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.
