I don't know why the centering fails to center when I upload, but I think I ought to own the rights to Fruits Basket, don't you? No? Well, sadly I don't, but maybe I will someday. ^_^
Evermore
Chapter 2
By zapenstap
The flutter of wings caught Tohru's attention as a dozen white birds were startled out of a nearby bush. She stepped back, schoolbag swinging in front of her, and watched with a widening smile as the birds lifted weightlessly into the air, chirping in a chorus of sounds as the white feathery softness of their wings flashed brightly against the sky.
"Oh, Yuki," she said, tilting her head back. "Did you see that?" She watched the birds soar higher, wings lengthening as one as they blended in with the clouds that drifted lazily overhead.
"See what?" He looked up. "Oh, the birds. There are lots of those kinds of birds around here."
"They're really beautiful," Tohru said. "I never noticed before."
Yuki smiled at her appreciatively with a soft-eyed, sweet smile. She felt uncomfortable under his gaze, unable to process what sort of emotions would make him look at her quite like that. She was saved when something behind her caught his attention and his eyes flickered away from her face. "Oh hey," he said. "There's the ice cream shop your friend Miss Uotani was talking about. Would you still like one, Miss Honda?"
"Oh," she said uncertainly. "I don't know. We shouldn't spoil dinner."
"It's just an ice cream," he said. "Why don't I buy one for you?"
Tohru's heart fluttered and she smiled foolishly, her mind skirting around the intention of Yuki's question. It would be rude to refuse, and she loved ice cream, but she didn't know why he offered to buy her one. It couldn't be because he liked her. No no no! He was just trying to be nice, because they had talked before about getting ice cream and he felt badly for making her worry by fighting with Kyo. "Sure," she accepted. "I'll have chocolate." She held up a finger. "But next time you have to let me buy you one!"
He smiled at her. "All right. I'll be right back then."
She remained outside, enjoying the warmth of an afternoon's golden sunshine on her skin, and was glad that she could enjoy walking home with someone like Yuki on a day such as today. She was still worried about Kyo, and though she would have preferred to have his company too, she tried not to worry too much. Sometimes she felt her concern for the Sohmas was intrusive and she had to remind herself not to overcrowd them, especially when they had been so kind to her and had even entrusted her with their secret. If she let herself, she would begin to wonder why Akito allowed it, but her mind always skirted the question.
She became gradually aware that there was something standing in front of her, someone she had never seen before.
He was not much taller than she was, short, she thought, for his age, which seemed to be close to hers. He was clearly foreign, though from what country she could scarcely hazard a guess. His eyes were round and bright, and both his eyes and hair were dark brown, his hair cut short and casually styled. His skin was a dusky tan, not dark and not white, and something about him made her think he spent a lot of time outside. He wore loose, dark denim jeans and a short-sleeve black shirt with a collar, two buttons undone at the neck, both of which were clean and new. As soon as she noticed him he took a step toward her, and moved with an agility that hinted at muscles developed in a figure that was otherwise small and thin and unremarkable.
"Oh, um…hi," she said uncertainly, and looked hurriedly from right to left to see if there was anyone else he might be walking toward.
His eyes brightened and he grinned at her, a smile so energetic and disarming that she blinked and blushed unconsciously. He was not as attractive as Yuki, nor even as immediately charismatic as Kyo, but something about that smile made her feel instantly easy, almost as if this person had been an acquaintance of hers for years.
He stopped in front of her, still smiling with closed lips and brightened eyes, taking her in with one sweeping, flattering look. Then, catching her eyes, he moved his hands deceptively and suddenly produced a long-stemmed blue iris from apparently nowhere. Proffering it with one hand, he stepped back with one leg and bowed elegantly, as if she were a princess of whom he was an unworthy suitor.
"A pretty flower for a pretty lady," he said, and despite his being clearly foreign, there was no hesitation in his speech. She understood every word perfectly, down to the intonation.
