Tohru Honda was having a very interesting day. First she just so happened to stumble upon Prince Yuki's house, then there was the landslide, burying her mother's picture as well as all of her other things under a thick layer of dirt. Then of course there was waking up and being enlisted as the house's new house keeper and being given a room there. So, when Tohru looked up to see some of the ceiling boards shaking and saw an orange haired boy come crashing threw them she wasn't that surprised.
"TIME TO PAY THE PIPPER RAT BOY!" said the Orange haired boy "I'M HERE TO COLLECT!"
"Huh!" said Yuki leaning against the wall "I thought they would send someone bigger."
A girl appeared in the doorway with curly hair and green eyes chewing on a stick of Dango. She had on a black tank top and low riding skinny jeans, with black army boots and black fingerless gloves that went up to her elbow. "You know Kyo, the front door was open. You didn't need to break the roof." She said calmly leaning against the door frame.
"SHUT UP ZU!" said Kyo, then turned back to Yuki "YOU READY STUPID RAT?"
"Always."
Kyo began to rush at Yuki.
"YUUUUKKKI!" said Shigure in a sing-song voice as he appeared in the doorway himself "I heard a crash. Is Kyo here by any chance?" He turned to the girl in the doorway as the boys started fighting "Oh! Zu! How great it is to see you. What brings you here?"
Zu gave him a silent nod for an answer.
"OH NO!" said Tohru "Please don't fight!"
She walked forward only to trip on a piece of fallen wood, landing on the boy, Kyo.
There was a puff of smoke and Tohru sat up, seeing an orange cat in her arms looking very annoyed.
"OH MY GOSH I TURNED HIM INTO A CAT! WE NEED TO CALL A DOCTOR OR SOMETHING! OR A VET! A VET OR A DOCTOR?!"
"Now, now miss Honda," said Shigure "Calm down."
It was at that second Tohru tripped again, landing this time on Yuki. There were three puffs of smoke and a Dog, a rat, and a brown cat went flying into the air.
The postman, unlike Tohru, was having a perfectly normal day. He was, that is, until he came upon a house with the mail (and door) labeled 'SOHMA'.
When he opened the door to hand the mail in the usual way to the awaiting owner of the house he was instead greeted by a school girl, holding in her hands two cats (One orange, one brown), a dog, and a rat.
"IT'S JUST TERRIBLE!" The girl was crying "THEY'RE ANIMALS!"
"Why yes they are," the post man smiled.
"BUT THIS IS CRAZY! WHY JUST ONE MOMENT AGO THEY WERE….."
The dog had just taken the mail right out of the postman's hand.
"Wow," said the postman "I wish my dog was this smart." He gave the dog a pat on the head, said a cheery "good day" and then left trying to pretend that didn't happen.
However, for Tohru this still was happening since four people had just turned into animals
"DAMN IT!" she heard from behind her. Tohru turned around to see the four animals. "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO MAKE AN EXCUSE IF YOU THREE TRANSFORM TOO?!" said the orange cat who used to be Kyo as he yelled at the rat and dog.
"DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO BLAME THIS ON US YOU STUPID CAT!" said the rat that used to be yuki.
"GO AHEAD! SAY THAT AGAIN!" challenged the Orange cat.
"Stupid. Cat." Repeated the rat.
"Come now Yuki, when you say that you refer to me as well," said the brown cat that used to be Zu as she sat away off lazily watching the argument unfold. "I had no part in this."
"I'm sorry Zu," said the rat "Stupid. Male. Cat."
(Zu: Much better)
"WHY YOU LITTLE…!" screamed the Orange cat.
"CUT IT OUT! BOTH OF YOU!" screamed the dog that used to be Shigure.
You mean they talk too….. wondered Tohru.
The dog sighed, "Well no excuses now, might as well tell her the truth." The dog turned to face her. "Tohru, I'm a dog. Yuki here's a rat. That's kyo, don't let his temper scare you he has a bit of a chip on his shoulder. That's Zu, she's pretty lazy unless she gets worked up about something. They're both cats."
"So this is…. Normal?" asked Tohru.
"Strange choice of words, but yes," said Shigure "our family has had this curse for generations. We transform into the twelve animals of the zodiac."
Kyo turned around and glared while Zu gave him a pointed look.
"Sorry," said Shigure "the twelve animals, plus the cat. You see when ever our bodies undergo a lot of strees or we hug a member of the opposite sex we transform. We eventualy change back the only problem is…." There was four puffs of smoke and four naked people were in front of Tohru "We're naked."
Later on that day Kyo and Zu were sitting outside. Kyo mopeing and Zu sitting not far away, legs dangling with a new stick of dango in her mouth. Meanwhile inside Shigure and Yuki sat talking to Tohru.
"You must think we're pretty strange now huh?" asked Shigure.
"But," said Tohru "It's not your fault if your family is cursed."
"Tohru, didn't you say that you wished you could be a cat."
"yeah,"
"Well how does it feel seeing the real thing?"
That was when it dawned on Tohru, that these two people were the REAL cat, like from the zodiac story.
"Yes, yes, it's a lot to take in," Shigure said waving a hand dismissively.
