Chapter 4: A Day of Surprises

Day had made it's entrance and Haru and Tohru were sleeping in their small wooden cart. The sun peeked through the many shaded areas of the open forest. It lit their faces and made the sensitive Haru wake up from his night sleep. His eyes cracked open looking into the still air.

'Oh yeah, I'm in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a cart and, supplies and the girl of my dreams' He paused. 'That's right, I'm here...with her' He said looking over at Tohru. The sun lit up her face and made her look angelic.

He moved his way closer to her and placed his hand on her face softly caressing it.

"Your absolutely beautiful" He said whispering. He stared at her a bit more, she looked so peaceful while she was sleeping.

"I wonder if she remember's anything about last night?" He looked into their cart.

"Well I better get started on breakfast" He said pulling out a large bag packed ful with foods. He sighed choosing a carton of eggs and a large raw piece of pork leg.

"This isn't the best breakfast, but we'll make due with what we have" He started a small fire which he aired and presented to the raging air. It blew across it creating light clouds of grey smoke which streaked the sky and made their way over to the sleeping girl.

Her nose picked up the strong smell of smoke.

"What is that?" She said coughing

"The making's of breakfast" He said laughing.

She fanned the air with her hand and her eyes began to water.

"Sorry about the smoke Tohru, I'm just trying to get breakfast started, that way we can keep going"

"It's alright, I needed to get up sometime today" She said yawning.

"Well I'm glad your up, I needed some company, and the mare my village gave us isn't doing for much for my loneliness"

She chuckled. "Something is wrong with that horse, she seemed a little on the edge this morning when I woke up"

"She's probably still spooked from last night it all" He said turning and egg. Tohru walked away from the campfire ring and over to the horse.

"Hey girl" She said patting the horse on her head. The mare was looking at her with weary eyes.

"Why are you still afraid? Akito is gone and Hatsuharu is here! He'll protect the both of us" She said hugging the horse's neck. Haru smiled

'Well at least she gets along with that horse" He rolled his eyes as she patted it on the head and rubbed it's muzzle. It's whiskers tickling her palms.

She laughed.

"That tickles!"

"Hey Tohru!" Haru yelled.

"Yes" She looked over at him. He was holding up a small plate.

"Your breakfast is ready" He said lowering the plate. She skipped over to a small stump which she sat on and took the plate from his hands. He handed her a small metal spoon and she drove it into a large piece of the meat. She brought it to her brought and chewed hungrily. Haru was not interested in eating, but staring at her. She made him feel like he wasn't just some stupid immature middle school-soon to be high school student, but like a real man. A man that is appreciated for what he does. She loved him, and he loved her. His duty now was to protect her and himself.

"Well Tohru, which direction do you think we should head in?" He said eyeing each of his choices.

She looked around. One path looked like the dead had just walked through it. Everything looked brown and wilted, the whole path looked like it died. Another path looked like it lead to a strip of beach that ran along the side of a lake. And the final one looked like a shady path with crisp orange leaves falling on the ground.

"I think that we should go down that one!" She said pointing to the sunny path with the strip of beach.

"The sand? Wont that be difficult on the wheels?" He said.

"We don't have to bring the cart, could we just...go for a swim?" He looked at her surprised.

"Well, we don't have anything to swim in, I have a pair of shorts...but..."

"Then it's settled" She ran down the path to the beach.

He rolled his eyes and watched her run. "Women"

He walked to the cart eyeing the horse. Picking up it's reins he made them much longer allowing it room to walk and graze, tied it to a tree. Making his way to the cart he picked up a bag filled to the brim with clothes for himself. He picked out the pair of short and closed the rest of the bag. He removed his shoes and socks and slowly slipped off his long black pants. Folding them neatly he watched her down at the sand slipping her shoes off. He smiled and watched her take each one of. He slipped his shorts on and ran down to meet her.

"Well, you took long enough" She said

"Sorry, darn horse kept me, I had to tie her to the tree" He said pointing back to a large tree.

"Well we should get in, so let's not waste time" She said.

"Well what are you going in with? You have no bathing suit"

"No, but I have something pretty close" She said grabbing the fabric of her shirt. He cocked and eyebrow and watched her pull of her shirt leaving her in a lavender bra. His eyes widened and watched her take of her skirt. There she stood in front of him with nothing but a bra and underwear.

"See! I told you I had something like a bathing suit!" She said giggling. He didn't move.

"Haru? Haru are you okay?" She said snapping her finger's in his face

He snapped out of his daze and looked at her surprisingly while having an inner battle with himself.

'Well she does look hot don't she' black haru said eyeing her longingly.

'No! I will not look at her that way'

'She stripped herself down for you, you just have to take it from here'

'I'm not that kind of man, not while I'm white, I refuse'

'Let me take over then, I'm different, I'll gladly do it for you'

"Are you coming or what?" She said looking at him. His eyes were rapidly blinking colors. They changed from dark grey to steel, back and forth the color changed. His hair also began to flicker. From white to gray. It finally slowed and landed on...white.

