No author's notes up here. Read on, if thoust dares...there shalt be no slash in this chapter...
Chapter Four: So...Where Did You Go To?
As ten a.m. approached, none of the children in the house stirred. Tohru was curled up in the covers of her bed, her hair was now dry and sticking out in every direction; Arana was sprawled out on the floor of Tohru's room, several blankets thrown over her. Yuki was curled up next to his pillow on his bed; and Kyo was on top of his covers, laying perfectly straight.
Out in the kitchen, Shigure was sitting in his chair, holding a cup of steaming coffee in one hand and the newspaper in another. Hatori was sitting at the opposite end of the table, patiently waiting for Shigure to say why he was called there.
After a few moments of silence, Hatori coughed loudly.
"Shh! You'll wake them up!!" Shigure said quietly.
"Why am I here?" Hatori asked him, aggravated. When he had arrived there an hour after Shigure had called him, Everyone was sound asleep. He was so confused. He had sat, waiting patiently for them to awaken. Around the break of dawn, Hatori roused Shigure awake. "Why did you call me and then fall asleep?"
"Oh, yes, well," Shigure said, thinking. "Best to wait for the kids to get up." He shuffled the newspapers and continued to read. Hatori sighed and stared out the window. It was the middle of September...the first day of Fall. It didn't seem like it. It was so warm out. The leaves had tinged to their shades of brown, orange, and red, and the roads looked like watercolor paintings.
As the sun began to rise higher and higher in the sky, Hatori became more and more impatient with Shigure, who continued not to say anything at all, but continually read the same page over and over again.
Just as Hatori was about to yell at Shigure, a soft yawn startled him and his anger subsided.
"Wh...OH." The tired voice said. "Morning."
"Well good morning to you, uh..." Shigure said to the red-head. Arana's curls of hair were as bushy as ever. However, she had tied them back with a green ribbon. She still had on her robe from the night before and she hadn't done anything at all. She had simply walked out of her room. "Tohru never mentioned your name."
"So?" Arana snapped. "Does that matter?"
"Hmm..." Hatori said out loud. A temper like Kyo's...this can't be good.
"Sorry," Arana said. "I'm just exhausted. My name is Arana Honda. Pleased to meet you..."
"Shigure Sohma." Shigure said happily. "And this is my great, great, great friend and doctor—"
"Just stop Shigure," Hatori said. "I am Hatori Sohma. I am the doctor for the Sohma family and for your sister, Tohru. Pleased to meet you." Hatori pulled out some instruments.
"Uhh...what is he doing?" Arana asked scared. She hated doctors.
"He's going to make sure that you're fine!" Shigure said.
"Okay...I guess." Arana said, still unsure. As Hatori began to examine her, Yuki came out from his room.
"Good morning, Yuki!!" Shigure said, wide-awake.
"Uhn." Was Yuki's response.
"Oh, he's still asleep!!" Shigure said. "A ha ha ha!! That's funny! Yuki's never—"Just as he was about to say something ridiculous, Yuki punched him out to door, breaking it in half.
"What did you just do?!" Arana cried, about to run out to Shigure, but Yuki stopped her.
"He'll be fine." Yuki said, now awake. "That's just a warning." He spat at Shigure, who was rubbing his head.
"You'll be fine, Arana-san," Hatori said, going over to Yuki, who began to cough.
"Are you okay?!" Arana said, running out to Shigure, who was actually walking back to the house.
"Oh, fine, fine!!" Shigure said, making sure Arana didn't try to help him and then accidentally hug him.
"...Twice a day," Hatori was instructing to Yuki.
"What the fuck was all that racket?!" Kyo said, walking out into the kitchen.
"Oh, hooray, more patients!" Hatori said lamely as he noticed Kyo, and Tohru walking behind him. He walked over to Kyo and forced him to sit.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Kyo yelled at Hatori.
