A/N: Sorry this took so long. I got really busy last week and it's not like I stayed up the last two nights to three in the morning watching anime. Anyway, here is my latest au and I hope that I can keep up with this one and Which is Real? too. A huge thank you to sykehaol on tumblr for giving me ideas and inspiration for this fic. I hope that you guys like the fic and what I've got planned for later!
He was a trouble-maker. A born delinquent. That was what his father said. Hopelessly violent. Not even interested in girls. His mother cried. That boy cares for nothing. He sent one of his classmates to the hospital. The principal scolded. It was all pointless. It didn't matter because the end result was the same. The boy stared out the window of the train, Inaba bound to spend the rest of his high school years there with his grandma. Tohru couldn't think of a worse punishment than to be stuck out in the sticks for two years.
The train ride was a huge bore. Tohru yawned as he watched the hills roll by, all looking exactly the same as the last one. He wasn't tired, but somehow the sound of the train going over the tracks lulled him to sleep.
Tohru blinked his eyes open moments later in this completely blue limousine. Tohru glanced at the two inhabitants of the car in disgust. He briefly wondered why his imagination came up with such an ugly old man and such a…gorgeous babe. Tohru openly stared at the blonde-haired woman, making her scowl and blush.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room." The bald man with the long nose and bulging eyes spoke in an eerie voice that seemed to fill Tohru's head. "Fate has brought us together in this room, so allow me to tell your fortune."
"Can I drink this?" Tohru had picked up the bottle of wine that was sitting in the cooler and looked at it curiously. He probably would've just drank it, but he didn't want to be turned into anything weird since the limo had this weird feeling about it.
The woman with the blond hair and glowing yellow eyes glared and clutched at her book tighter. "Please listen to what my master has to say. You are here for a special reason."
"If you're going to talk about fate and all that shit, I'm not interested. If fate exists then there's no point of anything." Tohru shrugged and grinned bitterly, thinking about the bad luck he had in being sent to the middle of nowhere.
The long-nosed man spoke again, chuckling. "I see that you are very set in your own ways, but I think that you will find that the journey ahead of you may change your outlook. But before I begin, let me introduce myself and my assistant. I am Igor and this is Margaret. May I ask you for your name?"
"Adachi Tohru." Tohru narrowed his eyes at the strange pair, partially intrigued by them now.
"I see. Then, do you believe in fortune tellers?" Igor placed his hands under his nose, seeming to rest his head there.
Tohru drew his eyebrows together in confusion, "Why the hell would I believe in something so ridiculous?"
Igor sighed, still smiling. "Nonetheless, I believe the cards have something special in store for you."
Tohru watched with detached curiosity as Igor spread the cards out on the table with a flick of his wrist. The cards spread out in front of him and flipped over at a wave of his hand. Is this magic?
"Ah I see that you have the upright tower. It appears that a catastrophe will be in your immediate future. The next card, the one of the future longer than the tower, is the upright moon. This is the card of hesitation and mystery. It seems you will encounter a misfortune at your destination, and a great mystery will be imposed upon you. You will return here after you make a contract of sorts; your future may be lost if you do not accept your destiny. I will do my best to make sure that situation never happens. We shall attend to the details some other time; until then, farewell…"
Adachi woke up to the sound of the train stopping. He blinked himself awake as the speakers blasted the conductor's voice, "We have arrived in Yasoinaba station. Please gather your things and…"
Adachi pulled his bag down from the overhead storage area and departed the train. Outside of the train station, Adachi recognized his grandmother in her one of her usual floral dresses and a huge smile on her face. Her curly white hair was the same as ever, sitting on top of her head in a controlled chaos. Adachi did not recognize, however, the man standing next to her and waving to him. He was pretty tall and his gray hair was sort of weird-looking, but it seemed to fit really well with his bowl cut. The man had slight smirk on his face, but his expression was blank otherwise.
"Tohru-kun, come give your oba-chan a hug!" Tohru dropped his things and prepared for the huge squeeze he got from his oba-chan.
