Author's Notes/Disclaimer – I do not own Fruits Basket, namely the characters. However much I wish I did, they belong to Natsuki Takaya. So, unfortunately, I will have to settle for just owning my plushies.

I also don't own "Unwell" by Matchbox 20. All their creativity.

Laurie Salyers, on the other hand, does belong to me. Don't steal her, please. I put hard work into my characterization.

Ruun-chan: Yes, she told them that she didn't speak Japanese because she didn't like the way they were talking to her. This will not be a Yuki x Tohru fic. Kyou and Tohru 4-eva. XD

Enjoy!

- - - - - - - - -

"Yuki-kun!" Tohru's voice called from the kitchen. Yuki looked up from where he was working on his homework, stifling a slight yawn. He had come home late, and Tohru had offered – quite insistently – to make him dinner. He had refused at first, as it was quite late, but he knew that nothing could stop Tohru once she had gotten it into her mind that she was going to help someone out, be it a large or small task.

Getting to his feet, Yuki straightened his shirt. It had become habit anymore, to make sure that he looked neat and proper. He wasn't sure why; it wasn't as though he had anyone to impress. Now that Tohru was so firmly out of reach, he wasn't sure that he truly cared.

"Thank you, Honda-san." Yuki said softly as he entered the kitchen. Tohru turned, her eyes bright and smile cheerful. Just like always, Yuki mused, taking the tray that she was handing him.

"You're welcome!" Tohru said brightly, giving a hurried bow. Yuki didn't quite understand why she felt the need to bow as often as she did, but it was oddly cute coming from her.

Stop that, Yuki told himself firmly. He was thinking about the situation between himself and Tohru too much. He knew that there was nothing he could do to change things. He had been, and still was, perfectly willing to step aside in order to let Tohru be happy, even at his own expense.

Yuki firmly took his mind off of that, instead sitting at the table and looking back at his homework. He had been trying to diagram the sentences on his paper for the last few moments, but couldn't concentrate on it well enough. It was strange; he was usually quite good at English, grammar, vocabulary, and otherwise.

With a frustrated sigh, Yuki instead began to eat. As usual, Tohru's cooking was quite delicious. Yuki allowed himself a few moments to enjoy his meal in the calmness of the house. Kyou was up on the roof, and Shigure was working on his manuscript. Yuki strongly suspected that Tohru would be joining Kyou any moment.

It was very rare for Yuki to have any time to himself. He didn't mind that he lived in a house with Kyou, or that Tohru had come to stay – he had no right to – but he did enjoy the moments of peace that he had experienced when it was just him and Shigure. Kyou, though, had the tendency to bring chaos with him wherever he went. At least it keeps things lively, Yuki thought.

Yuki finished his food, setting the dishes on the tray, deciding to put his homework away. He resolved that he would get to school early the next day, to see if he could ask Kaijura-sensei about diagramming. If he was lucky, he would be able to finish before homeroom started.

Stretching, Yuki got to his feet. He picked up his tray of dishes, headed into the kitchen, and set them next to the sink. One by one, he rinsed everything off, then set it neatly in the sink. Though he felt slightly guilty for making Tohru do so much work, he knew he was terrible at housekeeping. The last thing he needed was for Tohru to pull a dish out of a cabinet and for it to be spotted and dirty because of his lack of experience in cleaning.

That, and he knew that it was part of her agreement. She would stay in the Sohma house for free, and in return, she would cook and clean. It worked.

"Couldn't you be bothered to at least clean up after yourself?"

Yuki looked up at the sound of Kyou's voice. He was half-tempted to retort in his usual smart-aleck manner, but merely gave a shrug. "If you want your food straight out of a partially dirty bowl, fine by me." he replied softly, turning back to the sink, and picking up a dishrag.

There was silence from Kyou for a long moment, before, "Fine, whatever," he muttered, stalking over to the refrigerator. Yuki sat the rag down. "Damn rat." Kyou added, a bit half-heartedly.

"Baka neko." Yuki said immediately, merely by force of habit. Their arguments seemed to have lost their usual fervor as of late, but it didn't bother Yuki. He got sick of Kyou's hot-headedness, and it was a welcome change.

Before Kyou could retort, Yuki sat the bowl back down and calmly walked out of the kitchen. He didn't want to be dragged into an argument right now; he had a headache and too much to worry about than to argue with Kyou over another one of his trivial irritations.

Ducking past Shigure, Yuki picked his books up off of the table he had been working on. He only had those sentences left to diagram, which meant that he could finally go to bed. It had been a long time since he had been able to lie down before nine o'clock, and he was grateful that he'd finally be able to catch up on some of the sleep he'd been missing for the past few weeks.

