I do not own any of the content relating to the original Fruits Basket. I do, however, own Venus, Ashlynn, and Silver, and any other content related to them as well.
Chapter 3
Ashlynn jolted awake, her eyes snapping open when the sound of screaming and a loud 'clang!' rang through her eardrums. She sat up so fast that her head spun. 'It's the weekend.' she thought, 'I should not be up this early...' She pressed a hand to her forehead and steadied herself in an upright position while the sensation quickly faded. Leaping from her bed, she threw her bedroom door open and dashed down the hallway toward the main part of the house.
"It's there, Venus, there!" She heard Silver scream from the kitchen. Ashlynn groaned deeply, wondering what the pair could have gotten into this early in the morning. She slid into the kitchen doorway and her jaw dropped.
Silver stood on her tip-toes on the island in the middle of the kitchen and Venus was crouched upon one of the stools at the island. One hand gripped the edge of the stool while the other held a frying pan above her head. Venus didn't notice that Ashlynn was now present, or at least that's was Ash thought.
Her eyes were glued to something on the floor. Ashlynn followed her gaze to see nothing. At first anyways. That was when Venus sprung off the stool with a growl and slammed the frying pan onto the floor, forcing Ashlynn to cover her ears because of the noise it made. Venus, now crouched on the ground, peeked under the frying pan.
"Victory!" She wailed, springing to her feet. Silver applauded, bouncing on the top of the island. Venus waved the frying pan in the air, spinning around in a sort of victory dance that she did on occasion.
"What the... What are you two doing? Do you even know what time it is?" Ashlynn yelled, her lungs straining. Venus and Silver froze in place, slowly turning to face the green-eyed girl.
"Well..." Venus starting, scratching the back of her head. "I got it!" She thrust the bottom of the frying pan in Ashlynn's face, revealing the remnants of a tiny spider. Ashlynn felt her eyebrows pull before she let out a shrill scream. She jumped back, nearly flying actually, away from Venus and her frying pan.
"Get that out of my face! Get it away from me! You know I hate spiders!" Ashlynn's eyes widened as they darted over to glare at Silver who began nodding violently in agreement, still standing on the island. The two liked to say they were fearless, but this proved that theory wrong. Completely wrong. "Get... Get rid of that!" She yelled as she snatched the frying pan from Venus's outstretched arm and threw it into the sink with a loud clang. She growled as she spun on her heel and ran back to her bedroom, flailing her arms about, muttering, "Ew, spiders, so gross, ewewewew I hate spiders..." the whole way there. Venus and Silver glanced at each other and then down the hall. As soon as they heard Ashlynn's door slam shut, they burst into laughter.
They stopped abruptly when Venus put a finger to her lips. From down the hallway came, "Don't think I can't hear your two laughing out there!" Then the door slammed again. Venus turned to look at Silver with a large smile upon her face.
"I totally knew that was coming." She said quietly, taking a seat upon one of the bar stools. Silver smiled back and jumped down from the island, then climbed into the seat next to her friend.
"Still, I don't think you should have shoved the spider in her face like that. You know how she feels about spiders. She might even hate them more than I do." Silver's face had gone completely serious. She wasn't sure who hated spiders more; herself or Ashlynn. Venus groaned and slumped in her seat, nearly sliding off. "You should say sorry."
"But I'd be lying." Venus replied, her icy blue eyes showing no emotion. "You know that."
"Well let's go do something for her then?" Silver suggested, looking around the kitchen. Her gaze settled upon a piece of paper that was stuck to the fridge with a magnet. She hopped up off of the stool and made her way to the fridge. She looked at the note and smiled, slipping it out from underneath the magnet. "Shall we go shopping?"
"You're kidding me, right?" Venus breathed, turning to look at the shopping list that Silver was holding up.
"Nope!" She giggled in response. "Let's go! The store should be open by now. I'm driving!"