She took the flower, not knowing what else to do. "Um…thank you," she said. "Should I…know you?"
He smiled at her, and reaching out, boldly pushed a strand of her hair out of her face. She froze like a deer in the headlights. "Not yet," he said. "I saw you standing with someone else a moment ago. He'll probably be back any moment, but while you were alone I wanted to say hello and introduce myself. What's your name?"
"Oh!" She bowed quickly, mind jumping through hoops and slamming into brick walls trying to process the intentions of this bewildering stranger. "I'm sorry. I'm Tohru Honda. It's nice to meet you. Uh…" She fumbled for a way of asking what it was he wanted or how it was he knew her, but she felt for some reason that she was as much a stranger to him as he to her. Nothing like it had ever happened to her before. She wasn't sure what to make of it.
He was watching her bow as if looking at some curiosity, hands in his pockets and head tilted to one side. When she straightened he smiled brightly and repeated the same bow he had made before, bending straight-backed over one leg with a graceful sweep, which was certainly not the way one person greet another in Japan. When he popped back up, an impish grinned returned to a face that was in some ways child-like. "I'm called Belduine," he said, "Belduine Terwhin if it interests you." He looked sidelong toward the ice cream shop.
"Oh," she said. "Uh…Where are you from, Terwhin-san?"
Confusion passed over his features, but he merely shook his head as if at some mystery he did not expect to solve. When she began to feel disconcerted, he smiled at her. "A place," he replied suddenly, as if on impulse, "called Evermore." He winked and quite suddenly he was passing her by with a casual wave, one hand in his pocket. "Maybe I'll see you around sometime, Tohru."
Yuki came out of the store at almost the exact instant the strange kid disappeared around the corner. "Who was that?" Yuki asked curiously, two ice cream cones in hand. His eyes flickered to the flower she held with disapproval he couldn't quite disguise.
"I don't really know," Tohru responded. "He just gave me this." She twirled the stem of the flower between two fingers, not sure what to do with it and embarrassed now that Yuki was back to be holding it. "He said his name was Belduine Terwhin." She stumbled over pronouncing such a foreign-sounded name. "I've never seen him before."
Yuki's eyes narrowed as he stared off the way the stranger had walked. "I don't like him," he said.
She blinked at him. Yuki was so polite he might just be offended by someone so boldly forward, especially if he felt protective of her. Tohru wouldn't be surprised. Giving a flower to a strange girl you knew nothing about was considered a little rude, but Torhu wasn't sure Belduine meant anything by it. He didn't seem to know their customs, and more objectively, what was wrong with giving a girl a flower? But then again, Yuki was also so smart that maybe something else about the scene bothered him. Torhu was not adept enough to speculate and she didn't feel like it was appropriate to ask.
"Come on," Yuki said with a soft, more reassuring tone as he handed her the ice cream he had bought for them both. "I'm sure it's nothing to worry ourselves about."
*****
"Something is wrong," Saki Hanajima murmured suddenly, turning her blank-eyed stare toward her friend and former gang-member.
Arisa paused at the counter, one hand extended to receive the chocolate truffles she had just purchased, Hana having personally selected them individually from the display case.
"He didn't give you the right amount of change."
Arisa blinked and counted the coins in her hand. "Hey!" she said, glaring threateningly at the cashier and slapping one hand sharply on the countertop. "What are you trying to pull on me?
"Oh! I'm sorry!" the poor guy jumped behind the counter and stammered. He counted the change in her hand then hurriedly supplemented the difference. "Please forgive me! It was an accident."
Arisa's temper cooled as she recounted the change. "Better be," she said. "Come on, Hana."
Saki followed her out of the store, black-nailed hands folded demurely in front of her and severe braid pulled over one shoulder. They both each ate a truffle, walking in silence along the sidewalk.
"What happened to Tohru, Orange-top and the Prince?" Arisa muttered. "I swear they were right behind us."
