Fruits Basket

Fruits Basket

Season 2

Episode 27

Yuki walked home, the rage inside him bubbling more violently with every aggravated step that he took. He stormed through the woods, tears running down his face; tears that, as a blessed Child of the Rat, he shouldn't be crying.
But somehow, and much to his disgust, he couldn't stop them coming. It was like someone else entirely was controlling his body, like he couldn't help what was going on.
Had he done something wrong? Had he mentally pushed Tohru away at some point? Was it his fault that the stupid Cat was now spending time that he, Yuki, deserved with her? Why did he even care? He, the Child of the Rat, was the special one, the one that deserved the girl. The Cat would only satisfy his lust for her, then heartlessly leave her with nothing -
Was he still thinking about the same girl? It wasn't his fault, what had happened before, even Akito had said so, told him he wasn't the one to blame ...
When he got home, he was so immersed in thoughts about times come to pass that he barely even noticed Shigure, let alone the fact that he was in a suit instead of his preferred robe.
"I'm going to bed. Long day. If you ask, I will rip your face off," Yuki monotoned, his glazed expression severely worrying the Dog.

Meanwhile, Tohru and Kyo were beginning to set off back home, having just realized they had no idea where Yuki had gone.
"Oh, I hope he's alright," Tohru babbled, a guilty expression clouding her beautiful features.
"Of course he is," Kyo answered, licking his paw. A small pop, a cloud of orange smoke and several seconds later, he was fully human and able to look Tohru in the eye whilst repeating what he had said more sincerely.
"But we don't know where he is! Anything could have happened to him!" she exclaimed. By now she was almost totally talking to herself, looking desperately from Kyo to the ground, to the rapidly passing trees and back with an unfocused, glassy look in her eyes, eventually pinching th bridge of her nose.
"Please. The only thing that could happen to him is that he chokes when he snores too much," Kyo quipped, smiling wryly at his own joke. Unfortunately, his witticisms were wasted on a horrified Tohru.
"Oh my God, do you think so?" she cried, clapping her hand to her mouth, totally shocked. "We have to get home quick! Shigure will probably be asleep, and won't know, and poor Yuki will be stuck, dead!"
All through Tohru's well-intentioned shouting, Kyo tried in vain to tell her that he was only joking, but was eventually forced to stop wasting his breath.
Tohru was about to run the rest of the way home, preparing herself for the physical exertion while totally ignoring anything that Kyo said.
He sighed, looking at the azure-blue sky as if it could tell him how to deal with her when she was like this. It didn't.
Just when Tohru was setting off on her run, Kyo stepped right in front of her, grabbed her by the houlders and kissed her gently on the lips.
Immediately Tohru stopped, shocked. Was this another of her heartbreakingly fictitious dreams? She certainly hadn't seen this coming - but that didn't mean that she couldn't enjoy it!
Neither broke the kiss, waiting for it to come to a natural end instead, enjoying and committing every detail to memory.
Tohru pulled away just enough so that she had the right momentum, and jumped on Kyo, wrapping her arms around his neck and grinning, Yuki and his temper tantrum inexorably forgotten.
Kyo grinned back at her, placing his arms around her small waist, looking into her beautiful eyes and taking in her gorgeous face. It was then that he realized not only that she was hugging him and he hadn't transformed, but that she was glowing.
"Uh, Tohru?" he asked, unsure of how to tell her.
"Yeah?" she replied, her voice contented, squeezing him slightly before letting go and sliding to the ground.

"I - I didn't transform ... when you hugged me, I didn't transform," he stammered, the shock coming through clearly in his voice.
"What?" she asked disbelievingly. She did a double-take of him, as if to check if there wasn't a tail poking out of his trousers or fur on his body. "Oh my God, you didn't! Is this supposed to happen? But ... I hugged you!"
Again, it seemed that the only way to stop her babbling was to kiss her. Not exactly rootedly against this idea, Kyo once more took her by th shoulders, and pressed his lips against hers. I'm going to have to get better at this whole kissing thing if it's gonna happen this often, he thought to himself.
Just as before, she became silent. They again enjoyed the kiss until it finished itself, a pattern forming.
"Tohru," Kyo cut in beforer she jumped on him again, "you're glowing."
"Oh, thank you, Kyo!" she replied, blushing. "That's really nice of you-"
"No," he interrupted, putting a hand between the two of them, knowing that if he didn't, it could only result in another non-reactive hug. "You are literally glowing."
"What?" she asked, looking down at herself and gasping when she saw what he saw. "Oh my God, what do we do? Is something wrong with me?"
Kyo simply blocked his ears, knowing that she wouldn't pay any attention to the reassurances that he could give her, instead going for the easier option; dragging her through the woods by the hand, back home, where he could really help her.

