Yuki yawned as he groggily headed for the bathroom, towel on his shoulder. He knew there were killer eye bags on his face for he was up all night, staring at the ceiling, driving himself crazy with what he saw last night.
Tohru. Kyo. Together. Alone in the roof.
White-hot anger burned within him. It was unexplainable. His rational mind says that Tohru might just be coaxing Kyo to eat, but his heart was stubbornly telling him that..well..he didn't like what he saw.
He pushed open the door of the bathroom. He could vaguely hear the sound of the shower. Shigure?
He rubbed his eyes sleepily and looked again.
His eyes widened.
Blood rushed to his face.
Before him was a femininely shaped naked body who's back was turned on him, but he could vividly see the curves in her body that were all in the right places.
"Honda-san!"
Tohru froze. She thought she heard Yuki's voice! She reached for her wristwatch as she turned the shower off. It was 4:15 in the morning. No one could be possibly up yet but her. The Sohma boys are not usually awake until they smell the aroma of hearty breakfast.
She must have just imagined the voice.
But she had to make sure.
Wrapping her bathrobe around her, she went out of the bathroom and looked around. The whole house was still dark.
She then noticed a pile of clothes on the floor that she recognized as Yuki's. She knelt down and gathered them one by one. But when she picked the last article of clothing, a small white mouse peeked out of it and jumped towards her!
"A mouse!!!!" Tohru let out a bloodcurdling scream that echoed all over the Sohma house.
"Onee-chan, here. The tea will calm you down," said Kisa as she gave Tohru a cup of green tea.
"T-Thanks," she smiled shakily as she accepted the cup.
"Now I understand what you mean by musophobia," said Hiro wryly. "How pathetic."
"Hiro!" said Kisa warningly.
"What? What did I say?" he said.
"B-But he's right," said Tohru slowly. "I am pathetic. I'm much bigger than a mouse and yet I freak out when I see one."
"What happened anyway, Tohru-kun?" asked Shigure, although he could already guess what happened.
Tohru narrated what happened a while ago. "I'm sorry if I disturbed you guys," she finished apologetically.
Shigure nodded to himself. "I see."
He was right. It was Yuki.
Mother of Christ, he hit the jackpot! Maybe I should ask him what time did he wake up so I can synchronize my waking time with Tohru's too. I wonder if he was able to memorize Tohru-kun's statistics…
Hiro looked at the elder Sohma with narrowed eyes. Adults. They either become insanely boring or insanely perverted.
"Girly boy!!!"
Yuki glanced at the furious Kyo heading towards him. He stood up and placed his book down. "I could charge you for trespassing, baka neko. This is my room, and I didn't remember giving you the permission to go in."
Ignoring him, Kyo grabbed him by the collar. "How dare you play peeping tom, and of all people, why her?!!"
"Get your claws off me, baka neko," he ordered. "It was an accident. I_didn't_know."
"And as if that isn't enough, you just had to transform into a rat and scare the living daylights out of her!" continued the neko furiously. " You know how much she hates mice!"
His temper boiled. "Get out!!!" He kicked his cousin out of his room.
"Yuki-kun?"
He blinked. Tohru was looking at him expectantly. "I-I'm sorry, Honda-san. What is it that you were saying?" he asked, smiling apologetically.
"I was asking if I woke you up when I screamed this morning," she said shyly.
The rat incident again. "I was already awake. I was taking my dirty clothes from my secret base so I can do the laundry," he lied.
Her eyes widened. "W-What time did you do that?"
"Midnight. I couldn't sleep."
"Y-You dropped some clothes on the way," she said nervously.
He tried his best to look surprised. "I did?"
She sighed, relieved. "Yes, Yuki-kun." He didn't catch me showering after all! I just wasn't able to notice his clothes on my way to the bathroom!
She smiled cheerfully. "Oh by the way, you said something about secret bases."
He looked away shyly. "Yes. My sanctuary that gives me solace when I'm depressed."
