Title: Once You Go Black...
Written by: jolieXD
Summary: Sohma Yuki has been dealing with Sohma Hatsuharu's split personalities for most of their lives. He knows how to tame a Black Haru and he knows how to make a Black Haru. But it's no secret that Hatsuharu has feelings for the Rat. Could a couple wrong words create a Black Haru that even he can't control?

Disclaimer: I don't want to say it, because everyone knows I don't know Fruits Basket. d;
Warnings: Slash—boy&boy—but nothing explicit, I promise, because I don't want to have to have a high rating on this story—like, at all. They annoy me. So, there will just be a hint here and there. Yep—for those of you who don't like graphic content, like me. However, for those who do... ;D Look closely, lovelies, and you may see—or not. It depends on if I feel like it or not. Soooorry
Rating: T, for themes of homosexuality, as mentioned above, and—possibly—vile language.

Author's Notes #1: Sooo, you didn't like the ending to the last chapter, did you? Well, that's okay, because I didn't much, either. But, I'm afraid to say, you guys will not be finding out exactly what happened until either late in this chapter, or in the next. Forgive me, please :)
Author's Notes #2: I'm... not good at writing in Kyou-kun's POV, so this—I can guarantee you—will take a while.

But, either way, enjoy this TOTAL FILLER. Yes, it's true.

XOXOXO
jolieXD

Once You Go Black...
Begin—Six: The other half.

"But—"

Tohru looked up at him again in surprise, and the redhead felt an ironic smirk tug anew at the corners of his mouth. She'd thought he was finished with his little speech, then. So had Sohma Kyou, actually. Just why was he spouting a defense for a Rat?—Especially a Rat who just pitched him into a wall without proper warning? It didn't add up in his head, so Kyou blamed it on the impact.

He knew the words would taste sour, so he paused in anticipation of the unwelcome sensation to come. But, after all, why wouldn't they be sour? They were about Sohma Yuki, after all.

"I think he wants to win." Kyou said, barely disguising the disgust he held for the words, to the brunette, who still looked shaken, even though the mere thought wiped the smirk clear from his face. He leaned forward, heavily and with a sigh, over the low table he sat at, the ice still firmly pressed against the back of his head.

This was so damn strange for him. So strange, in fact, that he was to force himself to remain silent, because, whether he would admit it or not, he babbled when he felt awkward—and this subject was not only foreign to him, but also concerning a certain Sohma Yuki, to whom he felt nothing but resentment, so he simply couldn't allow himself to ramble uselessly about the Rat.

And, as usual, he was experiencing one of the worse cases of this urge in front of Tohru—the urge to defend himself for defending the Rat, so he didn't look soft or anything of the like. And the silence he experienced after his final sentence, the silence he made awkward by keeping his words to himself, made everything all the worse, because, now, even if he attempted to defend himself, he knew he didn't have the words to do so.

"I..." Kyou looked up. Tohru's voice was uncertain, as if she was sure that he wouldn't like what she had to say—as usual. "I, um, hope he wins."

The redhead stared at her for a moment. And, then, out of the blue, he felt a vicious scowl form on his lips, and he smacked the ice down on the table before him.

"Ah!" She dropped to her knees on the other side of the table and spoke frantically, "I'm sorry, Kyou-kun! I didn't mean to—just forget I ever said that, okay? I didn't intend to—!" Tohru lifted her hands in front of her in surprise, blushing furiously and finding herself at a loss for words, and waved them in her defense.

Kyou sighed and shook his head at her, which quieted the girl. Shaking his head again when she lowered her gaze and her hands to her lap, he rose from the table and left the house, circling the house for the ladder that reached the roof.

It wasn't, Sohma Kyou decided, reminding himself the way he snapped and then the way, a moment later, he so easily waved off her apologies, that he wasn't annoyed by Tohru's statement. It was that... It was that part of him, a very small, tiny part of him... A small part agreed with her.

And that was annoying.

Kyou tugged at the collar of his school uniform nervously, his brow creased. Standing before him was a concerned-looking, fidgeting Sohma Hatsuharu.

