******** The Ceremony of Innocence a Fruits Basket fanfic by Ysabet MacFarlane Chapter Two: Shadows Surge [2/10] ******** "you hurt yourself today again, you said You hurt yourself today you never did you never would all of us on the floor" -- Tori Amos, "Blood Roses" improv. (October 7, 1999 Seattle) ******** Kyo pushed Yuki's bedroom door open and froze on the threshold. The light was turned off, but his eyes adjusted almost at once to the dimness in the room. His cousin was poised on the edge of the bed, wearing his nightclothes, and systematically ripping strips from his bed sheet. Something had been smashed on the floor, and Kyo's sensitive nose picked up the whiff of fresh blood. He guessed Yuki had stepped on the shards of whatever it was. "Hey, rat, what're you doing? Shigure said Hatori told you to rest." He realized he was digging his nails into the door frame, too on edge to curb the nervous habit. Where the hell was Shigure? "Rat? Yuki, are you listening to me?" "Leave me alone, Kyo." Yuki spoke barely above a whisper, with no force behind his words. "Are you ok? It sounded like you were trashing the place." Kyo was acutely aware of his own naked state; seeing Yuki in one piece, he wished he'd stayed downstairs long enough to change back to his human form and get dressed. The night air was chilly and damp and making its way into the house through every crevice. "I dropped a glass," Yuki mumbled. His fingers were still busily dismembering his sheet. Kyo watched him uneasily. "Why are you doing that?" The finely-boned fingers hesitated for an instant, then resumed their work. "Maybe because I feel like destroying something, idiot. I would have thought you'd understand that." "Well, yeah, but . . . it never seemed like your way of dealing with things." Kyo chose his words carefully. He wished he weren't so cold. Yuki finally looked up at him. "My way of dealing with things doesn't seem to have worked so well, does it?" His voice was shaking, and he dropped the shredded sheet on his lap. It slid to the floor, unnoticed. "I told you to leave me alone." "Being alone doesn't seem to be helping you either," Kyo pointed out. He thought that his tone was both polite and reasonable, especially given who he was talking to. As a result, he was caught off guard when Yuki lost it--completely, utterly lost it. His cousin came flying off the bed at him, fists clenched so hard that Kyo caught a fresh tang of blood in the air. "I told you to GET OUT, you damned idiot cat!" The familiar insult, usually tossed off out of habit, was uttered with such venom that Kyo recoiled more from that than from Yuki's wild blows. He instinctively ducked to protect himself, but all of Yuki's exquisite karate form had gone out the window along with his self-control. "Get out!" he repeated as Kyo blocked a punch. "Get out, get out, get out . . . " over and over, his breath increasingly harsh as his voice spiraled higher and higher. Kyo got a grip on his wrists; Yuki responded by kicking out and tripping him, knocking them both to the floor. Fragments of glass embedded themselves in Kyo's side and thigh; Yuki, clothed, was better protected and tried to wrench free. The pain made Kyo hiss with anger, and he shoved his cousin away, scrambled off the shards, and pinned Yuki to the floor. "Yuki! Damn it!" They stared at each other. Yuki's eyes were alive with a blind fury, shining too brilliantly in the dim room. Kyo had a moment to reflect that he had never managed to pin him before, and to wish it was under better circumstances so he could feel some triumph. Then Yuki bit him. Pure shock made Kyo loosen his grip--for a moment he was glad that Yuki was in his human form, with its dull teeth--and Yuki rolled away. He was free. He was crying. While Kyo clamped a hand over the bite mark on his arm, glad that the skin was mostly unbroken, Yuki hauled himself into a sitting position and buried his face in his arms. "Go away, Kyo." All the strength had drained out of his voice, leaving it brittle with strain. He was clearly trying to hide his tears, but the dampness spreading down his sleeves betrayed them. "Or are you all just going to stare at me all night?" Kyo glanced at the door and saw Shigure and Tohru watching them. He stared at Tohru in distress--she was horribly pale, gnawing on her lip with indecision. Shigure caught his eye and calmly tossed a robe at him. Kyo threw it around his shoulders absently, hissing as the fabric brushed the tiny cuts covering his side. It wasn't much warmth, but his own shivering subsided a little. "Shigure, a little help here . . ?" Shigure looked at them both and sighed. "The best I can do is call Ha-san back, Kyo-kun." "What would he do?" Tohru asked. "Give Yuki-kun some tranquilizers, if he wants." Shigure's voice was flat and edged with helplessness. Yuki flinched violently. "N-no. No. Don't let them sedate me." "Then there's nothing I can do." He started to leave, and was stopped by Tohru's