Author's Note: This is my second story. If you've heard this story somewhere else in Fanfiction,I am not a plagerizer, it's from my old account I made with my friend: "kimmel's 11"

This came to me when I was reading Fruit's Basket. I edited my old version with some bigger words and such.

So, as I am rushed to go to my dentist appointment, I bid thee adiou.

-.-

Lovers you lots. Review please!

...Grrr, my little heart sign does not worketh! Instead, one must pretend with your imagination that there is a little cute heart.

Right there.

Go on.

You can see it.

Can't you?

"You know Tori-san; I want you to be two thousand times happier than when you were with Kana!" Ayame exclaimed.

"Yes, yes!" Shigure gleefully added. "We're not happy if you're not happy!" I sat on the smooth, wooden porch bench. Kyo, Yuki, and Tohru were out at the lake and we had decided to sit and talk of good times.

Two thousand times happier than with Kana? No, that was impossible. Kana was the light in my dusk. She gave me bliss even in the most diminutive ways. I glanced at the photographs sprawled before me.

"These are her wedding pictures?" I said. She was laughing with a man; her husband.

So she did forget.

I was clearing up my desk when I heard a voice ring in the air of the office.

"Hello Dr. Sohma! I'm Kana and I'll be your new assistant! I know I'm just an intern but I'll try really hard to measure up to your last one!"

A woman that looked just a bit younger than me was babbling on and on in front of my desk. She had short brown hair that was pulled back from her face.

"Excuse me?" I said. "Yes, I know you're my new assistant. So," I turned around and started collecting sheets of paper. "Your assignment to start is to fill out these forms and-"I was cut off by Kana.

"Ohhh! It's snowing!" She swirled over to the window and rested her elbows on the frame.

"Hatori-san?" She asked. "Can I call you that? Let me ask you something. What becomes of snow when it melts?" I was a little taken aback. What did that have to do with anything?

"It becomes water, of course."

"Nope!" Kana triumphantly declared. "It becomes spring!" She straightened and walked up to me.

"Because no matter how harsh or how long winter is. Spring will always come to greet us." She smiled gently. "That's the riddle for today!"

No, to me, she was spring. It was as if while imprisoned inside the dark cage of the inner family, I had completely frozen. And then there she was, fresh clear spring. If only I had been distant. If only I acted like I always had before; cold and detached.
Eventually, Kana and I became closer. It was the middle of summer when I asked her on the first date. The weather was clear and warm: surprising for the hot, humid days of summer.

"Excuse me, but have you heard of the new restaurant called First Seasons?" I asked Kana.

"Yes, I heard the food was delicious."

"If...I'm not...imposing, would you like to come with me tonight? You know, to work on...business material."

"Are you asking me on a date?" Kana asked carefully, displaying her knack for blunt honesty.

"Well, yes...I suppose. If you come..."

"Great! See you at 7:00!" She said cheerfully. Kana smiled. Somehow I found myself smiling alongside with her.

I hadn't smiled since my childhood. It was such a strange feeling. It was as if Kana had started melting the frozen snow that my family had enclosed me in. Spring had come to greet winter.

It was 6:30 and I was unnerved. I paced around in my room. Why did I ask her? What if, somehow we touched? The result would be disastrous!

She won't.

Attempting to calm my self, I marched outside. Almost immediately, Shigure came up to me out of nowhere and started bombarding me with questions.

"Haa-san!" He laughed. "What are you doing out here at night? Are you going somewhere? Ooo! You have to be! You're wearing your good suit! Gasp! Are you?"

"Am I what?" I asked testily.

Giggling, Shigure started singing.

"Haa-san's going on a date!'' He pranced around nauseatingly until I whacked him on the head.

"You are going to forget this." I said as I seized him by the shoulders.

"Please Haa-san? I won't say anything to aannyyoonneee!" He pleaded comically.

"No."

I set my hand over his eyes as he struggled to get out of my grasp. I concentrated on what I wanted him to forget; from the moment he saw me to when he was prancing and singing. Abruptly, a flash of light that flared from my hand blinded Shigure and knocked him back into the wall. He fell flaccidly onto the floor. I waited patiently as he quickly salvaged his consciousness.

"Haa-san? Wha-? Oh, there's only one explanation for this; Haa-san, what did you want me to forget?" He asked while rubbing his head, suddenly serious.

I suppose the memory reconstruction worked.

"Nothing." I responded airily as I walked away. "Nothing I would want to tell you."

The night went comfortably and my fears were calmed, but it was a few weeks later when they came back with a vengeance.

This time, it happened.

I was working when Kana stumbled into the office with huge stacks of paper in her arms.

"Oh, let me help you." I said as I stood up.

