It's certainly been a while guys, I broke my promise. I forgot completely. Just start high school, though, can you blame me? Here's three new chapters to keep you guys occupied, because frankly I haven't gotten a new part from Kit for months! glares Never fear, I will hound her about that 'til pain does she give in. Please enjoy!

IS:

As Tohru sat on the brink of vertigo her thoughts were all jumbled. There were simply too many questions that had surfaced. Everyone had been acting odd today… why? Kyo's excuse was obvious because of the stormy weather, but Yuki had been unusually quiet, even for himself, and Kaye had been a little less than energetic. There had been several rainy days they'd encountered together, but, somehow today seemed much, much different. Maybe it was just like the last time she'd been to the lake house; everyone just had a lot on their minds. She broke into a small panic, hoping it was nothing she'd done, wondering whether she should bring it up like she had last time or let it go. She just didn't know.

Deciding she would just see how things went tomorrow she rolled over in bed, shutting her eyes and clearing her mind to make way for happy dreams. They would be going home tomorrow. She'd have to call Uo and Hana and tell them she was sorry for not telling them she'd be missing school.

Kyo was on the roof, in a deep staring contest with the moon. The sky had cleared up considerably, the clouds of the day washed away by a tidal wave of stars. He sighed in distraction, his mind elsewhere, making it hard to be relieved that he'd regained his strength.

A breeze blew in from the direction of the lake, ruffling his bangs. As they settled back into place the softness brought an image before his mind's eye; Tohru carrying him earlier that day, allowing him to hide in her hair and cuddling him close. When he'd inquired she'd said, "You're just very cuddly, Kyo! I could hug you forever!"

Kyo turned over, closing his eyes on the thought. He wanted to keep it, keep that portion of the day, keep that portion of his life where he knew it would always be, where she'd always be. In the place where he stored all his memories of Tohru and the times they'd spent together, and the times to come. The place that would forever be shut off in just two years time; his heart.

"Our fathers are competing for the same spot. Did the thought never cross your mind that you weren't rid of me?"

Axle closed his eyes a moment, turning his head away from the girl slightly. "No, it did. It's just ironic that we end up neighbors," he admitted. He glanced to his right, his eyes straining as far away from her as possible, and his gaze settled on his portrait of Tohru, or one of them. This was his meadow picture, but he had painted her in; she was making daisy chains, the soft spring sun warming her hair as it dried the earth and awakened new buds. She couldn't have come at a worse time. Her father couldn't have been transferred before him, or even to Spain instead? She had to come now, now when he was so desperately trying to regain Tohru's trust?

"Look, Teresa, I'm sorry, but if you were expecting us to pick things back up it's just not going to happen. I'm uh," he paused to carefully plan out his words, "working toward a different target right now."

In her trashy ghetto-fab Boston garb Teresa leaned back against the window sill in Axle's room in a way that showed even more of her stomach. She smirked and shook her head ever so slightly, making her look mischievous and scheming. "That much doesn't surprise me," she informed her ex. She let her long black hair slip between her fingers slowly so it fell back by her side dramatically. "What does surprise me, though, is that you're conceited enough to think I care."

Axle perked up, turning and standing to look back at Teresa. The girl's smirk had deepened like a villain about to unveil a plot. This devilish behavior was reserved only for Axle because of what he'd done to her when he'd left. Overall Teresa was a sweet person, a little rough around the edges, but sweet nonetheless, but in this situation she held nothing back. "You don't care?"

"You think I followed you all the way to Japan? Honey, to Australia yes but I'm not that desperate. Believe it or not I'm over you."

"Wow," Axle muttered, a stupid, dopey side smile set on his face. "That's great."

"Damn right it is," Teresa agreed. Axle took a double-take and inquired. "You were my final straw, baby. After all the guys that have screwed me over, left me for dead, and betrayed me as you have, well, that's it. It took you leaving me for me to realize that I hated men. Gradually I became less and less attracted to them. You, Axle, helped me realize that I'm a lesbian."

Axle's eyes widened but he let Teresa continue. "I was never attracted to any of those guys, or you for that matter. You were all basically covers because I was in denial about being attracted to other women, but, now, why deny it? It can only heal me."

"Well, I uh…. Wow, I'm… you're welcome?"

Teresa laughed slightly and stood, her shirt falling an inch above her belly button while her jeans were secured two inches below. "Now go on and help some other girl realize her true sexuality. I'll see you in school tomorrow." With that Teresa swept out of Axle's room, leaving him semi-speechless but nonetheless relieved. Teresa had been through a lot, been with a lot of bad guys, and hey, if she was ready to finally start taking care of herself, he was happy for her.

