Love Remains #2.

~~~~~

By girl_starfish

Kyoko ruffled Tohru's hair affectionately. "Breakfast looks wonderful, honey. When did you find time to make all this?"

Tohru beamed at the compliment. "I woke up early. First day at my new school, you know. I wanted to make sure everything was all right."

"You sure you don't want me to take you to school?"

"Mother, I'm 16. I'm quite capable of going to school by myself, you know."

"I just thought I'd ask," Kyoko said, sitting down at the table and the plate set out for her. "First days can be daunting."

"I've been looking forward to this," Tohru said. "It'll be nice to meet the people who live near here."

"Its too bad we moved in just as holidays started and you had to wait this long to start school," Kyoko said. "Still, at least we got the house tidied up some."

"I don't mind," Tohru said. "Its not like I've been lonely or anything. Its been fun exploring the house with you." Not to mention talking to Shigure … Tohru remembered suddenly. "See you later!"

"You're leaving already?"

"There's something I have to do first."

Tohru stood in the library. This was one of her most favourite places within the house. It was a pleasant room, decorated nicely, and the views of the garden were beautiful. She took a moment to admire the freshness of the morning then pulled out a piece of paper from her bag. She was trying to decide on where the best place to leave it would be when—

"Boo!"

"Yiiieee!" Tohru jumped. "Shigure!"

He laughed, leaning back against the bookcase. "Got you that time!" He grinned cheekily at her. "You know, you'd think you'd get to expect me doing that—"

"I didn't think you'd be here so early," Tohru said, smiling—it was impossible to get angry with Shigure. "I thought you'd be getting ready for school."

"Eh?" Shigure took in Tohru's uniform. "Oh, of course. The holiday's are over."

"I wrote you a note, wishing you well for your first day back," Tohru said, putting the note back in her bag. "I thought we could walk to school together, maybe."

"Sorry, Tohru, I don't think we can," Shigure said. "For a start, my school is boy's only, and secondly the only co-ed school near here is in the opposite direction."

"Oh," Tohru said disappointed.

"Cheer up," Shigure said. "A pretty girl like you is sure to make loads of friends! I'll come by after school so you can tell me all about it!"

Tohru blushed. She was never sure whether Shigure was joking or not when he said things like that … "How do you manage to get in here anyway? I'm pretty certain my mother said she locked the doors last night—"

"Who's to say I don't have a key?" Shigure said lightly. "I am a Souma, you know."

"Then how come Hatori didn't think you were here?" Tohru asked. She'd been meaning to ask Shigure that for all of two weeks now but he was very good at distracting her.

"Hatori—" Shigure sighed. "I don't know. We used to be best friends … and now … I can't talk to him at all."

"Did you have a fight?" Tohru asked, wondering how someone like Shigure could be friends with someone like Hatori. Apart from their personalities, which were almost completely opposite, there was the age difference—

"Not exactly. See Tohru, something happened in this house a long time ago, and I was involved and it hurt Hatori a lot . . . I don't think he's ever got over it." Shigure sounded wistful. "I'd give anything to put things back the way they were…"

"Maybe you can," Tohru said. "What happened?"

"I can't tell you," Shigure said. "Tohru … aren't you going to school?"

Startled Tohru glanced at her watch. "The bus'll be here any minute! I've got to go!"

"Bye Tohru!" Shigure called after her.

"See you later!" Tohru ran for the front door.

~o~o~

The bus ride seemed far to short to settle her thoughts. She had hardly enough time to look at the other students on the bus and wonder if any of them would be in her class, let alone to think over Shigure's statement before they arrived.

