Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Revelations ❯ The Fall of Akito ( Chapter 14 )

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

DISCLAIMER--::sigh:: They're not mine, and my lease on `em is up soon... ::sigh::

Chapter 14 - The Fall of Akito

Yuki bolted awake, sweat-soaked and breathing heavily, his whole body shivering with the echoes of nightmare. He pressed one hand to his chest as he concentrated on slowing his breathing, wide gray eyes staring, unseeing. He didn't know just what he'd been dreaming, but there had been a sense of absolute, mind-numbing terror ripping through him that remained strong even after waking!

He frowned, suddenly, as calming exercises buried the feeling. There was something--wrong, about that sense of terror...like he was feeling it...second-hand...?

Eyes suddenly widening with realization, remembering his talk with Kyo the previous night, the nezumi scrambled out of his futon, nearly ripping the covers that seemed intent on tangling his legs. He staggered to his door, bouncing it nearly off its tracks in his haste to open it and race down the hall, to get to Kyo's room. It would be a wonder if the bang didn't wake the whole house, but he didn't care in the least, just then.

The neko was nearly silent, when Yuki shoved his door open with one shaking hand. The nezumi almost couldn't hear the strangled-sounding, high-pitched whimpers, muffled as they were by fabric. Kyo was apparently curled in a tight ball; the covers completely burying him, as he shivered hard enough it looked almost like convulsions.

Yuki threw himself to his knees on the futon beside Kyo, carefully tugging at the blankets. He was especially cautious about waking the neko from a nightmare this bad, now that he knew just how good Kyo was at martial arts; his cousin might well strike out before he was even half awake, on pure reflex. That--would probably hurt, a great deal. Which would then cause Kyo a fair amount of emotional pain, once he woke up and realized what he'd done... It was better for Yuki to simply take precautions.

Kyo's face, when Yuki finally got the covers pulled far enough away to see it, was set in a rictus of agonized fear; eyes squeezed tightly shut, jaw clamped so hard it was a wonder he didn't break a tooth. All his muscles appeared tightly corded under his skin; he'd likely be cramping up from the strain at any moment.

Yuki carefully, gently placed one hand on Kyo's shoulder, hoping the contact would wake him. When a slight squeeze and then a shake of the rock-hard, shivering shoulder did nothing, Yuki bit his lip and called out, softly.

After five whole minutes, Kyo still was locked in his nightmare. Beginning to really worry, Yuki narrowed his eyes and attempted to find the feeling that had jerked him from his sleep. Maybe...he could reach Kyo through that link...?

-.-.-.-.-.-

Shigure cautiously crept to Kyo's open doorway, curious about the bang that had awakened him; and worried. He'd been expecting his sleep to be...disturbed...a great deal more than it had been, since Kyo's rescue. The neko should have been having loud, violent nightmares; he knew he certainly would have, with what the boy had been through!! When he'd voiced his concern to Hatori, the doctor had calmly informed him that different people reacted to trauma in different ways--and sometimes their reactions were...delayed.

That hadn't exactly eased Shigure's worries. The thought of the neko as an unexploded bomb of unknown strength, ready to go off at any time, did not help his digestion one bit. It was a bit of a strain to keep his strong worry from his younger cousins and act like his usual scatter-brained, hentai self.

He was just about to peer into Kyo's room when the boy let loose with an ear-piercing shriek, thankfully short. The inu reflexively clamped both hands to his sensitive, now-ringing ears, and so nearly missed Yuki's voice as the gray-haired boy tried to calm his cousin.

“Kyo--easy! Calm down! It's me! You're safe, you're in your room, in Shigure's house! No one's going to hurt you--no one's going to take you away from us, ever again; I won't let them--!”

Shigure shook his head slightly in an effort to clear the ringing, then carefully edged enough around the door frame to see into Kyo's room. He wasn't exactly surprised by the sight that greeted him, though there was still a sense of--unreality--about the image of a concerned, and slightly flustered-looking Yuki with a shaking, wild-eyed and flat-eared ball of panic-fluffed orange fur wrapped protectively in his arms, the nezumi doing his best to soothe the transformed neko's obvious distress without getting accidentally clawed.

