"What do you mean he's staying for dinner!"

Shigure thought that the reaction was rather tame. Considering the fact that Yuki had basically stepped into the house in a silent rage, things could have taken a much more violent turn. "I mean that he's sitting at the dinner table and eating with us, of course."

"Why on earth would you allow that?"

The writer tiredly ran a hand through his hair. "Well, when a person spends the night in someone else's home, there is some expectation to be given food at the proper intervals."

"He's spending the night?" The boy growled out angrily.

Shigure decided that now would be a good time to retreat to the safety of his office. Every manuscript needed to be properly edited before being sent to the printing press, he always said, so it was only right that each one be looked over at least seven times. Though, looking at Yuki once again, maybe his present project needed to be relooked at seven or eight hundred more times before he was certain of its worth. So with a rushed 'excuse me' Shigure practically ran for the room in question and settled himself at his desk. Unfortunately, the act did him no good. Yuki simply followed him, making the older Sohma regret not having some kind of lock on the door.

"You're just going to let him stay here without a fight?"

"I wasn't aware there was a fight to be had."

Yuki looked less than impressed with the answer. If anything, it only fueled to enrage him. "Are you aware of how big a thorn in my side that insufferable detective has been since he walked into our lives?"

"Not at the moment, no." But he was sure the teenager was all too willing to let him know. In excruciating detail.

"He used to introduce me to all the neighborhood kids, and his parents, as a girl with serious gender confusions."

Shigure could see how that could have been uncomfortable. It couldn't have been an easy idea to dismiss once you really thought about it. Yuki had always been small, his voice had always been soft, and the clothes he wore, compliments of the older females in the family, had always seemed less than even slightly masculine. Plus, Shinichi was good at making sense. If he told you a pig could fly, and then proceeded to give random but coherent pieces of proof, you would be using a set of binoculars to go pig watching in the sky. Making strangers believe that someone, who looked female, was a girl, was in no way a stretch for him. Making those same strangers believe otherwise once he was through with them, was.

"He used to set up mousetraps outside his door whenever he heard I was coming over. Then he would tell the cat where they were hidden so I would be the only one with things snapping all over his feet."

Shigure could recall getting a few phone calls about injured fingers and toes from incidents involving those traps. At least one out of every batch managed to hit their target. After the third incident, he wondered why Yuki kept insisting on going with Kyo when the child was planning a visit with the little Kudo.

"And for my tenth birthday he sent me stuffed rat doll."

"Well, that was very nice of him."

"Its head was cut off!"

The writer did his best not to sigh in frustration.

Yuki was far from done. "And he has the gall to insist on staying here, when he has plenty of money to go elsewhere, as if we owe him anything. He has a lot of nerve." Violet eyes darted towards the ceiling, no doubt picturing the inside of Kyo's room which sat directly above the office, as well as who it might house. "Where is he? Is he still here?"

"Not right now." And thank goodness for that. He knew, now at least, that a blowout was soon to occur in the form of a long, pent up rage. Lucky for him, he still had some time to prepare for it. "He and Kyo went out to pick up a few things. Special guests equal movies and an obnoxious amount of junk food I suppose. And to be fair," He gazed upon Yuki with a stern face. "Shinichi didn't insist on staying here."

Yuki's anger only deflated slightly. "He didn't?"

"No." Shigure told him calmly. With any luck, if he kept the tone of the conversation composed and collected, even if another surge of vicious anger did arise, the atmosphere in the house would only remain tense. It would be a far cry from the violent one he had been expecting when Yuki and Tohru had come home from school. "In fact Shinichi had always intended to go out and find a hotel out of respect for any inconvenience it would cause me. He told me as much before he walked out the door in search of one."

"Then why is he still here?"

"Kyo wanted him to stay. He asked me if it was alright, that he would set up a spot for Shinichi in his room, and I said it was fine. Shinichi even tried to pay me for it, but I saw no reason to charge him for his friendly visit down here."

The rat scoffed. "His visit has been far from friendly."

"For you, maybe, but for Kyo he's a welcome visitor and a much desired guest." At this point he just wanted the other boy to see some semblance of reason. "Kyo has yet to make any good friends since he's moved here."

