********
The Ceremony of Innocence
a Fruits Basket fanfic by Ysabet MacFarlane (ba087@chebucto.ns.ca)

Chapter Ten: Grace in Light [10/10]
********

Akito had been dead a week, the formal and exhausting funeral over for three
days, before the Jyuunishi felt secure enough to gather and discuss their
future.  There was no prior arrangement made, but as the day went on they
arrived at Shigure's house, avoiding the Main House as if Akito still ruled
there.  By evening, when Hatori called to ask if Shigure had seen the
'children', they were packed densely enough into the living room that Shigure
simply waved Momiji to the phone when it rang.

"We're all here except you, Ha'ri!  Are you coming over?"

"You and the other children?"

Momiji paused to do a headcount.  "All of the Jyuunishi are here except you and
Kureno."

Hatori sounded thoughtful.  "Maybe I'll go look for him and bring him over."

"Bring Kureno?"  Behind Momiji, the room fell abruptly silent.  "Ah . . . ok."

"We'll be over."  The phone went dead.  Momiji blinked at the receiver and hung
it up.  He turned back to the room and found his family staring at him.

"Kureno's coming over?"  Shigure ran a hand through his hair.  "All of us
together socially outside of New Year's?  Other than this week, we haven't all
been together since--well."  Several pairs of eyes flicked to Kyo and away
again.  "I wonder if it'll take Ha-san long to find him."

Rin looked up at him from where she was reclining against Haru.  Shigure smiled
inwardly at the slight challenge in her eyes, a look that Akito had failed to
beat out of her.  "There aren't many places for him to go," she pointed out.

Haru chuckled.  "Unless he's drunk with freedom and gone to some nasty part of
town."  Rin elbowed him in the thigh; he smirked and tightened his arms and legs
around her, pinning her close.  She sighed, not unhappily, and dropped her head
back onto his throat.

"Must you?" Hiro murmured, more from habit than real annoyance.

"Yup."  Haru flashed him a grin.

Kagura laughed at Hiro's expression.  "Just wait until they get back to doing
more than cuddling."

Rin sat up, startled.  "Excuse me?  How do you know if we are or not?"

"I-su-zu."  Kagura drew her name out slowly, delighted to have caught the other
girl off guard.  "I have ears.  And I sleep down the hall from you."

"But--"

"Anyway, Haru-chan's still mostly been touching you like he thinks you're going
to break."  She shrugged.  "Before, he only used to do that when you'd been sick
and hadn't been having sex for a while."

Rin was blushing violently.  "Before . . ?"

Kagura blinked at her.  "Did you think we didn't know?"  Rin's genuine
embarrassment finally seemed to register.  "Oh.  You did think that."  She
flushed slightly herself, glanced away to find the rest of their kin staring at
them.  "Sorry.  It just gets tiresome when the whole family forgets I have a
brain."

"Brain and mouth, flawlessly connected," Haru said mildly, running a finger down
the side of Rin's neck.  "The test can end now."

Rin started laughing helplessly as Kagura turned almost as red as she was.  When
she regained control of herself, she wiped her eyes and reached behind her to
lift a chain from around Haru's neck.  "That leads into our news, I guess.  Now
no one'll wonder why we're moving into our own place."  There was a set of keys
dangling from the chain, only visible now that it wasn't blending in among his
necklaces.

"Where is it?" Yuki asked.

"Not too far," Haru replied.  "Close to the edge of Sohma property."

"But not _on_ Sohma property?" Shigure said.

"Nope.  We're both old enough that our 'paying off the cursed relatives' funds
go into our own bank accounts, so we're renting a flat.  We figured we'd get out
while there was no one whose permission we had to have."

"It'll just be the way things are by the time the next Head is old enough to
care," Rin said evenly, her composure regained.

"And even if we get dragged back eventually, we're taking our freedom while we
can," Haru added, tightening his arms around her again almost fiercely.  "Let's
talk about something else now, shall we?"

There was a long silence while they tried to think of what else to discuss. 
Finally Tohru spoke up.  "I'm glad Kureno-san is coming over too."  She was
sitting between Yuki and Kyo, the three of them so close that they seemed to
share a single sphere of personal space.  Whatever arrangement they'd worked out
between them seemed to be working so far; they were the focus of several
speculative glances, but if anyone had asked them about it the reply had not
become common knowledge.  "Have any of you _ever_ spent much time around him?"