Tohru sighed inwardly. As much as he hated everything else in his life, he would never say the same about his oba-chan. She had always stuck up for him and let him do plenty of cool things when he got to stay with her and his obaa-san in Inaba. "Thanks, oba-chan. But who's that man over there?"
She patted Tohru on the shoulder and motioned for the man with the gray hair to come over. Closer up, Tohru noticed that his eyes were also a dull gray color and lacked emotion as well. The man smiled as he approached Tohru, "Sorry to interrupt your reunion, but I give Kimiko-san rides into the city since she rented out the unit in the back to me. My name is Seta Souji, but you can call me Souji if you'd like."
Tohru rolled his eyes and mumbled, "I'm Adachi Tohru. Nice to meet you, Souji-san."
"Shall we go then?" Kimiko ushered Tohru and Souji into her compact car. While Souji wasn't extremely tall, he was tall enough to be very uncomfortable. Tohru watched the gray-haired man slip into the driver's seat with as much grace as he could manage. Tohru snickered at Souji's obvious discomfort and earned a tired sigh and a slight smile. Souji sighed again when he looked at the gas gauge.
"We'll have to stop by the gas station on the way to the house."
The central part of Inaba was lined with half empty and closed down shops owned by the families that lived there. Tohru slouched on the car while Kimiko was using the restroom and Souji had walked off to smoke a cigarette while muttering that his boss's bad habits were rubbing off on him.
"Well, hi there!" A cheery voice called from over the car. Tohru glanced over at the attendant who was putting gas in the car. "You're not from Inaba, are you?"
"From this boring and lame-ass town?" Tohru laughed. "No. What's it to you?"
The attendant smiled wider and came over to the side of the car that Tohru was standing. "Must be pretty boring compared to where you lived before. Did you come from the city?"
"Yeah, why?" Adachi narrowed his eyes at the nosy attendant.
The attendant just laughed, "Sorry, you just seem to come off that way. The way you looked at the town wasn't the way that somebody who lived here their entire lives would have. But besides that, this place is always looking for part-time workers even if you are in school. You should try to apply here sometime. Oh and welcome to Inaba."
Tohru hesitated before taking the attendant's outstretched hand. Tohru resumed leaning on the car while the attendant returned to filling up the car and he was grateful he did. Something flashed in his head and he blanked for a moment before coming to his senses a moment later, crouched next to the car. Kimiko had returned and rushed to Tohru, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I think it was just the long train ride." Tohru stood up which only made his head feel lighter. Everyone piled into the car and was silent the rest of the way to Kimiko's house which hadn't changed since the last time Tohru had been there. The ivy still grew up on the side of the house and the plants in the back were overgrown. The house was moderately sized with three bedrooms and a granny unit in the back. Tohru had always felt more comfortable here than even at his own house. The nostalgic smell in the air there and the way that the house felt was warm and welcome to Tohru.
Tohru dragged his things upstairs to find that his room was left alone as it always had been. The familiar surroundings made him smile. He unpacked most of his stuff before dinner was announced downstairs. Tohru was surprised to see that Souji was still in the house and actually cooking for them all. It smelled delicious, but Tohru was suspicious of the guy. Why was he being so nice and doing so much for is oba-san? And he had this calm aura around him that Tohru felt was unsettling.
Dinner felt almost picture perfect with Souji and Kimiko making small talk as they ate. Tohru watched Souji, trying to do so without raising suspicion. All it did was manage to give Tohru a headache so he focused on eating his meal. He wasn't going to give up on finding more about this man that was going to live near him and his oba-san though.
"Tohru-kun? Are you feeling okay? You look a little pale." Kimiko reached across the table and laid her hand on his forehead. "You have no fever, but why don't you take some medicine and head on up to bed okay?"
"Okay. Thank you for the meal." Tohru began climbing up the stairs to his room when Kimiko called his name.
"Tohru, there's something I wanted to talk to you about." She paused when Tohru looked back, a little heavy-lidded. "Never mind, I'll tell you about it later. Good night, Tohru-kun."
"G'night." Tohru was grateful to close the door behind him and lay down on his futon. He briefly wondered about the worried look his oba-chan gave him before he left, but he brushed it off as concern for his well-being. Welcome to Inaba my ass.