A/N: Hello! I asked people on anitwt a while ago to vote on which of my WIPs they'd like to see after my multi-chapter fic is finished. Well, since that doesn't seem like it's going to end yet, I have come to present you with the winner of that poll early. Enjoy!


It all seems to start when she oversleeps this morning.

No matter how much Kyo leans over to nudge her shoulders, kiss her cheeks, whisper to her, anything, Tohru won't wake up. For a brief moment before she finally lets out a groan, he'd wondered if she'd died.

He sighs in relief at the noise. "Hey," he says as she lets her eyes flutter open, then blinks against the morning sunlight. "We must have slept through the alarm."

She squeaks and immediately sits up, almost banging their heads together in her haste. He knew that would panic her a bit, but he didn't think she'd freak out this much. "Oh my gosh, what time is it?!"

"Uh…" he mumbles, glancing over at his phone on her nightstand. "7:10."

"We have to be at school by eight!" she groans. "I don't have time to make breakfast for everyone…"

"They'll live."

"No, breakfast is very very important—"

Kyo cuts her off with a sweet kiss. When he pulls back, he says, "You're not their cook. They can deal with their own food every once in a while. You need to take care of yourself sometimes, too, Tohru."

Tohru nods a little, eyes still wide from being surprised by his lips on hers.

"Good. We can make some toast for ourselves on the way out, if you want. I'm sure Yuki's left already, anyway."

She nods again. Kyo stands and offers her his hand, which she gladly takes to let herself get pulled out of bed. He looks her over. Even though she's been agreeing to what he says, she still seems uneasy—she's gnawing at her bottom lip, her cheeks are flushed, eyes still a little glazed over.

"Are you okay?" he asks.

That snaps her out of it. "I'm fine!" she promises. "Let's just get ready."

Now it's his turn to nod unconvincingly.


They get to school on time, and Tohru's mood seems to improve a little at seeing her friends. But she deflates again, and even worse this time, when she realizes she's forgotten her homework.

Between homeroom and math, she rifles through her backpack for a few minutes, then seemingly gives up. She sighs a little and slumps forward, leaning her head on her desk. A concerned Kyo has kept his eye on her all morning, so he notices immediately and is quickly out of his seat and across the room. She doesn't see him coming, so she flinches and makes an eek sound when he lays a hand on her shoulder. He can't help but chuckle a bit—she's too cute for her own good.

"Sorry," he says, then kneels down next to her. She turns her head on the desk until her cheek is against the wood and she's facing him. She's teary-eyed. His jaw tenses in surprise, and he reaches out to cup her accessible cheek in his hand.

"Hey, hey…what's going on?"

She blinks in an attempt to keep her tears at bay, but fails. Kyo rubs a stray one away with his thumb. "I just…I forgot my homework," she explains.

"Oh," he says back dumbly, because he's not really sure what else he could say to that.

"I stayed up so late to get it done last night."

She starts to cry a little bit harder, and Kyo immediately launches into Comforting Boyfriend Mode. He shifts his body until he's blocking her face from the rest of the class in an attempt to give her some privacy.

"I know you did, but it's okay. Everyone forgets their homework sometimes. You've had a lot going on." She just got out of the hospital three weeks ago. She's still trying to heal, as well as catch up on schoolwork. She hasn't shown him any big signs of distress, but he knows her too well to believe that she's been totally fine—she's at least a little worn out, and he knows it. He just didn't realize it's been so bad that she'd cry over forgetting about a math sheet.

"I can't afford to forget homework." She sniffles and wipes at her eyes.

"You need to take care of yourself. You just went through a ton of shit. You can afford to forget one day of math if it means not stressing yourself out even more. Listen…do you just wanna copy mine real quick?"

Her eyes widen. "Eh?! No, of course not! I mean, thank you very much for the offer, but I don't want to cheat, and you're so good at math that it would be obvious, and—" she blabbers.

"It's okay, you don't have to or anything," he reassures her. "Just tell sensei. She'll get it."

Tohru nods a bit and sniffs again. "Okay."

"I love you," he whispers.

"I love you too. Thank you."

"Anytime." He kisses her temple, and then Mayuko-sensei is in the room announcing the start of class. Tohru takes a deep, shaky breath and heads up to the front of the room to talk to her. Kyo returns to his own seat, watching the entire time. Sensei is waving Tohru off as she bows deeply in apology. When Tohru sits back down a second later, she shoots Kyo a half-hearted smile. He returns it. At least everything worked out.


