Two Kinds of Horses
Chapter 1
Her eyes were so dark, Kureno mused to himself as his knees shook a little under the extra weight. Sure this girl was as thin as a skeleton, but Kureno had never been particularly strong. So dark; the pupils swallow up everything else.
In his arms was the near-corpse of the beautiful horse. His mind kept flashing back to that long, long hair scattered on the dirty floor. There were only two people in the world that had hair that long and that dark; Ren and Isuzu. When he had seen the chunks of hair surrounded by small patches of shining blood, his heart had sunk in dread. He had thought to himself; has Akito finally done it? Has 'he' killed 'his' mother? He hastened to The Black Room, knowing that if Akito had really done this forbidden thing, it was imperative that he remove all traces of evidence before anyone else found it.
To his surprise, it was not Ren, but Isuzu in the misused, torturous room. She was practically scalped, not to mention shrunken, bloody, bruised, and unconscious, but he was relieved to find life still in her. Without a second thought he coldly gathered up her cadaver-like body in his arms and swiftly snuck off to the family doctor.
The teenage girls mouth lolled open, her eyeballs rolling back into her head as the lids sprang unpleasantly open to show how her once brown irises were now completely black, lusterless. How long had she been locked in that room? What had she done to receive such wrath from 'god'?
He realized it was better not to look at or to think about this girl and instead focus on his precarious path to Hatori's, and on not getting caught.
He reached the small building with no mishaps and shoved the door open with his shoulder. "Hatori!' he called loudly into the darkness, making sure there was no emotion in his voice. His family thought of him as a stoic, unfeeling man and he preferred to keep their opinions that way. The dragon was most likely sleeping, but Kureno could care less. He heard the shuffle of footsteps on carpet, and a light snapped on.
"Kureno? Why are you- oh." Hatori took in both of his cousins and his good eye widened in confusion and shock before resuming its normal, tired state with understanding. With a gesture, he indicated that the solemn rooster place the girl on his ruffled bed. Kureno obliged.
"If you need anything, you know how to contact me," was all the man would say on the subject before letting himself out through the door, which swung closed with a click behind himself.
Chapter 2
Oh Rin… Hatori thought sorrowfully as he observed the girl. The tattered remains of her clothing were filthy and smelled like a barnyard, and the small amount of remaining hair was absolutely caked in putrid dried blood, which left small flakes on his navy blue sheets. Touching her lightly, he observed that even through her dress he could feel each individual rib against his palm, sharp as a razor; this girl was clearly knocking on Death's door. She looked like a child, so shrunken it was sickening. Mentally slapping himself, he frowned. Don't get attached, you idiot. He firmly told himself. Nobody can really save her. She's doomed to misery anyway, as are you, as is everyone in this family. Heal her and send her on her way.
Clinically, coldly, he stripped her bare from the remains of her clothing and dropped each item into his trash can. He looked her over for a general synopsis, slightly revolted by how he could make out each bone with his eye; her long legs were particularly gruesome. Her once-large breasts were now only slight shadows and what once had been buttocks were now bony protrusions. She was dehydrated, beaten, starving, running a dangerous fever, bleeding from the scalp, a cut on her thigh had become infected, and, obviously, she was starving. He would have to be delicate with each movement; even the slightest mishap would cost her life, which, he reflected, would probably be fine with both her and with Akito. But not with him, although if Akito directly ordered it, he wouldn't hesitate to take her life himself.
He worked swiftly and soon she was clean, the remainder of her hair shaved off, and a good majority of her body disinfected and tightly bandaged. He hooked two IV's up into her body, cringing as the needles scraped bone on the way to a vain. Her whole body was white and purple anyway; what were a few more bruises in the long run? He thoughtfully slipped half of a pair of handcuffs onto her ankle, attaching the other onto the footboard, knowing her history of escaping from any medical situation. He also covered her naked form with his lightest cotton blanket and placed a cool compress on her forehead to alleviate the fever.
Temporarily satisfied, Hatori laid down on the wooden floor by his bed, sliding the extra pillow from her side from the bed down next to him. He closed his eyes but barely slept. Oh Akito, were his worried thoughts. How much more pain will we have to suffer because of you?
Chapter 3
Shivering, Isuzu emerged with considerable difficulty from her trance-like state. Keeping her eyelids shut, she used her other senses to determine what was happening around her. Light filtered through her heavy eyelids and that puzzled her; it had been so dark for so long that she had highly suspected that she would never see light again. Her entire body felt numb and weightless, as if she were hovering over whatever surface she should be lying upon. Was she dead? If so being dead was a vast improvement on her previous situation.
She heard a repetitive clicking sound across from where she lay, which didn't bother her so much, but she also heard breathing which worried her very much. She felt her heartbeats increase against her sternum, so powerful that she felt the rest of her body vibrate from the force of each individual pump of terror, warning her to flee, insisting that if she wanted to live she had better escape now. Ignoring her instincts, she remained quite still. If she was dead, what did she care where Akito was? Then again, Akito was god after all. Was she doomed to an eternity of damnation? No. Focus. She told her panicking brain. You will get through this. You will survive. If you are dead we will simply have to find a way back. You have a task to complete before you are allowed to die.
The reminder to herself, while not exactly soothing, did give her a purposeful edge. Her heart slowed somewhat and she was better able to concentrate. That can't be Akito, she realized with some surprise. The breathing is deeper. Akito always sounds so pathetic and weak, like he's bound to collapse at any given moment. She focused some more and noted that she was cold, which explained the tiny shivers that wracked her. And she appeared to be lying on a soft surface. A hospital? Oh please, no. She hated hospitals…
Giving up, she, with serious difficulty, forced her swollen and aching eyelids to open. Huh. Not a hospital. Focusing her blurry vision, she looked around the room with just her eyes, not moving her head. It looked like a bedroom combined with a medical office. It was small and cozy, but everywhere she looked there were jars of tongue depressors, and IV bags dangling off of the lamp, and a blood pressure cuff draped over the curtain rod as well as many other telltale medical brik-a-brak. In one corner, she saw a man sitting hunched at a computer desk, vigorously typing away, the keys producing the clicking sound which she had noticed earlier. Hatori? Oh; all of a sudden everything made sense. Much calmer now, she noticed that she was hooked up to two IV's. That explained the lack of pain.
Well, she was now convinced that she was still alive. Rin felt a small surge of relief. Good. Unconsciously shifting her weight, her eyes flew open wide and her teeth clamped down on her dry lip to stifle her cry of shock and pain. It HURT. Fire raced up and down her spine, dizzyingly fast and agonizingly painful. Apparently the IV's only blocked out the pain when she remained still. Through streaming eyes, she observed that she had been handcuffed—err, footcuffed—to the bed. Smart man, that Hatori. Although she was currently unable to escape due to the agony it caused her anyway so it wasn't as if she would be running off any time soon. Still, she resolved never to forgive him.
"You're awake?" the soft voice startled her. Hatori, on hearing her muffled cry, had spun around in his desk chair and sat looking at her, the same unreadable expression as always on his blank face.
She opened her mouth to speak—owowowow—but no sound came out. Alarmed, she sat up—and fell back onto the mattress, stars dancing in front of her eyes, feeling as if she was drowning in an endless sea of nausea and anguish. A raspy shriek emerged from her cracked lips. The dragon was instantly by her side.
"Don't do that, Isuzu," he chided her. Removing the blanket, he checked underneath several bandages and changed the one on her thigh. She smelled rotting flesh and knew without looking at it that it was severely infected. He added a stinging ointment to the area (but really, she was in so much pain already that what did one more pang matter, really?) and re-covered it in a fresh bandage.
