I was a bit dissapointed at the lack on interest this story was generating as it's a huge story, over 60 pages, 19 chapters.

Hopefully people reading this will deem it worth reviewing now that a new chapters been added.

Disclaimer: characters are not mine.

Chapter Two – Cat's Meow

It had been three weeks since the Fruits Basket Café – Bookstore had opened for business. Three weeks since Tohru Honda had completed a life's dream. Three weeks that Kyo had been able to keep his job.

To most people, three weeks at the same job wasn't much of an achievement, but when you were Kyo it was ranking up with the longest job's he'd ever been able to keep. Kyo knew he wasn't the most socially apt person in the world – he knew that, compared to most people, he had very limited skills. He had always found it difficult to convey what he wanted to, his anger more often then not showed its ugly head and by the time he realised what he was doing it was too late and he had already hurt someone or said something cruel.

He supposed a lot of it was due to his childhood…

Kyo had known from a very young age that he was one of those unwanted kids. He had been a mistake, an inconvenience; a smear on his parents plans for perfection. His mother had committed suicide when he was only five and his abusive father had finally ditched him on a doorstep when he was eleven. From what he later learned, his father had ended up in jail – the bastard deserved it.

Although, if it hadn't of been for his screwed up childhood he never would have ended up with Master Kazuma. Master was probably the best thing that had ever happened to Kyo. Kazuma owned and ran a successful dojo that he lived next door to. As a way to vent the anger Kyo had over his young life, Kazuma had began teaching him martial arts almost as soon as he had been dumped there by his father.

At the time Kyo hadn't understood why learning martial arts was so important, but as he got older he realised that it was the perfect way to express his anger in a controlled and safe environment. However, it just wasn't enough. There was something about words that made him fumble like he was nothing more than a white belt again. This knowledge just made him angrier and before he knew it he'd be mouthing off to others and hurting both them and himself.

This inability to socially interact brought him back to why he was so secretly thankful that he still had a job after three weeks. His longest job was almost a year and that had been at a packaging company where the only thing he could get angry at had been the boxes. However, like most things in his life, that had fallen through and he'd once again found himself unemployed.

He had to admit he was a little surprised that he had even gotten this job. Tohru was a small, petite girl who often looked spaced out. The fact that one of the first things he had done upon meeting her was yell at her, he was shocked when he got the call back. However, from what he had seen these past few weeks, she had a big heart and was optimistic to the point of being nauseating. Nothing ever seemed to get her down and she appeared to get along with everyone!

Privately he found himself admiring her ability to be friends with everyone, even that annoying kid Momiji who, every time he came in – which was every frickin' day – Kyo just felt like hitting him over the head to shut him up. He had even done so last week, but it had just made Shigure laugh as Yuki rolled his eyes, Momiji cried crocodile tears and Tohru had hugged him, saying Kyo hadn't meant it.

Truthfully, Kyo had meant every second of it.

Apart from his pleasure of still having a job with a ditzy boss, Kyo had found himself expectantly butting heads with his two fellow employees. As far as Kyo was concerned, Yuki Nezumi-Hebi was nothing more then a rich little know-it-all snot. There was just something about the bastard that got under Kyo's skin the moment they had met. Not that watching the rat making mooneyes at his boss wasn't endlessly entertaining. Although, watching her make them back was a little less amusing as they seemed to have perfected the art of not catching the other doing it so they were both pining away in silence.

Shigure was a completely different ball game from Yuki. The older man was clearly a pervert, though Kyo was pretty sure most of it was nothing more than an act. The way he charmed and smiled at the high school girls who came into the café – bookstore made Kyo want to be sick. The man really should act his age, not his shoe size. The idiot also loved to hear himself talk and Tohru was oblivious enough to believe every word that came out of the man's mouth, even when every second word was crap. Kyo didn't know how someone could be that naïve.

However, there were times when Shigure would get a serious look on his face and say something intelligent and insightful for once, only to ruin it a moment later when his mouth kept running and sprouted out something else stupid.

Kyo was wiping down the front counter from where an idiot had spilt their tea just moments before; Kyo had managed to not say anything, just send them a filthy glare, when the door chimed, announcing the arrival of more customers. Looking up to greet them, as was expected of them; Kyo felt the words die in his throat as a scowl appeared on his face instead.

"Hey, Orange-top!" Arisa Uotani called out as she and Saki Hanajima entered the shop. Snorting, Kyo stood up straight and stopped what he was doing so that he could focus all his attention on the ex-Yankee and her creepy friend.

