A blessing or a curse

Chapter 3

I could feel heat of the sun on my finger tips as they were the only thing peeking out from under my duvet. Lifting my head from the pillow I removed the covers, but suddenly I heard a nock on my door. "Hey Isa are you up?" It was Tohru's voice that came from the other side of my bedroom door. I shouted back a 'yes' before getting up from the bed and making my way over to the door.

"Morning Tohru." Was the first thing I said as I opened the door and with a wave from me she came in sitting her self down on the foot of my bed. "Your up early." I commented as I began looking through my now opened suite case for something to wear. "Not really it's already ten in the morning." She sounded almost shy as she spoke, maybe she was worried that I was going to shout or something, but no I wouldn't shout at her, no I'd shout at the idiot who didn't wake me up sooner.

"Hey do you know where Shigure is, just so I can talk to him once I'm dressed." She smiled. "Sure, he's in the living room with Hatori waiting for us to come down." I nodded, then it dawned on me. "Do you have any idea what's appropriate to wear when meeting someone new?" I asked out of fin air, though as if rehearsed she answered. "A dress would probably be a good idea." She spoke as she leaned over to take a glance at all the clothes in my suite case.

"That one should be perfect." She ended up choosing a white off the shoulder sun dressed that reached bellow my knee caps and once I was dressed I decided to pair it with a pair of white sandals.

After an approving applause from Tohru the two of us made our way down stairs to find Shigure, Hatori and the others, minus Kyo waiting for us. "Ah Isa you look lovely, see Hatori I knew a dress would be perfect." I could feel my eye twitch slightly at the sound of Shigure's voice. Not because he complimented my dress, but because he had the audacity to let me sleep in when he knew that Hatori had arranged from me to meet someone this morning.

"We should all get going now." All the Sohmas nodded though Tohru didn't and was stood off to the side. "Hatori why isn't Tohru coming." He looked to me and sighed before he spoke. "Were going meeting the family head and because Tohru isn't family I'm afraid she has to stay here." I didn't say anything after that, mainly because I didn't have the time to as Shigure had already begun leading our group out of the house.

As we walked on, to what Hatori had said was a separate residence called the annex, I was able to sneak up beside Shigure. "Next time there's an important occasion make sure to wake me up on time." I whispered hoping it would send the message across better than if I had just plainly said it. He may be a good friend, but he has his annoying qualities.

Finally we had arrived at the annex after what I could only assume was a ten minute walk and to say that only one person was staying here it was almost as large as the main house. As I looked around I noticed a few looks of apprehension of some of the kid's faces and it made me wonder what this family head was actually like.

We all entered into the building and shigure directed us all off to a room where he said we would have to wait until he and Hatori had spoken with the family head, whose name I still hand't been informed of.

The wait was almost agonising as everyone remained quite, with sour looks painting all their faces, well all of them aside from Haru who's face remained as calm as I had seen it and Momiji, who I was convinced could never hold a sad or sour look ever.

The minutes continued to tick by until I heard footsteps that sounded like they were coming down the corridor. Suddenly they stopped and within a second the doors were both slid open revealing a young man in the middle of them. "Welcome, thank you for coming. It's so wonderful to see all your faces." His voice was sweet yet there seemed to be so many many emotions hidden layer by layer beneath, because of that I didn't know how best to describe it.

However his hair was an intriguing black that seemed to shift to the darkest shade of purple in the light that was filtered in from outside. His skin was pale white, paler than my own and I couldn't help but feel concerned as to why, was he sick? His clothes seemed to mach his hair perfectly as he wore a pair of tight black trousers and a black button up long sleeved t-shirt.

When my eye's landed back to his face I noticed his eyes were now focussed on me, no doubt noticing that I was the odd one out of the group. Noticing their stair I decided to stand up. "You must be the famous Isa Natsuba I've heard so much about from Hatori." Clasping my hands together I bowed showing my respect as this was no doubt the Sohma family head. "I am. It's a pleasure to meat you, Mr Sohma."

I kept my head down until I noticed a pair of bare feet were now in my line of sight. "You can lift your head." And so I did, to now be face to face with the head himself. "And please call me Akito." After he spoke a tight liped smile graced his features, though I couldn't tell if he was actually happy to meet me or wether he felt something else.

He then turned his head to pear over my shoulder at the others. "You kids can go outside if you want." For some reason it didn't feel like an invitation, so they all obeyed and made their way out the room, Kisa and Momiji each giving me a wave goodbye. "Please Miss Natsuba if you'll follow me I believe there has been some tea set up for the both of us." I nodded keeping quiet as I began following Akito.

We walked down two corridors before he stopped in front of another pair of sliding doors. Once opened he walked in and as I went to follow I noticed two more people also already sat in there waiting for us. "Shigure, Hatori. What are you two still doing here? I thought you'd be with the others." It was Shigure who responded and by the look on Hatori's face I could tell he interrupted. "Well Isa we weren't about to deny a nice cup of tea." I nodded not finding anything to say.

As I stood there I noticed Akito had already taken a seat on the opposite side of the table to Hatori and Shigure. "Miss Natsuba please come sit." Akito spoke as he patted the empty spot beside him which had a fresh cup of tea placed on the table.

I did as he said and sat down beside him on his right. "Miss Natsuba-" I was quick to politely interrupt him. "Please, if I'm going to call you by your name then please call me Isa." I noticed the slight nod of his head at my words. "Very well then Isa, tell me what have you been doing recently to preoccupy yourself. Hatori had already informed me that you finished High school a month ago now."

Placing my tea back down to the table after taking a sip I answered. "I did, and to be honest I've mostly only spent my time reading or going on walks." He whispered saying "I see," though he didn't seem as interested as he was trying to portray, actually the more I looked at him the more tired or even bored he seemed. "May I ask something?" He nodded, signalling for me to ask. "Why is it Hatori and Shigure wanted me to meet you, and why has Hatori kept you informed of me?"

Akito looked ready to answer my query before he was abruptly stopped by Hatori. "I wanted you two to meet because the Sohma's and Natsuba's are family friends, and now that you're the head of your family I thought it only right for you to meet ours." At the mention of me being the Natsuba family head my stomach sank, as the painful memories came back to me, 'why did they have to leave me'. Was the phrase that ran through my mind.

I looked back to Hatori as he continued. "It's also the same reason I've been informing Akito of you, seeing as you are an important person to our clan." I nodded my head in understanding, though something just felt odd, what with the way Hatori answered before Akito could and how Shigure seemed to have a constant knowing smirk plastered on his face, though he no doubt thought he was good at hiding it, however he wasn't. I was confused, what was really going on here and what did it have to do with me?