Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Everybody Wants Her ❯ Chapter Thirteen - When They Know ( Chapter 13 )

A/N: Welcome back everyone! I'm sorry this took such a long time, I've been busy and brain dead as usual. This time it actually kept me from writing, I've had more homework then I know how to handle. Also, as you can see, this is a rather longer chapter than the last one was. Ah well, here it is anyway. Kyo-kun comes back in this chapter, something which I'm sure will thrill a few of you. And you can probably tell what `s in this chapter based on the title! You'll have to read on to see how it happens though. Have fun!

 

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Everybody Wants Her

Chapter Thirteen - When They Know

 

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Time skips. With Aki laid low and running a fever, Tohru's taking Taeko on alone for weeks. Time warps. One day she'll be sitting there nursing the baby, face frozen and mind numb as her little one sucks. The next she'll be hurrying her, yanking her breast away before the girl can finish. These are the days when she needs to see Akito, when Taeko's not enough to keep her sane. Time never ticks by at a normal rate, Tohru's either spazzing out or brain dead, never average, never pleased. This isn't enough but she's terrified of endings, of Aki feeling well enough to cause them pain

Today she's sitting, Taeko feeding and the sun spilling dazzled from the wood-framed window. Every cell in her head's closed in on this, on the rhythmic sounds of Taeko's sucks. Because every other thought just brings the panic, the sick looming knowledge of what's probably to come. And what's happened.

“Don't look at me like that!” He hit her child. That's the past but he hit her child, for days she's bruised and skittish, she won't let her so-called father near. That's the past though, Tohru's head's in the future, but the future freaks her in another way. With every flash of Kyo-kun that this little baby brings, Tohru knows she's got to tell him, got to trust him with the truth. This is his daughter and the lie's not right, she can't keep this up anymore. When she starts filling out it's pretty obvious, this isn't her grandma that Taeko takes after. She's probably his and if she's not, Tohru's bound to know when she sees Kyo-kun, right? It's been too long and she'd really like to…

No. No if she sees him she'll just kill her Akito, he'll find out somehow and he'll die. Tohru-kun's a good girl and she can't, she won't, she kind of has to. But she'll be delicate, she'll love him and lie and leave him clueless. She'll see her Kyo, save Akito. When she shifts her sleepy baby to the side she smiles, Tohru's sure that this will turn out fine.

 

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“Akito-san!” chirps Tohru brightly, shifting Taeko in her sling as she raps softly on the door. “Are you awake Akito, can I come in?”

He calls her in, demands the door shut with coughs replacing many of his words. “You're still sick, huh?” she says, grinning weakly as she sits by him on the bed. Tohru's trying hard to make this just a little funny, to squelch the screaming terror just for now. How she should feel is beyond her, Tohru's strung up in conflict over Aki and her little girl. Maybe if they spend some time together, get acquainted while he's weak they'll be okay.

“Oh, no, not at all,” says Akito, rolling eyes past a migraine that his morning shot of Demerol ought to have prevented. “Of course I'm not sick, I've just lying been in bed for the past three weeks because I'm lazy.”

Tohru laughs, not amused but trying hard for humor, she can see he's sick to death and shaking. “Do you know what the problem is?” she asks, free hand thrumming through his hair the way it used to be. She can't press close and he doesn't want her to, the air's not coming easy and he doesn't want to make things worse.

“I don't know,” he tells her, shrugging since it's not like he's paid attention. Aki's been out of it for weeks, he's still drained, still sleepy and depressed. He rubs his eyes, rattles off what he remembers of Hari's garbled diagnosis. “He said I have like fifty million different things…I've been throwing up blood so he thinks I have an ulcer, when I'm coughing blood he says my pneumonia never really left me…on top of that I've lost too much blood so that means that I'm anemic. And I have a fever, and this headache…I don't know, I feel terrible all the time and nothing Hari does ever helps me, so why should I care about the little details?”

Tohru's at a loss to tell him why. She knows from Hatori that it's important, that Aki's got to know what's going on or he can't assist his own recovery, but she also knows that he's been at this twenty years. “You must be tired of it,” she says, voice soft with sympathy so strong she's going to let him hold Taeko. Not that his suffering's remotely connected to his prowess as a dad, hell if it is then all it does is make him worse. But Tohru-kun's forgetful eyes just light up in the face of Poor Baby, she needs him to need her now. “Here,” she says, ignoring his question when she makes her offering. “Someone hasn't seen her daddy in a while.”

