Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Kyo's Kitten Reika ❯ Mason and Missing ( Chapter 12 )

Reika followed happily beside Haru as he went to his homeroom to gather his things and go to his second period class.

 

Reika went with Hatsuharu to all of his classes, but her favorite was lunch.

 

“Haru.” Stated a boy with a long black ponytail.

 

“Reika, meet Mason.”

 

Reika bounded over to the teen and plopped herself down.

 

“You babysitting?”

 

“No, she's skipping class and so she's hanging out with me.”

 

Mason nodded his head. Reika stared at his hair, it was like Haru's only pure black, but she was sure it was dyed that color. He had four ear piercings in his right ear, and five in his left.

 

Reika ate her peanut butter and jelly sandwich in silence. Then, a group of girls with their hair in pigtails walked over to Reika and began to coo.

 

“She is sooo cute!”

 

“What's your name?”

 

“Do you want to sit with us?”

 

Reika looked up happily and remembered what Kyo and Haru had told her about these girls. “My name's Reika, what's yours? Dumb, Dumber, Blonde, and Stupid?”

 

The girls walked away in a huff and Mason and Haru smirked at her.

 

“I'm Mason.” Mason stated, “That was a great comeback, at least coming from a, what, six year old?”

 

Reika looked at his proudly, “Yep!”

 

After school Haru brought Reika to work with him at Hottopic.

 

“Haru, who's this?”

 

Reika looked at the guy behind the counter.

 

“Reika, I'm watching her.”

 

Haru walked to the back of the store and into the employee's only section.

 

“Hey Haru, Reika, what can I do for ya?” Asked Mason, one of Haru's school friends.

 

“What are you doing today?”

 

“Updating the web site, but I already finished that, so right now? I'm hoping you'll give me a reason not to work behind a register today.”

 

“Can you watch Reika for my shift?”

 

“No prob.” Mason put his hand through his black tresses and sighed.

 

Reika sat on a chair beside him and began to swing her legs. Mason rolled his eyes and looked at her.

 

“Reika, what are you doing with Haru?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Why are you here?” He asked as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Oh, my dad is working late tonight, so Haru told him that he'd watch me.” Reika sounded a tad disappointed.

 

Mason smirked, “What's wrong then?”

 

“I wanted to visit Shishou, but I can't for another three hours.”

 

“Who's Shishou?”

 

“He's a martial arts master, he even has his own dojo! He's my grandpa too, he's teaching me Tae Kwon Do, and I'm a white belt!”

 

“Really, I'm a second degree brown belt.”

 

“Wow! That's close to a black belt!”

 

Mason watched Reika's eyes pop open in awe.

 

“Yeah, I guess.”

 

Reika looked around the employee area and sighed. She brought out her coloring book and crayons and began to color a picture of Warren Peace from the movie Sky High.

 

Mason looked over the web site and decided to rework the site. Normally teens didn't get this job, but he had it and was doing his best.

 

When Reika was pleased with her picture, she tore it out of her coloring book and printed her name and the date as best as she could, then dumped the crayons and tossed her coloring book back into her backpack.

 

Mason saved his work and rebooted the web site, testing the links to make sure everything was working properly, and it was.

 

“What's black and white and red all over?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“What's black and white and red all over?”

 

“No clue.”

 

“A newspaper! What's black and white and red all over?”

 

“A newspaper?”

 

“No, a zebra with chickenpox. What's black and white and red all over?”

 

“I give up.”

 

“A skunk in a blender!” Mason looked at her weirdly.

 

“Haru taught me those yesterday.”

 

Mason nodded his head and sighed. Two hours had passed since Haru had left Reika in his care and he still had an hour and thirty minutes left with her.

 

“Why don't you take a nap?”

 

“'Cause,” she started fatter-o'-factly, “I'm too old for naps, I'm six.” Reika put up six fingers for an added emphasis.

 

Mason rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath.

 

Haru walked into the employee only room for his fifteen-minute break and sat in a chair by Mason.

 

“Today's crowd is hectic. How was Reika?

 

“Fine, too hyper for me though. She told me her grandpa was a Sensei.”

 

Rika took out her colored Warren Peace picture and handed it to Haru. He looked at it, smiled at her, and then put it in his jacket pocket.

 

“Haru, my shift is over. Do you want me to cover your shift so you can take off early?”

 

“Sure.”

 

Reika grabbed her backpack and followed Haru outside. After twenty minutes of walking, Haru got lost and Reika was getting tired. Luckily for them, Kyo's work was right across the street from where they were standing.

 

Haru casually walked across the street at the crosswalk with an exhausted Reika shuffling behind.

 

The restaurant was huge and looked expensive from the outside.

 

Reika burst through the double doors and ran straight into Kureno, Haru stood behind her after trying to catch up with her.

 

“Reika, how are you? Hatsuharu, aren't you supposed to be at work?” Kureno picked up Reika and placed her on his hip.

 

“Why don't you two sit in the Sohma area for now.” Kureno showed them to a special part of the restaurant and sat them down.

 

“Bye Mr. Kureno!”

 

Kureno walked over to Kyo. “We have two people in the Sohma area, I'd like you to take care of them.”

 

Kyo merely nodded and walked over to the Sohma half of the restaurant; he looked around and was shocked to find Reika and Haru sitting there.

 

“You got fired?” Kyo asked Haru with a grin on his face.

 

“Mason offered to finish my shift today.”

 

“The apartment is on the other side of town.”

 

“Haru got lost Kyo.”

 

Kyo snorted, 'figures.' He thought to himself.

 

“Do you want somethin'?”

 

Haru nodded and stated his order as Reika dug around in her backpack. She was looking at the bottom of the bag, and a few seconds later she had found what she was looking for.

Reika handed Kyo a plastic beaded multi-colored bracelet.

 

“I made it after lunch.”

 

“Good. I'll be right back guys.” Kyo walked out of the room and slipped the bracelet into his pocket.

 

After finishing three other tables, Kyo brought Haru his pasta and a plate of macaroni and cheese for Reika.

 

Reika looked at Kyo with wide eyes.

 

“You took off your bracelet.”

 

Kyo looked down at both of his wrists and noticed that his black and white bracelet was missing! Kyo looked into his pocket and right by the hand-made bracelet, was his missing one.

 

Disclaimer- Fruits Basket - Still not mine.