Lilies

A/N: Chapter 7 here! Oh no! Akito wants to see her! Not good! By the way, I'm a pretty sadistic writer when I want to be, just so you know. Oh, and Akito is a man in this story, okay? Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not nor have I ever owned Fruits Basket or any of its characters and I sadly never will. That happiness belongs to Natsuki Takaya. However, I do own my lovely Maddy Wilde.

Maddy's point of view

Chapter 7: Visiting Akito

If Hari was afraid of this man called Akito, I knew I should be scared of him too. And the guy wanted to see me now.

Hari told me that he would get dressed and then take me to Akito. I only nodded. I dried myself off in the meantime and brushed my hair through with my fingers. In what seemed like no time at all, we were already walking to wherever Akito stayed.

"What is this place anyway?" I asked Hari.

"This is the Sohma family estate. Akito is our head of house. He lives in the center where you saw him in the window."

"Oh," was all I could say. We had reached the main house and the butterflies that had already been in my stomach had multiplied by ten. We walked inside and he took me to some double doors. Hari then knocked on the doors.

I heard a faint "enter". Hari pushed open the doors and we entered. All the shades were drawn in the room and a single lamp was lit. I saw a figure that had been sitting in a corner rise. It was Akito.

"Leave, Hatori. I would like to speak to this girl alone," he commanded. His voice was cold and it sent chills down my spine. Hari froze for a second, looking like he was ready to fight and stay with me. But I gave him a comforting look that told him I'd be okay. He just looked at me and nodded and left the room.

Akito approached me. "What is your name, girl?"

"Maddy Wilde."

"Why is you are here? What do you think you can do for us? Break our curse? Help us?! Well, you can't! YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING FOR US! YOU'RE USELESS!" he screamed. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

"I don't understand. What are you talking about a curse? Help you wh-" I started to say but I had fallen to the ground.

Akito had slapped me in the face. I fell on the ground and held my face. Akito then kicked me in the stomach. I wanted to scream out in pain, but I knew better. Everything would fall apart and become worse if I did.

Akito dropped down beside my ear and whispered dangerously, "You're worthless. A tramp, a whore, a slut. Why are you trying to take Hatori away from me? I won't let you though. This is not the end of your pain." I cringed but his last words were true. I knew better than to think my pain would ever end. I had my night terrors to make sure I remembered that.

Akito scratched his long fingernails across my face. I felt blood drip down my cheek. I wanted to cry out in agony, scream to Hatori for help, but I didn't. I couldn't.

I saw a flash of silver in Akito's hand. The next thing I felt was a searing and agonizing pain in my thigh. I looked down and saw that Akito had pushed a dagger all the way into my thigh. He moved it forcefully inside me, causing me more extreme pain, before ripping it out forcefully. He traced the knife along my face, not cutting me, but more like mocking me.

"Such a pretty face you used to have. You think Hatori will want you know with your ugly face? He won't," he snarled and flipped me onto my back. He then sat on my stomach. I had nowhere to go. I wouldn't have moved anyway. I couldn't. He pinned my arms down and whispered into my ear, "I will make you hurt so much that you will wish you were dead."

He then stabbed his dagger into my shoulder. I suppressed a scream with difficulty, but tears poured down my face.

"Aww, why are you crying, Maddy? Did you think Hatori would come in and save you? He could never love you. You're hideous. A waste of human life. Why do you still live? You have nothing worth living for. You're wasting oxygen," he said to me in a low voice. He shifted from sitting on stomach to sitting my legs. He raised the knife and plunged it deep into my stomach.

I gasped. The pain was unbelievable. With the blade still all the way in my stomach, he carved his name in small letters in my abdomen. This time, I uncontrollably screamed in pain. Akito ripped the knife out of me when Hatori burst through the door.

He looked down in horror at my bloody mangled body. His terror turned to anger as he looked at Akito.

"Akito! Let. Her. Go," he said, his face full of fury. Akito just smiled an evil smile and slashed the dagger one more time across my face.

