Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket.

Thank you to everyone who has been reviewing this. It has been a long journey but this story is beginning to reach a climax and ultimately a finish. Please Review and Enjoy.

Akito watched Tohru head towards the tree with poison ivy growing under it and smiled. Whistling sharply between his teeth, he gained her attention. "Get back here. What type of a dumb dog goes in poison ivy?"

Tohru sighed with relief and managed to crawl back to her master. Patiently she sat back on her haunches and waited for him to speak again. Akito studied her posture; nodding to himself, he realized she would be the perfect vessel for his plan. In a way, what he did to her would be his redemption. Privately Akito thought that it would be a good joke for him when his plan was completed. Turning he began to walk back to the house hearing Tohru yelp occasionally when she crawled over a sharp stone.

Akito stepped on the porch leading to his room and stopped. Tohru stopped on the gravel waiting for Akito's wish. "You will be a kept pet." Akito said eyeing her. "You will no longer go to school because I can not be with you. A tutor will be provided, all your needs shall be taken care of. In exchange, you will do as I tell you without question. If at any time, you fail to do as I say when I say you forfeit your rights to seeing any Sohma ever again. You also forfeit the right to live, is that understood?" Akito recited verbatim the words he had written on a document in his room.

Tohru crouched and cocked her head thinking. The other Sohmas had done many things for her and somehow she needed to get assurance of their protection. "I will only agree if…" here Tohru faltered, closing her eyes to gather her courage. "You agree to never hurt the other Zodiac members again. I don't care about me as long as they are okay."

Akito smiled gently at her hopeless naivety. "Done. Come along, I will even allow you to freshen up." Akito turned to walk into the house and Tohru quickly followed.

Hatori watched the exchange from his post. He needed a cigarette badly or some other way to occupy his mouth. For some reason he had a strong oral fixation when under stress. Hatori spotted a movement in the garden and watched as Shigure stepped out into the dark garden and began to make his way towards where Akito's rooms. Hatori didn't think but ran to intercept Shigure.

"Hatori what are you doing?" Shigure asked as the dragon appeared before him, blocking his way to the porch and Akito.

"Stopping you from making a horrible situation worse." Hatori rumbled pushing his glasses up his nose. Crossing his arms in front of him, he waited for Shigure's response. Shigure laughed looking at the object of his lust.

"The only way you are going to stop me is to sleep with me." Shigure responded lazily. "We both know that you have a penchant for prudish behavior and realize the likelihood of that happening so why don't you just…" he never made it further.

Up until this point Hatori's nerves had been shot. Every thing around him was falling to pieces and no one seemed to be able to fix it. Hatori stared into the defiant eyes of Shigure and realized his course of action. He had heard Akito's words. Hatori knew that Tohru was the key to protecting them all from their worst enemy, themselves. Hatori reached forwarded and grabbed the stunned Shigure in a teeth crashing and punishing kiss. Releasing him, Hatori began backing away from the speechless Shigure. Hatori threw caution to the wind and walked back to his rooms, very much aware that Shigure was walking quietly behind him.

While Tohru was cleaning up Akito had watched the exchange between the dragon and the dog with interest. Akito felt his heart flutter as Shigure followed Hatori towards his rooms. Akito smiled, Shigure was surprising him. "Shigure has no real preference between male and female." Akito allowed himself to take that knowledge to heart. "Hatori will train Shigure well." Akito mused. "If Shigure thought, he was going to come out on top in that exchange he was sadly mistaken. It seems to be the night of the dogs." Akito sighed moving from the window he sat on his bed and waited patiently for his pet to return.

Tohru entered the room on all fours and waited for Akito to grant her permission to come closer. She had given some thought to her situation in the bathroom and realized that she could do worse. Eventually she would have to tell her best friends, but for tonight, she would do this for herself. "Come to me pet. I want to tell you my plan for your future. You have no choice any longer in the matter but I feel the need to confide my vision."

Hatori left his door open. As Shigure entered, he closed it, leaning against his eyes taking on a predatory glint. Hatori walked into his office and leaned against his desk, which faced the door. Shigure followed leaning against the doorframe. Hatori looked him in the eyes as he began to unbutton his shirt.

Shigure felt his mouth go dry as bit-by-bit Hatori's body came into view. Shigure remembered having closely coveted any views he got of Hatori's body. Shigure had never been attracted to men until that point when he had seen Hatori shirtless. Now, being in close proximity with the object of his lust staring into his eyes and daring him to touch was too much. Shigure emotionally withdrew himself deciding that maybe he shouldn't have followed Hatori.

