Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket or any of its characters. I only own Sara Tsuko. Don't sue; you'll get nowhere fast.

Author's note: This story takes place like…a month after the Anime takes place. Meaning, yes, the Akito in this story is male.


Sitting down before the head of the family, Shigure bowed his head, "Akito…"

"Shigure!"

The dog's head snapped up with a slight look of terror upon his face, "Yes…Akito?"

Akito stood, his back to Shigure, gazing out of the round window of the room, "That other girl…I want you to bring her here."

Shigure's mouth twitched, "Why-"

Akito put up his hand to silence the other man, "I allowed that…Tohru Honda…" he spat it out as if it were a curse word, "to live there without a meeting first, but I won't do it again. Bring her here."

Dropping his head in defeat, Shigure stood up and opened the sliding door to leave, but he didn't make it very far before he heard Akito whisper, "Yes…bring her here tomorrow afternoon…"

So, Shigure left.


A day before Shigure went and had that conversation with Akito, a young girl, only seventeen years old, came upon Shigure's home. Her house had burned down in a fire, and she was the only survivor…her house was the city orphanage.

She, Sara Tsuko, came to Shigure's house around midnight when a red glow filled the night sky like a sunrise that came to early. Sara was covered in black soot, her hair was damp since it was raining outside, her clothing (a light blue long night dress) had burn marks, and her arms had small burns on them. Her dark green eyes pleaded for help…So, a very sleeping Shigure, Yuki, Kyou, and Tohru took her in and helped nurse her wounds and to clean her up a bit.

The next day, when Shigure went to tell Akito of the girl, somehow, Akito already knew about her, and that conversation occurred. When Shigure was having that conversation, Sara was in bed, sleeping peacefully, Tohru was cooking Sara some soup, Yuki was re-bandaging the girl's wounds and Kyou was downstairs, helping out by cleaning up the house since the events from last night caused the house to be covered in soot and dirt.

When the front door to the house slid open, Kyou stopped his cleaning and looked up to see Shigure with a dark expression, "…What'd he say, Shigure?"

Shigure's expression deepened, "…He wants to meet with her tomorrow afternoon."

Kyou nodded slowly, "Should we all go, too, or what?"

The dog shook his head, "No, you, Yuki and Tohru don't have to go. I will."

With that, he took off his shoes and walked up the staircase to Tohru's room, which was where they all agreed to put Sara (especially since Tohru insisted that Sara stay in her room).

Once upstairs, Shigure slowly made his way across the small upstairs hallway until he was at the open door to Tohru's room, "Achem!"

Yuki looked up from his first-aid kit and blinked, "Oh, Shigure. Welcome back. What did Akito have to say about Sara?"

Shigure still had that dark expression on his face, "He wants to meet Sara tomorrow afternoon.

Yuki gained a dark expression of his own, "I see…should we all go, or-"

"No, I'll go with her. The less people, the better, I think…Akito still doesn't feel any better toward Tohru, either…" he turned to look at Sara in the big pink, fluffy bed, "…he's still bitter…"

A long silence went by when Tohru and Kyou appeared behind Shigure in the doorway, "Shigure…?"

He turned around to find Tohru and Kyou standing there, Tohru with a worried look, "Are you sure that we shouldn't come, too, Shigure?"

The novelist nodded and looked down at Sara's sleeping face, "It will be safer if I just go…It'll be safer if less of us are there. There'll be a better chance for her to stay if I just go alone."

End of Chapter 1


Shuichi: Woo! My first REAL fanfic! I know what you're all thinking, "'Real fanfic'?" And that's because I've gotten ideas before, but I've never actually gone ahead and made them. So, here I am, with my first fanfic! Please be nice and read and review! If you flame me with a dumb comment…be expecting the same, pal! –Insert maniacal laughter here- oh, and sorry if the characters seem a bit Out Of Character (OOC), but don't worry! It'll get better in later chapters.