Yay! First Fruits Basket Fic! It makes me happy just typing it up!
Tohru-Two Steps
Chapter 3 – Thursday
Yuki woke up extra early that morning, an extra two hours to be exact. One hour before Tohru normally gets up to prepare breakfast and lunch and two and a half hours earlier before Kyo even thought about opening an eyelid. Yuki fumbled around as quietly as he could in the dark – for the sun hasn't risen yet – and retrieved the bottle of wax which Tohru normally uses when doing her house work. Yuki wasn't sure what part of the house work, cleaning, most likely.
For the next hour or so, Yuki applied the bottle of wax on the floor in front of Kyo's door. Diligently, he made circular movements on his arms, imitating the Karate Kid's mentor (A/N I don't rmb his name) "wax on, wax off", and made sure it was as slippery as it could be before leaving.
Tohru Honda woke up not long after Yuki had finished his devious plot. As she always does each morning, she made her way to the washroom to wash up before going down to the kitchen to prepare breakfast and lunch for the day. Today, as she was mentally tracing the ingredients for the Kitsune Udon she was planning to make for breakfast, she was greeted by a surprise as Yuki was sitting by the kitchen table pouring himself some cereal.
"Yuki-kun!" she called out surprisingly, "It's so early. I didn't expect you."
"That's alright," Yuki replied, "I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep."
"Oh…I'm sorry to hear that…" Tohru said.
Yuki shrugged, "You don't need to apologize it's not your fault, Honda-san"
Tohru flushed with embarrassment, "I'm sorry, sometime I just can't help it. I mean, I feel really awful and the only way that I know how to react to that is to apologize," Yuki smiled politely at her. Somehow, Tohru's nature always gave him a feeling of joy in his heart.
"Yuki-kun, you didn't need to eat cereal. I was going to make Kitsune Udon!" Tohru cried out.
"That's really alright," Yuki assured her, "I haven't had a date with Captain Crunch in a while."
"I'll make some for you any way, Yuki-kun, just in case those cereals aren't enough," Tohru rushed towards the counter and began pulling out the ingredients from the fridge and cupboard, all the while humming a low tune which Yuki couldn't recognize.
She must have very graceful twirls, Yuki mused as he chewed on the sugary goodness of Captain Crunch cereal, which truthfully, wasn't as appetizing as Tohru's delicious udon. He probably should've taken Tohru's offer. Those Americans did not know how to eat good breakfast. Why don't I ask her now? Yuki wondered. It certainly made sense. It was early in the morning, they were alone, Kyo wasn't here, and Tohru would probably say yes. Once Tohru agreed to be his dance partner, Kyo would have no choice but to back off and find a gay dancing partner.
"Almost ready," Tohru commented cheerfully as she lifted the lid off the pot of the almost-boiled water.
"That reminds me," Kyo began, even though it made no sense: how could a pot of boiling water remind him of dancing? "Tonight is the first night of dance class…"
"Oh, and I'm just so excited Yuki-kun," Tohru interrupted despite herself, "but I'm so scared at the same time. What if I fall, Yuki-kun?"
"You could never…Never mind, what I was going to ask was, Tohru do you wa-"
"YEOW!" a disturbing voice came from up stair followed by a loud THUD!
"Oh no, that sounds like it's coming from Kyo's room!" Tohru cried out and rushed off towards Kyo's room.
The trap, Yuki remembered, Hallelujah, it worked! Yuki ran after Tohru, eager to see if he had actually hurt Kyo's in a way so he could avoid the lessons today. But, Instead, Yuki found Shigure on the floor massaging his ankle with Tohru comforting him.
"Oh Yuki, it's terrible!" Tohru informed him, "Shii-kun was just on his way to the bathroom" – here she pointed to the washroom and Yuki noticed that in order to get there, Shigure must cross the hall, meaning the slippery floor in front of Kyo's room – "when he slipped and fell. I don't understand why the floor is so slippery…"
"Where's Kyo?" Yuki wondered aloud.
