FULL SUMMARY: Tohru Honda orphaned due to a tragic car accident that claimed her mother's life is offered a home with her grandfather. All is as well as it could possibly be in that circumstance until her Aunt's family comes to live with them. She's ridiculed and tormented by the ones she calls her family with only the protection of her sickly grandfather, and when that get's taken away from her she's forced to endure a family who loathes her along with her cousin's boyfriend who toys with her in the most unthinkable way. Just when she fears the worst two boys from her school step in to rescue her; one she recognizes and one she does not. When a sudden twist of fate lands her homeless will these two boys take her in and care for her in the place of her guardian? And what other troubles will await this timid girl along the way?
I DO NOT OWN FRUITS BASKET, DUR.
PREFACE.
Hello, I'm Tohru Honda and up until recently I lived with my mom in a quant, but comfortable apartment in the city. I didn't care about the size of the place or even if it had a good AC and heating system, or if we had rats – all I cared about was I had the best roommate in all of Japan, quite possibly all of the world. I would have been content living there in that same apartment until I was old and grey as long as I shared it with her.
Unfortunately though about a month ago my mom was killed in a car crash taking with her every shred of true happiness I had left within my psyche.
It was the hardest thing I ever had to endure in my whole sixteen years of existence, but I thought I would burden the people around me if I collapsed into myself and cried for the rest of my life. So I did what I do best; I put on a brave face and smiled as frequently as I could manage. Everyone gushed about how strong I was to carry myself the way I did, a lot of people told me I should just cry because it wasn't good to keep my emotions bottled up inside. Although when they did say things like that I assured them I was fine and that I was actually dealing even when they said I wasn't. Then at night when I was positive everyone at my Grandfather's house was asleep I tucked myself into a ball and wept into a pillow until it was soaked with the only true emotion I had been feeling; sorrow, pure undiluted sorrow.
It wasn't easy fooling my friends Saki Hanajima and Arisa Uotani. They were the two people besides my mother that knew me from the inside out and loved me just as much. They were the only ones that I cried in front of besides the hospital staff of course, but I couldn't help it she looked so lifeless on that hospital bed with all the bandages and IV's.
Everything happened so quickly with the funeral preparations and all the loose ends that I lost myself. Where I usually remembered things I forgot and one of those things happened to be the rent. I had a part time job of course but not nearly enough money to pay rent. My grandpa was quick to offer me a room and stressed that it would be no problem that I didn't have to worry about paying him anything. I still felt awful about it though so I told him I would help around the house and I would work to pay for my school expenses. He grudgingly agreed to my conditions and we went about our lives harmoniously for the next six months.
That spring my aunt and her family needed a place to stay and grandpa being the kind, generous man he always was told them that he would have the place renovated so there would be room to accommodate them all. Of course I couldn't stay at the house during the renovations so I moved in with Uotani promising it would only be temporary even though she swore I was not imposing and that I could stay as long as I wanted. It was no secret that my aunt's family didn't care for me or my mother for reasons pertaining to my mother's past. See my mother ran with a gang in her younger years and even though she left all that behind when she had me, to them she and I were still blemishes on the Honda family's good name.
Uotani's offer was tempting to say the least. There's no doubt I love every member of my remaining family even if they don't feel the same way about me, but still it's not easy hearing how they truly felt about my dead mother, and still feel even in her passing. But I couldn't trample all over Uotani, she was nice enough to let me stay for the renovations and I wouldn't push staying any longer than that.
Three months came and went and I received a call that the renovations were complete and that I could move back in whenever I felt up to it. In the background I could hear my aunt griping.
Despite the blatant disapproval of my aunt and her husband I moved back in that very day. I immediately fell into the habit of doing the house work apart from cooking since my aunt made it her life's work to point out how mediocre my cooking was.
I tried my hardest to coexist with them the way I did with my grandpa, but it didn't go so smoothly. They insulted me, reprimanded me for things their own daughter Kairi did, even the cruel tricks Kairi and her boyfriend played on me. I was grateful for being allowed to stay in that house with them. How could I complain? I had a roof over my head and food in my stomach.
Eventually I got used to their cruel ways taking comfort in the fact that at least grandpa didn't loath me, but even that one solace was taken from me when his health began to deteriorate. When he was finally hospitalized I knew I would be in for the worst, but I was more worried about his health than my own discomfort.
