Stuck-up Beauty, Reformed Beast, by Raberba girl

Part 5 (Akito)

"Akiiiii!"

I stop at the sound of the familiar voice, trembling with relief. Wordless happy thoughts gush through my head. I didn't realize I was that worried about being lost.

Momiji of the Yellow Hair bounds across the street and throws his arms around me. He's almost as tall as me now, though he looks and dresses like a sixth-grader. "Aki-to," he pouts, "why'd you run away? We were worried!"

"Yeah, you jerk," Kyo says as he comes up. "What were you trying to do, intentionally get into a mess without anyone to bail you out?"

"I'm not that stupid," I grumble. I make a vague, hesitating gesture, and he puts his hand on my shoulder. It rests there, heavy and comforting. "I just wanted...out, for a little bit," I mutter.

"Humph. Idiot." But he squeezes my shoulder and I look up into his eyes, and I see that he understands.

I turn to Hatori, who is gazing at me with disapproval. "So," I say to him, "get it over with, chew me out."

He shrugs. "I'm not in the mood to lose my other eye."

"Shut up," I say. I am trying to act cool, but it's hard to keep the sudden tears back. What I did, back then...I feel worse about it now than I did at the time, but Hatori long ago reached the point where he could accept what happened, and it doesn't bother him anymore.

I wish I could be that strong.

"Just don't do it again," Hatori continues. "At least not until I get you a cell phone."

We head back down the street together, and Kyo pulls out his cell phone to call someone. "Hey, Kagura. Yeah. Yeah, we found him. He's in several pieces at the moment, spurting blood all over my shoes; seems he had a seizure in the middle of the street and got hit by a rogue tow truck-- I was joking! Joking, Kagura, calm down! He's fine. Wait." Kyo cocks an eyebrow at me. "Are you fine?"

"Tell her I played DDR. Almost. And ate ice cream."

"He's peachy, Kagura," Kyo says into the phone. He is giving me an incredulous look as he does so. "Hey, I have to go; love you, talk to you later, bye." He hangs up hurriedly, cutting off the stream of irritated, anxious yelling from the other end.

"Did you really play DDR, Akito?" Momiji asks in amazement.

"No. I was thinking about it, though."

"You should have," Hatori says. "Shigure is running out of things to tease you about."

"Yeah, the telephone pole incident is old news," Kyo says.

I glare at him, but the gesture is somewhat spoiled because I'm blushing almost as badly as that Motoko girl. "It's not my fault they decided to plant a post there, stupid cat."

I've been making Hatori teach me how to drive. Oddly enough, I'm not very good...the steering wheel always tends to wander in the wrong direction, and that stupid telephone pole wasn't the first thing I've crashed into. It was just the first thing that anyone besides Hatori found out about. But still, learning how to drive is fun. Frustrating, but fun. I am now eager to have new experiences and learn how to do new things.

We walk for a long time, and I tell them a little about Motoko. Kyo faintly remembers her as an obsessed fangirl who used to worship Yuki. She was the kind of girl Kyo never paid attention to, so he doesn't know much about her.

"Hatori," I say after a while, "Momiji looks pretty tired to me. I think we should rest, you know, for his sake."

"What are you talking about, Akito?" Kyo says, playing dumb. "Momiji's just as annoyingly energetic as always."

"Yeah, I feel so cheerful now, after finding you safe and sound!" Momiji laughs, playing along. "I could almost dance for joy!"

I could throttle them. They're doing it on purpose.

"What do you think, Hatori," I try again. "Doesn't the sky seem to be clouding up to you? How awful for Kyo, you know how listless he gets in bad weather. We ought to stop, give him a chance to regain his strength."

"It's strange, Akito," Hatori says with a straight face, "that you should think so. All I see is sunshine beaming out of a cloudless sky."

"Ugh!" I sit down, right there on the sidewalk. "I give up. I'm tired, okay?"

"Heh," Kyo says, with a glint in his eye. "Akito-sama has finally swallowed his pride and admitted weakness."

I hold up my arms. "Carry me, Kyo."

"No way!"

