I can't wait to write Akito meeting Kyomi again! Will Akito fess up to having a hand in Kyomi's being sent away? Hmmmm…. Had to change the rating to T for cussing😊

Chapter 15

Kyomi chatted with Momiji, Haru and Kisa as she waited for Kyo to finish speaking with the family head. She instinctively keep turning at every sound and looking for him to leave. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand on her head.

"He will be fine you know. He has you and Tohru waiting for him." Hatori messed with her hair a minute before putting his hand back in his pocket.

"That doesn't stop me from worrying. Also, what does Akito want with me? That just doesn't make any sense!" Kyomi said trying to be quiet, but frustration lining every word.

"Come with me." Was all Hatori said as he walked away and down the hall. Kyomi hurried to follow him, nearly tripping on the skirt of the flowing maxi dress she was wearing. She was barefoot since she had been wearing sandals, but her feet were hidden under the skirt. She softly hurried after Hatori, skirt swishing around her, and he disappeared into a room down the hall.

"Shi! This is where you've been hiding." Kyomi said as she came to the doorway. She joined them sitting, lifting one knee to rest her chin on, hugging it against her. "She just wants Tohru to feel alone, the Zodiac members to feel helpless and her to feel powerful. And there's nothing any of us can do, not even me, if I want to continue to see everyone and protect my son. Anything I'm missing?" She looked between her two friends feeling very tired at all the mind games Akito played.

"That's about what we can figure." Shigure said, retrieving his cigarettes and lighter.

Kyomi rubbed her temples and then her neck. "Good grief… I need bourbon."

Hatori whacked her softly on the head and batted her hands away so he could work on her shoulders for her. "After we all get home, you are scheduling either a chiropractic appointment with me or a spa day out with Tohru or Mine. I'm sure Shigure can watch Luc for you after causing all this mess." Hatori said, a slightly evil grin on his face as he looked at the man in question.

"No arguments from me. Though you know very well Tohru and Kyo would actually end up watching him." Kyomi said, moving her neck at Hatori's nudge to get to the other side of her neck.

"How is Luc getting on with everyone?" Hatori asked. Shigure sat quietly watching the two.

"He seems to be adjusting really well. It's a lot of change for a toddler to handle; a whole new family of people, new home, new language even, but he's still sleeping and eating well, and he doesn't have an excessive number of meltdowns or tantrums. I try to talk to him about feelings and teach him about what emotions he's showing me, but he's two so we are literally starting from scratch. But we gotta start somewhere I guess, huh?" Kyomi realized she was rambling a little about her son and blushed slightly.

"It sounds like you are doing about all you can right now and it seems to be working." Shigure encouraged. "He's always having fun and happy when he's at my place."

"He's a lot like his dad." Kyomi said with a smile. "Laid back, caring, helpful, sweet, stubborn, fun." Kyomi trailed off.

"Sounds like we all would have gotten along well." Hatori commented.

"He actually reminds me of you two in different ways. He would make me laugh like Shigure, always wanting to have fun. Different sense of humor, but it was there, nonetheless. And he was kind and quietly doing things for me all the time like Hatori does for others all the time." Kyomi was lost in her thoughts and not paying attention to the slightly embarrassed looks on her friends faces.

Just then, they head the door across the hall slide open and quietly shut. Kyomi ran to the door and saw her brother leaving walking like he had just lost a war single handedly.

"Kyo…" Kyomi started to go after him, but Shigure's hands on her shoulders pulled her back. He shut the door quietly and pulled her into a bone crushing hug which was quickly gone when he changed into his dog form. Shaking, Kyomi just threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his fur. Trying to stop the flood of emotions rampaging through her. Anger at the unfairness of what her brother was being put through, what all the Zodiac members were being put through. Guilt at not being able to do anything to help. Layered underneath was the same feelings about her mother and her Neko-chan. It all seemed to catch up with her at that moment and all she could do was cling to Shigure and focus on the softness of the fur underneath her and tried to stop the tears that she realized were flowing freely. Why them of all people? They were so kind. They deserved so much better in life. Momiji and Kyo's mothers did. Every Zodiac member and their families did. She knew that they all would come out stronger and better people on the other side, but what your head knows, your heart has to learn the hard way sometimes. She however did have an unwavering faith that the end was coming. It was inexplainable, but she knew in the bottom of her heart that she and every Zodiac alive would see the end of this curse. Kazuma's words came to mind when he spoke of never allowing Kyo to see the inside of that cage. He believed it too.

"What are we doing to her? To Honda as well? This family is no good for anyone." Hatori said the words as a whisper under his breath to Shigure not expecting Kyomi to hear. But hear she did and she shot out a foot to kick his shin, and felt satisfied when she heard him grunt and sit heavily.