Before Kyo had been locked up, Shigure would never have thought to see that image in real life. If only because Kyo would never have allowed it--though not for the reasons everyone would have assumed.

Both dreading and hoping that this might be the `explosion' he'd been fearing, Shigure quietly slipped into the room to kneel by the boys, placing a hand carefully on Kyo-neko's small shoulders, gently stroking the fear-raised fur. He knew from experience in his own inu form just how calming that sensation could be.

The neko didn't seem to notice; his wide red eyes gazed into the distances of his own mind, apparently still partially locked in dream-state. Yuki was startled, though, giving the inu a dismayed stare before turning his full attention back to calming Kyo.

Shigure easily guessed that the commotion had somehow started with Kyo having a nightmare, one apparently bad enough to have scared him into transforming. Upon reflection, the inu realized it was quite possible that Kyo had been having the nightmares he'd been expecting the boy to have, all along. Shigure had long known Kyo talked in his sleep, having shamelessly eavesdropped when Kyo slept on the roof, practically over Shigure's own bedroom window--at least as far as the inu's sharp ears were concerned; but he couldn't recall ever hearing anything even as loud as Kyo's normal speaking voice.

If the neko hadn't been making the obligatory loud screaming-type noises, or flailing about enough to bang loudly on things, it was quite likely none of them would have the first idea of when he was having nightmares.

The inu wasn't certain just how Yuki had known, this time--perhaps the boy had wakened from his own bad dream, and checked on his cousin while calming himself. Shigure didn't see any obvious damage to his house, so he imagined that loud bang had been one or another door slamming. It was possible Yuki had been doing this regularly, too, and Shigure had simply slept through it before, all unaware.

The inu sighed, letting his true sadness show for a change, instead of hiding behind his usual façade of the scatter-brained, ne'er-do-well hentai. He leaned and wrapped both boys in a tight hug, careful of his transformed cousin's more delicate than human form, feeling the sting of shame that he hadn't been able to prevent the horrors that had happened to his Neko-cursed younger cousin. He'd grown to think of the fiery-tempered boy almost as his own little brother, in the time Kyo had been living with him.

He felt that he just hadn't tried hard enough to help Kyo. No matter that he could very well have made matters--well...maybe not worse;he couldn't see how Kyo's situation could have possibly been any more horrible! Unless he'd gotten Akito upset enough with his meddling to start in on one or more of the rest of them.

Shigure's face hardened, the unaccustomed expression making him look disturbingly like an older Akito. Luckily, neither of the boys was watching his face, to be worried by it.

Whatever they were going to do about Akito--it would have to be done soon. Shigure would not risk something like this happening again, to another member of his family. He resolved to call Hatori as soon as the boys were settled back to sleep, even though he'd be waking the dragon in the middle of the night.

Shigure didn't get truly impatient very often--he could out-wait Akito himself, usually. But now, he simply refused to put this off any longer. There was too much at stake; too many things could happen to further delay them, the longer they waited.

With a grim nod, Sohma Shigure swore to himself that they would be confronting Akito, before the end of the week.

-.-.-.-.-.-

Kyo's mind suddenly snapped back into focus, the terrible fear draining away, leaving him limp and exhausted. He realized someone was holding him and blinked in shock, quickly focusing bleary eyes. The lack of color and definition was his first clue that he had transformed, before he even registered just what he was seeing.

Yuki--and Shigure?!? He blinked again, staring astonished at the sorrowful-looking inu, whose own eyes were currently closed. Maybe he hadn't woken up after all! He couldn't ever remember seeing that sad, almost aged look on his hentai cousin's face before.

Then Shigure's eyes opened, and saw Kyo staring at him. His whole face lit up, the sorrow quickly hidden from unexpectedly observant red eyes. Kyo frowned slightly as Shigure started acting more his usual air-brained, cheerfully babbling self, even as his arm tightened almost convulsively about the two boys.