"When I was a kid, I have playmates that have secret bases too, but they keep on telling me that it was boys' stuff and that I wouldn't understand because I'm a girl," she narrated brightly. "Boy, I'm so pissed off!"
"There's nothing great about my base," he said.
"I don't think so," she said. "If that place is your sanctuary, then it must be sacred and important to you. And if it's important to Sohma-kun then I think it's important to me too."
"Honda-san…"
"Uo-chan! Hana-chan!" Tohru turned to him. "I'll see you later, ok?"
"Later," he said meaningfully. "Uh, Honda-san?"
"H-Hai?"
"Would you like to visit my secret base this afternoon?"
She beamed brightly. "You bet!"
"I thought you wouldn't make the girl go to school anymore," said Hatori as he and Shigure drank tea.
"The little girl was stubborn," replied Shigure. "She promised her deceased mother that she would finish high school, so she wouldn't let a little incident like that prevent her from fulfilling her promise."
"Does she already know about the Juunishi curse?"
"No, and she never will."
"Won't you consult the clan head for this?"
"I'll approach him when the circumstances call for it, and I pray it never will. We love her already, and we don't want to lose her."
"Look here, Yankee. I know you pulled a quickie under the table. I saw it!" screamed Kyo, throwing his cards angrily on the desk.
"Hah! Why are you blaming me for what you did? I was the one who caught you! You're just reversing the whole story!" retorted Uo.
Hana put her cards down resignedly. "Both of you cheated. I saw both of you."
"We did not!" said the two at the same time self-righteously.
Tohru sighed. Her best friends Uotani Arisa and Hanajima Saki were playing card games with her at first, but she was one defeat away from losing the friendly bet.
Kyo, however, intervened and played the rest of the games for her. He won her four straight games.
It was the last game, and it was a particularly intense one, for it would determine who would win the game in the race to five.
"Cards down, dammit!" challenged Kyo furiously, slamming his fist on the table.
"Lay them open first," said Uo in counter challenge.
Tohru sighed again. "Relax, you guys. It's only a game. I don't mind losing, really. It won't be too hard on my part to treat Uo-chan and Hana-chan to tempura this weekend."
Kyo's blazing eyes pierced hers. "No way!!! This is beyond tempura already. This is a fight…a fight for principles!" He stared daggers at Uo. "I'll cream this yankee even if it's the last thing I do!"
"Exactly my thoughts, Carrot Top!" said Uo in a venomously sweet voice.
Tohru retreated from the group to check whether the teacher is there already. She has a feeling that Mayu-sensei would like her students gambling in the room.
But she bumped right into Yuki.
"Honda-san, where are you going?" he asked, giving her a smile he reserved only for her. Behind him, girls started to swoon.
"Oh, Yuki-kun!" she exclaimed. "I was just going to check if Mayu-sensei is here." She gestured to the crowd around Kyo and Uo. "She might scold them for playing cards in the classroom."
"Looks like the baka neko is losing," he remarked when Kyo threatened to break the table into two.
"Oh my!" exclaimed Tohru nervously. "He sure is..um..high-spirited." She looked at her master. "Can I do anything for you, Yuki-kun?" she asked, going back to her personal attendant-mode.
He smiled. "No. I just want to see you."
She blushed.
"Aside from that, I'm here to-" His words were cut off when Mayu-sensei arrived.
"I heard you requested to be transferred to section D," the teacher began. "Don't you like it anymore in Section A?"
Yuki shook his head. "No particular reason. I just want a change of scenery."
"You mean, you are going to be my classmate, Yuki-kun?" cried Tohru excitedly.
He nodded.
Kyo overheard it. "What?!!!!" His eyes were wide with horror. "You can't do this!"
"Watch me," said Yuki calmly as he entered the classroom confidently.
The whole afternoon, Yuki showed the class why he was considered the "Prince", both academically and athletically. Tohru's classmates swooned readily, and they were torn between Kyo and Yuki.
