T-T sorry for the delay. School started again and this chapter was a lot harder to write, since the characters are a little more minor. Anyway, thanks for being patient T-T If the story sounds a little retarded at times it's either cuz I was dead or I was too frustrated to write super long things, so this is a little shorter. I don't know what the heck I'm saying.
Anyway, Uo will be coming up in two chapters. That, I promise, will be kick-ass long. XD
I realized I forgot to put disclaimers for the last chapter. So I am now disclaiming.
I disclaim Fruits Basket. o.0
Chapter 3: The Ha'ri People: Momiji, Ayame, Haru, and Hatori
-An hour later-
"Waah! I wanna go first! I wanna go first!"
"No! I shall be first, because I am all lovely like that!"
"I think Kyo likes causing me this much trouble." Hatori muttered under his breath as his eardrums were pierced multiple times by high-pitched whining. If lightning would strike him right now he'd have gladly accepted his fate, but he was stuck in his own car with nowhere to run. Dear god, the horror of it all. (A/N: Unlock your door, Ha'ri! Unlock your door... XD)
"Why... don't I... hmmm... no." Haru was no help.
"Oh, dear! I have caused dear Ha'ri pain! Ha'ri, what can I do to make you feel better??!! Would you like me to-"
"Stop. Right now." Hatori cut Ayame's sentence off, not wanting to hear what he had to say this time. "Momiji, you go first. Then Ayame, then Haru."
"What about you, Ha'ri? Aren't you coming too?"
"...I'm going with Haru, so he doesn't get lost." He answered, after a while.
"Yay! I get to get out of Ha'ri's car first!" Momiji squealed, bouncing up and down.
"Before everyone decides to destroy my car, we're all getting out. There is a thing called a check-in building, you know."
"Unlock the doors, Ha'ri! Unlock the doooooors..." (A/N: Anyone's guess on who this is... maybe it's Haru! XD yea sure)
Click.
"Yaaaaay! Score for Momiji!" his feet touched the ground a second after Hatori unlocked the doors. "Yaaaay!"
"Momiji isn't playing fair." Ayame pouted.
"Get out of the car, Ayame."
"...ouch." Haru said, after a while. Momiji had slammed the door in his face.
"Haru. The door is on your left."
"...left, right?"
"Right."
"But there's no door on my right."
"Left, Haru, left."
"Right, so left side?"
"Right."
"There's nothing on my right, Hatori. Are you OK?"
"Haru..."
"Right. Gotcha. Left." He reached for his right.
"Left is the other way, Haru!" the poor doctor's voice was being strained.
"Ah. The wonders of machines." Haru opened the door and got out, grinning at the influence Hana had on him. He started walking... in the opposite direction of Ayame and Momiji.
Hatori groaned and slumped over the wheel for a few seconds before checking on Haru to make sure he didn't walk too far away, then re-slumped over the wheel. Thanks a lot, Kyo.
"Hiiiiiya Kyo! Guten tag!" Momiji waved at the gravestone from under his umbrella. "Bet you're sleepy, huh? It's really, really rainy! For like... ah..."
"...Didn't the rain start, like, the moment it happened?"
The moment you left? When you left this world? And would never come back?
"Guess what, Kyo? Remember that story in the book that that kid brought, the one that I told you and Yuki and Shii-chan about, with that story about the most foolish traveler in the world? Well, that same kid brought another book once, even though I was absent that day and I didn't hear what he read. Well I was looking through the bookstore that we own, and I found that other book, it was called 'A Collection of Pitiful People'. When you hear the title you don't know if you should feel happy or sad, if you should laugh or cry."
Kinda like when we heard you died. Laughing's the zodiac way of looking at it, crying's the life way of looking at it.
"So I was looking through it, right? And I see this story. It had really funny pictures, too. You see, there was once an outcast in a high-society family. He was ignored because of his blood, and because his own parents didn't have a good reputation."
"Typically, he became a rebel. This gave his family even more reason to hate him. He grew up to have an ultimate goal: to be accepted by people who had influence, like his family, because he wanted to feel normal, having a hope that he would be like everyone else. He wanted to feel like someone."
