Hello everyone! I am back again with my second attempt at a Fruits Basket fanfiction!
…I hope this one is better than the last one…
The prompt for this story was kindly provided my one of Fanfiction .net friends Phoenix09.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket…if I did writing a fanfiction about it would be kind of pointless…
"Speech" 'Thoughts' Dreams *Noises*
There was darkness all around him.
Yuki tried to melt into the shadows surrounding him, almost holding his breath in fear that he would be heard by the person who he knew awaited him in the ink-black abyss swirling around him.
Waiting for him to make one sound that would reveal his position.
He heard the floorboards to his left let out a quiet creak and finally lost his battle with his fear.
Yuki turned and ran towards his right, away from where the sound originated, calling for his friends, the rats, to help him.
They never came when he was in the house of the god.
"Yuki," the god spoke, the beings voice a black whisper in the darkness, "Why are you running away? Where are you going to go?"
Yuki almost sobbed when he heard the voice of his god, but he kept running, his fear of being caught giving him the ability to stay upright through his exhaustion.
"You can't escape," the god's voice was closer, a testament to the spoken words.
Yuki willed himself on, but felt himself fall forward, his body finally giving out.
He lay on the ground, praying that he would not be discovered, but knew it was only a matter of time before the god found him.
Then he felt a cool hand come to rest on his shoulder, and felt the god lean close to him, the god's mouth near the boy's ear.
"Caught you."
Yuki opened his mouth and screamed.
"Yuki!"
The rat jerked upright in his bed, trembling from the onslaught of emotions brought on by the nightmare.
"Rat-boy," Kyo said quieter now that the other male was awake, "You're lucky that Tohru is spending the night over at Uotani's house for a girls' night, or else she would have been in here fretting with worry."
Yuki didn't raise his head to look at the other teen, the terror of his dream was still a living breathing entity in his mind.
He knew that if he looked up, Kyo would see that entity and he resented the pity that the cat would look upon him with.
"Get out," Yuki said his voice, however, did not come out quite as assured as he would have liked.
"I think you should try talking to someone about what you see in your dreams," Kyo continued, ignoring Yuki's weak attempt to get him to leave, "Since I am the only one here at the moment I guess I can stand to hear it. Master says that if you have a nightmare you should tell someone or else it will come back to haunt you again."
Yuki glared half-heartedly at his lap.
He never spoke to anyone of his dreams, so perhaps there was truth in the Master's words as the dreams did always come back to haunt him night after night.
Yuki was just desperate enough to try talking about it if it meant he might get a night's rest without being hunted in his dreams.
Yuki's hands fisted in his sheets and watching his knuckles whiten from the tension he came to the decision.
"You won't speak of this to anyone else?" Yuki inquired in a voice that was once again firm, "Can I trust you with this, Kyo?"
Yuki slanted a glance to take in the cat's form, he was in his usual sleeping attire of black shirt and sweatpants leaning against the wall to the side of the bed.
Kyo met his gaze as he did all things, straight on and with all his strength.
Yuki had to look away.
"Yeah," Kyo huffed as if annoyed by the fact he had to be the one with which the nezumi spoke, "You can trust me. The cat never lied to anyone after all."
Yuki actually felt himself flinch at that careless barb.
Usually that comment would have meant nothing, a simple statement made among their usual banter, but tonight he was raw.
He was vulnerable to anything Kyo might chose to throw at him, and now that Kyo had seen him flinch he was sure that the neko realized it too.
Yuki closed his eyes and took a calming breath before training his gaze on the far wall.
"It always starts out the same," Yuki heard his voice say, it sounded distant as if he was in a trance, "I am surrounded by darkness, and I know that in the darkness something is hunting me."
Kyo said nothing as the rat spoke, not daring to interrupt him should he stop speaking.
The teen had no idea why he was doing this for the rat.
He should hate him enough to turn away from his pain, but when he saw Yuki twisting and screaming, trapped within his own mind as he dreamed, he knew he would not be able to turn a cold shoulder to him this time.
Something on the rat's tortured face reminded him of his own pain.
"I try to run away, but I am so tired," Yuki continued on not noticing the cat's inner musing, "I am always exhausted in my dreams, so weak I can't escape."
Kyo went still in shock.
How could this creature be weak enough to be caught by another?
Yuki, the bane of the cat's existence and the ultimate goal for Kyo to surpass, was admitting that he was weak against something.
