There for You

Hello everyone! This is my 2nd fanfic I've published and reviews always make my day. I'm sorry if the title sucks but I spent ages thinking and really couldn't come up with anything else XD This story just came up after hours of thinking. I was surprised there were so little stories about Kakeru and Machi and I decided to write one myself.

Enjoy! (:

*edited on 30/6/12* After re-reading it, I think I've disgraced all the grammar and vocabulary gods…heavens. I can't believe how bad I was back then! Haha! I hope this is better!

Disclaimer: Fruits Basket belongs to Natsuki Takaya.

It was an ordinary boring day after school, and the student council had taken a half hour break from their work.

Machi was walking down the hallway balancing a precarious stack of papers for the council meeting, when three girls suddenly approached her her. They had a frown attached on their faces.

'"Hey you,"

Machi blinked and turned around. It came from a girl with dyed blonde hair. She was clearly a Yankee with the trail of ear piercings, altered uniform and looked like the leader of the trio. The other two, presumably the 'lackeys' had shoulder length chocolate hair and short black hair which flared out in spikes respectively.

Then it hit her that they were from the Prince Yuki fan club.

The three girls often came over to 'help' the student council; even though it was plain obvious that their attention was all over Yuki and they always made Naohito fly into a rage. She groped her memory for their names. The blonde was Asami, the brunette was Yuko and the one with short black hair was Mika.

But still, what did they want with her? As far as she knew, they had always treated her as though she was invisible, not that she minded. Machi didn't know why, but suddenly an uneasy feeling stirred within her. They didn't look like they were here for a friendly chat.

"Yes?" She answered.

"You're Machi Kuragi, right?" Asami asked coolly. She nodded slowly. "I don't wanna waste my time so I'll get straight to the point."

Uh oh, in her experience, that meant 'now let me get mean and nasty'.

So she said instead, "Please stop. I don't have time for this."

Yuko let out a disbelieving huff. "How rude!"

"I don't care. What's your relationship with Yuki?" The blond demanded.

The question caught Machi completely off guard. Yuki? Why would they mention Yuki? She opened her mouth, but no words could come up. Her heart was racing as her grip on the stack of papers tightened.

Her ever logical mind took over her frantic heart.

"He's…a schoolmate, "She replied softly. There. They should be satisfied now. But she was wrong. Their faces darkened almost comically into fury.

"You're lying!" Yuko accused acidly. "If Yuki-senpai's just a schoolmate why does he seem so interested in you?"

"That's right, don't think we haven't noticed!" Maki spat, fists clenching. "What did you do to him, you freak? I'm sure you know that ordinary girls shouldn't be so comfortable with Yuki-senpai, especially for a non-member loser of the Prince Yuki fan club!"

Machi's heart was thundering loudly against her ribcage. They looked like they were going to pounce on her any second. Why were they so angry? It was true that Yuki talked more to her recently mostly about school, but that was it.

"I…just see him as a schoolmate." Machi replied as levelly as she could.

Asami stepped forward. "Oh, we don't think so."

Meanwhile in the student council room….

"Hey, where did that Kuragi go?" Naohito asked. He was in a rather foul mood today, and Machi doing the vanishing act while the council was nearly dying of work overload was not helping. "The meeting has already started and she's not here yet!"

"I know! I know! Machi must have skipped the meeting just to avoid doing work! And to think Kimi thought she was such a hardworking girl…"Kimi fluttered her long eyelashes and sighed dramatically like a maiden in distress.

'Kimi, Kimi, Kimi!' Was what all the boys thought when she said that.

Yuki pursed his lips. "But Machi is usually never late…"

Naohito slammed his pen on the table. "It's 15 minutes past the meeting already! Maybe Kimi is right, she did leave! How irresponsible!"

Kakeru decided it was best to intervene.

"Geez, cool it Nao! I'm sure Machi wouldn't do that." He said, ruffling the boy's hair.

"Stop it!" He growled.

"I'll just find and bring her back now! Problem solved!" Kakeru said with a bright grin. He swung off the table he was sitting on and strode to the door.

"Eh, Kakeru! Why don't I come with you?"Yuki said, standing up. "I'm kinda worried about Machi…"

"Nah, just leave it to me. You just stay here and get all this work done as soon as possible, Yun-yun. Bye guys!"

And before Yuki could say another word he disappeared out of the door.

Kakeru strolled down the corridor beside the garden, hands tucked in his pants and humming idly. It was quite late in the afternoon so few students were lingering around. He stopped in his tracks when he caught the last sentence of someone talking, or rather, shouting.

'…trying to test our patience, bitch? Why don't you just look at me?'

He cocked an eyebrow. Was there a fight going on? It sounded like a girl's voice and from the tone she was quite angry. Ah, a catfight? They were always fun to watch. But alas as the VP he had to give the best for the students well-being and blah blah…

Mostly out of curiosity and begrudging responsibility, he went to check it out. Geez, he hoped they were at least hot…

…Machi?

