Fruits Basket

~Another Tiger~

Chapter 1

The pitter patter of rain could be heard as I walked the cold streets. The sun had gone down long ago, though I still walk the streets alone. Heck, I'm so exhausted that it's not even funny. I only stopped once I had reached the park. I sat under a tree just looking up at the clouded sky above, eventually falling asleep.

Fast Forward: Next morning

"What the heck is it?"

"Is it dead?"

"I don't know, let's poke it."

That's what I woke up to, as I opened my eyes, and stared straight at three kids.

"AH it's alive! KILL IT," one of them shouted. Uh-oh. My eyes went wide as I ran, the children chasing right behind me.

"KILL IT, KILL IT," one called.

**NO NO NO DON'T KILL ME** I screamed in my head as I continued to run. One of them threw a big rock at me, which landed painfully on my back. I whined silently as I tried to free myself. One of them tried to grab me by the neck, so I bit them.

"AH! It bit me! The thing bit me," they yelled. I glared at the kid as he kicked me in the face, sending both me and the rock flying. I landed in a bush, bruised and battered, not to mention some cuts and I think that my paw is broken.

"Where did it go?" one of them asked.

"I don't know, let's find it," the other one said. I stumbled out into the street, disoriented, and unfortunately…right into mid day traffic. All that I could hear, was the honking of horns and the screeching of tires and then nothing. I looked around and found that I had been saved from being road kill and was now in the arms of a young man (boy) with white and black hair. That was the last thing that I saw, before blacking out from exhaustion.

I slowly began to wake up. I could hear the sound of voices talking as I opened my eyes. Though as soon as I did, I realized that I was in someone's arms.

"Whoa there girl, calm down I'm not going to hurt you," the voice said as I began struggling. He put his hand in front of my face, so in return, I bit it. "Ow…that hurts," that was all that he said, it sounded as though it were nothing. I let go then ran off into a corner, curling up and trying to hide as best I could. The others looked at me like I was crazy, but I didn't care. I heard three more people come in and close the door.

"So has our little friend woken up yet?" it was a males voice and he sounded very cheery too, it sort of reminded you of a child actually.

"Yes she has, and apparently she still has some energy too." It was the guy that I bit, and he didn't sound too happy either, although he had said it rather dully.

"Hm? Where is she then?" it was the cheery guy again.

"She's over there," the other said, pointing in my direction.

"Oh…how cute!" a girl said as she tried to pick me up. CHOMP. All was silent, as I had bit her finger. She didn't even move at all, though I could see that her eyes had started to water a little, but that was about it.

"Bad cat!" someone yelled at me. THWACK, THUD, GASP. A younger male had hit me and sent me flying to the ground and unfortunately, I landed on my broken pay. I collapsed on the ground immediately as my leg gave out. I held it close, trying not to cry as I licked it a little. I then quickly ran under the couch as I saw another approaching me. KNOCK KNOCK.

"Oh, Hari, welcome!" a new man entered the room. He was tall with sleek semi long black hair that covered his left eye. He also wore a doctor's coat and had a medical bag with him.

"Hello Shigure. Where is she?"

"She's over here Hari," Shigure said while lifting the cloth from the couch and trying to pull me out. Once his hand was within my reach. SLASH. "OWIE!" he whined sticking his finger in his mouth.

"Hm…" 'Hari' got down and reached his hand towards me, hand open and flat. CHOMP. I bit his finger. He didn't even flinch at all. "That's not nice you know," he said while pulling me out still attached to his finger. "Now, let go please?" I just sat there and looked at him as he waited patiently. It was as though we understood each other.

"M…" I let go of his finger and then started licking it slowly, as though saying sorry.

"Thank you," he said, and then the next thing I know, POOF. I was back to normal and naked as I stood there still facing Hatori. "Here," he said as he put his long white coat on me and buttoned it up. Being a doctor, he was professional, so it didn't faze him. After he finished, he took me into another room and looked at my hand, finding that my wrist was broken. He wrapped it up and also bandaged up my cuts and bruises. "You don't talk, do you?" he asked. I shook my head no "How many years?" I began counting on my fingers, until I reached 9. "Nine years, huh?" I nodded my head yes. Yes, it had been about 9 years since I had spoken a single word. "Can you tell me how old you are?" I nodded my head, then held up 10 fingers, then 7. "So, you're 17 then?" he asked. I nodded my head yet again. I winced when he put pressure on my wrist. "I'm sorry. Is there any way that you could tell me your name?" I nodded my head, gently taking the pen from his hand and the note pad that he had been writing on, I carefully wrote my name 'Kira Sohma'. I could tell that he was a little bit surprised.

