Chapter Three

"What are you smiling about?"

"Hmm?" Momiji looked up to see Tsuki standing over him where he sat on one of the benches along the path to her dorm.

"You have a little smile on your face."

"Do I?"

"Yes," she said sitting next to him. "What's that you're looking at?" He handed her the booklet of photos and watched her. Her eyes widened. "Is that your mother?"

"Ja."

"She's beautiful. You look just like her," she said, smiling, and he drank in the sight of her, her dark hair pulled back in its usual pony tail, her brown eyes shining, the curve of her mouth as she smiled. "And who's this?"

He glanced at the photograph. "That's Momo, my little sister. She just started fifth grade this year."

"She's lovely. So how did they meet? Your parents I mean."

A sly grin appeared on his lips as he tossed her a sideways glance. "In college."

He watched the flush creeping into her cheeks. "Oh."

"My father went to study oversees in Germany and they fell in love and came back here once they'd finished their studies."

"It sounds like a fairy tale, doesn't it? That part of the story anyway..." She squeezed his hand as she returned the photos. "Were you waiting for me?"

He nodded. "I wanted to know if you could come over tonight," he asked draping his arm over her shoulders. He yearned to touch her whenever they were together even if it was only in the slightest way. It occurred to him that some might consider him clingy, but Tsuki never seemed to mind so he didn't dwell on it. In fact, he thought as she took his hand, she seemed rather to like it.

"You could've called, you know," she said as she traced minuscule circles on the palm of his hand.

"This way's more fun." His whole body tingled with the nearness of her. He longed to embrace her, to press her against his chest if only for an instant. He settled for leaning closer to her and letting his lips brush against her ear as he whispered "Bitte, Tsuki?" Her breath caught in her throat.

"I have a test tomorrow, you know. I need to study."

"So bring your books. I won't stop you."

She smiled wryly. "You'll distract me like you always do."

"You find me distracting?"

"You know I do. And don't you have a recital tomorrow?"

He shrugged. "I have a free period today to practice."

"If I fail my French exam I'm blaming you."

"You'll do fine. So you'll come over?" he asked, rising to his feet and pulling her up with him.

"Yes."

"Good," he breathed and, after casting a furtive glance around to be sure that no one was nearby, leaned in to kiss her.

With practised efficiency they kept just far enough apart. One of her hands rested on his chest, just over his heart, a reminder of the distance that must be kept between them. So instead of pulling her close, he let his fingers trace down her spine. He loved the way she shuddered beneath his touch, the way her breath caught in her throat.

They parted, breathlessly and stood there for a moment, eyes locked– until Tsuki all at once came to herself and glanced at her watch. "I'm going to be late for class!" She dashed to the bench to collect her book bag. "You're a terrible distraction, Momiji," she called over her shoulder, but she was smiling even as she said it and Momiji couldn't help but feel quite pleased with himself.

"Momiji Sohma."

He turned at the sound of his name and felt the blood drain from his face as he saw the speaker.

"Momiji Sohma, it's you, isn't it? I hardly recognised you. You're all grown up."

"Ms. Kana. What are you doing here?"

"I'm attending a medical lecture on campus. You're a student here?"

His mouth felt dry. He tried to speak, swallowed, and tried again. "Yes. I'm a music student."

"That's wonderful. And that was your girlfriend?"

It felt as if all the blood in his body were running into his cheeks. "Tsuki. She's studying languages. I heard you got married a few years go. Congratulations."

"Thank-you. So how is everyone? How's Hatori?"

"Well." He still loves you. "He's doing well." He still misses you. "Everyone's doing well." We're still cursed.

"I'm glad," she said, smiling, unaware of the way Momiji's stomach had tied itself into knots, of the sweat breaking out on his brow, of how Tsuki's smiling face danced before his mind's eye between flashes of his mother when she'd been heart-sick, unable to bear even the sight of him. "I won't keep you any longer. When you see Hatori tell him I said hello, all right?"

"Of course." And then she was gone.