grip on his sleeve. "Shigure-san. Don't leave him like this." Kyo realized she was pleading, that she knew Shigure was going to walk away. To his credit, Shigure tried to offer her an explanation. "Ah, Tohru-kun . . . in our family, the younger generation never trusts the older. In families, the adults are supposed to . . . supposed to protect the children. Right? But our children are alone from the day they're born. They can only turn to each other." He shrank a little under her horrified gaze. "That is, if we haven't taught them to hate each other." His lips quirked in an attempt at a smile. "The curse of the Sohmas, Tohru-kun. We're afraid of the rest of the world, and ashamed of our children. They take in the fear and the shame with their air and food, while we punish them for being born. Letting Yuki-kun and Kyo-kun live in this house is all I can do for them." He grimaced suddenly. "And my writer's tongue is getting away from me. Do you understand, Tohru-kun?" He fell silent and eased her hand from his arm. He vanished from the doorway, and Kyo heard his door close down the hall. Tohru stared after him. "No, Shigure-san. I don't understand." she said softly. "I don't understand at all." She stepped cautiously into the room, squaring her shoulders as if (Kyo thought) she really intended to take the pain of the world, or at least of one family, onto her own back. "Yuki-kun?" For once, Kyo didn't feel the usual twinge of jealousy at her soft tone directed at Yuki. She crouched beside them and rested her hand on Yuki's shoulder. "I don't like being sedated." Yuki's voice was hoarse and muffled. "Then no one will sedate you," Kyo told him matter-of-factly. Yuki lifted his head; the light coming in from the hallway made the tracks of tears on his face shine. Kyo noted that there was at least one physical grace his cousin had been denied; crying had marred the perfect, delicate face as well as making him look even younger. At least he wasn't blessed with one of those unnatural complexions that tears transfigured into greater beauty. Kyo frowned a little in confusion. "How do you know you don't like it?" Yuki shivered. His shift from rage to vulnerability was disarming and bewildering. Neither state seemed natural on him. "When Akito first started paying attention to me, he had me sedated sometimes." He lifted his shoulders in a tiny shrug. "He said I was too loud." Kyo tried to imagine Yuki being too loud. "How old were you?" Tohru asked softly. "Four or five, I guess." Kyo saw her hand tighten on Yuki's shoulder. "Your parents let him do that?" Yuki choked out something like a laugh. "Akito made it worth their while. He wanted me with him. They never believed me, anyway." The bitterness that flooded his voice hung in the air. "What did they need _another_ Jyuunishi son for? Father wanted a normal child the second time round, and when he got me instead the whole family told him how lucky he was to have the rat. 'The rat is always such a brilliant child,' they said. But what good is another child you can't pass around to your friends to be hugged and admired? And there were always rats getting into the house. They'd never had that problem with snakes, and I cried if they killed the rats. They killed them anyway." A laugh bubbled up in his throat and caught there as if it had nowhere to go. "Kyo. I was jealous when your mother died. Not a lot, but . . . I was jealous." He repeated the words as if tasting the ugliness of them. "Jealous. One less person to pretend that she loved you, who you had to pretend to believe." Kyo felt the old knot of pain in his stomach tighten. This was honesty he could have lived without. But "I was relieved when she died," he found himself whispering. "So that she'd stop pretending that she liked to touch me." He closed his mouth against the old denial he'd spoken so many times as a child, but Yuki responded to its ghost as if Kyo had uttered it. "No, it wasn't your fault." After that, there seemed to be nothing left to say. Kyo suddenly felt too tired to move. Even cleaning out his cuts didn't seem worth getting up for. The three of them sat in silence, until Tohru glanced down at Yuki's feet and noticed the small wounds there. "Yuki-kun, you're hurt!" Yuki shrugged. "I cut myself on the glass I broke. So did Kyo." He sounded as prepared to ignore it as Kyo was, but Tohru seized the opportunity to do something concrete to help. She scrambled to her feet and hurried out of the room. Kyo felt as if he'd barely had time to close his eyes for a moment when she returned with her arms full. "I need to turn your light on, Yuki-kun." She set most of her load on the floor, switched the light on, and set to carefully sweeping up the glass fragments. The two boys watched her as she examined the floor to be sure she hadn't missed any bits. Then she sat down in front of Yuki, armed with a bottle of disinfectant, a pair of tweezers, and an expression of fierce concentration. Kyo imagined