A/N: Yes another update, probably more coming today. I'm in a great mood.
Hatori kept to his words and spent anytime he could get away from Akito with Minami. Though Kureno hadn't gone to see Akito yet, especially since the other Zodiac members were with her which meant that Minami would've been left alone. Kyo… was sulking and had kept his distance, which left Minami with a mixture of feelings after the… rejection… Kyo wasn't appreciating Kureno and Hatori hovering over her in the slightest. Minami spent some of her time thinking about what Yuki said, his 'journey' was over. She couldn't seem to wrap her head around what he meant, if she went by canon, Minami guessed that Akito must've said something about Yuki's feelings towards her, which made him uncover some truth. Though what the truth was Minami wasn't entirely sure.
Surely Yuki didn't see her as a motherly figure, no she doubt that was the reason.
Besides that, Kureno being around the villa the entire time was rather amusing, since Kureno was a mixture of a little kid and a grown adult. Having very little experience outside the Sohma grounds, he hadn't done many things. One of those things was building a sand castle, which he was bad at, though you couldn't tell him anything. His happy smile was enough to make Minami enjoy herself.
"You're a lot like my sister Tohru." Minami told Kureno as she looked down at his sand hills.
"In what ways?" He asked surprised.
"She was very kind, polite, clumsy and scared too much about others than herself." Minami said. "Selfless and kind, gentle and compassionate and never asks others for anything."
"Was?" Kureno asked and Minami held a sad smile on her face.
"She passed away not too long ago." Minami said quietly.
"I'm sorry." Kureno said and Minami smiled at him.
"It's okay, it still hurts, knowing she's not here with me. But I like to think that I'm getting over it." Minami told him.
"Yes, my parents passed away when I was in middle school. They weren't bad people, but they weren't what you would call loving or caring. I can't expect to judge them in their parenting, because I couldn't imagine what it would feel like to have a child you can't even hold or love completely. They had made mistakes, but I had forgive them a long time ago. They were overprotective, suffocating so, but I'll always love them." (A/N: This is just my take on Kureno's past, it's never mentioned, but I since he and Tohru are so similar, I made it similar).
Kureno paused. "What was your other life like?"
Minami blinked and felt herself tense up, not used to someone knowing the truth.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." He apologized.
"No it's fine." She told him. "My parents were separated long before I went to school, my father made mistakes that my mother still couldn't forgive. I was always the middle person, trying to make sure they wouldn't meet each other when they came to my swim team events, or didn't let them call each other instead passed on the messages. It wasn't a fun time, but I was happy that they were both around. I had always been on my father's side, since my mother wasn't the type to not talk back about him, though she never said the real reasons why she disliked my father until I was much older. As I got older, I realized that my mother was a more reliable and responsible parent, so I was around her more, though I never stopped being connected with my father. Even though I had to be the one to reach out first, during the beginning."
"My elder sister, was older than me by about three years. She was quiet around adults, but loud and funny around the kids. She was a great role model and worked hard to be the best she could be, given her environment and circumstances. She had two younger brothers, her mother wasn't on the great terms with my father either, so when we were younger I only saw her ever so often. My father and I would joke and saw that we saw her 'every blue moon', which meant hardly ever. Though as I reached my pre-teen years, she was around more and that made me happy."
"I had a little brother and sister, fifteen years my younger. My brother was on my mother's side and my little sister on my father's, my father had gotten married and his wife had already adopted a little girl when she was a little baby. It wasn't hard to be the responsible one after that, because I was the oldest and had to take care of my little siblings. It's funny, I was able to play the only child, younger child, elder child and middle child during my previous life."
"Before I came here, I must've been twenty years old, if I'm not mistaken. It's been so long since then." Minami explained to Kureno as he gave her his full attention.
"Yet you're a teenager right now." Kureno said.
"I woke up a three year old, alone in a foreign country." Minami explained. "You could imagine my shock." Minami laughed, the times behind her. She explained the rest of her story how she was in an orphanage, how she met the Hondas, Kyo and Yuki, her time with the Sohma's until now. Minami felt a load lift from her shoulders as she explained this to Kureno, the one person she could talk to about this entire situation.
"I suppose that must be the reason why the others think of me as such an adult, because mentally I very much am. Though I haven't had the growth of adulthood whether that be relationships, children or anything else. Which leaves me at a strange point in my life, where I had the chance to relieve some of my childhood and make different discussions. Though I can't help but feel like I've lost a part of myself within all of this. I wasn't able to grow up, I wasn't able to make friends, I couldn't enjoy my second childhood. Instead I spent most of my time looking after Tohru and making sure Kyoko wasn't going to be pushed too much as a parent."
"Do you regret… some of your discussions?" He asked.
"Of course I do, I'm sure you must as well. I wouldn't be human otherwise." Minami said and smiled. "I just realized, it's the first time I had a real adult conversation, that's pretty amusing to think about."
"You spent so much time trying to hide your true self during this life, it no wonder you're able to empathize with us." Kureno said. "I understood that we were 'fake', in your previous life, but it what regards?"
