I love Machi and Momiji together, I only wish they'd got some time together in the manga. I wrote a one-shot including them both in my Machi/Yuki fic, and was inspired to spawn this from it. (it's not actually in any way related to that one-shot, though...) I'm not entirely sure in what way this is heading (I'm not only of those immensely well organized writers who has it all written up before it's posted), but I just think a Momiji/Machi/Yuki triangle will be fun to write. I hope you enjoy! Reviews are loved like Momiji's exceptionally huggably cute bunny form.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Fruits Basket. I just own the plot bunny. (Not the Momiji bunny, unfortunately)
Nobody enjoys the first day back at school after the lazy, long, sunny days of the summer break. For Machi, she had been dreading the day more than she had done any year before. For this, the first day of the new school year, her first year as a high school senior, she could honestly look back on the weeks that had passed and say she had enjoyed herself, more than she could ever remember enjoying herself before. This was why she was sat at her desk, staring idly out of the window, not taking in a word the teacher at the front of the class was saying.
Her mind was filled with what this, this start meant. It meant the summer was over. It meant that those hot days, those sweet, cherished days were over. No more eating ice-cream by the duck pond, talking with Yuki of things that seemed too deep for their surroundings. No more picnics with Yuki under that old oak tree at the back of her apartment block. No more playful hugs and tentative kisses under the humid blanket of the starry nights. It was over.
Yuki had left only a couple of days earlier. She hadn't cried. It would have made no sense to. The college Yuki had been accepted at was prestigious. It was the sort of place more doting parents would give their left arm for their kids to go to. It would open up all sorts of possibilities for him later in life. Once he graduated, no doubt with honours, the world would be his oyster. It was what was right for him, and so she couldn't possibly taint something like that with ridiculous tears. Even when she was alone, in her messy apartment, she wouldn't succumb. Instead, she tried to adjust herself to the gnawing sensation she got in her chest when she thought of him, thought of how she'd felt when he was around, when he was with her, over anyone else in the entire world.
So no, she hadn't shed a tear. She'd just missed him.
"Kuragi-san?" A deep male voice interrupted her thoughts. She looked up to find her Maths sensei staring at her from across the classroom. She was surprised to see there were few pupils left in the room. Just her, the blonde boy who seemed to sit in front of her for every class, and a couple of girls who were slowly making their way out of the door, reminiscing with sighs of their summer loves.
"Unless you plan on staying here the whole of lunch break, you'd better go." He said, "And go and get some fresh air outside. Clear your head. Summer break is over, no more wasting time daydreaming. Your last year of high school is going to be work work work."
She nodded silently, picking up her bag, a slight colour on her cheeks from being caught so obviously in the middle of a daydream. He was right, of course, she thought as she made her way out of the classroom and down the corridor. She had to work hard to get top grades this year. She'd told Yuki she's catch him up. There was no way she'd get into the same university if she didn't do well in her exams. Maybe Sensei had been right, maybe she should go get some fresh air. She didn't have any other plans for lunch. Last year, she'd got into the routine of going and doing council work during break times. Often, she would be joined by Naohito, Yuki, and occasionally Kakeru. Although she didn't speak much, the company was an unexpected pleasure to her.
Yuki, Kakeru and Kimi had all graduated now, though. It had been decided that both herself and Naohito were doing a satisfactory job, and so were allowed to keep their positions. At the end of the previous year, the headmaster had started taking applications once again to fill the spaces. Apparently she and Naohito would be meeting their new 'colleagues' for the first time that coming Friday. The thought did not excite much of a reaction in her. She had been unenthusiastic when given her role as treasurer at the beginning of the previous year, and had returned to this state now. Whoever the trio's replacements were, it just couldn't ever be the same.
"Maaaachi!" A boy's voice called out from behind her, "Hey, Machi-san! Wait up!" She turned on the spot, slightly shocked to once again be dragged back into the present.
"Machi-san." The boy said triumphantly, catching up to her, a sunny smile on his face. It was the boy who sat in front of her, with the pale blonde hair. Momiji. A relative of Yuki's. He'd grown a great deal since the beginning of last year, she noted. He had a good few inches on her, and had finally started wearing the boys' uniform. His face, too, was different. It'd lost some of its round softness. Less childish, more like a man's. He still had the same pink rabbit backpack on his shoulders, though. She'd always thought it was absolutely adorable.