her--sweet but clumsy--trying to fish the tiny shards out of their flesh. The thought was enough to shake him out of his stupor. "I'll do it." Before he could change his mind, he took the tweezers from her and gripped Yuki's ankle firmly, turning the injured foot so he could clearly see the sole. Yuki blinked at him. "What are you--?" "What does it look like I'm doing? Hold still." He peered carefully at the foot and went to work, trying to be gentle. He quickly realized that dealing with someone else's skin was far different from doing the same thing to himself. "I can do it myself," Yuki protested. Kyo took the annoyance in his voice as a good sign. "No, you can't." He glanced pointedly at Yuki's hands, which were still trembling. "Let me concentrate." Yuki fell silent, but Kyo felt his eyes focusing on his every move. He ignored the scrutiny as best he could, and continued removing the offending shards. There weren't as many as he'd thought; he finished with one foot and lifted the other one. "You can disinfect," he told Tohru. He heard Yuki hiss as the disinfectant hit the cuts, but the foot in Kyo's hands stayed almost perfectly still; the tension in it betrayed Yuki's effort to keep it from shaking along with the rest of his body. Kyo examined the foot with a detached air as he worked, bemused by the pale skin and the bones that were almost visible through it. The intent focus that the task demanded kept him from realizing how much time was passing; when he was satisfied that he'd removed all of the glass and handed off to Tohru, he was startled by how stiff his shoulders had become. Rubbing them, he leaned back against the wall and watched Tohru cleaning Yuki's cuts out. He supposed that he should deal with his own, and picked the tweezers back up before his exhaustion could catch up with him. Yuki's hand on his wrist took him aback. "What?" "I'll do it," his cousin replied. "Fair trade and all that." Kyo frowned at him. "I'd rather not have that done with shaking hands, rat." Yuki lifted an eyebrow at him with a trace of his usual detachment and let go of Kyo's wrist, glanced pointedly at their hands. "Yours are worse than mine now," he said. "I've calmed down some now, and--" his breathing hitched awkwardly "--I'd like something to focus on." "Suit yourself," Kyo grumbled. He turned over so that his injured side was facing the light and pillowed his head on his arm. Yuki silently moved the robe out of his way and started hunting glass slivers with a single-mindedness that Kyo would have found disconcerting if he hadn't been so tired. He saw Tohru flush and turn her head away politely as he was suddenly half naked again. He'd lost count of how often she had seen him or Yuki completely bare, yet every time she reacted as if she'd never seen someone else's skin before. It didn't bother him as much as it had when he was younger; the reality of life as a Jyuunishi separated nudity and sexuality thoroughly for most of them. He chuckled sleepily as he contemplated what her uptight family would make of her living situation if they knew the details of it. Completely innocent and naive, cheerfully living with a houseful of males likely to accidentally give her an eyeful on an almost daily basis. Her family would be scandalized, he supposed--but then he remembered her cousin's insinuation that Tohru had been sleeping with one or all of them after she'd lived with them for only a few weeks. His amusement turned into a snarl. "Hold still," Yuki admonished him. "I'm almost done." Kyo blinked in surprise. Yuki had been working quickly and so gently that Kyo hadn't noticed his progress. Yuki carefully gripped a sliver embedded in Kyo's hip and slid it out. "There, I think that's it. Honda-san, you--" He looked at Tohru, who was still not looking in their direction, and smiled. He picked up the disinfectant and applied it briskly. Kyo clenched his fist against the sting and waited for it to pass, then sat up and pulled the robe closed. He and Yuki exchanged a look of shared fondness for the embarrassed girl. "Honda-san, he's decent now." "Ah." Tohru stole a glance and then turned to face them. She picked up the heap of fabric that had been sitting on the floor since she'd brought it upstairs with her, and handed it to Kyo. "Kyo-kun, I brought your pajamas up." He remembered that he was cold, and slid out of the robe and into the warmer pajamas as she looked away again. After a moment of thought, he pulled the robe on over them. "Done. Thanks." "You're welcome." Having run out of useful things to do, Tohru was looking tense and unhappy again. "Would . . . would you two like some tea?" Tea. Tea was ordinary and hot and soothing, something to keep both clenching hands and loose tongues busy. They both nodded. "Tea would be good." ******** In short order Tohru had settled them around the downstairs table with steaming cups in their hands. On the way down she tapped tentatively on Shigure's door, but he didn't