:Shokkingu Shibai:

:Chapter II:

:Kimi, you got some 'splainin' to do:

Yuki and Tohru walked to school the next day in silence. Yuki felt bad. He didn't really intend to knock the cat out. He just wanted to make sure he didn't get beaten. Yuki furrowed his brows in deep thought. Though Tohru was as dense as anyone could possibly get, she knew something was bothering Yuki. She also worried whether Kyo's soup was not too hot or too cool.

Yuki lifted his chin to the sky as he and Tohru got out of the forest and onto the main roads of town. A gentle breeze wafted past, breaking through the humid air. Upon arriving at school Yuki braced himself for the usual goings on.

"Yun-yun!" Kimi raced up to him with a rather large stack of papers.

"Here's your script!" She gushed. "Make sure you read it soon and tell me what you think about it! I just have to find Hatsuharu-kun and Kyo-kun to give them their scripts as well! Have you seen either of them?"

"Kyo's at home…sick," Yuki mumbled.

"Oh that's too bad. Could you give this to him then, please?" Kimi held out a second thick packet of papers.

"Sure," Yuki took the packet from her and hastily stuffed it into his bag.

"See you later Yun-yun!" Kimi raced off to deliver her last script copy. Yuki waved at her retreating back. With a sigh, Yuki went to find some peace in his classroom.

Seating himself in his chair, he took out the dreaded script. As he flipped through the packet, Yuki noticed that his lines were highlighted in bright pink highlighter. Little hearts were drawn in seemingly random places in the same highlighter. Yuki set to reading.

After a few pages of disinterested reading, Yuki came to the first drawn heart. Suddenly he noticed why the hearts were there. He jumped to his feet and raced to Kimi's classroom as fast as his legs would carry him. He hurdled past students, carefully avoiding any close female encounters, and skidded to a halt.

"Kimi?" Yuki called into the classroom. She was nowhere to be found. Yuki cursed under his breath, and raced off in another direction. Suddenly he wheeled past Haru, who grabbed him by the back of his collar.

"'Sup?" Haru inquired.

"Have you seen Kimi?" Yuki gasped, out of breath. Haru released his cousin.

"Yup. Gave me this." Haru said shortly, thumping Yuki on top of his head with a packet of papers identical to the ones he clutched in his own hand.

"Well which way did she go?" Yuki said with growing frustration. Haru pointed down the hallway to the girls' bathroom.

"Of course! Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that? Thanks Haru!" Yuki said mentally chastising himself for forgetting Kimi's favorite place as he raced down the hallway once more.

"Kimi?" Yuki called through the door, knocking impatiently.

"Kimi." He said more firmly.

"Come out right now!" This time he pounded on the door.

"Kimi, I need to speak with you. Please don't make me enter the girls' bathroom." The door suddenly opened, and Machi stepped out.

"Ah. Where's Kimi?" Yuki asked her.

"She's in there brushing her hair." Without waiting for a reply, Machi rushed off, head bent low.

Yuki closed his eyes and stepped forward. This is important. He chanted to himself. Then the frail teen pushed open the forbidden door, indeed finding Kimi at the sink brushing her hair. She glanced at him in the mirror.

"Why Yun-yun! This is just like a romance novel! The man comes and sweeps the woman off her feet in the most unexpected places, not caring how negatively it will affect his reputation!" Stars decorated Kimi's eyes.

"It's not like that!" Yuki cried. "I'm here because of this," And he thrust the pack of papers in her face.

Kimi briefly glanced down at the page indicated. "What about it?" She said truly not understanding why Yuki objected to her writing.

"Kimi! I can't act out this!" He exclaimed, exasperated.

"Why not? I'm not going to change it. It's the best thing I've ever written." Kimi pouted.

"Then can't you find someone else to be the cat?"

"Nope. Everyone else has duties already assigned." Kimi resumed brushing her hair.

