Haruka's Fanfiction

This was the result of a fifteen-minute word challenge that ran longer. The prompt is stated at the end of the ficlet.

Note: The setting and character groupings mentioned in the fic are based in my Sprefvent RPG, where characters from various fandoms are living in the same mansion. Not necessarily canon.

The Curse of Attraction (Kamen Rider Den-O/Fruits Basket)

By Haruka (haruka@ymail.com)

--

About an hour ago, we Imagin were all hanging out in our suite in the mansion. Urataros was checking himself out in the mirror, Kintaros was in one corner lifting weights, Sieg was on his chaise, complimenting Deneb on the quality of his tea, and Deneb was getting way too excited about said compliment. Momotaros was bumming on the couch, changing channels, mumbling something about not being able to find some extreme sports channel. As for me, I was on my stomach on the carpet, drawing a new picture and being angelic, as usual.

Well, I was at THAT moment, anyhow.

I had just put down my blue crayon and was reaching for the yellow when I stopped, my hand poised in mid-air. Something was wrong.

“Ah, THERE it is!” Momotaros declared with satisfaction. I heard some screaming and crunching coming from the television, but didn’t glance in that direction.

“Sempai,” Urataros turned from the mirror. “You shouldn’t watch that channel with Ryuuta in the room. It’ll give him bad ideas.”

Momo snorted. “Have you seen the kid drive his Den-Bird? He does wheelies and flies through the air on it and skids sideways while being half-under the thing and STILL shoots his gun as he’s at it – a little Extreme Dodgeball isn’t gonna hurt him!” There was a pause. “Anyway, he’s not paying attention.”

While I could hear what they were saying, I wasn’t really registering any of it. I sat up, putting my crayons down. There was a voice in my head – no, not Kai this time – but something else. Something telling me that I needed to go. I got to my feet and headed for the door.

“Ryuuta?” Deneb said as I went by. I heard him, but didn’t answer. Nothing seemed important except getting out that door.

“Ryuutaros,” Urataros touched my shoulder as I passed, “where are you going?”

I kept walking and put my hand on the doorknob.

“Brat! Hey, Snot-Nosed Brat! You’d BETTER answer me when I’m talking to you!”

That was Momotaros, of course, but like the others, I couldn’t stop or talk to them. I opened the door and started to leave.

I felt someone grab me and out of the corner of my eye saw a red hand: Momo.

“You’re acting really weird and you’re not going anywhere until you tell us what’s going on!”

I didn’t turn to look at him and just kept trying to get out the door. The others had all gathered around me now.

“Ryuuta?” A blue hand waved in my face. “RYUUTA! It’s like he’s in a trance or something.”

“Maybe a good swat would snap him out of it.”

“It may not be his fault – he doesn’t look like he’s doing it on purpose.”

“Why don’t you let him go?” came a voice from across the room – had to be Sieg, still on his chaise. “Then you can find out what he’s trying to do.”

There must have been some silent communication between the others, because Momotaros’ hand left me and I was allowed to go out into the hall.

They followed me down the hall, and if any of the other mansion kids or teachers saw our procession, they didn’t try to stop us. I kept going until I reached Hatori’s room.

“What’s he want with the Doc?” Momotaros asked from behind me.

“Sounds like someone else is in there with him,” Deneb commented.

“Yes,” Urataros said, “there’s an argument going on.”

I came to the open doorway of Hatori’s room, and just inside, he was involved in a heated disagreement with his cousin, Shigure. Usually, Hatori was one of the calmer members of the Souma clan, but he was visibly agitated by something that Shigure had been saying just moments before I walked in and stopped beside him. The two men ceased to argue and looked from me to the other Imagin behind me.

“Don’t ask us,” Momotaros said. “We don’t know what’s going on, either.”

Without warning, I put my arms around Hatori comfortingly. I really, really wanted him to feel better, and to stop being upset.

“Affectionate tyke, isn’t he?” Shigure remarked with amusement.

“We apologize for this.” Kintaros came forward and tried to disengage me from Hatori, but I wouldn’t let go. With his strength, he would hurt one of us if he kept trying, so he stopped and scratched his head. “What’s going on with him?”

“I think I know,” Hatori said with a heavy sigh. “Ryuutaros is a dragon. So am I.”

Shigure started laughing and pointing. “Ha ha ha ha! Now Haa-san finally knows how it feels to have someone respond to his spirit animal like the rest of us!”

Hatori looked at my confused family. “You already know I’m the dragon of the Jyuunishi. Whenever a member of the Jyuunishi is upset, our spirit animals gravitate toward us; they can’t help it.” He gave me an uneasy pat on the back. “I’m sorry that it affected Ryuutaros – unlike the others, I’ve never had this happen to me before.” He gently pushed me back. “You can go back with them, Ryuuta – I’ll be all right now.”

He seemed calm again, although somewhat embarrassed. The strange pull faded and the others were able to steer me away and out of the room, with Deneb bowing and apologizing behind us.

“Well, THAT was stupid,” Momotaros commented. “Are you gonna go running in there every time the Doc has a bad day?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted pouting. I hadn’t been able to help what happened, so chances were, it could happen again. The pull of the Souma curse is stronger than we knew, and it looked like I would be at its mercy.

--

(2008)

Prompt: I will always find you

Kamen Rider Den-O belongs to Shotaro Ishinomori.
Fruits Basket belongs to Natsuki Takaya.

This fic is not to be reposted.