A/N I was thinking about the beginning of Volume 15, when Yuki talks about his life with Akito. I kinda liked the whole flashback, with the concept that the two were sort of kind of friends. I thought, "What the heck, I'll write a fic about it!" So… I did. Keep in mind that this is before Akito loses her mind and stuff. ;) NOT SHIPPY, I SWEAR! Oh, and I have no editor… as usual. xP

When Yuki woke up, he found himself staring into two bright, eager eyes. After taking a moment to fully figure out what was going on, he realized that before him was Akito, who was apparently the "god" of the family, and who would someday be the head of the Sohmas. Akito was a girl, but Yuki was unaware of this. It would be hard for anyone – even an adult – to tell, but being only six made it especially hard for Yuki to realize that the little boy in front of him was not a little boy at all. Yuki sat up and looked around. Where was he? Realization kicked in and things began coming together when he remembered that he was now practically living with Akito. He had not seen his mother in days now.

"Good morning," Akito sat on her knees and continued staring at her "friend". Truthfully, the two did get along rather well, and Yuki had recently overheard Hatori call them playmates. He was not sure if this was the correct word to describe their relationship, but he went with it. Akito put her hands on her hips and made a face that resembled something that a teenager would make, not someone who was only nine years old. "You're taking a long time to get up."

Yuki rubbed his eyes sleepily. "What time is it?" he asked. Akito looked around for a moment, searching for a clock that did not exist, before shrugging. "I know it's earlier than noon, does that help?" Yuki just stared at her blankly, still having trouble awaking. "You're such a baby, Yuki! I woke up, like, five hours ago!"

"How would you know? There's no clock in here!"

Akito scowled. The girl could not stand being talked to in such a manner. "I just know, okay? I'm 'god'; I'm allowed to know this sort of stuff! You're just a rat, remember? You have to do everything I say and agree with everything I say!"

The boy sighed and nodded. "Okay," he finally stated. "So you woke up five hours ago…" There was a tone of defeat in his voice. Akito grinned smugly and yanked at the rat's hair a little.

"Isn't it easy to agree with me? That wasn't so hard, right?" She laughed a cold, piercing laugh that made Yuki shiver. When she stared back at him once she was does laughing, there was definitely a look of friendliness on her face. However, Yuki still found himself inching a bit away from the 'god' before him. For a moment there was silence, and both wanted the other person to think of something to say. Eventually, Akito took the lead – like she always did – and suggested, "We should do something!"

"Like what?"

The girl was stumped. She sat for a moment, trying to think of the 'something' they should do. She looked at the ground, muttering things occasionally. The rat just stared back, waiting for her to come up with something. She was the leader, after all! Finally, she exclaimed, "We'll draw pictures!"

Yuki nodded. He liked drawing, because you could be imaginative and draw things that did not exist and it was fun. Akito liked drawing too. She liked it because you could draw things that you were not allowed to do in real life, and things that she knew people would get angry about if they saw her drawing. But because they were only pictures, she could get away with it (but then again, she could get away with almost anything). After this decision was made, the older of the two stood up and walked over to a cabinet. She opened it and returned to the spot Yuki was still sitting with some paper and pencils. "Here, take this one. I want the one with the good eraser, so if I mess up, I can fix it. 'Gods' should be able to fix their mistakes, right?" She handed Yuki the pencil with the shorter eraser.

"What should I draw?" asked Yuki as he stared blankly at the paper.

Akito looked up from the paper she had already begun on. "Well, I'm drawing a dog. He's gonna be big, and black, and he'll be reading a book!"

"Like Shigure!"

The girl stared for a moment, before her cheeks reddened a bit and she turned back to her paper. Yuki, being only six, did not notice Akito's blushing. Instead, he just stared back at his paper. Right as he was about to make the first line of the picture he had just come up with, Akito cried out, "Draw a rat!"

"What?"

"Draw a rat!" repeated Akito. "Because you're a rat! And draw it playing with me, okay? We can put the pictures up later. So that means everyone who comes in here will see it. So make sure to make it good, okay?"

Yuki stared incredulously for a moment. "Draw a rat?" he repeated softly. Akito nodded eagerly as she went back to her own paper. "O- okay…" With these words, the boy went to his paper. For a long time there was silence. Occasionally Yuki would cough a bit, which usually followed with Akito screaming "shut up!" or "quit that!", but besides that, there really was no sound. After quite some time, the "god" stood up and waved her paper around in the air.

"I'm done, I'm done! Yuki, look, I'm done!" She thrust the paper in his face, making it impossible for him to see anything (including the picture). "Well, what do you think?"

"I can't see it!"

