Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Everybody Wants Her ❯ Chapter Nine - Wouldn’t Life Be Easier If We All Had Reindeer’s Syndrome? ( Chapter 9 )

A/N: There's nothing I like more than a good review, and you guys actually provided this time! I feel so loved. Hopefully I'll get enough reviews this time that I won't have to explode the ears of those around me with complaining about how much I want them Hehe.

Now in this chapter, Kyo-kun finally gets some face-time. I bet all you kitty boy fans are pretty happy, huh? He's probably just sitting in his cage some more, but who knows? Maybe he's gotten a sidekick named Beegly-Boog, and they're plotting world domination right now…hmm… (Because, having written the chapter, I totally don't know what's going to happen.)

Anyway, have fun reading and leave me a nice crunchy review when you're done!

 

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Everybody Wants Her

Chapter Nine - Wouldn't Life Be Easier If We All Had Reindeer's Syndrome?

 

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Dr. Sohma's doing paperwork when Tohru-kun walks in, berating a teenage girl for typing out Akito's medical record all wrong. “Midori, look at this. You put Reindeer's syndrome in this space here, Reindeer's. That isn't anything, and it's very difficult for me to tell if you mean Meniere's syndrome or Reye's syndrome or something else all together.” He sighs, scribbles something down and the poor girl stares down at her mammoth platform boots, mumbles something about being really sorry.

“You'd better be Midori, mistakes can be fatal in the medical profession. If you're going to be this careless then maybe you ought to rethink your career choice. Medical school may not be worth your time.” She's close to tears and Tohru's just aching to hold her, make things better for this little girl she's never met. But that's not why she's here, and she finds it kind of funny how she's about to admit to future parenthood, and here she is restraining maternal urges.

“Hatori?” she says, and he whips around, eyes absolutely bloodshot.

“Tohru-kun?” he asks, standing up fast from his stark-white desk. “What's going on, what are you doing here? Is something wrong with Akito?”

She shakes her head, says no and smiles at Midori. She's trying to braid her hair and failing, Tohru-kun can't help but saunter over and help out. “Don't worry Hatori,” she says, Midori's black hair weaving in and out of her fingers. It doesn't even occur to her that she might be weirded out. “Akito's fine, I'm actually here for me…well sort of. I'm…well how do I put this…I'm um…expecting?”

“Expecting?” he asks, fixing his eyes straight on hers. He knows what she means but asks her anyway, says “expecting what?”

Of course she blushes, of course she's heavily humiliated. Tohru's no good at explanations, and anything that's the slightest bit embarrassing just kills her. And this Midori girl is staring at her grinning, thinking Tohru-kun's a whore. “A baby,” she says softly, moving far away from Midori. “Akito's baby…”

“You'll excuse us Midori,” Hatori says, nodding slightly in the girl's direction. He slips several sheets of paper into her long-fingered hands, sends her out to pick up another batch of prescriptions. There's tons and she's just praying that all of them aren't for Akito. She's never seen him take his daily slew, he tends to swallow them when she's with Kyo or when she's sleeping. It's scary though, she can't believe her Aki's really all that sick.

Midori flounces out, her headphones already blaring the first few bars of some spooky techno song. Tohru's wishing that Hari kept a radio on, that there was something to listen to other than his strangely placid breath. She's used to air dragged in, ragged and harsh and hurting. She takes a good gulp of air on her own, realizes that she sounds just as normal as Hari does.

She's healthy, she's different from her Akito. Make me sick, she wants to say, turn me into your holy being. But that's ridiculous, she's got a kid to keep in mind and besides, she really doesn't want to be like her pill-popping beloved one. Hari's staring her down and she's steeped in self-consciousness, biting her lip and pulling her shoulders in a lame façade of fetal position. She wonders if she would have told her mother, if she'd be seeing insurance-supplied physicians with Kyoko at her side. Mother wouldn't even be able to believe that this was Tohru-kun, she'd never have envisioned this fate for her little girl. And she's pretty much doing what her mom did, getting knocked up way too soon. Likely, the child would suffer a dying father, a dead one just like Tohru did. She's a be a single mom working herself silly, repeating all the bad parts because she's such a little slut. Maybe she should get an abortion, end this little issue before it gets too out of hand.

