love, lies and loyalty
by NiNA_eN
Three themes, two people, one love
love.
He used the word as freely as any other person. He loved chocolate, he loved candy, he loved his little sister.
But these were material love, affectionate love, he didn't know love as most (usually females) perceived it.
And who could blame him, one who'd been abandoned because of a single hug – despite the long and painful and hours of bringing him into this world?
So he went on with his love – his gluttonous love, his platonic love.
He was satisfied with this, he really was.
At least, that's what he thought – until the painful twinges in his heart whenever he saw her with another.
Because at fifteen years old, Sohma Momiji had finally fallen in love.
lies.
No one noticed.
That his mouth was too wide, his smile too stretched to be natural. That his eyes were closed, closed arches to hide his insincerity, that there was the teeniest furrow between his brows.
No one cared.
Wrapped up in their own petty little lives, in a tangled web of where repeated "I'm alright"s seemed almost believable, even to him.
He'd spun a web, tangled spider's web of broken innocence and black lies piling up and up on top of white lies.
He manipulated them, twisting their strings until they could neither tell truth from lies – and so they believed the latter.
He'd almost believe them himself – if he hadn't reached past thick walls of melancholy to them.
And he hated them – for being so easily fooled, so easily reassured, so easily convinced, so easily dismissive.
But he then hated himself more. They trusted him. When he thought about it, he could feel the guilt mounting up within himself and self-disgust rising like bile. It wasn't supposed to be like this. Sometimes, only sometimes did he wonder if he'd actually made the right choice.
Then he got angry, a deep simmering-below-the-surface rage. They were so wary of Shigure, who seemed to wear his deceptions upon his sleeve, subtle yet permeating the air until you couldn't help but notice, that sly smile, the almost-invisible glimmer in his obsidian irises.
He realized he was a master of lies. Because how could so cute a smile, so sweet a disposition possibly hide anything? They thought him an open book but he was anything but.
So he carried on spinning his lies, a disguised Rapunzel in a tower, unable to let down his hair (because it was too short.)
Then he told the girl he loved his tale. His tale of tragedy and lost memories, that was just so, so sad.
Even though he loved her, he'd expected her to...he wasn't sure what he'd expected of her but it certainly wasn't this.
Big blues eyes, magnified by and shimmering with unfamiliar emotion, arms wrapped tight around his smaller frame, encompassing his cold, cold heart with her own warmth – compassion, kindness, sincerity, concepts that had become completely foreign to him.
And at fifteen years old Sohma Momiji's truth spilled fourth in hot tears.
loyalty.
It felt absolutely alien to him.
He'd been abandoned soon fter birth, he had no real friends and even the family members he once thought so close were far from that.
So he'd come to think it false, a lie like his smile, deceit like his shining eyes.
But she'd brought fourth the truth from his pinocchio depths and so in turn, he believed
And, aged fifteen, Sohma Momiji pledged his undying loyalty to one Honda Tohru.
This is my ultimate favourite pairing in all of Furuba. Well, second after Tohru/Ritsu – which sadly there just isn't enough of. Ritsu's such a sweetie –smiles-