Fruits Basket

For Justice, Romance, and Good Health

OPENING NOTES: I like this chapter a lot. It's so fun to make Hatori do things he doesn't want to do. I don't own Furuba or any of the characters, by the way. Well, I really wish people are actually reading this. It's rather frustrating, actually. Anyway, here's Part Two of Case One!! Enjoy!! :)


Case One: Yuki and Machi

Part Two: Hatori

"Hey! Idiot rat! The phone's for you!"

Yuki Sohma looked up blankly as Kyo Sohma, his cousin and the cat of the Zodiac curse, barged in his room less than happy.

Yuki was already having a great Wednesday, getting perfect in two quizzes and arriving home early for the first time of the week. Now, his stupid cat-possessed cousin had to destroy all that.

Kyo threw the phone on the bed and stormed off. Yuki called after him, "You should learn to control your temper, stupid cat. Just because you had to bring the phone to my room doesn't mean-"

"I DON'T CARE! JUST TALK TO YOUR STUPID GIRLFRIEND ALREADY!"

Yuki stared at the phone. Girlfriend? He reached out for it, thinking that it might be- no, but it couldn't. She wasn't the type who would call him out of the blue.

"Machi?"

"Ah. Yuki. I heard all the screaming and…"

It was Hatori. Yuki was slightly crestfallen and had half the mind to go outside and kick Kyo out of a window as he thought about Machi Kuragi, his friend, student council treasurer, his best friend Kakeru Manabe's half-sister, and his girlfrie- Wait, no! What was he thinking?!

Hatori's voice went over the phone to Yuki's ears. "Hello?"

"Hatori. I was just, umm, studying…"

"Oh. Well, I'm sorry for interrupting but I really need to talk to you," he answered dully, as if he rehearsed his lines over and over again. "Anyway, Shigure had alerted me that maybe the cause of your stress, lack of sleep, and absentmindedness is your love life."

"Yes, I have been stressed out a lot and- Wait, what?" Yuki said then stopped, realizing what the dragon spirit had just said. "Love life?"

Hatori said tonelessly, "Yes, love life. I am aware that you are taking interest in a young lady at your school named… Machi Kuragi?"

Yuki felt his own face darken. "Shigure and Ayame put you up to this, didn't they?"

There was a small silence. Yuki rolled his eyes, knowing that Hatori was almost always caught up in Shigure's and Ayame's schemes.

"I want to help you, not only because of them although they do have good intentions, but because I am concerned for you. So just please, do humor me."

There was a pause. "Alright then."

"Excellent," Hatori mumbled, though Yuki knew that the Sohma family doctor was feeling far from excellent, "I just wanted to remind you to take your vitamins and not to stay up too late… uhh… what's this… ah… fantasizing or dreaming-"

"Yes, yes, I understand," Yuki replied, determined that Hatori must have been reading out of a paper, "I'll make sure to do that."

"Thank you. Now, my personal advice is-"

"Your personal advice?"

"Yes, my personal advice, and nobody else's," he said impatiently, "Just make sure to be kind to the girl and invite her over to the house or something. Do some special activity with her that she would enjoy… Whatever she likes, whatsoever that may be. Give her a gift; that's effective as well."

Yuki grinned at Hatori's half-hearted tone. "I'll be sure to do those. Well, if I could."

Hatori said, "Good. I just wanted to check on you. Goodbye, Yuki."

"Yes, goodbye, Hatori."

He put down the phone and chuckled, knowing perfectly well that Shigure and Ayame were behind all this. Hatori wouldn't have the nerve to interfere in someone's life, love life in particular.

Tohru's voice suddenly came from the hall, "Yuki! Kyo! It's time to eat!"

Yuki stood up and went outside, almost bumping into Tohru. Kyo just happened to get out of his room and witness the small accident, instantly yelling at Yuki, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO TOHRU?!"

After a small exchange of shouts and yells, the fight ended quicker than it usually would, and they all entered the dining room. Shigure was seated on his usual seat, waiting impatiently for the three to sit down.

"Come on, come on. We don't have all night," he said quickly, ushering them to their seats, "Okay! Itadakimasu!!"

Kyo stared at the dog spirit in disgust as he started eating the food hungrily.

"What? I'm hungry!"

All of them ate, someone occasionally saying something that would cause a lot of noise afterwards. When silence finally took over the room, Yuki said, "So, Shigure… What have you been up to?"

Shigure looked up, surprised. "Me? Oh, I've been staying at home, writing the sequel of my book-"

"Have you talked to Hatori or Ayame lately?"

Kyo and Tohru looked at Yuki, confused, as he started staring at Shigure with a knowing look on his face. Shigure replied, almost finished with his food, "I just saw them three days ago. Haven't called them since."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really."

Yuki was doubtful as Shigure stood up, finished with his food. He couldn't help but think that the novelist sounded quite truthful, but realized that this was Shigure Sohma he was talking about, and that anything mysterious could be possible with him.

He shook his head, standing up at the same time as Kyo. This immediately made the cat spirit mad, and he tried his best not to lose his temper and smash him through the door. Tohru held them both back, and Kyo abruptly walked off to his room.


