Chapter 18 – Confrontation

Tohru had a restless night. Although, her body was sleeping but her head was operating over its normal capacity. Images were flashing and flooding into her mind through a channel that opened up when she made her promise. They were like puzzle pieces that were trying to find their places. As her promise repeated itself, 'I will never forget no matter what happens, I promise. I will never forget… I promise', each piece struggled, yet found it's fit.

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Morning came. The early heat humidified the room as Kyo woke up slowly trying to open his eyes. He found his throat sore and dried as he breathed in the muggy air. The warm weather had caused him to perspire and damped his entire body. He felt his body ached as he pulled his hand up to wipe off the sweat from his forehead. This was when he noticed that Tohru was sleeping on top of him. All of a sudden, his eyes opened up to their fullest width; he remembered everything from last night. He relaxed his body and wrapped his arms around her. He took in another breath and this time happiness filled up his lungs.

Tohru was in a deep sleep. This was strange of her, but Kyo recalled that she mentioned her head hurt last night, so he remained still and continued to enjoy his moment alone with her. He had longed for this moment for so long now that no matter how long he stayed with her, it never seemed to be enough.

After about a half an hour, he noticed that Tohru was gripping tightly to his shirt. Her head was moving left and right in the slightly motion. He felt in his gut that something was wrong. He tried to wake her up by shaking her shoulders a little, but she didn't respond. "Tohru." He called to her, but still she didn't respond. "TOHRU!" He cried out and at that instant she let out a moan. "You're okay." He said with relief. "For a minute there, I thought that you won't wake up."

"Kyo?" She slowly opened up her eyes, lifted her body up and crawled up to look at him. "It's really you! It's not a dream." She was only inches away from him, blinking her blues eyes hastily to keep them open. He stared at her morning face, her sweaty hair and her position over him; she looked appealing, good enough to eat. He wanted to taste her and to rub off all the salty beads of residue from her face. Before he was able to make his attempt, she dropped her weight down. "Kyo, I'm so glad." She rubbed her head against his limp and sighed.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I had a…" She paused feeling a little lightheaded. Then after a few breaths she continued, "I had a dream last night."

"About what?" Concern seeped in his tone.

"I dreamt that you were gone."

"But, I'm here with you."

"Yes, that's why I'm so glad." She stuttered. After another long pause, she continued, "The dream… it felt real."

"How?"

"I don't know, but I could remember everything that was portrayed in my dream. I saw Shigure, I saw Yuki and I saw you. One after the other… uh…" She blushed.

"What?"

She continued shyly, "…kissed me and told me that he loved me. Shigure took my first kiss. Yuki saw me naked in the bathroom, so I tried to cover up, but instead I fell onto him. Our skins were touching and our lips were too. Then, the next thing I saw was you. You were angry. You busted your fist and left home. You were gone, gone for a long time." She muttered.

This triggered Kyo's memories and brought him back to that day; the day that he busted his knuckles and left home because Tohru was hiding something from him. Now it all made sense to him. 'She was with that damn rat that morning and they were…' Instead of getting upset, he caught what's happening to Tohru. 'Wait a minute, what is she talking about? So, does this mean that she remembers?' And so, he tested his reflex and asked her, "So, why didn't you tell me what happened that morning with Yuki? Why did you have to hide it from me?"

Without any effort, she responded, "Because, I was afraid that you'll get mad and dislike me. Although, it was just an accident, I was worried that you'll think ill of me for being in that situation with Yuki. I was scared to find out how you'll react if I had told you."

"Well… you just did."

"Huh?" This caught her by surprise.

"It looks like your memories are coming back to you."

"Are they? How?"

"I don't know exactly how, but from what you just told me." He said as he released his arms and rolled her over on the bed. She lied flat on her back while he was on his hands and knees. "It appeared to be exactly what happened in the past two months."

"Really?"

"Yeah, maybe they're coming back to you in a form of a dream." He smiled. "Do you recall anything else that happened?"