"He has plenty."

"None that he's been this happy to see. And he hasn't once invited anyone over for a visit. Would it be too big of a problem to let him have one day with a person he gets along with?" Yuki opened his mouth. "Tohru doesn't count. She's a wonderful person, and one of Kyo's closest friends, but a man needs some quality male bonding every once in a while."

Yuki stilled looked prepared to argue. Then, a knock on the door to the office was heard, followed by a soft request to come in.

Shigure recognized the voice instantly. "Tohru!" He cried out in relief. "Oh thank heavens. Come in."

Tohru quietly stepped inside. She bowed slightly to the two in the room and smiled. Shigure wondered how she could afford to look so cheerful when the tension in the room was so palpable. He could have cut it with a knife if he wanted to. She either didn't notice the atmosphere, or was simply choosing to ignore it.

At any rate, she held up a piece of paper and pointed to it, a small question in her confused eyes. Shigure could make out the familiar chicken scratch of Kyo's hurried handwriting and the slightly messy scrawl Shinichi was known to leave on paper when he was in a rush. It was a note, he realized, that the two must have left for Tohru. However, the poor girl was so unused to it that she probably couldn't even make out her own name at the bottom of the page.

"Oh that's right. The boys didn't want you to waste time with making dinner. Since Shinichi's staying here tonight, they thought they'd celebrate with some take out."

"Shinichi-Kun's staying here? Like a sleepover?"

Shigure nodded. "He's leaving for home soon, but until then he'll be staying with us."

She smiled brightly at the news. "That'll be fun!"

Yuki groaned. "Miss Honda, you're not the least bit upset about this?"

She shook her head. "Not at all. This will be the perfect time to get to know Shinichi-Kun a bit better. Kyo's told me so much about him already, but it'll be good to hear some stories straight from him."

Shigure nodded eagerly. Tohru was his last hope for a decent evening. If she was excited about Shinichi being there, then Yuki would not possibly be able to rebuke his presence. He would have to tolerate him, at the very least, for her sake. "Come to think about it, I bet he has hundreds of interesting tales to tell. His mother is a famous actress and his father is a mystery writer. Add that to his own little set of mysteries…"

Tohru's eyes were aglow with excitement. Her opinion on the matter was already decided. She was going to welcome her visitor. The only question remaining was whether or not Yuki would deflate any ounce of her selfless joy. He had never been selective when his kindness to Tohru had been concerned. Would he start now? Was he so spiteful towards Shinichi and Kyo that he would upset her, even the tiniest bit?

No. That was simply out of the question. "Fine. He can stay."

Shigure blatantly refused to give in to the urge to tell the teenager that it wasn't his house, so he needn't give his approval. He simply smiled and gave his thanks. "You won't regret this Yuki."

The rat hardly looked convinced. "That's highly unlikely."

The doorbell rang, causing the teenagers in the room to look towards the direction of the front door.

"Another guest?" The last thing the violet eyed teen needed was another surprise.

Shigure looked too happy about the sound for it to be anything good. "Oh that's just my back-I mean Hatori!" He stood up and quickly rushed to the door.

Kyo and Shinichi were heard entering the house a couple of hours later. At that point the group, now featuring Hatori, were anxiously waiting for the food they had been promised. Hatori and Shigure strategically sat themselves at the heads of the table, placed Tohru and Yuki next to each other, and left the empty spaces for Kyo and Shinichi. Shigure called it his, 'Avoid disaster at the table before it can start' strategy. Hatori called it paranoia.

Shinichi walked into the dining room a few minutes later holding up several plastic bags with different logos running across them. He was taken back a bit when he saw that there were four people seated instead of three."I didn't think you'd really invite Hatori."

"More like cried and begged until I agreed to make an appearance."

Shigure frowned at the now chuckling detective. "Now why is it you never greet him so stuffily?"

"Because, as he so graciously reminded me last time I forgot," The detective said as he placed the bags down on the table. "He is a very skilled doctor with more than one way to mess with my body without leaving any noticeable trace of malpractice."

The dog had to hand it to the doctor. That was an awfully brilliant trick.