His jaw dropped. Three girls who looked like tough punks were surrounding her. He frowned, slipping behind a nearby pillar to listen to their conversation.

The blonde girl was saying, "You're really starting to irritate me. Do you think you're special or something? Why should Yuki-sempai should pay attention to you?"

Machi looked at the floor.

However Asami only got more furious at the silence. "Are ya deaf, bitch? How dare you ignore me? You're really getting on my nerves!" She snapped and gave Machi a hard shove. She hit the wall behind her, stumbling down. The stack of papers scattered to the floor.

Yuko and Maki exchanged uncomfortable glances but didn't say anything. Machi stood up, keeping her gaze low. Her back winced in pain. She didn't want to let them see how frightened she actually was. This only made the blond leader angrier.

"Look at me when I'm talking!"

Machi didn't say a word.

Furious, the blonde raised a hand, fully intending to give her a slap.

Machi shut her eyes, bracing herself for the impact. A single thought ran past her mind. 'I…can't even protect myself…'

But that impact never came.

Machi opened her eyes. The hand that was swinging down on her was now caught in mid-air, by….

Kakeru?

She gasped.

"Hey, hey, what are all of you doing?" He asked with a smile. The raging fire in Asami's eyes seemed to die down rapidly like a balloon that was popped at the presence of the VP. Fighting is not allowed in school you know."

"F-f-fighting? Oh, no we weren't! We were just chatting with Machi that's all! W-what brings you here, vice-president?" Asami asked with a forced smile. The two other girls behind her looked positively terrified.

Kakeru shrugged as he let go of her hand. "Oh, it's nothing much. Just that Yun-yun said that he could use some help from you girls. Unless you're busy then…" He trailed off. There was a familiar hint of slyness in that tone but the girls were too dumb to notice.

"Oh, my god," Asami swooned.

"He called to us. Our prince called to us…" Miko said.

"Y-Yuki-senpai really said that?" Yuko gasped.

"Yeap! He's in the student council room if you–"

Before Kakeru could finish the girls had already zoomed off at an inhuman speed, leaving a cloud of imaginary dust behind them.

"Woah, Yun-yun has really scary fans….I don't know if I should envy him or not…"

He turned to Machi. She was picking up the scattered papers and he helped her with it.

"So, ya hurt or anything? Concussion, broken bones? Do ya need to go to the infirmary?" He asked. Despite the teasing sarcasm, there was a trace of concern behind it.

"I'm fine," Machi said, relief and gratitude swirling in her heart though it didn't show in her impassive face.

Honestly, she had been taken aback at the girls. She couldn't get why they had been so furious. Yuki was just an ordinary schoolmate to her, it was just his…smile. It always seemed so…lonely. She nearly jumped when she realised that Kakeru was staring at her. His face had an unreadable expression.

"W-what?" Machi asked, feeling self-conscious.

"I really can't believe you, you know." He said with exasperation in his voice. "I thought you would have at least done somethingwhen that girl was about to slap you. But you just stood there and waited for it like an idiot."

"I didn't know what to do…"

"What if I wasn't there? Would you have just taken it quietly?"

At his sister's silence, he sighed. Machi never fought back to her bullies, which was why she was such an easy target. Even in middle school it had been the same. They always found something to pick on her for and Machi being Machi would be too nice to report them. As the elder brother, tt was always him who dealt with those attackers and he did a good job at it. But times were different now. They were in high school and people were more dangerous. And as they grow up and move into their own lives, he knew he wouldn't be able to protect her as much anymore.

He cracked a small smile.

"You know, you should really learn to protect yourself more…" He said, but his tone was uncharacteristically gentle. Machi's lips parted but before she could say anything the smile was replaced by a 1200 mega-watt grin and he jumped up.

"Well, that's the last of it!" Kakeru declared with a triumph smile, holding the stack of papers with one hand like a trophy. He helped Machi stand up with the other hand and scooped up her stack of papers as well.

"I can take-" Machi started to protest but Kakeru cut her off.

"Oh, nevermind. We had better get back to the student council room quickly. There's loads of work to be done and I think the girls are hounding our prince already!" Kakeru laughed.

"Eh?" Machi tilted her head.

"I was lying, you know. About the part where Yun-yun said he needed help from them." Kakeru grinned and started to walk away.

She looked at his retreating form, still stunned by what he had said earlier. He had sounded…worried.

Then she said, "Umm, Kakeru…"

He turned around. "Huh?"

"…Thanks."

A/N: *laughs nervously* Okay, I think I seriously made the two of them kind of OOC…I found it a little hard to portray Machi…*laughs* But anyway, see that review button below? Click it! Reviews are always greatly appreciated (: