Title: Unbreakable Strength

Chapter 10: Wilted Flowers Bloom Too

Authors Note: We are officially in the double digits for chapters! Woo-hoo! I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far. I just finished my chapter time line, so it's great to know exactly where the story is heading.

A fun little fact – Mira's horse is modeled after possibly the sweetest mare I've ever known. They share the same name, looks, and personality and so far is the only character whom I've drawn inspiration from the outside world. Mira and Liv are completely fictional.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket or any of the characters. However, my dear little Mira Liore Nolan is mine and mine alone along with the lovely Liv Cyrene Nolan.

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. ~ J. R. R. Tolkien

You would think that sooner or later, I would grow accustomed to the darkness, the quietness, the nothing. It's the nothing that leaves the soul thirty and dried out, melting away like the snow in the middle of March. I didn't. Like a hopeless flower surrendering to the icy October winds, I withered and crumpled up in the corner. My despair ripped apart my chest, and removed my heart in one quick grasp that left me breathless.

Like all winters, the flowers bloom again and with the night the dawn brings the sun. I held on, and once again I was free in the sunshine, blooming.

The cold metal nearly imprinted against Liv's soft skin of her palm as she skipped out of Hatori's study, a guilty look flashed across her eyes.

"Sorry Hari," she whispered, ducking her head as she made a bee line to the car she had only seen Hatori drive. Thankfully in America her father had seen a need for her to learn how to drive underage. He had always had a weak heart despite the irony of being a doctor, and if he had a heart attack behind the wheel it was imperative that she could take over.

Liv had to compose herself before she took out the keys from her pocket and clicked the door open. Her eyes rose to glance around, to make sure no one was witness of her crime. With a nervous chuckle after jumping from the rustle of leaves (damn rabbit), she opened the door and slid into the leather seats that squeaked her arrival. With a vague idea of what Akito would do to her if he found out she stole a Sohma car, she stuck the keys in the ignition and turned.

To hell with Akito.

The engine purred when she lightly tapped the gas pedal with the edge of her toe. This was highly childish to sneak off in the morning light all because she felt a strong desire coursing through her. Liv had to get out; she needed a new setting if only for a few hours.

Behind her closed lids, she saw the faint outline of the cramped room she had been shoved in for nearly two weeks. The illusion in her head alone was enough to burst through the Sohma Main House entrance way and drive. She drove on the verge of reckless, holding the gas pedal with a lead foot. The scar flew around the tight corners and over nature's speed bumps old tree roots and larger rocks. There was no gate; no fence around her and the open area gave Liv a pleasant shiver that ran down her spine.

With a grin, she stomped down on the gas again.

The sight of town was as pleasant to Liv as a convict who had just skipped out of their parole after serving eight years in jail. Her first stop was to a pay phone. She dropped enough cash into the phone to please it and then dialed a familiar set of numbers.

The phone rang, and she began to doubt anyone would pick up until a familiar click and "Hello?" echoed in her ear.

"Hey mom," she said as nonchalant as possible. On the other side there was a gasp.

"H-How did you, they let you contact me?" the surprise ripped through her voice.

"I snuck out," she replied. Liv rolled her eyes, though the facial gesture would be missed by the lady on the phone. Thousands of miles away, her mother for all purposes, Terri, gasped and had to grab onto the counter to keep her up.

"Why? Don't you know how ang-"

"Don't give me that crap mother, as if you cared. You practically cried tears of joy when they sent their fancy lawyer to claim me," Liv snapped, the anger that twisted and churned in her eyes was alive with passion.

Her mother mumbled something incoherent across the distance, so Liv had to press her ear to the phone to barely hear her mention that it wasn't tears of joy.

"Sweetie," she began in the most apologetic tone Liv had ever heard her use, "I didn't want that man to take you, I didn't want you to go to the Sohma's. On Warner's deathbed is pleaded me with to take care of you as if you were my own, and I've always considered you my own daughter. It tore me up to see him drag you out that door, to be rendered helpless by red tape and forced contracts. Liv, sweetie, I wasn't happy to see you go, not in any sense."

