New Arrivals

by Karin-sama

The Department for the Relocation and Protection of Endangered Chibi-Nekos? What kind of organization is that? And why do they suddenly want Karin-sama to take in the Kenshin-gumi?

New Arrivals
by: Karin-sama

Disclaimer: Chibi-neko idea was taken from skippy-chan and blown completely out of proportion. The Gundam chibis were taken from the Gundam Wing series and the Kenshin chibis were stolen from Rurouni Kenshin. Anything pertaining to Karin-sama's house, friends, or person is of my own make.

Summary: Karin-sama gets an unexpected visit from an unexpected company and a lot of unexpected situations occur involving a group of new chibi-nekos and Karin-sama's inability to encourage them all to just get along.


"Are we ready yet?" Duo-chan called from the front porch where Karin-sama had banished him after he'd managed to topple over an entire bowl of potato salad. He'd been waiting patiently out there for hours. . . .well. . . . however many minutes that equals in DST (Duo-chan Standard Time) when Duo-chan is particularly excited about something. He had gotten them all up at four thirty that morning, having some internal alarm clock that told him exactly when the sun came out despite Karin-sama's best efforts to sleep in. Why, she'd even moved him to the west side of the house and put up black blinds over the windows for heaven's sake, and still he managed to know exactly when the first tendrils of molten gold touched the sparkling fountain of the yard. And yet, he couldn't tell the difference between hours and minutes. . . yet another oddity of Duo-chan's irresistibly innocent character. "Karin-sama?!"

"Hai, hai, Duo-chan, we're coming," Karin-sama yelled out to him quickly before he determined that his time for being sent out to the porch was up and he should come back in to help out again. "Be out in just a minute." She tucked the salvaged potato salad securely into a large picnic basket next to the Kool-Aid mix and the napkins. . . there were a lot of napkins. Today was a very important day. . .the day that Karin-sama's friend Hilary-chan would be leaving for her new job in the far off reaches of. . .er. . .somewhere that not many people have heard of with a topography consisting of rocks, lakes, and a LOT of bird sized mosquitoes. In any case, Hilary-chan would be staying there all summer and Karin-sama couldn't get away to visit her up there so this would be their farewell picnic. The chibi-nekos didn't really understand the meaning behind it. . but it was a chance to have a picnic in the park, and the trip itself was exciting. Besides, they had never met Jilly-chan's sister, and since they all loved Jilly-chan they were quite enthusiastic at meeting someone who might possibly be like her.

The other chibi-nekos hovered underfoot, eager to help if it would speed up the preparation time. They had never been to the park before, they had never seen Hilary-chan before, and the whole day just bubbled with possibility. Yet their hyper activity was making them very much in Karin-sama's way, and that was almost dangerous. After stepping on Tro-chan's tail for what must have been the third time as she hurried about the kitchen, she ordered them all outside to keep Duo-chan company so she could finish packing in peace. She was just about ready to shout "let's go" when a different shout beat her to it, except they said something she was very much unprepared for.

"Someone's here, Karin-sama!" Heero-chan reported from the doorway, his pistol already out for the protection of his family. Karin-sama paused in her task of figuring out exactly how she was going to carry the picnic basket to figure out exactly who would come to her neck of the woods. She wasn't expecting any visitors, she never expected any visitors except Jilly-chan and skippy-chan. . but they hadn't visited for a very long time. And it wasn't exactly the right moment for someone to just show up unannounced right when they were going to leave.

"Wow!" She heard Duo-chan gasp as she abandoned the picnic basket to satisfy her curiosity as to who was out there. "It's bigger than the school bus!" Karin-sama opened the door to discover that Duo-chan was very much correct. The large white van could very possibly be larger than the school bus. In fact, it looked like one of those dogcatcher vans that are always in the old movies. Stenciled on the side was something that looked suspiciously like a chibi-neko. . .but that was impossible.

"Come here, guys," Karin-sama called and the chibi-nekos clustered behind her skirts, except for Duo-chan who climbed to his accostumed perch on her shoulder, and Heero-chan who still wanted to protect everyone with his pistol.

A man in a suit stepped out of the passenger side of the van and calmly walked up the driveway, stopping before he'd gotten too close as he'd noticed the kind of looks that were being given him by the owner of the splendid house and the little chibi-nekos surrounding her. He fished out a clipboard and checked off a note, nodding in an approving manner.

"Um, hello, yes," Karin-sama raised the hand that wasn't holding onto Quatre-chan. "The closest town is about five miles north of here, sir, but you won't find a highway unless you go back the way you came." The man in the suit laughed politely.

"Oh, I'm not lost, I don't think." He looked around as if the trees could tell him his latitude coordinates. "Unless, of course, you aren't a Miss Karin Dyani." She narrowed her eyes, wondering exactly what this man with his chibi-neko painted van wanted with her.

"I am she," she admitted, figuring that he wouldn't hurt her, and Dane-kun was always a sharp yell away. Heero-chan fingered his pistol threateningly, causing the man to look at him with interest.

"Oh," he burst into a wide grin and took a step closer. Heero-chan raised the water gun. "Isn't that one a beauty? I've never seen this breed this close before."

"I . . I beg your pardon?" Karin-sama stuttered, taking her own step closer and shifting Quatre-chan so she could snatch up Heero-chan at a moment's notice. What on earth did he mean? The man stood straight from his contemplation of Heero-chan.

"Oh," seemed to be the favorite word of the day and the way that this man started all sentences. "Oh, I'm sorry. I haven't introduced myself have I? Here's my card." He took one deftly from under the clip on the board and snapped his hand out for her to come retrieve it from his fingers. Karin-sama looked quizzical, but took the card. It had the same chibi-neko image on it. . .and over it were the words. . .

"Andrew McKinnley, Department of Chibi-Neko Social Services for the Protection and Relocation of Endangered Chibi-Nekos," the man looked about ready to bow as Karin-sama read the card out loud. She had to read it again, and one more time for good measure.

"You must forgive my ignorance, but I've never heard of such a thing," she finally admitted, waving the card at him so he would be sure to understand what she meant. Duo-chan squinted at the writing, harrumphing at the chibi-neko image. "What do you mean, Endangered Chibi-Nekos?" The man, Andrew, cleared his throat dramatically.

"Well, according to our field expert, skippy, there are fewer and fewer chibi-nekos to be found in the wild. Apparently they are being hunted and sold as pets in Europe, quite a frivolity over there, she says. Yet most of the time people give chibi-nekos as pets to people who have no business with such a delicate and beautifully rare creature. Therefore, we of the Department have taken it upon ourselves to locate such abused chibi-nekos and place them in better homes where they will be well treated until they are ready to function in society. She also told us that she had placed five. . uh. . " he paused to check his clipboard. "Five Gundam chibi-nekos class W into your care. I've come to see how they are doing, make sure they are being taken care of properly, you understand?"

"Yes, I understand, but you see I have a very important picnic to get to right at the moment ~"

"And you weren't invited!" Duo-chan had been quiet for far too long, so this interjection had almost been expected by Karin-sama. . but she had to tell him to be polite anyway.

"And you were unexpected," she ammended what Duo-chan had blatantly told Andrew. "So could you possibly come back at a better time?" Andrew waved a hand at her.

"Nonsense, nonsense," he chirped in a very chibi-neko like manner. "It will only take a moment. I just need to look at them, oh, and tag them for our records, you know."

"Tag them?!"

"Triby has a tag," Wu-chan offered helpfully. "And he never said he didn't like it." The chibi-nekos looked up at Karin-sama, who seemed to be standing in some kind of shock, shrugged and started forward to get their tags and let the man look them over so they could get on to the picnic. The man looked oddly surprised at how well behaved they seemed to be.

"Well, I'm saying that I don't like it," Karin-sama was incredulous. Tagging, the very idea! And they claimed to be acting in the chibi-nekos' best interests too. "Come back here, guys, he's not putting any tags on you." The chibi-nekos scurried back to her twice as fast as they had went forward. "Let me tell you something, Mr. McKinnley, before you get back into that dogcatcher van of yours and get yourself back to where ever it was that you crawled from, any kind of idiot can see perfectly well that they are all happy and well here with me, and if I'd known that skippy was working for you and that you were going to tag them like animals then I would have gone into the far off reaches of where ever it was that she got them to take them home myself! They are not pets, they happen to be my family. Now take your tags and your clipboard and your card and kindly leave us alone, we are going on a picnic." This fantastic, and grammatically correct, speech was immediately applauded by the Gundam chibis, who gathered around Karin-sama, beaming up at her.

She turned a practiced glare at Andrew, who was smiling as if he'd just heard the most flattering thing since his mother first cooed over his crib that he'd be someone someday, and wondered what that smile was supposed to mean. He took the clipboard and scribbled some notes on it, never dropping the smile. Karin-sama suddenly wondered if she had just made a fool of herself somehow.

"Perfect," he told her around his teeth. "You seemed the right sort when I first pulled up, but you passed just beautifully." Karin-sama put her hand over her eyes. "They really do have tags, just not the kind you're thinking of. Here," he reached into his inside coat pocket to produce the little pieces of paper that looked suspiciously like social security cards. "It's just so we can keep track of them after they, you know, grow up and leave you." Karin-sama looked up, not realizing that was possible. "Here you are: one for the Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei. Right, just keep it with you. Put them in your wallets, if you have one."

"What's a wallet?" Quatre-chan asked curiously. "Is that like a little wall? Do you want us to hang them up like Karin-sama's pictures?" He turned around. "Do you have a wall let that we can hang our tags on Karin-sama?"

"We'll, um, we'll find a good place for them, Quatre-chan," she promised, still stuck on the fact that they could actually grow up and leave her. She turned her attention on Andrew, who was still standing in the driveway like he belonged there and had no intention of leaving anytime soon. "Is that all, sir? We really do have to get going. I have someone waiting for me, you see?"

"Oh," Andrew blinked himself awake from his self induced "I'm staring at adorable chibi-nekos and don't they say the darndest things" trance. "Right, sorry. I have one little piece of information to ask of you before I go."

"You're not going to send me a bloody newsletter are you?"

"Oh no, unless you want me to," he stopped waving his hand and blinked at her seriously. "Do you want me to? There is a lovely chibi-neko magazine. . full of lovely stuff: recipes for chibi-nekos' favorite snacks, what to do for injured tails, how to teach your chibi-neko to speak a foreign language. . or, rather, how to get your chibi-neko to stop speaking Japanese." Karin-sama quickly lost interest. She knew how to do all these things already.

