Chapter 3: Enigma
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…Back to Reality…
…
Kyo and Yuki both helped carry Tohru into the running shower while Shigure ran downstairs to make an emergency phone call to Hatori.
As the water hit Tohru's face, she trembled and her lips formed a one-sided conversation
"Yuki…wait…"
Kyo cringed as Tohru's plea shot through his ears and continued ricocheting inside his brain. Both boys' eyes met over the body of the unconscious girl between them, one radiated a muted triumph the other, raw defeat.
Kyo broke his gaze first, unable to bear the rat's haughtiness; he cast his head down so that his hair covered his face like an orange landslide. He could not let the rat know how much it hurt him… that he was not the one Tohru called to when she was in the grip of nightmares…to know that she would call to Yuki instead of him--the traitorous rat who had stolen everything from him! He just couldn't give him the satisfaction! So Kyo did the only thing he knew to do – he summoned up the survival mechanism he had used so often as a kid. He shut down his emotions. --Sealing them in a tomb deep within his mind alongside memories of his mother's fear and his guilt over her suicide. His expression grew blank and detached and he focused all his apathetic attention on Tohru – his eyes consuming her body in search for signs of consciousness. The water beat down on them from the showerhead as the seconds passed with infinite monotony and Kyo let its rhythm flood his brain. The constant cascade blurred the three occupants beneath a veil of water, making it impossible –even for the perceptive Yuki— to distinguish the droplets on Kyo's face from the two salty beads rolling down his cheeks.
Abrupt coughs suddenly erupted from Tohru, and the cousins jerked at her startling change. Yuki's bangs overshadowed his face as he quickly leaned closer to Tohru's face, and he exhaled with relief as he saw her eyelids flutter slightly.
"I think She's coming to…"
Kyo nodded as he sank to his knees to watch for any movement that suggested his closest companion would return to him.
"YUKI!" Tohru yelled, sitting bolt upright as if lighting had just struck the tile floor.
"Miss Honda…?" managed the bewildered Yuki, barely dodging Tohru's forceful awakening.
Tohru's body remained in a rigor-mortise state for a painstaking moment before the constant rain of water on her face finally provoked another (less abrupt) response from her soaked body; she sneezed. Her mundane action broke the building tension and brought Tohru back from cold stones and darkness to well… cold tile and wetness.
Cat and rat watched her with anxious relief as her eyes, night-walker-wide but blind to reality, slowly began to focus on the landscape of this world. Her sea-green eyes come back to life like the tide, bringing with them the deep, dilated knowledge of mystery. The three companions sat staring at each other for a few extraordinarily awkward seconds until Kyo stood up and brusquely twisted the shower nozzle to "off" -- effectively (if unceremoniously) killing the ogle-fest.
The disoriented Tohru ventured to break the silence first.
"ummm…where am I? She asked as her adjusting pupils searched the tiled surroundings for bearings.
A slight clatter brought the two Sohmas back to reality yes I know… blankets don't clatter BUT lockets wrapped in blankets do!. Tohru's bed sheet had fallen from around her shoulders, revealing only a strawberry-print bra to cover her.
"Ahhhh, I am so sorry!"
Tohru gasped in unison with Yuki and Kyo's hurried apologies, with one arm wrapped around her chest she grabbed at the blanket on the floor for more covering. By this time, all three of them were as red as the strawberries on Tohru's underwear…
…..
With impeccable timing as usual Shigure burst through the door just in time to catch their awkward, guilt-ridden expressions.
"Well, well, festivities I presume? Scoundrels I know THAT look ANYWHERE! Simply UNACCEPTABLE! And I must say I AM CRUSHED that two of my own flesh and blood would stoop so low as to SEDUCE our delicate young flower when she is helpless and exposed! The Audacity!
Shigure is having WAY too much fun with this…
As Guardian I CANNOT allow such scandal in my house again! DO NOT WORRY MAIDEN TOHRU! I SHALL ESCORT YOU TO YOUR ROOM! NO –NO - DO NOT PROTEST – I INSIST…! It is my DUTY as a GENTLEMAN! shigure rears up on handy white stallion DO NOT FRET FOR I SHALL STAND GUARD YOU WHILE YOU DRESS AND BATHE TO DETER ALL PERVERTS SUCH AS THESE DASTARDLY SCOUNDRELS! COME FAIR MAIDEN TOHRU---------! LET US AWAAAAYYY-----!"canters away on handy white stallion gazing back at Tohru with hand outstretched
canters strait into two very large fists
falls off handy white stallion
end : action sequence
"DO YOU EVER SHUT-UP?"
Yuki and Kyo towered over the obnoxious dog (who was now doing and frighteningly good impersonation of Momijii and cowering behind Tohru) with blazing eyes and vein-poppin' foreheads. Tohru awoke to this …energetic… scene surrounded by the ones she loved and with the world exactly the way she had left it. Yuki was fully-grown and free of the main house and Kyo was beating up Shigure and Shigure was being hyper and juvenile…and everything was so perfect and so familiar …and just right , somehow…and Tohru was bursting with such relief and happiness at being alive that the just she started laughing…just giggling at first but then progressing to the all out stomach laugh that makes you feel healthy, in a way – like you are a better person for laughing like that. Wrapping the arms around her stomach, Tohru looked at her bewildered friends through tear-lined eyes and smiled.
"I am so grateful for you, all of you, I love this house and my life with the Sohmas. Thank you all so much for being my friends…!"
Kyo and Yuki were taken aback by Tohru's odd proclamation but the ever-smooth Shigure crouched down to Tohru and, putting his hand on her shoulder and looking her strait in the eye, said,
"Tohru, you are always welcome in my home and I am extremely grateful to know you. You are the most loving person I have ever met."
Tohru saw the sincerity in Shigure's face, heard the relief in his voice, and was deeply moved by his uncharacteristic seriousness. Not trusting her voice, Tohru mouthed 'thank you' to him but was at a lost for what else to say. 'Shigure is a really wonderful person,' she thought to herself, 'I wonder what happened during my dream that made them all so concerned about me…"
Author's Note: Thanks all you readers who reviewed! It is sooo appreciated tell me if you think it gets too frilly and descriptive… I kinda have a tendency to do that occasionally, I know… so sorry so sorry.. but yeah the next chapter is really intense (I just have to type it up and I'll be good to post so look out for it ) oh and TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS! thanks Holla back ! ;; peace out my homie G's kidding, only kidding … k, later