Tohru walked into the kitchen and slipped in a puddle of water. She fell hard on the floor and bruised her leg. It only took her a minute of confusion to remember that Sohma-kun and the rest were still at the Sohma estate. Shaking her head at her own memory loss she carried the basket of folded laundry upstairs after she cleaned up the mess of water.

It was almost eleven at night and she never noticed as she tucked each folded shirt carefully into the drawers of Shigure, Yuki, and Kyo. Outside, the rain started to pour Tohru heard the thunder and saw the lightening, but not the shadowy figure outside hiding by a tree.

All of her duties done she went around the house checking for anything that needs to be done. Her now-tired muscles told her to go upstairs to bed, but she wanted to wait up for the guys. Shigure-san said they would be late. Tohru walked upstairs to get her robe and change out of her school-uniform. Hana-chan had gotten her a new pair of pajamas, ones with stars on them. She now pulled them on and put her uniform in the hamper.

On the couch, Tohru had fallen asleep with a book lightly clasped in her hand. The figure outside swiftly opened the door and silently walked toward the couch where Tohru was soundly sleeping. The person was cloaked in a fitting black cat suit and mask so that only his eyes showed. The muffled slam of the front door was the only reason that the man left the house.

"Damn Yuki! Don't you have better things to do besides get on my nerves?" Kyo half-yelled at the gray-haired boy walking in front of him. Yuki stopped short and Kyo bumped into him. "Watch where you're go-."

Yuki held up his hand and pointed to the sleeping Tohru.

"Will you shut-up?" Yuki whispered. Shigure walked past them yawning.

"What are you whispering about?" Then he noticed Tohru on the couch. "Well, isn't one of you gentleman going to carry her up to her room?" Shigure didn't mention the blush on both of their faces. "Well while you two figure it out I'm going to bed." He turned and fell. There was a patch of water at the base of the steps.

"What?" Tohru sat up and rubbed her sleepy eyes. "What's going on?" Quickly she saw Shigure on the ground and hopped off the couch and next to Yuki. "I thought I cleaned up the water. Well, I'll be right back." Tohru left then returned with a paper towel.

"You say you cleaned this water up already? Then how did this get here?" Yuki said as the back door banged open and shut. "Wasn't this locked?"

"I didn't open it." Tohru said her eyes wide. Shigure went and closed the door and locked it tight. "It was locked when I fell asleep."

"I think it was a burglar. Remember the story that I told you guys on New Year's? Well that was fake, this is true." Shigure said when he came back.

The wind picked up and rattled the windows. Tohru got scared and drew against the wall. Yuki calmly patted her shoulders and brought her senses back from panic. Kyo turned off the kitchen light and walked back to the living room. Shigure and Yuki were reassuring Tohru and walking her up the stairs as Kyo followed. Tohru told them good night even though she was scared out of her wits.

In the shadows safely hidden from all of the windows the man crept up the side of the building with a little difficulty, but with no more than a minutes delay. On the second story he stopped at the window of Tohru's room. Inside she was tucked in her soft bed, which was laced in pink. So calm was the scene before him he almost wanted to delay his mission.

The sharp glass-cutter in his hand was top notch so it made almost no sound. The squeak was soft but high pitched and Kyo heard it. The 'burglar' was almost in the room with the window wide open. Tohru felt the spray of the rainwater on her face and screamed as Kyo opened the door. Quickly the man grabbed for Tohru as Yuki ran in the room.

For once in forever Yuki and Kyo did something together. Both aimed their punches at the cloaked man holding Tohru hostage. Only when the man protected himself with Tohru's body did the flow of pain stop. Kyo slammed his fist into the man's face once again and the man fell out the window. Both he and Yuki leaned out to see him, but he had already vanished. Tohru sat of the floor holding her face in her hands as Shigure rushed in.

"What happened in here?" Shigure asked when he kneeled down to help Tohru up. Her face was streaked with tears.

"It wasn't a burglar. Someone came here to kidnap Honda-san. They almost succeeded too." Yuki said as calmly as his anger would allow. "Where is Honda-san going to sleep tonight? Her window is holed open." Yuki carefully taking he circle of glass from the bed spread.

"If someone gets me some tape I could fix it. I've slept in this room when there was a hole in the ceiling and the window. I can manage. But could one of you watch out for that man again? I don't feel right being alone right now." Tohru looked down to hide her mad blush even though the light wasn't on.

