Hey everyone! I have had Chapter 12 written in a notebook for so long, but to punish me for being organised, someone decided to hide it. (Well, basically I lost it but that's not the point.) I hope you haven't lost faith in this story. I know it hasn't really been moving anywhere for a while, mainly because of stuff at home but you don't wanna read about that, you wanna read the story! So here it is!

I was suddenly pulled sideways, again, my eyes still locked on the large building in front of me. Why did I get a feeling in my chest when I looked at it? A kind of pressure, not completely painful, but definitely uncomfortable. I almost wanted to clutch a hand to it to cushion the growing swell of compression. Woah.

'Hey!' I shouted, suddenly realising that I was being pulled in different directions once again. Man, this cow was moody today. We came to a stop outside a small wooden hut, just off to the side of the larger buildings that made up the Sohma Estate. Truthfully, I'd only ever been inside here twice, once when I was born, and the second time just before I left. A shudder took me and I snapped back to the present. 'What the-? What are we doing here? This is-.'

'Rin's old home. That's right, even though she now lives with Kagura, her presence still remains here doesn't it?' he spoke softly, looking up at the top of the house.

I was gonna say 'This is creepy and unnecessary.', but 'Rin's old home' seemed to flow better I suppose.

'Well, you've kind of got the wrong girl here Haru. Remember, I've only been here twice.'

'Exactly, which is why I chose you to help me get the last of her stuff.'

'Help you? What?'

'Come on. You're going in.' he gestured to a small dusty window that was strangely made of glass and not rice paper. Just why was this building so far away from the rest? And why, now that Rin was gone, was it no longer in use? I didn't have time to think about my questions before the reality of what Haru had just said set in to my confused little brain.

'I'm going where?(!)' I shouted, but a calloused, dirty hand quickly covered my mouth. I shook my head until he let go, spitting out the dust that had been left on my lips.

'Shut up, else we'll get caught.' He looked around before walking over to a small pile of rocks near a lone tree. 'I said, you're going in.'

'I'm what? No, no, no, no, no. No way. I don't make it a habit of climbing into old, dark, creepily quiet buildings' my sentence was interrupted by an old, scraggy bird flying out of the building through a small hole in the roof and over our heads. I held my nose, it smelt disgusting. 'let me add, gross to that description.' I said, my hand still over my nose and mouth. 'I don't do things like that, for people I owe nothing too.' I spoke icily. Well, as icily as I could when I sounded like a muffled robot.

'But you do owe me Akane, remember?' Haru picked up one of the rocks.

'Are you asking for a kick in the teeth?(!)' the boy's voice shouted, but somehow it only sounded like a whisper to her. A whisper, but a whisper laced with threat. 'You think just because I'm younger than you that you can go around speaking wrongly of me?(!) I am your God! I am your only authority!' he shouted, swinging an arm, smashing a mirror.

He hissed and brought it back to his chest, nursing his fresh cut with the sleeve of his kimono.

'Akito.' A voice spoke from behind the girl.

'No.' she interrupted the voice. 'He might be my brother, but we have no bond.' She looked up, her bright eyes the only colour in the room, her short, red hair was faded in the shadowy atmosphere that he brought everywhere with him, but those eyes. Those Emerald Windows. No one could refuse them; no one could take away their colour, their ability to give her a shield from her brother.

Neither of her parents had those eyes, they were her own. No one knew how she came to get them, but she knew that if she hadn't got those emerald eyes, she would crumble just as easily as the rest. Those eyes brought her the only thing Akito couldn't stand. A power he couldn't face. He hated those eyes. Those windows that showed the world the beauty that could be seen if looked at from the right angle. A beauty that Akito knew he would never be able to see from the confinements of that room.

'We may have no bond.' The boy spat. Blood from the cut now dripping onto the hardwood floor. 'But you are me. You have my blood inside your veins Aka.'

'Don't call me that!' she slammed a fist against the floor. Akito's eyes widened. He was reminded of the sheer power behind her irises. She knew he was afraid of them, and so she stared right into his own. She was older than him, yet she knew he would die first.

