Goddess Budding

Her smile seemed to brighten his day, even on a rainy one. Shigure Souma sat, his paintbrush poised over a small round-ish oval piece of clay that had stripes of black on its top. He was watching his housekeeper, Sorata Otonaka paint with careful precision, the Rat Zodiac ornament for the front step. Her heather gray eyes looked so serious, it was almost comical and Shigure had to repress a laugh.

"Oh Sora-chan! You look so cute when you are trying to be serious!" Shigure laughed, nearly dropping the Tiger Zodiac ornament he was working on.

Sora's face flushed a light pink and she giggled a bit.

"Oh Shii-chan! Don' tease me so!" she reprimanded lightly.

Shigure patted her head and continued to paint his decoration.
"You get a kick out of it, dear." Shigure replied, finishing his Tiger and starting in on the Rooster.

Sora made a little face at Shigure and put down her own adornment to start the Dog one.

"Shigure-sama? Where is Souma-kun? Shouldn't he be getting ready for school soon?" Sora asked.

"Hmm...Yes...but her had things to do for the Council this morning, so he went early." Shigure answered.

Sora looked a little sad, but nodded anyways.
"Oh...I thought so..." Sora murmured, putting her half-done Dog decoration down.

Shigure looked at Sora calculatingly and smiled mischievously.
Hmm...someone likes our Yun-Chan eh? Shigure thought to himself.
Not two minutes later, a young girl, about Sora's age with long black hair that was up in pigtails and ruby-red eyes. She was wearing a frazzled and slightly terrified look and was carrying what looked like a Kaibara boy's school uniform and sitting up on her right shoulder, looking a little uncomfortable, was Yuki Souma...in his rat form; both were soaking wet.

"! Oh-no! Souma-kun? What happened?" Sora gaped jumping up to her feet.

"An accident..." murmured the young girl who was acting as his taxi.

"Oh! Who are you?" Shigure asked the girl kindly.

"...L-Lifang Tachibana..." she replied nervously.

"Hmm...What exactly happened Tachibana-san?" Shigure continued.

"Well...I was running to catch my bus. You see I was trying to hitch a ride to the other side of Tokyo since yesterday and I really didn't want to miss it again. I didn't see Souma-san in front of me until it was too late and I had already run into him. There was a puff of smoke and when the smoke cleared all I saw was a pile of clothes and a little r-r-r-r-rat sitting in the middle of them. He told me to bring him here and then...well..h-here I am.." Li replied nervously.

Shigure nodded sagely and looked at the little rat who jumped off of Li's shoulder than onto the porch rail, before alighting on the porch itself.

"I'm going to assume that you haven't-" but Shigure was cut off when Yuki was enveloped in a puff of white smoke and after a bit of coughing and hacking, it cleared...to reveal Yuki in nothing but his birthday suit.

All at once, both Sora and Li flew at the nearest wall squealing "Eek! Eek!"

Shigure dissolved into gales of hysterical laughter at this show of female embarrassment. Yuki turned red and quickly put his uniform back on.

"Sorry, sorry..." Yuki muttered softly, tying his tie on awkwardly.
Sora peeked back over at Yuki and walked over to him laughing.

"Souma-kun! Who taught you to tie ties like that?" She exclaimed lightly.

Yuki turned a bright red and chuckled a bit.

"Eheh...I was never really good at this sort of thing." Yuki answered giving Sora a soft smile.

Sora smiled and fixed Yuki's tie.

"There! All fixed now!" Sora grinned.

Yuki chuckled a bit and ruffled Sora's long dark teal hair before turning back to look at Shigure.
"What do we do about Miss Tachibana?" Yuki asked, suddenly serious.

Shigure watched Lifang for a moment, sort of sizing her up before looking at Yuki.

"We will have to tell Akito and go from there..." Shigure replied lowly.

Li suddenly became alarmed.

"A-A-Akito? Who is that? His he your hit man? ARE YOU PEOPLE GOING TO KILL ME?" She squealed diving behind the now wide-eyed Sora.
Shigure had to fight to keep from becoming hysterical again, Yuki looked at Li like she was a bit insane and Sora looked over at the breathless Shigure.

"Good question...who is Akito-san?...He...he sounds very familiar to me..." Sora murmured.
Shigure regained his breath and looked at Sora. For a moment he looked terrified, but soon it was wiped from his face.
"Eh...he's the head of our house hold..." Shigure replied airily, "We have to run these types of things by him...just to see what he wants to do about a situation." he added.

