A/N: So I was reading and reading and reading through many fanfics on YukixKyo, and then it hit me with realization. Ever noticed, that in the first chapter of some stories, Tohru and Shigure are always sometimes mysteriously missing and are out till midnight? I mean, don't get me wrong, I myself like to write that. But, Idk, it just dawned on me. It's... cute? But who cares right? As long as Yuki and Kyo do the do or at least get together! I also like fics with a supporting Shigure. A lot don't have that, but it makes them feel supported and not alone other than with Tohru being all 'Okay' with it. And I don't just mean a Shigure whose homosexual himself, but I mean as just plain, old Shigure. But Shigure as a yaoi couple in it is pretty sweet too... ANYWAYS!

Disclaimer: ... :[ No.

Italics - Thinking/Emphisis

' ' - Emphisis as well or quoting

Underlining - Once again, emphisis... ( You see where I'm going with this? D: I think I'm maturing things too much. Lawls, Lawls. )

" " - Talking or quoting

Chapter 2.

School went fast for the three. Tohru stayed after for extra cramming for up-coming tests, Yuki with his student council and Kyo stalked off to somewhere unknown to the other two.

"Hm… I wonder what's eating Orange-top." The blonde yawned and flipped another page to her history book as the brunette beside her fumbled upon erasing a mistake.

"Maybe."

"Maybe what, Hana?" Uo raised an eyebrow and yawned again. "Any new news or something?"

"Kyou, I believe." She responded with monotone respect. "Strange signals."

"Eh… That doesn't help." The blonde blinked down at Tohru, noticing her tense at the boy's name. "Hey Tohru, you alright?"

"Huh? Oh!-Uhm, yea." She light headedly chuckled to herself, standing up. "Well, I must get going, I've gotta get to work early. They said I could get extra for bonus hours." She states while clumsily shoving her notebooks and papers into her bag.

"But Tohru, what about th-"

"The test? Oh, well, I'm sure Yuki-kun will be kind enough to help out tonight." She smiled to show she was fine. "He usually always studies right when I'm coming home anyways."

"You sure? I mean, this whole working early thing. Nothing's wrong, is there? Them Sohma's aren't taking your money are they?" She stood up and shoved her hands into the jacket she was wearing. "Sure that's the least they'd do, but heck, you'd never know."

Saki sat silently between the two, never breaking her concentration on the single rubber eraser that was left on another desk beside theirs.

"N-no! Honestly! They would never do that!" Tohru clung to her bag, hugging it to her chest as she looked down. "Just… Been thinking it's time to make some extra money… You know?"

Uo smiled slightly and nodded for the sake of her friend.

"Alright, alright." She pushed in her chair and folded her arms behind her head. "But I better be expecting at least a phone call tonight."

Tohru nodded with a bright smile. "Of course!"

"Yo, Hana, wake up, will ya?" The blonde nudged the wave girl's chair with her foot. "Hey, your not doing another wave report again are you? The last one didn't tell us anything."

The black orbs of the wave girl's eyes swiftly glanced out of the corner and barely made an attempt to move her calm and straight forward posture as she stared at them.

"I saw Kyou. Today. Before the bell, he had walked off without anyone. But his waves were strange. Like worriment." Tohru bit her lip as Uo tilted her head. "The Sohma's, for what we've known, have always been strange with the welcoming of these mixed waves. But his. His are by far the greatest I could've gotten from another-"

"Blahhh- Hana your just saying your usual stuff. Orange-top is always strange and he'll always be till we're all old and gray in the head. Besides, I can understand your "mixed waves" theory, but he's been acting way too damn strange and to simply put it. Your telling us what we basically already know."

"Uhm, have a good night." Tohru kept her head down, making her leave out of the room, letting Uo's concerning question linger in the air as the black haired teen went back to staring at the lone eraser.

"Maybe." She said to herself getting another odd look from Uo as she stood up slowly and placed the eraser that Tohru was using along next to the one on the desk beside their's. "Just maybe."

"You know, Yun-Yun, Kimi has never been to a coffee shop that sold doughnuts and bagels before." The odd topic was randomly flown out there along with the usual other strange outbursts that occur during the meetings.

"Oh? Well… I'm sure you'll be able to one day." He gave a slight smile, trying to ignore the poking in his side which really wasn't going away anytime soon. He groaned. "What Kakeru?"

"No! You've gotta call me Captain!" The raven haired teen grinned widely, hiding away the weapon that was used to dig into Yuki's rib.

"But shouldn't Yun-Yun be called Captain?" Kimi looked up in thought as so did Kakeru.

"That's right! Then that settles it!" He stomped a foot onto the table, his chair flying backwards. "I'LL BE CAPTIAN RANGER AND YUN WILL BE CAPTAIN PRINCESS!" He thrust his arm out into the air, pointing towards the ceiling.

Yuki growled but remained calm.