'You dare to interrupt me. Aka.' He sneered, taking a step forward. Crouching to meet her eye level, wincing at the brightness of her pupils. 'I know you have no pity, no sympathy for your own brother. Which is why I take it into my own hands to make sure,' he gripped her hair and forced her head backwards. His other hand slipped out of the sleeve of his kimono with a slithering shard of mirror gripped tightly in his pale fingers, causing the blood from his cut to drip faster. 'I don't die first.'

'Akito!' the same voice shouted, causing the boy to whip his head up and loosen his grip on the girl's hair. She took this advantage, moving quickly as she hit his arm away from her head, grabbed the mirror piece with the other hand, slashed it across his forehead, but missed. She scrambled up and away from the room. Not even looking back to see the eyes of the voice that saved her.

'CRASH!'

I was violently snapped back to the present when Haru stopped talking and threw his rock at the tiny window, smashing the glass and causing an image of the scene that had just played out in my head to flash up before my eyes. Mirror, shard, strong grip, blood, voice, hit, grab, run.

I ducked subconsciously, covering my head with my arms. Luckily, most of the glass fell inside the hut.

'In you go.' He smiled, brushing his hands off.

'Wait, you can't just-that was-Akito and-…that was you?' I struggled to find the right words. How could he drop a bombshell on me like that and just leave it? He had saved my life, and all he wanted in return was an extra pair of hands, and perhaps a smaller waist to fit inside the goddamn window.

'Yeah well, it wasn't a big deal, it's not like I swooped in and carried you out like a superhero!' he laughed as he ran at me, picking me up and slinging me over one shoulder before spinning around insanely fast.

'Aaah, no! Let me down! You stupid cow!' it felt weird calling a guy a cow, but it still gave me the satisfaction of an insult all the same.

'Shut up, else the bad guy will hear us and follow us back to our base.' He chuckled. Spinning the other way now, making me dizzy as hell. I gripped his shoulders and tried to lift myself up a bit.

Only to see something I wished I hadn't. Talk about bad timing.

'Haru.' A quiet, female voice spoke.

We suddenly stopped spinning and he almost dropped me his full height. I didn't say a word though. This was too awkward. I hugged my knees to my chest and looked the other way.

'Rin.' I heard Haru breathe, whether it was due to emotion or the fact he was out of breath, I didn't know. This caused me to look at her again. Without the blur of the spinning, I could tell she had definitely changed from before I left. I'd only spoken to her once. But her image wasn't one that was easy to forget. If it wasn't for the ugly glare she was sending us, I would have said she was a lot prettier than I remembered. Her dark, ebony hair fell round her body weightlessly. Her eyes flickered in my direction and I looked away, I felt so guilty. How suspicious did that situation look to her? She had walked in on a scene where a girl she'd only met once was in the arms of her boyfriend, and they were both laughing like crazy. Gah, I felt sick.

I looked up again to see Rin's form running away, empty cardboard boxes discarded at Haru's feet. Haru himself was stood motionless. Just watching her run. I looked at his hand just in time to see his fist clench.

~xxx~

After the incident with Rin, I'd quickly sloped off away from the small hut. Leaving Haru alone to calm down. No doubt he had turned black straight away.

I was now trudging through the other houses that made up the Sohma Estate. There was a reason I was doing so.

'Now if I remember correctly,' I assessed each house that I passed. 'This one should be where-'

'Aak-san!' his cheery voice made my smile grow wide as I saw him running towards me. I looked up in time to catch him and spin him round once before plonking him back on the ground.

'Wow, you're growing up fast!' I chuckled as I stepped back and examined the bunny. Where had my little baby gone?

'Yep! Shigure says its thanks to all of Tohru's home cooking!' even though he had grown a lot since I was first reunited with him, his cute grin still remained.

I lifted a hand and compared our heights.

'Hmmm, well she might have to slow down a bit, it won't be long before I'm looking up at you!'

