Chapter 2: Bonds

Hello everyone and welcome to Chapter 2! Sorry for the long hiatus on this project – was due to a focus on my other fanfics, moving countries several times and a desire on my part to read all of the manga in the original Japanese before continuing to update...but there will be more soon I promise!

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Last chapter:

Kyo adopted a fighting stance and waited for Yuki to do the same, although he was already beginning to shiver as the cold rain worked its way to his skin. Watching, Tohru was surprised to see his shoulders slump.

"What's the use?"

The cat's voice carried clearly through the rain and Yuki's eyes widened in shock as they reached him. Kyo dropped his eyes, clenching his fists in quiet desperation.

Without another word he turned and took off back towards the house.

Tohru started after him with a cry but he didn't slow down. Yuki and Tohru watched until he was out of sight and then turned to exchange glances with one another.

"That was strange…" Tohru said quietly with a frown on her face.

Yuki nodded "Yes…" but he said no more, instead looking after the cat with an understanding in his eyes that Tohru couldn't explain. There was definitely something going on here that neither of the two had told her about.

Would you believe me if I said that I'm tired of this?

Well here we go now, one more time

- Sick Cycle Carousel, Lifehouse

Kyo stopped his headlong dash on the drive leading to Shigure's house and took shelter under a tree, wishing he had paused long enough to take his umbrella from Tohru.

A roll of thunder raised goosebumps along his skin and he drew his arms around himself to keep warm. The rain showed no signs of letting up so he continued towards the house and crept inside carefully, hoping that Shigure wouldn't hear him.

Once safely in his room he stripped off his wet school uniform and dumped it unceremoniously in the corner of his room. Clothed more comfortably in his usual t-shirt and combat trousers he picked up his calendar off his desk and flopped onto the bed.

It wasn't like him to back away from a challenge but he was beginning to feel more and more the futility of fighting back.

Just one more school year to go...he counted off the months and days slowly. If he didn't defeat Yuki before then he would have lost his bet with Akito. And losing his bet with Akito would mean that the next year would be his last living in the real world.

Kyo pushed the crippling feelings of helplessness down inside himself; he would not let Akito win! He would not give up when he still had time to make a difference.

He squared off with the punch bag in the corner of his room and began attacking it, seeing Yuki's face on the receiving end of every punch. A small, slightly feral grin spilt his face. He could already imagine the look on that stupid rat's face when he hit him! The shock as he lay on the ground and looked up at Kyo, the winner. Kyo's smile faded, as the image expanded to show Tohru running to Yuki's side to check if he was alright before turning towards Kyo.

Life had been so much easier when he had been able to hate Yuki, to hate the rat like the cat should because of what he had been cheated out of. But because of Tohru it was hard to see Yuki as an enemy like he had before.

He slumped forward, almost embracing his punchbag as he leaned his forehead against the rough canvas.

There was no easy way out.

"Are you okay Miss Honda?"

Tohru looked up with a start and began to wave her hands frantically, "Y-Yes Yuki! Of course I'm alright! There's no need for you to worry"

Yuki smiled at her antics; she never seemed to realise how endearing her flakiness was.

He pushed Kyo to the back of his mind; that was a problem that could be dealt with later.

"Yuki?"

She was looking down at her feet and fidgeting nervously with the edge of her school skirt, "Will Kyo be okay?"

Yuki snorted, he couldn't help himself. It was difficult to think charitably of anyone, let alone Kyo, so early in the morning. And it was just like the cat to make a stupid fuss over nothing without thinking about how much it would upset Tohru. Especially since he knew that the cat would be just as adamant as him in keeping her a safe distance away from Akito.

If he were honest with himself he knew that Kyo wasn't the real target of his frustration...it was more the inevitability of what was to come and his powerlessness to stop it. Yuki pushed his thoughts down forcefully behind a neutral mask...they couldn't get Tohru involved.

"Don't worry."

Yuki smiled and held out his hand, "Let's go to school"

Tohru paused for a second before taking his hand, questions raised by their fight taking precedence in her mind.

Yuki was a kind person, one of the kindest she knew and going out of his way to deliberately hurt someone seemed against everything she knew of his character. It was the same for Kyo. When they fought each other they were fighting to win, not to hurt the other...but the fight she had just witnessed left her feeling uncomfortable. Kyo never gave up yet he seemed to despair while Yuki had definitely not been holding back when he struck his cousin.

She could already tell that Yuki wasn't going to elaborate and imagined that Kyo would be no more receptive to her queries; they were never more allied than when they were trying to protect her from something, in particular the complicated politics of the Sohma family. Didn't they realise that they had become some of the most important people in her life?

She could no more ignore things that caused them pain than she could throw away her memories of her mother. The rest of their walk was in silence, each too caught up in their own thoughts to bother with small talk

Through unspoken agreement Yuki and Tohru stopped holding hands just before they came within sight of the school. It wasn't that either of them were embarrassed, just that they knew how easily other people in the school would jump to the wrong conclusions. Tohru had already had to face a lot of heat from Yuki's fan club simply by arriving with him every morning, and if not for Hanajima it would probably be a lot worse.

Tohru liked holding Yuki's hand and she was happy that he was finally able to offer his hand to her as freely as he did.

The more she found out about the Sohma's and their childhoods, the more aware she became of how little affection most of them had experienced. It seemed wrong to her that any child should have to grow up with so little love in their lives.

It seemed wrong that any parent could let the curse come between them and their child, that any child should grow up believing that they weren't fit to be loved. The sheer fact that they kept living from day to day, after all of the horrible things they had each experienced,awed her.

How could Momoji keep smiling so brightly when the people he loved thought he was a stranger?

How could each of them keep walking forwards everyday after all that they had been through?

"Miss Honda? Miss Honda!"