"Without knowing it, he attracted people. So many people wanted to become friends with him. These people didn't know or care about what ran through his blood. They liked him for him. They became friends with him, they cared for him, some even loved him, from the bottom of their heart. But in the outcast's mind, he would be an outcast forever. His mind had already told him over and over, and he always thought, no matter what happened, that no one really, truly cared."
"In the end, he ran away. He couldn't see what he had, so he ran away. From everyone. And from himself. He never came back."
Never came back...
"Kyo? There are so many people who care. You have friends, you have a home, and you have a girlfriend. Don't you think the person in the story... don't you think he was lucky? He doesn't have to be accepted by his family. Some of the people in his family shouldn't even be considered his real family. Doesn't he already have a different family? People who truly care? Because that is the real definition of 'family'... people who care about you?"
"Kyo, don't you think the person in the story is you?"
"Did you run away, Kyo? Why did you leave? People care. We care. So why did you run away? Was your mind so set on the fact that no one cares that you can't stand it when people actually do care? Is that why you ran away?"
"...crash accident... Kyo Sohma died..."
Those were the only words Momiji heard when Hatori told him and everyone else. And the only thing he thought was,
"Why?"
"Sometimes, when I think about it, I wonder why fate took away the one who never belonged. It's ironic... like Akito finally got his wish. Like fate listened to Akito instead of looking at you, Kyo."
"Was Akito's hate so passionate towards you, that you were chosen to be taken away?"
"Or was fate punishing Akito...?"
How does that work out?
"Kyo... you didn't run away, did you? You couldn't stand getting so close to someone, but at the same time it was your dream... but still... you didn't choose to die... you weren't so scared of yourself."
"You didn't lack that much courage that you would want to die."
"You always used to say that you're so strong, and that wasn't always true. You used to be so emotionally weak, not being able to control yourself, or being able to accept anything. You got so scared when someone approached you. Somehow... To-hru started changing you. Uo-chan completed that. "
"Because of Uo-chan, you really were strong..."
"Because she accepted you, you learned how to live..."
"I wonder... if anyone else learned how to live... without you?"
"Ne... at least my head won't hurt as much now..." the rabbit laughed, thinking of Kyo's constant noogies.
"It was fun, you know?" he said lightly, smiling. "I loved getting on your nerves. It was fun. I mean... don't siblings do that? Get on each other's nerves? In the end... I'd feel so happy. Not just because To-hru or Yuki or Shii-chan were there, but because you were there too."
"Going to Shii-chan's house, and especially when Ha'ri stayed too or Ayame or Haru or Kagura came over, I always loved it. I always loved that feeling... the feeling where I have a real family. People I know I can trust, people who I know accept me, people who I love."
"Kyo, you're part of that family too... am I a part of yours?" Momiji smiled a little.
"Whenever Uo-chan came over, I always watched you. I always used to see you moping around the house and glaring at everyone who got in your way, and watching To-hru sadly. You used to hate yourself, I could see it. You hated losing, you always did, especially to Yuki. But then, Uo-chan became a part of you. You'd light up inside, and try not to show it, but anyone could tell that you really loved living at that moment. But also... there was always a little sadness in that... in your eyes..."
"She was so important to you, she did what none of us could... you wanted to protect her, didn't you? You didn't want her to be hurt, when you had to tell her what would happen after graduation. You didn't want her to be unhappy, because she couldn't hug her boyfriend. But you fell too deep... like the ocean's waves. They carried you further and further in until you were drowning in all those feelings which you never had before, and flooding your mind with just Uo-chan. You couldn't pull away."
"Isn't that right, Kyo?"
"You tried so hard... but she... I know that she doesn't regret it. She'll never regret having all those times with you, Kyo... none of us will. If we all had the power to erase our own memories completely of you... I don't think any of us would. You belong in our hearts... without you, we're not us, not completely. I would be Momiji without an "i" at the end. Haha, Momij, isn't that weird?" he laughed.
"You're really worth it, you know, Kyo? You are someone... you are Kyo..."
"You don't need the Sohma family to accept you. You already have a family... Sohmas or not... you... just have to accept us..."
"Momijiiiiii!!! Don't hog Kyonkichi all for yourself!!!!" a shrill sing-song voice rang in Momiji's ears.
"Wow, Ayame can really yell, huh?" Momiji laughed, tugging at his right ear. "I won't be able to hear someday!"
