Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Jaded By Rain ❯ Secret Lies ( Chapter 3 )

Jaded By Rain

By, Jamie1317kast

 

Uncover the hidden truth. Unearth the forgotten past. Lies discovered and truths uncovered when God begins his wrath.

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Furuba, they are copyright to Natsuki Takaya-sensei. My own characters are Ryoko Sohma, Gabriel Sohma, Takamichi Sohma, Taichii Okinawa, Rumiko Young-Li, Chang Wong, Shi Fu-Li, Xiao Fua, Yueh Sohma, Saizo Chung, and if any other of my characters pop up I'll let you know. Oh, neither do I own the Scarlet Letter or Speak.

 

Rated R for adult situations, and attempted murder.

 

Author's Notes: hey y'all. How do you like it so far, huh? Read and Review, I'm begging you. Please! Anyone confused yet? I sure am. No, just kidding. *laughs* please tell me how I'm doing, is it good, bad, what? Just let me know. Comments, criticisms, or flames even. On second thought, no flames. Bad idea. On with the fic!

 

Secret Lies:

 

Left, right. Left, right. Left, right. Kyo practiced his punches in the backyard; martial arts always helped him think. Now, right, left. Right, left. Right, left. Twisting his whole upper body, putting all his strength into every punch. As if Yuki was the one he was beating on, and not the air. As Kyo's left arm shot out, the two sets of beads clinked together. Right, clink. Right, clink. Right, clink. ' Stupid beads.'

 

" You want me to what?" Kyo had asked, shocked. " I can't stand wearing them, Kyo." Ryoko had replied, " I don't like being reminded." She was holding her set of beads out to him; she'd actually taken them off willingly. Kyo was starting to think that there was nothing that she couldn't do. " I want you to have them, Kyo. I know that you will keep them safe. If you don't want to wear them, then at least hide them away somewhere. I don't want Yuki seeing them."

Kyo had looked at her, even as his took them reluctantly, with something akin to admiration in his eyes. " What do you plan to do if it rains?" He'd asked, nervous. The curse of the Cat's true form, brought out by the rain. Ryoko looked Kyo square in the eyes, blue on red; he broke the gaze first. Looking at her for so long reminded him of the fact that he couldn't seem to stop having wet dreams about her, it made him squirm just to be in a 5-foot radius of her.

Men.

Her voice confident, far more confident than she felt, a sick feeling gathering in the pit of her stomach, " Run like Hell."

 

A normal, boring, cloudy day. Ryoko, Kyo and Yuki were all attempting to stay awake as Sensei droned on and on about their English reading lesson. Something about a red letter, some weird religion, symbolism, and a guy named Hawthorne. Not important. Obviously. ` And we're going to use this WHEN in our adult lives?' Kyo maliciously thought.

Not wanting anyone to notice that Kyo was now in possession of two sets of Cat's beads; he had left Ryoko's pair at home. However, looking at the cloudy weather, he was having second thoughts. His bad feeling increased when the thunder rolled in and the rain broke. He snapped his head around to Ryoko.

Doubled over in her seat by the open window, Ryoko was shaking. Her hands shoved under her desk, concealing their ugly, malignant growths. Her head shot up,

“ Sensei!” her voice was cracked and strained. “ May I be excused?! I don't feel good." Sensei, not completely blind to a student's pain, motioned for her to go. Ryoko practically fled the room.

 

“ Ryoko?" Kyo was searching for her. She hadn't come back to school, so he'd grabbed her bag and went looking. “ Ryoko?" He called again. He finally reached the Sohma forest, and proceeded along a side path thick with undergrowth. The branches were torn and snapped, like bones wrenched from their sockets. The ground stamped flat, at intervals far apart. Kyo shuddered. She was out here somewhere. In her true form. Of course, he knew what he looked like. He knew he was ugly. He did not expect Ryoko to be the same. If she was indeed, just as disgusting as he was, he could forgive her for that. After all, they were both Cats. If they couldn't accept each other, no one would.

