Despite Fate
By Starhopper
DISLCAIMER: I don't own them, because if I did, Yuki wouldn't love his 'Honda-san'. He'd love ME! Bwahahahahaha!
The quoted lines are just some phrases from when they were 16 (ie, from the anime or the manga) acting as memories to set up the time-scale I'm working with.
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Prologue:
The String is Taught
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One day he woke to the sound of her voice, and then he knew.
"Yuki . . . kun."
For four years the stakes had slowly been pushed higher, the fights few and far between but much more fierce in intensity when either prey or predator had had too much. Senses were spiked, ears perked and drawn forward to find some meaning behind it.
"They've been getting along much better since she came,"
Why fight? Why try? Why attempt to become what fate so obviously disdained?
"Let's all go home, together."
Yet they did. Tensions were on a literal edge in the house, the spawning grounds of almost every fight initiated because she lived there. The stillness of the air between them and her was strung with electricity seemingly tasted only by the males. Even Shigure would feel it and bolt out the door of whatever room he had intruded upon. But both rat and cat were invigorated by it, hopeful for it. With that silence, fears were assured and new strategies were composed like wood-wind symphonies. Cool whistles and low trills transposed the hisses and growls of two predators rounding about on their intended quarry, making the attack seem less calculated when it eventually was brought to action.
"MY ONLY GOAL IS TO FIGHT AND BEAT YUKI!"
Then one night, just before their second year of college, a fight erupted and suddenly the zodiacal warriors were throwing punches for something much more important to a man of any age. But 20 was volatile in its youth and out to prove something. Insults would charge, kendo would defend, and in the end, Yuki would always stand not as victor, but as loser. For as he loomed over his fallen opponent, the cat would be coddled and nursed by her, just as he'd always been from the time they were all sixteen and ignorant to the storm clouds that were building. At each careless brush of hands and admirable albeit stolen glances two more thunderheads would form. And after four years, the prince could almost feel the shaking of thunder as rain started to fall.
"Who's the poor man now?"
Even at this dinner, he could do nothing but watch and wait for some sign of the tempest to begin.
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A/N: Got ya hooked right? Oh, and to clear it up:
Line 1: Tohru calling Yuki by his name for the first time under Haru's urging.
Line 2: Something Haru might say to another Sohma member after seeing for himself what Tohru has done for the temperaments of both boys.
Line 3: Tohru from Ep 25. (Sorry, don't want to spoil it.)
Line 4: Kyou-kun (duh.)
Line 5: After playing rich man poor man, something Kyou might've said after he won for the first time after the series.