Honda 9: Scorpio
Orion was proud about being the most powerful and skillful hunter in all of Greece. He boasted that he could kill any animal that dared to challenge him. The mother of earth, Gaia, was shocked and appalled at the man's exclamations. One day, when Orion boasted that he could kill all the animals of the earth, Gaia put her foot down. She sent a giant scorpion to kill the man that dared harm her creatures. The powerful hunter quickly fell under the sting of the creature, overwhelmed by one of the creatures he hunted. They are both commemorated in the night sky, opposite of each other so that they will never fight again. They are Orion the Hunter and Scorpio the Scorpion.
Tohru entered the house with the oven timer beeping in the kitchen. Mild cursing floated through the air as the clashing of metal against metal rang out. Tugging her loafers off, Tohru call out her arrival home before scurrying into the kitchen. "Kyo-kun, are you all right?" she asked, seeing the cat sucking on his burnt fingers. Tohru reached for his hand, but he turned away from her reach. "Let me see your fingers, please Kyo-kun?" she reached again and he reluctantly let her see. The slight redness of his fingertips and palm told the entire story. Pulling him over to the sink, she soaked a rag in cold water and wrung it out before holding it on his palms. "Hold this for me, okay?" turning to the fish, she grabbed a fillet and poked it with her cooking chopstick, checking it for flakiness. "Can you taste this for me, Kyo-kun?" she held out a perfectly cooked piece for him to bite onto.
"It's okay, I guess," Kyo shrugged, dropping the wet rag onto the edge of the sink. Without speaking, Tohru wet the rag again and placed it in Kyo's hands. In the same turn, she grabbed a pan and placed it on the stovetop with a pad of butter in the bottom. Allowing it to melt, Tohru also started up the rice cooker and placed the fish in a covered pan to keep warm on low heat on the back burner.
Pouring some milk into the pan, she whisked it and some 'mysterious powders' together and let it heat up. "…How long," Tohru asked quietly, "were you able to hold the pan? You didn't get as burned as you should have."
Tossing the rag between his palms, Kyo shrugged. "It was in the back of the oven and I couldn't reach it with those stupid oven mitts on. It kept slipping." Tohru nodded and wet the rag again before handing it back. Touching the oven mitts where they were tossed on the counter, she nodded at the scorch mark on the edge and how wet they were.
"Let me see your arm. You didn't tell me that you were burned there too." Pushing up his sleeves, she inspected both of his forearms with a small frown. "That's not right…"
"What?" he asked, watching her trace the contours of his muscles.
Looking up in shock, Tohru flashed a stupid smile. "Oh…just your fate line. It says 'live long and prosper'!" Kyo snorted and pulled back, touching his beaded bracelet out of habit.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tohru shrugged and gave a stupid grin before turning back to her white sauce. "Whatever. I'm going outside."
"Are you going to join me again tonight?" Tohru murmured into her sauce. Kyo turned, barely hearing her question.
"What?"
"Nothing!" she chirped, "Just if you fall asleep on the roof, I'll save some fish for you!" Kyo snorted and thumped Tohru lightly.
"Yeah," he whispered in her ear, "I see you later." She nodded, tilting her head into his cheek in silent thought.
"Ooh! What are my lovebirds up to now? Whispering little nothing into each other's ears, hmm?" Shigure giggled as he peeked around the corner with his sleeves covering his mouth. Both teens flushed and Kyo stomped outside while Tohru stirred her sauce with more vigor. "So," Shigure tucked his hands into his sleeves and leaned back against the counter, "how was your appointment with Ha-san?" he asked with a suggestive tone to his voice.
Tohru blushed slightly, not understanding why she did so. Maybe it was being in the presence of a handsome older man? Biting her inner cheek, Tohru glared at herself internally. She was not her mother. She would not become her mother. She was Tohru. Tohru! Not Kyoko. "I-it was fine. Hatori-san's going to look at my scar after Yuki-kun's appointment next week. Until then, he gave me some medicine for the pain." Shigure nodded, his eyes closed.
