By Mad Meg Askevron
Spreading Light
Chapter Four
Disclaimer: Hello? Fan fiction?
Chapter Four: Dinner Party and Two HomesToharu straightened her obi and smoothed her skirt nervously. It was lavender with embroidered cherry trees in bloom. Yuki wore a suit that he looked very nice in. Hatori, Shigure, and Aya were in the corner, obviously teasing Hatori. Haru was standing with Yuki and Kyo. Kagura was at Kyo's side positively glowing. Momiji was talking animatedly to Toharu, Jomei on her hip, with Kisa holding her hand and Hiro's.
Suddenly there was a formal pounding on the door. Yuki opened and bowed to Wei
"Lady Junsui has prepared the reservations at Aoi Bara (Blue Rose)." He announced and they all followed him out the door. Outside was a beautiful black limo. Wei opened all the doors and only got in the front passenger seat after they had settled.
The place was giant and expensive and even Hatori stared a bit.
"Now, which of you strapping young lads will carry me?" She asked in jest, she actually meant to ride in her wheel chair, but all of a sudden she was swept up into a pair of very strong arms. She looked up in surprise to see the smiling, beautiful Ayame. His loose slivery hair tickled her nose and his stormy gray eyes twinkled, like stars peaking from clouds. Junsui laughed, she rested her cheek against warm silk; he wore a white under shirt with a white silk Chinese shirt and pants in a Chinese style with a black over coat made of cotton. He carried her into the restaurant walking as if she were the most important person in the world and were made of spun glass.
He settled her into a comfortable lounge chair. He held her until they had switched the dinning chair to the lounge chair. It was a long table with fourteen chairs. She sat at the head with Toharu to her right and Aya to her left. Yuki set beside Toharu, then it was Kyo, next to Yuki, then next to Kyo was Uo-Chan, then next to her was Hana-chan, then Kisa. Next to Ayame was Hatori, then Shigure, Haru, Hiro, Kagura, and Momiji sat at the end across from Junsui.
Junsui asked the waiters for menus that didn't show the prices, she wanted them to have all that they wanted, nothing more or less. The whole evening was wonderful and full of laughs. They joked about visiting every one of Junsui's mansions.
Junsui wasn't staying the night but she stopped to talk to Toharu.
"Toharu, I would never pull you away from a place where you are happy. But bring them and yourself over once in a while? It's too quiet there. If you ever want to just borrow something, you can, I have more money then I know what to do with, I'll buy you anything you want. Never forget, I'm your family, and they help each other. Plus there may be something that I have to protect you from. But I cannot tell you now. Take care Toharu, be on guard, and stay away from Akito." Junsui stroked her hair, but a deep calm voice shattered their peace.
"And why would she do that?" Akito stepped out from the shadows. Junsui put herself in front of Toharu.
"Akito! Your business is with me, not Toharu. Leave her alone." Junsui said in a calm voice. She gently pushed Toharu into the house from her wheel chair. Junsui carefully stood up out of her wheel chair, on one foot and her other arm against one of the wall for balance. "You can't bring me down Akito. No matter what you do, I can't be beaten. I will always stand strong against you." She said with fierceness. She knew somewhere deep down, Akito had a heart, it would just take work to bring it out.
"Well, love, if you feel that way maybe I should go." His eyes sharpened and within a heartbeat he was right in front of her, so closed she could feel his breath on her cheek. "Just don't forget, I will come back." Akito smiled wolfishly, pecked her on the cheek and the next thing she knew he was disappearing in the shadows again.
Junsui collapsed into her chair again. Shigure, Yuki, Hatori, and Toharu rushed to her. Junsui stared, glaring at the spot he disappeared.
"How do you know Akito?" Hatori asked while looking her over. Junsui looked away, and she quickly wiped away a single tear. When she looked back her face had a determined set to it.
