A night alone in bed hadn't helped her thoughts at all, she realized as she stretched and yawned in the sheets the next morning. If anything, her rationalizations had become more muddled and run together. The more she tried to think about things, the more the thinking got in the way of the knowing. There were some things in life that were best left alone until they presented themselves in a semi-tangible way, such as her connections with the two boys she lived with. Some things you could think through and come up with an answer. This wasn't one of them.
She heard whispered, frantic conversation downstairs, and wondered dimly who it was. Knowing Kyo, he'd be long up by now, but if she knew anything about Shigure and Yuki she knew that they would refuse to be awake at this godforsaken hour at eight in the morning on a Saturday except in cases of disaster. Perhaps it was one of Kyo's friends from school, come over to work on a project? She doubted it, however. Kyo preferred to work alone.
She swung her legs out of bed, shivering as the rush of cold air invaded the privacy of her warm blankets, and stood, striding over the bureau to dress. She pulled her hair back into a long ponytail and crept silently down the stairs for fear of awakening the Rat, although she knew she needn't have worried. When Yuki-kun was awake at an hour he considered fit to be up he was wide awake, but when he was dead asleep, he was, well… dead asleep. Foghorns couldn't wake him.
She reached the bottom of the staircase and stumbled a bit tiredly into the living room. She paused. The whispering stopped as her eyes adjusted to the light, and she made out Kyo, no surprise, and Yuki, a shock. Hatori was also in the room, sitting serenely and silently in an armchair with the grace and luxury of a dragon. Today, however, his face looked strained, pale and stressed, though his lounging body did not show it. Their faces were stony. A thin cigarette dangled from Hatori's hand, and she gave it a puzzled glance. Did Hatori smoke? She'd never seen him at it. After all, he was a doctor. Perhaps it was an anxiety thing?
Shigure was gone, perhaps still in his room. She cast another glance around the room, noting the tense stiffness with which Kyo and Yuki sat.
"Er…" she began, a bit frightened with this new approach to a morning welcome. "What's going on? Did I do something wrong?" She nearly squealed. "Oh dear! Was it the plate? I'm so desperately sorry! I'll pay for it with my job money! Oh, please, I had no idea it would cause so much trouble—"
"It's not the plate," Hatori said shortly, although he couldn't help but be mildly amused by her apologetic rambling, "whatever that's about. You did nothing wrong." He cast a worried glance over to the boys. "I think," he added in an unsure tone that was so unlike him.
"Oh… then what is it?" she inquired politely, clumsily transitioning from desperate confession to polite hostess. "Would you like some breakfast? I could make eggs and bacon, or we've always got cereal—"
"No, nothing like that," he cut in for the second time that morning. "No, you see… This is difficult to say."
Kyo nodded sharply, and Tohru glanced at him worriedly. "What?" she asked, lips trembling. "What is it? What's wrong?"
Hatori's one visible eye narrowed in barely perceptible solemn concentration. "Tohru…" He hesitated. "Akito wants your memories of us erased. All of them."
She paused, trying to comprehend. "E-erased? You mean, all gone? Everything?"
"Yes, gone. Not everything, just your encounters with the Sohma family."
"But, but I've been living here for months! What will I do with months of holes in my memory?"
Hatori sighed. "Your brain is a powerful thing. If you can't recall something that you know you should, it will reconstruct an entirely new set of memories for you, a bit fuzzy, but there. Trust me," he said heavily, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "I've done it before."
Gone? Completely? Everything? But that means I won't remember Kagura or Hiro or Kisa or Shigure or… Yuki and Kyo…"But why? I sit something I've done? Is it me! I apologize sincerely! I deserve to be punished if I have done a terrible thing! I will take the blame completely!"
"It's not you," said Hatori, a bit more forcefully. "Akito merely wants you to go on with your own life without our burden, for your own benefit—"
Now it was Kyo who interrupted, rising out of his seat in petrifying rage, red faced and bursting with internal flame.
"For her own benefit? For her own benefit? If it weren't for us Tohru would've been living with a grandfather that didn't care about her at all! If it weren't for us she'd have been in that tent for months! She'll forget all about us, she'll be left on the street or in that goddamn house with nowhere to go and you say its for her own benefit? That's just bull! Now that's just bull."
Hatori waited a moment, tight faced, while a dangerous silence rang through the corners of the room. "Akito's orders are not to be questioned," he said coldly with almost a Yuki-like calmness. "His word is law. His orders are to be followed without question."
Kyo-kun paled a bit and sank back into the chair, his hands shaking from the passion of his outburst.
