WELCOME TO: 'The Plum on Her Back'

A/N: Hello to everyone! I am LinBean (hmmm...Don't ask!). This is my first fanfic so PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!

This begins immediately where the anime left off and I chose not to use Japanese honorifics so there is little of the Japanese language in the story. Sorry about that. Also-since I have made the conscious decision to base this off of the anime, there are quite a few differences that will need to be kept in mind: Akito is a man, there is no boy with a red cap, there will be no Rin or Kureno (which is sad to say), and the night of Kyo's transformation focuses on the the three of them (cat, rat and onigiri), as opposed to just Kyo and Tohru.

Synopsis: Akito is dying and soon another will suffer the weight of his burden! And what will happen when Tohru discovers that a heartbroken woman from the Hanajima family was responsible for the Sohma curse? Just who will she end up with? I wonder!

Other unfinished business that I will address:

Momji and his family

Kagura's love for Kyo

Hatori and Kana

What lurks behind Shigure's mischievous grin

And, of course, WHO I think Tohru should end up with! MUAUAUAUA!

(although your convictions could help me make that decision!)

Anyhow- ENJOY!

Disclaimer: I would like to say that I live with the tragic knowledge of knowing that absolutely none of the Fruits Baskets characters can be claimed as my own. Still—it must be done. –Waves hands over head- ALL praise Natsuki Takaya.

The Plum on Her Back

Ch 1: It Always Begins Exactly Where it Ends

Shigure Sohma sat up in bed. In the midst of a noisy yawn, he smiled cleverly to himself, a result of what appeared to be an exceedingly interesting dream. The man, cursed by the zodiac dog, yawned with his whole body. Smells like breakfast, he thought. A sharp intake of breath brought another mischievous grin to his lips. A new day with Tohru. And he shuffled out of his room, still in his night robe. "Breakfast time...breakfast time...all for me...breakfast time" he sang as he descended the stairs.

Outside, Kyo Sohma's arms jutted sharply, striking the air with each polished blow. The morning was crisp, the rain shower from the night before prevalent in the surrounding forest. Goose bumps formed on his bare chest where he had begun to sweat. While Kyo performed each movement, like all other mornings, a habitual feeling overtook his body as he pictured the face of the person that so often violated his thoughts. That face—the silver hair, purple eyes—the one he hated more than even his fits of rage allowed him to reveal—his cousin, Yuki Sohma. And with unbridled strength, his fist clenched tightly, connecting with a tree. To his surprise, Kyo heard the splintering of wood. The large tree shuddered slightly before leaning into its fall. Kyo's eyes focused on Shigure's house. They stopped when they sensed the movement of a curtain on the second floor. Yuki's window. "Stupid rat."

From his window, Yuki watched his cousin below, an indentation of a present scowl in his forhead. "Idiot cat," his mouth curved with distaste. Still, the force he had seen behind that blow was remarkable. Kyo was improving, and so quickly. It had been two weeks since the day Tohru Honda had asked to go to Sohma House with the intention of speaking to Akito. Yuki shivered at the remembrance of the moment he saw Akito grasp Tohru's hair in his fist, and shivered even more as he recalled the way he and Shigure had taken action to stop him.

Yuki had never before stood up to Akito, not for himself or any other Sohma. But for Tohru, it seemed he would do anything. He quickly pushed that thought from his mind, not wanting to take the pains to figure out how or why she had that effect on him. But Akito—that feeling had always been clear to Yuki. His fear would crumble within him every time the cold, piercing, black eyes focused in on him—like a predator, making careful preparations for the disposal of its victim. They read him; they knew him and longed for something he could not understand. The powerlessness Akito evoked corrupted his strength; turning him into that blubbering child he had been so long ago under Akito's control, in Akito's house, being forced to share Akito's company. Now, even now, that fear remained.

"Yuki, breakfast is on the table," a soft, childlike voice filled his dark thoughts. His blood ran hot from the mere sound of that voice. He had been putting off the act of deciphering the kinds of emotions Tohru roused within him. Yuki zipped up his school uniform, clearing his mind of the girl, but, somehow, finding it more difficult to clear the memories of his childhood. Being locked away in that room, being reminded of his ugly curse, the biting lash of Akito's whip. The sound filled his ears, and Yuki fought to gain control as the echo slowly faded around him. While it did, the trembling relaxed, his breath ceased to release in ragged gasps, and the quiet teenager picked up his book bag, turning thoughts to something more positive. Miss Honda's cooking. Back to Miss Honda—always Miss Honda.

