Scattered across the table were over a hundred letters, packets, envelopes, magazines, and other assortments all addressed to Tohru. Half of them were open, the others still unread and stacked into a tall neat pile. Tohru was struggling not to start bawling as she set her fortieth hate letter down, adding it to the tower of mail from members of the Yuki fan club. She pushed her mouth upwards into a pitiful smile and reached forward for another letter, but a pale hand enclosed her wrist and stopped her before she could make contact with the white envelopes.

"Would you please stop reading these, Tohru?"

Tohru gazed up at Yuki for a brief moment before looking away and shaking her head slowly. She tugged her arm out of his and grabbed another envelope. She didn't meet his eyes. He probably could have kept her from getting a letter if he really wanted to. It wasn't a secret that he was about a hundred times stronger than she was. He was just humoring her. Keeping her eyes on her mail, she slid her finger under the sealed flap. She focused on peeling open the letter so she wouldn't give herself another paper cut. Her hands were already covered with band aids, showing her envelope opening skills off to the world. Her hands shook as she struggled to make an opening in the stupid package that was keeping her letter away from her.

"Please?" he whispered in a soft voice.

She didn't reply. She didn't like upsetting him or disobeying him, but this was her mail, and she wanted to read it. She could understand why he didn't want her to read it and why he hadn't given these to her until Shigure had told her about them, and she had gone to request them from him. The letters were full of vile words, curses, and bad wishes, but they were still hers, and even though she was practically crying because of them, she had a burning desire to continue reading. Not even Tohru understood the urge.

With him watching her over her shoulder, it was getting harder to concentrate on the task before her. It wasn't long until the sharp edges of the envelope flap slit open the middle of her finger. Tohru gasped and dropped the letter. A second hadn't even passed before his fingers wound themselves around her arm. He didn't make a comment as he led her to the bathroom. Yuki gently pushed her hand under the faucet and washed her cut for her. He went as far as dabbing the minor cut with alcohol. She didn't complain. This was the tenth time he had done this for her today. He finished the process by neatly placing a childish band aid over the wound.

Tohru smiled at the pink bandage with small red strawberries all over. She spread her fingers apart and her smile grew. There was a bandage on each one of her fingers, each with a different fruit print. Yuki wrapped his hands around hers again and shook his head with a faint smile, "I've never actually seen someone smile when they got hurt."

Tohru looked away bashfully. Yuki smiled briefly before clasping both of his hands around hers together in a tight bundle. He held their hands in front of her chest. Yuki shook them back in forth as if he was begging her to do something, except he was making her beg along with him.

"Please, please, please. Let's toss out those letters, okay? Please?" he pleaded.

Tohru opened her mouth to protest, but as soon as she saw the look he was giving her, her will to do anything that didn't coincide with his wishes just disappeared. How could she argue with this incarnation of a grieving angel? The answer was simple. She couldn't. The perfect creases etched into his forehead, the impeccable downward curve of his smooth lips, and the flawless agony displayed in his grey eyes made thinking near impossible, not to mention rejecting his suggestions.

"Umm… O-okay…" she caved in without fully understanding what she was agreeing to.

A grin quickly broke out across Yuki's face as he dragged Tohru back to her room, more than ready to get rid of the letters. If he were a more expressiveperson, like Momiji, he probably would be jumping up and down right now. It had been killing him to know that his purely sweet and innocent Tohru was reading such atrocious things. It had bothered him enough to make him check on her about every five minutes to see if anything she had read had made her cry. Needless to say, if something anyone had written caused her to shed a single tear, that person would not be around tomorrow. Luckily for everyone who had sent Tohru one of those hate letters, nothing had made her release the tears she had been holding in yet.

He had been pretty sneaky about his checks on her. Most of the time, she wasn't aware that he had even slipped into her room or peeked in through her door. He only let her become aware of his presence whenever she cut her fingers, and even though she had hurt herself a total of ten times, that wasn't even close to being half the times he had come to check on her. Yuki had basically been doing nothing but obsessing over Tohru reading those letters ever since she had asked for them about two hours ago. When he wasn't hovering around her, he was pretty much pacing around in the hallway, trying to think of ways to convince her to stop reading them. It wasn't very hard to see why it was such a relief to him to finally hear her agree after listening to her decline his requests over and over again.

