Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Honda constellations ❯ Leo ( Chapter 6 )

Sorry if the second half of my chapter seems a little emotional, but my best friend's dog was run over the other day.

Chapter 6

 

The Nemean lion descended to earth from the moon, riding on a meteor. The great beast, from the very start, started tearing up the countryside of Corinth. Hercules, in first of twelve tasks, was sent to slay the beast. Neither arrows, nor spears, could pierce the creature's tough hide. Finding the lion's den, Hercules discovered that it had two entrances. Blocking one, Hercules chased the lion to the other entrance and caught it, and, using his god-like strength, strangled the great beast by forcing his fist down its throat. Hercules brought it back to the king as proof of his deed and skinned it, using his hide as a shield from then out. Hera was furious at this and raised the soul of the lion, returning it to the skies as the constellation Leo.

 

(o)

 

Tohru peeked out the door and waved, “put it on his tab, he'll pay it back eventually!” Yoshida groaned and Yohiko laughed in what some would say an evil way, rubbing his hands together. Tohru shook her head, “no, he will not pay it back in blood!”

Both twins groaned, “But Toh-chan!” they whined in unison. Tohru smiled and waved at them as they both got into the jeep and drove off.

"Tohru-kun, what's in the box?" Shigure asked, tip-toeing over to peek over Tohru's shoulder. Tohru shrugged and went into the living room, intent on getting dinner started. "Are you just planning on leaving it here, torturing us eternally until you decide to open it? Why, Tohru, why such cruelty?" Shigure whined, following Tohru closely. Sighing, Tohru placed the box on the table and went into the kitchen to get out a bowl of soup from the refrigerator that just needed to be re-heated.

Placing the pot on the stove to heat up, Tohru looked at Shigure's pleading look, to the box lying innocently on the table, back to Shigure. "If you want to, go ahead. But don't say I didn't warn you if some spring-loaded bugs fly out at you!" looking at the box in a theatrically fearful way, Shigure grabbed a pair of scissors and opened the tape that practically coated the outside of the cardboard box. Half of the lid opened and Shigure jumped back in mock fear. After poking the box several times to make sure that it was 'dead,' he opened the other side and peered in the box. Theatrically sighing, he opened the box completely and took out the contents. "CDs..."

"What!" Tohru scrambled over and took the box from under Shigure's nose. Picking up several DVDs, Tohru mumbled the label on each one before putting it back. Groaning, she looked at the TV that was currently not in use and sighed. "Would it be okay if I used the television after dinner tonight?"

Shigure shrugged. "You've lived with us this long; I don't think you have to ask permission to use anything anymore, okay?" Tohru nodded and lined the DVDs up in front of the TV to get to the bottom of the box. A smaller box that looked like it was a necklace carrier and a letter were the last things that she took out. Discarding the smaller box, Tohru opted for opening the letter instead:

Hey To-To, sorry for not being able to see you since… yeah, but I was nice and compiled your video clips together. They should be in chronological order, but there might be some that aren't quite right. I was gonna give this to you later, but the smaller box needed to be delivered before you come back… I think you know why. Maybe we can get together some time and talk? Yoshida.

“Bury it.” Tohru growled out, picking up the box and dropping it in front of Shigure. “Bury it, burn it, lose it on purpose, I don't care what you do, just get rid of it!” rubbing her hands self-consciously, Tohru looked out of the open door into the yard. “If you can, I never want to see that box again, it brings… mixed memories for me. Excuse me.” Hugging herself, Tohru made the escape away from the confused inu and the proverbial box of memories that he sat by. Bad memories; everyone had them, but it was the person that learned from them or regretted them. Some took the easy way out by forgetting them or drowning them in drugs and alcohol, but Tohru wasn't one to forget easily.

Sighing, Tohru turned to go up the stairs to her room, but thought twice and headed out the front door instead, intent on getting the motorcycle up and running as soon as possible. There was something about working with her hands that made it easier to concentrate on less tragic things, such as what the boys would like for dinner and how much time would it take her to get her homework done that night.

Inside, curiosity got to the dog (not the cat for once) and he opened the necklace box, wondering what had the little onigiri so scared. Peering inside, there was nothing more remarkable than four strands of dancer's bells inside, each a different size to produce a different not. Picking one up, Shigure felt the weight of the cold metal and heard the delicate chime as two of the hollow bells hit against one another. “Now why would Tohru-kun want to get rid of something so delicately put together?” Shigure murmured to himself, replacing the chain into the box and closing the lid. He stuffed the box into his sleeve, intent on just storing it in his room (which Tohru swore off as a `hopeless cause') until Tohru wanted it back.

