Fruits Basket
Beginnings and Endings
((Author Note: Was it me or did the ending of the last chapter sound suggestive to something...if you know what I mean. Just to clear the air nothing happened beyond a kiss. Nothing is explicit. The sequel is a definite now. I don't have a good title for it yet, but then again I never liked 'Beginnings and Endings' title until I did the second chapter. Anyways enjoy this chapter which ended up being a bit long.))
Chapter 20
"Tohru, you're up early."
"Oh, Shigure. I'm sorry if I woke you up. I thought I should get a start on breakfast early today so it would be ready for everyone when everyone woke up."
Shigure rubbed the side of his head, ruffling his black hair, "It's Christmas, and you should be the one sleeping in while we make breakfast for you."
"I don't mind! It's the lest I can do for all your kindness."
Shigure felt a wave a guilt roll over him as she spoke. He had been using Tohru and Kyo for his own personal gain a few times throughout the past year. His head turned slightly to hide his sudden ill expression, "Tohru...you don't have to pay us back with kindness all the time. We're all family now; you shouldn't feel obligated to be nice."
Tohru paused a moment as she held her mixing bowl in her arms, "Huh? Oh! I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry!"
Shigure felt a smile creep across his face. Tohru was Tohru after all. He knew she wouldn't hold things against him and just knowing that made him feel a bit better, "Ha, I should be apologizing. Ignore what I said. I was just being silly."
"Um ok...Oh!" Tohru slipped as she took a step forward to place her bowl down. Shigure was quick to catch her and the bowl but he felt Tohru's small body pressed against his chest and in a cloud of blue smoke Shigure transformed into his black dog self. The bowl he had in his hand ended up on his head somehow. The sticky contents dripped all over his black coat.
"Shigure! Are you ok?" Tohru yelled out as she rolled over quickly to face Shigure.
"I'm fine," Shigure said as he wagged his tail, "I think I missed the bowl though."
Tohru giggled lightly as she lifted the bowl from his head. All the noise downstairs had woke Kyo up from his sleep, so he decided to go downstairs to see what was going on. Yuki of course was still asleep and no one in the house dared to disturb him. Kyo rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he walked down the stairs. His head moved slightly to see what Tohru was doing, "What's with all the-?"
Kyo paused on the stairs as he looked into the kitchen to see Tohru on the ground covering her face while Shigure stood there naked. Shigure saw Kyo on the stairs and he waved to him, "Morning Kyo!"
10 seconds later...
"Pervert..." Kyo grumbled as he stood in the kitchen doorway.
"I wasn't doing anything! I swear," Shigure said as his head throbbed with two bumps he received from Kyo.
"Yeah...that's why you were naked."
"Who was naked?" Yuki asked as he stepped out from upstairs, his eyebrows were raised as he looked to Shigure and then Kyo.
"Don't think it was me, rat boy!" Kyo snapped as Yuki stared at him longer, "It was Shigure!"
5 seconds later...
"I swear, Shigure. Don't you get tired of being perverted," Yuki said with a heavy sigh as he sat at the table.
"Not really," Shigure said with a grin as two more bumps on his head throbbed.
"Did you just admit you were being perverted?"
"I was only kidding!"
"Shut up," Kyo said as he rested his head against his arm, "It's to early for you to be this perverted."
"Hmm... this brings an interesting subject up. Kyo, where were you and Tohru last night? I had something to tell Tohru, but I couldn't find her and I noticed you weren't in your room," Shigure said in a rather pleasing voice as his steady gazed looked to the faltering cat.
The way Shigure had phrased his question made it seem like Kyo and Tohru had gone out to do something out of this world while in reality they were both just sitting on the roof talking. Kyo's head slipped from his hand as he tried to think of a way to respond to Shigure. He had to be careful in how he said it since he knew Shigure would somehow twist his words around, "We were talking on the roof. She couldn't sleep."
"I see..." Shigure said as he rubbed his chin. He shut his eyes slightly, which gave him a more serious look, "Did you tuck her in?"
Kyo clutched his fist as he raised them into the air, "I'm going to kill you!"
"Breakfasts ready!" Tohru said as she stepped out. The boys all froze when she stepped into the room. Kyo had his fist raised into the air while Shigure was cowering against his chair. Yuki had fallen asleep again against the table, "Um...is this a bad time?"
---
"Ah, heaven," Shigure said with a smile across his face, "Such a wonderful breakfast on such a wonderful holiday."
Kyo frowned lightly as he looked at Shigure, "What the hell are you talking about? We never use to celebrate."