“ Go away!" Ryoko's warped voice shouted, “ Leave me alone!" Kyo followed the sound of her voice through the thick trees, coming into a small clearing. There she was. Kyo sucked in a breath. Doubled up, clinging onto a tree, was Ryoko. Her shirt was on the ground beside her, her pants stretching to conceal her horrid figure.

A mass of putrid, untamed, and hard wild flesh covered Ryoko's body. Her massive purple eyes lazed about on her face, staring this way and that. Her long, wavy and sensitive ears twitched at the sound of Kyo's voice. Her delicate hands were hands no longer. Instead, they were large paws consisting mainly of unwanted flesh, and bone. She clamped her eyes shut, breathing harshly, pointy rows of teeth glistening with saliva and the sweat of concentration rolling down her bare back.

She cried out in agony, the air crackled with magic, sending sparks flying outward in all directions. Her features crawled back towards their human mold, desperately reaching for that salvation of normalcy. The retribution of her efforts was pain. Kyo ran to help her, dropping their bags, forgetting his fear.

“ Ryoko!" He called to her, running forward to her aid. “ Go away…” Ryoko groaned, her face somewhere between human and demon, “ Don't look at me. I'm ugly." Kyo grabbed her upper arm. “ Yeah, well… so am I." He confessed. That was it. They were both ugly. They were both disgusting. They knew it. But… they didn't accept it. And if they didn't accept themselves, how, oh, how, could they ever accept each other?

 

“ Yes, Yuki. I'm feeling quite fine, actually. I'm feeling much better. Much better now that you're here that is." Ryoko smiled at Yuki, smirking inside, she loved seeing him blush. The poor boy. He just couldn't respond to flirting. Not that he didn't try, oh no, he tried. And failed. Miserably.

“ Well, that's good, Ryoko-san." Yuki somehow managed to stutter out. Funny, he'd never been tongue-tied around a woman before. It was as if he had to beat the words out, get them around the ship-sinking iceberg in his throat. He rarely ever succeeded. He'd say something, and then the hull would start to leak and the radio operators would scramble for the rights to scream out the SOS. “ AIEEE! Woman approaching! Left man, left! No, no, your other left! Mayday, mayday! SOS! SOS! And… it's no good. We're going' down." Sometimes Yuki worried about the voices in his head. They made him nervous.

It was a sunny afternoon, the rain had cleared away, and the incident in the woods was being buried a ways back in the depths of Ryoko's mind. Ryoko, upon approaching the house, had been confronted by Yuki. Who had obviously been worried sick about her. Kyo glared at Yuki as he stepped by him and into the house, ` Damn Rat's just too spaced out to notice anything. He doesn't get it; he really doesn't get it. And of all the guys in this house, it JUST HAS to be him, now, doesn't it! Damn Rat!'

Kyo is jealous. Can you tell?

Yuki ignored the mayday signal bouncing about his brain and mustered up the courage to speak to Ryoko without tripping over his words. “ I was wondering, if, you know. If…” He blushed, so cute! “ If you'd like to do something tomorrow after school, maybe, like… a date?" His last two words were forced out in a small, Rat-like squeak. He cleared his throat, and repeated his question. Sans the squeak.

“ I'd love to Yuki." Ryoko smiled when he blushed again. Rats. Hah! They were all the same, when it came to love, that is.

 

Cloudy again. Not exactly the perfect day for a date. Oh well. The weather had been so bad lately, which meant that Ryoko wasn't doing so good. The poor thing was in so much pain, but she refused to even look at her beads. Once again, they were back at Shigure's house, on Kyo's bookshelf. She thought that she didn't need them.

Yep, she's in denial.

Yuki waited by the school gates for Ryoko. The cold fall wind played with his hair, and he wrapped his jacket tighter around his wiry frame. He shifted his feet, as much from nervousness as from the cold, and blew into his hands to keep them warm. He longed for Ryoko to get there so that they could find some place warm to sit and have hot chocolate. Then he saw her.

