Pet Shop Of Horrors Fan Fiction / Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Long Denied ❯ Bad Puppy ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Petshop of Horrors X-over Fruits Basket
LONG DENIED




Legend says that long ago, God invited all the animals to his house for a New Years party. All the animals attended, except the Cat. The mischievous rat had tricked the cat into believing the party was the day after. God was well pleased with the attending animals, but when the cat appeared and begged to be let in, God turned him away.

And so, the cat was forever separate from its family.




This is the story of the Zodiac Family and how important every outsider truly is.



The Zodiac:

The Head of the Family

Dog
Snake
Dragon
Rat
Ram
Tiger
Hors e
Monkey
Rooster
Boar
Hare
Ox

And the outsider...the cat





CHAPTER 1- Bad Puppy
Year: 1983

Dog-Shigure
Snake-Ayame
Dragon-Hatori
Cat-Toma (Kazuma's grandfather)



Shigure- 6 years old




Souma Shigure turned into a dog whenever a girl hugged him. Only, it wasn't just hugging and Shigure thought that was a terrible way to break the rules. The rule was that he had to be hugged, but he would turn into a dog even if a girl bumped into him and that just wasn't fair. It seemed like cheating to Shigure.

It was the curse of the Souma family that made Shigure turn into a dog.

It was that same curse that made twelve other people in his family turn into animals when hugged by the opposite sex.

"How do you think it all started." Shigure asked his two friends as they strolled down the busy streets of the city.

Ayame, happily skipping ahead of Shigure and Hatori and swinging his new school bag, looked over his shoulder and fixed his golden eyes on Shigure. Ayame was quite beautiful, even for a six-year-old. His hair had grown down to his shoulders and was a shining silver color. Even his face was so delicate that it almost made him look like a girl. "How did what start, 'Gure?" As usual, Ayame was smiling as if he hadn't a care in the world.

"The curse, how did it..."

Shigure was cut off by Hatori's sharp glare. "Don't."

"But I want to know why..."

"No." Hatori stopped walking and glared at Shigure. "We aren't safe. We're outside the Main House, so we can't talk about it. That's the rule." With that, Hatori started walking again and he took Ayame's hand and started pulling him briskly along. "Come on. We have to go or we'll be late for school."

So, with Hatori's reprimand and warning in mind, Shigure tried to forget his question. He wasn't just worried about himself, but he was worried for Ayame, too. Ayame loved to touch and hug everyone, he was a very tactile boy. It wasn't a problem in the Main House, where everyone knew about the curse, but if he forgot to control himself, Ayame could easily transform right in the middle of school. That would be bad for everyone. Ayame would get a beating when they got home and Akira, the head of the family, found out what had happened. It would also be bad for Hatori who would be expected to erase the memory of everyone who'd seen the transformation.

It wasn't an easy question to forget about, but Shigure tried to do as Hatori wanted. After all, this was an important day. The first day of school.

It was also the first day the three of them had been allowed outside the walls of the Souma House alone. They were finally trusted enough that the head of the family didn't make them go with an adult.

Shigure was as happy as any first grader on his first day of school as he walked with his cousins, Hatori and Ayame, who also happened to be his two best friends. Ayame and Hatori were as different as anyone could possibly be. Ayame was almost always happy, if a little selfish and always loud with a bright, outgoing personality. Hatori was always quiet and serious, tended to keep himself in the background of whatever situation he was in.

"There it is!" Ayame shouted, pointing to what seemed like a huge school to Shigure. "Oh! I'm so excited! This is going to be wonderful!" Ayame threw his arms around Shigure and hugged him tightly while Hatori paused long enough for Ayame to get a hold of himself before they all continued on again.

"Guys!"

Shigure turned to the shouted voice and saw a familiar boy waving at them from the gates of the school. He raised an arm and waved back. "Hi, Kazuma!" Kazuma was only a year older, but Shigure liked the older boy.

"Come get me if you need me." Kazuma said when Shigure and his friends caught up with him at the school gate. "You know," He bent down to whisper, secretively, "if anything 'happens'. There are a couple of girl teachers and you never know if you might run into a mother or something."