“Someone hasn't seen her daddy ever,” Aki mumbles, laying Taeko's twisting body on his quilt-coated lap. Taeko shrieks as if betrayed, calls for Mom but Tohru just looks on, stays grinning. “She's crying,” says Akito, stating it blankly since he's trying not to care that she can't stand him. “You should take her, I, I don't think she likes me…” And he trails off, pitches forth to puke but Tohru's quick, she's got a bucket in front of him before anything can splash the baby.

“I guess I'm getting used to this, huh?” she asks, laughing like the blood in there's hilarious, like Aki's illness is a joke. Taeko doesn't look perturbed, she seems to sense a lack of strength she's safe with. So she calms down, quits screaming long enough for Aki to shrug off his throat's acid sting and pick her up.

“Hey,” he says, almost smiling at her random tufts of red, her Kyo-kun eyes and even breathing. “Hey Taeko. You're a…you're a very cute baby. Very ah…healthy. And lucky to be born that way.” His voice picks up, takes on a tone of more authority, godlike and haughty to Tohru-kun's ears. “Do you know that you're not cursed, little girl? You're a Sohma but you're spared. Not like me and not like a man who looks just exactly like you. Your uncle Kyo-kun would turn into a cat if he touched you, and I'm probably toxic to your lame little immune system. But you're not like us, you've got a good start in life and you're going to be happy. Like your mother. You're going to be happy and stupid just like her.”

He turns on her, eyes shot through with flames and pain. “Take offense Tohru. Tell me that you're not an idiot.”

And she just stays silent, mouth shut in fear because she's stopped understanding him, Akito's beyond her now. When he's combative like this, when he's angry, the wrong word'll just set him off screaming. Hitting, and he's got the baby in his hands. Her eyes hit the sky and she begs her mom to spike his fever, make him far too sick to want to hurt her. “So what?” snaps Akito, coughing his throat raw and Tohru-kun smiles, thinks that Kyoko's watching her and on her side. “You're just going to sit there and let me insult you? You're going to take that kind of shit from me?'

She nods.

And Akito nods, hands curling hard around the baby's wrists. “That's right,” he says, “that's right. You are going to take it, because you're mine, I'm God to you, I own you. You may not be a Sohma but you will be, when we get married like you asked me to. This—”—he coughs, managing intimidation in spite of weakness—“— is not a choice for you. Honda Tohru doesn't exist as far as I'm concerned, and neither does Sohma Kyo. You're my property and I forbid you to see him.”

“I…I wasn't going to,” she mumbles, the falsehood obvious since she hadn't even thought of how to cover it. “Why would I want to do that Akito? I have, I have you, I don't need anybody else…” And she crushes hard skinny fingers in her own trembling fists, she's so good at lying when the lie's meant to help somebody else. A vague part inside her wants Akito to know, wants him broken, shrieking on the floor so she can fix him.

But she can't. Once he knows, really knows with no doubt, it's over. Even magic flying fluid from her hands can't save him after that. Not that she has it. Not that Tohru sitting pitiful with her child cradled by a beast is any good to anyone. No. No she's just…worthless now, pointless and she can't figure out what Aki needs her for. But she promises, pleads with him not to let her leave him. She will. She knows she will because she can't hurt Kyo, but his fever will sing him to sleep, keep Tohru covered when she flees him.

“Never again,” Akito snarls, coughs tearing past his mouth into quaking palms, Taeko bouncing with the tremors shaking him, she cries. “You'll…never…see him…again…”

“Of course not,” she lies, stroking soft his sweat-stained skin. “I would never do anything to upset you, I've never done…Kyo means nothing, he hasn't and I love you.” And oh God she's just murmuring bullshit, trying to lull him into drifting satisfaction. Taeko's fed and diapered, fine for now to be alone with him. She doesn't think and she's desperate for connection, it doesn't occur to her that a three-week-old's not safe with anyone asleep. “Just rest,” she says, cuddling close and kissing him, almost conking out herself because the birth's still got her weary. But Tohru's Tohru and Tohru's strong, it's Akito who's weak, Akito who needs a nap now.

His eyes squeeze shut to stave off pain, the headache's in his right eye now, pounding hard and he hasn't told her, he wants Tohru to look past what's obvious and see somebody strong. “You'll get worse if you don't sleep,” she whispers, her voice so close it makes him shudder. “You might get sick enough to die, and then who would be there to stop the Sohma from having its way with me?”

