AN: Okay! Another chapter done, and another author's note not edited by Terra (so don't blame her for my horrible grammar). Despite Teaching Patience's (my Avatar fic) larger fanbase, this fic is always sooo much more fun to write. Things are starting to happen now, and – like a snowball rolling downhill – it's only going to get more chaotic as it goes.

Enjoy!

Yuki sprinted fullout, dashing through the ghost-like birch trees as the other sprinting figure ahead gained more and more ground. The rain fell like a dark and hazy mist, and the sky was the muted brown-black of smoggy industrial blocks. His shoes slid as he tried to find purchase in the mud...

Still the dark form barreled on, unimpeded by the branches that grabbed at Yuki's clothes like ghouls in a storybook.

He saw the figure through a break in the trees for one time-stopping second before it was gone, the wisps of dark muddy brown and the crunch of leaves and sticks under heavy feet the only proof the monster wasn't something out of a child's nightmare. It had been huge.

It had been horrifying.

Distantly, Yuki recognized his surroundings as the forest surrounding the Sohma estate. The ghost trees thinned out and the crashing stopped; he slowed down as well, breathing heavily behind the cover of a small grove as the creature let out a mournful wail. That smell, like rotting flesh and stagnant water, curled around the trees and he muffled a cough into his torn sleeve, blinking back tears that mixed with the pouring rain.

A hollow tapping echoed across the clearing.

He readied himself to step out from behind the trees. It was time to face his fears – face the monster.

Tap tap

One last gulp of putrid air, heart pounding like a drum in his chest.

Tap tap

Around the peeling white bark came a sound like a growl. Low, rumbling, and ominous as thunder.

Tap tap

He looked, finally. Eyes like freshly spilled blood, two tails—

"Fucking Christ, are you going to open the window or what?!"

Yuki blinked and the dream faded like smoke, wisping away even as he sat up to dutifully open the window for his errant roomate. Kyo leapt up onto the sill from the roof outside as nimbly as a cat and stretched like one once he was nout of the cold, lithe muscles flexing and relaxing in a rippling wave down his spine. Yuki had a feeling that if Kyo had the necessary anatomy, he would've purred in contentment.

As it were, the red-headed teen curled up cross-legged at the end of his bed, staring unblinkingly at the still-exhausted owner of the room. Just as Yuki was about to ask what he wanted (and if the answer was "nothing," then the response would be "let me get back to sleep because some people actually want to show up to class"), Kyo frowned, staring resolutely across the room while nervous fingers picked at Yuki's bedspread.

"I get that you don't want me here, but I wouldn't be stealing your bedroom if I had much of a choice, you know."

Was that... an apology?

Yuki propped up his pillow to give his back some leniency as he leaned against the headboard, resigning himself to a long and most likely irritating conversation. Sleep had sounded so good, too... "You always have a choice." (Now I'm quoting cheezsy movie lines?) "I just don't understand why you had to tell my uncle that you were related to us. I mean, what happens when he finds out that you aren't?"

Kyo shot him a wry grin. "Who says I'm not? Okay," he amended, seeing Yuki's unconvinced face," so I'm not related by blood. Who is? As far as anyone can tell, none of the Sohmas are really related. It's that fucking name rule."

Name rule... How did...? "How do you know so much about us? I mean, the name rule isn't exactly public knowledge."

"You could say that I'm close to the family. I know the bastard Head personally."

"Oh..."

The other boy leaned back onto his palms, arching his neck to gaze blankly at the ceiling. Fiery strands fell about his face and framed his wide crimson eyes. He still hadn't taken out the contacts. Yuki couldn't find it in himself to mind. "Come onto the roof with me."

Yuki started, tearing his eyes away from the sharp contours of the collarbone visible through the V of Kyo's shirt, and met serious eyes. He had to ask Kyo to repeat the question before it could permeate through his sleep-addled mind. "It's..." A glance at the clock evoked a groan, "two-thirty in the morning. Go to sleep. Can't we do this in the morning?"

Kyo grinned, white canines catching the soft glow of moonlight. "The stars aren't out in the morning, dipshit. C'mon. Quit being lazy." He crossed the room to Yuki's closet before he was finished with his yawn and tossed the grumbling boy a sweatshirt, which was put on obediently. Then he slid the window open again, smirking when Yuki scowled at the cold.

