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I hate how the upload isn't working now! I'm writing all these chapters and I can't post them! Gah its such a pain! Anyway, I hope you've been enjoying the chapters. Now on to the next one!

By the way, if these chapters are one ahead, deal with it, you all get the gist anyway

Chapter 25 The Price of Living

It took a while, but eventually Tohru did leave Shigure's grasp to shower and change. She looked at the water that washed away towards the drain, stained with her red blood. She tried not to think about it, but as she washed herself, she ached from the pain.

Shigure too eventually changed back, which made Kisa scream, and Hiro cover her eyes like a mother does a child. When she returned, Hatori and Shigure were in private conversation, and Momiji was playing with Hiro and Kisa. Tohru smiled, and it was a true genuine smile. It wasn't so bad, they were happy. "They're happy" she said again, and wandered around the estate looking for the other boys.

Tohru didn't know where she was supposed to go, to see Momiji and the others, talk to Shigure, or go find Kyo, Yuki, and Haru. Tohru didn't want to decide, so she wandered around until eventually she came to a small opening. It was like some sort of meditation area, it was covered in smoothed sand and many rocks.

Tohru crawled atop one of the rocks, and rested her arms against her knees, staring out into an oblivion of nothing. The horrible images of Akito's angry face were still fresh in her mind. She buried her head against her knees "I can do this...I have to..."

"Tohru?"

Tohru lifted up her head to find Haru looking up at her, leaning against the rock she was sitting on. "Oh, hello Haru. How are you doing?" Tohru slid off the rock and stood beside him.

"I'm fine...what about you, are you okay?" Haru looked into her eyes.

"Oh I'm fine, I got plenty of sleep" Tohru smiled gently

"Its okay to say you aren't. We know what happened." Haru said his hand caressing her cheek. His voice was soft, and his eyes were sad.

"That...I'm fine. Really. Hiro and Hatori took good care of me."

"Aren't you the least bit mad at them for helping Akito?" Haru asked her

"No. I'm not. People are sometimes forced to do things they don't believe in or think is wrong, That's just what happened. It was some decision that was out of their hands. Bruises and cuts will forever fade, it'll be fine in the end" Tohru told him, but she rested her hand against his, it was the closest thing to touch that she could have now.

"Tohru..." Haru looked at her sadly "I don't want you to get hurt....you're doing this all for us...but are we really worth it. You could get hurt, a lot worse then last night...or even worse than that, you could—"

Tohru just shook her head and she smiled "I won't die. You have to believe in me. I promise you, I won't leave the Sohmas just yet"

"But how can you be so sure of that? You don't know anything about Akito!"

"Because....deep inside him...something he still denies....he wants me to succeed, so he can be released of his own burden."

"Tohru...I can't bare the thought of you getting hurt. After the bridge, I never, forgave myself, I don't want, to come that close to you disappearing forever." Haru's eyes were filled with tears that he had held in for a very long time. "I want...to hold you in my arms...without changing..."

"That's what everyone wants Haru. Its okay to want things....the curse will be broken someday" Tohru wiped away his tear with her index finger "Please, can't you leave that in the past? You made a mistake, and that's it, the damage is done, and I healed. It was an accident, nothing more"

Tohru started to shiver as a blustery wind came through, blowing her hair and her skirt to a side. Haru reached out to bring her in, like he would with Kisa, and had to stop, and it made him in a way so frustrated. He pulled off his jacket and draped it around her shoulders.

"Thank you Haru" Tohru told him gently wrapping the jacket tightly around her.

"You're welcome" he said quietly looking at her. She looked so frail right before him. He ran a hand through his white hair. "Come on, lets get you back inside where it's warm"

Tohru nodded, and Haru took his hand and wrapped it around her waist, the two walking side by side. He pulled open a door, and sat her down in the room next to Shigure and Hatori's. Yuki walked by, and saw the two of them together in the room "Uh..Miss Honda" Yuki didn't know what to say, where to begin...Haru could sense though, and knew that any person would want some private time with Tohru. He rose from his spot

"I'll see you later Tohru, and please be strong" Haru left the room, draping aside the curtain, leaving her with his jacket. Yuki entered the room slowly

"Hey Yuki...." Tohru said rubbing her arms in cold. Yuki could barely stand to see Tohru this way, not because it was repulsive, but because it pained him. There were black and blue marks on nearly every inch of her face, and the bandage on her right cheek.

He bent down in front of her and touched her cheek softly, she did not flinch, keeping the pain she felt inside of her. Yuki looked at her, with his soft violet eyes, bent over and kissed her lips lightly keeping it short, Tohru did not have much time to resist, and a part of her was too weak to do it.

