Hatori…

The car pulled up to the house at nine AM sharp. As he approached the house, he heard a rustle inside, and then all was silent. He knocked, and it was quickly answered by Shigure leaning against the door frame.

"Well hello Ha'ri. How are you today?" he said, trying to sound casual, but Hatori had known him too long to fall for it.

"Where is Yuki?" he asked quickly walking past him.

"I'm right here," Yuki said, coming out from the living room. They went to sit down and Hatori took out his stethoscope.

"So, anything interesting going on lately?" he asked, trying to sound like he was merely making conversation.

"No," Kyo said, sounding irritated while lounging on the couch, trying to look relaxed even though every one of his muscles was taut. "Why do you care?"

"Just asking," he said. Returning his attention to Yuki, listening to his breathing. The whole house was strangely quiet. Too quiet. He assumed the girl was upstairs, hiding somewhere. "Nothing at all? I heard you had a visitor." They all flinched a little except for Yuki, who remained perfectly still except for a slight widening of his eyes.

Arisu…

I am freaking out. He's down there right now, and he should be done soon, right? I mean, how long does it take to give someone a check up? I've never been to a doctor, but how much could there be to check, right?

I was sitting a corner of my room, trying to be as still as physically possible. I rested my chin on my knees, trying to relax. What reason would he have to come upstairs into an unoccupied room?

Hatori…

"Well, I believe we're done here. If you don't mind, I'll use your restroom and be on my way," he said, quickly getting up and heading upstairs before they could say anything. He walked by Yuki and Kyo's rooms, quietly walking toward the empty room. He listened for a moment, but didn't hear anything. He slowly slid the door open, and even though it was bright out, he couldn't see much since the blinds were pulled and the lights were off. He then noticed a small smear of blue in all the black.

"Hi."

Arisu…

I wasn't freaking out anymore. I was having a full blown panic attack. When the door slid open, every one of my muscles clenched as hard as they could, not making it very easy to hold my breath. I could see his face peeking through the door. I couldn't really tell what he looked like, since the room was still so dark. I saw his head fixate on where I was.

"Hi," I whispered, not bothering to hide anymore since it wasn't of any use.

"Hello." Considering how Yuki and Kyo had described him, he had sounded much scarier than he was. He had a very calming voice. I stood up.

"You must be Hatori. I'm Arisu," I stuck out my hand, and he shook it. "It's nice to meet you."

"Same here." Formalities. "Would you mind if I talked to you for a while?"

"Actually, would you mind if I talked first?" he nodded for me to continue. I sat down on my bed. "Well, I've heard about what you can do, and before you do anything, I want you to know I very much enjoy living here. Kyo really saved me from myself. Honestly, if you gave it maybe another couple months, if it weren't for Kyo, I probably wouldn't be here. Or anywhere, really." I saw his eyes widen just a little. "Ever since I got here, I've been feeling surer of myself as a person, and have been happier than I've ever been. So if you still need to do what you gotta do, then so be it. I just felt you should know that. But that's really not all-" I heard sets of footsteps pounding up the stairs, causing me to jump and my eyes to widen. My door slammed open, Yuki and Kyo still panting from their sprint. They looked at my expression, and they took it as a blank stare.

"What the hell did you do!?" Kyo shouted, grabbing the doctor by his collar. I grabbed at Kyo.

"Stop it! Let him go!" I wrapped my arms around his chest from behind, trying to pull him back.

"You didn't…" Yuki trailed off, his eyes widening.

"No he didn't, so let go!" I gave a heave right as Kyo let go, causing us both to fall on our butts. Kyo quickly turned around looking at me, his eyes searching my face.

"Wait, but, you looked-"

"Yeah, startled because you guys came running and slammed my door open. People tend to get startled when that happens," I said sarcastically, but I was smiling at both of them. Kyo stood up, and offered me a hand, which I took. I didn't let go when he tried to, and I stuck my other hand out towards Yuki, and he took it.