“What do you have Shigure? You look like the cat that ate the canary.” Yuki barbed, knowing that Kyo was following him down the stairs.

“Hey! That's a stereotype, I don't like birds!” Kyo fumed, swing at and missing the back of Yuki's head.

“That's because you act bird-brained enough, baka-neko!” Yuki retorted, moving his head out of the way of Kyo's wild punches. Sighing, Yuki turned around and pegged Kyo in the chin with the side of his foot, sending the cat all the way back upstairs to the landing.

Looking around sheepishly, Shigure avoided the gaze of his younger cousin, “what? I don't have anything? Why would you suspect your dear cousin of such a thing?” Yuki sighed and shook his head, brushing past his cousin to the living room. Only to see an opened box and a letter sitting, opened, beside it. Curiosity getting the best of him, he read the letter.

“Who's To-to?” he mumbled to himself, seeing the aforementioned DVDs lined up in front of the player. Shrugging, he grabbed the one on the end that was labeled #1 spring of the rabbit. Putting it into the player and turning on the television, Yuki sat on the couch and used the remote to turn the menu. Pressing `play all' Yuki saw what started out to be a bit of a running slide-show of pictures of a girl about five years old, playing with a blonde boy that could have easily been Momiji, and a stick of a boy with dark blue hair in the background. All three were wrestling in the mud without shirts on (c'mon, Tohru was 5!), the little girl had the blonde boy pinned and was grounding dirt into his hair, turning it a nasty shade of brown, and the blue-haired boy was in the background, desperately trying to wipe the mud from his glasses. The two boys looked older by a few years and both were laughing.

A few pictures later, Kyoko (he could tell by the hair color, although it was streaked with mud also) came in, waving a water hose and threatening to spray the children. She saw the camera and waved, her threat dispelled by her gay smile. The next picture, the stream of water was plastering the small child, washing the mud out of her chin-length hair. Laughing, she hid behind the blonde-haired boy as he was then pelted with the water. Last was the boy with blue hair, running toward the camera with the stream of water coming after him. The last picture was the water stream itself, as the camera had been drowned after that.

Yuki laughed lightly, whoever were in the picture, Tohru possibly, looked like they were having fun. It looked like it was something that he would have liked to do as a child, but couldn't. The boys and little girl in the pictures looked like they were best friends, like they would share everything with each other. Yuki sighed and hit the next button, bringing up a title page with a date on it.

The title page faded into a shaky and grainy film clip of the little girl sitting at a desk, working intently at something. “To-to-chan, what are you doing?” a voice came from the camera as it speed-zoomed into the back of her head, creating a vague sense of motion sickness on the poor Nezumi.

“Nothing. And I don't wanna talk about it!” the small girl turned away from the camera, hiding any and all of the things that she was working on.

“You're working on that stupid project again, aren't you? Just because Kyoko told you about it, doesn't mean it's true, baka.”

“I'm not a baka! And I like cats!” the little girl turned suddenly and stared into the camera lens, or more like the zoom was stuck on the bridge of her nose. The camera zoomed completely out to show the determined look in the girl's large blue-green eyes. “Turn it off! I don't like you taking pictures of me!” the girl turned around and ran away, out of the room.

“Aw! C'mon! I got it for Christmas, you should have fun with me!” the voice behind the camera whined, the lens following the retreating girl. Turning the camera, it showed what was splayed across the desk. There were multiple pictures of cats on plain pieces of paper (drawn fairly well for a five-year-old) that had the subtitle `year of the cat' in careful, but misspelled, English letters. Some of these pictures were cut out and had safety pins attached to them. “Stupid. She took it too seriously again. Idiot.” Mumbled the voice behind the camera as the picture faded out.

“What's that?” Kyo asked, rubbing the bruise that was forming on the back of his head.

Yuki shrugged, “how would I know. It came in that box with a letter to `To-to', whoever that is.” Yuki trailed off as the next clip started.

“You pushed me!” the same little girl, but in a different outfit, yelled at the now fully-clothed blonde boy. She sat up, crossed her arms, and pouted, mumbling about meanies. The camera zoomed to the little girl's knee, which was bleeding freely except for a few rocks that were embedded into the skin.

