Ugly Duckling (HatsuHaru Sohma Love Story)

Chapter 25 - Failed Attempt At Bonding

Previously on UD...

"Will there be Rice Balls?" Serena perked up, her eyes glimmering with hope and mouth watering

"Maybe, you can go ask her if you want-" Shigure was caught off by Serena standing up, grabbing hold of Rin's arm and pulling her up with her before dashing into the kitchen

"Her and those Rice Balls I will never understand..." Kyo confessed truthfully, resting his head on the palm of his hand. I glanced over at Haru, noticing he was awfully quiet, seeming to be in deep thought

"What's on your mind?" I asked him in a whisper

"Oh, nothing of importance..."

3rd Person's POV

Akito sat on his window seal, looking out at the sky, thoughts swimming his mind, too many thoughts to count and state in words. The reserved Head of the Sohma Family deeply sighed, his eyes showing conflict within them. He reflect back on the memory he had of a little girl and little boy playing chess. He remembered how impatient and blunt the girl was throughout the game, wanting to move around the room every time it wasn't her turn. The game droned on for a hour an a half, with a hard swipe the girl hit all of the remaining pieces off of the board, proclaiming to go outside and play. While the boy furiously tried to gather the pieces to put them back in their places at random, stating that because she was losing the battle of chess she got frustrated and destroyed the game, only for the counterattack she yelled is what remained in the young man's mind since

"I didn't lose the battle! I only gave myself time to win the game by confusing the opponent!" The child's logic confused Akito at the time, but also understood what she meant by that. By confusing the opponent, which in this case was Haru, by swiping away the pieces and Haru placing them around at random, clearly not remembering their rightful place gives her the advantage of surprise. After a few little feuds between the two, she came out on top winning the battle and soon the war by winning at tag.

Ammara... I have a feeling that I will see you soon....

Akira's POV

We ate the breakfast Tohru made for everyone, all of the students in the household clearly showing the signs the that they didn't want to attend school, including Yuki surprisingly. I didn't want to attend due to the fact that I have already made up an excuse for my absence so for me to show up would give me a even worse attendance record for missing today's classes. I sat beside Haru, staring at whoever was speaking in the room. Haru has been unusually quiet making my concern for him raise pass it's limits, he just continued to stare at the wall in his own little world, thinking about things that are unknown to me

"Akira."

"Hmm?" I turned my attention towards Serena

"Do you know about it?" She asked me quietly and I raised an eyebrow

"About what?" She blinked as I acted completely clueless. She glanced over where the display of the painted zodiac rocks laid, confirming what she was hinting at

"Uh never mind... It's nothing important." She awkwardly stated, avoiding eye contact with me. I didn't press any further only continued to curiously stare at her until I heard my name being called once again

"Hey Akira! Can you come here for a moment?" I heard Tohru call for me from the kitchen. I sighed, shaking my head as I sat up only with the action caused Haru to snap out of his daze

"Oh? Where are you going?" He asked me

"Tohru called for me, I will be right back." I explained briefly before heading towards the kitchen.

Haru's POV

I watched Akira as she made entered the kitchen, closing the door behind her

"She's a odd character." Yuki stated, sitting down next to me where Akira was originally sitting

"Yeah, she is."

"Do you know why she lives alone?" He asked me and I shook my head

"She hasn't really opened up to me about her personal life, but with time I hope she will tell." He nodded with a sigh, letting a moment of silence pass between us as the others talked about various subjects amongst themselves

"She looks somewhat familiar to me, as if I have known her for years on end but, in reality this is our first proper meeting." He confessed, his eyes on the kitchen door

"For me as well, but I guess I just pushed that lingering thought to the back of my mind. Right now I only care about getting to know her better." 

"You haven't told her, have you?"

"About what?" I inquired obliviously

"About us, the curse bestowed upon our.family for generations." I thought back to the night when I found out she was like us, a zodiac member. I let my eyes linger over to the rocks Shigure created, noting the fact that he created one of a duckling among them

"No, I haven't. I would need permission first or if she finds out by accident-" A loud crash sounded off from the kitchen, cutting the conversation short. I bolted up from my seat along with the others and pushed myself into the kitchen to see Akira, with her glasses laying broken among the rubble, covered in broken pottery and broken plates

"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry Akira are you okay?!" Tohru asked in a panicky mode as she tried to pull her out from underneath the broken antiques without hurting her or herself. Akira groaned slightly in pain, shaking her head

"I will be fine. My fault for leaning so much on it." I walked over and grabbed the cabinet that used to contain every thing inside that was now sprawled on Akira. Kyo went to the other side of it and helped me pick it up before putting it back in it's place. Run sat her phone down on he counter before helping Tohru out with getting Akira safely out from the broken pottery and plates. I cringed inwardly once I saw that her pant leg was cut open by one of the shards, blood running down her leg

"Serena! Go get the first aid kit!" Shigute ordered Serena who ran off without a second thought. Akira hissing in pain as she used the two girls on either side of her to keep pressure off of her wounded leg. She was brought over to the kitchen table before being sat down on top of it for better measure

"What happened Miss Honda?" Yuki asked Tohru who went back over to get Akira's broken glasses

"I wanted to get to know her better while making snacks for everybody else but I couldn't reached the plates so I asked if Akira could get them since she is much taller than me, only for the cabinet to crash on her." She explained, walking back over to Akira and handing her her broken glasses. Akira tried to look through them, cursing under her breath 

"Damn it... Well there goes my life savings." She squinted her eyes before setting them down beside her. Serena came back running in with the first aid kit, asking the males to leave the room so they could fix up her leg to the best of their capabilities.

TBC...​​​​​​