The white-and-black-haired boy had very nearly dragged Kyou away from his classroom, from his lunch, and from Tohru, the Yankee, the Emp, and the sulking Rat only moments ago, rambling off excuse after excuse that didn't fit the situation in the least to Tohru as he retreated, with Kyou in tow, from the classroom without a single glance backwards at the surprised brunette. Less peculiarly than not, Haru's eyes were conspicuously concentrated on Yuki the entire time.

And now he was silently turning the cloth of his cuff in his fingers. Silently. Wordlessly. And it was irritating Kyou. After all, he had not, not been torn away from a perfectly good lunch to watch a White Haru fidget for ten minutes. Seriously, Kyou knew that both he and Haru knew this was ridiculous. If Hatsuharu was going to remain silent, he was at least going to fight—and even that wasn't occurring at the moment.

"Uh, Haru?"

Haru barely raised his startlingly sullen, gray eyes in question. What was wrong with him now? Kyou wondered, and scowled at the thought for ever occurring to him.

"Why the hell am I here—with you—instead of in my classroom—with my lunch?" He didn't feel the need to apologize for the snap in his tone, and that satisfied him as repentance for his earlier lack in his practiced indifference.

There was a spark in Haru's eyes that Kyou knew was Black Hatsuharu fighting for control. The redhead wasn't surprised, however. From the way Sohma Hatsuharu held himself so gingerly as of the moment, Kyou suspected that he'd been under constant battle with his mind for a while now. He also suspected that he was going to be easily irritable in his current state, so the redhead decided that, if he didn't want to start an all-out war, he would have to tone down with Haru.

"Yuki's been ignoring me since Monday. I haven't seen him much at all this week, so I wanted to see him." Haru answered, training his gaze on what Kyou believed was the wall beyond his right ear.

Kyou supposed that that statement alone explained the power-struggle in Haru's mind over the last three days. As it was Thursday afternoon now, it mustn't have taken Haru long to realize the distance Yuki was obviously trying to put between he and the Ox, though for whose sake it was for, the redhead couldn't say. Kyou was shamed to say that he almost felt sympathy for the Ox—and especially so when he thought that he felt something akin to it for the damn Rat.

There was no other way to describe it; what the Rat was doing to Haru was selfish, pathetic in Kyou's eyes. But it was also easily recognized as the other half of the Sohma curse, and perhaps as the worse of the two halves. The urge to pull back, the habit of distancing oneself.

He recovered quickly, however, from the odd sensation and exclaimed aloud in pure indignation for the Ox's reply. "That's it?" He crossed his arms over his chest and scowled, "Why pull me out?—Why not Tohru?"

Haru rolled his eyes. He actually rolled his eyes at the redhead, the Cat who was doing him a favor. Kyou was outraged, but he bit down hard on any offensive phrases that came to mind, reminding himself that Haru was probably—definitely—on a short fuse, and he did not want to be the one to light it today, because, after all, there was still lunch to get back to. And, of course, he didn't need to be thrown out of school so close to winter break. His fists clenched at his sides in the effort it took to resist snapping back.

"Because, Kyou, I asked—" Asked? Pft. "—Tohru to join me out here yesterday. Remember?" He sounded as if he was talking to a child, and the tone made Kyou's reddish-brown eyes narrow. Of course he didn't remember, and Haru knew it. Yesterday he'd eaten lunch on the roof, because combined taunts from the Yankee and the Rat—who was equally as irritable as Haru lately, if not more so—and the subtle ones from the Emp had driven him there.

Instead of replying to the Ox's question, Kyou glared vehemently at the Black Haru swimming just behind White Haru's vision, anticipating the moment Kyou replied to unleash his crazed, pent-up wrath upon the redhead, and turned sharply back into his classroom, leaving Haru to fight his own battle.

Tohru wasn't working that day after school, so she was in the kitchen and already cooking early in the evening when Kyou entered, stretching his arms above his head. Exams were coming up soon, just before winter break, so he'd spent his entire afternoon in the seclusion of his room, studying diligently.

Sohma Shigure sat at the table in the other room with his eyes glued to the television, in the same place he'd been since they returned from school. Shigure, Kyou had once heard the man say, called this time his 'brainstorming' period, during which he somehow conjured plausible ideas for books from the sappiest of the soap operas and the funniest of the game shows. Needless to say, Kyou found his choice of programs strange, but was, every time, too entirely shocked into silence by the stupidity of the statement to counter with anything intelligent.

