Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ The Cat that sings ❯ The search is on! Er, sorta... ( Chapter 3 )

Sohma Hatsuharu took a deep breath and attempted to slow the rapid beating of his heart as he approached Shigure's house. He was anxious, but determined. This was it, the morning where he'd gather up his courage and do what Yuki had been urging him to do for the last several months.

Today, he was going to confess his feelings for a certain redheaded cat. And given Kyo's temper when it came to surprises of that nature, Haru felt he had more than enough right to be nervous. After all, Kyo was a very extreme person by nature, and after his life with the Sohma family, he had a very negative view of most personal attachments. Finding out that Haru loved him was more than likely to result in a violent reaction.

Not surprising, Haru thought to himself, considering all the shit the family's put him through. All this stuff about the Cat being cursed and Akito making his life miserable because of his alternate form would have driven me insane, that's for sure.

Haru was different, though. He'd considered Kyo a close personal friend ever since they had trained together when they were five. Hells, he'd been half in love with him for just as long, though he hadn't recognized it as such at the time. And he was sure Kyo had felt the same, in his own shy way, until the ox had suddenly fallen head over heels for Yuki and started following him around so obviously. Thinking back on it, the bicolored teen knew he'd made a mistake by being so single-minded. His eyes had been so fixed on Yuki that he'd forgotten about the cat, and by the time the fascination with the mouse had faded enough to think straight again, Kyo had shut him out of an already harshly guarded heart.

So to bury the hurt from that silent rejection, Haru had continued to set his sights on Yuki, and later Rin. Both of which were disastrous in their own ways. Especially Rin. Yuki had just been endlessly annoyed with Haru, gently but firmly rebuffing his feelings. Rin had actually accepted, and gotten hurt by Akito for it. Neither were scenarios Haru cared to repeat.

And under all that, his affection for Kyo remained; so much a part of him that Haru hadn't even realized it until recently. It had resulted in several weeks of soul-searching and acting like a zombie in public, his mind often far too deep within his own heart to keep up with simple day-to-day occurrences. And he'd come up with some surprising answers.

Answers that he'd eventually shared with Yuki, in the hopes that the silver-haired boy would have some idea of what to do. For all that the mouse and cat fought like mad, nobody understood Kyo better than Yuki did on the primal level. Not that Yuki had any more insight into how to catch the redhead's interest than Haru himself did, but it was someone to talk to.

But all Yuki could suggest was to tell Kyo directly about his feelings, citing the cat's admiration for blunt honesty. At the time, Haru had been far too scared to consider it, and had just fallen back into the habitual following around of Yuki. Frustration over the whole mess had caused him to go Black in Kyo's presence more than once, though Haru had a sneaking suspicion it had less to do with anger and more to do with a subconscious wish to press himself against Kyo's sexy body.

Yuki had been at first amused, then tolerant, then annoyed, and had finally lost all patience two days ago. He'd delivered an ultimatum that if Haru did not tell Kyo of his feelings before the week was out, he would drug the gray-eyed boy and drag him to a tattoo parlor. Haru would then become the proud owner of a Hello Kitty tattoo, complete with little pink tutu.

Haru, who had an unreasoning fear of Hello Kitty, had capitulated instantly.

So now there he was, walking up the path to Shigure's house on a Saturday morning, trying his best to keep his nerve long enough to see this through. He checked his watch, finding it to be about ten, and sighed. He had purposely left the main house at what Momiji affectionately called `zap-squee' in the morning, because he knew that if he left it until later in the day, his courage would flee and the only way to get himself to go at that point would be by going Black.

Haru did not want to think about how a confession made while Black would progress. Especially since Kyo's knee-jerk reaction would be anger and rejection until he calmed down enough to think rationally. Could we say "Event Horizon"?

And Haru would have been at Shigure's even earlier, if he hadn't gotten lost. He glared absently at his watch for a few more moments, and then mentally kicked himself for stalling. Taking another deep breath, he walked the rest of the way to the door and knocked.

