Chapter 3: Confused and Frozen

Toru stared at Hatori. Her brown eyes were mainly focused on him-what else could she think about? Ever since she had been this small child that had been neglected by her mother... Hatori had been a person who had cared, who had been interested in her life... But the only feeling that the teenage girl now felt was a mean kind of betrayal. An evil feeling that bit into her heart and let it ache.

"Oi, Toru, do you hear what I'm saying?" Kyo had turned around and was shaking her by her shoulders. "i said that I am going to protect you, ok?" She heard what Kyo was saying and she wanted to thank him but there was nothing to protect her from! There was only Hatori. Hatori who was apparently not the person that she had seen in him and who looked at her as if he had never seen her before... How should she behave now? How?

And because of all this, because of all her feelings, Toru did the only reasonable thing that she could think of-she fled the room. With a shaky voice she said, "I have to look after the other riceballs," and bolted towards the door. Her move was so un-Toru-ish that neither of the males reacted fast enough to stop her and so the girl disappeared. After wandering the halls aimlessly, Toru found herself sitting under the very same tree which had accompanied Yuki and herself at lunch time. This was all too much for her to take in at once. She definitely needed to clear her head and the first step to that would be to analyse the situation, or rather, the people who were involved. Yeah, that sounded like a really good way to start.

Toru leaned against the tree and gazed into the still marvelous sky. The person in the middle of this messy situation, who now hopefully knew everything, was unfortunately herself. She didn't value herself all that much but somehow she still got to be in the middle. If she thought hard enough about it, she could split all the people she were close to into three categories.

The first category was pretty easy... The only people in it were Vo and Hana because they had nothing to do with her little 'Sohma'-problem and she couldn't even talk to them about this. The secret was hard enough on herself and she wouldn't want to burden her two best friends with it. On another thought, it also wasn't her place to decide who was to be let it on the whole matter. No, the teenage girl would have to deal with this without the help of her two best female friends.

'Anyway', Toru reminded herself, 'You need to concentrate on the actual matter!' It was not easy for her to keep her mind from imagining how it would be to share the stress with Vo and Hana. But it was no use—she just couldn't bend Akito's rules more than she had already done.

The brown-haired girl pulled her legs against her chest and rested her chin on the top of her knees. The second category would be called 'Akito' because all the people in this category listened and answered to him. (And only to him as ´he loved to remind her often enough.) On top of his obvious dominant character, he in fact was the leader of the family and therefore controlled everyone. Or at least that was what Toru imagined. Hatori would be in this, too, as well as the servants and the only two other relatives she had briefly met.

After she so carefully created the two first categories, there weren't much people left. She wasn't very out-going (there was no use denying that) and one didn't need to guess much to know that only Shigure, Kyo and Yuki Sohma remained. They were the third category and she felt her heart speed up again when she thought about the trouble she might cause them in the near future.

Toru breathed in slowly—she needed to calm herself down or else she would collapse right here under the pretty tree. The next thing would be to eventually figure out who knew what.

She, for example, had the slight feeling that she had known nothing the entire time until fate let her move into Shigure's house and even then everyone had still lied. In fact, Toru had the feeling that no one was being honest at all. Not only was nobody telling her the truth, they were also all lying to each other. Nothing good would come out of this, she was very sure of that. Maybe it was time to change... Anyway-she would start with Akito.

Her friend (that was what she liked to call him) seemed to not know that she specifically lived at Shigure's house. He obviously had been told by Shigure that a stranger girl was staying with the three guys but he didn't know the name or else he would have been incredibly mad with her. Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat out of fear when she thought about the reaction this situation would get her from Akito; once she told him the truth. Toru could only hope that he would listen to her explanations...

Well, Akito obviously also had to know about the curse. Now that she knew about it, too, Toru suddenly remembered that she had always found it strange that Akito would have given his relatives nicknames such as 'dog', 'rat' or 'dragon'. If he had referred to them as their zodiac curse animal, things definitely cleared up and made a lot more sense. As head of the family, of course he would know about their most important secret. Really, how stupid had she been? Though she hadn't even known that Shigure, Yuki and Kyo were related to Akito and Hatori… The teenage girl hadn't really thought that 'Sohma' was such a rare name that it would automatically point out the connection between totally different looking people.

Because honestly, there wasn't a single feature that made the Sohmas look alike. Despite their obvious handsomeness, of course.

Okay, so far, so good. Despite having cleared up the fact that Akito didn't come over to tear her to tiny pieces, there was one thing that didn't sit right with her. Although the black-haired male didn't seem to be a part of the curse, he was awfully possessive of the twelve animals. He had bend his rules of secluding her from his family before but never had she met one of the people he addressed with animal names (despite Hatori). So the question was—was Akito the mere family head or something special? She knew she would never manage to find out by herself without asking him directly and she decided that she would rather clean the whole house three times before doing so.

