FicWad

“What are you doing?” Hatori asked.
“What does it look like? I’m cooking you dinner,” Inora said with a wink before turning back to the stove.
“May I ask why?” he asked stepping up behind her.
“No,” she said sarcastically and laughed. “You treated me to a nice dinner last night so now I’m returning the favor,” she said then added in a quieter voice. “I might return another favor as well.” She glanced at him just in time to see the blush spread across his face.
“Yes, well I- I mean…um,” he stuttered. She had never seen him so tongue-tied; in fact his tongue was quite nimble… “What are we having,” he finally settled on.
“Chicken,” she said simply, she didn’t want to give it away just yet. He didn’t have a chance to press for more information because the phone rang.
“Excuse me,” he said and she rolled her eyes, he still acted really proper around her. She turned back to her work and started humming, nothing at first, but then it turned into a lullaby she had heard as a kid.
“Momiji is coming over,” Hatori said walking back into the kitchen. Inora stopped what she was doing for a moment to look at him. “He’s a member of the Zodiac as well.”
“You want me to leave?” she asked.
“No, Momiji is an amazing person. We’ll be alright,” he said softly, staring at nothing. “Will there be enough?” he asked gesturing to the stove,
“Oh yeah, no problem,” she said with a grin spreading across her face. “I looked at your refrigerator to see if you had everything I needed… and I decided to make a lot so you could have leftovers.” Then she added in a quieter voice, “And I threw some of the scarier looking things out.” He looked sheepish for a moment but was saved by a knock at the door. He came back a few seconds later with an adorable, blond haired, little boy.
“Guten tag!” Momiji said as soon as he saw her. ‘He speaks German?’ she wondered.
“” she said with a grin.
“” he said jumping for joy.
“” she said, she had already had problems with his last sentence. Hatori was leaning against a wall watching them with an amused expression. Momiji asked her a question that she could only pick a few words out of.
“See? You already lost me, sorry,” she said with a laugh switching back to Japanese.
“That’s alright. I asked if you and Ha’ri were dating,” he said beaming.
“Oh, yes for a few weeks now,” she said and walked over to Hatori and hugged his arm.
“Aaahh, I was wondering why he had been so happy lately,” he said with a giggle.
“That’s so sweet,” she said and kissed Hatori on the cheek. “I’d better go check on dinner.” She walked back to the kitchen just as a series of timers went off. She put the finishing touches on the dinner then laid it all out on the table. When she went to get them for dinner she caught the end of their conversation.
“Inora seems different somehow from Kana,” Momiji was saying. “If I had to guess I’d say that it was the look in her eye, like she had already been through something… something terrible. And that that something made her stronger then Kana ever could be.”
“You are absolutely right… as usual,” Hatori said quietly. “She is a very strong woman.”
“Dinner you two,” she called from the doorway. They both smiled and followed her into the dining room but they froze in the doorway.
“It looks fantastic,” Hatori finally said while kneeling down, Momiji joined him. She saw the question in their eyes; she knew that they just didn’t want to be rude.
“It’s oven-fried chicken and twice baked potatoes, it’s my favorite,” she said cheerfully as they dished up. They sampled the things on their plates and were obviously pleased.
“Yummy!” Momiji sang beaming at her then laughing. She had never seen such a bubbly kid.
“This is quite good Inora, I didn’t know you could cook,” Hatori said.
“Well honestly I don’t really like to cook so I just let Tohru do it, I clean the house though… but I don’t really like that either,” she said trailing off then laughing. “I’d rather get a job and pay rent to Shigure, but I can’t read Japanese still so… yeah.”
“I heard Hatsu offer to teach you though,” Hatori said.
