Fright:

A Furuba Novella

Chapter 2

By: Lily (aka. Lily no Anrui)

Again, another unenthused response, but I must persist with writing this story or I shall simply go mad from the strain it puts on my brain. Reviews, this time, please? Also from the last chapter I mentioned Union Jack, which is a popular Japanese clothing line.[] I obviously don't own that, and since I haven't mentioned it before, I don't own Fruits Basket either. This is the only time I will put in a disclaimer.

Shigure dialed the Taito main house number from memory, musing on how long it had been. When was the last time he'd been forced to dial this number? Ah, yes, he remembered now. It had been nearly three years ago, before Yuki moved in with him. He and Hatori had found a violet-haired Riri lying in a pool of her own blood, near death. Akito had been rough, rougher than usual. Hatori had snapped at him, turning with blazing eyes and ordered Shigure to call Riri's family. The doctor had been able to stabilize her, and the elder members of the Taito family had come soon after, hauling Riri home. Then the girl mysteriously vanished, never to be seen or heard from again. Most had assumed she'd died.

Finally someone picked up, a sleepy male voice, quite angry at obviously having his nap interrupted. "What?!" The voice screamed over the phone line. Shigure held the phone away from his ear to avoid deafness.

"Hello," he began cheerfully, "This is Sohma Shigure. Riri is at my house and has passed out due to healing expenditures."

"Shigure?" the voice asked suspiciously, "Oh yeah, the dog. Alright, I'll be over there in a bit."

"Wait! Do you—" Shigure was cut off as the man on the other end of the phone slammed the receiver down harshly. "—even know where it is?…" the dog finished lamely.

Meanwhile, Yuki was still supporting the fallen healer. No one seemed to have gotten over the fact that he had not changed. Nor did he appear to be starting to. Kyou moved closer to Riri, peering at her curiously. "What the fuck is she?" he asked bluntly. That was the question of the hour, wasn't it? "Give her here," Kyou ordered, holding out his arms.

For some reason the rat was reluctant to place the purple haired girl in his enemy's arms. He reasoned that since Kyou was his enemy it was logical that he should want to deprive him of everything possible. At the back of his mind though, he knew the real reason and it was nothing so petty as that. It simply felt nice to be near a normal person and not be one-tenth the fraction of their size. Finally the rat shifted, letting her fall into Kyou's arms. The redhead cautiously hugged the healer, and started when he didn't change into his cat form. "The fuck?!" he cried, shoving her back at Yuki.

"You stupid cat, you're going to give her whiplash!" Yuki yelled as he caught the girl easily.

"Yes, Riri-san is not a rag doll, Kyou, but a living breathing person. Please treat her as such," Shigure said as he walked into the room. "Shigure, why the fuck don't we change?" Kyou cried. Tohru finally spoke up from her position as the observer. "Yes, Shigure, why don't they change? I thought it happened automatically when they hugged a member of the opposite sex who wasn't a member of the family."

Shigure shifted, eyes settling on Yuki carefully supporting the violet-haired girl. "Well, she's a Taito." He shrugged like that explained it all.

"What the fuck does that have to do with anything?" Kyou yelled.

"If you'd shut up for two seconds, I'm sure you'd know." Yuki snapped back.

"You shut up, you damn rat!" the redhead shouted, charging up to Yuki like he was about to punch him. Shigure's voice halted them all. "Kyou! Sit down!" Amazingly enough, the cat halted, and sat down looking very peeved. Shigure took a deep calming breath and rubbed his temple where a headache was beginning to form.

"As you know, the Sohmas are cursed into taking on the forms of the twelve Chinese zodiac signs, and the cat. It's been this way for many, many years, but it wasn't always this way," Shigure explained. Just as he opened his mouth to go on, the doorbell rang. "Damn." The inu walked out of the room to get it, leaving behind three open mouthed teenagers, one unconscious healer, and three unconscious children.

"That's it?" Tohru muttered in the dead silent room.

"Guess so," Kyou answered like he hadn't been left dangling by a thread.

Yuki did not respond at all, he was still too busy staring at the spot where Shigure had stood. He was sure there was more to it than just that. Shifting again, he looked down at the girl, Riri. Most of her upper body was sprawled across his lap, and her right hand had flopped bonelessly to lie parallel to his own hand, banded around her to keep her from slipping and falling. A centimeter more and her hand would rest on his wrist. Almost like she'd heard his thought, Riri's hand suddenly slipped down, her fingertips resting above his pulse point.

The instant she touched him, an odd sensation overcame Yuki. It was like tunnel vision, but it wasn't affecting his sight. It wasn't a sense at all, merely a feeling. Like a vacuum had been placed inside him and was slowly, painstakingly sucking up any dirt. Gasping, Yuki wrenched his arm away from Riri's limp hand and like that the sensation stopped. It was as though someone had thrown a switch inside of him; on with the lights, off with the lights. "The fuck..?" he murmured to himself.

