1Heliocentric Theory

Chapter 1: Equilibrium

"Piece of garbage with wings, and she has the guts to sing. Get the bird, catch her, shoot her, I don't care, get the bird, bring her down to the ground from out the air. Gotta tear her apart, let me at her first. Sink her to level of the rest of us that inhabit the earth." Atmosphere.

Disclaimer: I do not own fruits basket...sigh...

'Dr. Hatori Sohma', the black marker on his desk said in elegant font. There was one on the door to his office as well. Most of the time he sat in his office alone, unless of course Akito was not well and then he had to tend to the rest of the Sohma family illnesses from time to time as well. Today had been a rather rough day, Akito had fallen ill with bronchitis and was in and out of consciousness all afternoon. Hatori just prayed to Kami that Yuki did not catch it this time around, last time as he recalled, Yuki almost didn't make it through. 5pm came and went and Hatori finally decided to check up on Akito one more time before he took leave. He took one last puff of his cigarette and then snubbed the butt out in his ashtray. He exhaled and then slowly walked out the door and down the hall. He usually hated seeing Akito, he couldn't stand being near him. The foul rancor of his bitterness hung in the air around this man so frail, but vengeful. He went in the room, Akito looked to be out cold. He took his temperature.

"Finally down...I see." He looked at the thermometer and nodded. He gave Akito one more of his doses in the form of a shot and hoped that it would not wake him. He drew the liquid into the syringe and then pulled up one of Akito's sleeves. He ran his fingers across the clammy skin that was Akito's until he found a proper spot to inject the medicine into.

'Let's get this over with.' He thought to himself. He stuck the needle in and dispersed the liquid into his arm. Akito never stirred. He disposed of the needle and walked out of the room leaving Akito to peace. He had moved to the room at the far end of the house against Akito's orders, but his office was two doors down from Akito's room so he could check up on him as needed during the day. Hatori got back to his room and took off his white doctor's coat. He slackened his tie and sat on the edge of the bed. His room was a dark crimson color with white bordered door frames. Not much graced his wall save his doctor's diploma and now an empty picture frame. The frame had once held a photo of Kana and him but he'd been trying to move on recently. Shigure had spoken to him on many occasions about his "holding on" of memories.

"Hatori, what good is it to torture yourself like this? You look at that picture frame everyday and it obviously makes you upset, you think it doesn't show but Ha'ri I see it in your eyes." Hatori scoffed when he heard this.

"Shigure, just drop it." Hatori said curtly.

The week after Hatori had finally taken the picture down, he was actually trying to move on. He had thought about her so many times...

The last time he thought of her, it was in the form of a dream. He saw her...

She was dancing, spinning, even laughing as the snowflakes fell around her. He looked and saw her smile...it was beautiful, he'd always found it so. She waved for him to come closer as she kept up with her playfulness. Hatori slowly inched forwards towards Kana. She finally opened up her arms and smiled real big.

"Ha'ri!" she said. "Come here." It felt so real. He stepped forward and she finally met him half way and threw her arms around him. 'Oh no.' was his immediate thought followed by...

'Nothing?' He thought to himself.

"Ha'ri" She cried into his ear. "Ha'ri why haven't you moved on? Why are you still mourning? I don't want you to be sad. You should know that. Your heart is kind and I know you will be able to share love with another. Ha'ri, please...I don't want you to be sad over me anymore. Let go."

Just hearing her voice again made Hatori miss what they once had. 'Was this what she truly desired?' Hatori asked himself. For him to 'let go?'

"Hatori," she looked deep into his eyes, both of them, without disgust and repeated, "Ha'ri, let go ..."

The words echoed in his head ever since. He still couldn't figure out whether it was a curse or a blessing that Kana had told him to let go. He sighed and lit another cigarette. He puffed away and walked over to crack a window. As he peered out the window at the stars another part of what Kana said came back into his mind. "Your heart is kind and I know you will be able to share love with another." He almost scoffed as his heart felt two faced, part of him wanted to believe this was true, but part of him hoped to Kami that it was not, for he wished no one to experience the pain that Kana and he had to go through. He flicked the cigarette butt out the window and shut it. He walked into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. He looked at himself, examining his features. He never liked what he saw, a burned out soulless freak. 'Who could ever love me?' he thought and then pushed the hair back out of the way so he could see his other eye. He flinched and let the hair fall back over the eye. He quickly walked out of the bathroom and got into his bed. As he threw the down blanket over his head he settled into a deep slumber. Peace finally.

Tohru had asked Shigure-sama if she could stay home from school today. She played sick.

