Title: See It As It Was
Rating: T (might go up)
Pairings: Hatsuharu x Kyo; Akito x Kyo
Warnings: Slash, boy on boy basically. There will be kissings, sexual situations (if I am up to it), blah... Extra warning of violence, abuse... and Akito is male.
Read at your own risks.
Author's notes: OMG, this is the first fanfic ever that I write! I don't know why but I gave it to Fruits Basket, Kyo and Hatsuharu more specifically. I adore the pair, they are so cute together! English isn't my native language so you might be expecting extremely weird descriptions, major grammar mistakes, wrong use of language big time, oh I can't bear going down the list... Please be warned :)
R&R and please be gentle with me!
Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket or its characters.
Prologue
It all started with the phone calls, Hatsuharu mused as he watched his older cousin kneeled beside the telephone table, clutching the phone with both hands. How long has he been getting them? Is it two months, or three?
Over the past few months, the orange-haired teen had been picking up phone calls more often than necessary. He was restless - in Hatsuharu's terms - in the way he jumped lightly at every phone call, raced to it before anyone did and in a look of near-thankful relieve, passed it to Shigure or Yuki or Tohru saved the usual growl of annoyance, or answered in a strained and lowered voice if he thought no one had noticed.
The orange-haired boy was oblivious, too caught up in his trance or whatever that had him so carried away of late, to the fact that someone did notice his unusual behaviors.
He is hiding something, thought Hatsuharu. Yuki certainly feels the same.
Hatsuharu remembered lately Yuki had once raised an eyebrow at him, questioningly, after their orange-haired cousin finished one of those phone calls, groggily climbed up the stairs and shut himself in his room for the rest of the evening. Hatsuharu shrugged at Yuki helplessly, and Yuki shrugged back. The Prince soon dismissed the concern as he returned the attention to his Miss Honda. Compared with Tohru, the cat was too trivial for the Prince to bother.
But it was bothering Hatsuharu.
It bothered Hatsuharu to learn that the cat was hiding things and hiding things from him, well, for reasons he could not name but which explained why he was here leaning against the doorframe, conveniently not making himself be known, and eavesdropping.
His older cousin's voice was still strained but louder than when it was in everybody's presence. He thought no one was home, Hatsuharu nodded to himself. Of course everyone is out... except that I came back.
Yuki and Tohru went to the supermarket to buy grocery, and probably wandered off to God knows where. Shigure was running from his editor again and visited Hatori at the main house. The obnoxious novelist would not come home until it was late into the night and Hatori kicked him out. Hatsuharu himself, he would have gone on a date with Rin - as he informed his orange-haired cousin that morning - were it not for the fact that the rain started to pour like shit before he could even reach the bus stop. Rin called just in time to cancel the date and Hatsuharu made his way back to Shigure's house. It was lucky he did not get lost beause the novelist's house was only two blocks' away.
The orange-haired boy had his back to Hatsuharu and did not notice his younger cousin's return. His back hunched down as he listened to what his caller said, and occasionally spilled a few words into the telephone.
"No, Akito-sama, don't...N-NO...I mean please... "
Akito-'sama'? 'Please'? Hatsuharu frowned. Is that the reason why he is paying more visits to the main house? But he didn't say anything about Akito blackmailing him… He didn't ask for help – not that he ever did – and he didn't even look agitated when he came back. He simply shows no signs. What's with him?
Hatsuharu had to question why his older cousin was not saying a word, but he very much knew why, perhaps subconsciously.
Why not tell ME? A surge of anger rose in Hatsuharu as he felt the helplessness whirled round him like he was being shut outside closed doors. Hatsuharu did not like to be shut out, not to mention he did not like to feel helpless. He wanted, so badly, to blame his affected mood on the obstinate reticence of his older cousin but the forlorn figure in front of him suddenly reminded him that, if Rin had not cancelled the date because of the rain and he returned, no one – not even Hatsuharu himself – would have given much of a thought where the mysterious puddle in front of him now had been, or what he was up to during the moments they were away.
Now, there was the guilt. And guilt was another thing not for Hatsuharu.
Dammit! He had to bang an arm on the wooden door, but instead held himself with twice amount the energy he would use banging it. He laughed lowly and cynically to himself.
Now why do I care? Hatsuharu bit a lower lip. Affairs around the cat always resolve that way. They were easily ignored. Passed over, unnoticed.
Slowly Hatsuharu came up with the ideas that, the cat was nothing but the stupid loser, well, at least to the Prince; one to pick fight with, for Hatsuharu himself; one to play mother – that for Tohru – or probably one to play, for the novelist. No one cared much, really, about what the cat felt or thought despite the role they put him in. Each had to lick his own wounds, and they pushed the problems of the cat to the far back of their mind, not wanting to think about any wrath of the God or curse of the Zodiac. To the long standing and well established, respectable Sohma Family, and its Master among all prestige, the cat was the scorned one – scum of the Family – and one damned by birth. It was the monster to be caged, isolated, and neglected until it came its eternal death.
And everyone acts as if they don't see it coming as his fate.
Hatsuharu's face darkened as he drown in the sight of the cat, now shaking before him, and realized how everybody in this house, including himself, had let 'the cat' happen. And to say they lived under the same roof and ate at the same table, they paid their gravest respect by respecting the cat's privacy and not probing into its business. They would not have done anything, Hatsuharu realized, in actuality to change the current state of affairs.
But Hatsuharu would, that he wanted to.
In his story, Hatsuharu wanted to be the white knight in shining armor. He wanted to fight back the Dark Side of mother Earth, and probably save his damsel in distress, too. Though at the time, little did Hatsuharu know that this story of his would be an ugly one, and ugly not being the world he was in, but being in it and not realizing it. Little did Hatsuharu know, there would be hurt – lots of them – and no comfort; redemption maybe, but no warranty of the sort. Nevertheless the only authentic ending to this story would be: Hatsuharu saved the day.
As Hatsuharu would accept no other ending.