Halfway out the window Yuki regained most of his faculties, turning to Kyo who was already pulling himself up onto the roof. "Lazy? I've gotten maybe three hours of sleep. What's so exciting about the stars, anyway?"

"They're far away," the redhead replied exasperatedly. Kyo extended an arm down to him, which he put more weight on than necessary to get onto the roof out of pure passive-aggressive spite. It didn't seem to hinder Kyo though, and soon they were sprawled out on their backs on the cold and dew-damp tile of the roof, their breath glistening in cold puffs around their faces. If he weren't so annoyed at being woken, Yuki would've admitted that Shigure's roof provided a perfect view of the constellations. Whirls of blue and purple sparkled with millions of tiny fireflies. He pulled his sweatshirt around his waist a little tighter. They'd probably be up here for a while.

A thin arm danced about across his periphrial vision; a soft voice whispered the names of the stars reverantly. Was this what Kyo had been off doing last night? The smaller teen turned to curl on his side, eyes glowing blood-red through the shadows as he caught Yuki's.

"Do you ever wish you could just run away?" He asked, uncharacteristically soft, and Yuki wondered if he were confiding something to him. He himself had felt that way at first, when his mom had died and he had been shipped off to live with Shigure, but he only nodded slowly. "People are fucked up and their rules are fucked up. Sometimes I just need to get away, and... No one really looks up, you know?"

Yuki nodded again, crossing his arms behind his head as a makeshift pillow. His own personal hiding place was in plain sight – if you act like you're not particularly interested in anything, people won't be particularly interested in you. Kyo turned back to the sky and both boys gazed up at the Milky Way , tracing barely visible patterns that faded into the blackness almost before they could grasp them with their eyes.

A glimpse of those oddly colored eyes had brought back a question though, that tingling in the back of his mind like a fly on the back of his hand. He tried to observe the other boy without turning his head. Kyo exhaled loudly. "Don't pull that polite shit with me. If you've got a question, ask it. No sense wasting both our time."

"Oh. Um... You're different. Than anyone at our school, I mean." Kyo's knee bounced up and down impatiently – that wasn't the question and he knew it. "Why? Do you like people's attention? Not that that's a bad thing, just... Aren't there easier ways to get it than with orange hair and red contacts?"

Kyo closed his eyes and grinned, like he had been expecting it. He probably had. "I haven't dyed my hair – yes, the orange is natural," he insisted, tugging on a wayward tuft contemplatively. "And I don't wear contacts. Almost everything about me is natural, which is more than I can say for most of the other students at your school. People just seem to find me interesting." He let out a small noise in the back of his throat, like a snort, a darkness passing over his expression as he fingered his black and white-beaded bracelet. "Most people want to make a pet of me."

Yuki briefly felt like he was a small child missing the details of some complicated story, but that feeling was whisked away with a sudden and intense antagonism. Not wearing contacts? Prove it.

"Now, you I don't understand," Kyo huffed and propped himself up on an elbow over him, the moonlight casting an orange halo through the soft and fluffy strands. He forgot that he was supposed to be skeptical about the validity of Kyo's naturalness, if there was such a thing. "You don't have any friends and don't want anything to do with people, but I can tell you're not happy. What gives?"

"I–" He swallowed thickly around the cold night air. The heavens above twinkled as though laughing at him, and he snorted at the thought of a cognizant solar system. Kyo glanced over at him in amusement. He blamed it all on the hour. "I don't... not like people. They're fine. I guess I'm just shy. I mean, I don't have any problems talking to someone once I know them, but it's the introductions that get me."

He didn't mention the nauseating feeling akin to seasickness or the thickness of his tongue when he knew he'd have to make a first impression. Kyo just nodded like he understood.

Yuki doubted that he did.

"But hey, wait," he sat up, letting his zip-up hang loose around his waist. It wasn't analyze Yuki hour, and he for one didn't appreciate the scrutiny. "We were talking about you. You and your..." he waved his hand at Kyo, who cocked an eyebrow in amusement. "And anyway, what's the deal with you and your family? You're not a Sohma, really." He had a hard time even thinking back to two days ago, when he had interrupted the horrifying beating between Kyo and his much larger brothers. Kyo had said he "wasn't a Larkson anymore," so Yuki had assumed that he once had been... Could he have been mistaken?

