Disclaimer: Me no own.
In Honor of Kyoko
The next morning, Monday, Tohru raced around the house, getting ready for school and showing Shigure where the meal she'd premade was, as well as various other things she viewed as necessary, such as where everything needed to make tea was (she'd cleaned and organized the dirty kitchen).
When a sleepy Yuki wandered into the living room, Tohru had just finished. Seeing that Yuki was at least fully dressed if not entirely conscious, Shigure grabbed both teens and pushed them out the front door, tossing their book bags out after them.
"Don't be late!" he yelled after the retreating pair. Tohru waved. Shigure returned to the kitchen to find himself faced with a box of cereal. "I miss my little flower's cooking already!" he cried.
When Tohru and Yuki arrived at school, Uo and Hana-chan quickly found them. They relieved Yuki of Tohru's company, leading her away as Yuki's fan club descended like a pack of hounds.
"So, how come you showed up with the prince today?" Uo-chan asked casually as the three girls walked to their lockers. Tohru blushed, wondering if Uo or Hana knew anything about her new living arrangements
"Oh, I-I just met him, um, on the way here!" Tohru stammered, blushing more.
She wasn't sure how her friends would react to her staying with men, and it wasn't even a sure deal. Shigure and Yuki might still decide she was too much of a burden, and she knew her companions would take personal offense to anything they saw as unkindness to Tohru. And Tohru didn't feel like relaying her mother's murder just yet; the subject was still painful.
So even though she felt terrible about hiding something so important from her best friends, Tohru decided to put off telling Uo and Hana about her situation. She came out of her thoughts and realized Uo-chan was speaking.
"Whatever, but the prince's fan club is sure to be put off by any closeness with him. You ought to watch out for them today," the blonde girl was saying. Tohru nodded.
"I sense a disturbance in your electromagnetic wave, Tohru," Hana-chan commented. "There is a feeling of unease and a complication in its flow." Tohru stopped dead in her tracks, her face turning bright red.
"Ah-ara, it's probably just exam stress!" she lied. It was plausible: midterms were looming on the horizon, as their teachers often warned.
"Mmm," Hana-chan replied. "Try to get some extra rest." Tohru let out her breath.
'You have to be careful with Hana-chan's electromagnetic waves,' she thought, following her friends toward the classroom.
For the rest of the school day, Tohru remained spacey and detached. Uo-chan worried about Tohru's lack of attention, and Hana-chan continued to be aware of a huge disturbance in Tohru's wave, but they agreed to investigate later with a silent nod, and neither pressed Tohru for information.
When the bell rant to signal the end of school, Tohru gathered her things, gave and automatic wave and smile to her friends, and started out the door.
Her condition had lasted all day, and hadn't been exactly hard to notice: it became apparent when the teacher called on her to answer a question only to find her staring into space with an unreadable expression. The only reason he'd let her off was that after several minutes of waving his hand in front of her face, Tohru's eyes snapped into focus and she yelled the answer to his question: "F-FORTY-TWO!"
Because of this, when he looked up and saw Tohru leaving, once again looking spaced out, Yuki hurried to catch her. She seemed to be following a well-known course of actions today: great if she wanted to get through the day and back to her house without much thought, not good if she planned on returning to his and Shigure's home. Yuki was willing to bet that, left to her own devices, Tohru would be inside her mother's house before she realized she'd left school.
Yuki caught up to Tohru just outside the school building. He grabbed her elbow and began to direct her the right way. She still gave no response, barely aware of Yuki's presence.
When the two finally arrived at home, Tohru left Yuki in the foyer, walking into the living room. Yuki heard a thump.
"Are you all right Tohru-kun?" came Shigure's voice. Tohru stumbled back into Yuki's line of vision rubbing her forehead. Shigure shot a look at Yuki, who shrugged. Suddenly Tohru's eyes snapped into focus.
