-Catgirl-of-Bavaria-: Alright, then, here goes the first Fruits Basket fan fiction that I've written in a while! (I looked back on my previous ones, ack, I like one, but it's a little overdone, alas…the other one is a total cliché of Kyo/tohru, so you won't be seeing them here…) Anyway, Outside Looking In, I'm hoping that this one isn't cliché, I'm having fun writing it so far I hope you guys have fun reading it as well!

A little note on the setting I've chosen here: You'll notice later, but I've chosen to write this in the timeframe of Yuki, Kyo and Tohru being in the third and final year of high school, Haru and Momiji in the second. Hee, I hope I write this alright…If you notice any errors or anything, you can point them out, that's how oblivious people like me learn from their mistakes, lol.

On to the disclaimer! ---I do not own Fruits Basket, if I did, I would be very, very rich. .:Looks in her wallet:. Alas, only 36 dollars. See? I'm not rich! Leave me alone, lawyer people! –However, Minagi-chan is indeed of my own creation! .:Raspberry:.

Chapter 1- Green Eyes, Violet Eyes

"The third time I've switched schools…" She murmured to no one, watching the large school ahead of her grow as she walked.

Wavy hair trailed behind her in a lengthy ponytail, in a brown color so deep that it was nearly black. Her green eyes sank to stare at the sidewalk, thinking about how this first day would go. There had been far too many first days of school for her liking; there was the very first of course, then the first day at her new grade school, when she'd first switched. Then the first day of junior high, then when she'd switched to a different junior high. The first day of high school, and now, fittingly, her first day at this new high school. She'd switched once every level of school, now. Perfect. At least there was a pattern in her life, for whatever it was worth.

She let out a little moan, remembering all the moving her mother and her did, all the schools she'd gone through, all the faces that she'd known not even long enough for them to bother becoming a true friend. All the teasing she'd faced, incidentally, at each and every school. Why was it so common, at every new place she moved, for the kids to give her grief about anything and everything?

Minagi Kurosaki thought she was just as normal as everyone else, she thought that she was no different than anyone who teased her, except for the fact that her mother was always on the move, all over the island of Japan. She worked far too much, her job took her everywhere, and being only barely sixteen years old, Minagi had no choice but to be dragged along every few years.

Her mother said, however, that there was some family in this new place. Her mother had come from a very large, illustrious family, and their main estate was here in this town. Apparently she thought her daughter would be more excited to move this time if there was to be kin waiting there, but Minagi was near desensitized to any such promise.

"We'd just end up moving again as soon as I got close to anyone, anyway," She told herself and the sidewalk. "That's what always happens."

She turned into the school grounds, watching other kids her age, in identical uniforms run around, talk, and tease each other before the school bell would call them in for class. She saw a great number of people who'd look adequately friendly, who may even want to be her friend, not tease her. Some caught her glance as she walked by, giving her back a slight smile in polite greeting.

She walked past them all, straight to the main entrance. She walked in, looking at the hallways, contemplating which to take to get to her class room. She glanced at her watch through her cheek-length bangs, deciding that she had a good half an hour before class would actually start. That being confirmed, she started off in a random direction, pacing past gaggles of students, self-consciously smoothing out her uniform every now and then. She had only dug it out of her box of clothes that morning. She wouldn't have been surprised if it had a great and obvious crease in all the wrong places. Such was her typical luck. One time she'd even been unfortunate enough to sit straight in a lump of chewing gum that someone had left in the seat, probably on purpose, knowing her previous acquaintances. That skirt had been ruined, even with an hour of trying to clean it out at home, and she never lived that down at that particular school. Sufficed to say, she wasn't that disappointed to have left that time.

She suddenly paused, coming out of her reverie, and staring at her surroundings.

"I think I'm in the totally wrong part of the school…" she muttered awkwardly, noting that the classroom in front of her was labeled 3-C. Obviously a third year classroom, not a second year, as she was looking for.

"Where'd I take a wrong turn?" She murmured, just before admitting with a furrowed brow that she hadn't even set off in a logical direction to begin with.

A glance at her watch told her that she'd wasted a whole twenty minutes just wondering around aimlessly, with her mind on her past dealings with school. She looked in all directions, stranded in the middle of a strange hallway, watching as others passed around her, obviously knowing their path.

