Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ One Last Chance ❯ Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket. Unfortunately that means I don't own Kyo…

A/N: This is a one-shot fic that is especially dear to me. The premise is that it's Kyo's last night of freedom before having to be locked away by Akito. Please R/R and tell me what you think! Believe it or not, your opinion matters to me

One Last Chance

Kyo awoke early as usual, the rising sun's light burning into his eyelids and preventing him from sleeping any longer. The morning sky was bright and clear, but Kyo's thoughts immediately became dark and cloudy. This was the day. All his life this day had seemed far off, distant, like it would never come. He tried hard never to think of it, but when he did he would remind himself that it was far in the future, not something to dwell on in the present. But not now. He couldn't shrug off the thoughts of imprisonment any longer.

Stretching in a very cat-like manner, Kyo rose from his bed and began straightening the pillows and blankets. Abruptly he stopped and threw everything into a heap on the middle of the futon. What did it matter if he made his bed? He only had one night left in it. After that he wouldn't have a bed or a room in Shigure's house. His belongings would be cleared away just like their memories. He didn't think that Shigure or the other Sohmas would need Hatori's talents to forget his existence after today. If they remembered him at all it would be in whispered rumors and exaggerated gossip. Thus was his life as the cat.

Kyo left the mess and went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face for school. His last day of freedom and he would be spending it taking tests. Brushing his teeth and taking finals seemed as pointless as making his bed. He figured he should let his teeth rot out of his head and fail his stupid tests. A healthy smile and a high school diploma didn't matter in a cage. No matter how arbitrary he thought school was going to be, though, he would go. There was another ending that this day signified as well, and he wanted to make the most of it.

Tohru. This was going to be his last day with the one person he wanted to stay with forever. He had decided some time ago that he would make the best of their time left together and this day was no exception. Even if Tohru was going to be with the damn rat all day, Kyo would stay with her. The thought of that sent shivers down his spine. He would have to make sure she already had plans with him before Yuki woke up and asked her to go garden or some such thing. He knew full and well that today was Kyo's last day in the house, but Kyo wouldn't put it past him.

Walking down the stairs, Kyo could hear sounds of cooking coming from the kitchen. No matter how late she stayed up studying and working, Tohru was always the first one awake in the morning. On normal days, Kyo would have walked on by the kitchen and gone outside to train until breakfast, but not today. Training wasn't going to get him out of this anymore. He had never even come close to beating Yuki. Kyo pushed those depressing thoughts to the back corner of his mind as shoved the kitchen door open.

She was standing at the counter in front of the window, chopping vegetables and humming a nameless tune. Instantly mesmerized, Kyo secretly watched her from behind. He dreaded that this was the last time he would see her doing the mundane things that he had become so accustomed to. He wished that he could go back to the first day they met, knowing what he knew now, so he could treasure these seemingly boring moments. Kyo was afraid that they were all he would have while he spent life in a dark cell, and he wanted as many as possible. With a look of serious concentration, Kyo imprinted every detail of the scene before him in his mind.

Suddenly, Tohru dropped the knife with an "Eep!" Kyo forgot about etching the picture into his brain and leaped to Tohru's side to see what had happened. "Oh, Kyo! I didn't know you were there!" She had surrounded one of her fingers with her other hand, squeezing it tightly.

"Did you cut yourself?" Kyo asked her, trying to mask the concern in his tone. It definitely wasn't abnormal for her to hurt herself like that, but it didn't make him feel any better about it.

Tohru averted her eyes in embarrassment. "It's nothing, Kyo, you don't have to worry. I should know better than to hold the onions like that."

"Someday you'll cut yourself really badly doing that, and you'll probably bleed to death because you won't admit you're hurt!" Kyo snapped his jaw shut and felt his face grow red with anger. He was angry with himself for lashing out at her, and he knew it was just from worry. Tohru was staring at him with her big apologetic eyes and it was killing him. She shouldn't feel guilty because he was an idiot. "Let me see," he said finally, in a quieter voice.

Obediently, Tohru lifted her hand from her finger to show Kyo. "I don't think it's too bad. Maybe I just need a bandage."

