Title: Waiting For Day
Author: Ysabet MacFarlane (ba087@chebucto.ns.ca)
Pairing: Sohma Hatsuharu and Sohma Isuzu (Rin)
Fandom: Fruits Basket
Theme: # 17  (kilohertz)
Disclaimer: Fruits Basket belongs to Takaya Natsuki and Hakusensha;
English-language versions by FUNimation (anime) and Tokyopop (manga).
Notes: pre-breakup, no spoilers I can think of.

*****

Sleeping with someone else in his bed was harder than Haru had expected.  It was
a comfortable restlessness, drifting off only to be startled awake when he moved
in his sleep and touched warm skin.  He was used to sprawling across the whole
bed; Rin slept curled up, her head on her arm, knees pulled up toward her chest.
 He wondered if she was waking up as often as he was.

Her hair had escaped onto his pillow, and he fingered it gently: the unfamiliar
texture of a braid.  *I don't move around a lot in my sleep, so I can leave it
loose,* she'd said as she plaited it, sitting on the very edge of his bed.  *But
it'll be impossible to brush out in the morning if you get tangled in it.*  Haru
had watched her work, considering the effort it took to maintain the gleaming
length of hair he took for granted.  The deft movement of her fingers, pale
flashes against black hair, was hypnotic.

After she finished, she rummaged around in his cd collection.  Haru waited until
she'd picked something to sleep to; their whispered late-night phone
conversations were usually underscored by whatever music she'd chosen to keep
the silence at bay while she slept.

*I hope your parents don't hear me,* she'd whispered after her chosen cd started
playing.

*It's not the end of the world if they find out.*  His parents liked Rin, even
without knowing about their relationship; more than once, Haru had heard family
gossip about his mother's refusal to talk to Rin's parents for longer than a few
minutes.  Rin shook her head, her shoulders hunching with tension, and Haru
didn't push the issue.  He lay down, and Rin curled up beside him, slowly
relaxing while he fitted his body against hers.  The music kept playing, the
volume turned so low that only the bass was really audible.

Shortly before dawn he was startled awake by a sound he couldn't identify--it
flickered at the very edge of his ears' range, and died before he was fully
conscious.  He kept his eyes closed and listened, straining for it.  He had
almost lapsed back into sleep when he heard it again, and only Rin's sudden
twitch against him helped him identify it as her voice, a whimper that he could
barely catch.

"Rin," he breathed, propping himself up and kissing her shoulder.  She was
facing away from him, the braids leaving her neck and back exposed in an
unfamiliar way.  "Are you awake, sweetheart?  Bad dream?"

"Don't--"  He barely made the word out; her teeth chattered over it while she
shuddered.

"Rin, wake up."  Fully awake now, Haru sat up and turned her onto her back,
smoothing a lock of hair that had escaped from its braid.  Even in the gray
light coming though the window, her face was deathly pale.  "Rin."  He cupped
his hand against her temple, trying to soothe her.  When she didn't wake, he
leaned against the wall, easing her head and shoulders onto his lap.  Tears
escaping from her closed eyes seeped into the hem of his boxers, trickled down
his bare thigh, and he kept touching her helplessly.

He only realized she'd come awake when her fingers closed around his knee. 
"Turn the music up a little?" she whispered, and he fumbled for the stereo
remote on the bedside table, trying to hold her and manage the controls at once.

"How loud?"

Her voice was low and strained.  "Don't wake your parents."  It was a tall order
in a traditional home with its thin walls; Haru adjusted the volume one slow
notch at a time, hoping the gradual change wouldn't startle his father, the
lighter sleeper, awake.  When he didn't dare turn it up any further, he dropped
the remote on the futon and pulled Rin into his arms.

"Are you ok?" he murmured.  Her only reply was to hide her face against his
neck; her breath and tears were hot against the early morning chill, but the
sound of her weeping was lost in the music.  Haru didn't say anything else until
she'd gotten herself under control, pulling away and rubbing her eyes against
her arm.  "I didn't think you'd sleep so badly if you spent the night," he said,
stroking her shoulder.

An apologetic look crossed her face.  "I'm sorry I woke you up."

"I don't care about that.  I just wish you'd been able to sleep ok."

Rin rubbed at her eyes again, and shrugged under his hand.  "This is normal for
me, Haru."  She gave him a faint smile.  "Thought you'd sleep through it."

Haru hugged her close again.  "You're not gonna get all awkward and decide not
to sleep here again, are you?"

"You don't mind?" she whispered.

"I don't mind.  Can you get back to sleep?"

She nodded slowly.  "I think so.  You?"

"Yeah.  I don't usually have any trouble."

"Lucky."  She curled up against him, one thigh over his, and reached across him
for the remote control.  Haru watched her thumb moving over the unfamiliar
controls.

"Want me to--"

"I've got it."  Rin pushed herself off the bed and half onto him to see the
buttons.  The volume dropped slightly, and the music was replaced by the mutter
of a radio station identifying itself.  "I just want to hear the weather."  Her
head dropped onto his chest, and she continuing lying on him while she listened.
 "Hope it's a little warmer today."

"It should be."  Haru slid an arm around her shoulders, feeling her heart
beating under his hand and against his side while he kept an idle ear on the
radio.  By the time the weather forecast began, Rin was asleep.  "High of 8," he
whispered to her, echoing the radio.  "And sunny."