Disclaimer: Fruits Basket, the Souma Clan, and Honda Tohru belong to Natsuki Takaya-sama. I live only to glorify Furuba.

Ore no Haru

Pangalawang Kabanata

By hitokiri-tomoe

Souma Kana had been waiting for an hour now.

The old servant had immediately called Hatori upon her arrival, but it seems as though the doctor had chosen to spend more time outside rather than attend to a waiting guest.

She held down feelings of indignation as she sat in the living room, her baggage piled beside her on the couch. When she arrived at her apartment she found everything packed. Apparently, Akito wanted her to live with the doctor while she was being his assistant. She sighed in frustration.

What was all the fuss over her becoming an assistant for Hatori-sensei again? Why did Akito-san, Master of the House himself, go through the trouble of telling her personally? And why did she have to live here, too, with the day of her marriage so close? She sighed inwardly at the thought of how her fiancé would react. The last time she had an apartment nearby. Why can't she do that now? And why—

"I'm home," a deep male voice called out from the front door.

"Welcome back," the servant's voice answered. "Kana-san is in the living room."

Slow footsteps could be heard coming towards the living room.

Well he certainly is taking his time, she thought crossly to herself as she stood up to greet him.

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting," Souma Hatori was now standing before her, his tall frame blocking her view of the door, his face, as usual, unreadable.

She didn't realize she was holding her breath. She let it out slowly, all her anger draining away from her as she studied the young man before her. She tilted her head and smiled.

"Hatori-sensei. It's been awhile."

It struck her then how handsome he was. In her internship days she was always being teased by friends about how it would be so nice if she and Hatori started dating. All the comments about how handsome the young doctor is suddenly came back to her, and she realized they were all true. All true. Even though the doctor's left eye is injured now and is always covered with his long bangs, it only served to heighten his aura of mystery and made him even more attractive.

But nothing had happened between them. Her time with him then was so uneventful she can't even remember half of it.

"I take it you are staying here as well," his quiet voice interrupted her improper thoughts.

She flushed in embarrassment, both for her line of thinking and for feeling that she was imposing on him. "I'm sorry, but Akito-san—"

"The servant will fix a room for you, then," he went on as if she hadn't said anything.

She could only stare as he walked out of the room without saying anything else.

oOo

She has changed, Hatori thought to himself as he sat at his desk later that night, smoking a cigarette.

There seemed to be a more somber air about her, quite different from when they were together. It's as if that when she left him, she had been hounded by problems and she was forced to let go of that childlike innocence she always had about her. It was almost as if she were unhappy. Almost as if… she remembers.

No, no. He shook his head, flicking off ashes from his cigarette. Stop kidding yourself. She forgot about you. YOU made her forget about you, about that time, about everything. And you did it so thoroughly, using stronger hypnotism. So that there would never be a chance of her remembering. But then there never really was.

Even if he didn't purposefully strengthen the hypnotism. There never really was any need to strengthen it. He just did so because… he really wanted to heal Kana. If he could have erased his very existence from Kana's memories he would have done so. But that wasn't what was hurting her. It was their memories together that hurt her. And Akito said that he wouldn't solve anything by overdoing it. So he followed Akito's explicit orders, although he wanted to make Kana forget his name. But maybe the desire to erase himself from Kana's mind wasn't for her at all. Maybe it was for himself. If Kana forgot everything about him… his name, his face, then maybe… just maybe… he could forget about her as well.

It clearly isn't working. He crushed his cigarette on the ashtray and stood up. But that smile, he recalled wistfully, was the old Kana he knew. When she tilted her head and smiled like that, all the memories came rushing back in a flash, that for a moment he felt that he went back in time, and that the Souma Kana who stood before him earlier was the Souma Kana he knew back in those internship days. His Kana. His Spring.

Ah, what are you doing getting all sappy so late at night, he laughed bitterly to himself. It's over. You ended it. And even she's back in your life once again, even if for a short period of time only… she isn't yours anymore. She shouldn't even have been yours from the beginning. It was a mistake. And you've already corrected it. He sighed as he lay down on the bed.

Don't make the same mistake again, he thought as he closed his eyes and surprisingly, slept the sleep of the innocent.

oOo

Souma Kyo groaned aloud as he sat up from his spot on the roof. He could hear Shigure's yapping even from his position and it was irritating him to no end. He gritted his teeth in frustration. Below he could hear Shigure's companion giving one word replies and the Dog himself getting all happy-happy.

