Tohru hummed to herself as she packed up a picnic. She had awoken earlier than usual to cook enough food for five people, seeing as Uo, Hana, Kyo, and Yuki had insisted on going with her to the temple to pay a visit to her mother. This morning went by just like every other. As usual, Kyo walked in wordlessly, plucking one of the rice balls she had made off a plate and shoving it in his mouth before walking to the living room to watch the news, and Yuki stumbled in half asleep, nearly tearing down the paper walls in the process.
"Ah! Good morning Yuki-kun!" Tohru greeted cheerfully.
He lifted his head in her direction, blinking his partially open eyes. Tohru smiled at him and tilted her head to the side. She held out a rice ball to him, offering him some breakfast. He took a few steps over to her as if he were going to take the food, but she soon learned he wasn't conscious enough to even know that she was holding something out for him. Her eyes widened and the rice ball slipped out of her hands as he leaned towards her. She took a step backwards and felt her back hit cold plastic. Tohru peered back at Yuki. He was less than a couple of inches away from her now. His arms shot out to either of her sides, his fingers locking around the sides of the refrigerator as his forehead smacked into the top half of the appliance. Tohru winced. That sounded like it hurt, but he didn't move an inch, not even to rub the bump that was probably forming on his forehead.
"Yuki-kun? Are you okay?!" she squeaked.
He didn't answer her question. She squirmed around, trying to get a response from him, but she was unsuccessful. Tohru frowned. She couldn't move with his arms blocking her exits to the left and right. Tohru swallowed nervously. Her cheeks started flushing, and her heart began to speed up because of his close proximity. She could feel his heart beat against hers and hear his slow breaths and soft snores. He was already asleep again. Tohru clasped her hand over his shoulder, shaking him in attempt to wake him, but she only made his forehead lose its grip on the refrigerator. With a soft plop, his head landed on top of hers, and Tohru yelped. To keep herself from falling over, her arms shot up and wrenched themselves around the first thing they touched, Yuki's neck.
Yuki was jerked out of dreamland as his air supply was suddenly cut off. Tohru gasped when she realized she was strangling him. Trying to unwind her arms, she accidentally moved her foot onto the bits of rice ball on the floor, causing her to lose her balance. As she began to fall backwards, her hands wrung themselves around his neck again, dragging Yuki down with her. Yuki's arms flew out in front of him, catching himself before he crushed her. Tohru's grip around his neck didn't loosen, keeping herself from ever making contact with the floor unintentionally. She was still awaiting the fall until he made a half strangled sound to remind her that he couldn't breathe.
"Oh!"
Tohru's hands instantly released his neck, and her head hit the tiles with a soft thud. Yuki's head lowered as his breathing sped up to give his body back the oxygen it had been deprived of a second ago. Tohru's breathing was almost as quick as his, though for an entirely different reason. Hers was due to the fact that she had just fallen over and because there was a boy hovering over her. Her eyes ran across Yuki once before shutting out of discomfort. She wasn't sure what to do. It'd be rude to demand him to move after choking him, but what if someone caught them like this…?
"What. The. Hell?"
Tohru lifted her head towards the entrance to the kitchen, her face lighting up with a blush. How delightful. Just as she was thinking about how horrible it'd be if someone walked in now, Kyo showed up. Copying Tohru's movements, Yuki turned his head towards the entrance, staring at the orange haired teenager standing there. He rolled his eyes slightly before pushing himself off from over Tohru. He laid himself down on the floor beside her, still trying to catch up on oxygen. Kyo stomped over to Yuki, glowering at the teenager. Yuki simply stared back, unfazed by the malevolent vibe surrounding Kyo.
"What do you think you were doing, you damn rat?!" Kyo snarled.
Yuki sat up and threw Kyo an incredulous look. He stared at Kyo for a moment, giving the cat an expression that let him know how much of an idiot he thought he was at the moment. Just by the disgusted look across Kyo's face, Yuki was positive that he knew what was running through the cat's head. He wasn't sure whether he should be more offended or entertained by Kyo's thought process, not that he could blame him. He was sure if he walked in on Kyo lying over Tohru, he'd think the same thing Kyo was. Carelessly, Yuki shrugged, "What do you think I was doing?"
