Note: Thanks so much for all of the reviews! Here's chapter 7, loves. Continue those fabbity reviews, will you?
Disclaimer: Aaaah… ((sob)). I don't own Fruits Basket… quit rubbing it in, would you?!
Whose Manga is it, Anyway?
Chapter Seven: Talents
"So, why did you want to go on a walk?" I asked Izzy, coming into Tohru's room to find her alone on the bed with a book of unknown origin.
"Ah, finally, you're home!" she said, tossing the book aside. "I was trying to find a few things out about how we got here," she said, picking the book back up and showing me the cover.
"That's the same spell book we used," I said, stating the obvious.
"Exactly. I bought a copy on my walk. I'm trying to figure out how the 'find love' spell could cause us to end up here."
"And how's that going?"
"No luck whatsoever."
I sighed. "I wonder if we're just such outcasts that a love for us couldn't be found in our own dimension."
"Speak for yourself! I could find love if I wanted. Without a spell, even."
I shook my head. We both knew I was the worst of the two of us, as far as talking to people and fitting in went. But neither of us were exactly popular. "What I want to know is how long this will last. Are we stuck here forever, or is it going to wear off…?"
"Maybe," Izzy said suddenly, eyes lighting up, "we have to break the Sohma curse! Maybe that's why we're here!"
I shrugged. "Newsflash, Izzy—we don't know how to break the curse any better than anyone here."
"Not entirely true," she retaliated. "We know all about them, but they don't know that we know. If one of us were to get one of the Sohmas to love us, and get them to show us that they're cursed, wouldn't that mean something?"
"Yes, it would mean something," I said. "It would mean that that love was a lie."
"Here you go again," Izzy sighed, well used to my rants and rambles on love, which I knew next to nothing about, at least not in personal experience.
"What?" I said, tapping the spell book. "It's not my book that got us into this mess."
Izzy smiled slyly. "Whoever said it was a mess? I, for one, think it's a miracle!"
I flopped back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling. "Kyo certainly isn't quite what I expected. He's quieter."
"That's because we aren't Tohru. And we shouldn't talk like this where they might overhear."
I nodded, and mused over the question of how we came to be here, and what it might mean.
"Dinner's ready!" Tohru called cheerfully up the stairs sometime later.
"This'll mark our first real dinner here, with the Sohmas," I told Izzy as we hopped off the bed and headed down to the table, where everyone was already seated around steaming food.
"Thank you so much," Izzy said. "It looks delicious!"
She quickly snagged the open seat next to Kyo, so I sat between her and Yuki. I realized by the looks everyone was giving me that I had forgotten to change out of my kimono.
"Er… I uhm… tripped," I said truthfully.
Izzy looked at me. "You got lost again, didn't you? You're always getting lost."
I laughed. "Yeah… I got lost," I said softly. "Luckily, I ran into Tohru-san!"
Tohru smiled and shook her head. "No no, I was the lucky one! It was so pleasant to walk home with you!"
Kyo shot her a look, but I ignored it, giving Izzy a sort of significant look, saying "I'll explain later" with my eyes.
"Tohru, you've done it again! This food is wonderful," Shigure said, fake tears streaming down his face.
"You know," Izzy said suddenly, "if Tohru ever needed a break, Melony cooks very well!"
I shot her a look, blushing. I didn't want the Sohmas to ask me to cook for them. It was simply too much.
"Can you? That's great! I'm sure you're much better than I am, but I understand if you don't want that responsibility!" Tohru said.
"I'm all right," I said modestly. "I love it more than I'm good at it."
"You'll have to show us your cooking some time, Melony-chan," Shigure said wickedly. "We've got a little apron that would look adorable on you!"
Yuki whacked his older cousin on the head. "Must you always say things like that?" he asked, looking apologetically at me. "I apologize, Melony-san."
I smiled. "It's really nothing."
Izzy smirked. "She really should cook for you sometime."
Somehow, I smelled a scheme in the air, and it wasn't the fumes from Tohru's cooking.
"I can't stand all this sappy talk," Kyo burst suddenly. "I'm leaving."
We watched him leave, all of us stunned.
"To the roof again, Kyo…?" Tohru wondered out loud.
"He really hates us, doesn't he?" Izzy asked, looking hurt.
