Disclaimer: I don't own Furuba.

Oh, my, god, do you know what happened? I lost all my story's from my computer - and they weren't even in the recycle bin! I was so mad! So, I spent the time I should have been writing this trying to find the files, and when that didn't work, I was copying and pasting directly from Fanfiction. Gah! But, in any case, I lost all the data sheets (I keep a sheet with the story-line, summary etc for all my story's), including the one on this one. Luckily, it's all stored up here! -Indicates to brain- Yes, I have one, thank you very much xD

Anyways, I've decided that I should let more out about Koda, because I realised that since this chapter, he's just the 'shadey' character. But, that was hard... real hard. Because letting out a lot about Koda all at once would let out his relationship with Shigure, and I don't want that to happen for a while yet. (I want to add more scenes with Kyo and Shigure first xD). So, I added some cute - well, I think they're cute - memories between the pair. Can you guess their relationship? Also, have ya guessed the significance of Koda's Zodiac sign (what it is, should be pretty obvious by now), to Shigure's? Believe me, I'll keep you in suspence for a while, but I'll let out little secrets... whoot!

Not so much comedy in this one, sorry, please forgive me. (I like pie n.n!)

Anyways, please enjoy, and don't forget to review!

Part Fifteen: Memories

"Shigure-nii-chan! Shigure-nii-chan, wait for me!" The boy called, picking himself off the dirt ground that he had fallen on. Shigure, the other boy, who was much further ahead stopped and turned back to look at him.

"Koda-chan, did you fall over again?" Shigure blinked, brushing his black hair away from his face. Grinning, he ran back in the direction of smaller boy, putting a protective hand around his shoulder. "Neh, you're not supposed to be so clumsy, you know?"

"I can't help it!" Koda whined, but Shigure simply grinned back.

"Race you to that tree!" Shigure said, grinning. He released his hold on Koda, and began the mad dash for the tree that they normally played at. "Go!"

"No fair, Shigure-nii-chan! You got a head start!" Koda cried, but joined in the race regardless.

The two boys were running through the forest that once surrounded the Sohma estate, and they had been doing so all morning. Who wouldn't? There were tree's everywhere – climbable trees, and the sun was out, dappling the ground along with the shadows of the tree. Dirt rocks dappled the dirt ground, seemingly only there to trip the ever-careless Koda.

"I win!" Shigure sang, planting his hand on the trunk of the tree.

"But you cheated!" Koda muttered. He wasn't far behind, so he reached the tree only moments after Shigure did. Shigure chose to ignore the comment.

The tree was huge, and quite possibly the oldest one in the entire estate. They both weren't sure what kind of tree it was, but it had a giant trunk, with thick branches that reached out at all different angles. The leafs were green and brown in colour, symbolising the beginning of Autumn.

Shigure ambled up the trunk first, sitting on the branch lowest to the ground, he extended his hand to Koda. "Here, Koda-chan, I'll help you up."

Koda grinned, and took the hand.

Koda awoke with a start, sitting up quickly, he rubbed his head. What had he been thinking? What had he been dreaming? The memory had taken Koda completely by surprise – the first memory based dream he'd had since he arrived at Shigure's. How many years ago had that happened? He didn't remember that day in particular, but he remembered the tree, and all the time they'd spent there.

"Shigure... nii... chan... eh?" He muttered, holding the hand that had taken Shigure's in the dream up to his face, calling Shigure that now was completely out of the question. He hadn't even called him that by accident, and it had been three days of sitting around the house with nobody but Shigure for company.

But, now, staring at his hand – it felt so dirty! He was sure he could see it covered in filth, horrid filth!

He ripped the covers off of his bed, stormed across the hall directly into the bathroom, turned on the tap, and began scrubbing it as hard as he could. "Remove the filth... remove the filth..."

"Ah, Koda, have you seen... Kyo..." Shigure blinked, coming face to face with Koda's open door.

Koda had taken Kyo's room on his arrival – with a lot of protesting from the cat, but Shigure had settled that by buying a double bed the day after Koda arrived, and cried when Kyo said he wouldn't sleep in it with him. To shut him up, Kyo had, and had paid the consequences.

"You're not here." Shigure pointed out the obvious to the air, before taking in the sound of the running tap, and turning around. Faced with Koda, who was scrubbing his already raw hand with a strange look on his face, Shigure sighed – Koda had issues. Deciding not to interfere, Shigure moved back downstairs to his study, his mind – for the moment – put off his search for Kyo.

-FLASH BACK-

"Koda-chan?" A young Shigure asked, opening the door to the bathroom, finding the younger boy running his hand under the cold water, tears running freely down his face. "What's the matter?"

Koda didn't answer for a moment, and Shigure took that time to move closer, staring blankly at the red cut, that was no longer bleeding, on Koda's palm. "Wow... how did you do that?"