Silence stings them petrified, frozen `til Akito flies up, hands to his face to catch the killing coughs. “Why would you say that?!” he cries, tears springing and a cork growing in his throat. “Don't you…don't you ever say that again, get out!” He snaps his fingers shaking towards to door. “G-go…t-take her, take her with you I…go…!”

And he sobs, heaves and chokes and whines and curls up screaming. The little line of rage gains speed and he's shrieking, beating the pillow as he tells her “GET OUT, GET OUT, GET OUT!!”

Tohru gets out. She does exactly as she meant to, heated in shame for adding damage. She hasn't meant to say that, it just sprung from her like an infant from some mythic woman. Since there's no taking it back, she goes. With Taeko still thrashing bruises on her dear love's legs.

 

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Look at her. Ten translucent fingers, ten long little toes curling out to play at God. Four limbs and a tight little torso, that hair, god he just wants to tear out that hair. It's terrifying yes, but it's disgusting too. God just look at this pink-faced healthy little heathen, repulsive with Kyo shot through her DNA. Akito'll hit the roof, Akito'll shit a brick, Akito's nails are screeching down the baby's neck now. This baby. This heartbreakingly hideous little girl.

Akito picks her up shrieking, focuses his pulsing eye onto her tiny face. “I bet you think you're so great,” he sneers, digging in her skin with bony fingers. “God's gift to the fucking world. You wish. You fucking wish. God's got nothing to do with you, you're a monster. You're the product of a beast and a moron Taeko, you'd be sick if you came from me, you'd be suffering. Do you want to suffer Taeko? Do you want to prove you're loyal to the lord?”

She squeals, she twists, she writhes away, but Aki's standing up now, taking steps on shaking legs to reach the door. He hasn't a reason to leave but he's restless, pacing with the eight-pound Taeko in his scrawny arms. He hacks phlegm in her face, prays to pass on the pain he knows so well. This girl's existed three whole weeks and she hasn't known a single illness, to Akito that's ludicrous, to Akito that's just not fair. He giggles, coughs so hard he nearly drops her. And then he simply lets her go, and when she hits the floor he kicks her. Taeko doesn't hesitate to scream, this child stands for no bullshit. But Akito could not care less, he likes her tears, he works for these things, soaks his soul in them and smiles.

He steps on her, presses her with weak feet to the floor. As he looks at his toes he can see the connection, the vague thread of life holding him and this poor girl together. But even if she is his she's not tormented, she's got to start off on the right foot if she wants to be like Daddy. Aki rakes at her with those long curled toes, kicks her around until the tears quit coming. Taeko's cries come in feeble moans, minor motions as she signals for her mom. “Ha!” shrieks Akito, “Fucking HA you little pisser, Tohru-kun's not coming for you! I told her to go and that means she's gone, no one disobeys me because I'm GOD! SHE'S NOT COMING BACK AND YOU'RE STUCK WITH ME!”

It hits him. He picks the shaken baby up, cuddles her stiff self to his chest as he sinks down. “She's not…she's not coming back…” he mutters, coughs striking each word like some messed up harmony, pain oozing coolly through his veins. “I…made her go away…and you must hate me now…you don't even understand that I'm God…I didn't…I didn't mean to…” Pride shuts him up, or maybe it's the need to puke, Aki's on his hands and knees hurling once he lays the baby on the bed. He's torn up in agony, nearly crying for how hard he hurts. “Aggghhh…god this sucks…”

He wipes the vomit from his mouth then, brain slamming his skull in his vain attempts to make it back to bed. Taeko lies there mocking him, humming sweetly to herself because she's safe and he is not, Aki can't make it up to hurt her. The world warps into darkness as he's screaming in pain, hands flailing `cause he can't decide which part of him to hold. Oh it hurts but it's ending, Aki's passing out now, arms stretched across the night-blue bed.

 

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Tohru treads the crabgrass to the kitty's cage, singing tunes so mournful that they make her think of Akito. Already she's dreading what she's done and what she's doing, the suffering she's bound to cause in telling Kyo. But he's got the right and anyway, Aki and the baby haven't bonded well enough to beat their blood, and here's a chance, a good one, the man was mad but clearly ill, god his temperature was in the stratosphere.

So Tohru-kun can play at being calm, stride to Kyo-kun waving with her open hands. “Hi,” she says, wincing slightly at the squalor. “It's um, it's been a while.”