"SHIGURE!" Kyo shouted as soon as her was inside the house.
"Shh, Kyo! What if he's asleep? We'll wake him-"
And what if something actually is wrong with you? He's the one that can help you the most," he interrupted, looking at th glowing Tohru and not letting go of her hand. "Shigure, where are you? We need your help!"
Yuki came trudging down the stairs, totally worn out, eerily not looking at either of them but registering the strange, quivering light just out of his eye line, and stood on the bottom step in a T-shirt and is boxers, seemingly inspecting his toes.
"He's in there," the Rat muttered, pointing towards the closed door to the front room, and heading back up the stairs. Then he paused, halfway up, his foot between coming off one step and stepping onto the next. "He's got company." The two watched, transfixed, as he disappeared up the rest of the step, then looked at each other, Tohru confused.
Everything clicked in Kyo's mind, however - the only time that Shigure wouldn't come running to help Tohru was when he wasn't allowed, which only happened when he was an audience to Akito.
"What's wrong, Kyo?" Tohru asked, the sound of her voice softening the hard, angry expression on his face to one of worry. He raised his free index finger to his lips, and let go of her hand.
They entered the silent room without knocking; Kyo knowing that Akito was there to see them, Tohru knowing that Kyo knew more about this situation than she. It was filled with familiar Sohma faces - but they all wore stony, slightly terrified expressions, making them almost unrecognisable. Ayame, Shigure, Hatori, Kyo's master and Akito were gathered in the room, the Dragon further apart from the others.
At the sound of the door opening, everyone looked up - everyone, that is, except Akito. The look of shock caused by seeing the torch-like Tohru soon dissolved into one of recognition, then worry.
"I have been waiting for you," Akito offered, his voice still as eerily quiet as the last time Tohru had seen him. "For quite some time."
"We're sorry if we took up any valuable time," she immediately answered. "But we just didn't know that you were com-"
Kyo clapped a hand over her mouth as soon as he realized what she was saying. He had to protect her from Akito's volatile temper.
But, miraculously, the Dragon just stood in front of the open sliding door, intently watching a bird hopping around in the backyard.
"I have almost endless amounts of patience," he stated docilely. He turned slowly to face the pair, who had sat down, and was almost blinded by the bright light emitting from Tohru.
She and Kyo stole a sideways glance while Akito covered his eyes with a robed arm.
Once the Dragon had got over the original shock of the light, he started talking.
"I know about your relationship," Akito informed the pair. "And I forbid it. Your memory shall be erased" - he pointed to Tohru - "and you" - the finger turned to Kyo - "will be punished."
The words hit te two like a pile of bricks in the face. Kyo glanced at Tohru. Her head was bowed; her long brown hair hiding her face, but even through that, he could tell she was crying. Rage crashed through him; no one made his Tohru cry, not without suffering a serious injury or two.
"That's a load of bull," he said, standing up to look Akito in the eye. "You are pathetic, do you know that? You will do nothing to her memory, do you understand me?"
Akito struck Kyo a blow that was so sharp and sudden that it felt like someone had sliced open his face with a knife. He fell to the floor, closing his eyes tight against the pain.
By the time he opened is eyes again, Akito was nowhere to be seen and Tohru - her eyes red from crying - was kneeling by him, clutching his hand. Hatori was fiddling with medical equipment, Ayame was cursing Akito's name, Shigure was biting his beloved nails, but Kyo's master had also disappeared.
Ater Hatori had cleaned up Kyo's cut, he set to work taking blood samples from Tohru, whose light was fading slowly.
"Did anything unusual, that is, something that has never happened before, occur while you two were alone?" he asked.
The two stole anoter glance, and Tohru nodded once, conveying that it was okay to tell them.
"Well," Kyo started, blushing. "We kissed, and Tohru hugged me and I didn't transform, if that's what you're looking for."
Hatori nodded, keeping his eyes on the place that he was cleaning up on Tohru's arm after taking another blood sample.
"Tohru, what was it Uo said your mother was known as?" Shigure asked thoughtfully, looking at the pale, slim girl. He was now in his robe, fiddling absent-mindedly with a glass nail file, making up for his nervous nibbling earlier.
"The legendary Red Butterfly," Tohru replied proudly, glad of any excuse to think of her beloved mother.
The elders all looked at each other, sharing a meaningful glanc and a small nod that neither of the other two could figure out.
"What? What's wrong? What is it?" Kyo asked, sitting up a little too quickly and fighting off the urge to vomit. A frown formed on Tohru's forehead as she tried to work out what the other three knew and she and Kyo didn't.
"We'll tell you tomorrow. For now, I think it would be best for all of us to go to sleep," Shigure replied, his face poker straight.

- Like Kyo can talk!
- ... somewhere outside of his body!
- why oh why only almost?!
You may want to take those stars out before posting this ...
By Bethan Wallace and Bethany Henry