Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Ebony and Ivory ❯ Don't Tell Akito... ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket. And I honestly do not think I could do a better job than Natsuki Takaya, who does.

 

AN: This begins about nine years before the Prologue.

 

AN 2: I might have the dates a little messed up here. For the record, Yuki is about eight years old when this starts out, and it's just after Akito started putting him in the room. The manga doesn't specify when that happened or how long he was in there, so I'm kind of making it up.

 

 

CHAPTER 1: Don't Tell Akito…

 

Yuki felt nervous leaving the room, but he felt that he had to hear the music better. And Akito was out somewhere, sick. If Yuki was back in time, he would never know.

Yuki walked down the halls, following his ears. At last, he reached it. It was Kureno—at least he thought it was—and he was playing the piano. Yuki stood for nearly fifteen minutes, entranced, until suddenly he coughed. Kureno looked around, stopping his song. “Yuki-chan? What are you doing out here?”

Yuki backed against the wall. “I'll go back. Please don't tell him.”

“Akito would be angry…”

“Please, please don't tell him, Kureno-san!” Yuki was shaking now.

“Why did you come out?”

“I… I wanted to hear… hear the music…” He broke off, trembling. “I want to be able to play.”

“Yuki…”

“Please don't tell him!”

“All right, but get back.”

“Okay.” Yuki ran back to the room and closed the door behind him, shaking.

 

“Yuki-kun?”

Yuki looked up from his corner. There was Haru. A slight smile touched Yuki's lips. “Hi.”

Haru smiled and came in, sitting on floor close to Yuki. They were quiet for a minute. And then, for the first time, it was Yuki who broke the silence. “Haru, do you know anything about music?”

 

The two boys sat in the piano room, less than a week after Yuki had discovered it. Haru was talking fast, nervously. “Okay, I don't know very much. Just some stuff my teacher made me learn. All I can tell you is the notes and symbols.” Haru handed Yuki several sheets of paper.

“We need to hurry. Akito…”

“I know. Okay, look. There are seven notes, and they're the first seven letters of the alphabet. These are how they look on the staff. See, I labeled them. Um… these are the different types of notes. I got them from my teacher. It's all in beats. I don't know. I don't get it, but you might.”

“What about the black keys on the piano?”

“Those are sharps and flats.”

“Hmm?”

“Like, if it's above this D, it's a D sharp, but if it's below the D, it's a D flat. Got it?”

“Sort of.”

“These are the signs for sharps and flats. That's all I know.”

Yuki smiled. “Thank you. We should probably get back.”

Haru sighed, and reluctantly stood. “Okay. But where will you keep the notes so Akito doesn't find them?”

Yuki thought, then slipped them in through the strings of the grand piano, onto the bottom of it. They weren't visible if one didn't know they were there. “If I can't get to the piano, they're useless anyway,” he said. Then he took Haru's hand and walked back to the room.