Downstairs, Kyo was not shaken from his morning practice by Tohru's announcement of breakfast. Yuki sat himself upright at the table, ignoring the cat's stubbornness, his eyes focused with anticipation on the bowl in front of him. Shigure hummed to himself, as carefree as ever, while sipping his miso and shuffling through the morning paper. So unlike the seriousness he had displayed two weeks before. Yuki had never seen Shigure so somber as he had been the evening Tohru ran off in search of the Kyo's "true" form. Where had that person inside him gone, he wondered.

Tohru settled down opposite Shigure, the slight movement swallowed up in the sounds of wielded breaths from Kyo. She smiled, first at Shigure and then at Yuki. The zodiac rat returned the smile, feeling the blush crawl up his neck to warm his cheeks. He would never be able to mirror such kindness, such dedication and devotion like this girl had delivered to his family. Since that day, Yuki had become aware of a will in Tohru that was beyond the physical strength he or Kyo demonstrated in their martial arts. This will that he had seen, it could only be recognized as love—a thing Yuki had never before considered. Not even with his own parents, needless to say his humiliating excuse for a brother. Love was not an emotion that the Sohmas were taught to feel. It was like a missing gene, unable to pass down through the blood of the family. Few had ever been able to experience it—and for those that had, it had been fleeting. Most shied away from love for the intangible, shapeless form it seemed to have in the family. That, too, was their curse.

And yet, this woman, this simple woman reversed that completely. Even Akito had seen it in her eyes, and for the first time, the one to always cause trepidation was forced to experience it in its greatest form. For love was stronger than hatred. He not only saw it, but felt it in the way she touched him with her words.

"You're alive."

That touch was an antidote; it tingled his skin, trickling up until it reached the outskirts of his heart. He was terrified of what it made him feel. No doubt he had never seen such gentleness. How was it that this girl had been exposed to Kyo's original form and could still love him, Yuki—this family?

Akito had been so certain that it would break her, ridding her of the ability to perform what he deemed embarrassingly selfless deeds to his family. This weakling of a human, stupid and naive. This curse was for them to bear and them alone. She had no business trudging through the woods like she had done on that first day and stealing the affection of his family. These were his thoughts. This, Yuki knew, and suspected that Akito had every intention of punishing her still. He did not know when he would make his move, only that when he was ready his retaliation would come upon her rapidly. But for now, there was that love, that unwavering love that had left him exhausted in his hatred, stunned and, for once, powerless. No one had ever brought him to the state of uncertainty that she had.

"Kyo—aren't you hungry?" Shigure wondered as he flipped to the next page of the paper. "You aren't going to let this lovely breakfast Tohru prepared go to waste, are you?"

The cat hesitated, but without much consideration, he continued the repetition of his form.

Tohru watched Yuki. Again, she contemplated the lost look that penetrated his eyes as it so often had the past couple of weeks. She knew his mind now roved back to that incident that they all neglected to speak of. It was like they had intended to move on together that day as they walked away from the Sohma estate. But it still hung in the air—long since left to dry.

Yuki chewed slowly. It was obvious that it had shaken him considerably. Akito had been wrong about her. This realization had shifted the Prince's existence. He had suddenly become unreachable, but something told her it was not permanent. There were moments in a person's existence, life-altering moments, where one is forced to reorganize and adapt to his or her surroundings. In some ways it is like being reborn. Tohru knew this more than anyone. She knew that feeling because it was the same feeling she was forced to undergo when her mother had died. She was sure Yuki just needed time.

Her eyes traveled to Shigure as she plucked up a piece of fish, slipping the chopsticks into her mouth soundlessly. He, on the other hand, had quite the opposite reaction. His 'swing of things' were as normal as if nothing had happened. Sill, Tohru could not shake the memory of that moment when Shigure had come for her. She remembered the harsh reality that was Akito's words as he approached her, fallen, seemingly broken, near that tree, covered in dirt and her own heaving mess. Her body had become unfeeling. The bruises, the cuts which seeped freshly in the places maimed where she had tripped in her search for Kyo, even the rain could not puncture through the darkness that had enveloped her like a foreign cloak suffocating her emotions. Numb, completely numb. Only Akito's voice, Akito's prescence, had shaken her.

"What do you really know about the Sohmas?"

It was then that Tohru understood the fear behind Yuki's eyes whenever he was faced with the head of his house. It was merely his power of suggestion that was able to render one entirely without hope.

And then, Shigure of all people, had shown up, emerging from the darkness like a knight on a horse. He was the last person she expected to come for her. His musings, his theatrical pranks, underneath it all there was another person, a serious person. Tohru remembered the sound of her name on his mouth, the sobs—so unfamiliar and unlike his careless laughter. And it was then that she figured out that even Shigure was haunted by this curse that inhabited the family blood. Why had she been so surprised? He, too, had come to protect her. And as she listened to him sob with desperation and helplessness, Tohru knew she had afflicted him as well. He had believed in her. His hopes had clung to her like a moth to the light. When and how in all of this had she become their saving grace?

