Chapter 37
TT: Hey everyone, did you all have a nice Easter? …I'm going to pretend that you said yes, and say 'Well, that's good to know!'. If anyone who was expecting me to update more quickly during the holiday break, I'm sorry but I've got several assignments that I need to due in this period that are giving me hassle… Say, is anyone an expert with Microsoft Access? No? Aww, darn! Ah well, never fear, because I promise that I'll still do my best to update at least once a week! Okay? Good.
Oh, and happy Anzac Day to everyone – especially the Aussies and NZers out there that know what I'm talking about!
DragonLady - Don't worry, there's more. The story isn't ending just yet… I don't think.
Dark Inu Fan – She simply didn't think of doing something like that. Actually, I think she forgot that the body would fall once she left it.
Yamiyo – You wish has been granted. I'm not going to be responsible for anyone else loosing their sanity, nope.
PurpleAjah – Well, its probably not as cute as you were hoping (Kyo's not an easy patient) but I certainly put it in!
XxFallenxX – You're probably right, particularly if someone had reached out to him when he was younger. However, in this Akito's going to stay evil. No offense to Akito fans like yourself, but he's an effective villain.
Cheeky doggie – Yes, I'm in my last year of high school – actually, its kinda scary. While the idea that Eris might leave Kyo for someone else is interesting, there's a level of trust in their relationship, which would probably mean Kyo doesn't have that fear… That and no one else the pair deal with can see Eris (except Kisa, but she only gets flashes)…
Sillylittlenothing - …Pleasant dreams? Please, don't loose sleep on my account, humans tend to need it.
GirlWaterShaman – I'm afraid that there won't be any romance between Tohru and Kyo in this story. Sorry, but I'm not very good at romance-work, and this story focuses much more on simple friendship than romance. I'm afraid the closest you'll get is Eris teasing Kyo about it in various ways from time to time.
Klove0511 – Sorry, I sometimes forget that other people can't read my mind. Eris forgot she was in Kyo's body because, from the moment they had first spotted the cats gathering, Kyo had gone very quiet – he was a bit nervous, what with seeing a ghost of the cat's real form and everything.
Kyo woke up suddenly, his eyes flickering open and closing again all in a single moment. There was a sunbeam, or at least he thought it was a sunbeam, shining directly into his eyes.
For a moment, he was confused. He hurt; there was a sharp stinging pain near his temple, and a dull ache in his chest. Why was he in pain? A memory of Akito's face flashed through his head, making him flinch. Well, at least he remembered that much. He tried to make sense of his jumbled memories. He was blaming the difficulty of the task on he head wound Akito had given him. If he recalled… Akito had come for a 'visit'. A jumble of images flashed through his mind: cat specters filled with a fury so powerful that it radiated off them in a red haze, some kind of cross necklace, moving without making himself? Eris, looking scared, reaching for him, fading.
Eris! Kyo's eyes snapped open again, completely ignoring the bright light and forced himself up into a sitting position. He was scarcely aware of the pain caused by the sudden movement, or the way it made his vision swim. His heart was beating frantically in his chest, Eris had disappeared! A tiny voice in his head reminded him that she'd come back, but how could he be sure that it wasn't just a dream or an illusion? His red eyes glanced around the room several times, searching for her frantically, irrationally afraid that she hadn't actually returned at all.
His eyes past her three times before his vision was steady enough to actually spot the ghost, sitting by the window with light streaming through her, staring out into the garden. He let out a shaky sigh he hadn't known he'd been holding in.
The sound made Eris glance around, her expression becoming bright as their eyes met. "NeKyo, you're awake! Are you feeling alright?" She moved to stand next to him, by the bed.
Kyo stared up at Eris for a second longer, before his vision blurred, this time from tears. Before either of them knew what had happened, Kyo had flung his arms around Eris, face pressed against her stomach, still shivering a little.
The ghost tensed at the unexpected action, blinking in surprise, both at Kyo and the fact that he hadn't fallen through her. She stared down at Kyo in shock for a moment, before hugging him around the shoulders, trying to offer whatever comfort Kyo needed. "Uh, NeKyo…?"