“Well I’m only here until mid October…” she trailed off when she saw the look on his face. “Didn’t you know that?”
“No,” he said quietly. “That is, I didn’t know it was as soon as October.”
“Honestly, it had slipped my mind as well,” she almost whispered then she cleared her throat. “Well we don’t need to worry about it now, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” she said sounding way more confident then she felt. He nodded his agreement and turned back to his food. Despite his agreeing with her she could still tell that it worried him, and that made her feel amazing.
“So Inora are you staying here tonight?” Momiji asked with a giggle. Inora blushed, she didn’t want to leave but she didn’t want to intrude either. There was also the fact that a kid just asked her if she was planning on sleeping with Hatori tonight, that was a little weird.
“I- I’ll probably just leave late, or something,” she mumbled looking at the table.
“You can stay as long as you’d like,” Hatori said. Momiji giggled again but it quickly turned into a yawn, Inora suddenly noticed the dark circles under his eyes.
“Momiji you look tired, how long did you sleep last night?” Inora asked. Momiji put his chin in his hand and shrugged, his bubbly personality was gone in a flash.
“A few hours…maybe,” he said tiredly. “I think I’m gonna go to bed now actually.” He stood up and, without another word, dragged himself into the guest bedroom.
“Is he okay?” she asked Hatori.
“Yes and no,” He explained. “It’s common for him. He suffers from nightmares; he seems to go through bouts of them. He’ll have them for a week or so then they will suddenly stop when he is able to get over whatever triggered that set.” Inora was taken off guard by that, that is exactly what happens to her.
“Do you think they will ever stop?” she asked managing to keep the shake out of her voice; he had no idea she was asking for herself.
“I doubt it,” he said lowering his voice to be sure that Momiji couldn’t hear them; she would have laughed at the irony if his words hadn’t felt like a knife in her heart. “Time might make them farther apart but… I doubt that he will ever fully be rid of them.”
“Oh,” she whispered. “So he feels better when he sleeps here?”
“It’s more like I’m the only person in his life that will take time out of their day to comfort him,” he said bitterly. Inora had no idea what to say. What about his parents? Something in Hatori’s face made her not want to ask. After a second she got up and started clearing the table. Hatori helped her but when it came to the dishes she shooed him out.
“This is my thank you dinner, you can’t do the dishes for your thank you,” she said as she shoved him into the living room to watch T.V.
“Whatever you say,” he said, giving in with a sigh. She went back to the kitchen but she didn’t even get her hands in the water before she heard a yell. She knew instantly that it wasn’t Hatori, without even thinking she ran to the guest room. She didn’t know Momiji that well but anyone who could ignore such a scream of emotional agony wasn’t even a person, they were some soulless creature. She burst into the guest room and found him thrashing wildly on the bed. He would have fallen off if she hadn’t caught him in time, and that was quite a feat seeing as he was punching and kicking the air blindly.
“Stop! I promise to be good!” He shouted. “PLEASE!” Inora shoved him the rest of the way onto the bed and started to shake him awake.
“Momiji, wake up,” she said desperately. “It’s just a dream wake up!” Finally she saw his eyes snap open and the screams stopped immediately. He stared at her for a second then began to cry. She sat next to him, facing the head board and pulled him upright so she could cradle his head to her chest while keeping his chest away. He was sobbing hysterically, she ran her fingers through his hair in an effort to calm him but nothing seemed to be working. She searched franticly through her mind for something to help him and she finally landed on the lullaby she had been humming earlier, so she started to sing:

