Wishing Not to be Alone

Disclaimer: Although I wish I could own Fruits Basket, I don't. Anyway, if I owned it, it wouldn't be that good anyway… so, be happy I don't.

Chapter 4: Down that Lonely Road

On that same rainy day, Hiro was walking down the empty streets past the entrance of the Sohma Estate. A few rays of sunlight were gradually starting to peak through the gray clouds, warming the cold, sodden ground underneath his feet. Since he did not wish to go home yet, he kept walking past the estate, through the 'outside' roads and beyond. When he arrived at Kazuma Sohma's karate dojo, he stopped and examined the dojo.

The atmosphere was silent. This was odd, for the dojo to be empty on a school day such as this. Hiro figured that they must have closed up for the day due to the terrible weather they had experienced only a few hours previously. However, Hiro didn't care. He wasn't going to the dojo that day for any sort of karate training anyway… he just wanted to go somewhere to kill some time. Of course, the exterior of the dojo was one of his favorite places to pursue that exact activity. Besides, in his opinion, he was relieved that he didn't have to hear whiny little kids' complaints or the endless bickering of his cousins. (Although he could probably out-complain any little kid in existence…)

He sat down on the foot of an ancient tree. Since he was very young, he had always come to this place during times when he wanted to think through a difficult problem, or just have somewhere to relax. Sure, usually there were many others around here, but when classes were over, there was a serene peacefulness in this area. It really calmed him.

Suddenly, the solitude was broken when a familiar voice sounded from behind, "Hey, brat, what the heck are you doing here today?" Hiro turned to face the voice's owner. A young man, five years older than himself, with bright orange hair and catlike, red eyes was staring downwards at him. It was one of his cousins, Kyo Sohma. Kyo helped Shihan, who was a sort of adopted "father" of his, at the dojo, so he often was there on days that the dojo was closed up and nobody else was present.

Hiro replied, standing up from his spot underneath the tree, in a very caustic manner, "What am I doing here? If that's the case, what are you doing here? Are you saying that you have more of a right to be here then me…? Are you saying you are more important than me? If so, then I wholeheartedly object…"

Kyo yelled, casting a threatening glance Hiro's way, "Why, you… little twerp! Sometime, you'll get a taste of your own medicine, you know! Yeah, you will… you idiotic little…"

Hiro interrupted with a note of sarcasm in his voice, "Oh, threatening me, are you? I'm so scared. Remember what I told you… do you want to be charged for child abuse?"

"You little—!"

Hiro grinned evilly. Kyo's irascible temper made him a great target for annoying. "Anyway, can you leave me alone? Don't you have your stupid girlfriend to go home to?"

Kyo rose his voice in anger, "Don't you dare call Tohru stupid, or else…" His fist tightened in threat.

Hiro answered, "Of course, I won't…" (…stupid, he added in his thoughts.)

Kyo calmed himself. "So, what were you doing here anyway, kid?"

"Why should that concern you?"

"Today isn't one of the days you usually come to the dojo, even when the weather isn't stormy."

"Yeah, so…?"

"It's definitely weird."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah."

Hiro felt annoyed. Why should that idiotic cat care? Although, to others, he guessed, it was sort of weird to visit the dojo on a day when he wasn't supposed to be doing anything there, but why should they care? He should be able to do whatever he wanted without anybody saying anything about it, in his opinion.

Hiro said, picking up his schoolbag from the ground, "Well, I'm going, ok? So leave me alone… Really, just leave me alone." To which he took off without a word, as Kyo stared at the teenage boy.

Hiro walked down that lonely road leading outside the dojo. It was true, he had been acting weird lately… it must've been the battle he was having with his own emotions. He knew that there was no way he could ever tell Kisa how he liked her. However, the more he tried to distance himself from her, the more he longed to tell her. He seemed to be traveling down the empty path for ages, but he didn't know or care where he was going. He could be walking for an eternity, and it would not make a bit of difference to him. He just needed to go somewhere where he couldn't be disturbed. A place of peace, a place of quiet…

The sun was beginning to set, and darkness had begun to befall the sky. And as the sky darkened, the clouds began to darken as well, a warning sign that another storm could be approaching once again. Hiro became depressed as he looked at the stormy clouds – nearly of similar nature to those feelings that shadowed and saddened his tormented soul.

Soon, he began to realize where he was. He had subconsciously been walking down the road to the Sohma house this whole time. However, since he hadn't been paying attention at all to anything around him, he had not realized where exactly he was at the time until then. The sound of lightning was heard, and another storm had begun. However, this one seemed even worse – even more violent than the one that came before. The rain poured heavily, and the wind shook the trees violently. Hiro feared that he may not be able to make it home before dark, since the storm was slowing him down, and considering the size of the Sohma estate, it already was a considerably long walk from home.

