My Fruits Basket Fairytale!
Chapter|1 episode|1
I woke up to my alarm ringing it's annoying ring and telling me to get up. Groaning, I rolled over in my sleeping bag and smashed the clock with my fist. I wouldn't bother going to school I didn't need to, I was smart enough to live without a diploma, but I promised mother... a tear escaped my eye, and rolled down my cheek, dripping onto the floor of the tent. I shook my head, and my hair whipped around my face.
I slipped from my 'bed' and fixed up around the tent. I started living here about a week ago, when my grandfather asked me to stay at a friend's place for a while, so the house could be rebuilt. I moved in with my grandfather around 4 months ago, when my mother died, in an accident.
But enough sad thoughts, time to get ready for school. The sun shone through the thin fabric of the tent, lighting it up enough so I could see. Slipping on my sailor's uniform, I looked at the picture of my mother, and another tear escaped me.
"Bye mom, see you after school" I said to her. I unzipped the tent and headed out, it was very warm outside for it to be the morning. Walking along the path to school, I spotted a huge house. 'Wow! A mansion! Soooo freaking cool!' I wandered down to the house, one of the sliding doors was open, and I saw little paintings of the Zodiac Animals. 'Aww they're soo cute!'
"My word, do my eyes deceive me or is there a strange young girl standing on my porch" a voice said, I looked up and saw a man. He had black hair and wore a grey-green kimono.
"Ohmygosh, I'm soooo sorry, I was just walking by and saw the little Zodiacs, I didn't mean to intrude!" I stammered, very surprised.
"It's alright; I just set them out to dry" he chuckled, "No harm done. But I find it hard to believe that these silly little things could attract your interest."
" THEY AREN'T SILLY!" I said a bit too forcefully.
"Oh, yes well, I do admit, I'm particularly fond of them myself" the guy said, stepping back a bit.
"Aww, I should have guessed it. You left out the Cat" I sighed
"The cat? Ah I see you're referring to the old folk tale, of the Chinese Zodiac" he said, understanding
"Yup. My mom told it to me when I was little." My thoughts went back to when mom told me the story.
"A long long time ago, a god decided to invite all of the animals to a banquet. He sent out word for all of them to come to his house the following evening, 'and don't be late' he said. When the mischievous rat heard the news, he decided to play a trick on his neighbor the cat, and told him that it was the day after tomorrow. The very next day, all of the animals lined up for the celebration, and the rat led the way there, ridding all the way on the back of the cow. Everyone had a wonderful time, except for the foolish cat, who missed the whole thing. Hey why are you crying?" my mom asked
"Because, that poor cat. He must be so lonely. I know, I won't be a dog anymore, I'll be a cat to!" I cried
"Funny, I wonder what he'll say when he hears he has a fan" said the man, dragging me from my memory
"He?"
"You were born in the year of the dog, I knew there was something I liked about you, other than your pretty faceeee" he dragged on the sentence as a bag was dropped on his head
"Please forgive my cousin Miss. Honda; he can be a flirt but he's harmless. In general it's usually best to just ignore him." Said a warm voice, I looked up and saw Yuki Sohma. 'YUKI SOHMA?! THE PRINCE? OH WOW! Damn is he hot.' I thought to myself ' Mom if you could see this, Yuki Sohma is standing right in front of me, the prince of my high school. And I'm standing outside his house.
"What do you have in there? A dictionary?" Yuki's cousin asked him
"No, I have two of them." Yuki retorted
"So, you're one of Yuki's class mates from school. Let's start again. I'm Shigure, Yuki's older and much less violent cousin"
"Hey, nice to meet you, I'm Tohru Honda" I nodded at him
"So, what brings you to our home this morning Miss. Honda?" Yuki asked
"Hehe, well I took a different route to school today. I don't live to far away from here."
"You do? Where at?"
"Uhh, right" I looked at my shoes, noticing how dirty they were.
"Uhh" Yuki and Shigure were both looking confused.
