Warnings: This is yaoi/ slash, (as in two males involved in a romantic situation)

References to child abuse, violence, possible sexual abuse. Sexual content, mind the rating. Language.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket, nor its characters, setting, etc.

Now edited.

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Prologue

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The night was remarkably quiet. The sound of dry leaves moving, rustling, could be heard in the distance, and perhaps the faint, nearly noiseless rush of traffic somewhere further away. Isolated from the other houses, the Sohma residence slumbered silently under the night sky. Heavy clouds gathered on the horizon, lending the air a certain amount of electricity, a prelude for the coming storm.

Atop the slated rooftop, the slim figure of a boy could be seen, his shock of orange hair visible even in the dark.

Kyo Sohma was unable to sleep. It was well past midnight, and the stars gleamed brilliantly above him, their light louder, perhaps, than his breathing. The storm clouds were slowly encroaching upon the clear sky, obscuring stars as they roiled closer. But the wet warning of the night air wasn't enough to deter the cat from enjoying the peace and quiet. Up here, he thought, the world was quiet enough to hear his own thoughts.

His relentless insomnia had driven him outside at this early hour. He usually avoided the roof at night-the darkness outside often allowed his darker thoughts more freedom-but tonight something had drawn him outside. Inside, he had been alternately too hot or too cold, his sheets scratchy and tangled and humid, the rattle of the house loud to his fevered ears. It had been the same for the past three nights. Chills, fevers, nausea, nightmares-the roof had been his final refuge.

It was a strange picture Kyo painted, lying coolly under the dark sky, body relaxed and eyes half closed. His brightly colored hair seemed dimmer in the darkness and the usual passion that animated his face during the day was long gone. In its place was a weariness that looked a little like despair, and the eyes that looked so alive during the day appeared to be wet with something like tears. His fatigued mind kept dragging him down memory lane, and his memories were rarely the good kind. External conflict he could handle with his brash impulsiveness and anger, but his inner conflicts were the things that haunted his restless, half-asleep hours. Kyo closed his eyes fitfully, tucking his face into one arm.

Sometime in the early hours of the morning, unconsciousness pulled his swirling thoughts to a halt and the cat slept, the stars vanishing, one by one, as morning crept up behind the clouds.

Kyo woke to nothing, an abrupt surfacing form whatever bleak dreams he had been experiencing. For a moment, his heart seized, his surroundings unrecognizable and alien. His tired mind finally registered his position on the roof, and finally, his breathing gentled.

The morning hours were colder than he had thought they would be. Kyo could feel the wet of cool dew seeping into his skin and hair and through his light clothes. He was stiff; his back and shoulders already aching painfully and his arms numbly asleep. Groaning softly, he unhooked his arms from behind his head and propped himself up on an elbow.

He should go downstairs, he thought wearily, but somehow he couldn't summon the energy to do so. Even after sleeping a little Kyo felt exhausted, and the sallow cast of his skin and the his aching muscles only attested to the fact. He supposed a few hours of sleep couldn't make up for the past three hellish nights-but it should have helped a little, right?

Slipping silently into his room, Kyo tiredly surveyed the disaster area. His bedsheets were strewn across his floor, accompanied by several items of clothing, a pair of shoes, and miscellaneous artifacts, some whole and some broken. He need a shower. Ignoring the chaos of his room, Kyo gathered a clean set of clothes and his towel and entered the hallway, gently nudging his door shut. Hopefully, it was too early for the rat to be showering-

The house was cautiously stirring, and Kyo paused at the entrance of the bathroom, taking in the quiet noises that occurred in a house not yet awake. Only the creak of his footsteps and his snotty breathing registered loudly. He spared a tired grin as he entered the bathroom; Yuki would be pissed, he thought, because the rat hated showering in the humidity left by someone else's hot shower. Kyo hastily dumped his clothes on the closed lid of the laundry hamper and proceeded to brush his teeth. The mint tasted sharp in his mouth and helped wake him up a little more.

