It was still dark out when Kyo awoke, and he yawned as he stretched his arms out above his head. The darkness was nothing new; it was usually dark when he woke up, his internal clock rousing him, as always, right around five-thirty in the morning. He'd never been one to sleep late, no matter how late he was up, and the early morning had always been his favorite time of day to run.

Waking up early had a few other advantages these days, too.

Finishing his stretch, Kyo smiled and looked down at Tohru, her arms and head pillowed on his chest and her hair fanning out over the pink bedspread. That was one thing he definitely wasn't going to miss once they moved: waking up surrounded by everything pink.

But he'd even wear pink pajamas, if it meant getting to wake up next to her.

Gently, Kyo lifted Tohru's arms and eased himself out from under her, then carefully settled her down onto the pillow. Tohru had always been a heavy sleeper and, though she made some soft grumbling noises, he was able to successfully slide out of the bed without waking her. Leaning over, he planted a light kiss on her cheek, then turned and walked quietly across the room to the door.

Gone were the days when Kyo would stand at that door and listen, then slooooooooowly and quietly edge it open before bolting across the hall. Though he did his best to be quiet for Tohru's sake, there was no waiting, and no worrying; he simply opened the door and walked out, over to his own room to change his pajamas for running clothes.

It had been a gradual transition, Kyo sleeping in Tohru's room. In the earliest days of their relationship, even standing in Tohru's open door had felt dangerous; the engulfing pinkness of her bedroom had felt like a bubblegum-colored reminded that This Space Was Forbidden.

And even as Tohru had made it clear that he was welcome, they'd both known all too well that their housemates wouldn't agree. Any visits to Tohru's room after a certain hour were always conducted under a heavy veil of secrecy, with one or both of them making sure to scope out the hallway and surrounding areas before he'd come in and definitely before he'd leave.

As the months passed, they started to relax a bit, but still generally kept to the same pattern. Even on nights when Kyo would go to Tohru after waking from a nightmare, he'd still make sure to creep back into his own room sometime in the middle of the night. Although neither Tohru or Kyo ever exactly thought they were fooling Yuki, they still felt a little more secure knowing they were making an effort...

...Right up until Kyo had to have the single most painful conversation of his life, where a wildly embarrassed Yuki had gritted his teeth and asked Kyo to please make sure to close Tohru's window at night because sound carried, especially from one open window to another.

Neither one of them had wanted to say anything to Tohru, but in the end Kyo had felt he had to let her know. Tohru, being Tohru, had been mortified beyond belief...but then, bizarrely, ashamed. Not because she had definitive proof that Yuki had overheard things he definitely shouldn't, oh no; but because she had been so rude as to make Yuki uncomfortable.

Kyo had felt like he was in an alternate reality when Tohru told him she needed to apologize to Yuki. In vain, he'd attempted to talk her out of it, to convince her that Yuki most definitely already knew how she felt and didn't need her to say anything. Fortunately Kyo hadn't been around for the actual apology, which was just as well because the only thing he could imagine being more awkward than talking to Yuki about...that...was being present while Tohru talked to Yuki about that.

But as painful as the whole experience had been, one positive had come out of it: none of them saw any need to pretend any more. Tohru's friendship with Yuki was undamaged, Kyo's relationship with Yuki was no more antagonistic or awkward than it already was...

And for the final month and a half of their time in Tokyo, Kyo went to bed every night with Tohru in the bubblegum-pink room.

But even though he slept every night in Tohru's room with Tohru in his arms, Kyo still kept his clothes and all his things in his own room, and it was to his own room that he went every morning to get dressed. A lot of things had changed in his life over the past eight months; a lot more things would be changing in the next five days. But some things had remained constant, and some things...he hoped...would remain constant.

Like waking up with Tohru, every single day.


The downstairs was dark and quiet when Kyo silently padded into the kitchen. He wasn't surprised; while he'd occasionally bumped into Shigure at this hour in the past, encountering Shigure required that the author actually be present. For all that Shigure liked to make noises about being their guardian and periodically liked to annoyingly remind them of that fact, it had been weeks since he'd even spent the night at the house, let alone lived there full time.

Kyo definitely didn't miss him; not him, his comments, or his obnoxiously knowing looks.

After taking a drink from his carton of milk, Kyo was ready to go, and soon he was out the door, his feet pounding along the old, familiar route.

How many times had he run this path, over the course of two and a half years? How many things had he contemplated, in this time when he'd been alone with the trees and the birds and the beautiful open sky? When there had been nothing to distract him, good or bad, from thinking about whatever was on his mind?

So many thoughts, over two and a half years. Happy ones. Painful ones. Quietly resigned ones, and furiously resentful ones.

So many thoughts...about this very week.

It had taken so long, for graduation to become something positive. For so much of his life, it had been something painful, terrifying and ugly. He had listened to the people around him talk about their future plans, to discuss university, and jobs. To discuss where they wanted to live, and what they hoped to do.

