Like a Switch [Fruits Basket]

Chapter 24

Like a Switch
Chapter Twenty-four

Yuki stood at the entrance way of the club Yozora. It was quite a sobering realization that his violent reactions had manifested themselves into the real world. He had thought about punishing his brother (and Shigure) for their lewd behavior plenty of times before. But other than carrying Ayame by his neck in his snake form, Yuki had never acted on such impulses. Until tonight; he had snapped tonight in a way that felt surreal. He couldn't believe that he had just been escorted out of the host club. It was bad enough that such a thing had happened given that Yuki had never been unwelcome anywhere he went. What made it worse was the fact that now he had no way of visiting you. At least not without seeming like a stalker or a bit of a creep.

"Well that's unfortunate," Ayame said as he quickly got over any negative emotion he may have had over the situation.

"Unfortunate?" Yuki's tone sounded like a dangerous whisper amidst the sea of activity around him. "That was a disaster. I can't believe you. I knew that you were shameless but to do that in public...sometimes I wonder if we're related at all."

"Oh come now Yuki you'll hurt my feeling if you keep talking like that," Ayame spoke with a dramatic flare.

Yuki avoided the hand and arm that reached out for him in comradery. He was in no mood to be touched. At least not by his boisterous brother. Ayame didn't even seemed phased by the rejection as he continued to talk.

"Besides it's not as bad as you're making it out to be. I was just being friendly."

"You were molesting her."

"You of all people know that's not true. She had no problem with what I did so why should you?"

"Because it's disgusting," Yuki responded tightly as he started to walk away.

There really was no point to standing outside of the host club. It could actually be quite detrimental considering the fact that he was still under age. If his senior high school found out where he was, Yuki knew that he was likely to be expelled. Especially as he had frequented that particular club habitually in the last few weeks. It wasn't like he could explain why he was knowingly breaking the law; he couldn't tell any of the staff about the curse. In fact, he was just lucky that no one had caught him yet.

"How can following your heart be disgusting?" Ayame poses to his younger brother as he kept up with him.

Yuki resisted the urge to comment that it wasn't his heart that Ayame had seemed to be following. He didn't need another lecture on natural urges being a part of life. As far as Yuki was concerned at the moment, Ayame was a big enough pain in the ass already.

"Besides I couldn't help it. It's not easy for your older brother to admit this but it's been so long since I last saw her that I got swept up in the moment. I forgot how enjoyable it is to kiss her."

While Ayame describes what he had felt in a myriad of ways with plenty of metaphors, Yuki tuned him out. Instead his mind kept going back to the fact that Ayame had known you in the past. He hadn't been overwhelmed by meeting you; he had been overwhelmed by seeing you again. Never mind that he just admitted to kissing you before, that was another ball of worms that Yuki didn't have time to focus on. He stuck to the topic that Ayame remembered you even if you didn't remember any of them. So far that made Shigure, Ayame, Momiji, and Yuki presumed Hatori that all knew you from before. How was it that he seemed to be the only member of the zodiac that hadn't met you? Even Momiji seemed to have known you already and he was a year younger than Yuki himself. He would have been an extremely young child when you left the family! Which meant that you have been there for Momiji as he grew up for him to be able to remember you. How was that fair?