"If you don't stop saying stupid things like that, I'll kick higher." Kyomi said lifting her head and drying her eyes. "There's a reason Tohru and I are here. We love you all. The sooner you realize that we are here by our own choice, yes, we want to be here with you all, the better off you will be." Kyomi picked up a pillow from next to her and whacked him on the head with it for good measure. Shigure just chuckled and gave her a dog kiss on the check before changing back to his human form and causing Kyomi to hide her eyes. While Shigure was dressing, they heard Akito talking to someone in the hall and Yuki saying he would find Kyomi for her.

Akito's door shut and theirs opened to Yuki standing in the doorway. He raised his eyebrow at Shigure finishing tying his yukata, but otherwise didn't seem fazed by the redness around Kyomi's eyes.

"Akito is ready for you Kyomi. I'm sorry you have to meet with him. He seems to be in a fairly good mood after meeting with Kyo though so hopefully it won't be too bad." He said barely above a whisper after the first sentence so Akito wouldn't hear him.

Kyomi stood and smiled. "Thank you, Yuki. You're a good guy you know that right? I am sorry I couldn't have a better effect on your brother though." She rolled her eyes with a little laugh.

Yuki chuckled himself, "The fact that he listens to you at all is evidence that you affected him more than you realize." He shut the door behind her and guided her across the hall to Akito's room. He placed a hand on her arm and squeezed, giving her a small encouraging smile which she returned before opening the door.

Akito was standing at the window, her back to the door. "Shut the door behind you." She said calmly. Kyomi did so and sat a respectful distance from Akito.

"So. You're Kyomi. I've heard a lot about you, you know. Unwanted by your mother, sent continents away, lost all your family, including your husband. You probably hate that you have to care for your son all by yourself." Akito turned around and faced Kyomi, continuing in the same quasi-sympathetic, silky tone she uses on everyone. "Why don't you just go back to the United States? Wouldn't that be easier for you? A familiar place, same language your son knows, you will grow to hate it here if you stay. Everyone will grow to hate you if you stay. Ayame, Hatori, Kyo, Yuki…" Akito fixed her with a hard stare, but Kyomi only stared right back. "Shigure… they all will grow to hate you and leave you just like everyone else in your life." Kyomi only shrugged.

"If I end up wanting to move back, then I will. If everyone here ends up not wanting me to stay, I'll leave. But I'll be damned if anyone else tells me what to do." Kyomi wasn't angry as much as resolute. She was tired of the games. She wanted to just live her life without anyone else dictating her choices like had been done to her in the past. She continued in the same calm but strong voice. "You will not make any decisions for me. I'm not even a part of this family." Kyomi stared her straight in the eyes. "You have no hold or power over me." Silence reigned as the two women stared each other down.

Akito was the one to break the silence, rage behind her eyes, but voice still even. "What about Shigure? Will it be too much for you to lose him too? You've already lost one husband, what if you were to lose another man in your life?" Akito walked closer to her expecting this to be her trump card over Kyomi.

"Shigure is one of my best friends. But that's all he is to me, whatever intel you think you have is wrong." Kyomi evenly replied.

Akito changed tactics. "Your son seems to love my family. I wonder how scarring it would be for him to lose them all at such a young age. His father figure and dojo master, his uncle, all his adult friends he plays with, taken away. They will turn their backs on him. Can you handle his cries for them at night? You know what that's like. He probably called for his father too. I know he's already in therapy, I wonder if he will ever speak again if he loses much more."

Kyomi's eyes widened. Hatori was the only one who knew that Luc's speech delay was thought to be caused by the trauma of losing his father and the effect it had had on herself. How is a child supposed to learn to speak if he rarely hears his mother's voice? The first year of his life she had barely spoken a word at home and that had probably been the beginning of Luc's problems. Akito pounced.

"So, it was your fault. I could barely believe it when Hatori let that little piece of information slip, but what's to say he won't regress when you stop speaking altogether?" Akito towered over Kyomi now, standing right in front of her.

"I won't let that happen again. I refuse to let it happen again. No matter what happens in our lives, I will always be there for my son. I will always love my son!" Kyomi's voice finally rose in volume until she yelled the last sentence, finally bringing Akito's rage to the surface. Akito kicked Kyomi hard in the stomach causing her to bend over clutching her stomach. She fell over onto her side and Akito continued to kick. Akito was yelling at the top of her lungs at Kyomi all sorts of nonsense that Kyomi wasn't even hearing. All Kyomi could think about was the pain that was in her lower abdomen where Akito's first kick had landed. The kicking stopped, but Kyomi barely registered that. She felt hands on her and she wanted to shrug them off, but didn't have enough energy to waste on that. The hands felt her forehead, pried an eye open, then more hands joined as they pulled her arms away from her abdomen and held her hands while the other hands poked and pressed around her midsection. Kyomi couldn't keep the tears from falling from her eyes, suddenly she had to turn to the side so she wouldn't get her lunch from earlier all over the person next to her. The hands stopped and were replaced with a warm blanket wrapped carefully around her. She vaguely heard talking in the background accompanied by a few shouts but couldn't focus on anything long enough to figure out who was speaking. Suddenly, one voice cut through right next to her ear.

