Chapter 1- Meeting.

"Hey, Kyo! You coming?"

Kyo glanced at the lean blond haired young boy wearing what seemed to be a leather jacket and holding several stink bombs in his hands. Momiji grinned to him pointing towards the great city with his thumb. His face was a bit dirty from handling smoke bombs all day, and his clothes were of fine quality yet torn and severe on the sides.

"There's a festival going on today! Which means tons of free food~ Wanna come, wanna come?!"His eyes glistened with excitement.

Kyo smirked bowing his head. Momiji was always finding excuses to go into the city. Momiji would come back after a long day talking rapidly about the festivals, the cute girls, pulling pranks of unsuspecting citizens, and mainly...jut pulling him around everywhere. However, Kyo wasn't particularly interested in the festive food. He preferred not to get involved in overly crowded areas anyways. He merely followed Momiji when he knew Momiji would actually take it to heart one day and feel neglected.

"Nah, you can just go ahead." Kyo got up from leaning against the old brick wall. He slung his black backpack around his shoulder.

"Going on a walk again?" Momiji scowled disappointed. He sighed accepting in defeat the inevitable response from Kyo. "You always do..."

"Yeah." Kyo nodded not bothering to even look at his direction.

"I know I know." Momiji whined and turned on his heel prancing away. Kyo turned watching him leave and shook his head amused before walking in the opposite direction. His feet knew where he was heading before he even planned it. There was a garden on top of a large hill that overlooked the whole city of Venice. He would sit there for hours sometimes simply relaxing. His head was full of complicated thoughts lately, and it hurt from merely thinking about one of them. He needed a place to chill, and it seemed his feet just quietly led him to where he needed to be...

...

Tohru Honda was lost. The street she was on was one she had gone down 5 times already. Tohru bit her lip scowering the street with her eyes in all directions. However, there was so much to look at she wasn't quite sure what she had seen already and what was new. She wondered whether or not she should try and go back the way she came. Or if she should just give up and find a taxi gondola. But then that would cost a lot of money...

She once again lifted the crumpled sheet of paper that her friends had given her for the address they would meet at. She was visiting Venice with her best friends Uotani Arisa, and Saki Hanajima. They had agreed to venture out by themselves then meet up later in the night. But she should have known better then to find herself lost inside a vast city where she didn't speak the language. She thought the map had looked fine when she had examined it...but it turned out there were a lot of alleys and places that wasn't listed on the map.

Tohru sighed and lifted her fists to herself. She often did this when she felt overwhelmed and needed to cheer herself on. "Just keep going Tohru." She thought out loud and began to walk again heading towards a street that may lead to the city.

She felt oddly miserable despite the beautiful walkway along the canals. It was beautiful, yet eerily lonely.

As she turned the corner she spotted a group of men had entered the road and were walking the same direction. At first she didn't pay much attention to them. But slowly she could hear them walking closer and heard how loud and excited they were.

Some laughed and said something in Italian, while another whistled. It took a moment for her to realize they were talking about her.

"Hey! Pretty lady!" A man said with a thick accent. "Play with us!"

Tohru frowned feeling nervousness build in the pit of her stomach. She didn't know how to deal with this kind of situation. Should she ignore them? Run away?

She chose the first option and quickened her pace. The men caught up to her easily, and she realized hearing the voices grow louder, that they were young and very drunk. Italians! Getting drunk at this time of day!

"We're not bad guys. Just turn around so we can see your face." A man laughed.

Tohru decided to switch streets the moment she could, but as she looked ahead with a sinking feeling, she realized she was on a one way street. She didn't even know where she was.

"Lady~Oh pretty lady~" They began to sing and laugh nudging one another. She gasped in shock as two men quickly stopped her from walking and stood in front of her. She turned to face the opposite direction but three men blocked her way. Even at the distance she could smell the alcohol that reeked off their bodies. She almost felt a bit dizzy from the horrid smell.

"We mean no harm lady. Tell us your name." The man in front of her grinned. They were all dressed in flashy clothing. All horribly matched with black suits over and dress pants. Despite the expensive clothing they seemed to be wearing, their hair and faces seemed to imply otherwise.

Tohru avoided his gaze feeling a trace of fear creep in as his eyes roamed her body. She saw how dirty his clothes were, and wanted to gag at the distraught state they were in.

"Let me go please." She commanded glaring as fearlessly as she could at the men around her.

