Chapter 3

Lina stood at the door with her hands in their usual position and the Doctor by her side. After a moment the door opened to reveal a man about Hatori's age, dressed in a green robe; this whole robe thing was starting to make her wonder if that type of dress was common here. The man had warm brown eyes and a friendly smile. She grinned and bowed, recognizing the face as an older version of one of the men in the picture. "You must me Mr. Shigure. Thank you for taking me in while Dr. Hatori helps me." Rising up again she saw that the man's smile had widened.

"Not a problem at all Ms. Belmont. Your mother was a good friend of mine in High School. Please come in and be welcome." He stood aside for her to enter.

As the two walked in following Shigure, the other three members of the house looked over. Tohru was the first to smile and bow. "Hello, I'm Tohru Honda. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Hello Ms. Honda." Lina waved.

"I am Yuki Souma. And that guy over there pouting in the corner is Kyou, my cousin." Yuki bowed as well, at the same time Kyou shouted.

"I am not pouting." Lina smiled and then fell into laughter, she wasn't sure why it was funny; but for some reason the indignant look on the orange haired boys face was enough.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Yuki, and you to Mr. Kyou."

"Just Kyou, the title sounds silly anyway." He glared at her. She only smiled back and nodded.

"Well now that you are all acquainted. Shigure and I have a few things to discuss." Hatori led the way to the dog's office and left it up to him to follow, which he did.

"So where are you from Ms. Belmont?" Tohru walked over to the other girl.

"Just call me Lina, and I'm from London, England."

"Wow that is so cool. And you can call me Tohru."

"Okay, it's so nice to meet all of you. So far every Souma I've met has been so very kind."

"You obviously haven't been meeting the right ones." Kyou snorted from the corner. "I don't even know why I'm still here." And with that he jumped to his feet and stalked out the door.

"I- I didn't mean to upset him." Lina looked upset.

"Don't worry about it Ms. Belmont. Kyou is just like that. No doubt he is going up to the roof to sulk, so he doesn't have to worry about an audience." Yuki smiled. "So, Shigure says that you are here because you needed somewhere to stay." Yuki sat back down and gestured for the girls to join him; which they both happily obliged to.

"More or less. My mother died about a year ago, and I never knew my father. I was looking for a clue as to where I might find him and I found a picture of your cousins. I came here hoping that they could help me." Yuki and Tohru were giving her odd looks, Tohru seemed about to cry. Lina looked over at the other girl and tilted her head to the curiously.

"I- I'm so sorry." Next thing she knew Tohru had her arms wrapped around her. "My mom died almost two years ago as well." Hearing that, Lina hugged the other girl as well.

"Then I am sorry too." Tohru pulled back and smiled.

"It looks like you and Ms. Honda have quite a bit in common." Yuki added.

"So Yuki, does your family always take in strays like us." She smiled and kept her hand in Tohru's.

"No, I think you two are a bit of an acceptation."

"Lucky us. And thank you for being so kind." Yuki smiled.

"So you said that you had met other members of the Souma family?" Tohru focused on her new friend. She nodded.

"Yes, Doctor Hatori was the one who agreed to help me. And it was Momiji who opened the gate for me at the main house. He's so much fun." The girl grinned. "And I got to meet a man named Akito as well." The two fell silent; sharing a look similar to that of Momiji's when she told him. "I am sensing that I am missing something… so far every person who has heard me say that has gotten quiet on me. Is there something wrong?"

"Well-" Yuki began, but Tohru cut him off.

"It's just that Akito is the Head of the Family. It was months before I met him for the first time. I guess it just surprised us is all." Tohru had her classic grin on. The one that says, "Don't worry, everything is fine."

"Oh well okay. You had me worried for a moment there." Lina smiled back.

"Nope, no need to worry." Tohru glanced at Yuki, trying to tell him that she was sorry for interrupting, but she hadn't wanted to scare the other girl. Yuki seemed to understand and nodded.

"Well… since I am going to be staying here for a while. Are there any house rules that I should know about?" She settled more comfortably on the floor. The other glanced at each other for a moment.

"It's not so much a rule, as a request, but… the males in my family are… well rather adverse to physical contact." Yuki began, clearing his throat. "It would be appreciated if you respected our… personal space." Yuki looked as though he felt bad for having to ask, but she WAS going to be living with them. And Kyou was right, it had not taken Tohru long to find out… mostly because they were careless; but never the less, it was easier to get it out in the open at the start.

"Well yes, I knew that one already. Dr. Hatori explained it to me. And I fully respect your family customs." She nodded, and seemed rather fine with it. "Does the same go for you Tohru?" She looked over at the other girl.

"Not at all, I love hugging." She beamed, "then again, I'm not a Souma." She gave Lina's hand a little squeeze.

"What happened Hari?" Shigure frowned. He was in serious mode, not something he did often. And yet, the Dragon always seemed to be able to bring out that side of him.

"I'm not quite certain. Needless to say this comes as a surprise to me as well. I never thought that anything would come of Karen's stay here in Japan. I- She…" He sighed. "I did what I had to do. Her memory had to be erased; there was no way I could allow her to leave Japan with the knowledge of our curse."

"I understand." Shigure was silent again. He and Hatori had never brought up the subject again, after that night. And after that night, Karen would not trust any of them. She never said what was wrong; she just started avoiding all three of them after that.

"Do you?" The dragon frowned. After the incident both he and Shigure had been there when she woke up. For a moment she panicked, afraid because she could not account for most of the evening. Shigure had told her something about hitting her head, and how Hatori had helped take care of her. He remembered saying how worried they both were, and how she had just looked up at them with suspicion in her eyes.

"There is nothing we can do about that now Hari. Now we just need to face the fact that we need to take care of Lina. She needs to know who her father is." Shigure looked back at the door, where, out in the living room the girl was making friends with Tohru and the others.

"Does she?" Shigure looked up at his friend. Hatori had a look of guilt on his face. "Do we really want to make her a Souma, and bring her into a life as difficult as ours?" There was a long moment where neither one spoke. "She has already met Akito." The Doctor finally added in. The Dog's head snapped up, a look of fear in his eyes.

"And?" He asked slowly and carefully.

"And she finds him to be a kind and nice person, if perhaps a little bit lonely. She's promised to go back and visit." They locked eyes.

"Does he know who she is?"

"No, but he will eventually. I will need to tell him."

"Not yet Hari, please. Give her some time; give us some time to decide what to do. I'm sorry; I see what you mean now. I had hoped that if she stayed, she would be off of Akito's radar, I mean, since she isn't one of the Zodiac or anything. But if Akito already knows about her…" his words trailed off.

"Those were my thoughts exactly. I will tell Akito that I am still running some checks, and that even if I find out who her father is, there will need to be blood tests. That will give us the time we need." Shigure nodded in response.

"But we already know who her father is." Shigure frowned.

"Yes, yes we do." Hatori's gaze focused on the door.

A/N: I'm back and still leaving folks in suspense. Hope you like it everyone. I am thinking that I will try and make this a short story; you know, make a conclusion with finding out who her father is. Then if I decide that I like the character I can pick it up again later and write a sequel. Oh and I realized that I have the ages of the characters slightly off, in the FB world Shigure and Hatori are 27, here they are about 30/31. But hey work with me… after all it is an AU fic.