Warning! There are some spoilers from chapter 109 in this chapter. Nothing too important though, so don't worry too much. It mostly pertains to her dad. I'll write a little note at the end of the chapter to tell you what I made up and what's real.
Katie: Ach, I don't like this chapter at all! I can't even think of anything for this AN! I just got out of that weird non-writing funk too!
Kyo: Haha! Sucks for you!
Yuki: Have you ever noticed that when writers who do these AN things have no funny and/or interesting ideas they always have everyone say random things? Like this?
Katie: Have you ever noticed that my, Kyo, and Katie's names all start with K's. Talk about confusing.
Yuki: Thank you for proving my point.
Katie: I love how these things write themselves…
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"My… dad?" Tohru had abandoned her usual happy, smiling look for something else that hadn't been seen there often. It looked almost like anger. "What do you know about my dad?" she said a little more sharply than was usual for her. Kyo turned to stared at her because of the odd tone of voice.
"Well…" Kairi didn't know how uncommon anger was for Tohru and so ventured on unaware of what dangerous ground she was treading on. "You see… I-I don't really know how to say it…" she blushed and looked down at the ground.
Tohru's eyes immediately softened and she reached over to give Kairi a half-hug. "It's all right. You can tell me later, okay?"
"No, it's okay," Kairi wiped at her cheek and smiled at Tohru. "I'll tell you now. But… I'm not really sure of the details myself. My mo--," she gulped, "my mom told me that when she was in college she met this really nice guy. So, they started to go out and stuff. And then this guy had to go back home and… well, six months after he left my mom had me." She stared intently at the corner of the table, embarrassed.
The whole time she had been telling the story Kyo had just stared at her. What was the big deal? It's not like she had been the one to do anything embarrassing.
"Oh." Tohru said, brushing it off. She picked up the dirty cups from the table and headed toward the kitchen with them. "That's fine." Without another word she disappeared through the kitchen door.
Kyo frowned. He couldn't remember another time when Tohru had acted this way. Although he supposed that made sense since he hadn't known her for too long. If you didn't think two years was a long time. Casually looking over at the other end of the table where Kairi sat, he saw that her eyes were downcast and she was biting at her bottom lip. That seemed to be some sort of a nervous habit of hers, she'd been doing it for the past few minutes.
"Hey…" She glanced up to look at him when he spoke and he saw that her eyes were a bit too bright. "Look, you really shouldn't be so upset. You didn't do anything wrong, right?" Kyo smiled at her wryly.
Kairi worried at her lip even more as she answered. "No… I suppose not. It's just that my Mom's story never really added up. She kept out all of the details…" She sighed and wiped her forehead with her palm. "For all I know Tohru-san isn't even really my sister. And now I'll never get to ask my mom." Her lip trembled a bit and then her whole chin followed course.
"You never said what happened to your mom." Kyo said. He figured that it wasn't anything too serious, maybe Kairi just needed some space for a while and had come to see her "sister"(he preferred to not worry yet about whether or not this was true or not) as an excuse.
"I didn't…?" The little brunette looked as if someone had just told her that they had stopped making sliced bread. "Umm… she was… in a car crash." Her voice faded more and more as she talked until it was barely audible at the end.
Kyo's eyes widened. He definitely hadn't expected this! "Er, sorry… you know, Tohru's mom died in a car crash…" He was about to add 'too' to the end of his sentence but changed his mind because it seemed just a bit insensitive, even for him.
"Really!" Kairi hadn't known that. Now she felt really bad for telling Tohru about her father. "I… I had no idea."
Kyo rested his head on his hand. "She's probably the only person you'll meet who will completely understand."
"I don't know about that." Kairi said skeptically. "The only person."
"Yeah." Kyo said confidently. "You sound like you were real close to your mom. And you both had the same dad, right?"
"Well… I guess. But what does my dad have to do with her understanding?"
Kyo shrugged. "It matters for Tohru. I think she can understand anyone even if they aren't her family, though. You should talk to her later. You'll feel better." He said it more as an order that as a suggestion.
"Um, okay." She nodded weakly. "I guess I'd better go… it's getting late."
"Go?"
"Well… yeah. I have just enough money to stay at the motel down the road."
Kyo shook his head slightly. She really just came down to tell Tohru that… they're more alike than I thought. "Could you wait here for a little longer?"