Kyo sucked in his breath through his teeth when he saw the cut. It was definitely deeper than any other time she had done that, and it was bleeding profusely. He clamped his hand over her finger immediately and led her across the room to the cupboard where there were some napkins. "Hold these on there," he instructed. "I'll be right back."

Hurrying into the living room, Kyo snatched the phone from the cradle and dialed a familiar number.

"Hello?"

"You need to come over here now. Tohru's hurt."

A sigh could be heard through the phone. "I assume you're responsible for it?"

"What! She cut herself in the kitchen. Just come over!"

"Fine."

Furious, Kyo slammed the receiver down and stormed into the kitchen. Why did everyone think he was so horrible that he would hurt Tohru? He would rather die. Tohru was still pressing the napkins to her finger, but they were soaked through. "Is everything okay, Kyo?" Even now she was putting his well being before her own.

Kyo grabbed some fresh napkins and changed out her dressings. "Hatori's gonna be here in a minute. I think you need stitches."

"Oh, I don't want to bother everyone! I'm always so much trouble, and I'm supposed to be making breakfast and getting ready for school," she fretted. "And today is finals. How am I going to do everything?"

Kyo grabbed her by the injured finger once again, adding a firm pressure to the wound. "You're not. You're going to sit at the table and wait for Hatori while I make breakfast." Leaving her before she could protest, Kyo went back to finish up breakfast. He could hear Hatori's voice coming from the living room, where Tohru was, and a while later Shigure's could be heard. Emerging into the room with a tray full of food, Kyo saw that Hatori was stitching Tohru's finger.

"It's a good thing you called me, Kyo. This cut is fairly deep," Hatori told him without looking away from his work.

"Yes, Kyo is always acting like a mother hen to our precious flower," Shigure interjected.

Kyo glared at his loose-lipped cousin, but said nothing and instead put the tray down.

"What's going on? Miss Honda, are you alright?" Rubbing his eyes sleepily, Yuki took his seat next to Tohru.

Tohru blushed in humiliation. "I'm okay, Yuki. I just cut myself earlier."

"Luckily, Kyo thought well enough to call me," Hatori added. "She'll be fine."

With a look of disgust, Yuki chastised Kyo. "Stupid cat. I suppose this was your fault."

Boiling with rage, Kyo used all of his will power to keep from attacking Yuki right there. "Kyo didn't do anything!" Tohru said, coming to his defense.

Yuki gave Kyo one last warning look before settling into breakfast. Soon, everyone was eating, and only Shigure was still talking. Hatori looked about ready to slap him, but of course he didn't. Kyo always wondered at how the doctor could put up with Shigure's prattling. The thought was fleeting, though.

Kyo had more serious things to think about; he had to find a way to tell Tohru the truth. It would be difficult, but he hadn't wanted to tell her before for fear that she would treat him kindly only through sympathy. The only emotions people had expressed to him his whole life had been repulsion or sympathy. Until Tohru had come into his life, he didn't think that anyone would ever truly care about him for who he was. And he only had one day left to tell her everything he wanted to tell her, and then he would be gone. Although he knew that telling her might hurt her, he didn't think he could live with himself knowing that he had held anything back.

"I have to leave early today." Yuki's voice dragged Kyo from his dark thoughts.

"Oh? Why is that?" Shigure asked.

"I have to instruct the new student council president on some things before graduation." He turned to Tohru in concern. "Are you sure you'll be alright, Miss Honda? I could wait until after school to take care of it if you would prefer I walk with you."

Tohru shook her head emphatically. "Oh, no. I couldn't ask you to do that. I'll be fine!" Smiling down at her as he rose, Yuki picked up his bag and headed out the door.

"I guess this means that you'll be walking Tohru to school alone, Kyo," Shigure told him. Kyo rolled his eyes at the dog's ability to state the obvious all the time. Catching Shigure's meaningful look from across the table, Kyo scowled. There was a glint in his cousin's eyes that he didn't like. Shigure had probably been waiting for this moment anxiously, since he apparently liked to torture everyone as much as possible. He knew exactly what Kyo faced the next morning, and he had let on enough times that he knew what Kyo felt for Tohru. Shigure was likely delighting in his sorrow, and it made his mood even fouler.

