Blanket Disclaimer: I'd totally own Fruits Basket, except for the tiny problem of me not speaking Japanese. Sorry, m'dears, better luck next time.
Big, Super Shmexy thanks to: My beta, Angelbitch. I luff ya, my little angel….bitch All errors are still my own, though.
Warnings: Yaoi(eventually), some violence and angsting, sexual situations, cursing, OOCness, AUness.
A/N: Story is AU-ish. Pretty much, this is set in the future, when Yuki/Kyo are 22/23ish. Tohru was unable to break the curse, and Kyo was unable to escape being put in the cat room. The back story will be told eventually, through flashbacks.
Edit: Eeek! I accidentally uploaded the wrong version! Ritsu! Apologize to them on my behalf!
Ritsu: SHE IS SO SORRY! SHE DIDN'T MEAN TO COMMIT SUCH A HEINOUS CRIME AS TO UPLOAD THE WRONG, HIDEOUSLY ERROR-FILLED ADDITION! I AM SORRY AS WELL! I SHOUDL AHVE HELPED HER REMEMBER! WHAT A HORRIBLE CRIME! PLEASE FORGIVE ME!
Rose: That's enough. -pokes Ritsu in side in the Shigure way.-
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Yuki walked resolutely through the halls, his footsteps soft patters against the cool wood. He hated this, he really did. He didn't know why he made himself go, practically every day. Today would be worse than usual. He had gone away over the weekend, so it had been three days since he had visited.
He paused when he saw Haru leaning in a doorway. The ox smiled warmly at him and in return, Yuki forced his face into an amiable expression, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. Haru looked at him with worry.
"How was your trip?" His cousin asked, running a hand through his shaggy white hair. He'd grown it out in the last few years so that it hung around his face a bit more and could mostly hide the black roots at the back of his head. Haru had said he had just gotten sick of people asking about it.
"It was…okay. I hope I'm not too behind in my duties here, I don't want Akito to be upset." Yuki said softly. After going to a university and majoring in biology, much to his mother's chagrin, Akito had decided to let him use his passion for plants. He now was the official head gardener of the Sohma house.
It was almost enough to make him hate gardening.
"You're going to visit him, aren't you?" Yuki started, abruptly pulled out of his thoughts. He glanced up into his cousin's knowing eyes and gave a curt nod. "Why do you bother?' Haru continued. "You hate him."
"Yeah. I do. I hate him." Yuki agreed quietly. The words seemed strange and jumbled in his mouth. He brushed by Hatsuharu, not wanting to have to deal with the confusion and concern in his friend's pale face.
Thankfully, Haru didn't follow him and he didn't run into anyone else until he reached his destination. He threaded his hands through the bars and wetted his lips nervously. Through the dim light he could just make out a hunched over form in the corner.
"Kyo…" He called softly. "Kyo, its Yuki. Please come over. I want to talk to you." Slowly, so slowly, the ginger head turned and the cat pulled himself sluggishly to his feet. He walked over but stopped a few feet away from the little window, close enough that the light hit him but no further than that.
"You haven't visited for a long time." Yuki flinched inside at the words. He hated hearing his former rivals voice like this, so emotionless. He hated seeing this boy, now a man, really, drawing inside himself, losing the sparkle of passion that used to be present in his scarlet eyes.
"I was away on a trip, remember? I was giving a lecture at a gardening college." Yuki leaned forward slightly so that soft locks of silver hair brushed the dark grey bars.
"I remember, damn rat! I'm not crazy yet so don't assume I don't remember things when I do!" Yuki mentally sighed in relief as finally some emotion found its way into the cat's face. A negative emotion, true, but still an emotion. Besides, anger always came easy to Kyo.
"I wasn't implying that you had, stupid cat." Yuki was careful not to let his relief show in his face. Then Kyo would just go sit in the corner and ignore him. Yuki could tease him, provoke him, bother him, but never, ever pity him.
"Whatever." Scarlet eye rolled in exasperation as Kyo took a tentative step closer. "So…how did your lecture go?"
"Pretty well. I lost my flashcards in the hotel room the morning of, though, and had to search like crazy for them." Yuki bit back a grin as Kyo gave a sharp bark of laughter.