Then I wrote, "What is your name?" on the piece of paper.

"It's Hatori Sohma." This caught me off guard. I then pointed to Hatori then to me, and mouthed the name 'Sohma'. "Yes, we are in a way related, though I'm not completely sure how closely it is, but we are related…we're family." That was all that I needed to hear because not a moment later did he finish, I hugged him tightly, not wanting to let go. Did he just say family? Yes…yes he did. I actually have a family, I thought that I was all alone. Though I could feel him tense up a bit, I didn't care, I had a…family, or at least a family member/relative. I had begun to cry even as I held on tightly to him. He slowly brought his arms around my back and then held me close to him in a warm embrace. I just cried away, right into his chest, not caring if I got him wet or not, though he didn't seem to mind. "Sh…it's alright, it's alright…I'm here."

"OH Hari? Hm?" is was Shigure, he had just poked his head into the room. "Hari…what's wrong, why is she crying?" he asked, a bit concerned.

"I don't know, I guess it's because she found out who I am," Hatori told him.

"Hm? What do you mean?" he really was clueless.

"I mean Shigure…we have another Sohma" he said.

"Oh you poor thing. Come to Shigure," he said, taking me into his arms and holding me in a tight hug. "Don't worry, I'm Shigure Sohma." Once he said that, I hugged him tighter.

"Shigure, you had better not try and take advantage of her," he said quietly.

"Why I would never," he said sounding hurt. Hatori just looked at him as though not believing him at all. Then 2 younger males came into the room seeing me crying.

"Perverted dog! What did you do to her!" they both yelled, causing me to tighten my grip on Shigure and cry even harder, though this time in fear. I didn't like yelling, it scared me.

"Now look what you've done. You've gone and scared the poor girl. And I've done nothing wrong to her," he said defensively.

"Oh yeah? Then why is she crying!" shouted the young red head.

"Well first off, it's because she now knows that me and Hari are Sohma's. Two, you two are the ones that made it worse," he said accusingly.

"Shigure…what do you mean that she's crying because we're Sohma's?" asked the other boy.

"Well Yuki…she's a Sohma."

"Well we already figured that one out ya dumb dog!" I cried harder as the red head yelled.

"Kyo! Now stop it, you're scaring her," he said protectively as he held me close to him and tried to cover my ears.

"Huh?"

"What he means, is that she doesn't like yelling. In other words, it scares her," Hatori stated in an emotionless voice.

"Hey there, it's alright, we're not going to hurt you…" Yuki said as he came over, trying to comfort me. "My name is Yuki Sohma. I'm a friend," he said softly now on his knees rubbing my back a little. I brought my head up and out of Shigure's chest. Tears still filling my eyes as I looked at Yuki timidly. "There, see? It's alright," he said with a smile on. "And that stupid cat over there, is Kyo," he said bitterly.

"Hey! Shut up ya damn rat!" I cried again as a result of the yelling.

"Now look what you did. Stupid cat," Yuki said while pointing to me.

"What! What I did! Grr…YOU'RE THE ONE THAT STARTED IT!" Kyo yelled.

"M…" that was the only sound that I made.

"Both of you, stop it now," it was Hatori who said it, as he took me from Shigure and picked me up in his arms. "she's been through enough. She doesn't need this as well." Yuki looked down in shame, Kyo just turned and looked the other way.

"I apologize," it was Yuki who said it.

"Well Kyo? What about you? Don't you have something to say?" Shigure asked standing up.

"Hm!" was all that he said as he walked out of the room. I started shaking now, while being held by Hatori. I don't know why, but I couldn't control it, nor could I stop.

"Hm? What's wrong?" he asked though I didn't hear him, since I had also started to cough as well. "Hari! What's going on! What's wrong with her?" Shigure asked as he started to panic.