"Akito!" Hatori shouted

"I am tired. Leave now," he said and left the room. Hatori was immediately at my side. He examined all my wounds and gasped when he saw my stomach.

"I can't believe I left you with him," he muttered, carefully picking me up and sprinting back to his house. I started to breathe heavier. A moment ago, I had felt some of the worst pain. But now, I felt numb. That couldn't be good, but it felt nice. I looked up at his face. It was full of worry, concern, and fear.

I touched his cheek with my hand. He looked down at me while he was running. My voice came in a hoarse whisper.

"It's okay, Hari. I can't even feel it. Don't blame yourself; you couldn't disobey your head of house. Really, it's alright," I told him. His eyes were full of sadness. That was the last thing I saw before I blacked out.

Hatori's point of view

I can't believe I let Maddy get hurt this badly. I can't believe I let her get hurt at all. I can't believe Akito did this to her. She didn't even know about the curse and she was still hurt. She was hurt just because she was here.

Maddy was hurt just because I fell in love with her.

I don't know how I possibly did. I mean, I've only known her for several days. But there's just something about her that I can't shake. I feel ridiculous for falling for her in just a few days when I haven't let anyone else in for so long after Kana. Maybe this is what people call 'love at first sight'.

She had fainted by now, probably from loss of blood and overbearing pain. I had to get her back to my clinic immediately. I couldn't let her get any more unstable. She had three stab wounds and several deep gashes and lacerations. On the left side of her face, it looked like Akito had dug his nails into her cheek. There was also a large bruise under the little signature and stab wound on her stomach. It seemed that he had either punched or kicked her.

I burst through the door of my clinic and immediately set her gently on the cool, metal operating table. I carefully but quickly cut off her shirt and cut her pants so that they were like short shorts so I could get to the wounds more easily.

I worked on the stomach wound first since it was the worst. It appeared that Akito had stabbed her stomach, but he had also probably damaged some internal organs. It was very deep and I had to stop the bleeding quickly. I pressed several sterile towels against her abdomen, but they were quickly soaked with blood. I grabbed several more and they seemed to stop it. Now that it had stopped bleeding, I could clean it. I wiped away excess blood that was in it. I now had to close the severe wound. It would probably take about ten stitches. I set to work right away, sewing her stomach up.

After I had tightly stitched her up, I wrapped gauze and bandages firmly around her abdomen. I then started to work on her shoulder and thigh injuries. Once they were done, I wrapped them strongly in gauze and bandages as well.

Now I had to fix the poor girl's face the best that I could. There were four long gashes on the left side of her face from Akito's fingers. On the right side of her face, there was a long, deep gash made by the dagger that went from under her eye to her jawbone. I very well couldn't wrap her head in bandages like a mummy, so all I could do was clean them and let them heal with oxygen on their own. I'm certain they will leave some scars, maybe permanent, on her face, but if she wants to, she can get the scars off her face with some face surgery. Though I think that she's beautiful either way.

After I had gotten all of her injuries secure and stable, I hooked her up to a heart monitor and put an oxygen mask on her. Just to be safe. Then I did the only thing I could. I sat there beside her, held her hand, and waited for her to wake up.

Maddy's point of view

I felt like I was floating- no, I felt like I was falling, fast- through blackness. There was nothing everywhere. I tried to grab onto something, anything to keep me from falling. But there was nothing. No ending of this tunnel, this pitfall, wherever I was.

Maybe I'm trapped in my own mind. Maybe I'm just in some freakish nightmare and it'll all be over soon and I'll wake up, Hari there asking me if I'm alright.

Yeah, right.

Hari would never be there. He would never love me. Akito is right. I'm worthless. Pathetic. Stupid. Idiotic. Useless. A waste of human life.

I don't even feel the pain anymore. Maybe I'm dead. Then again, I've felt pain worse than that, I think. I wonder if he was surprised that I didn't fight back, defend myself. Maybe he was happy about it, maybe he felt powerful. I just felt vulnerable, weak.

I felt like I used feel to before I came here, to Japan.

