Haruka's Fanfiction

This was the result of a fifteen-minute word challenge. The challenge word is stated at the end of the ficlet.

Adverse Conditions (Fruits Basket)

By Haruka (haruka@ymail.com)

--

Shigure Souma hummed to himself as he carried his cup of tea to his study. In a couple of hours, his editor, Mitchan, would arrive to pick up his manuscript, and as usual, he would torture her by pretending it wasn’t finished.

Well, actually, at the moment it really WASN’T finished. However, completing his final scene would only take an hour at most, so he had plenty of time.

He had just brought the chapter up on his computer screen when there was the familiar sound of shouting. Kyo and Yuki must be up, he reasoned. He was used to tuning out their bickering, so he didn’t think it would interrupt his thought processes much.

At least until the horrible crash that signified new damage to his house. Shigure sighed. It sounded bad enough that he couldn’t ignore it.

When he went into the main room, he saw that one of the sliding doors was completely destroyed thanks to a Kyo-shaped hole through it. He could see Kyo just pulling himself up by the pond, while Yuki stood at the broken door, glaring at the orange-haired boy.

“Would you two mind not destroying my house for a while?” Shigure asked. “I’m trying to work.”

“Blame HIM!” both boys yelled, pointing at each other.

“I don’t care, just fix it before you go to school.”

“There’s no school today, the teachers are having a meeting.” Yuki began picking up the broken pieces.

Shigure sighed. That meant the boys would be home while he was trying to work, but maybe they’d keep busy fixing the damage for a while. He headed back to his computer and his tea.

He’d actually managed to write a couple of sentences before the next outburst of noise came from the front room. This one sounded like Momiji, but he heard other voices, as well. Enough that it was getting a little loud out there. After typing the same sentence three times, Shigure gave up and went back out to investigate.

Not only Momiji, but Hatsuharu, Ritsu, and Kagura were there.

“Aren’t there any college classes today, either?” he asked.

“Not until this afternoon, Shigure-niisan,” Ritsu said, then his eyes grew wide. “Oh! We should have called before coming over, shouldn’t we? I’m so SORRY! I’ll leave right away and never darken your doorstep again --!”

“Good!” Kyo gasped through the stranglehold that Kagura had on him. “Take her with you!”

“Oh, you don’t mean that, Kyo-kun!” Kagura bubbled even as she choked him.

“Yuki, do you want to go for a walk?” asked Hatsuharu as he tugged gently on the front of Yuki’s shirt.

“Shi-chan, I have a message for you from Ha’ri!” Momiji bounced up to him. “He says he’s going out of town overnight on business for Akito so you get to take care of me! Isn’t that great?”

For once, Shigure was at a loss for words. Unfortunately, it seemed that would be the fate of his manuscript, as well, unless he did something drastic.

“I’m going out!” he declared suddenly. He went to pack up his laptop, then left his house to the tender mercies of the Souma children.

--

The first thing Shigure heard when he came back two hours later was the familiar lamenting wail of his editor.

“I can’t believe he went OUT knowing I was coming for the manuscript!” she sobbed. “What kind of man is so irresponsible?!”

“Well, we’re talking about Shigure here.” Kyo shrugged and Yuki nodded agreement.

“I’m hooome!” Shigure announced.

“Sensei!” Mitchan nearly tackled him in her desperation, tears streaming down her face. “How could you not even BE here when you were expecting me?!”

“This time, Mitchan, if you wanted the work done in time, it was critical that I NOT be here.” Shigure handed her a computer disk. “It’s all there.”

“It’s done?” she said tentatively, then smiled happily. “It’s really done!”

The kids watched her skip out joyously with the disk and turned to Shigure. “Where did you go?” Yuki asked.

“The mall food court,” he replied with a wink. “Not only could I still have tea there, but it was less chaotic than this house.”

--

(Word challenge - Interrupted)

(2005)

Fruits Basket belongs to Natsuki Takaya.

This fic is not to be re-posted.