a.n. Awweee, don't tell me you some of you forgot who Hiro is! He's like Kisa's best friend. (Manga - Volume Six Anime - Episode 21).

sometimes you gotta try
your hardest N0T to care no
matter how much you really do

Chapter Two: Welcome Back, You Can Leave Now.


We all got back to the house exhausted and hungry. I was able to catch up with Momiji and Kisa in the front of the group by some sort of miracle, although I could feel Hiro's eyes burn a hole into the back of my head through half of the walk. Once we got back to the Shigure's everyone went their separate ways. I hugged Kisa like a big teddy bear. And waved the rest of the guys off.

"Bye!" I yelled out over the wind that had suddenly picked up, waving to car leaving cars. Shigure had already gone inside, and Kyo and Yuki were already in another fight. I smiled, It was great living with the Sohmas. I'm one lucky girl I am.

"Come one guys! I'll get started on dinner!" I said walking in, hearing their stomachs growl in response. I headed straight for the kitchen donning an apron hanging behind the door.

"Would you like some help Tohru?" came Yuki's musical voice from behind me.

"Hmm, well, you could help me chop the lettuce!" I said happily, I never had a truly lonely day in this house.

"So how's your base doing? Anything ready to pick yet?" I asked, wondering when the goods would be done.

"It's perfect, mostly everything should be ready in the next week or so." He said smiling, I was happy he was smiling, before I met him, I never got to see his smile before. From there on we muddled through talk of school, weather, homework.

"I love the snow..." I said dreamily, thinking about our day outside, I wish everyday could be like that. Just a perfect white sky, and little fairy-like clouds falling down from that sky.

"Yes, It's always so beautiful outside around this time of year, but cold too." he said, once we were done with the dinner we brought it out to the main table, and sure enough, the boys smelled the food and we're already seated.

"Dinner's ready!" I said

"Geez! Finally, I'm starving." Kyo said pushing himself up from the floor.

"Let's dig in kids." Shigure said, somehow whenever he says something, it sounds like he really means something else, I sighed.

"Oh, Tohru, That girl, umm, I think her name was Uo, called earlier while you were in the kitchen, she said to call her back soon as possible, sounded pretty urgent." Shigure said off-handedly.

'Uo called?' I thought to myself, Uo never calls, it cost too much, and she lived by her self. I immediately got up to my feet and headed to the phone. 'What if she's in some sort of trouble?' I thought frantically. I shakily dialed her number, and not even half way through the first ring she picked up.

"Tohru?" I heard her over the phone. She sounded different on the phone, kind of unsure or something. Or maybe it wasn't just the phone.

"Hi! Is everything alright? I just heard you called in right now." I babbled out.

"Do you remember, well...back in eighth grade..." She trailed off, that was unusual of her, Uo never even thought twice about some of the things that came out of her mouth.

"Uo? Where are you going with this."

"Tohru...he's back, I saw him." She said, she sounded angry, revengeful.

"Uo, he's gone. Not coming back." I said, there was only one person she could've been talking about. The only 'he' we ever hung out with.

"No Tohru, I saw him, I did."

"Uo...please.." I don't know what I wanted.

"It was his fault. You know it as well as I do. He went 'mysteriously' missing the second after the accident. I'm telling you he was involved in it somehow!" She sounded mad, but sad too. I wasn't sure what I believed. Maybe he just wanted to leave, and didn't know about the accident until later...or maybe Uo was right.

"We don't know that for sure." I held my ground, although unstable as it was.

"Tohru, just promise to stay away from him, If you see him, turn the other way...please? Tohru, I just know something is off about him, just steer clear." She said, it was almost the equivalence of begging to her.

I said nothing for a few moments. I still wasn't sure what I wanted. I wasn't sure if I wanted to even look at him ever again, leaving so many questions and mysteries behind, just up and leaving. I wasn't if I did want to see him, he was a blood relative, one of the only blood relatives I could actually consider family, besides grandpa. But what if Uo's suspicions were right? For all we know, he could've had something to do with the accident.

"Okay, I will Uo." I said.

"You have to promise." She said, she sounded serious, the most serious I've ever heard her before.

"..I promise." I swore, I highly even doubt he's even going to be around, even if Uo did see him, he might have just been passing through, It was a big city after all.

"Good, But just in case, don't go out anywhere alone, make sure the Prince, or even the carrot top is with you." she sounded concerned, on edge you could say.

"Uo...is there something else I should know?" I asked, I didn't understand what she was so uptight about, Ryou...he was one of us before, he was our best friend. Until about two years ago that is.

"No..I'll see you tomorrow alright? And remember, you promised." She said.

"Yup! Bye!" I said, and we both hung up. I slowly put the phone down, and just stood there. I looked out the window close to me, It was still snowing.

Flash Back

"Tohru! Look, It's still snowing!" grinned a cheeky Ryou. School had been out for the past couple of days. Ryou and I were in the park swing set. I was actually swinging on the swing, he thought he was too 'cool' and just leaned against the beams.