"The boys got into a fight," Saki explained. "One ran off. The other escorted Miss Honda toward the ice cream shop."
"Wow," Arisa said, impressed in spite of herself. "Does your electric signal tell you all of that?"
"I heard the fighting as we were walking away," she said. "And then I saw Prince Yuki and Tohru walking from a distance while you were buying the truffles. Kyo was not with them. I was going to call out to them but…" She paused. "I don't yell."
"Aw, that's okay," Arisa said. "We'll catch them later. At least they got some ice cream."
"Yes," Saki said. "It's quite hot out. We wouldn't want them to overheat and collapse on the street on their way home."
Arisa regarded her askance. "Well, I wouldn't think something like that would happen. I'm just sorry I missed Prince Yuki eating ice cream. I would have liked to see that. Hey," She pointed toward a cross street a block away from the far side of the school. "Isn't that that other Sohma kid?"
"Hatsuharu," Saki supplied. "He looks lost."
Arisa walked to the street corner with Hana in tow and then waved a hand in the air. "Hey! Hatsuharu!" she shouted. He looked up, catching sight of them from the side of the building he was leaning against, hands in his pockets. Arisa took that as an invitation to join him and made her way across the street with Saki at her side.
Hatsuharu's gaze drifted around them as they approached, distracted by a bird twittering on a telephone poll and then by a passing car in the street. He took note of Arisa and Saki slowly, appraising them with ice blue eyes that were as mellow as milk. "I seem to have taken a wrong turn," he said when they were close enough. "I know how to get from my classroom to my home residence, but in an attempt to stop at a bookshop somewhere in this area I was swept off course. I have since been wandering through a maze in a search to find a place or landmark that is familiar to me."
"The school's just a block around the corner," Arisa said, gesturing vaguely in the direction from which Hatsuharu had apparently been walking. Hatsuharu looked vaguely in the direction of her hand and then back at the two of them without changing expression.
"Perhaps we should escort him there, Arisa," Saki suggested practically.
"All right," Arisa said with a smirk and a shrug, turning and gesturing for Hatsuharu to follow with a raised fist. "Back to school it is. I probably ought to spend more time there anyway."
"Perhaps in classes," Saki agreed. "Since I don't really see you joining after-school clubs or sports."
"Like you can talk," Arisa objected, and then turned to look at their tag-along. "So, uh, Haru," Arisa said. "What's new in your life? How's that family of yours? Anymore of your attractive cousins going to be joining our school?"
Hatusharu looked off to the side. "Um…"
Saki interjected suddenly and ominously. "Kyo."
Hatsuharu and Arisa both looked at her. "Uh, Kyo already goes to our school, Hana," Arisa informed her.
"No," Saki said, and the barest tinge of urgency coated her voice, which for Saki might have been another person's panic. "Kyo's electric signal." She pointed in the direction they were heading. "Something is terribly wrong."
Arisa caught the tension and swallowed the joke she had been about to make on a defenseless Kyo's behalf.
The absent-minded laziness in Hatsuharu's expression vanished completely. "Where?"
"This way," Saki murmured, and strode quickly forward, her sudden movement scattering fallen leaves out of her path. Arisa and Hatsuharu ran to catch up and Saki's quick strides sped into a light run so that they all kept pace.
"What's so urgent?" Arisa demanded, regulating her breathing. "Hana?"
"Something wrong," Hatsuharu said. "I can almost feel it too."
Saki didn't answer and they didn't stop and wait for the signal at the crosswalk. The ice in Hatsuharu's eyes was focused ahead, glinting sharply as if he could part the distance between them and wherever they were going by force of will alone. The three of them crossed the street between the passings of cars and climbed straight up a grassy slope to the school grounds without bothering to go around. Arisa slipped once on the grass, swore her irritation and took Hastuharu's proffered hand to get back to her feet. Bolting forward, they made their way to the top, picked up their feet and ran with fiercer concentration, following Saki's lead around the edge of the school's buildings, their street shoes squelching in the mud created by run-off from the roof, not caring at the splatters that assaulted their legs and ankles.
