Inspired by the song "Sometimes (I Wish)" by City and Colour

I hold no claims, nor claim to own, Fruits Basket. No profit is being made or is intended to. It is all in good fun.

A/n: This story is about m/m or a relationship between two men, with heavily implied sex. Also are references to reincarnation. Approach with whatever caution you see fit.

Kyo couldn't understand how they'd gotten here.

Surely it has something to do with the rain that had fallen so suddenly and so hard the two of them had been soaked before it could be acknowledged. And there was something about the porch, the way the wood had soaked in the water to smell dewy and musky…

…Yuki flat on his back as they rubbed their feet together to pry off his soaked socks…

Of course Yuki and he had been fighting, Kyo recollects as he tries to catch his breath.

With his eyes closed he can picture everything (but the present – that has to stay far away) such as the way Yuki's eyes had flickered with something less than hate right before his punch had been deflected.

Their fight had gone ignored.

Tired of listening to his house being broken down around him Shigure had holed away in his office. Music blasted from beneath the locked door in an attempt to overcome their hateful screeches. As operatic voices cried out loudly in crescendo the rain had doused their heated debate.

The vigil burning flame of rage that kept Kyo warm, that kept him breathing, cooled to an ember and all Kyo could focus on were Yuki's eyes. Both had faltered at the sound of thunder wailing over their heads. Even though Tohru was somewhere out there in the storm neither thought beyond the irises mirroring each other in their watchfulness.

Yuki had been holding fiercely to Kyo's wrist but now the grip loosened. As if possessed Kyo had, instead of taking the moment to break free, had found his body drawn closer to Yuki's. Kyo clasped the ring of pale fingers around his tan flesh and drew the pale line of Yuki's arm in until their noses touched.

Yuki faltered, his eyes narrowed in focus as if the sudden proximity scared him. Beneath the wet scent that surrounded Yuki was the teasing aroma of ink and a fresh leaf of paper. A warm shiver ran up Kyo's spine at the scent, sensing its familiarity as it pulled him in. He wanted closer to the smell, to study it and to taste it upon Yuki's flesh.

A purr rumbled to life with his chest at the idea.

Kyo's attempts to get ever closer were thwarted by the way Yuki flinched back from the attention. Calmly as one would with a wild animal Kyo paused at every wince, slow and temperate until finally he could feel Yuki's harsh breath upon his cheek. Before his eyes was an expanse of pale flesh and tightly closed eyelids that left Kyo magnetized.

His hand had wrapped around the back of Yuki's neck to hold the other boy still.

It wasn't a tight grip but rather soft and questioning as if Kyo had wanted to ease any fear from the rat before he pressed their lips together.

He remembers the whimper strangled from Yuki's tight pressed lips. The sound of it burned in the redhead's blood, breaking his self-control. Two sets of hands took on a life of their own pulling Yuki backwards. It was an awkward attempt at a waltz, hands struggling and lips sealed tight together as the moved toward the porch.

Beneath Kyo's bare feet the grass slipped, wet, and made him hiss into the warm cavern of Yuki's mouth. Hands grasped at Kyo's forearms to help with balance as their tongue met in a moment of dual moans. Time sped and slowed, lost and out of control as they stumbled together. Kyo's knees had hit the wood of the deck too soon and his body pitched backwards with the cat-like grace he'd cursed. Kyo twisted their bodies as they fell. With Yuki lying upon the wood Kyo could press every inch of himself along the lithe body.

Then it had been frantic, their hands prying and pulling until their clothes were far from proper. The shirt Tohru had ironed for Yuki was now slick against him, like tissue paper in its consistency. Kyo's calloused fingers could trace the contours of Yuki's ribs and find the lines of the rat's body without the use of his eyes. Nails kneaded at Kyo's shoulder blades as Kyo slid up and down Yuki's torso.

No longer is Kyo sure of how they'd managed to breath; for all he knows they'd rolled until a wall obstructed them and one had pulled the other back to their feet so their waltz had could continue into the house.

By some miracle the swells and crashes of Shigure's music muted their gasps and whines–

"Oh god, oh god, Kyo…"

–The rest of their clothes following their ill-fated socks as they wandered into walls and doorjambs. The white wash was harsh as Kyo was pressed and molded between the wall and Yuki's shirtless chest. It scraped his bare back while Yuki slid down his chest, teeth replacing the heat of bare skin.

Kyo's lip stung at the memory of being chewed as he'd drawn his hands around the pale flesh of Yuki's waist. The skin at the base of his spine was soft and smooth, nearly hairless and warmed by the touch of Kyo's fingers along its length. Kyo couldn't remember ever wanting something as much as he had in that moment wanted to spend the rest of his life tracing patterns over Yuki's skin.

Whispers were too harsh to share the same air as the violins rushing wildly through climaxes. A piano's melody lent to the sound of strings as their lips caught together again. The rain played percussion above them as words became useless and both held their tongue. The whispered begging that escaped in the need for air seemed to belong to the air itself.

