Kyo awoke the next morning feeling annoyed towards Hatsuharu for his disruptions in his dreams. Though, it wasn't entirely Haru's fault that he had interrupted his dreams. Sometimes things like that happen. Everything is going the way you planned in your sleep then someone who had caused you mental grief interrupts it. He came to the conclusion that he shouldn't get agitated and pick a fight with Hatsuharu just because he was sleeping in peace, remembering all the kind things Tohru's said to him over the two year period they've known each other. It was close to two years at least, probably a couple more months until that time. When they had first met in her bedroom. He could remember every detail perfectly, though he felt bad about the things he had said at that time.
A loud crash and shatter of wood is heard throughout the house. Behind Tohru had stood Kyo, who was stretching his right arm a little as he grinned at Yuki. "Time to pay the piper rat boy…"He grumbles angrily. Yuki merely had smiled and said, "I'd think he'd send someone stronger." Kyo had rushed at Yuki and in fright Tohru had went to grab him. Slipping on a piece of broken wood, Tohru ends up falling into Kyo, her arms slowly wrapping around him. Next thing they knew, Kyo had transformed and became annoyed and began yelling at all of them a little. Tohru then became slightly faint and fell into Yuki and Shigure turning them into their respective zodiac animals. She had soon been informed of the Sohma Family Curse.
Suddenly he recalls not lightening up to Tohru for many weeks, until he finally realized that she did really care and that she was trying to be an annoyingly cheerful kid. The things he could remember slowly bit at his mind. He couldn't actually believe the things he had said to poor Tohru. Well, he could believe what he said, but it probably made him frustrated and he made it so it wasn't his fault. He convinced himself that at the time he was saying those bad things as a type of defense. To hide what he didn't want her to know. To make it as though she was a bad person, which, turns out, she wasn't.
They all ate breakfast an hour later. The reason for that was it was only a little later then six o'clock in the morning and not even Tohru was awake. Kyo had barely made use of his time as all he did was sit on the roof until he heard Tohru's bedroom door open, which would indicate that she was about to go down stairs to prepare breakfast as always.
As they ate it was quite peaceful, Kyo and Yuki didn't bicker at each other the least bit. It felt like an especially long awkward silence. Pulling himself to his feet, Kyo looks down at the table. "DAMMIT!" He slams both of his fists down on to the table and stares. "Why wont any of you damn idiots talk?" he questions clearly becoming annoyed by the sudden loud quietness.
Yuki lifts his head dully to glare at Kyo. "You worthless buffoon….go to sleep and maybe you can miss more then this banquet.." he mumbles sounding half asleep.
As most likely planned, Kyo quickly fumed. Tohru thought for a moment that she could see steam ripping out Kyo's ears and into the air, splashing against the ceiling. She flails her arms around in a panic being able to tell that he was on the verge of eruption. "Please Kyo-kun! Yuki-kun! Don't fight now…" She was almost pleading with them. The quiet crackling of the rice cooker was hearable for many moments as Tohru looks down in fright. She felt as though their eyes were pushing down on her shoulders. Supposing they were surprised at her pleading and such she apologizes quickly. "Ah…" she says softly to begin, "I'm sorry, was…did I…. I'm sorry." She sat quietly, her hands intertwined together in her lap, looking down at her hands.
Kyo and Yuki stare at her simply puzzled at her forgiving behavior all of the sudden. Not that it wasn't something that didn't happen every day. She felt as if she was always getting in between their constant fighting. They smile at her after a couple of short seconds and both tell her she didn't have anything to apologize for. "There is no need for you to feel as though you have to express regret towards us Miss Honda…" He looks into her eyes calmly like he didn't have any other care at the moment but making her feel better.
"Don't get all mushy you damn rat…" he growls at him as he soon looks at Tohru. "Ah! Right, look, if you get upset over such stupid things as this, then don't bother, okay!" Kyo yells a little at her almost forcing her to straighten up in her chair and her eyes to grow large, completely setting her attention on Kyo and Yuki. Sighing, Kyo rubs the back of his head gently and smiles a little at Tohru. "See, you get all bent out of shape because I yelled, just loosen up Tohru…" he says quietly to her as he pulls his fists off the table and leaves the kitchen to go outside and climb the ladder to the roof where he often gazed off in deep thought or in annoyance.
Meanwhile, back at the main house, Akito lie almost lifelessly across the floor, head on a soft, bean filled pillow that took the shape of your body or head. "Kureno…" calls Akito quietly looking around the room. Crawling across the floor, Akito gets up and looks around once more. Ailments were almost a natural thing - even if they occurred every day- for Akito.
Kureno comes into the room, sliding the door open and closed once more. "Akito…you called me?" He asks softly as he walks to Akito his feet gently pressing against the room's wooden floor boards. He places his hand on Akito's head and smiles. "Let me help you to your bed…" Kureno offers kindly as he grabs hold of Akito's hand.
