"Oh- Oh dear." Cho repeated, looking seriously worried.

Kyou made as if to speak, but Cho grabbed my hand and led me into the nearest room. Kyou followed, also looking worried. As for me, I was in a state of complete shock, I could tell that Kyou was trying to meet my eyes, but I couldn't look at him. What was going on? This had to be some sort of trick. But if it was how could everyone be so serious? Cho led me in and guided me to a bed, which she made me sit down on. I faintly recognized it to be my own.

"Kyou, go find a drink for her. See if you can find Haru on the way, don't tell Yuki."

"OK, are you sure you want me to leave?"

"Yes, go away. Come back later with Haru."

I heard Kyou leave the room, as he did Cho immediately hugged me really tightly.

"What happened? How did you.."

She looked at me questioningly. I tried to look up, but my body wasn't obeying me. Cho waited for me to recover some more, and then I managed to meet her eyes.

"He wouldn't let me hug him.. I didn't know why, he had argued with Yuki about something I didn't understand. I followed him out of the kitchen. I thought I could make him feel better; I then tried to hug him against his will. He tried to stop me, but he was off-guard, and then.. then."

I looked away, what had happened? I was so confused. I had seen that orange cat before, was that..

"Cho, there was a cat. Was that.. was that Kyou?"

"Yes."

"H-how? How could that cat be Kyou?"

At that point the door opened, and Kyou and Haru came in, closely followed by Yuki. Yuki's face was set, he did not look very happy. Kyou and Haru were looking extremely uncomfortable.

"What happened?" Yuki asked me.

"She-"

"I didn't ask you, I asked Kakuro." All the usual politeness was gone, this wasn't like Yuki.

"I-I don't know what happened. Please, just tell me what the hell is going on."

Yuki looked surprised.

"Katani-san, you mean that you didn't know anything?"

"That's what Haru and I were trying to tell you." Kyou muttered.

Yuki immediately relaxed. I didn't, I still had absolutely no idea what was going on.

"So we don't have to tell anyone, we can just tell her she was drunk and that she dreamt it all. Her memories won't need to be erased!" he said.

Memories erased? What was this, and find out what? Wait, I was not drunk! They kept ignoring me; I was still in the room! And I was recovering quite fast now. I stood up suddenly, making everyone jump.

"Excuse me? What is all this? Why am I not allowed to be told whatever this thing is? I am in this room too you know!"

Everyone looked surprised, except for Haru.

"Quite right." He said, chuckling. "We have not forgotten you, especially not after this wonderful party."

As he said this Kyou looked like he had finally recovered, he turned to me.

"Look, Kakuro I'm so sorry. I should never have approached you that night. It was all my fault.. and I owe to you to tell you about this. However when I tell you this I may not be able to protect you from what will follow, so now there is a choice, either you can accept what I'm about to tell you, or you can agree to forget about this incident and pretend that we never felt this way."

It was really hard to look at him after what had happened, but what I felt for him was still there, because my heart was still beating in my chest, I could still hear the party going on from outside my room, I was still aware of the way that he looked at me, I did not want to lose that. I nodded.

"I want to know."

"Wait Kakuro, are you sure?" said Cho.

"I think she is sure." Said Yuki suddenly, making Kyou flinch. He came towards me, smiling, and helped me sit down again "But you must promise not to tell anyone, ever."

"Yes," added Kyou. "Not even anyone else from our family."

I nodded again.

"So, when you hugged Kyou, he disappeared right? And then you saw that cat."

"Yeah."

"You were right, that cat was Kyou. You see, the Soumas are under a curse, a select few of us."

"But not you honey." Cho hit Haru playfully.

"If you call me honey again you shall lose your hair" she retorted, smiling. She turned back to me, "Anyway, these few are possessed by spirits of the Chinese zodiac. There are thirteen, twelve zodiacs and the cat."

I looked at Kyou, how horrible to be the cat; he caught me looking at him and looked down as if embarrassed.

"So Kyou is the cat. Is that why he transformed then?"

"Yes" said Haru lazily, "Whenever we are hugged by a member of the opposite sex we transform into our animal."

"You mean you are one of the zodiac?"

"Oops, yeah."

"That is quite cool, pity you can't hug people though."

"Yeah it is," he smiled at Cho, who looked uncomfortable.

"Right ok, now she knows," Said Yuki, "Are you going to keep this secret? Or will we have to silence you?"

"Yuki!"

I met Yuki's eyes; he looked so calm and serious, yet sad. I could tell that he didn't want to do that. I wouldn't give him a reason to.

"Of course I can, I won't tell anyone. I swear- I swear on my mother's life."

Kyou looked up suddenly; I then knew that he was that cat I saw on New Year's. His eyes met mine and I saw that he understood, that this was a promise that I would never ever break.

Satisfied, everyone left the room, Cho giving me a short hug on her way out.

"Will you ever forgive me for getting you into this?" Kyou asked.

"Of course I will, I already have. I have learnt an amazing secret tonight, I'm so happy."

"Please, please don't let any other Souma's know or they shall erase your memories. I don't think that I could cope with that. Let it be that only Haru, Cho and Yuki know, or everything will be over. However you may tell Touru."

"Ha! I knew that she was hiding something. Don't worry, I promised."

With that I leant forward and kissed him, avoiding hugging him but instead holding out his arms with mine, putting my head and torso forward to meet his and pushing the rest of my body back. He looked surprised and then grinned, kissing me back and pulling me toward him again.

"That doesn't matter much anymore." He whispered.

And with that he pulled me toward him and embraced me. I looked down at the bundle of clothes and laughed.

"Do you mind this?" he asked. "Me being part cat?"

"Why would I? I think you're cute." I was still laughing, I was so happy.

"Well that is good then, as long as you don't prefer dogs." As he said this he turned back to Kyou, and kissed me again.

"I love you" he said calmly. I looked up at him, smiling.

"I love you too."