*Muse Tunes: "Athan and Eliza" by Stephen Barton (12 Monkeys OST); "Wait" by M83; "I Should Not Be Seeing You" by Connie Conway, "Part of Me" by Gold Brother

*Author's Note: Hi all! Big THANK YOU to those who left a like and/or comment on the last chapter. I really do very much appreciate it, you are all fantastic, beautiful people and I love to hear what you guys think! It really keeps me motivated to continue on. That being said…just an FYI that posting may be a tad bit slower until after the holidays. I am writing every chance I get but free time is currently difficult to come by. Flipside is I seem to be adding more and more to this story as I work on it so suffice to say it will end up being a little longer than I originally anticipated…yay?

Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Fruits Basket. Just a fan rearranging the furniture a little bit.

CHAPTER 8 – Are We There Yet?

He'd never been the first one to arrive before.

It was a little weird, but kind of nice. Peaceful even, which he never thought would be a term he would apply to Kaibara High School. Still, here he was.

Kyo dropped his bag, did a couple of quick arm stretches, popped his back, and plopped down in his seat. He propped his feet up on the desk and settled in to wait. Watching dust motes playing in the sun was only interesting for so long however. After awhile his mind drifted to Tohru as it always inevitably did. Subconsciously a small, half-smile formed on his lips as an image of her smiling and laughing flitted across his eyes.

He couldn't say when it happened. When he subconsciously made the decision to impart his whole existence into her tiny hands. It hadn't even occurred to him such a thing was possible until one day she looked up at him and suddenly the world was encapsulated in her eyes. That was the first time he realized he was no longer himself and would never be again. It had been terrifying at the time. Now he knew when he was finally locked in his lonely cage, that would be the moment that would replay in his dreams the most. That and perhaps the incredible night they'd just spent together.

Before he'd only ever been able to imagine what it might feel like to be with her. He'd dreamt about it for so long, had jerked off to it more times than he cared to admit (to his eternal shame), and yet none of it had compared to the reality. Already he was addicted to the feel of her, to the way she looked as she began to unravel under his attentions, to the sweet sounds she'd made when she was about to...damn. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. If this was going to be how things were now every time he thought of Tohru, he was in real trouble.

The classroom door crashed open making him jump slightly in his chair but despite the slight embarrassment he felt at his wayward thoughts he didn't bother moving from his seat as the two people he'd been waiting for made their appearance. Uo swaggered in followed by Hana gliding silently behind her in their usual fashion. He didn't need Hanajima's wave power to see they were both pissed off and ready for battle.

Bring it on, he thought as he felt his own hackles rise. Clenching his fists, he did his best to keep his expression neutral as he looked over at them.

"'Bout time you showed up," he drawled.

"Uh-uh. No way you're getting away with that attitude after six weeks of lying to us, asshole," Uo spat, her eyes flashing with the familiar light of steely determination.

"Is that what you're calling it?" he asked as nonchalantly as possible.

"And what else would you call it when someone you thought you knew withholds the truth from you?"

"Tactical mitigation."

Hanajima snorted, her mouth almost tilting up into a smile at his comment.

"That sounds like a bullshit answer if I've ever heard one," Uo spat.

"If you wanna be pissed, fine. Be pissed at me, just leave Tohru out of it," Kyo retorted.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I'm the one who asked her to keep 'us' a secret. Not only from you, from everyone, and believe it or not there's really good reasons for that. Tohru was just doing as I asked."

"Not fucking good enough!" Uo yelled at him.

"What I think Arisa is trying to say is that anyone with eyes and the common sense of an amoeba can tell you two have feelings for each other. No one would be surprised if you started going out—"

"That's—"

"Literally no one," Uo butted in. Kyo scowled at her.

"—It doesn't make sense why you would keep it a secret. We just want to understand," Hana finished in her usual monotone.

"To protect you idiots for one thing!" Kyo snapped. That made both girls stop and gape. Kyo took a deep breath and prayed for patience. "What do you know about my family?" he asked.

"Uuuuh not much, aside from what you and Yuki have already told us...Which is basically nothing," Uo replied dryly.

Kyo stood and turned to look out of the classroom window as he gathered his thoughts. He could almost feel the two girls staring holes into his back. Careful Soma, he told himself. He knew they needed some sort of explanation. Neither Uotani or Hanajima were stupid. They knew there was something strange about the Somas but he couldn't just tell them the truth. Akito would have them erased in a heartbeat. He huffed out a breath and turned back to pin them with a serious expression.

"The Soma's are a very large and ancient clan. Lots of influence, lots of wealth and all the bullshit that goes along with that," he began.

"Well la-di-da and congratulations," Uo interjected with an eye-roll.

"That wasn't a boast," Kyo retorted flatly, which made Uo shut her mouth with a snap. They stared daggers at each other until Hana cleared her throat.

