It was hard to swallow his food. Kyo rigidly sat alone at a table in the restaurant he was supposed to have met Yuki and Machi in. He had held onto hope that maybe Akito was just above and beyond paranoid and concocting stories to make herself look more in control than what she was. After all, it was still hard to believe after all this time, she could just feel his aura and he was still unhappy about it. His unhappiness was turning into a mix of anger and despair as he pushed food around on his plate, all hope that things were perfectly fine evaporating into thin air. Sighing, he set his fork down onto his plate with a loud clink. The noise was quickly lost into the hustle and bustle of the restaurant and his server hardly noticed that he was edgy and testy. There was no way they would forget to show up without giving him some kind of notice.

The sound of his phone ringing made him jump and he angrily berated himself for not changing the ringtone. "What?" he angrily snapped into the phone, half expecting to hear Akito's calculating voice on the other end again.

"K-Kyo? Did I call at a bad time? I can call later!" Tohru's apologetic voice greeted him instead and he felt himself burn up with frustration at himself. He should have checked the caller ID! It seemed as if he always forgot to do such a simple thing.

"No, of course not, Tohru! You are my wife! Call anytime, geeze!" He sighed, wishing he could get that through Tohru's head. "How are things?"

"Everything is great, but it would be better with you here. We miss you already and are so excited to see you later!" He could practically see her beaming at the phone and smiling brightly.

"Yeah, I miss you too and can't wait to get back."

"How are you Yuki and Machi doing?"

Kyo blinked, unsure what to say.

"Kyo?"

"I haven't seen them yet. But I'll tell them you said 'hi'," his voice came out a little strained and he hoped she wouldn't be able to tell that anything was wrong. He wasn't exactly sure what he would tell her if anything was wrong. It would be difficult news to deliver especially to Tohru. After all, Yuki, along with Shigure, were the two to get Tohru involved in Sohma affairs in the first place.

"Is everything...okay?" She caught on quicker than he would have liked. "You aren't fighting or anything?" Not that he had ever really gotten into a fight with Machi and he and Yuki rarely fought at all anymore unless it was teasing. He supposed Tohru still got paranoid that they could regress back to their former cursed relationship.

"I wish we were," he grunted unhappily into the phone. "Look, I'll give you a call. I'm about to head over to their house and see what's up."

She was quiet for a moment, able to quickly figure out what he hadn't said. "They didn't meet you at the restaurant? Yuki said it was their favorite place." Kyo could hear the worry in her voice. It was unusual for Yuki and Machi to forget to meet up with someone.

There was no way around it. He didn't see the point in lying and she might as well start preparing herself for possible bad news. "No, they didn't. Haru and Kakeru haven't been able to get in touch with them, either." He paused for a moment before going on, "Akito called me earlier to ask me to check on them."

The gravity of the situation was not lost on his wife. "Akito called you?" Obviously this had evolved into a much more serious situation than any of them had been prepared for if Akito was already involved.

"Yeah, he-she did." Sometimes, it was still hard to outgrow old habits and many of the former Zodiac members would still refer to Akito as the wrong gender from time to time.

"Call me when you see them," Tohru said nervously, trying to remain optimistic despite the bleak outlook.

"Will do," he promised. "Love you."

"Love you, too."

With that, he stuffed his phone in his back pocket, choosing not to throw it back into his carry-on. Slinging the duffel over his shoulder, he paid for his meal and took off, slowly making his way to Yuki and Machi's place. The couple had bought a nice house in a well-kept neighborhood. Once Yuki had graduated college, it had been simple for him to find a job in the area and Machi had already moved into his studio apartment by then and worked in a restaurant in the area. It had been easy for them to decide to stay in this town and buy a house. Yuki still held onto some of resentment he'd had for the Sohmas and their estates, feeling caged in and trapped over the years, so to move so far away felt like he was really, truly free.

Kyo stood before their door and licked his lips, forcing himself to knock even though he knew no one would answer. It was early evening and no lights were on in their house. Their car sat in the driveway, indicating they definitely hadn't gone anywhere far enough to require a vehicle. Both their bikes could be seen leaning against the side of the house. He had a vague hope that maybe they were out on a walk in the park and had forgotten what day it was, but that was just too unlike his cousin.

Summoning courage, Kyo pushed the door open slowly, taking a careful step inside. "Hello?" He said into the empty hallway he stepped into. It was a long and dark hall that led straight to the living room. There was an entryway that led to the kitchen before you reached the living room. On the other side of the wall, the two rooms met up, only having a bar to separate them. He walked down the hall a bit, hands searching for the light switch. "Machi? Yuki? Heeeeyyy, anybody home?" He felt silly speaking to empty air, but it made him feel a little more at ease and less like an intruder. Still, no one answered. He flicked on the light half expecting someone to jump out and terrify him, but it was rather anti-climatic as nothing happened and still no sounds were heard.

He passed the entryway to kitchen, choosing to go straight to the living room instead. At the end of the hall, he stood stockstill, staring ahead with much dread. Upon reaching the end of the hall, he instantly knew he was not alone in the house, he could make out a shadowy lump in a far corner of the living room and the way the figure was shaped, it looked as if it had been trying to get to the kitchen. He knew the cut and style of his blood cousin's hair and knew right off the bat that the lump was definitely not Machi and more than likely Yuki. Still, he had become paralyzed with dread and shock, much the same some people get when they discover they might have cancer. If they don't get the biopsy, then maybe the problem will go away or they just don't want to know. Maybe if he didn't turn on the light, the problem would go away. Deep down, he really didn't want to know who was in the living room, lying lifelessly on the floor especially if it was someone he knew.