"Thank you, Kazuma." Hatori said, his voice cool and distant, as it usually was when he spoke to someone other than Shigure or Ayame. They were really the only people he liked to talk to.

"No problem." Kazuma grinned and spoke in a more normal voice. "Your dad told me to look out for you three, Hatori."

Hatori flinched at the mention of his father, but it was so slight that Shigure doubted Kazuma actually saw it. "Will you be walking home with us?" Hatori asked as he started to walk again. He looked around curiously at all the people and Shigure could almost see the thoughts running though Hatori's head, wondering if this place would be safe and what would they do.

'Hari's so smart.' Shigure thought proudly. 'He's always prepared for everything.'

"Sorry, but I've got lessons today." Kazuma's face lit up at the thought of his martial arts lessons. Shigure had heard that Kazuma was really very good, but he hadn't yet seen his cousin in action. Kazuma was one of the few members of the Souma family who knew about the Zodiac curse, but wasn't one of them. It was all because Kazuma's grandfather was the cat, not that the cat belonged to the Zodiac or anything.



"Of course we get a lady teacher." Hatori muttered when the three of them walked into the classroom and saw a pretty young woman sitting behind her desk. Still, there was nothing they could really do except try to control Ayame and get in and out of class as fast as possible.

"Now class," The teacher said with a bright smile as she stood before the class of all boys. It was an all boy school, after all. "So we can all get to know each other a little better, I'd like everyone to draw a picture of their family and then we'll have a little show and tell."

As she passed out large pieces of white paper, Shigure leaned over and whispered to Hatori, "Do you think she wants pictures of everyone? How will we fit them all on the paper?" Just thinking of everyone in his family, Shigure knew he'd need at least two more pieces of paper. Why, there were the twelve Zodiac members, plus all their families, plus the cat, plus...

"Just draw the people you're closest to." Hatori advised as he picked up a black crayon and started.

Soon Shigure's paper was filled with people. He tried to only draw Hatori and Ayame's families, the ones he lived with. Then he remembered that he couldn't leave out his aunt or his three uncles or...and soon there wasn't a blank space left on the paper. Hatori, not a great artist, had drawn very simple portrait of his mom, Shigure, and Ayame.

Shigure didn't notice that the lady teacher was near them until she bent over to speak with Ayame. Shigure almost started sweating when she put a hand on Ayame's shoulder and leaned over, getting entirely to close for comfort, not that Ayame noticed.

"Ayame, dear," The teacher started. "I thought I asked you all to draw your families." She was looking at his paper, curiously.

"But I did." Ayame smiled at her. "They're all apart of my family. Don't you like it?"

"Well," She said doubtfully. "It's a very nice drawing, but I really wanted you to draw pictures of your family, not pets. Besides, you've got a dragon here and dragon's aren't real pets."

Shigure's eyes shot over to Ayame, who was blissfully unaware of how in danger he was. 'What do I do? He's gonna tell her everything!'

Fortunately, Hatori was very good at taking care of careless Ayame. With a loud screech of metal against tile, Hatori pushed his chair back and stepped over to Ayame. With his black crayon still in his hand, and ignoring the teachers' puzzled look, Hatori looked at what Ayame had drawn.

"'Tori!" Ayame beamed. "Do you like it? Can I see your picture?"

"Idiot." Hatori said, crossly. He used his black crayon and drew a large 'X' over Ayame's carefully drawn picture.

"Souma-kun!" The indignant teacher cried, aghast at what Hatori had done. "How could you do that to your own cousin? And there's no need for name-calling!"

Hatori ignored her and spoke firmly to Ayame. "Do it right." He didn't even wait for Ayame to answer before he took his seat again and resumed his own drawing.

Ayame pouted, "But..."

"No buts. If you don't behave, I'll tell your mom that you can't go to school anymore and she'll hire you a private tutor. You'll have to stay at the estate when Shigure and I go to school and you'll be alone all day."

