May 2010 – I've been seeing these "50 Sentences Challenge" lists pop up here and there on FFN. I thought it'd be fun to give it a try. Just something light and with varying degrees of fluff as a bit of a break from all the "OMGANGST!1one!D8" of my other fic "No Regrets," as well as the drama and more angst of other stories I've got in the works. But that's not a discussion for here.
I finally get a Fruits Basket fanfic up here (nearly two years after I became a fan) and it's this. I know, right?
Some of these sentences are better than others, obviously, but I won't deny that I nevertheless appreciated the opportunity to jump around in the "storyline" as I pleased. :D
Pairing: YukixTohru
It seems FFN eats URLs even if you do try to circumvent them; PM me if you want to know where I got the list; OR, Googling "50 Sentences Writing Challenge" or something of that nature will lead you to the LiveJournal. :)
Fruits Basket belongs to Natsuki Takaya.
1. Comfort
As a guy, Yuki feels he should be the one to run to Tohru's rescue – but for some reason, he doesn't mind that she's often the one who comforts him.
2. Kiss
He'd come so close to kissing her on their first White Day together – he still doesn't know what made him chicken out.
3. Soft
There's something about the inherent softness of Yuki's voice that both enthralls Tohru and breaks her heart.
4. Pain
Yuki hates pain – but he'll take a thousand beatings from Akito if it means he can keep Tohru safe.
5. Potatoes
Yuki never really saw the point of planting potatoes, until he tasted everything that Tohru made with them.
6. Rain
Any time it rains is time that Kyou is fast asleep, and time that Yuki can have Tohru all to himself.
7. Chocolate
Girls have tried to give him chocolate before, but Tohru's was the only chocolate he wanted to have.
8. Happiness
Tohru's happiness is to Yuki what fun is to Momiji – he can't ever get enough of it.
9. Telephone
Yuki used to laugh privately at Tohru's insistence that she continue answering the telephone as "Sohma residence, Tohru Honda speaking," until he finally, gently told her she could answer as simply "This is Tohru."
10. Ears
Multiple times, Tohru has wanted to ask Yuki about the small, barely perceptible scars on his ears – but she feels it would be too personal a question. [1]
11. Name
Though they never spoke about it, Yuki and Tohru found a certain irony in their names – "Yuki" normally being a girl's name, and "Tohru" usually belonging to a boy, it sometimes made total sense that they would come together in the end.
12. Sensual
Neither Yuki nor Tohru feel others could possibly perceive anything sensual about them – but when she's working over steaming pots, or he's digging through moist earth, the other can't help feeling the butterflies take flight in their stomach.
13. Death
When he sees how emotionally attached Tohru remains to her mother, Yuki wonders if it's wrong that he himself feels so numb about death.
14. Sex
Yuki would be lying if he said having sex with Tohru was something he'd never thought about, but he knows it can't ever happen; and he doesn't believe their relationship really needs it, anyway.
15. Touch
The other girls at school hate Tohru for her closeness to Yuki; Yuki loves Tohru because she's the only girl not afraid to touch him.
16. Weakness
It's in revealing his weaknesses to Tohru that Yuki feels himself becoming stronger.
17. Tears
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Yuki feels that their relationship can only end in tears – but for now he doesn't want to let that bother him.
18. Speed
The speed with which Tohru rushes to check his temperature when he even coughs amazes him because she's normally so clumsy, and excites him because it shows how much she cares.
19. Wind
They'd seen no harm in going for a walk on a windy autumn afternoon, but Shigure took great delight in the sight of their subsequently very tousled hair, making Yuki blush bright red (while Tohru stood oblivious) by suggestively asking if they'd by any chance taken a break for a "roll in the leaves" while they were out.
20. Freedom
Tohru can bolster Yuki's confidence, listen to his worries, and help him grow into a better person – but she can't give him freedom from Akito.
21. Life
Since Tohru started living with them, Yuki's started thinking that maybe life isn't so terrible after all.
22. Jealousy
He doesn't recognize that muddy feeling as jealousy when he watches Kyou and Tohru walk off to visit Shihan – more like a desperate, burning desire to break the Cat's jaw.
23. Hands
Yuki never thought twice about holding hands with Tohru, or how it would look to other people; all he knew was that it felt right.
24. Taste
On any other girl, the dress Ayame made wouldn't be remotely within Yuki's taste; leave it to Tohru to truly sway him no matter what she wore.
25. Devotion
He'll jump after Tohru into a ravine to try to break her fall, knowing that he'll transform into a mere rat that couldn't possibly hope to cushion her – that's how deep Yuki's devotion runs for her.
26. Forever
Tohru never said exactly how long she would live with them – but Yuki thinks she wants to stay forever, and he hopes she will.
