Shigure sat in the doorway to the sand garden, writing ideas for his next book in a small black notebook on his lap. He looked up as he head footsteps behind him and glanced over as Akito sat down next to him, her face stuck in an expression of shock.
"What's wrong?" Shigure asked, putting down his notebook and pen in concern.
"Have you seen the package we got in the mail today?" Akito whispered, her voice barely audible.
Shigure stood up and walked briskly over to the main room of the house, covering his nose at a horrible smell that had filled the air. Flies gathered around the top of an opened box, which must have been the source of such a horrible stench. Shigure walked cautiously over to the box and looked into it in horror.
Inside was a dead orange cat, the word 'love' carved into its side in jagged slashes.
"Dear God…" Shigure gasped, quickly closing the box and putting it in the corner of the room. He stared at the package for a moment longer before walking back to the other room to comfort Akito, who was now shivering.
"Are you worried about him?" Shigure asked, his voice soft.
"He can take care of himself. I'm more worried about Tohru. This woman's gone insane." Akito let out a raspy gasp, her eyes wide. "What should I do? I'm still the head of the household, I have to do something!"
"You can't do anything about that woman, she's out of your hands." Shigure sighed, and wrapped his arms around Akito. She rested her head on his shoulder, her eyes still wide.
"I should do something. Why am I not able to do anything? I hate being helpless." She said sadly, and Shigure raised her chin to make her look up at him.
"You aren't helpless. You prevented Tohru from going through the unnecessary danger of going out at night to work- I sent them a kitten to keep her happy, and to keep Kyo occupied. We've already both helped them, and now they have to help themselves."
Akito nodded, looking out the window at the sand garden as a sparrow landed in the sand, fluttering its wings to clean its feathers, and destroying the perfect beauty of the area around it.

"You got her catnip? I don't want a high kitten stumbling around the house!" Kyo looked at the small orange cat as it played with its new toy mouse, chewing on it with droopy eyes.
"I thought catnip just made them happy. Is it a drug?" Tohru gasped, wondering if she should try to take the toy away from the kitten before it hurt her.
"It's a drug, but she should be fine." Kyo rolled his eyes, and shook his head in dismay. He had left Tohru in the isle of pet toys to pick something out for the kitten while he went to pick out furniture for the house, which was now looking much more like a place where someone lived rather than a squatting house.
"It's getting late." Kyo smiled as Tohru yawned, and nodded shyly in agreement. She changed in the bathroom while Kyo simply took off his shirt and settled down in the bed. He noticed that the kitten didn't particularly like him like most cats had when he was still the cat of the zodiac. He smiled in satisfaction and rolled onto his side as Tohru sat on the bed next to him.
"Kyo, do you think I've changed a little?"
Kyo sat up, looking at her with raised eyebrows when she refused to look at him. "What do you mean by changed?"
"Like, I act differently. I feel a little different since that guy… well, since the other day." She looked down 

at the bed with sad eyes, and Kyo put a hand to her cheek comfortingly.
"You've gotten a little more bold, if that's what you mean. I wouldn't say change is always a bad thing, Tohru. Sometimes it's the beginning of something better."
Tohru looked at Kyo with wide eyes and smiled sweetly. "So you're okay with me being less shy? I don't know why I changed, but I guess I did."
"I think you lost a little bit of your innocence when that happened, but that's okay." Kyo held out her arms for her welcomingly, and Tohru leaned into his embrace. They laid down in the bed, Tohru quickly falling asleep, leaving Kyo the only one awake. He looked down at her in his arms and smiled softly, thinking it was cute that she was so worried that he wouldn't like her because she wasn't as shy as before. Actually, he thought it was kind of nice now that he didn't have to fight quite so hard to try and get to her actual feelings rather than the smiling mask she put on for the world around her. He tightened his grip on her protectively, falling asleep with his cheek resting against her soft brown hair.

"Shigure, why is there a dead cat in a box in your house?" Hatsuharu's calm voice ran out in question through the main Sohma house. He looked closer at the cat in the box, raising an eyebrow in interest at the word carved into its bloody fur. "Oh my. It seems we still have trouble." He said with a sigh, and stood up as Shigure walked into the room.
"Ah, Hatsuharu- how nice to see you." Shigure shook Hatsuharu's hand, and Akito nodded in greeting.
"Thanks. Um… I have some good news, bad news and worse news." Hatsuharu ran a hand through his black and white hair, looking at Akito nervously. "I guess I'll give the best first. We saved Tohru just fine, and she and Kyo are living happily back in their apartment, and Kyo is probably obsessively protective of Tohru now."
"That boy needs to be. She's gotten herself into a bit of a pickle." Shigure nodded, his face serious. "The bad news?"
"Well, Tohru managed to kill a guy." Hatsuharu said with a shrug, making Akito gasp.
"What?" Shigure gasped, his eyes wide. "How could sweet innocent Tohru kill someone? That doesn't make sense."
"Well, they were beating on Kyo pretty badly, and she started kicking him on the back. She apparently hit really hard and broke his spine. Poof, dead."
"What do you mean by dead… like, paralyzed, or…?" Akito said in a whisper behind Shigure.
"Dead, as in his spirit is gone but his stench remains. He wasn't breathing, and he's probably gone up to that great big farm in the sky." Hatsuharu pointed up, his eyes still perfectly calm.
Shigure shook his head in dismay. "Poor Tohru must be heart broken. I'm glad I got her that kitten, now, for however much trouble it will give Kyo."
"She was in a coma-type-thing for a little bit, but luckily she snapped out of it by the end of the night." Hatsuharu crossed his arms over his chest thoughtfully. "Did you know Kyo actually has a romantic side? Who knew."
"What should we do about those two? This woman is ruining the beginning of their time together. How should we solve this problem?" Shigure sighed.
"Well, there's always the typical way." Hatsuharu suggested with a wry smile.
"And what's that?" Shigure looked up to Hatsuharu with a raised eyebrow.
"Live bait." He grinned, his black side showing a little through the wide smile.