"Kureno brought you here a little over three days ago" the twenty-eight year old man told her as he worked. "Didn't say anything; just dropped you off and left." This surprised the bald teenage girl; she had never had any dealings with Kureno before and if her recall was right, she had been quite angry with him the day she was caught in the act of stealing by Akito. Hatori squeezed the sides of her neck for lymph node examinations before pulling her eyelids back to check the color of the underside. Gods, everything hurt. It was becoming ridiculous. She even temporarily forgot her aversion to being touched, and the slight disturbance over the fact that she was naked, in the torment each touch brought her. You'd think the human brain wouldn't be programmed to suffer so much before shutting down, she bitterly thought to herself. It must be a flaw in the design.
Hatori left the room, reappearing moments later baring a tray of medical supplies, a cotton t-shirt, and a bell. Unhooking her IV's he swiftly replaced the empty bags with full ones. He had with him a small bowl of lukewarm water and a serving spoon, which he used to dribble the water down the girls throat, crossing his fingers that she wouldn't vomit it up. She tried to swallow it without choking and mostly succeeded even though it felt like a rock thumping in her empty stomach. He smeared balm on her lips and put a bell next to her hand.
"Knock the bell off of the bed if you need me or if you feel as if you are about to transform", he told her. "Otherwise, sleep. It's the only thing that will really heal you. Okay?"
Taking her silence as an answer, he turned back to his computer. The drugs began their merciful path through her veins, Isuzu slept.
Chapter 4
Days slowly drizzled into weeks like grease off a pan. Rin was unconscious for the majority of the time, but Hatori's medical training certainly made significant improvement on the much-abused girl. He knew that giving food to a starved person would most likely result in their death because of their body's inability to process it, he worked slowly. First it was nothing but nutrients from her I.V. along with some water (which she usually vomited up anyway.) Once she started being able to keep the water in her stomach, he added tiny amounts of chicken or beef flavor and gradually worked that up to broth. Once she could properly digest broth he gave her weak gelatin, gradually progressing to soft solids. He was surprised at her willingness to eat; the last time he had treated her she ate next to nothing and especially not when anybody was watching. He could tell that she did not like his constant watch over her and sometimes could barely make herself swallow the foods he provided, but she seemed to be making an honest effort to heal, always complying with his every word. He found it unusual but refrained from commenting on it, fearing that it would embarrass her and she would revert to her old self-destructive ways.
Although still obscenely underweight, improvement was evident. Her deathly pallor had gone and she was left with a small amount of light pink color in her white skin. Her bruises faded until only the particularly bad ones remained a shadow of their original selves. The peach fuzz that had covered her body when she had gone so long without eating began to disappear, and the beginnings of dark hair formed upon her scalp. Each bone was still disturbingly prominent, but they began to take on a slightly softer edge; not so sharp, a little less apparent. The thigh infection was still present, weakened but undefeated, causing her to break out in fever at the slightest change in temperature.
She and Hatori seldom spoke to each other and merely conversed with soft grunts of agreement or a shake of the head for dissent. Her enormous amounts of pride got in the way fairly often, making it difficult for her to ask for assistance. He caught her once trying to pick the lock on her footcuff, standing (wobbling) on her free foot in an attempt to get to his bathroom without asking him for help. At first her drugged and unconscious state led to many accidents in the bed, and when Hatori silently lifted her out to wash the sheets her face burned in humiliation and she refused to look at him. As she gradually got a little better and he had to use less drugs on her, the situation improved until she could walk to the facilities without being carried, tightly clutching onto the dragon's arm for support.
After more than a month passed, it was evident that she had completely missed a period. This didn't surprise Hatori; he understood that the more malnourished a body is, the less it can properly function. However, it seemed to upset Isuzu, who had missed more school then she attended and her parents had never been around to explain this type of thing to her, and she finally asked, looking anywhere at his face, whether or not she was pregnant. This lead to a brief and awkward explanation from Hatori, to which she appeared relieved, nodded once, and never brought it up again. Hatori told himself that the next time she had a period would be when he knew she was healthy enough to leave his care.
Hatori left her for a few hours a day to go to his office at the other end of the Sohma estate. He tried to leave during the stretches of time where she slept so she would not feel alone, but he made sure that a telephone was nearby along with a scrap of paper that contained his cell phone number in case she should wake and need him. When she started to become more alert, he borrowed a small portable TV and some CD's from Momiji in case she should ever become bored. The only people who knew where she was, besides Hatori himself, were Kureno (whom Hatori had grocery shop for them at a nearby convenience store when they began running out of food) and Kagura's family who had really began to worry when the horse never returned to her bedroom there. He asked them to remain in confidentiality for her protection and security. Once Kagura knew she secretly snuck some of Isuzu's things to him at her next monthly checkup with Hatori—clothes, books, and a plush horse that she had made for her cousin. Hatori gave a tiny smile at that; the family boar was a very kind and thoughtful person if you got to know her well enough. Isuzu had seemed pleased, too, placing the horse on the bedside table next to her, although she would never admit it.
And time continued to pass.
Chapter 5
It was a rainy Wednesday afternoon on the second week of the first month Isuzu was spending her time recovering in the safety of Hatori's small home. She was propped on her (Hatori's, really,) pillow clad in a pair of her rattiest sweatpants and a t-shirt. Her hand rested on the hoof of her horse that she refused to name because she certainly did not like it. Or at least, she wouldn't ever admit to liking it, especially not to Kagura. The toes on her free foot absently worked on the handcuffs that captured her trapped foot as she watched the perky news hostess bubble about the weather. Stupid. And why was the television shaped like a rabbit? She turned the remote (which also sported a ridiculously cute pair of rabbit ears) upside-down and snorted. Hatori got the TV from Momiji? She had never particularly liked the rabbit (she generally disliked everyone) but she supposed she held nothing against him.
She heard a loud sound and was at first unsure as to why her heart began hammering away harder than it ever had before and she felt sweat coat her face liberally within an instant before she realized what it was and why it frightened her. The doorbell. Scrambling, she accidentally fell onto the floor on the side of the bed farthest from the doo r, where her long legs bunched under her chin in fetal position. She shook. 'Akito? Is it Akito? Oh please please do not let it be him… He'll kill me this time. I can't die now!' Hatori's worried face peered in through the doorway. Following the chain connecting the handcuffs with his eyes, he found her foot.
"Isuzu? I know you're frightened, but I don't have a choice; if it's Akito, I must answer the door." She shook harder and the doorbell rang again; Isuzu let out a sort of whinny and Hatori paused, a startled expression on his face. He knew that Kyo hissed when he was angry and Kisa made a sort of purring sound whenever Tohru was around, but he had never expected Isuzu to give in to her animalistic side. She must really be terrified. He glanced down the hallway at the door, and then turned back to Isuzu. It would be all right if he were just a few moments late answering the door; he could just tell Akito that he was napping, right?
