Oneshots | Fruits Basket | 1192131999

Thirteen Strings | The Dog: Shigure Sohma

Whilst waiting outside of the modest home that belonged to the Sohmas in the mountains, you sat quietly while idling away the time with a nervous shake of your leg. Being invited over was one thing, keeping company with one of the older Sohmas was another. Shigure Sohma, renowned author and clandestine individual sat by you, calmly watching the mountainside. Dinner was being prepared after your serendipitous meeting with Tohru and Kyou earlier today, and crowding the kitchen was not on the cards. Your glanced towards the distance, staring at nothing in particular but the swaying trees if only to keep your mind occupied.

"Are you still nervous around me?" asked Shigure calmly with a glint in his eye.

"I don't trust you," you bluntly replied without a look in his direction, hoping it would end the start of the conversation.

"Now why would you say that? You hurt my feelings."

His playful and hurtful tone was light-hearted in jest. It was his usual state of mind, aloof and uncaring. He held no shame in his playfulness, which made it all the more unnerving. There was something insincere about his demeanour yet it took time to settle into his presence. At first he was warm and cordial, though eccentric in his mannerisms that caused both Yuki and Kyou both discomfort and an odd alliance against the older Sohma in their family. It was strange to find them all cousins, still wrapping your head around the complexity of their family, but for a while now, Shigure was nothing more than the eccentric he was.

It was uncanny.

"I don't trust to be alone with you," you corrected, clutching onto a shred of truth in that statement.

"Oh? How so?" he asked in kind, his head on his hands with mild curiosity.

Careful with your words, you thought. Shigure had a way of twisting them to form in your mouth, the wordsmith that he was.

"There's something about you that reminds me of someone else," you explained, hesitant in your own quandary. "You're almost a reflection of him."

"Ah memories, alas how they haunt us so," he poetically conjectured with a sly grin, his face closing in towards you. "Scorned lover, mayhaps?"

"Why do you always assume it's a lover?"

"Aren't all passionate thoughts derived from such? It would explain this indescribable attraction between us."

"No," you disagreed with a push of his face away from you. He cheekily smiled while agreeing to your physical request, returning back to his spot on the porch of his modest estate.

"Well, I tried," he mused while basking in the evening sun. "So tell me who this mysterious man is that I wholeheartedly remind you of."

You eyed Shigure with suspicion, only met with a smile. It was the way he looked that made you second guess your actions, how there was an intention in his stare that clouded the words he weaved. Shigure was a deep man, but one with depths that turned into dark pools that muddied the waters. It was the only thing that made him remind you of—

"He's... gone," you answered, finding a curious Shigure mildly surprised. "I haven't heard from him for a while. In fact he made me feel homesick today."

Shigure hummed at the thought, pondering on his own conjectures over your descriptions. Or lack thereof. "You gotta give me more than that," he whined playfully. "Not much to live up to the imagination."

"He is but imagination," you corrected. "He works diligently to carry others where they can't tread. He comes and goes as he pleases, but always allows others to make their own way. And though I see him with some saving grace, he is also just as calculating to make things work. That is what you remind me of."

You watched Shigure's eyes lose its lustre for a moment, as if the facade had dropped and his mask disappeared. Had you stuck a nerve to the happy-go-lucky man? His mannerisms felt too familiar to ignore, despite his slightly salacious attitude towards others, whether playful or not. His smile returned soon after, as if time was irrelevant when that moment passed. He ruffled the top of your head roughly, earning a resistant yelp from you before you swiped his hand away.

"I should watch out for you, Kiddo," he jested with a grin. "You are smarter than you look."

"It seems that way, but I'm only saying what I see," you posed nonchalantly, now sitting amongst the gravitas of Shigure's suspicions.

He was smarter than he looked, you thought in kind, taking in his now eccentric self once more. Though he may not know your true purpose here, he was capable of discovering it, should he choose to. It was naive to ignore and foolish to pursue. A delicate balance had to be made when dealing with Shigure in particular.

"Now is this mysterious stranger just as ruggedly handsome as I am?" He asked with a sneakiness about his gaze.

"He is ancient and you don't hold a candle to him," you surmised.

"Ancient? An old man? Kiddo, didn't know you were that type."

"I'm not."

"Beggars can't be choosers," he concluded with a dramatic and woeful sigh.

The smell of a warm meal wafted from inside the home, even so much as catching Shigure's devoted attention. You were thankful for the mild distraction of keeping the conversation to a minimum about topics outside of the realm. Too close had you let loose on your true purpose, staring at your fingers wondering how the feel of them was with every encounter. Homesickness was the feeling of the day, knowing that this place with the Sohmas was becoming more like home. It only set off a conundrum, one that you began to dread the closer graduation drew near.

You eyed your phone once more, its blank canvas nothing more than an emptiness in the palm of your hands. If only he called to ease your concerns. Perhaps comfort you from this ever present feeling of loneliness despite the company you kept. It came in small waves, but was a feeling that was foreign and new.

Was this really where you wanted to stay?

The breeze picked up while dinner was called from within the home, perking Shigure's interest while he made his way inside. You still say by the porch, watching the blossoms shed into the sky, drawing your eyes towards the fading light. The stars will soon arrive with a sparkle, wondering if they were the lights of home far from here.