I woke up and slapped a hand over my mouth to stifle the scream. When my hand came off it was wet with salt water and I quickly wiped my face on my blanket, glad it had all been a dream. In my dream, I had been in my room, and I had headed down stairs. When I got there, no one seemed to be home. I'd heard knock on the door and answered it, and my mother was there. I couldn't recall all the details, but I remember her dragging me by my hair into what looked like a ruin of Shigure's study, and she had just raised an empty beer bottle over her head when I woke up.

I quickly and quietly slipped out of my room, leaving the door open. Ok, call me crazy, but I just had to check. I cracked open the door to Yuki's room just enough that I could see his foot hanging off his bed. I did the same with Kyo's, and I could hear the snoring coming from Shigure's when I went down stairs. I turned around and nearly screamed.

"What are you doing up?" I hear a sleepy Yuki's voice ask.

"Oh my gosh, you scared me so bad," I said, trying to catch my breath.

"My apologies, but why are you up so late?" he asked again.

"Oh, i-it's nothing. I just couldn't sleep." It wasn't a complete lie; I couldn't sleep because I was freaking out. Yuki raised an eyebrow and gave me a small smile.

"I hope you realize that you aren't a very good liar, Ms. Takahashi," he said, and I could feel my face heat up.

"You'll think I'm being ridiculous."

"I highly doubt that," Yuki said sincerely, and I sighed and leaned back, with my back against the wall.

"I just had this stupid dream, and you guys were gone, and my m-mom was here, and, I don't know. Like I said, I was just being ridiculous." I looked at the floor and could feel my face heating up even more.

"I don't think it's ridiculous." I looked up to see Yuki leaning against the wall and looking down at me. Even though it was dark I could see his purple eyes. "Everyone gets scared sometimes, and sometimes, you just need to know everything's fine to feel better. Are you ok?" I fought the tears that threatened to spring into my eyes. Why are you always ok until someone asks if you're ok?

"Yeah, I'm fine. We should probably just head back to bed," I suggested, not really wanting to delve any deeper into my terrifying dreamland. I began to step around him when there was a tug on my arm, and suddenly he was hugging me.

"In case you don't recall, we already went over the fact that you're a terrible liar," he said, and I could hear the small smile in his voice. I relaxed against him and hugged him back, still trying to fight the tears.

"Thanks. I'm kinda glad it was you." Yuki looked down at me, seeming surprised. "Kyo would've agreed with me," I said, and we both smiled.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

"Oh my god, are you serious?"

"Am I ever not?" Rin said from the other end of the phone. "Remember, 421 Willow Street in three hours."

"Oh my god! Tell your dad he's my favorite friend's dad ever! Thank you so freaking much! I love you!"

"Love you too babe," Rin said, hanging up, and I ran upstairs to shower. After, I ran into my room, still wearing my robe, to try and find some nice-ish clothes. I was stuck between two choices. I grabbed both and ran down stairs.

"Hey, which to you guys think looks better for a job interview?" I said, and Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure all looked up at me.

"Hey! Don't you have any shame!? Put some clothes on before you start running around!" Kyo shouted at me, and I looked down. My robe came to about mid-thigh.

"I think this is close enough to clothes. It covers what it needs to cover. Now, this one," I held up a nice pair of blue jeans and a white tee with a plaid, blue, button up shirt. "Or this?" I held up a dress that was black above the hips, with floral print beneath it.

"The dress."

"The first one." Yuki and Kyo said both at the same time, so I was a little lost on who said what.

"She should choose something that looks nice on her," Yuki said in that seemingly-calm-but-I-could-hear-the-annoyance voice.

"It would look nice on her. Why the hell would she wanna be all girly looking?" Kyo said, his anger more obvious.

"Because, like she said, it's a job interview. She'll want to look good."

"So? She'd want to be herself too!" I just stood there, waiting for them to realize they were talking like I wasn't here.

"It is 'herself.' She wouldn't have purchased it if it wasn't." I gave up on waiting and went upstairs and put something else on that would hopefully appease them; a floral skirt with a white tee and black vest.

"Is this good?" I asked when I came back down when they were still arguing. They both stopped mid-sentence to look, so they were gaping a little. I sighed and walked over and closed both of their mouths with one finger. "Keep your mouths closed; you'll catch flies," I said, and turned to leave, grabbing a coat since it was starting to rain.

"I think that means they like it!" I heard Shigure call right as I was about to step out the door.

"I believe so!" I called back, then closed the door behind me, but not soon enough as to not hear the sounds of him getting hit. The restaurant was a bit of a walk away, but it would only take about ten minutes. I would still be really early, but it was better than being late. While I was spacing out in my own personal world, I spotted something weird. It looked like Kyo in his cat form, but bigger and with some black. There is no way that is what I think it is…

It was a tiger. A legitimate tiger cub. I ran over to it, and it was shivering. I quickly took off my coat and wrapped it around it, picking it up; it struggled for a minute, but then subdued, it's head peeking out and looking at me.