"Ooh, why mad lady? We only want to talk with you." The blonde haired man in front of her laughed and reached forward grabbing her arm.

Like an instant reflex Tohru yanked her hand free . "No!"

"We're not bad people. Come follow us we'll have fun." A man behind her grabbed her waist. Tohru yelped whipping around and pulled free from his grasp. She felt immediately helpless and undeniably terribly frightened. "No! Stop!" She tried to pull her arms away but they were too strong.

They were laughing and she tried as hard as she could to pull her arms free. She knew it was futile, and that they were much too strong. But even so!

"Stop!" She didn't know how she could get out of this situation. She already felt dirty the way their eyes roamed her body. The way their hands were gripping her arms tightly.

THUD!

Tohru blinked through tears forming in her eyes. The man that had been tightly holding onto her arm was on the ground writhing in pain. She heard another thud and the man next to her was out equally as cold and slammed into the floor. She suddenly registered a new person.

A young man dressed in all black with startling orange hair and eyes. He grabbed her arm and pushed her back so that she was out of his way before delivering more swings. He raised his leg and squarely hit another man right in the face. The man that received the blow dropped on his side screaming. Tohru backed away watching wide eyed as the young man brought down each of the drunk men with powerful blows. She could see that he was not only stronger then them, but more quick and skilled. A man that had fallen on the floor cursed loudly and brought something out of his coat jacket pocket. Tohru screamed in warning, and the young man turned just in time to knock the item out of the drunk man's hand. After giving a final kick to the last one standing he ran towards her and grabbed her arm.

"Run!" He commanded and Tohru obliged without a second thought. The two ran away from the pile of men down the street. They went down the same street she had come from, and after passing several lanes he led her down a more unfamiliar path reaching far closer towards the city. Tohru glanced behind her as they ran, but to her relief, it seemed the men were in too much pain to have followed them. Finally they reached an empty alley at the end of the street and she saw that it overlooked the market square that was just ahead.

They stopped catching their breaths and the young man let go of her hand. The two stopped panting and leaned against the wall catching their breaths. After a moment,

Tohru looked at to see who had saved her. He was still catching he breath but was otherwise not looking at her. He had a young looking face with eyes of bright orange to match his hair. However his neck and collarbones were more defined giving him a strong look.

He was who Arisa and Hana would swoon over in a magazine of pop stars. But she had never seen someone speak Japanese in Venice. He didn't seem to be a tourist like her.

"Thank you." She stuttered out. She felt so relieved. "Thank you so much. If it weren't for you I wouldn't have known what to do."

"Are you stupid?"

Her smile froze in place as his words pierced through her like a cold knife.

"E-excuse me?"

He turned to glare at her. His gaze undeniably stronger then the men before. She stared back almost entranced by his eyes. They had seemed simply orange before, but now that she looked closer she saw that his irises held a sheen of topaz around them...and red...

"Are you here just to play? Why are you walking around by yourself at this time of day?"

"I.." She blinked registering how angry he was. "I-I was lost-"

"Of course you were. If I hadn't found you, you would have been raped, or even a prostitute. What were you even thinking..."

"Well, I've never lived in this city before-" Tohru stuttered trying to defend herself.

"Good. Just go home."

Tohru's mouth hung open as she watched him get up and turn to walk away. Before he could leave however her impulses reacted and she couldn't help but to reach out and stop him from leaving. She couldn't tell if she was angry with him, or offended.

"Excuse me! Don't you think when someone thanks you, you should just accept it and be grateful?"

The young man stopped and froze as he felt her grip tighten on his arm.

He yanked it free into the air and gave her a look with burning eyes.

Tohru bit her lip and stared back at him unable to finish what she had wanted to say after that. It was as if his stare could turn her into stone. He paused and leaned in closer to her, his eyes getting nearer to hers.

When his face was about an inch from hers he said,

"It's you, that should be grateful."

With that the young man turned around and walked away leaving Tohru in a daze of shock and embarrassment.

...

"So he saved you?"

"Not really...does it count if I was a burden to him?

Tohru frowned sipping on her orange juice. After the young man had left she had looked around and found that he had led her to the main square. The exact place she was supposed to meet Hana and Arisa at. She had found the most popular restaurant in the square and waited until Arisa showed up along with Hana. They had sat down ordering large plates of food and enjoying the night's ambience. Tohru had just received her plate and was telling them about how she had gotten lost, and how the mysterious man had saved her.

