Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Revelations ❯ Summoned ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Describing Yuki's asthma's easy--I know from personal experience. Blea-a-ah...!

DISCLAIMER--I don't own `em, and can't really afford `em. ::sigh::

Chapter 4 - Summoned

“What...has...he...done...!”

Kyo looked around in sudden concern as the soft, overly breathy sound of Yuki's voice registered. His eyes widened and he threw himself down to kneel by Yuki when he saw the wide-eyed nezumi on his knees, clutching his chest and gasping for breath. “Oh, no, no-no-no--calm down, dammit, you kuso nezumi! Oh, man--!” Kyo's hands waved uselessly about. Yuki fought the urge to laugh at the comically panicked look on Kyo's face--he didn't have the breath for it.

When Kyo started to get up, distractedly muttering something about Shigure and Hatori, Yuki grabbed his arm and gave him a pleading look, forcefully shaking his head `no'. He kept hold of Kyo's arm as he braced his other hand on his thigh, concentrating hard on slowing his gasping breaths; if he could just calm down, he'd be all right in a little while...and he wouldn't have to use his inhaler, which knocked him for a loop each time he used it.

Kyo watched him, undecided, for a couple moments, until he realized that Yuki seemed to be getting the attack under control. Both young men relaxed somewhat when Yuki had his breathing nearly back to normal, if still a bit short, a few minutes later. Kyo closed his eyes and bowed his head for a moment, sighing with obvious relief, resting with his hands braced on his thighs.

Yuki fought the desire to just pass out right then and there. Kyo would likely have a full-fledged panic attack if he did. Amusing as the thought was, he wouldn't be conscious to be entertained by the sight.

He blushed and released Kyo's arm when he realized he was still holding on; he was nervous about setting off the neko's touchy temper. His mind had realized that at least part of that was learned behavior to camouflage Kyo's real personality; but after so many years, it had obviously become a very strong habit--as was his own usually negative response to it.

Not that he'd ever been overly demonstrative, himself; but he couldn't find it in him to be even mildly annoyed at the neko just then, and hugging him had been--comforting to himself, as well as calming to Kyo. After a lifetime stuck all alone up on a pedestal, held up to the highest possible standards by the rest of the clan, the simple action of hugging someone was nearly a foreign experience for him. Always before, the few times he'd tried to initiate such contact, he'd been turned away--by his parents, by his brother; by Akito's jealous responses when he found out...

And Kyo had likely received even fewer physical expressions of affection than Yuki had--unless Kazuma-sensei was a great deal less reserved in private with his adoptive son than he was in public. Akito was hardly the first Clan Head to wish the neko-cursed shunned; the Neko's House had been built more than five centuries ago. It was long ingrained with those in the clan who knew of the curse that the neko was “evil;” a “disgusting monster” to be avoided at all costs, even when they didn't know about the physical transformation of the neko's second curse.

No one would take the first step in trying to get to know the person bearing that curse. Even those who didn't know a thing about the Jyuunishi curse would follow the Clan Head's lead in shunning a specific family member, never questioning the reason for it.

That was just the way things were.

Yuki started when Kyo gave a long-suffering sigh, rolling his eyes briefly ceiling-wards. Then he nearly surprised Yuki into another asthma attack; he threw an arm about the nezumi's shoulders and gave him a brief, entirely unexpected hug, before levering the both of them to their feet. His strong arm kept supporting a rather shell-shocked Yuki all the way to the nezumi's room--after a quick, paranoid check of the hallway for the missing Shigure, that is. The inu had to be somewhere in the house!

Yuki felt he was falling into a permanent state of shock when Kyo pressed him down onto his own futon, even as he was gently pulling off Yuki's socks and jacket; then basically tucked him into bed like he was a small child. As Kyo pulled the sheet up under his chin, face carefully expressionless the whole time, Yuki gave him a flat-eyed stare and stated firmly, one eyebrow raising, “You kiss me goodnight...and you're going through the wall.”

***

Kyo snickered and, mischief clear in his red eyes, quite obviously thought about actually doing it, just to set Yuki off; but he decided not to. It was too nice, not yelling at each other. His own tiredness suddenly hit him as he stood up; he wavered for a second, his vision graying out. The cumulative shocks of the evening had exhausted him more than any fight ever had.

