Disclaimer: Fruits Basket and all Fruits Basket characters and things like that belong to Natsuki Takaya and Hana to Yume comics. Everything else you don't recognize, like Adriana Aziz and the plot, (There's a plot? -.-) probably belong to me.
Ela Squawk: This story's plot isn't a complicated one. It's simple, with a happy ending. I wrote this so that Adriana could have her Kyo. No more, no less. Don't expect anything too complicated.
Dedications:
For Adriana on her 14th Birthday (Yes, that is she who is the heroine of the story). May you have a fantasmical day and many happy returns!
For Katie: Rest in Peace.
For Zoya: Thank you.
The Stream's Winter
By Ela-chan
Chapter One
A New World and the Student Council President
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Another day. Another sun.
Kaibara High was bustling eagerly with rumours unproved and chatter assaulted every ear within a one mile radius. The Junior and Senior girls especially were rather rambunctious in their insatiable quests to seek out the other for more information concerning the new student reputed to be one of the World's top martial artists. It was a busy, irksome day for some, and even the bright weather could not sift through the complications.
As the students quarrelled and jostled about the school like angry bees at work, Adriana gazed forlornly out of the School Office window, lost in thought, and feeling utterly out-of-place.
The reason of her melancholia was simple, and that was: she had been transferred from her little comfortable place in the heart of Sydney, all the way to bloody Japan As thoughts of the fact that she will never return to her homeland blinked like a broken filmstrip behind her dark eyes, Adriana's heart sparked with igniting flames, coating her appearance with a dangerous, almost silently deadly aura.
A flash of her father's stoic face and voice streaked swiftly across her mind like a wasp, and a terrible rage began to bubble in the well of her soul. Her hair seemed to crackle with an electric fury, and she ground her teeth in an attempt to keep her scream at bay. The girl's hands balled themselves into twin fists tightly, claw-like, silver-sprayed nails almost piercing through her tender skin, almost drawing blood.
Sputtered questions spurted into her mind like the scalding water inside of an angry kettle, screeched by an inhuman voice she almost did not recognise to be her own.
Had she been asked of this? Had her consent been sought out for the thumbs up to go ahead with it all? Had she been warned of this well before?
No.
Her blasted father had told her of the transfer only the day before it was to occur, and, as an understatement, Adriana had not taken the news lightly.
Her eyes fluttered to a close as events of the previous day played like a sepia film in her mind.
Japan Are you crazy?!' Adriana hollered at her father, hair practically crackling like luminous fireworks. Her mother loomed in the corner of room, almost like an executioner, watching the incident with a kind of bemusement Adriana thought to be unfair. Her two younger siblings were sprawled nonchalantly on the many sofas, uncaring, bored and idle.
'The change will be good for you. Besides, opportunities for your Martial Arts will be extensive there compared to here. I can't waste a chance like this,' her father countered with grace, unfazed by his daughter's fury. He sat calmly in his recliner, feet propped up, raking sharp eyes over the newspaper headlines as he did everyday. Through his thin, half-moon glasses, he looked over at his daughter sternly, a deep frown catching his thin lips.
'My decision is final, Adriana. You leave tomorrow.'
Adriana ogled at him, eyes abnormally protuberant and mouth opening and closing, almost spouting incoherence. Her mind whirled dizzily of angry and confused thought, almost like a blizzard of heat, snow and sleet, and the only thing she thought that made half sense was a bellowed:
'But – I can't speak bloody Japanese!'
Mr Aziz cocked an eyebrow, and sighed tiredly, almost willing his exhaustion to be banished from his body. He calmly folded his newspaper in primp folds before looking at her, and this time really looked at her. His lips were set in a grim line, and Adriana felt a nervous jolt somewhere in her middle, like the anxiety before an axe fell and took a life.
Honestly, she thought fleetingly, even now father still affects me, still scares the living daylights out of me!
'The school I've enrolled you in has the main language spoken as English. Not,' he said with emphasis, tilting his head slightly toward her, '"bloody Japanese." Now, go upstairs and begin packing. You have an early flight; and I know how you are in the morning, banging off walls and trying to eat your sister's fingers with an excuse that you thought she was sushi.'
He allowed himself a watery chuckle, and went back to his newspaper, looking as though their one-sided conversation had not occurred. Adriana stayed rooted to the spot, openly gaping and feeling positively mutinous. She felt as though the happenings and decisions flashing at present were becoming too much for her to absorb, as though she had seen a tsunami, and had stayed on the shore, glaring at it, yet doing nothing to prevent the inevitable.
Japan? Her? Tomorrow?
She started suddenly as several pieces in her mind slotted into place, like an automated chess piece built to bask in glory of victory. Acrid emotions flitted across every defined sense she possessed, etching her intentions clear as crystal, sharper than any diamond corner on Earth. Her hands curled into tight fists, and she almost bared her teeth. Blind rage consumed her.
'What about my friends?! Did you think about them?!'
Her father turned the page, and did not look up.
'You'll make new ones.'
Adriana's head whipped around to gawk at her mother, hoping for some sort of moral support. Mrs Aziz had not spoken since she was called into the room for a 'very important talk', and when her eldest daughter looked at her pleadingly, she did not attempt to voice any sort of consolation. She merely shrugged, and raised her own hands palm up in defeat. Pity swirled in her eyes, and Adriana glared at her the same way she glowered at her father, looking, and feeling betrayed. It took her a moment to regain control over herself, and when she did, all coherent speech was stolen from her.
