Disclaimer: Fruits Basket is not mine.

Authors Note: Oh dear, I'm really sorry for not updating sooner… I had to get back in the swing of things as school just started. I'll try to make up for it… somehow. This chapter is really short because I've been really busy lately with some personal problems that came up.

Book of the Cat

Chapter 17

Monday: Kaibara High School

Yuki signed and took his seat near the window in his first class. Tohru sat down with Uo and Hana and the rest of the class slowly filed in to their assigned seats. Because the seating was alphabetical, Kyo would normally have the seat next to Yuki's. Today Kyo's seat was the only empty one.

The bell rang, a shrill reminder that class is starting. Mayuko-sensei walked into the class and pulled out her clipboard to begin taking attendance. She went down the list and each kid answered with "present."

"Sohma, Kyo" She called out. No response. "Sohma, Kyo!" She looked up from the list and her eyes traveled down to Kyo's empty seat. She turned to Yuki.

"Hey, Sohma, where's your cousin?"

Yuki played with his pen as Tohru gazed at him through sad eyes. He slowly responded. "I don't think he'll be back for the rest of the week."

"What? Is he skipping out a week before vacation? That twerp is trying to get an extended vacation! He's probably at home, relaxing… drinking tea and eating soba…"

Images flashed through Yuki's mind. He saw Akito's face and flinched.

"You okay, Sohma? You're not spazzing out on us, are you?" Mayuko-sensei asked.

Yuki shook his head. "I'm fine. Please, continue with your class." Mayuko nodded and turned to start writing on the chalkboard. Yuki however, could not focus for the rest of the day.

For the first time in his life, as soon as the bell rang, Yuki ran out of the classroom. He bolted out. The other kids were still gathering their books, but Yuki had already reached the door. He raced down the hallway to Haru and Momiji's room. They were just leaving, each ready to walk back to the main house. Yuki ran over and nearly knocked into several girls. Luckily he made it to his cousins without causing any transformations.

"Haru, what's going on with Kyo? Did you hear anything new?"

Haru seemed surprised that Yuki would even ask about Kyo. "Hmm? What? Why?"

"Because I want to know what's going on."

Momiji stepped in. "You know, I haven't even been allowed to visit Kyo… The servants won't let us in to that wing of the house."

Haru thought for a minute. "He was in Hatori's office yesterday, but Hatori wouldn't let me see him."

Yuki nodded. "Are you going to try to get him out?"

Haru stared at him for a minute. "What? You know we can't go against Akito."

Yuki looked down at Momiji. "Yea, you're right… Okay, well, if you hear anything. Tell me."

"Sure." Haru nodded.

Momiji looked confused. "But, he hurt you! Why do you care so much?" Haru leaned in, waiting for an answer. Yuki was silent for a while, than he responded.

"A while ago… for some reason I said something strange to Kyo. I said something really mean and hurtful. But, I didn't mean it at all. I didn't even think of saying it. It was as if something came over me… like, I wasn't in control of my own actions. This may sound really strange but I believe it is true. And if it happened to me, maybe it happened to Kyo. Maybe something is influencing Kyo, too."

Haru gave him a long, crazy look. "That's…messed up, Yuki. But, if you believe it, I guess I'll trust you."

Momiji nodded. "But, what is it? What's making Kyo act really bad?"

The three cousins stood together in silence for a long time.

6 a.m. Tuesday, Sohma Estate:

'Ugh, I'm asleep again?' Kyo thought. He tried to roll over onto his back, but a sharp, searing pain impeded his actions. He suddenly remembered the events of the previous day. He cracked open one tired, bleary eye and observed his surroundings. He was still in Hatori's clinic, on the same bed in the back of the room. Hatori sat nearby at a desk, half reading, and half sleeping.

"What happened?" Kyo asked across the room. Hatori jumped at the sound of Kyo's voice, shaken from the nearly unconscious state he had been in.

