Fruits Ripe

Episode 3d

Yuki chooses to ignore Shigure and He walks determinedly grabbing a tarp leaving through the front door and Tohru follows worried and confused "huh?" She keeps following him but noticed he was a bit ahead and called out, "Soma!" catching up to him.

Yuki turns around upon hearing her voice not knowing she followed him back out, "Miss Honda! It's dangerous out here!" They both were walking down mountainside in the rain.

Tohru tries to reassure him, "This is nothing. When the last typhoon came through, I spent the night outside our tent holding--" she suddenly slips on some mud and yelps.

"You, okay?" Yuki catches her and holds onto her arm helping stay steady.

Tohru smiles sheepishly, "I'm fine, sorry. But, Soma, what're you doing out here?"

"This way." He kept his hold on her and started guiding her.

Tohru asked as she let herself be led, "I don't understand. Where are we going?" A little further down and they see Yuki's secret garden or base making Tohru gasp in amazement, "Wow, it's a farm!"

Yuki sounds a little bashful but kept his cool, "I'd say more of a vegetable garden, actually."

Tohru's eyes got a bit bigger as her excitement went up, "How cool! Did you plant it all yourself?"

Yuki turned towards her a bit proud and reminded her, "Mhm. The secret base I mentioned."

Tohru let's her imagination take over and says, "That's so heroic! Ricking life and limb to protect your base from the typhoon. Please allow me to join you in your noble fight!"

They spread the tarp out going on opposite sides to cover the garden and hold it down to prevent too much rain from getting in and ruining the plants.

Yuki sees how willing she is to help him without question and how serious she's taking it and tells her, "You're a truly kind person."

"Huh?" she gasped processing what he said letting go of the tarp without realizing, "Oh, gosh. You're kidding, right? I mean, nobody's ever said anything like that to me before." She yelps as the tarp flew up and hit her in the face, so she hurriedly holds it back down.

Tohru using one hand now to exaggerate her point, "Well maybe sort of like what you were talking about earlier: A phony kindness to make it seem like I'm a good person."

Yuki calmly refutes as he uses the mallet and nails to pin down the tarp "No, in your case, I think it comes naturally."

Tohru kindly smiled at Yuki and reminisced, "You know, my mom once told me that it was always better to believe instead of doubt. She said human beings aren't born with kindness. That's something that only comes to us later. All we have at first are desires. For things like food and shelter. Basically, just survival instincts. She said kindness is our hearts growing inside us. Growing like people-- at different rates, in different ways. And... that's why one person's kindness might look different from another's. So...

Kyoko, Tohru and Lily's mom, telling them in front of their father's grave as they payed their respects 'It's simple to understand desire, because it's something everyone has from birth. But each person's kindness is pretty much handmade by them, so it's easy for others to misunderstand it, or assume that it's phony. But Girls...'

It was exciting to think there were different shapes of kindness in the world, like round ones or pointy ones. None quite the same. This may sound strange, but your kindness reminds me of a candle. It lights up. When it does, I can't help but smile at the warmth it gives off. There's nothing phony about it. That was probably a pretty strange analogy, I bet."

Yuki was looking down with his hair covering his eyes disappointed in himself, "No, not at all. Actually, I'm kind of ashamed. I shouldn't have unloaded all of that on you."

Tohru reassures him "I'm glad you did." Yuki gasps looking up meeting her warm smile, "The more you tell me about your life and feelings, the better friends we can become. It makes me so happy you felt you could let me in. Oh. I guess that was pretty rude Lily's always telling me some things are better left unsaid."

"No, I wasn't thinking that I promise." Yuki lets go of tarp trying to reassure her and it flew up making Tohru yelp in surprise. They both move to hold it down more; Yuki ran over to Tohru's side having put in a nail on the other side already.

Tohru smile helplessly and used both hands more strongly, "I'll be quiet now and continue my mission to protect the base!"

Kyoko continues in the same setting to both her girls 'But Tohru, Lily... I want you to believe in people. Doubting is easy. Anybody can do that. You be the kind of girls who can have faith in others. One day, I know... that will help someone.'

They end up staying outside till the typhoon passes and the sunrise Yuki holds the tarp now that the rain stopped folding it, and they stand on the same side to look over garden. They're both wet and a bit dirty but overall, they didn't look unhappy.