"Um, hello, Sohma-san." She bowed slightly, and he laughed.
"Don't call me that! If you let me call you Machi, you can call me Momiji, okay?"
She was slightly shocked by his forwardness, and didn't know how to respond. She hadn't really spoken to him in the past, but had always got the impression that he was very different to Yuki.
"Okay." She said quietly after a moment.
"Great!" He said enthusiastically. "So you're Yuki's girlfriend, right?"
She nodded, once, slowly, wondering how he kept up the aura of constant happiness she had never seen slide.
"Guess you must miss him a lot, huh?"
A jolt went through her. So quickly he had got onto a personal topic. She was quickly coming to resent his forward nature.
"It's okay, though," He continued, although she hadn't replied, "I know how it feels. There's someone who I miss a lot, too. Every day, you know?" He laughed, "She's not been gone long, and she's with the person she loves most in the world, so I know she's very happy, so I have to be happy for her too."
If he hadn't called her 'Machi' when running down the corridor after her, she would have thought he was talking to the wrong person, and just hadn't noticed. He was speaking as if she was one of his closest friends and confidantes.
He seemed lost in himself for a moment or so, and Machi wondered how he would take it if she just moved away, back to her original plan of going to sit out in the school grounds. Before she could move, however, he came round.
"It's too nice a day to spend it inside." He declared out of the blue, "Let's have lunch together outside, okay?"
Without waiting for an answer, he took her hand in his own, a movement which instantly made Machi want to pull her arm away, and retreat from the strange and uncomfortably over-familiar boy. He had a firm grasp on her, keeping her there without hurting her.
People stared at them as they passed, Momiji leading, Machi in tow, their hands connecting them together. She heard many not-so-hushed whispers as they passed, of things such as: 'Wasn't one Sohma good enough for HER?', 'Do you think she's going to test-run all of the Sohma boys?', and 'What a user.' Her face burned. Usually, these people wouldn't notice her. They would have no idea who she was. Only when she was with Yuki did she have any identity to them. She didn't even know how they knew about her relationship with their 'Prince'.
Machi was dragged over to a bench on the far side of the grounds, situated on a large patch of muddy turf which was turned over from having rough sports played on it every day.
"Let's sit here." Momiji decided, almost bouncing himself onto the metal bench, and pulling Machi beside him. As Momiji dived into his pink rabbit rucksack, pulling out a yellow plastic lunchbox, which, to her slight envy, had Mogeta on the front, she felt the need to speak up.
"Why are you… why did you bring me here?" She asked.
"Huh?" He looked up at her, "Because I wanted to have lunch with you, of course!" He laughed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"I feel kinda lost now that Tohru's gone, so I guessed you might feel the same about Yuki not being here anymore."
Tohru? The name rang a bell in her head. Wasn't that… Honda-san? As far as she knew, Honda-san had started dating the orange-haired Sohma boy at the end of the previous year. Not one to listen to gossip, she hadn't know there was something between Momiji-kun and Honda-san, too.
"I figured, if we were both feeling lost, then the most sensible thing would be to find each other, right? So I think we should be friends from here on out."
She glanced over his eager face. He spoke with upmost sincerity, he genuinely did look like he wanted to make friends with her. She found how friendly he was slightly unsettling, but he had a point. If both of them didn't really have anyone to spend lunch break with, despite the fact she was sure he was very popular in her class, why shouldn't they just simply eat together?
"Okay." Machi said, slowly. She opened her own backpack, and rooted around for her plain, plastic, red lunchbox. It wasn't there. As she thought about it, she wasn't sure she could even recall making herself lunch that morning.
"Did you forget your lunch?" Momiji asked.
"Yeah." She nodded, leaning back against the back of the bench. She didn't even have any money with her to buy anything from the school canteen.
"Here." He held out his own lunchbox. It contained only white rice and several perfectly formed sushi rolls. "We'll share."
"What? No, I couldn't." Machi said immediately.
"Of course you could. Friends share, don't they? Anyway, all the sushi's got tuna in it. I keep telling my maid I don't like tuna, but she says it's good for growing boys." He rolled his eyes.
She was going to reject his offer again, claiming she wasn't hungry, when her stomach growled audibly.
