Mandy: Welcome to Chapter 2! That list was really long, huh?

Kagome: I don't think anyone would waste time to print that off…

Mandy: Well, I'm very grateful to these people. Even if their reviews pretty much consisted of the same words: update, continue, and soon. XD

Oh, and a certain silver haired person is making his debut in this chapter. It might not even be who you're thinking, or who I said it was going to be in the last chapter (sorry! But keeps you in suspense, eh?). ;)

Kagome: Mandy does not own Inuyasha, Fruits Basket, or any of the people listed in the last section. Because if she did, that would be weird. Enjoy~!

p.s.: O.M.G. I have 118 story alerts and 74 story favorites, and 1,765 hits. On this story alone, for the first chapter. And it's in 4 different C2s already! WTF! That's crazy! Thank you peeps!

p.s.: I change POVs a lot… if you don't like it I'll just keep it to Kagome's! But I want to get everyone's view in…

Chapter Two: Violence

Kagome…

I kept an eye on Kyo as we ate. He didn't contribute to the conversations, unless Tohru asked him a question (which I thought was suspicious. Does he have feelings for my cousin…?). He noticed that I was watching him, and evaded my prying eyes. I was watching him so carefully, I almost knocked over the food as it was passed to me. This was when Shigure finally noticed.

"Oooo, Kagome-san, I see you're eyeing Kyo-kun…" He said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively, "What are you thinking about?" Two fists from two different people clobbered him in the head, one of them being mine. The other was Kyo's.

"Lecher!" Kyo and I shouted simultaneously.

"So violent…" Shigure whimpered, taking small bites of shougayaki. "A perfect match…"

"Kagome-chan, how have you been at school?" Tohru asked, trying to restore the flow of normal conversation.

"You guys are so smart – you got into the A School. I've been sick so much, and it's been so hard to study, that I'm in the B School." I said, sighing. 'Balancing between homework and saving villagers from being eaten by demons is tough work!' I thought, poking my half-eaten shougayaki with my chopsticks. Yuki watched me thoughtfully.

Suddenly, I felt a spike of energy outside. It was similar to when the Sohmas had walked into the shrine, except impossibly stronger. Could there be some strange and evil guardian watching over the Sohmas? I stood up, one hand on the table, glancing out the window. I sensed it coming from outside the front door. Could it possibly be a guardian, or was it a demon? Maybe another Sohma, but this one had the strongest part of the curse? Everyone looked up at me, confused.

"I… I thought I heard something," I roughly explained, "I'll go check it out."

"I'll go, too," Kyo and Yuki said simultaneously. They glared at each other, but, nevertheless, followed me outside.

On the doorstep, someone's clothes were strewn everywhere. In the middle of it was a white snake. I bent down to feel its skin – it was very cold. If I learned anything about snakes, it's that when they're cold, that's bad. It could die if it didn't get heat soon. I had had too much coldness and death in my life, so saving this snake would make me feel a whole lot better.

"Aww, poor thing. It can't stand the cold," I said as it slithered onto my right arm.

"You know, most girls would shriek and run in terror," Kyo said, "And put him down. He might bite you or something." As he spoke, the snake slunk into my shirt. "You're not creeped out by that at all?"

"No. I've been through worse." I said as the snake's head popped out of my shirt near my neck. I pet his little head, and I swore it had the cutest expression, but that could be my mind at work. "I actually should hold a grudge against white snakes… There was this huge one that bit me one time, and I was out for weeks." 'Stretching the truth a little, aren't we?' I thought about the Dark Priestess's snake that had placed a curse upon me. Not the best of times, I can assure you, especially the part when I almost killed Inuyasha.

"Put him down." Yuki said in an angry, cold voice. "Put him down and leave him to die in the cold." I raised a brow at him. 'Him? Now that I mention it, both of them have mentioned the snake as a male… How would they know that?' I ignored Yuki's orders, looking down at the snake. It – or he, as Yuki and Kyo say – looked up at me with big eyes. I was immediately taken to the poor creature, and scooped up the clothes which might be the snake's owner's laundry, going inside.

"What's all the ruck- oh." Shigure began, but stopped upon seeing the white snake cuddling me at my neck closely. The Miroku-lookalike glanced back at Hatori, who seemed to be restraining from doing something somewhat violent.

"I found this snake outside, and it was so cold that the little guy crawled into my shirt." I explained as the snake slithered back onto my right arm. He opened his amber eyes to look at me… wait, do snakes have eyelids? It… he… then looked over at Hatori.

