Hello there! Thank you for choosing to read this fanfic! It's my first one ever so please review and tell me how I'm doing!

By the way, this story is set after Gareki graduated from Kuronomei as a physician combatant. In my mind that means everyone is three years older than in the original story (ie: Gareki is 18; Yogi is 24; Hirato is 30 and so on). For those of you who haven't read the manga, do so, then come back to my story...seriously the manga is awesome!

Disclaimer: I do not own Karneval or any of it's characters. My only possession is Yuki, my OC.

Now, without further ado...I present to you, dear reader, Chapter 1: Don't Touch My Tail!


*huff*…*huff*…*huff*… Running, running away again. But from what? A person? No, I can beat a person. So what then? Monsters? Myself? What am I running from? Why? Oh…yeah…that's right…that Varuga. Haha…I really am running from a monster then, huh? But why? I'm strong…stronger than most at least…so…why then?

*CRASH*

ROOOOAAAAAARRRRR! An enormous black beast, body writhing with darkness, burst through the underbrush behind her, 'shouting' at the top of its voice. It was ready, willing and very anxious to kill the young girl desperately trying to get away. It swung one of the long tendrils it used as arms and attempted to wrap itself around her body; it almost succeeded, but the girl managed to leap away from it at the last second. Her long tail flicked nervously at the close call.

Well…I guess that answers my question. Note to self: Do not mess with a Varuga master…they will set their puppets on you.

While the little game of cat and mouse between the girl and monstrous Varuga continued at a rapid pace, on the other side of the forest a small group of younger boys were currently stretching their legs, after riding in their ship, while on the way home from a recently completed mission, oblivious to the young girl's peril.

"Oi! Nai! Don't go too far, got it?!" One of the older-looking boys shouted irritably at the young albino, Nai.

"Hai, Gareki!" he replied cheerily in the face of the elder's irrational annoyance.

"Mou, Gareki-kun!" the other blonde-haired boy whined, "There's no need to sound so grumpy to Nai-chan!"

"Hah?! What'd you just say?" the dark haired boy's eyes flashed dangerously at the reckless comment made by his senior companion.

The blonde blinked a few times, actually considering his next words so as not to be hit by Gareki. He took a breath and stated in a much gentler tone, "I said, or rather meant, Nai-chan is a good boy and he wouldn't do something reckless without warning. Ne, Nai-chan?"

"Mm!" Nai's ruby red eyes shone with honesty as he continued to walk around, staying within a good few meters of the other two boys.

He stopped at one point, quite abruptly, and by doing so he alerted his friends that something was amiss. Nai cocked his head to one side, his eyes defocusing for a moment as he concentrated on listening to the rather strange noise he had heard. Suddenly his eyes widened and he took off into the surrounding forest, an odd determination coloring his beautiful eyes.

"Nai!" both Gareki and the blonde shouted simultaneously at the retreating figure. They glanced worriedly at each other before taking off in pursuit.

Ω

The running girl's cat like ears twitched when they picked up sounds of another person running toward her and the Varuga chasing her. She frowned.

You have got to be kidding me!? Now I've got to deal with a Post-Human? No…wait…the steps are way too loud for a Post-Human…or at least not one that deserves immediate attention. Maybe it'll just start yammering about how wonderful he (or she) is and how they are going to mutilate me or whatev-

BAM "OOF!"

CRASH "NYAOUCH!"

The girl was interrupted mid-thought as a strange white haired, red eyed, skinny little human male knocked her right off her feet and into the bushes next to a tree. The Varuga that had been trying to catch her was caught by surprise and ended up slamming into a large tree it supposed the girl would avoid instead of her disappearing into the underbrush.

"Nai!?" Gareki shouted in concern at the disappearance of his young friend. At about that time, he noticed the gigantic Varuga, struggling to get up after its unexpected tumble into the tree.

"Gareki-kun! Is Nai-chan okay?" the blonde screeched in his ear. Gareki winced and sighed loudly while clutching his now aching head.

"I don't know, you idiot," Gareki sighed again and narrowed his eyes trying to identify where the missing child had gone. After a few seconds of looking he noticed a pale leg sticking out of the bushes next to a rather large tree. He sighed for a third time before darting over to the bushes to rescue his little friend. He wasn't fast enough for the girl Nai had tackled, though. Up till the moment Gareki attempted to help Nai, she had been simply lying underneath the albino while attempting to figure out what had happened. In her mind she recreated the incident and replayed it at a much slower pace.

Okay…so I was running away from the Varuga when this little colorless kid, with bright red eyes and hair shaped like horns, or ears, with bits of purple coloring just the ends, rammed right into me at what seemed to be his top speed. He 'oofed' and when we landed in the bushes he landed on my poor tail; I 'nyaouched' and he looked at me in surprise at my strange yelp. As I stared at him in confusion trying to decipher his actions, he blinked back at me, his eyebrows furrowed in concern and he asked, quite gently I might add, "Are you okay? I heard you…er…yelp when we landed and I was wondering if you were alright." My eyes widened in shock (No one had ever, in her entire life, asked if she was okay after she made a sound of pain). When I didn't respond, he looked even more worried and began to repeat his previously asked question; instead of waiting through it again I cut him off in the middle with a quick, "Yes. I'm…fine. Just fine. You simply…um…surprised…me. Sorry if I startled you." The boy on top of me immediately grinned like I had offered him a million dollars. That was when I realized the position we were in, his body was lying right on top of mine and his hands were on either side of my head. I blushed bright red, pushed one hand underneath my body, put the other on his back and lifted both of us up, making sure he didn't fall back on the ground. When I got far enough up I used my legs and tail to quickly boost us the rest of the way up until we were standing again.