But you... you'll never be able to do anything... someday.
"Well, before Ayame gets mad at me, I guess I gotta go." Momiji took out a single flower from his jacket, and bent down to place it next to Shigure's book. "It's yellow, just in case you can only see in black and white. Or maybe that's just Haru? But yellow's a cool color! Tschüs, Kyo!"
You're a part of this family... forever.
"Tag! You're it!" Momiji bounced into the lobby and charged straight into Ayame's back, pushing him off balance.
Ayame's supposed destination was on top of Hatori, and the estimated time arrival was three seconds.
Hatori put out a hand. Ayame's chest landed on it instead, stopping him.
"Oh, dear Ha'ri, you don't have to worry! I'm just a guy, remember? I know it's typical to think of me as a girl because of my stunning beauty, but I won't transform when I embrace you dearly!"
Hatori gave Ayame a little push, sending him back into standing position. "I don't think Shigure would approve of you cheating on him." He answered, dead serious.
"Oh, dear dear Gure!" Ayame swooned. "He'll forgive me with all his love. Besides, do not put it in such crude terms like 'cheating'... I am merely... helping out a dear friend! With his lack thereof... I mean..."
"Speaking of dear friends... we're here for a reason." Hatori's voice was tense again.
Ayame smiled. "Right as always, Ha'ri. I'll be back, so wait for me!" he skipped out of the building, holding a box in one hand like a pizza delivery guy and an umbrella in the other.
"He's crazy." Hatori grumbled.
"If he's crazy, then he's just like the rest of us!" Momiji reminded happily.
"Don't remind me."
"I think he just doesn't want to see Kyo." Haru's voice interrupted them.
"Huh?" Momiji looked over at Haru. "He was fighting with me to see who gets to see Kyo first in the car!"
Haru's eyes were narrowed. "It's not that he hates Kyo. He just doesn't want to accept Kyo's being gone, all of the sudden. Ayame is the type of person who hates it when something happens and it isn't in his script of life."
"..." Hatori sat back and crossed his arms.
"I wonder if there's a Gray Haru!" Momiji exclaimed.
Haru smirked.
There is a Hana Haru.
"KYONKICHI!!!" Ayame shouted from a few feet away. He skidded to a stop. "Oh! You're not disagreeing! I knew it, you do like that name! It does fit you perfectly!"
"Speaking of fitting perfectly, I figured out that you're long overdue for a stop at my shop- because everybody needs a Stop & Shop! So, since I heard that you were unable to come, I came to you!!! Doesn't that make you feel special?" Ayame beamed.
He held out the flat package. "You were getting old, Kyonkichi! 20's that time when you can never look back! Ah, I remember when I turned 20, and Gure-" he covered his mouth with the tips of his fingers and blushed. "Oh, well, you know. Anyway, since you have such a lovely girlfriend, I thought that you were thinking ahead! Future and all that! So, this is from my store. Free of charge, just for you!" He placed the package down with all the other things.
"It's a wedding dress."
He paused, his eyes half closed.
"Ah yes, because you would look beautiful in a dress! AHAHA!!!"
"Well, putting that aside," he said, stifling the last of his laughter, "it's really for Uo-chan. I just thought... you know... you might like to approve of it."
"Your wedding would've been beautiful, because of my work, whether you liked it or not. Your wedding... your future... you would've had one. Really, all joking aside. Akito... you could've escaped that. He... because you're lucky like that, Lucky Kyo."
"I really wanted to see our little baby outcast all grown up and walking down the aisle in my shop's clothes."
"I don't have a tuxedo for you because you never came to my store to get fitted." (Don't ask me how he got Uo's measurements. o.0)
"This whole wedding thing... it's... is that the reason? Did you already accept the fact that you wouldn't have a future? Is that why you're gone... now?"
"If me and Gure and Ha'ri had told you... would it have happened?"
"Would you have accepted her... then?"
"Would you have walked down the aisle, instead of us having to walk down the aisle to you?"
To see you in a coffin?!
"You and her... we never thought we'd see a light in your eyes like that, even if it was Tohru-chan. You really did deserve to walk down that aisle with her. You really did deserve to have that happiness with her. You deserved to have a future with her."