"Being a pervert like that sick dog!" Kyo snapped.
Yuki laughed at that, "You're the lecher here, stupid."
"I'm not the one molesting Tohru on the kitchen floor!!!" Kyo roared, sticking his finger out towards Yuki accusingly.
Yuki shook his head at Kyo. He partially wanted to laugh at the serious look across Kyo's face and leave without explaining what really was going on, though he really couldn't have explained even if he wanted to. Yuki could vaguely recollect getting out of bed after mutilating his alarm clock, getting dressed, and the next thing he knew he was being suffocated. Hesitantly, he glanced towards Tohru to see if he had done any of the things that were probably spinning around Kyo's head since he never knew what exactly happened when he wandered around half asleep, but what he saw hardly helped. He wasn't sure what to make of the blush across her cheeks though the fact that she could look him in the eye was enough to convince him that the blush was because Kyo had walked in and got the wrong impression.
"Don't listen to him, Tohru. He seems to have misplaced his brain somewhere… Oh wait… I lied. I'm sorry. He never had a brain to begin with," Yuki smiled politely at Tohru, trying to see if his theory was correct after all.
Tohru laughed a little awkwardly. She was just glad to see that no fight had broken out between them, at least not yet. Glancing down, she fiddled with the bottom of her shirt. She doubted he knew, but it was extremely difficult for her to be able to look at him and talk coherently around him. That night, a week ago when he had hugged and comforted her left her a lot more than a little self-conscious. Well for one thing, since that night, she was sure that she was in love with Yuki, and that was more than enough to make her feel uncomfortable whenever she was in the same room as him, but she was also left pondering over the curse.
Sure, he had said she had broken his curse, but she wanted to know how.
Despite depicting everything she knew about the curse over and over again, she was not anywhere closer to figuring out what she wanted to know, and since neither she nor Yuki had told anyone about his curse being removed, she didn't have the option of asking for second opinions either. Tohru hadn't even said one word to him about it either, and he didn't bring it up. She wouldn't be surprised if he really had been trying to talk to her about it for a while though. She was practically avoiding him after all, and when she wasn't doing that, she was zoning out, like she was right now. Speaking of Yuki, she suddenly remembered that Yuki was still talking to her. Her eyes flashed up to his now worried eyes.
"… Are you okay Tohru? You didn't get hurt, right?" Yuki asked her with a concerned look.
"Oh no, no, no! I'm fine!" Tohru responded a little too quickly.
"That's a relief… Do you mind telling me what just happened? Did I do something inappropriate?" Yuki added, suddenly worried about something else.
"Of course not! You were sleeping Yuki-kun! It was my fault! I fell… and I… I u-umm… choked you… on accident of course! I'm sorry!" Tohru replied.
"Don't worry about it. Just as long as you're fine…"
"HEY! I'm talking you to, you stupid rat! LISTEN TO ME!" Kyo shouted furiously.
Yuki turned towards Kyo, raising his eyebrows. Kyo glared at him, shocked to see Yuki actually do what he ordered him to. He was so bewildered that he lost his train of thought, and he was abruptly left trying to shove something coherent together before Yuki came up with something clever to retort, but that wasn't going too well. Yuki continued to sit there as Kyo struggled to regain his thoughts. He remained completely quiet for another minute before speaking again, "What? I thought you were going to say something."
"SHUT UP!!!" Kyo used his last resort response and glowered some more.
"Kyon! You shut up! I can hear you from your front door!" Uo yelled as she stepped into the kitchen.
"Yes… I believe it's called an indoor voice," Hana nodded in agreement.