Ryoko was walking toward him from the school entrance, her small black Chinese shoes clipping on the pavement. She was still wearing the boys' uniform, Yuki understood; he wouldn't want to wear a skirt either. He shuddered, but not from the cold, the student council president and his fangirls really scared him sometimes. Perhaps they just needed serious mental help. And Yuki was sure that wearing a skirt just to get rid of them wasn't going to work.

" Yuki!" Ryoko called out to him cheerfully. The strong wind blew her braids out, and she struggled to keep her hair out of her face. She was wearing short sleeves, the boys' summer uniform, and Yuki felt even colder just by looking at her. ' Brrr. how can she wear only that? I've got three layers on and I'M freezing!' he thought.

" Well, let's go shall we?" Yuki nodded, the sooner they got to the café, the better.

 

It was an enjoyable date. Ryoko and Yuki both shared with each other their favorite things to do; favorite things eat, and so on. They didn't talk much about their past, and that suited them both just fine.

" So, Christmas is coming up soon." Ryoko acknowledged, sipping her hot cocoa, breathing in the steam. " Does our family celebrate Christmas?" Yuki shook his pretty head, " No, we only celebrate the Chinese New Year."

Ryoko's eyes lit up, " Oh! New Year's! Oh, I can't wait! I love New Year's! It's always so fun. Father used to take Big Brother and I to the festival every year. It was spectacular; there were all these hanging lanterns, parades, oh! And one year there was even a Dragon dancer. It was so cool! And we'd have soba noodles and moon cakes until we were so full, we thought we couldn't eat another bite. Ha ha! Oh! And just last year, Big Brother let me have some sake. I was so drunk by the end of the night, like you wouldn't believe, it was hilarious!" Ryoko laughed out loud at her memories. Even Yuki smiled too, at least her childhood had been happy.

" You mentioned Christmas, Ryoko-san. Did your Father and Big Brother celebrate Christmas?" Ryoko smiled and laughed. Her eyes glowed with her memories of lantern lights and candles long since burned out and passed away. " Yes. We did. Father always got me cloths, ick! But Big Brother," here Ryoko sighed, as if seeing something only she could see, " he never really got me anything. Just some silly little thing, a bookmark, or a coffee mug. Something stupid like that. But, for these last few years, he's changed. He would get me anything I wanted, he just tried to make me happy. He just tried… to make me smile."

Ryoko's eyes looked sad, remembering her brother. How he had been the only Rat she'd ever known all her life. Gods, how they'd hated each other. But after Taichii…

 

She'd run, as far and as fast as she was able. Somehow, she found herself in Boston, Massachusetts. Her brother was going to college there, Harvard U. studying law and politics. Her eyes were dead, her heart was in danger of giving up, and her soul was in danger of going out like a flimsy candle flame in a strong wind.

The rough American English swept Ryoko away until she was completely lost in a crowd of college students all jostling and joking about classes and homework. " Hey, Gabriel. Isn't that your sister?" A voice pointed at her, picked her out from the crowd, and soon her Big Brother was there in front of her. Somehow, warm hands were lifting her up, holding her, comforting her, leading her away from the crowds and the noise and the strange smells.

" Ryoko, what are you doing here?" Her brother, Gabriel Sohma the Rat, had asked, " You're supposed to be in China." His Chinese was liquid softly spoken and poured from his lips like molten silver, precious and perfect. His red eyes looked down at her, his large hands on her frail shoulders; perfectly soft smiles turned to a frown of fatherly concern.

Gabriel was a tall man, his broad shoulders gave him a strong presence, and the kind people paid attention to. His Asian-tan skin was smooth and soft, like silk. His white hair, not silver or even grey, but white as foam on the sea, was shoulder length and hung into his brilliant red eyes; causing him to always be blowing strands of roaming hair out of his face, and adorable habit.

His manner was soft and tender, as though he was a young lover, intent on soothing the worries of his beloved as easily as smoothing the creases out of a bed sheet. He gently lifted up Ryoko as if she was no more than a doll, so great was his strength. Though it seemed to come from more of his strength of character, heart and soul, than from a strength of body.