The phone slipped out of her hand as Liv stood there in the tiny box on the corner. Through the phone line her name was called, but she didn't hear. A teardrop slid down her cheek, followed by another one. All this time, so many months she had let hatred dominate her emotions towards Terri when her stepmother had stood by useless as they dragged her away. She hadn't fought, because the war had already been won. Quickly, Liv made a grab for the phone and shoved it up against her ear.

"Y-You didn't blame me? You didn't hate me?"

"Oh sweetie, now where in the world would you ever get a notion like that?" the voice was almost amused, as if it was the most childish thing in the world to believe.

"People here are very persuasive and talented at lies," Liv replied as she shut her eyes and thought back to her first meeting with Akito – how he symphonized on the disgust Terri must have felt whenever she accidently changed into her zodiac form. How said it was when he received a call from Terri, how her voice pleaded and begged for them to take this….this monster off her hands. How the second her adoptive father had stopped breathing she had raced for her cell phone, she had offered them money.

"You never called them?" Liv questioned, her voice anticipated the answer. This changed nothing, she reminded herself. Her answer didn't change a thing.

"Why would I call them? Those low lives, child stealing, sneaky sons of a bitches with no morals or ethnical…" her hatred streamed through the phone lines as she hissed the vulgar words. Liv smirked as she could imagine the heat that crawled in her mother's face when something angered her, how overly passionate and careless she was with her words.

"I'll get a lawyer Liv, you went so willingly, I let myself too easily believe, 'this is what she wants' I don't know how, but I will get you –" her voice cut off as the phone went dead.

Liv whirled around to stare at a pair of smothering eyes that stared back at her. In his hands was the phone curled.

"You shouldn't have done this," Hatori sighed. Liv's eyes remained wide, her mind seemed detached from her body as he had to pull her out of the private phone booth. He debated for a moment and then sighed when he noticed how large and nearly hysterical her eyes were. Alarm pulsed with every beat of her heart.

"Call her back, tell her you never want to speak to her again, tell her both of your lives depend on pretending this phone call never occurred, Liv…" his voice nearly broke, for only a second as he watched devastation hurl in her pain twisted eyes. "It's the only way to save her, hurt her, hurt her to save her so Akito never finds out."

Numbly, Liv accepted the money from him and dialed the phone again. As it rang, she didn't say a single word to Hatori, didn't ask how he found her, why he cared. It hardly mattered at this point.

"Liv?" her voice was breathless, worried. Liv knew she would be running a hand through her hair; her eyes would be wider than hers at the moment with her green eyes radiating.

"Don't ever try to find me Terri, don't contact, don't' visit, and do not find a lawyer. I never said I was unhappy, the Sohma's provide me with anything I need. My life is one of luxury," her voice was low and threatening. She was becoming a rather good liar. It helped if the person didn't have the chance to watch how her eyes would stare off in another direction.

"What…Honey no it's okay, don't worry, I'm going to make everything better, I'm going to bring you home" she insisted, her voice trilled with shock, hesitant when she had heard Liv call her 'Terri' and not mother.

"Aren't you listening? I am home and I know the truth. You lied to me, you never told me about my real mother and father, you never told me about Mira," she forced her voice to grow hard and not tremble, "You lied to me, how would I ever trust a cold and calculating bitch like you? I'm glad Warner's dead, he never had to see you in this pathetic state, shoving me into the hands of the psychiatric ward," the last words came out as a hiss. Liv barely paid attention as Terri attempted to explain herself, how Liv had gone catatonic after Warner died and kept mumbling about her curse, how she'd die with the curse.

"Leave me alone Terri, I don't ever want to deal with you again, just stay out of my life," with that, Liv slammed the phone down on the receiver. Her knees buckled underneath her and she swayed. Hatori just caught her as the sobs ripped from her chest and she cried. She cried for her fate, for the agony Terri was feeling, for the pain she had put Mira through, for the dead look in Warner's eyes when his hand went limp in hers. She cried for the zodiac and she even cried a little bit for Akito, for whatever had made him so hard and cruel must have been devastating. Selfishly, she cried mostly for herself.

