Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fic belong to Fruits Baskets. Not me
Rating: T+ for language and later………slushiness.
Chapter 1: So we meet again
The strangeness of it was what shocked him. He was seeing a prince waiting tables, knees in the mud, amongst the people. His hair was pulled back by a small, thin elastic and he was wearing a navy shirt—Café Dante printed in bold white script across the back—and dark jeans. He was balancing a glass laden tray on one slim wrist with that same divine grace that he'd possessed at age fourteen—finally growing out of his asthma and the Main House. And he was there, right in front of Kyo, some odd, mismatched apparition from the past. He'd hardly aged a day.
He looked happier though. Right before he'd left Kyo had grudgingly acknowledged that the rat was feeling his rejection from Tohru rather strongly, and then with Akito dying so soon afterward. It had seemed like a god-send to Kyo but the nezumi was a bit fucked in the head when it came to Akito. And then he'd vanished, the day after graduation, all that was left being a note written in his careful, elegant hand. He was leaving the country. Not to worry. It wasn't anyone's fault, he needed to find his own freedom or some more elegant phrasing of that.
Tohru had cried madly for hours but Hatori'd talked her down. He probably knew Yuki the best, at least the extent of what happened in those long lost days at the Main House, when Kyo'd been off in the mountains. What it must have been like, living there alone as he was…
"What may I get for you today, sir?"Kyo looked up at the bent head above him. And here he was, notepad in hand, looking so fulfilled and exhausted all at once.
"Yuki?" He dropped his notepad and peered into Kyo's face, seeing him for the first time that sun thick afternoon.
"K-Kyo? What are you doing here?"
"We're taking a summer holiday." Kyo said softly, in Japanese now. Yuki paled.
"We?" he asked rather breathlessly and Kyo was fleetingly reminded of the day Yuki had an asthma attack on the track test. God he'd been scared shitless. The nezumi had been gasping in such an evidently pain-filled way Kyo's heart had dropped to his feet with fear.
"Can you sit for a minute? Will your…boss…mind?" Kyo asked, still grappling with the idea that Yuki would work as wait staff for anyone, ever. Yuki fell to the chair opposite him in the sort of legless way that made Kyo glad he'd suggested it.
"I'll just tell her I'm taking my break now." Yuki said, still looking shaky. "Who came with you?"
"It's just Tohru and I." Kyo lied. If Yuki was this stressed over just Kyo anyone more might send him running.
"She'd love to see you if you're free tonight." Yuki looked at Kyo in a rather dazed way.
"See…Honda-san?" he repeated blankly. "It's been awhile."
"Five years."
"She's been counting?"
"Everyone has."
"I didn't mean to worry anyone I just…I needed to get away from it…all…" Yuki looked stressed now and Kyo wished he hadn't brought up the past. An awkward silence fell and Kyo was tempted to just up and go but seeing Yuki, looking so different, it was so strange, so... And more importantly Tohru would want to see him, desperately.
"Hey, um, are you free tonight?" he asked gruffly. Yuki was silent for a moment, running a hand through his hair, pulling away the elastic without noticing. He then looked up at Kyo and it was as if they were meeting again, somehow for the first time.
Those eyes had changed. They'd been so shuttered before, so cleared of emotion that you felt you needn't even be in the room. God how arrogant he'd seemed. Now though, there was vitality there, an evidence of deep rooted vulnerability and strength and overcomeance. If he'd been eye-catching before, as a cool ice prince, now he was…
"Yes." Yuki said, interrupting his reverie.
"Would you, er, dinner?" Kyo said feeling more awkward by the minute. It felt more and more like he was asking Yuki out on a date. Thankfully Yuki was still too disoriented to make Kyo's awkwardness apparent.
"I…I get off at seven."
"Great I'll pick you up then." Kyo said quickly. Then picked up his jacket and made a hurried dash to the door.
When he got back to the hotel Tohru was still napping. He wondered how he would tell her. Would she be happy? Upset? Would seeing Yuki looking so tired worry her? He'd looked exhausted. Was his health going bad again? Should he tell Hatori?
But Yuki'd looked so nervous at the thought at seeing everyone. And even if he'd looked a bit poorly he'd also looked happy. After all they'd been through he didn't want to ruin whatever Yuki had going on here. He owed him as much. And was it really his place any way?