This takes place in the anime timeline, after the anniversary of Tohru's mom's death, but before they go to the lake. Anyway: no real romance going on, but sort of romantic/awkward moments. Allot of characters show up, so I'll say who they are here, in order of 'screen-time': Hatori, Kyo, Tohru, Shigure, Yuki, Ayame, Momiji and Akito. This doesn't mean I'm favoring Kyo above Yuki, and Tohru is almost always there, but not always conscious. Akito's time is short but intense, as always. I'll just let you read.
Disclaimer: I did not come up with, nor do I own any of these characters. This story, however, does belong to me.
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"Mail call!" yelled Shigure as he walked into the dining room. It was warm, and the doors were open to let the fresh air in.
"We've got mail?" said Yuki, who looked up from a student council itinerary. It was May and already their class was a little behind in money, so minor budget cuts-
"Of course you don't got mail! Who's gonna write you? You don't tell anyone your address!" Kyo had been napping with his head under a news paper. It fell off his head when he sat up. Kyo woke up and fell asleep so easily it could make it hard to tell if he was napping.
"Shut up, baka-neko. I didn't mean it was from-" Yuki thought for a moment , and frowned, "It isn't from the main house is it? I really can't-"
"O, boys! Who said it was for you?" Shigure smiled.
"If it isn't for us then why did you bother to tell us the mail was here!" Kyo jumped to his feet, hitting his leg on the table, and knocking over his glass of milk "Gaaaaaah! Dammit I-"
Toru rushed in from hanging laundry and said, "What's wrong Kyo-kun?" She looked at the turned over cup.
Tiny water droplets on the side of the cold glass ran together onto the table, mixing with the milk. Kyo hadn't been asleep for long before he started fighting with Yuki again. But he was asleep in the same room, so maybe they were doing better.
"Oh, did you bump your knee getting up? Let me see!" Toru kneeled on a cushion next to where Kyo normally sat, and Shigure got a towel to save the varnish of the wood on the table staining.
"There's need to worry about him, Honda-san. He's too macho to let anyone near him when he's hurt, even if it is just a little scratch," said Yuki, smiling warmly up at her.
"Shut up, prettyboy!" Kyo sat back on the ground sullenly, but allowed her to roll up his pant leg for inspection. He was sitting with his right leg upright and bent to be examined, and the other discreetly folded under it, half indian style. His left hand rested in his lap, the other behind him on the ground for balance.
"Oh, it's not your knee, it's your shin! And right on the bone!" Kyo had a thin bruise a few inches below his knee from hitting the edge of the table, and it broke the skin near the middle.
"Has anyone seen the bandages? I think they keep getting put back someplace I wouldn't normally put them, because I couldn't find them half an hour ago."
"Aww, you don't need to-"
"I know where it they are!" Shigure said and dashed off.
"Oh, Honda-san, where you hurt?" said Yuki.
"Oh," Kyo suddenly realized what she had said.
"No! Well, not really," she pulled back from her study and brushed her hair away to reveal a swollen scratch on her neck, "A twig snagged me, and I wanted to just put a little disinfectant on it. That's all."
"It looks bad. It's all.... red and stuff." said Kyo. His fingers almost lost contact with the floor when he leaned in to get a closer look.
"Really? It hurts a little, but I'll be fine. Thanks."
"That could be infected. It's already very puffy. You should have that looked at." said Yuki.
"Yes, you should, Toru-kun! Here's the bandages! Can I play doctor too, now?"
"Shut up you idiot," said Yuki and Kyo in unison.
"Thank you, Shigu-" Shigure dumped the box full of cotton swabs, a bottle of peroxide and the bandages all at once into her outstretched hands, just as she turned to face him. The supplies fell to the floor.
"Shigure!" said Yuki.
"You damned idiot!" Kyo yelled at him.
"Oops, silly me! I should think next time, ne?"
"What's this?" Toru held a thick envelope addressed to her she found on the ground. There was a return address on it, but not a name.