And Kyo's just too relieved to scream at her, it's been months and he's barely seen a soul. Kazuma's been here but he's set up a dojo in Shanghai, life means more than watching his semi-son's decay. And Kagura's got herself a goddamn boyfriend, this flabby door mouse with a massive cock to keep her busy. She hasn't really been around. No one has but here's Tohru, eyes bleary with the stench of Kyo's excretions. Here she is, lovely as ever and he just hates her for reminding him again of what he's lost. “H-hi, T-tohru…” he mumbles. “Hi…”

“Kyo,” she states, eyes to the ground because she knows it's Akito who's done all this, who's left this poor man to rot forgotten in a cage. And honestly, her only thoughts of him were stitched with Taeko, sewn up with Akito's reaction. Kyo himself just hasn't occurred to her, but now that she's seeing him, stooped and skinny, feet deep in piss and shit and cat food. He's got bite marks on him, little chunks missing from when he didn't get fed but got desperate. “I…I just…well first of all I'm really sorry I didn't come sooner. I just, I've been pregnant, it's been a little hard to move around…that doesn't excuse the first few months but…I hope you can forgive me…” She sniffles, peers at Kyo-kun with her huge and heartless eyes.

“It's fine,” says Kyo, too sapped of strength to say much more. It's not fine in the slightest but the poor guy's broken, beaten down. “You've been…busy…”

“Yes,” she says, “yes I have.”

And they're quiet for a time, just thinking. This is strange on both their parts, Kyo's not used to human contact and Tohru isn't used to Kyo, it's awkward and they're strapped for what to say. But she's come here with meaning, with something Kyo's just got to know. “I guess it's obvious I'm not pregnant anymore,” she starts, rubbing the post-birth flab that's still plaguing her. “My little girl was born on April 29th. Three weeks ago she…she's beautiful. And I…I just wanted to tell you that. So you—”—and she chokes up there, starts sobbing—“—so you know.”

It takes some time, but Kyo manages to find the part of himself that can be happy for people, the part that's stayed unscathed by pain and jealousy. “That's wonderful,” he tells her, picturing a freaky Aki hybrid, some combination of evil and what's pure. “That's really great. What's her name?”

“Taeko,” says Tohru, “Sohma Taeko.”

If that sounds familiar to Kyo he doesn't think it consequential. “Nice name,” he tells her, uncurling his stiff hands from the prison bars. It's getting hard to move the joints now, to force them out of a permanent let-me-go pose. “What does she look like?”

“Well actually Kyo, that's what I came to talk to you about.” Tohru smiles, halting, nervous, and her shoes kick the ground as she speaks. “She has…well she has red hair. My…my mom did too, but not like yours, not so bright…and Taeko has the same sort of narrow brown eyes you have…I think…I think you may be the father.”

Something tidal drifts inside him, it's a while before Kyo can make connections. But this is important, this means something, means the world. This could be the absolutely collapse of Akito, the death of nearly everyone he knows. Not that he sees them, not that his life or theirs matters much now. So he's not feeling fear, not rage or anything he's really used to. No, Kyo's just feeling weary, feeling vaguely pleased that something that could be good has come to be. “Is she now?” he mumbles. “I don't suppose that's going to change our relationship much, is it?”

Tohru's head sways slightly side to side, she tells him she's still sick in love with Akito, still bound to him with ties stronger than the most devoted Sohmas feel. “You'll always be my friend Kyo, and I'm going to do my best to get you out of here. But if I change things now I'll just destroy him, and…he means to much for me to let that happen, all of you mean to much for that.”

“Is he going to help you raise her?” asks Kyo-kun, shoveling shit with his filthy toes on the floor. It's really putrid and Tohru trying hard to shut her senses down. Looking at him makes her feel fortunate, clean. And she is, she's got a chance to stop the train wreck of her life. She has someone who will help her if he can.

“Yes,” she says, grinning warmly at the thought of Akito serene, holding Taeko loving in his arms the way he never has yet, the thought of being normal. “She's…mostly my responsibility, Akito hasn't been feeling well for a while now…but he helps. He's watching her now, actually.”

Paternal feelings tug inside of Kyo, his eye's flash and he stands up straight to face her. Within seconds he's back in the stoop but first he asks her just how far out of her mind she is. “You left that maniac alone with my little girl?” The words feel hollow as he says this, Kyo doesn't really resent Akito, or feel that he's insane. But he's working himself up now, trying to set fire to the fury that there used to be. Reason says yes, the man's a nutcase, not to be trusted with a newborn. And Kyo's trying so hard to play for Reason's side right now.

