The Sohmas, A Lively Bunch
Miyu's POV

Hey I'm Miyu Honda and this is my life. My younger sister is Tohru, and we're sort of orphans. We've been living in the woods in a tent for a few weeks to a month while our grandfather is having renovations done on his house.

Our dad died when we were young, so neither of us remember him all too well. But mom died almost a year ago in a car accident. We miss her deeply and after that, I hardened up a bit for the two of us to get through school and life by ourselves.

But we're just fine by ourselves though. We both have a part-time job and make enough money between the two of us to pay for food and clothes.

So, to the present, we are heading for school when Tohru spots a house in the woods. "A house?" She asks out loud and wanders over to it in curiosity. I groan at her innocence. Sometimes I think my sister just doesn't think of possibilities of perverts or some of those creeps out there.
"Tohru! You don't know who could be in there!" I follow her quickly and try to pull her away.
"How cute! There are the twelve animals of the zodiac." I stand next to her as she examines at them thoughtfully.
"Yeah, they are kinda cute." I shrug nonchalantly and glance at them for a second.
Suddenly, a man appears in the doorway of the house with a newspaper in his hands. "Do my eyes decieve me, or are there two pretty girls standing on my porch?" He says with a small smile.
Tohru immediately freaks out, "I'm sorry! We were just looking! We didn't mean to barge in without permission!" She takes a few steps back from him, and I follow and watch the man cautiously.
"It's all right, no harm done. I just find it strange that these little things would interest you two so much." The small smile stays on the man's face as he glances down at the zodiac then moves his gaze back onto us.
I chuckle in amusement to myself at his question. I tap my head with my pointer finger, "Short attention spans, that's how."
"And they're not silly at all. We love the zodiac." Tohru adds and ignores my comment.
The man chuckles, "I must admit that I am particuliarly fond of them myself." He bends on his knees and examines them with Tohru.
"Oh, but I should've known, you left out the cat." I smile in amusement at her comment. Tohru was always the cat lover.
The man glances at her in surprise and his voice deepens when he says this: "The cat?" Then he continues in his regular voice. "Ah, I take it that you are referring to the old folktale of the chinese zodiac."
"Uh huh. Our mom told it to us when we were little." Tohru says and I smile fondly at the memory.
Flashback:
"A long, long time ago, God decided to invite all of the animals to a banquet." Tohru and I are under the covers of our beds on the floor with mom in between us. "He sent word for all of them to come to his house the following evening. 'And don't be late!' He said. When the mischivious rat heard the rules, he decided to play a trick on his neighbor, the cat. He told the cat that the party was the day after tomorrow. The very next day, all of the animals lined up for the celebration and the rat lead the way riding all the way there on the back of the cow. Everyone had a wonderful time. Except for the foolish cat who missed the whole thing." Mom and I stare at Tohru who has tears building up in her eyes.
"Hey, why are you crying?" Mom asks softly.
"Because! That poor cat! He must be so lonely!" She gets up and raises her fist in determination. "I know! I won't be a dog anymore; I'll be a cat too!" She says this with tears still in her eyes and running down her small cheeks while me and mom are giggling in the background. Not at her foolishness, just because she looked so determined and cute at the time.
End Flashback
"Funny, I wonder what he'll say when I say he has a fan?" The man muses thoughtfully with his fist against his cheek.
"He?" I raise an eyebrow up, and the man casually changes the subject.
"You're year of the dog. I knew there was something I liked about you. Besides from your pretty-" I kick him in the stomach the same time a bookbag lands on his head.
"Pervert!" I yell and hug Tohru close to me.
"Please forgive my cousin, Miss Honda and Honda-senpai, he's a bit of a flirt, but he's harmless." Our school's prince says with a smile. "In general, it's usually best to ignore him."
"Yuki Sohma!" Tohru exclaims with the air strangely whipping around her and mostly through her hair.
"What the-" I raise an eyebrow. Oh, she must be 'dazzled' by Prince Yuki Sohma from our school. Like I said, Tohru has all the girlness; I never fall for the whole hot, dreamy boy thing. Yuki Sohma is the same year as us, same classes, and he has a fanclub of absolute lunatics hellbent on keeping all of girls of the school away from him like they own him or something. It drives me to absolute insanity.
"What do you have in that bag, a dictionary?" Yuki's cousin rubs his head.
"No, I have two of them." He replies sentimentally and I snort in laughter.
After a few moments, the Yuki's cousin speaks, fully recovered. "So, you two are Yuki's classmates from school? Actually, let's start over. I'm Shigure, his older, and much less violent cousin."
"Hi! It's very nice to meet you." Tohru replies happily. Always the manners with Tohru.
"And what brings you both to our home, Miss Honda and Honda-senpai?" Yuki asks.
I shrug and sling my bag over my shoulder, "We live nearby and Tohru saw your house, so we decided to stop by."
"You live nearby? Where?" Yuki asks in surprise.
"Right?" Tohru says. That sounds like a question.
"Huh?" Shigure looks confused too. Oh crap, there aren't many houses in this area, let alone this is the woods. How do we explain us living out here then? We've got leave quickly before they start questioning us.
"Um, well, we should get going!" I grab Tohru's hand and we turn to leave.
"Wait. Honda-senpai and Miss Honda, since you both are here, why don't we walk together?" Yuki smiles kindly and I curse behind Tohru's back.
We're walking and almost to school when we go past three of the highest members of the Yuki Fan Club dancing like morons in the middle of the street.
"Uh, you know, that's not very safe. You guys could get hit by cars, and then we wouldn't have any entertainment during school." I call out to them, snickering to myself at the last part.
They point and shout at me, "DEMON!"
"And a damn good one at that!" I yell back and continue laughing as we walk into the building.
"Okay, Yuki, if you're going to be nice to me and all that happy stuff, at least call me Miyu. We are in the same grade level despite the age difference, and it also feels strange having you call me that." I tell him to his pretty little face before walking into the classroom and putting my stuff at my desk.

