Welcome back sorry to have kept you waiting.

Leo sighed as he shook his head "Takume, Mi's brother, has an affinity with fire, and often he sets this room on fire. Although we do a pretty good job cleaning up, it's getting harder to salvage anything afterwards." The puppy unwrapped its self and sat right where it was, a small rumble coming from its tummy. "I guess your hungry right?" Leo said to the pup. Leo left and came back with a small bowl of milk. He set it down and the pup walked over slowly it looked up at him before lowering its head to the bowl soon she was happily lapping up the milk. "sorry Girl, that's all I can give you right now"

"That is one mixed-up pup," Kayla giggled, inspecting the burn marks on the
couch before flopping down. "I like the place, though. It's…so full of life."

"What your house didn't come with a fire obsessed 'demon'?" Leo said Demon like it was a poison, Takume may not be the safest person but he is by no means a demon like the kids at school say. "If it seems lively now, you should be here around dinner time". The pup sat down after finishing its milk, it yipped and walked over to the space heater and curled up next to it.

"I'll take that as an invitation then," Kayla said promptly, "And I'm sure
this 'demon' can't be that bad."

"Tell Mi first. He isn't bad at all he's just a big baby, 'Demon' is what the kids at school call him, they have ever since we told people about the scars we have." Leo said gesturing to the side of his neck, a long scar a bit lighter than the rest of his skin than leads down to his shoulder.

She reached over and used her index finger to trace along the scar, "How long
ago was it?"

"It was about 8 years ago now" Leo at first pulled back a bit but then let her trace it, a small blush forming on his cheeks. "He has set fires before that, but it was never that bad, that was the first major fire Me or Mi had ever seen."

Kayla let her hand linger before bringing it back by her side, "Why does he
set so many fires?"

"If we knew we would be able to stop it by now. Yuki, his twin, seems to have and idea but she refuses to tell us." Leo moved and sat on the couch next to her and rested his head against the back of it with his eyes closed, wincing slightly

She looked at him, just watching. "You ok?" she asked, hoping he wasn't hurt
too much.

"Yeah just a head ach, no worries" Leo took his head off the back off the couch and sat up straight. He put the back of his hand to his forehead. "No fever so, I'm fine." Leo stood up and started to walk over to the sleeping pup.

"You're gonna keep her, right?" Kayla asked, referring to the sleeping ball of
fur.

"I plan on it, hopefully Mi wants to too." Leo knelt down and started to look at the pup's Leg, "Looks like this guy was in a fight" Leo gently moved the fur so he wouldn't wake the pup up but enough to see fresh claw marks on the pup's leg.

"Really?" She got up and looked over his shoulder. "Whoa."

"I'll Take him to the Vet after work tomorrow, They should be able to tell me what to do." Leo fought against pain trying to mask it; he did a pretty good job with it only making its way to his face every now and then. " I should probably move her before Takume gets home…" Leo didn't move right away, he didn't want to wake her but he knew he had to for her safety.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Kayla took note of his flinching.

"Yeah its normal. I just can't take anything for abit" Leo picked the pup up and cradled her in his arms making his way to the stairs.

"Ooh, what's upstairs?" Kayla's focus shifted as she quickly stepped up the
stairs, eager to look around.

"Five bedrooms, a bathroom, and a window seat in the hallway." Leo told her as he reached the top of the stairs. He walked in to his room and set the pup on the couch in there.

The room was fairly bare, a desk, dresser, a small walk-in closet, bed, and a couch. Several books were strewn across the desk and sheet music was on the bed and dresser. The room was mainly black and a deep purple, from the curtains and bed spread, down to the small carpet by his bed.

Kayla picked up the books and flipped through them. "Why is it so dark in
here?"

"I like dark colors." Leo said simply shrugging, he grabbed a small duvet and laid it over the pup. Leo moved over to the dresser and started gathering some of the sheets of music.

The girl snatched one of the sheets before he could get to it. "What type of
music do you like to play, eh?"

Leo took the sheet back and looked at her "if the two things I played earlier didn't clue you in, I like to play country music" Leo put the paper he just grabbed into a small pile and paper clipped it together. "Why?"

"Nothing else? Just country?"

