Merry Christmas an' stuff.

Once again with the confusion. Honestly you guys, I have no idea about anything any more. Well, at least I have a new chapter here. Not much happens, but I'm trying to work up to it, and personally, I think more than three pages is more than enough for a chapter. But believe me, I'm working up to stuff. Yup.

I smell spicy soup wafting up from the kitchen as I draw near the staircase. The stew doesn't smell too bad, so that probably means that Kagura has Tohru's supervision for this task. Thank all things holy. I don't think anyone wants a repeat of the washing machine incident.

To be methodical about it, I decide to check the main rooms first, then go on to the other rooms, like bedrooms etc. Yuki stops me as I reach the bottom of the stairs with a hand on my shoulder, then walks into the living room first.

"Yuki! Come sit with us!" Ayame calls.

It dawns on me slowly. He's creating a distraction. What bravery.

"So, I hear from Shigure that something… interesting is happening in your life? A new relationship with a certain cousin or ours?"

There is an uncomfortable seeming silence.

"Ah, look at how he's blushing! The little minx!"

I poke my head in through the door and stare helplessly at the scene beyond. Shigure and Ayame are sitting on the couch in front of me facing the television on the wall opposite, with their backs to me. Yuki is sitting on a chair on an angle to face them but still be able to see the television, looking distinctly uncomfortable to my trained eye, and also like he's on trial. He clears his throat and swallows thickly, trying to look calm under his older brother and cousins barrage of questions.

I'm wound up tight, all my senses straining to make sure that there is no one nearby who might see me or hear me. While I'm on edge, so are my elementals. Fauna insists that I just knock the two of them out so I can search unimpaired, and Flora thinks that if I just stand still and wait it out, eventually an opportunity will present itself. Fog grudgingly suggests that it could fill the house and place all the other residents in a sleeping status, but that sounds both dangerous, and more trouble than it's worth. I don't want to have to contend with mist as well as a disappearing book.

Blossom's just mentally jumping up and down, while Bright and Shade are flitting around my mind. I choose to ignore them all, which is a very hard thing to do. It briefly concerns me to wonder just how many Elementals there are. I don't know how many more different beings in one body it takes before I start acting as insane as I should be.

I creep behind the couch and over to the window, passing Ayame's long white hair over the back, swaying gently as it's owner moved his head, mentioning something about 'tips'.

I really don't want to know.

My eyes scan the table near the window, skipping over the phone book, telephone and notepad. Nothing. I quickly look the coffee table over. Magazine, ashtray, coffee mug, coffee mug, notebook… aha!

Typical. It's right in front of two of the people I most want to avoid. I slink back around the couch and stand where I can be sure I'm in Yuki's line of vision, directly between both Ayame and Shigure. His eyes widen slightly, and I mouth the word 'book' and point at the table.

He widens his eyes slightly, brows coming down minutely, in a look that says 'can this wait? I'm busy.'.

Is it possible he's taking their 'advice' to heart? I don't want to know what he intends to do with it.

I furrow my brow, and point savagely at the table. 'book!' I mime again.

With a slight drooping of his shoulders, Yuki sighs.

"Hmm," he begins, leaning forward and extending a casual hand towards my journal with a feigned look of casual interest, "What's this doing here? I thought this belonged to the baka neko. He's always losing things. I suppose I should give this back to the baka."

He comes up of his seat, and slides his fingers closer to the book. His long fingers close around it, and almost like it's been coated with soap, the book shoots from his hands, flies like it's jet-propelled between Shigure and Ayame's head, clips the top of my head, and keeps going.

"Unugh…"

Ayame turned in his seat, and peeked his head over the back of the couch to stare questioningly down at me, sprawled across the carpet. "Kyo-kun, what are you doing down there?"

"Uughh…" One of my hands comes to my forehead, and massages the bump already forming, just below my hairline.

Ayame gasps. "Have you been spying on us? You could have just asked to join us, I'm sure my darling brother wouldn't have minded,"

"I think I'm concussed…"

 "Nonsense." Ayame tells me, hauling me to my feet by one arm, making the room spin alarmingly. "Now come and join us, Yuki was just going to tell us how… you two started." The tone in his voice has me stumbling out of the room before he can draw in his next breath.