"Oh, that came for you today, Toru-kun."
"That-" started Kyo "-envelope............." finished Yuki.
"Is something wrong? I hope It's okeh if I get mail isn't it?" Toru's eyes went wide,
"I haven't given out my address to anyone but Hana-chan and Uo-chan, I swear! Except for Grampa- oh, and my aunt would know! Then of course my cousins- I've really messed up haven-"
"Relax Tohru-kun! That's the main house address see? The family even has special paper made for us, so you can tell it's from there, even if there's no return address. If there's no postage, there's a problem, so if you ever find one, please tell me. Anyway, everyone at the house knows where you are, so no worries!"
Yuki looked run over and Kyo gritted his teeth.
"Shigure, what the hell you trying to-" Kyo tried to get up, but tripped over his left leg and into Tohru. When the smoke cleared, Tohru had Kyo's shirt on her head.
Apparently Kyo had kept going and had knocked over Shigure. Somewhere between eight and one hundred twenty pounds of orange fury had hit Shigure in the gut, and he was being yelled at by the cat on his chest.
"Damn you Shigure, I'm sick of all your double talk crap, like you're so much smarter than everybody else cause you get some sick joke that no one else does! Well I don't like where you're taking this, you bastard! Did you plan this? What the hell are you pulling-"
"I couldn't know you'd need a bandage! Besides, it might be important-" whined Shigure when he got some breath back, and placed a hand behind him to try and prop himself up a little. Kyo started shredding Shigure's Yukata.
"Stay put while I'm talking and shut the hell up!"
"Don't do that, Kyo, this is my favorite one! It's an heirloom, you can't find the indigo thread to get it mended anymore! You don't even know who the letter's from!"
"When it comes from that house, it comes form one person." said Yuki quietly, still sitting at his seat. Shigure and Kyo stopped and looked at Yuki, and everyone took a few breathes in tense silence.
"It's from Hatori-san!" said Tohru, who had reached the signature. The guys snapped out of it and looked at her.
She had been reading the whole time, and had folded Kyo's clothes next to her. Shigure sat up and Kyo leapt onto the table to try and look at the letter.
"What's it say?" Kyo said suspiciously.
"He says...... well, it's in a tense I'm not used to. And it's got a lot of Kanji I don't know for sure. Something about seeing him, but with over a page written here, I'm afraid that doesn't reflect well on my reading. I think you'd have better luck than me, Yuki-kun."
Yuki reluctantly took the letter and read a few lines, "I'm afraid this is......... very formal. It's like reading some treaty form the eighth century. From what I know, some of these are metaphors for actions and places, but I don't know about what."
Shigure held out a hand and flexed his fingers, grinning.
"What makes you think you can read it if wonder boy can't?" said Kyo.
"Because, I taught Hatori how to write like that. Very hard to understand if you don't know how, ne? Aya can read and write it too, but since it's already a long winded way of writing, reading his can be very time consuming."
"Oh, I see!" said Toru, who clapped her hands together in delight, "It's a secret code! I tried to make one up once, but I'm not that great with words anyway. Mom told me I should just try being honest, because then the people you need to understand will, and the people who don't wouldn't understand what you had to say in the first place, which is better than a secret code! Or something like that. It kind of makes sense, but if I think about it too hard it sounds weird. But it had that feeling you get when you hear a big truth, you know? Like a bell's been struck, and your soul rings back, you know? So I'll just keep trying to figure it out!"
The others looked at her, dumbfounded. Where inside of her did she pull these things from........?
"You have good a point, Toru-kun!" said Shigure and then laughed.
Yuki glared and handed it over. Shigure elaborately reached into his clothes and took out his glasses, flipping them open to read with.
"Ah," said Shigure after a minute, "Hatori got permission from your grandfather to have your medical records transferred to him. He's asking to set up an appointment sometime this week. Tomorrow fine? " he looked up and sparkled at her.
"What!?" yelled Yuki and Kyo.
