Marvel
-Avengers Soulmate Colours Book 1
-Avengers Soulmate Colours Book 2
-The Art of the Tattoo
-Project 1940s- IN PROGRESS
-Pumpkin part 1 part 2
-Pumpkin Shorts -NOT STARTED
-Snow
-Undercover Sex Slave Part 1 Part 2
-Undercover Family -NOT STARTED
-Unspeakable
-Threads of Fate -IN PROGRESS
Request by harvesting_time: If you're still taking requests I would love something with Jack Hodgins from Bones! Fem reader please, I don't have any specific wants from it I am just starved for content for him!
Person(s): Jack Hodgins
Tags: 18+readersonly, sweet names, sex
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"Jack do you think you could take a look at this when you get a chance?" You asked, carrying in a large tank of beetles that Temperance had told you to take to Jack.
"Well hey Babe." Jack said with a smile, turning in his rolling chair to look at you, before his eyes dropped to the tank in your hands, "Well, well, you always bring me the best presents." He reached out, taking the tank out of your hands and gently setting it down on an empty metal counter, bending over to peer inside.
Jack leaned in closer, bracing one hand on the counter as he adjusted the lamp over the tank. The light caught the glossy shells inside, and his grin widened instantly with boyish joy.
"Oh, these are gorgeous," he murmured, already halfway gone into his own world. "Look at that elytra- see the iridescence? That's not just for show, you know. Structural coloration. Light refracting through microscopic layers. Nature's version of nanotech."
He gestured for you to come closer, already reaching for a pair of tweezers. "Come here, you've gotta see this up close."
You stepped beside him, leaning slightly over the tank as he carefully nudged one of the beetles onto a small tray. You had never been quite the fan of bugs, definitely not like Jack, but you didn't hate them quite enough to back away. It clicked softly against the metal, legs scrambling for a moment before settling.
"This," Jack said, lowering his voice like he was introducing royalty, "is a Buprestidae. Jewel beetle. Probably Chrysochroa genus if I had to guess, but I'd want a scope to be sure." He glanced at you briefly, eyes bright. "And yes, I will be getting a scope."
You laughed at that, ruffling his hair. "Alright, well you have fun with that."
"Leaving so soon?" Jack asked, looking up at you in surprise, "But you just got here." He straightened up, placing his hands lightly on your hips, pulling you closer with a mischeivous smile.
"Jack!" You scoffed your laugh, rolling your eyes as you smiled at him, "We're both on the clock."
"I mean, I have a lunch break in. . ." He checked his watch, "Now." He kissed your lips lightly and you closed your eyes, letting him and basking in it for a moment before pulling away gently.
"But I am not." You said, extracting yourself from his arms, brushing down your FBI uniform.
"You haven't eaten yet?" Jack asked in a stern voice and you realized you had been caught in a trap.
You tried not to smile as you crossed your arms and looked sternly at him, but the smile crept onto your lips and you gave it up with a laugh, "Alright, alright. But Jack, I am not doing this in public and I am not doing this in the car."
Jack grinned, standing up and taking your hand, "Don't worry, I know a very nice place."
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"You're kidding right?" You nearly choked out as Jack showed you exactly where you were going, "Isn't this like. . . the bed Cleopatara slept on?"
"The exact same one." Jack said, kicking his shoes off and tossing his white lab coat onto an old antique chair with a tag that said it had once belonged to the first Queen of England.
"Jack we can't. . ." You looked around nervously, not spotting any cameras or people, "This is ancient-"
"Well I've always tried to treat you like a Queen." Jack laughed, pulling you closer to him as he sat down on the edge of the bed. "Sooooo." You couldn't help but laugh at that too, running your hands through his curly hair.
"I cannot believe you want to make love on the same bed Cleopatara slept with her younger brother in." You sighed, but relented, kicking off your own shoes and neatly folding up your FBI jacket.
"So you know your history." Jack grinned, and was clearly pleasantly surprised.
"Oh of course I do." You laughed, climbing up onto the bed behind him, wrapping your arms around his neck, your fingers undoing his top button. "Cleopatra married her youngest brother Ptolemy XIII first and then later Ptolemy XIV. But Cleopatra was in love with first Julius Caesar and then Mark Antony. So really, we're going to make love on a bed that had many, many relationships in it."
"I guess we should adds ours to the mix then." Jack said, tossing his shirt off before turning and kissing you passionately, his hands carressing your face as he slid his fingers into your hair.
Cleopatara was quite firmly driven out of your mind as he lifted the white shirt you had been wearing underneath your blazer off, before unbuttoning your bra. "Lace under the uniform?" Jack teased, tossing the bra to the floor. "Naughty. . . I think you wanted this to happen."
You just laughed, yanking his belt out of his loops, wrapping it around the back of his neck, pulling him down to kiss you. He laughed against your lips, his hands sliding under your body to press against your back. "Is that how we're playing babe?" He grinned, his hand wrapping around yours, tossing the belt to the floor. "Cause you know I enjoy a good game."
"Liar." You teased, "I can never get you to help with my crossword puzzles."
"Liar." He teased right back. "You hate when I help you with your crossword puzzles."
"Well you're such a know-it-all ah~" You squealed as he attacked your neck with kisses, his hands sliding down your body in exploration. He chuckled before kissing your lips again and then lifting your hips in his hands.
"What do you want from me babe?" Jack asked softly. "I can warm you up-"
"Oh just fuck me Jack. You've been edging me for years." You replied dramatically, tossing an arm across your face.
"My little drama queen." Jack replied with amusement before fully seating himself inside of you. All of your sarcasm and teasing went out the window. Your arm fell away from your face as it contorted in pleasure, and you let out a soft moan of desire. "And there's my lovely wife." He murmured, still teasing.
Words fell out of your head, no longer wanting anything more than the pleasure Jack was giving you. You ran your hands up his arms, which were caging you in as he rolled his hips slowly, yet firmly. You gripped his shoulders as you tossed your head back, before pulling him down to you so that you could kiss him again.
This kiss had none of the soft teasing as all the other ones. This one was a fight of tongue, grappling with each other as he started to speed up his thrusts.
"I love you." Jack breathed out, one hand cupping your breast, squeezing lightly so that your eyes rolled into the back of your head. "How about you cum for me beautiful?"
"Yes~" You whispered in a daze, squeezing your legs tightly around his waist. It wasn't long before you were finishing, pussy spasming around his cock. Jack finished, hot liquid inside of you before he pulled out gently, chuckling.
"Well," He grinned, tilting his head a little. "For all my genius. . . I forgot a washcloth."
You laughed, your head thumping back against the pillow as you caught your breath, punching him lightly in the shoulder. "Idiot."
Request by Anonymous: Hey darling, may I remain anonymous?When you have time, could you maybe make a Canon of Benjamin and Tia from Breaking, then part 2, where they first live with Amun and argue in the hallway because he hardly shows her any love in bed, and then less than 10 minutes later in the hallway... have fun, if you know what I mean. He satisfied her upstairs to hesitate.He gave her Arabic nicknames like "Habiti" or "my heart" etc.
She's not only aroused by the nicknames, but also by the fact that he caresses her and tries out more than one position on her.And that they do it in the hallway.
I know that's a lot, but it would be an insight into their lives before or after Breaking Dawn Part 2 and Forks.Thank you, have a nice day.
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Benjamin looked over at Tia as she lounged on the couch on the other side of the room, reading a book whose front cover he couldn't see at the moment. The light was coming through the window at just the right angle to illuminate her figure behind her, without actually touching her skin to sparkle.
Amun and his wife were out at the moment, leaving it as just the two of them in the house. Benjamin was supposed to be practicing his abilities, but he was distracted by Tias' demeanor. She was off with him about something. Had been for a couple of weeks but he simply hadn't been able to talk to her about it because he didn't want to discuss it when Amun was around.
Still. . .
He watched his hand intently, focusing on bringing four flames up onto his fingers, before hearing the sound of Tia vamping (neither a walk nor a run, but rather a move at almost the speed of teleportation for humans) from the room.
He frowned, getting up at a human speed, walking over to the door. He glanced at the book she had been reading, whose cover read 'God of Fury' by Rina Kent. He'd never heard of it before.
He found Tia in the hallway, changing the arrangement of flowers that was on the table there.
"Tia, is there something wrong?" Benjamin asked before he really thought about it.
Tia's red eyes flashed at him and she crossed her arms over her chest. But reading her body language, he realized she wasn't angry, but instead embarrassed.
Tia looked at her husband, standing in the darkened husband though she could see him clearly. Amun hated electricity, everything in the house was run with candles and natural light. Not that it mattered any. The shadows simply added to his person.
She was not angry with him, and she didn't want him to perceive that as the case. But she was. . . desperate. . . and all the more because she didn't know how to tell him.
"Not wrong." She mused out loud, quietly. "Just. . . unsatisfied."
"With what?" Benjamin asked, coming closer. "Habiti, tell me what it is and I shall accomplish it till you are satisfied."
Tia felt a small smile tug at her lips. "No, Benji it's. . . I want you to be more passionate. I want you to love me more in the bedroom."
"What?!" He asked, clearly surprised by her request, "My heart, have I not shown you that I love you?"
Tia stepped closer to him in the dim hallway, the candlelight flickering against the walls behind her. "You have," she said softly. "But you are careful with me. Always careful. As if I might break."
Benjamin frowned faintly. "You are precious."
"I am a vampire," she replied dryly. That earned the faintest twitch at the corner of his mouth, but it vanished just as quickly. His expression shifted into something more serious, becoming thoughtful.
"You think I hold back," he said quietly.
"I know you do." Tia said, though she wasn't accusing him. It was something she just knew deep down inside of her. "You are fire and wind and earth when you train. You bend the elements like they are extensions of your hands. But with me..." She exhaled slowly. "You are restrained."
She noted the darkening of his eyes as he looked away. His thoughts turned to the training she brought up. He had always been aware of his strength. Amun had drilled control into him relentlessly- power without discipline was dangerous. And Benjamin possessed more power than most. He was aware of that, always had been. Was Tia right then?
"I do not wish to hurt you," he said.
Tia raised an eyebrow at him, "Once again Benji, I am a vampire." She smiled a little. "You seem to think I'm still human."
Perhaps that was true. He wasn't sure now.
"You want passion," he murmured.
"Yes." She replied simply.
"You want me to stop thinking."
"I want you to stop hesitating."
The building, which was normally quiet no matter what, suddenly seemed vastly empty.
"You have always had my heart," he murmured, suddenly in front of her, the space gone between them. "Do not mistake restraint for indifference."
And then he was kissing her. In a way that he had never done so before. The force of his lips against hers was fierce and had she been human, it would have taken her breath away completely.
Her hands reached for him, to slide into his hair, but they were suddenly held in his iron grip, her arms above her head with her back to the wall. She heard the wood creak behind her and smiled against his lips.
Benjamin, feeling her lips curve against his, felt emboldened, lifting her up against the wall. Her legs immediatly wrapped around his waist, pulling her to him in a clingy, desperate way. He let go of everything he had been holding back.
"Hope you didn't like that dress." He breathed, the dress in question on the ground in scraps.
Tia didn't answer, just smiling at him with a glow in her red eyes. He dug his hands into her hips as he kicked off his own clothes, keeping her wrapped around him before pluging into her, pressing her tighter against the wall so one his hands could creep up and wrap around her throat. It was for exaggeration, for play, but Tia rolled her eyes back in her head anyways, giving out a low moan as though he was really restricting her airway.
"Do you like all of this Habiti?" Benjamin asked, both in teasing and both for that reassurance he needed. This was fun, but it was unusual and they had never done this before.
"I love all of this Benji." Tia breathed, wrapping her arms around his neck, their mouths clashing together again. Her lips trailed down his face and neck before she whispered against his ear, "But I know you can go harder."
Benjamin grinned against her skin and she was on the floor in seconds, her back against the plush Egyptian rug that Kebi had furnished the hallway with just last month. She wrapped a leg around his waist, though he didn't need the urging as he fucked into her hard and fast, at a pace he had never gone before in their relationship.
Out of habit, Tia passed the back of her hand over her mouth, as if she could stop the noises leaving her mouth. Benjamin grabbed her wrist in his, pinning it to the ground under her. "Oh absolutely not Habibi." He whispered, almost a pant against her chest. "You're going to scream before I'm done with you."
Had she had a heart, it would've done flips. As it was, something in her stomach turned and her release washed over her in a powerful way. Benjamin chuckled softly, running his tongue across her skin. She tasted like everything in the Egyptian air and a little bit of her own unique taste, something to do with hibiscus and jasmine.
"Benji~" Tia choked out, tightening her leg around his waist.
"Ahh Habibi, already?" Benjamin grinned, the back of his head illuminated by the sun coming in through the window. In that moment, Tia could've sworn she was looking at a God. "But it's so soon. Are you really that pathetic?"
She squeezed around him at his words. And while she followed all of it with her own vampiric senses, it still shocked her at the speed Benjamin flipped her over on the carpet, catching herself on her hands as he pulled her hips back, fucking into her from this new angle. Tia gasped, closing her eyes, her cheek pressed against the carpet and decided the Kebi had bad taste in rugs because this one was a little prickly.
Over and over, Benjamin gave her no rest and had she been human she felt she would've been sinking into the carpet in exhaustion. As it was, her mind seemed to be spinning, pleasure overwhelming the rest of her senses. Her nails dug at his marble skin, desperate for purchase as he bent her legs over her head.
"Ah I love you my heart." Benjamin murmured all of a sudden as Tia shuddered from another orgasm. She opened her red eyes as Benjamin gently released her legs. He smiled at her, before pulling her into his arms, dropping a kiss on her lips. "I think you actually look a little worn out Habibi."
Tia laughed, nodding slightly, closing her eyes again as she rested against her mate. "I was thinking about if I was human. I would definitely be exhausted but Benji. . . what happened?"
"Oh nothing much." Benjamin said, though he looked embarrassed. "Amun will be home in five minutes, that's all. I thought perhaps we should clean up."
"That we should." Tia said, lightly on her feet in a second. Benjamin pulled her to him again, kising her deeply.
"But later," he whispered in her ear, "I'll have you screaming my name in bed."
Tia grinned, tipping her head back and looked him right in the eye. "I can't wait."
Warnings: 18+readers only, anal sex, fem x men, men x men, descriptive orgasm, aftercare, public sex/ outdoors sex, dominant!Steve Rogers-Barnes, sub!Bucky Rogers-Barnes, praise kinks
Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OCs: Ellie White along with the children. I do not condone any copying of this.
"OH MY GOD TONY HE GAVE US GOATS!" Ellie squealed with delight. She was exploring the farm that T'Challa had set up for them, explaining what while Wakanda did have markets and such, most families were self-sustaining and that they too could live as such.
"Yes he did." Tony said, amused, watching their wife kneel in the grass to pet the goats with a grin on her face. It had been a week since their first night and it had passed fairly smoothly. At the moment, it was just the two of them and Dimitri. Their son was toddling around the fruit orchard, making motion to climb the trees, but not really being able to.
"They're so cute!" Ellie giggled, kneeling and petting them sweetly. "I wonder if they have names."
"I know these five are females." Tony gestured to the five small goats that were crowding around Ellie. "And that one is a male." Tony said, pointing to the almost completely black with a few white spots goat that was sleeping in the shade of one of the trees.
"How?" Ellie asked, eyes round and astounded as if Tony had simply guessed.
Tony grinned, shoving his hands into his pockets, "T'Challa told me. I don't think they're named though. Think you can keep them straight in your head?"
Ellie nodded seriously, touching each of the goats in front of her, naming them instantly, "Rebekah, Naomi, Janelle, Kiara, and Bonnie. The male can be Alaric." She flashed him a grin. Tony rolled his eyes.
"I don't know much about goats though." Ellie sighed, standing up and brushing grass off of her knees. "I wonder if there's someone that can teach me."
"I think you get milk from milking them darling." Tony teased.
She shot him a glare, "Very funny Captain Obvious. I mean butter, cheese, other dairy products." She bit her bottom lip. "I wonder how different it tastes from cows milk. . . it feels like it should taste different, shouldn't it?"
"I mean, even cows milk tastes different from each other." Tony finally answered one of her questions seriously. "You know?"
"True." She rubbed Kiaras' head with a smile and then said, "I should probably milk them, right? My dad lived on a farm as a kid and he said you had to milk the cows twice a day because you didn't want it to sit. Surely goats are similar. . ."
"Oh yeah." Tony grinned. "I think T'Challa left you some notes."
"TONY! UGH!" Ellie ran back to the house while Tony chuckled, walking over to Dimitri who was clinging to two branches, his feet dragging underneath him as he stared up at the tree happily. "Still touching the ground buddy." Tony chuckled.
"High!" Dimitri pointed up towards the branches.
"Very high." Tony said, lifting him up and sitting him on one of the lower branches. Dimitris' eyes went wide, his little hands clutching the branch beneath him. He looked around with a look of surprise and wonder, before a smile spread across his face.
"Daddy!" Selenes' voice shouted behind him and Tony felt the small child hit his leg, wrapping her arms around it.
"Well hi sunshine." Tony said, looking down at her before looking over his shoulders. Steve was carrying Eleanor and Samuel, each of them strapped into the snug and secure carrying harness. Steve waved at Tony but went into the house, probably to lay the babies down for a nap. Bucky on the other hand came on over with a grin.
"I see you climbed up there all by yourself buddy." Bucky chuckled, raising his hand and ruffling Dimitris' hair. "He needs a haircut soon I think." he commented to Tony.
"I kind've like the curls." Tony grinned. Despite neither Steve nor Ellie having particularly curly hair, Dimitris' hair was poofing and curling all around his head. It looked rather glorious though and Tony didn't really want to cut it.
Selene managed to climb a little bit off the ground, her fingers clutching into grooves and small protrusions that perhaps had been low branches at one point but had snapped off. She pouted up at Dimitri and complained, "No way he climb! He smaller dan me! Dada Sun put him dere!"
"Do you want to join him starlight?" Bucky asked, moving towards their daughter.
"NO!" Selene said, brow furrowing in determination. "I climb!"
"Alright." Bucky chuckled.
Steve came out of the house again, going over to the goats and started to milk them. Tony supposed Ellie was taking over the babies. Tony lifted Dimitri down and put him back on the ground with Bucky before walking over to Steve. "Ellie putting the kids down?"
"Samuel went down right away but Eleanor is fussing." Steve nodded. "I told her I'd take care of the goats for her." Steve laughed. "I don't know if I've seen her this level of excited and stressed over something at the same time." Steve looked up at him. "I think it's nice though. There's plenty of stuff that you can't learn in school and I think learning to raise animals and your own food is one of them. The kids are going to learn a lot of hands on stuff here."
"I talked to Shuri about school." Tony nodded, "She said she'd get more information so Ellie can read through it. I think it sounds good though. It's not to different from the program we were going to put Selene into back home anyways. Minus the religious factor."
Steve nodded and replied, "That's alright, we can always teach them religion anyways. When does the program start?"
"Technically it started last week, but Shuri said Selene has plenty of time to join if she wants." Tony smiled. "Its not like there's textbooks to order."
"Should probably talk to Ellie about it tonight then." Steve smiled, letting go of the goat, flexing his fingers a little. Four more to go he supposed.
"Ellie named them." Tony grinned.
"Did she?" Steve asked, milking the second goat. He could still hear Eleanor crying from inside and Ellie singing lightly to no avail.
"Rebekah, Naomi, Janelle, Kiara, and Bonnie." Tony chuckled, "Although I couldn't tell you which is which. Alaric is the male."
"So basically what you're telling me," Bucky said from behind them, carrying Dimitri in his arm, Selene clinging to his leg as he walked stiffly over to them, "Is she named three of our six goats after Vampire Diary characters?"
Tony and Steve glanced at the goats for a second and then Tony shrugged, "Huh. I guess she did."
Bucky took the kids inside, Steve finished up with the goats, and the three men ended up taking the buckets of warm milk over to some sort of large metal container to pour them into.
"How does this work?" Bucky asked, walking around the machine with a fascinated look in his eyes.
"Basically," Tony said, "We pour the milk into a filter and it takes all the bad stuff out, before drining down into the bottom half of the tank, which is refrigerated. Then whenever we want milk, we turn that spigot down there and collect it. And then it's done. Technically, we could drink it straight from that tap."
"Fascinating." Bucky murmured while Steve closed the hatch and turned the lock. The hole was small, but he had a feeling if either of them really wanted to, both Selene and Dimitri could fall through it.
Ellie had finally gotten Eleanor down for her nap, but was exhausted and had opted for making a very easy chicken and spaghetti dish instead of the more complicated roast she had planned to make.
"Sneak out with me." Tony whispered in her ear, grabbing the plate from her hand, slipping it back into the sink as she did the dishes.
"Where?" She whispered back, her lips curving into a smile, knowing full well the soldiers could hear them if they wanted. Her eyes were lit with mischeif and Tony smirked, putting a finger to his lips, taking her hand, and the two of them crept to the door, slipping out into the night.
Bucky rolled his eyes at Steve, "Wow. They're slick."
Steve just laughed.
Ellie giggled, running with Tony as he kept her hand in his, running through the orchard almost silently except for her laughs. Ellie liked how peaceful Wakanda was at night. All of the lights shut off so that you could see the stars in the sky. She could hear the wind as it blew lightly through the orchard, rustling leaves. She heard a soft thump that could've been one of the African peaches falling to the ground or perhaps a small animal that had leapt from the tree to the ground. The goats were bleating in the background as they went to sleep.
Tony slowed, turning back towards her, catching her in his arms. Ellies' eyes automatically closed as Tony dipped his head, feeling his lips connect with hers. She removed her hand from his, moving her arms around his neck.
Ellie moved her hands lower as Tony pushed her back against one of the trees, still kissing her passionately, though his lips had moved from hers to her neck. She unbuttoned the flannel he was wearing, pushing it off his shoulders- which floated to the ground lightly. Tonys' hands traveled up her waist, undoing the zipper at the back, pulling it down.
She stepped out of her dress, walking around Tony so that she was no longer against the tree. Tony knelt, and she watched in the moonlight as he shook out a large blanket, spreading it across the grass. She smiled down at him, running her fingers through his hair. Tony grabbed her wrist gently, kissing her fingers.
"Come here darling." Tony murmured, tugging her wrist and Ellie knelt quickly, pushing herself against him as she wrapped her arms around his neck once more. Tony laid down on his back, his hands running over her silky smooth body, squeezing her thighs lightly as he reached there. Ellies' hands worked quickly at his belt, pulling it out and tossing it to the side with the rest of their clothes, but unzipping his slacks. Tony laughed slightly, catching her grin in the moonlight.
Tony kicked the rest of his clothes off, tossing them by hand to join the rest, before running his fingers across her lips, finding her sticky, wet, and swollen. "You seem deprived darling." He squeezed her lips lightly, making her breathe out lightly.
"Maybe I've been daydreaming about you all afternoon." Ellie whispered, bending over closer to his face. Her hair curtained her cheeks on both sides, blocking Tonys' view of much else but her face.
"Take what you need then." Tony half murmured as he cupped the back of her head with his other hand, pulling her down to kiss her. He grunted and she moaned against each others lips as she straddled him, taking him inside of her. She squeezed him several times as she settled, getting used to him for a moment, before she started to rock against him.
Tony carressed her breasts, her skin always so silky and soft under his fingertips. Her nipples were soft between his fingers before slowly firming up as he rolled them between his fingers, teeth, and tongue.
Her hands pressed firmly against his chest as she held herself up, riding him with gentle, precise movements. Tony knew it was partly an effect of the moon, that both of their bodies looked like it in the light, but Ellie in particular seemed to be glowing as he ran his hands over her.
"You're gorgeous." He mumbled softly, wishing he could touch every part of her at once, contenting himself with continuously running his hands over different parts of her body at the tempo she rode him.
Ellie smiled at Tonys' words, something that comforted her every time he said them. It reassured her that she really was meant for him, which she sometimes doubted, especially after Ross.
She closed her eyes as pleasure washed over her, lips parting, a soft sound coming from her that Tony ate up. His hands gripped harder at her flesh before rolling over, cradling her as gently as possible before situating her on the blanket, now hovering above her. He held her by the shoulder and under her thigh, before pistoning into her furiously, chasing his own release now, fueled by her softness and pleasure.
"I love you." He whispered, pulling her close, pulling out of her after a moment or two of catching his breath. "I love you so much El."
"I love you too Tony." She smiled against his skin, tangling her leg between both of his, wrapping her arms around him. The Wakandan air was cool, but not frigid and she felt as though she could drift off into a pleasant sleep. "We should go in soon. . ." She sighed against his shoulder where she was resting her head.
Tony smiled at her with nothing but pure love, watching her as she already started to drift off. He grabbed his discarded shirt, nowhere near ready to go back to the house yet, tossing it over her lightly.
"Soon." He whispered against her hair, looking up at the stars. "We'll go in soon."
｡ ★ • * ｡.
"They're finally asleep." Bucky said, stretching one arm back as he smiled at Steve who was still reading by the light of the fire and candles.
"Don't jinx it." Steve said, smiling as he bookmarked his page with a neat perfection, closing his book and placing it on the table next to him. "Dimitri will probably be back up in an hour."
Bucky grinned, sliding into Steves' lap, grabbing his jaw, and kissing him fiercely. Steve gripped his thigh tightly, humming against his lips, his baby blue eyes sliding closed.
"You ate some of Ellies' brownie batter." Steve laughed under his breath, opening his eyes, tangling his fingers in Buckys' hair, which had only grown longer since he'd found him again.
"Shhh." Bucky grinned, leaning in again, "She doesn't need to know. It was only a little taste. Selene-"
"Oh my gosh." Steve rolled his eyes.
"-Selene is keeping it a secret too with a little bribe." Bucky grinned, tipping Steves' chin up. The blonde shook his head, amused. "What should I bribe you with?"
"Oh you don't have to." Steve smiled, "She'll notice all by herself. But if you're so insistent, I wouldn't mind a little something." Steve laughed against Buckys' lips, leaning in sweetly and kissing the brunette.
Bucky grinned, starting to slide from Steves' lap to kneel before him on the floor, but Steve stopped him.
"Absolutely not." Steve grinned, pulling Bucky back towards him, crashing his lips against the brunettes again. "I'm thinking a little differently than you."
"Oh?" Bucky raised an eyebrow, stroking Steves' cheek with the back of his fingers gently. "And?"
Steve stood, sweeping Bucky into his arms, which made Bucky hollar with laughter, wrapping his arm around Steves' neck. Steve chuckled at Buckys' amusement, stepping out the back door, and depositing him on the lawn bench, hovering over him as he kissed him again. Bucky's fingers threaded through Steve's growing hair, pulling him harshly.
"You better fuck me hard Stevie." Bucky half gasped against his cheek. "Cause you've got me so fucking hard right now."
"Oh it'll be my pleasure." Steve purred, undoing his jeans with a single flick, smirking as he pulled them down around his knees.
Bucky bit his own hand, eyes rolling back into his head as Steve plowed into him, gripping his thighs in his hands hard enough to leave fingerprint sized bruises in the morning. Bucky gasped, choked moans coming from him as he tried to keep himself from making any loud noises that might wake Selene or even Dimitri.
