[Disclaimer] The characters still aren't mine, nor are the names Fruits Basket or Furuba. We can still hope though. ;-)
[AN] Turns out this chapter is really long too. In fact it's longer than the last one. I hope you all enjoy it! Also, for the record and to clear up any questions you all may be having on the subject, When Robbie speaks, he's almost always speaking in English. When Tohru or Kyo are speaking to Robbie, they are speaking in English as well. When either of the two are speaking to Yuki, they are speaking in Japanese, and when Yuki speaks to Tohru or Kyo, it's also in Japanese. Yuki rarely speaks to Robbie, but it is in English, but with a much thicker accent than Kyo or Tohru have after three and a half years. Oh yeah! Please review this, even if you've reviewed before. I love to know what everyone thinks, even if it's to say that you still love the story or that you don't care for the story at all. Of course, if you tell me that you don't like it, please tell me why so that I can improve. I'd like to keep all my readers, even first time readers, coming back for more!
Chapter XIIIAfter seeing the mother and son off, Tohru turned back to the two boys of her own. "Well, I'm so glad he'll be joining us. It's good that I hadn't really started the dinner preparations. Now I can make sure there's enough for four," she said with a cheery face before disappearing into the kitchen.
On a second thought, she poked her head back out of the kitchen. "You two should get cleaned up, take showers and what have you before Robbie returns. He'll want someone to keep him occupied before we leave." Tohru then turned back to the kitchen to finish the readying for the picnic.
Kyo and Yuki glared at each other for a moment before Kyo turned on his heal and head upstairs to take his shower first. With an unsaid mutual understanding, it was decided that since Kyo had been out practicing for a couple hours, he should be the one to shower and clean up first. Yuki retreated to the living room to work on his reading.
At 5:30 precisely, Tohru heard a car pull up while putting the remainder of the completed dinner into the picnic basket. After closing the basket, she went to greet the family. Robbie had already jumped out of the car while his parents were just opening their doors when Tohru stepped outside.
"Go ahead and go inside, Robbie. Kyo and Yuki are in the living room watching TV. Kyo will take your things up to his room, since you'll be sleeping there tonight."
After letting the boy inside, Tohru turned to the Johnson's and smiled receiving one in return.
"Oh, Tohru. We can't even begin to thank you for this. It's been quite a while since we've been able to spend time alone. You and Kyo are definitely a god send to us." Shirley couldn't help but smile in thanks.
"Yes, Ms. Honda, you and Mr. Sohma have truly been a blessing and we couldn't even begin to show our gratitude. The two of you have been a wonderful influence on our son, and I know, more than anything, he loves to come here for his training," Robert said in earnest. "Now, we must be going. Our reservation is at six, and we don't want to be late. When would be a good time tomorrow to come pick up Robbie?"
"Oh, don't worry about it. We can bring him home tomorrow after lunch. Now, you two get going and have a wonderful time tonight!" Tohru wouldn't hear any protests from them regarding bringing their son home. She shooed them off and returned inside the house.
Before finishing up the preparations, Tohru stopped by the living room and found the three boys chatting idly. Noticing that Robbie's bag was still on the floor next to the couch, she decided to take care of what Kyo was supposed to have done to begin with. "Geez, Kyo! Do I have to do everything for you?" Tohru asked teasingly.
Kyo blushed in response. "I didn't feel like doing it right away!"
Yuki just shook his head. "You still haven't learned any responsibility, have you, you stupid cat?"
With a glare, Kyo spat back, "Shut up, you dumb rat!"
Robbie looked back and forth between the two with a confused look on his face. Tohru just giggled while grabbing the kid's overnight bag before going upstairs to drop it off. "I'm going to take a quick shower and get ready to go. I want you three to be ready to go when I get back downstairs!" she sang from the hallway leading towards the stairs.
Thirty minutes later, Tohru came back downstairs with the picnic blanket in hand, humming a happy tune. After peeking into the living room and seeing that all three boys were quietly watching television, Yuki and Kyo with scowls on their faces, Tohru decided that they'd been bickering about something or other, but then, that was nothing new. Upon hearing the tune, all three boys looked up from the TV and into Tohru's direction. "Are you three ready? It's 6:30 now, and it's about a thirty minute bus ride to the river."