"Th, Th, thanks." She grunted as she staggered over.

It happened all so fast. Kana tripped over a stray piece of paper and she tripped not onto the floor, but onto…me.

With a poof of smoke I transformed. Of course, Kana had no idea what just happened. Both of us dropped onto the floor and I was unconscious.

She (obviously) was panicking. It's not everyday that your kinda boyfriend turns into a seahorse.

"Oh no! Where's Hatori!" She cried. Kana hunted around the mass of paper and there I was; a small, 8 inch, pink, seahorse.

"..." -.-

"Hatori? Hatori! HATORI!" Kana cried. "You're a sss…ssseeahorrssse!"

As the fact that I was a seahorse sunk into her mind, it dawned upon her that seahorses survive in water.

"WATER! We need water! WAIT! Is it seawater! What kind of water? WHICH IS IT HATORI?"

Apparently, Kana didn't wait for an answer. Picking me up by my tail, she leaped over to the bathroom and right next to the bathtub.

"Water…. water…wait! Bathtub!" She screamed fervently.

Flinging me into the bathtub, Kana fumbled on the water faucets. Realizing what she was going to do, I opened my mouth to scream out protests but it was to too late. My mouth filled with steaming HOT water. My tiny pink seahorse body writhed in burning torture as the hot water rushed over me.

"Aaaghubt! Sthobht!" I cried.

"You know, if you throw a regular seahorse into a hot tub of water, it'll probably die."

I sat on the living room floor as I dried my hair with a towel. Kana sat next to me apologizing frantically.

"I'm sorry! I accidentally turned on the hot water! I'm so sorry!" I saw her wring a towel senseless with her hands.

But she saw me.

I stood silent. She's...disgusted. I turned into a pink seahorse for god's sake. I brought the towel down to my lap dejectedly.

She sighed confidently.

"It all makes sense now; I was wondering why you never held me. You didn't want anyone to know. I understand. You must have been scared. Naturally, you would distance yourself from others. Especially if…it was someone you loved. But…you don't have to be scared anymore. Please don't push me away. I'm happy that I met you Hatori; I want to be near you…always." Kana smiled at me.

Could it really? This feeling, it bloomed in my stomach, up my chest, and it rested in my throat.

What could it be? This feeling I couldn't describe.

Our next period of time together was literally like a dream. "It's like a lifetime of happiness concentrated into a few months!" she said smiling once after a pleasantly peaceful day at a park. That smile that she displays blithely now pierces my heart.

"Oh! Is it here?!" Kana gaped out the window of my car. We pulled up to a big lake house. It was the Sohma lake house. It was used for vacations and special occasions. Kana and I came to take a rest from the office. It was a vacation for the both of us. While walking up to the porch, I realized how much I had changed than the last time I had stepped on this stone pathway; changed by her.

The door led to the balcony of a magnificent view. It looked down to a vision of a cerulean lake. Kana breathed deeply.

"Oh my gosh, Hatori, this is… beautiful. I'm afraid if, if I look away, it'll all disappear." She gazed at the waters of the lake. It was beautiful. As she gazed out to the water, I fumbled to get something out of my pocket. I kneeled down to the russet wooden floor and she looked at me quizzically.

"Kana... We've gone through a lot of things and I want to say that I love you. And I do. But instead, I'll ask you this: will you marry me?" I drew out the ring.

"Will you marry me?"

The words rang in the air. I waited, holding my breath. My mind reeled through all of the times Kana and I had spent together...I was ready to ask her.

"Yes….YES!" Kana exclaimed. "Yes! Hatori…oh my god. Hatori, I-"

"HATORI! YOU DID IT!" cheered a familiar voice. Wait… two familiar voices.

Two shadowy figures lunged off the roof on to the balcony. They held signs that hollered: "GO HATORI! ASK KANA!" They were… them: Shigure and Ayame. Prancing around in long, pink cherub dresses; Ayame and Shigure sang the lyrics to So Happy Together in high falsettos.

Kana stared in amusement and disbelief at them. After the shock had worn off, a slow smile had crept to her cherry lips and she began to laugh wholeheartedly. I however, was a bit sickened. Yet, a small smile snuck to my mouth. It is also quite amusing to watch two grown men dance in dresses. That smile lasted me for a while. Whoever said comedy was short lived was never serenaded by those two.

However, I laughed and cried tears of joy. She had said yes. Yes.

They were the precious words. For the first time in my life, I felt as though I was allowed something. As though I had been saved from something. Saved from the Sohmas. I laughed as never before. This was life, as I have never known it. A life with someone in it. With someone that truly mattered. I lost myself in the dream and lost grip of my happiness. It was an error I had not thought about and had pushed to the back of my mind.

