Orokid: Okay, this had started out by a try at making this a Tohru only POV in third person by using only one sense throughout the entire thing (sight), but that had ended when I had brought the other character in (obviously). I wanted to get his feelings (although they are mentioned rarely- I did do that much) in so that it made the story a little understandable, you know? Anyway…

So, since the POV and sense thing didn't work, I just started to free write- what I always do whenever I'm stuck. Lol. So, in case you didn't notice, it hasn't been betaed (just like all of my stories). It's too much work to do that, and I'm too lazy and excited about completing a story that I usually tend to forget about caring about preciseness. That's in case anyone cared about my writing style. Lol.

Moving on…

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that has to do with Fruits Basket. I just think it's an awesome anime (since I only read the first book and cheated when I started looking at the ending of the story over the ending…), so you can flame me if you want. I needed something to pop my popcorn with anyway. ((Grins)) Besides, all the money I have right now is going to paying for my cosplay outfit for Anime Expo- as well as a ticket I'm paying for and HOPING of using.

Rating: T, just because I have a feeling that someone thinks that nine year olds aren't perverted… (although this story actually has nothing to do with perversion- odd, but true).

Genre: Angst and Romance- my two favorite things to have together!

Warning: Fluffiness, right along with much, much, MUCH angst. Beware…

Those Words on His Last Day

She liked to watch him.

No, it wasn't in the stalker sort of way, but she did find enjoyment of watching while everyone else is looking. The way the sun seemed to hit those orange locks of his, or the way that he only seemed to really smile whenever he was with her… Those were the things that seemed to perk her interest the most while they were together, after the year that they had spent learning, listening, laughing and talking together.

But there had been a guilty thought or two about want to fondle his hair just like the wind always seemed to be able to. Or even to take him into her gentle arms and hold him until that hurt that wouldn't leave him or his eyes went away.

Yet there were time in her life while she had lived with her new surrogate family (since her last had seemed so horrible to live with by the standards of those she had gotten to care for very much) that she felt as though she had taken a step towards having a strange and, not to mention, almost illegal obsession with him. Nights would go by almost unnoticed as she would just stand in his doorway, dressed only in her pajamas, watching him sleep in that fetal position he seemed to prefer while in his nightmarish dreams. Every time she did so, it almost felt like a mother checking in on her child, but… there was always something inside of her that wouldn't like such a label as that. Something that she didn't want to particularly tell anyone about…

It was really a part of her heart that she didn't want to admit to, for the sake of her friend (her-favorite-thing-to-watch's cousin) and his feelings. Never did she really want to hurt someone whom she truly cared for, even if it wasn't in that sort of way, so it had been keeping her silenced. Then again, it had always been like that, and she was growing more and more tired of having to disregard her emotions for the sake of another. She oftentimes had to force that smile on her lips, the one many said gave them hope when nothing else would, just so no one would see how she hated holding herself back from him.

But that was beyond that point right then. Whether she had to hold herself back from doing so or not, she still did like to watch him.

No, she didn't just like it. She loved to watch him and everything that he did, from the time that he woke up until the time that he would disappear from her sights and into his bedroom. Some days, her heart felt as though it was dying because of all of her effort that she was putting for, and she grew weary of having to clutch her heart so that it stayed still or having to keep her arms wrapped about her own body so she wouldn't wrap them around his.

And then, as she knew it would, his departure had come, and the one she had enjoyed watching seemed to be disappearing from her life completely in a matter of moments. He had entered it so suddenly and he seemed to be doing the same for his exit, as much as she hated that fact.

Just once, she had wanted to wrap her arms around him and tell him just how much she enjoyed watching him, but… it seemed as though that chance was leaving right along with him. So, on his final day in his final hour, she had decided to do something that she knew was probably the last thing that she should have done. Still, it had been her heart that had led her to accomplish such a task, so she had to follow it thoroughly if not at all.

"K-Kyo-kun?" the young and timid voice of the newly graduated woman called, opening the sliding doors that she had oftentimes peeked into while he was in dreamland. When she had caught sight of it's innards, empty and bare, filled with nothing more than the usual furniture and dust, she could immediately feel the tears of sadness overcome her ability to hold them back- but, still, she forced them to stay in place, knowing that he couldn't take her words serious unless she done so.

