A/N: Hey this is my first attempt at a Fruits Basket Fanfic so it could turn out to be a major disaster! I'm relying on you guys to let me know what you think and to encourage me either to keep writing or to quit before I ruin Fruits Basket for everyone!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own characters or anything else from the manga that I may include in this story. All credit for this goes to Natsuki Takaya. I will however create various characters! They belong to me, but no one's going to want to steal anything I've created when they can use their own imagination and create their own!

Before I begin I'll give you a bit of background which will help make my story make sense, or so I hope! If you have not read the manga all the way to the end, no worries, this won't give anything away because you won't know if I've made it up or not! However, it might have a few parts that will come as a bit of a shock, but still, I may well have invented it!! If you have read it all, woo!!

So, graduation time finally came for Tohru, Yuki and Kyo. The cursed Sohma have been freed and Akito is now a nicer person!! Yuki is planning on moving away and going to university. Ayame was overjoyed at this news and went apartment hunting for him. He found a nice large and luxurious one and has insisted that he redecorate to make it perfect for his younger brother's arrival. Yuki dreads to think of the result of this!

Kyo has decided he wishes to move away from Shigure's house in order to make his way in the world and has plans to take over a martial arts dojo, which is situated half way across the country! Luckily for him, Tohru has decided she wishes to accompany him and then they can begin their adult lives together! Shigure is moving back into the main house to be by Akito's side, so the happy couple have been given all the cooking, eating and general living equipment from Shigure's house to use in their new home! (Yuki would not have needed any of this as Ayame had already bought him all he needed as part of his redecorating deal!).

And so, now that we all know the current situation in their lives, let's move onto the actual story, which starts on the day that Kyo and Tohru finally arrive at their new home!

Chapter 1: hajime kara

("From the Beginning" I tried to find 'new beginnings' but couldn't. If this translation is wrong, don't hesitate to let me know)

Tohru's POV

As we rounded the final corner of our long and tiring journey, I saw for the first time, the small, wooden house in which Kyo and I we going to begin our life together. To my eyes, it was stunningly beautiful. It had a semi-traditional appearance with wooden pillars and a slanted, slightly curved roof, garden all the way around enclosed by a bamboo fence. There was also a small out building at the end of the rear garden. This house had been the previous dojo sensei's house. He had designed, built and lived in this lovely building right up to his retirement and now he had left it for the next dojo sensei; Kyo. We had passed the dojo just a few moments before the house had come into view, just on the outskirts of the town. It was not far from the house, but yet it was separate enough to give the house privacy.

The long awaited slowing down of the car sent a shiver of excitement through my body and as I stepped out, I could hardly suppress my gleeful squeal as I ran to gaze over the bamboo fence into the world which would become my own. I looked out across the green, grassy garden. There was a stone path leading from the gate to the house and a flower bed at each far side of the path. Flowers of all shapes and colours added brightness and happiness to the place. A large tree grew in the corner of the garden casting a pleasant shade over a decked area with a bench. There was even a pond near the bench area so that you could sit and watch the carp swimming gracefully up and down in the cool water. It was spectacular. I had never imagined such a beautiful place would belong to me.

"I always knew Shishou had done well finding us a dojo and a house which came as a pair, but now I've seen it, I wish I'd thanked him even more. Maybe bought him a present or something" said Kyo as he joined me at the side of the fence. I could see astonishment spread across his face too. I turned to him, and he smiled the genuine, adorable smile that I knew I would never grow tired of receiving.

For the following few minutes we simply gazed over the fence at our paradise, still hardly believing that we owned this property, until I could no longer restrain myself from opening the bamboo gate and stepping onto the stone path. Kyo followed as we walked toward the sliding entrance doors. My heart pounded with excitement and happiness as I stepped onto the veranda, slipped out of my shoes and entered my house for the first time.

There was a small entrance chamber which had three rooms off to the right, which I soon discovered were the guest and tea room, the main everyday room and at the end, the bath room. There was only one room to the left, the kitchen. Beside the door to the kitchen was the staircase. I knew we only had two rooms upstairs. One would become our bedroom, and the other a room for when we received visits from the Sohma family or from Hana-chan and Uo-chan. This house was considerably smaller than the house Kyo and I were accustomed to, but yet it seemed almost too large for just two people to live in. It certainly seemed too grand for us.

Kyo fetched a small tea set and some floor cushions from the car and invited our driver, Sohma Daichi, in for tea. There was only an hour before the removal van would arrive with our belongings and I was keen not to waste any time in preparing the house for the arrival of furniture. I had also brought a sweeping brush in the car with me as I had foreseen the need to sweep the house before we moved in properly and I set about cleaning immediately after some tea. Kyo and Daichi-san saw it fit to help by simply keeping out of my way as I hurried around and so they remained in the tea room, only vacating when I appeared at the door brandishing my brush.

At the end of my cleaning dash, I felt satisfied that once our furniture arrived, we would be living in a heaven. There was a little time for a refreshing cup of tea before the sound of the rented, Sohma, removal van pulled up outside.

"Master Kyo, Miss Honda" The driver (Sohma Kenji) and passenger (Sohma Tomasu) greeted us with short bows before unlocking the back and beginning to unload our furniture and other household objects. Between the five of us, the unloading and transfer to the house was finished in no time.

"Ok, so, why don't we take everything straight to where it's supposed to be instead of leaving it for later?" Kyo suggested as if it was the most unobvious thing to say. And so everything labelled "BEDROOM" was taken straight upstairs and placed on the wide landing, everything labelled "KITCHEN" was placed in the kitchen and everything labelled otherwise was taken through the side entrance to the everyday living room.

Once everything was unloaded from the van, there wasn't much to do. I sighed happily. It was now simply a matter of positioning our bed, setting the low table in the main room with floor cushions, and putting away the kitchen utensils and then our house would truly become our home.

"Please, come have some tea" I said as courtesy ensured that our guests were seated on cushions in the tea room with tea before Kyo and I made the necessary adjustments to our home.

"There" I smiled as I finished setting the bed, "Now we will be comfortable until morning and then we can continue unpacking everything!" With one last look at my new bedroom, I headed downstairs to prepare dinner.

"You will join us for dinner Daichi-san, Kenji-san and Tomasu-san? Would you like to stay the night? It is a long way home after such a long drive here already" I offered, but yet I could not persuade the Sohma's to stay long after dinner. The few groceries I had brought with me provided enough dinner for everyone to eat their fill and also for me to divide the left over rice cakes between the three Sohma's as a snack for the journey home. After thanking them for their help and receiving thanks for our hospitality, Kyo and I were left alone in our palace.

"It's amazing isn't it Kyo-kun?" I exclaimed as we stood out on the rear veranda looking over the beautiful garden and spectacular scenery beyond.

"It is, almost too good to be true" He slipped an arm around my waist closing the gap between us where we stood. Resting my head on his chest we admired the scene. We stood listening to the bird song in the trees in silence as the sun began to sink in the sky. It really was all too good to be true.

I sighed happily as I tilted my head up to see Kyo's peaceful expression framed perfectly by his orange hair. His eyes fell to meet mine and we shared our first blissful kiss in the place we now called home.

A/N: Well there it is folks, Chapter one of my story. I know a lot of it is descriptive but I need to introduce the setting to my story before I can really go off into more detail. I had actually intended to do something completely different with this opening chapter but that idea has been saved for the next. I thought I'd leave this chapter at the little touching bit between the couple!

So now you know what to do! Review and let me know if I have written something good, bad, or monstrously ugly! Thanks for reading! xxxxx