"A Strange Sort of Peace"

Author's Note: "Why is she haunting Yuki?" you all say? Well, you're going to find out snippets and pieces of the reasons in the upcoming chapters. However, Yuki's going to have to decide whether he wants to find out or not. Because it comes with a certain price.

I'm very glad to have you readers still with me, especially on chapter 3. Hopefully, you're enjoying the story. I keep feeling like my writing's getting worse... O_o... Anyway, if you DO manage to get past my horrible writing, Yuki gets a little surprise at the end of this chapter. XD. Happy Yuki-worshipping, everyone.... ^^

Pairings: KyouxYuki TohruxYuki
(Yes I know I'm a strange one.)

Summary: It all begins when a sleepless Yuki finds himself haunted nightly by a benevolent kitchen ghost. Could this be related to the dangerous accidents that keep happening around Tohru? Meanwhile, both a shocked Kyou and a timid Tohru find themselves falling in love... with Yuki!?

Warnings: This story includes yaoi, non-consensual sex (rape), violence, death and much OMGness. Rating may change.

Part 3

He wasn't sure how long the three of them were standing in the kitchen silently but it was actually Yuki who had to break the silence. Kyou didn't seem to be cooperative enough to answer his question properly, his eyes narrowed as if he was trying to burn a hole into him with his eyes alone.

Yuki repeated the question, the air around them just as tense as the moment he had asked the first time. "I said… how long have you been here?" Yuki insisted, his eyes were frozen on the cat, both accusing and dangerous in nature. Kyou didn't respond right away, his eyes spending what seemed like an eternity frozen on the mouse. He could see what appeared to be the gears turning in Kyou's head, and whether it was about the conversation he had walked in or about why Hanajima was there so late at night was anyone's guess.

Yuki resisted the urge to fidget under the scrutinizing look. Kyou simply snorted and muttered a bit slurred, "Why? What's it to you if I want to get something from the kitchen, anyway?"

He muttered and walked past Yuki, heading towards the refrigerator where he reached in, and groped around the fridge as if he was looking for something.

Yuki could only watch in reluctant curiosity the cat's fumbling fingers found the milk. Kyou turned on his heel. And finally the red-haired boy left the room, carton in hand.

Yuki blinked, standing in the middle of the kitchen, unmoving and disturbed. What had just happened?

Wasn't that supposed to be the part where Kyou turned around, flicked Yuki off and challenged him to a fight? Something was definitely wrong. No way in God's green earth would he pass up the opportunity to turn another one of their confrontations into a brawl. It wasn't in the bakaneko's nature…

Or perhaps… it wasn't the fact that Yuki felt something was wrong, but the slight uncomfortable feeling he experienced when Kyou turned his back as if Yuki didn't mean a thing. It reminded him of a certain silver-haired man who had done the same: Turned his back on Yuki and left him to suffer alone. A memory he had been glad to forget.

He scowled in annoyance. Kyou wasn't getting off that easy. Maybe if he could just egg him on a little bit, then …

Yuki stepped just outside the kitchen where he was in view of the stairs, his fists itching for a fight. It all drained away the moment he absorbed the sight in front of him. He felt a strange, morbid if he allowed himself to say, fascination that made him stare.

Kyou was curled up comfortably on the stairs, the milk carton tipped over a few steps down, pooling around the bottom in a white puddle.

Sleep walking!?!? He thought to himself in shock. The entire time he was sleep walking!?

Hanajima, who was still standing on the other side of the kitchen, sat motionless but watchful of their every move. "He really is an idiot," Yuki thought aloud and rolled his eyes slightly. His heart was still beating a little quickly, but he rested his hand over his chest to settle his emotions.

"It seems that this is a good time for me to leave." Hanajima remarked quietly, and almost as a side note she added, "We should do this another time."

"I suppose… maybe another night when Kyou's not here. He's more of a pain than anything, even in his sleep," Yuki said and crossed his arms. Hanajima's eyebrow twitched as if detecting something in the air.

"Besides, we still have to attend school tomorrow and I don't wish to rob you of your chance of a restful sleep." She spoke and more floated than walked out of the house without another look at the clippings on the table. Yuki sat down on the chair and stared blankly at the door through which she had left and rested his head on the cool surface of the table.

"Sleep? If only it was that easy…" he muttered.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It was Saturday and the morning was on the verge of slipping into the afternoon. The sun, however, wasn't as harsh as the previous days before. Autumn was approaching and soon, and it wouldn't be long before the winter would glide quietly behind fall's wake.

"There!" Tohru said, patting the dirt with her gloved hands. The two of them were poised on either side of the small garden, tending to the full-grown vegetables and plants in their neatly placed rows. The last row, which Yuki had added at the request of Tohru, was a bit shabby compared to the other uniform growths. But they were healthy none the less, due to her inexperienced, but dedicated care.