Tohru's gaze shifted over to her friends for a moment before she jumped off the ground and away from Yuki. No need to give them more things to tease her about. She was pretty sure they already figured out that she loved Yuki. Actually, she was sure they had discovered her feelings before she was even aware she had them. They never stopped bugging her for 'details' about the relationship she didn't have with Yuki, and they probably got that idea from walking in on scenes like the one Kyo had. Why did everyone always have to choose the 'best' scenes to walk in on?
Tohru pushed her lips upwards into a smile as she started towards her two friends, "Uo-chan! Hana-chan!"
"Hey Tohru. Ready to go?" Uo asked.
Tohru glanced back at her half packed picnic sheepishly.
"Almost…." She whispered before darting back to the counter and shoving everything into the wooden basket. Tohru worked quickly, not wanting to make anyone wait because of her, but she was cramming things in a bit too quickly. Half of the food didn't even make into the basket, landing around on the table instead. Yuki watched her for a second longer before he slid his hands underneath her arms and picked her up. He set her back down a foot away from the counter, and he took the bundle of eating utensils out of her hands. Yuki turned back towards the basket and placed everything into the basket quicker, more accurately, and more fluidly than she had.
When he turned around with basket in hand, Tohru reached out for it, but he didn't acknowledge her attempts to take the basket from him. Yuki grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around to face the stairs.
"Go get changed. We'll wait down here," Yuki told her.
Tohru gave him a baffled look.
"Tohru, you're the only one who isn't dressed and ready to go," Uo pointed out.
Tohru glanced down at her pink pajama bottoms with the strawberry pattern and blushed. She finally caved in and rushed upstairs to change into the black dress she had set out yesterday. Pure black, funeral attire that matched Hana's lacey black gown, Uo's black trench coat, Kyo's black t-shirt, and Yuki's black button down shirt. Tohru frowned at the mirror once she was done getting dressed. Usually, she'd frown because she disliked wearing such a dark, dreary color, but today, she was depressed because she could no longer hide the fact that she was pregnant anymore. Though just knowing that she finally had to fully explain to her mom about her situation was nerve wrecking enough.
Tohru sighed and rushed downstairs after Uo called her for the third time, though she wasn't aware that this was Uo's third time calling her. She had been too lost in thoughts to hear the first two. By the time she arrived downstairs, her four friends were already by the door with their shoes laced and waiting. After apologizing numerous times, she hurried to slip on her shoes, but that was a mistake. As she tried to pull on her shoes while standing, she somehow managed to trip over nothing but the shoe she was putting on and fell against Yuki. Luckily, Yuki had managed to shove the picnic basket into Kyo's arms before Tohru landed and sent the food sprawling everywhere.
Yuki caught her in his arms before her head crashed against the floor. Tohru flinched, not out of shock, but out of fear that a small mouse would appear and take Yuki's spot. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the screams of shock from Uo and Hana as they discovered the curse, but after a minute, the screams she had expected hadn't sounded. Tohru opened one eye, partially surprised to see Uo and Hana gazing back at her with calm expressions, almost amused.
Tohru forced the other eye opened and abruptly understood why the glimmer of entertainment lay in Uo's eyes. She was pressing herself tightly against Yuki and clinging to him as his arms were locked around her waist to help her remain upright. Her face instantly brightened as she tore herself off of Yuki. She kept her head down as she stiffly marched out of the house. Rushing, Tohru accidentally ran straight into a tree. As she rubbed her head, she tried to continue on, but the lump on her head left her too dizzy to make it further than a foot before she collapsed.
"Tohru! Are you okay?!"
The four of her friends previously in the house rushed out, helping Tohru back into a sitting position.
"I-I'm oka-okay! B-but we should g-get going!!!" Tohru squeaked, jumping to her feet.
Uo reached up and dragged Tohru back down. Tohru dropped down on her bottom with a bewildered look. She peered back at Uo, confused. Uo shook her head and lifted her hand, gesturing to Tohru's other shoe which lay in Yuki's outstretched hand. Tohru's jaw dropped as she timidly snatched the shoe out of his hand. Her eyes drifted down to her previously white sock which was now caked in dirt and other unidentifiable dark specks. With a short sigh, she quickly shuffled into her shoe and stood up. Tohru didn't look up at any of her friends as she dusted off her dress.
