THIS IS NOT AN UPDATE OR A REWRITE! This is the same chapter, it's just been betad by the amazing and wonderful RuleThyMi, everyone thank her for betaing my fict now you wont have to put up with my horrible grammer. Ok.
n.n Hello Mina-san! (small bow) Im very happy you are reading this. The first chapter of my first Furuba fict! I hope you enjoy it. What would happen to our favourite Sohmas without Tohru? What if they had never met her? Can Kyo and Yuki help eachother or will they just end up killing each other? Will Akito step in before either can be happy? Will anyone find out about he curse? Will Shigure stop being such a perv? All these questions and more will be answered.
WARNING! This will be a yaoi/shonen ai story, aka boyxboy dont like dont read, simple as.
IMPORTANT NOTE! The only people who knows of Kyos other form is Hatori, Shigure, Akito and Kasuma and maybe a few others. But Yuki dosen't know ok n.n
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"Come on! It's okay, I won't let you fall!"
"Where are you? Why do I have to be the oni?" the little girl complained, stretching her arms ahead of her as she tried to follow the sound of the other children's voices. They were playing oni tag and the girl had been selected to be 'It.' Only the rules were changed slightly; the 'oni' had to be blindfolded. The little girl had been afraid of falling of walking into something, so Yuki had offered to walk at her side so he could warn her of any dangers.
The other children ran around laughing and giggling. "Over here 'oni'!" they called teasingly. The little girl laughed and the young Yuki smiled. The children were all about 5 or 6 years old. There was some sort of festival or celebration going on, and the grownups were inside. However, none of this mattered to the children. They had gone out to play tag.
The girl laughed again. As she became more confident in being 'blind', she ran faster towards the voices, reaching out to any who didn't get out of her way quick enough.
"Onee-chan you make a hopeless oni!" one boy cried. The girl frowned in determination.
"Ototo-chan, I'm going to get you for that! You are so going to be the next oni!" she shouted triumphantly, Yuki jogged along beside her to keep up.
Yuki saw the rock too late; the little girl had already stumbled over it before he could say a word.
"Yuki!" she shouted as she stretched out her arms. Her small body hit Yuki's equally frail body and she wrapped her arms around him to steady herself. But something was wrong. They were falling over, and Yuki was ... shrinking?
She felt a light against her eyelids and heard the gasps of the other children.
"Yuki-kun?" she whispered tentatively as she slowly lifted her blindfold.
What she saw was so far from what she expected; she let out a little yelp and scuttled backwards. Yuki wasn't there anymore. Only his clothes lay on the ground, no body filling them. Beside the clothes on the ground was a silver rat, its fur the same colour as Yuki's hair.
The rat sat there, his small body curling up, trying to look even smaller. He had lost more friends. Hatori would have to suppress their memories ... and Yuki would be alone again.
A teenage Yuki rolled over in his sleep, his silver hair falling into his eyes. His eyes fluttered a bit, but he did not wake. He curled himself in a tight ball, as if trying to protect himself from the dream. In another room in the quiet house, another Sohma was having a troubled dream.
Everyone wore black. Black dresses, black suits, black shirts, black hats, black ties, black, black, black. Even the atmosphere was black. And a small boy stood in the middle of it all, staring at the floor. Not crying ... he would not cry.
"From what I hear, it seems like suicide," he heard as the hissing gossip filled the area. Even though no one would stand near him, there was at least a five-foot radius of free floor space around him. He could still hear their poisonous voices.
"But no one knows for sure."
"I guess it was so hard on her having the cat as a son … that she killed herself."
'"Shut up," whispered the boy.
"Poor thing."
"If only she hadn't had that cat child."
"The boy doesn't even cry."
"Even though his mother died."
"Shut up...," he whispered, his small voice drowned out in the chatter.
"And he's the one who pushed her to suicide."
"Shut up, it's not my fault. IT'S NOT MY FAULT!"
His mother's voice rang in his ears as he ran away from the voices, the ones who hated him.
'"I'm not scared a bit." Liar.
'"You're my son and I'm proud of you." Liar!
"You can't go outside. You're so cute -- I won't let anyone else see you." LIAR! LIAR! LIAR!
