Konnichiwa! Chapter 3! Whoot whoot! So sorry for the late update. I've been out of town and my access to the comp was limited. I really appreciate the reviews. They help me know I'm on track. I do not own fruits Basket.
I was fretting. Figures I would. The Sohma's were done with dinner, and most of them were in the game room. Not knowing what else to do with myself after I'd eaten dinner with my family and helped clean up, I went into the game room to see what they were doing. Actually, I just wanted to see if Yuki had come downstairs to join the others.
I scanned the room but didn't see him. It looked like Hiro and Kisa were playing a racing game at the game system. I saw Shigure and Ayame sitting in the corner talking, and Ritsu sitting quietly near them. Momiji and Kagura were playing foosball and Haru was standing nearby watching the game. There was no sign of Kyo, Rin, Hatori…or Yuki.
I felt antsy, like I wanted to do something, like go up and check on Yuki and Akito and make sure everything really was Ok and that I was just overreacting or that… "Minna." I jumped, at the sound of someone saying my name. I looked up.
Haru was standing by me, looking down at me with that blank look, his head tilted to the side.
When did he get there? Man! He's tall!
"Is something wrong?" he asked.
I looked up surprised. Then I realized I must have been standing there like an idiot near the door of the room, fretting for a while, at least long enough to attract attention (or look creepy).
"Oh no! I'm sorry." I smiled my hostess smile. "I…I um, guess I was just thinking about something. No everything is fine. I just wanted to come see how everyone was doing, I guess."
"Mmm…" He grunted, just looking at me for a moment before looking back at the others in the room, still standing by me.
I looked at him. Is he thinking about Yuki right now too? He seems really close to Yuki. He must be worried, but it's hard to tell what he's thinking. Is he annoyed with me? Well, I guess he wouldn't be standing by me if he were annoyed with me. Why is he standing by me anyway? But would he be annoyed if he knew I was worried about Yuki too? But what right do I have to worry about Yuki? It's not like I really know him or anything.
Part of me wanted to talk to Haru about it or ask about Yuki and Akito, but then I worried Will he think I'm nosy? Would he be annoyed? Would he think I have some kind of crush on Yuki or something? You can't leave it alone can you, Minna? You just have to worry about things that have nothing to do with you. But I wish I could just ask…"
"Hey," I jumped again at Haru's voice. "You wanna play ping pong?"
"Um…sure." I said, surprised.
I felt shy and self-conscious as we moved to the ping-pong table. I always feel that way around the guests at first (not that I let it show), but this time there were so many younger ones. I'm just more used to dealing with old people. I don't usually have such a big urge to hang out with the guests, but in the case of the Sohmas... I realized that I kind of want to get to know them. It's been pretty lonely around here, and they seem pretty cool (if a bit strange).
But is that OK? I know my grandparents wouldn't care. But will they feel like I'm intruding? I mean I work here. Is it OK for me to hang out with them much? Maybe I'm just lonely. Well, at least they can't tell.
I'm pretty good as schooling my features, especially when I'm shy, I just smile more and act like I feel comfortable. I hate feeling shy, and I hate showing people I feel shy.
Haru and I started playing ping-pong. He wasn't saying much, but he was watching me as we played, and I couldn't figure out what he was thinking! "So," I said, breaking the silence. "You and Yuki are pretty good friends?"
His eyebrows raised as he returned my serve, "Yes…I suppose you could say it like that."
"You seem to be pretty close." I hit it back but aimed poorly and it bounced off the side of the table. Haru retrieved it. "Oh sorry!"
"No problem." He smiled a bit and served it back. "Yuki, he's just very special to me, is all." I could see his brow furrow just a bit, he was probably thinking about where Yuki was right now.
Me too! Me too! I'm worried too!
"Um…" I began, returning his serve. I just wanna ask! I just wanna ask! "Um…if you don't mind my asking…um…does…um…Mr. Aki-…"
"You're worried about him." I looked up at him in surprise, and missed the ball he served to me.
It was a statement, not a question. He just looked at me with that unreadable expression.
I went to retrieve the ball, which had rolled to the far wall, glad to have a second to gather myself.
Crap!!!!! Crap, crap crap! Was I obvious? Is he offended? Does he think I'm a nosy girl? Am I a nosy girl?
I came back to the table with the ball, "Well I-…Sorry, It' not my pla-…"
"Thank you." He returned my serve and I missed it again! But this time I moved more quickly and grabbed it before it rolled to far.
I looked up at him in surprise again. He looked back at me and something in his face had softened. I let it register.
He was thanking me for caring about Yuki. I guess I just didn't expect that. Suddenly I felt really shy again!!!!!
