Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ A ship in the fog ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

A/N: Loads of thanks to BakaDen who is kind enough to edit all the chapters of this story before I post them!!! …Except for most author's notes, which I tend to add at the last minute (like this one), and must be full of verb tense and preposition mistakes - I apologize for those. In case you are wondering, my first language is French, this is why some sentence's structure may seems strange to you… though hopefully not too much and I hope it won't prevent you from reading! Please review!

 

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket.

 

 

 

Chapter 1

 

 

 

Up, down, up, down. Haru's body was rocked by the regular movement of the ship's rolling. Sweat ran down his forehead and soaked his two-toned hairs. His features were paler than usual, except for two pink spots on his cheeks. His runaway mind was drifting through the events that had lead him to where he was now—on the wooden floor of the haul, hidden behind huge barrels, and lying on a pile of old, dusty blankets that were half eaten by rats and other rodents. The cold reached his very bones while his body was burning up with a fever. His eyelids weighed way too much to be kept open, so after a while he let them down again as a shiver went through his aching body. His uneven breath slowed down as pictures started to flash through his mind.

 

First he saw her. She was standing on the hill, her back to him. He could see her thin silhouette and her long black hair flowing in the wind. Rin: his torment. Slowly, she turned her icy stare towards him. Her big black eyes were as cold as stone, and he could see sharp knifes in them. Then she lifted her right arm. There was something in her hand, but he couldn't see what it was.

 

The scene changed suddenly in his head. With nausea, he saw a dark room with a high ceiling. He recognized the room even though he had only been there once. This was Akito's office. In his dream, Haru knew the head of his family was coming. Like Rin, his young sister, nothing good ever came out of him. The door opened as somebody came through. The two-toned boy felt helpless. Then he saw Akito's face, so near to his own. It had a machiavelic grin on it. The grin became an evil laugh.

 

Haru clenched his teeth as the scene changed again. This time, he was on a road, running in the night towards the port. His lungs were burning by the time he stopped near the sea. He could see the ships in the distance. That was it. As the sun was coming up, he dived into the troubled water and swam as best he could toward the nearest ship. The water was cold and dark and he was pulled down by his wet clothes. The image blurred away as Haru went back to sleep.

 

The waves were crashing on the three-mast ship with a particular violence that evening. The sea was in a foul mood and the sky was pitch black except for a flash of lightening from time to time. Fortunately, the storm was many miles away and seasickness was the only thing threatening the ship's passengers for the moment. Well, most of them.

 

Some seamen were busying themselves on the deck, while one was climbing the central mast to take in the surroundings. His red hair was soaked and the seawater spray was burning his crimson eyes.

 

"Damn!" he mumbled through his teeth when his right foot went through the rope ladder again, "Why the hell does it always have to be me! Why can't anyone else get his butt up here!" He went up some more, but then the ship went through a billow and the bow rose suddenly. Hanging by his arms, his feet floating in the air, the redhead cursed.

 

“Hang on Kyo!” yelled a small sea boy on the deck bellow. His kind, big brown eyes where shinning with worry. With his hand, he pushed his wet blond bangs behind his ear and looked up at his companion, who had somehow managed to put his feet back in place.

 

“M'fine Momiji!” yelled the redhead. God, he was exhausted. His vital energy was leaving him fast with each drop of rain. He knew there was nothing to be seen up there except for water and more water. The master had ordered the captain to send him up, in hopes that he would slip, fall, and die. "I hate rain. I HATE rain!" he yelled to the furious sky as he climbed his way up, dying the rope with the blood coming from his burned hands.

 

In the dining room, said master was at the same moment enjoying supper with the rest of his family and the other passengers. Well, HE was enjoying the moment. At his right, his cousin Yuki was barely touching the food prepared for them while his beautiful eyes were fixed on the table. His silky gray hair hanging low in his face, it was obvious that he didn't want to be there. He was waiting for the time needed to excuse himself without being rude, like every evening since the ship had left the port. He felt bad for Hiro and Kisa, the two kids sitting in front of him. The master had been their tutor since the late death of their parents and they weren't comfortable with him either. `Poor things, they'll learn fast enough what to expect,' thought Yuki, `But how can I help them when I can't even help myself?' Through his bangs, he could see Hiro holding his older sister's hand, somehow trying to reassure her.

 

Oblivious to the drama in front of her but feeling the tension in the air, their governess was trying to make Kisa eat a little more. The girl had been hired just before the beginning of the journey, but the kids were already devoted to her. `Her kindness does have some kind of power on us,' thought Yuki. And once again, he noticed how beautiful she was, a pink blush covering his cheeks.

 

At the master's right was seated Kureno, his devoted and most loyal secretary. He was eating his soup like he would have done at home—in silence and with concentration. But all the people seated there knew that he was the head's gray eminence, as well as his eyes and ears. Once in a while, he would exchange some banalities with the ship's doctor, Hatori, who was seated next to him. Cold and professional, the man was hard to read. Yuki, Kisa, and Hiro didn't know yet on which side he was standing; like the captain, who had just come through the door to sit near him.

 

“Well, Commander, we have a pretty storm outside I should say,” said he with his usual goofy smile. “We are lucky not to be 10 miles south-east; otherwise, even with my remarkable abilities, we might have visited the depth of the sea.”

 

A dark and icy look was all he received from the head.

 

“Yuki, Kureno, come with me. Now.” He said finally, before he left the room, Kureno following him. The brown haired secretary paused at the door. “Yuki, he is waiting,” he said softly without looking back. With a sigh, Yuki rose from his chair. “Good night Kisa and Hiro, sleep well. Good night Miss Honda.” He added a small nod to the Doctor and the Captain before leaving the room with a dark face.

 

Tohru and the children went back to their rooms shortly afterward, leaving the Captain and the Doctor alone. Hatori lit a cigarette and asked Shigure were his eccentric friend was.

 

“Ayame? I am afraid that seasickness has gotten the best of him. Last time I saw him, his head was down a bucket and he was dictating his will.”

 

“His absence tonight was a good thing for all of us,” said the doctor in a cloud of smoke.

 

“You are mean to him, Tori-nii.”

 

Annoyance shone through Hatori's valid eye. “I am not kidding Shigure, Ayame would have sent the master over the edge. And please remember that I am the one who is patching up things afterwards.” he replied, crashing his cigarette butt under his foot. “I'm going to bed now. Good night.”

 

“Good night Hatori, good night.”

 

When the Doctor reached his room, a very wet and very angry Kyo was waiting for him.

 

“What can I do for you, Kyo?” said the man, opening the room's door and entering.

 

Fuming, the redhead came in as well and put his hands under the doctor's nose. Pink rain was dripping from them onto the floor.

 

“I see. Sit down.”

 

Sighing, Hatori picked up his medical stuff and started to work on the wounds.

 

“How did this happen?” he asked, spotting a large bruise under Kyo's bangs.

 

“Take a guess,” mumbled Kyo as the doctor finished with the ointment and started to put the bandage on.

 

“I would rather not, Kyo. I'm way too tired for this kind of exercise.”

 

The redhead didn't answer back and Hatori finished his work in silence. When he looked up, he saw that the boy was fast asleep on the chair. With another sigh, he picked him up and put him in his bed. Blowing out the candle, the doctor left the room and went looking for another bed. This was going to be a long night.

 

 

 

To be continued…