This chapter is for Omi, who loves Kyo-Yuki-Tohru angles. Misyah, loka!
"It's getting chilly," said Tohru as she wrapped her arms around herself. She was finishing the last rounds of plates to be washed before going to bed. She breathed on her palms before continuing her work.
Kagura peeked at her. "Hey, Tohru-chan! You can rest now. We'll just finish the rest of the chores tomorrow."
She smiled at the girl. "No, I want to finish the plates now. I'm not yet sleepy."
Kagura still looked reluctant.
"Really!" said the onigiri cheerfully. She was telling the truth. She still wanted to work, because she could see that even if Kagura was industrious in household chores, the default maid of the house still wasn't able to clean the castle thoroughly.
And she was brought up by her mother to be a cleaning freak.
Or so Uo and Hana say.
Upon remembering her friends, her eyes saddened. She missed them terribly.
Yuki's face appeared in her mind again, then she felt less lonely.
Yuki's right. This family is my family too.
And she knew that somehow, she loved this family too already.
Tohru was busying herself in placing the plates back into the shelves when she heard footsteps climbing up the stairs. She peeked into the living room and found Kyo climbing up the stairs wearily, holding his guitar. She looked up at him, smilingly. "Hey, Kyo-kun!"
He looked down at her. "Tohru?"
Minutes later, Kyo was wiping the plates dry while Tohru was arranging the plates into the cabinet.
"You're still up this late at night?" asked Tohru.
"Speak for yourself," he grumbled.
"I can't sleep," she admitted.
Kyo looked at her with what seemed like sympathy. "You miss your folks?"
She told him the same thing she told Yuki. Kyo looked taken aback, and fell into thoughtful silence.
"It's alright, Kyo-kun," she told him reassuringly. "They're long gone, and I have already gotten used to that."
"Do you miss your mother?" he asked.
She smiled. "Why, yes! She's very wise and warm." She continued arranging the plates. "At first, I didn't know what I would do without her, but then, thanks to my friends back in Kaibara, I learned to be tough and survive."
"You're lucky," he said. "You know how it is to be loved by a woman…a mother."
Tohru detected the pain in his voice. She didn't want to touch a raw nerve within him, but she had to ask. "Your mother, Kyo-kun?"
"There are no mothers in the family," he said abruptly before he shoved the other plates to her hands. "I'm going to bed."
"Um, ok," she said. "I'm sorry for asking."
He shrugged. "It means nothing to me. I don't even remember her anymore."
She sighed, then continued scrubbing the plates dry. You still do, Kyo-kun.
"You know why there are no mothers in the family?" said Kagura as she clasped young Kyo's hands. They were in front of the Sohma graveyard, kneeling by the grave of Kyo's mother.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because in the end, the fathers eat mothers too. They become victims. After they give birth to their children, they become food too."
The next morning, Tohru woke up shivering. She reached for her blanket and looked out at the window. Her eyes widened with delight when she saw snow falling outside.
She excitedly got up and opened the window. "Snow, snow!" she cried happily.
She then noticed someone walking under the snow. It was Yuki!
Yuki was securing his plants for the winter when suddenly, Tohru arrived, holding out a warm cup of chocolate. "Hey there, Yuki-kun!"
His eyes crinkled into a smile. "Good morning, Honda-san! Is that for me?"
She nodded.
"Thank you," he said, reaching for the cup. He sipped delicately, then beamed. "Really good."
"Ah, that's just an instant brand of choco-"
He shook his head. "No. It makes me feel really good that you were the one who fixed this drink for me even without me asking."
"Eh?"
"Nothing." He turned back to his plants. "I'm going to take a break from my gardening because winter is here. But next summer, I'll introduce new plants to the soil." He knelt down and brushed the snow off lightly on one of the leaves of his plants. "You like strawberries, Honda-san?" he asked softly, his eyes still on the leaf.
"Me?" She pointed to herself. "Y-Yes! I-I love strawberries, and I love strawberry cakes too!"
"Really?" His mouth twitched. "I see."
She knelt beside him and peered at his hands. "Don't you get cold?"
"Hmm?"
"Your gloves…don't tell me you do your garden work without gloves!" she said.
Yuki sighed. "I had one, but when Kagura did the laundry, she accidentally tore it. That was a few weeks ago."
"Tohru-chan!!!"
