Moonlight Sonata

By Sashi Mizumoto

A/N: I couldn't resist working on this story right away! I really love writing it and I'm having too much fun to stop now! Anyway, I hope you all have fun reading this!

Warning: Spoilers for the manga. If you haven't read that far and don't, you know, want to be spoiled, then don't read ahead. I don't want to get blamed because you can't read a simple warning.

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Chapter Two: To Take the Pain

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"Where the hell is Kyou-san? The first play practice is today!" Minami glared at the door to the classroom as she handed out the scripts for Romeo and Juliet. As she reached Tohru, she glared menacingly. However, Tohru just smiled brightly at her.

'Okay, Operation Embarrass Tohru Honda-san has begun! I cannot fail! I have to make sure that Honda-san messes up and looks idiotic in front of the entire student body! As the President of the Prince Yuki-kun fan club, I must succeed!' After Motoko had graduated, Minami, being the vice president, had taken over the role as president (although Motoko visited once in awhile to give lectures).

"Here you go Honda-san!" As Minami handed Tohru the script, Arisa stopped her. She had been picked to play Lady Capulet, and was glad that she would have the chance to be Tohru's mother, even if it was only for a little bit of time.

"Why don't you let me look at that script Kinoshita-san?" Minami could see that her hand was shaking violently, but she slowly handed the script to Arisa anyway. As Arisa snatched the script out of Minami's chilled fingers, she immediately noticed that Tohru's version of the script was different from her own. She gave Minami a suspicious stare as she skimmed through the pages, and Minami laughed nervously.

"Kinoshita-san, I think you made a few changes to Tohru-kun's script that weren't necessary. Perhaps you could get the correct version for her instead." Tohru smiled happily. 'This is great! Uo-chan is trying to get along with Minami-san!'

However, even as Arisa talked to Minami, her eyes were saying something different. With a piercing glare, her eyes seemed to say 'YOU BETTER BE NICE TO TOHRU GOD DAMMIT.' Minami could feel herself shaking in fear and she took the script back from Arisa. "Yes, of course Uotani-san!" Minami ran out of the room and Arisa laughed.

Tohru had stopped paying attention a long time ago to what was happening before her. Instead, she was concentrated more on Kyou. 'Kyou-kun, why are you avoiding me? Are you that angry at me? Are you that embarrassed? I wish you wouldn't try so hard to stay away from me...'

Minami ran into the room with a new copy of the script and threw it at Tohru. "Here! Okay, we need to start working right away!"

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Tohru stretched her arms behind her back and yawned quietly. 'Wow, rehearsal lasted longer than I thought it would. It's a good thing I have the day off today. I have to go make dinner for everyone. I wonder what I should make tonight...' Just as she reached the school fence, she was shocked when she saw who had been waiting for her.

"Hatori-san! What are you doing here? Is something wrong?" Tohru ran up to him with a concerned expression on her face. Hatori walked to his car, which had been parked on the side of the road, and opened the car door. "I'd like to talk to you. Would you like a ride home?" Tohru began to protest, but realizing that she wouldn't win the argument, she nodded her head and eased herself onto the plush seat. She placed her bag neatly on her lap before smoothing her uniform's skirt as Hatori closed the door behind her. As he revved the engine, Tohru could have sworn she saw Kyou watching her from one of the trees, but she shook off the feeling as just being silly.

However, she was not hallucinating. Kyou had indeed been hiding out in the tree for the entire play performance, and had been watching over her so she wouldn't get hurt. He was a bit surprised to see Hatori though. 'What the hell does he want? What does he want with Tohru-kun? What is he planning...?'

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Tohru could feel herself fidgeting quite a bit, and she really was trying to stop, thinking that it was rude to Hatori-san, who was taking time out of his busy schedule to give her a ride home. However, she just couldn't control herself. The serious air inside the car was making her extremely nervous and edgy, though he had not actually said anything much yet besides casual conversational topics. Just as she zoned out though, she heard Hatori say her first name, which he had never done before. Her eyes snapped open.

"Tohru-kun. Are you sure you really want to free the Sohma family from the Zodiac curse?" Tohru looked at him as if he were insane. "Of course I do! I love all of you! And I know how much it hurts all of you to carry such a burden on your hearts! True, I may not understand the pain you all must go through, but I want to help ease it if I possibly can!" Hatori smiled.

"You say you love us. But, would you be willing to give your life for us if it could help us?" Tohru looked at him in utter confusion. "What are you talking about? Why would that have to happen? I don't understand..." Hatori sighed. As they reached Shigure's house, he pulled over to the same secluded place he had parked before when he had come over with Ayame. Tohru tightened the grip on her bag.

"Tohru, there's something you need to understand... Before she died, Akito told us how to break the curse." Tohru gasped and grabbed his shirt sleeve tightly. "Please Hatori-san! Please! What can I do? You have to tell me!" Hatori placed his hand over her tightened one before continuing. "Tohru, the only way to break the curse is if you and Kyou were to die." Tohru immediately released his shirt sleeve and backed away from him. She leaned against the car door, suddenly wanting to get outside and take a deep breath of air. Sensing that she was close to hyperventilating, Hatori quickly jumped out of the car and unlocked her door. She stumbled out of the car and took deep gulps of fresh air.

