Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Lost ❯ One-Shot

Author's Notes: A friend asked for a moment where Hatori shows some feeling. I'm not sure I accomplished that, but hey. A small 'what if' kind of fic.

Her death was quick, the coroners said. They said that she would have died before she was even able to feel any pain, it had been such a quick, sudden impact to the car. It was meant to be comforting. But it was anything but. There was nothing comforting to be said, nothing that would make it any easier for him.

Kana was dead, and Hatori did not know what to do.

She was not his. She had not been his for a long time, but it did make the pain of her sudden, abrupt death any easier for him. Though he knew it was better for her to leave him, to leave the curse of the Souma family, he had not ever realized that it would have been better for him as well to forget her and everything they had shared. He had never stopped to love her, even when she knew nothing of him, and had married another man.

The rain falling on her grave almost seemed to be mocking him. Or perhaps more like it was reflecting his own dark, tormented thoughts.

He had come alone. Eyebrows would have been raised amongst the funeral guests if he were to attend, and so he had come after the commemoration, to see for his own eyes. He had told no one where he was going. Akito would have forbidden it, and Ayame would have demanded to come along. And as much as he cherished his friend, he did not think he could be forced to tolerate with Ayame's misplaced cheer and smiles at a time like this.

But he knew he was not completely alone. Of course he could not have slipped away without going completely unnoticed. There was one man who seemed to know where he was at all times. He stood his distance, far away from the cemetery, a black umbrella shielding his face, but Hatori knew he was there. He knew Shigure had come.

He lowered himself upon a knee, lowering the flowers he held in his arms to her grave. There was nothing more he could do but give her a small tribute. He had cleared her memory, forced her to lose all memories she had ever had of him, but he hoped that wherever she was, she knew who he was. He hoped she remembered him and appreciated the single gesture.

He turned and slowly began to walk away. The rain continued to pour down him, coming down in thick sheets instead of the dizzily bursts it had been when it began. In the distance, there was the sound of thunder and a bolt of lightning cracked through the dark, gloomy sky. It always rained when he least wanted it to.

The umbrella tilted back as he approached. Hatori looked at him, and Shigure looked back and said nothing. There was nothing he could say, nothing at all he could do. There were no words for what Hatori felt, and Shigure did not think himself capable of understanding, or even pretending that he could.

Kana was dead, and Shigure did not know what to do.

"You're a doctor, Ha-san," he said slowly, interjecting into the silence between them. He smiled gently. "You should know better than to walk in the rain without a coat and umbrella."

He stepped closer to his friend, tilting the umbrella to protect both of them. Hatori glanced up at him, and Shigure saw that it was not rain that streaked his face, but tears.

"She's dead."

"... I know."

He knew. He knew, and he understood, but there was nothing he could do.