"Kyomi, we will care for Luc so don't worry. We are taking you to the hospital, alright? Nod your head for me if you understand me." She managed a weak nod. Hatori smoothed the sweat soaked hair from her face and she finally opened her eyes to look at him. "Tori, keep him safe." Was the last thing she said before passing out.

Yuki, Tohru, and Kyo stared at Shigure and Ayame trying to process what they were just told.

"WHAAAT!? Kyomi was in the hospital since she left the beach house, and you just NOW tell us about it?!" Kyo's face had turned red, and he had jumped up from his seat to yell at Shigure. A fist to the top of his head from Yuki sat him back down.

"Yes, she didn't want the rest of your vacation ruined and she will be just fine. She can tell you the details when she gets here. She just got released today and can't handle stairs so she will be taking my room and staying here for the week. She should be released to climb stairs at that point. She will still need some help with Luc though. She won't be able to lift. For the time being, he is staying with Mine and has been doing well."

"I will help in any way I can so she can get better fast!" Tohru said excitedly. "I am sad that she isn't well, but I am happy that we can spend some time with her. That's probably a little selfish though." She finished quietly a little embarrassed. "Oh! I need to bring some things down for her!" Standing up to go up the stairs, she was already at the doorway and turned when Shigure spoke again.

"Just put everything in my room, I even cleaned it up for our convalescing guest." Shigure said proudly.

"It was Akito, wasn't it…" Kyo said, quiet rage simmering close to the surface. "Akito hurt Kyomi, didn't he?" he was staring at his clenched fists on the table and didn't see the two adults exchange glances.

"Kyon-kichi, Hatori told me some of what happened. Your sister is strong. I will tell you since no one else wants to. It was Akito. Akito attacked Kyomi." Both boy's eyes flew to Ayame as he spoke. "If you do anything out of anger and revenge, how will Kyomi feel?" Was the sage question he asked Kyo directly. Kyo's face registered shock, then anger took back over at his helplessness of the situation, and he stormed out the door. However, not before punching a hole though it.

Shigure sighed, "Well, I suppose that's about the best reaction we can expect from him." My poor house!

"Can you blame him? His own sister was injured right under his nose and the so-called adults didn't tell him about until days later." Yuki observed. "I'm not sure I would be this calm if I were in his shoes."

"You care so much about me you would take revenge?" Ayame threw his arms around Yuki, hugging all the air out of his lungs. "Yuki, violence is never the answer, so please promise me you will never go to such extremes only for my sake! You must…" Ayame's rant was cut off by Yuki forcefully pushing his brother's face away from him.

"I would be more likely to take my revenge out on you instead of for you." He quipped, standing up. "I'll go help Tohru since that damn cat is so useless." He stood and walked out of the room.

Ayame was about to say something when they heard Hatori's car pull up. Both men stood and went to the front door to great their friends.

Kyomi was looking a little pale from the car ride and moving very gingerly, but she was upright and moving under her own power. After what she had been like when he had last seen her, Shigure breathed a sigh of relief. He was able to relax a little and he smiled at the woman who had actually stopped to wait for help at the bottom of the few steps leading to his home. "Welcome to your temporary dwelling fair maiden." Shigure said as he came to assist her. They waited until Hatori had passed Ayame her few bags and then the two men were able to carefully lift her by the elbows up the steps.

"You didn't have to lift me you know, I just needed help." Kyomi huffed at them but smiling in spite of herself at their protectiveness. "I know I need help now, but if you two end up smothering me, I will whack both of you." She then rounded on Hatori to wag her finger at him. "If you intend to coddle me more than is medically needed, I will have to make good on the threat I made you back at the beach house." She said seriously. Hatori grabbed her finger and drawled, "Please do not insult my profession. I will prescribe what I deem necessary which right now is rest."

"We are all done!" Tohru's sweet voice rang out behind them at just the right moment. Tohru and Yuki had snuck down the stairs as Kyomi was coming in and Tohru had gotten Shigure's bed ready for Kyomi. It was late in the day anyway, so Hatori suggested a quick dinner and then bed.

Kyomi wasn't feeling like doing much else, so she acquiesced without much of a fuss. She ate some leftovers Tohru had in the fridge, nearly falling asleep at the table. However, she had a soft smile being surrounded by the family that she loved so well.

"Where is Kyo?" She asked in between bites of her meal. Shigure answered.

"He wasn't feeling well, so he went up to his room to lie down." He diplomatically replied.

