Should have smiled in that picture

If it's the last I'll see of you

It's the least that you

Could not do

- John Mayer -

"Back to You"

-/-

Without You

By Ricchan

-/-

- Chapter 8 -

November rolled through Yuki's home gently, the days drifting past slowly, but never too slow. Things began to steady themselves after Tohru's return; she'd wake him up, they'd eat breakfast, he'd go to work and return to her smiling face, right as she was setting out dinner. Sundays were different; he'd leave later and return earlier, and he'd usually have some sort of suprise planned for those nights; whether it was a movie picked up on the way home, or a particularly nice flower he thought suited her (she'd put those in a vase and let them sit on the windowsill). The happy monotony was positively medicinal for Yuki, for he had been used to a rather dull order of things before then.

One particularly nice afternoon, the sun was shining and Tohru was hanging laundry while Yuki was off at work, the nice breeze fluttering through her hair. She'd been enjoying her new job quite a lot, since Yuki treated her kinder than any other employer she'd had, and his house was just lovely. She smiled as she hung up one of the shirts he had bought for her; he treated her almost like a beloved daughter or a wife, if she thought about it, which was rather cute. She treated him like a small son or a husband, in a way. Did that make it fitting?
Her train of thought was interrupted when she heard voices and feet coming up the drive.
"Kisa, I don't think Yuki-niisan is home at this hour, he has work, remember?"

"But I really need to borrow one of his books!"

"Ugh...his door's going to be locked, you know."
"He won't mind if we sneak in through somewhere."
"But that's trespassing!"

The voices, a boy's and a girl's, sounded fairly young, and she was confused, so she finished her latest shirt and went downstairs to see what was going on.

"Come on, we'll just look, if anything, okay?" said the female voice.

"But the door's gonna be locked, Kisa," the male voice replied, a bit exhasperantly.

Tohru opened the door right as the owner of the female voice reached for the door in the action of climbing onto the platform.

There was silence for a while as they looked at each other; Tohru saw a young girl standing there. She had bright, strange, honey-colored eyes and orangeish-gold hair that was clipped at her shoulder and hung in a frame about her face. The boy behind her had brown eyes and hair that was flipped out like a boy out of a fashion magazine; both of them wore the same expression of shock upon seeing her, but the girl spoke first.

"Oneesan!" she said, suprise and delight in her voice.

"Excuse me?" Tohru replied, a bit confused.

"Oneesan, is that you? Is it?" the girl said, pushing herself up on the platform with her hands.

"I'm sorry, who? Oneesan?" Tohru said. "I think you must have me confused with someone, who are you?"
"Oh, don't you recognize me? I'm-" the girl began, but Yuki's car coming up the driveway interrupted her.

"Ah, so there's Yuki," the boy said. Tohru smiled.
"So you're home early!" she said, as he got out.
"Yes, I am," he replied. "Kisa, Hiro, what are you doing here?"

"I need to borrow something," Kisa replied, not taking her worried eyes off Tohru. "Yuki, is this who-"
"This is my housekeeper, Tohru-san, I don't believe you've met," Yuki said, coming up the drive with a small plastic bag of food.

"Huh? Wait, but-" Kisa began.
"I don't believe that you've met her, Kisa-chan," Yuki said forcefully. Immediately, she took the hint (Hiro had correctly guessed about Tohru's condition the moment she didn't recognize Kisa).
"Oh, sorry! I thought you looked like this old babysitter of mine, from when I was a kid," Kisa said sheepishly. "Please forgive me, I should introduce myself: I'm Kisa, a relative of Yuki's."
"And I'm Hiro," Hiro said, bowing a little. Tohru bowed in return.
"It's nice to meet you, both!" she said. "It's okay, I'm fine with you calling me oneesan, really."