"Oh, no, I can't do that! It's Friday, and of course I have school! And I don't have anything I can pay-"
Kyo stood up in a puff of smoke, and Toru stifled a surprised scream. Kyo grabbed his clothes and marched off into the hall not bothering to go to his own room. He reappeared a few seconds later with his shirt on inside out, fists clenched
"Hey, I wasn't the one who thinks she needs a doctor's appointment!" said Shigure skooching towards the wall.
"No? Well, who told Hatori where her Grandfather lived?" said Yuki.
"And knowing you, you're just in it to get sick little details!"
Shigure peaked at Toru from behind the wall of approaching orange and gray destruction and said, "Toru-kun, when was your last doctor's appointment?" Yuki and Kyo stopped their advance and looked back at her.
Toru thought, "Well, with the expense and with me working, and with how little Mom made...... over two years."
"Do you get sick allot?"
"I....... do more than I used to. I just need to be less flaky about taking care of myself. It's usually my fault when I get sick."
"I see. Have you gotten all your shots up to date and such? Prevention is the key to good health!"
"I- I....... oh dear.......! No wonder I'm so.........." she blushed and stared off into space, "I guess I could get some payment plan or something....... after school I can go see him," she trailed off and mumbled, "Well it's sunset already, and I haven't fixed dinner...... silly me," she smiled a little walked into the kitchen.
Yuki and Kyo stared off at some point in space. "Fine," said Kyo, "it's better than dying, I guess."
"If anything happens, Shigure......." said Yuki softly through his teeth, "I'll haunt you. Even if I have to follow your spirit to the lowest Hell to do it." The boys turned and started walking away.
"Can't we just trust-"
Cries of "NO!" came from behind the hall and the garden doorways, which had been slammed so hard they broke.
"I'll just confirm the appointment, shall I?" said Shigure.
As Shigure was getting up, Kyo marched back into the room from the yard, coming through the hole in the door. He bent over and grabbed the bandages and peroxide from off the floor. Shigure made one of his faces at him.
"What? I'm supposed to tell her to keep healthy if I can't even keep a scrape from getting infected?"
Shigure's smile began to border on a leer.
"Go to hell," muttered Kyo and he walked back outside toward the ladder.
Disclaimer: I did not come up with, nor do I own any of these characters. This story, however, does belong to me.
____________________
"Mail call!" yelled Shigure as he walked into the dining room. It was warm, and the doors were open to let the fresh air in.
"We've got mail?" said Yuki, who looked up from a student council itinerary. It was May and already their class was a little behind in money, so minor budget cuts-
"Of course you don't got mail! Who's gonna write you? You don't tell anyone your address!" Kyo had been napping with his head under a news paper. It fell off his head when he sat up. Kyo woke up and fell asleep so easily it could make it hard to tell if he was napping.
"Shut up, baka-neko. I didn't mean it was from-" Yuki thought for a moment , and frowned, "It isn't from the main house is it? I really can't-"
"O, boys! Who said it was for you?" Shigure smiled.
"If it isn't for us then why did you bother to tell us the mail was here!" Kyo jumped to his feet, hitting his leg on the table, and knocking over his glass of milk "Gaaaaaah! Dammit I-"
Toru rushed in from hanging laundry and said, "What's wrong Kyo-kun?" She looked at the turned over cup.
Tiny water droplets on the side of the cold glass ran together onto the table, mixing with the milk. Kyo hadn't been asleep for long before he started fighting with Yuki again. But he was asleep in the same room, so maybe they were doing better.
"Oh, did you bump your knee getting up? Let me see!" Toru kneeled on a cushion next to where Kyo normally sat, and Shigure got a towel to save the varnish of the wood on the table staining.
"There's need to worry about him, Honda-san. He's too macho to let anyone near him when he's hurt, even if it is just a little scratch," said Yuki, smiling warmly up at her.
