Fan Fiction: Fruits Basket

By: Raeda

Chapter 1

A loud crashing noise woke Tohru Honda early Sunday morning. A yell soon followed and haughty laughter. What could be happening? Tohru thought. Then she remembered. Oh that's right, Ayame-san is here!

As she descended the stairs a few minutes later, she heard another, louder crash. The moment she walked in the door to the living room Shigure began whining from his hiding place in the corner.

"Tohru, they're tearing my poor house apart!"

At Shigure's whining, the others turned and noticed Tohru standing there looking quite flustered. She surveyed the scene. Ayame lay in the garden outside the window, which could be seen through the huge hole in the wall. Yuki and Kyo were both standing near the hole, still in fighting stances.

"Oh dear! Please, you mustn't hurt Ayame-san!"

She rushed over to help him up, to his obvious gratitude. As she passed, she heard Kyo mutter something under his breath about "that bastard" and profanity. She chose to ignore the remark, figuring she didn't want to know. Upon returning to his feet, Ayame promptly hugged Tohru to thank her and Yuki and Kyo were soon glaring at a silver snake curled up on the ground.

"Why you!" Yuki and Kyo both started at the same time.

Unfortunately, they never got a chance to inflict further damage to the target as Hatori let himself into the room. Sweeping a glance over the remains of the room, he briefly made a comment.

"You know, Shigure, the main house isn't going to pay for any more repairs made to your house."

Shigure nodded, tears in his eyes. Hatori turned his attention to the snake that was making its way toward him, talking in that irritating voice all the way.

"Why hello, Hatori! Fancy meeting you here! I was just telling my dear younger brother about…"

"Let's go Ayame, you've caused enough damage for one day. Let's leave Shigure to mourn the loss of his living room."

Shigure weakly complained, saying something about injustice and it not being his fault, but Hatori was already out the door, a helpless Ayame following.

"Well, I suppose I shall see you all another time! Until next time, Yuki!"

The next day at school, Yuki looked a little frayed, but not as much as when Ayame had been at Shigure's house. Kyo just seemed angry about the entire scene, but then…Kyo was always angry with someone. He didn't seem that occupied with thoughts of the snake, though as, on his arrival back at school, he and Uotani had begun another sparring match. Hanajima watched from a distance, amused with the arguing between the orange-haired youth and the blonde tomboy. Tohru walked into the classroom, a huge smile lighting up her features.

"Yo, Tohru! What's got you so happy?"

"Oh, Uo-chan, I just met Momiji-kun in the hall. He had a funny joke that he told me!"

"Oh really, and what was that?"

Tohru thought about it for a minute, then turned a bright shade of red.

"You forgot didn't you?" Hanajima asked.

Poor Tohru could do nothing but ashamedly nod her head. Giggling slightly, Uotani patted her on the back.

"Hey, that's ok. Knowing the little kid, I bet it was real funny!"

Yuki walked up to the three then and looked at Tohru.

"Honda-san, my brother wasn't…rude to you was he?"

He looked worried, and Tohru wondered why. Ayame was such a nice person, even if he did get on peoples' nerves pretty often. Her face lit up with another smile.

"Of course not! What would give you that idea?"

Yuki's look softened, and he sighed, a weight lifted from his troubled mind. Hanajima eyed him suspiciously, but kept her thoughts to herself. Uotani noticed Kyo sulking in the corner, and left the small group in order to go pick on him some more.

Tohru was walking home from work that night, next to a silent Yuki. He seemed to be rather down, and had been ever since his brother had been over at Shigure's house. Oh no! she thought. What if it's the rift between Yuki-kun and Ayame-san!

"Ah…Yuki-kun?"

He looked up at her, surprised at the worry evident in her voice.

"Yes, Honda-san?"

"Uh…um…you aren't…angry with Ayame-san are you?"

Yuki looked surprised at the question.

"Well, not mad, necessarily. He just…gets on my nerves sometimes. In other words, it's just the usual arguing between brothers."

He grinned, and Tohru relaxed. She had been worried that the two brothers' fighting would cause the rift between them to widen even more.

"Well, I'm glad you aren't mad at him. It's not good when brothers fight."

Yuki nodded in silent agreement. He didn't really hate his brother; he just got on his nerves a lot. Sighing to himself, he put the thought at the back of his mind to contemplate another time.

By the time they got home, Shigure was being assaulted by an angry Kyo. Kyo was yelling while Shigure seemed to be saying something about honor (not that he knew anything about the subject).

"Oh my! What's wrong Kyo?"

While Tohru tried to figure out why an increasingly red-faced Kyo had been fighting with Shigure, Yuki just shook his head and went up to his room. It was getting late and he was tired. He had spent most of that day being pelted by questions from first years eager to meet the new student body president.

He was still amazed that he had taken the position, considering his habit of shying away from society. But he had felt that it was time he came out of the shadows and started to be a little more sociable. Sighing, something that had become a sort of habit recently, he climbed into bed. As he fell asleep, he heard the sounds of Kyo rampaging around the house and Shigure still trying to provoke him.