A/N: Hello (again) and a great big thank you to all the lovely people who reviewed! /hands out cookies to LadyAlina, gimcrak, amekan, nancypants and flilipina-rose and of course Amaya-hime/. Thank you so much! And I'm sorry about the minor grammar issues I had (I wanted to get it out right then, and didn't have time to re-send it to Amaya-hime...and I am too lazy to re-upload it. I hope you can forgive me!) Now, story!

Warnings: Shounen-ai, swearing, violence blah blah blah, nothing you T for teen readers can't stomach


Chapter One


I didn't come-to until about an hour later, lying in the backseat of Hatori's car, with an ice pack on my head. I had been cleaned up and bandaged, my blood stained clothes were replaced with Haru's.

Good. I didn't want to scare Tohru, coming in the house like some creepy zombie.

I push myself up into a sitting position, wincing slightly at the pain near my ribs. It doesn't hurt too much, but I suppose nothing hurts much after you are ritually beaten by your worst enemy. The imprints from my fingernails are still in my palms.

I rest my forehead against the window. I'm supposing that Hatori will take me back to Shigure's house, but I'm hoping he'll take me to Shishou's. I don't want to see anyone right now. God I hate this.

Hatori's eyes find me in the rear view mirror. For a second we're both looking at each other in the mirror, like we're in different universes or something, but soon his eyes turn back to the road. I can feel him preparing to speak

"You've lost a little blood, and from what I can tell, you bruised some of your ribs. So you can count on being a little sore and maybe a bit woozy"

Great, he makes it seem like I've just fallen out of a tree and hurt myself. It's not like some crazy lunatic came and fucking beat me up. No, no one would ever invite me to come over and beat the crap out of me while telling me that after graduation I'll probably never even see the light of day.

Bastard.

"Kyo? We're here"

I was too lost in thought to notice that the car had stopped in Shigure's driveway. Hatori opens my door, like he thinks that going to make it up to me by pretending to be my chauffeur. Yeah, right. I give him my worst death glare and I painfully lift myself out of the car. He deflects my 'attack' and watches me as I manage to stand up properly and walk towards the house. I hate him so much.

I open the door, kicking off my shoes just in time to here Hatori leaving. Good, now I don't need to deal with him visiting us. Yuki walks past me, taking a quick look at me. His eyes linger on my cheek, where the band-aid covering the area where Akito's scratches were. I look away and he passes.

I walk into the kitchen and am greeted with the smell of Tohru's cooking. Usually dinner would be the time I would be ravenous, but right now food really doesn't seem appealing. I can feel my stomach rolling at the thought. Great, now I need an excuse for my appearance and an excuse to get out of dinner.

I survey the room. Shigure's not here, probably off writing more of his perverted novel or sleeping. Yuki's sitting at the table, reading something. He doesn't lift his eyes as I walk in. Tohru walks in, looking worried. I imagine she's afraid she burnt dinner.

I catch Tohru's eye and smile at her. She looks relieved to see me and smiles back, but her eyes widen slightly as she sees my cheek. I shrug it off, saying it's just a scratch. That Haru wanted to fight me again and hit me a little, though it really isn't anything big. She seems reassured by that, thank God. I don't know how I would've been able to explain it if she didn't accept that reply.

I tell her that I'm not really hungry right now and that if she puts a portion away I can always heat it up later. She seems slightly put down by this but agrees and says I should rest if I'm feeling sick. Guilt wells up in me, as I know I'm probably going to skip dinner altogether (unless, of course, she turns teary-eyed on me). I nod, give her another smile and retreat to my room. I can feel Yuki's eyes burning holes into my back, but I don't turn around.


I reach my room and slam the shoji closed behind me and flop on my bed. Ouch. I completely forgot about the 'soreness' described by Hatori, which in other words is 'pure torture'. I sit up and lean against the wall, taking deep, even breaths. I can deal with this. At least I'm not in the same room as the perverted dog and that damn rat.

I try not to close my eyes. Akito's face leering down at me is still press into my eyelids. I don't want to remember that right now. I block out his voice and try to focus on the noises outside of my head.
I can hear Shigure downstairs. Tohru's telling him that I'm home and Yuki's making some comment about that. I hope he doesn't come into my room. He probably won't though. He probably already knows what happened to me.