All of a sudden I stopped falling. I froze in midair. Right in front me I saw a small light. Like the light at the end of a tunnel. Was it heaven? Was I really dead? Maybe I'm waking up. I don't want to. I'll hurt. I'll see Akito and him again. I can't handle that. I can't go back.

But if I go back, I can see Hari again. Even if he could never love me, I still want to see him. I want to see Shigure too. And Ayaa. I don't want to leave them. I've known them for a week at least, but they already feel like family. I really love them all, even if I seem to hate them. Hate is my defense. I block people out. I put up a wall and never let people in.

But now my wall has crumbled and fallen and now I'm hurt. I don't know if the falling wall hurt me, or if it was the people that came rampaging into my life through my barrier's crumbled remains. But it doesn't matter if I'm hurt, broken, crippled. All that matters is that the ones that I love are okay. That they're happy and not worrying about me.

Even if they hate me for lying there and letting Akito hurt me, it'll be okay. They can hate me as long as they're happy. Even if they kick me out and say they never want to see me again, I'll survive. Barely, but I will. And even if I have to go back to America, go back to him, I'll do it so the Sohmas I love can be happy.

But lying here, dead to the world, wasn't going to do anyone any good. I had to wake up.

I had made my decision and went towards the light.

I flickered my eyes open. I saw the ceiling. I blinked at the harsh florescent lights. I turned my head to the right and came face to face with Hari.

"You're awake," he breathed. He looked down at the floor and whispered, "Thank God." He laughed a weak laugh and looked into my eyes.

"How do you feel, Maddy?" Hari asked, worry in every crevice of his voice.

"I don't know," I said. My voice came out as a small, hoarse, whisper. I sounded like a scared little child. I hated being like this.

"I'm so sorry. I never should have left you, Maddy. I knew Akito had a temper. It's all my fault," he shook his head at himself and looked to the floor, covering his face with his hands.

My eyes widened and I shook my head furiously. I wasn't about to let him feel guilty just because I let someone beat me up. I wasn't going to let him feel sad.

"No," I said firmly. He looked up at me, a bit shocked at how firm I'd been, and surprised at my outburst as well. I shook my head again.

"It could never be your fault. I let him hurt me. I didn't defend myself. It's my fault. Please don't feel guilty. Please. That's the last thing I want," I said in a pleading voice, gazing into his eyes, practically begging him for forgiveness. I had worried him too much. I got hurt, and now he was sad.

"Maddy, he took advantage of you. And…and I let him. I left you alone. I knew how horrible his wrath could get, but I still left you. Maddy, he had a knife. How could you have defended yourself? You were weaponless. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine or it's… it's Akito's," he said, struggling to say Akito's name. It was like he had a hard time blaming his head of house.

Then a thought suddenly occurred to me. I looked at Hatori and asked, "Hari, when Akito was screaming at me, he said something about a curse. What was he talking about?"

He looked away from me and said, "I don't know. It's probably nothing. Just nonsense in a fury-filled rampage."

Uh-uh, buddy. You can't just lie to me like that. It's so not going to happen.

"Hatori Sohma, you tell me right now or I swear I will rip these stitches up. I'll do it. Then I'll go back to see Akito too," I said in a voice as threatening as I could manage. He looked back up at me in disbelief.

"You wouldn't."

"Oh, I so would."

He let out a sigh of defeat and gave in. "Fine, I'll tell you. Besides, he already thinks you know."

I clapped my hands in glee and squealed, "Yay! Story time!" Hari chuckled.

"Alright, so first off the curse is called the Zodiac curse or the Jyuunishi Curse. Do you know the story of the Twelve Zodiac animals?" I nodded and he continued. "Good. Okay, so twelve of us- well thirteen if you count the cat, which the curse does, though he is an outcast-are cursed by the Zodiac animals' spirits. Whenever one of us are hugged by a person of the opposite sex or are under a great deal of stress, we transform into a zodiac animal."

I interrupted him. "Oh! Which one are you, Hari?" I asked with my eyes full of curiosity and excitement.