"And I'm guessing that was pretty hard for you, seeing as you're barely alive in the mornings?" The rat narrowed violet eyes at Kyo, even though inside he was glad that Kyo was still able to remember that little fact so easily. He had a sickly feeling that it wouldn't always be that way.
"Yeah, it was. I had to get one of the cleaning ladies to help me. Eventually we found them though, and the rest went off without a hitch, though I think some boys in the back row may have fallen asleep."
"Serves you right, you damn Prince." Kyo muttered, taking another step closer when he thought Yuki wasn't looking. Yuki pretended that he hadn't noticed and merely raised a silver brow.
"Oh? I'll have you know that they say that with some more age and experience, I could be one of the best gardeners in Japan, so I do deserve young hopeful's respect." Kyo didn't seem convinced, so Yuki hurried on before the cat could make fun of him. "Do you want to hear my speech?"
"Hell no! I've already heard it a thousand times with you practicing, plus I had to help you edit it so you didn't sound like an absolute prick." The silver-haired man smiled softly and rested more of his weight against the grated window, getting more comfortable.
"Then what do you want to hear about, Kyon-Kyon?" He asked, using the boy's high school nickname teasingly. He smirked as Kyo gave him a disgusted look.
"Don't call me that. Tell me about the campus. What did it…look like?" Oh, so it was one of these days. Occasionally, Kyo had Yuki describe places outside to him in as much detail as he could remember, so that the prisoner could get a taste of what it was like outside his cage.
"Well, it's a big place. Bright and sunny, with lots of trees and red brick buildings. The lawns are green, of course, and the gardens are unbelievable. Hundreds of different kinds of flowers. Sakura, of course, but also Ajisai, Hasu, Tsutsuji, Yuki Yanagi, Boke, Mokuren, Tsubaki..."
"I don't care about their names. Tell me about their colors. And smells." He demanded, taking yet another step forward. Yuki felt his lips twitch in amusement; Kyo still retained all his impatience.
"Alright, alright, calm down. There were pinks, and purples, whites, yellows, thousands of hues. It smelled amazing. Sweet and still. There were a lot of bees buzzing around, but I was careful not to get stung. There were also some butterflies."
"Kagura used to try and catch butterflies when we were little." Kyo injected in the middle of Yuki's speech. "I always made her let them go."
"Really?" Yuki asked politely, though he was a bit annoyed at being interrupted. "Why was that?"
"She wanted them because they were pretty. I made her let them go because I couldn't stand the thought of something wild being…imprisoned. Captured." Kyo didn't look at Yuki while he said this; instead, he studied his cell's floor.
"O-oh." Yuki swallowed, suddenly finding his throat dry and hurting. Kyo was close enough to him now that he could practically smell the other boy's sadness and loneliness. He glanced over Kyo's form, studying it. The man had grown tall despite captivity, towering at least a head over Yuki. The rat had found out that Kyo still practiced martial arts regularly, with his wall, to drive away the lonely demons. This made sure he was still in shape, but he had become thin. He didn't eat enough, wasn't fed enough, and scars marred his handsome face and body. Under his eyes, there were dark hollows, as if Kyo never slept. Unless he was training, talking to Yuki, eating or…speaking with Akito, the only thing the cat did for hours on end was sit in his little corner.
"Stop staring at me!" The harsh voice brought Yuki out of his reverie and he blinked at Kyo's angry face. "Stop pitying me! Stop it, stop it, stop it!" As he yelled, Kyo's voice slowly got louder and higher, the note of hysteria growing increasingly obvious. Dammit! He'd seemed to be doing so well, acting so normal, and now Yuki had slipped up and triggered this.
"I wasn't pitying you, Kyo." Yuki tried to placate his cousin, but Kyo was beyond the point when he could hear the other man's voice. The orange-haired man was breathing raggedly, chest heaving with suppressed sobs.
"Stop thinking those thoughts about me! I'm not pathetic! I'm not a monster! Go away! Leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone!" With a last screech, the cat whirled around and sank to the floor in his corner, pulling his knees up and curling himself into a ball, as if trying to disappear.
