"So, Kyo came back." Shigure hummed as he sat next to Akito on her veranda, watching the girl hold out a pair of fingers for a nearby sparrow to alight upon.
"Kyo? What made him come back?" Akito asked curiously.
"Who knows? But, he's staying in my house now." Shigure hummed. "I guess he's gonna go to the same school as Yuki."
"Those two under the same roof? Is that really a good idea?" Akito asked with a small frown.
"Not for my repair bills." Shigure sighed. "Kyo literally came crashing through the roof when he showed up. He wasn't even on his feet for a second before threatening to beat the life out of Yuki."
"Living with gunpowder and fire would be less chaotic than those two," Akito said, smiling a bit as she absently stroked the sparrow's head with a finger.
"Probably. But neither of them are ever gonna even consider living here again." Shigure replied, smiling back at her.
Akito's smile fell into a scowl.
"Oh, yeah! There's something else I should tell you." Shigure said, smiling even wider. "So, it turns out one of Yuki and Kyo's classmates was homeless and was living in a tent on the land. I guess she didn't think anyone lived nearby. But, with that landslide the other day, her living situation is kaput. So, she's gonna be living with us!"
Akito's eyes went wide at that and looked at Shigure in confusion. "You let some random homeless girl live with you three? Shigure, you're not that stupid."
"I don't think I'm stupid at all." Shigure hummed. "But, she found out about the curse. She's promised to keep the family secret, but I think Yuki put the worm in her head that, when she meets you, you'll have her memory erased or something."
"What about this situation doesn't seem stupid to you? It's a recipe for disaster." Akito asked with a frown.
"Well, the thing with Tohru is that she's extremely dense. She's dumb, Aki. She's the exact opposite of you. I think we could use her to get what we want." Shigure said with a small smile.
"We?"
"I'm not your enemy, Akito. I've always ever been your closest ally." Shigure said, taking Akito's hand and lacing their fingers together.
"Sometimes you have a funny way of showing that," Akito replied, holding onto Shigure's hand.
"I just want the best for you, Akito, and for the family. Tohru's an idiot and I'm on her good side. If we keep her around, we can make her do whatever we want." Shigure said, leaning in closer to Akito and pressing their foreheads together.
"Is she easily likable?" Akito asked the bird on her finger flying away as she moved to wrap her arms around Shigure's shoulders.
"Extremely."
"The Zodiac seems tense, fractured. Perhaps she can be used to unite everyone again, and bring them all back to me."
"Exactly. Leave it to you to think of something like that."
"What can I say? I want the moon."
Shigure just smiled in reply and leaned in further to seal their plan of action with a deep kiss. Akito grabbed the straw fan Shigure had brought with and used it to block their faces from view, not willing to part from her lover to move out of sight just yet. She lost track of time as the scent of Shigure's skin filled her head, only snapping from her daze as Shigure moved next to her and lifted her into his arms to carry her inside to her bedroom.
Within a few hours, Akito was lying nude on her futon while Shigure continued to kiss her skin, his face nuzzling between her breasts. She started to absently play with his hair, smiling happily as they laid lazily with each other.
"It's weird. Yuki used to have a room not too far from yours, right? You think he ever heard us accidentally?" Shigure asked as he scooted up to rest his head on her shoulder and absently massage one of her breasts.
"Probably," Akito replied with a small laugh. "He'd be too scared to ever say anything to anyone, though."
"That sounds about right." Shigure chuckled. "Oh, speaking of Yuki, he and Kyo have some sort of school festival coming up. Yuki's been roped into wearing a dress."
"What?" Akito asked before laughing aloud. "Oh, my god, I need to go to see that."
Shigure grinned and leaned up to kiss her cheeks and lips again. "I'll leave the flyer tomorrow."
"Wonderful." Akito hummed, moving to start playing with Shigure's dark hair and staying next to him until he needed to leave and head home. Akito dressed and watched Shigure disappear from sight, still smiling happily to herself.
Akito got excited for the school cultural festival as the day drew closer and closer. In the morning, she dressed in plain black pants and a black turtleneck sweater and ate breakfast quickly. She popped a cough drop into her mouth in an attempt to quell the coughing fits that had kept her up all night and headed down the halls of the main house to find Hatori.