"There," Saki said, stopping and pointing. Hatsuharu passed ahead of them, slipping between the end of a chain link fence and a wall and maneuvering around a recycle bin and a dumpster. He almost tripped on a coiled hose, which would have sent him sprawling face first into a boulder, but he stopped first, his feet halting abruptly as he stared at where Kyo lay on the ground, legs tucked in, back turned to them, blood seeping into the dirt and staining his hair and clothes.
Arisa heard herself gasp and saw Saki's face drain of color.
Hatsuharu didn't say anything, having a loss of words, but he knelt on one knee by Kyo's back, reaching out with both hands to touch him, turning him over gingerly.
Haru's hands came away stained with blood and the sight shook a frantic shout out of the white-and-black haired Sohma's throat. "Kyo!" Kyo rolled over without protest, his eyes glazed and his muscles constricted. His body shook in little spasms and he gasped when his position was shifted, evidence that he was alive and conscious at least. He had both arms wrapped around his body, one hand pressed tightly against his side. That whole side of him was soaked in blood, all of it fresh and still bleeding, spilling out of a nasty wound that looked to Arisa like a stabbing.
Haru put his hands to Kyo's face, not daring to move his hand to look at a wound he would not know how to treat. "Kyo," he whispered. "Can you hear me? Can you speak? What happened?"
"Never mind that!" Arisa snapped. "You have to get him to a hospital. Hana…!"
"No!" Hatsuharu shouted. "Don't call an ambulance." His voice returned to a soothing whisper, smoothing dampened orange hair from Kyo's forehead. "We can't take him to a hospital. We have to get him to the Honke. No, Shigure's house. It's closer." He tossed Saki a cell phone. "Speed-dial Hatori. If he doesn't answer, try Shigure."
Saki opened the phone, scrolled through the address book, pressed a button and held the phone calmly to her ear.
Arisa stared from Saki to Hatsuharu with widened eyes which quickly narrowed with anger. "You're going to kill him!" she shouted, clenching her fists.
"Hello? This is Saki Hanajima, Tohru Honda's friend. I'm standing by the maintenance building by Kaiwaia High School. Kyo Sohma's been stabbed." Pause. "Yes, I can hold."
Hatsuharu ignored Arisa's outburst. He pulled Kyo's head sideways on his lap and added the pressure of his own hand to Kyo's side. Arisa clicked her teeth shut. If he wasn't going to listen to reason, she could at least help stop the blood. She wasn't going to stand around gaping uselessly and she wasn't afraid of getting blood on her hands or clothes in order to save the life of someone she enjoyed teasing too much. She took a step forward, but Hatsuharu turned to look at her, stopping her with an expression that had been intent on Kyo but mellow with her.
"You should go," he said as if everything was perfectly under control. Blood was soaking through Haru's hand. "You and Hanajima can take my phone and…"
"Like hell we're leaving!" Arisa said angrily. "He's Torhu's friend and he might as well be mine too! If there's some reason you stupidly want to keep this in your family, fine! But there's no way in hell I'm going to let him die just because…"
She trailed off and Hatsuharu's attention was pulled away from her as Kyo gritted his teeth and threw his head back, crying out in pain. "Haru…my…"
"Hang on!" Hatusharu said urgently but reassuringly. "You're going to be fine. Easy, Kyo. Try to hold on. Just keep breathing. Stay calm. You can't…" His voice heightened suddenly. "No! Kyo!"
But it was too late.
Arisa stepped back in surprise and turned her face away as something like a small explosion reverberated through the clearing. Sound was momentarily swallowed, time standing still, and when she looked back Kyo's body had vanished, though his clothes lay rumpled and blood-soaked across the ground. In Haru's lap was an orange cat, blood sticking to its fur and bleeding from its side. Haru held it close, cradling it on his knees, his expression pensive.