"You're my patient, and I have to insure you're healthy...or something." Hatori said to him. "Besides, you spend almost all of last night out in the rain and you don't expect to see me here the next morning? You really must be stupid."
"I'M NOT STUPID!" Kyo yelled as Hatori stuck a thermometer in his mouth.
"You're fine." Hatori said, turning away from Kyo a moment later and then turning towards Tohru. "I heard you've taken on a lot of stress the past few days."
"Not stress...more of too many surprises," Tohru said smiling. She waited for Hatori to finish her checkup.
"You all seem healthy," Hatori said, standing up with his instruments tucked away in his bag. "Now, if Akito is angry at me for not being there this morning, I'm blaming it on you, Shigure."
"Whaa?!" Shigure said. "It's not my fault!!"
"Yes it is!" Hatori shot back. "You call me at midnight and tell me to get here as soon as possible, yet when I come here, all of you are sleeping...so I let you sleep. Then, you wouldn't answer my questions as to why I was here and what I was supposed to be doing. You continually kept ignoring me. I'm blaming it all on you, Shigure, if Akito asks. Be cautious when you go to the Main House." He left, leaving angry Kyo and angry Yuki to deal with Shigure.
"Oh no..." Arana said. "This doesn't look good!" She was about to stop them, but Tohru grabbed her first.
"It's nothing unusual!" She said brightly. "They'll all survive!" She sighed a sigh of relief as Arana stopped struggling.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive. I've lived with them for six months. I should know by now!"
"And they've never hurt you?"
"Oh, never!! There was this one time where Kyo first moved in and he was angry at Shigure for making him take the entrance exam to my school and he slammed his fists down on the table and it broke in half. One half hit me in the head, but I survived!"
"IT HIT YOU IN THE HEAD?!"
"Did I say head? Well, yes, but Arana-san...that was over five mon—" Arana was storming out to where Kyo and Yuki were pummeling Shigure. "—ths ago..." Tohru finished, looking literally freaked out. She didn't need her sister to find out about the Sohma Curse.
"YOU JERK!!" Arana yelled at Kyo, who stopped his punch in mid-swing to look at her.
"What are you talking about?" Kyo spat at her.
"You hurt Tohru!!"
"WHEN?"
"WHEN YOU SMASHED THE COFFEE TABLE, MORON!!" Arana said, kicking Kyo hard in the back.
"Ow!" Yuki, Shigure, and Tohru all stared at Kyo. He yelled ow?! "Where the fuck did you learn how to kick like that?!"
"That's my story!!" Arana said, forgetting her feud and being bright again.
"Wow. She reminds me of Kagura!" Shigure whispered to Yuki.
"Shut up, Shigure. I don't need her here today!" Kyo snapped at him, following Arana into the house, where a stunned Tohru stood.
"Why do you look so stunned, Tohru-kun?" Arana asked her.
"Uh—er—you—oh, no reason!!" Tohru said, regaining her senses and realizing that Kyo was glaring at her for her stupidity. He was mouthing: "MORON! REGAIN YOUR SENSES! SHE'S ONTO US!!"
"No she isn't, Kyo!" Yuki said to him.
"I wasn't mouthing to you, you fucking rat!" Kyo said to him.
"Why do you call him 'rat'?" Arana asked.
"He always rats Kyo out!!" Shigure said, laughing. "That's why Kyon-Kyon always calls Yuki 'rat' it's because—"
"Shigure, I'm warning you." Kyo said menacingly, sitting down at the table.
"Arana-san, where did you go to?" Yuki asked, trying to draw Arana's attention away from Tohru's shocked look.
"Oh, where I went, you say!" Arana randomly said. "Well, after taking some food and everything else I needed, I headed towards the mountains. I had enough of city-life. I wanted to rough it. I wanted to be free and live in the wilderness and be trained with a master."
Kyo's eyes widened. Yuki looked at him and then back at Arana. Shigure had spilt his coffee.
