Cursed Constellations

I'd like to start off saying I'm sorry!

I know a lot of people have actually been reading this and it's just been on Hiatus for awhile. More plot bunnies are starting to fly up in my head though for this story and I just re-read my Panic! story and got motivation to continue writing this one. Plus, I just saw the fruits basket episode when Haru first arrives. Love that episode. Haha. Anyway, this isn't my BEST chapter but it's something to keep me going. Hopefully. Keep those fingers crossed. :P

No new characters in this one, but in the next one you'll meet the next person. W00t. This chapter was mainly introducing Maia to the main Fruits Basket people to get it started.

Well, I hope you like the update that's been needed for several months. I want everyone to know I am NOT going to abandon this story. I have every single character planned out. Looks, personality, likes, dislikes, crushes, parents, literally, I have everything about every character. Haha. I can't very well give that up, can I? :P

Well, like I said, not the best chapter but it will do. Hope you guys like.

~~ Animic (Egg) ~~

IV

The Serpent's Lair

Maia sat in the prison for what seemed like days. Her hunger was overpowering anything else that was in her brain. She didn't know how long she'd been suck in this prison. It was just like last time, though. Dark, cold, and scary.

The last time she was here it was because of a similar situation. It was when Maia first got here and refused to follow Kaikou's orders. She was punished most dearly. Her act straightened up pretty quick after that. Maia hated this place. She couldn't possibly ever comprehend how bad it must be to be placed here for the rest of one's life.

This was the serpent's lair. The cage of the 13th zodiac member. Forever. What a poor bastard to be stuck up here. He hadn't started his cagement yet. He was still in school. But soon he would.

"Maia?" she heard from the bars of the room. Her eye's widened as she stumbled up and over to the wall with bars like a prison. She enclosed her fist around the bars and looked through them to see Ryuu.

"Ryuu?" she asked, surprised. "What the devil are you doing here?" she snapped.

Ryuu frowned at her. "What? Do you want me to leave? Fine!"

Ryuu started to turn his back when Maia grabbed the back of his shirt. She was lonely.

"How long has it been?" she asked. Her voice, she noticed, was as hoarse as a toads. She can't remember that last time she drank anything.

"About a week," he said. His eyes were full of sadness. Ryuu was a tough guy but his weakness had always been Maia. She's one of the only Zodiac members he could relate to. She was dark and cruel, like he was, but with the same terrible past as well. Not that the other Zodiac pasts weren't bad. They were, but Ryuu and Maia were affected much more deeply by their pasts. For they were both accused to be murderers.

"A week?" Maia asked, bewildered. Wow. It seemed like a life time. Longer than the last time she'd been in here. She looked at Ryuu with hurt eyes. She knew he had to leave. If Kaikou caught him here, he would get into trouble. "Go," she told him.

Ryuu cast a sad glance and finally nodded, making his way out. He felt terrible, leaving her there. But it was Kaikou's orders.

Not too far away from the Eto estate, Hatsuharu was walking. He hadn't seen Maia for awhile. Not since that dark man came and snapped at her. She didn't seem like one to be afraid of anything but one glance at that man, she became terrified.

He remembers why it was all too familiar to him before. That man. The one she called Kaikou-dono. He reminds him of Akito. All of the Zodiac change when Akito is around just like Maia did with Kaikou.

He was beginning to worry, though. He didn't like the aura surrounding that man. Not at all. So, the following weekend, he decided to go visit her. He knew, for the most part, where she lived. From the address book. He didn't know her too well but something fishy seemed to be going on and he could since it. He didn't like the way Kaikou looked at Maia. As if she were property or something.

Haru knocked three loud times on the large door in front of him. It was a big estate. Possibly bigger than the Sohmas. It was bewildering how similar the Sohmas and the Etos were turning out to be.

The person to answer the door was Ryuu. Ryuu took one hard glare at Haru when he saw him. "You?" he sneered distastefully. It was not a happy greeting and it was clear he did not want Hatsuharu here. "What do you want?" Ryuu sneered at Haru.

Haru widened his eyes a bit. Ryuu was always a mystery to him. Seemed like a nice guy sometimes but others he was evil and dark. "Easy," he said, putting his hands up to silence his anger. "I just wanted to see Maia. She hasn't been at school lately."

Ryuu's eyes darkened as he said this. Clearly, a sensitive topic was being brought up. Haru even knew that he was walking on thin ice. "None of your business, Sohma."

"I have her homework," he said. Ryuu made a grab for the work but Haru took it out of his reach. "I'd like to give it to her myself."

"I won't allow that," Ryuu said.

"Why can't I just see her?"

"This is the Eto estate. We don't allow outsiders here." Outsiders. What a familiar term. The Sohma's called everyone outside the family outsiders. It was all too familiar for him.

