Disclaimer: I don't own anything Fruits Basket. And I don't own Akito-san, Yuki-kun or Kyo-sama either…neither does Ayame make my clothes …sighs…life is unfair.

"I see you came."

On her knees before him, Tohru kept her eyes on the ground. "Y-y-you called for me, Akito-san." She didn't know why he'd called for her to have a private meeting with him, especially since their last meeting hadn't gotten spectacularly (her head still hurt from his rough fistfuls of her hair), but she'd swallowed her fear, and despite the fears and protests that Kyo-kun and Yuki-kun had voiced about her coming alone, she'd decided not to disrespect Akito-san's command.

He watched her silently, she could feel his eyes on her, and she shivered.

"Do you fear me, Honda Tohru?"

The question was odd and surprised her enough to look up at him quickly, before remembering with whom she was and quickly looked down again.

"Do you fear god?" He asked once more, yet suddenly his hot breath was on her ear.

Gasping, Tohru looked up at him, eyes wide, breath catching in her throat at his proximity. What was he doing?

"Answer me girl." His voice was deceptively calm as he crouched before her, eyes boring into her own, hand rising to tangle his fingers in her loose hair.

She flinched, remembering those hands tugging viciously at her hair.

The throaty chuckle was the last thing she'd expected from him. "You do fear me. Good. You're smarter than you look." He pulled away, leaving coldness in his wake.

She forced herself to look up at him, wondering why he was doing this, why she'd been sent for, and why he hadn't hit her yet. From what she'd learnt from hearing stories of visits to Akito-san's, there was always pain involved.

But the boy, for he was truly only a boy, sitting watching her with a smirk didn't look like someone who could hurt a flea. Looks truly were deceiving, because he could pass for an angel, watching her so intently, as if reading her soul and trying to find her deepest, darkest sins.

"Tell me something, Honda Tohru. How much do you love the Sohma family?" He asked casually.

Yuki had once said that whenever Akito used that tone of voice one should be wary, very wary.

"They are my family." She whispered, bowing her head once more.

"They are not your family." He hissed. "They are mine. And it's time you started to remember that you are a mere, common, filthy orphan whom they took pity on and let stay with them." He sneered in his deceptively angelic voice, his words hurting more than his fists ever could. "The only thing you have going for you is that you're lovely to look at, Honda Tohru."

Ironically, the only thing that stuck with her was the surprise at his last words. Lovely to look at? Her? Akito's favorites barbs against her had always been that she was ugly. So, why had he just told her she was lovely?

"So, once again I ask you." He drawled in feigned indifference. "How much do you love the Sohma? What would you do for their freedom? I'm giving my life, dying because of them. Can you say that you'd do the same for them?"

She didn't hesitate. "Hai."

He paused. "You'd give up your life so that your beloved monster doesn't get locked up and your traitorous rat doesn't return to his oh-so-beloved room?"

Once again, she didn't have to even think of the answer. "Hai."

The god was silent for a moment. "Would you give up your memories of them?"

She gasped, looking up at him in horror. This possibility had been looming in the air, and she closed her eyes tightly. She didn't want to forget Kyo or Yuki, or even Shigure and Ayame. It broke her heart to think that she might pass Momiji or Kisa on the street and not even recognize them.

Could she?

Could she give up the most precious memories of the people she'd come to love as her family?

And she knew the answer. "If it meant their freedom, then, hai."

He stood and came towards her.

She winced, waiting for a kick, a slap across the face. A squeal of surprise and fright escaped her lips as his hand went around her upper arm and hauled her to her feet. For someone who was supposedly so sick, he was incredibly strong.

"A-A-A-Akito-san?" She squeaked, chancing to look up at him.

His smirk was evil, eyes glinting in dark delight at whatever was going through his mind. "It shall be done."

"Y-y-you're going to kill me?" She felt tears forming in her eyes, falling down her cheeks.

"What a truly idiotic child you are." He said scornfully. "What use are you to me if you are dead?"

"T-t-then what shall be done?" She whispered fearfully as he began to drag her towards the back door.

"In exchange for their freedom, you will have all your memories of them erased." Akito replied, an eager sound in his voice. "And you shall remain here with me."

