Only A Moment

Only a moment of sunshine,

Only a moment of rain,

One brief moment of happiness,

Sometimes a moment of pain.

Life is a million bright moments

All of us live day by day,

Lending the world bits of laughter,

Scattered along every way.

Only a moment to treasure,

Captured by blue skies above,

Filled with a peaceful contentment,

A portion of magical love…

Looking ahead to tomorrow,

Tucking the past fast away,

Forgetting all heartache and sorrow,

Living this one bright today.

Springtime, rebirth, and beginnings

Touching our world with a smile,

Walking each beautiful mile.

Summer, then autumn, then snowflakes,

Night hours that fade with the dawn,

Time ever swift and elusive…

Only a moment- then gone.

Chapter 1: Come Back

Disclaimer: Mwah ha. Sorry, but like I have said before, I am on hiatus from working on stories. Not until someone reads and reviews my Maze of the Heart. So I'm just starting new ones to occupy my time. - - So yeah, terribly sorry for all of you who actually like my writing and want more, since my stories will probally stay unfinished, because my best story ever is being shunned. Anyways, I don't own Fruits Basket, but I DO own Karin Mikohisa, Jono Mikohisa, and Karl Korsakov (German, need I say more?). Forewarning, I will explain the Japanese phrases that I use, and yes…this is a RitsuxKarin pairing. He needs more credit. He's so ignored, even here at Now, please review, or I will have even MORE reasons not to work on my fics! I'm so evil, ne? I may add a JonoxMabudachi Member as well. Ie, ie, I WILL adds one. So this is now yoai too. -o- Ah yes!

A college girl with long black hair, and bright green eyes was sitting on a park bench, flipping through the pages of some nameless magazine that she picked up on her way out the door of her and her brothers' apartment. They hadn't been getting along lately, and she had a good idea it was because her brother kept bringing men into the house, and flaunting them in front of her. He said he was merely 'expressing his sexuality', as his newest boyfriend Karl put it. So now she couldn't even enjoy moving to Japan, and coming back to the neighborhood that she grew up in till she was 10.

She remembered having ONE friend back then. He was the only person not put off by her openly gay brother, whom was 10 years her elder. Everyone's mothers told them not to play with her, but not his. They encouraged the relationship, but that might have been because he was a little strange and alienated from the other kids too. He had a slight habit of dressing like a girl. But that hadn't mattered to her much. Yes, it was a bit strange. But she was darned and determined if that would have kept her from having a best friend. She adored him, she remembered.

Upon these warm memories, she took out her sketchbook from her bag and began to draw from memory his face; his slim, frail body; his short, light chestnut hair; and his eyes. 'He had the prettiest chocolate brown eyes,' she thought with a smile. Upon completing, she smiled. It looked almost exactly as she remembered him, only he didn't smile much, unlike the picture. He almost never had anything to smile about. He'd normally smile only when he talked to her about how fortunate he was to have an understanding friend like her, and how he was sorry if he wasn't as good a best friend as she was. She sighed. 'My little koibito…' she thought sadly.

It had truly hurt to leave him behind, as when she was 10 she was beginning to learn that boys in fact didn't have cooties, and that you were supposed to like them. This was the case with her best friend. She had developed a crush for the first time, and then she had to move to America. She'd had other crushes, to be sure, and even a few boyfriends. But none of them ever simply said to her "Thank you for staying my friend," like he had many times. No one had ever before, or since, just basically worshiped the ground she walked on just because she was there, she was assertive, and she liked them for who they were. 'But he did…God I miss my koibito…' she thought once again in a somber mood.

She looked up, and realized that the sun was setting. Then, she saw him. Long, flowing chestnut hair in a ponytail. Carrying a plastic bag…and did it say Takoyaki on the bag? Who did they know that liked Takoyaki? Wearing pants and a white shirt. But what really surprised her was he was with a girl. She couldn't have been older than high school, and yet, there she was. With her koibito. Upon further inspection, he was…smiling? Until now, her tears could be held back. No matter how hard she tried, they would not cease to flow as she watched them sit on a park bench and she watched her comfort him.