"GET DOWN! FEET AREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE ON THE TABLES!" A clearly pissed of Nao twitched and made to shove Kakeru off the table.

"Ha ha! Too short for me puny human!" Kakeru flicked at the shorter teen's head and grinned. "Your no match for me! Haha!"

Yuki, who was trying to just ignore the whole thing in general, rolled his eyes and continued his work, only stopping to glance up at the girl sitting across from him.

Machi was always quiet during their meetings, always adding a silent word of agreement or disapproval once in a while, but since the first day of their third year, she was just too quiet. And that's just not healthy.

Yuki frowned and leaned forward with a hopeful smile.

"Hey?" He whispered, smiling a bit more when seeing her lift up her head from the empty piece of paper in front of her. "You want to go out for ice cream? Maybe later?"

She blinked at him, eyes showing she was clouded with many thoughts as he awaited her response.

"I'm… busy…." She looked back down at the table.

He frowned. "Are you sure?"

"No." Machi stubbornly answered.

Yuki laughed slightly. "So… You will?"

"No."

"Well… Which is it?" Yuki blinked at her in mild confusion, usually never understanding exactly why she played these games with him but clearly it just made him even more confused thinking about it. "Uhm, maybe if we did something else… Do you not like ice cream? It'd be my treat, you know?"

Machi looked up with a frustrated look and stood up and with almost tripping over her chair, grabbed her bag and stomped her way out of the now silent room.

"Geez, Yun-Yun, whatcha do now?" Kakeru, whose collar was gripped onto by Nao, pulled away and slumped over his friend's shoulders. "You say something to upset her again?"

Not bothered by Kakeru's actions, Yuki narrowed his eyes at the door in almost mock-disbelief.

"She's inflexible! Inflexible I tell you!" He huffed. Always so confusing!

Kakeru sighed and shook his head, muttering under his breath a, 'I'll never understand you two' as Nao fixed his composure and picked up Kakeru's chair.

"Well since our Treasurer is out, we might as well just go on home now." He glanced at the clock. "I gotta meet up with my sister anyways." He grumbled.

"WOAH!" Kakeru and Kimi stared in shock at the boy. "Your actually calling it done for today!? YOU!?" They almost seemed to shouted together.

Nao glared at his classmates. "Shut up! I have a personal life too, you know!" And with that, he slammed a book in Kakeru's face before grabbing his backpack. "And since you two obviously sound like you have nothing else better to do. Why don't you just go return that book and on the pronto." He nodded towards Yuki and headed on out.

Kimi groaned. "But I have a date tonight…" She pouted, pulling out her compact.

Yuki looked around the almost empty room. "I could take care of it, if you guys are really that busy."

"Nah." Kakeru, calmed for a change, shrugged and lightly smiled. "I've gotta go look for Machi anyways. I know she has this one classroom she always go to when she has these little fits of hers."

Yuki blinked. "She does?" Like a haven… He smiled. "Well… If you see her, tell her I didn't mean what she got offended by… I think."

Kimi glomped Kakeru in a hug after fixing up her make-up. "Oh thank you! Thank you!" She laughed and waved with a wink at Yuki. "Date! Date! Date!" She giggled her way out of the room.

"Yeesh, she scares me sometimes."

Yuki nods.

"Welp," Kakeru gave Yuki a slight salute before making his way out. "see ya later, Yun."

"Yea, bye." He sighed and ran fingers through his hair, looking at the clock. Just enough time to see the garden. He inwardly smiled with relief from stress.

----

"Damn rat."

Kyo growled, rubbing his forehead with the white towel that draped over his shoulders. He had taken the rest of the school day to go visit Shishou and the dojo. He thought that he might as well get some extra training done before…

He stopped in his tracks, looking down at a weed that overgrown onto the dirt path he had taken so many times.

"You'll be locked away."

…

"Locked away, and forgotten."

He snarled and stepped onto the weed, bending down to rip at it, feeling the sticky essence of it's life source. Kyo snorted.

"I'll never win." He wiped his hands onto the towel and stopped, hearing something close nearby. He decided to check it out and rounded around a tree in hopes to stop his curiosity.

Seeing nothing in the distance, he sighed and shrugged not hearing anything anymore until he had taken a step back onto the dirt path, did he stopped and listened closely.

"What the-?" He grumbled and trudged his way through some tall grass and pass several tress until he came upon a small pond. "Heh, never knew this was back here." He walked around it, hearing the noise reach his ears perfectly than before. He followed it, coming to a clearing of fresh vegetables lined up in neat rows.

A garden. He thought, looking at the neat handiwork.

Suddenly his ears twitched, hearing a sigh, he turned and blinked in mere startle to seeing the rat, resting against a large boulder, hardly noticing his existance.

"Everyone's been so off lately. It's quite bothering, you see…" The rat sighed again. "Or maybe it's just the fact that everyone's getting older. Am I the only one lost in the past?"

He's… talking to himself?

