Not An Easy Question
Summary: When Haru brings up marriage to Yuki, he couldn't help but agree to ask Tohru the question. But it's obvious that he's going to need a little help. One-shot. Yukiru.
Author' s Note: Ahh, I've been working on this one forever. Things happened and I just got side tacked. But I'm back now, and ready to update! Now before you start reading, Kyo and Yuki are friends. That's right; friends. Well, sort of. They aren't the best of friends, of course, because they still have their fights and arguments. But they don't want to beat each other to a bloody pulp anymore. Shocking, I know. Haha. And the characters may seem slightly ooc… but really, it's just them all grown-up. :D
And yes, I do know about the later volumes in Fruits Basket and the whole couples thing. Please don't remind me. :(
Enjoy!
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Yuki let out a sigh as he looked over at Tohru from his table in the library. She was at another table a few places down with a study group from one of her classes. Yuki gave a smile as he watched her and the other people at the table talk quietly about school work. They both had different classes so neither of them could help each other with their work, which was why they were separate. After all, they were now in college and wanted to do their own professions. Besides, it didn't really matter since Yuki and Tohru had been dating for four years, so they had many times spent together.
Tohru momentarily looked away from the group and stared straight at Yuki, who hadn't taken his eyes off her for quite a while. She gave him a loving smile, along with a slight wave. Yuki, who now had a faint blush from being spotted, waved back warmly before they both turned back to their work.
"Someone's pretty flustered," a voice from behind Yuki came, causing the boy to jump slightly in surprise, almost knocking his book to the floor. He looked to his left and first saw the all-too-familiar black and white hair that could only belong to his cousin Haru. He took a seat in the empty chair next to Yuki folding his arms behind his head, stretching out his legs.
"Hello Haru," Yuki said, returning his gaze back to his book to finish his studying… or more so, start it. "Don't you have a class right now?" Haru gave a shrug, even though the rat couldn't see it, and let out a yawn.
"When are you going to ask her?" the ox suddenly asked indifferently, now adjusting the many bracelets on his arm. Yuki looked at him, slightly confused at his question.
"What are you talking about?" Yuki asked, raising a questioning eyebrow. "Ask who what?" Haru didn't answer his question right away, and figuring he never would, Yuki returned back to his book, jotting down notes for the next test. Haru then rested his head on his left hand, closing his eyes somewhat tiredly.
"When are you going to ask Honda-san to marry you?"
Yuki, unsuspecting such a question, accidentally jammed his pencil into his notebook in shock, breaking the tip off. He slowly turned towards the ox, who didn't seem to notice Yuki's reaction. That is, until…
"WHAT!"
A few heads turned into their direction, including Tohru's, and Yuki laughed embarrassingly before muttering a 'Sorry'. He turned to Haru, who was quite amused at Yuki's reaction.
"W-what… why are you a-asking me… what?" Yuki stuttered out quietly, clearly even more flustered than when Haru first saw Yuki earlier.
"Well, I mean, you two have been going out for four years and you're both almost finished with college. Not to mention you're both so love-struck that it's almost impossible to believe you aren't married," Haru said casually as though he were talking about something less committing.
"I … I couldn't do something like… like propose…" Yuki said, face still bright red as his breathing became ragged from nervousness. He hadn't even really thought of marriage before. He knew Tohru wanted to get married someday, as did he, but how did someday turn into soon? "S-she would never want to… I mean, it's so big…"
"You're amusing," Haru said with a smirk. "I've never seen you so flustered and embarrassed before." He sat up slightly, staring Yuki in the eye. "I don't see how this can shock you so much. You're both in love, right? There's nothing wrong with moving up a step."
"I…" Yuki started and now, since he calmed down, thought more about the idea of marriage. What was so wrong with it? Like Haru said, they were in love and taking another step up wouldn't be bad. To tell the truth, Yuki never thought he'd even find someone to date, let alone get married to. They both wanted to get married someday, so there really wasn't anything wrong with the whole idea of finally doing that. They loved each other, after all. "Maybe… it would be… about time."
