Snake Smarts

By Threshie

AN: I do not own Fruits Basket—Natsuki Takaya does. Ditto for Yuki, Ayame and Tohru. I know the title's a little cheesy, but I tried out the sound of at least ten before finally unhappily settling on that one, so sorry about that. -Sweatdrop- There is use of Japanese honorifics in this fic, since they're so important in how each of the characters refers to the others. Here's a little key, in case you don't know some of the very few words I use in here:

Nii-san - Big brother (Yuki calls Ayame this because I noticed he never calls Aya by name)
-kun - Honorific used by an older or same-age person toward and younger or same-age person who is male
-san - honorific that denotes respect; can be translated as 'sir' or 'miss', among others; in this case it's 'Miss Honda'.

There ya have it, I hope you enjoy the fic. -Smile-

Why did I let Honda-san talk me into this? Yuki wondered for the umpteenth time that day, watching his brother's long silver hair swish ahead of him as he walked.

When the snake had suggested—more like pleaded—to Tohru that the brothers go and do today's grocery shopping together for her, for some reason she had been perfectly happy to agree. When Yuki had seemed disinterested in the idea, though, she had gotten such a panicked look on her face that he'd been forced to change his mind. The last thing I want to do is upset her, he thought with a sigh, hiding a small cough behind one hand, But, the other last thing I wanted to do today was spend hours being seen in public with Nii-san...

"Where should we go first?" The snake asked brightly, oblivious to his little brother's glum thoughts. He looked so overjoyed at the moment that Yuki knew protesting would be of little use.

"I don't…really…" The rat coughed again, feeling a familiar tightness in his chest. No…not right now… "…c-care," he finished faintly, pressing a hand to his chest.

"What was that, Yuki-kun…?" Ayame turned around, blinking at him, and his smile faded away. "Yuki-kun! What's wrong?" Abruptly, the snake was serious-sounding and concerned.

"A-a….asthma…." The purple-haired boy choked out, wincing and squeezing his eyes closed. "Nii-san…c-can't…breathe…." Dammit! He's the last person I'd want to have an attack around—he'll take me to Hatori, and that means the Main House! Ugh, I can't breathe…!

"Asthma!" Ayame frowned, then nodded. "Of course. Don't worry, brother, I'll take care of you!" Before Yuki could manage to get out the fact that he didn't WANT any care from his 'loving brother', the snake had swept him right up into his arms, and was running somewhere.

Opening his eyes, Yuki vaguely acknowledged around the tightness in his throat and chest that they were in front of a little house. Shifting him to one arm, Ayame pounded on the door.

"Open up, I say, this is an emergency!"

A startled-looking middle-aged lady opened the door, blinking at the two lovely people on her porch.

"M-may I help you?"

"I implore you, madam, allow me to borrow your shower!" Ayame sounded entirely serious, but the question didn't. Ugh…what's he DOING? I-I can't breathe… His lungs burned for air, making him wince.

"Er….alright?" The woman shrugged; she, too, found the request quite bizarre, but she could see that they were obviously in the midst of an emergency as the silver-haired man had said.

"Good! Thank you!" Ayame swept Yuki into a two-armed carry hold again and hurried into the house. Yuki saw flashes of the trip to the bathroom; he was beginning to feel lightheaded from the lack of air, but saw a middle-aged man in a bathrobe with a cup of coffee and a started expression…a nice hallway rug….some statues arranged on a table in the living room…

Arriving at the bathroom, Ayame—much to Yuki's confusion and somewhat to his horror—went dashing into the shower, brother and all, and turned the very warm water on.

"Wh-….N-Nii….-s…" Yuki choked, wincing. What the hell are you DOING! I'm going to die…my stupid brother's going to let me die…!

"Shh, don't talk now, Yuki," Ayame instructed, gently but hurriedly, sitting both of them down on the shower stall floor; the majority of the water landed beside them, not onto them, thankfully. "Try to relax!" Relax? How am I supposed to RELAX when I'm smothering….?

"The steam will help you breathe easier," the snake explained, pulling his brother into a hug, "Relaxing your body will, too. Relax, now, your big brother knows what he is talking about…!"

Much as Yuki hated to agree with him, the steam DID seem to help; the choked feeling slowly receded, and with it the feeling of smothering. Within minutes in the steam-filled shower stall, he could breathe again, albeit in short breaths. Just as he was beginning to feel well enough to ask where in the world Ayame had learned such an asthma remedy, there was a 'poof!' behind him, and his brother's form disappeared…only to be replaced by one wet silver snake.