He didn't care what Tohru said to try and convince him, her friends were NOT normal.

"Yankee, Psychic." He nodded stiffly to them both.

"Hello," Saki said quietly, her voice was always so calm and quiet. It freaked Kyo out!

"So, where's Tohru?" Arisa continued, as if Kyo hadn't said anything at all.

"She's not here right now, you'll have to come back later." He said sharply, mind flashing back to what had happened last time Tohru hadn't been there when her friends had turned up.

Arisa had pulled him to the side once it was established that Tohru was indeed not there and wouldn't be back to a while. Staring him straight in the eyes she had calmly told him that she knew all about his past ventures of employment and how he was known as a delinquent. That aside, she didn't give a crap who he was or who he thought he was, if he so much as upset Tohru in any way she would remove him from the equation all together. Subtly, she had threatened to kill him if he screwed up at all.

Kyo wasn't one who enjoyed being threatened and, due to his reputation, wasn't normally on the receiving end of threats anyway. However, seeing the deadly serious glint in her eyes, he knew that she wasn't joking around, she was deadly serious. A desire to protect those that you loved was something Kyo could relate to and so he had taken the threat to heart and it was always in the forefront of his mind.

"Nah, we'll just grab two of the usual, thanks." Arisa said as they moved to their usual table in the back of the place.

"You're supposed to spell everything out to us to you can't say we got the order wrong." Kyo called out to them, but Arisa just waved her hand carelessly and Saki didn't even bother to acknowledge him.

Quiet snickering caught his attention and he looked over to see Shigure had poked his head out of the kitchen area and had obviously been watching the proceedings with amusement.

"You got something you wanna say?" Kyo bit out; already irritated with the idiot for laughing when the moron from earlier had spilt the tea.

"Oh, no, nothing at all." Shigure held up his hands innocently, though his eyes revealed the mischievous streak.

Grumbling, Kyo made up the two woman's usual drinks, the ones they had been having from the very first day they had come on opening morning, before placing them on the counter as Yuki came over to him to drop off another order.

"Hey, take these over to those two up back, would you?" Kyo managed civilly.

Raising his eyebrows at him, Yuki leaned over the cups slightly to inspect the drinks. Recognising the combination, a small smile twitched at the corner of his lips.

"Why don't you give Tohru's friends their drinks yourself?" He asked, seemingly casually. However, Kyo could hear the amusement in the back of his voice, he hadn't been very quiet about thinking Kyo was afraid of the two after the little confrontation with Arisa. Which was rubbish, Kyo wasn't afraid of anything.

"Don't be a pain in the ass Yuki, just take the drinks over to them." He snapped, reaching over and grabbing the paper order from Yuki's slack fingers and turning his back on the amused purple eyes.

Kyo let out a small sigh of relief when he heard movement behind him followed by the loud welcome Arisa shouted out. Quickly he glanced at the kitchen, but for once Shigure appeared to be actually doing his job rather than socializing with everyone or making fun of people.

Glancing down at the order in his hand he swore quietly to himself at how specifically complicated it was.

'Why the hell can't people just eat what's on the menu instead of adding or taking away bits and pieces?'

Grumbling to himself he set to work on the order, unsure if this was better than dealing with those two idiots.

***

It was two hours later that found the annoying kid pestering Kyo at the counter. Momiji had been an irritating constant since the third day that they had been open. He was always hanging around when he wasn't at school. Seriously, didn't the kid have anything better to do in his spare time apart from annoying Kyo?

"And then he said it had nothing to do with it! Can you believe that, Kyo? All that work for nothing!" Momiji exclaimed; leaning over the counter so that he could see Kyo who was squatting down trying to reach the cleaning gear so that he could go and clean some of the tables while there was a lull in business.

"Do you ever shut up?" Kyo asked moodily as he finally found what he was looking for and stood up again.

"Nope." Momiji said, happily continuing on with whatever the hell it was he was talking about.

Grumbling to himself, Kyo tried his hardest to ignore the constant chatter coming from his newly acquired shadow as he moved from table to table, cleaning up other people's mess. In fact, Kyo had managed to tune out everything around him so well he was shocked when he stumbled over someone's black booted foot.

Regaining his balance, he looked up, fully papered to yell at the moron who had dared to trip him up, only to feel his breath catch in his throat at the sight before him. A guy around his own age was sitting in the seat before him at a small two-seater table. His hair was an odd two-toned white with black underneath and his cool grey eyes looked up into his own crimson ones with only slight surprise.