"Shut up, prettyboy!" Kyo sat back on the ground sullenly, but allowed her to roll up his pant leg for inspection. He was sitting with his right leg upright and bent to be examined, and the other discreetly folded under it, half indian style. His left hand rested in his lap, the other behind him on the ground for balance.
"Oh, it's not your knee, it's your shin! And right on the bone!" Kyo had a thin bruise a few inches below his knee from hitting the edge of the table, and it broke the skin near the middle.
"Has anyone seen the bandages? I think they keep getting put back someplace I wouldn't normally put them, because I couldn't find them half an hour ago."
"Aww, you don't need to-"
"I know where it they are!" Shigure said and dashed off.
"Oh, Honda-san, where you hurt?" said Yuki.
"Oh," Kyo suddenly realized what she had said.
"No! Well, not really," she pulled back from her study and brushed her hair away to reveal a swollen scratch on her neck, "A twig snagged me, and I wanted to just put a little disinfectant on it. That's all."
"It looks bad. It's all.... red and stuff." said Kyo. His fingers almost lost contact with the floor when he leaned in to get a closer look.
"Really? It hurts a little, but I'll be fine. Thanks."
"That could be infected. It's already very puffy. You should have that looked at." said Yuki.
"Yes, you should, Toru-kun! Here's the bandages! Can I play doctor too, now?"
"Shut up you idiot," said Yuki and Kyo in unison.
"Thank you, Shigu-" Shigure dumped the box full of cotton swabs, a bottle of peroxide and the bandages all at once into her outstretched hands, just as she turned to face him. The supplies fell to the floor.
"Shigure!" said Yuki.
"You damned idiot!" Kyo yelled at him.
"Oops, silly me! I should think next time, ne?"
"What's this?" Toru held a thick envelope addressed to her she found on the ground. There was a return address on it, but not a name.
"Oh, that came for you today, Toru-kun."
"That-" started Kyo "-envelope............." finished Yuki.
"Is something wrong? I hope It's okeh if I get mail isn't it?" Toru's eyes went wide,
"I haven't given out my address to anyone but Hana-chan and Uo-chan, I swear! Except for Grampa- oh, and my aunt would know! Then of course my cousins- I've really messed up haven-"
"Relax Tohru-kun! That's the main house address see? The family even has special paper made for us, so you can tell it's from there, even if there's no return address. If there's no postage, there's a problem, so if you ever find one, please tell me. Anyway, everyone at the house knows where you are, so no worries!"
Yuki looked run over and Kyo gritted his teeth.
"Shigure, what the hell you trying to-" Kyo tried to get up, but tripped over his left leg and into Tohru. When the smoke cleared, Tohru had Kyo's shirt on her head.
Apparently Kyo had kept going and had knocked over Shigure. Somewhere between eight and one hundred twenty pounds of orange fury had hit Shigure in the gut, and he was being yelled at by the cat on his chest.
"Damn you Shigure, I'm sick of all your double talk crap, like you're so much smarter than everybody else cause you get some sick joke that no one else does! Well I don't like where you're taking this, you bastard! Did you plan this? What the hell are you pulling-"
"I couldn't know you'd need a bandage! Besides, it might be important-" whined Shigure when he got some breath back, and placed a hand behind him to try and prop himself up a little. Kyo started shredding Shigure's Yukata.
"Stay put while I'm talking and shut the hell up!"
"Don't do that, Kyo, this is my favorite one! It's an heirloom, you can't find the indigo thread to get it mended anymore! You don't even know who the letter's from!"
"When it comes from that house, it comes form one person." said Yuki quietly, still sitting at his seat. Shigure and Kyo stopped and looked at Yuki, and everyone took a few breathes in tense silence.
"It's from Hatori-san!" said Tohru, who had reached the signature. The guys snapped out of it and looked at her.
She had been reading the whole time, and had folded Kyo's clothes next to her. Shigure sat up and Kyo leapt onto the table to try and look at the letter.
"What's it say?" Kyo said suspiciously.
