I have returned, and let me just say now, that I am very happy. Totemo ureshii. Mechya ureshii. Okay, so, this one is significantly longer than my usual chapter, but inspiration hit me like a ton of bricks. Whee.

"Shimo?"

The flame-haired guardian looks up from his contemplation of my encyclopaedia. "Yes?"

I have finally decided to broach the subject of what Shimo does. "What precisely can and can't you do?"

"Well," the corners of his mouth upturn slightly, "I can't seem to make you listen to me,"

"Ha. Ha ha ha ha. I'm pissing myself on the inside, really."

Shimo sighs. "As far as I can tell, I have one major inhibition."

"Yeah? And what's that?"

Shimo lifts a hand and stares at it as his form morphs back into that of my cousin. "My dependence on this body."

"Oh please, not that old spiel again. I mean, maybe you're supposed to be in other people; maybe that's just the way you are…"

"Kyo, if I'm supposed to 'be in someone' why aren't I in you then?"

"Hey, don't ask me, you're the one who moved out,"

"So it's my fault now is it?" Shimo crossed his arms. "Some responsible master YOU are,"

Shimo's eyes slid back in his head, and then open again. Yuki takes a few moments to readjust before fixing a serious gaze on me. "You stepped in it this time."

"Whadda ya mean I 'stepped in it?' He started it, speaking of that, put Shimo back on! I'm not done with him!"

"Shimo doesn't want to talk to you."

"What are you, his receptionist? We need to get this sorted out!"

"Shimo says he's on strike."

"What?! How can he do that? Can he do that?"

Yuki raised his hands in defence. "I have no comment."

"Hey! You're supposed to back me up on this!"

"You don't have to live with him. I have no comment."

"You have to live with ME too, and trust me, I wont make it pleasant!" I poke out my tongue.

"I'm not sure which of you two is more childish." Yuki sighs. "Shimo wants you to apologise."

"For what? Existing?"

"It's a start,"

"URRRGH."

Yuki sighs and rolls his eyes heavenwards, accidentally answering something Shimo says out loud. "That's not what I meant, and you know it."

A corner of my mouth twitches. "Hah! So you're taking crap from both sides, huuh? Well, that's one thing we agree on!"

"I don't need this… Tempt me and I'll leave the room. Then we'll see how much arguing either of you get done."

"Don't make me turn this car around!" I quip. "Fine then, I'm terribly sorry that I was born, thereby bringing you with me into this shitty existence."

Yuki bows his head. "Thank you." He makes to stand up. "Well, if you two have quite finished your verbal catfight, I'm leaving."

And he does just that.

Still in a huff over my latest feud with my smart-ass guardian and his accomplice, I stomp down the stairs and outside. Then straight back in. It's fucking cold. I grab a coat off the rack, and stuff some gloves on before trying again. Standing on the edge of the deck, I take a deep breath in, and carefully pull Glow, Blossom, Reflection, Flora and Fauna out of the tangle of different entities inside me. Slowly and carefully, I pull them out of my frame and into the open air in front of me, to form milky balls of energy. I pause to remark on the differing colours, all very subtle, when a voice interrupts me.

"Kyo-kun, what are you doing?"

The Elementals slam simultaneously back into my body in response, and I collapse to me knees. "FUCK me…"

Tohru gasps, and runs over to cradle me to her, rendering me instantly in cat form, and covered in piles of heavy down jacket and clothing.  "GOMEN NASAI! Daijoubu ka?"

I flick a glove off my paw as Tohru cradles me to her chest. "Yes. Fine. Wonderful. Peachy." Dying slowly.

"Do you want me to call anyone?"

I wince as I slowly wriggle me way out of her grasp, and land lightly on my four paws. "Well, I had wanted to go for a walk, but I've decided it's a little too cold… I think I'll go back to my room now." My entire body aching, I take my pants and shirt in my mouth and slowly drag them back into the house.

"Okay, plan two."

I open my window wide and take a deep breath in of the cool winter air. I'll just let them out the window and hope to god that they'll all be good and head to the forest. I've re-dressed in my pants, but got bored half-way through and just shrugged on a shower robe. It's multi purpose, and comfortable. Plus, I'm feeling lazy and sorry for myself.

I mentally delve into myself again.

"Kyo?" My door slides open, and I whirl around in a flash of blue and white stripes to snarl at Yuki.

"Goddamnit! Why can't you people just leave me alone?!"

