Week four:

Tohru sat in front of the table her head rested on her hands. Today for sure she'd be telling Uo and Hana that she was pregnant. She had gone through an entire week without anyone knowing that she had a baby inside of her. Both Hana and Uo had called her earlier this week to explain why they weren't at school. Uo was complaining about her allergies and all the pollen while apologizing for not being there, adding that Yuki better be taking care of her for her. Tohru just smiled, not sure how to respond to that. Hana had told her that she had to do some sort of ritual concerning the end of summer. Tohru couldn't question that, something she didn't know anything about. They both had promised to be back today though.

She sighed staring at the cup of tea in front of her. Tohru didn't want to bother Yuki again; she had already disturbed his sleep twice tonight or morning. He didn't say anything harsh to her or anything but she knew he was still half asleep when he comforted her. That was selfish of her to keep bugging him when she had a problem, he had his issues to deal with as well; she shouldn't put more on his mind.

Every so often she glanced up at the clock half hoping that it would stop. It didn't, minutes continued to pass bringing her closer to her confession to her two best friends. She prayed, prayed desperately that her friends would accept it and choose not to kill Yuki. They were nice; they were they kindest people she knew but they were also over protective of her. Tohru just hoped she could get them to see how badly she wanted to have a child and a child with Yuki just made her happier.

Nothing would calm her nerves. She had tried to keep herself busy but that didn't work at all. Already she had prepared a lavish breakfast for Shigure, Yuki and herself, a large pot of tea and she had washed all the laundry, folded them and put them away. Her insides were still twisted in a tight knot, refusing to uncoil. That didn't make her feel good at all; she had already thrown up three times this morning from all the stress. Barely a month pregnant and she hated it already; she detested having the baby inside of her and she loathed herself for not liking her child. It wasn't right to think that this early on, she couldn't even begin to imagine her feelings for the baby and for the man who got her pregnant when she was further in her pregnancy.

"What kind of mother am I going to be if I hate my baby?" Tohru asked herself looking down at her still flat stomach.

"Tohru? What did you say?" she heard a voice say.

Tohru looked up at Yuki's face in front of her looking at her with worried eyes. She stared at him for a moment not aware of how late it was already. Yuki sat down across from her trying to figure out what was on her mind. As usual he didn't remember a thing about comforting her earlier this morning, almost as if he was sleep listening and talking.

"Ah! Nothing Yuki-kun! Breakfast is ready! Let me go get it for you!" Tohru exclaimed running off into the kitchen before Yuki could stop her or even get a word out. He sat down in front of the table peering at her cup of tea. Slowly he brushed his fingers against the ceramic shivering. The once warm cup was now cold; that let him have a better idea of how long she had been awake. She came back setting out the array of dishes in front of him with a wide smile. For a minute he could only stare at all the delicious looking food that left him wondering how he hadn't noticed the aroma earlier. Tohru watched him, seeing him stare at the food thinking that he didn't like the food.

"Oh I'm sorry! Did I make something bad?" Tohru asked frantically waving her arms around.

"No it's not that… It looks delicious in fact… You're worried about something… aren't you? Is it about telling your friends?" Yuki guessed.

Tohru just nodded unable to keep any secrets from him anymore. Recently he just saw straight through. She wasn't a good liar to begin with. Sighing she sat down knowing all too well that there wasn't anything he could do to make her feel better. No, he couldn't magically make her un-pregnant in front of her friends nor could he make it so they would never find out. It wasn't his fault either, she was just thinking unreasonably at the moment.

"Tohru, you shouldn't worry about that, they won't be mad at you. They'll be mad at me at most," Yuki tried to reassure her.

"I'm sorry Yuki-kun… I'll make sure they won't do anything to you!" Tohru promised jumping out of her seat. Yuki could only laugh seeing the determined look on her face. Tohru sat back down timidly blushing madly as he told her he was kidding with her. They both knew Uo and Hana wouldn't hurt him if Tohru told them not to. So, just as long as he stayed around her they wouldn't lay a finger or wave on him. He didn't want to think about what would happen if they caught him alone. There was no doubt that they'd blame him for each thing from the pregnancy that caused her pain. They ate in silence, wordlessly communicating their worries with each other.

They walked to school in the same air of silence, concerns heavy in the atmosphere. Few words were exchanged to anyone by either of them, a signal to Uo and Hana that something was wrong. The two friends couldn't say anything yet though, not even after school since Yuki and Tohru still had a week of detention for falling asleep in class. At first Uo and Hana wouldn't believe it, neither would Momiji or Haru but seeing that the two of them did go to the detention room, it had to be true.

