A/N: I think that I might have written Fruits Basket fanfiction about 20 years ago when I was like 12. Somehow I've come full circle.

He still struggles with the idea that someone loves him.

It isn't so much that Kyo thinks he's undeserving. Not anymore, at least. The thing is: it's complicated.

A person is always their biggest critic, and Kyo's never been the nicest man. But he knows that he isn't bad. Or cruel, or even evil, despite what was thought of him growing up. It'd been a long journey of finding himself, but he'd managed it, against all odds.

Still.

There's someone who loves him wholeheartedly and Kyo's half-convinced that he's going to wake up one day and find that it was all a dream. A cruel joke played on him by a higher power, and all because Kyo's the cat. The butt of all jokes. The worst of the Zodiac.

He never thought it'd be Tohru. Kyo knew it was the beginning of the end the moment she said the cat was always her favorite of the zodiac. What dramatic irony. Kyoko Honda is laughing from her spot in the stars. No doubt she watched as he tried pathetically to do anything other than fall in love with her daughter. He never had a chance in hell.

But he isn't complaining because there isn't anywhere he'd rather be.

"Kyo?"

Tohru's voice is so soft and loving that it melts his heart. When Kyo looks at her, she's beaming, her smile wide as she waits for his answer patiently.

The first time he'd ever seen Tohru, Kyo felt an instinctual drive to protect her, to wipe that lonely look off of her face. He never understood it, but maybe it's because it was the will of the Gods. Something, something, fate, or whatever those newspaper astrologers claim to see in the stars.

He'd never put much stock into the idea until then. But now, Kyo knows. It was always meant to be.

"It's nothing," he says to her finally. "Just thinking."

Tohru huffs a sweet little laugh. "Well don't think too hard. You might hurt yourself." Kyo chuckles before reaching out to ruffle her hair, and she shrieks in response, batting her away. "Really, though," continues Tohru, "What about?"

"Your mom," he says. Amongst other things, of course, not that he'll bore her with the details. "I promised her I'd watch over you." It isn't the first time he's told her this, or the last.

Tohru's smile melts into something softer, a little more tender. But it isn't hesitant. It radiates enough warmth to keep him from even the coldest of winter days. "Oh, stop that," says Tohru, reaching out to push at his shoulder lightly. "You know that's my job, not yours."

To protect him, she means. She did back then and she still does now; shields him from the anger of others and the grief of his past. Brings him happiness to light those days where he's feeling hopeless and lost.

They aren't as rare as he'd like.

This is part of that adjustment that Kyo thinks about a lot. Relationships aren't easy even when it's all that you want. And he wants everything that Tohru will give him because she grounds him.

Kyo reaches out to cup her jaw, his thumb sliding over her high cheekbone. "Yeah, I know," he says. "Been there, done all that."

She's the one who did everything that she could to break his curse. She'd do it a thousand times more if she needed to.

Tohru leans forward for a sweet kiss and Kyo falls into it, eyes slipping closed as he relishes it. When she pulls away, she ruffles his hair, just like he did hers.

"It's still new," he says quietly. Even though they've been together for over a year. Doesn't feel like it.

"I know," she says. It isn't judgmental. "It's normal for things to take time to work out. But that's what I'm here for, you know?"

Tohru holds her hand out, waiting expectantly and Kyo looks at it.

He still struggles with it, the idea that Tohru loves him with every fiber of her being. That she's still here despite everything his family has put her through. That he's put her through.

But Kyo knows that she doesn't want to be anywhere else. Her hand is like an anchor and her love like a ship at a port. It's only a matter of time before they figure out how to sail off together.

Kyo reaches out and takes her hand, and Tohru laughs.