"Where are we going, Shigure?" Kameko asked, laughing. These last few weeks had been the happiest of her life, which was the last thing she had expected. But Shigure always knew the right thing to say to make her laugh, and she hadn't had many opportunities to do that lately.
"It's a secret," he said with that infuriating expression on his face.
"But I hate secrets!" she replied. She was just being contrary.
"Then you fell in love with the wrong person!"
She stopped in her tracks, genuinely shocked.
"Wha-?"
"Oh!" he cried in mock surprise. "Was I not supposed to say that out loud?"
Kameko quickly recovered. "No!" she told him as she caught up. "People will hear you and they might get the wrong impression." And she linked her arm through his.
"What people?" he asked with a sly grin.
With a start, she realized that they were no longer in the city. They were on a path in the middle of the woods. She was instantly suspicious and jabbed a finger in his face.
"Shigure, if this is some scheme of yours to get me to –"
"Oh look!" he cried. "We're home!"
Kameko looked where he pointed. There was a traditional wooden house, with porches and sliding screen doors, nestled perfectly in the middle of the woods. "You live here?" she asked in disbelief.
"Yup. Come have a look inside." It was the singsong voice of annoyance.
She slapped him, and he started fake crying. "Please, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it…"
In answer, she grabbed his hand and dragged him toward the house.
Shigure leaned on one of the posts while she explored. "Ah!" he exclaimed. "How lovely my house looks with you in it. It's as if a beautiful flower has come to grace it with her presence."
"Don't make me slap you again," Kameko said with a grin. "How about some real flowers?" She pulled a bouquet of forget-me-nots out of her bag, placed them in a vase, and set it on the table.
Shigure looked between her and the flowers. "It's not the same!" he complained, but he had lost his audience.
"Ooh! Your office!"
"No wait!" But she was already sitting at his computer.
"A romance novel!" she cried in surprise, then shook her head at Shigure. "Tsk tsk. You are very sick in the head."
"Sick with the purest love," he said, right on cue. But his tone was ambiguous. She had no way of knowing whether he was mocking or sincere. Two could play at that game.
"Well, do they live happily ever after?" she asked, resting her elbows on the desk and her head on her folded hands, the picture of innocence.
"Of course."
Kameko would have given anything to stay like that forever, looking into Shigure's eyes and seeing the love he had for her and deciding to give her heart to him once and for all.
There was a very loud, obnoxious, and untimely knock on the door, and Kameko jumped.
"Shi-san!" shouted a very loud, obnoxious, and untimely voice.
"Ah yes," said Shigure, hand on his chin in mock-thought. "I may have forgotten to tell you that I invited my friends over to meet you."
"What?!"
She leaped out from behind the desk and frantically searched for a mirror. Typical bachelor, Shigure didn't have one. "I'm not ready! My hair's a mess, and I just threw on the closest outfit, it's not pressed or neat or anything and – "
Shigure grabbed her hands and she abruptly stopped talking.
"You are beautiful," he told her, no trace of mockery in his voice, eyes steady. She couldn't breathe, she was so overwhelmed with emotion.
She kissed him.
Now she would have given anything to stay like this forever, except –
Shigure transformed with a loud "poof".
"Shi-san, how cruel of you," whined the very loud, obnoxious, and extremely untimely voice. "You left us waiting out in the cold. What would you have done if we had been frozen into huge Ayame and Ha-san icicles?"
Kameko looked up from the dog in front of her and found two young men standing in the doorway. The one in front had long silvery hair any girl would be jealous of and light green eyes that seemed to hide any true emotion. The other was slightly behind the first, with short dark hair and odd but piercing brown eyes. These must be Shigure's friends. And now here he was, a dog, with her still breathing raggedly from their first kiss. Did they know about the curse?!
She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but –
"Ah, Ayame-san, forgive me!" cried Shigure. "I would never abandon you!"
"I know!" the silver-haired man agreed. "Our love will never freeze, for it burns brighter every day!"
"YES!" they said together, the dog with a raised paw and the man a thumbs-up.
