Tohru stood at the stove, just staring at it blankly as she shivered, suddenly realizing how cold it was. She really should light the stove…

"I had to say it." she pleaded with herself. A knock on the door gave her an excuse to stop watching the stove. Mechanically she walked to the entrance hall and slid open the door. "Meilin?"

Meilin immediately knew something was wrong. The normally bouncy girl was staring at her as if every emotion she'd ever felt had been stolen.

"Tohru, are you…" Meilin stepped in, slid out of her shoes and took the other girls shoulders. She steered Tohru into the family room and sat with her at the table, her legs bent under gracefully as Tohru just sprawled with her feet hidden by her massive skirt. "Tell me about it."

"I told Yuki…"

"Told Yuki what?"

"That I didn't feel…" Tohru gasped a sob out, "that I didn't love him like he wants me to… and now…" she buried her face in her hands and shook.


Tohru sat at the tablet, just sat, playing with her fingers as she watched Meilin disappear into the woods.

"Oi!" Kyo announced himself as he staggered to the table. He sat on his knees and laid his forehead on the smooth wood. "God I hate the rain." he groaned.

"Kyo, what are you doing out of bed?" Tohru shook out a blanket and put it over his shoulders.

"I was bored, I thought I'd come down and yell at the rat until I couldn't stand up anymore."

"He's out."

"Damn it… the one time I actually…" he looked up at Tohru , "Hey."

"Yes?"

"You sad about something?" he sat up, his apathy momentarily forgotten in his concern.

"No." she sniffed, trying to hold it in.

"Yes you are!" he accused, then put his head back on the tablet, with a thud. "Go on," he groaned, "tell me about it."

"Yuki-san hates me!" Tohru whined piteously.

"No. He doesn't." Kyo suppressed another groan, the last thing he wanted to hear about was rat-boy's romance with the girl he wanted for himself.

"Yes he does! He got upset when I told him I don't think of him as anything but a friend! And then he got mad and he was sad so I told him to go and weed his leaks! And its raining and he's going to catch a cold!"

Kyo was still back at "friend". He blinked as Tohru started talking about Meilin and how she set the Chinese girl to sooth Yuki's bent feelings because Yuki really loved Meilin and vice- versa. But the entire gist was lost to the cat as he realized the coast was clear. Tohru didn't have any attachments to Yuki! He still had a chance! He had to know…

But first he had to get her to stop blubbering.

"Oi!" he interrupted her. Tohru looked up from ringing her hands and her lip quivered. "There is no way that Yuki hates you. I know that damn rat like the back of my hand. I don't want to- but I do. So I know I'm being truthful when I tell you that Yuki will get over it. He may be upset right now, but sending Meilin after him was a good solution, she'll fix things and they'll be fine. Besides, the rat deserves everything he gets. Don't loose sleep over it."

"You really think so?" she sniffed as he grabbed her hand to reassure her, and just for a split second, Tohru's fingers curled possessively around Kyo's.


There was a rock by Yuki's garden that had enough of a smooth seat, worn in it by years of the troubled boys visits. Tohru's voice ran in his head and he shook it, determined to clear it out.

"How does she know?" he muttered, "I should know my own feelings."

He heard her before he saw her. She stumbled over a tree root and cursed softly.

"Meilin." he acknowledged without tuning around.

"Yuki, Tohru told me you'd be here." she stepped out from under the trees shadow. It was still raining, but not enough to be more than a small annoyance. She held a translucent umbrella limply over one shoulder.

"Yeah, she sent me away." he scoffed to himself and rested his chin on a bent knee.

"Excuse me?" Yuki blinked and shifted to face her.

"Sorry, we had a bit of an argument, she got frustrated, well… no… actually I got frustrated and she kicked me out to play with my vegetables." He gestured toward the green tips pushing out from the cultivated ground.

"Oh, cute." Meilin looked up as a drop of rain plopped on the plastic umbrella. "Well, for heavens sake." she smothered a chuckled as the rain fell faster.

"What do you want?" Yuki asked rather abruptly as she shifted to share her umbrella with him. He was moping, he didn't want the sunny Chinese girl to detract from that. She raised her chin and looked at the clouds through the umbrella. The remaining light was soft, her features looked soft and her eyes, vulnerable all of a sudden. Yuki felt his palms go damp. Meilin looked over and noted his scowl. He was uncomfortable. Good. She knew how to deal with touchy boys, she'd been playing Li like a fiddle since they'd both been kids. Yuki just had a weird curse to be grumpy about instead of magical gifts.

