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He waited as Gail went into his home, then looked around at the scenery. And his eyes fell on Johanna... He looked away once Gail came out, and told them that they could go inside.

Once inside he looked around. It seemed like one of those typical run down homes on the outside, but better on the inside.As he checked the place out, a white door was next to the kitchen. He thought it might have been a bathroom, but it was locked (Like how it's supposed to be, Kyubi... >_>). So, he shrugged it off, and sat down on the kitchen chair, tapping his claws on the table as he let out a breath.

"Man.... what am I to do about her....? I really like her but... I dunno if she likes me..."

His ears twitched as he heard a splash. He perked his head up and looked outside.

"Heh, seems like he can have fun by himself."

((I'm not going to be able to post pretty much all day today. I'm taking a trip to my grandparents place... maybe freeze the RP till I get back? sweatdrop ......... I already know that's not a possibility ._. ))

*johanna looked around. she smiled at how the place made her feel* it reminds me of my old place...i miss my mom...*keeps looking around* hey...is there any pitcures?...gail?...*looks for gail and follows closley behind not wanting to get lost or into any rooms im not allouled in.* wheres your sister gail?...will she mind im wearing her bathing suit?

*keeps following gail. wondering where his sisters room is. wissling her favoriet song.*

*as johanna followed gail she thought of her past. the house kept bringing memories to her of her old life and old house. she missed everything.*

-johanna's past-

*it was a nice sunny day as a family of three walked back from the park. it was johannas family. the mother was proude of her daughter. her fater carried her ontop of his shoulders as they reached the house. johannas mom didnt care if johanna was a mixbread, she was beauitful in her eyes and no one was gona make her change that.*
rina: johnny...if i die...pormise me you will take care of johanna...please...she deserves a good life...
johnny: ofcorse dear...anything for my little silver fox...*he kissed her softly.*

*when johanna was 12*

* the family returned home after going to johannas PTA. it was 9:00 at night and her dad was angry at johannas grades. but her mother wanted to go to bed. so they all went to bed. in the small blue house with a brown roof. a rober enters the house and steels alot of valbule items. he was gona try and steel the parrents wedding rings. but rina woke up and the rober shot her in the head. johnny woke up and shot the rober. he ran away wile johnny took rina to the hospital, but it would take time to heal her. johny brought johanna back with him to the hospital. she didnt know what to do. she sat beside her mother on her hospital bed and held her hand. rina woke up and said to johnny...*
rina: protect johanna...i know he will be back...i dont want johanna to die so young...johanna my dear...you will be such a fine woman...dont let anyone else tell you otherwise...you are a halfbread...but a beauitful one at that...i love you both...*as she said that she died. johnny and johanna cryed over her mothers death. she was burried under an old oak tree in the cemtary called "blue moon hill". johanna didnt leave her mothers grave, nor did johnny.*

((mm, seems like as good a time as any.))

Gail turned the knob on his sisters former room, shouldering it open. "Nah, sis won't mind; she's been gone for nearly seven years. Not sure where she went, or why, to be honest, but she left almost everything behind." he opened the closet and started pulling out bathing suits, tossing them onto the bed. "They're a little faded, but they should do you just fine..." His hand paused on something, then moved on to the next swimsuit, throwing it on top of the others. "I'll leave the room while you try them on."

He stepped outside, then went to his room and closed the door, leaning heavily against it. He'd forgotten that was where he'd put it... He unfolded his paw and stared down at the chain with three rings on it; His parents wedding rings, and his sisters engagement ring. He'd lied to Johanna; he knew exactly where his sister was, and why. He closed his eyes tight, the memories flooding back.



It had been seven years ago; he was only ten, and still young. His sister was his hero; strong, smart, popular, with a heavy talent in the musical arts, especially piano. His parents were so proud of her, and Gail loved her. She was like a second mother to him. Yuka was her name, and she always had a smile on her face.