"Please, continue," she prompted, shooting Arisa a look that made her scowl but remain silent.

"Families like mine have lots of secrets—"

"What kinds of secrets?"

"—The kind that don't get shared to outsiders without consequences."

"I see….and Tohru...?"

"Knows enough," he confirmed to Hana's unfinished question. "Comes with the territory, I guess, but that's not really the issue. There are those in the family, powerful people, that don't like her involvement however small. If they find out we're dating..."

"What, are you such a golden boy they won't let you date someone like Tohru?" Uo seethed.

"Actually they hate my fucking guts," he snapped back, causing both girls' eyebrows to shoot up in surprise. Kyo sighed again wearily. "You don't get it. The rules of society don't apply to people like that. One wrong move, I disappear. As-if-I-never-existed-at-all kind of gone. No big loss for you guys, I know, but Tohru will lose everything."

Uo let out another indelicate snort.

"You really have a high opinion of yourself, don't you, carrots?" She said.

"Get it through that bleached-blonde head of yours. This isn't about me!" He yelled, slamming his hands on the surface of the desk.

"Arisa, he's not just being dramatic," Hana said, her expression looking distant. Almost disturbed.

"It's really fucking creepy when you do that, you know that right?" He said, straightening.

"You can't be serious," Uo replied at the same time.

"I'm right though, aren't I?" Hana continued.

"...Yes."

"But...that's crazy! Kyon...if it's true and you care about her as much as I think you do then why the hell take the risk? Tohru—"

"—is a big girl. Of course I want to protect her, don't you think I tried? I spent months trying to keep her safe, but she refused to let me push her away. God help me, I couldn't deny her now even if I wanted to," Kyo retorted, his voice growing increasingly more terse as his temper began to flair.

"You're freakin' unbelievable! Did you even bother warning her of what the consequences could be? If something happens to her it's your fault!" Uo seethed.

It's all your fault.

He'd entertained Uo's complaining and Hana's silent probing up to this point but at that last line his patience was at an end.

"You can just shut the hell up! Tohru is neither as air-headed or naive as you apparently seem to think she is. She knows what could happen if we're found out...she still chose us, and she agreed to keep things quiet to protect you even though it bothered her to do it. Everything she is, everything she does is for the people she loves...which I think you would know at this point. If you need to hate someone go ahead and hate me. I'm used to it. Just stop taking it out on her! She doesn't deserve it and I refuse to spend another night watching her cry over you idiots!

"Wait...Tohru thinks we're mad at her?" Uo asked.

"Geez, what do you think I've been getting at this whole time?!"

"We were upset, sure, but more worried than angry," Hana replied evenly.

"Figured. There's no way you two could stay upset with Tohru, but she apparently doesn't know that. Fix it," he growled.

"Hey—"

"Don't fuck with me Uotani. I've never hit a girl before but I am really, really tempted right now."

"I was just going to say you're right!" Uo cried, throwing her hands up in surrender. "Tohru does have a mind of her own and we haven't been treating her fairly."

"We've spent so much time watching over her since Kyoko's death. I think we forgot along the way she's not a child," Hana added. "We just want to her to be happy. Still, it hurt to think she wouldn't tell us about something so important."

"Or you for that matter."

"Me?"

"Yeah, you. You're our friend too, or...didn't you know that?"

"I, uh...just thought you put up with me. You know, for Tohru's sake," he said as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Maybe at first, sure, but things are different now," Uo said. "Tohru's more than just a friend; she's like the sister neither of us had. That makes you sort of like...the unofficial brother-in-law we love to tease."

"So I am just a toy to you," he grumbled, crossing his arms with a harumph but with a new, pleased sparkle in his eyes he couldn't seem to help.

"Yup," the girls chimed in chorus.

"Whatever," he muttered with an eye roll.

Suddenly a familiar brunette head walked into view and his entire body began to tingle at the sight of her. He turned away, trying to go back to pretending nonchalance but he knew the girls had seen his reaction and blushed. That's when he remembered.

"Hey—I'm sure it doesn't need to be said but keep what you know about me and Tohru to yourselves."

"Well duh," Uo said.

"Not a word," Hana agreed simultaneously.

By then Tohru had entered the classroom and was looking over at them anxiously. He tried to send her a reassuring look but it wasn't until the girls went over and talked to her that she finally relaxed. With a trembling lip, happy tears started brimming in her eyes and Uo and Hana threw their arms around her in a group hug.

"What was that all about?" Yuki asked as he approached.

"Uh, yeah...the girls sort of accidentally found out about us yesterday. They weren't too happy about it," Kyo replied uncomfortably.

"They weren't happy you guys are together?" He asked, eyebrows shooting up.

"No, just about being left in the dark. We're good now."

Yuki snorted.

"Uh-huh. Sure. You have got to be the worst two people on the planet at keeping secrets," he scoffed.

