Come Back To Me

Chapter Four

Temerity

It was about an hour before Tohru even moved from her spot. She sobbed the entire time, until her eyes could no longer produce tearsf.
She felt very dehydrated at this point, and walked to the kitchen, and grabbed a glass of water. She stared out into the city from the kitchen window, rain ofnce again began to speckle it.

She took a final gulp, washed the cup out in the sink, and walked to the front door.
She stared at it hard for a couple of minutes, before locking it securely, and going to the bedroom. She looked around the room. It was as tidy as ever, and the sheets remained untouched. If Tohru hadn't found that message on the phone, would they be making passionate love right now?

Her eye line glanced over the room, and finally came to rest upon the bedside table, where a framed photo of both Kyo and Tohru stood. Tohru walked slowly over to it, and picked it up. It had been on their mini-break to Hakodate. They both were staring lovingly into each other's eyes. Tohru scowled at the photo, before screaming and throwing it against the wall.

The framed shattered into a million pieces, and dropped to the floor. The photo fluttered slowly and fell, resting at Tohru's bare feet. She picked it up, and found an inscription on the back;

To Tohru, my loving girlfriend, all my love always, Kyo x

Tohru felt sick. And she ran to the bathroom quickly, and vomited. She felt awful, not guilty awful, like a certain somebody should be, but physically sick. How could Kyo do this to her? She had never before had a reason to doubt his faithfulness, why should he start now?

She walked back into the bedroom, grabbed the quilt and wrapped it around her, pillows and all, and slumped onto the sofa.
She grabbed the TV's remote control, and begun flicking through various channels.
It was two days before Tohru even bothered to do anything. The only times she'd even bothered about getting up was to go to the bathroom, or going to get food.
For some reason, she'd been feeling very ill, maybe she'd eaten way too much at Matake's, which she had. There was probably something dodgy about those onion rings, she knew she shouldn't have tried them.

Still, she lay on the sofa, occasionally getting up to throw up, or going to get food. She had unplugged the phone, and had switched off her mobile phone. She didn't want any calls or text messages, from anyone. She had also shut all curtains in the apartment, blocking mostly all light. She felt so alone at the moment that she felt fine in this sanctuary she had created in the living room.

Over the past days, Kyo had been over numerous times, trying to get into the apartment, to which Tohru either shouted at him to go away, or she turned the volume really low on the TV, as though to trick Kyo into thinking she wasn't there. The latter hardly ever worked.

Once again, at about 4:30pm on the second day of the lock-down in her home, there was a banging knock on the door.

"Go away, Kyo!" Tohru said, her voice breaking slightly, it'd been a while since she'd spoken.

"Guess again!" came a voice from the other side of the door.

Tohru shifted slightly on the sofa, into a sitting position. "Uo?" she called out "What're you doing here, I don't want to see anyone!"

"Tohru, you're gonna have to come out eventually," replied Uo, her voice drifting through the door "you're gonna run out of food at come point."

Uo had a point, Tohru had pretty much raided the cupboards and fridge in the kitchen.

"What do you want, Uo?" asked Tohru, still sat up, slightly slouched over.

"I want to see you, Tohru!" came back Uo's voice "We haven't spoken in a about a week!"

That was true, so, after another ten minutes of negotiation, Tohru finally got up and let Uo into the apartment.
Uo waited expectantly, as the locked clicked in the door, and Tohru's silhouette appeared.

"Tohru! It's – Oh my God!" shouted Uo, as she saw the state Tohru had let herself get into.

Tohru was in light yellow pyjamas, that were heavily stained with random pieces of old food and drink. Her hair was unkempt, and matted. Her face was pale, and the eye-liner she'd been wearing on the night she'd argued with Kyo was still on her face; she had bad panda eyes. She also smelt, really badly.

"Tohru!" shouted Uo, going into the apartment, and surveying the mess Tohru had accumulated over the past two days. "What the Hell happened here?!"

She noted the unclosed cupboards in the kitchen, the mass of plates by the sink, and also by the sofa. The food stained bedsheets, and also the fact the entire apartment was in complete darkness, save for the TV, which was the only source of light in the entire room.
Uo put her hand to her face.

"Tohru it stinks in here!" said Uo, muffled by her hand "is there a dead rat or something in here?"

