Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Beginnings ❯ Epilogue ( Epilogue )

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60; Beg innings

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60; carpetfibers

Epilogue

60; He had made dinner again. The two boys upstairs did little except commute to the local university, study, and eat. He rarely saw them of late. There were no arguments, not to mention little talking. Just the daily monotony. And to be completely honest, he was bored beyond words. Since that day, three months ago, when Tohru had fainted beneath the flash of Hatori's hand, life had become something both aged and dead. Even after Akito had given Yuki a key to the main house and kicked Kyou out from the 'cage,' life had continued to be flat.

60; And he entirely blamed Yuki and Kyou for it. Shigure held no pretenses for some continued relationship between the three of them. Yuki would not forgive him for ever having brought Tohru to Akito, and Kyou, well, it appeared as if the boy had lost all that spark that had so led his life. He moved as one who feared his shadow. He acted much like he had never left the cage, speaking only rarely. Kagura had come weekly, sometimes cooking a meal before she left, surprisingly self controlled in her dealings with the red haired man.

60; Ah yes. They were men now, these two cousins of his. It had happened during their absence from the house. It had happened when both realized their first love, and it had happened after they felt their first real heart ache. The one constant was a missing fixture. The missing fixture being Tohru.

60; His little flower, as he joking called her. He did miss her as well, but he had seen the resolve in her brown eyes when Hatori had placed that cursed hand over them. He had known that even if he hadn't brought her to Akito that morning or if he had shipped her far away, the same end would have come. He understood this completely. It hadn't fit in with his plans, but...

c'est la vie! Any writer understood that.

60; What he couldn't understand really was what those two cousins of his were still doing here. Why hadn't they left in a search for her? Why were they spending their hours brooding up in lonely rooms and shoving tasteless food into their mouths? Where was the need for quest and answers and all that romantic nonsense he wrote about in half his books?

60; Honestly, they didn't really believe Tohru, did they?

60; But Shigure was afraid they had. They had been too quick to think themselves at fault. He could easily imagine Yuki blaming himself, whispering in the back of his mind that maybe if he hadn't pressed quite so hard, maybe if he had done this or done that- maybe! And Kyou, well that was an easy one to suppose. Kyou had probably put Tohru into his mother run. He was probably thanking the gods that Tohru hadn't whipped out the old razor like his mother had to escape him. And he was probably hating himself for every second he spent wishing he could see her again.

60; Obviously, these boys were in need of a wake up call. And he was just he novelist to give it to them!

60; Yuki was the first to arrive for dinner, rather promptly at six o'clock. He knelt at the table, not bothering to even say a blessing, and began sipping at the broth. Kyou showed up a few minutes later, his wild hair tucked back under a cap. He mirrored Yuki's actions, barely tasting the soup. Shigure cleared his throat to get their attention.

60; "I finished a new book, today," he announced.

60; Neither looked up, although Yuki nodded, slightly. Shigure continued.

60; "It's a children's book. Mit-chan was very surprised."

60; That caused a bit of a reaction. Kyou actually choked and his coughing held up Shigure from finishing.

60; "A children's book?" Kyou spat out incredulously.

60; "I don't want to hear it," Yuki said dryly. "It's bound to be disgusting."

60; "No, no! It's a fairy tale. And I'm quite proud of it. Would you like to hear the story? Of course you would." Shigure folded his hands, ignoring the fact that both of his cousins were ignoring him. "It's about an ordinary girl who wakes up to find herself a princess in a dark and dry land. Everything's dying in the place where she wakes, the plants, the animals, and even the people. It seems that everything is held captive."

60; Kyou dropped his spoon in the now empty bowl, but he made no attempt to leave. "The girl decides then to save the land and heads out on a quest. Along the way, she makes some dear friends and even falls in love with two very different boys."

60; Yuki pushed his bowl aside entirely, his grey eyes intent on Shigure's words. The amusement in his voice was dropped as he continued.

60; "Finally, she learns what it is that's destroying the land. It's an evil sorcerer hidden deep in the mountains. But it's very dangerous to go there, so she leaves behind her friends and those she's come to love and goes alone. There the sorcerer tells her how to save the land, how to save her friends."

60; Shigure lowered his eyes, breaking off from the story. "Do you want to know what the sorcerer told her? Do you, Yuki? Kyou?"

60; He needn't to have asked the question. Both nodded, and so he went on, his voice too calm, too still.

60; "He wraps his hands around her throat and whispers into her ears that she must leave them all. She must leave their world and her friends and land. And only then, only after she leaves will the land be freed, will her friends be freed, will the ones she loves be freed. But he adds to that. She must make them believe that she wants to leave. And she agrees."

60; "Shigure-" Yuki started, but Shigure cut him off. "No, Yuki! I'm not finished. There's more."

60; "So the girl descends from the mountains and finds her friends and the ones she loves. She steadies her heart and eyes and smiles as she tell them that she wants to leave. That she no longer wishes to know them. And while her heart breaks, she smiles and opens a door back into her world, stepping through it and shutting them out."

60; Shigure sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Everything after that is all rather anti- climactic. The land is restored, and the people freed. The ones she had loved and her friends all think that she deserted them, and in her world, she wakes remembering nothing except some vague dream and her own tears. But I'm thinking I should write a sequel. What do you think?"

60; Kyou answered first. "I think you should write it. I think the ones she had loved, the ones who thought she had left them should go and find her and make her remember again."

60; "Do you?" Shigure asked carelessly, as if the thought hadn't occurred to him. "That might work..."

60; "It's the only way for it to work," Kyou said firmly, rising from the table. He moved towards the stairs, leaving behind his plate.

60; Yuki rose as well. "I'm going to go help Kyou pack," he said simply. At the stair he turned around, his eyes determined and alive. "Thank you, Shigure." Then he followed the stairs up to his room and a waiting suitcase.

60; Shigure stared at the now emptied table, his heart full. "Maa...leaving me with all the dishes. What will this old man do?"

60; And he laughed.

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60; * ; � 160; ; * & #160;  0; & #160; *

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60; T H E E N D

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60; Beginnings; a story by carpetfibers

Special thanks goes out to all those who have reviewed:

60; I owe you all a huge amount of the credit. This story took up a good deal of my time to write, but it was all given freely because I've found that I love it. I would never have come to this point without your encouragement, though, and because of that I can't begin to thank you all enough. So please, take these words of gratitude at their full value. I truly mean them. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

And in the works comes the sequel to this work:

 0; & #160;  0; & #160; Resolutions