"Okay, I think I'll just be going now, good to meet you Shigure." I said and spun around, to get away from their questioning eyes.
"Wait, Miss. Honda."
"Yeah?"
"Since you're here, why don't we walk together?" Yuki suggested
By the time I realized it, I already saw the school. I looked down at my feet the whole time; I couldn't bear to look at Yuki. Behind us I heard the Yuki fan club making a racket behind me, but we ignored it.
When I got to the school, the fan club girls just appeared in front of me, demanding to know why I was walking with Yuki.
"It was just a coincidence" I tried to explain.
"Well for your sake, I hope that's all it was" the black haired girl piped up. That's it!
"I SAID IT WAS JUST A COINCIDENCE! HOW HARD IS IT TO GET THAT THROUGHT YOU'RE FUCKING EMPTY SKULLS YOU DIMWITS!" I snapped
"DIMWITS?! WELL ATLEAST WE DON'T LOOK LIKE YOU!" the red head snarled
"YOU WANNA FIGHT BITCHES?" I yelled. People in the hallway stopped to look at us.
"YOU GOT THAT RIGHTWENCH" Blondie retorted
"LIKE YOU WOULD TRY!" I countered; the blond glared at me, and took a swing at me. I ducked and swung my legs out at hers, causing her to fall. Standing up, I stepped forward and placed my foot on her head, putting a little weight on it.
"Owww!" she shrieked.
"If you don't want to be stepped on, then don't get under my feet. Or my skin." I giggled
"Hey Tohru, you're already starting a riot today?" I best friend Uo asked, spun around and jumped on her, embracing her in a strong hug
"Yep, but she started it."
"How?"
"Because, I coincidentally met up with Yuki Sohma on the way to school and they were harassing me about it. I guess I kinda snapped" I answered looking at the floor "and she took a swing at me first"
"Ah, I understand. I felt angry jealousy in their waves this morning." My other best friend, Hana said.
During cooking class, I told Uo and Hana about the walk to school
"I mean I was so shy, I couldn't even look at him, let alone talk with him"
"That boy has strange electric signals" Hana commented "Almost inhuman"
"Here we go again" Uo sighed
"How are they inhuman?"
"I'm not sure, they are just different"
"Well I will admit that he is mysterious, one of those fan club girls tried to ask him out once, but he just pushed her away. And I mean that literally, and then he left her on the floor and ran off."
"Umm let's talk about something else" I suggested
"How's that job of yours doing?"
"Oh fine I guess why?"
"I don't know you're putting in a lot of hours, a lot more than usual."
"Uh yeah sure" I stammered, 'what if she figures out?! Ohh then I'm soo screwed'
"You're having trouble saving up for tuition, aren't you?"
"No it just, well yeah"
"Well that's odd, I didn't think tuition here was that expensive and I don't remember you having to work this hard before, unless something else has changed" Hana added
"No everything's the sa-"
"What is it? You in some kind of trouble? You owe somebody? You're grandfathers giving you enough to eat right? He isn't taking your money."
"Nope, it's all fine"
"I know I worry too much, but seriously if you need me to rough somebody up for you just ask me, got it?"
"Yeah I got it, but I think I could handle it if I needed to" I laughed.
School was uneventful afterward, and as I walked to my locker to put things away when I saw Yuki again, so we walked home together.
"Your cousin that I met this morning, Shigure, he was funny, and those little Zodiac ornaments were adorable"
"Yes, but I thought I heard you say that you wished there was a year of the cat"
"It's an idea I had as a kid, silly."
"Cat's, useless foolish creatures"
"Huh? They are not! They are agile, loyal, and mysterious creatures. How can you say that?" I defended my favorite animal. Yuki looked shocked "Wait, I um I'm sorry, I have a bit of a temper. I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm really sorry."
