Word Count : 1827
"We're back! Home sweet home." Shigure calls out to no one. We had finally arrived home from the long trip. We all entered the house to a strange surprise.
"Guite so! You must be quite tired from your long journey, comrades!" Ayame greets. The living room was a complete mess. There were half etan packages of food and beer cans. Along with trash and magazines scattered around. Ayame was in the centre of it all lying comfortably on the floor. "Yes, yes, step right in! Don't mind me, make yourselves at home and relax!"
"Ayame-san, it's nice to see you." Tohru smiles at the guest.
"Well, well, Tohru-kun, have your summer experiences matured a bit?" Ayame asks.
"How the hell did you get into the house?!" Kyo shouts at him.
"It's fine Kyo-kun. Aya was house sitting for us." Shigure explains.
"Just for today, though." Ayame adds.
"Shigure, you forgot to lock the door before you left, didn't you?" Yuki guesses. Shigure freezes at the comment.
"Ouch, you caught me." He caved.
"That's not safe!" I shout. We were very lucky that it was only Ayame who had entered the house and not some criminal. It could have been so much worse thinking about what had happened to my mother when someone broke into our house.
"That reminds me! Why didn't you come to the vacation house with us Aya?"
"Business calls. Summer is the season for fantasy when lovers flutter about with reckless abandon!" Ayame replied.
"Shigure-san, may I use the phone?" Tohru asks.
"Of course go ahead."
"Thank you very much." She smiles and heads off to the end of the hallway where the phone was located.
"So, was there a reason for your visit?"
"I heard Akito-san showed up at the summer house. It seems that once again, I failed to offer you the strength when you needed it the most. So I swear...to at least let you heal your wounded heart in my arms tonight." Ayame explained.
"No way it's not going to happen!" Yuki shouts, backing away from his brother.
"Then you must strike! Give in to your wounded heart nad strike as hard as you can...At Kyonkichi"
"Not at you?!" Kyo yells annoyed. Ayame gets up and makes his way over to the phone where Tohru had just finished her call, and he hides behind her.
"If you're going to be difficult then I will have no choice but to embrace Tohru-kun as I sleep."
"What?!" Tohru shouts in shock.
"How did you come to that conclusion?" Yuki asks.
"Try it and I'll beat you into the ground." Kyo says, as the boys glare at Ayame. I quickly grab Tohru's arm and pull her away from him.
---
"Thanks for being willing to listen to my unreasonable request so soon after your trip." I say. I was sitting in the living room in Master's house. I had asked him if he was free to talk to me and thankfully like us he had just come back from his own trip.
"Please don't worry about it. I was just taking care of some personal business. I went to visit some distant friends and pay my respects to my grandfather's grave." he explained.
"Is it far away from the Sohma grave? Is it not with the other spirit holders that have passed on?"
"No it's not. They didn't allow my grandfather to be buried in the Sohma grave. So I took him far from here. Honestly, I think it's better this way. In the end, my grandfather was finally able to be outside."
"But, Kyo is living right now. He's living outside. So is it true? That he will be locked away soon?" I mentioned. His poster seemed to change once I made the comment. He was sitting straighter. He seemed surprised that I had known about this. "Akito, told me. That Kyo will be confined after high school. While the rest of us will go back inside the Sohma estate. That all the zodiac members will live together, unable to be parted. If that's true, and the curse is binding them to the future Akito told me about. I want to break... the curse."
"Like it was broken on you?"
"Yes. Please. If you know anything about the curse, will you tell me? I don't know how mine broke and I didn't know where else to start." I bow.
"Why do you bow your head to me? Why must you do so much? You..."
"Master?"
"I'll be frank. I don't know the details of the curse either. You probably know more than I do. All I know is that the future you described, with Kyo confined and the zodiac members living together in isolation, is quite likely." I frown at his comment. "Of course I don't intend to let the future play out without a fight. However, the sad thing is that not one of them has the strength to oppose Akito."
"I understand, when the curse was there I could never stand up to Akito, and now even with the curse gone I don't know if I have that strength."