It wasn't often Yuki swore, so even his quiet murmuring caused Kyou and Tohru to look in his direction. "What?" Kyou asked sharply. "Nothing," the rat replied, shaking his head.

Just then Shigure came back into the room, leading behind him two crimson haired people near their age. The girl's hair was long, reaching down the end of her back, and she had gold eyes, narrowed in suspicion. She wore black leather shorts and a cut up t-shirt from some band he'd never heard of. The boy's crimson hair was cropped about twelve centimeters from his head and styled so it fell in chunks around his face. The boy and girl could almost be twins except for his green eyes. He was even dressed similarly to the girl in black leather shorts, a t-shirt, and a leather vest. There definitely seemed to be some sort of dress code no one else was aware of.

"So I see you've already discovered you can hug the Taitos," the boy said with a sardonic smile on his face. He looked down at Riri and Yuki, smiling widening until it was a full-blown grin. "I also see that Riri tried to absorb energy from you."

"What?" Tohru gasped, knowing nothing of Yuki's earlier plight.

"Is that what that was?" Yuki murmured to himself. It made sense what with the whole vacuum cleaner metaphor. "How can you tell?" the rat asked out loud.

For the first time the girl spoke, her clear voice carrying throughout the room. "It's in your aura. We can still see it, but it's a little more faded than it should be. By the looks of it, she didn't get very far with you." At that observation, the girl's mouth quirked up a bit into a smirk.

"You must be the rat," the boy said as he knelt down next to Riri, uncomfortably close to Yuki. "Well, yes," Yuki had no choice but to respond. The redhead nodded. "Makes sense. The rat was Riri's first animal to call. It's only natural she'd summon her strongest one to aid her."

"A what?" Kyou asked, voicing the question Yuki had been about to ask.

"An animal to call," the girl answered, like it should have been obvious.

"They don't know," was all Shigure said.

The golden eyes of the girl widened. "Oh! Should I explain? It's the least I can do while he's doing that," she said, and nodded at the boy who appeared to be meditating next to Riri. Shigure nodded his assent.

"Well then, let's start at the beginning. As far back as we Taitos can remember, we've always been gifted. Magic or whatever you want to call it has always run in our veins. It comes naturally to us. Each member of the family has their own special gifts, either dealing with the elements, an animal, or simply one specific thing, like healing. The stronger you are, generally the more gifts you have."

The girl paused in her lecture to watch the boy gently pluck Riri from Yuki's arms and settle her with her upper half lying in his lap. Then he picked up both arms, wrapping first one hand then the other around the pulse points in his wrists. "Why are you doing that?" Yuki found himself whispering. The boy looked up and whispered back, "Best energy transaction places are the pulse points and the third eye. The forehead," he elaborated at Yuki's look of confusion. Then the boy jolted slightly and settled into silence.

Nodding like that was supposed to happen, the girl continued where she left off. "You see, when Riri was healing your kids over there, she gave them a lot of her energy, life force, chi, whatever you want to call it, in exchange for the negative energy of their sickness. Her body will metabolize that negative chi much quicker than their's will. She would have been fine, but she didn't replace that lost positive chi with anything, so she passed out from exhaustion. That's about all there is to it."

"So what is he doing now?" Yuki asked, staring at the intimate position of the violet haired girl and red haired boy.

"Why, silly, he's replacing her lost energy by giving her some of his own," the girl answered like it should have been obvious. Yuki nodded his understanding as Kyou interrupted with, "So what about the animal to call thing?"

"Did I forget to explain about that?" the girl asked, looking up at Shigure. The inu nodded distractedly, staring off into space. He was probably thinking of a new way to torture Mii. "Oh, well, as I said before a person's power can be focused on animals. An animal to call is like that particular person's totem. They can gain power through them, communicate telepathically, and even transform into that animal. As with before the more animals you can call the stronger you are."

"So…the Taitos are witches?" Tohru asked, completely uncomprehending.

A shrug from the redheaded girl was all the response they got. "Witches, psychics, sorcerers, magicians. Whichever you prefer," the boy said, straightening up as Riri opened her eyes. "How long was I out?" she groaned.

"A good half an hour, I'd say. What do you think, Jem-chan?" the boy asked, directing the question at the redheaded girl. "Sounds about right," she replied. Riri stood slowly, like she hurt in certain places, and turned to Shigure. "Well, Shigure-san, I've done my job. The children should be up and about in a few hours," Riri said, "Now if you'll excuse us, we've burdened ourselves on you enough this night."