Yuki seems unimpressed. "Phone." He says tonelessly, holding up our cordless.

"Thankyou," I grate out, snatching the phone and slamming my door in Yuki's face. It bounces back, and I get stuck staring at exactly the same expression again. "Go away now,"

This time when I slam it, I hold it securely shut.

"Yes?"

"Did I call at a bad time?" Eriol sounds amused.

"No, it's okay. It doesn't matter."

Nevermind the fact that my chest feels like it's going to explode.

"Are you sure? I can hang up if you want,"

"No, it's fine." I sit down at my desk and start to slowly sift through the Elementals inside me. "Why did you call?"

How did you get my number? I could swear that it wasn't listed.

"Well, I just wanted to make sure that everything was alright. You were rather abrupt when you left last night,"

I scratch my nose, and slowly draw out Glow. "Yeah, sorry about that. I was just in a strange mood."

"Well, I just hope I didn't offend… Kyo?"

"Uh huh?" I vaguely respond, paying more attention to the glowing ball of light in my hand.

"What are you doing?"

I snap back to reality, and shoo Glow on its way. "Why do you ask?"

He sounded almost concerned. Or disapproving. Like a parent who's just found their child with a hand in the cookie jar. "Well, you just sounded a little vague there for a moment. So, what are you up to?" He asks, emphasising 'are' to make it sound like he is more trying to muse it out for himself then ask me.

"Oh, you know, as little as possible. I'm bumming about half-dressed and staying in my room mostly. Can't see myself moving in the foreseeable future."

"Yes, I must admit that I myself wasn't fully dressed until around nine," Ooh, the horror. "It must just be one of those lazy days. Not that I'm complaining of course, it's a rare occasion when I get to relax these days."

"Yeah, and there's school looming on the horizon," I add, before letting the twin balls Flora and Fauna out my gaping window and into the world.

"You're doing it again,"

"Eh? Zoning out?"

Okay, this is getting weird. I didn't even get caught up in the last two. He must be a damn good listener.

"You could call it that," He sounds amused again. I wish someone would let me in on the joke.

As Eriol starts to speak again, another voice coughs, and I instantly spring into action. "SHIGURE STOP LISTENING IN YOU FREAK!"

There's a moment of silence from both ends, then the phone clicks down. Now that was strange. It's not a rare occurrence for Shigure to do something strange and obnoxious like that, but usually when he's found out (even though he rarely is, he's the master of observation), Shigure would start teasing me. Something along the lines of 'Ooh, does the poor little Kyo-kun not want me listening to his chat with his boyfriend?!' at which point I would have to hang up on both of them, then beat him to within an inch of his life. This was not a Shigure prank-call. I am instantly suspicious.

"Eh-heh, please excuse my household for being filled with those suffering from dementia."

"It's quite alright," Eriol laughs while I release Reflection, and let it wing around my head a few times before flitting out the window. He sounds a little confused. "Isn't Shigure-san your guardian?"

"No," I reply, not really thinking about it, "That's Shimo." I blink and sit forward. "Shit! You mean legal guardian? Yeah, that's Shigure. Forget I said that."

"Shimo? Who's Shimo?"

Damnit, he's not gonna let this one go.

What I really feel like doing at this point is pretending that I need to leave for a… hair appointment, and hang up, but that's too cliché and about as subtle as a brick-to-the-head. I opt for skimming over the subject.

"Shimo's a friend. He's also the most aggravating person on the planet. He makes Shigure seem like a saint. But, we've known each other for a while, so…"

"Why did you say he's you guardian?"

"Well…" I scratch my head. "That's his self-adopted role. He seems to think that without him, I'll end up dead or insane before I'm twenty, which is probably accurate."

"So he's older than you are?"

He seems to think he is. In reality, he's only a few weeks old. Don't tell him I said that. "Uh… yeah… Listen, I gotta go now, I'll see you around?"

"Maybe," There's a lot of promise hidden in that one word.

I press the call end button, and gather my energy to go and give my junior spy a piece of my mind.

"Yuki?" I poke my head into his room, a smile plastered across my face. I saunter over to where he sits at his desk, forcefully pull out his chair, then sit on his lap, one hand twiddling with his hair, and the other around his neck. "I would have thought you'd know that," my hand tightens in his hair, and my voice drops down an octave, "eavesdropping is rude."

One of Yuki's hands snakes up and tries to dislodge me from my death-grip on his precious grey locks.