“Tohru-kun?” says Hatori, bidding her to sit straight down. “I don't mean to…insinuate anything, but…are you sure that Akito's the father? Not to say that you've been unfaithful but…I am his doctor and it seems highly unlikely that he's…healthy enough to procreate…”

Tohru laughs, tries to cover up the fact that Hari's right. Hard as she tries to stay in denial, there's a good chance this kid is really Kyo-kun's. It would hurt Aki too much to even bring up the possibility, so she just tells the doctor that she sees no other option. “Unless there's some way to get pregnant that I don't know about, then yeah, it's Akito's.” Then she giggles, can't resist. “Unless I'm the Virgin Mary or something.”

Hatori ignores her, says that he's amazed, shocked and not exactly all that thrilled about it. “If I were you I'd seriously consider an abortion. The chance that the offspring of a family head will turn out normal is almost nonexistent. Deformities and serious illnesses are things that you'll have to plan for and expect. The child may be mentally ill as well, perhaps impossible to deal with as he or she grows older. And Akito will probably be of very little help when it comes to dealing with these issues.”

Tohru tries to shove this little speech away, make everything Hari said untrue. “No,” she says, “no Akito would help me. I mean this baby is his, he'd have to love it right? And he'd know what it's like to be um…not well.”

Hari sighs, pats her hand because she's just so frustratingly naïve. “It's not that he wouldn't want to help you out Tohru, flawed as he is he's not horrible. It's just that, more likely than not, he simply won't be able to. He has a personality disorder, he's borderline, and besides that he's physically ill. He won't have the strength to get up in the middle of the night and deal with a baby, he won't have the patience or mental stamina to actually raise it. And honestly, he won't be around much longer. He's got a good few years left but…not enough time to raise a child.”

It brings them both down when he spews all that, every bit of good in this is gone from Tohru now. She's clutching at what's left of it, stroking the embryo inside. “What makes you think he'll die?” she asks, looking limply at the tiled floor. “I mean, I know that he's sick but he's lived this long suffering the same, why put a limit on it now?”

Hari almost laughs, almost pets her head since she's just so precious. “Tohru-kun, it's not that anything's really different. Right now he's the best he's ever been. But he's reaching the limit. When a normal person is ninety years old they've got one foot in the grave no matter what. And that's how it is for Akito at the age of twenty.”

“This is the best?” she asks, remembering Aki hooked up to the oxygen, so small and sickly pale against the deep blue sheets. “He's been worse than this? It's horrible now though…oh my poor Akito…”

Tohru's head is in her hands while Hari talks, if he's muffled maybe he's not real. “He's had cancer,” he says. “Leukemia, since he was two. He's relapsed five times since then, and I don't doubt that he will again. We poisoned him into remission about three months before you started living at Shigure's.” He looks dead serious when he says he doubts that it was worth it, and to Tohru-kun that means it must have been horrific, unbearable enough that Hatori thinks he should have sacrificed the entire Sohma just to stop it. But she doesn't ask, doesn't pry because whatever he could say sounds horrible either way.

“Look,” she says, too stuck on the baby to just call it off, just kill it. “I don't want an abortion. I was…I was thinking about it but…I don't think it's right for me. Even if Akito can't do much to help I still…I still want to try. I can do this, I mean my father died when I was young and my mother did just fine until she…”

“Until she died?” Hatori supplies, too kind as per usual. “Don't base your life off your parents Tohru, it's never a good idea.”