"Very well," Haru said, defeated. Something fishy was going on. She's been gone for awhile and ironically right after she was snapped at by that man, Kaikou.

Maia arrived at school by herself, ashamed. What a terrible week. How she even survived was a mystery to her. That lair was the worst place anyone could go. It was disgusting and demeaning. She was not the only one of the Zodiac to experience, though. Many have gone in there. Soon, one will go in there…and he will never come out. But they don't think about things like that.

As soon as she exited the lair, she was given rules. Specific and hardcore rules that would be the death of her if she broke them. She was forbidden to get into any more fights. Especially with men. She was required to go to school early and sit quietly. Also, she would soon be forced to get passing grades. Maia would wake up, go to school, and come straight home until Kaikou concluded that she was forgiven. Which would not be short. Kaikou is not known for his forgiveness.

So, she continued going to school, much to her dislike. Ryuu walked beside her silently. They hadn't spoken for a long time. Kaikou thought that Ryuu was a bad influence on Maia. Perhaps he was right.

"You don't have to listen to him," Ryuu finally told her but only to be snapped at by Maia.

"Yes, I have to. Everyone knows that I'm Kaikou's puppet. Hell, it's the only thing I'm good at," Maia grumbled. Kaikou had grown a rather big interest of picking on Maia over the years. It got to the point where now she simply cannot say no to Kaikou anymore. It is a forbidden word. She's his puppet. And how he loved to pull her strings.

"You know that's not true," Ryuu told her.

Maia scoffed, rolling her eyes. "You know it is. He loves to pick on me because he knows I cannot say otherwise. I lost the privilege to say no a long time ago." She looked at her watch and sighed. "I'll see you after school," she told him and went towards her first class.

Ryuu just stood there and sighed, watching her leave. He always felt bad for her. He thought that his life was bad. He didn't even want to try and imagine how hard Maia had it. Ryuu got away with a lot from Kaikou because Kaikou's attention was usually on more important things. Maia, mainly.

She was early for class, like Kaikou had instructed her to be. Apparently, Kaikou had talked with all her teachers asking for daily reports. She was pretty sure he was paying them to do that, too. So, she was screwed in other terms. Teachers would be watching her every move because they knew she was a hazard. They knew now, anyways.

Students filed into the classroom after the final bell rang. While all the other kids waited outside talking to their friends and family, Maia was stuck inside. Her gaze was straight forward but in the corner of her eye she saw the white-haired boy sit next to her. She couldn't help but roll her eyes. For some reason, there was something about this kid that pissed her off. More so than regular people, actually.

"We missed you around here," he said. Maia rolled her eyes, not saying anything. "Where've you been?" he asked after awhile.

Maia narrowed her eyes and looked at him threw thin slits. "That's none of your business."

Haru chuckled slightly. "'s exactly what Ryuu said."

"What?" she demanded. "Why have you been talking with Ryuu?"

"Nothing," Haru assured.

She didn't believe him but the conversation was over. In her head, anyways. She'd talk about it later with Ryuu. The last thing she wanted to do was waste her breath on some stupid guy who died his hair.

School went by very slowly. It dragged on and on. Gym class was awful. Maia was forced to actually dress out. She was athletic so that wasn't necessarily a problem. The Bulls of the Zodiac were always athletic and strong. Already, Maia was a double black belt, so she knew a thing or two about running. It was stupid stuff, though. Sports. It wasn't that Maia hated sports. She just didn't see the point. They were useless. Soccer was alright, she supposed. She had always enjoyed watching the world cup with Ryuu some years. Other than that, she wasn't a big fan of them. Baseball, please. Such a sissy sport. And Volleyball was worse.

Finally, when school was over, she made her way to leave but she was stopped. Who else would stop her but the white-haired boy? She was already in a terrible mood. Why must he torment her? He grabbed her by the shoulder and she immediately reacted.

Maia threw a punch at his face which he dodged, but it got his arm off her shoulder. "Hey, easy. I just wanted to introduce you to some people. This is Maia, the girl I told you about," he said, directing her attention towards some people. A boy with orange hair, gray hair, blonde hair, and a brunette girl. Maia narrowed her eyes. It hardly seemed like the company she would keep herself with.

The fact that Haru was talking about her made her angry. "I would say it's a pleasure to meet you…but it's not," she said with a hard glare.

"Real nice find, this one, Haru," the orange haired boy said sarcastically.

"Find?" Maia said angrily. With a roll of her eyes, she turned to leave but Haru caught her again. She grabbed his arm, twisted it, and kicked him down onto the ground. "What part of don't touch me don't you grasp?" she said with hatred.

Haru stood himself up and put his hands up, indicating he would not touch her again. "Okay, he was only joking, Maia."

"Hmm…she reminds me of someone," the grey haired boy said, amused. The orange haired one narrowed his eyes in the way that Maia had been.

