Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Everybody Wants Her ❯ Chapter Eight - Virgin Mary and the Throwaway King ( Chapter 8 )

As you may have noticed, these A/N's probably don't apply to the readers here. It's mostly aimed at the ff.net readers, some of whom review. So…yeah. ^^; Just skip over it. I'm leaving it in because it seems like part of the fic to me, though I know it really isn't.

 

A/N: You readers have been awfully naughty. Getting me all used to four or five reviews a chapter and then not giving me any, that's not nice. Every review for this chapter I had to ask for, and I'm not exactly thrilled by that. A big thank you goes out to those of you who did, and to Raikune who attempted it once and failed, but that's not her fault, it's the website's.

So I'm sorry to complain like this. It's just that I have a lot of other stuff to be doing, and it's somewhat hard to motivate myself if I don't get any feedback. My originals miss their mommy greatly. So that's why this is a little late. Sorry about that. Anyhow, please review this chapter if you're reading it! Thank you!

 

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Everybody Wants Her

Chapter Eight - Virgin Mary and the Throwaway King

 

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They sit in the living room, all awkwardness and crazy quiet. Tohru's blathering on about what there is to eat, her friends are stuffing their faces with whatever she offers. Anything's better than trying to talk to Akito, god they haven't the faintest idea what to say. And he's not doing much better, when he tries to talk he coughs and besides, it's not like he knows how to socialize.

So they're all just watching each other, eyes on whoever holds their interest best. This means Tohru-kun's looking at Akito, Uo and Hana have their sights locked on their Tohru-kun, and Akito, he's going from face to face and trying to figure out if these little twits are worth his Tohru's time. Uo-chan kicks her legs and checks her watch, gets vocal over the fact that she is bored.

“If you're so bored,” seethes Akito, grinding his teeth and Tohru tries to stop him, she fears for her friends but more for his teeth. The thought of him damaging anything in his already wretched form just makes her cringe. Akito shifts his eyes to her, gives her a look to shut her up and sit her down. “If you're so bored,” he repeats, “then get the hell out of my house.”

“This is your house?” Uotani asks, crossing her arms because she isn't buying it, Aki looks too young, too frail to be the venerable family head that Tohru spoke of. Certainly he doesn't look like a homeowner. Uo-chan pictured more of a Buddha-esque old man. “What are you, like twelve or something?”

“I'm twenty,” he snarls, digging claws into the fabric of his pants. “I don't look twelve and that should be obvious. That remark was rude and uncalled for and I think that you should leave.”

“Twenty,” says Uo, snorting loud and disgusting. She's pretty sure he's puffing up his age to feel important. She doesn't know that Akito feels ancient, closer to death every day because he shouldn't have survived this long. Most of the Masters just slipped away as kids, the best one stuck it out `til he was thirty-five. But the man was an exception, Akito hasn't got nearly all that time.

When he thinks of this he wants to hurt these girls, cut short the lengthy lives they're looking forward too. They have sixty years stretched out ahead, ages and ages to screw around with. Akito has what, two, three years? That's not much, that's fucking nothing and it's none of their faults but he hates them. They get to live, his family gets to live if they replace him and they'll be thrilled if they succeed. They'll do it, he's dispensable, a throwaway king.

No one will miss him at all…

“Akito,” says Tohru, sidling up and slipping her arms around his wire-thin waist. “Are you alright? You don't look very happy…did Uo-chan say something to upset you, because if she did then she's really sorry and I am too…” Tohru sounds terrible, flipping out with fear because a confrontation is the last thing in the world she's ever gonna want. She turns to her eye-rolling friend, says nice and sweet, “right Uo-chan?”

“Whatever,” she says, snarfing down another dried-up umeboshi. Bits stick in her teeth and she works them out, staring warily at Akito. “So Mr. Twenty-year-old house-possessor, you're what, the prince's cousin or something? You look enough like him to be his brother, but Tohru says his brother's more…well for lack of a better word, flaming.”

Hana butts in and says that of course that's not what Tohru said, Tohru wouldn't describe anyone that way. But the comment's pretty much ignored, Akito just responds to Uo and says he hasn't a clue who they mean by the prince.