"I don't know, but apparently, she has a high fever," he said taking his hand away from my forehead.

"Hatori? Is she going to be alright?" Yuki asked him.

"I'm not sure Yuki, but right now we need to get her into a bed so that she can lay down."

"Hari, I have a spare room upstairs that we can put her in," Shigure told him.

"Alright," he said as he looked down at me with a slight hint of worry. Once we were upstairs, Hatori gently laid me down on the bed, pulling the covers up to my neck. "Here, open your mouth…ok now close, and keep it under your tongue," he had placed a thermometer in my mouth. "Yuki?"

"Yes?"

"Could you please go and get an ice pack for me?"

"Yes Hatori," Yuki left the room as Hatori then turned to Shigure.

"Shigure, would you mind getting some more blankets please?"

"of course," and with that, he was out of the room. Hatori took the thermometer out of my mouth.

"103 degrees, not good," he said while shacking it from side to side to cool it down.

"Hm? What's going on?" it was the girl from earlier…the one that I bit.

"Oh, Tohru, I'm glad that you're here. I have a favor to ask, could you please get a few of your clothes for Kira to borrow?" he asked. She nodded, running out of the room and coming back within a minute. "Tohru, do you think that you could help me change her please?" he asked, Tohru seemed to go a little pale in the face. "Don't worry, I'm a doctor, remember? Oh and would you mind locking the door for me?" he said with a slight chuckle. She nodded, looking the door and then came over and helped Hatori dress me. "Alright, you can unlock the door now," he said, and not a moment sooner did the door unlock, Shigure came rushing into the room.

"Oh Hari…you didn't need to lock the door," he said whining.

"Oh, but I think I did," he said not taking his eyes off of me.

"So how bad is it Hari?" he asked, walking over to the bed and staring down at my small form (still human…for now)

"She has a temperature of 103 degrees," he said while brushing some hair from my face.

"Well that's no good now is it?"

"No…no it's not." I started coughing again and it wouldn't stop.

"Hari! Isn't there something you can do for her?"

"Actually, I think there is," he said as he got up off of the bed and grabbed his medical bag. He opened it up and pulled out a small glass bottle that had some sort of liquid in it. He then pulled out a needle and stuck it into the top of the bottle and filled the needle up. I was still coughing as he walked back over to the bed and sat down beside me. "Okay Kira…Kira, look at me, I need you to look at me Kira," he said placing his hand on my cheek, moving my head so that I could face him. I looked straight into his eyes, showing that I heard him and was listening. "Good girl. Now I need you to try and stay still, alright?" I weakly nodded my head and kept my eyes on him. He flicked his finger against the needle a few times, then squirted a little out to get the bubbles out and make sure that it worked. He brought his eyes back to mine and held his gaze. "Alright…now, I'm going to need you to keep your arm as still as possible, alright?" I nodded my head once more, as he took the needle and injected it into my arm. I could feel the coughing stop as it took effect, although it also seemed to have another affect as well. You see, I was starting to get tired now. "There we go, all better," he said with what would have been maybe a small smile on his face. My eye lids started to get heavier and heavier, until I could no longer keep them open and I soon fell asleep.

"Hari, what did you do to her?" Shigure asked in a whiny voice.

"Don't worry Shigure, she's fine, she's just sleeping," Shigure just looked down at me and brushed the back of his hand along the side of my face.

"Hari…does Akito…really have to know?" he asked with a sad tone in his voice.

"I'm afraid so Shigure, but I can wait and tell him in a few days, alright?" he said trying to make him feel a little bit better.

"…Alright…" he said while looking down.

"Now, I want you to call me right away if she goes into another coughing fit. Also, I'll be back to check on her tomorrow," he started to leave the room, when Shigure stopped him.

"Hari?" he asked in a quiet voice.

"Yes Shigure, what is it?" he hesitated for a moment.

"How old is Kira anyway?" he asked as though deep in thought.

"She's 17, why?"

"Nothing, just curious, that's all."

"Well if that's all, then I should go. Oh and Shigure?" he said stopping just outside of the door. "Please make sure that she isn't bothered and that she stays in bed?"

"Okay," he said with a smile on as he watched Hatori exit his home.