“Toh—“ the stick boy with blue hair moaned, seeing the blood. The camera quickly turned to the boy, capturing the now-green pallor of his skin, clashing with his dark blue skin. Holding onto his stomach, he stumbled away, attempting to tell the others that he'd get someone whose name started with an “A” or something. The camera followed the boy until he had rounded a corner and ralphed (upchucked, tossed his lunch/cookies, vomited, danced with the porcelain God…).

“Jyou's never been good with blood.” Tohru commented as she sat down behind the two boys. The two jumped, not hearing Tohru enter in the first place. “The ironic thing is, his dad's making him train to be a doctor.” Tohru shrugged and handed each boy a cup of tea.

The camera panned back to the little girl, specifically, her knee. “Uh… Toh-chan…” the blonde boy hesitated, not wanting to get closer to the girl.

“I don't wanna talk to you!” the girl `humph'ed and turned further away, smearing the small amount of blood that had started running down her leg.

“Fine! Then I won't tell you that you're bleeding!” the blonde boy turned around also, crossing his arms in a similar manner.

“What?” the little girl gasped, looking to her knee before letting loose a blood-curdling scream. After running out of breath, the little girl just whimpered, trying to touch her knee, but not daring to touch the blood, resulting in both of her hands hovering. She stood up to run to get help, but the camera was dropped and a sideways view of two blonde boys practically tackling and pinning the girl to the ground until a woman's long sky-blue skirt came into the frame and blocked everything else.

“And what happened here?” a sweet voice asked, kneeling down to see the girl's wound. One of the boys stood up from where he was pinning the girl down, looked at a fresh cut on his palm, and picked up the camera, moving it so it could see everything better.

“Y-Yoshida pushed me—“

“Did not!”

“And I fell down.” The little girl pointed at the blonde that was now standing a little back. The blue woman shook her head and opened an equally sky-blue messenger bag with a red cross on it. The camera took in the woman's picture as she was dressing the girl's wound: the woman was thin and tall, with light-blue hair that reached midway down her back, her peasant top was the same light blue with dark blue trim, and her plain skirt was slightly darker than the light-blue top. The woman nodded, clearly not really listening, and used a pair of tweezers to pull out pebbles from the little girl's wound. The girl didn't even flinch, but laid back gently to give the woman more room to work.

“You're too cut up for stitches, so I'll just be able to give you a big bandage. What color do you want? I have white, black, green, pink—“

“I want pink!” the girl cheered enthusiastically as the woman pulled out a hot-pink roll of bandaging tape and covered the layers of gauze that hid the series of deep cuts in her knee. Looking at the pretty tape, the little girl poked the top of her knee curiously.

“You'll feel it later after the shock and numbing medicine wears off, so don't worry Tohru-chan.” The woman patted the little girl's head and went off to the other buildings. The camera faded and Tohru grabbed the remote, turning the TV off.

“Dinnertime. You can watch more of my embarrassing stories later.” Tohru stood up and went into the kitchen to get the pot of soup. “Oh, and I have never been able to feel physical pain. That was just the first time that I noticed that I should have.” Tohru gave a small embarrassed smile, “I was also a bit dramatic at that age also.”

“Why, Tohru-chan, you can never be too dramatic!” Shigure exclaimed, prancing into the dining room from wherever he had been previously.

“Like you?” Kyo and Yuki deadpanned, giving identical looks to the inu, who just slunk into his seat. Tohru laughed gently, ladling soup into each of their bowls. Sometimes it was good just to sit back and watch life as it unfolded.

(o)

“Hey, where are you going?” Kyo asked, pointing down the opposite road, “home's this way.” Tohru blushed, but didn't change directions.

“I guess you could say that I was invited to visit my family today…” Tohru responded, shaking her head after a moment, “but I guess it would be better if I changed out of my school uniform first though.” Tohru jogged to catch up with Kyo and Yuki, who didn't have student council duties for once.

“Your family? Is your grandfather sick?” Yuki asked, concern floating from his mouth.

“No, Grandpa's fine, but some of my family wants to talk to me today…At least I hope he's still okay. Grandpa's strong, but he is getting old.”

“What does your family want to talk to you about? They've been out of your life for what, two years now, and all of a sudden, poof, they're trying to take your every waking moment. What's their deal?

