Notes:

I still only own Michiko, Kishi, Akira and the Yankees. :)

~Tali

Chapter 11 – Tears & Rage

Kyou fumbled with the lock to Michiko's apartment before getting the door opened and nearly fell through it. He pulled Tohru in after him and slammed it closed. After a quick look around they ran into the bedroom and stopped short. Michiko was crying and clutching a necklace that matched his.

Tohru immediately went over to the bed and rested a hand on Michiko's head. The girl quieted a little but continued to cry softly. Tohru looked over at Kyou, "How did you know she was upset?"

"I just had a feeling is all." he replied. "She cried all afternoon. She was still crying when we left."

"I'll stay with her a while." Tohru offered as she climbed onto the bed and curled up next to her. "It will be okay, Mi-chan." she said softly while hugging Michiko close.

"Welcome to my home, Tohru-chan." Michiko said quietly before curling into the girl. Kyou sat in the chair Yuki had used earlier and glared around the room in frustration.

Tohru's voice drifted over to him, "You're really worried about her, aren't you?"

"Yeah. She just collapsed after Haru left and she hasn't done anything but cry since. I can't decide if I'm hoping they make up or not."

"Haru was crying when he got to Shigure's house so I hope they make up. They seem very sad without each other." she replied.

They stayed with her throughout the night. She hardly slept and her dreams were full of the red-haired woman that was still searching for her. All three were exhausted by the time the sun came up. Tohru smiled at Michiko as the other girl opened her eyes. "How are you feeling this morning?"

Michiko frowned, "Tired." She squeezed Tohru's hands. "You didn't have to stay with me all night. You have school today."

"What are friends for?" she asked cheerfully.

Kyou pulled out his cell phone and looked at it for a moment before punching a series of buttons. He put it away and then studied Michiko thoughtfully for a moment before speaking. "Michiko, would you please stay at Shigure's today? He wasn't feeling well last night and I want to make sure it's nothing serious. Yuki agreed to keep an eye on him last night and he sent me a message saying he wasn't doing very well this morning."

Michiko looked at him suspiciously for a moment before nodded tiredly. "Okay. Just let me get cleaned up." She climbed out of bed and headed for the shower.

Tohru shooed Kyou out of the room and into the kitchen. "Shigure was fine last night. What are you talking about?" she asked quietly.

"I don't think she should be all alone today. I thought it would be more likely to get her to go over there to keep an eye on him than anything else. I sent Yuki a message asking him to let Shigure know what's going on and to let me know when he and Haru are out of the house."

She smiled at him, "Oh. That's very nice of you, Kyou-kun."

He shrugged self-consciously. "I just want to make sure she's okay."

Tohru put her hand on his arm, "You take good care of her."

They heard Michiko's footsteps and broke apart so Tohru could make tea. "I hope you don't mind, Mi-chan."

"Not at all, Tohru-chan. You make the best tea." she said quietly.

Tohru smiled as she placed a cup in front of Michiko. Once they had a quick breakfast, which Tohru insisted on making, the trio walked over to Shigure's house. They found Shigure curled up on the couch looking pathetic. He was flushed and slightly sweaty and looked vaguely uneasy.

"Shigure-san. How are you feeling?" Michiko asked quietly.

"Not very well." he responded truthfully. Yuki had made it explicitly clear what would happen to him if he tried to cause any trouble or interfere at all today. He was to keep an eye on Michiko and speak only when spoken to.

"Let me know if you need anything." she offered solicitously as she sat down at the other end of the couch. She looked up at the two teens, "Don't worry. I'll call Hatori if he gets any worse. You should get to school before you're late."

Tohru leaned down to give her a hug and Kyou ran a hand over her head. "See you later."

She waited until they were gone before turning to Shigure, "You can stop pretending to be sick now."

He stared at her, "Whatever do you mean? I've been sick since last night."

She half-heartedly quirked a brow at him. "I know they're worried about me. I'm fine. I don't need to be babysat."

He sat up straight, "You caught us. We're just worried about you is all. You're always there for us, now we would like to do the same for you. But please don't tell them you saw through me."

"I didn't see through you, something was definitely wrong with you. Yuki said something about consequences if you don't behave while I was here, I would guess? I saw through the other two. They aren't very good liars."

Shigure smiled warmly at her, "You have figured us out, haven't you?"

"Not entirely, but I have figured out a lot of the dynamics between the members of this household at least."

Shigure nodded, "You and Tohru have that in common."

She smiled tiredly at him, "She understands you guys very well."

Shigure studied her for a few moments, "Why don't you get some sleep? If you don't want to sleep on the couch, I'm sure Tohru won't mind you sleeping in her room for a while."

Michiko nodded, "Thank you for worrying about me, Shigure-san."

He smiled, "Any time. Do you want me to call Hatori to take a look at your cheek?"

"Hmm? Oh, no, it's fine. Doesn't even hurt." She got up and wandered up the stairs.

