Author's Note: OMG! YOU GUYS ARE FREAKIN' AWESOME! I have over 200 reviews! I never would imagine I'd get over 100. THANK YOU SO MUCH! And thanks for being patient! A/N continue later.
Chapter 22
--Relief from Pain and Misery—
Purple orbs gazed at the window where everyone had left from and sighed. He was alone now, just like when he was when he was little.
Yuki passed his hand through his silver hair and went to go lock his window. The sound of the crowd could be heard, but luckily, the helicopter was gone. The small thump and click assured him that the window was down and locked, and a grumbling sound came from his stomach.
'At least no one heard that,' Yuki thought as pink crept on his face and headed to the kitchen to find something to munch on. Unexpectedly, he heard the sound of clashes in his kitchen, and instincts took over. The rat dashed to the kitchen to see what had happened and who was sneaking around in his apartments.
His calculating eyes glanced around his kitchen. Since day one of his apartment, he was determined to keep it clean, and he had. His surprisingly clean kitchen was the same except one cabinet door was open and the floor was covered with silver pots and pans along with a certain brunette woman with a huge pot over her head.
"To—Honda-san! Are you all right? What are you doing here? I'd thought you'd left." Yuki threw one question after another at her as he quickly rushed to remove the pot over her head and help her stand up.
"Yu-Yuki-kun?" Tohru managed to say without even realizing she was calling him by his first name. The rat, on the other hand, immediately blushed, hearing his name escape her lips, but the pots and pans had hit her whole body, leaving her a little numb and wobbly. Tohru had to grab onto Yuki's shoulder in order not to fall.
The prosecution lawyer slowly took Tohru to the couch and carefully set her down. "Are you okay?" Yuki asked with concern once he handed her an icepack.
Tohru nodded her head and took the icepack and placed it on the small bump on her head.
"What are you still doing here? I thought you had left with your friends," Yuki questioned, deciding to sit down next to Tohru.
"I didn't want to leave y—I mean, I thought I should stay to thank you for helping me. Since we didn't have lunch, I'd figure you'll be hungry," Tohru explained, scolding herself in her head for almost sort of telling him that she still liked him.
"—And that's why I heard a crash and found you like that. It was because you were searching for something to cook in, right?"
"Yes. I'm really sorry if I ruined anything," the ex-singer added. "Let me go pick up the pots and pans and cook you something right away."
Tohru abruptly stood up and quickly walked toward the kitchen but tripped over a pan.
"Honda-san!" Yuki shouted. He had followed her and was lucky that he did so for he caught her and pulled her into him, but a poof was heard followed by a thump.
"I'm so sorry, Sohma-kun!" Tohru kneeled in front of him, pushing herself. "I'm such a klutz. I keep on messing up at everything I do."
The smoke had cleared away, and Yuki, now in his rat form, looked at her and saw tears forming in her turquoise eyes. "Honda-san, it's okay. I'm fine, and besides—," Yuki paused for a moment, "I—you…you wouldn't be adorable if you weren't like that."
A blush crept on both their faces, but Yuki remained calm as he noticed how cuter she looked like that. Then he felt a tuck in his heart. He had to tell her, even if she moved on.
'It's now or never,' he thought as he slowly placed his small paw on her hand, and both their faces turned to forty shades of red.
"Ho—no, Tohru," the rat corrected himself, "I…I don't know if you feel the same way, but--," Yuki took a deep breath and nervously continued, "I still love you, Tohru. My feelings for you haven't change in these past four years." He looked at Tohru's face, hoping to find an answer from her silence.
"Soh—Yuki-kun, I…I love you too." Tohru burst out into tears. "Every day, I would always think about you, wondering how you were doing. I always dreamt of being reunited with you, but I never thought it would actually come true but wearing my charm bracelet and necklace, I never gave up hope."
Yuki didn't understand what she meant by that comment until he saw the charm bracelet that she bought on their date and the necklace had a rat pendant. Then, he realized what Tohru had said, she said that she loved him!
"Tohru, I—," Yuki tried to begin, but another poof was heard as smoke appeared. Tohru let out another small squeak and turned around, looking at another direction. The silver hair man scrambled, putting on his clothes.
Then, Yuki quickly faced Tohru and grabbed both of her hands and lifted them to his face and planted a kiss on them. "I think this calls for a celebration."
"What does?" Tohru asked, confused and blushing.
"Well, one for our victory on the case, and two, having a late lunch/early dinner together," Yuki happily replied.
"You mean like a date?" the ex-singer questioned in a soft voice.