She closed her eyes and thought hard, "You… we were together that night; the night that you came back to me in my bedroom." She reached out her hand to touch his face and traced along his eyes. The pair of eyes that she remembered from that night was different. Back then, they were sad and disoriented. Now they were clear and sharp. She smiled, yet paused quickly as she remembered someone else, "and …"

"What? Tell me."

"Kagura." She continued. "I remember now, how desperate she needed you."

"It's all in the past now. I'm glad that you remember. The past two months for me felt more like years, time passed so slow and so many things had happened in just a little period of time."

"Yes." She agreed pleasantly. "I remember. I remember… and I'll never get again." She said happily and tears of joy escaped from her eyes.

"This is wonderful." He shifted him mass down beside her. After a long pause, lying beside his jewel of joy and blinking at the white and flat ceiling above him; he felt that he had also forgotten something. "Tohru."

"Yes."

"I think we forgot something."

"We did?"

"Oh, shit!" He jumped up. "The plane!"

"Oh no!" She sat up. "We should be back at the hotel!"

"Come, let's go… together." He gave her his hand and they ran back to the hotel as fast as they could.

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Back at the hotel, Uo and Hana were waiting for their missing roommate.

"Where is Tohru?" Uo asked Hana.

"I suppose she hasn't got back from last night."

"That's obvious. What do you think she and Kyo had been doing all night?"

"If I know Tohru, then she wouldn't be doing anything that went out of line."

"Darn it! Then that would ruin all my plans."

"Plans?" Hana observed. "I should've had known that you were behind it."

"You've got me." Uo snickered.

"So, you had some trick to the raffle, didn't you? That's why Kyo ended up with Tohru and Yuki…" The thought of Yuki made her cheeks slightly flushed.

"That's right! I'm sick of seeing you guys blushing all the time and no action, so I decided to help everyone moves in a step closer."

Hana didn't respond, yet returned a little smile.

"If she is not back in five minutes, then I'll have to go and get her. We can't leave without our precious Tohru."

"No, we can never."

Counting down: five minutes, four minutes, three minutes, two minutes, one minute and zit.

"Okay! That's it! I'm going to look for her." Uo opened the door and surprisingly when she stepped out; she found Kyo and Tohru running toward her, hand in hand. They stopped right in front of her.

"Thank goodness. We're made it in time." Tohru said through her breathing.

"Yeah." Kyo agreed.

"Well, well, look at the two love birds." Uo smirked while looking at their hands tied together.

Kyo quickly released his webs. "I have to go and get my things. I'll see you later." He said to Tohru.

"Okay." She replied softly.

He smiled dreamingly for a second and ran off to his room. Uo and Tohru watched him ran and disappeared into the corner. They went back inside their room.

"Hey! Like magic, Tohru is back." Uo announced.

"That was quick." Hana said without any surprise in her tone.

Tohru got out her half packed duffle bag from last night and stuffed it with the rest of her belongings.

"So… are you going to tell us what happened?" Uo started asking Tohru.

"Hmm…"

"Come on! Give me the dish."

"The dish?"

"I mean… tell me what happened between you and Orange-top. You've been out with him for the entire night, so did anything juicy occurred?"

"Juicy?"

"Oh, do I have to spell it out? What I'm asking is did you make out? Kiss? Made love? Things like that…"

"Hmm…" She hesitated, "We did a lot of talking…"

"That's it!"

"We kissed once on the lips."

"That's it!"

She blushed. "And we slept on the same bed."

"Oh, my god! What a waste? How could that stupid jerk be so… so… stupid? He wasted all my effort!"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, forget it!"

"Uo…?"

"Yeah. Is there something else?"

"I wanted to thank you."

"For what?"

"For the game last night, it helped me resolved my problem with Kyo."

"I'd figured as much when I saw you and Orange-top holding hands earlier."