Kyo glanced out towards the woods, emotion bleeding away from his mouth and eyes. For what felt like the first time, Yuki was allowed to see a honest emotion.

Or at least, he presumed it was honest.

The moon pooled shadows across the tops of trees only visible from their perch above. It was like they were in a black-and-white photograph, the contrast of the dark trees only made apparent by the pale gray moonlight dripping over their evergreen boughs. Yuki waited for a moment for a reply, gazing at the few stars that twinkled close to the moon that outshone them. Just as Yuki was about to give up, Kyo heaved a small sigh, eyes still boring holes into an indeterminate tree several meters away.

"They... They didn't mean any more to me than a roof over my head and food occasionally," he whispered into the silence of the night. "We weren't related. Hell, they found me and took me home like you did, except for more selfish reasons. By the time they figured out I brought them more trouble than they had expected, I was already stuck with them. Idiots. All they had to do was tell me to go and I would've... Fuck, people are so stupid."

Yuki lay beside him, silently listening to the worked-up – and maybe slightly hurt – tone of his voice as his breathing sped up slightly, wanting to do something comforting but also not wanting him to stop. He wouldn't have known what to say anyway.

"I ran away from home – or at least the closest thing I could call one – a long time ago. I've kind of been a..." he glared at his white-washed knuckles as he searched his memory for the right word, "...a transient for a while. They weren't the first family I've lived with. I've... Now you're stuck with me, and if you really don't want me here, just say something. I won't care, I promise."

To say that a large part of him didn't want the irritating redhead out of his home would be a lie. It had been just that afternoon – yesterday, actually, given the outrageously early hour (also Kyo's fault) – that he had vented to his personal favorite teacher about Kyo's disruptance to his life. For the first time since he had moved in several years ago, he had to share a room with someone. He had to share his home. Share his family...

With someone who was hardly around long enough to make a difference.

He beat down the snide voice in the back of his mind with a vengeance. The other teen was brash, rude and obnoxious. He'd cursed around (and at!) Tohru, which was a sin in itself. And he'd invited himself into Yuki's home after only knowing him for five minutes...

Yuki wasn't perfect. He understood and embraced that fact with the alacrity of one being thrown a ready-made excuse for all their faults. He was shy? No matter, he's not perfect. Judgemental; the same. Even with his 3.9 total GPA for all of high school (not perfect, if only because of P.E., which could hardly be considered a class anyway), he could acknowledge his faults much more readily than most of his classmates, for he focused on them. There was the sarcastic tendency towards cold and callous remarks, which he had been putting a lot of effort into correcting with Tohru as his role model. His shyness, which was unlikely to dissapate any time soon.

And, as was becoming more apparent, his immediate judgements of people based on first impressions.

The redheaded teen really hadn't done anything criminal, rudeness being his only offense. To be fair, the kid had only followed him home with the intention of waiting out the storm, but once Shigure had weeded out the (okay, mostly fabricated) story, he had been invited to stay with them for an indefinite amount of time. Which had probably been his intention all along...

Yuki shook his head to dislodge the sudden unruly thought. Of course it had to be now that he had finally decided to give the kid a second chance that his innerself had decided to join his side after all this time trying to convince him that he wasn't so bad. What had happened to that, huh?

He realized that he had been silent for a long time, and Kyo was looking more jittery by the second. He took in a breath to reply, but Kyo interrupted him with a burst of indignant anger. "You know what? Fine. Sorry I'm such a nuisance! If you can't do it yourself, have your uncle tell me to get lost..." He moved to leap off the roof again, but Yuki caught his wrist above his beads and he froze.

"I never said I wanted you gone." A long, heaving sigh and he let Kyo's thin wrist fall from his fingers. Kyo stayed standing where he was, a foot from the edge of the roof and gazing down into the shadowy yard below. "I just... It'll take a little getting used to, I guess. Sit, you're making me nervous."