Akito's white, silk styled kimono barely rested upon the body. It was drifting off Akito's left shoulder revealing her chest. Tilting her head she smiles almost unnoticed. "Fine then…but…first I'd like it if you brought me Shigure, Hatori, and Rin. Something makes me want to talk to them." She whispers into Kureno's ear as she leans against his chest weakly.
He nods without a thought of hesitating. Walking off he calls Rin and Shigure over the phone and goes off to find Hatori within the gates of the buildings 'inside'. After reaching all of them he eventually ends up with only Hatori and Shigure as Rin skipped out on Akito's most recent command that came from Kureno's mouth.
Hatori and Shigure sat side by side in the room Kureno had left Akito. It was dark and the windows that were in there were covered by thick, dark colored curtains. Water dripped through a side panel on the wall so that the sound of gentle dripping could be heard softly echoing throughout the room they all sat in. Shigure was laughing grandly as he always had at an attempt to find out what Hatori had thought of his most recent published book. He merely whispers a, "You sicken me…" and stares across the room toward the weakly sitting Akito.
Grinning eagerly, Akito stands up and slowly stumbles to them and stops in front of Shigure and Hatori. She pulls at her kimono and makes it so it is straightened out upon her pale body. "I understand that that witch Miss Honda is continuing to keep Yuki and Kyo from visiting me…"
Hatori stifles back a sigh hearing Akito call Tohru a witch. "Maybe…it isn't her doings as you think it is Akito…" he whispers to her, his damaged left eye covered by his overgrown bangs.
Leaning forward Akito places her hand on Hatori's cheek. "Ha-san….you dare question my beliefs? You dare think that I, the God Akito, is wrong?" She questions, slowly her temper rising to incredible heights. Her hand slowly rides up his cheek, lifting his bangs. She grins. "Do you want to defy me once more Hatori?" Her face was only inches from his; she could feel his uneven breathing slowly tapping against her face. Backing up she looks at Shigure. "Ahh…Shigure," she seems to smile, but the shadows conceal her expressions for a length of time.
Shigure nods slightly remembering that Akito was still a little mad about the incident where he had slept with Rin while he was with Akito. Though, he was a little angered that she slept with Kureno as payback. He grins a little and stares at her.
"What has this little witch been doing lately Shigure?" She asks practically demanding that he respond with a complete and accurate answer.
He looks down for a moment then looks back up trying to see what Akito was looking at him with. May it be a smile, frown, grin, or many of the other expressions a face can show. Mentally sighing he folds his hands behind his head and leans against the chair a little and takes his time answering. "Well, Tohru-ku…" he pauses knowing that he shouldn't refer to her as 'Tohru-kun' around Akito. "Tohru has been pretty curious about how to break the curse it seems. But, it's not exactly clear…" he stops once more to allow himself to yawn, "See, I have my suspicions that she would like to know how to rid us of the curse because she is friends with nearly all the members of the Juunishi. Even Hiro has been getting used to her constant joy, which, he believed, was completely and utterly…" he clears his throat, "Unnatural. As he puts it at least." He pulls his hands back in front of him and fiddles around with his fingers, and ends up closing them together, looking toward Akito making a failing attempt to make eye contact. "So, I'm not quite sure if she is merely curious, or completely serious about breaking the cur.." his voice trails off as he sees Akito lash out her anger by grabbing a near by chair and completely hurdling it across the room. It smashed into splintery pieces of wood as it made contact with the wall.
"She will not destroy my family!" Akito yells angrily. "Miss Honda shall not free their spirits! Do you understand me Shigure!" She walks up to them startling both Hatori and Shigure. They weren't used to Akito throwing an angry fit around more then one person. It was usually a selected person who she would have brought into the room so that she could personally torture them. Inflicting so much pain you'd wish you would die before you touched the sliding door.
"Yes. Yes. I understand completely my dear Akito…" his voice trails off as he grins proudly. "She will not steal any of us from you. We are yours, and yours only to be commanded…" He reassures her as he stands up leaving Hatori sitting alone. Shigure leaves the room entirely but not before bowing to her as he made his exit.
Kureno was leaning against a wall in the room watching and listening to everything that was going on. He sighs almost sadly.
Staring at Hatori, Akito smiles weakly. "Leave now Hatori. Before I make you go blind in both eyes!" She yells swiping her open hand at Hatori. Slapping him across the face, a red mark slowly becomes visible. He stands and bows slightly, walking past her and out of the room, and off to where he lived in a house on the 'inside' as well.
Turning around clumsily, Akito looks at Kureno and walks to him placing her hands on his chest as if to have a place to rest them. "Kureno….I need you to trap a few people for me…if you understand what I mean…" she whispers her lips just a few centimeters away from his as she lifts herself on to the tips of her toes. He nods almost unnoticeably and places his hands on Akito's. "I suppose that … is a 'yes'…" She mutters, a form of excitement had shot up through her. Akito's mind couldn't help but think that Kureno was her main pawn in which she'd eventually have all of the members back at her side, giving her the ability to order them all around as much as she pleased. Out of nowhere, she kisses him gently on the lips. "Go now…"
Obediently Kureno slips away from Akito slowly and walks out of the room, bowing just before he slides the door open. She sits down in a chair and looks up the ceiling feeling greatly satisfied with herself. The thought that her plan was now full proof made her proud as she drifted to sleep quietly yawning.