"Ari?" I turned around to see Haru's grey eyes looking at mine. "You found her."

"Huh?" I replied ingeniously.

"Kisa," he gestured with a white glove to the little tiger in my arms.

"Wait, she's- oh!" So she's a Sohma. "Should we take her to Shigure's?"

"Yeah," he said, and I waited for him to turn around so I could follow behind him. "Where exactly is Shigure's house?" he said, looking around, and I giggled.

"This way, smart guy," I walked around him and he followed.

"Want me to hold Kisa? You'll get all wet."

"It's fine. A little water's never killed anyone." I'd have to wear a different outfit though.

"Well, people can drown in an inch of water, so a little water has probably killed someone," Haru said with a neutral face.

"Well, I don't think rain has killed anyone."

"Flash floods," he offered.

"Well then. You just gotta be a winner, don't you?" I said, and he smiled. "You know what? It probably doesn't matter much to you, but I decided that like you," I said and he looked down at me, eyes widened. "To be completely honest, when I first met you, I was a little creeped out. It felt like you were scrutinizing everything I did. But you seem fairly normal. So I decided I like you now."

"Thanks. You seem fairly normal too," he said with a grin as we arrived at the house.

"I returned! Well, we returned!" I called in, not getting a response. "We have a guest!" Three heads popped out from various places. "Now you're interested. I'm going to try to dry Kisa off and get her some clothes," I said, and Haru nodded, walking towards Yuki. I set Kisa on my bed, and heard Kyo come in behind me.

"So what's goin' on?" he said, sitting near Kisa.

"I found her outside like this, then Haru found me-" I quickly sucked in a breath. I had taken my coat off of her, and was about to dry her off a little with a small towel, when she bit me. I bit down on my lip, trying not to make weird squeaks of pain.

"Kisa!" Kyo shouted. She let go and curled into a tight a ball.

"Kisa, if you didn't want me to dry you off, you coulda said something. Violence is never the answer; even when it really seems like it is," I said, trying to ignore my bleeding hand.

"Hey, how's it-oh," Haru said, walking in with a towel on his head. He noticed my hand, gave a quick disappointed look at Kisa, and walked out, coming back a moment later with a small, rolled up bandage. "Let me take care of that," he said, and I held out my hand as he knelt in front of me.

"This seems to keep happening to this hand," I said, thinking out loud.

"Getting bit by tigers?" Haru said sarcastically.

"More like getting it hurt and needing minor medical attention."

"Oh yeah. I remember you had it wrapped last time and it was Kyo's fault, right?"

"It wasn't my fault!"

"So what exactly happened?" he asked, looking up from wrapping.

"Um, stray flying bottle?" I said right as he looked back down, and his eyes whipped back up, as wide as Yuki's had been when he found out. Hopefully, we wouldn't go down that exact trail again. I noticed Kisa was watching me as well, but looked away when she noticed my noticing.

"Stray flying bottle, huh?" Haru asked, cocking a brow. "Ok; I guess weirder things have happened." I gave him a small smile in appreciation for not asking, which he returned. I noticed the piercings in his ears while he was finishing.

"Hey, where'd you get your ears done?" I asked.

"Did it myself," he answered simply.

"Da-" I glanced at Kisa. "Dang. I wish I had the balls to do that. I always wanted to get mine done, but if my mom ever found out, crap would hit the fan," I said, and Haru chuckled.

"I could do it for you if you wanted. It's not that hard," he said, totally serious.

"Why the hell would you wanna do that?" Kyo said.

"I don't know. Why the heck would you want to do that?" I said and he looked confused, and I turned back to Haru. "Really?"

"Yeah. I even have a few spare hoops on me."

"Hmm. We should probably do this later," I said, looking at Kisa. Haru followed my gaze and nodded. "I don't mean to talk like you're not here, but she isn't much of a talker, huh?"

"Not recently. She doesn't speak. She hasn't said a word since right after she started middle school. Not one; and from what Hatori says, the problem's all in her mind. He said, for some reason, she's locked away all of her words. And after she stopped talking, she stopped going to school, and then today, she ran away from home. That's why I went out looking for her when I found you." I didn't know what to say.

"But, I don't understand. Why would she act this way all of a sudden?" I hadn't even noticed Yuki walk in.

"She was picked on." Faster than I expected, Kisa jumped up and clamped down on Haru's arm. "That hurts. What is it? Are you angry now?" he said, watching Kisa. You think I should just mind my own business, is that it? You made this my business. Do you have any idea how worried I was about you? Or your mother? You know, she's still out there looking for you right now."

