A grey rat sat upright in Tohru's palms, peering at her in the shade.
Panicking, Tohru went to get Yuki to the boys locker room so he could change once he transformed back. Once the light from the outside hallway window hit, she remembered to hide him. Her hand elevated the rat until he was eye level with the dip in her school uniform. Her hand tipped him forward till he, spinning his stubby arms frantically, fell into her blouse.
Warm creamy flesh assaulted his senses.
"Miss Honda…" he called uncertainly, gripping the middle band of her bra. His ears were burning. He closed his eyes, a hint of lacy white flashing behind his eyelids. Was his whole body blushing?
"Shh." She said nervously. Four girls from the Yuki fan club approached her.
"Oops!" The blonde pigtailed leader knocked into Tohru's shoulder.
The girls wanted to interrogate Tohru. What could a homeless orphan hope to offer someone like Yuki? She shrugged, feeling self-conscious as the rat breathed against her chest.
"Nothing." She said, eyes growing dim. "Nothing at all."
The leader marched forward but she couldn't see anything. Something warm and wriggly just flew at her face.
In the panic that followed, the girls decided that some horrible brand of bad luck followed all who messed with Tohru and fled. In her panic, the leader swiped the creature off her face, causing Tohru to have to dive to catch him.
Brows furrowing in confusion, the Rice Ball made her ways to the boys' locker room and set Yuki's clothes underneath a bathroom stall. She deposited the rat there and left quickly for the school yard.
Earlier in the preceding week
Yuki's breakfast lay uneaten on the table. He had apparently gone off to school early.
The blue-eyed girl blushed at last night's encounter, envisioning his hands gripping the counter beside her waist. She remembered how off she felt, as if she were faced with a different Yuki, one that was nothing like the calm collected Yuki she knew. Maybe after school she could apologize and figure out what she did to upset him.
Yuki gracefully strolled into the Student Council room, sternly driving back thoughts of pink cheeks and strawberry scented shampoo.
Neat little scratch marks marked his name beside every school activity that required outside school hours. The rat head eraser's dot eyes stared at him as if in shock.
The floodgate of mixed thoughts and emotions from last night was kept shut only by one pronoun: Akito.
There was just a line of distance that everyone had to keep from him. Those children he played with one time all had their memories erased and Tohru could easily suffer the same fate. Even though he considered the possibility that Tohru might be happier that way, he couldn't bring himself to just let her slip out of his life.
Before, he thought he could enjoy her company and keep up the formalities of host and houseguest. However, he had underestimated her appeal, his own loneliness, and longing for acceptance.
Shigure took a puff of his cigarette and sighed. Yuki was coming home late again. His little flower was practically wilting before his very eyes. With a tinge of concern, he watched as the young housekeeper gave up on her homework before going into the kitchen to prepare dinner.
As she got out the ingredients, Tohru thought about the time she and Yuki harvested strawberries in the garden. There was nothing particularly remarkable about the scene, except that happiness and content feelings colored the whole memory like tinted glass.
Shigure thought dinner was so quiet he could practically hear his food digest. Tohru glanced at the empty seat at the head of the table, remembering the Prince's eyes as they looked up at her. Just what did he think of her?
The sliding door shifted. Tohru felt her heart skip a beat and then her stomach knot with dread and anticipation.
"Um, Y-Yuki! I'm so glad you're back. How was your day?"
The teen took one look at her, mumbled something about homework and headed straight for his room.
A glass clinked against a bowl.
Tohru bent down to pick up a stray grain of rice on the floor. Poor, lonely little grain, left behind like that. So he was mad at her. But what could she do if she couldn't talk to him?
In the privacy of his room, Yuki set out his homework, praying Miss Honda wasn't too offended by his behavior. It would have been inexcusable, if it hadn't been for the right reason. He just couldn't stand to look at her without wanting things to go back to the way they were. Risking her safety just wasn't an option.
In the next few days, Tohru began to feel more tired than usual. She didn't demand anything, but whenever she saw Yuki, she put on a huge smile, like the one in her mother's photograph.
On the rooftop, she often sought solace with Kyo. The boy was not blind to his opportunity to get closer to Tohru, but taking advantage didn't feel right. Not when Tohru was so sad.