"Oh fuck-" Bucky's voice cracked, high, his hand gripping Steves' shoulder tightly.
"I ought to do something about that mouth." Steve murmured softly, hand moving from thigh to cock, squeezing Bucky hard, making the brunnette ignore the blonde, shouting curses like a sailor as he arched against the bench cushions. Steve shoved three fingers roughly into Buckys' mouth, pressing down on the tongue, causing the super soldier to gag and quiet, moaning only now. Bucky could taste a hint of newspaper on the pads of Steve's fingers, along with orange citrus from the dessert he'd eaten earlier.
Buckys' eyes rolled back in his head, his sensations completely overwhelmed to the point where even as he finished all over his own stomach, the pleasure still rode on in waves, his skin feeling like it was on fire.
Steve pulled orgasm after orgasm out of him, keeping up the brutal pounding force that was so deliciously wonderful that Bucky felt like he was melting into a puddle. His refractory period never seemed to go away, always hard no matter how much Steve drew out of him, his own release running down the sides of his body in small streams, dripping onto the deck beneath them. They would have to deep clean it early tomorrow morning.
"Last one." Steve breathed out against his neck, his fingers tight around Buckys' throat. Bucky just laid there, taking everything, one hand limply across his face, the other wrapped around Steve's waist, holding the blonde to him. "Cum for me baby boy." Steve keened sweetly, pulling Bucky into a new haze of whiteness as he exploded. Steve pulled out, finishing on Buckys' stomach, his release pooling with all of Buckys'.
"Hmmm." Steve smirked, humming as he looked down at his husband. "I think you need a bubble bath."
Bucky grinned lazily up at him, thoroughly out of it. It took a lot to get a super soldier to that point but Steve had managed it. "Have I ever told you how good you are in bed? And how much I fucking love you?"
"I think you've mentioned it a few times." Steve said, buttoning his jeans back up, carefully picking Bucky up, tilting his body so that his release seeped into his shirt instead of the floor. Perhaps he should've grabbed a towel first.
He carried Bucky upstairs, putting him in a hot bath with lots of bubbles. He attentively washed him while Bucky dozed, his head against the wooden wall behind him, having fallen asleep with a smile on his face.
Steve watched him for a moment, feeling love and grief well up in him unexplicably. It was such a melancholy feeling that Steve wondered if he was experiencing a sub drop. He leaned forwards, kissing Bucky sweetly. He didn't want to lose this man. Bucky was his life and soul. As potently and deeply as Ellie and Tony were.
At that thought, his head perked up, realizing that Ellie and Tony weren't back. He frowned. He wasn't exactly worried, but he wondered what they were up to. Surely they would've been back by now?
He drained the bath, carrying Bucky easily over to to bed wrapped in his towels, laying him down to dry off. Bucky mumbled something softly in his sleep as Steve headed out to find the other two.
He sighed, smiling a little to himself as he found them, laying together under the trees. Both of them were naked as lambs, both of them shining in the moonlight. He knelt down, touching both of their hands. Tonys' were warm, holding Ellie close to him. Ellies' fingers however were freezing cold. Steve carried them back to the house as well, one by one starting with Ellie to get her in the warmth first before going back out and getting the clothes.
Tony had woken up when Steve came back in, coming out of the bathroom with boxers on. "Hey, sorry for making you carry us back in." Tony apologized, taking his clothes from Steves' hands. "I didn't mean to fall asleep out there."
"You know I don't mind." Steve smiled as Tony put his clothes in the dirty hamper, before stretching, wincing a little. "Sore?"
"The ground was harder than I thought." Tony admitted. "Hope she doesn't ache to bad tomorrow."
"Worst comes to worst I can make up a hot compress for her." Steve shrugged, tucking Ellies' hair back from her face. Bucky and her were completely asleep, both of them were their mouths slightly open. "Coming to bed?"
"Yeah." Tony smiled, "Though I might leave early just saying. My minds full of projects."
"Just till I drop off then." Steve teased, sliding in next to Ellie, opening his arms for Tony, who slid into them, snuggling up next to Steve.
"Maybe." Tony murmured. "I suppose a few hours of sleep wouldn't kill me. . ."
Steve almost laughed aloud five minutes later when Tony was snoring into his chest. "Good night love." He murmured, closing his eyes and drifting off with them.
Copyright: I do not own any of the Fruits Basket characters, locations, or events. However, I do own Elizabeth Rao, Charis, and any other added characters that are not mentioned in the Fruits Basket Manga. I do not condone any copying of this to any other publications or platforms.
I woke up feeling rather sad. Tohru was leaving the Soma house today. I don't know why that should've made me sad, but it did. I wondered how Yuki, Kyo- even Shigure- were going to take it.
My stomach growled, a sign that I hadn't eaten in the past two days. But school started today so I would get lunch there. I had meant to buy more food but with the weather, I hadn't wanted to risk going outside. But I was used to being hungry so I didn't really feel it. It was just a dull ache in my stomach.
I got dressed slowly in my school clothes. I was careful when I walked across the tent as the bottom liked to sag a little. One day, I was going to end up putting my foot through the tent.
However, I was also making quite a bit of money and I almost had enough to start renting a small apartment. But I wanted to save. The house market was going down. Maybe I could buy a small house and then I wouldn't have to pay rent or mortgage.
I found myself walking to the Soma house. I wasn't entirely sure why though. I found myself by Yuki's garden. I saw the baskets of strawberries that had been left for planting. They weren't in bloom though.
"Rao-San?" Yuki's voice asked.
I looked up at him and smiled.
"Tohru moved out." Yuki said.
'I know.' my phone said. 'I was taking a short-cut'.
"Oh." Yuki said.
He looked sad as I came to stand nearer. 'But you want her back.'
My phone stated it as a statement, not a question. Like a fact, not a suggestion.
Yuki stared at me in surprise, but I simply smiled back. 'Then let's go get her'.
Yuki nodded and we headed up to the house. And then, my stomach growled.
Yuki looked at me, "Did you eat anything this morning?"
I blushed, looking away from him. "Have you eaten anything since you left our house?" He continued. I still didn't look at him.
"Come on." Yuki said, taking my hand. I looked up at him in surprise, but not fear. I wasn't scared of Yuki anymore. He led me back to the house.
"Ah, Elizabeth." Shigure said, reading a newspaper. "What are you doing here?"
"She's going to eat." Yuki said. I blushed.
Yuki let me prepare my own food, going back into the sitting area and reading the book we'd read together in the corner. Kyo was pacing up and down the walk, groaning and muttering. I saw that the white piece of paper with Tohru's address on it was still on the table.
I ate quickly and when I finished, I put the plate in the sink.
"You're distracting me. If you want to take a walk, do it outside." Yuki said in the living room.
"Just read in your own room!" Kyo started back. "Anyways, they're way too high-handed, kicking her out for some renovations and then summoning her back when they're finished!"
I agreed with Kyo, though I knew her grandfather didn't mean it that way. Her grandfather didn't know she'd be living in a tent. He thought she was staying with a friend. I wondered what God, Dragon, Cow, Snake, and Bunny thought I was doing right now.
"That's not high-handed. It's totally normal."
"It ain't normal at all! They oughta think a little more about what she wants!"
Yuki smirked, "Big talk for the guy who left home without a word and dropped off the map for four months."
"Say what?! Are you picking a fight?!"
Shigure's face was sad over his newspaper.
Yuki snapped the book closed, "You're the one needling me."
I hesitated in the doorway of the living room.
"Shall I get serious with you?" Yuki asked.
"Bring it on, rat! Get your ass outside!" Kyo yelled.
"Come on, both of you. Calm down." Shigure finally stepped in.
"I am calm!" Kyo shouted.
"I'm calm as hell!" Yuki snapped.
"I see." Shigure said, lifting his newspaper high enough to hide his face from Yuki and me.
"Dammit!" Kyo said, going and lying down on the porch, his back to us.
Yuki put his book down on the table, looking at the white piece of paper on the table. He looked from Shigure, to Kyo, to me. I gave him a slight nod. "I'm going to take a walk. Elizabeth?"
He picked up the piece of paper and I followed him out the door.
"See you when you get back." Shigure called.
Yuki and I set down the stairs.
"So," Yuki asked, "Did you foresee me getting Honda-San back or something?"
I nodded and then let my phone say, 'If Tohru moves back in, I will too. Should put your mind at ease, right?'
"Yes, I'm glad." Yuki said, opening the piece of paper to read Tohru's address.
I followed quietly- the only way I could.
We made it to the block that Tohru should be living on. Yuki and I walked around the block once and couldn't find it.
"It's hard to find from just the address." Yuki said with a sigh. My ears pricked, I could hear someone running a hard distance towards us. Maybe Kyo? "I suppose we'll ask at the police box and-"
"Hey! Hold it right there, rat-boy!" Kyo's shouts from down the road and I see him kicking up dust to get to us. Yuki looks so surprised, I laugh. "Give that note back!"
Kyo goes to punch Yuki in the face. Yuki lifts one leg, kicking him in the face instead. I sigh in anxiety and Yuki smiles at me apologetically.
Yuki takes us in a circle again, looking at the different names on the house plates. Kyo is fed up with this and says, "Hey! You just took us in a circle."
"That's funny. It should be in this block of buildings. . ." Yuki says.
"None of them said 'Honda'! Lemme see that." Kyo says.
I hold up a hand and they both look at me. 'Be quiet for a second'.
They both looked at me, puzzled. I close my eyes, listening. Though the wool hat on my head makes things a little denser, I can still hear inside the houses. I listen patiently, searching through each one until I find a sharp feminine voice say, "I had a private detective investigate."
I frown.
A younger female voice says, "You were a live-in girlfriend?! Go you! I was so sure I was maturing faster."
And then Tohru's voice. "Wh- why did you hire a detective?"
I opened my eyes. 'I found her'.
"You did?" They ask together in surprise.
I smile a little. Then I started back the way we came. Yuki and Kyo followed me. "Hey!" Kyo followed.
I stopped in front of the house and Yuki spread the plastic that was covering the name plate. It said 'Honda'.
"Huh. You did find it." Kyo said. "But it's completely under construction."
"The outer walls are." Yuki said. "Let's at least talk to Honda-San." Yuki pushed open the black metal gate.
"Yeah." Kyo says. I follow through last.
Yuki knocks on the front door. It was so soft, almost I didn't hear it. "They're not answering." Yuki says in surprise. I try not to laugh.
"Maybe they can't hear you. Move it." Kyo says, walking past Yuki- who glares at him.
He takes a deep breath and shouts, "Excuse me!"
Yuki's eyes widen and he slams a hand over Kyo's mouth, shoving him to the floor.
"What the hell was that for?!" Kyo shouts.
". . .might be going too far." The first women's voice says and I know Yuki can hear it too. "but they say Kyoko-san used to get quite violent. And you know the phrase 'like mother, like daughter.' I was worried."
The three of us crept to the side of the house. Large green hanging curtains were in place with just a small space for us to look through.
"If you're going to live in this house, you be sure not to do anything indiscreet, all right?" The woman continued.
Kyo took one side, Yuki took the other. I knelt by Yuki's shoulder.
There was a young man in there, wearing glasses. He was sitting smugly at the table. There was an older gentleman, who was standing closest by Tohru. A woman behind the counter, and a woman sitting on the couch in front of us, a pocky stick in her mouth, and her body language read that she was bored.
"Say, Tohru-Chan," The young man at the table got up, walking over to her. "Those people didn't do anything. . .indecent to you, did they?" He leered towards her and I flinched back. Both Yuki and Kyo's faces turned angry. They both lunged toward the windows and I grabbed their collars.
Tohru's grandfather slapped the man across the face, for once an act I was okay with.
"G-Gramps?"
"Are jeering and taunting all you people know how to do?" The grandfather asked. Yuki, bless his heart, turned to look at me.
"Are you okay?" He whispered. I nodded, offering him a small smile.
"What's going on in there?" Kyo asked.
"Like I know." Yuki said.
"Wondering won't get us anywhere. Let's just go get her and bring her back." Kyo said.
"Please don't think badly of them." The Grandfather continued, "They're just unpleasant people, that's all."
"Gramps!"
"You're not helping!"
"Hmm? Oh, did I say something wrong?" The grandfather asked so innocently I started to laugh. I quickly stopped though, not wanting them to look out the window.
"What the hell was that for?" Kyo asked. I realized Yuki and Kyo were still arguing.
"Shut up." Yuki said, putting a hand against Kyo's mouth. "The important thing here isn't what we want. It's what Honda-San wants."
Kyo hit Yuki's hand away, but said nothing.
"No, I don't deserve to think I need more." Tohru said, sounding downcast. "You're giving me a roof over my head again. I have to be grateful for everything. I'm. . . blessed. So. . ."
She started to cry and I put a hand to the window, wishing to comfort her. "So I shouldn't say. . . that I want to. . . go home! I shouldn't. . . miss being with the Somas so much! I wanted to stay. . ."
I squeezed Yuki and Kyo's shoulders softly as they both stared at her in wonder.
"I wanted to stay at Shigure- San's house with Soma-kun and Kyo-kun. I wanted to be with them!"
Yuki and I are through the window before anyone else can contemplate where we came from. Yuki, in front of Tohru's face, leaning in. Me, behind her. Kyo, wrenching the green shades apart, shouting "Huh!"
"Okay then. Come on home." Yuki says.
"S-Soma-kun?!"
"Who is this?!" The woman shouted. Maybe an Aunt?
"Soma-kun! What are you doing here?" Kyo was there, grabbing her by the head.
"Let's go." Kyo said.
"Kyo-kun, you, too- Rao-Chan!"
"Your door was unlocked, so we let ourselves in." Yuki said pleasantly to the rest of the family. I stayed in the room with him, even as Kyo let himself and Tohru out. "Are Honda-San's things upstairs?"
"Now just a moment! What's this about?" The maybe Aunt asked.
"We've come to fetch Honda-San."
"Wait, are you from the house where Tohru-Chan was playing live- in girlfriend?" The young man asked stupidly, looking at me, then back to Yuki. "Which means. . . you're a boy?!"
Yuki's eyes flashed and I didn't bother holding him back as he flicked the man in the forehead so hard, his heard jerked back, his glasses flying off. He fell to his knees in pain. "You haven't earned the right to call her 'Tohru-chan'. You lowlife."
Yuki turned to me, "Let's go Elizabeth."
I said nothing, turning my back on Tohru's family and followed him up the stairs to where Tohru kept her things. I helped him pack, like I had before.
"So I guess this means you're coming to stay with us." Yuki said, smiling at me.
'I thought you'd be angrier' My phone said. 'At the man.'
Yuki picked up the bags. "I am angry. But I don't need to hurt anyone either."
I stared at him, marveling. If anyone had insulted me like that in front of Dragon, Snake, or Cow, they'd have ripped their heads off. Not necessarily because they loved me, but because I was their prize. An insult to me was an insult to them.
"Are you alright, Elizabeth?" Yuki asked.
I smiled. 'Yes. Though I still feel like I might be intruding if I stay over'.
"Don't." Yuki said as we headed down the stairs. Kyo had Tohru's hand in his, starting to walk forwards. "You're not intruding at all."
And then Yuki took Tohru's other hand. "Let's go home."
Yuki turned to me, the bags slipping onto his wrists, holding his other hand out. I felt my eyes widen in surprise and hesitantly, I reached out and took it.
'Home'. I thought.
I had never thought I would ever be excited to go home.
🏯🏯🏯
When we entered the house, Shigure was waiting and he clapped his hands upon seeing us. "Congratulations on successfully capturing the princess! Two of them!"
I blushed.
"You're making us sound creepy." Kyo grumbled.
"Make it 'rescuing'." Yuki said from behind me and Tohru.
"Um, I'm back." Tohru said shyly.
"Yep, no problem! Leave all the fallout to me." Shigure said, sounding delighted.
Kyo walked past him.
"Oh, but I couldn't do that! I can't cause you more trouble!" Tohru said quickly.
"Hey, no worries. After all, if you come back again, the efforts of those two, who stole your note and ran off, won't be in vain!"
"Tsch." Kyo said behind Shigure.
I laughed a little.
"I have to say, I've never seen Yuki-kun go to pieces like that!"
I turned to see Yuki blush horribly and jumped forward and exclaim, "I didn't go to. . . pieces."
"Liar." Kyo said. "Your face was screaming 'regret'."
In an instant, Yuki was kicking him in the face for about the third time today. "That was your face."
"Damn Yuki!"
"Yes, stupid cat?"
Shigure turned to us. "Clearly this isn't a perfect home, but it's yours if you want it, Tohru-Kun, Elizabeth-Kun."
"Stupid is as stupid does!"
"Yes!" Tohru and I said together, though I said it by phone.
"Since you are, what's wrong with telling you this?" Yuki sneered.
"Today's the day I take you down!"
"I'd like to see you try." Yuki said calmly.
"Ugh!"
I smiled. I finally had a home. Now, I had to make do with it as I could.
Copyright: I do not own any of the Fruits Basket characters, locations, or events. However, I do own Elizabeth Rao, Charis, and any other added characters that are not mentioned in the Fruits Basket Manga. I do not condone any copying of this to any other publications or platforms.
Shigure came out of his study door at that moment, a newspaper in hand. "Yuki-kun. Kyo-kun will die if you don't stop soon."
He said it in such a monotone voice that I laughed. Shigure looked up at me, a small smile on his face.
Suddenly, a brown haired, brown eyed girl wearing a bright yellow dress and an orange cat bag on her back came running in. "Kyo-kun!"
Yuki relaxed, pulling back the rice ball. Kyo turned, looking at the girl in surprise. I saw the briefest flash of panic in Shigure's eyes before he looked up at her. His back to me, I couldn't see his facial expression.
"Hi there." Shigure said.
"K-Kagura?" Kyo gasped out.
"Kyo-kun. . ." Kagura said in a sad voice. She looked timid, sad, and absolutely adorable. Very opposite of the Boar I used to know who, though she had a fair face like all of us, was tall and buff, muscles just rolling off her. She looked rather timid, like bunny.
Everything seemed to come back to Bunny.
"Where have you been for the past four months?" Kagura choked out, sounding like she was about to burst into tears. Tohru appeared from behind her, looking cheerful.
"You didn't even try to contact. . ." Kagura said, tears actually welling up in her eyes. "I. . .I. . .missed. . .I missed you!" She shouted, her fist against Kyo's cheek in seconds, eyes gleaming red.
I watched Tohru's face go blank. I almost laughed again before Kagura's fist slammed into Kyo's. I hit the ground and he flew over my head, smashing into the doors, out into the garden. Shigure also ducked his head as Kagura leapt over the table after Kyo.
"Are you alright Elizabeth?" Yuki asked me, helping me to my feet. "Good reflexes."
I nodded, brushing dirt off my clothes.
"I was worried, you jerk." Kagura said, twirling him around like a helicopter leaf by his foot.
"Time to replace the doors." Shigure said sadly and I realized why he'd panicked when he'd seen her. He hated his house getting destroyed. "Why is everyone so fond of breaking my house?"
"Um. . ." Tohru said, her eyes glazed over a little.
"Oh, don't worry about it. That's just how Kagura expresses affection. You know how little kids harass people they like? Same thing here."
"I see. . ." Tohru said weakly. "But I mean, she seems to have completely changed personalities."
"She gets like that when her emotions are running high. Especially with Kyo." Yuki said with a slight smile. "She may not act like it, but she's two years older than us."
So she was my age.
"And she's part of the zodiac." Shigure said.
I rolled my eyes and my phone said 'Never would've guessed.'
"I knew it! What year is she?" Tohru asked, leaping towards Shigure with excitement.
"I think you can guess if you watch her for a while." Shigure said, looking up at Tohru.
"Right now, I can guess that Kyo-kun's life is in danger. . ."
"Uh oh." Shigure said.
When Tohru said the words 'life in danger', Kagura pulled her fist short. Kyo fell to the ground, nearly unconscious. Kagura clapped her hands to her mouth in horror. "Kyo-kun! Tell me this isn't happening! You're all beat up!" She scooped him up into a hug. "Who did this terrible thing?!"
"That would be you." Shigure said.
I laughed.
🐗🐗🐗
After things had calmed down, Kagura, Yuki, Shigure, and Tohru sat in the living room like area. Kyo sat outside on the porch, his back to us, an icepack against his face. I remained standing, the ruined doors propped up against the wall. I was in the process of working on them.
From behind me, I heard Tohru sneeze and Yuki said, "It's cold in here."
I shivered with his words.
"Yes, it is." Shigure said.
"I'm sorry. I was so happy to see Kyo-kun again, I forgot to hold back my enthusiasm." Kagura said, her voice quiet and timid again. "But it was partly your fault, Kyo-kun. You disappeared for four months and didn't even call me."
"Why should I have to call you?" Kyo asked.
"Well, because I'm your future wife." Kagura said in a sweet voice.
In my surprise, I spun around quickly to gauge Kyo's reaction.
Kyo had turned back around and I saw that, indeed, his cat ears had popped up. Self-consciously, I pulled my blue wool hat down on my head again, feeling the warm wool against my human ears. "When did that happen?!"
"I didn't know you had a fiancée! How wonderful!" Tohru said, clasping her hands together.
"It must be a relief that someone is willing." Yuki said behind one of the snacks Tohru had put out.
"Congragulations." Shigure said, also eating.
I gave Kyo a teasing smile and thumbs up.
"You guys aren't helping!"
"Kyo-kun, you told me that you'd marry me when we were little."
"Only because you were threatening my life!" Kyo shouted back.
"Why don't you want to?" Kagura asked quietly. "Marrying another animal spirit is the best shot at happiness."
I had to turn around, gasping for breath as Dragon, Snake, and Cow danced across my mind. I was shuddering, trying not to let them see.
In honesty, marrying another cursed person probably was the best shot at happiness. You could at least hug and do whatever else romantic persons did when they loved each other. Not that I knew what love was. Any love back on the island was conjured for seven days on your birth year. You'd probably be slaughtered sometime after that. And I didn't really think love was a man forcing you to be his wife.
My fingers trembled and I almost smashed the door to bits under the pressure of trying to keep calm.
"Wow, you don't!" Tohru said and I turned carefully to see Kagura's arms around Kyo who was struggling to get away. It seemed almost reversed. Me struggling to get away from Dragon or Snake or Cow. Now, the genders were reversed- but at least Kagura wasn't really hurting him.
"See? I can hug Yun-Chan, too!" Tohru said, tossing her arms around Yuki who sat there stoically.
"I should have realized before. Why don't you transform?" Tohru asked.
"We don't know. But there are two more female members of the zodiac," Yuki said, pushing Kagura away by her face. I turned back to face the door. "and we've established that they don't trigger our transformations, either."
"There are two more girls?! Oh my gosh!" Tohru said in amazement. I tried to imagine there only being three Zodiac girls back home. What a nightmare it would've been for the last girl, trying to handle six boys after the first two had chosen the others.
Cats never married.
"Want to know what years they are?" Shigure teased Tohru.
"Mmm. . .no, thank you! Would you mind if I savor the excitement of thinking it over?"
Yuki laughed and said, "That's very you."
"Anyway!" Kaugra said, jumping to her feet. "Things usually don't go well when we marry normal people of the opposite sex! Right, Shii-chan?" Kagura asked, turning back to Shigure.
"Hmm, true. I suppose there might be a lot of problems." Shigure said genially. "It's difficult for us to have normal company jobs, and most importantly, transforming every time they hold you would be rough. The s-"
Yuki slapped the food bowl against Shigure's face before he could continue. "Crude." Yuki said, smiling.
I laughed.
"Kyo-kun!" Kagura said and the three of us turned to look at the two of them (Shigure's face still being covered by the bowl). "Today's the day to come out and say it! Do you like me, or not?!"
"Huh?!" Kyo gasped.
"I like you! I like you best in the world! I love you best in the universe! For you, I'd cook good food every day, and I'd forgive affairs as momentary lapses!"
"Wai-" Kyo started.
Affairs as momentary lapses? I wanted to laugh and as it was, a smile was coming over my face.
"However you look at it, it's clear that I'm the only one who loves you this much!" Kagura said.
I started to put the first fixed door back on its hinges.
"I'm sure I'm the only one! Don't you agree?!" When Kyo didn't answer a split second after she finished talking, she grabbed his shirt front, shaking him, "I said, don't you agree?!" Her eyes were slowly turning into red hyperbeams again.
"Kyo-kun loses his assertiveness with girls, huh?" Shigure said. Kyo's ears were sticking out of the side of his head again. I hoped he never lost his cool in front of the girls at school. "Ah, but you like him, too, don't you, Tohru-kun? You're a cat fan."
"No way! A rival?!" Kagura asked, her eyes still red, but she'd dropped Kyo and he fell off the porch.
"Pardon?" Tohru asked.
Kagura popped up in front of Tohru's face. I stayed where I was, but I watched the situation carefully in case Kagura tried to take a swing at Tohru. "But I won't lose! The power of my love can overcome any obstacle! Tohru-kun, what do you like about Kyo-kun? I like all of him! All of him!"
"Oi!" Kyo said warningly from the porch.
"I accept his good points and his bad points! Even if he turns into his true form, I'll accept it without-"
I stiffened, turning away from them towards the completed door, trying to concentrate on how good of a job I had done. You could barely tell it had been broken before.
Kyo was across the room, a hand slapped across her mouth before she could speak another word.
"That's enough." He said quietly. "Say one more uncalled-for word, and I'll make you pay."
The whisper traveled down my spine.
There was a moment of silence before I heard a fist connect with a jaw and Kagura shouted, "How the hell will you 'make me pay'?!"
"Elizabeth!" Yuki called.
I hit the floor again, feeling the cool breeze as Kyo crashed into the door- again- and went flying out, landing headfirst in the fish pool.
Yuki was there again, helping me to my feet, "Are you alright?"
I nodded and then looked at the door. I rolled my neck in frustration. Perhaps I should've waited to fix the doors after Kagura left instead of before.
I bent down to fix the door again.
"Elizabeth-Kun, let Kagura-kun get that, okay?" Shigure asked, looking up from his newspaper.
I hesitated, unsure, so I went into the kitchen to help Tohru with the dishes.
🐗🐗🐗
We sat on the porch, fixing the doors. Kyo's hands were trembling with anger. "Tch. Dammit. Why am I doing this?"
I helped Torhu put a door in place while Shigure turned from reading the newspaper and said, "No complaining. You're partially at fault here."
Kyo leapt up, facing Shigure, fists raised. "I'm not even slightly at fault! Start pitching in, you damn rat!" Kyo said, turning to where Yuki was reading a book, his back against one of the wood poles.
I leaned over Yuki's shoulder to see what he was reading.
"No." Yuki said, snapping the book closed and handing it to me. I was slightly surprised, but took it, reading the cover. "Can't you even clean up your own messes, you stupid cat?"
"Say what?! Fight me, right now!" Kyo said, his eyes narrowing, his fist raised.
"Hey, Kyo-kun!" Kagura fought for his attention below him.
"Yeah?" Kyo asked, almost civilly.
"Look, look!" Kagura pointed to where she'd fixed a cat shaped head with the special paper we were using for the doors. It was plastered to the door.
"Oh, how cute!" Tohru exclaimed.
"Quit playing around! This is all your-" Kyo shouted but stopped as his stomach rumbled.
