Author's Note: Here is an appearance by two Fruits Basket characters that haven't officially shown up yet. I won't tell you who.

I think I've lost a lot of readers.

To the ones still reading: Comments equal Less time in between updates. Lately, I've been getting no love.

Enjoy!

Chapter 21 (Bending Bars Of A Mental Cage)

That Tuesday, the teachers at Kaibara High were trying desperately to cram all of the remaining lessons they could possibly have to teach into the remaining two weeks before finals. While more determined students like Raidon and Kita furiously copied down pages and pages of intensively detailed notes, Hoshiko slept through every period not even bothering with reviewing the material. She figured that as long as she doesn't fail every exam, the school will have no choice but to pass her and let her graduate anyway.

Haru hadn't shown up for school that day so Kita walked home with just Momiji who was enthusiastically describing his latest adventure with the infamous Tohru Honda. Kita knew she shouldn't judge Tohru before meeting her but everything everyone has told her about the girl seemed so sugar-coated and fake, like she was some kind of savior of the Sohma house. Poor girl lost her parents and now she has come to free the Sohma family of the Zodiac curse! What does that make me in the eyes of the Sohmas then, Kita wondered. Some kind of orphaned whore? She shuddered.

"That girl must be something." Kita said with a hint of sarcasm. Momiji beamed at her, not realizing that she was growing annoyed and rancorous from all his talk about her.

As they parted ways, Momiji waved goodbye with a smile as wide as a kid in a candy store and skipped back to his house. Kita gave him a small wave back and walked into the main house, kicking off her shoes in the doorway and looking to see if Kureno would pop up and tell her some news regarding Akito.

"He doesn't want to see you yet." Kureno said from a sitting room as she walked by. She stopped in the middle of the doorway and looked at him curiously.

"Oh. Why?" she asked sadly. She wanted to make sure he was doing better.

"He's sick again. The kind of sick where he doesn't want you to see him until he cleans up." he said. Truthfully, Akito just didn't want to show her how weak he can be. He knew he would have a hard time getting her to comply to his commands if she saw him broken too often.

"Oh, okay." she said, a little thankful she wouldn't have to watch him throw up again. It was far too painful. "I think I'm going to go for a walk then." she decided.

"That's fine. Just be back in an hour." he yelled to her as she turned around and put her shoes back on.

"I will." she hollered back as she slipped out of the door and back into the frigid air.

Kita wanted to go to Haru's house and see why he wasn't in school. He was healthy yesterday so he couldn't have come down with something so quickly. Right? And it's not like he could have gotten lost going to school but if there were one person who would, it would be him.

She made her way around the back of his house where she knew his room was but before she could look inside, she heard an almost inhuman growl of anger followed by a loud crash coming from within.

She pulled back the door and peered into Haru's room to see his bookshelf turned over on the floor with books scattered everywhere. His CDs, which were always in a state of disarray, were intertwined with the torn pages and some of them had cracked covers. A chair was also laying pathetically on the ground and Haru was breathing heavily over it like he was going to kick it as he viewed the mess he had made. It was black Haru.

Kita was torn between wanting to leave him alone and wanting to know what was wrong and instead found herself, once again, static in the moment. Haru looked up, having heard her breathing.

"What do you want?" he asked sharply, gray eyes flashing with furor.

"I was just wondering why you weren't in school today. Are you alright?" she asked, holding her position. He wasn't scary, no one was scary in comparison to Akito, she just didn't want to instigate another outburst.

"Do I look alright to you!" Haru replied, stepping forward and crushing another empty CD case with the toe of his boot.

"No. You look pretty damn pissed off." she said, a little surprised by her own bluntness. "Why are you so damn pissed off?" she asked gently, sounding like a wounded baby animal.

"Well if you have to know, and you always have to know, I had a little run-in with my girlfriend." he said piercingly, kicking a book towards her. Kita picked up the tattered paperback and carefully closed it so that the spine wouldn't bend anymore than it already had and no pages would fall out. He's going to regret this when he changes back.

"I'm sorry." Kita said calmly. "Is there anything I can do?"

Haru turned around so his back was to her. He walked over to his bed, avoiding the junk covering his floor and sat down, rubbing his throbbing forehead.

"No. I'm sorry, Kita." he said, coming out of the trance. His voice softened as he spoke. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. You didn't do anything."

Kita walked into his room and sat down on the bed next to him. "That's okay. I'm kind of...used to it." she said, her voice lowering at she spoke the last three words. She handed him the book.

"Thanks." he said, taking it from her.

