Title: Unyielding Courage

Chapter 12: Roses in December

Authors Note: This very special chapter has a song dedicated to it called One Moment More by Mindy Smith. I encourage everyone to jump on YouTube and listen to this fabulous, and very tender and somber song. Thank you to all who have reviewed! It means the world to me to know that this story interests people and is worth their time to read. I promise to keep the updates going as well as I have in the past few days.

I'll even give you the link to the song. : )

.com/watch?v=Jzu3Ihyq50c

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 who are still currently utilizing all their energies to hunting down the demon mentioned above.

One Moment More ~ Mindy Smith


Oh, please don't go, Let me have you just one moment more
Oh, all I need, All I want is just one moment more
You've got to hold me and maybe I'll believe
So hold me, Even though I know you're leaving


She had been shaking so violently, her spine curling into the crevices of the shaggy run down couch that had Kanji second guessing the hypnosis and drawing her quickly out of the trance of memories that were obviously conflicting and torrential drowning her in an aggressive sea of consternation and somber affliction. Each step he counted down he saw her flinch and heard her whimper in destitute, pulling at the strings of his heart for a girl who did her best to keep her chin up and the tears from her eyes. As Liv welcomed her to the world, he saw the bleak discomfort in her eyes, how she gripped at the edge of the mattress and quickly stifled the sound of a feeble cry scraping up the sensitive tube of her throat that rippled hollowly from pallid lips. "I'm sorry," his voice pitched as he stumbled emotionally over the words, the usual deep and velvet baritone of his voice sounding scratchy and echoing off to a distance as he glanced with guilty flint steel eyes to Liv, "You were right."

Liv snorted, her hands wringing uncomfortably behind her back as she barred her alabaster white teeth, "A little late to admit that now," she snapped, sinking onto the couch to slowly ease her fingers around Mira's shoulders and give a gentle shake, "You wanted to remember. You asked for this," Liv reminded her bitterly. It wouldn't help to coddle or try and ease the pain away now. Mira had to face it full frontal again.

Those perfect violently purple eyes flashed with each blink, with each pulse she felt a similar dead beat off in the distance, an echo of a heartbeat that had once pulsated just for her. She remembered the sensation and feel of his lips, how smooth and marbled they felt against her own – and indescribably warm and comforting. Or how he gripped her tightly, and made her feel safe and comforted through torrential days and everlasting nights. She remembered how gentle and good he was, how protective and kind when he remained her sturdy shoulder because she couldn't bare the weight of her problems alone. Mostly she remembered his love, how unconditional and irrevocable that love had gone without limits or questions. Never did he falter or break with the genuine love he had for her. She bit down hard on her lip, and felt the metallic flavor of blood flow between her sharp teeth that dulled the constricting pain in her heart. It wasn't until Liv shook her shoulders that she drew back from the comatose, paralyzed status she had been frozen to. Her eyes flickered back with life as she glanced dully towards her sister's cruel and poignant glare.

"I warned you," she began, her 'I told you so' lecture broken off by Mira's hand smacking across her cheek.

"Don't. Don't you dare say you warned me! I had to remember, you and I both know that. You did nothing to warn me about exactly what I would remember!" she could feel the hot sticky tears build up and slide down her cheeks. With a quick finger she dashed away the pesky evidence of her sorrows and clung to the backbone that still remained strong and sturdy through her core.

"You're not a zodiac anymore! Our affairs no longer concern or include you. Just give up this ridiculous dream of yours that this curse can be broken. It can't. It. Can't. You were lucky, take it as it is and get the hell out of Japan. Go back to the states Mira," Liv hissed as she flew up, knocking straight into Kanji's chest and letting out a frustrated screech between her clenched teeth before a cloud of smoke expanded across the room and a furious sparrow frittered up from the ground to perch against the backside of the couch.

My sister is no longer apart of you, Mira.

Swiping the salty globs of teardrops from her defined cheekbones, Mira's head snapped up, her bronze liquid eyes startled at the intelligent expression on the sparrows face.

Yes, you can still hear me.

"Liv?" she asked, her voice scratchy and raw with affliction.

She'll be alright. It's not my intentions to hurt her. I've hoped to speak to you for awhile, Liv doesn't make it easy. I am Gallius."

For a split second, Mira nearly smiled at the sparrow. She highly doubted Liv made anything easy for anyone.

You're learning too much, too quickly. Be very careful Mira. Our God is a desperate one, and that makes him dangerous. He won't appreciate if you figure out how to undo our bonds, if it's possible. Even my brothers and sisters are having doubts. Perhaps we deserve to pay for our sins for an eternity.

"Not at the sacrifice of us," Mira warned thickly, her heart felt battered and bruised against a constricting rib cage as she hugged her arms close to her chest, goose bumps mottled across her olive skin.

Hurry Mira, please, hurry.

"I – I'm sorry, I can't, I don't," she whimpered as the sparrow spread his dark wings and noisily flapped out of the two story window, her words stuck in her throat as she hugged her knees close to her stomach. How could she function, how could she breath after what she remembered? "Kanji," she whispered hoarsely, "I need some time alone."


