Never Gray

Hiya! SakuraBubbles here with a Fruits Basket fic that was originally on Fanfiction.net but I figured… HEY! Why not put it up here, too? I combined the first two chapters into one big one. Huzzah!

I usually write for Final Fantasy or other video games but I still love anime and manga. OH, and speaking of manga… I haven’t read past book 5 of the manga yet, although I know of certain four-legged bitches—I mean horses—who come in later. Until a few nights ago, I didn’t know that there was anything between Haru and this wanker. Therefore, SCREW ‘ER. She doesn’t exist in the anime, therefore she doesn’t exist in my happy little world. … stupid friggin…

But! Anyway, before I go on a Rinoa, er, Rin rant, I must say that if you don’t like shounen ai… go away. Honestly. Who leaves a review simply to state the “wrongness” of homosexuality??! It’s definitely not a good thing to do, especially since I’m a lesbian. So… yeah. No flames just for that.

Also! This has a straight pairing too!! WOOT! … And another also! I won’t have any random Japanese words like “hai” and “ohaiyou” because that comes across as poser-ish. They’re already speaking Japanese, so why randomly show off what I know? Heh. I have the suffixes because that is how they refer to people in Japan. Booyaka.

Disclaimer: I don’t own any fruits or any baskets to hold them in. Nor do I own Fruits Basket. That would be swell if I did though. I’d have Yuki and Haru doing naugh—I mean I would…. ah screw it.

Sorry for the long Author’s Note. >b

---

Chapter One: Onigiri

They knew it would one day come down to this. Even Shigure knew. The only one who didn’t know was of course the girl they were fighting over.

Kyo had been angry all day—he fell out of bed instead of regularly waking up thanks to Shigure being loud about who KNOWS what, Tohru had promised to have Kisa and Hiro over to have leeks for dinner, that stupid COW Hatsuharu had accompanied the little brats because he had been babysitting them anyway, Shigure was… still SHIGURE, and Yuki…

“You fucking rat! That’s the last time I hear you talkin’ like she’s your own!” yelled Kyo. Yuki had been outside on his way back from his garden, talking with Haru. Kyo had been in his usual perch on the roof when he overheard Yuki talking about Tohru very… fondly, to put it mildly.

“Shut up,” said Yuki coolly. Haru put a hand on Yuki’s shoulder.

“Yuki, let’s ignore him and go inside—”

“Go eat some grass you stupid cow!!” Kyo spat. Haru looked over slowly.

“Say that again?”

“Stop it—I’m not in the mood,” snapped Yuki. Haru backed off.

“Whatever. You two take care of this—I’ll take Kisa and Hiro home or something.”

Off he went inside the house, past Kyo. Kyo and Yuki remained stationary, glaring at each other.

“… You stay away from her,” said Kyo angrily. Yuki sighed.

“You yell at me to not speak of Honda-san as property and yet now you’re saying this?” Kyo just yelled out obscenities in return, so Yuki continued, “Step aside so I can get into the house.”

“Fight your way in,” ordered Kyo, getting into a stance. Yuki crossed his arms over his chest.

“I’m not in the mood—”

He was nearly punched in the face—Kyo was fast as he went for him. Yuut hut his guard back up where it always was and attacked Kyo.

*~~*~~*

Tohru looked toward the outside door, hearing yells and shouts. “Wh-what’s going on?”

“Yuki and Kyo have decided to fight again,” answered Haru softly. Kisa was helping to put the dishes away as Hiro watched with his big eyes. Tohru looked to Haru, startled.

“Like a fist fight?”

“I’m sure they’re kicking, too.”

Shigure rolled his eyes up from reading the newspaper. Before meeting Tohru, this would have been no surprise. However, Yuki and Kyo weren’t fighting every day—they got along so much better now, so even he didn’t understand.

“But why? They never fight anymore,” he said. Haru tilted his head toward Tohru and realization painted itself over Shigure’s face. In a jump start, he got up and bolted out of the door. Tohru and Haru followed after ordering Kisa and Hiro to stay inside.

“Oh no!!” yelped Tohru. Kyo’s shirt had been ripped and the lose strap had been taken off of the back of his pants. Yuki’s shirt was missing some buttons so it now flapped open whenever he moved. His lip was bleeding.