"Please… please, yes…"

Yuki had proven pliant as they stumbled into the stairs. Their bodies had fallen upon the wooden steps with mouths still somehow fused together as teeth nicked at over eager tongues. The belt buckle at Kyo's waist was deftly pulled loose before he could protest, not that he would, and the belt slithered from his jeans with the help of thin pale fingers.

The same pale fingers ran over his hips when the belt had clattered to the wooden floor behind them. It was a sound that should have been too loud but all Kyo could hear was the thrum of his own blood rushing in his ears as he ran his tongue down Yuki's throat. Encouraging sounds escaped at the touch and wrought surprise within them.

Kyo's eyes remained closed tight to the present panting below him. He knows the tiniest of peeking will greet him with the sight of Yuki's collarbone.

And the petal purple bruises his teeth caused as he pressed Yuki into the stairs so he could taste more of the rat.

Who'd known the damn rat could sound so much like a cat as he rolled his hips for more? The sound of purring had driven Kyo senseless as it escaped into the air between them. Kyo's hands had fit too perfectly on the sharp hipbones. The way Yuki's pants had slid off his legs should have been too easy.

In the background a woman had sang in Spanish and banished all dark thoughts from their clouded minds.

With each rising scale Yuki had rolled his hips. His erection pressed firm against Kyo's thigh as the cat tried to keep time with the harried pace. Groans were pulled from Kyo's mouth as if they'd been strung together by a string and reeled into Yuki's panting body. Kyo's head had fallen to Yuki's chest with a shuddering moan as Yuki's knee passed closely to his own erection. The moment of closed red eyes had given Yuki the opportunity to flip their positions.

It had felt just as right to be beneath Yuki, to have the lips work him into a puddle of groaning goo. To cause his own breathless voice to beg for Yuki to –

" - Just don't stop!"

The rat had teased and worn a smirk that lacked malice as his tongue darted along every crook in Kyo's physique. Kyo's fingers tightened on Yuki's hips as they arched together. Nimble fingers danced at the edges of Kyo's unbuttoned jeans until the cat jerk so hard their bodies were wrenched further up the stairs.

The jeans joined the path of stripped clothing from the porch and the bedroom at the end of the path called through a caroling of bells. Kyo moved to wrap the lithe being in his arms hissing as legs wrapped sensually around his waist. He carried Yuki up the wood, his feet less then silent on the surface as he tried to get there faster, so the teasing rat could continue the torture his teeth had waged on Kyo's chest.

That all explained how they'd gotten to be in Yuki's bed and end up panting as they come back down…

… To their wits.

But there was no answer to the resounding "why" behind this whole situation.

There was no reason for Kyo to be lying atop the one person he attributed to all the bad in his life. Kyo couldn't find a reason to have kissed his most hated enemy or to have been so gentle with the amethyst eyed man when he'd trembled within his grip.

"Shh, relax…"

Kyo had answered each flinch with a kiss and each half hidden cry with his forehead pressed to Yuki's. An infinite amount of patience had entered his body and been displayed before the almost ethereal being in his arms.

Yuki was gorgeous and it wasn't as if Kyo could hide the observation. Even his day-to-day taunts couldn't completely conceal the awe with which his eyes drank Yuki's form. The way Yuki stood straight without so much of a pang of pain.

Or the way those overly large eyes that Kyo liked to call effeminate could rip through his own red tinged gaze and tear him down to his odds and ends.

There was a naked feeling to being with Yuki that Kyo had ignored until Yuki had blinked up at him. The white heat had finally dimmed behind their eyeballs and all things were suddenly crystal clear.

In that second Kyo had closed his eyes tight and pressed his forehead to Yuki rapidly shaking chest. Fingers had splayed on Kyo's back, tickling the skin above his spine. In that one moment the cat had felt safe.

Not the safety of a parent checking your closet for monsters or the safety of a friend beside you as you cross the school grounds toward the monster sized kid who had stolen your lunch money.

With Yuki pressed into all of his sense Kyo felt as if he could fall asleep for an hour, or for all of eternity and he would never have to worry.

The heat from Yuki's body would ward off the cold. Those wonderfully bright eyes would watch dutifully for each shadow of harm and in their haunting way the eyes would watch his very soul. It was safe enough to die in the rat's arms and Kyo couldn't quite figure out how he knew that.

Slowly Kyo opened his eyes and lifted his gaze to Yuki's. One look and the enormity of their situation slams into the redhead's chest.

In one moment a million lives are relived, all of it coming back to them in this nearly perfect moment.

Every empty crevice of Kyo's heart is flooded with a familiar heart-wrenching sadness.

The moment he can look down on Yuki's flushed face and his hesitant smile Kyo has no reason to question fate.

The urge to sob quickly follows and suppresses any joy he could have at being reunited. The weight of their separation is as real as the oceans of tears their love has wrought.

In and of itself the sight of Yuki made it painfully clear to Kyo how many times they had come together in lives long before. The reason his fingers had felt so right on Yuki's skin was because they come together with the press of fingers hundreds of times before. Kyo's fingers, in other forms, had run the expanse of Yuki's arms as they quivered from the force of each thrust. Kyo knew he'd kissed Yuki's eyelids before.