Tohru answered, her brown eyes sparkling as she smiled in welcome. "Ohayo, Haru-kun! What brings you here today?"

Haru couldn't help but smile at the good-natured girl. She just had this aura of comfort around her, and you couldn't help but be at ease when she was near. Even his nerves receded a little. "Ohayo. I was wondering if I could see Kyo? I need to talk with him about something."

Tohru nodded and let him in, leading him through the front room to the stairs. "Kyo-kun's not awake yet. He's sleeping in this morning, but he shouldn't mind being awakened too much if it's important."
Haru noticed Yuki sitting at the table in the other room, and the Look his older cousin gave him spoke many threats of sickeningly over-cute cartoon kitties. "Trust me, it's important," the ox assured her.

Tohru smiled again. "Okay. Wait here, and I'll go get him." she said, and Haru nodded, touched by her tactful allowance for his own abysmal sense of direction. He watched her vanish up the stairs, absently admiring the way her skirt showed off her slender legs.

Hey, he may have been in love with Kyo, but that didn't stop him from admiring where admiration was due! Though he had to admit, he found the thought of Kyo's legs to be much more attractive. He'd seen the cat in shorts before, and those legs had been strong and tanned, so slender and elegant in build, and so long as seeming to go on forever. And the skin had looked so soft, leading Haru to wonder how it would feel under his hands…

Tohru's quiet reappearance snapped him out of his reverie, and he glanced up at her as she walked down the stairs. Almost instantly, he knew something was wrong. Tohru was pale, her eyes shimmering with what had to be suppressed tears, and her expression was set in the way that meant she was doing her best not to show just how upset she was. In her hands she was clutching a piece of paper. Kyo was not with her.

"Tohru-san?" It seemed Yuki had noticed too, the silver-haired boy walking up from behind Haru to tentatively touch her shoulder. "What's the matter? Is something wrong with Kyo?"

Tohru's face crumpled, and Haru knew something bad had just happened. The girl couldn't seem to get her voice to work, so she just quietly handed over the piece of paper she had been holding to Yuki, who unfolded it and began to read. Curious, Haru leaned over his cousin's shoulder to see what it was.

His gray eyes widened in shock and disbelief. It was a letter to Tohru from Kyo, telling of an impossible bet with Akito, a horrible penalty for failure, and an apology for the cat's last recourse of action.

Kyo was gone, and he was never coming back.

To say that Akito was peeved at finding out that Kyo had run away was like saying that Mt. Vesuvius had sputtered a little bit during the Roman Era. He was so pissed off that he had a temper tantrum of epic proportions, and Hatori had thrown all sense of decorum to the winds and hidden in a closet until it was over, for fear of losing his other eye. By the time the Kami of the Sohma clan had calmed down enough to speak without frothing at the mouth, the room was in complete disarray and everything that could be broken, had been. And Akito stood in the center of it all, once more seemingly calm and dignified, and ordered in a tone that would not be disobeyed that Kyo was to be found and brought back immediately.

How the young clan head seethed inside, however! He hated that disgusting creature that dared to call itself a Sohma! Even more, he hated how it thought it could just shrug off his orders to run away! Akito would not tolerate such insolence!

Shigure saw it all in the half-mad gunmetal gray eyes, along with a certain homicidal glint that urged him to quickly agree and leave, taking Yuki, Tohru, Haru, and Momiji with him. He was very glad that Hiro and Kisa were away on a class trip right now.

Two days later, Shigure wished he hadn't been so quick to agree to search for Kyo.

"I don't see why I have to do this!" Shigure complained, pouting as he stood on the edge of the road just outside the city.

Yuki sighed and kept hold of his temper with no little effort. He was hot, tired, and getting a headache from the stress. Knowing that Shigure fared little better did not noticeably lessen his annoyance. "Because you're the one with the sharpest nose, Shigure. People saw Kyo leave the city in this direction, but now we're in an area where there just aren't that many people. We're going to have to go by scent trails, since Akito refuses to involve anyone outside the Sohma family."