She couldn't even bring herself to ask anyone for help, for Minagi was too shy a girl, not to mention she'd just end up wishing for friendship with whoever she asked-if they helped her, anyway- and friendship, she had learned, was just painful to a girl that was constantly on the move.

"It's best if I don't…" She told herself, firmly but regretfully. That was the last thing she needed; more baggage to take with her once her mother grew tired of the town or took another transfer.

"Excuse me," Her eyes shot up from the tile she was so fixated on at the sound of a velvety voice that floated from a little further down the hall.

She looked at the boy, who was a fair foot taller than her, noting how stunning he looked. There was no other way to describe it, he looked… beautiful. She blushed furiously, thinking of how he'd react if he knew the adjective she'd just connected with him. Guys didn't like to be called beautiful.

There was no way around this, though, it was what he was. His grey mop of hair hung gracefully in his face, the left side was slightly longer than the right. The uniform he wore perfectly stated his gentle figure, giving him an almost delicate appearance. His eyes were the most stunning of all, they were somehow a deep violet color. She briefly wondered if he wore those trendy contacts that made your eyes a different color than they really are. They couldn't be that color naturally, right?

"Are you lost? Do you need some help finding something?" The boy asked her, his pale face showing her some gentle compassion. He hadn't seen this girl in the school before, she was quite obviously lost.

"Um," Minagi managed to say, finding her own eyes still attached to his abnormal ones. She quickly tore her gaze away, not wanting to come off as a strange girl who found him attractive…Though she admitted that was exactly what she was. Her eyes found then, a cuff around his upper arm, attached with a safety pin to his uniform sleeve.

"You're a class officer?" she looked at him again, knowing what the cuff meant. He smiled with a tilt of his head, draping his hair almost cutely to a perfect frame of his face.

"Yes, I'm the student body president," He answered her, finding her expression and large green eyes positively cute. She didn't seem like the other girls of the school; even other new girls would turn into more members of the "Prince Yuki Fanclub" as soon as they merely laid eyes on him. But she, she seemed to be treating him…normally. He inwardly smiled even broader.

"If you need help finding your classroom, I can probably show you where to go," He suggested kindly.

Minagi thought about it for a moment, apprehensive, but glad to have someone to direct her. He was only the president; he probably helped everyone who was new, right? It didn't mean that she had to become friends with him just because he helped her out. It was standard for the student body president to help those who were new. She wasn't anything special. Just another new kid.

"Ok," She agreed, deciding that direction was something that she greatly needed at the moment, despite any possibility of wanting to befriend him.

"Great, what's your name? What class are you looking for?" He approached her, peeking onto the paper in her hand, the one that told her what her classroom was.

"Ah, I'm Kurosaki Minagi…I need class 2-B…" Minagi told him shyly, indicating the class on the paper.

"Alright, I know exactly where that is," The boy smiled at her, while turning them both around to head down the corridor that she'd wondered up just previously. "I'm Sohma Yuki; it's a pleasure to meet you, Kurosaki-san." He turned his head to give her another dazzling smile.

Minagi slightly blushed, and headed after him, only vaguely noticing a group of girls that had been lurking behind them for some time. But that name…Sohma…It sounded familiar, somehow.

She followed him down a flight of stairs, and down another strange corridor, noticing how every girl they passed seemed to abandon what they were doing to take a look at the boy in front of her, the boy named Yuki.

"Yun-Yun!" One random girl sing-songed as she bounded over. Her eyes were probably too bright, her attitude too energetic for her own good. "Kimi was hoping to find you before class started, Chibi-suke is being really mean again!"

Minagi stared, wide eyed, almost hiding behind Yuki as the girl tugged hyperactively at Yuki's arm. The girl suddenly noticed the young girl behind her friend, and her eyes grew impossibly larger.

"Ooh, Yun-Yun, Kimi thinks you've got another stalker!" She exclaimed, putting an index finger to her bottom lip.

Minagi drew back slightly at this remark. What the heck did she mean by stalker?

"You should leave Yun-Yun alone, he has important president things to do!" the girl apparently called Kimi released Yuki's arm and came to tower just slightly over the confused Minagi her hands on her hips.