Hearing this made Kisa smile a little bit more.
"Do you want to come inside?" Yuki asked them.
"Yes, I need to get one of your books for this project I'm doing," said Kisa.
"Sure, we can go to the library; Hiro, you come too," Yuki said, motioning his head towards the inside of the house. "Tohru, were you doing laundry?"
"Yes, I was; I'm almost done," she replied.

"Good, perhaps you could make some snacks for Kisa and Hiro once you're finished?" he asked.
"Sure, I'd love to!" she said, skipping upstairs. "I'll be back soon!"

Yuki led Kisa and Hiro to his office and shut the door. As Kisa scanned the shelves for her book, Yuki began to talk.
"Sorry I didn't tell you earlier about her memory, you two," Yuki apologized. "She had it erased before she left, and I only just recently have had any chance of telling anyone."
"That's...okay," Kisa said softly.
"Who else knows?" Hiro inquired.
"Umm...Haru, Momiji, and Rin, for sure, and definately Hatori," Yuki replied. "I think Ayame knows too, but I can't be sure. And I think Shigure and Akito do too."

"Uh-huh," Hiro replied stoically.

"Kisa, are you okay?" Yuki asked. Kisa found her book.
"Yeah, I guess I am," she said, holding it to her chest. "I was a little sad that she didn't remember me."

"Yes, I was, too," replied Yuki.

"It makes me wonder...why would oneesan do that?" Kisa asked, looking at Yuki.
"Nobody knows, Kisa," he said gently. "But we'll find out eventually, I think. We'll just have to wait."

She nodded sadly and clutched the book tighter, and Hiro became rather interested in his socks.

"Well, she's staying here, for now; I'm not going to keep her away from you, like some sort of animal in a zoo," Yuki said cheerfully, after a small silence.
"Eh? Why'd you say that?" said Hiro, looking up.
"Well, I think it would be fair to say that you two can visit her here as much as you'd like, I won't mind," he smiled. "She's our friend, and you deserve to be around her as well."
"Thanks!" Kisa said, beaming. "I'll watch myself from now on, okay? Now where is she, upstairs?"
"Doing laundry, yes," Yuki replied. "You can go help her, I'm sure she'd appreciate it."
Kisa smiled and scampered off, feeling like she was 12 again.

"Damn, I haven't seen her this perky in a good, long while," said Hiro. "And I thought she was happy even without her around."

"Kisa's grown up a lot since Tohru left," Yuki said. "Her personality's changed, hasn't it? She's tougher and a lot more self-confident."
"You got that right..." Hiro groaned. "She's almost like Kagura-neesan at times, the way she drags me around town..."
Yuki began to laugh. "Hey, it's not funny!" Hiro protested.
"All right, all right," Yuki said, stopping himself. "You know, you've changed a lot since Tohru left; you're much gentler with people."

Hiro looked at the floor a bit sheepishly. "A prince...for Kisa..." he said softly, his voice barely audible.

"Eh? What did you say?" Yuki asked.
"Nothing, nothing," he replied quickly. "It's just...I think it's kind of unfair that she can't remember us, and see...how we've changed, you know?"
"Mm, you were practically children when she left," said Yuki. "Imagine her seeing you now! She'd be absolutely astonished."
"Knowing her...I think she'd be proud, or something like that," Hiro added. Yuki nodded slightly, in agreement.

"You know, she may have a chance to actually see that," he said.
"What?" said Hiro.

"I'm...going to try and bring back her memories," Yuki said.
"How in the world are you going to do that?" Hiro said skeptically. Yuki paused, uncertain.
"I...don't know, exactly," he replied truthfully.

"My god, Yuki, I hear this big dramatic statement from you, and you don't even have anything to back it up?" he said, momentarily shifting to his sarcastic personality. "I'd expect more from a 24-year-old, especially you, Yuki-niisan; you care about her a ton."

Yuki laughed; halfly because he realized Hiro was speaking to him in such a way, but also that he was telling the truth.