Akito pulled the paper away and folded her arms. "What are you, blind or something? It was right there! I bet you're ignoring me on purpose!" She turned away angrily. The rat, who was already used to Akito randomly losing her temper like this, shook his head and sighed.

"Sorry, Akito. Here, let me see the picture." He gently pried the paper from the girl's hands and looked at it. Just as she had described it earlier, it was a sketch of a dog "holding" a book with its front paws. It had a huge smile on its face. It was standing on a flower. For a boy, he sure does draw some girly things! thought the six year old. However, he knew better than to tell her this, so he said, "Nice picture!" This was honestly true – the picture was very well drawn.

Akito raised her head in a "holier than thou" manner. "Thank you." For a moment there was silence. "Can I see yours now?" She ripped the paper from Yuki's hand and stared at it for a long time, as if studying every little pencil stroke she could find. The rat waited, hoping he had pleased the 'god' with his drawing. After what felt like an eternity to little Yuki, Akito nodded. "It's good." She stated. And it was. It was a very six-year-oldish drawing of two things – one with whiskers and round ears and one with very short, scribbly hair – running around outside. Akito found this slightly peculiar, for neither of them ever went outside. However, she found that it was a generally good drawing, so she approved of it.

Yuki looked at the ground. "Do you want to draw anymore?" He was definitely done drawing for the day, but he knew it would be better to ask Akito first. She thought for a moment, before shaking her head.

"No, I don't." She paused. "I don't know what to do now…"

"Me too."

"You mean 'me neither'."

"What?"

"Never mind,"

Suddenly, Akito's eyes brightened. "Ooh, I know! We could play Truth or Dare!"

"What's that?" asked the rat, tilting his head.

The 'god' shrugged. "I don't know for sure. I saw Shigure and Ayame and Hatori playing it. You have to ask questions and stuff and dare people to do things and it looks kind of fun. I think we should try it!" She nodded, waiting for the answer she wanted to hear. Yuki, not really wanting to play such a game but knowing there was no use arguing, nodded. Akito grinned. "Great! Truth or dare?"

Yuki, who had never even heard of this game until right now, tilted his head. "What?" he asked.

"Ugh, you're supposed to answer my question! Truth or dare?"

The rat thought long and hard on this question, certain that the wrong answer would somehow lead to his demise. Finally, he settled with, "Dare."

A very evil look appeared on Akito's face. She laughed that same piercing, cold laugh again. "I dare you… to… go outside and run around and scream 'I'm a rat' at the top of your lungs until someone makes you come inside!" She cackled.

Yuki shook his head. "I don't like this game…"

"Too bad! You have to. You have to do what I dared you to do, because you chose dare. Because those are the rules." Akito stated in a matter-of-fact manner. And even if those weren't the rules, I'd make you do it anyway, because I'm 'god'. She added mentally.

"Okay…"

Roughly ten minutes later, Hatori found himself in Akito's room. He was holding onto a very distressed Yuki, who continually murmured, "He made me do it!" as Akito laughed harder than anyone had ever seen. The doctor stared down at the 'god' and the rat.

"Look, you shouldn't do stuff like that, Yuki. You could get in serious trouble. You're lucky it was me who found you and not someone else. Plus screaming like that isn't very good for your throat." He glared at the rat, who shrunk a bit. He then turned to Akito, who he knew he would have to be a little nicer to, seeing as she was 'god'. "Akito, do you think you could be a little nicer to Yuki?"

The girl in question scowled. "I dunno. Maybe."

Hatori sighed. "Okay, good enough." With these words, the exasperated doctor walked out, muttering something about children under his breath. Once the two were alone again, Akito went back to laughing. Yuki looked away.

"That was mean, Akito."

"So? It was funny as heck!"

Wanting to have the subject dropped, Yuki suddenly exclaimed, "Hey, we never finished Truth or Dare!" Immediately, Akito stopped laughing. She grinned and sat down.

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot!" She clapped her hands and grabbed Yuki, forcing him to sit down with her. "It's your turn, Yuki." When Yuki did not respond, she rolled her eyes. "You have to ask me, remember?" she reminded him in an exasperated manner, sighing.

"Um…. truth or dare?"

Akito, who knew better, answered, "Truth," Knowing the rat would not understand, she added, "Now you have to ask me a question, and I have to answer it."

Yuki thought for a long time on what question he could ask that would actually be interesting but would not get him in trouble. "What's… what's your favorite color?" For some reason, this seemed to catch the 'god' off guard, as if this was the very last thing she had ever expected to be asked. She blinked slowly and pushed some of her short black hair out of her face. Looking at the ground, she finally came up with an answer.

"Black,"

-End

A/N Please leave a review on your way out! It's my first (finished) Fruits Basket fic, so be nice! :D