Disclaimer: Fruits Basket is (c) to the great Takaya Natsuki-sama. Not KrimzenAngel...She only wishes it was.
Summary: For Tohru to realize her feelings for Shigure, he got engaged. But for Shigure, it was far worse than anyone could've ever imagined...(Shigure/Tohru)
Authors Notes: Many thanx to the rest of the reviews I got for the last chapter! There's this one part I'm just dying to write, but that's not until a couple more chapters...Oh well, I'll get to it someday! And boy will you guys be shocked. I'm gonna stop my ramblings so you can get to more important things like this chapter. Also, possible future OOC-ness, especially for Tohru! Read on!
Whatever It Takes
Chapter 4- The Fourteenth Zodiac
"She's in a comatose..." Hatori replied. "Until her fever breaks, she won't regain conciousness...It might even kill her unless it breaks...But how long she's going to be like this is something I don't know..."
"You mean she could be stuck like this for any period of time?" Kohana asked. "Like a week, month, or year?"
"That's how I see it." Hatori replied.
"What's causing this?" Yuki asked, his voice unsteady.
"Her engagement to one of the Juunishi." Hatori replied. "Since she's engaged to a Sohma, she has to be turned into one, Zodiac and all. Since she's not a blood relative, the tea Akito gave her is having a worse effect on her, unlike the blood related Sohma's, who are fine a day or two later." Everyone was silent for a moment, digesting the new information.
"Hatori, do you know what Zodiac Tohru is and who she's engaged to?" Kyo asked. "She looks so different from the others that I just can't make it out..."
"Yes, I do know." Hatori rpelied.
"Can you tell us?" Shigure asked.
"I can't..." Hatori replied. "I'm under strict orders by Akito not to tell you."
"Why's that?" Kohana asked.
"Akito says he wants it to be a surprise." Hatori replied as he stood up and grabbed his bag. "And speaking of surprises, I better get back to the main house and see if Akito's done any more damage to this family..."
He then walked towards the door and opened it, but paused and turned around to say something. "For the next couple of days or so, keep a close watch on her fever. If it stays at a hundred and seven or goes any higher, call me. She might have a less chance at staying alive if you don't. Keep putting those cold cloths on her head every so often. After a while, they should start to help along with the antibiotc shots I gave her. I'll be over at least every other day to give her more shots, and see how she's doing. I'll stay in touch." And with that, Hatori left them sitting in the middle of the living room. They thought for a while about this whole situation until Shigure stood up.
"Where're you going?" Kyo asked.
"To take care of Tohru-kun." Shigure replied as he walked into the hall.
For weeks, Shigure, Yuki, Kyo, and Kohana spent hours sitting by Tohru's bedside and did all they could to help bring her fever down. Sometimes even they got sick from loss of sleep, stressing out over Tohru's current state of health, and sometimes, not eating anything, due to their intense worrying.
Uo and Hana came over also. They wanted to make sure their best friend would be able to pull through this without a problem. They would also sit at her bedside for hours, taking hold of her hand and brushing her silvery hair out of her face like how a mother does with her sleeping child. They had noticed the extreme change in her hair color, so they had asked Hatori about when he made one of his checkups. He blamed her changes on the medication she was taking. He wasn't really up to telling them that their best friend was cursed and had to marry one of the Sohma's. No, he didn't think they'd take too kindly to it.
And as the weeks went by and turned into months, Tohru's fever had finally went down. After nearly four months, they were able to put most of the worrying behind them all except for one. Her waking up.
At times, she would seem to stir and her eyelids would seem to try to open up. Hatori said to give her a some time because her body was still recovering from her recent, nearly life threatening fever.
One day, Shigure sat in Tohru's room, watching her as she slept peacfully. He couldn't help but sit and watch her sometimes, be it day or night, sometimes, he just felt as if he had to be there. And today, his feeling of being by her side was exceptionally strong today.
