Author's Note: Hm, I've got nothing. Read!

Chapter 9 (Snow Melts Into Water)

The next ten days went by in a bland drone for Kita, like a broken record playing the same over-used chords. After having only lived in the Sohma house for thirteen days, she had already fallen into a distinct routine. Usually Akito would still be sleeping after she had woken up so she would sit at the table with Kureno and they would talk. Kureno didn't have as many interesting anecdotes as she did so normally he would listen to her tell stories. Kita wasn't content with talking the whole time so she would ask how he's been and he would share the little information he had about his days. He told her that he rarely left the house because Akito kept him on a short leash and the more she thought about it, the more Kita wondered if she would end up just like that.

She would walk to school alone, sometimes studying for a test she had that day or just thinking and school would progress as usual, except that Hoshiko had started ditching class more often. Since she didn't have any post secondary education plans and since she frequently would come back to school with snacks, Kita and Raidon would condone her behavior.

After school, Kita would walk home with Hatsuharu and Momiji. All the time spent walking together helped them to learn more about each other. Haru and Momiji enjoyed hearing stories about her parents since they didn't have many pleasant experiences in that area. Momiji would mostly tell stories about Tohru Honda and Hatori too. Haru liked telling stories about Yuki and even shared his experiences with his kind-of-ex-girlfriend, Rin.

Once she got home, Kita would go to see Akito and would spend pretty much the rest of her evening with him. Over this time, he was stuck in a limbo where he wasn't very sick but he wasn't fully healthy either. It left him without enough energy to try to get further with Kita but it also made him extremely bored and he would expect Kita to forsake her schoolwork to entertain him. They would eat dinner together, or poke at their dinner, and then at eight thirty Kita would retire to her room claiming fatigue but she really would go and read or listen to music. She still wanted some time to herself and in her situation that was very hard to come by.

That following Sunday was, for the most part, just another one of those days for Kita...

"Oh no! Our darling Kita is dead! Dead and gone! Such a young life. Why couldn't it be spared?" wailed Shigure, his hand up to his forehead for dramatic effect.

Kita reached over and grabbed the pillow on the other side of her bed and hurled it at his head with a groan commonly heard spewing from her mouth early in the morning. Shigure caught the airborne sham and tapped her on the head with it. Shame on you.

"She's alive!" he exclaimed joyously, tossing the pillow onto the other side of her bed.

"Yes, yes, I'm alive. Just because someone's sleeping, it's not the end of the world." she said, rolling over and sleepily opening her eyes. Usually, she found his dramatic speech comical but not after waking up in the morning.

"I agree with you, having just woken up a half hour ago myself, but after nearly two weeks, I get nothing from you and I worry. No quick visits, no phone calls, no letters, not even something so simple as 'don't fret Shigure, I'm still alive.' Nothing!" he said, throwing his hands up in the air.

Kita rolled her eyes. "I left a message on your cell phone a week and a half ago and one three days ago." she said, sitting up and wiping the sleep from her eyes.

Shigure looked guiltily down at the floor. "I must have forgotten to check my voice mail."

"Yeah, for two weeks." Kita said getting out of bed. The clock read 1:30. Every Sunday, she woke up hungry even though she barely ever ate. It was probably due to the fact that she is asleep longer on Sunday than any other day. In fact, she eats so little usually that Kureno once described Akito and Kita eating a meal together as a competition to see who could eat the least amount of food and still complain about being full.

"So how are you being treated here?" Shigure asked, skimming the titles in her bookshelf.

"It's fine." Kita said quickly. It really has been better lately in spite of the fact that she sounded like she was lying again. Akito had seemed to take a break from abusing her. In fact, she had been kind of enjoying his company as unnatural as that may be.

"Are you sure? Everyone agrees that you haven't really been leaving the house since you moved in. Not to mention your attitude change but I'm sure that isn't all based on your new living situation. Losing a parent is difficult to cope with."

"Who says there's something wrong?" Kita asked inquisitively. No one has mentioned anything to her except Hoshi and Rai and they haven't had any contact with the Sohmas.

"Well, Hatsuharu was worried, Momiji backed him up on the attitude change part, and Hatori said that the last time he was checking up on Akito, he bumped into you and you were acting very odd."

