AN: Thanks for your patience, I hope you enjoy. Honestly, I've been busy but there have also been some things about people on the site pissing me off. (people demanding updates over Private Messages, people coming up with "requests" that they want me to write without even reviewing my current work, etc.). I'm hoping to go back to updating this one every other day though because it'll keep my mind on writing and help me focus.

Kyoko 13 – Animal Testing

In my mind, it doesn't seem normal. Kuon is suffering and it is obvious as to why he's suffering, he's thinking that he's going to spend the rest of his life looking like a monster but I don't see him that way. He went into the hospital without thinking because he wanted to protect me. As foolish as his action was, he didn't do it maliciously, he didn't do it to satisfy his own ego or gain anything for himself. Kuon got hurt because of how much he loves me. How can I not take his new form as a testament of how far he is willing to go because he loves me?

"Do you understand me?" I ask him, my face showing my passion and determination. He knows how I feel about him….or he should do. He nods and I look at him without blinking, "You know that I love you." There's an awkward silence between us and I know he's withdrawing. I mean, looking at him, if I was any less of a person then I might reject him or want to get away from him but…I don't care what he looks like or even if he's a different species now.

"Can you at least respo-" I struggle to say but he cuts me off.

"I love you too," he replies and I come over to him. I stop at the side of the bed next to him and kneel down. My heart feels like it's being ripped apart. He doesn't get it, does he? He doesn't understand that all the good he does and all the good in who he is outweighs all of his flaws and all of his past. "Look," he starts again and I try to swallow some of my tears, "this isn't right, you're keeping me against my will."

I pull back feeling those words slash against my skin as if an attack from a rustic sword. "You don't understand me," I tell him and I reach to touch his hair, to feel him there as tears fill my eyes. "You can hear the words but you're not listening to me. Are you that unable to understand?" I ask him. I don't want to be unkind to him but I don't know what else to do with a broken heart.

"I thought you were smart," I tell him before choking on a sob, "always so smart." I try to control myself but as he reaches for my hand, I feel my breaths get blocked in my chest and I'm fearing having a panic attack.

"I don't think I'm stupid," he replies as I see all the pain he's in.

"I don't think so either," I tell him and still the pain isn't going away, "but you're not listening to me. I love you," I tell him and he looks at me with distrust, he can't understand the words I'm saying, the way my heart is feeling.

"How can you even say that?" he asks and my heart squeezes even tighter as if it's about to explode, "It'll be okay if you tell me the truth."

I swallow my pain as it intensifies, "I am telling you the truth, Kuon," I try to convince him but maybe there's no use in that, maybe this transformation has affected his mind so much that he's become incapable of things changing unexpectedly. "Why would I lie to you?"

"Because I'm some kind of cat monster. Because I have a tail. Because my ears are pointed up. Because I'm not human," he tells me and I want to yell at him that those things aren't important to me. I don't consider him an animal and whether or not he's human is something that isn't the greatest worry on my mind. I'm just scared of him hurting himself or worse, of not being able to protect himself.

I run my fingers through the fur on his arm. It's soft, soft and warm and gorgeous, just as he is. I hum before looking into his eyes, "I know that it's a change but losing you is worse," I say as I continue to run my fingers through the fur. "Does it…does it feel different to you?" It's a strange question but I hope he'll be able to open up to me. If it feels different then I want to know how, I want to know if there could be a chance of my hurting him. "You really don't trust that I still love you?" I ask him, my heart hurting my chest once again.

"How could you?" he growls to me and I sigh, there are hundreds of reasons as to why I still adore him and what is on the outside of his body isn't important. I sigh as he talks about his family and how he feels like he's lost even his identity. I sigh as he talks about Julie and his fear of being rejected. I look at him, "Do you want to stay here for a bit longer?" I ask and he looks at me nervously.

"Can we sleep?" he asks me and I see the fear in his eyes, I nod and get rids of my clothes and press my body against his. It's at this point when I feel something on my back and it curls around my body. It feels like a snake but I calm myself down and remind myself that it's just his tail. I put a hand to it gently and then hum allowing myself to snuggle closer to him.

It's going to take me a while to get used to that new element of his body. It's cute though and it feels nice as he holds me with it. "I love you," I tell him, "Promise me you won't leave at least until after we're spoken more?" I ask him. I raise my pinky. I know it's something that usually only children do but I think holding pinkies with him would help me more and it might become a more embedded memory in his own mind.

…..

…..

