Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ All I Ever Needed ❯ Corners Shadowed With Darkness ( Chapter 8 )

Chapter 8: Corners Shadowed With Darkness

 

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“She told me that it was like her body was made of broken glass.”

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-Fruits Basket Vol. 16 By: Natsuki Takaya

“Kunimitsu.” Someone was shaking him awake. It was too cold to get up. He snuggled farther into the warm nest blankets. “Kunimitsu, wake up!”

“Too early, too cold…” he mumbled and turned over. The man sighed.

“You're twenty one and you still won't get up! I have some really important news about your biological mother!” Kunimitsu's eyes flew wide open as he threw the covers off of himself and stood up, facing Kazuma.

“What? What about her?” His real mother's husband had passed away shortly after she had first visited him when he was twelve years old. Now she and his half-sister Tohru were living together. He'd heard they were happy. Tohru…she would be about…what? Sixteen now? Yeah, that was about right. She'd be in 10th grade, a first year in high school.

My little sister is in high school… the thought of a younger sister was still mind boggling. He'd never met her, so he'd no idea what she looked like except for the vague description his mother had given him nine years ago.

“What does she look like?!”

“Well, sort of like you, I guess. She has dark brow hair, and blue eyes. Not quite as electric blue as yours but, oh she's sooo cute! It just makes you want to hug her!”

“She…um…well, let's get you some breakfast first.”

Kunimitsu's stomach dropped. And it wasn't the idea of Kazuma's cooking either. Whatever it was, it wasn't good news. And that was what scared him.

* * *

 

“She's dead?!” Kunimitsu jumped up, banging his hands on the table.

“I'm so sorry,” Kazuma said, authentic concern in his eyes.

“She can't be dead!” Kunimitsu stared walking around the room, his hands to his head, his eyes wide. “She can't be dead. She can't be. It's not true.”

“Kunimitsu,” Kazuma stood up to try and comfort him. He pulled the hand away from the boy's eyes, and he could see tears forming.

“And…she never- she promised she'd-” Kazuma was startled as the young man threw his arms around him, seeking parental comfort, and sobbed. “She promised she'd come visit me again. She promised.”

“I know,” comforted Kazuma, patting the boy's back. “I know.”

“It- It just hurts, you know?” Kunimitsu said hoarsely, then cleared his throat. He pulled away from the embrace, and looked Kazuma in the eye.

“I want to know everything.”

Kazuma nodded and motioned to the kotatsu.

 

Once they were both settled, Kazuma folded his hands on the table and said:

“What would you like to know?”

“How did she die?” Kazuma saw Kunimitsu flinch a bit as he said the word.

“She passed away in a car accident.” Kunimitsu nodded.

“What happened to…my sister?” My sister… Kunimitsu's voice gained a bit of confidence as he said the last two words.

“She's gone to live with her grandfather on her father's side.” Kunimitsu nodded. “And your mother…she did come after that time…once. You were away on that vacation to Kyoto.”

“She did come?”

“Yes, and she was very disappointed you weren't here. But she said: “Could I possibly look around. Maybe if I get an idea of the environment Kunimitsu was spending his time in, I could connect with him a little more.”

“She tried to understand more about me?”

“Yes. I guess that her life was more stable, and she wanted to get to know you.” Kunimitsu looked away. “This was about three years after her husband died.” Kazuma's assistant looked up.

“Her husband died?”

“I guess that's why she didn't come to visit you before, because she had so much to deal with. Um, Kunimitsu, would you like to try and find your real father?” Kunimitsu looked up.

“What?”

“Would you like to see if we can find your real father?” He thought, and the silence stretched until finally:

“No. He didn't care enough about me to stay, why should I care about him? Besides,” he swept his hand around the room, “I have everything I need in my life. Except-” He faltered.

“Yes?” Kazuma prompted.

My sister… “Never mind.”

“All right then. Let's get to the dojo. Do you think some sparring with help?” Kunimitsu smiled.

“I think that would help very much.”

* * *

There was a loud banging on the door. Heavy tired thuds followed by Kyo's weary voice calling:

“Let me in…” Yuki jumped up, his third candle burned to a stub, and flung the door open. There was Kyo, Tohru limp in his arms, both of them soaked from head to toe and dripping like they had a garden hose hidden in one of their shirts. Kyo had a helpless look of vulnerability Yuki had only ever seen once…

And then he really saw Tohru. Her chest rising and falling very slowly was something that concerned him a great deal. And her lips and fingertips had a bluish tint that meant she must be very cold.

“Oh my god, what happened?”

“She passed out in the woods. I- I don't know what's wrong. She's breathing really slowly and her heart rate's all over the place. She's ice cold, and she's probably coughed up half a lung.”

