Akito (A Fruits Basket Fanfiction)

The Greatest Betrayal

I strode through the town centre, Shigure jogging to keep up with me. I was wearing a suit- a man's suit of course- and my collar itched. I was getting looks from the local imbeciles who were all dressed in short skirts and skinny jeans and seemed to distrust me because of my clothes. Or maybe it wasn't my clothes. I pushed past another stupid little boy in my haste to get to Momiji's father's office building where I had a consultation to get to.

"Uhm, excuse me" a voice behind me said and I turned to see a young woman standing beside me. I'd obviously just shoved past her. I rolled my eyes and glared at her, snapping "What do you want?"

She flashed a smile and leaned into me. "How about a drink?"

I froze, looking down at her in panic. For one thing, she clearly thought I was a man (which I suppose I couldn't blame her for- I was, after all, dressed as one) and for another, she seemed to be trying to hit on me. Unsure of what to do, I merely frowned and quickened my pace, leaving her behind me. I glanced back to see where Shigure had got to and he was engaging the young woman in conversation.

"But of course" I sighed to myself. "He simply has to apologise to every single person I'm rude to, and now I'm going to be late and- what is he doing?"

The woman's hand was resting casually on Shigure's shoulder as he spoke to her. He obviously said something funny and she laughed, flipping her hair. Shocked, I watched as he fished his phone out of his pocket and she did the same. Were they exchanging numbers? Annoyance surged through me and I had a weird urge to pull Shigure away, to force them apart which I managed to keep in check.

Shigure bid the girl goodbye and caught up with me. "Have fun?" I asked snidely.

"Sorry about that... she wouldn't leave me alone" Shigure said awkwardly. I just smiled coldly.

"No matter. It's not as if we're in a relationship, you're perfectly free to date whoever you want."

I don't know why I was saying all of this but I couldn't keep the bitterness out of my voice. Shigure, who was staring at his feet, didn't say anything for several minutes.

"Well yeah" he said finally. "Yeah, I guess, you're right. Yeah..."

"Good." I said. And then I felt guilty: guilty that I'd said that, worrying that maybe I'd crossed some invisible line and broken something that I didn't even realise was there. Shigure seemed upset by my dismissal of our relationship and I thought that perhaps I should apologise. And then I thought about how Shigure was always flirting with men, and going on about high school girls and trying to get Tohru to wear ridiculously provocative outfits from Ayame's store and I decided that it was well within my right to dismiss whatever excuse for a relationship it was that we had.

"Yup, not in a relationship." Shigure said brightly. I could tell it was fake brightness, I just didn't understand why. "So... out of interest, are you- you know- doing what we do with a lot of people?"

"Nope, just you" I wanted to say. I didn't, it would seem incredibly stupid for him to know that I had in fact never slept with anyone other than him before. Instead I said "Oh yes, lots. You?" and crossed my arms defensively.

"Tonnes." he said hastily. "Not that you'd be interested to know who they were of course, you've probably never met them and most of them are pretty high school girls. Ehh, legal high school girls. Aged 21 at least. Some of them are even older, it's a... French high school. So, ah, who are you sleeping with?"

"Oh, just, you know" I said, struggling to think of someone appropriate. A name popped into my head and before I could stop it it had popped out of my mouth. "Kureno"