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KS:

Kyo made a snorting sound and Kaye looked distressed. "I could have! Ever heard of leading someone on? Yeesh," Kaye said, retorting to the pissed orangey. He made another snorting noise and inhaled his food, nearly choking.

Kaye laughed as Kyo hacked, trying to get the rice un-stuck. But she whapped his back along with Arisa. Kaye knew that boys would try to 'get to know her', she had been through it every other American school she went to- even military school.

She was extra careful with her own rice after the little fiasco. Kaye recalled Kyo covering her own mouth for nearly swearing her head off at the tree; why hadn't she returned the favor? She minded to get a leash for cat-boy next time she went to the pet store.

Many of the boys at the table nearest, all were around Kaye's own age, were glaring at Kyo. Kaye stood up to throw out her trash and noticed the glares. She walked over to them and most turned a tint of red. "Yo," she started, "If you don't want to get your asses thrashed, I suggest you stop glaring, he attacks on command... and of his own accord. Gotta get that cat a leash..." she said, warning the boys who continued to blush as she walked away.

"What was that about?" Arisa asked Kaye, minding as she sat down she looked at Kyo funny.

"Oh, just warning the little buggers." she said, swishing her hand in dismissal.

"Buggers?" the Yankee questioned.

Kaye thought a second then asked the inevitable. Someone was bound to ask it someday. "Are you a Yankee fan?" Kaye asked, recalling the damned baseball team that had been in the way of her own favorite team since like 1986. The Red Sox.

"Ah, Yankees? As in the American baseball team Yankees?" Yuki asked.

Kaye sighed, "Sadly yes."

"But.... WHY?" Arisa asked, looking strangely at the girl, "It's not like-"

"Actually, I have." Kaye answered, knowing what the end of the statement would be.

"You've been to America?!" Arisa jumped up from her seat grinning, "Heard of Megadeth?"

Kaye's own face grew a grin, "Toured with 'em!"

Kyo sighed; his sister was always the one making weird friends. He would have to ask why she so easily accepted Arisa as opposed to Tohru(IS:), whom was pondering this as well.

Tohru lifted the last of the rice in her bowl to her mouth feeling extremely put out, maybe even a little jealous. 'How is it Kaye befriended Uo so fast when she resents me?' she thought, watching them as they talked about bands. 'Kyo's sister certainly is different…'

"Arisa and Kaye have certainly hit it off," Hana observed. She was sitting at Tohru's side, faithful as ever. Tohru nodded and began to clear her plate. "All the same, she doesn't seem to like you much." Hana had apparently seen Kaye's glares. Tohru nodded once again.

"So, if not a Yankee fan, then what are you?" Kaye inquired. Arisa tossed her hair back a little and smirked.

"I think you mean what was I," Arisa corrected, but she explained nonetheless. "The Yankees are an all-girl gang. We were real bad asses." Kyo snorted again and this time kept on chuckling. Arisa merely rolled her eyes at him. "I'll deal with you later orangey."

"That actually sounds like fun!" Kaye said excitedly. "An all-girl gang? Why'd you get out of it?"

"Well, thanks to Tohru and Kyoko I saw that it wasn't the place for me," Arisa explained, grinning at Tohru as she cleared her plate.

'Fun-sucker…' Kaye accused as Tohru cleared her plate as well. "But who's Kyoko?" she wondered out loud.

"Tohru's mother of course!"

Kaye narrowed her eyes slightly. "If she has a mother then why the hell does she live in our house?"

"Where'd you come from? Mars?"

"No, America, I've already explained this."

"Listen, Tohru's mother died in a car crash over a year ago," Arisa said, "How you've come to live in that house without knowing the story I don't know, but, whatever."

'I was in that house way longer than she was…' Kaye thought bitterly. "Well… how'd she end up at Shigure's house?"

Arisa looked at her a moment, then crossed her legs in a way that made her look even taller. "I don't think I'm the one to even be telling you all this." Kaye made a mental note to ask Kyo after school, which is just what she did.

After they dropped off Haru and Momiji at Sohma House Yuki and Tohru separated from them to go tend to his 'secret base', or garden. Although it bothered Kaye that they were off alone Kyo didn't seemed phased by it in the least, so, she tried to ignore it, too.

"Hey Kyo, I was talking to Arisa about Tohru today," she told his in a funny voice. Kyo seemed interested. "She said that Tohru's mother had died and then she came to live with you all. What are the missing pieces to this story?"

"Well," Kyo began, taking a deep breath, "After Tohru's mother died she was an orphan 'cause her dad died when she was real young. She went to go live with her grandfather, a real walnut of a guy, but she couldn't stay there long 'cause he was getting some renovations done. She had no where to go, so, she was living in these woods in a tent for a while." Kaye snickered.

"No way, a tent?" she laughed. "Somehow I can't see that happening."

