Chapter 10- Show me were the stars sleep

Yuki found Shigure standing outside enjoying a cigarette in the early morning. He wasn't fond of getting up early, but he wanted to make a request of his older cousin and he didn't want anyone knowing about it.

"Shigure." the dog from the zodiac turned his head and had to blink twice when he saw his younger cousin awake and coherent all before eight in the morning.

"To what do I owe the honor of your presence?" Shigure asked neutrally as his mind worked to figure out what request Yuki had for him.

"I want her gone." Shigure flicked the cigarette into the ashtray on the veranda before moving closer to Yuki, who was watching him with unflinching grey eyes.

"Akito wants her here." he replied levelly. Yuki shook his head.

"Then I go somewhere else. Don't ask me to keep on living in the same place as her. Not even you can be that cruel." Yuki replied harshly before quickly spinning on his heel and walking inside with the same cool princely demeanor only the besotted Kaibara girls saw.

Shigure's mouth tightened into a thin line. No. He wasn't that cruel, but Akito was and the only way he knew that Yuki would get his boon was if they could count on Akito's hatred of the cat outweighing her desire to torment the rat.

He shook his head and went inside. He would have to stir the pot soon. But for now, he needed to formulate a plan. And eat breakfast, of course.

(Line Break)

Akito frowned at the listless man lying beside her. Kureno had acted as if he were sleep-walking for the last seven months. Oh, it was true that he did all his duties with the same flawless regard as before, but for all intents and purposes, the man was emotionally dead. She didn't like that. And she didn't know how to fix the problem. Especially not when he would disappear for hours on end, carrying prayer beads and chanting sutras under his breath when he thought no one was listening.

She sighed and ran her long nailed fingers through his hair, which was now becoming long and untrimmed and almost reached to his shoulders. What had happened to him? Why was he dying before her eyes?

Was this also connected to the weakening of all the ties between herself and the other zodiacs? He had already severed the tie, but it hadn't affected how they were with each other. At least not until recently. She frowned at the thought. She was going to have to work harder then, to maintain the links. Or else...

She closed her eyes and pulled him closer to her body. If she had been a kinder mistress, she would have known how to deal with him. But she was too broken to even deal with herself, much less him. That she would admit to herself. But only to herself.

Kureno only frowned in his sleep and sighed at the sudden tightening of her arms. But he didn't wake. He slept on, oblivious to the conflict in his goddess.

(Line Break)

Rin knelt in front of Akito, who was watching her with lazy contempt from the alcove in her darkened rooms. She could smell the fear coming off the horse like expensive perfume and that made her smile. Only just. She was pleased with herself that she had kept the horse guessing what was going to happen to her all those months. But there was no longer time to delay. She had to push the last chess piece into play to make the game complete. She had another game to set the chess board for.

"Do you know why I called you here for, Isuzu?" Akito whispered as she toyed with one of the silken sashes that held her robe shut. Rin shook her head, not daring to say anything lest Akito lash out at her.

"I feel I have neglected placing you somewhere after all that happened last New Year's banquet. After all, I did it for Yuki. I feel it is only fair that you also get the same privilege."

Rin blinked and forced herself to remain still despite the fact that her heart was beating as rapidly as if she had run a race. Was Akito thinking of sending her back home with her parents? Or worse, forcing her to remain here by her side until she became a virtual copy of Kureno? Shivering with deep fear, Rina waited for her sentence to be delivered by Akito, who did so in the manner of one bestowing a boon to an unworthy candidate.

"You will no longer have a home in the inner walls of the Sohma compound. You will live with that ungrateful rat and that stupid girl in Shigure's house." Akito announced, making Rin let out a soft breath of relief that she hadn't been aware that she had been holding.

Akito smiled, knowing that she had thrown the horse a switch that she hadn't foreseen and was immensely pleased by how she turned her head like that. It would, of course, make the next piece of news easier to deliver.

"And when you arrive, I want you to deliver a message from me to the cat. It's been too long since she last came here. I want to see her."

(Line Break)

After that audience, Rin was torn between leaving as quickly as she could possibly manage and delaying it as much as possible without being obvious about it. Despite the humiliation at not being able to best the ox of the zodiac and the bitter knowledge that Yuki was still obsessed with the cat; she couldn't bring herself to go and destroy the tenuous peace that he now had with the gang of misfits collected at Shigure's house. She also had known, from whispered conversations with a livid Kagura that Kyoko had just barely pulled through the torture and rape that she had been subjected to by Akito's implicit request. Despite being selfish and angry at Kyoko, had she been in that situation, she wouldn't have wanted for someone to thoughtlessly destroy what bit of peace she had achieved after such a horrific event in her life. It was mostly pity over that pathetic cat and her new burden that stayed her hand. She knew that if she was pregnant, she would have already aborted it. Not because she was a heartless bitch, but just simple knowledge that she wouldn't be able to take care of the child properly, not just because of her youth; but also due to simply being a Sohma was hell enough. She didn't want to drag an innocent soul into that House of Usher that they were building up all so well. No. She wasn't that cruel. Or that stupid.