“But my mother was wonderful,” says Tohru-kun, picking her head up to catch the light of Mom. “And she always said that I was her greatest gift, the best part of her entire life…I don't want what could be my greatest gift sucked out of me…”

“You're not your mother Tohru and your child is not you. I'm sure you were a wonderful little girl, but this kid probably won't be. Maybe it'll have your temperament, but with Akito around I highly doubt it. He's a god Tohru, and as a Sohma the child will know that, and model itself accordingly. We're all a little crazy thanks to Akito.” And he smiles, sincerely, serenely, as if this were something good.

“Have some faith Hatori,” says Tohru, such a hypocrite because she has no faith at all. “There's no need to be so grim.”

“If you want to believe it's just pessimism then go right ahead,” says Hatori, shaking his head and standing up. “You'll see when the kid's born. Anyway, we'll need to do some tests. As you most likely know, the tests are rather…intimate, and you might be uncomfortable with my performing them. Since you're not a Juunishi and you're not expecting one, it's fine if you want to see another doctor. I can arrange an appointment for you if you like…do you have health insurance?”

Tohru shakes her head and Hari says he'll work it out, that all she has to worry about is bringing the child of God into the world. “I'll let you know once I've got you an appointment. For now, here's a prescription for prenatal vitamins. Start taking them as soon as possible, this kid's going to need every advantage it can get.”

Tohru nods, wonders briefly if her scarred-up arm's been hanging out this whole time. Hatori's eyeing it, but she never does know if his glances mean anything, if it's more than the wandering of a now useless eye. At any rate he says nothing and she's glad, she's a little embarrassed by it now. She feels like a bit of a poser, trying to join some group she was never meant to belong to. Hari's got the real scars, he's half-blind and it was Akito's idea. Still, the carving had just thrilled him, and Tohru would do anything to keep her Aki pleased.

“Yeah,” she says, throwing the afflicted limb behind her back. “I'll pick them up as soon as Akito's okay with my leaving the house.”

“Well that'll be sometime around never,” Hari grumbles, irritated by this of all things. “I suppose we can get one of the maids to do it. Maybe Midori, it's one of the few things she gets right consistently. I wouldn't have hired her but she's the sister of a friend of Kana's, and she wants to be a doctor…might as well do the girl a favor.”

Tohru's heart just melts at that, her mind shoots itself straight back to the sad story of wrecked and ruined love. And it kills her to realize that she loves the one who did this, that her Akito's capable of such cruelty. She knows he is, she's heard the stories but still. He's pathetic, a tortured baby and she can't even picture him acting out the scenes of Sohma history.

At least Kyo never took away anyone's reason for living.

Maybe she's made a mistake after all...

And maybe she'd better kill that train of thought right now, because she's pregnant and it's Aki's kid, because she loves him to death and he means well, it would break him, tear him to pieces if she turned him down. No, no she's not even going to consider Kyo. She'll just go back to Akito, wait by his side for prenatal care to fall into her lap. It's simple that way, just how it should be. It's what Tohru swears to God she wants.

 

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Weeks pass with Tohru in a mental coma, sleepwalking in and out of Dr. Hari's office, seeing him or the other guy he hired. Tests are coming up inexplicably well, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this baby at all. This is all pretty suspicious, but Hari's not such a Lord-and-Master lapdog that he'd just report it all. He makes it seem like it's just real good luck, that non-Sohma genes are coming up dominant for the first time in history. They can all fake ecstasy at the news.

Thing's aren't marvelous for Akito either. His problems are minor but they're driving him mad, his cold's getting worse and he's done the same silly thing that little kids do, he's torn up his nose with scratchy paper towels. This is seriously the best he's ever been, but nevertheless he isn't grateful, ever little thing just gets him raging since he's so stressed out in the first place. He starts off making charts, trying to figure out where Tohru-kun has been every day. But there's so much time he can't account for, so many hours when she could've slipped off and gotten pregnant somewhere else.

It kills him, betrayal's way too much for Aki to take in. Half the time he's torn between watching her and zoning out, sleeping to stop the sick obsession. So what he does is run in and hurt Yuki-kun, smack him once and dart away. It's random and the rat can't predict it, it's scaring him to death and his asthma kicks in every time.