"Alright then. We were waiting for you to get around to it," Haru said with a smirk as he suddenly stood up. Yuki gave him a confused look 'We?' before Haru closed his book. "Let's go."
"Go? Go where? What are you talking about now, Haru?"
"We're going to take you out ring shopping," Haru said, trying to hurry Yuki up with packing away his book. There's that 'we' again. "You can't exactly propose to Honda-san without a ring, can you?"
"Now hold on a minute Haru--!" Yuki started but he was already being dragged towards the exit of the library. "What are you doing!"
"SHHH!"
The two looked over to where the sound came from and saw the librarian glaring at them while thrusting her hand over at the "Keep quiet" sign nearby. Haru finally let go of Yuki's arm and turned to face him, now with an indifferent look on his face
"You want to marry Honda-san, right?"
Yuki gave a slow nod, not wanting to know what Haru had up his sleeve.
"Then I don't see what the problem is."
"It's just so sudden. One day I'm not going to propose to Tohru, then the next I am. And since when did I have to do something you tell me to? Especially something like this?!"
"It's got to happen some day..." Haru pointed out, crossing his arm. "How else do people get married?"
"But--"
"Kyo and I are going to take you, whether you come willingly or not," Haru said, now taking Yuki's arm and started heading towards the exit once more.
"Kyo? What does he have to do with anything?"
"He brought it up to me yesterday."
Yuki let out a small growl, mentally writing down to kill that baka neko the next time he saw him, which, from the sounds of it, was soon. Yuki and Kyo weren't exactly the best of friends still, but ever since Tohru and Yuki started dating, they stopped fighting and could even hold a civil conversation. It was because of the rat dating the onigiri that the cat decided to try and get along with Yuki, for Tohru's sake.
Without really paying attention up to the point where he felt the hot air hit his skin, Yuki finally noticed that he had let Haru drag him outside. Mentally cursing himself for letting such a thing happen, Yuki looked forward and near his car was the one person, besides Haru, that Yuki had the urge to beat the crap out of; Kyo.
"You."
"Hey, hey, don't get mad at me!" Kyo said, crossing his arms. The look on his face showed how much he didn't want to spend the day with Yuki and Haru, but he refrained from saying so. "I'm not the one who dragged you into this."
Haru finally let go of Yuki once they reached the rat's car and patiently waited for him to unlock it. Yuki looked back and forth between Haru and Kyo, trying to figure out if there would be a good way to get out of this situation. He could always run for it, but who knew what his two cousins would do to his car if he did. With a sigh, Yuki had no other choice but to unlock his car and go get a ring.
As the three boys piled into the car, Kyo preferably in the back seat, Haru suddenly made a comment as he buckled his seatbelt.
"You know Yuki, I'm surprised that you didn't keep the doors locked and speed off. It just means that even though you're being real difficult, you really want to marry Honda-san. Isn't that just adorable?"
Yuki went stiff before slowly looking over to the side at Haru. The ox was staring forward, humming a tune with a smirk on his face. With a slight twitch of his lip for realizing how he could have easily avoided the situation if he was thinking properly, Yuki started the car and pulled out of his parking space.
'Damnit.'
--
After taking the longest way to the store as he could, much to Haru and Kyo's annoyance, Yuki finally slowly pulled into an open parking space. He didn't know why he was so nervous about getting a ring. He loved Tohru, right? Why did the idea of getting married to her make his stomach feel like it was devouring itself, then? Maybe he had commitment problems?
'No, that's not it,' Yuki thought to himself, shaking his head. He was unaware of his surroundings, though he could tell that he was walking, as the battle in his head continued on.
He knew he loved Tohru. And he also knew that she loved him. Why was he letting the whole situation get to him? Yuki should be jumping in the air in joy, despite the fact that his character wasn't like that.
