Chapter 2 What is love?
Tohru spent the next three months trying desperately to be cheerful. She went with Yuki to the secret base as often as they could. She spent many evenings on the rooftop with Kyo. She tried to make them all feel how much she cared. Momiji and and Hatsuharu were often at the little house they all shared with Shigure, also basking in the tender warmth Tohru gave to them all.
"Tohru, I love you so much" Momiji declared in a burst of boyish adoration one evening as they lounged on the porch, eating Popsicles and watching the sunset. Tohru reached one arm up for him and that was all the invite Momiji needed to crawl into her lap. He kept himself forward so he would not transform. He was rather large for her lap. Tohru didn't care though, even though she knew he was only a year younger than her, even if he had grown a lot in the past couple of years and was almost as tall as she was, she just couldn't see him as anything more than the precious child who had bravely held his tears inside as he watched the mother who didn't want him, and would never know him walk away with the father who neglected him and the sister he longed to embrace. Her heart ached for Momiji.
"Momiji-kun, I love you too. I will always love you. You must know that." Momiji noted the seriousness of Tohru's words and he looked into her face. It was smiling but a soft blanket of melancholy had fallen over her. "I will love Momiji-kun when high walls stand between us, and I will love him even when a god denies us each others company, I will love Momiji-Kun. One day I will be strong. One day I will be strong enough to stand against the wrath of a god!" Her voice was determined. Momiji felt his heart rise and his stomach did a little flip as it recognized the promise in Tohru's words. "When I am strong, I will return. I will fight to regain the family that is being taken from me. I will see Momiji-kun's happy smiling face again. I will hear Yuki-kun and Kyo-kun argue again; I will laugh at Shigure's jokes and marvel at the energy of Kagura and Ayame. I will make dinner for Hatori and Kisa. I will hear Hiro correcting me and make gelatin for Rin and see Haru go black again. When those gates close and I am left on the outside you will not be forgotten by me Momiji-kun. You will not be forgotten because I know a secret."
Momiji swallowed the lump in his throat. Haru and Yuki were standing behind Tohru. Haru had his arm on Yuki's shoulder and Yuki looked as if a truck had hit him as he listened to Tohru's monologue.
"Oooh, I love secrets, can you tell me Tohru mutti? Please tell me." Tohru smiled, stroking the back of her hand lightly down his face on his cheek.
"Love is forever, Momiji-Kun. It is never for only a little while. And Love will find a way. Somehow, even when the flesh is weak, even when hope is frail and all seems lost, love remains. It is constant and it is precious, but in the hearts of those who know it, it is strength incarnate. It is through love that the will is made strong and through love that the impossible becomes the probable."
"And Tohru mutti has this love for Momiji? This love that will not forget and will find a way."
"Yes." She answered simply then she pulled him close to her. PYONG. He transformed into a small yellow rabbit. She held him close to her heart unaware of the two boys standing behind her and the shaken hope she had given them both.
Yuki, Kyo and Hatsuharu stood out on the porch long after Tohru had gone up to bed.
"You know she's saying her goodbyes to us." Yuki commented to no one in particular. Kyo nodded glumly. Haru looked troubled.
"But do you think she really means to fight Akito." Both Yuki and Kyo looked sick at the very idea.
"Akito would kill her if she tried." Kyo whispered sharply.
"It doesn't mean she won't though. Try, I mean."
"What does she mean, when I get stronger? That talk worries me." Yuki bit his lower lip as he tried to understand it.
"Well, regardless, her little speech to Momiji was a beautiful thing. Even if it may prove false, her heart at least will not be what falters, just her mind." Both Yuki and Kyo looked up at Haru's words.
"What are you talking about Haru-san?" Yuki asked. Haru looked up, his eyes meeting Yuki's.
"Do you really think Tohru will be allowed to leave the family's influence knowing our secret? Use your head. Hatori will be called on to do his Jedi mind trick thingie and poof; everything Tohru remembers about us all will be gone. She'll continue on in life unplagued with concerns of "the family that was taken from her."
"And would that really be so bad?" Kyo whispered softly. "At least then she won't suffer." Yuki bowed his head. Wordlessly the three drifted off to bed.