Chapter 4 How do you do that?

Tohru wasn't sure how long she had slept. Her clock said 6:00 but she didn't know if that was morning or night. Had she only slept a few hours, or a whole night? She listened for clues in the house around her, but there were few sounds.

Her confused mind tried to think what she would hear if it were morning. The boys would be wandering around getting ready for school. Would one be in the shower? Shigure wasn't any help, because he never made a sound before 10AM. Either way, she decided, she needed to fix a meal, though she wasn't sure if it was breakfast or dinner.

Her body felt ten times heavier than usual as she tossed the covers back and swung her legs over the side of her bed. It barely registered in her groggy mind that she was so very cold and sore. All she thought of was her house duties. Pulling a clean uniform out of her drawer, Tohru slowly dressed for school, and pulled her robe on over it. Surely, it must be a freak weather spell for it to be this cold in the spring.

With her warmest socks peeking out from the edge of her robe, Tohru moved to her door and slid the shoji aside. Again, there were no clues to the time of day out in the hallway, so she continued to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, she found the remnants of the boys attempt to make tea and snacks. Dishes were stacked in the sink, and the kettle was still boiling on the stove. She turned off the eye and shook the kettle to find that most of the water had boiled away, and it was only a few minutes from burning the kettle. She had done that when she was little, and it really smelled awful.

There were no males present to ask what meal they wanted, so Tohru started pulling out ingredients for a breakfast that could be enjoyed in the evening. She felt awful but couldn't remember why. Each step took enormous effort, and her arms felt like lead. Her hands shook as she tried to mix the ingredients in a bowl. The room started to spin, and she grabbed for the edge of the counter to catch herself. Unfortunately, her hand hit the bowl and it tumbled off the surface to crash into a million pieces on the floor.

Tears streamed down her face as she looked at the mess she had made. And that was her favorite mixing bowl. Behind her, scrambling footsteps could be heard approaching the kitchen from all over the house. Kyo and Yuki reached the kitchen entrance at the same moment and yelled out in distress. "Tohru!" "Miss Honda!" Then Shigure and Hatori ran up behind the younger boys. That answered one question. It must be dinner time if Shigure is awake.

Tohru turned bleary and unfocused eyes towards the doorway to begin her sorrowful apology for being so clumsy and for being so late in fixing dinner. But before she could open her mouth, Hatori and Kyo were beside her, each catching an arm to escort her out of the kitchen. Hatori was lightly scolding her, "Tohru, you are not supposed to get up out of bed. You will really hurt yourself if you do not follow my orders. If this happens again, we will have to admit you to the hospital where you can be monitored."

Kyo added his opinion, "Stupid girl! How are you supposed to get better if you don't let us take care of you? I can cook meals until you are well."

Tohru was thoroughly confused now. Her fevered mind did not remember the prior events of falling sick and being treated by Hatori. She just looked around like a lost child and hoped someone would explain. Shigure stepped up to that role, "Tohru-dear. Do you not remember falling ill and Hatori driving you home?" Her stringy hair whirled about as she shook her head no.

Yuki reached out and carefully swiped her sweaty bangs away from her face as he explained, "You gave us quite a scare collapsing on the way home from school. You should have told someone you were so sick." Then Hatori and Kyo continued walking her back upstairs to her room, each carefully holding one of her arms.

After tucking the sick girl back into bed, Hatori checked her temperature again and found that it had risen. His brow furrowed with a thoughtful frown. He was just on the edge of deciding to send her to the hospital. It was a good thing that he had decided to stay and talk to Shigure about some family matters. The other boys had ordered take out, and he had added his request to the order which was due to arrive in a few minutes.

Again, Shigure, Kyo and Yuki hovered around the foot of her bed and watched the examination. Yuki spoke up, "Do you think one of us needs to stay in here to keep an eye on Miss Honda?" Kyo snorted, "Lot of good that will do. You know she's as stubborn as a mule when she puts her mind to something. She would probably hurt herself just by trying to get up."

Shigure tapped his finger on his chin and thought of a solution, "Perhaps we can build her a temporary bed in the living room so she doesn't feel so isolated and we can keep an eye on her? We could put the blanket back on the kotatsu and she could snuggle up to the heater when she gets too cold."

Hatori looked at his usually immature cousin and smiled. "That's actually a wonderful idea, Shigure." And with that bit of encouragement, the boys set out to do just that.

The blanket and heater were placed back under the kotatsu. A huge pallet of extra blankets had been positioned on the side of the table so Tohru could simply turn her head and watch the television if she wanted. Shigure even donated his back rest for when the girl was feeling good enough to sit up. In the midst of all the commotion, dinner arrived.

Since they were about to eat, and there were many hours of the evening still left, Hatori gingerly picked the girl up, careful to keep her from touching his torso, and carried her down to her new makeshift bed. She was barely awake due to the dose of medicine Hatori gave her, but she appreciated being included in dinner.

Kyo helped prop her up on some pillows. Then he placed a bit of food on her bowl and helped her hold it while she nibbled. None of them expected her to eat much, since she was so sick, but it did make them fell good to see her try to eat.

