Series of 3 drabbles (Falling Apart – Deserve - Summer)
Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket or its characters.
Warnings: None, really. xP
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Falling Apart
The apprentice Priestling
A boy not ten years old
They are giving to the temple!
Oh, it's cold!
Hatori had been young when he had been offered for a position of the family's protector.
Ayame had thought this was too much of a burden. The boy was already too serious for his own good, so tightly strung over self-imposed responsibilities that Ayame was certain he would shatter under the pressure. The Hebi wished with all his heart that he could take Hatori's place, but the silver-haired boy knew very well that he meant nothing to the family.
The best he could do was support his friend, and pick up the pieces when he fell apart.
Years later, Ayame reflected that he had not expected Hatori to fall apart in so many pieces.
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Deserve
Medieval Scene
Eleven of them go,
Horsemen who did not turn their heads-
through the wind-blown snow.
Hatori did not expect gratitude. In fact, he had come to expect only ingratitude, resentment and even hatred, working as the family doctor.
However, he had not expected everyone to turn away in his time of winter. Nobody seemed to know how to act around him, or cope without him: the broken man who they all depended on for security and strength.
Hatori couldn't help but wonder whether it was that selfish of him to want Ayame's support in the dawn of his winter, when he himself had brought ice into Ayame's heart just a few months before. He knew Ayame had depended on him the most, and he had instead chosen to protect someone who had not needed protection.
He then decided that he deserved the winter, if only to keep the Snake company.
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Summer
Winter
A mountain village:
Under the piled-up snow
the sound of water.
Kana was spring whilst Hatori was winter. She had pointed out that spring would melt the snow, and indeed Hatori had felt warmer in her arms.
The warmth had not lasted, and winter had claimed him once more.
Ayame was summer. Summer made spring seem ordinary, almost feeble in comparison. Hatori was almost ashamed to admit that, lately, he had been looking at Ayame like that. Hatori cursed himself regularly; he should not depend on Ayame, or anyone else for that matter, to get him out of his permanently frozen state.
Yet, Ayame made very convincing arguments.
Hatori decided that somewhere along the way, Ayame had gotten under his skin, freeing his heart from the icy clutches of hopelessness.
He was nowhere near free from winter. Hatori knew this. Ayame knew it as well.
But it was impending. The summer remained warm, and close to Hatori like no other.