“They… haven’t…” was all Shigure managed to say. He looked to Tohru, who was staring at them, wide-eyed, ready to cry. Haru was standing uncomfortably to the side.

“I hate you! You steal everything from me! First the banquet and now—”

“Get over it, stupid cat!!” Yuki interrupted Kyo’s ranting with a swift kick to the stomach. Kyo recovered more quickly than usual and went in for a punch or three.

“Stop it!!” yelled Tohru. This was worse than what they had done around the time she had first met them. What had triggered this?

Shigure knew both what they were fighting over and that Tohru was oblivious to it. She was far too naïve…

Before either Shigure or Haru could realize it, Tohru rushed forward to try to stop them. Yuki was ready to side tackle Kyo over but in a flurry of brunette hair, he knew his target had changed. He tried to stop but couldn’t and afterwards, he tripped over her fallen body and lay at Kyo’s feet.

Under different circumstances, Kyo would have loved to see Yuki sprawled on the dirt in front of him. But his eyes were on Tohru, who was now curling herself into a ball, holding her arm. Yuki got up to his hands and knees and rubbed his head, then looked behind him.

“Honda-san!”

She was crying and he hated the fact that he had caused it. Kyo rushed over—as did Shigure—and knelt beside her shaking body.

“Tohru! Where do you feel the most pain?” asked Shigure, trying to get a look at the girl’s face. Her hair had fallen almost tragically in front of her face, much like it had when she had discovered Kyo’s true form. Haru helped Yuki up, as he had hurt his ankle from tripping and earlier trying to halt his attack.

“A-arm,” Tohru managed to tell him weakly, sobs choking her voice. Shigure looked to Kyo.

“Call Haa-san.”

Kyo rushed off obediently. After watching him go, Shigure hesitantly put a hand on Tohru’s head, trying to calm her. She was obviously crying over more than just a hurt arm.

*~~*~~*

Hatori had arrived and immediately taken care of Tohru in her room. Kyo had escaped to the rooftop, Kisa was with Tohru and Hatori, worried to death, Hiro was naturally at Kisa’s side, and Haru was attending to Yuki’s ankle downstairs.

“I can’t believe I did that to her…” Yuki said with his hand tangled in his dark gray hair. Haru’s eyes trailed up to Yuki’s face as he said, “It’s not like you meant to. She tried to stop you two from fighting and did it in the stupidest of ways. Shigure and I didn’t even see her run to you.”

Yuki opened his eyes and looked down to Haru, who was just finishing up wrapping up Yuki’s ankle.

“But I saw her before I knocked her down. I saw that she was there… but I couldn’t stop moving…”

Haru stood up and framed Yuki’s face with his hands. In Yuki’s current state of mind, he didn’t care.

“I’m sure she’s not angry with you. Tohru is more forgiving than that. She’ll understand.”

“… Did she know why we were fighting?”

Haru slowly shook his head. Yuki moved his hands up to Haru’s and removed them from his face then let them go. Haru dropped them at his sides and turned.

“You have to let her decide who she wants.”

He headed toward the stairs in hopes of seeing Tohru but just then, Kyo came in, a murderous glint in his eye. Haru rushed back to Yuki and plopped down next to him, ready to protect him if need be.

“You… stupid… rat…” Kyo said sourly. “See what you’ve done?!”

“What I’ve done?! You were the one who started the fight!!”

“You pushed her down!”

“It was an accident!”

“You idiot! What if you had seriously hurt her?!”

“Keep it down,” Haru snapped, teetering from White to Black to White, back and forth like someone balancing on a fence. “Tohru is probably trying to get some rest and it doesn’t help if you two are squabbling.”

Kyo hushed and Yuki looked away. Haru knew that the tension that the two had between each other used to be really bad, but thanks to, he assumed Tohru, the tension had thinned. But now it had filled the room up so bad Haru swore that everything looked blurry.

Hatori came downstairs after a bit and looked to the others with his visible eye.

“She has a broken arm and a few cuts on her leg. It seems that when she fell, she landed right on the elbow and completely snapped the ulna in half.”

Yuki winced. I did that to her…

“I’ll be coming by again tomorrow and then weekly thereafter. She mustn’t do anything with that arm—so no cleaning, cooking, or writing if she’s right handed.”

“She is,” Kyo stated. Yuki sighed.

“No cleaning? Shigure must be depressed.”

