Expressions

by Ongaku no Usagi

They were all gathered together, save Shigure who had managed to disappear somewhere, and, awkwardly feeling out the distance between them now that the curse had been removed, the Juunichi engaged in light conversation and polite jokes.

But the room went silent when Akito entered.

For Akito, who normally dressed in male kimono, was now attired in a flowery, dark furosode. And all of them realized, for the first time, all those little things that came together and clicked: why Akito was so much shorter and weaker than the rest of them, why Akito had such frequent mood-swings, why Akito's voice always seemed forced.

Akito was, in fact, a woman.

Ayame, Hatori and Kureno, who already knew, still had the interested expressions of those who were beholding the full blossom of a long-frozen flower. Ayame's had the further expression of: "I wonder if I can get her into lace..."

Ritsu mistook it entirely. His shocked expression was not, "OMG, Akito's female!" but "OMG, Akito likes to dress in woman's clothing too!" He was quickly corrected.

Kagura sat bolt upright, a look of astonishment, but also, surprisingly, gentle sympathy and kindness.

Kisa and Hiro both looked utterly confused, as though everything they had learned in their short lives had tumbled down into absolute chaos. While Kisa was innocently astonished, Hiro was thinking "Boy am I glad I didn't take my anger out on Akito...I really wanted to...but...hitting a girl...that sort of thing..."

Although Rin looked utterly surprised, particularly when she thought back to the completely paralized feeling she had always had around Akito, Haru thought back. Back to that day when he had discovered that Akito had pushed Rin off of a two-story building. Back when he had shoved Akito up against a wall and started to strike. Perhaps he had realized something was wrong at that moment, for instead of striking Akito, he had punched the beam of the wall. Therefore, he was only slightly surprised.

Momiji, too, had experienced times with Akito where he realized something was different. The night when his curse had broken. Akito then...seemed so fragile, too fragile. Still, he hadn't guessed she was a woman. All that had happened before began to make twisted sense.

Yuki and Kyou both were 100% surprised. Perhaps it was because they had been so taken up with Tohru that they had never even considered it. But Yuki was about to fall over from the shock, and Kyou just stood there dumbfounded.

And then Akito cleared her throat and spoke to them for the first time honestly.

Author's Notes: Hahaha, just a wee spoiler. I did warn you from the beginning that most of these are post-curse though.