DISCLAIMER: Fruits Basket belongs to Natsuki Takaya, xxxHoLic belongs to CLAMP and all your base are belong to us.

- Act of God -

"An act of mercy, a scene of pain,
There is no difference, it's all in your name.
This act of God." -Fear Factory, "Act of God"

"Watanuki, clean the storehouse!" Yuko commanded.

"Why do I have to clean all your dusty junk?" Watanuki grumbled, but his protests were drowned out by Maru and Moro.

"Watanuki, clean the storehouse! Watanuki, clean the storehouse!" they parroted cheerfully, dancing around him in circles.

As he was dusting he found something odd. It was a seemingly empty, sealed glass jar labeled God.

"Yuko-san?" Watanuki called out. "What's this...?"

"Oh, that?" Yuko replied, barely glancing at it. "That's a jar that once held the spirit of a god."

"How exactly did you come to have a spirit of a god in a jar?" Watanuki asked, his curiosity overriding his skepticism. (It was Yuko-san, after all.)

"Let me tell you the story..."

XxXxX

Yuko looked at the young man kneeling before her, then at the frail young girl he held cradled protectively in his arms.

"If you wish to extend this child's life, you will have to give up something of equal value in return," the time-space witch intoned.

"Yes, anything!" Shigure Sohma replied, his voice tinged with desperation. Akito was painfully close to the end of her life. Everyone in the Zodiac could feel it. He would give anything to save her, anything...

"Your price is... 'the dog'."

Anything but that. How could he give up the one thing that connected them?

She's dying, he argued silently with himself.

"But that will not be enough," Yuko continued. "The rest of your family must pay a price as well. 'The dragon', 'the snake', 'the ox', 'the boar', 'the rat', 'the tiger', 'the ram', 'the horse', 'the monkey', 'the rabbit', 'the cat'... and 'god'. That is the price to repair this child's body and extend her life. Leave her here while you gather them all..."

XxXxX

"But it was an incomplete set, because the rooster's spirit had already passed on," Yuko lamented.

"But the jar's empty now, right?" Watanuki asked apprehensively.

"Unfortunately, another wish required the use of that spirit... but that's a different story altogther. All this storytelling is making me hungry. Watanuki, I want rainbow spaghetti and millefeuille!"

"Those don't go together at all!" Watanuki screeched. "Why do you always ask me for weird things?"

-end-

A/N: Reviews are love.