The threat of being separate from his two cousins worked perfectly and Ayame drew people this time with his usual flair for drawing.

The teacher, however, was far from done. "That's no way for you to behave, Souma-kun! Even if he is your cousin, you don't have the right to destroy his artwork. We could have given him a new piece of paper or..."

"Ayame needs to be handled firmly." Hatori told her with his ice-cold voice. "I know him better than you do."

"I don't want any back talk!" She snapped. "From now on, you work on your work and Ayame will work on his. If he has any problems, I'll take care of him."

For a moment, Shigure was sure that Hatori would say something in return. Instead, Hatori simply nodded and turned silently back to his work. It wasn't going to happen, Shigure knew. Hatori wasn't about to leave Ayame on his own with an outsider lady. He would always be there to protect Ayame.

Apparently satisfied with Hatori's answer, the teacher continued to look around at the drawings. "Is everyone done?" The teacher asked after a little while. "Shigure-kun, why don't you come up and show us your picture?"

Proudly, Shigure held up the picture of all his family. It had filled an entire sheet of paper with pictures of Hatori and Ayame in the center and surrounded by smaller pictures of everyone else who lived on the Souma estate. "This is everyone!" Shigure announced, happily.

"That's very nice," Shigure's teacher had said, "but which ones are your parents?"

Shigure looked at her, puzzled. "I didn't draw them. I've never seen them." He thought about the question carefully, but wasn't sure how he should answer. He couldn't tell her that the dragon had made his parents forget him. No one would be happy with him for that answer. "I live with Hatori and Ayame."

The tittering laughter in the classroom made Shigure blush and bite his lip. He lowered the picture slightly and wondered what he'd done wrong. He knew it sounded strange, but surely other people had lives like him. Right?

"That's enough!" The teacher snapped. "There's no reason for any of you to be laughing! That's very rude and I won't stand for it."

Ayame agreed and shot to his feet. "Don't any of you pick on my dear 'Gure-chan!" He shouted at the class. "He's a simply wonderful person and his drawing is grand!"

Hatori's support was, naturally, quieter, but Shigure could see the sympathy in Hatori's eyes.

"It's not important." Shigure said loudly. "I don't need parents, anyway. I've got lots of people who take care of me."

The teacher put a hand on Shigure's shoulder and smiled. "Don't worry, Shigure-kun. It's all right if you lost your parents. I understand how hard it must be for you, being an orphan."

"Orphan? My parents aren't dead. I just never see them."

The teacher frowned and gave Shigure a pitying look. "I'd like to see you at recess, Souma-kun." Then she walked away and continued with the class, but she kept looking at Shigure with pity and concern.

Later, at morning recess, Shigure found himself alone in the classroom with a very sympathetic looking teacher. "Have a seat, Souma-kun." She gestured to a chair next to her desk. "You said, earlier, that you lived with your cousins. How do you live with both of them?"

"Well," Shigure began, he looked out of the corner of his eye and saw Hatori and Ayame standing at the door. "Well, I live with Ayame one week and then Hatori another week. Why?"

"Why do you live with them instead of your parents?" She asked without answering his question. "If they're still alive, why don't you live with them?"

Shigure shrugged. "I just don't. They left me with the family when I was born and then they left. I think they still live in the city, but the head of the family doesn't like me seeing them." In truth, he didn't like thinking about it. He didn't live with them because he was the dog, it was as simple as that.

Her eyes inexplicably filled with tears and, before Shigure could react, she pulled him in for a hug. "Oh, you poor dear..."

"NO!" Shigure cried, but it was to late. With a puff of smoke, Shigure had turned into a small, black puppy.

The teacher blinked, shocked to find a black puppy in her arms, but just as she was opening her mouth to say something, Hatori rushed into the room with Ayame at his side. Ayame grabbed Shigure was Hatori threw himself at the stunned teacher and slapped his hand over her eyes. They both fell backwards onto the floor and Hatori was sitting on the teacher when a bright flash of light, like the flash on a camera, filled the room.

"'Gure-san?" Ayame looked down at Shigure and held him close. "Are you all right?"

