Disclaimer - Character's are not mine.

Chapter Ten – Tiger's Tears

She tried hard not to cry as the group of five girls stood around her, backing her against the window to a café. She bit the inside of her cheek in an effort not to let the tears in her amber eyes fall again. Then closed her eyes, trying to block out the jeers and hurtful words and hateful eyes that stared down at her.

'I'm sorry, please, don't hurt me.' She whispered in her mind, knowing that no words she spoke would help her right now.

It hadn't always been this way. There was a time when Kisa could remember these girls smiling at her as they welcomed her each morning. Then something had changed, she didn't know what, but suddenly they didn't like her anymore. It wasn't long until everyone in her class didn't like her and she found them all making fun of her for her hair and eye colours. Just because she was a little bit different because of her American father, they all picked on her.

Now she was lucky to go through the day if none of them spoke to her, she would rather that then the cruel things they would say to her when the teacher wasn't listening.

"Hey, what's going on here?" A woman suddenly called out, causing Kisa to open her eyes and see the bully's around her scatter quickly. She, however, stood where she was as she looked over at her saviour.

The lady was still quite young, though obviously out of school, the corner of her eyes wrinkled slightly as she smiled at Kisa.

"Hello there, would you like to come inside for a hot chocolate, it's a little chilly outside today." The woman offered.

Kisa was about to refuse; she didn't have any money for such a thing.

"On the house, no charge except for you to tell me your name. I'm Tohru, buy the way." The brown haired woman opened the door and waited for her to go through first, smiling all the while.

Nervous, Kisa took a step towards her. This was the first time someone had wanted to talk to her in months. It made her hurt heart feel slightly warm to think this complete stranger wanted to meet her, even if it was only out of pity.

"K-kisa." She whispered, her voice sounding slightly foreign to herself, as it had been so long since she'd had to use it as no one would listen before.

"Kisa, what a lovely name." Tohru said softly, causing Kisa's eyes to widen at the unexpected compliment. No one had ever said that to her before. She felt a pleased flush creep into her cheeks that caused Tohru's smile to widen slightly.

"See, your colour's returning already." She teased softly, though her eyes were kind and Kisa knew she wasn't trying to hurt her with her words.

Still nervous, but slightly more sure of herself now, Kisa entered the café and looked around with wide eyes at all the tables, chairs and books all over the place.

"Kyo, Kisa here would like a hot chocolate please." Tohru called out, steering Kisa into the shop with a gentle hand resting on her shoulder. Looking up at the orange haired man who looked at her in curiosity from behind a counter, she quickly looked away from his red coloured eyes.

"Kisa, this is Hatsuharu, he's a friend of mine." Tohru said as she stopped them right at the back of the café where a larger table was located. Sitting at it was a young man with oddly black and white hair; he looked over at her with grey coloured eyes.

"H-hello." She whispered, breaking eye contact first and looking down at the floor in embarrassment.

'They're all so grown up.' She thought to herself in amazement. She didn't know anyone who knew anyone this old without them being related to them.

"Call me Haru, everyone else does." He said, his voice had a calming quality to it and when she glanced up at him he was still looking at her.

He reached over and pulled out the chair next to him before patting it, obviously silently telling her to sit down next to him. Glancing up at Tohru, she moved to the seat when the older woman nodded encouragingly.

"Hot chocolate?" The orange man asked as he reached their table, a steaming mug on his small black tray.

"Here," Haru pointed at the table in front of Kisa and the other man placed the mug down before her.

"Do you want anything?" He asked, looking at Haru funny.

"No, not right now." Haru sent him a small smile, which made him turn pink.

"Tohru!" A voice suddenly called out as the chime above the door sounded, announcing the arrival of a blond haired high schooler. The adults' around her smiled in greeting so she guessed this boy must be a friend on theirs'.

'They're so lucky to have so many friends.' She thought sadly, wishing she had just one friend.

"Momiji, meat Kisa." Tohru said gesturing to her as she watched big blue eyes look at her, sparkling with excitement.

"Hel-lo Kisa! It's nice to meet you." He leaned in close to her as he greeted her, causing a blush to stain her cheeks.

"Now, Kisa, who were those girls with you outside?" Tohru asked once Momiji had gone over to a man named Shigure who was waving his hands about behind the counter where the orange haired man, Kyo, had returned. Looking down at the tabletop, her fingers played with the warm mug before her.

"Were they being mean to you?" Haru asked quietly, leaning in closer to her as she felt him casually sling an arm around the back of her chair.

Rather then verbally responding, she just nodded her head slightly.

"Oh, Kisa, I'm so sorry. I should have gotten there faster." Tohru said sadly, the frown on her face looking out of place.

"No, it's ok." Kisa said softly, reaching out tentatively and taking hold of her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze of comfort.

Tohru gave her a small smile that made Kisa feel so very lucky and, for the first time in a while, happy.

