Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Jaded By Rain ❯ Jaded By Rain ( Chapter 8 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

The wheels have been set in motion for the final obstacle to be overcome, yourself. When you're Jaded, it's hard to be just like everybody else. It's hard to fit in, hard to grow up, and hard to move on. Even though being Jaded makes you unique and special, you always have the choice about whether or not to be just like everybody else. But for those people who have always been different, always been Jaded, no price would be too much to pay for normalcy.

Anime/Manga: Fruits Basket Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 03.13.2005 | Pages: 5 | Words: 6.4K | Visits: 189 | Status: Completed

Jaded By Rain

By, Jamie1317kast

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, Yueh Sohma, Saizo Chung, and if any other of my characters pop up I'll let you know. The poem that appears at the end, " Jaded by Rain" was written and is copyrighted to me. Anything that is blatantly not mine, such as quotes by other people, I do not own. And all go to their respective owners and stuff…

Rated R for adult situations and just in case.

Jaded By Rain:

The next two months that Ryoko and Kyo spent at Gabriel's Lake House, were filled with laughter. Ryoko ate with the ravenous appetite of a healthy pregnant woman and Kyo practiced his skills in martial arts.

Gabriel watched over the pair, a soft smile on his lips. He knew that Taichii and Akito had both taken up residence in China. He knew that Akito was biding his time, waiting for Ryoko's child to hurry up and be born so he could steal it from her. Gabriel was only lucky that the bastards after Ryoko and Kyo had no idea that he knew that they were in China. This was to Gabriel's advantage.

It was sometime in August; the heat rolled in through the house, leisurely making all work come to a complete halt. The air was heavy with the promise of coming rain, but for now the sky was a blinding blue, the sun beating heavily down onto the earth. The heat rose up in waves off the grass and the bugs trilled on lazily.

Kyo lay under a sakura tree, a book over his face, taking a Catnap. He had been practicing in his new karate uniform when the heat had gotten to be too much for him. His pants were rolled up to his knees and his shirt was bundled up behind his head, making a soft pillow.

Gabriel was sitting on the porch overlooking the gardens, fanning himself. His damp hair clung to his dark forehead, and his red eyes were half-open. His yukata was hanging around his waist and his long legs were spread out in front of him.

Ryoko was lying in her and Kyo's room on their futon. While the other occupants of the house, both men and the servants, were all holed up somewhere trying to get cool and half asleep; Ryoko was wide awake. There were no fans running in her room, the heat rose in waves off her dark, bare flesh. Ryoko lay, completely naked save for her beads, staring up at the ceiling.

She lifted her hands slowly and laid them on her round belly. She gently caressed the skin, soothed it with soft whispers, and promised it that its time would come soon. She closed her eyes and listened to the voices of all the past Cats swirling around in her head.

Look at her, can you believe she's gotten this far?

She's actually married.

She's pregnant.

Lucky.

Her ordeal isn't over, so I wouldn't be celebrating just yet.

What does she have left to do, do you think?

She has to face her past.

And herself.

She can't run from the truth forever.

That's right, she's a Cat.

And the Cats may very well be the most cursed of us all.

But she'll do it, won't she?

Do what?

What are you talking about?

Do… you know, IT.

Oh…

That's right, do IT.

" Do what?" Ryoko was now annoyed with the voices. They were talking in some sort of code on purpose just to piss her off. Well, she wouldn't fall for it, she couldn't risk getting stressed now, and her baby was almost here.

Your becoming.

The Final Task.

And then, after that…

You won't be Jaded any more.

Ryoko was about to ask the voices, even though talking to them only encouraged them to talk back even more, what the bloody Hell they were talking about, when something hit her. The pain exploded in Ryoko's lower back, spasming until just when she thought she couldn't take it anymore, it stopped. And then it started again a few minutes later.

Her eyes flew open. The baby was coming, and the baby was coming now. ' Oh God, oh God, oh God.' Ryoko thought.

