✔Summer Rain |Fruits Basket| HatsuHaru Sohma

23- Stars

  "What do you mean?"  I asked curiously, inching away from the fence.

  "Earlier you acted like a burden when you were talking about your interests and it really pissed me off.  So come tell me about the stars or whatever."  He patted the grass beside him with a scowl.

  "Oh."  I laid down on the grass beside him, my arms behind my head in a position mirroring his own.  He glanced over at me, a faint smile playing at his lips.  I smiled and looked up at the sky, scanning it for some constellations.  "What do you want to know?" 

  He was silent for a moment, then he let out a deep breath.  "What do you know?"  He asked, shifting so he was laying on his side more.

  "Well-"  I sat up and pointed to a grouping of stars.  "That's Mizugame- Aquarius."  I directed his attention to each star individually.  "That one over there is KoGuma- Child Bear."

  He hummed, his eyes focused on the sky.  "What about the ox?"

  I paused to look over at him, an amused grin spreading across my face.  "Oushi- Taurus.  That's over there, just above the trees.  Those two stars are it's horns, those two just below are it's eyes, they meet to form it's nose and then follow the body to the bust of the chest behind the trees.  See?"

  He looked on with a sort of child like wonder, and I had to admit it was sort of adorable.  It was much unlike him to be so- cute like this.  "How come you know so much about the stars?"  He turned to look at me again.

  I laid back down, on my side this time so I faced him.  "My dad knew a lot about stars."  I said, my eyes trained on the playground behind him.  "He told me stories about them and I got an interest in them because of it.  Then my parents got divorced and he moved out, so I sort of found an escape in them I guess."

  "An escape."  He said softly, almost agreeingly.

  "My dad used to say that everyone in Japan was looking at the same sky, at the same stars.  That made me happy to think that maybe he was looking at them and thinking of me like I did with him.  So I learned a lot about the stars to feel closer to him."  I peeked over at him, finding him staring at me.  "Sorry-"  I mumbled.  "Its stupid.  Uh- do you want to know something else about the stars?" 

  "Mm-"  He flicked my forehead with his pointer finger, then closed his eyes and rolled onto his back.

  I sat up, hugging my knees to my chest with a smile.  "Okay."  I put my chin on my knees.  "Oh!  That one over there is Kirin!  The giraffe!  And the one to the left of it is Kujira, the Whale!"  I laughed to myself a bit, then turned to look at him.  "Haru- oh."  I bit back a smile when I saw him sleeping.  "Was I that boring?  Dumbass, how am I supposed to get home if you're asleep?"

  Haru responded with the quiet rise and fall of his chest, and I ran a hand through my hair.  I laid down beside him and tucked my arm under my head, watching him quietly before looking back up at the sky.

  How in the hell I got to this point in my life, I had absolutely no clue.  I was laying in an empty park with someone who acted like he hated my guts half the time, lying to my mother, and on top of that carrying the Sohma family secret that no one else knew about. 

  I looked over at him again, reaching out a hand to move some hair out of his face.  "Don't be an idiot Mei."  I scolded myself, pulling my hand back tight to my chest.  I rolled over, turning my back to him.  "You're in highschool, there's no point thinking about stupid things like that."

  And yet-

  I was enjoying myself more than I ever had in my life.  Haru was making me feel things, and I didn't know whether I liked it or not.  He made me feel safe, for one.  I didn't worry about everything when I was with him.  And he made me happy, as odd as it was.