I yell something incoherent at the three of them, and reel up the stairs and into my room.

It's only then that I realise that I don't have a bed to collapse and sigh upon.  "Goddamnit!"

I take a deep breath in through my nose, hold it for a few counts, then exhale through my mouth. My father taught me mediative breathing to try and get me to control my temper. Sometimes it works, but I don't usually remember to do it. When I get really annoyed, usually after a fight with Yuki, I usually am too busy running like a madman into the forest to try it.

Okay. If I can't just feel sorry for myself in my bed, and there's obviously some bastardly Elemental playing with me and my book, so the best thing to do is approach the situation calmly. Muttering bleakly to myself, I shuffle over to my wardrobe, open it, and take one of my spare blankets down from the top. I wrap it around myself, then shuffle back down stair's ignoring the weird look that Haru shoots me. I go back past the prattling two-some and the intently listening Yuki, who also shoots me a strange look, then into the kitchen.

"Kyo! What are you doing out of bed?!"

"Um… I thought it would be easier for me to come down and join you, instead of you having to come all the way up the stairs."

That and I don't have a bed to wait in anymore.

"No, back to bed!"

What I am about to try is risky, but I'm desperate. "Oh, but, I, ah… would much rather prefer to watch a domestic goddess in action than sit in my stuffy room."

Lies, all of it. The day she's a domestic goddess, is the day I compliment Momiji's dress-sense. And I happen to like my room.

Compliments can go one of two ways, either it'll backfire and leave Kagura instantly suspicious, or she'll take it to heart and be flattered beyond words. There is no in the middle in this matter.

Kagura appears quite flustered. Flushing slightly, she self-consciously tucks a strand of hair behind one of her ears. "Well, in that case…" she replied, quite flustered.

Oh yeah. I'm good.

I take the seat that she pulls out for me, then exchange significant looks with Tohru, who looks quite confused.

In a few minutes of mindless prattling, she had finished her soup, and pours some into a bowl with a flourish. She sets it down in front of me, then hands me a spoon.

"Kyo-kun, what's wrong with your mouth?!"

"Shut up! Go Away!"

"Let me help!"

"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Go away!"

I put my mouth to the tap once more, ignoring Kagura pounding on the locked door into the bathroom.

"Please let me help, Kyo-kun!"

"Alright then, go get Yuki!"

"Yuki?! Why him?!"

I pause, a swallow the water in my mouth through a burning throat. "Because, you said you wanted to help!"

There is silence, then feet scuff away from the door.

I am drying my feet when someone knocks. "Kyo? Are you going to let us in?"

I flick the lock. "It's open."

Yuki opens the door, glances briefly in before committing himself to stepping forward. Kagura hovers, and eventually steps in as well, a hand hovering neap her lips like she's uncomfortable. Entered some sort of forbidden zone or something.

"What's the problem?" Yuki asks me, shutting the door to a crack behind us.

"Well, for one thing, too much wasabi," I start, throwing an accusing glare at Kagura, who looks completely oblivious, "and I was also wondering if you saw where it went."

"Where what went."

I give him a deep look. "It."

"Ah."

"Hn."

"Yes."

Let's just say that neither of us are particularly comfortable discussing 'private matters' with another person around. I give my neck one last pat with my towel, before slinging it over the rack to dry.

"So?"

Yuki shrugs his shoulders slightly. "It could have gone into Shigure's office. That was where it was headed."

I frown with frustration. "That god-accursed thing could be anywhere right now."

"What are you two talking about?" Kagura demands, exasperated.

"Nothing. Guy's stuff. You wouldn't understand."

Kagura lunges forward, and I find myself in a headlock. "What was that?"

"Ow! Nothing!"

She tightens her grip. "Are you sure don't have anything you'd care to repeat?!"

"'Course not!"

"That's good to hear!"

She places me back into a stand position, and straightens her t-shirt while I rub my poor abused neck. Yuki just looks dignifiedly amused. Damn him.

I draw in a deep breath, aggravating my poor mouth a bit. "Right then. I'll check Shigure's office."

Something dawns on me. Shigure's office.

Oh shit.

Well, that's that for this chapter. Now to go eat some Toblerone.