“Jeez,” Uo says. “Are you living under a rock?” Tohru plays with Aki's fingers, tells him that some of the kids call Yuki that at school. Akito laughs, too hard to be normal and they lapse into silence again. It's awkward but they pass the time, staring at whatever until Akito hears a sound.

It's Hana, she's coughing too, just once or twice and really quiet but she's coughing. No one, no one does that without documented non-contagious explanations, not around Akito, no. His hands shoot straight to his face in self-protection, and he asks Hana stiffly just why the hell she's doing that. “Doing what?” she asks, tilting her head real slight to the side. “Is something wrong?”

“You were coughing,” he says, like the crime in this is so self-evident. His voice is strained, he's wound up and about to pounce, kill the girl if not for Tohru holding him. “Would you care to explain yourself?!”

Hana blinks, glances fast around the room. “Um, I was just coughing… I think I may getting a bit of a cold…is that a problem?” She's confused, she can see the fury flying through his veins. Concern she'd get, Hana's used to Tohru's overactive care taking. But this rage is just beyond her, Hana cannot understand.

And nothing's explained when Akito shoots up, stomps off to the nearest room with Tohru-kun in tow. It's quiet, calm so the two just sit there sedentary. The girls don't know what great insulation this place provides, that the walls are thick and they wouldn't necessarily hear what's there to worry them. If they heard a sound they'd barge right in there but they don't, they don't and Aki's screaming at her.

 

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“WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?” shrieks Akito, pinning Tohru to the wall. “Are you trying to kill me Tohru, is that what it is? I mean that makes sense, if you kill me you're free to be with your precious Kyo-kun! But he's gonna die if I fucking die so what are you gonna do then Tohru?!”

“A-akito…” she says, eyes bleeding tears and she doesn't know what to say. Akito looks crazed, deranged and he's got his nails on her arms, hooked in and raking down. Tohru can't tell what he means and that alone is killing her. She should know him, understand because she's buried under pounds and tons of love.

She tries to hold him. She tries to hold him but he spins himself away. “Don't touch me!” he says. “You could be infected too, don't fucking touch me!” Tohru reaches out for him again, her hugs have got to work and besides, he's just been scratching her. He can't care too much about lack of contact if her blood is in his hands.

“What's wrong?” she asks, Aki in her arms again and he's struggling, screaming as loud as his lethargic lungs will let him. He's sobbing, wracked with tears and he can't even breathe anymore. “Deep breaths,” she tells him. “Calm down and tell me what's wrong. No one's trying to kill you. No one wants to hurt you Akito…”

“T-then why…w-why did you bring her here?” Another sob shakes him and he's coughing too, his knees give out and Tohru goes down with him. They sit on the floor by the wall and the window, Tohru staring vaguely at the sky. “She, she's sick Tohru, she said she was and…”

“People get sick,” says Tohru-kun, pushing damp hair away from Aki's tear-soaked face. “Not just you, it happens. I bet even Hatori's been sick before. It's nothing to get upset about.”

“You're such a fucking hypocrite!” he says, rubbing harshly at the broken rib. “You freak out about this kind of thing too and now you're talking to me like I'm some insane little kid and I'm not Tohru, I have every goddamn right to feel this way! Use your brain if you fucking have one, if you think about it you'll see why!”

Now she knows the man's got crap for an immune system, she knows that he'll fall ill with little provocation. Tohru's just as good as he is at blowing things out of proportion, but she can't quite handle how he yelled at Hana. But she keeps quiet because Akito's still crying, yelling about how there are rules about this kind of thing, Tohru broke the rules by bringing Hana here. “No one's allowed here if they're sick except for me! I could die Tohru, my immune system's just one step up from an AIDS patient's!”

Tohru-kun's taken aback, she didn't know it was all that bad and she thinks that he's exaggerating. “Yuki's here though isn't he? Aren't you worried about that?”

“Don't be stupid,” he scoffs. “Asthma's not contagious.”

She flinches, Aki sounds so smug, so superior and she just can't stand it. Of course Akito knows these things, he lives in a universe of failing health and Tohru's only just landed there. It's not fair of him to expect her to know everything that he does. “What about Hatori?” she asks. “What happens if he gets sick?”

