Author's Note: Hey guys! I want to thank everyone who has reviewed thus far. You are fantastic and I hope you enjoy the new chapter. Take care!

Chapter 2

"Because I am living a life full of you"—Gene Kelly.

Tohru's bakery was so very cute. There was no manlier word to describe it. It was all gauzy white and yellow curtains and egg-shaped tables and chairs. When Kyo entered swinging his cloth bag, the chimes over the door sang and several workers behind the counter looked up. It was barely 9:00 am, and patrons were scattered around individual tables sipping on coffee and nibbling hot pastries.

"Mr. Sohma, you're late!" A college-aged girl with glasses and a dark layered bob marched up to them, taking the cloth bag. "Did you burn something again?"

Kyo scowled at her. "For your information, Smart Mouth, I didn't. I was being neighborly and hospitable to guests."

The girl covered her mouth with one hand and her eyes grew large as she took in Yuki standing behind Kyo. A pink flush stained her cheeks. "Oh, er… I see…. Ah…."

"This is my cousin, Yuki Sohma. Yuki, that's Megumi."

Megumi squeaked a greeting, still gaping at Yuki. The bread bag dangled in her slack grip and Kyo rolled his eyes. "Well? Ain't you gonna serve that stuff? I didn't spend all morning making it for nobody to eat it."

"Oh—oh yes, sure." Megumi almost ran behind the counter and disappeared through the employee door to the kitchen area of the bakery.

Yuki sighed, then gazed around at the paintings and photographs of sunflowers, daisies and country sides in the summer. Bright and airy, coming here could make Hatori, the gloomiest looking man ever, smile. Pop music played overhead; some girl group was singing about love letters and candy. A large flat screen TV mounted in the back wall showed the news with sports scores scrolling beneath it.

Two more employees in plain yellow aprons ambled over, one a girl as tall as Yuki with long black pigtails, and another a guy with spiky brown hair and an earring. They looked to be around Megumi's age.

"Morning Sensei," the guy said with a slight bow. The girl grinned and smacked the boy over the head.

"Hey Ryu; Sayu." Kyo half turned to Yuki and gestured. "This is my cousin, Yuki. Yuki, twins and students of mine, Ryu and Sayu. Sayu's got one of the best high kicks I've ever seen. And Ryu… needs to work."

Ryu deflated as his twin sister cackled.

"My brother is the clumsiest person in the world," Sayu said. "So, what'd you bake for us today, Sensei? That flourless chocolate thing you made last week was out of this world."

Yuki raised a brow, impressed.

Kyo blushed and ruffled his hair. "Ah, well… nothing like that, just some bread. It's okay. Nothing like Tohru could make, though."

Sayu and her brother immediately sobered.

"How's she doing?" Ryu asked.

Kyo smiled. "She's hanging in there. I'll tell her you asked about her. Uh… you guys have class tonight, right?"

"Yessir," Ryu said. "Are you… Are you going to be there?"

Kyo looked so guilty Yuki wanted to squeeze his shoulder again. "Not tonight. Tetsu's got it handled though. He's doing all right with teaching classes, huh?"

"Yeah, but he's not you, sir," Ryu said. Sayu smacked him again and glared, then smiled at Kyo.

"We totally understand why you can't lead classes, though," Sayu said. "Ignore the dumbass."

Kyo smirked. "I always do."

"Hey!"

It was strange to see these college kids giving such deference to Kyo when he really wasn't much older than they themselves.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Yuki." Sayu bowed to him. "I'll go see if I can help Meg with that bread. I think she's hiding from you. Cute guys make her nervous. She used to hide from Sensei at first, too, until she saw him fighting some yeast…"

"Living Play Doh monster," Kyo muttered.

Sayu wiggled her fingers and headed toward the kitchen, leaving Kyo and Ryu and Yuki alone. Kyo moved to a table for four and sat down. Yuki joined him and Ryu moved to wipe off a table a patron had vacated.

"This place is nice," Yuki commented. "If it had been near my school, I would have held study groups here."

Kyo smiled. "Yeah?" He looked like a proud father. "It's really come along. I spend more time here than the dojo nowadays."

"Oh?" Yuki imagined he wouldn't have much time for the dojo. "How is the dojo getting along?"

"Fine." Kyo looked toward a large, picture window. "I've got great assistants. They make sure things run okay when I'm not there. Enrollment's up a bit, got a few new students, total beginners. I only work with the advanced classes now, when I can. Parent-teacher conferences with the little ones are a joke, because the parents think I'm one of the kids playing a prank. I definitely had to start letting my assistants take those over, even when I am there."