That was that. Venus slid the rest of the way off her stool and trudged into the garage after her friend. They hopped into Silver's silver Ford Mustang GT500 and peeled out of the garage and off of the lot. Silhouettes of trees flew by as she sped down the forest road and disappeared and she slowed to the speed limit as she drove into town. She eased to a stop in a parking slot right in front of the grocery store and looked at Venus. "Shall we?"
"Let's get this over with." She said, slipping out of the car. Silver did the same.
"Alrighty! Where shall we start?" Silver said as the duo walked toward the front of the store. She glanced around, taking in the dim light that was coming from the barely-risen sun and the awkward silence that hung around them. It was only about a quarter after nine, so the store seemed to be quite empty as well.
"How about with a cart." Venus said, her voice very monotonous. Silver nodded and Venus walked over to the giant cart trains. She kicked one, then moved on to the next one, kicking it as well. "This one looks good..." she muttered to herself. She hated carts with squeaky wheels or carts that veered off to one side if you didn't hold them steady.
"May I?" Silver said as Venus walked up to her with the cart.
"You may." Venus responded back and Silver hopped into the cart and sat down. Venus sighed and walked through the automatic doors and into the store.
"I think we should start off with..." Silver paused for a moment as she read down the list of groceries that needed to be bought. "Let's start off with the produce section I guess."
"Okay." Venus said as she veered the cart to the left, toward the produce, her solid black low pro Vans making not a single sound on the tile floor.
"Okay. The list says we need lettuce, cucumber, radishes, avocados, watermelon, peaches, tomatoes, apples, oranges, lemons and limes-"
"Whoa, whoa! Hold up there, I can only concentrate on so many things!" Venus interrupted.
"Sorry V." Silver giggled. "Lettuce, cucumber, radishes and avocados first." Venus nodded and walked over to the area where each item was stacked and picked a few that looked ripe.
"Now what?" Venus asked, and Silver read off the rest of the produce section of the list. They quickly got everything they needed from there and moved on to the rest of the items that were needed. Venus stood on the back of the cart and pushed it around the store with one foot while Silver read everything that was on the list from nasty leeks to chocolate ice cream.
"Hey V?" Silver asked as she tilted her head backwards and looked up at Venus, who just looked back down at her shopping buddy in some form of an acknowledgment. "We should get some flour too, I think we are almost out even though it's not on the list."
"Yeah, I think you're right." Venus replied as she turned the cart around and raced toward the other end of the grocery store. "Where is it?" She asked, clearly not seeing where the flour was. She wasn't usually the one that went shopping for groceries.
"Flour is..." Silver looked up from the list and looked around. "There!" She exclaimed, pointing to a small section up against a back wall next to the cooking oils and such. Venus nodded and raced off toward the flour. Next thing she knew, her feet slipped out from underneath her and the cart was speeding off toward the wall of flour. The cart, with Silver still in it, hit the bags with a muffled bang! and a cloud of white powder exploded into the air. Venus went sliding across the floor and into the flour cloud, hitting the cart.
When they could both see again, they brushed as much flour from their faces as they could and looked around. There was flour everywhere. Venus, who was laying flat on her back, looked up at Silver who was now straightening herself up in the cart. They both looked back to see what had happened. On the floor, only visible now that flour was covering it, was vegetable oil from a bottle on the shelf that had spilled. The girls looked up as "Clean up on aisle five! Kyo Sohma, clean up on aisle five!" came over the loudspeaker and the two burst into laughter.
They stopped laughing abruptly when Kyo rounded the corner with a mop and bucket. He halted when he looked up and saw Venus and Silver sitting there, covered head to toe in flour. The look on his face went from slightly irritated to extremely irritated.
"Kyo-Kyo! I didn't know you worked here!" Venus laughed out, sitting up with a bit of difficulty seeing that she was slick with oil. Kyo just looked down and clenched the handle of his mop.
"Don't... call me Kyo-Kyo!" He ground out when he looked back up at the girls. Venus cocked one eyebrow and smirked at him which didn't seem to help his mood at all. "Out of the way," he said as he stepped forward and pushed the Silver-containing cart out of the way and began mopping. "Now I have to clean up your mess..." He stuck the mop into the bucket and swirled it around before he took it out and slapped it onto the floor next to Venus, splattering her with soap suds, and began mopping.
