Aishuu Offers:

Secrets of the Sohma

mbsilvana@yahoo.com

Disclaimers: Not mine.



*****


Part Eight: Momiji


*****


I wanted to skip class and immediately hunt for Momiji, but my better instincts got hold of me for the first time in weeks. So instead I gave my parents a rather chill goodbye, grabbed my school bag and went to classes.


I really shouldn't have bothered.


I didn't learn anything, but spent the entire day worrying. Girls were pestering me about Haru's visit the day before, and needless to say, it wasn't anything I wanted to talk about. The repercussions of Haru's actions yesterday were life-changing, and I didn't want to fend off his fangirls. I actually snapped at one of them who tried to get me to tell her about his hair. This was unlike me; usually I would be polite, but with my mind entirely on where Momiji was, I was in no mood for the sheer idiocy.


Time dragged on, and it seemed like the final bell was always two hours out of reach. Finally it did come, and I quickly raced into the hall, pulling my cellphone out of my backpack and activating it. I wasn't allowed to keep it on during school hours, but Papa might have called and left a message....


Nothing.


It was with reluctance that I called my father.


"Any news?" I asked, not even bothering with a hello.


Father was quiet for a long moment. "No. The inner circle is searching for him, but if he doesn't want to be found, he won't be. Momiji knows how to hide."


I thought for a moment, trying to decide what to do. Logically, there wasn't much a thirteen year old girl could do, but my stubborn nature wouldn't agree to that. I should go home....


"I'm going to the Main Compound," I said. "I'll see what people know, and if there's anything I can do."


"Momo-" my father began to object.


"I'll stay at Haru's or something if I need somewhere to spend the night," I said impulsively. "I'm sure someone will feed me."


"Momo, you have school..."


"Not until I get this resolved, I don't," I told him, thinking how useless I had been today. "I'll be home tomorrow. I hope they find Momiji today, because I need to talk to him."


"Your mother-"


"Tell her there's a family function. It's not far from the truth," I said. "I've got to go." I hung up before he could get another word in, then turned it off. There was no way I was going to let him get in the way. He could, of course, call the compound and have them drag me back, but I doubted that catching a misbehaving teenager would be high on their priorities at the moment.


The main house was a long way from my school, and I was forced to take the subway. I didn't like doing it, finding the unbearably cramped conditions forced me to hunch my shoulders and shrink into the seat I had been lucky enough to snag. I made myself as small as possible, but I felt overwhelmed and on the verge of hyperventilating.


The trip was a too long, giving me time to stew on exactly what I was doing. I was getting myself in big, big trouble. My father and mother would be so angry at me for acting up - and I could never explain to my mother why. And... would Momiji want anything to do with me? Maybe he had run away to keep away from me?


When I arrived at the stop, I pushed my way through the crowd. The walk from the station was about ten blocks, and I knew the compound was large enough that I could spend quite a while wandering it before finding any of the main clan.


The doors were just as impressive as I remembered. They didn't seem as scary as they once had, because I was a Sohma. I knew the truth they had been built to conceal.


I tossed my head back and marched resolutely inside. I would go see Yuki, and if he wasn't there, Kyou. They seemed to have a good idea what was going on.


As I wandered through, I was struck by how empty the large buildings seemed. Hundreds of people had to live within these walls, but it seemed like no one was around... nearly impossible. Everyone couldn't be out searching for one stray Sohma, so where were they?


It was incredibly lonely. My hands trembled, but suddenly a voice rose on the wind, singing a simple melody that braced my spirits, assuring me I had not entered some kind of twilight zone.


Yuhi you yamani

Teru-Teru Momiji

Kaeru yatokage ga

Kon'nichi wa


It was an odd song... Strangely childish and innocent. Then the words hit me, and I wondered if the singer meant something special by them. Was it the singer's way of searching for my missing brother?


I raced around the house from where they came from, wanting to know who had been singing. The voice was familiar, but I had met so many people recently that I couldn't pin it down exactly. The afternoon was warm against my skin and the song made me feel that maybe things would work out alright.


I rounded a corner and blinked, surprised to find myself in Hatori's backyard and even more surprised that Honda Tohru was there, hanging out the laundry. She was singing to herself, her long brown hair tied back in a kerchief that matched the practical, yet feminine, clothing she wore. I had always seen her besides Yuki, which usually made her fade into the background beside his extraordinary looks.