Shutting her thoughts of with a click, she went to her room and laid down on the bed. She would have plenty of time to pack. She was going to make sure of it.

(Line Break)

Haru woke up to the smells of breakfast being made. He was hungry, but he didn't want to leave the warm bed he shared with his Kyo-chan. He didn't want to wake her just yet. She needed more rest than she had been getting due to her getting closer to giving birth. It was about a month and a half away, but the child and the struggle to cement her sanity and heal her mind from the abuse it suffered was taking its toll. He was glad that he couldn't see her, since he had known from the reactions of Shishou and Hatori that she wasn't looking as well as she should. Even her scent was underlaid by something that he couldn't put his finger on, but that he knew was not right.

So he tried to push her to rest as much as he could. He didn't mind staying with her, since in the past three months since he had come back she had healed so well and so quickly that even Hatori was impressed. She still wasn't the same firebrand as before, but she was getting there. He could hear the passion as a background current in her still quiet voice and in the way her hands would claw at his back. She didn't leave furrows just yet, but the marks were still itchy and painful. He tried to not fidget too much when they were with the others, but from the pointed double entendres followed by pained cries of Shigure, he knew that the others were simply ignoring it out of politeness. No one wanted to comment on how Kyoko was handling having someone touch her intimately.

He had to wonder about that himself, since he had done his homework on rape victims and the aftermath. Most of them either went two paths: They either renounced sex entirely, or they slept with anyone that was willing to sleep with them. It was almost as if they were trying to control the occurrence of another rape happening. But they both stemmed from the same fear of helplessness that had overwhelmed them when they had been attacked.

Judging from the way that she had shrank from the others, Haru was sure that she wasn't going to want to have sex anytime soon. Not only was the trauma like a shadow between them, her pregnancy also posed a barrier. He had resigned himself to taking matters in his own hands, so to speak and had been both pleasantly surprised and horrified when she had shyly initiated the first time of what would be a regular routine of sex, establishing the same pattern that they had followed before everything had collapsed in their world.

But it was far from being the wild and unrestrained passion that they had shared. It had become more gentle than he had ever dreamed possible with someone like Kyoko, who had never really been able to display that she was capable of being less than abrasive. He wasn't sure if he liked that more. She was open and vulnerable now. No shields were up, the walls still hadn't been rebuilt.

Haru had to muse whether it was better to see her guarded and fiery, or exposed and vulnerable. He hadn't been expecting a marriage of the two. There couldn't be one. At least not in the foreseeable future. She had been passive and submissive, despite being the one that reached out to him. She would lay herself out to him and he would enjoy caressing her skin under his fingertips, feel the blood rush and pool into his groin with every moan, breath, sigh or pant that escaped her lips. He wept, when he was finally alone, that he couldn't see how she looked in those moments.

It was true that he recalled how she looked before, with her eyes blazing a bright orange, her skin flushed to a darker shade of tan as he fucked her, made love to her, screwed her. All the unromantic terms that she had called the act before.

He had to wonder at what she looked like now. Would her eyes glimmer under thick lashes? Would her skin just take a rosy hue? Or would it reach that reddish-tawny shade as it had before? He stopped asking himself the questions. There was no point. No one could grant him that sight.

"Morning." Kyoko's murmured greeting and kiss on the cheek broke him out of his morbid thoughts and made him focus on her.

"Morning love. Do you want to get some breakfast?" he asked as he sat up and sat with his back against the headboard of their bed.

"Not really. But I'd better eat for the baby's sake." Kyoko replied sarcastically, making him muffle a snort of laughter at that.

"Still nauseous?" he asked as he got out of bed and helped her out as well. At seven and a half months she wasn't exactly graceful and he would much rather help her out than risk getting herself hurt by being clumsy. Despite any misgivings that he may have had about the child, he was not going to ever let her get hurt.

"Just slightly. Tohru's a good cook, but the baby doesn't seem to think so." He smiled at kissed her forehead once she was steady on her feet.

"I'm glad that it's only one month and change before the baby's born. I can't wait." she said as she moved away from him and began looking for his and her clothes.

"Maybe then we can go back to Shisou's house." the wistfulness in her voice made Haru flinch. Although she was getting along well with the occupants of the house, she missed the place that had been her first true home. "And Yuki can come back to his own home."

Haru's mouth tightened at that softly spoken comment. Without a second thought, he went over to Kyoko and hugged her, neither of them caring that they were half-dressed and possibly very late for breakfast. She hadn't taken Yuki's moving out very well and had felt extremely guilty over the whole situation and had almost slipped back into her depression. If it hadn't been for Shigure carefully making excuses and lies to sound so truthful, she probably would have gone that far. Hatori hadn't approved of his doing that, but had agreed it was necessary. So he had let it go.

