Thank you reviewers. You might want to refer back to figure out whats going on again. Enjoy!


Nemisis!Ayame

Hatori ended up forcing Anju to stay in her bed for the rest of the day

Hatori ended up forcing Anju to stay in her bed for the rest of the day. And thanks to Hatori not making a fuss Anju was in tip top shape. It was almost like Shigure and Ayame had never forced Anju to keep them company while she suffered in snow-drenched clothes. And to fully enjoy her recovered health Anju was playing solitaire in a room downstairs nobody apparently used. She figured the abandoned room was her best bet of getting some 'quiet' time.

The three extra Sohmas staying in Shigure-san's house made actual quiet time an impossible activity to reach for. Even sitting in the empty room with the deck of cards in hand Anju could hear the muffled thump and beat of running feet in the house—be it Ayame making an escape from Kyo-Yuki abuse and Haru's remarks or Momiji escaping from Kyo.

It was only when the house grew an eerily empty feeling that Anju grew curious about what was going on. She felt like she was in the opening scene of a horror film. Had someone finally killed Ayame? They'd been threatening to kill him all morning, and that was a suitable plot for a reasonably entertaining movie. The anticipation to find the source of the unusual quite drew Anju to put down her cards and leave her newfound sanctuary. She stood at the closed door listening intently for any signs of life, but heard nothing. She found it odd that there weren't even normal nature noises coming from outside, but nature was buried under an unbelievably thick blanket of snow so she thought nothing more of it. Besides, complete silence boded well with a scary movie.

Anju tentatively slid open the door and peeked out the open crack and into the side yard of the house. Snow was piled all over everything making it hard for Anju to remember what the yard had looked like before the snowstorm. But glancing through the crack she had no new clues as to what had happened to everyone. This situation was too eerily similar to a horror movie for Anju's taste all the sudden. A house full of people doesn't just disappear. Curious!Anju opened the door a little more and froze when she heard the shifting of someone's coat. Cue intense music. The shifting of someone's eccentric formal red robe to be exact. Oh god!

"Anju-kun!" It was Ayame. Of all the people to find first… "We were just going to look for you!" He relayed happily breaking off into one of his uncomfortable belly laughs that shook the roof. This would be the scariest movie Anju had ever been involved in. Ayame must have been laughing a lot because he seemed warm enough despite being out on the porch exposed to the winter air. She remembered Momiji had told her Ayame wasn't very fond of the cold. But having new cold-fighting powers fit well with a typical evil nemesis.

Anju sighed giving in to fate and came out onto the covered porch with Ayame and closed the door behind her. She'd been captured and would have to think up a great witty plan of escape. She took a deep breath and plastered on a smile preparing herself for whatever Ayame could throw at her. First step was to deceive the enemy into thinking she would cooperate willingly.

"Come!" Ayame demanded wrapping his arm in hers and dragging her around the corner to the back yard. She hadn't prepared for physical force from Ayame—another new trick in the form of a sneak attack. Anju's wool socks did their best to counter the stone cold planks Ayame insisted on stomping across to get to their destination, but Anju had to say she was considerably chilled by the time she discovered what had happened to everyone. "I found adorable Anjuuuu-gah!" A hitch in her already falling apart escape plan—Ayame had fallen, taking her down with him.

There were swirls of white snow and smothering red Ayame robes and the odd sensation of not quite being in balance with gravity anymore as soon as Anju was announced to the backyard. But the most peculiar event to take place in the moment of Anju and Ayame's tumble from the porch after a ridiculously fast-paced turn around the corner of the house was the succession of six distinct 'pyons'. What a weird noise to hear in the mince of falling to her icy cold doom.

"Nanda?" Anju complained surfacing in the sea of snow that dominated the backyard. There'd been a scenery change without her consent. Her tumble with Ayame hurt a lot more than it should have and there was snow up her nose. She felt bumps and bruises all over her sides and legs hinting that more than just her and Ayame had been involved in the pitch off the porch. There had been more prisoners, but where they were hiding was unclear to Anju—all she could see were fuzzy stars and white blurs. When something shifted under Anju's legs she jumped up and stared with wide eyes despite her new aches. To Anju's confused surprise it was Tohru (a turquoise and brown blob) who surfaced next to her in the snow-sea. "Tohru-kun?" Anju asked confused as the powder they disturbed began to settle again. "What happened?" Anju felt so confused, all she had wanted to know was where everyone had gone to and to investigate her movie theory. What she had gotten was Ayame, and Ayame had allowed her a glimpse of everyone in the yard but after the trip off the porch it was suspiciously quite again. A plot twist perhaps? Anju pondered.