“You need anything else?” he asked, after quickly fumbling Yuki's inhaler out of its drawer and placing it on the nightstand, within the nezumi's easy reach. Yuki gave him a slightly suspicious stare--how had the neko known his medicine was kept there? He hadn't had to look about at all, he'd gone straight to it!--then shook his head.

“No, thank you. I'll be fine. I'll...see you in the morning...”

Kyo paused, startled at the sincere thanks. It had been a long time since they'd done anything but snipe and yell at each other. His mind suddenly flashed back through childhood memories--

Coming face-to-face with child-Yuki for the first time; the subsequent five-hour game of hide'n'seek that ended up involving the whole Honke, as the two got themselves thoroughly lost. They'd had so much fun, the parental scoldings were hardly noticed--

A five-year-old Yuki looking at Kyo's own newly five-year-old self, smiling shyly while holding out a clumsily self-wrapped present for him, what turned out to be a picture frame he'd made himself; with a photo in it of the two of them, grinning with laughter, the young neko hanging off the young nezumi's shoulders--Kyo still had it; hidden away, with his two or three other most prized possession...up on the mountain, near Shishou's place, where no one would ever accidentally discover it--

Finding child-Yuki huddled in a back closet of the Honke, desperately trying not to cry, after Akito had ordered that group of children to have their memories of Yuki completely wiped, just for seeing him transform; promising to protect the nezumi all that he could, forever and ever, and after that too, even if Akito made Yuki forget all about him--

A shiver chased up his spine, at how that had actually come about--

More recently, creeping silently into Yuki's room at Shigure's house in the small hours of the night, after waking from a particularly bad nightmare; watching quietly as the nezumi slept, reassuring himself that Yuki was not with Akito; was not hurt...checking to be sure where the all-important inhaler for the asthma attacks was, in case it was needed; before slipping out as silently as he'd come...

Kyo fled to the door before more memories flooded through his mind, hesitating only long enough to whisper a quick “G'night” before sliding it closed. He staggered off to his bed, not at all sure he'd be able to sleep, in spite of how tired he was.

Not that night, or the next...

***

The next morning, breakfast had a most unwelcome interruption...unwelcome to Kyo and Yuki, anyway; Shigure was delighted to see Hatori again, “And so soon! Oh, but you didn't have to come all this way just to visit pitiful little ol' me, Ha-san!” the inu said in a disgustingly cheerful voice, eyebrows wagging suggestively as he looked coyly sideways at Hatori.

Kyo glared daggers at him; Yuki calmly picked up his as yet unfilled plate and bopped the inu over the head with it, careful not to break the plate, then placed it back on the table in front of himself. Shigure let out a yelp when it connected and clutched at his head, giving Yuki his best wounded-puppy-dog eyes. Hatori just gave a small sigh and briefly closed his eyes at their antics.

“I'm not here to see you yet, Shigure. I'll be by tonight to look at your wrist.” He ignored Shigure's hammed-up acting out of a heart-stabbed death scene. “Actually, I'm here to see Yuki. I--” The hesitation was miniscule, but Kyo at least noticed it. “--have a message from Akito.”

There was dead silence in the room. At least, until Tohru dropped the bowl of miso soup she was bringing to the table...almost directly onto Kyo. The neko yowled and leapt up and back just barely in time to avoid a dousing, starting to snarl, “Geez! What are you tryin' to do--?!”

Yuki was rather impressed when he noticed Kyo actually choking back further comment. He held back his almost instinctive biting remark to Kyo about yelling at Honda-san; after the previous night, Yuki was much more inclined to be understanding, instead of simply assuming the worst about Kyo's hot-tempered behavior.

And he had finally realized that Honda-san, through some gift of the kamis, understood Kyo's rough mannerisms, better than any of his own family ever had. She would be distressed for upsetting him, and possibly worry he might start to hate her; but she wouldn't be offended by his yelling, and hadn't felt at all threatened by it since the first week she'd known the neko. And Kyo always managed to work up to an apology to her, afterwards--when everyone else was out of the way.

A brief flash of jealousy rippled through his heart as he thought of Kyo, and Honda-san. He determinedly squashed it, telling himself it really wasn't any of his business. At least, not until he finally got up the courage to tell Honda-san how he felt about her, and asked of her feelings for him in return.

