Disclaimer: This story is set several months after the previous story, In Order To Remember. In writing this, I tried to dovetail from the more anime oriented story to a more manga oriented story. Hopefully they have blended together well. Fruits Basket belongs to its creator. I only used the characters to create a story that could have happened in the manga. This story begins where my last left off.
Chapter One : of White and Red stuff.
The sun shone brightly, reflected upwards by the fine layer of snow on the ground. Despite the thin covering of ice crystals, the slight breeze wasn't freezing, just cold. Inside the two-story house, it was quiet. No one had to go to school. No one had to be up for work. There was just the silence filled with the occasional crick of an insect humming to itself.
Suddenly, a loud yowl filled the house. "What the…!" Kyo Sohma looked out the front door in horror as the white stuff reflected the sun back into his copper/brown eyes. He slammed the sliding door shut and headed for the kitchen, his fists clenched, back hunched.
A very sleepy Tohru Honda left her room, rubbing her eyes. "Kyo? What's wrong?" She half stumbled down the stairs on her way to find the reason for Kyo's outburst, shivering a bit as a blast of wind slid through the crack of the not quite closed door. She closed it all the way and went in search of Kyo, not bothering to look outside, so great was her worry.
"Kyo," Shigure Sohma's voice came from the back of the house, "please try not to destroy the house!" But just to make sure his request wasn't being ignored, he ventured out into the open area between the living room and the kitchen. He was halfway into the dining room when Yuki Sohma groggily walked down the stairs and stumbled into him.
"What's going on," Yuki asked in a sleep-coated voice. But his question was answered by the sound of Kyo letting out another howl of outrage. "Oh." And he automatically turned around and headed back upstairs. "I'm going back to bed. Wake me when something important happens," he said.
Inside the kitchen, Tohru knelt to clean up the pieces of a broken bowl, the bowl Kyo had just dropped. He'd dropped it because he hadn't seen her until he'd run into her.
"I'm so sorry," Tohru apologized as she wiped up spilled milk and cereal, ignoring the milk on her own shirt that had spread in a lovely wet splotch.
Kyo stared at her for a moment before his senses came back to him. He'd been ranting and raving until he realized that Tohru was, once again, cleaning up after him. "You don't have to do that," he said in an almost accusatory voice. "I'm the one who broke the stupid bowl."
Tohru kept wiping up the spill, trying to avoid the glass shards. "It's not a problem," she said in response. "I feel partially responsible. If only I'd been watching where I was going I wouldn't have run into you like that, and you wouldn't have dropped the bowl. So, really, it's my fault."
"Really, you don't have to do that," Kyo tried again and knelt down to help her. "You might cut yourself or something." And as quickly as his anger had flared, it seemed to be gone as he helped Tohru mop up the spilled milk, gathering the broken pieces together. "Damn!" He quickly pulled his hand up to his mouth and sucked on his index finger.
"Kyo, did you cut yourself," Tohru asked, all of her worry transferred to Kyo's injured finger in an instant. "Let me see," she added, leaning forward to look at his cut.
"It's nothing," Kyo insisted as Shigure entered the kitchen to see the cause of the commotion. "I can take care of it. Don't worry about it."
"Let me see," Tohru insisted, pulling at his hand. "Kyo, you're bleeding." Some blood oozed out around his finger as he tried to pull it out of Tohru's reach. It wasn't that he minded, just that it really was insignificant, at least to his thinking. The cut wasn't even very deep.
Tohru leaned even more forward to get a better look, reaching for his escaped hand, and overbalanced. She put her hand out catch herself and had to suppress the urge to scream under the sound of more breaking glass. Her eyes went wide and her teeth almost rattled as she clenched down on them to keep the scream from escaping through her lips.
"Tohru," Shigure exclaimed at the same moment that Kyo flung his hand out, too late, to catch her.
Tohru made a funny sound in her throat, a stifled yelp of pain, as she pulled her hand up from the now crushed glass shards, blood oozing between her fingers.
"Now look what you did," Kyo said and went for the dishtowel.
Tohru stared at her now mangled hand in shock, glass shards sticking out from her skin.
