Tohru grunted in protest at the pair of hands that were gently shaking her.
"Mmmm….five more minutes, Mom, please?" she sighed.
The relentless shaking continued. Tohru slowly opened her eyes. Kagura stood over her, her gray-green eyes showing concern.
"Rough night, Little Miss? Your covers are all tangled up. And you…well, you had your shoes on."
Tohru looked down. She was sure that she'd only been wearing her slippers.
"Oh…"
She didn't quite know what to say. If Kagura found out that she knew of Akito, she might tell Okami and then…
"Did you have a nightmare?" Kagura asked gently, sitting down beside her.
"I have them all the time," Tohru confessed evasively, "it got cold in here last night, that's all…and…there was that crying sound again."
"It sounds like someone's lost out there, doesn't it?"
Tohru began to disentangle herself from the sheets and kicked the shoes away so that she could get dressed properly. She was exhausted…she was sure she'd only been in to see Akito for a short time, but finding her way down there must have taken longer than she thought. Still, she wasn't sorry she'd done it.
"I've got a few things to do while you're eating," Kagura said, "but I'll be back shortly to help you dress. I'd imagine my cousins will turn up sooner or later. Oh, and Hatori's coming home later this evening—at least that's when we're expecting him."
"I thought he was too busy to see me," Tohru confessed.
"Trust me, he'll make time! He only pretends to be an anti-social dragon at times. Under those scales is a very soft heart. One of his latest projects is a research hospital for children because he can't stomach the thought of them dying from things like cancer."
Tohru's eyes grew wide. She had pictured Hatori as being cold and distant like snow clouds. Now, she was getting a very, very different picture of him. Perhaps the point of him staying away all the time was so that he'd be able to help Akito in the long run…
"I can't wait," she said genuinely.
There was a noisy clatter downstairs. Okami's raised voice was howling out apologies for banging into someone and it was also freaking out over how things weren't ready yet. Strangely, Tohru noticed, the usual cry of Akito's voice was silent today. Maybe he hadn't woken up yet, or maybe just having his loneliness alleviated for a bit had made him less desperate for attention. She wished she could go and say hello before she went outside, but there were too many people around. It would have to wait until tonight.
She finished her breakfast and retrieved one of the kimonos, a pretty turquoise one that matched her eyes. Trying to remember the exact steps of how to get it on right, she slowly repeated the process of Kagura's hands. She was nearly there when Kagura returned.
"Started without me! Will wonders never cease?" she remarked, making a few adjustments.
"Well, I know you're all busy and I didn't want to be a bother," Tohru admitted.
"Keep practicing," Kagura said, "you've almost got it. But you might want to do something about that bedhead…"
"Oh!"
Tohru's cheeks reddened as she seized her hairbrush. Her hair was sticking up in every direction. She tamed her messy brown mane and tied her ribbons in. Then, she bundled up securely against the cold and headed outside.
A white bird fluttered overhead. She'd never seen something so pretty and chased after it, eager to know where it was going. It headed for the gardens, but it flew over a hedge that was actually concealing a wall. Tohru squeezed between the hedge and the wall, searching for an entrance. She hadn't even known this was there.
"Where's the door?" she sighed in frustration, "I can't find the door!"
The bird fluttered past again, tilting its head as if studying her. It flew short distances in fits and starts before turning to look at her impatiently. Then, it perched on a knot of vines covering an old wooden door. Tohru tried to open it, but it was locked. The rusty lock had a bunch of dirt wedged in the keyhole from neglect.
"Thank you!" she said. The bird made a cooing noise rather than the familiar chirp.
"I see you've found Melody," Yuki remarked.
"Huh?" Tohru jumped, a little startled at his sudden appearance.
"Melody," Yuki said again, "that's the dove's name. She sings to us, that's why we call her that. She's tame. Watch."
He offered his hand to the dove and she landed on it.
"She's been here for ten years now," Yuki said, "Hatori says she's old for a bird."
"Ten years? Isn't that how old Akito is?"
Yuki and Kyo stared at each other—Kyo was considering sneaking up on Tohru, but he'd paused and now his chance was gone.
"You've seen Akito, Miss Honda? When?"
"Last night," she said, "I couldn't sleep with all that crying—he seemed terribly upset, so I went to find out what was wrong. I thought it was a ghost or something, but anything was better than letting him cry and cry like that. Imagine how silly I felt when it turned out to be just another boy!"
