A/N: So...this is yet another first for me. I feel like I am breaking new and exciting ground with this. Let me begin by saying that this concept was completely inspired by my good friend TohruKyoYuki. Because of her incredibly generous and trusting heart, I was graciously allowed to borrow her original character, Kurumi Fujioka, from her amazing Fruits Basket story "Mirror Mirror," for this ground-breaking project. So if you all find yourselves enjoying this little project of mine...even in the least...please go read and review her work.

That being said...this story is a violent collision of the Fruits Basket world of "Mirror Mirror" and the original story I have been working on for a long time now, called "Hard Candy," which you can find on Wattpad. Though I don't entirely think you will need to be familiar with "Hard Candy" to enjoy this story, it would humble me if you all stopped by on Wattpad. Even if it's just to say 'hello' to me as Lady Angst.

So without further ado...and with few author's notes to come, please enjoy this epic colliding of worlds!

Quickly flashing my fake I.D., I stepped into the club and was immediately grateful for the overwhelming noise. The music was far too loud to enjoy and listen to. But...then again...no one here was really listening to this trash anyway. I saw them all in dark corners. Drinking. Talking. Not talking...

Groping each other. Lips forced together under the lie of love and affection in between being parted for more alcohol. I watched them all with a small twinge of sadness and self-loathing. These were my people. After my brother's death I found myself desperately searching for a place to belong. Some firm ground to stand on. A new family, perhaps. And...for better or for worse...this is where my travels had brought me. To these places filled with noise and distraction...and people I didn't even know. But...they were my people.

...this was where I belonged.

This was home.

I let the music and atmosphere slam into my body for a moment, enjoying the level of pain it brought as it washed over me. Leaning against a small, unoccupied place along the back wall of the club, I closed my eyes for a moment, feeling the pain in my head start to grow from the music. Drifting along this turbulent storm of noise I tried not to think.

To think about what had brought me to this place...again. Because it was always the same stupid things. But always something new. Some new excuse to run away from my life.

This time? My parents were getting a divorce because my dad was a complete asshole. And it was all so stupid because I had actually thought that they were in love. That he loved her. That my dad, at least, was a decent man. Someone I might have actually looked up to as an example for how guys should treat me. All of the lovey dovey stuff he would do for Mom. The looks he would give her whenever she wasn't looking.

All lies.

The very last thing I had been able to hold on to...and I had found out that even that was a lie. He never loved Mom. Never loved me. But he was too much of a coward to actually do the right thing and leave before it was too late. Before Mom had been completely destroyed. Ruined by the idea that she wasn't good enough. Oh sure...Mom said it was dad's fault for cheating. That he was the one with the problem...not her.

Another lie.

My whole life was just one big damn lie.

There was no such thing as love. No such thing as honesty and trust.

Feeling a small tear trail along my cheek I quickly brushed it away. There wasn't any use in crying. Not over this. Not tonight. Tonight I would do exactly like I always did. I would run. I would escape. I would hide here with my people. My new family. Strangers that would help me forget about my real one.

"Kurumi!" The voice of my friend practically screamed at me over the music, grabbing my attention as I plastered on a fake smile...another lie.

"Hey, Empress Michiko!" I gave my friend a ridiculous mock salute, my own voice coming loud and boisterous in its chipper greeting as I watched my friend wrinkle her nose at my pet name for her.

"You know I hate it when you call me that, Kurumi." She grumbled at the unfortunate circumstance of sharing the namesake with one Empress Shōda Michiko, a gift from her High School History Teacher mom.

"Yeah." I chuckled helplessly at her discontent as she gave me another little scowl before her features smoothed over into a giggle of her own.

"So no Yuki-kun tonight? I thought you and the prince were back together!" Michiko nudged me playfully, finally handing me the drink in her hand that I accepted gratefully as I took a long desperate sip of the hard liquor concoction.

I loved Michiko like a sister because she always knew exactly what I needed. But taking another large sip of my drink, I had to concede that she had terrible timing in conversation.

"It's...complicated." I murmured just above the noise as my lips found the glass once more, desperate to take this poison into my body so I could forget.

Forget about my scumbag cheater of a father.

Forget about my broken mother.

Forget about my dead brother.

And...forget about him. My 'prince.'

I didn't want to think about any of them.

I didn't want to think. So I began to drink.

'That's right, Kurumi...' The voice in my head mocked me bitterly. 'Don't think, just drink. Great plan. That always fixes everything.'

"Well, whatever's going on with you two, I bet you're making him completely jealous going out in that outfit!" Mitchiko giggled approvingly at my attire as I found myself pulled from my thoughts. "You look great!" And I gave a small smile to my friend.

"Thanks, Mi-chan." I murmured affectionately through the incessant noise of the club.

My kaleidoscope gaze drifted to the floor to contemplate my choice of outfit. I remembered that I had thrown up my thick, long, unruly blue tresses into the messiest, loosest bun I could manage without the whole thing falling apart. Just like myself, I supposed. I'd donned a lacy, black crop top with an alluring zipper in the front. A basic black mini skirt with lacy frills...short but not too short. And tasteful black flats. Finally gazing at my fingertips clutching to my glass, taking in the chipped black nail polish along my fingernails, I realized that I probably looked very much like a sexy goth. Great... Way to match my outsides with how I was feeling on the inside.

Having fallen into a comfortable silence with my friend as we lingered along the wall of the club, I began to scan the the darkened area. Feeling the warmth of the alcohol bloom and blossom in my empty abdomen, I began to feel another type of hunger. A hole...really. One that I had never really figured out how to fill. Not properly, anyway. I'd only managed to find a quick fix for this emptiness inside of me.

...a quick fix...

And that's when I laid my eyes on him...