Chapter 4

TT: Hey everyone, I'm back. Aren't you happy to see me?

Everyone else: NO!

TT: Gee, I feel so loved. ¬¬;; Anyway- first of all, I want to thank the reviewers- I love you all. And a special thanks to Audley, for the advice on Kyo's temperament- I'm not perfect, I do get characters wrong, and I've only seen the manga so there's a greater chance of that happening. Therefore, any advice is appreciated. (And no, I haven't heard of the Mediator series- I'll make a note to look for it at the library!)

And while I'm at it- I don't want Eris to be a Mary-Sue, so if she ever seems that way, please feel free to tell me and give me advice on how to fix it!

Finally, I myself have never seen a ghost- currently I'm at a stage in my spiritual life where I'm question my personal beliefs as well as ideas of whether ghosts exist at all- and none of the theories I put in this story are true, they're simply made up, so please don't think otherwise.

Thank you for the reviews so far! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please send me any comments or advice, be they good or bad- as well as ideas, and I do try to take my reader's suggestions into account.

Disclaimer: I only own the plot and one of the characters. That is Eris, but I don't think she exists. Which is probably just as well, because if I could suddenly start seeing my characters, I'd have a lot to answer for to them.

Half an hour later found Kyo sitting in his room; doing the homework Tohru had been thoughtful enough to bring him. Hovering a head-height, lying on her stomach, head in her hands with her feet swinging idly above her was Eris, watching silently over his shoulder. It was a rare moment of calm, in which the rat was outside in his garden, Tohru was cooking and Shigure… Well, Shigure wasn't bothering anyone, which was enough for the remaining members of the household.

"You forgot to convert it to Moles."

Kyo glared at the ghost behind him, "What?"

Eris reached out an arm to point at the question he was doing, "Moles- the measuring unit for atoms and molecules, remember? You won't the right answer for the concentration of the solution unless you change it from Litres to Moles."

"You know chemistry?"

"Oh yeah! It took me weeks to get my head around this stuff- I never was good at maths- but I got there in the end. Or, at least, I usually managed to get the right answer in the end- even if it did take me three tries. Still no good at maths, though."

"What difference does it make it I get these stupid 'moles' or not!"

"Oh, heaps! Because from Moles you can convert it into any other unit you need. Its used all the time in Chemistry. You going to be learning about acids next? You'll need it to work out the pH." She pointed to the page again, "Just times the number you've got there by the formula at the top of your page."

Kyo did so, before smirking, "Heh, so you have some use after all." Behind his back, Eris let out a bright grin, and there was silence again.

There was suddenly a knock of his door, and it opened enough for Tohru to stick her head through. She smiled as the orange-haired boy looked over to her. "Dinner's ready- and don't worry, I made sure there were no leeks."

Kyo nodded his head and stood up, following Tohru down the stairs. Just as they were reaching the kitchen, Eris suddenly appeared next to him, sinking through the ceiling and making Kyo jump.

Tohru glanced back at him, "Are you alright, Kyo?"

"Yeah, fine." He glared at Eris out of the corner of her eye, who tried to look innocent- her wide grin causing the expression to fail.

Kyo and Tohru were the last two at the table- a fact that instantly caused a teasing remark from Shigure. The cat twitched, but ignored him, focusing on his meal. He watched idly as Eris prowled around the table, occasionally giving someone rabbit ears or doing something equally silly, causing Kyo to choke on his food when he was suddenly forced to chuckle.

The fourth time this happened, Yuki evidently got sick of Kyo stealing all of Tohru's attention, because when the girl enquired if Kyo was alright, the rat spoke up first.

"He's fine- the cat's just so dim-witted he keeps forgetting to chew before he swallows."

Kyo growled, and was about to jump to his feet and beat the pulp out of the damned rat when he say the pleading look Tohru was giving the both of them. Still hissing internally, Kyo remained seated, seething inside.

Then the saltshaker fell over on it's own, the top coming off and pouring sand all over Yuki's plate. At least, that's how it looked to everyone but Kyo.

Kyo had watched, silent and curious as Eris had moved towards Yuki, hovering over the table and reaching down to slowly unscrew the lid of the saltshaker. It seemed to be a difficult process, as whenever her focus slipped the slightest her hand would slip threw it and she would have to get her grip on it again. She'd been at it for 10 minutes before Kyo had choked again- he'd imagined the expression that would cross someone's face when they tried to use it.

Then Yuki had made his comment. Eris had glanced over at him and, seeing how angry he appeared, had scowled at the rat before poking the shaker over with a finger.

It suddenly occurred to Kyo that having a ghost on his side could have its advantages. As Tohru helped Yuki try and clean the salt up, the cat used the opportunity to shoot a smirk in Eris's direction, who gave him a sly grin in return

"I thought ghosts couldn't touch anything in this world."

"Well, yes and no. Keep in mind; I'm guessing a lot here- I didn't exactly go to a night class on how to be a ghost, and how it works. But from what I've been able to work out, we can touch things, but only if we focus really hard, like, harder than anyone alive can. And we can do things like move them, a little, but for that I think I need someone else- someone alive, to acknowledge I exist, otherwise I don't exist enough to interact with anything. Its why I can pet cats- they know I'm there, they know I'm real, the fact I'm dead doesn't change it because they know I'm there."

Kyo was silent, lying back on the roof and staring up at the stars, as he got his head around this. "So you could do that to Yuki, because I know you're here, but couldn't if I didn't?"

"That's my theory, because I can't do anything if I'm not around psychics or cats- or you. Still don't know why you can see me."

Kyo snorted. There was silence for a few minutes, the blissful kind of silence that, Kyo knew, was made up of a thousand tiny noises that humans didn't bother listening to. It was the kind of silence that told cats that it was their turn to rule. Finally, he spoke, turning his head to look at the girl next to him, "So, why did you do that to Yuki."

Eris looked surprised, hazel eyes widening for a moment before turning to normal, and she looked at the roof below them. "Well, why not? You seemed really upset and what he said, and I wasn't going to let him get away with doing that- you're my friend."

Kyo stared at her, stunned at the statement. "Friend?"

Eris nodded enthusiastically, "You're a bit grumpy, maybe, but your nice- really- and I like hanging around with you. I'm your friend Kyo, even if you're not mine yet. And friends stick out for each other, right?"

Kyo was silent for a moment longer, then, "You're going to be hanging around, no matter what I do or say, aren't you?"

"…Well, it beats being alone. And having someone to talk to, and talk back, seems like a good way to keep myself from going insane." She gave Kyo the sort of smile that could only be classified as 'silly', and tilted her head. It took her brown hair a few moments to move in response, as if it only just remembered that little thing called gravity.

The orange-haired boy rolled his eyes, staring up at the stars again, "Just what I need- some ghost hanging around." A pause, "Can you pull more stunts like that on Yuki?"