Tohru leapt out of her seat as the teacher's face swam into view.

"Y-Yes Teacher?"

The teacher sighed, "I asked, Miss Honda, if you would kindly answer the question on the board?"

Tohru looked up at the jumble of numbers and mathematical symbols scrawled across the blackboard and panicked. She couldn't remember any part of the lesson.

A few of her classmates began to snigger at the obvious dismay on her face.

"Um...that would be...um...I'm sorry!"

The teacher sighed once more and returned to the front of the classroom, picking out another pupil to answer the question instead.

Tohru looked down at her textbook and tried to concentrate on what remained of the class. But it was useless...she had doodled cartoon animals along the top of her notebook, making it obvious where her concentration lay.

Kyo and Yuki had both been behaving so strangely lately, whereas Shigure seemed normal. She couldn't figure out what exactly was going on but she knew enough to know that something had changed...and once again she wasn't being told anything.

Had something happened between Kyo and Yuki? Or was it something else to do with the main family? And how could Shigure behave so normally when Kyo and Yuki were so obviously bothered?

Shigure had always been a bit of a mystery to her. She knew there was much more to him than the image he presented and, in a way, it made her nervous of him. He had never been anything but kind to her but something about him made her a little cautious.

The sheer fact that he had been the first Sohma to be permitted to live outside the family enclosure spoke strongly of his having some amount of influence or power. His motives were also a mystery to her; why had he let her live with them at the risk of their secret? And had he played some part in her being allowed to be with them for as long as she had? It seemed that all other stories of outsiders involved with the Sohma family had ended in tragedy – why should Shigure have any reason to believe that her story would be any different?

The more she found out about the Sohma's the more questions she was left with...

Tohru flinched as a hard paper ball struck her on her left temple, tearing her out of her musings. She looked around to see Uo sending her a cheeky grin and blushed before trying to tune back into what the teacher was saying.

Somehow she would get to the bottom of the mystery.

Uo waved her hand in front of Tohru's unseeing eyes and grimaced at Hanajima.

"Nope, no response"

Hanajima glanced across the classroom at Yuki who was also sitting alone at his desk, obviously preoccupied. Had something happened in the Sohma house?

Uo flicked Tohru in the middle of the forehead

"Oi, wake up idiot!"

Tohru blinked, then predictably coloured and began to splutter an apology.

Uo interrupted her, "What's wrong with orange-top today?"

Tohru looked down and began to fidget with the edge of her school skirt, as she always did when she was nervous or uncomfortable.

"I don't know. He and Yuki had another fight this morning"

Something about the tone of her voice alerted her friends to the fact that it wasn't just any fight; after living with them for so long she was used to their normal fights but the way Yuki and Kyo had been behaving had been anything but normal.

Uo shrugged, feigning indifference, "What's new?"

Hana watched her friends carefully as Uo gradually coaxed Tohru back into a slightly more cheerful state of mind.

The images of the night where they had found her slumped on her mother's grave were still fresh in her memory. It had hurt so much to turn away from Tohru; to refuse to let her run away from her responsibilities. Even now, she wasn't sure if doing so had damaged Tohru's trust in her although it had been the right thing to do.

Hana still worried that something had happened that night to take away part of Tohru's optimism but Tohru either couldn't or wouldn't tell them exactly what she had been through. Something had changed though in the way Kyo and Yuki looked at her, Yuki with a stronger respect and Kyo with something resembling hope. And Tohru seemed more affectionate with them too, especially with Kyo, as if she were reassuring them of her friendship.

Neither she nor Uo had been naïve enough to believe that that night would be the end of the matter.

It was obvious that there was a lot more going on than Tohru had shared with them and Hana couldn't help but worry at the mystery in her head trying to put the pieces together to form some kind of coherent picture.

It was too late now to wish that Tohru had never become involved with the Sohma's...and Hana knew that Tohru would never wish it so no matter how much she suffered because of her decision.

All they could do was be there for her as much as possible. In an impulsive motion she put an arm around each of her friends and drew them closer, suddenly wanting to reassure herself that they were safe.

Maybe her foreboding would turn out to be nothing more than paranoia but just in case...just in case she would make sure that her loved ones stayed safe.

"Yo"

Yuki started as Hatsuharu's face appeared inches from his own.

"Haru" He let out a breath and settled back down to the desk, ignoring Haru's eyes boring into him. He couldn't help a glance out the window at clouds that seemed to have become heavier rather than starting to clear; the weather was sapping all of his energy. A warm hand found his forehead and he looked up again, "I'm fine"

"Kyo?" Haru's eyes were unreadable, but Yuki knew he was thinking of the ticking clock that hung over Kyo's head.

Yuki paused for a second then nodded, just once. He knew Haru would understand.

They had been brought up to hate and pity the cat, to look down on him. It wasn't something he was proud of but it had been reassuring at times to look at Kyo and know that there was someone more cursed than him, to know that no matter how much everyone hated him, they hated the cat more. He knew Haru understood, that he had felt that way too and that he was ashamed. Life had been so much easier when the cat was simply a monster to be detested... but now the cat had become Kyo and Yuki couldn't reconcile himself with locking him up for nothing more than the crime of being born.

His head hurt from wrestling with all the possibilities, none of which seemed to lead to a happy ending.

Haru sat beside him, one hand resting on his brow in silent sympathy as Yuki lowered his head onto his arms once again. Yuki was praying for the day to be over sooner...but for Kyo another day over would mean one less day of freedom.

Thank you for reading and please let me know what you think :o)

And a massive thank you to yoo-hoo , Krissy119, Iris, The Soulmater(Holly), Kyo's favourite kitty and .obsessor for reviewing the last chapter – it really means a lot!

Thanks again and hope to see you again next chapter!

^_^

Chrikaru