Chapter Eleven: All I have

Wow! I did not expect chapter ten to be that popular! Thank you for all the lovely reviews! I'm so happy! Here's chapter eleven.

Ananzi had still not gotten back to Kira and it had been a week since the incident with Akito. Hatsuharu was visiting with his girlfriend a lot recently and Kira found herself left alone more and more often. Kisa's mother had decided that dance lessons were the reason Akito hurt Kisa. Thus Kisa wasn't allowed to take them anymore. Today she decided to go to Haru's house and walk to school with him; usually it was the other way around. When she got there however Hatsuharu was far from ready.

"Oh I must have (cough) over slept. (Cough, cough) " Kira put her hand on his forehead.

"Goodness! Your burning up!" she exclaimed.

"Huh? It's nothing I'll walk it off. (Cough, cough, cough)"

"No you won't! Listen to that awful cough you have. You need to stay home today. Go back to bed I'll call Momiji and tell him you're not going today." She ordered pushing him back into his room.

"I'm fine (cough, cough, hack, wheeze, cough) really." Kira crossed her arms.

"Yeah, I can see that." she said sarcastically. She called Momiji and told him that Hatsuharu was sick and Kira was staying behind to take care of him. She walked into the room as he was lying down.

"You should get going or you'll be late." He suggested.

"I'm staying here to take care of you." She stated. He sat up.

"What? You can't! (Cough, cough, wheeze, hack, cough.)"

"I know a little about taking care of colds. Hakkai used to get sick a lot and I'd take care of him."

"No I mean," he was worried that he'd get weak and transform in front of her, "Hatori will be here soon and he'll take care of it."

"Hatori is a busy man. I'll take care of it." Hatsuharu began a series of coughs before he spoke again.

"No just go away." He demanded trying to get up. She pinned him to the bed.

"There's no way your getting out of bed in your condition." He struggled.

"Let me up!" he demanded.

"You told me once that the person who is unwell should allow themselves to be taken care of." Haru looked at the ground. "Look I'll make a deal with you: Let me make you some leek soup and you stay in bed and rest. I'll leave when Hatori gets here." Hatsuharu relaxed.

"Fine." He agreed.

"Good I'll make the soup." She got up and headed for the kitchen.

Hatori got off the phone with Momiji and headed into Akito's room. He would check on him once more before he headed to Hatsuharu's house. Akito was lying on the porch caressing his claw marks.

"If you stroke them like that they won't heal." Hatori said.

"She is quite interesting isn't she?" Akito pondered. (He's so creepy!)

"Who? Kira Shaeed?"

"Yes. I wonder what she'll do now that I know her secret."

"I don't think she's to concerned. She's at Haru's house right now."

"Why?" Akito hissed.

"He's sick and she's taking care of him until I get there."

"You idiot! What if he transforms!" Akito yelled.

"I'm going to go as soon as I can." Hatori told him.

"You don't have to make me soup or anything. I'm feeling much better." Haru pointed out.

"It's okay to act weak when you are weak. Everyone has a weakness." She told him.

"Not you." He informed.

"I have a weakness."

"Really? What?"

"Well I, uh, I" she blushed. "I can't swim."

"Seriously?"

"Uh-huh." She nodded in shame.

"Well that's not so bad." He reassured. Kira shivered. She looked behind her. That smell again. Akito's smell.

"What is it?" Hatsuharu asked.

"It's nothing. Akito lives in this place doesn't he? That's probably all it is."

"What do you mean?"

"That guy, he gives me a weird feeling." Another shiver ran through Kira. They heard a knock on the door. "I'll get it." Kira stood and ran to the door. "Come in. He's in his room." Hatori walked into Hatsuharu's' room.

"Where's Kira?" asked Haru.

"She's speaking with someone. What were you thinking?"

"I tried to make her leave but she wouldn't!"

"You should have tried harder! What if you'd transformed?"

"She's going to leave when you do I don't see what the big deal is."

"You took a stupid risk. Don't do it again." Hatori scolded.

"Yes sir." Hatsuharu agreed. "It's not like I had a choice. She pinned me to the bed."