Aimlessly they both sat through the hour long detention. Tohru ran her pen up and down her notebook resting her head on her hand before going back to chewing the pen cap trying to plan out what she'd tell Hana and Uo first. Yuki sat across the room from her, their detention supervisor had specific orders to keep them apart in detention since they were both friends. He had a book standing up on the desk before him appearing to be reading from the teacher's perspective but from Tohru's angle she could see he was sleeping. She giggled softly causing the teacher to stare at her. Her jaw snapped shut as she blushed embarrassedly, the teacher probably thought she was nuts. The bell signaling the end of their detention saved her from having to explain her laughter to the teacher and kept her from having to wake up Yuki.

He blinked lifting his head and looking around a little with a clueless expression before the bell rang again. For once he stood up fully awake looking back at Tohru. Grabbing his book he moved back over to where she sat helping her put away her things before telling her, "I have to go to the student council room for a minute to find out what I missed at the meeting today. You can go home first if you'd like."

"Ah… Um… I have to stay after for a bit too… Uo-chan and Hana-chan are waiting for me because I told them I had something important to tell them…" Tohru whispered looking down at her desk clenching her fist with determination. She had no right to call her their friend if she couldn't tell them. They told her everything about them, and she usually told them all her secrets. This was just harder news to break to them especially since she couldn't predict how they'd react.

Yuki nodded understanding what she was going to tell them. The teacher waved her hand at them dismissing them not knowing what she was referring to exactly, brushing it off as unimportant gossip. He handed Tohru her books with a smile reassuring her, "You'll do fine. Don't worry…"

"Thank you Yuki-kun…" Tohru whispered forcing a small smile.

"Don't look so worried. I'll go look for you when I'm done… Okay?" Yuki told her ruffling the top of her hair before walking out of the classroom.

Sighing he walked over to the student council room which was conveniently down the hall from where his detention was held. He grimaced seeing the sign that read The School Defense Force hanging on the wall before the door. It was still a mystery to him why they hadn't torn that down as soon as it was put up. Yuki slid open the door to the room wondering why he even bothered coming to check what they had talked about in the meeting. It was never anything worthwhile or important. Most of it was the most stupid and random things he had ever heard in his life.

"Yun Yun! You're late! You usually get here five minutes earlier!" Kimi exclaimed instantly as he arrived in the room.

"Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah Yun! Get here faster from detention!" Manabe shouted with a grin across his face.

"The president shouldn't even get a detention," Naohito commented with a frown.

All four of the student council members were there waiting for him. The only one who didn't say anything was Machi who remained silent in the back of the room. They had to nag at him for everything he did wrong, didn't they? If they were all over him because of something as small as a detention he couldn't even begin to picture how they'd react if they found out that he was going to be a father, just another reason for him to never consult with any of them. No one really understood him anyways, they all made him out as a prince out of their own free will yet expected him to live up to the title. That was just ludicrous.

"How could you fall asleep in class?" Manabe cried flailing his arms around.

"How can you say that when you fall asleep here instead of working," Yuki muttered getting irritated with him.

"Nya! Because you are the president!" Manabe argued thrusting his finger towards Yuki.

"Did it ever occur to you that you're the vice president? Not much difference there," Yuki commented.

"One word makes a HUGE difference Yun!" Manabe sang in a singsong voice that strangely reminded Yuki of Shigure or even worse Ayame. He had enough of that kind of personality since he lived with Shigure and was related to Ayame. Now, he had another one of them at school. There was no safe place, no time where or when he could be rid of them, was there? Yes, there was the secret base, his haven, probably the only thing that let him keep his sanity, and it also was the special place he shared with Tohru which made it that much more special.

"I don't know why I'm even arguing with you… Just tell me what I missed… I have to go. Unlike some people I don't plan on spending the rest of my day here," Yuki demanded getting impatient. A side of him he didn't show at school very often.

"Hmmm… Well first we discussed how we've been getting so much homework recently," Manabe started.

"And Kimi disagreed with this because no teacher gives Kimi homework," Kimi added with a seductive wink. Yuki shook his head not even wanting to ask her what that meant exactly. He had a feeling he was better off not knowing.

Yuki blinked getting the feeling that today's meeting had been another hour wasted discussing pointless things as he listened to them. Things like this made him question why they even had a student council or defense force as Manabe called it. He was basically the only one who did anything, and it seemed like they weren't able to do anything on their own. They were hopeless cases. After a week of coming here to check on what they had done he wasn't sure why he still came. Each and every time he discovered that nothing had gotten done.

"And I also brought up the idea of turning the bathrooms and locker rooms into unisex ones!" Manabe continued proudly, glimmers of hope and perversion shining brightly in his eyes.

"Forget it… I don't want to hear anymore… I'm leaving," Yuki mumbled after smacking Manabe across the head for acting like a lecher.

