No excuses for such a late update. Just so you know, I have been working on it. 18 PAGES TOTAL! And now, Ch. 10 is done. I divided it up into three parts so it's not such a long read. Shout-outs at the end of Part 3. Oh, and today's Sunday and Tohru's working from 10 AM to 5 PM.

Chapter 10 (Day 6)

Kyou woke up at 11:00 on Sunday. He lay there for a bit, trying to remember the wonderful dream he'd been having. It had been so good. He'd been practicing at the dojo, in a private room, when someone had slid open the door. He'd heard a girl's voice, asking him if he was ready to go. He had turned toward her with a smile. But before he had a chance to see who it was, he'd woken up.

Except.

Except he had the strangest feeling that he knew the girl's voice, had heard it before. But where?

Dismissing his thoughts with a wave of his hand, Kyou got up and went to the bathroom.

10 minutes later…

Kyou went into the kitchen. As he opened the refrigerator, looking for food, he happened to glance at the clock. It read 11:15.

"Oh, shit! I'm LATE! I have to get to Shishou's! Oh, he's going to kill me! I've never been this late before!"

Kyou continued to talk to himself as he ran upstairs, grabbing his stuff together. He was still muttering when he ran past Yuki's open door. He rushed down stairs, almost bumping into Yuki. Well, he would have bumped into Yuki if Yuki hadn't done a back kick only seconds before impact, hurtling Kyou toward the top of the stairs.

He landed with a crash and another curse. Kyou got up and ran downstairs into the kitchen again where he found Yuki staring at the refrigerator blankly.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR! NOW I'M GOING TO BE REALLY LATE!" Kyou yelled at Yuki's back.

He would have yelled more except Yuki suddenly kicked him, sending him through a wall and outside.

"That was for waking me up with your awful yelling." Yuki said, finally awake.

Kyou would have fought back and kicked the kuso nezumi where he deserved…except he remembered how late he was and how mad Shishou was going to be. So he got up, dusted himself off, and ran toward the front gate.

"KUSO NEZUMI! I'LL DEAL WITH YOU WHEN I GET HOME!" Kyou yelled toward Yuki over his shoulder.

Yuki scoffed at the cat's threat and then turned back towards the refrigerator. He saw a note there on Hello Kitty stationery. Immediately he realized it was from Tohru and quickly started reading it. (A/N: Sorry, I don't what's a typical Japanese breakfast/lunch so I just used typical American food. Sorry if this throws off the story for some!)

Dear Yuki-kun, Kyou-kun, and Shigure-san, (Yuki smiled, he could hear her voice perfectly in his head)

I had to go to work early today. I'm sorry I wasn't here when you woke up. I did make breakfast and lunch for you; it's all in the refrigerator. I'll see you all when I come home, all right? Bye,

Tohru

Yuki smiled at the note and then opened the refrigerator door. Inside he found three plates, each already filled with a perfect breakfast.

Yuki slid one out and looked at it. A stack of pancakes with whipped cream and strawberries on top. He set his plate on the table and grabbed the jug of maple syrup that was there.

A glass of orange juice and cutlery was all that was needed to complete his meal.

After breakfast, just as Yuki was placing his plate in the sink, he heard someone calling out his name. Glancing at the clock, which read 12:00 PM, he thought, 'Right on time.'

Yuki walked to the front door and let Kagura in.

"Hello, Yuki." Kagura said in a subdued sort-of voice.

Finding this peculiar, Yuki asked her if everything was all right.

He never got an answer for suddenly, Kagura erupted. "YUKI-KUN! We are going to have SO MUCH FUN today! I can't wait to start! Let's sit down and figure out what kind of cake to bake, shall we?"

Yuki had asked Kagura to teach him to bake a cake the last time she had been over as he knew that she could cook quite well as long as she kept her mind to the task at hand. Plus, he couldn't think of anyone else to ask who he wouldn't mind embarrassing himself in front of.

Kagura had quickly agreed, knowing the situation would give fruit to limitless opportunities to tease the rat in the future. And it didn't hurt that it also gave her a legitimate excuse to be at the Sohma house.

Ulterior motives revealed, Yuki followed Kagura into the living room. She had already seated herself at the low table and had pulled a book, a notebook, and a pencil out of her backpack.

"ALL RIGHT! Let's get started! Okay, now, what kind of cake do you think Tohru-chan would like more? Vanilla or chocolate?"

A bit overwhelmed already, Yuki mulled over the question. 'Vanilla or chocolate? Hmm…vanilla or chocolate?'

"I think … it should be vanilla. Because it's like Honda-san, simple and pure. Chocolate is too…much, too complex in a way for Honda-san."

"Gosh, Yuki-kun. All I did was ask you to pick a flavor! Not over-analyze Tohru-chan and her preference of vanilla over chocolate!" Kagura laughed loudly, opening her mouth wide and almost falling over backwards.

Yuki was suddenly intimidated by her. He never had been before. Something was wrong; something had happened to Kagura. But it was obvious she wasn't going to share with him no matter how much he asked. She'll tell him in her own time, he figured.

He and Kagura had always had a special bond. He hated to admit it, but he knew it had started because of the cat. Not directly. But almost.

It had been before New Year's, when Yuki was six. He was standing by himself, staring out the window of the main Sohma house. Kagura had walked over, curious. Curious about why the rat hated the cat so much. Why Yuki hated Kyou. Even at such a young age, the animosity between Kyou and Yuki had been evident. And the attraction Kagura felt for Kyou as well.