After a few bites, she couldn't hold her head up any longer, and thanked them all sincerely. Kyo moved away to get his own food and watched Tohru from the corner of his eye as she slid down the pile of pillows until she was laying half under the kotatsu in the soothing heat. Her heavy eyes drifted shut as she listened to the lively conversation around the table. Her bleary mind stopped listening to words, and just heard the sounds like music. The music of family.

A routine started to emerge in the next few hours and days. After dinner was finished, Kyo and Yuki brought their homework to the living room and worked quietly. Hatori and Shigure discussed all the things adults discuss after a filling dinner. Then, later, when it was time to wind up the evening, Hatori carried Tohru back up to her room and checked her fever again. Kyo and Yuki tossed a coin to decide who would sleep on the floor in Tohru's room to keep an eye on her. Mostly, it was to keep an eye out for her wandering in her fevered state and making herself worse. No one put it past the girl to suddenly get up in the middle of the night and think that she had to do laundry, or make Bento boxes for everyone's lunches. Kyo took the first night and fell into a light sleep in the middle of her floor. The next night, it would be Yuki's turn, and they would alternate until she was better. They never even thought about giving Shigure a turn in sleeping in her bedroom. They could barely stomach the fact that she would be home alone, all day, with that perverted dog!

Hatori made a promise that he would come by every day at lunch and dinner to check up on her to ease the younger boys' worries. Truthfully, Hatori himself was a bit concerned about a delirious Tohru alone in a house with Shigure. Secretly, Hatori had enlisted Ayame's help in making sure the girl was not alone with Shigure for very long.

In the mornings, Kyo would start breakfast while Shigure carried Tohru downstairs to her makeshift bed in the living room. Yuki would gather all the things she needed to work on during the day if she felt up to it. He was determined to help her keep up in school so she didn't have to repeat a grade. They all knew how important graduating was to their princess. After Yuki got her situated, Kyo would help her eat what she could and set her up with snacks and drinks on the table within easy reach.

Shigure never complained about getting up 4 hours earlier than his usual time, and would actually be pleasant at breakfast. When the boys nervously headed off to school, Shigure would stand in the doorway holding the door so Tohru could wave to the boys as they headed down the driveway. Then, they settled down for the daytime routine. Shigure had started doing some of his work in the living room, and even carried his laptop out there to stay close to Tohru.

Tohru, for her part, struggled to stay awake during breakfast and seeing the guys off. After that, she would sleep a few hours half curled up under the soothingly warm table. The arrival of Hatori for her lunch time check up was what usually woke her up enough to stay awake for a few hours. He always brought some healthy lunch with him and explained that he was sneaking out of the main house. Even Akito didn't begrudge him a chance to go out to lunch. Tohru laughed at the idea of straight, serious Hatori being a sneak.

After eating and a check up, which Shigure thankfully excused himself from the room for, Tohru would try to sit up and work on homework. It was frustrating, but she knew that Yuki was really trying to help her, so she felt she owed him to at least attempt to work the problems before he returned. Every few days, Ayame would show up at lunchtime and stay after Hatori left to go over the homework with her. Usually, they didn't get much work done, and instead Tohru was regaled with stories of the three cousin's dashing adventures.

After school was a constant parade of Sohmas and friends. Even Rin came by and brought some Jell-O™. Although Tohru loved visiting with her friends, she felt awful that she couldn't be the good hostess that she so wanted to be. Instead, her friends did the housework that she couldn't and made snacks for everyone. When dinner time would arrive again, Hatori would return, sneaking away from Akito. Some of the visitors would leave to return to their own homes for dinner, and some, like Haru and Momiji would stay for take out. Then homework would come out after dinner. At one point, Haru, Momiji, Kyo, Yuki and Tohru were all working at the kotatsu on their own homework. Tohru looked up and looked around, and recognized that this must be what it's like to be a child with lots of siblings.

Of course, fights still broke out. Kagura would come over and tear off after a fleeing Kyo. Haru would harass Yuki when he was not in Student Council meetings. Ayame would embarrass Yuki and Kyo. Hiro would say unpleasant things to Tohru. Yuki and Kyo would thump Shigure when he was getting particularly perverted around Tohru. And then, who could forget the obligatory Yuki and Kyo battles. Luckily for Tohru, and the safety of the house, the boys had enough presence of mind to take their fights outside.

In the midst of all this, Tohru would sit or lay and watch from her nest in the living room. She had begun to think of her palette of blankets as a nest when she realized that everything she needed for the day was piled around her. The only time she had to move was to use the bathroom.

Tohru watched all the interactions and tried to figure out if any of her friends had any powers like Hatori's. She was beginning to think that Rin, Ritsu and Kisa had been too severely abused by Akito telling them they were worthless to have explored any such powers. Hiro seemed to be very protective. Could that be a power? Still, he was very young, maybe something would develop later. Hatsuharu was very wise when he was White Haru, and very persuasive when he was Black Haru.

