The Curses' Cold Touch
Disclaimer: If I owned Fruits Basket, this would not be a fanfic, now would it? I didn't think so.
Summary: It's one of the breaks during Tohru's second year of high school and she's already been through a lot with the Sohmas. What happens when an old friend returns to reveal a similar curse? A relationship between the Sohmas and the other cursed family?
In the last chapter, Kristi, Shigure, and Tohru are joined by their friends Arisa, Saki, Kelly, Lex, and Mao-Lin. On a fun day out, the two groups – Arisa/Kristi/Saki/Tohru and Kelly/Lex/Mao-Lin/Shigure – were separated blissfully at a restaurant when the mostly younger group decides to visit their late friend Kyoko.
17.:.Family.:.17
"Here we are," Tohru said as the four of them looked over the area. A few people were scattered here and there, most likely visiting loved ones, just as the four friends had planned to do. "It's cozy," Kristi muttered, not sure if she'd intended for the others to hear, "not too big, but not too cramped." "Just being here," Saki started, "with you back, Kristi, brings back so many memories." "Tell me about it," Arisa laughed, "The memories keep on coming back." "And we still haven't even reached Mom yet," Tohru said with one of her usual smiles. They were merely standing there at the bottom of the steps that would gradually lead up to Kyoko and the others at the temple ground. The other spoke and Kristi smiled, "You guys go ahead and warn Kyoko-san that I'm here. I'll be up there in just a moment." "Are you sure, K-chan?" Tohru asked, "Are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm fine," Kristi said, looking the stairs up and down, "I've just gotta regain a little more energy before I take on these stairs. Feeling a bit weak, that's all. Please don't wait up on me." "Alright," Arisa said, "but if something happens, use that sonic screech of yours." Being a smile, Kristi nodded before the three started up the stairs. Once there were out of sight, Kristi was allowed to access the memories available to her.
Through the darkness of the night, a ringing was heard. The woman's hand clumsily found the snooze button on her alarm clock, but no matter how many times she pressed it, the ringing would not stop. Finally, realizing from where the ring was coming, Kristi pulled a dangling string to turn the short table lamp on before answering her phone. "Hello?" Kristi sleepily asked before hearing the monotonous voice of the operator. "Hello. This is a collect call from…" "Tohru Honda," cried a weeping voice from the other end of the line. "Do you wish to accept charges?" "Yeah, sure." Kristi muttered, waking herself up after hearing Tohru's voice. "Charges accepted. Thank you for using – " The operators voice was cut off when the system message ended. "Tohru-chan?" the tired woman asked, "What's wrong, honey? Are you okay?" "I'm okay, and I'm sorry for waking you," Tohru cried into the receiver, "But Mom! She's…!" Though Kristi said nothing to interrupt her, she cut herself off since she didn't need to have said anything more. Lightning struck and the light went out with a pop, but Tohru's crying could be heard to accompany Kristi's own.
The woman sighed as her attention was reverted back to the world around her. She hadn't moved, so she was still watching the steps as if half-expecting them to do a trick. "Having fun?" Kristi was about to answer the question coming from a voice behind her, but she realized that something was horribly wrong.
"You!" the nurse half-growled as she turned around. Before her stood her older sister, only this time, she had no cigarette. "Aren't you happy to see me, Kristen?" Leigh asked her, "After all, you must've been so busy before if you had to leave so suddenly the last time we had the pleasure of seeing each other." "Leigh, what the hell are you doing here!" Kristi kept her tone in the back of her throat as she tired not to raise her volume. "Why, visiting with my darling little sister, of course!" Kristi had always hated Leigh, but as much as she loathed her, she'd never shown it to its fullest extent. This time, however, seemed to be a little different. "This place is that on which Kyoko-san's grave lies," Kristi continued to growl in a more threatening persistence as the moments befell, "He dare you come here and defile these grounds with your presence? I demand that you leave at once!" "Kristen…" Leigh smiled before stepping closer, taking her kimono where the hems crossed to pull the younger sister near enough to whisper in her ear, "You speak to me like I'm some sort of evil being." Though Kristi had always been rather fond of the cold, she felt her body freeze tens of times over. She tried to suppress it, but even still, her eyes seemed to quiver in fear. "Y-you're…" "Come no, Kristen," Leigh calmly beckoned, "We have nice hotel room where we can have a nice conversation over a nice cut of hot Ramen. You can tell me all about your trip."
Help me…
Leigh's free hand rose, but before she could touch the locket, Kristi's fist cut through the air before coming into sharp contact with her sister's jaw. The force of the blow pushed Leigh to take a few steps back, holding her jaw to find that nothing had been damaged or dislocated. "You're the evil one, Leigh," Kristi said as her eyes beamed with anger, "In fact, you're twice as evil as I shall ever be!" With her latter sentence, she sped forward and grabbed Leigh's collar, much as she'd done to Kristi. Despite her eternally cool composure, Kristi's actions brought Leigh to flash an expression never seen on the woman's face – the expression of fear. "Leave."
Tii-chan!
Kristi's eyes widened and she let her sister go before stepping back once again, as if she'd just woken up. Leigh was the first to notice their company, so her composure was quickly replaced as if nothing had happened. Kristi then looked over to see four others standing on the edge of the sidewalk as a taxi cab drove off. "Sh-Shi-kun!" the woman muttered as if surprised, "Kelly, Lex, Lin…what're you…?" "Well, Shigure Sohma-san," Leigh said, hiding once again behind her aloof attitude that'd temporarily dropped. "Leigh," the Dog acknowledged her with her name and a subtle nod. He wasn't exactly happy to see her either. "What a pleasant surprise," she lied, "And you brought my cousins and sister, too. I keep forgetting how kind you Sohma are." Seeing as how they'd both returned to their normal states, Kristi just stood there, watching Leigh and hoping she'd overlook her spontaneous burst. Unlikely, but Leigh wouldn't have done much in public. "Come, you three," Leigh directed, walking toward their car and waiting for them by the sidewalk, "I've taken a rather fond liking to the Ramen we've been having lately."
While Leigh walked away to the car, the sorrowed kin followed after, solemnly nodding to both Shigure and Kristi as they passed them. When the four had gotten into the car before it disappeared behind a hill of asphalt, another unexpected voice was heard. "K-chan…?" "Tohru-chan," Kristi said as both adults turned their attention to the girl at the top of the stairs, "How long have you been there…?" "Uo-chan and Hana-chan are with Mom," Tohru explained as she gingerly descended, "I came back to see if you were alright, but then… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to spy or anything, but I saw everything. That woman… was she…?" "Leigh Hall," Shigure told her, "The Libra." "Wait, but then she's…" "My big sister," Kristi spat those three words to the ground – if only she could. "But I must admit, Tii-chan, what you didn't wasn't very…" Shigure paused and, in lack of a better word, continued, "…you." The woman nodded, "I know. I – " Once again, Kristi fell forward as her consciousness had found a liking to leaving her in mid-sentence as of late. "K-chan!"