Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Divine Intervention ❯ Chapter 11 ( Chapter 11 )

Disclaimer: Why can't I own Fruits Basket? I'm going to pout now.

Warning: Another tiny lime.

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Chapter 11:

Rin dialed the number for the fourth time that day. The first two times Tohru had answered in her sweet way, and the third time Kyou had been on the other end, his tone angry as usual. Rin hadn't responded to them, though. She had just hung up and waited a while before trying again. Keeping this conversation private was dearly important to her and her mission. A month she had waited since she had seen Shigure at his house during her visit, a month of wondering and pondering that had gotten her nowhere. Today she was going to try a new approach.

"Hello?" came a singsong voice through the receiver.

Finally, the person she was trying to talk to had answered. "Shi-chan, I need to talk to you."

"Rin?"

"Just listen to me. It's no use denying that you're working on the curse, so don't try. I've figured out how to begin breaking it, but not the end. Have you figured that part out yet?" There. Maybe coming right out and saying it would do some good, although it was impossible to catch the Dog off guard.

"Rin," he began, "I don't know what you're talking-"

"Like hell you don't!" she yelled, interrupting his deflecting technique. "I know that you know, and I'm going to keep calling you until you give me something to work with!" Maybe she was being a little loud, but she didn't care. If only she had something to blackmail him with. Enraged, she kicked over a pile of clothes that were sitting on the floor and sat down hard on her bed. Shigure was so irritating.

After what seemed like a lifetime, he slowly answered her. "Fine. I see there's no use in evading the issue with you. Things are going to happen very soon, so I'll let you know when you'll be of use."

As simple as that she had gotten what she wanted, just a mere recognition that things were indeed in motion. "Thank you, Shigure." A muffled sound of footsteps up the stairs froze her in her place. She didn't want any suspicions raised at all, for everyone's sake. If Akito knew?. "I need to go," she whispered, and went to place the phone back on the base.

"Rin!" Shigure's voice called to her when the phone was several inches from her ear. She hurriedly put the receiver back so she could hear what he was saying. "Please don't call the house and hang up anymore. Kyou thinks someone is stalking Tohru now." A click and a dial tone followed, so Rin threw the phone down on the base and picked up her math book. The person outside was approaching her door.

Seconds later there was a familiar knock followed by a more familiar voice. "Rin?"

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Shigure rubbed his chin thoughtfully after ending his conversation with Rin. He knew the day would come when she would confront him more directly about the curse. How to place her in with the already laid-out plans, though, might be a problem. As long as he could find something for her to do, she should be sufficed. Ah! He had the perfect task. She would do nicely in that role. Picking up the phone once more, he quickly dialed a number. Before the call's recipient had a greeting out, Shigure was already speaking. "We have help."

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"Math homework, hmm?" Haru stared at Rin as he stepped into the room. He knew that she hadn't been studying very hard, since the book was upside-down, but he decided not to say anything more on the subject. Angering someone who you were going to ask a favor of wasn't perhaps the best idea, and questioning Rin's integrity was sure to bring out that icy temper.

"What do you want, Haru?" Her tone was maybe a little more curt than she had intended, but he always barged in on her at the most inopportune times, and it made her furious. Last time he hadn't even knocked, and she had barely had enough time to wrap her robe around herself before he got an eyeful. Of course, he had seen her before, but not unexpectedly like that. A hot blush crept up her cheeks, and she scowled at Haru to mentally punish him as the cause of it.

Haru grinned at her mischievously. She knew that he could read her mind, and that only made her blush harder. That robe hadn't stayed on very long the last time. "I wanted to know if you would to go to the city with me. You know, shopping and dinner, or whatever."

"You're just asking me to go with you so you don't get lost," Rin said with a gleam in her eye and a sly smile. "Why don't you just admit it?"