'Wow…'

"Oh… sorry about that." The mystery man said, a small smile quirking the corner of his lips.

"Oh! Um, no, it's ok." He could feel a blush creeping up his cheeks as he spoke, mentally cursing himself for having red hair.

They were awkwardly still for a moment before Kyo remembered where he was and felt the blush deepen as he hastily grabbed the dirty dishes and almost ran back over to the counter, completely embarrassed. Here he was, working at a café – bookstore, and the cutest guy he'd ever seen comes in and sees him make a complete fool of himself.

"Kyo-o."

'Shit.' Was all Kyo could think as he looked over at the stupid blond twit whom he had forgotten was following him around. The grin on Momiji's face said clearly that he was entertained at Kyo's expense.

"Not. One. Word." Kyo snarled at him, crimson eyes alight with the flames from hell itself.

Pouting, Momiji seemed to take Kyo seriously for a change and he moved away from the orange haired man before he could push him too far and get hit over the head again.

Ignoring everyone else around him, Kyo tried in vainly to just do his work and not pay any attention to the guy who, when he looked up, was looking over at him.

"Hey," head snapping up Kyo was disturbed to find himself slightly disappointed to find it was only Yuki standing at the counter before him, another order in his hand.

"This one's for that guy with the funny coloured hair over there." Yuki said, carelessly jerking his head back towards where the cutie was sitting. Seeing as he was clearly by himself, it must have been his order.

"S-sure." Kyo reached out and went to grab the paper but Yuki suddenly pulled it out of his reach, an almost calculating look in his purple eyes.

"Hey, give it here or do it yourself!" Kyo yelled, face flushing with both embarrassment and anger.

Yuki remained still for a moment before a smirk suddenly began to creep across his face.

"Actually, I'll do this one. There aren't any more people to serve so I'm free for now."

Kyo felt his face flush as he realised with a sinking feeling that the bastard had figured out Kyo's new crush.

'Can't I have any secrets for longer than five seconds?' He bemoaned his sad lot in life before the usual anger hit him.

"Do whatever the hell you want." He snarled at the idiot before him, turning on his heel and going into the kitchen to hide away for a while.

He managed to hide in silence for only five minutes before Shigure couldn't hold his tongue any longer.

"So… what're you sulking for?" He asked, casually flipping over a salad in a bowl.

"I'm not sulking." Kyo snarled back, crossing his arms over his chest and perching on a stool in the corner.

"Well, if you're not sulking you must be hiding… are Saki and Arisa still here?" Shigure asked with a small smile on his face, dark brown eyes shooting over to Kyo for a moment before they went back to his task at hand.

"They've already left if you must know." Kyo said moodily. Really, couldn't he just leave him alone?

"Hmm." They were in silence for a little while before Shigure disappeared out to the counter to deposit the salad for Yuki, only to come back into the kitchen and shot Kyo an amused grin.

Stupid bastard had told the cook what was going on!

Humiliated, Kyo just sent him a vicious glare before dropping his head in shame.

He sat in silence as Shigure hummed tunelessly under his breath as he cooked more of the food. They remained that way, Kyo sitting pathetically on his stool and wallowing in embarrassment until the humming finally stoped.

"You know." Shigure began, causing Kyo to tense up, prepared to yell at him if he dared to make fun of him.

"There's nothing wrong if you like that guy." Kyo looked up at the black haired man, surprised at the advice he was receiving.

"I know that." Kyo said quietly, looking back down at the ground as he pulled up one of his legs to rest his chin on his knee.

"So why are you hiding in here if you know it's ok."

"I don't want to see that idiots laughing face." Kyo mumbled, eyes still trained on the floor.

"Don't let other's dictate what you can and can't do. I'm sure you know Yuki likes Tohru, but he's not doing anything about it. Why not show him that you're braver than him by doing something about it." Shigure suggested, catching Kyo's eye as he looked up in surprise.

Sitting there for a moment, Kyo allowed his thoughts to stew on the unlikely advice.

"Here." Shigure held out a plate to him, the pasta on it steaming with heat. Looking up in confusion, Kyo raised an eyebrow, silently asking what the idiot wanted.

"It's your lover boys lunch." Shigure winked, causing a brilliant blush to cover Kyo's cheeks.

"Shut up you stupid moron! Do it yourself you lazy ass!"