"No, thank you. I'll pass."

"Right then. You know where to contact us if you change your mind." He paused as if he'd forgotten what his original purpose for existing had been. "No, I actually needed to ask you how many extra bedrooms you have available?" Karin-sama raised an eyebrow. Did he want to stay the night or something?

"Two, as a matter of fact. And a den, and of course there is the study sofa, and I may have a couple of cots tucked in the attic, and naturally you have the stable hayloft, very comfortable this time of year, but, as I always suggest, the best of all is the motel. . ." she might have gone on to say that this particular motel was very, very far away from them and he'd better get going to it before it got dark and there would no longer be a mint on his pillow, but he held up a hand and she, being polite as possible, had to cut off.

"Oh, that is perfect. The two bedrooms will do very nicely I think."

"Could I trouble you in asking to get to the point a little before schedule? We're already late."

"Oh, yes, well, what I really came here for is a huge favor, and seeing as your house is so large and you seem so capable of caring for chibi-nekos. Better suited to it than most people I've seen, in fact."

"I can't take any more, if that's what you're asking." Andrew cleared his throat, looking wounded.

"Oh, come on. You haven't even met them yet. They are a rare set of Kenshin-gumi, only a few left in the wild and they will certainly not do as well in Chicago as here. They need fresh air and wide open spaces, you realize, and the only other person suited to take care of them is currently running a restaurant in Chicago and you can see how that just wouldn't work at all."

"But, I. . .I already have --" Andrew blinked as if that would have some sort of mind control effect, but when he finally realized that it wasn't working and his powers had deserted him, he quickly thought of a different tactic. His blinking quickly brought up big tears in his eyes.

"Oh, I see how it is, no, no, that's all right," he whimpered, with just the right amount of emotion. He sighed. "I understand. You have quite enough to keep you busy, and don't think we don't appreciate what you're doing for the species. I'll write you a letter of recommendation in fact, but I realize that there are limits to what you can do." He waved a hand and finally turned to go back into the van, shoulders slumped in a perfect imitation of disappointed sorrow. "I'll just have to take them to Chicago, they would never survive in the wild now, you know, they were taken when they were so young. Lived all their lives in cages in the back of a novelty pet shop in London. Had to break them out myself, with my own hands in the dead of night to save their lives. But that's all right. At least they'll have a picture window in the Chicago flat to see the sun once in a while. Oh wait, there is no sun in Chicago, my mistake. Oh, no matter, no matter, it's not your problem, now is it? Sorry for taking your time. Good-bye Miss Dyani."

Karin-sama didn't know whether she believed the man or not. Especially the bit about breaking them out in the dead of night with his bare hands. Quatre-chan was quite taken with the dramatic account, however, and was sniffling in what seemed like the beginning of a full-fledged sorrowful fit. Tro-chan was trying to soothe him before it really got started, saying that Karin-sama would fix everything and no one had anything to worry about.

"Those poor things!" Quatre-chan cried, remembering how he had been taken from his little nest in the far off reaches of somewhere. He remembered he hadn't liked the net very much, so he figured a cage would be much worse. "Couldn't we take them, Karin-sama? They can share my room."

"Mine too," Duo-chan offered into her ear. "You don't want them to go to Chicago, do you Karin-sama?"

"Well, no, but, Duo-chan, guys, you realize that this is a big decision here." Andrew sensed the breakdown from his position near the van. And being the perfect player of manipulation, he opened the back door to peer inside, as if checking on the well being of his cargo.

"How are you doing guys?" He said softly, but with the intention of having it carry to where Karin-sama was having a hard time convincing the Gundam chibi-nekos that she couldn't take care of more than what she already had, despite their assurance that they would help. "No, I can't let you out yet. This lady here is very busy and can't be bothered, you know. It's all right, you can have a minute or two outside in a while. Once we get to Chicago."

"How far til then?" Squeaked a very soft, very tired, and very sad little voice. Andrew could have kissed the little thing for the effect. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the Gundam chibi-nekos lips purse at the sound, and even Karin-sama looked like she felt sorry for saying no.

"Oh, it won't be long now guys. It's only a matter of hours now. Try to be patient with me, all right?"

"McKinnley-sama," chirped another voice. "Why doesn't she want us? We can be good, promise."

"It's not that she doesn't want you. . .er, well, it's just that. . ."

"That's all right," said a third voice in a tone that said very much that it wasn't all right, but they would just have to deal with it because they didn't have much of a choice. "Let's just go, ok?"

Karin-sama looked at the brimming eyes of her little chibi-nekos, and sighed. Mr. McKinnley trudged to the other side of the van and opened the door to get in.

"Mr. McKinnley," she called out hesitantly, not sure what she was going to say now that she had his undying attention. He looked at her eagerly, the beginnings of hope sparkling in his face.

"Yes?" He peeked out from the van door.

"How about you and your Kenshin-gumi come to the picnic with us? That way they can be outside before you go on your way to Chicago." His face fell ever so slightly. That wasn't what he was expecting. Immediately there came excited squeaks from the back of the van. They thought that sounded like a fine idea. He thought about this for a moment. Maybe, once she saw them, she might agree to take them off his hands, and this way he would have more time to persuade her.

"Oh, well, uh, sure. I'm sure they would appreciate that very much." So with a high pitched round of "horaay" from the Gundam chibis which was echoed from inside the back of the van, the unlikely little company made their way out of Karin-sama's driveway to the town park for the picnic.

"Karin no baka!!" Came Hilary-chan's happy chide. "I thought you had forgotten all about me." Karin-sama stepped out of the car and began unbuckling seatbelts to release the chibis in a whirlwind frenzy.

"Never," she laughed as the chibis dashed into the grass and sunshine to inspect the place for maximum play possibility. Quatre-chan smiled politely at Hilary-chan even as he stepped behind Tro-chan. "We had an unexpected visitor, you see."

"Yes," said Hilary-chan as the white van pulled to a halt next to Karin-sama's sporty little car. "I do see." She pushed her glasses into a better position to examine Mr. McKinnley as he shut the van door. She was still standing and watching the van when the chibi-nekos decided it was time to examine her.

"Hey Hil-kun!" Shouted Duo-chan trying to get her attention away from the van and down to where he was jumping up and down and waving. "Nice to meetcha!!"

"Hil-chan," Karin-sama corrected as she heaved the picnic basket to the nearest table. "She's a girl, Duo-chan."

"She doesn't look like a girl, Karin-sama," he turned his head to get a better look. In his mind, most girls wore skirts and had long hair. This Hil person was wearing an adorable black pant suit, and her dark brown hair with blonde highlights was very, very short and spiked to perfection. In all, she was very, very cute, and very, very unlike Karin-sama because of it.

She smiled good naturedly, bending down to pick up Wu-chan just before Heero-chan tested the distance of his pistol in his general direction. "That's ok," she was saying as she traced a finger over Wu-chan's ears. "They can call me whatever they want to."

"Oye!" Came a voice that dripped with southern drawal. "There ya are! Here we thought we'd have to play on that lovely swingset all by our lonesome selves, ne, Jilly-chan?" Jilly-chan giggled and swept downward to scoop up Tro-chan, who had sprinted for her as soon as he could see who was coming up to the picnic table. Dane-kun waved his hat at Karin-sama, grinning like a lunatic, before his attention was called to Heero-chan, who was untying his shoelaces. Karin-sama waved back just as Duo-chan clambered excitedly to her shoulder. There was so much to do, and so many people to talk to, and he just couldn't keep up with everything so the only thing left that he could do was climb to his perch and see what he could see from there.

"Lookit, Karin-sama, all this stuff!" There were trees and slides and swings and a sandbox and a basketball court and this huge wooden thing that looked like it was created specifically for a hide-and-seek game. Karin-sama laughed, thinking that life is good when one is a chibi-neko.

"Hai, Duo-chan, and you'd better get going if you're going to see it all, ne? I'll call you when we're ready to eat." Duo-chan breathed deeply and then set off, ready to tackle the world of the unknown. Quatre-chan joined him and together they went after Heero-chan who was already climbing in the huge wood castle type thing. Wu-chan kept a hand on Hil-kun's (as she will hereafter be referrenced as) pant leg. She had done something that he had always loved, and she didn't even have to be told. Every once in a while, she would bend down and trace her fingers over his ears again. . and he loved that so he stayed next to her. And of course Tro-chan was in Jilly-chan's arms thinking that was the best place he could possibly be. . .even in a park of wonders. Dane-kun came up to the picnic table and leaned against the tree that shadowed it, keeping one eye on Karin-sama, and the other on the strange man who was standing near the van next to her car.

"Say there," he said slowly, scratching his head. "Who's that suspicious looking fella there, Karin-chan?" Karin-sama turned and looked behind her to where Mr. McKinnley was helping a little girl chibi-neko out of the back of the van. She'd almost forgotten about him.

"Well," she started, looking apologetically at Hil-kun. "He's the reason I'm late, you see. He just showed up out of nowhere claiming to be from the Department of Chibi-Neko Social Services."

"You're joking," said Hil-kun as she unpacked the bowl of salvaged potato salad and then squeaked as she saw the peanut buttery potato candy underneath. (Karin-sama owns stock in the potato company). She helped herself to a piece as she went back to studying the stranger. "So what does he want?"

"I want help," Mr. McKinnley jumped into the conversation as he strode up confidently toward them. Er, at least it was confident until he saw the look that Dane-kun was throwing his way. He stopped before he got too close. Dane-kun, when he wasn't speaking, was quite intimidating. Mr. McKinnley had four leashes in his hand that were attached to four collars around four little chibi-neko necks. "I need a good home for these little guys. Somewhere that they'll be safe and well cared for."

"And I suppose you want Karin-chan to take them, is that it?" Jilly-chan asked blatantly as Hil-kun moved around the table to inspect the new chibi-nekos. The first set that had sprinted out of Karin-sama's car had been wild eyed and rambunctious, while these, well, they weren't doing anything but staring. Wu-chan followed Hil-kun, wishing he had permission to climb up to her shoulder so she wouldn't forget he was there.

