Shindemo Ii

Disclaimer: Fruits Basket and its characters do not belong to me, they are the property of Natsuki Takaya. I'm just borrowing them for a while...

Pairings: none, though feel free to read it however you like ^^

Warnings: angst, mild swearing, character death (?)

Spoilers: will have spoilers for episode 26 (takes place a short while after)

A/N: Wah, I'm sooooo sorry for the long wait!! Was busy, then got sick (it was kinda freaky, I had headaches, was coughing, etc. and was like My fanfic has come back to haunt me o.O), was busy again with Orientation for school AND our computer had to go to the shop. Yeesh...

Anyhoo, on with the fic! Replies to reviews at end of chapter (even the 2 reviews that ffnet seems to have eaten' o.O) Big thanks to R Junkie for once again making sense of my poor little fic! ^^ Thank you!! *hug*

Ch.3

~Rain pelted down all around him, as he ran, his footsteps steady despite the slick mud underfoot. Breathing hard, he finally came to a halt as he reached the clearing where the creature that had been Kyo was facing Tohru.

Swiveling its head as it heard him approach, its eyes made contact with his, and it took all Yuki had not to turn and flee. He shivered, both from being soaked to the skin and chilled to the bone, as well as the creature's feral gaze. Could that really be the same person? Could that really be Kyo?

Both turned at the sudden movement on the other side as Tohru sank to her knees.

"Honda-san!"

Taking advantage of his cousin's sudden distraction, Kyo charged forward, attempting to escape the confrontation.

Damn.. Yuki swore mentally as he lunged after him, grabbing hold of one of the creature's legs, and sending them both to the damp, muddy ground.

Startled, it looked down at him, trying to shake the persistent teen off, but the mouse held on, clutching for all he was worth.

"Are you just going to run away?" he demanded accusingly.

The creature screamed in frustration and dug its claws into Yuki's shoulder. Wincing, the boy refused to let go. He couldn't let Kyo run away...

He couldn't let it end like this... ~

***

Somewhere within the halls of the Sohma Main House, Sohma Hatsuharu wandered, having once again lost his way. He'd been on his way to see Momiji, but that had been about a half an hour ago, and he feared he must have taken a wrong turn at some point. It was times like these that he thought they might have built the compound just a bit too big, in his opinion, not to mention that most of it all looked the same too. For someone like himself who was much too often lost in thought, this could indeed be a bit of a problem.

He paused suddenly as he heard a phone ringing nearby. Shrugging, Haru turned and made his way towards the sound figuring he didn't have much to lose--he was already lost.

"Hello?" he answered as he picked up the receiver. "Ah, Shigure-sensei, how-- Hm? Ayame-niisan? No, he's not here right now. I think he's delivering one of his orders. When will he be back? Uh, I believe... tonight? Tomorrow night? I'm afraid I can't really remember. Why--"

Haru broke off and his eyes widened as he listened to Shigure's explanation, and barely registered the noise coming from the hall before him.

"Haru! There you are!" exclaimed Momiji, who came bouncing down the hallway. "I figured you must've gotten lost again, so I got Kagura to come and help me look for you, cause it's no fun going all alone, and--"

"Momiji-chan, hush." Kagura interrupted noticing Haru's expression. "Haru-chan? What's wrong?"

The teen could only shake his head in disbelief, as he wordlessly handed her the phone before slumping against the wall.

"Hello? Shi-chan? Wha--" she inhaled sharply. "Oh my God. Okay. Okay, I-- Alright. We're on our way." she replied urgently, slamming the receiver down.

"Momiji-chan," she began, trying to control the tremors in her voice, and crouching before the youth, putting her hands on his shoulders. "Yun-chan... is sick, so Haru-chan and I are going to the hospital to see him, okay?"

"Eh? Yuki? Is he okay?" the boy asked worriedly.

"... I don't know. Listen, Momiji-chan, I want you to go tell the others what's happening, alright? Someone who knows what's going on should stay behind, especially until Aya-chan gets back. Can you do that for me?" she asked him.

Momiji nodded solemnly.

Kagura smiled. "Good. Just make sure not to let Akito know though, okay? If he finds out, he might try and go visit him, and I think that's probably the last thing Yun-chan needs right now."

"Got it!" he replied, running off.

"Haru-chan," she turned to look at him. "Are you okay to go?"

The black and white-haired teen nodded absently, eyes still slightly unfocused. "I want to be with him."

"Right." Kagura replied taking one of his hands in hers and gently leading him away. "Let's go."

***

Crimson eyes watched from outside the small window of the hospital room, where Tohru sat, watching over the pale boy who lay propped up in the bed, the sound of machines beeping filling his ears. [1] Hatori had made it clear that he wanted to limit Yuki's visitors to as few as possible, as a precaution against further infection, though Kyo would have felt too uncomfortable to have gone in anyway; he was amazed at how frail and weak his usually strong opponent seemed, hooked up to all those machines, and hated seeing him like that. It's not the way things are supposed to be...

