Disclaimer: If I owned Fruits Basket….I would be rich….and I'd be talented….so, as I am neither, we can safely assume that I am not the owner.
A/N:
So….here I am again, yes, I'm bad, yes, I'm lame, but it's still here! I've been working on other stories….and I've just been working. Hey, it's (was, now it's school year…. :( ….that's how long it took me. I'm awful) summer, I have a job. Well, only three days a week, but that doesn't matter, right? Okay, on with the story! Oh, and thanks for all who have reviewed…you make me feel so special.
It's a Thunderstorm, Ha-san
"We're home!" Shigure called out.
"I need to talk to Tohru and apologize," Hatori muttered, "not for being here, but for being related to this twit!"
"I heard that." Shigure pouted.
"AH! Shigure-san! Hatori-sama? What brings you here?" Tohru asked, walking out of the kitchen.
"I was going to ask you if I could join you for dinner. Is that okay?" Hatori asked.
"Sure! I made too much food anyway…Kagura-chan was going to come over but then Haru-kun called and said she wasn't available." Tohru said, tilting her head and smiling.
"Good. I wouldn't want to impose on you on such short notice." Hatori answered.
Tohru opened her mouth as if to say something, closed it as if she thought better, and then opened it again. It actually looked quite a bit like a fish. Hatori sighed.
"Tohru, just say it." Hatori prompted.
"Ano…I was just going to say that you are welcome here whenever you want to come over." Tohru said hesitantly. She didn't want to sound too forward with the handsome doctor standing before her.
Hatori surprisingly gave her a gentle smile. "Thanks, Tohru."
Shigure watched the two closely, a scheme forming in his deviant mind again. But how was he going to get Ha-san to stay over tonight?
"Ano, Hatori-sama?" Tohru asked.
"Huh?" Hatori replied, turning around.
"Ah-actually, never mind," Tohru said, blushing and bowing her head to the floor.
"Okay. Shigure, I need to talk to you in your office. Now." Hatori turned to Shigure, who was still busy scheming, and raised one eyebrow at Shigure's expression. Hatori knew that expression; Shigure was up to something, and Hatori would bet his closed-door policy that it had something to do with himself. (A/N: this sentence may be a bit confusing as to who I'm referring to in that last sentence with the reflexive pronoun "himself." Here I'm referring to Hatori, so….anyway, moving on…)
"Ha-san? In my office…alone? My, my, Ha-san has a dirty mind!" Shigure sang as he flounced after Hatori's disgusted retreating figure.
"Eh? EEEEHHHH?" Tohru said, extremely embarrassed. Her face turned red as she caught on to the meaning of Shigure's words. Just then, Kyo came down the stairs and walked into the kitchen.
"Tohru, if you get any redder you'll blow up," Kyo said, reaching into the fridge for the milk carton.
Tohru just continued to blush.
"Hey." Kyo wiped the milk from his mouth and replaced the carton in the fridge. "Are you okay?"
"Shi-shi-Shigure-san…….Ha-ha-ha-Hatori-sama…" Tohru managed to say. She then turned around quickly and went into the kitchen, still red as a tomato.
As soon as Kyo heard Shigure's name, he said to Tohru, "Look, just ignore him; he's not worth listening to anyways."
"B-but-but…" Tohru muttered to herself, obviously not comforted from Kyo's words. She was still very flustered and upset.
"Did Shigure do something?" Yuki came in, smiling. However, his words were laced with an implied threat for Shigure, if he had.
Tohru couldn't speak coherently, and Kyo just shrugged at Yuki. Yuki turned around and walked to Shigure's office. He kicked open the door without knocking and walked in.
He walked in to see a horrific sight: Shigure was on top of Hatori who was currently trying to get Shigure off. Hatori was also wearing a very pissed-off expression on his face. Yuki almost cringed, but he managed to stand stalwart until he heard an explanation from Hatori; he didn't trust Shigure.
"What's this?" Yuki's voice was cool.
"Get off." Hatori's voice was muffled underneath Shigure's yukata. When no one responded, he kicked Shigure in the stomach, sending him flying into Yuki, who turned sideways and let Shigure fall into the hallway.
"OW!" Shigure wailed. Yuki and Hatori heard a faint shriek, but discredited it as there were more important things at hand.