Tohru cheers positively, "We defended it to the end!"

Yuki deadpanned but kept his voice soft "At the low cost of getting half-drowned."

Tohru asked curiously, "Are there any vegetables ready to harvest?"

Yuki looked over the garden and nodded, "Well, the chives might be."

Tohru drifts off into her thoughts about what she could make turning around, "Chives? Chives, chives."

Yuki bends down to retrieve the chives from the ground, "Miss Honda?"

Tohru turns around curiously, "Huh?"

Yuki keeps picking as Tohru watches him, "I'll play Rich Man-Poor Man next time."

Tohru smiled and told him, "That's wonderful! Although, if you're not interested, you don't have to."

Yuki hums before responding, "Mhm. It's just, everyone else was so outgoing. I didn't feel comfortable. But I'll work on that." He stood up having finished, "It may take a while, but I want to learn how to interact with people."

Tohru excitedly told him, "It'll be so fun! Hana- chan is great. Uo- chan, too. I'm super proud to call them my friends. Plus, I'll bet you'll be good at it. And I know they'll love the chance to defeat a strong opponent especially Lily." Yuki turned around to face Tohru when she's done talking. With the sun behind him, he looked like an angel when he blushed and smiled.

"I'll win. Just wait." He promised and started to walk back.

Tohru looked pleasantly surprised and blushed 'Oh, wow. I think that's the first time I've seen his true smile.'

Yuki turned around to tell her realizing she wasn't right behind him, "We'll have to take hot baths when we get home, or we'll catch cold."

Tohru still being in her thoughts didn't respond outwardly, 'Someday, maybe he'll even smile like that at school. I can't imagine how popular he'd be then.' She giggles and follows behind him.

Later that morning back at the house in the kitchen, Tohru was making rice balls. That's the scene Kyo walks in to surprised by how many there are.

Kyo reacts as usual with a slightly raised voice to show his shock, "The hell's goin' on here? Plannin' to start a rice ball business?"

Tohru acknowledges Kyo while forming a plain rice ball, "Oh, good morning, Kyo. I'm experimenting to get ready for culture festival. You're out of bed early, as usual, huh?"

Kyo walks over towards the table to get a closer look curious, "It's not early. It's normal. So, were you out at the garden with Yuki all night long?"

Tohru picks up some fresh rice and exclaimed, "Oh! Ow, ow. That's really hot." before starting to shape it into a rice ball and talking to Kyo. "Yeah. We needed to defend the vegetables from the typhoon."

Kyo picks up one of the rice cakes to try thinking it's a plain one. Tohru sees and smiles, "I'm particularly proud of that one. You'll have to tell me what you think."

Kyo face turns green in disgust as he rushes to faucet and washes out his mouth, "What are these?!"

Tohru turns to face Kyo and check on him once she's done, "Rice balls made with chives. So, you don't like them, then?" She did a head tilt while asking him.

Kyo still looks a little sick and raises his voice to make sure she heard hm, "No way! I freaking hate chives! What's wrong with sticking to something normal, like salmon or octopus filling? I'll just make my own."

Tohru just watches him as he goes to make his own and is really good at it, "Wow! That's so amazing!"

Kyo not knowing what he did just voiced his confusion, "Huh?"

Tohru continued excitedly, "The way you shaped that rice ball! You're great! Really!"

Kyo blushes and looks away slightly, "It's not a big deal. I had to make my own food while I was training. But just 'cause I can make it doesn't mean it'll taste good."

Tohru's eyes were so big and earnest that you could almost ignore how her statement sounded in all seriousness, "It's still impressive. If someone was working hard training to make rice balls, I think they would be very jealous of how good you are at it."

Kyo walks away as he responded to the living room done, "Rice ball training isn't something people do. Where do you even get these ideas?"

Kyo takes a bite of his newly made rice ball and goes to sit in the living room to watch tv.

Tohru looked after him and didn't know what to say next, 'But that doesn't change the fact that it's great.'

Kyo turns the Tv on and the Tv host on the screen's voice filled the silence, "Good morning!" Meanwhile Tohru was still stuck in thought, 'Why doesn't he realize?' She gasped quietly, "I think I know. Maybe you can't see it 'cause it's on your back."