Beside him, Hatori continued to explain the situation to Shigure.

"What'll happen now?"

"Well, we're still waiting for some of the test results to see how much of his lungs have been infected, and if there's been any secondary bacterial infection. In the meantime, we're going to have to keep him here under close observation until his condition improves. Antibiotics aren't effective in treating this type of pneumonia, but we're doing what we can. [2] Since the infection looks serious, we'll have to be careful to keep an eye on him to ensure that there aren't any unnecessary complications."

Shigure sighed. "I still don't understand how we didn't see it."

"Well, it's possible that the virus had been lying dormant for a while, so even Yuki himself could have been unaware of it. Still, I would have hoped that after having been sick so often as a child, he would have learned to be more careful regarding his health."

Kyo cringed at the comment. Damn rat. He usually was careful, so why... why did he even bother to.... Yuki hated him, why would he risk his health just to help him? What did he care? Why did he care?

Tohru sniffled, eyes brimming with unshed tears, gripping the boy's limp hand. Kyo felt the guilt hit him like a blow to the stomach and took off down the hall, unable to watch the scene unfolding before him any longer.

"Eh? Kyo-kun?" Shigure looked up at the cat's sudden disappearance.

"Shi-chan!" He turned as he heard his name being called. "Kagura, Ha-kun, you made it!" he commented as the two youths hurried over to where he and Hatori stood in front of the hospital room.

Kagura nodded, panting. "H-hai." Glancing at the sight being depicted on the other side of the observation window, she felt her spirits sink a little. she turned to regard Hatori hopefully. How is he?"

Hatori took a deep breath and explained what was now becoming a well-rehearsed speech, after having had to repeat himself so often in only a matter of hours. He watched as the young girl nodded in understanding, though he could see the concern in her eyes. Beside her, Haru stood
motionlessly, seemingly mesmerized by the sight of his sick cousin before him.

Kagura paused, looking around. "Ara? Where's Kyo-kun?"

"He ran off that-a-way" Shigure pointed down the hall, "right before you two showed up." His playful side was tempted to add that Kyo had, in fact, had a premonition of her arrival and had taken off to avoid her, but he felt that this was neither the time nor place for such comments...

"Ah, I--" Kagura glanced back and forth between the direction in which her older cousin was pointing, and the area in which her younger cousin now lay, torn for a moment about what to do.

Shigure nodded. "It's okay. Go after him."

Kagura gave him a look of appreciation, and raced off down the hallway...

Haru slowly made his way to the window of the room and almost felt his heart break then and there at the sight of his beloved cousin looking so helpless and ill before him. "Yuki... " he whispered, placing a trembling hand against the glass. Feeling a hand against his shoulder, he looked up with pleading eyes at its owner.

"It's alright, you can go in and see him." Hatori told him gently, opening the door. "But only for a a little while though. We should try and keep his number of visitors to a minimum, okay?

Haru nodded in gratitude and entered numbly, making his way to Yuki's bedside.

Tohru looked up in surprise, eyes glistening. "Hatsuharu-san?"

Taking Yuki's other hand in both of his, Haru leaned forward with his elbows propped up against the edge of the bed, and raised them to his chin, as if in prayer. Fighting back the tears that threatened to spill at any moment, he stared down at his cousin. I'm right here Yuki. I'm not going anywhere...

***

"Damnit!" Kyo swore, as he punched the wall to his right. "Damnit..."

"Kyo-kun?" Kagura asked, approaching uncertainly as she finally caught up to him. "What is it?"

The boy remained silent, still facing away from her.

"Is it because of Yun-chan? I know it looks bad, but Hatori's going to make sure he gets the best care, plus Yun-chan is strong, so--"

"It's my fault." Kyo interrupted.

Kagura blinked in confusion. What do you mean? I thought he had an attack. How is that your--

"The reason he got sick... it's because he came to stop me that night. If he had just minded his own business and stayed inside..." he replied hoarsely.

Kagura paused, eyes wide.

"So it's my fault." Kyo clenched his fist. "It's all my fault!" he yelled, lashing out at the wall once more. It isn't supposed to be this way, damnit! I wanted to beat him... but not like this... not like this...

"Kyo-kun..." Kagura walked towards him, and embraced him from behind. Kyo sighed, and Kagura was surprised as she felt his body relaxing, as opposed to tensing up the way it usually did when she hugged him.

"...why..." he choked out. "Why would he bother..."

"Ah--" Kagura's breath caught in her throat, as her brain clicked with realization.

