((Hello, everyone. I'm back. c: I've been busy with school. But I always intended to write another Fruits Baskets fanfiction, and here it is! \(owo)/ I hope you all enjoy this first chapter! Please review! Thank you so much!))
Mine Kuramae thought that all her problems would be solved once the Sohma family curse was broken. She thought that her endless days of longing would finally come to a close. That she would get the fairy tale ending she had dreamed of since she was a little girl.
After all, she had loved Ayame Sohma since the first day they met. She had walked in to his shop simply looking for a job, and she had left having found the love of her life. At least, that's how she felt. She had never expected to be struck with such a powerful emotion during an interview. But then again, she had never met anyone like the mysterious and enchanting snake before then. Not even close.
And he loved her too. He said he did. Right after his curse was broken, he had rushed to embrace her, telling her he loved her, telling her he was born to love her! She had never experienced a happier moment than then.
Until she realized that he loved her only as a friend. His dearest friend, his most beloved in the world. But still, a friend.
Now, on one bright clear morning, she watched as he held a maid's costume against his body happily. He turned to her and asked, "Well, what do you think? Hurry up, hurry up and tell me! It's a masterpiece, isn't it? Of course it is. I made it after all."
All Mine could do was laugh, as she was well-accustomed to. Standing up from her desk and putting her sewing needles down atop it. She stepped closer to her, examining the costume. Breathing in his scent though she told herself not to.
"With my help, you know," she teased. Seeing a thread that had come loose on the hem, she reached for her needles and concentrated as she quickly stitched it back up. "And now it's perfect! Just like usual!"
"You think she'll like it?"
"I think she'll love it."
Ayame grinned, putting the costume back on the desk and picking up the telephone. "Sally? Yes, it's Ayame Sohma. Mmhm. Your costume is ready for pick-up! Yes, I just finished it this morning. All right. I shall see you then. Fare well."
The young man hung up the phone and leisurely sat behind Mine's desk, sighing contently. Mine stared at him for a few moments. Lost. He was just so beautiful, she couldn't help it. Eventually, though, she snapped herself out of her trance and plastered on another fake smile. The most frequent kind she ever showed him anymore, though he didn't seem aware of this fact in the slightest. Good ole oblivious Ayame. "So what now, boss? How far along are you on the sailor suit?"
"Not far, not far. The design is about halfway complete."
"Well, why don't I go make us some tea and then I can help you finish it?"
"That sounds just perfect. As usual." Ayame smiled intently at her. She blushed before strolling into the adjoining kitchen and putting a powder blue teapot on the stove.
Little did she know that Ayame was watching her. A look of intrigue settled in on his face before confusion took over, and he turned away. It was at this moment that Mine looked back and watched her boss as he sat up straighter behind the desk. Taking his sketchbook out from one of the desk drawers and beginning work, surely on the helm of producing another masterpiece.
Her loving gaze slowly turned into one of sadness. She turned back to the teapot, closing her eyes and sighing the kind of deep and heavy sigh only the heartbroken could accomplish.
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Later that day, Mine sat outside her favorite cafe, right across from the shop. She was joined by Akito Sohma and Mitsuru Sohma. In the past six months since the curse was broken, a lot had changed. One of the more surprising changes had been the friendships that were suddenly cultivated without the curse hanging over everyone's heads.
Mine had met both Mitsuru and Akito at Mitsuru's wedding to Ritsu Sohma, which occurred only one month after the curse was broken. Ayame had brought Mine as his 'date', although by that point, she knew that it was only a meaningless title. Mine and Mitsuru instantly got on.
Akito took longer to warm to Mine's friendly, outgoing nature, but Mine felt compelled to get to know all of the Sohmas as well as she could. Even though she doubted she would ever be a part of their family. They were still important to Ayame, and so they were by default important to her. So she made every effort to become Akito's friend, and in time, she was successful.
Eventually, the three became like a female version of the Mabudachi Trio. Now they sat, as they often did, outside the coffee shop. Sipping their lattes and talking about life.
Except Mine, usually the most talkative of the three, was eerily silent. Staring at Ayame's shop across the street.
"You're still in love with him, aren't you, Mine?" Akito suddenly asked.
Mine whipped her head back toward her friends. "What? What gave you that idea?"
"Maybe the fact that I don't even have to say who I'm talking about when I say 'him'?"
Mine paused. Swallowed. "Well, I don't know how to fall out of love with someone! You'd think I'd have learned it from my parents, but...they didn't teach me how to do it for myself."
Suddenly Mitsuru looked up from her coffee. Which she had been blowing on, in a panicked way, to cool down. "Wait a second, who are we talking about here? Who's 'him'?"
