Author Note: So sorry it took this long. I won't even make any excuses. But I did it! I won't be this long for the next chapters, though. Hopefully. To you still reading, thank you.
Impersonator Waltz
Chapter Seven
Aconite's Realizations
"Oh, this is just great,' seethed Kyo, having tripped over thrice while carrying Shigure on the way to Hatori's, coming perilously close to dropping the unconscious Writer on his head. He scowled into Hatori's windows as best he could while gripping the Dog firmly around the torso. No dimmed lights. No quietly humming radio. No giggling Momiji. Just an eerie, foreboding silence.
"No one's in there," he tossed irritably to Yuki, whose breathing seemed uneven. Kyo eyed him carefully, deliberately for a moment, before flapping off his worry. One sick idiot at a time, he thought savagely, becoming quite annoyed with everything. Honestly, if things continued on in this vain, he just hoped he didn't collapse himself.
"Yes, I can see that." Yuki's tone wasn't snappish, or sarcastic. Just a little breathless.
Yuki shifted Shigure's weight to one arm a moment, holding a hand to his chest to steady his erratic breathing. Lids fluttered close over his dark lavender eyes, like silken curtains over color-glass windows. It seemed as though a stopper had been placed at the entrance of his lungs, blocking out almost completely the air, a defiant hand.
"You're going to fall on your face too, aren't you?" said Kyo wearily, stare mounting in discreet, unfound panic. A fine sheen of sweat made strands of his orange hair stick to his forehead. His mouth was contorted into frown, completing his expression of irritation.
"Just get him inside," Yuki shot back, finding in himself to sound cold. His breathing was still slightly spasmodic, but the worst was past. The stiff conversation between them made him feel awkward and he found himself cursing Shigure's carelessness, being the cause of all things. Or so he thought.
"I didn't know you were all up for hurling him through the window," Kyo said lightly, preparing to throw Shigure bodily into the house. Yuki let out a string of insults dotted with expletives aiming to wound Kyo's intelligence. The Cat smiled grimly.
"We can't throw him through the window –"
"I know that," Kyo snapped, glare back in place, becoming increasingly uncomfortable from the weight of a full-grown man in his arms. He was itching to just bolt, leaving all this behind him. As a passing thought, it dawned to him that this didn't even involve him that much. He could just walk away and watch the happenings from afar, maybe even laugh about it when things reached an ugly climax.
But that was cowardly.
"Look, let's just set him down for a while, all right?" he growled, more to himself than Yuki. He laidShigure on the leaf-littered ground, stifling a groan from the stiffness his muscles contracted the moment the burden was lifted. Yuki showed no signs of physical weakness, sans the unusual breathing pattern.
A lick of wind stung their faces as Ayame staggered behind them, eyes bled of emotion. His lip still throbbed forth blood. His voice cracked painfully as he spoke.
"This is my fault," he balefully announced, hands trembling to half-heartedly stem the rivulet of blood dribbling down his chin. "If I hadn't burdened dear Shigure of my wants when we were young men … if I hadn't – hadn't been so selfish …" His voice dropped radically, settling on a fragile whisper. Tears sprang from his eyes, providing a blanket-less warmth, a fool's comfort. He sank to the floor, weeping.
Kyo regarded him with disgust. Yuki blinked and looked away, chest pounding, expression implacable. Between them, Shigure stirred ever so slightly, a movement that all three failed to notice.
"Yeah, that's right," Kyo spat out, scathing, "If it weren't for your stupid drama and your stupid overall self, our family could thrive a little more on normalcy!" His voice heightened in volume, growing more and more furious by the syllable. He cared very little for the sense of his words (he knew very well that his 'family' was the definite opposite of 'normal'), only caring that Ayame feel the real hurt others felt, not just the unnecessary wounds, the delusional wounds, he created for himself. A plastic world with gashes healed then opened again by hallucinations.