I'm sure Mom must be freaking out by now, but this storm is really bad… and I'm still so far away from home…

Suddenly, he heard the soft sound of crying from behind. The weeping of a young girl, whom Hiro immediately recognized the voice of. Kisa was sitting on the side of the road, sheltered by a large tree, her head in her trembling hands. Tears were dripping from her eyes, as she stammered, "H—Hiro… Hiro-kun… I—I thought the storm had cleared, but it seems to have just worsened… Worsened… Worsened… So much worse…"

Hiro answered, staring at Kisa with a frightened expression in his face, "K-Kisa, what are you doing out here? Are you ok…?"

Kisa replied, tears in her eyes as she lifted her head higher, "I was returning from school, and I got lost and caught in the storm. Onee-chan found me, and brought me to Shigure-ojiichan's house to stay until the storm passed. She gave me tea, and we talked—" Kisa hesitated for a moment, she couldn't tell Hiro what she told Tohru that afternoon. Instead, she said, "—about several things. Once the storm had cleared, I left to go home. And although I thought the storm had passed, then it started once again…"

Hiro glared at Kisa, speechless. For a few moments, there was total silence, as Kisa silently sobbed. Hiro held out his hand to help her up, and Kisa's tearing golden eyes stared into Hiro's, as she reached for his hand. Hiro told her, "Here, I'll walk you home… so please, don't cry. I'm sure, if you just remain positive, I'm sure—I'm sure that the storm will pass."

Kisa smiled slightly, as she held his hand, and they walked together down that no-longer-lonely road to their respective houses. As they were nearing the main house, Hiro suddenly mentioned, "Umm… Kisa, remember that day three years ago when I told you why Akito… hurt you…?"

Kisa remembered, she had met Hiro while going to give Hinata (who had just been conceived) some CDs of music, and he had apologized to her for Akito hurting her. "Yes, I do remember… And you said that you said something to make Akito angry…" She always had wondered what he could have told Akito to make him angry and take it out on her.

"Yes, about that… Don't… don't worry about what I told him. It… was nothing…" Hiro sighed. Again, it seemed that he could never tell her… although he so longed to tell her what he had said to instigate such a violent reaction on Akito's part.

Kisa smiled, and although she still was curious to know what Hiro could've told Akito to make him react in such a manner, that all was a part of the past now. She was trying to move on, and little by little, she had done so.

Hiro watched Kisa, as they neared the girl's house. The storm was gradually clearing up, and the mood was brightening bit by bit. And, although it was night, the atmosphere did not feel dark and empty, but strangely, slightly cheerful.

Someday, I'll tell her, but for now, I want things to remain the way they are…

Once they arrived at Kisa's house, he waved goodbye to the girl, and left for his home, waving until she disappeared from his sight. Although the day may have been stormy and blue, for some reason, he no longer felt as if he was walking down a lonely road…

…and he only hoped that Kisa could feel that way, as well.

Neko's Rambling Corner Part 5: So chapter 4 has finally been finished. I'm sorry it took so long. It seems everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong while writing this. I kept switching ideas for it, because nothing worked for this chapter, making me rewrite it about 3 times. Then, once I finally figured out what I wanted to do, I had finished halfway through the chapter, but then file became corrupted by a virus, making me had to redo the whole entire chapter. Then, once I finally finished, the floppy disk drive was malfunctioning, so it was stuck on my ancient, no-internet-connection laptop, making about an hour's worth of trial and error (with the computer completely freezing up a million times in between) trying to get the stupid thing working. Once I finally got it to work and saved the file onto the disk, my brother was monopolizing the computer with the internet connection (as he always does), so I had to wait for a while until I could properly kick him off… But here it is, and although I had to lose my sanity (what sanity?) in the process, it's officially uploaded. However, this chapter was the longest of all the ones so far, so that's another reason why it took so long.

Anyway, this chapter was a really interesting to write (certainly kept me busy). I loved the part when Hiro annoyed Kyo… They're so similar in personality! It just makes me laugh… Just a random little note, so what was with Hiro's comment about Kyo's "stupid girlfriend"…? Well, from what you could guess by Kyo's reply, his girlfriend is Tohru. Hiro, of course, knows Tohru as "stupid woman", so that's why he called her Kyo's "stupid girlfriend"… plus, he probably just wanted to anger Kyo. You might wonder why Kyo isn't imprisoned yet even though he's out of high school now… I'm not sure whether I'm going to mention it in the story, yet. (No, the curse isn't broken; I'll give you that) However, in case I do use it, the reason will remain a secret. The scene at the end refers to an event that happens in Chapter 104. For those of you who aren't up-to-date on the latest chapters of the manga… basically, Hiro told Kisa that it was his fault that Akito hurt her in Ch. 104. He said that he had said something to anger Akito (of course, we all know what, but he would never say what he told Akito to Kisa) and Akito took that anger out on her, and then Hiro apologized. ( I told you there were spoilers!) Anyway, thanks for the reviews! They keep me encouraged, and feedback helps me a lot to improve my writing and such. So, bye!