Kyo, Tohru, and Yuki were out shopping since their refrigerator at Shigure's house was basically completely empty. The only things that remained were the bowls of Yuki's old charcoal rich diet that he and Shigure once ate regularly. Kyo and Yuki fought most of the way to the market but once inside Kyo made it into a competition on who could shop the quickest. "You damn rat!" He pumps his fist powerfully, " I'll definitely beat you now you good for nothing rodent!" Kyo roars proudly grabbing a shopping cart. "First person to get everything on the stupid shopping list and buy it first gets to eat dinner while the other watches! Got dat!" He yells and sees Yuki agree by nodding and mumbling about how dumb Kyo was to draw attention to them.
They both set off leaving Tohru in complete shock. Her eyes were swaying all over the place as Kyo and Yuki raced about the store bumping into almost everything –except girls that is- that got in their way. Food flipped about as they dove around for the brands that were written down beside the food they were supposed to find. Suddenly, both Kyo and Yuki came charging down parallel aisles. Each of them were finished with the shopping list and all that was left was finding a cash register and having a worker ring everything up.
Kyo pushes Yuki out of the way and skids to a stop near a register. He begins to rapidly place the food on the counter that slid and watched the woman ring up the food quickly one by one as everything slowly began to pile up. Yuki on the other hand was putting all the food he dropped when Kyo bumped his shopping cart with his own.
The woman smiles at Kyo and politely says, "That'd be $200." Her hand was out waiting for the money to carefully plop onto her skin.
His mouth dropped. It wasn't the price that necessarily freaked him out. But it was the fact that he hadn't brought even a penny with him to the market. Tohru smiles at him and walks to him pulling her purse out and hands him the money. "Here Kyo-kun…" He stares at her in disbelief. Not only did she help Yuki with his food but now she had the audacity to give him money. She had helped his opponent. "Then again it must have been hard for her to watch poor, little rat boy struggle to refill his cart," thought Kyo in annoyance. He couldn't stand to be mad at her so he smiles and accepts the money gladly, he hands the woman Tohru's money and waits.
"Sir…" she calls to Kyo as him and Tohru walk off with the shopping cart newly filled with the bagged groceries.
"Ehm?" even his quiet confusion sounded annoyed by now.
The woman sighs. "You're a dollar short…" She replies to his slightly puzzled face. Then she watches the face go from puzzling to annoyance, then on to frustration and to shock.
"YOUR KIDDING ME!" Kyo charges toward the cash register and counts over the money he handed her over and over again. Each time he continued to come up with one hundred and ninety-nine dollars. Turning slowly he glares a little at Yuki seeing him walking off with a full shopping cart, completely paid for with all the food they were supposed to buy in it. He looks at Tohru in disbelief as she stood beside Kyo's cart. "You didn't have ….an….extra….dollaaaaaar!" He roars in anger frightening every single person in the store; he managed to only take Yuki by surprise.
Getting home from their odd trip to the market Tohru begins to cook cheerfully. Though whenever she could hear Kyo walking or rolling around on the roof she would sigh sadly. She really wanted Kyo to beat Yuki for one reason; so that he'd get what he really wanted. Tohru could recall the time where she overheard Kyo and Akito arguing and heard Akito say that if Kyo didn't beat Yuki by the time the high school years have ended he would be locked away in a pitch black room with no windows and squeaky floor boards where he would be mentally tortured.
She shudders and shakes her head wanting to rid her mind of that terrible truth. After she was finished cooking dinner she watched Kyo watch Yuki eat. He was clearly getting annoyed and hungry.
He jumps to his feet and stomps off in anger. Tohru got to her feet instantly and grabbed her plate of food, running out the now open sliding door in the direction Kyo was walking in. Breathing heavily she drops to her knees just behind Kyo. He turns and stares at her in confusion.
"What in the hell are you doing here?" he asks kneeling down in front of her. She lifts her arms up and pushes the plate to Kyo wearily. He looks down at it and then back at her. Placing his hand on Tohru's head he smiles. "Thanks Tohru…" he thought to himself and then hit her with his fist on top of the head. "Go back to Shigure's house, I'll be back inside in a bit, okay?" He tells her making sure she understands.
Nodding she staggers to her feet and stumbles off back towards Shigure's house. Kyo leans against a tree and hears people talking. He stands and peeks out from behind it. The people he could hear speaking were Haru, Rin, Momiji, Hiro, and Kisa. He could hear them saying something about Kureno telling them to meet him there or something of that sort. He walks out from behind the tree and stands in front of them. "What's going on?" Kyo questions in confusion just to now hear the sound of approaching footsteps.