Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Fruits basket characters….only the ones I made up…heh heh heh
Chapter 3---------------Scarred Memories
Tenshi lay down on her bed, exhausted from the day. She had been scolded by Shigure and Hatori (through the phone), and it had been her first day of training. And Kyo hadn't been much of a help all day. Kazuma didn't cut her any slack either. All of her muscles hurt. And who said she wanted to be trained anyways!
She rolled onto her side and let out exasperated sigh. 'At least this is better than the Sohma estate…'she winced involuntarily at the thought of going back there.
There was a knock at her door and the person who knocked came barging in with out waiting for a response. It was Kyo and that bubbly ditz Tohru. Kyo kicked her bed. "Wake up brat."
"I don't wannaaaa!"
"Well its time for dinner!"
"Kyo….why don't we let her sleep?"
"Yeeaaahhh….what she said!"
"Alright fine! But I'm gonna come in later and if you don't get up I'm dragging you downstairs!" Kyo stomped down the stairs as if to prove how mad he was. Tohru lagged behind to make sure she wasn't really hungry, but then quietly walked downstairs. And finally for the first time all day she was left alone to her thoughts…..
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-2 hours later-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
It was 11 at night and everyone seemed to be asleep. Except Tenshi. Her stomach was growling uncontrollably now and she couldn't ignore it any more. Practically floating down the steps, she made her way into the kitchen. As soon as she flicked on the kitchen light Tohru, Yuki, and Shigure pounced on her and plopped her in a chair. Kyo, after getting tired of her screaming: "ASSAULT! ASSAULT!" stuffed a kitchen rag in her mouth.
Tenshi screamed as loudly as the rag would permit her. Tohru noticed she had a purple tinge to her face so she removed it.
"Ok Tenshi, we decided that we're tired of you shutting us out!" said Kyo.
"Yes! We wanna know everything!" chipped in Tohru.
Shigure bent towards Tenshi and gave her a reassuring glance. "Its ok Tenshi, they can know…"
Tenshi sighed and asked for some water. After chugging it down she looked around the room and started…..
-0-0-0-0-0-0-Flashback-0-0-0-0-0-0
Tenshi walked into the head Sohma's house. Her eyes focused ahead of her and not on the worrying eyes of her older brother Hatori. She knew why she was being called down to Akito. She had disobeyed him when he said she couldn't leave the estate. But she had anyways…
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Akito Sohma paced his room slowly, his kimono was draping his skeleton like body in an eerie fashion. At the moment Akito was agitated. He was about to see the one member of the Sohma family who he truly feared. Tenshi was ruthless and could care less what he did to her. Which made it harder to make her fear him.
When Tenshi was seated on a thin mat on the floor, Akito came up and merely slapped her. She took the hit with out a single wince. She looked Akito straight on in the eyes, so hard it was like they were boring into his soul. Akito fell back a step. He glared at Hatori and nodded.
Two men then surged through the door, each grabbing one of her arms and started dragging her towards the exit. She just sighed and didn't put up a fight even though she could have easily kicked their asses. But the look on Hatori's face is what stopped her. Torn between his loyalty to his sister, and his duty to the head of the family. Tenshi decided to go with them, to save her brother any more confusion.
-0-0-0-0-0-Flashback: in the room-0-0-0-0-0-
There are rooms in the Sohma household that strike fear in all their hearts. Rooms where who ever is put in them faces their own worse demons. Yuki and Kyo have been in those rooms. All they have in there to keep them company is their own thoughts. Tenshi had heard of these rooms but had never thought she would be put in one of them. Usually she obeyed Akito, for the sake of her brother, but she was tired of Akito said this and Akito said that… 'Why did everyone have to obey a 16 year old all the time? Why not someone like Hatori?' She screamed in her head. She new Akito feared her because she would not break for him. She never cried out in pain, or said "Yes Akito-san." She wanted to be her own person, not some teenager's puppet…
The two men who had grabbed her chucked her through a door which led into one of "the rooms". Tenshi knew this was another one of Akito's attempts to break her, make her whimper and cry at his feet. She wouldn't let that happen. As one of the men slammed the door shut, Tenshi sat down on the floor in a meditating position, the kind her brother used when he was stressed or worried. She figured that if she could keep her mind focused and blank, she wouldn't be affected.
'Ok….focus…beaches…forests…the moon…relaxing thoughts damnit!' she scolded herself. 'I hope this works...'
-0-0-0-0-0-0-2 days later-0-0-0-0-
Akito strolled happily down the hall to Tenshi's room. 'She's bound to be tame by now...' he laughed evilly in his head. 'Maybe when I get tired of Hatori, she'll want his job she'll be so loyal to me!' He clapped his hands with joy and slid open the door.
To his shock, there was Tenshi, in a meditating position, no screaming "LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!", no whimpering in the corner, nothing that even signified fear. All she did was open one eye and said: "Do you mind? I'm a little busy here!"
It was all Akito could do to keep himself from beating in her ignorant face. He merely smiled evilly and asked in a maniacal tone: "So did you have fun in here? I'm sure you wouldn't mind being kept in here for a few more weeks, months, maybe even years?"
Tenshi sighed, stood up and stretched. After being in the same position for 2 days, your body gets pretty stiff. She smiled and walked towards Akito, and to his surprise, slapped him across the face. "Man that feels good, always wanted to do that! Cheerio dear Akito!" And she skipped down the hall and out of the building.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-A week later at the airport-0-0-0-0-0-0
"OK, there will be someone waiting for you when you get to Seattle ok?" explained Hatori nervously as he loaded Tenshi's luggage onto the conveyor belt.
"Hatori! I get it! Ok! Stop worrying I'll be fine!" laughed Tenshi.
"-Sigh- I know Tenshi. I just wish you hadn't smacked Akito, that was very unwise…"
"Yeah but come on! You have to admit you're glad I did it!"
"It's not my place to say Tenshi!"
"Oh fine Hatori!" she smiled.
Hatori checked his watch and started herding Tenshi to her gate. "Time to go Tenshi. I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you too Hatori-nii!" Tenshi wrapped her arms around Hatori in a big hug and then sprinted towards the gate, waving back at him on her way. When she turned around one last time, she noticed that Hatori actually had tears in his eyes. She felt a pang of guilt for putting her brother through this. She shook it off and boarded the plane…
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-Present-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"So that's what happened, then a few months later I was expelled for tearing up a teacher's office…" ended Tenshi.
"Wow….you actually slapped Akito! You're my hero!" said Kyo with a smile.
"So….in America is where you learned to be so tough? Or tougher than you already were?" said Tohru with awe.
"Yeah pretty much."
Shigure looked at the clock and yawned. "Wow, its really getting late and you kids have school tomorrow, Tenshi grab a roll if you're hungry and straight to bed! CHOP CHOP PEOPLE!" he ended with a sing song voice.
"-Yawn- Fine Shigure…" said Yuki neutrally.
When they reached their beds, all of them almost instantly fell asleep, except for Tenshi…..
Authors Note: WOW THAT TOOK FOREVER! R&R bizzatches