Hey! It's been a while, but I'm back, and I've finally finished a half-way decent chapter for this fic XD Go me. What with starting college, flu, NaNoWriMo preparations, and writer's block, this has been a long time coming, so I hope hope hope it's a worthwhile part :P Thank you so much to all my kind reviewers. You guys are awesome beyond belief! & to everyone reading this fic, I hope you enjoy this part!

WARNING: This is lengthy, and a little angsty. It's how I write best XD

Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket. Uh-uh, not at alllll :(


This was difficult. She knew it shouldn't be. After all, most people did this sort of thing at least once a month, right? For people of all different ages and sexes. But still, for her, this was new. She'd never had to pick something all by herself. Even less so for a boy. How could she possibly know what he liked? It was not like she could even get something that she'd want, as her brother, Manabe always said he did, every time he bought her a gift. That strategy was far from effective, after all. What possibly possessed the idiot to think she'd really want a solar powered remote control car?

No, she was going to have to do this on what she knew of the President… What did she know about the President? Her mind was blank as she paced the fluorescent-lit aisle of the air conditioned shop yet again. This was ridiculous. She'd known him for over six months. If she was honest with herself, she was fascinated by him, yet… here she was, she couldn't even pick out a simple little present.

He'd known though. He'd chosen something for her perfectly. She reached absently into her pocket, her fingers clasping around the cool, hard paperweight. She gave it a small squeeze, a reminder to herself just why she had to keep searching for the perfect gift for him. He'd known exactly what to get her without even asking. How had he known? And why the heck didn't she know? She wanted to understand him, but right at that moment it struck her how much she had no idea about. All of the time he was outside the student council, for example, she had no idea what he was like then. When he was at home, did he act the same? Or could he let his guard down then? Did Honda get to see that? It seemed likely.

Yes, the President interested her, but there were sides of him that Honda saw every day that she never would. However much she hoped, for her own sadistic reasons, that the President was like her, the truth was, she didn't have anywhere near the full picture. As this absolute lack of any idea what to buy him proved. What were his interests, his hobbies? He liked gardening, but she didn't know if he had his own garden, or what he grew. She was sure that Honda wouldn't be having this problem. As soon as she had spotted Yuki's upcoming birthday on her calendar, her mind would immediately have conjured up the perfect gift, one he would cherish for years to come. Machi sighed.

Suddenly, she was thrown off balance from her dejected stance, staring blankly at the shelves of goods and trinkets in front of her. Throwing her hands out to steady herself, and stop herself from falling, she caught sight of the couple who had bumped into her. Their hands were entwined. The girl giggled lightly into her boyfriend's shoulder. The boy grinned in turn.

"Sorry about that." He said off-hand, and then without a glance, the pair left her. Machi's face had grown heated from embarrassment. It always took her surprise when people from the world around her invaded her personal self-built bubble. It was an experience she wasn't used to, invisibility being something she was all too accustomed to.

That was it. There was no point spending any more time here. She left the shop empty handed. What had she been thinking in any case? What was she to the President? They weren't even really friends. They were just on the council together. Surely he'd think it strange if she did give him something? Like she was suggesting she was something more to him than she actually was. He'd given her an apology gift, but that was just out of his own sense of over-the-top politeness. A birthday gift was something different altogether. No, she'd been stupid. As it was, why would he want anything from her? All of his fanclub would get him something. He'd hardly be lacking attention on the day. She should just keep out of it. Her hand in her pocket squeezed Mogeta harder.

***

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, YUN-YUN!" Kakeru yelled at the top of his lungs the moment Yuki opened the door. A gaudy neon pink and yellow cardboard party hat sat on his black hair. Just looking at it caused Yuki to have to blink from the brightness.

"Happy birthday, Yun-Yun!" Kimi greeted him, rushing up to him with a parcel wrapped in flower-patterned wrapping paper, "Open Kimi's present! Open Kimi's present!" She shoved it into his hands, which were already balancing several other gifts, all wrapped in different paper. His fanclub had surrounded him the moment he had stepped into the building that morning, forcing him to take the gifts that he assured them weren't necessary.

"Thank you very much, Kimi-chan." He said, bowing his head slightly to her, as he put his gifts down on his desk.

"Yun-Yun's so formal!" Kimi said brightly, rushing to sit beside him, as he took Kimi's gift in his hands. Everyone's eyes were on him – Kimi expectant, Kakeru jubilant, Nao resenting, and Machi… he wished he could tell from a glance what Machi was thinking, but she was talented at not letting him, or anyone else, see what she didn't want them too – and he had to make a conscious effort to not completely shrink away from the attention.

"Open it! Open it!" Kimi chanted.

Yuki carefully tore open the paper of the squishy package, to reveal a bundle of pink fur.

"Oh, a… a teddy bear." Yuki said, trying to keep a polite smile on his face at the cuddly atrocity now in his grasp. It was baby pink, with doleful blue eyes, and a pillarbox red felt heart covering the entire front of its torso. "Um, thank you… very much, Kimi-chan."

"I knew you'd like it, Yun-Yun! I think it shows exactly how much Kimi thinks of the President!" She smiled joyfully, "After all, the boy who gave Kimi that bear last Christmas definitely thought a lot of Kimi!"

"Oh… well, um, thanks." He tried to smile at her. She seemed to take it as sincere, and skipped back to her own desk in the room.

"Now my present, Yun-Yun, you gotta open mine next!" Kakeru bounded over, almost throwing an unwrapped box at Yuki.

"Sorry I couldn't wrap it. My girlfriend was busy, and I can't wrap stuff myself."

"Don't worry." Yuki said, silently dreading opening the box. It was from Kakeru, after all. It could be anything. It took some courage to lift the lid, reach into the darkness within and pull out… a pair of action figures.