"Yeah…" She blushed. "And I decided that Kyo is the only man for me."

"That's great! I'm happy for you."

"Yes, me too." Hana agreed and all three of them happily smiled.

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The flight home was interesting. This time everyone was on the same section of the plane. Kyo was stuck in the middle with Uo by the window and Yuki at the edge. The row before them, Hana was in the middle with Miya by the window and Tohru at the edge.

"Why the hell am I stuck with you again?" Kyo asked angrily.

"I guess it's because I'm the only one here that can tame a wild animal like you." Uo replied and broke out laughing.

"And you too!" He snarled at Yuki, who appeared to be deep in thoughts and didn't respond. "You damned rat! Speak to me when I talk to you!" He was about to smack Yuki on the head, but Yuki douched it and leaned forward to the side.

"Tohru?" He asked.

"Yes." She turned around.

"Do you mind exchanging seats?"

"No, but why?" She twitched her brows.

"Just because…" He smiled.

"Okay." She agreed yet, didn't notice why until she saw Hana blushing just right before she left her seat.

As they were about to switch seats, Kyo asked, "What's this?"

"I think this will keep you quiet the rest of the way home." Yuki replied as he took a seat beside his beauty from last night.

Tohru also took a seat by her love. "I like this arrangement, too. Don't you, Kyo?" A pair of clear blue eyes talked to him.

"Yeah." He said warily as he locked their fingers together.

Meanwhile, Yuki and Hana sat still and kept to themselves. Each could feel their own heart racing, but didn't know what to say or do after last night.

Uo decided to ease things a little, so she popped out of her seat and addressed the two pairs of purple eyes. "So, tell me something. Did you switch seat because you wanted to make room for Orange-top and Tohru or was it for something more personal?" The two turned in response to her question, yet caught each other's eyes instead. Redness replaced their silence. "Okay, I could see that the two of you are hot for each other, so could you skip the shyness and hold hands, kiss or at least talk already."

"What?" Kyo jumped up of his seat. "No, kidding?" He looked at Yuki's crimson face. "Him and the electric girl?"

"NOooo, when did this happen?" Miya exclaimed from her seat.

"Last night." Uo replied.

"I would appreciate it that you guys keep it down." Yuki said calmly.

Tohru stood up and entered the conversation. Now that her memories were back, she felt a bit resentful for not returning Yuki's feeling. "Yuki. Hana." She took turn and looked at one after the other. "If you truly like each other, then we'll be rooting for both of you. Like you said, Hana… it's not healthy to hide away your feelings…" She paused for a second and thought of all the agony that she went through with Kyo. He adjusted himself and rubbed his hand behind her back. She looked back at him and once again relief filled her heart. "If there is any way that we could help, then please let us know."

"Oh, this is nut! Let settle this now." Uo demanded. "Yuki… what's wrong? Don't you like her?"

He admired Hana's rosy cheeks. "I… I do. I'm just waiting for her to give me an answer." He remembered their kiss from last night. It delivered him an energy wave from the moment that he touched her soft lips. As they continued to deepen the kiss; the current traveled down to his pumping heart and slowly spread into every cell of his body. By the time, they were done; they ended in each other arms. Hana rested her head against him and hadn't spoken a word since then. He didn't know if she was interested or was bothered by it.

"Hana… what's your response?"

With everyone's eyes on her, she shyly replied, "I gave you my answer last night."

"You did?" Confusion seeped through his voice.

"Yes… my answer… Saki… you can call me Saki."

"That's it then! I guess the Prince can be dense sometimes when it comes to girl. Couldn't you tell that she is interest in you too? She wouldn't let just anyone call her by her first name. You're a lucky guy!" She patted him on the shoulder and seated herself down.

Kyo and Tohru exchanged bright glances and also sat down. Tohru was very delighted as she whispered into his ear, "I'm so happy."

"I know." He replied and wrapped an arm around her slender neck and on her shoulder.