Some of them had been scared. Many of them had been excited. And as high school had worn on, those attitudes had become amplified. The future...had become more real.

It had become more real for him, too; so real that it almost inflicted physical pain.

He'd known, ever since he was a little kid, what graduation meant for him. He could remember, even as a small child, his father taking him to see the Cat's house and telling him it was a place to lock up monsters, to protect the rest of the world from ever being hurt by them.

He'd been horrified then...and that horror never faded. Horror. Anger. Fear. Despair. A terrifying, lonely future, when life as he knew it would be over.

There had never been a future, for him. He would graduate...and then he would die. Maybe not literally; his body would live on, confined and isolated in darkness. But everything that had given him joy, everything that gave him purpose, everything that gave him hope...everything that gave his life meaning would be gone.

And it had been hard, running along the familiar path, looking up at the sky, and knowing that someday...a depressingly near day, at that...all of this would be gone. He'd never run again; never be under an open sky again. Never wake up and look forward to time with his thoughts, because he'd never have anything but time with his thoughts.

Everything...would be over.

The day Akito had stood before him and told him he was free, that he wasn't going to be confined, had been the most unbelievable and wonderous of days, right up there with the day Tohru saw his True Form and the day he'd first moved in with Kazuma. After a lifetime of dreading graduation, suddenly he no longer needed to. He might still have been Cursed, and Tohru was still in the hospital. He had no idea if he could salvage things with her, if he'd even be allowed to try. But suddenly...he could.

He could have a future, and a life. A world, beyond graduation, even if he still had to worry about transforming.

A world where he could be with Tohru...if she still wanted him.

And she did.

And suddenly, in the blink of an eye...the future was so bright it was blinding.


Graduation was the day after tomorrow, and Kyo couldn't be more eager or excited. As much as there were a few things he'd miss, he was ready to move on. To be done with homework and exams, to be done with calculus and physics and English, to be done with school.

To be done sharing Tohru with every person she'd ever met.

He was ready to step out of the shadow of the Sohma family, to go where no one knew him and prove he deserved the new life he'd been given. No longer Cursed, no longer fearing confinement...no longer fearing being alone.

He would prove himself, to all of them. To his new boss and master, up at his new dojo. To his new students, and his new coworkers. To Kazuma. To Tohru.

To himself.

No more being afraid, hiding behind anger and blaming everyone else for everything wrong in his life. No more bound by tradition, fear, or the Curse. No longer a child, in need of correction and direction.

A man, ready to face his future head on. Who would show the world that he was capable, and deserving of everything he had, including and most of all the woman he loved. A man would do anything and everything he could to keep her safe, keep her happy, and show her each and every day how much he loved her, and always would.


Kyo had a goofy grin on his face as he thought about the next week. In two days, he and Tohru would graduate; in four, they would be on their way to their new home. There'd be no more 'guardian,' absent or not. No more Yuki, relatively cordial and non-confrontational as that relationship might now be. No more friends traipsing through at all hours, no more fighting to find time for the two of them to spend alone. No more having to put up with Saki and Arisa doing that obnoxious thing they did where they acted like their claims to Tohru's time were more justified than his.

No more being constantly swarmed by his cousins.

Just him, and Tohru, in their new house, navigating their new life together. A life where he'd be 'Sensei Sohma,' and every morning he'd get to wake up in his own bed, beside Tohru, and go out and live the life he'd barely ever even allowed himself to imagine.


It wasn't all perfect, obviously. There were things he'd miss, and people. It was a much smaller list than Tohru had, but it was still a list: his friends from school, a couple of his less-annoying relatives. Kunimitsu.

Kazuma.

Leaving Kazuma was the one thing, out of all of it, that truly made him feel pain. Everything else, he considered a necessary sacrifice; it had been his decision to leave, and he'd made that decision with no prompting. He'd known that Kazuma would have taken him on, gladly, and he'd be lying if he said he hadn't at least considered that, in the beginning.

But as much as he loved Kazuma, and as much as he knew he would work every bit as hard in Tokyo as he planned to work in Hibe...it wasn't the same. And it wasn't what he needed. Working for his father, in the dojo where he'd grown up, on the literal fringes of the Sohma estate...he'd never truly be able to grow, if he stayed there. He needed to go out among strangers, to prove himself to people who had no pre-existing biases. Even if Kazuma worked him harder than a dog, they both knew that far too many people would look at Kyo and think he got where he was purely based on their relationship.

Including, uncomfortably, Kyo himself.

No. It was better this way, for Kyo to go among strangers. Kazuma had agreed without hesitation, even if he'd disagreed with Kyo going out totally blind. In the end, Kyo had accepted Kazuma's help in finding his new job, and even if he still objected to the fact the two dojo masters had basically sorted it out without him, he meant to do his best. Kazuma might have gotten him the job, but Kyo himself would justify it and keep it, entirely on his own merit.