Tell me that someday you'll be returning
And maybe, Maybe I'll believe
It's just enough to see a shooting star
To know you're never really far
It's just enough to see a shooting star
To know you're never really gone


Give me, Just one part of you to cling to
And keep me, Everywhere you are
It's just enough to steal my heart and run
And fade out with the falling sun


The grass tipped with its decorative icing of frost crunched under her heavy feet as she clashed through the forest, her breath turning white before her eyes as she brushed back the thick foliage and forced herself to exhale and inhale calmly. In her hand she tightly clasped a boutique of red roses that nearly dragged against the long emerald blades surviving the first frost of the morning. Her cheeks were rosy red and her fingers numb to the touch by the time she stumbled through the brush to nearly land on the untidy and neglected garden hidden away from the rest of the world.

Her knees collapsed onto the ground, the grass shattering like glass under her weight as she placed the roses to her nose and inhaled deeply, her throat aching as she stiffened a sob and gasped deeply. "You promised to visit me, in the hospital. That's the first thing I remember about you. You made a promise," she smiled somberly, laying a single rose in the first row of the forgotten and lost garden, "And you kept it."

She laid a second rose down, and blinked back the tears, "And then you found me, after I transformed and was panicked out of my mind. You were so collected and understanding, I needed that. I needed someone to tell me everything was alright," and now, nothing would ever be alright again. She clutched the roses tightly, and inhaled to steady herself as she selected another one. "And this is for the time you said you'd always be there for me. I know you still are…somewhere, somewhere better than here. And you held me, and I felt anchored to the ground and safe," she placed the flower down gingerly, and rubbed her eyes quickly to chase away the tears.

Choking back the silent sobs, she ran the tips of her frozen bare fingers over the next rose, "This is for Valentine's Day," she inhaled the scent of the rose deeply, and sweetly smiled in remembrance, "When you asked me to be yours, and I said yes, yes I will." her hand trembled as she laid the rose down. She picked up the fourth one, and felt a shudder down her spine as it curled in quiet defeat, her face sinking into the despair of her shoulder as she took unsteady breaths, "For our first kiss in the hot springs," she gasped and selected another one, "For the patience it must have took to teach me how to garden, and sharing your secret spot with me…." a strangled laugh that ended up in a weak cry had her making a gurgling, drowning sound, "when your brother interrupted us," she added, tossing the rose down.

"For our first fight…which, was also your brothers fault," her shoulders trembled as her face clenched tightly to hold back the tears, her teeth nipping on her bottom lip as she tossed a sixth rose down, "And for when we made up after the argument. You gave me wild flowers, and they never lost their scent, and the bracelet never lost it's shine," her fingers trembled again as she laid the rose down with gentle care, afraid that the tips would break off against her bruising fingers.

She selected the seventh long stem rose and cherished it close to her heart, "This one's special, it's for the first time you said you loved me. I had never felt so special and wanted in the moments that those three perfect words came from you," she placed the rose down before she ended up crushing the stem in her grip. She wanted to hold on, hold on tightly to each flower so she could hold on tightly to Yuki. She was letting him go…it felt like she was letting her true love go with each rose, each memory perfect and painful.

"This is for when you asked me to marry you," she hiccuped and a tear slid down her cheek as she clutched the rose tightly, "I'll always love you, with each day, I swear, I'll love you more and more, babe." her teeth clanked against each other as she let a harsh sob pass through her congested chest, her fingers fumbling with the rose. She laid number eight right next to the ninth rose, because they belonged together, "and this is for our wedding, when you vowed to love me forever, and I vowed in return. I'm going to keep that vow, I promise. And that night – that night when you promised to protect me," she violently shuttered and clutched the tenth rose, slowly allowing it to feebly fall through her fingers. She held the eleventh rose to her nose for one last sweet smell, "And this is for when you set me free, even at the price of your life," and with a strength she hadn't known she could possess, she set the flower down on the last row so a line of eleven perfect red roses ran along the outside of his garden. All the muscles in her face trembled as she took the last rose of the dozen, its petals hard and jaded that glittered in the sunlight.

This rose would last for eternity, no time or weather could wither or deform it. The petals would never fall, the stem would never age and with each day it would grow more and more brilliant in the dazzling sun as she placed it above the rest of the roses, and finally allowed the dam of tears to break, her voice pitching with the tears, "And this is forever. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything, Yuki. For all the pain I've ever brought you in trying to love you. I'm sorry." Her knees were weak and her stomach sick inside as she rose above the scarlet jaded garden and hugged her arms close to her body, letting go with the rest of her pride as tears prickled down her cheeks and splattered against the roses laid out in a garden, kept fresh by the December air.


Hold me, Even though I know you're leaving
And show me, All the reasons you would stay
It's just enough to feel your breath on mine
To warm my soul and ease my mind
You've got to hold me and show me now


Extended Authors Note: Now that this sad chapter is out of the way...well, I can't promise I won't have more sad chapters in the future, but I don't think they'll be any more of a tear-jerker than this.