Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ To Melt A Frozen Heart ❯ Suspicions ( Chapter 3 )

To Melt A Frozen Heart

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fruits Basket or any of its characters. I wish though.

########## = at another place

`…'= thoughts

********** = dream sequence

^^^^^^^^^^ = recall

That's all for now. Enjoy, minna-san!!

Chapter 3-Suspicions

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"Don't you think that it is time for you to accept it?"

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Chocolate brown eyes shot open.

Akito sat up on his futon, his breathing a little ragged. Looking around the room, he realized that it was still nighttime and that the entire household was still asleep.

`Damn Yume…'

He fisted his hand and hit it against the futon. He, Yume and Shisho had returned home together from the park earlier that afternoon, after Shisho had bought his ice-cream. He still remembered what Yume had told him.

^^^^^^^^^^

"Don't you think that it is time for you to accept it?"

Akito reared back in surprise.

`What is she trying to tell me? To admit that the prophecy has won and that I might as well await death?' His eyes narrowed.

Yume watched warily as Akito raised his hand to his cheek and grab hold of hers. She watched as he lowered their hands and placed them on her lap.

"Do you know the obligation that I have to fulfill as a Souma patriarch?" Akito asked gently. Yume saw the dangerous flashing of his eyes and knew that he was angered.

"Do you?" His hold on her hand tightened and she winced inwardly.

"Hai."

Akito's eyes widened before narrowing again.

"You knew that I will have to die and yet you tell me to stop fighting my fate." It was not a question but a flat statement.

Akito's grip tightened again.

"Iie." Yume refused to let him see how much he hurt her, and so, she lowered her gaze to the ground. "Iie, I did not mean it that way."

"Then?" Akito demanded, his voice silky smooth.

"What I mean is that; everyone should enjoy life to the fullest." The redhead lifted her eyes, and Akito saw fierce belief in those emerald depths. "Everyone, especially you. In a way, I think that you are very lucky; you know that you could die anytime, so you can afford to take risks that others cannot; try your best to fulfill all your dreams and wishes. As they say, `Life is precious', so why waste it? But no," Yume shook her head. "Instead, you resent this life, and waste your days being bitter and cooped up inside a room where everyone loathes to tread."

Akito kept silent. He had never thought of life that way before.

Yume's voice softened. "Please think about this. There is nothing stopping you. Nothing"

"Except death." Akito's voice was harsh.

The redhead surprised Akito when she gave a sorrowful smile and those bright green eyes stared into the distance, apparently lost in memories.

"There are other things worse than death." She said softly at last. "Be glad that you don't know them."

Akito was about to demand that she justify her vague answer when Shisho came to the rescue.

"Yume-chan!!" The boy tripped his way to the pair seating on the bench. Annoyed at the interruption, Akito was about to snap at the boy when Yume intercepted.

"Oi, Shisho, is that for Akito?" She pointed to one of the two ice-cream cones that the boy had on his hands. Shisho nodded, and solemnly, he walked to Akito and handed him the treat.

"For you, Akito-sama."

Akito stared at the rapidly melting ice-cream that was being presented before him, and the sticky hand that was holding it. Normally, he would have ripped into the person who had dared to hand him such an unhygienic fare. But then, he saw Shisho's earnest eyes and heaved an inward sigh, all traces of earlier annoyance gone.

He accepted the offering, and without looking, he knew that Yume was smiling. Shisho beamed.

`This is getting highly ridiculous,' a sharp inner voice chided. `You are turning into mush.'

Akito continued staring at the ice-cream. He did not have to look to know that Shisho was waiting for him to take the first bite. Genuinely sighing this time, he took a very reluctant, very tiny mouthful.

Yume and Shisho watched as Akito chewed slowly, then swallowed.

"It is good." Akito said tonelessly. Shisho grinned with pleasure and tucked into his treat.

The redhead had to stifle her smiles. Akito would not appreciate the humor, though it was obvious that he did not want to hurt the boy's feelings. She watched as the patriarch looked with disgust at the ice-cream that was melting all over his hand, and took pity on him. Discreetly, she offered him a wad of tissue papers, and he dumped the ice-cream into it before handing it back to her.

"You landed me into this." Was his answer for handing her the lump of tissues.

Yume sighed and threw them away for him.

"Hey, Shisho, shall we return home now?"

The boy, with his face smudged with ice-cream, nodded happily, and the trio headed for home.

^^^^^^^^^^

There is nothing stopping you…

Akito hissed some choice swear words. Why can't he get that sentence out of his head? He mentally cursed Yume again for planting all these hopeless thoughts inside his head.

He flopped back on his futon and concentrated on falling asleep. He almost made it too, had he not heard the soft whimpers coming from the room next to his.

