T . i . t . l . e :: The Banquet
Authoress: Thea Rea.
R . a . t . i . n . g :: Teen, slim chance of changing. If so, it would go up.
Pairing: Kyo and Tohru, final.

W . a . r . n . i . n . g . s :: A swear word here and there, nothing too bad.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that relates to Fruits Basket in anyway. The plot line is mine, but if you find a story similar, please remember that I did not steal it. I do not write for money, I write for fun.

N . o . t . e . s :: Okay, this is the last chapter that is kind of like the prelude. The next few chapters will begin the chaos.. hopefully. Well, hope you enjoy this next chapter, and please review.

• Chapter Four •
.Glaciation xx

When Kyo finally awoke, his head felt like it had been skewered with a sword. His orange eyes peeled open, his body feeling numb as he lay wherever he happened to be. His fingers found the edge of whatever he was laying on, feeling for a smooth or hard surface. His fingers felt nothing for a moment, the sensation of his finger tips disappearing after being so unused for so long. But when his groping finally got him somewhere, he felt he gentle plush of a mattress beneath his fingers. His orange eyes narrowed as he looked up from where he was sitting. The unlit room was a bleached white, the walls unadorned. He blinked a few times, where was he?

It took a second for his eyes to adjust all the way, and when they finally did, they landed on the door that was slightly cracked open. A sliver of white light slithered on the floor towards his bed, but landed just before it, the white light making him blink continuously. He heard cautious muttering from outside the door, the sound of two male voices talking in low voices. He caught nothing of their words but could only guess that the two were Shigure and Hatori by the sound of their mumbles. One of them was dry and serious, clearly pointing towards Hatori, while the other had that annoying drawl to his voice which immediately said Shigure.

Kyo strained to listen, but caught no words as he heard their footsteps recede from outside. He growled to himself, and tried to move his legs, when he found that they were still completely numb. He tried to shift them, but there was no movement from the blanket, and no movement from his legs. He tried again, but he felt nothing, like his legs were cut off. But he could see the outline of them under the sheet, so he was pretty sure that they were there. Grumbling something incomprehensible to himself, he lay back down in the bed, laying his arms behind his head.

The orange-haired boy was mulling over his thoughts, thinking over the happenings of the day. It had only been one day and already things just went berserk. He knew that Akito must have had some kind of horrible dream like the other thirteen had. Or perhaps, in that twisted man's head, it was enjoyable. That would make much more sense. He muttered again, his words inaudible to anything around him, not that there was anything around him actually. Just as he thought such a thing, the corner of his eye caught a movement on the bed beside him. He shot up in his bed, well, his top half did.

"W-who's there?" Kyo spurt out, his orange eyes wide as they settled upon the form under the covers. It shifted again, and then fell motionless; the only movement was from the breathing of the thing's chest. Grasping his own chest, Kyo gripped at his skin. Wait... since when was he shirtless?! Freaking out, Kyo looked down, and noticed that he had been stripped down to his boxers. "What the hell? I didn't know Hatori was a pedophile!" Kyo shrieked. How he was thinking about Hatori being a pedophile at a time like this? Not even the Author was sure.

"I-I can't feel it," a delicate, feminine tone floated from beneath the white covers that hide the figure to his left. A hand came out from the covers, the palm of it covered in half dried blood, the crimson crusts marring the skins surface. Kyo's face lifted with alarm as he looked at it, and then noticed that it was stretched out for something. He was tentative at first, his fear getting the best of him for a second. Did he really want to touch some weird hand that stuck out from the blankets? Not really, but it was beginning to grope at the air frantically. He swallowed all sense of fear, and stuck on his hand, the blood masked fingers gripping him tightly.

"H-hello?" Kyo asked with a quavering voice, very unlike his character. The fingers clenched harder, and then brown-haired head popped out from beneath the covers. Then two blue eyes came from above them white sheets, and finally a face, a face that was pale white. Kyo was taken aback at first; unable to comprehend who he was staring at. It looked like a very sickly girl for a second, then a zombie, and then he finally realized whose hand he was holding. Tohru. He jerked her forward, and she jolted forward at his rough pull. "Tohru," he whispered, and she looked up at him with wide eyes, as if she too finally realized who he was.

"K-Kyo?" she said, dropping the '-kun' from his name. "Kyo, what are you going here?" She was looking afraid now, and she slipped her fingers from his. Her thoughts were racing, but he could not catch all the emotions that swam in her eyes. At first it had been surprise, happiness, and then it slowly turned to anxiety, fear. She swallowed hard, and then looked away. She was thinking about Hatori had said earlier.

"But, Akito has another plan up her sleeve," he spoke, and his purple eyes narrowed. "She is planning on using Kyo instead of the New Year Member."

"Tohru, Tohru are you okay?" he asked worriedly, his fingers reaching for her again, the feel of her hands gone from his own. "Tohru, what happened today?" He was distraught, his eyes pits of worry. He wanted her to talk to him, but she seemed to have lost her voice suddenly. When she had turned away, he was completely afraid of what she might have been thinking. He reached across the beds towards her, and touched her arm, gripped it with all his might. He could see her flinch and then shudder. Suddenly, the sensation that she was feeling gripped him too.

Kyo's eyes widened as he continued to grip Tohru's arm, the feeling of ice being showered upon him took over. His fingers clung to the girl's skin, and she began to feel like ice as well. His lips quivered, and his teeth began to clatter. Something strange was happening to them, but what could it possibly be? His orange eyes grew large as another sharp wave of icy air hit him, and he had to intake a sharp breath to even breathe. The air he was taking in was cold as well, and he might have frozen on the spot if he had not let go of Tohru. She turned towards him, a wide-eyed expression freezing over her expression.

