The Curses' Cold Touch

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Disclaimer: If I owned Fruits Basket, this would not be a fanfic, now would it? I didn't think so.

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Summary: It's the summer after Tohru's first year of high school and she's already been through a lot with the Sohmas. What happens when an old friend returns to reveal a similar curse? A relationship between the Sohmas and the other cursed family?

In the last chapter, whether they were remembered or not, memories were brought up and tossed around. Just like gifts from America. Kristi got hurt, but that's alright 'cause she's all fixed up. Or is she? In any case, Tohru's narrated flashback proved that Kristi hadn't changed much since she left, and "writer's intuition" seemed to agree. The visitor explained to Shigure the real reason of her return, something about forgotten memories.

5.:♥:.The Return.:♥:.5

Later that night, everyone was asleep in their own rooms. After a long discussion, Kristi had won the debate and got to sleep on her cot on the floor in Tohru's room while the girl slept on her own bed. Kyo had not yet returned, but no one in the house seemed surprised. Yuki seemed glad, in fact, but this didn't strike anyone as a surprise, either.

Lying on her cot, Kristi opened her eyes and looked at the upside-down glowing red numbers of her clock on top of her suitcase with the now-broken-latch. With her tired mind, she couldn't tell whether it read 3:54 or 3:24, but she didn't care and it was dark anyway. She got up with a black bed sheet draped over her shoulders. Her wounds were covered by the long sleeves of her short, black turtle-neck night gown and long black socks covered her legs so she wouldn't get cold. As to not wake Tohru up, Kristi sleepily rubbed her eyes and silently slipped out the door. Still as silent as ever, Kristi walked down the stairs and found herself rummaging though the fridge, looking for the carton of soy milk that she had bought earlier that day. "It seems we both had the same idea," a voice called from behind. With the carton in hand, Kristi jumped and turned around to the speaker, seeing his face by light of the fridge, "Shi-kun! I didn't know you were down here...! Tohru-chan said that you haven't been able to sleep well as of late. Is that why you're here?" Shigure shook his head and rose a glass of water, "Nah, I slept just fine earlier this night. I just came to get a drink. I see that great minds think alike." "Either that or we're both messed up in the head," Kristi said before drinking some soy milk out of the red carton. "You haven't changed a bit since we last saw each other." "That's what you think," Kristi smirked between sips, "Why are you in the dark, anyway?" "I wasn't planning on staying up all night, but if you want to, we can—" "Don't be crude," she laughed as she lightly pushed him. "You know you want to," Shigure joked, "you weren't exactly jumping away during that little romantic moment before the kids came home." "Ha! Here you are, you still babble on about—who knows what?—even this early in the morning! And you say I haven't changed," Kristi returned. "I'm not babbling, just trying to bring back what could've been..." "Shh. What was that...?!" Kristi put her hand over Shigure's mouth. Muffled, of course, he tried to speak, "What was what?" The two were silent for a few moments before they heard the sliding door slide shut. "That!" She whispered. Foot steps were heard walking towards the kitchen and Kristi jumped back to hide behind Shigure while peeking over his shoulder at the same time. Before they could react, the lights were flipped on.

"What the hell is she doing here?!" Dressed in a grey t-shirt and black bondage pants, Kyo stood in the door way, his hand on the light switch. Shigure quietly laughed at Kristi for getting so worked up over Kyo's return and she sighed of relief, somewhat ignoring her amused friend until she jokingly pushed his shoulder. "It's nice to see you, too, Kyo-kun," Kristi smiled, pulling the bed sheet tighter around her shoulders as a slight chill ran up her spine. "Tii-chan is simply here to visit us for a few weeks," Shigure explained, "and guess where she's staying!" Kyo stared blankly at the two before he shook his head and turned to walk away, "I'm going to my room...and I'm going to sleep..." "Oh, right," Kristi remembered, "I've got a few gifts for you, Kyo-kun, but they're upstairs in my bag. If she didn't wake up at your housewarming greeting, I don't want to wake Tohru-chan up." "Eh?" Kyo stopped walking and turned his head to see the two out of the corner of his eye, "'Tohru-chan'? Are you two that close of friends already? When did you get here?" "About twelve years ago," Shigure said, "It's a long story and you must be tired. Go to sleep and we'll tell you about it in the morning." Kyo shrugged it off and walked to his room after muttering almost inaudibly, "Whatever."

All joking aside, Kristi looked over to the light hearted writer and advised, "You'd better get some sleep, too, Shi-kun. You're still trying to catch up on Zs from not sleeping well, right?" Shigure nodded, and then turned around to face the girl who had just finished off her glass of soy milk, "Maybe, but before I do that, there's something you ought to know." "Eh? What's that?" "There's a big hole in your bed sheet." "Huh? Where?" Kristi raised her arms into the air and looked down, searching for any hole in the fabric while Shigure reached over and pinched her sides. This caused her to jump a bit with a quiet, yet high pitched squeak and Shigure slid off towards his room, giggling and speaking in a sing-song manner, "Haven't changed at all, Tii-chan. Haven't changed at all." Remembering that he always used to do the same thing in various ways back when they attended school together, Kristi sighed, shook her head, and mentally smacked herself for falling for that trick once again. "Stupid dog."