"Um… Kyo," Shigure began when Kyo started to wrap the towel around Tohru's hand, "I don't think that will work. Hari really should look at that. You might do more harm than good, pressing those glass shards in more. And try to be a little more sensitive. It's not like Tohru did it on purpose."
Kyo gave him a look of disbelief. "You want me to just watch her bleed to death? I gotta stop the bleeding!" Anger swam through him as he looked up at his older cousin's surprised face.
"All right," Shigure gave up. "But, please, don't try to take the glass out yourself. Let Hari do it." And he went to the telephone, placing the call to Hatori Sohma, physician to the Sohma family.
The phone rang three times before anyone picked up on the other end. Then Shigure had to listen for a second when Hari picked up. "Hello, Hari," Shigure greeted his peer. "I was wondering if you could come down and look at Tohru's hand. She had a bit of a run in with a glass bowl." There was a pause. "No, Ritsu isn't here. I guess she was trying to clean up a spill and wasn't paying attention. No. Um… I think she'll need stitches. There's a lot of glass." He nodded a few times as he listened to Hari. "All right, thanks Hari." Then he hung up the phone.
"Hatori's on his way over," he informed both Tohru and Kyo. "Until then, he advises us to try and stop the bleeding."
Kyo gave him an exasperated look. "What'd ya think I'm trying to do?"
"It's nothing," Tohru tried to persuade, pulling her arm back from Kyo's fingers. "Just a scratch! Nothing to worry about. I'll be fine. You don't have to go to so much trouble."
"You're bleeding all over the place," Kyo pointed out impatiently as he grabbed her wrist.
"Shouldn't you raise her hand so that it's higher than her head," Shigure inserted, trying to remember things he'd heard about these kinds of injuries and what to do about them. The last time something like this had happened, it had only been a long cut across the palm where Tohru's hand had met the broken edge of a cup of tea she'd tried to serve to Ritsu Sohma who had been visiting that day. It seemed like such a long time ago, though it was only probably less than a year since it had happened. Yuki had taken care of Tohru's hand that time. Even though his attempts weren't exactly the best, they'd been enough.
Kyo had decided to follow Shigure's haphazard advice and raised Tohru's hand above her head, which wasn't too hard since she was still sitting on the floor. He was taller than her anyway. He held her hand up by the wrist, pressing against the soft, fleshy part of her arm, which probably helped more than Shigure's advice had but still left a trail of blood running slowly down her arm. Her pajamas were ruined by the bloodstains.
"I'm feeling a little dizzy," Tohru admitted after a few minutes while Shigure cleaned up the glass still on the floor and threw it into the trashcan.
If Kyo hadn't been holding her arm up, he would likely have had some kind of panic attack, flailing his arms around while he wondered what he could do about the whole situation. "Dizzy, as in how dizzy," he asked instead, his voice edged with his usual brand of concern.
"Tohru," Shigure spoke up, "Do you think you could stand? It might be more comfortable for you to lie down on one of the couches."
"Sure," she replied and tried to push herself up, using the other hand. Kyo had to support her with his other hand because of the awkwardness of the situation, but she stood up without too much difficulty otherwise, and they walked with her to the living room, Shigure following behind, only a slight look of concern on his face while Kyo wondered if she'd pass out and what he'd do if she did. However, it only took a minute or two to have her safely installed on the furniture.
Yuki finally walked back down the stairs, all traces of sleepiness gone from his face. After hearing several more outbursts from Kyo, not counting the first that brought him down in the first place, he'd given up on the idea of sleeping in. He looked up in surprise to see Kyo holding Tohru's dishcloth covered hand over her head while she lay down on the sofa, with Shigure standing over the duo. "What… happened..?"
Shigure looked up, his expression molding into a false guise of humor and ease. "Oh nothing out of the usual," he said cheerfully. "Tohru just managed to get into a small accident is all."
Yuki blinked at Shigure's comment but came closer to see for himself. "Miss Honda, you're bleeding." Horror etched across his face.
"Don't worry about it," Kyo said crossly. "We've already got it covered. Hatori's on his way."
Yuki drew up short, not sure what to make of Kyo's boldness.
