Chapter 7

"Kyo…"

He heard his name. He thought to when he had first seen this woman earlier in the evening. He had been frozen where he stood. She reminded him so much of his mother. She looked different, not as Japanese especially with the red tint to her brown hair, but he saw his mother in her. And then she spoke. It was his mother's voice. It seemed softer though, more calm, and happier when she spoke to her own son. He had absently wondered why his mother had never spoken to him like that, then chastised himself because he knew why. It was always the cat's fault, which meant it was always that damned rat's fault. Why did it always have to come back to that rat? It was always all his fault. He didn't look up but asked, "Why weren't you around when I was growing up?"

He heard the woman who was supposed to be his sister sit next to him. He lifted his head enough to peek at her. She was looking at the grave of his mother with sad eyes.

"She was never a particularly strong person." Kyomi began softly. "She was married to my father for a very short time before he passed, leaving her in a country far from her home, with a toddler to care for. I remember we moved back here and she did her best with what she was given, but the light had gone out of her eyes. I almost cared for her than she did for me. She would always forget to eat, or forget to go to bed, unless I told her. There were so many nights of instant ramen because it was cheap and I could make it. Your dad changed her though. The light came back for a little while at least. She had a genuine smile for a while. Then a few days before I was sent away, something made her smile leave again. I'm guessing they had decided to give me up for adoption. I still don't know why they felt the need to send me so far away, but I guess I might never know. I feel like there's more to the story, but with mom gone I'll probably never heard it. I wish I could have though. She owed me that much."

Kyo pondered what she said. The person speaking wasn't his mother, but it still threw him back in time. All the times she told him she loved him, all the times she had checked his bracelet, and now he supposed it all made a little more sense. The way she treated him wasn't just about him. He had a sister she had given up. She had already lost one child, could it just be that she couldn't bear to lose another? He had no answers, but clung to that hope.

Kyomi got lost in the memory of the day her memories returned and the night she spent tossing and turning, trying to unravel the mystery of WHY it all had to happen. Did my mother truly think I was a burden? Was it my stepfather's wishes? He hadn't seemed to have a problem with me before. Did she just not love me anymore? Am I going to be the kind of mother that just decides to abandon their child one day? That thought is what tipped her over the edge and caused the tears to flow. After a few hours, her tears were finally spent, and she settled on a few answers that she hoped were true and one she knew to be true. I just hope that she did what she thought was best for me. For now, I'm going to have to learn to live with that. I also hope she found what she was looking for before she died. All I know for certain is that I will not abandon my son that way. I have to be there for him in any way I can. I'm going to make mistakes, but heaven help me if I don't do my best to ask forgiveness and set things right with him. I don't think I'm strong enough to lose him too. I must do everything I can to be there for Kyo as well. I wasn't there for him when he was a child, but I want to help do what's best for him now. Though I don't know what in the world that would be, I don't even know the kid! Wait, Shi said Kyo has a father besides my stepfather. I wonder if he would help….

Kyomi shook herself out of her memories and turned to look into the questioning, pain-filled orange eyes staring at her. She almost lunged at him to wrap her arms around him like she used to do to her adopted brothers, but held back because she knew he probably wouldn't appreciate it. She only smiled slightly and said, "Hi, I'm Kyomi, your older sister."

Kyo responded by dropping to sit on the ground with his legs crossed in front of him facing her. He stared at her hard. "You look a little like mom, but you mostly sound like her. I thought I was hearing a ghost earlier."

Kyomi sat in kind, facing him and smiled wider, "I honestly didn't even think about it. I am sorry, this is not the way I wanted to introduce myself." She rubbed her face with her hands trying to scrub away the slight headache that was coming on from revisiting so many memories. It had been awhile since thinking so much had triggered one.

"I heard you're whole conversation with Master. If he trusts you, then so do I. Although, I don't like the fact that you felt like you needed to go to him first." Kyo crossed his arms in front of him with a slight pout and a flash of anger in his eyes. Kyomi had her own flash of fear shoot through her.

