Author's Note: Here's another chapter of Singing My Heart Away. Just a bit of a warning, but Tohru is a little OOC. Sorry!

Reviews:

math-nerds-unite: Hey! Glad to have another reader! Thanks for the review!

keepoath: Well…at least someone said something about the Akito thing. Thanks! It gave me more confidence and I'm glad I did it.

Aria's Star: Wowzers, you keep on changing your penname. I think I'm gonna get confused one of these days. Thanks for the review! And of course Yuki won't fall out…yet…

BTW, since FF added the hits, I know about how many of you read this story and I am surprised. I have a lot of readers (I think) than I thought would have. So for those who don't Read&Review, I hope you like this story, and it would make me very happy if you told me what you think of this story.

Chapter 11

--A Change of Heart—

"And the top five, in no particular order except alphabetical, are Ryo Midori, Yamato Nakano, Julian Smith, Yuki Sohma, and Daisuke Yura," Tohru announced.

Those who didn't make it starting muttered under their breaths. Most of those five really didn't care about the contest anymore. They had found a girlfriend ever since their performance on TV.

"Whoever didn't make it, please leave," Hana ordered.

Once those five who didn't make it leave, Uo told them what they had to do next. "Each of you will get a day with Tohru alone so I suggest you use your time wisely. The final two will be announced next Friday."

"Of course you're all wondering what day you'll have your date, you can sign up here." Hana pointed to a sign up sheet on the wall.

All of them ran to the wall fighting for the pen. Yamato was the first one who grabbed the pen and wrote his name on Thursday. Yuki really didn't care what day he got as long as it wasn't a weekday. He stood leaning against the way until the others were finished. Once the last one signed up, Yuki took Sunday.

All this week, all Tohru could think about was the incident with Yuki. Tohru remembered the day when the top five were announced and how strange Yuki was acting. She really would like to get to know him better. There was something about him that made him mysterious. He seemed so alone and in so much pain. She was hoping to relax on this date and forget about it.

The week had been nice so far. Nothing but sunshine. Not everything was perfect as expected. The forecast predicted rain for the weekend. When Thursday arrived, Yamato was supposed to meet Tohru in the lobby of her hotel.

Yamato was relieved and happy that her friends weren't going, but unknowing to both of them, Hana and Uo were going to follow them.

Yamato arrived at nine o'clock sharp. Tohru was already waiting for him.

"Sorry. Did I make you wait long?" he asked.

Tohru shook her head. "I just got here."

"You look gorgeous." He winked at her.

Tohru blushed, muttering, "Thanks."

"So what do you want to do?" Yamato asked her as they left the hotel.

"I don't know. Anything is fine. I just really want to get to know you better," she said, flashing a smile.

He smiled back. 'What is wrong with me? All this week, I was so happy getting to go on a date with Tohru, but why? When I first entered, I was doing it for Akito and the money. Now every time I think about her or see her, my heart is racing.'

"If you don't mind, we can go to the hospital for a bit to visit the kids. Maybe you can sing them a song or something." He rubbed his chin as if he was thinking.

"That sounds fun!"

So Yamato drove them to the Tokyo Children's Hospital. Since he helps out frequently, everyone knows him, but they were surprised to see Tohru. You wouldn't think that someone famous like Tohru would have time to spend with the kids.

Yamato knew some special, particular kids who would love to meet Tohru. He ushered Tohru to the elevator and pressed button for the second floor. Then, he led her to a room around the corner.

"Stay here for a sec," he whispered to Tohru.

He gently opened the door to reveal a little girl with brown hair and blue eyes laying on the hospital bed with machines connecting to her. She could barely move, but she was able to see Yamato.

"Hi…Yamato," she said softly. The little blue eyed angel had an oxygen mask so it was hard for her to speak.

"Hey there Joy. How are you?" he said, bending down a bit.

"I'm fine. I haven't had a good day though. I had oatmeal for breakfast," she said with disgust.

"Well then, we'll just have to make it better won't we?" Yamato shouted out the door.

"Yamato, who are you talk…" she began until she saw Tohru enter the room.

"Is…is…is that TOHRU HONDA!" Joy shouted with excitement as she tried to jump and hug her, but the wires held her back. She gasped for breath.

"Joy, are you OK?" he jumped from his seat and rushed to see.

Joy gave a small nod.

Tohru walked over and patted her head. "Hello Joy, it's nice to meet you. Yamato-kun told me that I'm your favorite singer."

Joy smiled and nodded. "Can…can I… can I have your autograph?" she whispered, still not believing that she was actually talking to Tohru.

"Hmm…I have a better idea. Once my duet CD comes out, why don't I give you a free copy with my autograph?"

"Really? I would like that," she grinned.

"I'm gonna leave you ladies alone for awhile. I'm going to go see the other kids," Yamato stated.