respond; she sighed but made no comment. The night was unseasonably chilly, especially given the heat of the day, but at least it had stopped raining. Kyo wrapped both hands around his cup and inhaled the steam, letting the warmth soak into his lungs. Yuki looked like he was going to doze off at the table; his head kept lolling forward a little and then jerking back up. Kyo would have taken his drowsiness as a good sign if Yuki hadn't looked so panicked every time he startled awake. "It's getting late," he said. "Yuki, maybe you should go to bed. It can't be worse in the morning, can it?" Yuki bit his lip. "I don't know if I'll be able to sleep." He rubbed the back of a hand across his eyes. "I'm trying not to think about Akito, but the dark . . . " He trailed off awkwardly. The knot of jealousy that had taken up permanent residence in Kyo's gut within a few days of his moving into Shigure's house tightened as a thoughtful look crossed Tohru's face. He wondered if, in her naiveté, she would think there was anything at all inappropriate about offering to sleep in Yuki's room with him. Not that anything inappropriate would happen, he reminded himself fiercely. Yuki had a sense of honor; besides that, the rat probably wasn't thinking clearly enough to work out the logistics of anything terribly intimate with her . . . "We could have a slumber party," Tohru said brightly. "What?" Yuki looked as puzzled as Kyo felt. "We could bring all of our blankets and pillows downstairs and all sleep in the living room together," she explained. "I think it usually involves movies and ghost stories or something, but scary things probably aren't a good idea tonight. What do you think?" Kyo and Yuki looked at each other. "It sounds like . . . a good idea," Kyo said, hoping he didn't sound as dubious as he felt. Yuki nodded his agreement. "Ok!" Tohru stood up so quickly that Kyo guessed she was afraid they'd change their minds. "I'll be back in a minute." It was actually several minutes before she reappeared, wearing her own pajamas and carrying a full armload of blankets. She dropped them on the floor and ran back upstairs for more. It took her a few trips before she'd produced enough that she looked satisfied and began to layer them on the floor, moving the kotatsu aside. She plumped pillows busily and laid them out, looking pleased at the nest she'd built for them. Then she took a final trip up to her room, reappearing with her hairbrush and the precious photograph of her mother. She positioned the latter carefully above the pillows, turning it so that the image was grinning at the soft heap. Tohru sat down on the blankets and began to unbraid her hair. It came loose in long wavy segments that she began to untangle with the brush. Yuki stood up from the table and went to sit by her. Kyo discovered that his tea was gone, set his cup down, and followed. Yuki had already taken the brush from Tohru's hand and started brushing her hair out for her. She blinked at him but permitted it. Kyo sighed inwardly and sat down on her other side. Without any conscious intent, his hand found its way to her wrist, encircling it lightly. He stroked the soft skin below her palm, rubbed the prominent bone with his thumb, and found himself looking at Honda Kyoko's image. Tohru talked about her mother so frequently, and inevitably as if the woman was still alive and dispensing advice and commentary on her daughter's life, that Kyo sometimes felt almost as if she might walk in at any moment. He was glad that Tohru was unshakably convinced that her mother liked all of the Sohmas. He wondered if Kyoko would have approved of the way he thought about her daughter, longing and guilt over the longing inseparably tangled together. He shifted his gaze to Yuki, who looked completely intent on his task. He had brushed Tohru's hair to a smooth glossiness, one of his rare small smiles curving his lips. The three of them sat together in silence for a long time, until Tohru finally shook her head slightly and extricated her hand and her hair from them. "We should go to sleep," she said. Her eyes flicked to Kyo first, full of an emotion he couldn't read, as she added, "Yuki-kun should sleep in the middle." *So he knows he's not alone* went unsaid, but both boys understood. Yuki flushed slightly but nodded. He and Kyo obligingly climbed under the blankets side by side, not looking at each other. Kyo bunched his pillow up under his head and burrowed into the covers, listening to the rustling sounds of Tohru settling on Yuki's other side after switching the lights off. They lay close together--Tohru having not spread the blankets out over too much of the floor--close enough that Kyo could tell how tense Yuki still was, could clearly smell both his fear and Tohru's warmth beyond him. He wondered if there was something he could say to make Yuki feel better, but couldn't think of anything. For a moment he felt nothing but anger at Akito, for interfering with their lives again, for making him feel anything other than irritation toward Yuki. He closed his eyes tightly and willed himself to sleep. ******** Kyo woke in the middle of the night, disoriented by the unfamiliar shadows thrown by the moonlight streaming through the windows. He blinked and shook his head. *Windows. Living room. Floor. Damn it--Yuki.