Now I felt shy and gawky beside her. Most people assumed I was quite ladylike, with my beauty and natural grace, but Tohru seemed to epitomize everything it meant to be a woman. As she worked, hanging out sheets, she seemed unconcerned that I was watching her. She repeated the song again, her sweet voice gentle and reassuring.


I just stared at her, wishing I knew why I was there when I should be out with the rest of the cousins, looking for my brother. "Um, hi..." I said finally.


"EEK!" Tohru yelped, whirling around. Her calm was shattered easily as I spoke, and she stumbled as she jumped a bit from surprise, managing to land in the half-full laundry basket, which was full of wet things.


I raced forward to help her, but only succeeded in tripping and landing on top of her in my haste. A hot flush came to my cheeks as I stared into her face as we sat together. If she had been one of the Jyunishi males, I most certainly would have triggered her curse.


She, however, merely started laughing. "Hello, Momo-chan!" she said between giggles.


I stared into her warm blue eyes and started laughing as well. The situation was funny, and I had been so tense since Momiji had vanished that I needed the laughter. I felt the anger that had been simmering inside me since I had fought with Papa level off; not vanish, but soothed. "I'm sorry, Tohru-san."


"It's okay!" she assured me. "I'm a klutz... Kyou-kun is always telling me that."


I realized we were still sitting in wet laundry, and her clothes had to be getting damp. Blushing even more brightly, I scurried backwards without getting to my feet so she could extract herself. "I'm so sorry! You're all wet now..."


"It's fine!" She smiled and managed to rise, smiling down at me. Tohru extended a fine-boned hand to help me rise. "How about we go get something to drink?" she offered. "I made some lemonade."


I nodded. "What are you doing here?" I asked.


"Hatori-san needs someone to do his spring cleaning, and I volunteered. He's looked after me so many times when I was sick that I thought I'd return the favor," Tohru explained.


"Is Hatori-san here?" I asked, glancing around. I wanted to ask if he had any more information on Momiji, since I was here.


Tohru's eyes darkened a bit, and her smile faded. "No. He's looking for..."


"My brother," I said softly.


Tohru nodded, tucking a strand of her long brown hair behind her ear. "Hatori and Momiji are close; Hatori raised him, practically, though Momiji lived with different family members."


"Do... Do you think they'll find him?"


Tohru nodded her head so rapidly I wondered if she was making herself dizzy. "Certainly! But.." Her smile vanished entirely and she arranged herself over on the porch. "They'll find him when he's ready to be found, not before."


"Do you know him well?" I had to ask.


She placed her hands on her knees and looked over at me. "Momiji is like a ray of sunshine," she told me. "The first time I met him, it was like meeting an old friend - he's always been there to cheer me up."


"So you're close?"


She thought on it. "Yes. As close as you can ever be to a Jyunishi... There's a part of their heart they lock away, and it takes a special someone to find the key."


I wanted to ask her another question, but she merely smiled at me. It filled me with warmth. She seemed to know what I wanted to ask before I could voice it, and it prevented me from having to say my fears aloud.


Impulsively I leaned forward and hugged her, and her arms came around me naturally. She hardly knew me, but her hug was like coming home. Her scent, strawberry and clean air, wrapped around me comfortingly, and I indulged in it before pulling back.


"I need to keep looking..." I said.


She looked at me seriously, and in her eyes, I saw an old soul. "Once upon a time, another member of the Jyunishi ran away when his curse was too much for him to bear," she told me.


"What happened?" I asked.


"A girl brought him back, because she loved him. She was able to accept his curse, even though she was afraid," Tohru said softly.


"Did the girl and the Jyunishi live happily ever after?"


"Well, they seem to be. Each of them has found the one they want to love best, but they'll always be special to each other. The girl thinks the bond she formed with him is as precious as the one she has with her future husband."


Her words gave me hope. I would find Momiji. I started to turn away, but Tohru placed a hand on my shoulder. "Can you wait just a bit? I still have that lemonade, and I think I have an idea," she told me."


