“You shouldn’t do that!” A frantic voice said in a hushed whisper.   

“But it’s very tempting,” answered another voice, sounding amused.

“It’s disturbing!”  

“It feels, like silk…”

“You!!”

Arrangement

“Wonderfully soft,” the second voice chuckled softly, fingers skimming over pale flesh, “I want to taste-”

“You do realize she is my fiancée?!” 

Omi paused, “You might wake her with that loud voice of yours.” 

Kaoru made an indignant grunt, watching from the corner of his eye as the delicate form under the thin blanket shifted, her brows furrowing together as if in pain and then relaxing again.  “Shut up and take your hands off her hair.” 

“She’s not your fiancée,” Omi told him innocently, “She’s your girlfriend.” 

Kaoru bit his lip, resisting the urge to scream.  It was a very childish reaction on his part, but it irked him to no end when Omi teased – especially if it was about or his precious pottery. 

“As if that makes a difference.” 

Omi sighed and then his usual smile returned, “I’m going to get myself some ice cream,” he stood and started his way out of the room, “I take it you don’t want any.” 

“Damn right.” 

Kaoru sighed as Omi closed the door with an almost inaudible ‘click’; he turned his eyes back to the sleeping form and frowned.  He reached out his fingers to push back the straying strands of hair which fell over his fiancée’s face.  He watched her then, first in a really long time, as she took unhurried deep breathes.  Her fair complexion was tinted orange by the afternoon sun filtering through the thin curtains beside her bed, her naturally pinking lips were slightly parted as she breathed and her arms were loosely around another pillow.  She was a beautiful girl, Kaoru admitted to himself, (he was not one who easily thought that a woman was beautiful) but the abnormally pinking color in her cheeks did not belong on the otherwise perfect complexion of her face. 

The frown etched deeper into his face as he laid his palm on her forehead.  The high fever had suffered for two straight days had lowered – much to his relief – but the said girl still slept on, barely eating or drinking whatever her cousin Mizuno brought.  She hadn’t even been able to make a decent conversation with him. 

He suspected that maybe she was coming down with something worse than the flu but Omi quickly dismissed the idea, saying that the symptoms were clearly that of the flu and nothing more.  He had also contemplated calling on ’s mother who was away in another country on a business trip to tell her of her daughter’s condition, but at the last moment realized that would most likely be displeased about him doing so. 

He retracted his hand from her forehead and skimmed his fingers down the side of her face, neck and finally resting on the small space between her collarbones.  She was wearing a shirt too large to be hers, he idly noted, though it looked familiar.  Tracing his finger back up her face, he touched her lower lip and let out a small smile.  She shifted under his touch, her legs curling itself towards her stomach and she gave a small annoyed sound.  He let his fingers linger for a couple more second before taking it away. 

Her eyes unexpectedly fluttered open a moment later.  He thought that this would be like the past two days, waking up for about a minute then back to sleep on the next, but rather than doing as he had expected, she blinked and sat up groggily. 

“Kaoru?”  She blinked, her warm brown eyes fogged with sleep.  “I’m sorry; I haven’t been much entertainment for you.”

The frown returned but he ignored her last statement, “Are you hungry?”

She gave him a small smile, “Not really.  Where’s Omi? I thought he was here with you?”

“He’s eating your ice cream.” 

She gasped softly, the remains of sleepiness on her face gone.  “I just bought that a few days ago! It was the last pint of the fudge brownie! I want to eat some too;” she declared childishly, “Before Omi finishes everything.” 

“Your sick idiot,” he told her.  “Let Omi finish it, he’ll replace it.” 

frowned too, matching Kaoru’s expression.  “Are you alright Kaoru? You seem… a bit off.”   

“I’m tired,” he stated plainly. 

hesitated for a moment before scooting deeper into her bed, “Sorry, you shouldn’t have stayed to look after me.” 

Kaoru smirked as he moved to lie down on ’s bed, “You don’t really expect me to abandon you,” he said.  “Plus it’s a good change of atmosphere.”   

“I know, but we haven’t really been seeing much of each other and this suddenly…” she trailed off, unsure how to explain how she felt exactly.  It wasn’t hard to feel intimidated by Saionji Kaoru; after all, he was beautiful, smart and outstanding.  He had this air around him that made people look at him and pay attention.  And even though was in a quite intimate relationship with the Kaoru, her inner struggles were never really suppressed. 

“Are you still worried about that?”

She didn’t answer, but her silence was answer enough for him. 

“That doesn’t matter.  Haven’t we talked about this before?”  His voice was harder than usual when he asked her. 

She nodded meekly.  That, that was the fact that their relationship was arranged by their parents.  Though both of them have known each other since elementary, had been friends in middle school and even Omi dared say that they were quite in like with each other in senior high, the fact that there was still an arrangement in all this still made everything somewhat awkward.  It wasn’t that she wasn’t sure of her feelings for Kaoru, but quite the opposite.  To her, Kaoru seemed too unreachable.  He studied in an elite school, and while she did study in a private school and was constantly an honor student, she still couldn’t compare to him.  She constantly felt like a burden to him. 

“I wasn’t worried about your affections,” she answered.  She would be too stupid of she did, Kaoru wouldn’t act like this around any other girl he didn’t like, but it didn’t ease her other doubts. 

He sighed again and it made her wonder how he could be so sure about everything that touched his life.  “,” the way he called her name made her shiver in delight. 

To be loved, to be valued by this beautiful creature…       

“What should I do to make you believe me?” His hands grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her to him.  She fell, with all the grace she could muster on his chest, her nose barely inches away from his. 

Her heart thumped against his chest and she could feel a smile forming on her lips, somehow all the negative feelings in her heart faded away into the dark recesses of her mind as she stared into his bright green eyes. 

“Kiss me,” she whispered. 

“If I get sick…” one of his hands circled her nape and pulled her face even closer, tentatively touching their lips.  “It’s your fault.”  He kissed her again, fully this time, more passionate. 

She nodded, breathless as they pulled away.  “My fault,” she repeated, her gaze flitting to his lips for a moment and back to his eyes.  “But it’s not your fault I feel this way.” 

“Breathless? I take that you’re kidding,” he joked.  

She laughed a short happy sound.  “You know what I mean.” 

He kept silent, urging her to go on. 

“I want to be a better person for you Kaoru, and I will.” 

He kissed her again, “But if you continue on getting sick because you study too hard,” his voice carried a silent warning.  “You’re not going to last long.” 

She grinned at him, her eyes twinkling.  “Maybe.” 

“By the way, I missed you.” 

End. 

[Are you afraid to love me?]

Steph.