"I know it's a little early, but why don't I start making dinner?" Tohru asked.
"Wait just a minute!" Kagura said, reaching out.
"Yes?" Tohru asked, slowly, turning, her long ponytail flicking over her shoulder.
"I'll cook!" Kagura said.
"What? Why you?" Kyo asked.
"For my beloved Kyo-kun!" Kagura said, flicking him to the side, destroying another door.
"You like to read?" Yuki asked quietly, standing next to me.
'Very much'. My phone said. I handed the book back to him. 'But I have another door to fix'.
"Don't bother." Yuki said with a sigh as Kagura headed into the house, leaving her cat backpack outside on the porch. "Kagura and Kyo can fix them. None of this is your fault."
'I like feeling useful'. My phone said, but I sat down next to him anyways. Yuki let me read, looking over my shoulder. Whenever I couldn't understand a word (English took precedence over Japanese on the island), I would point to the word and he would tell me how it was pronounced and what it meant.
Then I stored it into my mind for a time when I would speak again.
🐗🐗🐗
I entered the brightly lit living room, looking slightly overwhelmed at the food on the table. There were at least twelve dishes on the table and I wondered if that was supposed to be significant for something, or if it was simply because she wanted to make a lot of food.
Most of it, I didn't recognize. There was some bread, a salad, some chips- also known as french fries- some sort of dish with tomatoes, onions, and lemons, a soup of some sort, and the rest was unknown.
"Wow! This is amazing! You're a great cook, Kagura-san." Tohru said, eyeing the full table. Kagura stood there proudly, hands on her hips. Yuki looked at her passively. Shigure meanwhile was in the kitchen, looking at how empty the refrigerator was.
"Hee-hee!" Kagura said.
"It's amazing, but how many people were you planning to feed?" Yuki asked.
'Left-overs?' my phone questioned.
"The fridge is empty. . ." Shigure whispered from the kitchen.
"I was so excited to feed my beloved Kyo-kun, I got carried away." Kagura said, clasping her hands together like a little girl. Then again, that was quite how she acted.
I picked up a piece of bread, biting into it. It tasted really good.
"Speaking of Kyo-kun, where did he go?" Tohru asked.
I pointed upwards.
"I'll go get him!" Kagura said.
She turned away, flitting upwards.
I sat down at the table. Shigure and Tohru sat across from me. Yuki sat next to me.
None of them were eating, so I didn't eat either, though I would've liked to have some more of the bread.
I heard shouting upstairs and there was a loud, house-shaking crash. I was surprised the roof didn't cave in on us. Dust seemed to float down from the ceiling, landing on the table and- consequently- the food. Not the bread though, the bread was fine.
And then, the ceiling crashed down on the table. I felt Yuki's hand on my arm, wrenching me backwards.
We waved away the dust and smoke and I saw Kyo-kun, laying on the broken table. Food was splashed on the walls and floor, wasted. Shigure had a hand to his head. I wondered what he was more upset about- the roof or the food.
"K-Kyo-kun! A-are you all right?!" Tohru asked, standing up.
"Sheesh. The food is ruined." Yuki said without a care in the world.
Shigure was to busy groaning to let out a word.
"Kyo-kun!" Kagura called through the hole.
"Why do they all break my house?" Shigure cried.
Huh, so it was the house. Not the food. Surprising.
"I'm sorry. I'll make more right away." Kagura said, somehow appearing behind Shigure though she had only been above us moments ago. Maybe she'd dropped down without my noticing. . .not likely though. There wasn't much that escaped my notice. Not the Tiger's eye.
"With what? The fridge is empty." Shigure said.
"Ow. . ." Kyo said, sitting up. "Just go home already."
Kagura didn't answer, her shoulders shaking. Then she slammed the refrigerator door closed, running out of the kitchen.
"Kagura-San, w-" Tohru called after her.
"I'll go." Shigure said, standing up and walking out of the room.
I continued to stare at the floor.
'Just go home already!'
There was so much hate in those words. There was so much hate here. Hate between Kyo and Yuki. Hate between Kagura and Kyo. How could I possibly try and live here? How could I possibly have thought about living here? Hate was everything I was trying to escape. So why was the idea of living here so appealing?
Maybe it's because of the hate, a voice in the back of my mind said. You grew up on hate, so you want to live around hate because it reminds you. It comforts you.
"Elizabeth?" Yuki asked softly, his hand hesitating near my arm, wanting to comfort, but not wanting to scare me either.
Maybe it was because of Yuki that I wanted to stay here. Yuki, Shigure, Kyo, Tohru. On their own, by themselves, they were all great people. Shigure, Tohru, and Yuki could get along. Shigure, Tohru and Kyo could get along. So maybe, maybe I was reading the signs wrong. I was seeing what I wanted to see, not what was really here.
Because the hateful fights they got into. . .they sounded funny to me. Hilarious even, not full of malice.
"Elizabeth?" Yuki asked, this time in concern. "Are you. . .alright?"
I nodded yes. 'I should get home.' My phone said for me.
I slid open the door, stepping out onto the porch. Yuki followed me. "I'm sorry about. . .today."
'It's not a big deal'.
"Are you sure you don't want to stay?" Yuki asked.
'I'm sure. Kagura will already be staying in Tohru's room. I already stayed one night, I don't need to overstay my welcome.'
Yuki was silent for a moment and then said, "I know I keep pushing this, but I really hate the idea of you living in a tent somewhere. So please, you should start staying here one day. Preferably before winter really hits."
I hesitated, looking directly into his eyes. I nodded once and my phone said, 'Maybe. I'll think about it.'
"Be safe." Yuki whispered as I stepped off the porch. "What will you do about dinner?"
'Don't worry. Thanks for your help.'
Then I stepped into the shadows, making my way back to where my tent was. I jumped into the tree and into my tent.
I laid down on the bed after putting my money and school things away. I closed my eyes and went to sleep. I had a lot of things to think about.
Copyright: I do not own any of the Fruits Basket characters, locations, or events. However, I do own Elizabeth Rao, Charis, and any other added characters that are not mentioned in the Fruits Basket Manga. I do not condone any copying of this to any other publications or platforms.
Yuki stood at the front of the classroom, a piece of pink chalk in his hand, drawing a flower on the chalkboard. "There. It's official. We've voted for our class to do a rice ball stand. Next, I'd like to hear your opinions on what flavorings you think we should do."
Next month was the something or other Cultural Festival. I was kind've looking forward to it, never having been to the village festivals back. . . not home. I still hadn't come up with a name.
Every year around New Years', a large party was held outside the main house gates. It was supposed to be in celebration of us, but it was really in celebration of God. Though, children usually had their favorite animal.
Whoever's year was up for the banquet, they got to sit in the middle, lavished with gifts. The one night none of us said cruel words to each other, the one night nothing bad was done. Even God was kind, giving us love so potent you could feel it in your bones.
I remembered my night, the year of the tiger. I sat in the middle of the group, given candies, bows, even a blue dress made of pure silk. Later, Cow ripped the dress to shreds in his hurry to have sex with me. I had cried when he wasn't looking. It was the prettiest thing I had ever owned.
I remembered that I got to choose what we ate and we'd had noodles, fried rice, and orange chicken. Chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Apple cider for drink.
A few months later, God announced the lull. The marriage period. And so I spent nearly four years raped repeatedly by Dragon, Snake, and Cow.
I shook my head, clearing my mind and tried to pay attention to Yuki.
Tohru raised her hand and stood up, "Yes! What about tricolor rice balls? It would be fun to have three fillings in one rice ball! And a good deal!"
"That's cute. I like that." Yuki said at the front of the classroom. I smiled behind my hand.
"What? We should drop that idea, Yuki-kun!" One of the girls in the classroom said. I remembered her, the one who helped Minagawa corner Tohru and I in the hallways. I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah. What if she suggests a tuna, kelp, and pickled plum combo?" The other girl beside her asked.
"Ugh, how gross!" The first said, sticking out her tongue.
The two girls laughed, probably because they couldn't stand the idea of Tohru's idea being 'cute' by Yuki. Not their beloved Prince.
A metal pole slammed down on their desk, making the girls jump back in surprise.
"The 'gross' things here are your personalities, morons." Arisa said, leaning on the pole.
"Don't bring steel pipes to school!" The original girl squealed, shaking her hands, eyeing the pipe nervously.
"How about battle rice balls?" Kyo asked from the back of the classroom and everyone turned to face him.
I sighed in exhaustion.
"Battle?" One of the boys beside him asked.
"One-on-one matches!" Kyo said, slamming his hand into his fist. "first to score a blow wins. The only rule is no killing."
I snorted as he continued, standing up, "Weapons are allowed."
I looked over and saw Yuki standing there, his hand over his face. Arisa was still leaning on his pole, looking rather interested.
"People fight for their rice balls, even if they bleed, even if they lose an arm!" His voice grew more and more excited as he continued to speak. I wondered if all cats liked violence.
"Idea rejected." The entire class repeated at him except Yuki, me, and Tohru.
"What's with the attitude? I'm cooperating and giving my idea!" Kyo spat.
"What if we mix in some duds?" Yuki asked thoughtfully. I wondered if he'd even heard Kyo's idea or if he was just bouncing off Tohru's.
"Maybe people who buy three could choose one more for free, but some of the choices are duds?"
"Idea accepted!" Everyone including Tohru said. I didn't on the other hand.
"Why'd you go with his idea?" Kyo asked, spitting mad.
"Yours was to weird, Kyon-Kyon." The boy sitting in front of Kyo said.
"Don't pout about it Kyon-Kyon." The second boy said, putting a carefree hand on Kyo's head.
"Don't call me Kyon-Kyon." Kyo argued.
"Don't be mad Kyon-Kyon."
"Look, cats!" A girl in the classroom cried out.
"What?" Everyone looked over at where Kyo was sitting, a bunch of kittens on his head, lap, and hanging off his body. I sighed, closing my eyes and leaning my head back.
Kyo stood up, spraying the classroom with cats. "That's it! I'm out of here!"
He stormed out the classroom door, kicking it down. One of the boys who teased him called after him, "Wait, Kyon-Kyon! What's with those cats?"
I opened my eyes, glancing over at Saki who said, "Very odd."
Tohru and I gave a start.
"Don't worry, you're way ahead of him in oddness." Arisa said, the metal pole swung over her shoulder. "He's really hot-tempered though, huh? The polar opposite of our prince."
I looked over at where Yuki looked rather sad. I wondered what he was thinking.
🃏🃏🃏
"Let's play Rich man poor man." Tohru said, holding up a stack of cards once we had all settled back into class. Yuki was missing though.
"Go to freaking Yuki for that." Kyo said, looking out the window.
"But Sohma-Kun isn't here." Tohru said, sounding sad.
"Way to spoil my fun." Arisa complained, hand on her hip, "Your skulls' so thick, I figured you'd make an easy mark. But if you're running away from a real challenge, then you're not even a real man. Pathetic!"
Well, Arisa sure knew how to push people's buttons- and get them to do what she wanted through pride. I wished I could do that.
"Fine, you're on! Try not to cry when you lose, Gangster girl." Kyo said.
I was no Saki, but even I could feel the electrical storm in the air as they glared at each other.
"The loser's got to do everyone's cleaning duty!" Arisa said, making the stakes high.
"Ah, what a pleasant malestorm of waves." Saki whispered next to me, eyes closed, leaning into the electrical storm. I sighed, crossing my arms. But I wasn't really annoyed. As a matter of fact, I was starting to enjoy myself.
"I wonder where Soma-Kun went. . ." Tohru said, looking around.
I decided to watch as they started up Rich man, poor man, not really knowing the rules, and not being able to call out card turns when they came.
"Revolution!" Kyo called, tossing four cards into the stack.
"Jackass! What kind of sneaky move was that!" Arisa snapped.
"That's part of the game!" Kyo defended himself.
"Hmm, Revolution turns the strong cards weak so. . ." Tohru said, studying her cards.
Saki, whose back was towards the rest of us, hiding her cards, turned, flipping her cards right side up and said, "Secret Technique: Revolution Reversal!"
"Hey!" Kyo shouted.
I could hear faint footsteps outside the door. I was fairly certain they were Yuki's.
"She got you, Carrots." Arisa said to Kyo.
"Nice work, Hanajima-San." The black-haired boy said, leaning his arm on Kyo's head.
I looked up, meeting Yuki's eyes through the glass pane in the door. He looked so sad.
I smiled gently at him, lifting a hand as a wave, before turning back to the game. Now, he could come in or leave without feeling the need to give me a wave in return. I didn't want him to feel burdened.
"Looking lame there, Kyon-Kyon." The sandy haired boy laughed.
"Shut up! We're just getting started!" Kyo said, shrugging the boys arm off his head.
The next time I turned around, Yuki was gone.
🃏🃏🃏
"Rich man, poor man, huh? I know the rules, but I've never played it." Yuki said as Tohru, Yuki, and I waited in an almost empty classroom, watching Kyo clean up.
"I only learned it from Uo-Chan just recently." Tohru said excitedly. "You should join us next time! You too Elizabeth!"
'Not so easy for me to play if I can't call out turns right away'. My phone said for me.
"So he ended up the poor man, I see." Yuki said, not bothering to lower his voice so Kyo could hear.
"I should probably help out. . ." Tohru said, approaching Kyo rather gingerly.
"No. A loss is a loss." Kyo said, shouldering the mop like a sword. "But I'm going to win the next time, got it!" he said, turning back to mopping up the floor. "I'll beat you too, obviously." He said, pointing at Yuki. Yuki stared back passively, though Tohru started to look nervous again.
"Don't you ever get sick of saying that?" Yuki asked in a bored voice.
"Winning against you is my mission! My goal!" Kyo said starting forward, his fist clenched.
"Having to deal with that is my annoyance. My misfortune." Yuki replied back. I smiled at my feet. Watching, hearing them fight was almost endearing.
"That condescending attitude of yours pisses me off!" Kyo said, clenching his fist. I watched Tohru as she tried to make peace with the two of them.
"That simplistic thinking of yours pisses me off." Yuki said.
Where Kyo was shouting his insults, Yuki was delivering them simply. Almost in a bored manner. I think that ticked Kyo more.
"I'm going to make that ugly face of yours cry uncle one day!" Kyo yelled.
"Uncle." Yuki said with batting an eyelash.
That ticked Kyo even more. "Hey! Aren't you embarrassed to just come out and say that?!" If the Sohma's animals popped out at that moment, Kyo's cat ears would've been sticking up.
Tohru clasped her hands together in happiness, thinking about something completely unrelated to this fight probably.
"I'll beat you into the ground! Get ready, you cold-hearted rat!"
"Kyo!" Tohru shouted.
Yuki didn't flinch. He barely moved, leaning forward, one foot kicking upwards, connecting with Kyo's jaw. I turned away in distaste, starting to move out towards the door. Might as well leave if they were going to fight.
I was just exiting out the door when there was a single thump. There was a small tap as Yuki probably put his foot down and said, "Just looking at you makes my blood boil."
"Soma-Kun." Tohru called after him but he was already walking past me. I stopped walking, watching as he moved down the hallway, alone and angry. I knew how he felt, having to reject someone he might've come to like if he wasn't cursed.
I knew more than any of them how it felt to be cursed.
🃏🃏🃏
Tohru was rather quiet at work and after saying good night to the other ladies we worked with, we made our way out of the building.
I was a few steps behind her, thinking about my own problems, when she gave a yell. I snapped my head up and lunged forward, trying to grab her arm before she fell. I missed, mostly because she was already falling and she landed on her knees on the floor at the bottom of the stairs.
I jumped the last few steps and knelt down next to her, signing quickly. 'Are you alright?'
"It's dangerous to think while you walk." Tohru said with a sigh. Her cheeks were red, probably with embarrassment.
I could sense a Zodiac holder of the bunny nearby and I looked around.
I saw that directly in front of us was a little boy wearing red and pink. He had yellow hair and black sunglasses. I felt a longing to hug the little boy because I missed my own bunny very much. She really had been the sweetest thing. . .I should've helped her escape with me.
The boy was giggling.
"Good evening!" Tohru called out and the boy jumped to his feet, approaching us carefully.
He bent over Tohru's spilled things and said, "Tohur!"
"Huh?!" Tohru asked, sounding slightly frantic. I supposed I would be too if a boy came up to me and knew my name. I pointed to her book so she understood.
"Honda Tohru?" The boy asked, getting in her face.
"Y-yes, that's me!" Tohru said, taken aback.
"Sieh da! Welch ein Glück!" He took off his sunglasses and I saw that his eyes were a warm brown with flecks of green. His wears were pierced, I saw, small green studs that were almost microscopic. Did boys also pierce their ears? It seemed like a rather girly thing to do.
"Schon dich kennenzulernen." The boy continued, spreading his arms wide. I could Tohru's discomfort at not knowing how to respond, as she didn't know. . .well whatever language he was speaking.
"I-Im sorry! I don't speak English!" Tohru said quickly, waving her hands.
'Not English.' I signed to her but she didn't see me as she scrambled around to pick up her things.
The boy bent down, his arms behind his back, and kissed her cheek saying, "Sehr Hübsch!"
I smiled as Tohru's face turned bright red. The boy turned to me.
Tohru freaked completely. "THANKYOUGOODBYE!"
She sprinted out the door, the flyer for the cultural festival floating out of her bag.
I reached out, wanting to call after her, and remembered I was unable to do that. I turned to the boy, pulling out his phone and brought out my phone app.
'Nice to meet you. I'm Elizabeth Rao.'
"Ah." the boy said, looking a bit distraught. "I got so excited, I forgot to speak Japanese."
I smiled at him gently.
"You can't speak?" the boy asked. "Oh right, I'm Momiji Soma."
'Rabbit?' I asked him.
He looked surprised and then said, "Oh, yeah. I guess Shigure told you?"
I shook my head, 'Guessed'.
He seemed pleased, beaming. He was loud and cheerful, very different from the Bunny I had grown up with who was quiet, timid, shy. But I supposed that was how we were brought up.
"But why can't you talk?"
I shrugged and then said 'I don't know. I was able to. It came on all of a sudden. I've only not been talking since school started.'
"Maybe Hatori should look at you." Momiji said kindly, looking into my face. "He's a doctor. Maybe he'll know what's wrong with you."
'Maybe.' My phone chirped as I stood. 'I should get going. I'll see you later Momiji."
"Alright, see you around!" Momiji said, waving. I smiled and waved back.
Then I headed out the door.
Yuki had already taken Tohru home obviously as I exited the building. I shivered, feeling a little fearful at the sudden cool air. I hoped I didn't transform half-way home.
I decided to run, hoping that the run would warm me up, keep me from feeling the cold air. There was a slight feeling in the air that felt like it might start raining. I hated rain, though I liked swimming. Cold and rain would mean a definite transformation for me.
I had used to love transforming back. . . not home. I longed for the cold winter months. It meant I got left alone. It meant I got to feel like a majestic creature instead of a cowardly creature that ran when death came her way.
But now, with only a tent for warmth? Not with so many strangers around. Strangers who would not take kindly to a tiger on the streets- even if the tiger was harmless. It would mean police and animal catchers coming after me. A chase that would wear me out. Even worse would be if they caught me, the dangerous tiger would soon turn into a naked teenager.
Instead of dashing to my tent, I sprinted towards Shigure's house. I had reached the bottom of the stairs when the lightning struck and the sudden rain started. By the time I reached the top of the stairs and banged on the door, my hair was heavy with water, my clothes felt like weights, and I was minutes away from transforming.
"Rao-San?" Yuki's voiced echoed and then I felt a cold hand, leading me inside the house. "Stay here, I'll get you a towel."
It wasn't until I heard him rummaging in a closet that I realized I hadn't flinched away from his helping hand.
"Elizabeth!" Tohru's voice sounded excited.
I saw Yuki's hand presenting the towel to me as though not to startle me. I took it from him, signing 'thanks'. Tohru translated for me.
Yuki smiled at me and my heart skipped a beat. "No worries."
I used the towel to dry off my hair.
"I have spare clothes upstairs." Tohru said, taking my hand and leading me to the second floor. Her room was sparse, but neat and she laid out a pair of blue pajamas for me.
I signed to her that I would be good from here on out and she went back downstairs. I could hear Yuki asking Shigure about the weather. I pulled the pajamas on, laying down on the spare bed that Yuki had arranged for me while getting a towel. I spread my hair out on the towel, drifting off to sleep.
🃏🃏🃏
I woke up early, the sun not having even risen yet. I got up, padding to the bathroom. I stared at the water for a moment, recollecting from my dreams. I pulled out the tap, letting hot water run into the bath.
I wasn't entirely sure why I was doing this, acting like some sort of mother for Tohru and Yuki. But I felt like it was something I should do. I stopped the water once the bath was three-fourths full before going downstairs.
I pulled out eggs, butter, and cheese. I started to make scrambled eggs. I had never seen anyone here make them, nor had I eaten them since I'd left. . . not home. I thought maybe they'd like to try it, and if not- well I would have something extremely delicious to eat.
I used all twelve dozen eggs, making large portions for the five of us before setting the table. I poured milk into glasses and wondered if there should be anything else.
Fruit, said a voice in the back of my mind. I opened the refrigerator door. The only fruit in there was grapefruit. I took it out, peeling it quickly with my claws before setting it out on a decorative plate in the middle of the table.
"Tohru, what are you cooking?" Shigure asked as he entered the kitchen, then stopped at the sight of me. I blushed, clenching the plate in my hands.
I quickly put the plate down and picked up my phone.
'Tohru and Yuki are out protecting Yuki's garden. I cooked because I knew Tohru wouldn't be in to do it yet. I thought you and Kyo would be hungry.'
"Does this mean you've reconsidered Yuki's proposition and will come stay here too?" Shigure asked, following me to the sitting room where the food was waiting. "My, this looks delicious, if unusual."
'Food from my home country. I haven't gotten accustomed to making many Japanese dishes yet. And I'm not sure. I'm not like Tohru. I don't have a place to return to. I would just be a burden.'
"Hmmm." Shigure said, but didn't say anymore, digging into his eggs. "Oh, this is delicious."
My cheeks burned with pride.
As Shigure ate, I started the rice in the cooker, knowing that Tohru wanted to experiment with rice balls when she got back.
I put plastic wrap over Yuki, Tohru, and Kyo's meals, sitting down across from Shigure, starting to eat my eggs. "Tell me more about your Zodiac."
'First off, not my Zodiac.' my phone said for me.
But I told him about everything. About the power of names so they were always addressed by animal, the powers that were known, the animals whose powers were not known, punishments for different animals, the death, the carnage, the lulls, the banquets.
As I spoke, his normally teasing face turned more and more serious.
"Was it bad for the townspeople as well?" He asked.
Of course. Because that was who I was portraying myself as. I wasn't a Zodiac member, I was just one of the village people.
The question was hard to answer so I tried to remember the children I had seen before.
'Not at first. But when you grow up, things get worse. Maybe that's true for everywhere, but not when they decide you should be sent to the main estate. That usually never ends well for the village people. So I ran. Like a coward'.
Shigure was quiet, letting me eat the eggs and cheese. Once I stood up, taking his and mine plates to the sink, Yuki and Tohru entered the room.
"Oh!" Yuki said in obvious surprise at the food on the table.
'I'm sorry if I overstepped. I just knew that you and Tohru was out so I thought someone should make dinner and you did let me stay here last night so I'm trying to repay the favor.' My phone said.
"Well, thank you." Yuki said.
'I also ran the bath for you too so you didn't get colds and I put rice in the cooker for you Tohru.'
More surprise from Yuki, none from Tohru. Tohru, Arisa, and Saki were aware of my prophetic dreams (as I called them) and I was grouped in with Saki with her brain wave power.
"Thank you!" Tohru said cheerfully.
Yuki and Tohru ate their breakfast and Yuki went upstairs to take a nap, advising Tohru to do the same.
Shigure disappeared into his study. Tohru and I started to make rice balls.
It actually was fun, shaping the rice balls and I let her know that I thought we could make cat shaped ones. She loved the idea and we had fun shaping ears on the rice balls.
I could hear feet on the stairs which I knew were Kyo's. He entered the room, a blue towel over his head. "What's all this?" He asked, sounding crabby this morning. Or maybe he was just being loud. "Are you planning to start a rice ball business?"
"Oh, good morning!" Tohru said, smiling at him. I lifted my hand in a wave. "I'm experimenting with them to get ready for the culture festival. You're up early, as always."
I glanced over at the clock and saw that it was turning seven.
"No, this is a normal time." Kyo argued, draping the towel around his shoulders. His red and white bracelet fascinated me. Back on the island, the cat usually wore a necklace under his shirt. None of us knew what it was made of to keep him from transforming into his true self. I wondered what Kyos' was made of.
"Were you at the farm with Yuki all night?"
Tohru spooned fresh rice into her hands, "Ow, that's hot!" Then she answered Kyo, "Yes, we defended the vegetables from the typhoon."
Kyo made a noise in his throat, reached out, and took a rice ball, biting into it. "I'm particularly proud of that one. What do you think?" Tohru asked, smiling.
He threw the rice ball over his shoulder, dashing towards the sink, rinsing his mouth with water before gasping, "What were those?"
"Chive rice balls. Did it taste bad?" Tohru asked.
"I hate Chives." Kyo shouted. "What's wrong with salmon or octopus rice balls, anyway?" Kyo asked, lowering his voice and walking back over to our table. "Forget it, I'll make my own."
"Kyo-Kun, that's amazing!" Tohru said and I quickly slipped from the room, going into the forest to avoid the love fest.
I entered the room again to find that Yuki had shoved a chive rice ball into Kyo's mouth.
Copyright: I do not own any of the Fruits Basket characters, locations, or events. However, I do own Elizabeth Rao, Charis, and any other added characters that are not mentioned in the Fruits Basket Manga. I do not condone any copying of this to any other publications or platforms.
Suddenly, the doorbell rang.
Tohru went to speed down the hall, but I blocked her path.
'Stay here'. My phone said. 'Don't worry, them turning into animals is normal. I'll get the package.'
"Normal?" I heard Tohru ask weakly as I headed down the store. I signed for the package and brought it back upstairs.
Tohru had fallen to her knees, having released the animals. I knelt in front of her.
'Are you alright?' I signed.
"They're animals." Tohru finished weakly.
I sighed, picking up my phone and started to type furiously. 'Zodiac animal spirits like to go into human hosts. Yuki, Shigure, and Kyo just happen to be possessed by the rat, dog, and cat spirits respectively. Anyways, this is quite normal for them, though admittedly, you weren't supposed to find out. Every Zodiac family is very different. Some keep their existence a secret, some don't. The Sohmas are one of the Zodiac circles that keep their existence a secret.'
"Other Zodiacs?" Yuki asked.
"They talk." Tohru whispered.
'Yes, other Zodiac spirits. I grew up in a town on an island south of Sri Lanka where the Zodiacs ruled like a King. I was on the inside. I know you know what that means'.
"We turn human after a while." Shigure said.
At that moment, three pops of orange, blue, and green appeared and the were there, naked. I closed my eyes.
We regrouped in the living room. I was standing, leaning against the wall near Shigure's study. Yuki and Shigure stood in the living room as well, fixing the collars on their clothes. A wooden table on the floor separated them from Tohru, who was kneeling, her back to the outside. Kyo's back was to her, facing the outside.