"Don't say anything." I heard Hatori say. I tilted my head to the side. 'He's probably telling that to Shigure. After all, this would be a prime moment to say something perverted.' "That's… my snake. Could you give him to me? I don't know how he got out of the car…"

"O-re? Why do you keep a snake in your car?" I questioned. I was about to continue my investigation, but suddenly there was a naked man holding onto my arm where the snake had been. I blinked at the silver-haired man with amber eyes, mistaking him for someone else. 'Is that – Sesshoumaru?' I ripped my arm out of his grasp, throwing the bundle of clothes at him and looking away. 'There has to be some reason Sesshoumaru's here… and looking like that!'

We heard the clack of a door opening and closing, but the rest of the room was completely silent. My family, however, within seconds of Sesshoumaru leaving to change, continued eating as if nothing happened. Kyo and Yuki looked at them like they were crazy. I turned to them, eyes wide. 'No, that wasn't Sesshoumaru… I would've felt his demonic aura… This must definitely be…'

"That man… he's related to the Sohmas, isn't he?" I asked. The Sohmas blinked at me, surprised. "It was just a guess…"

The man in question burst out of the other room, having gotten dressed in his clothes. "Yes, I am indeed a Sohma~ Call me Ayame!" He announced with a flourish of his arms, smiling. I was more scared of him now than when I thought he was Sesshoumaru. "Please, I must repay you for your kindness!" My eye twitched – the day Sesshoumaru acted like this would be the day the world was going to die by his hands! Ayame looked so much like Inuyasha's half brother that she couldn't help but flinch at his smile.

"Oh, no, n-no! It's fine! There's no need to do that!" I said, keeping Sota's chair between Ayame and me.

Kyo looked confused. "You're not scared of the snake, but you're scared of Ayame? Or is it because he was the snake?"

"No, that doesn't bother me." I said plainly. "I've seen stranger things."

Yuki…

The Sohmas all exchanged glances. 'Seen… stranger things?' I thought, 'What could be stranger than a snake turning into a human?'

From a distance, we heard a man's voice calling Kagome's name. I had never seen someone's face go pale as quickly as hers at that moment, except maybe Ritsu's or Mitsuru's when Shigure was picking on one of them. Kagome's skin blanched so much; it was as if bleach had been dumped onto her skin. She turned slowly to look at the door, as if dreading what might come out of it.

It sounded like she cussed, and a crashing noise came from outside the door, as well as a moan lined with the sound of pain. Kagome looked back at us, giving us what I thought was meant to be a smile and not a grimace. "I'll… be right back." She quickly stumbled out the door, strews of angry words coming out of her mouth in the hallway. "What did I tell you about–!" Another, louder voice (the man calling her from earlier, presuming) cut over the top of hers occasionally.

"You're the one who said you'd be right back with the ramen!" Kagome was still yelling at whoever it was that was out there. The Sohma family members sitting in the dining room sat in shocked silence as Tohru began to panic, while Sota, Mrs. Higurashi, and old man Higurashi continued eating as if there was nothing wrong. 'So… I'm going to go ahead and guess that this is normal…' I thought, sweat-dropping as the fight outside of the dining room went on.

"I didn't know my cousin was showing up, okay?" Kagome shouted from beyond the door. It sounded like it was going to get violent, and I wondered why no one was getting up to calm them down.

"Isn't someone going to do something about…?" I tried to ask.

"Oh, it's okay, this happens all the time. Once their steam runs out, they'll settle down." Sota replied, and then added, "You would think I would find a different role model…"

"And you're not surprised that a snake turned into a person?" Kyo asked, as puzzled by this as I was.

"I've seen stranger things that that. It's what you get for living in a shrine." Sota said, shrugging. 'What's that supposed to mean?' He picked up his and his mother's plates and went into the kitchen. Mrs. Higurashi turned to Tohru.

"I'm so glad you came! You can't even begin to understand how happy this makes me!" She said over the heated argument outside, hugging Tohru. She glanced at the Sohmas. "That you for bringing her here."

"It was no problem, really," Shigure said.

"You weren't the one who brought her! You just followed us!" Kyo said, "You told us you were busy with your manuscript!" I sighed, gazing at the door that Kagome went out of.

"And I was; I just didn't say how busy," he replied, as if that justified his reasoning. He then proceeded to stuff the last piece of shougayaki in his mouth.

The argument outside paused, and I heard someone sniff. Or was it a sniffle? I watched the door carefully. "Kagome… I smell half-demons in there."

Mandy: Aren't you happy that I finished the second chapter?

Reader: WHAT? But, you left off at a good part! What happens next?

Mandy: I guess you'll find out, huh? I know this chapter wasn't very long, but I think the story will get better from here on out! But… you'll have to wait patiently. I'm about to graduate and then I have to go to college… you know how that is!

Shigure: Oooo, college girls are sexier than high school girls!

Mandy: -hits him in the head with a large mallet- Anyways, ja ne!

Next time: What is with the Sohma family? Will Kagome figure out their secret? What did Inuyasha mean when he said there are half-demons in there? Find out in chapter 3!