I own no one. But Caleb is MINE!
Tohru was given Kyo's jacket to wear on the journey back to the house. Yuki thought it was quite funny, as did Haru who helped her out of the water. By the time they reached the house Tohru was pink from the cold and hiccuping. Kyo explained what happened as Tohru smiled slightly up to the three older men. Shigure and Ayame laughed and tried to cheer Tohru up as Hatori took her temperature.
"I wondered who'd fall in this time." Shigure said patting Tohru's head. "Although I admit I thought it would be Kyo."
"I don't fall into lakes!" Kyo yelled at Shigure as he walked into the kitchen. Kyo followed him and continued yelling as the front door opened and three people walked in. Kisa immediately let go of Hiro's hand to run and hug Tohru.
"Onee-chan? Why are you all wet?" Kisa asked looking up at Tohru.
"Heh, I fell in the lake." Tohru said smiling down at Kisa. "Oh did I get you all wet? I'm sorry." Tohru said looking for wet spots on Kisa's dress. When Tohru turned to greet Hiro his face looked strained.
"I hope you…. didn't get hurt Tohru." Hiro said then giving her a weak smile. Haru started clapping and Hiro glared at him.
"Hiro was nice to someone. The world is going to end." Haru said sitting on the couch.
"Now, now, we just got here. Can't you two go a few days without angering each other?" Kureno asked taking off his coat. Hatori walked over to greet his old friend and told Tohru to change out of her wet clothes.
Tohru went upstairs with Momiji who showed Tohru her room where all of her things were. Tohru changed into a pair of blue sweatpants and a white tank top. She went to leave, but instead locked the door and went to the closet. Tohru brought a black bag with her and pulled out the contents. There were a few pieces of pure white chalk and some figurines.
Tohru drew a picture of the circle of Chinese Zodiac with the chalk and placed her figures of the zodiac in their proper places. There was an extra space for the cat in between the rat and the boar. The rat and the cat both had a hair wrapped around them, a silver one for the rat and an orange one for the cat. Lastly Tohru placed a doll made of yarn with a long strand of brown hair wrapped around it, in the center of the circle.
"Tohru!" Momiji called from outside the door "Let's play a game!" Tohru shut the closet door, unlocked, and opened her other door. She smiled down at Momiji who seemed to have grown a few inches.
"What game do you want to play?" Tohru asked. She saw that Kisa and Hiro were behind him.
"How about hide and seek?" Hiro asked Kisa. "Do you want to play that?" Kisa nodded and smiled brightly.
"I want to count!" Momiji said loudly. He turned around and immediately started counting to fifty. Tohru hurriedly rushed down the hall to a room and ducked inside. When she shut the door she was surrounded in complete darkness. The room's foul stench could wake the dead and then kill them all over again. Tohru tried to feel for the door behind her, but she only felt the hard surface of a wall. Faintly, she could hear Momiji say 'ready or not, here I come.'
Tohru began to panic as she searched the room for a light switch or a door or even a window. Suddenly her hand touched the unmistakable shape of a switch. She flipped it and was blinded by the bright light suddenly turning on. Downstairs everyone looked up at they heard a scream from the floor above. They all realized that Tohru made the scream. Kyo was the first up the stairs.
The door flew open as Kyo and Momiji stepped in the room. The rest of the group was crowded around in the hallway. Inside Tohru was sitting on the floor staring at the room.
There were no windows and there were no air vents. There was an armchair in one corner of the room facing a birdcage with several dead birds inside. A bookshelf covered one wall and held many diaries and magic books. There were pictures lying all over the floor of the Sohma Zodiac in each one the person was smiling. Then on the wall facing the door was a large picture of Tohru, darts had been haphazardly thrown in that direction and had left holes in the picture and the surrounding wall. Obviously this was Akito's study and apparently he didn't like Tohru very much.
Tohru was staring at one of the dead birds, a bright green one that looked as if it had starved to death. Its bright blood-red eyes hypnotized Tohru and held her in place. She was almost afraid to look away.
Kyo pulled Tohru to her feet and blocked the bird from her view. She stared at his chest and tried to get the bird out of her mind. She shook her head to clear it and Kyo held her head to his chest as her cold fingers clutched the blue fabric of his shirt.
Kureno pulled Kyo and Tohru out of the room and Haru led them downstairs while Hatori, Shigure, and Kureno tried to figure out what to do with the room.
"Let's bury the birds and clear out the pictures." Hatori said ripping out the darts that held Tohru's picture to the wall. Shigure covered his sensitive nose and started plucking up the photos from the floor.
"What are we going to do about the smell? No windows." Shigure said piling the pictures in his arms.
"Febreze." Kureno said grabbing a trash bag and gloves from the hall closet. He pulled the birds and the papers inside the cage and dropped them unceremoniously in the bag.
Ayame made Tohru his special tea and didn't make a wisecrack about how she and Kyo came downstairs attached to each other. She sat on the couch holding onto the teacup so it wouldn't shake. Kyo's arm was around her waist. Hiro looked at her worried as he hugged Kisa who seemed frightened. To Kisa, Tohru was the bravest and the truest and for something to frighten her was pretty scary.
"What did you see?" Kisa asked, but Haru shook his head.
"It would be better if you didn't know." Haru said watching Yuki out of the corner of his eye. Kureno came down the stairs with a foul-smelling bag. Kyo pulled Tohru closer to him so she wouldn't see.
"It was frightening." Tohru said softly. "I thought I was trapped in another one of my nightmares. It was completely dark in there and that smell…If you hadn't come I think I would have fainted."
"Oh Tohru!" Momiji said leaping onto Tohru for a hug. Within seconds he turned into a rabbit, clinging to Tohru's neck. She manages a soft smile to him.
"It's okay. I'll be fine." Tohru said petting Momiji's head.
"Tohru?" Hatori called from upstairs. He appeared on the landing and motioned for Tohru to come upstairs. Tohru untangled herself from Kyo and Momiji. "Here." Hatroi handed Tohru an impossibly long strand of silver hair and a short strand of blue-black hair. He reached up and plucked a strand of his hair. "Now go to bed."
Tohru hurriedly went into her room and tied the hairs around their proper figurines. She went downstairs, said goodnight to everyone, and then got a glass of water to take upstairs. She sat on the bed and stared at the closed window before flinging it open and letting the cool breeze sweep in the room.
Tomorrow. She decided. Tomorrow I'll fix everything.