If she meant those things, she wouldn't have left. She would have looked at him. Really looked at him, no matter what form he was in.
"Okaa-san ... why …?"
The orange-haired teen sat bolt upright in bed and groaned. It just wasn't fair. Akito had ordered him to stay with Shigure and the damn rat for some reason. Tearing him away from the only home he knew. From Kasuma. The only place he had ever felt loved. He sat for a few moments, letting the tears silently fall down his cheeks. He wouldn't cry or sob. But he would allow this brief moment of weakness.
He let out a weary sigh as his head hit the pillow. If it wasn't bad enough that he had to move away from Kasuma, but he also had to stay with the damn rat. It was all the rat's fault he was like this, anyways. Kyo clenched his fists.
He growled. Who needed a home and love, anyway? He was just being stupid and sentimental when he needed his wits about him. Love was a dangerous emotion anyways, making you do the strangest things. Things you would never do if your brain wasn't being rewired by that freakish emotion. He sighed, pulling his blanket over his tired body and tucking himself in. He closed his eyes again and tried to get some sleep.
Yuki hadn't woken from his dream.
He was still there, the little boy, watching each and every one of his friends vanish from him as Hatori suppressed their memories. Akito stood in the background, grinning savagely.
"You're strange, Yuki. It is simply not normal for a boy to turn into a rat. It will scare people …You don't want that, do you? You don't want to be hated?" he asked artfully, eyeing the boy.
Akito always won. He always got his way. Unfortunately, his way was always the one where the members of the Zodiac as miserable as possible. After these speeches, Yuki would never complain, never try to stop Hatori. After all, he was strange ... he didn't deserve friends, as Akito reminded him every time a memory had to be suppressed.
The little girl, the oni, stretched her hand out to Yuki, silently asking for help. Hatori's hand gently wrapped around her tiny head. She was so small compared to the older man, and she was probably terrified. Yuki watched as Hatori worked. In a few seconds the girls body went limp, collapsing in the man's lap.
Another friend gone...just like that.
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Kyo yawned as he reached towards the fridge door. He was always the first one up in the morning. He had always been a morning person. It didn't make sense; cats were known for their ability to sleep all their lives -- if the fancy took them. Kyo, however, wasn't one for sleep. He only slept for as long as his body demanded and no longer. When he woke, he was always completely and utterly awake, as if he had never gone to bed in the first place.
The house was still quiet, as the lazy dog and rat were still asleep. Kyo glared at the contents of the refrigerator, as if they had offended him. Actually, they had -- in a way. The small space was packed with junk food and leftover take-out. Kyo grabbed a carton of orange juice and slammed the door shut. Nothing in there was fit for human consumption, and he didn't know how Shigure and Yuki managed to live off the stuff.
Hunting around in the cupboard, he found a few clean bowls and an unopened box of cereal. He sighed again. The box was covered in brightly colored, garish pictures, and the contents of the cereal weren't much better than the food in the fridge. It had the nutritional value of cardboard, and made up for what it lacked in that area by about twenty tons of sugar. Unfortunately, it was the only thing there, and Kyo was just too hungry to care.
He waded towards the table through the mess on the floor, carrying three bowls and spoons in one hand, the carton on juice and cereal in another. He set two bowls down for Yuki and Shigure. Not that he wanted to, but Shigure would only complain over and over again. Kyo was mean for not getting him a bowl when Kyo had got his own. Now he had to go all the way to the kitchen to get one, blah, blah, blah. Yuki would complain because Shigure was complaining. Honestly, sometimes Kyo wasn't sure who was worst, Yuki or Shigure.
Kyo poured himself a bowl of sugar ... ahem, cereal, and took a gulp from the orange juice carton. There weren't any clean cups, and he just couldn't be bothered to wash any. They needed to go to the grocery store, too.
Kyo didn't normally bother how clean a house was, or what the people in said house ate, but this house really bugged him -- now that he had to live in it. He had to suppress the urge to clean the place. The only thing that stopped him from picking up a mop was the thought of the damn rat mocking him. And there was no way he was going to cook for them, either. He would cook food for himself, but with Shigure around that was dangerous. Shigure either bug him incessantly to cook his favourite dish, or call him a 'meanie' for not preparing said dish. The level of maturity in this house was so frustrating.