"Tomorrow was Saturday!" she cried, rushing into the kitchen. Yuki and Shigure watched her wander back out, both staring. "Ano, where's the phone?" she asked. They pointed to the opposite wall of the living room. Tohru went to it, pulled a piece of paper out of her uniform pocket, and dialed. Shigure and Yuki left her alone to make her call.
"She wasn't like that when you left," Shigure said. Yuki nodded.
"Something must have happened before school, because she's been spacey all through school," Yuki replied. They continued to ponder Tohru's unusual behavior until she came into the room. She seemed focused for the first time since leaving Yuki in front of school.
"I was talking to the boss of mother's gang," she began. "He told me where my mother's been buried so I can go and visit her!" She smiled. "Would Shigure-san and Sohma-kun like to come with me this Saturday?"
"Sorry, Tohru-kun, I have a meeting with my editor that day. I'm supposed to have my latest script ready. But I seem to have lost it, what if it doesn't turn up by then?" Shigure said in a singsong voice dripping with fake concern. Yuki shot him a patronizing look. His cousin smiled back innocently, and bounced away giggling.
Yuki turned back to Tohru who, to his dismay, was once again staring into space. He tentatively put a hand on her shoulder, startling her out of her stupor. "Honda-san, would you come with me to the back room?" he asked. "I'd like to talk to you." Tohru followed him into the room, her head cocked.
"Is something wrong?" Yuki asked as he turned to face Tohru. "You've been acting strangely all day."
"I-I wouldn't want to burden Sohma-kun with my problems," Tohru answered.
Yuki shook his head. "It's fine Honda-san," he told her. "I asked because I'm concerned. I want to help if I can."
Tohru lowered her head a little. "It's just that I don't know how to tell Uo and Hana-chan what happened to Mother," she paused, "and how I'm now living with you and Shigure-san. I've been trying to think of a way to let them know, but it's hard!" Neither spoke for a minute, but Tohru broke the silence. "I hate hiding what happened from them," she continued, "but I really don't want to talk about it yet."
Yuki smiled and patted Tohru's head. "It's alright," he soothed. "I'm sure they'll understand if you wait a while. It's a personal thing and something you don't need to talk about unless you're comfortable." He immediately felt guilty about his method of learning about it once again. But Tohru didn't seem to mind.
"Thank you Sohma-kun--" her words were cut short by the paper door sliding open.
"I found Tohru's electromagnetic wave," Hana-chan said, an antennae protruding from her head. Yuki and Tohru stared at Hana-chan and Uo-chan standing in the door, who in turn were staring at them.
"I found Tohru," Uo-chan said, rather uselessly, pointing at Tohru. Tohru held up her hands.
"I can explain, it's nothing wrong—" Uo-chan grabbed her hand and pulled her onto the porch they'd come from.
"We heard someone singing about high school girls, are you sure they didn't do anything?" Uo demanded.
"That would be my perverted cousin," Yuki interjected, stepping up beside the trio.
"It's the prince," Hana-chan observed. Tohru was very flustered.
"You don't need to worry! I'm staying with Sohma-kun and Shigure-san!" she explained. Uo-chan looked sharply at her. "I…" Tohru continued, "I'm staying here because I can't go home anymore. Mother's been killed." She broke off, with Hana-chan and Uo-chan staring.
"Was it because her connections to them?" Uo-chan finally asked. Tohru nodded. "Do you know who it was that killed Kyoko-san?" she asked. Tohru shook her head.
"But it was a gangster," Tohru confirmed. "No one else would have a reason to attack her. And they would have to know what they were doing to get Mother. She had a gun." A tear now dropped from her eye, making a small splashing sound against the silence as it hit the floor. In the next moment, Uo-chan was sweeping Tohru up in a tight embrace. Tohru locked her arms around her friend's neck and cried into her shoulder. Hana-chan moved to stand next to the two girls, putting an arm around both and stroking Tohru's hair.