In one swift motion, Haru grabbed Rin around her waist and pulled her to her feet, pressing her body against his. "Maybe so," he answered ambiguously, "but maybe not. Come on, I know you want to get out of this house." He glanced down at her math book, now lying dismally on the floor. "And I know you hate math. Let's go have some fun." Playfully, he made biting motions at her, causing her to lean away from him. With his deep rumble of a laugh, he let go of her suddenly, making her lose her balance and fall on her back onto the bed. He quickly followed, catching himself with his arms before he fell on her.

Rin wondered at how considerate Haru was not to crush her even in his Black form. She was certain that he had changed somewhere along the line. Rin knew from experience that turning Black sometimes meant other emotions than anger, although she doubted that anyone else knew that. Looking from side to side, she saw that he had trapped her between his arms, and he was lying heavily on her legs. There was no escaping him now, not that she minded, really. Rin seemed to be the only person who actually enjoyed Black Haru. Coyly, she smiled up at him. "So, I guess we aren't going out after all." This had happened enough times to know that he wasn't going to stop so they could go shopping.

"Sure we are." Haru adjusted himself so that he was lying next to her rather than on her, and glanced at the clock on her nightstand. "It's still early. We have the whole night ahead of us." Frowning thoughtfully, he examined the contents of the room until his eyes fell on her folding chair at her desk. "Perfect. We don't need any interruptions from Kagura this time."

Rin turned an even deeper shade of pink as she remembered clamoring into her robe once again the last time as Kagura had come traipsing into her room. The Boar hadn't even been embarrassed! She had giggled and made a big point about checking out Haru's backside as he pulled on his pants. That hadn't gone over well, and the night had ended with both of them losing their tempers and screaming at each other so loudly that Kagura's mother had to come in and throw Haru out of the house. The whole ordeal was ridiculous. Luckily, this time Haru used some foresight and braced the chair against the door handle to keep unwanted guests out. Rin would have to remember to do that next time she was on the phone with Shigure or undressing.

Haru switched off the lights after flashing his devilish smile, which was belied by the caring look in his steel-colored eyes. "Should we start over again, or just take it up where we left off last time?" he asked her softly once he found his way back to the bed.

"Start over," she answered in a shy, almost child-like voice. She couldn't ever get used to this kind of talk, even if it was with Haru.

"All right, but then we might not have time to go out later," he chided, kissing her ear in all the spots he knew drove her crazy.

Latching onto two handfuls of his hair, she moved his face in front of hers, although she couldn't see him in the darkness. "I don't care. I just want Haru." Desperately, she raised her head to meet his lips in a passionate kiss, driving home her words.

Haru found himself slipping out of his wanton Blackness and into his more serene White form. He gently broke from Rin's kiss and used a hand to brush his fingers across her burning cheeks. "I just want to love Rin."

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"Honda-san, did you want to go over the Crimean War again?"

Tohru looked up from her notes and gave Yuki a flustered shake of her head. "No, Yuki-kun, I couldn't ask that. I've already taken up so much of your time and I should know all of that by now."

Smiling, Yuki grasped Tohru's arm gently. "Don't worry about me. I'm going to help you as much as you need, although I think you're already prepared for finals now. Maybe you should be tutoring me," he added with a light chuckle.

Tohru's blushing face could be seen through the veil of her bangs. "I just want to pass finals on the first try, not take the re-tests. I could never be smart enough to tutor you."

"Honda-san, don't think so little of yourself. There are many things that you know far more about than I do, like cooking and being social and taking care of people." Yuki realized that he was making her blush worse, so he flipped through his notebook to the chemistry section. "Let's forget the War for now. How about the valence electrons of the halogens? Which one of these drawings is Bromine?"

After staring at the page with glassy eyes for several minutes, Tohru couldn't focus anymore. "I don't know, Yuki-kun," she whimpered. "I'm so sorry that I forgot everything you worked so hard to teach me. I'm going to fail Mom, I know it."

She wasn't crying, yet, but Yuki could see the tears pooling in her eyes. "Come on, Honda-san," he said, getting up from the table. "They've done all sorts of experiments that say you can study too much. Maybe it's time we stopped and took a break until tomorrow. Would you like to do something else, like watch a movie?"

