Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/6640396.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Underage, Rape/Non-Con
  Category:
      M/M, F/M
  Fandom:
      Fruits_Basket
  Relationship:
      Sohma_Kyou/Sohma_Yuki, Sohma_Akito/_Sohma_Kyou, multiple_characters/Sohma
      Kyou, Sohma_Hatsuharu/Sohma_Kyou
  Character:
      Sohma_Kyou, Sohma_Akito, Sohma_Yuki
  Additional Tags:
      Feminine_Kyou, Kyou_has_long_hair, Uke_Kyou, Muteness, Mute_Kyou,
      Implied/Referenced_Child_Abuse, Child_Abuse, Kyou_has_had_his
      hotheadedness_beaten_out_of_him, Kyou_and_Kisa_cuteness, Kuteness?,
      Depressing, The_F/M_is_really_only_because_Kana_and_Hatori_are_together
      the_first_two_chapters
  Stats:
      Published: 2016-04-24 Updated: 2017-03-25 Chapters: 4/? Words: 8770
****** Silence is golden ******
by ScourgeFanatic101
Summary
     "Please!" The cat yowled desperately. "I did not mean to be late! I
     am sorry!" The cat bowed it's head close to the ground, eye's staying
     submissively low. "Is there anything I can do to make up for my
     mistake?" God's eye's lighted with opportunity.
     What if instead of being outcasted, the cat was eternally condemned
     to be God's slave?
***** Cat, got your tongue? *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
The cat ran into God's throne room, hours after the zodiac banquet had taken
place, huffing and panting, showing that he had ran a fair length in a very
short time. He nervously looked up at the god, expecting the worst.
"You are late, the banquet has been finished." God's voice boomed throughout
the room, anger swirling in their otherworldly eye's.
"Please!" The cat yowled desperately. "I did not mean to be late! I am
sorry!"The cat bowed it's head close to the ground, eye's staying submissively
low.
"Is there anything I can do to make up for my mistake?" Fear swelled within the
cat's heart, terrible things happened to those who opposed god, arguing that
the rat was at fault would not help him at all.
God's eye's flashed with opportunistic thoughts. "Very well, cat, you shall
from this moment be my eternal servant, to do as I order."
The cat's paws trembled in fear. "O-of course."
-x-Line-Break-x-
Soft cream coloured eyelids fluttered open, revealing brilliant ruby red eyes
lined with long, dark eyelashes.
Long, straight waves of shining orange hair shifted around the head as their
owner began to awaken. Slim legs bent and mildly muscled arms leaned on their
elbows to get out of their thin, patched up futon and rolled the rough and thin
blanket off of their body.
A mumbled groan left the mouth of a ten year old boy, wearing an oversized, old
dress shirt that was apparently used as sleeping wear. Leaning back, the boy
stretched his back as far as it would go, which was surprisingly far, sighing
when the tension left his spine with a few systematic pops.
Opening the small window next to his bed, the orange haired boy looked at the
sun's position to tell the time, sighing in relief. He hadn't woken up late
this time, quickly putting on the patched up pair of shorts that reached to his
knee's.
Taking off his sleeping shirt, the lean boy replaced it with a plain white long
sleeved shirt with a low reaching neckline, showing off his creamy skin and
neck, the shirt had a few small holes in it and was stitched and patched up in
places, but was otherwise wearing.
Fully dressed, the boy sat on his knee's and crawled over to a square outline
on the floor of the crawlspace that was called his room, running his hands over
a square outline in the floor before squeezing his fingertip's into it's edges
and pulling the trapdoor open, laying it next to him.
He easily jumped down to the floor under the trapdoor, landing quietly in a
crouch. He took a nearby broom and pulled and poked at the trapdoor above him
until it fitted back into the square outline.
Sighing, he set the broom back in it's place and brushed off the dust on his
shirt, frowning and scrunching up his sleeves as they tumbled off of his
shoulder's, leaving them bare to the world.
He really wished he could have a smaller shirt, this large one was just to
inconvenient. . .
-x-Line-Break-x-
The boy's name was Kyo, and he had the curse of the zodiac, along with several
other people who he shared. . .certain aspects of his life with.
He would not call them his family members or relatives, as they obviously
didn't want to be his family at all. For he was cursed by the spirit of the
cat, forever outcasting him to the rest of the zodiac.
Kyo huffed and lifted his chin up, acting like a shy pushover wouldn't make
them treat him any different, he kept a defiant and harsh look in his eye's and
walked along to begin his daily routine.
Unlike the average person, Kyo's 'Daily routine' didn't involve bathing or
eating first, it involved making sure the god of the zodiac and the rest of
it's members had awoken and eaten before him, because he was the cat and
therefore didn't deserve to eat before his betters had.
He arrived at the kitchen and asked the servants who were working in there if
any of the zodiac members had eaten yet, the servant said that none of the
zodiac members had come to the kitchen yet and Kyo nodded retrieving the cart
and the specific meals he was obligated to give out.
The servants of the compound treated him better than the rest did, because even
if he was the hated cat, no one wanted to be the first to discover how Akito
would punish the one who had hurt his 'toy'. So they treated him politely, but
not nicely, they treated him like a stranger who they had just met and nothing
more.
Akito had ordered for the cat to never wake him up, and to just leave his meal
beside his bed, and carry on waking up and giving meals to the zodiac members,
from the highest ranking to the lowest, in that order.
So he first went to the Rat's cage. To be honest, no matter how much hatred Kyo
held for the rat, he could never see why Akito treated him like this, whipping
him no matter if he did anything right or wrong, it just seemed unfair to the
cat.
But he would never say that to the rat's face, Kyo would bite his tongue off
before doing that. He unlocked the door to the Rat's cage and entered after
giving a short knock.
As usual, the rat was awake when he arrived, Kyo wondered if he slept at all,
but it didn't seem like an important enough question to ask.
