Author's note, Keywords and Warnings:
See the prologue.

Start: February 17th, 2002
Finish: February 18th, 2002


exuberance

I. Flower Storm
Under the Cherry Blossom...
(Ayame X Tohru)

Tohru Honda didn't know since when, why and how she could be in her bed all of a sudden. One thing she knew that, yeterday, after the incident. Shigure called the Honke and talked with somebody in the other end. Then, Yuki and Kyou were ordered not to attend the first day at school. Tohru, of course, didn't want to be absent, and ended as the one to told the principal that Yuki couldn't give his speech at the new students welcoming ceremony.

She didn't see Momiji and Hatsuharu at the school either, so she thought it might be an important thing they had to discuss at the Honke. It had nothing to do with her, as an outsider, but she couldn't help to be worried.
She had prepared lunch and dinner for the other three... but still, they hadn't come back from the Honke. The last thing she knew was, sitting in the kotatsu, reading some book, waiting for their arrival... that's it! She blushed, covered her face with the blanket. How embarrassing, they must had seen her fell asleep, and moved her to her room.

Why didn't they just wake her up so she could walk to her bedroom by herself? Two and more questions popped in her head including how to make soup for the breakfast for her apology, how to make it as well as possible in a short time... she had to make sure that the laundry's clean enough and lots of things to do.

But maybe, she had to forget about preparing the breakfast...

"What?" She asked, still with her polite tone.

"Yuki-kun has gone to school earlier. Seems like Kyou's too." A sentence from a smiling Shigure, but not looking at Tohru. She may not realize that, but Shigure always looked Tohru when he was talking to her. But instead, he paid more attention at the damned newspaper.

"Oh..."

"Now, Tohru-kun!" There was the cheerful voice and face again. "You should be going to the school!"

"Eh? What? But--- I haven't finished the laundry--- and the breakfast---"

"That's okay, I'll do it."

"Shigure-san, I can't let you do that! I---"

Few moments later, Tohru found herself outside the house, Shigure saying 'itte irasshai' behind her and closed the door. It was the end of discussion. Tohru stood still for a while, thinking what did she do wrong, so Shigure had done all of that for her. Still confused, she set her feet out of the Sohma Shigure house, and moments later to find herself not thinking too much about Shigure's strange behavior...

"It's spring already." She smiled, looking at the pink colored leaves falling to the brownish ground. All around her was flesh colored and she found herself smiling wider. Spring season meant cherry blossoms season. The rare flower that came once every year was one of the things she liked very much... But to think of it... Did you ever hear Tohru dislike something?

Well, change the topic back.

"Sakura's sure's beautiful, isn't it, Tohru-kun."

The familiar voice pulled her from her reverie. She turned her head, seeing long silver hairs blew by the wind, identical with the prince of the school. "Ayame-san." She beamed. "Good morning, visiting Shigure-san?" She asked as she walked towards the feminine male.

"Good morning, Tohru-kun." She, I mean, he smiled back at her. "Not really, but you can consider so."

"Oh?" Her neck bend. "Not going straight to the house? Admiring sakura for a while? It's a beautiful flower, just like you said." She said three sentences in a row.

Ayame shook her head. "Well, maybe right, maybe no. But I found myself attracted by something else other than the stupid tree."

"Eh?" Tohru titled her head, following the direction of Ayame's amused bluish eyes, towards something beneath the sakura tree, at the ground. She couldn't help to yelp, but quickly covered her mouth with her hand, blushing red until the last corner of her ears. "Oh my..."

"Snakes, beautiful aren't they?" Ayame grinned, maybe in the other side was praising himself. His eyes looked at Tohru, then to the two similar animals, two white snakes, one's body circling another, and tightened itself around the other. The other one hissed... the other followed. "It seems that spring's a beautiful season for snakes as well. A perfect opportunity to attract each other and mating."

"Ma---ma---mating?" Tohru's hands were all over her face, stopping her innocent eyes to see the unfamiliar scene in front of her. "Oh my, we shouldn't bother them, Ayame-san, but.. oh my--- ah!"

Ayame smirked, if a painter wanted to pain the reddest red, they could take Tohru as the model. He put his hand on Tohru's shoulders, pulling her eyes from the biological process that was happening in front of them. "You're really cute, Tohru-kun, do you know that?" He said, face was merely inches from hers.

Innocent brown eyes widened in surprise, as the face went more crimson. "Ayame-san!"

"What?" His eyebrows arched upwards, as if they were confused. "Haven't someone said that to you?"

"No, not that--- I mean--- that's---" Tohru moved her head away from Ayame's eyes, embarrassed. They were so distracting, so deep, it... looked like Yuki's. "Yes--- yes, someone has told that--- bu--but---"

"I know what you mean, Tohru-kun." He cocked a grin. "No one has told you from this distance, no one has told that to you after he introduced some ways of mating of some animals..."

"Ayame-san?"

"Now, Tohru-kun," he put one hand on Tohru's pale chin, lifted her face so he could see the younger in the eyes. "Have you ever heard anything about human mating? Sex?"

She blushed harder. "Ayame-san! That's---"

"I'm sure girls at your age have done it, haven't they? It's no strange thing to be asked, Tohru-kun. I'm sure you'd heard that." He chuckled. "Now, the question is... have you done that?"