Tohru turned to the left and found Momiji heading toward her, skipping happily. "Momiji!"
Momiji jumped towards her and wrapped his arms around her. "I'm off to work! Give me my farewell hug!"
POOF!
Yuki, sighing, took the hare. "You'll be late again."
Momiji ignored his cousin. "Tohru-chan, come with me! I want you to see me perform on stage today!"
"E-Eh?"
Tohru, Yuki, and Momiji were standing in the middle of the town plaza of Tokyo as people passed by them obliviously.
"Where is your audience?" asked Tohru.
"These people will be my audience!" announced Momiji proudly as he gestured towards the crowd grandly.
"B-But they seem too busy to watch," remarked the onigiri.
"They're really not so busy," said the hare. "They are just preoccupied by their own affairs. Trust me. They'll thank me for the entertainment." With that, Momiji went on the top of the marble fountain, his arms up.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PRESENTING…THE GREAT ENTERTAINER…MOMIJI!!!!!"
Everyone's eyes turned to Momiji, as well as to Tohru and Yuki.
She gulped, as Yuki calmly sat down. "Our job here, Honda-san, will come soon. You better be seated too."
"W-We're part of his presentation too?" said Tohru, eyes wide.
"First…may I open the program with a little music." Momiji snapped his finger. " A flute and violin presentation!!!"
"He'll play those instruments at the same time?" asked Tohru.
Momiji took out his flute and started to play a merry tune. He began to tap his foot to the music, which later accelerated to lively skips and steps.
Yuki stood up and took out a violin from his bag and started to play along too.
Tohru's eyes widened. Wow, Yuki-kun can play an instrument too!
He began to rotate around the crowd, bowing at times to the ladies, young and old, of the crowd, making some of the women squeal. He then turned to Tohru and gestured to the hat beside her.
She picked it up, then followed him. She held it out towards the people, and to her shock, coins after coins filled the brim of the hat, until she had to place some of the coins in the apron pockets of her clothes.
Tohru watched as Yuki serenaded a section of wealthy-looking women, who were all squealing in delight. Her eyes twinkled. She understood why the women were reacting that way. If a handsome guy like him would do that to her, she would feel as excited as them too.
She looked at their earnings. The show had barely started, and they already have enough to buy groceries for the week!
Momiji took out and spread the deck of cards on the sidewalk, then gestured to the crowd. "Will anyone out there volunteer to shuffle these cards?"
Hands shot up immediately, and Momiji gave Tohru a gentle push towards the crowd. "Our pretty Tohru-chan will pick one from the audience!"
She freaked out. "A-Ah!!! Momiji-"
The hare winked at her.
She looked at the crowd, then picked a young boy aged somewhere between 5 or 6. "Come here."
The boy shyly stepped forward, then looked at the cards. He carefully shuffled them, then looked at Momiji expectantly.
"Are you sure you have shuffled it well already?" asked Momiji. "To be sure, I'll cut the cards in a half and put one over the other."
The boy nodded eagerly.
"Now, I will guess the cards at the middle, at the top, and at the bottom." He turned the cards back and picked the card in the middle. "Four of Clubs!"
The boy opened the card, then clapped happily. The audience reacted the same way.
"At the bottom is the…Seven spade!"
"Right again!" said the boy, making the crowd more amazed.
"The last card is the King of Diamonds." Momiji wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulder. "Am I right?"
He got his answer when the crowd's applause roared.
"How did you do that?" asked Tohru in amazement as the three of them busied themselves in counting their earnings for the day. The onigiri still couldn't get over the card tricks of the hare.
"It's very easy, actually." Momiji took out the card deck. "All you have to do is to check the card at the bottom, and when the person shuffles, the card on top. Then, the card at the bottom of the second cut which you will put in the middle of the cards."
"Really?" said the riceball.
"Really. But your eyes must be quick enough..no quicker than the eyes of the crowd. Or else, the whole trick will fail."
"Wow!" said the onigiri, thrilled. "Tell me more!"
Yuki glanced at the happy Tohru hanging on to his cousin's every word, then felt his eyes crinkle with fondness. He then continued to count their earnings.
"How's that for our day's earnings?" asked Momiji proudly when he counted four hundred silver coins and fifty pieces of gold coins in front of Hatori. "I haven't earned this much since last year! Tohru-chan is our lucky charm!"