"Good morning, Yuki-sama." He said, no matter how much it left a bad taste in
his mouth.
Kyo took out the plate of food that was made specifically for the rat and
placed it in front of him, lowering his head so that his red eye's didn't meet
the rat's purple ones.
Even if his pride knelled over and died for bowing at the rat, Akito had beat
him senseless the first time he had glared at the boy, and Kyo was fairly
certain that he couldn't look at the rat with any other expression.
Plus. . .he didn't want to see the rat's smugness at having the cat act this
way to him, he would not allow it.
The rat didn't thank him and Kyo left before he could say anything else.
-x-Line-Break-x-
The ox didn't live in the compound all of the time, so sometimes Kyo didn't
even have to bring him his meals, the ox would leave the compound to train
martial arts in a dojo that wasn't near the main house of the Sohma's.
Kyo wished that he could train in martial arts, but Akito had said he would
never be able to leave the main house, so having interests that lied outside of
it were pointless, and even if Kyo hated agreeing with the man, he couldn't
help but see the logic of it, even if Akito was the reason he couldn't leave
the main house.
But the ox was staying in the main house today, so Kyo went to his room next.
The ox's room was near the entrance to the main house, because the ox had a
terrible sense of direction and easily got lost in the large house, so it was
near the entrance and had the symbol for Ox written on it, just for it to be
harder to miss.
But even that didn't stop the ox from getting lost looking for his room. . .
The door to the Ox's room was a little roughed up, the door had little chips
here and there from being closed harshly, and the handle had little dents,
showing the physical strength the ox had.
Kyo knocked on the door before opening it and entering the room, which was
ridiculously messy, but it wasn't Kyo's job to clean it up so he ignored it,
stepping over the pieces of rubbish and discarded clothes here and there.
The Ox was snoring up a storm in his futon, and Kyo gently took hold of his
shoulder and shook it carefully, knowing how rough treatment could bring out
the Ox's 'black side'.
It had taken a week for Kyo to be able to do his job without assistance, and
that had made Akito very unhappy.
"Ngh?" The ox snorted and blearily opened up his eye's, rubbing his clenched
fists against his eye's to rub away their sleepiness. Kyo placed the food down
and took a few steps back, preparing a possibly angry ox to attack.
"Good morning, Hatsuharu-sama." He said, it wasn't nearly as upsetting as
saying it to the rat.
"Yeah, 'morning. Thanks for the food" He said without really doing anything but
sitting in his bed, his eye's bleary with sleepiness.
Kyo bowed his head before exited the room.
-x-Line-Break-x-
Next up was the tiger, who Kyo had a personal soft spot for. He could
understand how it felt to be abandoned by your family, plus it was just sad the
see a baby with no one but a ten year old there to take care of her.
He knocked on the door even if it's only inhabitant was an infant, muscle
memory, you might say.
He opened the door and walked towards the crib, holding the still warm bottle
of milk that he had taken from the cart.
The room wasn't decorated with the things you would usually expect for a baby
girl's room, it didn't have any toys or colourful paint on the walls. The only
things that inhabited the room were a baby's cot and a chair to sit in, not
even a lounge chair.
Picking the little baby girl up, he sat in the only chair in the room and sat
her down on his knee, she played with a piece of hair that fell over his
shoulder while he put the small squishy sipping thing onto the bottle(1).
She tucked into the bottle when he put it into her tiny hand's mouth wrapping
around the bottle's top.
Kyo cradled her for a moment as she drank her breakfast, feeling the small
amount of peace that he found every time he came to feed her. The birds outside
sang and tweeted as the sun rose up into the sky, the clouds painting a picture
across the sky.
Her mouth left the bottle with a pop and Kyo pulled his hair to the side and
over his shoulder before leaning Kisa over his other shoulder, beginning to
burp her.
Honestly, he would of cut his hair to a shorter length if Akito hadn't
forbidden it, Kyo still didn't understand why Akito wanted his hair to be long,
but he'd obviously get in trouble if he cut it, so it was out of the question.
He layed Kisa back into her crib and tucked the blanket back around her
snuggly, placing her teddy bear next to her and giving her one last smile
before leaving the room.
-x-Line-Break-x-
Momiji room was close to Hatsuharu's for a reason that Kyo didn't know, he
knocked the door and opened it, having to quickly balance the plate so that it
wouldn't fall when Momiji ran at the cat and hugged him tightly, giggling at
surprising the older boy.
"Momiji! I could've dropped your food if I wasn't careful!" Kyo scolded the
rabbit, glaring down at him, making the rabbit whine about how mean he was.
"Maybe I wouldn't be mean if you didn't act so stupid." Kyo huffed, placing
Momiji's food down onto the ground and lightly punching the rabbit in the arm,
bringing a squeel from the loud rabbit.
Kyo left quickly and scoffed as a slight smile made it's way onto his face.
Hatori's office was near Akito's, in case the god got sick, and Kyo had to walk
a fair way before he came to Hatori's door.
He knocked on the office door and entered, finding the Sohma doctor asleep at
his desk, Kana, Hatori's assistant smiled at him and held out her hand to take
Hatori's plate of food and placing it on her desk.
"Good morning, Kana-san." Kyo bowed slightly to the sleepy young woman and
passed her, to shake the doctor awake, only to be stopped by an abnormally
gentle hand on his shoulder.
"He's been awake all night, I'll wake him up if it's important." Kyo was never
prepared for Kana's smiles, no one had ever smiled at him like that before she
had.
"Okay, Kana-san, I will take my leave" Kyo slightly bowed to her and left the
room, taking the cart with him.
-x-Line-Break-x-
Kyo didn't want to go and give Ayame his food, the snake was weird and kept on
picking him up and squeezing him with hugs all the time, but he was obligated
to get him his food so it wasn't his choice to make.