My hand caresses his cheek as he sleeps. He's been sleeping for a while but just by looking at him you can tell how exhausted he is. I feel so much of his pain and the fact that he looks like this because he tried to get justice for me makes me feel unbelievably guilty. However, my feeling guilty is not going to help him. I just have to try to prove that I love him.

I kiss his cheek, letting my blue fingers touch the blue fur on his forehead and then I move away, reorganizing the card and flowers that I had bought for him when going to get us something to eat. I pick his hand up and kiss the back of it. I know that he doesn't exactly look like the man that I married but I didn't marry him because of what he looks like but how he makes me feel.

I doubt that that got lost.

"I'll be back soon, my love," I tell him as I gaze back sadly and then take the needle that is supposed to transform him or maybe even give him the same powers that I have that let me become capable of transformations. I just need some way of testing it. I don't want to wait until Julie's back and manipulate her into being a drug test candidate and I'm not going to go after a random individual but maybe an animal. I'd have to be a really insensitive person to do this normally but maybe if there was like a stray cat or something then I could test the drug. Kuon isn't a cat, he's a person, but I don't want to partake in human experimentation.

I pick up a bottle of the drug and make sure that only a quarter, slightly less, is in the syringe where I'll be giving it to the cat. Hopefully this works.

…..

…..

I am completely frozen as I sit on the park bench. It took me some time to find a cat, with the way that Kuon looks now I thought a cat would be the closest, and I had to approach it cautiously. Once the drug had been pumped into the cat's body it started to drowse and fall asleep. That was when I had been terrified that I had killed the animal. Looking at it now though, it's impressive. The cat was chasing a squirrel who climbed up a tree, the cat stayed below it for a little while just staring up but then it started to think and a pair of wings appeared on its back.

And now there is a flying cat. It's impressive how closely the cat could think about this but I should probably leave before anyone connects me to it. A flying cat. Hopefully no connection to either myself or Kuon is drawn from this fantastic feline and we don't see ourselves appearing on the news this night.

As a crowd comes to gather, I slip away. Kuon is where my thoughts are right now and I am hoping that this drug will work on him too.

As I arrive back at the Hizuri estate, I hear Julie scream and I can only imagine the pain that hearing his mother's fear of him is causing Kuon. I want to tell him that it's okay, that she will understand, will that help? If my mother screamed in fear of me, it would devastate me. I wouldn't be able to cope with it even with our strained relationship however that isn't the case with him and Julie-san. She has always loved and treasured him.

I change the needle in the syringe as well as putting different medicine in it. I take a deep breath in and am glad to see Julie with her arms around Kuon in a loving embrace. The two need each other as much as Kuon and I need one another.

I walk into the kitchen and hold up the needle in my hand, "I've been working with this and I trust it enough," I tell him and he stares at me as if I'm speaking some unknown, alien language, "Trust me?" I ask him and he nods. With wishes for his good health in my head, I stick it in his arm and push through the medication.

My eyes are full of tears but I see the fur start to vanish, the skin reappear and the Kuon that I know appear as he hits the floor. Is he sleeping? He's sleeping, right!? I rush forward and I push my hand to his throat, turning him over as I monitor his pulse and breathing. He has to be okay. He has to be okay.

"Is he…he's alive, right?" Julie-san asks as she tries to give him more air, turning his head to the side so that he can still breathe. She puts a hand to his upper arm and then the fur starts to grow back just as it would for a werewolf. I try to continue monitoring his breathing as the tail returns. "Why does he -"

"Human experimentation, he tried to be a good husband…a great husband," I try to tell her and Julie's cheeks become wet with tears. I look at her and then see that she's not someone who is worried about a creature in front of her, she's a mother who wants to do something for her child. I wonder if Julie-san would have accepted Kuon if he had been born like this, I think so. I think that's how much she loves him.

"Julie-san," I say softly, "If he has to stay like this, you'll help right? He needs his fam-"

"Always," Julie says as we both watch Kuon start to gain confidence, "He's always going to be my little boy, my son. I'd never be one to turn him away."

"That's good," he laughs starting to gain consciousness again and I step back as does Julie. Maybe he can transform again? That'd help him come to terms with his new situation.

End of Kyoko 13

Thank you for reading

Thank you, reviewers of Kuon 13

Crazy4Animation, Erza Tsuruga, H-Nala, ktoll9, paulagato

Response to Reviews

He really is such an idiot but with the stuff that he has to think about and how weird it is, it's going to bring a lot of stress. He's definitely not healed but he's going to be able to look normal at times. I also love that there are people who talk X-Men in the reviewers, I should totally write a few X-Men fics for my faves: Mystique, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Shadowcat