Title: Food for Thought
Rating: PG cuz Kyou's got a dirty mouth?
Feedback: (yes!) Infinitesimal KyouxTohru
Spoilers: uh, not really. Unless you haven't really read/seen anything in FB. O.o
Summary: Tohru comes to an important realization that could forever change the Sohma family's…eating habits.
Word Count: 2,401
Time: SOOO don't remember. Meh.
A/N: Sometimes I think that I should just give up on the whole Fruits Basket fic thing because I'm just not doing so hot on it. But then an idea strikes and it doesn't leave me along and here I am once again. Anyway, apologies for stupidity, OOCness, and a really, really bad ending. My goals of writing a Kyoru fic that doesn't suck kind of deflated and died, but I still tried, dammit. That counts for something, right? And no matter how much I suck at portraying it, I just want everyone to know that I do indeed support the pairing. I'm just no good at expressing love. ;; I'm so sorry, Kyou…Tohru. shame
Dedication: Het/gen fic… I should dedicate it to one of the non-yaoi fan friends I've got. Uhm… This one goes to Beck, because I've never dedicated a story to her and that's a cryin' shame.
Disclaimer: Not mine… if they were, I think I'd worry a lot less about paying my out-of-state college tuition and more about Hatori/Shigure fan-service and getting to molest Seki as he's voicing Kyou. XD
Distribution: Uh, if you want it I guess. --;;

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Tohru had very recently come to the realization that beef, chicken, and pork were all components that made up the flesh-and-blood animal bodies of zodiac members.

Kyou stared disconsolately at his rice and bean sprouts.

Even Yuki looked a little bit put out, but the prissy-boy wouldn't do anything about it because he was probably worried about losing the appearance of composure over such a little thing.

Shigure thought it was funny as all hell, but that was only because Kyou suspected the perverted bastard of having a stash of beef jerky hidden somewhere in his office and thus not having to worry about the anemia that might strike the cat and mouse at any time within the next few days.

Tohru smiled and set a dish of tofu down before joining them. Yuki offered one of those polite smiles that meant he was trying to convince himself everything was fine like this and it was best not to rock the boat.

Kyou glared at his rice and bean sprouts. The look he threw the tofu was absolutely withering.

Shigure sipped tea to hide his wider grins, but everyone knew he was still smirking anyway. "Ah, dig in everyone, Tohru-kun worked hard to prepare this delicious meal for all of us!" the dog chirped, clasping his hands together and looking between his two male wards expectantly.

Yuki's eyes narrowed marginally but he gamely picked up his chopsticks and seized a moderately sized chunk of tofu. "Itaidekimasu," he murmured before blowing on the piece and taking it to his mouth.

Tohru smiled from beside Kyou, turned big eyes on him as he sighed and also reached for the bean curd.

Shigure looked like he was king of the whole goddamned world.

"How is it?" Tohru asked as Kyou shoveled in a mouthful of rice after the tofu and knocked back a full cup of tea.

"Uh…"

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Yuki admonished, effectively cutting off whatever offensive thing had unquestionably been on the tip of Kyou's tongue.

The other boy's mouth snapped shut but his eyes narrowed into slits that told the mouse exactly where he could shove his snobby, self-superior etiquette.

Tohru refilled his tea cup. "Sorry Kyou-kun! I shouldn't have asked when you had your mouth full like that!" she apologized, knocking herself on the head. "I wasn't thinking."

"I think your tofu is excellent today, Tohru-kun!" Shigure exclaimed brightly. "Even better than it was when you made it yesterday! The best for this entire week."

She beamed back at the writer. "I'm glad."

Kyou wanted tonkatsu. It wasn't that he didn't like tofu or bean sprouts or heck, even rice. He really did like all those things. And Tohru was a good cook, which he also couldn't deny. But suddenly switching to a diet of tofu and veggies for an entire week when one was used to having some form of meat wasn't exactly easy.

She could've at least thrown in some fish for some variety, but the cat had a sneaking suspicion that after last month's class about the dangers of over-fishing the oceans and depleting the world's fish population to the point that it was unrecoverable had struck some sort of environmentalist's chord in her and she was doing her part to save the planet.

He couldn't be sure, but that just seemed like something she'd do.

Which he could respect, but he was pretty damn sure there wasn't a shortage on pigs, chickens, or cows. Kagura sure showed up enough times during the course of a month that as far as Kyou was concerned, there were a couple too many pigs in the world.

But that was the problem, wasn't it?