Kyo shuddered, both from cold and something more emotional, closing his eyes against the tears that stubbornly insisted on staying. He opened his mouth to speak, but had to swallow back a lump in his throat first, "I –You scared me, Eris. I thought I'd lost you…"
Eris blinked once, startled by the confession. It wasn't like Kyo to act like this, though she couldn't really blame him. She grinned brightly, hoping that normalcy would help soothe the cat's worn emotions, "Nah, I'm too stubborn to just up-and-leave because of a little something like that."
Hatori's gaze pierced through Kyo as the cat fidgeted again, "Sit still, I'm almost finished." The swab of cotton wool in his hands continued to clean the wound on Kyo's temple.
Kyo muttered something under his breath, flinching away from the cotton wool that stung his wound. "It doesn't need to be cleaned!"
Eris watched in what could have almost been fascination, "You fight with Yuki every day, and take his punches and kicks with less than a grunt, didn't do much more than gasp when Akito kicked you that day at the main house, hardly flinched when you sprained your ankle jumping off a school roof – I told you it was a bad idea – but the moment it comes to cleaning the cuts…"
Kyo glared at the ghost sitting at the foot of his bed, ignoring Hatori's work in favour of Eris, "I swear, if you say 'I told you so' about that roof incident one more time, I'll…"
Hatori pulled the cat's head back into position, ignoring the professional doctor in him that suggested the head wound was making Kyo hallucinate. Once he could reach the wound again, he began to recover the small bleeding wound.
"Ow!" Kyo pulled away from the doctor's fingers, sending his older cousin a nasty look, "That hurt!"
"Oh, be quiet and let Spock do his job, NeKyo."
Kyo paused, and then glanced over at Eris, " 'Spock'?"
The ghost shrugged, "Well, I was going to call him Bones, but he has such a Spock-like expression all the time."
"…What the heck is a Spock? Hey, watch it!" Kyo flinched away from the hands that were trying to check his ribs.
"I'm amazed you can move – your body's been pushed to a limit I didn't know it could reach." The doctor put a jar of ointment beside the bed, "This should help with any aching muscles – but you have to stay in bed, your body would be barely able to support itself right now."
"Don't be stupid, the only thing wrong with me is a cold that someone gave me by lowering my entire body temperature to minus 5 degrees." The cat gave a pointed look to, what appeared to be, thin air. Unseen by everyone else, Eris gave Kyo a childlike look, behind looking up at the ceiling and whistling innocently.
Hatori removed the thermometer from Kyo's mouth, secretly amazed that the cat had been able to keep it under his tongue with all the complaining he'd been doing. "Your temperature's gone down – just stay in bed until your body recovers. Tohru said she'd bring you your schoolwork."
Kyo leaned back against the pillow set against the headboard, wincing slightly at the pain of his ribs, "Quit bothering me already – go take care of Akito or something, so that you leave me alone long enough to get out of this bed!"
"…Akito has no need for my services at the moment – he's been in a coma since Saturday."
Kyo froze, slowly turning his head around to look back at Hatori, eyes wide, "What!" He asked, almost positive he'd heard wrong.
"Akito is in a coma."
Kyo's expression didn't change, instead his eyes glanced over to the end of the bed; unseen to Hatori, Eris nodded in silence. Kyo swallowed heavily. "Oh…" His voice had gone quiet, nearly monotone and emotionless.
Hatori packed his things and left the room without another word. Kyo didn't speak, instead staring at the blanket under on his lap in with wide eyes. It was only after the door closed behind the doctor that Kyo looked up.
Red eyes met hazel, and Kyo swallowed again, "What did you do to him, Eris?"
The girl shook her head, "It wasn't me, Kyo – you said you'd seen everything I'd done the entire time, right? I didn't do anything…" The ghost scratched the back of her neck thoughtfully for a moment, "The cats just got pushed a little too far, and showed their claws."