A/N: I'm very sorry for the long awaiting time. Right now, I'm writting two fanfics by the same time, this one and "Seiyou Academy" (with Ryoma, as a girl, and Fuji again! Hehe! I just love them!). That's why you won't see me post a chapter every week day.

It was a Sunday afternoon. The family was going to the zoo. There was a new member in the zoo, a blue eyes white lion named of Leo. Leo was the main attraction that day. Everyone came to watch him lately. But Leo hated it. People keep shouting at him to turn his around so they can took his picture, flashing blinding light to him. They were noisy and disturbed his peace. Plus, he didn't eat well lately and wasn't used to the new environment he was in. He felt sick and grumpy. In other words, he was not in a good mood and particularly that Sunday afternoon.

"Waa… Pretty!" Rin said, marveled, as she watched the white creature in his den. People pushed into each other and the fence broke. Rin felt into the den of the lion.

"Hiyaaaaaaaaaah! Kaa-saaaaaan!"

"RIN!!" Syuusuke, Ryoma and her brothers yelled. Ryoma was going to jump after Rin, but Syuusuke stopped her.

"Ryoma, no!" Ryoma was crying.

"Rin!"

'Rin! Please, be alright!' Syuusuke prayed.

"Let's go to find help!" Hikari and Hikaru went to search for a guard of the zoo.

"Oh my god! A little girl felt into the lion den!" a spectator said.

"What?!" People stopped pushing and yelling as they watched in horror the scene before them. Rin felt right on the head of the lion.

"Outch!"

"Rawwwwwrrrrrrr!" the lion roared, angry. Rin rolled a few feet away and knocked a rock. She bleeded a little bit on her forehead. Her forehead hurt. She wanted to express her pain. She expressed it by the only way she knows.

"Bou… Bou… Buwaaaaaaaaaaaah!" she loudly cried. It hurt a lot, to be knocked by a rock. Mad, the lion turned over to Rin and walked menacingly to her.

"Wuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Rin was still crying, not aware of the danger. Her head hurt so much.

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrr…" the lion slowly approahed her. Up there, Ryoma was completely frozen by fear.

"Rin…" Ryoma didn't want to watch what will happen, but she couldn't leave her eyes away from her little girl. Syuusuke hold a firm grip on her, keeping her in his arms.

'Kami-sama, make it be alright for her. Please, protect her!' Syuusuke prayed.

"Kaa-san, tou-san, a rescue team will be there!" Hikari and Hikaru came to them and tell them.

The rescue team was entering the lion den. They had tranquilizer gun to shoot the lion. But when they were inside, it was too late.

"Captain, we cannot shoot the lion. He's standing right in front of the little girl!" a rescuer said.

"What?!" the captain exclaimed. If they shoot him, the lion will get angry and can hurt the little girl because the tranquilizer effect wasn't instant. He was worried.

"What should we do?" a rescue member asked.

"We must try to get the lion away of the little girl. Then, we can tranquilize him," the capitain said. "Don't rush anything that can put the little girl's live in danger!" he ordered.

"Hai!"

In the den, Rin sat down on the ground and rubbed her eyes, still crying.

"Buwaaaaaaaa! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!"

It hurt, it really hurt, on her forehead. A shadow appeared in front of her. Rin looked up to see the lion standing just in front of her.

"Bou… Hic!" Rin higcoughed. "Bouhou… Hic! Hic! Hic! Kaa-san… Hic! Hic!"

"Rin…" Ryoma whispered, biting her lips. Syuusuke pulled her head down against his chest. He didn't know what to do nor what to think. To the horror of the spectators, the lion bend down to Rin, his mouth wide opened.

"No! I don't want to watch it!" a woman said and she fainted. The lion's mouth reached Rin's head. From the opened mouth, people could see his long fangs. The lion darted his tongue out and…

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!" Many people closed their eyes and hide their children's eyes with theirs hands. The lion darted his tongue out and…

…And licked Rin's wound.

"Huh?" Everyone was surprised. They look more closely. That's right, the lion was cleaning the little girl's wound on her forehead. They didn't expect to see that.