"Ayame …"
"Don't you notice that your general personality just fucking sucks?" Kyo howled bluntly, taking several strides toward Ayame, hands balled into quivering fists. His eyes were streaked with rage. "Maybe you're blind to everything else but yourself, but let me just say, on behalf of every fucking Sohma and human out there, related or just happen to have the same arsehole last name – Fuck you, you self-centered son of a bitch!" Caught up in the fervor of anger, he brought back a leg to kick Ayame. Yuki got there just in time. Just.
"Kyo!" he gasped fiercely, almost overwhelmed by the strength of the Cat. He struggled to hold him back, arms shaking violently from the effort. His heels dug into grainy soil, skin now alert to Kyo's nails pressing in. "Do you think this is going to do anything? Stop –"
"I know it's doing nothing but it feels good just yelling at him, you damn Rat –"
"Ayame…" A rustle of robes. A twitching of fingers. A whisper of pardon.
"Kyo – stop –"
Yuki shoved hard, almost knocking their balance awry, legs about ready to give out from the effort. The Cat growled, looking livid, and repelled the other's advances with equal brutality, hair flying back from a short gust of wind. Their scuffle rose in hysteria, with Kyo's befuddled emotions steadily becoming directed at Yuki, who seemed hell bent on toppling them both over if it meant no further harm came upon anyone else. Something in the Rat's heart twitched; an emotion, or something else? He pushed that fleeting thought away and pushed bodily on Kyo.
At the same time the other did the same. It seemed the Cat's superior strength championed the other's dominant stealth. Yuki's defenses gave way, eyes closing shut, awaiting the inevitable. They would surely wind Ayame (and more) from the force of Kyo's push.
But they landed on an ungainly heap on nothing but floor, limbs tangled and anger swiftly put out by the sudden twistof events.
Their heads, inches apart, automatically swiveled to Shigure's unconscious form.
A form that was no longer unconscious but very much, if not a little disoriented, awake.
"Shigure…" Ayame breathed weakly, eyes swimming in tears, half a meter from the Writer. Even the Snake seemed at loss for words. His long hands trembled as they stretched to cup the Dog's almost bewildered face. Witha slight rose color dusted over his cheekbones and topped with the now dormant flow of blood from his lips and mused hair, Ayame looked the picture of radically ruffled elegance.
Shigure felt his heart's tear crease a little, causing his confusion to well up abnormally.
Yuki and Kyo stared blankly for a long moment at them, sparks of cockeyed emotions being rekindled in their eyes. They were on top of each other, the Rat being bottom and the Cat sprawled messily all over him. It took for them a moment to realize. When they did, they immediately disentangled themselves, furious blame shooting back and forth like glass in momentum.
"There better be something really, really good behind this," Kyo forced through gritted teeth, striding up to Shigure and looking imposingly down at him. The Cat breathed deeply through his nose, ruffling his hair as the air spiraled. Suspicion and slowly-leaking-back-in irritation made his eyes narrow to slits.
The Writer looked up at him and blinked, then blinked again, unaware of what he had caused. He looked around carefully, brows knotted. The aftermath of his fainting spellprevented coherent thought from forming in his mind. He was only starting to gather together that people were very, very unhappy with him.
And why in the world was Ayame looking at him as though he had been resurrected?
"Err…" he tried dubiously, slowly. He blinked rapidly, suddenly feeling very nauseous. "Apart – apart from the fact that I feel very pregnant, emotion-wise, that is … I really don't know how to explain." He tilted his head, unabashedly finding a way to smile crookedly. "Or what to explain, for that matter."
Kyo began sputtering incoherent things. He started toward Shigure with the intention of knocking him out but stopped, seeing from the corner of his eyes Yuki's tense stance. The Cat knew he'd be on him the moment another to-be brawl ensued.
"Shigure?" Yuki called a couple of meters away, tone measured, pieces forming a distorted picture in his mind. Outwardly, even he seemed a little confused. "Shigure, do you know where we are?"
The asked needn't look around. He knew this ground anywhere, even in his addled state.