Yuki and Tohru were ready to get married. Besides loving each other, they were both almost finished with college, had an apartment together, the amount of money they had was acceptable, and they had been dating for four years and counting. Yuki and Tohru were completely fitting the perfect married couple stereotype.
'Besides, I also think these things through too carefully,' Yuki tried reassuring himself.
But… what if she would reject him? It seemed unlikely, as Tohru had never rejected anyone before, but Yuki being his worrisome self, couldn't help but think otherwise. He knew he was 'being real difficult', as Haru had put it, but he couldn't help the fact that he was nervous. One part of Yuki knew that all would end well, but the other part of him said otherwise.
'She'd never reject me…'
'How do you know that? Springing the question up on her so suddenly. Tohru might not be ready.'
'But… we've been together for a while now… and she always said she wanted a family.'
'But she didn't say when, now did she?'
'…I think I'm going crazy.'
"Uh… Yuki?"
Yuki swung his head to the side to look at the person who had spoken to him. In that process, he had almost literally cracked his neck from the force. Letting out a low growl, Yuki quickly started to rub the side of his neck to ease the pain.
Haru's eyes widened slightly at Yuki's unusual reaction. He had never seen the older boy act the way he was today. Although it amused him immensely, it also started to worry him.
"Are you alright?" Haru asked as Yuki let out a sigh, slowly putting his hand down.
"Fine. Just fine."
Kyo had ignored the two, for the most part, while they walked down the streets filled with different kinds of stores. He, too, had to admit Yuki's behavior was rather enjoyable… and a good use of blackmail. However, something inside his head told him to leave his cousin alone. Usually Kyo would ignore that 'instinct' but for some reason, he believed that Yuki would explode if he started to taunt him.
It was a good choice for him to make, since not a minute after Haru's question had Yuki suddenly let out a nervous ramble of words.
"What happens if she says no? Maybe she's not ready to get married? Maybe I'm rushing into this too fast?" Yuki had suddenly said as the three of them walked down another street that lead to a few of the jewelry stores. Haru and Kyo stopped walking at the outburst and stared blankly at Yuki for just a few seconds.
"You're kidding, right?" Haru then said, a small laugh following his words. "Of course she's going to say yes. She obviously loves you."
"Of course she does, it really is kind of obvious. Jeez, and I thought you were at least smarter than the stupid ox," Kyo said with a sigh as he shook his head slowly.
"Yeah, I mean come on – wait, what do you mean by that!" Haru suddenly yelled as he turned towards Kyo with an annoyed expression.
"Nothing, it's just Yuki's supposed to be really smart and he's thinking stupid," Kyo said casually as he pretended to be interested in his coat sleeve.
"Like me? That's what you meant, isn't it?" Haru said, almost on the verge of Black Haru. Of course, nobody really wanted that. So instead of a possible battle between the two boys in the middle of the street, Kyo quickly changed the subject back to what it originally was, trying to now ignore Haru.
"Anyways, as I was saying, she's going to say yes and there's no other conclusion to it," Kyo said as Haru slowly got back into conversation and away from Black-Haru-mode that he was just in, though not without occasionally throwing a dirty look at Kyo.
"Well, I mean, you never know," Yuki stuttered quietly. It was quite a sight, seeing a usually calm and collected Yuki now on the verge of a nervous meltdown. "She really might just go and say, 'Oh, really? Could I take a rain check on that?' or whatever… Maybe I am rushing it. Yeah, I think I am. There's no way I can do this now!"
"Fine, be that way," Haru suddenly muttered as he cleared his throat and grabbed on to Yuki's shirt sleeve. He then started to lightly tug on it and loudly said, "Why are you pushing me away like this Yuki! I thought you said you loved me? Didn't last night mean anything to you?"
Many heads turned in their direction at the sudden display Haru was putting on. A few of the girls started to giggle and whisper to each other, as some of the guys around them started to snicker. There were also a few people shaking their heads at the inappropriateness of what Haru was saying, and even acting out. Yuki tried to get his arm free from Haru, but not without a slight embarrassed tint of red on his cheeks. What on earth was Haru doing?