Saki lowered the phone from her ear. "Oh," she said. "A cat. So that's what it was."
Arisa stared. "Is that Kyo?"
Hatsuharu didn't answer.
"Hana?" Arisa demanded
"That boy Momiji said that your cousin Hatori is on his way," Saki said. "Apparently he left before we called." She looked at the cat in Haru's lap, the way he was still trying with lesser success to stop the blood. "An enchantment," she said. "Or some kind of curse?"
Arisa's bewilderment transferred itself to Hana.
"Yeah," Haru mumbled.
Saki's expression never changed. "I see."
*****
Yuki was walking down the stairs in his socks from his room to where Torhu was preparing something for dinner when he paused to take in the atmosphere. Whatever it was she was cooking, it smelled good, and he was glad that with that Cat gone, he not only had Tohru to himself for a little while, but the house was blissfully quiet. Shigure was at the Honke, Kyo was out, and the calm in the air was helping Yuki unwind from the stress of the day.
He sighed, thinking back to the disaster upon disaster that had plagued him since he woke up this morning. The presentation of today's assembly had been stressing him out since Monday, and now that the week was over, he was happy to have a breather, even if it hadn't gone as well as he hoped. He knew that the other members of the Student Council didn't aggravate him on purpose, and he was also becoming aware that they had problems of their own that they were trying to deal with as they did everything else, same as him, but he did wish they could reign in the more extravagant fringes of their personalities, be a little more focused and manage to work together for the good of the group.
That little spat with the Cat had simply been an added annoyance to a long day of accumulating annoyances. He felt badly for upsetting Tohru, but the way that Cat behaved sometimes tipped him over the edge, especially when he held in his temper in order to remain polite to everyone else. Imagine, saying those things to Tohru, even though he had already learned his lesson countless times. At least Yuki tried to learn from his mistakes, to repeat them as little as he could, or to at least apologize when he erred, but it seemed a lot of people—especially the Cat—were not as aware of how easy it was to hurt other people simply by being too forceful, that it was all too easy to silence someone or hurry them or exclude them. Perhaps it was because Yuki himself was so often hurt, silenced, hurried and excluded in his lifetime that he was so sensitive to it, but then, the cat was excluded too, if only from his immediate family and in a different way. At any rate, he ought to know enough to realize that yelling at Tohru was pointless and stupid.
Yuki paused on the stairs, breathing in the scent of Tohru's cooking and imagining her at the stove with her hair plaited into braids and an apron around her waist, wondering if she had used any of the vegetables he had brought in from the garden, the fresh tomatoes perhaps. He leaned his head against the wall, taking a deep breath and allowing his irritation to recede. Something about Tohru soothed him, made him want to try to be a better person, a less arrogant, more forgiving person. If only it was so easy to change, to become whoever it was you wanted to be simply by deciding that that was what you wanted. But maybe, with the right people in your life, it was not impossible.
Yuki had made up his mind to go into the kitchen—a place he usually avoided—to talk to Tohru while he had this chance alone with her, when a hollow bang of the front door slamming open interrupted his thoughts.
"Yuki?" Tohru called. "What was that? Is Kyo home yet?"
Yuki figured that must be it, but when he rounded the corner toward the front door, what he saw was not what he expected.
Hatori came in first, holding an orange cat soaked in blood to his chest, its ears wilted and its movements still. Haru was right beside him, pressing a hand against the cat, walking awkwardly on Hatori's left side in order to keep his hand there. Yuki recognized Kyo immediately and felt his stomach turn over sickeningly. Before he had time to open his mouth, Torhu's two friends, Arisa Uotani and Saki Hanajima, followed Hatsuharu inside. Yuki did a double take, connecting Arisa and Saki to Kyo's transformed state in a terrifying flash of realization, but the thought that Kyo might have stupidly run into either of them hardly registered with the sight of all that blood. More importantly…
"What happened?" Yuki whispered. "Haru?"