Shigure nodded.  "When we were kids we played together.  He's a year or two
younger than us, wouldn't you say, Aya?"

Ayame cocked his head in thought.  "I believe so.  I was about seven when I
recognized my genius for fashion, and Kureno served as a model for some of my
early work.  We worked together for a few years--"

"He was too small to run away," Shigure said cheerfully.

Ayame laughed.  "Such a joker, Gure-san."

"When Akito was very young, Kureno was told to look out for him," Shigure
continued.  "He was always around Akito when he wasn't in class, even before he
started spending all of his time with him."

"I remember that," Ritsu said quietly.  "Akito was only a few months older than
me."  His eyes were shadowed with memory.  "I lived at the hot spring with my
parents most of the time, but the family talks."

Tohru frowned as a thought struck her.  "If you'd been born first, would you
have been the Head of the family?"

Ritsu blanched.  "I--that would have been terrible!  I can imagine the awful
things that would have befallen the family if I--"

"You'd have been a different person if you were Head, Ri-chan," Shigure
interrupted.  "And no matter what you think of yourself, it's far better to be
the Monkey than the Head."

The door slid open abruptly.  "Anything is better than being the Head," a quiet
voice said.  Kureno and Hatori slid their shoes off and came in, the former
looking uneasily at their kin.

"You found him fast, Ha'ri!" Momiji said.

"He was at home."

"Welcome, both of you!" Shigure sang out.  His expressive face melted into a
pout.  "But, Ha-san, all these years and you haven't learned to knock yet?"

Hatori spared him a resigned glance.  "The last time I knocked on your door you
spent twenty minutes complaining that we were family, our homes were all one,
you'd be hurt if I expected you to knock on my door, you were hurt that I
thought I had to . . . does this sound familiar?"

The pout lingered.  "Your memory is so good, Ha-san!"

"Perhaps that's why I'm the doctor while you make a living making up stories,"
Hatori murmured as he found an empty space on the floor and folded himself down.

Shigure smiled.  "Perhaps.  Kureno, make yourself comfortable."

"Thank you."  Kureno glanced into the crowded room.  Kagura nudged Hiro to move
over, and they made space between them.  Kureno sat down, obviously uncertain. 
"This is rather strange for me."

Yuki caught his eye.  "It's not really usual for the rest of us, either. 
Everyone's been coming here on their own for a long time, but never all at
once."

Tohru waited until he looked comfortable, and then asked, "Kureno-san, why is
'anything better than being the Head'?"

Kureno blinked at her, and then sighed.  "Akito did many of the things he did
because he was the Head of the Sohmas.  Not only because he had the freedom and
the power to, but because that's the way the Head is.  He was born that way just
as we were born the way we are."

Momiji frowned.  "I thought it was just his personality."

"Well . . . his personality was partially formed by the curse," Shigure said. 
"The way the Head is treated by the family, with no control or punishment even
when the Head is a child, doesn't help.  There's no real way to discipline
someone you have to obey."  He shrugged.  "But the Head has no natural
inclination to treat us well.  What good is a curse if the people under it live
happily?"

"I always thought Akito was just a bad Head," Haru said.  "I figured things
would be better under the next one."

"They might be," Ayame said cheerfully.  "Akito was better than his
predecessor."

"What?"  Kyo spoke up for the first time, incredulous.  He was still edgy in
such a large group, no longer accustomed to having anyone around him.  "How
d'you figure that?  Between Hatori, Kisa, Isuzu--and that's just the people he
personally hospitalized!--he did so much, how can you . . ?"  He trailed off, at
a loss for words.

"Akito never killed any of us!" Kureno said.  He pressed his lips together as if
to hold more words inside, and turned to glare at Kyo reproachfully, avoiding
looking at Rin.  When he found his younger kin all staring at him in horror, he
jerked his head around to the older Jyuunishi.  "They don't know?"

Hatori, Ayame, and Shigure exchanged glances as everyone else sat frozen.  Tohru
looked from face to face in dismay, realizing that for once she wasn't the only
person ignorant of the situation.

