X Therapy
by Leareth
Chapter Three - "Tell Me What Comes To Mind"
"If someone would like to go and find Sorata-san, I'd like to try a couple of exercises with the group," said the Therapist, looking over the rim of her glasses. Only a few people were paying attention. Patience wearing to a hairsbreadth, the Therapist was about to do something drastic when Karen got up and winked at her.
"I'll go get him," the Soap girl said, showing no evidence of being affected by her recent exposure. Then again, seeing as just how much of her was exposed, there was no reason for her to be disturbed. If anyone was disturbed, it was the male members of this circus that had been shoved into the Therapist's lap.
"Do you want an ice-cream after this?" Kusanagi asked Yuzuriha, trying slightly too hard not to look as Karen glided out of the room with a lavish hip-swivel. Seiichiro was not-so-obviously doing the same. Yuuto, on the other hand, was watching openly. The laptop on Satsuki's lap whirred, almost like purring. The girl slapped the laptop lightly, then seeing where Yuuto's eyes were, elbowed him.
The Therapist massaged her temples, feeling like she wanted to strangle something. Or someone. A certain gorgeous blue-eyed, blond-haired, rich someone.
"Excuse me, everyone," the Therapist began, before some infuriated shouts interrupted her. Again.
"Go AWAY!" snapped Kamui as Fuuma tried to invade his personal space. Again.
"Do you have to do this to me in front of every – oh ... oh ..." Subaru was breathlessly cut off as Seishirou did something to him. Again.
The Therapist was about to throw her pen at Seishirou's seeing eye, when the door opened and Karen entered, leading a most sorrowful Sorata by the wrist. The Kansai monk's head was bowed, but the moment he looked up and saw Arashi sitting primly in her seat, he twisted out of the Soapgirl's grip and threw himself at the priestess' feet.
"I don't care if you're a lesbian, Miss, I still love you!" Sorata sobbed. "I'll convince you to change! I'll turn you back to the straight!"
Arashi looked as if someone had just dumped a frog in her lap. Karen sighed. "It didn't work, girly," she told Arashi, gesturing at the young monk. The Soapgirl prodded Sorata with one high-heeled shoe. "Arashi isn't really a lesbian, Sora-chan. She was just pulling your leg," she said, with perhaps only the slightest hint of disappointment.
"Arashi-san can tell jokes?" asked Yuzuriha.
"What is a joke?" asked Nataku.
'KILL KAICHOU' wrote the Therapist's pen, pressing so hard on her notebook she wrote this declamation on three sheets.
Sorata leapt up. "Really?!" he exclaimed. His face broke into a huge relieved grin and he glomped Arashi right there on the spot. Or he would have had Arashi not skillfully side-stepped, thus causing him to crash onto the floor. Meanwhile, Subaru was turning interesting shades of red due to embarrassment and something else best left alone.
Finally, he had had enough. "That's it, I'm moving!" the young man declared. He twisted out of Seishirou's grip and dragged his empty chair over to the other side of the circle to sit in-between Karen and Kamui.
Seishirou pouted. "But, Subaru-kun-"
"Can we PLEASE get back on track?!" snapped the Therapist.
Mercifully, everyone quieted down somewhat. The Therapist wished desperately for a glass of water and an aspirin. Seeing as mental therapists aren't supposed to show any instabilities of their own in front of patients, she wasn't getting one.
"We're going to try an exercise called 'free association'," said the Therapist, as Yuzuriha nudged Kakyou awake. "The way it works, is that I say a word, and you say the first thing that comes to mind when you hear that word."
"And what purpose does that serve?" asked Satsuki warily.
The Therapist pasted on a fake smile. She got this question a lot. "We'll get an idea of the things that are most important to you. What your subconscious focuses on. It's a very interesting game," she added. It was a variant on the little speech she always gave patients about this exercise.
Fuuma smirked. "I would think that most people's minds are already clear," he said, nodding towards Satsuki and her computer for an example.
