Chapter One- Zodiac Scmodiac!!
Nikooru: Yay Furuba fanfic!
Tariana: Why do I have to be in this story with you? (Because I love torture.)
Kir: Let's just get on with it.
Tem-Tem: sweatdrop I hate my nickname.
The Almighty Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket. I just love it to pieces.
"Come to my house after school!" demanded Nikooru, her dark brown eyes pleading.
"Umm…" said Tariana, tucking a strand of long blond hair behind her ear. "Exactly why am I coming?"
"Well… so I can show you your zodiac figure I made out of clay, of course!" She bounced eagerly on the heels of her feet, making her frizzy brown hair jump everywhere. Tariana sighed and rolled her green eyes angrily.
"You have GOT to get OVER this anime crap!!" There is no way I'm going to listen to another one of her rants about how awesome the zodiac is and how it dominates our lives, she thought, placing her hands on her hips resolutely. No way in hell.
"Pretty, pretty, PRETTY please??" Begged Nikooru, sticking out her bottom lip and making her famous puppy dog face. "It'll only take a sec, then we can go to the mall or whatever it is you want to do." Tariana sighed. Nikooru always knew how to get to her.
"Fine. Five minutes, though, and that is IT. Understand?"
"Yes!! OMG thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!" Nikooru's face lit up happily as she jumped excitedly up and down. "Just wait and see, it'll be really great. I bet you will really love it." Just then, a pair of voices sounded from down the hall.
"Tariana! Nikooru! HEY!!" The girls both spun in confusion, then smiled as they recognized their two oldest friends, Kiraji and Temoji.
"Hey Tem-Tem! Hey Kir! You guys wanna come over to my house today?" Nikooru was nearly exploding with excitement, as usual.
"Umm… for what?" asked Kir.
"So I can show you your zodiac animals! Oh please come!" Nikooru pulled out her puppy dog face again. Kir and Tem-Tem exchanged looks. They enjoyed her rants even less than Tariana, but when Nikooru looked at you like that, there was no hope of resisting.
"Well…" said Tem-Tem. "That depends. Can I bring someone?" Nikooru looked as if she had just been poisoned.
"Who are you bringing?" She asked carefully, "and will they be okay with the whole zodiac thing?"
"Oh, it's just this girl in my sociology class," Tem-Tem said. Nikooru's face looked as though she were being led to the gallows, but Tem-Tem plowed obliviously on. "She should be cool with it. She loves all things anime and manga… Although she does kind of prefer the darker stuff. Still, I'm sure she won't mind as long as it's not for hours and hours… It's not, is it?" Nikooru would have rather died than answer him. However, as he peered down on her with those amazingly perfect gold eyes, Nikooru forced herself to speak.
"No… there's… a time restraint.." She said in a forcedly cheery tone. She even
managed a smile as she continued on. "I'm glad you're bringing someone. The more the merrier!" They are NOT being left alone, she thought. That stupid biatch! How DARE SHE!! She took a deep calming breath, then turned to Kir. "What about you?"
"Well," he said, pushing his fingers through his short blond hair, "Will there be food?" Nikooru beamed at him.
"Of course," Nikooru laughed, "I should have known that would be the first thing you asked." Kir smiled at her, his green-grey eyes lighting up.
"Then I will be there!"
"Great," said Nikooru. "I can't wait until the end of the day!! See you guys then!"
As they hurried off to class, Tariana turned to the others and asked the question she was sure was on everyone's mind: "What have we gotten ourselves into?!?"
Riiing!!! The last period bell cut through the air like a knife. "YES!!" Nikooru hopped out of her desk and ran like mad to Tariana's locker, where they were supposed to meet. Tariana was standing there, tapping her foot and laughing with her two other friends… and one girl she didn't recognize. This must be the girl Tem was talking about, she realized. Figuring that this was as good a time to snoop as any, she quickly darted into a nearby locker. As she was peering out, the girl suddenly moved into view. OMG, she thought desperately, she's gorgeous! And she was. Tem-Tem's mystery girl had long, dark purple hair that went down to her waist, held back by a beautiful purple butterfly plait. Her eyes were startling silver. She wore a bejeweled black and silver tank top paired with a absolutely gorgeous frilled black skirt, both of which showed off her absolutely knockout curves and bust. When she raised her arm, it showed a blue-purple dragon curling elegantly around her milk chocolate skin from her wrist to her elbow. Damn it, Nikooru thought, there is just no way I can compete with that. But I still won't give up without a fight. Nikooru sighed, knowing she was already defeated. Pasting a smile on her face, she dragged herself out of the locker and bounced up to her friends. "Hi guys," she managed to force out around her tightly clenched teeth.
"Nikooru! There you are!" Tem-Tem smiled at her, and then put his arm around his prize. "This is the girl I was telling you about!" The devil-vixen woman smiled prettily, like the minx she was, then spoke.
"Hi Nikooru, my name is Illva." Her voice was smooth and clear. Yeah, thought Nikooru, she sounds like an evil, enchanting biatch, all right. Then Nikooru realized the demon was holding out her hand. Oh God, she thought, the skank actually wants me to shake her hand?!?!? As she regarded the hand in her face, however, she realized that she didn't really have a choice. Reluctantly she took it.
"Nice to meet you, Illva." Nikooru nearly choked on the words. I hope you die a thousand painful ways, shethought. (B/N: Hey!)