When she got to his house nearby, he was still drinking his morning coffee, and still seemed tired when she got to his front door.
"Hatori! Are you almost ready to go?" Akito asked eagerly, a disposable camera in her hand.
"You look really flushed, Akito. Are you sure you feel well enough to leave the house at all?" Hatori asked with a small frown.
"Of course. I feel perfectly fine." Akito replied before coughing into her elbow rather violently.
Hatori cocked an eyebrow. "Sure. Come here, Akito."
"I'm fine!" Akito insisted. "Come on, it's starting about now."
"Akito," Hatori repeated.
Akito sighed and reluctantly walked closer to Hatori and let the man push her bangs out of the way and press the back of his hand to her forehead.
"Akito, you're burning up. Let me check your temperature. Go ahead and sit down." Hatori said.
Akito sighed and took a seat at Hatori's small dinner table, watching the man disappear into a room to get the thermometer from his bag. He came back and promptly stuck it under her tongue. While the device registered her temperature, he picked up his coffee cup and finished it off.
He took the thermometer once it was finished. "Jesus Christ. Akito, you're running a fever of 104 degrees. You need to stay home today."
"What? But Yuki's going to be in a dress, it'll be hilarious!" Akito whined.
"You're not going to that festival, doctor's orders. You're going to go back to your room, put your pajamas back on, and go right back to bed."
"But, Hatori!"
"I'm serious, Akito. Do I need to carry you back or can you go on your own?"
Akito huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. It was only when Hatori moved closer to grab her that she finally moved and swatted him away.
"Fine, fine! But you need to go in my place. I want pictures, Hatori." She said, getting up and pushing the camera into Hatori's hands.
"Alright, Akito," Hatori replied before setting a hand on her back and gently guiding her back to her bedroom to make sure she didn't pass out on the way. He didn't leave until he'd seen her change back into her pajamas and crawl under the warm covers of her futon. "Sleep well, Akito."
"I'm going to be mad if there are no pictures when you come back," Akito said, still pouting from her bed.
Hatori just smiled and made sure her room was dark before bowing respectfully and leaving with the door shut behind him.
Akito fell asleep within a few minutes, sleeping to hard to dream and only waking up when she felt a hand shaking her shoulder gently.
"Sir?" One of the older maids asked softly as Akito rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "I'm sorry to wake you, but it's time for lunch."
"Oh, alright," Akito replied drowsily, sitting up and moving over to the table to eat.
"Also, Hatori's returned. He told me to give these to you." The maid said, handing over a small photo envelope.
Akito took a moment to register it before smiling and taking the envelope and pulling out the picture inside. She gasped and laughed with a hand over her mouth at the sight of Yuki in what looked like a very frilly, albeit out of style, ankle-length dress.
"Look at this! Isn't that the most hilarious thing you've ever seen?" She said, showing the photo to the maid, who blinked in shock and laughed lightly as well.
"It's very funny. The dress weirdly suits him, I think." The maid agreed politely.
"Oh my god, it does!" Akito laughed. "Do we have any sort of frame for this?"
"I'm sure we do. I'll find one for you, sir." The maid replied.
"That would be perfect." Akito hummed, setting the photo aside and starting to eat the simple meal of miso soup and rice that had been set in front of her.
The maid came back with a frame for the picture in a few minutes and put the photo inside of it for her. Akito smiled contently once the photograph had been framed and ate the rest of her food with ease. She yawned and crawled back into her futon to return to sleep.
She slept through the rest of the day, waking again only to eat dinner before bathing and returning to bed. She eyed the photo as she laid herself back down for the night and smiled softly. She'd have to make sure she showed the picture to Shigure the next time he came over. He'd think it was hilarious, and she was sure Yuki wouldn't ever let him know what happened at the culture festival himself.
Akito woke up late in the morning to the sound of Momiji talking excitedly and loudly to someone outside. She rubbed her eyes drowsily, deciding to just ignore the boy as she got up and finger combed through her hair and bangs. She guessed it wouldn't be too much longer until Hatori stopped in to check her temperature, so she got out of bed and wrapped her roll of bandages around her breasts, just in case she saw anyone else during the day. She checked her work in the mirror, satisfied when she saw the flatter shape her chest had taken. With that, she secured her nagajuban shut once again with the obi.
