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Like a Switch	By : Demonic_Host Category: Fruits Basket > Het - Male/Female Views: 4208 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, own or make money from Fruits Basket or any of its associated characters.

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Like a Switch
Chapter Eighteen

Yuki practically slammed the sliding door closed as he tried to completely comprehend what he had just witnessed. Then slowly he opened it back up so that he could see for himself. The peace that had befallen those on the bed as they slept had been disturbed by him slamming the door. Yuki watched in a sort of fascinated horror as you groaned in your sleep and tucked your head against Momiji’s even further. The half German member of their family shifted as he tried to tuck himself closer to you, trying to keep himself from falling off the bed. Yuki had suspected that Momiji had joined you as you napped. The thing that bothered him the most was that he wasn’t the only one.

From behind you, holding you possessively as he pressed himself against the cold wall, was Kyo. The stupid cat had a hold of you as though that was only natural. Yuki gritted his teeth, a hair’s breadth from gnashing them together. He watched as Kyo woke up slowly at first then as he sensed his surroundings reality kicked in faster. Or at least what he thought was reality.

“What the hell?” Kyo practically hissed as he let go of you and sat up. His eyes locked with Yuki’s and he bristled even further. “What the hell are you doing in my room? Was it your sick idea of a joke to stick the girl and the brat in here?”

“Quiet,” Yuki hissed our as he saw that you were waking up despite how you struggled to stay asleep. "For your information, you're in my room, in my bed. As if I would ever willingly step into your room."

Kyo opened his mouth as he tried to process reality. It didn’t seem like he was doing a very good job, at least not from Yuki’s perspective. But then again, Yuki was a bit biased when Kyo was involved. The fact that he was still near you was bad enough, the notion that he was in his bed made it even worse.

“What the hell am I doing in here?” Kyo asked aggravatedly.

That was exactly the question that Yuki would like answered. Unfortunately it didn’t seem like he was going to get a response any time soon. In fact, with the way that Kyo’s eyes were darting about and the way that he mouth turned down into a heavy frown, Yuki was willing to bet that Kyo was in no position to tell him. He didn’t seem to understand what happened himself.

“Could you be any louder?” Yuki hissed out.

Just because he wanted Kyo out of his room didn’t mean that he wanted to wake you up. Yuki didn’t know what had happened at your work but apparently it had done damage. Enough damage that Momiji or yourself had called Hatori for a check up. That alone was cause for concern.

What he couldn’t figure out was how it happened. It wasn’t like you worked a dangerous job...riske, Yes, but not dangerous. And he definitely couldn’t understand why Hatori had brought you to their house. Did he think you needed to be watched over? Was there something wrong with you that no one had told him? That would have been a mistake - out of everyone in the house, save for Miss Honda, he was the most responsible one at the house. He should know why you were left in their care. But he didn’t.

“What are you so concerned about rat boy? That she’ll wake up? News flash- that’s not the end of the world. Now why don’t you explain why I’m in your bed with these two?”

“How am I supposed to know?” Yuki tossed back at him.

That seemed to fluster the orange haired boy. Kyo didn’t really have any responses to throw back at Yuki. So he settled for making frustrated sounds as he managed to get off of Yuki’s bed without moving you too much. He got the distinct feeling that Yuki was likely to break his neck if that happened. And while he wanted to beat the rat to prove that he was better, Kyo knew there was one time that he should never try that - when Yuki was waking up. Seeing as how concerned he was about you being woke up it sort of felt like the same kind of situation.

Unfortunately no matter how carefully he moved off of the bed you started to wake up. As though they were both watching a horror story unfold before them, the boys froze as you started to turn over in your sleep. You instinctively started to reach in the area that Kyo had been laying, as small of an area as that was given how cramped it had been on the bed, as though seeking out its warmth once more. Sadly, the person who had produced such warmth was on the other side of the room by that point.

What neither Yuki or Kyo noticed was the way that as he also turned over Momiji gave little kicks in his sleep. He used his knees to brush up against the back of your legs as though he was either having a muscular spasm as he dreamed about running or he was trying to get your attention back even in his sleep. Once Kyo realized that you were waking up he made himself scarce. There was no way he wanted to deal with the awkward mess that had become his afternoon. He didn’t even remember being sleepy much less falling asleep. Yet he had...and had not only done that in Yuki’s room of all places but he had been wrapped around a girl he didn’t even know. The fact that it felt like he had a warm blanket around him after all of that only pissed him off more.

