Kiss Kiss
By Lady of the Ink
Pairing: Kyou and Kagura Sohma
Fandom: Fruits Basket
Theme: #26 – Candy
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-Seven
Sweetness

x

Kagura closed the door to her room, leaning against it for a moment with a quiet sigh. Another year, another White Day coming to an end with her feeling disappointed. She had gotten a few gifts of chocolate from family members and friends; two boys at her school had even worked up the nerve to shove their offerings at her, blushing the whole time. It was more than she had expected but she still felt unsatisfied.

She had been hoping that this would be the year that Kyou would finally return her annual gesture in some form. After all, they'd been dating for several months now and she'd dropped hints about it over the past few weeks. As close as they had become, she'd been sure that he would remember and do something to mark the occasion. The certainty that he knew how much it meant to her had kept her from pressing too hard and making a nuisance of herself.

Kagura dropped onto the bed, shifting her tote bag so that it was cradled in her lap. The disappointment wouldn't have been so bad had she not run into Kyou earlier that afternoon. Her heart had raced as he approached as her mind produced a scene of him shyly offering his gift, a mumbled explanation that he'd taken so long because he'd been searching endlessly for just the right thing. The image was so sweet that she'd almost melted at her mental-Kyou's kindness. It had been all that she could do to leave him behind and focus on the real world and watch Kyou's progress towards her. Hope had built and built in her chest and then plummeted to the ground when he muttered a casual greeting and kept walking. She'd been left standing dumbly in the middle of the sidewalk, too stunned and hurt to move.

Kagura shook her head, disgusted with both him and herself. She should have known that displays like giving chocolates weren't his thing; expecting him to suddenly change just because they'd started dating was unfair to him. But that hadn't stopped her from having another moment of breathless anticipation when she'd felt a tug at her side and turned to find him standing there. She'd been just about to gush that she'd been afraid he'd forgotten when she noticed his attention wasn't on her. His eyes were firmly locked on the bag at her side, more specifically on the zipper that seemed to have caught the string dangling from his pants pocket. Upon freeing himself from the offending hardware, he'd given it a dirty look, his cheeks flushed with apparent anger, before walking away without another word.

She flopped onto her back, willing herself to let go of her frustration. If she was going to be happy in a relationship with Kyou, she knew that she would have to make some changes. It wasn't fair to make him pay for not meeting expectations he didn't even know that she had. She couldn't expect him to change the habits of a lifetime in just a few weeks.

Instead of focusing on the things he did that annoyed her, she knew she should work on the things she did that she knew bothered him. She had no right to demand changes of him before she had earned them through her own actions. If she just kept forcing him to become someone else, it wouldn't take long for him to leave her altogether.

The very thought brought tears to her eyes and she fumbled in her bag for a tissue. Nudging aside her wallet and keys, she found her comb and mirror but not the small plastic wrapped package. As she dug deeper, her questing fingers brushed something small and hard and completely out of place. Frowning in confusion, she sat up and pulled it from the depths of her bag. Turning toward the light, she slowly opened her hand. There, resting in her palm, was a single drop-shaped candy wrapped in red foil.

Kagura stared down at the candy in surprise. She knew that it hadn't been there that morning when she'd first packed her bag since she'd cleaned it out beforehand. It also hadn't been there earlier in the afternoon when she'd had to dump the contents and reorganize to make room for her classmates' gifts. So where it had it come from?

She searched her bag but there was nothing else, no card, gift tag, or letter. It was as though the chocolate had just appeared in her tote as if by magic. It couldn't have gotten there by accident; she always kept the zipper closed and her bag close at hand. It hadn't been out of her sight all day, which meant there was no time for someone to have snuck it inside without her seeing them …

Kagura froze, her mind flashing back to her encounter with Kyou on the sidewalk. After he'd passed her, he'd been fumbling with the zipper on her bag. It was possible that he had slipped the candy inside and gotten his pants stuck as he closed it. Or getting caught could have been a cover altogether, a way to explain the tug as he opened and closed the zipper. The blush she'd thought was anger could have just as easily been embarrassment, both being Kyou's standard reactions to expressing his softer side.

She tried to keep herself from assuming too much, knowing that her hope might lead her to believe too quickly. But even after several minutes of careful thought, she really couldn't come up with another explanation. He was the only one who had a reason and an opportunity to do it.

A smile that she couldn't control spread across her face as she looked at the small chocolate. For such a small thing, it held a lot of meaning. This was the first piece of proof Kyou had given her that their new relationship might be as important to him as it was to her. Best of all, he had done it in his own way and of his own free will. While she had given some hints, she hadn't forced him into it, as she might have in the past. He had done it because he wanted to, not because he had to.

And that was the best present of all.