"Kana and I…we wish to be married."

But as we all know, dreams are not eternal. Every dream has a conclusion. Every dream must end.

Kana looked at me in assurance. I had to ask Akito (the head of the family) to marry her. So I sat there, in Akito's room with Kana kneeling behind me, and asked him for his grant and blessing. This did not agree with him. Akito slowly raised his head and abruptly smashed his flower vase on the wooden floor. Suddenly there came a world of shattered glass all around me, piercing my eye. Agony permeated my every being, in my body and in my soul.

"NO! I won't allow it! I'll never allow it!" He screamed. "I refuse to allow it!"

I grasped my eye, willing the pain to go away in vain. The crimson blood trickled down my face. Seeing this, Akito wavered.

"Hatori, what's wrong? Hatori?" He kneeled hesitantly. I heard Kana gasp in fear behind me. I turned and looked at her. I saw a traumatized look that gauzed her face.

Akito glared at her, piercingly. I could see his mind reel.

"You…you, you did this!" He pointed at her accusingly, faltering his sentences. "It's your fault! It's your fault! Do you think you can lift the Sohma curse! Do you!" His scream pierced the room. The door slammed open and Shigure ran into the room in a rush. He saw the blood that streamed down my eye and deduced what had happened. He had heard the ruckus.

"Kana! Take Hatori, get him out of here!"

For the first time in his miserable life, he had gone against Akito.

She suffered. Physically and mentally, she wasted away. Her body was a thing shadow of the lively person she was once before. Kana wouldn't let anyone go into her room.

And I couldn't do a thing about it. She wouldn't let me.

"Your memory suppression skills would be helpful now, wouldn't it? Just erase her memories. You had no problem with the others." Akito played with a bird. It fluttered and danced timidly around his fingers.

"What's hurting her are her thoughts of you, her memories of you." He kneeled to where I was, clutched my tie and whispered into my ear: "I think she truly wants to forget. To be released from her memories. Free her, that's what she wants." He stood and continued toying with the sparrow. "Think of it as a duty to her. It will be your last." Was this my chastisement?

Whenever Akito told me to suppress someone's memories, I did. I remembered Yuki, when he brought his friends to the 'inside.' He had begged and pleaded me not to expunge his friends' memories. Yet, I did. Who was I? What cruel and heartless being had I become? How had Kana saved me?

She sat kneeling in the middle of the darkly lit room. With dark bags under her eyes and her frail frame, she looked wearied of her thoughts and recollections.

I never thought I would have to peel away the memories of the one the most important to me, the moments we both shared and treasured.

Was this my retribution? I could think of no worse punishment in the world. One that pierces the heart and pains the soul.

When I finally was able to reach out my hand, and put it over her eyes, I felt the glimpse of her recollections. I concentrated on the memories. I saw a glimpse of our first times together.

"Hatori? Maybe…maybe it would have been better…if we had never met. Maybe…" She started crying. "…it would have turned out to be a happy ending. I'm sorry, Hatori. I couldn't protect you. I…was right there with you and…I couldn't save you. Please forgive me."

No, I was the one who should be sorry. I was the one who couldn't protect her. Because of me, her memories had to be suppressed. Forgive me Kana.

I'm sorry.

With a flare of light, I ripped all her memories of us away. The force of the suppression sent knocked her back onto the floor. She was now unconscious.

Kana, I hope you find someone who won't hurt you; who will make you happy. It is...my dearest wish that you do.

Two of the maids picked her up by her shoulders and hobbled her back into her room for recovery. But, how can you recover when you have nothing to recover from? Thus was the power of suppression. They say ignorance is bliss. No one knew as much as I did as how true that was to the ones I loved.

It was a week later and Kana had fully recovered. She smiled and laughed like her usual self but every time she did so, that same smile that once lifted me from the sorrows of the Zodiac, pierced my heart. Every day, she left a gaping chasm in my soul...

Soon after, Kana was transferred

"I'm sorry it didn't work out Hatori-san. It's too bad I had to be transferred. I hope I see you again! You know, after I finally become a doctor."

I sent her out the vast wooden gates of the household.

Seeing her walk away with no hesitation tore my heart in two. Of the times we spent together, I thought of the time she first ambled into my office.

"What becomes of snow when it melts?" she had asked. I had foolishly answered it with water. But what happens when spring concludes?

Winter commences again, in the vicious cycle that is.

Though I may have become frozen within the Sohma family's hostile jaws, I'm relieved that Kana had escaped from its intricate web of deceit and threats.

And so, winter begins.

Thankees to all who reviewed my other story.

sniffsniff

They DON'T hate me!!