"Nice to meet you, too! So…. Tem-Tem tells me that we are supposed to be headed to your house for the zodiac rant of the century or something." Nikooru's temper was on fire. She didn't know which made her angrier: the fact that the evil woman had used HER pet name for him, or the fact that Tem-Tem had actually said that about her zodiac project. She settled on being mad at the girl.
"Well… yes," Nikooru said sweetly. "I hope it doesn't bore you too much." She layered on the sarcasm three miles thick under her false calm and charm, but Illva didn't seem to have noticed it. She just smiled and said:
"Oh, I actually look forward to it!" she said and smiled. Had she not noticed the malice in Nikooru's eyes? All of the others were looking slightly afraid for their lives, avoiding the fire that was shooting out of their normally cheerful friend.
"Um…"said Tariana nervously. "Shouldn't we be going?"
"Oh! Are you guys ready to go?" asked Nikooru, seeming to snap out of it. "Why didn't you say so earlier? Let's go!!"
As they wound through the streets toward Nikooru's house, an awkward silence settled over them.
"So….." said Tariana, glancing at Nikooru nervously, "Illva…. Tell us about yourself?" Tariana, shut up. Do not. Talk to. Her, thought Nikooru angrily.
"Well…." said Illva, "I was born in Hawaii, but shortly after my parents adopted me, we moved to Ireland. We lived there for years, and then moved back here to the states just a few weeks ago. It took a while for us to get settled, so I didn't start school right away. But we finally got everything settled, so… here I am!" Well, thought Nikooru, that explains a lot. Born in voodoo country then moved to witch city. Great. Suddenly, Nikooru realized they had passed her house. Unfortunately, tem-Tem noticed, too.
"Um… Earth calling Nikooru. Isn't that your house we passed back there?" Tem-Tem asked, looking at her strangely. Lovely, she thought, Now Tem-Tem thinks I'm an idiot.
"Oops. Yes, yes it was. Dur." She laughed. "Guess I was really out of it. Illva's story was just so fascinating. I was absolutely captivated." She sneered at her with as much sarcasm as she could muster, but the evil witch didn't seem to notice. (A/N: If you hadn't figured it out yet, Illva is a kind of randomly added character. In real life, she's my beta. Oh and also… I'm Nikooru. And I do not hate my beta. I love her.)(B/N: you better love me!)
"Here we are!" Said Nikooru. "My house! The zodiac animals are in my room, which is at the very top of the stairs. Actually, it's the only room at the top of the stairs. I have the biggest room in the house!"
"Yeah," said Tariana, "It's also the messiest."
"It's an organized mess," protested Nikooru as they entered her house and climbed the stairs to her room. "But… it is kind of hard to walk in," she warned as they paused in front of her door to catch their breath. "Just so you know."
"Just let us in already!" complained Tariana. "Please."
"Okay, okay! Sheesh!" Nikooru turned and pushed at her bedroom door. "Crap. Stuck again!" She shoved her leg through what narrow opening she had managed and began randomly kicking at the mountain of stuff in front of it. Finnally, she managed to get it open.
"Oh….my….bajeesus. You call this a little messy?!?!?" Tem turned to her in astonishment. (A/N: yes, I keep switching from Tem to Tem-Tem. Sometimes, I just get really lazy and….I honestly think Tem sounds better, but Nikooru's so obsessed, she insists on her little pet name. Back to the story.)
"Um… weeelll…" said Nikooru, blushing, "I guess I really don't clean much. Sorry." She turned to see Illva grinning widely. Stupid woman. I bet her room's worse! "What?!??" She asked her indignantly.
"Nothing, nothing! It doesn't bother me, so don't worry about it. Now…where are the zodiac animals we came so far to see?" Illva asked, looking around. (A/N: this room is the complete opposite of mine. Really. pushes crap out of the way Hey! There's my pen!)
"Yeah, I was kind of wondering that myself," interjected Kir. "I mean, can you even find them in all of this?" Nikooru fixed a death stare on him.
"Yes, yes I can. They are right under….here!" After shoving aside a jewelry box and a small T.V, Nikooru finally held them up. "All thirteen…I included the cat because I felt bad. You know, the cat doesn't really deserve the bad rap," she continued, as her friends examined the clay figures, "The cat was deceived by the rat! Tricked into thinking that the banquet was on a different day. I think that the rat is the one who should be excluded from the jinushi." She grabbed them back from the other's hands. "The cat is so cute. They all are. Don't you think? Here, everyone take one. On the bottom of each one is their Japanese character. Go on, look!" reluctantly, they all turned their animals over.
"Horse…"read Kir slowly. "Great, I'm a quadruped." Tem arched an eyebrow in Kir's direction, and then read his.
"Ox. Lovely."
"Hey!" said Illva, "I'm the snake!" Sounds about right, thought Nikooru.
"I'm the… boar?" Tariana looked at it oddly. "Weird."
"And I," said Nikooru, "Am the dragon. Horse, ox, snake, boar, and dragon. All together, family forever!" There was a long pause. "Don't you guys like my poem?!?"
"Um…" They all stared at her. "Sure?"
"You're lying! I kno…" Her sentence trailed off as the animal in her hands started to glow. Looking up, she could see that the other's animals were all glowing, too. "Umm…guys?" They all looked at each other.
"Oh crap!" they said as one, the last thing that they heard before everything went dark.
(B/N: Yay! Finally done… now work on chapter two! -) (A/N: Well, this would have been done a lot sooner…. BUT… My beta is slow. )
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