Tohru watched him, keeping at the doorway when they arrived at her bedroom. She still wanted to read the rest of the letters, but she couldn't bring herself to stop him and make that gorgeous smile of his fade, especially considering how much he's done to help her, so she reluctantly stood there and watched him gather all the letters in one tall stack in his long arms. He walked out of the room with them –doubting her ability to restrain herself from reading them if he tossed them in her trash?- and walked down the stairs.

A single letter fluttered out of the pile, going by unnoticed by his usually observant eyes that missed nothing and landed on the top of the stairs. Tohru leaned over to grab the letter, but a tan hand snatched it before her. She glanced up at Kyo who had the letter in front of his nose.

Oops.

Kyo was the last person she wanted to find one of these letters. His eyes darted back and forth across the sheet of paper, skimming the words before him. Tohru grimaced and took a step back, not liking the way Kyo's face was starting to contort with anger. His hand abruptly shut into a fist, making her jump up a foot as he crumpled the letter. His eyes flashed over to hers.

Uh-oh.

Just as she had suspected, he was angry. Terribly furious.

Was he mad at her or at the person who wrote that letter? Usually, it would have been obvious to her that he was angry at the letter, not at her, but after he had confessed to her, she had found it harder to read his reactions, almost as if he had put up a wall around himself, and she couldn't penetrate through it, no matter how hard she tried. This was actually the first time he had looked her in the eye since the confession, or he would have been looking her in the eye if she hadn't turned her face down. She couldn't meet his gaze. It was still a little awkward between him and her even though a week had passed since he had told her that he loved her.

Maybe it was only awkward in her perspective. He seemed perfectly at ease –except for now- when he was around her, even encouraging her to tell Yuki how she felt once in a while, but she never listened to his advice. There was no way she could tell Yuki she loved him. Nope. She would freak him out, and then, she'd lose one of her best friends. Besides, she wasn't one who enjoyed pain, both mental and physical. She didn't need to be at the top of her class to see the miles that separated her and Yuki. A blind person could see that compared to Yuki's mountain of positive attributes, her pile was a mere anthill.

But, maybe if she was a bit more observant, she would surely realize that given the option between her and the most perfect girl in the world, he would not hesitate in choosing her.

Being reminded of his presence by the consistent crinkling of the letter in his fist, Tohru's large brown orbs hesitantly snuck a peek at Kyo's face before shooting back down to her feet. Despite the short amount of time her eyes had lingered on him, he was swifter than her, and he noticed her look. He waved the ball of a letter around, knowing she could see it in her peripheral vision. Tohru chewed the bottom of her lip, anticipating the words she knew he'd say.

"What the hell is this?" he asked.

Still not meeting his eyes, Tohru responded in a rushed voice, "That's my letter…"

"No shit. I knew that, but what the hell is the damn rat doing with it?"

"Um… Y-Yuki-kun didn't want me to read them anymore, so he's throwing them away…"

"Why the hell not? It's his fault you even get crap like this!" Kyo snapped.

Tohru winced a bit, not by Kyo's profanities, but by the flash of pain that shot across Yuki's face. He was standing behind Kyo on the stairs, empty handed. Yuki watched her peer at him for a minute, scrutinizing her face for hints to how she felt at the moment before deciding to approach her. He shoved Kyo aside so he could get up the stairs, but Kyo yanked him back over by the back of his shirt. Kyo glared at Yuki and shook the crumpled letter before his face with a disgusted look. Yuki raised his eyebrows, slightly irked at Kyo for stopping him before he got to speak with Tohru.

"Have you read any of these?!" Kyo demanded angrily.

"Yes, actually, I have," Yuki replied calmly.

"And that's all you have to say? It's your fault she gets this shit, you know that, right?!" Kyo yelled.

That wasn't true. Tohru opened her mouth to speak, to deny the claims Kyo was making. She'd never blame Yuki for these letters. All he had ever done was help her more times than she could count. He was her savior, the reason she was passing school, the reason that she was able to survive this pregnancy. He was the cause of her happiness. He was basically why she was still smiling and laughing despite the numerous pains and troubles of her pregnancy. But, before she could point out any of these, Yuki broke out of Kyo's hold and was making his way over to her with an apologetic look across his face that all but broke her heart.