"I'm sorry..." he told her stroking her hair.

"Don't apologize." Tohru said hugging her knees and looking at the floor.

"But..."

"Everyone blames themselves, everyone feels like its their fault, well it isn't! It isn't anyone's fault! Its not even Akito's fault! I got myself into this, I knew, and I heard every warning I was given, but still I came, and still here I stay. I am not going to let him erase my memory, I won't I won't I wont!"

"Miss Honda..." Yuki struggled to say anything at all

"Scratches and face burns, nothing more, I'm still alive, I'm still alive why can't anyone just realize that. As long as I'm alive I'm fine, there are much worse things than this, many worse, just like my mom and the car crash. I wish everyone wouldn't make a big deal about it"

"But...I can't stand to see you hurt Tohru....I don't want you to get hurt...you might die...and I don't want that. No one wants to see you dead."

"I know that....I know that....but I don't want them to"

"It can't be helped. Can't you see how much everyone loves you, can't you see how much I love you?"

Tohru lifted her head and looked at Yuki surprised "Yuki..."

"Tohru I love you so much...you're the only person who understands me"

"I....."

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" both heads turned to see a very angry Akito in the doorway, but them smirked "Well well if it isn't little Yuki, haven't you grown?" He took a few steps in, and panic fell upon Yuki's face "Do you remember what fun we had?" Akito came ever closer. He rose his hand up high in the air, readying himself to strike Yuki.

"AKITO DON'T!" Tohru stood up and blocked Yuki.

"Are you really so foolish, to step in the way AGAIN!" Akito looked at her with fire in his eyes. Instead of striking down, he grabbed her by the throat, and held her up in the air as she gasped for breath. "Did you think I'd ever let you be in part of this clan, and here you are still getting in my way! You're just a little pesky insect!"

"Stop...." Tohru said trying to remove his hands from her neck coughing

Yuki stood leaning against the wall still in panic, but seeing Tohru in danger he found himself helpless "TOHRU!" His voice echoed through the estate, calling out her name.

Shigure and Hatori dropped their cups and came running, Momiji, Hiro, and Kisa leaving a movie running, Haru leaving a dream to run. Shigure and Hatori were the first to reach the door

"Flower!"

"Miss Honda!"

"Fools, you see this is what happens to those who interfere with our destiny!" Akito said, tightening the grasp around her neck even more. Tohru continued to choke with tears in her eyes.

"TOHRU!"

"Sissy!"

"TORTOR!" Hiro, Kisa, and Momiji were the next to rush to the aid of the distressed voice. And Kisa screamed out and tears began to fall.

"Stay back all of you, I will not hesitate in killing her!" Akito laughed crazily. Tohru squirmed less and less not, but the tears kept coming.

"I pity you..." A squeaky and stressed voice said.

Haru who had just arrived look in shock, and was more surprised by what Tohru had managed to say

"What, you still appose me you stupid girl?"

Tohru whimpered and struggled again "I pity you. You believe you're protecting them by isolating them, but how do you expect them to live if you ban them from the rest of the world? How do you expect these people to be happy if you shoot them down for ever wanting to change?"

"Why should they be happy when I am burdened with the core!" He screamed in her face

"...Who ever said...your life had to be sad? Who ever said...that you couldn't experience the world....it doesn't have to be horrible, even if it seems that way....you're alive....make a difference...do something worth while...then destroy everyone's dreams because you gave up on yours long before they even started!" Tohru squeaked again, looking at him wincing, with one eye shut.

Akito in frustration tossed her into a wall like a rag doll. Dust flew up and everyone shielded their eyes, all waiting in horror to see Tohru's condition. As it settled, the wall she had been thrown into was completely broken, she laying in a mound of wood shards, blood trickling from every which spot.

"Akito...." Shigure clenched his fists and grit his teeth. He couldn't stand this, and all the Sohmas glared at him. Shigure lifted his fist, preparing himself

"Do you see what this gets you little girl?" Akito said walking over to her frail body "You sought out approval from the only person who couldn't give it, he couldn't even look you in the eye truthfully! You knew...all along you did...but you just kept on believing, what a waste"

"I'm sorry...." Tohru said opening her eyes and looking at him

"What?"

"I'm sorry Shigure....I'm trying....I'm sorry for worrying you..." Tohru slowly began to stand back up, and no one knew what to make of it. She was hurt, it was easily scene, cuts on her legs, her face, everywhere. Seeking approval from one person who couldn't give it, what did Akito mean? Everyone wondered.

