the tale behind the marks

Sakura sighed as the three of them waited for Akito to show his face, Sakura heard a lot of murmuring, Hatori, the man that sweetly invited them in, was probably telling him who came to visit him.

"Kyo, you finally come and visit..." Sakura assumed it to be Akito.

"Whatever" He told him.

"And Shigure... Who is this?" Akito gestured to Sakura.

"This is Sakura Sensoshi... one of the girls I told you about..." Shigure said.

"I see..." He kept staring at her, making Sakura uncomfortable. "Please, come with me" He held out his hand for her to grab. Sakura looked to Shigure, he nodded, but it looked like he was on the defensive side.

Sakura took the man's hand and he lead her out of the room, she saw him locking the door behind him. But, she followed him anyway as he pushed her into a room with a bed.

"What-" Before she could ask the question, Akito pinned her to the wall. He pulled her silver bangs and pressed her head against the wall. He kissed her lips roughly. Sakura started to cry as she realized what he was doing.

Haruka... Please help! Sakura pleaded as she felt hands on bare skin of her stomach.

"You are beautiful" Akito whispered. He kissed her neck.

Haruka was about to pay for her milk when her sister sense tingled.

"A rat.." Yuki said, glancing out the glass door. Haruka looked too.

"Mimi..." She grabbed her milk and walked out of the store. The rat was squeaking frantically.

"The main Sohma house?" Yuki looked at the rat. "What?" Haruka looked at Yuki, confused.

"What's going on Yuki?" Haruka asked.

"Sakura is in danger..." Haruka dropped the milk.

"Take me there..." She told him.

"But-"

"Just take me" She looked at him with pleading eyes.

"Okay" He sighed.

They ran, Mimi on Yuki's shoulder.

"There!" Haruka ran through the gates, as it was wide open, and followed Mimi to where they were.

As shre ran past a door, she heard banging, she stopped and opened it to see Kyo and Shigure on the other side. Haruka looked at Yuki and then ran off again.

Haruka barged right into the room, not caring what was happening.

Sakura screamed, she was on the bed, blindfolded, she was only in her underwear.

"You sneaky little toad!" She punched Akito in the face and Yuki ran in, with Kyo and Shigure behind him. "Help Sakura!" Haruka yelled, pinning Akito the wall.

As they got Sakura to safety, Haruka threw him on the bed.

"I told you to stay away from her, Akito..." She snapped at him.

"That's no way to treat your superior" He told her.

"Pfft, superior? You are far from being MY superior, your just a person who thinks he can do anything just because he is head of a family... To me that's just a baby who hides behind whoever would protect him..." And she walked out of the room, slamming the sliding door shut.

"Haruka!" Her sister wrapped Haruka in her arms.

"Saku, are you alright?" Haruka looked into her sister's eyes. She wasfully clothed again.

"Yes, thanks to you..." Sakura hugged her again.

When they got home Haruka layed on the roof, looking at the sky as it darkened.

"Better make sure you don't fall off this time." It was Shigure.

"What about you, dogman?" Haruka said, not taking her eyes off the sky.

"I won't fall..." he sat next to her. "This is relaxing..." He said.

"Yeah, why are you out here?" Haruka asked.

"I wanted to see if you were okay" He simply said.

"That head of family of yours sure is a psycho..." Haruka said. "He hasn't changed at all." Haruka turned to the side, facing away from Shigure.

"You've met him before?" Shigure asked.

"Yes, a long time ago..." She said. "He tried to do the same thing... But at the time, my father was present and stopped him... Man, I miss him..."

"Akito?" Haruka looked at him.

"No dogbreath! My dad!" Haruka felt ters touch her eyelashes.

Sakura finished making the Salmon, she looked at the two empty spots where Shigure and Haruka's plates sat, untouched.

"What are taking those two so long?" Kyo asked impatiently. That's when Haruka walked in, Shigure was right behind.

"Sorry" Haruka said. "Let's eat!"