"What?" She tugged on his grip, but his fingers dug painfully into her arms in reproach.

"Imagine their pain when they see you and you do not even recognize them, don't remember anything you've ever shared with them." He stopped and looked at her, caressing her face in mock-tenderness. "We will have both won Honda Tohru. Your precious cursed animals will be free, and yet they will still receive the punishment they deserved for forgetting their god, for disobeying him."

Tears fell silently down her cheeks as he began leading her to the back door once more.

"God gives and he takes." Akito told her as if telling a child a vital lesson to be learnt. "They rebelled against me because of you—and now I will take you from them. Poetic justice, don't you think Honda Tohru?"

Feeling his fingers digging painfully into her arm once more, she croaked out a "Hai" in mid-sob.

"Stop crying you stupid child." He ordered, opening the door and pulling her inside, leading her through the dark hallway. "God has bestowed you a true gift. You are to live in luxury by his side. Who would not want such a gift?"

Throwing open a door, they stopped as they came in front of Hatori.

The doctor stood rapidly, face flashing with concern as he saw Akito holding her like that while she cried desperately, yet his voice was even. "Akito-sama."

"Hatori." Akito was smiling. "Honda Tohru will be living with us in the Main House from now on."

Hatori stiffened. "S-she will?" He looked concerned in her direction but she couldn't bring herself to look at him.

"Honda Tohru and I have come to an agreement." There was deliberate goading in that voice. "She shall have her memories removed, and will live here with me."

"But--."

Suddenly it seemed harder to breathe. "Do you dare question your god?" Once more he'd gone dangerous in second.

"No, Akito-sama." Hatori lowered his head in reluctant submission.

"Good." Akito smiled. "Let it be done." Turning he left them alone.

Tohru, worried that he was listening to their conversation still, was silent, letting her tears fall down her cheeks. She didn't want to look at Hatori and see his condemnation, but she didn't know if Akito-san would allow her to speak of their agreement—and that was the only way she could redeem herself in the doctor's eyes.

Akito wanted the 'cursed animals', as he called them, to suffer, and her silence would ensure that.

"You did a trade, didn't you?" Hatori's voice was rough. "You for them."

She looked up in surprise. "How--?"

Hatori shook his head. "I know Akito better than I wish I did." He looked at her. "Tohru-chan, are you sure--?"

"I love them." She cut in, her voice a tortured whisper. "If I do this, Kyo-kun will never be locked up, and Yuki-kun will never be brought back here, never be locked up in that horrible room ever again, never suffer what he had to suffer as younger." She finally looked up at him, eyes red from tears. "I am more than sure."

Hatori shook his head, feeling pain and heartache. Once again Akito would be removing all memory from a woman who'd dared love a Sohma. "Then let it be done."

She sat besides him so unlike herself one wouldn't recognize her as the awkward teenager she'd once been in her ugly, commoner clothes.

Wearing the kimono he'd picked out for her to wear for this special occasion, she wore her hair up in an elegant style, with a large sakura blossom in her hair, giving her the look of an awe-inspiring princess.

Nothing less could be expected from the companion of a god.

Akito smirked, breathing in the pain and sadness at the gathering. He'd invited all of the Sohma to the celebration, and all had come, knowing that 'invitations' from Akito couldn't be refused. He'd wondered whether to invite the abomination of the cat, but decided that even though he'd love to see the torture on his face he couldn't defile his home with his presence.

Tohru sat by his side on the cushion placed on the ground, silent and poised, head tilted towards him slightly as he idly caressed her hair, which had become a custom of his, although he'd rather die than admit fondness for her.

It'd been months since he'd had her memory erased, months since he'd taken the amnesic girl to his bed, months since he'd thrown his claim on her in the faces of the cursed animals.

And months since he'd felt this well.

She was like an elixir of health. Every day listening to her annoying yet disturbingly endearing optimism and giggles, every night buried within her, hearing her cry out his name and how much she loved him—never asking why he never returned those sentiments—had him stronger, and he didn't need Hatori as much as he had before he'd taken her as his.

And the fact that his owning her only hurt the ungrateful family of his was a bonus. He watched as Yuki gazed longingly at Tohru, knowing that she didn't remember him and only thought of him as yet another member of the Sohma family Akito despised, knowing that she slept in Akito's bed every night, knowing that even in his presence she gazed adoringly up at Akito.

