Warmth". And after "Like Strawberries" of course.
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Show, Don't Tell.
A Fruits Basket Ficlet from Oddzilla Productions.
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"Honda-san? What's wrong?"
Tohru looked over to the living room table, where Yuki was sitting and
watching her with some worry. Of course he'd be worried--she'd just
scuttled in and shut the door quickly behind her, leaning on it heavily.
With her face no doubt very red now, judging by how warm her cheeks were
feeling.
"Oh, it's nothing, Yuki-kun, really!" But he was already rising to his
feet and striding over, to touch her cheeks lightly with his fingers.
Which just made them burn all the more, because that was rather similar to
what she saw....
"Honda-san! Are you sick? You're unnaturally hot."
She took a deep breath, tried to calm herself. After a few moments, it
worked. "I'm all right, Yuki-kun. I was just...surprised by what I saw."
She glanced over her shoulder, but of course, there was only the door
there.
"Oh? What did you see?" Yuki dropped his hand from her face now.
She took a moment to overcome her disappointment at that to giggle
nervously, hand over her mouth. "I...I'm not sure I should say,
Yuki-kun...."
He frowned. "Shouldn't say? What do you mean?"
She giggled again, then sighed, and walked to the table, Yuki following
closely behind. "Well, you know...oh, no, I really shouldn't say." She
eyed Yuki over her shoulder, smiling, realizing that she was being a bit
of a tease. A chance to be a little bit naughty. Something about Yuki made
her want to do this every now and then.
"Honda-san," he said, allowing a little bit of annoyance to tinge his
voice. The twinkle in his eyes, though, let her know that he wasn't really
angry. He understood the game too, let her indulge in it every so often.
She hopped forward, putting a little more distance between the two of
them. "No, no, it's not my place to tell you what Uo-chan is...eep!" She
covered her mouth again at the slip.
"Uotani-san, hmm?" She heard him take a step forward, felt his breath
tickling her ear as he came to stand right behind her once more. "What is
Uotani-san up to, then?"
She spun on her heel and stepped to the side, hands clasped behind her
back. "Mmm...." She looked thoughtful. "I suppose...it does involve
Kyou-kun, so...."
He matched her movement, and now stood in front of her. "That stupid cat?"
Yuki asked, raising an eyebrow with interest. "Were they fighting again?"
"They were just arguing a little bit at first, but...." She felt herself
flush again. "Ohh, I shouldn't, I shouldn't...."
The other eyebrow went up. "Now you're definitely making me very curious,
Honda-san. What on Earth would make you so flustered?"
Tohru giggled once more. But to tell the truth, this really wasn't
something that she should tell him. After all, she wasn't the type to
gossip, especially not about one of her best friends and one of her
trusted housemates. Even if she was talking to a second of her three
trusted housemates. She sighed. And then, she blinked as something
occurred to her. Maybe this was just cheating, a sneaky way around the
frowned-upon practice of talking about people behind their backs,
but--this should be all right. It wasn't being done in malice, and they
all knew each other, after all. And besides....
"Honda-san?"
"Umm...." She felt herself grow even hotter, if that was possible. She was
sure she'd catch fire at this point, but somehow, she didn't. "I can...I
shouldn't tell you, but I can show you. Show you what they did."
For a moment, he looked confused, but then smiled. "All right. Go ahead,
then."
She took a deep breath. "Well, I saw them walking toward the house on the
path through the woods. They were arguing at first--I wasn't very close,
so I couldn't hear what they were arguing about. Uo-chan was waving her
arms around." She flailed about, to demonstrate, and Yuki chuckled. "Then
she turned away from him, and crossed her arms. Like this." And she did
so.
"All right. What happened next?"
"Well, Kyou-kun was quiet for a while, and so was Uo-chan...and then he
put his hand on her shoulder."
"Like this?"
"No, the other hand, but the same shoulder."
He laughed again, and she felt his right hand now settle on her left
shoulder. "All right."
"Uo-chan didn't move for a while, but then she turned around, back to him,
slowly. I think they were both smiling."
