Yay! Chapter two! Hope you all enjoy!
Thank you to Princess Hephzi of Arendale and Guest for reviewing! The second I saw them I got right to work on Chapter two.
Enjoy!
I do not own Fruits Basket nor any of it's characters. Shai Avel and the storyline is mine though.
PS, Just in case some of you see this story on DeviantArt. I posted it there so it is not a stolen story.
Update: I updated and added a few things! Hope it makes more sense, It does to me.
It has been a few days since Shai has come to live with Yuki and the others. During that time she's come to learn so much that she'd have never learned with her kin. Like the fact that she is a Human too, the human tongue; or some of it; and how to properly dress herself with help from that girl human, the one Yuki called "Tohru".
While she'd been learning, Yuki had left her in the care of Tohru. She did not mind, for if he trusted this girl, then she will too. Tohru taught her much, how to cook, how to clean, even how to do laundry, as she called it. It was all so new! And she is excited to learn more.
Of course, not all is well. Her heart still bears the scar of loosing her kin. It's a scar that runs deep and one that she feels can never be healed. The burns all over her body from the fire still linger, causing her to have patches of darker skin littered across her body.
Today, Shigure told her, being mindful that she still has a hard time with human tongue, that she's going to school. She has no clue what it is and promptly goes to find Yuki to tell her. He's not in the house, so she follows his scent out the, once again, destroyed door. Sniffing the air, she walks and walks until his scent leads her to a small garden, him kneeling at one side of it. She's never seen this place, and it looks well cared for.
"Hello Miss. Avel, care to help me?" Yuki asks, waiting patiently for her to work out what he said. It takes a moment, but she figures it out and nods, attempting to speak human tongue as well.
"Ye-ee-es...I wo-would like too.." He chuckles at her attempt and she frowns, switching to her native tongue. "It is a hard language you expect me to learn! I hope you do not expect me to learn it by tomorrow!" He chuckles again, and her frown turns to a pout.
"No no Miss. Avel, you misunderstand. It is just amusing to hear you speak human tongue." He smiles a bit, and she stops pouting, instead huffing. "Now, would you like to explain? Why tomorrow?" His head is tilted slightly as he looks at her and she shrugs.
"Shigure told me that I'm going to this 'school' tomorrow. I don't know what it is but he made it sound important." She kneels down next to his garden and strokes the leaves of the carrots.
"He's what? But you cannot, you do not yet know how to speak, let alone act like a human around people!" She scowled, recognizing his tone as anger, and knowing a couple of the words he spoke, so was able to understand what he was saying.
"I...know..." She silently praised herself. She didn't mess up the words this time! And they were coherent! Yuki sighs and drops his head so his bangs hid his face. He did not seem happy in the least. Perhaps she should leave him be. Nodding to herself, she stands up and turns away from him. She had almost walked out of the clearing when Yuki stopped her.
"Miss. Avel, please. Why don't you come help?" She turns towards him, smiling a little bit and nodding when she understood his words.
After a little while of helping Yuki in his garden, or more so watching and learning how to while he did all the work, she gets up and stretches, then turns and leaves him alone to tend to his garden. She walks on in silence, listening to all the sounds of the forest and noting all the scents in the air. It's enough that she can pretend everything is the way it was before. Before her birthday, before the fire, before she left her life and started anew.
Her breath hitches as the memories come to the surface. Fast and unrelenting. Memories of her kin, their bodies burned, crushed, trampled by other creatures. All hitting her at once and causing her to cry, sobs escaping and wracking her body, so much so that she has to sit or she'll topple face-first into the ground. But she topples over anyways, and curls up on the ground, hands clenched and held to her chest, tears falling, chocked sobs escaping, and incoherent sentences coming from her mouth. It's always when she's alone that she lets this happen. One raised like her understands that you don't show weakness to any but yourself, and to always be wary in case someone stumbles upon your moment of weakness.
But right now, she couldn't care less. All she wants to do is cry until her tears are gone and she can stand again, the pain of being alone too much to handle now.
And that's what she was doing, until she felt a hand touch her shoulder. Having not been listening to the sounds around her, she's startled, and jumps up, spinning around and pulling her lips back in a snarl. Of course, the tears in her eyes blurred her vision, so she didn't recognize who was there. All she knew was someone saw her in her moment of weakness, and she must never forgive them.
"Whoa whoa! Calm down Shai!" She blinks, thrown off. That's the cat's voice. Kyo's voice. The cat saw! Then she feels his hands on her shoulders, squeezing as though to calm or comfort her. She feels herself relax a bit and lets her lips fall back to her normal small pout. Swiftly, she brings a hand to her face and wipes her tears away, wiping away the evidence. "Hey, why were ya crying?" She hears him ask, and she figures out what he said quickly, understanding a couple words. She shakes her head hard and glares at him, staring right into his red eyes. He simply blinks, glaring right back into her brown eyes. This throws her, she's not met any who met her glare with no fear whatsoever. Although this is the cat who loves to glare with Yuki, so she really shouldn't be surprised about that. What does surprise her though, is that he cares enough to actually want to help, though she knows from how little time she's spent with them that comforting others is a foreign thought to him.
She drops her glare, and looks at the ground. "It is not your concern. Leave me be." Of course, she forgot that he doesn't understand rat tongue, and blinks in realization at his confused stare, and sighs. She'd forgotten that her kin wasn't the ones listening. She feels the tears fill her eyes and clenches them shut, and, for the moment, let's Kyo see since she didn't have the energy to pull away from him and run to seclusion. She falls into his chest and cry's. She can feel him stiffen, most likely with surprise. Then, slowly his hand pats her back, as though to tell her 'enough already, get off me now' but she doesn't, she stay's clenched onto his shirt. When he realizes that she won't go, his arms wrap around her back and holds her there, sighing some. She feels comforted, knowing that he won't force her to let him go, and also most likely because he didn't transform into his Zodiac animal.