As if on cue, Shigure appeared behind Hatori. “I sort of am, but it’s okay. Poor Tohru-kun…”

“Why don’t I cook and clean for you?” offered Haru. Kyo stared.

“No! Get the hell out of this house!”

Shigure, on the other hand, was looking at Haru in an all new light.

“You would… do that for us?”

“Yeah—I always clean back at the Main House. And this is all I can do for her, so I may as well do it. She probably hates the idea of being stuck in bed.”

“Well, you can do whatever starting tomorrow. Tonight, we’re returning to the Main House so you can at least pack up your things and drop Kisa and Hiro off like you were supposed to thirty minutes ago,” Hatori sighed, turning away. Haru looked up to the clock on the wall and made a small yelp.

“WHOA! When did… holy crap!”

He got up and rushed into the other room. Yuki sighed and counted down from three on his fingers; once all the fingers were down, Haru appeared back in the room to give Yuki a kiss on the cheek and then again rushed off. Kyo slapped his forehead and Yuki gazed out the window.

*~~*~~*

That look in Kyo’s eyes…

Yuki had a similar look, but Kyo looked as though he was hurt more than anything, like he absolutely had to win that fight this evening. Tohru supposed that she was somewhat happy that they stopped fighting, but it wasn’t like the way she had wanted them to stop. Also… if she couldn’t use her right arm, how could she write essays for school or clean up the house? She felt like crying again, but her throat hurt too much to do so.

Mother… I can’t write anything right now… what am I supposed to do about school?

She was so worried that she would let her mother down if she couldn’t do her schoolwork. … Well! She wasn’t about to let that get in her way. She would teach herself to write with her left hand if she must! Or she’d get one of her friends to help her! Yeah, that was it! Maybe Yuki would—

Her thoughts hushed out instantly as she thought of Yuki. He couldn’t have possibly done that on purpose. It had been somewhat stupid of her to try to stop them like she had, but she had done it anyway, thinking of nothing better to do. Again, she was grateful that they had stopped or else instead of her broken arm, it would have been one of their broken faces. She sighed, wishing that she knew what had started the brutal fight.

*~~*~~*

Tohru was ever so polite as usual when Haru entered the house with a soft smile on his face, his bags either at his feet or around his shoulder.

“Welcome to the house,” she greeted him, bowing. He bowed in return, “Sorry to intrude…”

“Tohru, what are you doing out of bed?” asked a deep voice behind Haru. Haru fluttered to the side to reveal Hatori.

“Hatori-san!” Tohru bowed again. “I didn’t want you to think me as rude!”

“Idiot!” Kyo snapped, appearing at her side. He glared to Haru. “Gimme your crap.”

Hatori whacked Kyo on the noggin and said, “Don’t get Hatsuharu angry. We don’t need him going black while Tohru is trying to recover.”

Kyo rubbed his head and plucked Haru’s things from the ground and heaved them inside. Haru was staying for Tohru’s two month recovery and thanks to the lack of rooms, he was sleeping on the couch. He didn’t really mind, but he brought along all of his pillows, including a little rat stuffed animal that he slept with every night. He kept it well hid in one of his pillows’ cases, of course, naming it “Yuki-chan.”

Speaking of Yuki, the boy was outside, tending to his secret base as usual. He was anxiously awaiting the strawberries to become ripe so he could pick them and give them to Tohru as a “get well” gift. But as he tugged lightly on one or two, he saw that they just weren’t red enough yet, sighed, and stood up. Maybe I should just buy some and say that they’re from the garden…

He shook his h hav having a feeling that Tohru would somehow figure it out. He headed back toward the house, his hands stuffed into his pockets as he contemplated what to do. He had two months for them to ripen, but he want to give Tohru a present now… he’d do anything to hear her say, “Souma-kun, I’m okay!”

*~~*~~*

Kyo was even more on-edge around Yuki ever since the fight. Shigure had hoped that they could have gotten over it after their fight, but apparently not. Kyo was even more mad at Yuki for hurting Tohru even though it was an accident. They had a little spat every time they saw each other up until Haru started yelling, which made them realize how they probably sounded, so they stopped.

Hatori and Shigure found it odd that the very same person who ended the fighting so well had also brought forth an even more serious fight, one that didn’t date back to thousands of years ago. Tohru stayed away from the both of them most of the time except during dinner, where she only spoke to Haru and Shigure. However, if Kyo or Yuki started a conversation with her during dinner, she didn’t have the heart to ignore them.