"Kyo…Kyo…" Yuk called softly, but Kyo pretended not to hear him. With an exasperated sigh, Yuki leaned forward as far as he could, his head pushing on the bars and his hands tightening around the smooth metal. "Fine then, Kyo. I suppose this means you don't want to hear about my lunch today with Tohru-san."
Kyo's sat up suddenly and turned his head around, eyes narrowed distrustfully. "You went to lunch with Tohru?"
"Yes, I did. But I won't tell you about it unless you stop acting like a weakling and get your sorry ass over here." Yuki had learned that the ruder he was to Kyo after one of his little fits, the quicker Kyo snapped out of it. It seemed the case now, as the cat jumped up and glared at him, bristling.
"You don't tell me what to do, you damn rat!" He snapped, striding over until the two cursed Sohmas were face-to-face. "And that's blackmail!"
"No, it's extortion. Or bribery, take your pick." Yuki smirked as Kyo's growl of annoyance blew a bit of his light-grey hair over his cheek to tickle his ear. The two were so close that they were practically touching. Yuki could feel every breath Kyo released on his cheek and could study those ruby orbs that locked into his own. "So do you want to hear about it or not?"
"I do, you goddamn rat. I miss Tohru. She hasn't visited me, you know." His voice suddenly turned sad and Yuki felt his gut clench.
"You know she's tried, but only Jyuunishi are allowed to visit you. She would if she could." Yuki reached his hands through the bars to grab Kyo's and hold them up between them, trying to anchor Kyo to the real world.
"I…I know." Kyo finally sighed, after a strangely long pause. "But the others don't visit me either, you know. Just you and Akito. And I don't really count Akito, anyway. So just you. It's rather ironic, really." His voice was bitter, but he made no move to pull out of Yuki's hold.
"I suppose it is. The others don't mean to abandon you, Kyo. It's just….either they never were close to you and so the curse tells them to despise and loathe you, or they were close to you and it kills them to see you like this."
"And I suppose neither scenario applies to you, does it?" Kyo asked with a raised brow. Yuki gave an awkward little laugh.
"No, I suppose neither really does." He said softly. "After all, I was never your friend, now was I? But I never really hated you, especially not for just being the cat. You just…"
"Annoyed you endlessly?" Kyo offered as Yuki faltered slightly. The smaller boy laughed again, this time with more humor behind it.
"Exactly. Couldn't have put it better myself, Kyonkichi." The red-head made a half-laugh, half-choking noise in the back of his throat and glared at the free man.
"First of all, don't call me that, Yun-Yun." Kyo retorted, though Yuki paid no attention. Kyo had almost laughed at it, after all. "And second, that was my goal at the time, so it's good to know that I succeeded. Now, tell me about Tohru."
"She's doing fine. Naohito and her are still blissfully in love, though Nao's getting a little scared because of her repeated hints at wanting to get married."
"I wish I knew more about this Naohito Sakuragi guy. Is he good enough for our Tohru? He was on the School Council with you, right?" Yuki snickered quietly at Kyo's older brotherly tone.
"Yes, he did. I didn't know you ever took such an interest in who was on the council with me." Yuki paused, but Kyo didn't respond, so he went on, absentmindedly stroking the backs of Kyo's hands with his thumbs as if petting a cat. "He was kind of a jerk back then, like you only muted, a little. Now he has grown up, though, and is pretty nice. He really loves Tohru. It's sweet. Even Uotani and Hanajima think he treats her well."
"So Uo and Hana give their blessing, huh?" Kyo mused. "I can just imagine them being bridesmaids at Tohru's wedding…Uotani glowering at the priest and Hanajima in a black dress…their still like that, right?" He was suddenly anxious and Yuki sped up his 'petting' to try to calm the pleading look in the other young man's eyes.
"Yes, they are. I can picture that too. Hanajima sensing everyone's waves the entire time, scaring all the guests into oblivion. Tohru-san'll probably stutter through her vows." They both laughed at this, no matter how forced the laughter seemed in such a gloomy place. Suddenly, Kyo's expression turned sour.
"Of course, I'll never get to see it." He said bitterly. "I'll never get to see Tohru again, or meet this Naohito, or meet up again with Hanajima and Uotani, that damn Yankee, or any of them. Ever." Yuki sucked in a sharp breath and let it go slowly. There wasn't anything he could say. It was the truth.