All three boys stood, stretched and started heading for the door while Tohru retrieved the picnic basket from the kitchen. She made a quick once over to make sure she had everything then met Yuki, Kyo, and Robbie outside the house. In unison, the three of them offered to carry the picnic basket and blanket, causing a giggle from Tohru. To decide who would carry what they played rock, paper, and scissors.
The first winner was Yuki, who took the basket from Tohru's hands. Then second winner was Kyo, who took the blanket from her before ruffling Robbie's hair. "Better luck next time, kiddo!"
"It's ok Robbie. Instead of holding one of the picnic items, you can hold my hand!" Tohru spouted cheerily while grabbing hold of his hand. "Now that that's settled, let's go before we miss the bus!"
Robbie grinned, as if to say, "Ha ha! Look what I got!" and walked forward with Tohru, leaving a somewhat dumbfounded Kyo and Yuki behind.
They arrived at the bus stop just as the bus was pulling up to curb. Once aboard, they each took a seat, Yuki slide onto the seat next to Tohru before Kyo could do as such, leaving Robbie and himself to share a seat. Kyo quietly glared at the back of Yuki's head, but said nothing. He remembered what Tohru had told him earlier, and decided it was better to keep his mouth shut.
"You know guys, today has been a great day so far, and we still get to enjoy the fireworks! I'm so excited that all my favorite men could be here with me this year." Tohru's exclamation had all three of them blushing and suddenly acting bashful. Tohru smiled at the three of them then turned back to the front of the bus. The rest of the trip to the river was quiet, each swimming in their own thoughts.
'I'm so glad I get to stay with Tohru and Master tonight. They are always so much fun to be with and Tohru's cooking is the best in the world. It's WAAAY better than Mom's cooking. I wonder what we get to eat tonight? I never ever thought I'd ever like Japanese food, but she makes it all taste so yummy. Her leeks are always so yummy too. I don't know why Master doesn't like 'em. Her grilled salmon is the best too. It's funny, we always have salmon or cod whenever we have leeks. I wonder why that is? Her soba is great too. That's what we had at her New Years party last year too. I wonder why their New Years is later in the year than ours? I'll have to remember to ask Master some time. I wonder why he always goes home for New Years but she doesn't? I'll have to ask Master about that too.'
'That damn Yuki. What the hell does she see in him? Never mind that he's good looking, athletic and smart. Argh! He's a good for nothing and she thinks she loves him. I just don't understand. I really hope he doesn't feel the same way. That would completely blow. I mean I don't have those kinds of feelings for her. I mean really, she's like a little sister to me. If he ever did anything to hurt her, I would kill him. He would be so dead. If she even seems remotely uncomfortable with something he does, it will be the end of the world for him. I love her and would do anything for her. He's so dead. Grrr.'
'I'm so nervous. I can't think of the last time I felt this nervous. I can feel Yuki's warmth next to me, and it so comforting, and it feels right somehow. I love him. I never realized how much I truly missed him until I saw him come off that plane. I don't know how I'm going to tell him. I don't think I can tell him. He'd be so disappointed if he knew, and he wouldn't even blame me. He'll hate Akito more than now, if that's even possible. I can understand his feelings toward Akito, but that's part of the past. I wish he could move forward and look beyond that. I wish he could truly see the things he does have in his life.'
'She looks as beautiful as ever this evening, and she smells like roses. I always loved the way that yellow summer dress looked on her. It's just as I remember. Gods I've missed her; her innocent smile, her soft skin, her beautiful blue eyes, everything. She couldn't possibly understand how I've longed to see her. She haunted all my dreams; in my waking hours I caught glimpses of her taking down the laundry, cooking in the kitchen, or walking home from school with me. I love her more than flowers love the sun, more than life itself. I don't know how I lived before she came into my life. She opened the doors of my heart and will forever be held dear there. There's not a happier man in this world or the next than the one sitting next to her now.'
