"Oh, come on, Ritsu! Join in on the fun!"

The younger boy blinked up at the older cousins, heavily-lashed amber eyes furrowing in his shyness. "Oh no I couldn't, I'm no good at…"

"You don't have to do anything, Ritsu," Hatori said, voice weary. The teenager was slouched on the sofa, trying (and failing) to concentrate on his 'human anatomy' textbook, several sheets of paper and a pen resting on his lap awaiting the notes for his difficult class. "I'm probably headed for the library soon anyway; I can't get any work done around these idiots. Do you want to come, too?"

"I say, Hatori!" Ayame protested with a wounded gasp. His lilac coat, trimmed with fake white fur and cinched fashionably at the waist with a leather belt looked so soft and inviting that Ritsu wanted to bury his face in it. He envied his older cousin's natural carefree nature and exploding abundance of confidence; Ritsu wished he, too, could wear such beautiful clothes. "Idiots? Shigure and I are only practicing for the new year's dance!"

Perking up at the sound of his name, Shigure slunk up behind his best friend. Resting his chin on the snake's shoulder, he wrapped a protective arm around his chest, drawing him close. "Has the big bad dragon offended you, my darling?" he purred, something sly in his tone. "Oh Ayame, I just can't stand the thought that you'll be dancing with that little horse-girl at the New Year's party. Oh if only it was the dog that followed the year of the snake! You're trading me in for a younger, prettier model, aren't you?"

He was referring to Isuzu, a girl even younger than Ritsu with the face of a china-doll and black hair tumbling in inky waves all around it. Ritsu had never spoken to her, but gazing at Ayame he thought they might make a striking couple on the softly lit stage, their colors contrasting sharply. He could just imagine the grand spectacle the new year's banquet would be. His whole family; tables piled with delicious food. Merrymaking and dancing and laughter… it was all so grand. If only he didn't feel so shy and anxious, if only…

Ayame shot his cousin a devious smile. "She is a pretty little thing, isn't she? Oh the exquisite gown I'm designing for her!"

Shigure gasped and brought a hand to his heart, pulling away from the snake as his face contorted in mimed agony. "Say it isn't so, mon frère!" he wept large, heaving crocodile tears. "Giving into the desires of the flesh for a flower so young… I knew you would one day tire of me!" he collapsed in a pile, shivering and shaking and altogether having a very good time.

Ayame regarded his indisposed dance partner for a brief moment before turning his attention back onto Ritsu. "Come, child!" he boomed with grandiose hand gestures accompanying every word. He seized the monkey around his waist, the fabric of Ritsu's school uniform bunching over his elaborately manicured hands. "Let us practice the routine we've been designing. It'll work better with an actual child and not that big ogre over there," he added sharply over his shoulder, and the heap that was Shigure flinched at the words like an arrow had pierced him.

"Oh, no no no no, Ayame-san!" Ritsu stuttered, flames breaking out over his fair cheeks. "I can't dance. I'm so sorry, oh; so sorry…"

Ayame merely laughed, his unusual and rather Santa-like "oh-ho-ho!" chuckle of pure concentrated confidence seeming to shake the wooden floors of the mostly empty room (they had cleared the majority of furniture out of the Sohma student's study room, save for Hatori's sofa, for this very occasion.)

Ritsu found himself set lightly on his toes and then whirled abundantly, faster and faster, in wild and uncoordinated circles. Oh, if only I weren't so horrible at everything, he thought miserably, failing to notice the delight on Ayame's face. I'm going to spoil the whole dance!

His cousin hardly seemed to care; he was having the time of his life.

"Ayame, you'll want to be careful there," Hatori called, watching them over the top of his book. "You're going to shake him apart."

"Nonsense, nonsense!" Ayame called back. "Monkeys are quite sturdy creatures!"

At that moment, Shigure, tired of being ignored and itching for attention, sat up on his haunches, eyes trained on the flashing white hair of the other boy like a dog scenting its prey. He inched forward, hips wriggling excitedly, and when the jingling bells strapped to Ayame's ankles came near enough, he launched himself forward, landing in a pile of squeals and flailing boy-limbs.

"Aah-" Ritsu cried out quietly. There was hair in his mouth and an elbow in his ribs and he didn't know up from down anymore. Ayame and Shigure were laughing without abandon now, wrestling, and he was somehow trapped in the middle.

Suddenly a pair of strong arms shoved in between the madly giggling idiots and hooked underneath Ritsu's armpits. "Will you two knock it off," Hatori snapped, finally angry. "You're going to hurt him. He's just a kid."

"Spoilsport!" Shigure called as Hatori adjusted his grip on the slightly-dazed boy, holding him like an infant.