Kyo watched the rat carefully as he continued his story trying to put aside his shock so that he could pay attention to the rat's words.
"Then I am caught," Yuki took a deep breath as if to brace himself, "If I am lucky I wake up then, like I did tonight thanks to you, but if I fail to awaken I am punished. In my dreams I am punished for not loving God more than my own freedom."
Kyo remained silent, not sure how to respond to such an admission.
Yuki turned and looked at him without looking at him, his eyes level with Kyo's knees rather than his face.
"You must think I am childish to be frightened by a dream," Yuki said harshly in self-reproach, his voice loud in the darkness.
Kyo sighed.
"I don't think you are childish," Kyo said, his face uncharacteristically free of its usual sneer that he donned when talking to the rat, "Everyone has nightmares. Everyone has fears."
Yuki didn't reply, but turned his head so he was staring at his hands as they gripped the covers in his lap rather than looking at the cat's knees.
"Why are you being so understanding?" He asked, his voice slightly roughened by emotion even as he willed himself to be composed, "Why aren't you calling me an idiot and storming out?"
Kyo went still.
Why hadn't he left?
Why was he still here?
"I think it is because you are afraid," He finally responded taking a deep breath before continuing, "You are just as afraid of being alone as I am."
Yuki looked up at him in shock.
"Afraid of being alone?" Yuki echoed contemplatively.
"Yeah," Kyo said lazily glances over at the nezumi, "You won't go back asleep tonight because you are alone in your dreams fighting against an opponent who is stronger than you."
Yuki couldn't deny the truth of his words.
"Do you want me to stay?"
Both boys looked shocked as the words emerged from Kyo's mouth.
Kyo looked away and blustered defensively.
"It doesn't mean anything. It's just that Master always stayed with me when I had nightmares and it always helped me fall back to sleep. I can leave –"
"If you wouldn't mind?"
Again both boys stood shocked for a moment, this time from words coming from Yuki's mouth.
"Okay," Kyo said slowly as if their words were finally dawning on him, "Let me go get my pillow and blanket."
Yuki's eyes went wide with panic as he turned towards the door, but he stifled the emotion quickly.
"I wouldn't blame you if you didn't come back."
Kyo glanced back over his shoulder with an affronted look.
"I said I would stay here, so I'm gunna stay here," He huffed as he stomped to Yuki's still opened door, "I'll be back in a minute."
Kyo stormed out and Yuki felt slightly relieved that the cat was gone, but at the same time he felt more alone than ever without Kyo's overwhelming personality making its presence known in his room.
Before he could contemplate that, Kyo was back and throwing his pillow and a couple of blankets down on the floor next to the rat's bed, making a makeshift pallet for him to sleep on through the night.
After he finished organizing them to his liking, Kyo went over to the door and slid it shut before plopping down onto his pallet and situating himself comfortably.
After a few minutes, Kyo sat back up and glared at Yuki who was still sitting up in the bed, staring down at the cat from his slightly higher position.
"Do you need to talk some more?"
Yuki shook his head mutely as he watched the cat run his hand through his already mused hair tiredly.
"Then go back to sleep, or else I am going to go back to my room to sleep. I can't rest if you are gunna stay up and stare at me all night."
Yuki blushed slightly and laid down turning his back on the cat.
He heard Kyo huff before the rustling sound of fabric on fabric indicated that he was settling back down.
Yuki couldn't believe that Kyo was being so…nice.
He hadn't tried to pick a fight.
He hadn't shouted at him, hit or thrown anything in frustration.
He had allowed Yuki to talk about his deepest darkest dreams with a promise of silence even though he had named them enemies long ago.
Yuki stared at his curtained window trying to clear his mind and fall asleep.
Kyo's breaths evened out and deepened as he settled into sleep.
Yuki listened and found the rhythm to be relaxing.
He drifted off to sleep even as he wondered at the strangeness of the evening.
He was surrounded in an all too familiar darkness.
He tried to silence his gasping breaths.
He had been running from God again, but he knew that he could not run forever.
He was going to be punished.
He huddled in the darkness, trying to be as silent as his other form.
He felt the air shift with the arrival of something new, something warm.
Almost more afraid of this new warmth than of the surety of this nightmare place, Yuki opened his eyes and glanced up furtively, readying his tired body to bolt if the new thing turned out to be yet another tactic used against him by God.
Above him floated a small orb of light.
Yuki shielded his eyes instinctively against the light, and flinched backwards.
The light would give away his location!