"Could be," replied Tohru, mono-syllabically "I haven't had a chance to clean up, I've been so busy."

"Doing what?" said Uo, running over to the window, and prising it open "I doubt 'having a life' is the excuse."

"Oh, y'know," said Tohru, lying back on the sofa, and pulling the sheets over herself again "doing stuff."

"Tohru," said Uo, standing over the Tohru-shaped duvet "we're going out, c'mon!"

"Do we have to?" came Tohru's voice, slightly muffled "I'm busy today, I was planning on cleaning."

"Fine, then," replied Uo, hands on hips "we'll clean this crap hole, then we'll go out."

"When I said 'planning on cleaning'," said Tohru, the sheets moving slightly "I meant 'planning on cleaning in the next two to three weeks... Give or take a month.'"

"Get your lazy ass up!" said Uo, ripping the sheets from Tohru, who flailed on the sofa.

Uo then ran over to the curtains and prised them open, the mid-afternoon sunshine blasted through the room, flooding it with light. Tohru screamed slightly, as her eyes adjusted to the brightness, and she threw herself down, and covered her face with a pillow.

"Come on!" shouted Uo, grappling Tohru's body, and leading her to the bedroom, which was just as much of a mess "You're getting some clothes on, cleaning, then we're going out!"

After fifteen minutes, Tohru was finally in some old clothes, and was ready to clean the apartment.

Within a matter of minutes, they'd cleaned the bedroom, removing all of the pots and discarded items, and replacing clothes and other accessories back into their respective places.

They then passed over to the lounge, with which they opened the windows as far as they could go.

"I think it's time for a change," said Tohru, scanning over the filthy room "I wanna change the furniture round."

"Let's clean the place up first, before we start any of that!" replied Uo, pulling a full garbage bag out of the door.

Tohru then began to pick up the plates she had strewn about the floor, and placed them in the kitchen.
She began to reflect over the last time she had seen Kyo, how she had shouted, and screamed.. And threw a memo block at him. Wow, she wish she'd thrown something bigger at him.
She was so unbelievably angry with him. How could he do this? Had she not given him enough over the past year they'd been engaged?

"Tohru? Tohru?" came the distant voice of Uo.

Tohru came out of her daydream, "Huh?". She found herself stood in the kitchen, the stack of plates by the dishwasher, and Tohru by the sink, staring out of the window.

"What's up?" Uo asked, putting a hand on Tohru's shoulder.

"Hm? Oh, nothing," replied Tohru, smiling "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" said Uo, looking concernedly at Tohru "you seemed kinda upset to me."

"Oh, no," said Tohru, shaking her head "I'm fine, honest. C'mon, let's finish off cleaning this place!"

It took most of the afternoon to clean the whole apartment. But, by 6 O' clock, the apartment was in its original state once more, in fact, it was even better.
Tohru and Uo stood by the front door, taking in the gleaming surfaces.

A loud rasping came from behind them; someone was at the door. Tohru looked around, as Uo looked through the peep-hole.

"Hm," she said "it's some old guy."

Tohru walked over and looked for herself. It was in fact her neighbour, Mr. Tobi, a retired doctor who lived with his wife, Mrs. Tobi. Tohru thought it polite to not ask the Tobi's their first names. Mr. Tobi was a short, squat man. His balding hair was a vibrant white, and his wrinkled face looked worse, for the fact he was frowning. He and Mrs. Tobi lived in apartment 72B, directly next door to Tohru.

Tohru opened the door with a smile.

"Hello, there, Mr. Tobi how-"

"Don't give me any of that happy crappy!" said Mr. Tobi, an accusatory finger directly in Tohru's face "you've been on my last nerve since you moved here! A thorn in my side!"

"What's wrong, Mr. Tobi?" asked Tohru, backing away slightly.

"What's the matter?!" he said "try falling asleep to constant arguments blasting through your walls at all hours of the day! Try concentrating on something when constant bangs penetrate our walls constantly! Try to do anything with constant disruptions coming from this apartment!"

By now, the door of apartment 71A had opened, and a plump woman came trotting out. She was the stereotypical all-American 50's woman. Her hair was swept back into a beehive, sunglasses were perched on it. She wore vibrantly pink trousers, and a lime green blazer, with a black T-shirt underneath it.

"Now, now," she said, her voice with a very strong Texan accent "what's all this racket?!"