"Well I won't do it! Especially not this part:" Yuki began to read from the script

"Cat: Whatever will we do if we're caught? You know we aren't supposed to see each other this way!" Cat looks up to the rat with tears in his eyes

Rat: It will be fine if we're caught! I love you and that's all that matters! Rat grins and lightly touches Cat's gentle, feminine like face and gives him a quick kiss before rushing off stage right"

Yuki paused. "Kimi what kind of stuff are you writing? I'm not sure the story of the Zodiac went like that. And how do you expect me just to cry on command? Is the cat a girl?"

"Well frankly, Yun-yun, I was reading through research on the Zodiac, and it was so dull! So I decided to spice up the play and make up our own version! And of course the cat isn't a girl! Why would I make you play a girl?"

"Kimi, I really can't perform this… Seriously, this is like a bishounen manga gone awry! Especially with my own cousin" Who it just so happens I HATE. Yuki added in his head.

"It's only stage kisses! And you can have a bottle of eye drops handy before that scene if you can't cry on cue. You can handle it, class president! Now now, look the bell has rung. How does it look if the president is late for class?" With that, Kimi herded him out of the girls' bathroom and didn't answer the hundreds of questions and objections Yuki shot at her.

Yuki reached his classroom and parted with Kimi, who cheerfully waved at him as she rushed to her own class.

"Nice of you to join us Sohma," Yuki's teacher said as he pushed open the door. "Have a seat if you don't mind" Yuki obliged and buried his nose in his schoolwork trying not to think about the horrendous script.

Lunch came slow, and Yuki dreaded it. He tried to engage Tohru in as much conversation as possible to avoid the script.

And then the dreaded topic came up.

"Yuki-kun, what do you think about the script? I thought it was really great for the cat and rat to get along, don't you think?"

"Yeah it's great…." Yuki grumbled.

"You don't like it?"

"Well…Not the kissing, I don't like that part…"

"I'll bet you don't," Haru said, coming up to Yuki from behind, setting down his food. Momiji greeted Tohru and Haru and sat down as well.

"Sucks for you" Haru continued.

"Yeah" Yuki sunk lower on the bench.

"We heard that Kyo got hurt. He won't get to come to this week's rehearsals," Momiji chimed in. "What happened to him?"

"We were fighting. And he got knocked into a tree." Yuki said disinterestedly.

"Oh that's too bad. We should all go visit him, I'm sure he'd like company!"

"I'm sure he'd like that a lot!" Tohru exclaimed happily. "I can make dinner for everyone!" And so Tohru went off into her own world, contemplating plans for the evening.

"I read the whole script." Haru stated shortly.

Yuki was practically on the floor. "I don't even want to know…"

"Oh it gets worse, believe me." Haru stared into space, as if imagining the scenes. Yuki smacked him the back of the head.

"I wonder if Akito will come to the play…" Momiji wondered aloud. "I bet it would interest him to see it."

"Did you read the rest of the script?" Yuki asked Momiji.

"Nope!" Momiji laughed.

"I hadn't thought about Akito coming…" Yuki shuddered. He hoped Akito didn't show up. If he saw what would happen in the play, he'd stop the play in a heartbeat, displeased.

The bell signaled them all to return to their respective classes.

The second half of the day progressed just as slow as the first half, until finally sweet freedom was Yuki's.

Yuki walked more quickly home that day. The faster he got home, the faster the stupid cat's reaction would be over. Tohru struggled to keep up.

"Ano…Yuki-kun… Is there something you have to do?" Tohru panted.

"Actually yes, I'd like to get home to study my script as soon as I can" Yuki half lied. Sure he wanted to read the rest to see what horrors Kimi was going to put him through, but mainly he just wanted to give the cat his script and deal with the reaction as soon as possible.

"Oh Yuki-kun, you're so dedicated! After dinner, I will study my lines too!" Tohru said determinedly.

Yuki power-walked the rest of the way home in silence, heart pounding.

Meanwhile, at Shigure's home, Kyo was just waking up from yesterday's sedatives. Kyo groggily rubbed his eyes.

"Damn…Dragon…" He mumbled. He noticed a tray of cold soup set up next to his bed. Tohru must have left it for him in the morning. Kyo tried to move his legs to see if he could get down to the kitchen for a more fitting meal. His legs felt like lead, and moved a whole 3 centimeters before Kyo had to stop trying to get up. The soup was the only thing there, and he was famished. He then quickly downed the cold liquid, and made a face.

