Hi Everyone! Pegasus Rider and Skyla, my new muse, here! ) You asked for it so we are bring you a very very very very very very belated Shigure/Tohru ONE-SHOT!

I repeat this is a ONE SHOT!

Disclaimer: I, Pegasus Rider, do not not not own Fruits Basket.

Summery: Graduation, it happens to every high school student. It happened to Yuki, Kyou, and Tohru too… only Yuki and Kyou chose to move on leaving Tohru at Shigure’s house.

It’s a Dog’s Life

Shigure yawned as he adjusted his glasses and continued to read the comics from the newspaper. He heard the sliding of a door and looked up with a smile to see Tohru enter the house.

“Good evening Tohru! How was work?” He called as the girl walked into his office.

“Oh it was fine Shigure! Thanks for asking!” She said with a smile. “Thanks for letting me stay here too!” She added.

Shigure sighed and put the paper down. “Tohru you’ve told me that every day for the past four months! Don’t worry! I asked you to stay because we Sohma’s care about you! Please stop worrying about it and just relax!” He said with a caring smile.

Tohru glowed. “Thanks Shigure, but it still means a lot to me.”

“Yes well it means a lot to me that you are willing to stay here with an old man like me.” He winked. “Now you go to bed! You look dead on your feet!” He ordered.

“Rodger!” Tohru said with a smile, giving him a playful salute before disappearing upstairs to do as she was told.

Shigure sighed and glanced around the room. Poor Tohru. High School graduation had come. Tohru, Yuki, and Kyou all passed with good marks, but Tohru was unable to continue on to college due to lack of funds. Shigure and Hatori had both offered to pay for her, but the proud young girl refused. Yuki and Kyou went however. Yuki was going to be an industrial engineer and Kyou was going to major in computer management to everyone’s surprise. They both attended Tokyo University, and even more shocking was that the two were room mates. The family had been floored when they announced it; it was only with some prodding that Shigure was able to discover that they were going to be roomies due to the influence of a certain little flower of his.

Both of the boys came home every three weekends or so, but it wasn’t the same. The house was then filled with this nice, awkward silence as Yuki and Kyou watched Tohru with longing eyes.

They had both thrown out the idea of ever marrying, or even staying with her. Shigure didn’t fully understand why… Tohru accepted them, but his best guess was that they didn’t want to be reminded of the curse numerous times everyday. And that they would rather live to be old, lonesome men, still longing for Tohru, instead of struggling to find a way to break the curse.

Shigure snickered. He enjoyed the lovely pleasure of being turned into a dog nearly every day. And that really was a pleasure! For a split second Shigure would be able to feel Tohru’s loving arm’s around him in an unexpected embrace. (It was always unexpected on Tohru’s part… although usually it was Shigure who would ‘accidentally’ be sitting on the floor when she would trip and fall on top of him.)

Shigure took off his glasses and rubbed his face. He knew that him turning into a dog didn’t help his Tohru, his little flower, feel any better. In fact a few times the young girl had burst into tears and stopped only once Shigure licked her face.

After graduation Shigure had forbidden Tohru to move out. He didn’t want to even think about what could happen to her if she were to leave the shielded life he managed to keep around her. He told her she could just live with him, but Tohru insisted that she continued to cook and clean for her room and board, and she still went to her job everyday, telling him that one day she would move out and stop being such a bother to him.

“My little flower, you aren’t a bother.” Shigure whispered as he stood up and left his office. It was difficult to describe how he felt about Tohru, when it came to her Shigure wasn’t such a pervert, although on occasion he would purposely voice bawdy things to get a rise out of the cat and rat. Picking on them was such fun!

Shigure climbed the stairs and peeked into Tohru’s room to see that she was sound asleep. He slipped in and cautiously kissed her forehead before backing out of the room and closing the door behind him.

“Give it up Shigure, you dog.” He told himself as he leaned against a wall. “She’ll never fall for an old man like you.” He walked to his own bedroom where he flopped onto his bed and fell asleep minutes later.