****


Before I left, Tohru gave me some final advice. "Why do we always find things in the last place we look?" she asked.


I thought on it. I had heard a variation of it before... "Because then we stop looking."


"It's a good riddle, isn't it? It was one of my mother's favorites," she told me. "So where's the last place you'd look?"


I knew then where Momiji had to be. "Thanks, oneesan!" I told her, giving her another hug, more for my sake than for hers. She was just one of the most huggable people I had ever met.


It was nearly dark when I made my way back to the bridge where the fantastic fight had occurred yesterday. No one would think of searching for him here, or if they had, he had probably avoided them.


I had a secret weapon, one which Momiji wouldn't be able to resist. I nearly trip twice on the river back before arriving beside the bridge. Quietly I began to sing:


Sunset on the Mountain

Come out, Come Momiji

Frogs and Lizards say

Hello


"Where did you learn that?" a soft voice said, sounding shell-shocked.


I turned around, swinging my hands behind my back and leaning forward on my toes. "I learned it from Tohru-neesan, of course," I said. "She said it'd help call you to me, and she was right."


Momiji appeared from under the bridge, and I almost cried at the sight of him. His amber eyes, the same eyes we had both inherited from our mother I recognized now, were almost black in a face that was the color of pale ivory. His lips were nearly bloodless and I wondered why it seemed like a strong gust of wind could carry him away. He was heartbreakingly beautiful, but his beauty seemed to have been that of a china doll which had been dropped on the floor and shattered; tragic and somehow lovely, but untouchable for fear of cutting myself. I hoped I had the right glue to repair him, but I feared I didn't.


"Tohru-san knows me well... I heard you singing my song, and I thought she had come looking for me," he whispered, and he stared up at the trees around us.


"Your song?" I echoed.


"She didn't tell you? I made it up when I was fifteen." He seemed to be speaking from a long ways off, divorced from his emotions. "She and I sung it together, and I thought it was her singing it..."


"Everyone is looking for you, Momiji..." I said softly, dropping the honorific. "Why would you come to Tohru and no one else?"


He was still distance. "Because she was the first one to ever hug me, knowing what it meant. Because she accepts us all, knowing the curse. Because she lets me cry."


I went over to him then, but he shrank back. "Momiji... We need to talk."


"Momo- I-"


"I know you're cursed..."


"That would be a logical conclusion, wouldn't it? I assume they explained the Jyunishi to you?" he asked. His eyes were shadowed. "Did they tell you which curse I bear?"


"No. I don't really care." I stared at him angrily.


"You're so angry... About being lied to about the curse, about being kept in the dark."


"Well, I can understand why I wasn't told about the curse... But I don't understand why I was never told you were my brother!" I snapped. Round two, Black Momo!


Momiji's eyes widened. "I- Mama couldn't accept me, so-"


"I just went over this with Papa! I AM NOT OUR MOTHER!" I said. I glared at him fiercely, marching over to him. He stood stock-still in shock as I grabbed him in a bear-hug.


POOF!


Momiji's clothes scattered around us, and I stared through the smoke, blinking a bit as I held onto the small rabbit that was frozen against me. His fur was amazingly soft as I held his cream-colored body tight to my chest. "You're so soft," I whispered to him. "A rabbit suits you.... I should have guessed."


I was right. He was rabbit-like- quick movements full of nervous energy, always on the alert for trouble, shy in a strange way, yet warm and lovable. I stroked his back gently, wondering what to do next. I had accepted him... Would he be able to take the next step?


His body was rigid, feeling like rigor mortis had set in. My breath stilled as he spoke. "Momo..." he said softly.


"I can't pretend to understand what it means to be cursed. I can't pretend to know your pain... But I want to know what it means to be your sister. I want to be your family..." I whispered to him.


It seemed like forever before he relaxed, but it finally happened. "I... I wanted to know you..."


"I don't care what anyone else says. They can't take us away from each other unless we let them," I told him.


He didn't reply, but that was okay. We merely stayed together without speaking, content in the other's presence. Our life was going to get complicated, but from that moment on, we would have each other.


And at that moment, that was all that mattered.


END PART EIGHT



Notes: Credit to Xannee for betaing, and to animelyrics.com, where I borrowed the verse of Teru Teru Momiji. One more part!