Thankyou To MysticSorcerer for the idea of upside down paperwork
There aren't any spoilers in this chapter :D
Disclaimer: Don't own the rights to Fruitsbasket. Just the mangas. And episodes one to four of the anime :D
Paperwork
The rain pounded down on the roof of Kaibara Highschool. Yuki sat in the student council room wading through piles and piles of paperwork that had been hidden by the vice president. The rat muttered bitterly to himself as Kakeru's excuses echoed through his head…
"Ahhh Yun-yun… so that is where all our missing paper work went. Ahahahahaha…"
"That doesn't even qualify as an excuse." He pointed out to the post -it notes, and jumped out of his chair in fright as they replied, "what doesn't?"
He looked around the apparently deserted council room wildly, trying to banish his recollections of Kimi's assurances that the room was haunted by a former council member.
He was saved from his crazy half-formed imaginings with the appearance of the council treasurer. Although why she was crawling out of the store cupboard on her hands and knees, he couldn't guess.
"Pardon?" He asked, before realising that he was still brandishing the stapler in a very Ayame- like pose. Shifting as subtly as he could, he sat himself down and began composing himself. Machi clearly had no idea that anything was wrong, because she just repeated what she had said.
"What doesn't qualify as an excuse? You were talking to the post-it notes…" She avoided looking directly at him. Was that a smile playing at the corners of her mouth?
Yuki sighed, and tried to brush it off. Although the fact that she was smiling at him being a complete idiot was not reassuring.
"Your idiot brother hid three weeks worth of paperwork. Beneath the floor boards."
Machi sighed. "I am sorry for your trouble-"
-"Oh, please, it isn't your fault," he cut in, embarrassed that she was apologising on his behalf.
A silence fell upon them, in very much the same way as a cloud of dust settles on a television. Yuki couldn't think of anything else to do, so he returned to his paper sorting. It was long and tedious work, and he had to get it done before he went home that evening.
Machi watched him from her position on the other side of the room. He hadn't even asked her why she was crawling out of the store cupboard. Either he hadn't noticed- which she was pretty sure he had, as his face looked incredibly comical as she had stood up- or he was totally preoccupied with the backlog of paperwork.
She could help him; she didn't have anything to do, and she was wide awake after her nap in the cupboard…
Before her common sense could stop her, she had picked up half of the paper tower and had carried it to her own desk. "I'll help," she stated evenly- which probably sounded like a monotone to his perfect ears.
She twitched, but otherwise, remained calm. Ever since she had admitted to him that she was fighting her fear of perfection, she had been more aware of it than ever. She could hear it in the rhythm of his pen strokes, see it in the symmetry of his frown, sense it in the beating of his all too perfect heart.
All too soon she was working on auto-pilot; sorting and stapling sheaves of paper had become second nature to her. Her mind wandered over to the Student President, and considered his finer imperfections.
His hair was always a mess, she conceded. And he couldn't function properly in any social settings. She had observed this over the two yeas that she had come to know him- he smiled and answered any questions posed to him; made polite small talk when it was needed, but otherwise, he kept to himself. Only when they were alone together did he seem to come out of his shell a little.
However, the more she thought about it, the more she realised that she was thinking about herself, and not the President.
"…Machi? I said are you OK?" Machi looked up from her work to see that the silver haired boy had shifted from his seat over to her desk, and was about mile too close for comfort. She flushed and babbled, her mind still on auto pilot. By the time it had caught up with the situation, she had made a complete idiot of herself.
Yuki watched in astonishment as her skin changed from pale to ruby in the space of a nanosecond. 'What on earth had she been thinking?' He wondered, trying to suppress the hope that it was about him.
"…I'm fine!" She choked out, pressing herself as far back from him as possible.
He attempted to ignore this fact as he pressed on. "It's just that… well… these papers are upside down." He indicated the offending papers with a graceful wave of his hand. Despite the fact that he would kill anyone who even suggested that he was similar to Ayame, it was true.
The no longer babbling girl stared blankly at the papers he was holding. It took her a while to realise that when she was on auto pilot, she really was on auto pilot, and she hadn't made a conscious effort to stop avoiding perfection. She had been practising stapling papers the same way up for weeks on end, and she had though that she had got the knack of it.
Clearly not, as the proof was before her eyes.
"Sorry…" She mumbled. There was nothing else that she could say. And Yuki would be disappointed in her… For some reason that upset her more than the fact that she had fallen back into old habits.
The boy smiled and shrugged. "It doesn't matter." He replied, throwing the papers down onto their original pile. After ensuring that the edges didn't meet, he touched her head lightly, then made his way back to his seat.
"Keep trying Machi. You'll do fine."
It was only later that evening, whilst Machi lay in bed, cuddling her Mogeta charm, that she knew he was right.
It was the first time she had ever felt hopeful in her life.
Please review! Thankyou very much :D
Nalanna x