The next morning Kaye awoke to her adoptive father ripping the comforter off her. The flannel sheets Tohru had put on when they'd arrived were down by her feet, covering, in fact, only her feet; she was a wiggle worm in her sleep, but, as long as her feet were covered Kaye was set. She groaned loudly and flung one of her pillows at him. "Kaye, hurry and get up, we're dropping you four off at school on our way home, so hurry! Everyone's all dressed and ready," Hatori informed her, flinging the pillow back. A much nicer voice floated in next, one which motivated Kaye much more.

"I already packed up all your things, so don't worry about it Kaye. I packed your breakfast so you can eat it in the car, and your uniform's right on your nightstand."

Kaye half-laughed at Tohru's preciseness, how she made her life so much easier. "Tohru, gotta love ya," she called around her pillow, falling out of bed and dressing. Within minutes she was scarfing down breakfast as they pulled out of the driveway of the lake house. Kyo scolded her, of course, "Kaye, you're gonna get it all over me! Keep it in your goddamn mouth!"

"Sorreh Kgyo, I'mn starvink," she mumbled, mouth full just to spite him. Yuki covered his mouth with his hand to hide a delicate laugh and quickly turned away to stare intently out the window. Tohru smiled at the squabbling twosome, now in a heated argument beside her and smoothed the skirt of her school uniform. She glanced down at her legs and then peered over at Kaye's, shaped to perfection beneath her pants. Tohru felt slightly jealous as she observed the rest of Kaye, but, remembering that her mother had always told her to love what she'd been given and went back to discussing dinner ideas with Shigure.

Hatori let the four out in front of the school where they waved goodbye until the car was out of sight; he had to drop off Shigure as well and make sure their bags got back to the right house and all that. The Sullivans passed with a stranger beside them and as Axle stopped to try and engage Tohru in conversation before his sister dragged him away to meet more of her friends the girl stopped dead at the sight of Kaye, who stared back curiously. She waited for the girl to look away, waited for her to get intimidated by her stare as most everyone else did, but it just didn't happen. Her eyes became kind of glazed over and she gave a small smile and wave, but, as Axle was pulled away he grabbed her arm and brought her with him. Kaye watched her go with an eyebrow raised.

"Who do you suppose that was?" Kaye asked no one in particular, hoping for an answer from someone, anyone. She had kind of weirded her out, truth be told.

"Who? That girl with Axle and Kira?"

"Yeah, her."

"Rat boy will find out, he has access," Kyo said in a bored tone. Uo was calling for them from the front door and Kyo rushed forward to deliver some sort of threat to her. "KNOCK IT OFF WITH THE KYO-KYO ALREADY! DAMMIT!" Yuki followed with his head slightly bowed, but, Kaye stopped Tohru before she could go any further.

"Hey Tohru, did you see how that girl Axle was with was looking at me, or did I imagine all that?" she asked, looking her straight in the eye, a slight frown on her face.

Tohru cocked her head and tried to remember. "I… I don't know Kaye, I wasn't really looking…" she said apologetically.

"It's okay, let's get to homeroom." Kaye led the way after then met up with the others at the door and split up with them in the hall, going to find Haru and Momiji. It then dawned on her that she'd moved up and she quickly doubled back to rejoin her brother, Yuki, Tohru and the others. As she opened the slider door into the classroom Axle's strange friend turned to look at her again, the small smile reappearing on her face as she leaned over to whisper something to Axle. Shaking herself Kaye ignored this odd behavior and made her way over to the group by the windows.

"Axle, that's her," Teresa muttered, her mouth barely moving to form the words as she watched the cross dresser stride over to the group she'd been with earlier. "That's the girl I was telling you about."

"Yeah, Sohma's a hard hitter," Axle said sharply, holding a hand to his cheek, remembering her blow. "I'd be a bit more selective. That whole family's just trouble."

"From what Kira tells me you need to be a bit more selective as well, fishing out of your league like that," Teresa shot back, jabbing her chin in Tohru's direction. "She's cute but she's just not trashy, babe. Face it; you've got no chance." Axle frowned at her and went back to gazing at Tohru for a minute. He reveled in how odd it was to hear a girl say another girl was cute, but the thought was erased when Teresa actually stood up and walked over to Tohru's group to introduce herself. He heard her say, "Hey there, I'm Teresa Stone," before he realized that this was a chance for him to get a word in to Tohru. He slid over after her.

