Never Too Late

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Chapter 1: He Wasn't

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Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket. If I did, Tokyopop would already have all the Volumes out in America, and update them monthly. Not once every 2 months. Boy, I'll tell you, I sure can't wait to get the 7th volume! Ahahaha! Crap, I'm rambling. Anyways, to make things short, Natsuki Takayaowner; Me wannabe owner; Storyline a very weird idea I came up with.

Enjoy!

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All was quiet around the old-fashioned Japanese house. Birds were chirping, and the sun was just rising for another bright day. That is, until –

"Get out of the bathroom, you stupid dog!" Kyo yelled, banging his fists against the door.

"Now, now, Kyo, I'm almost done. Be patient!" Shigure said cheerfully.

"You said that an hour ago!" Kyo yelled, now banging his fist so hard against the door that it made a slight indent. At the same time, the door down the hall opened, and Yuki came out, stumbling every few steps; the morning was always hard on him. He could barely see where he was going, and everything around him was only heard as a soft mumble. Walking straight pass Kyo, who stopped yelling for a moment to give him a weird look, Yuki headed towards the kitchen where Tohru was making breakfast.

"Good morning, Honda-san," Yuki said with a yawn as he sat down at the table.

"Ah! Good morning, Yuki-kun!" Tohru said, smiling. "Is Shigure-san still in the bathroom?" Yuki nodded. "I need to tell him that Hatori-san called earlier."

'Hatori called?' Yuki thought. 'That's odd. Shigure's usually the one who calls him, not the other way around…'

"Did I hear that Haa-san called?" Shigure asked, coming from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his shoulders. "What a pleasant surprise! I must call him back!" With that, Shigure rushed towards the phone.

A few minutes passed when…

"Damnit, Shigure!" Kyo yelled from the bathroom. The door flung opened and he came into the kitchen. "There's no warm water left!" Getting no response, he was about to go find Shigure, but stopped when he came into the room. It wasn't that Kyo was surprised at his sudden appearance, but the serious look the dog's face had stopped him in his tracks. Shigure beckoned Yuki into the hallway.

"What's wrong?" Yuki asked as they were out of ear shot. He was slightly anxious; what could have happened to make Shigure look so serious…

"Hatori told me that Akito…" Shigure said, staring straight at the younger boy, "wants to see you today."

"But…but why? What does he want with me?" Yuki asked, his voice slightly shaking. He had been trying so hard to avoid Akito, but now that he wanted to see him…

"Hatori didn't say why exactly," Shigure said with a sullen expression. "Though, he did say it was important. In fact, it seems that it's so important that he wants to see you now." Yuki stared at the floor, trying to clear his mind. No one in their right mind would want to see Akito; it's just that he was so cruel and cold. However, you really had no choice if he ordered you to come. The only thing Yuki could do was nod to Shigure and walk towards the front door.

"Don't worry about it too much, Yuki-kun!" Shigure said, regaining his cheerful voice. "I'm sure it's nothing bad! You'll be back before you know it!" Yuki nodded, though he didn't really believe him.

Shigure walked back into the kitchen and sat down at the table. He looked up from his breakfast to see both Tohru and Kyo staring at him.

"What?" he asked, scratching his head and yawning.

"Is everything alright?' Tohru asked, a trace of worry in her voice.

"Yeah, where's the rat?" Kyo asked, looking past Shigure to see if he could see Yuki.

"Oh, he had to go do something real quick," Shigure shrugged while returning to his meal. "He should be back soon. Why, Kyo? Are you worried that your precious Yuki is in danger?"

"WHAT? NO WAY, YOU PERVERT!" Kyo yelled. He threw his chopsticks on the table, stomped up to his room, and slammed the door shut.

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Yuki was now outside of the gates to the Main House, the wind blowing through his hair. It gave him an eerie feeling as he walked in the building.

'Maybe if I sneak back out now, no one will know I ever came…' Yuki thought, turning around. 'Then I'll just run away and change my na-'

"Yuki," an all too familiar voice broke him from his clever plan. Yuki cursed under his breathe and turned to see Hatori leaning against the wall, staring at him with his usual blank eyes. "Trying to sneak out…again?"

"Maybe I was," Yuki said, shrugging. "Not that it matters now, though."

"Well, I can't say I blame you," Hatori replied, standing upright. He started walking down the hall to where Akito's room was, and Yuki, having no other choice, followed.

"Why does Akito want to see me?" he asked. If anyone, Hatori should know what the reason was.