"Like I was saying," I said, looking back at Hatori. "This is my family now. If it weren't for them, I know I'd still be in a pretty dark place. Without them, I would be nothing," I could feel the tears at the edge of my eyes. "And they're all I could ask for and more. Even with the arguing, and the fighting, and the occasional childishness, I love them more than anything. And if you paid attention to what just happened, I hope you can realize this is a special set of circumstances." The doctor just nodded. He got up, gave me a small smile, and left. I let out a breath I hadn't noticed I'd been holding, and felt smile creep onto my face, and then I did the weirdest thing I could have done right then; I started laughing. I was still crying a little, so I probably looked terrible. The guys looked at me like I was crazy. I was still holding their hands, and I pulled them in to hug them both, one arm around each of their chests.

"Oh my god," I said quietly to myself. "Please tell me I was not the only one who was really, really scared right then." I felt them both hesitantly hug me back.

"Trust me, you weren't," Yuki said.

"For once, the damn rat's right. Don't do something that stupid again," Kyo said, but at the moment, I really didn't care.

"I won't. Promise," I said, just glad to still have them. I could see a flash on the walls in front of me. I looked up to see Yuki and Kyo glaring at whatever was behind us, and I saw Shigure holding a disposable camera.

"Kodak moment?" he said, now seeming to regret what he'd done. Both guys let go of me at the same time and began to step around me, but I was closer. They didn't realize it till it was too late; I grabbed the camera and shoved it into my shirt.

"It will be developed. If you wish to do something about it, now is the time," I told them, a grin on my face. They both looked like they actually thought about it for a moment. They both sighed at me, and Kyo rolled his eyes.

"Do whatever the hell you want," Kyo said, with a slight glare that no longer had any effect on me (not that it had much of one to begin with). Yuki just sighed, gave me a small smile, and retreated with Shigure. I sighed, trying to slow my heart's pounding, and took the camera out and put it in a drawer with some of my clothes, and found my sketch pad. I always stashed it in weird places, mostly a force of habit, but I still didn't like it to be in an obvious places. I quickly switched the items, grabbing a pencil, and sat on my bed. I started with the jaw-line, working down to his collar, then back up to the bangs over his left eye, his nose, his lips, his eyes. When I looked up at my clock, it was eleven, and I was starving. I set my sketch pad under my covers; intending to edit the finer details later. Then I realized what day it was. Saturday! Weekend! Swimming! I ran back into my room, grabbed my phone and texted everyone: Pool in one hour! And ran back downstairs to find the guys.

"Hey, is swimming in an hour good for you?" I asked Yuki, finding him in the kitchen.

"It's fine by me," he said with a smile, and I looked around for Kyo. I checked the roof last, and of course that's where I found him.

"Hey, we're still going swimming. We're leaving in an hour, and you're welcome to join us," I said, coming up and sitting by him.

"No way in hell," he said bluntly.

"Well we're not in hell, so I believe that sentence in null and void. Please!?" I asked, grabbing his arm. "Please? Pretty please? Pretty please with a cherry on top?" I said, slowly beginning to crumple down with every word. "Please? For me? If you don't I shall die!" I said, sounding a lot like Shigure. "I'm dying! Please?" By this time, I was a couple pleases away from 'death.' "Please? Please?" I asked in whispers, then finally, 'dying,' still grasping his arm. I waited a minute, and he didn't budge. "Oh, come on. I've had a hell of a day, and I just wanna go swimming with you guys. I hate asking for things, except when I feel lazy, which is pretty often, but not the point. The point is I just wanna-"

"Fine," he said, not looking at me. "I'll go this one time."

"Thank you!" I said, throwing my arms around him. I heard whistle from below us, and saw Rin, Maiko, Hikari and Hikaru looking at us. I quickly let him go and frowned at them. "I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again. You, are immature," I told them and they just laughed at me. "What are you doing here anyway? I said in an hour, not twenty minutes," I asked, sliding off the roof onto a balcony.

"What? And not come to make fun of you to no end- I mean, make sure this is a safe and stimulating environment for you? Never," Maiko said, a grin covering her face, and I sighed.

