“Any time she can!” Hiromi said glancing at Shido and Harada. “And we’re lucky she’s a very good cook, right boys?”

Harada just inclided his head in a sedate agreement but Shido nodded eagerly.

“She’s great!” Shido said happily.  ”You shoulda seen the spread she made for lunch-”

“That’s great.” Sawatari shot Shido a cutting look and the bodyguard stepped back into line with Harada. “I’ll give you a call later,” he said to Hiromi, “to make sure we’re on the same page.” His eyes flickered to Daichi indicating there would probably be changes to her schedule. He looked at Harada and Shido. “You guys can go find yourselves something to eat and take a few hours off. We’ll call you when we’re ready to leave.”

“Very good, sir.” Harada said and nodded to the table before turning to go. Shido gave the room a quick glance  and frowned when Tooru looked at them with clear distress.

He started to speak but saw Sawatari give a quick negative shake to his head from behind her. “See you later, Miz Honda,” Shido said reluctantly. He knew she was in no real danger in the exclusive restaurant, but he felt bad leaving her alone. She looked at him like he was abandoning her.

“You seem to have established a good rappor with your staff,” Daichi said approvingly. “I hear they are even living with you at the moment?”

“You’ve seen how the press is taken with her.” Sawatari answered for her.  “We’ve had to be extremly tight on security.”

“That must have been an adjustment.” Daichi said smiling at her.

“Adjustment?” Tooru asked after realizing that Daichi both expected an answer and no one was going to interrupt and answer for her this time.

“From living with your family to living with two men.” Daichi grinned. “I don’t know many young women who would be handling themselves so well. Most girls your age would be too shy.”

“Eh, oh!” Tooru said blushing, thinking how she’d felt when she first started living with the Sohmas.  She supposed she could understand that. “Yes, but…” She said quickly, “Harada-san and Shido-san have been very kind which makes it much easier.”

Yoshikawa leaned over and patted her hand, giving her an upturn to his lips that she supposed was meant to be a smile. “You’re a good girl,” he said. Tooru was a bit unnerved.

“So did Sawatari tell you why we are meeting tonight?” Daichi asked as the waitress brought over plates.

Tooru was distracted when the waitress placed a plate in front of her too, something french-looking and smothered in a buttery and rich smelling sauce.

“We ordered for you.” Sawatari said, already starting in on his steak. “Chicken. Everyone likes chicken.”

“Thank you,” Tooru said, trying to figure out what part in front of her had been part of a chicken.

“If it’s not to your taste, feel free to order something else.” Daichi waved to a waitress. “We need a menu over here.”

“No, no,” Tooru said quickly. “That would be a terrible waste! I… I just thought I might have gotten somene else’s meal since I didn’t order.” She smiled. “I’m sure I’ll like it.” It would be a waste of money and food to order something else, especially since her stomach was so full of knots she wasn’t sure if she could eat more then a few bites of anything.

“It’s good,” Yoshikawa assured her, and she saw he had the same thing in front of him.

With everyone watching, Tooru cut off a small experimental chunk. She took a quick polite bite and smiled. It was as rich and buttry as it smelled, and if there was chicken in there she couldn’t taste it for the sauce and toppings. “It’s good.”

Yoshikawa nodded. “See?” He looked at Daichi.

“Anyway…” Daichi drawled, gesturing with his hands to indicate he was chaning the subject, “…I was disapponted to hear that you didn’t pass on to Sawatari that you should keep your schedule clear.”

Tooru glanced between the three men, feeling very lost. “Daichi-san did?”

“When we last spoke.” Daichi said with a teasing smile. “Remember?”

Tooru could feel her shoulder’s beginning to hunch  and she wordlessly shook her head.

“Don’t tease the girl.” Yoshikawa glowered at Daichi, speaking around a mouthful of chicken. He looked at Tooru, “He only said to say to not keep you too busy.”

“Oh, yes,” Tooru said faintly. She peeked at Sawatari out of the corner of her eye.

Tooru sat down and barely had time to register that Director Adachi and Yoshikawa were also at the table.

