A/N: Here's the prologue of FIALT... I hope you guys enjoy it--any thoughts, comments, or suggestions are always welcome. However, please be polite--flames are only used to burn last years' schoolwork. Thanks a bunch!

ki-san

Prologue – Shisei (Life and Death)

Honda Tohru paced nervously in the living room of her mansion, the plush red carpeting muffling her footsteps. Checking the diamond-encrusted watch that was clasped around her wrist, she noted the time. 4:30... They're late. She shivered as a cold breeze flew in through the open patio doors, swirled around the skirt of her knee-length, sky blue dress, and made her long brown hair dance. She stepped lightly out onto a balcony overlooking a beautiful garden. Leaning over the railing, she peered down with her matchless blue eyes at the flowerbeds.

Spring was ending, and the scent of the coming summer hung upon the breeze. Tohru closed her eyes and inhaled slowly. A small smile played upon her lips as she raced back into the house and down a flight of stairs, flinging the front door open and racing to the garden she had been admiring only moments before. Joy from the promise of a beautiful summer to come partially covered the dull ache of a pain she lived with daily.

Tohru sat upon a bench beside a clump of rosebushes and carefully broke a thorn off of a rose's stem. She held the thorn in the palm of her right hand, gazing at it thoughtfully.

Her father, Honda Kazuya, was the president of a large company, though Tohru herself did not know for sure what his company did, for her father wasn't one to talk about business once he was home from a long day. And every day was a long day. In fact, once she thought about it, Tohru didn't know her father very well at all.

She clenched her fist unconsciously around the thorn until it drew blood, and winced. Tohru opened her hand and glared at the pool of red on her pale skin. Drawing a handkerchief out of her pocket, she pressed it against her cut, and returned to her thoughts.

Her mother, Honda Kyoko, was an esteemed fashion designer, whose clothes were worn by everyone who was anyone. If you didn't have the latest Honda Design in your closet, you weren't anyone at all. Tohru herself had her own original Honda Designs, but isn't that what you'd expect from the daughter of a designer? In fact, the dress she was wearing, and had picked out for that evening's festivities, was a Honda Design. Tohru personally hated it, but wore it to please her mother.

It was Tohru's sixteenth birthday, and her parents had managed to clear their schedules in order to take her out for a fancy dinner, but they had yet to arrive home. Although it wasn't as if every dinner they had at home wasn't fancy. Tohru wasn't expecting much out of the ordinary, and that thought made her eyes fill with sadness.

You would expect such a girl to be conceited about how rich and powerful her parents were—her father over who knows what, and her mother over the fashions of the world. And normally you'd be right. But Honda Tohru wasn't that type of girl, and only longed to have her parents come home for her birthday dinner. That was her only wish. Yet she knew in her heart that her wish would not come true. Pushing aside such thoughts, she grasped onto a ray of hope. Her parents would be home any moment...

A maid came running out of the house towards where she was sitting. "Honda- san," she called, "your father's on the phone for you!"

Tohru sighed softly. Hah, so much for my ray of hope. He's probably still at the office... "I-I'll be there in a moment!" She glanced at her hand and saw that the bleeding had stopped. She tucked the bloodstained cloth back in her pocket, and stood.

She followed the maid into the house and then into a small parlor on the first floor. She sat slowly on an antique futon and reached for the phone on the endtable beside it with a trembling hand. Could it be that he's on the way home? Is he not coming home? She lifted the phone to her ear slowly. "M-moshi moshi Otou-san?" she said in a questioning tone of voice.

"Ah! Tohru-kun, my sweet," her father's comforting voice drifted through the earpiece. "I'm so glad I caught you!"

Tohru frowned, slightly confused. "But Otou-san," she began slowly, "where else would I be? I was waiting here for you and Okaa-san to come home and... and have dinner with me." She didn't want to seem as if she were reminding her parents that it was her birthday, so she didn't mention the planned celebration.

Her father paused noticeably for a moment. Or two. Or three.

---

Clamping a hand over the mouthpiece of his cellphone, Kazuya glared at his wife from behind the desk in his office. "What do I tell her?" he hissed angrily. "I can't exactly tell her the truth – that we both have things to do and can't bother with this birthday nonsense."

Kyoko sighed, looking down at the sketch of a long evening gown she was working on. She stood, walking to his desk, and taking the cell from his hand. "Tohru-kun, darling," she cooed into the phone, "we're trying so hard to make it home. You have no idea what the traffic's like." She held the phone out the window for a moment, so that Tohru could hear the honking of horns and yelling that was the city's usual bustle. "Can't you just hear it darling? Gomen nasai," she said, not really meaning it.

