Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Musouka ~ Dare to Dream ❯ Holding Back the Tears ( Chapter 15 )

Chapter Fifteen

 

In the darkest hour the soul is replenished and given strength to continue and endure.

 

Heart Warrior Sohma - Year 1916

 

The Dragon

 

Holding Back the Tears

 

“Welcome Eriko, it's been some time since you've last visited.” Aunt Kita greeted Eriko as she stepped out of the car with Yuri, Sarah, and Dikatou. She was on crutches because of her ankle still after a week in the hospital. Ever since she found out that she was not a biological daughter of Sarah and Dikatou they suggested that she lived in the Sanotomono Estate because one, that was where many people could keep an eye on her, so if she showed any more signs of running they would know. Second, they knew she wouldn't feel comfortable living with them anymore, unfortunately, they were right.

 

“Where's my room?” Eriko asked plainly as Aunt Kita than called for a servant and the elderly woman with gray hair up in a loose bun and soft blue-grey eyes in a light green kimono led her to one of the houses in the Estate.

 

“Are you sure that it wouldn't be any trouble?” Sarah asked Aunt Kita with a hint of concern in her voice. Dikatou followed Eriko and the servant carrying the luggage. Yuri was looking at the ground with a blank expression. Her sarcastic eyes were now covered in agony and sadness.

 

“Of course not, but it was your choice to have her live here now was it not? Not to mention she has to change schools,” Aunt Kita said, the Estate was about ten miles away from Kaibara High School, while about twenty from Yuukata High School. Yuri and Eriko had been enrolled in Yuukata's school district since they were in Kindergarten, it seemed a shame that she was being enrolled into a completely different school, but maybe she should start thinking positive, maybe she could make some friends! But Yuri doubted that, now that she had her first symptom, she was probably going to be more distant and zoned out from the rest of the world.

 

“Eriko!” Eriko looked to her left to see Kaede, her hair was cut obviously and had it cut neatly to her shoulders, from the back of her head to the front, it was the same length, her bangs went down to her eyebrows though. She was sitting cross-legged on a porch facing the path that ran inside the Estate walls, she seemed to be reading, to no other than Mei. The white-haired girl looked up at Eriko brightly and suddenly jumped up and hugged Eriko. If it weren't for the curse affecting both of them, Eriko would have transformed.

 

“It's only been a few days and look what happens, you end up living here…sorry about what happened though…” Kaede mumbled under her breath, knowing Eriko would catch it anyway. “Mei is sorry too,”

 

“Whatever,” Eriko growled as she continued to follow the servant, leaving Kaede and Mei.

 

“We're going to have to keep a better eye on her Mei,” Kaede pointed out, receiving a nod in agreement.

 

“Here's your room, right next to library for it seems that Mistress Mei had found your approval of books,” the servant said as she slid a door open and revealed a bare room to her except it had only a futon, a squat dresser, and a mirror. Eriko suppressed a sigh as she walked to her new bed and put her crutches on their side and slumped on her futon face-first.

 

“Now don't suffocate yourself Eriko-chan,” her Uncle Dikatou (he said he was really her Uncle, Sarah her aunt and Yuri her cousin) said. Eriko replied with a `whatever' and showed no sign of waving good-bye. “Take care Eriko,” Dikatou said before he and the servant left, leaving the door open a crack. Eriko looked up at the door, on the verge of sniffing; her heart immediately filled with homesickness. She hopped to her door and peered out.

 

“Bye,” Yuri said with a fake brightness to it from the window of the seat in the car. Her aunt and uncle waved as the car drove away till the fence surrounding the estate vanished. Now she truly regretted not saying good-bye. Her ears heard Kaede's soft voice read to Mei, it was strange, a thirteen-year-old reading to a nineteen-year-old? They were really attached, much like she and Yuri, but not as much as she and Kyo.

 

Why was a born this way? Why was I cursed? Why were any of us cursed? Eriko thought as another wave of homesickness severed her heart like a needle broke the skin. She looked down at the floor; her leg lowered a little. Why had so many have to suffer each generation, the world alone suffered much from other encounters, and the curse was not helping that suffering in any way possible.

 

Kyo…you never came back… she thought, ever since the day she first awoke in the hospital, Kyo said he would come back, but he hadn't. Did he not have time? As if, he spends most of it sulking on the roof. Or did he just, not want to see her anymore? That was probably it, but what sense did she have to go on. She saw nothing great in her future if it continued this way, in fact, she feels miserable! Did she even have the right to feel happy?

 

“Good grief you look like someone died,” she jumped and looked up at the crack in the doorframe, demonic crimson eyes stared back at her through the crack. “You know, it's easier to talk when the door's open, it has to look awkward for me to just stand here and to have passerbys think I'm talking to a shoji!”