"Sorry you had to see that." Shigure said, finally fixing the collar on his robe. "Are you feeling calmer now?"
"I've mostly processed things." Tohru said, still staring at her knees.
I could feel Shigure and Yuki continuously looking at me, but if they had questions- and I was sure they did- they didn't ask them. Not now anyways, not in front of Tohru.
Shigure sat down at the brown table and said, "Man, Kyo, you're such an idiot! Should a trained martial artist be so easy for a girl to sneak up on!" Shigure teased. "You really have eyes for no one but Yuki-Kun!"
I could practically see the hair standing up on Kyo's arms. I wondered if his ears ever perked up when he was anxious or anything. I made sure my hat was still over my head. I didn't need them to see my ears if they perked up.
"Don't make me sound creepy! And don't blame me!" Kyo said, turning around angrily, his fist red. His dark orange eyes glowed with hate. "What the hell are girls doing here in the first place?!" He pointed his finger at Tohru. His hand was shaking.
"Be quiet. It's none of your business if we have girls in this house." Yuki said. "You're an outsider."
I saw Kyo start at the words. Despite his arrogant attitude, I knew deep down he was a good person. The want to be in the Zodiac would never be something I understood. Not me, not someone who was trying so hard to get out of it. Yet here I was, in a Zodiac house.
Again.
But not really.
"Shut up!" Kyo started, and punched the table. It split in half, both sides rising upwards before he turned his attention to where Tohru was sitting. "Huh?"
Shigure turned his attention to Tohru. "Tohru-kun! You're bleeding!"
"Bleeding?" Tohru asked, looking upwards like she could see her own forehead.
I watched Kyo, saw his his eyes were wavering in something that might've been horror. I truly felt bad for him. He had just wanted to express his anger. He hadn't wanted to hurt Tohru.
I watched in slow motion as Yuki backhanded Kyo across the face. "I knew you were an idiot, but I didn't know you were this bad." He unbuttoned his shirt a button. I tried not to stare.
Kyo continued to stare at Yuki like he was a stranger he had just met on the street. "Out of respect for your sheer idiocy, I'll do you a favor. I'll fight you seriously."
Kyo looked at him differently now.
"Kyo. Don't bore me." Yuki said, raising a hand.
I looked away. I didn't care much for violence.
I could still hear Kyo shouting at Yuki, Tohru's weak attempts to stop them, Shigure reassuring her and telling her that Yuki would win.
On cue, I heard the smashing of the door and a loud splash that told me Kyo had landed in the water feature outside the house.
"He. . .He went flying. . ." I heard Tohru mutter.
"Yuki-Kun, don't go breaking my house too." Shigure complained.
"Honda-san." I turned to see Yuki kneeling in front of her, "Are you hurt badly?"
"I'm totally, completely fine." Tohru said with a smile and a wave of her hands. "But what about him?"
I could hear Shigure crying over his broken door.
'I'll fix it.' my phone said and Shigure looked up at me.
"I'm sure he's fine, probably." Yuki said as Kyo erupted out of the water, laying his face and chest on the stones, breathing air now.
"It's Kyo's mess." Shigure said, crying over already.
I shook my head, 'I want to.'
"Well, if you insist." Shigure said. I sat down, pulling the door towards me.
Suddenly, Tohru jumped to her feet saying, "Oh, no school! We'll be late! I'm so sorry to just leave like this! But it's important to me to get to school every day!" She bowed up and down like a puppet on a string.
"Of course-" Shigure said, with a kind smile, "You promised your late mother, after all. Still, I'll have to report what happened to Akito-San, the family head."
Yuki, who had gotten up and started walking away, stopped at the sound of Akito-San's name. Ah, Akito must be their God.
"'Family head'? That must be someone important." Tohru said.
My fingers had stopped over the door. God was someone to fear, God was always someone to fear. This Akito person was most likely evil, horrible, torturous.
"I understand." Tohru said with a smile and a bow of her head. "I'll go change my clothes now."
"Sure." Shigure said.
Tohru headed away and upstairs. I continued on the door.
"You're planning on having her memories changed, aren't you?" Yuki asked, not facing Shigure. "Just like back then. . ."
"No, I'm not, actually. . ." Shigure said, smiling at his knees. "We had no choice that day because of how many people found out."
"I'm going to school too." Yuki said, heading past Shigure now too. "At least fix the roof, stupid cat."
"Kyo-kun, look after things here, okay?" Shigure asked and then looked at me.
'Don't tell Akito about me. Or about the other Zodiacs. Gods aren't really supposed to know that others exist. It starts war. I think you'd rather avoid that'. My phone said for me, quietly enough so that Kyo probably couldn't hear it. 'Besides, even if Tohru's memories have to be suppressed, I've known since birth so it doesn't matter.'
"Okay." Shigure said, putting a hand on my shoulder before heading back into the house. Kyo stayed in the pond. I continued to fix the door.
🐶🐱🐭
I left before Tohru arrived back from school, before Shigure arrived back from the main house, and before Yuki came back from school as well. Kyo was in Tohru's room, fixing the hole in the ceiling.
I left without a word. I was getting good at it.
I headed back through the forest, climbing the tree, and going back into my tent. I hadn't had sleep for a long time, but I didn't feel tired. I should've- but I didn't.
I lied down on my bed, wondering about the pile of homework that was probably assigned today. With my luck, we would've been taught something new in math and I would fall behind. I couldn't really afford that.
The next day was Saturday. I snuck down to Shigure's house and found Tohru knee deep in what I supposed was the kitchen. But it looked like it had become the trash deposit as well.
Without waiting to be asked or stopped, I helped carry out the trash, excavate kitchen utensils or machines, wash the floors, walls, and windows. By the time Yuki got home, the kitchen was completely cleaned and Tohru and I had made dinner.
I nodded to Yuki as he passed me on the way out. "Oh, are you not staying, Elizabeth?"
I signed quickly and Tohru said, "She came to help me clean the kitchen and get her homework. She's leaving now. I already asked her to stay but she said she couldn't."
Tohru headed back into the kitchen and Yuki touched my shoulder. Embarrassingly, I reacted quite dramatically, jerking away, slamming my head into the doorframe, dropping my homework.
I stared at the fallen paper and signed 'sorry'.
"My fault." Yuki said, bending down, scooping up my papers, and handing them to me. "I forgot. You said you grew up knowing abuse. . .I apologize."
I shook my head. 'not your fault.'
"Are you sure you don't want to stay here?" Yuki asked. "I would insist but I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable."
I hesitated. I could have a home, but did I really want to intrude any longer? Yuki could sense my hesitation and he said, "Never mind. I won't press it. But if you want a place to stay, Honda-San will always have a spare bed for you."
I smiled in thanks and headed out of the house. I hurried away, listening carefully to make sure he wasn't following, and made my way back to the tent.
🐶🐱🐭
The next day, I sat with Arisa, Tohru, and Saki as I watched Kyo be surrounded by girls. They were chattering around him, asking him questions. I could see his shoulders tensing. He probably felt terrified, downright scared, at least uncomfortable.
Saki meanwhile, curled mine and Tohru's hair with a curling iron that she had gotten from somewhere. I had to close my eyes when she did it, especially if she got close to my face. I could feel the heat radiating from it.
Burning.
Fire surrounding me in a cage made of iron bars. Burns up and down my legs until Bunny was called to heal me so that they could do it again.
Maybe it was a blessing I couldn't talk anymore.
Much to my surprise, I didn't flinch away from the curling iron.
And then, Kyo was on his feet, running away from the girls. One of them tried to hug his arm and I quickly stepped in front of her, blocking her from getting to Kyo. She nearly pushed me into him before he dodged out of the way, opening up a classroom window, and jumping.
I closed my eyes, annoyed. I exchanged a brief look with Yuki and I knew we were on the same page.
Idiot.
Who in their right mind jumps from the third floor window? The other girls were crowded around the windows, gushing about how amazing he was. I sat down in my seat, watching as Yuki left the classroom, then Tohru.
I sighed. School passed. I went to work. Tohru was working there tonight as well and we walked back together. But I said good-bye to her at the bottom of the stairs. I darted off a different way, racing back to my tree, my tent. I climbed up the tree, sliding into the tent, and zipping it closed behind me.
I laid down on my stomach, feeling overwhelmed. Kyo had almost blown it today at school. I wondered how many memories would've had to been erased if he had been hugged by that girl. Of course, I supposed it would've been possible that he could've escaped first- probably jumping out the window again.
I rolled over onto my back.
I thought about how Yuki and Kyo fought, like a cat and the rat. Rat would never have dared fight with Cat back home.
Home.
What a strange word. Cause it never really felt like a place I belonged, did it? No, never. And home was supposed to be where you belonged. The island didn't even have a name, did it? So I had rendered it down to 'home'. I would have to come up with a name for it. Some fantasy name, some made up name.
I wondered if I would ever have a home.
Would I ever find love? Would I ever be comfortable around a man to become his wife? Bear his children? The thought made me shudder with revulsion.
I curled up into a ball.
I didn't really need that type of home though, did I?
But I did. At least, I wanted it.
Carefully, I reached out, grabbing a wooden box and opening it up. A couple dozen red balls shimmered up at me. I took out one, putting the box away. I popped the candy in my mouth, sucking on it slowly.
I watched all the good memories I had wash by. But I didn't really care about seeing my good memories, I was more interested at the last scene- the scene before everything faded, stopping the movie picture in my head. The scene that would show something that hadn't happened yet- my deepest wish.
And it came slowly, a blinding whiteness shining from me. My hair was black again, my eyes orange. My hands, unshaking, in the hands of a faceless man wearing a tuxedo. Everything was white except for a hint of pink flowers to the side of me, my hair, my eyes, and the man's black suit. Pink flowers in his lapel.
Then it faded. The sour cherry flavor settled in my mouth. I pulled a blanket over me. I couldn't afford to get cold. I couldn't afford to turn into a tiger.
Copyright: I do not own any of the Fruits Basket characters, locations, or events. However, I do own Elizabeth Rao, Charis, and any other added characters that are not mentioned in the Fruits Basket Manga. I do not condone any copying of this to any other publications or platforms.
In Mid-September, I left for school, taking another route and coming across Tohru, standing up high on a cliff, overlooking the ceiling.
She turned, hearing my footsteps at my arrival. "Elizabeth, hi!"
I smiled at her, easily.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Tohru asked.
I saw what she meant, seeing the city splayed out in front of me like small, shiny boxes. I nodded earnestly, wondering when my voice would come back. I suspected God had put some sort of curse on me, but what curse, I wasn't sure. Or maybe, I just couldn't speak now that I had found happiness.
Suddenly, a thin chiming noise grabbed her attention and we both looked to our right to see that the wind was blowing a little chime above the Sohma house.
The house was rather large, with at least two floors and lots of windows. It had a nice front garden with a water feature and a stone bridge. I had never learned what the chime thing hanging from the rafters was, but it was cute too. I had seen many of them in the windows of houses so I assumed it was a Japanese thing.
"A new discovery!" Tohru said and started towards the house. Reluctantly, I followed. I was afraid of getting to close to another Zodiac family, but at the same time, it didn't seem they had the power to sense me.
We were in the front of the house and Tohru stopped in front of the deck where something had been set out to dry. Painted and set up on a small box were twelve zodiac figures. They were oval shaped, painted on rocks. The first one I saw was the bunny, painted pink and adorable. The tiger was in front of it. It was equally adorable. They all were. Except Dragon's, painted an ugly green with dark green-gray spines.
I could hear footsteps approaching from somewhere and the ruffle of a newspaper while Tohru exclaimed, "How cute!" over the Zodiac figurines.
I pushed my hair out of the way, hoping to get a good look at who was coming before they surprised me.
It was Shigure, his black-gray hair spiked down in front of his eyes. A newspaper was in his hands and he was wearing a dark green robe. Or maybe it was called a. . .kimono I think. I wasn't entirely sure. Maybe it was a robe. I was fairly certain Kimonos were supposed to be prettier, fancier. He was barefoot. I could sense the dog vibes from him and I tried very hard to keep my hair flat.
I pulled my blue hat tighter over my human ears. I hoped my tiger ears didn't stick up.
"Well now." He said in obvious surprise. I supposed he didn't have any powers either. "It's not to often I see girls around here."
Ah great, so he was this kind of guy. Should've figured.
Dogs.
I was used to Tohru's panicked apologize by now not to get to embarrassed by her, "H-hello! I'm sorry! I was looking around without permission!" She bent up and down in swift, hurried bows, looking frantic.
I said nothing, bowing once slightly before straightening up to look at him.
"Go right ahead." Shirgure said, tucking his newspaper under his arm. He sounded kind enough. Maybe his first words hadn't meant anything bad at all. It could simply just be that the female population didn't come up here. "But wouldn't young people like you find this place boring?"
"No, not at all!" Tohru said quickly, waving her hands. "These Zodiac knickknacks are adorable."
I nodded as Tohru bent to get a closer look. Over my travels I had gotten used to people knowing about the Zodiac and then people actually knowing about the Zodiac.
"Ah yes. They are a favorite of mine too." Shigure said with a hint of a smile in his voice. I smiled too.
"These sets never seem to have a cat in them, though. . ." Tohru said and I looked at her in surprise.
Of course, I knew every Zodiac treated the cat differently depending on which version of the story the other Zodiac members grew up hearing. But in other culture that thought the Zodiac myth only, there truly was no cat- period. 12 months, that was it.
"Cat?" Shirgure asked, sounding surprised and then quickly exclaimed, "Oh! Are you talking about the cat from the old Zodaic folktale?"
I wondered how he thought, addressing himself as folktale. But I supposed whatever one must do to keep their secrets, they must do it.
"Yes!" Tohru exclaimed with a smile. "My mother used to tell me the story all the time."
I knew, from my visions, that her mother had passed away in May. She had been living with her Grandfather up until about a week ago. I felt bad for her, knowing that most people were sad when their parents died. Not relieved.
But I supposed I would always be different from the others.
I wasn't human after all.
Tohru repeated the story saying, "A long time ago God invited all of the animals to a banquet and he said 'I hereby invite you to a banquet I will hold tomorrow'. But the rat, who loved to play pranks, lied to his neighbor the Cat, and told him the banquet was the day after tomorrow. On the day of the banquet, the rat rode on the Ox's back then leapt easily down to arrive there first. After him came the Ox, the Tiger, and all the others and they all feasted merrily until dawn. All of them except the cat."
She drifted off for a second and then said, "I decided to stop being a dog and become a Cat."
"My, my!" Shigure said when she was done. "I wonder what he would say if he heard that."
Hmm? So the Cat was already born too? But of course, he must live separately from the others. I thought that might be lonely. If the dog and rat were already living alone, though together, the cat might be even lonelier.
"Pardon?" Tohru asked, confused.
"Anyway, you were born under the year of the Dog?" Shigure asked, getting closer to Tohru, "That makes me feel so close to you. After all, I'm a dog-"
Suddenly Yuki appeared from the door, dropping his bag on Shigure's head, cutting off his speech.
"-too." Shigure finished squeakily.
I actually smiled.
"Lay off the inappropriate flirting." Yuki said with a sigh, slipping his bookbag onto his back. "Are you alright, Honda-San? Rao-San? Did my cousin pull any funny business?"
I had learned that there were many different ways to address a person in Japan. So many different names to add after the last name or the first name and nicknames. It all depended on how close you were to a person and such.
"Oh, that really hurt." Shigure moaned, rubbing his head while Tohru flushed and bowed again, "S-Sohma-kun! Good morning!"
"Did you put a dictionary in there?" Shigure continued.
"Two in fact." Yuki said.
I smiled again.
Then Yuki smiled at both of us and said, "Good morning."
Despite the fact that I knew all Zodiac carriers were beautiful or handsome, Yuki's face still sometimes took my breath away.
"Oh, do you three know each other?" Shigure asked, looking up at Yuki while rubbing his head.
"This is Honda-San and Rao-San." Yuki said to Shigure. "They are in my class."
"I'm Tohru Honda. It's a pleasure to meet you." Tohru said, bowing again. She nearly dropped her bag.
I nodded, feeling shy all of a sudden which was unusual for me. I was quiet, I didn't talk, but I wasn't shy either.
"Oh. Well I'm Shigure Sohma. Yuki-kun's cousin." Shigure said, smiling.
"Say, what brings you two by here?" Yuki asked.
"Uh. . .I live near here." Tohru said, blushing fiercely.
"You. . . live near here?" Shigure asked in confusion. Of course, they must own all of this land so they would know any neighbors. I thought of my tent high up in the trees. At least they wouldn't find me. Tohru on the other hand probably had her tent on the ground. I could almost foresee them finding her soon. He looked at me.
I quickly signed to Tohru and she said, "Ah, Rao-Chan was just walking with me. Well, we better get going!"
We turned to walk away when Yuki called, "Honda-san! Rao-San!"
We turned back.
"Yes?" Tohru asked.
"Since you're here, why don't we walk to school together?" Yuki asked.
I blushed. So did Tohru.
As we walked, Tohru stayed quiet. So did I- not that I seemed to have much choice. Yuki was rather quiet too. The stairs down were long and many, but it was nice to be on flat ground after that.
"So, you don't talk?" Yuki asked me quietly. I blushed and signed to Tohru.
"She says that she used to, but she doesn't anymore." Tohru said quickly, unable to meet Yuki's eyes.
"Oh." Yuki said.
I blushed, looking away. I was happy to get to school, leaving Yuki behind. Tohru and I headed up the stairs to where our lockers were.
Almost immediately, we were cornered to by some of Prince Yuki fan-club members. I sighed with annoyance, the only noise I ever made besides laughing. These people.
"So what do you have to say about this Honda-San? Rao- San?" Black-haired, Gray-eyed Minagawa said, "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Prince Yuki's second-year representative Minagawa Motoko!"
"Ah, Prince Y-Yuki." Tohru said nervously, holding her hands up in front of her face. I just stared at the four girls standing in front of us. I supposed anyone else might call them bullies, but I thought they were to foolish and stupid to be considered bullies.
"There are core principles!" Minagawa said rather grandly.
"Never steal or touch the Prince's personal effects," The first girl said, getting rather close in our faces. I stared back bored.
"Never invade the Prince's house." The second girl said. I smiled, knowing from my dreams that Tohru would be moving in any day now.
"Never speak to the Prince unless someone else is present!" The third girl exclaimed. Tohru actually shrunk back from the third girl, looking rather overwhelmed.
"'Prince Yuki is the club dedicated to praising, loving, and protecting the prince who has graced our school with his presence." Minagawa said, grandly putting a hand to her heart, closing her eyes. I rolled my eyes.
"Honda-San! Rao-San!" Minagawa said, pointing a long finger in our faces, "You have publicly signaled your revolt against our well-disciplined club! Now let's have a clear explanation why you arrived at school with Yuki today!"
I laughed out loud. Then I signed the word: Bitch.
Tohru hesitated, deciding not to tell them what I had signed.
"It was a coincidence." Tohru said, smiling with her hands raised in surrender.
"If coincidence was good enough we wouldn't need the police." Minagawa said while the other girls chanted "That's right. What she said!"
"Hey! Don't make up crap and pick a fight over it." Arisa said from behind the other girls, making them panic. Arisa's gang behavior and the black waves that Saki gave off were enough to make anyone afraid. But not me.
All of the girls darted off to the other side, hiding behind Minagawa who waved her finger in Arisa's face and shouted, "Wh-what's your problem? You delinquents think threats solve everything?"
"I'll use evil waves to make you-" The words weren't even out of Saki's mouth before the four girls ran off, screaming their heads off.
"Uo-Chan, Hana-Chan, you saved me!" Tohru thanked them while Saki continued to stare after the girls. I could almost see electrical sparks flying from her eyes and I signed to her with my fingers, telling her she did a great job. She smiled a little at me.
"You poor thing. That was some bad luck." Arisa said, throwing her arms around Tohru's neck. "Hanajima, don't actually do the wave thing."
Saki calmed down, relaxing her shoulders. To my surprise, Arisa threw her arms me too and said, "I hope they weren't giving you a hard time, were they?"
I shook my head no.
We moved as the bell rang to Home economics room. It was basically like a cooking class where Tohru and I prepared the food before Saki and Arisa ate it. I hadn't had much of an appetite since my speech disappeared. I ate every few days, but nothing more. I didn't mind though. I found that I actually really loved cooking- and Tohru was very good at it.
"I gotta say though, you don't usually come to school with the Prince every day." Arisa said.
I signed to her that Tohru had only come to school with the Prince once and probably wouldn't happen again.
"Ay, good point." Arisa nodded.
"It made me nervous." Tohru admitted, stirring the pot of stew while I sprinkled herbs into it. She closed her eyes, blushing, "Sohma-Kun is too beautiful."
I grinned. He really was, but I was used to seeing such beautiful people.
"You know. . ."
Tohru, Arisa, and I looked over at Saki.
"His waves are quite strange." Saki continued, a large knife hiding half of her face. I looked downwards, grinning. She looked completely evil doing that but I knew she wasn't even trying. Other students on the other hand were backing away from her, even though they weren't working with her. She just radiated electrical energy. I thought she would've made a good Dragon, if she had hosted a Zodiac spirit.
"Here comes Hanajima's wave report." Arisa said with a slight roll of her eyes while Tohru tasted the stew.
"Strange in what way?" Tohru asked as Saki slid the knife into it's case.
"That's the thing. . .I'm not sure." Saki said. I remembered back to the first day of school. She had called the waves inhuman.
"True, he is a little mysterious." Arisa consented as we all turned to look at Yuki at another table. The people working with him were letting him cook, looking over his shoulder in awe. "When a second-year confessed her love to him a little while back and tried to hug him. . ."
I tensed, knowing that if he had been hugged, he would've transformed.
". . .he sent her flying. Scared the heck out of her." Arisa continued.
So he'd pushed her away? Hmm, perhaps not the most gentlemanly act, but I supposed if the Dragon wasn't born yet, there was no one to erase her memories so they had to act in secret.
"I didn't know that." Tohru gasped. I realized the three of them were still staring at Yuki, but looking around the classroom, they weren't the only ones. Nearly all of the girls were staring at him, and the boys he was working with were still looking in awe as he worked. I noticed on the other hand, that a lot of the boys' glances were at me, though they never looked long, perhaps fearing the wrath of Arisa or Saki.
Of course, I had had a few boys approach me and it had been awkward as I hadn't been able to convey that I wasn't interested in them. Half the boys weren't even bad but I couldn't stand the idea of being with a boy, letting them touch me in any way, even holding my hand.
I clenched the wooden spoon in my hand as flashbacks rushed into my mind with Dragon or Snake or Cow, sometimes all three. In bed, clothes off, touching me, hurting me.
"Elizabeth, are you okay?" Arisa asked. I looked up at her and nodded.
"Anyways," Arisa continued as we all sat down. Saki started to spoon rice into bowls. "I'm going shopping with Hanajima after school today. Do you two want to come along?"
"Ah, sorry, I have to work today." Tohru said.
"Right, you promised to pay your own tuition, didn't you? That's rough." Arisa said.
"But you work almost everyday." Hana said, spooning rice into a bowl for me and handing it to me. "That shouldn't be necessary for just tuition, surely?"
I put my bowl down in front of me, picking up a pair of chopsticks and breaking them apart.
"I'd like to start living on my own after I graduate though. I have to start saving now!" Tohru said, looking determined. Saki handed a bowl of rice to Arisa.
"You're gonna make me cry! Eat up, Tohru! Build your strength!" Arisa said, slamming her hand on the table.
I laughed. Arisa turned to me, "Do you have to work too?"
I shook my head and signed that I would come with her and Saki to go shopping.
"Ah right! Awesome!" Arisa said, looking pumped.
School passed, homework was doled out, and I closed my locker, going outside to join Arisa and Saki.
They led, talking and laughing. I laughed with them, signing when I wanted to say something. Tohru knew my signs better than anyone, but Arisa had gotten the hang of it and Saki could read my waves and usually figure out what I was trying to say.
Or, I just typed words out on a phone. Phones were an amazing thing that I had discovered. Simply extraordinary. I had even found an app that I could text my words and it would speak for me.
And music! Never had I heard anything like it. And knowing both English and Japanese meant a diverse amount of music to explore.
"What store do you want to go to first, Elizabeth?" Arisa asked as we finally came to the shopping mall.
I hesitated, looking at all the different brands, stores, food courts, and everything in between. Finally, I pointed to a store called BEAMS JAPAN. I had been meaning to get clothes that wasn't a school uniform or work clothes. I wanted regular clothes.
Arisa and I shopped- nothing was black enough for Saki. At the end, I had two pairs of blue jeans, one blue skirt that was plaid and striped with white, and two blouses, one red and another black.
We went to a few more stores, some clothing where I found cute hair accessories, some makeup where I found a new lipstick, or food where I let Arisa and Saki order whatever they wanted and then smooched off them.
I found a cute bunny charm to add to my backpack in one of the other stores. Arisa asked if I wanted to get my ears pierced, something I didn't really understand. I didn't understand why someone would let a needle go through their ear just to put another needle through it with something on it.
I nodded my head though. Another difference, another change. The studs that went into my ears were red. I liked them very much, though I would've liked blue better. But when asked for my birth month I'd said July, and Ruby was the birthstone of July. Arisa and Saki each bought me one pair of earrings, giving them to me as a gift.
"It's the first thing we've ever gotten you." Arisa said, giving me a hug. "To cement our friendship."
I felt tears pool up in my eyes and I quickly turned my head so they wouldn't see them. I had never been given a gift before and I was touched.
Saki hugged me too and at the next store, I bought them each a little charm, offering the dolphin to Arisa and the black cat to Saki. I signed: to friendship.
Arisa almost starting crying at that, scooping me up into such a bone-crushing hug I thought I would pop. But I smiled all the same. I put the orange cat charm for Tohru in my bag, a slight smile on my face because of it. His name would be Kyo. He would be an orange cat.
I headed home soon after, avoiding the Sohma house and climbing high up into my 'house'. I set my bags aside, puling out the clothes and examining them. I couldn't wait for a day to wear them.
🏯🏯🏯
I woke up in the middle of the night to a wolf howling. Far away, I could hear dirt sliding. A mud slide, something had caved.
I sat up from the thin sleeping bag that I called a bed. I listened harder, closing my eyes. I could hear three sets of footsteps, rushing towards the site where the dirt had slid. I wondered what was there. I could briefly hear voices, perhaps a girl and two men. But they were too soft for me to make out whose voices they were, though I had my guesses.
I opened the tent opening quietly, hoping from the tree. I made my way towards where the cliff had caved in and saw Shigure leading Tohru away from the mudslide. I could see the edge of a blue tent poking up through the dirt. Yuki followed behind them.
I waited for a moment, unsure of what to do. Then I thought of how Tohru had welcome me so nicely into her friend group and I made up my mind.
I called for any tigers to come, to help me. Two showed up, both male, and absolutely gorgeous. We started to dig, to carefully move the dirt away from the tent. I would excavate the tent.
A few minutes later, I heard approaching footsteps. I banished the tigers from my mind and at the same time, they were gone, running back to wherever they had come from.
"Rao-San?" Yuki's voice said from behind me, but had not startled me.