"Do you want me to help you clean up?" she asked. Kita always kept everything spotlessly clean because she absolutely despised cleaning with every fiber of her existence but she didn't want to tell him that. She wanted to help him out a little bit at least.

"No. It's my fault but thank you. You should go and see Akito. He's been really sick. You could make him feel better." he told her. He set the book on his unmade bed and started picking up the large fallen pieces of furniture. Kita tried to help by grabbing onto the other side of the bookshelf as he lifted it but she wasn't strong enough to carry the weight herself.

"I still have a while before I have to see him. Apparently he was so sick, he wanted to get it all out of his system and clean up before I visit."

Haru shrugged in an 'oh well' kind of way. "By the way, to answer your question, I wasn't in school because Rin was released from the hospital today and I wanted to see her." He started gathering piles of clothes he had pulled from his drawers in his fit of rage and placing them on his bed. "A lot of good that did me, huh?"

"All things happen for a reason." Kita answered. She had always believed it, even in the worst of times with her parents' death and with every horrible thing Akito did to her. She knew that somehow everything had a purpose even if you couldn't see it right away.

"You may be right." Haru said, smiling. "Bye Kita. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye Haru." she said as she walked out the door and jumped off his porch, her blue school skirt flaring about her like a parachute allowing her to land safely.

She started to wander around the estate with no set destination in mind. It was still cold and a little snowy so almost everyone was hiding away inside their heated houses, enjoying a refreshing cup of hot tea.

The snow was really starting to collect on her black boots as she trudged through a large pile, built up by shovels to keep the walking path clear. She looked around, trying to find distinct landmarks to indicate where she was. On one particularly boring day at the main house about a month ago, she had memorized which Sohma lived in which house after she had found a list and map among Kureno's things. According to her memory, she was very close to Kagura's house. Kita wondered if she was home from college yet because she hadn't seen her since a chance happening at school a couple years ago. They had always gotten along well until Kagura would start ranting about her undying love for Kyo and then Kita's realism would kick in and Kagura would get angry with her. The idea of seeing someone who she could hang out with was tempting so she immediately starting walking towards her house.

Kita hoofed up the stairs to the house towards the front door. Kagura's mother had always been nice to her and her mother so she didn't feel the need to go around the back to get in. She raised her fist to knock but before she could hit the frame, the door was pulled open at such force that Kita was expecting it to tear or even snap. Standing in front of her was a girl who looked to be her age. She had long black hair and dark eyes like Ren and she was wearing a miniskirt with knee-high boats and a low-cut top. Kita was surprised by how much the girl looked like Hoshiko minus the eyes and the length of her hair. The girl looked angrily down at Kita who would have been the same height as her had it not been for her boats.

"Excuse me." the girl said, pushing past Kita and taking a seat on the steps leading up the house. It had occurred to Kita that this girl accurately fit Haru's description of Rin that he had dispensed once in conversation. Could it really be her?

"Hi." Kita said, bowing to the girl. "I'm Kita. You wouldn't happen to be Isuzu by any chance? Or do you prefer Rin?"

The girl looked up at her coldly. "How do you know my name?" she asked.

"Oh...well...I heard about you." she spat out, thinking it would be a bad idea to mention Haru after what she had witnessed in his room. The girl lowered her eyelids as if trying to figure out a difficult math problem.

"Kita. I've heard of you too. You're Akito's new toy, aren't you?" she asked, intentionally trying to sound condescending. She was pissed off with Haru and this Kita girl seemed like an easy target.

Kita's mouth dropped open as she gaped at her. Her natural urge to quietly walk away feeling bad about herself kicked in. No, she thought. I can't just keep letting everything happen around me without my input. "It's not like that. You just met me so you can't pass judgment on my life. I think you're just mad about Haru and taking it out on me." she slurred nervously, trying to hide the fact that her hands were actually shaking.

Rin raised her eyebrows in surprise. She had underestimated her. She had heard that she was a quiet, shy girl which she had proved herself to be a few minutes ago. Now it was like she had been replaced with someone else, someone assertive.

Rin stood up and walked away out into the midst of the Sohma estate without looking back once, secretly feeling a bit defeated. Kita waited for the experience to settle in, finding the entire interaction to be unbelievable. I did it.

"Kita!" she heard Kureno shout as he made his way towards her. "Akito wants to see you now." he told her as he took her wrist in his hand.

"Okay." she said, letting him walk her back to the main house. I'm not a toy or an orphaned whore, she thought defiantly. He loves me and I don't have to let them think anything less.