Hey guys! I'm back! Wow, that took forever. I've been so busy with finishing up my senior year of high school and starting my first semester in college that I haven't relly had much time for my stories. :( But, I am trying to write a little bit every day, especially when I have a break from school. Thank you all so much for sticking with me, even though I'm a lazy bum. :)

On a somewhat random, but not all togther off topic note, I'm getting a bunny! :D Given that, can you guess who'll be making an appearance in this chapter?

Disclaimer- I do not now, nor will I ever, own Fruits Basket. It is the brainchild of the very talented Natsuki Takaya. I do however, lay claim to all of my original characters and plot lines.

The Art of Teaching

Chapter 11

The kettle whistled and Kumiko finished preparing the hot chocolate for the kids when they came home. She set the tray down and joined Shigure at the table, with the kotatsu warming her legs. The snow had been falling steadily that day, and although it had stopped for the time being, the grey clouds above still hung threateningly over them. The girl shivered and pulled her sweater closer around her.

"It sure got cold fast this year," Shigure remarked.

"No kidding. I hope Tohru and the boys don't get too cold on their way home," the girl worried. The novelist smiled fondly.

"Ah, Miko, you are too precious." She snorted.

"When did you start calling me Miko anyway?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Just recently. I heard Aaya say it and it just sounded so nice that I decided to use it," he explained. "Is that alright with you?" She blinked.

"Oh, yeah, it's fine. It's just that not many people outside my family call me that." Shigure just kept grinning.

They turned their attention back to the television, with Shigure asking for the occasional tip on his crossword. All of a sudden, there was a loud commotion from outside

"That will be them," Kumiko predicted, remaining perfectly calm. The man across from her nodded in agreement.

"Shut up, you little punk!" Kyo shouted from outside.

"Why don't you come over here and make me, scaredy cat?" a voice taunted. The pianist's brows furrowed in confusion. Either Yuki's voice had undergone an immense change, or this was someone completely new. She turned to her friend for an answer.

"That's not—"

"Yuki? No. No it's not."

The young woman jumped to her feet and ran to the front door. She hurriedly slipped on her rain boots and ran outside without even putting on a coat. In the front yard, she discovered that the usual group of three had now grown to five.

Standing beside Tohru was a little boy with blonde hair and light brown eyes. At first, Kumiko almost mistook him for a girl. Somehow he had gotten away with wearing the girl's uniform, with a pair of blue shorts in place of a skirt and a pair of over-the-knee socks to keep him warm. Although his manner of dress was rather odd, she couldn't see how he could have been the one causing the ruckus.

No, the source of Kyo's irritation was apparently a boy who was facing him in a fighting stance. He was wearing the standard school uniform, but there was no way he was in dress code. Aside from the many piercings in his ears and the necklaces he wore, his hair was impossibly white. Or at least, the top half of his hair was white. His hair line, however, was black as coal.

"Come at me already!" the boy with the black and white hair hollered.

Kyo wasted no time following the command. He punched the boy's cheek, who quickly responded with a blow to the stomach. There were so many kicks and punches being thrown that Kumiko suddenly felt as if she was watching a sparring match on television. It all happened so fast that she didn't have a chance to try and prevent the fight from happening.

"Hey!" she called, running up to the teenagers. "Stop!" Yuki's eyes widened when he saw her rushing toward them.

"Miss Hishida, don't!" he exclaimed, hurrying over to her and putting his thin hands on her shoulders to stop her. "Once they get started, it's almost impossible to stop them. It's best just to let them fight it out."

She frowned. Just let them fight it out? Something about that seemed morally amiss to her.

"But—"

"Just trust me," he insisted, looking at her with pleading violet eyes. She looked at him and sighed.

"Sorry, Yuki, I just can't do that," she apologized, freeing herself from her student's grasp. She stooped down in the snow and quickly packed a tight snowball together with her ungloved hands.

"Hey!" she shouted at the battling adolescences before throwing the snowball at the closest boy, who just happened to be the boy with two-toned hair. He turned just in time to get hit in the face with the projectile. He scowled and wiped the snow from his face, looking for the offending party. His frown turned into a smirk as his eyes fell on Kumiko.

"Heh, well who have we here?" he asked, sauntering up to her. She crossed her arms and stood her ground, staring directly into the boy's harsh grey eyes. "She's pretty cute."

Kumiko ignored him and stepped up to him boldly. "Look buddy," she said, poking him in the chest with an accusing finger, "I don't know who you think you are, but you can't just go around starting fights with people." Much to her annoyance, he grinned again and turned back to Kyo.

"What's this Kyo? You need a girl to fight your battles for you?" he shouted across the yard. "You're even more pathetic than I thought!"