Hurrying to the bed, he bent over her. "Oh come on, Isuzu, I'm sure it's ok… if it really is him, he won't really hurt you…" God, he really sucked at this. Her eyes bulged out of her head with miniature tears gathering in the corner, and his heart sunk a little. He had never seen anybody so afraid in his life. "Hey," he started again, more gently. He gripped her shrunken shoulder in his palm. To his surprise, two hands grasped his shoulders, forcing his upper body to bend in front of her. Arms wrapped around his body like a vice, choking him, and she clung to him with astonishing strength that he had no idea she possessed. Her head buried in his shoulder, her teeth clamping down on the collar of his blue shirt. As he recoiled in shock, her legs clamped themselves around his waist and he found that he couldn't pry himself away even with a spatula. He stumbled backwards from her unexpected weight and fell onto his backside from the resistance of the chain of the footcuff. "Ah!" She whimpered, and Hatori swallowed painfully. He had seventy-seven pounds of five-foot-four Rin, a girl so tough and brave she defied God on a regular basis and survived being thrown out of a window AND being abandoned by her parents, and here she was WHIMPERING? What all, exactly, did Akito DO to her? This seemed way beyond her physical condition.
Unsure what to do, he remembered how Kana used to ruffle his hair when he was upset. Clumsily, he splayed his large hand on her scalp. She flinched a little, but made no other sign of protest. Hatori slowly rubbed her scalp with his hand, bringing his other arm tightly around her. He recalled how Kana would soothe him by speaking softly. Bringing his chin to the crown of her scalp, he spoke into her hair like his old love once did. "Isuzu… I'm here. I won't let Akito hurt you. I have no idea how I'll stop him, but I'll do it." He was startled to realize that he meant it, too. Slowly, she let go of his collar with her teeth. Hatori gained the impression that she was feeling embarrassed, but as she made no other move to distance herself from him, he pressed on. "I want you to be happy. I've known you since the day you were born and I do not think I've seen you smile since you were six years old. I would really like to one day see you smile again." He knew he was babbling nonsense but it seemed to make her feel better, so he just let his mouth run along. Her arms loosened slightly, her head tucking under his chin. He was vaguely reminded of a sucker fish clinging to a rock, but instead of repulsion, he felt sadness. Such a brave woman was reduced to a cringing, clinging mess in his arms at the sound of the doorbell.
From behind them, a voice spoke. "Why, Hatori; you must've forgotten to open the door again. I took the liberty of letting myself in."
Chapter 6
Stiffening, Isuzu's head shot back from Hatori's grip. Stumbling backwards from the man, her back bumped harshly against the bed and she let out a pained hiss.
Both Ayame and Shigure Sohma stood in the doorway of the bedroom, identical huge, evil grins on their handsome faces. Shigure slinked over to Hatori, who stared up at him from the floor.
"Well, Tori-san,! Here we thought you were holed up all these weeks because you were overworking yourself again. We never would've guessed you were holing yourself up for a different sort of reason!" he attempted to wrap his arms around the stoic dragon, who quickly stood and brushed the idiot off.
"It's not what you think, although I doubt you'll ever believe me. You really are a pervert," he sighed at the shorter man. Ayame pranced to Rin's side. She attempted to slide away from him but found herself trapped by the bed. She settled for scowling, willing him to hang himself with his own hair.
"She seems a bit pale and scrawny for your tastes, Tori-san," he commented, seizing her face with his manicured hand. "I thought you preferred the 'healthy and strong' type, but then, who am I to judge?" he tugged at Rins sleeve. "Seriously though, sweetie," he told her, not unkindly, "this outfit does nothing for that pretty face of yours"
She scowled harder. "Go to hell, you idiotic snake,"
Hatori observed that she was perspiring quite a lot and her skin was taking on a tinge of green. The exertion and the high levels of emotion were clearly not doing her any good.
Ayame blinked, confused, then comprehension dawned in his yellow eyes. "Isuzu? Is that you?" his hand brushed the dark fuzz that covered her scalp. "What happened to you?" she pushed his hand away irritably, and shook a little. Ayame appeared momentarily concerned, and then brushed it off. "Well, we all need to try new styles sometimes. And you CERTAINLY need to—seriously, sweetie, I've been meaning to tell you this for years; you don't look good in dark colors. I know you're 'tortured' and 'empty' on the inside, yada yada yada, but would it kill you to try some new things? I picture you in light pink. Silver. Periwinkle. With that complexion of yours, you'd be ravishing. And for God's sake, girl, cover up a little! You look like a prostitute. A cheap one. Save something for the imagination!"
Shigure slunk to Ayame's side, nuzzling his stubbly face into the back of Ayame's neck. "Aya, are you saying you don't like it when I'M… revealing?"
Ayame turned to his friend, his eyes narrowing seductively. "Oh Gure-san, of course not. In fact, I have to say the more you are willing to reveal, the happier I am." They grinned, giving each other the thumbs up, and began to howl with laughter.
Isuzu attempted to inch away from the odd men and as she did so, the chain attaching her to the bed clinked. Instantly, Shigure and Ayame glanced at it, made eye contact with each other, and turned to Hatori in unison with evil looks of glee in their eyes.
"Why HATORI, you naughty, naughty man!" Shigure exclaimed, waggling his finger in mock disappointment. "Chaining beautiful women to your bed! I didn't know you were that kind of man!" He chucked Hatori under the chin. Hatori caught the skin of the dog's hand and pinched, hard."
"OoooOOWWW!" Hatori, you big brute!" the crybaby complained. Hatori ignored his cousins whining and shoved him through the doorway, using his size to his advantage. He called over his shoulder for Ayame to get out. The flamboyant silver-haired man cheerfully obeyed the command, never forgetting his loyalty to the family doctor. He shut the door behind them and turned to the girl on the floor. Isuzu was in bad shape, panting and sweating, and she had begun to shiver. The dark-haired man lifted her from the floor and quickly laid her out on the bed, covering her in several blankets. He grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
"I'll get rid of those morons and then take care of you, ok?" She made a sound which could be interpreted as assent before turning onto her side and bringing her knees to her chest, closing her eyes. He left the room, flicking the light off and closing the door softly behind himself, worrying for his patient.
He found his two high school classmates in his kitchen, going through his cupboards and complaining about his lack of snacks.
"Sit down, you two," he ordered them, pointing to his sofa. They complied, Shigure clutching a bag of slightly stale chips in his hands. "Don't interrupt." He briefly explained the situation and they dutifully listened, the dog cramming chips in his mouth, crunching loudly and getting crumbs on the sofa. When he finished, the author chuckled without humor.
"Akito gave her the 'ole black-and-blue treatment again, eh? Well, that's just how he is."
Hatori felt a pang of annoyance. Sure, Shigure could say that; the idiot would do anything for Akito and like it. He didn't care about how many people got hurt, he didn't care for Isuzu at all. Then an uneasy thought occurred to him.
"Shigure, I know that if Akito asks you to tell her where Isuzu is, you will have no choice but to tell him. However, I am ordering you to not tell Akito unless you have no choice. Do not use Isuzu to get closer to him."
Shigure smiled darkly but didn't agree, and Hatori felt the thin string of patience he had left snap. He grabbed the man by the edges of his robe, hauling him face-to-face.
"Listen, you self-centered moron," he hissed through his teeth. "You know how hard I've worked getting her back to health? Do you know the hell she's been through?! OF course not; you're nothing but Akito's pet, her faithful dog. You treat people like garbage and you step on them as if they mean less than nothing. But I will not allow Isuzu to be hurt again, do you understand?! I don't care what I have to do to protect her, but I will do it."
Shigure looked barely fazed, even though Ayame was freaking out behind him. Hatori raised his hand to punch the man…
… And stopped when he heard a loud pop and crash in the next room. "Isuzu!" he dropped Shigure and hurried to their bedroom, where he found, not Isuzu, but an unconscious black horse on the broken remains of what had once been a bed.
"Goddammit!" he swore, loudly. Ayame stood behind him and clutched his shoulder in sympathy. Hatori just stared at the scene, unsure what to do.