Another most urgent question in Toru's head right now was if she actually could be upset with Akito for not telling her about the curse. She wasn't exactly a part of the Sohma's inner circle (or any part of the family at all) and you didn't let strangers in onto your family secret without consulting everyone else. Maybe the zodiac animals didn't want her to know? Then again, if Akito had asked them, he would have mentioned her in detail to the others and Yuki, Kyo or Shigure would have recognized her from the description, right?

It didn't matter how she twisted it, she couldn't bring herself to be angry with the boy she cared about so much. On the other hand, she couldn't possibly be angry with Kyo or Yuki for not describing in detail how their family head looked like so that she could make the connection between her friends.

Maybe ... Maybe if she hadn't lied to Akito and Hatori about where she would stay, then maybe she could have avoided creating this much trouble for Akito and-

"Oh mein Gott! There you are, Toru! I have been looking all over the school for you!" Two inches apart from her face was a young boy with blonde hair and honey brown eyes. He grinned all over his adorable face and radiated happiness. It took the teenager girl a moment to get out of her thoughts and register the face of the boy in front of her. Of course, when she did so, she backed off and pressed herself against the tree behind her.

The boy looked full of sorry, when he straightened and bit on his bottom lip. "Tut mir leid," he muttered heartbreakingly sad but Toru couldn't understand a single word he was saying. "E-excuse me?" she stuttered high-pitched and felt herself slowly turning redder by any second. "Oops! I'm really sorry for scaring you," the boy explained but turned back from sad to happy after he finished, "However, I'm really glad to see you again!" The brown-haired girl titled her head. "Oh, I'm so sorry but where have I met you before...? I'm so rude but I really can't remember right now..." Again, her face felt like a tomato-how mean of her to forget an encounter with such a cute boy!

Fortunately, he didn't seem to think of her as rude. Instead, he took her head in his and giggled lightly. "It was at your workplace! The building belongs to my papa and I often play there!" He suddenly looked around, taking in the small green space of grass, the bench and the tree and exclaimed, "You have a very nice classroom! Are all of this school's classrooms this nice?" The boy gave her a toothy grin, all the time holding her hand. It was so embarrassing that Toru hadn't even the guts to look him straight into the eyes. "T-this is not my classroom," she tried to explain but was interrupted by the blonde boy who whisked her to her feet, pointed towards the back entrance and shouted, "Then we shall wander to it!"

When the pair arrived at the classroom, the room was still crowded but almost everyone was gathered at a corner at the back of the room. Sohma, Momiji-as the boy had introduced himself as-pulled Toru over to the crowd excitedly. The girl continued to look through the room in hope of seeing Hatori standing there and waiting for her but he either wasn't present or inside the crowd of cheering high scholars.

Momiji moved easily through the pupils and managed to squeeze his companion through all the people as well. After what felt like a real battle of tugging and pushing their way, the thing that everyone was looking at, was kind of terrifying her. It was Yuki. In a far too girly and far too cute piece of clothing that looked unfortunately like a dress. It was pastel pink with white silky frills along the hems. The most awful thing was that Yuki still managed to awoke the wish to cuddle him to death.

"Sohma-kun," Toru called out and smiled at the boy who immediately looked up and caught her eyes. He blushed heavily and wanted to say something, but suddenly, Hatori was by her side and started pulling her out of the crowd. She immediately lost sight of Momiji and also of Yuki. It wasn't that she didn't trust Hatori (although that trust had been shaken heavily); she didn't want to leave the two boys and Kyo behind like that. "Where are we going?" she asked nervously as Hatori led her out of the room into the hallway and around another corner until most of the students were elsewhere and they were almost alone.

The tall man looked down at the girl with his healthy eye. He looked as if not sure what to say. For a few moments they only looked each other in the eyes-he thinking about what to say, she being not sure if she wanted to hear anything of it. Hatori finally decided to not beat around the bush and directly address the matter. "What are you going to do?" Toru didn't answer straight away; for a while, she continued to look at him, void of any emotion on her face which was highly unlikely for her. He started to wonder just how much her trust had been shaken, when she let out a dry sob.

"I don't know," she whimpered and hid her eyes behind her hands, "he is going to be so mad ... and ... and ... I didn't even know that I was making a mistake!" Her voice was unsteady and she spoke so fast that she almost stumbled about the words. The black-haired man could only stare at her while she rambled on. "I mean, it was really hard for us to cope with the accident with your eye and I don't know how he will react." A tear slipped down her cheek when she removed her hands to send him an almost frightened glance. "He only had one wish."