This was what she had to do and, on the sake of her dead mother, she would do it. If not, she would be ashamed to ever gaze into that photo ever again.

"Hai", an annoyed low tone answered, unhappiness showing frankly through the vibrations his throat had allowed to go. Her kind eyes turned to where his voice was coming, seeing him raise his arm, defeated and calling out a surrender that he didn't enjoy, and she smiled sadly at the sight of his lowed head. "I'm in here. Come in, Tohru-chan." With his approval, she had entered, slowly closing the door behind her so not to cause a ruckus of any kind. She knew that Shigure would not enjoy hearing a door slam (even if this door was used to it by then after so many circumstances the owner of the room had been through) on the day that his cousin would be leaving. It was too sad a day for angry movements like banging the doors closed. "What do you need?"

"I… I wanted to see Kyo-kun", she told him honestly, her eyes moving over the hunched over back, knowing that he was just as depressed as she was. Unlike her, though, he was doing his best to hide his hurt, even if he was doing such a poor job at it. "And… I wanted to say… goodbye, I suppose." His head lowed at the word that she too was beginning to despise on this day that would forever be imprinted as the day her heart would die. "And…" Her head lowered as well, teardrops that she had tried to hold back breaking past the barriers that she had placed up. The cinnamon haired girl couldn't continue without shedding those tears of a lost ending, and she knew it.

Still, he would prod, as he always had whenever she had seemed unable to continue. It was in his nature, and she loved that about it. She had loved watching his eyes shine with curiosity every time it would happen, but she doubted that they barely glimmered now in his time of need.

With his back turned to her, he turned his head a bit so that his ears could listen to what she had needed to say better; she could barely see the stains of the tears that he wouldn't admit to weeping. That alone seemed to break whatever hold she might've had on herself. "And?"

In return to his prod, he only received a sharp intake of breath and a shuddering sigh, an almost unheard sob following soon after.

He didn't turn to look at her, probably afraid that he would be seen in a way different than how he had been trying to be his entire life, but his posture seemed to lose all of the determination that he had been trying to uphold. She could feel in her heart that her actions had only caused a metaphorical knife stab through him. Tohru had watched him enough in the past to know how he looked, whether he wanted her to know or not, and it killed her on the inside.

Still, this only seemed to enforce her need to share with him on his final day the things that she had to say.

"K-Kyo-kun, I…" Could she force from her closing throat the things that could make or break the future that she yearned for? "I…" Her heart begged for the words to exit her, but… they wouldn't leave her body. The tears that she could feel streaming down her face now only seemed to hinder her words even more. So, she did what she could do in her position- she threw her arms around his neck, keeping that certain distance away so that there would be any discomfort. It was then that the numbness seemed to overtake her gentle orbs as they pounded painfully from nights of tears long past and the ones that bothered her now.

He didn't move, and neither did she for a long while, both not wanting to forget this moment in time so that they would still see it in their memories when death would take them. Her head was buried in the smooth curve that she had thrown her arms about, and he continued to sit there with his eyes closed, taking in the seconds that seemed to pass by them in their silence. Yet, as he began to open the lids of his amber eyes, his mouth following suit so to tell her the words both of them feared, he felt her stir, and his lips had closed immediately, not wanting to interfere with what she wished to speak of. He felt her lips touch his listening ear and the young male reveled in the feeling of it, not wanting it to end but to only begin anew. With a breath against the skin, she spoke the words that her heart had begged her to, and his eyes had snapped open having been surprised by it.

"You finally beat the rat at something, Kyo-kun…"

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Orokid: Dunno if that's the sort of ending that everyone thought I was going to give, but I've always wanted Tohru to say that! Lol. Although, from some of my critics ((cough cough- traitorous friends- cough cough)), some people don't think that Kyo would get it at first OR don't believe that Tohru would say that at all- but… but… ((Cries)) I just wanted it that way… ((Pouts with puppy dog eyes))

((Cough cough- looks both ways before turning back to normal)) Umm… anyway…

Read and review!! I would enjoy having a lot of reviews. Please????