Title: Claustrophobia

Summary: Yuki and Tohru get stuck in the school's new elevator, and Tohru discovers a fear of Yuki's and seeks to comfort him.

Genre: Romance/ Friendship

Rating: K+

Word Count: 2,117

At Kaibara high school, a new addition was causing quite a stir. This week, the newly installed elevator had opened for student use, and since the first morning, lines of students waiting to use the elevator extended across the school nearly from the start to end of the school day, leaving the multiple stairways completely empty and void of people, even though this caused most students to arrive late to class. As all new things relentlessly used, however, the elevator was bound to break. While Yuki and Tohru usually took the stairs to the second floor, today, they had arrived at school later than usual because Yuki had refused to get up, so they wound up in the elevator, which had no line surprisingly, possibly because class started in a minute, furiously pressing the button with a number two printed on it.

Nervously, they both glanced down at their watches as the doors slid close, and the elevator lurched. Flailing her arms as she lost her balance, Tohru let out a small cry as she began to fall, but before she could even come close to hitting the ground, Yuki caught her easily, albeit a tad awkwardly with his arms fully extended to prevent an accidental transformation. A second after her cheeks began to turn a bright red and she choked out a thank you, he set her upright abruptly and seemed to turn away. Facing the corner of the elevator, Tohru self-consciously straightened her skirt as she tried to make her blush fade, but as soon as the scarlet color seeped away, the school bell made her pale as the rest of the color in her face seemed to vanish, and if she could get any paler, she did when she realized the elevator wasn't moving.

Turning to Yuki with her mouth agape, she stuttered, "We're not moving, Yuki-kun!"

"Huh?"

He turned around with alarmed eyes. Stepping towards the elevator doors, he pressed every possible button ten times each before banging his fist against the door. Then noticing the bright red button to his right, he focused all of his energy on pressing that to call for help. Tohru could have sworn he pressed it about a hundred times in a minute. Worriedly watching him, Tohru momentarily forgot to panic about being stuck in an elevator. She had never seen Yuki act like this in the two years that she had known him. He always seemed to maintain an air of nonchalance regardless of what happened, but at the moment, he appeared to be struggling to keep his calm more than she did

"Yuki-kun, are you okay?" she asked nervously, concern evident in her quivering voice.

Yuki froze with his finger still extended towards the button and slowly turned back around to face her, but he kept his eyes towards the ground. He took several deep breaths to calm himself, but she guessed they didn't help because he started to tremble. He seemed to be trying to steady his shaking by leaning against the metal walls of the elevator when he dared to raise his eyes toward her. His lips were lowered in a deep frown and his eyes held what she could only identify as utter fear, an emotion she hadn't seen tormenting him since their encounter with Akito. Alarmed, Tohru took a step forward and reached towards him, but she couldn't get another word out before he spoke.

"I'm f-fine, Honda-san, but I'm afraid that we'll be here for a while," he breathed quietly.

Tohru tried to approach him again, but he appeared to be trying to avoid her, despite the cramped area. He had backed into the little corner, and his breathing seemed to have quickened. With her eyebrows furrowing deeper by the second, Tohru tried to take his hand, but before even their fingertips could make contact, the dim light of the elevator flickered off. Screaming, she jumped and grasped both of Yuki's hands. When she landed, she heard two thuds, and then she noticed how tightly he was gripping her hands. She couldn't even blink before concern overtook her momentary terror. Somehow slipping one of her hands out of his, she placed her hand over his forehead, concerned by the sweat and the coolness she felt under her palm.

"Yuki-kun? Are you sure you're okay?" she queried in an alarmed voice.

"Sorry, Honda-san," he choked in a voice that she couldn't quite make out.

He released her hand, and when she reached her hand forward again, she could only grasp air until her fingers finally brushed against the cold metal wall of the elevator. Blindly, she inched forward, dragging her feet forward a few millimeters and waving her arms about until her left foot nudged something solid yet softer than the elevator walls. Carefully, she lowered herself into a crouching position, keeping her arms outstretched. Her fingers eventually brushed against tufts of soft hair. Sliding her hands down, she found that Yuki had dropped to the ground with his legs pulled up against his chest, his face buried between his knees, and his hands pressed firmly against his ears. He was shaking again. Worse than before. She could hear raspy breaths claw their way out of his throat. Her heart wrenched and her eyes burned as she tried to ease his tense hands from his face.

"T-This is… just like that room…" he confessed in a choked voice barely above a whisper.

Tohru blinked in incomprehension for a mere second before she noticed that the tremors rocking his body had increased. Gingerly and with tears breaking their way down her cheeks, Tohru finally managed to slip one hand off of his face. She wrapped her hand tightly around his before he could snatch his hand back, and she squeezed his fingers. Realization struck her, forcing floods of tears through and making her quiver with him. She drew nearer to nearer to him until she could no longer tell whether those were her tears or his, almost wrapping her arms around him instinctively, but she stiffened before her hands could leave his. She wished, she prayed, she begged for some deity or greater force to allow her to hug him for this one moment, and when none did, she decided to embrace her petrified friend regardless.