"Haru, what are you doing? Let me go," Yuki muttered to him, still trying to pry Haru off his arm. "Stop it Haru, it's embarrassing."
"Well, stop being stupid and admit that we're right and you're wrong. Say that Tohru will say 'yes', and not 'no'," Haru muttered back to Yuki, still tugging on his sleeve affectionately.
"Haru, come on, just stop, alright?" Yuki groaned, now using his whole force to get Haru off. However, the ox had a tight grip on him and it couldn't be undone.
"Well, if that's your answer," Haru started off, and suddenly said, louder than before, "Does our love not mean anything to you? What about our plans that we had for the future? Are you ashamed of me? Or maybe it's our love? You told me it didn't matter what people said!"
Kyo, who was now standing off to the side away from the commotion coming from Haru, wasn't doing very well in keeping his laughs to himself. In fact, they were the loudest ones there. Haru saw Kyo in the corner of his eye and gave a smirk.
'Stupid ox, eh?'
"Is it because of Kyo?" Haru suddenly said, pointing towards the orange haired boy, who instantly stopped laughing. "You're in love with him, aren't you! You're cheating on me with him!"
Kyo turned bright red with a look of pure horror on his face. He slowly started to back away to get a good head start to running as far away from Haru as he possibly could. Just as he was about to start off on his fastest run yet, Yuki suddenly ended the inappropriate words coming out of Haru's mouth.
"AGH, FINE," The rat yelled, catching Haru off guard by his sudden outbreak, making the ox loosen his tight grip. "You were right, ok? She'll say 'yes' and not 'no'! Just shut up!" Yuki then pulled his arm out of the grip and got as far away from Haru as he possibly could. Kyo let out a sigh of relief as the crowd around them slowly departed, though not without a few giggles.
"I'm glad you agree with us," Haru said calmly as he composed himself. The one easy way to get Yuki to agree with anyone was to embarrass him to the full extent. And acting as though they were together was the best way to do so. "Well, now that we all agree, we should probably start with what we came here for."
"Fine," Yuki muttered as he started walking in the opposite direction of the stores, across the street.
"Where are you going, Yuki?" Haru asked questioningly. He really didn't want to put on that act again.
"I'm going to a different place, especially after the act you put on," Yuki muttered as he headed towards the car with Haru and Kyo closely following, hardly being able to keep in their laughs.
---
Yuki slowly opened the door to the apartment he shared with Tohru. It was a little after six o'clock, meaning Tohru had either just got home from work or she was still out. When the sounds of soft humming came from the kitchen, Yuki's unasked question was answered.
Quietly, Yuki entered the apartment and gently closed the door. He took his right hand and stuck it in his pocket. His fingers closed around the velvet box that held the ring he shopped for almost the whole afternoon. Yuki then let out a nervous sigh.
He had no idea what to say to her or when to say it. And Yuki had to ask her tonight, since Haru threatened to embarrass him even more than he did that day if he didn't have the guts to do it. He just wished he had a plan of some sort…
"Yuki?"
Yuki instantly tightened his grip around the ring box to hide it, forgetting that Tohru couldn't see it in his pocket.
"Hello, Tohru," Yuki tried to not stutter out, hoping Tohru didn't suspect anything. Luckily, she was clueless and gave him a warm smile.
"I'm just starting dinner so it should be ready in about an hour," she said, and Yuki nodded, completely speechless from nerves. Tohru went back into the kitchen to work on the dinner and Yuki quietly followed her. He stood in the doorway, watching as Tohru got out the pots and spices.
'Now, do it now. If you don't you'll never get the courage to do it!'
Yuki bit his bottom lip slightly, not knowing if he should ask her that instant or not. It wasn't really romantic, but it wasn't like he knew all that much about romantic things.
