Kyo walked down the sidewalk toward the grocery store, his red eyes wide with caution as he watched every available hiding space around him for any sign of danger. Why the hell had he agreed to such a stupid idea? What if the woman had hired more thugs again? He had almost gotten killed last time one of them attacked him. He glanced to the other side of the road, knowing Hatsuharu and Yuki were both behind the shrubs that divided the sidewalk from the street. They were covered in winter's frost, and bore down on themselves from the weight.
He continued to watch ahead of him, trying to look as casual as possible.

"Do you think he's worried enough?" Hatsuharu snickered as he watched Kyo look all around himself.
"I would be too. We have no idea what this woman will do. Wait-" Yuki grabbed Hatsuharu's duster to stop him from moving, pointing ahead at a woman standing on an overpass, watching Kyo carefully. There was no doubt that was the woman from the Sohma house. Kyo stopped under the bridge, having seen her as well, and stared as she brought something out of her kimono sleeve.
"SHIT!" Hatsuharu jumped up, sprinting as fast as he could up the stairs of the overpass, flinching as a gunshot rang through the air. He didn't stop to look at Kyo, but tackled the woman to the ground, slamming her hand against the cement until she let go of the gun. It was then that Hatsuharu saw Kyo writhing on the ground beneath the overpass, Yuki running over to see to the damage.
"You've gone too far, woman." Hatsuharu growled, unphased by the old woman's tears as she sobbed for mercy.

Yuki ran over to Kyo, dread and horror bearing down on him as he stopped before the orange-haired man, who was groaning in pain on the ground. Yuki leaned down, looking Kyo over and holding him still to see any wounds he had suffered. He sighed when he saw that only his upper arm had gotten shot, and even then the bullet had left a deep gash against his upper shoulder. It hadn't actually hit him, just grazed him.
"Fuck, where does an old woman get a gun?" Kyo hissed, looking at the blood covering his hand as he took it away from the wound. "Tohru's gonna kill me."
"I doubt that." Yuki chuckled, taking off his shirt and ripping the bottom off into strips to wrap around Kyo's shoulder.
"Is he alright?" Hatsuharu dragged the sobbing woman over to Kyo, the gun tucked in the front of Hatsuharu's jeans.
"I'll be fine. I just need first aid." Kyo muttered, looking at the woman with furious eyes. "We should let Akito deal with her. I'm sure she'll think of some creative punishment for what she's done."
"That's a great idea." Hatsuharu smiled menacingly.
"No, please! Not Akito." The woman sobbed again, but Hatsuharu rolled his eyes.
"Please, Akito isn't that bad. Though… maybe for you she might reveal a bit of her black personality." Hatsuharu laughed and started walking down the road, dragging the old woman behind him. "You guys go back to the apartment. I'll bring this woman to the Sohma house. Don't worry about me." He called behind his shoulder. Kyo looked up to Yuki and groaned as he stood up again, careful not to move his shoulder.
"You know, I'll have to tell Tohru what our real intention was, out here." Kyo muttered.
"Why?" Yuki glanced at him curiously.
"Because she'll wonder why I'm shot, and because I don't think I can live with myself if I lie to her anymore. She's too trusting."
Yuki smiled to Kyo as he helped him walk down the street, an arm around him for support.