She might be tired, but she was still able to tell when her best friend was spouting off nonsense. "Shi, don't lie to me. He either got mad or felt guilty or both didn't he?" She asked point blank. Tohru had been so focused on helping Kyomi that she had just noticed that Kyo wasn't there as Kyomi continued to stare Shigure down.

"I'll go see if he's alright." Tohru said as she quietly left the room.

Tohru found Kyo on the roof as she expected. He always went to the roof when something was bothering him. However, it had been some time since he had curled up on his side like that.

"Kyo, are you alright? Mi-chan is here." Tohru said as she climbed onto the roof to sit next to him.

Kyo didn't respond for several minutes. "She got attacked under my watch. I was supposed to take care of her and I failed." He finally said, anger and sadness permeating his voice.

"I don't think she sees it that way at all and she would probably throw something at you if she heard you say that." Tohru said with a little giggle. Kyo had rolled over onto his back.

"You are right about that. Is she really okay?" Kyo asked as he searched Tohru's face for the answers.

"I think she will be. Hatori doesn't seem too worried about her. She is tired from the trip from the hospital, but she has been acting like herself. She was worried about you though." Kyo groaned as he sat up.

"Damn it, now I've made her worry on top of everything else. I'll go see her." He said as he got up.

Kyomi had finished eating right after Tohru had left and was quickly pushed to bed by her doctor who she glared at the whole time. She fell asleep quickly into a dreamless sleep.

However, she woke up when she heard the door slide open. She didn't think much about it, thinking that Shigure had forgotten something, so she let herself start to fall back asleep. Then she heard her brother's quiet voice next to the bed.

"I know you are asleep, but I wanted to tell you I'm sorry. I wasn't there to protect you and that's my fault. I will do…" Whump! He was interrupted by a pillow slamming into the side of his head, knocking him off balance and onto his rear. "Hey! What did you hit me for? Why aren't you asleep? Give me that! You're going to hurt yourself if you keep this up!" Kyo was standing by the end and had pulled the pillow from his sister's hand. "What are you doing?" He asked her.

She just glared at him from where she sat on the bed. "You know I'm older than you right? I can damn well take care of myself! It's not my fault this family head's batshit crazy! She lost her damn mind over nothing! And YOU!" She said pointing right in her brother's face. "Don't you dare take the blame for this when it is NO ONE'S fault but the person who did it!" Kyomi yelled at him before laying back down on the bed. "Give me my pillow back little brother…" Kyo responded by dropping it on her face.

"Jerk face…" She said with a big grin.

"You're so weird…" He replied sitting back down next to her, choosing to ignore the previous part of the conversation. "So how did you get hurt?" He asked curious but concerned.

Kyomi sighed, "If you freak out at all, I will call Yuki to beat you up." Kyo hmphed at that.

"Like that damn rat would be able to do that…" Kyo stopped when he saw his sister raise her hand to whack him again. "Fine, I wont freak out."

"Funny thing is, I'm not even that worried about you getting mad." Kyomi laughed a little which just added to Kyo's curiosity and confusion. Kyomi took pity on him and continued.

"Akito kicked me. Repeatedly. But that's not really what caused my injury. I've always had ovarian cysts which normally don't cause much problem for me. Sometimes one will burst and it's painful, but not usually doctor visit worthy. They can be if you aren't watchful, but the pain is normally gone in about a half hour when they burst. Well, I had a few cysts on one of my ovaries and it was beginning to cause what's called an ovarian torsion. Hatori explained it as the ovaries getting twisted kind of like the plastic on a loaf of bread." Kyo's face had gone from beet red to slightly green. Kyomi held back a giggle at him. "Normally just kicking wouldn't cause any issue, but since it was an existing problem, Akito only exacerbated it and fully twisted it. They had to take me to a hospital further out for the surgery so unfortunately that ovary had to be removed. But I still have one left so more nieces and nephews are possible." Kyomi did laugh at the pained expression on his face at the mention of more children in their family.

"So, you'll be alright?" Kyo asked slowly calming himself down after a very embarrassing discussion to have with a sister. Thankfully, he understood what she said and was thankful for his health class which explained the human anatomy that she had spoken of.

"I will be. I just need to heal. Surgery is surgery and not really something to be taken lightly no matter how minimally invasive they can do it now. Thankfully, I feel pretty good and the pain medicine Hatori has me on is helping wonderfully." Kyomi smiled reassuringly at her little brother and ruffled his hair, earning her a death glare as he tried to fix it. She just laughed at him, but she noticed his cheeks turn a little pink and a smile try to turn up the sides of his mouth.

Kyomi let out a jaw popping yawn. "Time for me to sleep and you to eat! I'll see you in the morning little brother." She said as she ruffled his hair again. She smiled as she heard him grumbling as he walked out the door and shut it, fixing his hair again as he went. Kyomi fell back asleep with a smile on her face.

Not used to writing confrontations especially like this so let me know what you think!