'You can't – this is – bloody Japan' she managed to sputter, hands flailing wildly. Without another word, she turned on her heel, and fled upstairs, wet hair flying behind her. Along her way, Adriana violently hurled an ill-aimed, anger-masked punch at the stair-well wall, denting it considerably.
Then silence masked the household.
Adriana opened her eyes. Anger, sadness and a torn sense of confusion whirled in them, all forming a tangled web of interloped emotions, all perfect in their own paths. Her lashes were coated with the crystalline dew of unshed tears, and her eyes were glassy from constricting her flow of emotions.
And so, here she was now, at Kaibara High, in bloody Japanwaiting for whomever the Office Lady had told her to wait for. The room she was in was plain enough, desks laden with coffee-stained documents, cabinets brimming with files upon files of student portfolios, walls plastered with art-work by the younger children, and various other bits and ends Adriana was too irked to bother with.
She sighed, as though wishing to rid her body of anymore negative thought.
It had been an entire half an hour since the Lady had left her there with a stern word, all by herself, in her utterly too short school skirt, and a rather queer looking school bag. Her thoughts were beginning to take on aimless paths, and so she had resorted to poking the sleeping obese cat on the desk before her. As she poked it, she yawned, and didn't bother covering her mouth.
Then the click of the door sounded, and in came a young man clad in a crisp black suit.
'Sorry about the wait, Miss Aziz,' he greeted gruffly, striding behind his desk as though he were a regal Ruler of the most important country in the world, looking as though this was just another tedious conference he was forced to attend. He placed himself almost regally on the chair, shuffled papers and tidied his desk before looking at her, a translucent eye twitching from exhaustion. Adriana felt suddenly annoyed, and the slight frown curving on her lips indicated her irksome feelings.
'You didn't make me wait,' replied Adriana sweetly, casting an innocent smile upon the man like the warm rays of a morning sun. Then a split moment later, her smile dropped like the wooden box stepped on by a hanged man, a frosty expression icing over her features. 'It was more like eternal condemnation.' She spat those words as if they burned her, and she let her eyes glare unabashedly at the older man.
He blinked, seeming completely taken aback by her sudden alteration in persona. With a firm, albeit nervous clearing of his throat, he pulled open a drawer, sifted through the contents while Adriana watched him, and then withdrew a thick wad of foreign papers. He slammed it onto the desk, went through them, and slivered out six sheets.
'These will be the information sheets you will require during your first weeks here,' he said formally, all anxiety banished. He took each paper and slapped a loopy, almost effeminate signature at the bottom. 'As your Father had mentioned, you're rather of a Master strength concerning your skills in the Martial Arts, and so, you will be taking your Advanced Martial Arts classes during your stay here. Our school, however, only has a class for male students. Therefore, with your Father's consent, we placed you there, having no choice.'
He leaned back into his chair, and preceded to steeple his fingers.
'We have the Student Council President outside waiting for you. He will be your guide around the school for the first week, or longer if need be. He will have all the answers to your questions. But if not, feel free to come to my Office whenever you wish.' He paused, pondering. 'Except during class time, Wednesdays and Fridays.' He nodded curtly. 'That will be all. Good day, Miss Aziz.'
Adriana blinked blankly, and, for a moment, she looked faintly dazed, as though she had been spun a million rotations. As the information seeped into her brain like caramel over wafers, the glare that would surely become her trademark within and out of school settled over her face, and she snatched the papers from the desk without a trace of lady-like mannerism. With a last intense glower at the man, she swung her bag over her shoulder, and consciously tugged down at her skirt. She stalked across the room, swung open the door, and stormed outside, not bothering to throw a 'goodbye' or 'thank you' over her shoulder.
'Miss Aziz?'
'What?!'
Adriana whirled around in a flurry of lustrous brown tresses, her temper just dancing away from control. She was momentarily blinded by a cluster of furious black dots dancing about her eyes, and she had to close them and take several deep breaths to return to a half-decent calm state. Her hands had clenched into fists again, and her first instinct was to knock whoever this person was into the next three mathematics blocks.
'What?' she repeated more calmly, letting her eyes flutter open, lashes like shutters being brought up to reveal the world. Who she saw made her eyes glitter and widen, and she was sure her heart flipped open and exposed itself.
'Good morning, Miss Aziz,' the young man intoned kindly, an ethereal smile curling his full mouth. 'Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Yuki Sohma, the current Student Council President. I do believe we're in the same year. It's quite a pleasure to meet one of the most esteemed young Martial Artists in the world.'
He held out a slender hand, violet eyes glittering with mystery. Adriana felt her own limb twitch, but it did not move; voluntarily or not, she could not tell. She was far too struck by his aura, his almost effeminate beauty. He had to be the most beautiful person she had seen; she could swear it.
Yuki, seeing that Adriana was not moving her own hand to shake his, lowered it, coughed uncomfortably and offered a kind smile, seeming to understand the girl's hesitant behaviour toward him.
At the sight of another smile, Adriana felt her stomach jolt and roll over, like a jittery wet dog electrocuted. Words of thanks and greeting bubbled in her throat, but before she could string them together, speech was literally stolen from her, rendering her voiceless.
'Shall we?' Yuki offered, bowing slightly. Strands of his lavender hair tumbled like threads of the finest silk, and Adriana felt almost enchanted. She nodded, albeit jerkily, and willed her legs to move. Beads of nervous sweat trailed slowly down her temple, and she brushed them away, offering a weak smile to Yuki.
First day, she thought feebly, already making a fool out of myself.
Bloody Japan
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