Shigure didn't answer, but he dug his claws into the front of Ayame's school uniform and whimpered pitifully. 'What am I going to do?' He thought worriedly. He'd never transformed outside the family estate before. What would the head of the family say? What would he do?

Ayame patted Shigure's head. "Don't worry," He said soothingly. "Tori-san will think of something. He always does."

But one look at Hatori said that he might not be up to thinking up escape plans right now. Hatori had finished with the teacher, who was now unconscious on the floor, and stood up shakily. He turned to them, completely exhausted, and staggered towards them. "I...I think we should go home. Ayame, get Shigure's clothes." Every word came out as if it hurt and Shigure was horrified to see a trickle of blood start to seep out of Hatori's nose.

"Hari!" Shigure cried, jumping out of Ayame's arms and running up to Hatori. "You're hurt!" It felt as natural to run on four legs as it did on two, as if Shigure had always meant to be a dog. "What happened?"

"No. It always happens like this." Hatori wiped the blood from his nose with the back of his hand. "It'll stop in a minute. I made her forget seeing you as a dog, Shigure. It's okay, now, but we have to find someplace to hide until you turn back. I hate this." He put a hand to his forehead and sighed deeply. "We can't stay, someone might see you turn back. Ayame...I need you." He said this as he started to fall and Ayame just barely caught him in time. "I...I don't feel so good. I have to go home." With Ayame's support to stand upright, the three of them started to walk slowly away from classroom.

Ayame bent to pick up Shigure's clothes, as always, obeying Hatori, before they slowly started out and left the teacher laying on the floor as if she'd simply fainted. Ayame kept up a pleasant chatter, as he usually did, while they left, though his voice was carefully kept quiet because of Hatori's headache. Doing that flashy thing to erase people's memories always made Hatori's head hurt and made him weak.

Ayame took them to the boy's bathroom which was thankfully empty and helped Hatori to sit on one of the toilets with little puppy Shigure on his lap. "Stay here." Ayame said nervously. "I-I'll go look for Kazuma. He said he'd help us." So Ayame, thrust into the awkward position of leadership, ran from the bathroom in his frantic search for help. "Don't worry, I'll be right back!"

Shigure sat on Hatori's lap, worrying over his friend who sat with his eyes closed and his head bent down low so his longish hair was almost covering his eyes. "Hari...?"

"It hurts." Hatori whispered, not opening his eyes.

Shigure took the point and stopped talking. The last thing he wanted to do was to cause Hatori more pain what with the terrible headache he was sure to have. They waited in the boys' bathroom until, with another explosion of smoke, Shigure turned back into a human and put his clothes back on. "I'm sorry, Hari." Shigure said as he got dressed again. "I knew you were excited about coming to school. I'm sorry we have to go home so early."

"Don't worry about it." Hatori muttered. He stood up from the toilet seat and wandered out until he was next to the sinks with his back against a wall. Once there, he sank slowly down to the floor and rested his forehead on his knees and wrapped his arms around his bent knees. All-in-all, he looked terribly pitiful.

"I found him!" The door swung open and Ayame came in, followed closely by a slightly older boy with shoulder length, dark grey hair.

Kazuma went to Hatori first and asked, compassionately, as he got down on his knees and put an arm around Hatori, "Are you all right, Hari?" For someone who was supposed to be so good at fighting, Kazuma was amazingly gentle, Shigure thought.

"Yes, Kazuma." Hatori raised his now bloodshot eyes. "I need to go home, though." His voice sounded frail and he looked as if he'd break at the slightest of noises.

"Yeah. I called home and had your mom called the school. Everything's all right. Shigure, are you ready?" Kazuma smiled at Shigure. "Don't worry. I don't think anyone will get upset about today. It's a good thing that Hatori was with you, though. You'll have to be more careful in the future. I don't think you should go by yourself, so I'll walk with you all. We'll get your books tomorrow."

With Ayame's help, Hatori climbed onto Kazuma's back and rested his head on Kazuma's shoulder. The four of them left the school together, Shigure trailing guiltily behind.