"I'm going to do the dishes," he mumbled, and quickly stacked the plates back onto the tray. At the sink, he paused to let his temper cool off a bit. Being upset was just going to get him in trouble. He had said the wrong thing to Tohru enough times when he was angry to not want to make that mistake this day. As he cooled off, he washed the dishes and dried them, and then returned to the living room. "Hey, we should probably leave now," he said to Tohru, attemptimg to make his voice normal.

Tohru nodded and went to get her bag and his from the closet. "I hope I pass my finals," she told no one in particular.

"I'm sure you will, Tohru. You're a very bright girl." Shigure's comments made Tohru blush, and he smiled as though pleased with himself for his accomplishments.

"Good bye, Tohru. Make sure you keep that finger clean and dry so it doesn't get infected. I should be able to take the stitches out in two or three days." Hatori waited for Tohru's nod before turning his attention to Kyo. "Good bye, Kyo, and good luck," he said in a low tone, and rested his hand on the boy's shoulder. He gave Kyo one of his rare smiles, and Kyo could see the hidden message in his eyes. This might be the last time they would see each other.

Kyo flushed. He hadn't really thought about what it would be like to never see his cousins again, only Tohru. He supposed he would miss all of them, even Hiro. "Thanks, Hatori," he responded, and grabbed his backpack from Tohru. "Come on. You don't wanna be late to finals."

Tohru waved good bye as they left the house, Kyo walking slightly ahead. He slowed so she could catch up to him once they got to the road through the woods. Silently, he kicked rocks from his path and tried to think of how to ask her to go out with him after school. She probably had to work, anyway.

"Kyo?"

He shifted his gaze to look into her large eyes, which where wide with concern. "Yeah?"

"Um, I was just thinking, maybe you and I could do something after school, you know, to celebrate graduation." She looked at his as though expectantly awaiting a response, but she got none. Kyo was shocked speechless by her suggestion, since it saved him the trouble of having to ask her to spend time with him. "Kyo? Do you already have other plans?"

Clearing his throat, Kyo finally answered her. "What? Um, no." He was suddenly more nervous than he had been before. "What did you want to do? I guess Yuki's going, too."

Tohru shook her head. "No, I think he's going to a party for the student council. I only wanted to ask you, though." She lowered her head, but Kyo could see the fierce blush on her cheeks. "I hadn't really thought about what we could do."

Kyo scratched the back of his head and pondered what it was they could do. He hadn't really thought about that, either. In all honesty, he didn't care, as long as he could spend time with her. "Well, it's a half day for finals. We could go eat or something."

"Okay!" Tohru's large smile lost its intensity, though. "But, Kyo, I don't really have any money."

With a blush that equaled hers, Kyo looked away from her. "Like I would ask you to go eat with me and then not pay. What kind of a person do you think I am?"

"I'm sorry, Kyo. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

Kyo looked back in her direction and wasn't surprised to see her guilty expression. "Don't be sorry. I think you apologize way too much. If you go on a date with me, you can't say sorry the whole time, deal?"

"D-Date? Oh…okay, I promise." Her face was ten times redder now. He hadn't even realized that he had called it a date until she said that. He bashfully flashed a half smile at her before looking away again to hide his own increasing redness. They walked the rest of the way to school in silence, only briefly wishing each other good luck as they sat at their desks and began testing.

Kyo stood outside the school building, waiting for Tohru to finish her tests. He had been done for almost an hour, but he always seemed to finish tests quickly. He found that if he didn't know the answers right away, he wouldn't ever remember them. Most of the rest of the class had already finished now, too, including Yuki and all of his student council friends. It was surprising to Kyo that Yuki had finally made some real friends, but he was thankful that they had occupied his cousin for the day. His day was working out better than he had hoped, although it was still the worst day of his life.

"Yo Orangetop, you waiting for Tohru to finish?" Arisa Uotani approached him with her usual rough grace.

"Yeah," he answered curtly. He figured that he might even miss the Yankee's never-ending jibes.

Saki Hanajima walked out from behind Arisa to stand on Kyo's other side. Kyo might miss her a little, too, but she still made him uneasy. "I think she should be done shortly."

"What, did you pick up electric signals that she was finishing or something?" asked Uo.