"Ohh…I-I think big brother has gotten a tad overheated," the serpent mumbled to himself, lying there in the hot shower water since he seemed too disoriented to move.

Sweatdropping, Yuki scooped him up if only to keep him out of the water, and then gathered up the sopping clothes he'd transformed out of, as well.

"N-Nii-san, how did you know…what to do?" He asked, still a bit breathless as he stepped out of the shower.

"I-I'm always such a nuisance to you when I v-visit," the snake replied dizzily, hanging limp in his hands, "A-and, I wanted to find a way…to help you s-somehow, so…I researched how t-to help an asthma attack, s-so that if my precious brother e-ever had one…I could take care of him, a-and not mess it up for once…" Yuki wasn't sure, but he almost thought that his brother sounded sad instead of dizzy…

"W-well, it helped," the rat answered a bit awkwardly, feeling rather bad for his thoughts about how Ayame was going to let him die before. Even a big brother like him, it seemed, wouldn't let something like that happen… "Um…but, now we have a problem."

"Yesss…?" The snake asked, sounding both happy and dizzy.

"….The people who live here saw two people go in. We can't let them see one person and a snake go out," the purple-haired boy pointed out, sweatdropping.

"Ohh….y-yes, that…climb out the window?"

Before Yuki could say what he thought of that plan, there was a knock on the bathroom door.

"Er…i-is everything alright in there?" The lady's voice came tentatively through the barrier, "Should I call 119? …Hello?"

Looks like we have no choice, Yuki thought. Sighing, he went and opened the bathroom window; it was small, with frosted glass for privacy, and high up off of the ground, but with his martial arts training he still had no trouble getting up through it and onto the lawn outside. I wish we didn't have to leave with no explanation, though…those poor people will think we were crazy and they let us in anyway!

He shook his head, sneaking away from the house so as not to be noticed by the likely-bemused couple, and hurried several blocks down the street as soon as he could risk moving out in the open.

"Just wonderful," he commented tiredly, more to himself than to Ayame.

The snake in his hands blinked, though, asking, "What is, Yuki-kun?"

"...Nothing." The purple-haired boy frowned to himself, "I just feel kind of bad, l-leaving those people without saying 'thank you' or anything."

"We'll visit them someday!" Ayame decided, sounding much more like himself now that they were away from the hot water, "And we can thank them then—how is that, little brother?"

"They'd want to know where we disappeared to when we borrowed their shower," Yuki pointed out flatly, sweatdropping.

"Oh, yes…that…"

"Let's just go home so nobody sees you change back," the rat sighed, taking a left turn on the street ahead. They hadn't even started their shopping, but as always after an asthma attack, he was feeling drained and tired, and the last thing they needed right now was to have Ayame poof back to nude human form in the middle of the street.

Nii-san…sometimes you're more trouble than you're worth. He glanced down at the snake, who was comfortably curled up on his arms, and smiled a tiny bit. But, I guess you proved today that you're capable of being a responsible adult once in a blue moon, too—even if it was in your own weird way.

--The End

AN: Er…I know I didn't end it very well, but the main story arc was over, so there was really no point in continuing. -Shrug- Hope you had a good little read. This is my first-ever published Furuba fanfic, but not the last—another one about Yuki and Ayame, 'Snake Fever', is in the works, so watch for it if you enjoyed this one, okay? (It's gonna be better than this one…-Sweatdrop- This one was more of a scene, while 'Snake Fever' is going to have a plot, LOL.)

Oh, and in case you're wondering about the shower thing, it's a real asthma remedy. I got the idea for this ficlet from while reading up on remedies for ailments; I saw the one for asthma and thought, 'hey, I'd better take note of that for fics about Yuki in case he ever has an attack', and then it sort of became the idea for a fic unto itself….-Shrug- Also, I meant to type '119' instead of '911' in the lady's dialogue, because Japan's emergency phone number to call for an ambulence is in fact 119, not 911, LOL.

Well, thanks for reading, and please review! -Heart- This is my first-ever Fruits Basket fanfiction, so please be kind about characterizations… (I sort of like my Ayame here, but, well…views differ sometimes, especially on character portrayals...)