Why the crap do I feel shy! Is it because he read into me? Is it because he's not offended? Is it because, he's making it OK for me to care and I don't know how to act?
My eyes lowered and I served the ball. Neither of us said much afterwards, but for some reason I felt like there was an understanding between us. It was like we both knew we were thinking about the same thing, and we were on the same page. And I felt really good, because he let me be on his page. He'd thanked me for being on his page.
"Minna!" I jumped at the excited voice of someone behind me. I turned to see Momiji standing behind me. Now that I was standing beside him, I realized he was taller than me, which kind of surprised me. What grade was he in, in high school anyway? "You're Minna right! Can I call you Minna?!"
I giggled, he was so cute, "Yes, and you're Momiji." I said smiling big.
"Yay!!!!!!! You remembered my name! Let's be friends!!!!!!!" He seemed to be bouncing with excitement.
I laughed. "OK, we'll be friends." Momiji's bright chipper mood felt kind of strange considering what I'd been brooding about, but I found myself smiling. I didn't know whether to feel happy about that or guilty.
He giggled and grabbed my hands, one still holding the ping pong paddle (the game was obviously on hold). "Yay! Hear that Haru? Minna and I are friends now!"
Haru just looked at us "Mm..."
I laughed. I had to admit Momiji was making me feel better. He didn't even know me, and he already seemed to like me, and it felt really good to be liked.
I think I love this kid.
He turned back to me, "You know, you're really pretty! Will you play with me tomorrow?! I want to go to the lake! Haru can we go to the lake?! Will you go with us Minna?"
I was taken aback. "Um…well, I'll have to clean your rooms and help with-…"
"AAAAAWWWWW!!!" He wined and tugged on my hands. "Pleeeeeaaaase! Please come with us! It'll be fun!!!!!!! Haru you want her to come don't you?" He turned to Haru.
He titled his head to the side, and I felt myself blushing in spite of myself. Gosh he's hot!
"Mm…Yes. You should come with us, Minna."
Oh crap! Now I definitely have to go!
"Well, I'll have to ask my grandparents. I mean there's a lot to do around here, so I'll have to make sure to get my work done."
"Yay!!!!!!!!" Momiji cheered again. "I wanna go swimming! Can we go swimming?"
"Of course." I said getting back in hostess mode. "We have a dock, and there's even canoes you can use. We're not the only house near the lake. It's pretty big."
"Oh, you kids going to the lake?" Shigure walked over smiling. "That sounds like a good idea, I think I'll come along."
"Yay!!" Momiji cheered again, then ran over to Hiro and Kisa, "Hiro!! Kisa!!!! Guess what! We're going to the lake tomorrow!!!!!"
"Who says, Stupid Rabbit?" Hiro growled, "What if we don't want to go to the lake? You think you can just assume everyone else wants to do something just because you want to do it? You think people will just go along with what you say? Don't you think that's kind of arrogant? Don't you have any consideration for others? Sheesh! I hate people who only think of themselves!"
Gosh that kid's a jerk!
"Um…Hiro?" I saw little Kisa turn the biggest pair of eyes I'd ever seen to him. Her voice was small and hesitant. "I…I would like to go to the lake."
Hiro looked at her for just a second then turned back to the video game, "We're going to the lake with you."
"Yay!!!!!!!" Momiji cheered, and I cracked up, which got little smart-mouth's attention.
"What are you laughing at? Is something funny?"
I looked over at this kid with a raised eyebrow. No way was this snot nosed little brat gonna try to intimidate me. I smiled placing a hand on my hip. "You two are cute, that's all."
Hiro's face flushed "Cute!"
I turned to Momiji, "He's whipped isn't he?"
Momiji giggled into his hands. "Ha Ha! Hiro's whipped!"
"Um…Hiro?" Kisa turned to him with her big eyes. "What do they mean?"
Hiro flushed bright red and glared at Momiji, "Shut up stupid Rabbit! And you," turning to me, "Who do you think you are talking about other people!"
I looked at Momiji, "Aww, now he's embarrassed." I said teasingly.
Momiji giggled again, "Yup!"
Hiro turned away grumbling. I couldn't help but smile. I'm cruel, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to resist teasing this kid.
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Later that night I put on my pajamas in my small room downstairs. I'd hung out with the Sohma's for a while longer, but Yuki never came down. Now that I was alone in my room, I found myself fretting again.
I sat on my bed. It was about 10:00. Without Haru there worrying with me, I began to feel stupid and nosy again. A friend at college had once told me that I needed drama in my life so much that if there weren't any going on I would create it in my mind. I wondered if that was true.
I think I need to call Julie. I picked up my cell phone and dialed.
"Hello?" Julie picked up.
