Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ A Caged Heart ❯ Sticks and Stones ( Chapter 12 )

Author's Note:

 

Nothing new to say - you all know that Fruits Basket isn't mine - why would I still be here if it was?

 

On with the story!

 

Sticks and Stones:

 

Minutes later, powerless and defeated, Kyo stood trembling, trying to muster his remaining dignity for as long as he could, before he would - inevitably - fall.

 

But for once, Yuki chose not to kick him to the ground.

 

Instead, he let Kyo stand weakly in front of him, choosing to torment the foolish cat instead. This was going to be the last fight, and he was going to make sure that when Kyo fell, he fell hard.

 

“Bravo, cat. Well done.” Yuki leered unbecomingly, clapping slowly in a mock-applause of his effort.

 

“Just what was your ultimate plan, cat? Did you really have no idea what you were doing? Are you truly that stupid? That foolish? Are you so blind with ignorance? Hah, I guess the answer to that question is obvious.” His words were coated with sarcasm, his eyes glazed with malice. “Oh Kyo, even with all your rigorous training, you will never be able to beat me! I don't know why you even bother trying.”

 

Kyo said nothing. Those scars were old.

 

So Yuki continued.

 

“Or did you think that you had a chance? Did you think that by defeating me you would prove yourself worthy? That you could worm your way into the Zodiac? Hah!” He spat. “The cat shall be a lone outcast for all of eternity! There is nothing you can ever do that could change history - you shall always be unwelcome and unwanted. Even by your own mother.”

 

No salt could pain those wounds more.

 

Yuki saw that, and attacked from a different direction.

 

“Or was it something else?” The sneer on his face was now so malevolent that one would wonder how he was ever considered a prince. “Did you think that, somehow, some way, beating me could prove a point? That you were just like everyone else, that you were worthy, that you could- dare I say it - be loved?”

 

Something shimmered in Kyo's eyes. Yuki had hit a tender bruise.

 

“Did you actually believe that in a magic `poof', the -” Purple eyes gleamed at the next words. “- love of your life would suddenly turn around and fall in love with you? My, my. I would have thought that you would have realised the unfeasible by now, surely.”

 

The shimmer formed a tear.

 

“The cat is destined to be alone. All alone and unloved.” His sing-song voice danced in the breeze. “It will die all on its little lonesome, with no one beside it. No one to comfort or love the poor, foolish cat who thought it could belong.”

 

The tear fell.

 

Yuki took a step forward, so that he was only inches away from Kyo's face, and lowered his voice to a slow, spiteful hiss that could only reach Kyo's ears.

 

“Tohru could never love a twice-cursed c -”

 

BAM.

 

Kyo punched Yuki square in the eye, sending him soaring head-over-heels into the branches of a nearby tree, where he fell and landed sprawled - very possibly unconscious - at its trunk.

 

The cat's face broke out into sudden, unbelieving victory.

 

And then he fainted.