For a moment the room was filled with quiet murmurs as Shinichi set about placing food on several paper plates, letting Tohru give out napkins and plastic utensils. He hadn't wanted her to trouble herself over something so small, but she had insisted on helping her guest. He relented after only a few minutes of gentle arguments, quickly learning that Tohru's smile could do a magnitude of things. One of which was getting you to agree to her terms without much of a struggle. Yuki had been oddly silent the entire time. It was a fact that had not gone unnoticed by the young sleuth, who looked up to find that he was being stared at intently by darkened violet eyes.

"Can I help you?" He asked politely, setting down the last of the, now that Shigure thought about it, very huge amount of food he had purchased.

Yuki narrowed his eyes. "Why are you wearing the cat's clothes?"

Shigure took a closer look at what the brunette was wearing. Yuki was right. The teenager had changed from what had to have been his school uniform, into a pair of Khakis and a familiar blue sweatshirt that belonged to the stubborn cat of the family.

"Kyo let me borrow them." Shinichi answered as he took a seat opposite of Tohru. "Said the ones I had on looked too stuffy."

"They do." Kyo said, arriving at last with a semi large box underneath his arm, and sitting down next to the brunette at the table. With everyone present the meal, which consisted of several different nations all mixed together on different areas of the table, finally began.

"I don't know how you manage to stay in that thing all the time." Kyo said after a few bites had been taken. "I know it's you uniform and all, but looks like a damn business suit and is probably just as uncomfortable."

"You get used to it after a while." Shinichi picked at the collar of the sweatshirt. "These are a bit too loose on me."

"My clothes used to fit you just fine."

"That was when we were kids and had roughly the same body build. You've bulked up since the last time I saw you."

"It's not that I bulked up. It's that you don't eat." The redhead flicked the detective's forehead. "You need to stop skipping meals so much."

Tohru looked around at the setup before her. "Is that why there's so much?"

Kyo nodded. "Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and French cuisine, all somehow miraculously found at several chain restaurants around the city." No wonder they had taken so long to get back. Kyo must have purposely wandered around until he found these out of the way restaurants. Shigure knew no such places that were local. "My plan is to fatten him up and send him back home with a little more meat on his bones."

"Which is when, exactly?" Yuki's falsified nice tone was a very eerie sound to behold.

Kyo was simply annoyed by it. "Tomorrow night."

"Oh, so soon?" Almost everyone could hear the underline happiness in his voice.

Hatori, graciously, decided that that was his cue to step in. "Did you skip school to come here Shinichi?"

The boy in question scratched the back of his head. "How'd you know?"

"You wouldn't wear your school uniform here. Too many incidents relating to your formal dress have occurred to make you think it would be a good call." Near bowtie strangulation, inappropriate insults, and ruined expensive articles of clothing, just to name a few. "If you could, you would have dressed in something more casual to avoid any repeats. So I can only assume you had every intention of going into the building, yet not staying for the entire duration of the actual school day. Played sick?"

"Went in the front door and just walked out the back."

Shigure laughed. "I would scold him for it, if Kyo hadn't done the nearly the exact same thing. At least one of them actually made it into a building today."

Tohru frowned. "Won't you get in trouble for that?"

The brunette shook his head. "Naw. This wouldn't be the first time I've skipped out in order to attend more important matters."

"That's right. You're a detective! I had almost forgotten."

He smiled. "Yeah, the police department in Beika usually let me help out on the cases they're stuck on, which gives me a get out jail free card when school is involved."

Kyo bumped his friend's shoulder playfully, smirking when the other caught his eye. "They 'let' you help? You told me they practically begged you to solve their cases for them."

"I was trying not to lessen the good ladies respect for the police force. Thanks."

"Anytime."

Shigure caught sight the box he had seen Kyo carry down earlier. "What's that Kyo?"

The cat let out a small, 'Oh yeah' before reaching for the item in question and handing it to Tohru. "You told me this morning that you wanted to see some pictures of when we were younger." She took what was handed to her. "Shinichi helped me find it for you before we left."

Minutes later the entire table was laughing and smiling as countless memories were told and shown through the photographs in the box. It was amazing how many pictures were nestled into that container, and shocking how much of their history those at the table could remember. Even Yuki offered a friendly word or two as the hours went by, which was shockingly not taken in offense by the two sitting opposite of him. By the time every one of them was ready to retire to bed, they all had the same thought in their mind.