Once Yuki was in the privacy of his own room, he loosened his necktie, pulling it off and laying it over the back of his desk chair. In a few deft movements, his shirt was unbuttoned. He hung that up, pulled off his pants, then slipped into his pajamas.

"Long day…" Yuki muttered absently to himself, more to break the silence of his room than anything. From somewhere outside, he heard Tohru's laughter, followed by an offhand comment from Kyou. Wonderful, Yuki thought as he stretched out. That's just what I need, to listen to them…

Yuki hoped that the sound of his slamming window wasn't enough to disturb anyone else.

- - - - - - - - - -

"…A different side of me… I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired…"

Laurie looked up from where she was working on her sentence diagramming, a wistful look on her face. It had been an age since she had traveled back home, seen her family. Listening to American music always made her feel at least a little bit closer to home, but she still got home-sick every once in a while.

Tapping her pencil against the table, Laurie debated whether or not to hop in the shower before she went to bed. You could always do it in the morning, she told herself, rising and sauntering over to her alarm clock to make sure that it was set.

With a yawn, Laurie dropped unceremoniously into bed, turning onto her back to look up at the ceiling. She'd had an interesting first day at Kaibara High. The people there seemed nice enough, and the real experience was nothing like the horror stories that she had heard about Japanese schools, with cram schools and strict, overbearing rules, not to mention the tyrannical teachers. No, Laurie had found school to be almost enjoyable.

Kaibara high was certainly more enjoyable than Laurie's last school. She couldn't say that the teachers had taught her much of anything. Though, with the way the students acted, how could they? She remembered it quite clearly in her mind; the students were loud and crude, throwing paper, throwing chairs, throwing punches. Threats came from the mouths of those around Laurie so casually that she at first couldn't be sure whether or not they were serious, or meant to be a joke.

Laurie learned, however, that it was no joke.

She had never been threatened directly; no, Laurie was the type to fade into the background and try her hardest not to be noticed. It always worked; she wore her uniform neatly, answered questions only when called on, kept to herself. No one around her had any reason to pay attention to her.

For other students, however, it was a different story. Many of the typical class clowns and showoffs learned quickly to keep quiet and go about their business at normal. The consequence of not doing that ranged anywhere from threats to being hunted down as you walked home from school.

Laurie couldn't figure out why this was. The four that did most of the fighting and threatening didn't seem to have any real reason to; it was as though it was merely something they could do to pass the time. Laurie knew from listening to a few conversations that most of the people they tended to pick out were ones that annoyed them, because of how obnoxious or loud they were. She didn't, however, ever find out why they used fists as means of fixing the problem.

At the time Laurie had been there, it had been rather intimidating to know that if she spoke out of turn, or brought attention to herself, she could possibly end up like some of her fellow classmates had. Looking back on it, though, it all seemed ridiculous that four teenage boys and a few of their gang could intimidate a class full of thirty people into timid silence.

Well, it doesn't matter now, Laurie thought absently, glancing at the clock. It was just after nine o'clock, but she didn't feel tired at all. Not only had her first day of school been slightly exciting, but she wasn't used to going to bed at such a time; where she was from, she would have just been waking up.

Briefly, Laurie let her mind move over the day's events. It seemed as though she had met the "Prince" of Kaibara High almost immediately. He seemed nice enough, though she wasn't sure she could remember what his name was. For some odd reason, though, she thought of snow whenever she tried to remember.

She had also met his friends, Tohru and Kyou. Tohru seemed very sweet, even if a bit dense – or a lot dense. Kyou had been very stand-offish, but Laurie could tell that he wasn't a bad guy. He and Tohru seemed very comfortable in their relationship, and very much in love. Then there had been Hanajima, a kind but slightly – well, creepy – girl. Uo was the loud, sarcastic "tough girl" of the group. Laurie rather thought that she and Kyou would have been great friends if they ever got past the minor differences they seemed to have. They complimented each other perfectly.

Yawning, Laurie looked outside, her eyes moving over the stars. She remembered a time when she was young, lying out in her backyard with the girl next door, looking at all the stars in the sky. Those had been the days of carefree innocence, of abundant joy. She didn't have to worry about fitting in at her new school, she didn't have to think about entrance exams, she didn't have to do much of anything, except write her name on a piece of paper in a semblance of handwriting.

Letting her eyes fall closed, Laurie wondered if she'd ever be able to feel as she had as a child; carefree, light, happy.

-------

Please review! I would appreciate any comments or suggestions you have to offer! n.n