Hey! Chapter 2 already… This is fun…

I hope you guys liked the first chapter, and I know I will probably get flamed for giving the capital city such a dopey spastic obvious name, but I have my reasons.

Anyway, I know the first chapter was weird, and I realise there are spelling mistakes and stuff, but I can't be bothered to fix them, so I'm afraid you shall have to deal with them.

And so, let the second chapter commence! (On with the fic!)

Oh yeah, brief tiup for reading any of my fanfiction: I always find there's a special type of music that's good for each fic. This one has a whole load of Studio Ghibli song inspiration- so see if you can download some Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away music. Mononoke Hime is best. I'm listening to it right now… I love Studio Ghibli…-heart heart-

First Rain

Chapter 2: Answers

Haru, Momiji and Tohru sat quietly in the living room, the fire blazing and the warmth spreading to the very last corners of the moss-green/mahogany walls.

Momiji shut the door and quietly sat down on the floor next to where Haru was sitting. He yawned. Haru smiled. Tohru wiped her sleepy eyes.

"So, what do you think of it all so far?" Haru said, sinking further into his chair.

"Everything in this city is so beautiful… And the palace is probably the prettiest thing of all."

"Oh no." Haru closed his eyes. "I think the forests are definitely prettier."

"I wonder what Yuki would think of them…" Momiji pondered tiredly to himself. Haru flicked him once again. "What?" Haru cleared his throat. Tohru blinked. Who was Yuki?

"Um… Prince Hatsuharu-"

"Please, you don't have to call us 'Prince'. Everyone else does. You're a friend." Said Haru.

"Oh… OK, um, Hatsuharu-san, I was wondering if you knew about anything, well, anyone really, who might be on the third floor."

Haru and Momiji both went wide-eyed. "Th-third floor?"

Tohru gulped. Oops. I guess I wasn't supposed to be there after all.

"You went on the third floor? Didn't they tell you it was forbidden to everyone except the senior staff?"

"No! I was told to clean the rooms on the third floor!"Tohru had started to panic again, and was as wide-eyed as the other two.

"You went in one of the rooms?" Momiji yelled, also panicking.

"I went in all of the rooms!" Tohru yelled back. By this time they were both standing up, and staring forlornly at eachother.

"Calm down, calm down." Said Haru, shaking his head and gesturing at them both to sit back down. They obediently did so. "So, you went into every room on that floor… Which happens to be our floor?"

"Y-yes? Is that bad-?"

"Hold on, hold on. Look. Did you even go in the fifth room along?"

"Yes! That was the room with the boy in it!"

Now both Princes were panicking. Even though Tohru was panicking enough for the three of them.

"You mean, Haru, do you think she saw-"

"Yes. Tohru? I think you might've stumbled upon the future King of Sohma."

Tohru: O.O

-AN: sorry, I couldn't resist. Pffthahahahah! Resume fic-

Tohru sat completely still. "Is, that bad?"

"Kinda… Well, you didn't do anything in there did you?"

"No." Then she thought again. "Well, yeah. I saved him from a fly."

Hatsuharu and Momiji both leapt up from the floor. "There was a fly in his room!" They said simultaneously.

Haru put a hand on his forehead. "Poor Yuki…"

"Y-yes…there was a fly… But don't worry, I put it out the window." Now both Princes turned white.

"You opened his window? In… In front of him?" Said Haru, his hands raised at Tohru as if in a plea.

Tohru sensed from the tone in his voice that this was deadly serious.

"Y-yes."

Haru put a hand on the chair to steady himself. "This is bad…"He sat down again, and Momiji followed him.

"Why? What have I done!" Tohru said, her panic turning to fear. She was going to get fired on the first day?

"Well, there is an age old custom in the Sohma royal family. Well, more of an order from some dead elder. He's probably frowning at me in his grave for saying that, but anyway… The custom is that until his coronation and marriage, the Prince who'll take the crown after his Father won't have any contact with the outside world. And if for some reason he sees the world beyond his room before that time, he'll either be put to death or will never be allowed to leave it. So, no windows, no paintings, nothing. Heh… I bet Yuki was scared of that fly, huh?"