Later~
"You know the truth is, I was so nervous walking with Yuki this morning. I couldn't talk to him. No, I couldn't look at him." Tohru says during home-ec.
I shrug, "Hey, I just ignored him the entire time. I don't have much to say to the prince, so it's just as easy to ignore and keep walking."
Hana slices through a fish with a sharp knife, "I sense strange electric signals coming from that boy." Oh yeah, Hana can shock people and sense electric signals from people, and I think animals too. I think she said one time that she's sidekick or something like that.
"Here we go again, Hana's electric report." Uo comments and we all look to Hana for information.
"Strange how?" I ask in curiosity.
"Different." She replies and puts the cap back on the knife.
Uo tangles her fingers in her hair, "Well, I do admit he does have an air of mystery about him. And there are some weird stories floating around too. I heard one of those fanclub girls tried to ask him out once. But he just pushed her away, and I mean that literally. Right in the hall then he left her on the floor and ran off."
"I sense strange electric signals." Hana muses thoughtfully again.
"Well, let's change the subject." I dump some chopped vegetables in a pot. I don't feel like talking about this stuff right now.
Uo casually says, "You are really in more hours aren't you?"
'Oh crap! She realised that we've taken more hours for work!' I panic in my head, and I know it's showing on the outside as well.
Tohru freezes and tries to get off that topic, "No! We just-"
"You aren't able to pay for tuition, are you?" Uo presses.
"It's a bit much between the two of us." I put in nervously.
"That's odd. I don't remember tution being that much and you two having to work this hard." Hana raises a large bowl of white rice to her face with her expressionless look. "Something else has-changed." She stares at us.
"No! Everything's the same!" Tohru replies trying to cover up that we have to do everything ourselves now. They don't know that we moved out of our grandfather's, and now we live in a tent in the middle of the woods.
All of a sudden, Uo leans in very close to Tohru. "So what is it? You two in some kind of trouble? You owe somebody? Your grandfather's giving you both enough to eat right? He isn't taking your money?"
"No, of course not!" I laugh convincingly.
"I know, I worry too much. But seriously, if you two need me to rough someone up for you, just say the word. Got it?"
"Oh, even if that was happening, I could handle it!" I put my arm around Uo's shoulder and pull her out of Tohru's face. I throw her a haughty smirk to help cover up the problem.

