[Fruits Basket] Haru/Rin, #25 Title: Crossing Lines Author: Ysabet MacFarlane (ba087@chebucto.ns.ca) Pairing: Sohma Hatsuharu and Sohma Isuzu (Rin) Fandom: Fruits Basket Theme: #25 (fence) Disclaimer: Fruits Basket belongs to Takaya Natsuki and Hakusensha; English-language versions by FUNimation (anime) and Tokyopop (manga). This piece of fiction is in no way approved or endorsed by any of the copyright holders. Please support the original work! Notes: Set roughly two years before the series begins, so Rin is fifteen, Haru is thirteen, and Shigure is still living in the Main House. Minor spoilers for vol. 14. ************** Rin latched the compound's front gate behind her, with the usual twinge of frustration that it was impossible to slam it shut. Instead, it closed with the silent dignity befitting the Sohma name. She resorted to imagining the echoing clang of a prison door being barred, locking her out and her family in, along with the remnants of the dream that refused to be banished entirely. She'd decided to stay up late and sketch, and sleepiness hadn't caught up with her until dawn. One look at the frost on the ground had been enough to send her burrowing under the covers; it was Sunday, and Haru had been sent home from school the day before, after getting into his third fight that month. With no classes to get up for and no one to spend time with--Haru's parents usually let things slide, but this time they'd grounded him--Rin had let herself fall asleep without setting an alarm. She'd drifted awake late in the afternoon, pleasantly warm from the blankets and a dream of Haru's fingers caressing her hair while he kissed her. It was fading even before she'd snapped fully awake, almost running from her bed to open the window and let the cool air hit her face. But the hazy memory of it had lingered as she got dressed, carefully not letting her conscious mind try to recreate whatever her subconscious was coming up with. "He's in middle school," she said under her breath, leaning against the wall that fenced the Main House off from the rest of the world. *At least dream about boys your own age,* was something she didn't dare say aloud, even if there wasn't anyone around to hear. She stared at her hands, trying to tell herself it was good that he wasn't allowed out of the house for the day (for a week, he'd told her, as if either of them believed his parents would stick to it). *I didn't want to see him today anyway*--not with that dream still flickering behind her eyes. Being out of the Main House was a start towards clearing her head, but there didn't seem to be anywhere safe to turn her thoughts. She picked a direction and began walking, shivering unconsciously in the cold; she'd matched patterned tall stockings with the short black skirt, but an inch of thigh was still exposed, at exactly the right height for the wind to blow the very ends of her hair against her skin if she leaned her head back at all. It had been over a year since she'd trimmed her hair, other than the individual split ends she hunted with nail scissors when she needed something to busy herself with during lunch break. The idea was to see how long it would grow if she left it alone, but Hatori had given it a critical look when she went to him and complained of headaches. *Take at least fifteen centimeters off and see if that helps,* he'd said. *Your hair's fine, but it's not weightless.* And then, awkwardly, *How are you otherwise? Is school any better?* School was hell, something he didn't want to hear any more than she wanted to say it. School was tests she was barely passing because she couldn't concentrate, because some days she couldn't make herself leave her bedroom. School was her class representative's syrupy mockery as she said Rin could call and borrow notes any time at all, her classmates' giggles and smirks and envious looks, the awareness of eyes constantly on her and searching for a crack in the perfect veneer the family had drilled into her. It had only gotten worse since she'd run into a cluster of other students away from school and they'd seen how she dressed when left to her own devices. *School's fine, Tori-nii.* Habit made her stop to adjust a chafing strap on her shirt well before she reached the corner of the grounds. The intersecting stone walls were too high to see over, and blind corners were a collision waiting to happen. She spent a moment smoothing the fabric, restoring the flattering lines that made it one of her favorite outfits. *Don't be in such a rush to grow up,* Shigure had said when he saw her in it, his tone contradicting the words. The shirt showed her figure off perfectly, made even the men in the Main House hesitate and stare as if they hadn't watched her grow up. A strange man came around the corner as she started walking again. Rin stopped in her tracks, unused to seeing a completely unfamiliar face on the family property. It usually took ten or fifteen minutes to get far enough away to encounter anyone who had no Sohma connections at all. The man was much older than she was, and looked as if he was lost and trying not to let on to the boy following him. Manners asserted themselves. "Can I help you?" "I'm looking for someone from the Sohma family." His heavy Okinawan dialect almost made her step back in surprise, but it was the trace of aggression that kept her from replying with, *You're certainly in the right neighborhood.