The next morning, the Sohmas were finishing their late breakfast when Sachiko looked over at Kyo and said, "By the way, Daddy, I'm gonna be meeting the bus again this morning, so I'm not gonna waiting for you today, either."

"Again?" Kyo asked, lowering his chopsticks and looking back at her. "I'm starting to think there's some grand plot you guys're hatching; either that or you've started thinking we spend too much time together," he said, his voice light and teasing.

"You know we could never spend too much time together, Daddy, but I'm not gonna deny the grand plot theory," Sachiko said with a grin. "You wanna start making guesses, and I'll tell you if you're right or not?"

"As if I ever wanna try and figure out what you and your friends'd be up to," Kyo said, chuckling as Tohru giggled.

"Is everything alright, Sachiko?" Tohru asked. "Not that there's anything wrong with you wanting to see your friends, of course, I just know how much you two usually like walking to the dojo together on Saturdays!"

"Yeah, everything's fine," Sachiko said with a grin. "There's just some stuff going on lately, and there aren't a lot of chances for us all to talk about it."

Understanding flashed in Tohru's eyes, and she smiled knowingly as she lifted her teacup. "Does this have anything to do with where you were last evening, sweetheart?"

Sachiko grinned and shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe."

Now Kyo understood too, and he shook his head as he took another bite of food. "So really, you've gotta go so you can have your girl talk? Guess it's just as well to get that outta your systems before you gotta focus on class, but I sure feel bad for Takashi and Shota, having to be around you three when you're yammering about that stuff."

"We don't yammer, Daddy, and don't be so close-minded," Sachiko said, sticking out her tongue.

"Fine." Kyo cleared his throat, then gave his daughter an angelic smile. "I'm glad you've got healthy friendships and have a lotta things you and your friends can talk about together."

Tohru and Sachiko were both giggling, and Tohru looked from Kyo back to Sachiko. "Are you going to be going out with them again today after karate?"

Sachiko shook her head. "Nope, and I actually mean it today," she said, grinning sheepishly at her mom. "So I'll be home for lunch. But I am planning to head into Nigeyashi later today for a while, if that's ok?" she asked, looking from Tohru to Kyo.

"Define 'later today' and 'a while," Kyo said, taking another bite.

"Five, and probably be back around, I don't know..." Sachiko thought for a little bit. "Nine-thirty? Maybe ten?"

Tohru and Kyo exchanged a glance, and Tohru asked, "What will you be doing?"

"Pretty much the same thing as yesterday," Sachiko said, grinning, and both of her parents lowered their chopsticks.

"Another date?" Tohru asked in surprise, and Kyo frowned.

"Sachi, we get you like to go out and do things, but you think you're maybe jumping into this a bit aggressively?" Kyo asked, earning a nod from Tohru. "You were out last night, you wanna go out tonight, you and Rei just broke up a week ago...don't you think you maybe oughtta slow down?"

Sachiko was frowning a little worriedly herself. "If you guys think I'm doing something I shouldn't-"

"-It's not that we don't trust you, sweetheart," Tohru said immediately, and Kyo nodded. "You know we've always trusted your judgement-"

"-So long as you don't give us any reason to change that," Kyo said promptly, and that time Tohru nodded.

"-but it just...well, it just feels like a lot. Especially since you just broke up."

"Ok, yeah, maybe we did only just officially break up," Sachiko admitted, "but Rei and I really could've broken up ages ago with nothing changing. I hadn't even kissed him for like...a month by the time we broke up, so," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "I promise, I'm not rushing into anything, it's just the only times I really have free to do stuff with anyone are Friday after karate and then Saturdays, so especially with Culture Fest stuff coming up I just...wanna take advantage," she said.

Tohru and Kyo both considered for a moment before having one of those strange couple-y conversations of theirs that seemed to be conducted entirely telepathically. Then Tohru gave Sachiko a smile.

"As long as you spend some time this afternoon working on your homework, then that's fine."

Sachiko broke into a wide grin. "Great, thanks! And I promise I'll text when I'm getting ready to leave Nigeyashi," she said with an impish look at both of her parents. "So you guys'll know exactly when I'm gonna be back."

Kyo snorted, and Tohru giggled. Then Tohru glanced at the clock. "What time do you need to go, Sachiko?"

Sachiko followed her gaze, then stood up and began stacking her dishes. "As soon as I've brushed my teeth. You want me to grab anything at the store on my way home from karate, Mom?"

