All Fall Down

(By archy the cockroach)

Rating: T

Warnings: Slash, a little bit of language, spoilers

01: Hatori

Three long months have passed and Kagura hasn't stopped crying.

She still stares at the pictures of her beloved. She's thin, tired, with ragged hair and dead eyes. She spends every day at Shigure's house, sitting in his room or looking at a picture of him as a child. She smiles all the time though, to cover everything up. But everybody knows she's faking as she tries to restrain her tears. She's everything Tohru's trying not to be; happy, clingy and empty.

Hatori has to check up on the girl. She hasn't been eating. He's going to Shigure's, where Kagura stays (read: lives in) Kyou's old room. She rarely comes out, in fact.

Hatori places his stethoscope in his bag and closes it up. Now, to get to his car and try to stay awake long enough to get to Shigure's house. Hatori was unbelievably tired. Akito had gotten sicker since Kyou went into the cage. The god was coughing up blood constantly, and thus keeping the doctor at his beck and call 24/7. As if he wasn't before.

Hatori's always been under Akito's thumb.

The doctor steps out of his house and trudges his way to the car. It's springtime. The cherry blossoms and bright sky don't suit his mood. It's too happy. And the children playing jump rope in the garden don't help at all.

"Ring around the rosey, pocket full of Posey!" the small children sing, a tiny girl with pigtails bouncing in the center with each fwip of the rope.

Hatori stopped his own personal thunderstorm to listen and watch the Sohma children from outside of the zodiac knowledge play. They seem so happy to him. It's… depressing.

"Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!" The girls giggle after they finish their little song.

'How appropriate,' Hatori thinks numbly. Things were seemingly worse for the zodiac lately. Akito was sicker than usual, Kyou was in his cage, Kagura was clinically depressed, and his self was overworked and tired. Everyone was just… tired.

To stop himself from falling asleep on the spot, Hatori gets in his car and drives (read: tries to drive) to Shigure's house.

"Oh, Haa-san, how nice to see you…" Shigure greets Hatori at the door, looking just as tired as the doctor does. His eyes lack their usual mischievous glimmer, and his smile is more forced than usual. He smells like cigarettes, too.

"Is Kagura here?"

"Where else would she be?"

"The question is, where else would she want to be?" says Hatori, making his way up the stairs. Shigure doesn't even follow him. He just goes back into his study to presumably smoke more.

Hatori follows his ears to Kyou's (read: Kagura's) room. He could hear her whimpering. He knocked softly on the door before entering. Kagura can be heard sniffling before she pads her way over to the door and slides it open. "Oh… Hatori-san."

"Kagura. May I come in?" asks the doctor. The girl nods meekly before letting her older cousin into her room. It looks exactly like it was when Kyou lived in it, but Hatori doesn't know that as he's never been in Kyou's room.

There's an awkward pause before anyone speaks. "So… Kagura-san, how have you been… taking the separation?" Hatori speaks so clinically, every word calculated. It's almost as if he's speaking to a woman he barely knows instead of his little cousin. He even calls her san.

"Can't you tell?" Kagura says, looking up at him with her puffy red eyes. There are tear tracks down her cheeks. "I want… no, I need to see him. I need to see Kyou. Can… can I see him, please?" Kagura's almost begging. She doesn't care if she has to beg. She has to see her love.

Hatori answers with the only truth he knows. "I don't know if you can. I suppose I could (or maybe Shigure) could talk to Akito about it." He doubts Akito will say yes though. The only people aloud to see Kyou are Akito and himself. They need Kyou to stay alive, so they send the doctor to check on the cat. Akito wouldn't dare let him die; that would be murder.

As if their god would care. It's just the cat, after all.

"Please. If you can," says Kagura, tears threatening to fall once again. Hatori just nods. Kagura closes the door. He hears her whimpering, again.

The doctor heads back downstairs, intent on leaving and then collapsing on his bed and sleeping. He needs sleep. He's almost falling asleep again.

"Oh… um, hello Hatori-san."

