Melting Point

Melting Point Chapter 1

Thank you Otaku Mom for reading over this chapter ^^ you helped out alot with the spelling at the revisions, i really appreciate it =]

Disclaimer: i do not own fruits basket or the characters, they belong to Takaya-sensei ^^ and for good reason too.

Chapter One:

Hatori sat at his desk in the clinic thinking back on the painful memories of his lost love, Kana. He knew that he would never get the wonderful days he shared with her back again. So he settled for the small picture frame that sat on the bookshelf across his office; the one Ayame gave him a few months ago to replace the sad-looking, smiling one he had of Kana when they were together. Kana looked truly happy in the new picture. It was her wedding picture and made the pain Hatori felt deep within his heart ache even more. He picked up the picture of Kana, stared at it lovingly for a few minutes, and then walked quietly back to his desk. He opened one of the locked drawers on his desk and gently placed the picture face down. He then placed a stack of papers carefully over it so as not to crack the glass. Afterwards he closed the drawer, locked it, and walked to the window with the key. He opened the window, stared at the key for a few seconds, arched his arm back and threw the key as far as he could into the woods behind his office. He heard the sound of it hitting the water in the small creek. He stood there staring into the darkness, not really looking at anything, for about ten minutes; finally he thought out loud "Well…that puts an end to that. The current has probably moved it pretty far downstream by now…."

He walked back to his desk and placed a hand on the front of the drawer. "It's better this way for you Kana, now you can truly be happy and love someone who never turned into an animal…you won't have to carry the burden of ever loving me…" Hatori thought back to the day Akito hurt his left eye, leaving him pretty much blind on that side. He remembered Akito telling Kana it was all her fault, and Kana…Kana believing him and carrying that burden, thinking that if they had never been in love then Hatori wouldn't have gotten hurt…Kana became weak with depression over time to the point she would always be sitting on their bed huddled in a ball repeating "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry Hatori…if only…if only we never met…I'm sorry…" over and over. Kana's condition worsened over the weeks to the point Hatori was forced to erase Kana's memories of him to save her life. Kana forgot all about Hatori and them ever loving each other…and Hatori was left alone to remember all of the now painful memories of their love. Even though the memories were painful, and he wished he could forget sometimes, he was happy that he had loved Kana, and she him, he didn't want to forget…even if his remembering left him in a state of perpetual snow…never to love anyone the way he had loved Kana ever again….

The phone rang loudly waking Hatori from his restless sleep; he had been dreaming of her again, he sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes drowsily. He reluctantly picked up the phone.

"Hello?" Hatori said sleepily.

"HARI! You sound awful, did you get any sleep? Or were you up all night thinking about me? OH YOU NAUGHTY BOY!" Ugh, it was that stupid dog. He could feel a migraine coming on.

"Shigure…what do you want? It's only 8 in the morning…and on my day off too." Hatori was still half asleep.

"Hari, what's wrong? You're not being your normal sarcastic self…you actually sound like you're being…being…nice." Shigure spoke with disgust as if the thought of Hatori being nice was the grossest thing ever.

"You woke me up at 8 in the damn morning, I'm half asleep." Hatori was getting more annoyed by the second.

"You mean, you actually sleep!" Shigure acted as if he were shocked at the thought.

"Shigure, if you have nothing intelligent to say, I'm hanging up." Hatori said while pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Oh yes, I did have a point in calling so early in the morning, our little flower is sick. She fainted from a fever last night and I heard her vomiting later…I'm sure it's just the flu but Kyo and Yuki insisted I call you."

"Is she still conscious?" Hatori was a little worried which shocked him. Ever since erasing Kana's memories, he had never so much as batted an eyelash for anyone's expense, but for some reason, Tohru, a frail clumsy girl, made him worry. She was a little like Kana, but there were a lot of major differences. Kana was much prettier, and did things to get his attention all the time, so he would turn his attention towards her…Tohru didn't like it when the attention was on her, she loved to help everyone but herself, and even on her death bed she would say "I'm fine. I'm sorry to trouble you." And accompany it with one of her famous warm smiles. That's just how she was. But how, how did she get him to worry about her? She wasn't Kana. He knew that she would never love him like Kana did; he didn't even want to have any hope for that happening. He quickly banished that thought and returned his attention to Shigure.

"No, she fell back asleep after she got back from the bathroom and hasn't wakened since. I'm sure she will be okay with a little rest. I mean…she is our little flower; nothing can bring her down!" That, Hatori thought, was the kind of attitude that made Tohru not want to trouble anyone when she was sick. People always believed she was stronger than she actually was because she always smiled so happily, no matter what the circumstances, just to make everyone but herself feel better.

"I'll be there in half an hour." Hatori hung up the phone on Shigure because he didn't want to listen to his babbling anymore. He got out of bed and got dressed; then started to gather the things in his briefcase that he might need to tend to Tohru.