Hello, peoples, I am Goose. And this, dears, is a little one-shot I've written for MyMusesSpeakToMe's birthday :3 Happy birthday, M&M! I own nothing!
Tohru wasn't sure if this was a good idea. Actually, she was relatively certain that this was a terrible idea and that it would never work. She was also pretty sure that nobody else would like it, not to mention agree to it. But Ayame insisted that it was wonderful, that it would work excellently, and that it would make everybody happy.
They were going to start up a pet shop.
Ayame wouldn't tell her where they were going to keep the animals. He simply said that he would take care of it, and that all she had to do was 'use her adorable face to attract customers.' Tohru thought that this was a reasonable request, and she could use the money as well, not to mention how fun it sounded, being around so many cute animals.
On her first day of work, she found herself standing in the middle of a cluttered room. The floor was thick rug of indigo and light blue, reminding her of the brightly colored sky and deep, dark ocean. The walls were a white so clean they seemed to shine, and it was the same with the ceiling. She couldn't really understand why a room that would be full of animals would be decorated so beautifully.
But then she realized: Where were the animals? She spotted sacks of various types of pet food in one corner, bedding in another, cages and aquariums in the third, and the fourth was occupied by shelves of squeaky toys and cat toys. Surely, Ayame wasn't planning to sell the supplies without the actual animals?
The bell on the door chimed, and Ayame walked in, followed by the other members of the Zodiac. With all everybody now standing in the small, already messy room, it was quite crowded. The guys were trying their hardest to avoid bumping into Tohru (in order to prevent transformation), and it didn't help that Ayame was pushing them along towards a door in the back that led to, presumably, a storage room.
Tohru followed hesitantly, and was surprised to find that the room was quite large (larger than the main room, in fact), and that the all of the Sohma members currently present could sit comfortably on the less-than-hard hardwood floor.
Before Tohru could ask what everybody was doing there, Ayame ushered her back into the main room, where they waited for several moments before they heard a gentle chime, indicating that a customer had arrived. In walked a small girl wearing a pink, knee-length dress who was dragging her tired looking mother by one hand and pointing excitedly with the other.
"Mama, Mama! I want a kitty!" the girl told her mother, before turning to Ayame. "Miss, do you sell kitties here?"
Ignoring the fact that the girl had called him 'Miss', Ayame smiled a winning smile and said, "Of course we do! Would you like a kitty?"
The girl nodded enthusiastically, her brown pigtails bouncing around, and her mother gave Ayame a weak smile. Ayame grinned back and took the little girl's hand.
"Come with me, my little angel, and we can go pick out a nice kitty for you," he said, gesturing towards the door in the back that Tohru knew the Sohmas were concealed behind.
Several moments later, Ayame came out of the room, the girl following close behind, clutching... a panicky orange cat. The cat was scratching and clawing at the girl, Ayame, and the strip of tape keeping its mouth firmly shut. It sent a pleading look towards Tohru, but Ayame quickly intervened.
"Tohru~ Could you please go get that bag of catnip from over there?"
Tohru nodded and scurried quickly to the mound of catnip in the corner. She lugged one of the thick, heavy plastic bags over to the other three just as the woman was handing the money it cost over to Ayame, the cat in her daughter's arms still desperately trying to escape.
"Thank you, thank you! And remember, this cat loves leeks!" Ayame sang happily as the two customers walked out the door, the cat staring hopefully behind them.
Tohru turned to Ayame. "Ayame-san, was that...?"
Ayame chuckled and turned to welcome three more customers that had just walked in: a little boy with his older sister and their father.
"My big sister wants a mouse! Can we get a mouse, Mister?" the boy asked as he pointed to his sister, who was blushing and firmly denying that she wanted a mouse, stating that the rest of the family did and that she simply 'agreed to keep the peace.'
Ayame smiled once more, but when Tohru looked closely, she could see that he was forcing himself. Despite that, he led the three into the back room, and not too long after he led them back out, the teenage girl now trying to keep a firm grasp on a squirming rat without hurting it.
Now Tohru was really confused. First an orange cat, and now a rat...? And they came from the same room the Sohmas were in. Tohru decided that she would confront Ayame after these customers left, but before she got a chance, more people walked in.
A dog. A rabbit. A horse. One by one, Tohru watched as multiple squirming animals, each stranger than the last, were taken away by happy (or slightly disturbed) families. And then it was over. The shop closed for the day, and Tohru hadn't said anything to Ayame.
She walked up to him as he flipped the little sign in the window to 'Closed'. Clearing her throat politely, she waited for him to realize she was there.
"Tohru? What's wrong?" Ayame asked, a concerned look spreading across his pale face.
"Well..." Tohru began. "Were all of those animals... members of the Zodiac?"
Ayame chuckled. "Why of course they weren't! Do you really think I'd sell my own family members for profit? I'm not that cruel!"
Tohru doubted this, but it was getting late and she had to get home to cook dinner. She figured that if Ayame was telling the truth, then Kyo, Yuki and Shigure were all still in the storage room. Maybe Ayame used them to attract the animals they represented? That would make sense.
But as Tohru sat waiting at home, nobody came, and she eventually came to the conclusion that they were staying very late to help out Ayame, possibly celebrating the success of the shop, and she drifted off to sleep...
The next morning, as Tohru walked to the pet shop for another day of work, she found a mob of angry families and several unhappy, undressed Sohmas.
GAH. That was horrible. I'm ashamed of myself ;_; Anyway... sorry, guys. I haven't read Fruits Basket in a while, so I don't really know how in character everybody is... so... Happy Birthday, MMSTM!