Awe! My new mascot is so cute! It's a GIR! He's sleeping! Oo! If I click him he says 'Yes, my master!' ((gets all hysterical over the cuteness of GIR)) Okay, sorry. Lost myself for a second there. But it's so CUTE!!!

What I wanted to say up here before I got distracted with the cuteness of GIR... ((gets distracted again)) ... uhh... anyway... I think I know why I'm suddenly compelled to write a bunch of serious, not funny at all romances. I'm starting to suspect I'm in love. Ya know, butterflies, nervousness, etc. even though I feel more comfortable around guys than girls this one just... I can't describe it.... Oh, gods I'm maturing. Somebody help me! Ah! Get me out of here! Ugh! Stupid teenage hormones and these damned mood swings and bizarre emotions I've never felt before! ((tear))

Standard disclaimers apply. (Seriously, it's getting annoying typing this every time.)

"Kass-chan...," Tohru began, not really knowing how to break the news.

"Yeah?" Kass said, urging Tohru to continue. She was in a hurry to finish the comic book she had just started working on. Tsuki jumped off of her back and snuck under her arm, studying the pages as if she could actually read them. Kass chuckled and kissed her on the top of her head.

"Your grandfather...," Tohru began, cutting herself off again. At 'grandfather' Kass sat up, actually paying attention.

"What happened? What about my gran'pa?"

"What?" Kyo asked. She was talking in English again, which she had done accidentally from time to time.

"What happened to my grandfather?" she asked again in Japanese.

"We've received a letter from America...," Tohru said, trying again and failing again.

"What?! What happened?!" Kass was getting worried now.

Yuki stepped in for Tohru, who obviously couldn't break the news. "Kass-san... your grandfather passed away a few days ago." Kass froze. Tohru and Momiji began to get teary eyed.

"Whoa! Whoa! Hold the phone!" She backed up against the wall. She started shaking her head, putting her hands up to her ears. "No, no. It can't.... No! It's a joke, isn't it? Just some cruel joke you decided to pull!"

"Kass-chan... I...." Tohru didn't know what to say. She looked helplessly at her friend, who was sinking deeper into denial.

"Just go away!" Kass screamed. "Leave me alone!"

Tohru reached out, but Yuki stopped her. He shook his head and lead Tohru out of the room. Kyo stared at Kass, who was now curled up in a corner, for a moment longer then followed Yuki and Tohru out of the room. Shigure glanced over at Momiji and Haru. He grinned despite the tragedy as an idea formed.

"Come, Momiji. Kass needs to be alone," he said, rushing the blonde boy outside.

"But Haru-" The door slid closed, muffling the rest of his words. Haru stood perfectly still, watching Kass in the corner. She roughly wiped the corner of her eyes, sniffling as quietly as she could.

"It's okay to cry."

"I'm not crying!" she shouted, bitterly.

"Then you don't really care about him."

Kass looked up, shocked. Then her face twisted with anger. "Yes I do!" She was more upset than he had ever seen her. "Don't you dare say that ever again! Don't you dare!" A tear rolled down her cheek. She put her head in her hands and began to sob. Haru remained where he was. It had worked. She was showing her emotions.

"He's gone," she whispered. "He died and I wasn't there. I wasn't there. I can't even be there for the funeral. I wasn't there for him." She started hiccupping between her small sobs.

"And now he's gone forever!" She was starting to hyperventilate, and now Haru walked over and sat beside her. He put a hand on her shoulder.

"Talk about him." She looked up and stared, then smiled slightly in understanding. She began talking about when she was little, her grandfather showing her how to do all these silly things you'd normally teach an immature little boy. She laughed, remembering how her mother used to threaten him if he taught her anything else, then he'd go and teach her the sickest thing he knew.

(A/N: The next few paragraphs are just Kass remembering stuff about her grandfather, so if you don't want to read that, don't. Because it doesn't exactly contribute that much to the story, other than a glimpse at some of Kass's childhood.... Which is my childhood.... So you're gonna be reading about me.... So.... Don't read! Don't read it I beg of you!)

"He... he taught me how to spit sunflower seeds over fifty feet." She smiled. "I spit one in my mom's hair... it was there for an hour before she found it. She got so mad at us.... Oh, and one time, he showed me how to spit up a really big loogie and then spit it out the window so whoever went up to the door would step in it!

"He was also the one that got me into video games and football. He taught me to throw a pro-size football when I was like seven. Oh, and that Easter at my aunt's annual Easter Egg Hunt he taught me how to climb trees. My mother looked ready to strangle him when she came out and saw me thirty feet up that giant oak." She started laughing hysterically and ended up her rolling around on the floor (with Tsuki licking at her face, not knowing what the heck Kass was doing rolling around on the floor). When she recovered, she went on.

"When I'd come over he'd get out this big collection of plane books and show me how to make houses in the hallway with them. And he and Gran'ma taught me how to swim in their pool. Every time I visited after that we'd have to race. He didn't go easy on me like everyone else, and when I did manage to beat him it felt so great." She sighed. Her tears had long since vanished, replaced with happy memories and stories. Things to teach her younger cousins and maybe even her kids (if she ever has any) when she grew up. The thought that so long as she was still here, he would be too.

(A/N: that was like... so sappy...)

Kass and Haru finally left the room to find that they couldn't find anyone. (A/N: confusing sentence, no?)

Kass was beginning to feel uncomfortable in the silence, and decided to shatter it with a brick and then smash it into little tiny bit sized pieces. "WALRUSES AND CORN NUTS!!!" she screamed as loud as she could, causing a few birds outside to squawk and fly away.

"Oops. Sorry!" she giggled at Tsuki, who had stiffened and fallen over at the sudden noise. Kass was still feeling pretty bad, okay really bad, but talking and remembering had helped a little.

"Um.... Thank you, Haru," she said quietly. "I.... I'm just... not used to showing my emotions.... And... this is the first time I have since I was really little.... Besides getting pissed and being supremely happy all the time, that is." She blushed. She didn't know why, but she suddenly felt that that was a strange thing to say.

"Uh, I'm gonna go... finish my comic book." She dashed off to her room. When she got there, she spied a picture. She picked it up. It was the one of her and her grandparents at the last family get-together. She felt her eyes start to dampen again and this time, she didn't try to stop them.

Next Chapter:

"I'm gonna go for a walk out back."

"Did Kyo eat all your cat food?"

"You really piss me off!"

Guess what! I got a beatnik! Whoo! You all know what a beatnik is right? If you don't, it's those people usually portrayed as guys with pointy beards that play bongos and talk in riddles and recite confusing poetry and snap their fingers and say man a lot. (Those of you that watch Crash Box, Sketch is a beatnik.) Anyway, my Invisible-Friend-That-Looks-Like-Me-Named-Bobette got me a beatnik as an early birthday present! So incredibly cool! His name is Pete. Pete the Beatnik. How awesomely awesome is that?!

Anyway, back to serious issues. I apologize if I have offended anyone by saying 'gods' in the opening author's note. But the fact is, I'm spiritual agnostic so it doesn't bother me at all to be saying something like that so I have no idea if it offends any religious people out there.

Thank you for reading through my aimless blabber. Now if you could just do me one more small favor and review? Please? I'll make my beatnik write you a confusing poem if you do!

(Note: Pete is not a real person. He is a figment of my imagination. I call him my beatnik because he is a beatnik I made up. I am not encouraging you all to go out there and enslave a beatnik, cause then they get all freaky and won't write poetry anymore. Lol. I'm just playin! But that did sound really cool to say that! Haha! I'm weird...)