Shigure put his hand on his jaw. "Imagine all the bottles of catsup we can buy…"
The rest of the family nodded in agreement.
Hatori glanced at Tohru briefly, then looked at the coins. "Alright, she can stay."
"Yes!!!" cheered Kagura and Momiji. Yuki, who was standing behind the acting clan head, smiled.
Kyo, who was sitting outside the living room, overheard Hatori's decision. He smiled to himself too.
Tohru nodded when Hatori told her to bring Ayame some food in his bedroom.
"He's finishing some project, and I know he won't come out to eat unless we force him," said the clan doctor.
So here she was, knocking on Ayame's door, holding a tray of food. "Ayame-san?"
When she got no reply, she tried the door. It opened, so she went inside anyway.
She found him engrossed in his sewing project. "Ayame-san?"
He looked up, then smiled warmly at her. "Oh, Tohru-kun! I'm sorry! I didn't hear you. Please sit down."
"Hatori-san was worried about you," she said as she placed the food tray down his table. "He told me that you won't eat when you're busy, which is not right." She then noticed the picture frame by his table. "Yuki-kun?"
"My younger brother," said Aya. He began to devour the contents of the tray.
Well, now that I think about it. They do kind of look similar. She turned to him and smiled.
"What is it?" he asked.
"You really look the same, Ayame-san!"
He laughed. "Well, yes, we're siblings."
She traced the delicate face of the young man with her finger, oblivious of Aya's gaze at her.
"But…you don't talk much with each other," wondered Tohru aloud.
Ayame sighed. "He hates me."
She turned to him, shocked. "Eh?"
"In fact, the only person he really talks to nowadays is just you," said Yuki's elder brother, grinning. "He looks so cheerful whenever you're around."
She looked away, colors flooding her face. "Um…"
Aya looked down. "He had always wanted a friend…someone outside the Sohma family. I often see him looking out at the balcony, into the civilizations below the forest of the Sohma. But…he seems to be looking out too far and too much, to notice me waiting at the corner patiently for him, hoping that someday, he'll see me as a friend too."
Tohru fell silent.
"If not as a brother, then even as a friend."
Okaasan, this family of mine…I realized that life with them may not always be a bed of roses. They also have some problems. But then, it only endears them to me, because they are willing to let me share the pains they feel. They make me feel that I'm one of them too.
Tohru continued to sew some pieces of cloths she asked from Ayame before she left. After finishing the two pieces of clothings, she wrapped them both with her hair ribbons – having no money to buy decent gift ribbons. She then left the smaller one in front of Yuki's bedroom, the gift marked with his name. The other one, marked with Kyo's name, she was about to leave in front of his bedroom door too, but since she heard the faint strums of the guitar again, she decided to give the gift to him personally.
Kyo was startled by the sound of footsteps approaching him. He stopped playing his guitar, then looked behind him.
Tohru, dressed in her pajamas, approached him uncertainly. "Good evening."
"Still up again?" he asked, turning his back on her again.
"Y-Yes. A-Actually…" She offered to him the tied cloth she was holding.
He caught a glimpse of cloth at the corner of his eye. "What is that for?"
She sat down beside him and placed her gift on his hands. "I often see you out on the roof at night, with nothing to protect you. Winter is coming, so it will be chilly. So I thought…" Her words trailed off.
He put his guitar down and untied it. His eyes widened when he saw a shawl, and for a moment, Tohru thought she could see his eyes shake.
"You did this?" he asked softly.
She was startled by the mildness of his voice. She nodded smilingly. "It's not very good, but I hope you'll like it."
Kyo then remembered why he saw Tohru sewing that night on the balcony after she washed the plates. "You shouldn't have…"
Tohru stood up. "I made it for you, so please wear it." She took the shawl and wrapped it around his shoulders. "There!" She started to climb down from the roof. "Sorry for disturbing you. Goodnight, Kyo-kun!"
He didn't reply. Tohru still smiled as she went down.
What she didn't see was the tenderness that crossed the usually indifferent face of Kyo, as he knotted the shawl more securely around his shoulders and continued to play the guitar, a lullaby serenade that he knew would reach her, hopefully.
His way of saying thanks to her unconditional kindness.
Yuki brought the gloves Tohru made for him to his heart, smiling tenderly. He uttered a prayer of thanks before he lied down his bed.
He reminded himself to thank her properly tomorrow.
Tsuzuku