Author's Note: Before you read this, I just want to clarify Komaki's personality. I made it up. I have no clue how her real personality is and how Kakeru acts around her, so I'm guessing. I have a couple of reference materials, but they're aren't that helpful. So I improvised. Thank you for reading this little note.

Shattered Dreams

Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket… I wish I did though… ((sighs)) Someday I will though…

Chapter 7:

"So, so? What are you doing here, Komaki-chan?" Kakeru Manabe asked, now carrying the boxes into the Student Council room AKA the Student Defense Force Headquarters.

Komaki pretended to look shock. "EH! Kakeru-chan forgot about me? Kakeru-chan forgot he invited me!" She walked faster to catch up to him, and knocked over the boxes in the process.

"Wha--! Komaki-chan!" Kakeru pretended to whine, now spilling out crocodile tears and kneeling onto the ground, picking up the box's contents. "You…You…You knocked over all my hard work!" he nearly shouted, making a puppy face.

Komaki only giggled and pulled off her mask. "Ha-ha! Kakeru!" she said in a sing-song voice, "You know what I came here for!" she said grinning like a Cheshire Cat.

Kakeru stopped his act, too and picked up all the boxes again. Komaki bent down and took a box. Kakeru grinned. "Yep!" he said happily, and then paused, as if waiting for something.

And he got what he wanted.

Komaki bent her head, still holding the box, and pressed her lips onto Kakeru's cheek.

Kakeru couldn't help but feel light as a feather.

--

Kyo moved back and smiled like a love sick fool. "U-Uh…" he managed to stutter out, "U-Uh…" He looked away, blushing like a maniac.

Tohru only blushed and looked away too.

They stood in an awkward silence before Kyo finally spoke. "Oi… I guess we should start heading back…" he muttered quietly, remember what the date was.

This time, both smiles on their faces were wiped off completely.

Kyo started to walk away, hands in pockets. Tohru only stared hard at the ground before waking up from her daze and stumbling over a rock.

"A-Ah!" she managed to squeak out as her hands flew to hold herself up from falling onto the ground. She closed her eyes tightly to prevent grass getting into her eyes. (That and she was scared to watch.)

She suddenly felt a strong grip holding onto her arm and she opened her eyes. She looked up and saw a grinning red-head.

"Watch it, why don't cha?" His grin became wider, "You'll keep falling like that if you don't watch where you're going."

"Aren't you the idiot who fell first?" a voice asked from behind the two young adults, startling the both of them.

"AH!" Kyo turned around, pointing an accusing finger at his nemesis, "What are you doing here!" He was so busy pointing and accusing and focusing his attention on the "damn rat" that he didn't notice the "damn rat's" accomplice.

"Hello…"

"AH!" Kyo spun around quickly and his fiery red eyes narrowed. "Who the heck are you?" he asked bluntly without another thought.

Machi didn't say anything at first; she only stared at the ground with a blank look, yet somehow… It looked like she was on cloud nine.

Yuki watched Machi with a smile and turned his attention back to Kyo. "Anyways, we should be heading back," he said now taking on the more serious situation.

Tohru, who had greeted Machi and stayed quiet, watching the two cousins fight, nodded with a determined expression.

Of course, Machi didn't understand.

Kyo frowned, bottom lip sticking out, and said, "Well… Whoever 'ya are, aren't 'ya goin' to…go?"

Machi didn't answer; Yuki decided to step in. "Hey, Kyo? Do you think you can go ahead? We're going to wait for Kakeru and I'll be there," he firstly directed it to Kyo and then turned to Tohru, "Honda-san," he smiled, "I'll be there in a bit."

Tohru smiled and nodded.

And as on cue, Kakeru arrived.

"YUN-YUNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!"

Yuki felt his spine curve downward and soon found a pair of hands covering his eyes. "Guess who!" asked the annoying sing-song voice that belonged to that one annoying person. Yuki growled, "I know it's you Kakeru…"

"Get off him, Manabe…" Machi said suddenly, without turning her head to look at her step-brother.

"Eh?" Kakeru asked without taking his hands off Yuki's eyes ("Ack! Kakeru! Get your hands off my eyes! I can't see!" –Yuki. "What the hell is going on…?" –Kyo and "A-Ah! Yuki-kun, are you alright?" –Tohru).

"Aaahhhhh… Machi… Did you do some… 'stuff' with Yun-Yun?" Kakeru asked in as if it were the most normal thing in the world to talk about and winked.

Machi turned away to hide her coming blush.

"What! Kakeru! Stop saying stupid things!" he yelled as he struggled to get the ex-vice president off.

And of all the time, Kyo felt his vein popping. He looked over at Tohru – who looked like she wanted to help get Kakeru off Yuki but couldn't because of "accidents". Kyo felt his vein pop even more and gave up. "Fine," he muttered to himself as he walked over to the idiot.

"Look you," he remarked, "get off my cousin; we're awfully busy so just get the hell away from us!"

Kakeru's eyes became as big as saucers. "Eh! Yun-Yun!" he finally took his hands off Yuki's eyes and put them in front of his mouth, he then pushed his head onto the back of Yuki's neck and snuggled there, "Your cousin is s-c-a-r-y!"

Machi had enough. "Manabe!" she yelled, catching everyone's attention, "Get off Sohma-kun now!"

Kakeru made a point to throw a tantrum. "No! I dunno wanna!" he shouted as if he was a little kid, "I dun wanna!"

That was enough for Kyo as well.

Kyo reached for Kakeru's collar and grabbed it, and pulled Kakeru right off. And all Kakeru could say was, "Eh?". Kyo dropped Kakeru quite abruptly onto the floor.