"I don't understand what his problem is." The orange-haired youth complained. "I hear he's taking on more work than he needs to. What a try-hard!"
Her eyes began to heat up at hearing the rumor repeated from Kyo. It only reminded her that she was the reason he didn't want to be home.
"It's me." She said, wiping at her eyes. "I'm the problem. He's avoiding me."
He turned away from her, facing the sky.
"I can talk to him for you, if you want." He offered. 'I can't believe I'm doing this..'
Tohru circled her thumbs around each other. "Thanks Kyo. "I'd like that."
Sunday evening, Tohru prepared a lavish dinner. With no events for Yuki to escape to, Shigure insisted he be at the table.
Tohru arrived from the kitchen in a simple lavender sweater and knee-length purple skirt. Her pink apron ruffled around her waist as she bent to serve them the first course. Yuki noticed the flush on her face from the heat of the stove and the subtle sway of the ruffle at the hem of her skirt. She was beautiful. Not only did she transform their fitful house into a home. She had transformed him into a better person. He looked down at his clasped fingers.
Kyo observed Yuki carefully from above his miso soup. That girly man was clearly looking everywhere but at Tohru.
"Hey Tohru!" the orange-top called. "You should cheer up!" Yuki set down his fork a bit harder than necessary.
Yuki sighed with envy, wishing he could express himself freely like the Cat.
"So Yuki," the orange-top began casually. "What's gotten into you lately? You're so busy."
The Rat gave the teen a look of pure contempt before noticing Tohru had stopped stirring her pot at the stove.
"The student council just needed extra help, that's all." He replied evenly.
"Must be a quite an ambitious group if they have meetings five days a week," said Kyo.
"Must be -if they do things besides sucking at martial arts."
Kyo stood up.
"You wanna go Rat boy?"
"Don't tempt me."
Shigure cut in. "Please take it outside away from my precious house!"
"Fine!" they both said.
Outside in the yard, Yuki adjusted his collar.
"You can dig at me all you like, but I'll throttle you if you upset Miss Honda with your passive-aggressive comments."
"Oh, I'm upsetting her? I'm not the one avoiding her day and night! When you try and hide it, you only make things worse."
"You should stay out of things you don't understand, Cat!"
"I understand that she cries because of you. It's just like you've always been. You're hiding because you're afraid but you're not even thinking about what she wants. She's been wanting to talk to you but you've been ignoring her this whole time."
"I just want to do the right thing. Akito wouldn't abide us getting close. You know that. I'm doing this for her."
"You're only doing this to save your own skin, in a way. Tohru would gladly face Akito for either one of us."
"That's why I've got to protect her."
"More like, protect yourself."
Kyo kept talking, but by this time, his voice seemed to fade. All he could think about was Tohru. That dumb cat had a point. He had wanted to avoid being selfish in pursuing a relationship with her. But he had never asked her what she wanted. He had decided for her.
Yuki transformed back into a man with a poof. He rushed to put his clothes on. The stall creaked loudly when opened. Finding Miss Honda was top priority.
She was standing near a corner of the school yard looking dazed. A single yellow butterfly flew past, unnoticed. She froze upon seeing him.
"Why?" she asked. "Why would you help me?" Her voice trembled.
"Why wouldn't I, Miss Honda? I care about you…" so much.
"Then why have you been avoiding me?!" Her eyes began to water and a lump formed in her throat. Yuki gazed back at her and put up a hand as if wanting to say something but the words died in his mouth. He felt like his chest was constricting, seeing her fallen countenance.
"I'm so sorry." She sobbed. "I'm so sorry but I just can't keep my promise. If I cared about someone, I'd tell them to do what they wanted to make them happy. But I just can't do that. I know I should be grateful to just have you in my life and that you gave me a place to stay. I know I shouldn't dare raise my eyes to you - you who have so many beautiful girls surrounding him while I'm so plain and ordinary." She sobbed again, chest heaving, hiccupping, tears streaming down. "I know I should be happy just to give you a smile when I see you but I'm not. Because-," she hesitated. Yuki's heart froze in his chest. She sunk into the ground, sitting against the corner.
