, but his sight did not leave his opponent, whom he talked pretty sarcasticastic.

“Perhaps you’ve lost something?” Pause. “And, do you think you’re going to find it?”

Kouga’s jaws trembled slightly: so much pressure they carried. A smile as ironic as frozen on Rei’s Face allowed to guess an imminent danger.

“You’re already late: life doesn’t forgive those who waste their chances ... nor those who aren’t honest”.

He turned again to Kaoru and extended his arm again.

“Don’t pay attention to him. Soon you’ll find he isn’t worth treading the same ground as you”.

She had heard everything that Rei had said, and wondered for the umpteenth time what Kouga might have done to him. She could not forget Rei’s kindness, and his details, for many days. He tried hard to please her, as if he really liked her. Perhaps he did. He smiled a lot and, specially, provided to her the fuel needed by her hurt heart. Her hand reached his instinctively, but Kouga came closer, very slowly, focussing on her his entiere attention.

“Haven’t you finished to play, yet? You’ve done enough showing clearly how good you spent your time with him. That's enough. If you want to play you'll get a new set of brushes if you want, but I won’t let you to continue making a fool of yourself at all”.

Kaoru was speechless. If Kouga had spoke to her that way just a month earlier, she would steeped in fury. But, things had changed very much in a couple of weeks. Now she could not open her mouth: anger, hope and need tried to threaten her by losing her self-control.

His accusations were truly fair. The first day she came home with flowers given by Rei, the underlying jealousy oozing through every gesture and every word by Kouga made her secretly happy. Yes, it looked as he really loved her but, for she did not know why, he did not allowed himself to admit it. So, she decided to attack his barriers to force him to react. As they had a meal, in any time she thought it was right, she filled her unsociable host’s ears with news abut her going out with Rei, which they were planning ( "do you think I'm interested in your life the slightest?" he said), showing him the gifts received from Rei ("go on eating chocolates, and afterwards you’ll complain about the dentist’s bill") telling him the nice details by Rei ("a poem written inside the breakfast? awful!"). Nothing was any use. That day with the flowers seemed to be the first and last one. What did he want from her? Why was he protecting her? Tears were robbed from her eyes as if her skin was cut off.

Desperation turned her reckless. One day as they were having lunch, she lied him by saying that she had accepted a kiss from Rei. The glass whose Kouga was going to drink shattered among his fingers. Suddenly anxiety, and a joy as wild as repressed, aroused whithin her. Kaoru watched the mess of glasses and water around him and wondered if she had pushed him too far. She looked at him, knowing that he might attack her now, she almost hoped. But Kouga did not return her look. His eyes were closed strongly, while his hand was still pressing the glass pieces nailed into his flesh. Then, he began to remove them. He stood up, “I’m taking care of it”; his voice only reflected an intense exhaustion. Kaoru understood it as it was a goodbye forever. As he moved away, his wounded hand was crying red tears on the floor, because his eyes were not allowed to cry. She fell back, defeated and hopeless. Kouga never was going to struggle for her.

But, look at him, now, struggling for her in front of Rei, in his own scatterbrained and clumsy way, but he does! Excitement and hope compressed and ready to burst made her unable to open her mouth, when he took her wrist and dragged her along with him. But Rei stood in front of him with growing anger.

“You, troglodyte dressed in white! You make her to cry!” He drawed his swords again. “Leave her to go right now, or you and I are going to end up everything here and now!”

But he only gained from Kouga a look of complete disdain, and steeped with fury. One of his swords rushed toward Kouga’s neck, whose weapon intercepted it halfway, while the other shorter one stayed away from its target to prepare for a lunge. But Kaoru, after witnessing the exchange between both men, and not knowing whether to feel worried or pleased, put her free hand on Rei’s arm. She had to do much effort into talking.

“Rei, don’t be worried, I thank you everything you’ve done for me, but everything is fine”. And nodded to show her agreement.

The staple of the knight in black loosed, and his raised sword lowered slowly. He looked at her, incredulous, pained, without knowing what had just happened. Kaoru could not see the glance of victory Kouga had gifted him, just before feeling her arm being stretched again, and saw how Rei was left behind.

Not much later, Kouga stopped his fast walk and gazed at her. It was "that look". She saw it for the first time yesterday, when he returned to visit the Makai priest Amon. A sort of curtain had left his eyes, and their message was the one she understood well, the one she had bet so much. What did happen on that mysterious meeting? Truly, she did not mind.

For the third time she felt tighten her arm, but this time he received her to his chest. Kaoru felt as all the ghosts that had tormented her flied, scared by the heat of that body, by the soft brush of those lips, which seemed as if they were looking shyly for anything within her hair.