Shigure followed Miss Uotani and Hanajima into the house and cast Yuki a significant, serious look that made Yuki's blood run cold. "You can put him in my study," he said. "Let's not risk taking him upstairs. He won't hold that shape much longer."
"Out of the way please," Hatori said and Yuki backed up, taking several steps backward up the stairs as the procession passed him by. "Haru, I need you to hold him while we put him down. Shigure, bandages. All of mine have soaked through. I didn't know what I expected to find, but it wasn't this."
A sweet voice stopped all of their voices. "What's going on?"
Yuki's head snapped up as Tohru came out of the kitchen, drying her hands with a dish towel, a smile on her face.
"Oh, I see we have company," she said. "Hello, Haru, Hatori. I'm afraid I didn't make enough for this many people. Oh, Uo, Hana, why are you…?" She froze, getting a glimpse of what was lying so limp in Hatori's arms. Her voice carried a bare fraction of the enthusiasm he was used to hearing from her, the tiniest, plaintive cry escaping her lips with a terrified tremble. "Kyo?"
Yuki tried to distract her, hoping to step in front of her, to block her eyes, but she mindlessly cut in front of Shigure, her eyes wide and round and full of fear as she followed the group into Shigure's study. Yuki found himself outside, paralyzed.
"Set him down," Hatori's voice came. "Easy." Yuki listened from outside the doors. His reaction time seemed to have slowed down, the moments crawling by like water dripping from a window pane. He glanced through the door to see Tohru kneeling down, fright halting the tears in her eyes as her hand stroked the blood-matted fur of Kyo's limp cat form. "I can't treat him like this," Hatori was explaining. "Tohru, I know you are concerned, but you had better stay out of the way. All you girls actually. There's no need to panic. Whoever it was who stabbed him missed all of his internal organs."
It wasn't me, was Yuki's only conscious thought. I didn't do this to Kyo. The hushed quiet in the house that he had prized only minutes ago seemed suddenly oppressive.
Yuki still couldn't move. Tohru still looked numb as Saki took her by the shoulders and helped her stand, letting Haru and Shigure circle in to help Hatori. Yuki remembered the last thing he had said to Kyo, and looking at the Cat, he felt his heart clench with sudden fear. It was so easy to hurt people, so easy to shrug off the responsibility of hurting someone else and justifying it by way of your own pain. Would it have killed him to treat Kyo with the same politeness he tried so hard to display to everyone else? Tohru's shaking form wrung his heart. He couldn't get himself to speak to her as Miss Hanajima and Uotani led her to the dining room, one of them on either side of her as she wilted down to the floor, covering her face with both hands.
There was a sound like an explosion from the other room and Yuki looked over his shoulder to see that Kyo had returned to his human form. His breath caught in his throat as he saw the wound, a hole in the side from which blood was still flowing as Hatsuharu tossed aside another bloody towel and grabbed a clean one. Shigure was unwinding bandages as Hatori prepared a needle with what was probably a fast-acting anesthetic. Kyo himself appeared to have passed out from the pain.
"Hatori," Hatsuharu said suddenly as Hatori turned Kyo's arm over to insert the needle into his bloodstream. "Kyo's bracelet is missing." Yuki's eyes widened in shock, and he swallowed, feeling light-headed.
It was Shigure's who spoke first. "Well, this keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?"
"Are you sure it wasn't with his clothes?" Hatori asked, concentrating on the task at hand.
"We got everything," Hatsuharu said. "It's all in the car. I didn't see it."
"Why hasn't he transformed, I wonder?" Shigure asked curiously.
"The shock of pain perhaps," Hatori said. "Or maybe he's too weak. I'm not really sure. Let's not worry about that for right now. I want to get him stabilized before Akito shows up. We'll need to stop the blood and stitch him up and then let him rest. I don't know how long he'll be and there's no telling what he'll do when he gets here."
Akito.