"No," Hana answered simply. "I could see her paper from my seat."

Uo shook her head in exasperation. "You know, Hana, they could have caught you for cheating."

"Yes, except that I turned in a blank test."

Kyo stared at the black-haired girl in awe. "You mean you didn't even try!"

"Hana, the point of re-tests is for people who can't pass the first ones. What if the re-tests aren't so easy this time?"

As Hana's mouth opened to answer, she smiled instead. "Tohru, how did you do?"

Kyo and Uo turned to face where Hana was staring. Tohru had emerged from the building and was running towards them, a giddy expression on her face. "I think I did really well. Yuki's practice tests were even harder than the real thing!" Hana smiled at her friend warmly and gave her a huge hug.

"Yeah, I figured the Prince would do a good job as your study guide, as usual. Hey, what are you doing now? Wanna go to Hana's with me?" Uo gave Tohru a congratulatory hug after Hana let her go.

Tohru let go of Uo and put her head in her hands. "Oh, I feel so bad, but I asked Kyo to visit with me after school. I should have thought of you before I did that. Can we go tomorrow?"

"Don't worry about it, Tohru," Hana told her. "Tomorrow would be perfect." She patted Tohru's arm and began walking towards the bus station. "Call me when you wake up," she said as she waved.

"Have fun. And you better be a gentleman, Kyo, or I'll beat your scrawny ass!" Uo threatened as she caught up with Hana.

Tohru laughed uneasily as she waved. "How did you do on the tests, Kyo?"

"They were pretty easy. I'm sure I passed," he assured her as he fidgeted with a button on his shirt which was coming loose. Now that they were alone and actually about to have a date, Kyo was nervous again. "What do you want to eat or whatever?"

Immediately flustered, Tohru put up her hands. "I don't know. Everything is okay with me. Why don't you decide?"

"Hmm, okay," he grunted. "This way." Kyo led her in the direction of a sushi place that he had heard some of the boys at school talking about. He himself had never gone out to eat many times, so he wasn't sure what places were good or not. Tohru fell in to walk at his side, and after several minutes of walking Kyo mentally kicked himself for forgetting about her finger. He hastily grabbed her injured hand and peered at the bandaged digit. "Does it still hurt?"

"Eh? Oh, no. Hatori did a good job."

Kyo was going to let go of her hand, but decided that he might as well be bold. It wasn't like he had a lot of time left to worry about embarrassing himself, and he enjoyed holding hands with her. Tohru smiled at him brightly when she realized that he wasn't going to give her hand back. She even squeezed it once, bringing their blushes back with a vengeance. "I think this is it," Kyo told her as he stopped in front of an expensive-looking sushi restaurant. The thought the name was that of the one that the boys had said was a good place to bring dates. "Does it look okay?"

"Sure!" Tohru said enthusiastically.

They walked into the restaurant and allowed the hostess to seat them at a private table in the back. "Order whatever you want," he told her encouragingly once they had been given menus. As he had expected, Tohru became indecisive and it took some time for him to convince her that he really wanted her to get anything she wanted. The small fortune that he had amassed simply because he was a Sohma and a Zodiac member wasn't going to be of use much longer. He had never really spent much money on anything before, but he was in the mood to now. Soon they had a variety of dishes on the table, more than they could ever eat alone.

"This is way too much food, Kyo!" Tohru told him in awe.

"Don't worry about it. We'll bring some home for Shigure. He'd probably starve if we didn't."

Clasping her hand to her mouth, Tohru let a little giggle escape. "Well, he won't want dinner for a few hours, so we should be okay."

Kyo tried to laugh along with her, but nothing seemed very amusing to him. He ate the rest of his meal with a subdued mood. As good as the food likely was, it had little taste in his mouth. Everything was bitter, just like his life. Even so, Tohru was as bubbly as ever, so he appeased her and attempted some semblance of normalcy. He decided not to tell her in the restaurant. He wanted to put it off as long as possible.

After their late lunch, they walked around the area a little bit. They were in a sort of shopping center, and it was pretty dead since it was late afternoon. A few shops appealed to Tohru, and Kyo went in them with her while she looked around. It reminded him of their class trip together, which he had to admit was one of his favorite memories with her.

