✔Summer Rain |Fruits Basket| HatsuHaru Sohma

36- Forgiveness

"Oh no! Oh no! This is bad!"

I turned my head to watch Momiji come sprinting into the room, his arms flailing and his eyes wide. He greeted me, then turned to the others. "This is bad!"

I had mostly been tuning the others out for the majority of their conversation- I hadn't planned on going to Kyoto and Nara for the class trip, but they'd included me in their group for the mean time.

"What's wrong Momiji-kun?" Tohru asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Haru's turned dark and is on a huge rampage in our classroom! Isn't that bad!" He exclaimed, waving his arms around again.

"What?" My voice was in a whisper, hardly heard over Kyo shouting at the younger Sohma. Haru? "He hates going dark-" I said, a little bit louder.

"Come with us." Yuki said, taking my hand.

"What am I going to do?" I asked as we made our way into the hall. "Once he's in a dark state there's no pulling him out of it."

"Just- be there for him afterwards. We'll do the rest, okay?" He smiled.

I nodded hesitantly, watching as down the hall, dust and debris flew from the classroom a group of students were standing outside of.

As we neared closer, Yuki spoke to the teacher of the class quietly, and she and the students rushed off down the hall nervously.

I peered into the classroom, my eyes widening as I saw Haru tossing things around the room, growling. The energy that radiated off of him was dark, darker than I'd seen ever.

"At least he hasn't screwed up and transformed into an ox." Kyo said, rubbing his forehead. "Oi Haru!"

"What?" He snapped, his eyes turned, meeting mine. "What do you want?"

"What are you doing Haru?" Yuki asked annoyedly.

"I'm on a rampage. Can't you tell? If you wanna stop me, come at me ready to kill."

"It's been a while since he was this dark." Yuki said, looking down at me.

"I-" I couldn't find the words, and turned back to watch him.

He sighed, then made his way into the room behind Kyo, who was getting fired up. "Don't rise to the bait stupid cat." Yuki scolded Kyo.

"You stop acting cool and do something!"

"Haru, I know the reason behind this, but you shouldn't rampage at school. It's not going to accomplish anything!" Yuki explained.

"Aw, Princess Yuki is such a worry-wart. Afraid I'll accidentally transform on my rampage?" Haru asked, his eyes narrowing as he swept across the group. "We'll all go down together, huh? Stupid! Stupid! So damn Stupid!"

I bit my lip, running a hand through my hair. "I'm sorry-

Kyo landed a punch before I could finish, and I jumped, watching him fly across the room. "I dunno what the hell you're so pissed about, but don't drag Tohru into your dumb tantrum." He raced at Haru, fists a fury.

"You idiots." Sensei appeared beside me, a bucket of water in her hand. "I leave you Sohmas alone for one minute and this is what I get." She glanced down at me. "Any luck diffusing the situation Miss Chiyu?"

"N-no ma'am." I shook my head, feeling about as useless as I could in the moment.

I knew Haru was upset over what went down the other day, and he had every right to be, but I didn't think he would rampage in the middle of the school day.

"Well-" Sensei sighed, rolling her eyes. "I'll handle it. No use getting worked up over a bunch of idiots." She advanced forward, just as the two had each other in tight vices. She reached over their heads with the bucket, letting the water fall all over them.

Yuki back up to me, looking down at me. "I know you're upset, but please don't let him do anything stupid-"

"I'm not his babysitter Yuki." I said, although I understood what he meant. If Haru transformed because of a rampage, it would be detrimental to the whole Sohma clan. "But I understand."

"Thank you. He means well, and he loves you. Don't let him go so easily?" He put a hand on my shoulder, watching as Haru was ushered out of the room.

I started after then at a distance, my heart beating nervously in my chest. The two disappeared into the faculty office and I sat down outside the door, bringing my knees to my chest.

Forgiving Haru was easy. Forgive and forget, my dad used to say. But I wasn't sure if I could just forget. And if I tried to talk to him, I feared he might not listen. He was hard headed, of course he was. Nothing ever made my life easy, and Haru always ended up making everything more difficult.

"Hey-"

I looked up, making eye contact with Haru. He was soaked, with a towel wrapped around his shoulders.

"Hey." I replied, brushing myself off and standing up.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, fumbling with the towel around his neck.

I'd never seen him as unsure as he was now, and it made me nervous. "I-" I paused, reaching up to take the towel from him. "Come on, I'll help you clean up. This is partially my fault after all."

He huffed, shaking his head. "No, its not. I was being an idiot. I wasn't thinking about your feelings."

"That's true." I wasn't going to deny that he hurt me, that would make me an idiot. "But I shouldn't have been so harsh. I was just hurt." He stayed silent as we walked, and I headed into an empty classroom. "Sit down." I sighed, tossing the towel over his head.

"You don't have to forgive me-"

"Y'know, I've always been a throw away. My mom likes to ignore me unless it helps her in someway. When you told me- when you told me about Isuzu-san, it reminded me of my mom. And it hurt. A lot." I brought the towel to his hair, gently rubbing his wet hair.

"I'm so sorry." He mumbled, hanging his head. "I didn't know."

"I should have been more open with you." I sighed, letting my head fall to the side to catch his glance. "But it's water under the bridge, okay? I don't want to lose my best friend to something like that."

"Yeah. Best friend." He sighed. "I love you Mei."

"I know. I love you too." I sat back on my heels, looking up at him. "But it's like I said. Neither of us are in a position to make those claims. Your curse- Akito- it's too dangerous for you. And my mom, her expectations- I can't disappoint her now."

He stared at me quietly for a moment, then took my wrists in his hands, pulling my hands off my head. "You're right." He agreed, leaning forward. He bumped his forehead against mine, his wet fringe wetting mine. "But that won't stop you from letting me do this, will it?"

"Depends-" I smiled, laughing. "What is this?"

He leaned forward, his lips meeting mine. I smiled into his kiss, letting my hands go limp in his.
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Word Count: 1206 Words