He'd never given her an answer, not a real one. All he'd said was that was the way it was supposed to be. And then he had changed the subject, questioning her about the New Years Banquet. This was going to be the first year he was going, since his health had always been poor the years before.

She'd answered all of his questions and more. They'd had talked more and more as the Banquet drew closer. And then, the day of the Banquet itself, she'd sat by him at the table, telling him about all the other members, pointing them all out. Making the lonely feeling go away.

He loved his nee-chan and respected her. If she didn't want to tell him what was making her act so weird, well…he wasn't going to bother her with it.

"All right! So a vanilla cake it is!" Kagura said when she'd caught her breath. "Now, how do you want to decorate it?"

"Oh, I've already thought of that." Yuki pulled his drawing out of his pocket, showing her what he'd drawn. (A/N: You guys don't get to see this till Tohru does)

"Wow, Yuki! This is so pretty. I'm sure she'll love it. But it's going to take a lot of work. And lots of stuff. That means we have to go SHOPPING! YAY!" Kagura stood up, ready to go.

"Come on, Yuki-kun! Let's go already!"

"Wait, nee-chan. Wouldn't it be better if we make a shopping list first? So we know what to buy? That'll make the shopping a lot quicker," Yuki insisted.

Immediately, Kagura sat down. "You're right. Sorry," she said, smiling a sheepish smile.

Yuki smiled back, "It's okay. I'll go and get a few of Honda-san's cookbooks. I'm sure there's bound to be a good recipe for vanilla cake in there somewhere." He got up and went into the kitchen.

A few minutes later, Yuki still hadn't come back. Kagura wondered if everything was okay. Getting up, she walked to the kitchen. Inside she saw something that didn't exactly surprise her.

"Yuki-kun, why are you looking for a cookbook in the oven?" she asked Yuki's body as his head was currently in said-oven.

Yuki took his head out and looked at her like she was crazy. "Because, Kagura-chan, a cookbook is full of recipes of things you bake. And you bake them in ovens. So it makes perfectly logical sense to keep cookbooks in ovens. Everybody does that." His tone made her feel a little bit stupid until she remembered he was the one whose head had been in the oven looking for a cookbook.

Slowly, she replied. "No, Yuki-kun. Cookbooks are made of paper. And if you accidentally start pre-heating the oven without taking out your cookbooks, they'll burn. That's why most people keep them in a cabinet or a drawer." (A/N: Heh, my family keeps all our baking pans/cookie sheets in our oven since our kitchen is kinda small and one time my brother's friend, who didn't know, started preheating the oven, without taking the stuff out. So when we smelled something burning, we all rushed to the kitchen and there he was, holding a pan and there was this white/clear stuff covering it. It took us a few seconds to realize that the white/clear stuff used to be the plastic lid of the pan. Heh, that was a fun day. My mom got super-mad at him and now refuses to let him in the kitchen except to use the microwave. Even then, she watches him like a hawk. It's so funny.)

Kagura pulled open the drawer next to the oven and took out the cookbooks there. Feeling embarrassed, Yuki got up and closed the oven door, following Kagura back into the living room.

"Found one!" They'd been looking through the cookbooks for a few minutes, Kagura instructing Yuki on how to read a cookbook and find a specific recipe.

"Really? Let's see it then," Kagura said.

Yuki showed the recipe to her. The picture of the cake looked absolutely delicious and completely edible. In the picture, the cake was decorated with white frosting with beautiful roses in the four corners. The recipe was fairly simple too, since it was a pound cake. Yuki got a small notebook and a pen and started writing the recipe down.

"Aren't there eggs in the fridge already, Yuki-kun?" Kagura asked when she saw him write down "2 eggs".

"Yes, there are. But I do not want to use those eggs because then Honda-san might wonder."

"Ohh, that's true. You're really smart, Yuki-kun!" Kagura said with a grin.

"Thanks Kagura-chan," Yuki said smiling, "Kagura-chan…this book says that this recipe is for a 10x10 pan. What does that mean? It sounds small."

"Oh, you're right! An 10x10 pan means that the pan we pour the mix into, to bake it in, will be that big. And you're right again! It is too small. We'll have to double the recipe if we want to feed everyone and I have a feeling there will be lots of people at this party. And besides, everyone loves leftovers! Can you do that, Yuki-kun while I go see what size pans Tohru-chan has?"

Yuki nodded and Kagura left the room. A few seconds later, Yuki looked up as Kagura entered the room.

"I'm done," he said.

"Oh good. Then we can get going. Tohru-chan has a 13x9 pan and a 9x9 and a few 10x10. The 13x9 will be a little small if we double the recipe. So I have an idea. Let's make two cakes. We'll still double the recipe but use two pans to make two cakes. The first cake, in the 13x9 pan, will be the ones you'll decorate. And for the second cake, in the 9x9, I have the perfect idea! We'll write 'Happy Birthday Tohru-chan" on it and surround it with everyone's names in different colors! It'll look great!" Kagura said with big, bright stars in her eyes, as she looked to the distant future where everyone complimented her on her ingenious ideas.

"All right. That sounds like a great idea. I've already doubled the recipe so we are ready to go to the market." Yuki replied.

A moment later, he and Kagura left for the supermarket.