Fruits Basket One-Shots

Shigure: My Camellia

The dog was quite familiar with how his god acted while under the weather. Always on edge and spitting insults at anyone she didn't like. The heat tore her frail body apart as if it were a tightly cracked window.

Her coughing wracked through her small lungs and filled the empty room with a somber note. It pulled at his heart, pulling that chain that made him want to cradle her in the sunlight and feed into her controlling aspect. Yet all he did was suggest she go out to the vacation house. To be fair, that was where everyone else was for the summer. To his surprise, she agreed. But only if Kureno came too. He furrowed his brow at the rooster. Jealousy surged through his veins. Kureno was the one thing that kept Akito from her reform. The one thing that kept feeding into her desire for eternity. Oh how he hated that bird.

Yet it didn't stop him from cradling Akito in his arms as the sun set the first night at the vacation house. She lay so peacefully in his lap, the only time she ever showed an ounce of true relaxation. The sight satisfied the man to no end. He did that, not Kureno. He couldn't help but rub it in that bird's face when Akito told him to leave them alone minutes ago.

When she awoke, he could feel her cold hands trailing up his arms and capturing him in her grasp. Yet he didn't feed into her lust. He didn't feed into her pleading either, no matter how angry she got. She may think he hated her, but quite the opposite. He loved her to death, that was why he had to do these things. So she could finally see that she too was slowly dying under the zodiac bonds.

Now he sat on the back porch of the vacation house, watching Hatori patch up the wounds on Tohru's face. Akito was angry. So angry. She came in the night, hoping to get a reaction out of Honda. Yet all she got was the same question Honda had asked everyone at least once.

"Akito.. who are you?"

The question had sent the god into a spiral, he was sure. That was probably why Tohru now had scratches down her face. He couldn't help but smile. His plan was working all too well. She was finally starting to wake up. He knew she still remembered that day, the day he gave her the small gesture of kindness that kindled their love in later life. That cherry red flower, soft petals tickling her small face as she inhaled its scent. That small memory that always made him melt again.

Sure enough, he returned to the Sohma estate a few weeks later and recieved a hand across the face. She was angry. Yet he could only give her one of his sly smiles.

He was winning this fight and he knew it. Akito won't win that eternity as long as it was killing her. He was damn sure that he would win, she was falling apart in his eyes. And in the end, he would be there to catch her when she fell. She would finally be free. Finally able to hold her and call her his own. Like he promised before in that long ago garden, giving her that flower. A symbol of his promise. His camellia of promise. He will set her free.