Chapter 2
Yuki Sohma swept his palm across the ground as he looked for stray weeds, dead plants, or the signs of malicious bugs. The soil mingled, to his opinion, most wonderfully with the damp morning air. And his raddishes would be ready to harvest, soon.
"You look like you're coming along nicely," he murmured to a row of raddish heads. "Honda-san will be very pleased."
As Yuki stopped and twisted his hand in the soil, he found the beginnings of a plant that was definitely not a raddish. A weed? He frowned lightly and curled his fingers to capture the root. With a small grunt, he forced the plant out of the ground. A few pieces of dirt tumbled onto his slacks as Yuki stared.
It was not the typical weed that he'd been expecting. In fact, he was sad to have had to pull this one.
"Well," he asked it softly, "How did you get here?"
The uprooted weed remained silent. Yet the boy shifted his weight backwards, and settled himself more entirely on the ground to better consider the offending herb. He looked at the plant wistfully, and behind half-hooded eyes.
"It's good that Tohru didn't find you. She'd probably ask me what you were. I can't lie to Honda-san..." At this he looked torn between a smile and a frown. "...And if I told her your name, I doubt she would understand what you were doing here. Maybe she would think that I am trying to blackmail that stupid cat.
"Though she would not say that, not in so many words. She's rather trusting and I would feel ashamed to tell her what you're doing here."
The prince stood up and surveyed the garden plot restlessly, until his eyes at last landed on an inconspicuous clump of apparently planted herbs. Their light green shoots blended into the foliage, perfectly natural and uninentionally placed. At least, that's how they would appear before they bloomed. Yuki looked at the pulled plant and its' oddly placed counterparts with quiet amusement.
"So you got mixed in with the raddishes by accident. I'm sorry you had to be pulled." At this, the prince paused. "I suppose, then... I'll try to put you to good use," he said, his eyes tender as he stuffed the weed into his pocket. "If nothing else, I could use you to drive that cat crazy..."
Yuki bent down to the soil once more, and brushed his gloved hand over the raddish heads, as if tousling the hair of a young child. A lone cicada let out a shrill call from the dense forest above.
He would weed his garden for another hour before going home for lunch.
- - - -
Yuki stood in the kitchen doorframe, leaning his left shoulder against the wooden edge. His sleeve fell back a few inches, exposing his pale skin, still a bit soiled from the uncovered wrists of his garden gloves. Tohru Honda, the established woman of the house, pleasantly scurried from the oven to the counters with skilled ease. The love that she put into this unfinished meal already made Yuki lightheaded. He inhaled the scent of fresh-boiled nigiri and exhaled with deep contentment.
Tohru suddenly turned around. "S-Sohma-kun!" She exclaimed, pleasantly. Immediately her eyes widened and she had the - adorable - audacity to feel that she had, somehow, not done enough: "About the secret base, I'm so sorry, this morning I wanted to go with you but Kyou-kun was so sick and Shigure-san was running from his editor and I had to make all the food and clean up the, ah, mess, and was so exhausted I went upstairs and accidentally fell asleep on my bed last night!"
Yuki turned away, clearly embarassed for soliciting such an apologetic reaction.
"It's okay, Honda-san-"
"Hai, hai," the girl put in, "I still feel so bad about forgetting to set my alarm. Silly me!"
The prince bowed his head and ignored the inaudible rambling, just hope to hear something other than the silence that had prevailed over the house for several days.
When at last Yuki looked up, he found that a nervous blush still remained plastered on her face. "- But tell me, how are the raddishes doing?"
"They should be ready soon. Perhaps, even, they could be harvested tomorrow. But I do not know about the cabbages..." A small whistle went off. "Honda-san, perhaps you should get that?"
"Oh! Right!" she suddenly exclaimed, refocusing her attention to a pot of boiling snow peas. Froth leaked over the edge of the pot and she jumped back in confusion. "Oh no! I nearly forgot about the snow peas! Excuse me! I hope you don't mind, Sohma-kun!"
Yuki's tone was flat. "It's fine. Don't worry about it."