"Bouhou… Tou-san… Kaa-san… Hic! Hic!" Rin continued to call her parents as the lion kept licking her wound. Next, the beast proceedrf to clean her tears, licking all her face. Syuusuke and Ryoma rushed to entrance of the lion den, where the rescue team was standing. Kyuu, Ryuu and the twins followed them.

When the lion finished cleaning Rin's tear and wound, he laid against her to keep her warm. Feeling the warm body against her, Rin calm down. She stopped crying, but her eyes were puffy and her cheeks, red. She kept calling her for her mother and her father.

"Kaa-san… Tou-san…"

A member of the rescue team walked a little bit toward Rin. He wore black clothes - black boots, black pants, black vest, black cap and hold a black shotgun. He slowly walked to Rin. He stopped at a certain distant, in case the lion attacked.

"Little girl, come here with jii-san," he told her in a soft and nice voice. But Rin refused to listen. She buried her face into the lion's mane and cried again. Rin was scared of the man in black. And he was also a stranger. She preferred to stay with the lion, who wasn't scarring her. The lion roared and showed his fangs to the rescuer, telling him not to come any further near them. The rescuer cannot continue to advance. If the lion attacked, the little girl might be hurt in the process. He exited the den to report what happened to his captain.

"We must have her mother to tell her to come out by herself," the rescue-team captain concluded. As soon as he said that, Ryoma, Syuusuke and Rin's brothers appeared.

"Rin, how is she?" Hikari and Hikaru asked.

"Are you the parents of the little girl?" the rescue-team captain asked Syuusuke.

"Yes. How can we get Rin out of there without hurting her?"

"The lion doesn't seem to be dangerous to her, but he can attack if someone stepped in. The only way to rescue her, is that she walked out there by herself. But she refused to listen to us," the captain explained. He looked to Ryoma. "Madam, if you talk to her, maybe she will listen to you."

"I will go," Ryoma said.

"I will go with you," Syuusuke said. Ryoma nodded.

"Then follow me, please," the captain lead the way.

Sniff. Sniff.

"Tou-san… Kaa-san… Hic!" Rin was scared. She don't know this strange place. The nice lion was comforting her, but she wanted to see her mommy and her daddy. "Bouhou!" She buried her head in the lion's mane and cried again. The lion softly purred, as if he was trying to smooth a crying cub. "Kaa-san!" Rin whipered.

Suddenly,

"Rin…" a soft and familiar voice called her name. The voice sound like her mother's voice, but maybe it was only her imagination. Rin cuddled closer into the lion.

"Kaa-san!" Rin cried.

"Rin… it's me… It's kaa-san…" Ryoma tried again.

"Rin, look over here," Syuusuke said. Upon hearing her father's voice, Rin looked up.

"Tou-san! Kaa-san!" Rin happily exclaimed as she stood up. Ryoma made a move to rush over to Rin, but the lion immediately stood up. Fearing an attack, the lion walked to stay in front of Rin, completely blocking Rin from Ryoma's view. Syuusuke stopped Ryoma.

"No, Ryoma. It's dangerous!"

"But…"

"Let me do it…" Syuusuke said. He went down on one knee, showing to the lion that he had no bad intentions. Ryoma did the same, crouching next to Syuusuke. Understanding what he saw, the lion relaxed. He laid down on the ground, but in front of Rin. Syuusuke spoke.

"Rin…" he called.

"Tou-san," Rin answered.

"Rin, listen to me and come here."

"Tou-san, kaa-san, Rin's head hurts."

"I know sweetheart…" Ryoma softly said. "Come here and mama will stopped the hurt for you."

"Really! Hai, Rin will immediately come!" Rin hastily ran to her parents… by climbing over the lion's huge body. She didn't think about bypassing the lion. Her parents were just in front of her, on the other side of the lion, their arms spread to her. A little bit clumsy, she tripped and stomped on the ground.

"Rin!" Ryoma yelled.

This time, Syuusuke wasn't fast enough. Ryoma was already croutched down in front of Rin, not so far from the lion. The lion stood up menacingly.

"Ryoma!" Syuusuke yelled. He ran to her and faced the lion. Cerulean eyes and blue orbs met in a fierce battle of domination. Nor Syuusuke, nor the lion wanted to give up. The world froze around them.