Shigure frowned after her but let her go without further comment. He worked for a couple of hours and decided to check on her. He went upstairs and poked his head into Tohru's room. She was crying again while holding onto one of her many necklaces. He walked over to the bed and rested a hand on her forehead. She gave him a wan smile so he ruffled her hair and left to search for a snack.

The door slammed open as he stepped into the kitchen and Kyou came running in. "Where is she?" he asked.

"She's in Tohru's room. Shouldn't you be at school?"

Kyou growled something unintelligible as he headed up the stairs.

"She's been sleeping all morning." Shigure said as he followed him up the stairs.

"No, she's been crying all morning." Kyou returned as he settled onto the bed next to her and started rubbing her back.

"How do you know?"

"I just do." came to impatient reply.

Shigure shook his head and went back down to the study to make some notes. He had a feeling this was going to make an excellent story by the time it was settled.

Michiko settled into sleep as Kyou rubbed her back. Once asleep, the red-haired woman walked up to her weeping dream-self.

"There you are, little sister. What has upset you so?"

"The same thing as before, big sister. He doesn't love me and won't talk to me. I don't know what to do."

"Help me find you and I'll be able to help you." came the reply.

"I'm right here. I'm always here when you're looking for me and you always find me."

"I need to find you in the waking world as well, little sister. Won't you help me?"

"I can't. What if he's listening? I don't want him to find me and take me away."

"He can't. I will protect you."

"No one can protect me from him. I had to run away."

"Me, too."

----------

Tohru was talking to Yuki and saw Haru walking towards them from the corner of her eye. She smiled a little and pitched her voice so he could hear it as he walked over.

"I'm worried about Michiko. Kyou ran out of class about thirty minutes ago. I don't know how he knows when she's upset, but I'm very worried about her. Do you think she and Haru will be okay? They are so unhappy."

Yuki frowned a tiny bit before realizing she knew Haru was there. "Hopefully they'll work it out, Miss Honda. It's not for us to interfere with." he replied gently as he looked up and gave Haru a concerned look as he latched onto Yuki's shirt.

"What? I don't care what they're doing." he said defensively. His eyes were dark again. He had cried last night and now he was angry about it. Plus, Kyou was off with his girl, and that really pissed him off.

Yuki sighed, "I really don't think they're doing anything, Haru."

"Let's go see, shall we?" he snarled and stomped away. Tohru and Yuki glanced at each other then hurried after him. It looked like cutting was the theme of the day today.

Shigure sighed as he heard the door slam open for the second time that day. He walked into the living room in time to see Haru stomp into it. They looked at each other for a moment before he spoke, "Where is she?"

"In Tohru's room, hopefully sleeping."

Haru stormed up the stairs and Yuki and Tohru ran after him. Shigure followed at a more sedate pace, figuring he didn't want to see the door get destroyed. It was enough to hear it – crash. Yep, right on schedule. He got to the doorway in time to see Haru start yelling about them not being able to keep their hands off each other at a badly startled Kyou and Michiko. He watched with interest as Michiko's eyes darkened and then she shot off the bed and right into Haru as a wind started blowing around the room.

She slammed him into the wall and everyone froze in shock while she ranted in a voice that made the frozen arctic seem like summer. "How dare you speak to us this way?! We would have done anything for you. Accepted anything. Kept any secret. Do you realize that you are the only one we've ever kissed? The first real friend we ever made? Our first love? If you imply by word or deed we are a whore again, I will rip out your tongue and feed it to you. Are we clear?"

Haru struggled but could not break her hold. He had been shocked back to White by what had just happened and the fact he could barely breathe.

"M-Mi-chan?" Tohru asked quietly.

Michiko looked at her coldly, "She's not here right now."

Yuki stepped forward, "What is your name?"

"I am Khristalle."

"Khristalle-san, you might want to let him go. He can't breathe." Tohru said softly.

She looked back at the boy she was holding against the wall and saw he was very pale. Michiko suddenly snapped back to herself and released him. "I'm sorry! Oh, God. I'm so sorry!" She looked at all of them, staring at her with apprehension and whispered one word before collapsing. "Forget." It would remove the memory of that other side, and blur its actions, but not remove it entirely so she felt no guilt about using it. The additional shock to her system, however, wiped out her memory of that other self appearing as well.

Everyone stood still for a moment with surprised expressions before coming back to themselves. Yuki held out a hand to help Haru to his feet, "I think she needed to get that off of her chest. Maybe now she'll start feeling better."

Kyou picked Michiko up and put her back on Tohru's bed at the other girl's insistence. "I've never seen her anything but happy. It's nice to know she's not that disgustingly levelheaded all of the time."

Once Michiko was settled back into bed, everyone left the room. Kyou followed Haru down the stairs and waited for the other boy to notice him before punching him in the face again. "I still can't believe you called her that. It's haunting her."

Haru couldn't work up the energy to get mad at Kyou so he just shrugged and walked back upstairs and into Yuki's room.

"Not helping." Yuki growled.

"It's helping me." Kyou shot back before storming out of the room and up to the roof.