* He turned his head to peer at his cousin's sleeping form. Yuki was twitching slightly, in the throes of dreaming; the light was just strong enough that Kyo could detect the movement behind his eyelids. His fingers were plucking at Kyo's arm, and though he wasn't crying, Kyo saw fresh tear tracks on his face. Kyo touched Yuki's hand to remove it from his arm, and found his own hand gripped tightly. "Um, Yuki . . ?" He meant to wake him enough to get free, but instead Yuki mumbled something incoherent and rolled closer, curling around himself. His forehead pressed into Kyo's shoulder, which looked uncomfortable, but he stopped twitching. Concern warring with annoyance, Kyo sighed and didn't try again to retrieve his hand. *Damn Yuki.* He didn't suppose he'd get any more sleep that night. ******** The sun had come all the way up the next time Kyo woke. He squinted at the bright light pouring in on him, appreciating the heat even as the glare stabbed his eyes. He rubbed at them as he abruptly realized two things: first, that there was a warm, motionless body wrapped around him; and then, as he stretched one arm out and extended his claws in a pleasant stretch, he noticed that he was a cat. He stared at his own paw in astonishment. *Oh.* He twisted his head around to assess his position, feeling the usual pang of frustration that no amount of training would ever make his human body this flexible. He found that Tohru had rolled over to the center of the blanket heap in her sleep, and her arm had found its way across both of the Jyuunishi. She was curled up around them, her head resting on her other arm; Yuki's small rat form was tucked up under her chin, and Kyo himself was nestled against her ribs. Every breath pressed her against him. He closed his eyes again. Nothing could have made him move to wake her, not even Yuki's rat-nearness. He didn't try to get back to sleep, though; instead he lay still and savored the tactile closeness, drifting in a haze of simple happiness that went uninterrupted until he heard Shigure's footsteps coming down the stairs. "Tohru-kun!" Kyo sighed and waited for the moment of discovery. Shigure came to the doorway and stopped. Kyo stayed motionless, wondering if Shigure could tell he was awake. "Ah." The footsteps came closer, and then a blanket was tucked more snugly around them. Kyo's eyes opened in surprise, and he looked up at Shigure in confusion. There was an odd smile on Shigure's face as he met Kyo's gaze. "I wouldn't have moved either, Kyo-kun. Tohru-kun won't mind." "I've never woken up as a cat before," Kyo muttered, hating the feeling that he ought to justify himself. Shigure's smile faltered for a moment, but returned almost at once. "No, I suppose you wouldn't have." He paused. "I'm in no hurry for breakfast, myself." To Kyo's astonishment, he left it at that and walked away from them. Kyo closed his eyes again and let himself drift, aware of his surroundings but not thinking much about them. After a while he heard Yuki move abruptly as he too came awake and became aware of their current state. He sighed inwardly and turned his head to peer at his cousin. "Morning." "Morning," Yuki replied, looking unusually alert as he glanced from Kyo to Tohru. "How long have we been like this?" "Since before I woke up." "When was that?" "I don't know. I've been dozing. Why?" They were both pitching their voices too softly to be easily heard by human ears, but Yuki was obviously agitated. "Honda-san felt safe sleeping with us, and we--" "Yuki," Kyo interrupted. "We're not doing anything indecent." It felt strange being the reasonable one; he wondered how badly the events of the previous day were still affecting Yuki. "Besides, with our luck, if we tried to get up we'd wake her just as we transformed back." "Hmm." Yuki looked as if he didn't want to concede the point, but they were both distracted by Tohru murmuring something incoherent. She shifted a little, and then her eyes flickered open. "Or we could just wake her," Yuki added with a sigh as she came fully awake and blinked at them in surprise. "Mmm . . . Yuki-kun, Kyo-kun, morning." She yawned sleepily into her hand. "Did you two sleep well?" Quick glances were exchanged. "Yeah." "Quite well, Honda-san." She examined them more closely, finally appearing to notice that they were in their animal forms. Her eyes widened. "Did I roll on you?" "Don't know," Kyo replied. "We just woke up this way, so you didn't squash us or anything." Tohru ran a hand over her hair. "I'll go upstairs and get dressed while you change back, ok?" "All right," Yuki said, jumping down to the blankets. Kyo