Giggling signaled the coming of Sayu and Megumi to the tables holding trays of sliced bread and napkins. They went about setting napkins with sliced bread samples down in front of patrons.

"Hey, bring a piece over here. Yuki hasn't had any yet." Kyo eyed Yuki. "What do you say; you brave enough to try it?"

Yuki hummed. "Well, you did give some to the neighbors and I didn't see any ambulances rushing toward their houses, so I'll try some."

"Funny," Kyo snorted. Megumi set a napkin and bread down in front of Yuki with shaky hands. Yuki gazed down at the bread; its crusts were a golden brown, crusted with honey and crushed nuts. Its center was a powdery white with small swirls of brown spice in the center.

"Kyo… you did this?" Yuki was amazed. It was artistry. "Are you certain it didn't come from a box?"

Kyo growled. "Don't insult me, Rat. Now taste it."

Yuki blinked at his cousin, almost not wanting to eat the bread before he took a picture of how store-bought it looked. He wanted to send out a FWD: Kyo BAKES with multiple pictures taken from different angles of this bread. Yuki lifted the bread and took a small bite. It was soft and moist, melting on his tongue; the taste was rich, buttery and sweet. Honey, cinnamon, pecan and caramel tickled his palate.

"Kyo… you did this?" Yuki demanded. He devoured the rest of his slice and looked to the diminishing samples of the bread floating around on the trays to greedy patrons asking for seconds and thirds.

Kyo blushed. "Yeah. It wasn't as hard as some of the other stuff I've made."

Kyo was baking Yuki's wedding cake. Kyo was baking Yuki's everything. Yuki sucked a bit of honeyed pecan off his finger. "You're a genius."

"Tohru's a genius. She's the one who found the recipe; she finds all the recipes and decides which ones will go over best," Kyo said; he smiled gently. The sample trays were empty and Megumi and Sayu were disappearing in back again. "Guess this one's gonna make the menu."

Yuki frowned.

"If the stuff we experiment with on Wednesday goes over well, we add it to the menu once a week. If it keeps doing good, meaning that by the end of the day all of it's gone, we put it on the menu all the time."

"Oh?" Yuki was intrigued and surprised Kyo was so into this. It wasn't really like him, but then again, did Yuki really know what was like Kyo? He'd grown closer to Kyo over the years, but he'd never claim to know him like he knew Kakeru or Machi.

"Another one of Tohru's ideas. She's a smart lil' rice ball," Kyo said. Heavy eyes stared out of the window again. "Can't wait to tell her how well this one went over. She's never gonna believe you, Prince Rat, licked your fingers."

"Prince Rat?"

Kyo chuckled. "Don't like? Rat King?"

Yuki balled up his napkin and threw it at Kyo. "You'll never grow up."

Kyo shook his head. "Maybe; maybe not." He set his elbows on the table, studying Yuki for so long it made him uncomfortable.

"Um…what?" Yuki asked. Did he have something on his face? Kyo watched him like a cat watching a pendulum swing, with seemingly endless curiosity.

"You." Kyo traced an imaginary circle on the table with his index finger. "I guess I'm still a little shocked that you took off work and came all this way. But then again, maybe I'm not because it's for her, you know. But…"

Yuki blinked, hurt flashing in his chest as it had when Kyo had sounded surprised that he was in his house earlier. He was either going to have a heart attack or another asthma attack with all the jabs Kyo was throwing. "Kyo…I came for Tohru, and I came for you. You scared me."

Kyo's burned red, hiding behind his large hands. "Sorry."

"No," Yuki said. "It's okay. I mean, I guess I understand why you might think I would have only come for Tohru. Everything we do together has been through or about her, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, it has. Weddings, graduation parties, opening ceremonies. Have we ever just gone out to get a beer?"

"Not without Tohru," Yuki said. "And remember how she got drunk off of one sip of sake and you had to carry her home?"

"I remember how she threw up on you."

Yuki laughed. "I'd blocked that from my memory."

"Only because you nearly threw up, too!" Yuki looked over to find Kyo grinning at him. "I felt like I was out with two girls that night."

"Hey, I've never dealt well with vomit," Yuki said. "I have a note."

Kyo snorted. "You probably wrote it yourself and forged a signature." He smiled wistfully. "On goods days, I don't have to deal with vomit. I didn't really deal too well with it either, but I got over it."

