Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Ebony and Ivory ❯ Spring, Fire, and the Prince of Snow ( Chapter 25 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket. I am only borrowing the characters from the illustrious Natsuki Takaya, who never ceases to amaze me with her wonderful manga.

 

A/N: Please tell me if you're having trouble keeping track of scenes and perspectives… I really am doing my best. I'm sorry it's confusing.

 

A/N 2: About the title: this is probably obvious, but Haru is Spring, Kyo is Fire, and Yuki is the Prince of Snow. I know; you probably already knew that, since you've seen it dozens of times in other fanfics. *Sigh. I feel so typical.

 

A/N 3: Please review! I miss hearing from my readers!

 

 

CHAPTER 25: Spring, Fire, and the Prince of Snow

 

Kyo pulled Haru aside after school the next day, quite literally. “I need to talk to you.”

 

“Could you be a little less violent about it?” Haru asked, straightening out his jacket.

 

“What's up?”

 

“What did I do?”

 

“I'm sorry?”

 

“What did I do to get Yuki mad at me? He won't even let me apologize, and he won't tell me what's wrong, and every time I ask him he either starts fighting with me or tells me to leave him alone, or walks away. So what did I do?”

 

Haru frowned. “He has been acting kind of weird around you lately, hasn't he?”

 

“So?”

 

“I don't know what you did. You haven't been doing anything differently. Maybe he's just in a bad mood or something.”

 

“It's been more than a week.”

 

“Well… I don't know what to tell you. As far as I can tell, you haven't done anything wrong. Just give him his space. Eventually he'll be all right.”

 

“But that's what I've been doing, and it's only getting worse.”

 

Haru thought for a minute. “Tell you what… I'll talk to him, okay?”

 

“You'd do that?”

 

“Sure thing. I'll ask him what's up, and see if it has anything to do with you. Then I'll let you know.”

 

Kyo breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Haru.”

 

“No problem.”

 

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Yuki met Haru on his way out of student council. “Hi,” he said, smiling. “What are you doing here?”

 

“I wanted to walk you home,” Haru replied.

 

Yuki laughed a little. It felt good to laugh, to pretend for a moment that everything was fine. “You're so weird.”

 

Haru put an arm around his shoulders for a moment, then dropped it. “So what's going on with you and Kyo? You guys were like best friends up until a week ago.”

 

Yuki bit his lip. So much for pretending everything was fine. “I'd rather not talk about it,” he said at last.

 

“Come on, Yuki. I'm concerned. And he seems pretty worried too.”

 

Yuki was silent for a minute or two. He had to come up with some explanation that actually worked. One that he wouldn't have to change by this time next week. “Haru… it's just… I'm finding that he and I don't really have a lot in common, and he always wants to be with me, and I feel… crowded. I don't know. And then he's always trying to get me to do sports, and I really don't want to, and it's just exhausting. There are a lot of things I need to do, and he doesn't understand it. And I've tried telling him that… I just tend to get frustrated.”

 

“You've been fighting with him?”

 

“I just don't really want to hang out with him, and he keeps getting on my case about it.”

 

“Why don't you want to hang out with him?”

 

“Because I don't. It's none of your business. Like I said, we don't have much in common.”

 

“That never stopped you before. Up until just after New Years, you guys were inseparable.”

 

“I was trying to be friendly, and he carried it into this whole huge thing.”

 

Haru stared at him for a moment. “Yuki, you're not making a lot of sense.”

 

I know. “Just… I said I don't want to talk about it, okay?”

 

“Did he do something?”

 

“It's not really something specific. It's just that he's been irritating me lately.”

 

“What could he do to change things?”

 

“I don't know. And to be frank, I'm doing better in my studies now than I was last semester, and this is senior year, and I need to focus.”

 

“There are more important things than grades. And Kyo only has a little time left. I know no one wants to think about it, but it's true.”

 

Yuki felt like he had been stabbed. He hadn't even thought that far. Kyo had been counting on these last few months of friendship, and Yuki was taking them away now, so that he would go into confinement feeling utterly abandoned. Just like Akito to time things so perfectly. “Look, Haru, leave me alone.”

 

“Yuki, at least talk to him. Come on. He misses you.”

 

Yuki said nothing. Haru walked him to the mouth of the woods, and Yuki waved goodbye and walked on. He heard Haru sigh behind him, and pretended to ignore it.