He just smiled, closing his eyes. Yes, I was short, but still…

'Hey! Do you wanna hear me play?' he pointed over to his room where an elegant violin sat propped up against the door, the string lay on the floor before it. 'Ooh! Or I could teach you how to play Akane!' he laughed.

'Momiji, keep the noise down. You know the consequences if she is woken.' A strong, but calm voice spoke and I looked away from the once smiling face of Momiji to see . I giggled at the name I'd just come up with.

'Akane.' He nodded, his whole body relaxing a little.

'Hi Hatori.' I said quietly.

'Wait, are you two together or something? You seem like there's something between you that you don't want anyone to know or something.' Momiji frowned, looking back and forth between us. Hatori's face went immediately red and I stifled a laugh. Seriously? Since when did the bunny become so observant? Wait, that makes it sound like there actually is something between me and Hatori. Gah! Shut up Akane!

'Haven't you got that schoolwork to be doing Momiji?' Hatori said awkwardly.

Momiji turned so that Hatori couldn't see his face and winked at me before running back inside. My mouth formed an 'o' and I laughed in slight disbelief as I watched his door slide closed.

Hatori cleared his throat.

Now the bunny had made this situation so much more awkward.

'So,' I turned to face the dragon and realised he had stepped closer to me and was now mere inches from my body. He obviously noticed my sudden discomfort and stepped back a little.

'Sorry.' He mumbled. 'Um, Akane, I need to speak with you. A groundskeeper told me they'd seen a girl with fiery red hair running around the estate with Hatsuharu. I thought of all people you'd realise how dangerous that is.' He sighed.

'What? He's not that bad ya know. I know he can turn black and all but he would never-'

'You know that's not what I meant Akane.' Hatori cut me off, his voice lower and quieter than before.

'I know.' I said in defeat. 'I'm sorry, I know you don't want me on your list of things to do and-…'

I suddenly realised how that had sounded and clapped a hand over my mouth. 'I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it like that, come on, you must understand what I meant right? I…' I trailed off, realising that a small smile was tugging at the corners of his mouth. He started to chuckle and I joined in. Soon we were both laughing, trying to still keep quiet. I knew very well who it was we shouldn't wake. I had long ago hoped I'd never see her again. Had news of my return got to her yet? It was only a matter of time before it did.

We had both stopped laughing now and I was trying to read the expression in the dragon's eyes. For once he seemed genuinely relaxed and happy, if it was only for a brief few minutes of laughter it still made me glad that he was able to forget about his heavy duties as the family doctor when he was around me. I realised he was looking back into my eyes when it was too late. The familiar hot burning sizzled my 'tattoo'. Maybe my missed meeting with Akito had been noticed. Did he know I was here? I clutched the base of my neck with both hands, before I realised Hatori had grabbed me gently and stopped me from falling to the ground. My eyes were screwed shut and my teeth sunk into my bottom lip, drawing blood. It had never been this intense before, and never across my markings. A cold hand swept my hair over one shoulder and gently pried my hands away from the scorching pain. It was then I realised I was sat on a nearby rock. The hand, being cold, was a relief as Hatori pressed it gently against my skin. I opened my eyes to see him frown.

'What?' I whispered.

'It's not hot to touch like before.' He mumbled and took his hand away. I moaned inwardly at the movement of his hand and slouched as the pain began to wear off.

'Come on.' Hatori hooked one arm under my knees, the other under my back as he lifted me.

'Where are we going?' I asked as he began to walk further into the Sohma Estate. 'My house, I need to look at this further Akane. It's likely it will return within the hour.'

As he walked I studied his face. His relaxed and happy expression from before had melted away into his hard and serious face he now held. Dammit. I really did hate my brother. I suddenly felt tired and limp as I lay in Hatori's arms. For some reason, I felt it a good and comfortable place to fall asleep.

I think this is possibly the longest chapter I've written for this story so far. I hope it was good enough to keep you interested. =) please review and let me know: 'Who's you're favourite Akane pairing so far?' e.g AkanexHaru AkanexHatori AkanexYuki AkanexShigure etc I would LOVE to hear from you! =)

Thanks!