"Kimi-san, please," Yuki grumbled, sounding evidently annoyed, but also trying to hide said annoyance. "She's a new second year; I was only guiding her to her classroom."

Minagi looked, relieved at Yuki, who was now focusing on Kimi, almost scolding her using nothing but his eyes.

"And what do you mean, important president things to do? There's not a meeting this morning, is there?" Yuki asked her.

"Oh! Kimi came to tell you!" Kimi exclaimed, her hyper, happy self again. "Kuragi tore the room apart again, and Nao is really mad! He's making her clean it up right now!"

Yuki's expression suddenly turned to something of suppressed alarm, his violet eyes widening.

"What about Kakeru, where is he? Has he talked to her yet?" Yuki asked urgently.

"Kimi hasn't seen Manabe all morning…He must have slept in again…" Kimi said in a whiny type of disappointed voice. Yuki's look turned a bit darker, as he glanced down the hallway, in the direction of the student council room.

Minagi could only stare from the sidelines, quiet and confused.

Yuki noticed the girl he'd found upstairs again, and turned to her, and taking a few steps in the direction they headed in before Kimi interrupted. He paused just as he came beside Minagi, and turned to Kimi, a serious look of command on his face.

"Kimi. Go back there, keep Nao under control somehow. I'll be there in a moment." He told her firmly, his eyes full of that seriousness. Kimi looked at him for a brief second, before nodding and whirling around, scampering down the hallway. Yuki turned again to Minagi, and immediately softened his expression.

"I apologize for that, Kurosaki-san, Kimi-san is a part of student council as well…We merely had an incident, it'll be taken care of," Yuki told her, inwardly hoping he could manage to do something for Machi Kuragi in Kakeru's stead. "But I'm afraid we'll have to hurry you to your class now."

He set off, Minagi closely following, like the lost puppy she was. Minagi, after a while, saw the small sign over the door in front of them, one that read 2-B, and thankfully smiled. Yuki led her all the way up to the door, before stopping to bid her a goodbye.

"I'll have to leave you here, then, Kurosaki-san. If you ever need anything else, I'll be glad to help you out." He gave her another smile.

"Th-thank you, Sohma-senpai!" Minagi managed, pulling herself down into a deep bow. With one last tilt of his head and a smile, Yuki turned and headed hurriedly down the corridor, off to solve whatever incident that the council had to deal with.

Yuki ran his hand through his hair, inhaling a nervous breath. He had no clue how to talk to Machi in these situations, he had always left it to her brother, Kakeru. But no more comforting was the fact that Nao was taking charge of the situation in both Kakeru and Yuki's absence, which could not lead to anything promising.

His thought wondered vaguely back to the girl he'd left behind, Minagi. He grimaced slightly, knowing that he'd definitely not be the last Sohma that she'd meet that day.

Minagi watched as Yuki's form grew smaller and smaller all the way to the end of the hall, and sighed slowly. She glanced to her side, at the sliding door that led to her new class room. She noted a line of windows between it and the hall, and decided to scope out whatever classmates were in there at the moment, to see what she would be working with.

She hadn't even taken two steps toward that window, when she was alerted by a tap on the shoulder. Turning, she found three girls standing dominantly before her, the lead with two pigtails on either side of her head, all three wearing looks of distrust and accusation.

"Hey, new girl, just a warning," the pigtailed girl told her, leading Minagi's eyebrows to raise slightly. So it begins, she told herself bemusedly. "Just because Yuki gave you help doesn't make you special, ok? So don't let it go to that pretty head of yours."

Minagi merely stared at the indignant girls. Maybe these were some of Yuki's actual stalkers…

The bell tolled above them, giving them the five-minute warning for class. The pigtailed girl glanced at her peers, then turned a grimace to Minagi.

"Have a nice day, Green Eyes." They sneered at last at her, before turning towards their classroom.

Minagi stared after them as students rushed around her, pouring into classrooms, rushing to get across the school. It had happened a little earlier this time, but sure enough, her curse of teasing had followed her to Kaibara high.

She had no intention of spreading that curse to the friendly older boy, Yuki Sohma, either.