Helloooo again! If you're reading this, well, then, I like you a lot. Uh… Just letting you know, constructive criticism is welcome, just in a nice way please :)

Also, I just came back from 'The Da Vinci Code', the movie. It was really good, so ignore the critics. Well at least I thought it was, anyway.

OMG my bf Mike and I are going to a H.I.M. concert! Eventually!

So yeah, I'm not going to bore you with my life as a New York teenager any further.

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Mahiru gulped, her tea forgotten, frozen halfway to her mouth. "…but…that's…well…."

The man named Hatori-sama smiled kindly at her "Impossible?"

"…Yeah." She remembered her tea and put it down, her mind spinning. 'The Chinese zodiac?' She vaguely remembered her mother telling her stories about them, but that had been years ago.

"Let me demonstrate." Haru-san got up and beckoned to the female servant who had been standing in the corner, refilling their tea when needed. She walked over and hesitantly held out her arms. Haru hugged her, and felt the change come over him.

Mahiru stared. Haru-san had just become a cow. He looked at her. Yup, those were defiantly Haru-san's eyes. "So…I'm not on Candid Camera?"

"Nope." Said the cow.

Mahiru looked at him for a moment, and then at Hatori, who was looking at her gravely.

Then she looked back at the cow.

"Cow-san?"

"…Technically, I'm the Ox."

"I apologize!" Mahiru stood and bowed to him "if that was disrespectful, I mean."

"No, it's fine." Haru looked quizzically at Hatori, if a cow can look quizzical.

"Uh… Ox Haru-san?" Mahiru said shyly, looking down.

"Yes?"

"Well… it's just…" suddenly Mahiru launched herself onto him "YOU'RE SO CUTE!" She threw her arms around his neck and squeezed. "Cows… I mean Oxen of course…

ARE SO CUTE OMIGOSH YOU'RE ADORABLE!"

Suddenly there was a poofing sound, and Mahiru was left hugging a very naked Haru.

"I'M SO SORRY I CAN'T BELIEVE I DID THAT!" she closed her eyes and turned away.

"It's okay, I'm dressed now."

She turned around again to see a very surprised looking Haru, and a highly confused looking Hatori. "So… why doesn't it work with me?" She looked from one to the other, while they just shrugged "Wait, am I some kind of freak? Is there something wrong with me? Omigod, am I even human!"

Hatori was gaping at her. "We turn into animals when hugged, and you're worried that you're the abnormal one!"

"I'm sorry, Hatori-sama."

Haru-san chuckled. "She kind of reminds me of Ritsu, apologizing for everything."

"I'm sorry… I mean, I know. I'm told I do that when I'm nervous. Not that you make me nervous. In fact I'm not nervous at all…" Mahiru stopped herself and took a deep breath "So what are the rest of you like?"

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Akito was angry. They were keeping him waiting. It had been a long time, and he felt the cold that had been just a light breeze seep through him, trying to freeze his anger. HOW DARE IT! He had decided what to do with the girl. She was to live on the estate and break the curse. And if she couldn't? Well, hopefully if she couldn't do that, then at least the Jyuunishi might come to see her often. It would be like having his very own Tohru Honda, attracting the Jyuunishi to him. He would just have to keep her on a very short leash. Perhaps the lost animals, the Rat and the Monster, would like her even better than the bitch, and maybe even come back home to be with her. She was just like Honda, an ugly girl, except perhaps she had business with his family. The Honda girl just intruded. And this one he would be able to control. Akito grinned sadistically to himself.

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Hatori stopped abruptly from his explanation of what exactly it was that made Hiro so intolerable. He looked at Haru. "Akito will want to know what is going on, and the longer we make him wait, the longer he'll have to stew."

Mahiru noticed the Ox's worried expression "Who's Akito?" she asked tentatively, wondering if it was something she could safely ask.

Haru-san looked at her solemnly "He's the head of the family."