"Some. Not everyone." The Therapist gave a pointed look at the broom-haired teenager. "Everyone shall participate."
Fuuma pouted, but didn't say anything to object, probably more due to some sadistic curiosity to know what went on the darkest recesses of the minds of his allies and enemies than anything else.
The Therapist sat up a little straighter in her chair, and held her pen poised over her paper. "I'll select words at random, so none of you can expect what you'll get," she said, scanning the nervous faces before her for her first victim. "All right. Who's first?"
Not surprisingly, no one volunteered. The Therapist raised her eyes to heaven for more patience and without looking, pointed her pen at the other side of the circle. "Kusanagi-san, would you like to start?"
The burly soldier jumped. "Uh, do I have to?"
"Everyone has to sooner or later. You'd might as well go now."
"I'd prefer to be later than sooner."
"You're going anyway. First word. Dog."
"Uh, cat," Kusanagi said quickly.
"Bo-oring," called Fuuma.
"Be quiet," sniped the Therapist, writing down 'cat' on her formerly pristine notebook. "All right. Cone."
"Ice-cream."
"Very good. School."
"Cat."
The Therapist frowned at the 'school – cat' response, but dutifully noted it down.
"Wait a sec," said Karen, sitting up a bit straighter, thus revealing more figure. "Isn't Yuzu-chan's family name 'Nekoi'?"
Kusanagi blushed. The Therapist looked at him, then wrote, 'Pedophile' at the bottom of the soldier's responses.
"Do all soldiers like school-girls or is it just you, Kusanagi-san?" asked Yuuto with a smirk.
The JSDF man glared. "Look who's talking. You're the one who's hooked up with Cyber-girl."
"Hooked up?" asked Satsuki, looking up from her computer.
Yuuto sweatdropped. The Therapist quickly cut in before the two men could start an argument. "I think we'd better move on," she said, readjusting her glasses. "Yuuto-san, we'll go to you."
The man looked at her warily. "Uh, ok," he said.
"Hmm ... Bed."
"One night stand."
All the women looked at Yuuto. Yuuto flashed them all a dazzling smile.
"... Ok," said the Therapist, her earlier good opinion of Yuuto dropping a few notches. "Table."
"Table dancing."
The women in the room looked at Yuuto again. This time, their eyes all seemed to glint like daggers. Yuuto waved them off.
The Therapist coughed. "Uh, last word for Yuuto-san," she said hurriedly, turning to a new sheet of paper. "Garbage."
Yuuto leaned back in his chair. "Women."
All the females in the room looked like they wanted to kill someone. Satsuki was perhaps the only exception. Her eyes resembled those of a puppy as she stared at Yuuto. The Therapist gritted her teeth as she wrote her conclusion down. 'Yuuto is a BASTARD.' "I think we shall continue," she said aloud, ignoring the way Karen's eyes were burning. The Soapgirl's hand twitched as if she wanted to throw something at Yuuto. The Therapist looked around the room. Hoping for some return to normalcy, she decided on Seiichiro.
"Seiichiro-san. Pen."
"Draft," the Asuka editor said immediately.
"Ok. House."
"Family."
Fuuma yawned loudly. "How long are we going to take with Family Man here?" he complained. "I wanna hear the good stuff." He was looking directly at Kamui when he said this.
The Therapist glared. "I'll give everyone probably about three or four words each" she said through clenched teeth. "And you're going to have a go as well. Seiichiro-san, again. Tea."
"Knife."
The Therapist blinked. "I fail to see the connection between 'tea' and 'knife'," she said.
Karen glanced at Seiichiro with a small smile, then winked at her. "It's a long story."
"Ah." One of those private joke things, obviously. "Ok, one more for Seiichiro-san. Flower."
"Soapland."
Everyone stared at the apparently normal Seiichiro.
"It's the name of my Soapland," explained Karen.
"I thought you said you were married, Aoki-san," said Yuuto.