I zone in and out until the voices outside quiet down. No one sets foot upstairs. I'm glad, their finally leaving me alone. It's strange that the thing I'm scared of most is being alone, but when I'm not alone I want o be alone. I guess it's the cat-always-wants-to-be-on-the-other-side-of-the-door thing. I'm more of a cat then I think.

When I think the coast might be at least partially clear, I leave my room as quickly as possible (well as quickly that I can go when I'm half asleep and injured) and find sanctuary in my favorite place in this house: the roof.

It's so nice outside. The autumn winds play with my hair and make leaves dance. It's still slightly light out, dusk to be more precise. I carefully lay down, until I'm looking straight up at the sky. A few stars are struggling to shine and I can see the moon. It's a half-moon tonight.

I extend my legs and arms, stretching. The outdoors calms me, and soon I'm yawning. I roll over and curl up on my side, to get more comfortable, ignoring the pain in my ribs. My eyes flutter shut, and before I even can register it, I'm asleep.


"Kyo! KYO!"

My eyes snap open, I can feel myself shaking and I can tell I've broken out in a cold sweat. I'm not seeing anything and I start the panic, but after a few seconds an image appears in my head. It's Akito with his dark eyes and sinister laugh. I freak out.

My mind muddles itself and I'm breathing way to fast, but taking in no air. The night feels like its closing around me. It's too small, he's too close. I want to tell him to go away but he's too dangerous, too in control of my life. I think I'm crying, muttering, but I can't tell.

Suddenly he touches my shoulders and its like touching fire. I think I scream, but my ears are sealed up. I hear his voice. I'm so scared, so scared.

Slap! The pain wakes me up, and the image of Akito melts away until all that's left is Yuki, his half lit-up face is slightly confused, but I can also see the traces of annoyance and concern. No, not concern, amusement. Why would anyone be concerned about me? After all I'm just a stray cat.

I slow my breathing a little bit, grateful for the oxygen rushing to my brain. Now I'm thinking more clearly. I'm sitting on the roof, it's dark but pleasant and Yuki's standing in front of me, scowling. Wait. Yuki? Shit.

"That's the last time I wake you up for Honda-san, Stupid cat"

I wipe my face with my sleeve. Yup, I guess I was crying. I probably look like a complete wreck, right in front of Prince Yuki the Perfect. I push the palms on my hands into my eyes, and white spots break out through the blackness of my eyelid. It's calming, but only some-what.

"Sh-shut up! Damn rat!"

My word come out slightly shaky and muffled, since I am talking into my sleeves, but I know he heard it. I'm so angry that he of all people had to see this. He probably thinks I'm weak and pathetic. Scratch that he already thinks I'm weak and pathetic. This will just put me up on the most-weak-and-pathetic list that he probably keeps in his room. However, he's got to have super weird powers to stay some what normal. He's probably gone though ten times worse things with Akito. So why isn't he screwed up about it?

"Get up. Honda-san told me to get you up, saying that if you felt sick it would be much better if you slept in the house, or even better, in your own room."

I lower my arms from my face and give him a snarl, before slowly getting myself up. I was still shaking, slightly, and my rib was burning with pain. Bruised my ass, it was probably broken in three places. The rat was already turning and going down the ladder. Great, if getting up hurts, what will a little physical activity do?

I manage another 'shut up' before I climb down into the house. It didn't hurt as much as expected, but the pain was still there. When I finally get down the ladder I'm panting slightly. Spazzing out sure takes a lot of energy out of you.

Yuki's muffling a giggle, his eyes are laughing at me too. I want to hit him. I've never wanted a fight so much in my life, I guess you always want what you can't have. And now I'm turning into one of those people who have a quote for everything. My day just keeps getting better. I give Yuki a glare and stalk off to my room. Asshole.


I spend the rest of the night staring at my ceiling, and counting stuff in my room. When my alarm clock finally rings, I take a shower, get dressed and leave early, waving at Tohru as I went out the door. I don't want to be caught with him again. He would just make the rest of my fairly normal life more of a living hell than it already is.
A/N: I apologize for any typos etc you might find in here. I'm typing this on WordPerfect (aka Satan) and it doesn't help me at all and does all this weird stuff. I also just want you to know I will not be discouraged by the sad amount of hits this story has gotten! I know KuroxFai fluff is way more popular than KyoxYuki angst! But I will stand my ground! Please review! (note:I uploaded this chapter twice because ff.nt deleted my dividing bars.I am forced to use these ugly bars untilI get back to my normal home and normal computer. I apologize for the inconvinience)