Disclaimer: Fruits Basket belongs to Natsuki Takaya
Parade
"Where's your shadow?" teases Shigure from the porch.
Even though she knows what he means, Akito still instinctively turns to look behind her, where her shadow lies limply on the grass as always. "Yuki's little, so he still has to take naps," she replies authoritatively. "But he snores 'cause he's sick. It's even more annoying than coughing."
"So what are you up to, all alone and lonely?"
"I'm not." She climbs into Shigure's lap to prove her point. "I'm loved. I'll never be lonely."
He sets aside the book now that Akito's head is in the way of his arms. "Sorry," he says, but the word falls from his lips like just another breath, "I meant you looked lost without your ducklings."
"Ducklings?"
He shifts her from his lap, then gets up. "I'll show you. I'll be right back."
Akito swings her legs while she waits, too short for feet to brush the grass. They have bird feeders and birdbaths, and they have ponds, and they have Kureno, but there aren't any ducks in the Main House. She wonders if it's a joke—Shigure has an awful lot of jokes that she doesn't understand and Hatori doesn't like.
When he comes back he drops a picture book into her lap, and he points to a page as he sits beside her. A mother duck is waddling through the grass, a string of ducklings trailing behind her. Akito traces a finger over the downy little heads and wonders if Shigure will give her the book as a present.
"You're all very lucky to be my ducklings," she concludes after a minute. "Because I love you, and you would be lost without me."
Shigure agrees, tauntingly, "That, and you waddle like a duck too."
"I do not!" She digs sharp nails into his shoulder until he apologizes properly. "And Yuki only wobbles when he has a fever." Akito's own fevers, of course, are exempt from scrutiny. She's far too dignified to waddle even when ill.
Still, she looks at the picture fondly.
"Do you want it?" Shigure asks carelessly. "I'm too old for this book."
Akito shoves it off her lap and onto the porch. "Of course not. I'm not a baby." Then she gets up and goes back inside.
When she returns to her room, she kneels by the futon and glares at Yuki's sleeping face, as if he will know what she wants and wake up to please her. But he doesn't, so she has to sit and listen to his rasping.
When his eyes finally flutter open he isn't really awake yet, so Akito pokes him a few times to get his attention. Then she gets up, opens the sliding door, and goes out.
Normally Yuki isn't supposed to leave the room without permission—what if he got lost?—but he's still rubbing sleep from half-open and dazed gray eyes, so he stumbles out after Akito. His elbows are bent and the kimono sleeves trail like little duck wings.
Akito smiles to herself, very pleased. Little ducky Yuki, following on her heels, just like mother and baby. Except—and she frowns a little here—she's supposed to be a boy, and Yuki still has his mother, sort of.
No—it's the bond, she decides. It's even better than impressionable ducklings. Little mouse Yuki, first in line, following God to the banquet.
Akito struts proudly down the hall, going nowhere in particular. She's just a few years older than Yuki, so she has the advantage of longer legs, and she walks quickly. Out of the corner of her eye she can see that he has to make a funny running hop-step every few seconds to catch up. He's still rubbing the back of his hand against his eye, not yet awake enough to question. Trusting.
When Hatori stops them two halls later to ask what's going on, Akito simply crosses her arms imperiously and lets him fall into line behind them, like ducks on parade.
…
Owari
…
-Windswift