Kyo rested his chin in his hands, seeming distracted. He watched patrons gobbling up his bread and chatting to other patrons across tables.

Yuki matched Kyo's pose. "What's a typical day like for Tohru?"

The muscle near Kyo's mouth twitched. "Every day's different. Sometimes, she's got a lot of energy and she's all smiles. She wants to go home, she wants to bake, she wants to come here or go see my students get bossed around. She begs me to take her on weekend trips to eat at other bakeries and restaurants. We went to Russia once. All she made for days is medovie; it's a honey layer cake. I hate that stuff now, but I'd never tell her."

"On okay days, she smiles, but you can tell it hurts. She presses the morphine pump button more, and she sleeps a lot. She asks me to sing to her all the time. She still wants to go home, but she's too sick. On bad days…." Kyo cleared his throat. "On bad days, she sleeps and when she wakes up, it's like she's still asleep. She doesn't see me or hear me, and she only wants morphine. The doctors poke and prod her, taking her to different testing sessions and she won't let me come with her to the ones that I'm allowed to go to. I sit in her room, waiting. They wheel her back in and she's either unconscious or curled in a tiny little ball, sobbing."

Kyo shut his eyes. "When-when you see her… she's…. She's so small and fragile. Her eyes don't sparkle as much and you can see her ribs. And…" Kyo looked to the window again, avoiding Yuki's concerned gaze. "She's had a dual mastectomy. She hates for anyone to look at her there. Please don't stare. She thinks she's less of a woman. She's told me before that she was afraid I was disgusted by her. How could she ever think that, Yuki?

Yuki felt wetness creeping down one cheek as his heart ached. "Oh."

"She had a bad day yesterday, Yuki. She had a bad night; the doctor said she was gonna die-and I had to go home, alone."

And you had a bad morning, Yuki finished for him.

Kyo stared out of the window, as if the answer to everything was going to fall onto the semi-busy sidewalk. "I don't think that I could go into that place and walk all the way to her room… and see her…" his voice cracked. "And smile, at least not by myself."

Red eyes finally came to rest on Yuki. "If I didn't say it before, thanks for coming, man."

Yuki kicked Kyo under the table. "You're welcome."

Kyo took a deep breath, then began patting his pockets for his keys. He placed them on the table and glanced at his watch. "We're really late, and I still need to figure out how to tell her you're here."

"You can let me tell her," Yuki said.

"Not… not if she's having a bad day, Rat. I gotta do this," Kyo said, tilting his head so that it rested atop the back of the chair. "I've never gone against what she's wanted, not while she's been sick. Let her be mad at me, not you."

Yuki was too busy watching Kyo to notice Sayu's approach. She set Kyo's cloth bag on the table, and Yuki heard the clunk of Tupperware inside. "Here you go, Sensei and Sensei's cousin. One container's all clean and the second has enough bread left for three sandwiches."

"Thanks, Sayu." Kyo pulled the cloth bag to him, stroking it absently like a pet.

"Tell Miss Tohru to have a great day." Sayu smiled and backed away from the table, waving at Yuki in parting.

"Did Tohru hire the staff?" Yuki asked.

"Is it that obvious?" Kyo rolled his eyes. "Let's get out of here. Too many optimists in one place kinda make me itch." Kyo stood all in one motion and pushed his chair under the table. He gathered his keys and the bag and started for the door. He raised a single hand in the air, waving at the room in general but not pausing or looking over his shoulder at anyone.

To Yuki's surprise, the patrons called out "Goodbye Kyo-kun!"'s as if they were dear friends in such nonchalant tones that it seemed routine. Yuki followed Kyo out of the French style wooden doors onto the sidewalk. Kyo whistled as he walked to the small parking lot behind the building to locate his small green sedan.

Their next trip would be to the hospital and Yuki suddenly realized. "Kyo."

"Hm?"

"I don't have a gift!"

The hospital wasn't any different from any other hospital Yuki had been inside. The halls and floors were the same sterile white, the air smelled the same stale and recycled and the fluorescent lighting overhead made everyone look the same sallow. Did it ever occur to anyone that hospitals made people sick? They certainly churned Yuki's stomach every time he set foot in one.

Kyo led him to an elevator and they took it to the sixth floor.

"Are we going to the Oncology ward?" Yuki asked. Kyo shook his head.

"No, she's not there anymore."

"Oh?" Yuki frowned. Where else would a cancer patient—would Tohru, a cancer patient—be kept?

