We walked over to Rin's house, and I left a note for my mom about where I was. Since it was still pretty early, we had a Ju-on movie marathon (A. N. Ju-on is the original Japanese version of The Grudge. It's really good!). When we finally finished laughing at all the stupid things thing people did; we decided to order some take-out, since her parents weren't home yet. She was standing by her window ordering while I waited on the couch.

"Um, could you hang on for a minute?" I heard her ask. "Ari-chan! Come here! Look outside! Is that a cat?" I ran over to peek outside, and there it was, a brown and orange cat lying outside in the rain. It was on the sidewalk by some bushes, so it didn't look like it was hit by a car.

"I'll be right back!" I told Rin. "I'm gonna go see if it's ok!" I borrowed Rin's rain coat and ran out to the cat. It was still breathing, but it was pretty cold. It was hard to tell if it was injured, because the wind and rain was so strong it had blown my hood off and was playing with my hair like a child's toy. I scooped up the cat and ran back inside.

"Hey, is it ok?" Rin asked, obviously distressed about the cat.

"Its fine, I think. Could you run some luke-warm water in the tub? I'm pretty sure my swim suit was still left in my bag from when I went to Maiko's last weekend. I'll go change while you get that ready. Make sure it's not too deep!"

I quickly changed in to my black and blue bikini and walked to the bathroom with the cat where Rin was waiting in her own swimsuit.

"Do you think dog shampoo will work on a cat?" I asked. We both looked at Rin's lazy tea-cup poodle, Penguin, who had decided to come in and join us, but was already fast asleep.

"I think it will." I climbed into the tub to keep a hold on the still passed-out cat in case it woke up, and Rin sat on the edge, pouring a cup of warm water over it. After a while, we found out it wasn't orange and brown, just orange, with quite a bit of mud on it. It was so dirty, we had to empty and refill the tub twice, because the water would turn brown.

"That's what it gets for running around in a storm like this one." As if to punctuate her words, we saw a bright flash of lightning, and heard the loud discharge of thunder.

Kyo…

I couldn't believe I got lost like that. After running through the woods, I found myself in an unfamiliar part of town. I tried to find something familiar, something to go by. Having no coat, no umbrella, and the chilling wind didn't help.

It's all that damn rat's fault… I thought to myself. I knew it wouldn't be long 'til I transformed, so I tried to hide in some bushes, but I guess I wasn't quick enough, because I changed before I could get all the way behind them. Having fur definitely helps when you're cold. It doesn't work very well when it's soaking wet though. I tried to keep going, but I only got maybe six feet. Everything began to tip, and eventually, go black; but when I woke up, everything was white. It was shiny, like clean porcelain.

"Hey! Look I think it's waking up!" I didn't know who it was. Everything was still kinda tipping, but it sounded like a girl.

Wait! A girl? Not Kagura! I started to panic and tried to get up, and then I realized I was still a cat. Thank god… Then I really looked around; I was in a bathroom with two chicks in bikinis; either I was dreaming, or I had no clue what is goin' on.

The girl whose lap I was in rubbed under my chin, which felt amazing.

"Shh," she whispered. "Yeah, it's ok. You're fine." She was the same girl who had spoken earlier, but she seemed familiar. I heard a loud ding-dong! And jumped at the same time the girl did, before I realized it was a door-bell

"I'll get it!" she said and started to get up and move me.

"Um, I don't think so," her friend said, who had pulled some shorts and a shirt on over her swimsuit. I felt like such a pedophile. "The person who delivers for us is usually a very attractive young guy, and I'm not the one who's dripping wet in a bikini, so I'll get it." They both laughed as the other girl left.

"Come on, let's get you dried off," the girl with the black and blue hair said. It was when I noticed her hair that I recognized her. She's something Takahashi. The girl who ran into me yesterday. And didn't make me transform… She began to towel dry me, which was not fun, and had just began to use a hair dryer to finish off the drying when what I'd just started worrying about happened. I transformed.