"Aya-chaaan! Look what you did." That was Shigure-san, but where was he? Anju soon found out when a big black dog jumped out of the snow and onto the porch to shake off the clinging powder. Anju stifled a laugh and coughed when stifling made her choke. This was conceivably the more ingenious plot twist Anju had ever witnessed. To turn all the characters into animals—it was simple, made no sense at all, but also added some humor to the overbearingly scary (Ayame) story so far. Shigure had turned into a dog, how embarrassing. Anju knew that 'pyon' sound had been familiar, and now she knew what had happened. When Anju finally turned around to look at the rest of the yard, sure enough, there standing stomach deep in the snow stood an ear pierced cow with an expression clearly belonging to only one boy Anju knew. She had to cover another laugh with a badly disguised cough and Anju was sure she didn't imagine those familiar grey eyes narrowing just the slightest.

"You'll have to explain to me how being the ox of the zodiac turns you into a dairy cow." Anju said hardly trying to hide her grin. Cow-Haru was ridiculously funny.

"I'm not a dairy cow." Haru said clearly and plainly. Anju was surprised she knew right away that that had been Haru's annoyed voice. She was learning the subtle ways of Haru-interpretation, which wasn't easy mind you.

"My apologies." Anju said sincerely.

"Oh no! Yuki-kun!" Tohru cried distressed throwing herself into the snow again. "He's so small! What if he freezes?" Anju turned away from Haru and saw—behind where Tohru had disappeared under the snow—three sets of empty clothes. "Where are you?!" She called from under the powder. Anju had to admit turning into a mouse in nearly three feet of snow sounded dangerous, but Tohru searching so frantically for the tiny Yuki looked just as (if not more) dangerous. This seemed to be a subplot to the overall story: lost animal-boys in the frigid barren land of snow.

"Tohru." Anju said calmly and reasonably. "Stand still and take a deep breath." Anju instructed. "If we're quite we might hear Yuki and he can help us find him. But it looks like from the lawn of outfits that more than just Yuki are lost under the snow, ne?" Anju commented picking up Ayame's robe for an example to her point. His robe had been tangled around her leg. Snake Ayame was somewhere nearby freezing to death. Despite the cruelty Anju thought for a moment that frozen death might suit him, but he was the antagonist and could hardly die this early into the story.

"Oh nooo!" Tohru complained surfacing again and frowning so sincerely with worry Anju began to catch her worrisome expression. "Poor Kyo! And Momiji!" Tohru wailed looking around but refraining from moving her feet. At least she understood that her frantic moving might be hazardous to the small animal Sohmas. "I'm so sorry! This is all my fault. If I hadn't of been standing there I wouldn't have fallen on everyone and made them transform!"

"Yes, none of this would have happened." Shigure agreed wagging his tail on the porch. Anju turned a subtle glare on him as he tried to stir up more trouble.

Anju took a deep breath herself ignoring Shigure and looked at Haru again hoping for some reasonable help from him. Tohru was a sweet girl, but Anju had to say that she was virtually useless in her frantic apologetic state—through she was still vital to the plot line. Haru just stared back at her nearly emotionless, and Anju was afraid she didn't know that look quite yet. She was still just a beginner in Haru-interpretation after all.

"Tohru." Anju said trying to calm her down. "From what I can guess this isn't your fault. I'd have to say it was Ayame's really." Anju added thoughtfully. Tohru sniffed done with her hysterics, but Anju involuntarily yelped when the cold scales of a tiny reptile wrapped around her ankle and slithered upward. Anju quickly ducked down and grabbed Ayame's tail before he could climb any high and yanked him out of her sweat pants and threw him at Shigure-san indignantly. Anju shuddered grabbing her shoulders and glared at the white coil near Shigure.

"I…take no blame…for this…predicament." Ayame said shakily as he curled up into a swirl on Shigure's paws and fell silently defeated. The antagonist had been vanquished.

"Don't do that!" Anju yelled unable to control the shivers of disgust contouring her spine. Anju was prepared to say a lot more to Ayame and ready to set aside any manners she possessed in the process when a tiny voice distracted her.

"Anju!" that was Yuki.

Anju looked down, but only saw snow.

"Yuki-kun." Anju said prompting him to make noise so she could find where he was hiding. Anju crouched down and fell under the surface of the snow-lake. Forget Ayame, she had a subplot to conclude.

"Anju-san!" Anju cupped piles of snow and packed them behind her carefully searching for the tiny Sohma.

"Yuki!" Anju announced happily holding up her cupped hands with Yuki shivering in her palms. "Are you okay?" She asked peering at him critically for any injury.

"I'll be okay, Anju-san. Thank you for finding me." He said making what Anju could only guess was a smile. Animal faces were hard to distinguish.

"Here," Anju said lifting him higher. "Hang out here and warm up while I look for Momiji, ne?" Anju proposed dropping Yuki into her shirt pocket. Yuki nodded before he disappeared into Anju's pocket. She could feel him shivering against her stomach, but at least he'd get warm now. "Mooomiji." Anju said standing back up and peering around for signs of Momiji.

