Chapter 1 - Unconsciously Falling
A bright, sunny, Saturday afternoon. Tohru hums to a soft melody as she delicately folds the clean laundry, sitting at the eating table. Eyes gently closed as she places Kyo's fresh shirt onto his pile, as a small smile creeps onto her face. The epitome of peaceful.
"What the hell you damned rat?!" Kyo yells from outside the front door. Tohru winces at the sudden noise disturbing her quiet afternoon.
"I could say the same for you, stupid cat," Yuki coolly responds as he slides the door open. "Ms. Honda, good afternoon." A smile replacing the scowl he wore a second ago.
"Good afternoon to you too, Yuki; and to you Kyo. Welcome home." Tohru beams at Yuki, then hesitantly lifts her head to meet Kyo's fiery orange eyes. Kyo reciprocates, gazing into her deep chocolate eyes. Quickly looking away, he realized he's been staring at her for too long. 'God, she's beautiful. But I don't normally stare like that, I need to keep myself under control. Or maybe i'm just tired,' he thought. Collecting himself, he turns to fully face Tohru, who is still sitting on the ground with laundry strewed everywhere, "I'm going to bed, i'm not eating dinner tonight."
"OK, I hope you feel better soon," Tohru quietly pleads, a small frown now occupies her expression; worry evident is her tone.
Noticing this, Kyo gives Tohru a smile, "I'll be fine, just a long day." He then walks around the corner towards his bedroom, leaving Yuki and Tohru to chat.
"That reminds me, how was your student council meeting?" Tohru inquired. "It was as usual, Manabe and Sakuragi were goofing off, Kimi was flirting with another student passing through the hall, and Machi was calmly getting things done along with myself." Yuki reminisced, a very small blush could be seen when the mention of Machi came up.
"By the way, Ms. Honda, where is Shigure? I haven't seen him since this morning," Yuki states, walking in the direction of his own room. "I believe he went to the Sohma Estate to visit Hatori. He should be back by dinner time." She answers. While still on the subject, "What should we have tonight?"
Putting a hand on the banister of the stairs, Yuki turns slightly to face her, "Whatever you make will be perfect as always; just make what you want."
"OK. . ." Tohru blushes furiously at the praise just given to her. Awoken from her daze, she quickly finishes the laundry, 'maybe we'll have curry tonight.'
Jumping to her feet, she goes up the stairs with the basket of freshly folded laundry; walking into her room, she places her clothes on the bed. Next, she goes to Yuki's room, knocks on the door, "Yuki, I have your clean clothes." Yuki slides the door open, "Thank you, Ms. Honda. I'll be down for dinner shortly, too." Grinning, Tohru nods her head in approval.
Kyo's room was next. Tohru can't help but feel butterflies. Ever since the day she found out about Kyo's true form, she felt closer to him. She couldn't quite place why though.
Taking a deep breath, she knocks on his door, "Kyo, I have your clean clothes." Tohru waits about five seconds. No answer. Another knock, "Kyo?"
As quietly as possible, she slides his door open. On his futon, she sees him laid on his side, sound asleep. Thinking to herself, 'He must be exhausted from all the training he did today. I'll just place his clothes on the desk.' Walking carefully around him, she does this. Just as Tohru is about to leave his room, Kyo stirs. Panicking, thinking she woke him up, Tohru just about starts her apology rant.
However, all he does is turn onto his back. Giving a soft sigh of relief, she gives one more look towards him before preparing to leave. That her intention, anyway.
All thought stops. She stares wide eyed. Kyo was shirtless, and Tohru was doing all she could not to drool. 'I never actually looked at him this close before. His muscles. His messy orange hair. That peaceful look on his face. . . AGH! What am I doing?! I need to leave before something happens!" Madly blushing at the thoughts going through her head, she tries to will herself to leave.
Sliding the door open to exit, she hears something. "Tohru. . ." Kyo softly muttered in his sleep. 'He said my name. Is he dreaming of me?' Tohru wonders with a slight tinge of hope.
Softly smiling, with her eyes closed, Tohru closes the door. A peaceful look on her face. Then, a sudden realization came, 'Oh no! I need to start dinner!'