"…" Hatori looked at Haru strangely.

(5 minutes earlier.)

"Come in he's in his room." Kira invited Hatori in. Hatori stepped through the door and as Kira was about to shut it, a hand caught it. "Would you be so kind as to talk to me outside?" Akito requested. Kira gulped. She was not looking forward to another meeting with this man but she nodded and stepped outside anyway.

"What do you want?" she asked. He smiled.

"We didn't get to finish our conversation last time. I thought we should talk about my discovery."

"What discovery? You just made up some stuff about me being a panther."

"Has Ananzi decided your punishment yet?" He asked maliciously.

"What do you mean?"

"I read some books after our, scaring, encounter. The spirit of the panther is bound to the spider god known as Ananzi. That also seems to be the name of your boss."

"What a coincidence."

"Indeed." He examined her arm, then grabbed it and put it on his neck where the scratches were. "I got these marks the night I'd hit Kisa. A girl you're quite attached too. You'd heard about it seconds before sunset, and no one has ever seen you after dark." Kira tried to pull her hand away but for such a sickly man he was very strong. She looked to the ground.

"Please don't tell anyone." She begged. "I don't want anyone to find out." He put his hand on her cheek again.

"I won't. But first you have to do something for me." She looked at him in the eyes. Cold, heartless, unreadable eyes.

"What?" she asked nervously.

"I need to pay you back. For the scars." He said as he dug his nails into her cheek and scratched her. She hissed in pain and held her face.

"That's it? You won't tell anyone now?" she asked.

"Our little secret." He whispered putting his finger to his lips.

"Good." Akito turned to walk away. "I want you to know. That if it weren't for the fact that I need you to keep quiet, I'd have beaten you bloody for pulling a stunt like that." she warned. He continued to smile. She was bleeding not too badly but she needed a bandage. He turned around, took his finger, and wiped some of the blood from her face.

"I'll get Hatori to take care of this for you."

Haru had been a bit concerned with the fact that Akito had clawed Kira, but she insisted that it was an accident. He didn't believe her.

"How dare he just waltz in here and start clawing you up for no reason!" he yelled.

"It's not so bad. Hatori patched me up and I'm fine now."

"How could you let him do something like this to you?" Haru continued to yell.

"Look I told you it was an accident!" she insisted.

"Accident my ass! How the hell do you 'accidentally' claw someone in the face?"

"Why don't you just drop it?"

"Because it's not right!" Kira was a bit taken aback. "I understand that he's upset that I let you stay here, but that's no reason to hurt you!" Haru had gone black the second he'd seen her face. "I don't care if he hits me or whatever, but how could he take it out on someone he doesn't even know?"

"You don't have to be so…don't blow it out of proportion."

"I'm not this! Is really pissing me off!"

"Why?" she demanded.

"Because…well because you're important to me." He said shyly. "Whenever you get hurt or something I just get so mad! I don't know what it is."

"We've been thorough this. We've established what great friend's we are."

"I know. It's just he doesn't even know you!" Kira hung her head.

"That's not entirely true." She admitted.

"What do you mean?"

"I met him twice before. He came into the dance room on the first day of school and I walked him to the car."

"And the other time?"

"He came to my house." Haru grabbed Kira by the shoulders and shook her.

"He didn't do anything did he? He didn't hurt you?" he shouted.

"Um…n-no. He just took off his shirt and-"

"He what!"

"No! It's not like that!" she corrected. Haru relaxed.

"What happened exactly?" Kira explained what happened, careful to leave out anything that had to do with her being a panther. "So he just talked to you. He didn't try to hurt you."

"No, he did say something about keeping an eye on me though."

"That still doesn't explain why he scratched you."

"Well…Hey! Your coughs gone!" she realized.

"Oh yeah. Hatori gave me some medicine. I should be fine tomorrow."

Kira sighed. "I'm glad." Haru grabbed her nose.

"You should get to school though." She smiled.

"I've already missed most of the day already. It wouldn't matter if I didn't go back today."

"That's right kitten. Couldn't have said it better myself." Came the voice of Ananzi from behind them. "You must be Hatsuharu Sohma." Assumed Ananzi holding out his hand. Kira and Haru were shocked at this meeting.