The air shifted. He heard the rustling of cloth, and suddenly he was slightly warmer where Kyo's leg brushed against his knee, but he kept his eyes purposefully fixed on the green halo misting around the moon while Kyo got himself back under control. He may have only known the teen for a few days, but the boy was feral and instinct made him give him his space. Only once the rustling stopped did he look back; Kyo had his knees to his chest, an arm slung over them. The warmth of his T-shirt-covered back taunted his own, and he felt himself leaning into it despite himself.

For reasons he wouldn't have been able to put into words, he sensed that Kyo's past was taboo, and so he centered his thoughts on lighter topics. "What made you switch to my school?"

"You were in it," he snorted, as if it were obvious.

"No, I mean... What about your old school?"

"What about it?"

Yuki gave up the distance fight, letting his back rest against Kyo's own. The redhead either didn't notice or didn't mind because he didn't make any movements at the sudden contact. "Didn't you have friends or anything that you're giving up?"

Kyo was quiet for a moment, before he replied. "I've never gone to school before yesterday. Never had any reason to."

"What teenager doesn't go to school?!" Yuki turned to stare at Kyo, who for his part blinked and looked disgruntled at the loss of his warm backrest. "Isn't it a law or something? And what about your future – how do you propose to get a good job without an education?"

"I don't know," he said defensively, eyebrows knitting in the center, "I've just never gone! Master never wanted me to leave the grounds, and I'll never do anything that requires an education, so I've never fought the issue."

An image of what could possibly have been a choppy memory appeared in his mind - lines of bright-faced children in white outfits punching on command... "Master? Like in Karate or something?"

Kyo nodded wearily but turned away again, toes scraping at the asphalt of the roof shingles. "Something like that... What do you get out of it?"

"Good grades that'll hopefully get me into a good college. I don't really mind the learning aspect either, though, or the people there." Yuki snorted, leaning back against him again. "Contrary to whatever you believe about me disliking them."

"Just shy. Got it." The redhead leaned back as well until their hair tangled together and Yuki could feel the length of his spine pressed up against his own. "What if... What if you wouldn't have to make that first impression? Imagine you just go to school and everyone already knows who you are. Would you like that?"

Yuki laughed. "So magically I'm famous? Okay... Yeah, that'd be nice. But in that dream world I wouldn't have to sit for exams either, got it?"

"Duh. Who likes tests?" Kyo let out a laugh as well; a low and throaty sound that was as unusual as it was pleasing to hear. Below them, the water heater clicked on and they fell into a comfortable silence listening to it. As the low rumbling faded into the general sounds of the night, Kyo asked, "Hey, who was that girl yesterday – the one who did the cooking? She your sister?"

Tohru in her school uniform, Tohru in her teasingly short house-outfit, Tohru in a bathing suit... The thought of her in any indecent way made him feel like a dirty old man – and more than a little sacrilegious – but they were definitely not siblings. "No, Tohru's..." He struggled not to let the revulsion show in his voice. "She's a classmate of mine. We found her living in a tent on the edge of Sohma property and now she's staying with us in exchange for some household chores. Shigure insisted."

"Shigure seems to insist on a lot of things, eh?" They shared a quiet chuckle at the reason Kyo was with him as well.

"She's just so... perfect. I have to act differently around her because I don't want to offend her, and she's..." Adorable. Sweet. So beautiful I don't want to stop talking to her. "...distracting. She refuses to stand up for herself. Some times..."

"You just want to shake her. Sounds frustrating."

Yuki opened his mouth to correct him – Tohru was anything but frustrating – but Kyo was already getting to his feet, and suddenly Yuki found himself fighting back a yawn. Might as well let it go. If the kid was going to live with them, he'd see for himself how amazing Tohru really was. He took the offered hand and descended to the lower roof as well, back through the window into his agreeably warm room. Kyo returned from the hallway with an armful of blankets before Yuki realized the redhead had left, dumping them on the floor by the bed in a heap. The teen maneuvered through the mess and all but a few tufts of orange hair disappeared under the blankets.

"Goodnight."

Kyo let out a growl that could've been either a returning wish or a "shut up."

Yuki liked to think that they had shared a moment.

The sun was shining warmly behind his eyelids as he woke slowly, blissfully stretching out tense muscles in a wide yawn. His hand brushed something small and cold under his pillow. Another coin. Yuki didn't let the mystery consume him this time and reached up blindly to set the gold piece on his windowsill. If he felt oddly rested after his impromptu stargazing last night, he didn't let that faze him either.

