Okay so this is a 'brilliant inspiration' of mine. I was paging through the yyh section when I saw a fic entitled 'Zodiac Sigh;' the description mentioned Shizuru and my first thought was "Shizuru/Shigure!!!!!" Yes yyh Shizuru with Fruits Basket's Shigure. My second thought was "wtf brain, that's weird!" The fic I saw wasn't actually about this pairing, but I decided I liked the idea, so I'm trying it out here.

1 Book Signing

"Why are we here again Ai?" the brunette said as she flipped the cigarette from her mouth and ground it into the pavement.

Her newly blonde friend spun on the spot, flapping a novel in Shizuru's face and waving her hand. "Hello, earth to Shizuru, how could you forget our mission?! Karitani Noa-sensei is our favorite author, of course we have to come to his book signing! He never does them; he's a recluse! And this is the release of the sequel to Summer-Colored Sigh!" Ai let out a sigh herself as she cuddled the book to her chest.

"Ai, this place is a circus."

It was true, the line of smutty romance fans snaked through the aisles of the massive bookstore, out the door and down the road. It was outside that the pair was waiting while flag-waving employees marched up and down before them, trying to entice passersby to join in the unmoving line. The bookstore was one of the three largest in the city, rising several stories and far wider than the other stores on the block, but it was still unclear just how they had gotten the notoriously reclusive Karitani Noa to appear in public.

Finally they started moving again, the line inching forward every minute or so. After fifteen minutes they were in the door, now only to get through the whole first floor.

"Ohh I can almost see him!" Ai exclaimed, catching the attention of everyone behind them in line.

Shizuru leaned sideways like her friend and rose up on her toes to see over the heads of the people in front of her, and around a bookcase. She could just make out, very faintly, the black hair of the author seated at a table. Someone moved in the line and he was blocked from view.

They were only a few people in front of them now and Shizuru and Ai could gawk at their favorite author just as much as they pleased while waiting.

"He's so handsome," Ai whispered.

The brunette rolled her eyes even though privately she agreed. He looked to be in his late twenties at most though dressed in a traditional yukata, with a nice build and slightly shaggy black hair hanging in his eyes. One thing she was surprised by was the pair of wire-rimmed glasses resting on his nose. He would push them up a little every once and a while as he laughed at some fan's comment or made some remark that would set them tittering.

He wasn't the romance novel hero Ai obviously thought he was, no, to Shizuru he seemed almost too smooth, too self-assured. A man who knew how he affected people and how to get the reactions he wanted from them. That easy confidence wasn't something that interested Shizuru anymore; she knew it could lead to dangerous decisions, stupid bets.

And then she saw it. She paused (trying to blink away her disbelief) just long enough for her friend to walk up without her and engage the author in some chit-chat. It took a few seconds longer than normal for Ai to realize that there was a gap beside her that shouldn't have been.

"Shizuru, come on!" she hissed, glancing back to shoot a death glare.

She shook herself and stepped forward, proffering her own copy silently.

"Something wrong?" he asked, with a little half-smile from behind the table, twin copies of the book set up beside him like gleaming traffic beacons directing attention. Behind him, along with a few teenagers milling around and looking bored, was a giant poster, the book's front cover blown up and hung from the second story walkway. He was sitting in a shrine to himself, the worshipers all happily taking their turns at the altar.

"You know you've got a…" she started to say, trailing off as she pointed at an area a little bit over his head. "Aw forget it." 'I must be crazy, going to tell a famous author that he's being haunted.'

"No, you can't say that! Now I'm intrigued." The author leaned forward, looking at her over his glasses as he smiled. He had even produced a fan from somewhere and was gently swishing it back and forth. "Go on."

With a sigh Shizuru planted her hands on her hips and wished she had a cigarette to flick at this guy. "Anything unusual ever happen around you?"

"And what do you mean by unusual Miss?"

"If it happened, you'd know." She shrugged and half turned away, not wanting to explain in front of a store full of people to this obviously skeptical man. "You just must not be perceptive to it, who knows why it picked you. I only said anything cuz it looks like it's been there a while."

She began walking away, dragging her still drooling friend with her. Other fans were waiting and the author would never dream of risking his calm persona, especially in this crowd. With a wave of his hand an orange-haired and obviously irritated boy stalked forward.

"Stall them, as long as you can," the author said out of the corner of his mouth as he smiled at the next fan brandishing her book at him. "Tell them we'll give them free books or something."

"Aw Shi-"

"Think of it as a challenge. I know you can do it Kyon-kyon!"

With another grumble and hands stuffed deep in his pockets the boy stomped off after the women headed for the register.

"Yo, wait up a sec."

At the shout the two women paused, Shizuru glancing back over her shoulder as Ai turned around. Before her eyes could even clearly take in the orange-haired boy they widened and she gently put a hand on her friend's arm.

"More than one of you, eh. Are you related to Mr. Hot-stuff over there," she flicked her wrist carelessly in the direction of the author's table, but her eyes stayed fixed on the boy and her posture was alert.

"Yeah, he's my cousin." He shifted from foot to foot, his eyes sliding between the two women before they came to a stop on the brunette. "Whadaya lookin' at me like that for?" He dropped his eyes to the side, kicking at the nearest bookshelf as he did so. He hated that look, he'd gotten it all his childhood. "I ain't gonna jump you, stupid woman."