"Watch yourself Orangey." Venus spat as she stood and knocked a ripped bag of flour off of the shelf and onto the already beyond-filthy floor, making more of a mess for Kyo to clean up. She looked down her nose at him as he glared into her icy blue eyes. She scoffed and spun on her heel and returned to the cart. Silver was about to speak up and Venus cut her off, "Don't you dare say a word." Silver pursed her lips and rolled her eyes as Venus turned the cart and headed toward the checkout lines.
Venus's slender hands gripped the handlebar of the shopping cart as she walked toward the checkout lines. Despite the fact that she was covered nearly head to toe in vegetable oil and flour, she managed not to lip and fall again. Silver sat in the the cart with her arms folded across her chest. She and everything in the cart were dusted with the white powder. Yuki's and Haru's eyes widened as they froze in place, staring at the girls.
"Don't look at us like that!" Silver snapped as her brows furrowed together. Haru averted his gaze and went back to organizing the bags while Yuki just smiled sweetly and took his place at the register. Silver began tossing all of the flour-coated groceries on the belt for him to scan. Venus just stood there leaning against the handle of the cart, eyes narrowed, fuming to herself.
"So..." Haru started, not quite sure if he should ask or not. "What happened?"
"One of you didn't do your job, that's what happened." Venus said, not bothering to process her thoughts before she let them leave her lips.
"That would be Kyo." Haru laughed. Venus narrowed her icy blue eyes at him. He raised his hands like a white flag. "I give. Paper of plastic?"
"Paper please." Silver said as she finished putting all of the groceries on the belt and dusted her hands off as best as she could. Haru nodded and began packing the dirty groceries into paper bags. "Man, V, Ash isn't gonna be too happy about this mess. At all. You know that?"
"Yeah I know." Her voice was monotonous as she spoke. "And we'll be stuck cleaning it up." Silver groaned. That was not something she wanted to do at the moment. Or at all.
"We could come help after work if you'd like." Yuki offered. Haru nodded in agreement.
"Though I don't think Kyo would be too thrilled..." Haru added, a slight smile on his face. Venus couldn't help but smirk at him. She liked that part. There was something about Kyo... She just got a kick out of ticking him off. Not like it was a hard thing to do, but she still enjoyed it.
"That would be kind of you." Silver agreed, looking to Venus. "Right, V?" Venus grinned a full grin that was rarely seen. Her teeth were oddly sharp, perfectly straight, and pearly white. Silver, Yuki, and Haru all grinned in return. If Venus was happy, there's no doubt that everyone else was happy.
"Alright, we'll be there when our shift is over then." Yuki said as he went to subtotal the order. "It will probably be around..." He thought to himself for a moment. "Probably around noon, is that alright?"
"Yes, that's. It'll give us time to complete our shopping." Silver replied.
"And time for us to try to sneak in without Ashlynn seeing us covered in flour like that." Venus put in, the smirk lingering in her voice even though it was no longer placed on her face. Silver rolled her eyes, but laughed as well.
"Alright, we'll see you at noon then." Yuki said with a soft smile as he rang up their last few items. Haru quietly bagged them and placed them in the dirty cart.
"I've got this V." Silver said, pushing her friend back as she stepped up to pay.
"You sure?" Venus raised an eyebrow and popped one hip out to lean again the checkout counter. Silver just nodded and kept going with the process. Venus just rolled her eyes and leaned an elbow against the counter, propping her chin up on her palm. Nonchalantly, she attempted to blow her bangs from her face, but they ended up falling back in front of her eyes again.
"Would you like help out with that?" He asked, gesturing to the cart. Silver looked around as she finished paying and shrugged.
"If you're not too busy." Haru nodded and pulled the cart in front of him. Silver and Venus followed behind, their arms hooked at the elbow. Carefully, Silver pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the time. Instead of finding the time when she flipped it open she was greeted with an urgent text from Ashlynn. 'Where are you? And V?' it said. "V..." Silver started out loud, not sure of what to say, "I think this is going to be hard to get by Ash now."