When they finally stumbled up the stairs to the apartment, Yuki opened the door and let Kyo walk in by himself. He flinched as Tohru let out a horrified gasp, standing from the table she had been sitting at and looking at his shoulder in concern.
"What happened? How did you get hurt so badly?" She said, her brown eyes wide.
"We wanted to capture that woman, so we decided to put myself up as bait." Kyo said, not able to look at her face as he confessed. Her expression crumbled, tears collecting at the corners of her eyes.
"You could have gotten really hurt." She whispered, her voice wavering. Kyo looked up at her and reached a hand out to try and comfort her, but she moved quickly away from him to walk to the other room.
"I'll get the first aid kit." She muttered as she walked away.
"I don't think she's too pleased." Shigure watched Tohru exit the room, and looked to Kyo with concern. "The wound isn't too bad, is it?"
"No, it's only a bullet graze. It should heal pretty quickly."
"A bullet?" Tohru gasped as she walked back into the room, carrying a small white box with a red cross on it. Kyo watched as she silently took out the necessary things from the box, and looked up at him, her blue eyes dull with a mixture of sorrow and anger. He hated to see her look at him like that, but knew he deserved it. He had betrayed her trust.
She unwrapped his bandages, thanking Yuki for sacrificing his shirt to save Kyo from any more bleeding. She pushed Kyo so that he sat on the ground, dabbing the wound with peroxide a little harder than was needed, making him cringe and hiss in pain.
"I think we should head home about now, Yuki has class, and I'm sure Akito will want me there to deal with the woman. I'm assuming you caught her, right?" Shigure looked to Yuki, who nodded and looked at Tohru with concern. He had never seen Tohru so angry before. Usually she forgave people so easily that she never stayed angry for more than a few minutes, but he knew this would be the exception.
"Good bye Tohru, I'll talk to you later. Take good care of Kyo." Shigure said happily, pushing Yuki out the door and closing it behind himself.
Kyo glanced up at Tohru, not liking the unusual silence between them. "You're angry with me." He said as a statement, knowing it was already true.
"Yes." She said, her voice soft. It was deeper than usual, and surprised him.
"I wanted to make sure she wouldn't hurt you again, Tohru." Kyo answered, looking up to see her reaction. She stayed silent, but her eyes brightened slightly as she glanced up at him.
"Kyo, you don't get it at all." She sighed, and looked away when she finished taking care of his gash. She glanced back at him one more time before walking into the kitchen, washing a pan to make food for dinner.
Kyo watched her leave, swearing at himself as he searched his mind for what she could mean. Of course he didn't 'get it', he had no idea what she was talking about- why was she so angry with him for protecting her? He hated to see her expression like this though, he missed the happy Tohru who would smile brightly at him just to see him smile back. He looked at the ground in frustration, his teeth bared angrily. He was being stupid- sitting here moping would get him nowhere.
Kyo walked into the kitchen, seeing Tohru scrub the saucepan with more pressure than was necessary. He faltered for a minute in caution before continuing forward, wrapping his arms around her waist and sighing against her shoulder. He did love the fact that now he could embrace her with no worries of transforming. "Please don't be angry at me, Tohru. I don't know why you're so mad at me."
Tohru stopped what she was doing, her shoulders tensing as she dropped the pan into the sink with a loud klatter.
"Kyo, you don't realize it- if you had died… Being without you would hurt more than any injury I could get. Don't throw yourself away like that." She said, her voice cracking as emotion overcame her.
Kyo let out a low groan of frustration, turning her around in his arms to hug her tightly to him. "Please don't cry. I just forgot how much you cared about me. It's still pretty new to have someone love me as much as you do."
"I do Kyo, I love you too much- I don't know how to be without you now." Tohru whispered against Kyo's torn shirt, making him sigh again, this time with regret. He knew acting as bait had been a bad idea, and yet he had gone through with it. He didn't know how to calm her down though- words wouldn't help right now, they would only make the situation worse. Instead he leaned down and kissed her lips softly, his red eyes looking into her deep brown eyes.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry you so much." He said quietly, glancing down as he felt the kitten wind through both of their legs, as if asking what was happening. Tohru let out a choked laughter as she picked up the kitten, the small orange cat nuzzling her comfortingly.
"It's okay. Just be more careful." Tohru said, her eyes puffy from crying. She handed him the kitten, who mewled cutely as he held her in his hands. He rolled his eyes and reached into a cupboard over Tohru's head, opening a can of cat food for Kyoko.
"She just wanted some food." Kyo sighed. Tohru giggled and smiled softly as she watched the cat eat.
"I'm not really hungry anymore." She said, looking at the pan she had been washing.
"We did eat lunch pretty late today. Do you just want to get some sleep?" Kyo asked, stroking the kitten's back absentmindedly.
Tohru nodded, and walked into the bedroom, sitting on the mattress with a deep and calming sigh. Kyo flopped onto the bed next to her, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close.
"You're fine, Kyo. Really." She whispered, closing her eyes contentedly as he breathed against her neck.
"I hate to see you unhappy, Tohru. I miss your smile. What can I do to cheer you up again? I made this whole trip to Hokkaido a failure. It was supposed to make you happy."
"I am happy, Kyo. You're here, everyone knows our phone number, and we even have our own kitten." Tohru smiled, taking one of Kyo's hands and bringing it up so that his palm covered her cheek. "As long as you're here, I'm happy."
Kyo smiled softly and shifted himself so that his chest lay on top of hers, using his elbows for support. He kissed her gently, watching her as she smiled up at him.
"You're okay with this?" He asked, his voice low as the heat rose in his blood.
Tohru answered by leaning her head up to kiss him back, twining her arms around his shoulders for support.
"As long as you're sure." The chuckled against her lips as he kissed her deeper.