Diving Deep (requests closed)

Yuki (Fruits Basket) -One More Time

I hope this meets your expectations antimere! Or at least comes close to what you were hoping for!

Why? Why hadn't I paid more attention? Just a bit more awareness of my surroundings and I wouldn't be sitting here, staring at the floor guiltily as I heard the pained gasp from across the room. Peeking up quickly, I saw the nurse place the alcohol doused cotton swab against the small cut on the boys delicate looking wrist.

Seeing him look up towards me, I quickly averted my gaze back to the floor, an embarrassed blush spreading across my face. Every tiny gasp of pain and every sound of sympathy the nurse made had me feeling worse and worse about having hurried so quickly through the halls. Almost as upsetting was the fact I honestly couldn't even remember why I had been rushing so quickly in the first place.

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Walking to class, just a few steps behind him, I forced myself to look up at his back. A few strands of his purplish hair brushed one of his shoulders as he walked, catching my eyes for a moment before I gave myself a small shake.

"Um... Excuse me... I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry for causing you trouble like that. I hope you can forgive me for causing you to get hurt." My voice lowering with each word I spoke, I found myself almost whispering by the end, my face growing warm from the embarrassed blush coloring my cheeks red.

"Accidents happen, (last name)-san. It was just a small scrape, so do not worry about it please." The soft voice barely carried to me when he spoke, his face turned away as he continued on to his classroom.

I almost froze in shock when he said my name. I'd always thought I was unnoticed by the others in this school, not really having many friends since I had transferred in so many weeks after school had started. Everyone had seemed to already have formed the friendships they would carry until the end of the school year, likely even until they all graduated together or beyond.

I'd never had an easy time making friends and trying to break into already formed groups was simply outside of my nature. It might seem lonely for me, but maybe next year I could befriend some of the new students that would be entering the school. After all, I was always being told that patience would be rewarded. I just had to wait, right? Besides, I was used to it, having transferred schools before when I was a child.

Finding myself in front of the door to the classroom, I realized that I had followed the boy the whole way here. Wait... Had that boy been in the same class as me this whole time? I.. I guess I'd never really paid attention to the other students in my class, but you would think I would have noticed a guy with purple tints to his hair and eyes, right?

Feeling mildly dazed, I gave the teacher my note from the nurse before heading to the back of the class and sitting down, trying to ignore how the females in the class seemed almost ready to attack me. On the bright side, at least I had seemingly been forgiven by the person I ran into.

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Sighing as I put my History book away into my locker, I locked it shut and turned around, not expecting to see the same boy standing there with a blank look on his face. Frowning slightly in confusion, my eyes widened when suddenly he lifted his uninjured hand to show me a slip of paper from the school office. Feeling the blood drain from my face, I raised my eyes to look into his own.

"How serious is it? Is it detention? Suspension? Expulsion?" The more I thought about why they might be giving me a slip, the worse the reasons my imagination conjured up and the wider his eyes became.

"I think you have the wrong idea. It's nothing like that, (last name)-san. It's just about a meeting you missed this morning." Looking down at the paper as he handed it to me, I suddenly remembered why I had been in such a rush this morning.

"I was supposed to talk to the councilor about transferring one of my classes over for a college prep class... I can't believe I forgot!" Slapping my hand to my forehead, I took a step forward to head to the offices in hopes that it could still happen, not expecting my overused ankle to finally give out on me.

The puff of smoke that filled that small part of the otherwise empty hallway shocked me, but not nearly as much as seeing the small, silvery rat staring up at me. Blinking slowly, I reached out a trembling hand and saw the poor creature flinch back from me.

"Sohma-kun? Is that really you?" I could barely believe my eyes when I saw the tentative nod, unable to stop the small scream that came from my mouth the next moment. "Oh my gosh! You're so cute!"

Cooing over the blushing creature, I didn't even care about my sore ankle anymore. I just wish I could figure out why this seemed slightly familiar.

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Walking down the hallway a few days later, I noticed some with purplish hair looking at me with a blush on his cheeks. A feeling of familiarity raced through me and was gone, but not before I found myself standing in front of him with a look of curiosity on my face.

"I'm sorry, but do I know you?" I asked, my head tilted to the side as I looked into eyes that seemed far too sad for someone his age.

"No. No you don't." His soft voice barely reached me as he began turning away from me, ready to walk down the hallway.

I'm not sure why I did what I did next, but I found myself grabbing his hand without thought and bringing him to a stop, stammering in confusion at the action as I quickly let go.

"I'm sorry, I don't really know why I grabbed you like that but I really feel like I should know you somehow. Are you sure we haven't met before?" I blushed as I looked down at his shoes, the floor, even looking at the dents running along the bottoms of the lockers from being kicked by passing students.

"Y-yeah... I'm sure." His sad sounding whisper echoed in my ears before I looked up and met his eyes finally.

"Oh, okay... Umm..." Rubbing my head nervously I began speaking quickly, squeezing my eyes shut as I did something I usually didn't do around people I hadn't met before. "I'm (full name)! It's really nice to meet you! I hope we can be friends, please!"

Even as I stood there, my hands trembling and my knees shaking a little at having been so bold, I still didn't quite know why I had said those words. I'm usually the kind to wait until a new year started to try making new friends, so why... Why had I felt such an unusual need to reach out to this boy?

"You... want to be my friend?" His slightly timid, yet polite, response made me look up to meet his eyes as my mouth dropped open in shock.

"Is there some reason I shouldn't want to? I mean... It would be nice to have a friend in the school and you seem nice enough to me. Oh... But if you don't want to be my friend, I guess I could understand." Taking a step back, I looked back down at the floor and started to turn away. The hand that wrapped around my wrist froze me in place.

"Have lunch with me tomorrow. We can get to know each other..." If I didn't know better, I would almost have sworn he'd mumbled the word 'again' at the end of his sentence.

Smiling regardless of what I thought I heard, I agreed to eat with him tomorrow before saying our goodbyes and turning away to head home for the day. The smile stayed on my face for the rest of the day, my mother commenting how odd it was to see me smile while eating one of my least favorite meals for dinner.

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Pulling out a slightly crinkled photo of himself as a child standing side by side with a (hair color) haired girl, Yuki ran a finger over it affectionately and sighed as he got ready for bed that night.

"Perhaps trying one more time wouldn't be so bad after all, right (name)-chan? After all, it is not often a person gets three tries to be with the person they fell in love with." The softest smile touched his lips as he carefully put the picture back into the book it had been hidden in for years.