"We're in for a verbal ass whooping, aren't we?" Venus hung her head as she spoke. Silver nodded solemnly. Venus sighed in return. "That's a mega mood killer." She muttered as Haru turned around to look at them.
"She knows?" Haru asked. Silver and Venus exchanged glances.
"Not yet." Venus said, "But she will soon enough."
As they walked out the automatic doors, Silver pointed to her silver Mustang and walked towards it. She slipped the keys out of her messenger bag and remote-unlocked the car, popping the trunk with the key as well. Venus followed Haru around to the back of the car and began unloading the groceries with him.
"Nuh-uh!" Venus snapped at her friend as she came around to help too. "You paid. I'm unloading."
"But that's what Haru's for." Silver replied, crossing her arms. Venus copied her, raising one eyebrow. Silver rolled her eyes, "Fine." and hopped into the driver's seat.
"I always get what I want." Venus jokingly said to Haru, sticking her tongue out as she placed the bags of flour in the trunk. Standing up straight, she dusted off her hands, letting Haru load the last few paper bags into the car. Finished, he straightened and looked Venus over from head to toe. She had gotten the worst of the mess after she had slid across the oil on the floor. The flour stuck like glue.
"You look ridiculous." He said after a few seconds, shutting the trunk.
"I've looked worse." She couldn't help but smirk at him, if only a little.
"Alright," He laughed. "I'll see you when we head over after work then. See you later too, Silver." He added, leaning down to wave at Silver through the back window. She looked in the rear view mirror and waved back. Venus slid into the passenger seat and buckled in as her friend fired up the engine. Haru waved from the front of the store and they backed out of the parking space and peeled out of the lot.
"I think he likes you." Silver said after a couple minutes of silence.
"I think not. He hardly knows me." Venus scoffed, turning her hard gaze upon her friend. "No one likes me."
"I like you." Silver replied. "So does Ashlynn."
"Well that's just you." Venus rolled her eyes and leaned against the door. "You kind of have to." She muttered. It was Silver's turn to roll her eyes.
"Whatever. You'll get it one day. Not everyone is out to get you." She said. Venus snorted, but said nothing in return. The rest of the car ride, and the rest of the shopping trip, was spent in silence.
As the duo drove home, the weather remained in its bi-polar state. It would rain, then stop, drizzle, then stop, unleash it's fury, then stop again. They remained silent, even though it was so unlike them. Avenged Sevenfold wasn't even pumping through the speakers, and that was saying something. They liked their music, and they liked it loud. But instead, the car was dead silent. Almost enough to make it awkward.
Silver slowly drove her metallic silver car down the tree-lined drive, dodging puddles and fallen branches. She knew Venus was no doubt getting irritated at the snail pace, but Silver wasn't about to go and risk dinging up her car by recklessly flying down the gravel driveway. Venus all but spontaneously combusted by the time they made it to the house. Silver remoted the garage door open and pulled in. Shutting her car off, she leaned back in her seat and sighed.
"I'm not looking forward to this..." She muttered as she attempted to move her flour-and-oil-slicked hair out of her face. Venus just grunted her agreement, then unbuckled herself and got out of the car. She went around to the trunk, rapped on it twice, and Silver popped the hatch. After opening it, Silver came around to the back and helped V with the groceries. They each grabbed some of the paper bags and headed toward the door that led inside. As Silver was about to open the door with her elbow, the door was flung open.
"What the..." Ashlynn gaped at them for a split second before her brows furrowed together. Shaking her head, she said, "Don't! Don't say a fucking word, I don't want to know what kind of trouble you two got into so early in the morning. Again. Just go inside and take a fucking shower. I'll deal with your mess..."
"Yes, mom..." Venus and Silver muttered in unison and they marched past Ashlynn and went into the kitchen. They dropped the bags by the island and headed upstairs to take their showers.
