Disclaimer: You think I own any of this? (dies laughing)
Note, 1: This is one of my first attempts at writing the Fruits Basket characters. Please forgive me if anyone seems too out of character. Advice is always appreciated; just don't be mean or uppity about it.
Note, 2: I don't like curse words. Nor am I certain that my parents would allow me to type them. Therefore, all swearwords will be written as follows: -CENSORED-. The strongest words I'll ever type out in this fic are: dang, shoot, and crud.
Verisimilitude
Thirteen: Last Day
Yuki stared after his cousin, having no will to run after him. Yes, he knew that was a terrible thing, but at the moment he couldn't help it. The violet-eyed boy sat down on a grassy patch just outside of the schoolyard. Honda-san… could be gone forever? He held back a sniffle and set his backpack down at his side.
A small bird hopped over to him, chirruping quietly. Yuki reached over to pat the bird's soft head, but the creature flew off. For some reason, this made Yuki go from tragically miserable to incurably miserable. Everyone was leaving him lately.
Why? Why couldn't anybody ever stick around? Was he truly that horrible? Perhaps Akito was right. After all, his mother hated him, his brother couldn't stand the sight of him, Honda-san may have been dead—somehow that must have been his fault, too—and Kyo had just run off. Yuki drew his legs up and hugged them to his chest, staring watery-eyed at the ground.
The bird looked down from his perch on the tree branch. That person looked very sad… maybe he shouldn't have left. So the incredibly sympathetic bird flitted back down, perching on Yuki's schoolbag. It twitted again, informing the boy of his new company.
Warily this time, Yuki extended one arm and tremulously used one finger to stroke the bird's feathers.
A car stopped in front of the school building. Yuki truly couldn't care less about this, however, as he tried to focus his mind solely on his new feathered friend. Light footsteps trotted across the sidewalk, coming to a halt a foot away from Yuki.
Having no choice left but to look up, Yuki did so.
A few moments later, the bird was still sitting on Yuki's backpack.
It looked around.
It was alone.
-
Kyo ran and ran, legs silently screaming in protest as he rocketed across yet another street. He had to find somewhere to rest. Somewhere to think. Somewhere safe.
Then why didn't you just go back to the apartment? Kyo asked himself.
Because my idiot cousins are so noisy that I wouldn't be able to get half a second of peace!
Now that he'd finally begun to think again, Kyo wondered what had happened to Honda-san. What kind of accident was it that had (possibly) killed or (certainly) injured her?
Car accident? He'd run over the driver.
Animal attack? He'd sue the owner to death.
Something fell on her? He'd drop the perpetrator off a cliff.
She fell into a hole of some kind? He'd drop Japan off a cliff for putting such a hole in Honda-san's path!
The orange-top panted exhaustedly, slowing down as he suddenly realized that he didn't recognize this neighborhood at all. He glanced around; only one other person was currently in eyeshot. And that person looked like a perverted weirdo. Not in the Shigure-like way, either. This person was—walking up to him!
Okay, dude, Kyo thought at the stranger. Either you're leavin' or I am… and it doesn't look like you're leaving.
Quickly mustering up the last of his energy, Kyo darted off again.
-
At about seven o' clock that evening, Tohru was beginning to worry. Where was her mom? Maybe the Sohmas were just being a huger handful than usual. No, Mom would have called… she really would've! Something was wrong.
Tohru was so caught up in her near-panicked state that she jumped halfway out of her skin when someone knocked at the door of her mom's and her apartment.
Mom! She must've forgotten her keys!
The onigiri swooshed to the door and, not thinking twice in her sudden joy, pulled the knob.
"Oh!" she exclaimed when she realized that it was not her mother standing in the hallway, but a black-haired young man. "Um… hai?"
"You are Tohru Honda?" the sullen twenty-something asked. He looked oddly familiar… perhaps she'd seen him once or twice at the supermarket?
"Eh? Oh, yes!"
"I am Hatori Sohma. I'm afraid I have some bad news regarding your mother."
Tohru's wide eyes widened even further.
Hatori glanced at the ground briefly, a small sign of just how little he was enjoying this, before stating, "She was in a car accident."
She gasped, mentally shrieking "MOM!", while whispering, "Is she… okay?"
Hatori put a hand on her shoulder. "She said to tell you not to cry too much, before she… I'm sorry…"
As he'd expected, Tohru promptly burst into tears, burying her face in her hands. If it hadn't been for his—shall we call it?—situation, Hatori would've given her a small, comforting hug.
Things being as they were, however, he patted her shoulder lightly and guided her into the apartment, gently pushing her down to sit on the well-worn but still-soft couch.
"Do you have any relatives you can stay with?" Hatori asked.
Tohru was too busy crying to reply. With a barely suppressed sigh, Hatori used one hand to carefully massage the back of her neck.
"Well," Hatori continued, mostly to himself as he was the only one listening, "you can't stay here alone. I… guess I'll be sleeping on the sofa for a while…"