Chapter 1: Meeting and Concern
The bell rang at the high school to signal that another school day was completed. Sai stepped out of her class and sighed, walking slowly through the crowded hallway to get to her club meeting in the art room. She ran her pale hand through her shoulder-length white hair. Her crimson eyes never glimpsed Kyou Sohma as he skulked straight towards her. "Maybe I should just skip the meeting today...it's not like I'm going to miss anything-...Oh!" Sai gasped as she ran into Kyou and stumbled, falling back to the floor; the students around them started laughing and commenting on the tumble.
"Hey! Watch where you're going you idiot!"
"S-Sorry!" Sai winced and pushed herself up to her feet, bowing over and over in apology. Her pink book bag had fallen and she was fumbling around for it. Kyou blinked and looked away in annoyance. "I-I just didn't see you!"
"Well if you had paid attention then it wouldn't have happened! You must be one of the most moronic girls in this school." Tears welled up into the girl's eyes and he stammered slightly, his eyes growing wider. 'What the heck is she? A Tohru clone or something?' He thought in shock. "H-Hey! Stop crying will ya??" Kyou went to grab her arm since he hated seeing girls cry; but his action was repelled when Sai yanked her arm away and ran. He didn't know what he should do, but to avoid the laughing mass of students, he shook his head and went after her. "Hey! Come back!"
After losing her a couple of times, Kyou finally turned right at a corner and saw her standing in front of the art room, panting and holding her chest. He took a step towards her, and she instantly looked up, seeming afraid like a deer standing before a car's headlights. "Whoa, calm down!" Kyou said, holding his hands up in front of him. "And stop crying will you?? I didn't physically attack you or anything!" 'Baby!'
"I am sorry for running into you alright...??"
"You're still on that subject? Man, I overreacted okay? Don't blame yourself." Sai bowed her head, strands of her white hair falling around her white face. Kyou ran his fingers through his orange mussed hair, his orange eyes studying her weak figure, and how she coughed now and then. "Hey, are you sick or something?"
"It's just a slight cold...but why should you care?" Kyou paused and then reached out, making firm contact with her forehead before she could even attempt to stop him. "Huh?" She looked up at him, blushing. "What are you doing?"
"Man you got a mouth on you...and you're a bad liar. You're frickin' burning up."
"Really? Um..."
"You should at least get some medicine for it. And why would you even come to school if you were so sick?"
"I cannot really afford medicine. I need to get a job...and I enjoy school."
"Can't afford it? What?? Does your family not care about you or something?"
"Family? Um...I don't really have a family. I take care of myself, and live alone..." Kyou blinked, in total disbelief that she was saying all this with a straight face. "Well anyway...thank you for forgiving me..." Sai bowed her head once more and turned to leave, not paying any mind to the art room or the meeting inside. He watched her leave, thinking that she was one of the strangest girls he had ever seen...even stranger than TOHRU! Suddenly, Kyou witnessed a textbook falling from her bag and to the floor as she walked away; after waiting a bit to see if she would pick it up - and she never realized it had fallen - he walked over and lifted it, heading out of the school building to go after her and return it.
"If I don't frickin' give it to her she won't ever get it again," He muttered as he kicked around pebbles. Kyou stopped after following her for about 10 minutes and scratched his head, before jumping out of the way of a truck coming down the road. "Why is she going to that condemned dump of a house?" He peered about and ran down the street, gripping the book tightly in his right arm.
Meanwhile, Sai got into the house and dropped her bag by the door. Sighing, she closed the door without paying attention and tensed up as she heard something yelp and hit the floor. She gasped, turning around before throwing it open once more. "K-K-Kyou?! What are you doing here...??"
"What do you think?!" He snarled, rubbing his bleeding nose and getting off the ground with a huff; the book came flying at Sai's head from his hand. She gasped again and ducked. "All I'm tryin' to do is bring back your stupid book and instead of thanks, I get attacked!!"
'How could I intentionally attack him if I didn't even know he was there...??' Sai thought as she blinked and sneezed. "S-Sorry Kyou-kun." She stood up again and patted her forehead. "And thank you for returning my textbook."
"Hmph."
"Eh...would you like to come in for some tea?" Sai smiled nervously, moving back a step to give him room to enter. Kyou was looking away, arms crossed. He glanced inside slowly after a few moments of sulking.
"No way, I'm heading home." Kyou shook his head to get his orange hair out of his face and turned, walking away. "Don' tlose your book again, cause next time I won't bring it back." Sai blushed lightly and blinked, waving as he left. She couldn't say anything and had no reason to make him stay; her hand was lowered to her side and the door was closed.
"Well that was interesting...at least he was nicer than I thought he would be, especially in that situation," Sai whispered, shaking her head and walking into the kitchen; the chipped wooden counters creaked and groaned from the impact of her feet hitting the old dark wood flooring. "I really need to get this place fixed up." She went over to the small black fridge and opened the door; grabbing a can of soda, Sai opened it and let it fizz from the release of pressure before turning swiftly, and instantly becoming woozy...She coughed a bit while taking very awkward steps, until finally she fell, her eyes closing tightly in pain and her hand tightly covering her mouth. Meanwhile, her soda hit the floor and splattered, hitting everything.
