Faded Memories

I walk down the stairs and see Yuki and Shigure eating breakfast.
“Hello Sleeping Beauty. You slept later than I thought you would. In fact, Kyo is still sleeping as well. What kept you from getting a full night’s sleep?”
I look at Shigure and yawn. “I was talking to Kyo.”
“Oh, you were ‘talking’ to Kyo.”
“We were just talking; that’s all. I am tired, so don’t make me hit you.”
Shigure cringes away from me when I sit down across from him and begin eating a rice ball. Shigure opens his mouth and says, “Where were you two?” I lift my hand and point up towards the ceiling. “Oh, you two were on the roof.” I nod.
I glance at the stairs when I hear Kyo’s footsteps. Shigure looks at him and says, “We will have a visitor today.”
Kyo freezes, Yuki smiles, and I put two and two together. “Oh my god…” I stand up and walk over to the door and lock it.
“Ruki, I think you’re overreacting,” Yuki says.
“No, overreacting would be baring the windows! You know what she does to me!”
Yuki looks at me and smiles comfortingly; his smile doesn’t help me feel better. “Ruki, she does that because she loves you like a sister.”
“I think you have it backwards. She hates me like a sister!” I look towards Kyo for support, but find him sneaking out the backdoor. “Oh no you don’t,” I tackle Kyo to the ground, “if I am going to suffer, so are you!”
Kyo pushes me off him. “You are so greedy!”
I hear someone knock on the door. “Protect me!” I jump behind Kyo.
“No, you protect me!”
“I know, on three we run to the mountains.”
Kyo shakes his head and we start counting out loud together. “One, two, thr-”
“Kyo, Ruki! I’ve missed both of you so much,” with each word Kagura sounded angrier.
“Kyo, we’re screwed,” I say before looking at Kagura. “Wait Kagura,” she pauses, “I got to know; do you hate me or love me?”
She smiles, “I love you silly.”
I look at Yuki. “You should be happy she’s a cat person.” After I say that I feel myself go flying backwards.
I land on top of Kyo in the yard and watch Kagura run towards us. I black out for a while, but when I come to my head hurts, I am bruised, I am bleeding, and I am laying under Kyo in the yard. “Kyo,” I mumble.
“Yeah,” He answers.
“Get off me.”
“I would, but I can’t feel my legs. Or my arms for that matter.”
“Me too,” I say and let the fog in my vision clear.
“I think I can move again,” Kyo says as he rolls off of me.
I stare at the sky and sit up, but I sit up too quick and my head starts spinning. “Ugh. I think Kagura lied; she does hate me.” I stand up and walk towards the house.
When I make it inside I fall over and just lay there, I’m in too much pain to move. I flinch when I hear Kagura say, “Who did that to you Ruki!? Oh my god, that person hurt Kyo too!”
“Kagura,” I choke out.
“Yeah, Ruki what is it?”
“You did this to me. You did this to Kyo. How many times do we have to tell you that before you make the connection?” I feel pain shoot through me and ‘poof’. I sit up as a cat and turn to look at Kyo, who also changed to a cat. I pick my clothes up with my mouth and run out of sight. Right when I make it into a closet, I am human again. I quickly put my clothes back on and walk out to where I was laying.
Kyo is still a cat. “Ruki, come help me. I can’t move,” Kyo shouts.
I walk over and pick him and his clothes up and run back inside, praying he would stay changed long enough. I run up the stairs and step into Kyo’s room. When I sit him down he changes back to a person. “Kyo put your clothes back on.”
I hear Kyo moan. “I still can’t move. Could you help me?”
“Can I just go get Yuki?”
“Please help me. Kagura might volunteer.”
I sit on the floor and wait until I feel the blush go away. “Fine, I’ll help you, but please put your boxers on by yourself.”
I hear some rustling and then Kyo says, “You can look now.”
I turn around and see him lying on the bed in his underwear. “Are you sure you can’t do this yourself?” Kyo replies with a groan, “Fine.” I begin pulling his clothes on him and feel myself hold my breath from nervousness. “I’m done, but you owe me.” I regret saying that immediately.
“Okay, when you are injured and can’t redress, I’ll help you.” I can’t tell if Kyo was serious or not, which scares me a little.
“Can you move?”
“No, do you think I asked you to dress me because I wanted to see how you reacted?”
I don’t answer. “I’ll call Hatori if you still feel bad when Kagura leaves.” I turn and walk away.
When I reach the bottom of the stairs I am questioned by Kagura. “Why were you up there so long? Why is Kyo not down here too? Did he get you to dress him? Why did he ask you? Are you going to answer me?!”
I sigh. “Kagura, I will answer your questions if you don’t over react.” She just stares at me so I continue. “Okay, the big answer is that, Kyo wasn’t able to move so…I had to help him…dress.”
Kagura isn’t the only person staring at me, Yuki and Shigure are staring as well. Shigure has a perverted smile, Yuki looks a little frightened and disgusted, and Kagura just looks…frightening. “I thought you were my friend, but you aren’t. You’re competition!”
“I’m your competition in what?!?!”
“You are trying to take Kyo from me!”
I just stare at her blankly. “I have never thought of Kyo that way! And he asked me to dress him! I didn’t volunteer!”
Kagura advert her glare from me to the top of the stairs. “I am going to kill him!”
“Kagura, it’s getting late. Why don’t you go home?”
She looks at me and her mood shifts immediately. “Okay. I’ll see you guys later. Bye!” Kagura waves and walks out the door.
“Wow that was easy.” I turn and see Shigure and Yuki walking towards me, still with the strange expressions they had before.
“Were you serious?” Yuki asks.
“About Kyo, yes, I was. But I made him put his underwear on by himself.”
Yuki lets out a sigh of relief.
Shigure is looking a little less perverted. “What were you thinking when he asked you to help him put his clothes on him?” I hit Shigure and walk up the stairs to check on Kyo.
Kyo is laying on his bed covered in dirt and blood. “You know you look like crap.”
He smiles. “Can you call Hatori?” I nod and pick up the phone.