"Kureno-san . . . "  She spoke when no one else did, and found her voice
shaking.  "What . . ?"

He shook his head without looking at her.  "I was too young to remember much."

Shigure grimaced and cleared his throat.  "What do you want us to tell you?"

Haru and Rin spoke simultaneously.  "We want you to tell us what you know!"  "No
offense, Shigure-sensei, but we want Tori-nii to tell us."

Shigure raised a brow at Haru, but nodded to Hatori.  The doctor sighed heavily
and ran a hand over his eyes.

"I can see from your faces that none of your parents told you either," he said. 
Heads nodded around the room.  "It wasn't a collective decision to keep you all
in the dark.  It's not really something anyone wants to tell children."

"Someone told _you_--" Kagura began, but Hiro cut her off.

"Of course someone did.  They would have known the person who died, if it was a
Jyuunishi."

"People," Ayame said softly.

Hatori nodded.  "Yes.  _People_ who died.  That Head killed all of the Jyuunishi
except the four of us and the Cat."

"So what you're saying," Yuki said, after a long moment, "What you're telling us
is that eight members of the family were killed and yet there were so few clues
in what anyone said or did that none of us even guessed that something had
happened?"

"No family keeps secrets like the Sohmas," Shigure replied wryly.  "And there
_was_ a clue.  A rather big one, in fact."

"And that was what?" Hiro asked.

"How many Sohmas are there?  I don't know for sure, myself, but there are fifty
or so in the Main House.  Plus us.  And then the hundred or two hundred
relatives in the area around the compound.  We're a huge family."

"And what?" Kyo asked, his voice edged with anger.

"And for such a huge family, it's . . . odd . . . that in a ten year span only
ten children were born," Hatori said.  "None of you have relatives of your own
age except each other.  We do.  Shigure, Ayame, Kureno and I grew up with other
relations, some of whom knew the Jyuunishi secret.  And there are now plenty of
children younger than Hiro.  He and Momiji both have younger siblings.  Even
among the Sohmas who aren't frightened of the Jyuunishi, the idea of having
cursed children was less popular than it had ever been before, after what
happened."

"So no one wanted to have children until all of the animal spirits were
accounted for again?" Kisa asked.

"Well, you're all here.  Some people thought they could handle it, and some of
them actually could.  Hatsuharu's parents were like that.  Others who thought
they could cope couldn't, like Yuki and Ayame's parents.  They thought that
since they'd already had one cursed child they could handle it again.

"In the midst of this confusion, the Cat passed away in his sleep, adding that
uncertainty to the mix--"

"Wait," Yuki interrupted.  "Wait.  You're saying my parents _wanted_ me?"

Hatori looked at Ayame, who swallowed hard before answering.  "Our parents
wanted another child.  As I'm sure you realize, I'm inexplicably not up to our
mother's standards."  Yuki stared at his brother, unable to keep his tangled
emotions off his face.

"They _knew_ I'd be cursed?  And they wanted me?  They--but they--"

"As Tori-san said, they thought they could handle it."  Ayame's expression was
unusually grave.

"They had me on purpose, and when they couldn't 'handle it' they let Akito have
me even _knowing_ what he might be like?"  Yuki's voice choked off.

Silence stretched out tangibly between the brothers as they stared at each
other, Yuki's anguish too raw for even Ayame to avoid with bravado.  Finally he
shook his head helplessly.  "How do you want me to answer that?"

Yuki took a deep breath.  "You just did.  So . . . " he turned away and looked
at Hatori, trying to hide his pained confusion.  "So . . . what _did_ happen? 
What did the Head do?"

"We weren't there, so we can't tell you for sure," Hatori said.  "The three of
us were away from the house, playing.  We were seven, I think.  What we were
eventually told was that the Head took the other Jyuunishi aside and ordered
them to kill themselves.  That's certainly what it looked like to my father, who
was one of the people who found their bodies.

"Until now, as I've implied, the Jyuunishi have always been spread more evenly
through the family's generations.  The Sohmas are usually quite prolific.  At
that time, the Horse was about ten, while the Tiger was almost eighty."

