The Sohma Litters *a Traditions Sequel*

Chapter Seven: You aren\'t going to believe this, but . . .


Kyo\'s POV


Yuki had a point, but we always promised that whenever someone was becoming too close of a friend that we would come clean. I liked Rand and I knew by his comment that Yuki did also. HE never joked that way unless he was comfortable around someone. I shifted Yuuhi onto the blanket and covered him with a towel.

\"Come on Rand let\'s take these two for a walk, I think we need to talk.\" I grabbed Kato\'s hand and called Tsuki to come with us. Yuuhi had always been a little less resilient to activity. He would sleep for a while. \"It\'s like this Rand. We come from a very unusual family. Yuki and I are cousins. Not direct cousins, there is some distance, in fact I forget how far removed we are. We have a lot of cousins. Anyway, we grew up together, went to the same schools and all that.\"

\"Oh, so you have always loved each other, and then just stayed together.\" I shook my head at him.

\"Hated each other. We were more like rivals. Only not quite. Yuki did well in school, and I was average. But, in other things we just butted heads. Mainly over stupid stuff. Then, one day . . . . \" Rand nodded. I hadn\'t even gotten half way yet. \"Anyway, that\'s not everything. See, there was this girl. She\'s like real sweet and kinda naive. The stupid pretty type. And she moves into our house for a few years. But, she has this habit of saying things that make you think, and she wants Yuki and I to get along. Has her heart set on it, in fact. Well, I got thinking and so does Yuki. In the end we just found each other. The rest is too exciting.\"

\"Wow. So you fell in love with someone you had always hated. What happened to the girl?\"

\"Another cousin. Has three kids and is deliriously happy. Anyway, here\'s the thing. And you aren\'t going to believe me, especially today. You see, Yuki is a . . . \" I took a deep breath. \". . . . he\'s a guy.\" Rand stopped in his tracks. I looked at him carefully. He stared at me like I had told him that chocolate was poison and I believed it. \"I know you don\'t believe me, but see with the kids, it is better cause they don\'t get teased. And no one gives us weird looks. So we play this little game. \'drag queen and her little family\' He\'s pretty convincing and you do remember I warned you, on the plane.\" I shut up for a bit.

\"You\'re trying to tell me, that is a guy dressed as a sheila? Are you nuts, or am I?\" I smiled.

\"Kato, tell Mr. Rand, what does Okaasan pee with.\"

\"Okaasan has a penis.\" He was very pleased with himself.

\"Otousan, is it okay for Mr. Rand to know that Okaasan is a boy?\" Tsuki added. Rand looked about to faint. I shook his shoulder, and he turned a pale face towards me. \"Mr. Rand is very sick, Otousan.\"

\"No, Tsuki, he is okay. Aren\'t you Rand-san? We don\'t hurt anyone, and we just want to be left alone. Is that so terrible? The only problem is when you look as good as Yuki, you get a lot of attention, you wouldn\'t believe what High school was like, and he didn\'t even dress this way back then. Well, only that one time, and that was just bad. So, you could just turn and run. No one would blame you, but we enjoy your company and we hate secrets with our friends. Come on boys, let\'s go. Otousan wants to lie down for a while.\" I took hold of Kato\'s hand and started back to Yuki and Yuuhi. Tsuki ran on ahead and was already there before I noticed that another body was walking with us.

\"I don\'t know how you do it. I really don\'t know how HE does it. But, you seem like good people, and I have never been homophobic before, I don\'t think I\'ll start now.\" I reached over and patted his shoulder. \"You are really telling me the truth, cause I just don\'t see it . . . anywhere?\"

\"Give us time, we always manage to make our friends believe.\"

\"What about the boys, where did they . . . . ?\"

\"Ahhh, now that is another story.\" And as we made our way back to the blanket I began the tale of our brood. Yuki had sat up when Tsuki got there, and was watching us close on the blanket, He smiled as we got there, talking sociably about the three young boys around him. Rand gave him an embarrassed smile. I laughed and continued with my story, Yuki supplied a detail or two and the afternoon was saved. We had a new friend.

We told him that we were going to the luau that evening and asked him to join us. He asked if we were sure and we insisted. I promised no more surprises, and he agreed. It was getting late in the afternoon when the boys finally fell asleep and we continued our converstion without them adding cute but not very helpful comments.

\"So, are those real?\" Rand finally got the guts to ask. Yuki laughed and shook his head.

\"I am not a transsexual, Rand-san I just dress like a woman. And speaking of which, Kyo we need to go I have got to change.\" Rand helped us carry the boys to our room and Yuki dropped the picnic basket off at the kitchens, when he got to the room I had changed. Rand and I were sitting in the entry room and talking so he went to dress.

\"Now watch how good my Yuki is at this. Sometimes, like this morning, he even surprises me. \" Yuki came out of the bedroom dressed in a pale lavender dress. The dress was seamless and made of a knit fabric, very clingy. It had long sleeves and a low V neck and hung to just below his fingertips. His hair was down and wavy from the braids. He wore a shiny gold chain around his neck, those fabulous clinking bracelets and my amethyst studs in his ears. When he turned to close the doors, I got the surprise of my life. The back of the dress was open down to just above the crack of his . . . .with just a string tieing it together across his back. I forced my mouth to close and turned to see Rand was similarly distressed. \"I told you so.\" I whispered at him, he stammered something about going home and changing and Yuki said simply.

\"The luau isn\'t for two hours, why don\'t we all walk you home and then we can meet some of the local people you were telling us about?\" He wasn\'t clueless, I could tell by the look in his eyes that he knew what he was doing. We had hired the hotel babysitter to stay with the children for the night, and she arrived a short time later. Yuki told her that the boys had already fallen asleep, but that if they woke up she should order them some sweet green tea, that always calmed them down and they would go back to sleep.

Rand stood by the door as Yuki sat and slipped on his shoes, just some matching low heal pumps. And I grabbed his sweater and my jacket. We were off. This was a new one for us. We had been out with friends before, but never had we gone to help them get ready first.


Rand lived in a small beach house, that looked like a bachelor lived in it. It was a mess, and we both told him that he shouldn\'t worry. We never judged a person based on how they lived. We had far too much mess in our lives, who were we to say how someone else should live. But, he scurried around trying to clean a space for Yuki to sit, and then we waited as he dressed. In very little time we were ready to go out, and Rand walked with us around the local area. There were people sitting on benches and swings in their front yards and the ones he knew Rand introduced us to. They seemed as excited to meet people from Japan as we were to meet Hawaiians. A very old, wrinkled and dry looking woman, who Rand explained was from a well respected family in the line of the former kings, gave Yuki a beautiful shell necklace, which he put on and exclaimed over and over about. The woman was pleased. Rand became even more at ease around us, and Yuki began to flirt with him. The old woman laughed at his blush when Yuki leaned a little too close and one of his enhancements brushed up against Rands arm. The woman found out that we had children and made Rand promise to bring us all around in a couple of days, she would have her neice bring by her children to play with the boys. The girl had two sons a little older and a newborn daughter. We said goodnight and headed off to the luau. As we approached the hotel and saw the lights of the tiki torches Yuki threaded his arms through ours and we made our way to the fun. It was a great evening. Rand would never forget it either.