His eyes were dancing with amusement as she looked at him again. "And his
hand stayed on her shoulder?"
"Yes! And then...and then...."
"Hmm?"
Tohru steeled herself, forced herself to meet his gaze and hold it. She
remembered what happened just a few weeks ago in the secret base, after
planting the fruit trees, or more accurately, what almost happened. And
the faint disappointment after it hadn't happened.
"Honda-san?" His voice had dropped to a murmur, and the look in his eyes
was soft, questioning.
"And then," she continued, voice just barely a whisper, "and then, the
important part, the part I really shouldn't talk about, and then, Uo-chan
did...this."
Tohru raised a hand to touch Yuki's cheek, stepped close, rose up on the
tips of her toes--something that Uo-chan actually hadn't done, because she
was about the same height as Kyou-kun--and pressed her lips to his.
There was a faint grunt of surprise, and she felt her shoulders gripped by
his hands firmly, but not to be pushed away...just held. Something else
that hadn't happened, she thought dreamily, as her eyes closed. Kyou-kun
had put his hands on Uo-chan's hips instead, at this point. But that
wasn't very important, not right now. What was important was the way Yuki
was leaning into the kiss and how his lips were very warm and soft and how
weak her knees felt and how everything in existence was sort of melting
into a swirly gooey puddle.
She gasped when they finally pulled apart and wobbled slightly. Yuki
looked a litte unsteady and flushed too.
"So that was, that was...what was that about, again, Honda-san?"
"Umm...that was what...it was...oh...what Uo-chan and Kyou-kun were doing.
Just now."
"Mmm. I hadn't known they were that close now."
"I knew they had gotten closer...after they both got sick that time...but
not like...."
She trailed off, unable to look away from him. He didn't say anything,
just bent his head down and moved forward. She tilted her face up to--
"I told you not to do that, Yankee!"
Tohru spun away to look at the front door as it slammed open, and she felt
Yuki stumble back away from her at the same time. "Ah, ah--Kyou-kun! And
Uo-chan! What are you two doing here?"
The cat and the blonde cut their argument off and peered inside
suspiciously. "I live here," Kyou said.
"And I said I was going to visit this afternoon, Tohru. Remember?"
"Yes, a pity about the first part," Yuki murmured behind Tohru. She felt
his hands settle on her shoulders again.
"What was that?" Kyou said, a dangerous edge in his voice.
"Ah! I'll get some snacks. Uo-chan, Kyou-kun, make yourselves comfortable
at the table. I'll be right there."
"I'll help," said Yuki smoothly, and moved toward the kitchen. Tohru
nervously watched Kyou and Uotani as they went to sit down, continuing
their heated discussion from earlier. It seemed like they didn't suspect
anything, and she let out a sigh of relief, before stepping backward to
join Yuki.
He was already pulling some rice crackers and candies from the cupboard,
so she went to the hot-water dispenser to brew the tea. As the pot filled,
she felt Yuki come up behind her and reach over to grab one of the
multi-sectioned plates that they used for laying out snacks.
"Honda-san?" he said, idly, setting the plate down on the counter next to
her and pouring the crackers into one section.
"Yes, Yuki-kun?" she said, putting the lid back on the pot to let the tea
steep. She sounded a lot calmer than she felt.
"Could you show me what Uotani-san and Kyou were doing again? Just to be
clear about it."
Uo-chan and Kyou-kun wouldn't mind waiting on the snacks until the tea was
ready also, Tohru decided, as she blushed and leaned toward Yuki.
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An exercise to break a case of writer's block, during a time when I really
wanted to write something but my current projects just weren't getting
written. A bit of fluff and trying out Tohru's perspective. I also figured
it was about time to make it up to Tohru and Yuki and let them get their
kiss, since it's been well over a year since "Like Strawberries".
I still refuse to use abbreviated relationship tags in my story summaries,
but I have to share the term "Kyotani" with everyone, 'cos it's cute and
one that I hadn't yet actually seen until a friend of mine mentioned it to
me the other day. Hwei.