Yuki seemed quite troubled by this.
"Did he do or say anything strange to you?" he asked.
"No. He seemed quite nice, actually. I don't really understand why they keep him cooped up in there. He says it's because he's dying, but I would think staying in that room would make him sicker."
"Stay away from the little creep," Kyo finally said, "if you don't want your life ruined."
"You don't like him?"
"That's an understatement."
"Why?"
"There's a reason Hatori stays away from here," Kyo finally said, "Akito blinded him in one eye all because the little freak didn't get his way on something."
Tohru gasped.
"He's been handed everything since he was born and no one's bothered to make him stop. And the sad thing is there's nothing any of us can do about it," Kyo sighed.
"Kyo, maybe we shouldn't talk about this. The walls have ears—and besides, we're scaring Miss Honda."
"Shut up, you damn rat."
"Really," Tohru said, getting between them, "I don't want to cause any trouble. What's behind that wall there? Why is it locked off?"
"That's the old garden," Yuki said, "it used to be Akira's and Ren's. Hatori had it closed up after they died."
"Why?"
"Too many memories, I guess. Grown-ups are weird."
"Where's the key?"
"We don't know. But locks can't keep Melody out. Or the two of us, for that matter."
"There are other ways in."
"Shut your mouth, you stupid rat! You'll get us in trouble!"
"Why do you keep calling Yuki a rat?"
"It's the only thing I can call him without Kagura boxing my ears. Now, watch."
He examined a nearby tree for a moment before springing up to one of the branches. Tohru thought for sure he was going to fall, but he didn't. He clung easily to it and inched up the moss-covered trunk until he reached an overhanging branch. Peering down at the abandoned garden below, he said, "Getting over here isn't hard—it's getting back that might be a problem."
He inched onto the wall itself and stood upright.
"Kyo, be careful!" Tohru yelled, her heart in her throat.
"He'll be all right, Miss Honda. He's always doing that."
Kyo seemed to balance perfectly on the crumbling wall. He walked the perimeter of the garden, studying it carefully. While a long drop wasn't an issue for him, it might be for the other two. Tohru watched him get further and further away, his orange hair standing out brightly against the gray-blue light that bleached out the color in everything else. He finally returned, his cheeks growing as red with the cold as his eyes. It was the first time she'd noticed that his irises were a deep crimson—was it just a trick of the light or was it real?
"Unless we want Shigure and Kagura to have us locked up forever, I suggest we find the key," he said, sounding almost disappointed, "there's nothing in there worth getting trapped over."
"How will we do that? We aren't allowed inside the main house without permission," Yuki asked, suppressing a shudder.
"I'll look for it," Tohru volunteered, "when Kagura calls me in for dinner. No one really pays attention to the upstairs part of the house when it gets late. Besides, I haven't got any books to read or anything else to pass the time."
She wondered what the two of them did during that time.
"What about both of you?"
"We have chores to do before we eat," Yuki answered, "and then we go home with Kagura."
"Let's not waste our time standing around talking, then," Kyo demanded.
They started to move away from the sealed garden, but Tohru's foot caught on a loose paving stone. She stumbled forward and Yuki grabbed her out of instinct. There was a cloud of smoke and a strange poofing sound before she hit the ground.
"Yuki!" she screamed in horror. She didn't see him anywhere—just his empty clothes.
"Now look what you did," Kyo said, almost tauntingly. Tohru's eyes filled with tears. Her knee was scraped and the silk fabric of the kimono was torn where she'd hit it. Suddenly, something squirmed beneath the collar of Yuki's shirt, startling her. A gray rat crawled out and looked up at her. The eyes, she noticed were lavender.
"Y-Yuki?"
The rat nodded.
"Wh-what happened?"
"Well, at least now you know why I call him 'rat'," Kyo said, almost uneasily.
"Will he change back?"
"Eventually."
"I'm so sorry, Yuki! I don't know how it happened!"
"Being stressed out is one way," he said, startling her more because she didn't know he could still speak, "or…hugging a girl. Or in Kagura's case, hugging a boy."
She stared, disbelieving.
"It's our curse," Yuki continued, "there's a reason we live out in the middle of nowhere. And why Akito's sick all the time…the Zodiac curse. Each one of us carries the spirit of a different animal."
