A/N: I'd like to point out that I'm not completely out of my mind... I just happen to like these two together. (A tiger and a cat, it's destinyyy--) This idea just popped into my mind, and I was forced to write it. I know that there are very, very few readers of KyoKisa-pairing, so reviews would be much appreciated. Also, I'm not a native English speaker, so grammatical corrections would be very nice. Thanks for reading in advance!

Disclaimer: Fruits Basket does not belong to me, but is it a sin to wish it did?

Revised on 4.3.2008

The Safe Place

by eishi (2007)

It probably started when she was five years old. She had been playing some game with Hiro, who was her beloved even at that point. They had played until it was dark, and when they realised what the time was, they had to come back through the old forest path since it was much shorter. The forest path had always been very scary, even in broad daylight, but when one walked there in complete darkness, surrounded by the nightly howls and rustles and shuffles, it was terrifying to be honest. Even if she had held Hiro's hand all the long, long way back to the Souma Estate, she had been too scared to fall asleep that night.

It was probably the first time Souma Kisa had finally dragged herself up after the sleepless hours, exited her room and went across the hall to knock on her one certain relative's door. She was nervous to see him, as always: after all, the cat was something that even the adults were afraid of.

When the nine-year-old boy opened the door, however, she didn't feel scared one bit. The questioning look of big, bright red eyes, the protective smile lurking behind them, and the approving nod to invite her in were all she needed to know that there was no reason to be afraid of him. She entered, searched for something to settle her eyes on, found an old painting on the wall, and then muttered her request in a small voice.

"I'm scared."

He stared at her a while, then nodded in an understanding manner. She continued: "Hiro-kun's not here tonight... and I don't want to wake up mother... Can I sleep next to you?"

He shot her a questioning look, and she quickly added:

"You're strong. You can protect me from monsters."

He had opened his mouth to say something, but had never retorted; instead, he had just silently motioned that her wish would be granted and he wouldn't drive her away. Kisa never felt fear taking over her again that night.

After that there was a long pause, maybe even months, perhaps a year – but when it occurred the second time, there was even no need to explain her actions to Kyo. He opened his door, nodded and let her in, and she settled next to him. In the morning she was gone, like there hadn't been the need to sleep next to him just to ease the fear that haunted her in the darkest hours. He had smiled to her the next morning, and she had answered to the look – then Hiro had interrupted, and they had never had the chance to talk.

The third, fourth, fifth and sixth times went in a routine: she knocked, he opened the door, she looked into his eyes, he let her in, and then there was no more fear. In the morning she woke up in her own bed, like she had been sleeping quietly the whole night, but Kyo knew better. He always remembered every hiccup, every silenced sniff and every toss and turn before the quiet steps, before the knock and before the begging look. He remembered, too, the steady breathing and the small smile, and the yawn as she stood up and tiptoed away before the dawn. She would always send him a thankful look the next morning, and he would always answer to it with a nod. That was all.

They never talked. There was no need to: Kyo knew that his presence alone was able to calm her down and stop the nightmares. Soothing words, strokes on the hair and hushes would be just waste of time. She never asked for those, and he never started to act differently. All he ever did was open his door and let her in.

The seventh time, however, was the one time they both remembered very clearly. It was remembered as seventh because they had named it so – neither knew was it seventh, eleventh, fourteenth or seventy-eighth time – and it was a special time, since it had happened on Kisa's ninth birthday.

Kyo hadn't lived in the Souma Estate at point anymore, but had been forced to visit his fellow zodiac member on her birthday, naturally. All the guests had stayed the night, and Kyo had been given his usual room. His caretaker Kazuma had wished him good night but returned to celebrate with the adults, and Kyo had been alone in the dark room. He had tossed and turned in his bed, unable to sleep because of the noise. (His senses were sharper than of normal people, and unfortunately he wasn't able to turn those off even if he wanted to.) The loud laughter of the adults had irked him and he had gotten up to tell Kazuma that he wanted to leave if the stupid noise didn't stop.

When he had opened his door, he had seen her. Her hand was still in the air, about to touch the pale wooden frame, and her eyes were big of astonishment. He had stared at her.

"What do you want?"

She had lowered her gaze. "Um... I don't want to sleep next to mother this night. She... she..."

She hadn't yet known the words for 'being a stupid drunkard like all the stupid adults', and Kyo had enlightened her on the matter in his own way.

"She's getting wasted somewhere, isn't she?"

She hadn't understood, just stared at him with those big, brown eyes. Kyo had sighed. "You want to come in?"

A smile had spread on her face. She had entered the room, and Kyo had suddenly felt the need to show that at least he was more mature than her.

"By the way, there are no such things as 'monsters'."

"But we aren't normal, and we exist, too."