Oh God.

When the next contraction hit, since Ryoko couldn't get up without assistance, she screamed. She had wrapped a blanket around her body, preserving what modesty she had left.

Both Gabriel and Kyo's heads snapped up, they both came running to her side. Kyo was the first through the door, " Ryoko!" he cried out to her, going to her side. Gabriel was not far behind him.

" Ryoko, what's wrong?" Kyo knelt by her and held her hand. She turned her pain-filled eyes to him, " The baby." She whispered above the pain. " Our baby, Kyo, he's ready."

Kyo's eyes practically bugged out of his head. Their baby, his baby, was coming. Oh, God, his baby was coming now. ' Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!' Were the words racing across Kyo's mind?

Oh shit.

Gabriel calmly crossed the room and picked up his sister, blanket and all. " I have a room prepared for you, Xiao Mei. Kyo-san, you will follow me. Since it has been, presumably, seven months instead of nine, I can only deduct the child is Jynunshi. Therefore, I will not run the risk of calling a doctor. Though I wish to do so."

Kyo accepted all this without comment, following Gabriel down the hallways. Ryoko whimpering in his arms.

Kyo paced outside the door, back and forth. Gabriel sat across from the door, calm and collected save for his wringing his hands. Their nervousness poured off them in torrents. They had both tried to help Ryoko, but she was determined to do it herself, even if it killed her.

Gabriel knew that Ryoko was nervous, it was her first child after all. Besides, this was the way their mother had died, giving birth to Ryoko. So, of course, they had every right to be worried.

When Ryoko had kicked them out, she had managed to say something above the pain of another contraction. " A birthing room…ow… is no place…ow… for men. Ow!" Determined as they had been to help her, Ryoko wouldn't hear of it. So she kicked them out.

Women.

The hours slid by, Ryoko's labor lasting long into the night and into the next day. Kyo, she had allowed in to bring her food. Ryoko was exhausted and in constant pain. When the sun set on the second day, Gabriel knew that something was terribly wrong. No woman should be in labor for that long without something being the matter. But we have to keep in mind that Gabriel is a man, and no matter how cool his character is, that will never change.

Men.

But even Ryoko had to admit that there was something wrong when her labor lasted all the next day and into the evening. It had been three days since her first contraction, and Ryoko knew that something was indeed, terribly, terribly wrong.

She practically jumped out of her skin when Akito entered the room, but by that point, she didn't have enough energy to order him out. He came over to her, and, with a disgusted look on his face, asked her what in all the seven Hells was taking her so damn long.

She managed a weak glare before her resolve faded and the pain returned. " The baby…" She gasped, " He's… turned around. The wrong… way."

Akito saw her looking at him, in such a way that could not be refused. Akito may have been a madman, but deep down inside, he was not without a heart. Albeit, though it was about three sizes too small, he had one, it was there. Not only that, but the baby Ryoko was struggling to have belonged to him.

It was time, time for the baby to be born. All the weight of the world and of the Curse of the Jynunshi itself pushed down upon Ryoko's stomach. Wrinkling his nose in disgust and rolling up his long, black sleeves, Akito came to her aid.

As her God, the God of all Jynunshi both loved and hated; Akito saved Ryoko and the baby. Bringing the baby safely into the world and keeping it's mother with it.

If the readers are curious about how he saved her, read this. If not, don't. It's pretty ugly and gross. Not to mention OOC.

(To be more graphic: He reached up inside of her and turned the baby around. Then he cut along the birth canal to allow the baby more room to be born.)

Akito, his arms and hands soiled with birth blood, stood up and handed the baby to its exhausted mother. Ryoko took the child, cradling it in her arms, cooing softly. Though tired beyond belief, she forced her eyes to stay open long enough to see her beautiful child.