Kita was a little surprised at the comments but more surprised that no one thought to at least bring it up to her that they were concerned. She knew she had been acting weird but she couldn't control it. After crying so much, she had descended into a feeling of numbness and was having a hard time feeling even the slightest bit happy so she would typically just mope around half dead.

"I know I have been. I'm just going through a dark phase right now." she said, trying to bring him off the topic. No one needs to lose sleep over her. They have enough of their own problems to deal with.

"If you say so." Shigure replied unenthusiastically and a bit uncertain.

"Hey, some of my books!" he exclaimed, pulling one from the shelf. "I'm touched."

"Yeah, there were some books in here before I moved in and a few of them happened to be yours."

"Have you read any of them?" he asked, practically on the edge of his seat in suspense.

"I finished all your fine literature that was here and now I'm deeply engrossed in the..other stuff." Kita admitted, her cheeks flaring in humiliation.

Shigure smiled deviously. "Looks like shy, little Kita has a bad side."

Kita hid her face in her hands. "Stop it, Shigure. You're starting to sound like Akito during one of his on-days."

Shigure lifted an eyebrow. "On-days?"

"Days when he's not feeling sick." she clarified. Shigure seemed relived by what she meant since he had a much more salacious definition brewing in his mind.

Kita pretty much figured that Akito had on-days, off-days, and other days. On-days are days when he's feeling well and usually up for certain kinds of activity that Kita is never up for, off-days are days when he's sick and half dead, like how Kita has become most days, and other days are days when it is best to stay the heck away from him unless you are a glutton for punishment.

"I'm hungry." Kita declared, as they stepped out into the hall. "I'm going to go see what's in the kitchen. Do you want to come?"

"I'd be honored to but I have to be getting home. I just wanted to check up on you and make sure you're okay." he said, his eyes tracing a pattern up her bare arms, over her shoulders and collarbone, and up to her face to check for bruises and scratches. Finding none, he figured it would be safe to leave.

"All right. Bye Shigure." she said walking towards the kitchen.

"Goodbye Kita." he said, waving from the other direction.

Kita entered the kitchen to find a large buffet set out. Even though this was pretty uncommon, it was certainly welcome. Kita bypassed all the fish and vegetables and instead filled a bowl with a hefty portion of white rice and started constructing a fruit salad. She piled on everything that was there, strawberries, pear slices, peach slices, apple slices, and blueberries, and then she set up camp at the table, alone. It felt weird for her to be eating alone.

Once she was almost done with her food, Kureno walked into the kitchen looking determined. His eyes widened when he saw her.

"There you are." he said, surprisingly calm as usual. "Akito has been wondering where you were."

"Well, I slept late, then Shigure woke me up and I talked to him for a while, and now I'm enjoying a wonderful meal of fruit and rice." she said with irritating nonchalance.

"Explain it to him. Come on." he said, waving her towards the door.

"Can I just grab my homework first?" She looked down at her tank top and pajama pants, not exactly the right attire to be greeting him in. "And put on some actual clothes?"

Kureno gave her a look. "You know what I'm going to say."

She always asked him if it was okay to do things before seeing Akito and every time all he could say is, 'I don't know what he'll think. Do it if you want to, just hurry up.'

"Yes, sorry. I'm going." she said rushing back to her room.

At speeds she didn't even think she was capable of, Kita changed into a pair of jeans and a white shirt and threw a short, v-necked light-blue summer dress on over it. In the same way she covered her face, she felt the need to cover her body. It was winter after all but even if it weren't she would still feel the need to cover up when going to see him. It was kind of like she was making up for meeting him so scantily dressed two weeks ago.

She grabbed her stack of schoolbooks off her dresser and walked into his room without knocking. They were at the point where it wasn't necessary, not that anyone was ever courteous enough to knock at the main house. Akito was standing over by the large window watching the snow fall. Kita didn't even realize it was snowing and it made her think of Hatori. She wondered if he was alone in his office getting depressed thinking about Kana.

Then something occurred to her. If Akito were to have her indefinitely, would he allow the other cursed ones to marry? Or is he really that selfish?

But isn't God allowed to be selfish? Probably, but Kita was still oblivious to that information.

She gently put her books on the floor so that she wouldn't disturb him and walked over to the window. She stood next to him, surrounded in a whirlpool of serenity as she stared at the falling snowflakes gracefully charting a path to the ground.