The Kenshin-gumi were adorable in the sense that all chibi-nekos are adorable. The Yahiko-chan was staring about himself in incredulity, as if he never expected to see sunlight ever again. The Sano-chan was stretching luxuriously while trying to see everything at once. The Kaoru-chan had her little lips pursed and her raccoon tail bristled as if expecting to be attacked. And the little red haired, red tailed, Kenshin-chan was crouched low in the grass with a sweet, if sad, smile on his face. Karin-sama looked at them sorrowfully and sighed. She wanted to save them; she really didn't want them to have to live in a Chicago apartment. But she really didn't think she could handle nine chibi-nekos, especially since the five she had were so inclined to get into trouble.

"Could you," she said quietly as her eyes got all watery from looking at them. "Could you at least take the collars off?" Mr. McKinnley looked doubtful.

"It's for their own protection. I wouldn't want them to get lost."

"They'll be fine, sir," Dane-kun growled. "The other little 'uns will look after them. Here, Wu-chan, how about you taking the little missie like a gentleman and introducing her to the rest of the pack?" A little reluctant to leave his new friend, Hil-kun, but wanting to see how these new chibi-nekos would react to everything, he decided to do as he was told. With only slight hesitancy he went up to the Kaoru-chan, who looked very frightened, and with one quick hand movement had taken off her collar before Mr. McKinnley knew what had happened. He bowed very politely and offered her his arm to take her to where Quatre-chan and Duo-chan were watching the happenings from the see-saw. She moved very stiffly, probably hadn't been outside for days, and she kept reaching up with her free hand to see if the collar was indeed off.

"The one with the braid is Duo-chan," they heard Wu-chan report as they walked over. "And the other one is Quatre-chan. . .what's your name?" Mr. McKinnley whistled under his breath before turning impressed eyes on Karin-sama, not even paying attention at the deftness with which Wu-chan had taken off the collar.

"You've sure done a fantastic job. . I've never seen chibi-nekos that behave like yours. I daresay that you could probably teach them to read."

"I can read," Tro-chan volunteered from his safe position on Jilly-chan's lap. It was all right to talk if she were around. "I could read before I went to school even. We all can."

"School?" McKinnley whistled again. "It's a wonder, Miss Dyani, simply a wonder. I never would have thought of sending them to school. You see why you're such a perfect choice for the care of these poor, abused, little things?" Karin-sama sighed again as she crouched next to Hil-kun and began helping her with the unsnapping of the collars since Mr. McKinnley had yet to do it himself. Yahiko-chan was off and running after Wu-chan before she'd gotten it completely unhooked, and the Sano-chan was the same. Without a word, they raced to where Heero-chan was climbing and immediately jumped up to join him. Quatre-chan was now politely pushing Kaoru-chan on the swing and Wu-chan was doing his best to help out. Karin-sama just looked thinking that there were so many of them. Then she picked up the apparently shocked Kenshin-chan and carried him back to the picnic table where Hil-kun was dividing everything onto paper plates with the assistance of Tro-chan.

"Abused?" Jilly-chan bit her lip. "They were abused?" Mr. McKinnley sighed dramatically, gazing with admiration on the Kenshin-chan who had curled up in Karin-sama's lap as she softly stroked his head and tail.

"Oh, it's a terrible, terrible story," he began, managing to make his voice crack. Karin-sama forced herself not to listen otherwise she might roll her eyes at a crucial moment. He rubbed a hand across his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself. "I found them in London at a novelty pet shop. . .they were kept in cages in the back. Small, dirty cages. No room to play, no clean water even." He paused to regain his composure as Karin-sama bent to kiss the Kenshin-chan's ear. He knew he was finally getting somewhere. "It was just awful. When I found them, they couldn't even speak or walk upright. Naturally something had to be done."

"Naturally," said Jilly-chan, her eyes wide at the atrocity.

"So, in the dead of night, I slipped into the pet shop and broke into their cages." Dane-kun looked dubious about this, but he decided it was in his best interest not to voice his opinion at this point. Mr. McKinnley looked about ready to cry. "But they didn't even understand what I was trying to do. That one there in your lap, Miss Dyani, got me pretty good on my hand when I tried to pick up the Kaoru." He raised his hand that had a band-aid over the side that Karin-sama hadn't noticed before. "They had no idea what it meant to be 'free' and it frightened them terribly. I had to keep them in cages just to make them feel a bit more comfortable, and the collars were to make them feel safe."

"They seem to be doing fine without all that now," Dane-kun couldn't help pointing out as he looked to find the Sano and Yahiko on the swings with Kaoru. He could even hear laughter coming from that direction.

"Well, yes, I've helped them a bit through our therapy program, but still more needs to be done for them. However, none of that is your problem really. . ." he cut off as he took the plate that Hil-kun had politely, if with a distasteful expression, given him. Dane-kun chewed on a toothpick, wondering what to make of all that nonsense. He folded his arms and looked at Karin-sama, who was still petting the Kenshin-chan. He could hear the little creature purring softly, and smiled. Karin-sama sure had a way with chibi-nekos.

"Do you want something to eat?" Karin-sama whispered to Kenshin-chan, ignoring everything else that was going on. Mr. McKinnley, Dane-kun noticed, was watching Karin-sama with extreme interest, and he didn't like it one bit. He looked about ready to say something persuasive, so Dane-kun took the exact moment when he first opened his mouth to whistle as loudly as he could, and smiling pleasantly when he noticed the glare Andrew was giving him.

The Gundam chibis, who had been well trained to whistles, all stopped what they were doing to look at him. The Kenshin-gumi jumped a mile and clustered in a frightened little group. Kenshin-chan covered his ears, and buried his face against Karin-sama.

"Sorry, there, little guy," Dane-kun apologized quickly before raising his voice to the others in the playground. "Come on, fellas!! Time to get a plate!" Heero-chan and Wu-chan came sprinting to the table on all fours, while Quatre-chan helped Kaoru-chan from the swing and came a bit more slowly. The last two came with dogged steps, as if they didn't really want to abandon their new found freedom so quickly. Duo-chan dropped onto Karin-sama's shoulder from the tree behind them that he had managed to climb without anyone noticing. She startled and almost dislodged him.

"Yee! Duo-chan, you're going to give me a heart attack one day!" He grinned broadly and fiddled with her necklace before climbing down to sit next to Ken-chan on her lap. Andrew stood from his place at the table to allow Heero-chan to climb up and help Sano-chan and Yahiko-chan up to sit next to him. He patted the two closest Kenshin-gumi and then tip-toed away from the group. Even Dane-kun was too caught up in chibi chatter to notice where he was going. Karin-sama watched the new friendships with unease. If they were all friends by the end of the picnic, it would be really hard to let them go. Wu-chan tugged on Hil-kun's pant leg and she was more than happy to allow him to sit in her lap, bending down to lift him to a comfortable position. Quatre-chan hurried the Kaoru-chan along so he could sit next to Jilly-chan, and then Kaoru-chan ended up between Quatre-chan and Hil-kun. Karin-sama shifted Duo-chan onto Dane-kun's lap as he plunked down next to her, and then everyone who wanted a lap had one and all the adult type people had at least one hand to eat with. Plates of potato salad, chicken, bread, and pickles were passed around the large picnic table. The Gundam chibis dug in immediately, encouraging their fellows to have some too.

"It's really good," Quatre-chan insisted to Yahiko-chan on the other side of the table. "Karin-sama made it, you know." Yahiko-chan gave a quick glance at Karin-sama, shrugged, and began picking at the chicken. Hil-kun was allowing Wu-chan to steal pieces off her plate, and Tro-chan was helping Jilly-chan out as well. (This is definitely a Karin-sama family type thing. . ..don't get disgusted)

"Would you like some, Kenshin-chan?" Duo-chan leaned in Dane-kun's lap to offer the little red haired chibi some of his crescent roll. "Hello?"

"It's ok, Duo-chan," Karin-sama took the bit of offered roll. "He just doesn't know us yet." Duo-chan grinned. Karin-sama had said 'yet.' That might mean that they would be staying with them after all. He thought that might be loads of fun. He kept smiling as he munched on the rest of the crescent. Karin-sama gave Ken-chan the piece of roll, and he took it hesitantly, smelled it, and finally put it into his mouth. It was nice and sweet and soft, and he immediately turned around to look at Karin-sama after he'd swallowed it. She laughed, recognizing the look, and took another one from the basket. He smiled thankfully.

"Don't make much noise, do they, Karin-chan?" Dane-kun asked as he ripped off a piece of chicken for Sano-chan. "You'd almost think they weren't here, except that all the tails and ears make your eyes twirl."

"Do you really think that McKinnley guy was telling the truth?" Jilly-chan pondered while Tro-chan buttered a roll for her. He wanted to make sure she didn't get so caught up in conversation that she would forget to eat this wonderful stuff that Karin-sama had made. Yahiko-chan shook his head while swallowing a gulp of Kool-aid, somehow managing to do this without spilling a drop. "He wasn't?"

"Not really," Yahiko-chan squeaked, setting the cup down. "He never took us from the pet shop." Dane-kun's eyes narrowed, and he began looking around to see why McKinnley wasn't speaking up in his own defense.

"Oh is that so?" The dangerous expression on his face made Yah-chan wince and slump farther on the bench.

"It was someone else who did that," Kaoru-chan chirped with a whispered prompting from Quatre-chan. "He was never in London."

"Where is he anyway?" Karin-sama decided to bring it up since everyone was talking about him as if he were gone, yet they hadn't asked exactly where he was gone to. She knew the answer, not before she could have done anything about it, but now she had it figured out. . and she was rather upset about it. Dane-kun jumped up and looked to where the white van had been parked, and then growled out a word that the chibi-nekos had never heard before. Karin-sama shot him a glare even as she covered Duo-chan's ears in a rapid gesture.

"Dane-kun!" She chastened. "No need of that, eh? I'm sure we'll get this settled soon, and he'll get his Kenshin-gumi back and that will be the end of it. Now do sit down and have a piece of potato candy, all right? We're supposed to be enjoying ourselves and saying good-bye to Hil-chan, and all we've been doing is arguing about that McKinnley fellow." Dane-kun loosened his fist and sat down grudgingly. He hadn't liked that Andrew guy from the get go. . .and now he knew why. The little devil had run off and left the chibi-nekos here, where he expected Karin-chan, sweet and giving soul that she was, to just accept them into her home. She patted his hand and gave him a smile that said she knew she was being taken advantage of, but she really didn't mind all that much. It made him feel a little better and he took the white bit of candy.