"Y-yes…"

"Well, that's because he's never seen one before. Yuki, my cousin and brother, has never seen or heard or been told of anything other than human beings. I wonder… What did he do when you opened his window?"

"He-… he cried. And, he said something about a ceiling-…" Tohru gasped. "You mean- he's never even seen the sky?"

"No. He's never seen anything except that little room. He's not allowed to leave it until he's coroneted. And if our father lives a long and fruitful life, which we all should hope he does, Yuki might have to stay in there past his sixties."

"His sixties? Th-that's terrible…"She considered this for a moment. "But, how is he supposed to rulke a country on his own if he doesn't know what a tree is? He'll know nothing except for that room…"

"That's the point. It's so that his 'advisers' will have almost complete control over his every move, so he'll hardly be ruling at all. Just a body to uphold some stupid tradition. They don't know what it's like. We've protested all or lives, but they won't let up on anything as big as this. But now, he's sort of lucky, I guess. You found him, and accidentally screwed up our most important Royal custom."

Tohru clapped a hand to her mouth. "Oh God…"

"Oh, don't worry, they're stupid customs. We've already abandoned a couple, luckily."

Momiji leaned in and whispered to Tohru. "Haru was supposed to get castrated." Tohru went beet red, and Momiji got an angry flick on the head.

"Anyway, did you leave his window open?" Said Haru, composing himself.

"Yes…"

"Then we'll have to go and shut it before anyone finds out what Yuki's seen. We don't want him to get killed, or you to lose your job. Especially since you're so cute." Haru winked and started to leave the room, Momiji following. Tohru stood up. But she only just about managed to lift herself up. It was as if a great weight had fallen upon her.

How could someone live without seeing any of this beautiful world? How could you survive like that? No moon, no sun, no stars. No sky at all…

She felt tears welling up in her eyes as she imagined being trapped in a room for that long.

Haru turned and saw her wiping her pity tears away, and slowed down so that he could put an arm around her.

"It's OK. He's never seen what it's like, so he hasn't known what he's been missing. He has been happy before…" Haru drifted off. It had been a long time since he'd had a chance to speak to Yuki properly- about how he was and how he felt… almost a year, in fact. He hadn't even seen him for a couple of months. He wondered if Yuki looked at all different. He couldn't see how though. He'd still have the pale skin, from lack of sunlight, and the sad eyes, from sheer loneliness. Perhaps they'd known no other emotion other than sadness?

The three of them walked in silence up the stairs, and quietly approached Yuki's room.

As Momiji opened the door, Tohru looked at its size. Sure, it was a pretty big room, but this was the only sized space Yuki had ever known. She also noticed that the wallpaper was blank. All the other rooms had birds and tapestries with rivers and streams and horses decorating their walls. Were they really so afraid of just giving Yuki's room a little colour? It wasn't as if he'd know what anything was anyway.

Yuki was curled up asleep on his windowsill, his hand hanging out into the cool air of the winter night. The moon reflected the silvery trails that ran down his cheeks, and his lips were turned up into a little smile. The tall window looked like a frame around his silhouette, the silver light shining on his grey hair. Haru smiled. He had lied before. This was the first time he had seen Yuki actually looking sincerely happy.

Haru picked Yuki up, and carried him to his bed. Momiji shut the window and closed the covers. It seemed more of a shame than even the concept of the custom, blocking up the natural light that Yuki had never hungered for, because he'd never seen it. It was cruel. More cruel than Yuki's original sentence, to expect him to wake up and not yearn for the beauty he had now seen. Now, instead of having to live in complete ignorance, he would have to live in torture and longing. It wasn't like he would be able to keep himself from looking. He would open that window again, and he'd be eventually caught, and no Sohma could take the crown.

