Chapter 3

The next week was pretty calm for the most part. Kairu and I bonded with the Sohmas and Tohru. Word came back from Akito that we could stay, but he had he would have to meet one of us.

All in all, things were pretty good. Well, up until Valentine's Day.

I spent my day like any other. Shigure would usually read to me, I would fall asleep on the porch, everyone would come home from school, and Kyo would teach me some martial arts.

But today, Kagura came home from school with everyone. I had never liked Kagura in the anime. She always seemed too clingy. But I made an effort to try and be nice. If not for my sake, then for everyone else's.

"So, um, Kagura right? Why are you here?" I asked, trying not to be bitchy.

"Valentine's Day is a very important day for lovers to be together." Kagura said, a slightly menacing tone in her voice.

"You wont find any lover here." Kyo grumbled next to me.

I stifled my giggles as Shigure scolded him and had to bite my lips to hold in my laughter when he refused to take Kagura's candy.

Kairu and I let everything unfold like in the anime, and soon it was time for clingy bitch- I mean Kagura to leave.

"That girl seems like a basket case." I muttered to Kyo as he taught me later that night.

"She is." He grumbled.

After a week, it was finally time for me to meet Akito. "Now Kairi," Hatori told me as he led me past the gates to Akito's house. "It's very important that you are always respectful, polite, and that you keep your temper."

I smiled gently and patted his hand. "Thank you Hatori."

He grunted as he led me inside. "Akito, sir, I have Kairi Masters with me."

"Leave her with me."

Hatori helped me sit down and left.

"So," Akito's cool voice came from above me. "You and your sister are confident you can keep this family's secret."

"Yes sir." I said, my head down.

Akito scoffed and the muscles in my back started randomly spasming. I tried shaking off the discomfort, but it only worsened.

Dear God, not now, please not now!

Suddenly my check started stinging. "Don't make that face at me!" Akito growled.

"I'm so sorry sir!" I apologized, bowing down respectfully. "My muscles in my back were spasming and it was extremely painful. It was not for you, I apologize."

There was an extremely long silence.

"The muscles were spasming?" Akito sounded surprised. "Where. Show me."

Suddenly there was a hand on my back and the muscles went wild. "Right there, sir." I grimaced.

"Are you one of us?" Akito asked, hope overflowing from his voice.

"One of who, sir?" I asked.

"Yes," he murmured, ignoring me. "I heard that you didn't know where you were, and you appeared from no where, so it would make sense."

"I don't understand, sir." I tried saying respectfully.

"You're name is Kairi Masters, yes?" Akito asked.

"Yes sir." I responded.

"Before you landed here, but after you disappeared from your home, did you go anywhere else?" He asked forcefully.

I stayed silent and Akito shook me.

"DID YOU?!" He screamed.

"Yes sir." I finally said.

"Where?"

"I don't exactly know. It was dark; I could only see my sister. We were there for a second, then landed in the clearing that they found us in."

"There was no one else there?" He asked, a little horrified.

"No, sir. Only my sister and I." I said, a little confused.

"You're one of us." Akito breathed, sounding relieved.

"One of who, sir?" I asked again, trying not to get agitated.

"An angel. Stop calling me sir."

Silence.

"A what?"

"A Dimensional Angel. That's why you're here. Things are probably different where ever you came from. It confuses you as to how you got here."

I nodded slowly, confused as to where he was getting at.

Suddenly, both his hands were on my back and he was speaking in a strange language. The spasming was at full force and then, in a hot flash of pain, the spasming stopped.

"Yes. You are one of us." Akito breathed, laughing just a little under his breath. "I thought I was all alone."

The blindfold was yanked from my eyes and light, nimble fingers danced across the healing scars on my eyes.

"The man that did this to you," Akito said. "He had black eyes and white hair, didn't he."

It wasn't a question, but a sad revelation.

"Yes. Do you know who it was?" I asked.

"Yes. His name is Hunter, ironically, and he is an angel too. Or was one. He got it in his head that there are such things as 'true angels' and that he was the only one. He started killing off other angels until it was only he and I left."

"Why didn't he kill you?" I asked, now completely at ease with him.

This wasn't the Akito I thought he was. He was just lonely, and being the last of his kind had driven him to hatred. Now that I was here, maybe we could be friends.

"We used to be friends." Akito said sadly. "He spared me and told me if I ever traveled to another world again, he'd kill me."

"I'm sorry." I said, reaching for his hand.

Akito squeezed my hand, and then lightly touched my eyes again. "Once upon a time, I could heal your eyes for you. We angels have that ability, you know. If I could, I would, but all my healing powers go to keeping me alive. I'm very sick you see. Another reason why I can't travel."