"Kaa-san…" Rin looked up to her mother, water in her eyes. The tension between the lion and Syuusuke immediately broke. They were more concerned about Rin than about the other party. "Kaa-san… Bouhou hou… It hurts…" Ryoma picked Rin up in her arms, hugging her. Rin buried her face in Ryoma's neck.

"Bouhou… waaaaaaaa!"

"There there… It's all right now… Kaa-san is here…" Ryoma cooed. In her mother's, Rin forgot everything, even the pain on her forehead on her knees. Carefully, Syuusuke gathered his wife and child and his arms and slowly retreated, without breaking the eye contact with the lion. When they were in a safe zone again, the rescue-team made a barrier around them and they all retreat from the den.

"Alright, close the den!" the captain ordered.

"Hai!" And the door was closed.

Once the door was closed, Syuusuke finally allowed himself to break down. He snatched Rin in his arms and crushed her against himself, murmuring her name.

"Rin…" He shredded a tear. "Thanks god, you're all right…" And many other tears followed after, wetting Rin's clothes.

"Tou-san…"

"Rin! Rin!" Her brothers called her. Hikari and Hikaru squashed her between them.

"Rin! Don't scare us like that again!" they cried loudly.

"We were so worry about you," Ryuu said, his voice trembling a little bit.

"Nii-san… Rin is sorry. She didn't mean to worry you," Rin said, ready to cry again. Kyuu shook his head, wiping the tears in the corner of her eyes.

"It's all right now. Don't cry…" Kyuu said.

"Come here Rin," Ryoma said. "Let's clean your wounds." Rin came into Ryoma's opened arms and put her arms around Ryoma's neck.

That night, on the TV news, Rin's little aventure in the lion den was broadcasted around the country. A spectator recorded what happened in the zoo and gave it to the TV station. The director of the zoo said that Leo wasn't a dangerous lion, but he was not himself lately and they don't know why. That was when Rin talked.

"Leo-chan was having a toothache!" she said.

"Huh?" Her family and the staff of the zoo were dumbfounded. Rin then slipped from her mother's arms, ran passed between the guards legs and sneaked in the den again.

"Rin!" her mother and her father tried to stop her, but she was already inside.

People could see the little girl ran up to the lion and stood but a nose to him. With her two little hands, she opened his mouth and ducked her head inside. Some people fainted at the sight and Ryoma wasn't far from fainting too. Rin searched something in the lion mouth for a certain time. After a couple of minutes, she found it. Triumphal, she showed everybody what she was holding in her little hand. It was a bone, a broken bone. The bone was stuck in the lion's gum, hurting him deadly each time he ate, which was why he ate least the past week. And everybody knows that an empty stomach doesn't made anyone happy, human like animal. But this little girl saved the lion from his pain. Happy, the lion nuzzled his big nose against Rin, making her stumbled a little bit.

"Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" the lion purred happily. Next, he procced to lick her face again to thank her.

"Hihihihihihi!" Rin giggled. "It tickles!"

"Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" the lion purred again against her. Rin ran back to where her parents were standing. She gave the broken bone to the director of the zoo.

"Here, jii-san! Leo-chan is fine now. He no longer has any toothache!"

"Euh… Thank you, little girl," the director hesitantly said. "How did you know that he had a toothache?"

"He told Rin!" Rin said, grinning happily.

'He told Rin!' Syuusuke remembered.

Syuusuke watched her sleep, cuddled in Ryoma's arms. Tonight, Rin was granted a special permission. She could sleep in her parents' bed. After what happened in the zoo, Ryoma felt like she could give anything Rin wanted if Rin asked her.

"Does it mean that she is…" Syuusuke asked no one in particular.

"Meow!" Karupin answered, as he knew what Syuusuke meant. Syuusuke wide his eyes.

"Karupin, you mean that she really…"

Karupin nodded, confirming Syuusuke's suspicion. Silence. Then Syuusuke smiled.

"Sou ka…" Rin could really understand animal languages.

'A gift from the gods, nee!' Syuusuke kissed Rin's forehead. 'Sleep well, my precious gifted little girl.'

He put his arms around Ryoma's waist, hugging his wife and his daugther and went to sleep with them.