"How come?" Tohru asked in an innocent voice which made the Sohma boys pause before they answered.
Yuki set his chopsticks down as he wiped his lips lightly with his napkin, "You see Miss Honda, Akito normally wants us to be preparing for New Years, but for some reason he said everything was set."
"Highly unusual, but..." Shigure waved his finger in the air, "Let's not worry about it. This is the first time we can celebrate!"
"I hate to admit, but he's right," Yuki said with a struggling smile across his face.
Kyo only nodded lightly as his eyes drifted down to his food, 'They don't need to worry, but I do...'
"Kyo, is something wrong with your food?" Tohru asked, when she noticed he was staring at his bowl.
"Huh? No, it's just-"
"He's admiring your wonderful food, Tohru. Imagining how nice it would be to have a wife such as you making food for him everyday," Ayame said as he placed a hand on Kyo's shoulder.
Everyone sat their staring at Ayame who had suddenly appeared out of no where. The room was silent except for Ayame's chronic laughing. Kyo's eyes went blank as he quickly spun around to face Ayame. His face was blazing red from either being embarrassed by what he just said or being extremely angry, "What the hell are you doing here!!"
"Humph, what sort of greeting was that?" Ayame said as he placed his slender fingers on his chest.
"What do you expect? You showed up out of no where," Yuki said in a calm voice despite how irritated he was.
"Well, I'm here now, so let us continue on enjoying the day."
Kyo was still growling at Ayame, "Why are you even here, go home."
"How rude, Kyo. I'm here to spend a wonderful day with my younger brother and of course I would never pass up the chance to spend such a spectacular day with Tohru," Ayame winked to Tohru who was just smiling back to him.
"We're happy to have you," Tohru said in her cheery voice.
Kyo smacked his head, 'Damn, he's never going to leave now.'
"I'll get a plate ready for you," Tohru ran off into the kitchen while Ayame took a seat.
"Kyo, I hope you have something planned today for our wonderful princess," Ayame said as he tugged at his coat collar.
Kyo narrowed his eyes at Ayame, "What are you babbling about?"
"Here it comes..." Yuki said as he rubbed his head.
"Well since you are a young prince you should whisk her to your room and-"
Kyo slammed his hands on the table, "Finish that sentence and you're dead!"
"I'm back!" Tohru said as she ran out. She stood there staring at the boys at the table again. Kyo was threatening Ayame still while Shigure was holding Kyo back. Yuki was just shaking his head trying to ignore them all.
--
"Why are we doing this again?" Kyo grumbled to Yuki as he helped him carry a tree to the house.
"Miss Honda said we needed one so stop complaining."
"I'm not!"
"It sure sounds like you are."
"Yeah, because your stupid brother and Shigure are sitting with her right now."
"Don't remind me."
Kyo snorted lightly, "Why don't you do something about him?"
"You stupid cat, you know damn well he only listens to Hatori."
"Don't call me stupid you damn rat!"
The two boys had there eyes narrowed at each other as they stopped in front of the house. Shigure must have heard them outside since he opened the door right when they stopped, "Ah, there you are."
"Now that our two young men are here they can judge my work," Ayame said as he walked out with Tohru.
"Huh?" Kyo and Yuki said at the same time as their heads snapped towards the door. Standing in the door way was Tohru dressed in a simple yet very beautiful kimono outfit. She had her hair nicely pulled up so that her neck was more revealing then usual, giving her a much petit look. Kyo and Yuki both shut up immediately as they stared at her.
"Is something wrong?" Tohru said in a panic as her hands went for her face.
Shigure chuckled lightly, "Ah, silence. Well let's all get dressed up and open our gifts Tohru has given us. Ayame and I will handle the tree here."
Kyo and Yuki both nodded in silence as they both quickly went inside the house, hiding their blushes on their faces.
--
Kyo pulled his New Year cloths on. Since it was a special occasion he figured he could wear his much fantasy cloths today. The cloths gave him a nobler look since the cloths were old fashion, but they complimented Kyo's body well. He ran his hand through his orange hair as he sighed lightly, "This is turning out better then I thought. Things seem normal so far...at lest normal as things get around here."
Kyo walked down the steps to join everyone else. Everyone was dressed in their nicer cloths except Shigure who still was dressed in his house cloths. Shigure had insisted he would only dress up for New Years, but no one really argued with him about it since quiet frankly no one cared what Shigure did anymore.
"Here Miss Honda this is from me," Yuki said as he handed Tohru his gift.