Yuki looked back toward Tohru, Tohru and her two friends. It seemed that Hatori was confident in what he was doing, but that didn't stop his insides from shaking, nor did it quell the worry in his heart.
"I think they just said that Kyo is going to be all right," Saki was telling Tohru soothingly, sitting beside her a comforting smile on her face.
"Tohru," Arisa was saying. "I think you have a lot of explaining to do."
"I'm sorry," Tohru protested. "I promised I wouldn't tell!"
"It's kinda late for that," Arisa pointed out.
But Tohru would only shake her head violently, the palms of her hands pressed to her face, refusing to utter a sound.
Feeling worse than useless, Yuki wandered back to Shigure's study and was met by the writer himself in the doorway.
"Ah, Yuki, there you are," Shigure said, his good humor apparently restored. "It's time to see if you really can't boil water. We need some in here and I don't think Tohru's up to it just yet."
"Sure," Yuki said. "I want to help."
Shigure smiled at him and waved a hand. "Don't look so gloomy, Yuki! Ha-san says Kyo's going to be all right!"
The response was automatic, down to the clenched fists and narrowed eyes. "I wasn't worried about him!"
Shigure just held up one finger and said pedantically, "boiled water: just put some from the tap in the pot and set it on the stove."
Gritting his teeth, Yuki turned and marched away.
Yuki had always found the kitchen to be a bewildering place. Before Tohru has come to live with them, Yuki had always invented dinner when it was his turn to cook. Usually he used the oven and followed directions of easy-bake dishes that he still managed to burn, but it had been so long since he had set foot in the kitchen now that Tohru was here that he had forgotten what little he used to know. It took him five minutes of opening doors and cupboards to find a pot of decent size, and he found carrying such a thing awkward and ridiculous in his hands as he set it on the burner. Which way was the handle supposed to face? He tried a couple different positions and settled for off to the left side before turning on the water from the sink. Was he supposed to put the pot right under the faucet or would that be too heavy after it filled up? Maybe there was a device used from transporting water from the sink to a pot. He finally decided on filling the pot up halfway with water from the sink and then using a measuring cup to fill up the rest of it. He studied the stove top for a minute to get a feeling for which dial operated which burner and then turned the correct one to Hi.
He found himself watching it anxiously, desiring to be useful for something other than an icon to stare at, when he noticed that Tohru was by his side.
"A watched pot never boils, you know," she said sweetly.
"Miss Honda," he said, turning to look at her. He was happy to see her smiling, but even so, something made him think that she was not quite herself. It surprised him that he noticed. She always tried so hard to look on the bright side of things, even when she was hiding sadness, but this time he could see the small crease of worry marring her forehead, and the enthusiasm in her voice sounded forced. It was evidence of how truly upset she must be that she would show it. And no wonder really.
"Shigure says that Kyo is resting now," Tohru told him as she continued finishing the dinner she had been working on before. He watched her wash the vegetables he had brought in from the garden, noticing how delicately her hands handled the fragile tomatoes. "Hatsuharu brought his clothes in from the car. I don't think all of the blood can be washed out. His shirt is ruined too so it's probably best to order some new school clothes. Hatori will probably make him stay home for awhile anyway. He's all sewed up but he probably shouldn't strain himself for, well…lots of reasons."
Yuki stared at her, feeling certain now that her smile was hiding a deeper worry and unsure how to address it. He wished he was able to talk with her openly, to share his feelings plainly and ask her to share hers. He felt he understood her even when they talked in circles, but lately he had been pulling away from her, trying to come to terms with the idea that one day he would have to lose her, that it was dangerous to get too close. And yet he still found himself wishing they could be closer. It was that kind of honest openness that was one of the things he envied about Kyo, and one of the things that also made him angry. He found himself wanting to hold her, to give her a reassuring hug that everything was going to be all right, but of course he couldn't do that. He wasn't even sure it was true.
"Can I help you?" he said instead.
