Chapter 20:
Yuki tapped his foot impatiently and crossed his arms over his chest in defiance. I glared back at him; filth, I hate him even more now.
Before me and Shishou went to the party, I decided something. Something important. I'm not going to run away from my problems ever again. I vowed that I would stay and fight. Even though I have said this on countless occasions, this time was different. This time was real.
Yuki, as it happens, is one of my problems, therefore, I am not going to stand down from this. I will fight.
"Give it up already, stupid cat." He sneered, "I know you are doing this just to spite me so could you please stop being so disagreeable and let me into the bathroom so that I can collect my toothbrush." He sounded exasperated; annoyed.
"I've told you already," I growl back, "It's my toothbrush so piss off."
Yuki rolls his eyes, "I am not going to fight you over something as petty as this."
"Oh, yeah? Well it's on!" I am not giving in to this damn rat, "Consider this a challenge! If I win, I get the toothbrush, I you win, I get the toothbrush!"
"What!" He replies angrily, "How does that even work?"
"Well it's my toothbrush anyway!"
"No it isn't! That's the one I've been using!"
"Let's take this outside!"
Suddenly Tohru appears over Yuki's shoulder in the doorway, "Umm…" She says timidly, "I-I was wondering if I could just get my toothbrush."
I can feel the back of my neck beginning to prickle and heat up. I lower my gaze to the floor and contemplate the colour of the tiles.
"Ah, Miss Honda. How lucky." Yuki says in a disgustingly sweet voice, "You are just the person we need. Kyo here is under the impression that my toothbrush is in fact his. Do you think you can explain to him that his toothbrush is the blue one?"
He looks pointedly at me and I raise my arm to allow Tohru to see the toothbrush have in my hand, but don't meet her eyes.
"Oh, ummm…" A pink tinge spreads across her cheeks, "Um, Kyo Kun, Yuki Kun, I believe that that is my toothbrush."
I point triumphantly at Yuki with the toothbrush, "Ha! Wait-" And then the penny drops; Hang on a second, I've been using that toothbrush for weeks! We all have been. I drop it to the ground in disgust. I've been using the same toothbrush as Yuki! Gross!
I quickly grab one of the spare, and apparently unused, toothbrushes from the sink and speed out of the bathroom to finish my packing.
. . .
We have three hours before Ayame picks us up to take us to the airport. Which means I have three hours to pack: easy.
I throw a pile of clean clothes into my bag and begin to gather some other items I will need.
I think about Akito. Even though I have assured Tohru that he won't know anything about our trip, while trying to stay strong and positive, I can't shake the horrible feeling that maybe he will figure it out. Hunt us down. What would happen then? He would probably erase Tohru's memory right there. I can't let that happen. I can't let anything happen to her.
Akito is another one of my problems. I have never had the courage to hope for the curse being broken. It would break me every time I realised that my prayers hadn't come true. So I have gone for the approach of fighting for inclusion in the zodiac. I know that Yuki think's it's stupid, and I know that it probably is, but what he can never understand is the fear that I have of getting locked up. Well, not so much that, more the fear of not being needed. I doubt that anyone will notice when I am gone. They will probably be relieved. My thoughts stray; as they often do; to Tohru. I wonder if she would miss me.
Anyway, if becoming part of the Zodiac is a way around the sense of loneliness, I will try my best to achieve it. I will fight for it, I must fight for it; for me, for Tohru.
. . .
I sigh. My packing is finally finished. I thought about going downstairs but figured that Yuki was probably there so decided against it. So I head, instead, for the roof.
I have two hours and forty minutes of time to myself. I climb the ladder for the last time for a couple of weeks and lie down. Some time passes before I see Tohru walking home from the shop with Yuki. So he wasn't downstairs after all.
I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck quivering and I narrow my eyes in suspicion. I don't know what annoys me more; the fact that they went together or the fact they didn't tell me they were going. I growl a bit under my breath and can feel my temper rising.
This is my third; and debatably most troubling; problem. Tohru. I learnt a lot on that day I saw her a Yuki. I learnt that I need to fight harder now, to be free of the curse, in whatever way I can, and not just for me anymore. It is suddenly a whole lot bigger and confusing. What's worse is that as broken as I was before, I am even more so now, because what I have to loose has so much more value than just me and with so much more meaning.
