While Li and Sakura sat in a dim room, squinting over barely legible script in the dozen or so journals dug up from the Sohma library, Kyo decided to show Meilin and Tomoyo the estate.

"Not a lot of people ever get inside this place. We'll take advantage of it, show you around a bit." Kyo teased Tomoyo, "you can take all the pictures you want." To Yuki's never ending amazement at Kyo's friends, the dark haired girl pulled a camcorder from her impossibly huge purse and focused on Kyo's smiling face.

"Don't think I won't take you up on that offer." she laughed then swung the camera around to frame Yuki against the main house. "Especially with two of the hunkiest guys in the place as my feature point." Yuki managed to look away before blushing slightly, his hair covered his cheeks.

"I'm sure we'll find something better for you to tape Tomoyo-chan." Yuki coughed out. Tomoyo swung around to Meilin.

"Don't you love Meilin's outfit Yuki?" when Yuki nodded Tomoyo swung back around and grinned mischievously, "your brother made it." Yuki coughed.

"Ayame made that?" shock was evident on his face. "It's beautiful, looks nice on you." he complimented when he realized his incredulity was rude.

"Yes, it fits very nicely. Movement is free also. You wouldn't think to look at it, but it was very comfortable with my kata's this morning."

"So you can fight in skirts huh?" Kyo smirked.

"Would you like to find out?" Meilin stuck her face near Kyo's with a smirk of her own. Tomoyo nearly fluttered over the fire in both their eyes.

"So passionate." she cooed as shezoomed in.

"Well there is a dojo on the estate. Shishou wouldn't mind us using it."

"Then I shall issue a formal challenge. Two out of three floor hits." Meilin started to saunter off in the direction Kyo pointed. "Trust me Kyo, I was good before, and I've been practicing."


The opponents stepped out of their shoes and stood facing each other in the middle of the polished gleam of the dojo floor. Some of the Sohma children had been practicing, but Shishou recognized the gleam in his adoptive son's eye and decided that an impromptu demonstration between two highly skilled athletes could only provide something for the younger students to strive for. Somehow some of the members of the zodiac had heard of the match also. Hatsuharu leaned negligently against a tree outside across from an open door, with Kagura and Momiji settled at his feet they watched with curious gazes. Yuki sat, kneeled next to Shishou as the two bowed politely and settled into stance.

Meilin started with her hsia shih, bent knees balanced on the back leg with her arms open to defend. Deceptively simple it would allow her to react quickly to anything Kyo would attack with. Graceful she followed his movements and simply ducked out of the way as his leg swung out in a yap chagi. She turned with the side kick and tried to sweep his other leg out from under him, though he jumped to avoid and ended up blocking a high kick as she suddenly sprung up to aim for his chin. The fabric of the skirt he now saw was split to allow greater movement, he felt the silk brush his cheek as he ducked under a crescent kick. He backed off several feet and shook his head letting his hair fluff up as he cracked his neck.

"You have been practicing." he complimented.

"You too." Meilin refused to smile during a fight, but she felt like laughing, she was having a blast.

Kyo switched tactics and ran forward in a feight, only to jump over the shorter girl and twist so he faced her back. He kicked out using a shotokan technique, bringing his foot up in a crane position for a split second before shoving it out into her lower back. She stumbled forward and caught herself a scant inch from the floor, her skirts puddled around like blood.

"Nice save." Kyo mentioned as she followed the motion into a handspring and ended up half way across the floor from him.

"You jump higher than you used to."

"Longer legs."

"Right." Meilin rolled her shoulders and swung her hands out to the sides. Then she smirked and settled into Li's stance for when facing off with Sakura's brother. It looked awkward at first glance but Yuki noticed both Shishou and Kyo grinned broader at the gesture from her hand to come forth.

"Smart girl."

"Master?" Yuki asked. He may have been naturally talented as a fighter, but both Kyo and his adoptive father were fight obsessed. Obscure moves were their passion. Kyo responded to Meilin's posture by standing in front of her and mimicking it.

Meilin blinked and the attacked. Kyo responded by mirroring every move, almost perfectly against. Every move could be blocked by its mirror. The children watched in rapt attention, literally unable to take their eyes from the whirlwind of red silk and orange hair in the center of the room. Then, in a move too fast to comprehend Kyo stopped mimicking and grabbed Meilin's arm. She stopped a second to late, so the punch she threw added to the force Kyo used in tossing her across the floor and into the sidelines… straight into Yuki's arms.