Yuki came downstairs at that moment, looking as he usually did in the morning ... like the living dead. His school shirt was buttoned up all wrong, and his tie was slung over his shoulder, haphazardly tied. His hair stuck up at odd angles, and he walked as if someone had injected him with starch. Yuki was definitely not a morning person. He dragged a bowl towards him, and made a grab for the cereal. He missed, knocking the juice over instead.
"DAMN RAT! PAY A BIT MORE ATTENTION, WILL YOU!" Kyo screamed as he jumped to his feet. He quickly righted the carton, but some juice had leaked out onto the wood and now a puddle of orange sat in the middle of the table. Yuki just grunted and reached for the cereal again, this time his hand closing around the box. He filled his bowl with the sugar flavoured cardboard, I mean cereal.
"Milk?" he asked sleepily.
"There is none! You had it all yesterday for breakfast, remember!" Kyo sputtered angrily.
Yuki glared at his cereal bowl as if willing it to fill with milk. When that failed to work, he started to spoon the food into his mouth, chewing slowly and swallowing as if it caused him great pain.
Shigure entered next, reading the paper and looking for all the world as if he'd been up for hours, which he probably had been. His editor's suicide attempts had been getting more and more frequent, suggesting he had a deadline looming.
"If that brainless twit ends up killing herself on the porch, I'll revive her, kill her again, and kill Shigure for good measure," thought Kyo. A blood stain on the porch would be the last straw for him. Even if he was the cat, therefore a predator, and a carnivore extraordinaire, he couldn't stand blood. He shoved some more of the cereal in his mouth, a little more forcefully than needed and ended up choking.
Yuki laughed and muttered something under his breath along the lines of "Stupid cat is trying to kill himself with cereal…"
Now if any other person had said this, Kyo probably would have laughed at the joke. After all, 'death by cereal' on a death certificate would look rather odd. However, this was Yuki.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY, YOU KUSO NEZUMI! FACE ME LIKE A MAN, PRETTY BOY!" he yelled. A vein popped in Yuki forehead. He stood up and swiftly sent a kick in Kyo's direction, sending the cursing cat through the wall.
"My house!" Shigure moaned, "Stop breaking my house! I'm going to have to call Akasawa-san again to fix that." Yuki yawned boredly. He stood and walked towards the bathroom deciding to try and make himself look more presentable. Kyo stood up painfully, swearing at Yuki's retreating form. He limped off to his room to get his book bag.
If Kyo hated anything more than living in the same house as the rat, it was having to go to the same school as him. Not only did he have to contend with Yuki, Haru and Momiji, but also the horde of evilness that the school secretly hid from the outside world, a.k.a., the fangirls. Now, Kyo had been quite happy to allow the fan girls chase Yuki to their loony hearts content. But then he had to go to that horrendous school. And true to the fangirl nature, they instantly fell in love with the new Sohma the moment they saw him. Although most of the crazy ones were loyal to Prince Yuki, he had his own herd of fangirls. It was nothing to be happy about. Not at all. It was something to be feared above all else, especially if you were one of the cursed members of the Zodiac ... or even if you were not of the Zodiac, on second thought. Whatever.
Kyo grabbed his bag and marched downstairs. He arrived at the bottom a few seconds before Yuki, who had managed to composed himself to look like his usual neat and tidy self.
"Have a good day at schoooool!" Shigure sang after them. As the two gave the hyperactive dog equally potent death glares, he gave a small "meep!" and ran deeper into the house, probably to finish off the leftovers of yesterday's takeout.
The two boys walked to school in stony silence, purposefully ignoring each other and acting as if they were walking alone. Kyo was still mad at Yuki, and Yuki didn't want to be associated with the deranged cat.
