Faithless (Fruits Basket fanfiction)

Faithless (chapter nine)

I don't own Fruits Basket.

Like I promised, here's another chapter!

Anyway…ON TO THE STORY!

My mouth was opened wide. I couldn't believe it.

"Y-you…like K-K-Kyo…?" I stammered.

Akito sighed loudly as she nodded. Suddenly, she became closer and closer to me. Her dark eyes were cold, glaring at me with a seemingly infinite amount of hatred.

"Against how I'm supposed to feel toward him, yes. I like Kyo," she confessed. Her slender hands pressed – hard – on my shoulders, causing me immense pain. "But there's one little problem; there's one slight obstacle keeping me from having him under my spell just like the other family members. Do you know what that conflict is?" Gulping loudly, I nodded. "Right. It's you, Tohru. You're the bitch that stands in the way of me and my goals."

"A-Akit-to," I stuttered. She ignored me, grabbing the collar of my lemon-colored dress and dragging me down the hall. As much as I tried, I couldn't ignore the stares of curious family watching us. Akito's burgandy men's kimono swished as she walked.

Suddenly, a hand came out and gripped my wrist tightly. Akito and I focused our gazes on whoever was behind us. I gasped as my mind recognized him.

"Haru?" I said quietly.

"Yeah, it's me," Hatsuharu Sohma replied, his blond hair glistening in the light of the hall. "Akito, what are you doing?"

Akito turned her head away from Haru. "Nothing," she stated coldly. I sent the ox a pleading glance. His grip on my wrist tightened. He began to tug me away from the head of the family. As he started pulling me, Akito tried to pull me in the other direction. It seemed like she was able to hold her own against the strong cow-possessed teenager.

Eventually, I was pulled in Haru's direction so fiercely that it felt as if my arm was about to be ripped from its socket. Akito glared at me, then Hatsuharu, then at me again. She huffed loudly before walking in the direction of her bedroom. However, she didn't leave until she had gotten a solid punch at my cheek, right below my eye. Now there was pain on two sides of my face – my right cheek had been slapped, my left having been punched two seconds ago.

"Tohru!" Haru knelt down beside me. His finger caressed where Akito had just hit me. I flinched at his touch. Less than a minute later, I felt a prescence standing behind me.

"Hatsuharu, would you mind explaining to me why Tohru Honda is here with two red cheeks?" Hatori, the dragon, asked. He held out a hand, helping me to my feet.

Haru stayed where he was. Hatori reached out his hand again, gliding it across my face. Once again, I flinched.

"Akito," Haru answered. The dragon inhaled sharply. Someone else behind Hatori cleared their throat. How many people are hiding behind someone's back today? Shigure stepped into my view.

"Wow, Tohru. He certainly gave you good wounds, didn't he?" At first, I didn't know whom the dog was referring to. Then I remembered: most people believe Akito is a male. Did Shigure and Hatori know of Akito's true gender? If so, did Hatsuharu know? He probably didn't – or else I doubt he would've done what he just did.

Hatori inspected each cheek and sent me home with Shigure.

As Shigure and I walked down the sidewalk to our house, I wanted to ask Shigure about Akito.

"Uh, Shigure?" I asked. He turned to face me. "Do you…know about Akito?"

"What are you –" His mouth formed an 'O' when he realized what I meant. "Yeah, I know Akito's a girl. Hatori and Ayame know, too. But Hatsuharu and everyone else – they don't know yet."

I nodded. Thankfully, Shigure didn't ask any questions concerning me and Kyo for the rest of the walk.

Once we reached the house, Yuki and Kyo seemed to be waiting for me.

"Miss Honda," Yuki said. "Momiji and Hatsuharu called. They said you went to the main house earlier." Kyo's head snapped up.

"You went there? Why?" he wondered.

"I, um, had to help Kisa with something," I lied. Truthfully, Kisa – the tiger – didn't need me at the moment. In fact, we weren't supposed to meet up until the weekend.

Yuki seemed to buy my lie. Kyo turned away, so I didn't see his reaction. All I heard was something about how he was hungry. I smiled at him, walking into the kitchen to heat up the miso soup I prepared earlier.

*FURUBA*

After dinner ended, Shigure went upstairs to do who-knows-what. He said he was going up to start writing his next book, but I was wary. I could tell Yuki and Kyo were very doubtful of this.

"Yeah, right," Kyo muttered.

"He's probably reading porn magazines," Yuki said. I just shrugged and cleaned up the dishes. As I scrubbed the bowls, Yuki stood up. "Miss Honda, I'm going to call Machi and see how the student council balances are coming along," he told me. We both knew that he was going to talk to her about something else, but Kyo sure didn't.

The rat walked up the stairs to use one of the phones we had installed up there. He left me and Kyo alone.

Once I had finished with the utensils and the dishes, I turned around to see the cat sitting there, staring at me. As he glanced away, I looked down at my feet and blushed.

Suddenly, he stood in front of me. How was he so fast?

"Tohru," he breathed. His breath felt nice and warm against my lips. "I know that you were lying about seeing Kisa today."

"H-how do you know I was lying?" I replied timidly.

"I can tell when you are. I know you well enough to know when you're telling the truth, and what you said back there is a load of crap." Now I wasn't sure if he meant what I said about Kisa or what I said over a week ago. It didn't matter. He deserved to know why I went to see Akito.

I breathed deeply before speaking. "Today, I went to the main house to talk to Akito."

His jaw clenched. "Akito?" he spoke through gritted teeth.

Nodding, I continued. "You may not know this, but Akito is a –"

"She's a girl – I know."

My mouth opened wide. "How did you –"

"I made Shigure tell me a long time ago," Kyo confessed.

Letting out a short laugh, I bit my lip. "Well, the way she acted last week, on that one night, made me curious. So I went to see her today. She, uh…" I paused for a moment. "…Akito likes you."

He was suddenly silent. After a long silence, he spoke again. "So what?"

"I was just checking with her."

"Then how did you get hurt?" He placed each hand on each of my cheeks. They were very cold. All though they were freezing, they felt soothing against my face.

"Akito hit me," I whispered. Kyo's breathing became ragged with anger.

"Damn Akito," he muttered, dropping his head.

"On the way, I ran into Yuki, too." He snapped his head back up once he heard this.

"What does that damn rat have to do with anything?" His voice had a hint of jealousy in it.

"He was with Machi," I said, placing emphasis on 'with' when I said it. Kyo understood what I was saying.

Kyo took a step closer. He was so close that his leg was brushing against mine. "Did you tell him?" he asked. I nodded. "Was he okay with it?" I had never heard him ask such a question while referring to Yuki. Once again, I nodded.

Just as he was about to kiss me, he stepped away. The look in his eyes was something I hadn't seen before in him.

Oh, cliffhangers. I've loved writing them since I started writing online...they're fun. Even older ones like these, haha.

R/R/KR!