I stood up slowly. His eyes were glowing in the moonlight, quickly fading as I turned to see him.
I came to free tent I signed to him and then realized he had no idea what I was trying to say. I picked up a thin stick and wrote the same words in the dirt.
"But how did you know?" Yuki asked.
I hesitated and then wrote 'a dream'.
"Do your dreams always come true?" Yuki asked hesitantly.
'Almost always'.
"Oh." Yuki said.
I turned back, dropping the stick, continuing to move dirt away from Tohru's tent.
"Are you afraid of rats?" Yuki asked.
I thought back to rat, who was a timid young girl with gray hair and purple eyes. I shook my head. I was not scared of rats.
Immediately, a couple hundred rats were there, scraping dirt away. I didn't even blink. So, he had the power to call his familiar animal to him as well. Interesting.
After an hour or two, the tent was free. Yuki and I pulled it free, pulling it to the yard. He was being very careful not to bump into me. I guessed that was the good thing about me being able to sense his spirit- I didn't care if our bodies met.
Dragon on top of me, one hand on my neck.
Snake, his lips on my breasts.
Cow, his fingers inside of me, clutching.
I stumbled, squeezing my eyes shut, leaning against the tent. I gasped for breath.
"Rao-San?" Yuki asked in concern.
I picked up the stick and wrote 'I'm fine. My name is Elizabeth.'
My hands were trembling as I unzipped the tent. I wrote with the stick 'I'll hand you the things. You put them in bags.'
I climbed inside the tent. There was a bookshelf inside somehow where all of her books were in, a cap on the table. A black flashlight dangled precariously over her sleeping spot.
I started to hand him the textbooks, flashlight, mother's picture, and all the other things out of the tent. He put them dutifully in paper bags that he had brought with him. We worked in silence, something that I hadn't realized was bothering me until I looked at him.
I grabbed my phone and type out, 'What's wrong'. The voice sounded in the air, making him jump. I gave him an apologetic smile before typing out 'sorry.'
"It's alright." Yuki said, picking up the bags as I crawled out of the tent. I started to fold it up. "The voice scared me. I thought you were talking."
I smiled at him and type out. 'I wish.'
"I apologize. It was insensitive." Yuki said quickly.
I shook my head. 'I don't mind'.
"If you come back with me to Shigure's home, I can walk you back to your house. It's dangerous walking out here so late at night by yourself."
I smiled at him and type out. 'I'm okay, I live nearby.'
"Don't tell me you're living in a tent too!" Yuki said with a small smile and tilt of his head. I averted my eyes from his, not wanting to get captivated by his eyes.
'Don't worry. I might be homeless, but I'm not staying on your land.' the voice from my phone said.
"You're homeless?" Yuki asked, looking hesitant. "How about you stay at our home tonight? You can stay in the same room as Honda-San."
I hesitated and then thought of Kyo coming. It would be best if Tohru had someone who could understand there to help her. I nodded quietly and then followed Yuki back to the house.
Yuki showed me to the living room where Tohru was sleeping soundly. I sat behind her, my back to the wall.
Yuki was leaning against the wall. "Do you know everything she's been through?"
I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be an accusation, a test of our friendship, or if he was just seeing what I knew. I nodded my head.
"She's lucky to have friends like you." Yuki whispered softly.
I looked up at him in surprise. Was he lonely? He didn't seem lonely at school, always surrounded my boys and girls who liked him.
'Are you lonely?' The voice on my phone said.
Yuki was silent for a moment and said, "I don't know."
'I'm lucky to have a friend like Tohru'. The phone voice said. 'I'd never had a friend before. Not really. I had a hard life, cruel parents, abuse, the likes I guess. So I never had friends. I was a freak. I moved away, ran really. Tohru was the first person to willingly reach out to me. I'll never forget it.'
I reached out, brushing a curl away from her mouth. I truly loved Tohru like I had never loved anyone else.
"Get some sleep, Rao- Elizabeth I mean." Yuki said.
I smiled up at him, 'You too, Yuki-San.'
He disappeared and I looked up at the ceiling until morning came.
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I watched as Tohru stirred, her eyes blinking open before she jerked upright. She looked like she was going to panic so I stepped in front of her, handing her mother's photo to her. "Rao-san?" Tohru asked uncertainly, looking down at the picture.
"Ah, good morning, Honda-San, Elizabeth." Yuki's voice said from behind me. He bent down to pick up the paper bags that contained the rest of Tohru's belongings. "I'll take these upstairs for you. You can stay here until the renovations are done. And Elizabeth, you're welcome to share a room with her, if you'd like."
I blushed. I hadn't wanted Tohru to know about my situation. Not yet.
"Huh?" Tohru asked.
Yuki turned to look at her with his penetrating purple eyes. "I know it's a bit of a mess, but we have a spare room on the second floor."
"I couldn't possibly!" Tohru almost shrieked.
"The bedroom doors have locks on them." Yuki said uncertainly. I snorted, knowing that if they really wanted to, either of them could knock the door down with a single punch.
"That's not what I meant." Tohru said, blushing and shaking her head, her mother's picture clutched to her chest.
Shigure slid out of the living room behind her and said, "Tohru-Kun, do you like chores? Like cleaning and cooking, for example." He looked into Tohru's face, an unusually serious look on it.
"Um, yes I do. . ." Tohru said, leaning back from him, just slightly.
He continued to stare at her for about four seconds in seriousness before leaning back, raising his fan, and with a silly smile on his face said, "Welcome to the Sohma household!" He walked past her, still being cheerful saying, "You're room hasn't been aired out so open a window, okay! Oh, and I'd better get you a copy of the house key."
Well, they were rather persistent, weren't they? Tohru looked at my guiltily.
'I know. You were staying in a tent. You should be happy here though'. My phone said.
Tohru blushed and looked back at Yuki and Shigure's backs. "No wait! I can't do this to you! It would be causing you too much trouble!"
"We don't consider it trouble, so just accept the offer." Yuki said kindly to Tohru and nodded to me. "You don't have anywhere else to go anyways, right?"
I bristled at that comment, even as he turned and continued to walk away from us.
"Oh, what do I do?" Tohru asked.
'You could live here' My phone beeped. 'I think you should'.
She ran after Yuki. I stayed on the front porch before dipping back into the living room. I was glad that Tohru was going to be living here, but I most certainly wouldn't. I couldn't stand the idea of living in the house with boys.
Dragon, tying my hands to the bedpost. Snake, sliding my skirt off my hips, his cool wet tongue on my already bare stomach. Cow, clenching my hair in his fist.
I sunk to my knees, overwhelmed. I was the tiger. I should be stronger than this.
Suddenly, I heard a crash upstairs.
Tohru.
I jumped to my feet, dashing out of the front porch, skidding around the front door, darting inside and up the stairs.
"Yuki-Kun," I could hear Shigure's voice further down the hall. "Was that Kyo I hear?"
I darted to where Shigure was cowering slightly in the front doorway. Tohru's room was a mess. Wood was splintered everywhere in the room, a gaping hole in the ceiling. Tohru was on the floor, kneeling over a bunch of clothes.
"I. . .I'm so sorry! Are you alright?! Um. . ." Tohru said, sitting up and holding up a bright orange cat. Yuki had a hand over his face in annoyance.
"Oh, boy." Shigure said, a hand cupping his chin.
"He turned. . ." Tohru started.
"That idiot." Yuki said, not even looking at the orange cat in Tohru's hands.
". . .into a cat." Tohru finished.
Tohru immediately panicked, shaking the cat furiously. "I-is this my fault! I hit him wrong somehow and turned him into a c-c-cat!"
"Okay, the thing is. . ." Shigure started behind me, scratching his cheek, and looking guilty. I stared impassively into the room.
Yuki walked past her, towards me, gauging my reaction.
'Normal?' my phone asked.
"He needs a hospital!" Tohru continued, turning. A piece of falling wood slammed into her head, knocking her dizzy.
"Tohru-Kun!" Shigure said.
"Honda-San!" Yuki said.
She fell into them and they turned into a rat and a dog.
Copyright: I do not own any of the Fruits Basket characters, locations, or events. However, I do own Elizabeth Rao, Charis, and any other added characters that are not mentioned in the Fruits Basket Manga. I do not condone any copying of this to any other publications or platforms.
I traveled to many different countries in my attempt to put as much distance between myself and the others.
It didn't really help that no one knew where I came from. They told me that there was no land south Sri Lanka. So essentially, I came from nowhere. I guess it made sense considering that anyone who came to our island wasn't allowed to leave. Therefore, it had never been put on a map. The mass of land that I had landed on was called Sri Lanka. Neither my English or Japanese was much help there.
I discovered that there was also a Zodiac group there with only half the animals and no God. But even without God, watching from a distance, the Zodiac was even worse than the one I had left. I steered clear. The humans were not to bad either. But still, a bit uncomfortable.
I traveled to a few more countries, making my way steadily north and east at the same time. India, then Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Philippines, Taiwan, and then Japan. I had made a fair amount of money in my time in each country, getting a quick job, picking up languages, learning more for school, and then moving.
Each country that I went to, I was drawn to certain cities and found that Zodiac people lived there. Some of them were nice Zodiacs, with a loving community that genuinely cared for each other. Others were as cruel as mine or crueler.
In some of these Zodiacs, they went with a different version of the Zodiac banquet story and the Cat was seen as an animal to had missed the banquet, rather than the animal who didn't want to live forever- as mine believed.
Some Zodiacs didn't even turn into their animals, simply hosted the spirits, some did turn- but not because of hugging the opposite sex, and so on. Some Zodiacs knew that others existed, some were completely unaware that there were other Zodiacs just like them. Some Zodiacs had powers or enhanced gifts due to their animals, others had no such special gifts.
It was so strange, seeing how different every Zodiac was. But as far as I could tell, my Zodiac still remained the only one that didn't let the animals tell each other their names.
But there were similarities between all the Zodiacs. All humans who hosted Zodiac spirits were handsome with goods looks. They also all had strange hair colors and eyes. They all were extremally rich with a rather large family- a main family and insiders, then outsiders. And in every Zodiac with a Dragon, the dragon could always erase others' minds.
I never stayed for long at any of the Zodiacs. They were what I was trying to escape, they weren't where I wanted to be.
When I reached Japan, I felt like it could be my first real home. I felt drawn to a rural area in Tokyo so that was where I went.
Though I was eighteen, I enrolled at Kaibara Municipal High School as a 'Sophomore' as they called it.
I also changed my appearance slightly, having gotten used to looking different. I changed my hair to a lighter brown and wore brown contacts. I had never really liked my pitch black hair and my orange eyes always seemed to unsettle others.
I lived in the forest of unused- though owned- property in a tent. I had put the tent high in the trees, where I was most comfortable, tied down tightly with rope and bungee cords. If I looked out the tent and tilted my head, I could see the house that hosted the Sohmas. Two of them anyways. One of them was much older than me, and the other was younger than me, though I was pretending to be the same age as him.
I had to work, mostly to keep myself from going hungry and to pay my fees at school. The rest went into a special box so that I could eventually buy a house. I was one for long-term goals.
School wouldn't start for a while so I wasn't all to worried at the moment. I had plenty of time to make lots of money and I was actually excited about starting school. It meant that I could meet people- normal people- make friends, learn, and most importantly, be happy.
I had no idea what happy meant. I had never experienced happy before, but looking at everyone in town, happy looked like a good time, a pleasant thing.
I also studied the two Zodiacs in the house near me. The younger boys name was Yuki. He had silver hair, almost purple eyes, a fair face, and a pale complexion. He was the rat. I could sense it about him, could tell by his hair.
The older man's name was Shigure. He was in his twenties and he was the Dog. But unlike the Dog I had grown up knowing, he seemed to have no sense of smell, only a connection to wolves and dogs.
The fact that it was just the two of them made me wonder if they were the only Zodiac animals born in their family name. After all, not every Zodiac was completed. Though I had never come across one with only two members. The least amount was in Sri Lanka with five. I supposed though, that each one was very different.
They seemed rather happy, Shigure seemed like a happy, annoying person. Yuki seemed rather stoic, sad almost, but nice too.
The changes in my life seemed so big to me, but they must've seemed small to others. But they were the biggest things in my life. I had never had a job before, I had never gone to school before, I had never been free before.
I had never gone so long without being punished, without being shoved into some sort of contraption meant to terrify me. I had never gone so long without Dragon roaming my mind, without Sheep putting me to sleep and giving me realistic nightmares.
I had never gone so long without seeing fire.
I had never gone so long being alone.
Alone was nice.
I had never gone so long not talking. I didn't have to talk at work as I was doing a simple night cleaning routine at a large office building downtown.
School started.
I got dressed in my tent, looking at myself in a hand mirror.
I liked the changes to myself. I liked how my brown hair looked, now that it was lighter. I liked my brown eyes. I liked the way blue looked on me.
The uniform was a short blue skirt with a white shirt and blue jacket over it. Knee high black socks and black shoes. I had tied back my hair with a blue bow. My eyes looked so big and sad in the mirror.
I tried smiling, but it didn't look right on me.
I picked up the light pink backpack that I had bought with some of my savings, putting it on my shoulders.
"I'm going to school Bunny." I whispered to nothingness. "I wish you were here."
I unzipped the tent, climbing out onto the branches, zipping it closed again. I leaped from the top of the tree, landing on the ground. I started to walk, avoiding the house, and making it to the high school.
I hesitated, looking at just how big and overwhelming the place looked, now that it was full of students.
"Hi!" A bright voice said behind me.
I turned to see a girl who looked similar to me, though a little younger standing there. Her brown hair was tied back with pink bows.
I opened my mouth to say hi, but nothing came out. I hadn't realized I was so shy.
"I'm Tohru Honda!" The girl said, still sounding quite excited. "Are you new here?"
I nodded my head, still unable to talk for some reason. But I didn't have to worry, she did almost all of the talking.
I found that we had the same class together, so I followed her to the classroom.
The school was rather big, with long, wide hallways, a courtyard, and large windows. So much like came in through the windows. The doors to the classroom were green, metal, and slid sideways.
In the classroom that was called 'homeroom', Tohru introduced me to a tall girl with blond hair whose name was Arisa Uotani. The other was a black haired girl who seemed rather calm, looking at me peculiarly. Her name was Saki Hanajima.
"You have very interesting waves." Saki said quietly.
I blushed, confused, not entirely sure if she was criticizing me or complimenting me.
"Ah and here we go about the waves again." Arisa said with an eyeroll. "What's your name kid?"
Being called kid by someone younger than you isn't entirely a compliment, but I still didn't seem able to say anything.
So I wrote it out.
"Elizabeth Rao!" Tohru seemed so excited about my name.
"That's foreign?" Arisa asked, standing and stretching. She was much taller than me, taller than Tohru and Saki. I was about the same height as Tohru, despite the age difference and I wondered if they were all going to get taller than me. I hoped I didn't stay this short forever. I'd have to eat better probably.
I nodded.
"Do you know Japanese?" Tohru asked.
I nodded again.
"Oh." Tohru said, seeming a little confused.
I looked away, blushing again.
And then, he entered the classroom.
I looked up, sensing the rat's presence.
Immediately, a hundred admiring girls were goggling at him.
"Ah and the Prince's fan club is at it again." Arisa said with what sounded like an exhausted sigh. "Can't they ever drool over someone else?"
"His waves are also strange." Saki said, looking at the prince. "Like Elizabeth's. Inhuman."
I felt my heart pounding. I hadn't even been in the school for one day and already someone suspected me of being Zodiac? Of being an animal?
"Hana, that's just rude." Arisa said and smiled at me, "She doesn't mean it. She just relies on her waves quite a bit."
I smiled hesitantly back and then dropped it, remembering how awful the smile look on my face in the mirror.
But as the days passed and days turned into months, I started to smile easier and even laugh. There was a lightness in my chest. I was sure that was what was called happiness.
Tohru started working at the same place I did and we got the cleaning done faster than ever, the two older woman letting us take over.
So many changes.
But the biggest change of all was that I had stopped talking.
Warnings: Not necessarily for this chapter, but this entire trilogy will contain physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. There is descriptive torture in some of the story as well as triggers like Rape/Non-con sex. I will obviously put warnings before chapters, but this is a forewarning for the entire book before you even start just so you know what you're getting into. There are also going to be mental health triggers/issues like insomnia, going without sleep/eating, etc.
For this chapter in particular, it goes over the forced marriage and a vague description of how her forced husbands had left her.
Copyright: I do not own any of the Fruits Basket characters, locations, or events. However, I do own Elizabeth Rao, Charis, and any other added characters that are not mentioned in the Fruits Basket Manga. I do not condone any copying of this to any other publications or platforms.
I suppose I could say it started when I was born. Or maybe, if I want to be fair, I could say it happened a long, long time ago, when God invited all of the animals to a banquet and only thirteen of them showed up. Foolishly.
Thirteen? No, the Zodiac has twelve animals, you might say, and you would be correct.
But in my Zodiac, the one that I grew up in, the Cat was always a part of the Zodiac, one of the most feared creatures. More fearsome than Dragon or Snake or Tiger. The Cat never left the side of God, the most feared above all of the Zodiac.
In my Zodiac, every animal had some sort of power that they were born with. Rooster could take down other animals with different frequencies of his voice, Bunny could heal others, Tiger could see the future, Dragon could erase others minds and even see into their minds, Snake could create illusions and so on. Not all of the powers were known.
Most of the humans burdened with a Zodiac spirit lasted twelve years, sometimes twenty-four if they were lucky enough.
For my Zodiac was brutal, full of death, punishment, and fear. Our spirit was passed to children by the death of the human hosting the Zodiac spirit. If a child was born in the year of the Sheep, for example, then the human hosting the sheep spirit would be slaughtered before the child's birth so that the child could host the reborn spirit of the Sheep.
Terrible, horrible, I hated it.
Growing up, you were God's property. He or she did whatever they wanted. And there were punishments, torture, that was called schooling or teaching.
For instance, for the Tiger. The Tiger hated cages and fire, so inevitably, if the Tiger was bad, it was forced into a cage, usually to small to hold it, and surrounded with fire. Similar punishments were held for other animals.
Every few years, God would allow a period where human hosts didn't have to be slaughtered. Instead, they could marry, and have children, strong children, that would naturally be born with their spirits. It would make the animal spirits stronger, being born from two fellow Zodiac spirits.
I happened to be in one of those lulls.
I was seventeen when the marriage pronouncement was made.
Marriage. What a dreadful word.
Us girls would line up in front of the boys. If there were more girls than boys, it usually meant that the unchosen girl or girls could marry village boys. But if there were more boys than girls, then the unchosen girl was forced to bear as many leftover boys as there was. They would choose, one by one, the one they wanted.
What do you know? That girl was me. Three boys to share me.
I hadn't realized my life could get any worse than it already had been. But once I realized I was last chosen, I realized things would get worse.
Three years passed.
The lull ended. Our years were coming up, if a child was born in our year, we would be slaughtered.
Another year passed, my year came up, someone got pregnant. I knew what it meant. It meant my life was over. I was to be slaughtered.
So I ran.
It had not been easy.
For one thing, I had to escape my bonds. The boys- men now- who shared me, were not lenient to letting me free when they were not around. So, like most of the other girls who were 'married', I was tied to the bed before their return.
I was lying there, shredding my bonds with my claws. Stupid really, they should've known to put me in metal bonds. But though Dragon, Snake, and Cow were rather fearful and strong animals, they weren't particularly smart.
God would be so angry when he found out. I had to make sure I got out of here. If God caught me before I escaped, I was worse than dead. Dead would mean no more pain. God would torture me until the unborn child came for my spirit.
The ropes fell to the floor with soft thumps.
I wasn't wearing anything, and quickly grabbed a long T-shirt that was Snakes' to cover my body and ran. I carried a pair of black boots in my hands. Money was tucked into the shoes along with vinegar.
The village was still light out and so, though there was no cover, this was when work was busiest, and the men would stay in the buildings. Most buildings had no windows, so there was no fear of being seen.
I knew Dog would soon be on my heels if I didn't cover my scent soon. I used a flask of vinegar, pouring it as I ran, then backtracked, and took a different route out of the island. Dog couldn't smell through vinegar, just as I couldn't smell through alcohol. Every animal had a smell they couldn't stand. Dogs had a lot of smells they couldn't stand. Vinegar was just the easiest to use.
I found myself near the edge of the beach, hiding up on top of a hill, hiding in the trees. There was a strange energy in the air as I watched the men start pulling in the boats.
I felt my breathing quicken.
These were not Zodiac men, they were normal men- some native, some captives. Our people did not let anyone who came to our island leave. Some were slaughtered, some married into the Zodiac, some just lived happily- or quietly- like these fishermen.
Our Zodiac spirits were no secret. Everyone on the island knew that thirteen children- almost adults now because of the lull- turned into animals. Sometimes, when we were younger and were allowed to go down to the village, the other kids would hug us, to watch us turn into animals.
I never did anything to the children, who oohed and awwed over my lovely fur and liked to pet me. It was one of the few times that I assumed I might be loved. But the others, like Dragon or Dog or Boar- they hated it.
Dragon of course, didn't turn into a real dragon. But he turned into a Komodo Dragon and everyone feared him.
There were different types of dragons, which I had heard about through stories. Many different forms that the Dragon could take: sea dragon, dragonfly, Komodo dragon, bearded dragon, Chinese water dragon, black dragonfish, common flying dragon, and on very rare, very special occasions, an alligator or something called an Axolotl.
Depending on the feelings of the human host would depend on the spirit of the dragon. Nice Dragon hosts usually turned into sea dragons or dragonflies. Sometimes the dragonfish or common flying dragon. Mean spirited hosts were the Komodo dragon, Chinese water dragon, bearded dragon. No one knew what type of spirit was required for an alligator or Axolotl. But apparently there hadn't been one in over five hundred years.
I turned my attention back to the fishermen, working peacefully, talking to each other as they worked. But they were not working without watchful eyes. I could see two guards, standing up on the rocks, to stop the men from leaving. The boats were for fishing only.
I shivered in the cold. I judged from the sun that I had maybe twenty minutes before Dragon, Snake, or Cow discovered I was missing. Maybe all three. Then three minutes before they let God know, another two minutes before Dog was told, and then the true flight would begin.
I waited in patient anxiety as the men started to put boats away. I would have to destroy all but one boat so that they couldn't come after me. Destroying boats would waste time.
Unless I set them on fire. . .
My nails dug into my skin, drawing blood. I hated fire with a passion. I quickly wiped the blood on my- Snakes- shirt. I couldn't afford to leave a blood trail. Dog would find me quicker.
Another thing about us Zodiac on this island. We didn't know each other's names. Knowing each other's names was a powerful thing. Names had power. So we called each other by our animals. Everyone called us by our animals. Normal people didn't have to worry about sharing their names. Sometimes, I listened with envy to people in town- when I was allowed in town- as children called out to friends by their names. They seemed so human.
Unlike me.
I was not human.
None of us were.
The fishermen started up towards the rocks and the guards turned their backs on the beach. Within a few minutes, they were gone.
I wasted no time, pulling on the boots, feeling the money against my toes, and sprinted down the sand. I broke the padlock with a swift punch before pulling out a boat.
I hesitated, looking at the other boats. Then, taking a deep breath, I took the flint out of the shirt pocket. I couldn't waste time and I had to face my fear. I quickly flicked the flint against the wood and a fire started immediately.
I nearly threw it as far from me as I could. Instead, I managed to controllably toss it into the first boat. The fire started to grow. I dragged the boat with me till I reached the water, putting the canoe in the water.
I pushed it out to sea, climbing in. I had braved fire, now I had to brave water. But to be fair, my animal spirit had no particularly fear of water- I just didn't know how to swim.
I started to row as fast and strongly as possible, heading away from the mainland. I had no idea how far this island was from any other civilization.
We were in what the captives of the island called 'The Bermuda Triangle'. I didn't know what that meant, just that apparently planes and boats that came around here never returned.
Very true. God made sure to sink and crash anything that could even possibly see our island. That way we would always be a secret to the outside world. So that no one would come and bother us.
I also knew nothing about the outside world. We didn't learn anything about the other world here. We learned two languages that teacher called English and Japanese. We learned something called math and something else called science. And of course, we knew how to read. But that was about it. We weren't expected to live more than thirteen years. (The period between our birth and the next time our year came up).
In my knowledge however, we weren't the only civilization in existence. Obviously, these other people came from somewhere else.
But I also had no idea what awaited me on these other islands. What if it was just as bad as the place I was leaving?
But at least, I thought, there would be no God to control me. No more God, no more Snakes or Dragons or Cows or Dogs. I'd miss Bunny though. She was sweet.
Bunny was the only one I could've called friend. She was a sweet girl, birthed from the previous Sheep Zodiac host and a mundane man from the mainland. Silk black hair and large brown eyes. She was so sweet. She had even gotten a decent man- Monkey- who, for a man, wasn't half-bad.
But he was still a man, still brought up to treat women like property, that he was much better than us, but also- as God liked to tell him- that the monkey was a rather useless Zodiac animal. God could say such cruel things.
I could hear the alarms blaring back up at the main house. So I had been discovered. Or rather, I had been undiscovered. It just gave me the urge to row harder. I didn't even look back. I didn't want to see how close I still was to the island.
But I had to risk it, I had to know, and I looked back.
There was no one on the beach yet. But, I was only a mile or so out. If Dragon and Dog rowed one boat- if they hadn't all burned- or Cow and Boar. . . I was screwed.
I sped up rowing.
The only thing I could hope for was that they wouldn't check the beach first. I had a big mouth, I couldn't stay out of trouble and even though I had been taught not to talk, to keep my mouth closed, I usually wasn't able to. So I seemed stupid. But God knew I was intelligent.
What I was hoping to happen was that once Dog ran into the Vinegar, they would assume that I had used the vinegar to cover my tracks. So then, they would automatically think that they should follow the vinegar trail because that was obviously how I had escaped- follow the vinegar.
The trail would lead them to the other side of the island which was less busy, with less boats, but was rumored to be closer to the 'mainland' as some of the captives called it. They would assume that I took the closer route. Of course, if they discovered that I was coming this way, they would take the boats from the other side of the island to use them to get to me.
I continued to row. Though I had never rowed a boat before, and though I wasn't particularly fond of water, I had fallen into a rhythm. Up, slightly back, then down. Up, slightly back, then down.
I started to row faster, in a more controlled way. The next time I glanced back, though the sun had set, I could see I was a good 8 miles from shore. Though I had a wonderful nose, amazing eyesight, and intense hearing, I could not tell if there was anyone on the beach, but I could tell that there were no boats on the water.
It felt to easy, something that didn't feel right with me.
But I didn't stop. I continued to row. I would not stop, I could not stop, until I reached more land.
The sun set, the moon came up. I continued to row.
The moon faded, the sun came up, I continued to row, fueled by nerves, anxiety, anticipation, and a slight feeling of excitement.
My back, shoulders, legs, arms, neck, everything was sore.
I took my hands off the oars for just a moment, stretching, cracking all of my joints, before looking behind me.
My heart stopped as I sat back down quickly, hands gripping the oars again and I started rowing with a new furious intention.
Behind me on the calm water were at least ten boats. I supposed the fire hadn't destroyed all of them. Or they had indeed gone to the other side of the island.
