AN: This story is basically a continuation of Fruits Basket, but one that centers on our favorite bunny Momiji. Try to think manga/anime while you read, it'll raise the comedy-level! Probably nobody is going to read this but I'm writing this story ANYWAYS since I'm really enjoying it!! Still, any reviews are MOST WELCOME ^^
Things in Italics can mean: character's thoughts, author's note, funny sounds, etc...again, thinking manga!
Chapter 1: CHAPTER 1
(Eh? Lack of creativity much?)
Hitomi groaned and pressed a cool towel to her feverish forehead. Her clothes were muddy and soaking wet, her throat burned as if she'd swallowed hot sand, and there was clearly a battering ram inside her skull, pounding her brain into gray mush. She wanted to break something. And then dive into cup of ice. Or a hot, steamy pool of green tea. Whatever. Hitomi wasn't making a lot of sense at the moment. She shivered then, teeth chattering like empty clam shells. Heck, Hitomi didn't even know if she felt too hot, or too cold!
"See? This is what happens when you overexert yourself like that. So careless, Hitomi," said Masumi, Hitomi's stepmother.
Hitomi barely managed to gather the strength to speak. "I wasn't…'overexerting' myself." Her voice came out raspy and breathless. She'd been in the middle of her daily five mile run when the bright sun of late March was suddenly obscured by dark clouds, and fat water droplets began falling fast. Nearly typhoon-level winds pounded the rain down on Hitomi by the bucketfuls as she frantically made her way home. She'd slipped once into a muddy puddle, adding to her misery.
"Oh, they run twice the distance at her cross-country meets. I'm sure it was just the sudden weather change that caught her off guard," defended Ryuu, Hitomi's father. He touched her forehead, his large hand firm and soothing. "Wow! You're really burning there! Like a radiator." Ryuu grinned good-naturedly, although the concern never left his eyes.
"Well young ladies shouldn't be running about in the rain, like boys. Masumi cast a disapproving glance over Hitomi's drenched running shorts and t-shirt. "And you're dripping all over the floor!" she screeched. "The water will ruin the wood for sure...YOU'RE CLEANING IT UP!"
"What?!" Hitomi gawked at her stepmother. Masumi's face swam as Hitomi felt even more light-headed.
"Now! I don't care if you're sick. It's your own fault you even GOT sick in the first place and now it's YOUR fault you're ruining the floor! Your father and I work SO hard to keep this house and this is how you repay us? Why, you —"
"Masumi! That's enough." Ryuu's voice had gone cold. "I'll run down to the pharmacy and get Hitomi some medicine. In the meantime, why don't you go take a bath, Hitomi? I'm sure a nice, hot bath will help you feel better." He gently pushed her towards the bathroom.
"But it's stormy and wet out! Listen to that thunder…Surely Hitomi's medicine can wait until tomorrow —" Masumi whined.
"I'm fine, Dad, really. (She's lying through her teeth) No need for you to get out in the middle of a storm." Hitomi sagged against the wall, still dripping onto the floor. She looked like an old rag doll the dog had been slobbering over.
"Ha-ha, nice try, ladies. I'll be fine. It's just down the street, for heaven's sake! What has the world come to when a father can't fetch a medicine for his suffering daughter and all he has to do is pop out of the house for a couple minutes?" Matsuoka Ryuu chuckled as he got his keys out. They jingled quietly as he searched for the right one. "Hurry up and get into some dry clothes, Hitomi-san. I don't want you catching a cold as well." Then with a smile, and a wave, he was gone.
Her father's dark, reddish-brown hair, his thoughtful, hazel eyes, and that last smile, so gentle and warm, a smile set aside just for her, all these had been imprinted in Hitomi's mind, because that was the last time she would see her father again. At least, while he was still alive.
- - -
"I still can't believe she's really gone." Momiji rested his chin on his knees as he contemplated the chessboard before him.
"Tohru's run off with Kyo, and Yuki is going to university. Uotani Arisa and Saki Hanajima are graduated too. School's going to be really dull this year," sighed Haru wistfully, moving his knight to block Momiji's pawn.
"That wide smile she had for everyone. I'm going to miss it. And going for ice cream after school almost everyday." An amused grin crossed Momiji's face as he reminisced. "Tohru never said no to anything."
"Geez, listen to yourselves," said Kagura impatiently. "You guys make it sound like she's dead or something!"