They let me rest for a bit, then we keep walking. Hatori keeps getting phone calls from various Sohmas, all asking after me. I'm almost embarrassed - I didn't know I had worried that many people by running off on my own.

At one point, Kyo turns off onto a different street; now that I've been found, he doesn't have much use to stick around. I don't mind him leaving, because he visits so often. I never realized until a few months ago what a good friend Kyo can be. He's always pushing me to do things when I get lazy or discouraged.

When we get to the Estate, worried servants and family members crowd around me. I look down and mumble a lot, apologies mostly, and they gush over how worried they were and if I'm all right. It would annoy me exceedingly, if I didn't know how sincere they are. Hatori finally clears them away from me and leads me silently back to the main house.

"Are you mad at me, Hatori?" I ask softly.

He takes his time before answering. "There was no sign of you. We looked everywhere, you were gone. I couldn't think what had possibly happened to you. You never told anyone, you didn't give any warning, you just disappeared." He stops, then turns to look me in the eye. "When something like that happens, you know, all sorts of horrible scenarios begin to run through your head."

My head is hanging. I don't feel any urge to lift it. "I'm sorry." I can just imagine what they might have thought. Akito kidnapped by thugs who are after the family fortune; Akito getting lost, unable to look after himself; Akito collapsing in the street because there was no one around to recognize the warning signs.

'Where's Akito?' I imagine them saying, 'Is it possible he's not in the Estate? He didn't tell anybody where he went? Call Kyo, Momiji, Shigure; someone's got to know! I swear I will KILL that stupid kid when he comes waltzing back unharmed, no doubt with that smug smile on his face!' And all the while tense nerves, pounding heart, stinging eyes, choked with the suffering you can only experience when your terror is for someone you love.

There is a light touch beneath my chin. I look up in surprise, and Hatori withdraws his fingers, smiling a little. "Two years ago, you refused to step outside. Only in emergencies would you even permit someone to drive you somewhere." He pauses. "You've come a long way. I'm proud of you." My breath catches. "Just remember the rest of us, okay? You're not the only one traveling this road."

"How could I forget?" I whisper.

Hatori puts a light hand on my shoulder and guides me inside.

"Akito-san!"

I jerk to a stop in surprise. I wasn't expecting her. Stupid of me, now that I think.

She runs up to me and takes my hands. "Akito-san, are you all right? We-- I was so worried, when I heard you were gone!"

Seeing as I've heard this a million times already today, from nearly every other member of my family, I should be getting annoyed by this. But I can't. I look into those worried brown eyes, and I try to smile.

"I'm all right, Tohru. Thank you for caring about me."

Her hastily-corrected "we" was not lost on me. I'm afraid to look up, but I can't help it. I raise my head and meet the violet gaze that's been scorching me from across the room. "Yuki," I whisper. He's leaning against the wall with folded arms, looking as if he'd rather be anywhere than here. "I'm...glad you came."

"Wasn't my idea," he says flatly. Tohru blushes.

I mean to speak to him again, but one of the servants comes up with an urgent look on his face.

"Akito-sama!"

I turn to him. "What is it?"

"We're having a slight problem at the front gate - there is a girl who's trying to get in, making a big fuss."

I frown. "A girl?"

"Seducing innocent young maidens again, Akito?" Yuki says scathingly. "I thought you said you'd given up all that."

I am incapable of responding civilly, so I refuse to answer at all. I speak to the servant instead. "Find out her name and what she wants."

"She says her name is Minagawa, sir, but she clams up when we try to ask her what she wants."

"Minagawa?" Yuki says suspiciously.

"Bring her here, if she'll come," I say to the servant. "If she won't, just send her away." Why in the world is the fangirl here? Oh, smashing, don't tell me she followed me. I could do without a stalker. Years ago I would have had fun playing with someone like her, but it's boring when I have to be nice.

"Motoko Minagawa?" Yuki persists.

"YES, Yuki." The look he is giving me sends color creeping across my cheeks. "It's not like I'm going to eat her, Yuki. I just met her today. She followed me, I never planned on seeing her again."

A smirk suddenly curves his mouth. "You're flustered."

