A/N: Just a conversation between Hatori and Shigure sometime after the whole Kana incident. If you can think of any way I can improve I'd be grateful to hear it. Oh, and I don't own Fruits Basket or its characters.

"What would you say if I told you I was leaving?"

"You're leaving?"

"No, I mean what if hypothetically I said I was leaving, what would you say?"

"Hypothetically I'd have to stop laughing before I answered."

"When you stopped laughing?"

"I'd probably say that there's no way you'd last on your own; you don't have a job yet, so there's no way you could support yourself financially, and they'd be no one for you to annoy or play around with. You'd get bored."

"You think?"

"I know. Why would you even want to move away, anyway?"

"I've heard living alone concentrates the mind."

"And that would be of use to you in what way? Why else are you leaving?"

"Well, the house is just getting a bit too stuffy for me these days. And after...well you know, I want to keep my life out of his hands as much as possible."

"And you think moving away will do that?"

"No, but it'll mean I have some warning. You should come with me! It'd be great, you and me living together; it'd be just like being back at college!"

"No. No, I couldn't. I have a duty to the family, not just as their doctor. It would only be a matter of time before I failed in my duties if I left the main house."

"You deserve a life away from this house, this family, more than anyone of us."

"We all deserve a life away from this family. Unfortunately what we deserve and what we are given remain wholly separate and very different things. What would you do in this hypothetical house, I wonder? Meet some hypothetical woman with whom you'd fall in love and live together happily ever after until he found out about it?"

"No, I'd be the perverted recluse I dreamed of being in my youth."

"You can't be a recluse if you're working nine to five."

"Who said anything about working nine to five? I've got a career."

"A career? You? What are you doing? Teaching torture techniques?"

"Nope. I'm writing."

"You write an article on the Chinese Zodiac and suddenly you're a writer?"

"For your information that was research and I'm a novelist, not a writer."

"Novelist, eh? Don't you have to be in print to be a novelist?"

"I am! Ta-daa!"

""In the beginning; a history of the Chinese zodiac by Sohma Shigure". This isn't a novel, it's an astrology book."

"And? I'm in print and I'm halfway through my debut novel. I've got enough money from the publication of this to rent the house for the first few months, and if things don't work out for me as a writer, why then I can get a nine to five job."

"The house? You've even got a house lined up?"

"There is a house I rather like the look for town, nice views, roomy interior."

"You've been around looking at houses? How is possible no one knows about this?"

"Because everything you all know about me comes from me, so if I want to do something without the family knowing I just keep quiet about it and babble about nonsense to throw you all off."

"How long have you been planning this? Really?"

"Since after Kana...you both were so happy. I don't to see any member of my family suffer like that again."

"So you're running away."

"I'm not running away, I'm going to stay in touch, visit and all that. I'm just...averting my gaze."

"You're going to an awful lot of trouble to avert your gaze, moving away like this."

"Who said I was moving away? I'm moving out into a house halfway across town, it's not like I'm moving two towns over, or leaving the country."

"He won't allow it."

"Yes he will. He doesn't care about a stray dog like me. He's too busy hassling rats and dragons-"

"He hasn't done anything to hurt the rest of the family. And the time will come when we can protect Yuki."

"It's only a matter of time before he does something else to remind us who the head of the family is and what happens when we go against him. I'm tired of seeing this everyday. If I don't get away from here one day I'll snap. He knows. He'll let me go. A splinter Sohma house could be useful to him in the future."

"Suppose you can't. What will you do?"

"Become a perverted recluse within the family, probably."

"Seriously."

"I was being serious. He'll let me go, you'll see. I'm no fun to play with, after all. I'm too carefree."

"Hmn, carefree wouldn't be my first word."

"Most people's first word is "Dada" isn't it?"

"That was poor even by your standards."

"True."

"Do you want some help moving the furniture?"

"It comes fully furbished. Bare essentials, anyway so I'll be alright moving it on my own. Feel free to come around and visit whenever."

"I will, if I'm not busy with patients."

"Hmm, y'know that last bit reminds of a conversation we had when we were kids. You remember? I said I'd be an artist, Aya said he'd make clothes and you were going to make everyone feel better. Almost prophetic, it seemed."

"Except you're not an artist."

"Writing is art form, so technically I am an artist."

"In the same way Ayame "helps people to realize their dreams"?"

"Ah! That's a stab at my heart!"

"You're heart's there, you idiot. That's your lung."

"Really? I always thought your heart was here."

"That's because you had Ayame for a lab partner."

"Could have something to do with it, I suppose."

"Well then, here's to your new writing career."

"And house."

"Aren't novelists supposed to wear traditional clothes?"

"You're right! I'll have to buy some more once I've sold a few more books."

"You make it sound like it'll be easy."

"It won't be. But I'll work until it's a reality."

"Inspiring words. Hard to believe you said them."

Owari.

A/N: Review?