Honda Tohru smiled over at Kyou when he entered the kitchen and went to the refrigerator for the carton of milk as Yuki entered at the same moment with dirtied hands and the angry-at-the-world look he'd held almost constant for the last week. Kyou sniffed at the carton to make sure the milk inside was good and then went to join Shigure, an eye on the dark-haired boy's back until he could no longer see him. It took him a moment to realize he'd left him alone in the same room with Tohru, something he hadn't done since being thrown into the wall on Monday afternoon.

"How is the garden, Yuki-kun? I haven't been out to see it in a while now." He heard Tohru ask, and he suspected that she'd momentarily turned away from the stew she was turning to smile at the dark-haired boy as she had to him. She always did.

"Fine," was the Rat's clipped reply. By the sound of the faucet, he washed his hands of the grime he'd acquired from his work out in the garden he kept. He didn't sound like he planned to elaborate.

"Oh," She paused and probably blushed, then continued with her usual vigor, "I'm nearly finished preparing supper. Are you hungry?" Tohru sounded nearly unaffected by his short response, but Kyou could imagine how her smile had dropped when he, perhaps, did not smile back.

"No."

"Are you sure? I mean, I can keep some for you for later if y—"

"No." Kyou heard the water cut short. Yuki dried his hands and left the room without anything more to say.

There was an awkward silence that followed after Yuki's footsteps faded onto the second floor of the house. Then, quietly, Kyou heard the ladle turning in the stew again, the kitchen unnaturally silent except for the sound emitting from the television.

He sighed loudly and closed the carton without even a sip. When the redhead rose from the table, Shigure's eyes were still focused on the television screen in front of him, but it was evident to Kyou that he had been listening for the conversation. He knew that if the older Sohma was his zodiac Dog, his ears would still be pricked toward the kitchen.

Kyou raked a hand through his hair, releasing another long breath, and replaced the carton in the refrigerator. He closed the door and looked over at Tohru, unmoving for a long moment.

Her spine was a little straighter than natural, her movements painfully calculated. Kyou was sure that if he could see her face, her mouth would be hard pressed to not form a frown and her eyes would be wet. Her cheeks would be red with embarrassment and maybe she'd be chewing her lip. The redhead found it hard to look at her, knowing the unhappiness he would see in her face if she happened to look at him.

Kyou tried not to scowl at the thought. Stupid Rat.

He approached her slowly, as he didn't want to startle her into turning and doing something stupid. The last thing either of them needed at this moment was for her to misstep, bump into him, and apologize him to oblivion. Gently, he planted a palm in her hair, and she started at his touch, like he'd expected, but did not resist. Obviously, she knew who it was.

"Listen," Kyou cast his eyes out the window on the other wall, unable to even look at the back of her head, trying to ignore the heat rising in his face. He always felt so silly offering advice, "Don't worry about him, okay? He's just a damn Rat. It's not your fault."

He heard Tohru smile and giggle a little. She nodded, even though Kyou knew well that she didn't entirely agree with him. With both hands, she removed his hand from her hair, turned, and threw her arms around him.

POOF!

And then there was an orange cat sullenly settling in Tohru's arms as she squeezed the cat against her, the girl thoroughly unaffected by the transformation.

"I'm sorry, Kyou-kun," Tohru told the orange cat in her arms, "I couldn't resist."

Kyou rolled his eyes, nodded, and sighed. Ah, well, at least she didn't look sad anymore.

End—Chapter Six: The other half.

for my own purpose, really, but if anyone's interested:
Date Chapter Was Started: September 9th, 2006
Date Chapter Was Finished: September 15th, 2006
Date Chapter Was Posted: September 15th, 2006

Ending Notes: This chapter had a lot of words for only 4 pages. Almost 2,500.

Soooo, I'm really sorry this took so long. The first week of school was so hectic (and the second was no better), and I've already acquired three hours of homework a night. So, that means when I get home at 4 o'clock everyday, I work on homework until at least 7 o'clock. And then I work on my book reports—yes, that is a plural word -.-''—and then I sleep. A lot.

Sleeping has become my all-time favorite habit over the period of two weeks. Is that wrong? I utterly love it.

Thanks to: greywings2, Obob, and cajun-beauty for reviewing the last chapter. You rock ;D

XOXOXO
jolieXD