Akito reached out to grab her once again, but he stopped midway, falling to his knees in a coughing spell. Everyone in a way, was frozen, watching him struggle for air as blood splattered itself upon the wooden floor.

People often do things we do not expect, sometimes we consider it spontaneous, crazy, or uncalled for. What happened next, I don't think even the gods could not have expected. There was silence, a stillness suspending time and belief as she dropped to her knees and embraced him, "Don't die Akito...don't die yet, you have so much left to do!" Hatori turned, time as if moving in slow motion, ran down the hall to call an ambulance, this out of his expertise.

Akito lifted a hand, as if he were going to strike her, everyone turning and preparing to stop him, but he stopped, and instead left his hand fall to his side. "You're the first one...to ever embrace me" ,He said weakly "You were the first, not to fear my illness, not to fear the hatred and darkness I was band with. You were the first...to ever look inside me and unlock it..."

"Don't die Akito...please don't die!" Tohru said embracing him. He did not transform, he was not a zodiac animal. It was strange. Almost as if a part of him, that had longed to be let out for so long finally was, a look in his eyes, of relief, and almost a hint of happiness.

"You still have....ten days left don't you..." Akito asked with a small chuckle "but its over now"

"NO it isn't, live Akito! We can spend those ten days getting to know each other, letting you get to know your family, you've pushed them all away for so long, but its never to late to try!" Tohru screamed to him, but he closed his eyes softly. In that same instant, the ambulance arrived, and the stretcher carried him away. Tohru scampered to feet and tried to run after them, but she too was only pushed harshly onto a stretcher, and oxygen mask placed on her, and she was taken away too.

Just like that...time began its normal flow. Everyone looked around at the mess, the blood stains, and remembering what they had just heard, that seemed like it was a lifetime ago.

"It seems as though she's done it..." Haru said quietly

"No...I don't believe it is over just yet. It is indeed true that she made a breakthrough with Akito, but something inside me is telling me, if either of them die, we all lose in the end. Tohru wanted the acceptance and to hear it truly from him, if he dies, she'll never fully know....and even if Tohru died, Akito would never know, if someone could fully accept us, for who we are, and not lose all that they had."

"Were we really worth it?" Yuki asked looking at the broken wall, and the trail of wall Tohru and left behind.

"Now that I fully see it....I don't think so" Shigure said

"Tohru did this for us....she was willing to die for us" Momiji said quietly

"She didn't deserve this....she of all people...didn't deserve this" Hiro said clenching his fist

"How long do we have to wait..." Haru asked

"She'll be in Intensive Care for a long while, and even before that the operating room. The only person who can help us now is Hatori...even so...we might not find out until tomorrow....even the day after..." Shigure said

"Do you think Kyo knows?" Yuki asked, he had noted Kyo's absence.

"Yes....I do think he'd know, even being absent"

"Where is he?" Momiji asked worried

"Making an important decision, one that will be as calamitously important as what just happened here" Shigure looked out the window "I just pray, he makes up his mind soon"

The ambulance ride was startling, a worker with his hand over her chest. "You'll be alright, everything will be fine" Tohru wanted to shake her head and tell him to let her go, she was fine, she was fine. She looked over and saw Akito on a stretcher beside her, he trembling, and his breathing small. Fog would condense against his oxygen mask, and she didn't know what else to do for him. She took his hand gently, and his eyes opened weakly. He stared at her, he could not yell, hit her, or anything, he was completely powerless against her, yet, there was that look in his eyes again....that same strange look. "It'll be alright..." she told him. He simply turned his gaze away, looking at the medical equipment, and not her eyes, but he never once pushed away her grasp.

Kyo had been sitting on the side wall of the entrance gate. He stared at the bracelet around his right arm, forever staring, and wondering. Could he really trust her, would she still really except him? His trance was broken when he heard the distinct voice of the Rat calling out Tohru's name. He stood up on the wall "What the hell...."

He then looked down to see Hatori running from the building, cell phone in hand, the only few words he caught "Hospital...two victims...young girl" Kyo for a moment stood in place, trying to stomach what little he had heard. He turned to go to find the others, when the ambulance, and four men with stretchers run in barking orders as each other. Kyo jumped from rooftop to rooftop following them. They ran through a door, and within an instance they were running back towards the car. Tohru was on one stretcher, and much to his surprise Akito was on another. Tohru was covered in drizzly blood and Akito didn't have anything look wrong with him.

"What the hell...." Kyo ran back after them. He stopped though, now realizing, that he could either go back to the rest of the Sohmas, or follow Tohru. Maybe the significance of this decision didn't seem that important, but it was one more of emotion. Kyo took one last look back at Sohma house, and took off in a sprint after Tohru.