Arisu…

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what happened. I was sitting down and leaning against the cabinets in Rin's bathroom starting up the hair dryer to finish drying our little orange friend, when there was this big puff of smoke. I coughed and practically gagged on it before I opened my eyes again; and what do I find? Kyo Sohma completely naked quickly wrapping a towel around himself, before shoving his hand over my mouth to stifle my scream, his face inches from mine. His other hand went to my should so I was partially pinned against the drawers behind me.

"Look, if I take my hand off your mouth, do you promise you won't scream?" he whispered, and I could feel his breath on my face. I slightly nodded my hand and he slow released my mouth. I brought my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, since I was still only wearing a bikini and didn't really want a guy who was basically a stranger to see me like that. I sat and stared at him for a while, while he stared at the ceiling, looking at a loss for words. I was at a loss for words too, I mean, a minute ago, he was a cat! And now he's a person! That's not a normal thing!

When he finally looked up at me, he looked absolutely perplexed.

"Why aren't you freaking out? Any sane person would be freaking out right now, trying to convince themselves that this didn't just happen."

"Well…" I thought for a moment, resting my chin on my knees. "I'm not freaking out because this just happened, so I can't very well say it didn't. And because it just happened I may very well not be a sane person." He looked away from my eyes for a moment, and seemed to notice the wound on my leg and hand, which I'd had to unwrap since the bandages wouldn't be very useful if they were wet. "Hey, what happened to you? Are you ok?" I held my hand out so I could see the still red gashes the breaking glass had given me. I didn't want to lie, but I had to tell him something. I mean, I don't like lying; I always feel bad when I do, unless it's about something like a surprise party, then it's necessary, and it won't hurt anyone.

"Do you promise you won't tell anyone?" He nodded, which wouldn't seem like much to most people, but I felt like I could trust him. "My mom did it. She was drunk and she threw some bottles at me. It's no big deal; worse things have happened before." He looked completely shocked. I chuckled, but there was no humor in it. "You look like you did when I ran into you yesterday. Really, it's no big deal. It was just a couple bottles. You should have seen my other hand after she shoved it on a hot stove burner. The scars are faded, mostly, but you can still kinda see them. That was when I was nine," I held out my hand and he scooted closer, keeping an eye on the towel (which was the only thing that covered him at the moment) so he could see the marks left by the burn. He gently caressed my hand, as if it might break if he weren't careful. The marks were mostly faded away, from years of being taken care of and about a pound of lotion; they had turned into slightly raised curved pink lines. "But like I said, It's not a big deal or-"

"What the hell are you talking about?! Of course it's a big deal! She's hurting and abusing you, and you think that's ok!?" I was actually pretty surprised; not many people who I had told about this had made such a big deal (except for Hikaru and Hikari, who cried and told me what a sad story it was and how strong I was; they made me think of another pair of twins, one of whom they shared a name with, maybe?) about it. He looked angry and upset at the same time. "Wait," he said, and I looked away from my hand, and back up at him. "If you got the other injuries recently… Do you still live with her?!" he yelled, sounding positively pissed.

"Well, yeah, she's my mom. My dad isn't exactly in the picture, so it's not like I have anywhere else to go!" I yelled back at him. I couldn't believe he was getting pissed at me for something I didn't do. "It's not like I asked for this! A dad who didn't want me, so he left; and a mom who resents me for it, so I get beaten for something that's her fault! It's not like I can come live with you!"

"Well maybe you can!" he yelled back which surprised me, almost as much as it seemed to surprise him.

It was then that Rin walked in, take-out in hand, and passed out cold.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

We had gotten Rin laid down in her bed; actually I had gotten Rin laid down in her bed, since as Kyo explained to me, he couldn't unless he wanted to be a cat again. He had run into her parent's room and borrowed some of her dads grey sweatpants and a black shirt that hugged his muscles in all the right places. I mentally shook myself for even thinking like that, I barely knew him. I had already gotten dressed in Rin's room, so we were sitting on the couches in her living room, eating some of the take-out we had ordered.