The dragon turns his head to the voice. There stands Tohru Honda. She smiles, and although it doesn't look as happy as it used to be, there's still a little twinge of light. It's refreshing.

Yuki's behind her. He looks the same as usual, the same as before. Ultimately, everyone knew that he wouldn't be too affected by Kyou leaving. It might've a bit, because of Tohru and her close ties to the cat. But Tohru wasn't depressed (read: or at least, didn't show it) or anything, so the rat stayed the same.

"Dinner's almost ready. If you'd like, you can stay," says Tohru, polite as ever. Hatori politely declines.

"I'm sorry, but I can't. I have things I need to take care of."

With a bow, a wave and a (read: cold) look from the rat, Hatori leaves Shigure's house. He needs to sleep.

On the drive home (if you could call it that) he can barely keep his eyes open. When he finally makes it there, he barely stumbles into his room and falls onto the bed with his clothes still on.

Hatori's still tired the next morning. He also has paperwork. Hatori hates paperwork. It's paper, and it's work; both relatively boring things.

It isn't long before he can't bear to do anymore work. So he leaves his house to go and wander around the Sohma estate. The gardens are nice at this time of year.

After about a half hour, the dragon finds himself at the bamboo-barred window of Kyou's cage. He knows the cat is in there, and he knows he's not supposed to be there. He's not even aloud to talk to the cat when he gives him his check-up every couple of weeks. Oh well, Akito's not around.

"Kyou…?"

"What do you want?" That's a voice that sounds tired. It's dry from under-use and sounds more tired than that of his own voice. The dull red-haired teenager slithers off the ground to barely get his eyes just peering over the ledge. He lets his thin, pale arms slip through the bars to let spindly fingers dwindle on the cool stone wall.

"I don't know."

"You're not supposed to be here."

"I know."

Kyou lets out a laugh, but it turns to a dry cough. He never speaks. He doesn't need to. "I'm surprised. You disobeyed the almighty god." He says the title like a mockery. "Akito always had you under his thumb."

Hatori scowls slightly, but he knows it's the truth.

"You should go," says the cat, what Hatori could see of his face disappearing behind the wall of his house (read: cage) again. His hands still remain in the sunshine though. Hatori just sort of stands there for a moment.

The doctor turns to leave. Kyou giggles slightly. Hatori stops.

"Not all puppets have strings, Ha-to-ri…"

Hatori shivers. The cat sounds like Akito.

And then he leaves.

"…ashes, ashes, we all fall down."
le argh. je suis DEAD. not only my fingers are falling off, but i feel slightly creeped out about writing kyou like that. he's like super-dooper out of character, yo. but that will ALL be explained le LATER. heehee. don't you just love me x 100 000 003?

ehneeway, answers and junks too reviews. YAY.

i got an email from a friend, asking some questions. answers and stuff. yay.

why was hatsuharu so angry?

yay, finally this question came up. but i'm not gonna answer it. nya nya. just keep reading to find out, it'll come up later.

why didn't kyou fight/run away?

again, it'll come up later. HAHAHA.

howabout the akito spoiler? is that in effect here?

that's a good question. i haven't really decided yet. it depends what the reviewers want. (i personally like the god better as a boy. XD) so, if you have a preference, say so, and i'll make him/her female or male.

and thank you haruko sohma and animeanna22 for reviewing. -hands out pocky and pickles-

as for pairings, i think i will go with hatori/kyou, because i've only seen it done as one-shot lemons before (not that i mind. hehe). as for kagura-nee over there, i don't think she'll end up with kyou. but she'll definately end up with someone. i'll probably do a yukiru, because i like that pairing. if not, a haru/yuki. bleerf, but that messes up my plans. and maybe shigure/aya, or maybe a shigure/akito. bleerf. i also like shoujo-ai, so if you want a uo/hana or a kagura/hana or something off the beaten path like that, say so.

ohmuffin, i'm rambling again.

(newsflash: you've been doing that for the last couple paragraphs.)

eek. crap.

muffins to all who review this time.

lots of love,

archy