Rushing to the kitchen, but not before placing Shigure's clothes in his own room, she beings her task.
"Ah, Tohru. I was wondering where you had gone. And thank you for the laundry." Shigure speaks through this newspaper, sitting at the eating table.
"Oh, Shigure! I didn't know you were back. Welcome home." Tohru beams her trademark smile. Tohru turns the rice cooker on, and begins to boil water. Pouring tea for Shigure and now Yuki, who just arrived at the table.
"Yuki, how are your studies going?" Shigure asks, suspiciously. "They are going as they normally are, high marks in all subjects," he responds, clearly understanding that this is going somewhere; as mischief follows his cousin like a new hatched duckling to it's mother.
"Good, good. Because of that, i'm allowed to announce something fun!" A wide smile now planted on his face.
Yuki sits, questions marks floating around his head in his attempts to solve the mystery Shigure just layed before him. Tohru sets the table and places the hot cooked meal in front of each member.
"What is this surprise, Shigure?" Tohru asks, a smile now also on her face.
"Because you asked, my dear, sweet flower Tohru, I will tell you anything. Not only that, but because you whole-heartedly cooking the delicious meal. " Reaching across the table, grabbing her hand, and placing a soft kiss on it. Just to be hit in the head a second later. "Ouch! Yuki, I was just showing my gratitude for this lovely meal." Shigure rubs the growing bump on his head.
Coughing into his fist, Shigure begins. "Ahem, yes, well, anyway. I went to the main house today to visit Hatori, as I haven't seen him in a while. It was during a conversation we had that lead me to a fantastic idea. We are going on vacation to the beach!" Radiating happiness from himself, he grinned and looked to see the reaction of Tohru and Yuki.
"That sounds like a great idea. I need a break from the student council duties, and if I can get all my homework done, i'll be free for the weekend," said Yuki, rubbing his chin, thinking of how this trip could work.
Tohru with wide eyes, abruptly stands to her feet. "The beach!? I would love to go. If I can get all my homework done as well, I can go. Who all is coming? When can we go?" Tohru now (mentally) bouncing up and down from excitement. 'The beach, that sounds like so much fun. Maybe Kyo will go too.' Tohru's thoughts wandered off, still unsure about why she kept thinking about Kyo.
Shigure, sipping tea, "Since you're all excited for this, we will leave on Friday and spend the weekend at on the Sohma summer houses. From what I gathered, it would be Tohru, Yuki, Kyo, Hatori, Ayami, Kagura, Momiji and myself."
As Shigure speaks of the trip participants, a dark, ominous aura is found behind him. Slowly turning around, Kyo is seen with anger plastered on his face, "Who is going where? I am NOT going anywhere that Kagura and Momiji are going to be, I don't care where it is, what it's for, or anything else. I. Am. Not. Going." Kyo clearly states his opinion, furious that he was asked first.
"Calm down, Kyo. If you don't go, then we all can't go. There has to be eight of us. And you wouldn't want to disappoint Tohru, would you? She was so excited to go too. Do you hear that Tohru? Kyo says he won't go. . ." Shigure feigns disappointment and sadness.
"Hey! Do not involve her! You could ask somebody else to go, cause i'm not go. . " Kyo then looks at Tohru. Sorrow on her features. "Kyo, will you please go with us? It won't be any fun unless you go too. . . " Tohru sweetly and low-key sounding pleaded with him. Her eyes shining hopefully at his.
Collapsing to his feet, totally and entirely, defeated. "Arg. . . Stop. I can't handle it. OK. OK. I'll go. . ." Kyo gave in. Slowly lifting his head, he finds Tohru's glowing face, full of that goofy grin on her face. 'If it makes her happy, I can suffer through Kagura and Momiji. Hell, I can suffer through a lot more than that, if it would make her happy.'
Kyo stands to his feet, smiling. Shigure giving a smile of victory holding a peace sign with his fingers. Yuki eating dinner, ignoring the debacle. And Tohru, happy as can be.
"OK, we leave in three days. Set your clocks everyone!" Shigure announces.
- End Chapter 1 -
Please let me know what you thought about this story, if I should continue it, grammatical errors, spelling errors, etc.
This story is based on the Anime version, after the last episode.