Tohru shook her head. "No, but thank you. I'll just plan on seeing you for lunch!"

"Enjoy your gossip," Kyo called, and Sachiko giggled as she walked from the kitchen to the stairs.

"We will!"


When Sachiko's friends got off the bus, she was practically tackled.

"Sachi, please give us some actual info?" Kaede said, looking at her pleadingly. "Even though we kept our voices down and were positive no one could overhear anything, Takashi wouldn't say a word."

"He kept smirking at us when we tried to get him to talk, though, so we think that's a good sign. Is that a good sign?" Emi asked, looping her arm through Sachiko's. "Are you guys going to go out again?"

Sachiko shot Takashi a look, and he shrugged, but he was smiling. And Sachiko was smiling too as she said "Yeah, we are."

The news was greeted by excited noises from Emi and Kaede, who'd taken Sachiko's other arm, and Shota nudged Takashi as he murmured "Told you you should've said something ages ago."

"Shut up," Takashi murmured back, and the five of them started up the road to the dojo.

"So, on that note, guys," Sachiko said, "Before I say anything, I wanna remind you guys Daddy doesn't know, and I don't plan on telling him yet. Yeah, we're gonna have a second date," she said, smiling at Takashi, "But it's not like we're serious or anything right now-"

"Right now?" Emi teased, and Sachiko shoved her.

"If we get serious, then I'll tell him-"

"-oof, good luck, Takashi," Shota said with a teasingly sympathetic look.

"-But for now, I wanna keep this outta the dojo, ok? So not in earshot of anyone else, even," Sachiko said firmly. "I don't think Daddy'd be weird about it, and definitely not mad, but I'd just...I'd rather not have it be a thing just yet, ok?"

"Yes, that makes sense."

"Yeah, of course!"

"Don't worry, it's not a problem."

But once that was taken care of, it was time to get to the nitty-gritty.

"Ok, so...the date?"


"I'm home," Sachiko called as she stepped into the house just before lunch, and she grinned at the sound of Tohru's cheerful

"Welcome home, Sachiko!"

The house smelled delicious, and Sachiko's stomach growled appreciatively as she walked into the kitchen.

"Anything I can help with, Mom?"

"Just bringing things to the table," Tohru said, smiling as she began to dish up their food. "Though actually, would you mind making me a cup of tea?"

"Sure!" Sachiko promptly headed to the cabinet and got out Tohru's tea things, quickly measuring out the matcha powder and adding boiling water from the kettle. Normally Kyo did this, but Sachiko knew how, too, and often made it when Kyo wasn't around. She herself never drank the stuff, but she liked making it for her mom.

Soon enough the tea was ready, the food was served, and they were both sitting down at the table.

"I see you were banking on Daddy staying at the dojo over lunch," Sachiko said with a grin as she started on her scrambled eggs with garlic chives. It was a favorite of both Sachiko and Tohru, but Kyo's dislike of anything chive-related was well-known and deeply respected.

"Well, I did mention to him I was planning to make this today," Tohru said, giggling. "So whatever he was originally thinking, he certainly wasn't coming home after that!"

"Hey, I'm not complaining," Sachiko said with satisfaction as she took another bite. "I know we've all got our quirks, but I really wish Daddy was better with chives."

"I'm planning to open the windows after lunch, just to be on the safe side," Tohru said, then smiled across the table. "It's nice to have lunch once in a while just the two of us, isn't it?"

Sachiko smiled back. "Yeah, it really is." Although she wasn't as close to Tohru as she was to Kyo, their relationship had come a long way from Sachiko's difficult toddler years when she'd barely even been willing to acknowledge her mother. Sachiko knew she wasn't the daughter her mother had imagined: the daughter who'd share her feminine style and domestic interests, the daughter who Tohru would be able to bond with the same way she'd been bonded with her own mother. Accepting the dynamic they had had been hard for both of them at times; there were definitely moments Sachiko wasn't proud of, when she'd been dismissive or even hurtful to Tohru for absolutely no reason.

But time and patience had done wonderful things for their relationship; Sachiko had come to accept that there was nothing inherently 'weak' or 'bad' about being more classically feminine, and Tohru had come to acknowledge that just because Sachiko didn't share many of her interests didn't mean they still couldn't find common ground, or even still be close.