"You call this establishment a café? It looks more like a rundown canteen." An obnoxious voice suddenly exclaimed loudly, breaking their moment.

Kisa looked over to see a boy who was wearing a middle school uniform from one of the most expensive ones in Tokyo. His sandy-brown hair was stylish and his dark brown looked around at everything as if they were beneath him.

"If you don't like it kid, why don't you go somewhere else?" Kyo snarled, an irritated look on his face.

"Is that the way you treat all your customers when they offer their own opinions on this pile of junk?" The boy asked, looking up at Kyo in boredom.

Personally, Kisa would never have had the bravery so say something so rude to someone so much older then herself. Besides, she had always been told not to be rude to her elders so this boy was a complete shock to her. She'd always thought that everyone was taught the same thing…

"Why you little-" Whatever it was Kyo was about to say didn't sound very nice, but Shigure suddenly clamped a hand over his mouth, laughing the whole time.

"Now, now, children. Why don't you take a seat, my little friend?" He asked, big smile in place as Kyo tried to push him off.

"Don't refuse to me as little or your friend, I am neither." The boy said snottily, but he did move to have a seat not too far away from where Kisa was sitting.

"Is anyone going to serve me, then?" He asked loudly, once again attracting attention.

Kisa watched as the boy continued to complain loudly about the café while Shigure took his order. As Shigure walked away, Kisa was surprised when the boy suddenly look straight at her, his eyes seemed to be full of fire from his complaints about the café and she found herself blushing and looking down at her hot chocolate in embarrassment at having been caught staring.

Picking up her cup and taking a sip, just for something to do, Kisa's eyes opened wide at the taste.

"Wow," she said quietly, eyeing the hot chocolate in surprise as she placed it carefully back on the little saucer.

"It's pretty amazing, isn't it?"

She jumped slightly, having momentarily forgotten that Haru sat silently beside her. Looking up, she could see his eyes were trained on Kyo, how was still spitting behind the counter about the boy sitting a few tables away from her.

"You know, when I was in school, I got teased a lot." He said quietly, so no one other than Kisa could hear her. "I guess I looked a bit, different, to the other kids." A small smile quirked the corner of his lips and his eyes fell to half-mast; he looked almost amused about it.

"What did you do?" Kisa found herself asking before she could stop herself.

"I beat the crap out of the kids that called me names and got suspended for a week." Haru glanced at her, dark amusement in his eyes as she blanched slightly.

There was a moment of stunned silence before Haru spoke again.

"It's not much fun, a lot of school is pretty crap. But you get by and, you realize, it doesn't last forever. School is only a tiny percentage of your life, once it's over and done with, you move on to better things. You're only in middle school right now; chances are that many of those kids will go to a different high school to you. It can be a chance to start over for you, if you let it."

"I think, maybe the best thing for you, would be to talk to someone about what's going on. It doesn't have to be a teacher or your parents, there are plenty of other people around who'd be willing to listen." Haru finished.

She looked up at him, tears shinning in her eyes, only just controlling herself and preventing the mad leap into his arms that she was craving. Just to have someone say they understood, to say that it wouldn't last forever. To say that they would listen to her, let her speak and not make fun of her for it.

A warm arm around her shoulders pulled her in close and she suddenly found herself sobbing silently into the warm chest of an almost stranger. She clung to him as the world narrowed down to just her, being able to finally release all the hurt and pain that had been building up for months now.

When the tears finally died down and she felt once more ready to face the world, feeling lighter than she could remember ever feeling before, she pulled back. Wiping at her wet cheeks, she blushed with embarrassment as she remembered where she was. Glancing around under her eyelashes, she was relived to note that from the looks of things, no one was paying her any mind, all wrapped up in what they were currently doing.

Looking up at the man beside her, she shyly tried to express her gratitude without saying anything.

He just smiled and ruffled her hair gently.

"When I've had a rough day, I find that hot chocolate can cure almost any ailment." He said warmly, before turning back to the table where a milkshake suddenly appeared thanks to Kyo.

"Hey kid, you alright?" He asked, voice holding a slight growl that may have been scary if it wasn't for he genuine concern in his crimson coloured eyes.

Glancing at Haru for a moment, and then over to Tohru who was cheerfully listening to Momiji who was rattling off everything he'd done at school that day, Kisa bravely looked up and met Kyo's eyes head on.

"Yeah, thank you." She said quietly.

"Hmm… I'll get you another one." Kyo suddenly reached out and took her mostly empty cup of hot chocolate and was off before she could say anything.

Haru snorted with amusement, but when she looked at him he didn't comment so she just settled back into her chair and watched the other customers quietly.

"I said I wanted hot soup, not lukewarm." The boy from before stated loudly.

"Why you-"

Kisa giggled happily as she watched Shigure once again grab Kyo as the orange haired man made a move towards the boy. The boy's eyes once again found her own and she felt herself blushing again; so focused was she on that, that she didn't notice the small smile curving her lips.