"Um hi?" Haru said shaking his hand. Kira grew frustrated.

"What are you doing here?" she yelled.

"I'm here to collect you. There's a chore I need you to do for me."

"How did you get into my house?" Haru asked.

"What?" she asked. Ananzi looked at Haru.

"I'll tell you when we leave, first I'd like to meet your friend. I'm Ananzi, Kira's guardian and boss."

"I'm her friend. Why does she run your errands?"

"Haru are you going to be all right by yourself? I really need to take care of this."

"Yeah of course. Like I said I'll be fine by tomorrow." He reassured.

"Good I'll see you tomorrow." She started to walk towards the gate.

"Um Kira?" she turned around.

"Yes?"

"Thanks for taking care of me. And make sure to take care of that scratch." She smiled.

"Sure."

Ananzi drove the car down the street. "He seems nice." Ananzi commented. "Hope you two are getting too close."

"If you must know, Haru and I are totally platonic." She spat.

"Where did you get the scratch kitten?"

"This is my price. Akito said he'd keep quiet if I let him scratch me up."

"Oh yes. I've been thinking on that situation. I'm not quite sure what we're going to do about it yet. But I think it'd be best if you spied on the Sohmas for a while." He suggested.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm sending you to Shigure Sohma's house. He needs someone to alphabetize his western books. Since you speak English I figured it was a good opportunity."

"I don't want to alphabetize books!" she objected.

"When are you going to learn kitten? It doesn't matter what you want, what matters is what I want." He informed.

"I know." She remembered.

"Now, what you'll really be doing is spying for me. Shigure seems to be quite close to this Akito. Maybe you'll find out something. Understand kitten?"

"Yes," she looked at him coldly, "I understand."

She knocked on Shigure's door. She recognized the man as the one who had been with Hatori and Akito on the first day of school. He was tall, maybe 6'2, with gray brownish hair. He wore a relaxed expression on his face, as if he had no responsibilities. He reminded her of Ananzi: getting what he wanted, manipulating people to get it, and all the while looking as if he had some kind of secret agenda. This resemblance angered her. He smiled at her and she blushed. Despite the resemblance there was no getting around how attractive this man was.

"You must be Kira. Come in." Shigure invited, Kira stepped in. Ananzi had allowed her to change out of her school uniform into more relaxed clothes. She wore a light blue spaghetti strap and blue jeans, with of course her long black gloves. She also had her hair pulled up into a tight ponytail, rather then her usual style of just pulling it back. Kira didn't usually wear bright colors but she didn't have anything else to wear because it was laundry day. Shigure immediately took her to his office where all his western books were in a pile on the left side of the room waiting to be sorted.

"I'm giving them all to a book store that's run by a friend of mine, I think that it'd be nice for me to alphabetize them for her. I'd do it myself but I'm so busy and Ananzi said you'd be happy to do it." Shigure explained.

"Yeah he would say that. I'll do my best." She knelt by the first big stack and began to sort. 'Gone with the Wind' G's. 'War and Peace' W's. 'Cooking for dummies' C's. The list went on for what seemed like four hours but what was in reality only two. She heard someone walk inside.

"Hello Shigure!" shouted the joyful voice of a man.

"Hello Ayame!" Shigure replied.

"Come now! Are you going to stand there all day or offer me something to eat?" Ayame requested.

"Right! I'm terribly sorry Aya! I'll take care of it right away." Shigure entered his office. "Excuse me Miss Shaeed. But would you be so kind as to make me and my friend something to eat?" Shigure requested. Kira stared at him shocked.

"Can't you do it yourself?" she asked.

"No not really. See my cook is gone and I have no clue how to cook." He said sheepishly. Kira considered rummaging threw the C's for the 'Cooking for Dummies'. "Ananzi tells me you're a fantastic cook." Shigure praised.

"He…he did?" she said amazed.

"Oh yes. He went on and on about how good you are. I was hoping to be able to taste one of the delicious meals he was talking about. But if you don't want to I can always order out." He seemed a bit depressed.

