The Sohma Institute
By Lady of the Ink
Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket, but you knew that. I hope. I do own this story, and all the plot twists it contains.
Chapter Sixteen
One of Those Days
Although she was by nature a cheerful person, even Tohru admitted that she had some bad days. Losing her mother had caused a slew of them, which was only to be expected. But there had been times in the past when, for no real reason that she could pinpoint, things just seemed to go wrong for her.
It was one of those days.
If you took the term "day" to mean any twenty-four hour period, then hers had started to go wrong the night before. After running late cleaning up and then bumping into the group in the hall, she had managed to miss her bus. She had had to call a taxi, which cut into both her money supply and her usual schedule. The hour she spent waiting for the driver to arrive was supposed to have been for studying. By the time she reached home, however, the stress and long hours left her exactly enough energy to crawl into bed and pull the covers over her head.
Then her alarm clock had decided that it was time to go on the blink, waking her after just an hour of rest with its harsh beeping. She had forced her eyes open long enough to reset it and then dropped back off to sleep. When it went off again, she tentatively cracked open just one eye, and was relieved to see daylight. She had yawned, stretched, and then screamed as she saw that she was already late for her first class of the day. Vowing revenge on the little clock when she got back, she had rushed to get ready.
A pop quiz, missing notes, and the realization that her socks didn't match finished up her morning. Skipping lunch to try and catch up, she then stopped to grab a sandwich on her way to work. They were out of her favorite kind, so she had settle for peanut butter and jelly. As she hurried to finish it before the bus arrived, since there was a strict no open food or drink policy, a large dollop of jelly slid from between the slices of bread to land on her shirt. Rubbing at it with a napkin just smeared it, and she climbed on the bus sticky and already ready to go home.
She made it to work with not a second to spare, and so had to check in with Ms. Almont, gooey stain and all. The barely suppressed laughter in the older woman's eyes and voice didn't help her mood. With permission, she slipped into the bathroom to scrub her shirt, replacing it with a spare from Ms. Almont until her own dried.
As she hung the dripping garment over the small sink, she stared at her reflection in the mirror, consciously willing herself to think positive. There was too much day left for her to allow herself to get bogged down in bad feelings right then. If she did, she'd go crazy before it was time to go home. She would just have to keep her mind on her job and not let any other thoughts bother her.
Tohru stopped before entering the hallway to tidy her appearance as best she could before starting the tasks Ms. Almont had assigned her for the afternoon. With her hair carefully smoothed behind her ears, she began checking on the four patients. She needed to ask them several questions so she could make a note of their moods for the paperwork she would soon have to handle on her own.
Kyou, again confined to his room, just ignored her, earning him a "usual" on his chart. Momiji, who was in the activity room with Haru, smiled brightly and managed to wrangle a promise for another board game in between giving her the answers she needed. She had to wait a few moments for Haru to reach a place in the video game he was playing where it was safe to stop for a bit. Once it was paused, he gave her his full attention, thinking for a moment before giving each reply.
The last person on her list was Yuki, who, like Kyou, was in his room. Leaving the cheerful banter in the activity room behind, she walked slowly down the hall. As she neared his room, her mind was replaying the odd occurrence from the night before. Akito and his strange attitude were fresh in her mind, and still as unsettling as they had been hours earlier. When her fingers touched the cool metal of the door handle, she almost expected it to still be locked. It opened easily, however, and she stepped inside.
Tohru turned straight to the chair by the window, but for the first time since she had started working at the Institute, it was empty. A feeling of foreboding threatened to wash over her, but she forced it away. She refused to allow her seeming bad luck coupled with a few random deviations from the normal routine to send her back to thoughts of secret agendas and ill intentions. Keeping her mind firmly on the task at hand, she turned to survey the rest of the room. It being as small as it was made it pretty easy to find the "missing" Yuki.
He was laying on his bed with his eyes closed and his blanket pulled up to his chin. She felt her mood lighten just a bit as she studied his features, slack with sleep. The time she had spent with him had been more than just a good step forward in he work. She had had fun talking with him and learning things about him, even if it had been just a few likes and dislikes.
Not wanting to wake him but unable to leave just then, she moved quietly to his side. Strands of hair lay over his forehead, dipping over his closed eyes. Before she could stop herself, she had reached out to gently brush them to the side. When they were out of the way, she took another look at his face and was startled by what she saw.
