HELLO! Welcome to my first Fruits Basket FanFiction! This time, a one shot. This fanfic is specially based on the anime. I haven't read the end of the manga, so...

Please enjoy and review! Your opinion counts! If I get lots of reviews, i'll make a sequel.

Once again, ENJOY! ^_^

Let it go

The skies were pouring that day. The rain drops slipped throw his umbrella like tear drops. Could it be that the weather was playing with him? Could it be mocking his feelings and trying to make him feel even worst than he already was? If that was the truth, he wouldn't hesitate to yell at the sky to 'knock it off'. But even if he did, will it stop or will it just keep playing along?

He was more than sick of the truth of his life. Even when he thought he had at least a chance to see everything in a different direction, the wind had betrayed him. Now, he had to face it for the rest of his life, struggle against it and live as it never even happened.

How was he supposed to do it? 'The rat lost to a cat', simple and clean, but even if it sounded insignificant, it burned him, like a never ending flame that he was never able to turn off. He would have hidden away, until everything was forgotten, but how could anyone ever forget?

Why did it have to be such way? So much suffering for only one person. Only for her.

Sohma Yuki walked on the rainy streets, on his routine walks to his Edo period house after long hours of discussions and disagreeing with the student body council. The whole time, he stayed still in his place while the others threw them selves strong arguments and subjections that were all rejected by the rest of the council. Even if he was supposed to be in lead and take control of them, he ignored their every single comment and opinions and drowned himself in a sea of thoughts and brain storms. One of the students who were along in the discussion would turn to him and ask for his agreement on the concept. He would only agreed to them to brush them off, not aware of the themes in discussion and turn once again to a silent stare out the window where the skies were turning gray and the sun started to hide away in the clouds.

Once he was done with the reunion (or battle ground), the gray clouds had already taken over the town. He decided it was better to walk along with the rain, but if he got a cold, he would just be making everything worst on worrying her.

It would be simply stupid, coming from him.

He kept walking with no direction, ignoring the world around him. Giggles were heard from the other side of the street by the passing by girls under their pink umbrellas. Not bothering to direct a smile or even glare at them from the corner of his eyes, he continued forward until he reached a pedestrian crossing, where he had to stop for a 'no crossing' sign, even if there weren't any cars passing by.

He took his time to rest his thoughts under the cold weather of the afternoon. He took a deep breath and exhaled it with a sigh; still, he was feeling just like before. No thoughts were able to change his mind, specially when he kept thinking about her.

It was a sob, girl's sob to be exact, what drag him out of the storm. It sound so insignificant and fragile, it could have been his imagination, but he noticed continuing sobs and the tears that were chattered along with them. It wasn't his; he couldn't have burst into tears so suddenly without control. This tears came from another person, one that he never noticed beside him, with her head leaned forward and her long, socked, black hair dripping from the falling rain upon her.

The prince stared silently under his umbrella, suddenly caught unaware of the presence beside him. Water drops dripped from the girls chin, but they weren't coming from the falling rain.

She wore a high school uniform, not the same as his, but it seamed familiar by his eyes. She came from a public school. She carried a school bag with her both hands and stared at her feet, not caring to cover her self from the rain.

He could easily see what she was doing. Could it be that… he wasn't the only one feeling the same way?

"… Knock it off …" murmurs the girl's voice out of the sudden. He knew her words weren't for him. He hadn't said anything to make the girl sound as mad as she was "… I said stop it …" she continues to say with clenched teeth.

He didn't bother that she was talking to her self. If he wasn't so confident on everyone else, he would've done the same. But he was known to everyone; doing such thing will only drag attention.

Keeping his thoughts to him self was the only thing he could do at the moment, something that was lately bringing him too much trouble.

"… Damn it! Knock it off!" she loudly says.

He wouldn't care too much about her. He knew she was just feeling like him; the only difference was that he never got the guts to cry so publicly like her. And besides that, he had too much things to care about of him self that a single person in the same state would only make everything more difficult.

Curiosity betrayed him. He still couldn't understand why she had to shatter tears. What did she want? What was it so hard for her to control that she kept yelling at her self for?

Should he? Did he, at least, had the courage to help her? Will it even make a difference? Yuki turned his sight away from her and stared at the ground as the rain dropped. Maybe dealing with that kind of person wasn't his problem. There wasn't, actually, anything he could say to help.