27. Blood
The day her smile made the blood rush to his face, Yuki knew he officially had a crush on Tohru Honda.
28. Sickness
In sickness and in health, Tohru is determined to always do her best – a characteristic that both impresses Yuki and scares him sick himself.
29. Melody
Every "Honda-san!" from Yuki is like an uplifting melody to Tohru's ears, and one that never lasts long enough.
30. Star
If Tohru thinks Yuki's kindness is like a candle, then Yuki believes Tohru's kindness is like the brightest star.
31. Home
When Yuki breathed "I'm home" on New Year's Eve, he hadn't meant he was back at Shigure's house; he'd meant he was back with the girl living in it.
32. Confusion
Okay, so Tohru's total confusion at the first suggestion she go on a "date" with Yuki wasn't the reaction he had been hoping for – but he decided it was okay as long as she would be on his arm and not Kyou's.
33. Fear
When Tohru can accept others for all their flaws so easily, Yuki occasionally wonders why Tohru rejecting him for his imperfections is one of his biggest fears.
34. Lightning/Thunder
Right after the first flash of lightning lit his silver hair bright white, Tohru swore Yuki tried to tell her something, but she couldn't hear it over the thunder; he flushed such a deep red afterward that she didn't dare ask him to repeat it.
35. Bonds
If anyone had told Yuki, before he met her, that any one person could form such strong bonds with not only himself, but with the Cat as well, he might have laughed and said such a person would have to be intolerably insane – but Tohru is merely forgivably air-headed.
36. Market
When Uotani-san bluntly asks Yuki – in front of Tohru – whether he considers himself in the market for a girlfriend, he splutters into his milk, and Tohru doesn't understand why he blushes or why everyone else is laughing (something for which he is grateful).
37. Technology
Yuki really wishes Tohru's first in-depth brush with technology hadn't been Shigure showing her how to look up tips on the Internet for hooking hot boys with his office computer...
38. Gift
He had agonized a lot more than the average person would think about the perfect White Day gift for Tohru and had been dithering between two items – then he recalled her hesitance to accept large presents and decided beyond a doubt that the laced hair ribbon would be perfect after all.
39. Smile
When the rain fled and Tohru saw Yuki truly smile for the first time, she desperately wished the Sohma's weren't cursed at all, or she would have given in to that sudden impulse to fling herself at him for joy.
40. Innocence
It's Tohru's innate innocence that draws Yuki to her, but it's also what makes his attempts at courting her all the more awkward and frustrating.
41. Completion
Any time the two of them lock eyes, Yuki feels a strange sense of completion – until the birdie plunks onto his head and the moment is broken in the most embarrassing way.
42. Clouds
Once, Tohru lent Yuki her notes when he had to spend the day home sick – and he thought it was just like her to doodle scores of clouds in the margins during lulls in the the lectures.
43. Sky
For some reason, the summer sky is never so blue as it is when Tohru is in her cutest summer dress, beaming brighter than the sun itself; Yuki's never had the guts to voice this to her, though.
44. Heaven
Occasionally (okay, a lot), Yuki wonders what it might feel like to kiss Tohru Honda; he keeps thinking it will feel like kissing heaven itself.
45. Hell
When he notices the Cat spending more time with Tohru, and her spending less time with him, he realizes that living under Akito's eye never prepared him for this kind of hell.
46. Sun
"Yuki-kun," Tohru says suddenly and nonchalantly after she trips and practically lands right on top of him while they're out gardening, "I think you've been in the sun too long: your face is bright red..."
47. Moon
Girls at school compare Yuki's skin to a white lily, or fresh snow, or even the finest ivory – Tohru rather thinks it's more like the radiant light of the moon.
48. Waves
If playing their relationship as more than casual friends wouldn't have caused such waves with Kaibara High School's female population, they would have gone further a long time ago.
49. Hair
One night, when the two of them are alone, Yuki feels bold enough to gently play with Tohru's long, silky hair, and rather than object or move away, she instead carefully leans closer.
50. Supernova
When Yuki Sohma finally kisses Tohru Honda, the force of a supernova couldn't have competed with the explosive rush under their skin.
[1] There is at least one illustration that Takaya-sensei drew of Yuki where he's wearing earrings. Yes, I know there are such things as clip-ons and magnetic earrings, as well as just-for-fun non-canon illustrations; but, for the purposes of this fic, at least, I choose to think that at some point in his life Yuki had pierced ears.
This was fun to write, looking back.
Hopefully this malarkey made a couple of you smile. :) (It made me, but that's just because I'm a big mushball when it comes to cute pairings.)
Well, you know the drill: reviews are always appreciated.