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Hana loved the rain. It suited her aesthetic, in addition to helping drown out some of the waves she was constantly being assaulted by.
She sat motionless on the short, brick wall of a fountain, watching the people at the park scurry for shelter around her. The sound of the water hitting her umbrella distracted her from getting sucked into anyone else's waves, which was both good and bad.
She was alone with her thoughts, for the first time in a while. Uo was ill and not up for going out, and Tohru was busy getting caught up with her studies. She loved and missed her friends, but especially Tohru.
Tohru was like a ray of sunshine after a heavy rain; always bright and warming and welcome. It made Hana smile to think of her. For a moment, it was as if the clouds parted and the rain stopped.
Hana felt the presence of someone else near her. She turned to see a boy with wavy, blonde hair approaching her, holding a yellow umbrella.
"Hallo!" he waved to Hana cheerfully. "You're one of Tohru's friends, ja?"
She nodded. "Yes, I'm Saki Hanajima, but you can call me Hana, if you'd like."
"May I sit next to you, Hana?" he asked her, still smiling.
"It's wet, you'll ruin your nice clothes, um…" she gently warned him.
Momiji plopped down next to her. "Oh, I'm Momiji Sohma! And I don't mind, I have lots of nice clothes to wear! So many, I could wear a different outfit every day if I wanted to!"
Hana blinked when he said the name Sohma. He didn't have the same odd waves coming from him as the other Sohma boys did. His entire disposition was also quite disparate from theirs. "Did you say… Sohma?" she repeated.
"Ja, I'm also a Sohma!" Momiji confirmed. "You must know my cousins, Yuki and Kyo, right? They're in your class, I think."
"Yes," Hana answered. It came out as more of a sigh than she had hoped.
Momiji looked at her curiously. "What's wrong? You don't like them?"
"Yuki is fine," she said flatly. "But Kyo… There's something about him…"
Momiji waited a few seconds for Hana to finish her thought. When she didn't, he offered a suggestion. "Is it because he loves Tohru, too?"
Hana startled. What did he just say? There's no possible way that he could have known how I feel about her. I haven't told a soul.
Then, as if he could read her mind (or, more likely, her flustered expression), he continued, "I've seen the way you look at her. It's the same way that Kyo looks at her, even if he doesn't know it."
Hana had never consciously considered it before, but at times she felt protective of Tohru. She wanted Kyo away from her from the very beginning. On some level, she understood intuitively that Kyo was her competition for Tohru's romantic interest.
Ever since the day she had accidentally outed herself to Uo, she became embarrassed to speak aloud about her feelings for Tohru. And Tohru, being the space cadet that she was, never noticed how sincere Hana was being whenever she flirted with her.
Hana was, by nature, very patient. But she had little patience for people like Kyo, whom she could sense was not only hiding things from Tohru, but also openly didn't get along with Uo. So, while she didn't mind waiting for Tohru to notice her, she couldn't help but take issue with this newcomer who suddenly sucked up all of Tohru's time and didn't even get along with her friends.
"We can't help loving her," Momiji added, softly.
Hana looked over at Momiji again, this time noticing a shininess in his eyes that wasn't there before. There was also a sad twinge in his voice which wasn't there before, either. "We?" she echoed.
"Of course. I love her, too," he said confidently. His cheeks and nose were dusted with a whisper of pink, and his eyelids were half-closed. He glanced at Hana for only a moment, but in that instant, she understood that his feelings for Tohru were very much like her own.
This must be what he was talking about, the look I give Tohru, she thought to herself.
"We all do," Momiji added, exaggerating his smile.
Hana was not convinced. She knew that he was trying to change the subject, to make it sound like he meant that he loved her merely as a friend. And, while Tohru was very kind and did have a lot of friends, Hana already sensed that Momiji loved her in a more romantic way. "Momiji, if you feel that way about her, then why haven't you told her?"
"Well, why haven't you?" he asked cheekily.
Hana's eyes narrowed at him. "That's different. I have told her, in my own way… But she hasn't picked up on it."
"So have I," Momiji chuckled. "Ah, well, that's Tohru for you! I'll see you around, Hana!" He closed his umbrella and sauntered off, humming a tune as he went on his way.
Hana didn't notice that, while she was talking with Momiji, the dark grey clouds had dissipated, and the sun was now shining warmly on her.