A/N: Thanks very much for the reviews of the first chapter, I honestly appreciated it. And in gratitude, this chapter is a bit longer, and took quite a bit more work, so I hope you enjoy it. Please, read on.

And The Snow Falls

Chapter Two

Dragged Under

"What? Why should I have to go?"

"I don't know, but don't make such a fuss about it, Kyou-kun. I think this is something important."

"Why would Akito want to see me?" Kyou snapped, eyes hard and hurt behind his messy hair, and he seemed more irritable than the mention of Akito would normally make him- more irritable than he'd been back when Yuki was part of our household.

He shoved his hands in his pockets moodily and stomped off up the stairs, grumbling to himself. I didn't hear his door slam though, so it was obviously just for show. Either that or his anger abandoned him on the stairs.

Hatori came by to pick us up. Tohru had put on a pretty blue dress for the occasion, perhaps sensing it was a big deal. She had yellow ribbons in her hair; they didn't really go with her outfit. I certainly had a feeling another significant change was in the air- and Kyou was right. Since when did Akito want to see him? Historically, the cat had been shunned by the Sohma family, and Kyou was no different to his predecessors. He'd found a temporary haven in my house, but I think we all knew it couldn't last forever.

It was a fairly mild day for the time of year. The grass by the sides of the road was almost all the green left, but it lent some brightness to the otherwise dull day as it swept past the windows, blurred and fuzzed. We reached the main house without incident, and I watched Tohru in the rear view mirror, wondering if she was dwelling on the last time she'd been to this place. Her eyes, downcast and distant, told me more than I'd really wanted to know.

Kyou was still irritable as we walked with Hatori to meet Akito. He kept glancing around, as if expecting something to lunge at him from the shadows. Perhaps his instincts were right: the house was gloomy inside, and the floorboards sighed beneath our feet; the whole building seemed to lie in a stupor, waiting for us to bring Yuki back home, his first home. It hadn't realised Yuki was already there, lying within its own grounds, and that he would never leave again.

Hatori showed us into one of Akito's rooms; a large, airy one that looked out on his personal courtyard, where a few birds sang from the limbs of the bare trees.

Akito was already there, waiting for us, shadows playing around him the way they always did. He'd always had a knack for atmosphere. I think he'd just always taken pleasure in subtleties, like sitting at just the right angle so that his eyes wouldn't reflect the light, or always leaving his kimono slightly loose, like a reminder that he wasn't completely in control of himself. He smiled at us, one of his more unnerving smiles, perfected over the years.

"Tohru-san, it's been a while since I've had the pleasure of seeing you," he greeted her, but he simply didn't have enough warmth in his voice to make it sound sincere.

I watched as Tohru knelt and bowed before him, saying, "Thank you for asking us to visit today," and smiling at him. I wondered if she could possibly feel as comfortable and earnest as she sounded. She'd seen Akito's dark side- she knew as well as the rest of us that he was disturbed and violent. No kind words or smiles could cure him; he wasn't a broken toy. He was beyond mending, I knew, looking at him watching us all with those calculating, suspicious eyes, that darting glance.

"Kyou," Akito said, his dark gaze flicking across to the bright-haired young man. Kyou grudgingly met Akito's gaze only to turn his head quickly away as if stung. "It's been almost a year…"

"Mm," Kyou grunted, his gaze hovering on a spot on the wall.

There was a small silence as Akito's gaze bored into Kyou, but I had no idea what he was looking for. I'd given up trying to follow Akito's thought process some time ago.

"It's good that you all came today. This does, after all, affect all three of you." I watched Akito as he spoke, wary of where he was going with this conversation. "I don't think you need to stay away in that house anymore. Tohru-san," he said, looking at her, "I understand you are looking for work."

"Ah, yes," Tohru said hesitantly. She'd already tied her own noose with that answer, and I wondered if she'd ever had a chance at saving herself from anything.

Akito smiled, a mockery of a benevolent parent's smile. "You can work for me, as a housekeeper here. Kyou," he continued, piercing the cat again with his stare, moving on to his next victim clinically and seamlessly. "Kazuma has agreed to live here again, so you will be able to spend more time with him, and continue your training. And Shigure," he finished, his gaze settling on me, me wanting to ask why he was really doing this, his smirk widening slightly as if sensing my thoughts. He'd always been a smug victor as well as a bad loser. "Your old rooms are all ready for you. You will be able to work in peace as always- and you'll be able to see Hatori and Ayame more often if you're here."

It was reasoning the two younger ones would buy, but I'd known Akito longer than they had.

