Disclaimer: No owning of Fruits Baskets for me, it belongs to Natusuki Takaya.

Warning: Hatori talks too much. Also, this story can be interpreted as m/m (I left it open to interpretation)

Of Fire and Sunlight

"Ah…" Ayame lie down comfortably, stretching his arms and breathing deeply, as his dearest Tori-san sat down stiffly beside him, staring at him critically.

"Ayame?"

"Yes?"

"Why are we here?"

"I don't know, Tori-san, I often wonder that myself as I'm lying in my lover's-"

"No, I mean here, at a park, an hours drive from home? I pick you up, offer to spend your birthday however you wish-"

"'Within reason', you said, you would spend the day however I wish 'within reason'."

"Right. So, why are we sitting in the grass at the park?"

"It's nice here. We can just talk, or not talk and just enjoy each other's company."

"Right." Hatori looked at his cousin skeptically, but didn't comment. Ayame looked so… content, lying there in the grass with his eyes closed, just breathing and basking in the sunlight.

"Hatori?"

"Hm?"

"Why do you like me?"

"Who said I liked you?"

"No, seriously."

"Ayame, what is this about?"

"Nothing." Hatori watched as his dear friend grew silent. Not the contented silence he had envied since childhood, but a sadder, lonelier silence. His expression lacked his usual glow.

"You are warm."

"Warm?" Ayame opened his eyes. He hadn't really expect his cousin to answer, and certainly not like that.

"You provide everyone around you with a seemingly inexhaustible source of warmth and life."

"Like the sun?"

Hatori chuckled to himself.

"Yes, like the sun."

"Hatori?" Aaya asked, turning towards his childhood friend, leaning on his elbow, "What warms the sun?"

"What?" Hatori turned to Ayame. In that instant, Ayame looked so lonely.

"If the sun warms everyone else, what warms the sun?"

Hatori paused, thinking. What could he tell him? Ayame was always so bright and cheerful, it was hard to imagine that he would need someone else to warm him, but as one of his closest friends Hatori had learned from the time they were small kids that Aaya thrived on affection from others. But it seemed to Hatori that it wasn't that he drew warmth from them, but from knowing he could give them warmth. And if he was right, then the warmth still originated from Aaya. But maybe that was the answer.

"The sun hot at the core, it has an inner fire to keep it warm." Ayame's face softened, and he smiled that sweet smile of his, before he spoke softly.

"Tori-san?"

"Hm?"

"If I am the sun, you are my inner fire." Just then…

"Aaya!" Ayame's face lit up at the sound, arousing mixed feelings of irritation and amusement in Hatori.

"Gure-san!" Aaya leapt up and ran to Shigure, who ran to Ayame, as they both pronounced their unending love.

"Ayame, my only, it's been far too long!"

"Shigure, my love, you've been faithful in my absence, I trust?"

"Of course, lover, and you have as well?"

"Darling Shigure, I must confess, my body behaved but my heart has sinned." Hatori, who had been rubbing his temples, looked up at his embracing cousins, alarmed.

"Gasp! An affair? With whom?"

"The fair and noble Sohma Hatori." Shigure looked over with amusement at Hatori, who had leapt to his feet and was looking frantically for an escape route.

"Surely you do not mean that Ha-san" Shigure asked, mock skepticism dripping in his voice.

"Yes, the very same."

"He hardly seems noble, he flees even now."

"Oh, he's quite brave."

"Well, shall we test his mettle on a small expedition?" Hatori began to run.

"Oh, lets!" With that, the chase was on.