A/N: Sorry to have ruffled any feathers with another late-ish update (just a week or so), but try to understand: I'm a high-school senior currently trying to wrestle with scholarships, year-long projects, and my other writings, which largely consists of original work (as that is my passion). Still, I solemnly swear to never go longer than two weeks without an update! And if you didn't guess, the site I was referring to last chapter was fiction press. Now, to the angsty goodness – please leave a review or two!


Chapter Six of Flowers in Snow: The Monster's Cage


"I'm sor –"

The half-formed apologetic words hung empty and unfinished in the air, and Tohru took a sep back, as if to escape the scene. However, frozen like a deer caught in headlights, she couldn't move, couldn't even blink.

Akito was in a similar state of shock. If Tohru hadn't been paying abject attention, she would have thought that Akito was merely wounded – after all, he was unwrapping bandages from around his upper chest. Except that the pink of a nipple was protruding through, capping off a small mound of pale flesh.

And Tohru realized.

He was…

…a she.

Akito's a girl!

Suddenly, the seemingly suspended moment roared back to life. "Lock the door!" cried Akito, everything about her body language screaming anger and wrath – her tightened muscles, her darkly narrowed eyes. "Lock the damn door!"

But the last thing Tohru wanted to do was lock the damn door. Then she'd be trapped in a small space with a very angry Akito. Before she could react, Akito strode forward, pushed Tohru back, and locked the door with a series of manic motions. The last sharp click reverberated, leaving Tohru with a strangely acute sense of isolation.

Somehow, nobody ever felt as lonely as when they were with Akito. Tohru stared at Akito's heaving back, waves of fear washing over her.


For a moment, all Akito could hear was her own ragged breathing. In exhaustion, her head fell against the door. A million and one tiny screams were building, the panic pressuring – because Tohru knew.

She definitely knew.

She knows my greatest secret.

My worst weakness.

And Akito wanted to inflict bodily harm. She wanted to kill. She wanted to rip every golden strand of hair from the goddamn bitch's head. Her fingers tightened anxiously, continually curling and uncurling into fists.

A deep scowl furrowing her expression, she turned away from the door and towards Tohru.

The smaller girl instinctively took a step back. "Akito…what are you…why are you…"

Things connecting, Akito realized with horror that she couldn't manhandle Tohru too badly. Yuki and Kyo would notice later; they might actually hear the commotion it would cause, right now. Who knows – it might even bother Shigure, of all people. Whatever the case, questions would doubtlessly ensue. Tohru would tell. More people would know.

Her God status would finally and completely shatter, proved fragile at best.

"Why the hell did you come here?" asked Akito, though she regarded the question ultimately meaningless herself. It didn't matter, really, because regardless of reasons, she was here - and so they were already damned. Advancing menacingly, she took some of Tohru's hair, pulling at it.

"B-brush…" stammered Tohru, fear brightly evident in her little doe-like eyes.

"You came here for a fucking brush?"

"I-I…" Tears started to form at the edges of Tohru's eyes.

"Do you know what will happen if you tell anyone?" Akito's voice was a low hiss. "You've just given me a convenient excuse to erase her memory, little girl."

"No!" Tohru nearly fell down, the back of her legs coming up hard against the toilet. "You…you…you'd rather have me not tell, right? I-I – I won't tell, unless you make plans to erase my memory! And if you do, I'll…"

"Tell?"

Gasping against tears, Tohru managed a slow nod.

Akito's mind reeled. Idiot girl. It was altogether possible that Tohru could divulge this pricey information before Hatori was able to shut her up forever. Was it worth the risk?

Deep down, Akito knew it wasn't.

Letting go of Tohru and her hair, Akito grabbed a black kimono lying on the counter, pulling it over her head and around her body just as she'd originally intended. When she was done, she allowed the cloth to settle over her skin, thinking hard. Now that she was no longer directly facing Tohru, she could afford to look a little crestfallen every now and then, and she did, her face cringing into a silent moan.

"Fine. I'll allow you to keep your memory for now, as long as you remember to keep quiet about this. But…if you tell…" Turning, Akito looked back at Tohru with scathing eyes. "I will ruin you. You will be relieved when you can no longer remember what I did to you."

There. That allows rather powerful imagery for the active imagination.

Again, Tohru nodded. "Y-yes."

"Now leave. Get out!"

But Tohru, seated on the toilet, made no such action. Her mouth opened unsurely, closed, and then repeated the action: "Akito. Wait. Please."

"What?" Akito snapped furiously.

"I would like to m-make another request of you…a-another condition…"

Akito's eyes widened. "What?" She asked, her voice considerably quieter this time.

"Are you still…going to imprison Kyo?"

Pausing, Akito didn't seem to understand. Then she laughed, relieving giggles that rolled over her entire body. "You make it sound so unnatural, Tohru, when it's anything but. Doesn't a monster need a cage?"


Small rivers were flowing down her cheeks and her chin; curiously, Tohru had stopped feeling anything besides saturated air and the cool porcelain of the toilet against her legs. She'd stopped thinking, acting merely on instinct. She knew that she would never get another chance like this – a chance to change something, make a difference.

Kyo's not a monster, thought Tohru. He's not…

"Please don't." She said, her voice at first timid, before finally growing in assurance. "That's…my other condition. I…I won't tell, if you promise not to imprison Kyo. If you promise to allow him freedom after high school, I won't tell anyone."


A/N: Tah-dah! My one friend read through this and pointed out, wouldn't Akito just have her memory erased? I did insert a lot of half-baked reasons why it would be difficult for her, but I still freely admit that my fanfiction has lots and lots of plot holes! I don't really care though, because for me, the eventual setups are worth it…I hope it doesn't bother anyone, though.