| Useful | Momiji Sohma |

3 | Sohma Secret

"You ready to fight, rat boy?" A scruffy voice asked from behind where Hikari was crouching.

She started to regret letting her hair down today, as she felt how much rubble got into her knee length waves. Hikari didn't know who this kid was, thinking he could casually stroll up an break the ceiling, but she knew she would have his head for it. Even in a tank top and shorts.

"Why don't you just-" Yuki began, but was never able to finish.

"I don't know who the hell you are, ginger, but I swear on my life that the whole world will know your name on the missing persons list after that." Hikari grumbled, throwing a piece of debris at him.

But of course, something had to go even more wrong than it already was. 

When the ginger boy tried to dodge the debris thrown at him, he bumped into Tohru. Then there was just smoke and a... Cat? And after more of Tohru trying to fix an already broken situation, Yuki and Shigure were now a rat and a dog.

An with that, they fell that much deeper into the world of the Sohma family, blissfully unaware of their futures. 

-----

One failed attempt at retrieving the mail later,  Hikari kind of had a grasp on the Sohma family's big secret.

"So when you're hugged by the opposite sex, you turn into animals...?" She asked, wanting to make sure she was even close to correct. She got collective nods in return. "So is there, like, a time limit on this or-"

Both Hikari and Tohru were startled when more smoke suddenly appeared, and in place were Yuki, Kyo and Shigure... Naked, of course. 

Hikari sighed, and set her gaze upon the sky. This whole experience was going to be more complicated than she originally thought. In the end, all she had to do was make sure that Tohru was kept safe and out of harms way. 

-----

After a week or so living with the Sohmas, Hikari discovered a few interesting things about them. 

She was initially right about Yuki, how he tries to compensate for his loneliness by pushing himself for others. He was the type suffer in silence, but with that said he wasn't all too hard for her too read. Hikari's overall opinion on him was that he's just a good, albeit touch starved kid looking for... Anything, in all honesty. When Hikari learned about what happened to all those kids when he was younger, she imagined how bad he must want his own memories erased. 

When it came to Kyo, she realized that he was so incredibly lost, it sometimes hurt to meet his gaze. He didn't know what he wanted to do with his life, and had no real desire for pretty much anything. Always surviving, never living. Hikari didn't really know how to feel about him, seeing as though she saw a lot of her own insecurities in him, especially when it came to the future. For both of their sakes she hoped he would get it together. When he ended up fixing her and Tohru's roof, Hikari discovered just how fun it was to tease him.

And then there was the wild car, Shigure. She wasn't all that sure of where she stood when it came to him. It was like sometimes he wanted people to... Fail? Hikari didn't know if that was the right word. What she did know, however, was that he could be trusted until proven otherwise.

One night, after Hikari organized all of this information in her head, she realized that a normal person probably shouldn't be this observant, but hey, it was her saving grace and it kept her and Tohru out of trouble many times. 

-----

After it was revealed that Kyo would be attending the same school as her, Hikari decided it was time to have her first real conversation with him, that hopefully wouldn't involve him throwing one of his classic tantrums. 

"Hey, ginger," Hikari knocked on the porch frame, where Kyo was laying, and no doubt pouting.

"What do you want?" He sent her one of his glares, and Hikari took it as a sign to sit down a few feet away from him.

"So why exactly do you hate it here so much?" Hikari asked, observing how his expression got even more annoyed. 

"What gives you that impression?" He asked sarcastically, turning his head away from her.

"Dude, you skipped out on your first day of school."

"I just want to get out of this house." He confessed, slightly surprising Hikari.

"It's only been three days, you know..." She deadpanned. 

"Shigure keeps treating this like it's some sort of cruel, training. I'm done with it." 

Hikari sighed, she understood how he could see it that way.

"If you think about it, it kind of is," Kyo opened his mouth to protest. "Shut up, I'm talking. I bet you probably think you aren't cut out for this type of thing, when in reality you just don't have practice. Think of socializing kind of like fighting, you can always pull back just before the punch lands." At Hikari's metaphor, he perked up.

"But I always end up saying mean things to her..." 

Ah, so that was it.

"I know Tohru better than anyone, and just trust me when I say that all you need to do is make sure she knows you appreciate her, that's literally it." Another question popped up into Hikari's mind.

"Hm, why don't you ever snap at me?" 

"Cause you scare me. In a weird way."

"Just walk her home from work sometime or something, ginger."

Hikari smiled a bit when he saw him give a slight nod. 

Maybe he wasn't as angsty as she originally profiled him to be.

-----

anotha one bites the dust boissss

this is pretty fun ngl 

also ik 3 chapters no best boy IM GOING LAWD 

bye