"STOP SMILING!"
Akito's eyes grew maniacal as he screamed at the top of his lungs. He lunged at Tohru, his lean form surprisingly agile in his heavy, flapping robes. He seized the hair at the top of her head, right where it hurts the most. Her eyes grew wide with shock and then shut tight with pain as Akito pulled harder and harder.
"Who do you think you are? You worthless, prying, disgusting, stupid, ugly girl!" he shrieked.
Tohru didn't know what to think. Akito's power over her was such that her mind whirled so wildly she did not even notice her hair was coming out at the roots in his hand. Worthless? Yes, of course she was, even after all her hard work of trying to serve others. She failed so often that worthless she must be. Prying? Yes, what right did she have to force her nose into the affairs of the Sohma family? She was hurting them all, not helping them. Disgusting? Stupid? Both true. Ugly? Yes, indeed. He nose was too big and her skin was blotchy and—
"NO!" A high clear voice pierced the melee of hurtful words hurling from Akito's mouth.
He released Tohru. She dropped to the floor, too far occupied with thoughts of self-derision to notice. Her tears formed a puddle and soaked her face completely. "Stop, STOP IT!" came the anxious command again.
Akito looked, shaking with rage. No-one dared to speak to him like that. No-one even dared to think such thoughts in his presence. This stranger would be taught a lesson.
He looked at the girl, for a girl it was. Young, slender, with a long neck. Her knee-length dress was pink, and her straight black hair hung halfway down her back. She stood defiantly, with her feet planted and hands clenched in fists. She was no Sohma. Akito did not know who she was, and he trembled all the more with rage at his ignorance. He was now more animal than man: his emotions completely consumed him.
The girl knew this, and she was terrified. Akito saw the fire in her eyes flicker, and just the slightest hint of heaviness take hold of her proud posture. He fueled his inhuman fury. "You will die for your impudence!" he screamed, his fist flying towards her face in a blur.
Hatori opened the door just in time to see the slim figure of this strange girl hit the floor with a resounding thud. He saw the prostrate Tohru, and his mouth fell open. Her eyes were wide with an unseeing stare.
Akito followed his punch and leapt upon the girl, his knees pressing her arms hard to the wood as he wildly pushed hair out of her face.
Such a face. Her nose was long and fine, her eyes were shut tight with pain, and her pale cheek had a gash and a bruise already forming where he had struck her. Even in forced, painful submission there was a regality to her figure and features. Akito caught his breath, one hand still gripping a lock of hair ferociously. "Who are you," he growled, "and what are you doing here?"
Her eyes opened, they fickered over Akito's shoulder to see Hatori running to Tohru. "I am a friend of Tohru's. That is all you need know," answered the high voice.
"No!" shouted Akito, though his temporary strength was leaving his body rapidly. "I need to know everything! I am God!"
"You are not my god," the girl stated calmly. "So really, you are no god at all." Hatori had Tohru gathered in his arms and was taking her from the room.
"I will be your god from now on!" screamed an irate Akito, shocked at this further impudence. "Now, answer me," he pounded her head on the floor with each syllable, "WHO ARE YOU?"
The girl's eyes closed in unconsciousness.
..:----:..
She awoke in a cage. She had blacked out? That was a new experience. She squinted in the dim light emanating from one thickly papered lamp. She was in an almost bare room with a wooden floor. She sat up and immediately had to grasp the bars in front of her to keep from falling back. Her eyes squeezed shut as tears dribbled out their corners. It felt like her head was erupting. Her knuckles went white with pain and she groaned softly.
"So, you are awake."
That voice, so low, cool and breathy. It was Akito.
The girl's eyes opened and he came into focus, sitting in a pile of flowing robes on a window seat. His face was normal and, being no longer stretched and pinched with anger, quite handsome. She was still afraid. The atmosphere of the bleak room with its white walls made her think of a hospital's Intensive Care unit. She looked away from him, and saw a bloodstain on the floor that she knew was hers.
Akito looked at the girl. Hatori had patched up her cheek and brought a large animal cage into the room at Akito's command. She sat in it now, gripping the bars and looking completely innocent and helpless. Akito thoroughly enjoyed the sight of her humiliation.
"Now," he said, sipping some tea, "why not tell me your name?"
She thought for a moment. The degree of his beauty had unnerved her somewhat. "Hatonami Uma," came the quiet reply.
"Hatonami Uma," Akito tested out the sounds in his mouth. He took another sip of tea with a contented sigh. His ignorance had been assuaged. "Uma, why did you so rudely interrupt my visit with little Tohru? You frightened her so thoroughly."
"You beast!" Uma cried. Use of her first name by this person was too much for her. She paused as Akito's eye twitched, and looked down. She sighed, regaining her composure. "Because she IS little, and she needed my help." She said no more.
Akito continued his casual sipping, staring at his caged bird. Her legs were shapely, her torso thin. Her feet were on the large side, and her hair was mussed, though Hatori had washed the blood out of it. There was still a hint of her commanding presence hidden in her downcast features. Eventually she looked up. What she saw now in Akito's face frightened her even more.