"However," Hatori continued in the same icy, impassive voice, "the blind may lead the blind but when the blind lead the seers the seers become blind. Shigure and I have decided that, for Kyo's reason's and more, Tohru should be allowed to remain, memories still intact, within the Sohma household."
A spark of hope ignited inside Tohru, and she let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding into a relieved sigh. Hatori was on her side.
"Shigure's on his way right now, to see Akito and possibly persuade him to let him leave Tohru's memories alone. Swear not to tell Akito this, but," he now let a bit of emotion slip into his voice, "I hope he succeeds."
The spark became a flame. Tohru allowed a grin to alight on her lips.
"Although," he warned, "it might take a day or two, possibly more. There is no way of knowing. Akito has been rather ill lately, and that makes him… well, irritable. Shigure must wait until the right moment, for the sake of Tohru and himself."
The color returned to her face in a flush of hope and she threw herself forward, surprising Hatori with a tight hug. "Oh, thank you, Tori-san, thank you, thank you, thank you!"
Hatori instantly stiffened at the sudden display of emotion, then relaxed a bit, and allowed a sedentary smile to creep on to his face. This was, after all, exactly why he seemed to like Tohru. She was similar to Kana, in a way. All his life, Hatori had been tending to the needs of the Sohmas, healing the Sohmas. The Sohmas were all drawn inwards, afraid to show emotion, with perhaps the exception of Kyo whose only two emotions seemed to be anger and hate anyway. Tohru wore her heart on her sleeve and was proud of it, expressing what she thought without caring who knew what she was thinking. She threw her feelings around carelessly, with too much of it to all be hidden inside her. "In the meantime, though," he had to say, "you're not to leave this house."
She took a step backwards, astonished. "Not to leave the house? Oh, dear… But, how will I do the shopping? How will I water the plants? How will I cook?"
The Sohma doctor chuckled softly, amazed at how the girl could be worried so intensely about such trivial things when her future was in such grave danger. "You don't have to do all that. Just send Kyo-kun to do the shopping, and I'm sure he can manage watering the plants, too. As for dinner, I'll treat you all to take-out when I come back."
Tohru nodded, determination emanating from her every pore. "Yes, sir!" she shouted, sitting down hard on the nearest piece of furniture (which happened to be the coffee table). "I won't move from this spot, sir!"
Tori laughed quietly again. "It's all right if you take a small walk in the garden or something of that sort," he reassured her. "Just don't go too far. Akito's orders."
She nodded.
He stood, putting on his dark brown coat emblazoned with the emblem of some hospital or another. "As for me, my orders are to guard you, but I find you are trustworthy enough for me to leave you alone. Good day." And with that, he was gone out the back door, striding swiftly away, silently as he had never arrived.
Yuki, who hadn't said anything while the Dragon's presence was occupying the room and was now quite pale with the stressful events of the morning, said quietly, "Well now. What do we do?" Things like having your true love's memories of you entirely erased looked better when left until the early morning hours of noon or so. According to Yuki, seven o'clock was still last night.
"I… need to make lunch…" Tohru offered meekly.
"Right then. Kyo, get the shopping list and go." Yuki stretched out on the couch.
"Wait…" Kyo's mind raced through the last few lines of conversation. 'Send Kyo-kun to do the shopping. Not 'send Kyo-kun and Yuki to do the shopping.' Just 'send Kyo-kun.' "Hey, why don't you have to do it, baka?"
"Just go," said Yuki irritably, in a tone laden with layers of 'you're not important enough to argue with me.' Grumbling but giving in, Kyo stood and strode angrily over to the door, tearing the list pad off of the wall and striding out of the house, mumbling something about what kuso bakas deserved.
Tohru managed a grin at Yuki, whom she noticed was staring at the ceiling rather blankly, face pale. Something tugged at her memory, but she decided to shrug it off for now, having other matters close at hand. She stared at him as she thought, his hair rather messy from having just woken up, his clothes mismatched for having been thrown on hurriedly at random. If she stayed, then her memory would be erased, and she'd never remember Kyo and Yuki. If she ran away, Shigure and Hatori might get hurt for not guarding her when they were supposed to. I'll stay here, she decided firmly. It's what Tori-san told me to do, so I'll do it. She continued sitting there, watching Yuki as he gradually drifted off to sleep, her eyelids dropping slightly as she too grew heavy with sleep. In fact, when Kyo finally got home from doing the shopping, laden a great deal with paper bags (cats could suffocate in plastic,) Tohru was sound asleep, stretched out on the coffee table. Yuki was, too. Grinning in spite of himself, Kyo moved into the kitchen and began to make lunch.