CHAPTER 10
In which the fairy godmother-in-training packs her bags, picks up a hitch-hiker,
and the mouse receives a letter.

The following is a more extensive explanation of Tohru Honda's keys than was given in Chapter Four:

When working in the garden of the Labyrinth, Tohru received a set of keys from her employer, the Goblin King.

The first key was made out of ivory. Its head was carved out to look like a skull, and the actual unlocking part was made to look like a bone. The Goblin King told Tohru that if she used it on any door outside of the Labyrinth, that door would lead her to the entrance. If used on a door inside the Labyrinth, that door would unlock and lead her to the next room or hallway.

The second key was carved out of beech wood, and it kept its form of a knobbly-looking twig. This key, when used on any door at all, would open that door up into a massive supply closet. Tohru had kept all of her garden supplies and broom there, and it saved so much time and energy from having to tote all of her equipment everywhere she went.

The third key was made out of iron. It was pounded into the shape of a rose with a smooth stem.

"This key is the most precious," the Goblin King had said, holding it in his fingers as if it was made of delicate lace. "This key will always take you home."

---

"Hey, Tohru!" Uo called, standing in the doorway of Tohru's room. "Weren't you looking for these?"

Tohru, who had been sitting in the middle of her bed neatly packing her clothes into a suitcase at her knees, looked up. From Uo's fingers, Tohru could see the three keys the Goblin King had given her almost a year ago.

"Oh, you found them!" Tohru said happily. "I'm so glad!"

"Hana found them when she was making sure all of the windows were locked," Uo said, walking across the floor to hand the keys over to Tohru.

It had been a full week since Shigure had hired Tohru, but it wasn't until now that Tohru would be moving into a room at the house. This week, after all, had been full of final exams in Tohru's university, and the three Sohmas had been very understanding that Tohru was very busy with studies.

"You can start next week when it's all over," Shigure said amiably as he and Yuki escorted her to the door after dinner seven days prior. Kyo had disappeared to the roof, Tohru was told.

"Are you sure it's okay?" Tohru asked.

"We'll be fine," Yuki had assured. "You've made enough food tonight to feed us for a week."

Note: If you recall in chapter nine, Tohru found a secret passage in the kitchen, and inside the secret passage, she had found a rice-cooker and a bag of rice. When Tohru was serving dinner that evening, she noticed that though she piled rice on each of the Sohma's plates, the amount of rice in the rice-cooker didn't seem to get smaller. Shigure finally remembered that it was an almost-bottomless rice-cooker given to him by a fan of his books.

Now that the end of exams had come, Tohru was packing her bags to take to Shigure's house, and, with the help of Uo and Hana, preparing the house for her absence the rest of the summer.

"So you'll be working all summer at this house?" Uo said. Tohru nodded.

"Yes, but he says I can take weekends off, except that I'll have to leave them food since they can't make any themselves," Tohru said, closing the suitcase with a snap.

"Why can't they make any themselves?" Hana asked as she materialized in the doorway behind Uo.

Tohru deadpanned.

"Ah… um… they were transformed into animals," Tohru said, which was true enough.

"Animals?" Hana asked, her ears pricked as she floated noiselessly across the room to sit next to Tohru on the bed.

Tohru smiled nervously. She knew that since Uo was a witch and Hana was an electric girl, they wouldn't think that being turned into an animal as too strange. Any first-level magic-user could do that. What Tohru chose not to say, however, was that this transformation was only a part of a long list of other curses. She didn't want Uo and Hana to worry that Tohru might be in danger of being cursed herself.

"Animals, huh?" Uo said, putting her hands on her waist. "That's annoying. It's so hard to find a curse-breaker for that, you know? Even the MUCC hasn't come up with a standard spell yet."

"Yes," Hana agreed, taking a skirt from out of Tohru's suitcase and refolding it. "One has to take many conditions into consideration to break a curse like that."

Tohru almost sighed with relief. It didn't seem like either Hana or Uo thought anything was strange about her employers at all.

It was almost four in the evening when Tohru said her good-byes to Uo and Hana. She then proceeded to carry her broomstick and suitcase outside on the roof, put on her flying goggles, and sit on her broom.

"High ho Dusty!" she cried, and with that, she lifted up into the air and zipped through the cloudless sky towards the Relatively Dark Forest.

It wasn't after five minutes of flight when Tohru felt a sudden extra weight dragging the speed of her broom. Looking around from the front to the bristles in the back, Tohru saw that a rather large post owl had decided that he rather liked hitching a ride rather than flying himself. Tohru didn't mind, however, and indeed gave the owl a cheery smile before turning back to the front of the broom.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not going very far!" she called over the wind. The owl hooted vaguely in reply.

Yuki was sitting in the rose garden again when he saw Tohru touchdown to the ground with a suitcase in her hand. He would have said hello, but at that moment, he also noticed that an owl was perched comfortably on the still floating broom as Tohru dismounted. Even though Yuki had mighty mouse skillz and could take on Kyo in his cat form, his instincts told him nonetheless that it wasn't a very good idea to draw attention to himself at the moment.

The owl held out his claw, and on his leg, a letter had been attached with a royal violet ribbon.

"Oh," Tohru said, taking the letter and reading the address. "Yes, I'll be sure to give it to him. Thank you very much."

The owl ruffled his feathers and, with three powerful beats of his wings, took to the air. Tohru watched it for awhile before she grabbed the broom handle and began walking down the garden path.

