✔Summer Rain |Fruits Basket| HatsuHaru Sohma

6- How Many Sohmas are There?

I leaned against the big oak in front of the school and pulled my cell phone out of my pocket. I input Hatori's number into my phone over the weekend, so I brought his contact up and put my phone to my ear. After a few seconds of ringing, I heard the phone pick up and Hatori's voice speak up through the speaker.

"Hatori Sohma, may I ask who is calling?" He said around the shuffling of papers.

"It's Mei? Haru brought me to you the other day." I explained quickly.

"Mei! Yes, I remember. How are you feeling?" He asked, now giving me his full attention through the phone.

"You were right, I ended up getting sick for the entire week after my visit." I smiled. "I just wanted to let you know I was going to stop by the address you gave me soon, if that's alright?"

"Of course. I'll just clean up around here and head out. Is Haru coming with you again this time?"

I wasn't sure how to answer, since I had no idea where Haru even was. "Probably not. Are you sure it's no trouble to you if I stop by?"

"It's quite alright. My main patient is out today so my schedule is free. I'll meet you there in twenty minutes."

"Alright, thank you Hatori-san." I spoke and hung up the phone. I pulled the slip of paper he'd given me last week out of my pocket with a sigh and read it over quickly. Luckily; or maybe unluckily if mom was already home; for me, it was only a few minutes down the road from my home.

"Chiyu-san!" I heard a familiar voice shout out and turned just enough to see Tohru Honda, her two friends and the entire gaggle of Sohmas out of the corner of my vision. "Chiyu-san!"

I bowed politely at them all as they walked up to me. "Hello." I nodded. "Are you all leaving now?"

"We're going to play badminton!" Tohru cheered, holding a racket up in her hand as evidence.

"Would you like to join us?" Sohma-san asked beside her. "We could use an extra player."

"Yeah, c'mon!" The taller of Tohru's two friends said. "We could really use the Captain of the badminton team on our team."

"Ex-captain." I sighed. "I'm afraid I have a prior commitment to attend to. Please, go have fun with out me."

They looked like they wanted to say something more, but before they had the chance to I gave a brief smile and turned away. It would be fun to play Badminton again, considering I only dropped it to focus on my grades more. Mom says its a 'distraction' to getting into college and that its more impressive to be smart that athletic.

When I looked back over my shoulder, they had made their way to the court beside the school and were separating into teams. I sighed heavily and made my way down the street towards the address given to me. I tugged my phone back and dialed up my mom, knowing that its better safe than sorry to let her know where I would be in case she came looking for me.

"I'm at work Mei." Was the first thing that came out of her mouth. "What do you need?"

I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck nervously. "I have an appointment with that doctor from last week. I just thought I should let you know."

"Doctor?" She hummed. "Why?"

"He told me to check back in with him when I was feeling like it." I explained.

"And whats wrong with you that he needed to make an appointment to meet you?" She snapped, clacking away furiously at her computer keyboard over the speaker.

"I'm not sure. He told me to come back, so something must have been wrong."

"Fine. But make sure he doesn't make you pay him. I don't have to time to deal with this kind of stuff right now Mei."

"I know-" I huffed. "I'm sorry."

"You'll just have to make it up to me like usual." I could tell she was frowning as she spoke, I'd heard it enough times to know it by now.

"I will." I said softly.

"Is that it then? I have to get back to work."

I rolled my eyes in annoyance and nodded. "Yeah, thats it."

"Okay. I'll be home sometime tonight. Goodbye." She spoke quickly and hung up even quicker.

"Bye." I sighed.

Mom wasn't one for 'I love you's', and quite frankly neither was I anymore. When I was a child dad and I said it all the time. Mom said it sometimes back, but not often. Eventually at some point we both just stopped saying it. I don't even remember exactly when we stopped, or even how old I was.

It was a nice day out, and I walked quietly along the river where I met Haru as I made my way towards the house. The river eventually slowed to a trickling stream along the side of the mountain I walked past everyday on my way home. Down the ways a bit I saw the address for the house on a bridge post and slowed to a stop. I knew there was a house up the mountain, but never knew it was a Sohma house until now. Knowing how rich they apparently were, I wouldn't be surprised if they owned the whole mountain down to the road. I made my way across the bridge and up the path to a tall flight of stairs and in my opinion; way too many for any sane person to walk up and down everyday.

After a solid two or three minutes of stairs, I reached the top and a large clearing with an extremely beautiful house came into view. I knocked on the door anxiously, and in only a few seconds the door opened to reveal a man.

"Oh. Hello?" He smiled, extending his hand. "I'm Shigure Sohma. You must be the wonderful Mei I keep hearing about?"
____________________________________________
Word Count: 1024 Words