“Yes,” Hiromi answered for her before she could open her mouth. “Especially for a day we thought was going to be a day off!” She looked at her watch, bracelets jangling a the jerky movements. She pursed her lips. “In fact, I’ve still got just a ton of stuff to sort out for Tooru-chan’s day tomorrow so if you’re all settled Miss,” She grinned at Tooru as if she called her “miss” all the time. “I’ll head out.”

“Hiromi-san isn’t staying for dinner?” Tooru said, distressed that she would be the only girl in this sea of adult men.

“Oh, isn’t she just  sweet?” Hiromi said to the men at the table.

“Kyou-kun!” Tooru said, breathless. “You’re so late!”

Kyou blinked at her stupidly.

“She was worried.” Yuki said coming up behind her, face closed and still.

The Rat’s angry, Kyou thought. I haven’t seen that in a while. “It’s late?” He said when they continued to stare at him. He glanced up at the sky, the moon was high above. “I … didn’t notice.”

“Where were you?” Yuki bit out. “We’ve missed dinner because of you!”

“It’s that late?” He said trying to look past them into the apartment to see the clock.

“How could you not know!?” Yuki yelled. “It’s past ten! We had no idea where you were!”

“Oi, oi!” Kyou looked around nervously. He could see some of the curtains on their floor rustling and suspected they had an audience. “Keep it down, it’s late.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying!” Yuki shouted.

“Um, ah…” Tooru carefully wedged herself between the two of them. Yuki had edged forward and was pushing Kyou further back into the hallway instead of letting him into the apartment. “We should talk inside.”

Yuki had been just as worried about Kyou as she had been. But she knew he would be too embarrassed to say so and couldn’t do anything to express it other then get angry. He’d been building up to this for hours, pacing their small apartment and muttering empty assurances to her.

The smaller boy glanced down at her, and then gave Kyou another dirty look before stalking into the apartment. He threw himself down at the table and refused to look at the other boy.

Kyou shifted nervously before stepping past Tooru into the apartment. This wasn’t going like he planned at all. He kicked off his shoes as Tooru closed the door behind him. He waited for her to pass him before saying anything.

He glanced at the clock, and was shocked to see that it was nearly eleven. He’d had no idea he worked so late. “Um… I’m sorry.” He said rubbing his neck. If Tooru or Yuki had done that to him during the weeks they’d been going to school… just gone out and then not returned for hours he would have panicked.

“Don’t be sorry! Don’t do it again!” Yuki slapped a hand on the table, inside he was shaking with relief. If the cat hadn’t come home by midnight he’d resolved to go out and look for him. But he hadn’t the slightest idea where to start. He didn’t even know which direction Kyou had gone off to look for a job that morning. And the Cat could be so stupid and gullible… he was as bad as Tooru and in some ways worse. Never mind that there was always the problem of the curse to worry about. What if he’d been transformed somewhere?

“Look, I’m sorry but-” Kyou started, reaching for the envelope of cash to explain.

“No buts!” Yuki said standing up and crossing the room to get in front of him again. He pushed Kyou, and got in his face. “Do you have an idea how much you worried her?”

His own temper rising Kyou, stepped forward looming over the other boy and making their increasing difference in height more obvious. “Look, I said I was sorry! There wasn’t anything I could do about it! It’s not like we have a phone! I was busy!”

“Busy with what?! What could be so important that you couldn’t even be here for dinner?!” It was the one thing they’d managed to keep doing together, despite the strain their odd relationship had been under. They had at least eaten together, even if it had been quiet and silent meals.

Yuki watched as Kyou’s face went from angry, to incredulous… to blushing?

Kyou backed up a step, rocked on his heels and rubbed his neck. “I.. I uh… I got a job!” He finally said, his mouth quirking into a funny half smile. He looked over at Tooru who’d been watching their exchange silently. “I was working!”

He reached into his jacket and pulled out the envelope Takahara had given him at the end of the shift. “I even got paid!” He tossed it to her. “And he said to come back tomorrow!”

Tooru nearly didn’t catch the envelope, it slipped past her hands and hit her chest but she managed to catch it off the bounce. She glanced at it and then at Kyou and he nodded at her to open it. She opened the flap and gasped at the stack of bills.