"Will you ever show the boys who you really are?" he asked, staring into Tohru's eyes. She turned her head away and looked up slightly, as if that would stop the unintentional tear from slipping.
"When you stop keeping secrets from those that only want to help you."
Shigure nodded, unfolding his arms. "Fair enough," He tried to dip his finger into the white sauce to taste it, but Tohru rapped his knuckles hard with the wooden stirring spoon. "Toh-ru-ku-un! That hurt!" he whined, cradling his abused his hand. "Those boys have become a bad influence on you. They're turning my precious flower into a rose with thorns! Poor me!"
Tohru smiled gently and set her spoon down. Snapping to attention, she turned to Shigure and gave a graceful bow, kissing his abused knuckles. "Is that better?" she didn't straighten up until he nodded.
"Oh, my!" he mock-gasped in falsetto, "we mustn't! What shall the others think of us?"
Grinning, Tohru turned away, acting like Yuki around Kyo with the wooden spoon held in her crossed arms. "They'd kill you," She said over her shoulder, barely keeping her face straight.
Shigure sighed dramatically. "I guess your right." Turning away, he looked over his shoulder. "But then again, who would dare strike such a handsome face as this." He batted his eyelashes and Tohru groaned, waving him out of the kitchen.
Watching Shigure leave, Tohru sighed quietly as she stirred the sauce. "That's what I am, don't you agree? A rose with thorns." Her stirring stopped as she closed her eyes. "A black rose with thorns…"
"Hey."
"Hi." Tohru looked up from her far-off staring into the woods. A bowl with a tapered candle sat next to her, giving a faint glow and deepening the shadows of her body. "What do you see?" she turned back to the woods as she patted the ground beside her, behind the candle. Clasping her hands under her knees, she rested her chin on her knees as she looked at Kyo out of the corner of her eye.
"The forest."
"Is that all that you see? That's very blunt of you," she grinned, but seized up as a tremor wracked her body as the moon peered over the clouds. Panicking, Kyo's hands hovered over Tohru's shoulders, unsure what to do. The moon hid again and Tohru slumped for a few seconds before groaning. Looking up at the panicked Kyo, Tohru grinned, "hey stranger. How long were you sitting there?" Kyo opened his mouth to say something, but Tohru waved him off, "I'm fine. I thought we went over that already." Kyo was about to protest, but Tohru grinned, "but I will say one thing: I really like cloudy nights right now, don't you?" bringing the bowl with the lit candle closer, Tohru attempted to touch the flame, a small smile dancing on her face.
"What are you doing?" Kyo grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand away from the flame, "don't you know that you can get burnt—"
"Like you did on your arms earlier?" she interrupted, pulling her hand away gently. "A normal human would have had a strip of blackened skin by touching the element. The only reason that your hand was affected was because you expected it to." She spoke quietly, but with a mix of force and an emotion that Kyo couldn't quite pin down with a name. "And the burns on your hands are gone by now, aren't they? Not even a red mark to show your troubles."
"What are you talking about?" it was true that he couldn't feel any pain from his hands anymore, but there was still a pink tinge on his hands, like he had hit something hard with his open hand.
Tohru took her hand back and laid down in the grass, drawing the candle about a foot in front of her face as she propped herself up on her elbows. She reached out and caressed the wax of the candle as it dripped down the side and into the bowl. "I don't get burned either." She made a motion to pinch the candlewick to snuff out the flame and pulled back, flame held between her two fingers. Tilting her hand as she opened it, the flame slid into her palm like a droplet of water, becoming larger as multiple colors and sparks came out. "It won't bite," she stared over the flame as she held it out to Kyo. "At least, it won't bite us. I don't really know about Yuki-kun or Shigure-san though. Here," she dumped the yellow and blue flame into Kyo's hand and watched it turn red and spark before extinguishing.