"Really, Yuki," Tohru added. "It's nothing to worry about. I'll be fine, just a couple of stitches."
Yuki had started to turn away but turned back quickly at the mention of stitches. "Stitches? Just what happened?"
"Oh, nothing much," Shigure waved him off. "Tohru was just cleaning up a spill in the kitchen and lost her balance. Her hand landed on a broken bowl and…"
"Who's," Yuki interrupted.
"Mine, if you have to know," Kyo said with a growl, knowing where this was headed.
Yuki straightened up stiffly. "So, it's your fault." The accusation in his tone was intense and he looked ready to do something to Kyo.
"No," Tohru interrupted his actions, horrified that he'd think that. "It was entirely my fault. Kyo cut his finger and I tried to help but fell over and cut myself instead, so really, it's my fault. And if I hadn't bumped into him in the first place, the bowl wouldn't have broken."
"Tohru, Tohru," Shigure began in a voice of long suffering, "you are truly an angel of goodness, though I highly doubt you or anyone else is to blame. Accidents will happen. But, to be safe, you might want to have Hatori look at your finger, Kyo."
"I already told everyone, it's nothing," Kyo sulked. "Just a scratch."
Shigure shrugged. "Well, we'll let Hatori be the judge of that. Speaking of which, he should be here by now."
And right on cue, the sound of Hatori's car pulling up came from outside, followed by the light crunch of shoes on snow, then a soft knock.
Shigure walked over to the door and slid it open, feigning surprise. "Hatori, I wasn't expecting you so quickly."
"Don't lie," Hatori said dryly, well aware that the tone Shigure used reeked of falsehood. He slipped his shoes off as Shigure closed the door, keeping his doctor's bag in hand. That taken care of, he entered the main room where Tohru was. "Now, let's see what you've done to your hand."
He set his bag down on the floor, kneeling to be at the same level as Tohru's body. "Kyo, you can let go now," he said, a slight hint of amusement in his eyes that didn't exactly reach his voice. His eyes didn't miss the amount of blood.
Kyo let Tohru go. "She got kind of dizzy," he explained, "so we brought her out here to lie down."
Hari nodded as he probed at the mess, the blood covered dishtowel discarded while he worked. "Once again, you've created quite the stir, Tohru," he began almost conversationally as he filled a needle with a local anesthetic to numb her hand while he worked.
Tohru hung her head, not minding the slight prick of the needle as it deadened her nerves. "I know," she said sadly. "I'm sorry to cause all this trouble."
Hari looked up from his assessment. "Don't worry about it. These things happen."
"I tried to tell her that," Shigure quipped, "but she's still not listening."
Hari turned to Yuki, totally ignoring Shigure. "I need a lamp," he instructed. "And something to put the glass into."
Yuki left the room in search of a lamp while Kyo fetched another bowl from the kitchen, a metal bowl. It didn't take long for Yuki to return with a lamp, which he plugged in.
"I hadn't expected snow this morning," Hari commented and Kyo turned away, reminded that it was the existence of the snow on the ground that had set him off in the first place. He wasn't sure why he'd dropped the bowl, other than because he'd been surprised. He should have kept a firmer grip on it.
Hari started to pull out glass fragments with a pair of forceps, placing the shards into the bowl. "It looks like you were lucky. I don't see any severed arteries. Considering the amount of blood on the towel, I'd began to wonder, but the lack of profuse bleeding is a good sign."
Yuki and Shigure hung several feet back, but close enough to see what was going on, very intent on Hari's movements, watching each dip of the forceps from skin to bowl. Listening to each clink of glass on metal as he dropped the shards into the bowl.
"Is this going to take a while," Kyo wondered out loud. "If so, I'm gonna go clean up the blood in the kitchen."
Shigure looked up. "Be sure to use bleach," he suggested.
"No duh. What do I look like, someone stupid?" Kyo retorted as he headed for the kitchen. "Maybe while I'm at it, I'll bleach my hair."
Shigure smiled serenely. "I wouldn't even suggest it," he said before Yuki could utter a snide comment.
"Better not," Kyo growled from inside the kitchen.