Very annoyed now, he forced himself to sit back up on his futon. Remembering Hatori's advice to curb his temper, especially in the middle of the night, he made himself count to ten.

"One…two…three…four…"

The whimpers became louder, and they were now accompanied by sounds of tossing and turning.

Akito gritted his teeth and continued counting.

"Five…six…seven…"

The sounds did not abate.

"Eight…nine…TEN!! That's it!!"

Akito threw back his blanket and stood up. Whoever that is making that entire entire racket is going to pay for it.

Clad in his yukata, Akito set out to exterminate the source of the noise. Silently, he slid out of his room, and trailed the whimpers. The cries of distress guided him to the entrance of Yume's apartment. Akito was astounded. He hesitated over the doorway, pondering whether to enter or not.

Did Yume made all that noise?

`If she did," Akito thought as his eyes narrowed. "She should have known better. I do not care who makes the noise; I will stop it nonetheless." His decision made, Akito entered Yume's apartment. He headed straight for the bedroom, and without knocking, he slid open the door. In the darkness, he approached the bed and was about to grab the sleeping person by the shoulders and give her a few savage shakes for disturbing his rest when what he saw shocked him.

Yume sleeps naked.

She was partially covered by the blankets that she had tossed and turned in. The soft moonlight streaming in from a nearby window caressed the sweet curves of her hips and waist and the length of an uncovered thigh like a gentle lover.

Akito felt himself flushing, something that had never happened before. He was immensely glad that it was the middle of the night now and that no one had witnessed his reddened cheeks.

Drawn by an irresistible force, his eyes strayed to her body once more, and they took in with silent appreciation the way her long red hair teasingly concealed and revealed her body. Just then, the redhead, still lost in her nightmares, gave a distressed whimper that awakened Akito from his musings. Annoyed at the direction that his thoughts are heading, Akito ventured nearer to the bed in an attempt to cover Yume's body completely with the blanket.

However, before he could do what he set out to accomplish, the girl turned and flipped herself on her stomach.

"Baka onna, cannot even sleep still…nani?"

He saw it then, and his eyes widened with disbelief.

"What the…how can…I must be seeing things…"

Akito sat down by the side of the bed and carefully, he pushed away strands of red hair to reveal Yume's back.

Yume's very scarred back.

Gently, the man traced one of the scars, and as if calmed by Akito's touch, Yume's whimpers ceased and her breathing slowed to a normal pace. Grimly, the man covered the girl and left the room for his own.

It was obvious that she was whipped, and savagely so too.

`Who would do this to a girl? Even I won't stoop so low as to hit a person like that…'

Then he remembered their conversation in the park.

^^^^^^^^^^

"There are other things worse than death. Be glad that you don't know them."

^^^^^^^^^^

`Is this what she was talking about? What had happened to her?'

Akito reached his room and laid on his futon, deep in thoughts.

So many questions, but no answer.

But one thing was obvious.

Akito's eyes narrowed as suspicion sank in.

Yume is not the nurse that everyone thinks she is.

##########

The next few days passed by in relative peace, but Yume could not help but feel that there is something seriously wrong with Akito. The companionable atmosphere that the both of them had shared after the visit to the park had seemed to disappear completely. Even though Akito was not as hostile as he once was, there was a wary edge around him.

Long gone were the barbed insults, and they were replaced by caution. It was as if that Akito…mistrusted her.

`Impossible.' The redhead thought fiercely to herself. `Akito cannot know that I am a guard. If he does know, he would have confronted me a long time ago. Is he starting to suspect something, though?'

"Yume."

Yume cleared her head from all the confusing thoughts and turned to regard Akito neutrally. They were in his room, and although the windows were opened, there was still a dark quality about it that made Yume shiver unwillingly.

"Hai?"

Akito was sitting on his futon, his yukata sprawled around him. He turned dark eyes to Yume's emerald ones.

"Who are you really?"

"Whatever are you talking about? I am your nurse." Surprise had made her voice sharp, and Yume winced at her shrill tone. Now, Akito would definitely know that something is up.

`Damn, give me an assassination mission any day and I will execute it flawlessly. But make me an undercover bodyguard and I suck to the high heavens. Shit.'

"You are not the nurse that Hatori thinks you are. For one, you don't act like a nurse. There is something that does not quite fit the picture."

Akito's eyes turned cold when he saw that he had hit the proverbial nail right on the head. Yume paled.

"So I am correct. You are something else totally, are you not?" He smiled humorlessly. "You almost had me fooled for awhile. All those talk about accepting my fate and embracing life. You said them just to get to me, didn't you?"

Yume could not bear that Akito actually thinks that she would stoop so low as to manipulate his emotions.

"Iie," she said at last, her throat painfully dry. "Those words were really what I think. There were no ulterior motives behind them."