"Kisa," I said, and she seemed to give a little, but didn't budge. "Remember what I said a minute ago? Violence is never the answer. I've had to deal with someone who thought that violence was the answer for a long time. I'm lucky I didn't turn out the same way. Because, really, when you honestly think violence is the answer, you're hurting others, and yourself." She watched me with intense brown eyes for a moment, then quickly let go and ran off. I could see Haru's arm was bleeding where she had bit him. I grabbed the towel I was going to dry Kisa with and dabbed at it, then tied it around his arm. "This will have to do for the moment," I said, and he looked up at me with a question mark expression. "I'll be right back." I picked up my coat from next to him and ran in the direction Kisa had, but there was no sign of her. I ran around the house calling her name a few times before I saw the tell tale spot of orange. There was a woman I didn't recognize with her.

"Kisa, mother's here now. Shigure was good enough to call me, to tell me where I might find you. Tell me, Kisa, why are you doing this? Why do you want to cause nothing but trouble for those around you? What were you thinking? Do you enjoy hurting me like this?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Why? Why didn't you tell me the other kids were picking on you? Why did you run away from home? Why won't you say anything? I'm tired, Kisa. I-I've had it." It was all I could do not to tell her that I'd already had it with her bull shit. I took a deep breath before saying anything.

"You know, it's not that simple. I know how she feels, you feel like if you tell anyone, they might feel the same way everyone else does. Or they'll be ashamed of you. You feel like, if you keep it so yourself, everything might just end up ok." I walked over and sat by them. "You try to be brave and deal with it, act like you don't care. But you do care, a lot. And it wears away at you, and all you end up doing is hurting yourself. You begin to believe them, and you don't want anyone else to believe them, so you make sure there's no one there to believe them. You push people away, even if you don't mean to. She didn't want to risk someone she loved hating her like that." There was a puff of smoke, and a lovely little girl, Kisa, was silently crying. I put my coat around her, and offered her a hand up, which she hesitantly took, and we hugged each other at the same time.

I took her inside and upstairs to find some clothes while her mom talked with Shigure. I found her a large tee shirt that fit her like a night gown. Shigure came up a while later to let us know that Kisa would be spending the night, and asked if she could stay with me.

"Of course! I don't mind at all. I always wanted a little sister." I got extra pillows so we could both sleep in my bed. "Are you tired?" I asked, and she nodded. "Ok, well let me brush out your hair first; you don't want it getting tangled." I grabbed my brush from the bathroom, and we say on the bed as I carefully brushed all the tangles out of her hair. "You're so lucky. Your hair is just naturally pretty, while I have to dye mine. I think only you could pull it off, though. It suits you. Do you want me to braid it too? It wouldn't take too long," I offered, and she didn't respond for a moment, then gave a tiny shrug. "Well we might as well. It will be even prettier than normal in the morning." After braiding her hair, we both climbed under the covers and passed out, completely exhausted after everything that happened.

Hey guys! I wanted to fill you in on something: When I first started writing this, it was going to be a KyoXOC story, period, no questions asked, the end. Now, I am actually questioning myself. I am seriously hesitating in all this. I never question myself! Ever! You see, in the past month I read the magna (yes, all of it), and I have seriously found a whole new appreciation for Yuki. Now, I don't even know how I want this story to end anymore. In the words of Rin (in the last chapter), "It's kinda crazy." That's why this chapter started with a Yuki moment; it was going to be a Kyo moment, but I realized Kyo has quite a few moments already (at least I considered them moments), so I decided it was about time Yuki had another one. I'm also really excited because I think Hiro will finally make an appearance soon! Like, probably next chapter soon! I love Hiro! So, Kisa; I love her as well! She's adorable! And I was glad Haru got to make another appearance. I've wanted some more Haru in here, because it's been almost Haru-less so far. He's my third- wait, second… No, tied for second. Yeah, definitely tied for second favorite. It was really weird, right as I was writing Ari's "I like you," If I Had You by Adam Lambert came on, and I was like "I wish Ari could be with Haru, that'd be cute… It's a little late for that though… :(" So, yeah. Sad for us Haru fans out there. I don't know, maybe I can do a HaruXOC story later. It would probably be quite a bit later unless I had a pretty fricking astoundimagical idea, because I have so many stories in progress, and so many of them aren't on here either. I only want so many on here though, because otherwise, updating would take forever, so I neglect the stories that aren't up a little for your guys' sake. Ok, ya know what? Haru is my favorite. My very, absolute favorite. Yep. IT HAS BEEN DECIDED. Ok, of topic, anyhow, how did you like Ari's "Speech de Kisa" ? I couldn't make it way different from Tohru's, because I still wanted it to be saying how Kisa felt, but a la Ari (ha ha I'm using all my French II stuff :D). Well, I believe my extensive rambling is over. Ta ta for now! ~Stormy:3