FicWad

(A/N): Sorry! I meant for waaay more to happen in this chapter, but then I started to get carried away with the dialogue… it happens... right? So this is almost filler-ish. : (
Also I finished writing it then checked it over once before posting it so sorry if there are a ton of errors!!!
**
“How’s your shoulder feeling?” Hatori asked Inora, she looked at him and saw his eyes full of concern.
“It’s great! I can hardly feel it,” she said beaming at him. “You did an amazing job!” She heard him mutter something under his breath and she sighed. “I know you’re angry with me for not letting you numb my arm.”
“You’re right, I am” he said glaring at her, but she pouted at him and he melted instantly and smiled. They were sitting out on the porch, she could hardly believe it but their hands were still intertwined. They had been out there for at least an hour and neither one of them had even thought of making a move to take their hands back. She couldn’t help but think about some of the things she had done with Shigure and none of them had felt nearly as intimate as this. She was also insanely glad that Dan had left her alone so she could have this moment with Hatori, ‘if he saw us he might go on the war path again,’ she thought. But just as she thought of that she heard his footsteps.
“(Hey,)” Dan yelled out the door, Inora wrenched her hand away from Hatori’s. Dan hadn’t seen anything fortunately. “(The phone is ringing and I think that Shigure guy is still in hiding…)”
“(I guess I can answer it,)” she said uncertainly, she still felt like she was just a guest there. She got up and jogged to the phone and grabbed it before it could stop ringing. ‘What do I say?’ she thought franticly as she put the phone up to her ear.
“Hello Sohma residence, Inora speaking,” she decided on. There was silence on the other end for a moment then a cold voice she recognized instantly made her freeze.
“Inora,” Akito said. “I guessed you learned Japanese pretty well. How is life treating you there?”
“F- fine,” she whispered into the phone. She willed her voice to get stronger but even though the words he was saying were polite his voice sounded like he wanted to shove a baseball down her throat.
“Wonderful. Tell me, would my dear Hatori happen to be there?” he asked, sounding like he already knew the answer.
“Um, yeah,” she said with a stronger voice this time. She started thinking of good reasons for him to be here, she decided on a half-truth-half-lie. “Shigure dislocated his shoulder early this morning then, because he kept whining, Hatori stayed to make sure he was ok.”
“Ah I see,” he said, relief washed over her, he sounded like he really believed her. “May I speak to him?”
“Y-yes, I’ll go get him,” she said quickly and ran out to the porch. Hatori raised an eyebrow when he saw the look on her face.
“Is everything ok?” he asked. She hadn’t realized that she was that obvious, she made an effort to clear her expression.
“Oh, yeah. Akito is on the phone he wants to speak to you,” she said trying to sound light.
“Shit,” she heard him mutter under his breath.
“And I told him that you came over early this morning because Shigure dislocated his shoulder, and that he kept whining so you stayed,” she said in a rush. “I hope that’s ok… he didn’t sound happy about you being gone so…” she trailed off.
“Yes, that was perfect thank you,” he said going into the house. He came out a minute later with all of his things.
“See you later I guess?” she asked him as he put his suit jacket back on.
“I look forward to it,” he said with a warm smile. He quickly went to his car and drove off; Inora couldn’t help but feel a little empty with him gone. It was odd that he had only stayed one night but it seemed so right for him to be there.
“(He had to go home huh?)” Dan asked from behind her. “(That’s good, I didn’t like the way he looked at you.)”
“(Shut up Dan,)” she said but she couldn’t keep the smile off of her face.
**
Inora, Dan, Hatsu and Shigure all sat down for lunch which Inora had been able to make with some help from Hatsu. Of course first Inora had to convince Dan that she and Shigure weren’t doing anything sexual, ‘Anymore,’ she had added in her head. Then she had to convince Shigure that Dan was in fact not going to murder him. But once that was all settled they sat down to eat, but it was in an awkward silence.
“Shigure-” she started but he cut her off.