"The three of us were already a fluke," Shigure chimed in.  "The older members
of the family were all debating whether it would be better or worse for us to
have cursed relatives so close in age.  What they must make of the lot of you .
. . "  He shook his head, bemused.

"Kureno-san, how did you survive, then?" Tohru asked, her eyes troubled as she
gazed at him.

"What I remember is that when the Head ordered me to come with him, my mother
wouldn't let me.  She locked us in our rooms for hours.  My only clear memory is
of crying to go with him."  A small, grim smile touched his lips.  "The
obedience compulsion is quite strong.  At any rate, it was almost all over when
we came out."

"Almost?"

"The Head was back in his own rooms by then.  The other Jyuunishi were all
presumed dead, since no one located these three for another few hours."  His
voice was barely audible.  "He said no one was to disturb him, and it was almost
a day before anyone disobeyed, even though the bodies had been found.  When
someone finally went in, he'd left extensive written instructions for running
the family.  They specified that I was to attend his successor personally.  He
had killed himself.

"Akito was born within a year.  And then the rest of you, before most of the
family was willing to have children again.  The stigma was powerful."

Momiji was chewing on his lip.  "But most of the family doesn't know about the
curse."

"Rumors get around," Hatori replied.  "Most Sohmas are understandably
superstitious, and hints were enough to deter most of them.  Of all of you, only
Kisa's parents, Kagura's parents, and your mother hadn't known about the curse
before you were conceived."

Momiji sighed.  "It would have easier if Papa had told Mutti about it."

"He told me later that he'd hoped the curse wouldn't pass to someone who wasn't
pure Japanese," Hatori said.  "He was young and in love, and your mother wanted
a child very much.  I believe he was the first member of our family to marry a
foreigner, so he had reason to hope."

"It's ironic," Shigure put in.  "He was permitted to study abroad _because_ he
knew about the curse, and it was assumed he'd have the sense not to go spreading
Sohma blood around."

"You make it sound like we're diseased," Kisa said softly.

"Aren't we, Sa-chan?"  He smiled at the room.  "Ha-san wrote about the curse
once when he was in medical school--not for the general public, of course, but
he was at that age when one tries to understand everything--"

"Shigure--" Hatori said warningly.

"No, Ha-san, speaking as a writer, it was an interesting piece of work."  His
eyes narrowed in concentration.  "Let me see.  'The case of the Sohma family
appears to be unique, although traditional resistance to exposure and subsequent
study makes it difficult to establish with precision the full range of problems
which manifest as a result of the family's predisposition.

"'In brief, however, the entire family carries the malignant strain of what they
call the 'curse', a defect probably impossible to isolate by scientific methods.
 This 'curse' can manifest in anyone who possesses Sohma blood, however far
removed the individual may be from the primary branch of the family.  The
dominant symptoms of those afflicted are not the purpose of this paper; however,
the secondary symptoms are of interest.  The Sohma clan, which is extensive,
shows few physical signs of their longstanding tradition of inbreeding, although
it should be noted here that said inbreeding is rarely between individuals who
are directly related--first cousins, aunts, uncles, et cetera.'"

"Shigure," Hatori repeated.  "This is not the time."

"I'll jump to the best part, then," Shigure said.  "'It is not uncommon for
members of the family to manifest serious mental and emotional dysfunctions,
ranging from an inability to properly channel negative emotions to possible
cases of borderline personality disorders, sociopathic behavior, global aphasia
or elective mutism, and in extreme cases full-blown psychosis.  Physical and
other forms of abuse are extremely common, both instigated by and directed at
family members who fall prey to the primary symptoms of the 'curse'.  Whether
these instabilities are due to inborn defects or to the environmental pressures
of belonging to this family is unclear, although a combination of factors is
probable'."  He stopped speaking and slowly scanned the room.  "Did I remember
it well, Ha-san?"

"Well enough," Hatori said quietly, also examining the other Jyuunishi's faces. 
He had written the paper Shigure quoted years before, and even at the time had
had some misgivings about showing it to his friends before he filed it away.

"Have you changed your conclusions?" Shigure demanded.

Hatori grimaced and closed his eyes.  "No."

"I'd say we're somewhat worse than diseased, Sa-chan," Shigure said blandly.

"You didn't tell us anything we didn't already know, Shigure," Yuki interrupted.
 "It just sounds more impressive like that."