The Asuka editor smiled embarrassedly. "I had to do an article about Soaplands, so I went to Karen's place for an interview."
"A private interview?" asked Seishirou.
"This is really irrelevant to what is at hand here, so I am going to move on," said the Therapist before Seiichiro or Karen could reply, although in any other situation she would have been quite happy to explore the gossip further. "All right. How about you, Kakyou?"
The languid Dreamer raised his head sleepily and shrugged. "Whatever."
"Movie."
"Dumped."
"You got a worse deal than me," commented Kusanagi, scratching his arm absently.
"At least you didn't get killed off in the first five minutes," grumbled Subaru.
Kamui snorted. "And the story was so screwed up as well. I mean, Kotori never gave birth to a sword."
"Can we please not get side-tracked?" asked the Therapist impatiently. She, having no life to go to the movies, had no idea what they were yakking about. "Kakyou, next word. Sky."
"Outside."
"Uh huh. Wet."
"Dream."
Most of the room burst out laughing. Kamui hiccupped, and Kakyou turned his cat-eyes onto him. "I'm a Dreamer, you know," he said conversationally to the boy. "Would you like me to tell everyone about that dream you had? The one with the handcuffs?"
Kamui turned beet-red and immediately shut up. Fuuma sat up and looked at Kakyou, a gleam in his eye. "Can you tell me?"
Kamui started making choking noises and giving Kakyou Glares of Death that said You Say A Word And I Will Blast You To Hell. Kakyou just looked at him.
"Go ahead," the depressed Dreamer said.
Kamui fell over.
The Therapist wrote down, 'Unmotivated, lives in a fantasy world,' beside Kakyou's responses and wisely decided to move on.
"Satsuki-san. We'll go to you now."
"Oh great," groaned the girl. The laptop on her lap flickered reassuringly.
"Animal."
"Kill."
There was an angry woof from a patch of empty air by Yuzuriha's knee. The Therapist pretended not to hear. After spending so much time with this group of wackos, it was entirely possible that she was having an auditory hallucination.
"Human."
"Boring." Satsuki turned to Yuuto beside her. "Not you though."
"I'm flattered," the man said dryly. The glow from the laptop's screen turned an angry red, and Yuuto quickly inched away.
Not wanting to linger too long on the fourteen-year old psychopath, the Therapist quickly said, "Fridge."
Satsuki patted the laptop. "BEAST."
The laptop screen turned rose pink. Satsuki frowned at the image on the screen and smiled the kind of smile Seishirou was wearing for Subaru. "That's a very interesting position, BEAST, but don't forget we have to make room for Yuuto-san as well."
The computer blinked questioningly. Satsuki stroked its case. "No, you don't need to wear protection. Just be careful not to electrocute Yuuto-san."
Yuuto happened to look over Satsuki's shoulder, and, the Therapist noted, was turning green. 'Sick girl. Padded room sounds good for her,' she wrote. Then remembering what Yuuto had revealed beforehand, she changed her mind. 'Actually, letting her loose on Yuuto is a Very Pleasant Idea.'
"Yuzuriha-san, let's try you."
"Me? Uh, ok."
"Friend."
"Invisible."
"... Money."
"Ice-cream."
"How cute. Summer."
"Ice-cream!"
The therapist looked at her over the rims of her glasses. "Yuzuriha-san, just how often do you eat ice-cream?"
The girl frowned and thought. "Well, I have a cone after lunch, then I'll get an icy-pole in the afternoon when it's hot. I usually eat a big bowl of it for dessert as well ... so three or four times a day, seven days a week."
"I'll buy you some after this," promised Kusanagi.
'Not cute' wrote the pen of the Therapist.
"You're going to get fat, you know," said Satsuki sourly.
Yuzuriha smiled happily. "No I won't," she corrected. "I'm a CLAMP character so I'll always be as thin as a stick!"
"We're all CLAMP characters," said Yuuto.