Smiling at Kyo's shocked expression, Tohru pulled a cheap lighter out of a small bag that she had sitting next to her and relit the candle. "That's about all I can do though. I've seen some pyros do some really intricate fire dancing before." Tohru touched the flame and smiled, "I've even heard that if someone's good enough, they can create solid shapes out of fire…beautiful." Kyo looked at the flame and had to do a double take. He thought, for a moment, that he saw an animal's head staring back at him. The head yawned cat-like and disappeared. Shaking his head, he fell back and looked at the stars, his hands forming a pillow.
"You told me that you knew about the stars, right? Then what about that one?" he traced an outline of one that was directly overhead.
Rolling over, Tohru shifted to use Kyo's stomach as a pillow. "Which one? The red one above the three stars in the straight line?" feeling Kyo nod, Tohru traced the outline of the rest of the constellation. "That's Orion, the hunter. He's wearing his golden belt and stalking some of the other animals in the sky with his bow and arrows. Some say it's a club or a shield, but I think it's a bow. That red star, it's his armpit and its name is Betelgeuse. If you follow it up, that's his arm holding an arrow—sword—whatever you like. He has two dogs with him," she pointed to two different constellations, "Canis Major and minor… at least, that's where they should be…" Tohru giggled, embarrassed that the clouds cut her lesson short.
"Want to try again?" she asked, gesturing to the candle and sitting up, pinching the flame off of the wick and held it up to her eye level. "Fire needs fuel to burn and to live," she stated, allowing the flame to crawl around her hands. It danced between her fingers and around her wrist, creating a fiery bracelet that nipped at the yellow edges of her nightshirt. "I give it my own energy by focusing on the heat in my hands. I imagine, for example, my fingertips burning." the fire snaked to her fingertips, leaving an ashy trail from her wrist. "Now you try. Focus on your palm first." She tipped one of her fingers into his palm.
"Like this?" Kyo asked, cupping his hand as the flame flickered uncertainly before going out.
"Not bad. Try cupping your hands like you're holding a baseball." she pantomimed holding a baseball in both of her hands, one on either side. "Just remember to let air trough your fingers too." after a few moments, she let another fingertip's worth of flame jump to Kyo's hands. He held it for longer before it exploded in his face.
"Don't say a word," Kyo growled, wiping the soot off of his face. Tohru giggled and stood up, offering her hand to help the cat up. Kyo stared at it and then stood up on his own, deliberately staring at her outstretched hand.
Following Kyo's eye movement, she stared at her hand also before blushing. She held it up in front of the face. "Oops," she smiled sheepishly as she extinguished all but one flame, making that one grow to about the size of a softball as it migrated to her palm. Turning, she walked to the opposite edge of the clearing. Looking over her shoulder, Tohru realized that Kyo wasn't following. "A word!" she laughed, sticking out her tongue and winking.
With a half-hearted growl of playful annoyance, Kyo chased after Tohru, following the ball of flame that she held above her shoulder, illuminating the dark woods eerily. Stopping, Tohru turned around, swaying as she stood on a log that crossed a deep riverbed. She swayed dangerously, cart wheeling her arms for balance. She put her foot out to stabilize herself and grinned. "Catch!" Kyo reacted on instinct as he watched Tohru fall off the log with her throwing effort.
"Tohru!" he yelled, running to the edge and looked over, clutching the ball of flame in his fist absently.
"Hi Kyo-kun!" Tohru waved from five feet down. She was sitting on the file of leaves under the log.
Turning red from embarrassment, Kyo knelt at the edge of the ravine and glared down at the laughing girl. "Get back up here, you klutz! You nearly scared me to death!"
Pouting, Tohru stood up and brushed the stray leaves off of her clothes. "Just as I thought," she muttered to herself, "thinking about it too hard." Clutching root bundles, she pulled herself up enough so that Kyo could grab her arms and help haul her up. Pulling her a few feet away from the ravine, Kyo glared at Tohru's 'you can't possibly hate me' face and sighed, thumping her on the forehead. Gasping, Tohru grabbed her stomach and bent over, biting down a scream as the moon beamed down from between the trees. Grabbing her shoulders in a panic, he kneeled to help steady her balance while she was crouching.