"Um…I guess I could whip up some curry if it really means that much to you." Kira agreed.

"Oh thank you! Here's the kitchen." He said as he grabbed her hand to lead her to the kitchen. As she was cooking she mumbled to herself. "He really IS like Ananzi!" She finished the curry and poured it into two bowels.

"Huh? You're not going to eat with us?" asked Ayame.

"No. I should get back to work." She turned to head towards Shigure's office when a hand grabbed her arm.

"Oh but you worked so hard. You deserve a reward." Ayame pointed out.

"I really shouldn't-"

"Fine then I shall give you something for your hard work! A Kiss!" Ayame began to lean in Kira put her hands over her face. "No please! I don't-" she shouted but Ayame stopped due to the book he was hit with.

"When are you going to learn NOT to kiss women you just met?" Hatori asked.

"Ahh! Hatori! It's so good to see you!" Shigure praised.

"Hatori sit down and eat some curry with us!" Ayame begged.

"All right." He agreed sitting. "You should eat some to, Miss Shaeed."

"No I have lots of work to do."

"You should take a break. You've been working hard since this morning when you were taking care of Hatsuharu. And if I know Shigure, he's been working you like a dog since you got here."

"Hatori you're so cruel!" Shigure cried.

"Ahh! But it's true!" Aya chimed in.

"I guess a small break would be all right." She left to get two more bowels. This would be a great chance to spy on them, plus she really was tired of looking at old, dusty, western books.

"Well Kira I don't believe you've met Aaya before." Shigure stated.

"Where are my manners?" Ayame took Kira's hand. "I am the wonderful, charismatic, fantastic, talented, and might I say handsome, Ayame Sohma!" Ayame kissed her hand. Kira blushed again. He was handsome indeed.

"I am Kira Shaeed." She introduced.

"Of course you know Hatori. You had a run in with him this morning isn't that right?" Shigure asked, turning to Hatori.

"Yes. Hatsuharu was sick and she was taking care of him. Then I treated the scratch on her face."

"Where did you get that?" Aaya asked.

"Akito gave it to her." Hatori informed.

"He must have been angry because she was watching Haru."

"I'd suspect that, but it seemed to be something else."

"Like what?" Ayame questioned.

"Like he personally owed her." Shigure's face went serious and at this point Kira felt invisible. Although they were talking about her they seemed to have forgotten she was in the room.

"Akito has a short fuse. He must still be upset after what happened with Kisa." Shigure supposed.

"Why? What happened with Kisa?" Ayame asked.

"Didn't we tell you? She stood up to him." Shigure informed.

"No! Kisa?"

"Yes. I saw it myself. She said something he didn't like and he hit her. Then she claimed that he only did it because he agreed with her. Which I think is an amazingly accurate observation for someone her age." said Hatori. Kira smiled a bit. Kisa had stood up for herself.

"What were they arguing about?" Shigure wondered.

"Someone called Ane-san." Kira gasped. "Kisa wouldn't tell Akito who Ane-san was and he grew upset with her."

"I have to get back to work!" Kira insisted standing. She started to walk towards the office.

"But you barely touched this delicious curry!"

"Let it go Aaya." Hatori ordered. She'd done it! It was her fault that Kisa was hurt! If only she'd just stayed away! She was so stupid! "No! It's not my fault! I may have played a hand in it, but Akito is the one who lost his temper. He hurt her, not me!" she reassured herself, but she still felt unconvinced. About an hour later Hatori left and someone else entered the house.

"Yuki! I've been anxiously awaiting your arrival! Come sit and tell me about your day at school!" Ayame shouted.

"I'd rather die." Yuki declined.

"Where are Kyo and Tohru?" Shigure asked.

"Kyo's with Hakkai again at the dojo and Tohru is working tonight."

"Eat some curry with us!" Ayame invited.

"Yes someone worked very hard on it." Shigure praised.

"I'm not eating anything you two made."

"We didn't make it. Kira did." Shigure corrected.

"Kira's here?" he asked.

"Yes she sorting my books for me. So I can give them to Mayu, and they'll already be alphabetized."

