A:N/ This chapter's about Hatsuharu, searching for Kisa. And I couldn't help but put some Haru/Rin stuff in there...well, it stays mostly on track. Hope you enjoy.
When he got the call, he was thinking of soba.
He didn't know why, but he was thinking of soba and the different flavors and a thousand different things about soba. He was standing at his cupboards, looking for the ingredients to make soba, when the phone rang.
Sighing, he stepped away and turned, knowing where the phone would be. He pressed his thumb against the largest button. "Yes?"
"Hatsuharu-san," came a breathless woman's voice, "this is Sohma Yori, Kisa's mother."
"All right, Yori-san. What do you want with me?" Haru said, looking resignedly at the cupboards.
"Kisa's missing."
He froze, his mind reeling with different images.
Kisa, walking home, not speaking to her mother, Momiji or Haru, though they had all come to get her.
Yuki, trapped in a room, his only visitors Akito and Haru, accompanied by Rin.
Kisa, knocking on his door one rainy afternoon, looking for someone to talk to, even though she hadn't spoken a word the entire time.
Shigure's face as Haru had agreed to call him "sensei".
"Could you help look for her, Hatsuharu-san?"
"Yes," Haru said, turning off the phone, all thoughts of soba forgotten.
He pulled on his shoes and locked the door behind him. He didn't even think about his bike, tied in front of his home, or his coat, hanging on a hook. He just started walking, not calling her name or asking passerbys if they had seen an orange-haired girl lately. He just walked.
He knew where her school was, and where her house was. He knew the routes she would take. She should have been home hours ago, so this was not an overreaction on her mother's part.
Her mother and whatever other people she could find would be looking near the route Kisa took to school, so there was no point looking there.
Not knowing where to look, he thought of the places she would go. There was the supermarket, the restaurants nearby, the park, and scores of apartments. She wouldn't be in any of those places.
He sighed, thinking about calling Yuki and sensei, but he knew that Tohru would want to come out too, and in this weather, she could get a cold and then Kyo would kill him.
Having nothing better to do, he wandered around aimlessly, knowing that soon he would be just as lost as Kisa. But he had no better tactic to approaching this, and being lost for a few days would be worth it if Kisa was found.
The rain was coming down heavily now. He saw mothers beckoning children back into homes, he saw people hurrying to get done with the day's errands, before retiring back into their warm apartments. He saw one couple, oblivious to the rain, retreating into the privacy of a park.
The thought pained him, of other couples in love when his own lover had brutally broken it off with him. All he had to do was close his eyes, and he could see her there, cut and bruised. He had tried to ask her how she had gotten this way, but then she had spoken the words that had made him forget all about her condition.
And now, after so many sleepless nights, he was able to see past her words and remember what she looked like, and felt the question renewing itself. How could she have gotten so battered? None of the sicknesses she had would cause that…had she gone through a giant blender or what?
A part of him wanted to run over to her house in the Sohma compound and talk to her, but the rational part of his mind told him she'd just argue and throw things at him.
"Haru?"
"Hmm?" he asked, looking around and seeing no one.
"Haru!"
"Oh, hey, Hiro," Haru said, turning to see the short boy.
"Are you looking for Kisa too?" asked Hiro.
"Yeah. Seen anything?"
"No. Talked to her mother yet?"
"No."
"So, she could be found right now, and we wouldn't know it."
"Yeah…"
They both looked at each other.
"I'll go find a pay phone."
"Good idea."
Haru gave Hiro some loose change, and waited outside the phone booth while Hiro dialed the number, messed up, and had to start over. Twice. Haru was tapping his foot in a mood that was on the verge of Black, when the call got through.
"Hey, Yori-san…Yeah, did you guys find Kisa yet? No? Oh, well, Haru and I were just checking…All right…yeah, we'll call if we find her…see you later…"
"Nothing?"
"Yeah."
"All right, see you later, kid."
"But--"
"We'll cover more ground this way. Easier to find her."
"Yeah…"
"Worried?" Haru asked.
"What would make you say that?" Hiro demanded.
"The way you keep fidgeting might have tipped me off, or the way you kind of deflated like a balloon after you heard they haven't found her yet."
Hiro made a sound, and looked away, fists clenched. Haru waited for the inevitable verbal swords to come out, or the fists to turn into punches, but Hiro did neither, and simply walked away.
"Surprising kid," Haru muttered, before going off in the opposite direction.
It wasn't too long after that, that he found Kisa, in tiger form, sitting in a planter that the city council put out to make the city look more "natural".
"Found you," he said, picking her up. Ignoring her bites and scratches, he tried to remember where he came back from.
"Damn," he said, realizing he had no idea how to get back.
He paused for a moment and thought. He'd given his only pocket money to Hiro to pay for the phone call, and he had forgotten his cell phone in his coat pocket. He had no idea what part of the city he was in, and Kisa, who may or may not know, wasn't going to tell him anything.
Having no better thought than to wander about and hope he saw a sign, Haru resigned himself to the inevitable and hoped Kisa thoroughly enjoyed getting soaked, because it would be a long time before she saw anything but rain.