Another three days of solitude, before- "Kyo." Kyo rose to the window once again.
"You shouldn't come here. It is too dangerous."
"You haven't been eating." It was not a question, but an accusation.
"The food here stinks." Kyo was sarcastic and that would not necessarily be a good thing.
"I see. Here." and his cousins hand reached through the bars to drop a foil wrapped article in his. Kyo looked at it like it would bite him, and Yuki let out an exasperated sigh. "It's a riceball, Tohru sent it." Kyo peeled back the wrapper to expose one of Tohru's famous cat shaped tricolor riceballs. "Eat it!" Yuki ordered. Kyo was too shocked to be angry. He lifted the precious gift and gazed at it longingly. He slowly bit a small piece of the left ear and chewed like there was no other food in the world.
The taste took him on a trip. To a small cottage in the woods, people talking, laughing, and fighting. It was a trip into heaven. He slowly bit another small piece of the riceball and was remembering days at school with the yankee and the psychic. The school festival where their class had the riceball stand, and he even remembered Yuki in that rediculously ugly dress. A small laugh escaped him. "It wasn't you, it was the dress that was so terrible."

"What are you talking about?" Oops had he said that outloud, bet it was that rotten Neko. Always trying to get him in trouble.

"Eh, nothing. Thank Tohru for the treat, now you should go." and he wrapped the riceball up and stowed it in his pocket

"Is that all you are going to eat? Kyo, I'll bring you more, but eat that one now. I won't leave until you finish it."
"Why is it so important to you, anyway?"
"Because I went to a lot of trouble to bring it, and Tohru worked hard to make it, and we are all worried. Now eat it." Kyo growled and reached into his pocket. He tore open the foil and stuffed the remainging treat into his mouth, he chewed mechanically barely tasting the delicious food. Finally he swallowed. Now, perhaps he could get Yuki to leave.
"Are you happy now? If so, could you please let me have some peace. Things were a lot quieter before you started coming around." Yuki smiled at him. It started to make Kyo angry.
"Since when do you like quiet?" and his cousin slowly made his way back to the gate and out of the garden. Once he left the silence dropped like a heavy blanket over the world Kyo was living in. He suddenly felt sick under it's oppressive weight. He crossed to the small bathing area and leaned down. Pressing his finger at the back of his throat he forced himself to expell the unwanted riceball from his body. Nobody, but nobody, was going to make him eat when he wasn't hungry.

Next morning, Kyo had a sore throat. "See what happens when you eat something you didn't need, Neko?" He told himself. It makes you sick. He did get up and make himself some tea. He had always drank water or tea when he could get it. Thirst was a driving force in his life. He always seemed thirsty.
"Kyo?" That was a new voice, well not new, but he hadn't heard it for a while. He rose to the window. Haru was standing in Yuki's last spot. It almost made Kyo angry that Haru had taken his other cousins position, when he wondered to himself why he would care.
"What are you doing?" He asked the cow.
"Yuki couldn't come to see you and he told me to give you something." Haru handed him another foil wrapped package. Kyo took it and shoved it into his pocket.
"Okay, so go."
"Naw, I wanted to talk to you. Akito isn't around here right now. So it's okay. Do you realize it's almost my birthday. Can you believe it. I wish you could come with us, we are going to the lake for it. Momiji wanted to have it at the onsen, but everyone said that would just be too sad. The lake will be sad enough. I miss you, Kyo."
"Eh, Yeah, I miss you too, you fat oshi. But, don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I'll ask Akito for some cake that day, okay?"
"You were one of my best friends, Kyo. I want you to come back."
"Hey, don't go 'black' on me, Okay? I don't want you to get caught. You should probably go now."
"Do you want me to give anyone a message for you?"
"Just tell them I said to have fun." And Kyo dropped out of the window down to the bed where he knew Haru couldn't see the tears slipping down his cheeks.
He reached into his pocket and threw the foil packet across the room. It hit the wall with a resounding thud and slid down behind the dresser. The vibration of it's impact scattered the papers there and Kyo rose to straighten up his things. He rearranged the assorted drawing he had made into the order he prefered them. There was Tohru in the dress she had worn home from Ayame's store on that strange Sunday visit with Yuki, and speaking of Yuki, here was a drawing of him sitting in class trying to avoid the fangirls as they glared at him from the desks behind him(Kyo remembered their faces, and how scary they were, he had captured them perfectly on the parchment) the next picture was Momiji in that silly girls uniform running through the halls of the school playing pirates or killers or some stupid game with his classmates. The pictures were all that was left of Kyo's life before his imprisonment and he kept them in order so that his life stayed in order. His latest drawing was just taking shape, it was the last New years party. He had still not been allowed at the banquet but he had seen Ayame and Rin in their costumes and could just picture them dancing. It was all there on the paper before him, he had only to add color for it to take life. But, Kyo didn't feel like it right now. He slept.

"Kyo?" This was getting monotonous and he just didn't have the energy for it. Kyo slowly raised himself to the window. He almost didn't make it. "What?" He squeeked through the bars. Kyo had not been feeling very good. He suspected this very person of poisoning him with that riceball. Yuki looked at Kyo with a shocked expression. His mouth opened yet he said nothing. Kyo would have gotten angry but he just didn't have the energy to waste.
"Kyo, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Hey, I got something for you. Hang on." Kyo slid down the wall to his bed. He had made something for Yuki yesterday when Haru had left. He reached over the side of the bed and retrieved it from the floor. Slowly he rose again to thrust it out the window before collapsing on his bed, unconscious. Yuki took the paper in his hands and leaned in to see his cousin. Kyo was not in sight, and there was no sound of movement. Yuki called his cousin and got no answer. He called a few times before panic set in and Yuki raced out the gate to the nearest phone. He called for an ambulance before racing across the compound to Hatori's house to tell his cousin what had transpired. The picture Kyo had handed him was rolled in his hands and he had not even opened it to look at it.