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.

Twenty-Four: Progress

"Haru!"

Melting into a general freak-out session, Shigure dropped to his knees in front of the manhole and stuck his head down, trying to see into the sewer. Only a bit of the morning sunlight made it down the hole, creating a great difficulty in making out anything.

I'm certain that, those of you who aren't worried sick over the poor ox, are concerned about the dog and the fact that he is on his knees in the middle of a street. Well, we'll call him lucky, as this is a side street that only leads to a dead-end alley, thus making it the complete opposite of busy. This is why he has not been run over, and shame on you for not being worried sick about Haru!

Shigure used both hands to grab onto either side of the manhole and continued shouting.

"Haru! Oh, man, I shoulda grabbed you!"

"You bed you shoulda!"

A mixture of relief and surprise made the writer lose his grip on the edges of the hole. "Haru! You're alive! You're ali—AIIIEEEEEEEEEE!"

The canine has fallen.

BAM!

The canine has landed.

On the ungulate.

"Ow."

"Yeah, that hurt, but… you're alive! You're alive!"

"Yeah… bud you won' be if you don' get offa me."

Shigure jumped up. "Sorry! Boy, I'm so glad to see—well, I would be if I could see…"

"I think you broke by dose again," Haru commented, also standing.

"Hold the cloth to your nose," advised his cousin.

"Whad cloth? Ohhh, you must mean de one drenched in sewage."

"Oh… heh-heh… then I guess you shouldn't hold it to your nose."

"No kiddin'," Haru muttered, accidentally-on-purpose flinging the cloth away—right into Shigure's face.

"Ewwwww…"

"Sorry. Guess I shoulda grabbed it," Haru mocked, only slightly spiteful.

Peeling the scrap of offensive cloth off his face, Shigure decided, "I… might've deserved that."

"Dat and den some. Can we jus' get oudda 'ere now?"

"Sure." Shigure jumped a few times, trying to reach the edge of the manhole opening. It was obvious, though that the dog could never possibly reach his goal lest he sprouted wings, as the exit was just about half a dozen feet too high.

Haru, still understandably annoyed, leaned back against the wall of the sewer and decided not to inform his cousin that the ox just happened to be standing next to a series of metal rungs in the wall, which served as a ladder and would easily assist them in escaping.

After taking about fifteen minutes to continue being amused by Shigure's desperate antics, the boy finally grew bored of this activity and whistled. Shigure stopped and glanced in Haru's direction.

"What?"

"Why don' we jus' climb oud?"

"How?"

"I'm standin' next to a ladder."

"…And why didn't you tell me that before I started screaming and jumping around like the maniac I'm not?"

"'Cause I was still TO'd. An' you are a maniac, by de way."

The dog grumbled a bit about respect and elders, but trudged over to Haru, felt around a bit, and finally grabbed onto one of the rungs. He started climbing and almost made it out.

Almost.

BONG!

Someone put the cover on the manhole just as Shigure's head reached the top, bonking him on the head and making him fall again. Fortunately for Haru, though, the writer landed in the sewage, not on him.

"Before we were stuck in a dimly lit sewer. Now we're stuck in a pitch-black sewer. Thad's progress," commented Haru. "You okay?" … "You okay? Hello?"

Shigure still didn't reply.

"And now I'm stuck in a pitch-black sewer wid an unconscious nut," Haru summarized to himself. "Yup. Progress."