"More impressive than what?" Kagura asked.

Haru laughed.  "It sounds better than 'Shit, can we _get_ any more fucked up?',
Kagura-nee.  How many calls came home from our schools over the years,
recommending therapy for most of us?  I got at _least_ one every year--I think
my record is seventeen 'your son needs serious help' calls the year I was
eleven.  Rin had at least one teacher try to pull an intervention when she was
still living with her parents and refusing to let the nurse give her a standard
physical exam because they'd cracked half of her ribs and left her covered in
bruises."  Rin turned in his arms and pressed her forehead against his shoulder;
he touched her hair lightly and bent to murmur something too softly for anyone
else to hear.  "We're not the only ones," he said after a moment.  "The family
kept anyone from interfering, and not always because they didn't care.  We
_can't_ tell the truth.  We're all the support we've got."

"All right," Yuki said.  "What are we going to do?"

"Do?" Ayame repeated.

"Hatori, are any of the women in the family pregnant?" Yuki asked.

"A few," Hatori replied.  "However, as far as I'm aware the curse won't fall on
a child already conceived, so--"

"So we have almost ten months, at the very least.  All right," he repeated. 
"Hatori, Shigure, Ayame, Kureno: what _can_ we do?  How much influence can we
have on the next Head?"

"Be kind," Ritsu whispered. "They were all good to Akito when he was a child,
and he didn't hurt them except when he attacked Hatori-niisan."

"That's a pretty big 'except'," Kyo muttered.

"The Head needs the Jyuunishi as close as possible," Kureno said.  "What he did
to Hatori is the only thing I ever saw him regret."

"He was afraid I would leave him," Hatori said simply.

"And so you forgave him?" Hiro demanded.

"Part of me did," the doctor replied.  "Better to say that I understood.  And
yes, I believe he did regret it."

"This is pointless," Shigure said briskly.  "The Head is God.  We can't change
that."

Hatori shook his head.  "Hatsuharu and Isuzu have a point, though.  Some things
can be changed before the Head is old enough to pay attention to them. 
Although," he looked at the pair, "I _strongly_ suggest that you two try to be
kind, as Ritsu said.  Don't let the Head think you don't care."  They nodded
slowly, Rin still not looking at anyone.  "In the meantime, then, what do you
_want_ to change?"

Several heads turned to look at Kyo.  "No more sealing the Cat," Yuki said
calmly.  A smile played across his lips.  "And Haru and Rin should get married
while they can."  Rin's head snapped around, and Yuki had the rare pleasure of
seeing Haru nonplussed.  "You're living together anyway, and, Rin, Haru's been
wanting to marry you practically his whole life."  His voice softened as he
spoke, seeing the doubt on her face as she craned her neck around to look up at
Haru.

"We'll be right back," Haru said abruptly, somehow getting to his feet without
letting go of her.  They wended their way through the crowded room to the door
and left without saying anything else.  After a moment, the other Jyuunishi
grinned at each other.

"Nicely done, Yuki-kun," Shigure said.

"A compliment from the master manipulator," Hatori murmured.  "Watch yourself,
Yuki."  He leaned back thoughtfully.  "Is there anything else in particular?"

"I'd be happy if I never had to visit anyone in the hospital again," Kisa said
quietly.

"Mm."  Hiro nodded.  "Yeah, I'd like to get through life without being maimed or
something.  Is that particular enough?"

"I like the sound of that," Kagura agreed.

When no one else spoke up, Hatori stood.  "Maybe it will even work out that
way."  He caught the faint dubious flicker that crossed Shigure's face.  "We
can't be certain.  I'm sure it occurred to earlier generations that being nice
to the Head would be a good idea.  However--" he raised a hand to stop Shigure's
protest.  "Regardless of how it happened, this group is unusual.  The Jyuunishi
have not traditionally been very close to each other, or willing to work
together.  They were too varied in age, and often unable to get past the
patterns the curse imprints on us."  He looked slowly from face to face before
addressing Shigure directly.  "The Cat is free, Shigure.  None of us recoils
when he comes near.  He and the Rat have lived together and survived."  He
walked over to his old friend and gripped his shoulder.  "More things may be
possible than we'd imagined."