The girl had long, dark brown hair and deep brown eyes. She had two blue ribbons in her hair and a blue, Kaibara High uniform on. She seemed so ordinary, and yet, here she was, comforting the sole person that the woman herself watching hadn't been able to console through their childhood. Had he forgotten her so easily? Had 10 years apart really changed him completely? Was he even the same boy she'd fallen for when she was younger? Could she have realistically expected that? Should she? Didn't she want him to get to be like this? To get better?

'Not like this…not without me! I wanted to be the one to cure him! Not some nameless, stupid, high school girl…he's my koibito…isn't he?' she thought, her anger dwindling down into sadness and despair. Nothing had hurt like this. She got up and started walking to them, but they got up as well and he passed her without so much as a second glance, even though many others were watching her and wondering why tears were streaming down her face.

At this, she started to run. And she ran back to the only place she knew to go, her brothers apartment. She unlocked the door, fumbling with the lock, and violently pushed it open. Karl and Jono were watching a movie, and both were startled at her appearance. Karl ran to her, followed by her brother Jono, and they gave her tight hugs.

"What's wrong Karin-chan?" they asked simultaneously. She shook her head and held them both tight. Her sobs were loud and pitiful now, rising to a tone of utter despair that wrenched the heart of any person within earshot. Karin tried a number of times to form sentences, but they only came out as choked out syllables. Karl shushed her like a mother would a child and stroked her hair, letting Jono let go, as he wasn't as good with these things.

"Shhh…it's alright Ka-chan…did someone upset you with something they said?" he asked tenderly. Karin really wondered how Jono had snagged such a caring person as Karl. He was a blonde haired; blue eyed German that was never short on a shoulder to cry on. He was one of the sweetest human beings on the planet. A woman's dream, if he wasn't gay. She nodded into his shoulder and bit her lip.

"I…I saw…myhic koibito-chan…he was…hic…choke with someone else!" she sobbed pitifully. At the mention of the word 'koibito', Jono jumped back into the fray. He pushed Karl away, most unlike himself, and held her tightly, as if trying to hold her very life still so she couldn't just disappear.

"It's okay. Ritsu Sohma isn't worth your tears! He's a way freaky kid if I remember straight. Always saying 'I'm sorry' for this, 'I'm sorry' for that! He's not worth it. Is that the only reason you wanted to move with me? If you want Ka-chan, I can get you a plane ticket home so you can get over him for good. You got in trouble with mom when you told them you wanted to stay with Okami-sama and her husband so you didn't have to leave him, remember? She doesn't want you mixed up with the Sohma's anymore. Mom said she left her family behind the minute we moved, so forget all of them!" Jono ordered. She shook her head as an answer. He pushed her away gruffly and blushed, getting bashful at his harshness, which he was unused to.

In reality, Karin Mikohisa and Jono Mikohisa were Karin and Jono Sohma. Jono remembered all too well the crack of Akito's whip and the faces of those cursed by the family curse. Thankfully, Karin's memory had been erased of being hit, thanks to Hatori Sohma, whom was three years younger than Jono. Hatori, Ayame, Shigure, and Jono had always been friends. Ever since they were young; but that had all been stopped abruptly by Akito, when Jono told him his feelings towards one of his friends. Thus 'coming out of the closet'.

"I just want to be around hic him again, Jono-kun…I…I don't care if Akito-sama finds out we came back…I just want to see the four people who made my childhood bearable…" Karin whimpered, her sobs slowing down, but her voice so exhausted from its previous high tenor that she could only manage a hoarse whisper. He nodded, tears lining his eyes. Karl silently waved and went out, letting them mourn for their shattered lives.

Karin had never had an easy life. Her mother, never satisfied with her, and quite frankly disgusted at her persistence to get to know her Sohma relatives, had hit her to take out her frustrations. Their mother had blamed them for keeping her imprisoned within the Sohma Honke. She blamed Jono for finding out about the curse by hugging the now previous rat, Yukari Sohma. She'd been a kind, elderly woman that, though the wrinkles, was still beautiful in her old age. Her short, molten silver hair had always mystified Jono, and once he went up to stroke it as he normally did, but slipped and hugged her for support from his fall. Thus turning her into a small, silver mouse. When Karin was born, the old cat Tatsuya had begged to be able to hold her, since she was one of his grandchildren. His daughter's daughter. And her little hands, unknowing and willing to so innocently love, wrapped around his neck, pressing her little body to his, and in a puff of smoke he turned into an orange cat. But he was smiling all the while, and had happy tears in his eyes.