Karen posed slightly. "Which means we're all impossibly beautiful."
Kamui scowled. "It also means that we're incredibly angsty, will probably get killed in unexpected ways, and all the guys get slashed together."
Fuuma looked Kamui. "But don't you enjoy that?"
Nataku looked at all the males. "What is slash?" it asked.
"I can demonstrate," offered Seishirou with a smoldering look at Subaru.
"Don't even think about it," said Subaru.
Seishirou grinned. "I am thinking about it, Subaru-kun. Are you?"
"If we keep getting off-track, we're going to be here until the End of the World," snapped the Therapist before Subaru could answer, looking uncomfortable. She had remembered that she had a certain file under lock and password on her own PC labeled 'sl4sh'.
"That might come sooner than you think," said Kamui gloomily.
The Therapist glared at him. "It was a figure of speech. Kamui-san, you're next."
"Me?!"
"Yes you, since you like talking so much. First word. Bird."
"Dead," replied Kamui immediately. Realising what he had said, he groaned. Fuuma smirked. The Therapist looked at Kamui for a moment, and then wrote down his response. As an afterthought, she added, 'Fixation with death and angst ... wonder if he listens to a lot of X Japan ...'
"All right ... Fly."
"Wings. Destiny." The violet-eyed teenager slumped in his chair. "It's foreordained. And it sucks." Subaru patted him on the back sympathetically.
" ........" went the Therapist.
"Hey, look on the bright side," said Yuzuriha trying to be helpful. "At least you don't have to worry about what career you're going to choose in future!"
Kamui looked up at her. "Oh yeah. The guy who saved/destroyed the world. Wouldn't that look great on my CV."
"Continuing on now," said the Therapist, wishing she had something so unique on her own credentials. "Kamui-san. Photo."
The vertically-challenged boy grumbled. "Torture and embarrassment."
The Therapist frowned at Kamui, wondering why on earth the bishounen would hate photos. 'Self-confidence problem?' she wrote, pondering the problem a little.
"Chains," said Fuuma.
"Fuuma doing SnM," said Kamui before he realized who had spoken.
"I'll be the only one giving the words – what did you say??" said the Therapist.
Kamui had turned an interesting shade of deep red. "N-nothing."
"I knew he liked that sort of thing!" someone whispered.
"!!!" went Kamui.
Karen glanced at the purple-eyed boy. "Fuuma doing SnM on who?"
"!!!!"
Subaru looked at Kamui with his good eye. "Is there something you need to talk about, Kamui?" he asked.
"Subaru-kun playing counselor to Angst-boy?" asked Seishirou with one raised eyebrow. "Isn't that a little ... hypocritical?"
"Why don't we go to you, Sakurazuka-san," the Therapist said, voice laced with sugar. "I'm sure it'll be even more interesting than Kamui-san here."
The man smiled at her. "Go ahead," he said. "I have nothing to be afraid of."
"Emotionless bastard," grumbled Subaru.
"Please, Sumeragi-san. Alright, Sakurazuka-san. Car."
"Subaru."
Everyone looked at Seishirou. "What?" said the assassin defensively. "Subaru's a car!"
"He's right you know," said Seiichiro. "A few of my co-workers drive one."
Seishirou smirked. "I'm the only person who can drive this one."
Kamui twitched. Seishirou had the expression of a cat that has got at the cream. Subaru was steadfastly avoiding eye contact. Everyone wisely decided not to comment.
The Therapist forced herself to continue. "Next word. Bath."
"Subaru."
Everyone glanced at Subaru. The young man had his face buried in his hands and was glowing a nice shade of pink. Everyone looked at Seishirou's expression and decided not to make any hentai comments.
"Next word," sighed the Therapist, looking down her list of words. "Pie."
"Subaru." Seishirou glanced at Kamui and Fuuma, the former who looked as if he was about to snap, the latter who had an all-too-interested grin on his face. "No, you can't have any."
