Some people are made for each other. Sometimes love starts out small and grows over time, with careful nurturing. Some love begins strong and remains so through the course of time. And some love, the most fragile kind, begins all in a moment. That moment may never happen again in a lifetime and those two people may never meet again. All they can do is hope and wait for the beautiful stranger to return.
That is exactly what happened to Kyo Sohma three days after his seventeenth birthday. He walked home from school alone; Yuki was busy with the Student Council and Tohru had to go to work. So Kyo took the time to contemplate his birthday. It had been the same as ever now Tohru lived in the house; presents, a birthday meal and a cat-shaped cake. He sometimes wondered if she baked that cake to be sarcastic in some way. Kyo shook his head at this thought, Tohru was too innocent for that sort of thing.
The tall teenager continued to walk alone, hands stuffed into his pockets. He had his head bent so his eyes were upon the pavement that stretched only a metre or so ahead. Kyo found himself then thinking of his training with his Master in the mountains. A small grin curved unbidden over his lips. He really had enjoyed those months. He wondered what the house had been like without him there.
"Nobody missed me I guess" Kyo muttered to himself, uncertain of why he was thinking out loud like that. Usually he kept his private thoughts locked up tight inside his head. Rarely did he dare voice what was truly on his mind. Sure, he had his random outbursts and he let off steam occasionally but more often than not he put up a mask of impassiveness. Only one or two people could ever see past this. Even then he despised letting people in.
Tohru. She was one of the people that tried to understand what stupid things were going on in his head. Only she seemed to truly care... Even then they were just friends. They were each other's shoulder to lean on no matter what. Most people thought he had loved her at some point. This always made Kyo laugh; he loved her still but as one of the select few he considered to truly be a friend.
He shook thoughts from his head and contented himself with humming a song to himself as he walked. He had almost reached the woods when he saw someone out of the corner of his eye. Glancing up he saw a girl, perhaps a year younger than he was, strolling along as if she didn't have a care in the world. He did a double take; she was beautiful!
She seemed not to notice that he had paused to observe her as she walked at a leisurely pace in his direction. Kyo smiled a little, wondering if she would see him. He frowned, this was stupid. Why would she notice him? He was just a stupid cat. With a sigh he looked away from her and began to walk on his way once more.
The girl looked up at the teenager infront of her, her startlingly bright green eyes fixed upon him intently. He was so handsome! She self-consciously reached up a hand to push her white hair off her face. Her lips parted as she thought of saying hello to him. Her lips met once more. How could she talk to him? Surely this handsome stranger had no cause to even reply to someone like her. She was just a stupid rat.
The passed each other and for a moment their eyes met. In that moment something would bind them together, something would wrap around each of their souls and hold on tight. Neither knew it yet but they had just come eye to eye with their soulmate. Be this good or bad they kept right on walking.
Why would they talk to me? How can I take a chance on a beautiful stranger?