After dinner, Sakura climbed into a warm bath and started to think, What had just happened? But she knew she couldn't dewell on it, she had to move on.

After that was done, she went straight to bed, which Haruka was already in. But Sakura had a hard time falling asleep, she got up at around midnight to get some water. But when she entered the kitchen, Yuki was watching TV in the next room.

"You're still up?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep" He said.

"Tohru?" She asked.

"Not quite..." Sakura looked at his calm expression.

"Then what are you thinking about?" Yuki looked at her.

"Are you alright, I mean, after Akito did that to you?" Yuki flat out asked her.

"It has no effect, to tell you the truth, I think it was harder on Haruka to see me suffer" Sakura confessed.

Sakura looked at the TV when she felt a hand on hers. she looked at Yuki. He touched her cheek, catching a fallen tear.

"It's eating you up inside, isn't it?" Yuki told her.

Sakura walked over to Yuki and hugged him, crying on his shoulder.

Haruka couldn't sleep, so she went out on the roof, she was free to cry there alone, all she wanted, no one was there to see...

She started to let the tears flow, letting her own vision blur. A cat then appeared in front of her. She looked at it.

"What is it?" She asked the cat.

It meowed three times and Haruka stood up.

"Thank you..." And ran into the woods.

After running for what seemed like forever, she saw the smoke.

They are so close... She quietly tipped toe to the edge of the trees where it split to reveal a campsite. three guys and a girl were sitting around a map.

"If we sneak in through here, they'll never suspect us" The girl said.

"I say we go through here" One of the guys said. (To save confusion, from this point on I'm going to call them Guy #1 Guy #2 and Guy #3)

Guy #3, who had an eyepatch, rubbed his chin. "We need to get them quickly" He finally spoke.

"No duh!" The girl said, rolling her eyes.

"Let's do it" Guy #1 said, he was really scrawny.

Sakura was happy to have Yuki there to lean on, they were both rats, so it only made sense- thunk

"What was that?" Yuki asked.

Thump,thump, thump thump

"It sounds like it's coming from the roof" Sakura said.

The light in the kitchen and TV were suddenly cut off.

Sakura felt Yuki's arms around her, in a protective way, Yuki had no idea of the gun underneath the table.

Creak...

"What the h-?" Sakura heard Kyo yell. "Who are you?"

Thump

Kyo... Sakura felt sweat run down her face. Where's Haruka?

Then, three men appeared in the doorway that lead to the hall.

"No one moves" One of them said (Guy #3).

A brully guy, who was all muscle, threw Kyo at their feet. (guy #1)

"Kyo!" Sakura bent down and looked at him, he wasn't hurt

Must've been the pressure point... Sakura looked at the guys. I need Haruka! where is she? Sakura fainted, her head hitting the table.

When she woke up, she was tied to a post, Yuki and Kyo were on buth sides of her. her head throbbed.

"What now?" Kyo asked Yuki.

"We have to get something to cut this rope..." Sakura guess the guys didn't notice that she was awake.

"Squeak!" It was Mimi.

"Mimi, chew the rope" Sakura whispered to the rat.

"So..." It was a woman's cold voice. "Who should die first today... The rat... or the cat? Hm... Or maybe the unimportant girl!" She lunged at Sakura

crack!

Sakura didn't even flinch as the woman was kicked in the face, her jaw breaking. Sakura felt the ropes loosen and fall onto her lap, she took this chance, along with Yuki and Kyo, to run.

But the three men from before stood in front of them.

"We'll take care of these three!" Kyo said, pulling up his fists.

'Yeah..." Yuki said.

Sakura watched them fight, each of the three guys hitting blow after blow, and Yuki and Kyo... Miss after miss... Then, it happened, that moment, Sakura wished Haruka didn't have a pet cat...

Minori jumped on one of the guys's backs, and started to scratch, but it didn't work, the guy instead took the cat and stabbed a dagger through him.