Once Silver hit the second story landing, she darted for her bedroom. Partially because she really wanted the shower, and partially because she wanted to get away from Venus and her rage. She could practically feel it rolling off of the girl, and that was not a good thing. Not at all. Bad things tended to happen when Venus got mad, among other things. Slipping into her bedroom and locking the door behind her, she immediate stripped off her dirty clothes. She dropped them into the sink as she went into her bathroom and shut the door. Using one hand, she turned on her shower as she began to undo her braids with the other. By the time she had her hair all brushed out and tangle free, the shower was steaming hot. She grabbed a navy blue towel and hung it on the knob next to the shower door before she opened it. Wincing for a second as the hot water touched her foot, she braced herself as she slowly eased into the steaming stream that rushed from the shower head on the ceiling.
After a few minutes of standing in the water, she deemed herself relaxed enough. Bending down, she picked up her shampoo, squeezed a bunch into the palm of her hand, and massaged it into her hair. After rinsing all of the suds, she repeated with the conditioner. Stepping out of the water, she picked up her body wash and squeezed a small amount onto her scrub sponge and began to move lather it over her skin. She sighed deeply as the aroma of pomegranate and berries drifted into the air. She almost didn't want to wash the soap off, but she had no choice. She knew Ash could use her help, even if her friend was in a bad mood. And she also knew that there was no way in Hell that Venus was going to be back downstairs any time soon. So Silver set to rinsing off her body wash and the conditioner out of her hair. When she was done, she reluctantly turned the shower off, squeegied the glass dry, and stepped out of the shower. She quickly toweled herself try, then wrapped her hair up in the towel.
Glancing in the mirror, Silver smudged what was left of her makeup away and left the bathroom. Standing completely naked except for the towel on her head, she placed her hands on her hips and looked around. Clothes. What to wear? She usually didn't have a problem choosing clothes, but that was either because she was forced to wear her school uniform or it was just going to be Ashlynn and Venus in the house. Yuki, Kyo, and Haru were coming over later to help with what she and Venus had shopped for though, she she couldn't lounge around in pajamas. She had a feeling that they would be staying for dinner, too. After all Ash would want to repay them for helping. So she set her mind to the daunting task of finding something to wear for the evening.
Across the house, Venus had stormed into her room, slamming the door shut with so much force that the walls shook. She stripped her clothes off as she walked, leaving them in a trail on her floor leading to the bathroom. She didn't bother to shut her bathroom door as she went in. Looking around, she went over to the counter and gripped the edges, bracing herself against it. Taking her sunglasses off and setting them on the counter, she glared at her dirty reflection in the mirror. Her body was like one giant oil slick. Flour and her hair clung to her bare skin and her makeup was smeared to the point where she looked more like a rabid coon. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, but the image wouldn't go away. She was a mess, inside and out, and she hated it. Her icy blue eyes stared back at her. They were lighter than normal, but still normal. So that was a good sign, right? Growling, she lurched away from the counter and willed herself to walk over to her shower.
Hands trembling, she turned her shower on and stepped in, not able to remember whether she shut and locked her door or not. Stepping under the rush of the water, she ignored the sting as her makeup ran into her eyes. Instead she cranked the water temperature as cold as it would go in hopes that the chill would clear her crowded mind. Something inside of her was taunting her, whispering vile things in the back of her mind. Unable to control her actions, her vocal cords let out a growl. It ripped from her throat, echoing against the black marble. She slammed her fists against the slick walls and slammed her eyes shut, trying to push the feeling of what was coming away. A tingle ran up her spine and spread across her back, itching furiously. Grabbing her scrub brush, she loaded on the body was and began to attack her back with the hard bristles. But no matter how hard she scrubbed, the itching feeling wouldn't go away. She had to calm down. She just had to.