"You must really like the cat then." Yuki observed
"Yeah, I do. Cats are so fuzzy and cute; they are so funny when they act insane. But they are also loyal and wise. Their eyes look into your soul, when they look at you, it's as if they know whether to trust you or not." I described, Yuki's face went serious
"How much do you know about the history of the Chinese Zodiac?"
"Well I know the stories my mother used to tell me"
"Did you know that it was originally nothing more than a single calendar, a mathematical system to mark the passage of time? Only later did people begin to use it for things like astrology and fortune telling"
"Oh, so I guess the story about the animals is just a myth then."
"No. I'm not really sure how or when the animals first came to represent the years, but I don't believe they were there from the beginning. What I do know, is that no time in the history of the Zodiac, has the cat ever been included. So you see the cat has been shunned from society for thousands of years, but as the story I told, t still yearns to be accepted. Like I say a truly foolish animal"
"Well, it sounds like you really hate cats then." I assumed. Yuki turned back to look at me with a haunting look in his eyes, he reached up and caught a leaf that the wind blew over my face.
"I noticed it this morning that you're starting to look a bit pale, you should really take better care of yourself, perhaps well bump into each other again, tomorrow." Yuki hinted, he threw the leaf, and walked away. 'Wow, he is so mysterious and hauntingly gorgeous Mom. Sigh, Yuki Sohma, he really is like a prince. But I'll pretend I didn't hear that pale remark, I can't afford to let anything bring me down.'
At work I stood, looking up at the ceiling, thinking about what was said after school, when a man said
"Hey, are you just going to leave this trash here?"
"Ahh, I'm so sorry, sir" I replied, trying to stop myself from yelling at him. I ran to the garbage and picked it up, dragging it away. I ran back and dusted the shelves and crevasses, washed the floor, and cleaned everywhere else. The other women looked at me like I was some kind of hero and the man looked at me in awe. 'I can't dawdle, I have too much to do, and anyway Mom must have had it much worse than this. 'After work I arrived home, exhausted.
"Hi Mom, I'm back now. I know it's late, but I have to write a paper tonight to. I'll just step out to wash up and be right back, okay?" I crawled out of the tent, to come face to face with Yuki and his cousin, Shigure. They looked at me with shocked expressions. Shigure pointed at me and started laughing at me. I grabbed his finger and bent it backwards.
"Shut up you stupid dog." I snarled, Shigure looked at me, flabbergasted. When I realized what I had done.
"I AM SO SORRY, SHIGURE I'M REALLY SORRY." I yelled, checking his finger, making sure it was alright. I looked back up at him to tell him his finger was alright, but he still stared at me with his mouth open, and his eyes looked terrified.
"Www-what dd-did you cc-call me?" he stuttered
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to call you a dog. I have a really bad temper. I didn't mean it" I tried to apologize, he looked relieved now, but Yuki look surprised some what still. And somehow I ended up in their house.
"So, were you living in that tent by yourself?" Yuki asked
"Uh-huh"
"For how long?"
"I don't know, just over a week"
"Well that explains it. All of this land is Sohma property; it seemed odd that we suddenly had a neighbor."
"I'm sorry, but please, let me stay there a little while longer. I can pay you, it's not much but it's something, I have nowhere else to go at the moment" Shigure stopped examining his finger to say
"Those woods aren't too safe; you've got wild animals, landslides, and the occasional weirdo hanging around. It's not a good idea for a girl to be living out there alone."
"I CAN TAKE CARE OF MY SE- I'm so sorry for yelling, but I can take care of myself, please don't worry about me." I barely finished saying before I fell backwards. Yuki came over and checked my forehead
"Miss. Honda, you have a fever."
"I'll go get some ice" Shigure said, he walked over to the door of his kitchen. Sliding it open, he noticed that there was no way for him to get any ice, let along find the freezer.
"And you call the woods unsafe?" I giggled
"Well," he was cut off by a howling wolf.
A/N: Well this is as far as I'm going because this just seems pointless. Please review. Flames are allowed. And also preferred as they would help me either fix it up or tell me to delete it. Thank you