Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ No Regrets ❯ Opportunity ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: This piece of work is not to be sold in any from. There's no authorization by Takaya Natsuki or Hana to Yume Comics. It's only for personal reading.

Author's note: This is the second chapter of my fic. Sorry it took me so long. If you want to read the first chapter go to ff.net. Thanks to CarlaVII for beta-reading!!!! You were very helpful!

Rating: PG 13 (varying according to chapter)

No Regrets

II. Opportunity

Yuki lay awake for a very long time that night. Now that his melancholy had vanished into thin air, other, even worse worries were bothering him. He was concerned about Tohru and their young love. What would happen if Akito found out about them? Akito was so obscure and his reactions unpredictable. Yuki`s thoughts turned towards Hatori.

Hatori's love had ended more than tragically. Hatori had been really happy with Kana. You could even see it in his actions and expressions. Kana had been so good for him. The two had been a perfect couple. But Akito hadn't allowed them to be happy. Now Hatori was sad most of the time, he rarely smiled. Of course that was understandable. He had lost everything that had to do with his love. Kana would never remember the time they had spent together. Although she still knew Hatori, she didn't know that they had been in love. Hatori had to be very, very lonely.

But still Yuki couldn't understand him. All of that was Akito's fault. Why hadn't Hatori defended himself? Why hadn't he protected their love? Hatori had caved in and wasn't even angry about losing his eyesight. He blamed himself instead of the real culprit.

No. Hatori's way wasn't his. Yuki clenched his fists. He would defend his happiness. Akito had mistreated him enough. No one would take Tohru away from him. Now that they finally found each other, no one would tear them apart. Although Akito was the head of the clan he wasn't all-mighty. There would be a way to get around him.

But would rejection and destruction of Yuki's happiness really be Akito's reaction? Maybe he would act in a totally different way. Tohru was living with them, after all, she knew about the curse and Akito hadn't done anything about it.

Yuki was desperate. Akito's character was so incomprehensible and his actions were impulsive. It was even possible that he would accept Yuki's relationship with Tohru.

What should he do now? On the one hand, there was the possibility that Akito would react like he did with Hatori. On the other hand he might not do anything at all.

It would be best if they would keep their relationship a secret. This way they would /shun/(avoid) a confrontation with the head of the clan.

Yuki didn't like the idea of misleading Shigure and Kyou at all. But he couldn't risk it. Shigure would tell Akito at once, and Kyou would probably give it away by accident.

But if Akito found out afterwards that Yuki and Tohru had had a relationship going on behind his back, he would probably be even angrier than if they had told him right away. That would lead to an even worse reaction. Maybe that wasn't the best way after all.

Frustrated about the tricky position he was in, he punched his pillow. But all his brooding was leading nowhere and it was getting late. How could he find peace when his thoughts were just turning in circles so he couldn't find a solution?

He leaned back and thought harder, trying to calm down at the same time.

What would Tohru do if she were in his shoes? She would proceed cautiously. Don't think about it too much. Maybe that was the right answer. Time would bring a solution. Was that the right way? It probably wasn't the best way to solve the problem but he couldn't think of anything better.

He decided to wait and see. Wait and see what time would bring. Certainly they would find an acceptable solution someday. But for now they should keep their secret and wait until they had a better way out.

Tomorrow he would talk about it with Tohru. She would understand. Maybe she even had an idea about how to go on.

Relieved, he pushed his worries aside and thought about the past afternoon and his first kiss with Tohru. Slowly, sleep embraced him and carried him away.

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He had dreamed about her all night. About her eyes, her lips, her body which he had been able to hold in his arms for a short while.

He didn't want to get up; he wanted to stay in bed and just dream about her all day long. The opportunities to be alone with her wouldn't be numerous. Hopefully he would be able to keep himself from touching her all the time.

The smell of fresh tea and breakfast was wandering through the house. A loud groan from his stomach made him understand it was time to get up. So he got dressed and went down into the kitchen.

His heart jumped when he saw her again. Tohru, who was his now. She was standing at the stove with her back turned to him, her head slightly bent down. The nape of her neck was very tempting, and Yuki felt the urge to kiss it. But Baka-neko could come down the stairs any moment so he resisted.

"Ohayoo, Honda-san!" he greeted her with a loudly. She turned around at the sound of his voice and gave him a beaming smile. He listened closely for a second. Kyou wasn't on his way yet. He stepped closer to Tohru and bent down to her: "Good morning, Tohru-san, my love." he whispered in her ear.

She giggled. His breath tickled her. "A good morning to you, too, Yuki-kun." She said softly.

Yuki took a step back before somebody could come through the door. How much he wanted to kiss her little mouth right now!

He remembered the decision made last night. "Tohru, I need to talk to you. It's important."

She looked at him, astonished. "What is it about?"

"About us and …"

Loud steps rumbling down the stairs made him become silent. "Later."

The door was pushed aside harshly. "Ohayoo! Is the food ready?"

Yuki couldn't stop wondering why such a gentle and soft being like a cat was embodied by his cousin Kyou.

"Don't be so loud! It's still early and you'll get your meal soon enough, Baka-neko!"

