Disclaimer: Fruits Basket belongs to Natsuki Takaya
A Beautiful Night
The night smells of pale purple blossoms growing at the edge of the porch.
Honda-san leans her shoulder against mine. An affectionate touch, because she knows she cannot show love by holding any of us. So this is enough.
It is a beautiful night.
The sweet fragrance lingers in the air; she found them this morning.
"Ah, Souma-kun, these are very pretty! But I thought you only grew vegetables in your secret base." She happily pointed to a patch of small flowers blooming haphazardly between the rows.
"They're weeds." I didn't want to be harsh, but that is what they were. Pretty, but not belonging in my garden.
However, her smile did not falter. She plucked them from the ground with gentle fingers, as much to save my garden from their roots as to save their roots from my wrath. Then she laid them carefully aside, instead of tossing them into the grass for the sun to bake dry.
Later, Shigure caught her planting them in the dirt at one of the corners of the porch. She apologized for it, but he merely smiled. "Touru-kun, they look absolutely wonderful there! How did you know that it was where they belonged?"
Anyone else would have thrown the weeds away. But to her, they were worth replanting.
Honda-san is an optimist. She focuses on the good things that she has, the things for which she is grateful. Weeds in a vegetable garden are beautiful flowers by the porch. The cursed Souma family is a group of kind people who gave her a home and a place to make her own happiness.
It is easy to see why we are all so enamored with her.
"It's such a beautiful night, ne, Souma-kun?" Her shoulder is against mine, barely touching, close enough.
I quietly agree, it is peaceful.
But she thinks everything is beautiful. Our home, our trinkets, my garden, the weeds, the woods, the city, the school, the people, Shigure, Kyou, me. Even the ugly things—the Souma curse, Shigure's pervertedness, Kyou's temper, my coldness, the girls that hate her, the people who don't think she belongs.
I have no idea why any of that is pretty to her, why any of it is worth something. But she loves it all the same.
I've heard that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I wonder if that is why everything looks so wonderful to her.
Because she has beautiful eyes.
Not in a sentimental, romantic way, like one of Shigure's depraved monologues. I do not intend to compare Honda-san's eyes to precious jewels, or the sea or the sky or something else like that. Her eyes are simply nice to look at, pleasing. They fit well in her face and complement her smile.
She never frowns or becomes angry, and her smile is always reflected in her eyes. The bright vitality that is essential to her personality spills out of her soul through open windows.
The girls at school have told me I have beautiful eyes. I assume they are referring to the color, because when I see them in the mirror, they cannot compare to Honda-san's. My windows are shut, iced-over; no one is home. It is hard to get excited about a few ugly weeds when trying to see out of that.
But her kind words and her smile and her eyes are so warm and sincere that my own smile starts to reach to my eyes and throw open the shutters to my soul. And suddenly, there are a few pale purple flowers blossoming at the edge of the porch, and Honda-san's shoulder against mine is enough of a touch to let me feel loved.
It really is a beautiful night. With her beside me, everything seems just a bit nicer.
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. That must be why the world she sees is so pretty.
Tohru has lovely eyes.
…
Owari
…
-Windswift Shinju