Trapped beneath glass
Yuki didn't know precisely what he was looking for, but he knew he wasn't returning home without it. Around him the night's dark heaved with the movement of creatures, sharp glints of eyes reflecting the moon. His nose was assailed by the scent of dug over earth, damp and fresh. The scritch of thousands of tiny claws crawled into his ears until he knew he'd be listening to it even as he slept. Hardness in the soil made him still a moment. With more care he eased away the suffocating earth until he had the photo frame entirely in his hands. He held a woman trapped beneath the glass. For she was trapped. Her likeness was so bursting with life that he couldn't believe she wouldn't tap on the glass any moment and demand to be let out. This, then, was Tohru's mother. "I told her we'd get you out." Surprise that he'd spoken aloud made him inhale sharply and then smiled slightly at the picture. "I can see why Tohru speaks to you. You're an excellent listener." Even this woman's photograph invited confidences. He wondered what it would have been like to have met her in person. At the thought his smile faded and coldness settled in his stomach. There would be no meeting her. Tohru's mother, her Mom, was dead. This light and energy had been extinguished. He imagined the size of the hole that the absence had left in her daughter. No wonder Tohru felt like she couldn't be parted from this item. From out of the photo beamed a piece of the woman's character and spirit, a way her daughter could remember her.
For a brief moment Yuki felt envious as he caught a glimpse of what it would be to have been loved that much, to be part of that family. He let the envy flare and die. Tohru had suffered much. He could not begrudge her this love she'd had for too short a time.
Yuki tilted the glass to the moonlight and wiped off any earthy smudges with his sleeve. He would need better light to clean it properly. "I better get you back, so we can clean you up," he told the photo. "Tohru will be glad to see you when she wakes."
He'd come back for the rest of the items in the morning. Right now Tohru needed her mother.