My hands jerk in a furious gesture. Clamping my teeth together to hold back the angry words, I whirl around and march out, unable to stay in the same room with that arrogant Rat any longer. I'm so angry that I am not exactly looking to see if anyone is about to enter at the same moment.

THUD

"Ow!" Motoko cries. As for light-as-a-feather me, the force of the impact bounces me to the floor. Lovely. Right in front of sweet Yuki.

"Akito-san, are you all right?" Tohru exclaims.

"No. I think I dislocated some vital organs," I grumble.

"EH?!?!"

"It's a joke, Tohru-kun," Yuki says gently. The soft look on his face makes me sick with jealousy. He's never looked at me that way...not that I can blame him. Much.

The servants who escorted Motoko try to help me up, but one shame-fueled glare from me is all it takes to make them back off. I have no such defense against Tohru, however, and before I know it she's taken my arm and pulled me to my feet. I return Tohru's sunny smile with a weak one of my own, then straighten my clothes and turn to Motoko.

She's staring at Yuki with the same look on her face that she had when she first saw me. Only it's magnified about ten times.

"Minagawa-san," he says politely. The smile he offers her is that creepy nice one he uses for strangers. Very unlike the smirky one he uses for Kyo and me, or the gentle sweet one he uses for Tohru.

"What an unexpected and meeting. I hope my cousin hasn't given you any trouble." He means me. We're not cousins, exactly, but the relationships between most of us Sohmas are so complicated that we usually stick to the easiest term.

Motoko emits a noise that I believe might have been Yuki's hopelessly mangled name.

"Ah, Minagawa-san!" Tohru says with awkward happiness. Tohru is the only person I know who can do that and still look cute. "How nice to see you, after so long!"

Motoko turns to Tohru, and her eyes widen with horror. "Witch," she says, quietly but clearly. From the look on her face, I don't think she intended to say that out loud. "I-I mean, uh, H-Honda..." Her eyes are darting around the room, as if she's expecting to be ambushed.

I have never met a person with clumsier speech. Suddenly I start laughing. "You poor little girl. No wonder you never snagged Yuki."

Motoko suddenly rounds on me. Her cheeks are flaming, but so are her eyes. Something inside me lights up - this girl has caught my interest at last.

"How dare you speak to me that way? You are such a jerk! Always looking at me with those eyes and that smug SMILE! Like you think you're so much better than me!" She's drawn herself up to her full height and is standing aggressively, with her hands clenched and her face angry.

I stand staring at her, not bothering to hide my admiration. She's gorgeous.

"How do you know anything about me and Yuki? I, Motoko Minagawa, will not stand for this treatment! From now on I will have absolutely nothing to do with you, Akito Sohma!"

Oh my, such a loss.

Is that sarcastic? Not sure. Doesn't matter.

Lovely Motoko is glaring at me, waiting for my response. So I grin my most suggestive grin and lick my lips.

She looks enraged. I'm enchanted - that face, and the hair, it reminds me of Kyo. She raises a hand to slap me, but all of a sudden Yuki is there, holding her back. His hand on hers is elegant, he could be escorting her somewhere instead of restraining her.

"I'm sorry, Minagawa-san," he says charmingly. "I am afraid that Akito is the head of our family, and it would be improper for you to strike him." His eyes slide toward me and he adds in a mutter that only I am meant to hear, "Much as I would like you to."

Motoko seems to melt in Yuki's arms, and her attractiveness fades.

"Oh...head of the family, did you say?" she simpers, probably not even paying attention to what she's saying. "I'd better behave, then...Yuki, why is Tohru Honda here...?" The dopey look in her eyes is nauseating.

Yuki delicately releases her and steps back toward Tohru. He lays a hand on her shoulder, as Tohru blushes cutely.

"Minagawa-san, Tohru-kun is my fiancé. I don't know if you heard," he adds politely.

Motoko looks as if her own mother has just slung her into a Bottomless Pit of Doom.

Without a word, she whirls around and runs out of the room.

to be continued...

Author's Note: At the time I wrote this, it was still not definite in the manga whom the main characters end up with. Since my other major Fruits Basket fic features Kyoru, I decided to change things up and, against my preferences, make the couples Kyogura and Yukiru. Oh well; this fic was an already an alternate universe to start with.