"I-I guess so…" Kairi said uncertainly.
"I'll be right back." Kyo got up from the table and headed for the small outdoor balcony where Tohru did the laundry. He had a feeling she'd be up there and he had to talk to her.
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He'd been right. She was sitting with her feet hanging through the bars of the railing. Quietly he walked over and sat next to her with his legs folded Indian style.
"Hey."
"Hello…" Tohru didn't look at him; instead she stared at her feet, which she was swinging back and forth.
"You're allowed to be upset, Tohru."
"I know that…"
"You don't look like you know it."
She paused for a moment and her legs hang still. "You said it was okay to be selfish every so often so…" Stopping, she shook her head emphatically. "But it's only okay to be selfish sometimes, right! That was just… cruel. What I did back there."
Kyo laughed a bit. "It wasn't that bad. At least not as bad as you seem to think it is. You should just go talk to her. Explain everything."
"I-I can't."
"Hey, you told me, right? You told me, right here, on this very porch."
"But I don't know her, Kyo-kun." She whispered. "I just… I don't know what to say to her."
"Her mom died in a car crash. It's why she came here."
"What!" Tohru turned to stare at him for the first time since they had started talking. Kyo simply turned to return the gaze. She was the first to look away.
"I should go talk to her." Tohru said determinedly.
"Good idea." Kyo smiled at her retreating back.
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Kairi remained sitting, contemplating everything that her mother had told her about her father. Not much. Just that he'd been kind and had died of some sort of sickness when Tohru was little. That was one thing that had never made much sense to her. How could he have had time to go to college, meet her mom, and then go back home to a wife? How early could he possibly have gotten married! And if he were so kind why would he cheat on his wife? Why would her mother help him? It just didn't make sense.
She sighed and rested her head in her hands, I guess I'll never really know everything… I was sort of hoping Tohru could tell me…
At that moment Tohru strode into the living room, looking around frantically. She was about to walk back out of the room when she noticed Kairi sitting there. "Oh, there you are! I was looking all over for you."
"Um…" Kairi stared, bemused, as Tohru sat down next to her.
"I just…" Tohru looked down at her lap, all of the energy she had just shown gone. "I'm really sorry! Please forgive me, Honda-san!"
Kairi's eyes widened. Forgive her? What had Tohru done wrong? The younger girl shook her head, "No, I--" She cut herself off as she saw Tohru's eyes start to water. "No! Don't be upset! Really, I--" Then she noticed that the tears weren't from crying. Tohru was silently laughing. "Uh…"
Tohru wiped at an eye, "I'm sorry. It's just…" She started to laugh again and it was a few moments before she was able to control herself. "It's just so weird to call someone by my own name!"
Kairi was confused for a moment before she remembered that Tohru had called her 'Honda-san' just a bit before. She smiled. It was sort of weird. Before she knew it she was laughing right along with Tohru. Their was something infectious about her laugh.
Tohru shook her head. "Besides, you're my sister, right? I shouldn't be so formal."
"That's probably a good idea," Kairi agreed, rubbing her cheek, which was extremely sore from all the laughing. She tilted her head to the side questioningly, "You said you were looking for me?"
Tohru nodded, her face becoming sober and almost sad. "I wanted to come down and tell you that I was sorry for being so rude."
"No, no! You weren't rude at all!" Kairi insisted, waving her hands.
"I shouldn't have walked out in a huff like that." Tohru insisted firmly. "Especially after you had such a hard time telling me your story…" She added, ashamed.
"Don't be ridiculous! You had the right to be upset over something that important!"
Tohru shook her head again. "Mom always said even if I'm really upset over something I shouldn't take it out on someone else. Usually it's not even their fault, and even if it is you still shouldn't be cruel towards them. They might be hurting just as much as you are."
Kairi paused. "My mother used to say almost exactly the same thing." She said in awe. "Except she said it more as a 'don't get mad at other people just because you're mad. They won't understand and you'll wind up hurting them just as much as you're hurting' type of thing."
Tohru smiled brightly. "I guess our mom's are sort of alike."
Kairi grinned back at her. "Your mom seems a lot more elegant and wise than mine though."
"Probably not more than your mom. She was just really smart, that's all. And really kind too. She knew how people thought and she wanted me to have the best in life."