She could feel him pressed against her for only half a minute as her arms locked tightly around his back, but that was long enough for her to feel some tension drain from his body though he couldn't wrap his arms around her, let alone react to the embrace, before a cloud of smoke burst into the room and he shrunk and morphed into a small gray rat that Tohru somehow managed to catch in the dark with her limited reflexes before he hit the ground. She cradled him gently with both of her hands, staring into his shocked, practically glowing eyes, for a second before pressing him tightly against herself in a close hug.

With his furry face burrowed against the soft cotton of Tohru's school uniform top, Yuki could hardly breathe. Regardless, his current state slowly began to dawn on him. A blush, which probably didn't show due to the darkness and the thick fur covering his body, crept across his entire body as Tohru's arms pressed him closer to her chest, and he realized he couldn't even remember why he had been so scared before or even what terror felt like. He still recalled, luckily, that he needed to breathe to live, and as his mouth was buried so deep in the fabric of her outfit that he couldn't part his lips to speak, Yuki began to struggle in her arms, squirming and wiggling his limbs, though careful not to scratch her with his claws, in attempt to get her to loosen her grip. She instantly released him, drawing him back into the palm of her hands with a frantic look on her face that the beady nocturnal eyes of his rat form helped him make out let him know that she had misinterpreted the reason for his struggle.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to transform you without asking, but I just thought this way everything might not be as scary! I mean everything seems bigger and roomier now since you're so tiny, right?" Tohru squeaked apologetically, "I mean it's still dark, but don't worry! I-I can find my cell phone!"

She shifted him to rest in one palm while she used her other hand to rummage through her backpack for her phone. During her hasty search, Yuki bounced up and down on her hand and had to cling on to her pinky finger, the only finger he could wrap his paws around, to keep himself from flying off and crashing into one of the hard metal surfaces of the elevator.

"-da-san! Honda-san!" he called repeatedly until she finally froze and turned her gaze back towards him.

"I-I am fine now. Don't worry…" he trailed off, suddenly losing his articulateness.

She grinned so brightly and began rambling "Yes! Being this little does make the elevator seem roomier, doesn't it? Not that I would know how it feels to be a rat, but I am happy, Yuki-kun, that you aren't scared anymore!"

He didn't add that his rodent eyes also helped the room seem less dark because while she was right that he wasn't scared any longer, she had come to the wrong conclusion. The vanquishing of his fright had nothing to do with his smaller size or his new eyes but with the warmth and care he could feel radiating from her hands and arms, and though he couldn't be quite sure, maybe the love radiating from her eyes. He wondered if she could see the smile that soon overtook his face and that could have rivaled hers if rats could smile without appearing to bare their fangs in defense. Perhaps he preferred to leave her oblivious, since she just hugged him again, probably trying to erase the last remnants of fear she believed still lingered behind, but he knew the last speck of trepidation had long since dissipated the second her arms wrapped around his back.

Both too absorbed in holding onto each other, Tohru with both her hands covering Yuki's tiny body and pressing him against her and Yuki with his inch-long arms trying their best to embrace her, though really he could only stretch a little over a three-inch span, neither noticed the commotion outside, despite the frantic yells and poundings until two slabs of metal finally slid apart and a blinding ray of bright fluorescent light poured in through a thin two inch crack. Shocked, Tohru scrambled to her feet, covering the rat with both of her hands when a figure blocked the light for a moment, shrouding them in darkness for another second before the other figures outside pulled the doors fully open. Blinking and squinting, Tohru could almost make out the three people before her as two maintenance men and a firefighter.

"Are you all right, miss?" the firefighter asked.

"Um… Yes! I am fine!" Tohru squeaked nervously, noticing how all three of them were looking at the awkward position of her hands to cover Yuki.

"Was there anyone else in there with you?" the taller of the two maintenance men inquired with a puzzled expression, "I thought I heard two voices."

"N-NO!" Tohru accidently shouted before frantically adding, "Just me! No one else! I was all alone! Just talking to myself! And I am late for class! I better go! Thank you! Sorry for troubling you!"

The last of Tohru's exclamations were called over her shoulder as she scurried away, trying to keep Yuki hidden until she rounded the corner and was positive none of the men had bothered to follow her. Collapsing on a nearby bench, Tohru set Yuki down beside her before she began to suck in deep breaths, tired from her run and their close encounter with their saviors. Yuki crawled closer to her and climbed onto her knee, worriedly patting her with his paws and peering up at her, but before he could express his sentiments, Tohru suddenly stood, sending him flying across the hallway and rolling across the cold tiles until he finally crashed into the wall. Tohru didn't seem to notice as she dashed away, back towards where they came from, screaming something that sounded like an apology about leaving his uniform in the elevator, but he didn't have much time to consider her words. He suddenly transformed back, sprawled awkwardly in the middle of the hallway, completely nude, as the bell rang and classroom doors started to swing open.