Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Furuba Love Stories ❯ Yuki and Kagura ( Chapter 14 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket.

A/N: I would like to entitle this my "I set aside the whole weekend to write my 16 pages worth of senior project essays, study for my two midterms next week, and finish that damn Energy and the Environment assignment as well as work on my internship, but so far I've just written this chapter" chapter :P

Chapter 14: Kagura and Yuki

Setting: Kyo and Tohru have found love, but who did they leave behind?

"I'm sorry Yuki!" Kagura sobbed fitfully into Yuki's chest. "I'm sorry you have to listen to me crying."

Yuki stroked his cousin's hair awkwardly, not really knowing how to comfort her. He felt like he might need comforting himself. "It's okay, Kagura. I don't mind. We all cry sometimes."

It had only been four days since they had found out, and a long four days they were. It was an accident, really, Kyo and Tohru becoming more than just friends, not something done in plan or in spite. Yuki wasn't angry with her at all. He had discovered through the situation that he could be happy for Tohru without any selfishness. That's where his happiness ended, though.

Yuki felt something akin to envy or jealousy of Kyo. He despised thinking that the cat was capable of finding love and he was not. In turn that made him angry with himself for being so shallow. He shouldn't have to look up to the stupid cat. Realistically, he was depressed that he had nobody, that he was alone once again, and he knew it. So he did feel that he needed comforting, and he was instead comforting someone else.

Kagura had shown up out of the blue at Shigure's. Yuki had been there alone, since Kyo and Tohru were out for the day and Shigure was visiting the main house. He didn't even know why she had come, since the thought of Kyo and Tohru so obviously hurt her.

"I don't know why I'm so upset. I know Kyo doesn't love me, and I accepted that, but I still love him!" With that she began pounding in frustration on his torso, not at all gently.

Yuki let her pummel her emotions away until she really started putting her weight into it, at which point he grasped her wrist firmly and held it away from him. "Kagura, I know how you hurt. I hurt, too, but we have to accept it and move on." He felt enormous sympathy for the fiery little brunette. It wasn't often that something could crack her spirit this much. Even when she had chased a resistant Kyo around for years, it never got to her like this. He supposed that she was coming out of a long bought of denial.

When Kagura's arm went lax in his grip, Yuki let her go and she immediately wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace. "Thank you, Yuki," she murmured into him. He could feel her warm tears soaking through his shirt. "I know that you loved Tohru, too. You must be sad. Do you want to talk about it?"

Yuki's eyes widened as Kagura started rubbing his back in small circles. Now she was comforting him? Everyone knew about Kagura's instantaneous personality changes, but this was really from one extreme to the other in a way he had never seen. "You're okay, just like that?" he asked in wonderment.

"Yeah," she answered, looking up at him and smiling through her tears. Her tone was completely devoid of the depression that had been in it a minute ago. "Come sit down with me, Yuki. Tell me what's bothering you." She clasped his hand and led him stunned to the porch outside, where she made him sit down on the edge. Hopping down onto the ground, she hovered in front of his knees and pulled his head to rest on her own chest.

Yuki blathered incoherently for a few seconds until he could figure out what she was doing. Kagura was so fickle! She had gone from weeping like her life was over to smiling and trying to console him in less than five minutes. "I'm not sad, Kagura," he told her, prying his head out of her arms to sit back up. "I'm happy for Tohru."

Kagura pursed her lips together and clamped her arms around Yuki's head to bring it to her bosom again. "Yuki, don't lie to me! I know you're in love with Tohru. Tell me how you feel!"

"No, really, Kagura," he began, trying unsuccessfully to get out of her much tighter grip. Finally he just gave up and left his head securely in her arms. "I'm not sad, I'm angry," he said, not really intending to discuss it with her. The whole ordeal was making him furious, though. If Kagura wanted to know why he was upset so badly, then he would just have to tell her. "I want to find someone like that. I want to have someone love me. I want to be special and needed and wanted. I'm happy for Tohru because she deserves that. Why does Kyo have to get it, though? Hasn't my life been as hard as his?" The last words were driven like daggers from his mouth. His strength returned to him and he forced himself off of Kagura's chest. "Maybe you're sad because you thought Kyo would love you back someday, but he won't. I'm sorry, but it's never going to happen. I want what they have, and it's not fair to them that they make me angry."

Cold violet eyes met startled grey ones for a second before Kagura lowered her head and let her chestnut hair cover her. Small sobs shook her body in front of him and he wondered at how he was now the cause of her crying. Resting his hands lightly on her shoulders, he leaned forward until his forehead came into contact with hers. "I'm sorry, Kagura," he said in an almost whisper. "I didn't mean to yell at you. This isn't your fault just like it isn't theirs. I'm the only one to blame."

"No!" Kagura's fierce tone surprised him. "It's not our fault that we're like this. It's the fault of the ones who put this curse on us!" Tears of a new emotion, rage, now pooled at the outer corners of her eyes. "Why can't I ever hug the one I love? It's so unfair, Yuki, so unfair. I loved Kyo for so long, and it would have been fine!" Her eyes drifted wistfully skyward. "We could have embraced each other and the curse wouldn't have mattered. But now we have to go find other people, you say? That's unfair! All I want is to be held, Yuki!"

Yuki's mouth opened in disbelief. True, the curse prevented them from embracing anyone they might love, but with Kagura the pain of that had just hit her. Yuki had never loved his cursed female counterparts, had never thought about the fact that he would have been able to hold one of them. The possibility had just never come up. Kisa was a child, he never had much interaction with Rin, and she had always been secretly Haru's anyway, and Kagura had always just been characterized as the one who loved Kyo. He could only imagine the heartbreak she felt now knowing that those embraces that she had taken for granted were completely gone. Yuki couldn't think about his own childish jealousy anymore, not while she experienced the pain of a lifetime of being cursed in a matter of seconds.

Sliding his arms around Kagura's back, Yuki held her to him protectively. This was different than the clumsy way he had hugged her earlier. Yuki used his whole body to surround and engulf her, like she was the only thing he had left in life. He leaned his head onto her neck and made hushing noises into her ear while one hand came up to cup her head and weave his fingers into her silky hair. With his knees apart, Kagura's standing form same close to his and she wept into the cavern that was made by his encircling chest and arms for some time, until dry wracking sobs were all that was left of her.

When those slowed, Kagura braced her hands on Yuki and lifted herself from him. "Yuki?" she said tentatively, her voice barely a squeak.

"What is it?"

Kagura didn't answer but instead looked into his eyes with a timid expression and laid a soft kiss on his lips. Then she stepped back, scrubbed a palm across her moist cheeks, and walked down the pathway, away from where Yuki still sat on the edge of the porch.

The kiss lingered on his lips like a refreshing breeze. Yuki wasn't sure if it was a token of her gratitude for his words or a hint of something more, but he was willing to wait and find out. The idea of being able to embrace someone was invigorating, but the thought of kissing Kagura was still strange. He needed time to think, and time he had. Maybe Kagura was just what he needed. Maybe he was just what Kagura needed.

A/N: Thank you so much for continuing to read and review and suggest pairings! Now that I've done some of the more popular requests, what else do you want to see? I'm probably doing Gure x Mit-chan next, per your very nice requests.