My Monster

Disclaimer: I don't own Furuba

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Chapter 1:

Arrival and Problems

It was a beautiful day, great for doing just about anything outdoors. Honda Tohru watched the scenery roll by through the opened window of the rented minivan. Tohru's aqua eyes shimmered as she saw the piers through the tree branches, her light brown hair flowing through the wind out of the opened window. She was on her way to the lake for a small vacation with herself, her mother, and two friends, Saki and Arisa, also known as Hana and Uo.

"We're here!" her mothers' voice rang through the car, obvious excitement in it. Tohru's mother had always been a free spirit, and she was always looking for danger. That's what she loved about her mother though; she knew how to have fun, and lots of it. She was always laughing and smiling, her short red hair clinging to her pale face.

"That's good," Hana commented, setting her book in her lap. Her purple eyes scanned the area around them, a slight smile on her lips. "It's very pretty here." She said, taking in the beautiful lake and the setting sun. The area wasn't very large, but it was like their secret hideout, and this time, Hana and Uo were there too! Tohru was ready to burst with excitement as she pushed the door open and threw herself into the grass, happily sighing.

"I love it here!"

"It is pretty cool," Uo stepped out of the van behind Hana, her blonde hair looking rather gold in the sunlight, which seemed to make her blue eyes look slightly green. She turned back to the van, helping Tohru's mother unpack the things. "Yo, we could use some help," she commented, pulling her two bags down.

"Right." the two girls chorused, rushing to the van.

The four women scrambled into the house, turning on lights and claiming rooms as they parted. As usual, Kyooko went to the very back of the house, where the largest room was. It was decorated with reds and blacks, the only black really being a large rug in the middle of the floor, the metal of the bed, dressers and such, and the curtains. The floor was hardwood, the walls a blood red. The comforter on the bed was black with red butterflies on it.

Tohru went to her usual room, a sunny yellow with a pale yellow bed, and white curtains. She had no rug on the floor, and her dressers her rather plain, being a plaid pattern in yellow. Tohru never asked for much, because she never wanted much. Tohru loved every single thing about her life, and never thought about getting anything more, because she thought it was good enough.

Uo didn't really know where to go, so she chose the closest room to the door, the one being decorated in natural colors. It had a full sized bed covered in greens and browns, matching the curtains on the walls. She didn't have any dressers, but rather a closet that had a forest scenery painting onto it. She smiled, stepping onto a soft green carpet in the middle of the room. She didn't know why, but she liked this room. Go figure.

Hana was walking slowly through the house, stopping outside of each door, only to move to the next. She didn't know that only two rooms remained, but somehow found herself walking into a free one, filled with purple, electric blue, and black. The floors were not hardwood in here, instead, a purple color. The curtains were plain electric blue, and the bed was black, metal. It was covered with vertical stripes of bright blues, dark purples, black, and a few times, white. She set her bags down and began unpacking with an unemotional face. When done, she walked herself back to the living room with a book in hand, waiting for the other girls.

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Kyooko clapped her hands in agreement. "So, pizza tonight, and we go to the store tomorrow?" After gaining nods from the girls, she brought out a pen and paper. "What toppings?"

Hana looked up from her book, then back down. "Mushroom,"

"Pepperoni," Uo said, raising a finger.

Tohru grinned, waving her hands in the air. "Anything's fine with me! What about both?"

"Whatever," The three women commented, each turning to their own thing. Hana continued reading, Kyooko began ordering the pizza, and Uo went back to watching the television while Tohru sort of just stared into space.

The pizza arrived fairly quickly, and as the girls began eating, they discussed tomorrow's plans.

"I'd like to go out on the lake." Hana said, taking a small bite out of her pizza slice.

"I second that! But 'ya know what; I think that we should grill out or something!" Uo balled her fist up, eyes shimmering. "We should get hotdogs and hamburgers!"

"That sounds like a good idea," Kyooko commented, looking over at Tohru. "but we'll have to go shopping for food first. We also have to unpack, and I'm too tired tonight."

"Well that's easily solved; we can do it first thing in the morning. Then we'll go shopping." Uo stated, smiling at her friends.

Tohru shifted in her spot. "Um, if you all don't mind, I'd like to stay here while the shopping is done. I want to take a walk into the forest." She looked down guiltily, her food untouched.

"No problem, kid. Besides, this trip is for us to relax, and you deserve it most!" Her mother ruffled her hair, grinning. "You just got done taking care of my cold, and now that testing is over, you need some fun time."

"Thanks, mom!" She grinned, leaning onto her mothers shoulder. Sure, the gesture was normal enough, not wonderfully kind, but that was Tohru for you. She appreciated everything.

Uo smiled evilly as she finished off the last of her pizza. "Why don't you unpack our bags for us tomorrow, Tohru? That way we can get done with shopping earlier."

