Hi everyone! I know it's been ages since the last update (4 years went really fast...), but I've worked out a timeline for where I want this to go, and I'm so excited for it! I hope you all stick around to see this journey through. :)
-----------------------------------------
When Kyo, Yuki, and Tohru return from a shopping trip one Saturday morning, I'm up and reading on the roof, and am so engrossed in the book that I don't even hear them arrive. I nearly lose my treasured English copy of Howl's Moving Castle over the edge of the roof when I hear Kyo's voice. "Hey, Yuki wants you downstairs."
I look over to the ladder on my right to find him leaning against the roof as he stands on the ladder. "Kyo! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" I scold, closing my book. "I could have fallen off the roof, for all you know."
He brushes my words off. "That wouldn't have happened. You'd pass for another cat if they all weren't convinced you're the wolf," he says, "Now, come on. I don't want that damn rat biting my head off for not getting you down there."
Standing up, I let a small laugh escape. Kyo pauses as he gets ready to climb back down. "What?"
I shake my head, smiling a little bit. "Nothing. It's nothing."
I make my way downstairs, and after dropping my book off in my room, I venture down the hall to where I figure Yuki is.
"Yuki?" My brother, who's standing across the sitting room, turns to find me hovering in the doorway. "Kyo went up to find me. He said you wanted to talk to me?" This is weird. We've never sought each other out like this. And he never asks Kyo to do things for him.
"Ah, yes, I did." With a smile, he asks, "Do you have any plans this afternoon?"
Well, that was direct... the award for the best social skills goes to... "Nope! Did you need me to do something?"
Yuki looks momentarily uncomfortable, and pulls at his collar a little. "Well, not exactly. I was wondering if you would like to get out of the house and go get ice cream or something? Explore a bit of Tokyo? My treat," he adds with another small smile, obviously embarrassed.
"Really?!" I ask, a grin exploding onto my face. It takes all of my willpower not to jump up and down like a little kid, so I settle for a little clap. "I would love to! I haven't done something like that since I was little, when Mother would buy us some at a park!"
"Then let's go." He responds lightly. "We can go whenever you're ready."
"There are so many people!" We're not in a majorly popular neighbourhood of Tokyo, understandably, but even knowing that, the size of the crowds surprises me. All around us, people in bustle in and out of streetfront shops, and converse as they meander by. "I don't even know if I've seen this many people in one spot before. I can't imagine how people function in spots like Shibuya or Asakusa. How much further is it?"
"Just around the next corner. Close to the canal." Yuki replies, "It's a quieter spot, which I appreciate. And there are good cafes for snacks nearby." He steers me around a group of middle schoolers who stare at him in an incredibly odd way.
"Why are they looking at you like that, Yuki?" I look up at him as he glances at the group and sighs.
"At school, a lot of the girls call me the prince. I don't really understand why," he adds, his face reddening as I burst into laughter. "I assume word has gotten around. Unfortunately."
"Wow." I laugh, "You're a prince, then? So that makes me a princess?" I can't help but laugh harder. "Imagine that. We barely make it into the category of normal people, much less royalty."
Yuki's scowl softens a bit at that, and he leads us around the corner. "True." Off to our left, a little ice cream parlour comes into view, and I can see trees stretching over the canal at the end of the road. "Here we are."
"Whoah..." I breathe. "It's so quiet here for being in the middle of Tokyo."
"That's why I like it," my brother responds with a small smile. "It's a bit nerve wracking being in crowded areas, but I like coming by once in a while to sit by the canal. It sometimes makes me feel like I'm actually in the hustle and bustle, but without the stress."
Yuki holds the door open for me, and we duck inside. "Irasshaimase!" The employees chorus as we walk in. He leads me up to the counter, where there are upwards of two dozen flavors of ice cream to choose from.
"There are so many to choose from!" I exclaim just before Yuki starts making his order. I wait until he finishes, and then I tug on his sleeve. "You choose for me," I say, ignoring his surprised look, "There's no way I could decide!"