It was a boy; his eyes were still closed. Ryoko took up a washcloth from the bedside table and washed her little boy clean. She held him gently, marveling at his tiny beauty. She'd felt like she was trying to pass a large mini van through her birth canal. Her dark fingers smoothly caressing his soft white skin, Ryoko wondered if she had been this small when she was born.

Then, he opened his eyes. Blinking them once or twice, then smiling. The boy giggled, his small cheeks rounding with innocent amusement at the sky blue of his mother's eyes. A small tuft of silvery hair stood on end on the crown of the boy's head and his deep purple eyes glowed softly in the day's darkening light.

A Rat-child.

Ryoko smiled, feeling sleepy and contented. " Yueh." She whispered into the boy's ear. " That's your name. Yueh."

Before the tired mother could move to stop him, Akito snatched the small Rat-child out of her arms. " You don't deserve to be the mother of a Rat-child, you ugly Cat-bitch." Akito hissed at her, clutching Yueh tightly in his arms.

Ryoko struggled to sit up, her strength failed her and she fell back against her pillows. " No, please… my baby, my son. Yueh!"

Akito glared at her once more in disgust and strode purposefully from the room, leaving in his wake a burdening dread. A fear that Ryoko would never again see her beloved son.

Akito, nor Taichii, who had been outside waiting for him, did not get far. Gabriel and his awesomely cool horde of ninjas swooped down upon the bad guys and kicked their asses.

Gabriel's ninjas took the unconscious men with them in their cool get-away ninja cars. Gabriel smiled to himself, holding the baby.

It was certainly the way to go all right, ambushed by a pack of ninjas. Heading back into the house, Gabriel chuckled to himself; " It does not get much cooler than that." He smiled mischievously.

That night, Ryoko and Kyo lay together on their futon. Yueh was sleeping peacefully in his little crib not far from his parents. The night air was heavy with the approaching rain, the clouds blowing across the sky with the wind.

Ryoko was taking up one whole side of the large futon, and Kyo the other. Ryoko slept like a log, she had every right to, believe me. However, Kyo was tossing and turning in his sleep.

His dream wracked him with images from his past, most of them painful. And subconsciously Kyo knew that his and Ryoko's journey was not over yet.

Kyo was lying in the sand, naked. The sky seemed impossibly close and the air felt so heavy. Sitting up to preserve what modesty he had left, Kyo looked around. He didn't see anything except desert for miles and miles in every direction. The Sun beat down on his bare back, and Kyo winced from the pain.

A figure appeared in the distance, approaching Kyo. Though it was still a long way off, Kyo chalked it all up to lack of sleep and a mirage. The heat waves gave the distant figure a hazy quality, obscuring its features.

Finally it got close enough for Kyo to see that it was a woman. Her dark, African skin complimented her long black hair. Her eyes were black as well, and her ears were pointed and pierced. Her face had a Cat-like quality, a long tail swished behind her, and sharp nails adorned her fingers. The woman was barely wearing anything, a fact that made Kyo turn his face away and blush. Her revealing white robe was accented by the heavy jewelry that adorned her ears, shoulders, arms and legs.

" You are Sohma Kyo, are you not?" The woman spoke in a tongue forgien to Kyo, but somehow he understood her. He nodded. " Yeah, that's me."

" And you are your family's Cat?"

Kyo didn't bother to ask how she knew; she was only a dream vision after all. He replied. " Yeah."

The woman's intense gaze studied him, and Kyo blushed anew, remembering that he was naked. Though this was a dream, sure enough it was, Kyo had the strange feeling that whatever this strange woman had to tell him was very, very important to his immediate future.

" I am going to tell you how to lift the curse from you and your wife."

Kyo blinked, " You are?" He asked skeptically.

" But why us, I mean not that I mind it's us, but… why not that damn Yuki or even Hatori? Why the Cats, I mean, Hell, no one even likes the Cats, so why us?"

She met his questioning gaze with her serious one. " Because the Cats are the only ones capable of breaking your family's curse. If you and your wife follow my instructions exactly, you will no longer be Jaded."

