Author's Note: Welcome to the revised Chapter 2 for Moonlit Serenade. Thank you for your patience regarding this little story of mine, it's been years since I touched it, even though it has passed through my thoughts countless times. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Fruits Basket belongs to Takaya-San.

Chapter 2 - Please, Forgive Me

Tohru woke up feeling a cloth dampened with cool water being pressed to her face and neck. As she opened her eyes, she cold just make out Yuki perched on the side of her bed, taking tender care of her. She noticed his eyes were rimmed in red, had he been crying? Carefully, she sat up, her head feeling heavy.

She pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead. "What happened?"

"You passed out. When Shigure and I got home, you were on the floor." Yuki tried not to picture her in his mind, crumpled on the floor, looking broken. "You have been out for several hours." He dipped the cloth in the bowl of water that was sitting on the side table and handed it to her. "Hold this to your eyes. They are swollen from crying."

Tohru pressed the comforting cloth to her eyes until lights burst behind her eyelids. She could not believe Kyo was gone. Raising her gaze, she met Yuki's eyes. "I...I'm sorry. I am sorry for causing you so much trouble."

"No," Yuki replied, his voice small, but full of conviction. He looked away. "Don't be sorry. You have nothing to be sorry for…" His voice trailed off as a tear rolled down his cheek. Tohru leaned forward, now inches away, and placed her hand gently on his warm cheek, wiping the tear away with her thumb gently. Yuki covered her hand with his own and met her eyes.

The tenderness in her eyes was Yuki's undoing. All the emotions that had been building inside him burst to the surface, and he buried his face in his eyes as tears poured from his eyes. "I am so sorry, Tohru," he said, his voice broken. "This is all my fault. If it was not for me, you would be happy right now."

Tohru felt tears filling her own eyes. "It isn't your-"

"No!" Yuki interrupted, startling her with his vehemence. She had never seen him like this. Yuki was always so collected! "It is my fault! I should have been easier on him! I should have just let him win."

Tohru was overwhelmed and beginning to feel flustered. Suddenly recalling a trick Kyo had used on her once (trying not to focus too much on Kyo in the process), she threw the quilt from her bed over Yuki as a shield, and gathered him close to her. He didn't transform. Tohru did not understand why this worked, exactly, but she did not question it. It worked, and that was all that mattered. She was thankful for it as Yuki cried like a hurt child into her shoulder, clinging to her.

Yuki recalled when, as a child, he would need this sort of attention and his mother was never there. Yet, Tohru was, and he loved her the more for it. She was the Wendy Darling to his Peter Pan. She was his mother, his friend. He was so lucky to have her in his life, and he knew she cared for him as he cared for her. He knew this was nothing as compared to what she felt for Kyo. Their bond was something different, something stronger. Would they ever be able to share something like that? Was it possible for their friendship to progress into something more? Part of him doubted it, but he did not care. All that mattered was that moment. Tohru was there and he needed her, he would never dream of taking advantage of that.

Tohru continued to hold him as he cried himself out, not saying a word. He needed to just cry. She remembered a time when her mother would simply hold her and allow her a good cry, and it always helped. Gently, she rubbed his back, which seemed to comfort him. She knew he shouldered all the blame for Kyo's imprisonment. She cried in silence, her cheek resting against the silvery lavender of Yuki's hair. There they sat, in companionable silence, yet speaking volumes.

After a time, Yuki stopped crying and they just held each other. He didn't care that his quilt-shield was making him overly warm, it was trivial compared to how much he needed her.

"Please, Tohru, please forgive me," he whispered, the pain in his voice squeezing her heart.

Tohru leaned back, the quilt falling between them, and cradled his face in her hands. "Of course I do." She gave a slight smile as she shifted her gaze to his beautiful violet eyes. "None of us knew what was going to happen when this time came. None of us knew how close we would have become, to what lengths our relationships would have reached." She sounded wise beyond her years at that moment, Yuki noted.

"Thank you," said Yuki, as he placed a kiss on her forehead. A blush filled her cheeks and her brown eyes widened.

Yuki smiled. There was the Tohru he knew so well.

Kyo stared moodily through the bars of his prison within the walls of the Main Sohma House, the full moon casting a bluish light to the courtyard before him. Although only a single day had passed, he felt as though it had already been an eternity.

Her face was in everything he looked at, and he could hear her name in everything. In the song the crickets were singing, in the wind whistling through the trees, everywhere. She haunted him.

Kyo punched the wall, relishing the pain it brought, then wincing as he thought about how she would have brought his scraped knuckles to her lips to kiss the pain away. Such an innocent gesture with so much meaning, so very Tohru.

Why couldn't Hatori have just taken her away from his memories?

"That's easy," Kyo said to the shadows, shadows that had her face. "Akito wanted me to suffer as much as possible, the bitch. She would have forbid Hatori to do anything to help me."

He also knew that if Akito would make it so that if Tohru was to try to see him, she would get hurt. Akito just worked that way. If Tohru tried to contact him, Akito would make sure he never got the message.

If only he could just see her one more time. Hear her laugh, see her smile. Hell, he would be happy with a measly photograph. Anything to remember her by.

Because, he was not sure how long his memory would last…