The distance from which she had taken her first survey had hidden a few things from her. Being as close as she was now, she saw a tenseness about his mouth and a slight discoloration beneath his eyes, as though from lack of sleep. Tipping her head to the side, Tohru's brows drew together in thought.
When she had walked him to his room after their gardening stint, Yuki had been as open and relaxed as she had ever seen him. The withdrawn silence was gone and he had even wished her goodnight as she closed the door. She would have expected him to have a peaceful night.
Unless he hadn't really enjoyed their time together and was just pretending for her sake. Maybe he looked tired now from the effort it had taken to be nice to her for so long. Maybe that was even the reason behind the administrator's visit late at night. Yuki could have sent for him somehow while she was cleaning up in order to complain that she was making a nuisance of herself. He had pushed himself too hard and it was all her fault and she might even fired for hurting his health when she was supposed to be helping him and she would have to find a new job that wouldn't interfere with her classes and . . .
"Ah, Tohru, there you are." Jerked rudely from her increasingly hysterical thoughts, Tohru turned to find Ms. Almont framed in the doorway. "I forgot to tell you about Yuki. He had an attack last night, and Dr. Sohma had to medicate him so he could get some sleep. See?" Crossing to Tohru's side, she took the clipboard from her lax hand and flipped a couple of pages. Pointing to a spot in particular, she waited as Tohru read the small notation. It was short and to the point, stating simply that Yuki had been medicated and was to be allowed total rest with no interruptions.
"Is he going to be all right?"
Ms. Almont smiled, laying a hand on her arm. "Oh, it's no big deal. It's some condition he's had since he was a small child. It just flares up every now and again. I'm sure his doctors know what's best for him and he'll back on his feet in no time at all."
Leading the way back into the hall, she continued talking. "I was also supposed to give you the message that Momiji is ready for the game whenever you are. He's so excited over having someone new to play against. I think it must get kind of boring for him, seeing the same faces all the time. Just the fact that you're a change of pace seems to have perked him up. Of course, he also seems to like you personally, which is a very good sign."
Tohru smiled in return, her relief over having Yuki's condition explained lightning her mood considerably. Although she was sorry about it, she was rather glad that her actions the night before hadn't directly caused his illness. It meant that her plan for one on one interaction was still her best bet at getting to know them all. She found herself looking forward to the game with Momiji, since she could use the opportunity to find out some more about his likes and dislikes.
She entered the activity room to find Momiji seated in the same chair he had occupied during their last game. Instead of a board game, he had an oversized deck of cards in front of him with two hands already dealt and waiting. Taking the empty chair, Tohru carefully arranged the cards in her hand while giving her partner a wide smile.
"Didn't Haru want to play?" she asked, just noticing the absence of the multi-toned head. The TV was silent and the game system had been turned off, its controllers returned to their places on the shelf.
Momiji shook his head emphatically. "He has something he has to do for Ms. Almont. He didn't say what it was, but he did tell me it'll probably take a while so we should play without him."
"Oh, well. I guess he can join us next time. This will be a good chance for us to talk, though." Tohru pulled a card from her hand and discarded it on the table. As Momiji did the same for his turn, she studied the younger boy. With his usually open expression and youthful appearance, it was easy to take him at face value and think he was just a happy-go-lucky kind of person. But when you took the time to look a little closer, it was clear that there was much more to him than his quick smile.
Mentally chastising herself for not noticing it sooner, Tohru silently promised both him and herself that she would try harder to help him in any way that she could. The first step toward that goal was getting to know him well enough to find things that would accomplish just that. She quickly racked her mind for the few personal facts he had told her and planned out how to expand on them.
The first thing that came to mind was his comment about playing the violin. It had been such a bittersweet moment for him; the happiness of remembered joy dimmed by the pain of its loss. She would bet anything that that was the best place to start. The only problem would be bringing it up in a way that would help him to think mostly of the good, not the bad.
She snuck a quick glance at Momiji as he frowned playfully at his cards. For the first time she pondered what it was in his life that had caused his condition. What had he seen or done that had affected him so deeply that he had chosen to revert to the safer, simpler time of childhood?
As he looked up and gifted her with another bright smile, Tohru knew that she'd have to deal with his past before tackling the future. And in a sudden spurt of inspiration, she knew exactly how to do it.
