Prettyinpinkgal: Chapter Sixteen! WOOT! I'm so close to being done! The writer in me hates how out of character and messy this story is, but I just want to get this story over with right now XD

I'd like to take this time to remind my readers that I am still keeping with the impressions I had of the characters four years ago, before I read about Shigure's dark side and Akito's kind side. So if they seem out of character, that would be why.

Thank you to hcutie99, goongluver16, Speedykitten1643, and CareBear06! After waking up at 4:30 and finally deciding to get up at 6:30, I was sure this wouldn't be a good day. You guys proved me wrong ;)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

TROUBLED LOVE

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: ENDING THE SORROW

"Tohru...Honda?"

The company gazed upon her, suddenly noticing the familiar features, the height, the large eyes.

"Onee-chan," Kisa murmured, putting a quivering hand to her mouth.

Tohru smiled sadly. With a bow, she said, "I'm sorry for worrying you, and for what's about to happen."

Shigure turned to face Akito, desperation written all over his face. "Akito-san, please. Have a heart!"

Akito laughed. "I threw that away years ago! Now, come, girl. I'll get to the rest of you later."

"No."

Akito stopped laughing. He looked disbelievingly at Tohru. "What did you say...?"

She stepped in front of him so she was in between Akito and the table. "You won't hurt me, and you won't hurt my friends."

"We made a deal," he snarled.

She looked him in the eyes. "I don't think I can try to have any compassion for you; you'd have to be sadistic to do something like this.

"As for your deal, it was cruel and illegal from the start. I won't let you follow through with it."

"Why you--!"

He punched her hard, so sharply that despite her skills in martial arts she still fell onto the low wooden table, causing the group to cry out.

"Tohru!" Kyo called, standing up sharply.

"Stay there!" she told him as well as his family, wiping some blood which was trickling from her nose. She stood up.

Akito glared at her madly. "Fine, then I'll just hurt all of you at the same time!"

By now, the entire company had stood, but were unsure of what course of action to take--go against the Sohma leader, whom they had devoted themselves to for generations, or save this girl who was strange enough to accept them, kind enough to love them, and brave enough to stand up for them.

"Will you kill them?" Tohru asked calmly. "Will you kill me?"

"I'll kill all of you!" he yelled, grabbing onto her hair.

That was it. Without further thought, the gathered Sohmas moved towards the two, ready to hold Akito down and save Tohru.

Before they could take more than a step, however, Tohru kneed Akito where it hurt and jumped back as the head of the Sohma family crumbled to the ground.

Far too calmly, she uttered, "Ouch. If I go bald, it's your fault." She smoothly glanced at her cell phone, which was had been in her hand the entire time but had been overlooked due to its small size and the more pressing matters at hand. "Hey, Nii-chan. Did you get all that?"

The door slid open, revealing her brother in a policeman uniform. Several servants were behind him, extremely frazzled and trying to explain to Kimoto that the master would not want him to interrupt.

"Every word," he said to Tohru, holding up his cell phone and turning it off. He then held up his badge with one hand and put his cell phone away with the other. "Akito Sohma, you are under arrest for blackmail, abuse, and plotting murder. Anything you say can and will be used against you." His usually-amused eyes were serious for once as he put the handcuffs on Akito, who was in too much pain to move at all.

"Curse you," he managed to say to Tohru. "Don't think...this is over."

"I can honestly say it is," she said coolly. Some aspects of Tsuki's personality had become part of Tohru's, and what better time to use these aspects?

She then turned around and was touched to see her friends gathered behind her, ready to assist if need be. "I'm so sorry for all the trouble I've caused," she said with a bow. "And...I will get Kimoto-nii-chan to drop the charges if you want me to."

"NO!" was the immediate reply by all.

"My sweet Tohru," Ayame cried ecstatically. "Ever since our curse was broken, the tie between the Sohmas and the head of the family has greatly diminished, so we don't have to respond to Akito's beck and call anymore. Since we're not so tightly connected, we can finally be free of him! Isn't that wonderful?!"

Tohru sighed with relief. "That's good news. Truthfully, I'd be more than a little afraid to let Akito loose."

"Shut up," hissed the criminal, who Kimoto had unsympathetically pulled to his feet to walk.

"But Tohru, Tohru," Momiji cried, hopping up and down like the rabbit he was (or had been). "You acted so different!"

"I did, didn't I?" Tohru said with a laugh, now able to relax and rejoice for being reunited with her dear friends.

Kyo stood beside her. "First, what the heck was Kimoto doing here?"

"Kyo-kun, remember how after we met with Akito earlier today, I asked for us to stop by my house?"

"Yeah...?"

"Well, my brother's a cop, and I realized he could really help us. It was such an easy solution that I was surprised I hadn't thought of it before. I decided to come clean with everything with my adoptive family, and I hugged Kimoto to prove that the curse existed. That was sort of funny," she giggled. "Then we decided to put the cell phones on speaker phone so he could have definite evidence that Akito had been as horrible as I had described."

Yuki said bluntly, "That's fairly obvious. Couldn't you figure that out on your own, stupid cat?"

"Shut up! I only met her brother once! I didn't know he was a cop! More importantly, how did Akito know you knew about Tohru's identity?!"

Yuki froze then sighed. "I need to apologize too. I had called Haru after I saw you two go off on a date--"

"A date?! What?!" most of the Sohmas exclaimed.

"--anyway, Haru had been in a meeting with Akito and Akito made him take the call and when he found out it was from me Akito forced him to put it on speaker phone without me knowing he was listening in and I told Haru about Kyo and I knowing about your identity and I was just venting and I'm so sorry!"

Stunned silence followed.

"Um, it's okay?" Tohru said, still very embarrassed over the mention of the date. "After all, you didn't know."

"Sorry I didn't tell you, Yuki," Haru said.

Ayame cried, "YUKI! If you were so heartbroken, you could have come and cried in my arms--!"

Yuki promptly punched Ayame in the face.

All was forgiven and forgotten, and Tohru filled the family in on the details of her life for the past month, as well as her past with Hikaru. She then asked if all of them would come to the Sunatani residence for dinner, which they quickly agreed to.

"But Tohru," Shigure asked, getting her attention, "what will you live?"

She paused, not having the thought occur to her before. "I...I don't know. I like living in your house as well as with the Sunatanis."

"How about this, then. You're welcome to make my house your main home so that you stay in Kaibara with your friends, but you can go visit the Sunatanis whenever you like?"

Tohru perked up right away. "Would that be alright?!"

"Of course!" he laughed. "I've missed having a high school girl--I mean a maid--I mean a, uh, nice disposition in the house; those two can be so gloomy."

Tohru laughed as well, and relished in feeling as though she had never left.

But there was still one task to take care of.

Yuki and Kyo were smiling, but she wondered if this peace would last without her intervention.

Prettyinpinkgal: One more chapter, then an epilogue! Actually, the next chapter sort of is an epilogue. It's gonna be super short, but I didn't feel like including it in this chapter. Also, I don't really watch any cop dramas or anything, so if I got Kimoto's lines wrong, I blame my lack of sleep and lack of interest in cop shows, 'kay? Please review!