"Tohru? Tohru, speak to me." he commanded gently, feeling her thump her head onto his shoulder in her haze.
"It... It hurts." Kyo felt her shaking, from the cold or the pain, he didn't know.
"What hurts? Your stomach?" Tohru let out a weak laugh.
"I wish." Letting out her breath, the moon slid across the sky, its deadly beauty temporarily hidden once again. After a few moments, Tohru pushed back from Kyo's supporting arms and collapsed backwards, blacking out for a moment. "Wh-what happened?" she asked, rubbing the back of her head where it had hit a small stone in the fall.
Supporting her back, Kyo helped Tohru sit up on the forest floor, "you tell me. Do you always collapse like that?"
"I collapsed?" leaning forward, Tohru covered her face with her hands and rubbed her eyes. "I didn't think it'd be this bad so early," she mumbled.
"What?"
"Nothing," Tohru stood up wobbly, grabbing Kyo's arm for support. "We should get back to the clearing, ne, before Shigure-san or Yuki-kun look for us."
"Damn rat can get lost out here as far as I care," Kyo scoffed, leading Tohru around roots that he swore were just there to make Tohru trip.
"Kyo-kun, you could at least pretend to—" Tohru stumbled over a root but was caught by Kyo's quick action, "—get along with Yuki-kun. In another lifetime, you and Yuki-kun would have been best friends, I can see it in your and Yuki-kun's actions."
"With that rat! Pch, you're getting delusional." Tohru shrugged the best that she could while not losing her tentative balance.
"Maybe I am, or maybe both of you are blind beyond what others expect of you."
"What?" Kyo stopped walking, caught up in his own confusion.
"Simple," Tohru sat down on a particularly large root and patted the bark beside her invitingly, "What does the Sohma household believe between you two, the cat and the rat?"
Kyo pointed a peeved look towards Tohru, but she knew that she wasn't the real recipient of the look, but instead the ones that shunned him in the past. "The cat is the cursed animal," he started as if reciting a lesson, "fated to never be part of the zodiac, yet it is still part of it."
"Like the god, sort of." Tohru suggested, discreetly leaning against the tree's trunk and trying to look as awake as possible.
"No, not god. God's the center of the wheel, keeping all of his pets," he spat the word, "together."
"Maybe," Tohru fought a yawn, "maybe God's not the center, at least not completely." Tohru held up a hand to stave off Kyo's protests. "Listen; there are twelve zodiac, correct? But with the god, that's thirteen, and unlucky number. But with you, the cat, that makes fourteen. One plus four equals five and the number five represents the whole."
"You must be tired to be babbling on with nonsense like that." Kyo tried to pull Tohru up, but she protested, hooking her toe under one of the smaller above-ground roots.
"Did you know that the Egyptians had a goddess named Bast? She was a cat and one of the more popular goddesses. What if," Tohru paused for effect, "The cat was actually half of the core? The yang to the god's yin, I guess you could say." Kyo scoffed and helped Tohru up. "At least think of it, please?" Kyo groused, but that was the end of his part of the conversation.
They made it to the back door before Tohru turned to Kyo again, "Maybe the one that you should be fighting for a place isn't Yuki-kun, but Akito-san. Goodnight." Tohru kissed Kyo on the cheek and slipped inside. Frowning Kyo sat on the porch, tracing patterns in the ash that the flame left on his palm and fingers.
With only the glow of the monitor to light up the room, Shigure sat back and hummed, listening to the quiet exchange outside. "Could it be possible that our little flower can break our curse after all?" he shrugged and pulled out a small sketchbook, flipping through various pictures before taking out a pencil and adjusting a like on one of a girl, almost woman, holding a wilted rose in one hand.
Okay, Fanfiction's a little interest, so I'll hope that you enjoyed this chapter when you realize that I finally updated! Dark