"You deserved what everyone else deserves, maybe even more. You needed happiness just like everyone else did, too. Why, then... why you? Did you give up that easily? You ran away just because she asked you? Didn't you want that? All your life? So why... why'd you reject her? It's not her fault." He shook his head in defeat.
"It's not your fault, either, is it...?"
It's our fault.
Ayame's long nails dug into his palm slightly, but he grinned. "Well, Kyonkichi, stay lovely and lucky and brilliantly beautiful!"
I know...
"Get plenty of beauty sleep too! Remember to try the dress on!" he winked and laughed as he skipped away.
I know, Kyo...
...you will walk down that aisle, someday.
Momiji blinked. "Ayame, that was amazingly quick."
Haru nodded. "Yea, I thought you were gonna go on with your whole lovely rant or something."
Ayame laughed and handed the umbrella to Haru. "Kyo kicked me out."
Hatori stood up as well and took an extra umbrella. "Let's go, Haru."
"I'm not letting you wander off in a graveyard by yourself."
"...thanks for your concern, Hatori." Haru said sarcastically.
"You're welcome." They walked into the rain.
-Upon reaching the gravestone-
"Hatori..." Haru had an edge in his voice.
"Just don't walk off." Hatori retraced his steps until he was out of hearing range but still within vision.
Haru turned to Kyo. "So, Kyo, this is where you were hiding. I've been wanting to fight you now. We never finished fighting that other time, ya know?"
Silence.
"Are you so scared that you can't even answer me?"
Silence.
"Dammit, Kyo, you are so DEAD!" Black Haru almost came out, but then Haru realized what he had said.
Dead.
"So tell me, who got there before me?" Haru was still angry, but Black Haru wasn't there.
"Was it yourself?"
"Why don't you stop being such a wimp and grind my face into the dirt already?! You think you can just chicken out by dying? Dammit, you lousy cheater! You can't run out on me now! You... you loser!"
Provoking him isn't going to help.
"I should've listened to Hana... she was right!"
"Haru."
Haru looked up and grinned. "Hey, Hana, what's up?"
"Something is wrong."
Haru touched her hand slightly and tugged her toward him. "When isn't something wrong, huh?"
Hana moved forward just enough so she wouldn't fall forward from his pulling. "Not with you. It's with... It's Kyo, and Uotani as well. It's both of them. Something's wrong. Their denpa's off.
"Their denpa's always off, isn't it? You always say that. Maybe you're just picking up his curse again."
"From both of them? Uotani doesn't have a curse."
"Come on, Hana, don't worry about it to much. Maybe they're fighting again." He pulled on her hand again.
"Right, Haru."
But she couldn't shake that nagging feeling. Kyo and Uotani's fights never felt like this. This felt like... like something horrible was going to happen.
"Why don't I ever listen to her? She's always right. Maybe we could've stopped it. Maybe it's my fault."
Haru calmed down a little bit now.
"What if it's my fault?"
Haru scratched his multi-colored head. "I'll bet everyone's saying that, huh? 'It's my fault.' Everyone's saying the same thing. They're all thinking of you the same way. Isn't that the same, though? It's the same as looking at you as an outcast, and the same as looking at you as a friend. Everyone looks at you the same way. 'It's my fault, we all care about you.'"
"The one... the only one you can really trust, Kyo, is the one who really gave her heart to you."
"Uotani. She's crazy, just like you. You both have fire. Remember that time, way back when me and Momiji first joined your school, we all played badminton together? I saw that. You guys kept picking fights with each other."
"People always said that love and hate are the same thing. Either way, it's an obsession, isn't it?"
"I used to hope that you and Tohru would end up together. Then, Yuki would be mine." Haru laughed and held out a hand out of the umbrella's reach, catching raindrops in his hand.
"That was stupid, I guess. Yuki would never have turned in my direction, not with Akito and all."
"You wouldn't be this happy either. I know that Tohru- she might've held you down. It's true she gives you the power of self-control, but it stops you from being who you are. Uotani, she controls you too, but in a different way. You're still free, aren't you? You were still free under her. You both ran wild, your fires clashing together."
"I wouldn't have met Hana, if everything had gone the way I thought it would. Do I owe that to you?"