Kyo sat, digesting this new information. He'd give anything to not be cursed, to not be burdened with his true form. And he was sure that Ryoko felt the same way about her true form that he felt about his.

The woman sighed and began to tell Kyo what he should do. He was to journey to the town of Chengdu, China. That town was in the foothills of the Chinese mountains. And in that specific range of mountains was the mountain where the Zodiac Banquet was originally held in honor of the great lord Buddha before he left the Earth for Heaven. Buddha's Palace resided on Phoenix Mountain.

Kyo nodded, understanding. Even if it was all just a prank played on him by his subconscious, Kyo didn't much care. He'd journey around the world if he had to, to be freed of his family's curse.

Consciousness started to claim Kyo, and he faded out of the desert with a determined smile on his face. He was going to kick the Sohma family curse right in its ass.

Smiling to herself, Bastet, the Goddess of love and of all Cats, watched him go.

Ryoko looked at Kyo like he was completely off his rocker, the mad hatter. She sighed, " Kyo, dear, are you sure you're feeling all right upstairs?" She gestured to his head.

Kyo shrugged it off, a smile plastered across his teenage face. " I'm not joking, this woman came to me in my dream-."

" Was she beautiful?"

" Yes."

Raised eyebrows.

" But that's not the point! The point is that she told me how to break the curse! Come on, Ryoko, you've at least gotta believe me." Kyo implored her; Ryoko glanced over at Gabriel.

They were sitting in the kitchen. Ryoko shook her head, smiling. Kyo had been like this since he'd woken up, all worked up and ecstatic about some crackpot idea about breaking the family curse. Ryoko had given him every single excuse she could think of about just how stupid and completely insane his idea was, but she couldn't dissuade him.

Not to mention she'd give anything to not be cursed herself. Any one of the Zodiac felt that way, there wasn't one among them who really enjoyed their curse, there were not exceptions. And it was only Chengdu that Kyo was talking about; it wasn't that far away. Ryoko sighed, running a hand through her hair.

" All right. I'll go with you."

Kyo stopped trying to convince her he wasn't mad. " You will?" He asked, not completely sure he had heard her correctly. Even Gabriel looked surprised, but he smiled, knowing his sister, and left the room.

" You want me to go, then I'll go. Gabriel can look after Yueh while we're gone, and besides, what have we got to lose?"

Kyo smiled, knowing that they had nothing to lose. Or at least, he hoped. Though inside, Kyo really had bigger concerns. His true form, she'd never even seen it. If they really did rid themselves of their curse, she'd never see it. And then she'd never accept him, though Kyo desperately wished her to.

They stood in a small clearing, the rain pouring down on them. They were both so tired from the excitement of having a baby, the long drive to Chengdu, the hike to the trailhead, and now the hike up the mountain ahead of them. They had stopped to rest when the rain had started; making them even more tired than they already were. Kyo groaned, he hated the rain.

Finally, once and for all, a question formed in Kyo's mind. He was going to ask her for better or for worse about his true form. But before he could say a word, Ryoko got up from where she was sitting, and crossed the clearing to him

Standing before him, Kyo held his breath. " I love you Kyo." He started to respond but she held up a hand to stop him. " I love you, Kyo. All of you." He doubtfully met her eyes.

" No one could love all of me, I'm ugly."

" But I do."

Now Kyo was angry, it was the rain he supposed, working him up like this. Why did Ryoko insist on loving him, no matter what? His true form was ugly and disgusting and there wasn't a person alive who could really accept him like that. Not even Kagura had been able to, and she loved Kyo a whole lot.

Before he could say another word, Ryoko hugged him. Latching one arm around him, and reaching for his left wrist with the other. She would prove her love for him whether he liked it or not.

Kyo saw her hand lash out towards his beads, but he didn't have time to pull his wrist away. Her face was buried against his chest, her hand gripping his beads. She pulled.

The beads fell away, landing on the wet grass.

