The Curse of the Zodiac

For the one I love

Kyo POV
“This is what his family does to him, and you let it?” I stood in the corner watching Hatori tend to Yuki’s wounds.
Earlier, I had taken Tohru home. Told her about my feelings for Yuki. She had giggled stating she thought as much.
“I want us to be happy.” She smiled. “I kind of like Hiro…” I grinned.
“I still want to be friends.” I told her. Laughing she had hugged me.
“Always.” After I left her at her door, I decided to go for a walk. I was gone a few hours. When I got back to the room, Yuki laid outside the door. He was naked. His torn uniform tossed onto him. His beaten and mutilated body covered in bloody rags. I had wiped off his face. That was when he first woke asking for the doctor. Trying to get him inside only hurt him, but I had to. I carried him to his bed and called him.
“There’s nothing I can do, aside from tend to him.” The doctor said.
“That’s bullshit and you know it.” I yelled.
“Kyo, you don’t understand…” He began.
“I understand that you give that witch the power to do this to a traumatized boy!” I yelled. “She didn’t even bring him back to you but dumped him here like trash!” I screamed. “Tell her you were too late. Tell her, he was already dead!” I yelled. Hatori blinked up at me.
“I, well, I could…” He looked conflicted. “Tell me,  just how did you find him? Did they bring him right in when you opened the door?”
“No, I wasn’t here. I came back and he was lying out in the hall.” I ground out. He nodded slowly.
“Clean all of his wounds. Put this ointment on them, I mean all of them.” He demanded as he stood up. “I need to make a phone call. I will be back before you need to move him. We will need to bandage his back then do his front…” he was rushing tossing me things.
I waited until he left, then made a few calls myself. Well one call, the rest went to a group chat. “Dad, I need you to come to the school. Bring as many of our friends as you can.” I told him.
“We cannot go against the Sohma’s Kyo.” He informed me.
“Just wait until you see what they did to him. What she did to him. He is barely more than a piece of tenderized meat!” I couldn’t get angry. All my angry had been lost on Hatori. Now I was saddened. How could this beautiful boy be treated like this? How could no one help him?
“Dad, you saved me once, now I am begging you for your help to save him.” I said into the phone. There was a gasp behind me.
“Oh my God, Yuki!” Tohru screamed.
“Is he even alive?” Saki asked.
“Who would do something like this to him? Who could be strong enough?” Uo-chan asked.
“I’m on my way.” My father said before silence filled my ear. I hung up.
Together my friends and I cleaned his back. Tohru carefully put the ointment on each and ever wound. Gently, Saki added gauze to stem the bleeding, as some were still doing. Once his back, buttock and legs were covered, Arisa and I carefully turned him over. Tohru cried out as seeing his lovely face beaten beyond recognition. The door handle jiggled.
Arisa and I bolted to the center of the room, each snagging a weapon. I had grabbed my Bo (a traditional martial arts stick). She had picked up the broom. We faced the door as Tohru and Saki covered the injured boy.
Hatori stood looking shocked at us. “Kyo, I am trying to help him.” He looked me in the eye.
“You’ve been part of the problem long enough.” I told him. “Dads on his way, they are not getting him back!” I yelled.
“Kazuma is coming…” Hatori paused running a hand through his hair. “OK, look, we have to make it look like he is dead, alright.” He tried to push around Arisa, she stood her ground.
“It’s the only way she will release him!” Hatori yelled.
“Did you call her?” I demanded. He shook his head.
“He called me.” I looked up. Filling the doorway was Shigure. He looked exhausted. “He called me over two hours ago letting me know that Akito was off the grounds. We suspected she would be coming after him.” He pushed himself inside. Ayame raced around us to kneel at the boy’s side.
“This is the worst…” He cried softly. Turning he looked up to Hatori. “Please, save my baby brother, Hatori!” He begged.
“I’m trying too. Tell him to let me to him!” Shigure moved before me. Gently he placed a hand on my shoulder.
“We hope he has the strength for this. We may be killing him, not sure yet.”
“What?” I glanced between him and the doctor.
“What you said, made sense. If we can make it look like Yuki died at her hands, it might be the catalyst to push her over the edge. In order to do that, I need to kill him.” He held up a hand. “It is a drug that will slow both his heartbeat and breathing. As long as I can administer the antidote with forty-five minutes, he will be OK…”
“If he is strong enough to fight to wake back up?” I asked.
“Yes…” Shigure told me. I lowered the stick in my hand. Hatori smiled.