"Of course, I will humbly submit to sleeping at the foot of the princess' bed like the good guard dog I am." Shigure said placing his arms around Tohru's shoulders.

"I'll do it!" Yuki and Kyo said, at the same time. Both had dark looks on their faces and their fists clenched.

"Oh, if you guys don't mind, I will be very grateful." The princess said bowing her head.

"Honda-san I am grateful to even have the privilege of protecting you from someone other than Kyo and Shigure." Yuki said pulling some sleeping bags from the closet.

"Shut the hell up you damn rat!" Kyo yelled at Yuki who slapped him off his feet. "It's late! Will you stop hitting me! Go to bed!" Kyo stood, and wiped the blood from his lip. Yuki tossed a green sleeping bag at Kyo who was hit in the face and propelled back onto Tohru's bed. "Why you-"

Tohru smiled and pulled pillows out for them. "Good night you two." She then turned the light on so they could see. Slowly the boys set up their temporary beds, Yuki at the foot of Tohru's bed and Kyo beside it. Tohru fell asleep instantly, but Kyo and Yuki weren't as easy to fall into the clutches of slumber.

Soon midnight came and went. Then one o'clock and two o'clock with three not far behind. At almost two fifty-seven Kyo sat up. To his right he saw Tohru sleeping just as she had before, and all the other times he'd seen her sleep. Her eyes were shut and not all squinty when she looked by the sun. Her mouth was partially open so that she could breathe and her hands were folded neatly under her head as if to catch her dreams as the fell out her ear. An unfamiliar emotion swamped his whole body and he shook his head vigorously to get rid of it. Kyo lay back down onto the hard floor and stared at the beads on his wrist.

Yuki stared at the ceiling and listened to Kyo move around. He thought about things while his vision blacked and cleared. Yuki was drifting in and out of sleep although Shigure's snores could wake a nation. Even though he was sleeping he still wondered why no one else was disturbed be noises Shigure made.

It was almost noon before Yuki woke up. He sat up and stretched when he noticed that Tohru was gone. The bed was not made like it usually was and Kyo was sleeping curled like a cat by her night stand. Yuki stood and smacked Kyo on his orange head. Of course he woke in a bad mood and started cursing.

"Tohru's missing." Yuki said calmly. Kyo was suddenly alert and his stride out the door was fast. They swung the door open to reveal Tohru standing with a tray of hot coffee. She wobbled and Kyo grabbed the tray from her carefully so she wouldn't spill it all over herself.

"Oh, you were both still sleeping when I woke up, I didn't want to disturb you. So I made coffee. I knew Kyo would go back to sleep since it was still raining, but I made breakfast. Shigure left, he needs to get some more ink for his printer." Tohru smiled up at them and ran downstairs. Kyo shook his head and Yuki sighed in relief. Although they were all shaken by the occurrence last night it seems that Tohru wasn't altered by the fact she was nearly kidnapped.

When the two boys sat at the table they found that Tohru had indeed set up a special breakfast. Each of their favorite foods was set in front of them. Kyo wolfed down his plate of food and left before Yuki had his fourth bite.

"Oh, I wish he wouldn't eat like that. One of these days he's going to choke." Tohru said as she watched Kyo race upstairs. She picked up his plate and went to the kitchen to wash it as Yuki watched her. He knew she was right. Even if he hated Kyo more than anything in the world he was still worried. Yuki wanted to be the one to kill that bastard, not a large piece of chicken.

Somewhere on the other side of town the shadowy figure knelt in front of his boss.

"Master please forgive me, those Sohmas were unusually harsh with their blows." Blood fell from his wounds and landed in a puddle on the floor. "Give me one more chance. The girl will be no problem. It's the rat and the cat that are giving me trouble, the dog doesn't seem to care."

The 'master' smiled an icy smile and sat back in the soft armchair. "The dog is no more than that, my servant and as loyal as the animal itself. He will hold no resistance against you." The kneeling man flinched at the bitterness in his master's voice. "One more try you should get. One slip of who you work for will destroy all of which I have done. If you fail you will die."

"Yes, I understand. If this mission will give you the strength you need then I will capture that girl." The man lowered his head and stood. "When shall my next assault be?" He questioned.

"The most opportune moment shall present itself soon." The master flicked his wrist to tell the man in black to leave. Then he raised his voice to the other man waiting outside the door. "You can come in now."

