Gone Once More
Disclaimer: I do not legally own the rights to Fruits Basket or any other of its company or creators affiliates. I'm just a fanfiction writer that puts the FanFiction law to good use. Any trivia that I use, I use with the same law in mind.
Author's Request: It starts off strangely, but please don't not read it after the first paragraph. See where it goes.
Summary: slightly AU. She searched for him. She found him. She'll lose him, all over again…
Based on a dream.
A little something for the beginnings of December...
She burst out of the hall, the entrance doors slamming against the wall: the dancing teens nearest jumped in fright at the sudden noise, stared wide-eyed at the gaping door. She didn't care, she didn't care what they thought. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she stood there in the darkness of the night, a breeze gliding past her. She hugged herself, trying to contain as much warmth as she could in the thick jacket that reached above her knees. She began walking.
She stopped suddenly. Looking toward the slanting roof, her eye caught the recess in the tiles, the horizontal ledge causing odd shadows along the jade-coloured roof tiles. She pulled in a breath, held it: then jumped with all her strength onto it, landing in the middle of the balcony. It shimmered as her tears began running again. She lay down, curling into a ball, her heart wrenching in agony at all the faces flashing past her vision.
"You come down here right this minute!" a bad-tempered voice yelled up at her. She wiped her eyes with the back of her jacket sleeve and then looked over the ledge. A woman, somewhere in her late forties, glared up at her, the old-fashioned primness of her outfit glowing in the dark. Lin shook her head no.
"I'm not coming down till I want to. Leave me alone," she called down. The woman looked up at her in tired dismay.
"People will see you," she said, her tone of voice becoming sharper. Lin shook her head angrily.
"I don't care if they see me! I said, leave me alone!" With that, Lin jumped off the balcony and ran round to the other side of the hall. Sango, the elder woman, simply watched her storm off, the porcelain brooch at her throat glinting in the dark against the charcoal-grey kimono. She walked back into the hall, the darkness swallowing her.
Lin found herself in a lovers' crook, a corner of the hall that had been hollowed out to form a cosy cave-like cavity. She flopped down, suddenly feeling weak and helpless. She brought her knees to her face and cried into them, shuddering with her sobs. Ten minutes passed before she could calm down and realize that she wasn't alone. She looked to her side and found a pile of boy's clothes: grey slacks, a white cross-over shirt with a triangle fastener at the collar, and light brown shoes. Eyes widening, she looked out into the overgrown grass of the lawn in front of her. She couldn't exactly work out what was walking towards her, but then she saw the tiny grey hunched shoulders, the downcast violet eyes. Yuki… she thought sadly. In that instant, she suddenly heard a rough male voice walking around the hall to where she was sitting. She hurriedly stood up and rushed to the other side, intending to distract them until he had transformed back.
"Hi, what ya doing?" she asked in a chirpy voice, knowing he was searching for joints and bottles. The old guard looked at her in surprise. He held a long-handled flashlight in the one hand and was busy shining it into one of the numerous pot-plants surrounding the hall. His other hand was brushing aside the leaves. She peered at him curiously but blankly, willing herself to look stupid.
"I'm, uh, checking for… slugs! Yeah, that's it, I'm checking for slugs, the little things are a menace at this time of year." She feigned admiration, keeping an ear open for the familiar pyon.
"Wow, mister, that's so cool!" she smiled at him and grabbed the flashlight. "Can I try?" she asked, already looking in the pot. He looked at her stupidly, then gently pried it from her fingers. She heard a small pyon! and sighed inwardly.
"I have to get going, more to check, you understand." She nodded her head vigorously and watched him walk back the way he came. She breathed a loud sigh of relief before going back to the crook. Yuki had his back to her: he was still pulling on the shirt, his left shoulder bare. She walked up and knelt down beside him, barely a hair's breadth apart. He stopped, keeping quiet. She touched his shoulder, feeling the warm, slightly sticky skin and the firm muscles beneath. He grinned wretchedly. She dropped a ragged piece of rolled paper in front of him and leaned back on her heels, waiting. He remained still a moment, then knelt forward and picked it up reverently. He unfurled it and his eyes skimmed over the crude drawing and elegant writing. His eyes filled with memories and she felt the tears start to well up again. Her fingers traced along the apex of his shoulder, from his collarbone to the edge of his shoulder. He shivered slightly, not out of the cold: she felt his body begin to warm.
"Are you all right?" a girl asked out of the darkness. Yuki let the paper curl back into its original state. Lin looked up at the girl: she was bent towards Yuki, her long brown hair hanging over her chest, large green eyes filled with concern. Tooru came closer and knelt in front of him. Yuki's gaze was downcast, not looking at her. Lin moved herself so she was to his left, no sound coming from her movement. His shoulder was still bare and she laid her forehead on his shoulder, relishing the contact. The muscles beneath his skin rippled at the touch, the skin still clammy. Tooru watched him worriedly. He looked heart-broken, his face glazed in memory.
"Yuki, is there anything I can do?" Tooru asked softly. Lin pulled herself from Yuki, leaning one last time next to his ear. She breathed onto his neck, taking in his scent of wet earth and various herbs, lavender the most prominent. She brought her mouth to barely an inch from his ear, lips partially open.
"I'm not dead," she whispered. She bent over his bare shoulder and kissed it chastely. She stood up and stepped back, watching how the girl took his hand and held it tenderly, waiting for a response. Lin felt hollow inside but continued to walk backwards, fading into the white cold gathering around her. She watched as Yuki shuddered, trying to hold in his sobs and succeeding. He kept his head down as he pulled up his sleeve, his hand lingering where her head had knelt, where her ethereal lips had kissed him. He fastened it and stood up, the girl at his side. She didn't take his fingers but waited until he had gently tucked the crumpled piece of paper into his pocket before walking back inside the hall.
The mist took her, quietly and gently, comforting her as it took her back. She would find him again. They promised.
GB