Fruits Basket: Saori Sohma

Chapter 4:

Nightmares

"Good morning Kyo!" Saori walked smoothly up to the front porch. Kyo couldnt help but notice that it looked almost as though she was floating. "I start school with you guys tomorrow! I went and got this new backpack to get ready, see!? Isnt it cute?" She held up a black bag, onto which she had sewn her name in pink, curly lettering. Kyo laughed to himself a little and nodded back at her. He had always admired how Saori could be such a tomboy but still have such a girly side to her.

"Have you been in school while you were away?" Kyo asked. Saori hesitated but continued smoothly on.

"Well, I got tutored at home so I dont really remember what it was like to be at school but I am hoping it isnt too different." She smiled, Kyo smiled back. Tohru and Yuki came up to the porch from a path in the woods, they had been checking on Yuki's "secret base".

"Hello Saori, nice to see you again."

"Hey Yuki. Hey Tohru." Tohru curtsied.

"Im glad to see you again Saori!" Tohru cried, she ran forward to hug Saori, nearly half expecting her to change into an animal. She didnt, obviously.

Saori spaced out for a minute or two while Yuki and Kyo fought over why Yuki was always off with Tohru and Tohru watched them, giggling. She thought about how she should explain that she had been living in the country with her mother and father when both were killed, months apart, by the same murderer. She didnt know how she would explain why she lied to them. Her parents were killed when she was fourteen and since then she had not been to school once, and she most deffinitly had not gotten home schooled, she hadnt had a home to be schooled at. The entire Sohma family knew about her father's death only because her mother had sent word back to Sohma house about it. But when her mother died, there was no one to send word, no one to keep in contact, Kyo didnt get another letter about his best friend. Just silence, for years.

'I have to tell them, the longer I wait, the bigger the hole is gonna be that I have dug myself by lying for this long.' She thought to herself. Suddenly, Tohru's face appeared in front of her, startling her and causing her to fall backwards, twisting her ankle as she fell.

"Agh!" Saori cried as she hit the ground. Yuki stopped mid high-kick, his foot inches from Kyo's head, and Kyo rushed towards his fallen best friend.

"Saori! Are you alright? Are you hurt? Here, lemme carry you inside." without protest, Saori let Kyo carry her up the stairs to his room and laid her on his bed. He couldnt help but notice how pretty she was when she needed help. He hadnt seen her for so long that he thought every movement she made was beautiful. He took it all in, as if she might dissapear again at any time.

"Thank you Kyo, but I think I will be fine." She tried to stand up but Kyo's forcefull hands fell upon her shoulders like gentle, lead weights, slowly forcing her back down onto her back.

"You just lie here and rest while I go get you a bandage for your ankle." He left the room. Saori's eyes followed his back as he left. Once the door closed she could feel her heart start to beat a little bit faster. She was in Kyo's room, lying on his bed, waiting for him to come back and nurse her wounded ankle. She shook her head violently.

"I have been in Kyo's room before when we were children...snap out of it girl! This isnt a huge deal alright?!" She tried talking herself out of getting over excited, but her heart wouldnt listen. They never do. Besides, this was a different room, and they were older. They were old enough to understand love and to know what to do about love. Back then they were kids, not even knowing that they liked eachother this way. She sighed, closing her eyes for only a moment, she felt very tired all of a sudden.

Kyo stood next to Saori, holding her hand, about to kiss her. She leaned in but missed his lips. She felt weird, like she was shrinking, she opened her eyes, Kyo's hands were getting bigger, wait...no...hers were shrinking? Her whole body was, then she stopped shrinking and let go of Kyo's hands, who had to bend slightly over to hold onto her hands. She could see her reflection in his eyes, she was the way she looked when she left Sohma house unexpectedly. She pushed away from Kyo, not wanting to see herself look like that, not wanting to bring back those painful memories. She took a step back, then another but the ground was not there to meet her foot. Her stomach summersaulted as she tumbled backwards into a deep and dark hole. Kyo stood at the edge of the hole watching her fall, shrinking back into how he looked as a child and turned and walked away, leaving Saori to fall to her death without trying to save her.

"NOOOOO!" Saori shot up, blankets falling off her body. "Blankets?" She turned to look out the window, it was dark outside. She had slept through the whole day? She lifted the blankets, swinging her legs out from underneath and placing them on the floor. Her ankle was taped. Kyo must have fone it while she slept because she didnt remember him comming back. Even her shoes had been taken off. She smiled at the though of Kyo sneaking silently around, helping her. Especially after that scary dream she had. "My head hurts a little... Maybe I should go find Kyo and the others." She walked downstairs and into the dinning room to find it dark, there was a dark mass on the ground near the table. She walked over to it, stepping in something warm and sticky. She knelt down near the blob and touched the sticky stuff, suddenly she could vividly see the colors in the room, the red blood, the brown wooden floor, the orange hair.

"Kyo! No!...Nnngh...Kyo..." Saori's head tossed back and forth as she slept, pulling the covers from side to side. Yuki stood over her with Tohru who was replacing the wet towl on Saori's head with a new, cooler one. Kyo talked in the background with the Sohma family doctor, who was explaining to Kyo and Shigure what was going on with Saori.

"She has not been eating properly lately, Momiji told me they went out to dinner last night and she scarffed down food like she hadnt eaten in days. Also, she seems to have been sick with the flu for quite some time now."

"But she didnt look sick before." Kyo complained, turning to stare at the pale face of Saori.

"It often seems that way right before it strikes its hardest. It makes the body weak, probably what caused her to sprain her ankle today. As I remember she was always the resiliant one as a child, she never acted sick until it was bad whereas the others would come running at the first sign of a runny nose." He looked very serious as he said this. Then again, he was always serious.

"So what can we do for her?" Shigure asked.

"Give her time to rest, I will come by again tomorrow to give her some more medication but until then, give her plenty of quiet time and rest." With that stood up and left to head back to Sohma house. Tohru and Yuki walked out of the room, Shigure followed the two leaving only Kyo behind. He walked silently over to his own bedside. It was nearly ten thirty at night and he was tired after spending all day by her bedside, waiting for her to wake up.

'She must be having one hell of a time' He thought as he looked at her face which looked frightened. Since she was sick, she was unable to awaken from her usual nightmares, allowing the nightmares to fester and grow more and more fearsome inside her mind. Kyo reached out and touched Saori's hand, it stopped trembling, her body shook a little less. He smiled at this and sat on the side of the bed.

"It always was like you to steal my bed when we were kids." He whispered to her. She rolled to the other side of the bed, creating enough room for Kyo to lay down next to her, his face in her hair, smelling her sweetness. He wrapped his arms around her and slightly hugged her closer to him. Her entire body ceised its quivering and she lie still, sleeping silently finally. Kyo smiled.

Kyo's warmth felt good. He had finally decided to jump into the hole and save her. They werent kids anymore. She stood in his embrace, her head against his chest, listening to him breath, with a smile across her face.