BTW: I think I forgot to put this on the first chapter but
I do not own any of the characters belonging to Fruits Basket. However, I do own Panther so back off jerks who want to sue everyone!
~*Chapter 5: Dream*~
"Panther?" A young boy called. It was Akito, when he was younger before he told his secret.
"Yes Akito?" A smaller version of Panther answered softly as she lay in the grass on a hill. Her hair was shorter, mid back to be exact. And her brown eyes were a bit more calm and serene than her present ones.
"I have to..."
"What is it, Akito? You can tell me, you know you can." She sat up next to Akito, looking him the eye with a smile appearing on her face.
"Well, I've always had to push you away whenever...whenever we wanted to hug each other..." His words trailed as he choked, trying to say the rest.
"There's something about you, Akito. I know it, and whatever this thing is, I'm pretty sure that is the reason we can never comfort each other like that. Akito, if you're trying to tell me what that something is...if you're not comfortable with telling me, that's fine. You don't have to, I won't force you." Akito shook his head to her reply.
"No, no! It's not like that, well it is, but. To be honest, I want to tell you and I've always wanted to give you a hug," he blushed, "I just-
"Think that I might despise you for the rest of our lives?" He nodded his head, sadness flickering in his eyes. "Well I won't do that, I promise. And if I do, I promise it won't be because of your reason for not hugging me. Not everyone wants to get or give a hug to certain people. Now if you really want to tell me, then tell me; I'm listening." There was a long pause as they stared deeply into each other's eyes before Akito finally spoke.
"Would you mind doing something that may do something to you, like give you reasons for other people to not hug you? And then I tell you the reason, would you mind?" Panther sat for a few minutes thinking, smiling she nodded her head.
"What are you going to do?" Grabbing a knife out from his back pocket, Akito unsheathed the knife letting the sun reflect off of it.
"Share blood. I've never done this before, but I think that if you had my blood-" She snatched the knife from him and cut her hand. Shock took over him as he watched the blood drip from her hand. After a few moments of recovering and laughing happily, Akito grabbed the knife back from Panther and cut himself on the hand as well.
The two slapped their cut hands together and let the blood flow into each other's veins. After a few minutes, the two took their hands apart and Akito threw his arms around her. Astounded, he let go of Panther and stared.
"It worked? It worked! Panther, it worked! Ha, ha!" He stood up and grabbed her by the hands pulling her up as well.
"Yeah it did, I guess so huh?" The two laughed for a few seconds before Panther stood still and asked, "So what was the reason?" His face paled before he spoke nervously.
"Well, if anyone of the opposite sex hugs me, and isn't apart of the zodiac curse, I turn into one of the animals in the Chinese zodiac. I am the head of the Sohma family and I am the leader of the curse, which means I'll turn into either one of them depending on the year. My family's cursed. Now that you have my blood...well you get the idea." Panther's eyes widened at the information he should've told her first.
"I think you should've told me that first." Panther and Akito turned their heads to the direction of a bush. Laughter was heard coming in the direction; the two children walked up to the bush and found Panther's father, Tic, and her uncle, Loony.
"HA! He believes in curses so much, he thinks he'll turn into an animal?!" The laughter continued.
"Funny, I didn't see them there earlier when we were..." Akito stated to Panther, indicating to when they were sharing blood.
A few moths later, Tic and Loony were looking through some scrolls in their library; they found a cursed scroll. It was meant for cats. The two didn't believe the curse so they put it on the ground and searched for Bru, their cat. Once they found her, they put the cat on top of the cursed scroll. When Loony let go of the cat, she walked all over the scroll and walked out into the kitchen; the two men followed her. She jumped onto a chair and to the counter; she walked to where a knife was set.
She started moving the knife with her nose a bit, moving more to the edge of the counter; the men watched in curiosity. Slowly, Bru moved onto the knife, which was now partially over the edge. She sat and quickly fell, landing on her back with the knife landing straight in her heart. Loony and Tic gasped before leaving the house.
They went to the park where Akito and Panther were playing and kidnapped him. For the next four days, they kept Akito in a lab where Panther couldn't get in. During those four days, they tried to kill Akito, but he fought back and when they were finally able to restrain the cursed boy, they decided to just do experiments on him.