"Why are you in such a rush, Tohru? Don't you want to hug the prince some more?" Uo smirked.
Tohru's head jerked up in Yuki's direction for a brief moment before she turned her face towards her lap once again. Uo's grin enlarged as her eyes left Tohru and flashed over to Yuki. He, like Tohru, had his head turned away from them, but his blush was a tad bit lighter than Tohru's and not as visible. He was still rather calm, on the outside at least, but it was still entertaining for Uo to see an embarrassed prince. Hana was just as amused with this as Uo was, but Kyo was nearly as uncomfortable as Tohru and Yuki were. He abruptly jumped up from his squatting position and headed down the dirt path.
"If you guys wanna sit there all day, be my guest, but I'm leaving," Kyo said as he sauntered away.
"Ah! Wait for me, Kyo-kun!"
Tohru spun around instantly and followed after Kyo, eager to leave the humiliating scene behind. Uo and Hana sighed as they chased after the two, tacitly deciding that they'd drop the teasing for a while. Being the responsible one, Yuki was the last to leave. He locked the door before he started after the group since he highly doubted that Shigure was even awake yet. Nobody seemed to have had noticed his disappearance he noted when he caught back up with them. He could hear bits and pieces of the conversation flowing between Tohru, Uo, and Hana, but he was too busy concentrating on something else to be able to make sense of their words.
His eyes were glued on Tohru's left hand which was caged within Kyo's larger, tan one.
Yuki glowered at the contact, jealously flaring within him. When had Kyo suddenly become friends with Tohru again? He hated to admit it, but he had enjoyed the past weeks with Kyo avoiding Tohru and him. He had liked how Kyo wouldn't come within a ten foot radius of Tohru, and the worst part was that he had gotten used to it. Yuki gritted his teeth together, and his hands curled into fists. He could hardly repress his urge to punch Kyo, and he barely managed to keep his cool. The only thing that was restraining him was the fact that Tohru would be extremely upset if Kyo got hurt, and he didn't want to cause her more fret.
Maybe he would have been less upset if he noticed that her other hand was clutched in Hana's, but he couldn't see anything but Kyo holding her hand. He eventually looked away, discovering that it hurt too much to continue looking and waiting for the bond to break. Still, it didn't lessen the pain to stare at the ground instead. He still knew what they were doing, but he'd rather not go back to analyzing their every move. Yuki had been so busy trying to keep his thoughts off of Tohru and Kyo that he didn't even realize that they had arrived at the cemetery until he bumped into Tohru's back.
She almost fell over and hit her head against her mother's tomb, but his hand grasped her shoulder in time and pulled her back into safety. Tohru peered back at him blankly.
"I'm sorry Tohru… I should have watched where I was going…" Yuki lowered his head in apology.
"Oh no! I shouldn't have been kneeling here!" Tohru squeaked.
Tohru inched over to her left, getting out of Yuki's path before going back to washing the gravestone. Yuki grimaced when he spotted who Tohru had moved closer to. He was pretty sure that she was unaware that she had taken three steps closer to Kyo, but he knew. Great. Now he felt like a stalker. Yuki took a deep breath and sat down beside Tohru, coming to the conclusion that he was just acting paranoid. He distracted himself by helping her with the preparations. Yuki lit the incense and a couple of candles for her, setting them around the tomb. He helped her lay out the picnic and started eating breakfast with the rest of them without tasting anything he placed in his mouth. He wasn't even aware that it had started raining until Tohru let out a cry.
Of course, he was always aware of everything she did.
"Oh no! It's raining… Mom must be mad at me…" Tohru trailed off as she turned her face up towards the sky.
"Why would you think that, Tohru?" Hana asked.
Tohru lowered her face and frowned sadly. She eyed the gravestone with a forlorn expression. Her mother had never been angry at her before. Never. Not even once, but by the looks of it, her mother was furious at her now. She didn't know how to handle this situation. How was she supposed to get a deceased person to forgive her? She started wishing she had kept her thoughts to herself as she noticed the strange faces her friends were making –except for Hana; her expression was blank, as usual. The rest of them obviously thought she was crazy though.
