Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ The Butterfly Effect ❯ Strange Bedfellows ( Chapter 4 )

Special Author's Note: As part of Anaphalis' "Where's Waldo?" quote hunt, see if you can find the bonus quote in this chapter. This time it's from a very fluffy movie.

Quick Vocabulary:

Onigiri Rice ball

kuso nezumi damn rat

baka neko stupid cat

Jyuunishi the twelve members of the Zodiac

Chapter Summary: Healing abilities. Inner voices. Two men in her bed. Yup, it's going to be one of those days.

Disclaimer: Fruits Basket belongs to Natsuki Takaya/HAKUSENSHA - TV TOKYO - NAS - Fruba Project.

Warning: Rated R for language, implied rape, torture, and adult situations.

/Chapter 4: Strange Bedfellows/

/Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows./

-William Shakespeare

As Tohru sleepily blinks her eyes, she tries to identify the rhythmic puffs of air in her ear. The realization of what is happening jerks her fully awake. Kyou has shifted in the night so that his hand is now wrapped in her hair and his head is now inches from hers. When Tohru tries to move forward to create space between them, her leg grazes Yuki, who is holding one of her bandaged hands in his own. 'How did this happen?'

*You mean you don't remember your night of three-way passion?*

Tohru momentarily panics before she realizes that both boys are fully clothed.

*Yes, they're a very creative pair.*

Fuzzy memories are starting to come back to her: Yuki carrying her into the house, Kyou showing them the master bedroom, the butterfly making a nasty comment...

*Seriously, this bed could fit three or four Sumo wrestlers comfortably. What the hell was cat-boy thinking?*

...and everyone just collapsing on the mattress. Obviously they'd never gotten back up.

Lying there, with Kyou's warmth against her back and Yuki's gentle grip on her hand, Tohru feels oddly safe. 'They always make me feel safe. Even when they are fighting, I'm never scared of them- only for them.' Tohru is slightly disturbed by this thought. It frightens her a little how important the two boys are to her. It is especially frightening because she doesn't know when they will become bored with her friendship or realize how far below them she actually is.

*Stop it. What would your mother say if she knew you were thinking things like that?*

Tohru is shocked to realize that she hasn't spoken to her mother since before the 'accident'.

*Well, you have an actual voice in your head now. Maybe it's time to let Mom go. I am more than capable of filling all your inner conversation needs.*

'I love Mom. I will always need her.'

*She's dead, onigiri. She's dead and she's wondering why her little girl can't let go and live her own life. I'm a spirit. I know these things.*

'So you've met Mother?'

*Redhead with great boobs? Yup. She says to move on with your life and listen to the nice butterfly.*

'You shouldn't make jokes about things like that!'

*Who says I'm joking?*

'Then you are an evil spirit.'

*I don't think that word means what you think it means.*

'I may not be smart, but I know when something is evil.'

*Sweetie, most people have an evil side to their personality. You have Good Tohru and Thinking-about-taking-the-last-rice-ball Tohru. Getting upset with me isn't going to solve your problem with your mother or with the boys. It's time to stand up. No more apologies, no more self-pity. You think you are below Yuki and Kyou? Then do what you need to do to be on their level, starting with letting go of the past.*

For the second time in a little over a day, Tohru feels like she has been turned inside out. She is no longer sure exactly who Honda Tohru is and what Himura Tohru is supposed to be.

*I'm sorry onigiri, there will be time enough for this later. Go back to sleep. Enjoy your 'moment' with the boys.*

Tohru wants to protest, to try and think a little more, but she feels a warm flutter against her mind and she knows no more.

###

Tohru is disoriented for a moment when she finally wakes up again. When she shifts, she remembers the two warm bodies on either side of her. There are twin moans from the boys. Then the screaming starts.

"I can't believe I slept with the kuso nezumi!'

"I can't believe I slept with the baka neko!"

*Oh boy. So much for the' moment'.*

"Thank you so much for staying with me. I don't know if I could have slept without you two beside me." It's the truth, and it prevents the boys from destroying the bedroom and each other.

It is strange for Tohru to not be cooking or cleaning in the morning. She finds it especially strange to be treated like some over-sized doll, with the boys attending to her every need. Yuki is incapable of boiling water, but Kyou is able to fix a quick breakfast of instant soup. Yuki holds her, while Kyou airplanes the spoon to her mouth. She thinks that they are enjoying this far more than they should be. "Open your mouth for the nice spoon." They are definitely enjoying this far more than they should be.