Yuki stood aside and watched the friends. For reasons he couldn't fathom, he was slightly jealous of the closeness they showed. He decided he was just feeling a bit sorry for himself because he had no friends with whom he could be so close. In any case, this was time for Tohru and her friends to be alone and talk. His presence would only be an intrusion right now. Yuki walked inside, leaving Tohru to give details of her current situation to Uo-chan and Hana-chan.
AN: Uuuugh. I think I'm dead. My lack of energy in the last couple days has been really bad. Maybe it's just because I'm on break? Anyhoo, I'm sorry I took so long in getting this last chapter up! I had part of on my account at school, but on the last day, the server went down, so I couldn't email it home to myself! This was probably the major factor in my lack of action in finishing it. Ya, people went kind of OOC in this chapter, gomen. I'm not quite satisfied with it, but seen as it took this long to write it once, I'm not even going to try and rewrite it. But I liked the ending. Wouldn't that be a really cute picture, to have Tohru, Hana and Uo all hugging? I dunno. I think it would be. As for length, I guess it's okay this time around, although this chapter was much shorter than what I've been doing. Oh well. OMG, it really doesn't feel like Xmas. Seriously. And the New Year's in, what, five days? It doesn't feel like that either. Gah, maybe it's because of the lack of festivity here. We're remodeling the house, doing the whole upstairs and the back half of downstairs, so we're basically living in four rooms and a hall. So there's no room for a tree or anything (I mean, the kitchen, living room, and my mom & dad's room are all in one room, that's how cramped it is). But yeah, a lot of my friends say it doesn't feel like Christmas as well, so I guess it's not just me. Anyway, on to reviewer shoutouts! Thanks for hanging in there with me!
Chibi Mo: Haha ya, I thought since I was going for the whole AU thing I might as well change how they transform. Oh! I forgot for the last two chapters, kudos to everybody! Every single person was right in noticing the Sohmas didn't change when they hugged Tohru I forgot to mention it two chapters ago, and then I was going to catch up on it last chapter, but I forgot again. Sorry!
Cyjj: Woo! You came back Thankies!
Anee: Ya, it presents a whole new set of opportunities for transformations! And remember, it's also when they overexert themselves or get really tired. And of course, you're very likely to get overworked often while fighting a war against a nation's biggest threat, right? Haha thanks for the enlightenment!
Kireina: I'm glad! It seems that AUs are often hard to keep close enough to the original plot to make much sense or whatever. Anyway, thankies, and we hope to see you again! (Why the hell do I say "we?")
Sugar High Yusukeholic: Haha, I KNOW! Well, at least Yuki and Kyou don't catfight. Now THAT would be a hilarious thing to see. But yeah, not a whole lot more explaining to do about Kyoko, but I plan to have the occasional bit of information integrated, and as I said, a few flashbacks. No pairing planned for this story, but nothing's final till it's over!
Anonymous: Yay! You also came back, this makes me very happy. We always like that! Or are you a new Anonymous? Either way, thank you for your time and nice review! (Once again, who is "we"?)
Hikari Rioki: Yeah, I just played around with the curse a little. Yesh, I plan to have Akito in this fic…I'm not really sure when he'll be introduced tho. Hmm. I'll have to think about that some. So ya. You've probly already been to the doctor at this point (god, I've taken so long to update), so are you okay now? Ya, girls need iron more than guys, my cross-country coach told me that. When you get iron depleted, you get tired and weak and crap. It happened to me once during the season…I was a mess; it took me a whole week to totally get back on my feet. Why three pounds tho? It's a weird amount, ne? Oh ya, I got the chappie, it was very good!
Merei-chan: Haha, Shigure is funny when he tries to sound mature. :) Ya, finals just suck. Although they're long gone by now. feels dumb
Inu87yasha: Ah, well, thanx. But My Favorite Day's over. Hmm. Maybe I didn't make that very clear. I'll go back and put a "The End" in it. I said so in the author note…but I don't really expect too many people to actually read those. Should I just stop writing those long ass things? Does everyone just skip them? Hmm. But yesh, I'm glad you liked the story! Haha, I guess you'll read this if you ever come by here anyway
Gen