(A gentle breeze from Hushaby Mountain
Softly blows o’er Lullaby Bay
It fills the sails of boats that are waiting
Waiting to sail your worries away)

(It isn’t far to Hushaby Mountain
And your boat waits down by the key
The winds of night so softly are sighing
Soon they will fly your troubles to sea)

(So close your eyes on Hushaby Mountain
Wave goodbye to cares of the day
And watch your boat from Hushaby Mountain
Sail far away from Lullaby Bay)

By the end of the song her shirt was soaked but he had finally calmed down. It was in English so at first she was worried that it wouldn’t work, but he seemed to grasp the meaning. She held him like that for a long time until she could tell from his breathing that he was falling asleep again. She laid him gently back onto his pillow but held onto his hand until she was sure that he was in a deep sleep. She had to tell herself that she would hear if it started again, otherwise she never would have left his side. Also if his nightmares were anything like hers he wouldn’t wake up again tonight.
(Hatori’s POV)
I watched the entire thing in awe. I had made into the hallway just in time to watch her long hair whip around the doorway to Momiji’s room. I watched as she woke him and then held him to her like his mother always should have. I watched as she sang beautifully to him as he wept. I watched as she stayed by his side until she was sure he was in a restful sleep. And now I watched as the woman I don’t deserve turned to me with a pain stricken face and a shirt that was wet from someone’s tears that she just met a few hours ago.
“I didn’t know you were here,” she whispered as she closed the door quietly behind her. Once she was out in the light I could see that she was blushing. “How much of that were you there for?”
“All of it,” I said quietly. How could she be embarrassed?
“I’m sorry you had to suffer through my singing,” she joked, her voice at a normal level now that we were down the hallway a ways.
“Your singing was beautiful,” I said. How could she not know that?
“Yeah well you’re my boyfriend, you’re supposed to say that,” she said with a smile. It felt like my heart skipped a beat when she said ‘boyfriend’, this is the first time I’ve ever heard her use that term. And yet… somehow it didn’t seem like it was enough.
“I promise, it was,” I said as I put my arm around her, feeling the usual annoyance of not being able to get closer to her. She nodded in a polite way, it was clear that she didn’t believe me. She looked tired, I know she hadn’t slept much last night and she actually got up before me, and I didn’t think anyone got up before me.
“I’m pretty tired,” she said as if she was reading my mind. “I haven’t slept much the past few nights.” She started to head for the back door, where her shoes and coat were, and away from my room. She only got two feet before I grabbed her arm and spun her to face me.
“You aren’t going to stay here?” I asked trying not to sound hurt. In all honesty we had only been dating for a few weeks, so most people would think that it was right for her not to stay here. I wasn’t one of those people, it seemed so right that she should be here with me. As soon as I asked the question, however, I hoped that she didn’t misunderstand my meaning. I wanted to be in her presence, not have sex with her… not that I don’t want to have sex with her… perfect, now I’m confusing myself. She, on the other hand, seemed to understand perfectly. She headed to my room with a serine smile on her face.
She borrowed one of my shirts to sleep in seeing as her shirt was still damp. I almost had to revise my earlier thought about sex when she came out of my closet, she was wearing nothing but one of my white dress shirts. It was the sexiest thing I have ever seen, and it almost seemed like she knew that from the smile on her face. As she got into bed beside me, however, she seemed worried about something.
“Is something wrong?” I asked. She seemed to consider me for a moment before answering.
“Yeah but I think it’ll be fine,” she said sounding distracted. She laid back and cuddled up next to me while keeping a wad of the comforter between us. I felt the annoyance again but this time it also had to do with how she had gotten so good at not transforming me. I had often wondered how far Shigure had gotten with her, until I forced myself to remember that it wasn’t my business. She was tired, she fell asleep within minutes. I drifted off to the sound of her even breathing.
I was in a very light sleep when I felt something collide with my knee. I jerked awake to find Inora thrashing much as Momiji had done earlier, the only difference was that she was only whimpering with a few tears sliding from her closed eyelids, which was almost worse. As soon as I thought that, however, she let out a terrible scream and flailed so much that she fell off the bed.
“Inora!” I yelled as I dove after her. She still hadn’t woken up even after she hit the floor. I shook her and shook her but she remained trapped within her dream, finally I slapped her and her eyes shot open. She looked at me like she didn’t recognize me for a few seconds that seemed like an hour, it broke my heart to have her look at me like that. Finally relief and realization washed over her face, she rolled over to her hands and knees facing me. Then she started to cry in earnest, tears flowing to the floor, and her whole body was shaking with her sobs as she clutched her hand to her mouth to hold them back.
I was astonished; I had never seen her shed a single tear, even when I repositioned her shoulder. Then I realized what she was doing, she was trying to hide it. Or at least she was trying to hide how hard she was crying. I grabbed her chin gently and forced her to look at me; she must have seen my acceptance there. She took her hand away from her mouth and grabbed at the front of my shirt with both hands and buried her face in my chest. She let loose her sobs and I could hear her slightly hyperventilating. I ran my fingers through her hair and across her back, until she found her voice again.
“They weren’t unconscious,” she said shakily into my chest. I had to think for a second about what she meant. It came to me but I wish it hadn’t, she had told me that the paramedics had told her that her parents were unconscious before they… burned to death.
“How…” I was going to ask how she knew but I couldn’t make the words come. She knew what I meant.
“Their screams,” she said with her voice cracking.
“Oh my God,” I whispered. “I am so sorry.” I moved so I was sitting with my back against the bed and I grabbed a pillow from above my head. I put the pillow in my lap and had her lay her head on it; I continued to stroke her soft hair as she cried herself to sleep again. I stared at her as she slept with her face a mask of calm; she had been through so much and was stronger for it. No, I defiantly don’t deserve a woman like her.

(A/N): ok so if you can guess where that song is from you will get… my respect! Lol also I hope I did ok being in Hatori’s head… it’s got me worried.