“I have already called the police.” He rushed forward. Spreading open one of the wounds on Yuki’s chest he glanced up at me. I knelt beside Ayame.
“You better fight, Yuki, cause I will be here waiting for you!” I told him. Holding his hand, I nodded. Hatori injected the medicine into his wound, to hide any needle marks. It was less than five minutes later that the police and ambulance arrived. I was holding Tohru as we both cried. Saki and Arisa were clutching each other, tears flowing.
“He’s gone.” Hatori told the paramedics. Ayame let out a wail, draping himself over the still form of his brother. Shigure pulled his fiancé back. We were all escorted out of the room. Police separated us asking what had happened. The girls told them simply I had called when I found Yuki asking them for their help. They showed the police the message I had sent.
I told them everything that had happened, aside from Yuki waking up and asking for the doctor. I only said I called him since he had asked me too if anything happened to my roommate. The night went on for hours, it felt like. I saw Hatori climb into the ambulance with the body. They were off. The press began to arrive as dawn broke over the far horizon. I prayed that Yuki would wake up.
Turning, I saw dad walking across the parking lot towards me. Twenty of his most accomplished students and teachers formed up behind him. I met him. Clutching at his shirt and crying. He held me.
One of the police officers asked him a few questions, then I was allowed to leave with him. When we were far enough away, I told him what had happened since I had called.
“Hatori is smarter than he looks.” Dad smiled out the window. I glared at him.
“Hatori is a bumbling fool! He let her do this to Yuki for years! The reason Yuki didn’t fight back was because she had trained him since he was a child!” I yelled.
“You don’t know it all, Kyo.”
“Then tell me, tell me why you are in love with a guy who would allow this kind of torment to happen to a child?” I demanded.
“For one, Hatori didn’t know it was happening, not for a long time. Akito was good at making it all look normal. She would tell the clan that Yuki was on a school trip, when in reality she had locked him in a small windowless room with little food or water. She would leave him there for days or weeks. Always making an excuse.” His hands clenched the steering wheel. “Whenever anyone saw the boy, he acted as if he loved Akito. No one suspected she was abusing him so much.” He went on.
“So, they just let it go on?” I asked.
“Hatori was…” Dad paused. His knuckles became white as he gripped the wheel tightly. “Hatori was her first.” He whispered. I gaped at him. “It started in high school. He used to smile a lot. He had the most beautiful smile…” I watched as dad grinned out the front window. I knew he was remembering the boy he loved.
“We were maybe fifteen, Sixteen, when he started to change. He became more with drawn, hid in his books more. At first, I just thought he was studying harder to please his father. You see, his father was a drunk and would often be cruel to Hatori. Maybe it was what made her see that she could use him, abuse him so.”  He added. Drawing in a deep breath he let it out slowly. He turned his head away from me to peer out the side window.
“After graduation, we lost track of each other. By then Hatori was like he is now. He barely smiled, hardly left the family compound.” Dad stated. “I hadn’t seen or heard from him in years. When I found you, well, I took you to him, just to make sure you were alright.” He closed his eyes briefly we were stopped at a red light. “It was like he didn’t even know who I was. Called me Mr. Soma…” His voice caught as he fought back the emotions running through him.
“It was the last time I saw him, before parents’ weekend. After we left that first night, him and I went for a walk. He asked a lot of questions about you. Wanted to know what kind of person you were.” He moved the car forward as he gave me a tiny smile. “It was then he told me about his speculations that Akito had replaced him with the boy. He also told me what happened to his fiancé…”
“Dad…” I gasped out.
“Hatori had asked Akito permission to marry. She didn’t like that. Didn’t want her pet taken away, so, she struck out at the woman. Left her unconscious and in a coma. The woman recently passed without ever waking up again.” I saw the sadness invade his face. Was he trying to move on? Was I hurting him by forcing him to be around Hatori more? I laid my hand on his arm.
“Dad, I’m sorry, but I didn’t trust them. I wanted you here.” I whispered. He patted my hand.
“I know.” We smiled at each other. He pulled into the parking lot of the hospital. It was in back where the deliveries are made. Hatori stood there with someone bandaged up like a mummy in a wheelchair.
“We have to hurry.” He said when he opened the back door. I leapt over the seat, pulling the unconscious body in with me. Yuki’s head fell onto my lap. Instinctively I reached for his pulse. It was low but steady.
“Drive.” Hatori ordered once all the doors were shut. Dad pulled back out. We headed further out of town.