"You're awake? That took a long time, almost a day. Akito used a large quantity of sedatives on you. I wasn't sure how much. I could only sit and wait for you to wake up."

Kyo nodded and shifted his body, ignoring the pain in his back. He sat up and dangled his feet off the bed as the sleepiness quickly began to wear away.

"Hatori…why did you bring me here?"

Hatori looked back down at his newspaper. "Akito asked me to."

"Can't you let me go home now?"

"No."

Kyo felt his blood being to boil. "Why not?" Hatori didn't answer, but Akito's voice echoed in his memory. "He's the one that brought you here."

Kyo flinched as Hatori came closer to perform a checkup. Grudgingly he allowed Hatori to remove the gauze and study his wounds.

"Everything's healing nicely. Not much longer and you'll be good as new. And, that cast should come off your arm in a few more weeks."

"Goody." Kyo said bitterly.

Hatori turned to his clipboard as he wrote down his observations. "One more thing Kyo…Your eating habits are really starting to bother me. You haven't had a meal since your dinner on Friday." Kyo though back to that dinner. That was the dinner that caused him to have to live here. Hatori continued. "Please start to eat. I'd hate to have to monitor your feeding patterns like a child."

Kyo nodded. "Okay, whatever."

"Alright Kyo. You're free to go back to your room. Akito is sick today, so you are allowed to walk around and explore this wing of the house. Do not leave this wing. Do you understand?"

"Yea, okay, bye." Kyo walked out the door, still angry that he had to stay in this house. His growing resentment towards Hatori also made him irritable. If he really thought about it, Kyo would have noticed that Akito's words had been planted in his head to make him hate Hatori. Akito wanted to isolate Kyo. But Kyo did not think about this because Akito's words had struck a nerve. If his family really cared about him, wouldn't they take him home?

Kyo walked along to his room, stopping once he recognized that he was in front of the ornate bathroom. He grabbed the door handle and slipped inside. Once again he was met with the riches of the Sohma family. He walked to the large marble sink and ran his hands over the knobs, swiftly turning the fresh water on. Clear, cool water burst from the spout. Kyo ran his hands under it, watching as the cold liquid slowly covered each hand.

Suddenly Kyo was aware of how dry his throat was. He looked around. It was okay to drink here; no one could poison his water. He cupped his hands together and filled them with the clear liquid. He brought his lips to meet his hands and poured the water into his mouth. It felt so good. Kyo drank more and more water, refreshing his parched throat.

After a few minutes he felt better and turned the sink off. He straightened up and looked at the mirror over the sink. His face showed fading bruises and small cuts. He sighed looking at his appearance. He felt like a disappointment. 'I can't even defend myself. I'm pathetic. Akito's right. I am a monster.'

Just as Kyo turned away from the mirror, he felt a cold yet hot familiar feeling. He jerked straight up, trying to shake off the odd feeling, but his knees gave out instead and he began to fall. His head smacked into the edge of the marble sink and his body gave into the darkness once more.

"My little Kitty. Where have you been? You haven't made any more attempts to kill that foul creature." Kyo felt fear begin to rise in his body. The Cat was here once more. Its figure loomed on the edge of the horizon. It looked absolutely terrifying. Kyo stared at him. "I've been stuck in this house because of you!" He screamed in defiance. "Me? How dare you blame this on me!" Kyo felt the creature knock into him, and his body went flying. "You will kill the rat!" It shouted. Kyo tried to stand. "I can't! Not while I'm here!" The creature's voice seemed to hold more and more anger. "Than run away, you miserable, pathetic monster!" The creature leaned over and kicked Kyo. He continued to berate Kyo. "You're pitiful. Remember our deal…it's either Yuki or you." The vision faded.

Kyo's head was throbbing when he finally woke up. He was still lying on the floor of the bathroom. Half an hour had passed since he passed out. He pushed himself up, keeping his balance by holding onto the sink. He turned to face his reflection and noticed another purplish bruise beginning to from above his eye from where he hit his head. He sighed. Another injury to join the rest.