Yuki continued to admire Hana as he wondered, 'There are so many things about her that remain mysterious like how she expresses her approval and how she is able to sense other people feelings, but hesitate at her own.' He smiled gracefully and said her name. "Saki…" She returned a small smile as he continued, "I want to learn more about you. Everything."

She reached out her hand for his, fingers intertwined as she rested her head onto his shoulder. "If you're serious…" She squeezed them tighter. "Then… call me sometimes."

"I am..." He leaned his head against her. "…and I will…"

The rest of the flight was quiet.

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They arrived home safely that Sunday evening.

"We're home!" They announced.

"Well, well… home already, that's great! Tohru dear, I need to talk to you." Shigure replied, walking toward his young cousins and to be bride.

Kyo stepped in, standing right in the between Shigure and Tohru. "Damn it! We've just got home! The least you can do is wait for us to settle down."

"Oh, that's right. Okay, put your things away." He said as he tucked both of his hands into the sleeves of his kimono. "And, remember to get ready in 30 minutes, because I'm taking everyone out to dinner."

"Dinner?" Yuki asked. "What's the occasion?"

"Nothing… It just that you guys just got home, so I don't want Tohru to get back into the kitchen just yet. She deserves a treat."

"No, please don't. I can cook right after I put my bags away." She replied.

"No, I insist…" He smiled stunningly.

"Okay, already! You're going out to dinner." Kyo interrupted. "Tohru lets go up stairs. I'll help you with these." Kyo took her bags and carried them for her. He dropped them by the windowsill next to her dresser.

"Kyo?" She asked, standing beside her bed.

"Yeah." He turned.

She sat down on the edge of her bed. "I want to tell Shigure about us..." she said softly, "…but, I don't want to hurt his feelings."

He walked back to her, still standing as he wrapped his arms around her, "I know…" he sighed, "…let me talk to him." He suggested.

"No." She argued, "It should be me. I should break the news to him." She clung on closer. "He did said once that he doesn't mind if I choose you instead of him, so I should tell him… maybe later at dinner."

"That's a good idea."

"I cannot believe it."

"Believe what?"

"Only a few more days and high school is over and I'll be married in exactly one week from now."

"Yeah… time can sometimes be dreadfully slow, yet other times, it goes by so quickly that it's hard to believe."

"Kyo…" She broke away to look at him. "I'm so glad that I've found you."

"Me, too." He leaned forward looking into her eyes. He declined her slowly onto the bed and followed her lips down as they meshed together.

"Kyo…" She moaned in their kiss.

And just when they were about to deepen the kiss, Shigure called for them from down stairs. "Kyo! Yuki! Tohru! Hurry up! I'm starving!"

Kyo stood up. Tohru blushed. He smiled and they walked back down. Yuki met them in the hallway, seeing the cat coming out of Tohru's room yet, he didn't say a word about it. He was happy for them.

All three came down one after another.

"Ok, great lets go!" Shigure headed out to the front and suddenly stopped. "I've forgot!"

"What?" Yuki asked.

"Shigure!" Ayame called from the front entrance.

"Yeah, I've forgot that Aya is joining us and there he is."

They walked up to him and together the five of them headed out for a sushi place. Sushi was always a good choice to eat; everyone enjoyed it, including the cat who loved fish. They ordered variety of sushi: tuna, salmon, mackerel, bass, squid, shrimp and many other seaweed type rolls.

During the meal, Ayame talked about the up coming events, "So… what are your plan after graduation?" He addressed the three high school students.

Tohru explained that she wanted to continue school and go to college. She would need to continue working part-time to pay for her tuition. She also considered looking for another job that was more related to her career. Maybe, she could get a job in a hospital or asks Hatori if she could help out in his medical office. Though he is not an animal doctor, but still, he would be a good source to go to, to learn and to experience how a life of a doctor would be.