"Well, I suppose I'll find out, someday," Yuki said. "I already have some ideas in my mind."
"Good luck with that," said Hiro. "So, we staying for lunch or anything?"
"Yeah, I suppose," Yuki replied. "Tohru hasn't lost her sense of cooking."
"Thank god for that," Hiro said, laughing a little bit. "I kind of missed having that extra sweetness around."

The two men exited the office with smiles as Tohru and Kisa came down, laughing and carrying the empty laundry baskets downstairs.

Later that afternoon, they sat together at the kotatsu with a small plate of rice balls Tohru had prepared from the steamer, discussing their lives and current events.
"So, you both are in college?" Tohru asked.
"That's right! I'm in my second year, and Hiro-kun's in his first," Kisa replied.
"That's wonderful! I never went to college," Tohru admitted, a little sheepishly.

"Oh, really?" Hiro said.
"Yes, that's right...I just worked after high school, because it's what my mother would have wanted," Tohru replied, smiling.
"Your mother?" said Hiro, taking a rice ball and nibbling the top. "What do you mean by that?"
"She died when I was in my first year of high school, but I made a promise to her a long time back that I..." Tohru replied, but stopped herself. "Oh, it's a long story, I'm sure you don't want to hear it..."
Hiro nodded slightly, while thoughtfully chewing the rice.
"What kinds of things do you like to study, Kisa-chan?" Tohru asked, changing the subject.
"I'm studying American literature, and English!" she replied cheerily. "Hopefully, I may spend a year in America in my third or fourth year. It seems like such a cool place, I just love all the authors from there! Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson and E.B. White..."
"Wow, that sounds so exciting!" Tohru said. "That's nice that you're so enthusiastic about something like that. I never was very good at English..."

"I'm sure it's not so bad, Tohru-neesan," Kisa said with a smile. "Besides, you're really good at cooking and housework." Tohru smiled, blushing a little.
"What about you, Hiro-kun?" she asked. "What do you study?"
"I'm into political studies and English, too," he said casually. "I think it would be cool to be a politician or something like that."

There was silence for a while as Tohru took this in.

"Wow...that's quite a lofty ambition..." she said, quite impressed.

"Considering Hiro-kun, it suits him," Kisa smiled. Hiro turned slightly pink.

"You seem like a very confident, intelligent person," Tohru smiled. "If that's what you want to do, I'm sure you could make it."
"Er...thanks..." Hiro said awkwardly, between swallows of rice.

"So, what did you need to borrow from me, Kisa?" Yuki asked.
"Oh, this?" said Kisa, picking up the borrowed book from the floor. "It's 'A Letter To The World', a bunch of poems by Emily Dickinson. Translated and un-translated, of course; I'm doing a project on her and I need the research material for my speech."
"What's your project about?" Tohru asked. "I'm not familiar with Dickinson-san."

"I just have to analyze her writing style and outlook based on her poems," Kisa said. "You should read some of her work sometime, Tohru-neesan! She's got such beautiful poems about nature."
"I'm sure they're lovely!" Tohru smiled. "Perhaps when you bring it back, we could read it together, and you can show me some of your favorites."
"Oh, I'd love that!" Kisa said enthusiastically, and both girls smiled widely. Yuki and Hiro just observed, Yuki smiling and Hiro's face not showing any emotion as he reached for the final rice ball and stuffed it in his mouth.

Kisa and Hiro left shortly afterward, promising to visit again soon. Tohru enthusiastically declared she wanted to see them again as well.
"Do you really mean that?" Yuki asked her, after they had gone.
"Of course! They're really good kids," she said.
"But they're 19 and 20 years old," Yuki said.
"I know, but they're still younger than us," Tohru smiled. "Oh, I have to go take down the laundry..."

She shuffled upstairs and Yuki smiled.
"Do you want them over next Sunday, perhaps?" he called after her.
She turned around and gave him an enormous smile.
"I'd love that, and I'm sure they would too!" she said, and disappeared into the second floor.