Author's note: Hello there! Once more, I have submitted to the awesome swaying power of your reviews and I have updated my story. So glad you like it! Please, enjoy this next installment ((gives you a cupcake)).

Disclaimer: You know the drill

Chapter NINE: Getting started

Hm, what to get? Jenny thought

It was her first time at the supermarket, and she was getting things to make for lunch. When she had woken up that morning, the cat had disappeared, and the skylight was open, so she supposed the cat left sometime after she had fallen asleep.

At breakfast, she mentioned her idea about painting to Shigure.

"What a splendid idea, Jeni-kun!" Shigure grinned, waving, "but you just leave it all up to me- I'll get you everything you need, okay?"

So jenny had left to go do her grocery shopping. When she got home, Shigure's voice called from his office, "Jeni-kun? Is that you?"

"Yes, I'm here!" she answered back, going into his study.

"I just wanted to make sure it was you. Oh- and I put all of your painting supplies in your room. I hope you don't mind. I picked them up while you were out," he told her.

Jenny dumped the grocery bags unceremoniously on the kitchen counter before dashing upstairs to her room and sweeping the door open. Jenny found a clean tarp spread out on the hardwood floor, and shopping bags full of brushes, pallets, paints, and cleaners were sitting in the middle of her room. But something was missing.

"There are no canvases," Jenny said to herself.

"I know," Shigure said, surprising Jenny and making her jump, "That's why your furniture has been moved out of the way."

"I don't understand."

"Why have a canvas when you have four perfectly solid walls?" Shigure asked grinning, "This room is yours, isn't it? I want you to paint it like it's yours- make it your own. I'm sure it will brighten up this room quite a bit."

Jenny thanked him profusely, but Shigure just smiled and left her alone so she could get started.

Wow, Jennifer thought thrilled, A whole room for me to paint! This is going to be exciting! I hardly know where to start!

Over the next two days, all Jenny did was paint. She cooked the meals, and her housemates caught glimpses of her as she rushed about doing the chores, but all of her free time was spent locked in her room, painting. She was awake hours before the others, and the light from under her bedroom door told them that she undoubtedly stayed up until the wee hours of the night, all of that time- she painted.

Sunday evening, Yuki and Tohru went to do some last minute gardening, and Shigure had to see his editor, so Kyo just stayed home and watched television. When dinnertime came around, though, Jenny didn't go downstairs. The time kept getting later, and Kyo kept getting hungrier, but she still didn't start dinner.

What's keeping her? Kyo thought, heading upstairs, Knowing her, she probably passed out from the fumes from that paint.

He rapped his knuckles against the door and called out impatiently, "Hey, you in there? I can't wait all night for dinner, you know!"

The door flew open and Kyo saw a very happy looking Jennifer, covered in paint though she was. Her jeans and white t-shirt were speckled in different colored paint, her face and hands and even her bare feet had paint streaks on them. Her hair was messy, pulled out of her face into a makeshift bun, and held in place with two paintbrushes. But still, Jenny beamed up a Kyo when she saw him.

"I'm sorry I haven't started dinner yet," she apologized, going back in her room and waving him inside, "but I got a bit carried away and lost all track of time."

Kyo stepped in and looked around. To his astonishment, her room was completely spotless- all of the walls, the floor, and even the ceiling, were covered in clean, white tarp. Kyo was surprised- he had at least expected the room to be as messy as it's owner.

"I had just finished painting when you knocked," Jenny continued, picking up some scattered paintbrushes.

"You don't look done," Kyo commented, looking about the room, "You look like you were just about to get started. So…?"

"So…what?" Jenny blinked.

"Where's the painting! You're done, aren't you? So show it to me already!" Kyo demanded.

"Oh!" jenny exclaimed, then she smiled, glad that he wanted to see it, "you'll have to help me take down the tarp first."

So while Jennifer rolled up the tarp on the floor, Kyo took out the thumbtacks holding the tarp to the wall. When he pulled it away, he was stunned. She painted the walls? He thought. Kyo quickly removed the other pins, pulled away the tarp completely, and looked at the entire wall. It couldn't be denied- it was beautiful.

Once they had removed the entire tarp, the room was almost bursting with color, where only a few days ago the walls were gray and bleak. She had even painted the sloping ceiling- a sunset, with a bright sun at one end, and a glowing moon at the other.

Jenny gazed around the room with a satisfied grin, then noticed Kyo looking at her.

"W-What is it?"

Kyo stepped closer to her, his body hardly a foot away from hers, and he looked into Jenny's face with an expression she couldn't read. He was so close to her- and he was just standing there. What's going on?

"What is it?" she repeated.

At this, Kyo seemed to snap out of a sort of trance, and he looked back at Jennifer in his usual way.

"You have paint on your face," he scoffed, taking his thumb and wiping an orange blot from her cheek.

Jenny just laughed nervously.

"Yeah, I know I look awful. Let me wash up, then I'll start dinner, okay? Oh, and if you wouldn't mind- um- it's sort of a tradition for me, so…uh…could you just…sign one of the walls?"

"Whatever."

Jenny disappeared into her small half bathroom to wash up, thinking, What was that all about? When he got close to me, I just…got so flustered...and his hand on my cheek...He was so…tender…What am I thinking? I'm probably reading way too much into this, Kyo's not like that- I just look awful with this stupid paint on my face. He was probably just trying not to bust up laughing or something…

What was that all about? Kyo thought aggravated at himself, I just got so close to her…and then what? I stared at her! She must think I'm a total dork. A million other things I could have done, a million better things I could have said, and I told her she had paint on her face. Smooth move. But my hand on her cheek…I didn't think she would be so…soft. What am I doing? She's a girl- of course she's not gonna be as tough as a guy would be. I'm just making a big deal out of nothing. It's not like she read anything into it.

Kyo lingered a bit in her room, taking another look around. But when he turned to leave and go back downstairs, he noticed that they had forgotten to take down the tarp from the wall around the door. He reached up, pried out the tacks, and took down the tarp- then he stared. There, around the doorframe were four distinct portraits.

"She did pictures of all of us, "Kyo muttered, reaching up and brushing his fingers across his own portrait.

There they all were, Tohru, Shigure, Yuki and himself. They were life size, thought she had only painted their heads and shoulders, probably to save space. He had to admit- the likeness was uncanny. He even held his bright orange hair against his own picture on the wall to see if it was the same shade. It was.

Kyo turned away, going over to her discarded paintbrushes, and dipped one into a pot of black paint. Sweeping the bristles across the wall, Kyo signed his name beneath his portrait and blew the ink dry.

My Two Cents: Hooray! It has finally come! Kyo and Jenny's first "Awkward Moment!" ((claps)) I wonder what could have happened if Jennifer had just kept quiet? I don't know, and I'm sorry to all of those people who were expecting him to kiss her. I apologize, but it's much too soon. Kyo is just realizing his own feelings, and he still has to accept how he could be feeling for our little Jeni-kun, and Jennifer just doesn't really think anyone could feel that way about her, especially not Kyo. But I will see what I can do as far as a timely ending, though I already know that this fic will cover at least twenty chapters total, and maybe up to twenty five if I really get on a writing jag. That's it for now, but stay tuned for our next episode!