Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ A Gift of Fruit ❯ Once Upon a Time ( Chapter 6 )

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Ooo Spoilers Chapter 121 and beyond of Manga ooO

 

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Sari_15

#69-Once Upon a Time

Word Count: 1,779

 

Part of him wanted to go straight home and beat the crap out of Yuki for sending him here, knowing full well the hospital was closed this time of night. Really, the only person he could blame was himself for not thinking about anything except getting to Tohru. Making up for the mistake he'd made earlier of not going to the hospital, of thinking too much about himself that he'd ended up hurting the person that mattered most. Part of him wanted to go home and beat the crap out of the nezumi for finally getting himself a sense of humor, but the bigger, louder and much more insistent part of him wanted in that hospital room to see Tohru.

 

Slowly, Kyou got to his feet trying to formulate a plan to break into the hospital. He'd been given all the information earlier that day after they'd admitted her, so he knew what her room number was at least. `316…Third floor…room sixteen…Damn it, if only I could figure out how the rooms were numbered.'

 

Making his way toward the front door, he looked through the glass, looking for signs of room numbers on the walls. Sure enough, as he'd suspected there was a panel on the wall indicating rooms 100-125 were located on the left side of the hospital and 126-150 were located on the right. `Okay, hopefully this means that even numbered rooms are in the front of the hospital…otherwise I'm screwed and gotta go all the way around to the back.'

 

Walking along the front of the hospital, he counted rooms as he passed them until he came to where he thought room sixteen might be located. Tipping his head back to look at the night sky, Kyou grinned at the large tree obstructing his vision. `Luckily, I am the cat…I can climb a tree no problem! Sure…I might be a little outta practice, but it shouldn't be hard. It hasn't been that long.'

 

Making his way to the trunk, Kyou tried to grip the bark as best he could to get himself to the first branch. It wasn't as easy as it had been when he'd leapt through Shigure's roof all those years ago, but with a little struggling, he'd made his way to the first limb. But by the time he'd reached it he was out of breath and had to stop and rest for a moment. `Damn, I feel old…I haven't changed that much in the last few years and I've kept up my training.'

 

Just by getting this far, he'd almost made it to the second floor but he also knew that from here on out getting to the third floor would be the easy part. Looking at the window on the second floor, he noticed it was a lot further away than he thought it would be from when he was on the ground. “Don't look down,” he said to himself, after doing so already. “I can do this…really…” Reaching up, he grabbed the limb directly above his head and lifted himself on it before reaching for the one above that.

 

A couple more branches and he was right outside his goal, if he'd predicted correctly Tohru's room was about a twelve-foot jump from the end of the branch he was standing on. Slowly he made his way to the end of the limb, knowing that attempting to make the leap would be stupid because it probably wasn't humanly possible. “Lucky for me, I'm not really human. I've had no problem landing a two story drop on my feet so if I miss this jump, no problem,” he sighed, reaching the end of the branch and judging the distance. “I can do this…I'm a cat, capable of leaping from building to building in a single bound!”

 

He looked down, judging the distance to the ground from where he was. “Damn it, maybe the kuso nezumi is right. I do want to be a superhero or something.” Taking a deep breath, Kyou looked at his goal, the window—Tohru. “Superhero or not, I can do this!” Bending his knees, he pushed off the balls of his feet and leapt for the window, grabbing the ledge with his fingers.

 

“Damn it,” he growled, slowly pulling himself up on the ledge, only to stare back in the face of Grandpa Honda when he looked in the window. He flinched, losing his balance for a moment as Grandpa opened the window.

 

“I thought that might be you,” he said, poking his head out. “I wondered if you would come.”

 

“Are you trying to kill me?” Kyou growled, leaning against the wall as close as he could get, trying to get his heart to stop racing. “Of course I'd come!”

 

Grandpa just smiled, “I think someone wondered what was taking you so long…”

 

“Yeah…I got that message I think,” he said, rubbing his sore cheek softly. “You gonna let me in or do I have to come back in the morning?”

 

“As long as you use the front door next time,” Grandpa said, backing away from the window to give Kyou room to come in.

 

“Yeah, I think I can handle that,” Kyou grumbled, looking down at the ground again and cringing at the distance.

 

“Dad? Are you talking to someone out there?”

 

“Yes, one of Kyoko's friends,” he answered as Kyou slid through the window and stood next to him.