Fifteen minutes after they stepped off the bus, they arrived at the lakeside. There were already several families and groups of college students spread around the area on blankets of their own. After picking a clear grassy spot, Kyo and Tohru spread the blanket out so they could all sit and start on their food. It was already 7:30 and past their usual dinnertime, so everyone was hungry and ready to eat. Tohru took the basket from Yuki and started rummaging through it, pulling out the sushi, takoyaki, and onigiri and setting it out between the four of them.
Seeing all the food, Robbie's eyes went wide. "Tohru! All this food looks so yummy, and there's soooo much of it!"
"Well, Robbie, when you're feeding three growing boys, you have to make sure there's plenty to eat," she replied with a wink.
In unison, the four put the hands together and exclaimed, "Thanks for the food!"
"Tohru, this is delicious!"
"I wish we could eat this every day at home!"
"Oh, Tohru, I can't believe how much I've missed your delicious cooking!"
"Oh you three flatter me too much!"
Yuki just looked at Tohru with an endearing smile. 'She's so innocent.' A slight sigh escaped his lips, but no one seemed to notice.
Once everyone was finished eating, Tohru covered up the left over food and placed it back in the basket before pulling out a little tub of cream and a small bucket of strawberries. More groups of people had begun showing up by this time and the sun was beginning to set; classical music was drifting to them from the giant speakers that were set up across the river near where the display would be set off.
Kyo and Robbie idly chatted with one another while munching on the strawberries and cream. Tohru watched the two of them happily while eating a couple of the strawberries herself. Yuki also at a few of the red berries, but his eyes were on Tohru alone, though she seemed oblivious to the eyes glued to her every movement.
Watching her, being with her, Yuki felt comfortable and at ease, despite the fact that there were two other people sharing their space. He yearned to lean over, to kiss her, to taste the cream from the last berry she'd eaten that was still on her lips before she licked it off, but he could only sit there, enthralled with her every motion. Then a thought crossed his mind. He couldn't help but frown in the realization that they had just over a week left to spend together.
With a silent sigh, Yuki moved a little closer to Tohru, not wanting to surprise her. The sun dropped beyond the horizon and silence covered the area as the nearby groups and couples gazed at the breathtaking spray of reds, pinks, purples, oranges, and beyond all that, the midnight blue of the darkening sky. Yuki had not been paying attention to the sunset at all until he heard Tohru mutter under her breath, "Yuki, beautiful," as she pointed to the sunset.
He looked towards the sky where she'd been pointing after noticing that Kyo and Robbie had been entranced by the same scene. Yuki was awestruck by the colors embraced by the sky. It was a moment before he could pull his eyes from the sunset, only to gaze upon the more beautiful love of his life. Tohru was still engrossed with the arrays of color before them so Yuki took the opportunity to lean over and whisper to her. "I've only seen on thing more lovely than the sunset."
She slowly turned to look at Yuki, leaning back a little away from him since he'd not moved away from his whisper distance, a questioning look in her eyes. She replied in the same hushed tone to his comment, "W... what could be more lovely than that sunset?"
Yuki shook his head slowly before leaning forward again so that his cheek was mere millimeters from her own, his lips the same distance in centimeters from her ear before speaking. "It's a secret," was his only reply. He turn his head back slightly and placed a soft peck of a kiss on her cheek before leaning back fully so he could look into her eyes, the remainder of the sunset reflecting in his own.
For that moment in time, she and Yuki were the only two there. Everyone in the vicinity seemed to have disappeared. Time seemed to stand still and she felt frozen in it. Without noticing it, she had started to tremble. This wasn't the first kiss he'd given her, but for some reason she was more nervous than any time before, yet she could move away. His lips felt like flower petals, soft, on her skin, and her heart was beating so quickly she thought for sure it would burst out of her chest any moment now.
"Y... Yuki..." she was about to say something else, but a loud burst from the sky interrupted her, causing her to jump, leaving her heart beating faster and harder than before, if that was even possible.