Right then, as if to answer Yuki's question, Kyo waltzed up behind the trio, sweat dripping from his hair, "What's all this ruckus about?" he asked.
Yuki's mouth hung open, "What are you doing here? Why aren't you in your room?"
"I was on my morning run, how could you not know that. I've been doing it everyday since I moved here"
Morning run! How could Yuki forget that? He turned around and faced the wall and began banging his head repeatedly on it.
"Yuki-kun, don't injure yourself too!" Tohru squealed in fright which was followed by Shigure's groan, "Oh Shii-kun, does it hurt really badly?"
Shigure nodded, and added an artificial moan for effect.
"Maybe I should miss today's dance lesson, Yuki. Shigure looks really hurt," Tohru said with an approving nod from Shigure.
"NO!" Yuki and Kyo chanted together, "That creep is just pretending!"
"We'll just call Hatori-san!" Kyo called out and stormed off towards the telephone, "He'll take good care of that dog!"
Kyo gritted his teeth in impatience as he made the call to Hatori's office. After many rings, it was finally picked up, "Hatori's office," the dragon answered.
"What took you so long?" Kyo called out.
"It's too early," Hatori complained "I don't get up until much later."
"Shigure fell down the floor, he thinks he broke his ankle or something and you need to come over to look at him."
"Well, I can't come today. I have an appointment with Akito"
Kyo groaned. There was no way Hatori could cancel his appointment with the head of the Sohma family. He hung up without saying good-bye and banged his head against the table which held the telephone. Tohru had to be there at dance class, she had to. Suddenly, on his fifteenth bang, among a throbbing headache, Kyo thought of someone else and picked up the phone and began dialling as quickly as his finger would let him…
"Shigure-san!"
Shigure, Kyo, Tohru, and Yuki lifted their heads at the familiar voice. No, it wasn't Hatori's; it was a female's voice, high-pitched, whiny, and desperate.
"Shigure-san!" the voice continued as the owner made her way down the hall and into Shigure's office, where he was moved to. The door slid opened and standing there was Mitchan, the emotional editor of Shigure's book.
"Shigure-san, How could you do this to me? How are we going to meet the deadlines now?!!!!!" she moaned, fell to the floor and crawled towards Shigure with tears streaming from her eyes like Niagara Fall, "How…are…we…suppose…to…meet…deadline…now?" she repeated, this time slapping herself on the head with each word.
"Oh, stop being so emo," Shigure snapped, "Aren't you suppose to be Hatori?"
Kyo cleared his throat, "Well, you see Hatori couldn't make it, so I called Mitchan instead."
Mitchan stood up, "That's okay, Shigure. You know why? Because I will take care of you every minute of your injury until you could recover and meet your deadline."
"It's his ankle that's sprained not his wrist" said Yuki.
"It doesn't matter, the pain will interfere with by thinking," Shigure replied, throwing his head back like a female star in an American soap opera, "and you three better be off or you will be late and will have to face certain terrible, terrible consequences."
"Shii-kun," Tohru called, "are you sure you'll be fine, or should I come home after school?"
"Oh, I don't think so. In fact, I think I will faint from the pain, but I must not burden you, my sweet Tohru."
Tohru shook her head feverously, "No, I will stay if you…"
"No, now let's go" Kyo snapped and pushed Tohru out of the room before Shigure could say anything else that would really convince Tohru to stay
Thursday in school was certainly the most interesting day in the year by far (which wasn't saying much since school just began a month ago). Yuki and Kyo were taking every opportunity they had to tear each other apart. Their homeroom teacher, Mayu-sama caught them trying to break each other's arm even during a simple card game and threatened to place both of them in detention.
"Why don't you put Yuki in detention?" Kyo inquired, "He tried to break my leg this morning."
"You have no way of proving that," Yuki answered nonchalantly.