"I don't think you should have meetings with people in your current state. You are already dying, another set of germs in your system will speed up the process." Hatori pulled out a series of medical supplies from his kit and found the correct bottle. The needle was filled with medicine, which was injected into the Akito's arm.

"Well, you may underestimate a human's will power to live." Akito said as Hatori fumbled in his medicine bag.

"Unless I'm mistaken you are not quite human." Hatori pulled out another bottle of medicine to inject into Akito's arm.

Tohru was cleaning the kitchen when the power flickered on and off. The television she had set to the weather channel clicked black. Yuki who had been reading in his room came downstairs to investigate. Kyo who had been dozing on his bed felt his fan turn off.

"What happened?" Tohru asked drying off her soapy hands on her apron.

"Probably a blackout from the storm." Despite the reasonable answer both Yuki and Kyo felt it was something more. Yuki checked that all the doors were locked and Kyo watched out the window for any people in black. Their senses were on high and they felt something wrong about the blackout.

How right they were. As they spoke the servant of Akito was stealthily making his way into Tohru's room once again. Carefully he pulled the tape off around the small hole he had made earlier and unlocked the window. Once inside he shut the window and reapplied the tape. He hid in Tohru's closet and waited there for his chance.

"We should stay in the same room just in case." Yuki said when he finished checking the doors.

"In case of what?" Tohru asked. She pulled her apron over her head and got the string snagged in her bow.

"It's just a precaution." Yuki helped to untangle it, but he undid the bow in the process. "Sorry."

"No, I was going to take it out anyway. I'll get my book and we could sit in the living room." Tohru said beaming at Yuki.

"I'll get it, I need a pair of socks anyway." Kyo said yawning as he headed towards the stairs. The floorboards creaked as he walked down the hallway and into Tohru's room. The same emotion overflowed inside him as he grabbed her book off her desk. He was a little baffled by the title, Martial Arts the book of techniques for the unskilled. She's unskilled all right.

Kyo took the book and was jumped by the man in the closet. Caught off guard, Kyo feel hard on the floor. The book smacked the wall and the man shook his head.

"No, where is the girl? Without her master will kill me!" The man let up on Kyo's wrists, which he had pinned to the ground. Feeling that Kyo head-butted the man off him.

"Sounds like a personal problem! I have an idea, get over it!" Kyo yelled as he punched the man. There was a hesitation in the man's hand as it flew to his pocket. He pulled out an object, a gun. Yuki and Tohru rushed through the door. "No! Tohru, get out of here!"

At the sight of more people in the room the man fired at the door, narrowly missing Tohru's head. A quick step to the door was all it took to jam the barrel of the gun to Tohru's forehead. Kyo froze from hitting the man in the jaw as he saw the man's finger waver on the trigger. Yuki was absolutely still, but was waiting to pounce when the man removed the gun.

"I am taking the girl. Master will be pleased." He took hold of Tohru's arm and led her down stairs. "If you attack from behind I will shoot." The man said that for nothing, Yuki and Kyo weren't about to hit him. They saw Tohru's face when the gun was pointed at her, pure terror.

With the girl in front of him he walked out the door and down the road unaware both of the boys were tailing him. They reached a black car and he prodded Tohru into the passenger seat. As he sat in the driver seat he saw Yuki and Kyo behind a bush. Rolling down the window he shot out into the dirt a few yards ahead of him. Tohru screamed and he saw Yuki hold Kyo back even though he was as pale as the moon. Satisfied he drove off at seventy miles an hour.

"Let me go! We have to save her! There are so many things they could do to her! She-she is-." Kyo fell to his knees and Yuki let his arms go. Both knew it was hopeless to chase the car, it would speed up and leave them in the dust. Kyo sobered enough to speak. "What do we do?"

"I don't know. We could call the police, but we don't have a description of the man or the license number." Yuki crossed him arms and walked in the drizzle down the street opposite of their house.

"Where you going?" Kyo asked.

"To find Tohru's friends, you should go tell Haru, Kisa, and the rest. They all love Tohru as much as we do, they'll help." Yuki said breaking into a run. Kyo ran in the direction of the Sohma estate where the rest of the family is.

Yuki anticipated Hana-chan and Uo-chan's reactions. Hana-chan shed two tears as she and Megumi grabbed umbrellas and dragged Yuki to Uo-chan's house. Uo-chan raced out of the building and immediately started checking all of the black cars on the street. She scared all of the occupants to death.