"Behind Hatori's house, of course," he replied, beginning to sound a little nettled himself judging from the creasing of his brow. The imploring, desperate look Ayame was piercing him with did nothing to tranquilize the rapidly swirling emotions in his heart. Things were placing themselves right again and it was only a matter of time before his still sleep-riddled brain caught on. "Yuki, are you all right? You don't seem the kind to ask obvious questions. That's normally Kyo's job."
Something in Kyo cracked a little.
"Let's thread a thorny path, eh?" he growled, scowling furiously. He broke out, yelling again. "Are you even looking around, you stupid Dog! Look! Look!" He flailed an arm at the Snake, who retained that dazed expression. "You wake upsomewhere not yourhome andyou have the time to call me stupid?"
"Not stupid, dear kitty. I never said that. Just very obvious, concerning many, many things. But only sometimes!" he added cheerfully, almost hearing Kyo's blood surge with irritation. Yuki sighed helplessly in the background. Kyo swiveled to him, eyes crackling with annoyance.
"You know what?" he said, breathing deeply, trying to keep what was left of his emotional reign in check. "I don't need this. I could be somewhere else, doing something useful." His tone leveled out, body relaxing. He willed himself to bend to his words. "Licking Akito's feet would be better than this. You can deal with the idiot and sidekick. I'm off."
At the mention of Akito, Shigure froze up, blood running cold, all playfulness hurled aside.
The world flickered black and white and then to color in his eyes without him blinking. Broken images flitted passed him, segmented words cutting deep into his mind and engraving black secrets. His hands clawed into the ground, tiny pebbles rooting themselves under his nails, pushing back and breaking skin. His jaw was set, teeth clenched to an agonizing tightness.
Ayame started toward him but Shigure shrank back, as if touched by invisible heat.
An image of a headless person, identity unknown, whirled in Shigure's mind tauntingly. It held its talking mouth in its bloody hand, its laughter reverberating off invisible walls. Dizziness slammed into his head and everything flooded back, even before Ayame's double-crossed meeting. His eyes darted to the direction of Akito's part of the compound, a feeling of immense, overwhelming, drowning fear almost sending him into a wheel of hysteria.
His breath hitched, his heart ached, his head pounded.
Ignoring the yells of Kyo (who had been alerted to Shigure's sudden change by Yuki) and Ayame's alarmed words, Shigure scrambled to his feet and fled to Akito's, heart sinking.
Kana had heard of Akito from her friends. It seemed that she (or he, as Akito was known to everyone else except a few select people) was the Family head (what that meant to Kana was lost to her) and that she had a terrible temper, one that shouldn't be crossed or provoked under any circumstances.
"You dare address me in such a manner, you ugly little girl?" sneered Akito, tempest eyes flashing with imminence and contempt. Kana whimpered, nursing a welt on her arm on which she had landed on. Akito beckoned Kureno with a long finger, keeping her elegant glower fixed on the pitiful sight of Hatori's once-lover. The Rooster obeyed accordingly, striding up to Akito in a measured nature, eyes curtained by the ever-present Sohma fringe. His face was impassive, giving off nothing. He stood beside the Jyuunishi leader, quietly surrendering himself to her for the thousandth time.
Akito smiled at him briefly; a smile that held no warmth, no reassurance, no love.
"Let me tell you something, girl," she said condescendingly to Kana, scowl belittling. She began circling her slowly, hair swaying, caressing her bare shoulder. The sickly perfection of her face made the older woman look away, gasping for breath. "No one talks to me in that manner and escapes unscathed." Akito circled closer, slower. "No one disobeys my orders and escapes unharmed." She crouched down, smirking mouth right next to Kana's ear. Hot breath. Hot heart. Burning mind. "And no one dirties my toys and escapes alive."
She struck Kana with the back of her hand, connecting the Outsider's face with the floor.
Hatori's mind willed himself to act, to do anything. But something held him back. His limbs wouldn't acquiesce to his thoughts. His mouth caged his words. A cage within a cage.