At least, not until he rolled over and blearily opened his eyes to his alarm clock.

No green glow of 6:25. In fact, no glow appeared at all and a quick check proved that the clock wasn't even plugged in. Reality hit sharply.

"Shit!"

A mad dash for his cell phone proved that he had already missed a good portion of first period class. was going to murder him... He tripped over Kyo's abandoned bed-slash-nest of blankets on his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth, cursing the redhead all the while. No one else had been in his room last night. He certainly hadn't sabotaged his own sleep schedule, at least. The mess left sprawled across his bedroom floor only spurned him farther.

And to think last night we were connecting...

Shigure wandered out of the kitchen as he stood hunched over by the front door, wrestling with the disobedient tongue of his uniform shoe. "Yuki, what are you doing home? Kyo said you left earlier..."

Of course he did. "Kyo's a liar. Can you hand me that?"

"Sure." Shigure tossed him his back pack, which he slung over one shoulder as he continued tugging on his shoe. "Aren't you going to be late?"

Yuki paused with the laces, leveling his uncle with a glare. "I'm already late, and it's because Kyo unplugged my alarm clock. And no!" He blurted out before Shigure could vocalize the glint in his eye. "I don't want a ride to school. It's much safer walking, even if I'm even more late."

"Oh how you wound me so, Yuki!"

When he had finally ended up on school grounds, he had already missed half of his first class, and briefly considered waiting out the remaining time outside in the unusually – for the season – bright weather, but decided that showing up late was better than not at all. Or at least, he hoped Uo saw it that way. The woman was tempermental at best, so it was best to try to appease her.

The hallway was empty as he walk-cum-sprinted down it, dashing by the newly-posted flyers for Student Government that he normally would've been interested in if (Kyo wasn't such an asshole) he had had more time. Something about the leadership position sounded like something he would've liked to do, supposing he had gotten the balls to sign his name up in the first place. Still, it'd be interesting to see who was chosen to help speak for the students.

Given that it was a vote, probably a jock or a cheerleader. Like Tohru, if she had actually been interested.

Click

Every eye looked up from their books when he shut the door, as quietly as he could, despite knowing it was futile. History was in no way a student's favorite class, and it didn't take much to distract them. Uotani Stevens finished typing out her text message before bothering to look up as well. Yuki prepared to be mauled.

"So Sohma finally decides to join us, I see." Yuki did his best to look chastised. A pile of quiz-esque papers sat in a messy stack on the corner of her desk, and the format didn't look familiar. His stomach sank. "You missed a pop quiz. Congrats. But... you must've been busy this morning, right?" He very nearly shook his head, but caught himself at the last moment. "Quick quiz: when was the war of 1812?"

"Uh... 1812?"

"Smart kid. Screw it, let's just give you a 100 and call it even. Take your seat."

A few of the girls giggled and a boy he passed on the way to his desk stuck out his hand for a fist-bump, which he returned awkwardly, more than a little bit on-edge. People never fist-bumped him... Across the room, Kyo's eyes were downcast, fingering the beads on his bracelet as he avoided his gaze. It seemed at least that the other teen felt somewhat guilty about unplugging his alarm this morning – even if it had mysteriously gotten him out of a pop quiz that he probably hadn't been ready for. The class had been studying the U.S.'s interactions with France and not Britain, after all.

Yuki didn't have a chance to corner Kyo until after class, but even then it would seem that the Gods hated him; the redheaded teen slipped into the crowd like a ghost. You would think that having florescent orange hair in a school filled with black, blonde and brown would make you stand out. Evidentally that wasn't the case.

He followed the crowd to the Cafeteria (it was really just the spare gym that several custodians had dragged a few dozen folding tables into, but was called so both because of school regulations and the fact that "gym" brought to mind dodgeball and sweaty overweight boys. No one wanted to eat with that image in mind.), where he split off from the stampede. A convenient (not to mention crooked) table sat off to the side and he wandered over to it.

Haru continued grazing on his salad.

"Hey, Haru. How was first?"

The dichromatic boy finished chewing the carrot and set down his fork slowly. When he spoke, his voice was rough and he didn't look up at him. "You didn't even tell me."