"Because mom doesn't want me to stay here any longer now that she knows I'm pregnant… She made it rain so I would go home…" Tohru explained in a hushed voice.
"Tohru, I'm sure your mom isn't mad at you… The weather man said it might rain today, remember?" Yuki pointed out as he pulled out an umbrella he had brought with him. Yuki pushed the corner of his mouth upwards, half smiling in attempt to raise her mood up a notch or two, but her eyes only flickered up to the umbrella. She had averted his eyes completely. It hurt to know that she'd rather bite her lip and study the pattern on her dress more than meet his eyes and respond to his words. Did he really mean absolutely nothing to her now that Kyo was friends with her again?
Tohru moved her gaze down to her shoes, still convinced that her mom was mad at her. Hana patted Tohru's back, "Don't worry Tohru… Your mom's waves are very happy, although they are very faint…"
Tohru smiled a bit, "Really?"
The dark haired female nodded, and Tohru's face brightened with a true smile that was quickly interrupted by Kyo's impatience.
"Argh! COME ON! I hate the rain!" Kyo shouted as he darted from the temple, wanting to get home before his strength vanished.
Tohru flinched and hurriedly started shoving everything back into the wooden basket. Yuki opened the umbrella and held it over her head to keep the rain off of her as she worked. She scurried around, quickly gathering everything and shutting the basket. She hopped to her feet and quickly said goodbye to her mother before scurrying away with Yuki, Uo, and Hana. It was hard to squeeze four people under one umbrella. Everyone was partially wet except for Tohru since Yuki made sure she was in the middle.
"Prince Charming! Why didn't you bring more umbrellas?" Uo demanded.
"It was sunny when we left, so I didn't think we'd need them," Yuki replied.
Ironically enough, as soon as they collapsed inside the house, the rain drizzled to an end. Kyo cursed from his laying position on the couch. He was too weak to do much of anything else but continue to lay there until his energy was restored. Tohru didn't even have the chance to offer to get her friends some towels to dry off with nor did Uo even get an opportunity to tease Kyo about his deranged appearance before Shigure ran into the room frantically holding a crying plastic baby in his hands.
"Tohruuuuuuuuuuu-kun! Stop the crying! It's been crying since you left!!!" Shigure wailed thrusting the doll at Tohru.
Tohru gaped and shoved her hand into her pocket, fishing out the key she always kept with her. She took the baby from Shigure, slid the key into its slot, and the crying faded away. Tears of happiness started streaming down Shigure's face. He mumbled something about finally being able to hear before he tried to leap on Tohru, but Yuki grabbed him by the collar of his kimono and yanked him back before he bruised Tohru. Shigure dangled in the air for a minute before Yuki dropped him.
"What do you think you were doing?" Yuki asked slowly.
"Expressing my love and gratitude to Tohru of course! Don't be so possessive Yuki-kun!" Shigure whined.
"Please… Do us all a favor, and keep your expressions of love and gratitude to yourself… So please go do something productive or something preferably out of my sight," Yuki requested, venom sliding out with each word.
"Fine! I'll call Akito to come over for a visit!" Shigure sang as he skipped away.
From just hearing that one phrase, Kyo leapt up from the couch and raced after Shigure with Yuki. A few crashes, screams, cries, and whimpers later, Yuki and Kyo returned. Kyo was dragging Shigure by his ear, and Yuki held what was left of the phone in his hands –it had gotten destroyed as they tried to wrestle it from Shigure. Shigure didn't dare to bother them anymore for the rest of that day, and without him around, the house was strangely quiet after Uo and Hana left, not that anyone was complaining about that.