"Oh, hello!" Tohru greeted Teresa, standing from her seat and bowing quickly. "I'm Tohru Honda! Are you new here? I'll be happy to show you around-"

"I'm sure she already has an escort," Hana muttered in her creepy voice, glancing carefully between Teresa and Axle and stopping Tohru from giving the grand introduction. She scanned the new girl carefully, shivered, and quickly shut up. Her waves gave her an instant headache; she made a mental note through the pain to further examine this strange activity later.

Teresa grinned at the suggestion. "Axle is much too busy stalking people, but…" she turned to Kaye, ignoring Axle's stunned expression, "Maybe you could show me around?" The Sohmas, Uo, and Hana all glanced around at each other; had Tohru not just offered?

Kaye eyed the girl wearily and shrugged, "I guess I could, yeah…" Kaye glanced over and saw Axle trying to say something to Tohru and said quite obviously, "Not yet"; the thought just reoccurring to her that she'd been meaning to set it up so that the two of them could talk, when all weekend her main focus had been setting Tohru up with her brother. She ran her fingers through her orange bob, watching as Teresa watched her do it. It had been a frustrated action, but, anxious to see where this was going to she muttered something to the homeroom teacher and led Teresa out of the room.

The bell rang and the halls cleared out as the girls continued walking. Kaye got that ever-so-familiar feeling that she was being watched, and willed it to go away; she KNEW she was being watched. She'd been being watched since she arrived at school that day. She glanced around nonchalantly, stopping a moment to pretend and rethink their path as though she were lost (but only slightly; dignity was still important) and confirmed that Teresa was, indeed, still observing her. Once this knowledge was hers it didn't take Kaye long to confront her. "Why are you staring at me!" she shouted at the girl, who merely blinked, never ceasing her smiling. "What is with you? God, seriously, find another gazing point 'cause you're really freaking me out-"

Teresa approached, slinking closer in one swift movement, and put a finger to Kaye's lips to cease her shouting. She shushed her softly, staring deeply into her widened eyes seductively. She reached her other hand up, but Kaye smacked both of them away. "What the hell are you doing?"

KS:

"C'mon, honey," Teresa taunted seductively, moving in closer to Kaye's startled face, "you know you want some."

"Want some what!" Kaye glared a moment. "Oh-ho-ho! Nuh-uh! No swapping spit with anyone, guy or girl. Sorry kid."

Teresa backed off a little. "You're hurting my feelings. Just a little one…"

"No. This is not negotiable. I stay away from human contact other than family. I've never dated, either, so back off. I can deal with being friends, but nothing farther."

Teresa unhooked her arms from around Kaye's waist, a disappointed look on her face. "Then… how about a compromise? I think I know what you want, but you need to do a bit of acting in return." Teresa smiled cunningly.

The gang met back together at lunch, Kaye and Teresa walking in smiling. They took a seat with Kyo and the others. Kaye and Teresa hooked hands and laced their fingers, smiling at the group.

"Kaye and I have something to say." Teresa had a certain gleam in her eye.

"We're going steady!" Kaye had a straight, calm face as she relayed the news.

Silence.

Tohru had the first reaction. "Well, that's wonderful!" she said, blushing a little and clapping her hands together.

Kyo's chopsticks feel to the table in the utter shock of it all. Yuki's eyes opened wide. Uo tilted her head in curiosity and Hana looked at Kaye suspiciously.

-right after the scene in the hall-

"An acting job? And what do I want?" Kaye stepped back in question.

"Well, you probably want something to do with Axle… and so do I." Teresa put a finger to her lips and winked.

"Hmph. I want a meeting between Axle and Tohru." Kaye crossed her arms.

"And that can be easily arranged." Teresa put her own hands on her hips.

"Great. Now what do you want?"

"As I said, an acting job. I need you to pretend to go steady with me." Teresa smiled innocently.

"Why?" Kaye seemd uncertain, doubt clouding her eyes.

"I want Axle to become jealous of me."

…

"So, you're not a lesbian?" Kaye arms dropped to her sides.

"Oh no, I'm a lesbian alright. I want Axle to be jealous of how I'll pretend to go steady, of how I got a girlfriend my first day here when his crush won't even look at him without guilt." Teresa had a glint of malice in her eyes.

Kaye smirked slightly. "You're an odd girl."

Teresa moved seductively forward, "Odder than you know."

"Teresa, I don't mind lesbians, I think they're great. I just don't like them all over me. I sincerely think we could be good friends." Kaye put her hands up to emphasize.

"That's what you think now. I'll give you time." Teresa smiled sweetly.

"Kaye frowned slightly and walked toward a set of doors. "This is the art room…"