"Oh, look Kyo! An ice cream shop." Tohru began digging through her wallet and pulling out loose change.

"Put that away," he instructed, to which he received a confused look. Sighing, he shook his head. "I'll buy you ice cream. What kind do you want?"

"Um, strawberry banana," she said meekly. "You really don't have to buy me anything, Kyo. I don't need ice cream."

Shaking off her comment, Kyo walked into the ice cream shop and ordered her the largest size they had. Tohru exclaimed that she couldn't eat all of it, but he ignored her and sat with her at the bar facing the window. As he stared at the stores in the complex, something caught his eye. "Hey, I'll be right back. You okay?"

"Yes. Where are you going?"

"Nowhere," he said rapidly as he jogged out the door and across the parking lot. After looking back to make sure she wasn't watching where he was going, Kyo went into the store that he had his eye on. Several minutes later he came out, stuffing something into his cargo pocket.

Tohru looked at him quizzically as he joined her back at the ice cream shop. "Kyo?" She delicately ate the last bit of the ice cream cone and wiped her hands on her napkin, being careful of her wounded finger.

"Ready? Shigure probably wants to know where we've been all day." It was growing late, and the last thing he wanted to hear was complaining about dinner when he got home. Shigure's whining was intolerable sometimes, and Kyo had a mind to think that the dog only did it to get on his nerves.

Nodding, Tohru followed him out the door and down the road. It didn't take them long to get home, as they were even closer to the house than the school was. Kyo berated himself for not getting out more while he had the chance. He hadn't even known that the place had existed until a week prior. He felt a bit like Haru not knowing his way around his own neighborhood.

"Did you kids have a good time?" Shigure inquired as they walked into the house. He was sitting at his place at the table, reading the newspaper.

"Yes, Kyo took me to get lunch, and we ordered too much so we brought the leftovers home." Tohru hurried into the kitchen as Kyo set the box of food on the table for Shigure to choose from. Tohru came back with some dishes and chopsticks and began divvying up the leftovers into three dishes. It had now been several hours since their meal, and they were fairly hungry again. "Should I set some aside for Yuki?"

Shigure removed his reading glasses and placed them on the folded up newspaper. "No, he phoned and told me that he would be eating over at Kakeru and Machi's house. It's just us three tonight. So, what are we going to do?" he asked in an obviously sarcastic manner.

"We aren't doing anything. I am going up to the roof for a while," Kyo said bitingly. His nerves were really starting to get to him now. Time was running out and he needed to think things over before he began telling Tohru what would happen in the morning. Scarfing down the last piece of sushi, Kyo glanced at Tohru and left the house to crawl up onto the roof. He didn't mean to leave her alone like that, but his thoughts always had a way of getting jumbled around her.

After sitting for a few minutes to calm the butterflies in his stomach, he took out the object that was in his pocket from earlier. He hadn't originally planned on getting her a present, but he was happy with his decision to buy it. Maybe it would help her remember him.

"Are you angry with me, Kyo?"

Kyo shoved the box back into his pocket and hastily sat up at Tohru's voice. Her head was just poking over the top of the ladder, and even in the dwindling light he could see the glisten of fear in her eyes that he would be mad at her. "No, of course I'm not angry with you. You better get off of the ladder before you fall." Tohru nodded her head seriously and began to climb back down the ladder. "No," Kyo began, "I meant come up onto the roof. I need to talk to you about something."

Reversing her direction, Tohru ascended the ladder the rest of the way and cautiously stepped over the top. She followed Kyo back to the spot where he had been sitting. "What is it?" she asked him timidly, taking her place next to him.

"There's something you don't know about the curse of the cat," he said at last. Letting his hair fall into his face to hide his emotions, he stared at the rising moon. "The cat has always been hated, and ever since the curse started it's been tradition to lock the cat up forever, never letting him out." He cut off his words so they could sink in. He didn't want to have to repeat himself.

Tohru surprised him by resting her hand on his lightly. "I know." Kyo stared at her in disbelief, his mouth working as he tried to find words. She knew! How did she know? "Akito told me, and Kazuma said it was true. I'm sorry Kyo, I know I should have said something before, but I felt bad knowing your secret," she said sheepishly.

