Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket.

IceAngel5: So I had originally said that I would not upload the next chapter until I had ten reviews but honestly I was so excited about this story that I wanted to upload this chapter anyway! Now, before we go on to the second chapter, I wanted to thank my reviewers for their support very quickly because I feel that if you review I should thank-you for it:

GoldenEyesMidnightTears: thank-you for being my first reviewer! I hope that you continue to read and enjoy my story!

German Mickey: Yay! I am so happy that Kyo's attitude was shown in the first chapter, I worked hard on that. Thanks for the review!

Kyonkichi-san: I hope you continue to enjoy my story! Thank-you for the review!

LibraryLady08: Intriguing start? Thank-you!! I hope it continues to be intriguing!

Icy tiger: Thanks for reviewing, to answer your questions, I am going to be in my second year of college and the other stories I have are digimon.

Freexflyer: Look look! I updated!! Thank-you for the review!

ROSELIACOOL: Thanks for the laugh, your review was genuine and funny at the same time!

Rialet: thank-you! I am happy that I got the characterization down! I hope the moving went well!! Love you girl!

Jamie: thank-you too! I am happy you liked my first chapter.

Now, here, without further ado here is the second chapter of Pained Hearts.

Enjoy reading!

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Tohru Honda awoke the next morning earlier then usual. After getting dressed, she walked out of her room and down the hallway nearly bumping into Kyo on the way down the stairs.

"Oh!" she said, "I'm sorry, Kyo."

"No problem," Kyo muttered, "I-"

"Miss Honda, I thought you were going out today." Yuki had walked out of his room, rubbing his eyes and ignoring the fact that he interrupted Kyo.

"Stupid rat." Kyo mumbled, turning away and walking into the kitchen.

"Oh, yes," Tohru replied, "I am leaving. Right now in fact."

She walked out towards the door leading out of the house and waved to Shigure. He was sitting around the table sipping his coffee. Shigure watched Tohru put on her shoes and walk out of the door calling "Have a good day!" over her shoulder as she left. The dog was surprised that neither Kyo nor Yuki had walked out after her. He had suspected all of the secrecy had been driving them nuts but apparently they had not spoken their concerns to her... or maybe they had...

"You know," the dog sang as Yuki and Kyo came in with their heated breakfasts, "it does look rather cold outside. And poor poor Tohru did not take her coat. I wonder what the girl needs to think about that is so important that she needs to freeze to death..." He made a sorrowful face towards the boys.

Yuki's eyes went towards the floor Yuki doesn't know but Kyo's eyes widened, Ahh but Kyo does... I wonder... Kyo walked out of the house muttering under his breath, but not before grabbing Tohru's coat from the hanger.

Kyo walked as quickly as he could towards Tohru. He did not want to bother her this particular day considering how diligent she was about remaining silent throughout the month beforehand. He wanted to respect her privacy as much as he could so once he got close enough Kyo merely knocked Torhu on the top of her head. When she turned around he handed her the coat and started walking back to the house.

"Th-thank-you, Kyo!" Tohru said to his retreating figure.

He waved to show he heard and smiled to himself. Kyo walked back into the house and sat down, preparing to eat the breakfast Tohru had made the night before. He glared the dog into silence, truly not wanting to talk to Shigure, and barely even said two words with Yuki for the entire time at the table.

Today is certainly not a time to talk Shigure mused.

Tohru walked to a local shop to buy breakfast, a simple riceball set with salmon, she didn't want anything fancy. Tohru walked around the shops, eating her riceballs and wondering if they needed anything back at the house. She was pushing off the inevitable, after all today was the day she decided to fix things with herself. Sighing she wandered around for a few more moments before making up her mind. Now was the time to think. Now was the time to fix things.

She walked outside of the shopping area and into the wooded park. This had been where she had taken Kisa and Hiro a while back, she laughed, even the pancake stand was there. Tohru walked down to the swing set. She sat down on one of the swings, letting her legs dangle down and watching the skies, her thoughts wandering just for a bit more. Torhu sighed, she did not want to think about anything right now. She didn't want to fix it. She didn't want to stop...

Tohru shook her head. "No, mom." she muttered, "no, not yet. I don't want to stop."

But I have to. She thought. There are just some things that she needed to respect. Akito's decision was one of them. He had spoken to her a month and a half ago about rules and what she could not do. That was why she had asked for the day off. She needed to think, needed to fix some things before Akito broke them up entirely. If she did not change then Akito could hurt Kyo or Yuki or even Shigure. That was certainly something she did not want. So time to think. To think. To dream. To be. Today. Tomorrow. Tonight.

"GAH!" Tohru yelled out loud. frustrated with herself, "Focus, Tohru, focus!"

