Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Cycle: King of the Sea ❯ After Happily Ever After ( Chapter 3 )

After Happily Ever After…

Disclaimer: I am not Natsuya Takaya though I would love to meet her on my trip to Japan next summer. (Not that that is very likely….sadness)

 

P.S. I will change viewpoint throughout the story but will always give a warning of whose talking so its not confusing.

 

P.S.S. Sorry its been a while. I was away in Oxford for university.

Come, dear children, come away down;
Call no more!
One last look at the white-wall'd town
And the little grey church on the windy shore,
Then come down!
She will not come though you call all day;
Come away, come away!

The Forsaken Merman -

Matthew Arnold

 

 

And a word from Kyo…..

 

 

“Tou-san?”

 

My son's voice snapped my concentration halfway through my exercise. I knew he'd been watching, but why must he always talk? He must get it from Tohru.

 

Talking was the last thing I wanted to do right now. This horrible waiting was hard enough.

 

I growled impatiently and waited to hear his feet scamper off down the hallway of the dojo or occasionally return a growl. Instead, the boy's weight shifted nervously making the floor creak.

 

“Ano…”

 

I actually looked up now. The boy held the lintel standing halfway in and out of the doorway. His dark eyebrows drew down to meet over his nose in a frown Tohru says she'd recognize anywhere. The eyes were wide and serious all his mother's even if the color was mine. Mine.

 

Unhurt and safe and mine. My irritation was gone replaced by an ache that hurt more.

 

I set down the katana and walked to him. Kneeling, I looked him in the eye. “Yo, what up?”

 

“Ka-san…she's crying.” Katsu said shifting uneasily. Neither of us liked girls crying.

 

He knew he had to get me. Even though he was only ten he knew Tohru would just wipe her eyes and try to laugh if he came in. The baka always smiled in front of the children even if she had to wipe her eyes every 30 seconds.

 

“Waka-ta. Arigato.”* I caught his head under my arm for a moment glad for its warmth in a world that had gotten so screwed up in the last two days.

“Where is she?”

 

“Kitchen.”

 

In the kitchen, Tohru sobbed into her dishwater, the tears dripping into the murky water as she mechanically finished one fork after another. The cell phone sat next to the sink, open. An album on the counter, open.

 

I stood in the doorway, awkward. How long will it take before her crying doesn't bug me?

 

Finally, I padded forward till I was behind her. As usual, she was too oblivious to notice I was there. One of these days somebody was going to steal her purse right out of her hand. Maybe I should go with her next time she goes to the grocery.

 

Gently, I put my hand on her soft hair and patted her head. She started, surprised. Baka definitely watching her purse.

 

Sniffing, she tried to swipe at her eyes which only made her cheeks soapy. “I…am sorry. I did not …not see you.” She attempted to smile, but it wobbled at the edges.

 

“Stop that.” I turned her towards me and rubbed the soap off her cheek with my thumb, but did not brush away the tear stains. Pulling her towards me, I muttered gruffly in her hair. “You cry if you want to.” Her body was warm against me, warm and small.

 

Rin… is … she…here? Haru's painful question, that none of us could answer, echoed in my head.

 

What would I do if I ever lost Tohru? My grip tightened on my wife, and she stopped soaking my shirt long enough to look up. I leaned down, caught her face in my hands, and kissed her. She took a deep breath, but didn't say anything.

 

After all, what was there to say? We could only wait. Wait for a call from Yuki. Wait for a call from Rin. Wait for Haru to open his eyes.

 

Damn waiting.

 

Finally, Tohru broke the quiet, pulling away slightly to look up at me. “Do you think …she might… be… hurt somewhere?” I rubbed the back of my neck not wanting to say what I thought really. “Maybe …maybe, “ she continued on turning away her voice growing a bit higher. “they were both attacked and had to escape together from…” she paused “ a gang or the Yakuza* or ...somebody.” She'd begun to pace the kitchen emphasizing her words with a fork. “And maybe Hatsuharu-kun distracted them so she could run away and now she's hurt somewhere… ” she trailed off anxiously fingering the album with her free hand. It was turned to Haru and Rin's wedding pictures.

 

I pulled the fork out of her hand so she wouldn't poke her eye out and set it on the counter. I pointed out the obvious, “But why are they here? Their apartment is on the other side of Japan.”

 

She paused for a long moment, “Maybe they were hunted here.”

 

I shook my head. In a way she was right. Not about the Yakuza, but it was true we had no idea where Rin was or why. Still, I had a bad feeling it had nothing to do with gangs at all.

 

“Then why can I not reach her? And why did Hatsuharu-kun ask for her?”

 

I shrugged. “Don't think they were together when it happened. Haru looked like he'd been wandering around for a while so she's probably fine.” Just not here.” But probably was a gang that mugged Haru.”

 

I rubbed the back of my neck and opened the fridge looking for milk. Tohru hovered right behind me. Reaching a hand back, I felt her fingers slide comfortably into mine. Setting the carton on the counter, my eyes caught on the picture. Champagne in hand, Haru and Rin saluted the camera and for once in their lives, both grinned like idiots at the same time.

 

Tohru leaned into me looking where I was staring.

“They seemed so happy. What do you think has happened, Kyo-kun?”

“Don't know. I just…don't know.”

 

As I reached for a cup, the phone rang. I almost dropped the milk carton. All of us as if we were some litter of animals scampered for the phone. Katsu, being the closest and fastest, won. The kid frowned when whoever it was on the other end didn't want to talk to him and handed it reluctantly to me. Tohru hovered.

 

“Kyo…?” Yuki's voice.

 

I couldn't breathe for a second. I swallowed. “Yeah.?” I croaked.

 

“Haru opened his eyes.”

 

 

Notes: Wakka-ta -- Got it

Yakuza—think Japanese Mafia into drugs and sex trafficking

 

Further Fangirl moment: You have no idea how fun it is typing wife… heehee they're so cute.