Fruits Basket – The Things We Leave Behind
A Fanfiction by Cheshire Grin
Disclaimer: Insert appropriate "I don't own Fruits Basket" Disclaimer here!
One chance, one shot,
That's all anybody ever got.
Frente, Labour of Love
I always said I'd die for you,
I never said the rest.
I doubt you know to what lengths I'd go,
But maybe that is best.
The Things We Leave Behind
"OH YEAH! LETS TAKE THIS OUTSIDE!"
Kyo's voice thundered throughout the Sohma household for a brief moment before a glare from Saki Hanajima, currently perched protectively next to Honda Tohru, silenced it immediately.
"Yeah, Shut up Carrot-top, You'll freak out the baby." Arisa Uotani put in with customary lack of tact.
Sohma Kyo looked sheepishly at Tohru for a record 0.73 seconds before casting a black look at his eternal rival, Sohma Yuki and stomping out the door.
He almost made it.
With his hand on the doorframe a soft, commanding voice spoke.
"Kyo."
Kyo froze. Hanajima's voice always sent a chill down his spine.
"I can't say I'm very happy about this. Will you continue to attack Yuki at this important time? Especially now that his beautiful wife is pregnant with their first child? Can you imagine the possible consequences?"
A shudder rolled lazily down the back of Kyo's neck.
"What would happen if Yuki were hurt? If he died. Would you be content to leave poor Tohru without a husband in her condition. Would you deprive her unborn child of a father? Imagine how hard it would be for that child, growing up without a loving father. Imagine that child's grief learning the fate of its father, with only a cold, lifeless gravestone as a memory."
The shudder spread quickly though the orange haired boy's body until he seemed to be made of jelly.
"How about Tohru? Imagine how devastated she'd be if…"
"ALRIGHT! I get it. Shut up already. Geez!" Kyo shouted, shaking off the hypnotic voice and stalking out the door.
"Um.. Kyo?" Tohru was already up and out the door after Kyo. After a moment's hesitation, Yuki followed.
"Nice one Hana!" Uo said between hysterical laughter. "Although I don't think you ought to worry. Ol' Matchstick'll never beat Yuki."
"Yes, I suppose you're right. Still.." Hana threw a knowing glance after the recently departed trio.
"Still?" Echoed Uo.
"I don't think he's completely over it."
"You mean losing Tohru to Yuki?"
"Yes. I think deep down, Kyo may never get over it." Hana's eyes dropped contemplatively to her teacup.
The two friends considered this in silence for a few moments. Finally Uo spoke up.
"Do you think Tohru's ok with it?"
"No. No I think it hurts her a great deal."
"Will she be ok, do you think?"
"I don't know. She often surprises us doesn't she? Still… I think it would be a good idea to stick close to Tohru at the moment. I'm sure she'd be grateful."
"Yeah, you got that right. How about we stay over tonight? Damn that Carrot-top! If he upsets her again he's really gonna be in for it."
"You shouldn't be too angry at him. Think of how we would feel if we lost dear Tohru. After all we might be her friends but Kyo was in love her."
"I...I guess... Dammit Hana. How do you do that?"
Hanajima Saki raised her eyebrows.
"How do you think? Magic, of course." A faint tendril of electricity sparked around the top of her head.
Uo rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. You gotta teach me that one day."
Saki just smiled as outside, the sounds of Tohru's unique brand of mediation brought a stop to a series of heated shouting.
Later that day Kyo found himself in a place he came to often. For the Cat of the Chinese Zodiac, high places always made him feel more comfortable. Like countless times before, he had retreated to the relative quiet of the rooftop to sort out his thoughts and feelings.
Today it didn't seem to be helping. In fact over the last few months he had found himself slipping further and further into a maze of confusion and depression. Short of temper even at the best of times, now he found his existing amount of control over his temper growing more and more difficult to summon.
With her customary but still somewhat disturbing insight, Tohru's friend, Hanajima had hit the problem right on the head. Tohru had married Yuki. What's more, she carried his child. This in itself wasn't exactly the problem though. The real problem was that Kyo still loved Tohru.
It had been almost a year now since Yuki had married Tohru. An entire year and he still hadn't gotten over it. The wedding had been painful, very painful but the existence he was living now was proving to be worse.
The fact was that he should have left the house the day Tohru had announced that she and Yuki were getting married. He would have, was halfway out the door before Tohru had begged him to stay. Really, what do you do when the girl you love is on her knees before you, looking up at you with those gentle eyes brimming with tears and pleading with you not to go?
He had promised to try. And he had tried. Tried very hard. A large part of him had even welcomed the idea. Despite the pain it was causing him, Kyo didn't really want to leave. After all, where else can you find a girl like Tohru. There probably wasn't another person like her in the whole world. How on earth would he find something to replace the part of his heart she occupied?
And so he had tried. For her. Because she had asked him. Because he had wanted to please her. Because he wanted her to be happy. Even if it made him miserable.
But being miserable was half the problem. It made his temper all the more difficult to suppress. Hanajima was right. It was becoming a problem. His fights with Yuki were getting progressively more vicious and the bruises were taking longer to heal each time.