He remembered at lunch a little while ago, as he'd unpacked the bento Tohru had made him that morning, he'd asked her what she'd made that day.

Haru and Momiji had been with them, and she'd very cheerfully announced that the beef-curry bread she'd attempted was making its debut in both his and Yuki's lunches.

Momiji had cheered and said that Tohru was such a good cook that she could even make something so complicated for Yuki and Kyou's daily lunches.

She offered him a half of hers, and realizing that it was impolite not to, had offered Haru the other half.

He declined, and there had been a pause of silence as everyone realized what she'd done, however unintentionally. Well, perhaps everyone besides Haru and Tohru.

A moment after that, she realized it herself, which naturally turned itself into a spectacle with her furious blushing and numerous bowed apologies for being so stupid and cruel and heartless to poor Hatsuharu-san.

Kyou was pretty sure Haru had no idea what she was talking about. He just didn't like curry.

So at the time, Kyou had thought the whole situation was kind of funny, seeing as to how he'd never really thought of it that way before. He'd eaten his curry bread and declared that it "didn't stink or anything" before finishing off the other things she'd packed.

The lunch bell eventually rang and they went back to class and he'd never thought of the incident again.

They hadn't eaten any kind of meat since then.

The cat knew he wasn't a genius or anything, but he had the sneaking suspicion that the reasons why they'd suddenly become vegetarian all led back to that one incident.

Which was why he was eating tofu. Again.

"Kyou-kun, what's the matter?"

He blinked, paused mid-chew to look down at her. "Huh?"

"You looked so angry just now…is something wrong?"

"Yes, is something the matter, my dear Kyou-kun?" Shigure chimed in helpfully. Kyou would have grabbed him by his collar and shaken him violently if Tohru hadn't been in the potential line of fire. Instead, he glowered at the smirking dog and swallowed his rice.

"Nothing's wrong."

"His face is naturally unpleasant," Yuki offered by way of explanation in an exceptionally dry tone before sipping daintily at his tea.

"What the hell?! Let's step outside and I'll make your face as unpleasant as the rest of your personality!" the cat hissed, momentarily forgetting his irritation at Shigure's inquiry.

"Now, now, no need to fight, Kyou-kun, Yuki-kun! Especially when it might mean thiswonderful dinner Tohru-chan has worked so hard on will get cold and go to waste!"

Kyou snarled at Shigure. "Would you shut the hell up?!"

Yuki eyed the dog also. "I'm actually inclined to agree with the stupid-cat."

"Who the hell are you calling stupid you stuck-up rat?!"

"If you would pay attention then you'd know I was calling you stupid, stupid-cat."

"That's it! I'm gonna kick your…"

"Ah this is all my fault, I'm so sorry!!!"

Everyone paused. Yuki blinked. "How is it your fault, Honda-san?"

"Ah, I shouldn't have asked Kyou-kun if anything was wrong!" she offered, hands clasped together against her chest. "I'm sorry!"

Kyou scowled. "Don't apologize for stupid things!"

"I'm sorry!!"

"Maa, maa, the food's getting cold. Let's just finish dinner, shall we?" Shigure offered with a smile no one but Tohru trusted.

Both cat and mouse turned their glares in his direction but managed not to say anything more.

Kyou returned to his…bean sprouts.

His mood considerably worsened. Leave it to that dumb dog and that shitty mouse to take a pretty bad situation and make it even stupider.

When dinner was done, he immediately retired to the roof to have a nice, private sulk and hopefully spend some time in a place where neither of his idiot relatives could make their snide comments or make him look at their idiotic faces.

He spent the evening in that manner, spread out on his back atop the roof, staring at the sky until the last of the sun's rays fell over the horizon. Crickets started chirping soon after and the air began to chill.

Surprisingly, he wasn't hungry despite how light the meal had been. Just like he'd been every night since the whole fiasco.

Frowning to himself, the cat sighed and let an arm fall over his eyes.

Stubborn as he was, even he knew when he was faced with a battle that could absolutely, never, ever be won.

All of his unwinable battles seemed to revolve around Honda Tohru.

The sad thing was, she didn't even know she was fighting.

Kyou groaned and sat up, bangs falling over his eyes. Looked like another loss he could chalk up on his side of the score board.

"Kyou-kun?"

He literally jumped fifty feet in the air as her head suddenly appeared in front of him, looking concerned and having no consideration whatsoever for the fact that she'd just scared three years from his life.

"Idiot! Don't do that!" he admonished, hair bristled defensively as he fought to calm himself.

