Bang Bang
by October Breeze


All was quiet—that is, all except for the rhythmic whirring of the dryer that Tohru had turned on only a few moments ago. She had her hands full, humming gently to herself while sorting out the whites and colors to put in the washer, when she heard the sound of a window breaking, followed by loud gun shots.

She shrieked once, dropping the white T-shirt she had had in her hands. Was someone trying to break in? What were those gun shots?

No one is home but Kyo, Tohru thought to herself as she raced up the stairs to Kyo's room. Yuki is…he said he would be home late because of a meeting…Shigure…he went to Ayame's shop…if someone was shot, it must have been Kyo!

Her eyes filled with tears at the thought, a sob escaping her throat. Fear as she had never felt it before was pouring into her veins, making her limbs stiff as her heart quickly pounded the intoxicating emotion through her body.

She reached the landing and ran quickly down to Kyo's room, realizing that if someone was in there, she might get shot too. But if Kyo was dying, then…she had to be there. He couldn't die alone. Never.

Her cold, shaking hands gripped the handle and yanked the door open.

"Kyo-kun!" she screamed, dropping to her knees, sobbing. She looked around wildly, and found Kyo sprawled across his bed, looking terrified.

"Damn it, you scared me! What happened? Why are you so pale?" he demanded, sitting up, throwing aside a controller that was attached to a game system.

Tohru stared at him in amazement, then glanced at his window. "B-But you're alive," she said. "OhmygoshIthoughtyoudiedifyouhadIwouldhave—"

"Slow down!" Kyo said with exasperation, looking bewildered. "Of course I'm alive, idiot, what did you expect?"

She wiped her eyes, slowly standing up, but her limbs were shaking. She reached out towards the edge of the bed and pulled herself up. "I h-heard a window break, then gunshots—"

Kyo looked at her with confusion, before breaking down into laughter. Tohru's eyes immediately filled with tears again. "What is it?" she asked.

When he saw how serious she was being, he stopped laughing. "Hey, I didn't mean…it's just, I'm only playing a video game…that's all it was."

"A video game?" she asked, her voice tinged with curiosity. Slowly, the fear was leaving her and in its place was relief and interest.

"Shishou sent it to me yesterday," he said, his face moving to the screen. "He said I could borrow it for a few days. It's a new thing I'm trying. If it can help my coordination, I might be able to beat that damn rat."

"Can I see?" she asked tentatively. He didn't respond, unpausing the game, so she sat delicately at the edge of the bed.

"I guess," he said belatedly. The screen was filled with a first player gun, and when Kyo pushed the controller forward, the gunman moved forward too. Tohru stared on with fascination, having never encountered many video games in her life.

Another man appeared on the screen and Kyo shot him, his gun of choice (Tohru couldn't tell what kind it was; it could have been a water gun and it wouldn't have looked any different to her) making loud shooting noises until the man keeled over in a pool of blood. Tohru covered her mouth, trying to muffle a moan.

"Why did you do that, Kyo-kun?" she asked with sadness, her eyes filling with more tears. "He could have had a family and you…killed him! Oh no…"

She knelt on her hands and knees and inched towards the screen, sniffling. Kyo looked at her in amazement. "He isn't real!" he protested, almost unbelieving of her reaction.

"Can you bring him back?" she asked tearfully.

"Of course not," he said. "That's the whole point of the freakin' game, to kill as many people as possible."

She gasped. "Why would anyone want to play a game like that?"

"Because it's fun," Kyo said, a hint of a smile on his lips. "Want to play multiplayer?"

"P-Play with you?" she asked, standing up, looking with anxiety at the second controller on the ground. "I could try…"

"Great," he said impatiently. "Just pick it up and press start."

She took the controller and spent nearly five minutes finding the start button until Kyo had to press it for her.

"That button right there shoots, and this one reloads your bullets," Kyo said. "The players wearing blue are your team, so don't shoot them."

"Okay!" Tohru said, holding the controller backwards. Kyo reached over and fixed it for her.

"You're hopeless…" he said, his eyes on the screen, but a smile on his face.

"Ah! Kyo-kun! I forgot what buttons to press!" she said in a high pitched voice as the other team tried shooting her. "They're shooting me! But I didn't do anything to them!"

"The red one," Kyo said, concentrating.

Tohru pressed the red button, but she was pointing it at the ceiling (without realizing it) and missed by a long shot. She tried again with a determined look on her face.

Kyo looked over for a few seconds. "I didn't think anyone could be worse than Momiji, but it looks like you take the cake."

Tohru had her tongue between her lips in concentration. So far, she had wasted fifty seven bullets and had hit no one. At last minute, she purposefully swerved out of the way, making little sympathetic noises.

"I can't shoot this one, he has a new puppy waiting at home for him."

"But this one has two children at home!"

"He takes care of his dying mother!"

"He has leukemia!"

"He lost his parents in a car wreck when he was six and had to live in an orphanage, moving from foster home to foster home until he was old enough to pay for his own apartment and right after that a tornado came and took away all his possessions and causing him to lose a limb, but then the tornado brought a picture of his twin sister on the back of a milk carton, making him decide to go look…"

Each time she missed, the excuses became more and more dramatic. Finally, Kyo said, "How do you know?"

"I just…do!" Tohru said with a small laugh, her eyes on the screen. Kyo killed another person, and Tohru winced.

"Not Penny!" she moaned.

"But he's a boy!" Kyo exclaimed.

Tohru sniffed. "I know, but the name seemed to fit."

After ten minutes Tohru decided to drop her weapons and ran around like a dying chicken, making up play dialogue between her teammates until not only was she armed with a husband at her side, but an army of grown children.

"You know, if you're not going to play right, then you just shouldn't play at…" Kyo started to say, but trailed off at the contented look on Tohru's face.

"What was that, Kyo-kun?" she asked.

"Nothing."


This is my first Fruits Basket story ever. I got the idea whileI was watching my brother play a game on his Xbox 360...Call of Duty? Or...oh, I don't know. But I was freaking out and covering my eyes. I cringe during most fighting games, especially gory ones. Eeech.