Before he'd rescued her, taken her in or anything like that, they'd hated each other. Never speaking, always arguing, always yelling. But he'd cared for her after that, so much in fact, that those people who saw them together believed that they were lovers and not brother and sister.

 

Ryoko and Yuki returned uneventfully from the café, holding each other for warmth. Kyo growled somewhere deep in his throat when he saw them together. Of course, Yuki didn't know she was the Cat, but he should. But love, as usual, continued to be blind and oblivious to the most obvious and simple of things. Ah, young love.

 

It was dark. Yuki and Ryoko stood in the kitchen, so close they were almost touching. Ryoko's face was flushed and Yuki's was as well. This wasn't good, if Ryoko got any more embarrassed, she'd transform. " Y-You what, Yuki?" She asked, unable to comprehend what she'd just heard. " I love you." He repeated, his purple eyes glittering in the moonlight streaming in from the window. He leaned in toward her, and just as his lips barely brushed against hers'…

 

*POOF*

 

Ryoko looked up at Yuki from her spot on the floor among her settling clothes. Yuki looked down at her expecting to see a Rat. But no, a Rat's eyes were not the eyes that met his. A beautiful Siamese shorthaired Cat sat and stared up at him with hopeful eyes, eyes that asked Yuki to forgive her lie.

His face tightened. He whirled around and left the kitchen. Ryoko curled up on the floor, putting her paws over her furry face. Cats cannot cry, it is impossible for them to do so. So imagine the effort, and imagine the heartbreak of a young woman so pained by the loss of a loved one, that for even heartbreak, a Cat could shed tears.

 

Shigure could no doubt say that he's been with enough women to know when they're really crying and when they're faking it. He'd be wrong. Does any man, any man I say, really know enough to say when a woman's tears are real?

But that's where he found her, on the floor of the kitchen the next morning, still in her Cat form. He scooped her up and carried her upstairs to her room, laid her on her bed, folded her cloths and tiptoeing, left without a word so as not to wake her from her dreamless sleep.

 

Christmas Eve, a night of young lovers snuggling together in front of a warm hearth full of crackling red flames. A night of joyous occasion for many around the world. Except in Shigure's house. There were no Christmas lights, no tree, no decorations, no stockings or joyous songs to sing. Not even an exchange of gifts, though Ryoko had gotten something for all three men, she did not expect anything in return.

Ryoko had cried every night since Yuki stopped speaking to her, about a week. Her eyes were red and puffy, her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes hurt every time she even blinked. Heartbreak is such a painful thing, especially when you're young. It hurts, somewhere deep inside, even though you may have taken a vow to never let that person burrow themselves so deeply into your very soul. It hurts, and it hurt Ryoko very much that she had been rejected, but it hurt even more so that she had been rejected, not because of who she was, but because of what she was; the Cat. That, above all, was what pained her the most.

Something that must be understood about Ryoko is that she doesn't deal with depression very well. Not well at all. So… to put it lightly, Ryoko has a tendency toward suicide. Or, as one might call it, self-destructive behavior.

Another thing about Ryoko is that to combat her depression and it doesn't work very well, she writes in a diary. She writes a little every day, it's a routine that helps her deal with the stresses in her life, and believe you me, there are a lot of them. She not only had to deal with being a teenager; she has a curse to contend with as well. This is difficult. Very difficult.

 

" You want me to what?" The young man stared back at her. Akito, that was his name. A man of grays, a personality that would baffle even the most experienced physicians, Akito was completely mad. Off his rocker to say the least. Not to mention he was extremely hot. Which doesn't exactly improve matters, it just makes them better looking, that's all.

