Kiss Kiss
By Lady of the Ink
Pairing: Kyou and Kagura Sohma
Fandom: Fruits Basket
Theme: #14 – Radio Cassette Player
Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket, but you knew that ...I hope. But I do own this story and all the twists that it takes.
Kiss Twenty
The Perfect Day
x
It was the most stressful wedding that the Sohma family had ever seen. Kagura had been happy to volunteer her help, a decision that she regretted not more than two days after it had been made. As much as she loved weddings and wanted to help her cousin have the perfect day to remember, things had quickly gotten out of hand.
First, there were the issues with the florists. Although the arrangements had been decided on weeks in advance, it didn't take long for doubts to be raised. What if there was a shortage of the chosen blooms? What if the plants, none of which were locally grown, were late or didn't come at all? What if they arrived too early and wilted before the ceremony?
It took nearly an hour but she'd managed to calm everyone down and make them believe her reassures that everything would be fine. The florists were very reliable with a great reputation. Even if they delivered early, the weather was cool enough that it would take all day for the flowers to show any signs of wilting. Since the ceremony was scheduled for 2 o'clock, that wouldn't be an issue. And if they did have a shortage of the proper flowers, slightly more common backups had been chosen and would be delivered instead.
She'd enjoyed ten minutes of peace after that discussion. Then had come questions about the band. What if they couldn't make it, or the singer got sick? Kagura promised a sound system would be ready and waiting, courtesy of Haru. A disc of their songs had already been prepared, checked for errors, and then checked again. Yes, if the power somehow went out, there was yet another backup plan in place. She had spent an hour searching through the attic at her house and unearthed her old battery operated radio-cassette player. She'd then spent another couple of hours making a tape backup of the CD backup.
And yes, she had extra batteries.
It was with little surprise that Kagura found herself woken the day before the wedding by a frantic phone call concerning the caterer. In a voice still husky with sleep, she explained that the orders had all been placed in person, finalized by mail, and confirmed by phone. Since they were so close, all the cooking would be done at the business and then driven to the ceremony by the serving staff. Should they not be able to make it for any reason, a backup had again been pre-booked and sent a copy of an amended menu. In a pinch, they could manage a respectable meal with two hours notice. Failing that, she had the numbers of several well-liked takeout places from around the city on speed dial.
She'd just stepped out of the shower when the phone rang again. Knowing that it would only get worse if she ignored it, Kagura abandoned her fleeting daydream of tossing the offending electronic out the window. Still wrapped in a towel, she had explained calmly that Ayame was making the dress and as eccentric as he was, he had never missed a deadline yet. Tohru was making the cake as her present to the couple and anyone who knew her would know that nothing would stop her from finishing it. By the time she hung up, her hair had dried in a tangled mass of knots. With a resigned sigh, she set about combing it into order.
The day of the wedding dawned bright and clear, the weather warm with no sign of rain or wind. Kagura took this a good omen and set off in a buoyant mood. It didn't take long for things to go south. She'd barely arrived at Shigure's, the location of the impending nuptials, when her phone rang. Laying her dress on Tohru's bed, she answered, expecting the frazzled bride or groom with more what-ifs.
x
Kyou wandered through the expansive backyard surrounding Shigure's house, his eyes sweeping every area that he passed. He had accepted this section of the search grid with the thought that it was the least likely place for Kagura to be found. No one had seen her for more than an hour and with the ceremony approaching fast, panic was becoming imminent. Although everyone was sure she was just seeing to last minute details, the couple of honor wouldn't calm down until she was found. Someone had gone to each of the places that she might be and he'd promised to look around the house, just in case.
It was with more than a little surprise that Kyou saw the small figure off to his left. Kagura was sitting against a tree with her eyes closed, her chest rising and falling with the audible deep breaths she was pulling in. At the sound of his approaching footsteps, she looked up slowly. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but the blank look on her face wasn't it.
Before he could say anything, she raised a hand. As calmly as though she were telling him they were out of salt she said, "I have to warn you that if you're coming to tell me about another problem, I'm going to have to scream."
Kyou stopped, an eyebrow arching in surprised curiosity. "What do you mean, another problem? What happened?"
With the deliberate slowness of someone who's had one too many drinks, Kagura smoothed her skirt, tucking the ends under her folded legs. "Did anyone notice that the power's out yet?'
"Yeah, but that's no big deal. Tohru finished the cake this morning and it's a bright day so I doubt we'll need lights. Haru's stuff is useless now, but that was just a backup. That band they wanted plays acoustic anyway, so it's like a non-issue. If that's all that's bugging you, we need to get back before they all freak out." Without waiting for her, he turned and started back the way he had come.
"The band's not coming."
That stopped Kyou mid-step. Turning back around, he asked "What?"
"The band's not coming because their singer's in the hospital due to smoke inhalation. He's okay but he won't be able to sing."
Morbid curiosity forced him to ask. "What happened?"