"I'll be down in a sec." I barely had time to open the door before they all walked in like they owned the place. I could practically feel Shigure's ears perk up. Three, two-

"Is everything all right?" his head poked around from the hallway.

"Friends, this is Shigure Sohma; he owns the house. Shigure, these are my uninvited friends, Maiko Ijuin, Rin Fujioka, and Hikari and Hikaru Sasaki."

"Why am I last?" Hikaru asked, mocking offense.

"Ladies first," Maiko made a point of saying.

"You are so sexist," he said

"As you can see, with them around, there is never ending pointless babble," I added, as they dispersed to look around. Shigure disappeared back around his corner to whatever he was previously doing, and I ran upstairs to find Yuki. I knocked on his door.

"Come in," I stepped into his room which was more dirty then I thought a room could possibly. It practically put my mom's house to shame.

"Just a warning, my friends decided to come early, so I would hide anything that you value, because otherwise, they will find it and use it to torture you in any way possible," I warned him, and he smiled at me.

"Ok. I'm guessing we'll be leaving sooner now?"

"I guess so. Well, I'm going to go get ready," said, and left with a wave. I quickly slipped out and ran into my room, hoping to not run into anyone on the way to avoid further harassment. I quickly put my bikini on and a tee-shirt and jeans on over, and threw anything else I would need in a bag, and then I realized the jeans were pretty big, and long. These are so not my pants. I walked out, needing to pull up the pants every five seconds.

"Does anyone know who's pants these are?" I said, and suddenly everyone was there, Yuki and Kyo on the edges of the room.

"Are those mine?" Kyo asked.

"Aw, snap," Maiko said, and I knew what was coming next, since I'd cracked this joke before. "Ari got in Kyo's pants." I couldn't not laugh at Kyo's expression.

"Well, I'm going to go get out of Kyo's pants, so I'll be right back, and then we can leave," I said as Maiko continued to laugh at her own joke. I changed, tossed the pants in Kyo's room, and we headed outside.

"We're driving?" Yuki asked, spotting Rin's blue 2009 Subaru Impreza.

"Yeah, but I swear, if anyone get's my car dirty, I will kill all of you slowly and painfully," Rin said, looking dead serious, and Yuki and Kyo both looked at me with equal looks of alarm.

"Rin's car is like her baby, so just be careful," I said, then I noticed something. "Uh, Rin? Aren't there only five seats?"

"Oh, yeah. Huh. I guess Kyo can sit in front since he's a little bigger than the rest of you and you can all just squish," she said with a shrug, climbing into the driver's seat. I sighed, and let Yuki in first and me second so no one would get close enough for him to transform, then the twins, and Maiko on the outside since she was smallest.

"Hey guys!" Hikaru began.

"Group bonding time!" Hikari added with a smile, though I could tell she was feeling squished.

"Ok guys, time to tell the most embarrassing things that have every happened to us. So, this one time, I was at the studio, right? And-" Hikari put her hand over Maiko's mouth. We'd all heard this one enough to know what happens, and didn't want to hear it again.

"I said, 'bonding;' not 'scaring,'" she said, and Maiko sat back, finally quiet. It only took a matter of minutes to reach the pool, and after paying, Hikari and I were running and taking our clothes off at the same time, quickly grabbed each other's hands, and dove in and popped up together.

"Come on guys! What's takin' so long?" we yelled at everyone as we climbed back out. I saw Kyo leaning against the wall.

"Um, excuse me. What are you doing?" I asked, raising an eye-brow at him.

"Standing. What does it look like I'm doing?" he said, not budging. Of course…

"Well I think there's something you'd actually like here." Lie. Lie. Lie. "You might want to take your shirt off. If you get splashed on the way it won't be my fault. Just a suggestion," I said, and he sighed, but obeyed. "Come on," I said and he followed me around the edge of the pool towards the deep end. I turned around to push him in, but he blocked my arms, but then I grabbed his and jumped.