Kyo's mind shuddered away from the sudden thought that Shigure had a lot in common with Tohru--if you ignored the hentai part. If that thought had been a neko rubbing about his mental legs, he'd have been beating it away with the nearest piece of furniture! Even if the both of them did tend towards exceptionally `flighty' behavior a lot of the time; and they both dropped surprisingly wise tidbits of advice when it would do the most good, even if it didn't sound like advice at the time.

Tohru was nothing like Shigure! Even if she had been born in the Year of the Dog. She just--wasn't!!

Kyo glanced up at Yuki, then away, ears flat with embarrassment. “Ah...you can put me down, now, Yuki.” The nezumi immediately let him loose, and Kyo burrowed under the covers of his futon until only his head was showing. He was just in time--the characteristic <poof!> and cloud of orange-tinged smoke marked his return to human form. It would have been just way too embarrassing to have happen while Yuki was still holding him!

Kyo was rather surprised at how hard it was to chase Shigure out of his room, all things considered. The inu seemed ready to bed down right there on the floor by Kyo's futon for the rest of the night; he couldn't keep his concern from showing in his expression.

Flattered as Kyo felt at having that concern directed at his well-being, he did not want Shigure sleeping in his room!!

Yuki, on the other hand, flatly refused to budge, even after Kyo had finally managed to chase Shigure out. Frustrated, Kyo finally threw his hands in the air, cursing.

“I felt it, you know.”

Kyo stared at Yuki, confused. “Felt what?!”

Yuki looked down at his hands. “Your nightmare.”

Kyo blanched, and turned his back, his breath getting heavy. Yuki could see a shiver run through the neko's shoulders. He went on in his softest voice, “I think--the link has always been two-way...and I just didn't know where certain feelings and sensations were coming from, so I ignored them. I would never have dreamed they were coming from you...”

He almost didn't hear the whispered, heart-felt, “Ah, hell...” as Kyo ducked his head, briefly hunching in on himself, before he squared his shoulders and turned to face his cousin, expression grim and determined. “Well, then, there's no reason for you to sit around in here, is there; you can go back to your own bed, you'll damned well know if I get another one.” His face softened, and he glanced away, waving one hand. “I don't usually get two in a night, anyway. G'wan--get outta here, back to bed. I'll be fine.”

Yuki sighed and got up, coming closer to kneel and wrap an arm around Kyo's shoulders. The hug made the neko's face turn nearly as red as his hair, though he didn't pull away; rather leaned into it, just a bit. Yuki smiled a little, saying, “Yes...I'll know...and I'll come. I promise. Good night, Kyo.”

Kyo watched as Yuki left, carefully closing the door behind himself. Shaking his head, Kyo settled on his back on his futon, resting his head on his arms and staring unseeingly at the ceiling. The clock on his desk showed he had several hours before it was time to get up, and he briefly debated staying up--but he was tired; and he hadn't lied to Yuki, he'd rarely had two nightmares in one night. He didn't think this would be one of those nights.

He freed a hand to wipe at a tickling alongside one eye, surprised to find moisture. He impatiently wiped his eyes dry, disgusted with himself for crying over something as simple as Yuki's promise to come, whenever he had a nightmare.

-.-.-.-.-.-

Shigure's call to Hatori had an unexpected outcome. It seemed Akito's delicate health had taken a turn for the worst, and Ha'ri was obliged to stay within call at all times. Shigure pouted verbally, but all he could get out of his friend and cousin was that the Clan Head was closer than he'd ever been to actually dying. The dragon refused to make any sort of guesses as to exactly how long Akito had, stating in a slightly strained voice--a strain likely only Shigure, of everyone who knew the doctor, would ever be able to pick up on--that Akito had so far outlived every estimate he'd ever come up with.

Shigure was thoughtful and quiet for the rest of the night after that call. Finally, he decided it was time to call all of the Jyuunishi-cursed back to his house. This might be the perfect time for what they would do--and it might possibly be the only time. If Akito died before they confronted him, who knew how long they'd have to wait?! It might take another hundred years! Anything could happen in that time.

The others started arriving shortly after Kyo and Yuki sat at the table for breakfast. Luckily, Shigure had thought to inform Tohru, so she had a chance to make enough for everyone--it was no time for her to be all a-flutter about not having prepared enough for everyone.