Kyo felt frustrated and hopeless. He needed to kill that damn rat. He had to. If that was the only way to get rid of the monster, he'd do it. No matter how anyone else would react.

Everyone else. Would they even care if the monster took him instead of Yuki? They would care if the "golden child," Yuki, was taken…but would they notice if their 'stupid, red-headed, hot-tempered' cousin went missing.

Kyo shook his head. 'No. No one would.'

And slowly… Kyo began to fall apart.

Authors Note: I hope that helped to quench your thirst for…reading…or whatever. All right, I know you're all dying to know what is happening with Uo and Hana and the book… so maybe we'll explore that next chapter. Maybe.

In the meantime, let me thank my reviewers again!

Lexis: Yea, Kyo should tell Uo… that would be cool. But then they might have to erase her memory, wouldn't they? Eh, I don't know… I'm still deciding little stuff like that as I go along.

Mako-Magic: Yes, exactly! Kyo seems like he's got a split personality all because of this book. And, I'll get to Uo hopefully by next chapter. Then you could know about how much she has/hasn't read. Also, the story of the people in the trees will be explained later. I'm glad you're enjoying this story!

Monotope: Thanks! I'm glad you like my story!

Kyo'slittlekittenkisa: First off, I have never seen so many K's in one name in my life. Excellent job! And Akito is really, really mean.

Bouncing Shii-chan: Yay! Nice name change! Shigure's hot. It's okay that you didn't review the last chapter! Don't worry about it. Akitoevil. (Not sure why I added that.)

Fullma8712: A syringe is a needle! Sorry for not clearing that up! Eh, you learn something new everyday. Kagura and Kazuma may have tried to visit, but if they did, Akito wouldn't let them, and he'd probably forbid anyone else from telling Kyo that they visited him.

Dark Inu fan: Yes, the shower was very cool. Yea, someone should stand up to Akito soon… but the question is, "will they?" I'm still going over it all in my head. And yea, Akito used sedatives on Kyo… (but you already knew that cause I'm assuming you just read my chapter…if not that's really weird that you skipped down here instead of reading the story…)

Dark-wolf-soulx: Yes, let's be thankful Akito didn't make Kyo turn blue with the mystery "cotton candy" injection. Thanks for the kind Birthday/Holiday wishes! I hope you had a nice batch of holidays too! And yes, that wormhole… I remember it now. I remember the Kyo shrine, too. (I mean, what shrine? I'm covering for you incase the Kyo-cops come) Thank goodness you found my boots.

Shadow7272: Yea, Kyo's is having a rough time right now. I'm happy that you think I've kept Akito in character. That's got to be the hardest thing to do in a fanfic… cause most people want to change the characters to make them work in their story… and its hard. I'm glad you liked it!

ShadoWalker: I'm glad you like my story, no matter what genre it changes to! I'll try not to make too much angst. I don't want to make the story all mopey and sad and whatnot. Ha, rescue Kyo soon? I dunno… I'll think about it. Yea, wouldn't it be cool if Akito and the Cat had a fight… Who do you think would win? I think they'd tear each other to pieces. And then the pieces would fight.

Starship Gazer: Yes, I just finished the 12th manga too! I finally got it and devoured it… four times. I keep reading the series over and over again, and each time I pick up on something else. As for what Akito did to Kyo in my last chapter: He merely sedated him with some powerful narcotics. All is well, no permanent damage. Maybe Yuki will try to help him… maybe he won't. I kind of like that idea too, I always wanted Yuki and Kyo to have a more brotherly bond.

Narutofreak22: Hey, sorry I didn't update sooner! Thanks for wishing me a happy Birthday, Christmas, and New Years. I hope you've had a great batch of holidays too! I'll update as soon as possible!