'If you don't do it and chicken out, Haru will put on a display even worse than the one he did today in front of ev-'
"Tohru!"
Yuki was unaware of the fact that he had practically yelled her name. It was just the thought of what Haru was capable of doing if Yuki didn't ask Tohru the question that made him yell it.
Tohru jumped a little out of surprise, turning around to look at Yuki with wide eyes.
"What's wrong, Yuki?"
Yuki gave a gulp as he stared into Tohru's eyes. He still didn't know what to say to her…. But as he looked into her eyes, though still slightly wide from surprise, it was almost as if all the words he needed to say entered his mind.
Yuki slowly made his way towards Tohru, feeling the heat on his face. He put his right hand in his pocket, holding onto the box again, almost as if it gave him strength to speak.
"Tohru… you know that I love you, right?" Yuki said with a gulp, trying to swallow the invisible knot in his throat. Tohru stared at Yuki, slightly confused, but gave a quick nod at his question. "You know I would do anything for you. Ever since the day you came to live with us had I loved you. As I got to know you a bit more, you've helped me open up and be less cold. Because of you… I could smile more. You changed my life for the better."
Tohru felt her heart start to beat faster, knowing yet not know what Yuki was about to ask.
"I want to be with you for the rest of my life," Yuki could feel his hands start to sweat a little, going along with the shaking they were already doing. He slowly started to take out the ring box from his pocket and Tohru let out a small gasp as her eyes landed on it.
"I would be… so honored and happy if…" Yuki started, taking a deep breath. He hoped that his nerves weren't showing on his face. Slowly, Yuki started to open the box, revealing a slightly sparkling ring sitting on top red silk. "If you would marry me."
Tohru stared at the ring, her eyes wider than they were a few minutes ago. She was completely lost for words, though the tears in her eyes told Yuki what to expect.
In an instant, a huge smile formed on Tohru's face as she quickly nodded her head.
"Yes! Yes of course I will marry you!" she said, tears now falling down her cheeks. Yuki gave smile as well, taking Tohru's hand into his, slipping the ring on her finger. It was a fairly large ring, though not so much to be too noticeable.
As Yuki stood up, Tohru instantly wrapped her arms around his neck, careful to not let their bodies touch. Transforming into a rat wasn't something Yuki had in mind for that day.
"I love you, Tohru."
"I love you, too, Yuki," Tohru whispered, a smile still playing on her face. She hadn't felt as happy as she was that very moment. Her dream of having a new family was finally starting to come true.
As Yuki somewhat held onto Tohru, he couldn't help but smile widely. He was grateful for what Haru and Kyo did for him. A little annoyed, but very grateful nonetheless. All he needed was a little push and they did just that.
Although he didn't want to, Yuki had the urge to thank the two. Kyo was nice enough to keep his mouth shut for the most part and Haru …
Well, despite his outburst, he had thankfully tricked Yuki into the whole situation in the first place. With a smile, Yuki pulled Tohru as close as his curse would let him. This was, by far, the happiest day of his life.
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The Next Day
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"You asked her, right?"
That was the first thing Yuki heard from Haru when he went to answer the door. Yuki didn't think Haru was being literal when, before they went their seperate ways the previous night, he said that he'd be coming over early in the morning to find out if Yuki asked or not.
Kyo was standing next to the younger boy, arms crossed as always, the both of them wanting to know the answer.
"Yeah, I did."
"And she said yes, right?"
"… Yes."
Haru gave a smirk, living in the moment. He was hardly right against Yuki, but today was an exception that Haru was happy for. Yuki let out a sigh, ready to thank the both of them for their help. However, before any words left his mouth, Kyo gave a smirk.
"So who's going to wear the dress? You or Tohru?"
…Forget thanking them! They can go to hell!
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Fin.
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Author's Note: Well everyone, I hoped you liked my little Yukiru story. I'm sorry if any of the characters seemed OOC, but they are in their early twenties now, afterall. Please tell me what you thought of this, I'd really appreciate it! Thank you