"Thank you, but it's all right," she replied. "I can do it. I need something to do."
He struggled to speak. "Is something bothering you, Miss Honda?" His tone made him bite his tongue. He sounded cheeky and self-assured and it wasn't at all how he was feeling, but perhaps to make himself feel stronger he had supplemented a false sense of casualty. "I mean, is there anything the matter?" Not much better. He wasn't any good at this.
Tohru set the first tomato aside and paused before grabbing the second. If she thought he was being callous and aloof she didn't show it. Her eyes were downcast, her hands hanging limply over the edge of the sink. "Hatori said that Kyo's bracelet is gone," she said quietly. "And I'm…I'm worried, because of that, and because of what happened. Who would do that to Kyo? They said it was a stabbing, a knife wound, and a rather large knife at that, one made for that sort of thing." She stopped speaking, biting her lips. "Why would anyone do that?"
"I don't know," Yuki said truthfully. "But we'll find out."
She continued washing the next tomato. "And the bracelet," she said. "Kyo doesn't have it anymore and we don't know who does, or why, or what will happen when Kyo wakes up. And…" Tears were threatening her eyes. "Uo and Hana know about the curse. I haven't told them anything and no one has explained what it is or how it works, but they're still here, waiting for an explanation. They're being so patient, but they know and I don't think they're just going to forget about it."
"Hatori is here," Yuki said quickly.
"But Akito is coming," Tohru continued, and though her voice held no trace of negativity, or worry or fear, he could sense that it was there. She stopped moving all together, setting the second tomato beside the first and drying her hands with a dishtowel. "And I don't know what's going to happen, to any of us. Yuki, something strange is happening. I feel like we've all been exposed somehow. I've never said anything to anyone, I swear, but I feel like someone else out there knows, someone not in this house and not part of your family. And Yuki… I'm afraid."
The water had started to boil.
Yuki stared at Tohru, wishing he could say anything, do anything, to reassure and comfort her. But he found that he was too weak, that he would almost rather look to her for comfort. He didn't know what to say, or what to do, because he was afraid too.
A knock sounded at the door.
"That's probably Akito," Tohru said, and set the dishtowel down.
To Be Continued
Was that too abrupt? Pacing this is difficult, but well, the plot thickens! Next up, Akito arrives at Shigure's, some decisions are made and the hunt for Kyo's assailant begins…among other things. I'll be updating this story consistently, so please return to keep reading if you like it! Don't worry; I'm really into writing this one. Updates should come quickly, and you can always put me on Author Alerts if you want to be notified by email when I update (a lot of people surprisingly aren't aware of that feature).
But for now, please review this chapter! A lot of things have happened (I think, anyway, compared to the snail-pace of some of my other stories) and I'd like to hear the thoughts and reactions of my readers. Any guesses to the plot will make me smile and comments of any kind are always, always appreciated. From the bottom of my heart, I thank each and every reader. ^_^
And now, some comments to readers' previous comments (not individually. I love you all, but it would just take too long)
-I'm terribly happy if my writing has made you think or pleases your ear. I really like to put some substance to my stories, so your comments in that regard are indescribably helpful.
-Hopefully this story will stay suspenseful, at least enough to keep you wanting to read. That's always very important for a story, so if you're bored, let me know! These are, of course, still the first chapters and I'm still working on writing the characters and setting things up, but I hope to keep you interested. Hooked readers are happy readers.
-I have a lot planned for future chapters! And I'm trying to keep it IC too. (I can only try!)
-I'm hoping "kyra rivers" is the name of a real person and she keeps reading because Kyra is an awesome name (no, it's not my name; it's a name of an original character I invented who will likely not appear in this story). I hope the oddities keep intriguing you, Kyra, b/c I'm just getting started!
-I like Hatsuharu. Good present, but you can set the Cow free now. ^_~
You made me so happy with all your encouragement!! I really appreciate it! Keep it comin'!
