Work Text:
Oversleeping was the start to the bad day. Yuki had knocked on Tohru's door relentlessly for about 20 minutes, insisting gently from the other side of the wall that she needed to get up or she'd be late. She'd ignored all of his pleas, eventually calling out that she didn't feel well and he should go on without her. In reality, she wasn't feeling great, but she'd be damned if she were going to completely miss a day of school. So, after an extra hour of rest, she'd dragged herself out of bed and to her second period class, where she'd faced the embarrassment of her classmates' eyes on her as her teacher chewed her out for her tardiness.
Then there was Kyo. He had been acting oddly for a few weeks now, ever since they'd come back from their vacation at the Sohma family's beach house. He had been avoiding Tohru almost entirely with absolutely no explanation. Yuki and Shigure had noticed, too, but admitted to Tohru that they could offer no explanation, and instead have been trying to be extra kind to her, as if they could make up for the absence Kyo had taken from her life.
They can't.
No one can.
Today was no different on that front-even when Tohru had come into class so late, Kyo had kept his gaze trained expertly on the floor, avoiding looking at her as if his life depended on it.
Matters on that front were made worse later, when a girl in their class pulled Tohru aside at lunch.
"Are you and Sohma dating?" she'd asked. Tohru stared at her quietly for a moment, trying to figure out if she even knew this girl, and which Sohma she was talking about. Not that it exactly mattered, since she wasn't dating any of them, but…
"Uh...I'm sorry, who?"
"Kyo Sohma. Are you two dating?"
It took a minute for the words to fully sink in, but once they did, Tohru anxiously denied the girl's suspicions. "O-oh, no, definitely not. We're just friends, good friends…"
"Well, he definitely likes you. You should ask him out." The girl gave her a soft smile, the expression full of pity at just how ignorant she apparently thought Tohru was being. Long after the girl had left her behind in the hallway, Tohru stood there, staring at the ground in front of her, trying to figure out what exactly had just happened.
Work that evening was at least uneventful, a predictable routine on an otherwise unpredictable day. Seeing Momiji even cheered her up a bit. Yuki walked her home, as usual, then retreated upstairs while Tohru works on getting a late dinner ready now. As she opens and shuts cupboards, gathering ingredients and utensils, her mind wanders.
Overthinking has always been an unfortunate talent of hers, and it is being utilized now as she plays back the day in her head. The one word she can think of to describe it is exhausting. And she still has so much to do. She needs to finish dinner, do her homework, put on a load of laundry…
As her mind meanders, she manages to slam her finger in a closing drawer.
"Damn it," she curses softly, clutching the injured finger to her chest.
"I didn't know you were even physically capable of cursing," a voice behind her calls.
Tohru turns around and comes face to face with Kyo. "Hi, Kyo-kun…" she chokes out slowly. Just the sight of him makes her chest ache in an inexplicable way, and hearing his voice only adds to that sting. It feels like she can't breathe.
"Hey. Your finger okay?"
"Oh, yes...I'm fine. Just making dinner." She turns back around and picks up the knife she had retrieved to chop the carrots.
"Are you sure you should be doing that? You might chop that finger off completely."
Tohru lets the tip of the knife rest on the cutting board for a moment, gritting her teeth.
Usually she can take Kyo's teasing, and even find it endearing. But after the numerous errors she'd made at school, and what her classmate had said to her, it's too much. And...why does he think he can spend days and days virtually ignoring her and then come back and talk to her like nothing has happened? Does she really deserve that?
"Kyo," she says firmly. The lack of honorific, coupled with the intense look on her face seems to tell Kyo that he'd gone too far, based on the surprised expression he takes on. Her cheeks are red, eyes narrowed slightly, her knuckles white around the handle of the kitchen knife. "I'm fine. I'm perfectly capable of making dinner. So if you're just going to make fun of me, could you please go wait in the living room or something?"
Kyo has no idea how to react to that. Of course he doesn't, Tohru thinks bitterly. She's never gone off on him before. And despite everything he's put her through lately, she knows Kyo is kind, even though he doesn't always show it. He's probably trying to figure out his next move, she figures—stay and risk making her even angrier to ask what's really wrong (because he can always see through her, somehow), or retreat to the living room like she asked.
As he hesitates in silence, Tohru snaps at him again, forcing him to make a decision. "Kyo, please just leave me alone."
At those words, his eyes widen even further, then take on a bit of darkness. She doesn't like to see that. When he's upset, it hurts her just as much as it hurts him. He manages to give a curt nod, then heads into the living room like he was told to.
Once he's gone, Tohru slumps against the counter slightly, allowing herself a moment to calm down. She needs to apologize to him. She knows that. She knows that the sharpness of her tongue must have hurt Kyo. She needs to accept responsibility for that and go make it better. But she can't move her feet. Instead, she forces herself to chop the carrots—a small action, but the only one she feels capable of managing at the moment. Then she handles one more small action, then another, until there's a pan of cooked stir fry steaming in front of her.
Even with dinner ready now, Tohru still doesn't feel any better, and is too embarrassed to go face Kyo and everyone else, so she sets the burner on the stove to simmer and sneaks up the stairs to her room, hoping to hide for the rest of the evening.