As if on cue, Tohru let forth a very loud, painful cough that made both the boys flinch, but it was worse for Kyo, he could feel it. Her body jerking with the effort, the feel of phlegm breaking up in her throat, or chest, or lungs…it seemed to be everywhere in her respiratory system. It was terrifying. Kyo looked around suddenly. “Why are there candles?”

“We lost power right after you left. Just bring her upstairs,” Yuki ordered, and for once Kyo did not snap back. “I'll wake Shigure and call Hatori. It may be eleven at night, but he'll be on our tails if we don't.” Kyo nodded. Eleven? Really? Had they really been out that long? Tohru had gone out at five to get the groceries, eight when Kyo had set out to find her. So they'd been gone for three hours.

Kyo had the slightest twinge of remorse for the rat. What must it have been like to just sit there waiting without power for three hours? And Tohru! She'd been outside since she'd left the store. That would be around…seven? Yeah, that sounded about right. She'd actually been out in the rain for four hours. Kyo was really starting to get anxious.

He made his way up the stairs and into Tohru's room, which was lit with three candles, and paused. Should he get her some dry clothes? It might be worse to leave her in wet clothes. And he would try not to look…if that was possible.

So after a lot of peeks out of the corner of his eyes and not that much skin, he had her dressed in the warmest pajama's he could find in her dresser and laid down in the bed under the downy blankets. He even ran to the storage closet at the end of the hall to get an extra blanket.

He looked around the room for something to sit on and settled for pulling the chair at her desk up to the side of the bed. Her hand was limply hanging over the side of the bed. He took it and held it for a long time in silence.

He heard the door creak open.

“Is she okay?” Yuki asked, stepping forward and closing the door behind him with a click.

“That depends on your definition of “okay”.” Kyo said, not meeting his eye.

“Is she still breathing and not pouring blood all over the floor?” Yuki asked scornfully.

“She's okay…for the moment.” Kyo replied as Yuki stepped forward to look down on her. Yuki gave him a sideways glance that Kyo couldn't read.

“She's wearing different clothes…?” The half question half statement made Kyo flinch as he wheeled around and stared the rat right in the face.

“I had to change her clothes! Wet clothes could be dangerous for her!”

“I wasn't saying anythi-”

“Whatever,” Kyo said quietly as he turned back to Tohru. “So, did you call Hatori?”

“Yeah, and he said the symptoms she's having could be dangerous.” Kyo's eyes widened. “He's heading over right away.”

“So that prick really does care,” he muttered, gazing at the girl's face. “There really is somethin' about her…”

Yuki smiled, and then took on a look of annoyance.

“And Shigure wouldn't wake up. He's like a rock when he sleeps. Once he's out, he's out.”

“What an idiot.”

“I didn't know jellyfish slept.”

“So what did Hatori say we should we do until he gets here?” Kyo asked, not wanting to feel useless.

“Get her into some warm clothes and into a bed with lots of blankets. But you seem to have all the bases covered on this one.”

Kyo scowled for lack of something better to do and/or say.

“All right.”

“Well…” Yuki said to fill the stretching silence, “I'll be downstairs if you need me.” Kyo didn't turn around, but just listened to the door creak open, and shut, and Yuki's receding footsteps down the hall and stairs.

“…he said the symptoms she's having could be dangerous.”

“Get better, okay?” Kyo whispered. Half back in the other time she'd been sick with a fever. When he'd cooked her medley soup. “Get better so you can wander around the house with that idiotic expression like you always do. If you don't, I'll go crazy.”

You need to get better so I can tell you everything…

Scenes flashed in his head. Horrible scenes. Black clothing. White flowers. Incense. Horrible when associated with Tohru…

Kyo caught himself. That's not going to happen! He thought fiercely. It won't! I'm just exaggerating!

“Everything will be all right.” He murmured to himself, trying to make it as solid as possible. “Everything will be all right.”

But as Kyo settled down in the chair on the side of the bed, stroking Tohru's hair, listening to her ragged breathing…the corners shadowed with darkness which flickered with candle light in the corners of his eyes whispered to him:

 

You might want to reconsider…

 

End of Chapter 8:

“Corners Shadowed With Darkness”

A/n: Only two titles for this chapter too! Yaaah! And I finally moved on from the “drama in the woods” junk! It's been going on for what…five, six chapters now? Well, two of them didn't have Kyo and Tohru in them, but whatever. And now we move on! Yaaah! And oh! I hope that the… *counting on fingers* three different plot lines aren't scaring you off or confusing you! That would be really bad T_T. But I promise I'll connect two of them, and the flashback plot line with Kunimitsu and Kazuma and Kyoko is almost over, and I will be bringing their story up in present time with the Kyo-Tohru and the Rin-Haru plot lines. So yeah! Anyway! Join me next chapter! Bye! ^_^

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Fruits Basket is the creation of Takaya Natsuki, and is licensed in North

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