Those long eyelashes lowered as Akito hid his thoughts from Yume.

"Really," he said silkily at last. "Do you think that I will believe you?"

There was no reply and Akito's eyes flared open. The molten chocolate depths were filled with rage.

"I said, do you think that I will believe you?" He was up from his futon and in front of her in the space of a second. "Admit it; you are just like the others, trying to make use of me. The Souma clan tolerates me because I am their trump card; they sacrifice my life to avoid their own demise. I don't know what you want from me, but whatever it is, you won't get it!!"

Yume was shocked. Was that what he thought of her? That she was just trying to make use of him to get to what she wants?

"Akito…You are mistaken."

A harsh laugh escaped from him.

"Pardon me," He asked softly. Yume was always amazed by what Akito really is; a man of many contrasting characteristics, and it always surprised her whenever they showed. "For I am mistaken. You are not using me to get what you want, right?"

Warily, Yume nodded. What is he up to now?

"After all, you have already got what you want. You have already got me where you wanted for a long time already, weeks ago in fact. What I want to know is why are you taking your time now?"

"What are you talking about?" The redhead cried, clearly confused now. Everything was quickly spiraling out of her grasp and if she does not get to the bottom of this problem soon, things are going to get out of control.

"What am I talking about?" Akito strode to his desk, pulled opened one of the drawers and reached his hand into it. He took whatever it was out of the drawer and slammed it close. Eyes cold with fury, he made his way to her side and smashed whatever he was holding onto her palm.

Yume stared at the gun in her hand in shock. Why did he keep a gun in his room?

"This is what I am talking about. Why don't you just put me out of my misery now and kill me?" his anger turned to barely concealed pain as he continued, looking accusingly at her all the while. "All those talk you gave me about cherishing life when you were in actuality planning to kill me. How could you?"

Comprehension occurred to Yume.

"You think that…"

"You are the assassin who is sent to finish me off. I should have known." Akito sneered. "The first attempt was poison, and everyone knows that poison is a woman's weapon. You weren't that lucky then though, and so, you are now here under the guise of a nurse to kill me, am I right?"

Yume did not know whether to laugh or to cry. She found that she could not fault Akito's suspicions. Anyone would think that it is her motive. She was about to clear the air when Akito grabbed hold of her gun hand and pointed it to his chest.

"Go on then," he said quietly. "Kami knows that I am sick of this pathetic excuse of a life. At least you were right; I am bitter and I hate myself all the more or it, and maybe this would be for the best."

Akito closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable.

It never came.

"You are a coward, Akito."

The man reopened his eyes and found that Yume was on the other side of the room and that the gun had been returned to the desk.

"You bought the gun to kill yourself, didn't you, Akito?"

Akito stiffened and looked at Yume, but her back was facing him.

"You tried to kill yourself with it but you backed out. That's why it is kept hidden in your drawer." Yume turned and her eyes were emerald fire. "You are scared of killing yourself but that wouldn't be a problem if someone did the deed for you and help end your misery. You are so selfish, Akito."

`How did she know that?' The man thought wildly. `I never told anyone, not even Hatori. They do not even know.'

^^^^^^^^^^

It had been two years ago when the girl Honda Tohru had entered the lives of the Souma family. Akito had tried hard to repel her away from the clan, even going to the extent of releasing the cat spirit within Kyo. He was so certain that Tohru would definitely disappear from their lives then. But it was not to be; to his annoyance, the wretched girl had the gall to visit him the very next day.

"It must be horrible to know that you are born just to die."

He remembered that sentence very well, and it hurt to realize that Tohru was correct. He was born to die for the Soumas. He was given no choice at all in that matter. So why not end all this suffering now? Since that he is going to die anyway. It is but a matter of time. The next day, he had discreetly sent for a servant to a well-known weaponry supplier for a gun. After all, the Soumas had connections everywhere. He got his gun that very afternoon.

Akito had planned it so well. He was so determined that that night would be his last. He interacted with his clan members in a way that he normally does, but everything had seemed so surreal; it was as if he was a third person, merely observing. And he saw a lot, more than he ever did in his entire life.

Soon it was time, and he retreated to his room and dismissed the servants. He still remembered all that happened that night. He had sat there by the corridor, observing the stars and the brightness of the moon. He daydreamed until it was midnight. Until it was time. Then, mechanically, he had gotten up, approached the table, pulled opened the drawer and removed the gun. Its cold and metallic surface fascinated him; how trite that a weapon of power would be so cold and dead.

He put it against his temple, and released the safety catch.

Click.

He prepared to pull the trigger.

But he could not do it.

