Cursed or Not (I don't care) [Fruits Basket fanfic]

05. The Storm

Important note: I'm not a native english speaker (nor a professional writer), and though I feel kind of comfortablet with it, my level is far from being bilingual. Even so, I wanted to write this story in english so it can  be reached by more people (specially Furuba fans). Please let me know any typo or mistake that I can have done in the comments of each chapter so I can polish it as much as possible. Thanks in advance and please enjoy it!

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The remaining two days, before meeting Akito, passed very slowly. Nao managed to get through them getting distracted with Shigure's novel. She found peace in it, and she was actually enjoying it a lot, but she realized that the novel was terribly sad. The main character was a lonely grey wolf, that had been separated from his pack and at some point had fallen in love with a goddess he used to pray to. But the goddess couldn't reciprocate his feelings because their lives were very different from each other. The way it was written was magnificent and every time she found a moment to open the book she got abstracted from the rest of the world for the time she was reading. But even so, it was a story that conveyed much pity to her. It was... almost painful.

She hadn't say a word to Shigure about the novel yet, because she decided to read it all before making any judgement of it. And he didn't make any question about, like if he had completely forgotten that she was reading it. Either way, Shigure realized that Nao was acting strangely those two days. Absentminded and kind of downcast, a very different attitude than the one she've been showing all these past days. He couldn't figure what could be happening. He even tried asking Tohru if something have happened to her, but Tohru was as clueless (and worried) as him about that subject.

The day arranged for the meeting finally arrived. Nao was so nervous that she couldn't even had anything to eat during all day. Tohru thought that she was sick and tried to convince her to visit a doctor, but Nao calmed her with some plain excuses and told her not to worry. But these didn't sound very convincing to Tohru, actually.

Nao left to the Sohma complex. Yuki was the only one who knew what was really happening, and he couldn't hide his concern either. Kyo was the only one who seemed to not have realized about Nao's behaviour. He was, as usual, trying to find any excuse to argue with Yuki. But after some attempts without receiving any answer by his side, Kyo started to be upset.

- Hey rat, I'm talking to you. Have you became deaf? - said him, while grabbing Yuki by his shoulder, to force him look his way. Yuki slapped his hand off skillfully.

- Not now, stupid cat. - he murmured, loud enough to be purposely heard.

Kyo was about to enrage, but then Tohru grabbed him by his arm to avoid another confrontation, already so common between them.

- Kyo... Please don't. - she said. And Kyo surprisingly obeyed, at the same time as his cheeks became red when realizing she was there. Then Tohru, who had realized about Yuki's concerned attitude, asked.

- Yuki, could it be... that you know something about why Nao have been acting weird these days?

Shigure, who had been quietly sitting there with everyone else while reading a newspaper, looked away from the papers upon hearing the question. Yuki seemed doubtful.

- What's up with Izumi-san? - asked Kyo, confused.

- I think something happened to her. She've been acting weird, even when she should be exultant about meeting with Akito one more time... I wonder what could it be. - Said Tohru, thougthful.

Shigure folded the newspaper he'd been reading and put it on the table. Realizing that he was not the only one who noticed a change in her, made him more concerned about it "so it wasn't my imagination after all..."