Akito rolled her eyes and put her hand to her forehead. "Ayame, obviously!"
"Heavens to Betsy! You're in love with your boss?"
Akito continued, "And that's not even the issue."
"Akito, can you not?" Mine asked, her face turning hot. "I don't really want to talk about this."
Mitsuru whined. "Aw, come now, you told Akito all this but you don't want to tell me? You're almost as cruel as Shigure!"
Quickly waving her hands, Mine assured, "No, no. It's not that I don't want to tell you or that I don't trust you! It's just that I'm trying to move on and it doesn't help to keep thinking about it or talking about it."
"Well, you were already thinking about it, clearly," Akito pointed out. "And we're already talking about it, so we might as well just tell her."
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Back in the shop, Ayame sat behind his own desk, sketching. The bell rang at the entrance of his shop, and Hatori Sohma walked in. Ayame looked up and smiled brightly, putting his sketchbook down.
"Oh, my! Tori-san! What are you doing here, darling?" The previous snake stood up from the desk and ran to approach Hatori, giving him a hug.
Hatori remained frozen in the embrace but couldn't help but offer a small smile. "Good afternoon, Ayame. I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I'd drop by. Hope I'm not bothering you."
"Not at all! You could never bother me! You should know that by now, you silly man. Mine is out at lunch anyway, and I was just finishing up a few fabulous sketches, but even geniuses need to take breaks now and then! Ahahaha!"
Hatori finally put his arms back around Ayame and even pulled him closer. His voice lowering. "Your assistant's out? So nobody's here right now?"
Ayame smirked. "I wouldn't say 'nobody's here'. You and I are certainly somebodies, aren't we?"
The doctor grinned and leaned down to kiss Ayame, who wrapped his arms around the other's neck, kissing him back with tenderness and passion.
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"So what? He sleeps with men. Nowadays that doesn't mean anything," Mitsuru offered.
Akito shot her a look. "Uh, what? How does that not mean anything? In case you haven't noticed, Mine is not me. She's all woman. She couldn't pass as a man even if her life depended on it."
"Of course I noticed! I'm not saying she should try to pass a man! The things you come up with sometimes, Akito," Mitsuru said. "What I'm saying is things aren't as black-and-white as they used to be." Mine looked to Mitsuru curiously as she continued, "You know what I think you should do, Mine-chan? I think you should go for it."
"Go for what?"
"For it! For him! I mean, if you can't get this fellow out of your mind, you should just do something. Kiss him or something."
"He's gay, Mit-chan!"
Mitsuru shrugged. "I thought I was straight until I met Ritsu."
Akito raised an eyebrow. "Ritsu is a man! You're married to him and you still haven't figured that out yet? Says a lot about your sex life."
"I know he's a man!" Mitsuru said, eyes widening, cheeks blushing. "B-but at the time, I didn't! I just fell for Ritsu as a person, not as a man or woman! T-that's all I meant!"
"Fine, fine. Don't have a panic attack over it," Akito said. "But men and women are different. If a man's gay, he's gay. End of story. And Ayame is obviously gay. You haven't known him for long, Mitsuru, but I thought it would be obvious even to you. Our whole family has known it ever since he was a little boy. He was, and still is, disgustingly flamboyant."
Mine took this chance to take a long, extra long sip from her coffee drink. She hadn't known, clearly. She had been working for, and falling for, Ayame for an entire year before she found out. She knew he was flamboyant, of course. She knew he was obsessed with fashion and spoke in a very expressive way and was more beautiful than ninety-nine percent of the women in Japan. But yet, she never even considered the possibility that he was gay. Now she chalked it up to her love blinding her. Her hope blinding her.
But then Mitsuru said, "But Ayame...I mean, his whole career is built around making lingerie for women, right? So we already know what's in his head most of the day: women in sexy outfits. There must be something to that!"
"He sells more to men than women, really. And besides, baristas have to think about coffee a lot. That doesn't mean they want to have sex with coffee," Akito said.
As Mitsuru and Akito continued to argue, as they frequently did, Mine looked back across the way. At the shop, deep in thought.
"...Go for it?" she suddenly asked.
Mitsuru turned away from Akito and flashed an encouraging smile at Mine. "Oh, yes. Seduce that man."
"Don't listen to her, Mine," Akito interjected. "It seems that being married has made her lose her mind. Trying to seduce him would more likely lead to your termination than anything else."
As Akito's words flew in and out of Mine's ears, she continued staring at the shop. And then a nervous, hopeful, and genuine smile crossed her face for the first time in forever.