Chapter Nine: Hatori's Confession

"DINNER TIME!! DING! DING! DING!" Shigure called out cheerfully. Tohru smiled and walked down the stairs into the grand hall. He offered his arm chivalrously and waggled his eyebrows at her leeringly. She giggled softly and took his arm. Yuki and Kyou followed, glowering at him, until the latter was bowled over by Kagura.

Ayame winked cheerfully at their guests and leaned his chin on one of his slender white hands. Hatori cleared his throat and unfolded his napkin carefully. Tohru smiled nervously as she smoothed her dress down. [Hatori- san is so scary...must not embarrass myself...must not do anything wrong...] She reached out a trembling hand to take a sip of her water and...

"Whoops!" Successfully knocking over her glass, she watched in horror as a mini waterfall plundered into her lap. As it splashed down onto her dress, her legs instantly began transforming. She began to slide out of her seat.

"OMIGOD!!" Uotani screamed as she pointed out the window. The Sohmas turned to stare in the direction she was pointing at and Uotani and Hanajima immediately leaned against Tohru on each of her opposite sides. Propping the mermaid up between them, they began furiously drying the girl with napkins handed anxiously by Kisa. Kyou darted his scarlet eyes nervously between the Sohmas and the girls.

Tohru's legs had just began taking form when Yuki turned around, frowning. "Excuse me, but what exactly are we -" He raised his eyebrows at the girls practically sitting on top of each other with huge smiles plastered to their faces.

"Kisa?" Hiro frowned at the unusually cheery expression on the little girl's face.

"My sister is fine. My other sister is fine. The weirdo is fine. Tohru is fine. I'm fine. We're all fine. Nobody just mutated into an orange tailed mer- ahem," He coughed as Uotani kicked him and continued nodding firmly.

"I don't recall anybody asking you," Yuki replied dryly. Kyou bristled and the table was once again distracted by the verbal match.

Tohru smiled nervously and bit her lip. [That was too close. Luckily nobody saw -] She blinked as she caught Hatori staring at her. He nodded politely to her and turned away...but not before she caught the unmistakable suspicion in his eyes.

* * *

The next morning, Tohru was awoken by warm buttery sunlight filtering through her curtains. She stretched and smiling contentedly, decided to go for a nice walk along the beach before anybody else arose.

Humming softly to herself, she giggled as she allowed the warm wave to trickle over her feet; she picked up her dress slightly to avoid transforming. A cool breeze blew into her face and she shivered slightly. Brushing away long tendrils of her hair, she suddenly noticed a tall figure standing a few steps away from her. She faltered and turned bright red. "Ha - hatori-san, g - gomen! I didn't know anybody else was here and -"

"Why are you apologizing? I don't own the beach...well, actually I do...sort of, if you're talking about the Sohma lands...but I don't really care. It's a big place," the doctor replied starkly.

Tohru nodded and stood next to him, staring out at the cerulean sea. An awkward silence passed and racking her brains, she asked the first thing that came to her mind.

"What does snow become when it melts?"

Hatori stared at her sharply and she flushed. Clearing his throat, he asked quietly, "Why do you ask?"

She shrugged, embarrassed. "I've always been curious...well, actually my sister -"

"Your sister?" He whirled around. "And what did she say?"

"Well, uh, she always told me the answer was spring," she shrugged uneasily under the eyes of the forbidding man.

"Spring?" he whispered weirdly. "Spring?"

"Uh, well, you know, the season...she always said once snow melts, spring is here...yeah, well, I thought her reasoning was very clever!" Tohru said defensively.

Hatori rubbed a hand over his left eye and chuckled in an eerie way that sent goosebumps all over Tohru's arms. He murmured softly, "Tohru...may I ask...just to satisfy my curiosity...what was your sister's name?"

She blinked in surprise and stuttered, "Um, Kana...Honda Kana...why?"

Hatori dropped his arm limply and stared at her. Tohru shifted uneasily and gulped. "Um, Hatori-san? Is something wrong?"

"You're a mermaid."

Her eyes widened in shock and she laughed nervously. "Wh - what are you saying? A mermaid? This isn't a fairy tale..."

His arm shot out, grabbing her wrist painfully. "You're Kana's sister...a mermaid like her..."

She shook her head in confusion. "You - you knew my sister? H - how?"

"We met a year and a half ago...before the family happened upon the curse..." He shook his head, closing his eyes in pain. "If only we had met some time afterwards...then.....then things might have turned out differently."

"A year and a half ago?" Tohru repeated dumbly. "But - but that's around the time when she died...th - then you must know how she died! You must know! Please! You've got to tell me what happened!"

He opened his eyes slowly and laughed hollowly. "Of course I know...I killed her."