Tohru looked a bit uncomfortable, but sighed gently, “I guess you could call it a `mourning period' or something. Katsuya, dad, was my only real connection to his side of the family,” Tohru had grabbed a piece of her hair and was playing with it slightly. “Mom was kind of `adopted' into the Honda family, like me living with you guys, and when she died… well, I found out how many people really cared about her. I left and I guess they want to make sure that there's still some sort of family connection left, is all.”

Tossing the strand of hair behind her shoulder, Tohru sighed. “You could easily say that the Honda and Sohma clans are run very similarly to each other: only useful when the opportunity strikes well. But instead of having one `god' like you, we have an entire `counsel.' Like all of the members decide your fate instead of one person. Makes public speaking a very good talent to have.” Tohru gave a half-hearted laugh at the attempt at a joke.

“So, you're basically going against your family's counsel?” Yuki surmised, hand to his chin. Tohru nodded and looked away.

“Just imagine a counsel full of Akito's instead of just one.” Both boys shuddered. “Most everyone on the counsel would rather see me out on the streets because of what my parents did, not who I am.” Tohru tried to explain, trying not to get emotional about the unfair subject.

“Why's that? It shouldn't matter what your parents did for what happens to you.” Tohru scoffed uncharacteristically and kicked a pebble down the street, hitting a tree with a solid `thunk.'

“Putting it simple, my dad was married in an arranged marriage and he fell in love with my mom. I'm the result of them being together out of wedlock. Yeah, they were married, but it didn't hold up in court in the end. `Onigiri' was just what the other children called me so they wouldn't get in trouble for calling me—“

“Bastard child,” Kyo mumbled, his head hung low.

Tohru nodded sadly. “I'm used to it now, and I don't hear it as much anymore, but some of the counsel believes that I should be exorcised because they can't get over it. Sylvia? She's the legal child between dad and his wife, my step-mom.” Both boys winced, seeing the water floating in Tohru's eyes.

“You haven't seen it yet in the tapes, but yeah, that's how it usually went. Our entire fights are over Katsuya's original decree that both of us are to be equal in standing.” It was silent for the rest of the trip home, each lost in their own thoughts.

(o)

“Are you sure you want to come in? It could be a bit of a wait…” Tohru was trying, but not succeeding, to convince her Sohma followers to go back home. All four stood outside of a richly Victorian-style house, three of which were staring at the unique external décor that reminded them of the American-styled haunted house. After heading home so Tohru could change out of her school uniform into her blue jean dress, Shigure decided to `supervise' the younger charges of his household in their trek to the new house. Along the way, Tohru became lost in thought, playing with one of her cuffs, buttoning and unbuttoning the button that held the cuff together.

“Nervous?” Yuki asked, putting his hand over hers to stop her squirming. Shaking her head distractedly, Tohru continued to look around at the old English-style houses that made up the majority of the district. She refused to look at any of the boys, hoping that they would not see the hesitation in her eyes.

“…A bit…”

“Miss Honda, you're a half an hour late! The meeting's started already!” an older woman in an old-fashioned European style maid's outfit came blustering out, shooing Tohru onto the grounds, of which she had no real intention on entering, and into the relatively large house before any of the Sohma could object. She only had time to shoot the boys an apologetic glance before the door shut behind her.

“Well, it seems like she will be here a while, so we might as well see if we can get invited in ourselves!” Shigure piped up in a cheerful tone. The teenage boys glared at the man, but said nothing verbally in objection. Marching straight up to the front doors, Shigure pulled on the rope-bell. Hearing a faint tinkling of bells inside, Shigure straightened up and pulled his tie into proper place. Yes, Shigure would make a proper impression on Tohru's family, no matter how distant the family members may have seemed.

“Yes?” came a quiet voice from a crack that opened in the door. It wasn't enough to see in, but enough to let some light in from the outside. The voice was female, but quite the opposite of the woman that brushed Tohru inside just moments ago.

“We're escorting Tohru around today, so I was wondering if we could wait inside until she is done meeting with her family members?” Shigure wondered out loud, putting on the charm for the girl just beyond the door.

The girl blushed, “well… we're not really supposed to let people outside of the family in right now…”

“Well, Tohru's practically family to us! She would think it was such a shame that one of her sunlight-sensitive escorts fainted from the heat!” Yuki gave Shigure a glare; he would have sworn that he didn't know about that incident at the beach last summer.