He knocked on the snakes door and entered, checking to see if he was still
asleep or not.
Unfortunately, he wasn't, so Kyo couldn't wake him up leave him his food and
quickly escape like he wanted to.
"Oh! Kyo-Chan! Did you have a bad dream? Do you need me to help you feel
better?!" The snake yelled out dramatically and picked Kyo up by grabbing under
his armpits, swinging him around easily.
"Ah, ah! No! Ayame-sama, I have your food!" Kyo shrieked out, his head
spinning, and as Ayame put him down he dizzily handed the plate over to the
snake, leaning against Ayame's bed frame for support.
"Oh, thank you, little Kyo-Chan, did you come all this way just to give me
food, how sweet!" Ayame yelled out as he placed it on his bedside table,
getting ready to pick up and swing Kyo around again..
"Yes, well, I should be going. . !" Kyo quickly bowed and rushed out of the
room, narrowly missing another of the snakes crushing hugs.
-x-Line-Break-x-
Rin, Hiro and Ritsu weren't staying in the main house today, so he went
directly to Kureno's room, which was closer to Akito's room than any of the
other zodiac members, but Kyo didn't know why Akito wanted his room closer than
the others were.
He unlocked the door and knocked on it before entering, seeing Kureno still
asleep in his bed, so he put the plate of food on the table next to his bed and
climbed up onto the older boys bed, shaking his shoulder and saying his name.
"Muuuhh?. . ." Kyo always thought the sounds people made when they woke up were
weird, especially because he woke up people every day and had a lot of
examples.
"Good morning, Kureno-sama, I have brought you your food." The sleepy rooster
looked as if he was barely listening, the sleepiness in his eyes staying there.
But he seemed to hear when Kyo said 'food' and smiled and put his hand on Kyo's
head, scratching him behind his ear in gratitude, causing a purr to come from
the embarrassed Kyo.
"Thanks, nekyo-chan"(2) Kureno immediately started shovelling food into his
mouth, paying attention to nothing but the food.
Kyo left the room without Kureno noticing, but that wasn't saying much when it
came to Kureno's sense of awareness.
-x-Line-Break-x-
Neither Shigure nor Kagura were staying in the main house today, so Kyo went to
give the cart back to the kitchen staff, looking out of the windows into the
sky as he did, he hadn't been outside a lot and the small window in his 'room'
didn't look down on anything but the garbage bins out the back of the main
house, so he liked to take advantage of the view when he could.
He stopped for a little and looked out of an opened door, hearing the birds
sing and the leafs floating through the air, the sight nearly brought tears to
Kyo's eyes, but he quickly brushed them away, even if the sight was beautiful
he wasn't so emotional that it would bring him to tears.
Kyo sighed and took his meal out of the cart, Akito had never said he couldn't
eat outside of his room, and he was very hungry after walking around for so
long without eating.
He ate his rice and the pieces of veggies and meat that came along with it,
putting the empty dish back in the cart before getting up and continuing to
walk towards the kitchen.
But once he was nearly there someone bumped into him really hard, pushing him
to the ground and leaving the other person's body over his.
"Hey! What are you doing running around like that!?" Kyo yelled before
thinking, only to look up at the person and see that it was the rat.
The rat was breathing harshly and his eye's were dilated in stress or fear, he
didn't even seem to see what was around him or who he had bumped into.
"H-hey, what's wrong with you. . .?" Kyo carefully crawled out from under the
rat and rolled the rat over so that his back was to the floor.
The rat's harsh breaths turned into choked coughs as he began hyperventilating,
his shaking hands going up to his throat, as if trying to break whatever was
clogging up his throat.
"Come on, calm down. . .!" Kyo hesitantly placed his hand onto the rat's
shoulder, softly squeezing. "You're not making this any easier for yourself. .
.!" Seeing no other option, Kyo wrapped his arms around the rat and hugged him,
shooshing him every now and then and making soothing noises that seemed to calm
down the rat, even if the cat inside of him yowled angrily at helping the
cheating rat.
After the rat's breathing became more stable and steady Kyo backed away from
him, seeing that the boy's eyes were still filled with stress and fear.
"What were you even running from? Aren't you supposed to be in your room?" Kyo
asked as a roaring yell coming from down the hall answered his question.
"YUKI, GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!" Akito came storming down the hall, viciously
pushing people out of his way as he came closer and closer towards the
terrified Yuki and the confused Kyo.
"Cat! Were you the one to take the rat from his cage!?" Akito demanded,
towering over the cowering rat and the confused and scared cat.
Kyo looked over to Yuki and saw that the rat was still scared out of his wits,
Akito harmed the rat on a regular basses, what the angry god do when he
actually had a reason to be angry at him? Kyo swallowed down his fear and stood
up, in front of Akito.
"Y-yes, I w-wanted to hurt the rat." Kyo shakily stated, fear swimming through
his eye's.
"YOU PATHETIC CAT!" Akito roared, violently backhanding the cat and kicking him
in the stomach as he curled up in pain.
"I COULD HAVE YOU LOCKED UP IN THE CAT'S HOUSE FOR THIS!" This quickly brought
Kyo up to his knee's, bowing deeply to Akito until his long hair fell over his
face and was splayed across the floor, tears forming and running down his eye's
and cheek's.
Akito wrenched Kyo up by the collar of his shirt and threw across to the other
wall, making him crash into a stand that had a vase, pushing the vase over and
making it smash into the floor, leaving Kyo with small shards of glass in his
back.
Even with the glass cutting into his knee's, Kyo scrambled over to Akito and
bowed his head down to ground, his shoulder's shaking in fear.
"No! Please, no! I'll do anything! Just please don't put me there!" Kyo begged
in fear. No matter how stubborn he was, he did not want to be locked up in the
place that the disobedient cats were sent.
