Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ The Journey Home ❯ Star light, star bright... ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket or the characters, they belong to Natsuki Takaya. I wonder if she would sell me Shigure or Kyo...?

A/N: I changed the rating from R to PG-13. I decided that was probably good enough considering there's stories with yaoi/shonen-ai that are PG-13. "This is dialogue" ... 'this is a thought' ... I think I forgot to mention that before. Big, extra-special thanks to my new friend Yuki the Rat for her wonderful reviews and great help when I was stuck. Arigato! Yet another badly titled chapter, I do have some better names in mind for later chapters though. I think that's it, enjoy and please review! ^_^

Warning: There may be OOC moments (or the whole thing, or something... yeah) so if that bothers you, this might not be the story for you. (Hey, this is fiction, it's my world and I can do what I want with it!) Also if premarital sex and/or unwed pregnancy bother you, this probably isn't the story for you.

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"The Journey Home"

Chapter 3: Star light, star bright...

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"It's been along day, you must be hungry. How about we stop somewhere?" Shigure asked Tohru as they left the Main House. 'Too bad Hatori couldn't drive us, it's cold!' Shigure thought. He looked over at Tohru. Her nose and cheeks were pink from the chill and she had her hands stuffed firmly in the pockets of her jacket. She looked adorable.

"Sure, where would you like to go?" Her stomach grumbled at the thought of food.

"Hmm... I know a good place for okonomiyaki that's not far from here." Living alone again Shigure had become reacquainted with the restaurants in the area.

"Sounds good," Tohru said. When they reached their destination she looked up to see a sign that read "Ucchan's #5."

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After they ate Shigure walked Tohru to her apartment. "When does Hana get back? You can stay in your old room..." he said, thinking Tohru might not want to be alone.

She smiled. "Hana gets back in three days, I'll be fine on my own."

"Well then au revoir mon petite fleur," Shigure tried out the French he'd learned for his new novel and kissed her hand with a flourish.

Tohru laughed and said "I never saw the resemblance until just now." At his questioning look she added "Between you and Ayame."

Shigure laughed and waved as he muttered something about Hatori being right all the time and headed home.

Up in her third floor apartment Tohru was glad she'd have the place to herself for a few days. It would be easier to talk to everyone if she could do some thinking first, but right now she just wanted to curl up in bed and sleep.

She flipped on the light in the bathroom and stood there for a moment. Had it only been this morning...? It seemed so long ago. She started to get ready for bed and as she combed her hair she turned to look in the mirror at how long it was. 'I should cut it,' she thought to herself. 'It's been the same since high school, and with work and a baby I won't have time for long hair. Or much else.' Though it might have bothered some, that thought didn't bother Tohru.

It was still daylight when Tohru fell asleep and her dreams were filled with him. She dreamt of his sadness, his smile, the first time she made him laugh, but most of all she dreamt of his kiss. The soft velvet of his lips, his hands in her hair, his breath on her cheek.... She reached out to him in her sleep but he wasn't there.

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Tohru awoke the next morning with an aching feeling of loneliness. She suppressed it, but her thoughts of him were so strong that his scent seemed to fill the room. She felt a strange combination of pain and pleasure that she would never get used to. Was he going to haunt her dreams forever? She sighed and lay for a while wishing she could live in her dreams, with him there beside her.

Eventually she stretched and looked at the clock. 'Good, plenty of time to get to work,' she thought. While Tohru was brushing her teeth the nausea came again. 'No breakfast today' she sighed.

When she graduated high school Tohru had gotten a job with Aogiri Catering, and had been working there ever since. Aogiri was a large company that had five teams, each team consisting of a head chef, three assistant chefs, one pastry chef, and a five-member wait staff. Aogiri was a prestigious company and the only catering business in the area capable of handing very large-scale events. If all five teams worked together and the temps were called in there was nothing they couldn't handle.

Tohru loved her job. The kitchen was where she felt most sure of herself, and it showed. It hadn't taken very long for her to go from assistant-to-the-assistant-of-the-assistant chef to head chef. Mr. Aogiri often teased her about taking over his company since Tohru's team was the most requested aside from his own.

Being the head chef had its advantages. For example, when they had a lunch function she didn't have to get to work nearly as early as the assistants. Mr. Aogiri said he had the assistants start on their own because "it shows my confidence in them, which leads to better job performance and trains better head chefs," but Tohru secretly thought it was because he wasn't a morning person.