"I'm sorry to inconvenience you, Hatori-san," Ritsu said miserably. Shigure had said it; he'd spoiled all the fun for everybody! It was no wonder nobody liked him… He wished his mother hadn't dropped him off at the main Sohma household early for the winter holidays, but he supposed he couldn't blame her; if he was his mother, he wouldn't want to spend any time with himself either.

"Hush," Hatori said gently, running a cursory glance over the small child as he checked for lumps or bruises. "It's not your fault they're awful babysitters."

Hatori's sock-clad feet thumped quietly on the wooden floor as he carried Ritsu back to his sofa.

"Give him back, 'Tori-san!" Ayame whined. He's my dance partner!" Ayame's pale skin seemed to glisten under the study's bright lights as he stretched his arms out, beseechingly, Shigure's hand on his belt holding him back.

"I said no!" Hatori snapped. "You shouldn't be trusted with breakable things. Or people." He held Ritsu up high, away from the two boys, his hands holding Ritsu's waist like a belt. Ritsu suddenly began feeling a bit dizzy.

A long white hand gripped Hatori's ankle, causing him to stumble and grip the little boy even harder. Fireworks sizzled in Ritsu's brain and everything went black.

…

"And you thought we were going to break him."

"What the hell did you do, Ha-san?"

"I… I don't know!" a frantic sound of shuffling papers. "There's nothing in my notes about spontaneous fainting… perhaps the dance over stimulated him? You were shaking him like a maraca!"

"I hardly think this was my fault…"

Ritsu blinked his eyes muzzily. He was resting on his back on the soft sofa cushions, a pair of brown eyes and a pair of green eyes gazing intently at him. From behind the two he saw Hatori crouched on the floor, searching through an even larger medical textbook than the one he had been studying from earlier.

"He's awake," Shigure turned over his shoulder to call out. Ayame, looking somehow even paler than usual, pressed an unusually cold hand to Ritsu's cheek. The touch felt nice on his overheated skin and he unconsciously turned his face into the palm.

"Are you alright?" Ayame asked, seeming uncharacteristically serious. "I apologize if I was a bit too enthusiastic… I do tend to get carried away."

"No, I should apologize!" Ritsu protested, attempting to sit up.

Shigure held him down by one shoulder. "Hey, now," he said reasonably. "Let's take it easy for a minute. Go get him some water, Aya."

Ayame, always feeling better when he had a task to complete, hopped to his feet and slithered out of the room.

"That was so strange," Ritsu murmured quietly. "It's like, everything felt fine until you began pressing down on that spot on my side…"

This caught Hatori's attention, and he looked up from his books. "Spot?" he asked, turning around. "What do you mean?"

Ritsu pointed to the spot just around his pancreas. "Your hand was gripping there so hard, and it just made my brain… fizzle."

Hatori paled. "Do you think I interrupted his circulatory system somehow?" he asked Shigure, distressed. Then, "I've never heard of it affecting someone in that particular location…"

Cool interest was shining in Shigure's eyes. Before anyone could stop him, he pressed a thumb, hard, into the spot Ritsu had indicated.

Blackness again.

…

"You moron!" a sharp smack. "Why the hell would anyone ever trust you around children? I'm taking him and leaving. You are impossible!"

"I can't help it, Haa-san! Once I know that something's possible, I just can't help but want to try it."

"What are you—get your hand off of me, you idiot!" another smack.

"Oh, it doesn't work on you! Is it just a Ritsu-thing, then? Ayame, come here! I want to try something!"

"Oh-ho-ho, oh my Shigure, that does tickle."

"So it's just Ritsu then…"

"I'm out of here. If you need something, call someone else."

Ritsu felt himself being tossed unceremoniously over a shoulder, smelled Hatori's mild shampoo as hair tickled his nose.

"No, bring him back, Tori-san! Aren't you curious about what else he can do?"

"Ritsu is a child, not a toy to cure your boredom."

"Spoilsport!"

"Very unsportsman-like, Tori-san."

Ritsu, lulled by the gentle walking motion the tall boy provided and soon feeling the crisp outside air touch his skin, sighed and nuzzled his face deeper into his cousin's neck, too sore and groggy to think otherwise. "I'm sorry to be such a burden," he sighed.

"Ritsu, you're not a burden. You're part of this curse with us. Our bodies aren't like other people's, and so we need to look out for each other. It looks like this is just another part of your curse; I won't be having them exploiting it. Remember; they have lots of unique weaknesses too."

Ritsu sighed again, but couldn't help but smile as he felt a snowflake fall on his cheek. "Thank you, cousin."