A/N: Written for the 100_ tales challenge on livejournal with Fruits Basket: Hatori/Kana and prompt #002 – hail. Also written for the 5,10,20,50,70,100 fandoms challenge, fandom 22/100. And because I love Hatori as a character and am yet to write anything about him (until now). :)

Baby Snow

'I don't like the hail.'

'Don't you?'

The tone made Hatori turn his head a little, so Kana's relaxed figure enveloped his vision. She was leaning against the wide windowsill, head tipped slightly so the low-cut brown hair tickled the collar of her coat.

Kana caught her look and grinned impishly, smooth face losing the mask of ethereal beauty and instead adopting a cute exterior. 'What?' she asked lightly. 'It's a fair enough question.'

'Yes.' Hatori turned to stare once again at the lumps of ice hitting the window. 'I suppose it is. But why do you ask?'

'Well…' Kana tipped her head a little further, so both the hail outside and her superior within were in her vision. 'Hail is sort of like snow, isn't it? Shorter, less longer lasting – sort of like a baby version of snow really.' Her lips turned upward. 'Here's a question for you: what does the hail become when it melts?'

Hatori turned to her once more. 'You asked me that,' he said thoughtfully. 'Or rather, you asked what snow became when it melted.'

Kana laughed, little bell chimes ringing through the small office space. 'You're not going to answer "water" again, are you?' she teased. 'For a doctor, you aren't very open-minded.'

'Is that your impression of me?' Hatori asked seriously.

Kana reached over and poked him. 'My impression is that you're a stick in the mud that needs to get out of the office sometimes and have fun.'

'So that's why you begged me to take you to the amusement park?'

A breath of silence, where only the hail knocked on the window, permeated between them. Then Kana laughed again. 'You dog!' she exclaimed, 'tricking me with a straight face like that.'

'That would be Shigure,' Hatori corrected, although Kana knew nothing of the Zodiac.

'Shigure.' Kana repeated the name. 'I don't think I know him. Another member of the family?'

She said it as if they were a family in every sense of the term.

'Anyway,' she said, drawing out the "a". 'Why don't you like the hail?'

'It's violent,' Hatori said after a pause. 'It's short, and it doesn't have much logical purpose.' He thought a little more, then added: 'it ruins plants as well.'

'Ah.' Delicate fingers tapped on the windowsill, white sleeve moving up and down in an unsteady rhythm. 'Come on!'

Hatori's expression had barely had a chance to become befuddled in the time Kana whipped off both their coats and grabbed his arm. 'Come on!' she repeated with a grin, and Hatori followed her lead outside.

'We'll get colds,' he deadpanned.

'Stick in the mud,' the other countered cheerfully, letting go of his arm and spinning, palms spread towards the heavens. 'The hail's over anyway.'

And so it was; all that remained were the tiny crystals of ice on the ground, melting quickly into stains of water that would vanish in the upcoming sun.

'Isn't it beautiful?'

Beautiful?

Hatori looked closer, gazing at the colour that danced across the ground and the sparkling tips.

'Geez,' Kana said, shaking her head. 'The ground's not the most interesting thing in the world.' She pointed at the flowers, and Hatori followed her line of sight until the glistening petals had swallowed his vision, bright and fresh and reflecting the winter's sunlight.

'They are beautiful,' he agreed, 'but they won't last.'

'Well, of course not silly.' Kana was holding his hand again, and he said nothing. 'Nothing good ever lasts. That's what makes it so precious.'