Their mother told Karin that because she was close to her grandfather, the cursed cat, she was holding them there. And she hated Karin for it. Their father, whom died in a matter of years, had never blamed them. He always told them, "Mommy's really sick right now…but she'll get better one day…Mommy doesn't like Grandpa Tatsuya very much is all."

When Karin was three, Kyo had been born. This signaled Tatsuya's death, and on Kyo's second birthday the old man died. Karin had been 5 at the time, and had visited Tatsuya often; whereas their older cousin, Kazuma, had ignored him completely. Jono remembered clearly how happy the cat had seemed every single time that Karin had opened her little outstretched arms to be held by her grandpa. And he would always comply with a happy smile on his weathered features.

It had been the same for Jono and Yukari. Jono had hated Yuki Sohma bitterly, and had still been young, and nieve, enough to blame the child for the death of his foster grandmother. Yuki and Yukari looked so similar, and Jono couldn't bear to even look at the child by the time Yuki had turned 6, and his sister 9.

Jono had to admit, he'd thought Ritsu was a godsend and thanked Kami for sending him to Karin after Tatsuya's death. She'd grown unusually quiet and had even screamed at their mother for rejoicing her father's death. This, once again, resulted in a beating. But when she ran away to hide on the Honke grounds, she met Ritsu. He was crying as well and they clung to each other like lost souls.

Ritsu's parents had once again been apologizing for him, and he'd been teased again by being called 'useless', and 'stupid', and many other degrading names. Jono had been 15, and even HE thought that was a bit rough to lie on a child's shoulders. But he'd been too busy hanging around his friends, the infamous Mabudachi Trio. He had taken Ayame's point of view for a while, and was ignoring his home problems all together, along with his sisters' pain. But, unlike Ayame, when they moved when he was 20, he atoned for himself and fawned over her lavishly. She was still a child, so she lapped up the much needed attention and latched onto him.

He remembered as he held her now the first time he'd held her and not ignored her…

"Anata ga suki desu koibito-chan…" he told his crying sister, who had just run away from yet another beating. They were away from the Honke, but the beating and endless marks of bruises didn't cease to grace their presence on her skin. She stiffened and her teary face snapped up to look into his own face. Her sweet emerald eyes looked into his blue ones, and he finally took on the very presence of being a big brother.

"I love you too…nii-chan…" she said softly, smiling through her tears. She looked so innocent in his arms, sheltered from the world. Jono vowed to himself he wouldn't let her hurt like this anymore, and that was the night he confronted his mother to leave.

"Okaa-san…I have been a blind fool for too long. I am taking Karin-chan, and we're leaving. Kentou with your life. O-yasumi nasai, and good-bye…" he said coldly, taking two packed suitcases for himself and Karin out the door as she stared in disbelief. And that, 10 years ago, was the last he saw of his mother.

That had been so long ago. And now, here he was, comforting his sister again. She was just as broken now as she was then, and this tortured him. He had never wanted to see her this upset again. Since then, she'd been all smiles, and had been so happy when 3 months ago they'd moved home to Japan. She'd even enrolled in Tokyo University, and was majoring in visual and graphic arts. How could he have overlooked keeping tabs on his family instead of trying to make a new social life? Had he been that stupid as to overlook her feelings, as he had when she was younger, and ignore her to establish his own happiness? Had he really felt so empty from being so close to the cousin he still loved, that he drowned his sorrows in his avid love life and job, and ignored his sisters' own empty feelings of being so close to Ritsu?

He sighed in realization. He had. He had abandoned her as he had so many years ago. And when she needed him most, no less.

He was truly a pitiful specimen of a human being.