Shigure awoke to a pleasant aroma. He sniffed the air as he quickly changed and ran down stairs. Tohru made an ‘American’ breakfast today. Meaning toast, eggs, pancakes, and his personal favorite…BACON!

He slid into the kitchen and Tohru laughed as she flipped over a couple pieces of the delicious meat in the pan.

“ohhhh Tohru!” Shigure started, sniffing over her shoulder. “You are my goddess! I shall love and cherish you for the rest of your life my little flower! He said as he reached around her waist to snatch a piece of finished bacon from the plate.

Tohru giggled and playfully swatted his hand away. “Shigure leave some for the table!” She lectured as the dog gave a sheepish grin.

“Mmm, I love your cooking!” He whispered in his ear before walking toward the table.

“That’s because you can’t cook!” Tohru called as she followed him with a plate of Pancakes and eggs. Yes, it was amazing that Shigure wasn’t the size of a baby whale at the rate Tohru cooked.

Shigure wiggled in his seat as he waited for Tohru to come with the last dish, his beloved bacon. She set the plate down and Shigure dug in, yelling out choruses of ‘All Hail Tohru’ and ‘Tohru is the Queen.’

Tohru laughed at his antics and ate her breakfast with a smile. Although the house was a bit emptier without Yuki and Kyou she enjoyed her quiet life with Shigure. He was very kind to her, and easily filled in the large void Yuki and Kyou had left. She had come to known the dog a lot better, and she was thankful that he allowed her to live in his house for the time being.

After breakfast Tohru washed the dishes while Shigure waddled around the kitchen, attempting to burn off the two pounds of bacon he had just eaten.

“So what will you be doing today Shigure?” Tohru asked.

Shigure huffed while making another lap. “Well my deadline for a book is tomorrow, I’ve already finished the story but my editor will be coming by today to plead with me to be on time for once so I’ll get to have some fun then. What about you? When do you work?” He asked.

“The afternoon shift, 12-9.” She answered as she dried off the dishes before putting them away.

“Very good! I get to hog you this entire morning!” Shigure rejoiced while Tohru smiled.

“Don’t forget that Hatori returned your call last night and left a message on the answering machine.” Tohru told him as she wiped her hands off on a towel.

“Oh yes! Wait, how did you find out about that?” He asked with a confused tone.

“Hatori called me to let me know so I could remind you.” Tohru said.

Shigure narrowed his eyes. “Stupid Seahorse.”

Tohru giggled. “He’s a dragon!”

Shigure arched an eyebrow. “Well soooorrry! I don’t see anything remotely dragon like when he turns into that dinky sea horse!” Shigure said, leaning close to her.

Tohru laughed. “I’m going to go clean my room. I’ll see you before I go to work!” She said as she walked toward the stairs.

“Whatever you say my little flower!” Shigure teased before playing Hatori’s message back.

“Shigure, this is Hatori. What did you want to talk to me about? If you come over tomorrow morning I’m free. Otherwise give me a call back. Bye.” The message bleeped. Shigure frowned.

“Tohru! I’m going to the main house; I’ll be back before you leave for work!” He called as he slipped on some shoes.

“Okay.” Tohru said from the top of the stairs. (She was too polite to yell from her room.)

Shigure quickly walked down the road to the main house and reached Hatori’s house in record time.

The dragon glanced up to see who had disturbed his peace as Shigure barged in. “Shigure, good morning. How is Tohru?” He asked.

“She’s fine. As angelic as ever.” Shigure said as he nervously looked around.

“What did you want to ask me?” Hatori asked from his chair at his desk.

“I know when you were dating Kana you were looking at a way to break the curse. Did you ever find it?” He asked.

Hatori shook his head. “If I did, don’t you think I would have tried and free us from it? I found a few rumors, but they were proved to be false.” The doctor said rubbing his forehead.

“What do you mean? What were they?”

Hatori sighed. “Well one was that a girl had to fall in love with one of us. Kana was in love with me and that obviously didn’t work.”