* "I'm a Sohma," she said instead, choosing her words carefully. "May I ask who you're looking for?" "A classmate of my son's." He gestured, and the boy stopped hanging back. One good look at him was enough to tell her what was going on. She found she couldn't tear her eyes away from his face, the evidence of the temper Haru had never lost in front of her. "I want to talk to his parents. This is completely unacceptable!" "His parents know already." She tried to straighten up, sound mature and reasonable about it. "He's already being punished, sir," and couldn't think where to go from there. *Haru did this.* Haru, with his shy, trusting glances and soft touches. The boy looked close to her age, but he must have been younger if he and Haru were in school together. It was hard to judge through the split lip and the bruises trailing down his cheek from the rather spectacular black eye. His father was saying something to her, something angry that floated over her head as the boy stared at her. "What did you do to set him off?" she asked, unthinkingly interrupting the tirade. "Young lady, do you really think there's any possible excuse--" "No." Her fingers itched to touch the boy's face, trace the path of Black Haru's hands, feel that familiar discoloration from the outside. "No, but--" "I said all the Sohmas were freaks." Spite ran through the sullen reply. Rin's spine prickled at it, animal instincts they knew nothing of urging her to back away. Across the street, a passing dog laid its ears back and barked. She stayed quiet long enough to be sure the father wasn't going to admonish his son--his silence was expected, a tacit defense of his injured child--and then lifted her head defiantly. "I'm not." The lie felt brazen, obvious, but the boy only shrugged. That, she'd also expected. She was not prepared for a grown man to openly run his eyes over her body, in front of his son, and say, "Well, freak or slut, _something's_ obviously wrong. How old are you?" "Fifteen," she stammered, too taken aback to withhold the answer. Instinct was turning into a scream of _runrunrunrun_, pounding at the back of her skull. "Huh." He kept looking at her as he spoke, voice tight with an anger that made his lingering gaze a silent threat. "How about you take me in to see that boy's parents?" His son took another step forward, catching her attention just in time to see his quickly-suppressed wince. He moved with the jerky uncertainty of someone trying to protect himself from unfamiliar pain. Rin backed away from it, trying not to imagine what damage might be hiding under his clothes. "I can't bring anyone in but family." It was one of the oldest rules she knew; for the first time, hearing herself say it was comforting. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the main gate open, and almost slumped against the wall in relief when she recognized Shigure's easy gait and saw that he was heading their way. The man followed her gaze, frowning--whether at the interruption or Shigure's casual appearance, she wasn't sure. Shigure came to a stop a few feet away from them, bare hands shoved into the front pockets of his jeans. The shirt he wore was obviously too light to offer any warmth, but he made no other concession to the temperature. "Who have we here?" He cocked his head with exaggerated curiosity and a small smile that didn't thaw the coolness in his eyes. "Rin-chan, friends of yours?" "They're looking for Ha--" "No?" Shigure's smile didn't falter as he casually cut her off and put himself directly between her and the strangers. "Did you want something from my cousin? I'm afraid I don't see how you're improving your chances of getting satisfaction from our family by looking at one of us like she's yours for the taking." He wrapped the ugliness of the accusation in silky tones, and because he watched and waited, Rin did the same. The color slowly ran out of the man's face. "Maybe you'd prefer to deal with me." After another excruciating moment of silence, Shigure glanced back at her, and then at the gate. A rebellious corner of her mind considered balking at the implicit order, but the combined horror of the father's contempt and the son's wordless reminder of what Haru was capable of were enough to make her obedient. She turned on her heel and retraced her steps without looking back, and whatever Shigure planned to say was held back until she was out of earshot. She waited just inside the gate for a small eternity, sitting on a large ornamental stone and shivering as it leeched away what little warmth had still been in her legs. The dog she had only vaguely noticed across the street slipped in after her, whimpering anxiously until she held her