“So much?” She looked up at him. She wasn’t sure how much was in there but she couldn’t tell it was a tidy sum for one day’s work. “This is more then I make in a week!”

Yuki walked over and Tooru handed it over to him to count. He riffled through the bills and did some quick arithmetic. He knew his job didn’t pay well, but it would take him close to two weeks to earn this if he worked every day. “What did you do to get this money?”

It wasn’t that he thought the Cat would deliberately do something bad just to bring home some money, but he knew Kyou had been feeling the pressure to get a job these past weeks. In his desperation Yuki wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d been talked into doing something stupid or dangerous just so that he could say he was working. Kyou could be gullible, if the wrong person came along at just the right time… For all he knew the cat could have gotten involved with some yakuza group. He probably wouldn’t even question being paid a lot of money to make “deliveries.”

Yuki’s over-active imagination went into hyper-drive. If he had gotten involved with something like that, how was he going to get him out of it?

That wasn’t the reaction he’d been expecting. Kyou had walked home on cloud nine, expecting to be met with a hero’s welcome for finally getting a good paying  job. If he could bring this kind of money home every day the Rat and Tooru could quit their jobs and concentrate on school. Why were they looking at him like he’d knocked over some old lady and stole her purse?

“What, ” Kyou said through gritted teeth, “Did you think I was too stupid to get a job? What do you think I did for it? Maybe I mugged old men in the park! Why did you think I was out so late?”

“That’s not-” Yuki said, slapping the money against his hand. He shook his head and started again. “I know you wouldn’t do something like that! It’s just that this isn’t regular part-time money!” He looked down at it. “You can’t accept it. I don’t know what they told you where you got it, but there has to be some kind of strings attached.” He looked up at the cat earnestly. “We have to give it back, I’ll go with you tomorrow and help explain-”

“No way in hell!” Kyou shouted. “I told Tanaka that I’d be back tomorrow morning, and you aren’t missing school!” He grabbed the side of his head and messed up his own hair in frustration, making it spike out in every direction. “Besides which, I’m not quitting! I already took the job!” He crossed his arms.

“It’s too dangerous!” Yuki said throwing the money on the table and grabbing Kyou’s shoulders. “We don’t need that kind of risk!” His mind was still reeling with possibilities of how the Cat could have gotten duped.

“What kind of risk?” Kyou said shaking him off. “I promised to wear both the helmet and a harness when I went up! And right now they’re just having me move bags of concrete, and that’s on the ground. They won’t even let me work on the main build until I’ve been there a few weeks!”

“You fool-” Yuki started and then stopped. “Wait, what?”

“I said, I’m just moving around supplies at the job site right now! I won’t be working on the framework or anything for a while.”

Yuki just stared at the other boy like he was speaking another language.

“Kyou-kun,” Tooru said deciding it was finally safe to interrupt their argument.  “What kind of work did you get?”

“Construction!” Kyou said flapping his arms as if it was obvious. “Part time… well, more like full time, really… Shimada said that as long as you show up at the main office someone will take you to one of the job sites  most days. So you can work just about any day you want! And if you’re good the site manager will ask you to come back to their site specifically. Tanaka-san already asked both of us, Shimada and I, to come back tomorrow. But because we’re part-timers, we get paid for each day at the end of the day.”

“This much?” Tooru said looking down at the table.

“Yeah,” Kyou puffed up his chest, “Shimada said that’s the normal rate for working a whole day.” He deflated a little. “But, uh, he did say that usually they just hire part-timers to do grunt work for a couple of hours and then send ‘em home. So it might not be that much every day. He said it was a good sign that the construction on this site just started, he said that there is more money and more work at the beginning.” He looked at Tooru and Yuki hopefully. “That’s good, isn’t it?”

“Construction?” Yuki said. “Like what you were doing back in the village?”

“Nah, this is much easier.” Kyou said, sitting down. His shoulder’s straightened and he couldn’t keep the bragging out of his tone. “I’m just carrying stuff around. Shimada said I was making the other guys look bad with how fast and how much I could carry.”

“Who is Shimada-san?” Tooru asked, setting a cup of tea in front of him.