She successfully avoids everyone in the house all night, and even into the morning when she gets ready early, prepares breakfast as quietly as possible, and leaves for school on her own. Not knowing what to do with her extra time once she arrives, she simply sits at her desk in her homeroom and lays her head against the cold wood, mentally scolding herself for her actions last night. What right does she have to talk to Kyo that way? Nothing that had happened to her yesterday had been his fault. She'd just taken her frustration out on him for no reason. What if he hates her now? What if he actually starts ignoring her permanently? She can't blame him if he does, but the idea still tears what's left of her heart to pieces.
After a bit, someone enters the room. Tohru ignores whoever it is, not even bothering to lift her head. She hopes that the mystery person will just sit at their own desk and leave her be. But when the footsteps move closer until they stop right next to her desk, Tohru has an idea of who it is; the realization makes her want to look up even less. The person clears their throat. Tohru relents and raises herself off the desk, coming face to face with Kyo, who's staring at her with concern in his eyes. "C-can we talk?" he asks quietly. This might be the lowest volume she's ever heard him speak at.
Tohru sighs and lowers her head again. "I'm not ready to talk," she says meekly.
"'Kay...maybe after school, then?"
"Sure," she mumbles, voice muffled from the wood in front of her face.
Kyo leaves her alone for the rest of the day, which is probably quite the feat, considering Uotani and Hanajima had noticed her bad mood and immediately decided it must be his fault and that he should apologize. Ignoring them must be a huge test of patience, but he manages to do it.
The rest of their classmates trickle out after the bell, including Yuki, who has a student council meeting. Tohru and Kyo remain seated, Tohru fiddling with her clothes awkwardly. Neither of them quite sure how to start, the room stays silent. After a moment, Kyo summons his courage and pulls his chair closer to Tohru's desk until he is sitting right in front of her.
"Tohru…" he starts, but she cuts him off.
"Kyo-kun, I'm so—"
Her gaze leaves his eyes and flits over to the side nervously, where it latches onto some unknown point outside the window.
"Stop…"
"So sorry," she finishes. "I was just tired from work and school, and I still had so much to do that I was feeling sort of overwhelmed, and I took it out on you, but that wasn't fair of—"
"Tohru, just stop," he insists firmly. "You're allowed to get mad."
"Ah...what?" she asks, forcing herself to look back at Kyo.
"You're allowed to get mad," he repeats. "And you should tell me when I make you mad. Ya know...so I can try and fix it."
He scratches at the back of his head awkwardly, shifts his weight from foot to foot, clearly using all of his willpower to maintain eye contact with Tohru.
"So...I'm the one who's sorry. I was really a jerk, and I shouldn't have said that stuff to you," he continues.
Tohru just looks at him for a moment, eyes wide with confusion. Probably feeling awkward under her intense gaze, Kyo rushes to fill the silence.
"Do you forgive me?"
She feels her entire body soften at his question, and she reaches out, squeezing his knee affectionately. He blinks in confusion a few times, until she answers with actual words.
"Of course I do." Noticing the slight flush on his cheeks, she pulls her hand away and busies it by smoothing out her skirt. Kyo never used to blush when she touched him. In fact, there were times when he seemed to seek out physical contact with her. But everything is different now. She doesn't know why, doesn't know how to fix it…but desperately wishes she can figure it out.
Maybe he does like her, like their classmate suggested. Maybe he doesn't. Tohru will agree that she's rather dense when it comes to subjects like this, and she'll be the first to admit that she has absolutely no idea what's going on with Kyo.
Either way, she misses him.
"And I'm still sorry, too, for how I reacted," she adds.
Kyo rolls his eyes, but it feels affectionate. He opens his mouth to say something, then changes his mind. He takes a deep breath. Tohru watches him, takes in every inch and detail of him, as though she may never get to see him again…
…Because someday she won't.
"Wanna go home?" he asks, standing and picking his bag up off the ground.
"Sure." Tohru follows his lead, standing and grabbing her bag, as well.
As they wander down the hallway of the school, the words of her classmate play on repeat in Tohru's mind, as if a track on a scratched record.
"Well he definitely likes you."
Gaining a sudden burst of determination, Tohru reaches forward and grabbed the bottom of Kyo's shirt.
He stops and turns to look at her, a brow raised in questioning.
"You good?" he asks.
"Kyo-kun…" she murmurs, curling her fist tighter around the white fabric of his school uniform.
His cheeks redden as she trails off and a tense silence ensues. They stare at each other. Tohru can feel herself leaning forward toward him, but is unsure if it's because she subconsciously wants to be closer to him, or because she's just a clumsy idiot and is slowly losing her balance. She ignores the shrinking space between them and forces herself to speak again.
"Kyo-kun, I…"
He watches her quietly as she chokes the words out haltingly.
"Y-yeah?" he asks once she falters again.
"It's...nothing," she mumbles, releasing her death grip on his shirt. Her gaze lowers to the floor, where it remains as she feels her determination fade rapidly.
Kyo just chuckles and reaches out, patting her head. Before Tohru can even process that he's willingly touching her, just like old times, he slides his hand down and wraps it around hers.
"You're a real weirdo, you know that?" he says, giving her hand a light squeeze. Tohru can't help but inhale sharply at the contact. "C'mon. Let's go home."
Tohru nods and lets Kyo lead her off, hands still clutched together.
She knows she'll have to ask him something eventually—something about how he feels (or doesn't feel) about her. And she'll need to figure out how she feels about him, too.
But maybe for today, she can just enjoy being with him like this. Walking home hand in hand, after he so sweetly apologized for his teasing yesterday, the sunset making his hair glow an even brighter orange than usual.
Yes. For today, she'll just enjoy this.