The last episodes of the final season are going to kill me! I'm just thankful they come out in the afternoon when my son is napping. Otherwise, I would have to wait until he's asleep to enjoy them. LOL

Chapter 17

Kyomi heard her phone ring as she stood trying hard to not laugh at Ayame as he attempted to use her son as a model for a family Halloween costume. She was still a little shocked someone had ordered something like that from a shop like Ayame's but the couple were both regulars and had fallen in love with Ayame's work long ago.

She turned from the amusing sight of her son in an Alice in wonderland dress and answered the phone without looking who was calling. She groaned when she heard the voice on the other end.

"My dearest and oldest friend. Can I ask a favor from you? I had promised Tohru that I would act as her guardian for her parent teacher conferences, but my presence has been demanded at the main estate. Ayame will need to come today anyway and Tohru's meeting is right after Yuki's. Would you please go for me instead?" Shigure rambled on promising all sorts of extravagant and completely unattainable things like the crown of the Queen of England, an island in the Caribbean, or a house on the moon.

"Shi. Wine. Dry. Red." Was all Kyomi said, rubbing her forehead. She agreed just as much to shut him up as help Tohru.

"You got it! Come over for dinner soon and it will be waiting for you!" He hung up without letting her reply. Kyomi just sighed and shook her head.

"Aya? You have Yuki's parent teacher meeting today, right?" He was lifting the dress off her son. Luc ran for his toys after it was off, left in his socks and a onesie.

"Why yes, Ma Cherie. I must go to rescue my most beloved brother from the clutches of our desperate mother." Ayame said dramatically as he hung up the dress and gathered his sewing supplies and put them away.

"I'll give you a ride. Shigure couldn't make it for Tohru's meeting so he roped me into it." Kyomi told him walking back out to the front to talk with Mine.

"Don't you worry about a thing, onee-chan. I have you and boss-man covered!" Mine said before Kyomi could even say anything.

"Are you sure? I'll have to leave Luc with you." Kyomi said making sure the younger woman would be alright.

"Luc and I are best friends now. It's always quiet on rainy afternoons like this so we will probably just watch a movie." She said going to put clothes back on the boy since Ayame forgot to.

Kyomi caught her as she walked past. "You are the best and I owe you a girls night!" She said as Mine returned the hug.

"Oh such a beautiful sight of my two most favorite women in the world showing their love for each other!" Ayame exclaimed as he threw his arms around both women and disappeared in a puff of colored smoke. As the air cleared, they saw him curling himself around both of their shoulders.

"Aya! We have to leave in a few minutes!" Kyomi yelled at him while untangling herself from both her friends.

Mine waved at them. "It would have happened anyway in this weather." She said as she grabbed his clothes and put them in a bag. "You can just carry him like that until you get there."

"Yes, let me ride your shoulders to save my Yuki as a gallant knight would ride his white stead." Aya said. He stretched out his head to flick a kiss onto Mine's cheek. She returned the sentiment by rubbing his head with the tip of her finger. "Have fun boss-man."

"You as well my darling." He pulled back and met Kyomi's glare.

"You owe me too." She said as she grabbed her purse and his clothes. She took his umbrella and ran for her car.

"I swear this family is so high maintenance." Kyomi muttered to herself forgetting that the main object of her irritation lay around her shoulders.

"It's only because we are so astonishingly magnificent." He hissed in her ear and she jumped as she started the car.

"Ayame! Please don't do that in my ear! It tickles." He hissed again knowing what her reaction would be. Laughter was the only sound in the car for a few minutes before Ayame finally relented and slithered off her shoulders and into the back seat. Kyomi shook her head and put the car in gear and drove towards the school. Along a miraculously quiet road, Ayame turned back to himself and grabbed his clothes to get dressed again.

"Feel better?" He asked from the back seat.

"Yes." She said with a grin she tried to hide from him. "You used to do that when we were kids too. I'm kind of surprised it still can make me laugh like that."

"I guess I'm just that magical." Ayame responded which elicited Kyomi's laughter once again.

They arrived at the school and Kyomi dropped Ayame off at the door. She shook her head at him again as he flew up the steps and inside to both avoid the rain and to get to his brother as fast as he could.

She parked her car and walked inside using the umbrella Ayame had left behind. She took her time since she was early and wandered the halls for a few minutes before heading to the front office to get directions. She had noticed she was getting some weird looks and staring but hadn't really thought much of it.

"Ane? What are you doing here?" Kyo's voice came from behind her and she stopped and turned to wait for her brother to catch up. She ruffled his hair with a smirk on her face, enjoying pestering him a little in his own school. He glared at her as he fixed it, his cheeks betraying him with a slight blush. "Stop that, I'm not a kid you know."

"I missed that, so of course I have to make up for lost time! I'm here to rescue Tohru from that puppy." She said a little dramatically. He looked at her hard.

"You've been with Ayame all day haven't you?" He asked pointblank and she couldn't help but crack up laughing at his astute observation.

"As a matter of fact, yes. I also drove him over today. By the way, when is your meeting?" She asked, curious, but also wanting to make sure he had everything planned.

"It's after Tohru's. Shisho didn't have a class today so it was about the only day I could do." He answered as they continued walking. Kyomi noticed that they were only getting more stares and decided to ask her brother.

"Why are people staring at us so much?" She whispered.

He startled finally looking around at the people walking by them or standing in the hall and they all avoided his gaze. He shrugged, "Probably weirded out that we look so much alike. Everyone bothers me about my hair all the time and yours is very close to mine."

She flipped her hair over her shoulder. "It is an odd color for Japan I guess." They had walked around the corner before she asked, "Have you seen Tohru?"

"She was waiting outside our classroom for Shigure last I saw."