“Guy I met today.” Kyou said dismissively. The Rat and Tooru were always talking about people he didn’t know from school, it felt good to have his own experience to throw back at them. “We got to talking at the drugstore and he took me to the site after I told him I was looking for work.”

“How lucky!” Tooru said clapping her hands. “Kyou-kun got a job and made a friend today!”

“I wouldn’t call him a friend.” Kyou said, scratching the back of his head. He glanced at Yuki, still standing dumbstruck in the middle of the room.

—

“I can’t believe I have to wake you up.”

Kyou cracked an eye to see Yuki glaring down at him. “Wha-?” he muttered thickly. He glanced around the room, he wasn’t sleeping in the living room. Why was the Rat in his room?

“Honda-san is going to be on soon.” Yuki crossed his arms and tried to look nonchalant. “Shigure said you spoke to her last night.”

Finally awake, Kyou sat up and his phone clattered out of the futon. He snatched it up. “Yeah so?” He glared at the rat, embarrassed and not wanting to share the conversation he’d had with her last night. He blushed at the memory. She said she liked it when it was just the two of us.

Yuki watched the cat’s cheeks redden with irritation. “So… is she okay?” He blurted.

“You saw her on TV last night. What do you think?” Kyou said standing up and glancing at the clock. “Out of my way, she’s going to be on soon.” When the other boy didn’t move he relented enough to say, “Didn’t the damn dog tell you? He’s sending Hatori over to look at her today. ”

“He didn’t.” Yuki frowned, knowing Shigure had kept that from him so he’d be compelled to wake up Kyou to find out about Tooru. He turned and stalked out of the room. Damn dog.

Kyou followed closely behind, just pausing to plug his phone into it’s charger. It was nearly drained after being left on and open all night. He’d fallen asleep holding it.

“They’ve mentioned her in a couple of the “in the next hour” bits, but she hasn’t been on yet.” Shigure said as they entered the room.

“When is Hatori going over to see her?” Yuki said after glancing briefly at the tv.

“Mmm.” Shigure checked the clock. “He’s probably at her apartment now. Hiromi-can called this morning, and I told her he’d be waiting for them to get back.”

“When did she call?” Kyou looked away from the TV. It wasn’t even six yet. He couldn’t believe he’d slept through the phone ringing. The house phone was loud enough to wake the dead.

“About a half hour ago,” Yuki answered. It had woken him up, but he hadn’t gotten downstairs before Shigure had hung up.

“Tooru-chan did you hear a word I said?” Hiromi asked impatiently.

“What?” Tooru barely stopped herself from turning her head to face Hiromi.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Hiromi huffed. “And I think I have my answer.”

“Answer?” Tooru repeated. She wasn’t feeling her best today. She’d barely slept for another hour before Hiromi was bustling into the room with a new outfit for the day and chattering a mile a minute. Tooru had found herself in the car, a store-bought riceball in her hand and sandwiched between Harada and Shido before the morning fog had fully cleared.

Once she’d woken up all the way, her head had started throbbing. The headache wasn’t as bad as it had been the night before, but it was bad enough to be a constant distraction. She was too afraid of a repeat of the night before to ask for anything for it. She suspected Harada knew something was wrong from the way he kept glancing at her.

“I asked if you wanted to go out shopping straight after the shoot or go home and rest first,” Hiromi frowned. “I think you need to go home and rest a bit  more. You’d think with all the sleep you got yesterday you’d have a bit more stamina.”

“But, Miz Honda didn’t sleep all night,” Shido interrupted. “She woke up late last night, pretty sick.”

“Sick?” Hiromi’s attention flipped between Harada, Shido and Tooru, a deep frown marring her usually sunny expression. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“Well, she seemed okay this morning…” Shido started.

“It was just a reaction to your.. her… medicine.” Harada said making the correction deliberate. “She ain’t used to taking stuff like that. “She was fine once she had a little water and some crackers.”

“That’s not for you to decide!” Hiromi flushed at the implication that Tooru’s illness was her fault. She had no idea that a simple tranquilizer would effect the girl so strongly. Hiromi had been taking them for so long herself she forgot how potent they could be to someone unused to medication.