As always, he didn't know of what to think of.

"Stop crying, you idiot!" she continues, weeping.

Yuki was caught once more by her words, this time, he kept staring at the girl by the corner of his eyes, afraid to look at her directly to give her more privacy.

She repeated her words over and over, whipping her eyes full of tears, forcing her self to stop shattering them.

It was hard to ignore her pain, specially when he was just beside her, looking at her weak self. If he would only say something… something similar to what she would say to him. A word, just one, at least to let her know he was concerned about her. That she wasn't alone.

"… Don't …" he began to say. The girl weeping was cut off by the boy's voice beside her.

"You don't have to stop. You don't have to force your self to hold it back."

His gentle voice took a moment to spread silence between them. As she kept looking down, afraid that that voice had heard every of her word, she stared at the wet shoes that now stud beside her.

"Even if they tell you… even if you want to… you can't force your eyes not to water." He continued. "You can't tell the birds not to fly, either the clouds not to move. The wind will keep blowing just as the sun will keep burning."

Little by little, the girl's head rose to contemplate who stud beside her with teary eyes. It was evident; there was someone, a boy, beside her, caring a purple umbrella, just like his eyes and hair. She stared in stupefaction, confused of his actions, asking her self if he was actually talking to her.

"Everything has a reason. The wind blows for a reason, that way we know the world is moving. Why does it move?, I don't really know, but what I do know is that it's natural for it to move. If not, there wouldn't be any wind at all. Everything has a reason, just like sadness. We cry when we're sad and we're sad for a reason, so why hold it back? Let's just let it flow on its own, if not, we don't have a reason to be sad. We would only be happy. Always. If the world was perfect and nothing was out of place, our feelings wouldn't even have to exist. That's why everything changes. It has a reason. It's to make us learn and understand. If you don't want to cry, then you don't want to understand it. Just… let it go."

Even if the girl's weeping was over, her eyes started to water all over again. What he just said was only making her feel weak and stupid. As he just corrected her of what she was doing. She was terribly confused of what to do next. Should she just cross the street and obeying the orders of not talking to strangers or should she listen him, at least a little more? Her feet were just betraying her as well as her eyes. Her sense of direction was totally lost. What could she do? Where should she go?

"SHUT UP!" she suddenly yells at Yuki, making him jump in surprise under his umbrella. "I don't need you or anyone to tell me what to do or to not! So, Leave. Me. Alone!" the girl burst out running a cross the street and disappearing in the distance throw the rain, leaving him in total loneliness, watching her as she go, with regretful thoughts.

"What was I thinking?" he asked to himself. "How could I ever do something like that? How could I ever compare my self to her?"

. . .

The night was endless. Beside he couldn't sleep the memories of the repeating sequence he experienced that same afternoon, were playing and replaying in his thoughts over and over again, without rest. He still couldn't forgive him self for doing what he did. How that girl must have felt for what he said. She was probably cursing him somewhere between the darkness, regretting she ever bumped into a guy like him. What else could turn against him in what it was now his life?

For his relieve, night didn't lasted for ever. After the same routine of his day was completed, it was time to go home, before he knew it. The day was sunnier than the last one, but the glooming atmosphere was the same as yesterday, as if, the day hadn't ended at all. He was doing his best to avoid words and eye contact between others, but every single person that got nearer to him, weren't being of much help.

Finally, he could go home and take some time alone before he had to start his homework. He walked with a quick step, passing between the high school girls and taking the shortest way home as possible. He wanted to arrive already. He felt as if he was being followed by everyone's eyes. Everyone around him acted normally, but his mind kept triggering him on believing he was being watched down, trying to push him on taking wrong streets. He couldn't take it, he had to get home. He had to escape from those happy glares the people around him thrower at each other. That wasn't his atmosphere; he was missed placed. Why was he feeling so lost out of the sudden? Why couldn't he put him self together and calm down? What was it that kept distracting him, and made him loose all sense of direction? He had to calm down. He had to stop. He had to look around and see he wasn't surrounded. He had to see where he was. He wasn't far from home; he only had to cross two more streets and…

…

She was still there, in the same place as yesterday, with her same cloth and her same black hair. It was hard to miss. She stud there, the same way as the day before. What was she doing in that same spot so late at the afternoon? Could it be… that she was waiting for him to appear again? Did she actually think she would see him again? If it was true, then, did that meant that what he said had actually helped her?