Kyo grunts swallowing his bite before turning to face her and replying with a "Huh?"

Tohru spoke more of her thoughts out loud, "Just think, if a person is a rice ball, and what's great about that person is a pickled plum, the problem is, the plums on the back, where they can't see! Maybe everyone in the world is walking around with plums on their backs. All different kinds. No two of them are exactly alike. But since they can't see their backs, they can't see the plums that make them unique. They think they don't have anything special-- that they're just plain white rice. Even though that's not true at all. Even though they really do have a plum of their own. Maybe that's the reason we get jealous. 'Cause when it comes to plums, other people's are a lot easier to see. So trust me when I say, I can see it. Plain as day. You have a plum right there on your back." She walks towards him and gets down to her hands and knees so that they're on the same level, "Sure, Soma is great, but the thing is, so are you." Tohru ends speech kneeling in front of Kyo causing him to fluster.

Kyo blushes and turns his back to Tohru so she wouldn't see it, "Uh! Okay, seriously! Where do you get these ideas? And why did you have to pick plums of all things for your stupid analogy?"

Tohru panics a bit and looks surprised, "I'm sorry, you're right! Maybe I should've used salmon instead!" Suddenly the tea kettle starts to whistle making Tohru stand up to go take it off. "Whoops. The kettle."

Kyo called out softly with his back still turned to her, "Hey."

Tohru turns back towards Kyo to show she's listening "Huh?"

Kyo reigns in his blush enough to keep going, "You've got one, too, on your back." He turns to face her but is still too flustered to make eye contact, "You know, a plum. I can see it."

Tohru gets excited and jogs back to the intersection between the kitchen and the living room to get closer to him, "I do? Really? Are you sure?"

Kyo turns back around and continues, "Yeah. It's only a little one, though. A really, really, really little one."

Tohru told him, her enthusiasm not lost, "Little ones are delicious."

Yuki walks in through the hallway in the kitchen to see both Tohru and Kyo, "You're up already?"

Tohru turned towards Yuki and stood up straight from her slightly slouched position, "Oh! Actually, I never went to bed."

Yuki looks surprised and you could hear the shock in his voice, "Are you kidding? You didn't get any sleep at all?"

Tohru not seeing the problem kept her same level of enthusiasm, "Nope! With all the exciting things to think about, my brain wouldn't turn off."

Yuki turns around and sees the table filled with rice balls with one of them having a bite in it, "What's this?"

Tohru replied with excitement and simmered a bit at the end of her statement, "Rice balls with chives. Kyo says he doesn't like chives, though."

Kyo responds having been listening to them and the tv, "Yeah, because they're inedible."

Yuki narrows his eyes at that not liking his pickiness and he walks towards the one Kyo bit before storming up to him plugging his nose and forcing it into his mouth. All is heard in that fast moment is the "Ah!" from Kyo when Yuki plugged his nose and Yuki's brutal tone when he tells him to, "Eat it." Tohru gasps not sure what to do and if she can stop them.

Tohru sighed lost in thought as Kyo struggles to breathe and Yuki is relentless and uncaring, 'Is it a lost cause? Will they hate each other forever? I can't help but think, if they could each understand the other's good points, maybe they could get along.'

Tohru's daydream

There's an orange a, yellow, and red sunset in background with both boys joining hands while laughing, They grab hands and shake on it.

Yuki starts off "You know, I've really misunderstood you. I'm sorry."

Kyo winks at Yuki, "Right back at ya. Sorry, man. We should cherish our friendship! Let's never fight again, 'kay?"

Yuki agrees as they semi-embrace while grabbing hands, "Yeah!"

(It was giving let's run off into the sunset fruity vibes for me)

End Tohru's daydream

'Somehow, that's not any better.' Tohru gets knocked out of her daydream by the doorbell. "Coming!"

Leaving the boys to figure it out on their own, Tohru rushes to the door. Upon opening it at first, she doesn't see anybody until she hears a female voice say, "Excuse me?"

Tohru looks in the direction of the voice, "Hello?" Just to see a cute girl with short dark brown hair and brownish light eyes hiding behind a tree.

The girl blushes seeming shy as she responds to Tohru's call, "Um. I'm sorry to bother you, but is it true? That Kyo is here?"

End Episode 3