It was her own personal row that Yuki had watched her care for all by herself. He had taken a point to once or twice water some plants she had missed, but overall it was hers and he knew she was proud of it.

"That's good… How about we head back to the house. I think they'll be all right for this afternoon," Yuki said dusting off his pants, which were spotted slightly from the damp earth under his feet. Tohru mimicked his actions, and tilted her head curiously for a moment as if losing herself in her thoughts.

Something flashed across her face for just an instant, and had Yuki not been looking at her directly, he would have missed it. It was a cross between contentment and an emotion that Yuki hadn't been able to recognize. The silence passed with ease and Tohru was back to her normal self, slipping off her gardening gloves and beginning to brush the bangs out of her face.

His eyes caught the faint image of an older woman sitting beside Tohru out of the corner of his eye. The surprise passed and he tried desperately…. Secretly… trying to hold onto the image of her pleased smile.

"Let's come back here again tomorrow, ne Yuki?" Tohru spoke. Yuki smiled warmly at her and the two proceeded back to the path towards home.

"Of course, Honda-san. I think some of them may even be ready to harvest to…-," his words slowed to a near stop as something small slipped into his hand as he walked. Small, gentle fingers intertwined subtlety within his. "…morrow."

With all the strength he could muster, he forced himself to continue walking. He refused to let his feet stop. All he could do was concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other and hope that Tohru didn't notice the slight redness that he knew was forming on his cheeks.

"I can't wait. We've been waiting for so long." Tohru's hand was warm in his, and Yuki was too afraid to squeeze her hand for fear of the illusion shattering.

So much warmth…he thought, feeling breathless.

"You know, Yuki, now and then I get impatient, and a little sad because I feel like they're not going anywhere… Not growing. Just stalling. And when that happens, I'm scared from time to time… that I may be doing something wrong…" Tohru spoke softly.

"Tohru, I once told you that do things at your own pace…" He stopped Tohru.

"I-I know." She stuttered a bit and Yuki laughed. She continued unfazed. "But I remembered that and I also know there will always be times when I'm glad that I'm taking my time. Because I appreciate everything you've done for me and I don't know how to tell you. Ah- that is… the garden's growing so wonderfully… and I know it's really yours but you let me have my own part…"

He wasn't sure, but he hadn't remembered a time in which he had felt so much at peace.

And he was so busy soaking in the unfamiliar feeling of 'home' that he didn't feel the earth shift underneath them until Tohru was falling back out of his reach.

It was only an instant before he registered the long, steep descent of the hill directly behind her as she lost her balance and started to fall. Yuki reached out frantically, trying to bring her back on level ground.

His fingers just barely snagged the sleeve of her jacket, but the unstable soil gave away under him as well and he felt himself fall forward as well.

It seemed like an eternity in free fall before he hit the ground below and barely registered Tohru and him tumbling to a stop near the bottom. But by then, he was already unconscious.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Kyou slapped his face, trying to get at the infernal … tingling that kept prickling the tip of his nose.

He had taken another nap that day, in the living room. His head had been resting conveniently against the table and the rest body had obliged by sprawling itself out on the floor. And he would have slept the entire afternoon away, had there not been something that kept coming back and tickling his nose; even after he swatted at it several times.

He opened his eyes only to see a bright red blur between his eyes: It rested on the bridge of his nose, inching along towards his forehead determinedly.

The red thing… it was definitely the culprit… whatever it was.

He swatted at his nose again, but the red … thing… had fluttered off his face and landed on the table beside his shoulder. Its wings lazily closed and opened as if to deliberately ignore the redhead who was glaring daggers from above.

"Butterfly?" he mused briefly before he sat up and slammed his hand down onto the table with a loud slam. Again, the little thing fluttered off out of the way of his hand just in the nick of time. It clumsily lofted its way through the living room towards the open door.

Oh no you don't… he thought and cursed it, standing up to clap his hands together in mid-air before it could get out of his reach.

Again, his attempt to completely smash the insect failed and it fluttered off untouched. He growled when it landed on the floor just outside.

"I had just fallen asleep you little shit…" he muttered at it and rubbed his eyes until they adjusted to the light. On the bright side, his mind lamented, at least it's not raining like yesterday.

A voice carried over from the kitchen and Kyou could vaguely hear the shuffling and the cupboards opening in the adjacent room.

"Kyouuu…." Shigure's voice sang. The cat twitched. The only reason Shigure would look around the kitchen was when he was hungry.