Kairi's boyfriend Kota came to me when my Aunt and Uncle were visiting my Grandpa. Kairi had promised him that he could spend the night even though we slept in the same room. I was doing my rounds in the kitchen, making sure everything was neat and tidy for when they returned when he approached me. While elbow deep in sudsy water I could feel a presence behind me and I assumed he wanted something to eat so I didn't turn.
When I felt him looming closer and closer I pulled the stopper and set it by the faucet and made an attempt to move away so he could use the sink, because that's what I figured he needed. When my back met his toned chest I let out a sharp gasp and in a start I spun around. By then I had no room and if Kairi walked in I would be compromised and in for a wrath that was sure to be severe.
I asked him if he could let me through but his hands quickly found a spot on the sink to either side of me. My cheeks flushed bright crimson. There was never a time in my life that I had been that close to a man before and I found him quite intimidating, especially with the strange stare he was giving me. He pressed his hips to mine and I brought my hands to his chest in a feeble attempt to push him back but unfortunately I've never been very strong, or athletic for that matter. I wanted to shriek but I knew Kairi was the only one home and I would be the blame for whatever Kota was attempting. I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for a pummeling or the unthinkable. Just when I could feel his steamy breath on my face Kairi's voice offered me a reprieve.
She was calling him and he recoiled like I repulsed him. He looked at me harshly and threatened that if I told her or anyone else he would make me sorry, so I didn't and I was thankful for Kairi that day for the first time.
For the next few weeks Kota made similar advances towards me. He touched me once or twice but he never went any further, and I was beginning to think that even he wasn't capable of hurting someone that bad – and luckily no one ever saw us.
It wasn't until school started up in the fall that Kota did something really reckless, even for him. It was during the required endurance run for physical education. The girls started first and then the boys started after, but as I mentioned before I was never very athletic so I was dead last. Kota on the other hand was one of the fastest boys in class in every sense of the word. He caught up to me with ease, not that I suspected he planned it – not to be rude but he's just not that bright.
Whatever the case he grabbed hold of my wrist and pulled me off the track. I yanked against his grip to no avail and eventually we were beneath a large bridge. Once in the safe obscurity of the shadowy terrain he pushed me onto the sodden ground, ignoring my yelp of pain he mounted me. I screamed for a moment until he stifled my cries with his hand. He utilized his other hand quickly and pinned my hands above my head while his knee easily pried my legs apart.
For the first time in what seemed like forever I cried in front of someone who wasn't Hana or Uotani. It stung and it hurt the pride I didn't know I had, and my tears didn't affect him in the least. My previous theory about him being incapable of what he was planning evaded me at that moment and I don't know how I could've thought that to begin with. Kota was capable of anything.
As his clammy hand inched up my shirt an even darker shadow was cast over us both, and I'll never forget the rough voice that roared over my muffled yelps. I couldn't hear what he said with the blood pounding in my ears, but I do remember Kota looking up and when he did he was kicked hard beneath the jaw, the force put into the kick sent him hurdling backwards and off of me, but I stayed put. With my eyes blurred with tears all I could see was a flash of orange hair and all I could hear was fists pummeling what I assumed was Kota's face.
Before I knew it I was being lifted off my back and into someone's chest. It didn't make me feel threatened or scared like Kota's this one soothed me and I turned the best I could to hide my face like a timid child. My hair was being stroked to calm my unstable breathing and there was it was, this unmistakable voice cooing in my ear. It was velvet and I knew very well whose arms I was being cradled in. Yuki Sohma. The Yuki Sohma. The prince of my high school.
I disentangled myself from his arms and fell back on my back. His violet eyes looked into mine quizzically and he opened his mouth to say something but I scrambled to my feet leaving him to shout, "Wait!" I turned to look back at my two saviors. One I recognized and one I didn't. I stopped for a second to examine the scene and I left in my wake.
"I'm so sorry…" I said, the tears spilling down my pale cheeks. I left them there and continued running down the path to the finish line, drying my tears with my gym shirt.
Author's Notes: So the beginning is sketchy, I always suck at starting off stories, but it will get better. I don't know if I'll continue this story, it depends on you and if you enjoyed it enough to want me to continue. So, let me know with reviews, if I get enough I'll continue it.