Tohru's Demons

Chapter Fourteen: Shiolin


Ayame was having the time of his life. He stuck his head out of Artemis's coat pocket to feel the wind whip past his face, his tongue flickering in and out for pure joy. Never in his life had he gone so fast! Artemis might as well have been flying over the road; his feet never seemed to touch the ground. But after a while the novelty had worn off, and the inevitable had happened. Ayame was cold. The pocket provided little warmth, as cold air kept rushing into it and blowing it around him. He looked up at Tohru's face and saw at once that it was going to be hard to get her attention.

She was gripping Artemis's fur tightly, her bent legs clamped to his sides, her attention concentrated fully on keeping her balance as the demon's body moved beneath her. Her body was stiff with the fear of falling off at such a fast rate, her eyes were shut tightly, and she was biting her bottom lip.

Ayame considered for a moment, then carefully crawled out of the pocket and wrapped himself around her wrist. Tohru's eyes popped open and she glanced down at him in surprise as he wound his way up her arm and up towards her shoulder. He gripped her arm tightly with his little body, half afraid he would be shaken off because she was trembling so hard. Finally he got his head up close to her ear and said, "Tohru-kun? I'm getting a little cold, perhaps inside your shirt I could get a little more warmth?"

Artemis stopped dead in his tracks, his head snapping back to glower murderously at the Snake. His ears pushed forward, his tail stood up, his hackles rose, his legs stiffened, his muzzle wrinkled, his lips pulled back, and his mouth opened, revealing his teeth in a savagely furious snarl that scared the living daylights out Ayame, who now felt very tiny. But the effect was rather ruined as the sudden halt had flung Tohru forward, making her slam into the side of Artemis's head.

Artemis let out a peculiar sound and jerked back, almost causing Tohru to fall off completely, his dark fur hiding the frantic blush that was burning across his muzzle. When Tohru had crashed into him, her chest, particularly the soft and cushiony parts, had come into substantially close contact with his face. This incident caused Artemis's already peaking anger meter to rocket into outer space.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!?!" he screamed at the tops of his lungs at the Snake, who ducked behind Tohru, looking at the demon apprehensively.

"It's okay Artemis," said Tohru, looking like she was used to this sort of thing, and holding up her hands in front of her in a calming gesture. "Ayame-san does get cold easily, and it is probably not very comfortable in that pocket... so..."

"He can stay there and freeze, for all I care. He's not going down your shirt, dammit!"

"Artemis..." Tohru gently reprimanded, using that tone of voice that always had Kyo and Yuki, and practically every other Sohma, eventually doing what she asked of them. Ayame waited for the demon to crumble and succumb to her persuasion... But...

"NO! He cannot crawl into your shirt, where he can do who knows what, while I'm standing right under his nose! I won't allow it!" snarled the demon.

"What would he do?" demanded Tohru, leveling her eyes at him.

"He's a damn lecher! He'll... He'll probably..." Artemis trailed off embarrassedly.

"How would you know something like that? You haven't known him for more than a few hours," she pointed out doggedly.

"Tohru, after spending all my time with that damn Malacoda I can smell a pervert a mile away," he replied.

"You wouldn't know a pervert if he came up and danced naked in front of you!" she retorted.

"I could say the same thing about you!" he shouted in return.

Meanwhile, if snakes were capable of perspiration, Ayame would have been doing it. By now Tohru and Artemis were yelling at each other with a gusto, so he had to literally snick his nose in her ear before he could finally get her attention.

"Tohru-kun!" he cried loudly. Tohru jumped and turned her head to look at him.

"What?" she demanded harshly. Ayame drew back in surprise, and she immediately realized her mistake and let out a horrified gasp. "Oh, no, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to snap at you, this isn't your fault..."

"Yes, it is." Artemis interjected at once. Tohru shot him a dirty look.

"I didn't hurt your feelings, did I Ayame-san?" she asked in concern. She's like a completely different person when she's dealing with Artemis... the Snake thought, blinking in surprise.

"No, no, I'm perfectly fine!" he answered boisterously.

"That's good. What was it that you wanted to ask me?"

"I wanted to say, that if it's causing too much trouble then I won't crawl into your shirt."

"But then, how are you going to stay warm...? I don't want you catching a cold or something."

"I was thinking I could wrap myself around your neck..."

"WHAT?!" demanded Artemis.

"...if that's okay with you... and with him." Ayame finished. Tohru considered it, ignoring Artemis's sputtered protests, incoherent because he could not conjure up the correct words at the moment and link them into sentences.

"I guess that works..." said Tohru thoughtfully. "You could still be warm, without riling up Artemis's delicate sensitivities too much."

"I am not delicate!" was the demon's indignant objection.

"Perfect!" chimed Ayame, and slithered into the wide, loose collar and wrapped himself lightly around the base of her neck. The collar was part of the outer shirt, dark brown in color, and even though it was folded over, or rather flopped over, it still almost reached her chin. This meant that Ayame would be both very warm and very undetectable.

"Is that better?" asked Tohru.