"Ah! Iie. Don't be sorry, Okaa-san, I know you and Otou-san are trying to get home. I just, I wanted to have dinner with you both..." Tohru sounded slightly hurt, but her mother ignored it.

"Hai, we are, Tohru-chan. Anyway, I'll see you when we get home. Maybe we'll get to have dinner with each other, maybe. Sayonara!" she said cheerfully, not waiting for her daughter's answering farewell, and pressed the "End" button.

"There," she yawned, and tossed the phone at her husband.

---

Tohru placed the phone lightly on its cradle, and stood, her eyes filling with tears. They were in her father's office. No matter how her father had tried to keep her from hearing his words—'I can't exactly tell her the truth—that we both have things to do and can't bother with this birthday nonsense.'—she still overheard. He hadn't tried very hard to protect her feelings. Or worse, he didn't care.

She fled the parlor, racing through the many hallways of her home and up a flight of stairs until she reached the cozy room she called her own. She flung herself on the bed and cried herself to sleep.

---

Tohru's dream made her uneasy. It wasn't a typical dream, with vibrant images, just feelings and voices that she'd never heard in her life. She got the feeling that so many people were depending on her, and only her. Yet there was nothing she could do for them, they were wrong! And she told them so, but they wouldn't listen—they all believed in her, and she felt so useless...

She didn't even know who they were. Just voices. Merely voices, not even words. Angry voices. Kind voices. Loving voices. Expectant voices. Frightening voices. But finally they all melded together into one scream...

---

"HONDA-SAN!"

---

There was loud knocking at Tohru's bedroom door, and a loud, familiar voice was calling her name. "Honda-san?!"

Tohru stood groggily, wiping sleep from her eyes and stretching. She straightened the designer dress she'd fallen asleep in, then opened the door.

The maid of the Honda household, as well as a strange man, stood before her. The maid was short and plump, with dark hair pinned into a strict bun. Her eyes looked slightly red and puffy...

The stranger was tall, broad-shouldered, and balding, with a dark mustache.

They looked fairly uncomfortable standing in the hallway, so she invited them to a sitting area of her room, with several couches and chairs.

All three sat, with the maid and the stranger trading glances. Tohru ran her hand along the soft embroidered fabric on the loveseat she occupied, and traced patterns with one finger. As she waited for someone to say something, she stared ruefully at a stain in the white carpet that refused to come out, no matter how hard she scrubbed. It has happened a few days ago, when she tripped—over nothing, to be honest—while carrying a cup of tea...

Finally, Tohru could stand the silence no longer. "Anou... Rei-san? May I ask who this is?"

"Ah, how rude of me," she said. "This is Detective Keiji-san."

Tohru smiled slightly, still obviously confused. "P-pleased to meet you, K- keiji-san," she stuttered nervously. Taking a deep breath, she composed herself. "How can I help you, Keiji-san? Is there something you need to ask of me?"

Keiji shook his head slowly, and stroked his mustache with a chubby finger. "Anou... I regret to have to tell you this, Tohru-san, but your parents are..."

Tohru tilted her head to one side, completely oblivious. "Yes? What is it?"

"Your parents... have passed away," he finished bluntly.

Tohru blinked a few times, then let out a nervous laugh. "G-gomen ne, I must have misheard you. W-what did you say?"

"It's true, Honda-san, gomen nasai," the maid said between sobs. "Your parents, they..."

"N-nani?" Tohru whispered to herself. "Okaa-san... Otou-san... Iie..." She sat quietly and appeared to listen to their explanations, but she heard none of it.

The other two occupants of the room tried to get her to speak to them, but her eyes were blank, and she wouldn't respond. "I'll go telephone your uncle," the maid said softly, then both her and the detective vacated the room, leaving Tohru alone in shock.

A/N2: I'm going to add a little glossary of all the Japanese words down here... For those who're kinda confused as to what they mean.

Prologue Glossary

Moshi moshi – this means "hello", when talking on the phone.
Otou-san –this means father.
Okaa-san – this means mother.
Gomen nasai – basically: I'm very sorry.
Iie – no.
Hai – yes.
Sayonara – goodbye.
Anou – this is kinda like "um...", and then there's "eto" which is pretty much the same.
Gomen ne – sorry.
Nani – what?

So there you go.