Yuki smiled in response to her questioning and frightened eyes. He put his index finger to his lips to hush her then placed the same hand on hers before looking up to the dark evening sky.
She looked at him for a moment more, letting her racing heart slow a bit, before following his gaze up to the new display that was intermittingly lighting the night. The warm hand covering her own made pushing the thoughts swirling around in her mind more difficult than it should have been, but she wanted to focus on and enjoy the fireworks. However, she didn't pull her hand away; the soft warmth was far to comforting to let it disappear so easily. Tohru closed her eyes and sighed softly before refocusing on the celebratory explosions.
Before the first firework was set off, Kyo had been listening to Robbie ramble about how happy he was that he was getting to spend the night and was trying to get Kyo to promise a morning training session. The whole time though, he'd been watching Yuki and Tohru out of the corner of his eyes. He watched every movement that Yuki made towards her and even more closely watched her reactions. If she'd shown any sign, what so ever, of discomfort, he would have throttled Yuki immediately, regardless of their surroundings. The two of them had seemed oblivious to their surroundings though, and despite Tohru's obvious nervousness, she didn't seem to be upset about anything he was doing. With the first firework set off, he watched Tohru as she almost jumped out of her skin. Kyo almost burst out in laughter at this but carefully restrained himself. Soon enough, though, she visibly relaxed, giving him enough peace of mind to watch the fireworks himself.
The four of them sat enthralled throughout the entire display of all the colors of the rainbow as they lit the nighttime sky. The celebrations were over all too soon though, as after just fifteen minutes, the grand finale lit up the entire sky with several of each of the roman candles that had already been shot. Gasps could be heard from several of the groups close by, but that was not surprising as the awe-inspiring display was produced before them.
"Tooohruuu," Robbie said almost whiningly. "Did you see that?! That was awesome! Why does it always have to be over so soon though?"
Tohru giggled at his whining voice. "Oh, Robbie. It was wonderful, wasn't it? I wish it could last longer too, but unfortunately, they don't have enough fireworks for it to last longer if we want to see a finale like that."
Robbie rolled his eyes at her last comment then stopped when he noticed that she and Yuki were holding hands. He giggled a little before saying anything. "Hey Tooohruuu... Are you and Yuki boyfriend and giiiirlfriend?"
Yuki smiled at the comment, but Tohru blushed furiously and quickly pulled her hand out of Yuki's when she realized why Robbie had asked her that. "Ummm... uhhh... I... Ummm..." was all that she could respond with.
Immediately seeing her discomfort with the question, Kyo bopped Robbie on the head. "That, young man, is none of your business," he said with a scolding look that was not meant to be demean to the boy but to let him know that it was not nice to be so nosey. Robbie pouted a little bit but promptly kept his mouth shut.
Tohru gave Kyo a quick smile of thanks before looking at her watch. "Oh, we better get going you three. It's almost 9:45 and the last outbound bus stops by here at ten o'clock." She quickly sealed up the rest of the strawberries and cream then packed them back into the basket. As soon as that was done, she shooed everyone off the blanket and began folding it up.
Yuki quickly grabbed the other side of the blanket to help her, which caused her to blush lightly; thankfully though, it was dark so no one could see her flushed cheeks. When Tohru moved up to him with her side of the blanket, he quickly pecked her on the nose, causing a deeper blush to rise that still couldn't be seen in the dark, however, Yuki knew it had affected her since she seemed to pause for a moment after he'd pulled away taking the blanket from her hands to finish folding.
"Ummm, Robbie," Tohru paused until she was sure she had the boys attention, "would you like to carry the basket home since you didn't get to carry anything on the way out here?"
"No way!" he exclaimed. "I wanna hold your hand again." He giggled after speaking those words then bravely took her hand opposite the basket.
Kyo muttered something under his breath than took the basket from her hand before heading off in the direction of the bus stop. Tohru giggled, then looked back at Yuki who'd been watching the scene. She smiled at him before reaching out her hand in his direction.
Robbie had already started pulling her in the direction that Kyo had taken off in, so Yuki had to jog/walk to catch up to them. Once he had though, he quickly grasped her still outstretched hand then silently walked next to her towards the bus stop.