The next morning, Tohru walked downstairs to find Kyo, Shigure, and Yuki sitting at the kotatsu, watching TV, and eating slices of some fruit from the bowl at the center of the table top. "Oh, Kyo, you're here! Welcome back!" Tohru smiled to get something for a "thanks" from Kyo. "Does he know about...?" "Yes, Yuki and I explained everything to him about an hour before you came down. Tii-chan and I found him sneaking into the kitchen to eat all of the leftover miso and leeks from a few nights ago," Shigure kidded before Kyo's fist slammed onto the table. Once again, as usual, orange cat ears seemed to poke out from under his just-as-orange hair. "I was not! I heard something from the kitchen when I came in and found you and that woman in the dark!" Yuki rose a brow, "Speaking of Kristi-san, she's still in the kitchen isn't she?" "Oh no...is she cooking?" Tohru asked before Yuki answered, "We don't know. We tried to get her out of there, but she didn't want to leave. Could you see if you can take her out?" Tohru nodded with a strong sense of duty, "Y-yes! I'll try my best!" On her way to the kitchen, Tohru's walked seemed to be closer to a march. Kristi had never been that great in the kitchen which often led to fires and the occasional small explosion. The house was already suffering enough as per Kagura's visits and conflicts between Yuki and Kyo. Shigure didn't need a rice-burner-bomb to be the demise of his kitchen to boot.

Tohru found Kristi standing at the counter, in front of the rice cooker. Her hair was messily tied back in a low ponytail and she was still cloaked in her black bed sheet. Tohru assumed that she was still in her pajamas. She looked closer and saw that next to the rice cooker was a tray full of various flavored onigiri. At least, it looked like they were supposed to be onigiri. Thinking of the forms of combustion that could possibly happen, Tohru made herself dizzy, "U-um, Kristi...?" "No, don't make me leave yet," the crazy—tired?—woman in black yawned, "I'm trying to make onigiri. I'm done with the cooking and nothing went into flames..." Tohru looked around and, seeing as how Kristi was right, nodded and left her to her onigiri molding—which, by the way, wasn't any good at all. The onigiri seemed deformed beyond most recognition. While it was obvious that they were different flavored and edible, the triangular shape of the typical onigiri was far from acquired. "She's trying to make onigiri," Tohru explained as she joined the others at the kotatsu. Kyo then muttered something to himself to emphasize the word trying. Shigure's eyes widened and his glance shot up at Tohru, "She hasn't blown anything up again, has she?" Tohru smiled and shook her head, "Everything is fine and she's done with the cooking. K-chan is trying to mold them now." "Trying," Yuki emphasized, "Shigure, what were you and Kristi-san doing last night in the kitchen, anyway?" Shigure sighed, as if in reminiscence, "Ah, we had a little romance before..." Before he could finished, Kristi seemed to enter the room in a flash and smacked Shigure up-side the head with a hand-held wooden sign with a popping vein painted in black. When Shigure leaned forward and his head hit the table, Kristi sat down next to him, childishly put her elbows on the table, rested her chin on her clasped fists, and smiled cheerfully, "I went downstairs for some soy milk and this moronic moron here was already in the kitchen with a glass of water." With his head still on the table, "Do you see what she does to me, Tohru-kun...?" "Don't whine, Shi-kun, you're supposed to be an adult. It's rather pathetic," Kristi pointed out, "besides, it's not very attractive." "Maybe we should try to take the hostility down a notch, K-chan," Tohru suggested, causing Shigure to sit back up and stick his tongue out at her. Kristi shot a playful, yet somewhat deadly, glance at Shigure and then smiled at Tohru, "If you say so, Tohru-chan. Oh! Tohru-chan, you're wearing the locket I gave you!" Tohru nodded and held the heart shaped locket in her hand.

"Don't you have one, too, Kristi-san?" Yuki asked. Kristi nodded and pulled out an identical locket that was hiding behind her collar, "Kyoko-san gave me this one on the day I moved away. I took it to the shop and had it doubled to make the one I gave you, Tohru-chan. The engraving on mine is different, though. Mine says, 'To my best friend Tii-chan,' and then she engraved her signature on it and signed your name, too. Mine has the same picture and everything." "No wonder it looked so familiar," Tohru said. Kristi opened her mouth to speak, but she heard a beeping noise coming from Tohru's bedroom upstairs, "Oh! I've gotta take Tohru-chan shopping!" As Kristi shot upstairs, Tohru reached after her a bit, "You really don't have to..." A few minutes later, Kristi came down in similar attire as the previous day, only there were silver buckles lined up and down her boots, skirt, and gloves, "You ready to go, Tohru-chan?" "K-chan, you really don't have to take me shopping," Tohru said with a smile before Kristi shook her head, "Nonsense, I said I would take you shopping and I meant it." "Do you mind if I invite myself, Tii-chan?" Shigure asked, "After all, you'll need someone to help carry your things for you." "Fine by me," Kristi said and turned to Kyo and Yuki, "You two wanna come along, too?" "No thanks," was heard from both of them and before they knew it, the three were gone.

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Halyu! Been a while since I left an Author's Note, so here goes it:

This chapter was exceedingly long...or at least compared to the other chapters I have written so far. For those who like short chapters, I apologize. The name of this chapter was originally going to be "Day One," so I, of course, had to try to fit Day One in this chapter. Because I am lazy, I did not feel like trying, so I am going to end up making the first full day longer than one chapter. Go me? Not really.

Also, once I am able to get my scanner to work, I shall post up pictures of Len, Lin, well...all of the characters that belong to me will be linked from this story. Happy? If not, do not follow the links, hm? I may even draw a picture of Kristi hitting Shigure-san with the wooden sign. Although I usually do not draw characters I did not create; however, it may prove to be too tempting. Until then, read if you will.

♥KP Wench♥

Also, I have learned how to do the ♥s, so you will be seeing a lot of ♥s from now on.