"Mostly, sometimes its song that have two genre's, but mostly country"

She began rummaging through his desk, "That's cool, man. You stick to your
guns."

"What are you looking for?" Leo raised an eyes brow leaning against the wall, he watched Kayla carefully 'dose she always go through people's things?'

"Oh, nothing," she said, moving on to the dresser. "Just looking." She was
really searching for anything out of the ordinary, but so far it had been
nothing but normal, boring things. Where was the super secret mutant lab, she
wondered. It's just an ordinary bedroom.

Leo watched as she continued searching through his things. "I don't think your gonna find anything in there besides my clothes." Leo sat down on the couch and watched, he had nothing to hide, he normally wasn't home so there wasn't much here.

"Nothing of interest?"

"Not unless you find unfinished sheet music and clothes interesting" Leo watched as the pup cuddled up to the side of his leg. "We need a name for you." Leo watched the pup snore as it curled up to him.

"Make it a cute name," Kayla commented, flopping onto the bed so she could lie
on her stomach.

"Hmmm, how about...Kei?" He looked down at the pup and the pup's ear perked when hearing this name, scrambled to sit up and mewed once it did. "Do you like that name?" the pup mewed once again.

"Why Kei?" Kayla asked.

"I don't know, but she seems to like it" Referring to the pup who is now running around on the floor chasing her tale.

"I'm sure you two will be very happy together," the girl giggled. "You have a
lot in common."

"Like what?" Leo asked sounding playfully offended. He moved to the floor and started playing with Kei using his fingers. "what do I have in common with a puppy who Mews?"

"You're both a kitty trapped in a different body!" Kayla exclaimed.

Leo looked up at the girl on his bed and laughed at how enthusiastic she was, " and what cat like attributes have I demonstrated?" Leo asked scooping Kei up and holding Kei in his lap.

"Well," she began, sitting up and bouncing a little, "you're a Leone bey,
right? Based off the constellation Leo? Leo the lion? Otherwise known as Leo
the kitty-cat that was skinned by Heracles?"

"Well then, I guess I see your point, but I never put that much thought into it." Leo stood up and sat next to Kayla while still holding Kei. "So anything else you want to do before I take you home?"

"Hey, you said I could stay for dinner," she countered.

" I said ask Mi about it first, remember? She needs to make sure we have enough food for an extra person, besides we ate at school" Leo set Kei down on one of the two pillows on his bed.

"eating a bit more never hurts an I could always just eat some of yours," Kayla started rubbing the puppy's
soft fur.

The pup Mewed and started to purr, Leo smiled at the pup and looked at Kayla "But its MY food." Leo said jokingly but also seriously.

"Don't be so stingy," she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Hey I like my food…if you don't put that away I'm gonna pull it" Leo said the last part referring to her tongue.

"You wouldn't."

"Try Me" Leo smirked; he would grab her tongue if she kept sticking it out at him.

Not quite believing him, she mockingly stuck her tongue out once again

Leo quickly grabbed her tongue "Told you I would. Now, are you going to keep it in your mouth?" Leo asked this but didn't let go of her tongue, he wasn't pulling it or hurting it but he wasn't giving it back yet.

Astonished that he actually did it, Kayla tried to speak, "Do you know how
awkward this is?" Suddenly, a thought occurred to her. "A cat's got my
tongue!" Kayla was sent into a fit of laughter at the somewhat silly pun.

Not exactly sure of what she said he took it as a 'I'll keep my tongue in my mouth' and lets go, he wiped the saliva on his jeans.

She made a big show of taking back her tongue, "Why would you do that?"

Leo laughed at the little show, "I told you I would grab it if you didn't Keep it in your mouth. You didn't heed my advice."

"I didn't think you'd be crazy enough to grab my tongue!"

"According to your logic I'm a Mutant and 'impossible', so I don't think you should be surprised" Leo smiled fighting back a laugh. Kei sat in between them and flipped over reveling her stomach "Mew~" Leo Laughed at Kei's Mew and rubbed her stomach earning Purrs from the pup.

"Now, how do you suppose an adorable little puppy ended up thinking she was a
cat?" Kayla asked, still amused by Kei's antics.

"Who knows? Unfortunately it may not be a natural thing…" Leo trailed off looking like he was thinking really hard about something. He hand continued to rub Kei's belly and Kei continued to Mew with every stroke.