"I'm afraid I don't know," Hatori answered, turning a corner; getting closer and closer to Akito's room… "He said it shouldn't be long, however. I wouldn't get too worked up about it." They stopped in front of the last door of the hallway, and Hatori lightly knocked on it.

"Enter," a cold voice replied, sending shivers down Yuki's back. Hatori opened the door for Yuki to head in, while then entering himself. They kneeled in the middle of the floor where the small mats were already placed. Akito was standing by the window, hanging his hand out as if to reach for something. He hardly acknowledged Yuki and Hatori's presence at first, but he then pulled his hand back in and sat against the back wall. Yuki could feel Akito's black, emotionless eyes staring right at him, but he didn't dare look up from the floor.

"Well, I'm glad you actually came, Yuki," Akito finally spoke. His voice revealed that he was a bit tired and worn out, yet it was also confidant. "I called you here so early and on such short notice. I'm afraid, however, that this is much too important to wait any longer."

All Yuki could do was pray for everything to be over. He wanted to get home and do something that didn't make him feel uneasy. Like going to his secret base with Tohru, or even having a fight with the stupid cat rather. Anything would be better then being at the Main House with Akito.

"You probably don't know about this…actually, you shouldn't know about it, since I, myself, just came upon this, shall we say, second curse," he sneered, laughing lightly to himself. At this statement, Yuki shot his head up from staring at the floor to staring straight at Akito; something he hadn't done in a long time. If this 'second curse' was anything like the Chinese Zodiac one, he was sure he didn't want to be told of it. It'll just end up to be another thing to hide from the world.

"Yes," Akito said, smirking right at the wide-eyed Yuki; he seemed to enjoy telling, what seemed like, bad news to people. "I was looking through information about all the old members of the Zodiac. Those cursed before you, and everyone else, were even born. I found out something very interesting about those cursed with the Year of the Rat."

Akito stood up and started walking back and forth across the room. Not as if he was nervous, but as if he were about to enjoy what he was going to say next. You could tell that truly was the case.

"Every 5 generations of the rats all have something in common," Akito said. "Do you know what that is, Yuki?" Yuki could tell that this question was meant to be answered, and not ignored like most of them already were. Instead of speaking, though, all Yuki did was shake his head. He didn't know anything about what Akito had just said, but he was quite sure he didn't really want to.

"No," Akito said. "Of course you don't." He stopped pacing and returned to his spot on the floor. It seemed like he didn't know where to stay at to tell Yuki what he wanted to.

"I'll tell you straight forward," he finally said. "Every 5 generations of the rats become sick. Dreadfully sick, mind you. Sick enough that it can't even be cured, or at least, it hasn't been yet. You see, these selected rats start to slowly die. Starting at age 17, they last until the middle of their 18th year on this planet. Yes, such a horrible curse with such a sad unknown cure."

"From every rat, they start off just getting a minor cold. A stuffy nose; a sore throat; a bit of a cough. That lasts a week or so before each symptom they have gets worse. Soon their noses are running so badly, you'd need a box of Kleenex with you where ever you go. Then comes such a terrible cough and sore throat that you'd want to chop your own head off just to stop the pain. That's only the beginning, too." Akito stopped to look at the expression Yuki's face wore. He saw his wide eyes staring straight at him, fear hidden within. Akito looked past Yuki and at Hatori. His facial expression remained the same as it always had, yet Akito could tell he was worried about where this conversation would end up.

"Do you know why I'm telling you this Yuki?" Akito asked, laughing in his cold, uncaring voice. Before Yuki could answer, though, Akito quickly continued, "Because the next rat to get this deadly sickness…is you."

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Author's Note- First chapter, DONE! (Boy, writing LATE at night sure does make my mind more creative and motivated!) Interesting, huh? Believe me; I have no clue where I got this idea from. It just popped in my head, and I thought, 'hey, this would be an interesting story!' And to make things better (in my opinion, muwahaha) there's gunna be a great pairing in the next chapter and so on! I won't say who, but if you look in my fav list, you'll be able to tell

Also, the genre may say angst/romance, but it is also a bit of humor. I mean, c'mon, if you write a Fruits Basket fanfic that's going to be more then a one-shot, then it'll at least turn out funny in the end somehow! Right? Teehee, me and my crazy ideas!

P.S the chapter name sounds weird, right? Let me explain. Other then the fact that I couldn't come up with a better name, He Wasn't means that he wasn't meant to die so young. Like, people in disbelief. Trust me, I'll come up with better names later, I promise. Plus, you'll learn about the title at the last chapter.

Please review, I'd really like to know what you think of this!