"That sounds horrible." I said.

"Yeah, it's not fun." Akito agreed. "Usually, there is a guardian of the gates in the darkness you went to. He activates your wings and tells you what's going on. Hunter probably killed him. You have to have your wings activated to travel worlds. I'm surprised you managed to do it without yours."

"I'm just as confused as to how we got here."

"Would you like me to activate your wings for you?" Akito asked, pulling me up beside him.

"Oh, yes please!" I said in delight.

Akito went behind me and started rubbing my shoulder blades roughly until a loud whoosh was heard and I was knocked off my feet.

Akito laughed kindly. "That happened to me too. You'll get used to it."

There was a long silence while I walked around the room, getting used to the new weight.

"What color are they?" I finally asked him.

"A very nice inky black. Very pretty indeed."

"Thanks." I smiled. "What color is yours?"

There was another whoosh and I imagined Akito looking into a mirror at himself. "Sort of like an ashy gray. Nothing compared to yours though."

I smiled and thanked him. This Akito was nicer, maybe the Akito from the story had just been lonely for too long. Maybe he needed a friend. I'm glad I could be this Akito's friend, at least.

Akito taught me how to summon and retract my wings and how to strengthen the wing muscles so I could fly whenever I wanted to.

And so Akito and I talked for a long time. I told him of our world and my life, and he told me of his adventures in other worlds and all the friends he had. Finally, almost an hour later, Hatori came back.

"Akito," Hatori said from outside the door. "It is about time that I brought Ms. Masters home."

"Oh, alright." Akito sighed, squeezing my hand before getting up and moving away. "Come and get her then."

Hatori entered and helped me up.

"'Bye Akito!" I smiled and laughed.

"Goodbye Kairi," Akito laughed back. "Don't worry, I'll see you soon. I'm glad we found each other."

Hatori quickly led me back to his car. "How did you manage that?" He asked astounded.

"I have no idea, but I'm going with it. I think we connected. He was just lonely." I told him.

The ride home was quiet but as soon as I got to the door, I was pulled inside quickly.

"Hi!" Momiji said happily, pulling me inside. "I'm Momiji! I just met your sister, Kairu; and you must be Kairi! You know about the zodiac right? I'm the rabbit!"

"It's nice to meet you Momiji." I smiled at him.

At that second, Tohru got back and Momiji went to go get her. Tohru made us dinner while I talked to Kyo, Kairu, Shigure, Momiji, and everyone else. After we ate Shigure asked what Momiji was doing at his house and I zoned out until I was mentioned.

"Kairi, will you come?" Momiji asked me in a cute baby voice.

"Sure Miji." I smiled. "I'd love to! It'll do me some good. I need to relax, thanks kiddo."

"See, Kyo." Momiji pouted. "Everyone's going but you."

I went back to thinking while the stuff went on around me until Shigure, Kyo and Yuki figured out that Tohru was broke because she bought them presents.

"She was just so damn happy about it!" Kyo yelled. "How could we know she was broke? She didn't have to get that stuff for us, but hey, she thought it'd be fun to spend all her money. She could have bought clothes, paid for her class trip, or something. I mean, talk about stupid. What was she thinking?! She was just making things hard on herself."

There was a pause until I spoke up.

"But Tohru doesn't think that way." I said gently. "She thought being nice to all of us was better than making herself happy. Some people call it stupid, I call it being thoughtful. That makes her happy. I wish more people were that thoughtful."

Momiji told the story of the most foolish traveler in the world, while I blanked out again. I really wanted to go outside and use my wings, but it would be dangerous for me to go out there at night, even if I could use my senses to get around.

When Momiji was done, I excused myself to my room I shared with my sister. I'd had a long day, and sleep overcame me easily.

The next morning, I was walking around the yard, like I did every morning, when I heard Kyo come up behind me.

"Good morning Kyo." I said smiling.

"Hey," He said, now used to how I could distinguish people from their walks. "I'm going to the hot springs for you tomorrow."

That was surprising. Didn't he go for Tohru instead?

I tilted my head to the side. "Why? Why me?" I asked curiously.

"You got me thinking yesterday. And... And you're thoughtful too. You really are something."

I smiled. "You know, Kyo? You're really something too."

He laughed and suddenly I heard Momiji. "Kyo's got the hots this morning."

I smiled while Kyo started beating up Momiji and Momiji started crying for help. Eventually Kyo stopped picking on Momiji and we walked around the yard while he described what everything looked like.

At least I could enjoy a spa trip tomorrow...