A thought started bugging the back of Tohru's mind one night as she had dinner with almost all the members of the Zodiac. "I wonder what age they start to show special abilities?" She would have to ask Hatori when he knew he was different, and when Akito changed so drastically.

Thinking of age, Tohru made a startling realization. Most of the Zodiac members were in 3 age categories. There were five of them about Shigure's age: Hatori, Shigure and Ayame were the same age at 27, then there was Kureno, who seemed about that age, and Ritsu, who seemed just a bit younger.

Then there was the group around her age. Yuki and Kyo were 16, Kagura was 18, Hatsuharu and Momiji were 15, and Rin seemed the same age as Haru.

Then there was Hiro and Kisa who were the odd couple at age 12.

Tohru sat there and wondered how it was that all the Zodiac members were about the same age. One would think, that with the different ages that people died, that there would be a wide range of ages. Some old people, some young, some babies. But everyone was roughly grouped together. Even Akito seemed to be somewhere between Shigure's age and Yuki's age. So, did that mean that the older group grew up under the old head of the household? How did that work? Was the head of the household born cursed like the Zodiac members? Did one have to die before the position was passed on?

Did the previous generation of Zodiac members all die off at the same time? Was a cursed replacement born immediately after the death of the old one, or was there some time difference? Surely, there couldn't be a child born just at the exact moment that the old member died. So, there must have been a delay. That would explain why all the families were relieved that all the Zodiac members had already been born. No one had to worry.

A worry started to build in Tohru's mind. If there was an event in the past that killed off all the members in a group, would it happen again? She knew that Yuki, Akito and Rin were sickly, but was there something else jeopardizing the lives of the whole group?

Tohru held her tongue about her new pressing questions because everyone was having so much fun in Shigure's living room. After dinner and homework was completed, and dishes washed (by someone else), the non resident family members headed to their homes. Hatori, as was his custom, carried Tohru upstairs to her bed to examine her once more before leaving. He noted that her face was a bit flushed, and confirmed that her fever had risen a bit. He frowned and went through his usual routine. Her abdomen was a bit tender, but nothing to be overly worried about. A bit of adjustment in her medication, and he was sure she would rest easily overnight, and feel better in the morning.

She looked up into his wise eyes and finally asked her questions. "Hatori, why are all the Zodiac members about the same age? Is there something that happened to the last generation? I mean, there obviously must be a bit of a delay between the death of the old member and the birth of its replacement. But, it just seems odd that all of you fall roughly into two age brackets."

Hatori placed his stethoscope back in his travel bag and sat thoughtfully on her bed. He looked blankly at her wall and thought, "Hmmm, I never thought about that, but you are right. I haven't heard anything about what might have happened to the last generation to have grouped us together like this. I know that in the past, there have been generations where a Zodiac sign was completely not represented. It's a rare occurrence for all 12 to be together at the same time. It's supposed to be a good omen. I'll have to go back through my records and see if I can find anything about that too." He smile down at the sick girl and commented, "You really are a wonder about finding things that we have never noticed."

"Oh, and there was one other thing that I was wondering about. I know Zodiac can't be hugged by the opposite sex, but how then did Kazuma's grandfather have kids? He said that his grandfather had been possessed by the spirit of the cat before Kyo. So, obviously, he had a child who was Kazuma's father. But, I thought the Zodiac members were forbidden to love. And how do you have kids if you can't touch?"

At this question, Hatori's face turned a lovely shade of red. He started stuttering, "Um, Tohru, you don't have to hug to…. Um….. Well, see….No, it wasn't forbidden for Zodiac to have families until Akito rose to head of the household. And, just like you don't have to hug to kiss, you don't have to hug… to… um… do… THAT." He looked at her innocent, still confused face and decided enough was enough. "Actually, this is not the appropriate time to have this conversation. Maybe I can find you a good book that would better explain it."

Hatori stood and headed for the door where Kyo was waiting with his futon to camp out in her room. In his best doctor voice, he announced, "Call me if you start feeling worse, and no physical exertion." Tohru giggled and saluted, "Ay ay sir! Oh, and thank you for sending Ayame over to keep me company. I'm sure Yuki and Kyo appreciate that I'm not here alone with Shigure." Kyo snorted at hearing this and mumbled "old perverted dog" under his breath so only Hatori could hear it as he exited her room to allow the two to get settled for sleep.

Downstairs, Hatori found Shigure and Ayame still huddled around the kotatsu discussing family events. Hatori plopped himself down hard between the two and nervously loosened his tie. He stole Shigure's cigarette and huffed, "You will not BELIEVE what Tohru just asked me!"

Upstairs, everything was quiet as Kyo settled down to guard the sick girl during the night when raucous laughter exploded from the living room area. He was about to march down there and demand they keep it down but the noise died off. About twenty minutes later, he heard Hatori's car doors open and close twice, signaling the departure of the older cousins. As his thoughts drifted off into sleep, Kyo wondered absently, "I wonder what was so funny? Probably something perverted, knowing Shigure."

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