“Um-” Tooru decided to interrupt the show down brewing between her bodyguard and her assistant. “I was fine… really.” Both of them turned to stare at her angrily and she shrank back into the chair. The makeup girl decided to make a run for it while no one was looking at her.

“But, um…” Tooru stuttered, “I spoke to Shigure-san last night…”

“You did? When?” Hiromi interrupted.

“After I woke up. I, um, checked my phone and there were a lot of messages… so I sent a quick message just to let everyone know I was okay, and Kyou-kun called my back to yell at me for not sleeping since it was so late.” Tooru played a bit with the edge of the skirt Hiromi had brought for her. It was a white layered affair that poofed out from her hips. It felt really awkward to sit in and she couldn’t help fuss with it. “And…um, Shigure-san too was up and we spoke for a little bit…” She bit her lip, thinking that Hiromi wasn’t going to like her next request.

“And Shigure-san said that I should see Hatori-san today.” She straightened up a bit in her chair and tried to look confident. “He said I had to.”

“See who?” Hiromi folded her arms. “I thought we agreed that if you wanted to see your friends you’d schedule it with me instead of them just springing up.”  She wagged her finger at Tooru. “Didn’t we? This Hatori-san will just have to wait. You obviously need to rest and then we really have to go shopping. Shigure may be your custodian but he can’t dictate your schedule without going through me.”

“I’m sorry,” Tooru said, the pounding between her ears increasing as she felt her tension rise. “But Shigure-san said that it was in the contract that he could have a doctor come at any time to see me. And he said that Hatori-san would be coming to check on me today.” She looked up at Hiromi with pleading eyes. “Hatori-san is so busy! And I think I’m fine, but Shigure-san said he would worry and worry until he heard from Hatori-san that I’m okay. If I’m not at home when Hatori-san comes…it will be such an inconvenience for him-”

“This “Hatori” is a doctor?” Hiromi’s mouth drooped into a frown.

“Yes.” Tooru confirmed. She avoided nodding, her headache was starting to get worse and the nausea was returning. She didn’t know how she’d manage to cook on the show without being ill. She’d decided on cut out sandwiches and decorative veggies, so it shouldn’t be too taxing. But she was regetting that she’d decided on a chicken salad for the sandwiches. The smell under the hot lights was going to be horrendous.

“I’ll call Shigure to see when he’s coming.” Hiromi said, dripping with discontent. She flipped open her phone and stalked away, her pointy heels clacking against the cement floor of the studio.

“Don’t worry Miz Honda.” Shido said soothingly. “Miz Hiromi is just mad because she got yelled at by Mister Sawatari.”

“She did?” Tooru said looking up a the large guard. “But why?”

“Because she gave you that pill.” Shido said. “And we had to carry you up. He was really mad that you missed getting your picture taken coming out of the studio and coming home.”

“Do you have a headache again?” Harada said kneeling down in front of her to look in her eyes.

“Yes.” Tooru said, and placed a had over her stomach. “And.. um..”

“We gotta take care of that before you get under the lights,” Harada said standing up and looking around. “We can’t have you being sick on live TV.”  He snagged a thin, harried man with a head set who was trying to rush by. “Send someone out to the pharmacy for some pain relievers. Miz Honda’s injury is troubling her this morning.”

“I have some-” the man started to pat a pocket.

“We want a fresh bottle,” Harada said looming over him and invading the smaller man’s space threateningly. “Now.”

“Right away, Miss Honda,” the man said nodding to her. He pressed his earpiece to his ear and rattled off a series of commands as he scurried away.

Tooru felt terrible watching as the simple request seemed like knocking over an ant’s nest in the studio.  More then one person took off at a run out of the studio and other people scrambled to fill their positions as the show continued to run. The two hosts, a man and a woman didn’t seem to notice as they reported on various news stories and had a parade of guests on for a few minutes at a time.

“This ain’t anything.” Shido said following her attention. “I was with one lady who had to have a ton of stuff before she’d even step into the studio. And if one little thing was wrong she’d throw a fit. Thing’s would go real crazy then.” Shido looked down at her. “So don’t you worry Miz Honda. It ain’t like you’re fer anything weird or anything.”

“Mmm.” Tooru could only nod. She glanced up at Harada but he continued to scan the crowd, always on duty.