Her teacher greeted her warmly, and Tohru was quickly made welcome. A friendly girl, Akeiko, was assigned to show her around, and Tohru had the feeling that she would settle in quickly.

"You'll eat with me and my friends, won't you Tohru?" Akeiko said, leading her over to a group of girls clustered around the latest fashion magazine.

"Sure!" Tohru said happily. Her mother would be so proud—she was making friends already.

Things went well until Tomomi asked her where she lived. "You must have just moved here, right Tohru?"

"We've been here for two weeks," Tohru said. "My mother and I moved here because of her job."

"What about your father?"

"He died when I was little," Tohru explained.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

"So what does your mother do?"

"She's a housekeeper for the old Souma house."

Total silence.

"The Souma house? Like … freaky."

"Does she actually have to go in there? I wouldn't go inside that house for a million dollars!"

"Its not scary at all," Tohru protested. "In fact, its really lovely inside."

"You mean you've seen it?"

"I live there."

There was another long pause.

"Sorry, Tohru, but I just remembered, I've got to go to recorder lesson."

"So do I."

"Group lesson, you know."

"Bye," said Tohru, trying not to feel nervous about being suddenly left on her own. It didn't help that the cluster of girls began talking furiously amongst themselves as they walked off.

The day went downhill from there.

Tohru noticed people giving her a wide berth during her classes, and suddenly everyone else had partners during the practical part of the lessons. She ended up sitting alone at lunch, no one willing to take the rest of the bench once they saw she was sitting on it. Tohru had to fight back tears as she slowly ate the lunch she'd prepared that morning—how different this was from the day she'd been looking forward to all holidays…

She was conscious that she attracted a lot of stares but the moment she looked up no one would catch her eye.

Home time couldn't come soon enough.

Tohru jumped off the bus with a sigh. At last the day was over—she couldn't wait to talk to Shigure—

"Hey, you."

Tohru paused. Blocking her path was a tall girl, standing with her arms crossed in a threatening pose. Next to her was another girl, gazing at Tohru with a calm expression that somehow managed to make Tohru wish as though she could melt into the ground. On the blonde girl's other side was a red headed boy, glaring at her as if he'd just been told that she was his worst enemy.

"Y-yes?" Tohru asked nervously.

"Rumour round the school is that you live in the old Souma place," tall and threatening said, jerking her head towards the house.

"Y-yes?" Tohru said, her heart beginning to pound. So she hadn't imagined it—she was in serious trouble now—

"We were seeking to confirm or negate this statement," the black haired girl said, her eyes not leaving Tohru's face for a second.

"So, what—are you really trying to tell us you live there?" the boy demanded.

"Yes—my mother is the housekeeper. We both live there," Tohru admitted hesitantly.

The three of them looked at each other than the blonde one stepped forward. Tohru flinched, expecting to be punched into the ground, but instead felt a hand laid gently on her shoulder.

She looked up in surprise into a smile that, if not exactly warm, wasn't unfriendly. "I'm Uo-chan, or Uotani Arisa. This is Hanajima Saki, or Hana-chan for short, and that idiot over there is Kyou."

"Nice to meet you," Tohru said politely.

"We're in your homeroom," Arisu continued.

"She knows, doofus, she was there," Kyou interrupted.

"Shut up, stupid. Its her first day, you can't expect her to remember everything!"

"Hey, who are you calling stupid?"

"I believe that would be you, stupid!"

"You want to fight?"

"Bring it on!"

"Ah—" Tohru watched the scene before her in bewilderment.

"They fight all the time," Saki said. She'd drifted closer to Tohru without the other girl realising it. "Get used to it."

"Eh?" Tohru stared at her.

Saki gave her a grave smile. "We're your new best friends."