Hatori noticed Shigure's emotional retreat and wasn't having it. "If my damn walls have to be down for this encounter and my emotions are raw so will yours be." Hatori thought dropping the shirt on his desk.

"Shigure, Shigure what am I going to do with you." Straightening, Hatori began lazily stroll towards the now cold Shigure.

"Absolutely nothing." Shigure replied standing tall. "You aren't the person I came to see."

"Is that a fact?" Hatori asked getting right in Shigure's face. Hatori caressed the man's chest through his kimono until he found what he was looking for. Removing the pack of cigarettes, he removed one and stuck it in his mouth. Realizing that he now had Shigure's undivided attention, Hatori went to his desk. Removing matches, he lit his cigarette. Inhaling deeply he tilted his head all the way back so that the long column of his neck was exposed. Then with the utmost care, he blew out a set of smoke rings. He poised this way for Shigure's benefit knowing what him smoking did for the man.

Shigure consigned himself to hell and back. His indifference melted as he watched Hatori exhale smoke. Not being able to help himself he walked to Hatori and began to suck on his neck. Starting just below his adam's apple he moved down, licking and biting. When he reached the the place where Hatori's neck and shoulder met Shigure buried his face and inhaled the smell of Hatori.

Hatori had lowered his head and was about to move when Shigure bit the place where his head had previously been resting. Hatori lost it. Ripping Shigure's clothes off and swearing at him. Shigure refused to release his teeth from the meaty part of Hatori's shoulder. Briefly, he felt some sane part of him question his actions. The part of him who held reservations was silenced when Shigure realized he was naked. Removing his teeth from his prize, he stepped back from the harshly breathing Hatori.

"Don't you know that dog's bite when they get something taken away from them?" Shigure said sharply baring his teeth.

Hatori blew smoke at the naked Shigure. "Don't you know that as the dragon of the zodiac I am the most eccentric? I take what I please." Hatori responded removing his pants, standing before the dog in only his boxers. Hatori proceeded to ball up his shirt and pants in a ball, leaving them on the desk.

"If you want to play it that way I am the better leader." Shigure growled standing toe to toe with the smoking Dragon and loving it.

"We'll see." Hatori responded putting out his cigarette in the ashtray. Slowly he turned back to the now irritated and aroused Shigure. "Well I will let you lead to the bedroom and from there…" Hatori shrugged. Shigure turned on his heel to leave the room only to feel Hatori grab his arm and swing him around. Shigure found himself bent over the desk with Hatori on top of him. One hand held his arms behind his back while the other hand was buried in his hair and keep his faced pressed into the desks smooth surface. "By eccentric I meant kinky." Hatori went to work proving his point.

Tohru stared at Akito and could barely understand what he was telling her. Akito tangled his hands into her hair and pulled her to him, violently. "If you tell anyone what I have said to you." Akito didn't need to finish. "Now let's play a game. I want to see what Hatori is doing."

"But?" Tohru started to question.

"He is with Shigure right now." Akito waved off her questions. "You are going to watch them." Akito rose excitement curling in his belly. Tohru crawled after him nervous. Akito took her to a place near Hatori's place where they entered through a secret passage. "Tell me what you see." Akito told her. Rising to her knees, Tohru looked in the little hole and swallowed. Akito got down behind her and inserted himself into her. Tohru whimpered and Akito whispered in her ear, "Don't look away. Consider this part of your sexual education."

Warning this contains yaoi…I think that is the word for it anyway. Italics are for what happened in the past. IF you want to skip the majority of the yaoi part, you can start at the italics.

Shigure was still trying to figure out how he had ended up in Hatori's bed. He remembered being slammed into the table completely naked. He had a vague recollection of Hatori warning him to stay completely still. Shigure, for once, had listened and was dually rewarded when Hatori had started licking and nibbling down his spine. What followed had Shigure a mindless mess of nerves. As Hatori's tongue had swirled along his but crack and licked at the rosette he found there, Shigure had lost all ability to think past the next action, the next step.

Hatori played Shigure like a trombone, his tongue licking and nibbling, while pulling Shigure's length. Shigure was shameless and tried to move only to have Hatori stop his ministrations entirely. Shigure had gotten the point quickly and became completely still again, waiting. Hatori had made Shigure wait for what seemed like forever before continuing, stroking him with a single-minded purpose that made Shigure weak in the knees.

Now Shigure could not remember his name. Lying on Hatori's bed chained to the metal frame headboard, Shigure was at a loss. As Hatori looked him over, an almost evil smile was playing across his lips. "You know Shigure I think I want to hold you on my fist." Hatori commented nonchalantly inserting two fingers into Shigure's ass. Shigure growled at Hatori threateningly as Hatori found his prostate. Shigure's growls turned to whimpers and deep groans.

