Kyou watched in childlike fascination as Shinichi took out two odd looking black velvet boxes from his pocket. It was odd because those kinds of boxes usually had jewelry inside of them, these looked to either hold necklaces or bracelets, and things as precious as jewels were most commonly given as gifts to loved ones. Was Shinichi going to give him one? If so, what was the other one for?

"Here" The brunette passed over the longer shaped box to the curious cat. "That one's for you."

Kyou wanted to open it, to see what wonderful gift his friend had given him, but there was still something that confused him. "What's that?" He asked, pointing to the box the young detective still had in his hand.

Shinichi looked faintly amused by the question. "This my friend is a type of box-"

"I know that much!" Kyou pouted. "Whose it for?"

"Oh." The young detective swiftly opened the parcel he had kept for himself, turning it slightly so that Kyou could see what was inside. To the boy's surprise it was a bracelet, one that was very much like his own, made completely out of marble beads. The only difference was that instead of red and orange, the color scheme was blue and black. And right in the center of Shinichi's was a bead with an orange cat head carved into the marble.

It left the young Sohma speechless. "What--how--why?"

Shinichi just smiled. "I thought it was unfair that you were the only one in your family who had to wear a bracelet all the time. So I decided to get one too. I won't take mine off unless you do."

Kyou felt oddly touched by this. "Why is there a cat on it?"

Shinichi laughed nervously while scratching the back of his head. "It's for you." Seeing the question spreading across the others face he quickly added, "So that every time I see it I think of you. That way, even if something happens, all I have to do is look at the cat and I won't want to take it off."

Kyou didn't know what he meant by 'something' but he forced it to the back of his mind for the moment. Right now there was a present in his hand waiting to be opened, and he could not remember the last time he had gotten a gift from someone who had actually been willing to get it for him.

He took his time, savoring the moment to carefully reveal what was inside. A small part of his brain noted that Shinichi's breath hitched a little bit, but whether in anticipation or alarm Kyou didn't know. A good portion of his attention was too focused on what actually inside the velvet case.

He wanted to cry. He knew it was extremely girlie, he would probably get teased if anyone ever found out, and this made him lose all former pretense of manly, but he couldn't bring himself to care. Because staring back at him from its silky white bedding was a sterling silver necklace with a wolf charm on the chain. The animal was sitting up with its head turned towards Kyou, eyes a shimmering blue, looking kindly upon the child staring back at it.

It was beautiful. "A wolf?"

Shinichi nodded nervously. "You said I reminded you of one."

Kyou nodded absentmindedly. "Because you're so loyal and strong." He didn't notice the blush that appeared on the others face. "And you protect me like a wolf does for its friends."

Bashfully the brunette agreed. "I thought this one could protect you when I'm not around. Just in case."

Kyou threw himself at the other boy without warning, holding on as tightly as he could to his best friend's body without causing any pain. His hold became a bit more desperate when Shinichi wrapped his arms just as tightly around him. Kyou didn't care that this probably seemed wrong to most people. He didn't care that this was possibly more intimate than he could ever hope to understand. He didn't care that this might have meant more to the two of them than they even realized. Right then he just knew he needed to try and make the brunette understand just how much this meant to him. He wanted Shinichi to realize how good he had just made him feel. He wanted so badly to convey that, he needed so desperately to convey that.

"Thank you." He whispered urgently. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you."

Shinichi pulled the young Sohma closer to him. "I mean it." He said honestly. "I really mean it. I'll always be there to protect you." He brought his face close to Kyou's ear and whispered, "Always."

"Aww." Tohru cooed at the now cherry faced Kyou. "That was so sweet." She giggled when she saw said Sohma try to focus on anything but her smiling face. Unfortunately the path to school did not offer him much material. "So what happened next?"

Kyou had to take a second to gather his thoughts. "Well, he put the necklace on my neck, and I put the bracelet on his wrist. Then we stayed in the attic for a few more hours before he went home."

Tohru giggled again. "It sounds like you two exchanged wedding rings."

Kyou's face turned a blinding red before he started sputtering. "Shut up! It wasn't like that!" He said, despite the fact that at the time he had been thinking the exact same thing. But he was seven! What did he know back then?

"Do you two still talk to each other?"

Before Kyou could answer there was a snort from somewhere off to his right. Instant recognition kicking in, he sent a glare to the rat beside him. Yuki looked back at him with a bland stare.

"That boy stopped contacting the stupid cat about a year ago."

Kyou wanted to snarl. The hell did he know about it?

But Tohru gasped slightly, and got this sad look on her face, so Kyou knew he had some damage control to do. "It's not like he just up and forgot about me." He tied to explain. "It's just that around that time he started getting really famous for his detective work, and getting more and more top secret clients that demanded absolute silence, and then he got caught up in this really dangerous case which required all his attention, and I'm sure he just never got around to it."

Tohru would believe him. She was always the type to give people the benefit of the doubt. And just like clockwork she gave her babbling best friend an encouraging smile, somehow settling the nerves he had not realized had been worked up. "I bet he misses you."

"I hope so." Kyou admitted quietly. "I miss him."

A thought suddenly occurred to the brunette. "Did Shinichi-Kun know about the zodiac curse?"

Kyou couldn't stop himself from smiling. It amazed him how easily this girl was able to make him happy again with one simple question. "He did. He even knew about my curse."

"Really?! How did he find out?"

"Interesting story actually. It was rai--" Kyou suddenly found himself face to…well, back, with the person in front of him. It seemed he had not been paying attention to where he was going, and had accidently bumped into someone. "The hell?" In his defense the guy really should not have just been standing there. "What's with the hold up?" He noticed that a group of people had gathered around to see something wedged in the center of the road, right in the middle of their quickest route to school.

The man he had bumped into turned to spare a quick glance at the irritated Kyou. "You kids heading off to school?"

