-1Chapter 2

Ah, they're finally in Hokkaido! What will happen now:o

"What the hell?! Why is it so damn cold?!" Kyo shivered as they got off the train and made their way into the city.
"It's a nice change, I think." Tohru smiled, letting out a long breath that froze in the air and disappeared. She giggled and did it again as they walked through a small field.
"Nice, change, huh? I hope it's not like this for too long. No one ever mentioned this much snow when they mentioned Hokkaido." He grumbled, trudging through the snow drifts. He felt something cold hit him from behind and turned around to see Tohru standing with her luggage on the ground beside her, and a large scoop of snow gone from the ground. Her eyes widened as Kyo grinned and put down his luggage as well. "You want to play that game, huh?" He said, kneeling down to scoop the snow together at his feet.
Tohru squealed and started running as Kyo stood back up with a large snowball in his hand, being packed tightly together. He started running after her, but both knew that he was far faster than she could ever hope to be.
"Noooo!" She cried as she was hit on the back and dramatically fell to the ground, face-first into a large snow drift and lay unmoving. Kyo ran over to her and kneeled beside her, turning over to see her covered with snow and laughing. He chuckled as well and moved a strand of hair from her face, brushing the snow off her cheeks gently.
"Who knew you could be so mischievous?" He grinned and kissed her gently, making them both blush. She sat up and shook her head to get the snow off her hair, and looked up at him with a blush still staining her cheeks.
"Snowball fights are fun. Don't you think?" She smiled up to him, secretly picking up a handful of snow from the drift behind her.
"Yeah, they are." Kyo grinned back, kissing her forehead softly as he brushed the snow off her shoulders.

Tohru's smile broadened as she stuffed the snow down Kyo's back, making him yell in shock and stand up to shake his coat out.

"Oh you'll pay for that, you little sneak." Kyo said, looking at her with an expression of surprise. He had never seen Tohru be this playful before, and he was really enjoying it.

Tohru smiled sweetly again, tilting her head cutely. Kyo knew not to fall for that ploy again, and instead picked up a huge scoop of snow, looming toward her threateningly. She let out a loud 'eep' and started running again, this time Kyo catching up to her much quicker and shoving the snow down her coat's front with a shout of triumph. Her eyes widened and she let out a loud yell, shaking out her coat desperately.
"Something's in it! Something's in it!" She yelled, completely spazzing out as she tried to get the wriggling thing out of her shirt.
"What?" Kyo turned her around and unzipped her coat, patting down her shirt until he felt something small wriggling against her chest. He looked at her in apology before reaching down her shirt and pulling the small mouse out of her bra. She looked at the mouse and gasped for breath as she tried to calm down, Kyo laughing the entire time.

"It's just a mouse, Tohru. It's not going to kill you." Kyo smiled, zipping her coat back up for her.
"I know, it just scared me. Usually things don't try to crawl down my shirt like that."
"Unless it's Ayame or Shigure."

Tohru looked at him for a minute and laughed, nodding in agreement. "We should probably get going then." She said, walking back over to the luggage as she looked back with a blush. She hadn't expected Kyo to reach down her shirt like that, but he had done what was needed. They both picked up their luggage and trudged the rest of the way through the field, Kyo setting the mouse down on the ground carefully before walking.

Yuki set his bag down in his new apartment, letting out a sigh that he could finally sit down. He fell into a chair on one side of the small apartment, and sighed as he was able to see the other side from where he sat. It was very different from the large houses he was used to, but it would have to do, for while he was in school at least. Everyone had to start somewhere. He looked over as his cell phone rang and rolled his eyes when he saw it was Momiji trying to call him. He had just gotten to his new home- and people were already after him. He chuckled and flipped the phone open, hearing Momiji's voice greet him happily.
"Yuki! I hope you have gotten yourself to your new home well, I was wondering if you have Tohru and Kyo's phone number. They forgot to tell it to everyone before they left."
Yuki froze for a minute, realizing that he didn't have it either. Oh no… he hoped that someone had it, otherwise…

"She didn't tell you…?"