Just to reinstate his ownership over the young woman, Akito's hand went from her hair down her long, lean throat, rubbing her pulse with his thumb, feeling her shiver under his ministrations, eyes connecting gloatingly with Yuki's hate-filled ones.

This is what all of you deserve. He thought vindictively as they ate in silence, smirking at their pained looks as Tohru fed him his food lovingly like the willing companion she was. She took you away from me, and I took her away from you. I only keep her alive and here with me because I know how not having her, how keeping her all for myself kills you all little by little.

Of course, he didn't want to think of the times at night after they'd made love that he'd hold her near and listen to the calming sound of her heartbeat, growling possessively if she even tried to turn away from him in her sleep.

He didn't want to remember the now innumerous times he'd grown insanely furious and quite dangerous and violent towards anyone, man, woman or child she'd smiled at, listened to, or spent time with while not with him. How jealous he was of the time she spent away from him and of those he believed she 'preferred' over her god.

And he definitely didn't want to acknowledge the fact that he'd happily kill any and everyone who tried to take her time, her attention, her innocent devotion and love from him.

And it wasn't only because having her made the Sohmas miserable.

"Would you like me to feed you an egg roll, Akito-san?" Tohru asked in her soft voice, gracing him with that smile that brought out looks of miserable longing from the friends she could no longer remember, and a smirk of triumphant from him.

"You may." He nodded, biting into the egg roll she offered him in her chopsticks.

He could hear Yuki muttering something angrily, and saw Hatori place a warning hand on his arm, stopping him from standing up and doing something foolish.

Akito wondered often if his Tohru had loved Yuki, or even the damned cat, when she still remembered them. And it was moments like these, when he saw the utter devotion in Yuki's eyes when he watched Tohru longingly, that that darkness in Akito ate at him.

He rapidly stood, surprising everyone. He truly was getting better and better with Tohru at his side. It'd been two months since he'd left his bedridden days forever. Even Hatori was shocked at his miraculous, and supposedly impossible, recuperation. He was supposed to die, he'd been born to die, but for some reason he wasn't. He was getting stronger.

Becoming a true god.

And he knew that that pissed his family to no small extent.

"I have an announcement to make that I am sure will gladden your hearts."

Everyone watched him warily.

" I am sure you have seen Tohru-kun around before and know of her." He smirked, rubbing in his ownership of her, her memory-loss, and their painful loss one more time.

Tohru graced them with a small, timid smile.

He growled, as he always did whenever she smiled at anyone other than him, but somehow continued in a neutral voice. "I have decided that we are to marry."

The look of utter surprise and mond-blowing shock in Tohru's eyes showed to everyone at the 'celebration' that she hadn't known of this—hadn't even suspected this might ever happen.

Yuki was trembling, his rage barely concealed.

Akito smirked evilly. "And I'd like my dear cousin Yuki to be my witness."

Hatori once more grabbed onto Yuki to keep him from jumping up.

Akito's smirk was dangerously pleased as he saw the anger and pain in each and every one of their faces. "That's all. You may leave, I have no more use for you and you're not entertaining in the least." Turning to a still dumbfounded Tohru, he motioned with his chin for her to leave.

Hurrying to her feet, Tohru bowed to the guests and walked out behind a victorious Akito.

The god stopped at the doorway and grabbed hold of her waist, pulling her to him in front of the others and claiming her lips brutally, just to make his point clear. She whimpered slightly at the pain, and in embarrassment, but he enjoyed the sound, only letting her go when he deemed he wanted.

She blushed scarlet and hurried past him into the inner house.

Akito turned to look at his guests, all looking at him in unconcealed anger and hatred, especially Yuki, who looked like he was going to cry and try to kill him all at the same time.

"God gives." He told them in a solemn voice. "He takes." Akito turned his back on them. "And he never lets go of what's his." With that, he left them to join Tohru in their chamber.

Angsty, a little weird, and somewhat very wrong…but I am actually proud of that. I wanted to write something that wasn't 'fluffy', and I think I didn't do half-bad.

How about a review?