"K."

Once the door closed with a click, Joy immediately jumped to a question. "Tohru-chan, who's your favorite guy so far in the contest?"

Tohru was startled. She wasn't expecting this question from her. "Umm…I don't really know. I guess the guys who made it to this far are. I really want to get to know them better."

"Is Yamato going to make it to the final round?" she asked innocently, fingering something on the bedspread.

"I don't know yet Joy. The final two will be determine on the personality. Yamato is very kind, but there are others who are kind too," Tohru told her as her mind drifted off to a certain silver hair man. "So how often does Yamato-kun visit you?"

"I dunno. Anytime he's available. I have a question. Why do you call put 'kun' after Yamato? It's so formal." This was bothering her for quite some time now.

No one had ever asked her that before. "Hmm…I really don't know, but I guess it's because my dad was like that. My mom told me that he was like that. She was the laid back one while my dad was the formal one."

"Your parents sound like they are opposites. How can they love each other so much?" the curious girl asked.

"I don't know, but they make each other happy so I guess that's all it matters, happiness and love," Tohru said cheerfully.

They talked for about another twenty minutes until Yamato appeared and said it was time to go. She said good-bye to Joy and promised to bring her new CD when they finish the recording after the contest was over.

"So did you like her?" the blonde hair young man asked.

Tohru nodded her head, giving a big smiling. "She's so precious and adorable."

"Yeah, Joy is one of the favorites of the nurses and doctors," he commented as they headed to the red convertible.

"Yamato-kun, what happened to your black BMW?" Tohru asked, entering the car.

"Oh you know, I was getting tired of that car, and I thought since it was a nice day, we could take the roof off the car," he half lied. The truth was he sold the BMW for a reasonable good price, especially with the pink stain. He didn't use that money to buy another car for he already had three others.

"Are you hungry?"

Tohru blinked. It was only ten, and he was hungry. "Umm…not really. Did you not eat breakfast?"

"I was too excited to eat breakfast. Why don't we get some brunch?" he turned his steering wheel to the right and turned right.

"That's fine."

Yamato had this whole day plan out just in case Tohru didn't care or have plans. He drove to a nice restaurant near a lake. It was called Touch of Western.

"You probably haven't been here so I thought it would be nice. The food is great," Yamato said in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Well if you like it, then I'll try it. Because of the contest, I haven't seen much of Tokyo except for the day that you took Kisa-chan, Hiro-kun, and me around." She got out of the car and followed Yamato to the door.

It was an American food place. Inside, it was small as a diner, but instead of smelling greasy meat and coffee. It had a nice odor of all sorts of food from eggs to toast and burgers to pizzas. The restaurant tables and booths ready and clean. The whole place was like a country style restaurant with wooden chairs and tables. The lower part of the wall was covered with wood while the remaining upper part had a forest green shade of paint. There were cowboy paintings on the wall. Even the light fixture had something to do with cowboys.

Tohru's head lifted as she took a whiff of the smell. "It smells delicious."

Yamato grinned, holding the urge to kiss her on her forehead for her cuteness. "Table for two, please," he told the greeter.

As they walked to their table, they saw families eating brunch here also.

"It's a popular place to eat for the people who come visit and stay at the inn across the street," Yamato stated, as if he was reading her mind.

Once they were seated, Tohru instantly sat down. A few seconds later, she stared at Yamato who was standing up waiting for her.

"What?" Her big eyes blinked twice as if she was still a kid.

"What are you doing sitting down?" Yamato asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I thought this was a restaurant. Isn't there supposed to be a waiter?" she asked, tilting her head a bit.

Yamato started laughing. His laugh attracted the other customers as they stared at the laughing man.

"What? What's so funny?" the singer asked, her face turning red. She tried to hide under her seat so no one could try and recognize her for an autograph or anything. These five days with the guys, she really didn't want anymore publicity.

"I'm sorry. I should've told you. This is a buffet restaurant. There aren't any waiters unless you want something specific," he told her as he started to calm down.

Tohru muttered an 'oh' and stood up slightly embarrassed. The other customers, who were staring at them, drew their attention back on their family and meal.

Tohru wasn't hungry, but to be polite, she had to eat something since Yamato already paid. She had tried American food when she was touring there and someone had told her it wasn't good for her because it was greasy and fattening. Since she was a singer, it wasn't good for famous people to get fat. The taste was good though, but she preferred Japanese food any day.

Tohru slowly ate what was on her plate. She grabbed a strawberry jam toast and a piece of omelet. Yamato was too busy stuffing his face to notice that Tohru was barely eating, and she was glad.

After ten minutes, Yamato had stuffed himself so full that he couldn't move; much less get up. It was then when he noticed Tohru and her plate.