"Shut the fuck up you smug rodent," Kyo retorted with an eye roll.

"You just better hope they don't find out about last night," Yuki continued.

"And what do you know about last night?" Kyo hissed, his face automatically turning bright red. If Yuki didn't actually know anything, Kyo's expression alone would've said it all.

"WHAT?!" Uo's scream echoed across the room as she looked over at Kyo with murder in her eyes. Tohru was flailing in panic, already shooting him a look of apology as she spouted a lightning-quick stream of words he could only assume was some sort of explanation.

"Shit," Kyo mumbled and cringed as his forehead hit the desk.

"Good luck," Yuki said with a wide toothy grin before leaving him to his fate.

"It's not like it just happened overnight," Tohru explained, her face flaming red under her best friends' scrutiny. "I've loved Kyo a long time…years, if I'm completely honest. I was just too scared to admit it, to myself least of all to him. I've been scared of so, so many things. Then one day I realized how much time I lost giving into that fear. I can't think about what might happen now, all that matters is the time we have together. I won't waste it, and I won't give him up because you're worried. Okay?"

"Okay," Hanajima replied simply.

"Really?" Tohru squeaked in surprise, her face lighting up with a huge smile.

"Who are we to argue? Besides, I know what that determined-face means."

"It's just this sneaking around that seems so weird. Are you really sure about this Tohru?" Uo asked.

"Yes, I'm sure," Tohru replied without hesitation. "You don't have to worry, you guys. It won't be forever."

"And how is that? Last I checked it's not that easy to shake off shitty family situations, especially if said family has a giant mafiosa complex."

"It's not like that! The Somas are really wonderful, it's just some...err, traditions...that aren't so great."

"Uh-huh. Right," Uo replied speculatively.

"It's the truth!" Tohru proclaimed.

"Very well, Tohru. But you have to promise you'll come to us if you're ever in trouble. No more 'hiding things to protect us.'"

"I won't! Thank you Uo-chan, Hana-chan. I do trust you. So does Kyo, even if it doesn't seem like it all the time."

"He trusts us with you at least," Hana stated to which Uo snorted and crossed her arms.

"Speaking of trust. Yesterday…that was some hot and heavy kiss we walked in on. He's not pressuring you is he?" Uo asked.

"Pressuring?" Tohru repeated. "If by that you mean sex then no, he's never pressured me— "

"Good, because I don't really want to have to kick his ass for asking for more than you're ready for."

"Oh, we've definitely already done it, it's just—"

"WHAT?!" Uo yelled, glaring across the room at Kyo.

"—I'm the one who initiated it!" Tohru hissed, shooting a quick look of apology at a red-faced Kyo before grabbing Uo and dragging her down into her seat. "Look, I l-love you guys and I appreciate that you're trying to look out for me but I can make my own decisions...and if I want to have sex with my boyfriend that should be between the two of us...and it's not like I planned it. With everything that happened yesterday I just…so I asked him to make love to me and…and it was the single most amazing moment in my life so please don't ruin it by starting a fight!"

All of this escaped Tohru in such a torrent of words that it took a few seconds for the girls to piece the information together while she caught her breath and silently berated herself for being such a ditz as to let such a private detail slip in the first place, let alone have to explain any of it.

"Wait...so this just happened last night?" Uo asked in surprise.

"Um...yes?" Tohru replied meekly.

"I thought your waves felt different," Hana murmured thoughtfully as she stared hard first at her and then at Kyo. Whatever she saw in their waves made her lips twitch ever so briefly into an amused smile.

"No wonder he was so cocky this morning," Uo humphed, crossing her arms again as she shot another death stare across the room.

"Uo."

"Fine, I won't murder him. He just better watch himself," the blonde grumbled.

"He will, or he will soon come to regret it," Hana agreed.

"You guys!" Tohru half laughed and half sighed in exasperation.

Uo and Hana might've agreed not to kill Kyo but that didn't mean they were willing to leave the two of them alone together.

For the rest of the school term, short as it was, one or both of the girls could be seen everywhere that Tohru went. Lunches, bathroom breaks, every walk from one classroom to the next and occasionally on their way home from school. Eventually that spilled over into after-school activities...impromptu study sessions and sleepovers and even random phone calls at the worst possible times. Tohru was frustrated but didn't have it in her to hurt the girls' feelings. Kyo tried to be patient at first for her sake but was quickly growing tired of seeing the strained smile across her face.

The last straw was when they started to plan out a detailed summer itinerary. That was when Kyo lost it and took the two girls aside for a private chat. Tohru never did learn what was said but whatever it was, Uo and Hana immediately backed down and even seemed to have a kernel of newfound respect for Kyo after that.