Kyo gave a sharp look at Hatsuharu when he ambled into the room, Momiji, Hiro and Kisa in tow. The look went slightly panicked when Kagura quietly walked in and sat across from him; he was having a hard time believing that she wasn't all over him like she had been since they were kids.

Since his rescue from the Neko's House, she hadn't grabbed him or hit once--she hadn't proclaimed her endless love for him, or demanded anything from him...her calm, rational behavior was so out of character, Kyo was about ready to start checking her house for pods! Except--he caught the occasional look of depressed misery on her face when she thought he wasn't watching; and she now tended to avoid Tohru, at least somewhat, unless someone else was with them.

He'd also seen her once, in the doorway of his room, the day after his rescue; hands fisted at her sides and head down, shaking with what looked like rage by the flash from her eyes, while Tohru was making sure he ate his dinner... He'd frozen in mid-bite, panicked-certain Kagura was about to attack one or both of them.

She'd just spun on her heel and left. Kyo had been too relieved to worry, at the time.

It seemed Kagura had accepted that Kyo loved Tohru, not her--and...was letting him go. Kyo didn't want to try and reach out to her as a friend, afraid he'd make things worse for her; instead, he'd kept his eyes open, and mentioned his concern to Hatori. The dragon had promised he'd keep an eye on her.

Kyo reined in his distracted thoughts as he realized that just about everyone was now crammed into Shigure's kitchen--eleven of the Jyuunishi-cursed, missing only Hatori; Tohru; and the outcast neko. Before he could ask what was going on, and just as Yuki actually woke up enough to notice the crowd, Shigure stood and cleared his throat.

“It's time. Akito is sick--the worst yet. If we wait any longer, he may die before we can do anything.”

There was silence as everyone looked about at their cousins, and Tohru. Several of them looked scared; the rest looked determined. Haru finally shrugged and drawled softly, “We might as well go now. Hurry up and finish eating, will you?”

Kyo felt a cold chill flood through him as he looked around at his assembled kin. There was no dissent. He glanced down at his half-finished breakfast, his appetite fled. He swallowed, hard, and forced himself to finish it off, just as Yuki was.

The paleness of his face was the only sign Yuki allowed anyone to see of his nerves. Kyo wasn't in the habit of suppressing his emotions; he instead usually redirected them into anger. He stopped himself from that old habit as soon as he realized he was about to break his chopsticks. Consciously trying to imitate Yuki's control, he was proud when he was able to stop the slight visible shaking of his hands.

The walk to the Honke passed in a haze for Kyo. During it, time seemed to stretch out, the walk taking five times as long as it should; but once they arrived at the gate, it seemed they had only just left Shigure's house. Kyo found his mind dwelling on the things around him--the clean scent of the crisp, cold morning air; the way the morning frost sparkled like jewels in the almost winter-weak sunlight. The sound of their feet scrunching through frost-rimed mud, the swish of cloth as they moved.

The others had surrounded him like an honor guard for the whole walk, with Tohru and Yuki flanking him on either side. Tohru had caught his hand in hers, giving him a look filled with hope. Kyo swallowed his habitual angry response, leaving his hand in hers, even if he was embarrassed for her to feel how much it trembled.

If this didn't work--there was a chance, however slim, that he wouldn't be coming back out of the Honke, no matter what anyone did. His expression grim, he put the thought from his mind.

No one spoke on the way, not even a sarcastic remark from Jiro, or an attempt from Momiji to lighten the mood. Kyo wondered if their mouths were all as dry as his. They trooped silently across the grounds, no one moving to bar their way. Hatori met them at Akito's door and silently joined their procession.

When they reached Akito's very bedroom door, a grim-faced Yuki pushed to the front, to enter first. Kyo's hand half-raised to stop him, then lowered. First, last, or in the middle, Akito would see Yuki there--there was no protecting him from that.