"Apparently they were on their way here when they saw a building on fire. They must all be very heroic because they went in to help get the last couple of people out. No one's hurt badly, but the singer …" She gestured vaguely.
"Yeah, yeah, smoke inhalation. Okay, so you don't have a band and no one can dance. Big deal."
"Oh, I have a battery run radio and a tape of all the wedding songs. But no one's going to get to dance because they're going to cancel the wedding when they find out there aren't any flowers."
Kyou frowned, wondering if he'd missed something. "Wait a minute. Why aren't there any flowers?"
Kagura sighed lightly. "A driver was so distracted by all the drama of the burning building that he plowed into a van and sent it right into a utility pole. That's why the power's out, by the way."
"Well that's nice to know, but what does it have to do with the flowers?"
She gave him the look of a teacher chastising a student for talking out of turn. "The van," she said slowly, "belonged to our florist. The driver got away with just a broken arm but the van ended up so close to the blaze that it was hit with the fire hoses. All the flowers are ruined."
Kyou remained silent for a moment before taking a stab at being consolatory. "I'm sure there's some way around all of that and at least nothing else can go wrong."
"That's what I thought," she exclaimed, lifting her shoulders and raising both hands palm up. "But then the phone rang again. It was my back up caterer calling to tell me that they'd been hit with a power outage and would be unable to be of service should the need arise."
"The backup caterer? So then the original caterer is still coming . . ." He trailed off as Kagura shook her head. "What happened to the caterer?"
"We-ell," she drawled, "do you remember the burning building that the band ran into? The one that made the driver hit the florist?"
Kyou groaned. "Don't tell me that was the caterer?"
Kagura smiled beatifically and nodded before focusing her attention on the pattern she was tracing in the dirt. Kyou looked at her closely for the first time. She'd put so much time into something that was now falling apart in her face. He would have expected tears or rage, not this passive acceptance. Despite her warning when he first found her, she seemed to be taking things well. Maybe a little too well. Squatting down beside her, he casually sniffed the air. "Have you been drinking?"
She snorted. "I wish!" As she looked up, he saw that the corners of her lips were twitching. In a voice that grew thicker with each word, she confided, "The caterer was bringing the booze." The final word was barely out before she dissolved into gales of laughter.
Kyou stared down at her, stunned motionless by her sudden outburst. After a few moments, the absurdity of the situation started to sink in. Every big event had a chance of something going wrong. But the odds of not one thing but everything going wrong and being connected were beyond astronomical. It didn't take long for his deeper chuckles to join Kagura's ongoing laughter.
Long moments passed before they gathered themselves and their little corner of the woods fell into silence. Diligently not meeting Kagura's eyes, Kyou cleared his throat and asked what she was going to do. "It's not like you can hide forever. Sooner or later someone is going to figure out where we are."
"I know. I can handle this, honestly I can. I think I just needed to blow off some steam before I went back. You know, admire the fallen dominos before you start setting them back up."
"When Fate decided to screw you over, it just went all out, didn't it? One or two things going wrong is one thing; all of this happening is just weird. " He shook his head in disbelief before glancing at her from the corner of his eye. "Is there anything you want me to do?"
She sighed, all her earlier humor vanishing. "Could you round up some volunteers? I need someone to run to the florist and see if they have the backup flowers on hand. Someone else can grab the radio, tape, and extra batteries from the box in Tohru's room. Then the takeout places need to be called so the deliveries can get here on time. That should take care of almost everything, I think." She climbed to her feet, carefully dusting off her skirt and straightening her hair.
Kyou rose as well, shoving his hands in his pockets as they started back toward the house. "What are you going to do?"
"Raid Shigure's liquor stockpile, of course."
x
For something that had seemed hopeless a mere hour and a half before, the wedding went surprisingly well. Kagura had to admit that the backup plans she'd thought annoying at the time had become lifesavers, salvaging the day from ruin. The florist had indeed kept the alternative flowers and Yuki had gotten Ayame to pick them up on his way to the house. It had taken seven restaurants to do it, but an acceptable wedding feast had been delivered piping hot and was waiting to be served. Since a good portion of the crowd were non-drinkers or underage, the alcohol she'd "liberated" from Shigure's store had been more than enough.
As she sat and watched Ritsu and Mitsuru exchange their first kiss as husband and wife, Kagura found herself feeling glad that she'd volunteered to help. There was a big sense of accomplishment in managing to pull everything together on time and an even bigger one for having done it without letting the bride and groom drive her crazy. She might have gotten just as frazzled as them the process but she had completed her task nonetheless.
She'd been worried that either or both of them would flip out when they noticed the last minute substitutions but they'd handled it quite well. Once each of them admitted they were fine so long as the other was happy, everyone had relaxed. Watching them dance to the tape she'd made, Kagura found herself hoping her own wedding could be half as good. After all, all anyone could ask for was a love that would see them as making the day perfect even when the caterers' burned down, the band was hospitalized, and the flowers got flooded by the fire department.
Well, maybe not exactly that.
