"This is your damn families fault, isn't it? God, what did they do, sic a tiger on you?"

"Heavens no, Kisa is far too sweet to do such a thing."

"Huh?"

"Never mind. Let's just say that I spoke up when I should have shut up." Ayame hissed as he was helped into a chair, his head lolling slightly as things got a bit dark on the border of his vision.

"Aaya, don't pass out on me, ok? You can rest when we've got you cleaned up." In the time that he had been out of it, Mine had run off to get the first aid box, looking a bit at a loss as to where to start.

"You're going to need a bath but I'll patch you up first. Aaya, I think you're top is beyond repair, would you mind if I ditched it?"

"Whatever you need to do sweetie." Ayame said wearily. She was in on it now, no harm in continuing. With great care Mine unfastened his cheongsam, being extra careful around the neck where she noticed the wounds stretched further than she had originally thought. They were deep, but not deep enough to hit any main arteries. Even so, Ayame's pale face and unfocused eyes caused her a great deal of worry.

"What about your cousin doctor, can he help?"

"He works for the guy that did it." He said shakily, only now admitting to himself that it would be handy to have his skills right about now. Knowing he couldn't was upsetting.

She took that as a no. "Ok Aaya, this is gonna hurt." Mine had already prepared a cotton ball (which looked pathetically small compared to the size of the wound) that had antiseptic on it. She took a tentative step closer.

"Aren't you meant to say 'you're not going to feel a thing.'?" Ayame joked half-heartedly.

"Yeah-no." She was so close to touching the red gash with the offending ball, Ayame barely had any time to warn her.

"Mine wai-OH MY GOD That-hnn…doesn't hurt at all-"He managed to say through clenched teeth before, POOF!

"Ah! Shit Ayame." She panted, clutching her chest. "You could have warned me that you were going to do that. I can handle this and all but don't surprise me, ok?"

"Ow…Mine…it really hurts." He sniffed from his position on the floor, curled up inside his pants.

Her heart went out to the little guy. She knelt down next to him and tried to uncover him "Sorry! Um Ayame?" He raised his eyes to hers, slowly, so as not to frighten her, "… Now what do I do?" Ayame sighed; this had just gotten a lot more complicated.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooo

Hatori returned to the main house at around 7pm after he had decided to wait for Yuki. He would get in trouble if he didn't ask the usual questions.

"You doing ok here?" Yuki knew the drill.

"Everything's fine." He sighed.

"Want to return to the main house?" Hatori said whilst putting on his shoes.

"No, I'm good."

"Right then. I'll see you all later. Goodnight Tohru."

"It was nice to see you Hatori." She smiled.

"Keep out of mischief Shigure." He added sternly, giving his friend a particular look.

"Who me?" Shigure had his best puppy eyes on, whilst the boys looked disgusted. Hatori sighed, there would be no way for him to keep his sanity if he had to stay here all of the time, he was glad it was just a visit.

As he put his doctor's bag back in his office, he decided to check up on Akito. Even though he said he could have the afternoon off, he didn't say that Hatori could ignore him that night. He found him in his usual place, staring out of the window, though looking more tired than usual. The strangest thing about this image was that he had a slight sneer on his pale face. Something had obviously happened when he was out but he wasn't sure that he wanted to know the details.

"Ah, you're back. How was Yuki?" Akito asked croakily, startling Hatori a bit as he didn't realise that he had been noticed.

"The same as usual, he's not coming back."

"Pity." His eyes lowered before meeting Hatori's gaze. "I won't be needing you tonight if that is what you are wondering. Oh-but I just remembered." A cruel smile twisted his face. "Can you phone the snake tomorrow?"

"What would you like me to say?" Hatori said, feeling a little uneasy. Two phone calls so close together? Usually the two of them didn't interact at all. This was very unnerving.

"Tell him that his services are no longer required. I will get someone else to do the job for me. Besides, I doubt that he'll be able to do much at the moment anyway." He chuckled to himself.