Really there wasn't much to think about. That's how Akito put it anyway. He always seemed to be fine with hurting others. So calm and so peaceful about it. It was like he did not feel at all. "There really isn't much to think about, Tohru, you know that... and so do I." Tohru's eyes fell towards the ground and her mouth turned into a frown. Not much to think about. Tohru certainly felt that he was wrong. There was too much to talk about. Too many feelings. Too much hurt.

"I don't want to!" Tohru began to cry, "I don't want to!"

Akito had put it so plainly, so simply.

"Don't."

But it was not that simple.

"Let go."

Nothing was that simple. Nothing was that quaint.

"Just don't. I won't allow it. You can't!"

Especially not this.

"I will not allow it!!"

Tohru's eyes started to tear up.

"You cannot! I will not allow it!"

Her shoulders began to shake.

"Just let him go."

"Nothing is that simple...whoa!" Tohru muttered, hanging her head and putting her hands to her heart. As soon as she let go of the metallic chains Tohru had a strange sensation rush through her body. She was falling.

She forgot one simple thing. On a swing-set one must really hold on in order to stay on. Faster then blinking an eye, Tohru found herself lying on the ground, head spinning and back aching from landing on it. She decided to stay where she fell, it wasn't so bad. The earth was covered with gravel anyway, somewhat soft. Tohru's eyes watered, her tears slid down her cheeks and mingled with dusty gravel below.

She did not want to stop feeling the things she was feeling. She did not want to stop. But that would mean that she would be disobeying Akito's orders. She did not want Akito to hurt anyone.

"I will not allow it!"

This was too much to handle, she did not want to have her friends get hurt. Especially not him. Akito could hurt him terribly, put him back in that room. It would be horrible. Akito could hurt them so badly that they would never want to talk to her again. What if they thought it was her fault? It would be her fault would it not? If she continued to have these feelings and Akito took it out on the Sohma's she could not handle that. They had already gone through so much pain for her but this one feeling was too much - even for them. Tohru had to be strong but her heart was breaking.

"Fix it!"

Tohru started crying and crying.

"Fix it! Fix it now!"

Tohru curled up into a tight ball and let her feelings go. She cried long deep heavy sobs. She could not stop them no matter how hard she tried.

"Mom! I can't! Mom, I can't fix my heart!" she cried, "Mom, I've tried, but I can't!"

"Fix it now! I will not allow it at all! Fix it!"

She couldn't fix her heart. A person once said that a heart has a mind of it's own. That certainly is true. There is nothing more unstable and yet nothing more cherished then the longings of the heart. Tohru kept crying as she realized something...

Her heart was something she did not want to fix. This was not a simple matter like Akito had told her. This was her heart. Tohru cried as she wished she could fix things, if only to be sure that Yuki, Kyo, and the other Sohma's would not get hurt by all of this.

"Fix it! Fix it now!"

"No!" Tohru yelled, she put her hands over her face, covering her eyes and mouth.

Her tears continued to fall onto the gravel, splashing over her hands, she had not sobbed like this since her mother's death. Tohru could not let her feelings show around the house because if she had it would have worried the Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure. Plus she could not even show her feelings around school either because Uo and Hana were there - she couldn't worry them. She loved her friends and she certainly trusted the Sohmas but it would be too much. Plus if she told them Akito's advice it would only make those close to her upset. So now, alone in the park, finally by herself, Tohru cried. She sobbed, letting her feelings flow out of her in waves. Tears stained the ground and made the rocks turn a darker hue. She was finally alone...

Or so she thought.

"Hey. Tohru."

She thought she heard a voice over her crying. It sounded directly over her. Tohru opened one bloodshot eye.

Through her fingers she saw a shadow on the ground. Yes, there was someone standing over her, the shadow had proved that, and that same person reached down and put a bottle of water next to her face.

"You know," the voice said again. Tohru recognized it but her head hurt too much to realize who it was, "crying isn't that good for you. It just makes you dehydrated if you don't drink enough."

Tohru looked up, she could only see the outline of the person standing over her but, even though she continued crying her heart out, she was grateful that someone was here with her.

She pulled herself up into a sitting position but let her eyes fall to the shadow instead of the person. She ran her hands through her hair. Once she found her voice she mumbled softly, "What are you doing here?"

Tohru saw the shadow's head look towards to side, gazing off into the distance, before the mouth moved and voiced two words.

"Helping you."

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IceAngel5: Thanks for reading the second chapter!! I hope that you enjoyed reading is as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please remember to review as I would love to hear what you think of the chapter, constructive criticism is welcome. The next chapter will be up soon! Until then!