Which meant that you were left with Yuki and Momiji when Kyo stormed out. And you were somewhere between awake and asleep, balancing on that razor thin edge. When you turned over Yuki expected some sort of confusion to cross your face. Maybe fear. Both would have been reasonable given that you were in a bed barely bigger than a normal single with a boy that seemed persistently trying to snuggle and another one staring at you. But there was nothing like that. The same couldn’t be said of him.

Yuki heard you say something. He wasn’t sure what you said; he couldn’t even fathom what language it had been in. And yet despite how foreign the words had been, he felt like they were familiar in a very odd way. Yuki felt himself take a step forward and then another. It was almost as though he wasn’t in control of his body any more and that was a truly scary sensation. It only stopped when you drifted off back to sleep and he realized that he was half way towards climbing into bed with you and Momiji. The fit was already tight with two people; Yuki realized just how closely Kyo must have been holding you to fit on this bed. There wouldn’t have been an illusion of personal space, none at all.

But when you drifted off to sleep he suddenly felt a bit weightless and dizzy. Like when someone gets off an intense roller coaster. Yuki bent down gripping the foot of the bed as he also clenched at his heart. Whatever that was, whatever you had just said to him, had been intense. And even though it was fading fast Yuki still felt the desire to be on the bed as well. He actually felt exhausted the longer he lingered.

Yuki stood up as swiftly as he could. Before you had the chance to turn over and do whatever it was that you just did, Yuki got out of his room. He hated having to do what he was planning to do but he had no idea what else to do. Out of all of them, Shigure had seemed the least surprised that you could hug them. He also kept saying things like you were “back” instead of being surprised that you existed. Which meant that the dog might have a better understanding of what was happening compared to him.

____________________________
“Hmm,” Shigure mused as he sat at the table, a thoughtful look on his face.

Considering how excitable Shigure was and how worked up he had gotten before Yuki went to check on you, Yuki did not expect him to take this situation anywhere near as calmly as he was. Yuki had expected some perverted comment around how Yuki had seemed to lose control of his body. At the very least he thought Shigure would have been upset about Momiji and Kyo both being in bed with you. He hadn’t been happy that you would be in his room at all, Yuki would have thought that being in the same bed as teenage boys would have been worse. Yet somehow he didn’t seem to care about that at all. Maybe it was just something he hadn’t registered yet…

“Do you have any ideas as to why that happened?”

Shigure leaned his chin down as he spoke, “Normally, I would call Hatori to check with him for something as important as this. But Hatori has made his stance clear and I would rather Anita not feel like she needs to flee from the country.”

Yuki nodded. As much as he wanted to know what was going on there wasn’t too much that he could do. At least not while you were asleep. If they called Hatori and told him that you spoke in a foreign language that had somehow taken control of his body, Yuki had little doubt that it would get back to the god of the zodiac. Hatori was a good man but by the nature of his job he was close with Akito. With something as big as what had just happened Yuki couldn’t trust in Hatori’s usual discretion. And he knew that he wasn’t ready to see you off on a plane out of the country; and that was assuming you said goodbye to them to begin with. If you left he still wouldn’t have any answers to his questions. Which meant that it would be best till you woke up. That way he might be able to ask you directly. Still...something about your story from earlier made him doubt you knew anything. You had claimed that Hatori had taken any and all information about the family curse from your head before you left. Which had left holes in your memory that apparently your parents had helped to fill in recently. He also wanted to know why they had done that instead of in the further past. It was just another mystery to add to his growing list.

“Good thing I happen to know what might have happened,” Shigure continued with a knowing smile.

Yuki wanted to strangle him. But he resisted that urge. Instead he settled on glaring at his older cousin.

“What you have to understand is that Akito and Anita are two halves to the same coin. Together they are the central pin to our zodiac wheel,” Shigure explained, drawing on metaphors like the writer that he was. “Akito is the masculine side and Anita...well she’s quite feminine don’t you think?”

“What does this have to do with what happened?” Yuki cut in before Shigure got off track.

“I was getting to that. Like I was saying they are halves of the same coin. Akito is heads and Anita is tails. Akito consciously wields control over us. He can consciously manipulate the bonds, strengthening our ties to him. He is the head of the family, ruling our human sides. Anita is the unconscious manipulator. Our bonds grow stronger the longer we are around her.”

“And let me guess- she controls our zodiac sides,” Yuki interjected.