'She's gonna kill us when she finds out about us living in a tent.'

We were living with our grandfather for two months until his house needed renovation, and he had to stay with his daughter and her family until it was finished. He asked us if we had any friends we could stay with. We told him yes so he wouldn't worry and we wouldn't cause any trouble. Uo lives in a one-room apartment and Hana has a large family so we couldn't stay with either of them.

So that's how we ended up in a tent, in the the middle of the woods.

I almost fall over while struggling to put my shoes on in the locker room. "Argh! I hate these stupid school shoes!" I groan and finally manage them on. Tohru, of course, had no trouble with her's and patiently waits for me to finish.
I turn around and see Yuki closing his locker. "Oh hi." I wave to him.
"It seems we're making a habit of bumping into each other." He smiles.
I shrug, "I guess so."
We walk back home together again. "I-It was nice meeting your cousin this morning; he was really funny." Tohru stutters. Ha, he was more creepy than nice!
"And I think it was odd to see someone taking an interest in the zodiac. I thought it was just for children or the elderly." I put my hand on my chin and make a weird thinking face.
"Well, Shigure is very odd at times." Yuki replies. "And I heard you talking about being the year of the cat." He's referring to Tohru now.
"Yeah, it's an idea I had when I was a kid. Silly." Tohru says.
Yuki's bangs cover his eyes and he mutters, "Cats. Useless, foolish creatures." Both of my eyebrows raise at this.
"Tell me Miss Honda and Miyu," My eyebrows almost reach my hairline with the usage of my first name, "how familiar are you both with the chinese zodiac?"
"Almost by heart. I read the life out of any books I could find of the stories or the zodiac. The tale is very interesting for me." I reply and crack my knuckles absentmindedly.
"I just know the stories our mom used to tell us." Tohru adds, sounding a bit frightened.
"Did you know that it is nothing more than a simple calendar? A mathematical system to mark the passage of time."
"Only later did people begin to use it for things like astronomy and fortune telling." I say the exact words with him.
"Oh. I guess the story about the animals isn't true then." Tohru says in disappointment.
"No. I'm not really sure how or when the animals first came to represent the years, but I don't believe they were there from the beginning. But I do know that the cat has never been included. So you see, the cat has been shunned for thousands of years. But as the story keeps being told, the cat yearns to be accepted. A truly foolish animal." Yuki explains with his voice cold in obvious distaste as he speaks of the cat.
"Sounds like you really don't like cats." Tohru and I say together and Yuki turns to face us. His back has been turned on the two of us the whole time. He flashes a smile and catches a leaf that was falling over my head.
"I noticed this morning that you're starting to look a bit pale. You should really take better care of yourself." I put a hand on my forehead to find that it is burning. Oh damn.
"Perhaps we will bump into each other again. Maybe tomorrow." Yuki says as he walks away.
Tohru and I stand still and watch him walk away. I keep my hand on my forehead.

'Jeez, this guy really is mysterious. But I'm a bad girl who doesn't fall for guys that easily.'
We quickly go back to the tent and change into our work uniforms and hurry to the building. Both of us silently agree to forget about that paleness remark. Tohru knows that I won't stay out of work for that, so she doesn't argue.
We're the cleaning girls. The other employees stare at us in surprise as we zip around mopping and dusting.

Please keep reading and review!

Hey guys, so I came up with this a little while ago and I finally organized it to have at least two chapters done. I'll try to have it up as much as possible to catch up with my other stories, but you guys will just have to bear with me as usual because I seem to be getting writer's block more often now that not.