"Hey, Kyo?"

"Yeah?" he responded through a mouthful of sweet-and-sour pork.

"About what you said earlier, you know, about me, like, living with you…" He stopped eating and looked up at me, and just stared for a while, while I stared back. He finished chewing before responding.

"You could, ya know. If you wanted to, that is. I mean, if I were in your place I would get outta there the first chance I got… Hey, why haven't you asked yet? You must wanna know."

"About what?"

"The curse. My curse. The Sohma curse. The whole reason why I'm a cat."

"Because if you wanted to tell me, you would. I would like to know, but if you don't want to share than you shouldn't have to for my sake."

"Well you might as well know. For every animal in the Chinese zodiac, there is someone to represent it. I'm the cat and Yuki's the rat…" he continued to explain everything for an hour at least. It wouldn't have taken so long, but I had so many questions, but I did realize one big thing.

"That's why you and Yuki got so nervous!" I exclaimed when the pieces fell together.

"What?" Kyo asked, completely lost.

"When I bumped into you, you had the most panicked look on your face, and so did Yuki when I ran into him today."

"Wait, when did you see Yuki today? And I was not panicked, I was surprised!"

"Oh, calm yourself. And Rin and I just ran into him on the way to the market today. Except I ran into him literally… And Kyo? I might just take you up on that offer."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Sneaking into my house wasn't hard, and it wasn't really sneaking, since no one was even home.

Taking care of Rin yesterday, had been though. I managed to convince her that she must have eaten something bad earlier today or something like that. I also told her that someone had come asking if we had seen a cat that fit the description of the one we found, and it turned out to be theirs. I'm pretty sure she fell for it, that or she realized she wasn't going to get anything out of me, and gave up.

Once we reached my house, I left Kyo in what might be considered our living room, while I packed my stuff in a couple of old duffle bags. When I looked back at my room after I finished, there was very little left of me. It would look like someone had lived here, but you wouldn't know it was me. This was right before all hell broke loose.

"Who the hell are you?!" It was my mother. I ran out to where Kyo was glaring at my mom, while she was threatening him.

"Mom! It's ok! He's a friend of mine!" Then, she turned her hate towards me.

"Oh, I see now. He's your boyfriend, isn't he, you god damn whore! And what are you doing with those bags? You are not leaving the house with him, you little slut!"

"Don't you dare talk to her like that!" Kyo yelled at her. "She'd be better off with me than here!" He leaned down a bit to look me in the eye, but didn't actually touch me. "You ok?" he asked. I nodded slowly; hoping it wouldn't cause the tears forming at the edges of my eyes to fall. It didn't work, and I felt the warm traces they left on my cheeks. I was surprised to feel his hands caress my cheeks as he wiped the tears away, making me blush; other than when he was trying to stop me from screaming at Rin's house, he'd never really touched me.

He grabbed both my bags from me and slung them over his shoulders. He then made me blush a little harder by taking my hand; he moved me to his right, so when we walked out, he would be in between me and my glaring mother. I was just glad she'd stopped yelling; once she realized that Kyo was stronger than she was, there wasn't much she could do. She's just like a angry little kid; she's upset so she takes her anger out on other people (me), but once there's someone who's stronger and meaner than she is, she backs down, at least until they're gone.

When we got outside, safe and sound, I let out a breath I hadn't noticed I'd been holding. Kyo let go of my hand, and we began the walk to his house. He'd already informed me that his family didn't know I was coming, but that was ok with me. He'd told me about how they were like him, too; how his and Yuki's cousin, Shigure, was the dog, and about some of the other Sohmas I'd asked about; like Hatsuharu, who was the cow, and Momiji (I hadn't even known he was a Sohma), the rabbit. It all still left me completely confused just thinking about it all, but it still intrigued me. We had walked about half way there in silence before anyone said anything.