Hatori. He has been visiting them everyday for more than a week now. Kyo would go home from school and find him sitting in front of the common room table either sipping coffee or tea or smoking. He had no idea why the Dragon would endure being with Shigure everyday. But the two are childhood friends, so what does he know?

Two days ago he had made the mistake of complaining about Hatori's frequent visits in front of Tohru, to which the girl only got a starry-eyed look and told him that someone important to the Dragon is staying with him for awhile.

"Huh? Someone important? I seem to remember that Hatori once had a girlfriend."

He thought about this for awhile.

"Idiot," the Rat cut in when it was clear that he was getting nowhere. "She means Kana-san."

"Who are you calling stupid, kuso nezumi!" he flared up.

The Rat didn't even look at him, "Who else? It can't be Honda-san, so it must be you."

He growled. Remembering the conversation wasn't helping his temper. He leaned on the roof and crossed his hands behind his head. He stared up at the sky and tried to ignore his older cousin who was now singing below. Singing? He couldn't believe Hatori was putting up with all of this. And if Kana is living with him right now, what the heck is he doing here, giving the Dog reason to be all jolly-jolly? It almost seems as though he's avoiding the girl. Well, he knows of what happened between them, but then if Hatori really loved Kana, shouldn't he being doing all he can to get her back?

He frowned. Well, it's not as if I'm an expert on the subject. He grimaced as he sat up once more; reaching into his pocket for the earplugs Tohru gave him yesterday. Shigure's singing in falsetto now and he was decidedly off-key. As he put the earplugs on, he suddenly noticed a woman walking towards the house. For a moment, he thought it was Mitchan; by the way she was resolutely walking, looking as though she had a difficult mission to fulfill.

Wait, he thought as he turned to look at the figure more closely, had Mitchan bleached her hair?

He waited until the woman came into full view. His eyes widened. He knew that face. He'd seen it before, in the doctor's waiting room.

"Souma… Kana?" he half-whispered to himself.

oOo

Shigure wept into his fan. Tohru had a dazed expression on her face. Yuki had watched everything with seeming impassiveness. Kyo just looked dumbfounded.

"They were so rude," Shigure sniffled, "They didn't even stay for dinner."

"But," Tohru said with the same dazed expression, "Souma Kana-san is so pretty!"

"Pretty or not, she still stole Ha-san from me. And I was getting to the good part of my story!"

"WHAT IS GOING ON!" was Kyo's bewildered reaction.

"Well, you see, Kyo-kun, I was telling Ha-san the story about the medieval knight and his lady love, as I had written in Blooms of Love above Still Waters," Shigure, purposefully misunderstanding, launched his narrative, "On the night of their wedding, they went upstairs to their… eh? What's wrong with all of you?"

His two cousins had murderous glints in their eyes while Tohru merely looked confused.

"Pervert," the Rat and the Cat dropped the syllables at the same time.

"Ah, it's probably all for the best," Yuki mused aloud, after several seconds have passed.

"Those two," Shigure said, now serious, "Have a lot of things to talk about."

"What the heck is going on?" Kyo demanded brashly.

"Oh, would you like to know what happened to the knight and the lady, Kyo-kun?"

"Shut up!"

oOo

Hatori turned the engine off and the next thing he knew, Kana had scurried out of the minivan and was waving at him from the front door. She had an impish, though slightly apologetic, smile on her face. He followed her to the door.

"I'm just here to take a certain doctor home," he heard her say to Tohru after introducing herself.

He had gone out to meet her, apologizing to Tohru. The girl had shrugged it off and just then exchanged a smile with Kana, as if they were up to something.

He shook his head. The idea of Honda Tohru being 'up to something' was simply absurd.

"What are you smiling to yourself about?" Kana asked, giving him an amused look. She didn't wait for an answer but instead turned around and unlocked the door.

He stepped into the house after her and noticed the lack of greeting from anyone in the house.

"Hatori-sensei," Kana's voice floated out from the dining room.

Not having anything else to do, he went to the dining room and found Kana behind the counter, preparing tea.

"Sit," she said in a commanding tone when Hatori arrived, but softened the command with a winning smile.

Completely taken aback, Hatori did as he was told, and this resulted in Kana's smile getting wider and his growing unease about the whole situation stronger.

He didn't know what to make of this… this kidnapping. As far as he knew, he had been avoiding contact with this woman as much as possible, without having to forego his duties as a doctor. He only talked to her when necessary, and didn't eat meals with her. He made it a point not to be around when she's around so that to him, it hardly seemed she was living in his house. He always went to see Shigure so he wouldn't be home until after dinner, when she would either be asleep or just in her room. He wasn't friendly with her. So why was she smiling that sweet Kana smile that only she has? Why does she look the way she did when they were still together? He bowed his head and clamped his left hand over his injured eye. His heart threatened to jump out of his chest any minute now.