"Tori-san… can I help in any way?" the snake asked timidly. Hatori sighed.
"Not tonight, Ayame. It'd be best if you two just left for now. The snake made a sad face but nodded and went to collect his friend, showing himself out the door. Hatori rubbed his temples with his fingers, suddenly completely exhausted.
'What do I do now?' he thought, wearily.
Chapter 7
Hatori cleared as much of the rubble under the horses body as he could, fearing the sharp splinters from the wooden bed frame would pierce her skin (hyde? Whatever.) He also removed the cuff from around her ankle (hoof), predicting that it would be too small for her in this form and it might cut off her circulation. Unsure how to tend livestock (he wasn't a vet, for heavens sake), he spread a thick blanket over her back and hoped for the best. Carrying the thick black trash bag over his shoulder, he snatched his cell phone off of the counter on the way to his garbage can. Rifling through the phone book, he called the company that had manufactured his bed. After giving his information, he tiredly placed an order for a new one, which was said to be delivered in five to seven days. He figured he didn't need a new mattress because his old one appeared to be fine; it was just the bed itself which was destroyed when 1,200 pounds of Rin were suddenly on it. He figured that she must've transformed due to the exhaustion and the stress that was heaped upon her in a matter of minutes. At least, that's what he hoped it was—with Rin, health was always an issue. He had been there the day she was born—he had actually helped deliver her (his father had wanted to get him accustomed to his role in life as the Sohma family doctor at an early age) and even then she had never been healthy. Her stressful life and lifestyle hadn't done anything to improve this. Ulcers, colds, flu, everything seemed to attack her from all angles. Akito's repetitive history of abuse with her was the straw that finally broke the camel's (horses?) back.
He lapsed into thought as he sat at his kitchen table, too tired to even hold his head up. His stomach rumbled and he was reminded that he hadn't eaten lunch and it was nearing dinner time, which meant that Isuzu was also missing two meals. Terrific. Just the perfect cherry on top of this totally bogus afternoon. He closed his eyes and rested his face on his forearms, just for a minute, or so he told himself. It was two hours later when his door creaked open, and Kureno stepped in. Motioning two of the women who were heavily burdened under the weight of a futon to follow him, the rooster glanced at the sleeping dragon's face, surprised how peaceful he looked in sleep when during his wakeful hours he had the hard, lined face of a weary man who, as Bilbo Baggins once put it, "felt like butter stretched over too much bread". The ladies set the futon by Hatori's threadbare sofa and they all began to creep back to the door, when Hatori's stomach gave out a growl. The sweet-faced woman gave Kureno a pleading look, and he gestured to the oven impatiently. She skittered happily to the oven and began quietly going through the under- stocked cupboards, plans of a nice casserole in her mind. Kureno and the second female left the house, their work done.
Isuzu awoke when the gentle wafts of home-baked food touched her nose. Blinking her large eyes, she shifted and was surprised how stiff her body was. She observed the broken remains of the bed underneath her with confused eyes until her muggy brain was able to figure it out—she was naked, stiff, and her brain felt as if a fog were making all thoughts difficult. Fact one: she had transformed. Fact two: she had destroyed Hatori's bed. Fact three: she was hungry and Fact four: for some reason she was no longer chained to the bed. Happy with her newfound freedom, she stre-e-etched her stiff muscles—and fell over with a loud clatter, biting back a shriek when she felt splinters imbed into her skin. There was a pause, then a tup-tup-tup of feminine feet to her doorway. A small face peeped into the room. "Isuzu-san, are you alright?" Mine, the woman who worked as Ayame's assistant and often cosplayed as a maid, called out. She gasped and hurried to Rin's side. "Oh you poor thing!" her pigtail braids swung as she bent at the waist and grasped the younger woman's arm, easily hauling the lightweight girl from the chaos. "Oh, and you're bleeding! Not to worry—I'm sure there are some bandages in here. I'll get you all fixed up."
It didn't take her long to locate several bandages and some antiseptic. She immediately knelt and dabbed at Isuzu's scratches, removing some splinters from the skin with a pair of tweezers, as Rin watched, dazed. She finally spoke.
"I know you. You're the girl who's always with Ayame." Mine beamed.
"Yup-yup, that's me!" she smiled good-naturedly. Isuzu paused.
"Um… not to seem rude or anything, but why are you here?"
"Boss sent me to help Kureno bring Hatori a futon to sleep on, since, well, Hatori's bed was broken." She explained how Ayame, afraid that Hatori would not want to see him again that day, had called Kureno's rarely-used cell phone and told him the whole story. Applying a third bandage to the longest scratch on Rin's calf, Mine promptly stood and began rifling through Isuzu's outfits.
"Is this all you have? My goodness, Isuzu-san, none of these suit you at all!" seeing the look of consternation on Rin's face, she hurried on, snatching the nearest off of the hanger. "B-but they'll do for now." She helped the girl dress, and then supported her with an arm around her waist as they made their way down the hallway and to the kitchen table, where she settled the teenage horse into her chair at the table.
Isuzu couldn't stop herself from staring at Hatori's face, surprised at the relaxation on his features. It was decided that Mine would stay for dinner until her older brother, Kamui, was able to come over and walk her back to Ayame's shop. She seemed to feel hesitant to wake the exhausted man up, so while she was fetching plates from the cupboards, Rin took Hatori's shoulder in her palm, shaking gently. His eye opened and he blearily stared at her face, confused for a moment before sitting up.
"Oh, Isuzu-san, you're awake," he mumbled, his voice craggy with sleep. She found herself rubbing his long dark hair as a mother would do with a child and she lowered her hand, determined not to blush. She explained the situation and Hatori nodded. "Thank you for all of this, Mine," he told the petite woman who emerged from the kitchen, silverware in hand. "This was most kind of you." She blushed like a tomato and stammered a happy "it was nothing!"
They shared a pleasant; if quiet, supper together and Rin was surprised to find that for the first time in years she actually had an appetite and was not just eating out of necessity. She still ate way less than a normal person, but even Hatori noticed the small amount of gusto Isuzu took in each bite. He filed it away in his memory that Rin must really like tuna noodle casserole with green beans. He personally didn't particularly enjoy seafood (being a seahorse, it rather made him nauseous) but if Rin would eat it he would serve her anything. Mine boxed the leftovers and slipped them into the refrigerator and even had time to do dishes, singing happily, before her large, soft-spoken brother arrived to walk her home. It was the nicest evening Isuzu had had in a long, long time.
Rin was tucked snugly into the sofa, a tad loopy off of pain medications (Hatori had upped her evening dosage of them that night, fearing her afternoon transformation was the result of her ulcers acting up) and she discovered she was too tired to sleep. He was next to her on the futon, sleeping on his side facing her. Bored, she reached out and touched his hair again, admiring the silky length of it. Even when her hair had grown past her waist it had never been so soft; in fact, it had always been rather coarse. She moved the section of bang that always artfully covered his damaged eye, and frowned sadly, staring at the pink scar tissue that almost sealed it shut. It may have been the pain meds, but she was feeling excessively emotional at the moment. 'We're both horses,' she thought with a giggle, smoothing his hair back over his eye. 'I'm an appaloosa, he's a seahorse. Two different kinds of horses.' She sobered a little when she remembered how he had promised her this afternoon to protect her from Akito. It could have just been a sweet nothing, meant to make her calm down and shut up, but it sure felt real. His lips twitched slightly in his sleep, forming a dream-induced smile, and with a sharp pang in her heart she was reminded of Haru. He would always smile just like that in his sleep. Tears burned her eyes. She loved that ox so goddamn much it hurt; she loved him so much she had to nearly kill herself with pain, over and over and over again, just to keep him away from her
Exhaustion began to kick in and she curled into her preferred sleeping position, hot tears making tracks down her face. She had been enjoying herself too much these past few days, enjoying the peace and near serenity she felt in Hatori's house, and she had forgotten her true purpose. Heal up, and go back to breaking the curse, so that Haru could be free. That was her goal, her strongest, dearest wish, and she knew that after accomplishing this she could die happy. She finally drifted off to sleep with new resolution in mind, wondering dreamily where Haru was and if he was happy.