"Knock, knock," Shigure said from her doorway. "Look at you, up bright and early at…. ten am."
Akito rolled her eyes as Shigure tapped his bare wrist. "As if you're really one to talk about sleep schedules."
"That's fair." Shigure laughed, stepping into the room. "Have you eaten yet?"
"Not yet, no. I only just woke up." Akito replied
"Well, damn, Aki. You're making me look like a well-adjusted adult." Shigure laughed, his nose wrinkling as he teased her.
"Even I can't make you look like something you're not," Akito replied, smiling back at Shigure and moving to brush some of his dark hair from his face.
"What, you don't have any sort of crazy god powers?" Shigure asked with a grin as he took hold of her hand and held onto it.
"Not unless you include being chronically ill," Akito replied, lacing her fingers with his.
"Then explain how you've made me a lovesick wreck." Shigure hummed, leaning down to nuzzle her cheek with his nose.
Akito felt her face get warmer against Shigure's nose, only burning hotter as the man gently started to kiss her cheek and all over the side of her face. She wrapped her arms to hug him close and held on tightly to the fabric of his kimono.
"I love you." She said softly.
"I know," Shigure replied, kissing her cheek a couple more times. "I love you, too. I love you more than anyone ever could."
Akito smiled at the words and let Shigure thread his fingers through her hair. She sat next to him in comfortable silence for a little bit before moving to grab the framed photo and bring it back to him.
"Look what Hatori brought back from Kyo and Yuki's high school festival yesterday." She hummed, handing him the photo.
Shigure blinked before laughing heartily as he took the photo. "Oh my god. That is the best thing I've seen all day." he grinned. "He didn't say anything about a dress when I asked about the festival yesterday."
"I wanted to go, but Hatori wouldn't let me." Akito sighed.
"Maybe next time there's a big event or something. The entrance ceremony will be coming up in spring. Momiji and Hatsuharu will be first years, so you could probably go to that and see everyone then." Shigure hummed. "Plus, there's always the New Year's banquet coming up."
"That's true." Akito nodded, leaning into Shigure. "Is there any news with the lodger girl?"
"Oh, Tohru? No, not really. She's met Kagura, Momiji, Hatsuharu, and Hatori now. She's really bad at guessing which animal everyone is." Shigure replied. "It was kind of funny, it took her until Kagura had transformed in front of her for her to finally figure out she's the boar. She still treated it like a big eureka moment."
"She must be really stupid, then," Akito said with a small smile. "Good, that's good to hear."
"Everything's going pretty well so far." Shigure agreed. "It's looking good."
"We'll see how New Years goes."
"It'll be fine, just like it always is," Shigure assured her, standing up to leave.
"You're leaving already?" Akito asked, standing up after him.
"Yeah, sorry. I've got a deadline I should probably at least try to make." Shigure hummed, giving her back the photo and pressing a kiss to her forehead. "I'll see you at the banquet if I don't stop by earlier. I'll probably stop by earlier."
"Alright. I'll see you later, then." Akito hummed, reluctantly letting him go and watching him disappear down the hallway.
She sighed once she was alone again. It wouldn't be long until a maid brought in some food for her. Akito yawned and moved to the large circular window on the wall of her room and slid it open to let the fresh, crisp air into her room. She knelt in front of it and relaxed inside the sill, feeling the winter wind whip her hair around her face.
A little bit away from the house, Shigure was talking to someone as he walked out of the main estate. The unfamiliar voice didn't sound like any girl Akito had ever met. The girl was following Shigure around like a duckling, though looking around at everything around her in wonder. The girl turned her attention towards the main house and stared.
Akito could only assume she was the one called Tohru. She knew everyone in the family already, so she could only be Shigure's lodger. Tohru's large, doe-like brown eyes got even wider as they made eye contact with each other. Her long brown hair was whipping in front of her face in the wind.
Akito held her gaze for a moment before getting up and sliding the window shut as her meal arrived.