Hopes & Dreams
By: Kishita Saori
Prologue: Harsh Realities
"Momma? Why are you crying like that? Momma?"
"Get him away!"
"My son...such a disgrace!"
"Ah! Get him away from me! He's not human!"
Why was it that he suddenly began thinking of them now? Ah, yes, he was beginning a new novel; a new dream world of mystery that always held the family. One character always had the typical family, the caring, accepting type of family that he had always yearned for. The book he'd convinced Hatori to read had made him sick because of the improbable fantasies it held, the dreams and wishes that HE had yearned for as a child.
"...Shigure no nii-chan?" The wide-eyed, blue-eyed little girl with long black hair was there in his memories too, watching her big brother change into the dog when she had gone to hug him after coming home upset. The wide, trusting blue eyes going wide before sparkling in such happiness as she squealed, "Shigure no nii-chan's a puppy!"
Odd how things worked out; typing across the small white keys on his keyboard, he watched as the blank screen filled with words, paragraphs with the new tale spinning in his head. A foolish childhood fantasy filled with drama and mystery, highly based on his own childhood...his own shunned childhood from a family who never wanted him.
'No, that's not true.' Shigure resisted the urge to sigh as he pushed his glasses up his nose. 'Sometimes I wish she did despise me so I could just forget them all and silently despise them during days like these.'
"Shigure-san, dinner is almost ready."
"Thanks, Tohru-kun, I'll be right out!" Sometimes his sing-a-song voice even grated on his own nerves, his bright smile twisting at his conscience just like today. Perhaps it was the grim weather getting to him, bringing back those unwanted feelings. Those unwanted feelings of sadness from so long ago...
He was the perverted writer, the insanely cheerful and annoyingly happy head of the house. Sohma Shigure was no longer the little boy crying for a family that would never accept him; he was the independent young man with the greatest new family he could ask for. So what if Kyo and Yuki occasionally wrecked the house? They were his brothers who never got along unless beating up/getting pissed at him for some innuendo he'd tell with his perverted sense of humor. What about Tohru, sweet and naive Tohru? She was the mother none of them had, the one who'd worry about them constantly and forget to worry about her own self. Hatori was the strict father figure, straightening him out when he got too perverted or too mean when teasing his poor editor to the edge of her sanity. Ayame, his partner in crime, and all the other Juunishi were his little siblings. His large, dysfunctional and dramatic family and he couldn't love them more.
He should really hate Akito for what he did to the lot of them then, shouldn't he? He had enough reason yet it was because of that wide-eyed little girl from his memories that he couldn't hate him; why he could understand Akito's moodiness and cruel behavior. Being condemned to die because of a curse was nerve wracking and he was willing to bet his stack of playboys (Yeah, he had them) that half the time Akito really did it out of fear. Violent reactions from the fear that they'd leave him alone to die alone, to suffer his inevitable death alone.
A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts and he could hear Tohru running to get it with her usual high spirits. Who was at the door at this time of night and in this crappy weather? Perhaps Kisa ran away again? Maybe Kagura coming to see Kyo and make sure he wasn't getting sick? Or maybe Hatori came to check up on Yuki since he seemed to be catching a cold.
"Oh, hello," he could hear Tohru say, "Can I help you with something? Come in."
"Shigure...is he here?" The voice was so small, so...blank. It wasn't possible...his past couldn't come back to haunt him, not now.
Tohru's head slowly poked into his study as she looked at him with confused emerald eyes. "Shigure-san, ano...someone is here for you. Seems urgent too."
His door opened wider as the drenched young woman came behind Tohru, panting hard and drenched in rain as she clung to the shoji door for support. "Shigure no nii-chan..." Tohru was obviously worried when she burst into to tears and latched onto him shakily.
Shigure never thought he'd actually ever utter these words again but they came out anyway, after the smoke had cleared and he was sitting there in his dog form with Tohru panicking in the background. "Imouto-chan?"
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I've always wondered about Shigure's past and what made him act the way he does so my mind came up with this. What do you think? R&R and tell me how it is and whether I should continue!