The Twin Rabbits (Yuki Sohma)

Yuki, Stop!

Quick A/N, I'm aware that this is their first day back in this episode- but for the sake of a more interesting plot- we'll say its been a week and a half.

Katsumi fishes the book out of her bag as she walks silently down the school hallway, she was exhausted from the lack of sleep she had gotten. She tossed, and turned all night- getting only but a wink of sleep that night. Letting out a yawn, she shakes her tired head willing any form of energy to revitalize her sluggish limbs. Katsumi cracks open her book, and removes the bookmark with a sigh. Her goal was the enter her classroom without being seen, and her books duty was to vaguely, if at all, disguise her identity. She giggled a little, feeling like Russian spy with her (likely to fail) plan. Katsumi mentally hummed the James Bond theme, and ducked her head into her book as she entered the classroom. She made a quick beeline for her desk, and all but dove into it. Wishing, hoping, praying for her menial plan to work.

"Katsumi!"

"Sumi-Chan, good to see you!"

"Little Duck! Long time no see!" Katsumi winced as she all but buried her head into her book, she cleared her throat, and flipped the page acting as if she couldn't hear them. It wasn't that she was mad at them, in fact she wanted nothing more than to throw herself into her friends arms and bawl; but, she couldn't. She didn't have the strength... This facade, this happy persona she had- it was all cut and paste. On the inside, Katsumi had all but retreated back into the dark cave that she had once lived in, before moving into Shigure's. Her voice, her smile, her laughter... All gone. She felt lost, like a sailor who had gone to sea with out his compass. She was a gene in a bottle, brought out to carry wishes, before being, yet again, tucked away. Katsumi could feel that her friends had gathered around her desk, she squeezed her eyes shut tight and tried to block out their voices.

Please leave, please leave, please leave.

She chanted this over, and over again in her head. She couldn't handle this, she couldn't handle them.

I'm not the same!

She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry.

I'm just a ghost of the girl I used to be.

A sudden thought crossed her mind, a thought so terrible, so putrid that it made her stomach lurch. She sat forward in her desk, flipping through the pages in her book. If she wanted them to leave, if she needed them to leave.... She... She... She needed to hurt them, she needed to cut the ties completely. Katsumi took a deep, shaky breath and shut her book. She looked up at her friends, and muster her best impression of the hateful glare that Akito had mastered so well. Katsumi glared up at her friend, a twisted sneer worn woefully on her like a mask.

"Go away," she wrote. She didn't have the heart to hurt them, the idea of inflicting mental anguish towards her friends... Well, she wouldn't be able to live with herself.

"Katsumi?" Kyo questioned, reaching forward to tousle her hair. She flinched away, turning her back towards her friends.

"Sumi-Chan, you lost your voice again?" Tohru asked, reaching out to touch her shoulder. Katsumi hunched forward, burying her head into her hands.

Please... Please leave... I don't deserve your kindness!

She mentally begged, wishing that her friends would take the hint. Katsumi heard Kyo sigh, she could picture him running his fingers through his thick ginger locks.

"Come on guys, let's leave her alone." He finally said, making all the tension in her body leave. Tears sprung to her eyes, although she had done this... She had never felt more alone...