There was another long pause, and a moment when I felt suddenly intensely weary, wishing they would all just go away and leave each other alone. They say tragedy brings out the best in people, but it really doesn't. Akito knew how broken his family was, but it was as if he wanted to see just how ruined he could make it, going through the wreckage to pick out things that could still be smashed. He was more destructive than a spoilt child who breaks something he can't have. He was pitiable in the worst sense.

"Will you come and live with me, then?" Akito said, his voice soft and insidious, eyes sharp and pinning us down. I glanced across at Hatori, but his eyes were a blank, obviously as unaware as me what Akito was planning. He was probably more disgusted than me by it all.

The other two said nothing. "Shigure?" Akito persisted, gazing at me, a serpent offering a new kind of apple. I glanced over at Kyou and Tohru, but neither of them were looking at me. They seemed oblivious to the implications of my decision.

The noose tightened.

"Shigure?" he asked again, his voice getting softer, and I knew I had nowhere to go with a refusal. I was too tired to bother thinking up an excuse.

I bowed, defeat settling heavily over me. "Thank you for your generosity, Akito-san," I said.

We'd left the golden age far behind already. Perhaps that made this the dark ages.

Kyou threw himself down in disgust. "Live with him? This is so stupid! Why did you agree, you idiot?" he rounded on me heatedly. So now he could yell, once we were home. He'd been quiet enough in Akito's presence. Tohru knelt to pour tea for each of us, seemingly oblivious to Kyou's mood- she was pretty used to it by then, I suppose.

I held up my hands in mock surrender. "Did you expect me to say no when he pointed out the benefits so well, Kyou-kun?" I said petulantly, knowing Kyou hated that voice- and of course, he bristled at me. Performing was good entertainment. "And I'm always having to fix the house with you being so violent all the time…"

He glared at me. "I don't break the house anymore! It was always that damn ra-" He stopped short, anger fleeing as fast as the colour drained from Tohru's face. He glanced across at her with wide, scared eyes. The only time I'd seen Kyou look like that was when Kazuma had taken his beads from him- and that day, at the hospital, the day Yuki died. When I'd rushed into the waiting room to see Kyou slumped in a chair, holding his head in his hands, and when he looked up at me, he had exactly that expression. Who could have known he could look so wretched…

"Tohru, I…" he started, but didn't seem to know how to go on.

Tohru smiled weakly at him, a complete lie, putting up a front as usual. "You didn't fight him as much as when you first came here," she said, trying to sound cheerful and almost succeeding.

"I'm sorry, I must go and start dinner," she said softly, excusing herself and leaving quietly. The door slid shut behind her and I looked at Kyou. He looked back at me, caught between anger and guilt. I shook my head, pitying him for his mistake.

"Shut up!" he exploded, striding to the door and banging it closed behind him so hard I winced. I heard his steps thunder up the stairs.

At least he hadn't broken the door, I noticed.

It had already been dark for hours by the time I crept to the kitchen. I'd written nothing once again, and was bored of my study.

I noticed the glow of lamplight before I saw Tohru sat at the table, her gaze fixed on something in her hands.

"Tohru-kun?" I asked, as I stepped from the shadows of the hall into the low orange light from the small lamp by Tohru's side. She glanced up at me and smiled tiredly.

"Good evening, Shigure-san. Aren't you able to sleep? Did you need a drink?" she asked, starting to get up. The thing she'd been working on fell from her hands, and I noticed it was a white shirt. Something about it tugged at my thoughts, but I wasn't sure why.

"Please don't trouble yourself, Tohru-kun," I assured her, taking a seat at the table next to her. She hovered uncertainly for a moment, obviously wanting to do something for me, but not knowing what. The eternal dilemma. Finally, at another encouragement from me, she sat back down.

"Mending Kyou's clothes again?" I asked, nodding at the shirt. I saw there was a small rip along the seam of one of the breast pockets, which had already been half-closed with nearly invisible little stitches. The needle dangled from its thread, glimmering in the lamplight.

Tohru shook her head with an odd little smile. "No… It was just that Kyou-kun mentioning fighting earlier… It reminded me of this shirt- I'd meant to mend it, but then…"

In an instant, I remembered; it was Yuki's shirt. He must have torn it in a fight with Kyou, weeks ago. And Tohru was mending it for him.

I leant closer to her, concerned and almost upset by what she was doing to herself. I was a little surprised to discover I could feel upset by anything anymore, but followed the impulse to do something about it without putting up a fight. "Tohru-kun…" I watched her, but she didn't meet my gaze. She only stared down at the shirt, her eyes filling with tears, still that strange little smile on her face. It worried me more than I would care to admit.

