Chapter 10 now begins...

Chapter Ten

Hatori was sitting on the porch with a cigarette, waiting for Tohru, Yuki and Kyo to come home, when he heard Shigure stumbling through the house. He put his cigarette in the ashtray sitting beside him and walked inside.

"Ha'ri, how nice of you to come for a visit," Shigure said cheerfully.

"How's your head?"

"It hurts..." he said, rubbing histemples to exaggerate his point.

"I'd expect it to for a while, Tohru said you fell down the stairs this morning," Hatori said.

"Oh, I don't remember doing that..."

"She said you were half asleep, you had a late night, I'm guessing?"

"I...don't really know..." Shigure looked the cupboards for something to satisfy his hunger.

"Maybe you're coming down with something." Hatori walked over to him and placed a hand to his forehead. "No, you don't have a fever, maybe you're just tired, or being an idiot..."

Shigure gave him an angry face, then went back to finding food. "Maybe I'm just hungry," he said, finding Tohru's chocolate stash.

"Maybe, you need to eat some real food." Hatori took the chocolate and placed it back to its rightful place. "I think Tohru left some miso in the refridgerator...I could heat that up for us."

"Would you really do that Ha'ri? I would be eternally grateful to you!" Shigure dramatically threw his arms around Hatori.

"Yes, but only if you let me go..." Shigure gave a sigh of disappointment before releasing the dragon. He perked up again when he heard the front door open. Hatori sighed as the dog ran off to greet the teens.

Tohru soon walked into the kitchen and asked what he was doing. Hatori withdrew his head from the refridgerator and smiled awkwardly at her.

"I saw some miso in here earlier and I was looking for it so I could heat it up for Shigure and I," he replied.

"Oh, well, I'll make it for you."

"No, I can do it myself-" Tohru looked like she was about to cry. "But, if you really want to, you can make it..."

"Really? Thank you so much Hatori!" He shook his head and walked out to find the others. Once she was sure Hatori was out of ear-shot, Tohru started laughing..."and that is how you do that," she said to herself.

Hatori couldn't find anyone else, so he eventually, defeatedly walked out to the porch, where he found Shigure, smoking what was left of the cigarette he had set down earlier.

"Shouldn't you be inside watching the food," Shigure said.

Hatori smiled once. "Tohru is heating it up for us," he replied.

"Hmm..." Shigure said without any expressionism in his voice. "Well, that is to be expected."

Hatori sat beside him with an 'uh' in response.

"How have you been Ha'ri?"

"OK! What is going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're acting especially strange, why?"

"I am not acting strange, thank you very much..."

"Yes, you are acting strange," Hatori looked at Shigure with a worried look.

"Tell me the truth, you erased my memory, didn't you? That's why I can't remember what's been happening the last few days..." Hatori looked shocked, Shigure was too smart for his own good sometimes.

"Yes, I did, and I'm not going to tell you why."

"I don't want to know why, because if I did then there would be no reason to have had my memory wiped, but tell me one thing." Hatori raised an eyebrow. "Was it something I did," Shigure asked.

"No, something you would have done..."

"Oh, well that makes me feel better I guess. Thanks for keeping me from doing something truly horrible...Would it have been truly horrible?"

"Yes," Hatori retorted.

"Good, then what I said still applies." Shigure snuffed out the cigarette and stood up. "Come along my dear friend, it would appear that our wonderful afternoon meal has been completed," he said holding out his hand. Hatori took it and stood.

"I sometimes wish that I could change a person's personality; you're such an idiot..."

"Oh, so hurtful, but I don't believe that. If you had to be friends with someone who was just like you then you would have no one to call an idiot besides Aaya. But, then again, you wouldn't have him because you could change personalities and-"

"Shigure," Hatori looked at him.

"Sorry...but it's true isn't it?"

"Well, I think that actually, I'm very happy that you are the way you are," he said walking with Shigure into the kitchen.

Zips off to begin chapter 11!)