A/N: I was inspired to write a story about...well...the second to last scene of this fic, which is written, but not yet posted, because I haven't written the earlier parts. So I came up with the rest of the story to explain this last scene, and soon you can enjoy all of it! Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket or anything contained within, because sadly, I do not own brilliant ideas. P.S. This running into each other is kind of cliche, but I think Shigure likes cliche, so I kept it.
Kameko shifted her grip on her grocery bags. No matter how light they were, bags always managed to slip out of her hands as she walked. It didn't help that people kept shoving past her as if she wasn't there.
She sighed in frustration. Weaving back and forth, trying to avoid CEOs and bicycles, was a dangerous business. Especially when the ground was still wet from the recent rainstorm.
A frantic mother slammed into her side, and she half-spun, half-tripped over the sidewalk and tumbled right into oncoming traffic. Specifically, into a very tall young man carrying a stack of papers.
"Oof!" she cried as she rammed into his chest. There was a "poof" sound and suddenly she was falling again, this time amidst a flurry of paper, and hit the sidewalk. Hard.
"Ow," she mumbled, her eyes tearing up. Her knees and arms felt scraped and bleeding. She heard the apples she had so carefully selected in the market rolling away under trampling feet.
Kameko scrambled to gather her fallen groceries, stuffing them haphazardly into her bags and trying not to get her hands stepped on. The papers, covered in scribbled handwriting, were left to their fate, collecting footprints and water-stains.
Surprised, she looked up to find their owner. He was gone. The man she had run into had disappeared.
Then her face and neck reddened. He might have disappeared, but his clothes were still there.
Attempting to appear to passersby as though this always happened to her, she began to gather the clothes and papers too, cramming them into her already-full bags and hoping they wouldn't burst.
She looked around again. Now where…
Aha! she thought, spotting a narrow alley between two restaurants. If she suddenly found herself naked in the middle of a sidewalk, that's where she would hide. Although she couldn't see why he was naked. Had she hit him in just the right (or wrong) way to undo all these buttons?
She pushed her way over to the alley, being very careful not to rip the over-stuffed bags. The alley was constantly in shadow, so the walls were still damp and dirty puddles leaked over the ground. There were several large trashcans and trash bags piled up against the sides of the buildings, and there was a wall several dozen feet back. No escape.
"Hello?" she called. "I brought your clothes," she added, as if that made the situation perfectly alright. "You don't have to come out, just…wave or something."
The trash bag closest to her toppled over. It must have been unbalanced. There was no one near it.
"Okay," she said. "Then I have no choice to take your clothes and papers with me. You'll have to figure out where I live so you can pick them up, but at least you'll be able to find some clothes before then."
She sighed. There was no one here after all.
Kameko turned to leave. She heard a snuffling behind her, and she spun around slowly.
A large black dog was peering around one of the trashcans. It emerged from its hiding place and took a few steps toward her. Then it stopped. It was watching her very intently. Or maybe it was watching the food.
"Are you hungry?" she asked it, holding up a bag. She tried not to acknowledge a very suspicious idea.
The dog wagged its tail. Yes. It was the food.
"Okay," she said. "Let's go. I'll make us some lunch."
She walked out of the alley, and was only slightly amazed when the dog followed at her heels. If only she didn't get the feeling it was trying to look up her skirt…
Kameko didn't have any dog dishes, so she sacrificed one of her largest bowls. She knew dogs only ate meat, but she couldn't resist mixing in some vegetables. Maybe it could start dieting.
She grinned as it scarfed down the lunch. Maybe she was a bad cook, like her brother said, but this dog seemed to like it.
"Not so fast," she warned, taking a bite of her own lunch. She was leaning against the kitchen cabinets so she could face her guest. Surely that was the polite thing to do. "You'll get cramps."
The dog wagged his tail again, but continued to eat quickly. She made a face at it, but either it didn't notice, or it didn't care.
Remembering something, she reached up to the table, where she'd left the bags sitting next to a vase of blue forget-me-not's, and dug out some of the papers. That caught the dog's attention. It sat back, bowl completely clean, and whined.
"Oh relax," she told it. "If that guy's too lazy to rescue his own papers, I should at least be allowed the courtesy to look at them for a second.Just a second," she emphasized.
Not seeming entirely satisfied with this response, the dog set off to explore the rest of the apartment. It found her bedroom more quickly than she would have liked. "Please don't destroy anything," she grumbled, and settled down to read through the papers.
It was a novel. Some sort of mix between a drama and an adventure. One second turned into fifteen, and soon she was on the third chapter.
"This is quite good!" Kameko called to the dog.
She heard a faint "poof" from the direction of her room. Frowning, she climbed to her feet, snagged the bag with one hand, and cautiously approached the bedroom. She took a deep breath, then swung herself in front of the doorway.
The young man she had bumped into on the sidewalk was crouched on the other side of her bed, grinning sheepishly. Trying not to stare, she tossed the bag with the clothes at his head and ducked out of the room. She waited patiently for him to get dressed, vaguely wondering why she wasn't more upset about this whole thing, and whether it was smart of her to let a possible ax-murderer into her home.
He leaned out of her room, buttoning the top few buttons of his shirt. He was very cute, she noted, with short black hair that fell every which way, and she itched to push it back into place.
"So…" he said awkwardly, "you like my novel?"