What...? Yuki set down his backpack gently but didn't sit down, nerves tense. "What didn't I tell you?" A flash of orange caught the edge of his vision – Kyo walking in front of one of the candidate posters. Dozens covered ever wall he had passed by earlier. They were all done in bright primary colors, sparkly and in girly, curled bold writing said—

"That you were planning to run. I mean, I don't care. I'm not jealous. Just thought you would've thought to tell me, is all."

All the voices, all the people talking and walking and laughing around him, blurred together like ice cream flavors swirled in a blender. Blood suddenly rushed to his head, and if it weren't for table he probably would've fallen down. Someone – Haru probably – was shaking his shoulder, asking... something. Probably checking to make sure he was okay.

Acually, knowing Haru, he was probably just annoyed that Yuki was ignoring him.

Crimsom eyes cut through the fog his mind was in, and he stumbled back to his feet. Kyo had something to do with this. The thought pulsed like a drum beat in his veins, and he shook off the arm Haru flung out to steady him. This was Kyo's fault...

"Yuki, are you alright?"

He glanced away from those staring eyes long enough to notice the girl – one of Tohru's fanclub – that had apparently grabbed his wrist. Her baby-faced expression showed worry and concern, but the glint in her jade eyes suggested possession. "You poor thing! So hardworking, not even eating lunch... Sit with us, we have cakes!"

Kyo's eyes disappeared like one of those optical illusions he had always hated as a child ("C'mon, Yuki! It's not going to pop out or anything." "Shut up, Shigure...") as he was led to a seat at the center of the table. Girls cooed on either side. A cupcake and seven different types of candies appeared before his eyes as they bickered over what he should eat first.

He supposed he could let Kyo go for now...

"Okay," Yuki panted, leaning against the door he had just hauled the other through, "what's with you signing me up as a candidate?"

Kyo shrugged from his perch atop the empty desk, seemingly apathetic even as lithe muscles visibly tensed under his long-sleeve uniform shirt. "You said you wanted people to know you. Now they do."

"I didn't mean like this..." Yuki groaned, striding over to the desk beside Kyo's and leaned against it with his legs crossed at the ankles. Out in the hall the bell rang, signifying the end of lunch. He ignored it; he would've had more time for this conversation if Tohru's fan club hadn't spontaneously decided that he was suddenly worth their time (which was also Kyo's fault, seeing as he had apparently commissioned them to make his posters). They had been awfully sweet though, and he hadn't particularily minded when the quiet blonde had offered him one of her egg rolls. "And what about my alarm clock?"

"What about it?"

He scowled. He was willing to overlook the candidacy – he was making loads of new friends now – but the late wake-up was a little more annoying and less well-intentioned. "Don't go in circles, idiot. Why did you unplug it?"

Kyo bristled. "Don't call me an idiot! And sorry for trying to apologize for keeping you up to look at the stars, jeez." The two fell into an awkward silence at the mention of their strange little bonding session. Thin fingers picked at the hem of his loose-fitting uniform slacks. "You got to skip out on the quiz, too. No exams, remember?"

Yuki did remember. But the comment had been in jest – surely the kid wasn't going to go out of his way to ensure that he missed every test, was he? "You couldn't have possibly known that, though. You just wanted me to oversleep. I don't appreciate that."

"Fine." Kyo tilted his head in a 'whatever you think' kind of way that Yuki found very unfitting of his brash character. "But you'll probably be able to skip out on more classes once you're president, though, right?"

"Supposing I win, which I doubt," Yuki replied caustically. "It's a vote, so you know that my chances aren't good."

"It's a vote, sure. But you have to have a high enough GPA to be eligible. Only one person besides you qualifies. I'd say your chances aren't too horrible."

Yuki's considering gaze jerked up to the other's smug smile, and he was reminded forceably of a large wild cat cornering its prey. How does he know all this? Kyo hadn't been in his room that morning, and he was starting to wonder whether the other teen had gone to sleep at all. He opened his mouth to retort... only to realize he really didn't have anything honest he could say. Signing him up without his permission was annoying, but was obviously done with kind intentions. And, despite his protest about the accuracy of Kyo's claims, the extra sleep had been relaxing and hadn't effected his score on the pop-quiz. Another arguable misdeed swept under the rug.