Chapter Eight
After that day, Hatori Sohma noticed a difference in Isuzu. She seemed focused, intent. She didn't eat, she consumed, very deliberately spooning whatever he provided into her mouth, chewing and swallowing. She swallowed each pill very seriously, she slept with purpose. It was as if she was trying to force her body to heal at a rapid rate. She started going to bed ridiculously early. And while she did begin to heal much better and evenly, he noticed that the small flecks of happiness he had began to detect in her disappeared. She wasn't happy, she was just serious. A machine. A robot.
One thing she did do for her own amusement was drawing. She had found a pad of paper on his landing by his kitchen table, and whenever she wasn't sleeping, she was scribbling sketches. Sketches of everything; at first she did nothing but draw her stuffed horse at different angles and with different lighting, but she quickly turned to people. So many characters, all seeming to come from her own mind. Hatori wasn't often allowed to look at these drawings, but when he was he was always blown away by her talent.
It was when Isuzu began a small comic starring, funnily enough, a voluptuous heroine with long dark hair, when Tohru Honda came to visit. She looked over Isuzu's shoulder and saw a panel of the heroine walking down a fence with her arms outstretched for balance. A small text bubble read "and yet I will walk on."
"And yet I will walk on," Tohru read, curiously. Isuzu shot straight up in surprise, sending her pencil flying through the air. Her hand slammed down on the cover of the sketch pad and she let out a loud sound of alarm. Hatori, standing in the doorway, stifled a sound of amusement before shuffling back to the living room where he was now storing his laptop.
Isuzu's shock quickly turned into anger. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
Tohru's face instantly turned red with embarrassment, and her nervousness caused her to stammer. "I-I I'm sorry, Isuzu! I wasn't trying to intrude or a-anything! I was j-just blown away by how talented you are!"
Tohru's innocence and sincerity caused Isuzu to feel guilt for snapping. She changed her tone somewhat to something gentler, subtly slipping the sketchpad underneath her pillow. "S-so, what are you doing here?"
Tohru plunked herself onto the new bed next to Isuzu, sitting with her legs crossed so that she could face her friend.
"Kagura told us that you were here when I mentioned that I hadn't seen you in a long time and I was worried about you." It seemed that Tohru, as much as she tried not to, appeared to be having a difficult time not gawking at Isuzu's absence of hair. Rin decided to break that ice right away.
"Akito cut my hair off and beat me up, if you hadn't noticed."
Her gruffness and blunt way of speech set 'Nervous Tohru' off again. "O-oh, was I staring? I'm so sorry, Isuzu-san! I wasn't trying to be rude! Kagura warned me about it. Not that I needed to be warned! You still really are beautiful!"
Rin inwardly groaned. Was Tohru going to be this skittish around her the whole time? Was she really that scary? She decided to turn the subject away from herself.
"How is everything?" she began awkwardly. "You still live with Shigure?" and Tohru was off, happily babbling about the goings-on of the Sohma life and about school. Isuzu was only half-listening, or at least until she heard Tohru mention the name 'Kaibara High School'. Isuzu's head snapped up.
"Kaibara? Is that the school you go to?" suddenly she was intensely focused on the conversation. Tohru seemed taken aback, but cheerfully responded with a "yup! And so do my friends, and Kyo, Yuki, Momiji, and… Oh yeah! Hatsuharu!"
And here Isuzu completely tuned out of the conversation, only supplying a dazed nod or an 'mm-hm!' when needed, and when it was time for Tohru to go, Isuzu seemed like a zombie, waving goodbye, unable to completely focus on the situation, her thoughts full of her beloved.
'Haru—he's still alright? He's still going to school?' The sensations of relief and longing were overwhelming. She even remained out of it when Hatori entered the room and pulled up a chair alongside her bed.
"Isuzu?"
She flinched, startled. "What?"
"Can I see your thigh infection?"
"What, now?" Rin was puzzled, but allowed him to pull up the edge of her sweatpants and look underneath her bandage. The infection was all but gone now; a few days and it would be history. Hatori knew this but continued to examine the cut, biting his lip, unsure exactly what to say.
"I—overheard what you two were talking about."
"yeah? So?"
"Well, I've heard rumors from Shigure about you and Hatsuharu having a relationship. Are these rumors true? I would normally think it was just more of Shigure's fibs, a way to be dramatic, but now I believe it may have a grain of truth in it."
Isuzu scowled, suddenly furious. "It's none of your business, Hatori Sohma!" she flinched harshly away from him, giving him her most ferocious glare.
'So it's true…'
"Isuzu, you can't. I know more than anybody else what Akito does to us if we have relationships. And he hates you more than anyone else in the family. Not to mention he's particularly fond of Haru. I'm going to have to ask you to quash these feelings for the boy; if and when Akito finds out, both of you are going to get hurt."
Isuzu was livid. "Don't you think I know that? GOD, you're just a self-righteous PRICK sometimes! Do you know what I've DONE for that boy?! Do you know how often my heart has broken for him?! I broke up with HIM to PROTECT him! I've been seriously HURT for loving him! I've offered to become a prostitute to Shigure if Shigure would just tell me how to break the curse, FOR HARU! I've been locked in a black room for WEEKS, been BEATEN, been STARVED, been PUSHED OUT A WINDOW, all for Haru."
Hatori was momentarily stunned into silence. Broke up? Prostitute? For Haru?! His mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. Isuzu was huddled on the far side of the bed, a deep glare ruining her delicate features.
Finally, Hatori spoke. "Rin, don't do that." There was a hoarse, desperate edge to his voice now. He gripped her shoulders, ignoring her resistance, and pulled her face-to-face with him.
"You have to stop it, Rin; you're going to get yourself KILLED!"
Angrily, she pushed him away.
"Hatori Sohma, that is not your place to order me around. You may have forgotten this, but you are my doctor, not my father. You have no right to order me around." Her tone was dangerously, threateningly quiet. Hatori gawked at her for a moment, and as Rin watched she could visibly see the hurt that colored his eyes. She felt sorrow, but kept her feral expression, knowing that she could not back down. It took only half a second for that hurt to be replaced by a cool resolve.
"You are correct. It is not my place. Excuse me." With a nod of his head, Hatori stood and walked stiffly from the room.
The moment he was gone, Rin slumped into a ball on her bed, tears wetting her pillow. Had she just destroyed the closest thing to a father she had ever had?
Chapter Nine
Hatsuharu Sohma tapped his mechanical pencil against the fake wooden surface of the desk in his homeroom class, a vacant expression on his face. Winter break was only a few hours away and he wasn't going to waste valuable time actually listening to his teacher drone about homework and responsibilities. He felt something soft brush his elbow and he turned his head in that direction, smiling with vague amusement to see that Momiji, his desk partner, had clearly gotten bored too and had fallen asleep. A lock of fuzzy blonde hair had hit his arm during the rabbit's snuggling to get more comfortable. He had always been rather protective of the small boy, but then again Hatsuharu was protective of everyone who mattered to him. It was part of his nature. After a moment of consideration, he moved Momiji's head so that it rested on his muscular forearm, hoping to make the rabbit more comfortable before he, too, laid his head down and joined the rabbit in dreamland figuring it was better than pretending to listen to the lecture.