"Yeah, well I would say it's not completely out of the range of possibilities, kid."

"Hey, what the hell are you talking about? I just came over here because that idiot told me to talk to you guys and all of a sudden you're accusing me of being some weirdo!"

"Well, what's keeping it in check?" she asked, still eyeing him like a dangerous animal.

"This."

All three started as another boy appeared, holding up the first's arm and flicking a bead bracelet that was dangling from orange's wrist.

"Haru, don't snake up on me like that!"

"Just how many of you are there?"

Haru's melancholy eyes rested on Shizuru's a moment before he answered, giving her a chance to take in the crazy dye job on his hair. It looked like something Kazuma would have done in his early middle school days. "Fourteen total, including the three of us you just met. Kyo in future you should try to be less intimidating when you're trying to get women to stop and talk to you."

"Shut up!" The cat pulled his arm free of his cousin's grip and looked away, rubbing angrily at the spot Haru's hand had been. "You don't know what you're talking about Haru, good for nothing cow."

"Please," the brunette drawled, an unlit cigarette wiggling between her fingers as she gestured. "The two of you couldn't do intimidating if you were auditioning for a yakuza flick. You're just weird, not that I haven't seen my share already. Hell I've seen way weirder than anything you kids could throw at me."

"Hm, I see. Okay," the white-haired boy said as he rubbed his chin, only to be smacked in the back of the head by his older cousin. "What I meant was: do you want to test that?"

"Jut try me."

"Shizuru is this going to be one of those things you do?" Ai asked, leaning towards her friend and holding her hand to the side of her mouth. "One of those, you knows."

"It's sure looking that way." She adjusted her jacket slightly and glared at a passing couple who was eyeing the group strangely.

"Ah well, I think maybe we should keep going, because well, you know…"

"You're probably." She nodded at the other woman and absentmindedly pulled her lighter from her pocket, only to drop it back in as she realized what she was doing. "It's best not to get involved in other people's mess."

"Fine! It's not like we wanted you to stick around anyway," the cat exclaimed, spinning on his heel and marching off. Out of the corner of her eye Shizuru saw a girl going after him.

"Oh Kyo," Haru sighed. "I'm afraid he's short-tempered."

"Well it was very nice to meet you but we have to be going now!" Ai called, grabbing Shizuru by the arm and pulling her into the stream of people headed for the registers.

"Need a light?"

She inhaled as the match extinguished its short life on the end of her cigarette. 'Cancer sticks' Keiko kept calling them in an attempt to get her and Yusuke to quit, but with Botan helping out she was having far more luck on the boy.

"Thanks." She stopped fumbling for her lighter and looked over at the helpful stranger, only to find the yukata-wearing author at her elbow. He was a few inches taller than her, impressive given that with her Kuwabara genes she was nearly average height for a man. She always thought it slightly unnerved Kurama that he had to look up at her.

"Never send boys to do a man's job, eh?"

"Hmph."

"You're quite the conversationalist, Miss—" He paused giving her an innocently questioning smile.

"Kuwabara Shizuru."

"Sohma Shigure, it's a pleasure to meet you."

She merely sniffed at his polite introduction and little bow, inclining her head to the side. People were passing before them on the sidewalk in front of the bookstore and many kept glancing over at the man apparently named 'Shigure.' Traditional clothes were less and less common these days, and as he too lit up it was a slightly incongruous sight.

"Pen name?"

"Well I wouldn't want people connecting these works with the ones I write under my other names. I would be taken less seriously all around."

"So which one's your real name?"

"The one I just told you Kuwabara-san." He smiled again that innocent smile, but she knew he was smarter than that. "So where did your friend run off to?"

"She had to go back to work," Shizuru said, watching him carefully. He took a long drag before exhaling slowly, either turning things over in his mind or just admiring the building across the street, she couldn't tell. She took another drag as well, looking over the people who were covertly eyeing them. 'The sun's out at least,' she thought as she craned her head back to take in the rays. Standing there in the slightly surreal situation of smoking with the man behind a few of her favorite books she had to look for something more normal. A demon attacking the mindless crowd would have done nicely. Then her brother and his idiot friend would have come rushing in to save the day, causing massive property damage while they were at it, and everything would have been good.

After another moment of silence the author spoke again, his attention still on some distant spot of air. "You seem to have stumbled onto a little family secret."

"It didn't look so little to me. A dog, a cow and a youkai, and apparently eleven more of you."

"A what?" he asked, turning to her in some surprise.

She shrugged and flicked her ashes towards the street. "A youkai, I couldn't tell what type, if it had been an animal spirit, an elemental or what. It was degraded, twisted. It looked miserable, hurt, and angry, and those make it possibly dangerous.

"The cat," he mused, rubbing his chin and looking out over the traffic, "in its true form." She caught his sly sideways glance before he turned back and smiled. "Do you think it would be possible to have you do some consulting on this matter?"

She dropped the cigarette and ground it under her heel. "Maybe. I won't promise you anything, I'm just a psychic, not an exorcist."

goofy i know, but i just had to put it out there. it won't be long, maybe another chapter or two if i feel like writing any more. i'm not planning on making this a whole long arc, just a little 'what if' for the pairing