"It went better than I thought it would."

"I can't believe you called me over here for absolutely nothing." Hatori said once the high school students had gone off to bed, leaving the table still loaded with about half of what had been brought to it. "I told you that you were overreacting."

Shigure pouted. "Oh sure, they act well behaved when you're here."

"They can act well behaved when I'm not. They're not children anymore."

"I wonder sometimes." Yuki's miniature revolt that afternoon was proof enough that they weren't nearly as grown up as they'd sometimes like people to believe. "Say, Hatori, did you know that Shinichi introduced Yuki to his parents as a girl?"

Hatori raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Uh-huh. And apparently, during visits, Shinichi would also set mousetraps for Yuki to step on. He would mention their location to Kyo beforehand so he wouldn't get hurt."

"You don't say."

"And when Yuki turned ten, he received a headless rat doll courtesy of his less than dear detective."

Hatori merely hummed in response.

"Perhaps it would be a bad idea to let Shinichi come over anymore, at least when Yuki's around. They may have been fine tonight, but neither makes any attempts to hide their contempt for the other. I can handle that kind of thing from Yuki and Kyo, but Shinichi's not family."

"Sounds like you've given this a lot of thought."

"What's with the tone then?"

"What do you mean?" The other asked, eyebrow raised.

Shigure sighed. "It's sounds like you think I've missed a point completely. That's your, 'I'm sitting with an idiot' voice. Care to share why it came up?"

Hatori rose from the table and walked into the kitchen, ignoring the question completely much to his friend's annoyance. There was a pot of coffee that had been brewed not five minutes earlier, compliments of their houseguest, and was therefore still warm. The doctor poured himself a cup, and almost as an after thought decided to grab his cousin a mug as well, this one being mixed in with two spoonfuls of sugar. Every action was deliberately slow with no accompaniment by his voice.

When he returned to the table, Shigure was frowning. "Do I get some kind of reaction? A 'yes' or a 'no you idiot'?"

Hatori took a sip from his cup. "I can't honestly imagine what possessed him to send such a cryptic toy knowing that he was likely to be told on, and I can only assume that calling Yuki a girl was simple immaturity on Shinichi's part."

"So, I should tell him not to come here anymore?"

Hatori shrugged. "It's your house. Therefore it's your call." Shigure knew there was a 'but' in there somewhere. "You should know that the mousetraps did have their reason though."

"They did?"

He nodded. "Don't ask me why, and don't ask me who made him do it, but earlier that week Yuki had filled Kyo's favorite book bag with kitty litter, and had replaced his lunch with several plastic bags filled with catnip. When he opened it during school hours, the kids around him started teasing him about it, mercilessly."

The dog frowned. "I don't see why. They didn't even understand the joke."

"They didn't have to. All they knew was that someone had played a trick on Kyo, and because he gave a suitable enough reaction, it was all the motivation they needed to laugh along."

So that was it? "I see."

"Needless to say, when Shinichi found out about it, he made some plans of his own to ensure that Yuki felt just as terrible as Kyo did."

Perhaps he was being rash then. "So I should allow him to continue to come over?"

"If you want to." Hatori took another sip of his coffee. Shigure could hardly understand how the other could it drink it black. No sugar, no cream, no anything to make it more bearable for normal human consumption. It was nearly incredible, in a weird sort of way. "Just make sure you know what you're doing before you take this decision up with the rest of the members in this house. Remember, you're not going to be able to make everyone happy."

Meaning that the writer was up for a challenge regardless of what decision he made. It was either Kyo or Yuki, the cat or the rat, and if he chose one over the other, he ran the risk of making them think he played favorites. While it wouldn't be the first time the accusation had been made, this situation was bit different than most. It was much more delicate than the usual, 'You like this person more than me' and the consequences would prove to be much more severe. Fatal, even, if he were to truly take in the full brunt of what the situation entailed. He had to be careful.

"When did things get so complicated?" He ran a hand through his hair. "Things with Tohru were never this hard."