The sound of the door sliding open made him turn, as Rin and Haru came back in,
both looking slightly dazed.  They reclaimed their place against the wall while
their family watched them expectantly; it seemed to take them a minute to
realize they were the focus of everyone's attention.  Finally Yuki caught Haru's
eye and tilted his head questioningly.  Haru glanced away, paused to kiss the
top of Rin's head before looking back.

"Good idea, Yuki," was all he said, but his eyes were shining.

Any serious conversation after that would have been anticlimactic.  Kisa
responded for most of the other Jyuunishi by squealing in delight and climbing
over two or three pairs of legs to throw her arms around them.  Rin blinked in
surprise, but Haru freed up an arm and hugged the tiger in thanks.  Kisa sat
back on her heels, perfectly balanced, and gave them one of the rare full smiles
that changed her features from pretty to stunning.  "Congratulations."  Other
voices echoed her from around the room.

The group discussion disintegrated from there into smaller conversations between
two or three people, creating a comfortable hum of sound.  Even Kureno was
talking quietly to Hiro and Ritsu, looking vaguely stunned.  Only Shigure stood
apart, his eyes shadowed as he watched the other Jyuunishi.  Their eyes flicked
to him, but for once he made no effort to seem approachable, and they looked
away again, unsure what to make of his mood.  Hatori raised an eyebrow at him,
and Shigure shook his head slightly in response.

After several minutes, Rin rolled to her feet with a parting caress along Haru's
arm, and came to stand beside him.  Her dark eyes were as unreadable as his as
she examined him.  "What's up?" she murmured.

"Congratulations," he replied.

She mimicked Hatori's inquisitive gesture.  "Thank you.  Don't ignore the
question."

"What's with this distrust, Rin-chan?" he asked, lightening his tone.

She sighed and gripped his elbow.  "Let's go outside, Gure-nii."  He shrugged
but let her tug him out into the hallway, and then onto the porch.  "It's not
like you to be like this," she said flatly.

"How should I be?"

"Acting cheerful and careless, like you usually do."

"A man can have different moods."

Rin grimaced.  "And what?  You've talked seriously to me before, but I've never
seen you like this in public."

"The family is hardly 'public', I wouldn't think."

"_Shigure_!"  She glared at him, then threw her head back impatiently.  "There,
you've gotten a reaction.  So what is it?  Do you think everything we've said is
pointless?  Or are you annoyed because it's not what you would do?  Are you not
happy having Kyo back in your home?  _What?_"

He finally met her eyes squarely.  "I'm glad to have Kyo-kun back, even if it
does mean my home is being flooded with weird emotional tensions.  Is that
enough of an honest answer for you?"

"Better than I was expecting, I guess."  She folded her arms over her breasts,
slightly uncomfortable under his gaze.  "What's going on with the three of them,
anyway?"

"That's something you should ask them," he replied.

"Since when do you not mind other people's business?"

He laughed, and it sounded sincere.  "It's not that.  I mean I don't know.  Do I
look like I'm going to go ask Tohru-kun who she's sleeping with?"

"Hmm."  Rin sighed and leaned against the wall.  "Does she still think you're a
happy-go-lucky nice guy?"

"I can't imagine why she wouldn't," he said mildly.  "I don't take advantage of
young girls.  As you know."

She stared at him, wide-eyed, and then dropped her gaze.  "Thank you."  She
pushed away from the wall and straightened up.  "I'm going to see if Haru wants
to get going.  We both have to start packing."  After a moment's hesitation, she
added, "Take care, Gure-nii."

"Call when you two are ready to move your things," he replied.  "Yuki-kun and
Kyo-kun still have young bones, unlike me."

"Sure," she said.  "I'll tell them you volunteered their services."  She slid
the door open and went inside.  It was a long time before Shigure followed.

********

Fond as the Jyuunishi had become of overnight visits, they had sense enough not
to impose on Shigure's floor space as a group.  They drifted away in ones and
twos, leaving Tohru only herself and the three men to put together a late supper
for.  Shigure was distracted through the meal, watching the others unobtrusively
as he tried to puzzle out the dynamic between them.