"They moved her to Hospice Care last night." Kyo sighed, running a hand through his hair and pulling more strands from his ponytail free to fall around his face. "I've got so much paperwork to do. She doesn't want a hospital bed or morphine or a home care nurse. You'd think it would be easier if you just said: we're leaving. But no, the hospital has to make sure they can't get sued for not informing us of every little thing that could happen if we don't do this or that."

"Then there's the house and groceries, and the garden. Rabbits got into it. I was supposed to paint the bedroom, and I need to put rails in the bathroom." In the elevator light, which wasn't much better than the fluorescents in the hallways, Kyo was pale. He stood in a back corner as if trying to let the wall absorb him with a hand on his stomach, breathing shallowly and watching the glowing numbers overhead as the elevator slowly climbed.

Yuki pressed the stop button, frowning at Kyo. "Hey. Are you okay?"

Kyo nodded. "I'm fine, just thinking." He scrubbed at his eyes. He took a step forward to start the elevator again, but Yuki covered the buttons with his hand.

"You don't look well all of a sudden. What's wrong?"

"N-nothing. Just tired, I think. I haven't been getting much sleep. I keep waking up thinking that she needs me, but she won't let me stay here with her," Kyo said. "Yuki—will you do the garden stuff? You like digging in dirt, right? You can do that."

"Of course," Yuki said; he patted Kyo's shoulder. "I can help you paint the bedroom, too, and we can hire someone to put in rails. I can also help with the paperwork. Hey." Yuki waited until Kyo met his gaze. "I'm here to help, remember?"

Kyo nodded, and a little color returned to his face. "Yeah."

"Ready?" Yuki waited for another nod from Kyo before pressing the 6 button. The elevator began to travel up again. "Has that happened to you before?"

"What?" Kyo's eyes were closed as he leaned back against the wall, hands on the wooden rail behind him.

"I think you were about to have a panic attack. Has it happened before?"

Kyo was quiet as the elevator chimed and the doors opened to let them out into a small foyer. "This morning. The battle with the Play Doh monster really helped. I feel better when I'm doing something."

Yuki let Kyo take the lead as they walked down the quiet hallway. A few nurses in light blue scrubs were out, carrying clipboards or pushing carts with clear cups full of colorful capsules and liquids.

"Kyo, you might need to talk to someone about it, if you're having anxiety attacks."

"I'm talking to you, ain't I?" Kyo asked. He stopped in front of a door that was slightly ajar. He leaned forward, listening. "She's awake."

Yuki's heart skipped a beat. Tohru was in this room. He was about to see her for the first time in a year, a short-haired, thin, sickly Tohru with no breasts and maybe no smile.

"Let me… say good morning and make sure she's having a good day before you come in, okay?" Kyo knocked lightly on the door. "Tohru?"

There was a faint sound from within and Kyo pushed the door open a bit further and slipped inside. "Hey, Rice Ball. How are ya feeling?"

Yuki couldn't make out Tohru's reply, but he recognized the sweet cadence of her voice.

"That's what they're giving you for breakfast in this heap? Good thing we're going home soon, huh? Hey, I made it this morning, and the yeast didn't win."

Yuki heard soft cheering from Tohru.

"The customers seemed to really like it, too. What do you think? Ha ha, that good huh? Nah, nah I didn't taste it. Hey, babe, that's not something for you to worry about. Where'd this one come from? I like it."

Yuki wanted to peer inside. Kyo's voice was so animated and Tohru sounded content.

"Rice Ball, I've uh… got something to tell you. No, I'm okay. I promise. But uh… someone's here to see you. Shh…baby, I know, but it isn't right to keep them all away. We need somebody. Shh… I'm going to tell him to come in now, all right?"

Yuki's heart continued to skip beats, the palpitations making him gasp ever so often. The door was pushed open wide and Kyo was there, asking him to come in. Yuki shakily entered the small room. The windows were all open, fresh air and sunlight giving the emotionless white room some cheer. A standard-sized hospital bed with no machines around it sat in the center of the room, empty, but on a window seat surrounded by pillows and draped in a blue and yellow afghan sat Tohru. Even through the folds of the knitted throw blanket, Yuki could tell how thin she as, but the fabric hid anything distinctive such as a lack of swells in her bosom area. Her cheeks were a bit hollow but flushed with color and her large eyes were expressive. They smiled at him.

"Yuki-kun."