Yuki shyly nodded his head. "I'll help you cook the meal that you planned on making."
"How about going to a nice restaurant?" It slipped out without Tohru thinking, not knowing or realizing the situation if Yuki went out public, eating with her.
"Tohru, as much as I love to, but…but one step outside the apartment, people will talk about me, boo me, throw things at me. They'll hate me even if I'm one of the best lawyers in Japan."
Tohru saw dishearten purple eyes, and she sort of knew how he was feeling, the feeling of being isolated from people or in this case, society. Smiling with determination, the brunette grasped Yuki's pale hand to get his attention.
"My mom always told me that 'It's okay. There's nothing to be ashamed of.' Even if other people/the whole world think your disgusting, there are people who won't like Uo-chan, Hana-chan, and me. Who cares what they think as long as there are people who'll accept you for they are the ones that'll be true to you," Tohru told him in a caring manner.
Yuki stared at Tohru's kind, smiling face, the one he loved seeing. She was always cheering him up no matter what the case was with her optimistic nature. That was one of the reasons he loved her, but he was still a little reluctant to go outside.
"Please Yuki-kun? It'll be the two of us like old time sakes, and if rumors spread out about the date, I won't mind what they think about me because I have you, Uo-chan, and Hana-chan," she added, trying to reassure the rat.
Yuki placed his other hand on top of Tohru's hand. "OK, just for you, I will." He gave her a peck on her cheek. "After you, milady," Yuki joked, standing up and sticking out his right arm, which Tohru graciously accepted and off they went to face the world.
Once outside the apartment complex, the crowd of reporters and police had died down, but there were still some waiting for him to ask numerous questions and accuse him of things.
He felt his legs tense up, his hands getting sweaty as surprisingly, they weren't getting closer to him, but he could hear whispering and see pointing aiming for them. His quick, sharp mind had frozen, but fortunately, the rat could feel Tohru's warm touch, giving him some sort of comfort.
"Ignore them," Tohru whispered, quickening her pace as well as dragging Yuki along. Obediently, he followed her, trying to disregard the attention he was getting.
Flashes from cameras blinded the couple, but they continued to move on until Tohru led them to nice, not too fancy or cheap restaurant nearby his apartment. Outside, you could tell that it was an Italian restaurant with the green, white, and red flag in front. White letters spelt out the wordsLuigi's on dark green cloth, which was displayed on the top of the entrance, getting pedestrians' attention.
"How 'bout we eat here?" Tohru asked, turning around, asking Yuki, still holding onto his arm.
"If that's what you want," he agreed.
The two entered with Tohru leading. Inside, the restaurant was pretty big. There was a mini bar arranged in the center of the place, in a circle. Lots of green plants filled the restaurant. Tables and chairs of light brown-ish tan surrounded the bar. The click clack sounds coming from the waitresses' high heels echoed on the cream tiles. White columns stretched from the top to bottom, and gold edges made them shine.
"Good afternoon! How many people?" the usher immediately asked them with a wide smile. The usher wasn't really paying attention to the customers until Tohru said two.
A gasped let out and the usher started to point, being rude on accident. "You're…Him…Umm…" she stuttered harshly. "Right this way," she, slightly disgusted, led them to a table, and other customers threw curious and appalled glances at them. "A waiter will be taking your order in a few minutes." She passed out the menus and quickly left to go to her boss.
"You know, there's still time to run for it," Tohru whispered once she left, realizing maybe it was a bad idea.
Yuki firmly shook her head. "Tohru, as long as you're here, I don't care. People can be throwing rotten tomatoes at me, but I still won't care because of you. As long as I get to spend time with you and be by your side, I don't care. You taught me so much and brought so much more meaning back to my life now that you're here."
Tohru's face turned slight red, and she smiled at him with love.
The ordering and meal went by a little bit more friendly than imagined because once they had ordered, it took a few minutes for their food to arrive than the usual twenty to thirty minutes. Yuki had a hunch that it was only to make them leave as soon as possible.
Instead of taking a taxi home, Yuki walked Tohru all the way to her apartment hand in hand. It was some walk, but they both didn't mind. It just meant that they wouldn't have to separate just yet.
Once the couple was in front of Tohru's door, neither wanted to leave. Purple orbs met turquoise eyes as they got lost in each other's eyes. Yuki felt an urge tugging in his heart to lean closer to her and kiss her. Without realizing so, he obeyed and soon felt soft lips on his. The ex-singer was shocked at first but melted in the kiss.