"What do you think, Yun-Yun? They're perfect for you, right?"

Yuki felt an almost overwhelming urge to hit him, but forced himself to consider that he could have got him something far more… inappropriate, if he had set his mind to it. Small mercies, and the fear of seeming ungrateful restrained his fist from making contact with the side of Kakeru's head.

The figures were of a couple of characters from Super Sentai, a television show that Hiro had introduced him to not that long ago. The red one and the yellow one to be precise. Although separate dolls, they had been bound together by copious amounts of tape so that it looked like they were holding hands. It took no amount of genius to work out what Kakeru was insinuating. The devilish grin on his face only heightened Yuki's irritation and embarrassment. He was lucky that some of the interest around his gifts had now dropped. Nao was doing his paperwork with angry mutterings under his breath, and Kimi, having lost interest now her own gift had been delivered, was brushing her hair whilst gazing admiringly at her own reflection in a hand-mirror. Only Machi was still watching, her face betraying a slight curiosity into Kakeru's gift. Yuki tried to obscure it from her sight, behind the box the pair had come in.

"Thank you, Kakeru." He said under his breath. "You shouldn't have."

"But I wanted to." Did he have any idea how close to being thrown into the wall opposite he was?

"And now our gifts have been bestowed on our dear Yun-Yun," Kakeru announced, standing up straight again, although the smile hadn't left his face, "The School Defence Force will take its leave!"

"Huh? What?" Kimi asked, putting her brush down.

"We've still got work to do!" Naohito fumed, "Stop saying stupid things!"

"No, we've got to go. I'm pretty sure there's… something we need to, somewhere that's… not here. So get moving!"

Kimi happily pranced out of the room, requiring no more explanation, after all, it was an excuse to get out of work. Kakeru left moments later, with Naohito in tow, being pulled with, yells of protest, by his collar. Machi got up to leave too, but was instantly chided with:

"No, no, Machi, you've got to stay here with Yun-Yun, to… keep watch. After all, a rabid fangirl might get him if he's left alone."

"What was that?" Yuki asked after a moment of stunned silence once the rest of the council had evacuated the room.

"I don't know…" Machi said slowly. She got up from her own desk, and went to the door, standing on tiptoes to peer through the window at the top of the door. "They really have gone." She confirmed.

"Oh." Machi started at his voice. He was far closer to her than she had been anticipating. He too had moved to see out of the little window, and was now only paces from her. She reddened slightly.

"Hey, um, Machi," He started, stepping back. Maybe he felt, too, that they had gotten breath-restrictingly close. "You don't… you don't want that teddy bear, do you?" He pointed to the pink thing behind him.

Machi instantly shook her head, slightly more violently than even she had anticipated.

"No. No, I really… don't." The said bear was slightly horrific in its overly cute demeanour.

Yuki chuckled.

"It's the thought that counts. I don't want to be mean to Kimi-chan or anything."

"What did Manabe get you?" Machi asked with genuine curiosity, "Was it something bad? He's never given me a good gift, ever."

"Oh… that. It's not… it's not bad, just… stupid, I guess."

"Oh." She didn't understand. Yuki might hide a lot of things from the world, but she was fairly touched by how unevasive he usually was with her. Her curiosity was genuinely piqued.

"You know, if it's something really bad, just burn it as soon as you get home. That's what I did the time he thought it was his place to get me a training bra." The words slipped out of her mouth before she had a chance to think them through. She blushed immediately. She'd just mentioned a feminine underwear article to the President. Being swallowed up by the ground, or being hit by a meteor didn't sound altogether unattractive at that moment.

He laughed, more at her blush than her words.

"You can be so cute sometimes." Yes, a meteor would be a great way to end the conversation, she decided.

"…shut up."

His hand was suddenly on her head, his face closer to hers than it had been moments before. He wasn't smiling now, but there was such a soft kindness, a vulnerability in his eyes. She had the insane urge to hug him. She wanted to… get rid of the pain. Somehow. Which was completely ridiculous. How could she possibly ever manage that, when she was barely even surviving herself? She brushed the thought aside, and mentally scolded herself for being so stupid.

He didn't say anything, and she felt compelled to break the silence, break the moment before… before something happened. Before she did something stupid that would mean never being able to look him straight in the eye ever again.

"I-I didn't get you a gift." She spluttered out. She was successful, he withdrew his hand, and his face was suddenly less intense. He smiled warmly down at her.

"That's okay." He said, "I've had so many wonderful gifts already." He indicated pointedly to the bear, and Machi almost smiled.

"I wanted to, though." She continued, not really knowing what she was saying, "I just… I didn't know what… I don't know anything about you."She hadn't meant to say that last part. Did admitting it make it more real, or more trivial? Would he really care that she felt she knew nothing of his likes, dislikes, interests, wishes?

His smile didn't falter.

"I've never told you what kind of music I like, what my dream job is, or what my opinion on musical greetings cards is, but… you know about me. You know things about me that I don't know if I'm even ready to face yet."

Machi felt rather like the wind had been knocked out of her lungs.

"I sometimes feel like, the others… Kakeru, Nao, Kimi, they know Yun-Yun, they know who I present to them, but you… you don't buy Yun-Yun at all," He smiled slightly wryly, "You… you keep wandering past Yun-Yun, into… Yuki."

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean-" Machi said slowly, she wasn't sure she quite understood what he was saying.

"Don't be. I'm… I'm grateful, truly, even though sometimes what you can see in me scares me. There's parts… I wish weren't me. But I promise… the walls you're knocking down in me, I'm not going to build them up again. I… don't want to keep you out."