No, it couldn't possibly be… It was just a coincidence. She was probably going home, just like him. But, what was it, that it made him feel so nervous, the fact that she may hate him or that his heart was betraying him? What was he feeling as he watched her in the distance? What could he be thinking? Should he turn away or should he go on and stand by her side, at least one more time?

He wanted to see what his words had manifested in her, but still, being too close to her may bring him trouble. What if she fell on him and his secret was revealed? Her memory of him would be erased and she would continue crying. He would be forced to never get involved with anyone again. But, maybe this one wasn't as clumsy as her. Maybe, just maybe, he could try again, this time, with no mistakes.

It was too late to regret any thing. His feet were already leading him to the light stop were he stud the day before, under the rain. What would he do? What would he say? He had no idea of how to ask, and not be asked. How would he act? How would he regain confidence from a person he didn't even knew its name? Once again, he was risking everything to become the impossible. When will he ever learn he was just a puny rat between what it really was the society?

His feet froze in place, next to the person, he suppose, it was going to tell him how to finally lift off and live. He couldn't find the courage to look at her directly. His eyes couldn't turn to face the person beside him. He simply stud beside him. He simply stud beside her, waiting until, the words could actually come out to him and act by their own. He couldn't wait for too long, soon enough, the light would turn green and once again, he would only stand alone to contemplate his answers being dragged away. Not this time; not again.

"Did you…?" he began. "Did you cry?"

The girl awoke from her daydream, finally noticing the person she awaited to see was now beside her once again.

It was strange, to see he had spoken to her. After what she yelled at him, she was expecting him to ignore her if he ever saw her again. He wasn't like most people. She could already tell, he was way different than the others. Most people would tell her to stop crying and be strong. But he, he told her to cry and left behind the pain. He taught her how to cry with pleasure. That was more than enough to tell he was someone else.

The girl didn't spoke a word. Had she heard him? He couldn't tell. She simply stared at the ground as if he wasn't even there. At least, he could see her eyes. They weren't teary, but he was more worried about her expressionless look. What could he do now that she had ignored him? Was there any thing else he could do besides making a fool of him self again. He knew it would be a bad idea. What could ever make him think she was just going to start talking to him?

"hmp… It's funny, you know?" he said, not carrying if she was listening or not. "To think that I could do what she does to people, it's simply stupid." Yuki leans his head down. "How could I be such an idiot and compare my self to her? Why would I ever think that my words would ever surpass her? This is stupid. I hate this. It's not possible for me to live without her. I hate it. I'll never forgive my self for it. I… I was too late. There was nothing else I could do. I was just playing stupid. "

Even if Yuki didn't knew, the girl listened to him with full open ears. What he called him self was similar to what she had been calling her self for so long. A promise; kept safe for only one person that was afraid to be around her. A confession, never rejected, but it had never been accepted. She had put everything on it just to be left down by the true. Only a joke. Toying with her heart for months, never afraid of the consequences. She asked her self are men only that? A child who needs to toy with others? Never again did she want to get involved with someone like that. She was being showed a fool. Playing games with her heart would only show her she was playing stupid. Just like him. He who stud beside her and showed her there were reasons to cry about it. He who showed her how to let go. How would she ever know he was facing his own consequences of life?

Regretful, of not saying a thing, of yelling at him, of ignoring him. She had acted selfish enough to make him come back. She could see now, that that person wasn't only someone of good looks, but good heart.

"Please… excuse me for troubling you." Before she could notice, Yuki was already passing behind her, walking along in the side walk towards a place where he could be left alone, finally giving up.

The girl raised her head to see him walk away. She couldn't let him go, not yet. Not until she could answer him. At least to do him a favor and pay him back for what he had done to her.

"Wait!" she yelled before she started to run after him.

Yuki turned surprised to see who called out for him and followed him behind. Once she catches her breath, she quickly says:

"Thank you! Thank you so much, for carrying about me." She says as she recovers her air. "I… I did what you told me. You were right. I was being selfish. Please…! Forgive me!"

Yuki couldn't understand what his eyes were seeing. That girl… she actually heard him.

"What I'm seeing… it's a sign. Now I know… that I don't need her any longer. This new life of mine… I think I'll give it a try."

After that day, he had the courage to smile again.