Akito was hurting her.

"You stupid girl! Our curse is our curse, you can't save us, you're nothing!" he yelled, slapping her across the face again and again.

Kyo stood there, helpless, watching from the bars on his window, as Akito slowly beat the life out of Tohru. Every blow she received was a blow to his heart.

"I hope you're watching, Kyo," Akito snarled, kicking Tohru in the chest. She was barely conscious at this point. "You did this."

Somewhere inside Kyo, a match sparked, then faded out.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Akito slapped her, kicked her, punched her, over and over again.

The match sparked again, and faded out.

"You're useless and stupid and ugly! You're better off dead!" He threw her against the wall.

The match sparked once again, and a flame was lit.

Akito stopped, as if replaying his words. A slow, malicious grin spread across his face. "Yes…" he drawled, stepping closer to Tohru's limp body. Kyo's gaze was fixed on her face, her bloody and swollen face, but at Akito's voice he turned to look at him with a kind of horrified awe.

"I should make you dead." A sick grin spread across his face, the look of purest insanity and hatred in his eyes.

"I should make it painful," he continued, stepping closer. "I should make you suffer." He drew a knife from inside his sleeve.
The flame spread.

Akito stepped closer to Tohru. He was less than three feet away.

The flame got hotter.

Step. Two feet.

It spread to his chest.

Step. One foot.

It spread to his fingertips.

Step. He stood over her with the knife.

And Kyo… lost it.

He ripped through the bars on a rush of pure adrenaline. And in an instant he was on Akito, sending them both flying into the bushes around the cat's room.

"No. One. Touches. My. TOHRU!" Kyo screamed, punctuating each word with a blow to Akito's face. All he could see was red, he didn't even register that Akito was bleeding, rivers of scarlet running down his face as Kyo slowly beat him to death.

"Kyo."

The world stopped spinning.

"Kyo."

It turned upside down, then righted itself.

"Kyo?"

His vision cleared.

"Come back to me."

He could think again.

"Kyo…"

"Tohru."

A gentle hand, a soft, warm, loving hand, rested on his arm. It was smeared with blood, but it was her hand. Kyo looked up at her.

She was quite a sight, with black eyes already starting to show, cuts and abrasions across her entire face, and a large lump over her left eye. But it was still her.

And even though she was in such horrible shape… she was still trying to comfort him.

Kyo felt his anger fade away, and he collapsed, inside and out,.

When he woke up two days later, he was in the hospital. He asked a nurse what he was doing there and she explained he'd received a knife wound to his abdomen. He'd been so high on adrenaline, he figured, that he hadn't even felt the knife touch him. He hadn't even thought about the fact that Akito had a knife.

He found out that Tohru was just fine. Nothing too serious, just a lot of bruises and a mild concussion. And he found out she was in the bed next to his.

"You're too far away," he groaned, stretching his arm toward her.

"I'm right here!" She laughed, reaching out her arm to touch his fingertips.

He sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, pushing himself off, ignoring the stabbing pains and the stiffness. He tottered over to her bed, and she scooted over, lifting the sheets by way of an invitation. He climbed in beside her and pulled her close, being careful not to jostle her.

"Thank you for saving me," she whispered softly in his ear as he put his arms around her and rested his chin on her head.

"Always," he murmured.

"I love you."

He thrilled to the word. "Me too."

She stroked his hair, and like that they drifted into sleep, with Kyo's final word being "Forever…"