"And you're the Year of the Rat," Tohru concluded, "so that means…"
She glanced over at Kyo.
"You're the cat, aren't you? It's why your hair is orange and you can balance on walls!"
"Unfortunately," he mumbled.
"But it also means…" she bowed her head, "that you're left out."
"So what? I don't give a crap about those legends."
Out of instinct, she hugged him, only too late realizing what would happen. POOF! Now, she was left holding an orange cat. An orange cat whose ears were flattened to his skull with irritation.
"Oh! I'm sorry! I really am!"
"Just….put…me…down…" he said, fighting the urge to swipe at her with his claws.
She carefully placed him on the stone.
POOF!
Yuki changed back. Unfortunately, he didn't have any clothes on. Tohru let out a shriek of shock and turned away, both hands clamped firmly over her eyes.
"Oh my goodness…"
Kyo couldn't help but chuckle at her discomfort.
"You can turn around now, Miss Honda," Yuki said gently, though the discomfort of having been put in this situation was still there in his voice.
"So…if all of you are animals, which one is Akito?" she asked.
"He isn't," Yuki said, "he was born in the Year of the God. He won't transform, but he is cursed with the burden of a short life, one that means he'll die very young. They don't expect him to make it until twenty. He has power over all of us, which means we have to do what he wants without questioning it. I've tried…I've tried to run away before. I literally couldn't do it. It's why Hatori stays away so much. Akito allows it, but he demands that Hatori return home once in a while just to remind him who pulls the strings."
"So, Hatori is which one?"
"He's the dragon. Or he's supposed to be," Kyo said with a smug smile.
"What does he turn into?"
"Let's just say it's something you wouldn't expect," Yuki said, "and Kagura is year of the boar—she turns into a pig."
"And that Shigure you mentioned?"
"He's a dog—big surprise there."
"Why?"
"Once you meet him, you'll find out."
"Is that why that mother cat would let you pet the kittens but not us?" Tohru asked.
"Yeah, that's why," Kyo grumbled.
She begged and begged him to get one of the kittens for her. At first, he resisted, but he finally gave in with a sigh. It mewed softly as he gently picked it up, all the while watching the mother's reaction. She didn't seem to mind—she remained laying on her side with half-closed contented eyes while the other kittens nursed. Kyo held the kitten between his cupped hands, not wanting it to get chilled. Its eyes weren't even open yet. Very carefully, he placed it in Tohru's palms.
"That was very nice of you, Kyo. Who would have thought?" Yuki half-teased.
"I only did it to shut her up," Kyo responded acidly.
Tohru cuddled the kitten next to her cheek. It stopped shivering after a moment, purring. She gave it back once it started to try and suck on her fingers—it was hungry. Kyo returned it to its mother.
"Do you attract rats?" Tohru asked Yuki.
"Actually, I use them to help with the chores," Yuki said smugly, "especially with things like weeding the garden. Gets it done much faster—Kagura disapproves, of course, but if she knew that we'd followed her while she used the feral pigs and wild boards to help her hunt out nuts and truffles and roots for the kitchen, she'd kill us!"
"What about Okami? What animal is she?"
"She isn't," Yuki said, "but her son, Ritsu, is. He was…sent away."
"Sent away?" Tohru asked.
"To a boarding school. Hatori thought it would be best for his nerves if he was away from Okami for a while—and Akito, for that matter. He thought it would be good if Ritsu was around other boys so that he'd outgrow his 'odd habits'. I don't really think it's working."
After the long days in isolation from the world, it was good to have someone to talk to. Tohru asked a lot of questions, but she was taking all of this strangely well. Of course, Yuki mused, if you'd accidentally turned two boys into a rat and a cat just by hugging them, you'd probably believe anything was possible after that. Part of it was probably her desire to be accepted as well—she had finally found a bigger bunch of outcasts than she was. She didn't complain when they wanted to play rough or climb big hills or anything like that and she tried her best to keep up. By the time it was dinner time, she was quite hungry and worn out. She reluctantly said goodbye to them before returning to the warm house.
"It's getting colder out there," Kagura shivered, "you're a tough little girl, you know that?"
"Actually, I don't feel cold at all," Tohru confessed. Kagura frowned at the scrape on her knee and the torn fabric, but she didn't say anything. She cleaned out the scrape and put a bandage on it.