Momiji promptly moved his bishop in for the kill. "Ha! Checkmate!"
"Awww man…Not again!" Momiji always wins at chess. Stupid ex-rabbit.
Kagura sighed as she got up from the tatami mat. "Haru, your chess-skills are as bad as your sense of direction. You've got to watch out for backdoors and plan ahead. Uh, where's Isuzu-san? I need to ask her something."
Hatsuharu sulked. "She's in the kitchen drawing. Once this rain stops, we're going back outside. And…" His features suddenly changed, showing a glimpse of the Black Haru within. "I'M CHALLENGING YOU," he pointed at Momiji with a maniacal gleam in his eye, "TO A…to a…ah, what was I saying?" White Haru scratched his feathery white hair quizzically.
"You were just about to challenge me to a fight, Haru." Momiji looked at Haru pityingly.
"Huh. Why would I challenge you to a fight?"
"Who knows?"
Kagura slid the door open and peeked out. A gust of cold wind blew in, tousling her ebony hair and splattering her with a few rain droplets. "In any case, I really don't think this storm is going to end soon. And since we're all cooped up inside, shouldn't you guys be starting some of your summer homework?"
"Eh?" said both boys simultaneously. A spiraling wave of nausea gripped Momiji as he thought of the heap of monotonous, classical works he needed to read and somehow generate essays from, the countless chapters he needed to outline for history, hundreds of Calculus functions and graphs — all waiting for him in a dark corner of his closet.
"After all, school starts in less than two weeks…" She left the two gaping boys in search of Rin.
Haru grumbled angrily. "Crazy old Watanabe. We've got to write FIVE essays!"
"Ooh, maybe if we work on homework together and help each other, we can get it all done on time," said Momiji cheerfully, as he cleared away the chess pieces. He seemed to have gotten over the initial shock quite quickly.
Haru visibly brightened. "By 'work together and 'help each other', do you mean cop—"
"AAH!" Momiji gasped in horror. "Of course not! I don't indulge in criminal habits, Haru."
Hatsuharu scowled and turned up his nose. "Fine, be like that Momiji. I see how it is."
"Oh no, I didn't mean it that way," said Momiji quickly, "It's okay if we work on it together since we both need help but I won't tolerate cheating!" He winked innocently.
Haru stared flatly at the golden-haired boy, and quietly went to get his homework.
- - -
Hitomi examined her reflection through the three-sided vanity mirror in her bathroom. Ugh. This has got to be the worst day of my life. Her best white t-shirt was ruined with reddish mud. Her shorts now sported an unsightly tear on the hip. Irritated hazel eyes — more green than brown at the moment — stared back at her. She pulled off her sopping running clothes and tossed them into the sink. They slapped wetly against the polished stone.
She was very annoyed at her stepmom. Masumi was just so single-minded. She lived for Ryuu Matsuoka, and only him. Hitomi knew her stepmother didn't love her. Does she even like me at all? Not likely, since she and Masumi were at odds in nearly everything.
Hitomi opened a foaming bath packet and poured it into her sizeable bathtub. As violet bubbles formed over the water, the steamy air filled with the scent of her favorite flower — lavender. It helped to clear her head, somewhat. Hitomi pulled the rubber band out of her hair, grimacing (ouch!) as it pulled out several strands in the process. She ran her fingers through her tangled long hair, a slightly lighter color than her father's, and stepped into the tub.
"AH!" Hitomi squeaked. Reflexively, she bounced back out of the tub. The warm water was scalding to her numb-with-cold feet. How strange. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself back in.
Masumi was a pretty, fragile little thing, who rarely exercised if she could avoid it. She claimed that going outdoors into the climatic extremes could lead to early death and she frowned upon Hitomi's "overexertion" into her schools cross country activities. Well, maybe her form of exercise was ordering around their poor old maid.
Surrounded by foamy, sweet-smelling bubbles, Hitomi began to feel sluggish. The pounding in her head was not so insistent anymore as she rubbed her fingers and toes, getting the life back into them.
Not for the first time, she wondered where her biological mother was.
BANG! Hitomi jumped. She'd fallen asleep in the water and hit her head against the bathtub rim! Since the water was still warm, and a thick blanket of foam still covered the water, she knew she'd only fallen asleep for a moment, but Hitomi hurriedly finished her bath and threw on her pajamas.
