Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Light in My Life ❯ Curses ( Chapter 13 )

Sailor Panda - You're not rambling at all -- in fact, I rather like when someone analyzes my work. ^_^ Thank you very much. The thought I'm working off of is in the same vein... now I know why your work is so good. ^_~

This chapter was rather interesting for me, a step as a person. Exploring an eccentric person's mind is an intriguing experience.

13: Curses

I had been sleeping since that crazy girl left. I remembered, somewhere in the back of my mind, Hatori's voice urging me to open my eyes or eat something, but my subconscious ignored it and so did I. It was a pleasant feeling, the feeling of losing all ties to your body. I felt detached, but the relief I had expected didn't come.

Damn them! I was suffering for them, I was dying for them! Damn those ungrateful animals! If I couldn't have happiness, then why should they? That's why I threw a pot into Hatori's eye. That's why I hit Kisa as I passed. That's why I hated that girl!

She wanted to give all of them happiness. She was my worst enemy, and she would pay for it. Oh, how she would pay! I had tried in my own way to warn her. That's what that was, that's what I was doing! I was protecting her from the pain she would suffer in this family, and the pain she would undoubtedly inflict upon them. Why couldn't they appreciate that? Why did they have to fight me the way they did? They were so ungrateful! What a pack of lecherous hounds.

I heard a voice, then. It was her: Honda Tohru. Akito cringed inside. I didn't want to hear this now. I just wanted to sleep, despite the anger I felt boiling up inside me. It was like a caged animal, a vicious flame that wanted to leap out and wreak havoc upon the quiet neighborhood outside.

I really didn't care at all about this stupid person. I heard her voice again. "Akito-san... Please, open your mouth," came a plea. I laughed inside. Yeah, like I was going to do what she asked. Did she know who she was talking to? Inferior little beast.

I had not anticipated my unconscious reaction. There was a smell; an aroma I had never encountered before. It was sugary, a very pleasant, mild scent. Closer to me there was the smell of miso soup, but it was different. It was of a perfume almost like the outdoors, as if I walking through a garden or a market of open-air produce markets. I could detect a faint breeze of a deep, mouth-watering spice, and I felt my mouth begin to tingle.

Then... I smelled something completely different. This was no food scent, no spice and no fresh vegetable. It was the aroma of flowers, complimented by a subtle fruit. It was sweet and alluring, as if it were a rose being held just beyond my reach.

"Do you need me to help you, Akito-san?" came the voice again. "Or... Please, eat something, Akito-san." And my mouth opened of its own accord.

I had tried to stop it, but I was too enraptured. Without sight and speech, your mind is rendered to your other senses. By now, my nose had completely overwhelmed me, and controlled the tiny piece of strength I had.

And, it was by far, the most delicious miso I have ever had in the entirety of my life.

***

Tohru almost let loose a cry of happiness as Akito suddenly opened his mouth. She slipped the wooden spoon inside, because chopsticks would have been too messy. He immediately closed on it, and Tohru's face grew bright and her eyes excited as Akito slowly began to chew.

Tohru had woken up early that morning. Yuki was still unaware of where she went in the mornings, but he never, ever pried into her private life. He safely assumed that she was going to one of her friends' houses for summer activities, and Kyou nor Shigure ever divulged any information to the mouse.

Kyou had seen her off, keeping his comments to himself. As usual, Tohru had made a rather generous breakfast, and set it in the refrigerator for the other men when they woke up. She had seemed so shaken the day before, he had hoped that she would give up her ridiculous escapade, but it seemed only to have steeled her resolve.

Hatori hadn't been surprised at her early arrival, because he rarely got much sleep anyway. But when she requested use of the kitchen for about an hour, not much had barred his way from obliging to the curious inquiry.

Tohru had spent the remainder of the morning buying fresh vegetables from the market and fixing the kitchen's rather depleted stock of spices and add-ins. She had made a small bowl of miso soup, a painstaking plate of salmon and yellow tail sashimi, and had candied a few ounces of banana.

Akito had been asleep, as expected, when she entered. Hatori warned her that her efforts were wasted, because the man simply would not eat anything. But as was characteristic, Tohru kept herself optimistic and found herself kneeling beside the clan head's futon.

Tohru removed the spoon from his mouth slowly, taking another dip into the dark brown bowl. Akito was resistant at first to open again, but something seemed to overrule his seemingly conscious rebellious actions.

The miso was gone in very little time, and Tohru lifted one of the small sashimi rolls with the chopsticks. "Should I cut it up, first?" she asked. There was no reply. She thought for a moment, then lightly pried apart the item. Taking one half with the chopsticks, she deftly rolled it into a smaller, more efficient ball before offering it to him.

"I didn't know if you liked sweets or not, Akito-san, but Shigure-san and Yuki-kun always seem to like candied banana, so I made some for you. I hope it's okay that I used the kitchen... Hatori-san said it would be alright, because Haru-kun and Momiji-kun always sleep pretty late, and he doesn't eat breakfast, and that Ri-chan-san and Kagura-san would probably eat at Shigure-san's house this morning, and Kisa-chan and Hiro-kun already ate..." Tohru continued on for some moments, before coming back to the task at hand.

She lifted the plate of sweets, lightly taking one for herself. She hadn't had one since school had let out the year before, and it was a rare treat. Shigure didn't particularly like bananas, and she didn't like keeping them around if no one ate them. He would eat them candied, of course, but never plain. "Too stringy. I hate the peels," he had said.

"They're candied bananas."

Akito sucked in air suddenly. The smell had been so familiar, so warm and comforting.

"Mother, what are those?" A small, navy-haired boy sat at the table, his face rather pudgy from his young age. The rest of his body was comparatively frail, but his mother paid no mind.

"Bananas," she replied with a gentle smile. Kneeling at the small child's table, she set down the plate of chilled, candied white discs. The abnormally small child took one in his tiny fingers, slipping it into his mouth. His mother sat silently, as if waiting for his reaction.

"Mmm," was all he said as he chewed the odd item. He took another, and soon the plate was empty.

"Stuffing yourself, I see," she said, her voice tinted with amusement. The boy gave her a rare smile, and was immediately engulfed in an embrace.

Akito could do nothing to repress the memory. He steeled his mouth against the food propped against his lips, but gave in all too quickly. He lacked the strength to reject it, and his mind had grown weary of crying curses at Tohru as she fed him. Tired of demeaning her existence with blissful thoughts of revenge, thoughts of things he couldn't imagine other people having.

It was his and his alone. His mind, his desires to dominate. He was the ultimate. He was their god.

And he was being hand fed by a girl. A girl who then fed him candied bananas, and smelled of roses and fruit, and spoke to him as he really was.

He hated her. He hated her for the strength returning to his numb limbs, he despised her for the fluttering of his lashes as his eyes opened, and the sudden awareness of everything around him.

How he cursed.