Soon enough, the crew found themselves on their very last summer break from school. Shigure largely left the teens to their own devices, declaring they were "adults now," and that he had "too much work to do" to keep tabs on them. In truth no one really knew what the dog was up to with his strange hours and random absences. So long as Tohru kept up the housework and had his meals prepared he was happy and the rest of them were free to come and go as they pleased. It was an arrangement that suited everyone just fine.

Early in the break Yuki finally took the opportunity to introduce Tohru and Machi in person. Both girls had seen each other in passing at school but there hadn't been any real good excuse for them to meet without it coming off as suspect to Yuki's voracious and ever watchful fan club. This was one of the main reasons Yuki chose a frozen yogurt place across town where they were unlikely to bump into someone they knew. When Kyo asked why they didn't just meet up at Machi's apartment, he only responded with, "You'll thank me later," to which Kyo shrugged, not really caring what the reason was.

In the end it went about as well as Yuki could've hoped for. Machi had been on edge from the moment they arrived but Tohru, of course, in all her genuine warmth and excitement had simply walked up to the other girl and threw her arms around her in a tight hug. As expected Machi had automatically stiffened in shock at the unprecedented contact and for the better part of an hour had answered questions in the quiet, stilted way she once had with him.

Yuki knew she'd never had any close girlfriends and so was unused to the sort of physical affection he noticed other girls their age were fond of. He had warned Machi ahead of time because of this, but he also knew from experience how little it took under Tohru's gentle guidance for even the most battered heart to find safe harbor. Like so many of the Somas, his girlfriend had been through her share of personal trauma. Much as he hoped he was a comfort to her it was his fervent desire that she could find a friend in Tohru as he had. That these were the two most important women in his life may have also been a factor if he was completely honest, but it was still true nonetheless.

Later when he asked Machi her opinion of Tohru her only reply at first had been, "she's strange," followed sometime later by a timid, "what do you think she would like?" which made him smile like a fool. That's when he knew it had been a success and indeed, they would go on to meet up many more times over the course of the break, sometimes in a group and sometimes just the girls on their own. By the end of the summer the two would be thick as thieves to no one's surprise.

With their newfound freedom Kyo and Tohru for once found themselves with the time and space they'd been craving. They took as much advantage of it as they could while still being careful not to raise too many questions. On days Kyo was not due at the dojo they would often take the train across town so they could go out in in the open like a real couple. Occasionally they were joined by Yuki and Machi (to Kyo's annoyance and Tohru's delight), and a couple times by one or both of the girls as a sort of peace offering. Closer to home they kept things simple; running errands, taking long walks, or idly lounging under the willow talking about anything and everything. In other words, simply enjoying each other's company. Little by little their relationship grew deeper and stronger than it ever was.

In late July Kazuma invited the both of them over together for the first time since things had changed between them. After a lengthy discussion, Kyo and Tohru agreed they should be honest with him and decided to tell him that night at dinner.

Kyo could not recall the last time he'd been so nervous but somewhere between "pass the rice balls" and dessert he managed to blurt out some version of the truth that Tohru helpfully translated. His Master had simply smiled a knowing smile and promised to support them however they needed (with the utmost discretion, of course). It wasn't until later, just before they left, when Kazuma pulled him aside that he really got emotional.

"I'm proud of you my boy," he'd said as he placed a warm hand on his shoulder. "You've come so far over the last few years. Grown into a man ready to move past his personal demons to accept a measure of the happiness he so richly deserves...and you do deserve it, Kyo. Never doubt it."

"Thank you Master," was all he could muster through the tears climbing his throat and threatening behind his eyes. Kazuma smiled another knowing smile and pulled him in for a quick, fatherly hug.

"She's an amazing girl, Kyo. One of a kind. Don't let her go no matter what Akito threatens," Kazuma continued. "Oh, and... make sure to use protection," he added with a wink.

Kyo's face was tomato red the entire walk home.

Also to no one's surprise, Momiji did his best to convince everyone to go on another summer trip. Few were interested in inciting Akito's attention as they had at the beach house last year, so a few days at the lake was put forward instead.

"No! No way! Don't you remember what happened last time?" Kyo yelled when Momiji stopped by to invite them.

"Aww, come on Kyo! Don't be such a grumpy kitty. It'll be fun!" Momiji whined. "Tohru, you will go won't you? Convince puss in boots to come with us."

"Oh! I…uh—"

"Get lost bunny brat! There's no way in hell I'm going anywhere with you idiots," Kyo snapped.

A few days later…

"It's the Soma summer adventure extravaganza!" Momiji cried as the train surged forward.

"Yes! I'm so excited!" Tohru replied with a bright smile.

"Are we there yet?" Kyo muttered beside her.

*Author's Note: Next up: to the lake house! I originally planned to have all of the summer break events summed up in this one chapter but then by the time I got to it I realized there was enough material to give it its own entry. Trips always seem to equal drama, don't they? LOL.