Hatori's smooth movements stopped as he straightened up. "Yuki, would you please dispose of those glass shards before someone else cuts themselves?" He handed the bowl to Yuki, who took it and left the room.
Tohru looked at her hand, now free of glass and felt a little dizzier. She tried her best to distance herself from the image, turning her head away.
"I know it's not pretty," Hatori began as he pulled out a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a large cotton swab, which he dipped into the liquid, then moved across Tohru's mangled skin. "But nothing is seriously deep. I'll have to stitch some of the deeper cuts, but, so long as you keep your hand bandaged, the others should be fine."
He set the now tainted swab aside and pulled out a suturing kit, making sure that everything was sterilized before he began to stitch the worst cuts closed. Tohru felt the odd tugging on her skin, even if she couldn't feel the pain of it, and did her best to not look.
"You're hand writing may suffer for a while," Hari commented, "While your hand heals. And I highly discourage you from using it too much. Keep the bandage clean and don't do anything that would pull at the stitches. We can remove them in about a week."
Finished with the sutures, he put the kit aside and pulled out yet another bottle of liquid, which he applied over the stitches and cuts, some kind of antibiotic that smelled slightly sweet. That done, he wrapped gauze around her hand, taping it in place.
"Thank you," Tohru said as he finished. "Thank you very much, Hatori. How can I repay you?"
Hari smiled ruefully as he stood up, his instruments safely stored back in his bag. "Don't worry about," he said, resisting the urge to ruffle her hair. He'd grown rather fond of her, in a fatherly kind of way, he supposed. "You can cook dinner for me sometime, when your hand is better. In the meantime, you did lose quite a bit of blood for such a small wound. I suggest you take time off today and rest. Loss of blood could cause dizziness, which might only lead to larger problems."
"Yes," Shigure spoke up. "Please, Tohru, let us take care of you today. After all, you take care of us so often that we need more practice."
"I don't…. know about that," Tohru said uncertainly and Shigure gave her the classic pleading look. She caved almost instantly. "Okay," she said, head tilted down.
"That's a good girl," Shigure said warmly. "We can order out tonight."
Hatori shook his head at the both of them but didn't comment as he went to retrieve his shoes. "You might want to take some pain killers once the anesthetic wears off," he advised, his hand on the door.
A sudden knock caused everyone in the room to stop and turn towards the sound.
"Now who could that be, I wonder," Shigure said as he crossed over to stand by Hari. He slid the door open, letting in a slight breeze of cold air, revealing two young women standing in front of the door. "Why Saki, Arisa," Shigure said in surprise. "To what do we owe the honor?"
Saki Hanajima and Arisa Uotani entered the room, Shigure sliding the door closed behind them, Hari still staring at the two girls as if he couldn't believe his eyes, but he quickly schooled his emotions and face into a mask of indifference. The last time he'd seen them was back in autumn when Yuki had had his asthma attack in the garden, back when Tohru and Kyo had strep.
"Hey, Mr. Writer," Arisa said as she passed Shigure. "We figured, with it being such a nice day and all, that we'd invite Tohru on a picnic or something." She smiled behind her long, blond hair.
"Yes, a picnic," Hana echoed behind her. Shigure was the only one who called her Saki. Her dark hair matched her dark dress, which reached down lower than any Tohru usually wore. Such apparel, and her ability to sense "electrical waves" often sent teasing and scorn her way by her fellow classmates. They liked to consider her a witch, but both Tohru and Arisa knew better. And Hana had ways of dealing with those kinds of people.
"Oh, Hana, Arisa," Tohru called from her perch on the couch. "I wasn't expecting anyone this morning." She waved her bandaged hand in the air.
Arisa looked to Tohru's hand, then to Hatori, everything clicking into place.
"Tohru," Hana spoke first, "what did you do to your hand?"
"Oh," Tohru said rather quickly. "Nothing. I was just cleaning up a spill in the kitchen and cut my hand. It's really nothing to worry about."
"Uh-huh," Arisa said skeptically and looked back at Hatori. "Hey, you're the one who kept an eye on her when she had pneumonia, aren't you?"
"Yes," Hari said evenly.
"So, why don't you tell us about Tohru's hand," Arisa prodded.