Fuuma smirked. Kamui seethed. Subaru suddenly found the floor very interesting to look at.
"............." went everyone.
The Therapist looked at Seishirou. Seishirou, thankfully, was not looking at her. The target of his mismatched gaze was the extremely mortified and embarrassed young man on the other side of the circle. The words 'OBSESSED SEXUAL PREDATOR' drawn in big capital letters and underlined several times took up one entire sheet of the Therapist's notepaper.
Seiichiro's brow furrowed in thought. "Excuse me, but where are you getting these words from?" he asked the Therapist.
The Therapist looked at the man, the only person who seemed to hold any sympathy for her. "I'm thinking them up on the spot," she said. Actually, she had a list that her assistant had given her earlier hidden in her notepad. Reading through the list, the Therapist wondered what her assistant had been thinking. Then again, Taryn was given to rather weird bursts of imagination at times ...
"Anyway, where were we?" said the Therapist, pushing her glasses up her nose. She really had to stop drifting off about other things sometimes.
"Sakurazuka-san and his sick obsession with Sumeragi-san," said Sorata.
"I'm not obsessed," said Seishirou.
Everyone just looked at him. Seishirou inspected the lapel of his several thousand yen suit as if he hadn't a care in the world. Subaru twitched, but that was all.
'In denial,' wrote the Therapist.
"Not obsessed, you say," said Karen, one slim eye-brow raised. "All right then. Free associate this." She paused, taking a moment to think. "Strawberry."
"Subaru."
"Does he taste nice?" asked Fuuma. Seishirou glared at him.
Karen shrugged. "See? We don't need her to tell us you're obsessed," she said, nodding at the Therapist.
The Therapist looked at the Soapgirl with an offended air. "If that's the case, why doesn't everyone give each other their own free association words?" she said, voice dripping sarcasm.
The subtle nuance of her voice went over Sorata's head. "Ok!" the monk said. He turned to Arashi. "Hey, Miss! Uh, Sorata."
"Idiot," said Arashi without blinking an eye.
Sorata's head went thunk on the floor.
"Ex-CUSE me!" snapped the Therapist. She glanced surreptitiously at her watch. This was taking a much longer time than she thought. "Sorata-san. Why don't you have a go?"
Sorata lifted his head. "Huh?"
"Cake," said the Therapist.
"Wedding cake!" said Sorata gaily. Arashi booted him into the wall.
"OW!"
The Therapist ignored him. "Beach."
Sorata hauled himself upright and tottered on his feet as he made his way back to his chair. "Babe. Bikini beach babe. Miss Arashi in a bikini!"
Arashi clocked him another one, this time into the ceiling. The Therapist blinked as bits of plaster fell onto her.
"Seeing that Sorata-san is rather indisposed, we'll try someone else," she said, ignoring the pair of kicking legs in the ceiling above her. Kusanagi pulled a chair over, stood on it, and pulled the young monk out.
"At this rate I don't think my destiny is going to be fulfilled," moaned Sorata, flopping piteously onto the floor. "I'll die at Miss' pretty hands instead."
Arashi looked at him, rolled her eyes, then reached out and grabbed Sorata by the scruff of his neck to pull him back into the chair beside her. The Therapist rubbed her temples. Ten years to retirement, ten years to retirement ... Actually, the thought was rather depressing so she gave up on it. She started thinking about the large cheque Kaichou had promised her – now that was something to look forward to.
But she had to get through this ordeal first.
"Who haven't we done yet?" sighed the Therapist.
"Subaru-kun," said Seishirou.
"Me," said Fuuma.
The others who had not yet had the pleasure of experiencing the Therapist's attention kept their heads and voices down.
Nataku looked at everyone. "What are we doing?" it asked.
It took all the will she had as a therapist not to fall over with a massive sweatdrop and start twitching.
"We're playing a word game, Kazuki," said Fuuma with a paternal smile. "It's a very fun game."