"He is my husband." She replied grimly. They all stared at her. "What?! I thought…he could be a better person." She turned away. "He loved me, I know he did. I still have hope that…I can save him. No, I know I will. He will be a better person!" She stared them down, as if daring them to say any different. Hatori nodded, he believed it himself. Akito scared him, most of the time. But he thought he could be a better person too.
"Toharu, do you want to spend the night? Anyone who wants to can." They all agreed and asked Kyo, Ayame, and Jomei. They would all spend the night at Junsui's house.
They stared as they pulled up in front of the house; it was larger than any house they had ever seen. It had to have over five hundred rooms! There was hall just for family bedrooms, Junsui's was at the end of the hall and the rest chose random rooms.
That night, she was suddenly woken by the sweet scent of Jasmine. She raised herself up and found a handful of jasmine blossoms on the pillow next to her. She quickly turned on the light there was no one in her room, but her balcony doors were open, her curtains fluttering in the wind. She quickly stepped out of bed and pulled on slippers. She checked in all of the bedrooms, but hers was the only one that smelled of jasmine. She went back to her room and filled an ornate silver bowl with clear water and gently placed the blossoms on the surface. She stepped out onto the balcony, but no one was, there. She closed her eyes and shivered in the chill air. Suddenly she was surrounded by jasmine and arms clad in soft black circled around her and she unconsciously leaned back into the strength of those arms, silky ebony hair tickling her cheeks. She clenched her eyes harder against tears and softly laid her hands over the ones that rested loosely on her stomach.
"I missed you, so much." She whispered, Akito was surprised at the tears in her voice. He rested his lips on top of her head, for some reason his eyes burned.
"I missed you too." He whispered back. He let go and turned her around, only to find that her cheeks were covered in hot tears. She sobbed quietly and her gently held her to his shoulder to cry on.
Toharu watched the lovebirds from just outside the balcony doors. She silently crept out of the room and into her own. Hatori was asleep against the pillows. She slipped into bed and was encircled in Hatori arms. Silently tears flowed down her cheeks. She cried for a reason she couldn't understand. Maybe it was that she yearned for someone to hold her like Akito held Junsui.
Toharu turned to cry into her pillow, only to be pulled to Hatori's shoulder. He stroked her hair and kissed her forehead. She cried herself to sleep that night. Hatori knew her pain; he had been feeling it for years.
Toharu smiled when she woke up, then suddenly she realized, it wasn't Hatori she was looking at. Ayame snuggled closer, wrapping his arms around her neck. Toharu was squished between Ayame and Hatori, Hatori on her right and Ayame on her left. Hatori had his arms around her waist, Ayame around her neck and Tohru's hands were tangled in Ayame's silky hair. She couldn't help it, she laughed.
Ayame and Hatori were awake in an instant, confused.
"Sorry guys, I'm just a little stuck." She laughed softly, like the soft chiming of bells. Ayame let go and let her out of bed. Hatori turned to go back to sleep, it was too early. Only to be face to face with Ayame, Aya smiled in his comical face, Hatori groaned and turned the other way. It was winter, he could hardly blame him. Ayame got out of bed just as Toharu came out of the bathroom, clean and in fresh clothes. A lavender shirt with a large pocket on the front, a pair of jeans, and her hair pulled back by two clips behind her ears. The two stepped out of into the hall and Ayame went "Poof" and his pajamas were in a pile. She picked him up and put him in the pocket in front of her shirt. She pushed his clothes down a shoot into the laundry. She went down the hall pulling on a baseball cap.
Toharu peeked into Junsui's room, she was awake, she was still in her nightgown, but she was looking down into a bowl of water and jasmine blossoms. How she got fresh blossoms in winter was beyond her.
"Junsui, I'm going to run to the house and get a week's worth of clothes for everyone." Junsui nodded and Toharu left.
As she walked down the hall she noticed a bedroom door was open that she had thought nobody had taken. She peek in and then quickly retreated, running down the hall.
When Toharu had looked in, black frost eyes had looked back at her.
"Toharu? Are you okay? What did you see?" Ayame asked from the front of her shirt.
