Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Selfish ❯ Instinct ( Chapter 7 )

Instinct

 

Chapter Seven

 

She hadn't been very good company at breakfast, of that Tohru was certain. After walking Momiji downstairs, Yuki had led her to the cafeteria to get breakfast. The experience had been slightly overwhelming for the onigiri to handle, used to doing most of the cooking and cleaning for herself through high school. Being the one served, it hadn't felt right for some reason, it was something uncomfortable and awkward. 'I guess I'll have to get used to that...'

 

Balancing the items she held in her hand, Tohru fumbled with the keys to her dorm room before finally getting the key in the lock. Hana and Uo had joined them for breakfast soon after Yuki and her had gotten settled at a table. 'It had been nice,' Tohru thought, pushing the door open as she scanned the room for sign of her roommate. 'It's just...something felt wrong, like something was missing.' Sitting down and eating with Yuki and her friends, it had felt like she'd done it hundreds of times before. It was comfortable, the company had been great...just...thinking of Kyou's refusal to come down to breakfast had distracted her. She couldn't help feeling that what was missing, was him.

 

Looking around the room, Tohru felt her heart sink a little as she realized he'd left again. A slight frown sliding over her face, Tohru couldn't help but wonder what had happened to cause such a dramatic change in his mood in such a short time. Right before leaving for breakfast he'd been...well... happy. She'd started to see a little of the kindness he had below his exterior and she'd been really looking forward to getting to know him. When he'd refused to come down for breakfast, it had devastated her.

 

Looking at the apple and biscuit she'd brought with her to give to him, it wasn't much but it was better than skipping breakfast like he had. Tohru suddenly decided to go search for the missing neko. 'I still can't believe he's the cat from the zodiac. No wonder he got acted so strange when I told him the story about how much I loved the cat from the fable...it's him.' Locking the door behind her, Tohru headed toward the stairwell as she thought about where she should look for her missing roommate.

 

Still debating on where to look first, she'd gone up a half a flight of stairs before she realized something was telling her to go to the roof. Going on instinct alone, she continued the trek up the seven flights before arriving on the final landing with the exit door. Biting her lip, Tohru stared at the heavy door as she contemplated going outside or returning to her room and waiting for him to come home.

 

'Why here? Why did I need to come here?' Taking a deep breath, Tohru grabbed the doorknob and turned. Needing all of her weight to open the heavy door, it made it difficult to balance the items she'd brought with her. In her struggle, she almost lost the apple but quickly maneuvered and saved it by trapping it against her stomach with her arm. "I didn't even realize I'd stopped breathing..." Tohru sighed in relief, staring at the fruit nestled within the crook of her elbow as her heart raced in her chest. "To get so worked up about an apple."

 

Taking a few steps away from the building, the steel door quickly slammed shut behind her, the noise reverberating across the roof of the building. For the second time in mere seconds, Tohru found herself having to catch her breath as she forced her heart to calm from it's racing. "Th...This isn't something to get so upset about," she chastised herself, finally taking a moment to look around the roof.

 

Kyou wasn't anywhere in sight. She wasn't sure why that surprised her, since she wasn't sure why she'd expected him to be here in the first place. Deciding to check the entire roof, she slowly walked around the building to make sure she just happened to have missed him. Without a sign of the missing neko, Tohru had begun to get slightly discouraged until she'd spotted the ladder on the stairwell building. Cuddling the food against her with her arm, she managed to struggle her way to the top without any complications.

 

On the ground, facing the opposite direction sat Kyou Sohma, knees tucked up under his chin as he wrapped his arms around his legs. If he noticed her presence, he hadn't given any indication of it as she walked toward him. Reaching his side, Tohru sat down as he continued to ignore her. "We...um...missed you at breakfast," she commented, holding her offerings out toward him. A scarlet blush crept over her cheeks as she noticed the condition of the biscuit, embarrassed to offer him something that looked so unappetizing. "I...I'm sorry it's so...um...it's a little smashed. It was in good condition when I had gotten back to the room...I guess it didn't like the trip up the ladder."

 

"That's okay, I'm not hungry anyway."