The hair on Kyou's neck stood up; he hissed. He would probably start to attack Yuki any moment.

"Breakfast is ready!" Tohru's soft voice announced. "Would you set the table, please, Kyou-kun?"

Kyou sent Yuki a dirty look and started doing as he was told.

"Ah, the smell of homemade cooking! Originally I had intended to sleep a little longer but the smell is just irresistible! That's one of the big advantages if you have a woman in the house!" Shigure entered the room. " Ohayoo, everybody!"

He knelt down at the table and got a head start at his breakfast.

"Itadakimasu!"

The others followed his example. Everything went as normal, apart from the fact that Yuki glowed inside. He didn't stop himself from throwing a glance at Tohru from time. When their eyes met she was embarrassed and quickly turned her gaze downwards into her bowl. It was so cute to see how fast she blushed. His heart glowed even more with love.

"Yuki-kun, are you getting a cold? Your face is so red!" Shigure was concerned.

"Erm, what? No, no, it's nothing. I'm fine! That's just the hot tea." Yuki tried to calm himself down. He was sure his face just turned an even deeper shade of red.

"Are you sure? You know that a cold can be very dangerous. Maybe you should stay home today." Shigure insistently pushed the issue.

"No, no, I'm really feeling fine! Honestly!" Yuki prayed Shigure would let go of the subject now.

"If you say so. Anyway, work is calling. Mit-chan wants to have three new chapters by tomorrow. Gochisoosama!" he got up and slid open the door. "If I finish earlier than I thought, I'll go see Hatori at the Honke. Could get late then. Have fun at school!" With these words he closed the door.

"We should get ready for school," said Yuki when the footsteps edged off.

"Hai!" Tohru got up and started to clear the table.

"Let me help you!" Yuki gathered a few plates and went into the kitchen where he placed them in the sink.

Kyou left the room as fast as he could. He didn't want to have anything to do with housework.

Yuki couldn't believe his luck! They were alone! Although it was for only a few minutes, he wanted to savor them. Their conversation could wait. Time was too short now anyway. He took the pile of dishes Tohru was carrying in her arms. He put them down and turned towards her. His hands took hers. A huge swarm of butterflies had found a new home in his stomach. Now he could finally do what he hadn't dared to earlier: tenderly he kissed her neck.

"Yuki-kun… don't! What if Kyou returns to the kitchen right now?" she shooed him away.

"He won't. If he did, there would be the chance that he had to help doing the dishes!"

He couldn't help himself. Her skin was so silky and warm. Her smell took his breath away. He couldn't stop kissing her softly. She giggled and let it happen. His lips touched her skin as tenderly as the brush of a butterfly's wing. She smelled slightly like flower, which almost made him lose his senses.

She enjoyed his kissed with her eyes closed.

A door slammed shut upstairs.

That brought both of them back to their senses.

"Yuki-kun, we have to hurry! We'll be late for school!" she carefully pushed him away. But he bent down fast and stole a kiss from her lips. Then he let her go.

"Aaaaahhh, we haven't even started doing the dishes yet! Oh no! And there's still more stuff on the table! Now we really have to get going!" Tohru slightly panicked.

Like a hurricane she did the housework she had totally forgotten about earlier.

Yuki watched her, amused. He'd better not try and help her. His attempts to lend her a hand had always ended with her having to do even more work. Either she had to sweep (up) broken dishes or she had to dress his wounds. So he just observed.

"Hey, we have to leave!" Kyou called from the hall.

"Ittekimasu!" The three of them left the house and went down the /way/(path?) through the forest to their school.

***************************************************

"Your waves are totally different today."

Tohru, Uotani and Hanajima were standing in a corner of their classroom.

"Eeehhhhh?" Tohru didn't quite understand what Hana-chan was talking about.

"The frequencies I receive from you and Yuki are different than normal. Especially, Yuki`s are not so distanced anymore. Did something happen?"

"Why?" Tohru still didn't really understand what this was all about.

"Why? That's what I'm asking you!" Hanajima was impatient.

"Tell us about it!" Uotani urged her. "Did you confess your love to him?"

"Eeehhhhh? What…? How…? Since when…? Where from…? Why…?" Tohru babbled, unable to put her surprise into words. Probably she had turned a deep red.

"Hey, did you think we hadn't noticed? We're your friends! We knew for a long time that you had fallen for him. We just didn't tell you because we didn't want to embarrass you. But now tell us what happened!" Uotani was nosy.

"Erm, yes, erm, well, yesterday…" Tohru explained what had happened the previous day.

When she had finished her friends looked at her, happily.

"That's really a wonderful happy ending!"

"Uo-chan, that was only the beginning! Even I don't know how this will develop. Everything is so new to me! I don't know what to do!"

"Tohru-chan, just be yourself. Tohru should do things Tohru's way. Then everything will be just fine." Hanajima calmed her down.

"Thank you, the both of you!" She was happy to have such kind friends although they sometimes seemed to know more than she did.

The rest of the day at school she spent doing really important things: watching Yuki. She couldn't concentrate on the lessons at all. And sometimes it seemed like he was watching her, too.

***************************************************

"Shall we walk home together?"