"Ah, um, alright,let me think." He turns to the employee and after a moment of thinking, orders a strawberry and matcha ice cream, handing me the cone once it's prepared. "Shall we go down to the canal and find a spot to sit?"
"Yes, let's!"
Yuki leads us out of the shop and down to the canal. "This is one of the canals that all of the famous pictures of the cherry blossoms at night get taken." He looks around a bit sheepishly, "Though this isn't quite the time of year for that."
"It's still beautiful, though," I add, "We have spots kind of like this at the main estate, yet it's so different. I love it." We get settled on a bench near a bridge, and sit in silence for a few moments. "I don't mean to be rude," I start, gaining a questioning look from my brother, "But why did you ask me to come out for ice cream? Don't get me wrong -- " I add hastily, "I love it and this is a lot of fun. But it just seemed sudden."
Yuki gets a bit of an embarrassed look on his face. "Well, I felt bad." He begins, "I should be taking better care of you. Spending time with you." He looks down at his ice cream, his face sobering, "Ayame didn't do that with me, and we both left you hanging when everything happened and Hatori took you in. And that's not fair for me to do. I shouldn't do what Aya did to me." Yuki looks back up at me. "We all go on living our lives, but you've barely even gotten to experience the world. And that's coming from me, who pretty much spent more time in that room than anyone. I should be helping you fix that."
He looks so anguished. "Yuki..."
Yuki sighs and looks out over the water. "I held back when you came because I was getting jealous about that stupid cat being able to do that so quickly with you. But I want to get to know you better. I want to show you what the world is like beyond the Sohma estate. Mother and Father so desperately wanted to have all of their kids be part of the zodiac since it gave them more power in the family. I want to give you a fighting chance to actually break free, because even though Akito doesn't want you to think about it, you are free, unlike the zodiac. Unlike me."
He looks back over to me, and I shoot him a small smile. "Thank you, Yuki. Truly. Thank you for doing this." I take a bite of my ice cream, and change my position on the bench so that I can face Yuki properly. "Okay."
"Okay?"
"Let's get to know each other better starting right now!" He looks a little surprised, but nods. "I really appreciate your wanting to do this. Ayame tries sometimes, but his interest reaches only as far as my fashion choices. First three questions. Favorite book, favorite hobby, and favorite spot."
He smiles a little. "Interesting questions. That already tells me a lot about you." He looks up towards the sky in thought after taking another bit of ice cream. "My favorite book... ah, I would say really any book by Haruki Murakami. I don't think I could choose."
"I'm not surprised, actually!" I muse, taking another bite, "It seems like it'd be up your alley."
"Oh?" He retorts, looking a little sheepish, "What about you, then?"
"Howl's Moving Castle."
"Like the Ghibli film?"
I grin before sneaking in a couple mouthfuls of ice cream. "It's what inspired the movie. But the book has so much more. There are so many worlds and places to explore, and the characters barely tap into that. That universe is literally endless. I can't get enough of it." A drop of matcha ice cream starts creeping down the side of my cone, and I catch it with my tongue before it moves too far down the side. "That, and I just love the humor and how the characters speak. I know a world like that doesn't exist, but it's fun to imagine."
Yuki looks at me for a minute, and seems perplexed. "What?" I probe, "Boring you already?"
He shakes his head, "No," he replies, "But I can understand why you love that. We're trapped in our family, in a way. That sounds like such a great escape. I think I also wish something like that could be real."
I can tell how much the weight of our family bothers him, but I'm not sure why it doesn't bother me in that way... I almost feel guilty. "Anyways," I say after a moment, "we don't need to dwell on how terrible our family is right now. We do that enough, as it is." I point to Yuki with my cone. "What about the next question. What's your favourite hobby?"
"Well," Yuki takes a bite of his cone as he thinks, "I think my favourite hobby and my favourite spot overlap. I really enjoy taking care of the plants at my secret base. I know it's not so much of a secret spot anymore, but it's probably my favorite spot."