Yuki had talked to his master about helping out in the dojo, but his master had advised him to continue school as well. He could help out when ever he wanted and gained experience in running a dojo, but he should consider other opportunities, because he's an intelligent boy and he shouldn't be wasting his gift.

Kyo didn't say much. He had no plan whatsoever, but he knew that he wasn't going to allow Tohru to leave him, so he just might as well join her in college and give it his best.

"Hmm…" Shigure was enjoying his foods. "…so you guys are set after graduation then. That's good."

Ayame continued his babbling while Shigure stuffed himself. "And about the wedding…"

Everyone stopped at that instant and looked at him.

"The outfits are ready. All the alterations are done. I'll bring them over on the day before the wedding or you guys can come by and pick them up. I don't mind either way. All the invitations were sent out. The wedding will be held at the main house and everyone in the Sohma's household is invited. This is so exciting… Imagine… Tohru… getting married."

"It seemed like you know a lot about what's going on with the wedding." Yuki observed.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I've been helping Shigure with all the planning." Ayame replied. "And, like I said before, I like planning happy events such as this." He covered his frustration with a smile. Yet, behind that smile, he was thinking otherwise, 'Yes, I like to plan these kinda events, but this one… I'm not very happy. It's a bit nerve racking to plan this for Shigure… because he's marrying someone so special, someone that I can never compare myself to. She is just too wonderful. I wonder… the wedding is so close now… Why hasn't he told Tohru about me? Could he be? No… he said so himself that he isn't…'

"Shigure?" Tohru asked.

"Hmm…" Still chewing his food.

"I want to…" She hesitated. Kyo held onto her hand under the table to give her strength.

"About the wedding…"

He swallowed. "Yes, what about the wedding? Everything is ready like Aya said, so you don't have to worry a thing about it." He continued to gaze over the food and couldn't decide what to eat next.

"No, that's not what I mean." She squeezed her fist tighter. "What I mean it to say is that…"

"OH, NO!" Shigure jumped out from the table.

"What?" Everyone asked.

"The draft for my next project is due tomorrow morning. I'd totally forgot about it."

"What are you going to do?" Ayame asked.

"Let's finish up here and I'll think of something on the way home."

They finished dinner and all walked home together. They walked Ayame back to his place first and then headed back to Shigure's place later. On the way home, Tohru felt a bit disappointed and uneasy as she walked beside Shigure. Kyo and Yuki followed behind them.

Tohru tried to tell Shigure again as they passed the front yard and onto the porch. "Shigure…"

"Oh, no time to talk Tohru. I'm sorry, I know that you just got home and probably have a lot to talk to me about, but I need to go and work on those papers now."

"You had three weeks to work on them, so why didn't you finish them yet?" Yuki asked.

"I was… busy…" He said and disappeared to his study.

She turned around, peeked up with her sad eyes and lightly sighed in front of Kyo and Yuki.

"There is always tomorrow." Kyo said calmly, placing his hand on her slender shoulder.

"Yeah, everything will work out just fine. You'll have your chance to tell him. That damn dog can sometimes be too full of himself, but he isn't stupid, so eventually he should realize it." Yuki said, cheering her.

She inhaled a long breath. "Yes… You're both right. I can tell him tomorrow."

The two boys nodded and they all snuggled in for school start again tomorrow.

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Back Stage Discussion:

Smile: Okay, tell me what you think. I didn't want to just let Tohru tell Shigure that easily. After all, there should always be obstacle even near the end.

Shigure: What? What did Tohru wanted to tell me?

Kyo: You should know…

Shigure: Know what? I'm too busy now… I don't think that I'll make the deadline in time. What should I do?

Ayame: Well, you always seem to have fun with that editor of yours, so do what you normally do.

Shigure: Won't you get mad at me?

Ayame: I can't prevent you from having fun, but just don't have too much fun.

Shigure: I know exactly what to do… (mischievous thoughts)

Ayame: What?

Shigure: I'm not telling…

Ayame: Shigure!