“You know I think you know me well enough to call me by my nickname,” he said beaming at her. “Call me ‘Gure.”
“’Gure,” she said slowly, testing it out. “I love it!”
“Me too, but forgive me what was it that you were going to ask?” he asked.
“Well I was just going to say that this is extremely awkward. Can’t you help a bit?” she pleaded and an evil grin spread across his face.
“What we need is someone to lighten the mood,” he said. He made it sound like it was a catch phrase. “I’ll be right back.” He ran out of the room with the same huge grin on his face, when he came back he simply sat back down like nothing had happened.
“What was that all about?” she asked.
“You’ll see,” he said in a sing-song voice. She opened her mouth to reply but then decided against it, she just shrugged instead. If he wanted to be a child about it then she would let him. They all began to discuss other things and she had completely forgotten that she was supposed to be waiting for something. They talked all afternoon, Tohru, Yuki and Kyo all came back from school together and set about the house doing different activates. The sun started to set and they could smell Tohru cooking something in the kitchen. Inora decided that that was her signal to help with diner.
She had just started to set the table when a blur of red and silver flashed into the room. She tried to focus on it but all she could really tell was that it was a person, a person that wouldn’t stop twirling like they were in a ballet. She couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman, they had long silver hair that reached past their waist, but their chest was still completely flat. She finally decided on it being a man when his incredibly loud voice rang through the room.
“’Gure, my love!” the man said. “I have missed you dearly and I simply could not wait to see you since hearing your voice!” Inora snorted at that, ‘Really? He couldn’t just say ‘nice to see you’?’ she thought.
“Aya!” Shigure sang as he sprang to his feet. “It has been far too long. My heart simply ached at our separation!” Inora stared at him, but in the end she couldn’t help but giggle at the side of Shigure she had never seen. Sure they had joked around a lot but she had never seen him so… hyper. ‘Ah so this is Ayame. Wait… how the hell did Hatori put up with these two all through school?’ she thought.
“’Gure my love, where is the one I am to meet?” Ayame said, calming down a little.
“Ah yes. Aya, this is Inora,” Shigure said gesturing over to her. “Inora this is Ayame Sohma.” Inora stood up to shake his hand and Ayame bounded over to her, but instead of shaking her hand like a normal person he bowed deeply and kissed it. Inora couldn’t stop the blush that crept up on her cheeks, ‘but seriously,’ she thought. ‘Who does that anymore?’ He straightened up and looked into her eyes, and she noticed that his eyes were yellow. ‘Ah, he must be one of the Zodiacs,’ she thought. They had never straight up told her that, but if he had been childhood friends with Shigure and Hatori… well she should have put it together before now. There was something else about him that she couldn’t quite place…
“How exactly are you related to Yuki?” she asked studying his face hard. No matter how she looked at it all she could see was a grown up Yuki.
“Ah yes, you see, he’s my younger brother,” he said proudly.
“Oh, well that makes since,” she said, she suddenly realized that her hand was still caught in his, and he showed no sign of giving it back either.
“Inora!” He suddenly boomed making her jump. “That is a lovely name! How did you come by it?”
“Uh… my parents…gave it to me?” she said slowly and wondered wildly how anyone else was supposed to get their name.
“AH HAHAHA,” he laughed loudly. “Of course! But what I meant to ask was what does it mean?”
“Oh…um…Dan?” she looked over at him. “(You don’t happen to know what my name means do you?)”
“(No,)” he said shortly. She saw that he was zeroed in on her hand still in Ayame’s. She rolled her eyes at him, ‘Geez, what the hell is his issue?’ she thought.
“Well, that’s a good question. I don’t know,” she said looking back at Ayame.
“Well why don’t you ask them? I’m very curious of how they came by it, it’s so beautiful” he said with a charming smile. ‘Oh great,’ she thought. ‘I just barely met him; I don’t really wanna go over this now.’ But he asked and she couldn’t just leave him hanging, she decided to just tell him all of the necessary facts in one go.
