She was running. She remembered the pain that swelled so large in her heart, the worthlessness. The forest flew through her peripherals, forgotten, each leaf someone had worked so carefully on in the construct of her dreams worked it's way through her line of sight in a blur. She didn't know what she was running to, just what she was running from. Kyo's angry face was what she saw through all of the tears. She saw it, the branch she tripped over that sent her off of the ledge. It twisted her ankle, sending a shock of pain through her leg. She saw a glimpse of silver that she dismissed as moonlight, and looked at the ground that was very quickly approaching. She then saw every detail of every leaf she was about to make contact with and then-
Tohru awoke in a flash of bright light. She had sat up in her blind panic, and quickly regretted it. Her ribs had a deep ache that seemed to always be just below the surface that no painkiller could relax away. Something had seemed wrong about that dream, some detail. The moonlight, perhaps. She saw it every night, but it had been late evening when she had run. The moonlight wouldn't have been streaming through the trees. She thought back to the dream, but it slipped away, as dreams do, like sand through a child's fingers. She wrested herself out of the bed with great difficulty. Holding a glass of water in one bandaged hand and a hearty amount of pill capsules in the other, Tohru made her way towards the door, never quite making it there. She stood in the middle of the room, not knowing what to do with herself. She was taking her last pill when Kyo walked in with a plate of rice and a small bowl of miso soup.
"Thought you might be hungry." He tried to smile, but it came out looking like he was baring his teeth.
"Thank you, Kyo-kun. I kind of wanted to eat downstairs today, though. I'm sorry you had to bring it all the way up here!" She grabbed the plate and started towards the door, trying to hide the limp she had and the difficulty breathing. He chuckled under his breath and carefully took the plate from her.
'She's getting better,' Yuki thought. 'She always gets treated well. She's never had any real problems with getting along with people. She's been bullied, but never secluded to the point of insanity. She's just a spoiled, over-apologetic brat.'
Though he did like it when she apologized. Even when it was for something meaningless, it was as if she knew she was a screw-up. Meaningless. He chuckled at that. The actions she believes warrant an apology are about as meaningful as she is.
He finished with the wet rag on the polished, now-slick wood of the stair landing. He retreated, knowing she would be gone soon enough.
Tohru limped ahead of Kyo, approaching the stairs. Just as Yuki walked by, her foot suddenly lost traction with the floor. She lurched forward, and suddenly she was flying face-first towards the staircase. Something warm wrapped around her hand, and the gentle touch soon grew too tight as she was wrenched from the air mid-flight, jerked back to Kyo's chest, then staring at the cat on the floor. "That was close." Kyo glared at the stairs. "You could have gotten re-injured."
She looked up from the floor and looked at Yuki, who seemed as though a scowl was just finished passing over his face. Her eyes traveled to his shirt that was covered in soup and rice and blushed.
"I'm so sorry, Yuki! Your shirt-" she jumped up to him as he backed away.
"There's really no need, Miss Honda. I am perfectly capable of cleaning myself." He retreated to his room, sneering at her in his mind.
"Tohru, do try to be more careful." Shigure looked down at the girl who now had Hatori bandaging her knee.
"I don't understand, I was just sitting in the yard and suddenly the chair was taken out from under me! I'm sorry you had to call Hatori-san. And Hatori-san, I'm sorry you had to come all the way out."
Hatori smiled up at her, his good eye peering through his hair. Ever since he had begun dating his new nurse, he had a brighter mood.
"Tohru, you know it isn't that far. And aren't we past calling each other -san? You've known me three years."
Her eyes widened. "I-I didn't know it bothered you Hatori-san. I mean -chan. Or -kun."
He looked back down, chuckling. "It's fine, Tohru. Don't hurt yourself." He placed the last bandages.
When Shigure called saying Tohru was hurt, he had panicked. He was in the middle of a date with his new girlfriend, and he had made a hurried excuse. He had left her after paying the bill and rushed over with a medical kit. He saw Tohru with a ice pack over a badly scraped knee, but nothing serious. He glared at Shigure but had begun bandaging the bloody knee, holding her hand when the peroxide stung, and now worked on her hands, pulling bits of rock out of her raw palms.
"So the chair just disappeared, sending you over a hill?" Kyo was done with these close calls.
"Tohru, you have to be careful. Someone's not always going to save you from yourself."
"You will, Kyo-kun. You did before." She glanced up at him and winced when a bit of rock hit an open wound.
"Well, what if I'm at school or something? What if one day, you just get up and leave and no one can find you?"
Hatori sent a stern glance in Kyo's direction. "Kyo, that's enough. She can't help when she gets hurt."
"No, Hatori-kun. He's right. I've been careless. I apologize." She stood up, bangs covering the top half of her face. She scraped her nails over her palms, effectively tearing out every bit of sediment, and walked quietly out of the room. Everyone that was in the room watched her go, stunned. That was the closest to an emotional outburst that they had seen from her. Yuki stood in the doorway, then turned so no one could see him grinning like a maniac. He didn't have to tear them apart, they were doing to themselves! He decided something. Maybe he wasn't the one that had to end Tohru. Maybe... Maybe she'd do it herself.
He found Tohru in her room, stunned at herself. She had never really been angry before, not even at herself. She couldn't decide what to feel, so she turned to the closest emotion she could relate it to. She sank slowly into the dark sadness that she hid so often. She went into a deep depression at that moment, trying to recreate the intensity of the one she had felt downstairs. Yuki took his chances.
"That was quite an outburst, Miss Honda. Kyo looked- well, it was a feeling I could not name." He was the only one aware of his intent.
"Forlorn?" She looked up, eyes gleaming with tears.
"Well, no. He wouldn't feel that over one such as yourself."
"One such as myself? Yes, I suppose I am quite worthless." She lowered her head again.
The Yuki of two years ago would have reassured her. But he decided to push his luck further.
"Yes, I suppose so." His movement resembled a serpent as he sat beside her on the bed. "Kyo almost didn't check on you, you know. And when I spoke of not seeing you there, he told me to leave you alone."
These words were true. Kyo told Yuki to leave her alone, because she clearly went out there to be alone. But they were twisted with Yuki's malicious intent into an insult.
"Yes, I've been a burden to him. Perhaps I should just..." She grabbed the bottle of pills and dumped them into her hand.
"Oh no, Miss Honda." He grabbed her wrist, and looked into her eyes, his dark ones hypnotizing her.
"That would result in quite a mess in Shigure's house."
"Oh Yuki-kun, you're right. Thank you."
He smiled, a terrible wolfish grin. Patted her head. She had played right into his trap. She dipped the pills back into the bottle and held it as if she were second guessing.
'I've been such a burden. To everyone.' She reassured herself. 'They can go back to being a family again. They don't need a schoolgirl around.'
She quickly scribbled a note, simply saying 'This is for the best. Yuki-kun has helped me see what I've done wrong. Thank you for your help, and I'm sorry for the trouble I have caused. Goodbye. -Tohru Honda'
She left the room quietly, sweeping past Yuki who stood in the doorway, stunned at how easily she had given in. Then he realized, she had given up long ago. She had just needed to be reminded. He smirked at her weakness and glided over to the desk, efficiently ripping the note into unrecognizable pieces.
