Edited 1/31/05

Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket. Yet. I hope to buy it off of e-bay. Well, the DVDs at the very least. J. K. Rowling owns the title. I own the plot.


Cat, Rat, and Dog

Chapter 2: The Maze

Yuki was not a morning person. That was just one unchangeable part of him, like his ability to continuously beat Kyo in a fight or his inability to hug a normal girl without turning into a rat. He was just glad that his mornings were not always a sign of the day to follow, or he would have lived a worse life than he already had.

He did suppose, however, that his day would follow the precedent set by this particular morning. Kyo HAD been looking for revenge for a while, but Yuki had just expected the normal challenge to a fight.

THIS, however, was not what he had expected. Either Kyo was getting smarter or Shigure had planted the idea. He would have to believe the latter, for while Kyo could be clever-it wasn't a common occurrence but it had happened-he didn't have the torturous mindset required to come up with something so cruel.

It didn't truly matter whose idea it had been. The fact of the matter of was that Souma Yuki, prince of Kaiwara high school, had been rudely awakened by-of all things-"The Hampster Dance." On a Sunday.

He stumbled out of bed and quickly dressed-well, as quickly as someone half asleep can-and trudged out of his room. Unfortunately for his already poor humor, he walked straight into a smirking Kyo.

"So what did you think of your alarm?" chuckled the cat.

Yuki thought he might go into shock. Could Kyo truly have come up with a plan that did not involve challenging him or announcing that he would beat the rat in a fight?

"I normally wouldn't listen to any of Shigure's ideas, but this one just sounded like too much fun."

Apparently not. Yuki sent his cousin flying with one kick-a skill of his-and continued on his way downstairs to breakfast. Maybe he should ask Honda-san to make leeks for dinner. That would shut the cat up, and hopefully render him unconscious.

While at breakfast, Yuki had felt slightly nervous-not that he would ever show it, of course-under the smiling glances Shigure and Kyosent him. Shigure had his trademark grin on his face, while Kyo was wearing a smirk-the closest he ever came to a true smile. So, knowing that the music this morning would not be the last of it, he decided to spend the rest of his day either at his secret base or in the presence of Honda-san, where he could not be harmed.

This was why, later in the day, he was caught by surprise as Kyo shoved him into Honda-san and grabbed the rat that appeared from the cloud of smoke. He realized that something really bad was about to happen when he noticed that they were heading towards Kyo's room, too fast for Honda-san to realize what was happening. He started to hope that he would transform back soon.

He truly started to panic when he found that Shigure was already in Kyo's room with a large box in front of him. The panic turned into terror when he realized the box had partitions in it, forming a strange and seemingly random pattern of corridors. The box was a maze.

Yuki quickly took note of a small hole in one side with some cheese in front of it. They HAD to be joking.

"Well, Yuki, what do you think?" asked Shigure jovially, "It took us a while to make, but this will be SO much fun."

"Let me change back. Let me change back. Let me change back." Yuki muttered this mantra under his breath.

"We figured that you should be able to find your way out by the time you change back," Shigure continued, "If not, then I will be sorely disappointed in you."

Kyo set Yuki down in a corner of the maze and sat beside it, across from Shigure. They had apparently been preparing for this, for Kyo reached somewhere that Yuki couldn't see and pulled out snacks. Passing some Pocky to Shigure, he just leaned back and looked for all the world like the cat that got the canary. Not the sort of thing Yuki wanted to be thinking about right then. Yuki turned his attention to the maze. He knew exactly how he would handle this.


"Are you ever going to move?"

"No."

"Can't you do SOMETHING?"

"Why should I?"

A short silence followed this question.

"So you can get out sooner?" cautiously ventured Shigure.

"I have a feeling that you would only put me back in."

The recurrence of the earlier silence proved the accuracy of his prediction.

"So, you're just going to sit here until you change back?"

"That's the idea."

"Why?"

"It's better than scurrying around for who-knows-how-long."

The now familiar silence made another appearance.

"Well, this is just boring. Why can't you scurry around for a bit, just for fun?"

"Fun?"

Yuki was beginning to truly appreciate the silence. It showed that they needed to rely on increasingly weak arguments.

He was thrilled when he finally transformed back into his human self. Even if his feet were a little cramped.

"Um, Kyo-kun, what did you do with Souma-kun? I've been looking for-"

The door opened.


A/N: So, what did you think? I was a little surprised when animegirl328 suggested something similar to what I was already going to write. That just goes to show that great minds think alike.

But animegirl328 also asked a couple questions that were later asked again by Yuri, in almost the exact same wording:

Why did Yuki help Shigure throw Kyo off the roof?
Well, it seems to me that Yuki wouldn't mind doing something like that. Maybe it's just the way that I see them, but the way Kyo and Yuki act towards each other hints a certain animosity. And he's done some stuff like that before. Remember when you find out that Kyo hates leeks?

How did they catch Kyo?
I would like to leave that to your imaginations, but I like to think that they ambushed him on the roof. ; P

I appreciate all of the positive feedback, and if you look now, you'll see that the separation of the paragraphs is a little screwy, but there are no weird symbols! Yay!

Next time: Kyo gets tortured again. This time it's all Yuki.