Disclaimer: Fruits Basket and all Fruits Basket characters and things like that belong to Natsuki Takaya and Hana to Yume comics. Everything else you don't recognize, like Adriana Aziz and the plot, (There's a plot? -.-) probably belongs to me.
The Stream's Winter
By Ela-chan
Chapter Seven
Courage and the Jyunnishi Master
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It had been several weeks now since Kyo and Adriana had made their relationship bare to others.
Shigure couldn't stop taking pictures for weeks, constantly whipping out a camera that had the most irritating flash every time from when they merely touched hands, to when they kissed and prolonged the act. Yuki, on the other hand, accepted the news without word, and locked himself in his room for the rest of the day, claiming to have felt ill and in dire need for some personal space. Tohru had hugged Adriana, saying that she was happy for them, and hoped that they would bring each other the utmost ethereal feeling of bliss.
And it was true.
Anyone could see that they were happy in each other's presence, and though they argued a fair amount, they would always find a way to reduce their angry words into laughter and gaiety.
In those few weeks, Kyo knew how Hatori felt when he had been with Kana. His older cousin had once told him of how it was, being with another like this.
'It was a perfect world. It was reality, yet coated with the very dust dreams were made of. Happiness radiated from her very words and eyes, engulfing my heart wholly. I was drowning in her, and I felt no regret having fallen in love.'
'But all good things had to come to an end.'
--
--
'Come, Kyo,' Akito said, his voice liquid silver and calm, newly melted, and made to burn. He beckoned the orange-haired boy with a long, unhealthily pale finger, and Kyo stood, walking to his Master as though strung by webs, unable to escape even if he desired to.
No escape. No rescue.
Kyo knelt before the standing Akito, head bowed; respectfully or fearfully, he himself did not even know.
Akito's fingers slid under his chin like a spider toying with prey, and he tilted Kyo's face to gaze into his. Piercing cold eyes seared into Kyo's soul like a rusted baton coated in hot blood, and he felt as though he was being stripped of every secret he had sworn on his life to keep.
'A monster … falling in love? How – sweet.'
He jerked his fingers from Kyo's chin, and struck him, hard. Adriana's anger surged, but a darting of sharp eyes from Shigure kept her in place. Her nails dug into her flesh like a lion's paw into a gazelle as she clenched her hands, forming red crescents, like crackling red moons falling from the sky. She cared not for her pain, but her lover's own.
Kyo's head snapped to the side, but he didn't move. An angry, burning hand-print began to flame on his cheek like dry straw set alight, stark against his feverish skin. Akito smiled slowly, a kind of sadistic pleasure settling over him like thin plastic over a dead person's face.
'Look at me.'
And Kyo did.
It was true, Adriana thought. Everyone did change when in front of the Jyunnishi Master. Despite how much courage someone had, how much will, or love, or bravery someone had, it all came down to the haunting memories Akito imbedded into them through the years.
'Why, Kyo?' Akito asked softly, his voice but a shadow of a whisper. He traced the boy's face with his finger, sensually. 'You know it will not be long before you are locked up. Remember, you are the outcast, the monster of my Jyunnishi, and I will do as I please with you. My Jyunnishi belong to me, and you belong away from the world.'
Akito looked at him for a moment, before shoving him to the ground, a disgusted look catching his contoured face. Kyo lay there, shaking with black anger and torrential fear. Emotions constricted his limbs of movement, as though we were bound by metal strings wielded around him. He had no power over Akito as he walked deliberately slow toward Adriana, eyes predatory and gleaming of an emotion all too familiar with the Sohma family.
'You,' he said evenly, stopping a few feet away. 'Why do you take my things from me?'
He stepped toward her slowly, on purpose, enjoying the fear he struck in Adriana's deep-set eyes.
'First; that Kana.' He cast a glance at Hatori, who looked to ground, for once feeling the pain of an old wound being grated with sharp knives.
'And then, that ugly girl. Tohru Honda.' He cast a look at Yuki, who shook violently, paralysed from the memories now surging in his head. Akito smirked, the slightest turn on his mouth making the room's temperature plummet. He turned back to Adriana, the shadows of the trees outside casting web-like silhouettes on his face.
'Then, you.'
He let those words hang in the air, like a paused storm, as though they were threats. Then, suddenly, he launched at her, all growls and curled fingers – but the second before his body touched even a hair on Adriana's, Kyo's form crashed into his, and both were knocked to the floor; one unconscious, the other fuming.
'Never touch her!' Kyo bellowed, angry beyond reason. His body was heaving with inhumanly short breaths and a fury he had never, ever felt before. His hands were clawed and his eyes flashed menacingly. Hatori rushed to Akito's aid, assessing the damage done almost instinctively. Shigure shouted for Kyo to take Adriana out of there before Akito came back to consciousness.
Kyo did not need telling twice.
He grabbed Adriana's hand, and both ran as fast they could. Yuki collapsed on the floor, the makings of a full blown asthma attack clear in his breathing pattern.
--
--
Kyo and Adriana ran.
Through the woods, past trees, over logs, and finally, to a lake far from the Sohma Estate. Both were gasping for breath, clutching their sides, and bending over in an attempt to gain a normal heart beat.
'Are you – all right?' Kyo gasped, looking to Adriana through eyes clouded over. She nodded back, albeit shakily, and swallowed hard. Without warning, Kyo reached for her with quivering hands and slammed her against his heaving chest, arms carefully rigid by his sides as he leant on the tree behind him.
'Kyo – what –'
'Shh,' Kyo whispered, voice like a soothing herbal infusion, burying his cooling face into her full hair, breathing her scent in. Adriana fell silent and reached up, cupping the side of Kyo's face in her shaking hand. He was still trembling, his emotions getting a strong hold over him, but she could feel his anger receding. Her Kyo was coming back to her right now, and she couldn't care less about what happened after this.
The wind picked up around them, chilly and biting. It was as though Mother Nature was furious with them, and she had decided to come out, her elements adorning her body. She blew at them with an algid breath and scratched at them with broken twigs. But neither felt the cold as the leaves were thrown about, flashes of bronze and gold blinking at them sleepily. Each other's warmth was all they needed. Kyo leant into Adriana's hand, and held her other with his own.
'Just stay like this. Stay with me. Forever.'
--
END
Ela Squawk: Ahee, there it is. And just before her birthday! ... Well, it was a few weeks ago, but I'm slow so I have an excuse. Happy Belated Birthday Adriana! -hands her Kyo wrapped in nothing but a bow- Thanks to everyone for their comments and such! I really appreciate each and every one of your comments, and I'm really glad you all liked it.
Ja ne!
Until next FruBa fic,
Ela.