Kyo whirled around to look at her, breaking the physical contact between them. "What?"

"I... ah, that is..." Kagura stumbled over her words.

Kyo studied her for a moment, and his eyes grew as it hit him. "... Of course he wouldn't come on his own. You got him to, didn't you?"

Kagura looked away, seeing the anger and hurt in his eyes. What was she supposed to tell him? Take the blame onto herself, in hopes of shifting is anger from himself to her, or admit that she might have influenced Yuki to go after him?

"I--I'm sorry, but... I only got him thinking about it. In the end, he chose to go on his own." Kagura turned to meet Kyo's gaze again. "It was his choice and he made it by himself. It's just the way things turned out. You can blame yourself, you blame me, even blame Shihan for removing the bracelet, blame whatever started this stupid curse in first place, blame Yun-chan for caring, but it won't change anything. It's no one's fault, Kyo-kun." she replied softly, reaching up and lightly stroking his cheek, a sad expression on her face. "It's just the way things happened."

"Kagura..."

"Please, try not to blame yourself though. You shouldn't have to hurt more than you already are."

Kyo felt his face grow hot. "What? I'm not--"

Kagura placed a finger upon his lips to silence him. "It's okay."

The cat lowered his head and sighed. He was tired of arguing, and really didn't know how he felt anymore. He was so confused, he still couldn't grasp the concept that Yuki had actually cared enough to help him, and yet... that was what had happened, wasn't it? And maybe it had been the nezumi's choice, but he still couldn't help but feel that he was responsible for his cousin's current condition...

He jumped a little, as he felt Kagura reach over and take hold of his right hand, breaking his train of thought.

"Let's go back, okay?"

"... yeah."

As they made their way back, Kyo turned his head away and added, "You better not hold my hand the whole way though."

Kagura smiled.

***

"What? Oh no, that's terrible!" Kisa gasped.

Momiji nodded. "But don't worry though, cause Yuki's strong, so he's gotta be okay! Just don't tell anyone else, just us Juunishi need to know."

Kisa nodded, knowing full well what he meant. "Come on, I'll take you to where Hiro is."

As the two younger Juunishi departed, neither noticed the slightly open shoji screen, where a pale, robed figure watched, hidden in the shadows.

"...Yuki..."

TBC...

[1] To be more specific, the machines would most likely be a respirator/oxygen mask, IV, ECG/EKG (heart monitor) and probably a pulse oximeter (machine that measures oxygen in the blood) Also, Yuki would be propped up a little in order to help his breathing. See? I do my homework! *proud* ( )

[2] Antibiotics aren't effective, but antiviral medications can be used on more serious forms of viral pneumonia. ()

Big thank you to R Junkie: I really, really appreciate it! Thank you!

Reius Devirix, Fuu: I'm sorry for some reason your reviews didn't show up, but I did get them in my e-mail. Thanks so much! ^^

Ina-chan: wow, thank you! ^^ lol, yes, I was wondering if someone would think that's what Yuki had, even when I was doing the research, I was like hmm... uh-oh ^^;; lol. And thanks for the great compliments! Yeah, I actually much prefer writing dialogue than anything else, I find it a lot more fun! I know in English class we were always told to show not tell in writing, but I think dialogue is really important, as it really tells a lot about the characters... unless you're working with someone else's characters, in which case, the problem is trying to keep them in character! ^^;; Challenging, but fun!

Illia Sadri: Thank you! I'm trying my best to keep everyone as in-character as I can, though I'm beginning to worry a bit about the way I want to end it... I'll try my best to make it as believable and in-character as I can though! ^^ And as for the dialogue thing, I noticed that too ^^;; but like I said, I love it, so I can't help it ^^;; and don't worry, I didn't take that as an insult at all! ^^ But yes, dialogue will play a big part in this story, as I'm dealing a lot with relationships and character interaction here, so communication is key... though it doesn't always need to be verbal... should be interesting to see how that goes ... ^^

- : uh, sorry it took so long... but like I explained, I had some unexpected complications! ^^;;),

Souma Kyami: thanks! ^^

annonymouse: luv the penname btw! ^^ Thanks a lot!

Whew, ok, that's everyone! ^^ Ok, here comes the bad news though... since I'm back in school, I'm most likely gonna be really busy in the coming weeks/months/God-knows-long, so I have no idea when I'll next be able to update. And considering how it was going before, it's likely to be some time... Sorry to those who'd like quicker updates, but there's really not much I can do about it! Gomen nasai!! :( So this fic is therefore on unofficial hiatus, to be updated randomly when I get the chance ^^;; Thanks to everyone for all their encouragement and support, and I hope you don't mind waiting a little longer for more of this! ^^ But I am determined to finish it!! I will be back!! Eventually... ^^;; Take care, minna! ^^