So there sat Shigure in a chair next to Tohru's bed with his head propped up in his arm and elbow resting on the nightstand. He didn't know how long he sat there until Kohana came looking for him.
"Hm, I thought I'd find you here, Shigure-kun." Kohana replied as she pulled up a chair next to him and leaned against him.
"Yeah..." Shigure replied as he took her hand and kissed it. "I'm just waiting to see if Tohru-kun would wake up today."
"I hope she does soon." Kohana said. "Even though I only spent a few hours with her that day, I really really liked her."
"So do I, Kohana, so do I." Shigure replied as he wrapped his arm around her and smiled. It was amazing on how fond he grew of Kohana over the past four months. On nights when they would both couldn't sleep, they stayed up to take care of Tohru, and they started talking. They got to know each other very well. Then a few weeks earlier, Shigure asked Kohana out on a date. Since then, they were really hitting it off.
'Actually, I think that for once, Akito really did make a good choice...' Shigure thought as he felt Kohana snuggle against him.
"Oh, look at the time!" Kohana said. "I told Yuki and Kyo that I would meet up with them after school and help them do some research at the library."
"Well then, what are you waiting for? Go on, everything'll be alright." Shigure said as he released his hold on Kohana. "Hatori will be coming over to checkup on Tohru-kun, so everything's safe."
"Okay. Bye, Shigure-kun." Kohana said.
"Bye." Shigure replied as he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, and then she was gone. He went back to staring at Tohru for a while longer until heard Hatori's car in the distance. He got up and left the room to go and greet him.
"Ah, Ha'ri!" Shigure sang. "And how are you on this lovely day? And what's this? You've brought Kazuma with you also!"
"Hello, Shigure." Kazuma replied. "You seem to be in a good mood as usual. How's Tohru-kun doing?"
"She's sleeping at the moment." Shigure replied. "But you can come up and see her if you want."
"I'd like that, actually." Kazuma replied. 'I want to see for myself if Akito really did curse her...It's just too hard to belive...'
"So what brings you here, Kazuma?" Shigure asked.
"I'm supposed to talk to Kyo about something." Kazuma replied.
"And Shigure, has there been any changes in Tohru-kun at all?" Hatori asked.
"None whatsoever." Shigure replied as he opened her bedroom door. "The only thing she's been doing is-!"
"Ugh, thank god!" Kyo said as he entered the house and took his shoes off. "I thought I'd never get out of that stupid library!"
"Oh shut up, stupid cat." Yuki said. "Just because you don't like books and researching doesn't give you the right to complain about it."
"Don't you go tellin' me what to-!" Kyo shot back only to be interupted by a shout.
"TOHRU-KUN!" Shigure shouted from upstairs.
'Honda-san?' Yuki thought in worry as he threw his bag down and raced upstairs, Kyo and Kohana close behind.
"Shigure, what's goin' on?" Kyo shouted as he raced into Tohru's room, then bumping into Yuki, who stood rooted to his spot. "Hey, Rat-boy, why'd you- Oh my god...!"
Yuki, Kyo, Kohana, Hatori, and Kazuma were all in shock. Because in front of them, Tohru was now awake and talking to Shigure, who had cupped his hands to the sides of her face.
"Tohru-kun, I can't belive it!" Shigure said, looking like the rest of the members in the room, all wanting to cry. "You're awake! You're finally awake! I missed you so much!"
"I missed you too, Shigure-san..." Tohru replied as her steely blue eyes glittered with the life they hadn't seen in them for months. "I missed everybody...Yuki, Kyo, Hana-chan, Uo-chan, Kohana-san, and the rest of the Sohma's..."
"H...Honda-san..." Yuki said as he walked up to her, then suddenly embraced her, but in the way he would't transform. Hugging her that way was just pure habit."I...I thought you'd never wake up...!"
"You gave us quite a scare, ya know." Kyo said as he placed his hand on her head and looked her in the face, a sincere smile on his face. Kazuma couldn't help but smile at this.
"I'm sorry." Tohru replied. "I guess I couldn't help but get sick..."