She sat down opposite him and served him tea. He only looked at it.

"Relax, I didn't put anything in it. It's just an ordinary, innocent cup of tea."

He continued to stare at the cup as if it were the most interesting thing in the room.

"Hatori… sensei?" she reached out a hand to prod him, but before her hand could connect to his shoulder, he was out of his stupor and had already lit a cigarette.

"Where's Kazuya?" was all he could think of to say, referring to the old servant who usually kept the house. He needed anything to divert his attention now. His head was still spinning from the thought of contact with Kana. He wouldn't be able to bear it. He couldn't. He took a drag out of his cigarette and held it in for as long as possible, relying on the nicotine to calm his nerves.

Kana took a sip of her tea and set the cup down carefully before speaking. She did, however, look at him straight in the face so he was forced to meet her eyes.

"I sent him away."

A coughing fit attacked him as the smoke he was holding in went in different directions. Then Kana was instantly by his side, a glass of water in one hand, the other rubbing his back. The unexpected contact eased his coughing at once, and instead of taking the glass of water offered him, he instead took a sip of tea. He cleared his throat and crushed the offensive cigarette on the ashtray always on the edge of the table.

The woman was sitting across from him again as though nothing happened. Good girl. He sighed to himself.

"Tell me. What is going on?" he said in a voice deliberately edged with ice.

But instead of being cowed by his coldness, he gave him a big grin. Even then she had never been afraid of him. She had been able to see through his icy exterior even at the beginning and now she was doing it again.

"Hatori-sensei, don't be angry with me. I only did it out of desperation," she held up a hand as if to ward off any negative remarks he would hurl in her direction.

"Don't waste words with me," he tried again in the same cold voice. This time, it did have an effect. He saw her flinch, only a little, but then instantly she was smiling again. He gave himself a mental kick. The image of Kana flinching made him want to wrap her in his arms, and it was taking all his self-control not to do just that.

"Ano," she broke into his thoughts, her face now a bit more serious.

"Speak," he said in a more gentle tone and he saw her relax instantly. This made him want to kick himself again. This is too much for him to handle. He didn't want to see her hurt, he didn't want to see her smiling like that either. What exactly did he want?

He wanted to be close to her, to wrap her in his embrace, to stroke her hair, her cheeks. He wanted those lips to smile for him, to let him know that she loved him. He wanted—

"Shit," he muttered under his breath.

"Hatori-sensei," Kana said. She had apparently been absorbed in her own thoughts as well, so had not noticed the whispered cursing.

His eyes had been wandering over the small dining room but the sound of her voice forced him to focus on her.

"Don't hate me!" she burst out.

He closed his eyes for a moment. He was surprised, although externally nothing showed. If you only knew…

When he didn't speak, her hopes flickered for a moment, but she went on.

"I… I don't know if I've done anything wrong, but… when I was an intern, you weren't as cold as you are to me now. You used to smile at me, I remember that now, although I don't really remember anything else."

Good.

"But now, it's been a week, and you won't even look at me, and you're always away. Somehow, I don't feel welcome here. I… I feel hated."

What is this woman thinking?

"So I sent Kazuya-san away, hoping we'd have time alone together, to… get to know each other. Even if I'll be staying her for less than two months from now, I want us to be friends."

Friends. How casually you say the word.

She stood up suddenly. "So… so, Hatori-sensei, don't… don't hate me, please. I'm trying hard. I've been asking, and I made your tea just the way Kazuya-san said you like it. Is it too sweet? Too cold?"

He sighed. "Kana-san."

She sat back down, suddenly seeming to remember that she was a guest and she was talking to the master of the house. "Yes?"

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before speaking.

"I don't hate you."

That's right. I don't hate you. That's the problem.

A smile spread across her face. "I'm glad."

And seeing that smile, he couldn't help but smile slightly, too.

"Then," she said softly, the smile still on her face, "would you try to like me, too?"

I'm trying not to like you.

He finished his tea and stood up.

"We'll see," he answered. He turned towards the door.

"Hatori-sensei!"

He paused.

"If you don't promise to like me, I won't call Kazuya-san back, and you'll be forced to eat my cooking for seven weeks!"

Well, that's not so bad, he caught himself thinking and this time he didn't even bother to scold himself.

"What am I going to do with you?" he asked in a voice full of endearment, as he stepped out the dining room.

He wasn't sure if she heard or not.

He didn't care.

To be continued…