I do not own Fruits Basket.

Notes: I decided to make a short story about the time Kyo and Kagura got chased by a whole pack of boars. At first I was going to make it humorous, but I think it turned into something more emotional. I think I like it a lot better this way.

There are some spoilers in here about Kyo. If you are not familiar with the anime or the manga for that matter this is your warning (which will probably make you want to read it anyway.)

The Day of the Boars

Kyo walked on the path, his eyes watching the clouds. His arms were crossed behind his head. He fiddled distractedly with the black and white prayer beads on his wrist. Kagura walked beside him, skipping happily, humming to herself, her hair braided in little pigtails. Light pink blossoms blew gently on the spring breeze, the sun melting into his pores. He smiled, glancing over at Kagura. Again he had to wonder why she walked with him . . . instead of with Yuki or one of their other cousins . . . twice or three times removed. He was the last person in the Sohma family anyone wanted to speak to.

Kagura laughed and ran ahead suddenly. Kyo lowered his arms with surprise. "What is it?"

"Come here!" she called, beckoning. He caught up with her. She grabbed his hand and led him through the thicket, past low hanging branches. Even though she was a little older than him she acted several years younger than her age of eight. Out of all the Sohma family, Kyo got along better with her than any of the others, even though she was strange and sometimes very violent. Once she made the outrageous demand that he should marry her while threatening his very existence with a boulder.

He followed her through the woods, complaining about brambles and twigs. A caterpillar fell onto his head of bright red hair that he had to brush away. He blinked dust and dirt from his red brown eyes. "Where are we going?" he called in frustration.

"It's just over here," she called.

He mumbled under his breath wordlessly and they made their way out of the brambles into a clearing. It was a large pond. A shore of soft, wet dirt surrounded it, a few cattails poking up from the water. Dragonflies and other bugs flew through the air. Kyo stared at the pond and folded his arms across his chest. "I hate water," he declared, thrusting his chin up.

"No, it's not the water, silly!" Kagura laughed. "The last time I was here guess what happened?"

Kyo was silent for a while, watching her great wide eyes, her look of excitement, and answered after a moment, "What?"

"I've seen a couple of boars over here before! See the hoof marks in the sand?"

"They only came because of you," he said with a shrug. "Cats follow me everywhere."

She giggled. "It's so cute when that happens."

"No it's not!" he snapped indignantly. "They get all over me. I come home all covered with fur and mom has to. . ." He looked away and became silent. Kagura held a hand quietly over her mouth.

What he meant was that his mother, before she died, had fussed over all the fur on his clothes . . . though never actually touched him, while checking time and time again if his beads were in place. The grownups, who had no clue that little children had the ears to listen to their conversations, said that she had killed herself . . . because who wanted to be the mother of a child cursed by the Cat?

Kagura attempted a smile, trying to forget what the adults said when they thought no one heard them. "Kazuma-shishou must have trouble getting all the fur out of your clothes."

Kyo turned around with a laugh, centering all his thoughts on his foster parent. The renewed pain began to melt away back to the dark place he stored it in his heart. "Yeah. He uses duck tape to do that." They exploded into laughter. Kyo continued along this line of conversation. "A couple of times a whole bunch of those cats visited us and they raided the house . . . and had kittens all over the place," he added with a little frown of disgust.

"Oh, that's sweet!"

"No it's not! Have you ever seen fourteen cats having kittens all at once! I have! What's worst is they all decided to do it in the dojo!"

Kagura grabbed Kyo's hand and he looked up surprised. "What?"

She pointed. "See? There they are! I knew they were near here."

Kyo looked up . . . and his heart flipped inside him. Four boars, who probably weighed more than he did, trotted towards them, snorting noisily. They stopped, looking at Kagura curiously. She kept tugging at Kyo's shirt sleeve. "Kyo, isn't this great!"

Kyo gulped as he saw five more walk towards them. "Yeah . . . it's great. Um, Kagura? How many boars did you say were here?"

"I didn't."

"Well, then how many?"

"Well, there's these nine here . . . and oh, those one, two, three, five, eight coming towards us." Eight more walked towards them behind the second five. "So there's . . . um, I'm not good at math. How many are here so far?"

"Seventeen." His eyes were slowly widening to large red brown Os.

They large boars began to crowd about them. Kagura backed a step away, her face paling. "Um, that's a lot."

"You think?"