He would make all of them proud.

Kyo knew Kazuma was happy for him, and supported him. He knew his father agreed with his choice, and felt he was doing the right thing. But that didn't make the idea of saying goodbye any easier, and if there was anything that was going to make Kyo cry, it was that.

But even if Kyo cried then, he'd been doing a damn sight better than Tohru. He hadn't been the least bit surprised when Tohru cried about her outing with Kisa the night before; he fully expected her to cry during and after her sleepover with her friends after school today. Also tomorrow. Likely at school, and definitely after. He didn't even want to think about how their actual graduation ceremony was going to go down, or the aftermath.

Honestly, he was just bracing himself for five near-solid days of tears, and not looking forward to it at all.

He would do his best to be there for her, though; to be there, and support her, and hold her. To do what he could to help her feel better, and try not to take her tears too personally. After all...she'd chosen to come with him. And every time he'd panicked, asking her if she was sure, she had held fast.

How many more tears would she be shedding if it was the two of them saying goodbye, instead?

Kyo didn't want to think about it. He'd never wanted to think about it, not since the first day he'd started to fear he was falling for her. He'd fought so hard to resist, to deny his feelings to himself as well as the world; if he loved her, he'd only end up hurting himself.

And if she loved him...that would be even worse.

So he'd thought, anyway, but he'd been wrong. It turned out that loving her, and knowing she loved him, was the greatest gift he'd ever been given. Yes, there had been pain. He was sure there would be more in the future; he wasn't perfect, and it was inevitable he was going to screw something up along the way. Probably more than one thing, even.

But as long as they loved each other...everything would always work out.

He was sure of it.


When Kyo got back to the house, it was still quiet, which didn't surprise him at all. He'd always been the only early riser in the house; Tohru was a heavy sleeper who never woke up earlier than needed, and Yuki...he didn't know what to call what Yuki was, but he was honestly amazed Yuki was able to be functional by first period, given how long it took him to fully wake up in the morning.

As for Shigure, you had to actually sleep at night to wake up in the morning.

So the early hours had always been Kyo's, from almost his earliest days in the house. He'd always liked that; it was nice, not having to compete for the bathroom after his run.

And it was equally nice now, no longer worrying too much about what other people saw. Running clothes tucked under his arm and a towel wrapped around his waist, Kyo headed back upstairs to get dressed, neither speeding up or hurrying in any way. Yuki and Tohru were probably still asleep, and if either of them saw him...it didn't matter.

It would never matter again.

But no one did see him, nor did they see him when he reemerged from his room in his uniform, bookbag slung over his shoulder and his towel under his arm. The same, comfortable, familiar routine he'd had for almost two years...that was almost done.


Downstairs, Kyo dropped his bag in the front entry, then hung up his towel in the bathroom. Then it was off to the kitchen, to pull out and start prepping the breakfast ingredients.

Over the course of the past several months, he'd managed to insert himself more and more into the cooking; he'd always liked cooking, and he especially liked cooking with Tohru. But as it had become more common for them to cook together, breakfast in particular had started to become more of Kyo's meal; he was the one who woke up first, and he usually had a little time after he was doing with his shower. Sometimes Tohru would surprise him and wake up early, but usually it was Kyo these days who'd get everything started; who'd cut up the vegetables, and rinse the rice, get out the pans and otherwise make sure everything was ready to cook as soon as Tohru came down.

She'd tried to argue him out of it, at one point; he didn't need to be taking on extra work, not when she was perfectly capable of managing everything by herself. Surely he had other things he could be doing with that time, the same things he'd always done, during that time in the past.

"What, like sitting and watching tv? Going back upstairs and staring at the ceiling in my room?"

He'd been amused, and dismissive. The only reason he'd never started doing this for her years ago was his fear of overstepping and later, his attempts to distance himself. If he could spend his extra time being productive, then that was what he wanted to do.

Especially if it meant making things easier, in any way, for Tohru.


"Good morning, Kyo!"

"Hey, morning," Kyo said, smiling over at Tohru as she walked into the kitchen. "How'd you sleep?"

"Great," she said, returning the smile before leaning up and giving him a kiss. "How was your run?"

"Great," he teased, eliciting a giggle from Tohru.

"Well good, I'm glad. If you're going to get up so early to run, it might as well be a great experience, right?" she asked, tying on her apron, and Kyo grinned.

"You always say that like waking up early's a punishment. Just 'cause some people in this house like sleeping their lives away doesn't mean all of us do."

"Now who's sounding like something is a punishment?" Tohru asked, giggling again. "Sleep is a good thing, Kyo!"

"But being awake together's a better thing," he said, passing her a spatula, and Tohru beamed before nodding her head.

Being together was always a better thing.