Sora nodded some and smiled, then turning to the still frazzled Lifang.

"I hope you can stay. As much as I like living with Souma-kun, Shii-niisan and Neko-baka, a little womanly company would do me some good." she said cheerfully.

Li nodded cautiously.

"O-Okay..." she muttered softly, blinking her cherry eyes at Sora.

Sora then turned back to look at the two men.

"What should I do with her until then?" she asked.

"...Hmmm...why not but her in the room next to yours? I'm sure, even if Akito doesn't want her here and erases-! uh...raises hell at the Main House, we can let her stay here until she can find a more hm...permanent place to stay." Shigure grinned.

"...Oh! Okay then. Come on Tachibana-chan!" Sora said grabbing a hold of Li's wrist and dragging her upstairs.

Yuki turned his deep violet eyes to lock with Shigure's gray ones.
"Do you think Akito will let her stay?...Or...will he make Haa-san forget...like those children?" He questioned gravely.

"I don't know Yuki...I just hope that he will at the very least consider it before he blows up..." Shigure replied "...he's been so touchy lately.." he added.

Yuki looked away then.
"Yes...isn't it close to the day of her accident...?" Yuki inquired.
"Mmmhmm...it is it is..." Shigure answered.

"...Wonderful.." Yuki sighed rubbing his temples.

Shigure looked over at Yuki and placed a hand on the youth's lean shoulder.

"Don't worry yourself Yuki-kun. Everything will fall into place, and we may just come out of it with a new housekeeper!" Shigure said animatedly. "She looks like a high school girl even!" he added depravedly.

Heatedly, Yuki shrugged Shigure's hand away.

"You lecherous old man..." he said crossly walking down the hall and up the stairs to his room.
Shigure sighed a bit, the depraved smile still attached to his handsome features.

"...You have no idea Yuki-kun..." he chuckled.

Meanwhile upstairs, after Sora had given Li some of her own dry clothes, she began to show Li the room she would be staying in at least for a while if it came to that.

"If you don't like the coverlet on the bed I'll gladly change it for you Miss Tachibana-"

"Please please! Just call me Li!" Lifang squealed. "Sorry about that...it's just everyone calls me Li...You need not be so formal..." she added a little embarrassed for squealing so loud at Sora.

Sora blinked a bit, a little dazed after the sudden outburst, but snapped back quickly.

"EH EH? Oh that's alright! I'm always like that. It's my fault really!" Sora replied frantically.
"No no no no no! Please don't blame yourself!" Li gasped. "And this coverlet is perfectly fine! I love it!"
Hearing all of the squealing nearby, Yuki exited his room and went to Li's room; peeking inside. He saw Sora and Li sitting on their knees facing each other and looking frazzled, both apologizing for their mistakes, and then apologizing for talking over the other, at the same time, thus resulting in more apologizing for the same thing over and over and OVER again.
Oppressing a laugh on the verge of emergence, Yuki stepped into the room, making the two girls start and look up at him innocently.
Yuki looked between to two pairs of eyes; one pair the color of one's life's blood, and the other the color of stormy clouds, threatening to rain. He smiled softly at the two.

"Calm down girls." he laughed.

"AHHHHHHH!" Li squealed, "It's the Rat Boy!"

Yuki's violet orbs widen for a second and he sighed, shaking his head.

"Oi...Please...just call me Yuki..." he said uncomfortably.
"How do you like your room?" he asked obviously changing the subject.
"Eh? I l-love it Souma-san! Domo arigato gozaimasu!" she said anxiously, jumping up and bowing respectfully.

Yuki shook his head slightly and looked at Sora.

"We're late for school-ACHOO!" Yuki was interrupted when he sneezed violently, falling onto his ass due to the force of the sneeze.

"Oh Souma-kun! Are you alright!" Sora gasped darting over to him.

"Yes...I think so...just a-...a...ACHOO!" Once again Yuki sneezed violently, falling this time head first into Sora's chest.
Sora gasped and turned bright red. Yuki sat there, frozen from sheer shock.

"...Oh my god..." he whispered.

Just then Shigure came into the room looking around confused.
"Did somebody sneeze or was that the sound of an oncoming hurri...cane..." Shigure's gray-brown eyes found the Yuki/Sora scene, with Li sitting wide-eyed in the back, her face also red.

"...And you call me a pervert Yuki-kun! You were just waiting to get both girls alone and have your fun! How could you Yuki! I thought you were a good boy! How frightful-"

Yuki, after removing his face from Sora's cleavage glared at Shigure, his face a bright, bright red.