Kyo stared at the ceiling. He couldn't reach his bookcase, and there was nothing to do. But like some gift from above, the rat burst into the room bearing books.

"What are you doing in my room, damn rat?" Kyo growled. Yuki tossed the books at him and mumbled something that sounded like "today's work" and still stood in the doorway.

"Well, what are you still doing here? Get the hell away from me!" Yuki's hands tensed on the pack of white papers.

"This, cat, is Kimi's script. So don't bother complaining about anything to me" Yuki tossed the script at his cousin, and turned on his heel.

Kyo half grumbled to himself, half cursed the rat as he opened the script first.

Yuki descended the stairs and entered the kitchen.

"Ah Yuki-kun! Do you mind stirring the pot for me while I set the table? Hatsuharu and Momiji will be here soon!" Tohru called to Yuki over her shoulder.

What harm could Yuki do stirring? He consented.

Shigure then pranced into the kitchen. "Ah what beautiful aroma is our flower creating tonight? What's this?" Shigure inquired observantly at the extra plates Tohru was setting.

"Oh, Hatsuharu and Momiji are coming over to see Kyo-kun!" Tohru said happily.

"Oh well I'm sure Kyo will-" And then it came. Yuki winced.

Screaming and pounding and the sound of things hitting walls met the trio's ears.

"What is going on?" Shigure worried about his poor house.

"Kyo read the script." Yuki said quietly, his eyes intently following the contents of the pot he was stirring.

"What script?" The dog was instantly intrigued.

"School play," Yuki tried to give as little information as possible.

"Here Shigure-san!" Tohru had located her copy and handed it to the older man.

Shigure read over the papers while the commotion was still ongoing overhead.

Shigure unfolded the script back into order and smiled.

"What fabulous talent wrote this?" He said angelically.

"Shut up" Yuki grumbled.

"I'll have to call Aya, and we can go see it together! How splendid!" Shigure cackled and pranced out of the room dodging the sharp utensils Yuki chucked at him.

Upstairs, Kyo couldn't believe it. What kind of crap was this? He wasn't going to be in this stupid play. He threw his script on the pile of other things he threw at the walls.

Suddenly Shigure danced into Kyo's room.

"DO YOU MIND?" Kyo shouted. "WHY DON'T YOU FRIGGIN' KNOCK EVER?"

"Calm down Kyon-kitchi! I have wonderful news! I just got off the phone with Haa-san! I talked to him about your little play, and he said that he will come pick you up and take you to your play practices in the afternoons!"

Kyo blinked. He blinked again. "Hell no I'm not going!" He burst out.

"Kyo-chan, you can't let down your cast-mates! Your first rehearsal is tomorrow!" And with a flourish, the dog was gone.

"Damn dog!" Kyo called, hoping his curse would travel through the walls.

After about an hour of grumbling and complaining to no one in particular, Momiji and Haru appeared at his bedroom door.

"What do you bastards want?" Kyo growled.

"Kyo, we wanted to see how you were doing!" Momiji exclaimed, dancing around the room.

"I'm fine, now get the hell out of here."

"Kyo, we came to see you" Momiji pouted.

"Well you see me don't you? Now get out!"

"C'mon Momiji," Haru said monotonously. "Sensei says we get to see him tomorrow at rehearsal. Tohru's got some food for us downstairs anyway."

Kyo was enraged again.

"No…. Way…In…. HELL…. Am I even going to… TOUCH the damn rat!" Kyo threw everything he could reach at the wall.

Hurrah! I came back because I love this story. This chapter was mostly setting up everything. Can't jump straight in. (Oh believe me, I was so excited I wanted to…) But alas, I must be off again. –sigh- Stupid school.

Thanks to Bowleena, Isuzu-Hanabi-Chan, lackofname, and Seadrance for reviewing! I love you guys!

Those of you reading my other stories... Sorry, but I don't have much time to sit and think...So I'm going with the flow for now. Gomen nasai!