Chapter 2:
New Year's Eve
Tohru could still see their backs, and was still waving, even though they weren't looking at her anymore.
They were going to the Sohma house, to Akito, deliciously prepared food, and family they hadn't seen in ages. And they hadn't wanted to go. Tohru had had to prove to them her nonchalance to their absence, and force them to go.
Only when she couldn't see them anymore did she go back inside, closing the door behind her. She reheated the leftovers from the night before, and ate it with the new year's cakes. She thought of Hana and Uo, eating with their families at this very moment, and wished them luck for the coming year. She thought of her grandfather, with his family, and smiled. She wondered, if there was indeed an afterlife, if her mother was looking down at her and the Sohmas, wishing them a lucky new year.
She finished her meal and washed the dishes. Moving like a ghost, she climbed the stairs to her new room. On her desk was a picture of her mother. She took it and crept into Shigure's study. She knew he had a song somewhere in there that her mother had loved while she was still living, and had played at every New Year. She found it, and, clutching both record and photograph to her chest, she moved back down to the dining room, where a warm kotatsu awaited her. She put on the record, sat down at the kotatsu, and set her mother's picture in front of her, remembering all the New Years she and her mother had spent together.
She could see her old apartment's living room, her mother making an exemplary craft for Tohru to imitate. She set it on the table, and gave Tohru the paper that would make the craft. Tohru had struggled for minutes on end, bending and twisting the paper into abstract art. Her mother, having finished three or four of the things already, had smiled and helped Tohru. Finally, Tohru was able to fold the paper into the crane.
Her mother had smiled at Tohru's enthusiasm, and had told her that the cranes could grant her wish, if she folded a thousand of them. Tohru's face went wide with wonder for a moment, then she told her mother that one day, she would fold a thousand cranes, and have a wish come true.
Her mother laughed, saying that surely the wish would come true.
Mother, if I fold a thousand cranes, will you come back to me?
Footsteps came running to the door. For one wild moment, Tohru remembered she hadn't locked the door when she had come in, and wondered if it was a thief, and if the thief would kill her for interrupting his burglary.
The door flung open, revealing Kyo and Yuki, panting as if they had just run for miles. Her head looked up, and she felt one of the tears she had held captive for so long escape, and threatened to spill over her unto her cheeks. Yuki's hand came up, took the tear and showed it to her.
She hesitated, then made up some excuse for her tears, some flimsy transparent excuse, anything but having to say why she was really crying. But she couldn't even get through her excuses until they both collapsed on the floor, telling her about the first sunrise of the new year and new year's cakes.
The only thing she could say was, "O-o-okay."