***

It was as Kyo was walking home to the dojo that his thoughts once again drifted back to the mysteriously hot guy he had seen today. After Shigure's crack about taking his 'love's plate' out to him, Kyo had angrily told Tohru he was going on his lunch break and would be back later. He had purposely taken as long as he possibly could get away with until he had forced himself to return. By that time the guy was gone and Kyo had threatened anyone who spoke of him again.

'That guy had the most gorgeous grey eyes…'

Arriving at the dojo Kyo went through his familiar routine with only half a mind, the other half still focused on his blurring memory of that guy. He secretly hoped that he would come to the café – bookstore again one day.

Kyo had just walked into the hallway that led to the main area of the dojo when he accidently bumped into someone.

"Hey, look where you're-" Kyo lost his voice as he looked into gorgeous grey eyes. Standing before him in the dojo's uniform was the guy from before in the flesh.

"Hey, you're the guy from the café, right?" The guy offered a small smile to Kyo causing his cheeks to heat up.

"Yeah." Kyo said, embarrassed at how breathless his voice sounded.

'What the hell am I doing?'

Shaking his head slightly, Kyo stood up straight and pushed all the embarrassment and funny feelings assaulting him to the back of his mind and focused on acting normal.

"I'm Kyo Neko, by the way." He held out his hand and all his hard work of acting normal was almost undone when his companion grabbed hold of his hand to shake it. The warmth of his hand sent tingles through his system and he felt slightly light headed by it all.

"My name's Hatsuharu Ushi. It's a pleasure to meet you, Kyo."

'It should be illegal for someone to say a name like that.' Kyo thought to himself, horrified to feel the shivers that ran down his spine at the sound of his name on Hatsuharu's tongue.

"Ah, Kyo." Another voice broke the moment between the two and Kyo hurried to drop hands. He could feel the heat staining his cheeks and he looked down slightly, embarrassed to have his would-be-father catch him.

"Master, it's good to see you." Looking up from under his orange hair, Kyo allowed a smile to cross his lips at the sight of his martial arts master and the man who was practically his father, Master Kazuma Inoue.

"Kyo, this here is Hatsuharu, he's just started here today. His old dojo was forced to close so he moved here." Kazuma said, hand resting on Hastuharu's shoulder as he spoke, the other man just smiling that small smile the whole while.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Kyo said sympathetically. Personally he wouldn't know what to do with himself if the dojo was to suddenly close up; it was a much his home as his house next door.

"It's alright." Something dark flickered in Hastuharu's eyes for a second as the small smile became more like a smirk. "It might even end up being a good thing, I think I was ready to move on anyway."

Staring at the guy, Kyo was distracted from further contemplations when he felt his Master's hand rest on his shoulder. Looking up at the slightly taller man, Kyo immediately knew that Kazuma wanted him to do something.

"Kyo, would you be able to show Hastuharu around, from a students perspective. I'm just an instructor so I'm sure there are many things that you students know about, or think, that I would never dream should be relevant in an introduction to a new dojo. Then, if there's still time, I'd like you to go through some exercises together, to get a feel for where Hatsuharu's strengths are and where he can improve."

Glancing over at the guy who suddenly appeared calm and serine again, Kyo nodded his head slightly. A small squeeze from the hand resting on his shoulder and Kazuma let go.

"I look forward to seeing you again soon, Hastuharu. Kyo, till dinner tonight." With that the Master of the dojo turned and walked away, leaving the two men to themselves.

"Dinner?" Hatsuharu asked, voice slightly curious.

"Yeah, I live with Master, have since I was a kid." Kyo shrugged, feeling the usual feeling of uncomfortableness that he usually got when his past was brought up.

"Oh," was all Hastuharu said as they stood there for a moment in silence.

"My parents got divorced when I was eight, very messy. Took them four years to get everything sorted out." Kyo looked at him in confusion.

'Why is he telling me this?'

"Their major problem was who got landed with me, neither wanted the burden." Hatsuharu slanted his eyes slightly, that dark flicker and small smirk appearing one again.

Kyo's eyes widened with shock.

"Anyway, are you going to show me around the dojo?" Though the darkness was still present in his grey eyes, that small, soft smile was back as if it had never left.

Blinking is the abrupt change in topic, Kyo nodded slightly.

"Yeah, let's start this way." Kyo turned and began walking down the hallway, the opposite way Master Kazuma had gone.

'Maybe we've got more in common than I would have thought.'

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