Hatori left Akito's room and walked back to his own room, whipping out his phone from his pocket. He selected a certain number and waited while the phone rang. Just when he reached his room, a loud voice answered, "Haa-san!"

"Shigure."

"I was about to call you when you called me instead," Shigure said, chuckling, "What happened when you called Yuki? Did he tell you anything interesting?"

Hatori snorted as he replied, "Well, when he answered the phone, I had this feeling at the back of my head that our plan was going to fail miserably and-"

"Haa-san!!"

"Fine. And stop calling me that," he snapped impatiently, sitting down on his usual chair, "Anyway, he answered me, thinking that I was Machi. I told him I was Hatori and I couldn't help but notice his slightly disappointed tone afterwards."

Shigure smirked. "Obviously, he likes her."

"I don't think he's going to take my advice, though."

"That's because you weren't acting all sincere and concerned enough!" Shigure whined, remembering how Yuki interrogated him during dinner, "Yuki suspects you, Ayame, and I are contacting each other. You have to make it clear that you're worried about his well-being and-"

"How can I do that when I think this plan is a hundred percent ridiculous failure?!"

"Hatori!"

"You're actually serious about this?"

"Yes!"

Hatori rolled his eyes, running a hand through his already messy hair. "Surely he'll take my advice because I didn't read from the script when I told him that part."

Shigure gasped. "You didn't read the script Ayame and I made?!"

"I was reading it at the part about my being concerned for his love life but I just thought that the advice was too inexplicable," he replied frankly.

He picked up the tiny paper he was reading a few hours ago, "Besides, 'Take her out on a wonderful date full of lovely, romantic surprises. Whisper sweet nothings on days when the night is lonely and dark. Bring her the happiness of a rainbow like that of one that comes after the rain. Give her elegant mementos and tokens of love to remind her that you are always there to hold her hand during times of-'"

Hatori broke off, crumpling the paper and shooting it towards the trash bin. "Seriously, Shigure! What is that nonsense?! I haven't even reached half of it! You think I can tell all that to Yuki?!"

Only a laugh could be heard from the other line of the phone. "Look, I just wrote down all I could think of, and Ayame added adjectives and extra words. We were doing our best to make it believably from you."

Hatori said in a dangerously low tone, "Believably from me? Believably from ME?! You two knew me for more than half of your lives and you… you… If you were to make a book on my life, Shigure, I would have been completely dilapidated by then."

Shigure laughed. "Okay, maybe we did get a little carried away, but there's a tiny chance that Yuki would follow that advice."

"Tiny? Miniscule, I'd say…"

"Ah, come on, Haa-san. Have faith in our plans," he replied cheerfully. There was a small silence and he added, "A book on your life, hmm? That wouldn't be half-bad…"

"If you dare write a single sentence on my life, Shigure Sohma, I swear you will die a painful death."

"What's up with you today? You're crankier than before."

Hatori growled and ended the call, feeling a headache starting to form in his head. He decided to sleep early and walked off, leaving his phone on the chair.


On the other line, Shigure smirked as he heard the monotonous tone of an ended call. He wondered whether Yuki would actually end up following Hatori's advice and lay down on his bed comfortably. Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn't. Only time could tell.

A few rooms away, Yuki was staring outside the window and looking up at the moon and the stars. He remembered Machi telling her once how she sometimes hated the sky.

"Yuki… Do you like the sky?"

Yuki turned and looked oddly at Machi as she stared up at the morning sky. The sun was shining and the clouds were the fluffiest and whitest in years. He answered, "Well, I don't think it's that bad."

There was a silence. Machi said distastefully, "I hate it sometimes."

"Why?" Yuki asked, though he felt he knew the answer.

Machi smirked. "Because it could look so perfect at times. It makes me want to just fly up and knock the sun and the clouds into different directions. At night, I feel like I want to crumple up the stars and throw them at the moon."

He chuckled softly and replied, "Well, I could paint a picture of the morning sky and another one of the night sky. If you want, I could destroy the pictures with you. We could pick random colors of markers like orange or pink or green and scribble and messily color the places where there aren't supposed to be colors. If it gets ugly enough, then we crumple them and, yeah, you get the gist of it…"

She stared at Yuki strangely and he thought that she would flat out refuse, thinking that he was mocking her, but she muttered shyly, "Yeah… I would love to do that with you… Destroying pictures…"

They both looked at each other, as if they were already planning on destroying the sky. Machi laughed that soft, gentle laugh of hers and walked off towards the council room, where everyone else was waiting.

Yuki sighed, closing the windows and jumping down on his bed. He remembered Hatori's words. "Do some special activity with her that she would enjoy… Whatever she likes, whatsoever that may be," he said to himself pensively.

Yes, that was it, he would have to paint or draw pictures of the morning and night sky. He would take her out to a café in the weekend and they could randomly color the perfect pictures and spill coffee on them. He was never able to do that with her as he promised that sunny day.

Yuki smiled as he turned off the lights. Machi would love that.


Author's Note: Hello everyone! I know; I am so mean to Hatori. And in case you're wondering, Yuki IS going to take his advice. Just wait and see... The next chapter is probably the one I had fun writing the most. Get ready for Ayame's part of the plan! LOL. Please review and/or favorite and/or alert!! Thank you!! :D

-Pasta W 19. :)