Fruits Ripe

Episode 1f

Yuki silently slid in the room with the ice pack he found and a towel once Tohru had fell asleep, he had been listening from the hall but didn't wanna walk in, in fear of interrupting her.

"Surprising. She's so cheerful and upbeat at school. Both of them Always. I wouldn't have guessed they'd been through so much. It's amazing." Yuki commented quite enough not to wake them but loud enough for Shigure to hear, as he leaned his back against the wall.

"Amazing? How so?" Shigure slightly turned to give Yuki his attention.

"Well, take me and the Somas. I thought I'd broken free of them, but I haven't really. Or I would've bought a tent like Miss Honda and gone off some place where they couldn't find me. I'm realizing that I'm spoiled." Yuki said a bit self- depreciated.

"It's actually pretty rude, you know. Calling their suffering 'amazing.'" Shigure commented a bit amused but not at all surprised with his younger cousins thoughts.

Yuki handed off the ice pack wrapped in a small towel to Shigure, while walking towards the sliding doors in the living room that led to the other hallway and the backyard outside. Shigure calmly put his hand up to take it slightly amused. But he didn't question it as he already had an idea of what he was going to do.

"True. Can you take things from here?" Yuki asked as he got to the door, he stopped for a second to make sure.

"Don't tell me you're planning to go dig up the landslide. That's a lot to manage alone. Want me to come along?" Shigure asked still a bit amused but he was serious about helping.

"Alone? I'll have plenty of help. Don't worry about me." Yuki said calmly, he turned all the way around to face Shigure, his normally silver eyes turn a mysterious purple. When the sliding doors opened, you could see ton of rats and hear their squeaking as they seemed to be waiting for Yuki outside.

"See you when you get back." Shigure hummed and smiled slightly hearing them. The last thing heard is the sliding door shutting.

-----

~Tohru's dream

"Tohru." Kyoko Tohru and Lily's mom was cradling a sick Tohru in her lap " Tohru. You've got a fever again. You don't have to burn yourself out helping with the housework, you know. Just be you, Tohru, and live life at your own pace. Eventually, you'll catch up." Then the dream fades out.~

"I miss you." Tohru said in her sleep, tears in the corners of her eyes.

The tear finally falls down as she opens her eyes and was greeted by the morning sun.

"I don't have time to sleep! I have to dig Mom out!" Tohru suddenly shot up, startling Lily out of her sleep.

"Morning Sis", Lily said lazily sitting up only to be met by a frantic Tohru.

Not having heard her sister, too deep in her panic, she quickly walks to the sliding door and pushed it open. About to exit the house, she paused hearing Yuki's voice from the garden. Lily got up and tied her hair in a messy bun on top of her head, grabbed her glasses, and then joined Tohru by the door after fixing the bedding they used.

"Good Morning. Are you feeling better?" Yuki called out to the girls smiling, as he was walking back to the house.

"Oh. I, um, yes. I mean, good morning!" Tohru frantically responded still in a bit of a daze.

"Good morning Yuki- Nii" Lily responded smiling back sleepily.

"Here, your photo." Yuki said handing Tohru their moms picture that he dug up.

"Huh?" Tohru took the photo and stared at it for a bit, trying to grasp that it was actually there.

"I think I got all the rest of your things, too, but could you check and see?" Yuki said still smiling. He noticed that Tohru was still in a bit of a daze, so he sat the bags of stuff down on the floor in front of them.

"Thank y--" Lily started to say to him but was cut off by a frantic Tohru who finally snapped out of her daze.

"Uh? No way! You mean you moved all that dirt by yourself? But--" Tohru started to protest but Yuki chuckled a bit cutting her off.

"No, of course not. I couldn't." Yuki stated as if it were obvious, still smiling.

"But.. then how?" Tohru asked confused by his answer and his actions.

"I can't tell you." Yuki smirked softly as if telling her it was a secret. "Well, I'll just bring your things upstairs. I know the house is a mess, but we do have a spare room on the second floor. You can stay here until renovations at your grandfather's are done." He picked their bags back up and started for the stairs before stopping at the end of the hallway.

"Ah! I couldn't do that!" Tohru said frantically, this time Lily agreed nodding along.

"The bedroom doors all have locks on them." Yuki clarified to them thinking that's why they were hesitant.

"No, that's not what I meant at all!" Tohru reassured him that they trusted them.

"Do you enjoy doing chores? Housework? You know, like cooking and cleaning." Shigure asked them suddenly, popping up out of nowhere with a serious expression, like he was thinking.

"Uh, yeah. I mean, it's kind of calming." She said still a little confused, but she was able to answer calmly despite her frantic state earlier.

"Not bad at all, I helped do it all the time" Lily replied as well seeing as he was waiting for her answer too.

"Hmm... Wonderful!" He was serious one second, then the next second he was smiling childishly. "Welcome home! Your room's not aired out, so you should open a window, and I'll get you both a copy of the house key, too." Shigure mentioned joining Yuki on their way to the extra bedroom the had upstairs. He took point as Tohru began to get frantic again.

"We can't! If we moved in here, we'd only be a burden on you!" Tohru told them softly but with underlining tones of panic.

"Miss Honda, we don't consider it a burden, so please just accept. Besides, where else do you have to go?" Yuki said nonchalantly continuing his walk from when he stopped to answer her again.

"Okay, but please if we're going to impose on you by living here, at least we should know if there are any special rules to follow." Tohru relented and Lily nodded agreeing as she trailed behind them listening.

"There are none. You should just be you, Miss Honda, and live your life at your own pace. It's that simple." Yuki stopped again at the foot of the steps and smiled at her before continuing on his way.