Once inside the school they each went to their separate lockers, finally being able to breath easily. Yuki was immediately followed by about five fangirls. They managed to chatter all at the same time, sounding like a horde of angry buzzing bees. Yuki gently messaged his temples and closed his eyes, trying to block the coming headache, but also trying to maintain a polite, aristocratic air. Kyo wasn't so subtle. Yuki could already hear his yelling and the sound of pounding stomps, accompanied by the footsteps of three very, very brave fangirls. Yuki watched Kyo streak past, an amused grin fluttering across his face This made the fan girls scream their hearts out, and Yuki instantly regret breathing. He made his excuses, managed to shake off the girls, and strode towards his homeroom quickly. Seconds later Kyo came streaking in, slamming the door behind him. There were multiple thumps as the girls collided with the door. "Cruel," thought Yuki, "but appropriate." He tried not to laugh as he pictured the looks on the girls' faces. Really, it wasn't very kind, but fan girls were so annoying.
Kyo collapsed in his chair and let his head rest on the desk. He was almost instantly surrounded by two boys. Yuki wasn't sure of their names, but they were friends of Kyo, if you could call them that. They were more acquaintances, really. Kyo would talk to them now and then, but other than that, he preferred to be alone. He didn't even like to be around Haru and Momiji, although Momiji never got the hint, and he would always go find Kyo at break to "Cheer him up!" as the boy would say. Momoiji was one of the few who seemed to partly understand Kyo, Yuki put it down to the fact that both of them had lost their mothers at a young age.
Yuki watched Kyo enviously as he made small talk with the other boys. Kyo attracted people so easily, even if he did push them away. Yuki wished for that, so much. To be normal. Not have to push people away. But that was the curse of those of the Zodiac. Kyo didn't know how lucky he was, not to be part of it. Yuki would give anything for what Kyo had, not that he'd ever admit it. He certainly wasn't jealous of Kyo, of course not. He took his books and pens out of his bag and set them on the desk neatly and waited for the teacher. The bell rang and the student shuffled into their seats. The teacher came through the door a second later.
"Alright now, you lazy lot," she said as she breezed into the room, "I have a lot of announcements to give you today, so just sit there, shut up, and listen. I'm not going to repeat myself."
Everyone sat up a bit straighter after that. By now the class had learned to read their teacher's mood, and today she was not to be messed with.
School was the hellhole it usually was for both boys. Yuki got chased at least twice during dinner. Kyo had taken up residence in the tallest tree he could find, and the fan girls circled it, calling him down with offers of sweets, food, gifts, blah blah blah. Yuki was currently hiding in the broom closet after being cased by a particularly vicious pack of fangirls. They had stolen his tie, so now his shirt hug open due to the fact that the tie was actually attached to the top button on his shirt. Yuki almost felt sorry for them, they obviously didn't know the rules of the Prince Yuki Fan Club.
He sat on a box of some detergent and rested his head in his hands. Its was nice and peaceful in here. Yuki wondered if he ever wanted to go out again. Maybe he'd wait until everyone had gone home.
The bell interrupted his thoughts and he reluctantly walked back to his class. As he passed the window he could see Kyo still hiding in the tree. Now, only two girls were brave enough to ignore the bell. Kyo was also now surrounded by what looked like every cat in the area. The girls were alternating between saying how cute the cats were and how sweet Kyo was. They knew his meanness had only been a cover all along. Yuki sighed and shook his head. That stupid cat always managed to get himself in some sort of trouble. As if it were his mission to every day be shouted at for being late, breaking something or slamming the door (and some fangirl's fingers). Today he seemed to have opted for simply being late to class.
Yuki took his seat and waited for the teacher. There was a noise of a scuffle and yelling out side and Kyo burst through the door, his usual loud self.
"You can't put me in detention for being late! I was here before you! You're the one who's late, you should put yourself in detention!" he argued. The teacher was not amused. As
his scowl became more pronounced, a few student began to giggle. This teacher was known for his tardiness, and it was usually safe to arrive five minutes late to any class of his.
"Detention. Two. Weeks. SIT!" yelled the teacher. Kyo decided not to push his luck, a wise move, and instead stormed to his seat. Kyo sat through the whole class muttering darkly, stopping long enough to take a note or two, then going back to cursing the teacher under his breath. It was rather amusing to watch. Kyo looked quite dramatic, hair stuck up in dangerous looking spikes, and dark shadows falling over his eyes. Nearly every student was sneaking peeks at Kyo when the teacher's back was turned. They couldn't help it, the class was boring.