"Are you all packed now Hil-chan?" Karin-sama sparked the question, trying to take the topic off of what everyone really wanted to talk about right then except her. She didn't want to talk about it now. . .she'd wait until she had the Kenshin-gumi alone in her study before she got into that kind of thing. Hil-kun nodded as she took a swallow of water to wash down the peanut butter of the candy.

"Everything I can possibly take," she said. "You've got my address right?"

"Yes, it's written in several places so I'll be sure not to lose it."

"Where are you going, Hil-kun?" Wufei-chan asked rather sorrowfully from her lap, twisting around to look up at her. He found that she was rather interesting and nice and he liked sitting in her lap almost as much as he disliked getting soaked. Therefore, he didn't want her to leave now that he'd just met her.

"I'm going somewhere far away," she told him, running her finger over his ears. "I'm going to go flip pancakes in the Boundary Waters!"

"Where's that?" Duo-chan was interested now, turning from coaxing the Ken-chan to take a sip of Kool-aid to pay attention to where Hil-kun was going.

"Its pretty far away," was all she said knowing that he had no real idea of topography anyway, so saying it was way up north wouldn't mean much to him. "I'll be staying in a cabin in the woods by a lake with a bunch of mosquitoes."

"Can I go too?" Wu-chan begged, tugging on her finger. "I've never seen a mosquito! I'd help you flip pancakes and I'd be good. . promise!"

"Now, Wu-chan," Karin-sama intervened because Hil-kun looked like she very much wanted to take the chinese chibi with her if she could. "She's going to be very busy up there, and I'm sure she won't have much time for you. Why don't you stay here with me and you can write her letters."

"Can we all write her letters?" Duo-chan liked writing letters. . .actually, he liked licking the envelopes and stamps, but the actual writing of the letters was involved in that process somewhere, so he liked doing that too. Hil-kun smiled.

"Yes," she said. "You can all write me letters! I'd love that. And you can remind Karin-chan to write me too. So she won't forget." Karin-sama looked a little sheepish.

"You won't forget about Hil-kun, would you Karin-sama?" Wu-chan seemed incredulous that Karin-sama would forget anything. "Of course, you did forget about Tro-chan that one day that he ran away." Karin-sama coughed into her hand and tried to force another round of Kool-aid on everyone so she could get up and get some more water from the fountain to make it.

"That's ok, Karin-sama," Tro-chan told her as she hid behind the pitcher. "It really wasn't your fault, you know. It was that lady on the phone who used to live in Dane-kun's dog house."

"Right mess she left for me too," Dane-kun chimed in as he turned the other way on the picnic table bench. "You wouldn't believe the state that house was in. Broken cabinets, squeaky doors, and yet she tried telling me her husband had fixed it all up for the new buyer." He shook his head as if it were all a cryin' shame, and closed his eyes as if remembering the house as it had been before he got his repairman's hands on it.

"Um, anyway," Karin-sama sweatdropped. "If you need me to help you load up your car or anything, just give me a call all right?" Hil-kun nodded vigorously behind her cup.

"Yes, I probably will need some help because I don't like getting up early you see. . .and getting everything from my house to my car is going to take a little bit of time all alone, so, you know, if you wanted to help me I'd appreciate it."

"What time then?"

"Oh, I'd say bright and early. . .how's seven-thirty for you?" Karin-sama smiled, remembering a time when seven-thirty had been early. But that was before she regulated her life according to DST. Speaking of DST, the creator of this unique form of relative time consideration tugged on her sleeve to get her attention.

"Can I go and play some more?" His eyes took on a large, pleading quality that said if he couldn't it would be really sad for him and he may need some intense therapy were he to be deprived of the experience of swings and slides.

"Yes, go on and play while we talk for a while." There came a whoop of joy and he was dashing off with Heero-chan quick on his heels. Quatre-chan excused himself politely, then offered his arm to Kaoru-chan in case she wanted to come with him. The other two Kenshin-gumi were already off, but the Ken-chan was still in Karin-sama's lap, as if afraid to get up. His eyes followed Kaoru-chan's every movement though, as if ready to sprint to her defense in case anything unexpected were to happen. Tro-chan and Wu-chan stayed where they were too, one wanting to hear the conversation in Jilly-chan's lap and the other because he liked having his ears traced.

The afternoon lolled into evening without incident. Well, much of an incident. The incident that ended the enjoyment of the picnic was the bee. It happened after the remnants of the picnic were packed again into the basket, and the basket was in the trunk of Karin-sama's car, ready to leave. She and Hil-kun were talking about what they were going to do at Christmas when they would finally get to see each other again. Jilly-chan, a dandelion crown over her sweet potato hair that Tro-chan had made for her, was playing cat's cradle with Tro-chan, who was very good at it and was doing his best to teach her how the candles went into the fish in the dish, and Dane-kun was almost napping from his sprawled position on the grass and thinking how much he liked hearing Karin-sama talk. Wu-chan was napping in Hil-kun's lap, and the Ken-chan was awake, but he didn't move or speak so it was almost like he wasn't there at all.

And in all this blissful niceness of moment there came a cry that put anyone who had been around chibi-nekos for at least a day or two on edge. It was the "I might have done something I shouldn't have and now am suffering the consequences of my actions" cry. . with the emphasis on the suffering part. Karin-sama started to get up, then wondered what to do with Ken-chan if she did.

"Don't bother, Karin-chan," Dane-kun sat up and then got up to see if someone had fallen or something. "I'll go check it out. Don't think the little guy would like it much if you were to move now." He was off in the direction of the cry before Karin-sama could say ok or thank you, and she pursed her lips when she realized how comfortable her and Dane-kun had grown around the chibi-nekos. Hil-kun wrinkled her nose from across the table.

"He keeps calling you 'chan'," she whispered and then winked knowingly. "And he's cute. How do you get all the luck?" Karin-sama sweatdropped.

"Well, er, its not really like that, you see. . I met him while playing bingo and then we found out that he lived next door and then the next thing I know he's always around and fixing up the place and helping with the little guys," she paused as she heard his term come from her mouth. "I mean, the chibi-nekos and, well, what do you do with a guy like that?"

"Marry them."

"What?! Are you out of your mind?" She shrugged in a cute sort of way.

"Just a thought, just a thought. He does great with your chibi-nekos though. Not many men with that kind of patience. Take that McKinnley guy for example." Ken-chan's tail bristled at the name, making Karin-sama realize that he was indeed still paying attention. She really needed to figure out what it was about the man that Ken-chan didn't like. Besides that he was a weasel and not very nice and made them wear collars, that is.

Hil-kun might have pursued the conversation about Dane-kun, but he arrived at that moment with, and Karin-sama had to blink to be sure, Heero-chan in his arms. And from where she was, it looked suspiciously like he was crying. Duo-chan and Sano-chan were following, and almost getting in tripping range in their worry. Now, what on earth would have happened to Heero-chan? He was usually so in control.

"Here," Dane-kun winked. "Trade ya." Deftly he picked up Ken-chan with one hand and deposited Heero-chan into her lap with the other. He took the red haired samurai around the park in his arms, and beckoned the others to follow him since he really doubted that Heero-chan would appreciate being stared at while he was crying. He took them over to the swings where he declared a contest on who could get the highest, and then coaxed Ken-chan to try it out and see if he liked it or not.

"What happened, Heero-chan?" Karin-sama asked sweetly while looking him over for cuts or bruises or anything like that. Usually, nothing ever happened to Heero-chan, so this was quite unusual. And she could never remember seeing him cry so it must have been something really bad.

"I squirted a bug," he said. "I didn't think I'd hit it, Karin-sama, really I didn't because it was flying and I usually am not very good at that kind of aim." That wasn't really true, but she supposed she could allow him to think this for right now. "But when I hit it, it got really mad and it bit me!"

"What did the bug look like, Heero-chan?"

"It was big. . and yellow and black." Aha, he'd been stung by a bee. He didn't appear to be having any sort of allergic reactions to that, which she was thankful for, but he did feel a little feverish and that wasn't good. But that might have been sunburn . . she couldn't tell.

"Where did it sting you?" He showed her his arm, where she could make out the bit of stinger still there and the puffiness around it. "Ok, it's all right, Heero-chan, we can take care of that." She rummaged in her purse for a second before bringing out a little first aid kit (never leave anywhere without it when one has chibi-nekos who like to hit things with water pistols). She pulled out a pair of tweezers to take out the stinger, and then put some drawing salve on it to suck out the poison, and topped it off with a smiley face band-aid. All the while Heero-chan sniffled in the aftermath of being hurt, and when it was done he decided that he'd had enough of the park and just wanted to stay with Karin-sama where the bees wouldn't get him. He hugged her arm and cuddled up close in a very un-Heero-chan manner, and decided that being affectionate was okay once in a while when one didn't want to be around small yellow and black, buzzing, stinging insects. He was hot, but she allowed him to do this, and decided that it might be a good idea to get him back home where she could examine him a little better, take his temperature to determine if he really were mildly allergic to bee stings after all.

"Hey, Hil-chan, I'd better get these guys home before something else happens, but I'll be at your house tomorrow to help you get packed and on your way. I'll even make you some breakfast, how about that?"

"Yeah, that'd be great." She nudged Wu-chan awake to say good-bye and carry him to Karin-sama's car. Jilly-chan saw that they were standing up to leave, so she dropped the string that had somehow tangled itself around her fingers and opened her arms for Tro-chan to jump into.

"Dane-kun!" Karin-sama called to get his attention. He looked up grinning, and then stopped smiling as he realized that it was time to go. He gathered up the chibi-nekos like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, Ken-chan and Kaoru-chan in his arms and Sano-chan clinging to his shoulder. Yah-chan was running circles around him as he walked to the car, still ecstatic about being outside and everything, and Quatre-chan kept his hand on Dane-kun's jeans as they walked. Karin-sama smiled seeing him that way. It was sort of. . .paternal.

"Is it that time already?" Dane-kun squinted at the sun. "What do ya know about that?" He turned to Jilly-chan and Hil-kun who were getting into their car. "Pleasure to meetcha ladies, again, and hope to meetcha again and again and again." He winked jovially and waved a free finger as they drove off, and then turned his childish, grinning face to Karin-sama.

"So," he looked around to see what he was up against. "How are we gettin' all these critters home?" Karin-sama looked around too and realized that this was, indeed, a problem. Eight pairs of chibi-neko eyes looked up at her expectantly as she did some math and realized that she was a few seatbelts short. "Back of the truck?"

