Disclaimer: Fruits Basket belongs to its respective owners…but I do own Hatori though .

You would have to read "Summer is Not So Bad After All" to understand the story better.

Rehabilitation

Hatori sighed out loud as his hands reached for the drawer of their own accord. He was inside his office, having no patients in his clinic and feeling extremely bored. After a long and painful internal struggle, he allowed his hands to pull open the drawer and take out a packet of cigarettes. However, the mere thought of a certain dark-eyed, brown-haired girl screaming at him almost made him put the packet of cigarettes back – almost.

Secretively, as though doing something wrong, Hatori checked the calendar in front of him. Yukina was going outstation with a group of musicians to perform for a wedding function and was due back in two days. Of course, she would not allow him to smoke, but she does not know would not hurt her, right?

Yukina was a sixteen years old amnesiac girl who ended up in front of Hatori's doorstep a few months ago, and had since formed a close bond with him. She had an outstanding talent in music, and landed a job in a Scarlet Café, a favourite café of Hatori's, which was near to his clinic. Coincidentally, the owner of the café, Ayumu-san was a good friend of the Mabudachi trio since their school years, and thanks to Yukina, the café began to become famous around the area. However, this also meant that Hatori was beginning to see less and less of Yukina as she was getting busier performing either on the piano or her violin, drawing in flocks of customers.

Hatori sighed again. Yukina had been away for three days now, and he missed her immensely, although he would not admit it to his cousins, who often came to his clinic to tease him about the matter as their form of entertainment. He remembered her threatening him with a knife, a dagger, a pair of scissors and a water gun in her attempt to stop him from smoking. However, all these did not work until she laid the ultimatum – either he would undergo rehabilitation from smoking or she would leave his house, leaving him with no choice but to give up his habit of more than ten years.

The bright side of it was, well, she had a remarkable and passionate way of drawing his attention away from his cigarettes using nothing but herself. Therefore, Hatori enjoyed undergoing her "Yukina Rehabilitation Course" as she called it, and had since kept himself far away from smoking.

Hatori frowned at the cigarette in his hands. To tell the truth, he preferred having the rehabilitation than smoking it and facing Yukina's wrath. But, she would not be with him, at least not until she returned from her trip. Guiltily, Hatori took out a lighter from his coat and lit up the cigarette, wondering whether it would be better to just throw the whole thing into the waste basket. His craving won over his conscience and he was just going to put the cigarette to his mouth when the door burst open without warning.

"HATORI!! I'm back!!" a figure came rushing in through the door and leapt happily into his arms.

Hatori just had time to catch Yukina, whose face was red and flushed, presumably because she had just ran the whole way from the café into his clinic into his office. She was just about to kiss Hatori a kiss on the cheek when a sudden movement from him aroused her suspicion.

"What is in your hands, Hatori?" Yukina narrowed her eyes at him, shooting a piercing look at his right hand that he had hastily shoved into his pocket.

"Nothing," Hatori lied. "Anyway, I thought you were going to come back on Friday?"

He stood up, bringing the girl along with him and pressed his lips onto hers. Soon, his senses were so intoxicated with her that he did not notice her hand sneaking into his pocket.

Suddenly, Yukina pushed Hatori forcefully away, her hand holding a small, offending, traitorous cigarette.

"Can you tell me what exactly this is?" she asked quietly, waving the cigarette in front of him.

Seeing the look on Yukina's face, Hatori knew that he was dead, or would be in a few minutes.

"I'm sorry, I did not mean to…and I did not smoke either," he apologised, trying to pull Yukina back into his arms.

"I thought…you promised me to throw every single one of them away," Yukina whispered, her eyes brimming with tears. "I…I had just been gone for a few days…how many packets you have already finished?"

"I swear, that was the first one I was going to smoke," Hatori said, flustered at seeing the tears in her eyes.

"How should I believe you, Hatori?" Yukina asked sadly. "It's not that I hate the smell, but smoking is really bad for your health. If this became one of the reasons that you die earlier than me, how do you expect me to keep living without you?"

Hatori was startled and amused – so this was the reason that she would not allow him to smoke. All the while, he had been thinking that the smell of tobacco irritated her for some reason or other… Gently, he prised the fingers covering her tearful face away and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"I'm sorry, Yukina. I did not know that you were worried about this. If I had known, I would not have smoked even if I die not doing it," Hatori said softly, wiping her tears away with his handkerchief. "Anyway, you could not blame me for pining after you when you had been gone for so many days…" he continued, a hint of complaint in his voice.

"It was just three days…" Yukina answered, her expression turning perplexed.

"You know, I could not have lasted even one day without you," Hatori stated, invading her lips once more.

Their passionate kiss would have lasted forever if the door had not burst open again, this time with three men chortling uncontrollably. Hastily, they broke apart from each other and glared furiously at Shigure, Ayame and Ayumu.

"Did you hear that, Ayumu? Never take Yukina away from Hatori for more than one day, or he might crack!" Ayame said, gasping for air.

"Yeah, and we are the ones who have to face his anger," Shigure continued, poking fun at his normally serious cousin.

"I'm sorry, pal. I won't do this next time," Ayumu apologised profusely, although his face showed no signs of remorse.

Annoyed, Hatori took a deadly-looking syringe out of nowhere and showed it to them.

"If you don't leave here immediately, this is going to go into your veins. And I should tell you, it hurts a lot," he said calmly, walking slowly towards the three.

"Calm down, Hatori-kun. Well, we should give them some time alone now…" Shigure said, his face turning pale.

Shigure quickly pulled the other two along with him and made for the exit. Finally, the office was silent and peaceful again.

"Next time, you should bring me along with your trips so that you could keep an eye on me…" Hatori grumbled, tracing the outline of Yukina's cheekbones with a finger.

"Well, I might do that, but…" Yukina started and turned crimson suddenly.

"But what?" Hatori asked, faintly interested but he had an inkling of the answer in his mind.

"You might occupy so much of my time that I might as well not go for the trip," Yukina answered quickly, turning a deeper shade of red.

"As you already know that, how about giving me a rehabilitation course now? And I mean, right now," Hatori gazed tenderly into Yukina's brown eyes.

Without waiting for an answer, he sat down impulsively on an armchair and pulled Yukina with him, so that her body was sprawled over him. Then, he started to claim her lips in a frenzied, possessive kiss that drove them both over the brink of insanity. A little shocked and embarrassed, Yukina pouted at him, but her traitorous body ached for his touch, his kiss, his everything…and she gave in to his demanding caresses and strokes.

"As long as you help me with giving up smoking, I won't so much as look at a cigarette any more, Yukina," Hatori thought silently, a satisfied smirk on his face.