 

Kyo! She could hardly believe it! She had to use every ounce of self-control as to not pounce on his and hug him in a similar way of strangling as she slid the door open. “Where…erm, where have you been?” she asked, he frowned.

 

“It's not exactly my fault whenever I came to see you that you were sound asleep and the nurse was about to launch a spasm attack on me if I even prodded your arm with a finger.” Kyo said dryly, she couldn't help but giggle.

 

“Yo Kyo my man! How's that hair goin'? Orange is quite dominant to green so I had to use a lot of my dying potions to get through straight in the shampoo you used that so happened to be Eriko's shower so it was easy to proceed with my plan.” Kyo and Eriko looked over his shoulder at a very sly-looking Kaede; a grinning Mei was next to her.

 

“That took me days to get out you little brat!” Kyo screeched as he lunged for the shorthaired girl, she stuck out her tongue as she darted away, Kyo chased after her.

 

“Should we stop this stranger from tackling our young Kaede-chan?” one of the maid's asked another. The other maid watched as the two ran around in circles.

 

“I would rather keep all my limbs till my funeral thank you,” the maid said, both sweat-dropping before picking up their stuff and walking away whistling.

 

Meanwhile, Eriko and Mei watched as the two ran. Mei looked up at Eriko with a baffling gaze.

 

“She sabotaged by shampoo so when Kyo used it in the shower his hair turned green, you can figure out the rest yourself.” Eriko explained dully. Mei nodded and watched the resumed and never seemly ending run.

 

“Gotcha ya little runt!” Kyo grunted as he slammed down on Kaede and rammed her into the ground.

 

“Yow! All right all right! You win now get off of me!” Kaede shouted as she squirmed under the seventeen-year-old.

 

“Not until you apologize!”

 

“What is there to apologize for?”

 

“DON'T PLAY DUMB!”

 

“No, really?”

 

“Does green bring anything to mind?”

 

“Let me think…”

 

“…” Eriko and Mei eyed the thinking Kaede, Kyo breathing harshly.

 

“Oh yeah! What a great thing I did for you, well more for me anyway, it was for school really. We were talking about recessive and dominant genes so I decided I would try a recessive color on a dominant color like your hair just to experiment.” Kaede explained proudly.

 

“FOR SCHOOL! I SERIOUSLY DOUBT THAT BECAUSE YOU DYED HARU'S AS WELL!” Kyo roared.

 

“It was too tempting,” Kaede answered.

 

“What is wrong with you? You little-” Kyo and Kaede continued to wrestle on the ground, it came to the point that Eriko grabbed her crutches and began going towards them.

 

“Hey!” Eriko growled, Mei watched from the same spot she was in, with concern in her eyes.

 

“Hello!” Eriko called again, they still fought, making no notice of her.

 

“I'M TALKING TO YOU TWO!” Eriko roared, they stopped, becoming as stiff as boards as they stared up at her.

 

“Well, talk to her.” Kaede said.

 

“Why do I have too?” Kyo asked back.

 

“Because she's your girlfriend,” Kaede answered back slyly.

 

“SAID WHO!”

 

“Actions explain more than words my dear superior,” Kaede said with a fake salute.

 

“What? You finally realize you're just an idiot that has the nerve to dye peoples hair?” Kyo asked sarcastically.

 

“No, she figured that out a while ago.” Eriko stated, Kaede nodded in agreement. Kyo sweat-dropped.

 

“All right, see ya crazy lovebirds!” Kaede laughed as she slid under Kyo and ran up to Mei and ran away tugging her behind.

 

“She's a hopeless case, was sent to Norikoto Mentally Challenged Junior High for a year now,” Eriko sighed.

 

“Yeah she is-SHE WAS SENT TO WHERE!” Kyo cried as her statement sank into him. She turned to him with a strange smile.

 

“It was a joke,” she said as she went for her room, Kyo followed, grumbling curses under his breath. “I can hear you,” he jumped, since when did she have good hearing?

 

“How?” he asked.

 

“Never shall I tell,” she whispered with her right forefinger to her lips.

 

“Really? Not a soul?” Kyo asked as he leaned towards her a bit, shutting the door behind them.

 

“Nope, you won't be an exception,” Eriko pointed out as she laid her crutches on their sides and laid down to rest. “Hopping around on those things tires you out.”

 

“They can't be that bad,” Kyo said.

 

“Than you have the sprained ankle and the crutches and don't give them back till that ankle of mine is healed.” Eriko said, putting her head down on the pillow. “How did you get in anyway?”

 

“Through the front gate duh! That woman, Kita I think her name was said your uncle told her that someone by the name Sohma may come around and visit you.” Kyo explained.

 

“But how did you know where to find me?”