"Ah!" Kakeru said as he met the floor.

"Awww! Did Kakeru-chan get hurt again?" cooed a voice from behind Kyo, Tohru, Yuki, Machi and Kakeru. The unfamiliar voice led to a tall girl with long black hair that reached to the middle of her back and on her face, she had plastered a huge grin.

Yuki was the first one to speak after the tall black-haired girl had appear. "Eh? Nakao-san! Hi," he greeted the girl. He smiled.

"Oh hi, Yuki-san!" the girl replied back in return. She smiled back in return, too. She, then, turned her attention to Kakeru, who was now getting up, and said, "Kakeru-chan! You aren't hurt anywhere are you?" Her bottom lip stuck out; she started to pout.

The girl whom Yuki had called "Nakao-san" turned her attention away from Kakeru and her eyes landed on Tohru, who was wringing her wrists as if she wanted to so badly apologize, but something was keeping her. "EH!" the girl suddenly shouted, ignoring the weird looks she was getting from Kyo, "Kakeru-chan has been cheating on me!" She stomped over to Kakeru, "HOW COULD YOU!"

Then, she pounded him on the head.

A sweat drop formed on Yuki, Kyo and Tohru's foreheads.

"Nakao-kun…" Machi started expressionlessly, "you shouldn't do that…and besides… Manabe wasn't cheating on you…"

Nakao looked up from pounding Kakeru to a pulp. "Eh?" she sniffed a bit, "Kakeru-chan wasn't…?"

Machi didn't say anything, nor did her face change.

Tohru decided to step in at that time, "No, uh… I only just met Manabe-san a couple days ago actually and…uh…" she looked at Kyo, blushing. Nakao seemed to have gotten the message.

"Ah!" she said suddenly, snapping her fingers, "I get it!" she grinned. Kakeru had gotten up and now was on the way of introducing them.

"This is my meat angel, Nakao Komaki," he said firstly as he pointed to the tall girl with a HUGE grin, "Of course," he added, "Yun-Yun and Machi already knows this."

And only one thought ran through both Kyo and Tohru…

"Meat angel?"

He moved on, "Komaki-chan, this is Sohma Kyo, Yun-Yun's cousin," he said, pointing to the red-head, "and this…" a malicious grin formed on his face, "is Honda Tohru."

"Eh? 'Honda Tohru'?" Komaki suddenly said in a surprised tone, "Nice to meet you, Honda-san and Sohma-kun!"

Kyo growled at how Komaki had called him, "It's 'Kyo'" he scowled. He hated being called by his surname…

Tohru only titled her head a bit ways, and said, "Nice to meet you Nakao-san!"

Komaki only made a face, and shook her head, "No, no! It's Komaki to you!" she corrected the younger girl. Tohru could only sweat drop and nod.

"Eh… Komaki-san," she tried.

Komaki gave up and said, "Fine, fine. That's good."

She had completely ignored Kyo.

Tohru decided to change the subject. "So, are you here with your parents?" she asked with a smile.

Komaki's grin began to fade, but her smile stayed. "Eh… Not really… I'm just here with my mom… You know… To congratulate Kakeru-chan!"

"What happened to your…father?" Tohru asked softly. Her smile, too, began to fade at the thought of losing one's own father.

Yuki, Machi and Kakeru only looked away. Kyo looked confused.

"He…died in a car accident in May three years ago…"

He died in a car accident? In… May? Wait a minute… Three years ago was…when… Tohru realized, eyes widening at the thought, my mom had been killed…

/ "Eh? 'Honda Tohru'?" /

No wonder Komaki was so surprised.

"Honda-san," Komaki suddenly said, awakening Tohru from her trance, "Are you alright?" She tilted her head and bent down to Tohru's eye level.

"EH? I mean--! Yes! I'm alright! Just fine, fine!" Tohru nearly shouted, panicking at her behavior. "Sorry…" she whispered, calming down, "I… I didn't mean to space out like that…" She looked away.

Komaki smiled. "It's really alright!" she reassured the younger girl, "I don't mind."

Tohru looked up smiling. "Uh…" she remembered the situation, "I think we have to go…" She lowered head.

Yuki and Kyo, too, looked away. Each one had an unreadable expression.

Kakeru – who had been trying to get Machi to tell him what had happened earlier – suddenly was pounded on the head by a fist. Machi's that is. "Owowow…" Kakeru muttered as he once again, met the ground close-up.

"Aww! Kakeru-chan got beat again?" Komaki teased, offering him a hand; she turned to Tohru, and grinned, "I think we should get going too…"

Yuki walked over towards Machi and smiled. "Actually, I should go, too. Thank you."

Machi blushed and looked away. What the others didn't notice as they watched the couple was that Machi had handed Yuki a small slip of paper. Yuki's surprised face met Machi's and smiled. Yuki didn't say anything, but…

I think he knew what I was thinking…

--

"There you are!" Hatori said letting out a relived sigh as he walked towards the trio walking towards Akito, Ayame, Momiji, Haru, Shigure and himself.

Tohru smiled sadly and nodded. Kyo looked away and Yuki looked sad. "Yuki, Kyo, you'll be going in the car with Akito, Haru and Ayame. Tohru, Momiji, Shigure and I will be in the other car."

The trio nodded; Kyo didn't even yell at Hatori for putting him in the same car as Yuki.

Things were just beginning…

Author's Note: FINALLY! I got to the point… Sort of… A bit… Okay, okay, maybe not, but I reached my goal. I wanted to put the last words to this chapter somewhere…. ((shifts eyes)) Anyways, if you review, I'll update faster. Thank you!