"You!" Mr. Tobi exclaimed, pointing to the woman now "Tammy! You-"

"My name," replied the woman, pushing Mr. Tobi's finger away "for the last time, is Tanya! Tanya! Okay?"

"Yes, yes, whatever, Tiffany!" shouted Mr. Tobi, flustering about himself "anyway, Timmy, you've complained as well about the noise 71B constantly makes. And they've been doing it again, this time all day!"

Tanya, looked aghast, "Look, if you can't get my name right, old man, then you'll get no respect from me, okay?"

"Old man?!" shouted Mr. Tobi "if it weren't for me, your medical bills would've been a lot higher than they were that time you needed that appendectomy!"

"Yes, and if it wasn't for you," retorted Tanya, leaning into Mr. Tobi's face "I wouldn't be here now freezing my nipples off!"

"Oooh!" replied Mr. Tobi, shaking with rage "well, next time those brats of yours need babysitting, take them to that shame of a daycare you call your workplace, because we won't be home!"

And with that, he stalked off back to 72B, as Tanya shouted "Yeah, you walk away, old man!"

"Now," she said, looking over at Tohru and Uo "let that be my favour returned to you after you picked up Julie from school when I had a 120 fever."

She began to walk over to 71A when Tohru called her back.

"Um, Tanya," said Tohru, as Tanya turned on her heel and looked back "did you really complain about the noise coming from out apartment?"

"Oh, dear," replied Tanya, biting her lip "well, you did make a lot of noise, and I was stressed because little Julie wouldn't go to sleep..."

"So, you'll call off the complaint?" asked Tohru, expectantly.

"Let's not do anything we'll regret, now, dear," said Tanya, looking slightly sombre.

"What?" said Tohru, the smile dropping from her face like a dead weight "you're saying you'd regret taking back a complaint about us?"

"Like I said," replied Tanya, stalking back to her door "let's not do something we'll regret!" and with that, she slammed her front door shut, leaving Tohru in silence.

"What was all that about?" came Uo's voice, finally.

They both walked back into 71B, and sat around the dining table by the window (Tohru had decided against moving the furniture).
They drank coffee, as Tohru explained to Uo about the disastrous relationships they'd had with their neighbours ever since they had moved in. About how Mr. Tobi had come over to help them, only for Tohru to drop a lamp on his head as she passed it off the truck. Or how Kyo had almost given Mrs. Tobi a heart attack when he'd accidentally locked himself out naked to grab the mail from their pidgeon hole. He'd originally gone out with a bathrobe on, but it got caught in the door, which had slammed shut, and the robe pulled away when he walked, leaving him naked as Mrs. Tobi walked out the door.
Not to mention the time Tohru had knocked Tanya's seven-year-old daughter, Julie, unconscious, when she'd ordered new furniture, and ran past young Julie and smacked her in the face with the box.

Uo had to stifle laughter at the stories Tohru had laid out to her, but eventually burst into laughter after Tohru had told her that Tanya had once slipped and shot down the corridor as Tohru as come in from the rain completely drenched, and dripped her way to her door.

"Okay, I'm not telling you any more!" said Tohru eventually.

"Fine, fine!" replied Uo, staring out the window. The sun had fallen once again behind the skyscrapers. It was 7:30pm. Uo looked at Tohru.

"So, you wanna go out tonight?" she asked, eyebrows raising as she said it.

"I guess it'd do me good to go out, huh?" replied Tohru.

"Yes, it would," said Uo, grabbing Tohru's hand and smiling "C'mon, get your dancin' shoes on and we'll go out clubbing, and pulling all the hot guys there is!"

With that, Tohru and Uo went into Tohru's room and over to her closet.
Tohru opened the doors and looked inside for something to wear. Uo, meanwhile, was checking Tohru's other closet for clothes. She stopped.

"Ooh," said Uo, pulling out a dress "This one's beautiful!"

Tohru turned to look, and she gasped. It was the dress she'd worn on her and Kyo's first date. The tomato soup stain, ripped hem, and broken strap all very visible.

"Oh," said Uo, looking at it "it's ruined. Oh my God! Look at that stain!! Tohru, that is not gonna come out, you may as well throw this away."

And Uo began to walk out of the room, the dress in hand. Tohru ran after her, and caught her halfway across the lounge.