Downstairs, Ashlynn was dragging the shopping items in bag by bag. Venus and Silver had bought more than what was on the list, but it didn't matter. They would use it all anyways. Especially if V got into one of her moods. She would end up having to go shopping all over again. Venus liked to cook and bake up a storm if the conditions were right. Ash went back out to the garage and grabbed the last bag. She heaved the bag out and shut the trunk, the walked off balance to the door leading inside. She pressed a button on the wall and watched to make sure the garage door finally shut before waddling back into the house. Glancing around, she eyed the dozens of paper bags on the floor and island counter. Just as she was about to dig into the bags, a soft knock on the door brought her movements to a halt.
Sighing, she dropped her hands to the side and shuffled over to the door. She peeked through the foggy glass next to the door to find Yuki, Kyo, and Haru waiting patiently. Or maybe not so patiently with Kyo. Ash unlocked the door and flung it wide open, a smile set upon her face.
"Hey guys! What're you doing all the way over here?" She questioned, stepping back to allow them to enter the house.
"We offered to help Silver and Venus with their shopping." Haru said, returning the smile.
"Oh. Well, good. I'm glad." Ashlynn replied, sighing inwardly. She was relieved to have some help. She wasn't all that thrilled about having to clean up the girls' mess all on her own. Silver would come back down to help after her shower, but she knew that Venus would not. Even if she threatened her. She knew for a fact that there would be no reasoning with her for awhile.
Ashlynn shut and locked the door after the boys entered, and waited for a moment as they took of their jackets and hung them on the rack by the door as they always did. Funny, it seemed to Ashlynn that this was becoming part of the norm even though it had only happened a couple of times. She was happy to have new friends over. But she was not happy with what might result later on.
"Follow me." She said, and the trio followed her to the kitchen. They each grabbed a bag and carried it over the the sink. The items that were clean were put away right away, and the items that were dirty were dusted or rinsed off before they were put in their proper place. They were about halfway through cleaning up and putting everything away when Silver walked into the kitchen.
"Yuki-kun, Kyo-kun, Haru-san. Hello." She said, bowing slightly, trying to hide the slight flush the crept up to her cheeks. The boys said their various versions of hello and went back to helping unload everything. Lacing her fingers in front of her, Silver walked over to Ashlynn. "We're sorry about the mess..." She began. "I know V probably isn't truly sorry, but I will say it for her anyways..."
Ashlynn turned to her friend and gazed down at her, a small smile spreading across her face. Silver glanced up and smiled softly in return as her friend embraced her in a strong hug. She let go after a few long seconds.
"How about we just forget the apologies and get these groceries unloaded, hm?" She said, and Silver just nodded, turning her gaze back to the floor. Silver adjusted her gray sweater and went over to the island, picking a back and taking it over to the sink where Ashlynn stood rinsing off various items. She began taking the jars out of the bag when a loud bang! echoed throughout the house, causing Silver to jump and nearly drop a jar. Both hers and Ashlynn's eyes went wide as they looked at each other. Ashlynn looked up at Kyo, Yuki, and Haru who had just about the same expression on their faces.
"Venus is in a very bad mood..." Silver whispered, so soft that the others could barely hear her. A grim look spread across Ashlynn's face as she stared at her friend next to her.
"Let's just go back to what we were doing." Ashlynn stated, making it sound more like a command. Yuki, Kyo, and Haru nodded and went back to sifting through the various bags. They ignored the sounds from upstairs and focused on the task in front of them. The sound of rustling bags, the sink faucet, and shutting cabinet doors wasn't enough to take their mind off of the fact that there was tension in the air however. There was so much tension that, if it were to wound itself any tighter, you would likely see sparks.
Just then, someone pounded on the front door, causing Ashlynn, Silver, Yuki, Kyo, and Haru to all nearly jump out of their skin. They stood still as stone for a moment, and then the banging sound echoed again. It sounded as if someone were trying to bang the door down.
"Uhm... I'll get it." Ashlynn said. "Silver, would you keep washing the jars please?" Silver nodded and Ashlynn left to answer the door.
Looking through the peephole, Ash gasped, quickly placing a hand over her mouth. What the Hell... What the Hell are they doing here? How did they find us? She thought to herself, worry sinking like a boulder into the pit of her stomach.