edit: 07/08/2017. Corrected chapter title.

Warnings: In this chapter: food, alcohol.

I couldn't remember how I normally spell "Tohru" and I wrote 039 without checking the canon timeline, so it doesn't actually, uh, match with it. Whoops?

Centum

031-035

"Happy Birthday!" the icing on the cake says. Kamui stares at it and wonders how his housemates know. To be fair, all Sorata would have to do is ask Imonoyama-san, but Kamui is still pretty sure his mother told him not to let other people know his birthday.

Of course Sorata would do it anyway: dramatic western-style. Isn't turning sixteen a big deal in America?

(The "party" turned out to be more relaxed than Kamui had feared. Apparently it was more to celebrate coming off his crutches, so said Sorata. Maybe it was just an excuse to feed Kamui sugar.)

.

You search for him and you hate the man that did this to him. That man –"Sakurazukamori"– took both of your grandchildren away. You thought it couldn't get any worse than both a murder and a suicide for your granddaughter, but you were wrong. Again.

Your grandson hides from you but you know that he has blood on his hands. Does he think you don't know? Does he even care anymore, that sweet child who would try so hard to please everyone, anyone that wanted? Where has he gone?

You have always feared "Sakurazukamori", but now you hate him too.

.

"And I told him, that's not the Fourier– oh, hello Nekoi-san."

"Yuzuriha-chan is fine! Please call me that! Kigai-sensei says he wants to meet you in his classroom."

"I– fine. Now?"

"Yeah. Is that okay?"

"It's fine. Arashi-san, do you…?"

"It's okay. I need to speak you, Yuzuriha, anyway. About the project due next month, it's– what's wrong?"

"…Do you want me to come with you?"

"Huh?"

"Satsuki-san, do you want me to come with you to Kigai-sensei's classroom? You see him a lot."

"It's fine. Just extra reading for my university exams. Nothing weird."

"…I'm glad. So, Arashi-chan–"

.

Saya misses the ocean and misses her lover. Tohru Shirou stands there, hundreds of miles away, watching the ocean go in and out. She thinks of Saya, and wonders if when she dies the fire inside herself will die too.

You don't always get the boy –or girl– in the end. Saya knew this and accepted it. Tohru, as she gazes at the blue horizon, wishes she did not. Nothing can change the now, but she still believes that the future is undecided. Her boy will prove it.

Their fates are as sure as the tide, but fire is not.

.

"Sumeragi is so damn hot," and Fuuma dumps his head onto the table. His beer sloshes in his hand and threatens to spill.

"Well, I don't know what to say to that," Seishirou replies. "Yes?"

Fuuma suddenly jerks his head back up again. "I thought you liked him."

"I-"

"So you don't mind if I have a crack at him?" Fuuma's eyes glint. "You wouldn't feel betrayed? Or jealous?"

"Of course not." Seishirou drinks, stalling. "What would I be jealous of?" Fuuma grins at him from across the table and Seishirou can't help but feel bamboozled, somehow. His face twitches.