Even though the owl hadn't spotted Yuki with his large eyes, Tohru did.

"Yuki!" she said happily, making a beeline for him. "It's nice to see you again. I hope everything was okay this week."

"Yes, it was," Yuki said politely. "Thank you."

Tohru set her suitcase on the ground and sat on it, and after placing the broom on her lap, she handed Yuki the letter.

"This came for you in the mail," she said as Yuki took it from her. After nibbling the envelope open, he read the letter out loud:

"Dearest and most wonderful Prince Yuki, The four princesses of Cloud 9 wish to visit His Highness this coming Friday in hopes of taking said Highness's hand in marriage. With love, Motoko Minagawa, Minami Kinoshita, Mia Yamagishi, and Mai Gotou."

There was a moment here where Yuki stared at the letter, and Tohru stared at Yuki.

Tohru was the first to interrupt the silence.

"You're a prince!" she exclaimed.

Meep! Was she supposed to bow? Oh, no, wasn't she supposed to curtsy? But she'd never curtsied before in front of royalty! Actually, come to think of it, she'd never curtsied before, period. Oh dear! Wasn't she supposed to have curtsied in the presence of the Goblin King when she was working for him? Then again, he was pleased enough whenever she looked frazzled. Maybe she was supposed to look frazzled in front of royalty instead. Well... no, that didn't make any sense, but-

"Miss Honda," Yuki asked in concern, letting the letter drop, "you look a little frazzled, are you all right?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were a prince!" Tohru said apologetically, trying to jump up to her feet and bow and curtsy all at the same time.

Yuki shook his head. "That's okay. I-"

Tohru fell down.

"I'm okay!" she said before Yuki could say anything. She popped back up to her feet, smiling. Yuki blinked several times before deciding to try a nervous smile.

"Really Miss Honda, it's okay. I don't want you to bow or curtsy." He patted her foot with his paw. "Please don't act differently at all. Just be yourself, okay?"

"Oh," Tohru said. After a short silence, she blushed slightly.

"I'm sorry if I overreacted," she added.

"No it's all right. I probably should have told you earlier, but..." Yuki trailed off and looked at the paper. "I had hoped that this wouldn't come up at all."

"What do you mean?" Tohru asked.

Yuki looked up at her sheepishly.

"Well, this is the year I'm supposed to find a princess to marry, but how am I supposed to do that when I..." he trailed off and looked away.

"Never mind, Miss Honda," he said after a moment. "You don't need to worry about it."

---

After finding Shigure in the kitchen and confirming that the groceries she had ordered yesterday had arrived that afternnon, as she had been too busy the past week to go shopping herself, Tohru set her suitcase down on the bed in the room Shigure had designated as her own for the summer. She felt a little nervous, though, because the room felt more like a hotel room than one that someone lived in, but she figured that this feeling would pass. She hadn't even been here for five minutes!

Deciding that the best way to get familiar with the house was to explore it, Tohru quietly stepped out of her room and closed the door behind her.

And who should be outside her door other than Kyo?

"Kyo!" she said, a little taken aback but pleased all the same. "Good morning."

Kyo, also taken aback by the sudden appearance of the new housekeeper, replied, "Morning," in a surlier voice than he had intended.

"I… er…" Tohru said, trying to avoid an awkward silence, "I hope you've been well?"

Kyo bristled.

"Oh! I'm sorry," Tohru said quickly. "I didn't mean to pry or anything-- I just wondered how you've been, but you don't have to tell me if you don't want. I mean, you could tell me, I wouldn't mind at all, but you don't have to feel like you should because I asked. I was just exploring the house, anyway, so… I mean… yes, well, it was nice seeing you again."

Tohru said this all very fast, and before Kyo could figure out how to reply, or even figure out if he was supposed to, she was already hurrying off down the hall.

…:…

Shigure Sohma's house, Tohru discovered, was very, very large. It was so large, in fact, that Tohru found several rooms that didn't seem to have any purpose, and several rooms that had guest beds, but again felt like they were more like hotel rooms than something friends spent time in. The hallways were also very confusing, and Tohru got lost at some point and ended up back in the entrance hall without really knowing how she got there. She would need to ask Shigure or someone to help draw a map of the house.

Once she had finished her self-guided tour of the house, it was time to make dinner: horseradish-crusted salmon with mashed potatoes, sautéed green beans and carrots, and peach cobbler with French vanilla ice cream. She kept the peach cobbler in the oven so it would keep warm until she could serve it along with the ice cream scoop so the dessert would be warm, but it would also be easier to scoop out ice cream.

She'd been thinking all week about how she should serve Yuki's food. Kyo and Shigure were easy, since they were large enough to eat from a regular-sized plates, but Yuki could probably fit on his plate and still have room enough to do roller skate tricks. He could also have a nice-sized kiddie pool in a regular-sized bowl, and he could comfortably curl up and take an afternoon nap in a regular-sized cup.

It had taken some creative thinking, but eventually, Tohru came up with these solutions: she could serve food on a silver penny, soup in a metal root beer bottle cap, and drinks in a stainless steel thimble. After some more consideration, she cut a toothpick in half as makeshift chopsticks, although she still wasn't sure how to make a spoon. She'd have to come up with that later.

...

Moral of today's story: Alas! One cannot bow and curtsy at the same time.