"Whaddaya mean?"

"I think that if there was a breed of dog that could naturally 'Mew' than we would have heard about it." Leo wasn't one to assume the- ok assuming the worst was kind of his thing but he would never dream that someone was sick enough to even attempt it never mind actually do it.

"You never know, it could just be kept a secret. Like certain other things."

"But then to find one in the park, hurt no less." Leo felt like he was forgetting something important but no matter how much he tried he couldn't remember it. he doesn't remember anything from before he came here so that might be what he's trying to remember but with out anything to jog his memory he was at a loss. Leo started to play with the bracelet on his wrist the one link to who he really is.

"You ok?" Kayla asked, noticing the shift in mood.

"Uh yeah, fine. Sorry." Leo stood up and walked over to his bag and pulled out his school shirt, upon hanging it up he realized he never went back to the library. "Damn it" Leo pulled out his phone and went into his contacts and clicked on Keeper's number, Leo looked up at Kayla "I'll be right back, I need to call Keeper." Leo clicked on call and left the room.

Kayla turned to the pup, "Looks like it's just you and me, Kei."

Kei mewed and started to rub against Kayla's side, purring.

"Kei, would you like to go on a secret mission to find out why Leo's a mutant?
I'd like to do it myself, but I think you'd be my best bet."

Kei sat up and tilted her head a bit mewing in confusion. "MEEEEWWWW~"

"Don't look at me like that! It's simple. You just look adorable, have him pet
you, and then all the things he's thinking will just come fizzling out, like
soda that's been shaken inside the bottle."

"Mew Mew Mewww~" Kei looked down, this girl did realize she couldn't talk right?

"...I was never good with pets." Kayla flopped back onto the bed and ran
through her head how she ended up here in the first place.

Kei climbed up onto Kayla's chest and quickly fell asleep to the sound of Leo talking out side the door.

Ignoring the puppy trying to squash her lungs, she strained to hear what Leo
was saying. She couldn't hear anything, although he sounded very calm, collected, even
soothing. Soon, Kayla too found herself drifting off to sleep.

A few minuets later he walked back in to find Kayla asleep on his bed with Kei on top of her. Leo grabbed the duvet from the couch and placed it over Kayla. He couldn't bring himself to waking her up, at least on yet. Picking up a book he sat down on the couch and started to read.

"Ah!" Kayla abruptly sat up, flinging Kei off of her. Her voice pierced the
silence of the room, "How long was I out?"

Leo dove and caught Kei and sat up holding the frightened pup, "Two days, why?" Leo titled his head a bit to make it seem like he was telling the truth.

"...No way!" She fell back onto the bed and covered her head with duvet. "I've
never slept that long!"

Leo Smirked at her reaction trying not to laugh, it was kinda cute- funny. Funny is what he meant. "By the way we have a test tomorrow" Leo almost lost it but held it together so he could get this sentence out.

"What?" Kayla sat up again. She pulled the duvet off of her, astonished.

Leo couldn't do it, at first it was a smirk but now it was a laugh after the short fit of laughing he asked "Am I that convincing?" Leo gently rubbed Kei's fur still trying to calm the pup.

Kayla answered by throwing a pillow at his face. "Geez, you had me worried!"

Leo put one arm up to shield his face still laughing a bit. "Alright alright, that was kinda the point though, since you flung my dog" Leo said the last part hugging Kei close.

Had she, really? Kayla thought. No wonder. "I didn't mean to! Besides, Kei
forgives me. Right, Kei?"

Kei shook her head side to side and mewed sadly. Leo looked up at Kayla from Kei "See, you made her think she was gonna die."

"Where'd you get that from? She certainly didn't say it." And just a minute
ago, the puppy acted like she couldn't talk. This puppy has now earned Kayla's
respect.

Leo smiled, how long until she realizes that he's pulling her leg, although that was actually what was going through the poor pup's head. He set Kei down and she darted under the bed. "aww, poor girl" Leo said voice void of sarcasm.

Kayla, unfortunately, was completely fooled. She leaned over and stuck her
head under the bed. "Would it help if I apologized, Kei?"