Tohru's not helping, she's denying what she feels inside, rambling on about how safe and sane her Aki is, how she'd never have left the girl had she thought there was any danger. But as she stares at him with closed-in eyebrows, she knows that the only reason she can trust him is the fact that he's too weak to do much harm. There's nothing in her love that's stable, nothing that's not just waiting to break. “Don't talk like that,” she says, “he's her father in every sense but the biological, there's nothing I can do. You're locked up, you can't take care of her. And I love him, I trust him not to…hurt her…”

“Does he know where she comes from?” Kyo-kun asks, head tipped incredulously as he fumbles for her hands. She will not take them through the bars, she can't because she needs the distance and they're filthy, just repulsive. The bone-white beads of his bracelet are stained brown. “You're different now,” he tells her sadly, “way back when you would have touched me. You would have…” Loved me. He wants to say that, wants her as desperately as his deadened state allows.

Tohru bursts into apology, still refusing to reach for his hands. “No,” she says, backing up to what was said before. “No, he doesn't know, he can't. I only told you because I didn't think it was right not to let you know you had a daughter. But you can't tell him!” she squeaks, sure he will though Aki hasn't been to see him. No, no she can't imagine the fallout, can't picture Aki getting worse than he's already been. “Don't…”

“Why would I do that?” he asks her, laughing lightly since it's just ridiculous, why in hell would he bring wrath upon himself? But Tohru's pleading so he promises, “no I'm not going to tell him.”

“Good,” she smiles, “that's great.”

“Can I see her?” Kyo-kun asks, hands back on the bars and he's pleading with her, begging for this proof that they've connected, that Tohru once pretended that she loved him. Now she doesn't even care enough to lie. And anyway, he'd like to meet his baby, this little one who evidently looks just like him. “Could you just bring her over once for me?”

Tohru shakes her head, top teeth scraping on her bottom lip. “No,” she says, “no I'm sorry, but you can't. Seeing you now is risky enough. Akito's bound to get angry, and you know how he is when he's—”—Kyo-kun's got his palm out, backed away from the bars in an attempt to shut her up.

“No Tohru, I don't know, because I haven't seen him or anybody else is months. All I remember about Akito is that he's a sickly little fuck who probably gets off on causing other people pain. I don't know how he gets when he's angry, but I'm assuming that he hurts you. If that's it then you need to leave, you can't put up with that crap when you have a baby. If he's hurting you or Taeko, dump him now.”

Where that came from is beyond him, how that contradicts with the peace he feels just jars against his heart. But the old Kyo's back and he's pissed as hell, he doesn't care anymore about Akito's reasons. Bruises are spreading wings on Tohru's cheekbones, Kyo is standing in his own waste thanks to him. There will be no more forgiveness, no `oh, he's lonely.' That's bullshit, and Tohru's opening her mouth to spew it at him, convince him that the twisted man's okay. “Don't,” he says, “just don't. I don't want to hear about how much you love him, I'm jealous enough, can't you see? I have nothing, Akito's taken you, he's taken my life and he's taken my daughter. You might love him but Tohru I think he's an asshole. I hate him.”

Christ Almighty it feels good to feel the rage again.

 

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She pads her way inside, stepping tenderly until she hears her baby girl. When Taeko's shrieks explode into the calm, Tohru cannot stop her feet from running. If denial, if outright lies have cost her child's safety, Tohru-kun will fall apart as fast as Akito. She screeches in, wraps the wailer in her arms and calms her down. “Honey, oh honey it's okay. Mommy's here, everything's okay.” She looks her over, winces at the blood and bruises, the sickly strips of pure-and-simple pain.

And then, there's Akito. Half on the floor with one hand hanging, mumbling febrile nothings in between his low pained moans. Pathetic to the point of being Poor Baby, lame to the point where even Tohru doesn't love him. She will, later she'll let him cling and pray for him, but in this desperate little minute Tohru doesn't even care. “You're not suffering,” she says, wrenching Aki by the wrist and nearly spitting, Tohru wants to grind him to the ground. “She is. Taeko's a baby, three weeks old and she's your daughter! Look at her, just look at what you did!” And he doesn't, Aki fakes too sick to take the blame. But Tohru's hard-eyed, disbelieving. “Listen to her Akito, she's sobbing. Because of you.”

“I…I barely touched her…” he tells her, thinking this is true because the girl's just scratched, just a little tossed around. Never mind that she's an infant, too young to hurt in any way. This is nothing and he isn't sorry, when he tells Tohru this she slaps him. Hard.