They were far back, maybe seven miles back, but they also had more people to row in the boats than I did. Even my inhuman strength wasn't going to be enough to pull me through.
If I got desperate enough, I would jump, I would start swimming. I was not going back. If I went underwater and had to drown, so be it. I wasn't going back.
The chase went on for three days. They didn't catch up, but they didn't fall back either. I had thought they might've caught up- they had more rowers.
But they had made the same mistake I had- they hadn't brought water or food. I suppose they had thought they would catch me right away. So now, with lack of food and water, they were slowing.
I had the advantage there- the tiger inside of me liked fish.
On the time I gave to catch a fish and eat it, it gave me new energy and I pulled ahead by a little. My sleep disappeared for just a bit and I was able to push through.
On the fourth morning, even my energy was running out, my body almost dizzy from a lack of sleep, but I could see land ahead of me. I ate two fish raw, feeling a slight stomach ache at the raw fish. Luckily, my animal side could handle it.
There were even more boats out on the water in front of me, and I knew the men in the boats behind me would hurry up because they couldn't risk losing me in such a crowd.
There were even people swimming in the water, people laying on the beach in brightly colored outfits, showing more skin than necessary. It looked amazing and my heart started to beat faster. So many people to disappear into.
Crowds stood in line in front of strange looking vehicles, that sort've looked like very small homes on wheels, windows open, wearing strange hats. I could smell food and there were so many buildings built up on the sand. There were piles of brightly colored boats- looking to fit only one person- piled up in neat stacks on sides of wooden buildings.
A new burst of speed went through me and I pulled up to the land.
I hopped onto the sand, stumbled, and ran. Now that I was on land, now that I was running again, my sleep disappeared again. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the boats had hesitated in the ocean. If they came now, they had to deal with all these people.
The thing about these people, I noticed as I ran across the warm sand, was that they barely gave me a second glance. Worried looking women shouted caringly to their children playing in the surf. Other people had hats pulled over their faces, hiding them from the sun and people. Other people walked by without giving me a second look, food in their hands. And others laid on their stomachs, reading, sleeping, or talking with other people.
Laughing, shouting, talking, looking happy. I couldn't hear crying, no one looked sad. It looked like paradise to me.
Another shocking thing was the amount of old people! I had never seen anyone over the age of fifty before and some of these people were obviously older than that. Only God was allowed to live to fifty before even he was killed to birth a new God. And the average age for those on the outside of our estate was probably around fifty as well. Though I wouldn't know.
Another glance over my shoulder showed me that the boats were starting to pull up to the shore. So they were going to come after me anyways.
I watched where I was going, careful not to bump into any boys. It was hard as it was incredibly crowded. I had forgotten that these people weren't used to a strange girl who was black haired, orange eyed, and transformed into a strange animal. Suddenly the crowd that I had wanted to use to disappear into seemed more like my own obstacle.
I darted behind one of the shacks and saw that there was ice in a bucket. I scooped up a few cubes, popping them into my mouth. Water.
The vendors back was turned to me, facing people who were buying things from the truck. I snatched one of the drinks in the ice and darted off. No one called after me and I heard no sounds of pursuit. I sprinted up off the dune hills, coming face to face with a vast area of hard black ground with strange metal things on them. The strange metal things seemed to stretch for ages.
So these were cars then? They looked a bit updated from the textbook.
I pulled off a boot, pulling out my money. There was a long vehicle that many people were getting onto, giving the driver money. I got into line, climbing up the stairs when it was my turn, and handing the man money. He took it without batting an eyelash, giving me change.
It was comforting to know that my money worked here.
I took a seat by the window, alone. No one sat next to me. It took a moment for Dragon, Snake, Cow, Dog, Boar, and God to come up, looking around. Strange, that God had left home base. Dog looked rather overwhelmed and Snake looked sick. I supposed the smells were to much for them. Dragon looked like he wanted to scream. He wasn't a mind-reader, but he could pick up waves from everyone. I supposed it was overwhelming. Boar and even God looked nervous. Only cow looked at peace, but he probably wasn't in a black mood anymore.
I sunk down in my seat, hoping that no one would notice. The bus started to move, my heart lit with anticipation. I glanced behind us and saw that Dragon, was pointing in the opposite direction of the bus. A forest stood there, the trees looking rather inviting.
Of course that's where they thought I would end up going. The forest was the closest thing to home. They didn't know I had money. They started to run towards it. I turned back in my seat to look at the back of the next black seat in front of me.
I closed my eyes, drifting off to sleep, though not to deeply so I didn't have nightmares and I didn't wake up screaming and scaring anyone on the bus. I finally smiled, though I had no idea how I looked.
Disappear
Changes
The Move
Animals
Cards
Kagura
Second Move
Sleepovers
Dragon's Den
New Years
Cow
Valentine's Chocolates
White Day
Akito
Snake
Memories
Another Trip
A Quiet Day
The Other Tiger
Shigure is a Terrible Tease
The Jealous Lamb
Saki's Fight
A Secret Revealed
The Cats Secret
A New Beginning
Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OCs: Ellie White along with the children. I do not condone any copying of this.
"It's beautiful." Ellie murmured, looking out from the front porch. The house was indeed beautiful and all of the surrounding area. They were a decent ways away from the palace, which they could see in the distance. The house was set on a plot of land that was a great orchard of trees. Big red fruits that weren't apples grew on the trees and Ellie couldn't wait to discover what they were.
They had unpacked, the rooms easy to find and see. Steve felt that twinge of selfish disappointment as he set up the twins cribs. While the room was extremely beautiful, all of them very foresty, cabin-y, woodsy. . . it lacked the creative spark he had tried to give his own children. Only the cribs remained, with their carvings from Loki, and the jellyfish mobiles that hung above, clashing greatly with the foresty vibe around them.
Selene was no longer in a crib, so she had brought none of her bedroom with her. Her bed was a small twin, matching the browns and greens around her. Steve and Tony had been looking at buying a pink and gold or purple princess one that would've gone with her room.
But he pushed that aside. One day they'd go back to the house. And one day they would get their bedrooms back. Besides, this was for Bucky and bedrooms were nowhere near as important as that.
Ellie spent most of the afternoon rearranging the kitchen so that all of her equipment was in mostly the same spots, before cooking a delicious dinner of something called Peri Peri chicken. The Wakandans had packed the refrigerator and cupboards, but it had been lots of native food- and some things they didn't recognize- along with several African cookbooks.
"I hope it's okay." Ellie had said in worry as she'd put the dish down on the table, serving it with plain white rice and butternut squash. "I'm afraid I could've overdone the lemon."
Whatever Ellie had done, it was delicious and they let her know.
"Is there dessert darling?" Tony asked, scooping up the last bit of sauce from his chicken dish.
"Oh yes!" Ellies' eyes lit up. "The cookbook called them. . . uh. . ." She drifted off, clearly trying to figure out how to pronounce the words before shrugging, "They're shortbread cookies with jam and pink icing. They were really simple to make so I felt alright doing so. Some of the recipes are harder. But I have enough separate ingredients I can make comfort foods too."
They were sweeter than Steve was expecting and he only ended up eating one, the texture strange on his tongue. Tony ended up beating out Selene at eight while Selene only ate (was only allowed to eat) three. Dimitri nibbled at his before he got to the jelly and then put it down, not sure what the strange thing he was eating was. He'd never had jelly before.
"We can go and see Bucky tomorrow." Steve informed Ellie as he put the last of the dishes away. She was writing in a small book about the different recipes she would make over the next few days, already meal prepping.
"I don't like that he's not staying with us." Ellie admitted, biting her bottom lip. Steve sighed, watching as she tore the skin away, her lip starting to bleed.
"El." He scolded lightly, pinching her bottom lip. She yelped, hand flying to her mouth, before looking at Steve with a slightly guilty look.
"Sorry. I didn't even know I was doing it." She ran her tongue over her bottom lip a few times, capping the pen, and put a magnet over the paper to attach it to the fridge.
"I know. Little reminder." Steve said with a small smile. "And Bucky not living with us shouldn't be permanent. We'll figure it out in the morning."
Ellie nodded, turning out the lights. The electricity was very minimal in the house. The kitchen and bathrooms seemed to have the majority of it. Most of the other rooms simply had large windows to let in natural light and there were lots of candles around the room.
"I think I'll like the garden." Ellie murmured sleepily as she curled up between Tony and Steve.
"Think of all the things you can make with what you grow." Steve smiled, undressing. The billionaire was already snoring, his mouth open slightly, resting his head on his arm.
"Yeah." Ellie smiled as she drifted off.
Steve suddenly noticed as he climbed into bed that Ellie had not taken the outside of the bed like she had recently. And as he gently wrapped an arm around her waist he wondered, if Wakanda might not heal them all.
｡ ★ • * ｡
"Oh my God I've missed you." Bucky mumbled, before stooping down and kissing Zeus' face, before shooting the rest of them a grin and stood up again.
"That was mean." Ellie pouted, trying not to tear up.
"I'm sorry doll." Bucky said, pulling her into his arms tightly. "How's the house?"
"Pretty." Ellie sniffed, inhaling deeply, noticing that he smelled just a little different. Probably from being in the medical center all the time.
"Hi." Steve said quietly, wrapping his arms around Bucky as Ellie took a step back, brushing tears away. The two of them embraced strongly, before Bucky pulled Tony into his arms.
"Leave the kids at the house?" Bucky asked, noticing they weren't with them.
Steve shook his head and grinned, "T'Challa insisted on showing them the playroom. Selene and Dimitri aren't leaving anytime soon and the twins are actually sleeping for once."
Bucky laughed, knowing the playroom was designed for hours of fun.
"What do you have left?" Ellie asked, peering into the center with curiosity. Tony had been open mouthed and shocked since he'd seen all the technology T'Challa had bragged about. Steve knew he was taking note of everything to probably try and replicate later.
"Shuri did the final tests today before you guys got here." Bucky said, leading them inside. Ellie wrinkled her nose, not liking how white, sterile, and 'modern' it looked. Just cause you had technological advances in architecture didn't mean you had to make everything a boring white. It made her head hurt. Give the rooms some personality for goodness sake! White walls didn't help sick patients. Or unsick ones for that matter.
"She's still looking for a cure, the procedures are going to be hard." Bucky frowned a little, "But H.Y.D.R.A. was able to put it in. I have good faith in her that she can take it out." Ellie looked uneasy as she surveyed the room. "What's wrong doll?" Bucky asked gently. "Is it the hopsital?"
Ellie looked up at him, wondering how to phrase what she was feeling and asked rather timidly, "Will you. . . still be you?"
Bucky smiled a little, putting a hand on her head. "Yes. Just less dangerous."
Ellies' brow furrowed, her defensive mode immediately on, "You're not dangerous!" Bucky, Steve, and Tony let her rant for a moment. She had told them in depth about what Ross had put her through and knew that she absolutely wouldn't accept negative criticism about them. She never had and she especially wouldn't now.
"Let me rephrase." Bucky said gently, sitting down in a chair, pulling her towards him, "I will still be me. All of me. I'm still going to be your Bucky and I'm still going to have screaming nightmares. I'm still going to love you and Stevie and Tony and the kids. And I'm also still going to spend some nights on the floor. But, she is going to take out what H.Y.D.R.A. put into me. That part was never me. And if- when she takes it out, no one will ever be able to use me again. Trigger words won't work and I'll never be anyones' puppet again."
Ellie teared up again, wrapping her arms tenderly around Bucky, hugging him close to her heart. He smiled into her chest, feeling her warmth, glad to feel her warmth. "That sounds nice." She whispered.
"There might be perhaps, one small change." An unknown voice to them said from behind Bucky, though he was the only one who knew who it was. Ellies' eyes glanced up at the small African woman in front of her.
"You must be Shuri?" Steve asked, holding his hand out.
"That would be me." Shrui grinned, shaking Steve's hand.
"What kind of change?" Ellie asked nervously.
"Oh nothing to his head or personality." Shuri reassured him, "His arm however, is in a serious need for an update. That, we can make much easier. And less painful than his current arm."
Ellie frowned a little but said nothing, running her fingers lightly over the red star on the bright silver arm. She knew sometimes the arm could hurt Bucky, especially on a super humid day or a super cold day. But part of her didn't want him to lose this particular arm. She closed her eyes. It didn't matter what she wanted. Bucky wouldn't be in any pain, that's what mattered.
"We could even design the arm to have cloaking abilities to look like a flesh-"
"We like his metal arm!" Ellie blurted out, defensive again, before blushing.
Bucky smiled, cupping her face gently with the said metal hand, "Doll? Something you want to say?"
"Sorry for the outburst." Ellie mumbled. "I don't like criticisms against my soulmates, even if they aren't meant to be."
Bucky chuckled, pecking her lips, "That's not what I meant. Something you want to say about the arm?"
He was in a really good mood, Ellie noticed. Full of laughter and light. It was as if a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders, even though nothing had even been removed yet. She couldn't help but smile back, his smile contagious.
"Well, I don't want you to be in pain, obviously." She said, running her fingers over the part where the flesh and metal had been seared together, thick white scars melding with thick metal. "But I really like your arm, that's all. I don't want you to hide."
"I think with all this great Wakandan technology they can make an identical arm. What do you think, Shuri? Up to the challenge?" Bucky teased, glancing over his shoulder at the Wakandan Princess.
She grinned, "Well, it's not the style I would have gone with, but I'm sure I can make a perfect replica."
"I think I could help." Tony said, excitement and interest peaked in his voice. He had forgotten about his lab back home already, no longer missing it (except maybe F.R.I.D.A.Y. a little). Already, he was seeing potential to create and experiment here- if the Princess granted it.
"Hmm, you know I think I'll take you up on that." Shuri grinned, "Should you prove capable in the lab, perhaps I'll even let you take over so I can focus on the engineering in the White Wolfs' brain."
"Would you look at that, they've already given you a nickname." Tony teased Bucky. "That's my job."
"Are you done with me for now Shuri? I'd like to go see my kids." Bucky said, standing up, squeezing Ellies' hand in his.
"All done for now. You can even go back home with them if you'd like." Shuri said. "Your home here, I mean, my apologies. I'll let you know when either of your surgeries are ready to be done, though we- ah yes, come with me for a moment."
Bucky kissed Ellies' hand before leaving the three of them standing there, following her down the hallway and disappearing around a corner. Ellie pouted and Steve chuckled.
"He misses you too." Steve murmured, putting his hand on her head. They'd all missed her, and just because she'd been with them for two months didn't take away from the months that she'd been gone. Tortured by Ross. He closed his eyes, pulling her into his chest, holding her for a moment until his panic dissipated. "We all do."
"I'm right here Steve." Ellie said, her voice almost confused as she laced her fingers through his hand. "I'm right here."
"Yes you are." Steve whispered softly. Tony nodded, his face a mix between the solemnity of the conversation and his bubbling enthusiasm to get his hands deep into some wonderful projects.
It took all three of them a moment when Bucky came back because his metal arm was gone. A thick black fabric covering of some sort was over his shoulder, covering all of the scarring and mess.
"I need his arm." Shuri said apologetically.
"I don't mind." Bucky reassured them. "It gives me some relief anyways. Although I hope it doesn't freak Selene out too much."
Turned out, it didn't freak Selene out at all. She just hugged her Dada Star with as much force as she could and Bucky pretended to get taken down, crying out for mercy. She just giggled, laying on top of him and started to babble out all of the things she had done while playing. Dimitri on the other hand took one look at his father and burst into tears.
"Awwww it's okay buddy." Bucky said, scooping his son up with one arm. "I'm still me." But Dimitri wouldn't stop crying until Tony took him into his arms, kissing him and rocking him until he quieted up, sucking on his thumb, still gazing at Bucky with wide eyes. "I hope he's not scared of me for long." Bucky said, torn between gut wrenching heart ache at scaring his son and amusement for why he scared him.
Eleanor and Samuel were to young to notice any change from their father and just smiled bleary eyed as they had woken up from their naps. Ellie held a light hope that perhaps their clear tiredness would mean they'd sleep through the entire night. Steve had a feeling they'd wake up pretty soon and stay up.
Eventually as they walked around outside, Bucky showing them around since he knew the palace well by now, Dimitri recognized Bucky as his father and let the brunette carry him around. Ellie was slightly overwhelmed with the size of everything, not having been in large, opulant places like this before. Tony meanwhile commented on the architecture the entire time, even going so far as to make note of some structures he enjoyed so much he wanted to implement an entire new house for them.
"Easy Tony." Steve finally teased, taking the billionaires hand.
"It's just spectaculor!" Tony gushed. "I mean, don't get me wrong, Brooklyn has character- rats, attitude, questionable plumbing- but this?" He gestured broadly, nearly smacking Steve with his hand. "This is like if a genius, a poet, and a futurist had a baby and then that baby decided to casually reinvent architecture just to flex."
"I happen to like our house. . . questionable plumbing." Ellie grumbled behind Steve, to low for Tony to hear. Bucky shot her a grin.
"Do you want to buy Wakanda?" Bucky teased.
Tony gasped, affronted. "I would never. I'm just saying. . . maybe we take notes. Tasteful notes. Very respectful, non-international-incident notes." He glanced at Ellie, grinning. "You like gardens? Darling, wait until I build you one that also has climate control and maybe-maybe-a retractable roof. For rain. Or drama."
"Climate control?" Ellie asked, now the one affronted and Steve chuckled, taking her hand.
Tony didn't even deny it. "Planning? No. I'm inspired. Big difference."
"It won't be lifeless, will it?" Ellie asked softly.
Tony turned, confusion etched on his face, "Lifeless?"
"Like the lab." Ellie continued, "All that white. . . I know it's the modern way now but it has. . . nothing. There's no personality, no character, nothing. It's awful." The three of them looked at her a little stunned.
"So you're not a fan of the minimalist style?" Tony asked after a moment.
Ellie looked more uncomfortable than Steve had seen her in a really long time and he wasn't entirely sure that was the issue. But what could it be?
"Why would you want to stay in a place with no colour like that?" Ellie whispered softly, wrapping her arms around herself, looking away from them, out at the gardens. Steve agreed that they were beautiful. Everything was in full bloom and every colour of the rainbow as visible and bright.
Bucky suddenly stepped behind her, wrapping his arms around her, closing his eyes, his cheek pressed against hers. "I would kill Ross a thousand times if it would take all of your pain away."
Steves' feelings hardened into anger and watched Tonys' features do the same. Of course. Her cell had probably been completely white. That would've been common.
Ellie stood there for a moment, letting Bucky hold her and then said, "I'm alright Bucky. And Tony, yes I hate the minimalist era. I preferred Baroque and Rococo for art. Architecture. . . I like ancient classical and renaissance classical and medieval and spanish colonial and mission and monterey and Queen Anne and Victorian." She sighed smiling. Steve remembered a conversation with her a long, long time ago when they were on their honeymoon in Japan. How she'd looked at that minimalist sculpture with a look of disdain. His heart lightened a little. She hadn't like it for a long time.
"Rococo and Baroque it is then." Tony said lightly. "and lots and lots of colours and columns."
"Mama! Mama! Look!" Selene ran back from where her and Dimitri had run ahead, coming back with a gorgeous purple flower in her hands. Ellie knelt as Selene placed the blossom in her cupped hands happily.
"It is beautiful Selene." Ellie smiled and then said gently, "You may want to get the Kings' permission first before you continue to pick these flowers though, okay?"
Selenes' face twisted into one of confusion, not sure if she was being praised or admonished.
"I do not mind." T'Challas' voice came from behind them.
"BAHHHHH!" Dimitri gasped, running towards the King who knelt and hugged the toddling boy. T'Challa smiled at Selene, "Always be careful to never pick to many, but only what you desire." His voice had such a grand cadence to it that Selene nodded gravely, looked up at her mother, and said solemnly, "We must be careful with dat flower."
Ellie smiled at her daughter and nodded, to show she understood the importance.
"I understand that my sister is making arm replacements." T'Challa said, giving Bucky a small smile, then looked at Tony, "Perhaps you would like to join her Mr. Stark- oh forgive me, Mr. Rogers-Barnes."
Tony was so excited, he didn't even give a verbal answer, nodding his head jerkily and actually ran up the path back towards the palace. T'Challa lifted Dimitri high onto his shoulders and then proceeded to show them the gardens well into the night.
｡ ★ • * ｡
"Goodnight lovelies." Ellie whispered to Eleanor and Samuel, knowing full well that they would probably wake her up later that night. She made sure the nightlights were on- although pure starlight shined through the windows (which had no curtains)- before she left the bedroom.
She smiled as she neared her own room, hearing Dimitris' bright giggles and stopped in the doorway, watching Steve wrestle with him playfully. Dimitri squealed and kicked his body against the pillows and sheets while Steve lifted his legs in the air, making little fart noises that made Dimitri dissolve into laughter again.
"Getting him all worked up before bed I see." Ellie teased softly, moving to sit on the bed with Steve. He grinned at her, before pulling Dimitri into his arms, cradling him. The three of them sat there together for a moment in their little bubble before he carried him off to his own bed and Tony came in when it was just her.
"Made an arm?" Ellie asked him.
"I did." Tony said proudly. "It's not done but it's going to be a splendid arm when it is. Buck is going to love it. Or at the very least, it won't hurt him."
"Was I selfish, do you think. . . asking him to keep the metal arm the way it is?" Ellie asked softly. "I didn't even take into account that he might want. . . might want it to look like flesh." Bucky paused at the doorway, not wanting her to realize he'd overheard. Steve, who came out of Dimitris' nursery at that moment, gave him a weird look before hearing Tony answer.
"I can't answer that Els." Tony admitted. "He's been pretty happy being here though. And from what I can tell, he's never cared so much before about what his arm looks like. Only about being a danger to you or the kids or us. And about the pain. But if it bothers you, you can ask him you know."
"I just feel like I made a mistake." Ellie whispered and was silent for a moment. Steve touched Bucky's shoulder, who shook his head. Steve walked quietly into the room, moving behind Ellie, touching her shoulders briefly. "It's. . . Ross got me so worked up. . . trying to get me to admit that you were all. . . awful people." Her voice cracked, tears watery in her eyes. She took a deep breath, closing them and sighed out, "When I look at Bucky I don't see anything wrong. Or you. Or Steve." She bit her bottom lip. "I don't want Bucky to think he has to change, that's why I. . . or at least I thought that's why I was so defensive over his arm. . . not wanting him to hide it. Portray it as flesh instead of what it really is."
She sighed, relaxing back into Steve who wrapped his arms around her. "Did I. . . Am I making mistakes? I feel like I am. I feel like I've been making them ever since I. . . got back. Saying the wrong things. Doing the wrong things. I know you don't need my protection. You never have so maybe. . ."
"I like that you protect us. In your own way." Steve said softly, smiling against her cheek. "It shows your love for us although. . . I admit. . . sometimes I wish you got less hurt doing it. I rather feel it's our fault Ross set his sights on you in the first place."
"Mine at the very least." Tony whispered, looking away. "I thought you would support it so I asked you to be there for selfish reason."
"It's neither of your faults." Ellie snapped immediately, eyes flaring, and then closed them in guilt, sinking against Steve even more, both of them immediately recognizing what had happened.
"You don't have to feel guilty El. . ." Tony whispered, reaching out, taking her hands.
"Tonys' right." Steve whispered against her hair. "Ross has put a psychological imprint on you that isn't going away anytime soon. You don't have to feel guilty for immediately jumping to our defense, even against ourselves. It's your immediate reaction, it's who you are."
Bucky, wanting to comfort her too, stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. He slid up onto the bed, pulling Ellie into a hug from the front. "I don't really give a damn what the arm looks like doll. So long as it doesn't hurt. And hey," He smiled at her, cupping her face in his hand, tilting her chin up. "Take it from someone whose been through decades of psychological manipulation, your reactions are normal. And you're going to feel guilty every time, even though you know you shouldn't. Just takes time. And maybe therapy." He grinned at that. "But we'll help each other out. Want to practice?"
Ellie furowed her brow at him, "Practice what?"
Tony, caught on said, "It's my fault you were in that room with Ross to begin with."
Ellie immediately whirled on him and Bucky clamped his hand over her mouth. "Not a word doll."
Ellie looked miserable, looking at all of them, before lowering her head, tears falling down her cheeks. Bucky lowered his hand slowly, looking at her sadly. "It's not. . ." She whispered, wrapping her arms around herself. "How can something like that be your fault? It can't." She closed her eyes and Steve pulled her back into his arms.
"I think that's enough for tonight." Steve said, shooting Tony and Bucky a warning look.
"Sorry doll." Bucky whispered. "I pushed to hard. I should've prepared you better."
She shook her head, murmuring that it wasn't his fault several times. Eventually she fell asleep and Bucky asked timidly, "Are you uh mad at me Steve?"
Steve was silent for a long time, looking down at his wife as she lay in his arms, sleeping fitfully. He finally looked up at his husband and sighed, "I just. . . don't know why you thought that was a good idea. It wasn't just Ross, you know. It's her very nature to defend us, even before Ross. I just thought you two would understand that."
He sat with his back against the headboard, not looking at either of them for a long time. Tony and Bucky both sat there, staring at Steve with stomachs twisted with guilt. Steve finally sighed and said, "I'm not mad. This is. . . a new start. Let's treat it as such." He picked Ellie up in his arms, moving her to the outside of him, curling himself up around her still. Bucky moved silently to turn the light off, both him and Tony curling up in the sheets without another word.
But the awkwardness in the room was so great Steve wondered if they would be able to move on from it.
Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OCs: Ellie White along with the children. I do not condone any copying of this.
Moving forwards was not easy. Not that any of them had expected it to be. Ellie flinched whenever someone approached her to quietly, had to sleep on the outside of the bed now, and couldn't stand to have any of them even touch her neck, much less hold it. She had been nervous when they'd all tried to make love and had dissolved into tears quickly, feeling like she had messed everything up.
Tony was feeling quite awkward around Steve because he felt like he should've trusted his soulmate from the beginning. Steve had forgiven him of course, and was just glad that he and Bucky were no longer on the run, and that all of their kids and their wife was safe. Tony however still felt like he had messed up, something that got heightened whenever Loki was there, knowing the God believed it was his fault.
Bucky was also skittish. He'd jerk at the beginnings of words that sounded like his trigger words, even if the word was in English. And when Selene had started to count, Bucky had to walk away so as not to frighten her with how badly certain numbers affected him. His nightmares were worse and he had started sleeping on the floor many nights, afraid he'd wake up to find that he'd killed his soulmates in a fit of winter soldier.
Selene was going to a childrens therapy that Agent Chow had recommended. Stephen had looked it over (as had they all) and agreed that it would be best for Selene. She had mostly gotten over her aversion to water, especially since Tony and Stephen had taught her how to shower instead of taking a bath. She was only okay with taking a bath if Ellie was in the water with her as well as several pink rubber ducks.
Steves' waking hours were for the most part okay when the others were alright. He felt burdened by everyone elses problems, wanting to fix them without really having a way to. He made every effort with Tony, knowing his billionaire soulmate still blamed himself for what had happened with them and with Ellie. He'd told Loki to back off, that Tony had handled the situation the best he could. He made sure to change his footfalls to be louder when he was approaching any area Ellie was in. He held Bucky for long periods of time. He played dolls with Selene, and made block towers with Dimitri, and sang softly to Eleanor and Samuel. In between all of this, he painted the twins nursery, making it just right for them to move into. They were sharing with Dimitri for now.