“I wonder why.” Shigure said, his brow wrinkled as he thought about it.

“The second one I tried… although it wasn’t a success. You had to get the leader to agree to let stay with the girl you love. The rumor said she had to love you too. When I brought up marriage to Akito… well you know the rest.” The dragon said, pushing back the painful memories.

“Well thanks Hatori.” Shigure said with a sigh. “I’ll see you around.” He said as he stood to go.

“It’s Tohru isn’t it?” Hatori asked, also standing.

Shigure turned around to face his friend. “What?” He asked.

“You have fallen in love with Tohru.” The doctor said, watching the dog with a calculated eye.

Shigure blinked and narrowed his eyes for a moment. “And what if I have?”

“Don’t let her get hurt Shigure, or I will make your life painful.” Hatori threatened.

Shigure stared; Hatori was never a protective one… “Since I love her, Hatori, I would rather die then see her hurt.” He said before exiting his friend’s house. He walked back to his house, his thoughts running wild.

He slipped into the living room and watch Tohru ready herself for work while rattling off about the soup she had left in the fridge for him.

“So just turn the dial to 7, okay?” Tohru asked with a smile as she turned around after putting her hair up in a pony tail.

“Mm, yeah.” Shigure said, studying Tohru’s face.

“Okay, have a good day Shigure!” Tohru called as she rushed out of the door.

“Bye.” The dog absent mindedly called out. The young girl disappeared down the drive way and for the second time Shigure walked to the main house.

“I’ll do it. I don’t think I could live with myself if I didn’t try it.” Shigure thought, resolving to try that second rumor that Hatori had spoken of.

Shigure slowly navigated his way toward Akito’s abode. He entered the dark room and the family leader turned around with a sneer.

“What do you want?” He asked

Shigure gave a cruel smirk as he closed the doors behind him. “We have to talk.” He darkly said.

Tohru trudged home while she rubbed her weary eyes. She had lied, work was done at 8, but she wanted to look at some of the apartments she had seen ad’s for in the newspaper. She had found one which was affordable, it wasn’t in the best condition, but Tohru was confident she could manage.

She knew she wouldn’t be able to last much longer. Tohru had fallen hard for the dog, and although it was fun living with him and being close to him, she didn’t like being a bother.

She walked into the house and took off her shoes with a sigh. She turned to switch the lights on, but almost screamed when she saw the form of a man sitting on a couch.

She put her hand over her heart as she turned on the lights. “Shigure, you gave me a heart attack!” She said with a smile.

Shigure was watching her with a half smile curled across his lips. “We need to talk.” He said.

Tohru sighed again. “Yes. Shigure, I’m sorry for intruding on you for so long. But don’t worry, I’ve found and apartment and I’ll move out as soon as possible.”

Shigure looked distressed for a moment but his half smile quickly replaced the look again and he got up and walked towards her. “Tohru.” He softly said.

“I mean, I know I must be a big pain for you and everything! Don’t worry about me; you will be better off with out me!” She said with a painful smile.

Shigure smiled as bent over her until they were nose to nose. “No, I wouldn’t be.” He said as he slipped his arms around her waist. “For the moment of truth.” He muttered as he brought Tohru into a hug.

Tohru automatically hugged him back and waited for the usually explosion. Nothing happened.

“Shigure?” Tohru asked. Looking up as the dog grinned at her. “What’s going on?” She asked.

Shigure closed his eyes in contentment for a moment before leaning over her again. “We broke the curse.” He said before giving her a soft kiss.

“We?” Tohru asked once they parted.

Shigure laughed. “Yes, us. And you, my little flower, are never going to leave my side.” He said as he picked her up and whirled her around before kissing her again. “I love you Tohru Honda.” He told the flustered Tohru.

Tohru turned stone still after those words. “I love you, Shigure Sohma.” She said before they embraced once more.

Okay! Well That’s really all there is to say! Cute ONE SHOT! ) I hope you all enjoyed it! Sorry it was like five months late! Please Review! Ta ta!