Later, Shigure didn't go home. Home was, this week, Hatori's house, and Shigure didn't want to face Hatori's father. He was grateful that they'd given him a place to live, just as he was grateful Ayame's mom for letting him live with the two of them, but he didn't want to be there. There were to many things he'd started to think about as he'd walked back to the estate.

Instead, Shigure went to the back of the estate, easily avoiding all of the adults who were still at home, and he went to Toma's house. It was the one place Shigure had been forbidden to go and he'd never been there. After all, Toma was the cat. The cat, the outcast from the Zodiac family, was never allowed to belong. Shigure didn't quite understand why Touma was the outcast, but he did see it. No one but Shigure ever visited Toma in his lonely little home and no one in the family ever spoke to Toma. It was at that house that Shigure found Toma pulling weeds from his garden.

"Good morning, Shigure-chan." Toma said before he looked up at Shigure. "Weren't you supposed to be in school...oh." He looked up and saw Shigure. "You look upset, little dog. Do you want to come in?"

Shigure found himself sitting on Toma's sofa with a cup of tea in his hand before long. "I don't like school." Shigure told Toma once the old man had sat down next to him. "It was awful. Everyone laughed at me and the teacher was a lady and she made me transform and she hurt Hari and..." Shigure hesitated a moment. "She asked me why I don't live with my parents." He gave Toma a pleading look. "Why? Where are my parents, Toma?" He had been telling his teacher the truth that he thought his parents were somewhere in the city and he knew they'd left him because he was the dog, but...why? He didn't hurt people. He was smart. So why did they leave him?

The old man seemed ready to take Shigure in his arms, but he stopped himself. He went to a bookshelf, one of many in the cat's home, and pulled a large book down. He wordlessly sat down and again and opened the book. It turned out to be a photo album and Toma flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for. "These are you parents and your two older sisters, Shigure-chan." He handed the book to Shigure.

They were so happy looking. Shigure held the book with numb fingers. He'd seen them before, at the New Years party, but he hadn't known who they were. They hadn't even looked twice at him when he'd passed them. It was only a fleeting glance, but Shigure did remember them. "They look nice." He couldn't think of anything else he could say.

"They didn't want you." Toma told Shigure, sadly, but bluntly. "They don't live on the estate anymore, by orders from the head of the family."

"Why not?" Shigure asked. "Did I do something bad? It's not fair that Aya and Hari have families and I don't." The mismatched pair, a man who looked older than the oldest mountain and a boy who had barely started his life, sat together on the simple sofa in Toma's house. It was as old as all of the houses within the walls of the Souma estate, older than living memory.

"Life is often unfair, little dog." There was sadness in Toma's voice, but that grief was always around Toma, like a cloud. It was like he'd gotten used to being sad long ago and didn't bother to fight it anymore. "Your parents wanted to love you, I'm sure they did. But...it's hard to love someone who is cursed."

Shigure pouted and pulled his knees up to his chest. "Why are we cursed? No one else turns into animals when they get hugged, so why us?"

"I don't know. No one does."

For as long as Shigure could remember, it had been this way. Shigure had been living with Ayame's family and Hatori's family for as long as he could remember. Ayame and Hatori were lucky and had families that not only accepted them, but were proud to have them. So Shigure, the unwanted child, was passed between the two families like the stray dog he was.

"Why do I have to be cursed?" Shigure demanded, his eyes going once more to the photograph of the parents he didn't know. "I don't like being passed around, I just want to live in one house and have one bed. I want my own mom and dad." Now, Shigure did start to cry and he let Toma hug him. He didn't like people seeing him weak, but it was okay with Toma. Toma wouldn't tell.

"We all want what we can not have, little dog. I want my family, too, but they will not have me."

"I'm your family and I like you." Shigure said. He brushed the tears from his face. For some reason, it was important to Shigure that Toma know he was wanted and liked.

"You say that because you are the dog." Toma said fondly. "It's your place in the family to guard the others. Dogs are, after all, pack animals."