"I told you no saying sorry today," he said. Kyo should have known that Akito would be the only person cruel enough to tell her his fate. "I guess you know why I always tried to beat Yuki, then."

Tohru just gave him a quizzical expression. Sighing, Kyo explained. "That bastard. He could have at least told you the whole story. Akito made a deal with me, that if I beat Yuki by graduation he wouldn't lock me up. I was supposed to go away when I turned 18, but Akito decided to let me have another couple months for some reason. He's probably going make sure I get treated worse than any other cat has because of it." Kyo's tone reflected his loathing for the head of the family.

As he watched her lower her head and process the information, Kyo felt horrible. He knew that she was hurting for him, even if he couldn't understand why someone would care so much about the dreaded cat. "When do you have to leave?" Tohru whispered into her lap.

"Tomorrow morning. I'm supposed to go to the main house at sunrise."

Tohru sat still for a minute, until Kyo realized she was shaking. He leaned forward to look at her face and was taken aback by the tears streaming down her cheeks. "Oh, Kyo, I didn't know it would be so soon. I wish I had told you that I knew earlier," she lamented as the sobs grew in strength.

"No, it's my fault," he said honestly. "I just kept putting it off. There's no use crying about it, though." He hated to see her cry, especially if it was over him. His heart crumbled with every sob that wracked her little body. He pursed his lips together sadly as he brushed her hair from her face and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

"Kyo?" she asked him in a small voice. "Can we stay up until the sunrise together? I don't want to be apart from you. I don't want this night to end!" She collapsed back into her tears, and Kyo knew there was no stopping her until she had cried herself out. He could feel moisture welling in his own eyes, so he rose and walked over to the edge of the roof.

"Sure we can stay up. Stay there for a minute." Swinging his body down onto the ledge, Kyo hopped through the window into his room. Climbing was about the only thing he could do to live up to the nature of a cat. He picked up his blankets off the floor and went back to the windowsill and threw them up. Then he hoisted himself back up to the roof and took the blankets to Tohru and wrapped them around her shoulders. The nights were still cold at this time of year.

"Thank you, Kyo," she sniffled. She had stopped crying while he had gotten the blankets, so it seemed. "Aren't you cold, too?" Kyo shrugged noncommittally, but Tohru ignored him and held the blankets to one side so he could share in their warmth. And Shigure had called him the mother hen.

A stiff breeze made Kyo pull the blankets tighter, but he still felt Tohru shivering from the cold. Carefully, he wrapped his arm around her back without getting close enough to transform. As he felt the blush rise in his cheeks again, he reminded himself that he was only trying to keep her warm. Tohru smiled at him, although the moment was marred by the hint of sadness around her usually lively eyes. "I got you something today," he told her, breaking the awkward silence. Hand shaking, he reached in his pocket and pulled out the tiny box.

Tohru stared at the box before finally taking it from his hands. "What is it? You didn't have to get me anything!"

"Just shut up and open it," he said, but there was no anger in his words. He couldn't help the timid smile that escaped his lips.

"Okay," she complied shyly. At opening the box, tears leaped to her eyes once again. "Kyo, this is beautiful. I can't accept something like this!" Her blush was now overcoming his and she handed the gift back to him reverently.

Taking the box back from her, Kyo extracted the modest gold ring from inside of it and grasped her hand as she went to cover her face. Gently, he slid the ring onto the finger that she had cut earlier. Tohru began to lower her head guiltily, but he caught her chin and made her look at him. "Please don't say that you won't take it." The moment hadn't gone exactly like this in his mind, but he had known that Tohru would do her best to refuse his present. "You can keep it to remember that there's always someone in the world who loves you." Finishing the line that he had rehearsed mentally, Kyo felt a little silly and quickly looked up at the stars.

He was interrupted from his humiliation by Tohru clutching at his shoulder. "Kyo? This is the nicest present that anyone has ever given me. I've never owned anything like this before, and it means so much to me that you would want me to have it, and-"

Without thinking clearly, Kyo swiveled his head back around and grazed Tohru's lips with a fluttering kiss. The incident only lasted a millisecond, but they stared at each other, frozen in place, for some time afterward. At last, Kyo let it register in his mind what he had done and jumped up from the blankets in shock. "Uh, I'm sorry. Oh geez, I'm such an idiot!"