"No no," Tohru said. "Kyo's just shy around new people. He'll open up."
Remembering something from the series, I looked at Yuki. His fists were neatly clenched in his lap. "Yes, you'll all be the best of friends in no time," he said quietly, bitterly. Tohru didn't hear him, and Izzy chose to ignore him, since he'd never been one of her favorite characters in the series.
"What do you mean, to the roof?" she asked, faking puzzlement.
"Oh, when he gets upset, Kyo likes to sulk on the roof," Shigure said happily.
"What are you so happy about?" Yuki asked. Shigure shrugged.
"I've just had an idea," he said. "For my novel."
His eyes had a gleam in them that I well recognized. "You'd better get to it," I said. "Before it slips just to that annoying place where you can still taste it but you just can't make it real."
He looked at me strangely. "You're a writer?"
I blushed. Another secret gone. I just couldn't seem to keep them these days.
"Oh, yes! Back at home, she'd write fanfictions, and I'd do the illustrations!" Izzy said smartly, producing a pencil randomly and grabbing a piece of paper that she somehow located.
"She's really talented," I told Shigure as Izzy scribbled down quickly, producing a beautiful sketch of Yuki, Shigure, Tohru, and I sitting around the table, drawn from her perspective.
"That really is amazing," Shigure said. "I might have to show that to my agent some time."
Izzy simply glowed with pleasure. "Really?!"
"We'll see if you earn it," Shigure said slyly, slinking off to his study again.
"If I earn it," Izzy repeated, blinking after him. "I got distracted. We should have gotten him to read something of yours," she said to me.
"I haven't got anything with me…" I said sadly.
"What sorts of things do you write, Melony-san?" Tohru asked. "Shigure's the only real life writer I've ever met! I still haven't read anything of his, though."
Yuki made a disgusted face. "And you don't want to," he cut in.
I didn't like being the center of attention, which had been the reason I'd thrust everyone's attention to Izzy just a few minutes ago. "I… uh… well I… don't you think Kyo's hungry? He hardly touched his food," I said, changing the subject away from myself.
"Oh you're right! I'll take something up right this minute!" Tohru exclaimed, running off.
"Wait, wait!" Izzy said, standing up. "I want to make him stop hating me. Can I come with you?"
I knew she really wanted to try and charm him, but either way, Tohru allowed her to come, and I was left once again alone with "Prince" Yuki Sohma.
"I apologize for leaving so abruptly," he said. "But I've got something I need to tend to."
Never mind, then. Leaving me all alone. I wondered if he could be going out to his secret base so late, and decided he probably was. If I were braver, maybe I'd follow him. I was dying to see his plants. But instead, I went upstairs, and went to bed…
-Now We Change to Izzy's POV for the FIRST TIME EVER-
I just HAD to make Kyo fall in love with me. It had been my dream ever since I'd become a Fruits Basket fan, so many years ago. I wasn't like Melony—this opportunity was not going to be wasted on me. I'd do whatever it took to get Kyo's heart!
"Kyo-kun," Tohru said, going up the ladder first. "We brought you something to eat."
"We?" Kyo replied warily.
"Isabel-san is here as well," Tohru said nervously. I quickly followed up the ladder and made the "I come in Peace" sign.
"I'm not sure what I did," I said carefully. "But I'd like to make it up to you."
"You didn't do anything," he said. "I just don't like people."
I was shocked at his bluntness. Was the Kyo I knew and loved that blunt? I thought for a moment. Yes, I supposed he was. But I could be blunt, too.
"Well, neither do I, really. But if we're going to be living together, you're going to have to get used to me someday."
"Then maybe I'll just leave!"
"Kyo-kun," Tohru said, brushing his hand lightly, causing me to blush in fury, though I did my best to hide it, "You don't mean that, do you? That you'll just leave? Because I really want you to stay."
I sighed. The look in his eyes was so sappy it nearly made me gag. I knew I had lost the battle, at least today.
"Well, Kyo-san," I said, starting my way back down the ladder, "think what you will of me."
I rushed off to find my best friend and tell her about my latest attempt at Kyo! She was the romantic—maybe she could help me!
End note: I really hope that you guys enjoy this chapter, and the little tidbit of "inside Izzy's mind" at the end. I figured we don't follow her character enough, and so, ta-da! Review! You know you want to!