"And that means we need a bloodhound!" Momiji caroled, the only one who looked even remotely cheerful.

"I'm not a bloodhound!" Shigure protested, "I'm a Labrador retriever!"

Lazy bastard, Yuki thought to himself. "A retriever, are you? Fine. Then do your job and retrieve Kyo!" he snarled.

"Oh, Yuki-kun is so grouchy today!" the dog whined.

"I get that way when forced out into the middle of nowhere to look for that damned cat." Yuki muttered, crossing his arms and looking away. Though to be painfully honest, the Sohma mouse was really of two minds about finding Kyo. While Yuki was afraid of Akito and what he would do if Kyo wasn't found, the silver-haired boy could understand why Kyo had run. All that time, all those fights, and it was just because he was trying to escape being locked up… But he had another reason for wanting to find Kyo. He looked over at Haru, noting the odd glazed quality to his eyes. The ox had been in a sort of daze ever since reading Kyo's letter, and Yuki knew he was hiding heartbreak. If nothing else, Kyo needed to be brought back to hear Haru out.

"Please, Shigure-san?" Tohru asked of the older Sohma, looking at him pleadingly with those large guileless brown eyes. "You're the only one who can do this!"

Shigure looked at her helplessly. How was he supposed to refuse something like that? He looked around pleadingly one last time, but found little in the way of help. Yuki was glaring at him, Momiji was beaming, and Haru was…well, Haru had been in an odd state of shock ever since Kyo had turned up missing. He sighed in defeat. "Hai, hai. Mind giving me a bit of help, Tohru-chan?"

Tohru smiled brightly. "Of course! I'll do my best!"

Shigure beamed back. "Wonderful!" With that, he glomped her, the sound of her startled squeak drowned out by the small explosion of colored smoke that always heralded a juunishi's transformation into its animal form. When the smoke cleared, a black dog sat, wagging his tail and looking far too pleased with himself. "Ahh, all is now right with my world…" Shigure sighed happily.

Yuki whacked him. "Baka inu," he muttered, then helped Tohru to stand.

Shigure just gave a bark of laughter before putting his nose to the ground and beginning to search for the scent of their missing cousin. He found it fairly quickly, and started to follow it, forgetting about the others as his attention fixed on the trail. In fact, he got so wrapped up in following it that he never noticed when it veered off the road and down the hill to a large field of long grass.

Momiji gazed out at the field and tilted his head. "Kyo-kun went off the road?"

"Hai," Shigure murmured distractedly as he entered the grass, the others not far behind. "He definitely went this way, and-EEEEEEUUUUGH!!!"

"Shigure-san! Daijobu ka?!" Tohru asked.

"Cow pasture!" the dog whined. "Oh, my poor sinuses…"

There was silence, broken only by Momiji's muffled giggles. Then Haru seemed to break out of his self-induced trance long enough to glance around and raise an eyebrow. "It seems Kyo wanted to hide his trail. I guess he figured that we'd try this."

"I'm kind of surprised," Tohru murmured, nibbling on her lower lip. "Kyo-kun's usually so finicky about being clean."

Yuki shrugged. "I guess he thought the risk of encountering cow dung was worth escaping Akito."

"Your animal really smells, Haru," Momiji said, still giggling over Shigure's misfortune.

Haru rolled his eyes. "I am an ox. Not a cow. Just because most consider them to be the same animal…"

"Sure. Just keep telling yourself that!"

"Doesn't anyone care about me?" Shigure whined. "Oh, my poor, poor nose…"

Yuki glared at his older cousin. "Suck it up, you stupid mutt. Can you still find Kyo's trail?"

Shigure whined, but nodded his doggy head.

"Good. Keep following it."

"You're such a slave-driver, Yuki," the dog complained, but forced himself to continue. It took a long while and much complaining and stepping in disgusting things better left unnamed, but the scent trail finally led them out of the field and down yet another hill into a forested area surrounding a small village.