The others filed in as Akito's raspy, breathy voice, filled with malicious pleasure, greeted Yuki. The tone quickly turned querulous as the Clan Head took note of more of his Jyuunishi-cursed entering, unbidden--when he realized all of them were cramming into his room, he became annoyed, demanding an explanation. His agitated state brought about a fit of coughing; Hatori moved to wrap an arm about him to help him sit up, expertly spooning a dose of medicine into Akito's mouth between coughs.

Then Kyo stepped somewhat nervously into the room, the others leaving a clear aisle between him and Akito.

The Clan Head's dark eyes fasten on the neko, and his face suddenly goes redder than Kyo's eyes. One shaky, claw-like hand raises to point accusingly at Kyo as Akito begins to scream garbled obscenities, a disturbing froth dribbling from the corners of his contorted mouth. Akito is literally shaking with rage.

Hatori, Shigure, Ayame, and Haru all piled on him, trying to keep him still, from trying to physically attack Kyo then and there. He needed to calm down, or he'd worsen his condition. As they were struggling with Akito, Yuki stepped forward past everyone; standing squarely between Akito and the sight of Kyo.

“Akito. Enough!”

Everyone froze at Yuki's rough-voiced shout, turning to stare at him in surprise; Akito the most surprised of all. A pale pink froth had dribbled from both corners of his mouth; with his madly staring eyes, it gave him the terrifying look of a mad dog. Yuki clenched his hands tight enough to draw blood with his fingernails, keeping an image of Kyo, as he saw the wounded neko through the food-slot into the Neko's House, square in his mind's eye. The image infuriated him; it made him angry enough to overcome his life-long fear of Akito.

“We've had enough! You are never going to abuse Kyo--or any of the rest of us!--ever again! We will not stand for it any more!!”

“You...what...!” Akito stared at Yuki, his breath still coming in gasps. Before he could gather himself to berate his nezumi, others of his Jyuunishi-cursed began to speak, to agree with Yuki.

Hatsuharu moved first, letting go of Akito and backing away; gray eyes narrowed, that specific, crackling energy about his movements that told those who knew that he'd `gone Black.' He stopped a bit to Yuki's left. “You heard Yuki! We've had enough!” He glanced at Rin, who took a deep breath before stepping to his side and taking his hand. She smiled crookedly at him before staring her defiance at Akito.

Kagura stepped to Haru's other side, eyes tear-filled, yet angrier than anyone had ever seen them. She, like Yuki, was keeping an image of a severely injured Kyo in her mind's eye. She'd never wanted to kill another living being as much as she wanted to kill Akito, for doing that to Kyo!

Momiji grabbed Ritsu's hand, giving him a solemn look of support and a nod, before the two also stepped next to Yuki, on his other side. Kisa and Jiro exchanged a glance and moved by them, their hands having been clasped tight since leaving Shigure's house.

Ayame, still unnaturally quiet, left Akito to stand right behind Yuki, placing one hand on his shoulder. All he said was, “I stand with my little brother.” Not even Hatori and Shigure had ever seen such a serious expression on the snake's face.

Kureno left his place in the shadows at the edge of the room to stand with Ayame, behind Yuki but well within Akito's sight. The shock of his favored rooster siding against him caused Akito to go limp in Shigure's and Hatori's grip; they let go of him, and moved to take their chosen places with Yuki. Hatori's expression was colder than winter ice, as he raised his hand to cover his bad eye--the eye Akito had ruined in a fit of pique.

Akito, panting heavily and too shocked to move, stared the hardest at Shigure. “You...too...Shigure...?! Even...you...my most faithful inu...would betray me...!!”

Shigure did not drop his eyes, or try to offer any explanation at all. His gaze was impassive, except for his dark eyes...which showed a deep sadness.

Kyo started walking from his spot by the door as Akito was verbally floundering, after giving a nervous Tohru a stern look to remind her to stay put. Yuki, Ayame, and Hatori seemed to sense him coming, and moved aside for him. He kept his head up and his posture straight, eyes locked on Akito, even when Akito suddenly stared back at him with his mad, dark eyes...eyes filled with hatred--and fear, that was the cause of the hatred. He stopped when he was right next to a suddenly shivering Akito, red eyes locked with black.

“It's over, Akito. You've driven us all to unite against you.”

-.-.-.-.-.-