Kyo screamed, " DON'T LOOK AT ME!"

Ryoko would not let go. She held onto him through his transformation. Kyo was stunned. Her face still buried in his chest, Ryoko hugged him tightly with both arms. " I love you, Kyo." She repeated. " You're beautiful and I love you."

" Don't lie to me." Kyo painfully replied. " Don't lie to me. If I were really beautiful, you'd look at me. You're not looking."

Ryoko shifted, looking up into his twisted face. " You're beautiful." She half whispered. Kyo started to protest but she placed a hand over his hard lips, " Shhh…it's all right Kyo. I love you so much. You really are beautiful."

Kyo had the distinct impression that she was telling the whole truth, all the truth and nothing but the truth. As much as his family had always told him how ugly he was, he couldn't shake the feeling that what Ryoko was saying was true.

Then, she kissed him. She kissed his face, the crown of his head. Caressing his arms and back, letting him know that there was not a part of him that she did not or could not love.

Kyo reached for his beads and slipped them back on. Ryoko was suddenly confronted with a shirtless human Kyo. He looked at her, tears mingling with raindrops on his face. He kissed her, " You have no idea just how much I needed to hear that." He smiled. It was Ryoko's turn to smile at him.

" Yes I did."

" Oh. Yeah. I knew that!" Said Kyo, returning to his normal emotional state. Suddenly and with renewed vigor, Kyo jumped up.

" Race you to the top!" He called back over his shoulder, running out of the clearing and onto the mountain path.

" You're on!" Ryoko shouted back, racing along after him, laughing.

They returned to Chengdu several hours later, to see Gabriel waiting by the car with Yueh in his arms. The rain had passed some hours ago into the west, out toward a land with no worries and no troubles.

Gabriel was glad to see them returning safely, soaking wet, but safe none the less. He handed the two of them a pair of towels, and watched them dry off. They seemed to be in good spirits, which was always a good sign. Then he noticed that neither of them was wearing their Cat's beads.

" Why do you two not have your Cat beads with you?" He asked, genuinely perplexed. Had it actually worked?

Ryoko and Kyo shared smiles with each other. " Oh, don't you know? We don't need them anymore." Ryoko's grin spread wider.

" Yeah." Kyo seconded. " We're free."

Free. That had a nice ring to it, Ryoko decided. ' I like that. Free, we're finally free.' A bubble of laughter escaped her lips, and the others joined in. They piled into Gabriel's car and headed home, the radio playing a soft melody.

Self-confident, I don't need to ask why.

Lifting my face, raising my hands to the sky.

Washing away the mud-covered pain,

Cooling, gentle touch, I've been jaded by rain.

Stretching out, receiving sweet wet kisses.

Living our dreams, the way everyone wishes.

Smiling and laughing, no contract to sign,

Splashing through moments, leaving pain behind.

Sing outloud to the music in your head,

Cleanse your past of the stains of blood red.

Come clean, cast off each sin,

Close your eyes, feel the rain on your skin.

I won't go back to a past that's faded,

Fling out my arms, I love being jaded.

Look back, notice that your footprints of pain

Have come and have gone, washed away by the rain.

"Free at last, Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are Free at last!"

~~~~~~

I just wanted to thank you all, my readers and my inspiration. (Furuba, duh.) Usuki and Purple_Pixie, my reviewers. And my RPGer, Kirenia. Who, without which, none of this fic would be possible. I loved writing it, and I've been in a complete Shigure mood ever since I started.

I'm now looking for a career as a writer. Aside from the fact that my Shigure impressions have been driving my family nuts, I think it's a good idea.

Well, all good things must come to an end, and I just wanted to thank everybody. And to tell you that if you've read and haven't reviewed. Well, you should.

So, alas, I must leave you now. Hopefully the story was to everybody's liking, I know it was to mine.

Sayonara, I hope to write another fic soon! Ja ne minna-san!

~ The Authoress