"If you're talkin' about me, rat boy-"

"What if I was?" he said, amused.

The two started arguing and Maia was going to give one second before she started to leave again when the brunette girl approached her. She had a smile that made Maia want to punch it off her face. Was that bad?

"Hello, I'm Tohru. You must be relatively new. I'm Tohru. The orange one is Kyo and the one fighting him is Yuki. We're all very excited to meet you, Ma-"

"Save your speech, alright. Tohru, was it? Isn't that a boys name?" she said with distaste. Tohru looked stunned. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. "I don't know who you guys think I am but I'm not about to join your little freaky hair coloured gang. Dōmo arigatō for the ego boost."

"Maia, are you okay?" Haru asked her slightly. There was something about this girl. She was so much like Kyo, it was uncanny. But, Kyo had a reason to act the way he did. This girl had to have a reason too.

The only reason he had become so interested in the girl is because of Hatori. Had it not been for him, he wouldn't have given her a second glance. But Hatori was right…something was up with the Eto family. And he was just as curious as Hatori was. He hadn't told Kyo or any of the others why he was being friends with the girl. It just kind of happened.

Kyo and Yuki heard what Maia had said and ended there fight to stand beside Tohru. Kyo took a few steps in front of her and was staring hard at Maia.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Tohru is just trying to be nice to you!" he yelled practically in her face.

"Well, the next time I want someone to be nice to me, I'll be sure to come to you guys. Until then-" she started but Kyo grabbed her shoulder.

"Maia, it would be nice if you apologized to Tohru," the one named Yuki said. Maia rolled her eyes. She was just minding her own business when all this crap happened. She blamed the white-haired kid.

"No. And you listen to me, carrot top. If you don't take your hand off my shoulder in the next five seconds, I swear to God that I will-"

"Oh, what? What's a girl gonna go?" Kyo said as if a girl being able to fight was the stupidest thing he ever heard.

He did not remove his hold on her. Haru opened his mouth to say something but before he could, Maia flipped. She punched Kyo in the stomach. Before they knew it, both Kyo and Maia were enraged in a fight. The fact that Kaikou will probably find out about this and put her back in the Serpents lair didn't even cross her mind. She did not like to be taunted. They would soon figure that out.

Haru, Yuki, and Tohru sat by in shock. They didn't know what to do. "Hey, guys! Stop it!" Haru yelled but nothing happened. Curses were being thrown back and forth as well as punches between the two. Seems like Kyo had finally met his match because Maia was just as feisty as he was.

A couple minutes later and they were both bleeding. Maia lifted her hand to throw another punch but something happened. Something that always happened. Someone grabbed her from behind and wrapped his arms around her waist, tying her arms down. She struggled in their grasp. She knew who it was.

"Ryuu, let go of me. I'm going to win this!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, that's what I'm worried about," Ryuu smirked and dragged Maia away from Kyo with Maia struggling in his grasp.

The group gathered. Haru was looking at the ground. This was all his fault. He didn't know that Maia would behave like this.

"Well, are you all satisfied? You've successfully pissed off my Maia-"

"Don't call me your Maia!" she hollered which Ryuu ignored.

"You!" Ryuu pointed at Haru. "Stay away from her. I don't know why you keep trying to talk to her but that is over. She is no longer your concern. Period. And you!" he pointed at Kyo next. "If I ever see you fighting Maia again, you'll get my regards. And you don't want that."

He didn't give them a chance to respond as he grabbed Maia's wrist and led her out of their earshot. Then, he stopped and looked at her harshly.

"You better pray to God that Kaikou doesn't find out about this," he said with hatred in his voice.

Maia wiped her mouth with her sleeve. Blood was now on her sleeve. Ryuu sighed and started to help her with all the blood. "He won't," she told him. But it was not that easy. Kaikou had spies everywhere. Not to mention, she had scars, bruises, and blood all over her face.

Ryuu was not convinced but he knew fighting her wasn't going to help. "So, what happened?"

Maia sighed. Truthfully, nothing. It was all her fault. But…well…there was no but. It was always her fault. "Nothing. The white kid was just introducing me to people and I was in a bad mood."

"When are you not in a bad mood?" he laughed.

"I'm not in a bad mood when you're around," she told him honestly. That much was true. Even right after the incident, Maia already felt calmer knowing that Ryuu was there. If he hadn't, it could have gotten pretty bad, actually.

"Well, that's always good to know," he told her.

After that, the two made their way reluctantly back to the Eto estate. Maia had cleaned herself up as best as she can and she think she did pretty well. Kyo didn't really do that much to her. Maia was pretty good at protecting her face but she did get a nose bleed from it.

Hope it was at least okay. Haha. Reviews? They help me continue! Or, want to continue at least. Lol