Kyo scoffed, "I might not find a way to prove it, but I'll find a way to retaliate."
Final period, only an hour left until dance lesson and neither Kyo nor Yuki had asked Tohru to be his dance partner. Out of desperation, Kyo came up with a final last-minute plan. He took a sheet of paper and quickly wrote a fake note addressed from the student body president of a quick meeting in the projection room behind the auditorium and managed to bribe the president into signing the note. Tomorrow, he'll have to bring a lock of Yuki's hair…along with Yuki's underwear.
Yuki, having received the note from a girl from his grade, made his way to the room after school hoping it'll be a quick meeting. He did find it a little odd that the meeting was held in the dusty projection room. Perhaps the school needed a new projector.
"Hello?" Yuki called out once he entered the room, "I'm here." As soon as he made it deep enough into the small room, the door conveniently blew shut. There a rustling sound like someone barring the door followed by hurried footsteps. Yuki's mouth flew open to wide he could've caught an entire beehive, not just one fly, he charged towards the door and desperately tried to break it down by banging on it with his fist. "KYO!" he yelled as loudly as he could, "I'M GOING TO TEAR YOUR HEAD OFF!"
WHAM! The door opened and standing at the door is the president of the student body (A/N Can't rmb his name -.-;). Since he had opened the door inward so suddenly, Yuki was smacked in the face with the door. He stumbled backward but regained himself quickly. "Thank god you were here," Yuki addressed the president, "What were you doing in the auditorium anyway?"
The President straightened himself, "I'm just here to…clean up"
"Clean what up? There's like nothing in this room," Yuki addressed looking around. There were several chairs, a projector, a small table with several pieces of paper and a CD player laying on top of it, and of course the sound and light controllers.
"Fine, you caught me," the President sighed, he strolled towards the controller and picked up a backpack, "I'm preparing for the dance lesson."
"You're taking the dance class, too"
"Well, practically the entire school is, my good man. The girls are taking it because they want to dance with you, and the boys are also participating, although secretly, because they think they can catch the chicks there. And as for me, I have been secretly practicing my moves" – here he did a short twirl – "in this projection room. It's a little interpretive style. When I show my moves, the girls will forget all about you, and dive for…me"
Yuki raised his eyebrow, "Well…that's ummm…interesting, creepy," he mumbled the last part to himself and left before the President could show him anymore of his "interpretive" dance moves.
The dance room was packed, it was fortunate that the place was spacious or there would've been many cases of spontaneously developed cases of claustrophobia. Half the students had already arrived and were cramping into the change room to prepare. Girls were squealing, looking around to see if they could catch a glimpse of Prince Yuki or his famous cousin, Kyo Sohma, before fixing their hair and reapplying their lip gloss.
Yuki arrived at the lesson prepared to give Kyo a painful lesson in "what-happens-after-you-locked-a-martial-art-prodigy-in-the-projection-room" when he caught sight of Tohru in her pink dress with Uo, in her red costume, in honour of Tohru's mom, Kyoko, and Hanajima in her black dress. He made his way towards Tohru, he didn't see Kyo around. Perhaps he hadn't arrived yet.
"Tohru, you look very beautiful," Yuki commented after catching up to the trio.
Tohru blushed. The colour of her face matched her dress.
Uo looked around, "We're trying to see who Tohru might want to dance with," she then paused dramatically, as if it was a play and it Yuki's line to follow hers. Yuki didn't let her down.
"Actually, I wanted to ask Tohru if…"
"Not so fast, pretty boy!"
The four friends turned around as Kyo stomped up towards them. "Someone hid my uniform and I still can't find it," he leered at Yuki. Yuki pretended as if he had not heard anything but the wind.
A tall thin lady with tights then walked, or rather glided, towards them and spoke in a thick German accent, "Vat's thiz? No uniform?"
Kyo was taken back with the bluntness of her question and shifted his hostility towards her, "What's it to you?"
