Noon Delight

A Fruits Basket fan fiction by Iapetus

Disclaimer: I do not own this wonderful series, or any of the characters in it.
Rating: PG-13 (for shounen ai implications)
Pairings: Haru/Yuki. Implied Kyou/Tohru.
Pre-Reader: D-chan

Takes place sometime after the anime ends, although there are no spoilers for the series itself.

"…I'm not hungry."

Hatsuharu Sohma leaned against the frame of the open door, trying to keep his body language unreadable. He had been given the simple task of going up to Yuki's room to tell him that lunch was ready. Kyou refused to for obvious reasons, but instead of eventually being forced to, Haru quickly volunteered to spare Shigure's house from somehow incurring more damage.

"You and Tohru were gardening all morning." The two had come home fairly quickly as the noonday sun had borne down on them especially hard. At least, that was what Shigure had said. Haru wondered if it had more to do with how Kyou was rather insistent at helping make lunch.

An uncomfortable pause followed the statement. Yuki looked away and out his window, avoiding his cousin's gaze.

"Do you love her?"

The rat's focus was not drawn away from the outside, but his body visibly tensed. Most would not notice it, but Haru had learned to read Yuki's unique body language a long time ago. He couldn't hide these sorts of things from him.

"You do…" he wasn't able to hide the note of disappointment in his voice. He had nothing against Tohru, he really didn't, but…

"No… It's that I don't." Yuki still couldn't look back at his visitor. "Not like that. Not the way that stupid cat does.

"She's been through so much – I want to be there for her like she has for me…"

Haru took another step closer. Yuki made no motion to show that he noticed the slow approach.

"You're there for her. We all are. She's become an honorary member of the family. Even he cannot deny that he needs her just as much as the rest of us do now.

"But that's not what's troubling you, is it?"

Again, there was silence.

"It's just… whenever she looks at Kyou-"

"-and you want something like that."

The rat tensed again. Yes, he did. Haru could tell that easily. Cautiously, his hand moved to wipe a bit of stray dirt off his elder cousin's face. When he did not flinch, he brought Yuki's eyes to his. The violet irises swirled with a sense of lonely solitude.

"She-she doesn't see the "prince" or the "rat." She sees me. No one has seen me before."

Haru's voice dropped to a whisper. "You know I want to see you. You can see me as more than the cow."

"Why does it have to be me? The others can see who you are too."

"You were the first."

"I won't be the last."

"Do you wish you were?" Yuki's expression faltered.

"You don't need me. No one needs me."

"That's not true and you know it." No response. "She does, even if not like that. Kyou does, though we both know he'd never admit it. I…" He leaned so that he only had to speak in a faint whisper.

"I need your love."

With that, he pulled back so he could see Yuki's reaction with his own eyes. There was no rejection – there was something else he couldn't place. It was almost like… he was content.

Haru smiled as he moved reluctantly back towards the door. They could talk about these things later. "Lunch is ready."

This was written in a drabble challange that I was given - someone gives you a title, a pairing and a quote and you must write about it between 100 and 500 words. Well, I went over by a little bit, but was so happy with it that I decided not to scrap it. This was my first attempt at Furuba, and I hoped you all enjoyed it. 3

-Iapetus