"I don't understand." Shigure had never liked being called a dog, he just turned into one, but really, he was a person. Right?

"You will, in time."

Once he was calmed down, Shigure let himself relax into Toma's arms and found himself looking at the black and white beaded bracelet that Toma always wore that caught Shigure's attention. "Why do you wear that, Toma?" He reached out to finger the bracelet.

"It's magic." Toma whispered. "It keeps me from turning into a monster." Abruptly, Toma changed the subject. "You don't have to worry about not having your own home, little dog. In just a few years you'll be old enough to inherit the house of the dog. You have only four more years to wait." It was tradition that on the tenth birthday a child of the Zodiac would be able to, if he wanted, to move into the house that was automatically given to them at their birth. The house of the Dog had belonged to all of the dogs of the Zodiac family for many, many years. So many years that Shigure was sure history didn't go that far back.

"Four more years of being passed around. At least Hatori's weird dad will be dead soon." As soon as he'd said it, Shigure slapped a hand over his mouth and looked at Toma, frightened. What an awful thing he'd said! "I didn't mean it."

Instead of being angry, Toma chuckled. "It's all right. Hatori's father is sick, Shigure-chan. He can't help what he says or does. You should be respectful, though. The head of the family always gives up everything for us. Akira's going to die very soon, you're right about that, but he's dying so that we can all live."

"Why?"

"The heads of our family have always been sick in their mind and heart; it's the worst part of the curse. As the years pass, Akira's body gets weaker and weaker until he, too, dies for us. Then, it will all start again when the next child is born who will have to bear the full weight of the curse. We have to do our best to take care of Akira, Shigure-chan. We must always take care of the head of our family. It's our responsibility."

Still, Shigure looked down at the photo. They were his family and he'd never met them. "Can I...?"

"Please," There was a pained note in Toma's voice. "I know what you want, little dog, but please don't ask. Akira decided, when your parents abandoned you, that you would have no contact with them other than New Years. We can't go against his wishes."

Shigure snapped, "I could go see them, just for a minute." He turned his eyes yet again to the picture in his hands. "Maybe things will be different this time and they won't be afraid of me." There was desperate hope in his voice, but Toma gently broke that hope.

"If they find that you are their son and that you will turn into a dog the moment you are hugged by a girl, even your own mother, they will reject you again." He pulled Shigure against him and held the small boy. "It has always happened this way, Shigure-chan. For as long as our family has been cursed, for as many years as we have existed, nothing has changed. A lucky few children are accepted by their parents, but all to many of us are rejected. When you were born, your father didn't know about us. Your mother took you in her arms and you changed into a puppy. Your father thought you were a monster." Toma held Shigure tightly, to soften the painful blow that his words caused. "Your mother was very frightened and your sisters weren't told about you. Akira, gave your parents a choice. They could raise you, separate from society in our closed family, or they could leave you with us and have their memories erased by Rishi, our previous dragon before Hatori was born."

Shigure tried to imagine what it must have been like for them to make such a decision, but he couldn't find any pity for them within himself. All he could think of what how he always seemed to be alone and he was the one who had to bear the curse. Hatori had his family and Ayame had his, but Shigure really didn't belong anywhere.

"What about you?" Shigure asked. He rubbed his fingers over the photo of his family. "Were you rejected?" He reached up with his other hand to touch Toma's wrinkled, tired looking face. "Is that why you're always sad?"

The pain in Toma's face was almost hidden when he smiled. "Yes. I was rejected, but in a different way than you. I am the cat, Shigure. You know the customs regarding the cat."

Shigure scowled at that. "Stupid customs! If I were the head of the family, I wouldn't make you live all alone! I'd let you come to the Zodiac Banquet and everything!"

"So passionate, Shigure-chan." Toma laughed, tussling Shigure's hair. "But you are not the head of the family and I am to old to change. I will leave that to the young. Let us talk of something else, shall we? Those painful memories are long behind me."

"Shigure-chan?" Toma asked softly. "How do you know that Akira is close to death? I have had the doctors tell me, but how did you find out?"