Later that afternoon…
"We will be taking up chinese literature tomorrow. Your assignment is to write what you know about the very renowned tale of the Juunishi," said Mayu-sensei.
Tohru clapped her hands in delight. "Wow! I can't wait! I love the cat of that tale!" She then paused when she realized that everyone was staring at her. She didn't know that she had voiced her thoughts loudly.
Kyo, blushing faintly, croaked, "What is it that you like about cats? They're really no good."
"Cats are fools," said Yuki coldly. "They have bad attitudes."
The teacher laughed uneasily. "We'll discuss about that tomorrow."
As Yuki walked Tohru to her new part-time job as a cleaner, she looked at the strangely quieter-than-usual boy.
"Yuki-kun?"
No reply.
"Yuki-kun?" She touched his shoulder.
He jumped, startled.
"Is there something in your mind?"
"No."
"A-Are you..mad at me, Yuki-kun? For what happened in the classroom?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"No!" he said curtly. He then sighed deeply. "No," he said in a subdued voice.
"You don't like cats at all, do you, Yuki-kun?" She smiled sadly. "That is too bad."
"I don't mind at all if you like cats, Honda-san. I'm not mad at you for that."
"Really? Really?"
"Yes, Honda-san, yes."
She hugged her books to her chest. "The Juunishi tale is my favorite! I ask my mother to tell me that tale over and over every night. My favorite Juunishi animal is the cat, because I pity it. It was the rat's fault why the cat was left out in the mythical twelve."
He looked down, not commenting.
"If I can summon enough courage not to freak out when I see a rat, I'll ask it why it tricked the cat," she finished.
"It will answer 'It's not the rat's fault that the cat is so gullible,' Honda-san," said Yuki.
Their conversation was cut short by strong gusts of wind. Yuki grew alarmed. "My secret base!" Then he glanced at Tohru, reluctant to leave her. He was afraid that the incident would happen again if he leaves her alone. If her near-rape happens again, he could never forgive himself.
But to his surprise, Tohru looked as worried as he was. "Then we have to save it!" She hurriedly grabbed his hand and pulled him to the opposite direction.
"B-But what about your job?"
"It's ok. I'll come late only this once," she replied.
"Honda-san?"
"No time to chitchat, Yuki-kun!" she cried. "We must defend your base before the savage winds ravage it!"
"But Honda-san, do you even know which way is it to my base?"
She paused. "Er, come to think of it.." She grinned sheepishly. "I don't."
He was stunned, and then he burst out in delighted laughter. Tohru was surprised but she joined in his laughter anyway.
It was the first time I heard Yuki-kun laugh with no force or touch of sarcasm at all, she reflected. And his laughter makes my heart feel so light and bouncy.
"Oh!" Tohru was pleasantly surprised that Yuki's secret base was actually a vegetable plot.
"I grow a lot of things here," he explained as he hurriedly secured his plants.
"But the leeks…"
"I grow them where the baka neko can see it. Just to spite him," he said nonchantly.
Tohru sighed.
He smiled sardonically. "You must be thinking how incredibly immature I am, right?"
"I don't understand why you two fight, so I have no right to judge," she said slowly. "But I do know for a fact that Kyo-kun's nice too. In fact, if you give him a chance-"
He could feel the surge of white-hot anger within him again. "You're just saying that because you love cats!" he said, his voice rising a decibel.
"What has it got to do with that?" a bewildered Tohru asked.
He didn't reply. Instead he stood up. "The wind is getting harsher. Let's go in."
"Yuki-kun! Yuki-" Tohru stood up to follow him but slipped on the moist garden soil. She stumbled forward towards him.
As if in a slow motion, a startled Yuki instinctively reached out to catch her. As soon as her arms flung around his waist, smoke appeared.
Before her very eyes, Yuki transformed into a rat.
tsuzuku