A long silence followed, followed by a groan of frustration from Momiji. "Where did they say they were going again? Maybe I can find them in the registered addresses or something… we have to find their phone number, otherwise Kisa will start crying, and Hiro will blame us for it."
"Yeah, knowing him he'd probably only make the situation worse." Yuki said, putting his forehead into his palm. Man was this a bad situation- everyone was dependant on knowing that phone number- how had they forgotten to get it from them?
"Do you think Tohru and Kyo will have the internet? Maybe we can e-mail them."
"You forget Momiji- she didn't know what a DVD was until a few months ago." Yuki sighed and shook his head. "We'll find the number, even if we have to ask everyone. They probably told Shigure or Akito, or something like that. We may be worrying for no reason. Let's check with the others first, and then start to panic."

"Good idea. I'll start with Shigure and Akito, if they're not off somewhere eating each other's faces or something." Momiji said, his grin easily heard in his voice. Yuki rolled his eyes and smiled as well, glad that the two were finally happy, but still finding it strange that Akito had turned out to be a woman after all the years of thinking she had been a guy. It explained her moodiness, but it was still strange.
"Alright Momiji, I'll talk to you later then. Good luck." Yuki said, and flipped his phone closed. He let out a long sigh and leaned back in his chair, moving his long bangs from his eyes. All this thinking of Tohru and Kyo together alone was reminding him of leaving Machi back in Tokyo. He still remembered what she had said to him, that she would catch up with him someday soon, but he still felt bad for leaving her after all they had been through together. He hoped he hadn't hurt her too badly by moving away so quickly after graduation, but he had to get a good career to prove to the others that he was useful after all. He stood up and walked over to his bags, starting to unpack his things and setting them around the room while his mind raced with thoughts.

"We're home." Kyo said, walking into the small apartment. He looked down as Tohru's face lit up and she walked into the room, spinning around in place as she looked around.
"It's so much bigger than I thought!" She looked at Kyo with concern. "Will we be able to afford it?"
"The down payment's already done, thanks to the money Akito sent us, but half of the other money we'll have to come up with. It'll be in monthly bills, we won't have to pay for it all at once." Kyo walked over to her, setting his bags down. "We'll get through this. Even if I have to work the dojo and two extra jobs and sleep while I'm standing, I'll get you a good home to live and work in, Tohru." he put his hands on her shoulders, turning concerned when her eyes welled up with tears.
"You don't have to do all that for me, Kyo. I'll work too- I'll get two part-time jobs, and I'll help you." She looked up at him, her eyes wide. "I don't need a big house or anything, I just need a place to call home with you in it. It could be a back room in a store for all I care." She smiled, wiping her tears gently.
"No, I want what's best for you. This will be where we live and eat and sleep. Now- I got some furniture with some of the money, but I couldn't get much. There's a table for your mom and everything, and a bed and a table for the dining room/kitchen." He said, pointing to the objects. "We'll get more when the money comes. For now, lets unpack and get things settled before we start to worry ourselves about the future." He said, walking over to one of the boxes piled into the corner earlier by a favor from Akito.
Tohru nodded as Kyo took out the picture frame with Tohru's mother and handed it to her carefully. She nodded and walked over to the table in the room, setting it down gently and looking at it for a minute.
'well mom, I'm finally on my own. I promised that I would be good, and that I would succeed, and look where I am now- I have a boyfriend and a new apartment and everything.' She smiled happily, and walked back over to the same box, taking out a bowl and a bag of white and black beads. She walked to the same table as her mother was on, and put the bowl beside her, pouring the beads into it gently, and going to throw the bag away. Kyo watched her leave and walked over to the bowl, picking up one of the beads and looking at it. These had been the beads that were always on his wrist, keeping the spirit of the cat's true form hidden away inside him. They were made of human bones and blood, a grim testimony to a stranger's sacrifice to the one possessed by the cat demon. He had ripped them off when the curse had been broken, finally able to live without them. He put the bead back and looked at the watch now on his wrist and smiled wryly. He had felt somewhat… naked without something on his wrist, so he had settled for having a watch there instead. Now at least this bracelet had a purpose other than reminding him of pain. Tohru came into the room and smiled softly as Kyo looked at his wrist and walked over to him, giving him a gentle hug from behind. She loved that she was finally able to hug him and not have him turn into a cat. While she missed being able to hold the orange cat in her arms, this was well worth losing that particular detail. Kyo smiled back at her and put a hand over hers on his chest, savoring the moment. It was only a little while ago that he had hugged her and hadn't transformed, shocking them both. Sure, others had been losing their curse as well, Kureno, then Hiro and then Momiji, but he had never expected his own curse to break. Somehow, he had expected it to keep on going, even if the others had their curses broken, because he wasn't actually part of the zodiac itself. He wrapped his hand around hers and brought it up to his face to kiss the palm gently, then stepped back and looked down at her.
"You're distracting me, Tohru. We'll never be able to unpack at this rate." He smiled down at her gently. She blushed slightly and nodded, still not used to being so open with her emotions to him. Especially the flirting, she was never very good with flirting with men, and usually messed things up by being too sensitive and hyper.