For Akito it's a good distraction, he can pretend he still lives in the past. He reads like crazy, downs two books a day to keep his mind away from Tohru. He blasts music in his already damaged ears, scrawls pissed off poetry on the walls in pen. Constant occupation is the only thing that keeps him sane, if he stays idle for a moment he'll just go nuts. He doesn't sleep and he wanders the grounds at night, passing out randomly when he's overdone it.

One night he finds himself near Kyo-kun, the thick-barred cage in his dimming sight. If he'd had the slightest bit of sense on his side, he'd have struggled back home right away. He's exhausted, it's 2 AM and his legs are twitching with the effort of the trek. It's late at night and it's late November, it's ridiculous, against doctor's orders for Akito to be out at all. But Kyo's so connected, entangled in everything Akito's trying to avoid. He can't resist, he heads for Kyo-kun's cage with no plan at all in his head.

The walk up is hard on him, and he's gasping for air, coughing hard into tightly clenched fists. He's trying not to look at Kyo-kun; he's in no mood right now to revel in the pain he's caused. “Hi…” he says, sniffling and staring warily at the kitty.

Of course, Kyo-kun's not especially welcoming. It's late as hell and he'd been sleeping, Akito's not somebody he'd want to see midday. Their last meeting's still engraved, it's all he can think about when he sees him, small and shrinking in the dark of the night. Kyo doesn't take posture into account, he thinks that Aki's here with some sadistic punishment, some sordid tale of fucking Tohru. But Akito's quiet, his eyes wide with what could be panic. It takes far too long for him to compose himself, to slap the cruel expression back onto his face. When he finally gets it it's so fake that it's funny.

“So my little pussy cat,” snarls Akito, biting his lip to stave off coughs. It doesn't work and he bursts, hacks all over his hands and he's embarrassed, he didn't want to look like someone weak in front of Kyo-kun. “Are you enjoying your stay in the kennel? Maybe you'd like your litter changed, eh?”

“That'd be great, yeah,” says Kyo-kun, wondering if this is an offer or if he's just being fooled around with. Akito seems unaffected by the repulsive stink slinking through the bars, borne of months and months of an unchanged box and Kyo not bathing. Kyo on the other hand, can't stand it. If they'd just let him out, just once, for some decent food and a shower, a real toilet and a change of clothes…god he'd never oppose any of the Sohma's plans again.

“Look,” says Akito, sitting down on the cold spiky grass by the foot of the cage. He's too tired to get metaphorical, to think that he's at Kyo-kun's feet. It's not that way, it can't be, at all costs Akito has to keep control. Kyo's done nothing but glare at him, shown no signs of wanting to repeat what happened last time. Still Akito's afraid, his rib still throbs with what the kitty did. “Look I…you should probably know that Tohru's…she's pregnant. It's my baby, not yours because you two haven't done anything, right? That's what you said, right?!”

He's shaking as he says this, coughing a line through the words. He's flirting with the truth and he knows it, knows he'll have to make Kyo kill him if he doesn't lie. “Please…” he begs. “Please tell me you never…”

“Why do you care?” Kyo asks him, peering down at the shivering god. Akito's possessive, faking feelings for Tohru, Kyo can't believe that this cold-hearted jailer really loves the girl. When Kyo thinks of Akito all that comes to mind is rage, petty revenge with little provocation. But now he's got this new image, Aki curled like a baby in Tohru's arms, blood spilling down the front of his clothes.

That Akito is a lot like the one who sits before him now.

And this Akito tells him why he cares, he says to him, “I love her. God more than anything. I can't…I can't stand to think that she…” He pauses, crying in spite of all the things he wishes Kyo-kun could see. He's supposed to be cruel, a ruthless dictator with no feeling but anger at all. He's burning with shame and he's trying to stop, trying to play like Tohru's just a power trip.