"Don't try to pull that with me! She stuck her nose where it doesn't belong and you know it!" the red-head exploded indignantly. The girl in question scowled. This boy was even more volatile and, from what she had heard during their scuffle, had an even more foul mouth than Kyo. Yuki could see the spark of anger in her emerald eyes.

"Miss Hishida, please," he begged.

The strange boy looked back to her, grin still in place. "So you must be the one everyone's been talking about. It's no wonder you got hired as Yuki's piano teacher with looks like those, Doll Face," he sneered. She scowled angrily and with hardly a thought, Kumiko slapped her hand across his face as hard as she could. His eyes went wide and he stumbled backwards a few steps, falling to the snowy ground in surprise.

"That is enough!" she shrieked. "How dare you insult me like that? You have gone entirely too far!" Without any warning at all, he passed out, right then and there. The rest of the group, excluding Tohru, of course, looked a little relieved that he had. She looked around, puzzled. "I didn't mean to hit him that hard!" she defended.

Yuki shook his head and sighed. "No, it's not your fault. This would've happened sooner or later." Before Kumiko could ask what he meant, the little blonde boy came bouncing up to her, a big smile plastered on his face.

"Güten täg!" he greeted her happily, grabbing her by the hands and practically dragging her back into the house. "I'm Momiji Sohma," he said as she took off her shoes in the entry way.

"Oh, you're another Sohma?" she inquired, distracted from the earlier situation. "Nice to meet you," she said with a bow.

"Nice to meet you too! Your name's Kimiko, right?" he asked eagerly.

"Kumiko," she corrected. He looked distraught at his mistake.

"Oh no! I got it wrong? I'm sorry. Can we still be friends?"

"Of course we can," she reassured him with a smile, which he returned with great enthusiasm.

"Excuse us, Miss Hishida," Yuki said from behind her. She looked behind her and saw that Yuki and Kyo had a hold of the unconscious boy's forearms and ankles, respectively, and were carrying him like a very large sack of potatoes into the house. She jumped out of their way and followed Momiji into the living room with Tohru trailing behind her.

"So, Miko, did you save the day?" Shigure asked as they entered the room, where he calmly continued his cross-word.

"Not exactly," she answered sheepishly. Yuki and Kyo dropped the boy uncaringly to the floor. Shigure smiled at her knowingly and she began to pour the hot chocolate she had prepared earlier. Momiji planted himself in between Tohru and Kumiko as they all took a seat around the table. He was so small that he fit comfortably in his chosen spot.

"We should've left the idiot out there to freeze if you ask me," Kyo muttered. Yuki hummed in general agreement.

"So, what happened?" the novelist inquired.

"Black Haru," Yuki said with simplicity and disgust. The oldest member of the group nodded his head in understanding.

"I thought so."

Kumiko looked at all the faces around the table, all holding a look of comprehension.

"Black who?" she questioned. Yuki brought his gaze to her face.

"It's a bit of a long story. The boy you met is our cousin, Hatsuharu Sohma," he began. "Normally, he's quite calm. But, he's never been good at expressing his feelings, so he developed a sort of second personality that comes out whenever he gets angry. We call it Black Haru, to put it simply."

"That's about the long and the short of it," Shigure confirmed. The boy revealed as Hatsuharu stirred in the corner. He sat up and glanced around the room, perplexed.

"What happened?" he asked in a much softer and quieter voice than he had used before. Everyone felt a drop of sweat roll down their heads.

"What happened? You—! Aw, forget it!" Kyo huffed and turned his face away from his cousin. Hatsuharu joined them at the table and guessed what he had done.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," he said sincerely to Kumiko. "You must be Kumiko. I'm Hatsuharu, Haru for short." He gave her a small, polite bow of his head and she returned it.

"Hello," she replied dumbly. She was shocked at the difference between Black Haru and what she guessed to be White Haru. His mannerisms, his voice and even his eyes had changed. They no longer held the sharp steeliness they had before. It was replaced by a softness that made him look gentle and stoic. Her moment of thought was interrupted by Momiji.

"Wow, this is so good!" he exclaimed in awe, taking another drink of his hot chocolate.

"I'm glad you like it," the young woman told him happily. "So, did you guys come all the way here just to meet me?" she asked jokingly.

"We sure did!" Momiji told her. "Tohru and Yuki always talk about how nice you are."

"Really?" Kumiko was flattered.

"Uh-huh. And I can already tell it's true. Nobody who's mean can make hot chocolate this good!"

"You idiot. How does that make any sense at all?" Kyo scoffed.

"It makes perfect sense Kyo. You just would understand it," the blonde said matter-of-factly.

"You little brat!" the older boy barked angrily.

"Kyo, settle down please," the pianist requested politely, sipping her drink. He grumbled unhappily, but obliged. "So," she said, carrying on their earlier conversation, "how old are you two?"

"We're both fifteen," Haru replied. She nearly choked on her drink.