"I know… and Tohru, I'm sorry about that… I had no idea they would react like this… Believe me… If I did, I wouldn't have said a thing to them… I'm sorry…"

Tohru covered her mouth and shook her head furiously, "No! That's not true! I don't blame you! It's not your fault at all! Really!"

"No, he's right. Tohru, it is my fault. You have every right to be mad at me…"

"But I'm not mad at you! Yuki, really! That's the truth!" Tohru squealed in a frantic voice.

Tohru hurled herself at him, wrapping her arms around him tightly. She wept bitterly, praying that he'd stop thinking those letters were his fault. It wasn't, and she'd never blame him, regardless of what Kyo believed. She wasn't sure what Kyo had been doing the past couple of minutes, but when she opened her eyes, she could no longer see him there through the tears that clung to her eyelashes. But Kyo wasn't the one she was worried about at the moment. She was fretting over the teenager trapped in her arms. Tohru tightened her arms around Yuki. She couldn't see his facial expression, but by how tense his body was, she didn't think he really believed her words.

His arms slowly slipped around her back but not without hesitation. He gingerly patted her back and rested his cheek on her shoulder. She could feel his warm breath tickle her skin as he spoke.

"You're too forgiving."

With that, his lips made the briefest contact with the nape of her neck. It had been so quick that she wasn't entirely sure that it had even happened, and he was gone before her wide open mouth shut. Tohru blinked, her hand flying to the spot where his lips had been a minute ago. The only proof she had that the kiss had even been made was the flaming patch of skin on the side of her neck. For a few minutes, she could barely breathe properly. She sank on the ground, taking in and releasing short breaths that hardly provided an adequate amount of oxygen considering how quickly her heart was beating.

She didn't know how long she had been sitting there, but not long enough for either Yuki or Kyo to walk out of their rooms. She stayed there until she started feeling a pang of pain at her side. At first, she had brushed it off as shock from a kiss she wasn't sure she had really received, but they didn't stop, and they were beginning to hurt. She clutched her midriff, and this time, she could vaguely feel the form of a foot hit her hand through her stomach. Tohru winced and gripped her abdomen tighter, hoping her daughter would stop kicking her soon, but she didn't. The kicks continued, one after another until she was almost crying and sure she was getting a bruise. Maybe if she had been less lightheaded and dizzy, she would have realized that the baby had only kicked a few times, but it was a lot more at once than she was used to.

When the baby had settled down and stopped moving around inside of her, Tohru stood up shakily and stumbled into the bathroom to puke. It had been a while since she had felt the symptoms of morning sickness -which ironically, didn't just occur in the morning. She didn't feel much better when she was done. Her mouth tasted foul even after rinsing it with water several times, not to mention she was left a bit woozy. She slid down against the sink and sat there, resting her head between her knees, and there, she began to cry.

It wasn't long before Yuki kneeled down before her and wrapped his arms around her. She could never figure out how he always knew when she was crying or whenever she got hurt, and even now, she had been muffling her cries rather well, yet, he came to her aid with ease, not even a full minute after the first tear had rolled down her cheek. He crushed her tiny body against his, making her feel very much like a small child, though he didn't say anything until she relaxed a bit.

"What's the matter, Tohru?"

He backed up slightly to get a look at her and cradled her face between his hands. The tips of his fingers fluttered along her cheeks, catching her tears as he checked to see if she had bumped her head. Seeing as she didn't flinch out of pain, his eyes scanned the rest of her body for traces of an injury, but the only thing remotely close to a source of pain was her stomach. Her arms were locked tightly around her abdomen. He cocked his head to the side and reached forward, brushing his fingers across one of her arms. She jumped, though he wasn't sure whether it was out of surprise or actual pain. Regardless, he wrapped his arms around her again as tears ebbed out once more.

