BETTER OFF ALONE
A Fruits Basket Fanfic
Written by Miyu, Vampire Princess
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
On the heels of chapter 90 and 91 of the manga come my version of events on how
Kyoko and Katsuya came together. There are spoilers for Chapter 91 mixed into
this chapter. The story isn't exact, mind you, and it's told from Kyoko's POV.
Chapter 3 - Looking into the Future
My parents welcomed me home. Well, my mother did anyway. Father could've cared less that I existed. The only time he spoke to me was to yell at me. Why couldn't I do better? Why couldn't I apply myself? I went to school just to get away from him.
But I didn't attend classes. I even avoided Katsuya like the plague. And the gang...it was the same old, same old. Although dissension was only a little ways away.
"What's wrong with you, Katsunuma? Tired of fighting already?"
The fighting got worse. The bruises grew in number. I was frustrated with myself. Why couldn't I be someone else? Someone Katsuya could respect. Someone he could care for. Someone he could love.
I decided that I wanted to improve myself. That I was going to do it if it killed me. Father talked of sending me to high school. There was no talking him out of it. But, more and more, it sounded like...a good idea. I'd do it for myself.
I'd do it for Katsuya.
I studied on my own. My father hired a tutor. It seemed like an ungrateful existence. My father believed I was doing it for him. Gods how I wanted to tell him to his face just how wrong he was. But it was my drive to move further - the thought of one day getting away - that made me bust my ass that much harder.
It was lonely without Katsuya. I often wondered how he was. If he was happy. If he was thinking about me like I thought about him. I seemed to be slipping into this world of the unknown. The world of the undiscovered. It was kind of scary...life without Katsuya.
Then one day, he just appeared. Out of the blue. At the very spot where I fell into the river. I was passing by on my way to a meeting with my fellow yankees. He didn't seem surprised to see me. In fact, I think he was expecting me.
"Sensei?"
"Come with me," he said, standing and stepping away from the edge. He reached out his hand, offering it to me.
I accepted without hesitation. Well, I was a bit trepidatious. Is that the right word? I vaguely remember it from one of my classes. At any rate, I took his hand and let him lead me away. Away from everything. Away from those things, those people, I wished to escape.
We talked the entire time. Even on the bus, we loudly chatted and laughed. About nothing and everything. About what we'd been doing for the past month. I was surprised to learn that Katsuya had found a job. Not as a teacher, but at a pharmaceutical company.
"You're joking right?"
"I like research."
"But...what about teaching?"
He shrugged. "I don't think it's for me."
"Why not?"
"It's...not what I really want to do."
"Then why--?"
"My father."
"He made you become a teacher?" I found it a bit ludicrous after meeting the old man.
"He's influenced me for sure," Katsuya replied sadly. "But it's not my dream." He sighed. "He...just wouldn't understand."
But I understood. I understood the loneliness of empty dreams. Of wanting to be someone you're not.
"I want to be a better person," I told him proudly. "I'm...going to work hard. Go to high school."
"I can't picture you studying."
"And you look silly in glasses," I retorted.
He laughed...at least, I think it was a laugh. "Well then, how about I help you study?"
We'd meet on weekends. And I studied like a hellion. He made things seem so much easier compared to my tutor. I understood the way he explained the things. Understood the way things worked. And I worked hard to become the person I knew I could be. The exams were just days away.
Then dissension struck. I guess I had it coming. I didn't realize that I had already become a different person.
But my fellow gang members did.
"You want out? There's no easy way out, Kastunuma. You should know that."
"We make an example of you."
"Baka! Thinking you can change who you are."
"We humiliate you."
"You're gonna regret this some day."
Regret it? No. But the pain and humiliation they put me through. Gods! I felt fists and feet against my body. I tasted my own blood on my lips. I felt belts and whips against my back after I fell. Someone even had the gull to kick me in the ribs while I was down.
Well, it's not like I hadn't done it before.
I remember little from that night. It was so dark I could barely see. Yet when my eyes opened, everything was bright. Glaring white all around me.
I was in the hospital. I was unconscious for a good two days. They beat me pretty good and then some. I guess I was lucky to have survived.
Police came to get statements. Teachers from school stopped by to visit. They seemed much more concerned about me than they had while I was in class. Or maybe they were that much more concerned about me because I never realized that they cared more than I gave them credit for. Everyone came and went. Time came and went.
And I realized I'd missed the testing for my entrance exams.
I felt absolutely horrible. I worked so hard...and for what?! Katsuya would be so disappointed. I didn't want to see that look on his face. Ever! How could I ever face him again? He had to be angry with me. He just had to be....
I didn't see my parents until the day the doctors released me. After the paperwork was completed, I walked behind my parents into the main lobby of the building. I was surprised when my father stopped short of the front doors.
"This is it," he told me sternly. "Once we walk out those doors, you're on your own."
My mother seemed distressed and whispered cautiously, "Dear."
"You are no longer our daughter," my father stated in a loud voice. "Live as you like. I don't care."
"Dear--!"
"You've been nothing but trouble. You ARE trouble. But no trouble of ours. Not any more."
I stood with my mouth agape, trying to decide if I should've been elated or devastated by the news. Words formed in my head. Words that I'd wanted to say for a long time. But when I opened my mouth, it wasn't even my voice that spoke.
"Just because she's not as you wish her to be, she's not your child. You're saying that you will not accept her unless she can live without making a mistake. She's not like you, therefore she doesn't exist."
"Who the hell--?!"
"Sensei...."
It was indeed Katsuya, standing behind my father. He had this look of...seriousness...on his face. His words were calm, truthful, and yet he said then in such a manner that should've insulted even the highest moral person. I continued to stand agape, now uncertain where this conversation was going to lead.
My father was equally surprised. And flustered. "Now just hold on a minute! Who the hell do you think you are?! Meddling into other people's business!"
"I do wish we had met under different circumstances, but you are, nonetheless, the parents of the woman I want to marry."
"What?" I asked.
"Are you insane?" my father asked.
"Are you against it?" Katsuya asked.
Finally composing himself, my father waved a hand at me. "Do as you wish, just don't bring any trouble and it's fine."
I looked from my father, to Katsuya, to my mother - who was equally shocked by the news, even if she was smiling - then back at Katsuya. He nodded to my father, then extended a hand to me.
"We'll go then."
It wasn't until we were outside the hospital, a block away waiting for the bus that I asked, "How did you find me this time?"
"I was worried when you didn't show up Sunday morning. I called your house and your mother said you were being released from the hospital." He looked at me appraisingly. "I'm glad you're okay...although, I'm kind of surprised you'd be beaten so easily."
"It wasn't exactly easy," I muttered. It was silent then until I asked, "Were you serious?"
"About?"
"Wanting to marry me?"
"Quite."
"I...don't know what to say."
"Say yes."
"Why?"
"Because I love you."
I was taken aback by his quick confession. He said the words so easily. They formed on the tip of my tongue, ready to spring forth.
Then the bus pulled up.
"Will you marry me, Kyoko?" he asked as the bus door opened.
The only thing I could do was nod as he pulled me onto the bus behind him.
~TO BE CONITNUED~