"MINORI!" All it took was one blow, one huge kick and the guy was knocked out. Then, Haruka turned to the two others, her anger rising.

"This is bad..." Sakura breathed. "Haruka, it's okay... Minori is in a better-"

"Shut up with that crud..." Her eyes flickered, they turned cat like, markings started to spread through out her body.

The two guys tried whacking Haruka, but they both failed miserably, she snapped both of their necks.

She then started to cool down, tears flowed into her eyes as she bent over Minori's dead cat body.

"Minori" She breathed. "Have a safe trip..."

The next morning, Yuki watched Haruka be a living zombie, she spent most of her time sitting next to the cat bowl on the porch, rubbing it in her fingers. But when they sat down for breakfast, it was time for answers.

"Who were they?" Yuki asked.

"Forget who they are, where did they come from?" Kyo asked.

"What exactly happened last night?" Shigure asked, completely confused.

Yuki looked at Sakura, who was sitting across from him, where Tohru usually sits. When he thought of Tohru, Sakura changed into her for a split second, then it was gone.

Sakura was staring at Haruka, who was hardly eating, Yuki thought it was probably the depression of losing Minori.

"Ms. Haruka, aren't you going to eat?" Yuki asked gently.

"I'm not hungry..." She said.

"EAT IT DARN IT!" Kyo yelled at her.

But Haruka shook her head.

"I'm going to go take a nap." And the girl left.

After breakfast, Yuki went on the roof, knowing Haruka would be there.

"Are you alright?" He asked her as he sat next to her.

"More or less" She said, she was looking at the treetops.

"What are were those markings?" Yuki looked at her.

"Those markings are a stamp, a stamp on caging me... It happens when I get furious, like when Minori died last night, I was angry at the man, so I wanted to Kill him..." Yuki looked at Haruka as she was holding her knees.

"A stamp on caging you?" Yuki was confused.

Haruka nodded. "Yes... My dad was just like me, he was the cat in the family...He cursed both of us... But Sakura and I don't see it as one, we see it as an opprotunity to be someone else... Anyway, we call what I have a curse..."

Yuki didn't say a word, he wanted to hear the whole story.

"My sister and I are twins,yes... But they had to make a decision.. My parents... Which would have the rat? And the other... the cat..." Haruka closed her eyes. "At first, they wanted me to be the rat... But something changed... My sister became 'the perfect one' while I stood as a tomboy... At the age of three, my mom went against their original plans and said that I was to be the cat... Sakura the rat... No we weren't born with these gifts.." She added, reading Yuki's expression.

"But my dad left my mom and Sakura, taking me with him. He wanted me to live as a normal child... He didn't hide me from the world, even if I did transform, he would pretend to be a magician, and it trully worked... He told me to embrace the world, and I did... But one day, my dad went beserk, markings spread around his body, just like me...

"But of course, I never thought they would come after me next, and they did... They tried to put me under lock and key, but even then I showed signs of what my father had... I didn't even expect them to kill my father, seeing if that would help... But it only made it worse... Of course, mine had gotten out of hand... Once I even stayed in that form for a year... But it paralyzed me for six months... My mom took me in, but she hid me where I couldn't be found.. And then... someone killed her, and I was released... I had to decide between my sister or the group that had killed my mother, and, I later found out, my father."

"And you chose your sister?" Yuki guessed.

She nodded.

"Guys, can you come down a second?" Sakura poked her head out of the window.

"We'll be there in a minute" Yuki smiled at the girl.

"Okay..." And the silver haired girl disappeared from the window.

"Let's go..." Haruka sniffed, standing up.

"Right..." But Haruka stepped on a loose board.

"Haruka!" Yuki dived for her as she was falling from the roof.

POP

TBC...

Haruka: We are back!

Sakura: Sis.. Guess what!

Haruka: What?

Sakura: Kyo has a girlfriend!

Haruka: no way, no way, no way! Where's the camera?

Sakura: Tune in next time to see who it is!

H&S: Bye :)