Kyo knows better though, and his fingers snake slowly through the bars into Aki's night-chilled hair. “Yeah,” he says, shocked by how good it feels to reach out to God. “I know what you mean man, I love her too.”

Aki shakes himself away, burns holes in Kyo with the look in his eyes. “You love her? That's not…no, you can't because you're so…you're better for her I…she'll choose you over me if you love her…but it's my baby, mine, it has to be…” He's barely audible, all Kyo picks up in the shut-down horror in the poor kid's voice.

“How far along is she?” he asks, trying to keep things neutral, not to fight because to do so's just ridiculous, he's learned by now that staying calm will keep him safe, that no one's on his side and only staying still will do him good. Kyo is docile, not himself, but part of him still wants Akito to die.

“Four months,” he says, “five to go.”

“She could still get an abortion then,” states Kyo, so sure that this is just what Tohru wants. The idea of his little beauty bearing this bastard's child…it's just more than Kyo can bear. And because Kyo doesn't want it there's no way Tohru can, why the hell would she ruin her life over Akito? It's not like she's a Sohma, not like she's got a biological obligation.

Akito sneezes, wipes his nose in plain view with the back of his hand. “That's disgusting,” says Kyo-kun, ignoring the sickening squalor of where he's living now. “Anyway Tohru's not keeping this kid, is she?”

“Of course,” snarls Akito, “why wouldn't she?”

“You must not know her very well if you don't know that,” laughs Kyo-kun, feeling vaguely superior for the first time in months. “Look you know her parents are dead, right?” Aki shakes his head and Kyo can't believe it, these guys have been together for ages, he's clueless! “Wow Akito, you don't know anything about her. So what, she's just your little fuck-bunny? She's your sweet little trophy slut that you can use to make us all miserable.” His hands shoot through the bars and he shoves at Akito, says he's a loserly little liar, a dick stuffed with shit and he deserves immortality, the Sohma's all know how much Aki wants to die.

All his calms out the window now, it's just the same for both of them. Aki stands up and they reach for each other, hiss and spit and bang heads. Kyo's just fine but Aki's reeling, staggering backwards from the sickly splitting pain. “I'm delicate, you fuck!” he shrieks, hunched over with his head in his hands. “That hurt!”

“Yeah, it was kinda supposed to,” Kyo says, laughing hard and rubbing at his own head. “Anyway, if you knew anything about Tohru-kun, you'd know that she promised her mother she'd graduate from high school. To Tohru a promise is a binding contract, and her mother's dead so that makes it even worse. She worshipped her, so she can't just let the woman down. Tohru's not about to have your psychotic little offspring.”

“No,” gasps Akito, quiet with his fists clenched tight, he's facing the ground with his eyes squeezed shut, his bare toes digging holes into the earth. He's been out here for hours, shoeless and devoid of proper clothes, he's freezing. And it takes everything in Akito just to think about this, to not take to heart what Kyo-kun said.

It barely lasts and it barely works; now there's hell in both body and mind. “Look,” he snaps, gathering strength, rising up high with fury in his eyes. “You haven't seen Tohru-kun in months, you didn't even know she was pregnant. And do you want to know why? Huh Kyo-kun, do you want to know why your precious Tohru can't be bothered to walk the quarter-mile to your cage? It's because she doesn't care. Tohru's got a new life now, with me, and she's ecstatic. She's a rosy-faced mom-to-be, madly in love with the father of her miracle. She adores me Kyo-kun, me me me and not you! She wants this kid and she will finish high school, don't you realize that she's shacking up with someone powerful? She doesn't have to stay home with the little brat if she doesn't want to!”

Seconds pass with Kyo in shock, pushing away the picture of his Tohru in marital bliss with a monster. Tohru hasn't come because…well he doesn't know, but it can't be that she doesn't care, she wants to be friends and she said so, they've fucked at least five times now! Akito's wrong, he must be, and it's not like he has anything to back him up, it's not like he has proof. Kyo-kun's about to demand it, insist that Aki bring her here, but the kid's started screaming, belting out reasons why Kyo should go to hell. Mid-yell he's on his knees choking, coughs zapping through the wire of his form. “You're pretty fucking sick, huh?” asks, Kyo smirking like this somehow makes him superior.

