Damaged Beyond Repair [Fruits Basket]

Chapter Five

~Luna's POV~

dream/flashback

I had just turned thirteen, Ritsu and his mom left the main house to live at their hot spring and Shigure, Hatori and Aya were cramming for their final exams for their last year of high school. Akito had invited me over. He'd never invited me over before, I always got the feeling he didn't like anyone, he was always sick and I felt like that made him feel inferior to everyone else and it warped into hatred.

I knocked on the door to the main house feeling anxious and wondering how long until Hatori, Shigure and Aya got back from school. The middle school was already out for break, but the high school was still in session. The door swung open to reveal a thin boy, around the age of sixteen, with perfectly tousled raven hair and cold dark eyes, Akito.

"Hi Akito!" I beamed, "How are you feeling today, mother said you hadn't been well recently."

He glared at me and clenched his fists.

"I'm sorry." I don't know why I was apologizing.

"What are you doing here?" He glared at me.

"You invited me over." I held up the note he'd sent to my house. "I thought maybe you wanted to be friends."

"Why would I ever want to be friends with you?" He scoffed.

I couldn't help but glare at this, "Why did you invite me over then?"

He backhanded me with all his might and I slipped off the porch step and skinned my knees on the corner of the stairs. "Don't raise your voice to me." He hissed, "I am the head of this family, you'll do well to remember that, Luna." And with that said he slammed the door in my face.

I stared at the closed door in awe, what was that all about? I was about to get up and storm into his home when I heard the gate open behind me, they were home from school! I sprinted to the gate as Hatori, Aya and Shigure slipped through, they froze when they spotted me.

"Luna, you're bleeding, what happened?" Hatori caught me in a warm embrace.

"I tripped on the stairs." I shrugged.

Akito was watching us from his window, glaring at me in spite. Why did he not like me? Hatori carried me home. "Did somebody hit you?" He asked as he swept his fingers over the tender skin on my cheekbone where Akito had slapped me.

"No, I just tripped." I reassured him, even if I did tell them what happened, they couldn't do anything, they all had to listen to Akito.

Shigure opened the door to my parent's small home a few houses away from the main house and Hatori carried me inside and set me on the kitchen counter and retrieved some bandages and a washcloth from under the sink and began cleaning the wounds on my knees. My father stepped into the kitchen after a few moments while Aya and Shigure raided the refrigerator.

"Luna, what happened?" He pondered as his tawny eyes fell across the blood dripping down my leg and onto the floor; I hadn't realized it was so deep.

"I tripped."

Father swatted at Shigure and Aya and pointed to the freezer mouthing the words 'ice cream cake' before turning back to me, "I've never once seen you trip on anything." His gaze fell on the bruise on my cheek and he clenched his fists, "Luna, who hit you?"