At lunch, when Kyo stands up to go buy vending machine drinks for Tohru and himself, the collar of his uniform shirt is grabbed, he yelps, and then he's being yanked down the hall by a certain blonde delinquent.

"What the hell, Uotani?!" he grumbles once they're stopped. He tugs at his collar, trying to get it back into place. He's a little grumpy with himself for not hearing her sneak up on him; his hearing is still good, but nowhere near the level it was when he was still the Cat.

"What's wrong with Tohru-kun?" Kyo jolts and turns to his other side to see that Hanajima is there. She practically materialized out of thin air—it makes him shudder.

"What do you mean?" he asks, taking a deep breath to regain his composure.

"Please, like we didn't notice she was crying before math. We just didn't come to see why because you were all over her right away. You're, like, super speedy, Carrots," Uo shoots back.

Kyo rolls his eyes. "I was not all over her. She was bummed that she forgot her math homework."

Hanajima and Uotani both nod slowly—that…honestly seems pretty on-brand for Tohru.

"But…enough to cry?" Hana asks, voice low.

Kyo shakes his head and sighs. "She's still trying to get better after, well—you know. She's overwhelmed and she forgot, and she's already having a bad day, so."

"Why?" Uo raises an eyebrow.

"We overslept."

"We?" Uo asks, volume increasing. Hanajima pats her arm to quiet her down.

"Am I not allowed to sleep in the same bed as her?" Kyo growls.

"Back to the matter at hand, please," Hana requests.

"We just didn't hear the alarm, and she's been off ever since."

The three stand in silence for a moment, Kyo feeling itchy. He breaks the thick quiet by saying, "If I don't go get our drinks and head back to Tohru, she's gonna know something's up." As he starts to walk away, Uotani reaches out and grabs his forearm, just below his elbow. Her grip is tight, and Kyo shoots her a glare. "What?"

"Just…take care of her, yeah?" For a second, Kyo could swear she looks on the verge of tears, but the expression dissipates from her face as soon as Hana is at her side, lying her head on the other girl's shoulder. "That's your job now," she adds.

At those words, guilt stabs between Kyo's ribs. He's selfish, he knows that. Always has been. He doesn't mean to hog Tohru, but he's sure he's done it unintentionally, due to that selfish side of his personality.

"It's still your job too," he says quietly. "You're still her best friends, even with me around. Don't forget that. But 'course I'll take care of her."

Uo nods, and Kyo returns it before starting off down the hall again.

When he gets back to the classroom, Tohru seems to be in surprisingly good spirits. Once he gets farther into the classroom, he sees Momiji sitting in front of Tohru's desk. Kyo bites back a groan. It makes sense that Momiji is able to cheer Tohru up a bit, but Kyo also finds him hard to handle, even post-curse.

He pulls a chair up next to Tohru's desk. "Hey," he says to Momiji, then passes Tohru her lemonade. She picks up the hand he had on the can and kisses his knuckles in silent thanks. Momiji looks away quickly, and Kyo almost feels bad for him; there's no way he's totally over Tohru yet—it's pretty obvious—but Tohru didn't even know about it to begin with, so she's not being intentionally insensitive, of course. She would never.

Momiji snaps out of it quickly. "Nothing for me? So mean, Kyo!"

And there it is, the reason Momiji drives Kyo crazy—so much excess energy and audacity.

Kyo groans. "You weren't even here when I left, Bunny Boy."

Momiji sticks his tongue out at Kyo, then turns back to Tohru. "Tohru…you're quiet today. Are you feeling alright?" He reaches out, brushes her bangs aside, and lays a palm on her forehead as if checking for a fever. Tohru flushes a bit at the touch, and Kyo clenches his jaw in minor frustration.

"O-oh, I'm fine, Momiji-kun."

She seems ready to leave it there, but Momiji obviously isn't buying it, so Kyo adds, "She's stressing herself out taking care of everyone."

Momiji pulls his hand back, a fond smile on his cheeks now. "That's our Tohru. But you have to take care of yourself, too, yes? Practice some self-care."

"Okay," Tohru says softly, going back to picking at her bento to avoid having to make eye contact. "I will."

"Promise?" Momiji asks.

"Promise," she confirms, but she seems sad again.