"Fun?"
"Yes, fun." The psycho teen looked at the Therapist. "Why don't you show Kazuki how to play?"
The Therapist glared at Fuuma. Fuuma smiled and looked innocent. The Therapist sighed. She had to do Nataku sometime anyway.
"All right. Uh ..." She scratched her head with the pen, scanning the list before her. "Chair."
Nataku blinked. "Chair?"
The Therapist counted to ten under her breath. Twice. "Yes, Nataku-san. Chair."
Nataku blinked again. "Chair?"
Fuuma looked at the Therapist who was about to do something not nice to Nataku. "Let me do this," he said.
The Therapist glared at him. "You want to try? Be my guest," she said snippily. Her attitude was quite understandable, of course.
Fuuma smirked. "All right. Kazuki, tell me the first thing that comes to mind when I say 'Daddy'."
"Kamui," said Nataku immediately.
Everyone blinked. They looked at Kamui.
"Not me!" the boy said hurriedly.
Slowly, everyone looked at Fuuma. Fuuma was smirking. Everyone decided not to explore the matter any further.
"Very good, Kazuki!" said Fuuma. "Do you want to play again?"
Nataku's face blossomed into a smile, the smile children wear when they have just been praised. "Okay!"
"All right. Kiss."
"Daddy!"
Kamui choked. He wasn't the only one.
"What a good child you are, Kazuki! Again! Master."
"Daddy!"
Fuuma smiled dangerously. Everyone instinctively shrank back. "And you'll do whatever Daddy says, right?"
"Uh huh!" said Nataku, bouncing up and down in its chair.
"Good! Daddy says, 'Tie up Kamui-kun and give him to me.'"
Nataku dutifully got out of its seat, pulled the white cloth draping its shoulders loose, and threw it at Kamui.
"ACK!" yelped Kamui, instinctively jumping out of his chair. Karen stood up, her red hair like a flame as she cupped her hand as if to throw something. Subaru also stood up, reaching into his sleeve.
"SIT DOWN!!"
At the angry shout, the would-be combatants quickly scrambled back to their positions. The Therapist was glowing a very dangerous red. Nataku remained standing, but seeing that the Therapist seemed prepared to throw a fit, meekly sat down.
"Are you okay?" Yuzuriha asked the Therapist.
The Therapist was about to snap something back at the girl, but seeing the sincerely concerned expression on Yuzuriha's face, forced herself to calm down. "I'll be fine, thank you," she said.
"Are you sure? Maybe you should eat something."
The Therapist smiled at her. Yuzuriha was very nice, if a bit strange. "No, that's fine ..." she began.
"Really sure?" pressed the girl. "I've got some Pocky if you want."
"..............." went the Therapist.
"I'll have some," said Seishirou. "I like sweet things." He winked at Subaru.
"Sei-shi-rou-SAN!!"
"Let's go to you, Sumeragi-san," said the Therapist desperately. The minute hand on her watch was moving way too slowly for her liking. "I'm going to give you three words. First word – Hat."
Subaru's mouth drew into a thin line. "Sister."
Seishirou pouted. "Oh come now, Subaru-kun," he chided. "It's been what, nine years? Can't you get over it?"
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Not even if I let you play with the red ribbons next time I try to-"
"NO!"
Yuuto looked at Subaru, then at Seishirou. "What is it with you guys and ribbons anyway?"
Seishirou smirked. "Ask the fangirls."
"Huh?"
"Moving ON!" snapped the Therapist just a little too loudly. "Party."
Subaru realized he was being spoken to. "Uh, drinking games."
Everyone stared at him.
"Sumeragi-san actually knows what those are?" said Sorata in disbelief.
Seishirou smirked. "So, Subaru-kun, you enjoyed licking salt off of my – mfff!!"*
Subaru leapt off his chair and across the circle and put one slim hand over Seishirou's mouth. "Shut UP!"