stretched and let the motion take him away from the safety of Tohru's arms. She smiled at them both and freed herself from the nest, shivering as the morning coolness hit her. "Sometimes it would be nice to have fur," she said cheerfully as she stood and made her way out of the room, collecting her mother's picture as she went. Cat and rat stared at each other awkwardly, waiting for the curse to undo itself. "How're you feeling?" Kyo asked. The movement Yuki made in reply was probably a shrug, although sometimes it was hard to interpret their Jyuunishi forms' attempts at human gestures. "A little better. Not so shaky." He shifted back into his human form mid-sentence and shot Kyo a pained glance. "I wish Akito'd leave us alone." "Tell me about it," Kyo muttered as his cat form traded itself in for human. His skin prickled instantly with cold and he began rummaging under the blankets for his pajamas. Yuki followed suit, shivering. When they had managed to clothe themselves, Kyo headed for the door. Yuki's hand on his wrist stopped him. "Um? What?" The unexpected touch took him aback. He and his cousin rarely made non-violent physical contact if they could help it, and he couldn't see the previous day's events changing things that much. Yuki let go again almost at once. "It's almost time for you to leave, isn't it." It was not a question. Kyo felt all of his muscles clench in response. "Yeah," he managed. "After graduation. You know that. I'm eighteen, so really Akito can just take me whenever he wants." "Right." Yuki was silent for a moment, staring into space. "There isn't anything that can be done about it, is there?" Kyo slowly turned to meet Yuki's eyes. "There is. I can beat you in a fight." He surprised himself by laughing as Yuki paled. "Funny, huh?" "That's not part of the tradition." "Akito made me the offer, and I took him up on it. I was too young to realize that it'd never work." Yuki exhaled slowly, leaning back against the wall as he processed the information. "That's just wonderful. He couldn't have pitted us against each other more effectively if he'd tried." Like Kyo, he laughed quietly, a humorless sound. "That would have been the idea, though. Couldn't take the chance that we might overcome the curse's predisposition and not hate each other." "Why would he care about that?" Kyo mumbled, looking away again. There'd been too much honesty in the last day, churning up a vague ache in his stomach that made him wonder if all of the hate had been necessary. "If he keeps all of us apart he has more control." Yuki shrugged. "And me . . . he's always wanted me to be dependent on him." He rubbed at his eyes as if they hurt. "If I thought we'd be able to convince Akito, I'd throw a fight with you." "I really should be able to beat you sometimes," Kyo whispered. "I know," Yuki admitted. "I'm better than you, but not by _that_ much." Kyo swore under his breath. "The curse probably wouldn't let you throw a fight any more than it'll let you lose to me any other way." Yuki's hand moved as if to touch his shoulder. He squeezed his eyes shut. "Don't touch me, rat." He heard the soft thump of the hand falling back against his cousin's thigh. "All right." Rustling sounds told him Yuki was trying to straighten up the mess of bedding. He took a breath and opened his eyes. As expected, Yuki wasn't doing a very good job. Kyo bent over and grabbed the blanket he was working on. "I'll fold, you carry." He shook out the crumpled blanket and deftly folded it properly. Resigned, Yuki held out his arms to catch it, waited for Kyo to deal with the others. Footsteps on the stairs, punctuated by a stumble, warned them of Tohru's return a moment before she entered the room. She took one look at what they were doing and moved to help, but Yuki stopped her. "We'll be fine, Honda-san." She hesitated, worried, but nodded. "I'll start making breakfast. Have you seen Shigure-san?" "I think he's in his study," Kyo said as he folded the last blanket and dropped it onto the pile in Yuki's arms. He began gathering pillows. "What should I make?" "You know we all like just about anything you cook," Yuki replied, flashing her a small smile as he headed for the stairs. Tohru returned it, radiating relief. "I'll have to go shopping later," she said to Kyo. "We have food for breakfast, but not for supper. I meant to go yesterday, but . . . " "Yeah," he replied when she trailed off. "I should call Hana-chan and Uo-chan after breakfast and tell them everything's ok. _Is_ everything ok? Yuki-kun looked a lot better just now." "I gave him something else to think about." "You did? What?" "What I'm doing after graduation." Kyo felt his arms tighten around the pillows he was holding. He licked his lips, trying to think of how to explain it to her; then, when he turned to face her directly and saw the pale misery on her face, he knew he didn't have to. "You know?" A quick jerky nod of her head. "How long have you known? Who told you?" "A