"Good!" Momiji stands and heads over to the door. "I promised to meet Haru, so see you two later!"

Kyo reaches over and squeezes Tohru's hand. She looks over at him. "I'm sorry if we're pressuring you."

"...Huh?"

"I said you need to take better care of yourself, but—well, I don't want to make you feel like I'm trying to control you." He averts his gaze down to the desk. "I don't ever wanna control you."

Tohru is quiet for a second, then just laughs lightly. He glances back up at her, confused, and she quickly cups his face in her hands, pressing her lips to his. When she pulls back, she says, "I know. Everyone means well. Especially you, Kyo-kun."

He doesn't quite know how to respond to that, still in that slightly awkward stage of a first relationship, so he simply blurts, "I just love you."

Tohru's cheeks heat up, but she smiles and returns the sentiment immediately.

It makes him think she might be starting to feel better.


After dinner, they separate. Confident that Tohru is feeling better, Kyo heads to his room to lift weights for a bit while she cleans her room— "Cleaning relaxes me, Kyo-kun," she'd assured him. He leaves his door open in an attempt to monitor her a little, nonetheless.

After just a few minutes, though, Kyo hears an odd sound coming from her room. He furrows his brow in confusion and leans back enough to see into the hallway. He can't identify the noise; it's almost a ripping sound, maybe? He sets his weights down and heads over there, knocking on her door lightly. "Tohru?"

The sound ceases for a moment, and she calls, "What?" Her voice is strained—her tone a little short, even—and he can tell immediately that she's worked up about something.

He hesitates, but it's short-lived. "Can I come in?"

She doesn't answer, and the noise starts up again. Kyo takes a deep breath and opens the door, despite her lack of response. "Are you okay?" he asks, then takes a look around her room. He blinks a few times in confusion. Her floor is littered with scraps of paper, and while he's not sure what exactly she's doing, it does vaguely cross his mind that it's the exact opposite of cleaning.

Then he notices what she's holding in her hands—a composition book with her neat handwriting on the front, labeling it "Modern Japanese."

"Wha—Tohru, what the hell are you doing?"

She rips another sheet in half and tosses the pieces to the floor, not even meeting his eyes. "Self care," she says dryly.

"...What?"

"Self. Care." She punctuates her words with the shredding of another page of her notebook.

For a minute, Kyo can't do anything but watch her, utterly confused and shocked and worried.

"Everyone says I need to take care of myself." Her voice is eerily steady, frighteningly calm. "This is me taking care of myself."

"Uh…" He really fails to see how this will help her at all, especially after having a mini-meltdown in the classroom earlier because she forgot one math sheet one time. What the hell is she supposed to do without all her notes, now?

"And everyone's right, I need to do it more often." She drops her Modern Japanese notebook and reaches onto her desk for her English notes. Still in a daze, Kyo lifts a hand up slowly, as if that might somehow keep her from destroying that one, too.

"It feels really nice," she adds, voice becoming more and more shrill by the moment. She almost sounds like she's trying to convince herself instead of him. "I'm great. This is good. I'm getting rid of a lot of stress. I really am."

But then she crumbles, falling onto her knees and burying her face in her hands, shoulders quaking. That pushes him into action.

"Hey, hey," he coos, sitting next to Tohru. He crosses his legs into a pretzel and pulls her into his lap, cradling her. She nuzzles her wet face into his chest and sobs. Kyo hasn't seen her cry this hard in a good while—a vague sense of panic rises to his throat at the realization.

"What's going on?" he asks, pushing her hair back from her face and tilting her chin up. She squeezes her eyes shut to avoid having to look at him. He kisses her cheeks, letting salty tears flood over his lips.

"I—" she croaks, then shakes her head and tries to clear her throat. "I'm so far behind, Kyo-kun."

He waits for her to continue, but she doesn't, just keeps bawling. So after a second, he prompts, "In what?"

"School."

Again, he really, truly fails to see how hand-shredding her notes and chucking them all over her bedroom floor will help with that. But what he does see is her distress. She's a wreck.

It's like she's...snapped.

"Tohru…you just got out of the hospital. 'Course you're a little behind—"

He's cut short by her smacking his shoulders, her small hands curled into fists. She didn't do it hard enough to hurt, of course, but it definitely emphasizes how broken she's feeling. She does it again, then opens her fists and grabs his t-shirt.

