Disclaimer: I don't own fruits basket or any of its characters. (Wish I did though)
For Miss. AllSunday Nico Robin, and anyone else, I'm sorry, but I forgot to mention that Akito is a guy in this story.
Recap: After a long and agonizing flight for Kyo, the Sohma's land in Florida, where they are greeted by an old lady. They arrive at the secluded in booked by Hatori where Yuki and Kyo get into a fight. Yuki accidentally pulls off Kyo's beads and Kyo takes off. He stumbles across Serenity, the inn keeper's granddaughter, who takes him home in kitty form. There she meets the rest of the Sohmas; and hearing the poof of his change runs to find him in human form on her bed. After a quick explanation from Hatori, she purposefully transforms the Sohmas, and received a warning from Akito, but got to keep her memory. On the way to town Hatori decided that he will show his zodiac form to Serenity…eventually. After seeing the town and spending some time that night and the next morning with Kyo, Serenity finds herself talking to Akito.
Chapter VI
Serenity looked up from the window seat as the door opened. Kureno paused in the doorway, then thought better of it and shut the door without making a scene.
"So you are part of the Jyūnishi, but you don't get an animal?" she asked turning back to Akito. They had been sitting in the window seat for a good hour, just talking. Comparing American and Japanese customs, and talking about the story of the Jyūnishi. The others were still outside a few feet away at the beach. Kureno sat at Akito's feet like an obedient pet.
"That's right." Akito confirmed
"Well that sucks…and you I hear you were the rooster." She included Kureno into the conversation.
Outside Momiji, Kyo, and Haru were racing through the water. Kisa and Kagura were playing with a beach ball, while Rin and Hiro sat in the shade of an umbrella and watched. The three adults were sitting around a table; Shigure and Ayame playing cards, and Hatori was reading. Yuki was standing on the shore refereeing the race. It was getting hot outside but no one wanted to go in yet. Shading his eyes Yuki looked back up at the inn, and paused.
There were two people sitting in the upstairs window that should be Akito's room. Yuki watched for a while…They seemed to be laughing and talking. Haru came up next to him.
"What are you looking at?" He asked.
"Nothing" Yuki answered, not looking away. Haru mimicked him.
"Is that Akito and the girl…Serenity?"
"I hope not."
"What are you all looking at?!" Kyo came up behind them, mimicking them both. "Shit"
"Yeah," Yuki agreed.
Dropping their hands the three boys shook their heads, and attempted to ignore the house. A few minutes later Serenity came walking out of the front door, and down to the beach.
"It's kinda hot out here…Lunch is not for another two hours, so you can either hang out in this heat or come into the den." She offered.
"What's 'The Den'" Hiro asked.
"Come on and I'll show you." She waved them back to the house. Shigure and Ayame looked at each other, then picked up the cards and followed. And everyone came behind them.
Serenity led them into the house and half-way down the hall into large double doors. The room was carpeted with dark green carpet that reached two feet up the wall. The rest of the wall, from there on up was covered in mirrors. In the far corner a game station was set up to a large plasma television and surrounded by beanbag chairs. Next to it across from the open door way was a glass door that led to a screened in pool area, and on the other side was a professional cards table. Closer to the door was a sitting area complete with 4 lazy boys surrounding a round coffee table. In the center of the room was a red pool table. Stepping into the room they could see the ping-pong, air hockey, and foosball tables set up behind the door.
"This is the den or the game room." Serenity explained stepping into the middle of the room. "Through that door," she pointed to a closed door between the game station and the card table, "is the theatre room. We have an assortment of movies… blah blah blah…you get the point." Shigure went and fussed over the card table, convincing Rin, Hatori, and Kazuma, to join. Hiro, Momiji, and Kisa plopped into the game station beanbags, setting up the PS2. Haru challenged Kyo to a game of foosball, and Serenity challenged Yuki to ping-pong.
"That's game; I lost." Serenity snatched the ball up off the floor. Rin had come over to watch mid game, losing all her chips early. "You playing?"
"Yeah," Serenity handed the paddle to Rin before wandering over to the game station.
"I'm the best!" Hiro exclaimed. The three of them were playing Enthusia, and Hiro won every race.
"Mind if I join…We'll race girls against boys." She challenged him.
"Alright, not like girl's have a chance of winning." He scoffed. Serenity just smiled at him, whispering something in Kisa's ear. The girls won three games before Serenity had to leave them.
"You won't play cards with us?" Shigure called after her.
"Sorry, I have work to do." She waved back at him. An hour later they were called to lunch.
After lunch and a quick shower the Sohmas set out for town, Akito included. Serenity stayed to help Richard clean the kitchen and tables.
"They're good people." Richard said out of the blue. Serenity looked up from the dishes she was drying. "But that doesn't mean you can get attached to them."
"And what makes you think I'm going to get attached to them." She scoffed.
"You always get attached to the guests… And then you get all pouty when they leave." He accused, handing her the next dish.
"I do not… not always… not often?" It was Richard's turn to scoff.
"You'd think after living in an environment where people come and go daily would teach you about short-term acquaintances." He rolled his eyes.
"What's that suppose to mean?" she snapped getting all defensive.
"My point is, don't go getting too attached, cause your hellla 'noying when you're all depressed." Serenity stuck her tongue out at him, and he mimicked her. With a light laugh they went back to cleaning the dishes in comforting silence. The Sohmas came stumbling back into the inn a few hours later, had dinner with minimum injuries, and collapsed into the plushy theatre seats to Underworld; falling into bed afterward with no complaints.
The rest of the week went by in much of the same order for Serenity, but with much less transforming and much less Kyo. Starting with setting up the breakfast tables, breakfast, cleaning the rooms, and hour with Akito and Kureno, hanging out in the den with the Sohmas, setting up lunch, lunch, cleaning, a movie, dinner and more cleaning. Serenity couldn't remember the last time the inn had been filled, and was sure that it was a good thing.
But, the week came and went, and it was time for a majority of the Sohmas to head home.
I got bored one day and drew the setup of the inn. Please let me know if anyone would like me to post it… although it might take a while, my main computer with the scanner is out of commission. Lol. Oh, and I purposefully left out many of the details on my added characters, cause in truth I want her to be me, but I'm sure ya'll will want her to be you too.