She was due to be married to Joseph, a good looking, humorous young Fox from a higher class family. The night he'd proposed Yuka had been in shock, and when she told Gail, he was overjoyed. He didn't mind that Yuka was going to be leaving home once she got married; she'd promised to come back and see him as often as she could. So Gail wished her luck, and saved up his money to get her a cute teddy bear as a gift to remind him of her when she couldn't come. She'd loved it.

In exchange, she'd given Gail an ocarina; too big for him to play well at the age of ten, but one he'd grow into and be able to play for the rest of his life. She even taught him a small tune to keep him interested in playing. She didn't have to, he would have learned as much music as he possibly could. It was from Yuka, after all.

Three weeks before the marriage, Yuka moved out of the house to live with Joseph. For a week, she was happy, but she started to grow more distant. Gail didn't see her at all the second week. He thought that maybe it was because the wedding was taking a lot of preparation. He could wait. But when the third week went by and the only word he got of her was an invitation to the wedding, he started to worry.

Two days before the wedding, Gail was playing with his ocarina, playing the tune Yuka had taught him when a small pebble hit his window. Curious, he set the ocarina down on his desk and opened the window to look out. A small noise right below the window caught his attention, and he looked down. It was Yuka! He eagerly climbed out his window and slid down the drainpipe to her, hugging her tightly and saying how much he'd missed her. Yuka just held him for a while, then lifted his chin to make him look at her and kissed his forehead softly. She seemed a lot older, with a lot less energy and not as much life in her.

"Gail, I have to go. I can't stay here anymore, it's not safe for me."

Gail didn't understand. "But why, sis?"

"I don't have time to explain now; I'll send you a letter with all the details as soon as I get to a safe place. Promise."

With that, she shooed him back up into his room and ran off. Gail picked up his ocarina and started to play again, watching her vanish, but he couldn't keep his mind on the music. it slipped away from him and he let it go. What was wrong? Why did Yuka have to run? And what about Joseph? All the unanswered questions ran through his mind endlessly; he didn't get any sleep that night.

When he went down to breakfast the next day, he was somber and depressed. His parents didn't ask why; he was at the age where the smallest thing might get him depressed, after all, so it was probably only temporary. The day flowed into the next, then the next, then into a week. After that, his parents started to worry, but Gail had always been a bit of a loner; he wasn't someone you went up to and demanded answers from.

The answer to Gails depression came two weeks after Yuka ran away; Joseph had said the wedding was postponed for anonymous reasons, and Gails parents saw no reason to pry. It was their mistake.

Gail was out of the house that night, out at the lake and staring up at the stars. He kept thinking of Yuka. He'd brought his ocarina, and started to just play at random notes, then to form a tune, the notes just coming to him. He spent until midnight at the lake shore. It kept him occupied.

It kept him alive.

At midnight, he was looking up at the crecent moon, feelig oddly peaceful, when a shout came from his house, then a bang. Gail flinched and bolted into the tall grass, hiding there for a few seconds, then crept slowly up to his house and peered in the living room window. There was a light on in the living room. That was strange, his parents never stayed up this late...

Voices; one soft and sweet, his mothers. The other, cold and hard, but somehow familiar. It wasn't his fathers, that much was certain. But who...

A second bang, and a scream, then silence. Someone stepped out into the doorway and into Gail's line of sight, holding a smoking gun and polishing the barrel. Joseph. Gail ducked under the window sill, shivering. It was a joke, that was all... just a practical joke. Joseph had a strange sense of humor. it was all just to scare Gail, that was all.

He waited there for ten minutes, then heard the front door slam. He peered carefully from the side of the house just as a car screeched down the street. Running around to the front of the house, Gail opened the door slowly and looked inside. The front room was the same, no difference, but the light was still on in the living room. He walked slowly into it and looked at his parents chairs. They were there, sitting in them and holding on to each other, but... they were oddly motionless. At any moment Gail expected them to jump up and suprise him, but they didn't. Gail started to shiver as he crept closer, closer, until he was right in front of them, and crouched down looking at their faces. Each of them were calm, serene, but a thick, red trickle from the center of their foreheads marred their features, as did the hole from which the blood was coming from.