"I didn't realise…"

"Honey, you handed me the phone. Please give me more credit than that,"

"Well, you know that I…"

"Don't like him, don't trust him." I intone before letting go of his hair, and leaning back, crossing my arms to sternly glare at him.. "Trust me instead. Trust my fucking intelligence, I'm not going to accidentally start anything."

"I trust your intelligence, but I don't trust your powers of observation."

"Are you trying to tell me something?"

"How'd ya figure that out?"

"Well, I…" I growl and whack him. "Urusai, nezumi!"

Yuki smiles. Damn him. Whenever Yuki uses sarcasm (which is very often), it's hard to tell. Some people just sound dry and bitter, but with Yuki, there is no change in tone. "Damn you, apologise for being a distrusting jerk!"

"I'm very," he kisses my collar bone, "very," he kisses the side of my neck, "sorry that I'm a jerk." He whispers finally, his lips a few millimetres from my earlobe, his breath tickling my neck.

Flushing the same colour as my hair as I realise that somehow in the course of the events I've ended up straddling his lap, I hit my cousin soundly on the top of his head. "Don't think you can seduce your way out of this, you bastard!" I kiss him soundly on the mouth, before shoving myself off him and sweeping (thanks to my robe) out of the room.

"You're SO not forgiven!"

I'm still a little red.

I toss and turn at night. My room is hot to the point of stuffiness, but without the sheets, it's too cold. Aggravating. My mind is currently in a state where I realise that I should be asleep, but can't quite achieve it. Anything could bring me back to full awareness. Just as this occurs to me, a floorboard creaks somewhere in the house, and suddenly my mind is perfectly awake again. I sigh and roll over onto my back before opening my eyes. Then screaming.

"KIYAAA…" The scream momentarily stops to be replaced with a 'poofing' noise, then starts again "AAAAA!"

The sword that was dangling above my head pulls back slightly, then goes for my throat as I scramble out of bed as fast as my catty-legs will take me. "AHH!"

The thought 'screaming like a little girl' flashes through my head as I skitter out of my doorway and shove Yuki's open with my mind and screeching through his. "YUKI HELP MEEE!" I leap onto Yuki's awakening form, my claws out and ignoring his cry of protest, thrusting open his curtains then window before throwing myself out into the night. Cat-vision helps me see where the hell I'm going as I position myself to land, and hiss as the sword, the traditional Japanese-style katana follow suit. I'm running from the side of the house to the driveway when my missing Elementals stream back from the woods into me and I flip to my feet, human again (and butt-naked) and throw a ball of concentrated storm energy at the glimmering silver object. The sword is spun from the air and sticks, smoking and ticking like a cooling engine, it's point stuck a few inches into the ground.

A side door clatters open, and Shigure, Tohru and Yuki all tumble out onto the deck. Tohru squeals, goes bright red, then ducks back inside.

Yuki, apparently unfazed by my nakedness, steps off the deck without any shoes (not that I can talk) and over to me, apparently unfussed about the weather. "Was that another one?"

I point at the sword. "It still is another one."

"Kyooooo-kun! Why are you naked? I saw you come out of Yuki's window…" He cuts himself off for his patented pervert-laugh.

Yuki and I turn, and both scream "IF I WASN'T FREEZING MY ASS OFF, I'D BEAT THE SNOT OUT OF YOU!"

"Ooh, tag-team!" He starts laughing again.

Yuki and I growl.

Tohru, still dressed only in a nightgown makes a mad dash out of the house towards us, her outstretched arms and filled with bathrobe, her eyes carefully averted. She thrusts it at me, and flushing madly, turns away as I pull it on.

"Are you hurt?"

There is concern in the voice, but I can still tell that Shimo's in control.

"I'm cold, and I don't know how we're gonna explain this one."

Shimo's eyebrows lower. "I could make him forget."

I look away, ashamed with what I am about to consent to. "Only if we need to. I don't like doing things like that to people."

"Kyo, you know that if Shigure remembers this tomorrow, then everyone will know. Akito will know. Shigure can't be trusted."

"I know that, it's just…" I reply wearily, running a hand through my hair, before something catches my attention from the corner of my vision. "Tohru! Don't touch… Oh dear."

The tip of the sword scraped back out of the frozen earth.

And there, I shall leave it, for otherwise, it would have to trail on for a few more pages, and that's a little too long. I hope you enjoyed it!