"Here, let's get you changed before you see Hatori. We don't want him to think you're a little ragamuffin, do we?"
"I'm sorry about that," Tohru said sheepishly, "I tripped over a loose brick."
"Yeah…we're going to get that fixed when the weather gets warmer," Kagura said, helping her into an orange kimono, "and we're going to see about getting you some playing clothes so that you don't have to worry about this. I suppose none of us thought you'd be getting on so well with my cousins. Even Kyo."
"Kyo only pretends to not like girls, I think," Tohru said as Kagura tied the obi, "he says they're boring, but maybe he hasn't been around enough of them to know that's not always true."
She devoured her dinner. Despite being a little nervous, she was very hungry. After she'd brushed her wild, windblown hair out again, Kagura escorted her upstairs.
She had pictured an older man with graying hair, perhaps even balding, with glasses and a million books all around him. But what she saw was entirely different. He was, as she'd expected, sitting behind a desk and there were quite a few books scattered around, but he was far from old. A curtain of inky black hair fell over his forehead, concealing what she presumed was the blind eye. He wore no glasses despite this. His figure was long and lean and he was probably the tallest man in the house. Another ink-haired man with big, dark eyes was putting away the contents of his suitcase.
"Well, this must be the little flower we've been hearing about! How are you this evening, Miss Tohru Honda?"
The dark haired man greeted her as enthusiastically as if she were a long-lost friend. Her cheeks colored as he placed a hand on her shoulder and guided her inside. The two enormous dogs—one of them being the one that had frightened her the night she'd found Akito—were following him around with wagging tails and puppy-like enthusiasm. This had to be Shigure.
"I-I'm great, thank you," Tohru stuttered.
"Why don't you go and have your dinner now, Shigure? And take your friends with you?" Hatori finally spoke. He seemed to know that those enormous dogs were making Tohru nervous.
"Sure, sure, just kick me out when I was getting to know her," Shigure began in a melodramatic voice, "and I just might die of a broken heart, but—"
He trailed off. Hatori gave him a Look, his jade-green eyes piercing through the act. Tohru actually giggled as he realized Hatori meant business and retreated, looking every bit like the dogs on either side of him with their tails tucked between their legs.
"You'll have to excuse him," Hatori finally said, turning to her, "he's very…theatrical…at times."
Tohru almost blurted out that it was because he was a dog-spirit, but she remembered and quickly silenced herself. Instead, she said, "I wasn't sure I'd ever get to meet you since you're always busy. I'm glad I was wrong."
Hatori's long, pale fingers twined around each other as he rested his hands on the desk.
"Yes, I have been a little neglectful, haven't I? I assure you that it wasn't on purpose. My work takes me all over the world and away from home for months at a time. I apologize for not being back in time to collect you from the docks myself. Okami informed me of the unfortunate circumstances you had to put up with."
His gaze seemed to be searching for something. What was it about his eyes that seemed to pierce the flesh into the soul? Maybe it was the dragon-spirit in him.
"Oh, I didn't mind at all," Tohru said, feeling the need to stick up for poor old Okami, "I had a chance to sit and look at the water and to imagine what Sohma House would be like. It was worth the wait, too—the gardens and the—"
She trailed off, realizing she was rambling.
"I'm afraid I haven't much to offer you here," Hatori finally said, "I could send you to a school for girls where you'd have friends of your own age. Your needs would surely be better met there."
Remembering Ritsu, Tohru paled.
"But I have Yuki! And Kyo! I don't need much, honest! Just…"
She was afraid to ask, but her heart was thundering around crazily in her chest. Remembering the garden, she suddenly ached for it. Who would revive it if not the three of them?
"Go on," he urged her.
"A little bit of earth to plant flowers in. Mom loved gardening…and it'll be spring soon."
There was a crack in his wintry exterior. For one tiny moment, the ice in the doctor's jade-colored eyes thawed as he remembered Kyoko.
"Yes…had an obsession with roses."
"May I have it from anywhere as long as it isn't wanted?"
"Take it. You will still need to be educated even if you remain here—I made a promise to your mother. You will have to work hard to keep up with your studies or I'll have to send you away from the distractions. Do we have an understanding?"
Her small hand closed around his larger one. She could hardly contain her joy when she was dismissed, for he was in need of rest after traveling so far. That night, after all the lights were put out, she began her search for the key.