"..." Minami paused and they sat in silence. "You were just characters of a manga." Kureno blinked rapidly but didn't respond, he wanted her to continue. Minami placed her hands down on the sand and leaned back, looking up at he blue sky. "All of you say that it's amazing that I'm able to empathize with you, but honestly, I'm only following a script written for me or should I say Tohru, the original main character."
"But she passed away…?" Kureno said and Minami felt herself grimace.
"I'm sure that it's partially my doing, as well as her own." Minami said. "The story of this manga, it isn't completely consistent. One example of such thing, would be this current situation as well as this conversation." She explained and looked at Kureno. "The original Kureno, or should I saw manga Kureno. I'm honestly not entirely sure if I can count the manga Kureno as real or not, more like a separate reality to this one…"
"Anyways, that Kureno had his curse broken when he was… about sixteen? Akito had been with him when it happened and he stayed by her side due to her loneliness and how he pitied her. I suppose it's similar to what you are doing now with me."
Kureno immediately looked offended.
"Do you pity me?" Minami asked the man.
"No." Kureno said immediately. "If I could explain to you this… then I would. The feelings that I feel for you, or the connections that I, as well as the other Zodiacs feel. Is similar to the bond we have with Akito and the curse. I can't say you are what Akito is to us, 'God', but it's more of the situation in which you are living in this universe that connects us."
"So me simply being in this universe, is enough for you to feel connected?" Minami asked and he nodded.
"If you ask me: Do you know what I'm here? Why I'm connected to the Zodiacs? Why I can hug them? Why Akito is ignoring/ avoiding me? Why can't I return home? Why were all of you fake? Then I would be able to answer all of your questions. As well as an of the other members, if their curse is ever broken. But it isn't my responsibility or role to. Akito's is, I'm sure that she is already aware… partially of who you are, which is why is is ignoring you."
"You could argue that I'm simply here with you, right now, out of pity. Yet I could argue the same thing to you. If you wanted to, you could've left this villa, this city, this country and go about your business elsewhere. Ignoring the Sohma family and allowing our cursed existence to remain the same, but you didn't… why?"
Minami stared at him and he put on a lovely smile on his face. "I'm sure you must've realized it by now." Kureno said softly. Minami felt herself blush and he laughed. "Well our feelings towards you are the same."
"You're such a tease." Minami said and felt an idea pop in her head and she smiled. "So Kureno… since your curse is gone.. Are you gonna go see Arisa?"
Kureno's face went bright red and Minami was about to tease him more when she felt as though she was hit by a battering ram. "MINAMI!" Momiji slammed into her side and they collapsed on the sad. "I'm back! I'm back! I'm back!"
Kureno had a teasing on his face as he looked at her. "The same." He said and Minami blushed.
"Have you and Kureno been together this whole time?" Momiji asked sending them interested looks as Kisa gave Minami a hug and said.
"I'm back too.." It was so cute.
"Yeah, Hatori comes in and out." Minami explained just as she saw said man walking down the steps with Yuki and Hatsuharu.
"Welcome back." Minami told Yuki.
"I'm back, have you all been playing here?" Yuki asked.
"Yeah we've been building sand castles." She explained.
"I thought those were sand hills…" Yuki and Hatori said as the latter helped Kureno up.
"Well it was mostly Kureno." Minami said with a smile.
"Right, also sorry about yesterday." Yuki said. "You must be… wondering right? Even though I'm aware of it… I still said too many weird things.. Sorry. I just had a revelation that's all."
"Are you going to explain what it was?" Minami asked.
"I just realized that love for you was more unconditional." Yuki said easily making Minami blush and Yuki's smile widened. He pressed a kiss on Minami's forehead.
"Hey! Why does Yuki get to kiss Minami?!" Momiji yelled and immediately gave her a kiss on the cheek. Minami placed a hand on her forehead and cheek, feeling more than just a little embarrassed.
"What's with you guys, you're too affectionate." She mumbled.
"At least it's not on the lips." Kyo told her and Minami thought for a moment and blushed. "W-WAIT! WHO?!" Minami looked away and noticed everyone's eyes go to Hatori who had a light blush on his cheeks.
"I-It wasn't me." The doctor stuttered and froze and looked over at Kureno who was as red as Minami.
There was a thick silence.
"I-I… It wasn't yesterday if that's what you're thinking." Kureno said and that only pissed all of the males even more. Minami covered her ears to ignore the yelling.
Honestly being around a majority male family who are also have affection deprivation for all of their lives is so tiring. Though Minami couldn't help but smile and feel victorious. It wasn't like she was mad at it, she let out a small laugh.
"What's so funny Onee-chan?" Kisa asked and Minami placed a hand on the girl's shoulders.
"Nothing Kisa, nothing at all." Minami said. Sometimes fangirl dreams do come true.
A/N: This was a lot of fun to write, even longer than the other one since it wasn't too plot focused though it still follows canon. Kureno and Minami had a great conversation. I realize that since Kureno had very little manga time, we didn't really get much of his character, I wanted to expand it more. That's one of the reason's why he appeared in the Akito focused chapter at the school. Their dynamic is really good and we got to hear more about Minami's backstory.
The villa/ summer vacation arc is still suppose to be fun. So I thought this would be a good breather. Minami's pretty overburdened with all the Sohma family, so having someone to talk to makes her less tense~