“Exactly. That’s why her hugs stop us from transforming. With the use of her affection, she keeps the beasts at bay as it were. But she does it unconsciously. It’s not something she can control. Her moods and state of being affects us when we’re around her.”

“That still doesn’t explain why I found Momiji and that useless cat in my bed.”

“Actually it does,” Shigure explained as he shifted his weight. “I don’t know about you but I feel tired and I only woke up a couple of hours ago.”

Yuki stayed quiet at that. Shigure was right. He did feel more drowsy than he should. Even before you had said whatever it was that had made him almost crawl into bed behind you, he had wanted to do just that. And not for any sexual deviant way like he suspected Shigure might, but just because he had felt tired. Which was ridiculous. It wasn’t even dinner time. But for you, who worked over night, it was your natural time to sleep.

“Kyo claimed he didn’t even know that he had been taking a nap,” Yuki pointed out.

Momiji he could understand. Slightly. The rabbit was always more childlike than he should be. He wouldn’t put it past him to take naps whenever possible. But that didn’t work with Kyo. While he didn’t necessarily like him, Yuki knew he wasn’t in the habit of passing out in random places. He was more disappointed than that.

“Did you know that the Vietnamese also use the zodiac?” Shigure spoke out in a musing tone, which as far as Yuki was concerned wasn’t appropriate given the situation. “In their mythology the cat is actually a part of the cycle; not just a creature that couldn’t make it to the god’s banquet. It replaces the rabbit, actually.”

That didn’t seem like something he would ever need to know. What made Shigure think that he needed to know about zodiac mythologies from other countries? It wasn’t like any of them were true; their family curse proved otherwise. While they were all cursed with animal forms, the cat had it the worst. Those who were possessed by the cat were practically a demon without the sealing beads. Why did he need to know that the Vietnamese had replaced the rabbit with the cat?

And then slowly the realization sunk in. Shigure had indirectly given him your age. If he was talking about the year of the rabbit after talking about you that might have meant that you were born in the year of the rabbit. Which made you 24 years old. It also meant that you would naturally have the strongest affinity with Momiji given that he was possessed by the Rabbit. If Shigure’s parallels with a different country's cycle was right...maybe that meant you were connected with the cat somehow too. That was a disturbing possibility.

“Yes, now you understand. Anita and Momiji will always share a special bond as long as they live. And it seems that maybe she and Kyo might as well, if he’s not mean to her,” Shigure said with what almost sounded like a happy tone.

Now that was something that Yuki did not understand in the least. Why would that make Shigure happy? Why wasn’t he jealous? Why wasn’t he more upset that you had been crammed into a bed with two other boys? It didn’t matter that one of them was Momiji, at least not completely. Even though he had expected the little rascal, Yuki hadn't exactly been fond of seeing how tightly Momiji cuddled against you to avoid falling off the bed. And as he reflected on that sensation, Yuki visually paused.

That was not the best way to be thinking. You were 24 years old; you might get in trouble even if he was the only one to express feelings. Not to mention the fact that he barely knew you. It had to be the bond like Shigure had been talking about. The bond was just so strong that he couldn’t help but feel a certain affection for you. You were kind, unlike Akito, so it was very natural to allow the bond to fill him up. Still…knowing that didn’t help to make him feel any less jealous.

“Hmm I suppose it’s a bit more potent this year, with it being the year of the rabbit and all. I remember when we were kids; even with our age difference the only one I ever wanted to play with in my year was her. There were times when the bond was so strong that I remember wanting to bite Aya for hogging her time,” Shigure laughed good naturedly which only served to confuse Yuki even more.

If the Trio knew you, and if Akito had kept you so close when you were young, why is it that he had only met you a short time ago? That hardly seemed fair - even if the world was unjust with the curse as it was. And from what he understood he would have been about five to six years old when you left. It would have been very nice to have known someone like you around that time. Even if you had been a child trapped by Akito’s whims too...you and he could have found solidarity in that.

“Why aren’t you bothered by the fact that she was in bed with the two of them?” Yuki asked as he stared across at Shigure.

“Oh Yuki, jealousy is just a sign of a lack of confidence. And I’m completely confident that Anita and I are meant to be. It was fate that brought her back and it was fate that brought her to my house. I don’t mind waiting until she’s ready to accept that.”

The words sounded wistful and confident all at once. It was definitely the tone one might expect from a fantasy romance writer. And Yuki looked positively unconvinced by it. For his part, Shigure didn’t completely mean it. The sooner you were awake and by his side the better he would feel.
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Like a Switch