"Anything, you say!?" Akito demanded, an idea forming in his twisted head, he
stormed over to the pile of shattered glass, picking up the sharpest piece with
a sleeve covered hand and walking back over to Kyo's hunched form.
"Look at me, you filthy cat." Kyo reluctantly lifted his head up and looked
Akito in the eyes.
Akito knelt down, brushing his hand against Kyo's pale, soft cheek that was wet
with his own tears. Suddenly he wrapped his hand's around Kyo's neck and
started strangling him, his other hand, the one with the glass shard in it,
reached farther back and swiftly slashed across Kyo's neck, making blood spray
onto Akito's robes.
The cat let out gurgled screams, the blood flowing out of his throat and into
his mouth distorting the screams sound and making him sound as if he were
drowning.
The god of the sohma family and rested his head on Kyo's shuddering shoulders
and his mouth lied near Kyo's ear, and began to speak.
"This is what you get for lying to me." Kyo's eye's widened, and he didn't have
enough time to react when Akito grabbed Yuki's arm and took a fist-full of
Kyo's long hair, dragging him by it, causing even more screams to come from
Kyo's blood filled mouth, leaving a trail of crimson blood flowing behind them.
It seemed like hours had passed before Akito stopped dragging him, he tossed
him against a door and slammed it open, only then did Kyo notice that it was
Hatori's office.
Hatori looked up to the door and his eye's widened at seeing the weeping and
bleeding cat laying at his door, with the sohma god and the rat, who was also
crying.
"Make sure this liar of a cat is taken care of for today." Akito sneered down
at the cat and dragged the rat off with him, leaving Kyo still sobbing and
bleeding.
Kana ran over and picked up the bleeding boy, trying to sooth him as she
carried him over to the operation table in the middle of the office. Hatori
quickly got the bandages, towels and stitching items to stop the boy from
bleeding.
Kyo couldn't stop himself from crying.
Chapter End Notes
     (1- Kyo's ten years old and hasn't had much education up to this
     point in his life, he doesn't know what a lot of words mean and one
     of them happens to be a baby bottle's teat. The only reason he's not
     that dumb right now is because of the stereotype that cat's are
     intelligent.
     (2- Neko in japanese means cat, I just thought Nekyo was a cute
     nickname for Kyo and wanted to put it into the story ^-^
     (So, I'm pretty sure that Hatori's office isn't connected to the main
     house, but it was just easier than saying "Oh, yeah kyo can go to
     that one specific place that isn't in the main house but only
     everyday making it easy for him to leave unnoticed". Soooo yeah :I
     Hi guys! I hope you liked my new fanfic! Sorry for hurting your
     favourite little kitten, but I just don't know any other way to
     write!
     P.S: Sorry for the horrifically cruel chapter title.
     Please favourite and review! Any criticism is appreciated!
***** Healing *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Flinching and whimpering as Hatori gently rubbed an antiseptic soaked cloth
over his throat, Kyo clenched his fingers around the edge of a blanket Kana had
given him. He sniffled when Kana put pressure onto his ribs and asked him if it
hurt, Kyo shook his head and directed his eye's down to his feet.
Currently there was a lot of blood around the room, the servants hadn't come to
clean it up yet. The was blood on a cloth Hatori had used to clean him up after
he had slowed the bleeding and there was a lot of blood on him and Kana, there
was also blood covering the floor that he had been carried over to the
operation table.
After Hatori had finally finished suturing up the deep cut over his throat, he
had began to disinfect it, so that it wouldn't get damaged any further.
His entire neck was throbbing with pain, every time he tried to move his head a
new wave of pain would throb through his throat and everywhere around it, the
disinfectant made it sting really bad too, he pulled the blanket tighter around
him and a few more tears slipped down his cheeks.
Then he felt a hand run through his hair, pushing his long hair away from his
forehead and soothing his head.
"Shhh. . .It's going to be okay." Kana murmured, petting his head as she looked
over the cuts on his back, dabbing antiseptic over the small ones and putting
bandages over the larger ones.
-x-Line-Break-x-
Kyo lied in the main house's infirmary that night, Hatori said it would be
easier to get to him if his wounds broke open. The small infirmary had four
beds and two small windows, it was right next to Hatori's office in case of an
emergency.
It was entirely quiet as Kyo tried to fall asleep in the infirmary's bed, the
pain in his throat keeping him awake. And because it was so quiet, he easily
heard the footsteps coming down the hallway, coming closer and closer towards
the infirmary's door.
Kyo wrapped the blanket tighter around himself and closed his eye's, pretending
to be asleep.
He heard the door slide open and the footsteps began to approach him, maybe it
was just a servant coming to clean the room up?
A hand landed on the side of his head and began stroking his hair, pushing
their fingers through the strands and running down to the end of his long hair.
The hand kept playing with his hair until it stopped and placed itself on his
cheek, pushing the hair away from the pale skin. What felt like lips landed
next to his right ear and Kyo subconsciously shivered.
"I know you're awake, little kitten." Akito's voice rang out and Kyo flinched
violently, shivering as tears began to run down his cheek's again. The thumb
brushed his tears away lightly, reminding Kyo of how violent they had been when
the god had slashed his throat open.
"Now, now. Why are you so afraid?" Akito whispered, bringing his tear-soaked
thumb up to his mouth and running his tongue against it, licking up the salty
tasting tears.
Kyo whimpered and clutched at his blankets, curling around the balled up
blankets, sniffles coming from the long haired boy.
Kyo shakily attempted to speak but all that came out were gurgled moans and
harsh intakes of breath, his throat aching from the effort.
Akito chuckled, reaching his hand down to brush his fingers across the fresh
stitches going across Kyo's neck, thumb putting pressure against the cut,
making a small amount of blood seep around Akito's thumb. A sob broke from Kyo
and was muffled around the god's thumb.