He laughed. "See? You should eat." He thrust the box closer to her, and handed her the pair of disposable chopsticks he had just unwrapped. She took them cautiously, then hesitated.
"How are you going to eat?" As far as she could see, the only pair of chopsticks he had were the ones she was holding.
He grinned. "I'm always prepared." He dove into his bag again, and this time brought out a spoon, baby pink in colour.
"My ice cream spoon." He announced. Before she got a chance to ask, he filled her in. "So I can eat ice cream neatly. It means I don't have to wash my face afterwards, so I can eat it whenever, wherever!"
"Oh." She felt something that tickled like a laugh rising up inside her, but she suppressed it. "So… you're going to eat rice with a spoon?"
"Uh huh." Momiji nodded, scooping up some of the grains onto his spoon with enthusiasm.
"And you're sure… this is okay?" She indicated to the chopsticks in her own hand, then to his sushi. Momiji laughed through a mouthful of rice.
"I can see why Yuki likes you so much." He said, once he had swallowed. "You're really cute."
Blushing, and to stop herself being obliged to form a reply, she picked up a piece of sushi with her chopsticks, and placed it in her mouth, making any more talking impossible.
The rest of the lunch break passed in much the same way, the bento was finished by the both of them, and Machi thanked the cheerful boy sincerely, reminding herself to definitely pack her lunch tomorrow. Momiji managed to talk almost the entire time, with very little prompting from Machi's side. It was quite relieving that he didn't demand long speeches from her, a couple of words here and there were enough to keep him chatting amiably.
The bell rang, heralding the end of the break.
"Oh, good, we've got Biology next!" He said with real enthusiasm. He jumped off the bench, then held out his hand to pull Machi up. She would have preferred to get off the bench unaided, but after the kindness he had been showing her all lunch break, she could hardly be rude now. He took her hand once again.
"That was really fun." Momiji said, smiling happily as they walked, hand in awkward hand, to the Science lab. "Hey, hey!" He said, "I've got an idea. Tomorrow, I'll show you the best place to have lunch here. Not many people know about it, so it's kind of a secret, but you'll like it too, I'm sure." He said.
"We're having lunch together… tomorrow?"
"Oh!" Momiji said loudly, "Es tut mir leid, Machi. I should have asked. Do you want to have lunch with me again tomorrow? I'd really like it if you said 'yes'." He looked down at her from his slight height advantage. His eyes were still slightly large for his face, but maybe that was something he wouldn't grow out of. They sparkled with an almost irresistible sincerity and innocence.
"Okay." She agreed. It was better than eating alone, like she had had to do before joining the council.
"Great!" He said, pulling her along with him into the lab, and towards their desks. "And, hey! I just remembered. You're on the student council, right?"
She nodded.
"Well, I applied for that last year! Maybe, if I get in, we will get to work together too!" He grinned broadly at the thought.
"Momiji." A voice said from behind the two of them. Machi turned, and was confronted with a tall boy standing dangerously close to her. Her eyes were level with the bundle of silver necklaces of different lengths slung around his neck.
"Haru!" Momiji said. "I thought you were skipping the first day back. Didn't you want to wait until Rin was back at college before you came back?"
He looked at Momiji with a far off gaze. "Rin said something about me getting under her feet… strange girl." He said, looking down at Machi for the first time. She immediately wondered whether he was referring to this 'Rin' person, or herself.
"This is Machi!" Momiji said, his hand still holding hers.
"Machi…" Haru pondered the name, "Yuki's girlfriend?"
"Yeah! We just got back from having lunch together."
Haru nodded, and, without saying a word, made his way to his desk on the other side of the room.
"He seems a bit out of it, sometimes." Momiji said, and Machi turned back to face him. "But really, he's very nice. I think you two will be friends, too."
"Sohma-san, Kuragi-san," Sensei entered the room, tanned from a summer of sunbathing by the looks of it, "Please take your seats."
They did as instructed, only then did Momiji let go of her hand. It was tingling slightly from the unfamiliar contact.
As the teacher started the lesson, Machi found her mind wandering once again, this time to the strange boy in front of her. She replayed the events of the lunch break over and over in her heading, before sighing quietly in resignation. It didn't matter how much she analysed it. She still had no idea what had just happened.