He stood up, almost falling back to the ground in his haste to rise, and moved to run from the new element of his nightmare realm.
As he turned to run, Yuki felt his limbs betray him and move him slowly towards the warmth the orb was radiating instead of away from its betraying light.
His hand rose without his consent and reached towards the orb as if to pluck it from the darkness it floated in.
The orb drifted a few inches away, as if to entice him into following, and his traitorous body complied even as Yuki watched in horror, but the warmth emitted by the light was relaxing his tired body.
He was so tired of being scared and alone in the cold darkness of this place.
He found that he ceased to care if the light was leading him to God; as long as it did not disappear and leave him alone in the darkness he would be content to follow it to his end.
The light bobbed in the air for a moment as if waiting for something.
'This is it,' Yuki thought to himself, 'God will punish me now.'
But instead of a figure coming into the light a wooden door came into view.
Yuki reached out his hand and ran it over the panels in disbelief.
There was an exit?
He quickly found the handle and slid the door open silently, and stepped outside for the first time in a long time.
The sun was bright after such an extended time in the sinister gloom of the God's presence.
Yuki tilted his face up to the light and smiled.
He was free.
Yuki awoke to the sun warming his face as it had in his dream.
The teen smiled as he stretched happily, feeling rested for the first time since he started having the nightmare.
He turned over and faced where Kyo had been bedded down the night before and was surprised to find him sitting up next to his already folded blankets, stacked neatly with his pillow on top, watching the shadows retreating from the oncoming daylight.
Kyo looked up when he heard Yuki shift and watched him silently as the rat took in his position.
Yuki smiled, not one of his "princely" smiles that made his classmates swoon, not even one of his less frequent smirks that he found on his face when something amused him.
The smile he gave Kyo was genuine.
He could count the people who had seen his true smile on one hand, and he never dreamed that he would give one of them to the cat.
Kyo stared at him blankly in shock for a moment, before turning away with a slight blush on his face.
"The talking helped?"
"Yes," Yuki grinned at the harsh embarrassment in Kyo's voice, "Thank you for helping me."
"It was nothing," Kyo brushed off his thanks as he leapt to his feet bedding in hand, "Just don't spread it around and we'll call it even."
"I promise."
Yuki watched Kyo storm out of his room, embarrassment making him posture more than usual, and found himself frowning for the first time that morning.
He knew what happened to the cats of the zodiac after they reached a certain age.
He knew of the cell, slightly away from the main house, that had been built to contain the cat.
Kyo didn't belong there, just as Yuki did not belong under the thumb of God.
Yuki's eyes hardened with resolution.
Kyo wasn't going to be locked away where no one would know of the kindness in his heart.
In the months after that night, many people noticed the difference in Yuki.
He was stronger for the rest he was getting.
He had fewer attacks and when he did have one it didn't last long and he was back up on his feet in no time.
Soon Hatori wasn't even called when Yuki felt his lungs struggle for air. He simply rested for a bit and he could get back to what he was doing to begin with.
They also noticed how the former enemies began to get along more and more.
The two would banter as always, but it didn't come to blows near as often, and if they did it was always started by the blustering cat.
Yuki bided his time, allowing Kyo his fights because he knew what the cat was fighting for.
He slowly brought more of the zodiac into his plans.
Hatsuharu had proven his love and dedication to the rat, with his additions to the plans and finally as Yuki's boyfriend, though they kept their relationship a secret from all save Kyo (who had walked in when they had been sealing their relationship with a kiss and had grudgingly covered for them more than once when they went out on their occasional dates thereafter) in order to safely carry out their plans.
Kagura was next, though Yuki had been hesitant about telling her as she was so lively and opinionated, but Haru had convinced him and she had turned out to be a staunch ally.
The Mabudachi trio was next, despite Yuki's serious reservations about letting his brother anywhere near his secrets, and they proved themselves as resourceful in tight situations.
All of the Zodiac, small and large, joined them as time passed.
When God came to reclaim them, He would be surprised.
The rat would lead the cat on a merry chase into freedom right from under the Lord's nose with the help of the entire zodiac.
Akito would never own them again.
Freedom was well worth fighting for.
A/N: Wow…I didn't expect it to go this well actually. They are much more in character than I had thought they would be. Well I hoped you enjoyed my little foray into the Fruits Basket realm, and if you happen to want a sequel I am open to suggestions. Thank you for reading. Reviews and comments are always appreciated! ~Orin