"That one is like a small child, only able to scream hysterically. A fragile, unstable child. But as you know, Akito is like a God. A being feared and respected. Whether they're weak or strong, what might seem to an outsider like a simple word of rejection from Akito's lips makes them feel like they are being torn apart from the inside out. You should know that better than anyone." he says. I wanted to tell him that he was wrong, but deep down I knew he was right.
No one understands Akito. I know she is a cruel and terrible person, but it's the only way she knows how to express her emotions. She has to hold on and be accepted because she is missing that part in her life. To her it doesn't matter that it's forced by the curse or fake.
"Akito and the other zodiac members live in a world of their own. That outsiders could never truly understand. A world that is truly their own. Connected by that which flows through their veins... A bond of blood. "
"Other than saying the bond you can also call it the curse."
"That's my theory anyway." I felt my hand tighten into a fist.
For me to want to break that bond I truly would deserve to be punished. But...
"I won't give up." I stated.
"Is that... you're nature? I'm sorry I couldn't be of any help."
"Please, don't apologise. You have no reason to."
"Master. Is Kyo getting stronger? He's grown taller, he may even grow taller than you someday! I would like to see that."
"If there is anything you can do, it may just be to smile for him. Because when you smile, he seems happier. Just keep being yourself." I go red in embarrassment.
"I'm not sure if that's true. I'm not special like that." I say, and he laughs
*he laughs*
---
"Kagura." Kyo calls out as the two walked up a long flight of stairs. The pair had planned to spend the day together. Kyo had tried talking to Kagura earlier but it failed and she said that she would only listen if they went out on a date together. Which brought them to the current situation.
"Ah, so you figured out where we are headed? That's right, it's a place filled with memories from when we were kids." Kagura says. They arrived at a small clearing. There wasn't much to play on but there was a nice view over the town. And it was pretty close to the Soham estate. "We're here!" Kagura cheers. At the other side of the clearing was a group of three kids playing around. "I wonder if they're Sohma kids. We were always sneaking out of the house to play here, too. Maybe it's painful for you to be here. The Sohma estate is right over there, and this is the place where I saw... your true form."
---
"Hey, come on! Just for a little bit! Let me try on those beads, just once!" Kagura says, pulling on Kyo's arm. Just then the bracelet slips off. Kagura smiles for a moment before looking up to see that now instead of Kyo in front of her was some sort of creature. Kyo had transformed into his true form. It wasn't long before Kagura was running away and screaming in fear.
---
"Your mom stopped letting you out of the house as much after that. Kyo-kun I... I was sad that I was born with a zodiac spirit. When I was a kid, whenever my parents fought because of me... Or later, when I saw my mom crying alone, it made me feel really sad. I hated myself so much. I was so insecure. That's why when I met you, Kyo-kun, I was happy. I was relieved. I realised compared to the cat, I had it easy. Because... Because compared to this kid drawing eggs on the ground all by himself, I wasn't so bad after all. I wasn't pitied, I wasn't ostracised. Not like this boy. I've come to realise... that I... always looked down on you. It's terrible isn't it? I feel... so dirty. When I ran away that day, terrified out of my mind, I felt dirty. I couldn't stand how unclean I felt, I hated it. I wish I could do it over. I wanted you to forget it ever happened. I dreamed of a pure version of myself that could accept your monstrous form. I didn't realise that very thought was vile. If I could fall in love with you, Kyo-kun, grow closer to you... and if you loved me back, I thought it might wash away the disgusted girl who ran away that day. It was selfish love. I realised all this when I saw her running after you... just how foolish I was. I was blinded to your pain, Kyo-kun. The truth is... in the end, I was only ever thinking of myself. This whole time, I was only chasing after you for my sake." Kagura says, as she starts to cry. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Kyo-kun."
"You... I know this is painful, so you don;t have to say those things... on my behalf. Kagura, I won't fall in love with you. I never will. I just wanted to tell you that. I'm not upset about you looking down on me or whatever. You have nothing to apologise for."
"But... But I wanted to confess that to you." Kagura smiles, stopping the tears. She stretches from having stayed still in one place for so long. "That's a load off my shoulders. I'm kind of hungry now. I'm going home." She says walking off.
"Kagura. No matter the reason behind it, I was happy you played with me when we were kids. Thank you."