Tohru didn't notice the comment as a joke, so she smiled brightly, but no one bothered to tell her it was a joke either. She was fine with unpacking, right?

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Tohru awoke to a strangely quiet house, blinking the tiredness out of her eyes. "Mmm, I guess they left already." she said to no particular person, her words distorted by a yawn. Lifting herself out of bed, Tohru unpacked her suitcase, a constant smile on her face as she neatly re-folded everything and placed them in her drawers. She then remembered her promise to everyone else, and ran to their rooms to unpack for them and was careful to leave out things such as toothbrushes, hairbrushes, and all of the other womanly needs items on the beds.

After that task was done, Tohru dressed and went into the kitchen for breakfast. She opened the cabinets, only to find them bare, not even a layer of dust. Her face fell as her stomach growled, shutting the doors and walking outside. "I guess breakfast is off for the day," she told herself, mindlessly walking into the forest that was nearby the house. She didn't recognize the storm clouds overhead.

Tohru walked through the forest, following the path that she took each time she came here. She smiled, looking up, trying to find the sky behind the leaves, which of course she couldn't find. She didn't know why she enjoyed this place so much, or why she had to go on a walk through the forest each time she came, or why she felt that tingle of impending danger run through her spine.

She clumsily stepped over roots and dodged under branches as she made her way through the path. To another person, it would have been easy to get through without so much as a scratch, but this was Tohru. She was clumsy and couldn't walk through a bear hallway without tripping over some speck of dust or, more often than not, her own two feet. Her clothes were dirty and there were a few tears on them, but that was no surprise. In fact, this time she was smart enough to think ahead and wear an old shirt and jeans. Every other time she had worn skirts and cute little blouses and even sometimes heels, but she had learned from that.

A dull roar broke through the serenity of her earthy sanctum. It was so low, and so, almost calming, that Tohru wouldn't have heard it had it not been for the near-silence of the woods. The thunder made her stop in her tracks, and she looked to the sky only to find tree branches blocking her view. She looked forward, knowing that her clearing wasn't too far away from this point, so she ran forward so that she could take a look at the sky. She was hoping that this storm would just pass over.

She was almost out of breath while she broke through a rather intense area of trees, halting at the edge of the clearing. She looked around, making sure that no one was around just in case, and walked up to a large and flat rock right in the middle of it. The boulder was so perfectly placed there, that she often pictured someone moving it to this spot for meditation or something of the sorts, seeing how a person could easily sit on it, right in the middle of that perfect circle, and lose time just staring into the sky. She hoisted herself onto the two foot rock with little effort, staring into the sky.

Clouds passed by quickly, and she soon found herself dizzy staring into the grayness of it all. She sat down and sighed, knowing that the storm wouldn't just pass over; it seemed that it had even been raining on and off already. She stepped down and began walking away from the rock as a stench entered her nose, causing her to cover it and shut her eyes briefly. It made her want to vomit. She heard an unearthly growl from somewhere but was paralyzed somehow, standing there with shut eyes. She heard feet pounding the ground in a hasty run, quicker than maybe four others chasing after it.

There was another growl, and then a falling tree. She spun around to see a tree falling right for her, but couldn't move. A force hit her straight on as rain began to fall, and there was a flash of lightning and bang of thunder that seemed to coexist with the fall of the tree. When she opened her eyes, a cat was lying on her stomach, its' breath coming out in quick hauls. She smelled the blood on the animal, and spotted it streaming out of quite a few places. The stench still lingered slightly and she still heard footsteps, but it seemed that the creature was gone now, for no roars were heard.

"Over here! I think he came over here!" A voice yelled, the footfalls pausing before quickening once more. Tohru, barely thinking, pulled the cat into her shirt and ran from the clearing.

Drops of rain fell through the leaves as tears welled in her eyes. She was truly afraid for her life at the moment. She felt the cats wet fur against her bear stomach as she continued running, her panting increasing as she tripped more than once. She still heard the footfalls behind her as she rounded a random corner, barely dunking under a low branch in her way. They were getting quieter now, but she was still worried. Now, she didn't know where she was going, and the people behind her didn't seem to tire in the least.

The cat inside her shirt meowed quietly, as if to remind her that two lives were at stake here. She never even thought that she might not be in any danger at all. She began to slow as the running quieted still, and eventually came to a stop. She heaved as she held the cat closer to her still, her loose hair, soaked from the rain, being held back by one hand. After her empty stomach emptied more, she stepped to the side and fell to the ground, pulling the cat out of her shirt as the rain continued to fall.

She stroked its' damp hair, running her fingers across a rather large gash on the back. The cat meowed lowly from the obvious pain placed there. There was another, smaller cut on the creatures' front left paw, and yet another one right on the middle of it's' head. She flipped the poor thing onto its' back, and found another cut on its' stomach.