Later, after Karin had calmed down, she sat at the edge of her bed. She was surprised her brother had acted that way. He hadn't burst out like that since their dispute with their mother 10 years ago. She shook her head, not wanting to remember the beatings and why he'd stolen her away and protected her.

She flopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, deciding after a few minutes of idly counting the ripples in the ceiling that she wanted to take a shower. She stepped into her private bathroom, turned the water in the shower on, and undressed. As the water cascaded down her back, and rushed over her skin, washing away all the tearstains, she looked skyward and prayed to the stars through the ceiling of the apartment.

'Please…PLEASE Kami…don't let him be in love with that girl…let him remember me…I humbly beg of you Kami, Buddha. I promise to be a better person and to go pray every weekend at the temple if you grant me this wish that he hasn't forgotten my companionship,' she prayed. She hoped with all her heart that Buddha would listen to her pleas and she could see and become close to Ritsu again.

Ritsu Sohma was about to go to sleep, as he stayed at Hatori's house after just leaving Shigure's. He wanted to stay a while, not quite content with going home to the Onsen.

A thought suddenly struck him, it was a memory about his childhood friend, Karin. She was a frail looking child back then, with long black hair and stunning, yet lonely emerald eyes. They'd connected in a special way when they were young, because they were both lonely and afraid, and both felt like nothing. They thought they were worth nothing. She'd always liked to follow him and though that had made him uneasy at first, since he wasn't assertive by any means, he grew used to her always walking with him. Being with him. Her presence had just become something expected by the time they were 10, five years after meeting. His mother had even thought about letting her stay with them when Karin, her brother Jono and her mother were moving away. His mother felt it was good for him to have her around, and likewise for Karin. His mother warmed up to many people, but Karin had truly enjoyed Ritsu's mother. He remembered a conversation they once had, one where she declared how important he was, when no one else seemed to think so.

"She's so kind Rit-chan! You're lucky…my Okaa-san doesn't like me…but your mama loves you a lot! If Grandpa were here, he'd say the same thing! You're so lucky, young man! That's JUST what he'd say!" Karin tittered in her bubbly, happy voice. She was smiling even though her face and arms were bruised badly.

"But…Mama and Papa have to apologize for me all the time!" a young Ritsu protested, distressed that his parents couldn't be proud of their son. She waved him off and smiled.

"That goes to show you they love you! They wouldn't apologize if they didn't love you, they apologize so you don't get in trouble and so people don't think badly about you! You're their koibito! That's what Grandpa Tatsuya always called me! Ya know what, Rit-chan? I love you bunches too, so you're MY Koibito too! My Koi-chan!" Karin smiled, chirping away her news again. He truly admired her zest for life, and how she faced everything without flinching. She was very special to him. But that all changed when she was taken away…

He felt a tear slide down his face. He truly missed her and wished she were still living at the Honke. He needed to talk to her, needed to hear her reassuring words. A thought struck him.

'That's why Tohru-san's words were so meaningful…they sounded like something Karin-chan would say…' he thought in revelation. He now wished more than ever to see her and talk to her. If only to make sure he still meant something to her, that he was still important.

AN: Ok, how'd you like it? Please review ppl! w As a side note, I forgot to mention that Yukari, and Tatsuya's names are mine, and Yukari is my character completely. I also own Karin and Jono's mom and dad. Anyways, I suppose I should tell you what all the Japanese phrases mean…ok, here ya go!

Koibito – sweetheart/beloved Nii-chan – Big brother (Friendly)
Anata ga suki desu – I love you Okaa-san – Mother (Respectful) O-yasumi nasai – Good evening/night
Kentou/Kôun o inori masû – Good luck

"name"-chan – familiar suffix, implies a close relationship (not necessarily romantic in nature)
"name"-kun – familiar suffix used almost only when talking to a young man

"name"-sama – honorific suffix, implies great respect (or in this case, fear)

Ne – no? Ie – another word for no hai – yes Taidama – I'm back (these last few will be used often on in later chapters, if you're wondering why I'm putting them here…)

That's all for now folks! Hope ya enjoyed it, I really like to write this one, as I like my serious stories too, not just my funny ones. Oh well, if no one reviews soon, I'll just go on hiatus again and not work on anything at all. Later days!