"Oh. . .does that hurt?" The older boy murmured and rubbed his cheek against
Kyo's smooth, pale one.
"I want you to know, every time you lie to me, I will hurt you." Akito crawled
onto the bed and hovered over the cat, his breath connecting to Kyo's aching
neck.
"I don't want to hurt you, but I will if you make me. I don't care if the rat
is higher than you. You will do as I say, even if it means going against my
little rat." He nuzzled his nose into the skin between Kyo's neck and shoulder,
bringing a shiver down the orange haired boy's spine as Akito's cheek brushed
against his injured neck.
"Okay?" Kyo could feel the frightening smile against his skin. He nodded
quickly, a stab of pain shooting through his neck as he did it, not wanting to
be punished again.
"Good." Akito got off of Kyo and got off the bed, once again standing next to
the cat.
"I will be taking my leave, now. Goodnight, cat." Giving the cat one last
deceptively gentle pet to the head, he left. Kyo stared at the bed next to him
and listened as the footsteps receded away from him, the god hummed a song as
he walked down the halls, Kyo listened as it faded away.
He tried to stay awake that night, just to make sure that the god didn't come
back. But, inevitably Kyo did fall asleep late into the night, his
consciousness fading into black.
-x-Line-Break-x-
Hatori sighed as he lit a cigarette and placed it in his mouth. He wasn't
especially close to the cat, but he couldn't help but feel sympathy for the
boy. Akito hadn't hurt anyone that bad in a while, and he had hoped that it
would stay that way. But, of course, Akito was unpredictable and would do what
he wanted to.
He had had to remove Kana's memories of the surgery, she had been scrubbing her
hands for hours, until blood began to come from them.
It wasn't up to him, Kana would have been changed forever if she remembered
such an event, he had sent Kana home early and cleaned up the blood himself.
Hatori could only imagine what the cat would experience when Akito visited his
room tonight.
Yes, Hatori knew that Akito would go see Kyo tonight, he was absolutely certain
of it, but what could he do that would make it better? Nothing, that's what.
The least he could do was make sure that cat was healed up in the morning.
-x-1-Week-Time-Skip-x-
Walking down the hallways, pushing along his food cart, Kyo looked down to his
new clothes. Akito had given him a brand new outfit, a clean shirt, although it
was still fairly oversized, an un-tattered pair of shorts and even a pair of
socks. He hadn't had so many clothes since he was a new-born baby! Akito had
said he didn't need shoes since he wasn't leaving the main house anyway, but
Kyo was surprised he had been given anything to begin with.
It had taken him a whole week to heal his bruised ribs and for his legs to feel
better, so he hadn't been feeding the zodiac members for a while, and the only
ones he saw daily were Hatori and Kana, and sometimes Akito, if he was in a
better mood, that is.
He first stopped headed over to Hatsuharu first, Akito had said he didn't need
to bring Yuki-Sama his meals any more, and Kyo could only reason that it was
because he had helped the boy.
Knocking on the door first, Kyo opened the door and took out Hatsuharu's meal
and carried it into the room.
Hatsuharu, uncharacteristically, was already awake when he opened the door,
sitting on his futon, his black and white hair still standing up in a bed head-
like manner. His room was also pretty clean for how messy it had been the last
time Kyo had brought him his meals.
Kyo bowed his head and placed the plate in front of Hatsuharu before starting
to get up out of his kneeling position. Only for a strong hand to wrap itself
around his wrist. He raised his crimson eye's up to meet greyish brown ones.
"Is it true?" The taller boy brashly asked, his eye's just as angry as they had
always been.
Kyo scrunched his eyebrow's in confusion, what was the boy asking him?
"Please, tell me it isn't true!" The boy yelled, his eye's burning.
Shaking his head, Kyo wondered how he could ask Hatsuharu what he meant. After
all, he couldn't speak any more.
"Tell me you can still talk! Tell me he didn't cut your throat open!" Hatsuharu
screamed, tears pricking at his blackening eye's.
Mouth tightening into a quivering frown, Kyo shook his head once again. He
really wished he could say that it wasn't true, but that wasn't possible any
more, was it? But, Kyo hadn't tried before, had he?
Opening his mouth, Kyo tried to speak.
"Urrhh huuuugh." Scrunching his eyebrow's down in frustration, Kyo tried again,
only for it to come out exactly the same, the only sounds that came out were
weird sounding breaths and sighs.
Hatsuharu let out a yell and hugged Kyo really tight, pinning his arm's to his
sides.
Kyo let Hatsuharu cry for a while, but he needed to bring the other zodiac
members their meals soon or else he would get in trouble.
So Kyo gently pushed Hatsuharu away and wiped away his tears, giving the cow a
smile before getting up and leaving the room.
-x-Line-Break-x-
He bumped into Kisa's mother on his way to give the baby girl her breakfast and
the uncaring woman told him that she would be feeding Kisa today. Kyo looked at
her for a little while longer and got out and handed her Kisa's milk,
disappointed that he wouldn't be able to see the girl today. (1)
So he headed for Momiji's room, the rabbit's room wasn't far from Kisa's room
and he got there in about five minutes.
He knocked on the door and entered, finding the blonde boy still sleeping in
his futon, a stuffed bear in his arm's.
Kyo walked over to Momiji and put his meal onto the floor before going over and
shaking the younger boy's shoulders.
Momiji's brown eye's opened and he blearily looked over to Kyo, rubbing his
closed hand's against his eye's to wipe away the sleep.
"Kyo?" The boy questioned before looking over to his meal. His eye's lit up and
he jumped over to the food before tucking in, thanking Kyo with a mouth full of
food. Cringing, Kyo brought up a fist and banged it onto Momiji's head,
motioning for the rabbit to eat with his mouth closed with a zipping motion to
his mouth. The rabbit pouted and whined as Kyo left the room.