Gail was in shock for a week before he began working on his parents graves; they'd always said they'd like to be burried in their own house, after all. it was the least gail could do. It took him nearly a month, but finally he'd finished, and lowered his parents bodies into it, side by side like they had always been in life.

He went back to school, this time wearing a chain around his neck with two rings around it; his parents wedding rings.

Five years after, when he was fifteen, there was a news flash; an young wolf girl had been put into a mental hospital after being severely beated, raped and tortured by a wanted murderer. The news flash didn't faze Gail. He was never fazed anymore. It wasn't until they showed a picture of the girl that Gail had gone into shock. It was Yuka; older, thinner, and much more ragged with dark marks all over her body, but definately Yuka. She was even clinging to the teddy bear he'd bought here all those years ago. The news flash had continued; the wolf girl had placed an envelope adressed to a friend of the girls, down in her hometown, before she'd passed out. The assaulter, a psycotic killer fox, had been brought down, then when he'd realized he couldn't escape, poisoned himself. Gail knew it was Joseph, but he didn't care. His thoughts were only for Yuka.

A week later, an envelope arrived for him. It was definately important; Gail had had to sign and everything for it. And it was addressed to Gail.

He tore it open; there was a letter inside, and something else. He pulled out the letter first.

"Little brother; I told you I'd send you a message, didn't I? I just wish I could have sent it sooner, but I had to secure myself down here first. I promised you I'd tell you the full story, so here it is.
Joseph wanted me to marry him for a long time, as you know, and I accepted of course. But what I found in those three weeks when I was out there, at his house, made me rethink. Fast. There were files there; I won't say what was in them, but it all came down to one thing; You know that mass murderer everyone was talking about when you were five? the one that made you so frightened you had to sleep with me for the next three months. It turns out he hadn't died after all... just taken on a new name. Joseph is the Slasher. When I found out, he tried to pull me away from the family, threatening me with torture. I had to escape, but I couldn't leave without telling you. That's why I came home first. I also took back the ring I bought him. The one he bought me, I melted down until there was only ash left. I'm sending my ring to you; I don't know why, but it feels right. Hopefully you'll be able to come down and see me sometime this summer; I'll send you a letter when I know. Keep safe, brother dearest.
Love your big sister, Yuka."

The other item in the envelope had been the ring she had bought for Joseph; clean, unmarked, and with a sapphire, her favorite stone, set in the center.

He'd cried for weeks, determined to go and see his sister; but when he got there, they refused. He wouldn't be turned away. Finally, they let him in to the mental hospital and showed him Yuka. It was heartbreaking. She sat, curled up in the corner, drooling and petting the teddy bear like a child. Her eyes were vacant, empty. Joseph had completely broken her. It was worse than if she had died.

Gail returned home a few days later, each day going to see his sister, and even once speaking to her. She just stared at him, drooling and petting her bear. When he got back home, he added the third ring to his necklace and threw himself into school and his music. His grades didn't suffer, but they didn't raise. His music, though... His music took a turn. No longer the happy, playful tunes. Now they were beautiful melodies, steeped in sorrow, loss and sadness, speaking of pain and heartbreak. His only audience was himself, his only judge his sorrow. Gradually he began to reappear in the world, bringing with him is music. He had no friends, only admirers and those who pitied him. He'd expected to stay that way for the rest of his life.

Gail bent his head into his paws, crying silently, and groped around his desk, looking for something. His hand fell on his ocarina, and he pulled it to him, tucking it in his pocket as he forced himself to regain control. The tears vanished, and his eyes sparked again. The past was gone. Now, there was only the future... and he was not going to let memories ruin him anymore. Now he had friends; real friends, not the people who only liked him for his music.





He came out of his room wearing a pair of red and white tribal swimsuit, smiling and though not feeling cheerful, not depressed either. "Come on, Johanna, any longer and I'll have to come in there and get you myself!"

Realizing that they weren't coming any time soon, Kyubi stepped out of the lake. He shook himself off, then walked back into the house. He cried out, "Hey can someone lead me to the bathroom?? I haven't gone all day.. x.x"