hand out to it. "Too bad you can't spy for me like you do for him," she said, scratching behind its ears. Finally Shigure came in, alone, closing the gate as carefully as she had not long before. He sighed when he saw her. "Rin-chan, you could have gone home. Or at least waited inside." He pronounced her nickname the way no one else did, emphasizing its meaning by making it softer than the words around it. "That had nothing to do with you." He crouched down by the dog and gave it a moment of undivided attention. Rin halfheartedly tried to listen to the silent conversation she knew was taking place, but the links between each Jyuunishi and the animal whose shape they borrowed were too different; there was nothing happening that her brain could even begin to register as language. "What did it tell you?" she asked when Shigure stood up. "Before?" He waited until the dog had loped off before answering. "That someone outside our pack was sniffing around you and scaring you and trying to herd you away, is how she put it." Something in the way he was looking at her told her to stay where she was. "Do you really have any idea what men think when they look at you?" He gestured impatiently when she started to answer. "Not about your clothes. They don't help, but wearing something else won't keep just about every man with a pulse from wanting to do things to you that you probably don't want to think about. Even if they're decent people who'll never do anything worse than sneak a look and then feel bad about it." She stared at him, unable to think of a response, and he sat down beside her as he dug a cigarette and lighter out of his shirt pocket. "Wear whatever you want. Take every last bit of freedom the family lets you have. But even if you don't care what people think, _know_ what they're thinking." He took a deeper drag from the cigarette than she was used to seeing, not looking at her until he'd exhaled. "And don't let anyone touch you." "Of course I won't!" Stung, she glowered at him. "Right." Wind carried a bit of ash away when he flicked it free. "Anyone, Rin." "Is Haru in more trouble?" She pushed the unexpectedly frank advice to the back of her mind for when she had the energy to consider it. A tiny smirk broke the unfamiliar earnestness on Shigure's face; he left it there just long enough for her to notice. "I took care of it. I'll get Kureno to call them tomorrow, which should make it clear that we take these things seriously. And so on. He might call Ha-kun's parents." He got up again, rubbing his hands over his arms. "If you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to burn off the chill with some sake. Join me?" He knew as well as she did that she was five years too young. "No, thank you," she said. "But thanks for getting me." She stood and bowed in one quick movement. "Good girl," he said, watching her closely. "Don't drink with older men, and don't explain yourself. Are you going back out?" "Yes," she replied, following her instinctive preference to do her thinking away from the compound. Shigure nodded, and she waited for him to tell her to be careful, but instead he turned towards his own house with a small wave of farewell. ********** Halfway through the night she woke, shaking and nauseated, from a dream of one of the last times her mother had touched her. Her school had just switched to the summer uniform, with its sleeves that showed the bruise just below her shoulder if she lifted her arms. Her mother had silently applied concealer and powder to the telltale bit of skin and written yet another note claiming she wasn't feeling well and would have to be excused from gym class. Rin said nothing. Her mother said nothing. In the dream, the man downstairs who was not her father said nothing, just as her father hadn't, but he watched her with a smile as she left. Awake, she buried her face against her pillow, bitterly glad she'd slipped back into the house hours after supper and had nothing in her stomach to lose. ********** Haru's parents abandoned the idea of punishment two days later; Rin came home from school and found him in the house with Kagura, idly discussing the finer points of a karate technique Kazuma was teaching his older students. His eyes lit when Rin slipped into the room, but he returned to his conversation willingly enough when she joined them at the kotatsu and opened one of her textbooks after nodding a greeting. Kagura made room for her without comment. Rin paid little attention to what they were actually saying, but found herself sneaking sidelong looks at Haru almost every time she turned a mostly-unread page. When she realized she'd made her way through an entire chapter without absorbing anything, she gave up and put her head down on her arms so she could watch him through her eyelashes. Sleep had almost claimed her by the time Kagura got up and left the room to help her mother with supper; Rin blinked against the sudden light when Haru leaned back to switch on a lamp. The gray light of early winter melted away in a burst of artificial brightness