Current mood:

awake

Free Falling [Fruits Basket, Shigure + Kureno, cradle]
Title: Free Falling
Author: miyabita13
Fandom: Fruits Basket
Pairing: Shigure + Kureno
Theme: #22 - cradle
Warnings: Spoilers for Chapter 101. This is fairly canon, though I kind of messed with Furuba canon timeline as the years go on. No yaoi. One very very very minor shonen-ai reference.
Disclaimer: Fruits Basket belongs to Natsuki Takaya, not me. Though if she ever sold property rights to the characters, I'd want Kureno. He's squishy. ^^

When he was ten, clumsy fingers frantically clawed at his shirt. They were looking for stability, a place to rest to protect their owner from falling flat on his face for the seventh time in little under an hour. His own fingers reached out to return the gesture, grasping a hold of the other boy’s wrist until he had righted himself, so the two could continue dancing. Kureno was clumsy, but Shigure supposed he didn’t mind teaching his cousin how to dance for the banquet. Kureno fell again, and Shigure firmly placed his hands on either side of Kureno’s hips as support. The blush that crept over Kureno’s cheeks stirred something inside him. He didn’t remove his hands, and Kureno didn’t fall.

At the age of twenty-two, Shigure wanted to kill him. The clammy hands that dripped with Kureno’s sweat only spiked Shigure’s anger. The seemingly clumsy man before him had taken her away, kissed her lips, slept with the only woman he ever loved, and Shigure was sure Kureno had done it out of selfishness; the man wasn’t a martyr. He hated Kureno’s every move, hated that Kureno of all people had been freed from the curse… As Kureno danced, Shigure had visions of violence – shoving the man against the wall, yelling at him, screaming at him, degrading him in every way possible. Kureno lost his balance and reached out to use Shigure for support. He stepped away and let the man fall.

At thirty-four, Shigure was a tired, busy man whose goals were finally coming to fruition. Akito loved him, and he had made a name for himself in the publishing world. He no longer felt the immense hatred for the man who so desperately danced beside him. No, that hatred had dimmed down to mere annoyance and irritation. He didn’t have time to be in Kureno’s presence, practicing a pointless New Year’s dance that meant nothing to him now that he had Akito. Kureno’s foot caught on the flowing material of his New Year’s outfit. He fell to the ground, and Shigure did nothing but watch.

By the time he was forty-six, he felt a kinship with Kureno. His younger cousin had been the only one to weep for days after Akito’s funeral. He seemed to be the only one that couldn’t move on or leave the estate. He continued to throw all of himself into that meaningless dance. Shigure was almost on the brink of understanding. He couldn’t move on either. He danced with Kureno only in hopes that it would bring her back to him. He heard Kureno stumble and watched as the man fell to the ground. The pain that clouded Kureno’s eyes tore apart his insides; Kureno’s eyes hid nothing, while Shigure continued to mask his grief.

When he was fifty-eight, Shigure felt pain begin to settle in. He stood there, looking down at Kureno’s name on the gravestone. He remembered the funeral as if it had been yesterday – Hatori had decided to have him buried next to Akito, and Shigure could count the number of attendees on one hand. He supposed that if Kureno had still been alive, the man would be preparing for the New Year’s dance. He imagined that Kureno would reach out for him, try to lean on him for support, and fall helplessly to the ground, blinking up at Shigure with passive eyes. Shigure envisioned it all happening in front of him. But this time, he reached out for Kureno at the last second, and, in his mind, Kureno didn’t fall.