"I am your dance instructor, ja" she announced pointing to her chest, "Und no dancing, unless uniform iz on!"
"What?" Kyo demanded, "What do you mean? Listen here lady I am going to dance if you like it or not."
"Insolate boy!" the instructor screeched and grabbed Kyo by the ear, "I escaped ze Nazis ven I vas still a baby, I fought zem all, ja I did. And I vill fight you."
"Ow, ow, well, do you have any extra dance uniform then?"
"As a matter of fact, I do"
"What perfect colour, Kyo" Hanajima commented in her monotone voice
"Shut up!" Kyo snapped when he made his first appearance with a pair of pink tight on. "I don't like the feeling of this thing at all!" he said flinging his feet out as if he's trying to get rid of dog droppings on his shoe.
"Tohru still doesn't have a partner you know, and class will start any minute now," Uo informed him with a sly grin on her face.
Kyo jerked up, Yuki was also changing in the change room so he hadn't had a chance to ask Tohru yet. He ran around the room looking for Tohru. He finally spotted her glancing at several dance posters on the wall and was making his way towards her when he also saw Yuki walking towards her. Flames of fury seemed to burst forth from the two as they walked towards Tohru, as casually but quickly as they could, desperate to beat the other out.
"TOHRU!" they were tied "TOHRU I WANT TO ASK…" they both screamed at the same time. Tohru recoiled from the intensity of their words.
"Back of rat, I was here first," Kyo screamed.
"On the contrary," Yuki replied in his calm demeanour, "I arrived before you"
"Don't make me pound you!"
"Tohru, would you like to be my…"
"Hey I was going to ask that! Tohru, forget him, why don't you…"
"Oh Mien gott!" Tohru gasped in delight, she knew that voice.
"Momiji-kun!" Tohru addressed her friend.
"Tohru-kun, Tohru-kun, I am so excited, we're learning how to dance. Isn't this just so cool?" Momiji squealed. In true Momiji fashion, he had on a female dance uniform with a snow white cap on his head.
"I…I don't know…"
Momiji scoffed, "Don't be nervous Tohru-chan. You are the most graceful person I know. But you know what would be funner? If we dance together!"
Tohru nodded, "That would be great!" she turned around to Kyo and Yuki and were standing flabbergasted. How could they lose out to that little squirt? "What were you going to ask me, Kyo-kun, Yuki-kun?"
"Uh…well…umm"
"Class," the instructor clapped her hand, "I am Fraulein Schneider, your dance instructor. I vant you, und you, und everyvun to find ze partner before ve dance."
Yuki and Kyo looked around. Everyone had paired up with someone. The girls, heartbroken that Kyo and Yuki had picked Tohru over them and impulsively agreed to dance with whoever asked them and Yuki and Kyo were left standing single.
"Vat is zis?" Fraulein Schneider asked as she was strolling around the room, "No partners?"
"No, we don't," Yuki replied, "we should probably just leave now."
"Don't be ridiculous. I see vone single, und another. Pair up, you two"
"WHAT? NO WAY!" Kyo cried out. Fraulein Schneider squinted her eyes and grabbed Kyo by the ears again, "Shall I remind you about ze Nazis?"
"Ow…ow…Alright, I'll dance with that rat," Kyo replied. Fraulein Schneider let Kyo's ears go and strolled towards the front of the class to start the lesson.
For the rest of the lesson, Kyo and Yuki spent a miserable night dancing with one another, rather grudgingly while watching enviously as Tohru and Momiji danced together while laughing and giggling non-stop.
Uo waltz by them and shook her head, "You should've spent so much time arguing."
Don't worry, Yuki and Kyo each thought, Next time, I will dance with Tohru Honda
Fin!
Finally! I finished! If you guys liked it, comment, comment! And I'll try my best to start another Furuba story. Thank you so much for the positive review and sorry for the long delay, but my computer brook down and I had exams and stuff…Oh wells, thanks for being patient! .