"I'll…I'll tell you all about it." He finally offered, somewhat lamely in his own opinion. Kyo gazed sharply at him.
"Will you? Will you really?" He asked searchingly, gripping Yuki's hands so tight that it hurt, but Yuki kept the wince off his face and instead gripped back reassuringly.
"Of course I will, Kyo! Why on earth wouldn't I?" Kyo shrugged his shoulders and looked down, blushing faintly.
"Oh, I don't know. You might meet some girl and become too busy with her to visit me, or you might decide to move away or Akito might tell you to stop coming here or you might break the curse and not care anymore or you might just grow sick of spending so much time with a stupid cat who is half-crazy and…" he trailed off with a chocked sob.
Yuki frowned and let go of one of Kyo's hand to grip the other boy's chin and pulled the darker face closer to his own, forcing the other boy to look up into his eyes.
"I'm not going to stop visiting you. I'm going to continue coming here to see you as long as is physically possible. Okay, Kyo? I'm not going to meet some girl, I'm not going to move away, I'm not going to let Akito tell me to stop, if I break the curse-which I doubt will happen, by the way-I'll still come visit you, and I am definitely not going to get sick of visiting you. You're not just a half-crazy, stupid cat. Okay?" Yuki was surprised to find that he was breathing heavily after this speech, which was long, for him.
"Do you…do you promise?" Yuki shuddered at the plaintive note in the formerly strong boy's voice and the unnatural glittering in his eyes that could only mean that he was holding back tears. The tanned hand that Yuki had dropped had found its way over to their still intertwined fingers on the other hand, so now Yuki's palm was cemented between two callused pieces of a broken man.
"I promise." He said softly. Kyo didn't look convinced and his tragic, tragic eyes were still watching Yuki like a kicked puppy or kitten or whatever the proper term was. The favored Sohma just wanted to comfort him. He softened his hold on Kyo's chin until he was cupping the strangely warm cheek. He brushed his thumb along the rough contours of the other Zodiac member's face, smoothing across his chin, up onto his cheek, toward his ear, then back down again, until he'd reached the other boy's lips, where he paused, unsure.
Yuki suddenly realized how close he was to the other man. Their mouths were barely an inch apart, so that if he just pulled slightly on the scarlet eyed person before him, they'd be…be…kissing, albeit around his thumb. He'd never really realized how pink Kyo-san's lips were, or how soft they felt around his sensitive thumb pad. How his eyes turned darker when he was confused or scared. How…
How his ears suddenly pricked up and he pushed the shorter man away with strength that Yuki didn't realized he still had. He glanced at him with confusion.
"K-Kyo?"
"Akito's coming. Get out of here, you damn rat." He snarled, before leaping over into his corner and curling himself into a ball as if he'd never moved. With one last glance at his back, Yuki turned and fled. He'd never told him to keep these visits a secret from Akito, and Kyo had never told Yuki that he knew that the rat probably wasn't allowed to come see him so often. It was just obvious, and the cat had just started warning his visitor whenever his heightened hearing picked up Akito's footsteps.
The Prince ran until he reached one of his private gardens, a little flowerbed he'd made especially with Tohru in mind. All her favorite colors, and a pretty fountain and bench to go along with it. She'd like it, if they could only sneak her in to see it.
It was here that he collapsed onto the bench. Oh, Kami, he was so confused.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
The flowers that Yuki mentions are:
Sakura-Cherry blossoms (the most famous Japanese flower)
Ajisai- Hydrangea(on of my three fav flowers, along with rosesduh and calla lilies)
Hasu-Lotus
Tsutsuji-Azalia
Yuki Yanagi-Snow Willow
Boke-Japanese Quince
Mokuren-Magnolia
Tsubaki-Camelia
Kami-god
Next chapter (Kyo's perspective): Akito's little "visit" sets off some memories, Yuki brings some gifts. I'm gonna try to update once a week. I have up to chapter three written, but suggestions/comments might change them.)
Reviewers get virtual plushies/cookies of their choice –smiles-(I'm such a review ho…what can I say)
♥
Rose