They drugged him, examined him, they even tested a product or two on him. They made things torturous for Akito in there, but one day Tic forgot to tighten a strap that kept him down. Akito was able to get out of the straps and attacked the parents of Panther. Soon after, surely the men were dead and Akito escaped the lab.
Panther's eyes snapped open as she sat up in bed. That was only a dream, a memory. She looked around herself; she was back in her room at Shigure's. The door slid open as Tohru stepped in the room.
"Good, you're awake. You were sweating in your sleep earlier," everything seemed quiet except for Tohru, "You're not feeling well so I think you should stay in bed." Panther tried to speak, but couldn't as Tohru pushed her back to rest.
"It's been a couple days since you fell asleep the other night you know. We thought..."
'A couple days?' Panther stopped listening to what Tohru was saying.
"You should get some more rest little sister."
"Huh?" Panther looked befuddled.
"I said you should get more rest. I don't want your sickness to get worse, I'll leave you to sleep, but I'll check back later." Panther watched her leave as the sun's rays shone on her. Everything was quiet and peaceful, it was as if there was nothing crazy going on.
"Maybe this is all just a dream too." Panther thought to aloud. Akito leapt onto her and bed putting his face close to hers.
"Wrong!"
Panting and sweating, Panther jerked up in her bed and looked around her room. Shigure was standing next to her bed taking care of her.
"Are you all right, Panther?" Panther didn't answer; she just searched the room carefully. She got out of bed and started walking along her walls with her hand tracing it.
"Panther? Panther, what's wrong?" Shigure tried to snap her out of it but nothing happened. She continued tracing the wall with her hands as she looked about the room.
"Akito?" Her voice was shaky as she sought for the man who caused her nightmare.
"Akito?" Shigure noticed her perspiring becoming constant as she called for Akito.
"Akito, where are you?" Suddenly, Akito walked out of the shadows with a scary smirk.
"Hello my dearest Panther." Panther saw him, but Shigure did not.
"Akito, what are you trying to pull?"
"Huh? Oh no, she's hallucinating." Shigure shook Panther's body trying to bring her back to reality but to no avail.
"Akito!" Hatsuharu walked in the room and saw what was happening. He knew she was hallucinating, too, so he did the only thing he thought would help. Wham! He punched her in the face 'successfully' bringing her home.
"Sorry." Hatsuharu apologized. Panther didn't move, her head hung and tears fell. Hatsuharu embraced the unmoving girl. Her tears flew freely, but her mind and body weren't doing anything.
"Panther?" Hatsuharu pulled her from himself and looked at her. He and Shigure gasped at the horrifying sight. There she was, held by Hatsuharu, with her eyes opened and ashen skin. She was dead. Her eyes were still leaking, but she was dead.
Everything turned dark and it was now pitch black. Panther stood wearing a white nightgown searching for something. A girl sat in the middle of the area surrounded by a dim glow. Crying, she hummed a sad tune. Panther tilted her head as she walked over to the crying girl. Tears were forming in Panther's eyes as she tried to forget the dreams she had. She tried to put her hand on the crying girl's shoulder, but it went straight through. She gasped when she heard cackling echo in the darkness.
"Panther. Oh Panther," the voice sang, "Panther, there was something else I haven't told you about my part of my family's curse. This only works for me because I don't have a particular zodiac animal,"
"Akito" Panther tried to call out but instead she choked on her words. He continued with a psycho tone.
"You see Panther, when I shared my blood with you, mm well let's just say that I can communicate with you now. Through the mind, and through your dreams." A pair of black eyes appeared in the darkness as thunder clapped in the background.
"Huh?" Panther was beyond shocked.
"Well how do you think you were able to make Kyo and that nurse see those eyes of hurt? Come on Panther, you know which one I'm talking about. Like what you did to other people, used my blood to make it so that people could only see a pair of eyes. Yes, I know you figured it out, because with my blood being in you, I was able to check up on you every now and then. That's another thing I didn't tell you about.
"And that's how you knew where I lived..." Akito laughed.
"Yes, quite true, dearest. You remember that little girl you saw? Do you know who that was? She was you...yes, that's right, you. Do you know why she was crying? Because she lost her family and gave up the chance to receive kind of comfort she wanted from anyone for just someone. One person, she didn't even think carefully about the options-
"You're right Akito, I didn't. But then again, I didn't know the deal with the curse until after the decision was made!"