Exiting the bathroom, she made a beeline for her bed, already feeling sluggish again. Hitomi was asleep before her head hit the pillow.
Hitomi blinked in the darkness. How long had she been asleep? Turning, she stared at her alarm clock. 11:21 P.M. She'd been sleeping for ten hours!
What had woken her up then? She listened intently. The storm had apparently ended; she couldn't hear the wind howling anymore or the sound of dripping water. There was traffic though. Cars honking outside perhaps a block away, the sirens of an ambulance in the distance…
Now she heard the light tinkling of Masumi's voice floating upwards from downstairs. And then someone answered her, a man with a gruff, serious voice. Not the voice of her father. Hitomi frowned. Who would be visiting at such a late hour? Where's Dad?
She stealthily approached the spiral staircase. In the foyer, her stepmother and a tall man were talking quietly. A rather largely built man with salt-and-pepper hair. It was funny how these small details kept on coming back to Hitomi in the days to come. She crept an inch closer in an effort to hear better, and at the same moment, she felt a tug on her pajama sleeve — CRASH! — Masumi's precious crystal vase shattered into a million pieces!
"What was that?"
Hitomi cursed under her breath as both heads below snapped upwards.
The ambulance outside wailed, closer now.
She gathered up her courage and emerged from the shadows. "Um, hello?" The man turned around to face her. His star-shaped badge glinted from his chest. That man was a policeman! Hitomi avoided looking at Masumi — she could feel her stepmother's eyes glowering at her like laser beams.
"Hitomi Matsuoka?" he asked. "I need to speak to you about your father…" He regarded the slender girl carefully, his stern eyes serious, yet hesitant.
"Sure, but why…? By the way, where is he?" Hitomi then looked at Masumi for the first time. Her delicate features were blotchy and tear-stained, but it was the raw animosity in her stepmother's dark eyes that shocked her. She gulped.
The ambulance continued to keen insistently. How annoying…
"Where is he?" Hitomi turned to the tall man for answers. "Officer, where…"
A bitter voice, hard as steel, interrupted her. "Go see for yourself, Hitomi. Ryuu's outside. Down the street. He's still getting the medicine you wanted."
Hitomi froze.
The ambulance whined.
"Your father…had an…accident." She stared at the policeman, cold reality sinking in. "I-I'm sorry, Hitomi-san. Your father was a good man." The kindness in his eyes, his words, took her by surprise.
Masumi shook like a leaf in the autumn wind, and crossed her arms over her body, trying to hold herself together. She shrieked and crumpled to the floor. The sound matched the scream of the sirens. The police officer rushed to steady the small woman.
Hitomi felt dizzy. It definitely wasn't a good dizzy, but it wasn't a bad dizzy either. It was a…numb kind of dizzy. She didn't really believe what the tall, large man had said. She had to see for herself.
She opened the door and stepped out. The air was tepid, oppressive. Hitomi crossed the neat, perfectly landscaped front yard, swaying on her bare feet. Where was the pharmacy? The pharmacy her father had gone to? Right? Left? She couldn't possibly remember. So she followed the sirens.
Her steps quickened. Not fast enough. But it was hard to move fast though this stifling air.
Go see for yourself, Hitomi. Ryuu's outside. Down the street. He's still getting the medicine you wanted.
Hitomi needed to hurry. She began to jog. Dad, where are you? Her feet hurt. Small, black pebbles loosened from the asphalt and stuck to the bottoms of her feet.
Your father…had an…accident.
Not possible. Ryuu was smart. He was careful. Only stupid people got into accidents. But where was he?
She felt a sense of urgency now. She needed to prove that man wrong, that man with salt-and-pepper hair. The crying woman had known where Ryuu was. What had she said to Hitomi?
He's still getting the medicine you wanted.
Something wet ran down her cheek. It tickled.
Ryuu's outside. Down the street.
The same wetness touched her lips. It was salty. She wiped her face on her sleeve.
Go see for yourself, Hitomi. Masumi looked at her with disgust.
Hitomi needed to prove them both wrong. Something in her chest ached now. It hurt more than her feet and her head combined.
I-I'm sorry, Hitomi-san. Your father was a good man.
She ran.
AN: Hey, thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed my first Furuba fic. Future chapters will feature more Momiji and Haru fosho. If anyone's reading this...can you...review? Please? *wink*