“He doesn't!” Aki shrieks, pausing to cough wetly into his shaking fist. “That would never happen, I wouldn't let it!” The thought just totally undoes him, if Hari's not perfect then Akito's dead, he's hasn't a chance if his doctor is gone. “I should get it over with,” he says, “just kill myself right here. I don't have too much time left anyway, and who knows how I'll go? It's not worth it, you left me alone and you're trying to kill me, I really should just die.”

None of that's the point of course. Though the Tohru thing just kills him, he's been wanting to die and just dreading it all his life. Everyday he wakes up knowing that this could be it, that his life is wasted and fragile and lost. Everything he does seems pointless, with death in his head he's just paralyzed. The best thing, he thinks, is to take control. The pain of death could be unbearable, much worse than anything that Hari's prepped him for.

He's scared. He's fucking scared and Tohru's trying to kill him. He loves her to death but she wants him dead, all he can do is hit her and hurt her `til she feels as horrible as he does. “Maybe we can die together,” he says, yanking at her hair and pulling hard. “If I beat you to death and down some pills, then we can die in each other's arms. It'd be really—”—he hits her, hits her hard and she starts to scream—“—romantic!”

And Aki's just smashing her head down, pounding her fast and hard and mean and she's pleading with him please don't do this. Tears streak her face and she says, “you must be tired. Beating me must…it must take a lot…out of you…”

That selflessness, that cavalier attitude towards herself, towards the person that Aki loves most in the world…god it's appalling. He's tired, yeah, but he's hitting her! This is domestic abuse, why the hell is she sitting here taking it, asking him if he's okay? That's so Sohma of her, so absolutely pitiful! This works him up and he keeps on mauling, throwing fists at every twitching bit of skin. He shrieks at her, she's a goddamn fucking murderer and she's to blame for all of this, for everything, just for bringing Hana here she's caused the Sohma curse. Akito can barely breathe for all his shouting; Tohru just looks up and asks for him to stop.

“Don't do this,” she says, “you'll regret it. You're gonna feel so bad when you're done. You love me, you don't want to hurt me and you know it.”

“Love has nothing to do with it Tohru, I loved Yuki-kun too and I destroyed him, I loved Hatori and I took his eye!” He coughs, slaps her face and she sucks in her teeth, she's shocked.

“W-why do you, why do you have to do this to me?” she asks, serious like she expects an answer, and Akito just laughs at her. She's on the floor, looking at him and her hair's spread out just like a doped-up angel's. “Why Akito…?”

Because you tried to kill me…because hurting you makes me feel alive, because I'm going to die and I am terrified. “Because I love you,” he chokes, like this means anything. “And you'll just forget me if I'm not sliced into your skin.”

She smiles, so stupid, and asks him why he thinks her memory's so bad. “I'm going to die,” he tells her, “probably soon, and I'm nothing special. Other gods have been far crueler, and I'm not the kind exception. I'm a jerk, I know it, and as soon as I die they'll replace me, they're not even going to care. I, I've totally wasted my life, and I'm going to be alone in the end because no one loves me. You don't, you don't Tohru…”

And then they're both crying, Tohru's bleeding from her arm and Akito thinks that this is what he's done to her. But that pin in her skin isn't Akito's, he'd never own anything pink that said flower power. And Aki's hands don't touch the pin, those are Tohru's fingers, Tohru's palm and Tohru's wrists, these awful marks are all on her. “Oh thanks,” he says, “thanks a lot. I just tell you how I want to leave my fucking mark and you make it for me. Thanks Tohru, that totally proves you love me…”

Tohru wipes the blood away.

“You're sliced into my skin,” she says. “My arm says Akito…”

Akito softens, just breaks down and pitches forward, landing hard at Tohru's feet. He crawls to her, takes her small face in his shaking hands. He kisses her and clings, wraps arms around the girl because she's his his his and she loves him. God she'd never maim herself if that weren't it. “Thank you,” he says, “thank you so much…”

Tohru ignores the pain, the burn to the beat of Aki's name. She pays it no mind and all she says is “you're welcome.”

 

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Akito doesn't get too terribly ill, so he's confused and can't quite look at Tohru-kun. It's embarrassing and he feels like he's a hypochondriac, an imbecile or someone faking it. But he does get sick, he has a cold but it's not so bad, not anything he's not used to. He can't really take that it's tolerable, Akito lies to Tohru-kun and plays like he's about to die. Guilts her, gets her absolutely frantic until Hatori tells her it's not actually that bad.