Kyo sat down near Tohru as he watched Yuki hand her his gift. His eyes narrowed out of reaction, but he managed to keep the rest of his emotions under control. 'Curse myself. I'm getting way to possessive of her.'
"Oh, wow. Thank you, Yuki," Tohru said as she lifted a silver bracelet chain from the small box.
"Yuki! I never knew you had such wonderful taste in gifts," Ayame shouted out as he nudged his bother, "I wonder what Kyo got Tohru."
"Shut up. Like I'm going to give it to her in front of you guys," Once Kyo said that he knew it was a mistake since it sounded wrong on way to many levels and with Shigure in the room, that just made things ten times worst.
"I can't wait," Tohru said with a smile. Naturally she didn't catch on what everyone else was thinking, which Kyo was happy for since he really was just intimidated by giving her his gift in front of Yuki.
"This one is from me!" Shigure said as he handed her his gift.
"Don't forget about mine," Ayame said as he past her his own.
The day went on as the group handed each other their gifts. Tohru got gotten a nice journal from Shigure while Ayame had made her a very pretty dress. She had received some candy from Momiji and Hatori had gotten her a golden necklace. Every member in the zodiac gave her a gift and Kyo wasn't even sure what some of the stuff was. Tohru of course had given everyone gifts as well. Each member of the zodiac got a doll of there animal forms. Of course all of the zodiac members were excited about it since the dolls were made rather well. Kyo on the other hand didn't get a doll but something else.
Kyo stared at his gift for a brief moment before his hands carefully picked up the object. The gift was a beaded bracelet, similar to the one he had on his arm already except this one was decorated with several charms.
"It was mothers. She said it gave her good luck," Tohru said as she sat on her knees next to him.
"I can't accept this. It was your mothers-"
"I think she would want Kyo to have it," Tohru said with her bright smile.
It bothered Kyo how she never showed how she really felt, but he managed to pull a smile to his face, "Thank you. I'll take good care of it. I promise."
Kyo glanced towards the kitchen to see Shigure and Ayame talking happily. Yuki had gone up to his room to clean up a bit and to put his new things away. Kyo turned his head back to Tohru, "Let's go see your mom."
Tohru was caught off guard by his suggestion, "...We don't have to..."
"I want to," Kyo quickly said as he got up, "Let's go."
"Alright..."
The day was cold and it had snowed the night before, but luckily the day was clear. Kyo and Tohru walked side by side as they stepped into the cemetery. Of course the cemetery was quiet except for the sound of their footsteps against the cold cement. Kyo felt a bit uneasy being in the cemetery, but he knew Tohru had really wanted to go visit her mothers' grave. As they neared her grave they saw someone bent over looking at the tombstone. At first Kyo thought it might be one of her friends, but as he stepped closer he realized who it was.
"Akito...?" Tohru said in a gently tone as she stepped towards him.
It was indeed Akito. His headed lifted when he saw the two, his dark smile spread across his face as his nimble figure stood back upright, "Ah, I thought I would come pay my respects. I have heard much about your mother."
Kyo swallowed a breath of air as he watched Akito. He wasn't sure what he was planning, but he knew nothing good would come out of it.
Tohru bowed her head to Akito, "Thank you. I'm sure mother appreciates your visit. Um, Akito...I have a gift for you, but I didn't bring it with me."
Akito tilted his head lightly, "A gift? Well then, I have a gift for you as well, but I to have left it. How about we exchange gifts on New Years. I'm inviting you and even Kyo."
Tohru blinked lightly to his invintation, "Kyo too?"
Kyo snorted, "Like I want to go."
"I'm sure; Tohru would like you to come. Come now, Kyo, it's what you've always wanted," Akito said with the same expression plastered across his face.
Kyo narrowed his eyes lightly before he turned his head away, "Fine, whatever."
"Then it's settled then. I look forward to seeing you both there," Akito bowed his head as he walked off. He lightly brushed against Kyo as he walked by, but Kyo instantly pulled away.
Once he was gone Kyo growled under his breath, "Damn him."
Tohru was already kneeling down in front of his mothers grave with her hands resting in her lap, "...did you hear mother? Kyo finally gets to go to the banquet and join all the other zodiac members. You remember Kyo right..."
Tohru continued on talking, but Kyo only heard the part about the banquet. He stood silently as he let her talk to her mother. His eyes looked to the sky as his orange hair blew gently in the light breeze.
'I don't care about some stupid banquet anymore. I only wanted to be accepted by you and you have accepted me. I just don't want you hurt because of me...because of my curse.'