"He was going to wear it at the weekend, because we were all going to go to the cinema. It was his favourite shirt, so I promised him I'd make sure it was mended in time. He said, 'Don't worry, it's only an old shirt,' but I knew it was his favourite, so I said I'd mend it… I promised I'd mend it…" She reached for the material, and her hands started shaking. "I couldn't break a promise like that… How could I be such a person…" She stopped short with a little gasping breath, something like a sob but not quite, and her fingers gripped the shirt tightly, as if to stop them shaking.

"And now we have to move, and this won't be our home anymore, and everything's slipping away!" she spilled out, burying her face suddenly in the shirt, her whole body trembling.

I was shocked by it. It was too sudden; people really should be warned before they had to witness things like this. I'd never seen Tohru so broken- I knew the problems she was having, but she'd always seemed so strong in the past; even when Kyou's real form had been shown to her so brutally, she'd risen above it and saved him from his worst fears. She'd even faced Akito, and survived him.

But she must have had her own fears, her own worries. She must have had a myriad of awful memories behind that smile… She'd never spoken about the day of Yuki's accident. She'd barely acknowledged his death before. She looked small at that moment, hunched over the kitchen table, half in the light and half in the shadows.

How must it have felt, to lose two people she loved to car accidents? To see Yuki as she'd seen her mother, bandaged and dying?

I didn't know if she'd spoken to her mother before she'd died. I'd always assumed not, from what she'd said that day I first met her, when she'd blamed herself for not saying 'take care' before her mother left for work.

Had she been able to speak to Yuki? I wasn't sure what was worse; having to say goodbye, or not being able to say goodbye at all.

I reached out a hand, and touched Tohru's back gently, wanting to do more but entirely unable. I couldn't embrace her, but I couldn't just sit there. Not even I'm that heartless.

"He was so frightened!" she sobbed, and her whole body shook again. I could almost feel my heart contract, watching her relive some memory I was free of. It was a disagreeable sensation, but I didn't blame her for it. I stroked her back, trying to comfort her.

"It wasn't your fault, Tohru-kun," I said gently, the clichéd words spoken like a true friend. "It was an accident. There was nothing any of us could have done."

"But he's gone!" she cried, pulling back from the shirt to gaze at me with huge, tear-filled eyes. Her face was splotchy and red, her eyes puffy, but she looked adorable to me. I wanted to touch the red marks on her cheeks and feel how warm they must be. I wanted to kiss her.

I'd never really felt protective of anyone the way I did with Tohru. She was too innocent. It fascinated and bothered me. I couldn't leave it alone.

I moved closer, and I had to quickly remove my hand from her back as she suddenly leant into me, hiding her face in my shoulder, shuddering against me. I looked down at the top of her head, unable to do much but stroke her hair softly. One wrong move, and I'd be in my dog form, and then there really wouldn't be anything I could do for her. All I could do was savour the way she was so close. I could even imagine that I could feel the dampness of her tears through my kimono, and it was oddly reassuring. She cried to me, not Kyou or Yuki.

I glanced up at the movement of something in the corner of the room, beyond the top of Tohru's head.

Something turned away and was gone. Tohru could only cry to me; I shook my head at the corner of the room, as forbidding a return. She was mine just now.

Tohru's fingers clutched at the front of my shirt, and her tears wetted my neck as she raised her head slightly. The movement shifted my attention back solely to her, and I watched her intently, hedging my bets on what to do next.

When I said I was protective of her, I didn't say I was any good at it. If I was, she wouldn't be crying at all. Or maybe she would be. Honestly, I don't know. I'd always thought everyone cried sometimes.

I couldn't even remember the last time she'd been this close to me. I could smell her strawberry shampoo from her hair, and her normal, sweet, fresh-laundry smell. I ran a few fingers through her hair, and the motion caught her attention. She tilted her face up to look at me, tears making her eyelashes stick together as she blinked uncertainly. Her lips were reddened and slightly parted.

"Shigure… san…" She gazed up at me a little blearily, looking more like a lost kitten than a sex object. I still wanted to take advantage of her. I couldn't help it; it's in my nature. And she was too innocent- I already explained that.

"You should get some sleep, Tohru-kun," I said quietly, gazing down at her, detachedly impressed with my level of self-control. It would be so easy to kiss her now. I could imagine the way she'd pull back with a blush as my tongue touched her lips.

She blinked again, as if waking up, and looked away, seeming somehow ashamed. It woke me up as well.

"It's all right to cry, but Yuki would rather see you smile," I told her. I was so full of comforting, kind clichés; I impress even myself sometimes.

She nodded, and I helped her to her feet.

We ascended the stairs together in silence, and I could almost imagine that we were a married couple, heading to the same bed, that seeing her change into her pyjamas and slide into bed beside me was a normal part of my life. It was just as possible as hugging her. Ha, daydreams.

I really crack myself up.