Kyo stormed out of the final class and to his detention, which turned out to be cleaning duty. He'd have to clean the classroom and the cloak room by himself (mainly because the teacher thought the classroom alone wasn't bad enough). Even though Kyo knew after a week the teacher would have forgotten about the detention, it didn't mean he could skip detention altogether. He muttered darkly as he mopped the floor, cursing the unthoughtful students who allowed their inside shoes to get so dirty. The cloak room was even worst, since every one walked through the cloak room to get to their lockers.
Kyo cursed again as he cleaned the cloak room. He'd already been here an hour and he was starting to get hungry. He was going to stand by the main door tomorrow and shout at any student who dared to walk in with muddy shoes. Oh yeah, he would make them regret the day they ever walked over his clean floor, getting it dirtier … and dirtier … and dirtier.
Kyo was allowed to leave about another hour later. He smelt strongly of cleaning products. The odor attacked his nostrils and made him want to gag. As the cat, he had an extra-sensitive sense of smell, so the disinfectant was even worse for him.
He soon arrived back at The House, inside, he still refused to call it home. He was glad to see the front porch free of blood, indicating Shigure's editor hadn't killed herself yet. Good, he didn't need anything more to clean. Because it would obviously be him who would have to clean it. Unless of course he just left the blood there, but that wasn't the most pleasant idea, and he'd rather clean it up and get rid of it.
Stumbling into the house he saw some take out on the table. He glared at it. It had obviously been left there for him by Shigure, Yuki would never be so thoughtful. He picked up the bag and threw it unceremoniously into the fridge. He then search high and low for any ingredients he could turn into a nice hot stew or soup.
Kyo may not look it, but he knew how to cook. Maybe not well, but his cooking was edible. That was more than could be said for Shigure's cooking, maybe a better word would be sacrifice. Kasuma had taught him how to cook, explaining that Kyo needed to be prepared for any eventuality. He filled a bowl for himself and drank it ravenously, it was so hot it burned his throat. It didn't really matter, though. It was just so nice to have fresh food. Something that hadn't been pre-prepared, then warmed up when someone ordered it. He filled the bowl again and put the rest of the food in the fridge. He would eat it tomorrow.
He walked into the living room and slouched onto the sofa. He was way too tired. He'd been planning on challenging Yuki to a fight today, but sleep was more tempting. And the house seemed deserted anyway. He finished off his soup and put it on whatever part of the table was left. "This house really needs to be tidied," he thought lazily, his eyelids feeling heavy. He yawned. It was still early, but the cleaning had zapped any energy he had left. He fell asleep before he could even consider whether he'd be more comfortable in bed or on the sofa.
Yuki dropped the bags on the counter and began to put the food away. He hadn't bought much, they usually bought takeout anyway, but they needed milk and other necessities. Yuki spotted the bowl of fresh soup in the fridge. It was still warm, it couldn't have been in the fridge for more than five minutes. He sniffed it suspiciously. It smelled good. The thought of having some freshly cooked food was so tempting. He looked around, hoping to see a maid, or a cook. Or something. He knew the only one who could have cooked the soup was Kyo, (Shigure even managed to burn water ... well maybe not that extreme, but let's just say the kitchen still smells of smoke), and he didn't want to eat anything the cat had made. But it did smell so good … finally, hunger winning out over pride, he got a spoon and tasted the soup. He sighed as the warm liquid flowed down his throat, "Mmmmm…"
He grabbed a bowl and helped himself to some. He went to the living room and saw the cat, spread out over every bit of the sofa. Yuki glared at him. He glared at the cat's legs as he pushed them off the sofa to make room for him to sit. Kyo snorted in his sleep and curled into a ball, looking very much like a oversized cat. Yuki stared at the TV realizing he'd forgotten to turn it on, he stood up grumbling something about 'remote controls with legs' and switched the TV on. He sat back down to eat his soup. It was a nice change. He could never admit to the cat that he'd eaten the soup, let alone enjoyed it. It was his secret, and he only hoped Kyo would decide to cook more often.
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Thank you very much for reading minna! Please leave a review and tell me what you think. Cookies for all reviewers.