"I was trying to make a sandwich," Koda explained, taking breaths out for sobs, "and I cut my hand with the knife."

But how did you do that with a butter knife? Shigure felt like asking, but refrained. Instead, he launched into the cupboard beside the sink, pulling out bandages. "We should bandage it up, and then it'll be all better!"

Koda sniffed, but nodded.

Shigure grinned, now wrapping the bandage rather loosely around Koda's hand. "Maybe we should have gotten Hatori to do this." Shigure mused, but grinned. "He wants to be a doctor after all. I doubt he'll make a good one, but..." Shigure's speech was stopped when Koda started giggling, and Shigure joined in.

-END FLASHBACK-

Shigure sighed, shutting his manuscript. He didn't feel like writing today. He hadn't felt like writing since Koda had arrived, for a number of reasons. One, there was Akito's warning, and for another, there was Koda's dark demeanour, one that he was sure he got while in the cage. Would Kyo turn out like that too, if he was caged?

Shigure shook his head clear from the thought. Koda had been pleasant enough with Tohru and Yuki while he'd been staying there, and while a tad of the dark behaviour had been directed at Kyo, most of it had been solely pointed in his direction.

Koda's only this way because of what I did to him. Shigure thought to himself, not that it lightened his mood. What had he been expecting from Koda? Had he been expecting him to be light, cheerful, and all around happy? Like he used to be?

But, then, why was some of his anger directed at Kyo as well? Was he jealous? Or did he simply hate Kyo like the rest of the family did?

If he does, he's nothing more than a hypocrite. Shigure twisted his pen between his fingers, turning to look out the door that connected with his study. But, why would Koda be jealous? I don't understand...

"Shigure."

Shigure blinked. He hadn't heard Koda walk into his study. Okay, technically he wasn't in his study; he was standing at the door. "Yes?"

"Shigure, I'm going out." Was what Shigure should have heard, but at that moment, Koda's grown up body overlapped with the one that he remembered from his childhood, and he heard; "Shigure-nii-chan, I'm going out. Can you tell 'Kaa-san for me?"

"Kay." Shigure answered, turning to look back out through the door. And, that was when he began to feel guilty.

"Shigure?"

Shigure blinked, turning back around to face his doorway, half expecting to see Koda still standing there, but not expecting to see Kyo. Still, when he did, his demeanour lightened. "Kyo-chan!"

"I see you're working on your manuscript." Kyo commented, attempting to have a decent conversation with the mutt, that didn't involve Kyo getting strip searched like last time. So, watching the door airily, he wondered over to look at the place where Shigure's manuscript was supposed to be opened. "Why isn't it open?"

"I was taking a break." Shigure said innocently, before reaching up and grabbing Kyo's waist, pulling him down to sit in his lap, wrapping his arms around the cat. Kyo glared for a moment, but wriggled into a more comfortable position, resting his head on Shigure's shoulder.

I won't make the same mistake twice. Shigure thought to himself, tightening his grip on Kyo ever-so-slightly.

Koda walked into the Sohma estate like there was no care in the world, seeing as his mind was elsewhere. Obviously, he hadn't given up most of his habits yet – why did he tell Shigure that he was going out? What if the mutt got suspicious? Glaring at his, now bandaged, hand, Koda grunted with annoyance.

Before he realised where he was, Koda had stormed directly to his old play tree. Cursing again, Koda turned around to leave, but was met with memories. To his side there were Shigure and himself drawing in the dirt; up in the tree there were several versions of Shigure and himself climbing to all different points, down the path that was once there, he saw them running and laughing... Koda gripped his head in his hands. "Go away... go away... go away..."

"Are you that troubled, Wolf?"

Koda stopped muttering to himself when he heard the sickly sweet voice, but he immediately knew its origin. But, what would he be doing out here? The head of the household hardly ever left his house... did he know that Koda would come there? Slowly, he removed his hands from his head, and looked up.

Akito smiled, pulling the cuff of his shirt further down his arm – if it was one thing he hated, it was for his wonderful skin to be exposed to direct sunlight, but seeing Koda so distressed was more than worth it. When Koda didn't reply, he moved to the next question.

"Have they been treating you well?"

Koda knew that Akito didn't care whether he was treated well or not – he just wanted a reason to lock the cat up as quickly as possible, and to get Shigure back. When Koda didn't reply again, Akito said; "I take if from your silence that they have."

A long silence followed, before Akito spoke again. "Is everything going well?"

"Yes, Akito-sama... everything is going according to plan."

Akito let out a cold, high-pitched thrill of a laugh. "Shigure will be sorry!" He said triumphantly, "That monster will be locked up, and the Sohma's will return to normal, to the way I like it! Everything will be perfect! Nobody disobeys Akito Sohma!"