"CAN IT SHIGURE!" he growled jumping up to his feet every ounce of him ready to rip Shigure a new one.

Sora, who had gotten over her shock, grabbed a hold of Yuki's shirt sleeve and turned him so that he was looking at her,

"Souma-kun? Are you alright do you have a fever?" she asked worriedly, placing one of her slender, cool hands on his hot forehead.

Shocked at this Yuki turned red, and his expression softened.
Feeling that Yuki had a fever, Sora took her hand away and gave him a serious look.

"To bed Souma-kun! You need to get some rest if you expect your fever to recede!" she scolded.

Yuki nodded mutely at Sora his eyes still soft, a strange look had settled in them.

Slowly Yuki turned and left the room going down the hall to his own room. Shigure shook his head comically, before also taking his leave.

Li looked at Sora shaking her head.
"This is a mad house..."

A little later, as Yuki sat in his room, stripped down and wearing nothing but his long black pajama bottoms, he put a hand to his forehead. Even though it had happened over an hour ago, the feeling of Sora's cool touch on his fever ravaged forehead, blissfully remained.

Over the next few days, Shigure was gone more and more often. And even when he was home, he told them nothing of what Akito had said, or didn't say. Two of the younger people in the Souma House lived in daily anxiety, worried mostly that Akito would arrive, as touchy as and active volcano. Sora on the other hand was blissfully ignorant of the threat Akito posed, therefore, she went on with going to school and tending to the house. Lifang also attended school with Sora and Yuki, Sora helped pay for Li's tuition out of her own pocket, but she didn't mind (despite Li's protests, she did it anyways).
After a week had passed, Shigure came home one day with a bright smile on his usually unreadable face. Yuki, Li and Sora all stared at him when he cam into the dining room where they were eating a late breakfast that Saturday morning.

"Well?" Yuki asked impatiently. "What did he say?"
"Hmm...He said...YES!" Shigure grinned happily sitting down at the table in-between Li and Sora.
Sora gasped her heather gray orbs widening.

"Yay! Lifang-chan gets to stay!" she cried clapping her hands together excitedly.

Yuki breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank god. Akito-san does love to take his sweet time doesn't he, Shii-chan?" he asked, returning to his breakfast.

"Yes, yes...but with happiness comes a price Yun-chan." Shigure said gravely.

Yuki dropped his chopsticks, his violet eyes becoming hard like diamonds.
"Oh...? And what is the price?" Yuki said cautiously.
"..Kyo-kun will be moving in and staying with us...permanently." Shigure replied.

Suddenly and swiftly-and surprisingly without knocking the table over, Yuki stood up, glaring at Shigure; the perfect portrait of fury.

"Don't eat. Don't come near me. Never speak to me again." he said his voice perfectly calm, with the exception of the resonance of hostility in it.

"...I thought this might happen. And so that you don't kill me in my sleep as I know you've wanted to do in the past Yuki-kun, I will also tell you this..." Shigure said serenely, watching Yuki with a slightly worried eye.

"Oh?...And what is that?" Yuki replied dangerously.
"Eheh...Kyo-kun will also be attending the same school as you three." Shigure concluded, a massive sweat drop on his forehead.

Sora and Li had been sitting there quietly watching as Shigure began to dig his own grave. Lifang looked at Shigure and then at Yuki.

"Why is this Kyo person being here bad, if I may ask?" Li braved, noticing the growing agitated tic in Yuki's forehead.

Yuki turned to look at Li, his eyes still burning angrily.

"Because he's a moron. He's loud, he's annoying, he's violent and he doesn't even DESERVE to be here!" Yuki said fiercely, turning his heated glare back to Shigure.

"...I wouldn't sleep tonight if I were you." Yuki ended, picking up his breakfast bowl and carrying it into the kitchen to wash it.

"...Trust me...I don't plan on doing so anytime soon." Shigure murmured, looking a little harassed.

Soon after Yuki had disappeared into the kitchen, a shattering sound was heard. Giving Li a worried look, Sora jumped up with her own bowl and darted into kitchen. When she entered the kitchen she saw Yuki standing with his back to her, his fists clenched, his head lowered. And on the linoleum in front of him, lay the devastated remains of his bowl.
"I...I'm sorry...I didn't mean to break it Sora-chan...It slipped out of my hands...I...I'm sorry..." he whispered kneeling down and beginning to pick it up.
"Oh no Souma-san! Don't pick it up with just your hands, you'll cut yourself!" Sora cried running over to him and taking a hold of his hands to prevent him from picking up the sharp pieces of porcelain.