After Hatori had awkwardly held her while she shed her last tears, she numbly handed the car keys over to him. It surprised her when she noticed they went in the opposite way to the main Sohma residence.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked in a defeated voice.

"Out, you've been locked up in that house for too long, as I warned you," he replied.

"Fine," for once, Liv didn't have the strength or desire to argue. Her stubbornness melted away like an ice cube in the middle of July.

It seemed to her that they drove for hours. She looked out the window and saw nothing but fields of green, up above the sky was tinted an impressive blue, not a fluffy white cloud in sight. Hatori kept his hands on the wheel, his eyes on the road and his lips sealed. Liv wasn't sure if this made the trip more or less uncomfortable than it already felt. For the first time since she had arrived at the Sohma house, she felt self-conscious, this was ridiculous.

"Hatori, why are you doing this to me? Just take me back and let's get his wrath over with," she insisted, "I really don't see why you care so much," why you have to care so much.

"We left early to visit some various all girl boarding schools, none of them left a good impression on you," he responded, "since we were already out, we decided to stay at one of the Sohma's lake houses, it seemed appropriate as I had been driving all day and you were exhausted from looking at the various schools."

It took Liv a minute to realize that was their cover up, he wasn't going to mention the phone call to Akito, Terri would be safe.

"Thank you," her voice strained, it wasn't often that Liv felt the need to express gratitude.

Hatori rounded a bend and she could see a pretty little lake house on sight. The first thing she was going to do was go up to the top cliff and dive into the water and come up new and ready to begin again. She would forget how that dark room had made her feel, how it had wilted her away to nothing. She would restore her faith, and try to believe even when the darkness closed in around her and it felt as if the sun would never break over the horizon.

Liv did good on her promise as she stole out of the house and took a long walk up to the cliffs. The water glistened below and a small thrill raced up her spine. The air was calm; the current non-existent so swimming back to shore wouldn't be a problem. She walked slowly to the edge and smiled, her arms fawned out and she inhaled deeply, the salty air filled her lungs.

One moment she filtered on the edge of ground and air, of reason and insanity, she grinned broadly when she decided to chose insanity…and jumped.

The feeling was exhilarating as her body plummeted for a short twenty seconds before the water smacked against her body and she sunk to the bottom of the water. She hit the ground rather hard and pushed against the sandy ground with her bare feet. Her body shot up and like a torpedo she zoomed up to the surface. Her body broke the calm peaceful waters as she emerged. Large ripples expanded from her as she swam back to the shore. She was slightly surprised to see Hatori on the beach. His eyes held amusement, but she felt the air stir as he began a lecture.

"That was very foolish," he began, Liv waved him off.

"Haven't you ever been foolish Hatori? You should try it at least once, it's good for the soul. The adrenaline rush is fantastic," she insisted as she walked up to the shore.

"You had no idea on the deepness of the water," Hatori insisted, he drifted off, not willing to finish the sentance on the threat of what could have happened if her neck had snapped against the ground of shallow water.

"As if I were to be so lucky," Liv snorted. She had to ring out the water from her hair, "besides, cliff diving is a recreational sport, google it," she suggested before turning away from him.

His hand unexpectedly shot out and grabbed her wrist. Liv half turned and stared at him with shock.

"Alright, show me."

For a moment Liv was speechless, a rare occurrence. She had to gather her bearings before she managed to give a small half smile. "Alright, follow me then," without any real notion of the consequences of what she was doing, she lead him up the rocky formation to where she had stood not ten minutes ago.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked as he seemed to balk at the height. He stood nearly at the edge, his eyes stared off to the sky and Liv wondered if he even acknowledged her existence at that point or time.

She had no idea that Hatori was away in his mind, thinking of how much Kana would have enjoyed this.

"Hatori?" irritated, she called his name again, and snapped him to reality.

"You just jump?" he asked, giving her a raised eye brow as she walked to the edge. In a movement that surprised even her-self, she took his hand.

"Jump," she commanded, and so they did.