Just looking at the two of them, sitting across the table from each, was a great study in those common differences. Tohru was wearing a floral-print skirt with a pale pink ruched top, her hair pulled back in a low ponytail and tied with a matching pink ribbon. Sachiko, meanwhile, was sporting her favorite pair of bubblegum pink jeans with a studded belt and a plain white tee, her hair gathered back in a high ponytail secured with a pink scrunchie. And both of them were smiling, the exact same smile, as they looked over at the other.

Sachiko doubted she'd ever be able to understand how her mother found so much happiness in domesticity, but she couldn't deny that Tohru seemed to have been born to have a home and family. She hadn't always appreciated it when she was younger, but as she'd grown, she'd come to realize and cherish just how much Tohru did for them all. Sachiko knew that she was lucky; she'd always been lucky, having the parents she did.

She only hoped they knew that, too.


The two of them ate in companionable silence for a little while, but as they ate, Sachiko started to be aware of little looks from Tohru. Tohru would take a bite and glance across the table at Sachiko, frown slightly, then look down, frown again, look up again...Sachiko could tell she had something on her mind, and in spite of the automatic wariness it provoked, Sachiko couldn't help but be amused. She knew, as well as everyone else, just how much she looked like Tohru; whenever her mom did something like this, it made her imagine doing it herself and seeing just what kind of reactions she'd get.

Sachiko had always been infinitely more direct than her mother, even now.

"Just go ahead and say it, Mom, whatever it is. It's fine, we can talk!"

Tohru looked up at her in surprise, then blushed. "I'm sorry, Sachiko, I didn't realize I was being so obvious!"

"Yeah, well, you're kinda always obvious," Sachiko said with a grin. It was an inescapable fact that her parents were both terrible actors, which was part of what had always made the idea of their second-year class play so hilarious to Sachiko. Tohru was by far the worst offender; if she had something on her mind, it was never hard to guess.

"Even so, I'm sorry," Tohru repeated. "But I did have something I wanted to talk to you about, while we have the chance."

Sachiko looked at her expectantly, and after a moment, Tohru had suitably psyched herself up.

"Sachiko, are you sure you want to be dating again already, really? I know you said you and Rei hadn't been going anywhere for some time before you broke up, but you still only just broke up. And you moved rather quickly onto Rei from Yoshito, too, if I remember correctly."

Sachiko wasn't in the least surprised by the topic, and she was prepared to defend and explain herself. "Yoshito and I broke up in January, Mom, and Rei and I didn't start dating until April. That's not exactly back-to-back."

"Oh," Tohru said, frowning slightly, then looked up. "But there were others in between them, weren't there? I feel sure you've been pretty regularly dating all this year."

"Well, yeah, there were," Sachiko said, shrugging. "Nothing that ever became long-term or serious, though."

"You know your father and I support you having a social life, sweetheart," Tohru said gently. "And we both want you to be happy. But have you considered maybe...trying something else? Maybe spending more of that time with your friends, instead of always going out on dates?"

Sachiko shrugged. "Honestly, Mom, it's...not really that easy, really. Karate takes a lot of time, especially with it being in Hibe, so like I said this morning, Fridays and Saturdays are really my only time to do stuff. Some of my friends are dating themselves, or have jobs, or extra club activities...it's not like everyone else's going off and doing stuff without me, everyone is just mostly doing their own things too. And I like dating," she said, grinning. "It's a chance to meet new guys, which is almost always fun, even if the dates end up sucking-"

"Sucking?" asked Tohru, a little concerned, and Sachiko shrugged.

"Where the guy ends up being a jerk, or an idiot, or something else where I don't wanna see him again."

"That doesn't sound very fun," Tohru said with a worried frown, and Sachiko grinned at her.

"No? See, I think it's kinda fun to take a guy who things a girl should be a pretty little airhead and crush his expectations. Yeah, he might not be happy about it himself, but I am."

Tohru was staring blankly at her now, and Sachiko sighed.

"I promise, Mom, there's nothing to worry about. Yeah, I like to date, and yeah, I even like to kiss," she said, grinning impishly. "But that's as far as anything's ever gone, with anyone. It's not like I'm easy, just 'cause I like to date, and that's not about to change. I'm responsible," she stressed, "and I know my boundaries. And since our talk this summer," she continued, "I know 'em even better!"

Tohru sighed, then gave Sachiko a little smile. "You're so very different from either of your brothers, sweetheart."