The day quickly came to a close with bed time just around the corner. Yuki had already retreated to his room as Tohru did some last minute cleaning. Tohru muttered to herself to keep herself company as she scampered around the kitchen, putting away some dishes and eating utensils before she went to bed, completely ignorant of the eyes glued on her. Kyo stood there by the door way with his arms crossed. He had been there for about ten minutes, just watching her. After a few visits with Kagura, he had finally decided he'd tell her about his feelings but not before he apologized to her.
"Hey Tohru…"
"Kyo-kun?" Tohru spun around after shutting the last cabinet. She scampered over to him with a bright smile.
"I… I uh… I just wanted to tell you something…" Kyo stammered.
"What is it Kyo-kun?" Tohru asked. She cocked her head to the side innocently as she awaited a response from her friend –at least she considered him her friend, she still wasn't sure how he felt about her though he had been treating her a lot more nicely lately. Kyo's face darkened. His eyes slid shut as he drew in a deep breath. He had to do this. He had to say this before it consumed him.
"Tohru… First off… I have to say that… I have to say that I-I'm sorry… And I don't care about the pregnancy anymore… I shouldn't have yelled at you and made you cry… And… A-and… I think… I think I- I love you…" Kyo stuttered in a voice that was only a bit louder than a whisper.
Tohru froze in place as her eyes doubled in size. Her mouth dropped open with shock. That was the last thing she had expected to hear from him. The only thing she could manage to do for five minutes was stare at the teenager before her. He kept his eyes closed, awaiting a sound of disgust, a sigh, an apology, something, but he didn't expect her to press her lips against his lower cheek. His eyes snapped open out of surprise. For a split second, his heart fluttered with belief that she loved him too, something he had refrained from believing since he learned of her pregnancy, but when his eyes settled on her downcast ones and the frown across her face, he knew that wasn't the case, and even though he had been preparing for this for a week, the feeling of his heart tearing into two still overwhelmed him.
"… I'm sorry Kyo-kun…" she whispered.
He chuckled a broken laugh. He had been expecting those words. He knew that would be what he heard if he confessed to her. So why did it still hurt this much?
"You love the rat…" It wasn't a question, but a statement, a fact that he was one hundred percent sure of now.
Tohru didn't respond. No matter how badly she wanted to, she couldn't deny that so she just apologized again. He shocked himself more than her when his hand reached forward and patted her on the head. She glanced up at him slowly, and he flashed her a weak smile.
"You can't help who you love…" he muttered.
He mimicked her previous actions and kissed her on the cheek before withdrawing and running up to his room. Tohru covered her mouth, holding back her sobs. She stumbled up the stairs before her tears blinded her. She walked into the room of the only Sohma she was sure she could hug's room. Behind the glossy tears, her eyes could hardly make out his figure hunched over his desk. She didn't want to bother him, but her body kept moving despite her protests. She walked over to him and dropped into his awaiting arms and clung to him, pressing her face against his chest.
"I-I hu-hurt him…" she choked out.
Yuki didn't say anything back. He could only guess who she was talking about, but he was pretty sure she referring to Kyo by 'him'. Stupid bipolar cat. How could he act so friendly towards her this morning and make her cry now? He would have slaughtered the cat and made cat stew if he wasn't currently comforting a certain brunette. Yuki kept his thoughts to himself, simply letting her cry, and she let him stroke her back and comfort her until her exhaustion drew her into a state of deep sleep.
Yuki glanced down at the sleeping girl sitting on his lap. He brushed her hair out of her face and leaned down to press his lips on the corner of her eye, catching a tear that had previously been trapped there.
"I love you, Tohru…"
He had a glorious knack for confessing when she couldn't hear him, and he hated that, but he didn't have enough courage to say it to her when she was conscious. Yuki held her for several more minutes before he carefully picked her up and returned her to her bed. He stared at her restless figure for a moment then bent over, leaving a kiss on her cheek, and after that, she settled down, sleeping peacefully with pleasant dreams.
Ew. This chapter was yucky, pointless, and rushed. I'd give this chapter a 3/10. Bleh. An update after a month and you get junk like this... Sorry. Hopefully, the next chapter will be more exciting and have a less depressing ending. Again, I apologize.