Finally, finally, his fingers inched slowly towards the lightswitch and his heart pounded wildly against his chest. He held his breath without realizing it, taking short gasps of breath every now and then when he absolutely needed the oxygen. The room became illuminated in light and Kyo's heart skipped several beats and dropped all at once. It was definitely Yuki in there, along with a large amount of his cousin's dried up blood. Kyo shuddered, unsure whether he should flee the scene right away and call the cops or drop down by his cousin and see if there was the chance he could be hanging onto life. Deciding that he could never live with himself if he found out his cousin had died three minutes after he arrived, he made his way over to Yuki on wobbly feet and knelt down next to him.

Right away, Kyo wished he wouldn't have. Up close, he knew there was absolutely no way Yuki could still be living. His eyes were half-lidded and vacant. It was absolutely horrifying and clearly, he had been here for more than a day, possibly two by now. Whoever was responsible for this had made sure to finish the deed before leaving. Kyo stared down at his cousin, eyes wide with disbelief. "What the hell happened here?" he asked him without even realizing he had spoken aloud. He looked expectantly at Yuki, but no answers were going to come from his pale lips. Kyo glanced at the dried bloody streaks behind Yuki, clearly indicating his cousin had been trying to crawl somewhere with his severe injuries at one point. "Where were you trying to go, you stupid rat? You got killed trying to get there." The kitchen. That was definitely the direction Yuki had been heading. Kyo forced himself to stand up and look over in the direction of the darkened kitchen area. "Is Machi in the kitchen, Yuki?" he asked, vaguely aware it was probably bad for a person's state of mental health to be conversing with corpses.

With glazed eyes, Kyo made his way over to the kitchen, dreading what he would find. He already felt extremely ill and thought he would start upchucking any moment now. He wasn't sure he could handle the sight of another relative in any condition remotely similar to what he had just seen. He said nothing, resisting the urge to call out to Machi, already knowing she would not answer. A brief alarm went off in his head that maybe the person or persons responsible for this horrid deed were still in the house, but he quickly pushed it aside seeing as the blood around Yuki had been dried and not wet and fresh. They had to have left the house. Besides he could get to the exit quickly through the kitchen and get out of this house as he definitely had no intentions of remaining inside. However, he wanted to make absolutely sure Machi was here and not missing.

Machi was in the kitchen. Crumpled up and broken, she stared lifelessly out into nothing. Chills went down Kyo's spine at the sight of her and he quickly bypassed her, certain he would find no pulse beating in her much like with Yuki. They were both gone. He hurried outside, not bothering to flick the lights back off and gasped heavily for breath once his feet found grass. He hadn't realized he had completely stopped breathing at some point, trying to be as quiet as possible as if he could somehow disturb his Yuki and Machi's eternal slumber. He shortly found himself on his knees, heaving up the food he'd eaten before stopping by their house.

Shaky hands pulled his phone out of his pocket and trembling fingers dialed the police. After much stuttering and tripping over his words, Kyo finally gave the correct address and promised to wait and reassured the operator that the culprits were not inside.

He ended his call with the police operator and took several deep, steadying breaths trying to work up the strength and energy to make his next two phone calls. He suddenly felt very drained and wanted to take a nice, long nap and forget everything he had just seen. He finally decided that he would make the easier call first and dialed Akito's number.

"I was expecting you," she said without wasting time on any type of small talk. "How are they?"

"Dead."

"They are." It was more of a statement to herself than a question to Kyo, as if she was simply confirming what she already knew.

"You knew." Kyo said quietly, wanting to yell at her for sending him instead of coming herself.

"I suspected. I hoped I was wrong, but things did look suspicious."

"They were murdered. It's...bad," Kyo tried to find the right words to describe the gory scene he had just encountered, but all he could think of was that it was simply bad. Not something he'd ever want to see again. He was already trying to burn the images out of his mind and knew he would never be able to. It was surreal. He half expected Yuki to pop out of the house and laugh at him for being a "stupid cat" and falling for his and Machi's elaborate prank. But the house remained eerily quiet and the door didn't budge.

"You called the police?"

"Yes. They are on their way." Kyo was aware he sounded much more like a mechanical doll or a small child and nothing like himself at all. His voice sounded far away and not really engaged in the conversation. He simply spoke because he felt he had to.

"Good. Just wait for them and we'll try to figure things out." With a jolt, Kyo realized he wasn't the only one who didn't sound like himself. Akito's voice had a far-off sound too and it was clear she was trying too hard to be strong and not sound terrified. There were a couple moments of silence where neither spoke or really cared when Akito suddenly asked, "Are you still flying out today?"

Kyo blinked and shook his head hard, trying to get himself to focus again. He hadn't even thought of that yet. "No, I'll wait around here with the police and just reschedule my flight for later. I mean, no other Sohmas are here and it would feel wrong to leave..." After what I just saw, he silently added onto the end of the last sentence. There was no way he could leave right away. Not with Yuki and Machi lying dead and crumpled up in their own blood. It would be disrespectful.

"Okay. Good. We definitely need someone there. I'll be on my way obviously." Another pause and a dragged out sigh from Akito. Suddenly, she sounded much, much older. "I'll have to get in touch with Hatsuharu and inform him and... Kakeru, too. Ayame has also been asking about his brother..." Akito trailed off and Kyo, despite never having liked the head of the family, felt sorry for her. She had a lot of phone calls to make and all of them were bad. He had only one to make for the time being. He thought of offering to help her call, but was simply in too much shock to offer anything. Besides, he needed to be available for the talks he was sure the police would want to have with him.

"Yeah, I'll call you later after I talk to the police. I'm gonna call Tohru."

"Good," he could hear a hint of jealousy in her tone. Obviously calling Tohru would be more appealing than calling Hatsuharu, Kakeru, or Ayame. "Call me as soon as you find out anything."

"Will do." With that, they both ended their calls and started making dreaded new ones.