"You don't get it!" she shouts. She actually shouts.

He tries to keep his voice even, but he's starting to panic. "Explain it to me, then. I wanna get it."

"If I keep going like this, I'm not going to graduate! The last three years will have all been for nothing! I'm letting mom down…"

At that, Kyo could swear his heart stops. "You're not letting anyone down, Tohru. And you're going to graduate."

"You don't know that! All I've ever done is let people down, Kyo-kun!"

Kyo pulls her tighter to his chest, one arm around her waist and the other hand cupping the back of her head. "You do not let people down," he repeats firmly. "Tohru, you work so hard to make everyone happy. You don't let anyone down."

She shakes her head against his chest.

He doesn't know what to do. "You're going to graduate," he just says again. He hopes she doesn't notice the stiffness in his voice.

"You don't know that," she mumbles.

"Yes, I do. Let's just get you caught up."

"But how?" she whimpers.

Good question.

Just then, Kyo hears Yuki's phone go off in his room next door.

Bingo.

"I'll be right back," he says gently, trying to move Tohru off of him. She clutches onto his shirt tighter.

"No, please don't go," she pleads.

"I'll be back in just a minute. I promise. I'm trying to help."

Tohru's grip loosens, and he moves her back to her original spot on the carpet, then kisses her forehead before he stands up and heads into the hall.

Yuki's door is slightly ajar, but Kyo raps his knuckles on the doorframe a few times anyway—who knows what the hell rat boy is doing in there.

"Yeah?" Yuki calls. Kyo nudges the door open more with his foot.

"Hey," he says. He runs a hand through his hair, the anxious movement breaking the otherwise calm demeanor he's trying to maintain. "I...need your help with something."

Say please, you idiot, he thinks bitterly. He needs to get used to talking to Yuki like he's an actual person, now that that's what they all really are. It would make Tohru happy. But, at the same time, he knows that Yuki will do anything for Tohru anyway, even if Kyo doesn't have any manners. And really, he appreciates that. He likes that Tohru has such a vast support system. She deserves it.

Instead of answering directly, Yuki just drops his pencil and looks up from his homework, waiting for Kyo to continue. He opens his mouth, trying to figure out where to start. Tohru had a mental breakdown and needs your help recreating her school notes? That would be weird. But then again, this whole situation is kind of—well, very—weird.

Yuki clears his throat, then finally fills the silence. "Is Honda-san alright? I heard her crying."

"W-well, it's about that. She's...having a hard time. She's stressed because she fell behind while she was in the hospital. She's afraid she's not gonna graduate."

Yuki's lips tighten into a firm frown. "She has to graduate."

"Yeah. I know. Listen, I'm okay at math and English, but—"

"You're good at math and English," Yuki corrects.

Kyo's completely taken aback by that. His eyes widen as he tries to process. He pulls himself together and continues, "Eh? Uh, yeah, sure. But I'm not good at Biology and Modern Japanese. I was hoping you could help her with those. If you, uh. If you have time."

Yuki doesn't say anything else, just starts gathering up school supplies into his arms. Kyo sighs, relieved, then abruptly bows his head.

"Uh…" Yuki mumbles.

"Thank you very much," Kyo says, deepening his bow a bit more.

After a moment of awkward silence, Yuki just snorts out a short laugh and moves past him, heading into the hall and down to Tohru's room. Kyo straightens up in the now-empty room and shakes his head, angry at himself for being a dumbass for the thousandth time in his life. Then, he flips it around, like Tohru always wants him to—he may not know how to talk to Yuki, but he tried, and it worked out okay this time; next time will feel even less strange, right?

When Kyo makes it back to Tohru's doorway, he watches her and Yuki for a minute. Yuki is sitting next to Tohru, rubbing circles against her spine as she tearfully tries to explain the situation. He's nodding and listening patiently, stepping in to reassure her every now and then. Once they're settled and working on some Modern Japanese essay that's due on Monday, Kyo moves in behind them and starts picking up the pieces of paper that Tohru had strewn about; he'll feel useless if he doesn't do anything to help. A few pages only have the corners ripped off, and he salvages those, spreading them out on her bed and organizing them by subject. Most of the notes have to be scrapped, and he gathers them into his hands and goes downstairs to the recycling bin behind the house. Then he makes tea. When he's piled everything onto a tray and makes it back upstairs, he's relieved to see the two still working comfortably, Tohru's eyes now completely dry.