"Hey, Arisu-," Kyo started.

"Call me Ari. It's what everyone else calls me."

"Kay, Ari. There're all gonna be pretty pissed at me for just bringing you inside, much less letting ya live with us, and knowing that damn rat, he's gonna try and kick my ass for it, so if they try and do anything, uh, just, make sure to get outta there, ok?" This was a side of Kyo you definitely didn't see often; the kinda awkward, caring side. He didn't like to show it very often, because you can tell he doesn't feel very comfortable with this side of himself. I myself have only seen it once or twice, but it's nice to have him make the effort.

We finally reached the road I had only gone down once before, but I wasn't exactly gonna tell anyone about that, because I would seem like a creeper (which I was). I hadn't gotten a very good look at the house last time, because we'd been focused on other things (like Yuki kinda being a douche bag if you ask me). We approached the front door, and Kyo and I both took a breath before he opened the door.

"Is that you, Kyo?" a voice questioned from inside. I didn't recognize it, so I assumed it was Yuki's cousin Shigure. I heard footsteps coming our way and prepared for what Kyo had told me to expect "I do hope you brought some food home, because I am-" He stopped and stared. Just like when I ran into Kyo and Yuki, it was hard not to laugh at how comical their faces were. Then I remembered I would need to make a good impression on the man if I wished to stay here.

"Hi. I'm Arisu Takahashi. Sorry for arriving unannounced. It seems like every time I'm around a Sohma, I manage to surprise or startle them. You must be Shigure; it's nice to finally meet you." He still seemed too stunned to talk so I just grabbed his hand and shook it. It fell limply at his side when I finished, and he just continued to look between me and Kyo before regaining his composure.

"Don't worry about it dear! No harm done. Kyo, where have you been, and what's in those bags? Maybe Yuki can help for I am so busy. Yuki! We have a guest!" I heard what I assumed to be Yuki's footsteps coming down the stairs. He mumbled something that sounded like, "It's too early for this," and simply lifted a hand as he walked by shirtless to what looked like the kitchen.

"Hey! Have some manners, would ya?!" Kyo yelled at him. He finally seemed to realize it wasn't one of their normal guests. His face again mimicked what it had when I ran into him. Unlike Shigure though, it was only a second before he recovered. Even so it wasn't quick enough to stop me from bursting into laughter.

"Oh my god!" I exclaimed between fits of laughing. "You all, are priceless! You guys need to see your faces!" I finally managed not to die of laughter. "I swear it's like you've never seen a girl before. Oh, geez. Sorry for laughing. This is just the, I believe fourth time this has happened to me. Startling someone, I mean. I think someone's gonna need to get me one of those cat bells," I said with a knowing look at Kyo.

"Hey, what are ya lookin' at me for?" he asked. I simply held up both my hands in surrender.

"Nothing. Nothing at all. I was most definitely not implying anything. I think when we get the bell, it should be blue; because blue goes with everything. Like my hair, and especially the color orange." Before Kyo had a chance to yell back at me, Shigure interrupted.

"Kyo, may I speak with you?" he said with a nervous look.

"I'm going to make a phone call. Excuse me," Yuki left the room, every part of him tense. I watched him as he left, and his tenseness showed off the muscles in his arms. He wasn't as strong as Kyo, and he didn't have abs like him either, but he wasn't bad to look at.

"Wait-" I said, stepping forward. They both turned to look at me, and I was about to try and explain things, but Kyo grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back toward him, so he had his arm around me as if to shield me from his family, while facing him.

"Let me handle this," he said quietly so only I could hear. "They aren't exactly the most understanding."

He let me go, set my bags down, and turned to face the other wide-eyed Sohmas. "She saved my life. And she found out in the process. She knows everything. But there's one thing ya gotta understand." He quickly turned around, grabbed my hand, and pulled me toward him, and hugged me. Everyone watched in awe as it happened. Nothing.