"Ah, I'm sorry! I should have called up before I started climbing, but I was worried because it's pretty late now and you hadn't come in and you seemed upset during dinner and I wanted to come and ask you what was wrong and I forgot to say anything before I did to warn you that I was here because I wasn't thinking…"

Kyou blinked.

"… and I always forget to think and I'm sorry I scared you, it was dangerous and you could have fallen and I'll never…"

The cat put up a hand. "Be quiet for a second, would you?" he asked, feeling tired all of a sudden.

"Ah sorry!" She physically placed a hand over her mouth.

He frowned just so he wouldn't inadvertently let himself smile at how dumb she looked. "Oi…you don't have to go that far." He tugged on her hand gently, pulling it away from her face. "That looks so stupid," he explained, eyes carefully averted as he let go of her wrist.

"Sorry!"

"You don't need to apologize for everything!" he shot back reflexively, louder than he'd intended.

She looked like she was about to apologize again, and he cut her off. "Don't say it, okay? I shouldn't have yelled anyway." He settled back down and eyed her. "Are you coming up or what?"

It took her a moment to realize that she was still on the ladder.

Fighting the urge to roll his eyes and call her stupid, he leaned forward and extended a hand, helping her up to the rooftop beside him.

She sat down beside him, her expression reading that she was thoughtful but trying not to look it exactly, and how did one like her do that, and oh, mother, was she going about this all wrong?

The cat found himself chuckling to himself internally as he watched every word play out across her expressive features like she was really speaking them, content to sit quietly by for a moment.

At least, until the question, 'is Kyou-kun mad at me?' flashed across her face..

He frowned. "I'm not mad at you."

She blinked. "Eh? R-really?"

He snorted. "Why would I be mad at you, stupid?"

"Ah, sorry! I shouldn't have thought that you were mad at me without asking and… now you probably really are mad at me and I didn't mean to make you that way, I was just worried because you seem unhappy lately and I thought maybe it was the food because you don't seem to like it and I didn't notice for such a long time and that was so dumb of me and I…"

Kyou sighed and rapped her gently on the head with his knuckles before she led them both on a thousand word journey that wouldn't really go anywhere. "Just be quiet for a second, would you?"

"Ah sorry, sorry! I'll be quiet!"

Kyou slumped in utter defeat at the five-millionth apology. "Don't apologize! Especially if you don't have to, that's just annoying, ya know?" He looked out of the corners of his eyes at her, and perceiving that she was going to start it all over again, quickly cut her off. "Look, today…I… er, just… it's not the food, really. Maybe a little, but that's not the point, okay? I just… look… you don't have to make anything you don't want to or anything, okay? Even if your reason is kind of dumb. But if you don't want to, no one can really make you. You're in charge of the food and stuff, and it doesn't taste bad or anything, so you can do whatever, so don't apologize for it anymore, okay?"

She blinked at him.

He averted his eyes, fixating down at his outstretched legs. "What I'm sayin' is… as long as there aren't any leeks I guess it's fine."

She smiled and fiddled with her hands in her lap. "Kyou-kun always says such nice things," she said softly.

He frowned. "It's not anything like that…" he started, still purposefully keeping his eyes from her face. "I'm just sayin' what I think, 's all," the cat murmured gruffly, embarrassed.

She smiled beatifically at him. "Thank you, Kyou-kun," she said sincerely, and he thought it was stupid of her to thank him for something like that, but kind of nice at the same time, which was inexplicable, but not completely unwanted. "But even so… I think, that it's okay to cook you food you like," she continued after a moment, looking up at him with the idiotic kind of smile that made him shift a bit uncomfortably where he sat. "It's okay in the end isn't it? Because the Jyuunishi are all wonderful people. Even if they turn into animals, they're wonderful people in the end. So they're not the same. They're not animals. So then it's all right, I think. Tomorrow I'll make the food Kyou-kun likes."

The cat sighed, eyeing her with a curious sort of exasperated admiration. "Che. That's really dumb logic," he murmured, shaking his head at her.

"Is it? I'm sorry! I guess I…"

"But I guess in the end, it makes sense," he finished, laying back down against the rooftop and crossing his arms behind his head. He turned and looked up at her face, allowing the ghost of a smile. "I guess that's what matters, even if it is idiotic logic."

Her smile brightened. "Really?"

He shrugged one shoulder noncommittally before closing his eyes and settling down comfortably, the corner of his mouth turning upwards in a slightly mischievous smirk. "Tomorrow let's have pork."

"Okay!"

END