"Baby," Hatori spat. "Shigure was leaning on the door, and when you kicked it open, you sent him flying on top of me." Hatori glared at Yuki.
"Miss Honda was perturbed by Shigure. I came to investigate about his recent, erm, shall we say, activities." Yuki was well aware of Shigure's little comments to Tohru.
Hatori sighed and put his hand up to support his forehead. "If you could just eliminate Shigure temporarily for the night, I would appreciate it immensely."
"What?" Shigure's voice came through the open door. "Ha-san is meeaaan!"
Yuki looked back at Hatori as Yuki stood in the doorway, "You seem perfectly capable of knocking him out yourself, Hatori-san."
Hatori closed his eyes in frustration. An inviting aroma of cooking food reached his nose and he inhaled deeply. His stomach growled at the reminder that Hatori was hungry. He walked out of the room, stepping of Shigure, and into the kitchen.
"Hator—" Tohru was interrupted as Hatori walked into the kitchen. "Oh, hello, Hatori-sama. You can sit down; I just need to get everyone here at the table. Kyo! Yuki!"
"I'm here, Honda-san," Yuki smiled as he sat down next to Hatori.
"Yo, dinner's ready?" Kyo asked, sitting opposite Yuki.
"Yes! Oh….where's Shigure-san?" Tohru asked worriedly. However, immediately after his name was mentioned, she started to turn red.
"Are you okay, Honda-san? You're not getting sick, are you?" Yuki asked.
"N-no, I'm fine." Tohru assured Yuki, still red.
"My pretty flower! I was beat up mercilessly by a horde of unforgiving ruffians. I'm so sorry I'm late!" Shigure came in, all his bruises magically disappearing.
All three men seated at the table sweat-dropped at Shigure's words.
"Now, let's eat!" Shigure announced as he sat down. Tohru sat down after him and they began to eat.
Throughout the entire dinner, Tohru remained oddly quiet. Yuki noticed this and began to worry. The only time Tohru was ever quiet was because she was worrying about someone else. Yuki didn't like that Tohru never thought of herself; she was going to get in trouble one day because of that.
The conversation that did happen at the table consisted of Kyo shouting at Shigure, Hatori blatantly ignoring Shigure's ridiculous comments, and Shigure trying to tell Hatori something. All in all, chaos would be a good word for the sound being emitted from near the table that night.
When they were all done eating, Yuki helped Tohru with the dishes while Kyo cleaned up. Shigure and Hatori went into the living room to relax, or rather; Hatori sat watching TV while Shigure sat next to him with duct-tape over his mouth. Shigure looked rather incensed at the treatment he was receiving.
"Why do I have to clean up, rat?" Kyo demanded.
"Why would you leave everything to Honda-san?" Yuki asked in his quiet voice as he dried the dishes Tohru handed him. She was still being quiet, and this was bothering him.
"Then she didn't need to make so many dishes! It all goes into the same place!" Kyo shouted, irritated.
Tohru turned at this, looked at Kyo distantly, and then turned back around, as if she never heard or saw him. Kyo froze; had he just let his temper go over something so stupid as the number of dishes Tohru used when she cooked?
"Baka neko, just shut up and clean up!" Yuki said.
"Yeah, okay, okay…Tohru, I didn't mean what I said, I was just being stupid," Kyo said. She looked really disturbed.
"Stupid does not even encompass your whole character during the past two minutes," Yuki commented.
"Hey! You! Come take this out for a fight outside!" Kyo put the dishes beside Tohru and dragged a willing Yuki outside.
"Miss Honda, I'll finish when I come back." Yuki kicked Kyo out the door and walked outside calmly.
"Kuso nuezumi! What was that for? The match hasn't begun yet!" Kyo's voice could be heard.
Tohru finished washing the dishes and put them to dry in the rack. They would be okay overnight, as long as no one toppled them over. She sat down at the dinner table afterwards, staring into space.
"EAAAHHHHRRGG!" Kyo came flying in, soaked to the bone. Yuki followed after.
"It's just rain, you won't get hurt, neko," Yuki taunted.
"C-c-cold…" Kyo ignored Yuki and rushed upstairs to get changed.
"Stupid cat. I have homework to do…Honda-san?" Yuki called into the kitchen.
