A/N: Welcome to Shiroi Hana to Baka Neko! I am your authoress, Yumi Hojima! For you who don't speak Japanese, the title means White Blossoms and Stupid Cats. And as for the name, it's only a style name, not my real one. --;; I hate my name..>.> So anyways! I have to fill you in on some things so read this part carefully:

I always wondered "If Akito is the core of the zodiac, then who is the core of our poor Kyo??" So, I made him a core. It's a girl, and she shares my style name because I had none better. So sue me. No, really don't. Please? ;; I understand some people hate the association of made-up characters into fics. Please I don't like flames,I do however want as much constructive criticism as possible. I always like to make my stories as good as possible and a little help or suggestions from you guys is the greatest!

This fic is dedicated to the person who made me write it, Linny-chan.

:: I don't cries own Fruits Basket! ::

That said, I really hope you enjoy the prologue of Shiroi Hana to Baka Neko! snuggles Kyo plushie

Prologue: Nigeteiru Onna

4:00 am

Tick, tick, tick…

She rolled over once more, staring at the ceiling, lost in thought. She tried to remember how she got to be where she was at this point in time. She wondered if the thought would ever return to her. She snuggled under her covers, suddenly cold.

Tick, tick, tick…

The image of his face suddenly appeared in her head. She shivered unintentionally trying to dispel the thought. The image remained; however, obscuring anything else she tried to think of. 'Why can't I get rid of him?' she thought, rolling over again. She buried her face in her pillow and tried her best to go back to sleep.

Tick, tick, tick…

The truth was she couldn't and his face just bothered her to no end. She punched her pillow, trying to take some of her anger out. A flurry of feathers just made her angrier. 'Dammit!', she thought her figure now covered in a multitude of fluff, 'Tomorrow is New Year's! I need to hold out until then! I'll beat his face into the ground tomorrow so then maybe his face won't be so fucking evil. ARGH!'

Tick, tick, tick…

She threw the ruined pillow away from her futon and ran to the closet to get a new one. Once safe and snug in her bed again, she tried thinking of punching the face in, which helped her to fall into a stressful slumber.

Tick, tick, tick…

RING, RING, RING!!

Groggily, she got out of bed and looked at the time. "8 AM already???! I'm gonna be late!!!!" she cried as she dashed to her closet. She flung the doors open, causing one to fall off but her paranoia made her overlook it. She pickled clothes up and flung them over her shoulder until she came to a large black sweater. She sniffed it cautiously, not remembering if it was hers or not and recoiled at the smell. It all came back to her like a blow to the head. It was his scent, she was sure of it. She held the sweater between her thumb and forefinger and, wrinkling her nose in disgust, threw the sweater out the window. She grabbed a sweater, a random skirt, some knee-high socks and ran to the bathroom, comb in hand.

Once ready to go, she slid gracefully down the banister and flew through the hallway, grabbing some money off a table by her door. She slammed the door open to reveal the cold, heartless, sunny morning. She took a deep breath and released it slowly. Then, almost god-like, she ran down the porch and through the woods, dodging trees and miscellaneous shrubs. She flew like this for a good few minutes until she emerged from the "forest" and onto a street.

The beeping of a car horn and screams of profanity caused to her to look behind her at a car that was going to run her over. For a second, she was rooted to the spot in confusion but soon regained her senses and in a flash, she jumped onto the hood of the car which came to a screeching halt exactly where she had been standing a second ago. "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING STANDING OUT IN THE ROAD LIKE THAT?? YOU'RE LUCKY I FUCKING STOPPED OR YOU WOULDA BEEN ONE DEAD-" the man behind the wheel started yelling, but stopped when he saw her on the hood of his car. "HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET ON TOP OF MY CAR??" he screamed at her. "You. You are attracting unwanted attention. Keep your questions to your damn self and get back in your fucking sports car. Hit an old lady for me on the way, will ya?" she said winking. The man stood dumbfounded at the girl as she nimbly jumped off his car and walked down the street. "What the hell...?" he mumbled to himself.

The girl looked at her watch every-other second to make sure she would get there on time. "If that man makes me late then I will rip his head off." she grumbled to herself. She sighed before checking her watch for the 20 millionth time. "DAMMIT! THEY'LL BE STARTING THE DECORATING NOW!" she cried as she flew down the sidewalk, innocent bystanders gaping at the outburst.