He wondered how many more he'd be overlooking with Kyo as his new roommate.

"Look," Kyo placated, peering up at him from beneath golden eyelashes in a way that would have had most of his female classmates swooning, "you just enjoy your newfound popularity – I'll handle your election campaign, okay?" He unfolded his legs from atop the desk and stepped off with a slink to his shoulders that seemed distinctly feline. The metallic click of the door swinging open sounded surreal and far too average to come from Kyo's hand on the knob. Kyo didn't bother to glance back at him, but paused in the doorway.

"I'm only here to help you, you know. Don't look so surprised."

Yuki's voice caught up with him only after Kyo was out of sight. "But I've got my own ideas for the candidacy!"

Kyo's rough laughter echoed down the hallway, but whether it was at Yuki's supposed ideas or at the dejection in his voice, he could only guess.

There was just something about sunny days.

The glare – reflected off the freshly cleaned glass windows of the (New and Improved!) Taylor's Taxes – caught blue-green eyes, and she brushed back a flyaway strand of hair. In her other hand hung a plastic grocery bag, which held a little surprise for her boys.

Men did typically like a little variety in their life.

She had been making traditional Japanese food a lot lately, and even she wouldn't have minded a switch in cuisine. When she had passed by the little family-owned grocers on her way home from school (the long way because Yuki always got so worried whenever she would walk through the woods in an effort to save time, and she didn't want to make him worry), she had felt the unusual warmth of the sun. An air conditioner was running inside the store.

The rest, as they say, was history.

Thin drops of perspiration accumulated on the girl's forehead, which she wiped away cheerfully. The grocery store hadn't been her only spontaneous action today, and she knew she had the rare sunshine to thank for that as well.

Kyo had exited his shared bedroom that morning as she was about to knock on the door, and had greeted her with a friendly – if a bit tight – smile. He had informed her dutifully that Yuki had gotten up earlier than normal and had something important he had to do at school (post up hundreds of candidate posters, if the hallways were anything to go by. She was so proud of him for finally striving for something he believed in), and that it would do her well to have a little personal time as well. Take a walk in the park, maybe? She hadn't had much time to herself lately.

The sun had been just as beautiful this morning, as well.

Tohru turned the corner on Smith and Barnes, waving to old widow Hallowell who sat alone on a wicker chair on her porch all day. The old lady waved back, gumming a smile back at the girl. That was another good thing about the long way home – it allowed her extra time with friendly faces.

"Mroooow."

She glanced down the narrow alleyway between a Mongolian grill and a nail salon nervously. Other than a few trashcans leaning against an algae-encrusted dumpster, it was empty, and she stopped for a moment to press her hands overe her heart as it raced beneath her breast. It was just a cat.

Just a normal cat.

No one else was afraid of cats – regardless of how many tails they mysteriously had – and she berated herself for even mentioning her homeland's superstition; now it was all she could think about. It didn't help that the very embodiment, to her at least, of Japan's Nekomata had been taken in by the Sohma family either. So many strays... Sohma-san was starting to form a collection, it would seem.

The cat's meow echoed again from somewhere behind the dumpster, and despite her fears, Tohru set her bag down and stepped closer to the alleyway. Closer, something sounded wrong. Through the distortion of the metal and the echoing of the bricks, the creature sounded pained. A strange lilting quality hung in the air in between calls as they grew rougher, like a small sound warbling out from the depths of a much larger body.

Tohru crouched just around the corner of the dumpster, not wanting to scare the poor cat if it was already hurt. Garbage cans blocked her vision of the street, and it was suddenly much cooler in the shadow of the city. She brushed away the goosebumps prickling up along her arms.

This poor thing needed her help. She could worry about her own fears later.

"H–Here, Kitty Kitty..."

Something rumbled, like the belly of the beast, and unconsciously she brought her arms closer to her body for protection. A large brown claw slunk out from the shadow, and she fell backwards to escape from this thing that definitely wasn't a cat.

She saw the crimson eyes and suddenly, she knew...

But the claws were upon her before she could even scream.

DONE! :D

And wait until you read the next chapter before you murder me for Tohru, okay?