"What is it now?" he snapped, feeling incredibly volatile after his nap was interrupted by a damned insect. An insect that still seemed to be waiting just outside the door, as if beckoning him to go get it. And his feline instincts weren't helping either. It wanted to run after it! He held back the urges. If his inner cat had its way all the time, he'd spend his entire life chasing shiny objects and trying to pounce small furry animals.

"Have you seen Tohru-kunnn?" The shuffling in the kitchen stopped and it wasn't long before Shigure appeared beside the door frame in search of Tohru. "It's nearly lunch time…"

"If you're hungry, why don't you cook? You sit around all day doing nothing, the least you can do is feed yourself when Tohru hasn't made anything yet," said Kyou, who scratched his head. Now that Shigure had mentioned it, the house was awfully quiet. There wasn't Yuki's idle conversations or Tohru's melody of a when she sang during chores. It was just Shigure and him home alone, apparently…

"But Tohru's cooking is so wonderful! I'd gladly prepare something, myself, but nothing can match the mouth watering culinary artistry that is Tohru's cooking. Such fine cuisine that takes only minutes or preparations as opposed to the long hours that ordinary people spend on meals of equal caliber," Shigure started on another one of his rants.

"Enough!" Kyou said and jerked his hand to the kitchen in emphasis. "Stop complaining! I hear enough of your whiny voice every day at breakfast."

"But I'm only stating the truth. We all know that Yuki and I are incapable of constructing such fine provisions. Oh, let's not forget you, Kyou-," Shigure said.

Kyou's expression came to a screeching halt. "I'm not cooking for you," Kyou muttered flatly, completely cutting off the direction in which he knew the conversation was going.

"But-," Shigure continued. Kyou ruffled his head in frustration, sensing the losing side of the argument was his once more.

"Okay okay! I'll go look for them, already! Just stop whining!" He said and turned too quickly to see the smug expression on Shigure's face and the brief thumbs up he sent to no one in particular. He simply marched out the door and headed out onto the path that led to the main streets of the town.

He spent half of his time muttering on the way there, while the other half was spent staring at the same red butterfly that had bothered him earlier that afternoon. It seemed to be fluttering along the same path he was headed.

It was then that Kyou suddenly realized that he didn't have the slightest idea of where Tohru or Yuki had actually gone. Chances are the two of them had probably gone off on their own to spend time together. On purpose, he added stubbornly.

The thought brought a scowl to his face, despite the fact that he had told himself before he didn't care what those two were up to.

Yuki could do whatever he wanted. It wasn't like the kuso nezumi mattered. Prancing around like he was better than everyone and talking like he really was high and mighty. It just pissed him off more to look at him.

Except lately, it wasn't too bad, he guessed.

He recalled the nice way Yuki would tilt his head sideways whenever someone asked a question that he couldn't answer right away. The bangs of his hair would fall partly over his right eye until brushed aside by his left hand. That wasn't too bad at least…

There was a red blur that appeared inches away from his face and he jerked back a couple of steps when the same… yes… the same butterfly was fluttering directly in front of him. His train of thought was shattered instantly.

"Shoo! Go away!!" He said and waved his hand frantically at it. The thing wouldn't leave him alone! It was finally beginning to really test his nerves and he ran after it, determined to bring an abrupt end to its reign of terror. His inner cat jumped at the chance to explore its instincts and the next thing Kyou knew, he had thrown himself forward and caught the thing in his hands.

He hadn't crushed it, to his own relief… but it was caged inside his fingers. He took a moment to stare at it and he briefly wondered why it wasn't frantic with fear, or trying to slip through his fingers to freedom. It only opened and closed its wings in the confined space and waited patiently for Kyou to finish his examination of it.

"Gotcha…" Kyou pulled his legs up underneath him in a cross-legged position. He opened his palm, pleasantly surprised to find that it delayed in leaving the spot on his palm. It sauntered up to the edge of his middle finger, and continued on its way back up his wrist once he turned his hand over.

A voice called for help from somewhere in the cluster of trees around him. He raised his head, ignoring the butterfly as it zipped off his fingers and disappeared somewhere down the path. The voice was coming from a small cliff at the side of the trail. He stopped just before the edge, where the ground had suddenly dropped into a steep slant.

Down below, he recognized two figures: one waving her arms a little desperately, and the second lying unconscious in front of her.

"Tohru? What're you doing down there?!" Kyou said and stared at the second figure. He couldn't see the other too clearly, but the dark purple hair was a dead giveaway of who it was. He moved forward to climb down, but several clumps of earth gave away under his foot. He stepped back before he could lose his balance.

"Be careful! You might make it down, if you go really slow, but the ground is soft where you are… if you fall, you might get hurt too!" Tohru called back.

"What happened? " he brought his hands up as he called to the two. "What's with the rat?"