"I can see that Ryou, it's kind of hard to miss the little flecks of white falling from the sky." I giggled and he just scowled. He was like an older brother to me. And I was happy. As an only child. Ryou had helped us a lot when dad died. He was always there to make things easier for me and mom.

"Here come Uo and Hana." He said, standing up straight. I stopped swinging, but didn't leave the seat. I waved over to them and shouted out loudly.

"You guys are late!" I shouted from where I was so that they could hear me.

"Sorry, Hana said she felt a 'strong electrical' pull. And we had no choice but to track it down." Uo sighed.

"The cell phone needed my help." Hana said, and I giggled, sometimes those two were too much.

"Well mayb-" that's when I felt the icy cold drip down my face.

"RYOU!" I squealed. Uo cracked up in the back and Hana gave the lightest of giggles. My face was freezing cold. And I could hear the wheezing laugh from him in front of me, helping me wipe off my show covered face.

"Sorry, couldn't' resist it. Your never on guard, better me than some other punk." he said still laughing.

"Humph, If you say so." I said brushing the snow off my my coat.

"Let us go now, the movie starts in a few minutes." Hana said, already taking the lead and heading off in the direction of the theater.

Present

"Hullloooo?" A hand was waving up and down in front of my face.

"Earth to Tohru." Kyo said from next to me, and apparently the hand waving in front of my face was his.

"huh?" I asked, snapping out of my daze.

"Didn't I tell you bad stuff happens when you space out?" He said gruffly, I smiled, I knew he cared, but wasn't very good at vocalizing it. A giggled a little at that.

"What's so funny!" He snapped. And I tried to cover my laughs with a smile.

"Nothing at all Kyo." I said with a smile, and I wasn't sure, but I thought I saw the barest hint of a blush creep up onto his face.

"Gasp! The horror! There! At the door, asking for Tohru, our little flower a...BOY! Another man besides us! How could you Tohru!" Shigure's voice resonated through the house, I rolled my eyes and laughed.

"Shut up ya damned perv!" Kyo shouted out to him. I just laughed even more, but made my way towards the door.

"I'm coming!" I said, walking out of the kitchen into the main room...and there he was.

Dark hair, Green piercing eyes, tall, lean frame. It was him. After so long. There he was. After mysteriously disappearing. There he was. After putting everyone through hell to hind him. There he was. Just standing there in the room. Next to Shigure, there he was...Ryou Honda.

"Tohru?" He asked, his voice was deeper, it had a different ring to it. It wasn't it's usually jolly light tone, but now a somber and serious, yet unsure tone. That was when I remembered my promise. My promise to Uo. But yet, I was rooted to the spot. My laughter stopped immediately as soon as I saw him.

"Shigure...can you give us a minute." I asked, although it didn't come out as a question. Shigure didn't look jokingly anymore, he gave me a look as if to say, 'Are you sure?' I gave the lightest of nods, and he disappeared from the room dragging Kyo with him.

"Tohru, I-" he started, but I was fast.

"Leave." It only took that one word. The rest of the words, wouldn't come out, couldn't. I didn't even know if I knew what I wanted to say from the beginning. There were too many questions.

"Tohru plea-"

"The door is this way." I said, my face gave away nothing, not smile, no anger, no happiness, no nothing. Normally this is something I'd never be able to pull off...but something snapped when I saw him, here. I made my way over to the door, which was only a few steps away and opened it for him.

"You have to lis-" He tried again, his arm gripped my forearm. Not in a painful way, more like a 'Just wait please.' way.

"I don't have to hear anything. I'm going to ask you again. Please leave." I said, wrenching my arm away from him. Away from my problems. I guess you could call it running away from everything, but sometimes things are better left unsaid anyway.

"I'll be back...don't over-exert yourself." He said. I knew what he meant. My 'condition'. Before giving me one last, hard, cold look. Some people say that the eyes are the windows into the soul. And if that were true, then what I saw was awful. Pain, Misery, and last but not least concern.

"I don't care." I muttered to myself as soon as he left, looking at his retreating back.

"I don't care." I mumbled again. Feeling something inside of me slip away. I just wanted to cry. And cry, but I knew I couldn't. I could never.

"I don't care, I don't care." I kept saying over to myself.

"Tohru...Are you okay?" Yuki was behind me, I whipped around surprised. I quickly wiped at my face, trying to get rid of any signs of sadness.

"Peachy! I'm fine, It was just an old acquaintance." it hurt to say acquaintance. What was I doing?

"Tohru...your a bad liar." He said coming close to me, he took his finger and wiped a lone tear off my cheek. One I must've missed, the one that probably gave me away.

"I'm just stressed. So many things are going on, and I'm not sure If I'll have enough to time to figure them out." I said, but in my head I edited it to 'I'm not sure if I'll live long enough to see the happy ending that most stories had.'

He still looked concerned, but that was as much as I was willing to say right then and there.

"You know, if you ever have a problem, We're all here to help you. You've help us more than you could ever know. We all love you, you know." He said with a smile, which of course made me smile too.

"Thank You." I said mirroring his smile. I headed upstairs, fully aware that his eyes were watching me as I went up the steps.

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