 

“Your aunt told me over the phone,” Kyo answered, than he looked at Eriko with concern. “Mind telling me what's going on? Before I left I heard Yuri say `take care of my cousin', but it couldn't have possibly have been Kaede, and I also noticed you weren't with them. I knew you left the hospital by this time.” Eriko sighed and sat up as he sat down next to her.

 

“I found out that Dikatou and Sarah aren't my actual parents…” Eriko said, Kyo looked at her with wide eyes. To think they had so much in common… “And Yuri is actually just an older cousin…”

 

“Sorry…”

 

“There's nothing to be sorry about,” Eriko whispered as she subconsciously leaned on Kyo for support of her heavy heart. “It's me that I should truly be worried about, I saw something I shouldn't have and I did something that would never give me complete control over my life…”

 

“You saw a tattered body?” Kyo asked, she nodded. Her bangs shadowing her face. “I never saw one myself…” Flashes of faces like Akito and Tohru's two different expressions when they saw his evil form drifted into his mind. “…but I think there are worse things than that, like the girl that witnessed the tattering…” There are far worse things than death, most unspeakable… “How do you think she felt, standing there alone with no mother, no father, no brother nor sister, with a mad teenage boy with a crazed hunger for blood in front of her?”

 

“I wouldn't know…” There is so much I wouldn't know, so much I wish to know has remained unanswered to me for years... Eriko thought. "But I know how it feels to run away…it causes nothing but pain and confusion…”

 

“You must have been her guardian angel right there, suddenly appearing by her side to defend her, call yourself whatever you want…but you're a savior in her eyes I bet…” A great person in my eyes as well…

 

“I can't be anyone's savior, I can't even call myself that girl's savior, I left her to rot in the grass to run away from that scene-”

 

“After making sure there would be no further harm near her,” As much as you would like to deny it, there is so much you can do without even realizing it, for instance, you have captured my heart and soul with a few simple words…

 

“You bumped into her!”

 

I love Tohru; I would die for her… Akito came to his mind; his disgruntled look as if he had seen the Yeti attempt to smash a dove he had once held.

 

I was so happy when you smiled,

 

Your smile breaks through the clouds of grey,

 

“Kyo…?”

 

“Hm?”

 

“Thanks…” You gave me a reason to live on, a chance to show someone how I really feel without getting hurt…

 

“For what?”

 

Far from the sunny days that lie in sleep.

 

“For being there…even if you failed, you still tried…” Eriko answered, snuggling into his shirt, he blushed slightly.

 

“Yeah well…that's what friends are suppose to do right?” Kyo asked through two shades of bright crimson.

 

“I suppose…”

 

Waiting with patiences for the spring,

 

When the flower will bloom renewed again.

 

It's the Fox!

 

She's `his' spy, she must be spying on us to report to `him'!

 

Would she really do that?

 

She didn't want to be part of the Zodiac in the first place remember?

 

So the legend is correct?

 

Of course! The Fox thought she was too good for us and refused the `God's' offer!

 

Knowing there's more beyond the pain of today.

 

“You know…I'm beginning to think of you as more than a…friend…” he said. She smiled, her cuddling motions forced him to lie down, giving her a chance to listen to the steady beating of his cardiac walls within his ribcage. For a moment he was shocked by her actions. But he brushed it aside and put his left hand behind his head and rubbed her back with his right.

 

“Me too…”

 

Although the scars of yesterday remain,

 

You can go on living as much as your heart believes.

 

I guess from now on…I can think freely for myself for the mean time…but with Kyo here, with me…I don't think I have any reason to run away, course, I could be wrong, he'll possibly reject me as soon as he finds out about…me… The flash images of her bloodstained clawed hands flashed in front of her eyes. Kyo smiled as he closed his eyes for a moment, but not asleep. Unconsciously, she began stroking his stomach, and for some odd reason…Kyo began to purr.

 

You can't be born again although you can change,

 

Let's stay together always.

 

She sniffed slightly, remembering the loss of the people she grew up with and held back tears. She looked up at Kyo's face, it was peaceful and calm, but somehow, she preferred the short-tempered Kyo over this one, but she couldn't resist the attempt to curl up next to him. Her right hand still stroking his stomach through his shirt's fabric. The purring vibrating off his chest felt and sounded wonderful, like a soothing melody that calmed one's nerves. She smiled to herself; maybe…just maybe…life now was worth living…

 

Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba...

 

“This is going to be great blackmail…” Kaede laughed to herself silently as she focused the lens of her camera on the two lovebirds. With one click, she hurried away just as the soft sound rang in Eriko's ears, but she ignored it and felt whatever it was she would deal with it later.

 

Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba...

 

…it certainly must be worth living…with the people you care about most at your side till the end if they stayed…

 

Yeah, it certainly will be worth living even if she will one day run away from those dearest…