Kyo saw him glance at his dirtied hands. Probably from digging in the dirt, no doubt, but he saw a small trace of blood mixed with the brown soil.

"Oi. You come all the way out here just to hurt yourself?" Kyo knew he should've just left and not say any word about anything, but he thought it was worth giving friendship over ignorance a try anytime.

"Eh… Kyo?" Yuki quickly stood up, looking down at his palms before wiping them onto his black, dress pants. "What're you doing here?" He raised an eyebrow, hoping that the orangette hadn't seen his slight miss-up.

Kyo rolled his eyes and took the towel from 'round his neck. "Go ahead and give me any excuse rat, I ain't leavin'. I was just walking home from the dojo, didn't meant to stop and eavesdrop."

Yuki, still a little stunned at Kyo's presence, noticed that the cat's eyes looked strangely tired, and that they looked shot and worn. Too tired to keep awake kind of feature.

He glanced down in slight confused as Kyo began grabbing at his arm.

"Hey!" He ripped his arm back. "Just because we called it truce doesn't mean you can touch me." Yuki narrowed his eyes and winced slightly, wishing he hadn't moved so fast to pull away.

Kyo sighed in frustration.

"Look, I just wanted to help you out, then I'll take my leave. Why won't you let me prove to you that I'm not such an asshole like I used to?"

"Oh, like your willing to change to someone who'll be willing to help me. The rat." Yuki knew it would stir a reaction, and so he got one.

"Agh! You got some nerve! I may not hate your guts, but I hate your attitude and that's the only thing that's stinkier than those damn leeks your growing!" He growled and reached to grab for Yuki's arm again but was kicked in the leg. "OW! DAMNIT!"

"Then don't touch me." Yuki glared and took his place, keeping a firm leg down incase he needed to kick again.

"Fine! You know what!?" The cat grind his teeth, sparing the pain in his shin to chuck the towel at Yuki's head which was caught with a wince. "Clean your own damn wounds! I've tried to be friendly to you but if you want this to be a silent partner truce! Then so be it!" He turned and limped his way back to the path, stopping in mid-limp by the feel of a tug on his sleeve.

Yuki looked at the towel hanging on his arm before glancing up, dropping his hand down to his sides. "Honda-san… will probably be at work right now… So… I…" He fumbled for words, hating the feeling of showing more than expected out of his façade.

Grabbing onto the towel and the collar of Yuki's dress shirt, he began dragging the rat towards the pond he had seen earlier.

"Sit there." Kyo shoved Yuki towards a small boulder and squatted down to soak an end of the towel before standing up and grabbing onto one of Yuki's arms.

He's really soft… Kyo thought, rolling up one of the rat's sleeves to examine the hurt hand without getting the shirt wet.

"What'd you do anyways?" He plucked small traces of grass and dirt out of the small cuts before running the wet towel over it to clean it.

Yuki was quite baffled, being helped in such a state. He looked away, trying not to squirm away or show that the wound was causing him slight discomfort.

"I tripped… I tripped over a tree root and fell." He narrowed his eyes, feeling the tending stopping before going back to work.

Kyo snickered slightly.

"What?" Yuki blinked back at him, annoyed. "You have your clumsy acts all the time!"

"Yea." Kyo smirked, looking up through his orange, spiky locks. "But I ain't prince charming."

Yuki sneered at him and scoffed.

"Heh, relax, people make mistakes all the time… I'm just… Surprised you didn't… see where you were going." He looked up after cleaning the first wounded appendage.

His eyes looked so worn and sad to him at that moment.

"What?"

Yuki blinked and quickly looked away, mumbling. "Nothing."

Kyo frowned slightly and carried on till the second wound was cleaned.

"You'll probably need to wrap them up once you get back to the house." He bit his lip in thought. "Other than that, don't trip." He smirked at the rat's medium glare and snickered. "I was just kidding, take a joke once in a while."

"Right…"

They stood there, standing in front of each other on the side of the pond just absorbing the time and space of the sun setting day.

"We… should head back." Yuki slowly turned around and buttoned his sleeves, heading towards his garden for his tools.

Kyo watched his back disappear behind a tree and sighed, running a hand through his orange locks.

Damnit, I'm losing my composure.

"Meet you there." He murmured and shoved his hands into his pockets before making his way towards the house, remembering to sling the used towel back over his shoulder.

A/N: Well, actually, if I were to pair Shigure off with anyone... I'm morely hinting towards ShigurexHatsuharu. Why? I'm not quite sure myself, but I know that in the Manga they show this brother/rebound kind of relationship. Personally, another cute couple to me is MegumixHiro. There isn't much fics out there on them... I should contribute to the cause! Oh! And I'm also trying not to beat around the bush with the plot in this... I hope I'm not getting them together too fast... And if it seems too slow... well... Sorry! Which ever is it, I'd love to know, cuz I really wanna keep it at a steady pace. Trust me, I'll add a relationship thang, but as of right now, friendship is awesome!

And knowledge is power!