Seishirou worked his mouth free. "But Subaru-kun-" he began, completely ignoring the choking and gagging that was going on around the circle.
"I do NOT want to know!" stated Kakyou. Arashi coughed violently into her handkerchief.
"NEXT WORD!" snapped the Therapist, fanning herself wildly with her notebook. "Tree."
"Sakura S&M," replied Subaru before he had a chance to think. The moment the words were out of his mouth, he turned red.
The choking and gagging around the circle grew more violent. Kamui, it seemed, was trying very hard to keep his pretty purple eyes from bugging out.
'What is it with this group of psychos and S&M??' the Therapist wrote on her notebook.
Seishirou grinned. "Ne, Subaru-kun, why don't you and I-"
Subaru shoved his hand over Seishirou's mouth again. Seishirou took advantage of Subaru's position to grab the young man and plant him in his lap again. Subaru elbowed him in the chest when the assassin's hands tried to wander south, but apart from that, didn't really try that hard to break free.
"The things you never knew about Sumeragi-san," Sorata choked out.
"The things you didn't WANT to know," corrected Kusanagi. He had a funny expression on his face.
Subaru groaned and hid his face in his hands.
"Can we do a few more free association words on Sumeragi-san?" asked Karen, leaning forward exposing thigh and eyes intent. "I'm finding his responses most interesting."
"NO!" snapped the Therapist and Kamui. They glanced at each other in surprise.
"Uh, do Karen-san," the violet-eyed bishounen said quickly.
Karen turned to him, curves readily visible. "How cute, Kamui," she said, smiling coyly. "I didn't know you were interested in older women."
Kamui fell off his chair. Karen leaned over to pull him back. Kamui opened his eyes to find the Soapgirl's cleavage right in front of his nose. He fell over in a dead faint with a nosebleed.
"Excuse me, Karen-san," the Therapist said delicately. Secretly she wished she could have a figure like Karen's. She wished a lot of things actually. Right now, her main wish was to get out of this madhouse and see if it was possible to kill Kaichou with a pen. "Kamui-san is right; you haven't had a go yet."
Karen batted her lashes as Kamui shakily pulled himself into a sitting position on the floor. "Oh, but what could you possibly find of interest in little sweet me?" she asked.
The Therapist intelligently decided not to say anything to that. "Ahem. Clothes."
"Don't wear them." The Soapgirl grinned. "Or at least as little as possible. Either way is comfortable."
Yuuto, Kamui, Sorata, Kusanagi and Seiichiro suddenly found the urge to fan themselves with their hands. Arashi looked at Sorata, who was using both hands, and hit him.
The Therapist coughed. "Er, ok. Next word ... Toys."
Karen's smile turned bitter-sweet. "Teddy bear."
Yuuto frowned, as if he had been expecting something else. "Teddy bear?"
"Yup."
The blond civil servant scratched his head. "That's it? Teddy? No whips and chains? No soap? No cigars?"
"Hey, some of those sound like fun," said Seishirou. "Want to try, Subaru-kun?" he said to the young man on his lap. Subaru elbowed him again.
Karen glared. "What do you think I am? A whore? A slut? A White House intern?"
"How is a Soapgirl different to those?" said the Therapist.
Karen sniffed with professional pride. "There's a difference between a whore and a Soapgirl," she said loftily. "Come over to 'Flower' sometime and I'll show you."
Yuuto grinned. Satsuki dug her fingernails into his arm.
"Whatever." The Therapist looked over the rim of her glasses at Karen.
"Can we do me now?"
Everyone slowly turned to look at Fuuma. The psycho was lounging in his chair looking perfectly at ease. The Therapist cringed. The one person who was actually willing to do this exercise ...
"We haven't finished with Karen-san yet," she began.
Karen waved her hand dismissively. "Don't worry about that," she said lightly. "I'm SURE Mr. Broom-head over there is much more interesting than me."
