Disclaimer: Fruits Basket belongs to…the creator of Fruits Basket whose name I can't remember…and Tokyopop, not me.
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"Oh! Kyo, you're finally home!" Tohru exclaimed. "I was so worried!"
"You didn't have to be," he said, running his hand through his wet orange hair.
"I have some dinner waiting for you by the stove. No leeks," she added hurriedly.
His stomach growled. "I'm so hungry I could probably eat those anyway," he shrugged. Kyo took the plate and plunked down at the table.
He had wolfed down almost all of his dinner when the door slid open. "Oi, Yuki, what are you doing, you darn rat?!" Kyo hollered. "The rain's pouring in!"
Yuki ignored him. He was carrying his coat in his arms as if he was cradled a baby. "Tohru!" he shouted. "Shigure!"
"Yuki, what's wrong?" Tohru said, tearing out of the kitchen. "What is it? Are you hurt? Are you sick?"
"Do you have a reason for all this ruckus?" Shigure yawned.
Yuki lifted the coat away slightly. "It's Kagura," he said. "I found her on the side of the road, already in her zodiac form."
"Someone should call Hatori!" Tohru cried.
"I will. Tohru, you should take Kagura up to the spare room and get her warmed up," Shigure said. "How long do you think she was out there?"
"It had to have been quite a while," Yuki said. Tohru took the small brown boar in her arms and carried it upstairs.
"Oh, I hope Hatori isn't too busy tonight," Shigure said, heading towards the phone. "He'll going to be busy enough here…"
Yuki glared down at Kyo. He hadn't moved. In fact, he had calmly continued eating. "Aren't you even the slightest bit concerned?" he asked.
"No, not really," Kyo said.
"She is family, after all, even if you aren't romantically inclined towards her," Yuki said.
"Still don't care," Kyo said. He took his plate, dumped some more food on it, and ambled to his room. He passed by Tohru's bedroom and paused. Tohru had tucked the small boar into her own bed, heaping the blankets around it.
"It's all right, Kagura-chan," he heard Tohru whisper. "You'll be all right. We'll take care of you. Yuki-san and Shigure-san and Kyo-kun and I will all take care of you."
Kyo rolled his eyes and kept going. He knew what this was. It was another one of Kagura's plots for attention- namely his attention. She'd done stuff like this all the time when they were kids. It wasn't going to work again.
He remembered the last time she pulled a stunt. They were around ten. She pretended to fall and hurt her ankle. He lugged her all the way back to Sohma House on his back, only to find that she was perfectly fine.
That hadn't made him too happy.
Kagura had always been like that- one second sweet and adorable, the next evil and violent, without any medium. And now here it was again. She should know better by now, Kyo thought. He dumped his dirty dishes near the door, collapsed on his futon, and fell asleep almost instantly.
The next morning he walked out of his room and slammed straight into Hatori. "What're you doin' here?" Kyo mumbled, still not fully awake.
"Staying with Kagura," he said shortly, brushing past him.
Kyo stared after them. He stayed with Kagura all night? He walked past Tohru's room. The boar-sized lump in the bed had been replaced with a girl-sized lump, a very pale girl with pink fever-blush on her thin cheeks and a small plushie clutched in her small hands. Kyo swallowed as he recognized the toy. It was a little orange kitty. He tiptoed into the room and stood by her bed.
Kagura's long, dark eyelashes fluttered. "Hm?" she murmured. "K-Kyo?"He ran out of the room before she saw him. Kagura pushed herself into a sitting position. "K-Kyo-k-kun…"
Tohru ran into the room. "Kagura, what's wrong? Are you okay?" she said.
"I th-thought…I saw…Kyo…" Kagura began to cry.
"Oh!" Tohru exclaimed. "Don't cry, Kagura! It's okay!" She pulled Kagura into her arms. "It's all right. Don't cry, you'll make yourself sicker."
As if to prove her point, Kagura began to cough, her entire body shaking in pain. The soft wheezing evolved into sharp, wracking coughs that made her tremble, unable to stop. Kyo closed his eyes and sneaked away, trying to escape the horrible sound.
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Author's Note:
See last chapter…