I can't help but smile. "Soudane. Gardening to you is like Ayame with his dress shop."
"Or you with your books?" Yuki counters with a hint of a smirk flickering on his face.
"Yes. Or with me and my books!" I laugh. "You caught me there." I can see him relaxing by the second. I don't even know if I've ever seen him this willing to talk. He must be feeling a bit relieved now that he's taken the plunge and done this with me.
"What about you?" Yuki asks a minute later as we polish off our ice cream. "What are your answers to your last two questions?"
"Well," I begin, "Books are definitely one of my hobbies, but that's a given. If I had to come up with another one, I would probably say calligraphy."
Yuki's face fills with surprise. "Calligraphy?"
"Yeah," I reply, shrugging, "After Hatori took me in, he didn't really know what to do with me. You know how he is. Since I couldn't really go anywhere, he let me explore the realm of academia. Shocker." I roll my eyes a bit, but grin, "I didn't have anything better to do with my time, so I learned pretty much anything I could. I ended up spending the most time with history, Classical Japanese, and English. What made Classical Japanese easier was learning calligraphy." I shrug, but continue, "Anyways, it can be relaxing to do."
"Wow, I never knew that," Yuki muses, "You know that most people find calligraphy to be a hassle."
"I'm not surprised. I did it more because of my interest in translating documents, so it wasn't just arbitrary. But it can be tedious."
"What about your last question?" Yuki looks at me, tilting his head. I've obviously gained his interest with the last one, so this might be a letdown.
"My favorite spot..." I think for a minute, "It might be the library at Hatori's. It's mostly full of his medical and personal books, but I've grown my collection over the years. Two of the walls are filled with shelves of books, and it's so cozy there."
"He has a library?" Yuki asks, shock registering in his voice.
I can't help but laugh "Well, yeah... would you expect anything less from him? When I moved in, he actually struggled to decide whether I got the larger room, or if the books did. He'll never admit it, though."
A bit of a laugh escapes from Yuki's mouth. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised," he looks a little uncomfortable before continuing, "How has it been living with Hatori the past several years?"
"It's a bit unconventional, but it's been really nice," Doubt fills his eyes, but I can figure as much as to why. He's never been overly trusting of Hatori since the whole incident with Yuki's transformation when we were little. "It took us a while to figure each other out, of course. But he's tried his best, and I really couldn't ask for more. I'm grateful that he took me in. I can't imagine what else would have happened had he not done that. Mother was just so angry at me for something that's out of all of our control." Yuki nods along as I explain, "I know he has his own reasons for becoming my guardian, especially since he was a college student back then and the last thing he needed was a kid to take care of. But I know it wasn't for the money or anything like that. It might have been for selfish reasons, but I know it's not for terrible, selfish reasons like Mother and Father when they held onto me as long as they did.
"I'm glad it all worked out," Yuki says softly after a little while. "I've never known what to think of Hatori, if I'm being honest."
A sad smile flicks across my lips. "I know you do. But he's been wonderful." I lean forward a little bit, "Did you know he's really good at English? He had me work with tutors for a while until I was fluent. He even enacted 'English Days' after the whole thing with Kana. I mean, I know it was a way for him to distract himself and help remind him to help me with my studies, but it's so fun! It's something I'd expect more from Aya or Shigure ... not Hatori! He's hard to work out sometimes, but it's so much easier to ease him out of his shell when it's with things he's more comfortable with."
After a minute of listening, Yuki smiles. It's not a real smile, but I know that'll come with time. "I'm happy for you. That you could still enjoy your life at Sohma House."
"Thank you," I say softly, "It's nice to see you happy living outside with Shigure, you know. I don't even think we've ever talked this much. I can see how good this has been for you, Yuki."
Yuki brushes off my words a bit. "We can all use some time away from the main estate. I'm glad you're living with us, Kasumi."
"Thank you, Yuki." He looks over at me as I shoot him a bright smile. "I'm glad I'm here, too."