Leo covered his mouth trying not to make a sound; did this girl really think he could talk to Kei? Or rather Kei can talk to him? Kei mewed angrily at Leo for fooling the poor girl and walked up to the girl hanging over the side of the bed and lapped her face just like a dog.

Kayla rubbed Kei's head before swinging herself back upright. Noticing Leo
stifling his laughter, she sighed. 'How many times will I have to go through
this?' she thought. "I can see you're on the brink of chortling at my
eccentricity. Out with it, then."

Leo let out a light laugh and held some of his hair out of his face "You do realize that I can't talk to her right?" Leo asked letting go of his hair and coaxing Kei out from under the bed and scooping her up and holding her close.

"Well, after today, I'm trying to be a bit more open-minded. Who knows if
mutants are able to talk to animals?" she countered, only slightly
embarrassed.

"Is it really that big of a deal I can transform?" Leo looked up at her with question in his eyes, just as he stopped petting Kei, she started to bite his bracelet. "ack! No Kei this isn't a toy." Leo pulled his wrist free from Kei's teeth.

"What's that?" Kayla asked, looking at his bracelet.

"hm? This?" Leo asked holding out his wrist a bit "It's a bracelet. But that's all I know besides what the inscription says. I don't know who gave it to me. When. Or why. I've just always have had it."

"Inscription? What's it say?"

Leo untied the bracelet and flipped it over so he could read it "To my lovely wife –T. Mono" Leo started to retie the bracelet and spoke. "Takume tried everything to find this Mono guy but no matter what we couldn't its like he doesn't exist"

"Whoa. That's terrible," Kayla sighed, "Your poor husband must be worried
sick."

Leo looked up at Kayla face cold as stone "It obviously isn't mine, don't try to joke about this" Leo looked genuinely hurt and angry. Despite not knowing who, when, or why, he didn't want it to be a joking matter. He knows nothing about who he is, which bothers him to no end.

Startled by his harshness, she stuttered, "S-sorry, I was-" Kayla cleared her
throat. "That was uncalled for. I apologize."

Leo looked down and shook his head, "its my fault too, I didn't need to get so angry about it, sorry" Leo got up and started to dig through his side table draw and pull out an motren bottle, he shook a few out and popped them into his mouth, swallowing without a drink. He coughed slightly but shook his head again, as if trying to shake the cough away.

"Hey, hey," Kayla climbed off the bed, ran over, and snatched the bottle away
from him, "What's with this?"

Leo let her take the bottle an answered her "Its motren, you know, for head aches." Leo sat down on his bed and laid back, his head at the edge on the bed. He closed his eyes waiting for her reply, he fought a mental battle against his head ache. He was losing.

She bent over to where her face was hovering directly over his. "Why didn't
you say you had a headache earlier?" Kayla asked.

"I did, but I couldn't take any thing then so I couldn't do anything. They're normal don't worry about it" Leo felt sleep tugging at him he didn't want to fall asleep with her right there but sleep refused to let go of his eye lids, holding them closed.

Don't worry about it? Kayla thought. There's plenty of reason to worry. "You
should get some rest," she suggested.

Leo heard what Kayla said but sleep was to strong, all Leo could manage to say was "Mmhhmm" before he fell asleep. Leo's breaths slowed and started to have a nice calm rhythm. His head lolled off to the side, causing his bangs to fall in his face. Kei jumped onto the bed and started to lap Leo's face, once her tongue touched Leo's forehead she whimpered and looked up a Kayla.

"Why the sad face?" Kayla rubbed Kei's head. "Don't worry, he'll be fine." She
pressed her hand against Leo's cheek. He felt warm, too warm to be ok. "What do you do if someone's running a fever?"

Kei hopped down from the bed and dashed out of the room and down the stairs, she stopped at the bottom waiting for Kayla to follow. A high pitched "MEEWWWW~~~" filled the house.

Leo's head rolled over onto Kayla's hand leaning into it. Leo seemed to be having a peaceful sleep. The rain hit the window next to his bed hard enough to hear every drop and for it to create soft back round noise.

The whole thing was so serene, Kayla thought. It's kind of... nice. She smiled
softly. Sliding her hand carefully out, her fingers lingered on his face
before she flounced downstairs. "Alright, Kei, what next?"