Tohru paused "How come there are two cats?" she asked
"Well," started shigure "for each zodiac animal there are two family members with the curse, one male, one female. So Zu here is the female cat and Kyo there is the Male cat even though the phrase cat-like reflex doesn't apply to him, the way you ran in to him like that. But, he is a cat, even though he's clumsier than most, surprising because of all he martial arts training he's put himself through. I'm sure he'd tell you himself If he wasn't so busy brewding like a child…"
With every word Kyo's temper seemed to grow until he burst. "WILL YOU SHUT UP?!" screamed Kyo "I TOLD YOU IT'S NOT MY FAULT! IF YOU WANT TO BLAME SOMEONE BLAME HER!" he pointed an accusing finger at Tohru (Zu through a mouth full of dango: Now now kyo, it's bad enough you broke their roof unnecessarily) "SHE SHOULDN'T EVEN BE HERE!"
"Leave her out of this," said Yuki "Who we choose to let into this house is really none of your concern. It's you who doesn't belong here."
Kyo growled and then punched the table hard, splitting it in half. One half conveniently hit right in the center of poor Tohru's head.
"Oh! Tohru! You're bleeding!" said Shigure.
There was a quick slap sound that was Zu hitting Kyo across the face.
"I knew Kyo was reckless with his temper, but to act like this…" said Shigure now with a wet cloth.
"You're still as stupid as always," said Yuki "and I'm going to prove it to you by giving you exactly what you want. Only this time, I won't hold back."
"OKAY SISSY BOY!" said Kyo thrusting out his fist.
"NO!" screamed Tohru.
"It's ok," said shigure, seeming calm, as he turned Tohru's head so he could clean her cut. "This oes back farther then to day. Those two do nothing but fight whenever they see each other."
Other then the fight outside the house seemed pretty calm. Even Zu seemed to show a little intrest in the battle by moving over to sit next to Shigure a stick that used to have dango on it clenched in her teeth.
"At least he's gotten a BIT better," she said quietly to Shigure.
"Yes, but so has Yuki," said Shigure passively.
"Shouldn't we stop them?" asked Tohru.
"Oh no." said Zu sitting with one arm on her bent knee "It will be over soon anyways."
With one swift kick, Yuki had knocked Kyo through the rice paper wall.
"HE SEN HIM FLYING!" said Tohru amazed.
Zu was clapping. "Good show Yuki, was that a record?"
"Three seconds short," replied yuki.
"Impressive, but next time please don't break the house," said Shigure pathetically.
"Miss Honda! Are you okay?" asked Yuki.
"Yes! I am!" said Tohru. But then she turned to Kyo, who Zu was now walking over to. "But I'm not sure about him."
"He's fine," said Yuki "the only thing he's bruised is his ego."
Tohru watched as Zu kneeled down and helped Kyo up.
"So, I'm pretty sure your dreams of being a cat are pretty much shattered at this point," said Shigure.
"Oh I don't know," said Tohru "I wouldn't say..." That was when Kyo ran away. Zu watched him leave, still kneeling on the ground.
Later that day Tohru and Yuki came home from school.
"I'm just going to put my stuff away," said Tohru.
"Okay," said Yuki.
Tohru went up the stairs and opened up the door to her room only to see Kyo standing on top of a step ladder tapeing up the hole in the roof with Zu sitting on the floor leaning on the base of a ladder reading a book with the ever present dango in her mouth.
"Don't freak out," said Kyo "It's only temporary. You can call a guy to fix it in the morning."
Zu looked up from her book and stared at kyo.
"uh, look," said Kyo grabbing hold of the roll of tape tightly "I kinda have trouble controlling my temper…" Zu raised a pointed brow at him "But that doesn't mean that…"
"HELLOOOOOOOOOO!" said Shigure from downstairs "YUKI! TOHRU! KYO AND ZU, YOU BETTER NOT BE DOING SOMTHIN STUPID AND DESTROYING MY HOUSE AGAIN!"
"AH FORGET IT!" said Kyo chucking the tape as hard as he could so it went flying, deflecting off of the cover of Zu's book that was now shut to cover her face. Kyo stormed out of the room.
"ah man!" said Zu scanning the closed book "He scratched the cover." She rubbed the scratched spot with her hand and then looked up. "Don't mind him. Cats and dogs you know?"
"But you and shigure seem to get along well." Said Tohru.
"Yeah, but I don't have what he has."
"Huh?"
Zu looked up from her thoughtful stare and smiled kindly. "Story for another time. Remind me to tell it to you though. It's a good one." She got up from the floor with her book under her arm. "Goodbye Tohru." And then she left, following after her zodiac partner.
It was over lunch when Shigure, Kyo, and Zu came through the door.
"Stop!" said Shigure "Kyo just listen to me!"
"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT! YOU THINK IT'S FUN JERKING ME AROUND LIKE THAT!" said Kyo running/ walking into the house.
(Zu while sitting down at the table and picking up a bowl of rice: Hey guys. What's going on?)
"Hold on!" said Shigure "It wasn't….. okay it was a little bit fun, but that's not why I did it. It's for your own good and don't forget this was akito's decision!"
"I don't give a damn about akito!" said Kyo
(Zu: pass the fish)
"Uh, are you hungry?" Tohru asked Kyo "I made you some lunch…"
"SHUT UP!" screamed Kyo before her closed the door.
"More rice please," said Zu holding out her empty bowl.
"Oh!" said Shigure "Lunch is ready!"
"But shouldn't we help him?" asked Tohru.
"Who? Kyo? No, he just needs to let off steam. He's mad I made him take an entrance exam for your school today."
"More like TRICKED us," said Zu rice half way to her mouth.
"What?!" said Yuki standing up "You made him take the entrance exam for our school?!"
"Oh yeah," said shigure. "You'll all be classmates now! WON'T THAT BE FUN!" he beamed.
Yuki, however, was not amused. "Get out of the house," he said pointing to the door.