A while later Tohru and Kyou went to check on Michiko. It looked like exhaustion had finally won out but the girl was not sleeping peacefully.

"Can you tell what she's saying?' Tohru asked after a moment.

Kyou frowned and focused on what she was saying then flinched. "I'm not sure." It sounded like 'not a monster' and 'not a whore.' Kyou realized he didn't know his sister as well as he thought he did, but was maybe getting an understanding of why she was so adamant about him not believing people when they called him a monster.

----------

Meanwhile Yuki and Haru were sitting on Yuki's bed discussing what had happened.

"No, she's never done anything like that before. It was surprising but at the same time it wasn't. I've known there was a darkness in her since we met." Haru said in response to Yuki's question. "It's odd, I know something happened but I can't remember it very well. Do you think it was the lack of oxygen?" he asked.

"I don't remember it very well either and no one was resting on my windpipe. Maybe it was the shock of seeing her behave so violently?" Yuki offered.

"I don't know. I've never seen her so angry over anything. She was as angry as my Black side has ever been."

"Maybe that's why it doesn't scare her?" Yuki asked.

Haru looked at him thoughtfully, "It could be. If she knows she's strong enough to stand up to my other side then that would explain why she's never once been worried about seeing it. Did you know she always greets that side of me as warmly as she greets this one? It's amazing how accepting she is. I even flashed her once after she said something about my hair and she just smiled and said she understood. Well, after she stopped blushing anyway." Haru chuckled at the memory before realizing she would not be doing that again.

Yuki read Haru correctly, "I think she would prefer to be with you than away from you. Perhaps if you just asked her to explain?"

"No. You've seen how close she and Kyou are. There's something between them." he replied angrily.

----------

Later that evening, Michiko woke up from a nightmare. She looked around the unfamiliar room and then spotted Tohru sleeping peacefully next to her, their hands once again entwined. At least she wasn't scared by my temper tantrum she thought to herself. She felt a little bit better and yet vaguely uneasy now that she had said the things on her mind, even though she wished she had had less of an audience. She decided she wanted to be home in her own bed so she quietly extricated herself from Tohru's grasp and slipped out of the bed. She crept quietly down the stairs and out the front door.

Suddenly, she was grabbed from behind and a hand was placed over her mouth. "Shh. It's just me." Kyou whispered next to her ear as he released her.

"You nearly scared me to death, Kyou-kun!" she whispered vehemently.

"What are you doing sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night?" he asked quietly.

"I want to go home. It's been very kind of all of you to let me stay but I need to be home. I can take care of myself. I have been doing so for most of my life."

"I'm just worried about you. You cried until this morning and now you've had nightmares all evening."

"How do you know?" she asked curiously.

He frowned, "I'm not sure. I just feel pulled to you and when I get there you're crying or talking in your sleep."

"Interesting. What am I saying?" she asked, wondering if something had gone wrong with the spell she used on his necklace. She had been careful, but adapting spells sometimes had strange side-effects.

He looked uncomfortable. "It doesn't make much sense." he evaded. "Whatever. If you're set on going home in the middle of the night, I'll walk you so no one tries to hassle you."

She scoffed lightly at him, "I can take care of myself. I have been since you were in diapers."

"Hey! You're only two years older than me."

"Kyou-kun, I left home when I was eleven and my parents didn't take much care of me for a long time before that."

"I understand." he replied. She had only spoken about her family the night she was attacked and rarely about anything in her life before she moved here. "You can talk to me about it, if you think it would help." he stuttered.

"There isn't much to say and it still has the power to make me angry when I think about it."

"I'm sorry, Mi-chan. Did you have other family?"

"Just my grandfather. He was a lot like Kazuma-san."

"So you're all alone and you wonder why I worry about you?" he replied.

She reached out and ruffled his hair, "You're a good brother. Come on then, walk your big sister home."

He slung an arm around her shoulders and led her away.

----------

Unbeknownst to them, someone had listened to the entire conversation from the shadows of the porch. Damn. I was way, WAY out of line.

Haru waited patiently for Kyou to return. It seemed to take forever and he had started to wonder if the boy was just going to stay over when he finally spotted him walking up the path. He knew the moment Kyou realized he was there because the teen's entire demeanor went from relaxed to tense.

"You should walk away before I hit you again." he growled.

"I would deserve it." Haru replied evenly.

Kyou's eyes widened, "That and more. Do you have any idea how much she's cried for you, you stupid cow?"

"No, and I'm not sure I'm worth her tears." he replied.

"You're not." Kyou shot back, going straight for the heart.

Haru recoiled violently before turning around and walking away. Kyou glared at him until he could not see him any longer.

"Not helping." came Yuki's quiet voice from behind him.

"Who said I was trying to help?" Kyou snarled.

"You want her happy, don't you?" he asked reasonably.

"You think he can make her happy when he doesn't trust her?"

"I think they need to work this out without us interfering so much. I'm going to get some sleep while he's walking. I suggest you do the same."