I'm sorry... I'm so sorry.... I know it's been forever... I am so sorry... My summer was really busy... And I lost my zip drive... I'm sorry...

^-^

Poof? What? Poof?

Kyo blinked, blurry eyed, looking up from where he was sitting on the floor. Orange smoke was slowly fading away and he realized something.. a very bad something. He was no longer human. He was a cat! An orange furred, red eyed cat!

He blinked his cat eyes, briefly letting his brain adjust to the sudden change from human vision to cat vision, and looked at Tohru, who was sitting beside him with wide eyes. Her hands were over her open mouth and there was a bit of blood trickling from her forehead. How had that happened? She looked so shocked and confused that if this were a normal moment, Kyo would have laughed. But now was not the time for laughter.

"K... Kyo-kun!" she finally gasped out when he didn't say anything. She was on the verge of a major Tohru freak out. Then it came. "Oh my gosh, Kyo-kun, you're a cat! A cat! D-D-Did I hit you in the wrong places or something?? Oh my gosh, did I hurt you!! Are you ok!!!??? I need to call the doctor! We need a doctor!" In the middle of this rampage, she jumped to her feet and scooped Kyo off the floor, holding him tight to her chest; too tight!

"T-Tohru!" he gasped, eyes open wide and slightly bugging from his skull. She was squeezing the breath out of him!

She shrieked and nearly dropped him. Regaining herself, barely, she held him at arms length and stared at him as he panted to catch his breath. She had forced the breath from his lungs for a minute there. "You can talk!"

"Yeah, I can talk!" he snapped. He felt a sudden rush of anger and instantly took it out on her. The curse was supposed to be broken! Why was he a cat?? "Just shut up so I can think!"

Her mouth snapped shut and she looked hurt.

His mind raced. The curse was supposed to be broken because of what Tohru did... It was supposed to be over and done with. Had it only been a temporary fix? Had it been just a short bit of time that the curse had disappeared? Were Tohru's efforts fruitless?

He looked at her, wondering these things. She was still holding him at arms length, looking confused and maybe more than a little hurt. Her bottom lip trembled slightly as she studied her feet with intensity.

Dang it... Kyo thought. I hurt her feelings again, didn't I? He yelled back at himself, No duh Sherlock!

Before Kyo could tell her he was sorry, he heard Shigure coming down the stairs, yelling loudly. "Tohru! Oh Tohru, are you there? I'm huuunnggryy!" he called the last bit in a whiny, slightly dejected voice.

Oh crap...

Shigure tromped into the kitchen and froze; the grin that was on his face slowly disintegrated into a concerned frown. "Oh dear...." he muttered, looking the two over as Kyo gave him a glare of death. "I knew this would happen..."

Kyo, furious and in need of taking his fury out of someone other than Tohru, yelled at Shigure, "What do you mean 'you knew'?? If you knew this would happen, why didn't you tell me, dang it? You know, so maybe I could avoid situations like this!! Akito is going to frigging kill us all now! She's not supposed to know! And dang it all, she's probably gonna collapse again!" He didn't bother to look at her and check to make sure that she still looked ok; somehow he sensed this wasn't going to affect her. Why? He didn't know.

At that instant, there was a loud pounding on their front door. Shigure glanced towards the door with concern written on his features; what if it was one of Tohru's friends coming to check on her? How would they react to a strange orange cat with almost demon like red eyes and a spazmatic pile of clothing on the floor?

The person pounding at the door started to pound harder, and it sounded very much like the door was about to break down. "I'm coming!" Shigure called. He glanced at Tohru and said lightly, "Hug him closer; you don't want him transforming back without warning." Being Shigure, he added, "Unless you wanna see all of Kyo!"

Tohru instantly pulled Kyo closer to her, eyes wide. "O-O-Ok, Shigure-san!" She wasn't sure what he meant, but she didn't wanna find out!

As Shigure hurried to the door, he was followed by the enraged sound of Kyo yelling his name. Chuckling, he left Kyo, in cat form, and Tohru in the kitchen. He reached the door and threw it open to be greeted by a frantic Hatori.

Wait, back up. Hatori. Frantic?

"Shigure!" Hatori exclaimed. "Finally, you open the door!"

"Yes. What is it?" Shigure asked, slightly impatient, even if he was happy to see the doctor. He kind of wanted help dealing with the situation in the kitchen.

Hatori lowered his voice slightly, eyes wide, which was a very unnatural Hatori look. It was making Shigure nervous. "I don't know where Akito is." he said quietly. "I have reason to believe he's coming after Tohru. I don't know for sure, but it looks that way. Where is she?"

Shigure stiffened. "She's in the kitchen with Kyo. The curse is back; he turned into a cat."

Hatori opened his mouth to say something, but a loud and terrified shriek halted his words.

Breathlessly, both Shigure and Hatori gasped, "Tohru!" and took off towards the kitchen.