It was the last of the sanity she had been able to hold onto. She had grimaced from the sight of Kyo's shocking form, and then she had caused pain to Shigure with her obvious shortcomings. He had wept for her. How dare she bring such turmoil to a family that had done nothing but care for her and grant her the first place she could call home since her mother's death? She had failed them all.

But that was too weeks ago. They had not received a word from Akito since that day. Kyo, enraged at the scene he had been forced to miss, where Akito attempted to attack Tohru, now committed every chance he got to his training. He visited Kazuma nearly every day after school, and was the first up in the morning, though, not quite as early as Tohru. He was also usually the last to collapse into his bed sheets at night assuming Shigure was not seized by some obsession to write a particular chapter of his most recent novel.

And still, her insecurities persisted. Did she belong there? Was she really there to heal them, or was she only a hindrance?

"You know, Tohru—you'll only gain wrinkles frowning like that. Really, it does nothing for that pretty forehead of yours." Shigure broke her thoughts. "And we wouldn't want our beautiful, little flower looking all aged and withered before her time, now would we?" Kyo continued his kicking exercise, while Yuki tensed where he sat. Shigure leaned forward on the table, resting his cheek in his hand, staring at the embarrassed girl who tried her hardest to erase the frown she had made only seconds before. "After all, your skin is so radiant and delicate, no doubt an essential part of the fantasies Kyo and Yuki have when they—"

THUMP.

"Ouch." Shigure rubbed the back of his head where Kyo's shoe had hit. "Really, Kyo—you shouldn't hit your elder. It's not polite," he whined. "Besides isn't it about time you inform Tohru about all the things your manly urges bring you to do to her in your dreams?"

Kyo's face flushed with discomfiture and anger. He fought past his speechlessness, and was standing above Shigure before Yuki and Tohru had a moment to consider the lecherous remark. "Why you—," he grasped the man by his yukata. "And you call yourself my elder?"

"Kyo—no really—it's OK." Tohru had, first, recovered from Kyo's outburst, and was now making an attempt to recuperate from Shigure's remark. "It's fine," she rushed over to them. But, forgetting the awkward angle of the table between them, she tripped. Before Yuki could budge, it was Kyo that moved to stop her fall. There was a popping sound, as there generally was during mealtime, the table, once again, at fault.

Tohru scrambled to get off of the orange cat so that she did not crush him. "Oh Kyo, I'm so sorry." She picked him up, the worry lines appearing in her forehead again. "I just didn't want you to hurt Shigure. He was only joking, you know." Her cheeks were still inflamed from the remark.

"Really, will you ever act your age?" The calm voice came from Yuki. Three heads turned to look as he spoke. "Sometimes I wonder why Miss Honda continues to live with us when she is forced to spend time with a pervert like you."

Shigure, now wrenched in the claws of Kyo, frowned. "Yuki, is that how you really feel?" He sobbed dramatically. "And here I was just trying to get Kyo and Tohru together. I'm sure they want to kiss and date like a real couple—and—"

SLAM.

Yuki's palms hit the table. He still could not get over the speed with which Kyo had attacked Shigure and caught Tohru. Kyo and Tohru recognized the dangerous look in the rat's eyes. "You are hopeless," he said moderately.

"Oh what—is little Yuki Yuk jealous? Are your feelings all hurt now? I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you. Hows about I write, with demonstrative pictures, a book about you and Tohru—"

"Enough!" Yuki stood, his food unfinished, and swung his backpack over his shoulder, an announcement of his departure. The paper door shut firmly behind him.

Tohru gulped. Shigure blinked. Kyo, who still grasped the zodiac dog, let him go. At that moment, the cat changed back. Tohru fumbled to shut her eyes as she turned away. But Kyo took no notice. He wondered what was bothering Yuki. He had been acting strangely since the incident. Even for him.

"I'll just leave you two to be alone," sing-songed the released Shigure as he departed from the table in hopes to finish a long over-due chapter for Mii. He skipped as he left. "Tohru and Kyo, sitting in the tree..."

Kyo grumbled. "He really is hopeless."

A/N: Sorry the story starts off with so much internal dialogue! I had to set the stage and tone for everyone's mindset since the events of that night took place. I promise that by chapter three there will be ALOT more dialogue and action to occur! Also, there is a new chapter well on the way!

Thanks for reading; don't forget your shoes on the way out; and please leave some feedback while you're at it!