Disclaimer: I will never be as brilliant as Natsuki Takaya, and obviously it shows, as Fruits Basket is her creation and not mine.
Summary: Tohru and Kyo are a young married couple and have just moved into their first house. This is the story of their very first fight. Very fluffy and silly.
Without further ado, the story! (And no, I'll never tell what their fight was about. Hahahahaha!)
For Ace
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"I never want to see you again!" sobbed Tohru. She turned on her heel and fled down the stairs. Kyo's arms folded defensively as he watched her brown hair whipping around the corner. He growled and kicked his desk.
Tohru ran until she reached the basement of their tiny house. Now that she thought back, she should have run out the door; it would have looked much more dramatic, and she could have taken a calming walk in the park. However, as it was, she was stuck in the basement and it was too late to run back up the stairs and out the door. She would look ridiculous and Kyo would smirk at her. Oh, how she hated making a fool of herself! In a slight panic, her eyes darted around the tiny basement. What if Kyo came down and found her standing here like an idiot? What if – horror of horrors – he started to laugh? The thought of him making light of her distress infuriated Tohru. I've never been this mad, but he just thinks it's funny, she thought with a scowl. I'll show Kyo! I'll make him pay for not taking me seriously! Now she was getting really worked up, despite the fact that Kyo hadn't actually made fun of her yet. Oh, but he would. With that bitter thought, she marched towards the crawlspace and resolutely dropped to her knees. "You'll never find me, Kyo, and then you'll be sorry," she muttered to herself.
Meanwhile, Kyo had run out of furniture to kick, and he really didn't want to wreck the walls only a month after they had moved in. With one last clenching of his fists, he sighed and started to trudge down the stairs. Tohru was nowhere to be seen. He thought of calling his wife's name but decided against it. He was still simmering from their argument and wasn't quite ready to deal with more crying and overly dramatic female comebacks. Besides, he reasoned, the park was nearby and Tohru had probably gone for a calming walk. He sauntered down the stairs to the basement and headed towards the couch.
Tohru heard Kyo's familiar catlike footsteps treading down the stairs and held her breath in anticipation. He can't find me yet. He hasn't had any time to even miss me, she thought with an almost childish satisfaction, and tried to hunch down even lower in her corner. However, as she waited in the dark, it didn't seem that Kyo was even looking for her. In fact, she heard him flop heavily on the couch, and moments later, she heard the TV flick on. Long moments passed as she simultaneously grew more hurt by her husband's indifference and began to have doubts about her brilliant idea of hiding. In fact, she was wondering what had possessed her in the first place. She couldn't back out now; that would entail squirming most inelegantly out from the crawlspace and having to explain to Kyo what she had been doing there in the first place. At the same time, it was getting steadily colder and the darkness of the crawlspace was starting to make her nervous. Tohru resolved to wait and see what Kyo would do. They had never argued before, she reasoned, so she didn't know exactly how Kyo would cool himself down. Maybe he would leave the house for a while, giving her the opportunity to extricate herself from her hiding place and wait for him to get home. Then she would tell him she had been to the park and back. It was a good plan, Tohru decided. She settled back into her hard little corner and waited.
Kyo, unfortunately, was not the sort to go out and take a walk or have a drink when he was upset. He much preferred to lose himself in an enjoyable distraction, such as martial arts practice, books, or television. Before he knew it, he had gotten sucked into one of Japanese television's endless, identical samurai dramas. He couldn't help silently cheering on the stoic, noble Samurai hero and getting caught
up in the numerous, unrealistic epic battles. Then, in the middle of the episode, the beautiful kimono-clad princess showed up to express her endless gratitude and devotion to the hero with a single chaste kiss. Kyo's thoughts turned briefly to his own lovely princess; then, he remembered that he was currently annoyed with her and his mood turned sour. I can't watch this romantic tripe anymore, he thought bitterly, and changed the channel abruptly. The news channel cheerfully announced the time – It's already been an hour and a half since we fought? – and then the newscaster began to speak. "A serial rapist has been seen lately..." Kyo had only been half paying attention, but suddenly he sat up and riveted his eyes to the screen. That's right near our house! He noted, and waited for a criminal sketch to be shown so that he could warn Tohru. Suddenly he felt sick to his stomach.
"...TOHRU!!"