Kei ran over to the closet that Leo pulled towels from earlier and scratched at the door. She wanted Kayla to open the door get a face cloth and then wet it with clod water to put on Leo's head. He already took motren and Kei could tell he lives of that stuff…when it works.

Kayla opened the closet and poked around a bit. "Oh," she exclaimed, grabbing
a face cloth, "I'm supposed to wet this with cold water, right?"

Kei Mewed and raced back up the stairs and into the bathroom in the up stairs hallway. Kei jumped up and sat on the closed toilet to watch Kayla wet the face cloth.

She turned on the sink faucet and ran the cloth under it. "There. Now what?"

Kei Mewed and jumped down and ran into Leo's room. Upon jumping on Leo's bed Kei looked at Leo then to Kayla and then back to Leo, Kei gently licked Leo's forehead. Since Kayla left Leo had started to snore lightly, enough to know he's breathing but not enough to be annoying to anyone in the room. Leo had rolled over on to his side both arms lazily resting on the bed next to him.

"Awww, he's snoring!" Kayla giggled.

Kei shook her head and jumped at Kayla, snatching the wet face cloth from Kayla she jumped back on to the bed and placed it on Leo's forehead. Kei sat down and looked at Kayla waiting for her to say something. Kei might be a dog that mews but she was smarter than the average pup and kitten combined!

"Oh, that's what it's for! Why didn't you say something?"

Kei shook her furry little head once more and hopped of the bed and started poking into some of the rooms. One was bright red and orange with a space heater, another was so cluttered with paper and books you couldn't tell what colors it was. Another was royal blue and a simple red room with a king sized bed dust had settled on top of the sheets from not being used. The last room at the end of the hall was a deep green and a lavender shade of purple it was nice and clean but it did look lived in. Kei strolled into the room and dove under the bed. Kei took a seat on and old photo album that had more dust than the bed in the other room.

Kayla followed Kei in. What does this crazy puppy want her to look at? Sitting
on her knees, she reached and grabbed the album. "What's this?" She sent a
cloud of dust fluttering around her as she dusted it off. "A photo album,
huh?"

Kei mewed and sat next to Kayla, she wanted to see the pictures too. "MEWWWW~"

"Let's open it, shall we?" Kayla flipped open to the first page. The first picture was of a little girl with a sad expression her pigtails blowing in the wind, with her holding down her pink plaid jumper. The caption underneath said 'My first day in my new home'. "Is that Mi-ki? Why does she look so upset?" Kayla asked. "She should be happy. What happened?"

Leo Leaned against the door frame and looked down at Kayla and Kei. So that's where Mi put the old album. "She didn't want to move here" Leo said from the door way, arms crossed lazily wearing a black sweater. Leo stood up and made his way over to them. he picked up Kei and sat down next to Kayla and put Kei in his lap. Sleep still tugged at him but it wasn't as strong as before, his fever wasn't as high now due to the nap and motren and face cloth but it was still a fever.

"Shouldn't you be resting?"

"I can rest later, I don't want you walking home in the rain." Leo really didn't its bad enough Mi is out in the rain, she'll probably get sick if she is standing out in the rain…there go's his perfect human attendance for the month. Leo reached over and flipped the page in the album. There was a picture of a boy with blue jeans, deep purple shirt and sneakers sitting cross legged, his raven hair falling in his face, purple eyes wide and welcoming. "Ich- I thought she got rid of that picture"

Kayla's jaw dropped and her eyes grew huge as she realized, "That's you! Oh,
you look so adorable! This is too cute!"
She pinched Leo's cheek. "Too adorable. Same hair, same purple theme, same
eyes-" But his eyes looked a bit different. She couldn't exactly say. They
seemed a bit nicer, friendlier, when he was younger. Now they seem... Kayla
pushed the thought away. "How old were you here?"

Leo swatted Kayla's hand way from his face, "I was about seven, why?" Leo was gonna ask Mi about the pictures and makes sure she throws it away. He hates pictures ever since he can remember. Leo vaguely remembers pushing a camera away from his face, that a man was holding but Leo couldn't place the man, upon wincing slightly he gave up the though.

"'Cause you were adorable. Hey, if you don't want it, can I have it?"