"Finally, no more cow poop!" Shigure cried with relief. "Now we're back to grass and mud and-UUUUUUGH!!!"

The others didn't have to ask what the problem was, this time. They could all smell it. The forested area was a swamp, with all the odors it implied. Shigure whined again, but one Glare of Death from Yuki pushed him onward. They walked down the trail, Shigure cataloguing the scents he found, obviously trying to garner sympathy and reprieve.

"Mud…animal droppings…stagnant water…rotting plants…"

"Oh, shut up." Yuki muttered.

"Anou…has anyone seen Momiji-kun?" Tohru asked.

"Huh? Now where did he go…?"

"More animal droppings…garbage…dead squirrel…"

"I hope he's okay," Tohru sniffled, then grimaced and regretted breathing too deeply through her nose.

Haru patted her shoulder. "I'm sure he's fine. He can't have gone far."

"He's right, Honda-san. There just hasn't been enough time for Momiji to get himself into trouble." Yuki said, his tone reassuring.

"Demo…"

"More stagnant water…rotting fish…bog monster…"

The three teenagers turned to stare at the black dog. "Bog monster?" Yuki asked, his tone sarcastic.

Shigure looked up at him, tired and frazzled. "Well, what do you call that?"

"EEEAAARRRGGHH!!!" A hideous form suddenly rose from the muck, covered with mud and rotting vegetation. It shambled disgustingly towards them, extending what might have been arms.

"YIIIIEEEEE!!!"

"Run away!!!"

"I never knew you screamed like a girl, Yuki…"
"Shut up and run, Haru!"

"Guys, it's just meeeeee!" the bog monster wailed, then started laughing at the looks on their faces.

"MOMIJI!!!"

Two hours later, the five stumbled out of the swamp and into the little town beyond it, exhausted, spattered with mud, and completely without a trail to follow. It seemed that Kyo had decided to get rid of the scent trail by swimming straight through the swamp, which had most likely made him even more unrecognizable that Momiji currently was.

Shigure sighed, looking mournfully at the mud spattered on his kimono. He'd turned back into a human somewhere halfway through, and since he had already lost what little trail there had been, he'd been allowed to get dressed again. Still, it hadn't saved his clothes, and he really wanted a bath.

Tohru made one last attempt at finding Kyo, and walked up to a policeman standing on the corner while Yuki and Haru followed close behind.

"Excuse me," she said, "But have you seen a young man of about our age? He's got bright orange hair and was probably carrying a small travel pack."

The policeman shrugged. "Which twenty?"

Tohru blinked. "What?"

"Which twenty? Look around, Miss. This town's a popular destination for tourists from outside the country."

Tohru's eyes widened, and she looked more closely at the people walking down the streets. Sure enough, most of them were gaijin, and several were redheads.

"He'd have been covered in swamp muck, rather like our little friend over there." Haru said, pointing a thumb at Momiji, who grinned unrepentantly.

The policeman sighed. "Which eight? A lot of the tourists seem to think it's their sworn duty to wander into the swamp while they're here. Then they come back out covered in mud and grinning like maniacs before heading to the bathhouse down the street. I swear, Americans are insane."

"Bathhouse?! Did I hear the word `bathhouse'?!" Shigure suddenly squealed.

Yuki sighed, trying to ignore his headache. "Not as insane as some Japanese…" he muttered.

"Looks like Kyo-kun's made a clean getaway." Tohru sighed.

"I don't think cleanliness had anything to do with it, Tohru-san." Haru replied. "Come on. We're all muddy, and Momiji's starting to smell."

When Akito learned that Kyo had managed to get away, his resulting fit was so fierce that Hatori gave up on the closet and just took everyone out of the main house for several hours. Shigure didn't mind, since it meant he had someone to complain to about how his sinuses hurt so much that he couldn't smell anything anymore.