"Oh. So am I supposed to meet Sohma-sama? Is it okay to call him that?" Mahiru looked from one Sohma to the other. Then she hung her head "And no I don't usually act like this. Just when I'm nervous." She giggled a little "My roommates think I'm almost impossible to live with. Especially Kameko-san. I don't think she likes me very much. I'm told that when I'm nervous I act a lot like Takara-chan. She's another one of my roommates. When we needed someone else to live with us because of the rent, she came in and was really shy and nice and apologized a lot. That's because she's a… well… a stripper, and people are usually mean, degrading, or inappropriate when they hear that, but she's really great when you get to know her." Mahiru stopped and breathed again. "Sorry."

Hatori-sama grinned "Definitely like Ritsu."

Haru-san was still looking at her with a puzzled expression, though. "Just how many roommates do you have?"

"Um…" Mahiru really didn't want to explain the matter of her extremely low finances with these two men. Even if they were extremely nice men. Men who shared had shared their secret with her… "Four. We have an apartment."

"And how many rooms does this apartment have?" Hatori inquired, brows furrowing.

"Well…" Mahiru blushed "Two. And the bathroom's right across the hall. Me and Rini-chan and Hisa-chan share the bedroom. In separate beds, though. Kameko-san sleeps on the couch in the other room and Takara-chan sleeps on the floor."

"Do you have a job?" Hatori-sama was frowning now.

"Yeah, I work at the Thai restaurant down the street."

"Do you go to school?" Mahiru found the tall man's questioning slightly uncomfortable.

"No… I dropped out a little less than two months ago. I had… other plans for my future." She dropped her head again. "I guess I should go back though."

Hatori didn't pry any further. He simply continued in his explanation about the other Zodiac members.

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Akito could no longer feel his body. It had gotten very cold. He had huddled into himself, lying on the ground, when he realized he had stayed out too long, and no longer had the strength to stand and walk back inside. Now, as the cold beat down on him, the pain medication he was constantly on could not fight back the agony he felt in his stomach, and in all his joints. Now he didn't just lack the strength to move, but he also the will, knowing that any motion would just cause the horrible grating sensation his bones produced when they shifted. He prayed that he just die here, as it was too horrific to bear. When he realized what he had just done, he almost laughed to himself, but better not to waste his breath. He had just prayed. To who? Himself? If it had been up to him, Akito would have had himself dead years ago, as soon as he had been too ill to stand on his own for the first time, back on his ninth birthday. His condition had only worsened since then. But he knew that he would never kill himself. He would continue to live, as long as possible, as long as this dying, frail, brittle shell he called his body could possibly support him. Every time a new Sohma baby was born, Akito felt a small rush of pride. Because he was alive, that child would be able to grow up. Because he refused to die right now, the baby he knew the Ram's mother was heavy with would be able to go outside and run, as he had never been able to. So, as he saw it, all the Sohma's owed their lives to him. Not only did he keep their children, the Jyuunishi, alive with his life force, but because he had been born when he was, and because he carried on living, they were all happy. They were all indebted to him, each one of them could have been born with the suffering he faced everyday, but he saved them from it. He was their God, and he would not pass on his burden just yet. They belonged to him. What did the Honda bitch ever do for them? Nothing. He had given them their lives. Little Yuki and Kyo… So close in age to him. Yet still running free, as he would never be able to do. All he could do was order people to do his bidding. And so he would continue to do, ordering Kyo's confinement and the punishment he was planning for Yuki, even if it was with his last rasping breath, which he knew would come soon. Akito had been told that they did not understand his fascination with them. In fact it was that the Rat and the Monster were so close in age to him. They did not know how very close they had come to being there… An infirm huddle on the ground in the cold. That brought him back to the present. His breaths were coming harder now, barely coming at all, and the physical anguish of his soon-to-be corpse was overwhelming him…

'WHERE THE HELL IS HATORI?'

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Hatori almost choked on his tea with surprise when his cell phone rang. "Excuse me," he told Mahiru "This will only take a second."

She heard some incoherent shouting explode from his phone for a few seconds, and then he snapped it shut.

"It seems Hiro's mother is in a lot of pain at the moment, I'd better go check on her. I'm terribly sorry." He looked pointedly at Haru "You can give her the… er… approved tour?"