"Oh no!" Shigure cried, "Please stay for tea! It's the very least we can do after we made you pass out and all that!"

"Oh please, can we?" the redheaded girl asked, turning pleading eyes to Riri. The redheaded boy was also silently pleading, but for different reasons. After his sudden energy exchange he felt lethargic and needed some time to rejuvenate himself.

With a sigh, Riri conceded. "Alright. Thank you, Shigure-san."

"Ah, no problem! Always happy to have you over!" Shigure cried. Then he turned to Tohru with a question in his eyes. "Tohru?"

"Iya! How rude of me! After all of Taito-san's help all I did was sit here like a stupid space case! I'll go make the tea right away!" Tohru ran off, already back into her normal spazzy mode. The Taitos watched her go with odd looks on all of their faces. Riri had raised her eyebrow at the girl's odd behavior. Jem, the redheaded girl, simply stared after Tohru with an odd frown in place. The redheaded boy had smirked at Tohru's retreating form, deriving some strange amusement from it.

"Well, let's go into the dining room. After all, I'm sure that's where Tohru plans to serve the tea," Shigure said and bounced away happily. Kyou, Yuki, Riri, Jem, and the redheaded boy whose name was still unknown followed at a more somber pace. "He's still as odd as ever," Jem mused out loud. "Yes, he is," Riri responded.

Once they were all seated, official introductions for the two redheads were made, which Shigure performed. "Yuki, Kyou, this is Taito Jem. Jem-san, this is Sohma Yuki and Kyou." The redheaded girl nodded and murmured the polite replies, but the suspicion in her gold eyes never quite went away. Next was the boy. "And this is Taito Angel." The redhaired boy shook their hands, eyeing them up in a way that made both Sohmas squirm uncomfortably. "Don't you mean Tenchi?" Kyou asked, squinting his eyes. "No, it's really Angel, as in the English word. My mother was odd," Angel replied without taking offense. He was used to it.

Introductions made, everyone made small talk until the tea arrived. It went something like, 'awkward silence, nonverbal communication between the Taitos.'

"So where are you all going to school?" Shigure asked.

"Kawaia High," was the smooth response from Jem.

"Hontou ni?" (1) Yuki asked without much enthusiasm.

"Hai," (2) Angel replied, "Jem-chan and I are going to be sophomores. Riri-chan will be a senior."

Kyou sat silently, brewing in his usual hostile manner. "Oh, Taito-san, you'll be in the same grade as Kyou and I. Perhaps I could show you around," Yuki replied, trying to be his usual eager to please self.

"Kekko desu. (3) I don't want to be shown any special treatment; I just want to blend in," Riri replied. Slightly shocked that someone would actually refuse him, Yuki found it hard to respond. "Okay," he said at last, "If you change your mind though, the offer still stands."

At that moment Tohru came through the door carefully balancing a large tray full of tea, cups, and snacks. "Thank you, Tohru-chan," Shigure said immediately, "Everything looks wonderful." The novelist beamed with childlike delight.

"You're welcome, Shigure-san," Tohru smiled and sat down beside Kyou.

Tea was drank in easy silence, broken only by the occasional voice of someone or another talking. The Taitos hurried without seeming like they were hurrying, wanting only to go home and rest up before school on Monday, something they all generally disliked. "Thank you, Tohru-san," Angel said as he stood up and offered a hand to both of cousins. "Yes, everything was very nice," Jem agreed. "Your hospitality was much appreciated," Riri finished, before accepting the offered hand and standing up. Jem ignored her cousin's attempt at being gentlemanly and stood up on her own.

"Ah, thank you for all your help this evening," Tohru said in response, lightly blushing from all the praise she was getting.

"It was no problem at all," Riri said, cutting in smoothly, "However, we really must be going now. Thank you all. Oyasumi nasai (4)." The three Taitos were escorted out by a cheerfully waving Shigure, and shown the door. It was only then that Kyou remembered his question. "Hey, they didn't say why we can hug 'em!"

TBC…

Reviews…-review monster comes out- Give me reviews…Next chapter is the Taitos return to public education.

(1) Really?

(2) Yes.

(3) No thank you.

(4) Good night.

Interesting meanings…

1. Taito means "equal or equivalent" in Japanese.

2. Riri means "idealistic, sensitive, or inspirational".

3. Ayame means "Iris".

4. Hana means "flower".

5. Kyoko means "mirror".

6. Mine means "resolute protector".

7. Saikoubi [mentioned] is Japanese for "Callisto", which means "beautiful little one".

8. Haru means "born in the spring".

9. Yuki means either "lucky" or "snow".

10. Kyo means "today" or as a suffix, "religion". I've also heard it means "lie".