"Oh no, no, we couldn't do that. I suppose we can put them in my car, if you take a couple and drop them off." Dane-kun did some math and even though he also came up with a few seatbelts short, he decided that Karin-sama knew what she was doing and he may as well just go along with it.

"S'all right, then," he bent to look at Heero-chan in Karin-sama's arms. "Ya wanna ride with me in the truck, big guy?" Heero-chan loved Dane-kun's truck, for no apparent reason other than it was larger than Karin-sama's car and it made more noise. Quatre-chan and Tro-chan were already herding the four Kenshin-gumi in the back of the sports car with Wu-chan before anyone noticed that they were still there. Heero-chan, surprisingly, took his arms away from Karin-sama's neck to reach out for Dane-kun. Karin-sama was a bit puzzled at this, but just shrugged and shut the front door as Tro-chan and Quatre-chan claimed their front seat. Duo-chan climbed to Dane-kun's shoulder, asking Heero-chan questions about being stung over and over, none of which were answered. Karin-sama looked after them, slowly making her way over to the driver's side and thinking all the way, "he went with Dane-kun. . .he actually left me to go with Dane-kun."

The trip home was eerily quiet due the presence of the four new chibi-nekos, who were very quiet naturally and had a calming effect on the rest of the group. Oh, and Duo-chan was in the truck with Dane-kun. Karin-sama smiled wickedly. Poor Dane-kun. She sighed and looked in the rearview mirror to see Ken-chan gazing at her with sad, serene eyes. Yes, she was definitely going to have a talk with him to find out just what was going on.

"Aaaiee, Karin-chan," Dane-kun almost tripped out of his truck in her driveway. "That little rascal gets into everything!" Duo-chan jumped down, grinning wildly and gazing at his house as if he'd never seen it before in his life.

"Wow!" He exclaimed. "Lookit, Karin-sama. . its still here!"

"Where would it go, Duo-chan?" He shrugged.

"Hil-kun said her house was moving. . .but I guess ours likes it where it is. Oye, Triby! Here boy!" The huge black dog bounded over the lawn to rush Duo-chan, who jumped on his back and was carried at a sprint across the yard. Dane-kun gave a sigh of relief, both that Duo-chan was gone and that Triby hadn't jumped up on him. The Gundam chibis were out of the car and rushing to join Duo-chan with Triby while the Kenshin-gumi stood in the driveway, looking about them in wonder.

"All right, guys," Karin-sama addressed them as she picked up Kenshin-chan. "I need to have a talk with you inside so come with me, ok?" They nodded solemnly and she started for the front door. "Oh, Dane-kun?" She looked behind her shoulder. "Could you take Heero-chan's temperature and put him down for a nap? I think he needs to sleep for a little while."

"He's already sleepin', Karin-chan, but sure, and I'll join you in a minute." Nods were exchanged and then the little company trooped up to the study, without one exclamation on the museum on the way.

"Ok," Karin-sama began as she settled herself on the sofa, the chibi-nekos seated on cushions on the floor facing her and Kenshin-chan in her lap. "All right. Ok." She wasn't exactly sure where she wanted to begin. "So, er, who is that Andrew McKinnley guy anyway?" She got shrugs. "All right. Where did he find you?"

"He found us at a pet store, Yahiko and I," Kaoru-chan said in a whisper. All right, so that was true. "But it wasn't in London. We were in London for a while, but then we were shipped somewhere else and that's where he found us." Ok. . .

"And you two?" They looked at each other.

"He got me from the Department of. . .something or other, can't really remember," Sano offered . chewing on a salvaged picnic toothpick.

"And what about you, Kenshin-chan?" She looked down at him.

"I was stolen," he whispered very softly. "We were all stolen." He looked very hard at his fellow nekos, who were staring at him incredulously, not believing he had really told her that piece of information that they had been forbidden to say.

"How do you know that?" This was getting intriguing. Karin-sama had never heard of stolen chibi-nekos before.

"I listen. We were all at the pet shop in London, and he came in one day and found us. Instead of buying us, he waited until night and stole us. He's going to sell us to a circus pretty soon, I can't remember when he said that's what he was going to do, but it won't be long. Said he'd sell us to the sideshow and make a lot of money."

"So why on earth would he want me to take you? And if he's not from the Department of Chibi-Neko Social Services then how did he know all that stuff about me?"

"He's in trouble with the Department. He's been poaching chibi-nekos for ages, for the tails. . I saw some at his house in Chicago." Oho, so he was the one who lived in Chicago. "They, the Department that is, found him there and they are coming to check the apartment. It was supposed to be a surprise, but he found out about it and had to get rid of all evidence of anything. He's got to be back in Chicago tonight because that's when they are going to be there. . that's why he left us with you. He figures he can just come back tomorrow morning and say he's found someone else to take us so you don't have to worry about it." He was so calm and articulate! Karin-sama was astounded both by his somberness and the story itself. It was all the most surprising thing she had ever heard.

"Well," was all she could say. "Aren't you the observant one?" There was an unsettling silence that fell in after this as she thought over what she had been told. It all fell in so perfectly.. . .he had made up all that stuff about being from the Department, complete with the phony chibi-neko van and everything.

"Hey there, Karin-chan," Dane-kun stepping in shook them up. The nekos scattered under the chairs and sofas in a frenzy of startlement. . and Kenshin-chan would have joined them if Karin-sama hadn't had a hold of him. He looked at the general chaos he'd caused and frowned. "Sorry there, guys, didn't know you were so jumpy."

"We've just heard some disturbing news about our Mr. McKinnley."

"Hmm, thought there was somethin' wrong with that fella. Smiled too much. Anyway, I put Heero-chan to bed. . he's just a little sunburned, no fever or anythin' from the bee sting. And I found this in his pocket." He brought forth a little white piece of paper. . the social security card thing that Andrew had given him earlier that day. Karin-sama took it, noticing that there wasn't a single word written on it. He'd just pretended to do all that stuff to get her to trust him.

"You guys must be worth an awful lot of money for him to go to all this trouble," she said as she looked at the card and the chibi-nekos gathered around her ankles. "So he meets with the Department tonight, and comes back for you in the morning. . ."

"Karin-chan? I'm a mite confused."

"That's all right, Dane-kun. McKinnley is going to sell them to a sideshow tomorrow unless we do something. . .so have you got any ideas?"

"Er. . " he sat down next to her on the sofa, patting Yah-chan on the head as he did so. "Suppose we hide them somewhere?" She looked at him, considering that possibility.

"All right," she agreed to the plan. "But where? If it's anywhere here then he's sure to find them. Because he'll look if I don't produce them right away. He's going to be expecting me to be angry with him for taking advantage of me, and he's going to think that I still am under the impression that he's working for the Department. If we hide them it will have to be somewhere incredibly ridiculously far away."

Ken-chan's eyes sparkled in sudden revelation, and he stood up on the sofa to whisper something in Karin-sama's ear. As he spoke, a grin spread over her features. It was a good plan, and it would work, and it would make it a lot easier on all of them.

"Perfect," she smiled, running a hand down Ken-chan's tail. Now if only she could get a certain someone to agree to a certain something. But she had all night to think of an excuse.

It took a little shuffling, and a lot of excited conversation, before she had divided up the bedroom spaces to accommodate the new nekos. She had tucked Duo-chan in a dresser drawer (it was his idea, she was just running out of options to give him a good reason why he couldn't), but she told him firmly that it was only for one night. Heero-chan was still sleeping off the incident at the park, so Dane-kun told her that they might as well leave him alone. Trowa-chan declared that Yah-chan could have his bed and that he would sleep downstairs by the fireplace on the sofa. He remembered that he'd done that before, and thought he'd enjoyed it. Sano-chan found Duo-chan's room very agreeable and was soon snoring softly in an adorable chibi-neko way. Ken-chan didn't want to be left alone in the guest room, and had to be persuaded very well that Karin-sama was going to be right across the hall and that nothing would happen to him while he was in the house.

"But what if HE comes in the night to get us? What if he finds out that I told you? He can do things like that. . just look how he found out about skippy and the chibi-nekos that live with you. . .he KNOWS."

"He won't get you here, this is the third floor, darling. Besides, we would hear his car, and Triby would never let him get close to the house. You're safe, and you need to sleep. We're going to have an interesting morning."

"Are you *sure*?"

"Very sure, now do lie down, ok?"

"Where's Kaoru-chan?" He fingered his little hilt. The sword wasn't really a sword, it was more like the plastic katanas children carry around for Halloween. This was, of course, the only reason Karin-sama allowed him to keep it, secure that it couldn't really hurt anyone. It was almost too big for him, but he carried it around with him as faithfully as Heero-chan carried his water pistol.

"Kaoru-chan will be right next door in the other guest room, and she'll be fine too. I promise." Ken-chan looked skeptical, gripped his "sword" so it would be ready in case he needed it, but finally laid his head on the pillow and closed his eyes. Karin-sama kissed his forehead and proceeded to take Kaoru-chan to the other guest room, her special guest room.

Karin-sama loved her chibi-nekos, and her chibi-nekos loved her back, but she had often wondered what it would be like to have a little girl. Her mother had wanted her to have one so badly she had given her the large house she now stayed in, and made up this guest room that was supposed to be for the little girl that Karin-sama had never had. It had little girl wallpaper, and a little girl bedspread, and little girl everything. . .except the little girl to live there. But I'm not keeping her, Karin-sama told herself firmly, even as she smiled and helped little Kaoru-chan into the little girl nightgown and under the little girl bedspread.

"What's going to happen to us?" Kaoru-chan whispered in the darkness that fell when Karin-sama turned off the light. "Will we have to go back?"

"No," Karin-sama reassured. "You're going somewhere else, somewhere I think you'll like."

"That's good then, even though I wouldn't mind staying here with you. You're really nice." Karin-sama smiled, blew a kiss to the little girl chibi-neko who was now staying in her little girl room, and sighed deeply once she had closed the door behind her.

"Karin-chan? S'all right?" Dane-kun came from the other hall where he'd been checking up on Heero-chan. He'd heard her sigh.

"Yes, Dane-kun, I just remembered I need to feed the horses." Which really means in what we call "parent lingo" 'I need to talk to you where no one can hear us and we have to make it seem like its no big deal or we're going to have nine very worried little chibi-nekos who aren't going to be able to sleep.'

"So," Dane-kun grunted as he tossed a bale of hay from the loft to Karin-sama's feet. "What's going on?"