The ordinary human being would never have seen the power in Uma's face. Others looked at her and saw a sallow creature who was either too quiet or too loud. Just so, no-one would have seen the sparks of tenderness Uma noted had settled deep in Akito's eyes. But neither the boy nor the girl was normal. They were intuitive, people-readers.
The afternoon passed. Akito grew restless as it wore on. Nothing to say to his captive had entered his head, so he had not spoken. The girl lay in the back of her cage, facing away from the pacing boy. If he could have seen her face, he would have noted how taut with hopelessness it was as her mind joined her body in the cage. Akito crossed to the door and flung it wide grandly. "Hatori," he called down the hall, "the key." The large man entered and knelt by her cage. She did not look at him as her cage door swung open.
The door closed and the two were alone once more. "Come out," Akito commanded. He knew she would obey. She had obeyed all her life; it was now a habit. Her fighting spirit was as captive to her body as her body was to him. Taking her spirit would prove to be an interesting game.
As she crawled through the opening, on her knees before him, he said quietly, "Yes, I AM your god."
Her head shot up and she leapt to her feet. "Never!" she cried as her eyes blazed.
She walked past him to the door.
"You may not leave," came the cold sound of Akito's voice. Uma's hand wavered, reaching for freedom. Why not? What was to keep her there in that dark room with the boy? Yet something did. And she was amazed when she diagnosed it. Understanding. She understood him. She had always been grateful for her compassionate nature, but now it was keeping her in harm's way. And when she turned and looked at Akito, she was ashamed to discover something else: she wanted him to like her. He was so handsome...But she pushed these alarming feelings away with an image of Tohru, wide-eyed and pale, laying discarded on the cold wood floor.
"What do you want me for?" Akito heard the clear voice ring out. That was a silly question. What did it matter what he wanted her for? He wanted her to stay and that was that.
In reality, he did not know why he wished for her presence. But Akito always ran from his own ignorance.
He looked at her face, at the bandage on her pale cheek. He could not look away from it, and he did not know why. Hints of the purple bruise underneath leaked out from its edges. He felt a mysterious heaviness in his chest at the sight. It was too minute to identify.
The girl kept her mind blank. He was staring at her face, and she felt he could read people's faces. Well, he would not read hers. Then, she remembered she could move. She walked past Akito, her movements seeming stiff and awkward to her, and sat in the window seat.
Uma passed him very closely, and he felt a bit of her billowing—if wrinkled—skirt brush his leg. Her steps were rickety. He had her intimidated, and he relished in this realization.
She stared out the window at a rainy courtyard. Outside was as grey as inside. She felt the dreariness echoing her own inner thoughts. Then, the sun broke for a moment from behind the clouds. The rain glistened in the surprise light, and the entire world seemed to glow as it became a glorious haven. But only for a moment, and then it was gone.
She was still looking out the window, trying to lose herself in thought and forget Akito, when he came up behind her. For some reason, he could not keep the words in. They bubbled up in his throat and flopped out of his mouth.
"I am your god."
Fury kindled in her heart at the pride in his words. She jumped up, suddenly feeling that the window seat was contaminated because he had sat in it. "You are NOT!" she shouted. She whirled around, only to discover that he had moved closer.
The tips of their noses touched.
She ran for the door.
Akito followed briskly. "Hatori," she heard him call, unruffled, "bring her back."
Uma ran, her head throbbing, around corner after corner, lost and afraid. Suddenly she stopped as she met the cold eyes of Hatori. He stood in front of her. She remained crouched and breathing heavily as he came slowly towards her. She swallowed. It seemed she could say nothing.
"Will you walk or do I have to carry you?" Hatori's voice sounded strained. He did not even know this girl, but he sensed something was different about her. She was special somehow, like Tohru, but in a different way.
She paused, but then with a sigh of defeat turned back the way she came. "Please, where is Tohru?" she asked, still breathing hard.
"She is home, safe. She was just in shock. She slept almost as long as you did."
Slept. "I thought so," Uma answered. She kept walking. Hatori had moved in front of her, and she followed his cold, broad shoulders.
Questions consumed her. What did this unusual boy want with her? Why did he let his pale skin glow in the dark? She could not seem to catch her breath. Did hers glow like his? Why was there a frightening tenderness in his eyes? They turned the final corner. She looked and saw him waiting for her in the doorway. She glanced at Hatori and found that he could see the tenderness, too. It must be getting more pronounced. Her chest heaved. She blinked rapidly.
She was terrified.
The door shut behind her.
The tips of their noses touched.
..:----:..
He made her forget that he kissed her as soon as he drew back.
He knew that she thought he was a monster. And he knew that he could never really love her. He was wrong on both counts.
She was right: he was not God.
..:----:..
Uma awoke staring at the familiar yellow ceiling of her room. She remembered getting beaten. She had been imprisoned. She had run from her captor. She had been stopped...and then what had happened? Why was she home? Was she really home?
She pulled on her white robe and walked cautiously down the stairs, gripping the rail tightly. She heard her family conversing over breakfast.
Her mother stood as Uma walked into the kitchen. "Oh, dear, you're up? How are you feeling?" She gently touched Uma's bandaged cheek. "That was such a nasty tumble you took down the stairs yesterday afternoon!"