Haru was just in the middle of a very pleasant dream of horses running in slow motion with their long, long black manes blowing dramatically in the wind, when a sharp smack on the back of his head woke him with a sharp grunt.
"Wake up, you dumb cow! School is over!" dazed, he looked over his shoulder to see Kyo standing behind him, his arm raised to strike again. The classroom was now empty except for him and Tohru, who stood in the doorway with Yuki, Hana, and Uo. Tohru made a worried face and hurried to Kyo's side, gently admonishing "Kyo, don't hit Haru! He looks so very sleepy…" Kyo rolled his eyes, but Haru noticed that Kyo lowered his hand and smiled that gentle smile that he reserved for that brunette girl only.
Uo sauntered foreword, her confident Yankee disposition causing her hips to swing cockily, her long skirt swishing against her feet, and Haru suddenly had to look away and swallow a quickly-formed lump in his throat; something about that girl's prickly attitude combined with her secretly emotional heart reminded him of the girl he loved and had to give up.
"Yo," she said in her low, challenging voice, cocking her hip. "You two wanna go out to eat with us? We're gonna go have lunch at Hana's place; she's got a kotatsu."
Hana slithered over to Uo, her hands sliding around the blonde girl's waist. "You will get to meet my brother, Hatsuharu. He's very kind. Please join us." Her voice was low and creepy as always, but it didn't bother Haru; he had always been blessed with the ability to sense if someone was a good person, and she was certainly good, if unusual. And if you looked beyond her gothic appearance, she was really quite beautiful. Her long dark hair that swished ever-so-slightly when she walked… Dang it, the lump in his throat was back. Why did everything have to remind him of… her?
Realizing that he was staring, he gently coughed, then gave a small smile. "Sure; why not? I love eating under a kotatsu. Do you have oranges, too?" he had been craving oranges for a while.
"Haru," Yuki gently admonished. "It's not polite to ask people for food." Inwardly chuckling, Haru gave the feminine boy a smoky look through his eyelashes. "Have my words made you angry, beautiful?" he asked in his most humorously seductive voice. "Sorry, darling. I take it back, Hana."
Yuki's pale skin colored in frustration and embarrassment, but Hana only giggled.
""It's fine, Haru. Yeah, I have oranges. Whatever you want. Come on and bring the child," she motioned towards the still-sleeping Momiji. Haru stood and, rather than waking the boy, lifted him over one shoulder in one deft move. For a high-school student, Momiji was hilariously tiny and light. The group made their way through the school and to the public bus stop right outside of the school gates. Tohru began shivering when her shoes made contact with a pile of snow, and Haru felt some guilt that neither he nor any of the boys present was able to hold her to warm her; he had always been told to protect and take care of females, but because of his condition he was often unable to. Luckily Uo and Hana were instantly by the small girl's side, each wrapping their arms around her for warmth.
It seemed to take the bus forever to arrive, but once it finally did and they paid for their tickets it was only a matter of minutes before they were at Hana's medium-sized house and shaking hands with her interesting grandmother, who happily seated them at the kotatsu and, after waking Momiji they prepared their deliciously warm meal, enjoying the warmth of the house and of their filled bellies. There was much talk and laughter, and once Hana's brother Megumi arrived home from middle school, he joined them at their meal and all in all they had a grand time together.
It was when they had finished cleaning the dishes that Megumi asked if he could speak to Haru alone. Haru obliged and the two stepped into a side room, Haru waiting patiently for what the young boy had to say. Megumi got right to the point.
"I can feel your pain."
"Excuse me?" Haru was puzzled.
"When I look at you, all I feel is pain, right here." The boy gestured to his own small chest. "That means that you are hurting there." And he indicated the older man's broad chest. Haru frowned, confused, and then understanding dawned on him, too.
"Megumi, are you psychic, like your sister?" the solemn black-haired boy slowly nodded.
"Not as much as her, but yes, I get a general 'feel' for people. But it's sort of different when I'm around you—the feeling is very strong. It almost feels as if your heart is broken, and when I look at you I feel as if my heart was broken."
"I'm… sorry, Megumi. I don't mean to make you feel pain."
The young boy made a frustrated face. "No, you don't understand! I'm not complaining! I'm just saying… I don't get how you could possibly be in so much pain on the inside, while on the outside you are just your normal self. It makes me sad—you seem like a good guy. It makes me sad that you are in so much pain."
Haru looked into the young boy's earnest dark eyes and reached forward to consolingly rub his hair. "Don't worry about it," he told the middle-schooler. "I mean, thank you for being concerned. I really appreciate your kindness. But some things… some things a man has to take care of on his own."
Megumi looked unsatisfied, so Haru went with his instincts and grabbed the boy in a 'manly' hug as a thank you before striding back to the group.
Uo chose to stay the night at Hana's house. They invited Tohru to stay, too, but she politely declined, claiming that she wanted to get a head start on the break's homework with Yuki's assistance. Haru remained silent, thinking over what Megumi had said, as the five High School students made their way back to Shigure's house. His attention was completely diverted until…
"OOF!" Tohru had slipped on some snow and Momiji had automatically reached out to catch his friend in his small arms. This mistake ended up with Tohru falling on top of a tiny yellow rabbit, both sprawled on the cold, snowy ground. Kyo hustled to her side, pulling her to her feet, and Yuki bent to lift the dazed animal in his hand. Haru automatically bent and gathered up Momiji's clothing. Tohru was babbling.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Momiji, did I hurt you? I didn't mean to fall on top of you. I'm so clumsy! I always cause trouble for everyone." Tears were quickly gathering in her brown eyes as she looked the rabbit over.
Kyo awkwardly patted her arm. "Hey—it's not your fault…"
"No, no it IS my fault! In fact, when I went to Hatboro's house last weekend, I ended up tripping on his rug and I almost fell on him and turned him into a dragon. Luckily, he moved out of the way just in time, but if he had transformed I would've squashed him! It would've been terrible!"
Yuki and Kyo turned to her, looks of identical suspicion on their handsome faces. "Miss Honda," Yuki began. "May I ask why you went to the Main House after we warned you how dangerous it was over there?" His tone was not threatening, merely concerned.
"Oh! Well, Kagura told me that Isuzu was there. Apparently she got hurt very badly, and when I heard that I just had to go see her. She's very nice, really. I think we're becoming friends." She stopped, her tone changing to that of a worried friend. "Isuzu looks pretty bad. I mean, she's healing up and all, but Hatori had to chain her to the bed to force her to heal."
Haru stopped cold in his tracks, Momiji's clothing tumbling out of his grasp. He felt as if a freezing cold dagger had been plunged into his intestines. He slowly turned towards the girl.
"Rin is at Hatori's house?"
"Y—yes…",
"And she's… HURT?!""Yes, but—"
"And she's… CHAINED to Hatori Sohma's BED?!"
"Yes, but, Hatsuharu—"
The blood was pounding in Haru's ears, so loud that he couldn't even hear it when Yuki said "Haru, I'm sure it's not what it sounds like…",
Hatori quickly felt the beginnings of serious rage start to bubble in the pit of his stomach as the black side of his personality was called into action. Yuki tried to touch his arm and Haru forcefully pushed him away.