~~~

"And then Saki-chan's mother made us ice-cream sandwiches—and they said that they'll let me join their English presentation even though I've come into the class so late and haven't done any of the work."

Kyoko ruffled her daughter's hair. "I'm proud of you, hon. Sounds like you've made some good friends."

"I know!" Tohru beamed. "Can I ask them here sometime? You'd like them—"

"Of course," Kyoko stretched. "What a long day—and there goes that library light again."

"It's only Shigure," Tohru said. "I'll just go say good night to him."

"You don't want a torch or anything? Aren't you nervous, running through the house at this hour?"

"Its just Shigure, what's there to be worried about?" Tohru said, moving towards the door. She paused, studying her mother's expression. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, nothing. I just … don't spend too much time talking to Shigure, okay?"

Her mother seemed to get an odd tone in her voice whenever Tohru mentioned Shigure. She'd tried to leave him out of their conversations as much as possible, in order not to bother her. She didn't understand it, but there was plainly something about Shigure that made the adults uncomfortable. Almost as thought they were afraid—

Shigure was in his favourite armchair by the window, wearing what looked like the same black suit he always wore. He put down The Complete Sherlock Homes as she entered. "So, how was your first day at school?"

"It didn't start out well," Tohru admitted. "But I met some really nice people at the end of the day!"

"Sounds interesting," Shigure said. "Tell me about them."

Enthusiastically Tohru told him about her new friends. "Saki is deep and perceptive … and Arisu is so athletic! She says I can call her Uo-chan! And Kyou—he acts really tough but he got mad when he found out that Akeiko just left me at lunchtime. He said he's going to show me where all my classes are."

"That's great Tohru. I'm glad your first day back went well."

Tohru thought Shigure sounded a little bit … off. "Is something wrong?"

"I guess I'm a little worried that with all your great new friends, you'll forget me," Shigure said, with a smile to disguise his seriousness.

"I wouldn't do that!" Tohru protested. "You're the first friend I made here—I'll always remember that."

"You promise?"

Before Tohru could say another word, there was loud crash from upstairs. The lights in the library flickered momentarily.

Tohru squeaked in fright as another discordant crash was heard. "What is that?"

"Hiro—" Shigure whispered.

Tohru looked up at him and was astonished to see that he'd let all traces of joviality slide. She's often caught a sense of hidden sadness in his manner; masked but not hidden by the cheerfulness with which he always spoke. She'd never seen it this obvious though—he looked as though he were a hundred years older than she was, not the one year she knew he was.

"Shigure?"

He blinked at her, and she was certain that he'd forgotten she was present. Then he grinned at her, attitude changing so quickly it was as if she was looking at a different person. "Guess you're going meet another one of this house's peculiarities Tohru!"

"Eh?"

She hadn't a chance to question him further because her mother called to her from the hall.

"Tohru? Are you all right?"

"I'm in here!" Tohru called, throwing the door open.

Kyoko hugged her tightly. "I'm glad you're all right. I heard a crash and thought maybe a bookcase had landed on you—"

"I'm fine mother—" Tohru wasn't surprise to find that Shigure had disappeared again.

"What happened? What was that noise?"

"I don't know. I was in here talking to Shigure and—"

Another crash came from the upstairs followed in quick succession by a series of loud thumps.

"What the hell—" Kyoko exclaimed, darting up the stairs. "It better not be intruders—"

Tohru dashed after her. She was in time to see her mother throw the door to the upstairs drawing room open—and pause.

Tohru cautiously peered round the doorway. The room was a mess. The low table had been pushed over, scattering books and shattering a large vase. The shelves had been toppled and one of the framed photos on the wall had fallen, the glass smashed completely.

And there was no one there.

Kyoko and Tohru studied the room in silence.

"What should we do?"

"Leave it," Kyoko decided. "I'll phone Hatori in the morning, tell him what happened. Buts it's too late to deal to this mess tonight. You need to get to bed."

"But—" Tohru was incredulous. This didn't make sense—they'd seen no-one leave—and the room certainly hadn't been this way before—

"Hatori warned me about this," Kyoko said, shutting the door firmly. "He said that old houses like this one shift over time, the boards become warped and such and that one of the rooms upstairs is in such at state that they can't keep the furniture in it undamaged for very long."

"But—"

"It's an old house, sweetie. That's all there is to it. Now what do you say to a glass of warm milk and bed?"

Lying in bed with the covers tucked up to her chin, Tohru reflected that her mother had very cleverly changed the subject. Still, if there was something her mother wasn't telling her it was probably for a good reason. The only alternative explanation for the room that Tohru could think of was that the rumours were right—the house was haunted.

She shivered. "Don't be silly," she told herself. "Haunted houses are scary—not beautiful, like this one."

With that thought she settled back to go to sleep. Only one thought disturbed her rest.

Shigure had said she was about to meet another of the house's peculiarities—so what was the first?