With a slow, deep breath Momiji tried to centre himself. He had classes to attend, recitals to practice for, and Tsuki was coming over tonight. Even so, as he went on his way, all the spring was gone from his step.

ooo

The sound of a knock on the door sent Momiji leaping to his feet, his heart hammering in his chest. For a long while the only sound in the room had been the rain drumming against his livingroom window. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he moved to the door and opened it only to find a bedraggled looking Tsuki on his doorstep.

"I swear it didn't look like it would rain." A pool was forming at her feet from the water dripping from her hair and clothes.

"No wonder you're called 'Ame'; the wet weather seems to follow you around." He stepped aside and she entered his apartment still dripping and he went to fetch something with which to dry her off. "You're soaked," he announced as he towelled her hair.

"No really, I'm just a little damp."

He snorted. "You're wet. And you're going to make my floor, my furniture and me wet if I so much as touch you– which I plan to, by the way," he added with a grin, earning a smile from her in return. "Here I'll get you some of my clothes to change into and while you dry off I'll make us something hot to drink."

As he headed for his room he could feel her watching him. "Momiji, is something–" she began as he reappeared with a pair of pants and a shirt, but he didn't let her finish the question.

"They'll be a bit big for you, but it's only till your things dry out."

"Momiji, tell me what's wrong."

He dropped his eyes. How did she always know? "Change first. Then we can talk."

She nodded and while she disappeared into the washroom he prepared some tea. How she so often managed to get caught in the rain was a mystery to him. She did own an umbrella– two in fact as he'd given her an extra one on her birthday as a joke. They'd been so happy then, just a month ago. Even this morning... This very morning he'd been thinking about his parents and how they'd married right out of college. He'd thought of them and imagined a happy future for himself, in spite of Akito and the curse and everything. But after seeing Kana...

"You're far away."

He came to himself at Tsuki's words and realized he'd been standing at the kitchen counter over two still empty tea cups. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

He didn't turn to face her, but, instead, slowly, deliberately, poured the tea, cringing inwardly as he imagined the look of concern on her face. "How do you always know when something's troubling me? Even if I'm smiling you can tell."

He felt her hand come to rest between his shoulder blades and then gently begin to rub his back. A sigh escaped him as muscles he hadn't even realized were tensed, began to loosen. "I just do," she replied. "Most of the time you're– well it's as if someone had taken all this energy and compacted it inside you and it's always bouncing around trying to get out. When you're upset it's not there; it's as if it had all drained away somehow."

"Tsuki," he whispered as he finally turned to her.

"What happened, Momiji?"

"I saw Kana today."

As gasp escaped her. "Hatori's Kana?"

Momiji nodded. He had told her Hatori's story; he'd felt it was essential to do so. Tsuki knew of the curse– her family had lived with it– but he had needed to be certain she truly understood the possible consequences of their relationship. He had not seen Kana when she'd been ill, but he had seen his mother and the thought of Tsuki ever walking that dark path...

"Tsuki, I'm afraid for you," he pleaded, taking her face in his hands. "I want to be with you. Not just for this year or while we're in college, but always."

"I want that to," she breathed.

"But–" But if Akito... He couldn't bear to speak his name. "If anyone finds out..."

She drew closed to him, a hair's breadth away. Her voice trembled as she spoke. "No one needs to find out. I... I didn't tell my mother. And my friends don't know the Sohma family."

"Tsuki..." He bowed his head and let it rest atop hers. He was gripping her arms, willing himself to maintain that slight distance between their bodies while he yearned to pull her to him to comfort her, to comfort himself.

"No one needs to know. It can be our secret."

"This isn't what I wanted." The warmth of her breath was tickling against his neck. "I don't want you to be in danger. I–"

"Ich liebe dich."

His heart skipped a beat. "What did you say?"

She drew back to look him in the eye. "Ich liebe dich. Je t'aime. Te amo. I love you." And then she kissed him hard and he could barely think with the way his heart was pounding in his chest, his pulse thrumming in his ears, with the warmth of her lips, her mouth, and the feel of her skin beneath his fingertips. They parted for a moment to draw breath. "No matter what," she said fiercely.