Now that he thought of it, it was if that he had frozen up then and could not move, not even to pull that trigger that will release him from this wretched life. Fear is such a strong motivator sometimes, and it does what it can to protect your body, even when it is against your very self.

At last, with disgust, he lowered the gun, pulled open the drawer and tossed it back in.

He never touched the gun again.

Until now.

^^^^^^^^^^

Yume looked at Akito. He seemed to be deep in thoughts. She had made a wild guess earlier, and it seemed that she had been on the mark. It had been glaringly obvious; a man who keeps a gun near his grasp, and offering it to the first person, asking to be killed.

Akito is a man who has no will to live. It is no wonder to her that he is so frail most of the time. This is a man who is not interested in life. There is no doubt that he had been feeling like that since he was very young. Yume was amazed that he had managed to live this long, surviving by a will as weak as his. She wondered what had held death off for so long and came to one conclusion.

Hate.

Akito's hatred and resentment had been his strongest emotion, and in turn, his will had fed on it and allowed him to be the person that he is now. Strangely enough, Yume was fiercely proud of him. Had he not, after all, survived against all odds? He had been expected to die young, and yet he had passed his twentieth birthday. Yume realized that she should not blame him for his hatred; had it not been present in him, Akito would have died a long time ago.

##########

The man stared through his binoculars, and his lips thinned in anger. Things had not been going well for him, and he had to do something quick to change that. His client had not been pleased with his failure. Akito is now alone with his nursemaid, and now was probably the best time to strike.

Grimly, he leapt off the tree and over the wall into Souma property. It was the biggest piece of land that he had ever seen, and he shook his head at the whims of the rich. Now that he is in, he methodically cleared his head for what was to come.

It was time.

##########

"How did you know?"

Yume snapped out of her thoughts, and flicked a glance at Akito. His eyes were not turbulent anymore, but a curious chocolate brown.

She shrugged.

"You make the mistake of assuming that you are the only one who welcomes death. As I said before, there are other things worse than death."

Reminded of their unfinished conversation that had been held in the park, Akito stared at Yume.

"Who are you?"

But Yume was not paying attention to him anymore.

In a fluid move that surprised Akito, Yume quickly put herself in front of Akito and grabbed the gun.

"Nanda?"

Yume scanned the room carefully.

"There is someone outside," Yume whispered.

Akito was about to demand why she is so uptight about it when the redhead added, "And he is trying to sneak in."

Akito closed his mouth. Questions flooded his mind, but he had the good sense not to ask them now. Who is Yume? And how had she sensed whoever it was that is outside when he was not even aware?

Yume was wondering about the motive behind this mysterious person when he disappeared. Yume frowned. It was as if that he had left the vicinity; she could hardly sense him anymore.

Gun in hand, Yume, together with Akito, cautiously approached the corridor. She was about to whip open the sliding doors when the sharp, deadly scalpels tore through the rice paper covering the door.

`Shimatta.' There was no time, and Yume instinctively reacted.

"Akito, watch out!!" She leapt at the man and both of them crashed to the floor.

The pair stayed there for a while, before Yume decided that it was safe to move. There was no doubt now, the assassin have left by now. Supporting herself by the elbows, she stared down at Akito.

"Daijoubu ka?"

Akito found himself strangely mesmerized by Yume's eyes. Due to the excitement earlier, her pupils were dilated and they glowed green. He did not know what he was about to do, but whatever it was, he quickly curbed it by turning his face away from hers and nodding curtly.

"Yokatta." Yume scooted backwards and was knelt down, waiting for Akito to seat up. The redhead blinked furiously. Something was wrong, and the edges around her vision were blurry.

"Yume." Akito said sharply. Yume tried to focus on him but found it very hard to do so. She lurched alarmingly.

"Akito, I…"

Her eyelashes fluttered close and she slumped against him, unconscious. Frowning, Akito stood up and anchored her to him tightly, for she was very slippery.

`Wait a moment. Slippery?'

Akito raised one hand to his line of vision. His hand is slick with blood. Akito looked down and saw that Yume's back was covered with the scalpels. Immediately, Akito did the one thing that he does best.

He yelled for Hatori.

Okay. I end this chapter here. Heheh…cliffie!! ^^

Domo for all the reviews!! Thanks!! Now that I know that there are people waiting for my updates, I will try to write faster and I promise that I will update this fic every alternate Saturday.

You see, I am multi-tasking and am juggling three long fics at one go. ^^;; And no, I have not run out of inspiration at all; it just takes me longer to write chapters as I alternate between fics. I will try to live up to your expectations though!!

This chapter is satisfying enough, ne? A little dark and angsty though. A hint of Yume's past, Akito's reevaluating his thinking, a case of mistaken identity and the assassin strikes!! Hope that this is worth the wait!! Review and tell me what you think, okay, minna-san? Ja!!