"Li wanted me to come speak with you and Kyo." she didn't look at the boy, but she knew that being cryptic would elicit more curiosity than just coming out and saying it.

"About what?"

"I have to explain the technical aspects of it, so it might be easier just to tell both of you at once."

"Kyo will be sleeping right now, he won't be up for anything until it stops raining, even just talking wears him out." he grabbed her hand as she turned to walk away. "Technical aspects of what?" realizing that she paused and looked down at her captured hand, he scowled and tossed it aside like she were poisonous. "Like I care. Leave me alone Meilin."

"You're so stupidly depressed Yuki. You forget everything you have because of a stupid thing like a curse." Meilin spat, letting her mouth take control of the situation.

"You've known me for three weeks Meilin, you know nothing about me." Yuki just let himself shiver in the rain, wishing she'd leave him alone.

"I know a hell of a lot more than you think I do." She stomped over to him and slapped her hand on his back. He caught his breath sharply and angled away. "What I didn't know about your family already I could have guessed by how insanely scared you were this afternoon." She didn't let her hand fall from his back, instead she slid it under his shirt and traced the multiple scars, the raised patterns that had healed over when he was still young. "Did anyone love you?"

"They're not your family! You're mine now! They gave you to me! Now tell me you won't disappoint me Yuki…

Lighting suddenly burst from the sky, the heavens opened up, and Yuki leapt to his feet.

He pushed her to the ground, her arms fell limp at her sides as he knelt beside her.

"You don't understand this curse, it is not something that can be ignored or just made better by a simple thing like love." Yuki got to his feet as Meilin stared at the sky.

"You know, Yuki, I used to think that my destiny was to be by Li's side." She still remembered the day Li told her, admitted that he didn't love her like she wanted, like she needed him to. "But then he met Sakura, and the way they resonate, the way they are together just forces me to admit that I had no clue what I was talking about."

"So? What does that have to do with this? With us?"

"Yuki, I'm not a naive little girl anymore. When I look in your eyes I see what Li and Sakura have… and I'm not a person to sacrifice my own happiness because the person who loves me is uncomfortable with it." Yuki turned to watch the girl as she sat up and looked at him, deep into his soul.

"You don't know what I've been through, what you'll be going through… Akito…"

Meilin swore something pithy in Chinese and got to her feet. She grabbed Yuki's head and yanked his lips to meet hers.

"That's what I think of Akito."

"Meilin…" Yuki blinked, his breath shook as her hands released his head. She looked away, but not before he saw the quiver of her lip.

"Yuki…" she'd almost had enough of falling for guys who'd inevitably pick the other girl to fall for. She pushed herself to her feet and took a deep breath before looking down at the silent boy. "Never mind." She clenched her fists and turned away, but before she could leave his hand shot out to grab her wrist.

"Meilin." Yuki tugged, pulling her down into his lap, his lips swooped down as his hands rested on her stomach, keeping their torsos from contact. His lips rubbed warmly over hers, his teeth nipped gently at her lower lip shocking her into response. She whispered his name as he deepened the kiss, her eyelids fluttered shut as her hands pulled his lips closer and tangled in his hair. His fingers twitched as they inched higher, brushing lightly against the bottom of her breasts, he longed to grab her and press her against his body, but it wasn't too hard to control as he concentrated and melted onto her lips.

"Meilin." He whispered gently as his lips traveled to kiss her eyelids. He tasted tears and moved back to lay his forehead on hers.

"I can't take this anymore." She sniffed, "you don't love me, you love Tohru, but you'll take me because I'm here." She opened her eyes and glared, "That's it, isn't it?"

If he didn't see the tears in her eyes, or the quiver of her lips, he would think she was just angry at him. But her heart was cracking, Yuki could hear it in her voice.

"Meilin, I don't know what I'm feeling." He admitted, "but what I feel towards you, has nothing to do with Tohru." He wiped away the tears with his thumbs and kissed each cheek gently. "When I have you with me like this, I don't even think about her. All I see are your eyes. Even when you're mad at me, I love them."

"Yuki." Meilin whispered so he mover his ear closer to her lips, "I really need you to let me go right now." Her breath hitched as his fingers uncurled from her shirt.

"Meilin. I… I really don't know what to do about this." Yuki looked away, down at the grass.

"Neither do I." She admitted as she got to her feet. "Come on, Li wanted me to talk to you and Kyo about the cure." She turned away from him, and started down the path toward the house.


WOW! A little hot'n'heavy there huh?

to tell you the truth, this scene between Yuki and Meilin is the very first thing i wrote for this fic... i've been waiting FOREVER to use it!

enjoy!