Kyo knew that Hatori had eaten already, Kana had made him breakfast so Kyo
skipped over his room.
-x-Line-Break-x-
Frowning, almost pouting, Kyo let out a breath and knocked Ayame's door before
opening it and bringing the snake his food.
Strangely, the snake didn't pick him up and swing him around until he needed to
throw up this time, he just smiled at the cat and patted him on the head. Kyo
wondered if the snake had fallen on his head.
He looked down at his list and read that Isuzu, little Hiro and Ritsu weren't
staying in the main house today, so he skipped their room's and went towards
Kureno's room.
Unlocking it, Kyo knocked and picked up Kureno's food, walking into the room
and placing the food onto the floor.
Kureno was also already awake, weirdly enough, and smiled at Kyo airily, giving
him a hug that covered the kitten's whole body (Kureno was really big to Kyo!)
and ruffling his long hair, leaving a pouting NeKyo to weakly shove Kureno's
arms off of him and give him his plate of food.
Except, Kyo made a mistake and the plate went crashing to the ground, although
it didn't shatter, the sound shot through Kyo and he was suddenly hunched over
on the floor weeping, covering his head.
Kyo's frenzy only stopped when a gentle hand placed itself onto his head,
slightly ruffling his hair.
"It's okay, Kyo." Kureno said and he gently looked into Kyo's tear filled
eye's. In an instant, the rooster was hugging, patting his back to sooth him.
Kyo stayed in Kureno's arms crying for a whole hour.
Chapter End Notes
     (1-It's my headcanon that Kisa's mother didn't breastfeed her, I just
     feel like she wouldn't.
     I'd also like to credit snipits42 for helping me decide on a few
     things and giving me some inspiration.
     Please favourite and comment! Any criticism is appreciated.
***** Punishment *****
Chapter Summary
     Six years later, Kyo is still under Akito's rule.
Kneeling down on the ground, Kyo bowed low to Akito, knowing he wouldn't accept
anything else. His hair had grown considerably longer than it had been when he
was younger. Once it had only reached to his hips but now it swept low to the
backs of his knee's, even if it was hard to maintain Akito had objected to
cutting it to any length shorter than it was at the time, and because it was so
hard to maintain, Akito had allowed him to bathe everyday, something that he
had not been allowed to do when he was younger.
Akito had given him a variety of gifts through the years, such as giving him a
room that had a comfortable futon and larger windows, and allowing some of the
house servants to help in brushing his hair. He had also been given better
quality clothes.
His skin was still very pale, Akito had loosened his restriction on where Kyo
was allowed to go, but he still wasn't allowed to be outside of the main house
for a drawn out amount of time, definitely not enough to darken his skin
noticeably. Small arms and legs had grown longer, but Kyo was still very short
compared to the other males that lived in the main house.
But, even though his life had become considerably more comfortable, he had
nightmares most nights, he just couldn't forget the day when his throat had
been slashed open. And Akito would still punish him if he made a mistake,
ranging from leaving just a few bruises to sometimes breaking his bone's.
And so, there he was bowed to the ground, waiting for Akito's punishment. He
had managed to accidentally tear one of Akito's shirts while he was washing it,
and he had been caught before he could mend it.
Though his punishment's were usually very severe, depending on his mood, Kyo
noticed early on how he avoided giving the cat any scars, other than the one
curved against his throat, that is. The god would viciously beat the orangette
and would sometimes dislocate his joints but would make sure to not break his
skin.
"You know why I've ordered you here, yes?" The god's voice was deceptively
calm.
Kyo nodded his head with the little space between his head and the ground. It
didn't matter if he was being talked to, unless Akito-sama specifically stated
he was allowed to lift his head, he was to keep it down, it was disrespectful
to look at a god without their permission, even more so for someone of Kyo's
insignificance.
"And you admit to being at fault for destroying one of my belonging's?" There
was a harsh undertone to his voice this time.
The finger's of Kyo's right hand shifted slightly, flexing against the plaster
that had been placed on it. Kyo had had to use only one hand to wash Akito's
clothes, and when he was nearly finished, the shirt had snagged on a loose nail
in the washing basin. If Akito hadn't broken his arm a few days before, his
shirt wouldn't have been torn.
Kyo nodded again, his tongue pushing against the roof of his mouth in
annoyance, bitterness.
"Well, it's good that you can acknowledge when you have done wrong. . ." Akito
trailed off, getting up and reducing the space between them, grabbing at Kyo's
chin and lifting his head upward, not stopping until Kyo was sitting in the
Seiza style. Kyo tensed but kept his face blank, it was just as likely for
Akito to embrace him as it was for the god to start strangling him.
Akito, with contradicting softness, cupped Kyo's left cheek in his right hand
and petted the top of his head gently, the look in his eye's impossible to read
and sighed, almost sadly, "I'm still going to have to punish you." Swiftly,
Akito's foot came slamming down on Kyo's right hand and it's cast, smashing it
to bits and snapping Kyo's right arm's almost healed bone.
Kyo shrieked out silently, his eye's widening and letting out all the air in
his lung's. Chuckling with a sadistic grin upon his face, Akito pushed all his
weight onto his left leg and watched as Kyo tried to scramble backwards,
pulling at his re-broken arm in hopes of lessening the pain. Finally, Akito let
Kyo remove his arm from under the limb, and dragged the smaller boy against his
chest, in a mockery of a loving embrace.
Heavy tears drew their way down Kyo's cheeks and he silently sobbed as his god
shushed him, one hand carding through the boy's long, orange hair.
"Shh, shh, it's alright. I forgive you, you won't be punished anymore. Have you
learned your lesson?" Grey eyes stared deep down into crimson ones, lined with
tears and dark eyelashes.
Shakily nodding, Kyo tried to pull his newly broken arm from in between his and
Akito's bodies, and gaining another sharp shock of pain, a gasp leaving his
rosy pink lip's.