“I am…I am not…” he tells him, redness running from his mouth into his hands. He's lying, diseased for sure since every day he falls headfirst into the Death's misshapen hands. He's Akito and the cold was bound to turn to pneumonia at some point, might at well be now when he's trying to show off his inner deity. Maybe he's wrong but he feels awful anyway, it's all he can do to lift his head. “I'm f-fine…”

“Bull,” says Kyo, eyes narrowed at the kid on the floor. “You shouldn't be out here dumb-ass, Hatori's gonna fucking kill you. Just go home.”

Akito tries, he really tries because all he wants is to be gone from this guy, safe in bed next to Honeybee. He staggers up, stares dizzily into Kyo-kun's eyes and falls, Aki's on the floor again, still spilling blood from his devastated lungs. It looks black in the dark and Aki's horrified, he can't believe he's got this thing again.

He can't get up so he saves his pride, says Kyo can't be trusted and he's just keeping watch. Kyo-kun doesn't buy it for a minute, especially since Akito's knocked out and sleeping before that time is even up. Every so often he bolts up, spits more blood on the grass but while he's lying there helpless, face all knotted up in pain, Kyo-kun starts to see what Tohru maybe means. There's this incredible urge to protect, to heal with his own hands. It might be just the Sohma tie, but past the hate and past the envy, all Kyo wants is to take away the pain.

There's nothing for it, Aki's pawing at the air and moaning, “Tohru-kun…” Kyo can't provide her, wouldn't if he knew quite how. It'd be too hard to watch her walk off with him, blame Kyo for his condition and snap at him again. For Tohru to snap she's got to be just furious, and it takes a lot to get her there, hurts like hell when you've pushed that far. But he's this close to letting her go, this close to giving up if it'll just make everybody happy.

His arms through the bars, he reaches out for Aki's bloodstained hand. It's just the smallest thing he's ever seen, all the weak little bones and veins so exposed, and as much as he wants to he can't bring himself to crush it. Instead he holds it limply, and he says to him, “just pretend I'm Tohru. The real one should come looking for you soon.”

 

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Moments like these never last long, soon Kyo's in dreamland, his left hand hanging limply over Akito's. By morning there's this flurry made of Hatori, the man in a panic and Aki in his arms. He pulls a moment out of nowhere just for Kyo-kun, uses it to rant at him like Aki's health is all his fault. Kyo didn't tell him to wander out in the freezing night, Kyo didn't lead a viral expedition down into his lungs. But Hari's stressed and doesn't care, he's not about to scream at Akito.

In the end he's back in bed, a powerhouse of pills being popped down his throat, doxycycline and some other special fun stuff. He's pissy and he's petulant, he's not quite sick enough to stay passed out. Hari's not pleased but the work is worth it, Tohru's just so thrilled to have her Aki back. While Hatori wishes she'd stop clinging to her lover's arm so he could stab it with an IV needle, it's nice to see that the lady really cares.

She looks so in love, so worried, that Hari has to wonder how she ever screwed around. Maybe the life inside her does belong to Akito, maybe it's the first healthy God-child the Sohmas have ever had. Logistics aside it's a nice idea, it makes him think that their debt is not so great, that their king is finally finding happiness.

 

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Nana: Let's hear it for the unbelievably sunny ending! Whoo! Don't worry kids, it's not going to stay happy for long. Oh no. Life is going to start sucking something special real soon for the Kyokitohru triangle.

So how did you like the vague Akito/Kyo coupling? It would have taken a great leap of character and plot line to develop it further, but we've got a ways to go, don't worry. Much, much more suffering shall be heaped on their poor little heads…and maybe some happy stuff too, who knows?

Make sure you review me, and keep checking back for Chapter Ten!