"I guess I owe you a lot. Just like you try to beat Yuki, I tried to beat you. You made me stronger. By continually rubbing my face in the dirt, you made me face the hell in the world. Yuki tamed that whole black side of me, but you made both sides stronger. I would've never been able to defeat you, not with your fire."
"Hell, it was fun anyway, wasn't it?"
Haru stopped for a moment, watching the rain trickle off the umbrella protecting the gravestone.
"If any of us die, me or Yuki or Momiji, I doubt we'd get the same feelings that you got. Sure, it's sad and all, but we all have people who care about us, curse or whatever crap. But we were all accepted in life. 'Hatsuharu Sohma, headstrong, black and white, gay turned straight, rest in peace, we love you.' That's pretty much all anyone has to say. There's no thinking about it any further, because that's pretty much the way I was treated in life."
"But as you've heard a million times, you're the outcast. We all thought of you as an outcast, at least for a while, no matter who it was. Now that the outcast is actually gone, everyone has to think about it. Everyone wants to take back all they said, everyone wants to take back all their actions, all their feelings."
"Everyone would want to accept you, they wouldn't want to have let you go like that. They wouldn't have let you die or whatever, they'd have told you whatever they need to."
"You see, everyone just regrets everything."
Haru twitched slightly as one of his earrings gave a slight buzz.
"Oh, and Hana's coming later, just to let you know."
"Anyway, I guess I gotta go. I don't have any present for you or anything, but..." Haru smiled slightly and gazed at the name on the stone.
"I'm pretty sure you'll always be the winner in heaven."
Rest in peace, yo.
"Hey, Hatori, I'm done."
Hatori looked up, like he had been in a trance. "Oh. OK."
"Aren't you going?"
Hatori stopped mid-step and paused, then turned around. "Oh yea. Wait here." He walked off.
Haru laughed and shook his head. "Even if he is a doctor, he zones out just like anyone else."
Hatori stopped in front of the stone before almost walking right past it. What was wrong with him today? He felt so out of it. He read the name on the stone just to make sure.
"Kyo Sohma."
The one and only.
"I don't know what to say."
I never was good at this.
"About Uotani..."
You're gone. That means she...
"if I asked her... "
...feels the same way I do.
"About her memories..."
Except worse.
"She would say no, wouldn't she?"
Because she can never see you ever again.
"Even with all the pain this is going to cause her, she'd never give them up, would she?"
And no one can blame Akito. Again.
"You're a very special person, Kyo. I don't know how else to put it."
"Maybe I'll come back someday. But... I can't talk to you. I don't know why. But I can't talk to you."
"Rest in peace."
"Hatori, that's crazy. You were gone for five seconds, that's breaking Ayame's record." Haru said, pissed off.
"I can't do it." Hatori mumbled under his breath, then raised his voice. "It's this way, Haru."
It's hard, to live and remember.
When we know that we will never see you again
Never hear your voice again
Never fight with you again
Never piss you off again
Never get hurt by you again
Never laugh with you again
Never having you in our family again...
But we will always have those memories
Every one of us
Because we will never give you up
And you'll live on no matter what
Because you have a fighting spirit
And now we're fighting for you.
So how was it? o.0 Please review....
Daine-Wildmage: Thanks XD It's ok, everyone needs to be selfish. (or whatever it was that Kyo said XP) Uo's coming up in the chapter after the next chapter, or... chapter 5, I think. I just didn't want her to come in so early. But this is to everyone, Uo's chapter and the ones after that are gonna answer a lot of questions, so please be patient o.0... Thanks for reviewing Daine-Wildmage!
Dark-Dreams-69: Thank you very much! XD But it's a pain trying to get inside everyone's heads, especially the less-major characters like these... I had to make Hatori wickedly short so I wouldn't kill him. Ayame too. Thanks for reviewing my story, now update yours XD
Ariyana: I bet some of them are OOC here T-T Yuki got killed? Yay XD No offense to rabid Yuki fangirls... And HanaHaru... I just had to put that in. There were no other alternatives if I wasn't gonna make Yuki gay, unless I brought Rin back which would NOT be a great idea because I would kill the story... anyway thanks for reviewing!
The next chapter might be even more delayed, since school is going to be... crazy-insane, at least. So please hang on or something, because I'm sooooo hyped up for Uo's chapter, but I have to write the next one first...
Review, nice people X3