"It's pretty." she said dreamily.

"It's cold." he replied bitterly, turning away from the window.

Kita continued to watch the sparkling white flakes fall onto the ground and melt away. She thought about when she was three and she had gone sledding for the first time with her mom and dad. She and her dad were in a sled together and they hit a rock that caused them to wipe out and go flying into a snow mound. Mina and Jiro had been terrified that Kita had hurt herself but she just laughed and said she wanted to do it again, minus the rock hitting part.

"Aren't you going to start your homework?" Akito asked, interrupting her memory. He clearly wanted her to get it done so she could get on with the actual interaction part of keeping him company.

"Yeah. Sorry." she said, sitting down on the floor and opening the book.

The first time she had done this with him, he had complained about how she didn't say anything and how she would just sit there working. He had said that he could only stare at her for so long before he would want her to actually do something so she had started teaching him. She would explain her schoolwork to him and talk about what happened during class and things she has a hard time with. It made studying for tests easier because once he understood it, she would have it memorized.

Akito didn't really mind her method of amusement. He had never gone to an actual school so most of what she would teach was new to him. At least it was something to keep him busy while she got her work done.

"What are you doing today?" Akito asked, laying down on the floor with his feet towards her side. As much as he wanted to just tell her to forget her homework, he figured that he should at least grant her the last shreds of education she could muster because she won't be leaving him once she graduates. She may not know it, but that's really the beauty of it all.

"Mostly review stuff in physics, verbs in English, and a few problems in calculus. I'll start with the calculus since that's the most dull assignment." Akito seemed pleased with that response.

Kita quietly did her calculus homework while Akito tried to keep himself occupied by watching her. He wasn't feeling particularly active so admiring her sitting there in a settled state was holding his attention fine. She never explained calculus to him unless she needed to review it to herself because he found it to be just as tedious as she did.

She flew through her English homework in only five minutes and then got to work on the review work for physics. She had already explained everything there was to know about the chapter to him over the past few days so she didn't feel the need to talk about it again. She wasn't feeling up for it anyway and he seemed fine with her staying quiet.

"I can't get this problem." Kita muttered to herself, scratching out her work for the third time. For some reason her answer kept coming out to be so big that it made the problem physically impossible.

"Let me see it." Akito said, holding out his hand without sitting upright. Kita gave him a disbelieving look but doubtfully handed over her notebook anyway.

He held the notebook in front of him for a few seconds and flipped back a couple of pages to her notes on the chapter, skimming her neatly organized sentences and formulas. Then he handed it back to her.

"The weight is in the wrong units. You have to change them in order to use that formula." he said casually. Kita stared at him dumbfounded.

"How did you see that?" she asked, still in utter amazement as she took her notebook back.

"You're always saying your biggest problem is forgetting to convert the quantities into the proper units."

Kita couldn't believe he remembered. More than half of the time while she would explain her work, it seemed like he was too busy staring at her with fantasy stewing in his mind to actually listen to her. Not to sound like Shigure but she was touched. She completed the problem without error and moved onto the next one. Only a few more, she thought to herself gratefully. The downside was that each problem took so long to finish.

Akito sat up, now feeling very bored. The problem had gotten his brain functioning and what he had discovered as a result was that he was no longer in the mood to lie around while Kita did her homework. He deserved a reward for being so helpful.

He inched towards her and ran his fingers through her long, dark hair eventually tucking it behind her ear. He then traced her knee with his finger, running it up and down her denim-covered leg. She didn't show a reaction because she was too busy working to care and that annoyed him greatly. In a final effort to get her attention, he rested his hand on her bended knee and nibbled lightly on her ear, startling her.

"I have to finish my homework." she complained. He always did this. At some point while she was trying to finish her homework, he would be trying to distract her. In spite of how useful he was when it came to studying for tests, he was a major hindrance when it came to completing assignments.

"No, you don't." he purred softly. He took his hand off her knee and turned her face towards him, kissing her roughly and not allowing her the chance to take a breath.

Kita tried to break the fervent kiss but found her efforts to be in vain, as usual. She really had no problem with the fact that he was kissing her, she enjoyed it, but in the back of her head a voice was telling her she had work to do. Despite the fact that her conscious didn't agree, she made the decision to just give in. Usually, she wasn't so apt to forget her homework for him but at this point, she needed a break and she didn't want to argue. She liked him most of the time and sometimes it was just easier to let him have what he wanted, especially if she wanted it to.