It was in sleep that Steve's problems came. They came in the forms of vivid nightmares. His soulmates, dead or dying. Bucky trapped in the form of the winter soldier, never recognizing them, never being himself again. Ellie, trapped in some sort of contraption, usually a cage, though sometimes she was simply behind a glass or invisible wall. The children, stolen from them. He'd wake in sweat, gasping for breath. Tony would sometimes be next to him. Sometimes he'd wake up and comfort Steve. Sometimes he wouldn't stir. Sometimes he was in the lab, building something to keep his mind off of his problems. Bucky was almost always on the floor. He would almost always wake. Ellie never woke. She was always curled up in a ball, usually near the end of the bed instead of up at the top with the pillows. Steve would always check her and Bucky- and Tony if he was in the room- were breathing before making his rounds and checking on the kids.
Agent Chow had been a good asset to have. All of the others had been pardoned and sent home. Only Scott remained on house arrest- being a multi time offender- but his sentence had been shortened from two years down to only four months. He had promised to come to the first Lasagna dinner after he got off.
Wanda and Vision were traveling the world together, taking time to just be with themselves. Clint had gone back to Laura, but Natasha had left long before and none of them had had contact with her yet.
James and Sam had some tension between them. Tony had built James leg braces that had worked well and he had been back to walking normally almost immediately after his legs had healed. He barely needed the braces at all, but the doctor encouraged it so that he wouldn't end up in a wheelchair later in life.
Stephen floated- pun intended- in and out of their lives at a seemingly constant flow. He had lots of Sorcerer things to do, though he was never gone for more than a week at a time, still consistently showing up to family dinners, although these really only consisted of Steve and Sams' families now. Clint, Laura, and the kids came every couple of weeks.
Loki was still angry and still on the warpath. He was used to being able to pursue his vengeance on whatever army had cause his anger. It was different on Midgard and he despised it. He wanted to rip Ross to shreds and hunt down everyone Ross had ever loved- if anyone could even love such a person so despicable. Stephen often took him to the Sanctorum with him, letting out his magical frustrations on animate training dummies.
Steve finished the twins nursery on the same day T'Challa arrived. Steve was putting down the brushes, wiping his forehead with the back of hand, not wanting to get the white he'd used for the flecks of foam on his face. Loki appeared silently in the doorway, waiting patiently on the foyer, though his blue eyes looked curiously into the room.
"Want to add your own bits?" Steve asked with a smile, gesturing around the room.
Loki smiled a little, "I shall, naturally. But actually, King T'Challa is here and wants to speak to the family. I shall make my additions now while you're out of the way."
Steve placed the paintbrush down on the dresser without a word, hurrying from the room, wondering what the Prince- no King- wanted with his family. After discovering that Rumlow was the true culprit behind his fathers death, he had not had any animosity towards Bucky. Not that it had mattered much while they were on the run.
Loki smiled at the nursery Steve had put together for the twins. The room breathed like the sea itself- slow, steady, alive, though Loki knew of course it was not actually moving. The walls were painted in layered shades of pale aqua, sea-glass green, and soft blue-gray, blended together in gentle strokes that mimicked the movement of water beneath sunlight. Steve had painted them himself of course, careful not to make the waves too bold, too restless. Loki touched the wall now, weaving magic into the paint so it shimmered faintly when the light shifted, like sunlight filtering down through shallow water.
Tiny schools of fish drifted along one wall, their scales catching silver and pearl tones as they moved. Sea turtles glided near the ceiling, and far above them, faint beams of golden light broke through the painted surface as though the ocean itself opened to the sky. Seahorses, dolphins, jellyfish, even sharks moved in and out of the waves casually. A creature Loki didn't know (a narwhal) floated amongst the stingrays.
Two cribs rested side by side near the center of the room, crafted from pale driftwood and smoothed until the grain felt like silk beneath the fingers. They were identical, though Loki now added small differences- one carved with delicate wave patterns, the other etched with shells and starfish. He would never admit it aloud, but it mattered to him that the twins would each have something entirely their own. He knew to much about sharing with a sibling, despite the fact that him and Thor had never been twins. The linens were soft and white, embroidered in muted blues and sandy golds, tiny whales and seahorses stitched along the edges.
Above each crib hung mobiles and Loki waved his hand now so that they floated, their strings gone, hovering with magic. Translucent jellyfish drifted lazily in the air, their tendrils glowing faintly in shades of lavender and blue. When the room was quiet, they pulsed with a soft light, rising and falling like breath. Loki now enchanted them to respond to sound; crying dulled their glow, laughter brightened it. He hoped there was plenty of laughter in the bedroom.
The floor was covered in a plush rug the colour of warm sand, thick enough to cushion knees and wandering toddlers alike. No doubt Selene would end up coming in here to play with her siblings, despite the fact that they were barely old enough to sit up on their own. Embedded within it were faint patterns of shells and seafoam, visible only when the light struck just right.
Near the window sat a wide rocking chair upholstered in pale blue linen, its arms worn smooth already from use. Loki recgonized that it had been moved from Dimitris room. A low bookshelf stood beside it, filled with many of the same books as the others, but also new ones. Ocean stories, myths of sea gods, picture books about tides and stars, and lullabies from coastal cultures across Midgard.
Loki reckoned it was Ellies' doing. Her OCD had kicked in double time since she had been back and he'd noticed a rearrange of the books throughout the entire house. Cookbooks only in the kitchen. Dimitris planet-ish room had more space books in it. Selenes' had been redone with fantasy and princesses. The office now held all of the nonfiction, atlases, dictionaries, and history books. Steve had spent hours looking for some of his historical fiction which had been moved to the living room by his reading chair.
Loki added his own contribution atop the shelf: a glass bottle sealed with wax, inside of which swirled an endless miniature tide. He added a small ship for good measure, knowing it would never capsize and then added hippocampuses too. Mythology was, after all, his specialty.
The windows were dressed in sheer curtains the color of mist, embroidered with delicate wave patterns that swayed gently even when there was no breeze. Beyond them, sunlight spilled into the room and fractured softly, casting watery reflections across the walls and ceiling. Loki noted the new locks on the windows (that had been added throughout the entire house) that had not been here when the family had first moved in.
"The house is getting a little small." Loki chuckled to himself. There was only one spare room left, which no doubt would become another baby room like this one. Should they have any more children after that however, they would probably have to upgrade. Lokis' heart seized a little in strange fear at the idea of them moving neighborhoods and upgrading. He calmed himself with the logic that another child would not make them move, they would simply change the outlay of the house.
He was aware that the house was quiet suddenly and wondered just what it was exactly King T'Challa had come to talk to the family about.
｡ ★ • * ｡
"Would that even work?" Ellie asked softly. She was curled up in the armchair, holding Eleanor in her arms. Dimitri had taken a surprising liking to the King and was sitting in T'Challas' lap while the slightly surprised King kept him occupied with a stuffed animal. Steve and Tony had taken the sofa and Bucky was sitting with his back against Steves' legs, looking into the empty fire pit.
"My sister believes it could. Our technological advances in medicine are quite advanced." T'Challa said.
"What's the catch?" Steve asked while Tony asked, "How much do you want?"
T'Challa fixed Tony with a glance first and said, "Absolutely nothing. Your soulmate and my father were both victims of things they can not change. I can at least help one of them." He turned his gaze to Steve, before motioning around to the entire room, "The catch is, it cannot be done in one day or overnight. It would require you to move to Wakanda for however long it is, or to be apart from your soulmate for some time."
They were all quiet for a moment. Steve was torn for a moment, looking at his paint covered hands, thinking of how the twins would only get to sleep in the room for a few nights. It was a selfish line of thinking that he banished immediately, moving his hand down to Bucky's shoulder. "Of course we'll go with you." He murmured, "As long as it's what you want."
"What?" Bucky asked, slightly shocked. He'd thought trips would be the more likely outcome.
"Yeah, I mean farm life should be fun." Tony grinned at him, though he was also feeling a slight loss about leaving the house. He pushed it aside. The house would be here when Bucky was healed.
Ellie wasn't thinking so much about the house as all of their family. Would she be able to stay in contact with her parents? What about Loki, Sam, and Stephen? They were supposed to have a new friend- Scott, Steve had said- over in two or three months. Would they be able to take Zeus with them? What about Selene's schooling? Was the education as good in Wakanda as the home schooling?
"Of course we'll do this for you Bucky." Ellie whispered, pushing all her worries aside. Their family could take care of each other. And she was sure if the technological advances were as advanced as T'Challa was claiming, then Selenes' schooling would be secure. Zeus could stay with Loki and Sam. Shadow would like that. Maple might not as much but Zeus had always been gentle with the cat.
"How soon?" Bucky asked.
"Well, if it's alright with the family, my sister would like you to come in now. It would get preliminary tests out of the way. We also need time to finish the house, I did not realize there were new additions on the way." T'Challa smiled at Eleanor and Samuel. "The family could follow within a month. Though of course, you are welcome to visit in between that time."
"I'll do it." Bucky said strongly with a singular nod, standing.
"Dada Star go?" Selene crawled out from underneath the dining room table, looking up at her father with stricken eyes.
"Not for long, and this time for a good thing starlight." Bucky whispered softly, pulling her into his arms, kissing her softly. "You will get to see me again very soon, okay? Be good, alright?"
"No bad man?" Selene asked.
"No bad men at all." Bucky promised.
Selene nodded at that and didn't cry to much when Bucky finally left with T'Challa thirty minutes later. Ellie was sobbing though, trying to hide it in Tonys' shoulder as they watched the car drive away.
"He's going to be okay Els." Tony murmured, rubbing her back.
"I know." She hiccuped, sniffing. "I'm happy for him. For all of us. It's just overwhelming. Everythings happening so fast."
Tony led her back into the house while Steve went ahead and took Selene on a walk with Zeus. Loki was quiet as he made tea in the kitchen, placing Ellies' favorite teacup in front of her with Watermelon Lime tea. "He will be alright hun." Loki murmured quietly, staring into her eyes deeply. "I promise."
"Will you guys be okay if we leave?" Ellie asked, picking up the cup with stiff fingers, letting the cup warm them up, desipte the fact that it was a nice seventy-five degrees outside. Tony was never quite sure how she was always cold.
Lokis' lips twitched into a smile and he chuckled softly. "You do know you're talking to a thousand and a half century year old God, right? On top of that we have a magician- oh sorry Sorcerer- and Sam. We will be okay. Besides, I heard Wakandas' farms are beautiful. I don't think James will be the only one to benefit from this move."
Lokis' words settled Ellies' mind and they spent the next three weeks packing. T'Challa and Bucky sent updates. Shruis' scans had gone well, she was sure she knew the next steps but it would take a few months. And as Steve pointed out, they had all the time in the world for Bucky to get better.
The day of the move was still hard for all of them. Tony was in his mini lab, putting sheets over delicate machinery. He put tool parts he normally left scattered on the counters in toolboxes and drawers as neatly as he could. "I'll see you again soon F.R.I.D.A.Y." He murmured as he turned the light off.
"Of course, Mr. Stark." The AI voice responded. "Have a nice trip."
Steve stood in the twins bedroom where Eleanor and Samuel were sleeping in their cribs. Well, Samuel slept. Eleanor was looking up at the floating jellyfish with awed eyes, a small smile on her mouth. Her dolphin stitched blanket was around her ankles, just covering her feet, but her turtle stuffy was in her small hands, gripping it by the back fin. Steve smiled down at her.
"I'm sorry you didn't get to spend much time in here." Steve murmured to both of them, but mostly Eleanor. "But I reckon you'll grow up to love the sea anyways. Your mother loves it and I've heard there's a beautiful ocean in Wakanda anyways. Maybe the technology is so advanced that one day you can be under the sea and see all of these creatures for yourself."
Eleanor giggled, but didn't understand, placing the turtle down near her head and closed her eyes. Within seconds she was alseep. Steve knew she would wake up when they were loading into the car.
Ellie had covered all of the furniture with heavy covers to keep the dust off and was putting the finishing touches to the kitchen and bedrooms, which were the last rooms to have them done. She stood for a moment in the bedroom, thinking of how it had progressed. First, just her and Steve. Then Selene. Then Tony. Then Bucky. Or maybe Bucky and Tony had been around the same time. Then Dimitri. Now Eleanor and Samuel. She smiled a little, running her hand against the headboard. Moving to this house had been the first time she'd moved. She'd lived in her parents house since she had come home from the hospital.
"We'll be back soon." Ellie murmured sadly, before heading out of the room. Tony was carrying Dimitri out to put him in the car. Zeus was padding around, sniffing at everything, looking curiously at the covers. He hadn't liked them much.
"T'Challa said we can bring him." Ellie looked over, jumping just slightly as she hadn't realized Steve was upstairs too. He was holding Samuel in his arms, carrying him down to put him in his carseat. "Zeus." Steve nodded to the German Shepherd, who looked up as Steve said his name, giving a singular bark, his tongue lolling out of his mouth happily, his tail wagging furiously, thumping against the wooden wall.
"Good." Ellie breathed out. "I hated the idea of leaving him behind. Even though I know they would've taken good care of him."
The car was packed up much sooner than they all predicted and Ellie was half tempted to go back in and make a lunch to stay longer, but she knew the King had sent a jet that they shouldn't keep waiting.
"We'll come home soon." Steve said softly, putting a hand on her shoulder while Tony made sure all the kids were in, plus Zeus, and double checked the luggage. Steve locked the front door, and turned. Lokis' family already had a key, Steve slipped this one into his pocket.
Ellie climbed into the back with the kids and Steve backed out of the driveway. He pulled away slowly, parents up the street calling their kids back to the yard. Ellie took a deep breath and didn't glance back as they drove away.
Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OCs: Ellie White along with the children. I do not condone any copying of this.
Ellie couldn't breathe, the hand around her neck tight, squeezing harshly. Her lungs were screaming and her vision was dotting before her very eyes. And then it was gone, air rushing into her lungs, and she slumped in the metal chair she was handcuffed to.
She greedily sucked air back into her lungs as Ross stood in front of her again, his arms crossed over his chest.
He called it re-education. Ellie was pretty sure it was just textbook torture. She'd been kept in a cell until she had given birth to her twins. They had been taken away from her almost immediately while she had screamed and cried and then begged and pled with them to no avail. She hadn't seen them again. She didn't know what had happened to them. For all she knew, Ross had dropped them in the ocean. He never dropped a hint.
Re-education. Bucky was an evil terrorist. Steve was a criminal on the run. And somehow, she was supposed to know about it.
"What is James Buchannan Barnes?" Ross asked, the question he'd asked twenty times already, all of which had resulted in her being choked out.
"My husband. My soulmate." Ellie bravely spit out.
*SMACK*
Ellie shouted in pain, her head rocking as needles shot into her brain. Fuck that had hurt.
"He's. A. Terrorist. SAY IT!" He screamed in her face, spit landing on her forehead and cheeks. She flinched at that.
"I don't care." She swallowed harshly. "How long you keep me here or what you do to me. I will never, EVER, turn against my soulmates. You can't make me."
Ross chuckled, "Oh sweetheart, that just means I'm not trying hard enough." He rolled his sleeves up before grabbing her throat again. "How about this time, we go to the extreme? I want to see those eyes roll back into your head as your lungs give out."
｡ ★ • * ｡.
Bucky paced the carpeted library over and over again while Stephen sat in his normal chair, reading a book about magic. Sam was playing with Dimitri on the rug by the fireplace, Selene was curled up in Steve's arms, watching as he turned pages in an animal book, looking at pretty pictures. Tony was tense, clutching his phone tightly in his hand, wishing he could hit something.
Ross had absolutely refused to give Ellie back. He wouldn't give him visiting hours, a phone call, or even the location of Ellies' whereabouts. He was certain Tony had something to do with the breakout of the others, which, while most of them had been recaptured and given deals- Clint and Scott anyways. Sam and Wanda had been broken out again- Ross was being petty.
'Re-education classes'. When he'd heard about that he'd shouted at Ross for ten minutes before being escorted out of the building by security. Re-education for what? Resisting arrest? There was no way Ross actually thought he was keeping her for three years.
Rhodey had tried pulling strings with the military, which was how they had finally gotten the location Ellie was in. And that was where Loki was now, invisible, scouting the entire place out. And they were just waiting on the news.
Tony looked up with perfect timing, an orange portal opening up in front of them. Stephen snapped his book closed as Loki walked out. Steve rose and Bucky stopped pacing as they noted Loki was carying two bundles.
"What-" Sam started and then Steve moved forwards, taking one of the bundles into his hands, his eyes already streaming with tears.
"Our babies." Bucky choked out, taking the second bundle. Tony felt himself choking up as he walked slowly over to them, the portal dying out and Loki taking a seat with Selene, who looked up at her fathers with curious interest.
"They're beautiful." Steve whispered, "Buck, I think this one has your cheekbones." Tony had to agree. The little girl looked very much like Bucky. The other, a little boy, was to indecisive, though they concluded without positive DNA that they were both likely to be Bucky's biologically.
"Loki where were they?" Tony asked as Steve handed the girl to him.
"Some nursery room." Loki said, his voice short and clipped. "Stephen how old do you think they are?"
Stephen carefully took the baby boy into his arms, staring carefully at his face. "Three weeks if I had to guess. But unless we talk to Ellie or Ross or someone who knows, we won't know for sure."
"They're tiny." Sam noted. "Selene and Dimitri were bigger."
"Maybe that means they're Tonys?" Loki questioned. "No offense but perhaps not having super solider blood-"
"None taken." Tony murmured, looking down at the little girl in his arms and added, "They're all of ours anyways. But maybe we can have someone look at them? See if they're malnourished?"
"I know someone who can do that for us. I will be back shortly." Stephen said, handing the boy back to Steve and headed out of the library.
"What about Ellie?" Steve asked, gently kissing his sons' forehead, before handing him to Bucky.
"I thought I had her signature, but it led me to them." Loki sighed, nodding at the babies. "and once I had them I got out. I didn't want to risk it."
"Should. . . should you go back in?" Sam questioned hesitantly. "The minute they know the kids are gone they might move Ellie. But I don't want to lose you either."
"I'm debating it." Loki frowned, "I want to find Ellie, but I need a different entrance point. I think there's also possibility that some of the cells are non magic permeable, meaning I can't find her. If Rhodey's contact could get us the plans for those rooms, I could find her quicker."
"Which unfortunately takes time." Steve sighed. "Ross will move her."
Tony got a notification on his watch from Vision, telling him military vans were at the entrance of the neighborhood. "I have to get back with Dimitri and Selene." Tony said, standing up. He looked down at the little babies face.
"Already?" Bucky snarled.
Loki moved forwards as Sam handed Dimitri to him and Tony traded the little baby girl in his arms for Selene. Loki grabbed Tonys' arm, teleporting them back to the house so that they could plan family for the military agents who assumed he'd had something to do with him getting his children out.
Tony sighed as the doorbell rang, bidding Vision- who along with Rhodey was living with Tony and the kids for the time being- to take the kids upstairs and play with them.
"What they hell do they want now?" Rhodey asked, poking his head out of the kitchen, sandwich in hand.
"Who knows." Tony muttered, yanking the front door open. But it was not Ross standing on his doorstep. Instead, it was Agent Chow, along with a few different agents he had never seen before.
"Good Afternoon Mr. Barnes-Rogers." Agent Chow said pleasantly, smiling at him and then behind him. "Mr. Loki, Colonel Rhodey."
"Agent Chow, good to see you again." Loki said slyly. Rhodey nodded, putting his sandwich down on his plate.
"May we come in?" Agent Chow asked.
"Sure thing." Tony said, stepping aside to let her and the four other agents in. "We can talk in the living room."
Zeus padded out of the office, sniffing around, barked once and then settled down in the living room with his dog bone. Clearly, he didn't find any of them a threat, which both relieved Tony and also made him curious.
"Can I ask what this is about?" Tony asked, settling into an armchair, crossing a leg over his knee. Loki stood to the side while Rhodey ate his sandwich at the dining room table.
"I've discovered some troubling news that I believe you should know." Agent Chow said, opening up her black binder, pulling out pieces of paper. "I believe that Secretary Ross has crossed several legal lines that require immediate attention and perhaps even an investigation into his actions."
"Couldn't agree more." Loki responded dryly and Tony shot him a look.
"I'm assuming regarding my wife?" Tony asked, figuring she probably already knew that.
"And the twins that were born three and a half weeks ago on August 30th at 5:20 PM." Agent Chow said solemnly.
Tony sucked in breath harshly.
"Born?" Rhodey spoke for him. "Why the hell haven't they been given to Tony yet?"
"Bait." Tony whispered. "For Steve and Bucky."
"They've been named-"
"NAMED?!" Tony, Rhodey, and Loki all burst out with equal amounts of anger and shock.
"Yes." Agent Chow said sadly. "Secretary Ross has given them the names Poppy and Hunter. I have a feeling he has no plans of handing your children back over to you Mr. Barnes-Rogers."
"Please, just call me Tony, Agent Chow." Tony said, feeling stressed. "How is Ross getting away with all of this?"
"High clearance and it seems also an injustice with the documentation system. I was there when Ellie Rogers-Barnes 'resisted arrest'. That should've been maybe a couple days in jail with a court date and fine that could've been easily overturned with your laywers." Agent Chow said, "Her files however and the documentation on her has her down as a terrorist threat going through a re-education course. However, I've looked into that too, she hasn't taken a single re-education course."
"He's completely out of his mind." Rhodey snapped. "The military can get his ass for this."
"I'm hoping they will." Agent Chow said firmly. "If we can bring him to consequences, your wife should be freed. Also, there will be a high probability that the Avengers won't have to be on the run anymore either. His actions since then will all be negated."
Tony could get his entire family home.
"What do I have to do?" Tony asked.
Agent Chow smiled.
｡ ★ • * ｡.
"Thank you." Tony said to Agent Chow as he watched Secretary Ross being shoved into the back of a police car by Colonel Rhodey.
"No, thank you. Corruption in the system has always been a problem, but I've never seen it so bad or personal before." Agent Chow said. "Your wife should be here in a few minutes. I'll leave you to your reunion."
Tony let out a shaky breath, his hand slipping into his pocket where Ellies' wedding ring was sitting in his pocket. They'd found it in a box in Secretary Ross' office. One of the many things he'd taken off their wife.
"Mama coming?" Selene asked him quietly, being held in Lokis' arms. Dimitri sat next to Loki, playing with a stick in the flower bed. Tony hopped he dug the whole thing up.
"Yeah sunshine, but go easy on her okay? She's been through a rough couple of months." Tony murmured, taking her from Lokis' arms.
"Miss her." Selene murmured, hugging him tightly.
"Me too." Tony whispered.
A few minutes turned out to be a long fifteen minutes before the doors opened and Vision walked out with Ellie on his arm. Tonys' heart thudded seeing her.
She was gorgeous as he remembered, despite the dirty face, snarled hair, and way she winced as she walked, clearly in pain. It hurt him to see the thick hand prints around her neck and the black eyes she had. He put Selene down so that he could draw her slowly into his arms.
"Tony." She whispered, her voice hoarse.
"I've missed you so much." Tony whispered. "I love you so much. I'm so sorry."
"You got me out." Ellie whispered, pulling back, touching his face lightly, her eyes dancing wearily over his features. "Are. . . are the others okay? Is Bucky- is Bucky safe?"
"Yes." Tony murmured. "Hopefully Agent Chow will make it possible so that we can bring them home soon. But. . . well Loki should get us to them. Ready to head home?"
Ellie was, but she first hugged Selene and Dimitri tightly, before carrying Dimitri in her arms, holding Selenes' hands tightly and looked at Tony silently, but questioning.
"What's wrong?" Tony asked, opening up the back car door, letting Ellie put Dimitri in his car seat while Selene climbed into her own booster seat, Tony strapping her in.
"Um, what about the twins?" Ellie asked softly. "What did Ross- did Ross hurt-"
Tony squeezed her hand and smiled at her, "I can't wait for you to see them."
Ellie beamed, tears filling her eyes and she nodded hurridely. The drive home was the best drive Tony had had in a long time. He held hands with his wife over the console, driving one handed and safe until they were pulling up in the driveway.
To their surprise, Steve and Bucky were waiting inside the living room along with the rest of the Avenger family.
"Ellie." Steve and Bucky whispered together, racing forwards, the two of them hugging her tightly. Ellie couldn't hold it back anymore and burst into tears, feeling safer than she had felt in a long, long time.
She was passed around with gentle hugs and love, everyone happy that she was back, although all of them also wanted to take a couple of swings at Ross- perhaps with a crowbar- looking at her face.
"There's some little guys you should meet." Sam said with a smile, while Steve and Bucky both took the little babies out of the sleeping carriages they'd been in. Ellie's waterworks increased as she reached out, taking both of them into her arms at the same time, sinking down onto the couch.
"T-T-They're so precious." Ellie whispered out, holding them closely. "Wh- Do they have names?"
"Ross gave them names." Bucky rolled his eyes. "But I'd say they need some proper names, don't they? Our names?"
Ellie sat there for a moment, just staring at their faces. She thought of how much pain she'd been in when she'd given birth to them, before not even being able to see them as they were carried out of the room before she'd been returned to her cell.
"How about Eleanor and Samuel?" Ellie asked softly, looking up at her husbands. "They're strong names."
"Yeah they are." Sam butted in with a grin before Stephen elbowed him in the stomach hard.
Steve chuckled at Sam before nodding, "Those are beautiful names Ellie. I love them." Bucky and Tony nodded their assent. Zeus padded over and licked Eleanors cheek before settling down at Ellies' feet happily.
"Eleanor Natalia Rogers-Barnes and Samuel James Rogers-Barnes?" Steve asked. Rhodey smiled and Ellie nodded.
Dinner was takeout that night. But it didn't stop Clint from raising a glass and saying, "To Agent Chow."
"Agent Chow!" The rest of them saluted.
"Awent Chow!" Selene giggled, holding up her glass of apple juice. Ellie smiled at her daughter as she sipped her apple cider.
Clint turned to Ellie and smiled, a softer, deeper smile that held pain and weight and meaning behind it. "To Ellie."
And everyone turned towards the woman that completed them and raised a glass to her.
Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OCs: Ellie White along with the children. I do not condone any copying of this.
Unfortunately, Tony wasn't able to get to Ellie right away. James collapsed walking through the portal where he was then rushed to the hospital. It seemed there was damage to his legs, though Tony wasn't sure how severe.
Then when he went to find Ross, it was to discover that the bastard wasn't even in the building. He was in the middle of the ocean.
And to top things off, Steve had been right as Tony received documentation from F.R.I.D.A.Y. about how the psychiatrist who had been assigned to Bucky was found dead in a hotel room. Just to make matters worse.
Loki wanted war. He was raging, barely being kept at bay by Stephen. It didn't help that Sam had been taken away by the agents too. Loki wanted blood and Tony wasn't sure he was that willing to stop him.
If Ross had wanted to arrest Ellie for resisiting, fine. Perfectly legal. He would've hired a lawyer, they would've taken it to court or maybe even settled outside of court. Taking Selene and Dimitri? Completely unacceptable and Ross was going to hear about it when he saw him.