Despite Tohru's optimism Kyo suspected that he and Yuki would never get along. The deep instinctual hatred and jealousy the cat in him held for the rat was something he found himself powerless to overcome. Being constantly reminded of it each day was unbearable.
He knew of course, that in her own way Tohru did love him. But that way was more akin to the way she loved her two friends, Uotani and Hanajima. Not the way Kyo wanted her to love him. Not the way he loved her.
Hanajima's voice echoed in his head.
"What would happen if Yuki were hurt? If he died. Would you be content to leave poor Tohru without a husband in her condition? Would you deprive her unborn child of a father?"
Was that what he wanted. The rage that overcame him when fighting Yuki, had it changed? Was his focus changing from simply beating the rat to actually killing him?
Kyo suspected that that might just be the case.
"Imagine how hard it would be for that child, growing up without a loving father. Imagine that child's grief learning the fate of its father, with only a cold, lifeless gravestone as a memory."
He couldn't let it come to that. Leaving may hurt Tohru a little but in the long run it would hurt her a lot less. Besides, she had Yuki to look after her.
Yes, it was time to leave. Tomorrow morning. There wasn't much he needed to pack.
Tomorrow morning would be fine.
Kyo rose early. As he had observed last night, there wasn't much he needed to pack. A tent, few items of clothing, one or two books on martial arts, a small knife and some cooking gear would suffice. He was almost out the door and down the stairs before he remembered that he hadn't packed any socks. Darting back into his room, Kyo quickly grabbed a few pairs from his chest of drawers. He was almost about to close the drawer when he noticed something stuffed way in the back.
Pulling it out he saw it was a small, framed photograph of Tohru sitting in the gardens at the Sohma family hot springs. It had been taken almost two years ago when Momiji had taken Tohru, Yuki and himself there for the weekend. When Momiji had the photos developed, Kyo had 'borrowed' the negatives, had this particular photo developed again and returned them the next day. He had bought the frame in the local supermarket and walked home with it stuffed down his shirt.
When Yuki and Tohru got married, Kyo had hidden it at the bottom of his sock drawer. In the picture Tohru was dressed in a kimono and was smiling up at the camera. Feeling somewhat guilty under that smile, Kyo stuffed the photo in his pack and hurried to the kitchen planning on grabbing some food and being gone before first light.
Once again he almost made it.
After hurriedly making a few rice balls and liberating some apples from the pantry, he scribbled a quick note and was just deliberating where to put it when Hanajima Saki spoke up.
"What are you doing, Kyo?"
Her voice floated down from the stairs and immediately froze him in his tracks.
Kyo swore softly before turning around and glaring at her defensively.
"I'm leaving." He muttered.
"Tohru will be upset." Hana observed, her brow creasing almost imperceptibly.
"I know."
"Then why?"
"Things will be better this way. I'm just in the way." Once again Kyo found his temper slipping. He struggled to keep his voice from rising.
"Tohru doesn't think so." Hana's voice remained steady.
"Tohru doesn't understand. She has Yuki."
"She also has you."
"Sorry but I'm leaving. Look, give her this will you?" Making his way back up the stairs he passed the note in his hand to the psychic girl. Hanajima looked at it briefly before turning her eyes back to Kyo.
"Very well, I will allow you to go but once again I must ask you. Why are you leaving?" Her eyes bored through him.
"BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO HURT HER, OK! GEEZ!" He shouted, finally losing his temper and stomping back down the stairs toward the door.
"Kyo?" Hanajima's voice rang out as he was opening the door.
"WHAT!"
"Thank you."
Kyo turned around and looked up at the strange girl, seeing perhaps a little more than he wanted her to know in her eyes.
"Yeah, sure." He grumbled before turning around and stalking out the door.
Hanajima Saki sat at the table drinking tea and waiting for the others to wake up. She was contemplating how to tell Tohru about Kyo's departure. To be honest she had expected it for some time and was surprised that it hadn't happened much earlier. She had guessed it was a testament to Kyo's feelings for Tohru that had kept him here so long and now it appeared that she had been right. It was a pity Kyo couldn't tell her in person but Saki didn't blame him. It would be all too easy for Tohru to convince the poor boy to stay. He never could say 'No' to her.
Looking once more at the note Kyo had given her she cursed softly under her breath. This was not going to be easy. Why did these things always seem to happen when she stayed over at Tohru's?
Placing the note carefully on the table, she went to make some more tea.
Half an hour later she gave it to Tohru.
It read, in a shaky, uneven scrawl, "I just want you to be happy."
END
Author's Note:
Well, what did you think? Just a cute little one-shot that I came up with while taking a break from the larger story I'm working on at the moment.
Sigh… I really love Fruits Basket. ;)
Blame my pre-reader Lina for this fic. ;p She started talking to me about FB and I wondered suddenly why I had never written a Fruits Basket fic ;) So I watched the series again and wondered a bit about Kyo. '
I also wanted to write a bit about Saki & Uo. They're such fantastic characters and they don't really get a lot of time in other fics.
Anyways folks, as always I hope you enjoyed it.
Ja,
Cheshire Grin