"Wait! No!" she shouted, holding out a hand, and grabbing the ruined dress.

"What's up?" said Uo, noticing Tohru's clutching hand on the dress.

"I can't throw that away!" replied Tohru, almost pleading.

"Why the Hell not?" said Uo, tugging the dress slightly "It's complete trashed and useless!"

"No, it's more for sentimental value, really," said Tohru, blushing slightly, but not loosening her grip.

"Sentimenta-" replied Uo, cutting herself off "What ever for?!"

"It was the dress I wore to mine and Kyo's first 'official posh' date, okay?" said Tohru, blushing harder "I like to keep it, to look at sometimes."

"Tohru, that's not good for you." replied Uo, clutching tighter to the dress "you can't keep crap like this. It's over between you and Kyo-"

"I never said it was over," said Tohru, looking at Uo "I've never said it to him, nor to myself."

"Tohru, you're looking a little green, are you okay?" asked Uo, looking at Tohru more closely.

"What?" replied Tohru, caught off-guard by Uo's question "Oh, yeah, I'm fine, just been feeling a little bit under the weather, is all."

"Oh, okay, well, don't push yourself too much tonight, okay?" asked Uo, pulling away slightly.

"Don't worry, I won't," replied Tohru, pulling at the dress also.

"Anyway, c'mon and throw away this garbage!" said Uo, pulling the dress from Tohru's grasp.

"No, Uo!" shouted Tohru, grabbing at the dress "this is my decision, and my decision is it stays!"

"Fine," said Uo, heaving a sigh, and letting go "do as you wish and stay in the past. Anyway, why do you still not break up with Kyo? He cheated on you with some other woman!"

"Well, I know he may have a reasonable excuse," responded Tohru, pulling the dress close to her.

"I doubt it," replied Uo, walking back into the bedroom "anyway, come on, we gotta get you dressed for goin' out!"

"You know, I thought you of all people would be the most sympathetic to me," replied Tohru, hanging the dress back up into the closet "I mean, after Kureno left you, I watched over you while you were down."

Uo stopped "I thought we said we wouldn't talk of that incident," she said, a note of darkness in her voice "we promised each other that wouldn't happen. I've tried for two years to get over him, and here you are, dragging it back up and rubbing it in to my face."

"See, you seem to see me as being insensitive," replied Tohru, pulling out a blue cocktail dress "whilst I saw that with you and the dress."

"Tohru, those two are completely different matters!" Uo said, holding back tears.

"Are they really, though?" said Tohru, putting on the blue cocktail dress "You wanted to let go of Kureno because of what he did to you. I don't want to let go of Kyo, because he could still prove me wrong."

"What?" said Uo, turning around "How can he? You heard that message with your own ears! That woman slept with your fiancé!"

"You think I don't know that?!" said Tohru, pulling on a pair of blue shoes to match the dress "I just want to hear Kyo tell me himself. If he does, then I can move on with my life. If not, and I break up with him, and it turned out he wasn't cheating on me, I could be throwing one of the best things in my life away!"

"You look nice," said Uo, changing the subject, knowing Tohru had a point, after all, it was never truly confirmed Kyo had been cheating.

"Thanks," replied Tohru, pulling out a blood-red dress for Uo "you wanna wear this one? It's too long for me, and I think it'd suit you more, anyway."

"Ooh, that is nice!" said Uo, grabbing the dress and pulling it on "you got a pair of shoes to go with this?"

"I think so," replied Tohru, rummaging in the bottom of the closet "I hope you're comfortable with a pair that may be too small for you."

"Don't worry," replied Uo, winking at her "I doubt they'll be on for long!"

They both laughed as they went to the bathroom to apply make-up.

It took them another half an hour to finalise their outfits and be ready to go out. They walked out of 71B at 8:30pm, and left for a local nightclub called Flare's.
They paid ¥409 to get in. They walked up a flight of stairs, and into a crowded room, as Utada Hikaru's The Workout blasted through the speakers.

"I love this song!" shouted Uo, as she dragged Tohru over to the dancefloor immediately and began to dance.

"Push it up, push it down"

Uo and Tohru danced together, arms raised as the dancefloor became steadily more crowded.

"Pull it uupp, pull it down"

The song continued, as Tohru and Uo finally decided the wanted a drink to start the night, and they walked over to the bar to order some drinks. Tohru ordered herself a vodka and coke, Uo had a Bloody Mary.