"A movie?" she questioned, as though the word was foreign.

"Yes, Honda-san, a movie, to take our minds off of all this schoolwork. I think Kisa and Hiro left a few over here last time. Care to join me?" He stretched out a hand to assist her to her feet, and then led her to the recreation room, where the television was set up. "Which one should we choose?" he asked her, referring to the small stack of videos on the TV.

Several minutes went by as Tohru squinted at the titles. "Hmm, this one? No, this one?no, I don't know. I can't decide," she finally said in desperation.

Yuki smiled at the back of her head and sighed. She was so eager to please that she wouldn't tell him what she wanted. He had to do something about that. Grabbing her shoulders, he spun her around to face him with her large innocent eyes. "Honda-san," he began seriously, "I'm not going to be upset if you make the choices you want. No one is. I want you to feel comfortable enough with me to tell me what you want or don't want. It's not your job to defer to everyone else in the world." She continued to stare at him as though she didn't know what to say. She probably didn't. "Now, I'm going to go get us some snacks. Why don't you pick a movie and surprise me when I get back."

As Yuki stood in the kitchen pouring them tea, he smiled. Tohru needed that sometimes, to keep her from trying to please everyone all the time. She would get herself hurt with that behavior, and he wouldn't allow that. Yuki wanted to spend as much time with her and help her as much as possible before he had to go back to Akito's side. Nodding in acknowledgment of his success in speaking his mind with her, he placed the tea and some rice crackers on a tray and returned to the rec room. Tohru was sitting on the floor with a huge grin on her face, as though she was proud of herself.

"I picked a movie, Yuki-kun. I hope you like it!" Her smile was so big that he pondered at whether or not it was hurting her cheeks.

"I'm sure I will," he told her with his own smile. Sitting down next to her, he pressed "play" on the remote control. "Ah, I heard this was good. Some of the Student Council members were talking about it."

Tohru plucked lightly at Yuki's sleeve and flushed as he looked down on her. "Thank you, Yuki-kun. I think I needed that." In response, Yuki kissed her gently on her forehead and they both settled in to watch the movie.

Not too long went by before Shigure came into the room, though. "Ah, sweethearts sitting in a dark room, pretending to watch a movie. It's like a scene from one of my novels," he teased, until he saw Yuki's death glare. "Eh? All right, all right, don't get angry, Yuki-kun. I just wanted to tell you that I'm going to the Honke for a bit. Don't be too naughty while I'm gone."

Yuki flung a cracker at his head, but Shigure closed the door just in time and it bounced onto the floor. "Don't worry about him, Honda-san. He's uncouth." Tohru just giggled.

Later, the door was opened again to reveal Kyou's head, apparently just back from the dojo. He took one look at Tohru and Yuki, making his expression change from puzzlement to embarrassment to anger in an instant. He too slammed the door, and they heard him stomping around on the roof a few minutes later.

"Don't worry about him, either, Honda-san." But he could see that his words had little effect since the pain was evident in her eyes. She couldn't stand hurting Kyou, but Yuki decided not to think about that and spoil the moment. Instead he hesitantly tapped her arm and cleared his throat. "Um, Honda-san, I wanted to ask you something."

Tohru looked at him with her most naïve expression. "Yes?"

Clearing his throat again, Yuki forced himself to look into her eyes. "I was wondering, Honda-san, if you wanted to go out with me tomorrow afternoon. You know, it's White Day, and I actually had something planned if you were interested."

Tohru grinned from ear to ear and flung her arms around him, realizing too late that it wasn't such a good idea. A small rat rested on her knee and she buried her face in her hands. "I'm sorry, Yuki-kun, I forgot. I'm such an idiot."

"Don't worry about it, Honda-san," Yuki squeaked. "So does this mean you'll go with me?"

Tohru removed her hands from her face and cupped Yuki's Zodiac form in them. "Of course," she answered giddily, tilting her head to the side. A puff of smoke encompassed the room again as he transformed back. Tohru shrieked and averted her gaze in humiliation so Yuki could replace his clothes.