"I… I don't w-want to be pregnant anymore… I'm sick of it… I'm t-tired of not being able to wear any of my old clothes… I-I can't take the looks everyone gives me at school anymore… They look at me like I'm a fr-freak. And my back hurts all the time… My hips ache. And so do my ribs… a-and I get cramps in my legs… I k-know… I'm a horrible person… I want this baby, b-but I don't want to be pregnant anymore!" she hadn't meant to cry all that into his shirt, but as soon as the first sentence slipped out, the rest followed as if they were attached together.

Yuki was caught off guard and left speechless at her words. Tohru was never the type of person who complained about anything. Heck, when she was sleeping in a tent out in the cold, she still smiled constantly and never once even mentioned how difficult it was for her. Of course, he could tell she was suffering through the pregnancy. He noticed every time she flinched because the baby kicked too hard, he was aware of how much she was hurting, yet he was able to convince himself that she wasn't suffering that badly because of how she was able to keep cheerful, but now he heard the agony drift out of her mouth, he couldn't pretend anymore. He held her tighter.

"I know I'm t-terrible… I k-know… B-but…"

"Shh… It's all right… I understand…There are only two things I'm sure will never change. The first is that you're not a horrible person, and you never will be… You're a beautiful, lovely, sweet girl…" he breathed into her ear.

"No, I'm not-"

"You are," he said firmly.

Her cheeks were flaring red. She shook her head to the side, but she didn't deny his words vocally. At this point, speaking coherently was all but impossible. He released her, placing his hands on either side of her head. Ever so carefully and gently, his forehead settled against hers. Tohru shut her eyes, deciding it'd be easier to fight off a blush if she wasn't staring at his flawless face which was just over an inch away from her own. She lowered her chin until it touched the top of her chest, but that didn't change the fact that she could still feel his warm breath against her nose.

"You don't complain enough… That's why you're so upset now… Well that and because I'm guessing it isn't exactly fun to have a child thrashing around inside of you… I want you to complain, starting now. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to help you with much, but I'll listen… And I promise I won't think any less of you if you tell me you hate the baby right now…" he whispered.

He watched her eyes slide open, glossed over with uncertainty before adding, "I can guarantee you'll feel better…"

She shook her head, "No… It's not that… I'm done complaining… I already told you everything…"

"Really? I don't believe you… But, if you say so…"

She laughed slightly. Tohru let her lips curve up into a true smile as she broke out of his embrace. Running her face across the back of her arm, she cleared her face of the tears. He brushed the back of his hand across her jaw line, catching a tear she hadn't noticed. Yuki stared at glistening bubble of water on his hand, seemingly interested for a moment before wiping it off and facing her again as if he could sense that she had a question on her mind to ask him. Her cheeks flushed a light pink as she turned her head down, now fiddling with the edge of her shirt.

"Um… What's the second?"

"What?"

His confused expression baffled her. He was the one who mentioned being positive about two things in life, and now, he was looking at her like she was the crazy one? Tohru drew in a breath slowly, not all too eager to try and explain her question. She wasn't quite fond of sounding like a lunatic.

"The second thing you're sure will never change…" she trailed off bashfully.

His eyes widened ever so slightly with comprehension. At least she knew she wasn't crazy and hearing things now. He looked away from her, his cheeks cultivating a faint blush. Whoops. Maybe he should have just said there was one thing he was sure wouldn't change. No need to dance with rejection, no matter how tempting a confession was at the moment. He tossed his head back and raked his slender fingers through his silver strands with a sigh. Why did she have to remember everything he told her? Scratch that. She remembered all the things he didn't want her to and disregarded all the things he wanted her to store in her memory, like how quickly she was able to brush aside his claims of how lovely he thought she was.

"The second is that I won't stop loving you regardless…"

It was a mystery to him why he could gather enough courage to kiss her on the neck but not enough to confess, but then again, that kiss had been a spur of the moment action. It had happened before he knew what he was doing, and he had fled before she could react. Yuki made little effort to conceal the fact that he wasn't going to answer her question. Nor did he try to keep her from seeing that he was blatantly changing the topic. He got onto his feet and stared down at her.

"Come with me."