Kairi nodded. "Yup, sounds like she was wise to me. My mom is just so sappy. She goes off about how I should treat other people all the time. It drives me crazy, but I guess it's not that bad. Although…" She looked down sadly. "I guess I shouldn't be talking about her as if she were alive."
Tohru's eyes softened sympathetically. "It's okay. You can talk about her however you want to. She's always there with you. That's what I tell myself, anyway."
Kairi nodded. "That's what she always told me."
"She sounds like a very kind person." Tohru said gently.
"She was." Kairi smiled softly. "Mom always noticed things that no one else cares about… she was an artist so it kind of comes with the job, I guess. But they were always such small things. The things that made her happy. The shade of green that a leaf is. Or the way light reflects of a puddle. And we'd always laugh over the stupidest things. Once," Kairi said, grinning, "she was helping me study for a geography test. In my notes I was supposed to have written 'butte' but I forgot the 'e'. We laughed forever about that. And then we started laughing more at the fact that we were laughing at it in the first place!" Her smile faded a bit. "I just… really miss her."
Tohru nodded sympathetically. "I miss my mom too. But we have each other, so it's not like our whole family is gone."
Kairi smiled up at her. "I'm glad about that." She bit her lip nervously, pondering whether or not she should ask the question that she wanted to. "Um… Tohru?"
"Yes?" Tohru asked pleasantly.
"Um… well, you acted kind of weird when I told you about our dad. I mean, it makes sense. It's just… it seemed like there was something else going on." Kairi shifted uncomfortably.
Tohru sighed. "That's the other reason that I came down to talk to you. You see… I never really liked him much."
"But didn't he die when you were really young?" Kairi asked, surprised.
"Yes… but… I don't remember much about him. It's not fair of me to say any of this really. But… after he died Mom was so upset. She would cry all the time and since I was so young I was worried that Mom would go away to be with dad instead of me… I didn't know any better. The relatives didn't help much. They went around gossiping. I… um… I remember hearing a couple women whisper that they thought I wasn't actually our father's daughter. That Mom had… well, you know. After that I tried to act like him so that they wouldn't say that anymore. He was really polite so I tried to speak like him and it just stuck. After I did that it seemed like Mom felt better. I don't really know how it happened but… after a while I just started to dislike him." Tohru explained it all in a monotone voice but Kairi could tell that her sister was upset.
"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to remind you of old wounds." Kairi said sadly.
Tohru tried to brighten a bit. "It's fine. I just hope that you're not too upset at my complaining… I usually don't, but Kyo-kun's trying to get me to 'think about myself' more. He thought that I should tell you so that you wouldn't feel bad."
Kairi smiled. Kyo didn't sound like such a bad guy. "I really must be going." She started to stand and head for the door.
"Go?" Tohru asked, bemused.
"I have to get headed for the hotel before it gets too dark out…" Kairi said distractedly as she slipped on one shoe.
"Oh no! You can stay here! I'll go get a cot and you can sleep out here until we figure out somewhere else for you to stay!"
"I couldn't…" Kairi started, but Tohru had already started down the hallway. "Tohru!"
"Yes?" Tohru said, turning around, happy and smiling.
Kairi sighed, giving in. "I have another question."
"Yes?"
"What should I call you?" Kairi asked shyly.
"Well…" Tohru considered. "I guess you are my sister, right?"
Kairi nodded.
"Then I guess… you can call me Onee-chan. If you want to."
Kairi grinned at her. "Sounds good, Onee-chan."
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Katie: For those of you who don't know—Onee-chan means sister.
Kisa: It's what I call Onee-chan!
Kyo: That made no sense.
Hiro: Leave her alone, idiot.
Kyo: Excuse me!
Hiro: Do you need to get your ears cleaned out?
Kyo: I'll clean your ears for you, you little brat!
Momiji: Kyo, that's not very nice!
Kyo: I'll show you not very nice.
Momiji: Waah! Kyo hit me!
Katie: See you guys next time!
So as far as spoilers go in this chapter: everything that Tohru told Kairi is straight from Chapter 109, and everything that Kairi said I made up. But you don't know everything yet. Heehee… Oh, and Kyo saying that Tohru told him all of that is true too. I'll keep warning you about spoilers at the beginning of chapters so don't worry too much! By the way, Kairi's mom is based off of my mom!