Kyo perches himself on Tohru's bed and sorts through the notes he saved. When he hears Tohru stumble over some aspect of the essay, he sticks out a hand, dangling a pile of notes in front of her. It's a thin stack, but hopefully it helps—it surely can't make anything worse, at the least.

"These are for Modern Japanese."

She looks up at him, then settles her eyes on the papers, looking a little surprised. When she recovers, the smile she gives him isn't her usual happy one, but it's still full of love, and that's enough to bring a sense of relief to him. "Thank you, Kyo-kun."

A couple of hours later, it's clear that Tohru's beginning to fade, so Yuki suggests, "Let's pick this back up tomorrow. You should eat and get some sleep, Honda-san." His smile is warm, but it seems to panic Tohru a bit.

"I-I think I'll keep going for a bit, then I'll make dinner for everyone."

"Tohru," Kyo says, wrapping a hand around her elbow and lifting her thin frame. "You need to take a break. Let's go out to dinner."

Yuki nods his agreement, then stands and scoops up his textbooks. "You've done a lot of hard work today. But if you wear yourself out, it's not going to do you any good. You need to take care…of…yourself—?" His tone turns questioning as Kyo starts shaking his head and waving his hands behind Tohru.

Don't say that. Don't you dare say that today.

Tohru opens her mouth, looking indignant, but when she locks eyes with Kyo, who's obviously not going to let her win this one, she changes tactic and just mumbles a "'Kay. Thank you so much, Yuki-kun."

When they're alone, Kyo leans down and presses his lips to Tohru's forehead. She sighs, then slides her arms around his midsection, pulling him closer. "You did a good job," he tells her.

"Thank you," she says back, but he can tell that she's not quite sure she believes it.

"What do you wanna eat? It's been a while since we've been out to dinner, just the two of us, huh?"

"I know, but…well, I'm not really hungry."

He sighs and pulls back to look at her. "You have to eat."

"I ate breakfast."

"Just barely. What am I gonna do with you?" he groans. She surprises him then, and actually giggles a bit.

"You know what I do want, though?" she asks.

"What's that?"

"Cuddles."

Kyo smiles a little and nods. "Okay. I can do that."

"I was hoping so."

He picks her up by the waist, plopping her down on the bed. She giggles again. It's the most wonderful sound he's ever heard, and that's especially today. He settles at her side, and she nuzzles into his chest.

"Do you feel any better?" he asks.

"A little. Getting most of that essay done helped."

"Good."

Kyo closes his eyes, suddenly incredibly worn out from the events of the evening. He doesn't mean to doze off, but he does a little, and as soon as his breathing starts to even out, Tohru says meekly, "Kyo-kun?"

"Mm?" he asks, opening his eyes and tilting his head to try and get a better look at her face.

"I'm so sorry."

"Eh? For what?"

"For crying, and destroying my notes, and…especially for hitting you."

Kyo blinks. When did she hit him?

Oh.

He decides to attempt to lighten the mood a bit. "You call that a hit?" he teases. She laughs. "You'll have to do better than that next time, if you want to actually make an impact."

"I could hit you harder if I really wanted to," she points out, a smirk playing at her lips.

"Well, do you want to?" He leans over her until her back is pressed to the mattress. She blushes crimson underneath him.

"O-of course not."

"That's what I thought." He presses a slow kiss to her neck, then lets her go.

"That's not fair," she protests.

He chuckles. "What isn't?"

"You can't kiss me there once and then just stop."

"Maybe I'm punishing you for hitting me," he shoots back, tone mischievous.

She groans and rolls her eyes dramatically. "I guess I deserve it."

"Seriously, though…don't bottle up your feelings anymore, 'kay? I could tell you were off, but not that you were gonna get that upset."

"I know. I'm really sorry, Kyo-kun."

"And if you don't want to think of it as taking care of yourself…it's sorta taking care of me, too, so I don't worry about you. I want you to care about taking care of yourself but—well, maybe you're just not there yet."

She smiles sweetly, and he can't help but beam back, though he's not too sure what about his words warranted such a bright smile from her.

"Mind sticking around while I try to get there?"

Kyo snorts out a short laugh. "I'd have to be crazy to leave."

"I'm lucky."

"I'm lucky too. I've got your back, 'kay?"

"I know. You always have."


Title from "State Lines" by Novo Amor