Yuki looked at Sora, and she could tell that Kyo's coming greatly worried him.

"Souma-kun? What's wrong? I know you and Kyo hate each other but...usually you don't let him get to you...what has made that change now?" Sora asked sounding concerned.

Yuki shook his head and sat back on his knees.

"Akito had Kyo live apart from me here at Shigure's for a reason...now suddenly he wants him to move back?...I have a feeling that Akito-san is planning something...and it worries me..." Yuki replied placing a hand on his forehead.

Sora blinked at Yuki as she gathered pieces of broken bowl into her light grey skirt.
"Don't worry too much Souma-senpai. Maybe Akito wants him to move in because he figures that you too need to make up your differences and move on with your lives." Sora answered.

"..I highly doubt that..." Yuki sighed.

"Hmm...I don't know what else to tell you Yuki-kun but I will say that you will just have to put up with-OUCH!" Sora yelped, cutting herself on a rather sharp piece of porcelain.

Yuki's eyes widened a bit and he blushed a soft red then in a sudden puff of smoke, Yuki reverted to his Rat form.

"Oh-no! Yuki-kun! What happened are you alright?" Sora gasped picking him up and away from the dangerous mess on the kitchen floor.

"Eh..I have n-no idea...a-are you alright?" Yuki asked, his blush intensifying.
"Yes, I am fine thank you Yuki-kun. Are you sick again?" Sora asked placing him on her lap.

Yuki covered his tiny face with his tiny grey rat paws and shook his tiny head.

"I hope not." Yuki answered one deep lavender eye peeking up at her from between his little fingers.
Sora smiled and picked him back up again and placed him on her shoulder, moving his clothes off of the floor and onto the kitchen counter, before grabbing a broom and sweeping up the remainder of the mess.

As she cleaned the floor, Yuki looked over at Sora. She was really a sweet and caring soul and he really liked her for that. He let out a little sigh and sat down on her shoulder looking around.

"It's strange how one's perspective of a room or the world becomes when one suddenly gets smaller." Yuki said casually.

Sora smiled at Yuki and nodded, dumping the contents of her dustpan into the garbage can.

"Very true. But I wouldn't know. I can't transform." she smiled in reply.

Yuki smiled a bit and looked back up at her.

"Sora-" he was cut off when in a puff of smoke, Yuki transformed back into his human form.

In an instant afterwards, Sora was on her back and the very slender and very naked Yuki was on top of her.

Sora was staring at Yuki a look of horror, mixed with embarrassment and curiosity on her face and in her eyes. Yuki's face was ablaze as he stared back. For a moment they lay there in a slightly uncomfortable silence. Yuki was holding himself up by his arms and was giving Sora a strange look. One that looked as if he wanted to say or do something. Then very slowly, Yuki lowered his head, as if to kiss Sora when Lifang came into the kitchen.

"Sora is Yuki...o...ka...OH MY GOD!" Li screamed seeing the two on the floor, one naked, the other fully clothed.

Immediately Yuki jumped to his feet, his arms out in front of him.

"Now wait Li-chan, let me explain-"

Li made the mistake of looking down and saw what God (in Heaven) had blessed him with. Instantaneously, Lifang flew to the nearest wall and clung to it screaming "EEK EEK EEK!"

Sora covered her eyes, as Yuki was now standing over her.

Yuki grabbed his clothes off of the counter and bolted out of the other kitchen door and up to his room.

No more than two minutes later did Shigure run in and look around. With Sora on the ground covering her eyes and Lifang clinging desperately to the kitchen wall, Shigure was going to assume that A naked Yuki incident had occurred. Shaking his head, he went to his office and sighed.
"This house will become a circus when Kyon gets here..."

The next day, as the 4 sat at lunch, the front door burst open. Li and Sora turned there heads to look, and there stood a boy, about 5'7' with fire orange hair and reddish-brown eyes and wearing a rather ticked off expression. He looked at Li and raised an eyebrow.

"Another girl? Geez..." he muttered.
"Ah...I thought it might be you Kyonkichi." Shigure snorted.

The boy glared at Shigure.
"SHUT UP!" He yelled, dropping his duffle bag and clenching his fists.

"When you come home, must you be so loud, Stupid Cat-san?" Yuki asked sipping his tea.

Li blinked at the angry youth.

"Stupid cat...?" she blinked.

Shigure nodded.

"Yep...this rude little bastard is the Cat of the Chinese Zodiac, Kyo Souma."