"It's nothing Aya, don't worry." Wei showed her to a silver Mercedes. He drove her to he house where she packed everyone's things; they had given her a list of the things they wanted. Wei helped her pack all of the things. When they had gotten into the house Ayame had hanged back into his human for, Toharu made him wear a robe before she'd hug him to make him a snake again so that Wei would not be suspicious.
The next stop was Ayame's home where he directed her to everything. They were on their way home when Toharu had Wei stop at a plant nursery. She went in, she made Ayame wait in the car, it would be too warm and he'd transfer back into a man.
She gently picked a pot that was hidden in a corner. She had to get on her knees to get, it was an elegant tarra cotta planter, it was a foot and a half long and half a foot wide. In it were three tiny white wood lattice stands on which jasmine climbed. It was in full bloom, milky white blossoms in the shape of stars covered the vines. It smelled so sweet. She bought it and carefully set in aside while she dropped off everybody's things. They all smelled jasmine on her and Akito stood from the bed he had been laying on in the dark room as she came past, across the hall she dropped off her stuff and someone else's, she left for a few moments and then returned with beautiful jasmine vines. She took them into Junsui's room.
Toharu loved the look of joy in her aunt's face at the sight and smell of the beautiful flowers. Junsui kissed her cheek and had a table brought in carved with jasmine vines. She placed it in the shout west corner of her room, put up a picture of Kyoko at her wedding and Kyoko and Junsui's mother's wedding.
"Toharu, these are for you. I thought you would like them. They are your grandmother's wedding rings and jewelry, your mother's wedding ring and high school ring, and her jewelry, this is all for you. I have been saving them for you since your mother died; a friend of hers sent it to me. Now they are yours, be proud to wear them." Toharu kissed her cheek and left with the beautiful cherry wood box of jewelry.
She sat alone in her room. Toharu never wore any jewelry. Now she wore two pieces. She put on her collage ring, her high school ring, her mother's high school and college rings on a plain silver chair, and then on her right ring finger, she placed her mother's small star shaped, silver, and wedding ring. The left ring finger was reserved for her own wedding ring. And some day her daughter would wear that. She glowed with the thought.
'Someday, I'll have my love, my wedding, and my child. But I have Jomei, and I know that I will never love anyone more then I love him, there can only be equal. I don't think I could have truly healed without Jomei.'
As if sensing that his mother had thought of him Jomei came bouncing in.
Hatori watched as Toharu played in the rose gardens with Jomei. Their matching chestnut hair shimmering with a faint red tint, their twin toffee eyes sparkling. Toharu laughed and swung the child into her arms and swung him around, but not too fast. He sighed and leaned his head against the wall never taking his eyes from the sight.
Was he always destined to love what he could not have?
Somewhere in another part of the house Akito also looked at her.
"How is that no matter what has happened to her, she can still smile?" He said to himself.
"She gets it from her mother." Junsui stood in the door, Akito turned. Junsui was smiling at an old memory. "She was the leader of the red butterfly suicide squad. She got the name The Red butterfly because when she rode, she sailed like the wind and the taillights would leave ribbons of bright red behind her. Kyoko-chan was a wonderful person." Akito turned back to the window.
"What happened to her?" Junsui's face saddened for a moment, but then she smiled.
"She died in a car accident." She said staring out the window, "Every year, the family visits and they have a picnic by her grave." Akito looked back out the window.
"Whose child is that?" He asked wondering if it was Hatori's.
"Jomei is the result of Rape." Junsui's face-hardened at the thought. Akito left the window and flopped onto his bed. "You'll have to leave soon." Akito just nodded and watched her as she watched the only blood family she had left dancing amongst roses. He kissed her cheek and suddenly he was gone. Junsui thought the world could hear her heart break as she fell to her knees and cried.
As Akito walked down the lonely rode it enlightened him, he could surround himself with people and still be alone. His eyes watered and he left a trail of tears swirling like rain in the wind, shining rainbows that hadn't touch his heart till he met her.
End of chapter four
That's all there is, there isn't anymore.
For today at least.