"Well, it did. Yuki and Shigure discovered her one night while they were off doing something and they invited her to stay in the house with them after hearing the situation. Then I came back-"

"Hold up, where were you?"

"Oh… I was up in the mountains training for four months."

"Right."

"So anyway," Kyo continued, "It's just business as usual around the house but then she gets a call telling her the renovations are done. So, she goes back to live with her grandfather."

"Right, yeah, so, why is it she's here now?" Kaye wanted to know. Kyo put on a little smile she couldn't see, seeing as she was walking a little behind him.

"Well, thing was, she never really wanted to leave."

"But she did. Her loss," Kaye said bitterly, crossing her arms. She quickly uncrossed them for her messenger bag slid right off her shoulder with her arms in such a narrow position.

"You're missing the point," Kyo said, turning around. "None of us wanted her to leave either." He kept on walking with his head down slightly. "So, we went and we brought her home."

"Why would you go and do a stupid-ass thing like that?!" Kaye shouted. To think Tohru might not have even been here if not for now two variables… Damn Kyoko for dying. Damn her brother for being an idiot.

Kyo stopped again. "Well, why not?" he asked with an ever so slightly raised voice. "Without her around nothing felt right. I was getting pissed off real easy again, which hadn't been happening so often since she'd been around and no one could cook besides me and I'll be damned if I was going to play house maid for that damned rat, so, we brought her home. She was one of the family by that time, anyway."

"Why don't you people understand that she can never be family?!" Kaye shouted angrily. "How many times do I have to tell you before you realize she's just there for decoration? They all are!"

"What about that Yankee girl? You were pretty fast friends with her. Is she just a decoration?" Kyo challenged. Kaye scowled.

"And what about that 'nothing was right without her around' crap? It's bull! You've lived your whole life without her. I don't understand how she's such a big deal to everyone. She's nothing special! She just an outsider."

"You really want me to respond to that, Kaye?" called Shigure. He was sitting on the porch outside the house, painting something, and had heard their conversation long before he could even see them.

"Go for it," Kaye mumbled in a sour tone.

"Tohru, unlike you, accepts everyone and everything for who they are, which is exactly what the members of the zodiac need." Kyo looked away, once again remembering the night he had revealed himself to Tohru and she had not turned him away. The wind blew a light breeze across his face, blowing his bangs out of his eyes and he fingered his beads tentatively.

"I've always accepted the members of zodiac," Kaye growled.

Shigure smiled and shook his head. "But you aren't an outsider."

KS:

"Goddamn! This is pointless! Why the hell am I talking to you about all this anyways!?" she shouted, tugging at her ass length hair and stomping up to her room.

"That was an interesting display," Shigure muttered and continued with his work. Kyo sighed and ran upstairs after his little sister. He slipped through the door and saw Kaye sitting there in the corner, eyes closed, curled into a tight little ball as though afraid of something intruding on her, as if afraid that if someone caught her off guard, the worst would happen.

Kyo sighed, gathering Kaye's attention, which was spanned in many directions. From the knife she was trying to hide, from the pictures she was shoving under her bed, to the fact that her brother was even in the room.

"What do you want?" she snapped, "Go play with Tohru or something." Kyo looked at his sister, and she prayed he wouldn't notice her knife, but it was well hidden in a vent behind her. She hadn't been cutting, just thinking about it.

"Kaye," he sighed again, sitting cross legged in front of her. "You defiantly haven't changed." Kaye looked at his dismal face, the one that had been there for her all those years. Was he trading in Kaye for Tohru? Why was life so confusing?

"Goddamn life sucks," she muttered.

"Kaye, why can't you understand? Of course the members of the zodiac are accepted by you! You're-"

"Shut up." Kaye said, softly, dangerously. "I am nothing even close to what you are about to say, nothing. I've changed. I'm not the same. I never will be the same, so deal."

Kyo looked crestfallen, and stood up to leave her room. "No matter what you do, you will always have your past. You can't turn back time and change it. Even if your past sucks though, you can always look forward to the future..."

Kaye sighed and swiped angrily at the tears forming around her eyes. Damn. Damn, damn, damn! Oh how she loathed life... (IS:)And the worst part about it was she used to hate self-pitying, masochistic people. There was proof right there that she had changed. She had become what she once hated.

Angrily, Kaye turned around and grabbed the knife from its hiding place. While pulling it out however, it got stuck. Frustrated she kicked the vent and once it was dented good she pulled out the knife. She took out her anger, her jealousy, on her arms. She butchered them good.

'My god', she thought, 'How could I have forgotten about the release?'

Kyo had been standing right outside the door of Kaye's room. He knew it was meddling on his part, but he had to be sure… but now he was sure. He heard small gasps of pain and little cries from beneath her breath, beneath her real voice where she needed him. He slid back the door and saw the blood. Just that glimpse of the blood made him collapse. Kyo fell to his knees and stared at his sister. He came to her. Embraced her.

"Not again…" he whispered, a few tears spilling down his cheeks.