 

“That's Tohru, Grandpa!”

 

Grandpa Honda just winked at Kyou, walking over to Tohru's bedside. “She's been sleeping for the past hour.”

 

“How did he get up here? We're on the third floor!”

 

Grandpa Honda just shrugged, “I guess we are.”

“Dad! That kid's a hoodlum!” Tohru's aunt cried, staring at Kyou in disgust. “He looks like he just came from a brawl!”

 

“I did,” Kyou replied, staring at Tohru amongst all the tubes and lines attached to her. “All out brawl…I actually blocked him too.”

 

Her lips turned up into a smile right before her eyes fluttered open. “Kyou?” Tohru whispered, her hand lifting toward his face. He intercepted it; carefully placing a kiss in the middle of the palm of her hand, far from the I.V.'s lining the other side. “You came…”

 

“I should have known living in a house full of men that she'd turn out just like her mother,” her uncle muttered. “Such a shameful sight, if she really is Katsuya's daughter, he's probably rolling in his grave.”

 

Still smiling at him, he noticed the slight falter as her lips trembled slightly at the words. Gently squeezing her hand, he turned around and faced her relatives with a menacing glare. “I don't care what people say about me, honestly, anything you could say would probably be tame compared to what I've heard about myself,” Kyou growled. “But I pity anyone who thinks that her father wouldn't be proud of the way she's grown, because that just proves you don't know a damned thing about her. What's really shameful is that the family of the girl I plan to marry doesn't even know what an amazing person she is, yet my own family that is so good at scorning and excluding others accepts and loves her as one of their own.”

 

“Eh?” An extremely tired voice managed to screech behind him.

 

“Really, the only people missing out are those who should care and love for her the most,” Kyou shrugged. “That's your loss. Katsuya would be prouder than anyone about who Tohru has become.”

 

“Who do you think you are?” Tohru's aunt yelled.

 

“He's Kyoko's friend. I knew I liked you, boy,” Grandpa said, smiling at Tohru's stunned expression.

 

“You don't have…I…Kyou...” Tohru managed to get out. “I don't…what…why? You've done so much for me already; you don't have to do anything else.”

 

He just grinned, pressing a finger over her mouth as he shook his head. “Don't get yourself all worked up, Yuki will be more than happy to have another go around if you make yourself worse because of me.”

 

“Why I've never been so insulted in my whole life!” her aunt huffed storming out of the hospital room, her husband and daughter close on her heels.

 

“I don't understand,” Tohru said, tears flowing down her cheeks as she stared at him. “I thought…but then…and after that you didn't come…”

 

Kyou sighed, wiping the tears from her eyes before taking both her hands in his, holding them softly. “Someone once told me that they were foolish because they couldn't find their answer. I didn't understand what she meant at the time, but she said that after getting lost a few more times, wasting more time, that I would find my own answer…

 

“I did get lost, like her my answer was in front of me the entire time and I couldn't see it,” Kyou sighed, squeezing her hands softly before continuing. “I got so lost, Tohru. I wanted to protect you. I wouldn't let myself believe that my answer was the place I wanted to be all along. I couldn't understand how that could be good for you, something I am worthy of. I still don't understand, but I am trying to accept it. If you choose me, I want to stay with you. I want to be together with you.”

 

“Kyoko-san wanted that too,” Grandpa added from the chair that he'd gone to sit in near the door. “No one could find you; they looked all over but couldn't find the boy with the red hair that ran away from the scene. I knew Kyoko's `Rascal' had come back when he came one day to take Tohru away.”

 

They both just stared at Grandpa Honda in surprise; he just smiled at them, slowly getting to his feet again. “You both would have made Katsuya proud,” Grandpa grinned, winking at Kyou. “Especially after stealing his proposal.”

 

Kyou blushed as Tohru looked at him in confusion. “Yeah…you got that huh?” Kyou said slowly, completely mortified at the situation.

 

“You are more than worthy, definitely added your own flair to it, but tell her the story,” Grandpa said, nodding to Tohru as he opened the door. “I don't think she's heard it, yet. I will go track down the rest of our shameful family.”

 

Smiling at each other as Grandpa closed the door behind him; Kyou couldn't help thinking that even though he might not be a superhero, a prince, or even her knight in shining armor. There was one thing he could do for Tohru, something he was determined to do, no matter what it took to get it for the two of them.

 

He'd make sure they got their `Happily Ever After'.