"So I hiked up to the mountains and began to set up a camp." Arana said. "I heard fierce yelling and ran towards where I had heard it. I hid behind a bush just in case it was dangerous. I remember seeing something orange..."
"YOU WERE THAT LITTLE BRAT I SAW WATCHING ME!" Kyo yelled. "Why the fuck did you do that?!"
"Training." Arana said lightly, but was glaring at him, remembering how stupid he was. "And I'm a year older than you, so you're the 'little brat'. Anyway, since I didn't have a master, I watched you. It was entertaining and helped me a lot. After several weeks of watching you, I tried it myself. I found it relatively easy. But after a year had passed since you had left, I found myself bored. I wanted to go home, but I just couldn't bear to face Mom...
"I decided to hike the mountains...I had found hunting easier...I didn't starve...I don't remember how much time had passed, but I do remember one urging feeling I had. I don't know what day it was, but I do know that it was around eleven in the morning...I just had this sensation that something had gone wrong at home...It was a horrid feeling, like nothing would be all right again. I had this feeling for a few weeks...but I soon shook it off.
"After what seemed to be several years, but it wasn't, I decided to head back to the house. But it wasn't the right decorations outside. And the smell was musty and didn't seem like Mom...or you, so I went to the nearest phone booth and looked under Honda. Mom's name wasn't listed, so I called Grandpa. He said that you were living elsewhere and he gave me the address. I asked him if Kyoko-san was with you, but he began to talk to the mailman...I hung up and decided to find someplace to stay for the night so I could look presentable for you and Mom.
"Luckily, I had been saving all of my money up, so I had at least 50,000 yen. I got my hair cut and I took a long shower and I did everything I could. And then I decided to call...But I was worried when you sounded shocked. It was like you had forgotten about me or something. I felt sad, but relieved. And when you didn't answer me about Mom, I knew something was up. Now, which one of you told me to call back?"
"That was me," Yuki said, staring at her.
"I was so startled when I heard your voice. You sounded so young...but I didn't know if you married Kyoko-san or not...and then when you picked up the phone the next time," she pointed at Shigure. "I thought that you might be married to Kyoko-san...but I was wrong.
"After I had shouted that you might be my brothers," Arana continued. "I realized that couldn't be right, because you were too old..."
"We could be your stepbrothers, moron." Kyo said.
"Shush kitty!!" Shigure said.
"Well, I realized that Yuki was way too young for Kyoko-san's husband, so I lost all hope of being related to you...although I had secretly hoped that you were Tohru's husband." Arana said, smiling at the two of them. Yuki's eyes widened in shock, and Tohru looked down, trying to hide her face from view, but her blushing showed through her dark hair. "But I was wrong...although you do make a cute couple!! I know! I should get a picture of you two together!!" Arana said, jumping up and going to grab her camera.
"I just bought it a few days ago!" Arana said, beaming at the small digital camera. She turned it on and looked through it, but she frowned and set down the camera. "Scoot closer together!" Arana said, crawling over and pushing them together. She pushed Tohru into Yuki and Yuki automatically flung his arm around her to stop them from falling.
Both of their eyes widened as they knew what would happen next.
BANG
And don't mind if I spell facts: fackts...it's a habit now. xD
Go me, I used Japanese currency!! For thoust who don't know, 50,000 yen turns into I think...$500...someone correct me if I'm wrong...that's what Kristal told me what to do...or something.
CLIFFHANGER-ITH!! HA! YOU ALL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL MY MUSES GET BACK. HAHAHAHAHA!! Er...Sorry. I'll try to hurry up...Hmm...plot-line...where to go to?
Ares: How about you start writing right now?
No, I'm afraid my policy is, after I update, I get at least one day of a break.
Sarenia: That's stupid. Who would make up a policy like that?
Ahem. Me! Anyway...I'll try to work on it some more this weekend, but I don't know if I have projects or anything due...I sure hope not.