He walked out of the room despite their protests. It wasn't like any of them ever had anything of importance to say. Frankly, he thought it was a miracle that they were even in the student council. If he could he would recruit new members for the student council. Maybe that way, they'd have a chance of getting something of importance done. Yuki walked down the halls searching for Tohru. Only now did he regret not telling her to wait for him somewhere, at least then he'd have an idea of where to look.

Wandering around the halls for about ten minutes he had no success in locating the brunette. About to check outside for her he heard crying coming from the end of the hallway he was walking down. It sounded strangely familiar, like Tohru. But why would she be crying? There was no chance of Uo and Hana making her cry, was there? Yuki quickened his pace practically running down the hall; something forbidden to do at school.

There was no questioning it, the longhaired girl who sat on the ground with her face pressed against her arms with Tohru. Her knees were being held to her chest by one of her arms as she cried softly. Uo and Hana, her two friends, were no where in sight. Yuki walked up to her suspecting that her tears were from not being able to find them. Softly he spoke trying not to scare her, "Tohru? What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

Tohru looked up at him with red, puffy eyes. Instantly she ran her face across her arm trying to wipe the tears from her face not wanting him to know that she was crying. There was no need to trouble him with her problems. She tried to smile, "Ah… Yuki-kun, what are you still doing here?"

"Tohru, don't you remember? I told you I'd find you later. Why are you crying?" Yuki asked stooping down before her wiping one last tear she had missed from her face.

She was silent not answering his question. This only served to make him more curious and worried, "Were you not able to find Uotani-san and Hanajima-san?"

Tohru felt the tears well up in her eyes from hearing their names. She shook her head trying to blink back tears, failing miserably. The only thing she was able to choke out between her crying was, "No… I fo-found them…"

Yuki sat himself next to her wanting to hold her and comfort her badly but knowing he couldn't for more then a second made him frown. He wanted to know what made her cry if she had found them. The only way he'd be able to help her was if he found the source of her tears. She buried her face in her arms once again refusing to let him see her cry. It didn't seem to matter if he heard them though. Without hugging her he found it rather difficult to sooth her. He tried wrapping his arm around her shoulder trying to ease her tears away.

"The-they're ma-ad at me…" Tohru confessed in a hardly audible voice.

"What?" Yuki stated in disbelief looking at her with wide eyes.

"When I told them…. About it they… They said tha-that they didn't wa-want to talk to me again! They sa-said that we cou-couldn't be friends anymore!" Tohru wept crying bitterly now.

That wasn't something he couldn't believe. There was no way that those girls, who cherished Tohru as much as he did, could say such things to her. Her expression seemed to believe that they hated her. Making her cry like this was too much for a joke even by the two of them. They wouldn't have left her like this, would they? As he was about to say something to her the voices of those two interrupted him.

"Aww… Prince we were expecting a lot more from you. You should have hugged her at the least!" Uo yelled holding a stick of odango in her hand.

"Yes… I am rather disappointed as well… especially after doing that to our precious, innocent Tohru," Hana nodded holding the rest of the odango in her arms.

"Eh?"

Tohru and Yuki looked at each other, both equally confused and stunned. She had stopped crying when she heard them speak to her. Still dumbfounded by their presence she peered at the both of them tears dripping down her cheeks. Hana stuck a stick of odango in her mouth chewing slowly without a readable expression on her face. Uo seemed unfazed by the tears. She kneeled in front of Tohru with an apologetic look.

"We shouldn't have gotten that odango Hana… Look what we did…" Uo looked back at the gothic looking girl.

"Yes… I agree… We should have been here to watch the whole time," Hana agreed.

"What are you talking about?" Yuki asked getting more confounded by the moment.

Uo sighed glancing back at Hana before telling them everything, "Obviously we wouldn't stop being your friend because of something like that. It wasn't your choice to have this stupid problem. Sorry to make you cry… We just wanted to see if the prince here was good enough for you. We can see not seeing as he couldn't even comfort you when you were crying."

Uo shot a glare at Yuki angrily and disappointedly. Yuki gulped not sure how to explain. It wasn't as if he hadn't thought about hugging her or that he didn't want to but rather that he couldn't, not without transforming. He couldn't fairly well tell them he was cursed and there wasn't exactly another good reason why. Tohru glanced up at him; unlike Uo and Hana she knew why he didn't hug her. She smiled faintly letting Uo and Hana know that she was okay.

"I agree…. I cannot allow you to marry Tohru-kun anytime soon," Hana told him directly.

"Marry?" Yuki and Tohru repeated in unison. They both looked at each other with bewildered looks not sure what brought that topic up. Tohru laughed out of relief, glad to know that her friends really weren't mad at her. She didn't know what she'd do without them. The other two girls just wrapped their arms around her sorry for making her cry so much. Yuki watched the three of them, their closeness always surprising him. There was no doubt that Tohru would share that same warmth and tenderness with the child.