"Hey!" he had time to yell before we were under. I could kind of see him underwater, even though I could feel the slight sting of chlorine. "What the hell!?" he yelled when I popped up.

"Fun, that's what. Hey, I kinda think I look like Ju-on right now," I said, since my hair had fallen in my face and was hanging down from the water weight. (A.N. If you do not recall, Ju-on is the original Grudge, done in Japan)

"You do," Kyo said bluntly, and I stuck my tongue out at him and dove under, sitting on the bottom for a few seconds before going back up and pushing my hair out of my face, only to get splashed by Hikaru shouting as he flew off the rope swing.

"Thanks. I totally needed that," I said sarcastically.

"You're welcome. I believe you need this too," he said, and dove underwater. I looked around for him, when I felt a hand on my legs, and when he popped up, my knees were hanging on his shoulders and I was clinging to his head to avoid hanging upside down.

"No! I suck at these!"

"Chick fight!" Hikaru yelled, and he turned slowly so I wouldn't fall off, and I could see Hikari had already hoisted Maiko onto her shoulders, who was grinning like a devil.

"I really don't want to do this," I pointed out, and Maiko shrugged at me.

"That sucks for you then!" She half lunged at me but I grabbed her hands mid-air, but half her weight was on them, so I tipped back and ended up pulling her forward, pushing Hikari's head underwater, and accidentally winning all at the same time.

"Whoo! We're winners!" Hikaru yelled as Maiko and Hikari popped up, Hikari spitting out water. He took his hands off my legs and let me fall back. When I got up, I saw Yuki grinning at me, and stuck my tongue out at him.

"That was a complete accident wasn't it?" I heard Kyo say.

"What? How do you know I'm not just a ninja like that?" I countered, even though he was totally right.

"Because I flipped you," he said with a small grin.

"Really? How much you wanna bet I can hit that?" I pointed up to a large AC pipe that was a few feet above the top of the rock wall. The rock wall was slightly angled towards you, so if you slipped, you went right into the water.

"You're on," he said and I swam towards the wall and started climbing. I heard a whistle from below me.

"Damn girl! Don't you go be a ho on me!" I head Hikari yell from below me. I stopped and turned around (as much as I could, anyway).

"Oh be quiet! You bought this for me," I called down, and she had for my birthday a year back, which made me think about what day it was. "Shit…" I mumbled under my breath.

"Hey! You gonna give up?" Kyo called from below.

"No way in hell!" I shouted back, and started climbing again. When I was almost to the top, I quickly threw myself up the last few footholds and leaped, hearing the satisfying bong! and some cheers on my way down.

I don't know how long we were there, but we hung out until the life guard kicked us out, and we went to the dressing rooms to change.

"Hey, Ari," I heard Rin say from the shower next to me.

"Yeah?"

"What's up with you guys?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You, Yuki, Kyo, and Hikaru. It's kinda crazy," she said, in that way-too-cunning way she has.

"Nothing," I said ingeniously.

"Ari, you're a bad liar. I know the day is coming up, but still. They seem pretty eager to be involved with anything you are. Let them help," she said quietly so only her and I could hear, and I couldn't help the sigh that escaped. I hated thinking about it, but it was still coming, and I couldn't stop time, so I was totally screwed. December first. I had two days.

Sorry for taking so long, I spent quite a while trying to get the beginning right. Ok guys, I'm going to ask you guys a favor, so please listen. I have a forum called That Awkward Child has Things to Say!, and I would love it if you went to check it out. I'm doing a contest for one of my other stories, you don't have to read it to participate, because none of those readers seem to have much interest in it XP I'm also doing a thing called Rachel's Challenge. Whether you've heard of it or not, you really just need to read and hear about it. I had a representative come to my school, and he literally had me, my friends, and lots of tough, football-playing, straight guys in tears.

myforums/xXStormy-chanXx/4131088/

Please come check it out! And on another topic, I'd still love for someone to draw Ari! If you are interested, look over my author's note again and Let me know! ~Stormy:3