~"Just be you, Tohru." Kyoko~

'Soma' Tohru thoughts ' He really is a mystery.'

Yuki starts walking up the staircase leaving Tohru behind in her thoughts, but meets Shigure who's waiting at the top for him. Not wanting the girls to over hear his concerns that he wanted to share with his little cousin.

"Are you sure about this? They are girls." Shigure asked him softly in regards to their secret.

"You wait until now to ask. It'll be fine, just as long as they don't hug me." Yuki told him in confidence.

After all this time, Tohru and Lily weren't the type to do it out of nowhere. Yeah of course without reason or just cause, but when does life ever go the way you want. Once they got to the room, they confirmed it was in fact dusty from not being used.

"Like I thought, it is a little stuffy in here. Yuki, open..." Shigure lightly jogged over to the window

'Is this really all right? It feels too good to be true.' Tohru thought to herself and she looked at Lily who was a bit behind her rubbing her eyes.

"Uh, 'kay." Tohru snapped out of her thoughts when Lily tugged on her arm signaling that they were talking to her.

'Wait. Where are Soma's parents? Do they live somewhere else, maybe?' Tohru thought dazing off again as she looked around the upstairs area of the house a bit.

Shigure leaves room to go downstairs to the supply closet to get a broom and mop. Yuki stayed upstairs to help them finish opening the windows.

What no one but Lily noticed was outside in the tree directly across from the window was a figure. She couldn't really tell what it was, but she saw a glob of orange hair and a red shirt. Suddenly the figure smirks and disappeared. Lily carefully moved her and Tohru 2 steps back as the figure jumped through the roof and into the room. The figure turned out to be a boy who looked around the same age as Yuki and Tohru.

Lily just showed a confused expression while Tohru is shocked, and Yuki is calm. Shigure heard the crash and looked up from his kneeling position at their supply closet. You could tell he wasn't necessarily surprised, but all he could think of was such bad timing.

"Huh?" Tohru tried to comprehend what just happened. While Lily let it be intrigued on where this was going.

"Yo." The orange haired boy said while he stretched his arms a bit, "Are you ready for a beating, Rat-boy? Let's do this." The boy finished. Either he didn't see the girls or he just didn't acknowledge their presence.

"Honestly. Why don't you just accept it already?" Yuki turned around to face him, leaning against the wall right by the window. "You're too weak to take me." Yuki smirks

'Oh a fight finna break out' Lily thought even more intrigued by the switch up in personality in Yuki.

"Think so, huh? Well, too bad for you I'm not the same fighter I was before! I'll show you!" the boy who Lily assumed was either related to him or a friend-enemy, jumped up with his fists ready to fight Yuki.

I saw Tohru snap out of her daze and step forward, I tried to stop her but she was too far. "Wait! I'm sure we can settle this without--" Tohru took another step and slipped on a piece of wood that was on the floor from the roof.

As Tohru slips, she falls on the boy's back making it look like a back hug. Yuki gasps as the boy completely freaks and screams while blushing from the contact. Then this orange poof happened leaving Lily even more confused, but seeing Tohru be disoriented only caused Lily to physically face palm. When the fog cleared Yuki face palmed as well.

'That's my older sister' Lily thought with an audible sigh, 'Well at least now he knows we're here.' Lily added amused.

"Hey, Yuki, was that Kyo's voice I heard?" Shigure popped out from around the corner. His whole face said please tell me it ain't so. While Yuki's just said, I'm surrounded by idiots.

'So the boy's name is Kyo, cool' Lily thought

"Um. I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" Tohru hurriedly sat up on her knees. Lily didn't think she thought it through as she went to pick him up. But instead of a person, she picked up an orange cat who had a tick mark on its head.

"Now this is an interesting development", Lily mumbled staring at the bright orange cat.

"Yeah, that's him." Shigure sighed giving up hope as he watched the scene in front of him.

"He was a boy." Tohru stated trying to piece together what happened.

"Stupid Jerk." Yuki muttered irritated

"And now he's a cat..." she added then concluded out of nowhere, "I landed on him wrong and somehow turned him into a cat... "she started freaking out while shaking him, Lily tried to get her attention to calm her down but no dice.

Tohru continued freaking out while Yuki walked from the window to join Shigure at the door. Shigure tried to start explaining, but Tohru is in her own world basically ignoring him and everyone else. Lily eventually gave up and decided to watch everything play out, leaning against the wall.

"Well, this is awkward. Okay, so here's the thing..." Shigure attempted to get her to listen, but she kept panicking.

"We have to hurry!" Tohru got up really fast holding the orange cat in her arms.

Lily noticed a loose big chunk of wood that was wobbly above Tohru's head, and instead of trying to get her attention she decided to just act. Before it could fall from the ceiling and hit Tohru, Lily tried to gently push Tohru out of the way but before she could follow it hit Lily on her head making her dizzy. Being dizzy she ended up swaying and knocking Tohru down with her. And Tohru with the cat still in her arms, fell on Shigure and Yuki catching them off guard.

"Miss little Honda" Yuki gasped worriedly right before the room was shrouded on blue and green mist, just like the orange mist before.

Tohru takes a second to process as she now makes eye contact with a black dog and a gray rat. All the animals/ boys knew there was no explaining or getting out of it now. As the smoke clears Lily also sees the animals but no Kyo, Yuki, or Shigure. She was thoroughly confused, but seemed amused as Tohru's expression.

"Huh...?" Tohru says in a daze still processing what just happened. Lily decided to just watch everything play out, but she was rubbing her head feeling a bump forming where the board hit.

End of Episode 1