In his mind, Hatori thought that the girl in front of him was too good to be true. He knew that Akito had uttered far more than one wish over the years and Toru had worked to grant them all. The family head had grudgingly agreed Hatori to keep contact with Toru and although that should have been normal, she had taken it as a gift. The dragon took her scarf, which had been stuffed into his pocket and slung it around her shoulders.

The soft material slid over her cheek and she instinctively reached to pet it. "I have an idea," he finally told her when her quiet sobs had faded, "I'll come to Shigure's place tomorrow and we'll work on a plane to approach him. The ... accident won't repeat itself-you are too important to him." Her not quit understanding eyes looked at him. She was puzzled. "It is not that I fear for myself," she insisted heavily while taking a hold of both his hands, "It is because I fear for Shigure, Yuki and Kyo... He will most likely not-

"Toru!" Somebody slammed into Toru, knocking her over and pushing her hard onto the ground. A sudden puff and a lot of smoke made her cough heavily. The smoke vanished slowly and revealed … a white bunny, pressed snugly against her chest and looking up at her with wide black eyes. His adorable pink nose was quivering as it sniffed the air.

Hatori's eyes narrowed at a frown established itself on his forehead. He gave off an annoyed feeling and gritted his teeth visibly. "Momiji… What do you think you are doing?" As soon as Hatori had finished, loud steps started to echo through the otherwise empty hallway. The next moment, Yuki and Kyo were sliding around the corner, looking as if hell had broken loose. Although their glares seemed not as vicious when one considered the fact that the grey haired boy was still wearing that ridiculous dress.

"Hatori! Don't you dare lay your dirty fingers on her!" Kyo yelled angrily and looked ready to test his martial arts skills on the doctor by punching him square in the face. Yuki didn't waste a second. He whizzed past the tall man, crouched down next to the girl and regarded her with a gentle but worried look on his face. His dark eyes seemed to ask question after question as he laid a hand on her shoulder carefully, almost hesitantly. His lips were pulled into a tight smile.

The brown-haired girl was heavily touched—all this friendship and gentleness that those two boys gave her … It was heartbreakingly sweet and she loved them for it. "Are you alright, Honda-san?" Yuki's question stopped her eyes from watering and she made her lips perform a sweet smile. Toru found herself blushing faintly and pulling the bunny even closer to her chest, completely forgetting that it was not a plush toy but a Sohma boy she was pressing into her chest.

"Oh, yes, Sohma-kun, I'm perfectly fine, thank you." She continued to smile genuinely at him and after a few seconds of observing, his tight-lipped smile became softer until it became soft.

The orange-haired cat suddenly appeared in front of her and before she could muster up the courage to say anything, the boy grabbed the bunny and pulled it out of her arms despite its heavy squeaking. Toru was almost surprise when it suddenly made very human whailing sounds but then again she hadn't had the opportunity to thoroughly acquaint herself with Momiji's animal form yet. And that was a shame, really, because he was so cute!

Momiji continued to whaile until he eventually decided to switch to a high-pitched whine directed at his captor. "No, Kyo, you big fat meanie! I want to stay with Toru! You are so evil!" The white animal squirmed and moved around in Kyo's iron-hard grip but there was no escape. The cat started to shake the bunny until Momiji's loud voice faded to a quiet pouting about the unfairness of it all.

The teenage girl unsteadily stood up and smiled gratefully at Yuki, who she leaned heavily on. "Stop it, Kyo-kun, you're hurting him!" she pleaded and stretched out her arms as if to take the bunny back in her arms. Kyo held it further away. "Are you stupid? This is Momiji who was pressed up against your chest. And this is actually Hatori who erases memories!" His free hand pointed towards the silent man to his left. "Why are you even here? Are you dumb? Confused? Which is it?" His last question was almost only a hiss, his orange eyes were blazing. He reminded her heavily of Akito when the family head was bursting with aggression and anger.

The dragon calmly reached out and removed Momiji from Kyo's hands. "Enough," he muttered darkly and the look he set on Kyo would have frozen any grown man on the spot. But the cat only turned his eyes to the ground and stopped making a sound; though one could see that he was still silently fuming. The doctor turned his gaze to Yuki and nodded, a silent approve of how Yuki had behaved today. Then, his eyes fell on Toru.

There was so much she wanted to ask him. She didn't want to wait until tomorrow—she needed a plan right now! It may be even best for them to drive to the main house together and get the talk with Akito over, once and for all. "Explain everything," he quietly reminded her in the same tone in which he had told her to do her homework when she had been a child. "I'll be stopping by tomorrow."