He wanted to tell her what she meant to him, what it meant that she would risk her happiness to be with him, but he could barely speak through tingling lips. "Liebling," he breathed, looking into her eyes, stroking her face. A smile touched her lips and he leaned down to kiss her again.

And then somehow they were doing more than kissing. With trembling hands he was undoing the buttons of her shirt– which had never been this uncooperative when he'd worn it. Her hair was still wet and smelled of rain and he paused to trail his lips down her throat. A little gasp escaped him as her fingers crept beneath his shirt and explored the skin there.

Drawing a ragged breath he pulled back enough to look her into her face. "We need to–"

"Be careful. I know." She smiled then and brushed a strand of blond hair out of eyes. "I'm sure we'll manage."

ooo

The rain was coming down in buckets, but, even were the skies to open up and unleash a typhoon, nothing could dampen Momiji's spirits that morning as he called forth the joyful notes of Vivaldi's "Autumn" from his violin.

"You sound happy." It was only as he came to the end of the piece that he noticed Tsuki watching from the doorway of his bedroom, clad only in the shirt he had leant her the night before. It was absurdly large on her, the shirt tails, trailing down her thighs. He drank in the sight of her and grinned as a blush crept into her cheeks. Pausing only a moment to set down his violin, he bounded across the room and kissed her.

"Guten Morgen, Liebling."

For a moment they stood there, foreheads pressed together, gripping each others' forearms, bodies a hair's breadth apart. It was the closest they could come to embracing, but today Momiji could not regret even that for he had been closer to her than to any other. Every breath carried the scent of her skin, her hair, so that he felt he was inhaling her essence, making her a part of his very being. Even now the taste of her remained on his lips. His fingers tingled at the memory of her skin, its softness, and the dips and curves of her body, all his to explore. He felt a pang, a tightening in his chest, at the thought of his name on her lips: it was like the joy that poured from the violin's strings, tremulous and achingly beautiful.

As they stood there he knew he wanted to remember everything, every nuance, every detail about last night, about this morning. No matter what happened he would always have this moment. "I want to remember this always," he whispered.

"So do I," she breathed and he gripped her arms all the more tightly as he pressed his lips to hers again.

"Ich liebe dich. Jetzt und immer," he whispered.

The sound of their breaths and that of the rain on the window pane was all that disturbed the stillness and Momiji would have been content to remain like that forever– but his stomach was not in agreement with the sentiment and chose that moment to rumble loudly. He shrugged, abashed. "I haven't eaten."

They were both grinning at this but then Tsuki's eyes drifted to a point behind him and widened. "That clock back there, it's not running fast, is it?"

He glanced over his shoulder. "No, I don't think so."

"I'm going to be late for class!"

"Didn't you have a test today?" he asked, his stomach fluttering uncomfortably.

"It's this afternoon. I can review the material at lunch," she replied as she dashed around his apartment gathering her things.

"I guess I... distracted you."

He heard a laugh from the vicinity of the bathroom where she was putting on her clothes which, by now, would have thoroughly dried out. "Oh just a little," she said as she poked her head out the door.

"I could quiz you on the material if you'd like," he offered. She emerged fully dressed and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "I'd distract you again, wouldn't I?"

"Try not to be too pleased with yourself."

"Take an umbrella!" he called as she reached for the door.

"Oh! Right!"

"Gott in Himmel," he muttered as he pulled an umbrella out of his closet and handed it to her.

She took the umbrella, kissed him quickly, and then ran out the door and down the corridor. Momiji's heart bounded for joy as he watched her.

-------------------------------------------------

Ja: Yes

Bitte: Please

Ame: Japanese for "rain"

Liebling: German endearment derived from "Liebe" i.e. "love" and a diminutive. It's used in the way "dear" or "darling" are in English.

Guten Morgen: Good morning

Ich liebe dich. Jetzt und immer : I love you. Now and always.

Gott in Himmel: God in Heaven