A/N--To those who have been reading my other story; no I haven't evaporated from the face of the Earth or discontinued. It's just that I had a random urge to write this around midnight a few months ago, but couldn't be bothered to type it up. Oww…now my eyes hurt from lazily staring at a screen all day when I should be doing homework. Please tell me what you think! It was hard to capture the "essence-of-Machi".

Disclaimer--I don't own Fruits Basket, Furuba, or whatever you want to call it.

She didn't want to hear, and yet she was compelled to listen. Angry, bitter words stung the five year old Machi more than if they had been directed at her, words which were brutally tearing the threads of her family apart. All her dreams of life as being a big game of 'Happy Families' were being shattered right before her. Why had all this tension appeared? She had done nothing wrong…Machi was a good girl…

When she was seven, Machi arrived home with the results of a recent mathematics test. Her eyes welled up with tears at her mother's reaction. It had been out of 100 different questions, and what was so wrong with a 98? "You cannot lose to your half-brother. My daughter must be perfect!" The whole time, she felt like she was sinking deeper into herself, where she could be numb form all the pain. Her only knowledge of her half-brother was a glimpse of the dark haired boy as he was lead away by another woman. He looked at her with an innocent curiosity, nothing like what she had been expecting. 'Maybe he is the same as me' Machi thought.

"Ohayo, my name is Kageru, and I'm one year older than you." the boy introduced himself one morning to the girl walking by in the hallway on the first day of third grade.

"I'm Machi…" she muttered. Next to her was a cart of perfectly organized library books ready to be lugged back and returned. She just couldn't stand this…this perfection. Of its own accord, her foot swept out and sent the cart toppling over, books flying all over the floor. Kageru looked at her, surprised by her actions, but not in a negative way. "S-sorry" she muttered, "It-it won't happen again."

"Ah! Kageru-kun, I dropped a meter stick, could you pick it up for me?" Raiun-sensei asked. He was holding a large box, and was finding it difficult to bend down to pick up the rogue item. Kageru nodded, picked up the meter stick, and then walked over to place it in the teacher's arms. All the other sticks were lying in the box in perfect rows.

Perfect.

Machi used all her self-control to refrain from knocking the box out of Raiun-sensei's hands. There was a clatter, and it turned out Kageru had done exactly what she had been considering. He muttered an apology and 'tidied' up the mess. It was the first, and last, time Kageru felt the urge to destroy something. He had made friends who accepted his faults, while his home life drastically increased. "I'm not playing your stupid game any more!" he had shouted to his mother one night. In addition, he became Machi's only confidant, regardless of how their mothers attempted to pit them against each other. She wished to have his courage to breakaway…but she couldn't do it on her own…and didn't ask for help…

As for the girl herself, she did not find true friends. She just wandered around, trailing behind a group, completely invisible. Machi was known as a jinx, a curse almost. At thirteen, she could not take it anymore. 'Okaa-san doesn't want me," she thought 'just the inheritance.' Thoughts as that continued to crescendo into a silent roar. 'But other people have it much worse. I cannot be weak. I must be strong.' With that, Machi withdrew even further into herself, the tough impenetrable shell protecting her. Kageru seemed the only person who cared about her, without being obliged to do so. But she didn't want to force her presence, so she kept her distance.

Her life froze on the spot as she watched her mother drive away leaving her on the door without looking back. Machi unzipped her suitcase and swung the bag, strewing the contents everywhere. What did she care if there was underwear in the middle of the living room? What did it matter that half her homework was in the washing machine? No one cared anyway.

Then along came the school's prince, the boy famous for being…what was it again? 'Perfect in every aspect'? Not a day went by without hearing some sort of relentless blather about Sohma Yuki. That boy was clearly forcing the smile that all those girls fell in love with, and Machi knew it. But Honda Tohru had changed him…freed him…

"He's so princely isn't he?" a girl near Yuki sighed, "Right Kuragi-san?"

Machi lifted her head and stared the Sohma boy straight in the eyes, "No." Yuki had looked at her with a slightly curious expression…just like Kageru had when they first met.

Gradually, the walls confining Machi began to disappear, walls made to conceal the cage she was cowering inside. She opened up, that time Kageru brought Yuki to her house. Oh how she regretted leaving her undergarments in the living room! Sohma Yuki had turned the key for her cage, and was standing at the door holding his hand out for her. Kuragi Machi. Not the girl who went berserk in the classroom. Just Machi. Her choice was whether to come out or not. He had ignored all the rumors ("She tried to kill her baby brother!") and only sympathized, even snapping a piece of chalk in half to stop that horrible perfection of the perfectly lined pieces. They saw each other in themselves.

Manabe Kageru had befriended her, and Sohma Yuki had freed her.

In a sense, they had both saved her life.