"Ah... what could have happened to you?" She asked quietly, pulling the cat back under her shirt. Only just then did she notice that blood was beginning to spill through the material, and this worried her even more. How much blood did this cat lose? Without hesitation, she ran. She didn't know where, but she did. If she could find her path, then Tohru could get home. She had to get home.

And later - she couldn't tell you how much later - she grinned as she found her house through the pouring rain and dripping wet trees. She held the cat closer still, feeling him not to be safe yet, and ran onto the small deck, pushing the unlocked door open and standing, dripping wet, in the doorway. She shivered from the chill of the unheated house as water dripped loudly to the hardwood floor. She finally broke from her trance and pulled the cat from under her shirt, stroking its' drying head as she thought once again 'I wonder what happened to it...' She smiled rather sadly, shivering again from the rain that still hit her back. The girl shut the door closed with her foot, then slowly walked to her room with the cat curled up into her crossed arms.

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Tohru shot out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her and dropping loudly to the floor in front of it right before a loud THUMP sounded on the other side. She had just made three discoveries concerning the injured cat:

1. It wasn't de-clawed

2. It was a boy

3. He had a bad temper.

She almost cried as she held the sleeve of a fresh shirt in front of her face, bearing three large scratch marks on the forearm. She swallowed hard as she stood on feeble legs and turned to the door, barely opening it enough to pop her head in. "Anoo... Neko-san?" she called, widely opening the door now. She stopped right inside of the door as the cat jolted from a far corner of the room to underneath the bed. She smiled despite herself, knowing that the poor thing was probably scared to death. She got down on all fours and peeked under the bed, only to jump back from the sight: two red eyes glaring at her. She'd never seen a creature with red eyes before.

Tohru carefully reached her hand underneath the bed, stroking the cat under its chin. "It's okay, I won't hurt you." She smiled, raising her hand to the cats' cheek as he purred and pressed his head further into her palm. She thought now was a good time to pull him out, so she did so, stretching both arms forward to grab him, and gently pull him toward her. His claws pricked her fingers the closer he got, but she didn't let go and in no time the cat was sitting in her lap, purring, but not very happily. She wondered to herself if that was possible.

Ignoring the random thought, Tohru gently rubbed his ears, only to draw his attention away from her other hand as she carefully washed his fur, getting rid of blood and dirt so she could she the damage. He seemed not to mind, for when she stopped petting his ears to get a stubborn clump of dirt, he didn't move. She smiled and continued grooming the cat until he looked reasonable, and set him in front of her.

"Eh... Neko-san? Could you stay here for just a minute? I have to get bandages for those wounds." She slowly stood up and felt a cramp in her legs, but ignored it as she looked him over once more, being sure that she wouldn't have to run and get extra bandages. She smiled, popping up and running to the door, shutting it behind her and making her way toward the bathroom where first aid supplies were held.

'Such a cute cat...' she thought, rummaging through a closet for bandages and such. 'He seems like a good cat... but I don't think mom would think so. She'd probably think of him as too dangerous... But he's adorable! His fur is so soft... and the orange color reminds me of mom in a way!' She thought back to the red eyes that glared at her from underneath the bed as she made her way back to the room. 'His eyes are scary though.'

She opened the door lost in her thoughts, and nearly stepped on the waiting cat as she walked in. "Ah! Sorry, Neko-san!" she shouted as she barely leaped over him. It seemed as if he glared at her over his shoulder as she sat there, on her knees. She smiled and reached over him, closing the door. "Anoo... I'm going to have to bandage you... okay?" The cat just sat there, now facing her as she inched her way closer to him. For some reason, this cat made her nervous and jumpy, as if he were about to jump up and attack her... which might be what he was planning. She shook her head free of the thought, and starting bandaging him, starting at one of the worst wounds; on his head.

After she finished bandaging the cat up, she had to laugh at the job she'd done. It wasn't that the bandages were too lose or too tight, but he looked adorable like that! He had bandages on his head, covering one of his ears and almost the entire top of his head, his whole front left paw covered in a bandage, leaving him somewhat off-balanced. To top it off, there were two more wounds; one on his back and another on his stomach, which Tohru had found to be the same, large wound all together. So, doing what she must, much of the remaining fur on the cat was covered with gauze. She smiled, feeling the discomfort from the cat, and pulled him into her arms. He was truly adorable.

"It's okay, Neko-san, I'll heal you up and you can return to your normal life." She gently stroked him between his shoulder blades, gaining purrs from the feline. She was already growing attached to it. There was a knock at the door and she jumped, dropping the cat on the floor and holding her racing heart. The person knocked again and she ran to the door, knowing it would be her mother and friends. She smiled as she opened it, and the cat slowly walked out of the room behind her.

"Hi, mom, Uo, Hana! Would you like me to help with the groceries? I have some news for you."

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Bwahahaha. Enjoy the cliffhanger... I know I did. Please review!