She doesn't confront him, doesn't want to get him flipping out and in another fight. She's still feeling the pain and she's bruised all over, Tohru-kun can't go to Kyo because he'd ask too many questions. In the end she's staying away from everybody, locking herself in random rooms. Tohru-kun's in mental hell, there's a little kid swimming around inside her and no one who could help her knows. She's praying for the proper father, telling herself it's Akito, but God good God it might not be.

And if it's not, he's really gonna kill himself. Every one of these beautiful people will die because of her. Worse, much worse, she won't have her Akito. He'll be hurt, destroyed and whether he passes on or not she'll lose him.

She'd rather lose her limbs then Akito. Trade `em all in but she's praying, begging her parents in the sky to please please make this baby turn out right. It doesn't give her that much confidence, and some days she can barely bring herself to move. She can't speak to Akito, can't speak to anyone because it's bound to come out, it's getting obvious as the months roll by. One day she's eating breakfast with him, shoveling way more rice then she ever would for just herself, and Akito looks straight at her stomach, gives a little cough and tells her, “Tohru-kun you're getting fat. You need to stop eating so much.”

No one's there to tell him off, smack his hand and say he's way too rude. Not that anybody would, but Tohru can always lie to herself, pretend her lover isn't God. “I'm sorry Akito,” she says, wishing she could roll her eyes. “I can't help it though, I'm hungry…does it really look that bad?”

“It's really just your stomach,” he says, shoving a big glob of rice grains into his mouth. He smiles as he chews, like haha I can get away with this. He swallows, the rice grossly visible in his thin little throat. “It's poofing out way more than it should…I dunno, that's not normal is it? I haven't really seen that many fat people but it doesn't seem normal…maybe you should get Hatori to check you out, hm?”

And he sounds so genuinely concerned, so cute and he's playing with his hair and kicking his feet and sniffling and he's just so there and alive and he trusts her loves her so much and God good God she can't keep lying to her GOD, “I'm pregnant!”

His hands fly down, his feet get calm and Akito pushes forward, stands up and stares his Tohru down. “What?” he says, eyes wide and wild and ready to pop. “What did you say?”

Tohru's eyes fall to the floor, she's mumbling and nervous and she wishes he'd never brought this up, never called her fat because he should know you just don't call a lady that. Still, it had to come out because in about six months a baby will, Akito's not dumb enough to miss the signs of labor. “I…I'm not fat I…I'm pregnant…”

He laughs, just throws his head back and laughs hysterically, coughs himself sick as he does. He grabs for his chest, falls apart in the chair because the broken rib just kills him, it hurts and he hates Kyo horribly. “Don't let me do that again…” he mutters, wrecked when he'd been fine just seconds ago. “I should prolly take some of those painkiller thingies…I dunno where Hari put them though. Whatever, anyway Tohru you can't be pregnant.” He laughs again, shoots himself full of pain and it shows. “T-that's…crazy…”

“Why not?” she asks, patting the sweet little monster inside her, her hands spread wide across her waist. “It's not like I'm a virgin Akito.”

“Right but you've only been with me,” he says, coughing again and freakin' pissed that the rib hasn't healed yet. It's been months and it should have, Aki just obsessed over this while he tries not to listen to Tohru. He knows what's coming next, knows that Tohru's gonna tell him how she cheated. So he shuts her out, tunnels his mind to his ribs and bypasses obvious solutions. He's slow to heal, his system sucks, but he can't admit this because it means taking his brain back to Tohru. And he'll just completely lose it if she says a word.

“Of course!” she claims, waving her arms like a frenzied bird. Akito chokes back a knot in his throat; she's so obvious it's killing him. “W-why would you, why would you even ask? I m-mean really Akito, don't you, don't you trust me?”

“Remember that whole schpeel about how I'm practically impotent?” he asks her, wondering if the girl has a brain in her head or any memory at all. Sometimes her stupidity just shocks him, he can't even believe that he's with this girl. She's not even smiling and he needs her for that, needs her to show off those pearly whites because he can pretend to be happy if she does. And she's not, she's not and he's got to change that.