In many ways it was as if Kyo had never left; Shigure had no doubt that the cat
still had to work through the nightmare of his solitary confinement, but he fit
back into the household easily.  He and Yuki were both affectionate with Tohru,
but their relationship with each other was murkier than it had ever been. 
Shigure caught him casting occasional nervous glances at Yuki, and the two of
them had fallen back into their pattern of bickering; yet, with no discussion
that Shigure was aware of, Kyo had wound up sleeping with both Yuki and Tohru in
the bed the other two had been sharing for almost two years.

Shigure laughed to himself as even his mind refused to walk down the path of the
suggestive implications that came out of that sleeping arrangement.  No matter
how well Yuki and Kyo might ever get along, the idea of them both being present
for any kind of sexual conduct was implausible.  The fact that they were able to
even sleep near each other was impressive on its own; he did wonder what kind of
relationship Tohru would settle into with them, but her happiness at simply
having them both near her again made his heart ache.

*They have lived together and survived,* he repeated Hatori's words to himself
as he watched them.  Cleanup over, none of the three seemed inclined to actually
go to bed, but they all looked tired.  Tohru sat down with a stifled yawn, and
Yuki and Kyo settled around her, resting their heads on her lap and shoulder. 
"Our family is surviving," he said under his breath.  Tohru didn't hear him, but
two pairs of eyes, inhumanly bright in the dimness, flickered to him
questioningly.

"Did you say something, Shigure?" Yuki asked.  Shigure grinned inwardly at the
faint challenge in his tone.  His cousins had almost taken their distrust of
each other and combined in into a wall directed at him, a wall that had 'are you
going to make something of it?' written all over it.  He allowed himself a small
smile as he shook his head.

"No, Yuki-kun.  I'm just thinking of heading off to bed.  Thank you for supper,
Tohru-kun."

"You're welcome," she replied sleepily.

"Good night, then," he said, leaving the room.  He took one last look over his
shoulder as he went; walking away, he felt the first stirring of hope he'd had
in a long time.

********

Tohru and Kyo both dozed off after only a few minutes; Yuki rested carefully
against Tohru, still wide awake.  After a while, Kyo twitched violently.  Tohru
stirred in response, but Yuki reached over and shook his cousin's shoulder
lightly.  "Kyo?"

"Hmm?"  The cat's response was heavy with sleep, but tinged with wariness.

"Bad dream?"

A moment of silence.  "Yeah."

"It's ok," Yuki said quietly, remembering the nightmares that still wracked him
as well.  "You're home."

"Mm," Kyo mumbled, already falling back into sleep.

Yuki closed his eyes and listened to the steady breathing surrounding him.

*We're home.*


Fin.

********

Final notes before the actual credits:

"Innocence" deviates from canon in plenty of ways, but virtually everything in
this chapter is my own invention: the story of the previous god, Yuki and
Ayame's parents . . . Kureno isn't really anything at all like I've presented
him . . . it goes on and on.  The novel was in its final editing stages when
many recent revelations appeared in the manga, such as the details of Yuki's
childhood, the differences between Kureno and the other Jyuunishi, and the
complexities of Akito's relationships with Shigure and Kureno (not to mention
Akito's 'true nature').  So none of these things were taken into account at all.
 For a (theoretically) complete list of deviations (and epigraph/title credits,
and thought processes, and musical influences, and whatever else I was thinking
about at the time), please refer to the Author's Notes on my website (see
below).

I mention this so specifically because I've had the (flattering but
disconcerting) experience of discovering that some things I've written, either
in fanfiction or as theories on my information pages for Haru and Rin, have been
mistaken for canon by some readers.  The implied compliment is appreciated, but
Takaya-sensei's work is complex enough without having misleading ideas about it
thrown in.

Thanks go out once again to my editor, Alishya, and also to Ginny and Chris for
their additional detail-checking and beta-reading.  Their help was invaluable. 
While I'm at it, thanks to the people on my LiveJournal Friends list who read
(or at least didn't complain about) my worries about this project.  ^_^

And of course, thank you to the readers, and to everyone who's sent feedback of
any kind.

********

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 (ba087@chebucto.ns.ca).
Edited by Alishya Lane.

Comments and criticism welcomed at the above address.

Full author's notes available at (http://bounce.to/ysabet)

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.