Gareki stopped when he saw Nai, and another person he couldn't fully identify, appear to 'jump' out of the undergrowth onto their feet and into the now standing Varuga's line of fire. Both he and the blonde behind him shouted a warning at the two, but it was useless. The person with an arm around Nai gripped him tighter and leapt high in the air and avoided the flailing Varuga tendrils. They landed a few feet away from the blonde, who looked stunned by now at the impressive display of agility by the unknown person.

Gareki was the first one out of the three boys to regain his senses, so he shouted to the blonde, "Yogi! Get Nai and whoever's with him away from here. I'll handle things here, got it?!"

The blonde, now known as Yogi, nodded tersely, scooped the two up in his arms and flew off back to their abandoned transportation vessel.

With the possible collateral damage gone, Gareki was able to focus on the enemy in front of him. He focused for a moment and as he felt the familiar handles of his beloved weapons, a pair of silver and black .38 caliber S&W handguns, he raised his arms and uttered the words, "Das Verboten*," he paused while waiting for it to charge a bit and for him to take aim at the snarling Varuga in front of him.

He took a short breath, exhaled, smirked at the beast and hissed out the word, "Feuer**!" Then, as he watched the horrifying creature crumble and turn to dust, the young man sneered and spat out, "Die, worthless scum…die and never come back."

After killing the beast Gareki exhaled slowly and began to fly back to his waiting companions and the still unknown extra person who helped Nai escape. He flew a lot easier now that he'd had some practice at it and he still enjoyed it just as much as he did when he first learned how. Gareki smiled and closed his eyes, enjoying the wonderful feel of the wind in his hair. His peace was disturbed, however, when he heard a feminine sounding screech coming from his intended destination. He groaned out loud and thought, What has Yogi done this time?

When he returned, he met with a very odd scene. The strange person, a girl judging by the figure, who had been with Nai, was throttling Yogi with a red face and tears in her eyes. They shone with pure fury and more than a hint of terror and pain. Nai was looking astounded and Yogi was turning a lovely shade of purple due to lack of breath.

Gareki blinked a few times, finally noticing that the girl had cat like ears and a long tail with a cute little poof of fluff on the end making it look a bit like a cat toy or a very strange flower. He smiled at his inner image of the girl chasing her own tail around thinking it was a toy, he snapped out of his daze only once Nai started squeaking at him to help Yogi. The older blonde looked like he was about to pass out, so Gareki quickly strode over and gently touched the girl on the shoulder. When she whipped her head around he held his hands in the universal I mean no harm sign and slowly gestured toward his, now unconscious, friend.

"Whatever that idiot did to make you so mad, I promise he meant no harm. He can be a dense idiot sometimes but, unless provoked, he wouldn't hurt a fly. So, knowing that, can you let him go, he looks like he's gonna die if you don't." As the dark haired boy smiled gently at her, she felt her anger fade a bit and she reluctantly released her victim allowing Gareki to catch him before he hit the ground.

Her tail flicked indignantly as she muttered, "He pulled my tail thinking it was simply a fake…it hurt so I returned the favor," the cat-girl looked down and blushed slightly at her own overreaction, "I'm sorry."

"Urrg…" the blonde Yogi woke up just in time to hear the apology and, after a few seconds of regaining his breath he responded with a sweet sounding, "It's okay! I'm sorry too. I didn't know it was real and thought the tuft on the end was cute so I just kind of acted on instinct. I act like a cat a lot in real life so I just did what I thought was normal for a cat. Hehe…I'm really, really sorry for hurting you. If I had known it would hurt I would never have done what I did. I am so sorry."

The girl blinked. Once again she was stunned at the response she got. She had never had someone apologize to her. Especially not when she had also been in the wrong, usually when that happened she was either beaten or starved, depending on who she angered and why. The girl wasn't sure as to how she was supposed to respond. Did she need to say it was okay? Or maybe tell him it was nothing. She had no idea whatsoever. So when her mind was finished whirling she decided upon something similar to his response.

"It's okay…I was more startled and angry than actually hurt. In my mind pulling on someone's tail, or any other body part for that matter, is considered very rude and quite offensive. But seeing as how you didn't know, it's alright. I forgive you entirely." Of course the girl had never actually thought about tail pulling being rude but she figured it sounded like a reasonable excuse instead of telling him that the tail pull really hurt which subsequently reminded her of some equally painful memories she had been trying to forget. She didn't let on to her mental and physical pain though for the sake of his conscience and ego. It seemed to work too; he instantly grinned and pulled her into a big hug squealing about how cute she was. The girl could already tell that this guy was going to be one heck of a handful.

Thanks again for reading, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and are willing to read the next one (still a work in progress). Reviews are accepted and appreciated!

* The Forbidden (I know it doesn't make much sense, but I like the way it sounds...so work with me.)

**Fire (as in 'shoot' not 'flames')