"He smells like death."

Shigure couldn't bring himself to fight for the answers he wanted so badly. Perhaps the reason Toma didn't give Shigure the answers was that Toma himself didn't have them. Toma had always been kind to Shigure, encouraging his love of books and reading, even teaching him to write. Aya's parents had, many times, warned Shigure against visiting or even talking with the cat, but Shigure didn't understand why. He liked Toma, the kindly old man who rarely ever left his dark house at the back of the Souma estate.

Shigure saw the looks everyone gave Toma when he walked among the rest of the family and when he'd asked, everyone had just given him the same answer. "He's the cat. He doesn't belong with us."

It wasn't a good enough answer.

Toma was a Souma, like everyone else in the family. He belonged with them as much as anyone else! So what if he was born under the sign of the Cat? It didn't make that much difference. Toma was smart and very kind, it just seemed cruel the way everyone treated him. Everyone avoided Toma and they were either afraid of him or they just said nasty things behind his back. It had gotten to the point where Toma didn't leave his house anymore, he just sat with his books and seemed to be waiting for something.

"Don't worry." Shigure promised, leaning against Toma's chest. "I'll change things. I'll make sure you can be with everyone else."

"Yes," Toma put his hand on Shigure's head. "Yes, I do believe you will. After all, you are the dog."

"Huh?"

"You'll understand in time." Toma suddenly seemed to remember something. "I wanted to tell you, Shigure, I have a gift for you."

"A gift?" Shigure looked Toma expectantly, but was disappointed when the old man laughed.

"Well, not for right now. It's a present for your tenth birthday. There," He pointed to a closet in the corner of the house. "It's in there, wrapped in brown paper and tied with twine. On the morning of your tenth birthday, I want you to get it. It's very important."

"Can't I have it now?" Shigure asked, plaintively.

"No. Not now. You'll have to be patient for this present."

"SHIGURE!!!"

Shigure jumped at the screamed voice and his hands tightened a little on Toma's shirt. "It's Akira." Shigure whispered, as if hoping the head of the family wouldn't hear him. Unable to help his frightened shaking, Shigure leaned against Toma and he started to whine. It was an ugly habit every had tried very hard to break Shigure of, but he couldn't help the panicked whimper when he was this afraid.

"Stay here, if you like. Akira never comes here." Toma held Shigure tightly, trying to reassure him, but, with a determined set to his eyes, Shigure slid down, out of Toma's lap.

"Thanks, but if I don't go, he'll just get madder. I'll have to face him sometime." Besides all that, Shigure didn't want Toma to get in trouble for hiding him and, Shigure knew, Akira would be waiting for him later. After all, Akira was Hatori's dad.

Waiting in the gardens just a few yards from Toma's house, Shigure found Akira and he stiffened his resolve as the man's eyes landed on him.

"I let you out of my sight for one day, and you get into so much trouble, koinu." Akira's voice was soft as silk, but Shigure didn't like it. He didn't like Akira.

"I'm sorry." Shigure said, bowing his head to the head of his family.

"Sorry...sorry..." Akira wasn't nearly so old as Toma, but he was very sick, or so everyone had told Shigure. Akira was certainly very skinny, so skinny that Shigure could easily see his bones under his skin. "So sorry, I almost doomed our family. So sorry, so sorry." Akira mocked, stepping forward a little at a time until he was right in front of Shigure and put a hand on his shoulder, tightening his fingers until Shigure winced in pain. "Do I need to keep you at home, koinu? Should I? Should I put you in the kennel again?"

Shigure didn't try to pull away from Akira, but looked up at the head of his family, frightened. "Please..."

"Yes, the kennel would be a good idea. Teach you to remember. Teach you to keep out of sight." His hand slid off Shigure's shoulder only long enough to grasp his arm and he pulled Shigure away, towards 'the kennel.'

"Please!" Shigure begged, trying to fight back the tears. "Please, I'll be more careful, I promise! It wasn't my fault, I tried to be good!"

Akira paused long enough to slap Shigure across the face before he started again.