"Can you show me where that is?" She asked him and they walked that way. "Shi isn't coming and asked me to come instead." She explained when she saw the confused look on his face. He nodded in acknowledgment.

Tohru saw them coming and walked down the hall to meet them.

"Onee-chan! What are you doing here?" Tohru asked sweetly.

"Shigure wasn't able to make it today because he was called to the main house." Kyo's eyes snapped to his sister as she said this wondering what was going on that would have made Shigure miss out on seeing all the high school girls. Kyomi only continued. "He asked me to come instead if that's alright with you."

"Oh, I don't mind at all! I don't really have much to talk about though I feel bad that you came all this way." Tohru said apologetically.

Kyomi shook her head at the girl. "It's no problem, Ayame needed a ride anyway." Just then, Ayame and Yuki's mother stormed out of the classroom and straight past the trio talking in the hallway. They said their goodbyes to Kyo so he could go find Kazuma and the girls started walking back towards the classroom. They were discussing what Tohru wanted to do after high school and soon saw Yuki go after his mother. He waved at Tohru and Kyomi as he passed.

"I hope everything is alright." Tohru commented, worried about her friend.

Kyomi huffed a laugh. "Knowing their mother, she was trying to control Yuki and Ayame wasn't letting her. Good for him. She always was concerned with everything but taking care of Aya when he was younger. I do wonder if she was better with Yuki." Kyomi said talking to herself more than Tohru.

"Did you know their mother well?" Tohru asked.

"Only well enough to know that she thought I wasn't good enough to be friends with the Sohma royalty trio. Of course, many people thought that, though we didn't care." Kyomi told her young friend.

Mayuko opened the door, irritation on her face. Ayame swept out of the room still on the phone with Hatori. Kyomi pulled the phone out of his grasp and held it up to her ear.

"Hati?" She asked, fending off Ayame who was half heartedly trying to get his phone back.

"Kyomi. Can you please apologize to Mayuko for me and tell her I will call her later?" Kyomi smiled.

"Of course, shall I hang up for you now?" She asked him. The only response she got was the dial tone. She handed the phone back to Ayame and asked "Are you going to wait for me?".

"I was going to walk to Shigure's to tell him of my success today. Where did my dear brother go?" Ayame asked. Tohru directed him to where they saw Yuki going and away he went after his brother.

Mayuko sighed heavily and stepped aside to allow Tohru and Kyomi inside.

"Hello, I'm not sure we've met. I'm Mayuko." She said as she extended her hand, somewhat stiffly.

Kyomi smiled widely and shook her hand warmly. "I'm Kyomi. I'm Kyo's older sister and old friends of Shigure, Hatori, and Ayame's. Shigure couldn't come today so he asked me to come for Tohru." Kyomi talked as they walked inside and took their seats.

Mayu inspected the woman in front of her. "You were really friends with them?" She asked, skepticism plainly heard in her voice.

Kyomi just laughed. "Yes, although it felt like mothering more than friendship sometimes. We were very close and not much has changed the older we got. I'll have to tell you the whole story sometime." Hatori had told her of the time he had spent with the teacher and Kyomi was very excited for both of them.

They discussed Tohru's options and the two college educated women were able to give the young girl a picture of college life and what it entailed. However, they both understood that college was not a path every person had to take so they just wanted to make sure Tohru wouldn't regret not going later in life. Kyomi learned that it wasn't as common for older adults to get their degree as it was in the states.

After the meeting was done, they bid each other goodbye, but Mayu asked Kyomi to talk for a few minutes. They returned to their seats in the classroom.

"I hope you know nothing of what I wanted to ask you is meant as an affront to you, I just need to watch for the well being of my students." Mayu began. Kyomi nodded.

"It's only fair. Kyo and I didn't even know each other existed until almost a year ago. I had been adopted and grew up in the states like I said so I didn't know our mother had remarried much less had a son." Kyomi was quick to clarify, leaving out parts of the story for the Sohma's privacy.

"That explains most of my concern. Kyo's father knows you as well?"

"Yes, we are in regular contact actually. My son attends class at his dojo so we see each other regularly. Since I'm close with Shigure as well, I see Kyo, Yuki, and Tohru often as well. Which is why Shigure asked me to come today." Kyomi didn't try to disguise the irritation in her voice when talking about her more irresponsible friend.

"That clears up pretty much all my questions as they pertain to my students. I have WAY more questions about that trio as children, but I don't have time for that right now. This might be a little forward, but would you like to meet for coffee sometime?" Mayu asked already feeling a bond with the woman.

Kyomi smiled. "I would love to! I will even tell as many stories about the trio as I can remember. You need plenty of ammunition when dealing with Shigure especially."

"I could have used that when we dated." Mayu quipped as they walked to the door.

"YOU DATED?" Kyomi said loudly. "How did I miss that? Oh, he's getting a call after this. Did he treat you well?" She asked Mayu who was just laughing.

"I'll tell you about it over coffee." She said as she opened the door and Kyomi stepped out. She saw her brother and Kazuma standing waiting. She ruffled her brother's hair again. He blushed and pushed her hand away, "I told you to stop doing that!" He stormed into the room fixing his hair yet again leaving the adults in the hallway holding in their laughter.

"Yup, you are definitely a big sister." Mayu said as she followed her student back into the room.

"Where is Luc today?" Kazuma asked as he came up beside Kyomi.

"He's staying with Mine for the afternoon so I could be here for Tohru. Shigure had last minute business at the main estate come up." Kyomi explained and earned a questioning glance from Kazuma. She could only shrug. "I don't know what it was, but I expect I'll find out soon if it was important."

Kazuma nodded and bowed slightly before going inside and meeting her eyes again with a slight smile as he closed the door.

Kyomi's cheeks reddened slightly this time as she returned his smile and then walked away to find her car. She went to pick up her son and then returned home for the evening.