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Onig iri
A Fruits Basket fanfic by Sakura
Standard disclaimers apply.

Very very short.

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Tohru smiled at the small white mouse sitting beside her. "Are you hungry, Yuki-kun? You skipped lunch today."

The mouse only looked up at her and blinked. Tohru shook her head and sighed. Fishing out a riceball from her bag, she began unwrapping it. "You must never skip meals, Yuki-kun, you need the energy and all..." She then gently put it on the mouse's lap. "Here you go."

The mouse squeaked, throwing fat arms around the riceball to keep it in his embrace. The treat was too big for him, so much that he was almost pinned underneath it; Tohru giggled a little and propped a finger against his small back. "I'm sorry, I must've made them too big this time."

Squeak.

"It's umeboshi. You like umeboshi, don't you? I have two more here, if you want."

The mouse bit off a portion of the riceball, chewed thoughtfully, then squeaked again.

"I'm sorry Yuki-kun, but what did you say? I'm afraid I don't understand."

Squeak.

"Um...can you please say that again in Japanese?"

The mouse blinked and started climbing up the riceball.

"AAA!!" Tohru screamed and started waving her arms about madly. "Yuki-kun, t-that's dangerous! You shouldn't play with your food---"

"...Honda-san?"

"Although now you're playing on your food and that isn't very good either--"

"Honda-san." The sudden hand on her shoulder made Tohru look up. Her eyes widened. It was Yuki, watching her bemusedly.

"Yuki...kun...?"

They stared at each other for a moment, then looked down at the mouse, who had finally managed to climb on top of the riceball and was now busy nibbling at the seaweed cover.

Tohru instantly turned bright red. "I-I-I'm so sorry! I thought this mouse was you, it looked so much like you, so I gave it lunch---"

There was a beat, then the hand on Tohru's shoulder tightened. She froze, worried that she might have offended him, but when she finally mustered enough courage to look up, she was surprised to see that Yuki was laughing uncontrollably, eyes shining with tears of mirth. Her embarrassed smile widened into a grin, and soon she was laughing along with him.

Beside her, still perched on the riceball, the mouse sat up straight and watched them with bright dark eyes.

[O.Wa.Ri.]

Notes as of 2003.8.5:

To the one who suggested I change 'nice' to 'good', thank you very much. I decided to take your advice. ^_^v Unfortunately I couldn't name names because ff.net wouldn't let me view my reviews. Sorry about that.