Kyo turned away from her this time, cradling himself within his own arms, trying to get the remaining cold air from his body. What had that feeling been when he touched Tohru? Why had it felt as though he was suddenly freezing over? He closed his eyes, squeezing the two body parts shut as he tried to conserve warmth. Today was just getting weirder.

Little did they know that they had just experienced the second stage, Glaciation.

x•x•x•x•x

Akito glanced down at her fingers which were beginning to tremble. She was getting that chilling feeling; it must have meant that Kyo and Tohru had touched each other. It wasn't a good idea to be in contact with a partner before God touched him or her. It always resulted in some kind of pain; Akito knew that it was some kind of pain that the toucher had felt just before he touched the other. So that was why the feeling had been of ice, because Kyo had been freezing outside right before he woke up. Akito shouldn't have allowed him to stay out there so long; it sacrificed the possibility of getting him to dance with her next dancer.

Akito shuffled her feet against the ground as she opened her doors quite hastily, her dark eyes narrowed. She had to get touching the Cat over with. They had experienced Glaciation, one of the steps before the learning dance. It had been called different things before, such as Lacerate before. That was the last years, and the pain had been a terrible wound inflicted upon the others skin when the second touched the first. It was a very disgusting wound, as Akito remembered it. But, it was the one whom touched the other's fault, defiantly not Akito's. It was still a faint memory, but the blood was still on the back of her eyelids.

Musing over said thoughts, Akito pushed her way passed servants who tried to ask her for the reason she was out of the room. She merely tossed them dirty looks and continued on her way, legs moving faster as she gained up upon the room that Kyo and Tohru were staying. Why exactly was she forced to tell them where she was going? It was her god damned house after all. . . Stopping at the door Akito recalled her thoughts, she had forced Hatori to put them inside of the Main House for certain reasons. Mostly because she would be able to access their room better, and because they would be staying at the Main House very soon anyway. They might as well get used to it.

Pulling the doors open, Akito stormed into the room, her mood suddenly turned sour. Tohru's met her's first, a wide-eyed, innocent expression came from the brown-eyed girl. Akito merely smirked, her pale hands looming over Kyo's back. Kyo knew that she was there, but he had already thought it over and came to one fact, that he didn't really give a shit. Finally, after studying him for a moment, Akito came down a grasped Kyo's hand firmly within her own, her grasp heaving him up a little bit with her, much to both Kyo and Tohru's shock. Akito didn't really care. Kyo groaned in protest as he was lifted, but then was easily tossed back into the bed behind him. The bed groaned at the sudden pressure put back on it.

"You two will be staying here until New Years," Akito pretty much demanded with no room to argue, and then walked out of the room, letting the doors close behind her slowly. She sent them a smirk over her shoulder, "You'll be staying in the same room together, remember that. Oh, it only has one bed." Then Akito retreated, leaving Tohru and Kyo too look at each other in confusion. Akito was growing tired already, and as she entered her chambers once more at an amazingly fast speed, she slumped into the bed. "I don't know if I'll be able to last till New Years," she said lazily, her eyes closing. It had to happen soon, New Years, she meant. It was the twentieth of December, eleven more days. Just eleven.

x•x•x•x•x

Back in the room with Kyo and Tohru, Kyo was gaping a bit, jaw going slack. "W-what?" Kyo was at a loss for words. Akito had just told them that they would be staying in the Main House, staying in the same room together, and that they would only have one mattress! What was this, the loony bin?! Kyo was aggravated, burying his face in his hands, drawing his knees up to him. Wait . . . he could feel his knees. A smile crinkled his lips, but it wasn't going to be long lived. He was still aggravated with Akito despite this new accomplishment, he was livid actually, and that was saying a whole lot. What was with this sleeping arrangement? Did Akito think it was funny to make them sleep together?

Wait, wait. He had to mull over that thought for another second. Sleep together. That made it sound like he was sleeping as in having sex with Tohru! How was he going to tell his cousins this? Shigure would probably laugh his face off, while Yuki would grow immensely angry and attempt an attack. Well, that was Kyo's guess, and it usually worked out that way anyway. Sighing, his flipping onto his stomach and buried his face in the pillows, maybe he just needed a good rest. Sadly, he wasn't going to be getting any rest. He was too distracted by the constant moaning of Tohru's mattress, she kept moving around like a psycho.

"Kyo, what did she mean?" she asked worriedly, his orange eyes rose to catch a glance of the worried Tohru, who had flipped to meet his gaze. He could sense that she was extremely anxious about all of this. "I don't know how that would work Kyo! I'm a very heavy sleeper, and I tend to roll!" Suddenly, her hands flew up to her face in what seemed to be shock. "What if I roll into you, you turn into a cat, and then I roll on you! Oh no!" She freaked for that moment, covering her face in her hands. Kyo chuckled. She looked up, and he could almost see the offense in her eyes.

"Tohru, if I transformed into a cat in my sleep, don't you think I would know it?" Kyo laughed a bit again, and then faced her with a dazzling smile adorning his handsome features. "Don't worry, we won't roll into each other, hopefully. And if you do happen to end up pressing up against my torso, the minute I turn into a cat, I'll jump off the bed, okay?" Kyo laughed again, and Tohru looked at him with furrowed brows.

"Okay Kyo, but make sure," she whispered, and then curled into a ball on her bed. "I'm scared Kyo, really, I am." And then she drifted off into slumber, leaving Kyo to muse over new found thoughts. But it was only a manner of time before he was beginning to drift off into slumber, and as he looked at her peaceful face, he only hoped for the best.