At the Sohma estate Kyo found the car at the back entrance. He knew that Tohru was inside so he carefully snuck inside and past all of the other Sohmas. Using his intuition he walked down to Akito's chamber.

Tohru was sitting on the floor where she was pushed staring at Akito. A malicious smile touched his lips and transformed his face into an ugly mask. Akito was praising the man who kidnapped her.

"What do you need the girl for?" he asked twisting his hat into a knot.

"I am dying. Within a few months there will be nothing left of me besides a pile of soulless flesh. In this condition I could do nothing outside this house so I hid in the library among Hatori's medical books. While in there I found a book of immortality.

"Inside it said dying people were able to live if they sacrificed a pure soul to gain their health. Such cases as mine were documented so I decided that I would live and the klutz that lived in the Sohma house would take my place. That way it would take care of two problems. My health and her." Akito sighed dreamily and pulled a book out from behind him. He whispered a few things to the man.

Suddenly Tohru was bound and gagged in the center of a circle. The man was painting words from the book around the circle in a strange language. She struggled to get free from her binds. It was useless they were tight and already making her bleed. She let a few tears cascade down her face. Akito reached across the distance between them and took a hold of her chin.

"Stupid girl, tears won't get you anything except wet." Akito thrust her chin away from him and she landed on the floor with a thump. "Is it ready yet?" He said impatiently. His servant nodded and he smiled.

Akito took a small knife from his pocket and took Tohru's hands. He slit deep lines in her hands and pressed them on the wet ink of the circle. On his hands the lines were shallow and shorter. He pressed his hands on the circle and spoke the language in the book. After each word the ink around the circle began to glow a soft gold. Soon it was very bright and the kidnapper could only see their silhouettes.

The door burst open and Kyo, Hatori, Haru, and Momiji stormed in. They shielded their eyes from the brilliance. The light dimmed enough for them to see the scene a head of them. Akito laughed as Tohru's eyes glowed white.

"It's too late! Within a few minutes she will be dead. I can feel her life force, her soul, I sense her mind." Akito's smile widened as Tohru writhed against the force holding her to the floor. "It's too bad she's dying Kyo, apparently she loves you."

Unable to hold back, Haru turned black and rammed at Akito. An unseen barrier flew up between Akito and Haru. Haru flew back and Hatori caught him. Tohru began to glow a vibrant shade of pink and Akito a dim gray. Then Tohru's light slowly tarnished and Akito's began to grow in radiance. Everyone knew what was happening, Tohru was dying. Kyo did a Haru and ran at Akito. The barrier deflected his attack and Momiji was held back by Hatori whose eyes were the size of dinner plates.

"NO! I won't let you hurt her!" Kyo made a second dash only instead of Akito he rushed at Tohru. He was able to reach her and pull her away from the circle. There was a scream that tore through the magic around Akito.

A mass of red cloud in the shape of a flying beast towered over Akito. The grayness surrounding him swallowed up the evil head of the Sohma house. Hatori sprinted to the kidnapper who was trying to escape and pinned him to the floor. Haru and Momiji raced to Kyo who was still holding onto Tohru. Together they unbound her, ungagged her, and brought her to Hatori's house.

After Hatori had laid a few good punches on the kidnapper and bound him to a chair he called Yuki to tell him that they found Tohru. Whatever Yuki said Hana-chan, Uo-chan, and Megumi-san didn't listen and came to the Sohma estate. When they came they didn't like what they saw.

Tohru had not wakened and her wounds were bleeding through all of the bandages Hatori put on. Her breathing was no more than a whisper and she was as pale as a ghost was. Momiji was crying and mentally yelling at Akito. No one else seemed to have any sort of emotion on their minds except shock at what they had seen. Kyo sat in the corner staring at the bed while Hatori checked her over.

"I'm afraid Akito took most of her life. That was a dark spell and if it had worked Akito would have been immortal even if he only wanted health." Hatori bowed his head and pulled his stethoscope around his neck.

"Is there anyway to fix her?" Uo-chan said her voice cracking.

"Not that I know of, we should probably move her to a hospital. She'll get better treatment there. Plus it will be a sterile environment and it will help her wake up." Hatori said picking up his cordless phone on his desk. He dialed 9-1-1 and told them the emergency. Within minutes an ambulance pulled up to the house and a stretcher was used to take Tohru from the Sohma house.