What a question! Of course she wanted to walk home with Yuki! And if Kyou didn't come they would even be able to hold hands!

"Hai! That would be very nice!" Tohru was looking forward to the touch of his hand.

"Oi! You don't mind if I join?" Kyou came from the other side of the room to meet them.

"No, why should we?" Tohru smiled and hoped he wouldn't notice her disappointment. Well, maybe next time.

On their way home Kyou walked between Tohru and Yuki. And as always Kyou moaned about the girls in their class who surrounded him in great numbers. He had already gained a lot of common sense but he still wasn't really used to interacting with other people.

The rest of the day Tohru was occupied by her homework and chores. Kyou and Yuki minded their own businesses; Shigure obviously had finished his chapters early and had disappeared.

When she sat down in front of the TV in the evening she was exhausted. Yuki and Kyou were having a lively discussion about the upcoming sports meeting at school. Kyou was overjoyed that he was given another chance to match with Yuki.

"I'll beat you this time! I'll finally do it! This will be the victory over the damn mouse!" Kyous voice was getting louder.

"Hai, hai! As you say. Could you, please, shut up now? I want to watch this movie!" Yuki tried to silence him and turned towards the TV.

"I'll do my very best to finally be better than you. I'll win!"

Tohru sighed. It was always the same. Every time Kyou tried to battle with Yuki he lost. But he didn't want to accept that so he tried again and again.

She tried to concentrate on the movie but Yuki's presence was making her nervous. She wanted to be near him again, wanted to touch and be touched. How long would it be until they were alone again? She was looking forward to that and told herself not to be sad about the fact that the occasions would be rare. At least she could see him everyday and talk to him although that wasn't under four eyes.

She sat back, her eyes staring at the TV, but her thoughts were with Yuki who was sitting so close to her but yet unreachable.

A slight touch on her hand made her jump up. What was that? Startled, she turned and found she was looking into Yuki's warm eyes. He smiled and nodded in Kyou`s direction. The cat was lying on the floor, fast asleep. Yuki giggled. "He was so thrilled by the thought he could be victorious against me that he finally fell asleep."

As if in agreement, a short snore escaped the cat's mouth. Tohru started giggling, too. When Kyou was asleep he looked like an angel. Kawaii!

She turned her eyes back on Yuki. He looked seriously at her: "I have been waiting the whole day long for an opportunity to be alone with you! Finally! I have something very important to talk about with you. It's about us and our future. I thought a long time last night about how we should act when the others are around. I don't know how Akito will think about our love and I really don't want us to end like Hatori and Kana. No way! I'm really afraid of Akito and I don't want him to tear us apart. So I came to the conclusion that we should keep our love a secret. That way we'll be able to get around a confrontation for some time. It's really sad that we can't live in freedom although we're so far from the Honke. But Shigure will probably tell Akito if he finds out that we're together. Maybe time will bring a better conclusion."

For some time Tohru thought about what Yuki just said. Maybe it really was the best thing to do right now. She remembered what Hanajima had told her.

"Yes, I think it's good like that. We should take small steps. Time will show /how/(what) the next step will look like."

"Thank you for your understanding, Tohru-san. I love you." Yuki looked at her, thankfully

"I love you, too, Yuki-kun!"

Tohru felt a warm glow inside her body again.

His face drew closer to hers slowly. Full of anticipation she came to meet him. Soon their lips would meet! Tohru closed her eyes.

She felt his lips on hers. She couldn't hold back the sigh that was building up in her throat. Yes, she had been waiting for this the whole day long. She opened her mouth and welcomed his tongue. Her whole body shivered when their tongues met. He faintly tasted like strawberries. She loved strawberries.

Yuki drew her closer. Their tongues danced, hooked up, played with each other. She never would have thought that this could be so wonderful. Tingles were crawling over her body. She tilted her head back a little away from him and let her tongue follow lightly around the contours of his lips. A sigh escaped Yuki's mouth. She let the tip meet his just to draw it back again. She drew her tongue around his mouth, and his followed. She played with him, he played with her. Their lips met again. The pressure on her lips increased, became more demanding. He drew her even closer towards him. His hand lay on her back, light as a feather, moving slowly upward. He drew his breath in faster, his hand had almost reached her breast. Oh, no, that was too early! That was a little too fast for her.

Gently she pushed Yuki back: "No."

"You're right. That's too fast." Had he read her thoughts? She was happy that he was so understanding. But she blushed when he looked at her anyway. It had been very exciting for her to kiss him again.

"Yuki-kun, I love you!" She smiled at him, still breathless from their kiss.

"I love you, too!" Yuki answered.

"It's late already. I should go to bed now. Good night!" Tohru got up and was already on her way to the door when she had an idea. She turned around and went back to Yuki. Quickly she bent down and this time it was her stealing a kiss from Yuki's lips.

She smiled silently at the surprised expression on his face and went back to the door. " Good night, Yuki-kun!"

Next: First Steps

Does Shigure have no common sense at all? How can he leave three teenagers alone in the house for a whole weekend? Three? No, in fact there are only two of them. Kyou intended to stay at the dojo. And what now?