WHY?
Tohru, Kyo and Yuki were making their way home from school. Like always the two boys were fighting and Tohru was stuck in the middle as the referee. Right in the middle of his argument Yuki stopped dead. He looked straight ahead and the look he wore suggested he had just seen a ghost.
"What is it now, damn rat? I want to get home; it looks like it might rain." Yuki pointed straight ahead of them at the little boy who was standing in the middle of the sidewalk. Kyo bristled and both he and Yuki pulled Tohru back.
"What the fuck do you want?" Kyo growled at the raven-haired child.
"Kyo!" exclaimed Tohru, appalled at the use of such language near a child.
"No, no. It's quite alright ms.Honda." the little boy said, causing Tohru to jump at the maturity of his tone. The boy smiled at this and then turned his attention back to the boys, who had moved in front of her, like a shield. "She is right though. Is that anyway to greet me? I thought you two loved me." The child smiled handsomely and looked coyly up at the three teens through thick black lashes. Tohru suddenly felt the need to hug the child. She stepped forward and reached toward the young man. He flinched as if she had struck him and he suddenly looked angry. Yuki and Kyo grabbed the back of her jacket and pulled her back. As soon as they did the boy started to scream at her.
"What makes you think you have the right to touch me!" he yelled, voice reaching amazing decibel levels. "It's your fault! Everything is YOUR FAULT! MY FATHER IS GOING TO DIE ALONE BECAUSE OF YOU!" with that he turned on his heel and, crying, ran down the street. Kyo watched him go with narrowed eyes while Yuki checked to make sure Tohru was all right.
"What was that about?" Tohru asked meekly.
"He's Akito's son" Kyo said, still glaring at the direction the boy ran in. "apparently Akito's been having a talk with him about you"
"So should we then." Yuki's soft voice surprised them both. Kyo stood still for a minute, studying his cousin.
"Are you sure you want to do that?" he asked seriously. "It may make Akito mad at you" Tohru was stunned at how worried about Yuki he looked. Yuki shrugged.
"I can handle Akito mad at me. If Noble's mad at Tohru though..."
'Noble…' thought Tohru 'that's an interesting name.'
"okay." Agreed Kyo. "If you're sure…."
"I'm sure"
They got to the main house in just under 45 minutes. They let themselves in a side door and snuck over to the part that housed Akito's room. They entered from another side door so they could come through the door. As they went around the corner, voices could be heard from the other side of the paper screen. The voices where speaking an unfamiliar language (possibly English, but Tohru was so behind in the class she couldn't be sure.) but they were easily distinguished as Akito's, Hatori's and…. Ayame's? Yuki shot Kyo a confused look and Kyo shrugged. Hatori and Akito together was understandable, but Ayame?
It became stranger still. Akito seemed to be yelling at Ayame, who was crying, while Hatori was attempting to calm him. Suddenly a bloody and bruised Ayame came flying through the screen. He hid the wall with a sickening thud and slid down; crushing a small table with a vase on it, crying out as splintered wood and broken porcelain pierced his skin. Yuki stared at his brother writhing in pain on the floor, then looked up to stare at the blood smear that had been left on the wall and then down again at the one on the floor. Hatori rushed out of the room and rolled Ayame carefully off the glass to lay on his side on the bare floor. He didn't notice the three friends staring at disbelief at the broken man on the floor. Akito ran out of his room and pushed away Hatori, who had begun to treat the bleeding snake.
"NO!" he shouted. "Leave him alone. Let him bleed. Let him suffer." He stepped toward Ayame, who shrunk away from his touch, and said something in a foreign language again (this time Tohru was sure it wasn't English). Ayame swallowed and nodded. Akito smiled.
"So you remember our deal?" he asked gently brushing the hair out of the cuts on Ayame's face. "You do what ever I say and Yuki gets to live in blissful ignorance." Ayame nodded and let Akito stroke his head softly.
"You know what I want you to do, don't you Ayame?" Ayame nodded and Akito slapped him across the face. "Then don't you ever make me repeat myself again. Get out of my sight." Ayame tried to stand up, stumbled and fell. Akito laughed softly.
"I guess you'll have to crawl Aaya." At that point every one had noticed Tohru, Kyo and Yuki, who were still standing by the ruined screen. Ayame took one look at his brother and his face went, if possible, even paler.
"Why don't you go out that way Aaya?" asked Akito softly, almost dangerously. Ayame closed his eyes and let his breath out through his nose. His face took on a look of resignation and he slowly began to crawl toward the three teens, new tears of pain rolling down his face with each movement. Akito turned toward Yuki, who jerked back.
"Get that fool out of my sight before I kill him."
He turned around and walked back into his room. Hatori started forward to help Ayame, but before he got two steps Akito was screaming for him to get in the room. Now. Hatori looked from us to Ayame, who waved him away.
"I don't want you to get hurt to." He said softly. Hatori smiled sadly and bent to kiss him.
"Take him to Shigure's. I don't care what he says. Gure will know what to do." Yuki nodded and bent over to support his brother and, with Kyo on the other side, they slowly made their way home.