All he knows how to do is yell though, demand that she fix her face in a frozen grin. She sags within seconds, nods bleakly that yeah, she remembers. “But I'm pregnant,” she tells him, leaning forward on her gut to protect the fetus, save it's life if Akito gets angry. “I took three tests and I've had morning sickness and everything tastes like metal and there's a baby in here, I can tell. I mean you said it was possible, right?”

“It's possible, but so is getting hit by a fucking meteor!” Akito snaps, bangs his fist on the table and gives out a little gasp of pain. Cradling his hand he keeps on talking, keeps belting out more of the same. He can't change his tack, can't suggest that she is pregnant and it isn't his, that his honeybee betrayed him.

“I'm sorry that you don't believe me,” she says to him softly, takes his hand, the hurt one, and plays with the translucent fingers. “I guess it won't be long before we find out if I'm wrong or not.”

Akito groans, he's about to throw his head on the table but he doesn't, he doesn't want another headache. He's been downing the Sertraline like it's water or something, and the side effects aren't exactly joyous fun. He can't sleep and he's shaky and scared, his stomach's just been killing him. So he just sits down, slumps over softly with his head in his hands. “You want my rice?” he asks. “If you've got a baby in there you probably need it.”

“Well no, you need to eat…” she says, then she shakes her head and shoves them back on topic. “Look Akito, let's just say I am pregnant, I am having your baby. Are you okay with this, I mean, would you want me to have an abortion? I was kind of thinking about it because I have to finish school, and if it were Uo-chan or somebody else that would probably be the best plan but it's me and I don't want to get rid of my baby…” She stops, takes a breath because she's just been babbling. She looks at him, strokes her Aki's hair and asks him what he wants.

“What a hypothetical question,” he snorts, loving the cold of her hand on his scalp. “If you really are pregnant, despite the fact that my sperm count must be in the negatives, and despite the fact that whatever I do have is probably so weak and wimpy that they'd just die the second they fell out of me, if it's still somehow my kid, I guess I'd want you to keep it. I mean you obviously want to—”—he pauses to cough—“—and anyway if you have my baby you'll have to tell her something about her dear old dad when he's dead, right? That way you can never totally forget me.”

“Oh Akito…” she sighs, kissing the top of his head really quick. “I'm not going to forget you, and you're not going to die, not yet anyway. You feel fine now, right?”

“In opposite land, I'm great,” he says, straightening up and staring at her. “Listen Tohru, if you are pregnant then you need to tell Hatori. Any offspring of mine is bound to be fucked up, so you need to get tests and take care of yourself.”

Tohru winces, says she's sure the baby's fine and they needn't bother Hatori. She's well aware that Aki's right, she's just iffy about the whole testing thing. She's not sure exactly what's revealed, and while she's telling herself the Daddy's Akito, she could be wrong and Hatori could rat her out. But of course she can't say any of this, so all she tells him is that the doctor's far too busy.

“Bullshit,” says Akito, rolling his eyes past crushing pain. Another migraine's starting up, he'll be back in bed in minutes. But he can still stay up and nag at Tohru, tell her she's basically bearing Jesus Christ. “If you don't talk to Hatori then I will, okay my little Virgin Mary?”

Tohru-kun thumbs through the little library in her mind, tries to remember who it is he's talking about. Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ…oh yeah, that's Christianity. She knows some kids who practice that. It's not exactly common here, though Akito spews references all the time. But Tohru forgets, and now she's laughing at her Akito. He sure can be obscure. “I read,” he says, by way of explanation. “All the time. I have nothing better to do.”

And she's about to be insulted, get all pouty because it sounds like he's saying she that doesn't. But he's grinning and she lets it go, clears away the plates while Akito strides quietly to bed.

 

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Nana: Well congratulations, you got past not only my review begging up top there, but also Chapter Eight of Everybody Wants Her! In 12 point font on my computer, this whole thing's 54 pages so far. So kudos all around.

I apologize for the religious references. I was a little iffy about using them, because of the story taking place in Japan and all, but I figure that Christianity is a pretty big name religion, and anyway it's just too perfect. Akito's God and Tohru may be carrying his baby. Not only that, but that's not even supposed to be possible, much like it's not supposed to be possible for a virgin to get pregnant. Anyway yeah. I like having Akito give Tohru nicknames anyway, it's cute.

So I hope you liked and that you'll review me and come back for Chapter Nine. In either that or the next one you'll find out who the daddy is! You know you want to know!