Then a stray thought flitted through the nezumi's mind. Was he really jealous of Kyo's attention to Tohru--because somewhere, deep inside, he missed their childhood friendship? It didn't bother him the same way, when any of their other male classmates spoke with Honda-san, or even other male cousins...

It did bother him whenever he saw Kyo surrounded by their classmates, relating to them--however reluctantly and awkwardly. He'd always thought that was because he was jealous of how Kyo could relate so well with others.

Was it really because he wanted to relate that well with Kyo, himself?

Yuki's appetite curdled in his stomach. He choked down the bite in his mouth, carefully setting his chopsticks on the table before he snapped them. He stared into his tea after a hasty swallow to wash an un-budging lump from his throat, his emotions a complete, churning mess.

Tohru was doing a passable impression of Ritsu in full panic-mode; she was dancing about in circles, looking for a rag to clean up with, her arms waving; letting out continual wails of “I'm sorry, oh, Kyo-kun, I'm so sorry--! I didn't mean to--oh! I'm sorry!! I'm just so-o-o clumsy! Did I get any on you--are you burned--?!”

Yuki bowed his head and sighed, shaking his head, as Kyo vainly tried to calm her down--without just yelling at her to stop acting like a baka. The nezumi firmly shoved any considerations about just who and what he was jealous of and why to the back of his mind, for later contemplation.

Hatori closed his eyes again, face set in icy calm, just breathing. Shigure, of course, was laughing like a maniac, all but rolling on the floor. Yuki glared at the hysterical inu, then crossed his arms, sniffed, and looked away.

Eventually the soup was cleaned up, and Tohru and Shigure were calmed down. Kyo stood over against the wall, fuming and looking much put-upon; he wasn't going anywhere near spill-able stuff until Hatori and his upsetting messages were gone, and not likely to cause Tohru to dump the rest of breakfast on him.

Yuki stared straight at Hatori, expressionless as the dragon, once the distracting antics were over. Waiting. Kyo warily glanced between the two, red eyes inscrutable for all he wore his usual irritated scowl like a mask. The silence thickened until Shigure cleared his throat; then Hatori sighed and spoke.

“Yuki. Akito wishes to see you at the Honke...tonight. He didn't say for how long.”

Yuki felt his stomach bottom out. He fisted his hands at his sides to keep anyone from noticing their trembling, while he fought to keep his breathing even. He concentrated on keeping his voice and face equally expressionless.

“Did he say why.” It wasn't really a question; Akito rarely gave a reason for summoning him, but he felt the need to stall. He didn't think he'd be able to stand up without falling, just then.

“No, he didn't,” Hatori said, looking Yuki in the eyes. Yuki wasn't certain, but he could've sworn he saw a brief flicker of--something--in the dragon's eyes...regret? Sadness? Remorse? Sympathy, maybe?

Before the previous night, he would have disregarded it as his imagination. Now--especially remembering Hatori's almost-wife, Kana, and that Akito had already done pretty much his worst to Hatori...and that worst wasn't the ruining of Hatori's eye--Yuki wondered if the dragon's habitual coldness was as much of a mask as Kyo's fiery temper.

Or his own Prince-persona's aloofness.

Yuki took a shaky breath, the decision suddenly crystallizing in his mind. He'd had quite enough of the pretenses and veiled threats, and the outright abuse Akito heaped out on his own family. That kami--she'd said there was a chance to end the curse...“--the keystone of the curse is not the person you all believe it to be.” Maybe they were wrong to blindly follow Akito's every whim--maybe they were actually perpetuating the curse by doing that. It sounded like that had partly been how his family had gotten cursed in the first place.

The “reprehensible one” the kami had spoken of with such distaste--he'd bet almost anything that she'd been referring to Akito. And `the one who sacrificed himself,' who they'd have to rally about in order to break the curse...? Who else could it be, but the one suffering under more than one curse?

The one who was about to be punished worse than anything Akito had or ever would suffer, simply because he was born under the Neko's Curse...

Yuki slowly stood. He grit his teeth, eyes hardening with determination, and stared Hatori straight in his good eye as he asked, “And if I don't want to go?”