"Yes?" Tohru answered.
"Do you need me to help you with any of your homework tonight?" Yuki asked.
"No…I finished it already," Tohru said, sounding distracted.
"Okay. I'll be in my room if you need me," Yuki called, going up the stairs to get changed as well. He passed Kyo's room to see through his slightly ajar door that Kyo was in bed and asleep already. Shaking his head, Yuki muttered, "Baka neko."
After a few minutes of silence through the house, except for the sound of the TV, a bright flash of light flew through the house and everything went dark.
"What?" Hatori got up. Then, just as he was about to check the power, a loud thunderous sound boomed through the house, shaking the floor a little from the sound. Hatori stumbled and held on to the sofa-arm for support.
"MMMMPH!" Shigure's muffled cry could be heard.
Yuki came rushing down the stairs and asked, "where did all the power go?"
"Thunderstorm. Pretty close if I'm correct. Kuso. It's raining to hard for me to see well. Either way, I have to get home. Please thank Tohru for me when she wakes up, and I'll see you when your next check up arrives." Hatori bent down and fiercely ripped off the duct-tape from Shigure's mouth.
"EEEOOOOWWW!" Shigure cried, holding his mouth.
"Payback, cousin." Hatori said mildly. He then walked out.
"W-wait!" Shigure yelled, still holding his mouth.
"What?" Hatori turned around to look at the doorway. The rain came pouring down around him in sheets, making it almost impossible to see.
"It's a thunderstorm, Ha-san; it's raining too hard to see; the lighting may hit your car! Come back. You can return when the weather gets better. Promise." Shigure held his hand up.
Hatori sighed and walked back into the house. "Look, I'm already all wet, I'll just go home."
"It's too dangerous." Shigure insisted.
"Since when do you care?" Hatori asked.
"It's too dangerous," Shigure avoided the question.
"You've driven in worse. I'm going." Hatori was just about to step outside again when another loud thunder-crack rang through the house. Everyone jumped and Tohru's voice could be heard when the sound died down.
"Hatori-sama?" Tohru asked, sounding extremely upset.
"Yes, Honda-san?" Hatori answered tiredly. The weather was getting worse, if that was possible, and he just wanted to go home. He could drive blindfolded and drunk and still get back to Honke safely if need be. He just wanted to go.
"Hatori-sama? Please, stay." Tohru asked, still upset, if not desperate.
Hatori was all prepared to say no, but when a flash of lightning hit the house again, he saw Tohru's face, which was streaked with tears, and he stopped in his tracks. Was she worried that he had already left and was driving in the rain right now? Or that he had gotten into an accident? His eye's widened fractionally as he realized that this girl he thought he knew, which he found out just now that he didn't know anything about her, actually worried over him, actually cared about him.
When Hatori didn't say anything, Tohru asked again, this time sounding completely desperate and scared, "Please? Stay, Hatori-sama, please?"
Hatori made his decision, which he knew he was going to regret in the morning, but he made it none the less. "Yes, Honda-san. I'll stay."
Another flash of lighting showed Tohru that Hatori was smiling. Not just smiling from mirth, but smiling at her. Then she saw that he was soaking wet from the rain outside, but she didn't care; this was the first time she had seen the stern doctor smile at her. She didn't care if he got a cold, she didn't care if he got a fev-…wait, a fever? That was awful!
"You may be sick, Hatori-sama! Please wait here while I get you a towel! Shigure can lend you some clothes!" Tohru rushed upstairs, the realization of everything hitting her at once. She blushed.
"Ha-san's staying! Ha-san's staying! Ha-san's staying!" Shigure sang, dancing around.
Hatori glared at Shigure, though he knew Shigure couldn't see him, as everything was still dark. "I'm not staying for you, though. Shut up and get me some clothes." Hatori grabbed Shigure's dancing figure and felt his way along the wall to Shigure's room.
"It's a thunderstorm, Ha-san!" Shigure cried happily; nature had devised its own plan of making Hatori stay.
A/N:
Okay, so you all must hate me by now, if you were following this story at all….but it was a combined mixture of writer's cramp and just plain laziness. It's not really a good combination, but hey, another short chapter is done. Sorry about the wait, and please R&R! Again, I do promise that I'll finish the story….just not sure when.
-FSY319