"Hai!" said Tohru automatically. Yuki watched her back for a moment, and narrow his eyes. Had she chosen to believe his masked, empty words? Or had she come to distrust him when he spoke in that disinterested tone? Did she notice his words at all? It hurt him that no matter what he might say, Honda-san would not say anything. She would not refute him or pry, and instead would trust him to his own devices - all for the sake of being polite. It was for this reason that Honda-san was a very good friend. Yuki watched her bustling form, and knew that she trusted him to talk to her if he needed to. But he needed someone who would come to him, first -- and in that way, Honda-san did not care for him enough.
Wait, Honda-san does not care? No, that's untrue. Yuki frowned at his own treacherous thoughts. Honda-san was wonderful, and he enjoyed her polite and positive attitude. Yuki knew that he was the one whose attitude was cold and detached. But Yuki felt something missing in his heart and in his home, and Tohru was the easiest scapegoat to soothe his imagined tension. He couldn't deny his abrupt displeasure that something felt to be out of place. He just didn't know what that something was.
Yuki turned around from the kitchen.
"I'm going to watch TV," he announced. After all, he had nothing better to do, and the television could always fill the silence.
- - - -
Shigure came home just in time for lunch. It surprised Yuki for a number of reasons, the least being that Shigure came home in the form of a dog. It was also unexpected since both he and Tohru had thought that Shigure had been in his office - though it was strange to think of Shigure spending substantial time writing, after all - but Yuki had assumed that the pervert's editor, Mii-chan, had finally talked the novelist into a change of heart.
Yuki realized that this was giving his cousin far too much credit. But instead of voicing his apparent distrust of the dog, he sipped his freshly ground green tea and savored the taste of leaves.
The meal was missing its' usual luster. Yuki found himself actually wanting to know why Shigure had been gone. Tohru didn't seem to remember his absence. And since nothing was going on, nothing, in the entire house - family - world, it was the only occurance worth mentioning. Shigure had certainly caused mayhem somewhere, and that was far more comfortable than the awkward peace that had settled around Sohma Shigure's house.
The prince turned his head towards Tohru Honda, who was usually curious, and waited for her to bring up Shigure's awkward situation. And he waited. He found himself staring for a terribly long time, until at last he gave up and Honda-san promptly remembered the incident.
"...Oh, I see! You went to Ayame's shop?" asked Tohru, clapping her hands together in excitement, "I wish I could go to Ayame's shop again. There were so many beautiful clothes. It was very interesting, and Ayame is so talented desu..."
Yuki's head shot up, and he couldn't help but narrowing his eyes at the mentioning of his brother's name. And even worse, of that horrible store; the store where his brother had practically violated Honda-san with a butter-colored dress. Shigure had barely popped a piece of chicken into his mouth before Yuki's eyes glittered with a threatening gleam.
"What were you doing there?" asked the prince, lowly.
Shigure blinked at Yuki as if he were an innocent victim of a wrongful accusation; or as if he had been arrested for inventing the cure for cancer. Yuki held the dog's guiltying stare and didn't even flinch.
"I was shopping while visiting Aya, of course..." replied Shigure, maneuvering around the question slylu.
"I asked what were you doing at that store! Not just who you were with!" Yuki then whipped around to face Tohru directly. "Honda-san, promise me this. If he gives anything to you, don't wear it, okay!"
"Aa, umm..." the girl stuttered nervously.
"Don't even look at it!"
Shigure tossed Yuki an over-exaggerated pout.
"Now Now, Yuki! Don't scare Tohru-kun!" he chided. "I didn't say that I got an outfit for Tohru, ne ne?"
Yuki looked at the dog with utter skepticism.
"No, really!" said Shigure, gleefully clapping his hands together, "It's a get-well gift is for KyonKyon!"
Gift? For... the stupid cat? It took a moment for Shigure's words to sink in: The cat. Ayame's Shop. The cat wearing something from Ayame's shop?
A disturbing image flitted behind the back of Yuki's eyes, but he refused to let himself think on it, pasting instead a heavy expression of shock onto his face. Tohru appeared to be equally horrified - no doubt reliving the butter dress incident.
"You're disgusting," Yuki decided, after the brief pause. He then stood up with his plate in hands. "I'm going back outside."
"Mou, you'll bring Kyon-Kyon some lunch, won't you?" sang Shigure.
"No."
"Umm, Sohma-kun!" Tohru called out, her voice heavy with worry. Yuki didn't say anything. The only reply that she could find was the rattle of the slide-screen as he slammed it shut behind him. Tohru's eyes glanced to the floorboards in worry: He'd left his gloves by the door.