One night, six days after the fight, Haru was cleaning the dishes and Kyo came down for a midnight glass of milk. Haru held out a bowl.

“Here, kitty…”

“Shut up! Give me a cup!”

Haru grabbed a cup out of the cupboard and handed it to the enraged red-head. He sat and poured the liquid into the glass. For a minute, Kyo sipped from his glass and Haru silently continued drying and washing the dishes. Suddenly, Kyo asked, “You like Yuki, right?”

“That I do!” Haru almost purred. Kyo shook slightly with disgust.

“Ick… whatever. Listen, I’m going to take Tohru out of the house tomorrow. I need you to cover for me. Keep Yuki busy long enough for me to take her out.”

Haru blinked, looking at Kyo with a blank expression.

“‘Take her out?’ What do you mean?”

Kyo didn’t answer but hid his eyes with his bangs and sipped his milk with a red face. Haru grinned and sat down with his chest toward the backrest of the chair.

“Ahhhh like on a date!”

“SHHHH!” Kyo snapped, glaring at the ox boy. Haru scratched his ear.

“All right. That sounds good to me. Gives me time alone with Yuki.”

“I figured you’d go for that,” Kyo said sourly. Haru smiled.

“Actually, if you think about it, I’d like to see you with Tohru. That leaves Yuki all to me.”

Kyo nodded, sipped his milk again, and thought about it more.

“I mean, I wouldn’t be mad if Tohru herself picked Yuki instead of you,” Haru continued. “I’d give Yuki up just to see him happy.”

“You sound like Kagura… only you’re not psycho. … Wait, yes you are… screw it, you’re not as psycho,” Kyo stammered. Grinning, Haru replied, “I’m less psycho than Kagura?”

“To me, yeah. You don’t abuse to show your ‘love,’” Kyo stated, a dark aura under his eyes. “… Well, you show it in a different way when you’re Black Haru…”

Thinking about it, Haru chuckled mischievously. The cat-boy was getting freaked out, so he whacked his younger cousin (though none of them were direct cousins anyway, but it was simply easier to tell people that they were cousins rather than “the nephew of my father’s cousin’s sister-in-law…”) on the head and bade him good night.

*~~*~~*

In the morning, Tohru was greeted by Kyo’s face.

“W-waaaaah! Ky—Kyo-kun!” she yelped, squirming up into a sitting position. Kyo was always a morning person while Yuki was not. He had this advantage, at least.

“G-good morning, Kyo-kun…” Tohru said, smiling slightly.

“Wanna go out today?” he cut straight to the point only because if he hadn’t, he would have lost his nerve.

“Go out? Where?”

“A-anywhere you want,” Kyo offered. He hadn’t even thought of what to do or where to take her; he only focused on being with her.

“Me? Well, that wouldn’t be fair to you and Souma-kun if I picked—”

“No,” Kyo interrupted almost harshly. “Yuki isn’t coming with us.”

“Oh, he isn’t?” Tohru wondered. “Is Kagura-san coming?”

“No! Hell no! It’s just you and me!”

It took a moment for this to register with Tohru. She pointed to him then to herself. He did the same in return. Tohru aimlessly kept wiggling her finger back and forth between her and Kyo, thinking desperately about the matter.

Aaah! Kyo-kun is asking me out on a date? I never thought… he’d… oh wow! A date with Kyo-kun! It could be fun! Oh wow!

“Got anything in mfor for where you wanna go?” Kyo reiterated.

“W-well, we could… ah… go to… the… grocery store!” she stammered, and once she finished her sentence she had that determined but stupid look on her face. Kyo looked at her blankly.

“The grocery store?”

Tohru face faltered. “I don’t know!”

Kyo chuckled, reminded of their game of ping-pong back at the hot spring, and smiled his awkward smile. “Why don’t we do that before coming home and do something else beforehand?”

“Then… where do you want to go, Kyo-kun?”

“Maybe for… a walk somewhere and then lunch?”

Tohru nodded gleefully. “That sounds like fun!”

“All right. Meet me downstairs in twenty minutes,” he ordered lightly, standing up (he had been leaning on the bed) and heading toward the door. He looked back as he slid the door to the side. Tohru was staring at him with an empty but thoughtful expression on her face. Figuring that she was once again spacing out, Kyo left the room.