that left green flecks on her vision until Haru put his head down next to hers and blocked it. "You're awake?" "Mm hmm." The lamplight behind him filtered through his hair, softening the pure white with a hint of gold. She reached out to ruffle it affectionately, wanting to see the half-embarrassed look he got when she touched him, and froze--too late to hide what she'd intended to do. Haru blinked back at her in confusion, and she made herself put her open hand down on the kotatsu's surface instead of tucking it back against herself. "Rin?" Uncertainty wiped his expression clean of emotion. "What's up?" "What were you fighting about last week?" "Huh?" She closed her eyes and waited. There was a soft rustle of movement beside her, and then the light on the other side of her eyelids brightened as Haru sat up. "A ninth grader was mouthing off about us. The family. Some pretty sick stuff." "So you beat him up," she whispered. "A kid from Okinawa, right?" "Yeah." His voice was as empty as his face. "But I told you when it happened, so why're you--" "Did anyone tell you his father brought him here?" Perfect stillness beside her. "I saw him." Her fingers twitched, remembering the perverse desire to touch a stranger's battered skin, and that memory triggered the thought of the boy's father staring at her, his gaze sliding up her thighs and down past the neckline of her shirt. She lifted her head just enough to turn her face away from the lamp and Haru's guilty silence. "I thought you knew," he muttered, and she didn't have to look to know he'd brought his knees up to his chest so he could rest his forehead on them. "I always tell you when I get in trouble." "I know." He had never tried to hide bruised or bloodied knuckles from her or anyone else, whether he'd acquired them at the dojo or at school. Horrified, she realized that her eyes were stinging with tears. "I know, but--" *I will NOT cry* "--I _saw_ him." "'m sorry." The apology sounded ungrudging, but a strange note quivered in his voice, something different from the occasional cracks and shifts she'd learned to ignore. "Really?" "I'm sorry I hurt you," he said quietly. "I'm not sorry for hurting _him_, but I wouldn't've been that rough if I thought it'd freak you out so much." Weariness drained the youth out of his face, leaving only the matter-of-fact acknowledgment of what he'd done. "Please don't cry." "I'm not!" She was. "That's the worst I've ever hurt anyone, honest. It's never been anywhere near that bad before." He picked up a pen from the kotatsu, turning it between his fingers. Rin touched her hair unthinkingly, remembering fragments of the dream she'd had: a kiss, maybe more than one, and the tenderness in his hands. "Guess you're getting stronger." In the summer he'd gained height fast enough to hurt, leaving him awkward and clumsy while he constantly relearned how far his reach extended. "I knew what I was doing." The house was beginning to smell of supper, reminding them both of the time. "The things he was saying were really bad." The pen stilled while he waited to see if she'd ask. She didn't. "I can't promise I won't get in fights anymore." "Why not?" she asked, as if making him say it would change the truth. "Because I don't lie to you, 'specially if you'd talk yourself into believing me." He said it too quietly for anyone else to hear if they passed by in the hall; the sudden fierceness in his eyes made her flinch as if he'd shouted. "If I promise you anything, you can believe me." His hand--it had been bigger than hers for months now, but it was still startling--came to rest uncertainly on her wrist. When she didn't pull away he sighed, laying his head back down on the kotatsu without breaking contact. "I promise I won't ever hurt you." Rin shivered, irrationally sure she knew what was behind the haunted look in his eyes, and used her free hand to wrap the quilt more securely over her legs. He was the only person who'd touched her routinely or naturally since her parents had left her with the final collection of bruises he'd accidentally seen the morning after she'd been admitted to the hospital; she'd barely noticed them, distracted by the pain of the more serious injuries he couldn't see, but she remembered his face when he saw what she'd been hiding so carefully for so long. She put her head down by his again, close enough that her eyes crossed a little when she tried to focus on him. His fingers on her skin were softer than they had any right to be, a touch that irrationally soothed the child she'd been, who'd been so desperate for gentleness from violent hands. The unexpected comfort scared her as much as everything else that had happened in the past two days. "It's getting late," she said, trying not to let the pang of fear show. "Okay." When she didn't say anything else, he slowly let go of her wrist. "Okay," he repeated, and she closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see his expression as he got up. "Call me when you want to see me." "I will," she said quietly, listening to him go. [fin.]