A/N: Well, thank you again to all of you nice people who took the time to review. I hope that those of you who reviewed to Chapter 8 and 9 were able to see my responses in my profile because I will be replacing those shortly with the replies to this chapter's reviews…hopefully, there's lots and lots!

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Tohru toppled over, and Yuki was barely able to catch her. Unfortunately, their bodies came too close and…

POOF!

Tohru groaned softly at the impact and Yuki squeaked in distress. He was being suffocated by Tohru's body weight.

She jumped up in alarm, "Oh, I'm so sorry…I can't believe, I…but my legs, they just gave out…I don't know why, it's so strange. One minute, we were dancing…" she blushed and hoped Yuki did not notice, "…and the next I just had this searing pain in my head and well…here we are."

Yuki looked at her in concern, "Are you alright, Miss Honda? This is all my fault, I should have taken you straight home, instead of tiring you out. Do you feel like you can walk? Here, lean on me."

Tohru shakily got up and reluctantly wrapped her arm around Yuki's neck for support, while he wrapped his arm around her waist. She was not fond of this close contact with him; her stomach always felt like it had decided to enroll in gymnastics class, and she felt slightly light-headed. Still she had no choice, as when she tried to take a step without his help, she immediately trembled and had to lean back.

Slowly and painfully, they were finally able to limp home. The door to the staircase creaked open and they began to climb the three flights of stairs. All of a sudden, a bizarre shriek of laughter pierced the air, and Tohru chuckled nervously, "Well, I guess someone is having a party, huh?"

Yuki nodded absently, thinking that that laughter was all too familiar, but hoping all the same that he was wrong.

Oh please, don't let it be him…I wouldn't be surprised if it was though…the perfect end to the perfect day right? As if I needed any more excuses to lock myself in my room forever…

Before they had even reached the bottom of their last flight of stairs, the door to their apartment was flung open and a man with silvery hair and swirling red and silver robes stepped out dramatically. His hair seemed to ripple, even though there was no wind, and he held his majestic pose for a long time as the two exhausted teens stared at him open-jawed. Unfortunately, he held it for too long and lost his balance, almost falling. Catching himself smoothly and not a bit concerned, he gracefully stepped towards them and offered an elegantly robed arm to each.

Tohru giggled, and nudged Yuki to take the man's other waiting arm. He glowered but did not want to seem rude in front of her so he reluctantly took it. The man quickly dropped Tohru's arm and swept Yuki up in an enormous embrace. In his excitement, he nearly toppled all three of them down the stairs but he seemed oblivious to this.

"BROTHER!" he exclaimed, "Oh, finally! You have accepted me! You have taken my humble offering of love and shown your forgiveness. Oh, this is the happiest day of my life…well, the second happiest (I can't forget the day that I first saw myself in a mirror, now can I?)…

The man talked animatedly, but Yuki hardly seemed to be listening. Instead, he was trying desperately to pry off the other man's tightly clamped arms from his middle. It was a losing struggle. Finally, he snapped, "Save it, Ayame, I'm tired, Miss Honda's tired, and you're standing in the way."

At the mention of Tohru's name, Ayame turned his attention to the girl, who was slowly backing up against the wall, a bit overwhelmed by this charismatic man.

Charismatic? More like insane…I've never seen anyone retain such a high level of enthusiasm for such a long time…he must have drunk a million cups of coffee…

Tohru jumped in surprise at the sound of his smooth voice addressing her, "Ah…Miss Honda? So you are the Tohru Honda that I've been hearing about?"

Ayame squinted at her for a second before clutching her hand dramatically and exclaiming, "Welcome to the family!"

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Tohru was grateful as everyone sat down to dinner that Shigure had considerately ordered take-out so that she could take a break from cooking. "Everyone" included quite a lot of people. There was Ayame, who turned out to be Yuki's brother.

What a surprise…well, not really, since they do actually look like brothers, but they act so differently that I almost didn't notice.

Besides Ayame, there were also Momiji, Hatsuharu, Kisa, and Hiro; the last two were inseparable, so that Tohru thought of them as twins, even though it was clear that Hiro had the biggest crush on Kisa. They were all Sohma's and even more, they were all members of the Zodiac. Tohru had been quite overwhelmed by all of the new people crammed into the small apartment, but everyone had treated her cordially, especially Momiji and Kisa, who had taken an especial liking to Tohru's naturally mild and calm manner. Tohru was flattered, but she did not realize that this was no surprise considering the usually turbulent atmosphere of the Sohma household; she was a welcome breeze of fresh air.

Speaking of fresh air, in the middle of their dinner, just as Momiji had overturned a cup of juice in his enthusiastic endeavors to hug Tohru, the door was flung open and a disgruntled Kyo was dragged in by a girl dressed in a green dress with big innocent eyes. The eyes immediately squinted suspiciously though, when they saw Tohru.

"So you're the girl that everyone's been talking about, huh? Even my precious Kyo—"

"—I'm not your precious Kyo—"

The girl silenced him with a lethal glare and then returned her gaze to Tohru. All of a sudden, she tightened her grip on Kyo's arm, and looked upward in determination, "Well, I won't let you steal him away from me! He's mine, and if I have to beat out every girl in the competition, well…I will!"

Tohru looked in surprise at this girl. Steal Kyo? What is she talking about? Oh no…I hope I haven't given everyone the wrong impression!

Waves of panic swept over Tohru, and her agitation only worsened when she saw Kyo's face was tomato red.

Shigure, seeing the situation, chuckled to himself but quickly intervened, "Kagura, no one is trying to steal Kyo…we all know he's yours."

This earned him a fierce glare from Kyo, who didn't dare to do anything else with Kagura still keeping a threatening grip on his arm.

Shigure continued, "Come sit down with us, you're wasting all this good food by letting it get cold."

Kagura cast a wary glance towards Tohru and then literally dragged Kyo to the table, "Come one, Kyo, you're keeping everyone waiting…EAT!"

She picked up a giant leek and stuffed it whole into Kyo's mouth, which caused him to promptly faint from the smell.

"KYO!"

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A/N: Well, I know this was a short chapter, but I didn't want to leave the delay between updates too long, so I'm posting this. Don't worry, I'll try my best to make the next one extra long to make up for this one! Gracias, merci, xie xie, and thank you in all those other languages that I don't know to you wonderful reviewers! I love you, love you, love you!