𝐀𝐙𝐔𝐑𝐄'𝐒 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐄 | Fruits Basket FF

(44)

And the joy she felt after hearing that made her heart swell.

Ichika wrapped her arms around Hatori's neck suddenly, and it surprised him. She rested her chin upon his shoulder as a tear escaped her eyes.

"What's wrong?" She heard him mutter.

"I'm so glad," She whispered. "I thought... I thought I was the only one who felt this way. I had no idea you were looking at me too."

Hatori sighed softly and shut his eyes. Then he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back firmly.

"I'm in love with you, Ichika Sohma."

A tear escaped her eyes and a burning sensation of emotions completely filled her innards. She quickly wiped her tears away and pulled back slightly. "But this is new to me. I've never done this before." She looked away with a blush. She'd only ever seen this happy in books.

"I know, and we'll take it slow." He promised as he curled his fingers around her hand and intertwined them. "We'll go slow and steady. Take all the time that you need, I'll wait for you."

"And will you be okay with me? I feel that I'm a lot of baggage." Ichika breathed.

"It has to be you." He whispered, shutting his eyes and gently resting his forehead against hers. The answer made the corner of her lips lift into the biggest smile.

***

"Ichika, this way." The Doctor urged, guiding the blue-haired Sohma by the hand.

After spending some time with Ichika, Hatori was hesitant to let the female go. He craved for more, wanted nothing more than to stay by her side for the rest of the day, but he knew it was much too dangerous to be her to stay in the Estate. After confessing the truth of their feelings for each other, the male Dragon had felt much more grounded than ever before compared to when he was still unsure of how she felt. Now that he knew she felt the same for him, he felt more secure with her, their bond had strengthened and he was much more protective over her.

In fact, he was overthinking many different ways in order to protect her and their newly found love as paranoia crept up within him. He wouldn't let anyone destroy what they have— including Akito. He wouldn't let anyone get in the way, not ever again.

She nodded, her feet pit-patting from behind him as she kept up with his steps. His mission was to safely get her out of the Main House and away from the area. He had already texted Shigure, so all he had to do was to deliver her to him without anyone from the Main House seeing. They both agreed to meet at a certain location.

Hatori took a swift turn and pushed the side doors open. It lead to a dark undercover alleyway and once they reached the light at the end of it, he took a right turn.

He knew the ins and outs of this place as he grew up in the Main House. He had memorised the passageways and hidden rooms for his own escape as a child, though he never really had the guts to actually run away. It was more so for temporary relief.

His mind ached at the though of the memories resurfacing in his head.

He had gotten a lot of pressure from his parents over his grades and studies. He would study until his nose bled, or would barely get any sleep because of his constant studying. His parents would constantly bombard him with their ideals and dreams, but never really listened to what he wanted. They would force him to go to cram school, do private tutoring, extra studying, quizzes, extra homework, handouts you name it. It had gotten too much for him at one point that he decided to dig up old blueprints of the Main House and located each hidden passageways himself.

It didn't become much use for him as he never acted much on his so called 'rebellious stage', thus the blueprints deemed useless to him... well, until today.

"Ah!" He heard Ichika cry out from behind him and he snapped out of his trip to memory lane. Hatori quickly turned around to see what was wrong. In that moment she had tripped over her own feet and almost face planted into him. He quickly caught her.

"Are you alright? Am I walking too fast?" He asked one after the other in concern.

"No, I'm fine." She shook her head with a relieved sigh. "Thank you for catching me. I got distracted by a noise and lost balance."

He raised an eyebrow and stopped in his tracks. "Noise?"

She, too, copied him and stopped walking. "Yes. Don't you hear it?"

Seeing from his lack of response, Ichika felt chills down her spine. Could it be that she finally lost her mind? or was it something else? A ghost, perhaps? Just thinking about it raised goosebumps on her skin. She stepped closer to the man in fear, her navy eyes scanned the area they were in. They were still in the Sohma Estate, but all she could see was the famous exterior of the traditional-looking walls with trees and a complete garden from both sides of them.

"Y-Y-You r-really don't h-hear it?" She stammered fearfully.

"Hear what?" He asked, looking for around before landing on his on her.

She gulped. After a moment of silence and Hatori's confused expression, Ichika finally parted her shaking lips to answer him, "Someone's crying."