Tohru followed in standing up, but she didn't run like he expected. Instead she clasped his hand in both of hers and looked up at him with sincerity. "I love you, too, Kyo."

A small unintelligible sound came out, but he couldn't find any words. He gave in to his heart and leaned down to take her lips in a kiss of more substance. She didn't shy away, like he would have thought, but kissed him back tenderly. He knew that the tears in his eyes were back, but it didn't matter to him anymore. Tohru had actually said that she loved him, and he knew that she had meant it. She never said things that she didn't mean, not things like that.

Kyo guided her back down onto the blankets without breaking the kiss. He never thought that he could ever feel so much passion or love in his life, or that his love would be returned. Tohru's mouth was so soft against his, and she was intoxicating him with her sweet taste.

"Kyo," Tohru said as they finally broke the kiss, "I want to give you a present, too."

Knitting his eyebrows together, Kyo wondered what it was she would have for him. Tohru bit her lower lip and blushed increasingly until it dawned on him what she meant. Choking on his own amazement, he swallowed hard and gaped at her. "But…?"

"I know," she said, smiling kindly through her blush. "I didn't think that I would ever do something like…that…before marriage, but I love you, and I don't want to regret anything about our last night together. What if I can't find a way to break the curse and we never see each other again? I don't want to lose you, but what if I do? I promise that I'll never give up on breaking the curse, not ever, but even so…." Her tone was getting a bit frantic. "Kyo, I want to share myself with you."

Kyo placed a hand on his forehead. "Tohru, you aren't going to be able to break the curse. This is our last night together. I'm not going to do anything like that just because I'm a guy. I care too much about you for something like that. What if something happens, like you get pregnant or something. I would never forgive myself, if I ever even found out about it." He frowned at her decisively. "I'm not going to do that to you. No way."

"You don't want to?" she asked mournfully.

"What? No! Of course I want to." He threw up his hands. "Tohru, I love you, and I want to make love to you, but I'm not going to because I'm not going to do something to make you hate me."

Innocent eyes met his distressed ones. "I could never hate you! Please, Kyo? I want it to be my present to you. Please?"

He felt his will begin to break at her appeals. As hard as he tried, he could never bear to say no to her, no matter what the request, but he just couldn't give into her this time. He shut his eyes tightly and exhaled. "Tohru, as much as I would like to do that with you, I can't. It's not fair to give you something like that and not be there for you afterwards. Please don't make me." Frowning at her pleadingly, he caressed her cheek.

"Okay, Kyo," she told him with a smile. "I don't want you to feel bad about anything tonight. We still get to stay close like this, though, right?"

Kyo answered by kissing her gently. "You know, you can be really stubborn sometimes."

"My mom used to tell me that a lot," she giggled, leaning her head onto his shoulder. "I really love you, Kyo. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."

"No saying sorry, remember?" He punctuated his statement with a kiss to her forehead. He rearranged the blankets around them and began placing kisses all over her face. "I love you, too," he said in between his lavishes of attention. Stroking her arm along its length, he produced goosebumps. "No turning me into a cat," he told her, eliciting a quiet laugh.

Concentrating, Kyo began leaving a trail of light kisses from the base of Tohru's neck to her ear. Her skin was the smoothest thing he had ever felt and he couldn't help rubbing his cheek against the spot beneath her ear. Tohru giggled and entwined her hands in Kyo's hair. "I'm glad I you want to spend your last night with me."

"I wouldn't want it any other way," he responded truthfully. Making love to Tohru would have been the best experience of his life, but somehow kisses seemed better to him. He wanted her burden to be as light as possible after he went away, and their memories of this night to be sweet. So far, they were unimaginably good.

As the night sky gave way to morning light, Kyo combed his fingers through the hair of the sleeping girl next to him. In a few short minutes he would have to give up everything he had ever known, but for now he was happy. His last day had been better than he had ever dreamed; the girl that he loved happened to love him back, and they had spent his last night showing each other that affection. No matter how long he lasted in his cage, he would always have his memories of Tohru. And despite it all, a glimmer of hope remained alive in his heart. Tohru never broke promises.