Disclaimer:I do not own Fruitsbasket, that is owned by Natsuki Takaya. I only write musings that come as a result of liking these characters. I then hand them out like Hari Krishna hands out flowers…expecting to get paid nothing in return, but hoping for a review.

Chapter 8: Sticks and Stones

The next morning Tohru woke up early, really nervous about whether she could pull off the acting that would be required of her in order to fool the wiser members of the Sohma clan. Slapping her hands together and deciding she was just going to have to do what needed to be done, Tohru slowly opened the shoji. Shigure happened to be standing on the other side and they came face to face.

"Eeep!" Tohru threw a hand up on her upper chest in surprise. Gure smiled.

"Good morning, did you get any sleep?" He leaned in and took a good look. "Not much huh?" He held out an arm. "Come on, let's go find some breakfast."

Although she had no idea what he was up to, Tohru put a hand on his elbow and allowed him to escort her down to breakfast. When they got to the bottom of the stairs, she noticed the two boys were already at the table. She jerked and tried to get away, not sure she could look either of them in the face; but Shigure tightened his elbow, trapping her hand so she couldn't escape. She glared at him, but he just laughed huskily and led her into the room.

"Well good morning my little princes. I hope you slept well, wherever you were." He looked at them, both looked well rested. He sat Tohru down at the other end of the table and gave her a look that said she wasn't allowed to get up until everything was out in the open. Both boys seemed surly and disgruntled, and Shigure was not looking forward to acting as the adult. "What the hell did you say to our little princess yesterday?"

Kyo spoke up first. "None of your damned business." As Shigure raised an eyebrow and pulled on his cigarette, Kyo sighed. "Okay fine. We're tired of her following us around everywhere." He pointed at finger at Tohru. "She pretends to be all selfless all the time, but she's actually hiding a stalker complex. She follows us all the time, needing attention, requiring us to drop what we're doing to take her places and get her out of predicaments."

Tohru looked on with big eyes. Is Kyo telling the truth, or was last night the truth? How do I know? She looked at Yuki, but he was looking at his plate, taking violent bites of his rice. No help from him. I guess I'll ask them later, if they'll let me.

After a few minutes of Kyo ranting about how selfish Tohru actually was, Shigure cut him off and stood in disgust. "I swear the two of you wouldn't see a pot of gold if I dunked your heads in it." He looked at Tohru. "She's the best thing that's ever happened to the Sohmas. If you're too stupid to understand that, maybe I need to do something to prove it to you." Grabbing Tohru's hand, he pulled her up. "Pack your stuff, you're leaving."

"What?" Tohru was so confused. Yuki swallowed his rice half-chewed and held his breath praying he wouldn't start coughing and give away his game. Kyo turned three shades of red, but didn't make a peep.

"You're not saying here with these idiots one second longer." He put a hand on her cheek. "I'll not have what makes you so wonderful destroyed by boys who need to remember who they are and what they USED to be like before you entered their lives." He all but dragged her upstairs and started pulling stuff out of her drawers and piling it on her bed. "Either you help me pack, or I'm going to get a nosebleed looking at all of your intimate apparel."

That spurred Tohru, and she quickly shoved him away from the drawers and neatly removed the clothing, setting it in empty boxes as Shigure provided them. When she heard a shoji downstairs sliding across the floor, she looked at her watch and freaked out. "I'm going to be late for school Shigure-san!"

"You're not going to school today."

"But I promised my mother I'd graduate, and if I don't go to school, how will I graduate?"

"I'm going to talk with your teachers today. You suddenly had to go on a trip to take care of a sick relative, and you need your work for the next couple of weeks so that you won't get behind."

"Who's sick?"

"No one….well, the bakas that live here are, in the head…but they don't count." She looked confused. "I'm going to lie to your teachers. You are going on a trip for a couple of weeks, and I want to keep you from missing out on any class-work."

"Where am I going?" Tohru was so confused. Why did everything have to change overnight?

"Hatori is coming to get you."

Oh no, I don't want to stay at the main house with Akito. He hates me, and has already made Kagura go to school with us because of me. "I'm staying at the main house?"

Shigure laughed. "Oh no. You're going to be staying with another Sohma household while I work on straightening out the kinks in this one. Once the boys are back to normal, you'll be back."

"So I'm not being 'erased'?" Shigure looked at her worriedly. "Not part of my plan. You never know what could happen, but Hatori has no instructions to make that happen at this point."

She leaned in real close. "Have I done something that would make the Sohmas want me to disappear?"

Shigure smiled genuinely. "Of course not."

"Ok. So, when do I leave?" Shigure's smile widened and she turned to see what he was looking at. Hatori was standing just behind her.

"Now. Are you ready?"

How much did he hear? "Yes. Let me get my things."

Shigure waved her on. "I've got it. Go on, get in the car."

Five minutes later, Tohru was headed away from town, and Shigure was trying to figure out what caused the boys to suddenly change their tunes.

sssss

By the time the boys got to school, they were frantic to find out what was going on. The first person they saw was Haru, and it was all they could do not to tag team him and beat the hell out of the ushi. Haru watched them out of the corner of his eye. He'd overheard Hatori talking with Shigure this morning, and was pretty much up to speed with what was happening.

"Good morning." Kyo grunted at him, but Yuki stopped and smiled before asking about Kagura. "Oh, she's around here somewhere. I gave her a good-morning kiss for the boys, then sent her on to class so she'd not be here when you arrived."

Yuki raised an eyebrow, the ushi was smarter than he pretended to be.

"It'll never work you know."

"What?"

"What you are trying to do. Your feelings are too deep for her. You'll never be able to kill them, and you'll never be allowed to be with her." Haru tilted his hips forward and put his hands in his pockets, looking at his first love with understanding sorrow.

Yuki started to walk away, but Haru snagged his sleeve. "What now?"

"I'm thinking on it. Don't give up yet, there's always a way when someone wants something bad enough."

A/N: Thank you for the wonderful reviews! Have a great week.