"Are you sure he should come?" Tony asked Stephen as they helicoptered into The RAFT. Which pissed him off even more. The fucking RAFT? He didn't even think the other half of the Avengers should even be here, much less his wife, much less his fucking kids. Ross didn't know who he was playing with.
Stephen just gave Tony a look that plainy said, 'You think I can stop him?'
"So? You got the files? Let's reroute the satellites, start facial scanning for this Zemo guy. Oh and hey where the fuck is my wife and kids?" Tony spat as he stepped out of the helicopter, pissed beyond Heaven. It didn't help that his head pounded like crazy and his arm was in a sling.
"You seriously think I'm gonna listen to you after that fiasco in Leipzig? You're lucky you're not in one of these cells." Ross threatened, glancing between the three of them.
"Ellie Rogers-Barnes and the kids, where are they?" Stephen asked coolly.
"Obviously in jail cells." Ross said, as though it was obvious. "They needed to be contained."
"Why?" Tony snapped.
"Because your wife broke the law-"
"You don't put people in here for breaking the law!" Tony protested.
"And we already know one of your children has mutant-"
"Bait." Loki snarled. "They're bait Tony. For Steve."
Stephen grabbed Tonys' arm that he didn't even realized he'd raised to punch the Secretary in the face. "Please Anthony. Secretary Ross, you have absoulutely no legal reason to keep the children in this place. You will release them to their father immediately, do you understand?"
Ross stood there for a moment and then nodded. "Very well."
An agent took them to the part of the RAFT where they were being kept, which also was where they were keeping the Avengers.
"Tony." Clint pointed immediately across the room and Tony saw them and then saw black.
Selene's cell was small and it was filled up to her torso with water. She was curled up on her wet bed, shivering, wrapping her arms around her body.
The Agent wanted to make them wait until the cell had been drained to open it, but Stephen simply portaled her out. She sobbed into Tonys' arms, hugging him tightly. "Dada Sun, Dada Sun. Cold cold cold."
"I'm so sorry." Tony whispered, hot tears in his eyes while the other Agent took Dimitri- who thankfully had been fast asleep in his crib currently- out and handed him to Stephen.
"Here munchkin." Loki whispered, waving his hand and she was suddenly wearing a very soft, fluffy, comfortable Hello Kitty onesie, complete with little mittens and footsies. "Tony, let me take her. Then I won't kill someone."
Tony handed Selene over to her Godfather, taking Dimitri from Stephens' arms. The Agent had left them- Ross had given Tony permission to talk to the other Avengers, perhaps find out where Steve and Bucky had gone which was exactly what he was going to do.
"We'll get you out of here soon." Stephen promised Sam, him and Loki talking to him. "We'll get everyone out of here soon."
"I know. Just. . . stay safe." Sam asked.
Stephen and Loki moved to talk to Wanda, both of them angry at seeing her magic restrained in such an inhumane way, making her the same promises as they'd made Sam. Tony meanwhile, got the location of Steve and Bucky out of Sam, before the three of them headed out with the kids.
"Take them back home." Tony said to Stephen and Loki, already planing on going after his husbands. "I need to go help them."
"Let us know if you need us." Stephen said and Tony shook his head, "Protect them. Get to Vision. And maybe check on Rhodey if you could."
Soon he was leaning back in his chair, and shot out as Iron Man, unaware that a cat was trailing him from behind.
｡ ★ • * ｡.
"Think Ross will let us go home to Ellie?" Bucky asked, his attempt at comedy, barely a smile on his face.
"I'm picturing it." Steve sighed, picturing exactly that. Maybe Stephen could literally portal them into their kitchen. They'd order Chinese takeout. They'd put on Selenes' favorite Princess movie and curl up on the couch as one big family. Zeus would curl up in front of the fireplace. Selene would 'sneak' him her shrimp she didn't like to much and sometimes vegetables from her lo mein if he'd put up with them.
"No." Steve sighed as they headed into the building, noting that the doctor was already here. They both tensed, knowing that the super soldiers could be hiding anywhere, silent, bidding their time.
"Didn't think so." Bucky sighed softly.
"We'll pull our family back together somehow." Steve sighed, before the two of them spun as the doors behind them opened again.
"Hey." Tony said weakly, his hands raised in surrender.
"Tony." Steve sighed in relief, knowing exactly what that sheepish look meant.
"So. . . turns out you're right. Can we kill this bastard as quickly as possible? We have a big problem back home." Tony said, hurrying forwards.
"Why? What's wrong?" Steve asked immediately. Bucky was still tense, scanning the surroundings, afraid their voices would carry to the super soldiers.
Tony hesitated before he relayed what had happened since they left.
"FUCK ROSS!" Bucky snarled, slamming his metal arm into the wall behind him, which dented greatly. He no longer cared about noise, he would tear the soldiers apart limb by limb.
"Where the fuck does he get the nerve." Steve hissed, furious. "Selene. . . Selene is a child! And what the hell did Ellie do? He's got a vendetta against her Tony."
"I know Steve. So let's deal with this and get back to her. Whatever it takes. Hell, I'll help you break her out if that's what it takes. We'll hide the kids, we'll go underground. Whatever it takes." Tony swore.
Steve nodded firmly, the three of them heading into the room, but they were met with a sight that none of them expected to see. Each super soldier had a bullet wound in their head.
"I've only got one heat signature." Tony told them, confusion in his voice.
"If it's any comfort, they died in their sleep." The doctors' voice said in the air. "Did you really think I wanted more of you?" Steve glanced to see Bucky was looking mournfully at one of the soldiers and realized Bucky had known all of them. Not well, probably, but they had been here with him. He wondered if they had been friends or close alternatives or if they had been fierce enemies. He suspected he would never know.
"I'm grateful to them, though. They brought you here." Zemo appears in a control room. Steve hurled his shield but it flew back. "Please, Captain. The Soviets built this chamber to withstand the launch blast of UR-100 rockets."
"I'm betting I could beat that." Steve almost smiled at Tonys' attitude, but his mind was more preoccupied with Ellie and his children.
"Oh, I'm sure you could, Mr. Stark. Given time. But then you'd never know why you came." Zemo said with a smile on his face.
"You killed innocent people in Vienna just to bring us here?" Steve asked incredulously.
"I thought about nothing else for over a year. I studied you. I followed you. But now that you're standing here, I just realized . . . there's a bit of green in the blue of your eyes. How nice to find a flaw."
"Fuck off jackass." Tony snapped.
"You're Sokovian. Is that what this is about?" Steve asked, feeling a nugget of warmth from Tonys' defense, even if it was just his eyes.
"Sokovia was a failed state long before you blew it to hell. No. I'm here because I made a promise."
"You lost someone?"
"I lost everyone. And so will you. An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again. But one which crumples from within? That's dead . . . forever."
A computer screen had lit up with what looked like surveillance footage. Bucky took one look at it and crumpled to his knees with a sound that was like a sob and a groan. Steve didn't recognize it at all but Tony frowned at the screen, before he grew pale, taking a single step back but not tearing his gaze away from it.
And Steve realized what the footage was when he saw the motorcycle shoot past, causing the car crash. He put a tentative hand on Tonys' shoulder. "Do you. . . you don't have to watch this." He glanced over and saw that Zemo was gone.
An empire crumpled from within is dead forever. Zemo didn't realize Tony already knew. He thought this would cause a fight between the two of them, that perhaps some of them would even die. It wouldn't just be a dead organization, he was expecting them to fight to the death.
Steve flinched a little as Tony blasted the screen before Bucky could even get off the motorcycle. He knelt down next to Bucky, pulling him into his arms, sobbing into the brunettes shoulder. Bucky wrapped his arms around him hard, sobbing right back and Steve knelt down, pulling both of them into his arms to comfort them.
"It's not fair." They mumbled thickly, almost in unison, though they meant different things.
"No." Steve said simply. "It's not."
It took them a minute or two before they were both wiping their faces. Tony kissed Bucky's cheek, then Tonys', and then stood up, offering both of them his hands. "Come on. We have a wife to save now."
｡ ★ • * ｡.
Steve told Tony to go home so that he wouldn't be present for it, which had ticked Tony a little, but he also understood. Tony went home, took Selene and Dimitri in his arms, and sat with them in the playroom. Selene was subdued in a way he'd never seen before. She was holding her stuffed animal and fitted herself into the corner of the room, rocking back and forth slightly.
Dimitri was holding up alright. He'd wanted food like normal and Tony had made him a bottle of milk- which he didn't quite appreciate, but still ate. He was now cheerfully throwing blocks and giggling.
"How are you feeling sunshine?" Tony asked her softly, coming to sit down next to her, wrapping a blanket around her shoulders. "I think Dada Moon and Dada Star will be home really soon too."
"Bad man?" Selene asked quietly. It was the first words she had said since he'd been home.
"You won't ever see him again." Tony promised. "He's in a different country."
She would never see him again. If any of them texted Stephen, it didn't matter what he was doing, he would be here instantly and whisk her away with a portal. Both of the children.
Tony closed his eyes. He wondered what Ross was doing and if Ellie had lost the twins. It would break his heart if she did. Two of his babies lost in an instant. It would break all of them.
"No water." Selene shook her head, squeezing her stuffed animal hard, closing her eyes. "No water."
"No water." Tony agreed, wondering numbly if that would count swimming and baths. Fuck. Bath time was going to be a nightmare now. Maybe they could start her with showers early? Ususally those didn't happen till kids were five. . .
"How about a nap instead?" Tony asked. When Selene looked hesitant he added, "You can sleep in our bed and you'll know immediately when other daddies are home."
She nodded, but didn't move and he finally picked her up carefully in his arms, bringing her into their room, settling her down in the middle of their bed. He brought Dimitri in too, putting him next to his sister. He fell asleep immediately but Selene stared out the window at the moon until Tony finally gently drew the shades closed, kissing her forehead. "Goodnight sunshine. I love you 3000."
She finally smiled, a little ghost smile that fell, but she murmured, "I wuv you twee twousand too Dada." She closed her eyes and drifted off.
At the same time, Steve, Bucky, Loki, and Stephen had fought through a large number of Agents and had finally broken open the cells of their fellow partners. Clint was immediately at the computer at their insistence, trying to find out where they were keeping Ellie while Sam, Scott, and Wanda kept an eye out with the others.
"She's. . . she's not here Cap." Clint said, looking over at Steve.
"What?" Steve asked sharply, hurrying over. Indeed, Ellies' name didn't come up in the database.
"Let me try." Loki said, coming over. He paused in front of the keyboard and then typed something in another language. A singular name popped up that was in the same language and he clicked on it. Ellies' face came up.
"What's the language?" Steve asked, confused.
"It's not a language." Clint said. "It's a code. How'd you figure that?"
"Ross knew we'd break in." Loki shrugged, scanning the information. "So he obviously made it harder to find her and ah- son of a-"
"Loki what." Steve snapped.
"He moved her." Loki said. "Five hours ago. She's not here anymore."
"What the fuck is his problem?" Clint huffed. "All she did was resist arrest, if that."
"Bait." Steve growled, "He's using her to get to me."
"We need to go." Sam said in a worried tone. "I can hear helicopters-"
"Let's go." Stephen said quietly, opening up a portal that led to a cozy looking living room with lots of books and a fireplace. Stephen ushered everyone through first before he stepped in and it closed behind him.
Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OCs: Ellie White along with the children. I do not condone any copying of this.
"I don't suppose you have any idea where they are?" Secretary Ross demanded of Tony. "Or did you help orchestrate all of this?"
Ellie bristled but kept her mouth shut, cringing in the corner next to Stephen. Loki had taken the kids out of the room, especially so Selene didn't have to see Ross again. Ellie wanted to stay with Tony, especially now that Steve, Bucky, and Sam were gone, but she really hated having to see Ross again.
Even if most of the left side of his torso was severely burned along with half his neck and part of his face. He glared at her as he spoke to Tony and Tony bristled both under the implication and his hostility, wanting to punch the Secretary in the face.
"We will. GSG-9's got the borders covered. Recon's flying 24/7. They'll get a hit. We'll handle it." Tony said through gritted teeth. "And as I'm sure Agent Carter explained, I didn't have anything to do with it and neither did Steve."
"You don't get it, Stark. It's not yours to handle. It's clear you can't be objective. I'm putting Special Ops on this." Secretary Ross threatened.
"What happens when the shooting starts? What, do you kill Steve Rogers?" Natasha protested.
"If we're provoked. Barnes would've been eliminated in Romania if it wasn't for Rogers. There are dead people who would be alive now. Feel free to check my math." Secretary Ross snarled.
"Excuse me?" Ellie snarled back, jumping out of her seat. Stephen grabbed her arm gently, pulling her back towards him. "Eliminated? You would've killed my husband? He didn't do anything! How many times do I need to keep telling you that?"
"Ellie," Stephen murmured.
"All due respect, you're not going to solve this with boys in bullets, Ross. You gotta let us bring them in." Tony said, glancing at Ellie.
Secretary Ross sneered at both of them, "How would that end any differently from the last time?"
"Because this time, I won't be wearing loafers and a silk shirt. 72 hours, guaranteed."
"36 hours. Barnes. Rogers. Wilson."
Stephen threw Ross a scathing look.
Ross paused as he walked past, glaring at Ellie, "You and I will talk later."
"No. You will not be." Stephen said calmly, but firmly, and while Ross looked startled, he didn't disagree, just shaking his head and walking out the door.
"My left arm is numb, is that normal?" Tony grumbled, wincing.
"You alright?" Natasha asked, patting his arm.
"Always. 36 hours, jeez." Tony huffed.
"Tony, you're not actually going to hunt them down are you?" Ellie asked quietly.
Tony paused, fingers tearing at a thread on his jacket for a moment. "I did sign the papers El. And we have to bring them home. Bucky was obviously triggered to be the Winter Soldier, he didn't do it himself. We can cut deals."
Ellie closed her eyes, shaking her head fiercely. "Fine. Whatever you need to do." She whispered however, turning and walking out of the room.
Tony glanced at Stephen, "Think I'm wrong?"
"Ellie loves you all very much." Was Stephens' reply. "I think you need to see how she's seeing it. Bucky is innocent in her mind- and mine." He paused and then said, "Steve is protecting Bucky. You're trying to protect both of them. But she never agreed with the accords and now you're forced to hunt your own soulmates down because you signed them. She's not happy. And she's had a long day. I think she views it as siding with Ross, who hurt her."
Tony gritted his teeth, "I want to punch his face in just as much as anyone else in this room."
Stephen nodded once, "I know. And she knows that. But now it's just painting a picture in her head that Ross has control over you. Which is why she panicked and resisted in the first place. It's what got her here. She's just handling a lot." Stephen headed for the door. "Do what you need to do to make your family whole again Rogers-Barnes. I'll protect Ellie."
"You're the first one." Tony murmured.
"What?" Stephen asked, turning back to him.
Tony looked at him, "You're the first one who hasn't called me 'Stark' since the bonding ceremony."
"You took their name, didn't you?" Was all Stephen asked before walking out of the room.
Natasha glanced at him, before deciding to skip over the conversation, "We're seriously understaffed."
"Oh, yeah. It'd be great if we had a Hulk right about now. Any shot?"
"No. You really think he'd be on our side?"
Tony laughed lightly, remembering Bruces' file. Bruce had had his own run-ins with Ross trying to kill him while Ross' own daughter was in love with him. They'd had a fling throughout college, long before he'd met Natasha and Clint. "No." Tony shook his head.
"I have an idea." Natasha said.
"Me too. Where's yours?" Tony said, thinking of a lead he'd wanted to follow a while back.
"Downstairs. Where's yours?"
Tony smiled, "Queens."
｡ ★ • * ｡.
"Think Ellie's okay?" Bucky asked Steve quietly while they pulled into the parking garage.
"No." Steve murmured honestly. "She's going to be worried sick about us until we get back."
Bucky was silent for a moment and then shook his head, "I want to go back to her but. . . she's just in more danger if we don't get to the super soldiers before Zemo."
"That's all we can do." Sam murmured. "Loki and Stephen will protect her till we get back."
They parked next to a grey van and got out. Clint immediately greeted them, "Cap."
"You know I wouldn't have called if I had any other choice." Steve said, feeling a little guilty for what this would do to Natasha, Laura, and the kids if Clint got caught.
"Hey man, you're doing me a favor. Besides, I owe a debt." Clint smiled.
"Thanks for having my back." Steve nodded.
Clint grinned, "Oh no, I was doing this for Lasagna nights."
"How about our other recruit?" Steve asked, smiling gently at Wanda.
"He's rarin' to go. Had to put a little coffee in him, but. . . he should be good to go." Clint said, sliding open the van door to reveal a man that neither Steve nor Bucky had ever met before.
"What timezone is this?" Scott asked with a yawn, getting out of the van.
"Come on. Come on."
Scott grabbed Steve's hand, which surprised Steve a bit, though he wasn't sure why, shaking it. "Captain America."
"Mr. Lang."
"It's an honor. I'm shaking your hand too long. Wow! This is awesome! Captain America." He glanced at Wanda. "I know you too, You're great!" He turned back and felt Steve's shoulders. Steve wondered if he was being hit on. "Jeez. Ah, look, I wanna say, I know you know a lot of super people so. . . thanks for thinking of me." He looked at Sam, "Hey, man!"
Steve glanced back at Sam who had his arms crossed over his chest, almost glaring at Scott as though to tell him to keep his mouth shut. "What's up, Tic Tac?"
Tic Tac? Steve looked back at Scott, thinking about how much Ellie would've liked him. He probably would've made her laugh a lot.
"They tell you what we're up against?" Steve asked.
"Something about some psycho-assassins?" Scott asked.
"We're outside the law on this one. So, if you come with us, you're a wanted man." Steve said and glanced at Clint too as he said this. Clint shrugged and so did Scott.
"Yeah, well, what else is new?"
"We should get moving."
"We got a chopper lined up." Clint nodded.
"Dies ist eine Notsituation. Alle Passagiere müssen den Flughafen sofort evakuieren" A man over the PA system spoke suddenly.
"They're evacuating the airport." Bucky translated.
"Tony." Sam sighed. "Ross probably sent him after you."
"Tony? Like Tony Stark?" Lang asked, looking at them with wide eyes.
"No. Rogers-Barnes." Sam rolled his eyes and Steve found himself smiling with that.
"Suit up." He commanded.
They ended up splitting up and Steve headed out by himself towards the chopper, knowing full well that his husband would probably intercept him. He was correct as some sort of disabler slammed into the chopper. Steve looked up to see not just Tony as Iron man, but also James as War Machine descending from the skies. .
"Wow, it's so weird how you run into people at the airport. Don't you think that's weird?" Tony asked James, looking at Steve with pleading eyes that crushed his soul.
"Definitely weird." James said.
"Hear me out, Tony. That doctor, the psychiatrist, he's behind all of this." Steve said, pleading with his voice.
Steve mentally groaned, seeing T'Challa leap over a truck. Fantastic, the man who was okay with slitting Bucky's throat had gotten involved. "Captain."
"Your highness."
"Ross gave me 36 hours to bring you in. That was 24 hours ago. Help me out Steve. We can go home to Ellie and the kids. All of us."
"Do you actually believe Ross isn't going to lock Bucky and I up?" Steve asked Tony, "You think he isn't going to punish Ellie? Tony, the only reason we didn't come back ourselves is that the psychiatrist is about to release five more super soldiers, just like Bucky. If the doctor finds them first-"
"Steve. . . you know what's about to happen. Do you really wanna punch your way out of this one?" Natasha asked. Her look was both pitying and accusatory. Clearly, she was thinking about Clint.
"Alright, I've run out of patience. Underoos!" Steve nearly flinched as something lashed out at him, taking his shield from his hands. "Nice job, kid."
Kid?
"Thanks. Well, I could've stuck the landing a little better. It's just the new suit. . . Well, it's nothing Mr. Stark. It's- it's perfect. Thank you."
Holy shit. Steve shot Tony a look, mouthing 'a kid?'
"Yeah, we don't really need to start a conversation."
"Okay. Cap. . . Captain. Big fan. I'm Spider-man."
"Yeah, we'll talk about it later, Just. . ."
"You've been busy." Steve cut in.
"And you've been a complete idiot. Dragging in Clint. 'Rescuing' Wanda from a place she doesn't event want to leave, a safe place. I'm trying to keep. . . I'm trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart. Our family, apart." Tony sighed.
"You did that when you signed." Steve said, narrowing his eyes, now noticing what Ellie had been so upset about. Tony was so worried about returning them to Ross, so worried about meeting that deadline because he would face punishment from Ross if he didn't, that he wasn't listening to anything Steve was trying to say.
"Alright. We're done." Tony huffed, offended, "You're gonna bring Bucky and come in. NOW! Because it's us! Or a squad of J-SOC guys. . . with no compunction about being polite." Steve looked away, not able to look at Tony without feeling love, anger, and guilt. "Come on."
"We found it." Sam spoke in his ear. "Their Quinjet's in hanger five, north runway."
Steve knew what was about to happen and mentally prepared himself for it, raising his hands. Clint shot the webs away, making them spin around. He could see the anguish in Natasha's features and hated that this was tearing them apart. But the super soldiers also couldn't be released into the world. Tony would understand once they stopped the doctor.
Hopefully.
"Alright, Lang."
"Hey, guys, something. . ."
Scott grew in size as he retreived Steves' Shield, handing it back to him while James cursed him out, "I believe this is yours, Captain America."
Steve and Lang made off and weaved in and out of the buildings and runways that littered the airport grounds. The group eventually caught back up together and ran towards the dock that held the Quinjet. Steve didn't even care if it had a tracker on it. If Tony followed them to Siberia, it just meant more recruits. That's what they were going to need to take down five Buckys.
Suddenly a fizzing stream of energy sliced a line in the concrete in front of them, making them skid to a stop and Steves' stomach turned again, looking up at Vision who was floating in front of them. It gave Tonys' team enough time to line up behind Vision. Steve glanced down at Wanda, knowing that she was the only person here who could actually handle him. If someone kept her busy. . . Vision would destroy the rest of them.
"Captain Rogers. I know you believe what you're doing is right. But for the collective good you must surrender now."
"Bucky please." Tony asked. "Come home."
"They want to kill me, Tony." Bucky said. "The very least I can do is take these five super soldiers out before they execute me."
"I won't let them hurt you." Tony swore.
"You can't promise that." Bucky whispered. "This isn't going to go the way you want. There isn't sunshine and rainbows at the end of this. Even if we go back now, Steve is locked up. I'm dead. Who knows what Ross is going to do to Ellie."
"If you care so much for Ellie then why haven't you come back to her?" Tony snapped.
"Because the super soldiers will go for her and you know it." Bucky murmured. "And no one will be able to stop them. We have to get them before they're out of cryo."
Tony shook his head.
"What do we do, Cap?" Sam asked.
"We fight." Steve said.
"This is gonne end well." Steve heard Natasha mutter as they started to walk towards each other.
They broke into a run. Steve clashed with Tony, heart breaking with every punch he threw, the two of them fighting it out.
"This can end Cap." Tony gritted out through his teeth. Steve noted out of the corner of his eye that T'Challa was fighting Bucky, knocking him to the ground.
"It ends after I end those soldiers." Steve said. "Make the world a safer place for Ellie and the kids before they toss me in jail. I'd like if you-" He grunted, slamming his shield up higher. "-would help me with that at least."
"We can tell Ross-"
"We don't have time, the doctor is hours ahead of us." Steve huffed, kicking Tonys' chest, sending the man backwards. "Please."
He didn't like what was happening anymore than anyone else. It hurt to watch Natasha and Clint fight, Wanda vs Vision, James vs Sam. None of this was fair. There were so many different things they could've done to prevent this.
Had he gone after Rumlow sooner. Had Steve disarmed Rumlow before Wanda had to. If he'd had Loki on the mission. If he'd brought Ellie and the kids with him to the funeral.
"Tony I know all of this is my fault." Steve said quietly. "But I need you to believe me on this. Please."
"I'm sorry Cap, but I need to bring our family back together, no matter what." Tony said.
"I can provide a distraction." Scott said suddenly while Steve dived out of the way, ducking behind a cargo crate. He winced, seeing Wanda bring cars crashing down on Tony and James. "Get you and winter guy to the ship."
"What about the rest of you guys?" Steve asked, knowing that if they left them here eventually Ross would take them in.
"The rest of us aren't getting out of here." Sam admitted.
"As much as I hate to admit it, if we're gonna win this one, some of us might have to lose it." Clint said, shooting another arrow at T'Challa.
"This isn't the real fight, Steve." Sam warned in his ear.
"Alright what's the play? Scott?" Steve asked.
"I got something kind of big, but I can't hold it very long. On my signal, run like hell. And if I tear myself in half . . . don't come back for me." Scott said dramatically.
"He's going to tear himself in half?" Bucky asked, looking at Steve with panicked alarm. Steve had a feeling Scott was growing on Bucky too.
Tony and James were out from under the cars now, flying around. Steve watched as Scott transformed, becoming massive and grabbing Rhodey like a toy. Steve and Bucky bolted behind the crates towards the shed while the others kept the attention of those trying to stop them.
"Way to go, Tic Tac!" Sam cheered in Steves' ear.
Steve and Bucky stopped when they saw Natasha standing there.
"Nat-"
"You're not gonna stop." Natasha sighed.
"You know I can't." Steve sighed, "There's to much at stake."
"I'm gonna regret this" Nat sighed and then proceeded to shoot her taser past both of them, stunning T'Challa instead of them. "Go."
"Take care of Ellie." Steve called over his shoulder, climbing into the Quinjet with Bucky and took off, though his heart sank as he climbed into the sky.
｡ ★ • * ｡.
"I'm sorry." Vision murmured to Wanda, holding her in his arms. She was crying, now that the Quinjet had taken off.
"Me too. I just wished you'd believed us." Wanda whispered, closing her eyes. "I don't know why you didn't."
Vision stayed silent because he too wasn't sure why he hadn't listened to her. "I don't know either. I'm sorry."
"Vision, I got a bandit on my six." James voice came into Visions' comm and Vision stared into Wandas' face before looking up to see Sam pelting after Rhodey. "Vision! You copy? Target his thrusters, turn him into a glider."
Vision did not quite have a stomach, but if he had one, it would've turned at the order. His mind flashed with memories of sitting with both Sam and James in Ellie Roger-Barnes living room, enjoying dinner or drinking a beer or two while watching the game.
"No." Vision said quietly, tossing the comm out of his ear. "Let us go my love." He said, standing up.
"I can't leave." Wanda murmured. "None of us can. We have to give the time to Steve and Bucky to take down those soldiers."
"You're right." Vision sighed. "I don't want to lose you."
"You haven't. You won't." Wanda murmured, hugging him.
Suddenly, both Sam and Rhodey were suddenly dumped out of a blazing orange portal on the ground next to him. Tony followed suit a second later before Stephen and Loki stepped out of the portal.
"What the fuck Strange!" James shouted, his war machine face plate coming up. "We almost had-"
"Shut up." Lokis' voice was cold as ice, his eyes blazing green in seconds before he turned his eyes on Stark. "You're needed."
"What the hell happened now?" Tony huffed.
"Ross." Stephen said, his voice strangely emotionless. "Ross took Ellie and the kids."