Hari looked surprised for all of two seconds before answering. "It's just as she said. She injured it while cleaning." Meanwhile, Hana had slid over to Tohru and was gently caressing her injured hand. "There were a few deeper cuts that I sutured but that is all."
"Huh," Arisa said, rocking back on her heels.
"You do look a little pale," Hana commented to Tohru as she sat down next to her.
"Well," Tohru said, a bit flustered. "There was a lot of glass." She looked to see if the bowl was still there but someone had already taken it away.
"Hey," Arisa started, "where's Orange-top? He's usually around when there's some kind of disaster."
"I heard that," Kyo growled from the kitchen.
"It's true, though," Yuki's voice followed after his.
"Is not!" Kyo let out a yowl of rage, followed by a few loud smacks and bangs.
"Kyo, Yuki, please," Shigure called out, "don't destroy the kitchen! You were supposed to be cleaning it, not ruining it!"
"So he is here," Arisa said smugly. "I'm gonna go check this out." She flashed a smile as she headed to the kitchen, which had suddenly gone silent.
"Did I hear you say something about a picnic," Tohru asked quickly, to fill the silence.
"Oh, yes," Hana said, seeming to come out of a trance. "We did. Arisa and I thought it would be a lovely idea to visit Kyoko's grave, then enjoy a delicious lunch somewhere on the grounds." She looked at Tohru's hand. "Of course, if it is too much of a burden, we'll both understand."
"Oh, no!" Tohru stood up quickly, perhaps a bit too quickly because she sank back down.
"Tohru," Shigure called out as she slid back, "Are you all right?" He looked around for Hatori but he had apparently slipped out when no one was looking. Akito probably would be yelling for him soon enough anyway. It was just as well. "Please," he continued, "don't overdo things today. Hari did warn you about pushing yourself. So, please."
XxXxXxXxXx
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Arisa was glaring at Kyo and Yuki, who both sported a couple of bruises where they'd made contact.
"You two are absolutely hilarious," Arisa commented with a laugh. "Better then watching television."
Yuki immediately assumed a carefully taut pose, back straight, arms stiffly at his sides. Kyo slumped over, hands in his pocket, looking very surly at the ground. "What do you want," he asked in his most grumpy voice. "Can't you see we're busy?"
Arisa laughed. "Busy getting your trash kicked, you mean. You really are pathetic, aren't you?"
"Who you calling pathetic!" Kyo glared at her but didn't dare instigate anything more. Arisa, after all, had once been a member of the Yankee's, an all girl gang known to be rather ruthless and cutthroat. It didn't help matters that Arisa usually carried around a lead pipe, though he wasn't sure where she kept it.
"I believe that would be you," Yuki said stiffly, looking at Kyo, his eyes smoldering as he tried to control himself. As usual, the cat was being impertinent. But at least he'd cleaned up the blood, like he'd said he would.
Kyo scowled at the both of them. "I don't have to take this," he declared loudly and immediately headed outside, minus shoes, which were, as fate would have it, still in his room.
"That ought to cool him off," Arisa laughed as they watched him leave, slamming the door closed behind him.
Yuki sighed and relaxed his stance, now that he felt more sure that a fight wouldn't break out. "What, may I ask, are you doing here," he said, turning to Arisa.
Arisa stopped up short, mild surprise on her face. "Oh, didn't I tell you?" Yuki gave her a patient look that said she hadn't. "Well, then, Hana and I wanted to kidnap Tohru for the day." She leaned against the counter.
Yuki's face went a surprised blank as he stared at her. "You….. want to….. kidnap Miss Honda?"
"Isn't that what I just said," Arisa asked a bit impatiently. "We both decided that it'd been a while since we girls just went out and did something. Since she got over her pneumonia, she's been mostly here and catching up on her schoolwork. She really hasn't had much time for time off, if you get what I mean."
"I…" He tried to shake off his state of confusion. "No, you're right," he agreed. "She hasn't had much free time lately. Today is the first real day I haven't seen her with her nose in a book or trying to do calculations."
She leaned against the counter. "So glad you agree. So Hana and I are going to take her out for the day. And don't worry," she added. "We'll take good care of her."