"I am the dragon, but I appear as a seahorse. We are not sure why this is, but Shigure and I believe it may be because the curse is weakening. But we cannot be certain. Anyway, Akito is the god from the story. That is why we must obey him. That is why most of us fear him. We can't leave him. And Maddy, he's scared of you. He's scared you'll take his family away, his zodiac."

"B-but he can't be scared of me! Look at me! I'm five feet tall! I don't even defend myself when I'm attacked. How can I possibly be feared by anyone?" I questioned. I was the one who feared Akito. Terrified of him actually. How could he in any sane world be scared of puny me?

"Because you can take his family away, his precious zodiac. You can take his power. He craves power and you can ruin it all for him. He's horrified of that thought and of you, so to solve the problem, he resorts to violence," Hari trailed off at the end, looking down at my body, something even I hadn't looked at yet.

I looked down and gasped. I didn't gasp because of the appearance of my mangled body. I gasped because as soon as I saw it, pain shot through me. How did I feel this now just because I had seen the injuries? There was gauze wrapped tightly around my middle. I also noticed that my shirt was cut open at my left shoulder. There was also gauze there, wrapped firmly under my armpit and around my shoulder. My pants had been cut too and there was bandages wrapped firmly around my right thigh. I felt like a mummy. There was also small scratches on nearly every inch of me I could see.

I slowly raised my hands to my face, hoping there was little to no damage there.

I hoped wrong.

By the feel of it, it was damaged pretty badly. But I wanted to see it for myself.

"Hari, give me a mirror, please," I asked calmly.

He looked at my face and shook his head. "No."

I crossed my arms, cringing at the movement of my shoulder and glared at him. "Hatori Sohma, give me a fucking mirror right this instant."

He sighed. "If you really want to see…" he grabbed a nearby hand mirror and handed it to me. I held it in front of my face and gasped.

My face looked like it had been mauled by a bear. Well, maybe that was a little overdramatic. But still, it looked really bad. There were four long cuts on the left and a deep gash going diagonally down my right and little scratches everywhere too.

I didn't want to look at myself anymore. I was hideous. I was ugly, just how Akito wanted. I set the mirror down beside me and curled up into a ball. I turned away from Hatori. I cried like a little baby. There weren't huge sobs. They were more like soft, heartbreaking tears.

"Maddy…Maddy, why are you crying? Please look at me, Maddy," Hari pleaded. I shook my head.

"Then at least tell me what's wrong."

I sniffled and whispered, "My face…it's horrible…"

Hari was silent for a minute before he burst out with laughter. I spun around to look at him. He was actually laughing. Is he mental?

"Is that really all? Maddy, you're still beautiful. Really. No scars, scratches, or bruises could change that. Nothing at all." Hari said, still laughing a bit.

I just stared at him. Hari really thought I was beautiful?

"Hari…do you really think I'm beautiful? Even like this?"

He stopped laughing and smiled at me. It was a gorgeous smile. I wish I could see it all the time. "Yes, Maddy, I do."

I felt tears well up in my eyes, but they didn't fall. "And you don't hate because I didn't defend myself?"

His eyes enlarged. "No! Of course not! How could I possibly hate you, Maddy?"

The tears spilled over. Hari wiped them away. I looked up at him, blurry eyed from the tears. I saw him come closer. I don't know why, but let's just say instincts told me to move closer too. So I did.

And we kissed.

It's not like it was anything passionate. We weren't opening our mouths and getting all slimy with our tongues. It was a calm kiss, a loving kiss. It was gentle, as if he was trying not to hurt me while kissing me, if that was possible.

When we pulled away, he did the most unbelievable thing ever. That moron apologized.

"I'm sorry…" he muttered.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Well, I didn't ask you or anything…"

"Did you or did you not see me come closer too? There is absolutely no need to apologize. Here," I grabbed his face and pulled him to my lips and kissed him. When I pulled away, I said, "There, now we're even."

A/N: heheee. Sorry for cussing, but it just fits her personality. ^_^