Akito tutted, looking down at the injured arm as if it had interrupted his
play-time, "You must have Hatori look at that for you, we wouldn't want you to
need a hospital visit, now would we?" It was important that no Sohmas were ever
admitted to a public hospital, since a majority of their injuries were
definitive proof of Akito's abuse. Plus, Akito just didn't want any outsiders
to look upon his precious kitten, Akito had 'Punished' others for much less.
The taller man helped Kyo up and led him to the room's door, opening it for him
and wrapping his arm's around Kyo's hips, hunching over to lean his chin
against Kyo's shuddering shoulder.
His breath heating up Kyo's shoulder, Akito said, "Remember to pay close
attention when you are doing your chores, Kyo-chan." And returned to his room,
closing the door behind him.
Kyo gasped in breaths and couldn't help but let a few more tear's trace down
his pale cheek's. And, even though a large part of him held anger and hatred
towards his 'Master', there was still a quivering part in the back of his mind
that shivered and fear and felt bad for failing his 'Master'.
Why did he have to be so careless?
-x-Line-Break-x-
Sitting on Hatori's examination table, Kyo watched as the doctor tightly
wrapped the bandages around the splint, although Hatori knew a cast would help
much more in keeping the boy's bone straight, he also acknowledged that Akito
was likely to break it again sooner or later, and the shards of broken plaster
hadn't helped Kyo in any way.
The doctor finished up on Kyo's arm and gently placed it on the orange haired
boy's lap. Tiredly he gave Kyo a small container of painkillers, enough to
lessen the ache considerably, but not enough the overdose on. Although he
wouldn't expect it of Kyo, other cats in the past had used very creative means
in escaping their servitude to the god.
Silence filled the room between the dragon and the cat, only being interrupted
by the soft sounds of bandages being wrapping around Kyo's arm. Kyo lifted his
unbroken arm and placed it on top of Hatori's two hands, passing a small piece
of paper to them.
"This is never going to end, is it?" The cat's eye's, when he was younger, were
a vibrant red, shining like fire. Now they reminded him of a dulled ruby, that
had been cracked and repaired too many times to keep it's original shine.
Purple met Crimson, both tired of the world they lived in.
"That's a very good question" Hatori stated, before returning to his task of
wrapping up Kyo's arm.
-x-Line-Break-x-
One would think with his nearly healed arm being broken again, Kyo would be
allowed a few days of reprieve. But Akito had chuckled and sent him to retrieve
his food cart, answering his unasked question immediately.
Still, it was nice to see his. . .Peers? Friends?. . .
. . .Family?. . .
It was nice to see Kisa at least, although she was seven now, she still enjoyed
sitting on Kyo's lap as she ate, and a small piece of Kyo's jaded and broken
heart ached with endearment for her. He hugged her from behind and hid his
tired eye's in the top of her head.
Just because he felt bad didn't mean she had to too.
He petted her on the head as he left and she waved at him with her tiny arm's
until he passed a corner and she could no longer see him.
-x-Line-Break-x-
Hiro was at the main house today to visit Kisa, which he found absolutely
adorable. He petted the ram's fluffy hair and handed him his meal in the
hallway where he ran into him.
Although Hiro was very stubborn with him, unhappy with how much affection Kisa
felt for the cat, Hiro never was truly hostile with Kyo, possibly because Kyo
showed just as much affection to Kisa as he did with Hiro.
The ram puffed out his cheeks in frustration as a blush covered his face,
making Kyo give a silent giggle and a quick, but careful with his arm, hug to
the younger boy.
As he pushed his food cart away with him, he felt Hiro stare at his wrapped up
arm but easily ignored it. The boy didn't need to focus on the problem's of
someone like him.
Walking through the halls, Kyo came across the sound of rattling plates ahead
of him and, as he turned the corner, he saw a woman carrying a large stack of
plates about to fall over, the plates had already fallen with a crash and
shattered across the floor and the woman was about to fall onto the shards.
In the blink of an eye, Kyo had crossed the hall without regard for his bare
feet, slicing them open, he tackled the woman to the ground opposite the pile
of broken plates. Unfortunately, as the fell, the woman had wrapped her arm's
around Kyo, to try and balance herself.
The result was the sound of a woman screaming from the fall and a hallway full
of bright orange smoke. Kyo shook his head as the dizziness faded from him and
quickly realised how much bigger the world had gotten in his perspective.
A silent sigh left the literal orange cat, his tail whipping in annoyance.
'Oh well," He though, 'at least I stopped her from being injured' Although the
stinging from his feet was definitely catching up to him.
"And what might be going on here?" Asked a terribly familiar voice.
Kyo looked up and his ear's flattened sadly when his eye's picked up two Grey
eye's obviously filled with curious anger.
'Or maybe not. . .'
***** A taste of freedom approaching *****
Chapter Summary
     An accident causes Akito to abuse someong for no reason, what a
     surprise! Also Rin wants to take Kyo on a fun night.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Chapter 4
Kyo didn't like it when Akito held him, in human or cat form, really. There was
just a feeling to it, like Kyo was just a pet to Akito, not a living person.
But he definitely hated it more when Akito held him in his cat form, the god's
arms wrapped around him, almost engulfing his whole body, the way he would
stroke Kyo's body without consent and press the cat's body against his chest,
keeping his hand's on the softest parts of Kyo's fur.
Obviously, it wasn't like Kyo didn't expect these kinds of things from the god,
but that definitely didn't help to make him comfortable with the situation, or
less afraid that Akito would take advantage of Kyo's even more so weakened
state.