"In that case shouldn't you do it!" Yuki pointed out, walking towards Shigure's office. Kira turned around. "Oh! Hello Mr. Sohma." She greeted.

"So you really are here?" he sighed sitting down next to her. "You know you shouldn't have to do this."

"I know but Ananzi told me to so, here I am."

"Well you shouldn't have to do it alone. I'll help."

"Okay put this in that pile by the door." She ordered handing him a book.

"Are you enjoying yourself here miss Shaeed?"

"Please call me Kira. I can't stand all that proper name nonsense. Yes I am."

"I heard from Momiji that you took care of Haru today. That was nice of you."

Kira smiled. "Yeah it's kind of nice. Having someone there for you. He's always taking care of me so I felt that it was time I took care of him."

"So you are having fun here?"

"Yes, I'm really happy that I can be close to Hakkai again. It's been so long since we lived near each other."

"You two must be very close." Yuki assumed.

"We weren't always that way." She handed him another book. "We're six years apart."

"My brother and I are ten years apart."

"Who's your brother?" she questioned. Yuki suddenly developed an aura of anger.

"He's the one eating curry with Shigure."

"You two don't get along huh?"

"Well it's just that we grew up apart from each other."

"Hakkai and I lived together for the first fourteen years of my life and we never got along."

"Why's that?"

"Oh you know how six year olds are. Especially only children, spoiled and all they care about is getting attention. So when Hakkai was born, I was always jealous. Mom tried to pay attention to both of us, but babies need a lot of care. In fact we didn't get along at all until after mom died."

"So, why did you get along after that?"

Kira looked at him and gave him a small thoughtful smile. "Cause he's all I have. Or rather I'm all he has."

"I don't understand."

"When our mother died I didn't speak for days. It was like it hurt too much to form words. My father had abandoned me years before and I was alone. When I was at my mother's funeral and they were lowering the body I knew that she wasn't coming back. I stayed after the funeral at the grave for an hour when I turned around to see Hakkai had been there for the whole hour as well. Then it hit me. I wasn't alone, I still had him, and he needed me. His father's a good man but I don't think he could have done it himself. Hakkai was alone as well, and I was swept up in the urge to take care of him. All those years of competition meant nothing because we needed each other; we were all we had left of our mother. He's all I have and I'm happy to at least have that." Yuki smiled and took the next book and put it in the pile.

"It'd be nice to have that with Nii-san. But I don't see that happening. Our parents are still alive. The only reason we don't get along is because we're just to different."

"I don't think that's it at all." Kira disagreed. "Someday it's going to come down to you and him and you'll discover that for some reason you need each other. There are some things that only siblings can understand." Yuki looked at her thoughtfully as he set the last book on the pile. "Hey we're all done!" she exclaimed. "Thanks for helping me. I'm sorry if I bored you with my story." She apologized.

"No! Not at all! In fact I found it very enlightening." They walked into the kitchen. Ayame was still there but the curry was gone. Kyo and Hakkai entered the house.

"I'm just saying that the bear would-ah Kira's here!" Hakkai exclaimed running and hugging his elder sister. She giggled.

"How was your day?" she asked.

"Kyo and I were just having a discussion about-"

"Ahh! All this sibling love! We should bask in it Yuki and share in it's benefits." Ayame interrupted.

"Um…I don't believe we've met. I'm Hakkai." Hakkai introduced.

"I am Yuki's older and fantastic brother Ayame Sohma! It is a thrill to meet you!"

"Forget introductions! We didn't finish talking about-"

"Damm! Kira the sun!" Hakkai pointed out interrupting Kyo. She turned to see that the sun was close to setting.

"God! I have to leave! Shigure I finished the job it's all done you can give Ananzi the money. Hakkai your dad can drive you home right?"

"Yes don't worry about it just go!" Hakkai urged. Kira left and was home just in time for the change. She was glad she had Hakkai and Haru. She felt that as long as she had them she could handle any punishment Ananzi chose. She was wrong.

Whew! I haven't written a long chapter in a while. They're about to get pretty long soon. Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it. Please continue to review!

Pyra.