"You still could've asked for more time, you know I would've given you that. Oh well! Too late now and actually it sounds like I have to go now. Sweet dreams," Akito then growled her name before laughing and disappearing into the darkness.
Once again, Panther's eyes snapped open and she was sweating. On her bedside were Shigure, Kyo, Tohru, Yuki, Momiji, Hatsuharu, and Ayame, all with concerned looks on their faces.
"Are you all right Ms. Panther?" Yuki asked.
"Yes, I am," she didn't even bother looking around, "Is this place real? Am I still dreaming?"
"No, you're not dreaming, but we heard you screaming. What happened?" Shigure answered.
"Prove this is real." She stared cautiously with hope for the truth.
"You're 14yrs old-
"No, I mean really prove it..." Momiji moved to hug the teenager. Hatsuharu did the same and the three of them stilled.
"Panther," Momiji started, "of course this is real. Why wouldn't it be?"
"And if you really need proof, tell us what kind so we can try and help. We love you Panther." Hatsuharu whispered loud enough for her ears to catch on.
"Thank you. I think that should do." Panther returned their embracement and calmed her breathing. They let go of each other before Momiji and Hatsuharu sat next to her on the bed.
"Now tell us Pan, why did you scream?" Hatsuharu turned her head to face his.
Eyes filled with fear, she said, "I just had a bad dream is all. I'm sorry for worrying you all."
"What kind of a bad dream Panther?" Momiji asked tilting his head.
"Don't worry about it Momiji," she giggled while patting his head, "Guys, I have to go do something. I don't want you to worry or interfere, understood?"
"Are you going to go talk to him?" Kyo asked and she nodded. "Then we should go with you."
"No. I'm going to go alone, I'll explain everything when I get back, ok?" Everyone looked at her questioningly.
"Are you going to fight someone Panther?" Tohru's voice was full of complete concern and worry. She didn't want to lose her little sister again.
"Don't worry about it..." After a bit of convincing about her safety, Panther left the house to go to the Sohma Mansion.
~*End of Chapter*~
Again thanks to all who has read and reviewed, ya'll rock! Thanks.
I do not own any of the characters belonging to Fruits Basket. However, I do own Panther so back off jerks who want to sue everyone!
~*Chapter 5: Dream*~
"Panther?" A young boy called. It was Akito, when he was younger before he told his secret.
"Yes Akito?" A smaller version of Panther answered softly as she lay in the grass on a hill. Her hair was shorter, mid back to be exact. And her brown eyes were a bit more calm and serene than her present ones.
"I have to..."
"What is it, Akito? You can tell me, you know you can." She sat up next to Akito, looking him the eye with a smile appearing on her face.
"Well, I've always had to push you away whenever...whenever we wanted to hug each other..." His words trailed as he choked, trying to say the rest.
"There's something about you, Akito. I know it, and whatever this thing is, I'm pretty sure that is the reason we can never comfort each other like that. Akito, if you're trying to tell me what that something is...if you're not comfortable with telling me, that's fine. You don't have to, I won't force you." Akito shook his head to her reply.
"No, no! It's not like that, well it is, but. To be honest, I want to tell you and I've always wanted to give you a hug," he blushed, "I just-
"Think that I might despise you for the rest of our lives?" He nodded his head, sadness flickering in his eyes. "Well I won't do that, I promise. And if I do, I promise it won't be because of your reason for not hugging me. Not everyone wants to get or give a hug to certain people. Now if you really want to tell me, then tell me; I'm listening." There was a long pause as they stared deeply into each other's eyes before Akito finally spoke.
"Would you mind doing something that may do something to you, like give you reasons for other people to not hug you? And then I tell you the reason, would you mind?" Panther sat for a few minutes thinking, smiling she nodded her head.
"What are you going to do?" Grabbing a knife out from his back pocket, Akito unsheathed the knife letting the sun reflect off of it.
"Share blood. I've never done this before, but I think that if you had my blood-" She snatched the knife from him and cut her hand. Shock took over him as he watched the blood drip from her hand. After a few moments of recovering and laughing happily, Akito grabbed the knife back from Panther and cut himself on the hand as well.