"Up and down, feel you brainwaves jumpin' jumpin'"

They noticed a group of about six men had walked into the bar, Kyo was with them, clearly intoxicated.

"Makes me wanna take a dive-oo-i-ive!"

Tohru tried her best to ignore the group, as she and Uo scanned the bar for about ten minutes, pointing out potential men they'd found attractive. Then, the group of walked over to the bar, shouting at each other, and to other people. They ordered their drinks
Tohru turned to Uo, after seeing she couldn't avoid Kyo in here.

"We have to go," she said, putting her drink down and grabbing Uo's hand.

Uo almost choked on her drink "What? We've barely been here twenty minutes! Look, we've not even finished our drinks!"

Tohru downed her drink in one, and forced Uo to do the same "Okay, we're done, now let's go before they notice us!"

"Who notices us?" asked Uo, scanning the room, until her eyes landed on Kyo, they narrowed "who cares if that asshole is here?" said Uo, looking from Kyo to Tohru "he's clearly moving on, why aren't you?"

Tohru looked glum, but agreed to stay, and ordered another drink, so did Uo.

"Now, we're gonna enjoy these drinks, then we can think about going to Pier 37, next, they usually play good songs, and drinks are cheaper if you're hot like us!" said Uo, laughing, as Tohru joined in.

They continued to sit at the bar, on the stools, scanning the room for potential lust. It didn't take long for Kyo to notice Tohru was there. And he soon staggered up to her and Uo.

"W-What're you doing here?" he said, his word's slurred badly.

"We're out for some fun," said Uo, cutting in front of Tohru.

"I wasn't talking to you," said Kyo, pushing Uo aside "I thought you were too busy being depressed to have fun?"

"For your information, Kyo," said Tohru, looking dignified as she glared at Kyo "I'm moving on with my life, as you are with yours." she took a sip of her drink, set it down, and looked at Uo "coming to the bathroom, Uo?" she asked, as she and Uo walked away.

"Wait a minute!" shouted Kyo, grabbing Tohru's shoulder and forcing her around "I'm not done talking to you!"

"Too bad," replied Tohru, disgust etched on her face "I'm done talking to you. Goodbye, Kyo."

With that, Kyo hit Tohru in the face, she fell and hit her head on the bar, cutting her head, as blood began to stream out of the cut. She landed with a thud on the floor, hitting it pretty hard on her stomach.

"TOHRU!" shouted Uo, as she ran over to her friend "YOU ASSHOLE!" she shouted to Kyo, punching him in the face, as he fell to the ground as well.

* * *

Tohru awoke several hours later in a hospital bed. Uo was laid next to her, her head lolling to the side as she snored slightly.
She looked around, and saw she was in a private room, which was odd. She saw a clock on the opposite side of the room, it was 3:00am.

A doctor walked in, in his gleaming white coat. The badge hung from his pocket read "Dr. Ishima".

"Ah, you're awake," he said, breathing a sigh "we were hoping you'd awake to hear the news about your injury."

"Wh-wha-?" said Tohru, her eyes blinking, as she felt her head, a bandage was wrapped around the top of it "what happened to me?" she asked, looking at the doctor, feeling very tired and weak.

"Well, you've had a tiresome night," said Dr. Ishima, Uo's gentle snores still emanating from her "it seems your ex-boyfriend hit you earlier tonight in the nightclub Flare's, in which you fell and hit your head on the corner of the bar, cutting it open."

He put an X-ray up onto a light source.

"You suffered only a slight concussion, which is good. I do, however frown upon the fact you've been drinking." he added, sternly.

"Wha-?" said Tohru, her head beginning to hurt "Why?"

"Well, it's not good for the baby!" he said, almost shocked "the good thing is, it's unharmed, and you shouldn't have any troubles during birth, as there seems to be no damage to your uterus, or pelvis."

"Wait," said Tohru, her head no longer hurting, but numb "what baby?"

"Didn't you know?" asked Doctor Ishima, quizzically "You're almost two weeks pregnant."

(A/N: Okay, sorry about the gap in the update, I've been ill recently, and been to the doctor's to find I have a muscle herniation, yay! Anyway, hopefully updates will become somewhat regular again, and I hope you look forward to the next chapter!)