Unfortunately, the amusement from breakfast soon turns to absolute humiliation. It is one thing for Yuki and Kyou to dress her when they are panicking and trying to escape Akito. It is another thing for the thoroughly embarrassed Kyou and Yuki to try to remove her clothing so that they can bathe her. After a stuttering Yuki fumbles her bra clasp for the fifth time, Tohru discovers that her fingers are actually able to bend and grip things comfortably. When she experimentally flexes her feet, she discovers that they don't seem to hurt anymore. She decides that this is enough of an improvement that she can bathe on her own and quickly sends the red-faced boys from the room. As she soaks in the tub, she is impressed that she is healing far faster than seemed possible even the day before.

*Anything for you sweetheart. Besides, if I didn't heal you quickly, those poor boys were going to spontaneously combust.*

###

Despite the fact that she walked out of the bathroom without any difficulty, Kyou and Yuki decide that Tohru still needs to be carried, at least until the end of the day. Therefore, Tohru gets her first tour of her new home from the viewpoint of Kyou's collarbone.

*You'recomplaining?*

Unfortunately, Tohru is still very tired and more than a little bit disoriented. Much of Yuki and Kyou's excited babbling goes right over her head. What Tohru does get out of the house tour is that the house is very large, the kitchen is very well stocked and Kyou is scarily accurate about the kind of bathroom supplies that she needs. She also learns that Hatori gave Kyou a medical kit before Kyou left for winter recess. Among other things, this kit contains a four-year supply of birth control pills.

*Okay, this is a sign. If even Mr. Icicle-up-my-ass wants you to get some action...Actually...Never mind. Maybe he just doesn't want you to reproduce.*

Tohru wonders if she is going to spend the rest of her life with a pounding headache.

*Nope. I'll heal you if you ask really nicely.*

###

After the house tour, Tohru starts to feel frustrated. She is forced to see their new, unremarkable car in action... from the passenger seat. Kyou needed to return the rental and Yuki needed to drive to pick him up. Neither of them were willing to let Tohru out of their sight. Tohru's feeble protests that she could just stay in the house were firmly vetoed. This resulted in the return of Tohru's headache. As she watches the trees speed past, she wonders how long Yuki and Kyou are going to treat her like a broken doll. She wonders how long they are going to watch her as if she will vanish the instant that they turn their backs. She is not nearly as vulnerable as they think she is.

That night, Tohru discovers that she can't sleep by herself.

She falls asleep easily enough. Yuki and Kyou have insisted that Tohru sleep in the master bedroom, at least until she is fully healed, and the bed is very, very comfortable. Unfortunately the panicked cries of "Tohru!" and her own screams wake her up less than an hour later. The boys both sit beside her until she calms down. Kyou traces circles on her hand with his thumb while Yuki smoothes the hair back from her forehead. When her heart rate is back to normal, she reluctantly sends them back to their own rooms. Fifteen minutes later she is asleep. Fifty minutes later she is screaming again.

After the third time that they are forced to return, Kyou and Yuki decide to alternate sleeping beside Tohru on the master bed. Tohru is humbled by how little protest they offer, how willing they are to see to her needs. They are very good friends.

*Sure.*

###

Tohru is floating through a starless sky, moving towards a distant light. There is a voice that she needs to hear there, a voice that becomes progressively louder the closer that she gets.

() ...You stupid girl, I didn't make this curse, so of course I can't create new Jyuunishi. Even if I could, why would I give such a gift to someone as pathetic and unimportant as you? But I'm generous Tohru- in a little while I'll let you see what my gift feels like. But first, I realized that you and I do have something in common. Isn't it funny that both your mother and the Sohma god are represented by red butterflies? Why don't we mark you so that you never forget how we're connected?()

"Tohru... Tohru!"

It is like drowning. Tohru's lungs can't seem to get any air as she tries to break through to the surface of her mind. When her head clears, she is wrapped in Kyou's arms, sobbing into the hollow of his shoulder. He gently rocks her back and forth, his voice little more than a whisper.

"Gods, you scared me, Tohru. You started shaking and not breathing and I couldn't wake you up. But everything's all right now. Don't think about it- just go back to sleep. Whatever it is, I promise I will protect you."

Tohru sinks back onto the mattress and closes her eyes. There is an itch in the back of her mind though that slows her ability to sleep. Somehow, she feels that she is missing something very important.

*Mmmmm.... Spooning is good....*

'That definitely wasn't it.'