The words he'd whispered in Yuki's year were a recycled reassurance that he now knew meant much more then he could ever have intended. The way it felt to have Yuki beneath him, the weight of Yuki's chest over his. It felt right because it had happened more times then they'd planned in their centuries together.

They'd been struck by stones as their fingers had laced together in fierce determination, if his memory was to be believed.

A nose ran a gentle trail up Kyo's collarbone to run in circles just below his ear. Kyo murmured what was less of a moan and more of a confession as lips kissed at the skin and teeth nipped at his ear.

"I've missed you, love." The words were breathed into Kyo's ear in a voice that was deceptively older then Yuki's body. A shiver at the familiarity ran down the cat's spine as he finally opened his eyes.

"And I, you," he murmured with a tone of tenderness, his own voice edged with age. From below him Yuki looked up, replacing his nose with the gentle caress of his palm as he lay back on the pillows. There is the gentlest of smiles on Yuki's lips as he regarded Kyo, compassionate and considerate over a shared frustration.

"The rain has always been your downfall," the being said through Yuki's voice. Kyo stares into the eyes of a lover he has lost and found over time. Every moment of centuries past lies just beyond his consciousness, swelling behind Yuki's eyes as well.

Memories are already pushing for attention as Kyo cups his hands around Yuki's face. A calm acceptance overtakes Kyo in place of his original panic and through it all Kyo feels he should cry. He'd tried so hard to quench this urge for the rat but once again their bond had proven too heavy.

Yuki coos, running his hands over every expanse of Kyo's visible skin as the cat begins to shudder in dry sobs. He presses kisses to Kyo's cheeks and sweeps up the tears as apologies fall from Kyo's lips.

The apologies, like everything else, are ancient.

"It isn't so easy is it my dear," Yuki asks and Kyo can only shake his head because they've tried this so many times before. The rat had tried for centuries of lives to repent for his betrayal by freeing his beloved. He had tried to stay away but it never worked. And then when they had reconciled the Sohma family had come along and their love proved life threatening.

But the damned emotion wouldn't die because the lifetimes they had in peace will never be enough.

"I'm sorry my love," Kyo choked through the sobs, his voice a stutter as he grasps tightly to Yuki's forearms. Red lines appear along the pale flesh as Kyo's nails slipped. "I tried so hard but I can't hate you."

A wail of sorrow clogs his throat as Yuki pets his hair and whispers more consoling words.

"It is my fault," the voice says and Yuki's fingers slide down his cheek in unison. A sad smile takes the blame as it adds, "If I had not been so selfish in my youth this torment would not have been yours to bear."

Tears are sliding down both their cheeks and Kyo can see Yuki's smile breaking on his face they look at each other. Their hands run patterns over all bare flesh because it has been eons too long since they've felt each other. Then Kyo is holding tightly across Yuki's back as the rat breaks into sobs of his own.

"We can go to the dragon," Yuki rationalizes into Kyo's shoulder. "This one is far more compassionate then the last."

The cat feels a pain in his heart at the broken pleading tone to the rat's voice as he tries so desperately to seem okay with the cat erasing the memories of them from his mind. Kyo needs not look into the irises of amethyst to know such a deed would kill his beloved. The redhead smiled and ran a hand over the tears tracks as he smiles so sadly back.

"You could have your happiness with the human. We can try again next time," Yuki murmurs as he is pulled into a harsh embrace, his nose pressed into Kyo's shoulder. His tears make puddles on the tanned flesh as he wrapped his arms over Kyo's shoulders.

"I've gotten exceedingly good at waiting."

The words are a half hearted attempt at a joke.

Kyo rolled them over on the mattress to hold Yuki tight to his chest. He takes up the reassurances and gentle words until Yuki's sobbing protests subside. As the being falls asleep in his arms Kyo knows that erasing their memories would only hold back an inevitable punishment. It would not stop what has been a force in the journey of their souls.

He also knows they are fools of the highest order. It was stupid to leave such a mess in sight of the ever-loyal dog; it was even more stupid for their souls to have become intertwined in the first place.

Kyo knows that staying in this bed with Yuki is the same as having a death wish.

But nothing could pry him away now.

Instead he pulls the sheets up around their naked bodies and runs his fingers through the tresses of dulled silver. With Yuki's warm breath upon his chest Kyo stares up at the ceiling. They are fools for love; have been and it seems always will be. It is in this thought Kyo admits to his own stupidity because they have wrought hell upon themselves and Akito's wrath will fall quickly.

But he'd rather be a simpleton he amends as Yuki's arms wrap around his waist. Leaned over to bury his face in Yuki's hair he can smell the freshness of new paper and ink soaked into salty skin. Memories of green grass two centuries away and a time when Yuki's hair was brown drag him into welcome sleep.

The approaching storm can wait.

A/n: I realize that anyone who reads "Long Road Home" will be less then pleased that I wrote this instead of adding to that cliffhanger I left with... there is more to come but this idea has been biting at me for a while. (My largest apologies to anyone who also read "Electric Angel" and especially those reading "Stellar." I promise updates soon.)

I liked the idea that there was more to the story then what the legend provides and that maybe with each new birth of the zodiac animal some part of the past is retained. I might elaborate more further along... we'll have to see.