Her plate had scraps of food left. She only used one plate, while he had his used plates stack onto the side of him.

"Tohru…how much did you eat?" he asked, unsure whether brunch was a good idea or not.

"Just a bit. I was still full from my breakfast. Uo-chan and Hana-chan insisted on me eating every single bite. Today was one of those few days where they would make me breakfast," Tohru said.

"You don't mind waiting a bit before we go do something else, do you?" he started, clutching his stomach. "I don't think I can move," he chuckled, patting his stomach.

After Yamato digest some of the content in his stomach, the two of them set off to do something else. He deliberately led her around the lake.

Since they were a few meters away from the lake, they could see ducks swimming, and fish swimming around. At the far end of the lake, they came to a place where it let you rent a boat and row around the lake. A few people had rented a couple and looked like they were having fun.

Tohru gazed at the people. She wanted to go on a boat ride. It looked like fun.

Yamato smiled as his eyes moved from Tohru to what she was looking at. "Do you want to take a ride on one?"

"No—that's OK! It's probably expensive, and we still have a whole day to spend," Tohru stated, as she started panicking. Sure they were on a date, but that didn't meant that they had to do something so grand (in her opinion).

"Come on," he remarked, taking her hands and dragging her to the shop. "If you want to, it's fine. Remember, I have no trouble with price."

Tohru zoned out when he said the last part. She was trying to free herself from Yamato's grip so she could stop him, but it was too late. So now she found herself wearing a bright orange lifejacket, sitting on a brown rowboat. Yamato was doing on of the rowing. She tried to help, but Yamato wanted to row it by himself.

Unknown to our unsuspected 'couple', Hana and Uo disguised themselves, and were pretending to be pedestrians that just happened to be walking the same way they were rowing. They saw everything from the hospital to the boat ride. Such a pity they had to waste money of the restaurant when they didn't eat anything. They were watching Tohru and Yamato the whole time…Well…Hana was. Uo grabbed some food muttering something about a waste of money if you don't eat. Uo glanced up now and then, but that was it.

So far, they were both pleased with the date. Tohru wasn't complaining. Yamato treated her well. Even Hana noticed something about his waves that seemed different, but that she wasn't going to say anything until later.

They were allowed to rent the boat for an hour, which was plenty of time to go from one end to another. Tohru got a close up of the dirty water and saw tadpoles swimming around. The ducks and geese flew away as they got closer.

"Ahh…my arms hurt!" Yamato complained once they turned in their boat and walked back to the car. He started massaging his sore arms.

"I told you to let me help you row. I'm sorry! Maybe if I didn't want to take a boat ride, your arms wouldn't hurt," Tohru said with an apologetic face.

"Nah. It's OK. It's our date. Besides, I wanted to try it too," he tried to reassure her. "So what next?"

"I told you where ever is fine as long as long as I get to know you better," she said with a hint of annoyance for a brief second.

"How 'bout a movie? We never got to go to the movies when I took you out last time," Yamato proposed.

"What will we watch? It's been awhile since I've been to the movies."

"Why don't you pick once we get there?"

A few minutes later, they were at Yamato's convertible. Yamato drove them to a theater on the other side of Tokyo. With it being lunchtime and the streets crowded with cars and pedestrians, it took them twice as long to get there. The movie Tohru picked when they arrived was sold out that they had to wait for another three hours for the next. After about three hours of walking around the block, they were able to watch the movie, but the whole story gave Yamato a disturbance.

The movie was set in a medieval time period where the High Chancellor was trying to take control of the kingdom. The king and queen only had two children, a princess and a prince. The princess was the older one and was fitting to be the heir except for two reasons. One: she was a she. The heir had to be a boy. Two: She had to be married. Since they had a son, he overruled the princess and just had to be married.

Before the ball to choose a wife, he went on a hunting trip and was killed so the princess had to marry and follow her husband. So another ball was held, which the High Chancellor and his son plotted together to take over the kingdom. The princess was already in love with a peasant, but wasn't allowed. At the ball, she met another man and fell in love, but it just so happened that the High Chancellor's son was also falling for her. It wasn't in the plan, but then he felt bad that he was lying and cheating on her so he told her the truth.

He told her about the plan and how her brother's death was the High Chancellor's fault. She immediately cried and cancelled the wedding admitting that she never really loved him that much. She had still loved the peasant.

At the end, the High Chancellor and his son were thrown to the dungeons. The whole kingdom decided that the princess could marry the peasant since they knew she would be a great queen.

Ironically that was how Yamato's life was except he had no competition. Tohru didn't love anyone yet. He wasn't going to be stupid enough to actually tell Tohru about their plot against her. He didn't want to go to jail for who-knows-how-long. That would ruin him.