"Well what's his deal? He didn't have to go and save you." Arisa scowled. "I mean if he hadn't I would have tracked him down and beaten him to a pulp but still-"

"He probably felt the guilt of seeing someone attacked and of similar Japanese culture to him." Hana said gently scooping rounds of pasta from her plate to theirs.

"Yes...maybe." Tohru said thoughtfully. She stared as Hana scooped more rounds of pasta onto her plate. "But...I really was thankful regardless.."

"Of course you would be! You almost got raped!" Arisa shouted loudly. A couple of people sitting near them glanced at their direction and Tohru waved down her voice in embarrassment.

"It's fine. Nothing bad happened. I'm fine."

"Yea...well." Arisa huffed digging her fork into her plate of pasta and slurping it up loudly.

Hana watched Arisa for a moment before turning to Tohru her eyes gleaming. "Well Tohru. Do you think you would run into him again?"

"I don't know...Most likely not. Venice is such a large city."

"Would you like to?"

Tohru frowned staring into space. He had been very kind, but she couldn't forget the frightening glare he had given her.

"He seems...dangerous. Despite saving me."

"Of course he is. Guys like him are after only one thing-" Hana shoved a calamari into Arisa's mouth and commanded her to eat.

Tohru giggled at them and began to eat as well.

...

"Tohru let's go watch."

Tohru blinked. The three had finished dinner and was roaming around the famous Market Square. Since it was night a variety of fireworks displayed were lighting up around the square and people were doing magic tricks and shows for spare change.

As Tohru watched as a young boy who looked almost her age with blonde hair and bright green eyes grabbed a torch and lit it with the fireball in his hand. He then tossed it into the air lighting another one while it was still in the air, he repeated this process throwing almost five torches into the air before catching them and beginning to juggle them.

People shouted comments of awe and clapped loudly as the flames continued to surround the boy. Tohru watched amazed that he didn't seem scared at all. On the contrary he seemed to be truly enjoying himself, grinning as a torch almost fell near his hand.

Tohru would gasp when a torch almost touched his hair, but by the split second the young man would grab the torch and wouldn't be harmed. At the end he grabbed all five torches, blew them out one by one, and gave a deep bow.

Tohru clapped smiling as he rose up, and is he did so they made eye contact. Tohru almost gasped because this boy who seemed so European, had features of a Japanese person as well. The boy looked at her for a moment, then grinned and winked at her.

Tohru blushed and looked around her to see if there had been someone else he had been making eye contact with. However when she turned to look back, he was still watching her. As she watched, the boy took several smoke bombs out of his bag, and tossed one into the air. People screamed as the smoke bomb landed with a loud pop! And the whole audience was engulfed in smoke.

Tohru blinked and couldn't see anything around her.

"Tohru? Tohru!"

"Here!" she called and made her way around the audience in panic. Several people pushed one another and tried to get out of the smoke. Tohru turned around several times and caught sight of a person with blonde hair. She registered him as the boy who had thrown the bomb.

As she watched he moved sideways and moved out of the smoke with ease and disappeared. Almost as if the smoke had followed, it vanished and the audience was left in a state of confusion and awe.

"That was something.." Arisa breathed running to where Tohru was, giving her a small pat on her shoulder.
"For a moment I thought it was a joke."

"He's very good at magic tricks." Tohru blinked a smile forming on her lips. Hana emerged from the crowd and frowned.

"He uses tricks like these so that we can't follow him."

"Why would he not want to be followed?" Tohru asked confused.

"Who knows?" Arisa grinned. "Such funny people in Venice huh?"

"Yes..." Tohru nodded hestitatingly. For an instant she was reminded of the young man with startling orange eyes. He seemed fairly similar to the boy with blonde hair, although they looked nothing alike...

"Well, let's call it a day. Bon voyage~"

"Arisa, that's not a correct term here." Hana said quietly.

Tohru laughed and followed her two friends as they walked out of the crowd to make their way towards their hotel.

...

"Why did you do that?"

"Huh?"

Kyo sighed. Momiji had come back from his fanfare at the Market Square covered in soot marks and grinning from ear to ear. He also smelled horribly of smoke. Kyo had watched the whole event from the hill overlooking the square and had only sighed when he was the only one who noticed Momiji secretly take a smoke bomb out of his bag at the end of his performance.