He had stared at her a while, then smiled. After that, they hadn't talked at all. In the morning she had been gone like all the other times, but this time, Kyo had been surprised to wake up alone: Kazuma had been supposed to be sleeping in the same room.

Kyo never asked had his caretaker seen him and Kisa sleeping in the same bed and decided to sleep elsewhere because of that, and when it wasn't ever mentioned, stopped caring. Perhaps Kazuma was right in his non-existent reaction: when the whole episode was meaningless to Kyo and Kisa themselves, why should anyone else care at all? They shouldn't. Kyo didn't care, at least.

Their tradition was broken for some time when a clumsy girl with a big heart, named Honda Touru entered their lives and changed them in her own unique way. Kisa became a little more confident, and Kyo thought proudly that it was time for her to survive the nights on her own. He was ready to let her go, like he had once done to a crippled bird he had healed and then shooed off to freedom. He really thought her to be ready.

She wasn't, however: once when she was visiting Shigure's house – that time the whole gang consisting of Kyo, Touru, Yuki and Shigure had still lived there – she waited for an hour before sneaking to his room. Kyo was surprised to say the least to see her standing in his door, but let her in nonetheless. And never once said anything.

The same thing continued throughout the time Kyo was living in Shigure's house. The only minor detail that changed was that she waited for everyone else to fall asleep before she knocked on Kyo's door. Her nightly requests of safety place got sparser, too, as she was now old enough to understand that there were neither monsters nor criminals to take her away when she was sleeping. It happened once in a while, but Kyo was still ready to open his door to her, even if he was now sighing every time it occurred. She just smiled apologetically to him and came in.

As time passed, her nightly trips to Kyo's room got very rare, and Kyo was more than glad of this. It wasn't exactly very common to let one's fourteen-year-old female relative sleep in the same bed for whatever small, stupid reason. She had gotten slier in her reasoning: "Every time I almost fall asleep, I hear the crackling of the floor when Shigure-ojii-san moves, and think that there is a murderer there", "The birds sing different songs than what I'm used at home, and they scare me every time I try to go to sleep", "Hiro-kun tried to suffocate me in his sleep". No matter how stupid her excuse was, Kyo always let her in, sighed and said: "You know, you should try to grow up... You're not ten, remember?" Then she always smiled shyly, apologized, and slipped next to him.

In time Kyo learned to read her perfectly. He knew all the things that scared her out of her little mind: her fears ranged from spiders to scary movies, but there were certain differences in her fears. Seeing a spider just before going to bed didn't make her desperate enough to come to him, but hearing a crow croaking was enough to make her shiver and tiptoe to his room after one o'clock in the night. Watching depressing news on TV didn't affect her, but reading a melodramatic book barely worth of the paper it was printed on apparently did. The only time Kyo had had to resist the urge to laugh at her was when her reason was "it's raining..." muttered in a quiet, sleepy voice. How could rain scare anyone?

Kyo rejected her only on one occasion – when she had turned fifteen and had announced her engagement with Hiro just few weeks earlier. He had coldly told her that there were far better candidates to tell about her worst fears, including her betrothed. She had glanced at him disappointedly, then nodded sadly and turned away. Kyo had slammed the door tightly shut and gone back to bed, but hadn't been able to sleep a wink that night. The next day she had dryly reported that her engagement with Hiro was a forced one and she wasn't in love with Hiro anymore, hadn't been in three years. Kyo hadn't found the will power to apologize. The next time she had come to his door, he had almost dragged her in.

Even when she was seventeen, Kyo knew exactly that whenever they watched a scary movie in their get-togethers, she'd sneak to his room at midnight and apologize for waking him. He had often wondered why would she still come to him of all people when she was scared – she trusted in Yuki far better, and wasn't Touru like a sister to her? Or Haru like a brother? And Hiro, even if their relation had been bit disastrous for years, wasn't Hiro nowadays like a brother to her, too? Or even Shigure? – Shigure adored her, and would do anything for his favourite female relative. And when Hatori, Ayame, and all the other countless members of zodiac that attended their monthly meetings were there, why wouldn't she go to them? The point was that out of all the people, Kyo was probably the one who didn't know Kisa well.

Was it out of pity?

Or didn't she just dare say that she'd like to go to someone else, but was now stuck with him because they had such a long tradition?

Why did she come to him every time she was scared?

He finally got the guts to ask that question that had been on his mind for quite a long time when she was eighteen and they were all spending the weekend in Shigure's house. It was time for their monthly meeting, and since Touru had insisted that the tradition must be kept alive, even Kyo had dragged himself there. He hadn't dared to hurt his friend's feelings, even if it had meant a five-hour trip for him and spending too much on the train ticket. It had been three months when he had last seen Kisa, and this time seeing her was really uncomfortable. She was now eighteen – there was no innocent reason why should a grown woman sleep in his bed.

She looked at him, confusion in her bright eyes. "Because with you, I feel safe."

End.