 

"Oh...um..." Tohru bit her lip, embarrassed as she slowly lowered her hand with the biscuit to her lap. "I...I just thought since you didn't eat breakfast, you might be hungry. My mom always said that breakfast is the most important meal because it gives you energy for the rest of the day."

 

The neko heaved a sigh, before sticking his hand out to her. Grinning, Tohru handed him the apple, happy that he'd decided to eat. Switching it over to his other hand, Kyou shoved the hand he'd taken the apple with out toward her again. "Ah...you don't have to eat the biscuit if you don't want to. I'm sure we can find you something else since this is..."

 

"Just give me the stupid biscuit; it's just a little smushed. It's not like it's ruined or anything," he growled harshly.

 

"Ah! Okay!" she replied, almost dropping it in her hurry to give it to him. “You don't have to eat it though. Really…”

 

Kyou shrugged, taking the small piece from her proffered hand. “It's not a big deal; you didn't drop it on the ground or step on it or anything.” He placed the apple on his lap, before picking at the crumbs of the biscuit that sat in his hand. Kyou looked up at her from beneath the fringe of his bangs, a sprinkling of a blush covering his cheeks as he watched her a moment. “It's fine…really…thanks.”

 

“No! It was nothing, really! I just...I don't like thinking of you all alone and hungry like that,” Tohru said, her own face heating slightly in response. Her embarrassment always loosened her tongue just enough to get her babbling, today was no different. “I just…you must think I am a stalker or something. I just…I've always loved the cat from the fable but I didn't know it was you when I told you that and all. I probably sounded pretty stupid, but that's not why I came up here. I just…it's that…if you think I should get my memories erased, that's okay. I just…I don't have anywhere else to go and I haven't even gotten a chance to get to know you yet. I'd like to get to know you…I don't want to lose that…but if you have to get my memories erased, I understand.”

"Stop babbling, I'm not getting your memories erased," he growled, instantly shutting her up. "As long as you don't tell anyone I don't see the problem, it's just...we don't want others finding out."

"I can understand that," Tohru said, relief rushing over her as she clasped her hands together on her lap in happiness. "It's a really big secret and I'm honored that you are willing to let me keep it. I promise I won't tell a soul! Honest!"

He didn't say answer her, just picked at the biscuit in his hand as he stared off in the distance. Tohru didn't quite understand her new roommate, but more than anything she wanted to learn about him. Drawn to the moody redhead, Tohru felt there was something more to the neko then she'd been able to see yet. There was a part of her that longed to unearth those mysteries, no matter what they contained.

"How the hell did you find me, anyway?"

Flinching, Tohru looked around the rooftop as she tried to remember the reasons she'd come up here. "I...I don't really know," she answered, biting her lip as she looked up at him. "I just...something just told me you would be up here." Tohru flushed, looking down at her hands resting on her lap. "That probably sounds silly, doesn't it?"

He didn't answer.

 

Tohru sighed; getting him to open up was turning out to be more difficult than she'd thought it would be. She refused to give up though, if they would be living together for even a few days, she wanted to get to know him. "Kyou-kun?" He still didn't answer, but turned toward her to show he was at least listening. "Um...do you...I just wondered where you had come from last night. It looked like you had been exercising."

 

"I've been here for a week already, since I had to be here for martial arts. I'm on scholarship." 

 

'That's...that's...it's so exciting!'  She hadn't ever been friends with someone athletic before. If he was on scholarship for it..."You must be really good to be on the team like that!" Tohru happily cried, clasping her hands in front of her as she leaned toward him. "Earning a scholarship for something like that is really not an easy thing to do. I mean, I have a scholarship too...but it's not for anything as admirable as that. Do you have matches and things you have to go to? Were you at practice last night, is that why you weren't around when I was moving in?" 

 

Tohru suddenly realized she had invaded the neko's personal space, to a degree where he had to lean away from her. "I...I'm sorry," she said quietly, wilting away from him as the flush quickly spread through her cheeks. "I...I just really think that's something special."

 

"T-that's okay," he managed to choke out, quickly looking away from her. "I'm not that good. I've only beaten that damned Yuki once in our lives, even though I've trained more and everything. I don't even remember beating him. That's just my luck to finally beat him and not even remember." 