"Why him?" Said Tohru quietly. Haru and Momiji both looked up.

"What?" Said Haru. Tohru was looking at Yuki, as he lay sleeping. She had seen his face in the moonlight, and now in the lamplight. E was extremely handsome. His hair was as grey as his eyes. His skin was as white as the moon. His eyes as big as they had seemed before. "Why him? Who chose him to be the next king? Is it age?"

"No. There's one other Sohma Prince his age." Said Haru. a little taken aback with the forcefulness of her question.

"One? No, there are-"

"Shut up short stack."Haru hissed at Momiji. "You're so bad at keeping secrets. If you're not carefull I'll revive the custom that says you should have your tongue cut out."Momiji covered his mouth with both hands. "The selection was almost random. There were two princes born in the same year, so they choise the one who was born first. Yuki was only a heartbeat older than Kyo. He's my other cousin."

"It's so unfair."

"Yeah, I know. But the other customs have chaged. At least Momiji isn't a mute."

"And at least Haru's not a soprano."Momiji tittered.

"Yeah, well, Kyo's the one who's off with Kagura, who I'm sure will behead him if he tries to run away again."

"Kyo… He is the other Prince Yuki's age, right?"Asked Tohru, covering Yuki with his duvet, which had been mussed up, probably from his little fly escapade earlier."

"Mmm-hmm. He was betrothed when he was born… I think she's a cousin aswell…"Haru pondered for a moment. "Yes. She's another cousin, her name is Kagura."

"So, he could have been King too?"

"I guess so, yeah." Haru siged. Momiji sighed too, but that sigh turned quickly into a yawn. "Go to bed."

"I'm not-" Momiji yawned again. "…Tired."

After practically being kicked away, Momiji retired to his room, which was along the corridor. Tohru discovered that the three Princes all resided on the thirds floor. Kyo had aswell, but he was living in another city.

Haru sat down on the bed near Yuki, and placed a hand on the sleeping Prince's head. "You know, Kyo used to hate Yuki."

"R-really? H-how come?"

"Jealousy I suppose. Our Father always used to tell us what an honour it is to be a King, and Kyo was always jealous that Yuki was going to receive that honour instead of him. He got over it though. When he started to have to come and see Yuki occaisionally, the jealousy turned to pity. He started to see Yuki as a victim, rather than a traitor." Haru sighed once more, his eyes closed and a sad smile on face. "Now they couldn't be closer. Kyo saw Yuki once every day, and sometimes he even stayed in this room with him. But, the time came when he had to get married and leave. He still writes, but since he left, Yuki hasn't really had anyone. I'm always doing stuff outside the palace, and Momiji can't sit still in one place for more than two minutes."

Tohru sat down next to Haru. "So, he has no-one to talk to, while he's alone in here?"

"Not a soul."

The tears came again. Tohru cried more outraged, shocked, piteous tears. It was so unfair. And she'd gone and made it worse.

"I'll stay with him."

"What?"

"I couldn't live with myself if I didn't. It's just not fair on him. I'll keep him company."

From that moment, Tohru swore a vow. Until Yuki could become king and leave his room, she would stay with him and help him learn everything there was to know about the world. Even if it meant breaking the rules.

AN: OK, I realise that without pointing it out, no-one would probably thjink of this. But I shall say it anyway: 'How does Yuki not smell awful without a bathroom?' My first theory was that Yuki has a little bathroom down the corridor, but that defeats the object of his imprisonment entirely. So I came up with this.

He uses a sponge!

Sponge: I wash Yuki, he's dirty…!

Yuki: Great. A talking sponge.

Tohru: You're afraid of a fly, but you can handle a talking sponge? …Freak…

AN 2: If you're wondering why cousins have the same father, I forgot to mention, in this fic they are half brothers half cousins. That is what distinguishes them from the other Sohmas. They partly come directly from the royal line, because their mothers are all different sisters. Hee hee, the Sohma King has been 'working hard' to get some decent heirs…!