Suddenly the boars began to move as one, snorting and squealing loudly. Kyo pulled Kagura behind him and they ran hard and franticly through the brambles, away from the pond. Kyo did not complain about the branches any more as they scratched their faces, arms, and ankles. He knocked a few caterpillars of the twigs. At a flat out sprint, the two of them ran out onto the path, Kagura screaming, Kyo trying vainly not to. In a second he was screaming just ask loudly as Kagura, forgetting that perhaps this was not the wisest thing to do when a pack of boars were following them.

More began to follow, all of them squealing and crying out after them, their eyes intent on Kagura the child of the boar. The sound of their cries further agitated them. The little girl was crying, tears streaming down her face. "I'm sorry, Kyo!" she cried. "I'm sorry!"

Kyo heard her, though didn't answer. As they ran he thought long and hard about the situation. He looked down at the beads around his wrist, hearing them click against one another. If the boars neared them . . . if they came close enough . . . He looked over at Kagura and bit his lip. "The tree!" he called, pointing. A large, sturdy tree stood a few yards away. "We'll climb the tree!"

The ground rumbled with the sound of the stampeding boars and the thud thud thud of their sneakers pounding on the dirt path. Once they got to the tree Kyo lurched for the first branch, gaily pulling himself onto it. He turned around as Kagura leapt for the first branch, grabbing onto it. Her eyes were wide with fear as she slipped. He had forgotten she could not climb trees very well. He lurched forward to grab her arm. His hand missed her as she lost her grip on the branch, falling to the ground with a cry. The boars were only five yards away, heads lowered to charge.

The blood pounded in Kyo's ears. Crimson images of what would happen once those boars, with their sharp tusks, came upon Kagura filled his vision. His mind raced, but his body was moving before his mid could decide for itself.

He leapt from the tree, pulling off the prayer beads at the same time, and put himself between Kagura and the attacking boars . . .

The boars leapt back, eyes growing wide with fear and shock as the sudden, violent transformation took place. Kyo watched through eyes blurred with pain as his muscles and bones warped around him. All twenty of the boars backed away in horror at the great, rancid stench wafting off his heinous form, the whites of their eyes showing as he bared reptilian fangs, his ears flattening against his skull as a feral growl tore from his throat. "Get AWAY!" he screamed. It came forth from his mouth as a wordless monstrous roar.

One of the boars came forward in a frenzy of hooves. With his increased strength and prowess he forced it back with his arms, clawing it through just enough to frighten it. The smell of their companion's blood sent the boars into a panic away from the terrible creature. He roared again, standing to his full height, his purple eyes fixing each other animals with what he hoped was a murderous glare. All the while his legs shook with fear, his heart pounding. Go away, go away, go away, he prayed desperately. He lowered his head, eyes intent on all of them, as though to charge, growling again savagely.

They all scattered, racing off in all directions away from them. He watched them flee, gasping harshly.

Then he became aware of Kagura behind him, silent and quiet. He felt a fear rise within him, a greater fear than he ever experienced with the boars. His heart beat quickened when he heard her in drawn breath . . . and it nearly faltered due to shock as he felt her little hand clasp his clawed palm. "Thank you, Kyo," she said quietly.

He turned very slightly to look at her. Her bright brown eyes looked square into his reptilian face, not looking away at all. She tightened her grip on his hand, placing the prayer beads back into his hand. "I've told you before, Kyo," she said, rubbing her nose. She was still crying, her tears spilling down her cheeks. There were scraps on her arms and legs from her fall and her race through the woods. "I . . . I'd love you in whatever form you were in."

He stared, feeling himself slowly transforming back into human form. He blinked, hiding his blush from her as he turned away. He did not know what to say as he slipped the beads back onto his wrist. "Okay," he muttered, feeling his face grow redder.

Together they picked up the frayed and tattered remains of his shirt. They walked, more slowly this time, their eyes roving over the hoof marks the boars had left behind, amazed at their luck and by what had happened between them.

Kyo closed his eyes, breathing in the smell of the air, and opened them. "I'd rather have forty cats," he began tentatively. Kagura looked up at him, surprised. He grew bolder with a grin. "I'd rather have forty of those cats making kittens in the dojo . . . than have that pack of wild boars chase us again."

Kagura giggled and they both laughed, relief making it easy to smile. Despite all that happened, the sun continued to send its rays upon the world and the birds still sang. Despite everything, Kagura was still his friend.

That enough told him there was still hope.

The End