"Not that I mind you distracting me or anything." He said, kissing her hand again and leaning down to kiss her forehead. "But we can distract each other later." he smirked mischievously. For being without the spirit of the cat, Kyo still acted very much like a cat, sometimes laid back, sometimes sly and flirtatious. It was a roller coaster of emotions that was so new to her she felt excited at just the thought of him, her stomach making funny flips into her chest when she saw the glint in his eyes. He reluctantly withdrew from her embrace and started to unpack the rest of the items into their new home.
Several hours later, everything was unpacked their home was finally complete. It was dark now, and both Kyo and Tohru were exhausted from carrying things back and forth into their proper places.
"Ugh, I'm so tired." Kyo sighed, slumping to the floor. He looked up at Tohru as she swayed while she stood and shook his head. "But obviously you're more tired. Let's get to sleep then, tomorrow will be a busy day." He said, leading her into the bedroom to make sure she didn't fall. He looked in, his face reddening when he realized the situation they had put themselves in.

"Crap." He muttered, realizing he only bought one bed for them. He looked down at her nervously, his face flushed crimson. "Um…" He shook his head, and guided her over to the bed with a sigh. "You sleep here, I'll sleep on the floor."

"Kyo…" Tohru looked at him, her face blushed as well when she saw the single bed in front of her. "That wouldn't be fair- this is your home too."
"But-"
"I'll sleep on the floor, you can sleep on the bed."
"Now wait just a minute- I'm not letting a woman sleep on the floor while I sleep in the bed. That's just wrong."
"Well, what else are we going to do? Both sleep on the floor, or both sleep in…the…" She looked at the bed and her eyes widened, her face blushing even more.

"I know, I know, I forgot that we needed two beds!" Kyo said defensively, trying not to make her think he had done it on purpose. It was far too early in the relationship to think along those lines…

"I…I understand, but…" Tohru looked at him and the bed and let out a small squeal of embarrassment.

Kyo looked away, his face nearly as red as a cherry. "So… what do you want to do then?"

Tohru looked down nervously, holding her hands together in front of her. "There's only one thing we really can do, since neither of us will sleep on the floor." she whispered. "Just promise, just promise that…"
"I won't." Kyo said, his blush getting even worse. They looked at each other and both sighed nervously. There was no way to avoid this, they both knew that neither would consent to letting the other sleep on the floor. Kyo looked at her one last time and rolled his eyes, taking off his shirt. Tohru let out a loud squeal of protest and turned around, making Kyo look at her in confusion.
"What? You've seen me naked before when I transformed, it's only my shirt." He said, still blushing.
"B-but…" She bit her lip nervously. That meant she would have to sleep in her pajamas next to him, so close like that… "I-I'll get changed in here." Tohru said, grabbing her pajamas from the dresser and quickly retreating to the bathroom.

Kyo scratched his head nervously and climbed into the bed under the covers, huddling into the farthest side of the mattress. He froze when Tohru finally climbed in as well, as gently and quietly as she could. She quickly fell asleep, far too tired to stay away for very long. Kyo turned around enough to look at her and gritted his teeth nervously. She looked so calm and peaceful while she slept, and it only made her all the more beautiful to him. He turned back around, curling into a ball, much like a cat would. He crossed his arms to keep himself from touching her, but knew he wouldn't be able to sleep very well tonight, knowing that she was right next to him.

This was going to be a very, very long and restless night.

Poor Kyo, he's so tortured XD

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