Even from a distance, he could see Tohru's hand resting on Yuki's forehead comfortingly. "I don't know how hurt he is… but he's unconscious. Kyou, can help us? I wanted to move Yuki but I'm not strong enough to bring him up to the road again…" she said. There was a tinge of panic in her voice as she spoke and he could tell she was trying not to cry.

"What about you?" Kyou said and he grabbed a hold of a tree root and slowly lowered himself down on the steep incline. He found his way down, foothold by foothold.

"My foot hurts a little… but forget about me. I know you're worried about Yuki too."

Kyou snorted. "Don't even think it."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The two eventually did manage to get up and out of the small ditch, and Kyou ended up having to carry the 'dead weight' around piggy-back. He rather would have slung Yuki over his shoulder, but Tohru wouldn't have liked it.

One wrong move and he knew Tohru would have burst into tears, so he simply hefted Yuki onto his back and brought him home. Tohru, who he also had to keep an eye on to his annoyance, limped all the way home alongside the two. It wasn't that Tohru herself was a burden, though. The girl was never a burden.

It was Yuki.

At first it had been a hellish ordeal for Kyou, having to lug around the object of his loathing. He had taken great lengths to 'stay the hell away' from Yuki and now, having to be in such close contact was needless to say… the literal incarnation of unhappiness.

However… after a few minutes of silence, he began to notice the way Yuki's head rested perfectly in the crook of his shoulder. And he noticed the way it felt when he tilted his head only a millimeter to the right and let the long strands of hairbrush up against his neck.

So maybe he did mind it… but it was only just a little bit.

When the three had arrived, Shigure had called Hatori upon seeing their present condition. And to Hatori's credit, the doctor did not take long to arrive. He examined them, saying only a few words in question.

Apparently Yuki wasn't seriously injured. After looking him over, Hatori had concluded that he had just been a little exhausted from lack of sleep. Falling unconscious had been the perfect opportunity for his body to rejuvenate itself. So Yuki had gotten off with only a couple of bruises.

The worst of the three ironically turned out to be Tohru, who had a lightly sprained ankle. Hatori only had to bandage it and give her instructions to take it easy on her ankle.

But the real problem came when Hatori lingered even after he had finished treating the three. It was finally when Hatori shifted his gaze out into the front yard where a black car was parked, did Kyou finally understand.

The door opened eventually and a dark young man stepped out. He walked towards the house, eyes full of composed malevolence.

"It's been a while," Said Akito with a smile.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

-----

Author's Note: Format doesn't let me but a bunch of space after the chapter ends and before this author's note. So those little .'s will have to do. =P.

Caer- Wow thanks! ^^ I thought my transitions were much too slow XD. I'm glad you're enjoying this ^^.

Merei-chan- I hadn't actually intended it to be a cliffhanger, but I was on a roll that night and that's where my writer's block kicked in XD silly me...

Gia- Ahhh! A KyouxYuki fan I see! (why else would you be reading this, hehe! ^^). I'm glad you're enjoying the story. I can never get enough of YukixKyou. You could say I'm an addict who was suffering from withdrawal... so I wrote this XD.

hypersarcasticinternetaddict- Nice name XD haha. Yeah the clippings really gave it away. I have a talent for revealing things before I mean to, and a talent for getting the audience to assume the wrong things. Luckily, I seem to have some smart readers. w00t.

Polka dots- And he hasn't gone nuts already? HA! This is just the beginning. Yuki's going to go insane later, just wait and see XD. Nyahaha...

NeuroticSquirrel- aww... well let's do it again. I love you! *glomp* I just hope that my story doesn't suddenly die, or get boring XD.

gallatica- ewwiiieee XD! Kyo=Kyoko? EeeehHH! Well not quite... Kyoko's definitely haunting Yuki for a reason... however you'll have to wait and see. Because I have a definite reason, but it may change as the story progresses. So it's like I'm sitting back and watching this too!

Kativa-Chan- technically KyouxYuki IS the official couple. But ahm... TohruxYuki is also. The thing is, Yuki's probably going to stay with both. Just cause I'm stubborn like that. nyahaha. So it's just one big happy family except... you know... not really. XD

Zeynel- I hope you and all the readers got a kick out of how Kyou's reaction ended up being like. Cause I certainly did. I didn't know that was going to happen until right when I wrote it. Now the question really is... Kyou may have been sleep walking, but did he fake it? Did he comprehend part of it? And in the end we're still asking the same question. Go random plot bunnies GO!

ElvenQueenSelenity - lol I hate cliffhangers too! Like I said to someone Mirei-chan, I hadn't intended for it to be a cliffhanger. I'm just incompetent like that XD. lol.