"I have to go," he spat, turning on his heel and beginning a flat-out sprint down the long, slippery, cold sidewalk.
"Hatsuharu! Come back!" called Tohru's voice through the gently falling snow, but Haru ignored it, hearing nothing but the loud, continuous pound of his boots on the wet sidewalk as he sprinted, more unstoppable than a missile, to the main house. Each painful breath only served to add to the fury that was piling inside of him.
Chapter 10
The eggs crackled and spat noisily in the small frying pan, and Isuzu watched them sizzle away with serious concentration on her doll-like face. Clad in a ridiculously over-the-top hot pink and fuzzy bathrobe with matching slippers (a gift from Ayame and Mine) she wielded the spatula with an expert's hand. Omelets were her specialty.
Closing one eye, she carefully lifted the pan from the oven and, with a sharp flick of her wrists, she sent the flat expanse of yellow egg sailing through the air. This was the most important part of making any omelet. Very, very precisely, she caught it back in her pan and let the underside cook.
Bustling, she set out two plates, a bowl of salt, sour cream, and salsa. She was just pouring orange juice into two plastic cups when a voice behind her spoke.
"You're up early, Isuzu." She turned.
"Hello, Hatori." She found that she was unable to meet his eyes, feeling shame and guilt in the pit of her stomach. She went to the stove and turned off the heat before folding the perfectly browned omelet in half and using a butter knife to slice it into two pieces. She transferred the pieces to the plates and very carefully spread cream, salsa, and salt in the center of the egg breakfast, uncomfortably aware of his gaze burning into her back.
Finally she could bear the silence no longer. "I made breakfast."
"I can see that." His tone was guarded. Isuzu swallowed somewhat painfully, feeling nervous.
"P-please sit," she stuttered, attempting a lighthearted tone. She gestured towards his seat at the table, and he complied. The guarded expression never left his eyes and Isuzu felt some sadness but pushed it away; it was how she had dealt with sadness for years.
"Eat," was all she said as she slid his plate, silverware, and juice in front of him. He did so, so she sat and did the same with her portion. The silence was thick and awkward, until Hatori broke it by quietly saying
"This is good."
"Thank you." Isuzu saw the dragon glancing at her ankle, observing the cuff around her foot, and how the other half of the handcuffs remained unattached to anything. He had forgotten to lock her up after their argument the night before. The long chain made clinking noises against the hard wooden floor every time she moved.
Finally, Rin worked up the nerve to say what had been weighing heavily on her mind.
"I'm sorry, Hatori," she mumbled into her eggs, refusing to make eye contact with him.
He said nothing in response, but after a few long seconds of holding her breath, Isuzu felt his large hand splay gently on her scalp, his thumb rubbing soothing circles over the worry wrinkle that developed between her eyes every time she was nervous.
She finally looked into his brown eye and was startled at the intensity of the love, the tenderness that she saw there. He leaned forward slightly and, to her astonishment, pressed his lips gently onto her forehead for a moment.
"You're a remarkable woman, Isuzu Sohma," he said quietly in his low, soothing voice, the sincerity clear in his tone.
And then tears sprang to her eyes, so fast that it shocked her, pouring onto her cheeks at a rapid, uncontrollable rate. Her lips trembled and clenched as she let out a sound of pain, and of loss. It seemed as if the floodgates had finally been opened, and she sobbed like a small child, her fists balling up under her chin, her nose a streaming faucet.
Hatori was unsurprised and gathered her up into his arms, absentmindedly noting that she had put on some much-needed weight. Good. He stepped backwards until both of them were on his sofa. She automatically curled into a ball on his lap, her face on his neck, sobbing out every pain she had ever known. The tears kept coming, one after the other, and it seemed as if it would never stop. And it hurt, it stung, it burned, and at the same time it felt good, so emptying. Even with Hatori's arms wrapped around her, holding tightly to her bony frame, she felt as if something sealed in her was cracking, a small egg being opened like the ones at breakfast, and that she was slowly being freed.
And when Rin felt dampness against the top of her head she knew that Hatori was weeping silently, too, and she knew that he felt some of the same things she was feeling that very moment. But it was ok, because she had him and he loved her, wanted her safety and freedom and happiness.
"You know," she sobbed wetly into his neck, her words warbling and sloshing so much they were barely audible, "you are very much like a father."
It was nearly an hour later when the tears stopped. Hatori shifted until he lay on his back on the sofa, arranging Rin's limp body on top of his so that he could tuck one arm over her. He reached with his free hand towards the somewhat scratchy woolen blanket that rested on the back of the couch and tucked it somewhat clumsily around the both of them.
They didn't sleep, but they were quite exhausted, the emotional overflow wearing them both out until they both felt bone tired. Hatori mused, as he twirled a wisp of her short hair between his fingers, that he would be late for work. He had treated Akito just the day before this one, so it was doubtful that he would need to do so again, but he couldn't risk it.
'Just a few more minutes,' he thought. 'Give me a few moments to just feel this.' Using the corner of the blanket, he dabbed at Rin's damp and puffy face.
She smiled at him, her eyes red and swollen. He was taken aback; Rin hadn't smiled at anyone in years.
"I've got something to tell you", she said quietly, her voice hoarse from the sobs. "I-"
But of course, Isuzu never got to finish her sentence. It seemed that fate had slightly different plans. Because that moment, the door flew open with a tremendous clatter. And, of course, Hatsuharu Sohma forced his way into the doctor's house. Of course there was screaming and fighting, and of course when Rin sat up the belt on her robe came undone, causing it to appear as if Hatori had just been doing unspeakable things to her. And Rin was shouting unintelligible words of protest as Black Haru punched Hatori hard enough to send a tooth flying. But his rage was such that he did not stop with one punch. The blows kept landing, one after another in a crazed, mad flurry. And when Isuzu flung herself in front of the wounded dragon as a human shield, she was thrown over the irate ox's shoulder and the two were sprinting out of the door.
And of course, such is the way of the Sohma Family Curse.
Chapter 11
It was a frosty December night when Isuzu lay in Hatsuharu's soft bed, unfeeling, staring at the snow through the window. When he had become calm enough to behave like his white self again, he had he had attempted to speak with her, but she refused to hear any word. He had sadly given up and instead focused on dressing her into his warmest pajamas. He used the slightly rusty handsaw that his mother kept in the tool box in the garage to remove the footcuff from around her ankle as gently as possible, and then used a damp washcloth to wipe the crusted blood from her skin. Hatori's dried blood. Rin had stayed as limp as a rag doll throughout all of his ministrations, focusing on keeping her mind blank, on not thinking a single thought. She knew that if she allowed herself to think, she would feel things that she was simply couldn't deal with, and she wasn't ready for that. Hatsuharu's mother had arched a blonde eyebrow when she saw her son carrying his nearly naked and bloody ex-girlfriend through the kitchen while she had been sipping at her mid-morning coffee, then decided she'd rather not get involved and instead focused on applying her makeup on her coldly beautiful face in preparation for her lunch date. It was doubtful that she'd come back till the end of the weekend.
Haru had considered lying next to his old lover, wrapping her in his arms, telling her that he had always and would always love her. But one look at her vacant expression had convinced him that this wasn't the best idea and instead he went to sleep in his mother's now-empty bedroom.
Isuzu didn't speak, eat, or even sleep for two entire days. Haru was beginning to despair that he had completely shattered something dear in her by rescuing her when she finally spoke.
"Haru."
"Yes?!" his relief at hearing her voice was immense.
"I love him."