long time. I just . . ." She shrugged painfully. "Akito-san told me." Kyo couldn't find the energy to pursue that. "Why didn't you tell me you knew?" "I didn't know how to bring it up . . . and I thought you'd tell me when you wanted to." Her eyes were shiny with tears. "Kyo-kun--" "Hey--" He set the pillows back on the floor and went to her, brought one hand to rest on her head. "Don't cry, ok? Let's go make breakfast, and then I'll go do the shopping with you if you want. Ok?" One tear leaked free and ran down her face; they both moved to brush it away, and it dampened their fingers where they touched. "Don't cry about me, Tohru," he whispered. "Please." She let her head rest on their hands, a trusting weight, as she sniffled once and summoned a smile from her seemingly-endless supply. "Breakfast. All right." She straightened up and towed him toward the kitchen. "Will you make some rice balls?" "Sure." ******** Breakfast was a subdued affair, the four of them not quite able to pretend that everything was normal. Tohru ate distractedly, making a shopping list in between bites, and not looking at Shigure despite answering his questions pleasantly enough. After the meal, when she began to clear the dishes, Yuki waved her away. "I'll do it, Honda-san." She nodded and went out into the hallway to call her friends, dropping her hand lightly onto his shoulder as she passed. Kyo helped Yuki clean up in silence, snatches of Tohru's conversations reaching their ears. "Yuki-kun seems to be feeling better . . . no, I don't think he'll be coming back, but I don't know . . . I'll probably be back in class soon . . . I don't know about Kyo-kun . . . yes, I'll tell them . . . thank you." Yuki's hands were trembling again as the two boys washed the dishes; Kyo noticed it every time his cousin passed him something to dry. "Hey, Yuki--" "Fine," Yuki muttered back. "Sure. Ok." They both glanced over their shoulders at Shigure as he entered the room, brushing aside the short curtain that hung in the doorway. "My, you two look domestic." They stared at him, unwilling to be drawn into the cheerful facade he liked to maintain. "So what's going to happen?" Kyo demanded. "Why are you asking me?" "Because you're the one most likely to know how both Akito and Hatori think," Yuki answered flatly. "Between them they're the ones who are going to decide what we do. And Hatori was talking to you last night before he left." "Mmm. Good point." Shigure grimaced at them. "Well, Ha-san doesn't think Akito's going to let either of you go back to school. He'll probably make arrangements for you to write your exams from home. And then . . . we think Akito may finally recall all of the Jyuunishi to the Main House." Yuki went white. "And for Kyo-kun . . . well, the usual." "The usual," Kyo echoed. There was something dark in Shigure's eyes that might have been regret. "I'm sorry, Kyo-kun." "You can keep your 'sorry'," Kyo flared back. "Don't tell me it's 'tradition'. Trust me, I know all about it." He looked past Shigure and saw Tohru in the doorway, tried to rein in his temper as he shifted his focus to her. "Ready to go?" "Ah . . . yes, just let me get the shopping list." She went off to find it, and Kyo shrugged at his cousins. "I told her I'd go shopping with her." He glanced at Yuki, weighed the chance to be alone with Tohru against Yuki's obviously frayed nerves. As he reluctantly opened his mouth to ask if he wanted to accompany them, Shigure cleared his throat. "Yuki-kun, you should stay close to home. Ha-san said he'd be around to check on you." Kyo scowled and headed for the door, punching it as he went by. He winced inwardly as the frame cracked, but kept going. "Ready?" he asked again. "Yes!" Tohru replied, already in her shoes. "We'll be back soon," she called back to the others. "Come home safely." Yuki's response barely reached them as they left. Tohru walked quickly, at what was almost a normal pace for Kyo. He sighed and tried to ignore the anxiety that was likely to turn to irritability if he didn't keep it in check. ******** When the door closed, Shigure gazed woefully at the broken door frame Kyo had left in his wake. "It's been a long time since he actually damaged the house. I thought he'd outgrown that." "It might be the last time," Yuki muttered. "And if we're not going to be here much longer it doesn't matter, does it? I'm going to my room." Shigure gazed after him as he headed upstairs, then shook his head and ran his hand lightly over the cracked wood with a sigh. "Ah, good times," he said softly. "They grow up fast." The phone ringing broke his reverie, and he answered it. "Hello?" "Shigure, are Yuki and Kyo there?" Hatori's brisk manner didn't quite hide his concern. "Yuki-kun is, but Kyo-kun's just headed to the grocery store with Tohru-kun." "Damn." There was a short pause. "Akito was asking after Kyo. He says he wants to talk to him." "And you'll tell him where Kyo-kun is, of course." "Of course. And drive