"Why would you want a picture of a guy you met this morning?" Leo was genially confused, why on earth would she was a picture of him? "Once again you would have to ask Mi-ki, its her photo album. Which is the only reason I haven't touched it, she was terrified when she was younger that if she was around me she would forget things too so started this, so she could remember."

"Because... I just do," Kayla replied lamely. "What other pictures did she not
want to forget?" she asked, turning the page.

On this page was a picture of a 7 year old Mi-ki and a 8 year old Leo cleaning and painting the room down stairs covering up the pitch black scorch marks. Leo's burn covered in gauze. Leo looked away from the photo, the caption read 'the first fire ta-kun set while I'm staying here'

Why they would have kept a photo tied with bad memories, Kayla wondered.
"Let's look at something else, shall we..." She quickly turned the page before
the picture upset Leo further.

The picture on this page was a picture of Mi and an older girl that looks like her in the background playing volleyball on the beach in their bathing suits from late elementary to early middle time. Leo was the man focus of the picture, him sitting on the beach towel under the umbrella reading, wearing cut offs and a t-shirt. Leo looked back at the photo and showed an indifferent face. He really didn't care about this photo, it really was just a trip they took trying to get away for about 5 hours.

"That's better! Happy memories! I'm guessing the other one is the sister?" She
turned to Leo, noticing his lack of enthusiasm. "Hey, hey, how come you aren't
smiling?"

"Yeah that's Yuki. I'm not smiling because I hated that trip." Leo looked down and pet Kei. "I'm not very fond of water" Leo looked back up 'besides' Leo turned the page to show a picture from the same trip of Yuki, Takume, and Mi-ki throwing Leo in the water and him yelling something. The caption says 'Leo going for a swim'

Kayla clamped her hand over her mouth to stop from laughing hysterically.

"What?" Leo looked at her his voice dripping with sarcasm. Kei mewed at Leo rubbed her belly.

"Poor little kitty doesn't like water, huh?" Kayla pinched Leo's cheek.
"That's priceless!"

Leo swapped her hand away from his face "Cats don't like water-I'm part Cat what's so priceless about it?...Kei do you like water?" Leo found himself more concerned with if his new pet likes water than the girl holding the scrap book of memories.

"'Cause now you're even more of an adorable little kitty-cat," Kayla flipped
the page.

Upon flipping the page there was a picture of Mi and Leo in late middle school, the two of them in the local middle school's uniform sitting on the bench at their high school Mi and Leo laughing while Takume stood there covered in pigeon poop. The caption said 'Ta-kun makes a few friends at high school interview' Leo looked at the picture and cracked a smile remembering the day.

"What happened?" Kayla laughed.

"Takume disrupted two pigeons trying to build a nest so they got back at him."

"No wonder."

Leo yawned and felt his eyelids dropping again. 'No! I can't fall asleep now, and not in Mi's room.' Leo pressed his hand to his forehead 'Damnit! It's worst.' Leo shook his head slightly, he didn't have time to be sick, he can't miss a day at work, especially since they need to save up for Yuki to take the entrance exam at one of her college choices.

Kayla stood and abruptly tossed the photo album back onto the bed. "We already
wasted over an hour. Come on! You won't get any better if you don't rest." She took
hold of his wrist and pulled Leo to a standing position.

Leo pulled his wrist from her grasp "I can take care of my self." Leo felt bad about how he spoke to Kayla but his face didn't show it. He's been sick and worked before, why would he rest now? Besides he isn't the one that needs to be worried about. "Everyone should be getting back soon, least we can do is set the table for Mi." Leo turned and walked out of mi's room making his way down stairs. 'Why dose she care? I just met her' Leo passed the sink full of dishes and pulled out the last few clean plates from the cabinet. He took four out for his family and one for Kayla and brought them into the small dinning room attached to the kitchen. He set then in their spots no plates at the ends of the table. Leo hummed a bit as he went back and forth between the kitchen and dinning room bringing out cups and utensils, the rain pounding on the windows, lighting up the sky. Leo stared out the window a bit lost in thoughts-until his phone buzzed. He whipped out his phone and read it 'Staying with Sal tonight- its really bad outside.' Leo sighed and texted her back letting her know he got the message. If it was bad enough to keep Mi-ki some where then he wouldn't be able to bring Kayla home in this weather.

Have a safe trip back and remember- Its normal to be scared of new things.