A short, very short one-shot, my first Fruits Basket fic, please enjoy!
Disclaimer: YEAH... No. Nothing. That's right. Nothing.
Who would have thought chaos would become the calm for him?
A lone, young man trailed his way through the snow down a crowded street. The snow had become a muddy brown, but he did not care about the snow's state. He was too preoccupied with his thoughts.
It was just so strange, that sensation.
The sensation he had never felt before up until a few months ago.
The cold had made him tired. Even though his immunity system had grown stronger, he still had to take care of himself. He sighed deeply and sat down on a bench between a healthy woman and a man who was reading the newspaper. The snowfall increased.
With a lonely gaze, he stared at the people who passed by. The world was filled with millions and millions of people. Even when his world had been "inside", the Earth was crowded with people he did not know, people he had not seen before and people he would never meet. So many other souls, yet he could not help but to feel completely alone at times. Times when he was threatening to fall into the bottomless pit that he had escaped from before.
He absently fingered his storm-coloured hair and a snowflake came along. Before he could even glance at it, it had changed into a drop of water. It slid down his finger and not too long after that, it disappeared. As if it had never even existed.
No existance, whatsoever.
The beginnings of a smile tugged on his face. What a foolish thought, he mused, of course the snowflake had an existance. At first it was a part of a cloud, unnoticable between all the other water fragments. Then, it changed and became something unique: a snowflake. It travelled through the sky and landed on my hair. My hair became its landing place and it died on my finger, taking along a bit of my heat while vapourising. It would be ignorant to say that it had no existance, because I already had acknowledged it.
A cold wind blew in his face, causing him to flinch and close his eyes. He stood up, politely greeted the man and the woman and continued his way home.
He, Sohma Yuki, used to be lonely. He used to be very lonely, but no one really saw it. Until one day, one being recognised his loneliness and from the moment onwards, he felt acknowledged and less lonely. In fact, even if he tried, he could not feel lonely anymore. Yes, the memory of his loneliness still remained engraved in his mind, but the recogition of it was like the heat of his finger. As soon as the the snowflake made contact with his digit, it diminished to nothing, except for the memory of it.
And the memory was not bad. Simply because new memories made the loneliness insignificant. The more memories he made, the less important became his pain, his past, his youth.
Finally home, he thought when he climbed up the stairs to his flat. Arriving on his doorstep, his cold hands fumbled with the keys. After a clumsy and slightly frustrating moment, he opened the door and was engulfed by the pleasant warmth of his home. His home for one person, but never felt lonely.
Why he never felt lonely?
After shutting the door, he took off his shoes and jacket and strolled into the bedroom. He smiled in amusement when he lingered his eyes on his bed. The sheets were in disarray, Shigure's novel was flung to the side and an empty glass was knocked over. His eyes focussed on the ground.
Two socks, a skirt, a turtleneck sweater, a bra and panties were thrown down carelessly in a trail from the bed to the bathroom. He walked over to the bathroom door and listened quietly.
The shower was running.
He smiled and leaned against the wall, waiting for the occupant of the shower to come out. They who had created chaos in his flat should come out any moment.
The door finally opened and steam wafted out of the bathroom. Yuki looked up and met her eyes.
He felt like the snowflake, melting by the heat she brought along. Kuragi Machi.
She, who had seen his loneliness, who created chaos to calm him down. She, who was the final and only answer to his loneliness.
When one is lonely, they do not necessarily need a great number of people to become less lonely. They need only one individual. Someone who has the key to free their heart from loneliness. Someone who also has the identical key to Yuki's flat.
End
Please review and I hope you enjoyed it.