"What happened?"

"A battle" He stated coldly.

"Black Haru?"

"Yeah, he wanted to get out" He looked at her. He pulled off his shirt and looked at her again.

'Whoa, he's ripped...great I'm drooling, I wonder if he's noticed that, well I'm staring' She snapped out of her trance and looked at him.

"Well well, looks like I'm not the only one who think someone looks good huh?" She blushed and ran into the water.

"Come on in!" She said. He moved closer to the water and put his foot in. She slapped the water with her hands and it splashed against his face.

"Hey! No fair!" He said running into the water splashing her as he went. She giggled and threw more splashes at him. He fought back with more water power. She decided that this tactic wasn't working. The next wave of water he threw she ducked under the water and swam away.

He looked at the surface of the water and watched the tiny air bubbles move. He knew were she was. He waded over to the bubbles and followed them. For her, it was getting harder to get away, and...harder to breath. She needed to come up for air. She swam up, but was held down. Her foot was caught on something. She couldn't move, but he lungs craved for air. She fought her imprisoner, but he gave her no mercy, he wouldn't release the girl. Haru watched from above. The bubbled no longer move, in fact their were no bubbles at all.

"Tohru?" He said looking at the spot where he had last seen the bubbles.

There was no splash of water or breath of air, only deadly silence.

"Tohru!" He looked around.

"Forget it!" He dove into the water. Their she was lying on the bottom of the lake, not breathing. He swam as fast as he could and tried lifting her up. Something was holding her. He let go of her waist and swam down farther to her ankle, which was ensnared in a thick vine. He pulled on the vine, but it wouldn't come loose. He took it in his hands and snapped it in half. It cracked in half and released the girl, along with a cloud of red. He didn't care though he grabbed her waist and pulled her up to the surface.

She still didn't breath.

"Oh god, come on Tohru! Breath! I...I'll save you then!" He placed her cold body on the ground and leaned down to her. He placed his mouth over her's and released a huge breath. He blew into her and pushed on her chest. She started to cough and turned over on her side, releasing a large amount of water. She looked around, her vision slightly blurry but she could see the outline of her rescuer...Haru.

"Y..You saved me?"

"Of course, you didn't think that I was going to let you drown now do you?"

"Well it probably would have been better, then you could go back to the Sohma's without a care. Akito wont mind if I'm dead. She hates my guts!"

"Don't think like that, if you think I was going to let you drown then you have another thing coming, now lets go get you in some drier clothes" He calmly whispered and he picked her up bridal style.

"This is all too much, you can't carry me! I'll walk please put me down!" She squirmed and tried to get free of his grasp.

"No Tohru, you almost drowned! I'm not going to let you walk, for all I know you could just jump out of my arms run back down to the lake and get yourself caught on that vine" He looked over her body. They arrived at the campsite and he set her down gently

"Oh! Speaking of the vine" He flipped her over. Her face facing the ground. Her ankle was bleeding.

"I'll have to treat this" He said walking over to the cart and picking up a long wooden box. He picked out a bottle of clear liquid and poured some out and put it on his hand. He spread it over her bleeding wound and rubbed it into her skin. Softly he made circle like movements and reached into the box again pulling out a band-aid. He peeled off the un-sticky parts and placed the bandage on her bleeding wound.

"Thank you Hatsuharu" She replied. He sat their still looking over the backside of her body. She was babbling on about something, before she knew she felt a soft hand stroking her upper leg and thigh. She blushed hard lied there while he treated her with care.

She finally decided to flip over.

"I'm sorry Haru, it's I just think that...maybe...it's lunchtime!" She yelled nervously. He looked at her with a slight disappointment.

"Well then I guess we should eat?"

She nodded her head no.

"But you just said..."

"Forget what I said Haru, I think we should keep going"

He nodded.

"Your right, I think we should go to"

He picked up the long wooden box and put it into the cart along with the rest of the stuff. He threw her a long shirt and pants.

"Why don't you change?" He said coldly. "I'll get the wagon and horse taken care of"

She nodded and ran behind a large tree. He watched her run behind it. His black personality crept into his mind.

'She behind that tree, undressing, we could just sneak along and pretend to get something, then tackle her to the ground and let instinct take over'

He shook his head

'no I won't allow you to get free and hurt her!' He screamed in his own mind.

'Come on...come on' His offer sounded good and his black personality was slowly taking over his thoughts and body. He couldn't control it anymore and he lost to the mad man of his mind releasing him. He smirked looking to the tree were the naked Tohru probably stood. He crept softly over to the tree, he heard rustling and watched as the beautiful Tohru stood in front of him...clothed.