Before the red head could start angrily demanding his question be answered, his cousin nodded politely and said, "Yes sir we are."

"I'd take a different path if I were you."

Tohru frowned. "Why?"

The man jabbed a thumb towards the middle of the circle. "A murder just took place. They found the bodies this morning."

Tohru gasped and the Sohma cousins found their eyes widening. "Who?" She dared to ask.

The man did not look like he wanted to answer. He must have thought the three of them would know the victims. "Have any of you ever been to that small café called 'Home Sweet Home'?"

The three nodded slowly, but Kyou was the only one who spoke. "The old couple who owns the place have been family friends since we were little. We're always stopping by."

Tohru nodded. "Their grandson and granddaughter go to school with us."

The man frowned. "I'm afraid you won't be seeing those two ever again."

The three stiffened instantly, and it only took a second for the three of them to start pushing through the crowd to see what had happened. Kyou was at the front, Yuki not too far behind, pushing and shoving his way through dozens of people who seemed unwilling to move. They seemed more concerned with keeping him at bay. Most probably thought this would be too much for him to handle, and he would be better off not knowing the full extent of the situation. On more than one occasion the martial artist had to forcibly remove a person from his path (what kind of sick jerk takes pictures of something like this?) and force his way to the front of the circle (and whoever had called him that particularly demeaning name was going to pay for it later).

But, to his utter annoyance, the second he finally made it to the front of the circle, someone clamped a hand over his eyes. Honestly, what was with people today? Did he look like he was five years old?

"You don't want to see this." A male voice assured. "Turn back around and just go home."

The voice was young. The person it belonged to couldn't have been older than seventeen, and instead of calming Kyou down it only fueled his irritation. It was one thing for an adult to try and order him around, but one of his peers? Someone his own age? Oh no.

With an angry growl he lifted his left hand to rip off the appendage covering his eyes. He had every intention of chewing out the kid it belonged to, until his eyes caught sight of something oddly familiar. He realized that his left hand, wrist was covered by red and orange beads, was clasping onto the right hand of the other boy, whose wrist was covered by marble black and blue beads, an orange cat carved into the center of the one set in the middle.

He raised his head, and soon his eyes slowly came to rest on pure bright shimmering blue eyes. Deep and mysterious, just like the waves of a large ocean.

Kyou felt his breath falter, and he could see the others eyes widen in recognition. The Sohma's grip loosened, but the boy in front of him quickly reconnected their hands. The beads rubbed against each other innocently. Almost as if the two pieces of jewelry knew each other, missed each other, were happy to see each other.

Kyou's mouth opened and closed several times. He had much he wanted to say, but nothing would come out of his mouth at the moment. He was spared, though, the trouble of doing any such thing. The other quickly brought the red head into his arms and proceeded to hold him as firmly as he could. Kyou returned the action tenfold.

After a short second Kyou felt warm breath on his ear. "Kyou?"

Kyou felt as though he might start crying. "Shinichi?"

The hug became tighter. The recognition, the happiness, the joy of reuniting, it was all there. All of it was represented in that one sweet moment of intense intimacy.

"What are you doing you stupid cat?" And just like that the moment was ruined by Yuki's outraged voice.

Kyou was suddenly aware of where he was and who was around him. Instinct, more than anything, caused him to quickly shove away the boy he had clasped onto. He sputtered indigently and attempted to curse at the rat who had ruined his moment, but found he could not look at the other boy next to him. He would be tempted to make a grab for him again, and this was neither the time nor the place for such a thing.

Yuki simply ignored him, opting instead to glare at the brunette staring back at him with a cold eye. "And who are you?"

The boy smirked at him. "It's been a while eh, Yuki-Hime?"

For the first time in a long while, perhaps the first time that year, Yuki's eye twitched. A sign of utter irritation, and a sign that Shinichi had done what many had been unable to do in such a short timeframe. He had managed to get under Yuki's skin. "You're that bastard wolf." The high school prince had almost growled out, which only made Shinichi smile wider.

The sudden tension in the air was not lost to a very concerned Tohru, who looked from one boy to the other with a worried look in her eyes. "Um…"

Shinichi seemed somewhat startled at the new voice, almost like he had not realized there had been another human being there. "Oh, I'm sorry. How rude of me. Who are you?"

She smiled slightly before shyly reaching out her hand. "I'm Tohru Honda. Kyou's friend."

At the simple mention of the name, bright blue eyes lit up. He grasped her hand eagerly. "Shinichi Kudo. Nice to meet you."

"Same."

There was warmth in her voice, a soft glimmer Kyou noticed, aimed at boy whose hand held hers in a soft grasp. She liked him. Whether it was because of Kyou's countless praise, or Shinichi's own personal charm, the cat was unaware of. The point was that she liked him. That alone was enough to bring his eyes back up to the pair who had singlehandedly changed his life. And he was able to see that Shinichi liked her too.

She turned to him, a smile on her face as well as in her eyes, and for a second he thought he saw a bit of mischief. He blinked for a second before quickly brushing it off. Tohru mischievous? Ha! Next thing you knew Shigure would suddenly want to become a priest.

"So he's the one you proposed to?"

And maybe the thought wasn't so ridiculous after all. Cherry faced and still unable to approach the situation calmly, he stuttered. "I told you it wasn't like that!"

All Shinichi could do was laugh. And even though the situation was mortifying, Kyou found it a little easier to deal with when he saw that smile. That same sweet smile that had once told him how beautiful his differences were was his to look at once more. He would forgive Tohru for this. Just this once.

AN: Thank you to those of you that reviewed. They are always greatly appreciated. I must admit this chapter is a tad bit longer than I expected, and I'm afraid it makes the reunion seem a bit rushed. Oh well, I never was patient person.