If he couldn't obey himself, then…
"Now, look at that," cooed Akito wonderingly, observing as Kana struggled on the floor, bleeding at the mouth. She smiled gleefully and straightened, pulling her garments over her shoulder with regal air. She walked back to Kureno, smile dangerous, eyes partly angry, partly lustful and very much alive. She leant into his embrace, resting a hand on the arms that encircled her waist. She smirked at Kana, who looked blearily up at her, mused bangs streaked with sweat.
The heat in the room intensified.
Hatori's heart pounded; his lungs contracted; his mind reeled.
Someone banged on the door violently. No one took notice.
"You know who he is don't you, you ugly creature?" Akito laughed, eyesroaming to the Dragon and back to Kana's broken face. The older woman looked, with some effort (her neck felt strangely uncomfortable), at Hatori. Her mind worked against the pain of her body and an invisible wall of something. Her thoughts tried breaching that barrier; that fort she had felt to be there all the time but just not worth the effort to bother with. Tendrils of her past awoke and gripped at things, pulling them apart, like furious hands shredding down the curtain hiding a scandal. Before the whole picture was made clear, a dizziness seized her and her sight swam, images contorting then disappearing, dissolving them blackening.
A name was on the tip of her tongue, a name she had just heard a few moments ago; a name that had once meant the entire world to her.
The dizziness clamped a hand over her nose, cutting off the air. She gasped and gasped, eyes watering then fluttering close. Her mind danced a fevered waltz in her mind, spinning fast and then faster and faster. She slammed her hands on her floor, nails grating against the wood, splintering it and piercing the skin underneath.
It was there. The name. She knew what it meant to her. She knew!
Her eyes flew open, cracking stare drawn like a magnet to the hunched figure dressed in white.
Doctor.
His head was bowed. Uneven hair obscured what looked to be a very beautiful face. Long arms trembled. Deep breaths labored.
Dragon.
The wall was incinerated in her mind, the stopper taken away from her nose. An image of a rose and a secret flashed in her mind, making her blink rapidly. She brought her hands to her face, looking at them in wonder and forbidden hope; a hope she didn't know she harbored.
Her eyes snapped to him again, at the same time he looked up, face equally broken and a picture of ultimate perfection, save an injured eye; Kana's truest, most ugly fault. Her heart broke and shattered and healed at the same time.
Hatori.
Rin looked intently to ceiling of her room, thoughts scattered and emotions simmering.
"So Tohru isn't as daft as she looks," she said lightly, lacing her fingers together and shifting on her bed. Her eyes passed over her delicate hands, seeing beyond them and into things she knew had nothing to do with her.
It was funny, observing such an everyday thing and realizing that it had so much more to say about what was happening. The way her fingers rested on top of each other, dormant now but holding all the strength and skill to do everything from holding knives for murder, to lovingly caressing a lover's face. The way subtlety like that could unleash havoc in the most unsuspecting ways sent thrilling shivers up her spine, filling her from crown to toe of feeling.
She rolled her eyes, taking her hands apart.
Honestly, I observe too much, she thought, standing up to head down to scrounge for food, when she noticed something from the corner of her eye.
Akito's.
She narrowed her eyes. Rin walked to her window, hand going to the latch, gripping it tighter than she had intended. It slid open easily and her body leaned into the wind, ebony hair flicking back sharply. Her eyes struggled to make out the shadows against the stinging cold.
Two were definitely hunched. One stood in-between them, and another, a taller one, a little way off.
Her brows furrowed. This seemed a little too coincidental.
Her sharp eyes followed the in-between shadow as it moved and joined with the other in an embrace. Pliant tendrils of thought withdrew back a portion of her talk with Tohru.
Wait for it – it probably won't be long.
Words from her mouth echoed themselves back. Eerie whispers.
Her heart loudly thudded once, realizing how much unintentional truth she had spoken.
.end goes chappie seven.