For a little while, they stand there. Kyo holding Shai, and Shai clenching his shirt tight. But when her tears cease falling, she pulls away and dry's her eyes and, keeping her gaze on the ground, she mumbles a thanks to him in human tongue.
"Yeah yeah, it's no big deal. Just get back to being your normal self alright." It was more of a statement than a question, but she nods either way, and smiles a little bit. Not all cat's are bad, just look at Kyo! He didn't force her to get off him when she broke down, instead he comforted her, one raised by rats and is one at heart. She'd always been taught that cats of all sorts are their enemy, but Kyo's not, and it comforts her to know that.
"Kyo, follow me." She uses short sentences that go right to the point with simple and easy words, annoying as hell to others, but easier for her to learn. Yuki doesn't mind how she learns, just that she is learning, but the cat is thoroughly annoyed by it and it shows on his face. He tries not to get mad at her, and simply nods stiffly. She grabs his hand and turns on her heel, then walks briskly through the forest, not noticing the slight red tinge that is on the males cheeks. It takes a while, but she finds the spot she's looking for. The spot where she first met Yuki. Dropping his hand, her face turns sullen and she walks to the graves that are still there, mostly because she comes her constantly to make sure her kin stay safe, sometimes even sleeping overnight there. But today, she's brought Kyo to see them. "These family and friends. Their graves." She states, not turning to look at him, instead sitting at Don and Rea's graves and staring at them. Her short sentences are annoying, but in the somber moment, can't bring himself to be mad.
She vaguely senses Kyo walk over at a slow pace, or sit beside her. It's still a touchy subject, talking about her kin, and she knows that he knows, having been witness to her tantrum when Shigure asked about her parents.
~Flashback~
"So Shai," Shigure starts. "Where are you're parents? Do they know where you are?" He obviously did not realize how touchy this subject is for her, for his smiling face turns to one of surprise and shock when she shot to her feet, her face twisted with anger. Kyo, sitting next to her, twitches and leans away, surprised at the anger radiating off her.
"HOW DARE YOU! DON'T EVER TALK ABOUT MY FAMILY YOU DOG! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THEM!" Everyone in the room flinches at her screaming, and Shigure's eyes are wide. His mouth opens as though to speak, but no words come, surprised that this quiet girl could yell so loud. She snarls, then stamps her foot and turns, leaving the room and the house. Kyo silently gets up and follows her, the first to recover from the shock of her anger.
She storms into the forest and strikes out a punch at some trees she passes occasionally. Kyo can tell she's pissed, but also that that anger is actually her way of hiding her pain and sadness. He should know, that's his way of expressing his pain and sadness too, though he'll never admit it. Eventually, she stops, and the anger dissipates leaving a sad, depressed girl behind. Though he doesn't approach her, but leaves her to be alone, knowing that she needed that right now.
~End Flashback~ ~P.O.V. Kyo Sohma~
He knows better than to say anything about her family, but feels slight happiness that this reserved girl, who let on nothing of her past to anyone but that Kuso Nezumi, let him in on this secret that meant so much to her. He looks over at Shai, watching her as she stares sadly down at the graves of the rats she called her family. He didn't quite understand how a human girl could call a bunch of rats 'family'. Of course, considering how much he hates that Kuso Nezumi, it's no wonder it's hard for him to accept.
The real confusing thing, is how she can be exempt from the family curse, how her hugs don't transform them. She certainly looks like a regular human girl. Maybe it has to do with the fact that, being raised by the rats, she believes she is one and not a human. Which probably means that hugging human girl's that believe themselves to be human are the only ones that can transform them? Oh great, he can't understand a thing he just thought. He'll just forget about it and accept things for what they are.
"Why do you stare?" He blinks, startled from his thoughts, to see Shai staring at him, curiosity in her gaze. A slight red tinge taints his cheeks and he frowns, looking away with a huff, a bit embarrassed at being caught staring, even if he didn't know he was.
"I'm not staring!" He glares at the ground in anger. "I was just thinkin' alright." He hears her sigh and returns his gaze to her. "Don't think anything of it." He stands and turns. "Be back by dinner, I don't want to listen to Tohru complain about you being missing, got it?" Although he meant that he would be concerned, not knowing how great a fighter she could be, but God knows he'd never let anyone know that. When she nods, he walks away, still thinking. But after only a few minutes, long enough for him to be out of hearing and sight of Shai, he hears Kuso Nezumi's annoying voice.
"Baka Neko. What were you doing with Miss Avel?" He stops walking and turns to face Yuki, who's about a foot away from him. He shrugs and frowns, not wanting to argue right now.
"She just showed me the graves of that family of hers. Why do you want to know Kuso Nezumi? Are ya trying to find a reason to fight me? Don't bother, I'll fight you without a reason! And I'll beat you this time!" He puts his fists up and back up into a fighting stance, just to see Yuki sigh and frown with annoyance. He knew that Nezumi didn't want a fight, but he just didn't want to let on that he was actually concerned about anyone.
"Baka Neko. I'm not here for a fight. I'm here to make sure you are not bothering Miss Avel." He blinks in surprise. Yuki...won't fight him? But every time he wanted a fight, Yuki fought him. What's so different this time? There's no was that Kuso Nezumi is going soft! Damn that Yuki! "Kyo. I can see your anger. Just calm down, all I wished to do was talk." He blinks, then stands up straight again, arms falling to his sides, hands un-fisted. It's a super rare occasion that these two just talk without fighting, so if the Nezumi just wants to talk, then in must be super important.
"Then talk."