"Is Yuki alright?" Tohru asked clutching her hands.

"He'll be fine." Anju said absentmindedly as she stared critically at a spot of snow that had moved just a bit only a moment ago. The bit of snow was closest to Haru so she was about to ask him to investigate when she noticed he was staring at her, but before she could inquire about the strange look he was suddenly (--pyon!--) the Haru she had met… and naked. "Whoa!" Anju gasped and spun around so not to see anything more. Anju heard Tohru echo a similar response and the shuffle of snow as she turned away embarrassed. Anju couldn't decide if Haru was lucky the snow was so high or not. On one hand, the aspects of being naked in front of people that made it embarrassing were hidden under the snow, but then again he was naked in the snow.

"Hello Momiji." Haru said. Anju couldn't help the automatic reaction to turn back around. Thankfully, Haru had already dressed himself in record time—a talent all of the cursed acquired at a very young age. Anju smiled at what she saw.

"Haru!" Momiji cried happily. Of course this wasn't the same Momiji Anju had seen that morning, now he was a rather large yellow rabbit with adorable red beady eyes. "I was so lost under the snow and I couldn't see anything but white!" Momiji said. Haru nodded understandably as he held Momiji by the scruff of his neck with his long back feet dangling over the surface of the snow. Anju looked down to see if she should risk making her way over to the two when Momiji noticed her. "Anju-chan!" He wailed. "I heard you talking but I couldn't find my way!" He cried, but Anju just smiled choosing not to say anything about that. Didn't Momiji know rabbits mostly lived underground? He was hardly worse for wear, and his fur had protected him perfectly. Momiji couldn't even touch the danger Yuki had been in. Thinking about it Anju looked down again but at her pocket.

"Are you any better, Yuki-kun?" Anju asked, but she didn't get a response. Anju knitted her eyebrows in concern and looked into the side of her pouch pocket. Yuki was asleep. Anju figured his snow exploration had exhausted him, she was only happy that this meant he wouldn't be transforming inside her pocket. "I have a feeling that Kyo-kun will be fine without my help. I'm going to bring Yuki inside. He's not looking too hot." Anju said still observing Yuki in her pocket. Maybe he just needed to warm up a bit better than just in her pocket.

"Oh." Tohru said with more concern than Anju felt the situation needed. Anju doubted Yuki was in danger, just a bit tired—and he may have a cold now. "Should I do something?" Tohru asked stepping closer to Anju. Tohru asked like Anju was in charge of the situation all the sudden.

"Nah, its okay, Tohru-kun." Anju said leaning back and pulling herself onto the porch. "I'm not dressed for the outdoors, and Kyo still needs some assistance so I'll look after Yuki for a while, ne?" Anju said standing up and brushing off the powdery snow. It was so cold outside the snow had failed to melt on Anju. And to be honest Anju felt that another minute outside would freeze her solid. "Happy hunting." Anju called disappearing back indoors.

Anju would have sold her left kidney for a kotatsu, but lucky for her Shigure had saved her the trouble and had already replaced the one Haru and Kyo had destroyed. Lightly placing Yuki on a cushion, Anju wiggled under the table and switched on the heater with a sigh of relief. The warm air brushed her face and brought the painful feeling back into her cheeks. Anju pulled herself back out with new energy thanks to the bit of heat. She dragged Yuki's cushion closer to the table and tucked the blanket around him leaving his tiny head and paws poking out from the hem. She smiled when she heard him sigh in relief too.

"I'm going to put on the kettle." Anju said even though she wasn't sure Yuki was conscious.

"Some morning we're having." Shigure commented trotting into the room and dropping Ayame near the table with Yuki. Anju bit back a laugh as even in his sleep Yuki fought off Ayame and kicked him away from his cushion.

"Mm." Anju answered. "What are the odds that all of you would transform at the same time? You really put Tohru in a state too." Anju frowned at him. He only wagged his tail unable to hide anything when he had a betraying tail behind him.

"Actually," Shigure said taking a seat at the table too. "The boys had it in their mind to get back at you for their loss in the last snowball fight. So they each had some snowballs and got Ayame to track you down and lure you into the trap. I'm not sure how I got caught up in that tumble." He added thoughtfully, but still happily wagging his tail. He obviously found the whole thing funny.

"Well, that's what you get for messing with me… or rather what you get for relying on Ayame-san." Anju added walking off toward the kitchen. "Would you like some hot chocolate too, Shigure-san?" Anju asked stopping in the threshold and turning waiting for his answer.

"I'd really like a cup of coffee." He said hopefully. Anju frowned instead.

"My talents are limited, Shigure-san. It's hot chocolate or nothing." Shigure whined and his ears wilted as his tail dropped to the floor. Anju was definitely no Tohru.

"I'll have hot chocolate." He sighed. Anju grinned closing the door.

REVIEW please!!

-BS