Fruits Basket: Give me wings

Chapter 11- Rift in the strongest friendship

Right guys, get ready for a pretty intense/dramatic chapter. Ben + Kairi get into a little squabble over poor Sora that ends very badly!

Chapter 11- Rift in the strongest friendship

Haruhi turned around to see Sora, Ben and Naoko leaning out of the door. Ben looked the most surprised, and the most pleased.

“Hey, Kairi!” Ben said, grinning, and ran out of the doorway to greet him with a hand on the shoulder. “What are you doing here, buddy? I didn’t think you knew where these guys lived.”

“Is it wrong to want to visit you? I also wished to find out more about your curse.”

“Ah- about that, Kairi… We can’t really tell you anything about the curse. It’s a family secret. If the head of our family found out you knew, we’d get it,” Haruhi said evasively.

Kairi looked a little surprised, which was a shocker in itself. Kairi was rarely surprised, and when he was, he got over it fairly quickly. It was one of the more perturbing things about his personality.

“Oh well.” He shrugged. “I’m just going to stay for a while.”

“You’re a little strange, Kairi,” Tsuneo commented.

“You’re not so normal yourself, Mr. Horse.”

“Mr. Horse?”

They allowed the conversation to drift to a natural stopping point, Kairi slipped his shoes off and they went through to the living room in comfortable silence. He peered around himself, taking in everything he could and registering it in his memory bank, like a computer. Haruhi noted that everything he did was very methodical, and he liked to think it was for his own benefit.

“D’you want to play ninja?” Haruhi suggested, for the first time feeling childish for doing so. She felt strange. They were all sat down in a circle, Tsuneo and Ben protectively close to Haruhi and Sora.

“Nah, I’d rather talk,” Ben lightly disagreed. “I have to catch up with Kairi, and ask him something.”

“Oh, what’s that?”

“I’ll go make us some drinks,” Sora  said, a little too enthusiastically. She hopped up from her spot, and seemed to dance out of the room, her feet lightly tapping the floor like she was a ballerina.

Both Kairi and Ben watched her go, seeming hypnotised for a moment. When Ben saw that Kairi was watching, he shot him a sharp ‘warning’ glare, serious for once, and went back to his normal playful expression. Haruhi knew what was going on here- Kairi must like Sora too. What a mess. This might complicate the situation.

“How come you haven’t been talking to us at school recently?” Ben inquired. “Since I moved in with these guys, you’ve been all distant and weird. I started to wonder whether something’s up, that’s all.”

“Oh, I just had a lot on my mind lately, that’s all,” Kairi said, lightly evading the answer.

“You don’t have to be like this just ‘cause everyone is in the room, you know. It’s about time you revealed your true nature.”

Kairi drew in sharp breath and started drumming the floor with his fingers. Haruhi thought with amusement that it was very strange to see him nervous. Ben really knew all Kairi's weak spots.

“True nature?” Haruhi interrupted. This intrigued her. They might have gotten through to Ben, but Kairi was more difficult, it seemed. He was false; that was how he presented himself. The model student, content and private. Private, most of all.