“Whenever I picked up the phone and Ruki was on the other end I thought I was being tricked,” Hatori says as he walks into Kyo’s room. He looks at Kyo and says, “Kagura?”
I nod. “He can barely move. She must’ve hit him harder than me. I felt fine after I changed back. Kyo felt horrible as a cat though.”
Hatori looks at Kyo. “How did he get up here and dressed if he could barely move?”
I open my mouth, but Shigure beats me to it. “Ruki dressed him!”
Hatori doesn’t say anything, he just begins diagnosing Kyo. After a few minutes he begins bandaging Kyo and mumbling words that are too big for my midget vocabulary to understand. When Hatori finishes he tells Kyo to sleep off the pain. As if on cue Kyo changes again.
He looks at me. “Ruki, will you give me a bath?”
I just stare at him. I look at Shigure and Yuki. Shigure is giving me the excuse that he has to go work and Yuki is saying he was going to go buy groceries. I look at Hatori. Hatori says, “I will have to bandage him again, but it would be better if he was clean. His cuts could become infected.”
“Can you bath him?”
“No, I can’t do that. You’ll have to.”
I just give him the “Do you hate me?” look. “Fine,” I say and pick up Kyo. “I swear, if you change back to a human I will beat you so hard you’ll want to be around Kagura,” I whisper.
Kyo begins to purr and I have to stop myself from deciding to drown him. “Now I owe you a redressing and a bath and redressing again.”

Luckily, Kyo doesn’t change back to a person until I am sitting him on his bed. “Kyo put your boxers on yourself.” I sit in the floor and listen to Hatori prepare his medical stuff for Kyo.
“Can you put my clothes on me now?”
I stand up and begin picking up the clothes. “Just put his pants on him,” Hatori says. I do as instructed and begin feeling dizzy.
As I walk toward the doorway to go to my room I change. “Ugh. I guess I was more stressed and injured than I thought. Yuki!”
Yuki walks up the stairs and finds me halfway out of Kyo’s room’s doorway.
“Help me please.” I look up at him.
He picks me up and carries me to my room. “I’ll get Hatori to look you over just in case.”
I slide under my bed covers and change. I grip the covers and feel awkward. “Can you step out of the room? I think I have enough strength to put on pajamas.” Yuki nods as leaves.
When Hatori enters the room I am laying on my bed half asleep. “It looks to me you are exhausted; the same as Kyo.” He bandages my cuts and ices my bruises. I fall asleep quickly.