"Yeah, we heard about that." Kohana said as she sat down next to Tohru. Then Hatori appeared next to her, starting his checkup.
"Welcome back to the land of the living." Hatori smiled as he took her blood pressure. Tohru giggled a bit at this.
"Belive me, It's good to be back, Hatori-san." Tohru replied. "I felt like I slept forever! Wait...What happened to me to make me like that?" Hatori took a deep breath.
"You fell into a comatose..." Hatori replied.
"But...How?" Tohru asked, surprised at the answer.
"Do you remember that night Akito called you over?" Hatori asked. Tohru nodded slowly. "Well, gave you this special tea."
"Yeah, I remember that." Tohru replied. "It tasted like raspberries and lemons..."
"But wasn't just any tea." Hatori said, getting a questioning look from Tohru. "It was a special potion...A potion that caused you to fall into that comatose..."
"Wh-what?" Tohru asked slowly.
"Well..." Hatori said. "Besides putting you into your coma like state for four months...It turned you into...One of the Sohma..."
"What?" Tohru asked, surprised beyond belief.
"It means you now share the curse." Kazuma said. "You're now part of the cursed Juunishi. From this day on, you're a true member of the Sohma family."
"But...But I thought it was all a dream!" Tohru replied.
"I'm sorry, Tohru-kun, but...It isn't." Shigure replied. "You share the whole curse. Hugging, Zodiac animal, everything."
Tohru just sat there, completely silent as she let this new piece of information sink in.
"So...If I carry the curse...Then none of you will transform when I hug you?" Tohru asked.
"That's right." Yuki replied. "You can hug me if you want to see for yourself."
"Okay..." Tohru said as she slowly wrapped her arms around Yuki. For a minute, she closed her eyes tightly, awaiting that familiar 'poof' sound and gray smoke to fill the area. But it never came. Instead of a little gray rat in her arms, she had Yuki in them, human and all. "You...You didn't change!"
"See?" Yuki replied. "You can hug us all you want now."
"Well, I guess that's not so bad." Tohru said. "I know Momiji-kun will love this."
"You're right, he will." Hatori said as he put some of his medical things away. "Now Tohru-kun...Do you know what your Zodiac is?"
"Uh, no. I don't" Tohru replied. "I don't remember..."
"Well then, if it's okay with Kazuma, you can hug him to find out." Hatori said as he looked at Kazuma.
"I don't mind at all." Kazuma replied. "I'm actaully quite curious to see what you are, Tohru-kun."
"Yeah, with your hair and eye color, it's hard to tell!" Kyo said.
"Okay." Tohru said as she got out of her bed with ease and walked towards Kazuma and stopped in front of him.
"Are you scared?" Kazuma asked.
"Yeah, I am..." Tohru replied. "I mean, with a curse like this, I'm not really sure what to expect..."
"None of the Sohma knows what to expect the first time it happens." Shigure said. "I know I was frightened to death when it first happened...You just have to learn to accept it and move on..."
"You're right, Shigure-san." Tohru smiled. She then turned back to Kazuma and looked him in the face. "Here goes!" Tohru said as she shut her eyes and wrapped her arms around Kazuma's middle. A second later, there was that all too familiar 'poof' sound, a cloud of sivlery white smoke, then Tohru in her Zodiac form.
Everyone's eyes widened and they let out audiable gasps when they saw Tohru's Zodiac form. She wasn't one of the accepted Zodiac, nor was she the Cat. She was her own animal, her own Zodiac.
She was Sohma Tohru, the Wolf of the Zodiac.
End of chap. 4! Wow, didn't see that one coming, did you? Not much of a cliffie either, but you still don't know who she's engaged too, either. Hmm, maybe I'll be nice and tell you in the next chapter, but for now, I'm goin' to sleep! I've been working on this since I got home from the movies. I went and saw The Amityville Horror! That movie scared the crap outta me! If you like scary movies, then I highly suggest this one! Til next chapter!