I spent so much time trying to block out what I though was bad for me, when in fact, it could be what saves me. I spent so much time worrying about Kyoko and needing to tell Tohru and about everything that I've done. All of those terrible secrets. Poison disillusioning me.
After all this time, I've done just the opposite of what I wanted to do, what I needed to do; love Tohru.
I Will find a way out of this, I promise, because I love her. Tohru.
. . .
"Oooo! Heloooo!" Ayame throws the door open dramatically and whirls into the room whilst throwing flowers for some reason undenounced to any living creature beside himself.
"Ah! Hello." Tohru smiled up at Ayame's cloaked, lanky figure.
"Why Tohru, how absolutely ravishing you look today! How have you been? Getting these two troublesome boys out of trouble I suspect. Ahahaha! I must say, I am quite taken by the dress you are-oh yes! One of mine, how silly of me not to recognise it immediately. Naturally it looks wonderful on you." Ayame flicked his long silver hair over his shoulder and brushed some stray flower petals off his robes.
He was, as usual, wearing very flamboyant clothes which consisted of a fresh, lime green shirt with gaping sleeves and a pair of matching fisherman pants. Around his neck and draping his shoulders was a sparkling red cape which appeared to be made of velvet or alternatively some kind of furry cashmere.
His laughing grey eyes scanned the room, "I apologise for arriving so early." His tone had changed to more business-like but his voice retained its joyfulness, "I hope that it is not inconvenient but you see, Mine convinced me that I should assist my dear brother with his packing. And, as I have said before, Mine always knows what is right." He beamed at Tohru, "So where is my little brother?"
"Err…" Tohru didn't have the heart to tell him that both Yuki and Kyo had abandoned the table when they heard Ayame's car pulling into the drive, "I-I think he's getting his suitcase."
"Ah, how organised! I must go and help, please, excuse me"
Tohru let out a sigh and turned to the petals that covered the floor in a type of pink blanket. They would need to be swept up before they left.
. . .
Tohru staggered out of Ayame's van and bent over to wait for motion sickness to slowly loosened its clasp on her turbulent stomach.
"Are you okay miss Honda?" Yuki placed a gentle hand on her back and leaned over to see her face.
Tohru stood up to see Kyo unpacking their bags from Ayame's rainbow coloured mini van. She turned her gaze towards Yuki's cold grey eyes and nodded, "I think so."
Yuki took this as his que to turn around and once again scold his older brother for not driving more carefully.
Tohru excused herself and went to help Kyo with the bags. When he noticed that she was watching him he inclined his head to the two brothers and rolled his eyes, "C'mon," He said gruffly, "We got a plane to catch."
. . .
Eventually, after much effort and confusion on each party's behalf, the three were safely seated on their flight. A safety instruction video was played and all three listened attentively, even Kyo. Tohru read through the instructions on a sheet provided with Yuki as Kyo watched the city melt away into the evening dusk.
It was going to be a long flight.
. . .
A/N: Yay! Finally getting to Australia! I am really sorry – just starting to get swamped with homework -_- but hopefully I can get more updates faster in the foreseeable future. Once again, thankyou so, so much for the review – you guys are great!
Iloveanime1322 – Ausome! Really, really glad you liked it. I did think of you while I was writing so thanks for your feedback. I am so excited for them to be coming to Australia *.* - my idols! All my Fruits Baskets loving friends are with you all the way – cheers!
Purpleradiance – Thx, J- I did that just for you! I know that after this chapter you are probs like wowa! What happened to the Tohru Kyo thing? It's all g – awkwardness shall return!
~CLC/Random Guest – OMGOMGOMG, I am so sorry! Just so you know, I wrote half this chapter right after your review – it made me just so happy (and this is my favourite chapter so far)! I was ecstatic! It was Just the boost I have been needing lately and it has kept me going for the week because I have had to bottle it up; coz like, I can't really talk to anyone about anime except my friends and I don't want to sound like I'm gloating or anything about your review. But thankyou thankyou thankyou! I actually can't explain what your words meant to me! But you are absolutely right – I shall strive for quicker updates! But THANKYOU! You made me cry (Tears of joy lol obviously) T-T