"You let yourself be seen!" Akira yelled suddenly, loudly enough that Shigure was sure people outside the walls of the Souma estate could hear him. "You let the dog be shown for all the world to see and made poor Hatori get sick because of you. You put us all in danger! You deserve to be killed for what you've done!"

There were faces in all the windows of the houses as they passed, Shigure saw them watching with sad or frightened eyes, but not one person moved to help him or protest Akira's actions. Shigure wasn't surprised. Akira ruled his family as all heads of the Souma family had always ruled, ultimately. His word was, literally, law.

Shigure really wasn't even expecting any help, and he wasn't disappointed. Akira led him to a shed that was behind the Main House where the head of the family lived. "NO! Please, please, please!" Shigure begged, beginning to fight against Akira. "I wasn't bad! Don't shut me in again!"

But the door of the shed was opened and Shigure was thrown in. "Bad puppies need to be trained to obey." Akira said ominously as he stepped inside with Shigure. "Bad puppies need to be trained." He pulled a rope that hung on a hook next to the door and wound it around his hands carefully. "I'll have to tie up my bad little puppy until he learns to behave and not embarrass me in public. Sit." Akira giggled at that small joke. "Stay."

Shigure did as he was told. It was embarrassing and terrifying, but Shigure sat on his knees and lowered his head, trying not to whimper. 'Don't cry.' He told himself. Shigure could smell Akira as he got closer and closer, could smell the medications and the soft scent of sickness. 'Don't cry. It won't help. He won't hurt me, not really. He's family and family don't hurt family.'

He kept thinking these thoughts, desperate to keep control of himself even as Akira wrapped the rope around his neck and tied a tight knot.

'Family don't hurt family. He's sick, he wouldn't do this if he were well. If...'

"There." Akira drew Shigure's attention back to him. "All tied up nice and neat. You'll stay here, puppy, until you learn to behave yourself. I'll check on you in the morning, and if you chew through that rope, I'll rip all your hair out, one strand at a time." Akira slapped Shigure again, but...a dog will only let itself be abused so much.

Almost without thinking, Shigure turned on Akira and sunk his teeth deep into Akira's hand. Akira cried out, wrenching his hand away from Shigure and clutching it to his chest, possessively. "Wretched animal." He sneered.

Shigure, securely tied up, snarled at Akira from where he was crouched on the floor of the shed. He hated this. Hated being tied up and hated being afraid. Akira reached out with his hand again and Shigure snapped at him, missing the hand and biting air with a sharp snap of his teeth. After the miss Shigure lunged again, growling at Akira, but he hadn't realized that Akira tied the rope so short and Shigure ended up nearly choking himself when the rope went taunt. Akira kicked Shigure in the ribs, sending him back into the wall.

"Bad puppy." Akira scolded.

Shigure was dazed and seeing stars when he felt Akira touch his face. He couldn't fight now, couldn't even see properly. Still, Shigure whimpered and jerked away from the almost gentle touch.

"Bad puppy needs to learn not to bite, too."

With that, Akira left Shigure alone in the darkness, tied to the wall like he were a real dog. The slaps hadn't hurt all that much, Shigure had gotten beaten far worse than this in the past. The rope didn't hurt, except that it was a little tight and Shigure was sure he'd have a rope burn in the morning and how was he going to explain that to the teacher? More than anything, it was the humiliation that hurt, being tied up like he really was nothing more than an animal.

'Akira doesn't mean to hurt me, he's sick. He needs to be protected, just like everyone else. I have to be stronger.' Shigure told himself when he could think properly. He huddled himself into a corner and consoled himself by thinking how it wouldn't be to cold tonight and Hatori would give him extra snacks in the morning to make up for his lost dinner. It wasn't likely that Akira would feed him tonight. The darkness around Shigure seemed oppressive, like he could almost feel it's weight against him, but there was a single window in the shed, through which sunlight shone and Shigure took comfort in that light. 'I have to be strong enough to protect everyone. They need me.'





To be continued...


This will be a crossover with Petshop of Horrors, but they'll come in a bit later.