"Because I like you. Because I can't help but like you. Because you're graceful and kind and smart and you know how to make even a clumsy, silly girl like me feel special. I can't ask you to like me. I can't ask you because that would be asking too much. But I've been waiting and waiting for you to drop your mask around me. I was silly to wait. You don't even want to be around me!" At this, Yuki found his voice.
" It's not that, Miss Honda."
His face constricted. He clenched his fists.
She breathed heavily, trying to get a hold of herself. She collected herself from the ground, stumbling, at first. Then she ran home, with Yuki running behind her. Breathing hard, she raced into the kitchen.
"Tohru. Turn around." Slowly, she turned. Her eyes were shut tight. Her fists crossed in front of her chest.
"Look at me Tohru. Look at me. Please?" He stepped closer to her, gently placing his hands around her wrists.
Tohru opened her eyes only to see Yuki on the verge of tears.
"I can't keep my promise either. Especially for what I'm about to say. I'm an idiot and a stupid, stupid fool for avoiding you. I wanted to protect you. I'm so sorry." He kissed her two fists.
Tohru hiccupped. "I'm sorry. I don't understand."
"How could you feel unworthy of me when I'm the one who could never be good enough for you? How could you want to be with someone from a cursed family, who turns into a disgusting rat every time you hugged them?"
At the denial in her eyes, he held up a hand.
" I didn't want to do that to you, Miss Honda. Even if I wanted to."
For a moment, they stood there as she took this in, just the sounds of their breathing to break the silence.
" But Kyo talked to me, and I realized I was wrong. He's willing to fight for you. And I will too because no matter what the cost, nothing is worth not being with you, even if it hurts me in the end. I thought I was being selfless in putting you at arm's length but I was only trying to save my own heart from breaking if you got your memories erased.
His voice was low and husky. "Miss Honda, if you could ever forgive me, I promise I'll spend the rest of my life doing my damnedest to make you happy."
For a few heartrending seconds, the girl only stared at him.
"Call me Tohru."
" What?"
"I said call me Tohru, Yuki."
Inching ever so closely while keeping that crucial space, Yuki squared his shoulders, tilted his face to the side, and gripped her shoulders. Tohru's heart beat wildly. She closed her eyes, lips parting ever so slightly. After a time-melting few moments, he pressed his lips against hers, eyes closed, breath held. He pulled away and they locked eyes. Two pink faces exhaled.
The Rat moved his face in again. This time he savored the texture of her lips a bit more. Tohru hummed in pleasure. Encouraged, he moved his bottom lip so that it chafed slightly against hers. The sensation sent shivers down his spine. Tohru's fists loosened. Yuki took one hand and languidly slid his hand against her palm to intertwine his fingers with hers. The other hand, Tohru reached up and slid against the back of his neck, curling her fingers into his hair as his other hand fell to her waist.
He flicked his tongue over her bottom lip and she arched her back and gripped his hair more tightly.
After a moment, he gave the softest of moans as she ran her tongue over his upper lip in return. Just then, the shoji door slid.
Shigure.
Since it would not do to have a dead Shigure if he chose to embarrass Tohru at that moment, they both sprang apart. Both were breathing heavily, Yuki gave her a look full of meaning and promise before looking squarely at Shigure, who had just entered the kitchen.
To his shock, he just took one look at them both, raised an eyebrow, and ducked right out.
"I'll be out for a little while. See ya." Yuki breathed a sigh a relief since no one would be murdered today.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" With that, Shigure was gone.
With that, Yuki turned back to Tohru, who, to his great dismay, was beginning to well up with tears again.
" Miss- Tohru?"
She began to laugh. "It's just. I'm so relieved. I thought you'd never want to be around me again."
Immediately, he held both her hands, murmuring in a low voice how sorry he was and how he'd never do it again.
"So… does this mean… that you like me too?" she asked, hopefully?
Yuki began to laugh. She was just too adorable. " I've liked you for quite some time now, Tohru," he admitted.
Wow. Prince Yuki Sohma liked her. What would Mom say to that?
"You can still call me Miss Honda sometimes if you like." She said, with a hint of playfulness.
The grey-haired teen cocked an eyebrow. He liked this playful side.
" As you wish, Miss Honda." His eyes sparkled.
All hell may break loose soon enough, but for now this moment was his treasure to enjoy.