"Um, maybe we should rewind the movie a bit," Yuki suggested, signaling that it was fine for Tohru to look again.

"Okay, Yuki-kun," Tohru blurted out, but she found herself beginning to giggle at what had happened. Before long, Yuki was laughing along with her.

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Moving quietly through the compound, Shigure pulled his yukata close around him. The air was still chilling even this late in winter. He was almost to Akito's residence, the largest in the Honke, when he heard a rustling behind him. Shigure ducked into a narrow alleyway between two of the houses to let whoever it was pass by him, but when the shadow of the other person came to the alley opening, it stopped, obviously waiting for him. "Are you not on your way to Akito-sama?" said an inquisitive voice.

"Hello, Kureno-kun. I am indeed on my way, but I wanted to avoid undesirable attention. You should have announced yourself sooner." Shigure brushed away the alley's cobwebs, which had stuck to his clothing, as he emerged from the passage. "Shall we?"

Kureno made no answer except to walk stiffly ahead towards their destination. With a shrug, Shigure followed him. Kureno and himself had never been at odds with each other, but they hadn't ever been good friends, either, despite their closeness in age. In reality, Kureno had always been so near to Akito and his predecessor that Shigure didn't think he knew how to be friends. For all Shigure knew, Kureno thought they were bosom buddies.

"I was told to wait outside," Kureno informed Shigure as they stood outside Akito's room. Shigure clapped him on the shoulder, evoking a look of confusion, and went into the room.

"Shigure, how nice to see you," Akito rasped from the porch. The Jyuunishi's master was lying with his back turned, one of his tiny white birds perching on his finger. The moonlight came through the trees perfectly so that only his body was illuminated, none of the surroundings, making him look like some ethereal building. Shigure wondered at how fitting that image was.

"Good evening, Akito-san. I bring some interesting news." Shigure sank to his knees before Akito could accuse him of being petulant.

"How fascinating. Why don't you tell me?" Akito flicked the bird into the air and rolled over to stare at Shigure with his penetratingly dark eyes.

"Well, it seems that Yuki and Tohru have grown quite close this past month. You know, graduation is almost upon them. Are you still going through with the plan?" Shigure didn't want to hurt his cousins or Tohru, so he repeated to himself over and over that it was for their own good.

Dry laughter filled the room and Akito moved swiftly to stand before Shigure. "Don't question my intentions, my loyal Dog. Everything is going better than I had hoped. How is that monster taking it?"

Shigure bowed his head to hide his frown. Kyou was troubling to him, as he had grown introverted and almost depressed. Things needed to be put in motion before he gave up on life completely. "He is obviously hurt by what's going on."

"Good. A subhuman beast like him should suffer as much as possible. I think I have something that may 'improve' his mood. Kureno!" he screeched so loudly that Shigure winced at the piercing noise. Kureno humbly entered the room with a stack of envelopes. "Shigure, see that you deliver these tomorrow," Akito continued in eerie laughter. "You'll find that there's one for each of you." Snatching the envelopes from Kureno's hand, he tossed them onto Shigure's lap and walked back to the porch. "You may both leave me now," he told them simply.

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A/N: I'm such a horrible liar. I promised regular updates, and then I go and leave you hanging for weeks. Please don't flame me though, because I have a peace offering: Another new chapter in the next week. What do you say? I think it's fair. Anyway, I hope you liked it enough to read and review, if you would. It's always appreciated!

Thanks to:

Merei-chan: No this is definitely not a Hana/ Akito fic! Although they will meet again?.

Lady Kara: Thanks! ^_^

Zapenstap: ^_~ Always my biggest fan! I love your in depth analysis of my work. Keep it coming!

BlackDragonFly: It's quite an honor to be on your favorites list! I hope I keep doing it justice so it can stay there!

Sakura Avalon or Kinomoto: Did I get the next chapter out before spoon and fork time? I hope so, because that sure sounds painful!

Bishiegurlie: Even though you didn't leave a review, thanks for telling me you read it and liked it!