"My Love!!!!!!!!!!"
"Hello! How r u?"
"I'm…I'm…mixed up."
"Really?"
I spent the next 2 hours venting to Julie about everything that had happened. Julie congratulated me on the boys, but listened with concern when I explained the Akito thing.
"That's…really creepy." Julie said after I described what it felt like to be in his room.
"Yeah, but…it may not be as big a deal as I'm making it. Maybe they just got into a major fight or something." I said. "I mean, if there was a real problem then someone would have done something."
"Uh…I dunno…If Haru was as concerned as you said he was…"
"Well…I don't know. He never actually said that he was concerned. He said I was concerned. Maybe I'm just making a mountain out of a molehill."
"I guess if you say so." Julie said. "Did you ever see Yuki after dinner?"
"No…but he might have just gone back to the room or something."
"Well, you can find out tomorrow what happened."
"Yeah…I guess, we're going to the lake tomorrow. I asked Grandpa and he said it was fine. Actually, Grandpaw and Grandma seem to be pushing me to hang out with them. Ha Ha. I think they want me to get a boyfriend."
Julie laughed. "Well, you don't want to disappoint them." She joked.
I laughed. "No, I wouldn't count on something like that. Besides, I don't know if I could handle that right now…."
"So how are you doing?" Julie asked, after a pause.
"I'm…working on it?"
"Mm Hm?"
"…I just…today was tiring. A lot of smiling, a lot of being nice, you know."
"Yeah, I'd imagine. But think of it this way, you won't have to worry about greeting any more new guests for the rest of the summer. And pretty soon you'll get comfortable with the Sohma's"
"Yeah, I hope so..."
Finally we said goodbye and went to bed. I was so tired that I fell asleep almost instantly, thoughts of the day's events swirling and mixing in my head.
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I woke up the next morning feeling strange with a dreamlike feeling of unease, like something wasn't right. I lay in bed trying to reconnect with the dream that made me feel that way. I wasn't scared or anything. I hadn't had a nightmare. But it had been dark. Lavender. Colors always stick out to me when thinking of dreams. Everything was in deep purples or blue. The feeling of it made my heart ache and my stomach feel sick. It wasn't just sad. It was unsettling. It's always easier to remember the feeling of dreams than the actual events.
Images flashed in my head. The first one was of Yuki, but he was pale and thin and he looked sick or something. His amethyst eyes had dark circles around them, their gleam gone. He was sitting alone, and everything was dark around him.
The next image was Haru. He'd been in the dream. I thought I remembered something about me asking him to help Yuki (I still couldn't remember exactly what was wrong with Yuki), but he either couldn't or wouldn't or something. It seemed out of character for him to not want to, but people act strangely in dreams.
As I pursued the images, the contents of my dream began to come back to me much more clearly. I remembered my panic. I'd been frantically running around trying to get someone to help Yuki, but…the feeling I got when talking to Haru was like that feeling you get, when you're a kid and something is really wrong, but no one really takes you seriously. They may be concerned, but not as concerned as you. They smile at you with that, "Don't worry, you're overreacting, everything is going to be fine. Don't worry." attitude. But you know everything is not fine at all. You feel helpless. That's how I felt in the dream...helpless.
In the back of all of this was Akito. I couldn't remember hardly anything specific with him. I couldn't even remember if I'd physically seen him in the dream, but his presence lingered around the edges of my dream like a dark shadow.
That was as much as I could remember, images, feelings. I lay there really bothered for a while. I knew that my imagination had gone a bit crazy, over-exaggerating things and making everything seem larger than life in the dream; but at the moment, the lavender feeling of helplessness was still with me, and I held onto it for a while. I'm not even sure why I held onto it, but I let it sit there on me as I lay in my bed, images from the dream floating in my head.
The images faded, but I was left with that lavender feeling as I got up and got ready for the day. It made me feel strange and gloomy, and fatalistic.
I helped prepare the breakfast, and pretty soon the Sohmas began to wander down. I watched for Yuki, but by the time most everyone had come down Yuki was still absent. So was Akito. Hatori told grandma that Akito wasn't feeling well, so she took a tray up to his room. The absence of both made me uneasy.
I was almost about to give in and ask Haru about Yuki, when I looked up, while pouring orange juice for Shigure, and saw Yuki standing in the doorway of the dining room. The others looked up as well.
"Ah, the prince makes his entrance!" Shigure said playfully. Yuki didn't seem to hear. His shirt was rumpled and misbuttoned. His hair was mussed and his eyes were only half open. He just stood in the doorway for a minute, looking dazed.
It certainly wasn't the image of the pale drawn Yuki from my dream, but this disoriented Yuki was almost as bad. "Is…Is he OK?" I asked with concern.
