A/N: Booyes! I just got the fourteenth volume today! I ordered it a week ago and when they called me today, I basically ran to the store to pick it up. Aha, I'm that pathetic.

SO. Now that I've read it two times over already, I've gotten some new drabble ideas! I won't post them all in order since they're all from the same book, but I decided to start off with the volume's star…Rin! Tada!

PS: We've reached 300 reviews! Huzzah! Whoopee! This is amazing and beautiful and fills me with warmth! I love you all, through the good reviews and even the bad, for helping me grow through my writing and making this experience so enjoyable! And we're only a little over halfway there! Cheers!

Disclaimer: Fruits Basket belongs to Natsuki Takaya. The 100 drabbles idea belongs to fanfic100.

Air

Being unable to breathe is a sticky business. That's what Rin thinks. She doesn't like that feeling of her lungs tightening, her throat closing, her teeth jarring the way for air. She hates not being able to breathe. Being stuck without air.

As she stands outside of Akito's room, that feeling is overtaking her again. In her chest something is going on, and her breathing is short and shallow. But she has to remember to stay calm, to try and breathe, because maybe Akito hasn't called her for a visit to discuss that. How would he know about that? It was impossible. Haru and she had been as sneaky as mice.

And Akito's voice, cold and precise, murmurs the word, "enter." Rin takes one last deep breath, fights for the air that is rightfully hers, and trudges into his room.

He yells. He yells and he screams and all Rin can think is, "how?" How could he know? Why? What had she done? Was falling in love such a crime? Was being wanted, being needed, such a horrible deed? But as he thrashes and throws a fit and throws his fists at her, her thoughts get lost and so does the air. She is gasping, fighting for breath. She doesn't know if it's the mental or physical shock, but her body is refusing air. And she's feeling woozy so she tries breathing through her nose. But another punch from Akito stops that, and she gasps again. And again. Grabbing at air, trying to breathe. It shouldn't be this painful.

And before she can digest what's truly happening, after hearing Akito scream those words and burn her heart and stop her blood cold, she feels herself falling. Not onto the floor, the obvious choice. No, Akito has decided to do much worse.

She is falling, falling out of a window. And suddenly there is too much air rushing past her, ripping at her hair and flesh and clothes. And she tries to take one more gasp, but her mouth won't work properly. Her body is frozen in horror.

And she lands, and she feels the pain. She feels the blood seeping from her shoulder and into her clothes. She feels the tears pouring from her eyes; from the pain or the words she doesn't know. Her bones feel funny and she can't keep her eyes open. But she tries, one last time, to take a breath. Air. She needs air. To stay calm. To stay alive. Breathe. Air.

But something is pushing against her lungs, and that same compressing feeling takes over. She can't breathe, and she starts to panic. But something else is dragging her down, forcing her out of consciousness. So she closes her eyes, gives into the pain, and takes one last gasp of air.