Fruits Ripe

Episode 1c

---After school---

Lily had already left ahead of Tohru, so that she could get to work on time and wouldn't have to work overtime. Tohru stayed back a bit to talk to a teacher so she rushed down the staircase in a bit of a hurry. The sun had already began to set basking the school with a golden color. Once Tohru got to the lockers, she saw that she wasn't the only one still at school, she saw Yuki.

"Soma! Thank you for this morning!" Tohru said catching up with him

"It's quite alright." He smiled at her as he closed his locker. "I should be apologizing for Shigure."

"Oh, no, not at all! He's a very nice person even Lily liked him. And he even let us look at his cute zodiac figurines." Tohru says smiling softly. They walked together with Tohru walking a bit behind him with a flushed face.

"That's right. I believe you were saying something about being a cat?" Yuki asked softly.

"Yeah, I was kind of a strange little kid. Sorry" Tohru smiled and chuckled a bit embarrassed.

"The Cat is an idiot." Yuki said with a shadow casted over his face

"Huh?" Tohru asked confused since she couldn't see his face

"Stubborn, too" Yuki said as if speaking from experience.

"Hm?" Tohru said trying to understand where he was going with this.

"Did you know the zodiac animals actually began as part of a system for telling time? They were first used as clock divisions. Later, yin and yang and elemental relationships were folded in, and they became fortune-telling tools. The truth is, the math never left any room for the Cat to begin with. But honestly, I think that's for the best, anyway. I mean, being allowed to join the zodiac? What's so great about that? Better to be alone. Stupid Cat." Yuki told her, that shadow still there.

"Sorry, but I don't really understand. Sounds like you really don't like cats" Tohru said after she was sure he'd finished talking.

Yuki abruptly turned around then smiled slightly, shadow gone. The breeze blew his hair gently as if it were caressing face. Tohru's eyes widened at the abrupt change. Then beeping ruined the moment, looking down at her watch where the sound was coming from, Tohru gasps in shock.

"Oh, no I'm sorry! I have to hurry up and get to work!" she explained to him, before starting to run towards her job.

"Miss Honda?" Yuki called out after her.

"Uh yes?" Tohru said turning around and watching Yuki walk up to her.

Yuki takes leaf out of Tohru's hair, that had flew in when the wind rustled the tree above them. He showed her why he stopped her after seeing the surprise on her face. To reassure her he c****d his head to the side with a smile to her.

"There hasn't been much color in your face today. And it's still so hot. You should be careful not to push yourself too hard." Yuki told her with a soft smile.

Yuki let the leaf fly away in the breeze then walks away going home a different direction than Tohru's work. Watching Yuki walk away, Tohru was frozen for a little while until her watch beeped again reminding her.

~When I was 6 years old and Lily was 5 years old, our dad got sick and died. After that, Mom worked super hard to support us. And we helped out whenever we could. Mom was always there to protect us. It was quite the adjustment for Lily though, she was quite close to dad and with her memory she was really mature. With Lily's big brain, we got by and it allowed us to get super close. She was so strong. So cheerful. I never thought someone like her... would die in an accident like that, so suddenly. Everyone argued about who should take us in. Some wanted only one of us, while others wanted nothing to do with us. But in the end, our grandpa was the one to do it. He didn't mind taking in the both of us, which is what we wanted. He's living on a pension now and we didn't wanna be a burden, so we promised him we would pay our own tuition and living expenses. I offered to pay Lily's too but she refused. That happened in May. Then one day grandpa told us that there were going to be some work done on the house because some relatives were going to move in with him. He was going to go stay with them, but they didn't have a lot of space so he asked if we had someone we could stay with. Uo lives in a tiny apartment, and the Hanajimas are a family of five. There was no way I could stay with for months let alone the both of us, so... I told him not to worry. After all I was planning on living with Lily alone eventually. So I accepted the challenge. ~