He tugged her up by one of her hands and dragged her after him. Tohru was too bewildered to ask where they were going or to resist until he had already brought her down the stairs and out the door. She tugged back on his hand, making him aware of her utter confusion and exhaustion. He stopped before his foot touched the ground and let go of her hand, letting her stop to rest. Tohru stumbled backwards a bit, leaning against the door. She had never remembered getting this tired so easily. All her life, she hadn't been the greatest athlete, but even so, a run down across the house never wore her down before. Well, back then she didn't dart around in the middle of the night when she was half asleep, and back then, she wasn't carrying a baby inside of her.

"W-Where are you taking me?" she stuttered.

"You don't trust me Tohru?" he lifted his eyebrows at her, "The roof. Where else?"

Tohru stared blankly back at him, not grasping what he was trying to say. If this was Kyo who was bringing her to the roof, she wouldn't be so confused. Kyo was usually laying on the roof whenever he wasn't inside of the house or out training, but Yuki tended to avoid places where Kyo went, including the roof. Why he wanted to go up there with her now was beyond perplexing. The expression she was making had to be the incarnate of confusion because when he glanced at her, he returned her bewildered face as if he found it odd that she was baffled.

"Don't tell me you forgot what today is…" he didn't finish the question.

She continued to give him the same puzzled look.

"It's New Years Eve."

Her mouth formed a small circle of understanding. He smiled and shook his head slightly in disbelief. Yuki took a step back towards her and held out her winter coat, not wanting her to get sick. She took it from him and let him help her into it. Once he was done zipping her coat up to her chin, wrapping a scarf around her neck, and plopping a hat on her head, he retook her hand and led her to the ladder to the roof. He let her climb up first, helping her keep her balance by keeping one hand on her back. Yuki was more than patient as she slowly made her way upwards. She paused on the last step.

"Kyo-kun? What are you doing up here?" Tohru asked in a stunned voice.

He glanced at her and rolled his eyes, "This is the place I like to stay. Besides, I'm watching the first sunrise too, stupid."

"Oh."

Tohru scrambled the rest of the way up the steps and sat herself down beside Kyo. Yuki took a seat next to Tohru, glaring at Kyo. He would have punched Kyo a couple of times for calling Tohru stupid, but the look on her face kept him from doing so. He knew that smile would get swallowed up if he started fighting with Kyo, and he never ever wanted her to stop beaming. Tohru gave him a happy smile when he unclenched his fist, and she scooted a bit closer to him, satisfied with his placid reaction.

Tohru stared at the sun peeking at them from behind a hill. When had the night drifted away? She couldn't have been that slow of a reader. She had gotten her letters at around ten… Where did the time go? She shrugged and shut her eyes and folded her hands together to make her wish.

I hope the baby is born without any problems… And that Yuki-kun and Kyo-kun will be happy this year…Especially Yuki, even if that means he'll be spending less time with me…

She opened her eyes only to find Yuki watching her. Tohru turned her face towards the horizon embarrassedly, pretending not to have seen his gaze, but she could pretend she couldn't feel his eyes on her or his hand covering hers. She shut her eyes again, simply enjoying the cool air, and the warmth radiating off of his body. Her mouth widened with a yawn, and with that simple intake of air, the little energy she had seemed to vanish. Tohru leaned towards her right slightly until she felt her head make contact with Yuki's shoulder. She didn't mean to fall asleep against him, actually she hadn't meant to get dragged off into dreamland at all or to even use him as a pillow, but she did anyways.

She couldn't be quite sure at this point because she was already half asleep, but she would have sworn Yuki was whispering. He was murmuring so softly that she had barely caught what he said, not that she could make sense of his words.

"Maybe, this year I'll tell her…"

Tohru didn't even think those words were directed at her, and before she could hear more to find out, sleep had made her lose all conscious, but she did manage to feel her head slip off the edge of his shoulder and land on his lap…

And I leave you with the funkiest most out of place ending ever. Sorry xD Sorry for the late update as well, but I have my excuses! Homework of course, and the other million of ideas spinning in my head that scream to be written, not to mention I wanna color a Edward and Bella drawing I have D: And, I accidentally started the wrong chapter. You see, I calculated it precisely in the story to be New Years when Tohru is 19 weeks pregnant, so this one HAD to go here. End babbling. Review + correct my mistakes please.