Hatori waited for her to compose herself, rubbing her back gently to try to calm her down. When she finally calmed, she jumped up and stared at him, clutching her bag to her chest. "What do you mean we have to die? Why? Why do we have to end our lives for everyone else to continue normally?" Hatori patted her head gently. "This is why I asked you if you truly wanted to free us, Tohru-kun. Just think for awhile about this. Come visit me if you ever need me." He walked back to his car, and just as he was pulling out to drive back to the main house, Kyou walked up next to Tohru from the house.

"Tohru-kun, what are we having for dinner? Is there anyway I can help?" Tohru just stood there in silence for a second, and Kyou became worried. "Tohru-kun?" As he moved to stand in front of her, she turned to him and gave him a large smile. "It depends! What do you want to eat?" As she looked up at him with such a happy face, Kyou had to wonder. 'What did Hatori say to her to make her so upset...?'

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"Hello everyone!" Shigure and Yuki looked up at the happy Tohru as she walked in with Kyou. "I'm going to go make dinner, so please be ready soon, as it won't take long!" Smiling and trying to avoid eye contact with the others, she rushed herself into the kitchen. The Sohmas exchanged glances awkwardly and everyone could feel that something was wrong.

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Tohru hummed quietly as she washed the dishes. In the end, she had made an American fish meal, and was now cleaning up afterwards. Soap gathered around her hands and the sweet lemon scent infiltrated her nose. She smiled in relief and continued to scrub. 'This is so relaxing...'

As she scrubbed though, her mind was left to wander. And naturally, she thought back to what Hatori had said. "Tohru, the only way to break the curse is if you and Kyou were to die." Tohru tensed as this flashed through her mind, and a plate slipped from her small hands. She awakened from her reverie when the china crashed to the wood floor. She let out a small gasp and bent down to pick up the pieces. Kyou rushed into the room and ran right to her.

"Tohru-kun, are you alright?' He held her hands away from the broken china, which she had been furiously trying to get cleaned up off the floor. She winced, and he saw that she had a small cut on one of her fingers. He pulled her arm under the faucet immediately and gently washed the blood away. She smiled up at him. "Thank you Kyou-kun! I thought you were mad at me, but you're helping me!" Kyou looked at her with a confused smile. "What are you talking about? What made you think I was mad at you?" Tohru looked down at the running water. "Well, you skipped the first play practice..." Her voice seemed to shrink as she finished her sentence, and when she was done, she couldn't even look him in the eye.

Kyou sighed. "It's not because I hate you, stupid. I'm just not interested in that kind of thing. If they want a Romeo, they better find someone else to do it, cause I sure as hell won't." Tohru smiled sadly. "Oh, okay... It's just, it would've been wonderful to see you as a Romeo..." Kyou blushed and looked down at his feet in embarrassment. "So, um, uh, what did Hatori talk to you about today?" Tohru's somewhat happier nature vanished again and Kyou saw a look of fear flash through her eyes for what seemed to be only a second.

"Oh really, it was nothing important! Don't worry about it Kyou-kun! Anyway, how was your day at school?" Kyou curled his fingers into a tight fist before quickly stomping over next to Tohru.

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Yuki walked down the stairs slowly and peeked his head in the kitchen to check on Tohru. She had seemed unnaturally disturbed throughout the entire meal, and quite upset about something (though he couldn't figure out what). As he took a step in, he watched as Kyou embraced Tohru tightly. He stopped in his tracks and watched as Kyou vanished beneath a large cloud of orange smoke.

Tohru blushed a bright red. However, shock filled her large cerulean eyes. 'Why am I so surprised? Of course he's going to transform! But, something inside me thought that maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't...'

"Tohru, I don't want anyone to feel the same way I do right now." Tohru looked at his wide cat eyes, forgetting the fact that Kyou had used no honorific when addressing her. "What do you mean, Kyou-kun?" Kyou curled up on her lap, purring gently. "I don't want anyone to feel the pain I feel."

'The pain of not being able to hug the girl I love...'

Yuki smiled and turned on his heel, walking back up the stairs to his room.

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End of Chapter Two: To Take the Pain

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A/N: So, two updates in one day! I'm on a roll! However, I'm going to slow things down a bit, since this is a relatively short story. So I probably won't update for like, a week or two. But I should be done this story fairly quickly. We'll see.

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A Note about the Honorifics: Now, if you're truly interested about the Japanese honorifics and how they are used, I'm sure you can find information about it easily on the Internet. However, I will touch on the lack of honorifics used on some character's names. (For example, Akito when talking with Shigure). Usually, a lack of honorifics signifies a deep relationship between the people, or that they have known each other for an extremely long amount of time. Usually, it is rude to not use honorifics in public.