Meanwhile, Tohru huddled dejectedly in her corner. She was cold, scared and hungry. She had been waiting for what seemed like six hours for Kyo to come and find her. Many times, she resolved that she would swallow her pride and wriggle out of the crawlspace; but then, she reminded herself that Kyo hadn't even tried to find her (which obviously meant he didn't even care that she was missing) and remained resolutely seated on the chilly concrete. Tohru felt hopeless and ridiculous. She was being childish and she knew it, and she would have finally convinced herself to give up this silly game, except for the fact that she was deeply hurt by Kyo's seeming indifference. She leaned her head on her arms and started to cry miserably. Suddenly, she heard her name. "...TOHRU!!"
Kyo leaped frantically from the couch. "Tohru, are you home?" he called, running up and down the stairs in a panic. Oh no! What if she was still at the park? What if the criminal was following her? What if...he already had her in his clutches? He raced downstairs to get his house keys so that he could lock up after he left, and suddenly he thought he heard his name. "...K-K-Kyo...?"
"T-Tohru?"
"Kyo?"
"TOHRU?!"
"Kyo!"
"Tohru, where are you?!"
Following the sound of his wife's voice, Kyo found himself standing in front of the entrance to the crawlspace. Hesitantly, he dropped to his knees and peered in. "Tohru?"
For a moment, Kyo had the urge to laugh uncontrollably. There was his petite wife, huddled in a dark corner, her tearstained face turned bravely upwards and her jaw set defiantly. Then his amusement turned to relief and then into a slow, boiling anger. "Tohru," he said slowly, in a dangerously low voice. "What the hell?"
Tohru turned her face away from him with all of the dignity she could muster. "Go away, Kyo," she stammered. He grabbed her wrist and attempted to pull her out of the crawlspace. She strained to remain in place. "Do you have any idea how much you worried me?" Kyo growled, tugging at his wife's slender arm. "What in God's name possessed you to hide in the crawlspace?!"
"You weren't worried!" Tohru cried, trying to wrench her arm free. "You didn't even notice I was gone! That's why you sat watching TV for an hour and a half! It's because you thought it didn't matter where I was!"
"I thought you'd gone to the park and gotten yourself killed by an evil criminal!" Kyo bellowed. Tohru's eyes widened and the corners filled with tears. Kyo stared at her, and then realization hit him. "Oh, no, Tohru, I didn't mean it like that...I would never want you to be murdered! All I meant was that I thought you'd gone for a walk in the park, and then I saw in the news that there was a criminal, and I thought...I thought..." Kyo pulled his wife towards him and hugged her tightly. "I was so worried, Tohru." Tohru sniffled and cuddled into Kyo's chest, hoping things would end there and that she wouldn't be questioned on what she had been doing in the crawlspace. Unfortunately, Kyo was not the kind of person to let that question go unanswered. He pushed her away gently and held her by the shoulders, looking straight into her sweet little face.
"Tohru, can you explain to me what you were doing in the crawlspace?"
She lowered her head humbly. "I'm sorry, Kyo...I thought..." Her cheeks reddened and her sentence trailed off.
"Well, Tohru, you succeeded. You taught me a lesson," Kyo muttered. "Always make sure I check the crawlspace after a fight." His face cracked into a grin.
"Kyo is making fun of me," Tohru accused half-heartedly. Kyo gathered her into his arms, pulled her completely out of the crawlspace, and kissed her silky brown hair. He started to laugh. "I'm sorry, Tohru, I shouldn't laugh at you. And I'm sorry for arguing with you."
"I'm sorry for arguing too," Tohru replied, her face breaking into a little smile. "And you can laugh at me all you want." They looked straight at each other, and burst into helpless laughter.
Later that night they watched another episode of Kyo's samurai drama. This time, when the princess made her appearance for an extended and sickening love scene with the samurai hero, Kyo left the remote alone and smiled at his starry eyed wife, whose hands were clasped over her heart as she watched the screen intently. He didn't exactly understand Tohru's penchant for long and sappy romance scenes, but he had to admit that he rather liked the happy endings.
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I know, it's cheesy. Hahaha. I got the idea from something that happened with me and my boyfriend...() He's very patient with me even though I do silly things like hiding from him all the time.
Also, note on the samurai drama: I've been to Japan and watched Japanese television, and the endless samurai dramas really do exist and they are pretty much all the same. It's actually really funny. My dad and I amused ourselves with samurai dramas when we wanted to take a break from sightseeing. There is no short supply of samurai television xD
Anyways, thanks for reading!
Lysi