Kyo didn't feel safe with Akito holding him while he was this vulnerable, Akito
had proven again and again how unstable he truly was and if he so wanted he
could just wrap his whole hand around Kyo's small head and-
It didn't help that his bandages had slipped off of him when his form had
changed, his broken leg (Arm?) aching without the splint's support and every
time Akito (Deliberately?) shifted his shoulder's or arm's a jolt of pain would
spark through the mute cat's leg.
Akito sighed resignedly "I might as well keep you with me until you shift back,
we wouldn't want anyone taking advantage of you like that woman had, would we?"
The god asked rhetorically, spitting out the would woman as if it were some
kind of poison.
Unnerved with the fact that he would have to spend more time around Akito, Kyo
worried about how the servant girl he had saved was, she had been left in a
very bad state when Akito had finally stopped and had taken Kyo with him as he
left.
(Flashback)
The sounds of closed fists meeting flesh filled the room as Akito hit and
kicked at the sobbing girl, who had curled up into a ball to protect her belly
and head. Kyo nudged at Akito's leg, trying to distract him from assaulting the
poor girl, but the god wouldn't let up on his attack.
"Please, please! I wasn't trying to do anything! He just caught me as I fell!"
The girl screamed out, sobs wracking through her body.
"You dare to lie in front of your god!?" Akito roared, his kicks increasing in
violence. "TELL THE TRUTH! YOU WERE MEANING TO TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME, WEREN'T
YOU!? LEAVING HIM IN A SUCH A FORM SO THAT HE WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO FIGHT YOU
OFF!"
When Akito had finally finished assaulting the girl, he easily picked Kyo up
and walked away as if nothing had happened, brushing stray marks of blood off
of his clothes.
Kyo attempted to look over Akito's shoulder to see if the girl was alright, or
at least being tended to by some of the other servants that had been drawn to
the scene by the girl's screams and Akito's yelling, but Akito pressed him so
hard against his chest that he could barely move.
(Flashback end)
For the rest of the day Kyo sat in Akito's lap, the god running his hand's over
the soft, orange fur until, with a cloud of orange smoke, Kyo's human form
reappeared. From that point Kyo was forced to lay upon the ground next to Akito
with his head layed upon the god's lap, nimble hands absently running through
his long hair.
-x-Line-Break-x-
One would think that having his feet cut open would bring some sympathy from
Akito, but Kyo's work continued.
Some days were different to others, sometimes Hiro would be playing with Kisa
when Kyo came to give them their meals, and Kyo would be blessed with the sight
of the tiger hugging the furiously blushing ram, and Kyo couldn't hold back an
affectionate hug for both of them, Hiro protesting hotly before resigning
himself to the affection of both ginger haired felines.
Ritsu would visit from time to time and Kyo would make sure to never break
anything around him- The monkey apologised enough already -while also being as
affectionate as he could be with the jittery one.
Kagura was still much too affectionate for even Kyo, but the cat didn't have
the heart to refuse the glomps (As they were too energetic to be called hugs).
Rin would come whenever Kagura was around, and while they were all a little too
verbally quiet for each other, Kureno had been able to teach Kyo how to whistle
certain tunes, which he had used to gather their attention.
Rin would also bring around small gifts for Kyo whenever she saw him, and while
they weren't entirely his taste of style, Kyo had been fascinated with the
studded black leather bracelets and would wear one on his wrist whenever he had
to wear any of Akito's long sleeved kimonos that made him look like a China
doll, giving him a small rebellion when everything else was chosen for him.
One night, Kyo had been woken up by a knock to his door. Confused by this- Only
Akito ever woke him at night and he NEVER knocked -Kyo got out of his futon and
opened the door.
He was surprised to find Rin standing at his doorway, almost blending in with
the night with her dark hair and clothes.
"Hey," She greeted him in a half whisper, "I'm going out tonight, wanna come?"
Considering Kyo hadn't left the Sohma main house since his father had dumped
him there, Kyo didn't necessarily know what 'going out' entailed, but any
chance to leave this place was appreciated and used eagerly.
So, Kyo nodded.
Grinning, Rin shoved a bag of modern clothes (1) into his arm's, Rin kept watch
at the door as Kyo hurriedly changed.
The clothes in the bag included a long sleeved black shirt with a V-neck, a
pair of dark grey jeans that had seemingly intentional tears at the thighs, a
black belt with silver studs, a black paper boy hat, knee length black combat
boots and a thick black hair tie.
Kyo quickly got dressed, tucking the jeans into the boots and tying his long
hair into a low ponytail before slipping the paper boy hat on, absentmindedly
slipping on the studded wristband before tapping Rin on the shoulder.
The identically long haired girl gave Kyo a quick once over before giving him a
bright smile.
"You look good!" She half-whispered, "Sorry I couldn't find anything more your
style."
Kyo gave her a smile and hugged her, throwing his thumb's up, "It's alright! I
like it." The actions stated.
"Alright, let's go!" Rin exclaimed, grabbing Kyo's wrist and running to her
room, which had a window already open for escape. Rin slipped through the
window first and helped Kyo get across the banister.
A car was parked close to the Compound's entrance, Hatsuharu and Kagura sitting
in the back. Rin opened the passenger door for Kyo and ran to the other side,
slipping into the driver's seat.
Haru was dressed in his usual brown soft-edged coat with black clothes
underneath and Kagura was wearing a cute ruffled black shirt and a black skirt
with stockings underneath. Both gave him a smile, Haru's a little more laid
back than Kagura's perky one.
Rin gave a devilish grin to Kyo as she'd started the car, shouting "Let's get
this shit started!" As she drove them to their destination.
Chapter End Notes
     1-Being basically raised around VERY old fashioned clothes and
     buildings has made Kyo a little uneducated about modern things like
     electronics, clothes and certain other things, because the story will
     mostly be in the Sohma compound, I thought I might as well mention
     it. Also tells you that this isn't and Edo-Period AU.
     Hey guys! Thanks for all of the comments I've been getting, you guys
     are the frickin' best!
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