Haru sighed, his relief somewhat deflated. He sat by her side, the bed creaking under her weight.
"Rin… I didn't mean to hurt him."
"I know."
They didn't say anything for a moment, before Isuzu reached up from where she was resting to touch his coarse, two-toned hair. Her eyes closed, and she breathed heavily through her nose. "Oh, Haru."
"You… gonna tell me?" he didn't have to explain what he meant.
"Yes."
When she continued to say nothing, Haru lowered himself until he was lying on his side and he slowly pulled her into his arms, the way they used to do. She curled into his stomach, her head tucking under his. Letting out a shuddery breath, she quietly told him the true story, starting from when Ren had told her about the box. She told him about Kureno taking her to Hatori's. She explained how Hatori had worked to keep her alive, how he had gone out of his way to keep her a secret. When she reached the part about Hatori claiming to refuse to allow Akito to harm her, Haru's arms tightened around her middle.
"Haru, that hurts."
"Sorry."
But he didn't loosen his arms, and after a moment Isuzu continued on with the events.
She told him everything, before finally reaching the point when Hatsuharu stormed into the house, before sinking back with a sigh.
"Rin…" he didn't finish his sentence, so she rolled over until they were face-to-face, their noses nearly touching. Closing her brown eyes, she let out a breezy sigh, the force of which ruffled his white bangs. The sigh sounded almost, but not quite, tearful, more of remorse than of outright sadness. Haru thought his stomach would burn with the acid sludge that was called 'guilt'.
"Haru, I never had a father." She didn't need to explain that the man who was in charge of her biological birth was no father of hers.
"Rin, I'm sorry."
And he kissed her, tentatively at first, gauging her reaction. He wasn't about to forget that kiss in the forest after their break up. She had seemed into it at first, reacting strongly, but it had ended with her slapping him across the face and running away faster than he was able to move. When she made no move to stop him he continued and soon she was responding, her lips moving like the saddest, most broken little bird against his. It nearly broke his heart all over again, knowing that he had caused some of that sadness.
When the kiss broke for breath, he spoke.
"I don't know what it takes to make it right, but I'll do it. I don't know why you broke up with me, but I love you. I love you so much, the way that you are. I love everything about you."
There was no sign of the joking Haru now, he was completely serious, the look in his eyes so bright and intense that it almost hurt, like looking into the sun.
"If you don't want me, or you can't forgive me, just say it now and I'll leave you alone forever if that's what will make you happy. But please know that I love you now and forever and would do anything for you."
Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears; her forehead furrowed with the effort of keeping them in. "Oh, Haru…",
There was a long pause as she struggled to compose herself, until something within her broke, and she slumped back into his arms.
"I'm so stupid." She whispered into his chest. "I work and I work and I work to protect you and my own DAMN weakness stands in the way." And then she was kissing him, and it was bliss, and Haru felt the lion within his chest giving out a warm roar. And his hands were cradling her bony neck, tipping her lovely face back, reveling in the feeling that he was, once again, complete.
It was several hours later when he spoke again.
"What I did was really wrong, and I'm going to make it up. Do you think I should apologize to him, ask him what he wants me to do? Whatever he says, I'd do it. Clean, work for him, whatever…" he trailed off as Isuzu shook her head.
"No. He would just brush you off and say no. There's no point, really. He'd say he forgave you, and he probably would actually forgive you, but it wouldn't make either of you feel any better."
"So what do we do, then?"
"It doesn't matter," she mumbled sleepily, her head under the wonderfully Haru-smelling blankets. "As long as I'm with you again, it doesn't matter."
Epilogue
Four months after Haru had taken her from Hatori Sohma's house, Isuzu sat cross-legged at Kazuma's kitchen table, where she now lived. Her hair now reached her chin, and she was now at the proper weight for her size. Nibbling on the eraser of her pencil, she vaguely doodled swirls, not paying much attention until she realized that each swirl eventually became a seahorse. She gave out a loud snort and shut the sketchbook.
"Hey, beautiful." Her boyfriend greeted her with a kiss to the crown of her head. He somewhat reeked of sweat from his workout at the dojo, and Isuzu made a face, laughing. "Take a shower, Haru!"
"Take a shower, hmm?" he asked huskily, pulling her into his arms. "Would you care to join me?"
She laughed a loud, braying, sincere guffaw. "Haruuuuu!" she mock-complained, struggling and giggling in his arms. "Now you're just being—"
Isuzu was in a dark, grayish-silvery world, the form of a large black horse looking intensely into her eyes.
"Wha…"
"Rin! Are you alright?"
"You've held on, for so long." A male voice spoke, but it wasn't coming from the horse. It was from an unseen speaker, a speaker with a warm, loving, embrace of a voice. "You've kept the promise that you made so very, very long ago." The horse approached Isuzu, its long legs bobbing as it neared her slowly. Rin reached out a hand and touched its flank, her fingers shaking. She inhaled its musty scent, felt its sides expand and contract with every breath.
"You've suffered so much at the hands of our promise. It is now high time to say 'thank you, and goodbye'." As the voice said these words, the solid flank under her palms began to fade, slowly slipping into a dazzling mist.
"Wait!" Isuzu tried to cry after it. But it was no use. In a manner of moments, it was gone.
The teenage girl's brown eyes fluttered open, and she found herself in the strong arms of her lover who gazed at her with concerned brown eyes.
"Rin, what happened?"
But Isuzu could not speak, could barely breathe. She felt wrong, completely empty, as if a knife had neatly reached in and carved away half of her insides. She let out a wet choke.
"Rin!" Haru hurried to Kazuma's sofa, her bare feet skimming the ground as he sat her on it. "Rin, what—" and then his warm brown eyes slid out of focus, his lips trembled, and he slumped forward, his eyelids closing. Tears soaking her face in an uncontrolled, rapid rate, Rin gave a mighty heave and pulled her shocked boyfriend on the sofa next to her, seeking for contact, seeking to fill the emptiness. She clung to him, wrapping her arms, her legs, her heart around him, completely gone, weeping hysterically like a child. And when his eyes reopened, he joined her in weeping.
"It feels so strange," Haru was finally able to say, seeing his dear one's face crumple in anguish. "It hurts, and yet,"
"I know," hiccupped Rin, the worst of the tears ending and yet leaving a hollow ache in her stomach.
"I feel so free."
Hatori Sohma emerged from his house, briefcase in hand, ready to hustle to work. Suddenly, his good eye widened in shock and he was momentarily frozen before his hand covered his eyes and damp, silent tears slid their track down his handsome face. His shoulders shook and he sat with a dull thump on the cement bench outside of his house.
A sound caused him to look up and he saw Isuzu Sohma hustling towards him, her long legs shortening the distance between them in seconds. One look at her face confirmed that she had been crying, and she looked different to Hatori, lighter, somehow, like a balloon with its string cut. And he knew without asking that the thing that had just happened to him had happened to her, too.
A second sound caused him to look over her shoulder; Haru was approaching at his slow, lumbering pace. They made eye contact, and Haru dipped his head in a nod of respect. Hatori nodded back. Isuzu clutched his hand, and he looked into her brown eyes, his own conveying a silent but desperately sincere message to all three of them. Their eyes shared the same request.
Cry. Cry with me. Cry like the day you were born into this earth. Cry without shame or without reservation, for I find myself alone and without a single promise in the world. So for now just share in these tears with me.
And life would go on, and the Zodiac would cease to exist, and the thirteen of them would all share a tear on this day. And they were happy, and they were sad, and they lived.
Fin