"Ken-chan told me something I hadn't even considered before, and that made me consider something else."

"What's that?" *BANG* Another bale of hay hit the floor and Karin-sama jumped, putting a frantic hand to her throat. "Sorry 'bout that. Everyone is so jumpy today!"

"Did you know that he poaches chibi-nekos? For their tails?" Dane-kun's incredulous face peered down at her from the loft where he'd stopped worrying about the hay to give her his complete and undying attention.

"You're kidding. What kind of a market would there be for something like that? Some sort of twisted keychain company?"

"Oh Dane-kun!" She sobbed and turned away from him, trying to banish the vision of Kenshin-chan's beautiful red tail hanging from someone's "home is where you hang your keys" plaque. Dane-kun realized he'd said something stupid and hurried from the loft to fix it.

"Whoa, hey, I'm sorry. . .sorry." She was surprised that he put his arms around her and started muttered shushes in her ear, but she would never admit to it. "I'm talking just because I can, don't mean nothing by any of it. If I have anything to do with it, that guy'll never set eyes on another chibi-neko again. All right?"

"What if he comes in the middle of the night? What if he figures out what we're planning?"

"Sounds like you need another guard dog 'round here to ease your troubled mind, Karin-chan." He started dividing up the hay to the anxious horses who were very glad to see him, but even more glad to see that he was bringing some food with him too. "Not that Triby won't do his job, because I'm sure a sight of that black monster on a night like this would make anyone turn tail and get back to where he came from, but if its any consolation. . . I'll stay here with ya."

"Would you? I'd be so grateful." Dane-kun grinned like that was the best thing he'd heard in a very long time. In fact, it was. He then realized how much he wanted to kiss Karin-sama, and then realized that Shinigami was eating his shirt.

So they decided to keep watch in the kitchen since it was a tucked in corner-room where the light wouldn't bother anyone upstairs, and Tro-chan appeared to be sleeping so well that it wouldn't bother him either. Karin-sama brewed some tea, and set it before Dane-kun. She looked at it there for half a second before taking it back and adding a touch of milk to it. Then she put it in front of Dane-kun again. She'd almost sat down and he'd almost picked up the cup before she grabbed the saucer one more time to put a biscuit next to the cup to make it look pretty, and set it in front of Dane-kun. He paused, waiting to see if she was satisfied. She sat down to begin the very tiring business of wringing her hands and worrying so he figured it was safe to try a bit. Dane-kun wisely took an appreciative sip of the tea, before he ruined it by dunking the biscuit into it. After the sip he forgot about the biscuit, and the tea, and started noticing how Karin-sama was biting her lips. After the second sip she couldn't take it anymore and got up to clean the counter, an unnecessary task to his eyes, but he decided not to say anything. But when she, very quietly, got a mop out with the fourth sip, that's when he knew that something was going to have to be done.

"Didn't you give that mop the night off, Karin-chan?" He leaned back in his chair, striking the 'don't I look dashing in my relaxed, "I'm enjoying a nice cup of tea"' pose. "It's not getting paid overtime you know."

"Huh?" She looked at him as if he'd lost his mind, then looked at the clock, the mop, the biscuit, realized it was herself that was losing their mind and almost started laughing. In fact, she'd gotten two good snickers out while she put the mop back in the closet before she broke down into worried sobbing. Dane-kun wondered if this was somehow his fault.

"Dane-kun?" Came a little voice from the doorway he recognized as Tro-chan's. "What's the matter with Karin-sama?" He looked worried, he'd never seen her cry before, so he quickly came over and tugged on her skirt. Immediately she crouched down and grabbed him, hugging him very, very tightly, and he wasn't exactly sure why. "It's, um, ok Karin-sama. The floor isn't that dirty, but if its bothering you I can help you get the corners. And I bet Duo-chan would love it if you let him clean the top of the refrigerator!" These words, however, didn't do much in the direction that Tro-chan was hoping. She just held on tighter and cried harder. "Um, Dane-kun?"

"I'm on it, little guy, I'm on it." Dane-kun knelt next to Karin-sama and began to pry her hands off of Tro-chan, who looked rather sorry that he'd come into the scene at all. "Hey, little missie, you're gonna suffocate him if you hold on so tight." Tro-chan slipped down to the floor where he was instructed to go turn on the living room light. . low. Once she had nothing left to hold onto, Karin-sama turned to the closest thing she could hold onto. . .the chair. Dane-kun felt rather slighted, but pulled her over to hang onto him so he could lift her up and take her over to the living room sofa.

"Karin-chan?" She curled against him, but didn't offer any hints as to what had caused the emotional breakdown. It was in truth a mixture of fear for what would happen to the Kenshin-gumi, the mere idea that someone would poach chibi-nekos for their tails to make keychains, and the thought that not only had Heero-chan left her arms to go to Dane-kun. . .eventually *all* her precious chibi-nekos would leave her, and she'd be by herself again. But this was far, far too much information to give out while sobbing, so Dane-kun just had to stroke her hair and feel very awkward about the whole thing. Tro-chan dutifully went into the kitchen to make another cup of tea. . it took a while, but he'd watched Karin-sama do it enough times that he knew what he was doing, and by the time it was ready her tear frenzy was over.

"Thank you, Tro-chan," she took the cup and shakily raised it to her lips as he climbed into her lap and patted her arm. She sat up to drink, but Dane-kun had been given the opportunity to put his arm around her, and he was planning on keeping it there until she instructed him to move it.

"I'm not gonna ask," he said softly. "But I hope you feel better." Karin-sama looked sheepish.

"Sorry," she hid a blush in her teacup. "I often wondered how long it would take before the breakdown hit. . ." she sipped and decided that if she were ever asked about this episode ever again, she would either deny it vehemently, or blame it on a violent reaction with her dishsoap.

"S'all right, Karin-chan, I understand." Well, no, he didn't understand it at all, but he remembered someone telling him once that women sometimes break down in tears every once in a while for no particular reason any man would ever be able to determine. . but at the end of it (after the man was comfortably positioned in a comforting pose and the woman was feeling humiliated for breaking down into tears for no particular reason) the best thing to say was that he understood. . .because it would put him in good standing and probably get him dinner to boot. . .or in this case, breakfast.. . but that would come later.

Being a gentleman, Dane-kun allowed Karin-sama to stretch out on the sofa, telling her that she was just overtired from the long day, and was worrying herself too much, and that he would take care of everything because he was Dane-kun and that was how he did things. It didn't take her long after saying, "I'm glad you're here" before she was asleep. Tro-chan helped Dane-kun wash the teacups, which was good because if he hadn't then one of them would certainly have broken, and then they both decided that since the couch was taken the next best thing was the lounge chair. So Dane-kun sat down and Tro-chan curled in his lap . .and then, suddenly, it was morning.

All right, so it was the DST equivalent of morning, but around the Karin-sama mansion, that counted, and on this particular pre-morning morning it counted a bit more than usual. Karin-sama was up and showered and dressed before Duo-chan managed to wake up the slumbering Dane-kun. He finally did it by pulling at this strange stuff Dane-kun had all over his chin.

"You'd better wake up, Dane-kun!" He chirped anxiously. "You're starting to mold!" Dane-kun jumped, fell out of the lounge chair backward, and then just kind of lie there shocked, staring at the chibi-neko who was perched on his chest and staring at him with malicious mischievous mirth. "Good morning, Dane-kun!"

"Say wah? Tro-chan?" His little chairfellow had disappeared, but the sounds of dishes being placed in the kitchen made him guess that he had gone to help Karin-sama with breakfast. That was all right in itself, except that it was still dark out. He glanced at his watch and frowned when he realized that he couldn't see his watch without the assistance of the indiglow button, which he couldn't find for a minute since he'd never had to actually use it before. Duo-chan remained on his chest as he was remaining on the floor, and cocked his head curiously as Dane-kun fiddled with his watch. He frowned at the digits, not recognizing them for a moment since he was only used to seeing those numbers in that particular order sometime around teatime, and never, ever in the dead of night. Unless you counted that one New Year's Eve party, and he didn't think he would. He recalled that his head hadn't liked that party, and since his head was usually in control of things, he decided not to make it mad by thinking about it. So it was very early morning, and that was all there was to it.

"Dane-kun?" Duo-chan waved a hand over his eyes. "Tro-chan's in the kitchen. I'm Duo-chan, remember? Is it fun falling out of a chair like that? Do you think I could try?"

"Wah? Oh, sure, whatever, Duo-chan, just don't hurt yourself." He unhooked his leg from the arm of the chair and debated which way was up, then staggered into the lighted kitchen, where he stood in the doorway, rubbing his stubble and squinting. Karin-sama took one look at him and laughed. Tro-chan gave one look at him and opened his eyes very, very wide. Dane-kun supposed he would have to do something about this.

"Morning, sunshine!" Karin-sama chirped, in a strange, chibi-neko like way. Dane-kun glanced at the window, not failing to notice that there was certainly no sunshine to be seen. . of the morning variety or otherwise.

"Where?" He asked innocently, but Karin-sama only threw a sympathetic look his way and then went back to her scrambled eggs.

"I left a change of clothes and a razor kit in the spare bathroom upstairs," she said to her frying pan. "I'd take advantage of it before some unsuspecting chibi-neko gets into it. Shaving foam is a dreadful mess, you understand?" Taking the hint that he was looking a little scruffy, Dane-kun managed to make it up the steps without tripping on too many members of the family who were coming down.

"What happened to Dane-kun, Karin-sama?" Quatre-chan questioned as he followed Wu-chan into the kitchen. "He didn't even see us! And there's stuff on his face."

"He's molding!!" Duo-chan cried from the living room where he had successfully managed to reinact Dane-kun's magnificent fall from the chair. "That's what happens when you sleep too long, you know." Quatre-chan looked horrified, and Wu-chan starting nibbling at his lips. They exchanged quick glances.

"Better wake up Heero-chan!" They said at the same moment and sprinted back up the steps to make sure a similar fate wouldn't befall their bee-stung companion. Karin-sama giggled, shaking her head. Tro-chan looked a little puzzled.

"Is that true, Karin-sama? Can people mold?" He remembered from school that bread could mold, in very interesting, but rather disgusting patterns, but that was only at school. Nothing molded in Karin-sama's house, so he figured it might be immune.