"Hello...Haru?" She noticed the evil look in his eye and realized that this wasn't Haru.

'Well technically this is Haru, it's just his other personality. I just have to get him to change back' She was snapped out of her own mind conversation by a hand on her rear. She tensed up and slapped him across the face. He tilted his head back up and looked at her with a cold stare.

'Whoops! That probably wasn't the best solution to the problem, what do I do know?'

"You will pay for your resistance! I will show you that I am not to be messed with and that I will get my way!"

She looked frightened.

"Please Haru! My Haru! Please try and fight him!"

Black Haru changed none and nothing happened.

'He's still black, what do I do?'

"You have tried to resist me enough" He said pushing her to the ground. She looked up at him frightened.

"Haru?" She cried.

His glance at her did not change and his hands wandered over her delicate body.

"Haru, please stop, you know you don't want to do this...I love you Haru, both of you...please...I beg you...stop Haa-chan" She cried.

His expression soften. He looked at her regretfully. Black Haru faded from the corner of his mind and he returned to white. He looked at the scared girl beneath him.

"Tohru...I'm so sorry" He said jumping off her and toward the cart. He readied the horse.

"Get on..." He said with anger toward himself. He sniffled, nothing made him cry...nothing. But she was an exception

'Look what you've done...we could have hurt he and now she probably doesn't trust us very much'

He looked forward toward the small sunny path with the autumn leaves falling on the ground. She hopped on and laid down and fell asleep.

Many, many hours she woke again. It was dark out and they had stopped. Haru was around the fire and the horse was standing near an open field.

She climbed out of the wagon and walked forward. Her feet moving themselves.

Haru noticed that she was coming and he hung his head low looking away from her. She sat down next to him though.

"Hey" She said quietly.

"Hey" He said not taking his eyes off the ground. "What are you doing here?" He looked at her with a sad expression. His cheeks were tear stained.

"Haru? Were you crying?"

He shrugged "Maybe I was"

"You don't need to cry Hatsuharu, I'm okay, really...it's fine. I realize by now that I have taken a chance by loving you, that I'm going to have to put up with your other side. And I don't mind.

"But I don't want to see you get hurt, hurt by me! If I came back with you hurt then Yuki would never forgive me!"

"But I don't love Yuki anymore, I love you now... so please...don't blame yourself"

"But it was my fault"

"It's okay Haru, I still love you" She leaned her head on his shoulder and looked up him, nuzzling his cheek.

"Thank you Ms. Honda" He said.

She giggled.

"You sound like Yuki"

"Well I was trying to"

She looked at him and smiled. She yawned.

"What time is it?" She said.

"I don't know, nighttime I know that" He looked at her. She was giggling again.

"Your funny Haru" She laughed some more then walked back to wagon and jumped in.

"You wanna go to bed then?" Haru said. She snuggled under a blanket. Haru jumped up on the wagon and picked a spot across from her.

"You can come closer to me" She said blushing

"It's okay...I'll sleep over here" He said moving himself into a comfortable position. She shrugged.

'One day he'll warm up and he'll be over here with me' she thought before she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

'One day, I'll warm up to her and I'll be over there with her' He thought staring into the night. Then he fell asleep.

Morning came swiftly after the night following with a large whinny.

Tohru woke up at and instant. Haru was still asleep.

'Wow, he looked hot when he's sleeping...what am I thinking?'

She got up and hopped over the side of the wagon, careful not to wake the sleeping Haru. She walked into the small field where the mare was standing, it's tail swaying back and forth.

"Well are you what all the ruckess is about?" The horse merly stared at her before it's gaze moved over to a tree where there was a smaller...horse?

"What it the?" She walked over to the small foal.

"Well who in the world are you?" She said eyeing the foal. The mare walked over to the foal and stood in back of it protecting it.

"So I guess this is your huh?" She looked at the foal and squeled. Haru's eyes shot open.

"Tohru?" He jumped out as quickly as he could and ran toward her scream, finding two horses.

"Look Haru! The mare had a foal! She must have been pregnant!"

He twirled his finger.

"Great another mouth to feed"

"Well we gotta name them now!" She looked at the mare. She was jet black.

"Well this one is...Black Lightning...and her foal..." The foal was a reddish black.

"Well she's...reddish so, how about Red Lightning"

"Their your horses, I don't like em that much" She shrugged and cuddled the foal.

"Well I guess we eat" He walked over to the wagon. She watched him while playing with the foal.

"There were a lot of surprises today huh boy?" The foal looked at her.

"Well come on!" She said and she headed off to the campsite for breakfast.

Thank you for waiting for the contination! I like the reviews

midnight 1987-

Can't wait for what happens next. Akito is so evil-Thank you midnight!

Rinjii-?.? Doesn't Haru live at the main house? Nevermind... anyway, interesting chapter.

Thanks for your support!

Cows-roc-my-world-Thank you for you nice review!