"If you're sick then I think we need to call Ha'ri." Shigure said. Tohru shot up.

"No!" she said. "I mean uhhhh, I'll be fine there's no need to bother Hatori, he's a busy man."

"Nonsense!" Shigure said gleefully. "Besides it's been awhile since I've seen Ha'ri's face around this house anyways. Now that I think about it, I kinda miss him. I'm gonna go call him." Tohru sighed. Se knew Hatori would be able to tell she was not sick. She heard Shigure on the phone chatting it up down the hall.

"Ha'ri's on his way, rest until he gets here my little flower. Everything will be fine."

When Hatori had gotten the call he was immediately worried. Shigure hadn't said what her symptoms were or anything or whether or not she was really bad off or not either. Usually Shigure didn't call unless it was pretty bad though. He hopped into his car and sped off. He only lived about 10 mins away from Shigure's house. He swerved through traffic and when he finally pulled up to the driveway he took a few deep breaths and evened out his emotions and then walked up to the house. He knocked on the door and almost immediately got an answer. Shigure threw open the door and greeted Hatori with the biggest smile you ever saw.

"Morning Ha''ri!"

"Morning Shigure, where's Tohru?"

"Oh, right! She's upstairs in her bedroom, she looks a little under the weather...my poor little flower is sick!" He cried dramatically. "BUT, Ha'ri has come to make her feel better!" Shigure giggled to himself. Hatori sighed.

"Same old Shigure...I see you have not changed a bit."

"Nope but see I notice Ha'ri...has." Hatori looked at him quizzically. "Yep see I couldn't tell at first but there is a definite change there though I cannot tell what yet, you look different somehow." Hatori rolled his eyes and pushed Shigure out of his path and made his way up the stairs. Her bedroom was the 4th on the right as he remembered. He stood in front of it for a second before he knocked.

"Come in." He heard a shaky voice say. He entered slowly. He saw the young girl facing her window, looking out. She had sheer violet curtains and it looked as if she was watching the sakura blossoms fall off the trees outside.

"Tohru," He paused. "How are you feeling today?" He said as he inched closer.

"Not very well." She stated simply.

"What's wrong Tohru?" She turned her head quickly and looked at Hatori. Her soft blue eyes were filled with tears. He stared.

"Hatori-kun...I don't know what this feeling is I feel but I feel bad. I don't even know how to explain it! I've felt it for awhile now though, I'm scared and anxious." Hatori looked at her dumbfounded.

"I don't understand Tohru, what hurts?" He could cure physical ailments, true.

"My heart." His eyes grew wide and he looked away. 'No.' His mind shouted. His heart lept.

"I still don't understand Tohru..." He tried to play dumb and see if he was correct in what she was trying to say to him.

"Hatori, I do not know love, or I am unsure of what it feels like but...ummmm my heart skips beats when you are around me and my head gets all fuzzy, and my stomach does flip flops. I've never felt like this before." She looked back down in fear of what he would say.

"Tohru..." He started out slowly, unsure of what to say. "I think you are mistaken...you can't love me...no one can. It is forbidden." He looked down to the ground in shame. This girl had to have lost her mind he swore.

"I DON'T CARE!" She screamed startling him and catching the attention of Shigure who was down the hall dusting one of his prized vases. It startled him too and he accidently knocked the vase over in the process. Tohru and Hatori both heard the crash.

"Hatori-kun...I love you, I am not mistaken. I feel it as clear as the day's sky is wide. As surely as the waves crash upon the shore. I've missed you and I've been getting sick for a while now since you've been gone. My heart aches, I'm sick. And I believe that you are my only antidote." He finally looked into the girl's bright blue eyes and found himself hoping that he wasn't dreaming but still the fear would not leave his mind. He finally admitted the depth of the ocean that he'd kept hidden for so long. He sat down on the bed and looked at the floor.

"Tohru, I am afraid." He solemnly admitted.

"Hatori are you afraid of me?"

"No, but I am afraid of what Akito will do if I let myself feel for someone again. Not just to me, but what he could do to you."

"Hatori-kun, I am not afraid of Akito-sama. I am only afraid of what will happen if I can't touch you. If I can't reach your frozen heart and bring it into the sun. That is what I am afraid of." She wanted so badly to hug him but she knew she couldn't so she reached over and found his hand, put hers on top of his and squeezed it gently. Hatori wanted to believe everything would be okay, that he could still be naive and think that love was all you really needed, after all love could make the world seem perfect, and for a while it's great. That's usually when Akito make his fatal swoop and makes you realize, that you can't fly with just one wing.