Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ A Bouncing Baby Boy ❯ Loves ( Chapter 2 )

Hatori could only stare at the baby sprawled out in sleep on the table. Though first he made sure that Kyou was still breathing. Hatori handled baby Kyou gently, but still succeeded in waking him up. A high wail filled the room, and Yuki groaned and reached out to take Kyou from Hatori.

The moment he had Kyou in his arms, the baby stopped crying, and instead started gurgling. He clutched at Yuki's shirt. Hatori and Shigure stared.

The next sound that was heard was that of Shigure falling to the floor. There was nothing remotely funny about this to Hatori, though Yuki started laughing hysterically, and baby Kyou was clapping his hands. Shigure's face was so pale, and his body so limp, Hatori experienced a moment of severe fear that he would lose his friend, his best friend.

He bent down beside Shigure, hurriedly pushing Shigure's robe off, trying not to stare at the smooth well-formed chest now temptingly displayed. "Yuki," he snapped, "stop laughing like a hyena!"

Yuki covered his mouth with one hand, having to carry Kyou with the other, and tried to stifle his sniggers. "W-where- w-where is Honda-san and Saki-san?" he asked between giggles.

"At the clinic," replied Hatori tersely, checking Shigure's pulse. He scooped Shigure up in his arms, preparing to carry the writer up to his rooms. Glaring at Yuki who couldn't stop laughing, Hatori said, "When I get down, I want a good explanation for this."

Yuki nodded. "Hahaha-i."

Hatori shook his head and mounted the stairs, easily carrying Shigure.

***

Yuki sat himself down again, Kyou in his lap. Kyou stared up at the pretty boy with big eyes, and tugged at Yuki's shirt. "Yuyu?"

"Yuki. Yuki. Nezumi, if you prefer." There was something wrong, something terribly, terribly wrong with Kyou giving him a nickname. It was like Tohru doing a striptease, and that wasn't even vaguely arousing.

"Yuyu."

"Yuki."

"Yuyu."

"Yuki."

"YUYU!"

"Yuki!"

Kyou screwed up his face like he was going to cry. Yuki held up his hands hurriedly. "Ok, ok, `Yuyu'."

Kyou smiled. "Yuyu."

"Yes, yeah, whatever, Yuyu…"

***

There had been leek soup on the table. A huge steaming bowl of it, filling the kitchen with its piquant scent. Kyou's face had gone puce. Yuki smiled nastily at the cat, as he pointedly stirred the soup with a spoon. "Sit down, neko," he said in a voice smeared all over with honey. "Tasty, yummy soup. Mmmm." And he took a spoonful and swallowed it. Kyou visibly paled.

"What's the matter?" said Hanajima, her voice in a threatening monotone. "Don't you like Tohru's cooking?"

Kyou snarled at them both, and took his seat, as far away from the leek soup as he possibly could get without running away to Singapore or Malaysia.

Tohru entered the dining room again, holding a large plate of broiled fish, sprinkled with parsley and green onions. Seeing Kyou's face, she immediately started to apologize for the soup - "But Kyou-kun, Hana-kun was so nice in helping to prepare dinner and she likes leek soup so I thought I'd-"

Kyou brushed her apology/explanation off with a growl.

Shigure paused in the doorway, a smirk plastered over his face. "Yu-mee!" he exclaimed wickedly. "Leek soup! Oh Hanajima-chan, you must come over and cook more often!"

There was a tense moment of silence, but Kyou didn't rise to the bait. Instead he slowly reached out for a riceball, and bit into it.

Tohru's nerves were twitching, Yuki could tell. He patted her hand as she passed him, and smiled. Tohru smiled back gratefully, and Yuki was aware and satisfied with the nasty glare that Kyou shot him with.

Dinner was almost at an end when Hanajima plopped a bowl of leek soup before Kyou who had ostentatiously avoided that dish. "It's the last of it," she said simply. "And everyone else has finished their food." She smiled. "You wouldn't insult me by not taking it, would you?"

Too terrified by the gleam in her dark eyes, Kyou unwillingly dipped his spoon into the food and took a sip of the brew.

There was a terrible sound and bright shards of light. And then there was the high wailing of a displeased baby.

Yuki waved his hands to get rid of the smoke. The crying baby noise was getting very irritating now. Yuki turned and was greeted by the sight of a baby who had his eyes adoringly fixed on him, and Tohru's hair in one hand, and Shigure's toe in the other. The baby yanked on those things hard. Shigure gave a yelp of pain. Yuki blinked. No, the terrifying apparition was still there, and now Tohru and Shigure stared pleadingly up at Yuki. "Er…" started the boy, feeling like a fool. "Would you let go of them… please?"

No surprisingly the baby ignored her. He looked at Yuki, then back at Tohru and Shigure. "Ish?" he said, and tugged harder. Tohru and Shigure winced. Yuki winced too. She couldn't see why the two idiots couldn't just disentangle themselves from that cheerfully smiling baby between them. Instead they treated it like some very fragile, very breakable object.

Yuki decided to grab the bull by the horns. He leant down to pick the baby up, shaking him gently to make him let go of Tohru and Shigure. The baby let go easily, smiling at Yuki as if to say `See! I let go of them because you told me to!' Yuki held the child uncertainly. Then the baby made a soft sound, and buried his face into Yuki's clothes.

"Oh…" breathed Yuki, his pale face flushing.

***

"And that's all there is to it," said Yuki, finishing his narrative. Hatori nodded, and Yuki scowled as he added, "but that kid won't leave me alone! He keeps following me!"

"That's because he's imprinted onto you," said Hatori, sipping at his tea, though a beer would have been nicer.

"Huh?"

"You're the first thing he saw. Kyou, if that child is Kyou, though considering the red eyes and orange hair, I'm inclined to think he is, saw you first thing after this transformation. He - to put it bluntly - thinks you're his mother." Hatori took another calm sip and looked at Yuki from under is eyelashes to see how he was taking the news.

Yuki stood up, face red.

"No, Kyou! Put that down! Your toes are not eatable! You don't know where they've been!"