AN: I've already written this out, but my disk managed to delete it somehow. Which is annoying because it was about 1500 words. Oh, and the row of stars etc means a change of scene.

/candle flames/

One… two… three…

She watched the wick of each candle flare up – a short burst of hope – and then settle down to burn steadily away.

Five… six… seven…

How old had they been when she first met him? She would have seen him at his first juunishi banquet of course, when she was two and he wasn't even a year old – but when did she first get to know him? When did she stop seeing him as just another member of the Zodiac?

Eight… nine…

'Look, baby,' Rin whispered. 'Look at the pretty lights.'

It was dark already when Yuki drove through the gates to the Inner Sohma estate. Another day had gone by… another meaningless day.

After he left Rin and her son at the cemetery car park that morning, he'd spent the rest of the day in town, buying groceries and stationery. Yuki always catered for himself now. Akito liked Yuki to eat meals with him, but the Head of the family was often too busy or too sick, and so Yuki managed to escape, mostly.

Shortly after he'd graduated, someone had arranged for Yuki to have a job in one of the smaller Sohma businesses. He'd been offered the position with the strong hint that refusing it wasn't an option. Now Yuki spent most of his time managing accounts for products he didn't even care about. It kept him within Akito's reach, which he suspected was why he'd been given the job.

He parked the car and collected his shopping from the back seat. Despite it being April the night was cold and he shivered. He didn't need keys to get into the building – it was a large structure with many different apartments. Yuki had a suite of three rooms that he'd moved into shortly after he graduated, the same time he'd been given a job. It consisted of a bedroom, a bathroom and a third room which he used for everything else. Akito's apartments were in this building.

He had almost reached his rooms when he heard footsteps echoing behind him.

'Yuki-san!'

He turned round; it was a maid, out of breath and relieved to see him. 'You're back late,' she observed.

'Yes,' Yuki said. 'I lost track of time.'

'Oh dear… Yuki-san,' she fluently switched to another topic, 'there is a visitor to see you.'

The surprise showed clearly in Yuki's face. 'Who is it?' No one ever visited him here, except Akito and Yuki was sure the maid would not refer to him as a 'visitor'.

'Your cousin,' the maid said.

'I see,' Yuki answered. 'Thank you.' That told him nothing – he had so many cousins, there were several he'd never even met.

The young woman bobbed a curtsey and went on her way in the opposite direction. Yuki watched her go, her dark hair shining slightly in the dimly-lit corridor. If he closed his eyes a certain way, he could almost pretend she was Tohru.

The rat sighed. Thinking like that would not help him one bit. He walked the rest of the way to his suite with his head filled with the past.

The door was ajar; bright light spilled out of it. Yuki sighed and pushed it open.

Sitting at his desk, with her head on a stack of papers Yuki had forgotten to file away, was a ginger-haired teenager. She sat up suddenly when she heard Yuki close the door behind him, and he could see the tiredness in her face.

'Kisa!' Yuki cried in concern, putting down his bags and crossing the room. 'What's the matter? Why have you come here – so late?'

Kisa rubbed her chocolate-brown eyes with the back of her hand in an uncannily cat-like manner. 'Nothing's wrong – nothing new, anyway.'

The rat frowned. 'What are you talking about?'

Hesitation flitted across Kisa's face. She looked beseechingly at Yuki and he saw that under the confident exterior was the insecure child that could be so easily broken. He sighed and sat down in a vacant chair opposite his desk.

'Look,' he said, sincerity in his voice, 'you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to. But – you've obviously come here for some reason – I don't know what it is – but whatever you tell me, I will keep it a secret until you say I don't have to any more.' He smiled. 'Unless you've killed Hiro?'

Kisa smiled back. 'Not yet.' Her face turned serious again, and she said quietly, 'Yuki, I went to… to your old house today.'

Ten candles… eleven…

Rin said, 'I loved you so much, Haru. I still do. I won't ever stop.'