"We're so easily forgetful of why." Hatori pointed out. "Tohru, we could argue, walked into this situation without a bias. Therefore her presence in this family is for all of us. Shinichi," The doctor said with a slight hint of a smile. "Is for Kyo and Kyo alone. The two of them are very different."

His friend hummed. "Yet it would still be unfair if I kicked out one just because they were here only for one." He took a sip of his own cup of coffee. "I should just stop. I don't think I'm making much sense anymore."

"You never do."

"Is there ever going to be a time when you're nice to me for the sake of being courteous?"

"I don't answer dumb questions."

"What the hell?"

Kyo jumped slightly at the loud noise. Mumbling quietly to himself about why it was he was being woken up when he had finally gotten to sleep, he peeked over the edge of his bed to see Shinichi nearly jolting out of his sleeping bag.

It was a rather amusing sight, he had to admit. "You know, some people actually like to sleep when it gets dark out. It's considered impolite to wake them up because you feel like playing around."

Shinichi glared at him. "Something bit me."

Kyo sighed and flopped down on his back. "I didn't know you were so sensitive to bug bites."

"It wasn't a bug. It was something els-shit!"

The redhead looked to the floor again. "Oi. What's with the obscenities-what the hell?"

Shinichi had himself pressed up against the wall as three semi large rats crawled out of the bottom of his sleeping bag. Mouths open, showing rows of sharp but crooked teeth, they ran straight for their intended target. They tried to at least. Kyo, true to his zodiac destiny, was much faster than they were. With a feral grace he dropped to the floor, snatched up the rodents by the tail, and held them at arm's length. They hissed and wailed, as well as rats could, snapping at his arm in an attempt to force him to release them. He had been told countless times in his youth to never hold a rat that way. Hanging onto to its tail in that fashion was painful for the small creatures, and if he held on for too long the skin would tear from the rat's own weight, peeling off completely in a matter of minutes.

"Leave." He told them. "And tell any of your little buddies to steer clear if they know what's good for them." He tossed the rodents onto the floor. They scurried away the moment their paws touched the floor.

He could hear a creaking sound not two seconds later, and Kyo turned to see that Shinichi had climbed onto his bed. "Thanks."

He shrugged. "No problem. Care to tell me why you're sitting on my bed."

"Oh I'm going to do more than sit on it." The detective proceeded to tuck himself in. "Goodnight."

Kyo rolled his eyes, but walked over to the other side and got under the blankets without complaint. "They shouldn't come back, not after that treatment, if that's what you're worried about."

"More will come. I can almost guarantee it."

Kyo couldn't argue with that. They both knew who had sent the first batch, and they were well aware that he would send more, if only to annoy the occupants of the room. If Shinichi was near Kyo, however, they wouldn't run the risk of trying to bite him again. The redhead may have looked human, but he had the same dangerous aura of a cat. They wouldn't risk it. "Don't hog the blankets."

"I'll think about it."

Kyo scooted closer. Shinichi was known for hogging sheets and pillows in his sleep. He was used to having beds to himself, so it could be argued that he wasn't too used to sharing. Though, as long as the two of them remained close enough, that wouldn't prove to be too much of a problem. If another warm body was right there next to him, Shinichi seemed to subconsciously know that he didn't need to tug and keep hold of much of anything else to stay warm. "Someone's going to say something if they see us."

"And?" It didn't bother Shinichi.

Truth be told, it didn't bother Kyo too much either. "Nothing. Goodnight."

"Night."

"And Shinichi?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you found me again."

"I am too."

AN: And cut! I hate fillers. I really do, but they have to be done or else things tend to jump around without making much sense. Sorry. On the plus side, you guys get a new chapter. Though I admit that I was rather rushing to get this thing out today before the hurricane starts tomorrow, so if the ending was sloppy feel free to tell me I suck. Just make sure to include how I can improve.

A few shout outs from the last chapter.

Saharra Shadow, I have never heard that expression before, but I find that I really like it, especially in the context of this story. Thanks for the new term. You have earned an awesome point.

Sathrealtoo, hope this is soon enough. ;)

kuroange1, it has been revived. Please feel free to celebrate as you wish.

Thank you to everyone else who reviewed. Until next time.