Today her team was providing lunch for the 'Nihon International Confetti Convention.' Sometimes Tohru wondered if there wasn't a convention for everything. She had been given very few instructions on what to serve "it should taste good" being the client's main concern. In keeping with the spirit of confetti Tohru had chosen to make colorful dishes. She used food coloring when colorful ingredients wouldn't work and the end result was quite a sight. The wait staff laughed when they saw the banquet table, it did indeed being confetti to mind.

Just before the lunch was served Tohru peeked in at the convention and was surprised to see so many sour-faced men in black suits. It definitely wasn't what she had expected, but then again she hadn't really known what to expect.

After lunch just as Tohru and her team were about to leave the head of the convention's planning committee pulled her aside.

"Were you responsible for all the color?" he asked.

"Yes, sir, did you not like it?" Tohru got a little nervous, 'Oh no! What if I ruined their lunch? All the color was a little strange but I thought it was pretty...' She started to panic a little.

"I loved it. We all loved it. Will you please do our next convention?"

Tohru relaxed. "I would be honored, thank you very much," she said and bowed deeply.

He returned her bow, "No, thank you. I haven't smiled like that in a long time."

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After dinner that evening Tohru visited Shigure's house. Actually, she hadn't planned to visit the house, just the site of Yuki's long-abandoned secret base, but Shigure had once again known she was there. How did he do that? It was kind of scary.

She had been sitting at the base for a while, lost in memories, when Shigure came up behind her and said "Good thing it's warmer today, ne?" Tohru jumped about five feet and thought she was going to have a heart attack. Several minutes later Shigure all of a sudden stopped laughing and said, "Come to see me two days in a row, what ever will everyone think?"

"I don't know if He would care."

"He who?" Shigure asked with a knowing look in his eyes.

She didn't answer his question. Instead she said "How about some tea?" and headed off towards the house.

After their tea Shigure watched silently as Tohru left the room and headed outside. He enjoyed watching her go. 'You dog' Yuki's condescending voice said in Shigure's mind. 'Woof,' he thought and grinned.

Up on the roof Tohru looked at the first faint star and whispered to herself "Star light, stat bright, first star I see tonight...." Her wish was not for herself, but for the baby. The baby... she put her hand to her stomach in wonder. She had taken Health and Biology in school, but that didn't make it less amazing. Was there really a baby in there? How was it possible that she had started a new life? They had started a new life, she amended. 'I'm just the one growing it,' she thought and smiled.

Thoughts of the baby turned into thoughts of him and Tohru started to count the stars in an effort to keep the thoughts at bay. It worked for a bit, but then she found herself wondering if it was possible that he was thinking of her right now.

"Why did he run off?" she asked herself, feeling like she would never know yet fearing that she already did. 'What was it to him...? Men have needs and I was just... there?' Tears swelled up in her eyes. No! She refused to believe he would have used her like that. Even if he didn't love her that way, she knew he cared about her and would never hurt her. 'But he has hurt you' came a little voice from the back of her mind. 'Maybe I'm wrong, maybe he doesn't care about me at all, maybe he was using me...' she thought. 'Or...' came the little voice again, 'maybe you were using him.'

That's it for chapter three!

I hope I spelled "Aogiri" right, it could be embarrassing if I didn't and the way I spelled it means something bad in Japanese. ^_^; Five points to anyone who can figure out why it's "Aogiri", and one point to anyone who can catch the other anime reference (the other one's glaring). The way the story's going I still have quite a bit to go before the father's revealed. Gomen nasai! Gomen nasai!

I'm thinking of starting to use the Japanese honorifics (and going back and adding them, of course), I keep wanting to while writing. The reason I didn't in the first place was because I'm not entirely sure which ones different people use for each other, so it'd be some research work for me (I wanted to write, not research!). Is it too hard to read them, though?

I like the way one author put it, I hope s/he doesn't mind if I quote "if you've come this far you've obviously read, so please review". I will add, though, please be kind since this is my first fan fiction and I'm very sensitive. Bad reviews... "I don't know if I could take that kind of rejection!" (Toy Story... never mind, I'm crazy.) I proofread it myself, which is hard to do, so there's probably still some errors (though I hope not so many that it's hard to read). Please let me know of any glaring errors and I'll fix 'em.