“What’s the next step?” I asked.
“We need to find some place to hide him.” Hatori glanced down at the boy in my lap.
“What will happen if she doesn’t see the body?” I asked.
“She already saw him. We found another body who was close to his height and weight. There will be a mix-up, Yuki Sohma will be cremated by mistake. The body of a homeless man will go into storage, at least on paper.”  He informed me.
“I’m afraid to say, but you will have to leave school for a bit. Apparently, you were too distraught over you friends death to remain.” Dad told me.
“But, Saki’s play…” I whispered.
“We will tend to that.” Hatori reached over to squeeze my dad’s shoulder. His soft smile light up his eyes. I smirked.
In the end, Yuki was hidden in the back room of our dojo until he could heal. Dad, Hatori and I went to see Saki’s play. She used our understudies; it went off well. Her play was invited to be preformed for the public. That was where we saw Akito attend. She was once more all in black, a mourning veil covered her face. Too weak to walk by herself, she had an assistant holding her. We all feared this was her newest pet.
The papers ate up the story of young heir Yuki Sohma’s death.
Saki passed her class with flying colors. Uo-chan, Tohru, Saki and Hiro all left that school. With Hatori’s help, we reinvented Yuki. He was now known as Yu Som. The six of us moved far away. We picked another school to attend.
Hatori had to give up his doctor’s license, and survive a beating of his own, but he was released from the Sohma clan estate. My father moved his dojo to the same town our new school was in. He currently shares an apartment with Hatori. Both seem to be much happier for it.
Yu has grown in his life as well. A year has passed and he still shows tendencies to being a robot, but he has improved. His hair is longer, dyed black, his smile comes easier, and the light in his blue eyes when he looks at me, is the most beautiful thing in the world. He wears contacts to hid his silver orbs.
You may think this didn’t really have much to do with the curse of the zodiac, but I ask you what is worse to bear, a curse placed upon you by some unseen God, or one forced on you by the person who is to love and protect you. Akito saw, maybe still sees, herself as God. She rules of the Sohma clan as if none could hurt her. Yet, little by little, they are slipping out from under her iron fist. In this Yu and Hatori are united.
Oh, I almost forgot! Shigure and Ayame left the Sohma life too. Once Yu was well enough, we held their wedding. It was small, at least the one we gave them.
Akito insisted on holding one on the estate, to honor Yuki. It was the last thing she asked them to do. Those two know how to plan a disaster. Everything that could go wrong did. Rings got lost, gowns were ruined, food was destroyed, the cake “fell” out a third story window, no one even knows why it was there. Akito was so mad she told them to leave and never set foot on her doorstep again. It was glorious!
We held a smaller wedding at the dojo. The gardens out back were beautiful this time of year. The cherry blossoms filled the air with their sweet scent. The pink marveled the gown Ayame had designed for himself. It was white with cherry blossoms reaching up from the bottom. Gold ribbons tied it all together. The gold set of his silver hair delightfully.
Shigure looked stunning in a soft silver suit. The pink he wore to match his spouse, flushed his cheeks making him look handsome. He waited with Hatori at the front of the gardens. Yuki was walking with a cane, and none to steady, so, I walked him down the aisle before his brother. He stood up for the man who had stayed with him when everyone else pushed him aside. I gripped his arm through the entire ceremony.
Those missing rings had been found under Yu’s pillow. They adorned the hands of the husband’s bonded before us splendidly. The cake looked amazing. Three tiers of sweet red velvet decorated with white butter cream frosting. A mound of heavenly scrumptiousness.
“Kyo?” Yu asked as we walked along the new walkway that would take us back to our dorm. His hand was laying lightly on my arm.
“Mmmm?” I asked enjoying the late Autumn sun. When he didn’t say anything, I turned to face him. His smile was soft on his perfect lips. The sun making his blue eyes dance. He didn’t resemble Yuki Sohma very much now. This look a little bit away from his exotic beauty, but I didn’t mind as long as I held him.
“You look amazing in the sunlight.” He said. I smirked.
“Amazing enough for my boyfriend to kiss me?” I asked.
“Actually, I wanted to ask you something.”
“What is it?”
“After we graduate, could I not be your boyfriend any longer?” He asked. I drew back puzzled I frowned at him. His smile was even more brilliant.
“I would rather be your fiancé, or maybe your husband?” He smirked. I kissed him then.
“Anything to make you happy, my love.” I told him.
 
 
The end