him to look for them, if that's what he wants." "Does he want Yuki-kun as well?" "Not at the moment. Ayame was talking to him." "Aya was?" Shigure couldn't quite keep the surprise out of his voice. "Has Akito given any indication that he wants us back home?" "I'll come over when I can, Shigure. We'll talk about it then. Ayame may come along, so maybe mention that to Yuki." "All right, Ha-san." Hatori chuckled grimly. "You know your docile act doesn't fool me, Shigure." "Then, I'll defer to you on this. Better?" "A bit. Try to keep your own machinations out of this for now." "You know I try not to interfere with you, Ha-san," Shigure replied calmly. "You're more in the loop than I am these days." "Lucky me." They shared a moment of silence, and then Hatori sighed. "I'd better go talk to Akito." "Send Akito-san my love." "Later, then." Hatori hung up, and Shigure listened to the dial tone for a long moment before replacing the receiver on the cradle. ******** They were almost at the grocery store when the car caught up with them. It pulled in front of them and stopped; Tohru blinked at it for a moment and made to go around it, but Kyo recognized the plates and froze in his tracks. Tohru got a step or two ahead of him before she noticed his absence and examined the car more closely. Kyo was instinctively looking for escape routes before anyone got out. The sidewalk around them wasn't too crowded, and no one seemed to be paying them any attention. There was an alley just ahead of them, but he couldn't recall if it was a dead end or not. The passenger door was opening, and the chance to flee was almost gone. He grabbed Tohru's wrist to catch her attention and gave her a small shove. "Run." "Kyo-kun, what--" "Just run, dummy!" Wished, yet again, that he hadn't gotten into the habit of calling her that, although she never seemed to mind. Someone was getting out of the car. Someone--and then Kyo could see Akito's face clearly, could no longer tell himself he didn't know who it was. To knowingly run from the family Head was unthinkable. Akito stood smiling coldly at them, ignoring the few people around them. *He won't do anything to us in public. He won't,* Kyo chanted silently, trying not to look defiant. *Someone might recognize him, and he has to maintain the family reputation. He won't take us both back to the Main House. Tohru'll be fine.* "Hatori, wait in the car," Akito said softly, as he began to approach them. Every step precise, unhurried, and Kyo was as trapped by the icy gaze as if he'd been manacled. And Tohru hadn't run, was still standing close to him; he could smell the first trace of fear-sweat blooming on her skin and on his own. Akito stopped a few feet away from them, still smiling his pleasant, dangerous smile. "You had an interesting idea yesterday," he said to Kyo, ignoring Tohru. Kyo blinked in confusion; Akito sighed as if he were talking to a particularly dense child, and gestured languidly at Kyo's wrist. "I believe you offered to create a scene, didn't you? Show your disgusting body to outsiders? I have been merciful to you, and left you alone, but you seem to have gotten the idea that you have some control over yourself." The smile was gone. "You can have your scene, monster. I am going to get back into the car, and when I have done so, you are going to take your beads off and throw them far away. Then you may go retrieve them. _Do_ try not to traumatize any passersby, will you?" Kyo's skin was crawling with panic. "Akito, please--" "I have exhausted my store of kindness for the day. I have spoken." Akito turned on his heel and went back to the car without looking back at them. "AKITO!" The door closed. Kyo's fingers dropped to his wrist without his volition, fumbling under the beads. "Kyo-kun, don't--" Tohru's hands were closing over his, trying to stop him. Now people were starting to turn. He jerked away from her. "Don't make them stare, dummy," he hissed as his rebellious, shaking fingers got a grip on the bracelet. "Don't interfere. I'll just wind up hurting you if you get between me and his orders." The bracelet was off, clenched tightly in his hand as he drew back. Sweat was pouring off him, making it hard to hold onto, but he obediently flung the beads as hard as he could. As he did, the car started up and began to slowly pull away. ******** Fruits Basket is the creation of Takaya Natsuki, and is licensed in North America by FUNimation (anime) and Tokyopop (manga). Used without permission or the intention of making a profit. Please support the original work! "The Ceremony of Innocence" © 2004 by Ysabet MacFarlane . Edited by Alishya Lane. Comments and criticism welcomed at the above address. Full author's notes available at This story may be reproduced and archived so long as the original text is preserved and the author's name and contact information remain attached. Notifying the author of any such use is an appreciated courtesy. NO CHANGES OF ANY KIND ARE PERMITTED.