The three teenagers watched as Hatori picked up Momiji's clothes, turned around and left. The three didn't say a word. They stood in silence. Everyone wanted to ask the other a billion questions but for the moment, no one did.

***

The mood in which the three were could be called unusual at best and awkward at worst. After Hatori's sudden leave, the teenagers had pulled themselves together and had pulled through with the culture festival as they would have if their little incident hadn't happened. Neither of the boys asked their female friend and housemate a question and, since Toru hadn't a clue what else to do, she copied their behavior. Throughout their work in the classroom, they didn't exchange a word at all and when it was time to go, they pulled on their jackets and went home together.

Simply everything was silent. They even went grocery shopping but none of them lost a word. Kyo hadn't even turned angry when Yuki had tossed leek into their basket. Toru felt safe to say that she had never felt so uncomfortable around the boys and she disliked it immensely.

How would they behave if she told them the truth?

Pondering how she would even begin to broach the subject with them, the girl didn't even notice that they had already arrived at Shigure's house. Yuki held the door open for her so that she could enter first. Together, they carried the grocery to the kitchen after they left their shoes at the entrance. They were all so deeply embedded in their thinking that they didn't see the unfamiliar traditional shoes which occupied the place where Toru normally would have left hers.

It wasn't until they moved around each other in the kitchen, putting the groceries away that Toru noticed it. Although they behaved like they were walking on eggshells, there was something else that was off. Extremely off. She stopped putting Shigure's favorite cookies into his special jar and listened. The girl hesitantly turned to face the boys who had mimicked her and had also stopped working. They both looked at her expectantly.

"Don't you … Don't you think it is unusually quiet?" Her voice was kind of meek but her brown eyes were looking towards the closed rice paper door that led to the living room. The novelist of their house loved to switch on the radio and the TV for background noises. He said, he wouldn't feel as alone. The only thing that could be heard now, though, was the silent dripping of the salad Toru had washed in the sink.

Just as the rat wanted to answer, the rice paper door slid open and revealed Shigure. His trademark Cheshire cat grin was plastered all over his lips and his yukata was tied as lazily as it always was, almost slipping off his right shoulder. And although he appeared to pester the kids about lunch any moment there also was something off about him. The three teenagers stared at him as if he was a ghost because he had yet to start rambling.

Shigure titled his head to the side and continued to smile. "We have a visitor," he then said and Toru—worried only moments ago—switched immediately into host-mode. "A guest? Oh, who is it?" She turned around and switched on the stove with the kettle on it. "I'll make tea immediately!" Her small hand took a hold of the handle of her school bag. "I'll go upstairs and change! I'll go through the living room if you don't mind, Shigure-san?"

The older male shook his head and moved to the side to make room for her. The brown-haired girl entered the living room and looked, because of a sudden stinging feeling, to Shigure's office door, expecting it to be closed. Only it wasn't.

Akito leaned against the frail rice paper door.

His black eyes seemed even blacker than usual. Every bit of color was drained from his face. The contrast of his blood red yukata was even more striking in comparison to his skin.

Toru could not move. She felt her school bag slip out from her grip, heard it landing on the floor with a thud. Her brown eyes locked with his. He carefully and painfully slowly made his way through the room. Was this a dream? Did she have a fever? Akito bent down and picked her school bag up. His eyes were like two holes, bottomless, black pits of anger. And all of this anger was directed at her. The family head inched closer and pressed her bag against her stomach. Their noses were inches apart. They had been this close multiple times, they had hugged and cuddled. But despite of this her arms were glued to her sides as her bottom lip started to quiver.

Akito's stare pierced her, entered her like poison and invaded her system. There was only one thing that pained her most—it was the question that she could easily read through all of his anger. The only question in his eyes was "Why?".

Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket and I don't earn money with this.

Well, well, well. I certainly enjoyed writing this chapter but half of it was typed on an Ipad and God knows; those aren't meant to write fanfiction on them. Aynways, I like cliffys a lot and yeah. I thought that it may be would have been better to let Akito enter the scene in the next chapter but I thought: Why would Akito stay at home when he could as well do something what Hatori has forbidden him? I hope you enjoyed reading through my bad English ;D I tried, peoples, and I kinda enjoyed it (as I said, haha :D) :P

Differences to the manga:

Toru's simpleness (in case any of you wondered why she left to think things through—she has been acquainted with Akito since a long time. I guess this would have changed her slightly. It didn't make her into a genius but I would think she was forced to use her head more often than not.) * Hatori obviously didn't have a camera or was to occupied to take a picture * Kyo is maybe going to be a bit more strained than he would be at this point in the manga

So yeah! See you next time and thanks a lot for the favs and follows! I giggle when I see a new one, hehe

xoxo Padlock