"Yes, very much, thank you!"

"Wonderful! Let's go, Artemis," she added shortly to the demon. Wordlessly he began to trot and then broke into a full-blown run. They did not speak to each other for the remainder of the journey to Shiolin. At first Ayame, jumpy because of their cold silence, tried to make light conversation, but he soon gave up as Tohru was concentrating too much on not falling off and Artemis was ignoring him completely. All in all, Ayame's grand adventures were not starting off well.

After many agonizingly long minutes, they came to a hill that over looked the outskirts of the city. Artemis stopped before he crested the hill, so that he stayed hidden from anyone who was down in the city. Tohru climbed down and would have walked away without a word, had the demon not grabbed her sleeve in his teeth.

"What?" asked Tohru coldly, looking back at him with hooded eyes.

"I just... just wanted to tell you to watch your back," he said gruffly, letting go of her. Tohru bit back the small smile that was trying to curl up in her mouth, but her eyes softened.

"I will," she answered with a tiny nod. Artemis nodded shortly in return and trotted away to disappear amongst the trees surrounding them. Tohru watched until she could no longer see him, and then turned and walked slowly up the hill. Ayame poked his head out and he let out a short gasp of amazement.

"Well, Ayame-san, welcome to Shiolin."

The sight the Snake beheld was absolutely breath taking. And it was huge. It stretched out at their feet in a congested, disorganized jumble of buildings, all of them centered haphazardly around the huge castle rising up amongst them. It reminded him of some strange animal, crouched among a bed of ants, and all the ants were scurrying frantically around it in chaotic fury. Beyond this lay the sea, Ayame could smell the salt in the air and the faint aroma of fish, the reflection of the slowly sinking sun gleaming in the water like fire, so for one fleeting moment, Ayame thought the entire surface of the ocean was burning.

"It's... it's beautiful..." he breathed in wonder. Tohru smiled faintly.

"It is, isn't it?" she said softly. "At least from afar, wait till we get down there. An hour of that fish smell will have anyone jumping for joy to leave." And with that, she started down the hill into Shiolin.

Ayame could not get enough of all the sights, the sounds, the smells. His tongue flicked in and out like mad, his face just barely peeking over the rim of Tohru's collar. He ducked quickly out of sight every time someone looked their way, but the city was so crowded, that he eventually stopped all together. No one was even bothered to see that he even existed, much less care that he was ever there.

"Let's see, the horse stables should be near the beach somewhere, near the port, so..." she trailed off and began walking, heading straight north towards the sea. But the road twisted and turned like a maze and soon they were completely lost. Tohru stopped and asked for directions, somewhat shyly as Ayame hid himself in her collar, not wanting to waste any time wandering around aimlessly without a clue as to where she was going. They were put on the right track, though they had to ask several more people before they finally reached the shore. After questioning even more people they located the horse stables.

"Hello...?" Tohru called, hesitantly stepping into the dark and cool barn. Sunlight dimly slanted in through the windows, but that was the only light source. There was no one in view, not even horses. "Hello?" Tohru called louder.

"Yeah, whaddaya want?" demanded a gruff, crude voice from above them. Tohru jumped and looked up, spotting an aging, graying man glaring balefully down at them from the haylofts. Something bothered Ayame about the man, but he couldn't place his finger on it.

"H-hello, sir, I-I was wondering, if maybe you could lend us some... some horses?" Tohru squeaked, speaking very fast.

"Din' hear ya, speak louder, mah ol' ears ain't wha they used tah be," growled the man.

"I said, I was wondering if you might lend us some horses," reiterated Tohru loudly.

"Alrigh'! Ya don't have tah shout!" he snapped irritably. "Ah'll se wha ah ken do." He staggered, Ayame suspected he'd been drinking, to the ladder and clambered down it. When his feet hit the dirt he walked out of the barn.

"Should I go with—"

"Stay there!" he barked before Tohru could finish, and she shut her mouth with a snap.

"Well, wasn't he just charming?" Ayame asked in his usual cheerful voice when they were alone. Tohru laughed dryly.

"Yeah, I think a lot of people in Shiolin are like that. But the Nobles here are worse than they are, so it isn't surprising."

"Nobles...?" asked Ayame interestedly.

"You remember that castle we saw from the hill? The Noble family of Nobunaga resides in there, and they rule over Shiolin. They're rabid taxers, so you can expect the people to be a bit... inhospitable."

"Indeed." Something sparked suddenly in his mind, and he knew what had been bothering him about the man. "I was wondering," he said. "How is it that he can speak Japanese, but we're in another universe?"

"Ah, I was wondering when you'd catch on to that. We're in another universe that is sort of... overlaid over own, as well as an infinite number of other universes. We aren't on another planet, but we're not in a parallel dimension either. It's hard to explain actually. All the universes sort of exist within each other, without ever being seen by any of the others. Except in very special cases."

"Like what sort of cases?"

"The Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights. Scotland has a few places where the universes touch; the Lock Ness monster is proof of that. Also the so called UFOs people report seeing in the sky."

