"Come on, Tohru!" cried Momiji, grasping a hold of her hand and swinging it cheerily. Tohru smiled prettily down at him, amused by his energy. "Let's go watch the sun set! It's your birthday so it's a very special sunset!"

Without a word, Tohru allowed the hare to tug her along the hardwood floor.

"Ah, Momiji-kun! How do you know she said yes to you, ne?" called Shigure from the kitchen in a teasing voice. The dog waved his chopsticks in the air to resume shoveling the seasoned rice into his mouth.

Momiji looked slowly up at Tohru, his innocent brown eyes gleaming, and she smiled sweetly and nodded at him, her hand held tightly in his. Recently, she had had a bad sore throat, and promised herself not to talk at all until she felt better. She didn't want to make anything worse, unlike certain people (*cough*AYAME*cough*) who prolonged their sore throat by about a week or so from talking constantly.

"Let's go! Let's go, or we'll miss it!!!" The little blond-haired boy tugged her out the door and into the rich-smelling forest, anxious not to miss the most important sunset of the year; the one on Tohru's birthday. He had resolved, that it was the perfect end to a perfect day. The taste of strawberry shortcake was still light on his lips and he hoped cheerfully that there would be some left when they got back.

He pulled her through the forest path, urging her to speed up, before letting out a soft cry of surprise as he slipped in a huge mud puddle. He felt himself falling, falling.

And then he was covered in warm mud. The thick brown muck made a loud squishing sound as he fell into it. It was sticky and dirty and covered him from head to toe. He wiped the watery dirt from his eyes. He would have laughed, if he hadn't been so surprised of slipping in the first place.

"Aa? Gomen, Tohru-kun!" he cried, as he whirled rapidly around to see her staring down at her freshly starched and cleaned dress to see it plastered in mud and dead leaves. Little bits of dirt flecked her cheek and her back might has well have been blanketed in it.

The sky was slowly turning crimson.

"Tohru-kun, daijoubu? Daijoubu desu ka?" asked Momiji, with a smile.

The brown-haired girl nodded and gave a warm smile, giggling softly. She stood slowly up, but Momiji sat still in the mud, with a contended smile. Puzzled, Tohru held out a hand in an offer to help up the usagi, but he grinned at her and pulled her back into the mud.

"Let's dance!" he cried, grasping both her hands. Spontaneously. Tohru stared.

"Come on, it'll be fun!"

Softly, Tohru agreed and gingerly stood up.

They danced in the mud, giggling, until the sky grew dark, and they were forced to leave for home.

"Aa, you're back?" remarked Shigure, who was probably on his fourth helping of the strawberry cake. "How was the sunset?"

Momiji paused and said slowly, as though he'd just realized (which, now that you think of it, he actually had) . "We. missed it."

Shigure sighed pitifully. "Un. Why are you both so dirty?"

"Aa." started Momiji loudly, "I slipped and Tohru tried to help me up and then she slipped too!"

Shigure twittered thoughtfully. "All that for nothing, ne? You should have left earlier!"

Momiji decided not to tell Shigure of their game in the mud. He would just laugh at them and, besides, it wasn't the sort of thing you told anyone else. It would be their secret.

Nonetheless, even though they had missed the sunset, the mud had been the perfect end to a perfect day.