The hiss of hot water was soothing to his exhausted nerves. As he undressed and stepped into the shower, Kyo told himself that everything was perfectly fine. Skirting around the usual array of painful bruises coloring his skin, the cat perfunctorily scrubbed himself down. The heat of the water caused his old scars to prickle unpleasantly, but at least it helped relax his sore muscles. Sleeping on a hard surface hadn't helped his bruises or his training-induced soreness. Not that all the practice in the world would help him beat Yuki, Kyo thought bitterly-or sleep more, for that matter. Despite the physical feeling of exhaustion, his mind refused to drift into sleep until the very early hours of morning. He was barely getting two of hours of sleep each night. He was dead tired. God, his whole body ached, he was so tired.

Turning the shower off and hurriedly drying himself in the now steamy bathroom, Kyo hesitated before the mirror. He looked worse than ever, he decided, with purpling shadows under his eyes and skin that looked pale enough to be sickly. A heavy arc of a bruise colored his left side, the dark beginning at his hip and reaching above his ribcage from where he had crashed into a fence after being thrown by one of Yuki's forceful punches. Other, less vicious bruises lay scattered across his body, from fighting, practicing, or his own clumsiness. He touched one that lay near his hipbone, wincing at the sudden pain his movements caused. It would fade in a few days, he thought, but by then he would have new bruises to worry over.

He pulled on his clean clothes, carelessly leaving the damp clothes in the hamper. As he cracked the door open he took a deep breath, thankful for the cooler air he found outside.

Kyo threw the door open, stepped out into the hallway, and instantly came face to face with Yuki, their noses mere inches apart.

Yuki—first thing in the morning. Not a good situation.

"Fuck." Kyo held himself completely still. His mind went blank. Shit. Shit. He wrenched himself away from Yuki, his reflexes slower due to the lack of sleep. An angry noise of irritation came from the rat, and Kyo braced himself for the impact that was sure to come, eyes snapping shut. He was going to be in pain today if Yuki aimed for his torso-especially since he was already bruised.

A moment passed. Nothing happened. Kyo tentatively opened his eyes. Yuki was slowly making his way into the bathroom, eyes still half-closed, mumbling something about stupid cats and wet floors. Kyo breathed in deeply, glad the crisis had been averted. Not that he was one to pass up an opportunity to fight with the rat, but in his current state—even he could admit—he stood even less of a chance at beating Yuki than usual.

He could hear the sounds of someone stirring downstairs, most probably Tohru, but he decided against eating breakfast with everyone else. He was too tired to deal with Tohru's cheerfulness or Shigure's bad humor…and he definitely couldn't deal with the rat. He closed the door behind him as he entered his room, put on his shoes, grabbed his school bag and quietly snuck back up on the roof.

It had started drizzling lightly during his shower. Despite the slick slates and his exhaustion Kyo managed to successfully jump down from the roof without breaking anything. He glanced back at the house, which looked almost forlorn in the grey morning light, and slowly started towards school.

The route to school was a simple one, but Kyo was seriously considering skipping school and going home. The cold and the constant wet were getting to him, his skin felt clammy, his feet felt like lead. His eyes hurt when he closed them, and he could feel the ache in his bones of true weariness. God, he just wanted to sleep. He blinked his eyes open, a strange sort of film covering his vision. His surroundings seemed almost blurry and he could feel the sharp pricks of cold drops of water sliding down his back from his hair.

He tripped, suddenly—his foot caught on a crack, or a root, or maybe he just stumbled from fatigue. A hand caught his forearm, and he staggered instead of falling. He waited for his natural sense of balance to reassert itself, but the world continued to the spin in woozy pendulum movements.

A voice managed to wade through Kyo's disorientation. Sluggishly, he turned his head to look at the one who had caught him. He felt a momentary shock of confusion, because it was Haru holding tightly onto his arm and saying something to him. The stupid cow's expression was quite odd; neither genial nor angry, Haru looked a little worried, his eyebrows furrowed together and his normally placid eyes focused intently on Kyo's face.

Kyo tried to pay attention to whatever the ox was saying, but his head was throbbing and the world was swinging around with even more violence. The raindrops darkened, spread-his vision blacked and the tentative grip he had on consciousness faded. He could feel his pulse thudding loudly in his ears. Kyo caught a last, quick glimpse of Haru's face, staring—concerned—and then his world finally, blissfully went black.