The next day at school, Kyou sat in class, playing around with his pencil as he idly listened for his name on the roll call. When he heard his name, his response was nothing more than and uncaring grunt that may have sounded like 'Here' if one listened hard enough. However, he did look up when Sai's name was spoken a few times, followed only by silence.
"Sai?" The teacher asked, glancing around the room before resting his eyes on the empty desk in the back right corner. "Hm...she's never been absent before for class...she must be really sick. Anyway, class, on to announcements!" Kyou blinked and huffed, looking out the window at the treetops and the deep blue sky. 'Maybe she is actually taking care of herself. She'd better be or I'd kill her...oi, why should I care anyway, she's nothing but an idiot,' He thought to himself. His fingers moved around, sending his pencil twirling. Tohru watched him, worry written all over her expression.
'Kyou-kun doesn't look like he normally does...I wonder if anything's wrong. Bad digestion maybe?'
When the last bell of the day rang and everyone in the class stood to bow, Kyou slipped out to avoid the crowds; he was being trailed by Tohru, who was trying to be like a spy in the movies, acting inconspicuous...or at least trying to act it, though she wasn't very successful. She was slamming into everything since she wasn't paying attention to where she was going. Kyou didn't bother looking back, being too preoccupied with his current mission; when he finally reached the rundown house where Sai resided, he sighed and shook his head. "What a dump," He muttered. He took a gander from left to right and stepped up onto the sagging porch before knocking on the door...which fell off the hinges and crashed to the ground. "Uh...Sai? You in here? Sorry for popping in like this."
"Kyou-kun, why are you at this house?" Tohry popped up right behind him, rubbing her head; she looked a bit roughed up from running into so many things. Kyou jumped and screamed, his whole body tense from shock as he moved to attack her, before stopping himself. "Eh?"
"GAH! Tohru?! You idiot, why did you follow me?!?!" He turned and gripped his heart. "You nearly gave my a heartattack!" She gasped slightly and grabbed his arm, shaking him.
"I...I did?! I am sooo sorry! I didn't mean to almost give Kyou-kun a heartattack!!!" Tohru freaked out as usual, waving her hands frantically in front of her.
"IT WAS A FIGURE OF SPEE- huh?" Kyou calmed down instantly as his ears pricked up. Coughing was heard from inside the house and both he and Tohru could see a hand laying exposed in their view from inside the kitchen. "Sai?" Kyou ran inside and leapt over the basket of laundry in front of the kitchen entryway; kneeling down, he shook her to attempt to awaken her, but to no avail. "Tohru! Make yourself useful and get me a glass of water now!" Tohru blinked and nodded.
"Yes sir!" She jumped and scurried into the kitchen, grabbing a glass out of the sink and filling it with water from a bottle in the fridge. Tohru then nearly threw the glass into his grip and watched as he splashed the water onto Sai's face with his fingers and making her drink. "Does she have a fever? A cold? What?"
"Yeah, she's got a frickin' cold...but she should've been in bed resting instead of moving around like crazy."
"I'm...sorry..." Sai murmured weakly, sneezing slightly and looking up. "Kyou-kun...? Why are you here? Did I forget something else...?"
"I uh..." He didn't want to admit to her that he was worried; he tried to come up with a valid excuse while Tohru took her chance and swooped down, swiping Sai up and helping her to her room. They stopped in the doorway.
"Tohru-san, what are you doing...How did you get here?" Sai stared at the girl who was in total nurse mode.
"Huh? Um...I sort of followed Kyou-kun here...oh no! Your cieling caved in...!!!" Tohru popped her index finger inbetween her teeth, staring at the rubble covering the bed.
"Yeah...but that's kind of a normal occurence..." Sai responded, staggering away from her. "Now where's the broom?" Kyou walked into the room, pushing past Tohru and taking a hold of Sai's slouching shoulders; she stopped, gazing upwards slowly as he plopped a hand on top of her white hair. "Kyou?"
"You can't stay in this house," He said, his voice unusually soft and warm. "Don't you know you'll die here if you don't get out? Especially in your condition?"
"She should come home with us Kyou." He glanced back at Tohru and actually considered her suggestion...but in the end shook his head quickly.
"No way! That place is already overcrowded and is too much of a toxic environment even for us!!" 'Plus that perv Shigure would be stalking her day in and day out,' He thought, his left eye twitching.
"Don't worry about me you two...I really don't want to impose," Sai objected, plopping her butt down on a large bit of cieling. "I'll just move all this rubble away and everything will be okay."
"That's an even worse idea!" Kyou exclaimed; growling, he swept his hair away from his eyes and stomped out. "You're going with us then." He took her bookbag from the front room and threw her school stuff inside, as well as some laundry; meanwhile. Tohru lifted and led a reluctant Sai out of the house, with Kyou following quickly behind.
"Uh...eh...Tohru" Sai shook her head, trying to go back, before shuddering and staring at them for a few moments, then glancing back at her home. Sighing, she bowed her head and gave up, a bit happy that they wanted to help as she leaned against Tohru for a bit more comfort. "Thank you...I guess..."
Chapter 1 End