Hatori left the room with a cold feeling deep in his gut.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooo

After much confusion and awkward fumbling, Mine had finally gotten Ayame cleaned up. It would have been so much easier if he had been able to stay human, but she knew that it couldn't be helped. After a few minutes the pain from the antiseptic began to fade and Ayame turned back, making Mine turn quite red around the ears.

"Um…here." She mumbled, handing Ayame a pair of his night trousers that were in the clean laundry pile. Ayame simply waved it away.

"Thanks anyway but now that I'm back I may as well try to wash off this icky grunge that's stuck all over me. Then I can rest properly."

"But I haven put the bandages on yet!"

"I won't be long. Mine, thank you so much."

"It's not a problem, but you realise that you still aren't wearing anything!?" The blush had now crept down her neck; Ayame thought it looked rather cute.

"Oops! I'll just go then."

Once settled in the nice warm bath, Ayame could feel his crappy day coming to a close-kind of. He knew that his wounds would scar and, even now, there was no way to go about his day without everyone noticing the bandages around his neck and the gauze stuck to half of his face. He would have to work out the back of the shop for a while.

"Oh Ayame? Your phone just went off." Mine said, coming into the bathroom holding the device in her small hand, trying not to look, despite the bubbles covering all of the important bits.

"Thanks Mine." He flipped in open and saw a message that made his blood boil.

'Babe, I was wrong to ditch you. I understand that you can be a little much but I understand now, it's just a part of who you are. Please take me back. Tamaki.'

Ayame clenched his teeth and typed back.

'Aw, poor sweetie! Did your fuck buddy die? So sorry, I don't date losers so FUCK-OFF-YOU-JERK!'

He blocked Tamaki's number and turned off his phone. He didn't need this right now; he was the bastard that practically started this shit. It took a bit of an effort not to start crying again, he didn't want to wreck the beautiful job Mine had done cleaning him up. Finally he was clean of blood and in his pyjama pants which Mine had brought with her when she took him the phone.

"You ready for the fiddly stuff?" she asked, there was bits and pieces all over the table; it looked as though she wasn't sure what to use.

"Yes Dr Mine." And he sat back down so that she could get to work. It stung to have his wounds touched but he knew that it was the right thing to do. There was less chance of bugs contaminating it and blood getting everywhere if it was covered up. First Mine put butterfly stitches over the cuts to help keep everything together, (she figured it wouldn't hurt either way) and then proceeded to wrap him. Ayame was right, ten minutes later, he looked like a mummy. It made him feel itchy and his face look puffy, but that could just have been the swelling.

"Do you think it will be alright?" Mine asked, checking to make sure that everything was stuck down properly before handing him two painkillers. God, he should have had those earlier, he thought to himself, resisting the urge to face palm.

"It should be fine. I will need to go and get more medication and stuff tomorrow. I think that that was the last of the bandages and gauze."

"We're also out of antiseptic." Mine added. "Are you sure you don't want me to go?"

"No, you stay with the shop. It will be my last trip out of the store for a while; I don't want the rest of the family to see me like this. After that I'm afraid I might have to leave shopping duty to you for the time being." He said, feeling guilty that he was putting more responsibilities onto her small shoulders.

"No, I agree, you need to rest and recover." She paused whilst Ayame yawned, both of them wincing as he did as it tugged at the bandages. He looked beat. "I think you should go to bed now, I'll clean up before I turn in, oh and don't forget to keep your fluids up." She said, handing him a bottle of water from the fridge.

"Thank you, you've been such a dear…I'd hug you but…" he said, taking the water bottle from her, letting his fingers touch hers in a reassuring way.

"No, it's ok. Don't worry about it, I totally get it." Mine smiled

His bed had never felt so soft and his eyes started to drift shut before he had time to turn off his lamp. POOF! There lay Ayame, curled up in the middle of his squishy bed looking a little worse for wear, a small mess of white scales and medical gauze. His sleep was restless, filled with dreams of torture, a cackling Akito and the disgusted looks of his family… his friends.

Mine walked in soon after he had fallen asleep to turn off the lamp on his bedside table, and was not surprised to see Ayame in his snake form, a single tear falling from his closed eyes.