Does this not bother them?
To my surprise, Shigure laughed, "Oh, no need to worry about that. He just hasn't woken up yet."
I blinked. "So he's sleepwalking?"
"I suppose you could say that." Shigure turned to Yuki, "Yun-chan! Breakfast!" Yuki looked in our direction, still with that dazed look, and started moving towards us. "He can wander around for up to a quarter of an hour, get dressed, and have breakfast before actually waking up in the morning." Shigure said as Yuki missed the table and bumped into a wall. He fell down to a sitting position on the floor, very dazed look on his face.
"Um, should we wake him up?" I asked a little alarmed.
Shigure just smiled, "Perhaps, but it could be dangerous." He turned to where Yuki was still sitting dazed and half asleep. "Besides, lovely girls need to get their beauty sleep."
Before I could realize what had happened, there was a blur, and Shigure cried out in pain. A very dangerous, very awake looking Yuki stood above him. "Shut your mouth, you stupid dog." He growled.
"Oh, Yuki, you're awake! How wonderful!" Shigure laughed nervously as he nursed the bump on his head.
Dude! He's awake! That was friggin' awesome! I giggled.
Yuki looked up at me and blinked; then he looked around him as if not knowing how he'd gotten there. "What-..?" he began, obviously confused.
"Um…would you like some breakfast?" I asked
He looked at me and blinked again. "Um…sure." He sat down and I got his drink order. Now that I could see that he really was OK, the heavy feeling from the dream really began to disappear. Now that he had regained consciousness, he was just as polite and polished as he'd been the day before, a stark contrast to the disheveled guy who'd just walked into a wall.
He seems all right, so I guess I had no reason to worry.
I was bringing him his plate but jumped as a familiar voice yelled, "Minna!" behind me. I turned to see Momiji bounding towards me. I smiled and placed Yuki's plate in front of him. Momiji came up beside me and grabbed my arm giving it a squeeze and putting his head on my shoulder. I giggled. "Hi Momiji, you scared me."
"I'm sorry," he giggled. He seems to giggle everything he says. "I'm just happy to see you."
I laughed. "Well, that's good, you'll be seeing a lot of me, this summer. You'll probably get sick of me."
Momiji laughed, "Of course not!" squeezing my arm again.
"Momiji," I heard Hatori say behind me, "Stop bothering Minna-san. She's trying to do her job."
"Aaaaawwww!" Momiji wined, "I just wanted to say hello."
"Really, it's alright." I said. "I'm not annoyed." To be honest, I liked being around this kid who seemed to like me so much.
"Just so long as he doesn't get in your way." Hatori said.
"No, it's fine." I said again.
Momiji abruptly turned to Yuki, "Yuki! Did you hear! Minna's coming with us to the lake today! You're coming too aren't you?"
Yuki smiled nicely at him, "Of course, I wouldn't miss it."
"Yay!!!!!" Momiji cheered, and I laughed. He was so cute! Even if he did act like a little kid. "Oh Minna! Are you going to eat breakfast? Eat breakfast with me OK?"
"Oh! I don't eat breakfast in here. I have to serve you all. I've already eaten breakfast."
"Oh." Momiji looked downcast, but he perked back up almost instantly, "Well, how about lunch! Will you eat lunch with me?"
"Momiji," Yuki said coaxingly, "Minna, works here, she has things she has to do, shouldn't we be considerate and let her do her job?"
"But Yuki, you want her to eat with us too don't you?" Momiji looked at him with big eyes.
Yuki blinked in surprise and I blushed.
Crap! Awkward, um…oh! An idea! "Here how about this?" I said quickly, "Why don't I pack a big picnic lunch to take to the lakeside, so then at lunch we can have a picnic outside, and I will be able to serve you and eat with you at the same time?"
"Yeah! That would be fun!" Momiji bounced around.
"That won't be a problem will it?" Yuki asked, considerately.
"No, no problem at all. Besides, it would be fun for me too." I smiled. I watched Momiji bounce around the room relaying the information to the rest of the family.
Oh dear, I'm gonna have a hard time keeping my mind on the job around here.
Um...so hopefully this chapter wasn't quite as angsty? Maybe? Oh well, like I said...would it be Furuba without angst? Oh and the dream is just a dream...I'm not sure if it has any significance besides being a surfacing of Minna's subconscious anxieties. Hopefully, the next update won't take as long. Once again, please let me know if anyone's out of character. I'm sorry if this chapter was too Minna-centric. I guess my objective for this story was to stick a real person with the Sohma's letting her interact with them and experience them in a realistic way. So her thoughts about the Sohmas are a big part of the story...yeah.