Akito's mouth contorts into a roar, thrashing forward into Tohru's shielded self. She stows the baby backwards, grabs his wrists as he lunges for her feebly. “You hurt our baby,” she snarls, teeth bared and eyes bulging. “She's bleeding, she's bruised and you abused her. Our. Little. Girl. What could she have possibly done to deserve that, huh? What could a newborn girl have done?”

“She's not mine!” he shouts, blood staining his hands when he throws them to his mouth to catch his coughing. And he holds it out for Tohru, asks her how his child could possibly go without disease. “She's Kyo's, she's obviously Kyo's and you betrayed me, you…” He trails off, coughs some more while his honeybee holds the baby. Taeko's happy on her mother's breast, she's fearless and content. Tohru's free hand's curling into a fist though, for the first time ever she's found something unacceptable.

“That's not what this is about anymore Akito. I forgave you the first time because that's what it was, the first time. But you've totally crossed the line with this. It doesn't matter who her father is, you can't go around beating up children!”

“Why not?” he smiles, seeing that she's faltering, feeling vaguely in control. Between words and coughs he's mumbling, I'm God I'm God just to remind himself, stay strong. “I mean Yuki-kun was older than Taeko, but I've been beating the shit out of that kid since we were little…that's my childhood, basically. Leukemia and kicking Yuki's ass. What I really liked was whipping him so hard he'd have his asthma, that was—”

She slaps him again, screams “SHUT UP!” as she does. “I don't want to hear about how horrible you are, how am I supposed to be in love with you if that's what you tell me?!”

“You're not in love with me!” he wails, flung to the bed with the force of her palm. “You wouldn't have fucked him if you were!”

“Listen,” she tells him, sitting calm with Taeko squirming, “listen to me. I didn't mean for that to happen.”

“You didn't mean—” he's about to scream himself unconscious, rant for ages but her hand's running gently through his hair, she's still sitting queen-like with her baby but she has tried stepping down. Tried, at least, to prove that she does love him.

“Right,” she says, “I didn't. I guess, I suppose you need the truth now, right? I…hadn't meant to tell you, not because I wanted to keep anything from you but…well I thought for the longest time that she really was your baby…and Akito I love you so much, but you're fragile, you're weak, and I didn't think you could take that kind of blow. Kyo asked me out last year, the summer Yuki got so sick and came to live here…it was actually right after he had this major attack. I was…a little angry with him but he wanted me so badly…I don't know why. And…” She trails off, watches Aki's back shake and she knows they'll need the bucket soon, she gets it ready for him. “Anyway, I never thought of him as anybody but a friend. I loved you…I still do, even after…yeah. Kyo and I…did things, a few times after he was locked up.”

“You m-mean a f-few times after he broke my rib?” Aki says, hissing low and knowing this is not the time to get so angry. As if he can help it, ever.

The significance isn't lost on her but she ignores it, just says that yes, it must have been around that time. “What you have to understand is, I never really wanted to do any of that. It's just that he was locked up and it seemed like the only thing that could make him happy…”

“W-wait a minute,” Aki says, “so you're saying that he raped you?”

Her neck hairs stand and she shivers, disgusted by the word she knows just doesn't fit. “No,” she tells him, “no that wasn't it.”

“But it wasn't consensual?” She shakes her head and he stops listening, struggles up to run for Kyo. But pain overtakes him and he's doubled over, spilling blood-streaked bile in the bucket in her hands. When it splashes her she doesn't wince, she's spectacular at taking care of him. Aki's stuck on the idea, it thrills him to think that his Tohru's not at fault, that here's a chance to defend her honor, be a man about the situation. He's so disoriented that he hardly finds the door, Tohru's sitting with Taeko shaking her head no, please no, but Akito ignores her, heads outside to ruin Kyo-kun.

 

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Nana: Well. He knows. And Tohru-kun actually stood up for herself. She actually hit Akito. I suppose he deserved that, but he certainly doesn't deserve what's coming up in Chapter Fourteen. Bad, bad things are going to go down. Unfortunately, you guys will have to wait for that, maybe even longer than you had to wait for this one. I won't be working on this story until after Christmas, as I'm writing a fanfic using my best friend's characters, for her present. So because I'm too broke/cheap to buy her something, you can expect Chapter Fourteen sometime in January. Sorry about that.

I'm wondering though, if while you're waiting you guys could try and bump my review count up to 100? Or further, if such a miracle is possible? But come on, if just eight of you review me I'll be in triple digits! Just make it my Christmas present, okay? Thanks! I love you all and happy holidays!