"No, Tro-chan, people can't mold. Remember that man we met at the store? The one I said had a beard?" Tro-chan nodded. "Well, Dane-kun could have a beard too, if he wanted one. . .but I don't think he wants one." Tro-chan let that sink in, not completely understanding it, but if Karin-sama said it was so, then it was good enough for him. Karin-sama began filling plates and taking them out to the dining room where she would finally get to use almost all of the twelve places at it. And here she thought she'd never need it.

"Ketchup, Karin-sama, ketchup!!" Duo-chan yelped as he scrambled onto the chair to inspect the scrambled eggs. Only Duo-chan liked ketchup on scrambled eggs. "I'll go get it." He skittered down and into the kitchen, waving hello to the four Kenshin-gumi who were trooping down the stairs under the tour guide direction of Quatre-chan.

"And this is the stairway, you remember, and look, over there is Karin-sama. Morning, Karin-sama!"

"Morning, everyone, how did you sleep?" Several nods all around, which she took for a fine and thank you. She ushered them over to the table and set them to work on the eggs while she hurried back into the kitchen for the toast and orange juice, nearly tripping on Duo-chan as he came cannoning out with the ketchup bottle.

"Ketchup anyone?" He remembered his manners enough to ask politely before sloshing some onto his own plate, and was ecstatic to learn that both Sano-chan and Yah-chan loved ketchup on their eggs too. Quatre-chan wrinkled his nose in distaste, but shrugged and struck up a morning conversation with Kaoru-chan about the little girl bedroom she had stayed in.

Karin-sama was just coming out of the kitchen again, loaded with a tray of toast, and Dane-kun, clean shaven and wearing some clothes that had belonged to, er, someone in Karin-sama's family, was just coming down the steps, when the front doorbell rang. This made Karin-sama a little flustered as Duo-chan had jumped up at the sound and the tray had been knocked a bit off balance. She tried to steady it before any toast fell to the floor. It made Dane-kun confused, and he decided to check his watch again, speculating who could possibly have gotten up this early, voluntarily, to go visiting. Since no one seemed to be opening the door, and it would be polite to do so, Tro-chan took it upon himself to scanter across the living room to the front entryway and made a dash for the doorknob. If he leaped high enough, he could usually get a good hold on it.

"Tro-chan!" Karin-sama cried. "Don't you dare, hold on a minute." For a brief moment, Karin-sama had a vision of Tro-chan opening the door to Mr. McKinnley and being neko-napped. Dane-kun got over his speculation and scooped up Tro-chan, figuring out what Karin-sama meant by the whole opening of the door.

"How about we do it together, eh?" He asked as he slid the door, the nice wooden one he'd put in himself, just a fraction to see who might be outside. Sparkling eyes met his, and he could see a smattering of freckles across part of a nose. He ran through his database, but Tro-chan recognized them right away.

"Jilly-chan!" He squeaked happily, just as Dane-kun came to the same conclusion. The door was opened and Jilly-chan admitted with a troop of galloping Gundam chibis clinging to her ankles, and Tro-chan with his arms around her neck. The Kenshin-gumi watched the scene with curious interest.

"Hiya guys," she giggled. "Thought I'd come over and see if you needed someone to babysit while you helped Hil-chan load up her car. Moving boxes is best done without chibi-nekos scampering underfoot, you know."

"By all means!" Dane-kun piped up, handing over Wu-chan and Heero-chan, who had slid down the banister and collided into his back, by their collars. "Have a pair, or a google, take yer pick." Jilly-chan accepted them by only a minor juggling session on where to keep all of them on her person, helped along by Tro-chan's impressive manuever from her arms to her shoulder. She gave Dane-kun a raised eyebrow, and a smile that he couldn't figure out. She giggled as she carried them all to the table and set them down. Jilly-chan gave Karin-sama a look that means nothing to anyone except women, and only if they are paying attention. Dane-kun decided he'd better grab a plate from the chaos that was currently occupying the table and just creep into a corner. He'd just about retrieved his hand safely from the fray, but Duo-chan managed to squirt ketchup onto his plate before he got it all the way up, his plate and his sleeve as well.

"Ooops, sorry, Dane-kun. I thought you'd want some ketchup." Dane-kun gave an imploring glance to Karin-sama, who was standing on the other side of the table, laughing around a biteful of her own ketchup-soaked eggs.

"Oh, its all right, Dane-kun. Come on so we can get that taken care of." Getting it taken care of, however, proved unnecessary as Heero-chan took the cleaning of the sleeve into his own hands, er, paws, er, whatever. In a blink, he had his pistol out and had squirted Dane-kun's sleeve, and shirt, and face, and a few other places as well. Then, after the pistol had been secured where ever it is that Heero-chan keeps his pistol, he very politely handed Dane-kun a napkin. Dane-kun dabbed at the runny ketchup, trying not to drip on the pristine white tablecloth, and looked so adorably frustrated at the entire morning that Jilly-chan just couldn't resist leaving it alone.

"How'd you like to wake up like this every day, Dane-kun?" She purred as she accepted a plate from Tro-chan, who had remembered that she liked her eggs on toast with a piece of cheese, and far away from Duo-chan's ketchup bottle. "Wouldn't that be fun?"

"Oh yeah," he drawled, removing the last bit of ketchup from the sleeve. "S'pose that'd be as much fun as . . ." he stopped, his ability to create analogies was obviously still asleep. He figured he'd better eat his eggs and keep his mouth shut until it decided to join him. Besides, he didn't want to make Karin-sama upset thinking that he hadn't wanted to stay. "I'll have a snappy comeback on your desk as soon as I think of one," he said around his fork. Jilly-chan grinned triumphantly and gave Karin-sama another look.

"Come back?" Duo-chan cocked his head. "She hasn't even left yet, Dane-kun." This was too much for Dane-kun, who threw back his head and laughed, making all the chibi-nekos look at him curiously, except for Tro-chan.

"Are you staying here with us when Karin-sama and Dane-kun go help Hil-kun move her house?" He asked, blinking hopefully.

"Yes, I'll be here, and speaking of moving the house, shouldn't you guys be getting out of here?" Karin-sama looked at her watch and realized that the sun was already coming up.

"You're right! We'll be late. All right, you four, I hope you have all your things together."

"We don't really have anything, Karin-sama."

"Oh, right, well then take Dane-kun out to the car."

"I haven't finished my eggs, yet, Karin-chan."

"Then put them on a piece of toast and bring them along. No, Duo-chan, you're staying here where you can't get into any trouble."

"Just giving Dane-kun a piece of toast, Karin-sama."

"Yes, well, he's not in the car yet, Duo-chan, he's right here."

"Oh, yeah. . .I knew that. Here you go, Dane-kun."

"Say, Karin-chan," Jilly-chan interrupted the bustle of activity that had suddenly taken place around the table. "Why are the Kenshin-gumi going? I figured you wouldn't want them in the way, moving boxes is kind of dangerous when you are only as tall as a person's knee." Karin-sama stopped dead as she was clearing the breakfast dishes. Oh yes, she had totally forgotten to fill Jilly-chan in on the details.

"Well, we need to take them away because Mr. McKinnley will be coming back here to pick them up."

"But I thought he wanted you to take them." Jilly-chan was confused. "He was so adamant."

"He only wanted me to keep them for a night while he was being inspected for illegal activity by the Department. He's going to sell them to a sideshow if we don't take them away."

"So what are you going to do with them?"

"They're going with Hil-chan." Jilly-chan face faulted.

"They're WHAT?!"

"They are going with Hil-chan. They won't give her much trouble, and they will be safe up there. So when Mr. McKinnley gets here, stall him, and don't tell him where the Kenshin-gumi are. Hopefully, by the time we get back, someone from the real Department will be here and we'll have him." Jilly-chan sat down in the chair that Sano-chan had just leapt down from to think about this. Tro-chan curled in her lap. "Anyway, that's the plan. Come on guys. Thank you Jilly-chan!!" And with a flurry of chibi-neko waves and tails, they were out the door, leaving a very confused Jilly-chan in the middle of the leftover breakfast dishes and five chibi-nekos.

"So," she muttered still staring at the closed door in shock. "Did any of you get that?"

"Mr. McKinnley is a bad man," Wu-chan told her as he handed his plate to Quatre-chan, who was standing on the table and trying to clean up the mess.

"And Karin-sama is going to make sure he doesn't do anything bad anymore," Duo-chan added as he took his beloved ketchup bottle back into the kitchen to put it in the refrigerator. "Because that's her job, to make sure no one does anything bad, but first she had to go move Hil-kun's house."

"Do you think Karin-sama is strong enough to move a house?" Heero-chan considered this and figured that if Hil-kun's house was as large as Karin-sama's house it might be kind of hard to move it by herself.

"Of course not," Tro-chan corrected logically. "That's why Hil-kun and Dane-kun have to help her."

"Oh." Jilly-chan pondered the effectiveness of explaining to them what moving meant, and then decided it might be a waste of time. She was here to make sure they didn't get into trouble, and to stall Mr. McKinnley, and a lesson in word choice was not part of her job description.

"Ano, Jilly-chan? Why are you still staring at the door?"

"Just thinking about this, Duo-chan, that all."

"Can you think and do something else too?"

"Of course." That comment brought her from the door back to the table, where the chibi-nekos had responsibly loaded all the dishes on the toast tray and were considering how they would get it from the table to the kitchen and then into the sink.

"So," Duo-chan said as he put the last fork on the tray. "Could you help us carry this so we can do the dishes before Karin-sama gets back? She'll want everything nice and clean." The others nodded in agreement so Jilly-chan swooped up the tray and managed to get it the few feet through the kitchen door without tripping on anyone. They knew about trays, and knew that when someone was carrying one it would be a good idea to keep out of the way. (Karin has a vision of that one part in Secret of NIMH where the Frisby family is doing the dishes and waiting for the rats to come move their house 'over there by the stone')

"Wait, Jilly-chan, that's the wrong kind of soap," Duo-chan instructed from his perch on the windowsill. After one very close encounter with one of the orange juice mugs it had been decided that it would be best for him if he were to just watch and make sure that no spots were missed. Jilly-chan paused with her bottle of Dawn partly raised and gave Duo-chan a quizzical look, a look which made him collapse into giggling. "Just joking! There is no other kind of soap." If today hadn't been the day that it was she would have sent him outside to get rid of some of his mischievous energy, but as she was waiting for the infamous McKinnley she figured that a few hours of Duo-chan being bored and wanting to play anything, even practical jokes, would be a better idea. And then she thought of something even better than that.