*~~*~~*

Yuki, on the other hand, was greeted with a Tohru-less house, with Shigure visiting Hatori, Kyo somewhere, and Haru… on the couch, reading something. He was tapping his foot as if keeping in time with a song and it was then that Yuki noticed that he had headphones on. So that’s what that buzzing was…

Yuki slinked into the kitchen, looking around for Tohru. Perhaps she was outside? Yuki opened the fridge, trying to not think of it. The milk was gone.

“Stupid cat probably drank all of the milk…” he grimaced, rummaging through the rest of the fridge’s contents. He plucked some unidentified red juice and studied the bottle, wondering what it was, what was the expiration date, and if it was even drinkable.

He decided against taste-testing it for sourness and decided to pour the liquid out. It was a lucky thing that he hadn’t tasted the liquid for as he poured it out, some of it poured out it clumps. He hollered in disgust and then lost his grip on the bottle, dropping it.

Haru was nodding his head to his loud music when he heard an even louder noise. He tugged his headphones off and blinked, waiting for another sound to occur. Nothing did. He paused his CD and got up, placing the book down on the table.

He froze before entering the kitchen. Yuki was on the floor of the kitchen, a broken bottle next to him on the floor, and a lot of red liquid. Obviously, the first thing that came to Haru’s mind was…

“YUKI!!!” he yelled, running forward. Yuki looked up at him with a cross look upon his face.

“What?”

“YOU… you’re not dead?!” Haru asked, dumfounded. Yuki sighed.

“No, of course not. I dropped the bottle that contained this… stuff and when it spilled, I tried to move out of the way, but I slipped on the liquid.”

Haru glared at said liquid and bottle as if they were murderers. He looked back to Yuki and reached out for him.

“Need help getting up?”

“Not really,” said Yuki, lifting himself up. Almost as soon as he was halfway standing, he slipped again. Haru caught him in his arms.

“Hah! I knew you would fall for me!” Haru grinned. Yuki smirked, slightly amused and blushing a tad.

“Cut it out.”

Haru lifted him away from the mess and set him down so he could sit down at the table. He looked to the mess and chuckled.

“You can be a klutz when you let your guard down.”

Yuki looked away with a pout on his face. He felt gross; that stuff had gotten on his clothes. Haru was cleaning up the liquid and the glass, careful not to slip in it. Yuki noticed this.

“Ah, you don’t have to—”

“It’s my job, the reason I’m here, to clean, right?” Haru asked in return.

“But I made the mess.”

“And I’m cleaning it up for you. Maybe you can just give me something in return,” Haru suggested, tossing the glass into the trash bin. Yuki sighed, wiping some of the liquid out of his hair.

“I’ll give you the chance to wash me,” he said sarcastically.

Now, if there was a time for Haru to turn Black, this wasn’t it. Sometimes, all it took to change him were his feelings for Yuki. He turned and scooped him up in his arms, leading him through the hallway to the bathroom.

“What—Haru, I was joking!!”

“I didn’t think that you were,” Haru replied, his eyes glimmering. Yuki realized that he had gone black.

“Haru! Put me down!! There’s no way I’d ever let you—”

“Oh come on! You just said I could!” Haru grinned, placing Yuki down at the bath’s edge. Yuki glared.

“Don’t you dare…”

“Dare what?”

“I don’t want to have to hurt you, Haru. Just get out.”

He wasn’t about to be weak. Aside from maybe the elder Soumas, he was the best fighter, and wasn’t afraid to let loose on someone if they pissed him off enough, like, for example, Kyo.

“But what would be the fun in that?” asked Haru, reaching for Yuki’s shirt. Yuki grabbed his arm, threatening, “If you do this, I’ll call Hatori and tell him to bring you back.”

“Who’d do the cleaning?” asked Haru coolly. Yuki’s eyes flashed.

“I would. For Honda-san.”

It wasn’t the threat that stopped Haru, it was the fact that Yuki was willing to do things for Tohru. He backed away.

“To…” was all he managed before hitting the door from backing up. Yuki was glaring at him differently than if Haru was just teasing. Haru exited the room, but could still feel Yuki’s glare on his back.

---

Uh-oh spaghettios!! Haru’s in big trouble now. Him and his horny self. Oh well. More on Kyo and Tohru’s date next chapter.