"I thought about talking to you first and so many times I almost ran to Shigure's house to introduce myself, but for one thing, I had no idea how you would have reacted, and I was scared that you would have rejected me outright thinking I was insane, and for two…" She hesitated for a moment before continuing in a rush, "I am a mom myself. If I were in Kazuma's shoes, even though you are probably old enough to make these decisions on your own, I still would want to be consulted. So that's what I did. You can have my number, my address, whatever you want. You have the choice to see me or not. You can ask me just about any question you think of and I'll answer. If nothing else, Gure knows everything so you can ask him. I didn't want you to find out this way, but now that you have, I'll leave the decision up to you." Kyomi was looking down as the words tumbled out of her mouth. She couldn't bear to see or hear the rejection she was sure she was going to get so she stood to go as she finished and didn't see the flash of fear in Kyo's eyes as he saw her leaving. He launched up and grabbed her wrist.

Kyomi slowly turned around to see the boy hiding his face behind his hair as much as he could. "I don't want to talk to that perverted dog more than I have to. Ca-can-I-just-get-your-info-now-so-I-don't-have-to-talk-to-him?" The last question came out in such a rush she blinked a few times to process the rapid-fire Japanese.

"Oh! Yes, I'll write it down for you." She sat back down to dig in her purse again. She laughed at her thoughts as she searched.

"What's so funny?" Kyo asked grumpily, thinking she was laughing at him. He had the slightest tinge of red in his cheeks.

"Nothing important, it's just funny how Shigure so hasn't changed since he was little. He was a flirt even in elementary school." She conveniently left out that she was the object of most of his flirting until the family head was born.

"That really doesn't surprise me." Kyo said with a light facepalm on his face.

"Ayame wasn't much better. They were always getting into trouble. Hatori and I were constantly talking them out of any serious trouble." Kyomi stopped what she was doing and thought about it. "Honestly, we probably didn't do them any favors. They probably would have not been so bad if they had gotten in more trouble." She shrugged and went back to her writing now that she had found pen and paper. "Here you go, now you don't have to talk to the perverted puppy anymore than necessary." She said with a smirk and a glint in her eye. Her face became serious. "You really can call anytime you want to talk or just have a random question. You might not have any now, and that's fine. It's a lot to take in all at once. But you probably will in the future so ask anything you want and I'll do my best to answer." She gave a small smile before standing again. "Right now however, I have a small child who is in need of his bed. If you both will excuse me, I need to go get him and head home." She turned to Kazuma and bowed, "Thank you so much for your time and for meeting with me." She then turned back to Kyo, "It was a pleasure to meet you and I do hope to hear from you soon." She said brightly before hurrying off before either man could see her tears fall. The emotional rollercoaster she had been on all day and the relief she felt couldn't be contained any longer. She especially didn't want Kyo to get the idea that the tears were his fault. She made her way slowly back to the dojo. On the way, her tears had ceased, and she was relatively calm again. As she arrived, she realized just how late it was and groaned. Luc was not going to be happy at the long walk home they had ahead of them. She walked through the front door to see Kazuma standing there much to her confusion.

"How did you get here before I did?" Kyomi asked legitimately confused.

Kazuma coughed to stifle his laughter. "I was just getting ready to go look for you because we thought you were lost and your phone kept going straight to voicemail."

Kyomi face heated a little. "It died and I might have gotten a little turned around at one point. I'm not great with directions." She finished sheepishly. "I'm alright now though and I figured you would want to talk to your son without me there after everything that happened. I am sorry about all the trouble I caused today. I really didn't mean for everything to happen the way it did." She finished, her face still warm.

"I did talk with Kyo and I think he will be alright. He was going home. It's up to him now." Kazuma finished with a note of finality in his voice. "Luc is actually sound asleep in the other room. Would you like some help getting him home. I can carry him for you." Kazuma offered.

"Oh, I couldn't impose like that. We will be alright." Kyomi tried to say.

"You can either let me carry him, or you both can stay here the night." Kazuma gave her an ultimatum.

Kyomi's shoulders sagged giving in to the offer of help. "I would love some help to get him home. He can get a little cranky though if he gets woken up when he didn't want to be and he is pretty heavy." She warned him.

Kazuma's reply was to carefully pick up the boy and settle his head on his shoulder. "Kyo used to fall asleep in the worst places. I'd always have to carry him to bed as well."

Kyomi face had surprise written all over it. "Oh you so have to teach me how to do that." She grabbed her bags and followed Kazuma out the door and down the street towards her apartment.

Kazuma gave a deep chuckle. "You would probably need to learn some karate do to it this effectively. Plus you also have to lift him."