Fuuma smirked. Kamui was looking very uncomfortable. The Therapist drew in a deep breath. "Fine then. We'll do Fuuma."
There was a loud SCREECH as everyone moved their chairs backwards. The Therapist rubbed her head, wishing her headache would go away.
"First word. Pool."
"Kotori jigsaw puzzle."
The Therapist frowned, not comprehending. Sorata, Arashi, Subaru, Karen, Seiichiro and Yuzuriha winced. Kamui gripped the edge of his chair so hard his knuckles were white. Obviously it was something she was better off not knowing about.
"Ok ... Wall."
Fuuma smiled darkly. "Kamui. Kamui pinned to wall. Me pinning Kamui to wall with lots of glass and a Shinken making Kamui bleed everywhere."
Deafening silence.
Subaru was the first to speak. "And I thought you were sadistic," he whispered to Seishirou.
"Oh, I am," the Sakurazukamori admitted. "I'm just a little more gentlemanly about it." He stroked Subaru's cheek to make his point. Subaru didn't argue.
The Therapist had to force her tongue to work again. "Er, ok ... Shirt."
"Kamui's shirt. Me tearing Kamui's shirt off. Kamui without his shirt and me ..."
Kamui now had the same Please Kill Me Now expression on his face as Subaru did earlier.
"... lots of blood everywhere and Kamui screaming and ..."
Sorata jumped to his feet. "That's ENOUGH!" he snapped, ears flaming red. "Geez, you sick pervert, get your mind out of the gutter!"
Fuuma looked placidly up at the monk. "Me get my mind out of the gutter?" he asked, one eyebrow raised. "What about you?"
Sorata stopped raging. "Huh?"
Fuuma leaned back in his chair. "I mean, everyone here has their mind in the gutter." he said, sweeping an arm around the room. "You jerk off every night thinking about your Miss ..."
Sorata twitched.
"... Kakyou there can't stop thinking about 'might-have-beens' with his lost girlfriend ..."
Kakyou's cat-eyes narrowed into slits.
"... Satsuki-chan wants to have sex with her computer as well as Yuuto ..."
Satsuki stroked her laptop.
"... Yuuto sleeps around – Kanoe is the latest I do believe ..."
Yuuto merely smiled.
"... Kusanagi is having an affair with a minor ..."
The soldier turned red.
"... and the inugami mistress is encouraging him ..."
Yuzuriha giggled nervously.
"... Kazuki has a unhealthy obsession with her daddy ..."
Nataku blinked.
"... the Ise girl isn't as cool as she pretends to be ..."
Arashi turned pink.
"... the Soapgirl is well, a Soapgirl ..."
Karen smiled.
"... Mr. Nice Guy wonders what it would be like if his wife worked in a Soapland ..."
Seiichiro had a violent coughing attack.
"... the Sumeragi thinks up interesting ways to lose his virginity to the Sakurazukamori ..."
Subaru looked like he wanted to kill someone.
"... the Sakurazukamori has been waiting for years to get into the Sumeragi's pants . . "
Seishirou grinned and slid his tongue into Subaru's ear.
"... Kamui-kun doesn't fight at all when I play with him ..."
Kamui looked as if he wanted to fall through the floor.
"... and I, as everyone knows, like to think up fun S&M ideas with Kamui." Fuuma looked at everyone. "So you see, there's no one here who is clean. I'm just more open about it."
Sorata, for once, couldn't say anything. The Therapist glanced around the room. Wisely, she decided to end the game.
"I think we shall try another exercise," she began.
Without warning, Fuuma turned to look at her. "And you know what?" he said aloud to the room.
Everyone looked at Fuuma.
"Even our dear Therapist gets off reading yaoi fics."
The Therapist wondered if there had ever been a case where a therapist had murdered her own employer.
There was always a first time for everything.
(* No, it's NOT what you hentais are thinking!! If you want to know the details, go ask Taryn for her 'Drunk Fic'.)
Chapter Two Chapter Four