"Ayame-san!" Red, red, and more red. Ayame pulled his lips into a smile of amusement. The little innocent Tohru, was mixed up, bewildered, embarrassed, confused, flustered, all in one expression that was completely hard to be explained with words. He even thought that all vocabularies Shigure had in his dog mind, couldn't describe it.

Ayame laughed at the sight. He touched Tohru's pale red nose with one finger. "You're so cute and I guess you haven't." His face went forward and kissed the top of his nose lightly, sensing the shock in the petite figure, lost her words in her throat. He pulled himself to see Tohru widened eyes, smiled for himself.

One hand still cupping her chin, the other went to her shoulder blades, he kissed Tohru's cheek slowly, feeling the heat from her embarrassment. Moments after he brushed his lips against the corner of her mouth, licking the space with his tongue, when he heard Tohru breathed and took her tongue to take this opportunity to enter the space inside.

She gasped, startled. Hand on her shoulder massaged the flesh, trying to relax her, in other hand, it also tried to push the younger to his embrace. The girl didn't do anything to resist, as his tongue brushed against hers, circling it, forcing into a wrestle. Hand was then put around her waist, fingers landed on her hips. Maybe she didn't fight back, because she couldn't... or didn't know the way to fight back? His brain laughed.

Hisses sounds. The elder opened his eyes for a while, and caught two pairs of little black eyes peeping from distance, tongues sliding from their mouth, as it was mocking him. The hell, he closed his eyes back, and pushed her hips towards his.

She wanted to yell, when she sensed something unusual against her hips; but Ayame's mouth held her, halting her to do so. Tohru opened her eyes quickly; that something trying to reach her. It was hard beneath the clothes she wear, and behind Ayame's own pants. She shut her eyes quickly when she realized what that thing was. Her heartbeats went faster when she realized how her reaction towards the situation.

She didn't know how, she didn't know why, and when. Another thing moved under the skirt, and felt the wetness in her under garments. It was trying to have her... She didn't know, she didn't know, she didn't know, but she had to... In an instant, she pushed the older mouth with all of his strength, releasing all of him from her.

He gasped, eyes wide, and unaware at the little girl's attempt to push him away. The girl wore the similar expression at her face, and more... startled, embarrassed as well, confused like the previous and it was there... guilt... Little tears in the corner of her eyes, it was enough to prove everything.

The tailor smiled, more to himself, and seconds after, he suddenly laughed.

Hurt was added into her face. "Why? Ayame-san?"

Chuckles still escaped his lips; he ran his fingers through his hair, as the other tidying his outfit. "I'm sorry, Tohru-kun. I guess the spring's also had some effect at my hormones. It's a coincidence that you're the unlucky girl that's nearest at this stake."

Eyebrows bent upwards. "Hormones?" She blushed again. "I'm sorry, Ayame-san! If I knew that from the beginning! Oh, how stupid I am. I almost think something horrible about you. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" She bowed unconsciously.

The snake laughed again. "No, I'm the one who should apologize." He walked towards Tohru and patted her head softly, pulling her body to stand straight, clapping some sides of her uniform. "Look, your cloth's wrinkled right now. And you don't need to be sorry, Tohru-kun. You're not responsible." Ayame tapped her shoulder, a sign that he had finished fixing her uniform. "Now, Tohru-kun, why don't you go to the school before it's too late."

Tohru, who was completely distracted, mentioned an 'oh' before bowing again, "I'm sorry, Ayame-san," and then waved before rushed to the school.

***

"Ah, Aya-! How do you do?" Shigure put his newspaper to the table when the snake came into the room. "Tea or coffee?"

"How do you do, too, Gure-san. Tea, please." Aya smiled, and he sat, and slid his feet inside the kotatsu. The dog beamed back, and went to his feet to the kitchen. The snake sighed and laid put his head on his hands above the kotatsu table.

"Tired? Making a new wedding dress a whole night long, thinking about new designs?" Questions were bombarded at the silver haired man as the aroma of the tea made him opening his eyes. The dog slipped back at his place in the kotatsu, sipping his own tea.

"Nee, Gure-san. How're you handling the fact of Tohru Honda?"

The drink was put on the table, Shigure leaned his face on one hand. "I don't know how to answer that myself. I tried to act as normal as possible... But it seems that Yuki-kun and Kyou-kun haven't met her. Maybe, they're trying to avoid her." He took his glass again, but not drink it, just looking at the inner side of it.

"Oh." Ayame smiled, sadly. He drunk his coffee in a slight sip, then said, "I met with Tohru-kun just now, and I've tried."

One sound, the glass slammed against the kotatsu table, and pale brown liquids wetting it in an instant. But the dog didn't aware of that. "You what? Aya-!?"

"I said, I've tried. I failed." He sighed.

"Aya-, you---"

"Don't worry Shigure. I don't touch her more than the novel you're writing." He snickered. "She's still pure. She pushed me when I was trying to enter the good part."

Shigure shook his head. "I never thought--- My, my, I don't even think that even one of us could do that..."

"Well... There're still 9 of us, that if you mention Akito, Momiji, Hiro, and yourself."

"Don't ever think about it."


Next:
III. Simple truth
Above the rooftop...
(Hatsuharu X Tohru)

While making this part, the author's listening to: Acapella Praise's "Great is The Lord", "Lamb of God", "God will make a way", "Amazing Grace"; wow worship's "Shout to The Lord", "I will celebrate"; Fatima Rainey's "Hey", Genai's "Heaven's not far away"