Yuki blinked at her, taking in the purple and blue scarf wrapped around her head, like a silken cap, light brown hair that hair hung past her ears streamed from under it. The sunlight hit her and Yuki was able to smile back.

Beautiful, even ill, she was still beautiful.

"Hello, Tohru," Yuki said softly. He came to stand in front of her, and remained still as she reached out to hug him. He wrapped his arms around her, biting back tears at how little there was of her to hug.

"I'm glad you came, Yuki-kun," Tohru said, her voice was the same as he remembered, not scratchy or sickly.

"I'm glad too," Yuki said, choosing not to criticize her for not telling him or anyone else what was going on. Tohru did things because, in her heart, she felt they were right and would hurt the least amount of people close to her. She never meant any harm.

"Will you be staying long, Yuki-kun?" Tohru asked. She patted the space beside her and Yuki sat willingly.

"I plan to stay for as long as I'm welcome. Kyo and I have some business we need to work through at your house, and I need to see that he's not massacring your garden."

"Oi, Rat. That garden's just fine," Kyo grumbled. He came to the window seat, casually lifting Tohru and sitting again with her in his lap.

Tohru giggled and kissed his closed lips twice before they deepened the kiss, parting their lips. Kyo pulled back slowly, licking his lips. "You're right. That bread was kind of good. Let me have some more…."

"Kyo, Yuki's watching us… oh Kyo…" Tohru laughed as Kyo hugged her and pressed his cheek against hers. "Your hair's all loose and you smell like cinnamon. Yum."

"Tohru, Yuki's watching," Kyo said in a perfect imitation of Tohru's earlier protest. Tohru pinched him and they laughed and touched foreheads, staring at each other.

Yuki grinned at the two. He remembered, in high school, at one point their utter cuteness had made him sick. Now, it warmed him more than the sun outside on his back. That was love. He hoped he had that with Machi. He felt very strongly about her, but did they ever just stare at each other like that?

"Kyo, do you think we could go for a walk today, you, and me and Yuki-kun, too? I feel strong and I want to go outside."

"Whatever you want to do, Rice Ball, you know that."

"I do." Her small hand touched his cheek and held it and Kyo's jaw trembled. Yuki frowned as the tears started.

"What's the use in crying, Kyo? Remember? Smile, for me."

"Right." Kyo closed his eyes and bowed his head. Yuki turned away from the scene and stood up so quickly Tohru started. She turned in Kyo's arms to stare at Yuki with her glistening Bambi-like eyes. She was crying with Kyo.

How could they stand it without just breaking down and screaming and howling about how unfair this was? Tohru, little and perfect, probably one of the world's best people, was going to be gone in a month, and she was going to leave Kyo—and Yuki behind. Yuki would move on eventually, but what would be left for Kyo?

What if Machi were dying, what would Yuki do, how would he take it?

He would scream and make her fight. He wouldn't submit, so why was Kyo? He should push for the experimental treatment. He should make Tohru stay in the hospital….

But he wasn't going to because Tohru didn't want it, because Tohru owned a part of his soul, and it made him sick to hurt her. Yuki stood, shaking as Tohru and now his cousin watched him, identical expressions of concern on their faces.

"Yuki-kun?" Tohru asked.

"How can you stand it?" Yuki whispered. "I'd be a useless heap by now. How can you stand it? How can you just die-on him, on me?"

They stared at him, Kyo rubbing Tohru's tiny shoulders through the afghan.

Tohru's smile was sad. "It's not my choice, Yuki, but if there's nothing we can do about it, then we're going to do all we can to enjoy it. A useless heap can't have much fun, and isn't much fun to be around. I wouldn't want to be remembered that way, and I wouldn't want to remember Kyo like that either. We're going to have the best time ever, all of us, now that you're here Yuki. I want my life to be full before I go." She tilted her head back to kiss Kyo's jaw and waited until his eyes locked onto hers. "Full of you. I want to be the happiest spirit ever. No ghosting for me."

Kyo chuckled, his breath stirring the loosening ties of her scarf. "Silly Rice Ball."

"Mm."

Yuki wiped tears away with the pads of his thumb watching the two. Sitting there they both looked small, and very young. They were only 23; they were very young, all of them.

"Excuse me."

Yuki left the room quickly, not stopping as Kyo and Tohru called after him.

Kelly, Gene. "Singin' in the Rain." Singin' in the Rain. Rhino/Wea, 1952. CD.

Author's Note: So, what's the verdict? Liked it? Hated it? Don't care either way? Well, any way you liked it, let me know. Please review!