Yuki knew it wouldn't be smart if he hugged the brunette woman, but just like the kiss, he couldn't resist. The lawyer wrapped his long arms around Tohru, and immediately was expecting the poof but none came. Instead, a bright blue orb emitted from his heart, pulling the two apart.
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Kyo was at his dojo, exhausted. Phone call after phone call, parents wanted to know his relations with Yuki and the others. He was lucky enough to get away with saying it was a common name and that he wasn't related to them, but sooner or later, they would find out the truth.
Locking up the dojo, Kyo stared at the sky wondering how the others were doing, especially Kagura, but his thoughts were interrupted when a red orb appeared from his heart, flew around him and them off somewhere else.
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The Madubachi Trio were hanging out, laughing and talking about the past.
"And remember when…" Shigure tried to say, but silver, gold, and purple light emerged from their hearts, awing the three.
The three spheres floated respectively in front of the trio and then left to the sky.
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The rabbit was in his office in the restaurant. Thankful for his loyal employers, they didn't really care about his secret because he was a really good boss. Plus, the pay here was really good.
Momiji was looking through his pictures of his mother and sister when a yellow light filled the room. In one second, he saw the yellow light escape to the dark sky.
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Rin and Haru were on a date. It was going pretty well minus the looks and whispers they were getting from the people around them.
Rin had enough of the pointing and was about to explode. Black Haru arrived some time ago, but luckily she was able to calm him down, but this was the last straw.
The horse clenched her hand and was about to punch the nearest person when a dark brown light blinded her, making her lose her train of thought for a moment. She glanced at her boyfriend and saw that a light was forming around him except it was black and white.
The light took shape into an orb and both flew to meet with the others.
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Kagura was crying her heart out on her fiancée's shoulder. Their wedding was going to be the happiest thing in her life, but no one, no one was willing to cooperate with them and help plan their wedding.
The two attempted calling florists, priests, etc., but they all hung up on them once they heard the name 'Sohma'.
"Shh…It's OK Kagura. I'm sure there'll be people back home that'll be willing to help," Kenji whispered soothingly.
Kagura was going to bury her face in on the dry part of his shirt and continue crying, but the way she was positioned, she would be transforming, but she didn't care. In a second when contacted, she expected to transform but didn't.
A green sparks flew from her heart to form a bright green sphere. Kagura was about to touch it, but it flew away and to the sky.
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For the tiger and sheep, it was late. Hiro was sleeping over at Kisa's house because his mom was taken to the hospital, something about his mother and her condition with his unborn baby sister. His dad drove them to the hospital since Hatori was out with Shigure and Ayame.
Hiro couldn't sleep. He was too worried about his mom and sister. He might be cold outside, but that didn't mean he wasn't worried. The sheep turned around to see Kisa sleeping peacefully on her bed, and his eyes soften a bit.
Hiro tried to close his eyes for some rest, but then he felt himself getting hot and opened his eyes. A white light was shining from him and Kisa had a yellowish-orange.
"Hiro…what's going on?" Kisa woke up in panic, as she stared at the two lights.
"I don't know."
The two just gawked at the two balls forming and then leaving their sight.
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Lying on his bed, Ritsu was crying. He was crying about the past and how many times his parents had to suffer because of him. He couldn't help it that he felt comfortable in women's clothes.
Ritsu's tears stopped coming when he gaped at the light brown orb in front of him. It danced around him a bit and then left, leaving him awestruck.
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The bird was content. No more obeying to Akito, and he just had a good time with Uo. His life couldn't get any better.
Kureno was humming a happy song when he saw a tan sphere emit from his heart and then to the sky.
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Twelve orbs flew to where the blue ball was in the sky. The thirteen balls were visible to Tohru and Yuki and formed a circle. Doing some type of ritual, the thirteen spheres fused together, creating a big, bright colorful one.
Moments later, a grayish-black sphere came, and the colorful one engulfed it whole. The big orb exploding, making what it seemed like fireworks to others was really the end of the curse.
"Yuki-kun…what just happened?" Tohru asked, being naïve.
The now fully human Yuki grinned and just hugged Tohru and she understood what had happened.
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Author's Note: NOPE, not the end! It would be the end if I didn't have to worry about the Kagura and Kyo problem, but I do.
My opinion of the chapter: It sucked because it seems like I rushed the chapter somehow. I like the ending though.
Next Update: probably in Christmas time if lucky. All major projects are done and have been turn it. Thanksgiving Break writing this along with practicing my 197 measures solo piece for violin. Of course now it'll mean exams for school soon.
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