Akito was lounging in the doorway of his room, staring out into his garden. His robes wrapped tight around him to protect him from the early morning cold, white and purple, like frail irises in the first weeks of spring. His porcelain skin was so delicate, like thin ice, Ryoko half wondered how this young man was even still alive. His hair was as black as a raven's wing, as dark as the spaces between the stars on a cold winter night. Matching his eyes, pale blues and grays, like a frozen lake. A cold man, who wanted nothing more than to wrap his skinny hands around Ryoko's neck and simply squeeze until there were no more breaths left in her.

He knew about her, oh yes he did. Through gossip, trying to take his precious Yuki from him, that Cat-bitch. He hated Ryoko with such an unequaled passion, that Ryoko was surprised anyone even cared that much to be so angry with her.

Ryoko sat on the wall; she'd hoisted herself up from outside the estate. She was Cat-like, staring down at Akito as if she were God and not him. He hated her, plain and simple.

" I want you to kill me." Ryoko repeated, Akito's eyes glimmering. " A just punishment for trying to steal my precious Yuki from me. It's exactly what you deserve, you filthy, disgusting Cat." Akito motioned for Ryoko to enter his rooms, which she did, jumping off the wall and walking over to him with the footsteps of one resigned to their self-assigned fate. " How would you like to die?" Akito asked once Ryoko was standing in the room with him. " As painfully as possible." She replied, meeting his cold eyes with hers.

 

Pale hands, thought to be frail, but given part of a strange possessive strength that made the skin under them shiver. Pale hands, stronger than they first appeared, pushing, pulling, and stretching the other's skin. Pale hands, cold as ice, ripping out the sins from underneath the woman's breast. Akito's pale, pale hands gently stroked Ryoko's face. " You're ugly." His soft, malicious voice whispered into her ear, sending involuntary shivers down Ryoko's spine. So close they were touching, Ryoko was spread out on the tatami mats on the floor of the room, Akito was kneeling over her, digging his nails into her dark flesh. She did not cry out, but let him do as he wished, she knew that she deserved every bit of pain that she was receiving.

Ryoko wore a pale blue Japanese yukata kimono of thin summer fabric, with dark red flowers that bore more of a resemblance to blood than to the soft petals they were supposed to be. Sitting behind her, Akito ran his icy hands along her neck, down her shoulders, pulling down her kimono, leaving her bare dark skin exposed to the cold. He breathed cold breaths on her tingling, naked flesh, smirking like a devilish sprite when she writhed beneath his touch. Ryoko held back a cry of both twisted pleasure and acute pain when Akito bit his sharp teeth into the nape of her neck. He bit down again, harder this time. It was no longer pleasurable, tears leaked out the edge of Ryoko's eyes as his teeth sank deeper into her sensitive skin, drawing blood as red as the flowers on her kimono.

A thin trickle of blood ran down her back from the deep puncture in her flesh. Akito smirked, licking the blood off his lips and her skin, his tongue flicking, and drawing out the forbidden shivers and sensations that made Ryoko's blood boil and run hot. His tongue darted into her ear, making her chest tighten and her core ache.

Her breaths were cut short by the sinister silken touch of Akito's whip. He wrapped it artfully around her slender neck, snickering to himself at his insane genius. He pulled the whip tight, curling it beneath his fingers, twisting the cord against Ryoko's flesh. He suddenly yanked it, this way and that, trying to rip her breaths out of her very soul. The whip burned against her neck, she couldn't breathe. So tight, too tight. She couldn't see clearly, the room was spinning, she felt lightheaded. It hurt, like she'd never imagined anything hurting before. She never thought that anything in the whole world could hurt this much, that anything could bring her this much pain.

As the room started to fade Ryoko thought back to Kyo. To Shigure, and that house. To her Big Brother Gabriel, her Father, and the Mother she never knew. Her Mother had died in childbirth, giving Ryoko life. Ryoko was confident that if no one else in the world loved her, that at least her Mother in Heaven did. She thought she saw her Mother's smiling face swimming before her eyes like a phantom angel in a fleeting vision, she feebly reached a trembling hand upward, ' Mother…?' she silently wondered. An odd pain burst and bloomed at the base of her skull, and the world… went black…

 

To be continued…