Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Force of Destiny ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

Disclaimer: If I owned Fruits Basket, I wouldn't need to write about it, I could live it...*sigh*.
(Please forgive the typeset shifts-I am trying to fix the problem w/o having to retype the whole

thing. Grrr...)

Prologue

Almost immediately after that fateful night in the woods, it became clear that they belonged together. Beauty and the Beast. She had saved us all with her light, but the effect she had on him--it was as if she had pulled back the curtains in a room long left dark. Undeniably rough-spoken and occasionally sullen, still, he positively glowed when she was around. It was painful to admit, but she lit up whenever he was with her. She was still just as gentle and kind to me, bestowing special smiles and fussing over us all, but for him... I had known it that day, witnessed their need for each other; his need for acceptance and healing, her need to be the one to give it to him.

I realized then that, strangely enough, I didn't need her quite as much as I had before. It was a bittersweet revelation, like suddenly knowing you had grown up, and were no longer a child in need of guidance. Everything you needed to know to live happily had already been taught you . The only thing left to do was face the world and actually begin living. Besides, it wasn't so much that she had chosen him over me, but that they had somehow chosen each other. She will always be my first love, but she is not gone from me. I hold that truth to my heart, and hope for the future.

Over two years passed before the trap was sprung. Akito had lulled us into a false sense of security by leaving us alone, for all intents and purposes, since that tense meeting at the honke. Part of this was due to his extremely fragile health, I'm sure, but looking back now, I can see his devilish patience, as well. He let us believe Touru had truly affected him, that he had finally let us go to decide our own fates, choose our own paths, our own loves. I should have known better.

He discovered the changed nature of the triangular relationship we three shared, sensed the shift in balance between cat and mouse, and moved to exploit it. Kyou was inconsequential to him, outside the Jyuunishi circle, beneath his notice, a smudge, an aberration in the pristine ideal family he held in his mind. I, on the other hand, was his precious pet, his talented toy, and would not be allowed to escape. He saw me as being released from Touru's influence, now it was apparent where her heart truly lay, and this was leverage for him to use in his twisted plans to regain my love and devotion. My obedience to him was essential. He had been generous, he said, for too long. Now it was time to return to the fold.

I was horrified. I had no intention of returning willingly. If I went, I would be throwing away my last chance at happiness...I would be leaving my friends behind, I would be leaving her behind; hell, I would even miss that stupid cat. However, I knew Akito would not give me a choice. What was his plan? I was tormented, imagining the worst possible things he could do to me, and they all centered around destroying Touru's happiness-any number of frightening scenarios filtered through my mind. I tried to stall him, reason with him, I even begged him, appealing to his pride, hoping against hope he would release me, release Touru.

My pleas only enraged him, as he knew it was for her sake I was willing to debase myself in front of him. It was not his superiority that had me on my knees, but love for her that brought me there in a final attempt to salvage the future.

And so he gave his ultimatum: Return to the honke willingly, return to his side of my own will, and only her memories of me would be erased, and she could continue to live her life with Kyou, as a Souma. Refuse, and all of her memories of the Souma family would be wiped clean, and she would be cast out forever.

He would steal all the beautiful things we had created together, as a family, as friends. He would see to it her lessons of love and acceptance were destroyed, burned out of her mind in a blinding, painful flash of rage and retribution. Such an occurrence would cripple Hatori, to have to obey that order. It would tear at Shigure, Momiji and Kisa. I shudder to think what Hatsuharu and Kagura would do. And Kyou. He would never recover. He would never forgive me. Neither would I.

In the end, there was really no choice, which was Akito's intention. At the very least, I could give her this happiness, even if it meant leaving her to that damn cat. He'd better make her blissfully happy, or I'll hunt him down.

So, I returned to the honke, to Akito, to darkness, torment, agony...but not despair. That was her lasting gift to me, the light that shines on in my heart and helps me face the force of my destiny, which has come in a very unexpected form...