Yet another by Rhianna. I was listening to this CD and wanted to make a Furuba story to it. Only problem was, I didn't know how, exactly. I though of writing a lemon, but quickly threw that idea out. Then I tried to write some to "Wild Horses" and "Lies", but came back to this. I think it's a mix of the anime and manga. Here's what came of all that trouble:

I Bruise Easily

Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket, aka Furuba, but I've seen the entire series and read all the manga that are currently out in America!

My skin is like a map

Of where my heart has been

And I can't hide the marks

But it's not a negative thing

So I let down my guard,

Drop my defenses down by my clothes

I'm learning to fall

With no safety net to cushion the blow

She'd been hurt so many times before. Her mother and father-both dead. The rest of her family-minus her grandfather-had basically rejected her. Being an onigiri in a game consisting only of fruits…

And yet, she found strength enough to smile. She could always find the good in everything, and everyone. She could feel sorry for the worst of people, even a person who would rather see her dead. She could sympathize with god.

But when it came to seeing the good in herself, she often couldn't. Or, rather, she didn't realize it. Like a pickled plumb on the back of an onigiri. That's how she'd described his good traits, and he'd told her the same. But still when someone complemented her, she'd get all flustered, and deny it, giving the credit to someone else, or saying she hadn't done such a good job.

So maybe that's why he'd fallen for her. Because, despite a past just as bad, she could smile more than the Prince. Or maybe it was her ability to find the good in him, the most hated creature in the family, whom everybody despised. Or it could just be that he wanted to be there for her, to help her find her pickled plumb, so that whenever she doubted herself, he would always be there to help her so that she could find the strength to smile once again.

Yet…he knew she'd never be able to love him. But nothing would keep him from loving her. Not even the threat of confinement. He loved her so much that he'd lie and say he didn't in order to protect her from him. That bastard. He'd make sure he'd never lay a finger on her again. He would keep his defenses up. In fact, the only time that he let them down was anytime they were alone together, as long as there was no threat of him showing up. And that wasn't often. He wished that he could trust people now, because he always wanted his defenses to be down around her; he wanted to be calm around her. But he'd learned from his past mistakes that no one could be completely trusted. At least, until the curse was somehow broken.

I found your fingerprints on a glass of wine

Do you know you're leaving them

All over this heart of mine, too?

But if I never take this leap of faith,

I'll never know

So I'm learning to fall

With no safety net to cushion the blow

She was cleaning up after dinner. She picked up the glass he'd drunk out of, and the plate he'd eaten off of, and her heart prickled. That was the only way she could describe it. It happened whenever he talked to her; called her name, or touched her; held her hand, or anytime she touched any of his things, from clothes, to dishes, to just being in his room.

Was it because she loved him so much, or because she knew he didn't love her like that, or perhaps because she knew that, even if by some miracle he did, they'd never be able to be together? That was why she had to break the curse. Then, no one would be able to tell them what they could and couldn't do, not even their "god". And, of course, for everyone else, too. For everyone that had been hurt, like Momiji and his parents, and Isuzu and hers, and Hatori and Kana, and for everyone that could be hurt in the future, like Hiro and Kisa. She wanted to heal them

She wanted to heal him.

The one who'd been hurt most of all. Simply because of a mistake, a joke. Something that, for all anyone knew, could simply have been what everyone outside of the Sohmas knew it as: a legend. But for everyone involved in the curse in anyway, it was more than that. It was life. Everything they did had to be carefully considered because of it. Because of him. Because of what he might do to any of them, or anyone in any kind of a relationship with them.

Like how she was. He'd hurt her once; her and Momiji. She was scared of him, she knew that. But she wouldn't confide her fears in anyone, not because she didn't trust them, but because she didn't want them to worry about her, or worse, getting hurt because of her. That would absolutely kill her. She was afraid of looking for a way to break the curse, because he could hurt them, any of them, all of them, him…He could hurt him because of her, if she was found out. After all, isn't that what had happened with Rin and Hatsuharu? And he obviously didn't like women much to begin with. If he didn't like how two people were acting, he'd take it out on the female involved, or even the one less involved in the matter, so she feared for her own safety as well. But she feared for them more; for him more. Compared to him, her safety meant nothing. She'd gladly throw her life away, if it meant saving him, which was, in fact, what it might eventually come down to. She just hoped not.

Anyone who can touch you

Can hurt you-or heal you

Anyone who can reach you

Can love you-or leave you

So be gentle!

I bruise easily,

So be gentle when you handle me!

There's a mark you leave

Like a love heart carved on a tree

I bruise easily

Can't scratch the surface

Without moving me, underneath

I bruise easily

I bruise easily…

She could have hurt him. It would have been so simple; everyone else had. Even before she knew of the curse, there was always his hair color. That's what Kisa's classmates had tease her about, and he had gotten his share of it, too. But she hadn't done that. She sympathized for the cat; she wanted to give up being the year of the dog so that she could be in his nonexistent year. She was the one who would be able to heal him; his sensei, Kazuma, his "father" had thought so, too. That's why he'd taken those beads off in front of her.

But then, she still could have rejected him. She didn't have to go looking for him; she didn't have to hold him; she didn't have to stay by his side. No one was making her. She wasn't being forced to do anything. But if she had left him, that would have hurt him more, much more that anything else. He'd have been beyond the point of saving, then.

She didn't leave him, though. After everything he'd put her through, after all of that shit, she still remained by his side. Even when he pushed her away, and yelled at her, she stayed with him until whatever was putting him a bad mood had passed over, and he could smile at her again. She was one of the few people that he could genuinely smile at; Kazuma was the first, and she was the second. It was only because of her that he could smile with anyone else, and he assumed it was the same for him as well. She had healed them both.

And, in return for that, he'd have to treat her better. He'd protect her from him; he'd keep her happy. Because he knew, that after all she'd been through, if he hurt her now, she'd bruise easily.

Weeeeeeeeeell? Questions? Comments? Concerns? Lol, that's what my third and fourth grade teachers would always say. If you're unsure who a "he" or a "she" is, just leave a review and put the sentence in it, and I'll get back to you ASAP. Anyone who's reviewed before knows I always reply to my reviewers  Also, I wrote this in several different places. A hallway, study hall, algebra (which is why I had so much trouble on my quiz…it's all for you!!!), biology, my bed, and in several antique stores while shopping, so I'd love to know what you think of this!!!!!