"You're kidding! You're the same age?"

"You saw Momiji's uniform, right?" Shigure asked. She turned to him.

"Well, yeah. But I just figured he had skipped a few grades or something," she said. The novelist gave a hearty laugh. "Well it made more sense than him being fifteen! No offense Momiji."

"None taken." The little boy grinned up at her. "Hey, Kumiko, can you really play the piano?" he questioned suddenly. The young woman nodded. "Wow, how cool!"

"Thanks," she replied.

"Can I hear you play sometime? Can I?" he pressed.

"Sure. I don't see why not."

"Yay!" he exclaimed happily, throwing his arms around her suddenly. There was a puff of smoke and a loud bang. When the smoke cleared, Kumiko found herself holding a blonde rabbit in her arms instead of a blonde little boy.

"Moron!" Kyo hollered, grabbing the rabbit by the scuff of the neck. Kumiko was too shocked to stop him. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Well, she already knows about the curse, so it doesn't matter if I transform in front of her!" the rabbit explained.

"Yes it does!" he countered.

"You really should be more careful Momiji," Shigure chimed. "Kumiko still isn't used to seeing us transform."

"I don't think that's the type of thing you can get used to," Yuki added.

Kumiko snapped out of her daze and took Momiji from Kyo's grasp. Kyo growled something unintelligible and sat back down, crossing his arms over his chest. The young woman ignored him and kept her attention on the little rabbit in her arms.

"Shigure's right, you know. You should be careful," she said gently.

"I'm sorry," he apologized genuinely. "I was just so happy."

The young woman laughed and pet the fur on the top of his head.

"It's alright."

"Great now everyone's happy, so will you two brats go home already?" Kyo asked irritably.

"They can't go home now. It's too cold out," Tohru observed worriedly. He scowled down at her.

"So? Why should I care?"

"Oh, well…I mean, I don't want them to get sick…" she stammered.

"So what?" the red-head exclaimed. The girl cringed a bit.

"Why don't we call Hatori?" Kumiko suggested. "I'm sure he'd take them home, right?"

Shigure nodded. "That seems to be the only solution," he agreed. "Why don't you call him Miko? I'm sure he'd respond to you better than me." She paused, feeling uncertain about the novelist's idea. "His number is next to the phone in my office," he continued before she could protest.

"Guess I don't have much of a choice," she conceded, getting to her feet with Momiji still in her arms. She stooped to pick up the small boy's clothes. "I'll set you down in the bathroom so you can change back and get dressed, okay?"

"Okay," the rabbit replied as Kumiko headed to the other room. After setting him down in the bathroom, she went into Shigure's office. She plopped down in his chair and surveyed his messy work area.

There were pieces of discarded paper that never quite made it to the trashcan scattered about the floor. On his desk were several stacks of typed pages that Kumiko assumed were part of his latest manuscript. A pencil cup had tipped over at some point, spilling at least ten pens across the desktop. The place was an absolute mess. Finding Hatori's phone number was not going to be easy.

After about fifteen minutes of sorting through discarded sticky notes, snack wrappers and notebooks, Kumiko managed to find Shigure's address book. She flipped through it and found Hatori's number. Just as she was about to pick up the phone, a sudden thought hit her like a freight train: she was calling Hatori. She swallowed nervously.

Oh no… What if he thinks I'm just using this as an excuse to talk to him? Maybe I should tell Shigure that I couldn't find the number, she thought, plotting her escape from the now dreaded phone call. No, then he'll just think I have a crush on him or something, which I don't!

This internal struggle went on for a few minutes, until Kumiko had finally had enough. "This is ridiculous!" she admonished herself. "What am I, twelve? I'll just pick the phone and call him." She went for the phone again. Once again, she hesitated with her hand hovering over the receiver. The girl closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and picked up the phone. She quickly dialed the number before she could have a chance to chicken out and listened anxiously to the ringing on the other end of the line.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

"Hello?" Hatori said, his weariness evident in his voice.

"Hi. Uh, Hatori? It's Kumiko," she replied, swallowing her nerves.

"Miss Hishida?" He sounded surprised. "Is there something you need?"

She grinned. "Well, you could say that. It seems Little Bunny Foo Foo has hopped straight though the forest and ended up at our house." There was a silence on the other end of the line.

"I beg your pardon?"

She smirked to herself, internally laughing at both her own joke and Hatori's failure to understand it. "There's some blonde kid here who turns into a rabbit. Know anyone like that?"

He heaved an exasperated sigh. "Momiji."

Kumiko laughed. "Yup! Haru is here too."

He took a deep breath. "Give me twenty minutes."

Oh, the frustrations of Ha'ri. :P

Happy belated Thanksgiving to you all, even those of you who don't live in the U.S. I grateful for your kind reviews and favorites, and most importantly, YOU! :D

-Camie