She leaned against him, pushing her tongue into his mouth for once and lacing her fingers through his silky, uncombed hair. He gave a pleased moan in response.

He pushed her onto the floor, overpowering her easily, and ran his hand over her soft stomach and down to the waist of her jeans. It had been a long time since he had tried this and he was in the mood to see her nervous with fear. Kita squealed uncomfortably as he thumbed the button, teasing her. She didn't want this but he never gave much thought to her boundaries. He wanted her and that was good enough. Akito broke the kiss and sat down on her legs, his hand still underneath her dress.

"I still have to finish my homework." Kita said sounding surprisingly un-rattled but realizing where this was going. I probably shouldn't have given in, she thought. But it started out so well, I didn't know we'd get here. She thought back to when she had visited him before school and his hands had slipped a little too far. Same thing.

Akito smiled maliciously and shook his head. He leaned back down and kissed her challengingly, as if to say, 'I'd like to see you try to stop me.' Just to show his power over her even though he no longer had an interest in actually taking advantage of her, he undid the button. She tried unsuccessfully to throw him off her and he smiled again, diving back into the kiss. She's so cute when she's helpless.

The sound of a door opening echoed through the room and Akito and Kita looked up. Kureno was standing in the doorway, looking at the couple as if he had walked in on them doing nothing more suggestive than playing a board game.

"Dinner."

Akito sighed and got off of her. Kita stood up calmly, buttoning her jeans and combing her fingers through her now very untidy hair, trying to hide her bright red cheeks from them. As they exited the room, Kita whispered, "thanks" to Kureno, who nodded knowingly.

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After dinner, Kita finished her homework without any intrusions from Akito. He had actually eaten some dinner and having a somewhat full stomach had made him sleepy. He had fallen asleep on his futon so Kita decided to leave him alone but before she went back to her own room, she covered him with a blanket and moved the heater closer to him. Although, he was usually easier to handle when he was sick, she didn't like seeing him that way.

She walked back to her room and collapsed onto her bed, accidently knocking over one of Shigure's books which had been positioned near the foot of it. She rolled off the bed and walked over to pick up the book, but stopped when she noticed a strange crack in the wall. It was so intriguing to her because it didn't look like an architectural flaw, it actually looked like a purposeful fracture. She attempted to slide her hand into it and the wall moved aside. I have a closet, she thought confused. Why didn't anyone tell me?

She moved the door open the rest of the way and curiously looked inside. On the floor there was a blanket and a few extra pillows, nothing too shocking, but hanging up she saw some of the most amazing clothes she had ever witnessed.

The first article of clothing was a yukata that had a short lavender colored robe with a purple lining underneath and a dark purple robe on top. Along the bottom of the outer robe, there was an elaborate lavender flower that resembled a lily and there was a black belt to tie it all together. The second item was an elegant black dress that was strapless and had a tight, corset-like top with a long skirt that was slit a little further above the knee. It looked like the kind of dress Kita would want to wear but would change out of at the last minute, thinking it was too showy. The last item was a beautiful silk kimono. It was bright blue in color and had an all-over design of tiny, yellow-green, purple, and silver flowers.

The person who had this room before me must have had expensive tastes, Kita thought, running her hand over the kimono. She hadn't owned a kimono since she was little and she really wanted one. That person will probably want these things back, Kita thought wishing she could have kept them for herself.

She walked down the hallway hoping to bump into Kureno so she could tell him about the discovery. Luckily, he had been sitting at the table in the kitchen, enjoying an after-dinner cup of coffee.

"Um, Kureno, I think whoever had the room before me left some clothes in the closet."

Kureno frowned and gave her a confused look. "No one has had that room before you...Oh wait, the things in the closet. Yes. Those are yours."

"Mine?" Kita said, stunned.

"They're something of a gift." he said, standing up and rinsing out his cup in the sink.

"From..." she started, knowing fully well that the sentence didn't need to be completed for him to know who she was talking about.

"Yes and he hopes you like them. Goodnight Kita." he said, walking out of the room, leaving her speechless.

Of course, Kita thought. That dress should have given it away.

You look so beautiful in black.