 

Confused, Tohru wasn't sure how one couldn't remember winning something—especially when it was something of obvious importance to the person. Not wanting to pry into something that might upset him, she focused more on what interested her at the moment. "When is your first meet? I've never seen a match before! It sounds so exciting!"

 

Kyou looked back at her, the tiniest smile covering his face as he shook his head in surprise. "You don't have to come; you'd probably find them boring. It's just a bunch of kids kicking each others asses."

 

"I'd like to see Kyou-kun fight. It's something you obviously really care about." 

 

"You're weird," he said, taking a bite of the apple as he turned away. Tohru grinned; she hadn't missed the genuine smile he'd given her first and thought that maybe she'd made her first real breakthrough with her roommate. `Things should be much easier now. It just takes a little more to get Kyou-kun to open up.'

 

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

 

He hadn't expected things to be this difficult, his Shihan was really intense in his training and Kyou had worried several times in the past couple of days if he'd transform from overexertion. He loved it though, every practice found him improving his techniques more and more. Kyou hadn't worked this hard since Shishou had forced him into the mountains. The intense training was helping him deal with the sudden appearance of Tohru in his life, giving him something to focus on besides her.

 

`Yeah…right…Shihan thinks your head's in the clouds half the time.' Opening the stairwell door, Kyou entered the hallway to head to their room. Even during practice, he was having trouble concentrating on what he needed to accomplish because he was thinking about her. Letting himself into the room, Kyou groaned at the sight in front of him.

 

“Kyou-kun! Welcome home!”

 

“Kyon!”

 

“Don't any of you have class today?” he growled, tossing his bag in the corner by his closet as he removed his shoes. Moving to his dresser, Kyou pulled out a clean tee-shirt, boxers and a pair of jeans to wear after his shower before turning to the trio sitting on the floor.

 

“It's only the first day,” Saki replied, dropping a card on the discard pile. “My psychology professor gave us the syllabi and excused us until the next meeting.”

 

“Hurry and shower, Kyon,” Arisa said, pulling two cards from the deck before finding one to discard. “We still need one more to play Dai Hin Min. We've been playing Seven's for about an hour now.”

 

“Who said I wanted to play?” he replied, making his way over to the bathroom. “I'm starved and have an Accounting class in an hour. I need to eat.”

 

“Food? Hmm…I think Sohma Kyou has the right idea.”

 

“I think you are always hungry, Hana-chan,” Tohru giggled, looking up from her cards to give Kyou a bright smile. “I'm a little hungry too. Is it okay if we come down with you, Kyou-kun?”

 

“Whatever, not like I can stop you or anything. I'll be ready in just a couple minutes,” he added, closing the door behind him.

 

Kyou rubbed his fist across his forehead, he was getting used to having her around. Three days after their conversation on the roof, things had strangely settled into a comfortable routine for the two of them. Even having Yuki around seemed almost 'normal' for some reason, though they hadn't seen too much of him. He stopped by long enough to say hello before leaving again. Kyou did his best to ignore him at those moments, but seeing the budding friendship between Tohru and the nezumi...brought out a side of him he hated. 

 

He knew the damned rat had a girlfriend, but for some reason seeing Yuki around Tohru made him bitter about what had happened in the past. 'I should be past this point...it was so long ago and so stupid to fight about. Still...I can't help feeling like he's gonna come in and snatch her away again...'   Turning on the water, Kyou jumped in to take a quick shower. It was a stupid thing to think about, really. It was him that was around her constantly, him that couldn't stop thinking about her, him that wanted to be around her all the time. "I can do this," he growled, scrubbing the shampoo in his hair in frustration. "It's only been a couple days and she's someone I always wondered about so I'm bound to be a little weird about this. She'll annoy me and I won't feel like this anymore, it shouldn't take too long. She does and says a lot of things that usually annoy me."

 

Except, they never annoyed him when she was the one doing them. 

 

Quickly rinsing his hair, Kyou shut the water off and climbed out as he grabbed his towel. Getting dressed and ready in record time, he opened the door to find himself alone in the room with Tohru. She quickly got to her feet from where she sat on her bed, her face breaking out into a smile that always seemed to light up their sparsely decorated room at the sight of him. “Hana-chan and Uo-chan headed down to the cafeteria already, they said they would save us a couple of seats.”
 