"Will you two stop that already?" asked the other man with over-tried patience. He must have noticed Kameko's expression because he told her, "You'll get used to it."
"Ah, Ha-san!" cried the first man. "We love –"
"No."
The silver-haired man paused.
"Ah, Kameko-san!" He clasped her hand.
"No!" snapped the dark-haired man and Shigure.
With another "poof", Shigure transformed back. Kameko carefully averted her eyes while he dressed. While he did so, he made introductions.
"This is Kameko. Kameko, these are my friends and cousins, Ayame and Hatori."
"Pleased to meet you," she said with a bow. Wait, cousins? "Oh!" she realized. "Are you part of the Jyuunishi?"
"Yes," said Hatori before Ayame could say anything.
"Which animals are you?"
"I am…the snake!" Ayame said grandly. He took her elbow and led her into the other room, gravely pronouncing the history and wisdom of the snake, which she felt he was mostly making up on the spot. It was quite impressive to see so much charisma in one person.
After a while he insisted on fetching her refreshments, and disappeared into the kitchen. Shigure and Hatori hadn't followed. They must have remained in his office, catching up or reminiscing on old times. She got up to ask them if they wanted a drink or snack, but as she approached the nearly shut door she heard Hatori saying, "-that she knows about the curse."
Were they talking about her?
"I trust her," Shigure replied, and Kameko felt a rush of gratitude to his sincerity. "I trust her more than I trust some of the other Sohmas. And I think I'm going crazy, Hatori," he added, his voice lowering. "I think I'm actually falling in love with her."
Kameko was too shocked to even breathe. Love her? Truly? It was so hard to tell what he was really thinking most of the time, but now, with his friend, he was being honest.
"Doe he know?" Hatori finally asked.
She knew a shadow had passed over Shigure's face, she could feel the cold through the door. "Akito doesn't have to know everything."
"But he'll find out. And it would be better coming from you."
"Better for who?" She could feel the twisted smile in her gut.
She couldn't take any more. Slipping away as silently as possible, she hoped Ayame hadn't returned from the kitchen and noticed her absence. He would have come looking for her surely, giving her away to the others with his loud, obnoxious, and untimely voice.
She turned the corner into the room and jumped. Ayame was standing in the middle of the room, arms crossed and eyes downcast, the artistically arranged tray of cookies and tea set on the table. He knew.
"I…" she began, needing to explain. "I just…"
Ayame came closer, looming over her, and she started to shake. In a fluid movement, he shut the screen door. He finally met her eyes.
"You should not have heard that," he said in a low voice; the former tones of pompousness and silliness were gone. This was Ayame at his most serious, and it scared her with its intensity.
"You should not have heard that," he repeated, "but I'm glad you did." Kameko was surprised to find that she wasn't being reprimanded, but congratulated. "Now you know what you're up against when it comes to the Sohmas."
She nodded in understanding. "Who is Akito?"
"The Head of the Family," Ayame told her. "He is very possessive of the Jyuunishi, and becomes very jealous when anyone threatens to take one of us away."
"I'm not taking Shigure away," Kameko protested. "I'm not even borrowing him. He's staying right here, as he always has."
Ayame smiled sadly. "Akito won't see it that way." He slid the door open again and laughed heartily. "I am sorry to keep you waiting, my dear Ka-san, but Shigure's kitchen is soo messy it took forever to find anything edible. If only he had a lovely wife to live here and keep this house looking as beautiful as her!"
Kameko picked up her tea and sipped it. She understood. The conversation was not over; it never happened. And Ayame's loud voice was perfect for carrying to the office, to explain why they had been quiet for so long.
Even more than that, it drew Shigure and Hatori out of their tete-a-tete, and they eagerly (or in Hatori's case, neutrally) took part in the cookies. They spent the rest of the afternoon happily, as if Kameko had known Ayame and Hatori for many years instead of only a few hours.
Shigure made a point of sitting as close to Kameko as possible, but she wasn't going to complain. She was going to figure out how to kiss him again without him transforming so that the moment really could last forever.