"It wasn't your fault. It was Yuki's choice. His decision to make. No matter what you would have said in the end, it wouldn't have changed his decision. It was his choice." He murmured in her hair as he stroked her back. She was silent for a long time and Haru wondered if she had accepted the explanation when she exhaled noisily and moved away so that both of them could continue getting dressed.

They went downstairs to eat the breakfast that Tohru had surely left for them. Once they had entered the dining area, they knew something was off-kilter in the house. Haru could smell a different scent in the air. A sweet, heavy and expensive perfume that neither Tohru or Kyoko would be caught dead wearing. He knew of two women that wore that scent. One was his mother, the other was...

"What are you doing here, Isuzu?" Kyoko hissed sharply once he had realized who it was that had just arrived in Shigure's house.

To her credit, the girl had the grace to remain silent for a few moments before she spoke.

"Akito had ordered me to live here. She has banished me from the main house."

The room was silent after she had uttered those words, except for Shigure, who was muttering angrily about his home not being a pound for strays. Hatori quickly quieted him and the silence grew to a lengthy and uncomfortable one until Isuzu took a deep breath to speak again.

"She also told me to pass along the message that Kyoko is to come to the main house. Akito wants to see her and she won't take no for an answer. She said she had already waited long enough and that as soon as I arrived here, she was to get ready to visit."

Haru heard Kyoko's strangled gasp and quickly pulled her to his side. She was silent, but she was hiding her face into her shoulder. He could only hold her tightly as Hatori and Shigure questioned Isuzu about everything that Akito had demanded of her.

"I don't want to go there. I don't want to face her." Kyoko had hissed, her voice muffled by his shoulder, but still clear enough for him to understand.

He wanted to tell her she didn't have to and that she would protect her, but his mouth refused to move. He couldn't promise her that. Not when he knew that he couldn't keep that promise. She had already been snatched from him and he knew fully well that he had no power to prevent anything from happening.

Holding this thought in his mind, he cursed himself silently and kept on rubbing his love's back in an effort to calm her down. He was going to have to find a way to help her. And soon.

But how?

(Line Break)

Kyoko sat with Hatori, Shigure and Haru in the study not long after Rin had arrived. They had left the horse with Tohru, who was all too happy to take care of the new guest while they went into the study to come up with a plan. They had all been expecting that Akito would request her presence, but now that the summons had come, they didn't know what the best way to proceed was.

"I will try and distract her from her request, Kyo-chan." Shigure had said after the silence between them had grown uncomfortably long.

"And what if it doesn't work?" Haru asked, his voice rough and thick, showing how close he was to going black over the distressing news.

"It buys us time." Hatori replied, his voice flat and emotionless as he spoke. Kyoko's head rose sharply at that and Haru only grinned at the words.

"You can hide out in Nagasaki or even Seoul if you don't feel safe there." Hatori continued smoothly while Shigure's face betrayed nothing of his thoughts.

"How will they manage it? Kureno..." Shigure protested, only to be cut off by his unaffected cousin.

"Kureno's not been handling the accounts and all the other household duties recently. They are handled by another Sohma who is still learning the intricacies of dealing with the inner circle. It would be at the least, a month before they would even think of tracking any expenses or even plot ways to look for you. By the time she would find you, it would be too late. If Akito's obsessions aren't in front of her, she will lose interest. That's what we're counting on." Hatori explained coolly.

Kyoko's mouth jerked at that, but she didn't say a word. Instead, she ran her hands over her distended belly that carried her child. Shigure watched the gesture, his mouth tightening into a sharp line as he did so. At that moment he knew he would have to use all of his tricks to buy time for her and Haru. Or possibly even their freedom. They needed to have a place to raise that child so that it wouldn't be tainted by the shadows and griefs of the Sohma name. It was too late for himself and Hatori, Kureno and Ayame, but at least he could hand that gift over to Kyoko's unborn child.

He wouldn't fail at this sleight of hand. He would make sure of it.

Notes: I do apologize for the length between chapters. I was not in Seoul for two weeks and when I came back, I was extremely ill and have now fully recovered from that. Suffice to say that this chapter is getting close to tying up loose ends between all of the characters that hadn't been seen in awhile.

Also, Kyoko's finally had time to heal more and Haru has gotten a chance to express himself after being pretty quiet in the last few chapters. Kyoko's recovery is still not fully complete, despite Haru's presence and his patience. It is seemingly quick because of her youth, but she will have more trauma to deal with later that will show exactly how much she has been healed.

Thank you to all that are still reading and I promise to update. Honest. If work doesn't get me first.