"What…" Haru was confused, and then Hatori gave him the look that seemed to say 'BEWARE OF AKITO' that only the Jyuunishi can achieve. "Oooh… sure. Come on Mahiru, it's a great house." And with that, Mahiru gathered her coat into her arms, and both groups left the tea room.

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Mahiru followed Haru-san out of the tea room and into a hallway. The house was huge. She gaped. "My apartment would fit as least eight times over in here…"

Haru-san turned and smiled at her "And only one person really lives here. Haa-san stays here sometimes, and there are always servants here, but mostly it's just Akito-sama."

"Aw… that's sure to get lonely. And slightly creepy, especially this house is just so damn big." Mahriu spun in the hallway, laughing. She stopped when she saw he looked slightly uncomfortable "Are you okay, Haru-san?"

"…I think I drank too much tea. I'm gonna use the bathroom. You can look around if you want, but if there's someone in a room already, don't go in, even if they're screaming bloody murder. Knock on every door before you go in, even if the door's open, and even if someone tells you to come in, ignore them. Got it?"

"Uh… sure. No human contact. Got it." Mahiru was slightly confused, but shrugged it off as Haru-san disappeared around a corner. She went skipping down a hallway, when suddenly she felt a draft. She turned and found a closed door. Remembering Haru-san's rule, she knocked loudly, twice, and up on receiving no answer, opened the door. There was a chill in the room, nothing too bad, but if left alone with the door closed could make the room freezing for hours. She noticed the room was spacious, although sparsely furnished. It smelled of the cold night air and slightly of rubbing alcohol, and that smell that high fevers always seem to leave in a room, a sickly sweet odor that invades everything and makes you want to retch or leave as soon as possible

Wait…

Night air?

She looked out through the shoji doors that were thrown open wide and were allowing the frosty air in. Yup. It was night. She had been there for hours, and what's worse, probably lost her job for not showing up. She sighed and walked across the room, intent on closing the shoji doors. She took in the large comfortable looking white bed, plain white walls, and night tables, filled with expensive looking vases overflowing with flowers, although they did nothing to make the room more homey. Mahiru distracted herself from the smell by making plans to make the room more hospitable. A white plush carpet on the floor, and a large, overstuffed armchair right by the bed, with a matching sofa opposite it. Then, by the shoji doors, a stone fireplace, which would keep out winter drafts…

Mahiru had reached the other side of the room, and looked out at the night, taking a breath of fresh air, and observing the garden that lay at her feet. She jumped slightly, hearing a soft whimper cut off quickly by a weak, mangled cough, and then a few jagged, grating breaths. Remembering Haru-san's instructions about human contact, she found herself in a dilemma for a little while, but when the whimper returned, this time piteously full of pain, she cast her eyes around for the source of the noise, but couldn't see anything in the dark. She stepped farther into the garden, squinting until she found a shape huddled on the ground less than a foot from her. She bent down and looked at it. It looked like a boy. A young boy curled up on the ground, unable to breathe.

She stood and turned "HARU-SAN!" she shrieked through the house, then crouched down again, took off her coat, and put it over the shape like a blanket. She twisted awkwardly "HARU-SAN!" she called again, and looked down again at the boy, hands fluttering awkwardly above him, not sure what to do.

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Hatori stepped out of the Main House. The girl, Mahiru, seemed nice enough. She had taken to the curse even better than Honda-san. She was hiding something from them, however. Of that much he was sure. He sighed and hugged himself against the brisk autumn air and checked his watch. It was 7:30. He continued down the path, humming softly to himself. He stopped abruptly, then turned and ran back to the Main House as fast as he could with one gasping word: "Akito!"

The God's medication had definitely worn off, and Hatori had completely forgotten about checking up on him. He hadn't thought it was so late…

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Yay, wasn't that fun? Um… I'm trying to be more descriptive, but I already wrote this story, I'm currently on page 30, so it's hard to go back and change stuff, but I'm trying! Really!

So… yeah. Review now and I'll let you hug my penguin named Cherub. He's really cute :)