Chapter Two: Tears of the Rain

It continuously rained all day to the point where the roads became shallow rivers with a strong current. Most people avoided driving today, for fear of hydroplaning off the road. Whereas Kyou spent most of the day slumped over his desk, exhausted. Meanwhile, Tohru tried to help him in any way she could but he stubbornly refused and therefore was given a hard time by her two friends, Uotani and Hanajima.

"Hey Kyon Kyon, Tohru's trying to help you. You could at least thank her, you lousy bum!" Uo ranted at poor Kyou.

"I sense your feelings have changed." Hana said to me quietly after she had snuck over to me.

"W-what?" I stammered awkwardly because I always felt uncomfortable with the way she would appear out of nowhere.

"The electric waves tell me, you hold Kyou very dear to you now." Saki paused and her voice lowered even more. "But in a choice between saving your true love or a dear friend you must choose who you cherish most. I won't hold your choice against you…" Saki then drifted back over to Tohru and Kyou before I could ask her what she meant, leaving me alone by the window puzzled.

I was completely dumbfounded by everything Saki said. What could she have meant? What was that about my true love? It couldn't be Kyou… could it?

I doubt it…

After school, the three of us walked home slowly in the rain with our different colored umbrellas.

"So what should we eat for dinner tonight?" Tohru asked us with a kind smile on her face.

I couldn't help but smile in return, "I don't mind what we have. You and Kyou can decide."

"What would you like, Kyou?" Tohru continued asking.

"Salmon or cod…" He replied flatly. "No… damn… leeks…"

This remark made me chuckle inwardly. Although I really loved eating stewed leeks (especially the ones Honda-san made), Kyou hated leeks with a passion. Hm, I wonder why he hates leeks because they taste just fine to me.

In the distance I heard what sounded like a car skidding on the water around a bend in the road ahead and I immediately tensed up while the other two kept walking. The sound got louder as a car hydroplaned around the bend and raced towards us on the wrong side of the road. "Get out of the way!" I cried and grabbed Kyou around the waist before jumping over the guardrail and together we rolled on the sopping wet ground into a ditch. Above us, I could hear the car trying to screech to a halt before it crashed into something very large and quite solid. Kyou jumped up and scrambled out of the slippery ditch, disappearing from my view.

"Tohru!" Kyou exclaimed in panic.

I clambered up the muddy ditch and grabbed onto the guardrail for support at what I saw. The car had crashed straight into a lamppost and Tohru…

Tohru was laying dead under the wheel of the car… her blood mixing in with the rainwater on the road and was swiftly swept away with the current of the shallow rivers in the road.

"TOHRU!" Kyou cried out in agony.

He collapsed onto his knees and I picked myself up, walking slowly over to Kyou, still in shock. A shop owner not to far down the street ran outside to see what the commotion was about and without realizing what I was doing I yelled to them, "Get help, quick!" and kneeled down by Kyou, hugging him close to me. To my surprise Kyou didn't fight against me and just shouted Tohru's name while letting his tears run free down his cheeks. It was almost as if I was not even there…

Fifteen minutes went by and by then a crowd had gathered around the car wreckage and Tohru's corpse. People chattered away about what happened while Kyou was staring at Tohru with a dazed look in his eyes. Out of everyone she knew, Tohru's death will probably hit Kyou the hardest…

A car pulled up and Shigure and Hatori stepped out of the car, looking very shocked and stressed. Hatori went to aid the doctors who were handling Tohru's body while Shigure spotted us and hurried over.

"Are you two all right!" He demanded in a tone much different from his usual mellow cheerfulness.

"I think I'll be okay but Kyou…" I glanced at him briefly, my arms still on his shoulders, before turning back to Shigure. "I don't think this is easy for him…"

Nodding, Shigure helped me lift Kyou to his feet. "I'll get Kazuma to come and visit tomorrow. That might help. But for now, we should probably head home, Hatori will handle everything here but-"

"No! I'm not leaving her!" Kyou shouted, suddenly fighting against our hold on him. "She's not dead! Can't you see! She'll be fine!"

I tightened my grip on Kyou's arm, refusing to let him go. "She's dead, Kyou! There's nothing we can do!"

"No she's not! She just needs help and she'll get better!" Kyou denied in a voice filled with unbearable pain and despair.

"Stop it, Kyou!" Shigure ordered.

"Get your hands off me you bastard!" Kyou brought his fist up and hit me in the jaw.

Staggering back from the surprisingly powerful hit, I held my jaw in pain and was forced to release Kyou. My cousin shoved all the doctors, including Hatori, out of his way until he was by Tohru's side.

"Wake up, damn it! You're not dead and you're not fooling anyone!" Kyou collapsed to his knees again. People in the crowd gasped and whispered to each other in hushed tones, looking at Kyou with pity. Kyou held Tohru in his arms and stroked her hair, muttering quietly through his tears, "Wake up and let me see that goofy smile of yours one more time…"

Seeing Kyou in so much emotional pain was too much for me to bear and the tears started trickling out of my own eyes. Shigure stared at the ground sadly, knowing good and well that Tohru was long gone and would never come back no matter how much we wished it. The crowd around us were covering their eyes and wiping away their own tears but none of them could ever understand how dear Tohru was to the Sohmas. After a while, Kyou quieted down and Shigure, along with me, approached him once more and led him back into the car. During the drive home, Kyou didn't so much as speak to either of us and I wished there was some way I could give him comfort.

"Why didn't you save her?" Kyou muttered to me in the backseat of the car while Shigure drove.

"Excuse me?" I asked, not knowing what Kyou meant.

"You could have saved her but you didn't. You saved me… why the hell did you save me and not her!" Kyou gritted his teeth and his red eyes glared at me with the most hateful and loathing look.

"I-I…" I stuttered and Shigure looked into the rear view mirror to watch us. "I don't know…"

"Didn't you love her! I thought you hated me! Why couldn't you have saved her instead of me, damn it!" Kyou growled and grabbed the collar of my shirt.

"You were closest!" I lied. There's no way I could've possibly explained how I felt about Kyou then and there. "And even if I had saved Tohru instead of you, she would be as torn up about it as you are!" I retorted, angrily.

This shut up Kyou once more, but I felt even guiltier for saying what I had. I would probably be doing the same thing if I lost the one I cared about most in the entire world. After all… Tohru was the first to accept all of us Sohmas… and the first to accept Kyou for his true cat form…

"Tohru wouldn't want us to be this sad over her death, you know…" Shigure spoke up, from the front seat.

"Shigure's right." I nodded.

"I don't give a damn if she would want us to be happy or not, it'll never bring her back…" Kyou choked back more tears as he finally acknowledged her death and all that happened.

There was nothing either of us could say now… nothing would help Kyou's situation.

"We're here…" Shigure announced solemnly.

I stepped out of the car and the three of us entered the house, not speaking or making eye contact with one another. Shigure went and shut himself up in his office while I think Kyou went upstairs to his room.

Sighing, I looked around at the house that now felt so empty without Tohru's optimistic presence. Giving the tearoom one final longing look, I walked upstairs and passed Tohru's room. Cracking the door open slightly I was surprised to find it occupied. On the floor, there sat Kyou in the middle of the bedroom…

Quietly, I shut the door and went into my own bedroom. I can only hope this doesn't tear Kyou apart…

Falling onto my bed, I silently cried myself to sleep. I must seem like such a fool, crying myself to sleep over the unhappiness of others but… I couldn't help it…

TO BE CONTINUED

Yuki loves Kyou! Kyou loves Tohru! Tohru gets hit by an ice cream truck! Sorry, inside joke (sweat drops)…