He had waited at their usual spot, a hiding alleyway out of keen eyes next to one of the canals. It was dark and quiet, but still close enough to the market to meet easily.

Momiji grinned and poured his earnings from from his performance from his hat into his leather pouch. He then snapped open a small bag of smoke bombs eyeing them one by one, frowning a bit. "I'll have to go out and buy more of these things. They don't even know how to get out of it!" He began to laugh doubling over and holding his sides.

Kyo watched Momiji his expression unfazed.

When Momiji had finished laughing he nudged Kyo and did a handstand, trying to get a reaction out of him like he always did.

When this failed to even earn him a smirk Momiji frowned and stood upright again, his unkept hair billowing around his face. He brushed his messy blond hair back and scowled at Kyo.

"What's the matter? Something bad happen today?"

"Mm?" Kyo blinked at Momiji. Momiji was always overly perceptive at times like this.

"I don't want to talk about it." Kyo sighed getting up from his leaning position and walking around to face the city.

"Awww tell me~" Momiji whined prancing around Kyo. He avoided touching Kyo since he knew he didn't like that, but kept an annoyingly close distance. "Was it a girl?!"

Kyo paused glancing at Momiji. Momiji caught his glance and immediately grinned at him, excited. "It was wasn't it?!"

"No, it doesn't matter." Kyo murmured slightly irritated. "It was just something that wasted my time."

"You always talk like that. What if she was cute?" Momiji pouted sighing. His face then lit up as he thought of something.

"Oh! Guess what?! Speaking of cute girls, I saw someone really cute today at the market!"

"Oh really?" Kyo smirked, glad the conversation had turned to focus on Momiji.

"She had brown hair, brown eyes, and she looked my age." He babbled "She was so cute! She looked so innocent too. My style." Momiji grinned almost blushing.

"That's nice. You shouldn't spoil her innocence then."

"I'm not that bad." Momiji huffed. "And we even exchanged glances."

"You flirted with her just by staring at her? Smooth."

"Yea, and then she looked at me too! She kind of looked Japanese though. Wonder why she's in Venice?"

"Hmm...there are a lot of tourists." Kyo shrugged. He was immediately reminded about the girl he had saved earlier from the rapist men. However he shook it off as something unimportant.

"You said she had long brown hair?"

"Yea, and she even wore a blue ribbon. I should go to the market again hahaha"

Kyo froze as the memory registered in his mind. It was the same girl from earlier...

He watched Momiji prancing around declaring songs of love and romance and scowled to himself. He didn't want to get mixed up with that girl again. It would be a hassle..

"Kyo, how about we eat chicken for dinner tonight?"

Kyo smiled. "You're treating right?"

"Awwww just cuz I earn money! Fine, but you get to buy tomorrow!"

...

The next day Tohru was with only Hanajima for the day. Arisa had decided to visit some other cities nearby through train while they stayed in Venice.

"Tohru. Isn't this cute?" Hana pointed at a silky yellow ribbon dangling on a shelf. The price read 5 euros.

"Yes...it is." Tohru smiled and touched it lightly with her fingertip. "I always wanted the color yellow for a ribbon."

"Wait here. I think I saw a shop with a cheaper one down the road." Hana smiled at her.

"Oh! It's ok really!" Tohru blinked waving her hands frantically.

"No it's fine Tohru-kun. Be right back."

Tohru blinked and watched as Hanajima disappeared outside the shop. Tohru smiled grateful for such a great friend. She turned her attention back onto the ribbons for a moment, when suddenly something caught her eye.

A glimpse of orange.

She blinked and registered a person with orange hair walking by the shop. She gasped and ran out of the shop looking around but noticed that the man was walking ahead past the shop into the market square. Without thinking Tohru ran after him weaving herself around the various people in the market.

"E-excuse me!" She called trying to get his attention.

He didn't turn around but simply continued to walk. Tohru tried to make her way past a young couple blocking her view but they continued to walk at a slow steady pace.

"Sorry!" She bowed weaving her way around them and coming around the square to find that he was turning sideways and disappearing down a narrow alleyway.

"Sir!" She called. She ran after him and followed him in the alley.

"Sir! Is it..?"

She blinked. He was gone. She had been so sure that he had walked down that alley. All she could see was the street winding up towards a few houses, and no one to be in sight.

"Strange..."

Tohru sighed turned to walk back when she bumped someone in the back and she turned to apologize when her eyes widened.

It was him.