Shut into his bedroom, Yuki thought over his conversation with Haru. Not how it made him feel, but what it had taught him about his goal. He realized now that conversations with anyone were dangerous, not just conversations with Kyo. He had no rationale. Nothing that made sense, anyways. He was essentially taking back everything he had sworn to three weeks ago. And everything people were saying to him was correct. He was the one lying. So his best method was to avoid talking to people entirely. Of course, he didn't have a rationale for this either.

 

“Yuki-kun,” said a voice at the door.

 

“Honda-san? Come in.”

 

She opened the door. “Dinner's ready.”

 

“Oh. Okay. Thank you.” Yuki put on his mask, and went downstairs.

 

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“Well?”

 

Haru looked at Kyo, wondering what to say. “I don't know.”

 

“You did talk to him?”

 

“Yes, but… it didn't make any sense. And then he told me to leave him alone, because he didn't want to talk about it. When he actually did give me an explanation, it was too weird…”

 

“But what did he say?”

 

Haru looked down. “It was weird.”

 

“Haru, tell me what he said.”

 

Haru sighed. “I don't know if he meant it. But he said that he… that he had just been trying to be friendly, and you had fleshed it out into a major friendship.”

 

“What? He was the one who…”

 

“I know. That's why it didn't make sense.”

 

“But wait a second… he still wants to be my friend, right?”

 

Haru pressed his lips together. “He didn't say.”

 

“What did he say?”

 

“That he didn't want to hang out with you.” Haru looked away from Kyo's hurt expression. “I don't know if he meant it, Kyo. There's something weird going on with him.”

 

Kyo looked down for a moment, then back up. “Why doesn't he want to hang out with me?”

 

“I asked. He said it was none of my business.”

 

“Anything else?”

 

“He wouldn't tell me how you could fix it. And then he started going off on how it was senior year and he had to focus on his studies.”

 

“So it's not that he doesn't like me? It's just that he has too much on his plate?”

 

Haru sighed. “That's what it sounded like. Maybe. I don't know. He was acting really off. I mean, Yuki normally doesn't give many answers, but he was reticent even for Yuki. A mystery.”

 

“Do you think he's depressed about something?”

 

“Maybe.” Haru smiled. “Well, if anyone can reach him, it's probably you. Give him his space, but make sure he knows that you're there if he needs you. He'll come around. He's probably just really stressed out this week or something.”

 

“Yeah.” Kyo smiled a little. “Yeah. That's probably it. Thanks, Haru.”

 

“No problem. Let me know how things work out.”

 

Kyo sat with Yuki at lunch that afternoon. He smiled at his cousin, but did not attempt conversation. Yuki seemed to be in a bad mood. Like he had been for the last week and a half.

 

“It looks like it won't rain today after all,” Kyo hazarded after a while. “They said there would be rain on TV this morning.”

 

Yuki sighed. “Good for you.” Then he rose with his plate and walked away.

 

Kyo was severely startled. He stood up as well. “What's with you?” he said angrily.

 

“I don't want to talk,” Yuki said.

 

Kyo stifled his anger with an effort as he watched Yuki walk away. He hadn't done anything. He hadn't even asked how Yuki was. “Damn rat,” he muttered under his breath. Why was Yuki being like this? And how much longer was Kyo going to have to put up with it?

 

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Yuki sat alone in the lunchroom. He couldn't stand to be with Kyo. Every time he was near Kyo, every time Kyo smiled at him, he wanted to come undone, confess the truth, hug Kyo, and go back to normal. He wanted to spar again. He wanted to laugh, and chat, and study with Kyo and Honda-san. He was sick of throwing himself into studying, and into books at the library when he had no longer had homework. Was it possible that Kyo could dissemble enough to fool Akito? Yuki looked across the cafeteria at Kyo, who was pretending to be carefree, chatting with people. But hurt, anger, and a little bit of worry were clear on his face. Kyo couldn't even pretend not to feel something, let alone pretend to feel something, namely hatred. Anyone could read him like a book. It was one of the things Yuki liked best about him.

 

Kyo caught Yuki's gaze for an instant, but Yuki turned away. Why don't you just hand him over to Akito, if this is how you're going to act? Yuki sighed. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Kyo, but I have to do this.

 

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