Behind the wall, Tohru was just managing to stifle her own cries as Akito seemed hell bent on their discovery. Akito was timing his thrusts to correspond with Hatori's actions. "You want to know what I am going to do next Tohru, don't you?" Akito breathed into her ear.

"Hatori and Shigure, two of my favorites, doing things that you have only imagined." Akito smiled into the breathless ear of Tohru. "When you give birth to our child I want you to name them as god parents. They are the most stable of the zodiac." Akito began to nibble on Tohru's ear as his thrusts increased to keep up with Hatori.

Hatori could not help but grin at the man who was open lying completely bare to him. Putting more lube on his hand, he looked deeply into Shigure's eyes. Hatori flipped Shigure until he was lying flat on his stomach with his ass propped in the air by pillows. Hatori smiled when Shigure tried to keep some sort of balance as the cuffs twisted to allow for the sudden motion.

Hatori began to massage Shigure's lower back as he proceeded to work his four fingers in and out turning them to bump Shigure's prostate. Shigure began to let out a keening moan as Hatori worked him.

Tohru watching started doing some moaning of her own while her sexual education began to take on new meaning. Trying to stifle her quickly approaching orgasm, she thought about the things Akito had told her earlier.

"You belong to me now." Akito told her smugly. "I have decided that you will be the mother of my child." Tohru had gasped and wanted to speak but something told her not to.

Akito continued. "I am dying. I know it, the entire Zodiac is aware of it. As it stands no one knows how close I am to death." Tohru had felt the tears begin to well up in her eyes at this pronouncement. "Don't cry you prat. You are ugly when you cry." Akito quickly wiped the spilled tears from Tohru's cheeks with his sleeve. "Continuing on, Hatori has been able to save me from death many times already but this is something he cannot save me from. I have destroyed myself."

"Akito why?" Tohru felt her lip quiver, fighting to keep her tears under control, physically quaking with the effort Tohru looked into Akito's amused gaze.

"Simply because that is the only thing left for me." Akito answered before continuing on, "Hatori has a healing touch that will help him heal Shigure. You have already managed to affect most of the zodiac for the better. I fear Shigure was the only one who you had no effect on."

"What do you mean by healing touch?" Tohru asked her feverish brain latching on to the only part of the sentence that made sense.

"How do you think I have made it this long?" Akito retorted becoming slightly annoyed. "Time and Hatori will fix Shigure. Now you will fix me."

"How will that affect the curse?" Tohru queried her brow furrowed.

Akito smiled, "I have already explained it to you. If I have to repeat myself…" Akito grabbed a hank of her hair to pull her up to her knee. He laughed outright at her childish pleas for mercy. "I have other things we can do besides talk."

Shigure screamed wildly from inside the room as Tohru screamed from her hidden spot. Akito chuckled darkly as Hatori leaned down sucked on just the tip of Shigure's member, his fist inserted into Shigure. Shigure screamed a final time arching off the bed completely before pleasure overloaded him and he fainted. Tohru panted, from her spot against the wall, as Akito put her in wheelbarrow position and told her to go back to his room.

Tohru felt her whole body blush as she shakily took the first step. The wheelbarrow position was awkward but Tohru managed to make it. Akito wheeled her towards his bed and sat down. Tohru still had her hands braced on the floor in front of her and Akito still held her legs.

"Now I do believe you came without permission and that is a very serious crime." Akito stated with a gleam in his eye. Tohru whimpered knowing that she would not be getting any sleep tonight.

Eight months had passed since that faithful night; Tohru watched Shigure and Hatori. For eight months, Tohru had kept her word and stayed with Akito. Now Akito was dead. He had died horribly coughing up blood until he lay stiff without the strength to cough any more. Tohru had run as fast as her pregnant body would allow getting Hatori and Shigure. When she had returned it had been too late.

Hatori did not have to touch Akito to know he was dead. His eyes wide open, his naked form resting on his back with only a bed sheet covering him. Tohru had broken down in sobs and grabbed Shigure, her heart breaking as she cried into his chest. Neither realized the significance of this action until Hatori had hugged them both.

Tohru had started laughing then and the men realized why. They were free at last. Tohru removed herself from their embrace and knelt next to Akito, brushing the hair away from his face. Kissing his forehead, she closed his eyes and whispered in his ear. Shigure and Hatori both strained to hear her words but to no avail.