"That was a good movie! I felt bad when the High Chancellor had try to take over the kingdom and when they were just using the princess. Then the poor peasant boy, I can't believe he got whipped and beaten up for saying that he loved the princess. I started crying at that part. I was glad it was a happy ending though," Tohru sniffled a bit. Her nose was runny.

You could tell Tohru had been crying because her eyes were a bit redder than usual, and her face was a bit puffy. She wasn't the only one though. Yamato looked around and saw that other women had cried too. The men just nodded along, regretting ever seeing that movie.

In a corner, he saw two mysterious women staring at them. When they notice he was staring at him, they turned their heads. Yamato thought they were just staring at him because he was Yamato Nakano, heir of Nakano Corp so ignored them, and Tohru was a famous international singer.

"I'm sorry…" Tohru tried to say something else after, but starting getting the hiccups.

"It…hiccup…was a g…hiccup…good movie. Hiccup…I hoped y…y…hiccup…you didn't cry…hiccup, but then ag…hiccup…again, you're…hiccup…a man."

"Hey Tohru, I have the ultimate hiccup remover. Say 'great horned owl'." Yamato changed the subject.

"Great horned owl."

"Keep on saying it, but more slowly and clearly."

"Great horned owl. Great horned owl." She stopped after the third time. Her eyes widen. "Hey, it worked!"

"I told you."

"But how did you know?" Tohru asked.

"That's a secret." Yamato gave her a wink. Tohru blushed like before.

'She's so cute,' he thought.

Tohru's stomach gave a small grumble. She tried to hide it, but Yamato heard it.

"If you're hungry, we could have an early dinner," Yamato offered.

"No." Tohru shook her head. "I don't want to if you're not hungry."

"Actually, after rowing so much and walking, I'm kinda hungry. I was hoping we could have a picnic," Yamato slyly suggested.

"OK."

"Good. I know the perfect spot."

The couple headed off to the red convertible once more. The picnic place was just around here. When the sun set, it was a perfect place to watch it.

"It's just up that hill," Yamato told her when they reached their destination. Yamato opened the trunk first and got out a cooler and a picnic basket. He had made sure that the food he packed was going to last the whole day.

"Hmm…it seems like you planned this all along Yamato-kun," Tohru stated, offering to take the picnic basket.

Yamato didn't say anything. They walked up the hill. It didn't look long, but in reality, it took them longer to get there than they thought. But when they did, the view was magnificent.

"Wow! It's so pretty!" Tohru gaped at the sight. You could see part of the ocean from afar and the gleaming lights of the city.

"I hoped you'd like it," Yamato said, setting up the blanket and food.

"You did all of this for me?" she asked, awing at the food.

"It's not much."

"Not much?" He had packed several drinks and had sandwiches, chickens, fruit salad, regular salad, and other occasional picnic food.

"I didn't know what you liked, so I packed everything I could…" he explained.

They ate and talked until it was almost dark. For the remaining of the time, they had already packed up and were watching the sunset. The blue and pink were blending together to make purple. Sparks of orange could be seen. It was a gorgeous sight.

"Want to go back to your hotel?" Yamato asked, once the view was over and the sun was no longer visible.

"K. I'm kinda tired. I have to get ready for tomorrow. I promised Midori-kun that I'd make him something so he could try my cooking." Tohru yawned.

Behind a tree, Uo and Hana heard this and rushed down the hill, hoping to catch a taxi before they saw them. They almost got caught, but thanks to their disguise, they didn't get caught. They were glad that he didn't do anything to her, but it was a tiring day chasing after her. They knew the next four days would be like that.

On the way to the hotel, somehow her mind wandered off to Yuki.

"You'd think I'm disgusting. I might be normal to you right now, but I'm not."

"What did he mean by that?" Tohru muttered in her breath.

"What? Did you say something?" Yamato looked at her.

"Huh? No, nothing."

About a half-hour later, Yamato was at the hotel. He walked her to the lobby and they said their good-byes. He was so tempted to kiss her luscious lips, but was able to contain himself.

'I'm only using her, right?' His heart pumped faster and his conscience was full of guilt as he left the hotel lobby. Then, the picture of the High Chancellor's son in the dungeons appeared.

'Er…I don't what to get whipped and beaten up. Wait…they don't do that in this time period. Hmmm… I could stop this charade. I love her and no one else in this stupid contest can beat me except that Yuki guy, but if Akito somehow gets him to quit, it'll be good for me. I won't let Akito kill Tohru. Of course that means I'd have to tell him that I'd doublecross him…'

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Author's Note: For those of you who don't know what a High Chancellor is. He's a high ranked person in the castle. I think he's under the king, queen, etc. And the plot of the movie is mine. I didn't copy it from any movie or book at least I don't think so…

Also, about the 'great horned owl' thing, my friends made that up, and it works like half the time. So if you need a cure for hiccups, say it! Tell me if it works!