Hana-chan, Uo-chan, and Megumi-san rode in the ambulance to the hospital while Hatori drove everyone else behind it. When they arrived Tohru had a room and was classified as critical. They described the accident as 'she hit her head'. The doctors believed it. Each of them watched Tohru sorrowfully and then went home after visiting hours was over. All except Kyo and Yuki, they felt it was their fault that she was in this mess. There they stayed for the rest of the weekend.

On Monday Yuki and Kyo were still at the hospital with Tohru during school. Shigure came with flowers and stayed for awhile before going home to sulk. The president of the Prince Yuki fan club walked up to Hana-chan near the end of the school day.

"Where is Yuki-kun? Kyo-kun and the wi- Tohru-kun aren't here either." She said to Hana-chan. With her emotionless eyes Hana-chan turned away from Uo-chan.

"Yuki-kun is at the hospital with Kyo-kun and Tohru." Hana-chan turned back to Uo-chan and put her head on Uo-chan's shoulder. The president and two other members exchanged glances and scurried out of the classroom. They skipped last period to go to the hospital. They assumed he was injured. Armed with bouquets of flowers they stormed into the building.

A nurse told him he was in room 203 and they raced to the elevator. When they reached the correct room they peeked in. Yuki was sitting on a chair next to the bed holding Tohru's hand. "Please wake up." Yuki said he ever so slowly leaned across the distance between them and gently pressed his lips against Tohru's cheek. He was sitting back in the chair looking as solemn as ever and the Prince Yuki fan club tried to sneak away, but was caught by Kyo.

"What do you want?" Kyo asked. The cups of coffee in his hands shook from exhaustion and nerves. He looked tired and his clothes were wrinkled like he had slept in them. Without an answer he brushed past them and entered the room. Quietly they fled. "How's she doing?" Kyo handed Yuki a cup of coffee.

"I don't know. To be honest I think she's getting worse. Her heartbeat is slower and she keeps bleeding through all the bandages. They're talking about a blood transfusion. I-I'm afraid that she'll die. It's all my fault." Yuki said setting down his cup and putting his head in his hands.

"No, it's my fault. Maybe if I had trained harder and knocked that guy out we wouldn't be in this mess. If I ran faster maybe I could have saved her." Kyo moved his hand to wipe away-unwanted tears.

"If I only believed Akito was the only one who would do this maybe-. I don't know what I'm going to do if she dies. I couldn't live in that house without her."

"I know, all of those memories of her doing the laundry, cooking, even sitting on the roof with me when I wanted to be alone."

"Helping me with my garden and asking all of the questions possible about the plants. Saying I'm sorry over and over when she hugged one of us and laughing when you and me argued." Yuki and Kyo stared at each other. Even though they hated each other they had one thing in common they both cared for Tohru.

"Yuki, if…when Tohru gets better, you should call her Tohru you've known her too long to say Honda-san. Haru told me, while he beat me in a fight." Kyo said his cup shaking from nerves. "While you're at it teach her self-defense. I won't be able to, when she comes to I'm going to go back to the mountains and train so that if she ever gets captured again then I can take that guy out."

"No, Kyo I won't let you. I've seen how Tohru worries about you and watches you leave a room. She cares for you a lot more than she cares for me. She wants to take care of you even if you are strong. Tohru's been reading up on Martial Arts for some time and sometimes I've seen her practice punching her pillow." Yuki said as he watched a blush creep up Kyo's face.

"Akito read her heart when he…and he said 'It's too bad she's dying Kyo, apparently she loves you'. At that moment I realized something. I realized I love her too." Kyo looked up to see Yuki's wide eyes staring at Tohru. She was glowing a faint pink and was getting dimmer by the second. Kyo saw his hands and the rest of his body shining a bright orange and he knew exactly what to do.

With his penknife he cut a small wound on his hand and ripped off one of Tohru's bandages. Kyo pressed his hand against one of Tohru's and leaned forward. The second Tohru's light went out he kissed her full on the lips and there was an explosion in Tohru's body. Her life flowed back to her and her glow became brighter and brighter until Kyo moved his head out of the kiss.

Tohru's eyes opened and she captured Kyo's head in her hands and slowly pulled him into another kiss. Yuki smiling sadly left the room to give them privacy. Outside he let loose a stream of tears that he had held for so long.

"It's okay to cry. They won't hurt you anymore." Akito voice was soothing and Yuki walked off to the end of the hall to listen.