"He says...... well, it's in a tense I'm not used to. And it's got a lot of Kanji I don't know for sure. Something about seeing him, but with over a page written here, I'm afraid that doesn't reflect well on my reading. I think you'd have better luck than me, Yuki-kun."
Yuki reluctantly took the letter and read a few lines, "I'm afraid this is......... very formal. It's like reading some treaty form the eighth century. From what I know, some of these are metaphors for actions and places, but I don't know about what."
Shigure held out a hand and flexed his fingers, grinning.
"What makes you think you can read it if wonder boy can't?" said Kyo.
"Because, I taught Hatori how to write like that. Very hard to understand if you don't know how, ne? Aya can read and write it too, but since it's already a long winded way of writing, reading his can be very time consuming."
"Oh, I see!" said Toru, who clapped her hands together in delight, "It's a secret code! I tried to make one up once, but I'm not that great with words anyway. Mom told me I should just try being honest, because then the people you need to understand will, and the people who don't wouldn't understand what you had to say in the first place, which is better than a secret code! Or something like that. It kind of makes sense, but if I think about it too hard it sounds weird. But it had that feeling you get when you hear a big truth, you know? Like a bell's been struck, and your soul rings back, you know? So I'll just keep trying to figure it out!"
The others looked at her, dumbfounded. Where inside of her did she pull these things from........?
"You have good a point, Toru-kun!" said Shigure and then laughed.
Yuki glared and handed it over. Shigure elaborately reached into his clothes and took out his glasses, flipping them open to read with.
"Ah," said Shigure after a minute, "Hatori got permission from your grandfather to have your medical records transferred to him. He's asking to set up an appointment sometime this week. Tomorrow fine? " he looked up and sparkled at her.
"What!?" yelled Yuki and Kyo.
"Oh, no, I can't do that! It's Friday, and of course I have school! And I don't have anything I can pay-"
Kyo stood up in a puff of smoke, and Toru stifled a surprised scream. Kyo grabbed his clothes and marched off into the hall not bothering to go to his own room. He reappeared a few seconds later with his shirt on inside out, fists clenched
"Hey, I wasn't the one who thinks she needs a doctor's appointment!" said Shigure skooching towards the wall.
"No? Well, who told Hatori where her Grandfather lived?" said Yuki.
"And knowing you, you're just in it to get sick little details!"
Shigure peaked at Toru from behind the wall of approaching orange and gray destruction and said, "Toru-kun, when was your last doctor's appointment?" Yuki and Kyo stopped their advance and looked back at her.
Toru thought, "Well, with the expense and with me working, and with how little Mom made...... over two years."
"Do you get sick allot?"
"I....... do more than I used to. I just need to be less flaky about taking care of myself. It's usually my fault when I get sick."
"I see. Have you gotten all your shots up to date and such? Prevention is the key to good health!"
"I- I....... oh dear.......! No wonder I'm so.........." she blushed and stared off into space, "I guess I could get some payment plan or something....... after school I can go see him," she trailed off and mumbled, "Well it's sunset already, and I haven't fixed dinner...... silly me," she smiled a little walked into the kitchen.
Yuki and Kyo stared off at some point in space. "Fine," said Kyo, "it's better than dying, I guess."
"If anything happens, Shigure......." said Yuki softly through his teeth, "I'll haunt you. Even if I have to follow your spirit to the lowest Hell to do it." The boys turned and started walking away.
"Can't we just trust-"
Cries of "NO!" came from behind the hall and the garden doorways, which had been slammed so hard they broke.
"I'll just confirm the appointment, shall I?" said Shigure.
As Shigure was getting up, Kyo marched back into the room from the yard, coming through the hole in the door. He bent over and grabbed the bandages and peroxide from off the floor. Shigure made one of his faces at him.
"What? I'm supposed to tell her to keep healthy if I can't even keep a scrape from getting infected?"
Shigure's smile began to border on a leer.
"Go to hell," muttered Kyo and he walked back outside toward the ladder.