The walk home from the bus stop was in silence, just as the ride had been. As they approached the house, Kyo and Robbie went in ahead of the two others. Tohru started to follow them, but Yuki, whose hand she still held, stopped just short of the front doorstep. She paused before turning around to see why Yuki had stopped but all she saw was a sweetly smiling Yuki.
Kyo turned around when he didn't hear Tohru or Yuki follow them in. What he saw was the two of them silently watching each other. After grumbling quietly under his breath, he just as quietly shut the front door to give them some privacy. He made a mental note to pull Tohru up to the roof so he could talk to her about the brewing relationship between herself and Yuki.
The porch light illuminated the two as they stood quietly looking into each other's eyes. A deep blush rose to Tohru's cheeks though to Yuki it only seemed a faint one since the light was behind her. "Yuki..."
"Shh." He took hold of her other hand with his free one since he was no longer carrying the picnic blanket. He emboldened himself so that he could say what he wanted to without getting flustered himself.
"Yuki... I" He quickly cut her off however with another hushing sound.
"Tohru... I have something I want to tell you."
"But, Yuki..." He shook his head slowly, silently asking her to quit talking so he could finish. She complied, though unwillingly.
"Tohru, I... I love you." His smile was so soft and sweet as he spoke that she felt as though she would burst into tears when he said those words. She looked down at her feet, letting only a single tear slip down her face.
Letting her hands go, he took a step closer and cupped her face with his warm hands. She looked back up just before he leaned forward to kiss away the lost tear. Yuki leaned back again to look into her eyes. They almost seemed to be filled with sorrow, but he brushed that thought away, not wanting to think of this as a sad moment. "Tohru, I love you more than anything in this world or the next. I have loved your for a very long time; I only wish I could have told you in person much sooner than this."
Tohru looked like she would start crying at any moment. "Yuki... I... I..."
She waited to see if he would interrupt her again before continuing, but he didn't. "Yuki... I love you too, bu..." She was interrupted again but this time with a kiss.
After he heard those words spoken from her lips, he couldn't hold it back any more. Still holding her face in his hands, Yuki leaned forward to plant a lingering kiss on her soft lips, hushing her from saying anything further.
Tohru gasped softly at the feel of his lips on hers. They were so soft and warm, and the kiss had been so sudden, she didn't know what to do. Her heart told her she should shut up, close her eyes, and enjoy the moment; she listened to what her heart told her, allowing herself to fall into his tenderness. This moment however, was not meant to last, as a great sadness overcame the feelings of love in her heart; tears began rolling down her cheeks, and she could not stop them.
Feeling the tears fall coat his fingers, Yuki pulled back to look into her eyes again, and the sorrow they spoke of wrenched at his heart. He wanted nothing more than to pull her close and embrace her until the tears stopped flowing; instead, he softly kissed away the tears as they fell.
Not wanting to feel his comforting kisses any longer, she pulled back a little then pressed her forehead against his shoulder, knowing better than to hug him like she wanted. She wanted to stay in his arms like this forever, but she knew it was not meant to be. After a few moments, the tears dried up, and she pulled back away from him. "I'll be ok Yuki. I think I'm just tired after such a busy day. We should both get some sleep."
She pulled away from him, wiping the last of the tears off her cheeks, then turned and walked into the house. Yuki stood there for a moment, processing the emotions he had read in her eyes. He knew there was something she wasn't telling him; he could tell that much from the sorrow he read in her eyes, but he didn't want to think it was something so bad as she was making it out to be. Yuki knew she tended to be a bit overemotional. He stuck the nagging thought in the back of his mind and walked into the house after her, locking the door behind him.
Down the hallway, he saw the kitchen light on, and knew it was Tohru, probably putting the leftovers away. The rest of the lights in the house were off, and he decided that Tohru was probably right about the two of them being tired after the busy day. He wandered off to his room and, after changing and climbing into bed, quickly fell into a deep full of dreams of the night he would actually propose to her.