She had insisted that they leave so she could be alone. They had both granted her wish and she had climbed back into bed with him, her thoughts a blur.

"You are still alive in my body and my dreams." Tohru whispered into Akito's ear as if he was only sleeping. Snuggling down she had gone to a restful sleep.

The next morning all hell had broken loose as every Sohma in creation came to pay their respects and in some cases make sure the bastard stayed dead. Tohru sat in a black mourning kimono and observed the spectacle. Her pregnant belly stood out in sharp relief from her tiny form. She had managed to graduate high school and now she was awaiting her first child.

Shigure sat next to her on the floor an arm gently draped around her shoulders. Occasionally he would whisper things in her ear while Hatori paid strict attention to how much Tohru ate and fielded the questions of what her exact relationship to Akito had been.

By the end of the week, Tohru was weary of constantly bumping into people and went for a walk to calm her nerves. She had not made it far when Kyo and Yuki decided to accompany her. The three had not spoken since she had accepted the position with Akito. For a while, no one spoke until Kyo's patience finally could not stand it anymore.

"Why did you have to go and leave?" Kyo demanded. "Were we not good enough for you?"

"Ano…" Tohru stopped; Akito hated it when she said that. The thought involuntarily brought tears to her eyes. "You are free aren't you?" Tohru cried her emotions getting the better as she tried to keep calm. She began to rub her belly in an attempt to calm down. Kyo's bewildered expression was not helping matters and Yuki seemed to be contemplating something.

"I got cursed with Akito and you all are now free." Tohru tried to pull herself together but failed as she crumpled to the ground. As she sobbed helplessly, she heard the unmistakable voices of Haru and Momiji approaching.

"Tohru!" Momiji yelled running to her crumpled form.

"What the hell did you two do to her?" Haru demanded glaring at the stunned Kyo and Yuki.

"Come on Tohru lets get you back to the house." Momiji said his eyes flashing dangerously at the cat and rat. Haru got on Tohru's other side. Together the three walked back to the compound. Along with Hatori and Shigure, Momiji and Haru knew what it cost Tohru to stay with Akito.

They would see her around; she would have bruises or be crawling on all fours. Akito would laugh and heap abuse on her. There were moments though that they were not suppose to see. Moments where Akito would be singing to her belly or watching her sleep, drawing her picture. Sometimes maids and the zodiac members would come across them sitting together in the garden. Tohru would have her head on Akito's lap and he would be rubbing her back. Everyone had come to the same conclusion, in his own way Akito truly loved her.

Akito no longer abused the members of the zodiac. He seemed to tolerate them now, only occasionally scolding them or yelling. As he grew weaker, he took amusement from their antics. All bitterness at his lot in life seemed to be gone. When he had died, it was as if he had never done any wrong. People seemed to forget all the bad things someone had done while they lived when that person died. Akito was a testimony to that.

Tohru took to her bed following the incident with Kyo. She was closing in on her due date. Momiji and Haru took to sleeping in her bed to keep her company. Hatori and Shigure moved next door. One night two weeks after Akito's funeral, Tohru woke because she felt an undeniable pressure in her lower back. Rolling out of the bed, she went to the rest room and experienced a contraction that made her fall to her knees screaming in pain.

When the pain stopped, Tohru grabbed onto the windowsill and pulled herself up. Looking out she saw the blue moon that she had been so excited to see. Again, pain brought her to her knees. Tohru had been feeling contractions on and off all day but none this sharply or this close together. On her knees, she crawled to the porch facing the gardens.

"If I am going to die in labor then by god I am going to have a view." She thought. This single-minded determination got her to the gazebo in the middle of the garden. It looked like she would have the baby by herself if not for two serendipitous things.

The first being Shigure woke to come and check on her. Finding her gone he immediately roused Momiji, Haru and Hatori who sat out to find her. After an hour of searching by moonlight, no one had any luck until Momiji felt every hair on his body stand up as he looked at the garden. Momiji had always been lucky; this was the second serendipitous occurrence. Tohru was beginning to feel sick; the baby was not coming out. As she prepared herself to see, Akito again faster than she thought Hatori appeared.

It was too late to move her when Hatori arrived. Sending the others off to get his supplies Hatori eyed her. He saw the fear, the anxiety, self-loathing and he could not bear it.

"Tohru look at me." Hatori told her sternly. Tohru looked at him and watched as he but to fingers to his forehead. An almost blinding white light appeared; rendering Hatori's eyes behind his glasses invisible. The two fingers hit Tohru neatly between her eyebrows. "You won't remember this." Hatori said softly as Tohru collapsed, delivering the baby as her body slumped