"Good thing, too; can you imagine how boring it'd be here if you had two Hajimes or two Katsus?"

Tohru giggled at that. "Well, I'm happy I got to have all three of you. You're all very different, yes, but all very special, in your own unique ways."

Sachiko couldn't help but beam at both the words and the obvious affection pouring from her mother's face. Then Tohru asked,

"Is the boy from today new?"

Sachiko shook her head. "It's the same guy from last night, actually."

"Oh," Tohru said, and Sachiko couldn't tell if that was a positive 'oh' or a negative one. "So...he clearly wasn't one of the type you were just telling me about then," she said after a moment, still smiling.

Sachiko tried to imagine Takashi calling her a 'pretty little airhead' any way other than sarcastically and failed miserably, but the idea still made her laugh. "No, he's not. He's...a pretty good guy, so far," she said, smiling down into her soup.

"Well, I hope he continues to be 'a pretty good guy' regardless," Tohru said. "I have to admit, it all feels so strange to me!"

"You kinda lucked out when it came to Daddy, Mom," Sachiko said as she looked across the table. "Yeah, you both had your own things you were dealing with," she said, her voice becoming quieter and more serious as she thought about how unbelievably different her parents' lives had been at sixteen, "But you gotta be right there with each other, and fall in love before you really even knew what you were doing."

"We certainly never 'dated' in the traditional sense," Tohru admitted, smiling as she thought back to her high school years. "I doubt it's a standard 'first date' activity to ask someone to move away with them, after all!" She added, giggling, "or to have that date happen after you've already said you loved each other."

"Yeah, you guys definitely did things a little differently, but I'd say it worked out for you both pretty well in the end," Sachiko said, and Tohru smiled.

"Yes, it definitely did," Tohru agreed. "I don't regret a single moment of our life together, or anything it's brought us."

Tohru's face was shining with love, and though her eyes were facing Sachiko she could tell that her mother couldn't see her. Sachi knew that face; she felt like she'd seen it a million times, over the course of her life. A face Tohru never had for anyone, or anything, except Kyo.

Someday, would there be someone in Sachiko's life who inspired that face? Was that look, overflowing with love and affection, somewhere inside her, just waiting to be unlocked?

Tohru soon snapped out of her reverie, and gave Sachiko an apologetic look. "I'm so sorry, Sachiko! I was just spacing out for a minute, just now."

"That's ok, Mom," Sachiko said, taking another bite of eggs. "It was cute."

Tohru giggled. "As your mother, I think I'm supposed to be the one who calls you cute."

"Hey, it can go both ways. Besides," Sachiko said, grinning, "we look so much alike that it's basically a compliment for both of us, right?"

"True," Tohru agreed with a smile, then she sighed. "If you're sure about the dating, Sachiko, then I suppose it's fine, as long as you're staying on top of your schoolwork. But make sure you're giving your friends time, too, even if you are all busy."

"Don't worry, Mom, I am," she said, smiling. "Or did you already forget about this morning?"

At that, Tohru laughed. "Maybe a little more than twenty minutes!"

"What about last Saturday?"

"I stand corrected," Tohru said, giggling. "I'm very glad to be, though."

They finished soon after that, and Sachiko dried the lunch dishes while Tohru washed them. Then Sachiko went up and got some of her homework, which she set to work on at the kitchen island while Tohru started cleaning the common area. Occasionally they would speak to each other, but mostly they just each worked in companionable silence. And as she worked out a particularly stubborn math problem, Sachiko couldn't help but smile.

It was nice, having a mother who cared.


Kyo returned home after his third class finished in the early afternoon, and both Tohru and Sachiko greeted him when he came in. His greeting to Sachiko was teasing; his greeting to Tohru, affectionate. And although she made a dramatic groaning noise and made a playful comment when her parents greeted each other with their customary kiss, Sachiko couldn't help but feel warm inside.

That was what she wanted, someday. To look at someone like Tohru looked at Kyo, and to have someone who looked at her the way Kyo looked at Tohru. To have so much love for each other, decades after getting together, that it was still visibly, almost painfully obvious to everyone around them, even when they were trying to rein it in.

And as she considered it, she thought about Takashi.

They definitely weren't there, she had to admit. She liked him, and she'd enjoyed their date. She was excited about their next one. But love?

No, there was no love. Not now. But there hadn't been love for her parents first, either, so...

She'd have to wait and see.