She slowed down as she reached the large main house, walking through the archway slowly and cautiously. Seeing the coast was clear, she scurried on to the front entrance of the house past some randomly placed Japanese gardens that seemed plain and ordinary compared to the elaborate house. She slid the door open slowly making sure no one was wandering the halls of the main house upon her arrival. As was her luck, no one was there; therefore, she cautiously made her way down the halls, listening intently for any noise. She walked down several hallways until she reached his door. She slid it open slowly, almost dramatically building tension that really wasn't necessary.

"Hojima-san. Just open the door, I know you're there." a voice said from inside the room. "Aw you ruin everything! I was just building dramatic tension!" she replied opening the door and walking inside. "You haven't aged a day since last I saw you, you baka neko." he said, sitting down, his back towards her. "Only mentally! And even so, I'm not a baka neko. You're just jealous." she retorted sticking out her tongue to his back.

"Hojima. Stop pissing me off before I attack you."
"Tee hee! But it's so much funnn!"
"Hojima. Shut. Up."
"Make meeee!"
"Shut UP."
"Teeee heeeee!"
"SHUT UP."
"Now, now! Anger management! I thought we had this conversation last year!!"
"HOJIMA, YOU BAKA, BAKA NEKO! SHUT UP!"

With that, he jumped up and turned around to face her, fists raised, a very angry look on his face. "My, my. What a temper. Akito-san you really have lost control. Do try to lose that attitude." she said wagging her finger in front of his face. It took all of Akito's might to stop himself from lunging at the girl. But he didn't lunge for he remembered years before, when that baka neko provoked him enough to attack her. It hadn't ended well then. She always seemed to beat him no matter what. For a neko, she was sure strong. And Akito in his weak state couldn't land a punch on a girl who could swat him aside faster than the punch could be thrown. The sight of her digging through her purse snapped him back to reality. He ran his hand through his hair and asked, "What the hell are you doing now, Yumi-san?" Yumi looked up from her hunting and smirked an evil I'm-planning-something-and-you-have-no-clue smirk. She took her hand out of her bag and tossed a handful of glitter at Akito. "You always looked better in glitter!" she giggled playfully as she started skipping out the door. "BAKA NEKO! GET BACK HERE BEFORE I HAVE HATORI COLLAR YOU!"

Yumi froze at his words and turned around slowly, still in mid-skip. "What are you babbling about now? You know you can't collar me." she said, her face losing all of the innocent evilness it had just a moment before. Akito was used to her sudden change in personality, but was kind of taken aback at the venom in her words. He smirked casually and walked over to her, a glittery trail following behind him. She quirked an eyebrow, obviously confused at his lack of temper loss and left her mid skip to turn and face him completely. He put a cold hand on her cheek and whispered, "Baka neko, Don't you remember? When you were so little. I collared you then and I can collar you now. Don't underestimate me, Yumi. I may be weaker than you, but I am the core of the zodiac. I am the head of the Sohma family. I rule over everything here and I can have all of the members jump you like that." To emphasize, he snapped his fingers. Yumi narrowed her eyes and retorted, "I was young and stupid. I'm not so young anymore and if I remember correctly, it took you, Hatori and Shigure to hold me down. Don't underestimate me." He smirked again and leaned in to her face, whispering in her ear, "I don't care if it took three of us. The point is we collared you and I am fully prepared to do that again." He backed away from her and walked back to his garden, leaving her to stand there.

"Hatori!" Akito called. Hatori emerged into the room and replied, "Yes, Akito-san? You called?" Akito didn't even turn around but said, "Now." Hatori averted his gaze to Yumi and sighed, "Yes, Akito-san." Yumi looked quickly from Akito to Hatori and back again before bolting past Hatori and down the hall. "Well? What are you waiting for? Chase her and collar her." Akito said, looking to Hatori from the corner of his eye. Hatori answered by running out of the room and towards the sprinting figure of Yumi.

"This might be a fun New Year's after all." With a quick smirk, Akito sat down outside and caught a butterfly by the wings, his smirk turning into a grin.

And so ends the prologue! Hope you enjoyed it!

Note regarding:
Nigeteiru Onna: Means "A Girl on the Run"
baka neko: For those of you who didn't bother to read the author's note in the beginning, baka neko means "stupid cat". I'll get to why he calls her that later.
-san: For those who don't understand this, "-san" means "Ms, Miss, Mr, Mrs" It's used between adults and children to adults and people who don't know each other.

please review! I love some good constructive criticism! (Regarding my use of Japanese: I won't use it much, and I'm not very good at it...brings out English/Japanese dictionary --;; I use a more textbook version so if you find more commonly used Japanese please inform me!)