“Their dead,” she started quietly and the smile slid right off of his face. “They died in a car crash when I was 17, Dan here is my uncle, he’s looked after me ever since.” She finished gesturing to him.
“I didn’t know that,” Shigure said quietly behind her.
“Why would you? It’s not like you ever asked anything about me,” she said coldly. She didn’t mean to let that slip but ever since she had gotten there the only one to ask anything about her was Kyo. And from what she had seen of this family that was very odd. And it hurt a little that the man she had a sort-of-relationship with was more interested in learning things about Tohru then about her. Shigure just stood gazing at her with an expression she couldn’t quite read.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ayame said softly. Inora really wanted to move on from this.
“So Ayame!” She said in a loud cheerful voice trying to pick his mood back up. “I hear you went to school with Shigure and Hatori! You must have gotten into all sorts of trouble.”
“Why of course not,” he said, cheerful again. He, to her relief, let her hand go and went over to Shigure’s side. “The three of us were to the absolute highest standards in our school!”
“And by ‘we’ he means Hatori,” Shigure said with a laugh. “The faculty were always amazed that he hung around us.”
“I’ll bet,” she said with a laugh. “So tell me what do you do for fun? Drinking? Dancing?”
“All of the above,” Ayame said with an almost evil grin spreading across his face. “Why, would you like to go have some fun?”
“Always,” she said grinning back. “Just one problem though.”
“Oh? And what’s that?” he asked.
“My uncle is… a little over protective,” she said pointing at him, he already looked suspicious.
“No matter, Shigure can distract him and we can make a break for it,” he said with a full out evil grin now. “That is, unless you chicken.” She had just meant it as a joke at first but then she thought it over. She had been stuck in that place for almost a month now, and she could use the fresh air.
“Believe me I am no chicken,” she said.
“She really isn’t. I’ve never met such a sweet girl that just dives into things the way she does,” Shigure said smiling at her seductively, like she didn’t already know exactly what he was talking about.
“Oh but Shigure don’t you wanna come?” she asked. Despite their little issues she knew they would have twice as much fun with him there. He thought about it for a moment then looked to Hatsu.
“Hatsu do you want to come?” he asked sweetly.
“Oooh, no. I know how you guys get, and I am far too old for that,” he said then looked to Inora. “It’s not that I don’t trust your judgment but if you go just… watch yourself.”
“Why Hatsu! Are you implying that we won’t treat her properly?” Ayame huffed.
“Of course not, I just don’t want her to get in over her head,” Hatsu replied calmly.
“Well if you don’t want to come would you mind…?” Shigure trailed off looking at Dan. Hatsu considered it for a long moment then sighed in defeat.
“Fine,” he said. “But after you all leave I get to throw you under the bus and save myself.”
“That’s fair,” Inora said brightly. “But can you at least try to stop him from wildly running about in the woods?”
“I’ll try but no promises,” he said quietly. Inora noticed that Dan was starting to look more and more suspicious.
“(Sorry Dan!)” she said quickly. “(They were just telling me a story from when they were younger.)”
“(Oh,)” he said and visibly relaxed.
“(So these two want to hear some of the music that I listen to,)” she wildly made up. “(So we’ll be right back.)”
“(Ok whatever,)” Dan said quietly. She noticed that he looked really tired, but then she remembered about jet lag. ‘With any luck he’ll pass out and never notice that we were gone,’ she thought.
“(This is my first time meeting Ayame so we’ll be talking for quite a while. You can go to bed if you want,)” she said brightly.
“(Actually that’s not a bad plan…sleep schedule is all messed up,)” he grumbled and got up. She winked at the three men as he walked out of the room.
“Actually Hatsu I think you’re off the hook,” she said and he looked relieved at that. “He’s still suffering from jet lag so we just have to wait until he’s asleep.”
“So that means: Ayame, keep your voice down,” Shigure said with a grin, and Ayame pouted.