"What about Bigfoot?"

"Him?" Tohru scoffed. "The guy that runs around in a gorilla suite trying to get a little fame and attention? If he's from another universe then I'm God." She became serious again. "Anyway, most universes are relatively the same, so languages don't change much. We're in the equivalent of Japan, here. Do you understand?"

"Of course!" Ayame lied.

Both of them were quiet for a while, looking aimlessly around the barn. Ayame was thinking about all that had happened, about the Familiar Cages, other universes, doors, Shiolin, Artemis, and Tohru. All of it jumbled around in his mind in a writhing mass of complete confusion. Ayame didn't really know what to think of it all.

"Ayame-san...?" asked Tohru suddenly, her voice almost so quiet that Ayame couldn't hear it.

"Yes, Tohru-kun?"

"What do you think of all this?" Ayame blinked, taken by surprise by the question that ran parallel to his own thoughts.

"Why, I-I don't know what you mean..." he said, trying to get his mind together.

"What do you think of all that's happened to you, to everyone, so far?" she said slowly, choosing her words carefully.

"Well, I'm not exactly sure..." he trailed off, trying to pull in his thoughts and put them into words, but they kept slipping out of his hands like water and spun away from him.

"Do you think I'm... this... is crazy?" Ayame looked up at her face in startled consternation. She was staring straight ahead, a tiny, forced smile playing around her lips.

"No, of course not!" he replied impetuously, grinning widely, or as well as he could in snake form.

"Are you scared?" she whispered. Now Ayame was really starting to freak out. Where had this come from?

"No way!" he cried, trying desperately to raise her spirits. "How could I, the great Ayame, be scared when I'm having so much fun?"

"Do you think... Shigure, and Yuki, and Kyo... and the other Sohmas... are scared?"

"Preposterous! They're all strong and brave, like me, and are all probably having the times of their lives! Well, maybe not Ritsu, but he'll bravely follow anyone wherever they go."

"Then I must be mad. I'm scared. I'm really scared, Ayame, and I don't know what to do!" Tohru cried, and note of panic in her voice, forgetting entirely to add the usual polite -san at the end of his name.

Inside his head, Ayame was screaming at himself. He was never very good at this. Comforting people. He was more the type to have fun and party and make people happy, who were already happy to begin with. He was not the type to cheer up people were on the verge of tears. And everything he was saying now seemed to make things worse. He wished Shigure, or even Hatori were there. They were way better at comforting people than he was. Even Kyo had more success at it. Especially when it came to Tohru. Ayame just made light of everything, and now, it was not helping. And he knew it.

"...and everyone else is so brave, I feel like a coward..."

"You're not a coward." Tohru stopped as Ayame pulled himself up to his full height to look her in the eyes, which stared back at him in tearful confusion. "You're not a coward, do you understand?" he hurried on, and she nodded slightly.

"I don't know what got into your head to make you think that, but so far you haven't done anything to make me think of you as cowardly. You snuck into enemy territory to spy, you were willing to take a bullet for Akito, you fought off that Familiar Cage for us, you stood up to that demon. Believe me, you're not a coward. You've got to be the bravest person I've ever met." Tohru stared at him with wide-eyes.

"Ayame-san..." she murmured, then gasped and shoved him down into her shirt.

"'ow many 'orses did yah need? I 'ave abou' twen'y 'ere..." said the man's voice from a few feet in front of them. As Tohru answered him and they got into a discussion on prices, each haggling expertly back and forth, Ayame sunk deep within himself. What did he think of all this? Was he scared...?

"Thank you, sir. They'll be returned to you in a week," said Tohru to the man, as she roped sixteen saddled horses together, and lead the front horse out into the streets, where she mounted and headed back towards where Artemis was waiting. They were soon out of the city (without too many pickpockets targeting them, and those that did were bitten and effectively chased away by the horses trailing behind them) and were making their way up the hill before Ayame finally said something to break their mutual silence.

"Tohru-kun?" said Ayame, pulling himself up to look at her.

"Yes?" she replied.

"I'm scared, too."

"Thank you, Ayame-san," whispered Tohru, bent down impulsively, and placed a soft kiss on the top of his head.

To be continued...


Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket, though I wished I owned Natsuki Takaya so I could make her hurry up with the making of more volumes...

Oh, there are so many things I want to explain, but there isn't enough time! I don't want the chapters to get too long, because I usually like to write one in one go and not stop till I've finished. I've also found that very long chapters are hard to edit and post quickly, and they're hard to read in one go as well. Anyway, if there's anything you want more fully explained, please tell me, and I WILL put it in, because I may have forgotten about it if I ever wanted to anyway. Or if you have any suggestions, like little scenes you might like to see, they'll probably be written in as well. I don't have a very strict structure that I want to follow. I'll probably wind around aimlessly for a while with this until I find a suitable ending. Don't worry, It's going to be very good! And don't worry, this is going to last a while!

Also, if I haven't mentioned this before, if you find typos please report them!

Goodbye once again!

-Raha-