The two slapped their cut hands together and let the blood flow into each other's veins. After a few minutes, the two took their hands apart and Akito threw his arms around her. Astounded, he let go of Panther and stared.
"It worked? It worked! Panther, it worked! Ha, ha!" He stood up and grabbed her by the hands pulling her up as well.
"Yeah it did, I guess so huh?" The two laughed for a few seconds before Panther stood still and asked, "So what was the reason?" His face paled before he spoke nervously.
"Well, if anyone of the opposite sex hugs me, and isn't apart of the zodiac curse, I turn into one of the animals in the Chinese zodiac. I am the head of the Sohma family and I am the leader of the curse, which means I'll turn into either one of them depending on the year. My family's cursed. Now that you have my blood...well you get the idea." Panther's eyes widened at the information he should've told her first.
"I think you should've told me that first." Panther and Akito turned their heads to the direction of a bush. Laughter was heard coming in the direction; the two children walked up to the bush and found Panther's father, Tic, and her uncle, Loony.
"HA! He believes in curses so much, he thinks he'll turn into an animal?!" The laughter continued.
"Funny, I didn't see them there earlier when we were..." Akito stated to Panther, indicating to when they were sharing blood.
A few moths later, Tic and Loony were looking through some scrolls in their library; they found a cursed scroll. It was meant for cats. The two didn't believe the curse so they put it on the ground and searched for Bru, their cat. Once they found her, they put the cat on top of the cursed scroll. When Loony let go of the cat, she walked all over the scroll and walked out into the kitchen; the two men followed her. She jumped onto a chair and to the counter; she walked to where a knife was set.
She started moving the knife with her nose a bit, moving more to the edge of the counter; the men watched in curiosity. Slowly, Bru moved onto the knife, which was now partially over the edge. She sat and quickly fell, landing on her back with the knife landing straight in her heart. Loony and Tic gasped before leaving the house.
They went to the park where Akito and Panther were playing and kidnapped him. For the next four days, they kept Akito in a lab where Panther couldn't get in. During those four days, they tried to kill Akito, but he fought back and when they were finally able to restrain the cursed boy, they decided to just do experiments on him.
They drugged him, examined him, they even tested a product or two on him. They made things torturous for Akito in there, but one day Tic forgot to tighten a strap that kept him down. Akito was able to get out of the straps and attacked the parents of Panther. Soon after, surely the men were dead and Akito escaped the lab.
Panther's eyes snapped open as she sat up in bed. That was only a dream, a memory. She looked around herself; she was back in her room at Shigure's. The door slid open as Tohru stepped in the room.
"Good, you're awake. You were sweating in your sleep earlier," everything seemed quiet except for Tohru, "You're not feeling well so I think you should stay in bed." Panther tried to speak, but couldn't as Tohru pushed her back to rest.
"It's been a couple days since you fell asleep the other night you know. We thought..."
'A couple days?' Panther stopped listening to what Tohru was saying.
"You should get some more rest little sister."
"Huh?" Panther looked befuddled.
"I said you should get more rest. I don't want your sickness to get worse, I'll leave you to sleep, but I'll check back later." Panther watched her leave as the sun's rays shone on her. Everything was quiet and peaceful, it was as if there was nothing crazy going on.
"Maybe this is all just a dream too." Panther thought to aloud. Akito leapt onto her and bed putting his face close to hers.
"Wrong!"
Panting and sweating, Panther jerked up in her bed and looked around her room. Shigure was standing next to her bed taking care of her.
"Are you all right, Panther?" Panther didn't answer; she just searched the room carefully. She got out of bed and started walking along her walls with her hand tracing it.
"Panther? Panther, what's wrong?" Shigure tried to snap her out of it but nothing happened. She continued tracing the wall with her hands as she looked about the room.
"Akito?" Her voice was shaky as she sought for the man who caused her nightmare.
"Akito?" Shigure noticed her perspiring becoming constant as she called for Akito.
"Akito, where are you?" Suddenly, Akito walked out of the shadows with a scary smirk.
"Hello my dearest Panther." Panther saw him, but Shigure did not.
"Akito, what are you trying to pull?"
"Huh? Oh no, she's hallucinating." Shigure shook Panther's body trying to bring her back to reality but to no avail.
"Akito!" Hatsuharu walked in the room and saw what was happening. He knew she was hallucinating, too, so he did the only thing he thought would help. Wham! He punched her in the face 'successfully' bringing her home.
