Disclaimer: Fruits Basket belongs to Natsuki Takaya
Written for the 10 shakespeare community challenge on LiveJournal
"Love, and be silent." –Cordelia, King Lear
Silence
It was never up to them.
The rest of the Souma family passed it off as an illusion. Although the monstrous transformations of the flesh couldn't be denied in the inner circle, to them there the freakishness ended. Somewhere in their history they had elevated the curse, a private shame, to a glorious tradition and revered the weirdness of it all. But those Soumas knew well that bonds of blood certainly didn't exist.
But it wasn't up to any of them. Beyond their own control, beyond any Souma's control, the Juunishi felt those emotions and that love. And so it became real to them, as real as the fearful pounding of a heart after a terrible nightmare. The love felt in the bonds of blood became real as shackles.
It didn't matter that love forced on an unwilling recipient is a burden to bear rather than a precious gift to celebrate. It didn't matter that it oppressed the Juunishi-cursed every bit as much as the forced clinging suffocated the personality of the girl Akito had been born.
For it had never been up to them. All the spirits asked of the children possessed was that they love, and be silent.
…
Owari
…
-Windswift