Kyomi jokingly glared at him. "I can lift him up off the floor. Just not that smoothly." Her face lost the joking and turned thoughtful. "It might also be because he knows it's me. Sometimes that can be a double-edged sword. When he was a baby, some days there was no way he would go to sleep for me, only his dad could get him to sleep." A sad smile was now on her face. "After he passed, days like that were the worst. Luc wouldn't settle, I felt like a failure as a mother, I missed my husband…" She mentally and physically shook herself out of the memory and smiled at Kazuma. "Luc has gotten much better about it thankfully."

Kazuma was shocked. "I didn't know your husband had passed. I am deeply sorry for your loss. You didn't mention it when we were talking before."

"I didn't on purpose. I didn't want to gain your sympathy, I just wanted to lay my intentions out clearly. What I have or haven't lost doesn't change any of that." Kyomi shrugged.

"Is there anything else you haven't told me?" Kazuma was a little worried about what she would say now.

Kyomi smiled sheepishly and sadly. "Yes, all my adopted family is gone as well. Car crash in the mountains. I wasn't purposely trying to keep things from you. I just didn't want to heap all this information into one conversation. The fact that Kyo had a sister that the whole family thought was dead was enough information for one conversation I thought."

That made Kazuma stop in his tracks. This woman was seriously different than her birth mother. Almost like night and day. "Everyone thought you were dead?"

"Oh, apparently that's the story that the Sohma family was told. I didn't even know that. Hatori and Ayame told me. I still don't really understand why though." Kyomi thought a second more before asking a question of her own.

"I really don't mean to pry and feel free to not answer if you would rather. But are you any relation to one of the gentlemen who was formerly possessed by the cat spirit? You remind me so much of him." Kyomi nervously asked.

Kazuma was again shocked by the woman next to him. He stopped in his tracks. "How could you have known my grandfather?"

Kyomi stopped next to him. "He was your grandfather? I wished he could have been my grandfather. I went to his… well, cage… every chance I could get. Anytime I could get away from the three musketeers, I snuck back into the woods to see him."

Kazuma couldn't believe what he was hearing. "No one would dare make friends with the cat. How did they even let you in?"

Kyomi chuckled. "I bribed the caretakers. I would spend time with him and sit with him to give them some free time off. We both got exactly what we wanted so it was a win win for all of us. I always told Neko-chan that if he didn't want my company anymore to just say so and I wouldn't bother him anymore. But he always just smiled and said he would be very sad if I stopped coming. So I never did." Kyomi's face dropped. "Until I was sent away. That bothers me almost more than any other part of this. That man was family to me and I never was able to explain what had happened to me. I just stopped coming without any warning. My mother knew what had happened to me when she passed. I wish I had been able to explain that it wasn't his fault."

Kazuma couldn't think of a response to this new information. He had asked and she had held nothing back. "I only met my grandfather once." His quiet voice rumbled. "The stigma of being possessed by the cat was ingrained in me from a young age. They are looked at as less of a person. I rejected my grandfather's kindness because of that fear and hatred. That's partly why I took Kyo in. All I saw in him was a sad and frightened little boy with the world on his shoulders." Kazuma looked at Kyomi and only saw sadness and empathy in her eyes.

"I watched those same feelings fester in Hatori, Shigure, and Ayame growing up. I questioned them once about that shack, but the response I got was so hateful, fearful, and so unlike them that I never talked to them about it again. I'm not sure anyone besides the maids knew I visited."

They were lost in her memories for the short remainder of the walk to her home. Luc slept on Kazuma's shoulder the whole way and Kazuma gently laid him in his crib when they arrived.

"Thank you so much for your help. Getting him home probably would have ended in tears if you hadn't helped." Kyomi smiled at him. "Is there anything I can get for you before you go? A cup of tea or water or anything?" She kindly asked hoping to be able to repay his kindness in a small way.

"No, thank you. Maybe some other time. Kunimitsu said he has dinner on the stove so I shouldn't keep him from his meal for too long." Kazuma kindly declined. He turned to look at her once more before walking out the door. "I hope you and Kyo find some comfort in each other. I have a feeling both of you need each other more than any of us think." He left after that and Kyomi closed the door behind him. Thankful Luc was already in bed asleep, she thought about the evening she had just had, replaying it all in her head. She was left with an overwhelming sense of gratitude, relief, and excitement about the future. She wondered where this would take them. She laid back on the couch and eventually fell asleep with her thoughts.