"Sorry." Hatsuharu apologized. Panther didn't move, her head hung and tears fell. Hatsuharu embraced the unmoving girl. Her tears flew freely, but her mind and body weren't doing anything.
"Panther?" Hatsuharu pulled her from himself and looked at her. He and Shigure gasped at the horrifying sight. There she was, held by Hatsuharu, with her eyes opened and ashen skin. She was dead. Her eyes were still leaking, but she was dead.
Everything turned dark and it was now pitch black. Panther stood wearing a white nightgown searching for something. A girl sat in the middle of the area surrounded by a dim glow. Crying, she hummed a sad tune. Panther tilted her head as she walked over to the crying girl. Tears were forming in Panther's eyes as she tried to forget the dreams she had. She tried to put her hand on the crying girl's shoulder, but it went straight through. She gasped when she heard cackling echo in the darkness.
"Panther. Oh Panther," the voice sang, "Panther, there was something else I haven't told you about my part of my family's curse. This only works for me because I don't have a particular zodiac animal,"
"Akito" Panther tried to call out but instead she choked on her words. He continued with a psycho tone.
"You see Panther, when I shared my blood with you, mm well let's just say that I can communicate with you now. Through the mind, and through your dreams." A pair of black eyes appeared in the darkness as thunder clapped in the background.
"Huh?" Panther was beyond shocked.
"Well how do you think you were able to make Kyo and that nurse see those eyes of hurt? Come on Panther, you know which one I'm talking about. Like what you did to other people, used my blood to make it so that people could only see a pair of eyes. Yes, I know you figured it out, because with my blood being in you, I was able to check up on you every now and then. That's another thing I didn't tell you about.
"And that's how you knew where I lived..." Akito laughed.
"Yes, quite true, dearest. You remember that little girl you saw? Do you know who that was? She was you...yes, that's right, you. Do you know why she was crying? Because she lost her family and gave up the chance to receive kind of comfort she wanted from anyone for just someone. One person, she didn't even think carefully about the options-
"You're right Akito, I didn't. But then again, I didn't know the deal with the curse until after the decision was made!"
"You still could've asked for more time, you know I would've given you that. Oh well! Too late now and actually it sounds like I have to go now. Sweet dreams," Akito then growled her name before laughing and disappearing into the darkness.
Once again, Panther's eyes snapped open and she was sweating. On her bedside were Shigure, Kyo, Tohru, Yuki, Momiji, Hatsuharu, and Ayame, all with concerned looks on their faces.
"Are you all right Ms. Panther?" Yuki asked.
"Yes, I am," she didn't even bother looking around, "Is this place real? Am I still dreaming?"
"No, you're not dreaming, but we heard you screaming. What happened?" Shigure answered.
"Prove this is real." She stared cautiously with hope for the truth.
"You're 14yrs old-
"No, I mean really prove it..." Momiji moved to hug the teenager. Hatsuharu did the same and the three of them stilled.
"Panther," Momiji started, "of course this is real. Why wouldn't it be?"
"And if you really need proof, tell us what kind so we can try and help. We love you Panther." Hatsuharu whispered loud enough for her ears to catch on.
"Thank you. I think that should do." Panther returned their embracement and calmed her breathing. They let go of each other before Momiji and Hatsuharu sat next to her on the bed.
"Now tell us Pan, why did you scream?" Hatsuharu turned her head to face his.
Eyes filled with fear, she said, "I just had a bad dream is all. I'm sorry for worrying you all."
"What kind of a bad dream Panther?" Momiji asked tilting his head.
"Don't worry about it Momiji," she giggled while patting his head, "Guys, I have to go do something. I don't want you to worry or interfere, understood?"
"Are you going to go talk to him?" Kyo asked and she nodded. "Then we should go with you."
"No. I'm going to go alone, I'll explain everything when I get back, ok?" Everyone looked at her questioningly.
"Are you going to fight someone Panther?" Tohru's voice was full of complete concern and worry. She didn't want to lose her little sister again.
"Don't worry about it..." After a bit of convincing about her safety, Panther left the house to go to the Sohma Mansion.
~*End of Chapter*~
Again thanks to all who has read and reviewed, ya'll rock! Thanks.