Her grin was infectious and Kyou couldn't help giving her a small smile in return as she grabbed her keys off her desk and headed toward him. "How did Kyou-kun's practice go today?"

 

Kyou shrugged, pulling the door open as she reached him. "It went okay. Shihan thinks I'm ready for tomorrow, so that's good." Tohru looked over her shoulder as she exited the room, showing him she was paying attention to what he was saying. 'It's not that interesting. Girls hate stuff like this, why does she always ask me about it?' 

 

"Tomorrow! Already?" Tohru panicked, fidgeting with her hands as Kyou shut the door behind them. Kyou couldn't help the small grin that slipped over his face as he watched her, she looked so cute when she got all flustered.

 

"I told you, you don't have to go. There'll be other matches and you'd probably find it boring anyway."

 

"No! No! I just didn't realize it had come up so quickly is all!" Tohru assured, calming down with each step they took. Opening the door to the stairwell, Kyou let her through before heading down toward the cafeteria. "Um...just do your best and I'll be there cheering you on! Ah! Sorry Kyou-kun!" Turning around, Tohru had paused in her descend to literally cheer him on and Kyou hadn't realized it until she'd called his name. Quickly jogging down the stairs, hand held out to reach for him, Kyou grabbed it when it was within reach and continued the journey down.

 

"You need to pay attention to what's going around you," he chastised, reaching the landing and opening the door to let them out of the stairwell.

 

"I'm s-sorry," she answered, giving him a sheepish grin. "I'm just so excited to see Kyou-kun in his match! I bet you're really good at it, living with your Shishou for so long! Oh! Hana-chan said she'd go with me! That way I don't have to sit alone in the stands!"

 

"What?!" Kyou yelled, turning to look at her in disbelief as he pulled open the cafeteria door. "She can't go! All she's gonna do is sit and harass Shishou the whole night! No! This sucks!"

 

"Hana-chan knows your Shishou?" Tohru said excitedly. "He'll be there? I can meet your Shishou? Oh! That's so exciting Kyou-kun!"

 

Dread flowed through Kyou, Shishou would love to meet Tohru and he didn't doubt that he'd turn down that opportunity. `Son of a...this isn't good…' It was bad enough having Hana there, but having Shishou meet Tohru, he wasn't sure if he was ready for that.

 

"There they are!" Tohru said happily, heading over to the table her friends had staked out for them. "We found you!"

 

Arisa and Saki both gave big smiles at the sight of Tohru, before looking between the new pair with confusion. "Is there something you need to tell us?" Hanajima said softly.

 

"Kyon! Why the hell are you holding Tohru's hand?"

 

'Holding her...' Kyou looked down at his hand in confusion and saw that sure enough their hands were tightly clasped together. Eyes widening in shock, Kyou dropped her hand as if it was on fire as Tohru gave a stunned "Eh? I d-don't k-know how that happened!"

 

Kyou could feel his cheeks burning with embarrassment as he turned and stormed away from them, grabbing a tray to get food. 'How long...how didn't I even know? What is going on? How didn't I realize...' Grabbing a glass from the holder, Kyou filled it with water and quickly drained it in line before refilling it. 'I was holding her hand and didn't even notice! How could I not have noticed?'

 

"I'm sorry, Kyou-kun." Kyou jumped at the voice as Tohru snuck up next to him, almost spilling his water onto the tray. "I must have grabbed your hand in the stairwell and not realized it. I...I've never done that before. I'm really sorry."

 

"It's not your fault," he growled, knowing exactly why he hadn't noticed something that normally would catch his attention like that.

 

It was comforting.

 

It felt familiar.

 

He hadn't wanted to let go.

 

Kyou knew he was damned, because he didn't know how he was supposed to stop it from happening again if he didn't realize he'd done it in the first place.

 

I do not own Fruits Basket or the characters affiliated with the Manga and Anime. They are the property of Natsuki Takaya…I am just `borrowing' them for my own nefarious deeds. I own nothing, suing me won't help anyone.

Sari-15