***

Kyo was glad he hadn't been eating when Yuki spoke--it would've been spewed all over the table when he choked. As it was, he had a strong urge to sit down, and quickly.

`What the hell does that kuso nezumi think he's doing?!?Akito will--Kami-sama, I don't want to even think about what he'll do!!'

Everybody was staring at Yuki in shock; nobody noticed that Kyo, of all people, had gone sheet-white. If Akito found out Yuki was rebelling against him--! He'd be likely to beat the nezumi to within an inch of his life, at the very least!

And there'd be absolutely nothing Kyo could do about it; not this time!

Kyo wrenched his eyes over to Hatori, a sickly sense of impending doom--kind of like suddenly, unexpectedly hearing Kagura calling him, from just around the next corner--turning his guts to jellified ice. The dragon was as startled as anyone; his icy mask had slipped for a second, showing a despairing kind of dismay, before he closed his expression down again and answered, “I'm to either bring you--or Tohru-san.”

Kyo did thump down to his knees, at that. His hands clutched his elbows tightly. A shudder visibly rippled through Yuki, whose eyes were now dilated wide with fear. Kyo glanced at Tohru; her eyes were fixed on Yuki, worried for him. They all knew she'd willingly go in his place, if it would help. But none of them wanted her to lose her memories of them; none of the Jyuunishi-cursed could really bear the thought of her leaving their lives...forever...!

...Leaving...

The word echoed strangely in his head. For a moment he felt like he was underwater, sounds distorted; unable to breathe. Then a breath caught in his throat, as a rather simple solution came to him.

`Why not...? At least it'll take care of this damned waiting...and it'll sure distract Akito from Yuki.' He looked up from the floor, struggling for a moment to force his lungs and voice to work, while everyone else waited for a response from the near-paralyzed Yuki. `Hell, it's probably what the bastard really wants, anyway!'

A sudden strong rush of disgusted anger at the whole situation sent Kyo to his feet in one quick surge of motion, teeth and fists clenched; freeing his voice. He slammed a fist into the table, making everyone jump and cracking the wood, before slowly looking up to focus on some vague spot on the wall just over Hatori's shoulder.

“Tell him--tell Akito--I'm comin' instead.” He thought his voice was amazingly calm and steady, if a bit on the quiet side. That didn't seem to matter--there wasn't another sound in the house. “Tell him--he can have the Neko's House readied. I'll be there at noon tomorrow.” His eyes suddenly jumped straight to meet Hatori's shocked stare. “You an' I both know he'll accept that.”

Kyo then turned and walked away, head up and back straight; wrapped in a serious, strangely dignified air. Leaving a completely stunned silence in his wake.

He was already up the stairs and opening the door to his room when Hatori shook off his shock enough to bow low and long after him, Shigure copying him a bare second later; leaving Tohru to stare between them in surprise and worry.

***

Yuki stared numbly at Hatori's display of respect for the neko, his mind simply refusing to deal with the combined shocks of the last few minutes; not just yet. Especially not on top of yesterday! He slowly sank to his knees at the table as Hatori finally straightened, gave him an enigmatic look, then left quietly.

Tohru glanced uncertainly between Yuki and Shigure, eyes huge and concerned, clutching a towel to her chest in her distress. She was as yet unaware of just what Kyo was consigning himself to, or she'd have likely burst into immediate tears and tried to stop him.

Yuki looked at her, his stricken gaze obviously causing her heart to clench. A single tear escaped to roll slowly down her cheek. Her voice was whisper-soft as she quietly tried to ask, “Sohma...kun...? What--Kyo...kun...?”

He tore his eyes away, unable to explain it to her; not willing to be the one to break the terrible truth to her. He looked unseeing at Shigure, who uncharacteristically stared seriously back, more than a trace of sadness in his dark eyes; then Yuki lurched to his feet and walked unsteadily after Kyo. His steps went faster as he got to the stairs, until he practically ran to Kyo's door.

He didn't bother to knock, just roughly shoved the sliding door open. It didn't even cross his mind, knocking; his thoughts were too full of the urge to understand just what Kyo thought he was doing! He was giving up his last few precious months of freedom--and for what? Just to save the nezumi from a beating?!

What was that baka neko thinking?!

***