Twelve… thirteen… fourteen…

'Why did you have to leave me? We were finally happy! I thought… I thought we were going to be okay!'

Fifteen…

The baby was crying. She was crying too, a lake of tears that drowned her heart and suffocated her. 'Why, damn you?'

She was tired of all the worry, tired of all the wondering who to trust. Hiro wouldn't listen to her any more, and she couldn't tell her parents. Momiji was out of town on a business trip. She had to trust Yuki, or it would be bottled up inside her.

'Yuki,' Kisa said quietly, 'I went to… to your old house today.'

The shock in Yuki's face was apparent. 'You went to Shigure's?'

'Yes,' Kisa said defiantly. 'At school today… I remembered something. So-'

'What?' Yuki interrupted her, anxiety edging his voice. Kisa moved back slightly out of instinct and Yuki sighed. 'Sorry – I won't stop you any more. Please carry on.'

She'd started to let it out. She couldn't stop now. 'At school this morning, a girl lost her homework diary. She seemed really upset about it – and someone else asked her why, because it was just a homework diary! Well, she said that there was a photo of her boyfriend inside it. She said that it was the only one that she had, and it was very precious to her.

'That… that made me remember something. When I was younger, once Onee-chan asked me what was most precious to me.' Kisa smiled wistfully at the memory. 'I told her it was my new Mogeta plushie. Then I asked her the same.

'Onee-chan told me… that her mother was the most precious thing to her. She also said,' Kisa continued, 'that if there was ever anything that was so secret that she couldn't tell it to anyone else – she could always give it to her mom.'

Yuki was frowning. 'Yes, I didn't understand her then either, and afterwards I forgot all about it,' Kisa said. 'But today… I started thinking, about what she might have meant. And then I thought – maybe telling your secrets to a photograph wouldn't be enough. Maybe Onee-chan wrote them down, and then "gave" them to her mom – to her mom's photo.'

'Kisa,' Yuki began gently.

'Yes, I know it was just a wild guess!' Kisa cried. 'But I thought I might just be right. So I skipped the rest of school and went to find out. And Yuki – ' her voice faltered – 'oh Yuki, I was right!'

The rat's face was drained of blood. 'What did you find?' he asked her hoarsely. 'What did she write?'

Kisa said, 'I don't think I found everything – I'm sure she had other places too. But I did find these.' She passed her cousin a small folded-up piece of paper. 'It's when she found out about our curse.'

Yuki accepted it in silence.

'This one,' Kisa said, 'is much shorter.'

The rat took the second piece of paper. Written on it in Tohru's careful script was just one sentence:

I love Kyo.

'Well I guess Akito worked that out in the end as well,' Yuki said bitterly.

'Yes – but it's the last one that's most important,' the tiger told him. 'I don't understand it – what do you think?'

She passed Yuki the final piece of paper and watched his eyes widen as he read what was on it.

Rin was sitting in a circle of candles. Carefully she lit the last one. She was surprised to notice that her hands were shaking.

She was surrounded by fire. It was so incredibly beautiful. Rin laughed, and the baby was crying.

'Oh Haru,' Rin whispered, 'Can you see me here? Can you?'

She lay down on the carpet, letting the match fall to the ground. There were nineteen candles – one for each year of Haru's life – one for the year since his death.

Rin could smell her hair burning. She felt amazingly free; free to fly away at last.

'I'm coming, Haru,' she breathed. 'Wait for me. I'm coming to see you. No one can stop us now.'

Rin closed her eyes.

/end of part 5/

AN: Okay, this was a bit longer than before!

A note on honorifics: I wasn't sure what Kisa and Yuki would call each other, so I just had them call each other by their first names. If this is drastically wrong then I apologize! I know about as much Japanese as I do Swahili – i.e. not a lot

Having written this all out for the second time I'm hoping I wont have to do it again! Please keep reviewing!