"Say, Duo-chan?" She squirted the Dawn onto the sponge with malice as Tro-chan handed her what had to be one of the last pieces of silverware. "How about you and Heero-chan go find us some paper and we'll all write Hil-kun a letter, ok?" Duo-chan's eyes got really big. A letter! And Heero-chan's eyes did likewise. A mission!

"All right!" They chirped in unison and scrambled off to the upper parts of the house in search of paper and crayons. Jilly-chan sighed and wondered what time it was and if she would ever get up as early as she did today ever again. Even for Tro-chan. Well, she thought as he smiled up at her, maybe for Tro-chan.



"Whew, Hil-kun, you've got about as much stuff here as the entire national reserve!" Dane-kun puffed as he hauled yet another box onto his truck. They had decided a long time ago that there simply was no way to fit everything into Hil-kun's little lumina so what better place to put them than Dane-kun's truck. And since he was such a wonderful guy he'd even volunteered to take her and 'the little tykes' the twelve hours up to the boundary waters. The Kenshin-gumi were milling around, keeping out of the way for the most part, and picking up miscellaneous bits of stuff that fell out of the overstuffed boxes such as Kleenex and the occasional battery. Karin-sama had yet to mention to Hil-kun about taking them with her, but she was sure it would be fine, if she put it the right way.

"Is that it, Hil-chan?" Karin-sama questioned as she wiped her hands on her skirt. Kaoru-chan had her hand on it at the moment so the effect made the material all wrinkled. Hil-chan pursed her lips in thought as she scooped up Yah-chan who was trying to climb on one of the boxes to poke a miniature sewing kit that had fallen out in the attempt to shove it into the back of the truck. She plucked it from his hand and rubbed his ears while he purred contentedly.

"I think so. . ." she paused to look at the truck. "Yeah, I think that does it, but if you find anything that I left behind you'll send it to me right?"

"Is there even anything left in the house?"

"Yes," Kenshin-chan informed them, peeking in the still open door. "Sano-chan." Hil-kun giggled, blushed, and hid it behind Yah-chan's ears.

"Then I s'pose we'd better get on our way, eh, Hil?" Dane-kun scooped up Ken-chan and Kaoru-chan, whistled for Sano-chan, and slipped them all into the truck. Hil-kun looked at the disappearing space in the cab with confusion.

"You're not letting Dane-kun take all four of them are you?" She whispered to Karin-sama before getting in. "I know he does great with yours, but do you really think that he can handle chibi-nekos on his own?" Karin-sama grinned. Moment of truth.

"You don't think he can handle them all by himself?" She questioned seriously. Hil-kun squinted inside the truck where Dane-kun was now trying to juggle Yah-chan and Sano-chan, who were convinced that something was going to fall off the back and they should ride there to make sure everything stayed in place.

"I don't know Karin-chan. He's a little. . .I don't know, clueless."

"But he so wanted to take care of them, just for a while." Hil-kun was wearing down, Karin-sama could see it. She could be just as manipulative as McKinnley if she wanted to.

"You know what, Karin-chan. You don't think he would mind if I were to "help" him with the nekos for a while do you?"

"You'll have to talk to him about that. I've given him full custody." Hil-kun's frown deepened.

"Come on, Hil-kun," Yah-chan beckoned from the open window. "Dane-kun says that once we get on the road he's going to teach us how to drive!" She squeaked at the idea and looked at Karin-sama with a "you're really going to let him do this?" expression. Karin-sama shrugged unconcerned, but secretly glad that Dane-kun had caught onto the plan without even being told.

"If I were to talk him out of taking the chibi-nekos," she said desperately worried about the dangers they could get into under Dane-kun's casual caretaking. "Would you let me take care of them? Jilly-chan can help me and so can you, and"

"You'll have to take that up with Dane-kun. . but I wouldn't mind."

"I think I'll do just that. They might even be fun to have around in the Boundary Waters."

"I bet they might."

"All right then, we'd better get going. I'll see you at Christmas, Karin-chan." They said their good-byes and Hil-kun nervously got into the truck. Karin-sama could tell that it was going to be an interesting drive, and she was rather glad that she didn't have to be present when Hil-kun figured out that she'd been tricked, but in a nice way.


She arrived home to chaos, but a different sort of chaos than she was used to. She expected Jilly-chan to be tied to a chair somewhere in some weird kind of game. She didn't expect there to be camera crews and police cars strewn around her front lawn. This surprised her so much she barely bothered putting her own car into park before leaping out of it and dashing up the front steps.

"Duo-chan!" He was the first name she could think of and the others followed in a flurry. "Tro-chan! Wu-chan! Heero-chan! Quatre-chan! Jilly-chan! What's going on? Where are you?" A blue suited policeman blocked her path and grabbed her arms.

"Just calm down there, ma'am, we're going to need to get some ID before you can come in here."

"I live here!" He made a soothing gesture.

"We'll just have to see about that, ma'am." Karin-sama wondered what Dane-kun would do in this situation, and once she'd figured that out, she realized she lacked the brawn.

"Where's my family? What happened?"

"We've taken the man into custody. Been after him for months. Good thing someone tipped us off." Karin-sama stared at the man. Why was it, she thought, that they always seemed unable to answer even the most direct of questions?

"Where," she began again, very clearly, "is my family?" That's when another police car showed up with its lights flaring in all directions. Karin-sama twisted on the couch where she'd been placed to look out the window. Jilly-chan scrambled out, clutching a placid looking Tro-chan. Quatre-chan leaped down too, clinging to Jilly-chan's pant leg. Duo-chan came next, excitedly running around the police car, looking at all the lights and people. Heero-chan and Wu-chan were last, Heero-chan with his pistol out and ready. He looked rather proud of himself. Karin-sama started to stand, but the policeman wouldn't let her. "Why is this happening?" She thought. "I'm one of the main characters, aren't I supposed to be present when the plot advances?" The chibi-nekos raced up the steps at the beckoning of Jilly-chan, who was very observant and had seen that Karin-sama's car was now in the driveway. The door opened to a whirlwind of flushed and hyper chibi-nekos, who all rushed at Karin-sama, jumping to perch on her shoulders and crawling up into her lap. Tro-chan stayed where he was in Jilly-chan's arms.

"What's going on here?" Karin-sama asked, a little dazed. Duo-chan played with her hair as he sat on her shoulder, and Quatre-chan was firmly latched onto her shirt. "Jilly-chan, what happened?"

"Well," Jilly-chan grinned. "We had a little adventure."

"And we wrote Hil-kun a letter," Duo-chan added with importance. Jilly-chan was about to explain, when another someone in blue came into the house.

"Hey there, Karin-chan," said a light, "I've had way too much sugar and excitement" voice. Karin-sama looked up to see big laughing blue eyes and an even bigger grin.

"Skippy! What are you doing here?" Karin-sama was now thoroughly confused as skippy pulled a badge from her pocket.

"Special agent skippy at your service, department for the relocation and protection of chibi-nekos." Karin-sama facefaulted.

"Are you serious?" She managed before skippy went on.

"Can't thank you enough for what you've done for us. This McKinnley has been a thorn in our side for ages."

"Yes, well, you're welcome, but what exactly happened?"

"That bad man came to our house again," Quatre-chan supplied quickly and the rest were soon in on the story.

"And Tro-chan answered the door because Jilly-chan was getting mailed," Duo-chan went on, grinning at Jilly-chan, who still looked a little sticky.

"And when McKinnley saw me, he picked me up really fast and asked me where my little friends where," Tro-chan said calmly, and Jilly-chan hugged him tighter. "When I said I didn't know he took me out to his car. . "

"And I heard them speed off and I hurried to call the police and everyone else I could think of," Jilly-chan said, embarrassed that she'd let Tro-chan get neko-napped after all.

"Then the cars with the flashing lights came by with a lot of men in them," Wu-chan seemed very impressed with their efficiency.

"And we all got in and went after Tro-chan, but he was going much faster than we were," Heero-chan added. Karin-sama was beginning to go white.

"And then what?" She stammered.

"Well, I'm not sure how it happened," skippy supplied. "But for some reason, McKinnley's van just started slowing down and we were able to surround him and take him into custody."

"That's because I put it into natural," Tro-chan smiled softly, "without him seeing."

"You mean neutral," Heero-chan corrected. Tro-chan shrugged.

"Where did you learn that, Tro-chan?" Karin-sama was impressed. He shrugged again.

"Dane-kun taught me. So when I saw that the van was just like the truck, I moved the stick on a curve and then the car wouldn't speed up anymore." He looked at Karin-sama with remorse. "And he said a lot of bad words," he almost whispered and Karin-sama almost laughed.

"I suppose when he took the little guy for ransom he didn't realize what he was getting in the bargain," skippy smiled. "And now we've got him and there won't be any more trouble for you. . .unless" she paused, changing her smile.

"What is it now?" Karin-sama barely had the courage to ask.

"Well, you see, apparently he'd been harboring several chibi-nekos. When we recovered him, we also recovered a Spike-chan, a Slayers group classes L through Z and a complete family of Fushigi Yugi intact with miko. I was wondering. . ."

"Forget it!" Karin-sama said quickly before this could run out of her control too. Skippy looked crestfallen.

"Well, all right, we'll take them to the home for a while then. Thanks anyway." In a little while all cars and blue suited men were vanished from the driveway and Jilly-chan had gone away to work, leaving Karin-sama and her nekos happily having tea in the living room. Every once in a while Karin-sama would look over at Tro-chan and then reach over and stroke his ears. What a day! She was so glad it was over and everyone was still where they should be. She smiled and relaxed, glad that it would be at least semi quiet until tomorrow morning.

SEVERAL DAYS LATER

"Hil-kun!!" Yah-chan and Sano-chan tumbled into her room just as she had collapsed into it again after a very long morning of turning endless pancakes and scraping syrup off of countless dishes. "Wake up, wake up!"

"Hmmm?" She muttered, squinting as they reopened the blinds and let the sunlight pour in.

"We got a letter!!" Hil-kun sat up a bit and looked down at the grinning nekos who were holding up the letter as if it were a crown. Then she started laughing. It was completely covered, except for a tiny little place for the address, with stamps.

"Looks like everyone is getting along nicely," she sighed, wondering where to open it. The Kenshin-gumi appeared from different places in the room and outside, and together they all began to read the letter from their friends, hardly being able to wait until they could all see each other again at Christmas.

THE END