"POINT!" Shishou awarded. Yuki found himself holding the silk bundle as Meilin struggled in his arms.

"Crap!" she muttered then stopped moving. "Yuki, let me go."

"Your button is caught in my hair, you're not going anywhere until I know my hair won't be ripped from my skull. Don't get to close or I'll transform." he had a problem with buttons and hair, he decided as Shishou managed to untangle his gray locks from the Chinese girls outfit. She was back up and ready to fight.


"All these men are the most idiotic, self-absorbed, tight-assed jerks I've ever seen!" Sakura gave into the stifling atmosphere of the books, flung the one she just finished into a corner and stood to stalk to a garden door. She opened it and took a deep breath. "You know what they're missing Syaoran?" she asked, completely incensed that she'd even read half of what she knew to be the nightmare of the Sohma's.

"What is it?" Syaoran asked while flipping a page calmly. He was more used to sitting in the dusty book smell than she was. He could have spent an entire day sitting on the floor, reading the past.

"Compassion! Not one of them truly cared for another human being in their lives. I mean, just look at the way Akito treats Yuki… he thinks it love, but its not. He just can't stand not being in control of something he thinks of as being his. Every single man in those journals felt the same way." Sakura paced from the stack of books to the garden door, then back. Syaoran stood and took her shoulders in his hands. Kissing her gently he smoothed his hands over her back to work the tense muscles while holding her slender body to his.

"You know what? I think you just found the answer."

"What?" she pulled back for a second, but did not relinquish the contact.

"Your parents love you right?"

"Yeah."

"And my parents love me. I've never had to worry that might not be true. Now look at the zodiac family's." Li picked up a book, "this one tells me that none of the zodiac lived with their parents in this era. And the one I read before it was full of the mans satisfaction at being able to control half of them because they thought he cared about them. Now look at Kyo, his father won't even acknowledge he has a son, and his mother went insane because her boy wasn't perfect in her eyes. She must have thought he was tainted from the second he was born. Now wouldn't that kind of rejection leave a hole in your soul?"

"Just the right size for something else to fit." Sakura mused, "and what's more, where do you feel love? I mean, really feel it?"

"My stomach."

"Exactly, when you walk into a room where I'm at, I feel you in the pit of my stomach, and Kyo insists that the cat is in it belly."

"It is. Painful little bugger." Li spoke from experience. "Right in the back of your belly. Against the spine."

"What I've read says that when the CAT reaches maturity, they keep it locked away. Li, we can't let that happen." Li grabbed Sakura's hand and pressed her palm to his lips. Capturing her eyes with his own he smiled.

"We won't. We know what's missing now, and if the way Tohru looks at Kyo is any indication, I think we've got a cure in the workings."


Meilin and Kyo had been exchanging blow and counter blow for ten minutes before Meilin managed to kick Kyo firmly in the stomach and send him flying across the boards.

"Point, Li." Shishou awarded.

"Ok girly, you've heard the man, next one determines winner."

"Yes, I heard Kyo, there is nothing wrong with my ears." Kyo flipped up to his feet and settled an inch from Meilin.

They stood straight and smirked, daring the other to move.

"An inch forward and I get to take home a bag of cat food along with my prize."

"You want to make it more interesting?" Kyo didn't move.

"A side bet?"

"When I win you have to cook an edible dessert for me." Kyo laughed while Meilin's face blushed bright red.

"What's the hold up you stupid cat! Fight!" Hatsuharu yelled from the sidelines.

"Fine." Meilin agreed, "and when I win, you have to set me up on a date with Yuki."

"WHAT?" Kyo was so stunned that he forgot to pay attention to what Meilin was doing physically. So when she swiped out with her leg and pulled his knee forward with her heel, he flopped to the ground like a log.

He lay on the floor, still shocked by the request, and even more stunned by the fact that she had won and he had to figure out a way to get his hated cousin out on a date.

"Point Meilin Li." Shishou got to his feet and nodded politely to Meilin before helping his pupil up to his own.

"Good show." Meilin smirked.

"That was a nasty trick."

"Your not going to go back on your bet are you?" Meilin teased.

"No." Kyo felt himself blush again.

"Good."