Stepping up and discreetly pushing Shigure aside, Yuki bowed to the servant girl. “It would mean so much to Honda-san if we were able to wait for her.” The girl's eyes widened at the handsome young man. Surely three people in the waiting room would not be noticed too much? And besides, maybe she might get lucky and get a phone number and possibly a date from the fair skinned boy right outside the door.

Opening the door wide enough for them to enter, the girl curtseyed to the three men. “I am sorry, but you would have to wait in the waiting hall.”

“That would be fine, as long as we're inside.” Shigure waved the girl off with a genuine grin. The girl showed them to a comfortably furnished, but emotionally cold, sitting room. Stiff antique chairs and an antique couch lined the room and surrounded a dead fireplace. The boys took seats separate from each other, and the girl curtsied out, blushing when Yuki returned it with a generous nod and smile.

It was several minutes of tense, silent air before Yuki looked up from a magazine that he had found. “Do you hear anything?” he asked, seeing Shigure's closed eyes and tilted head. After a moment, Shigure shook his head with a sigh.

“Nothing distinct. I can hear voices, but they're muffled. They're saying something-“

“They told me that you'd be here!” a voice piped up, relief prominent. The boys turned to a side doorway to see Tohru in a white garment that reminded them of a toga. She walked in, picking up the ends so she wouldn't trip over the long hem. Seeing their curious stares, Tohru looked down at her dress and blushed. “Weird huh? If I would have shown up sooner, it would have fit me better. Katsuya's side of the family has Greek origins, but the majority of the family is almost pure Japanese by now. We came here long before Perry-san and his crew.” Tohru shrugged and sat down in one of the chairs, fiddling with a silver chain that she put behind her bangs like a flexible tiara. They were still staring. “Yes, it's a toga.” She deadpanned, slipping from her chair to kneel in front of the dead fireplace to start a small fire in the back corner.

“Taurus, they're ready for you now.” The younger servant came in and gestured out the door. Tohru flinched, but nodded in acknowledgement anyway and stood up.

“Wish me luck!” and with that, she glided out the door.

“Taurus? Why'd they call Tohru something like that?” Kyo asked, crossing his arms.

“I don't know, Cat, maybe it has something to do with her family.” Yuki hissed, putting down his magazine.

“Now, now, boys, let's not fight while Tohru's with her family.” Shigure said, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. Kyo glared at the inu, huffed, and sat back against his stiff chair.

It was silent except for the occasional random thump that each of the boys jumped at, ready to barge in at any moment. The problem was, the sound was carried through the walls and thus, they had no idea where Tohru was in the first place. It was nearing sunset before Tohru came into the waiting room, limping almost imperceptibly.

“What happened?” Kyo asked, leading her to the chair that he was previously sitting in.

Tohru waved off his concern with a small smile. “I was standing the entire time, that's all. Leaving in the middle of the meeting would have been rude, so I decided to catch up on what the others were saying. Nothing really new—births, deaths—stuff like that.” It was weird, but the boys could tell that they weren't hearing the entire truth. If there was nothing going on but current events, why was tohru limping? And there was a small scorch mark, Shigure noticed, on the bottom of her back hem. And was that a defensive bruise forming on her arm?

Not noticing, or not showing that she noticed, tohru smiled and stood up, “I'm going to go get my regular dress back on and I'll meet you at the front door, okay?” she left them no room for argument as she left out the side door that she had entered earlier. Possibly, that was the dressing area for this house's guests.

Going into the small off-room, Tohru sighed. The boys were catching on and she didn't want to worry them. This was her family, her problem, and she didn't want any of the Sohma to worry over her. After all, they had problems of their own to deal with and they didn't need her problems on top of that.

This dress, it felt like it weighed a ton, even though it was made out of very light cotton. The dress itself was not the weight, but what it represented. All of the morals and responsibilities and the feelings of belonging, yet looking in from the outside because of her separation from the others. Maybe it was her mother's personality talking again? She always said to live how you wanted, no matter what anyone else said. Tohru smiled at that, maybe she could still do that. Just, she had to take a temporary detour in the meanwhile!

(o)

Sorry if that doesn't make any sense, but I've been confusing people in all of my stories lately. Fruits basket doesn't belong to me, except for the copy of the Haru's and Rin's books. Dark