Disclaimer: I don't own x-men: evolution or Fruits Basket.

Okay, maybe I should have made something clear. When I said I had only seen the cartoon, I meant I had only seen the X-men: evolution cartoon. I know practically nothing about the other one. I have no knowledge of anything X-man except for the X-men: evolution cartoon show.

I have seen the Fruits Basket anime, but pretty much everything in this fic will be based off of the manga. I live in America. I have only read through volume ten of Fruits Basket to this date. My only language is English.

I actually didn't get around to reading my reviews until after this chapter was written. Because we are now forbidden from review responses, I will simply say thank you to those who reviewed. I appreciate the support and those of you who tried to help me. I actually did know about the characters (I think some of you are a bit biased) and this chapter is indeed longer than the prologue. Also, sorry, but I'm going to try and stick to canon pairings.

That being said, let's get on with the story!

Kurt Wagner was practically skipping as he and Kitty headed back to the house they were staying at while in Japan. Well, mansion was more like it. It really paid to have a temporary guardian who owned enough money to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool and still have enough for a life-sized diamond statue of a sperm whale, a small country, and a five star spa.

…Not that the professor would ever use his money for things like that.

Anyway, Kurt was happy. It was rare for him to find someone else who so much as spoke German, and to find someone who not only knew the language, but had some heritage there…it made him feel, well, home.

That wasn't to say that the Institute and all of his friends didn't make up his home, but there was just something about the place where he had spent his younger years that made him grasp at any link to it he could find (in this case, a blond-haired, half-Japanese boy).

In fact, the joy of meeting Momiji had almost been enough to make the golden-eyed "demon" forget about the enormously bad part of this trip…

"MAXIMOFF!"

…the enemies were here, too.

Pietro "Quicksilver" Maximoff appeared before them, smirking and riffling through the contents of a wallet at his typical 'person-what-person-that-was-a-gust-of-wind' speed. Approximately ten seconds later, Lance Alvers came charging up to them (he had apparently been just around the corner when his silver-haired former teammate had snatched his wallet).

"Maximoff, if you don't…"

He trailed of as he noticed Kitty and Kurt standing next to his speedy friend. All at once, his face brightened, his posture straightened, at he ran a hand through his hair.

"Hey, Pretty Kitty!"

Kurt growled; one thought running through his mind: Kill. Lance. Alvers.

Before he could do anything, though, Kitty blushed and said:

"Like, hi Lance."

Kurt gaped. Here was the guy who had betrayed Kitty's trust, who had trampled on her heart, who attacked them on multiple occasions, and all she could say was 'Hi'?

…But then, Kitty had liked Lance for a long time. She had ignored his faults for a long time too, while they were dating. Lance had also been there for her when she was wounded during the battle with Apocalypse. Lance wasn't blue and furry…

He quickly erased that thought from his mind.

Focus on something else, anything else…

Lance had been by her side when she woke up from the Apocalypse deal. He wouldn't have been if Apocalypse hadn't happened.

Kurt's glare shifted from Lance to Pietro. He hated Pietro. Pietro had betrayed them all, even his own teammates. He had run off and left them to be captured by sentinels, had joined the Acolytes, all for his terrorist of a father: a metal manipulator who gave mutants a bad name and didn't even care about his children.

If Rogue could hear his thoughts now, Kurt knew he would get an earful from her. His adopted sister certainly didn't like Magneto, but, having been inside his head, she seemed convinced that he had had reasons for what he did, and that most of them stemmed from the fact that he did love his children, very deep down. Kurt often wondered if the same thing held true about Mystique.

He sighed. Here he was, angry with Pietro for sticking by his father, but hadn't he done the same thing? Hadn't he panicked; tried to save his own child-harming mutant terrorist parent when her daughter had tried to kill her?

Kurt frowned. Sure, he thought about these things all the time, but he was pretty sure he wouldn't do it quite so often if people like Lance and Pietro weren't around. Why were they here anyway? Oh, right, Tabitha.

He sighed again at the thought of his ex-almost-girlfriend. Tabitha had always been wild, but for some reason it had surprised him when he found out that after offering five of her eight tickets to the remaining original x-men students, she had waltzed into the Acolytes' base (no one was entirely certain how she had known where it was) and said that if anyone was interested, they could have the other two. Gambit, who had returned from Louisiana for an undisclosed reason (which was highly suspected to be Rogue), had agreed immediately upon hearing that Rogue was going (Kurt growled again; no way was that damn Acolyte getting anywhere near his sister), and Pyro had apparently jumped on the chance to stir up havoc. They claimed not to have heard anything related to going on the trip from Sabertooth, but then, he had a history of showing up at the least likely times to mess with Wolverine, so he couldn't be counted out entirely. Boom Boom had kept the last ticket for herself, of course, but apparently secrets in the Brotherhood (she'd moved back in after Rogue pushed Mystique off the cliff) lasted about as long as secrets in the Institute, and everyone in the boarding house (including Pietro, who had moved back after Magneto's apparent death) had found some way or another to get there. (Plane tickets (whether purchased or not was undetermined), stowing away, hitchhiking, and riding over on their respective powers were rumored to be methods used by various members. Only Pietro's was known for sure – he ran. Kurt thought this was odd; Japan was an island on the other side of the world, after all, but Pietro was apparently used to running inordinate distances for some stupid request of his father's (Pyro had snickered as he reminisced quite loudly on the plane about the time he had been ordered to pick up real Russian vodka for 'Piotr'))

Kurt finally came back to reality only to be met with the vision of Kitty berating Lance for, apparently, leveling the pathway. He blinked, wondering how he had missed that. Lance was arguing back (Kurt's eyes narrowed – how dare he yell at Kitty?) that nobody cared anyway. Wait; what?

Oh great, now Kitty was being all worried and caring over him, saying things like 'I care' and 'You so matter'.

"That's not what I meant." said Lance. Then, he added: "Although I appreciate it."

Kitty blinked. "Huh?"

Lance gestured vaguely at the air, indicating Japan. "They don't even blink when we use our powers. Either everyone here is incredibly open-minded, or every last one of them's a mutant themselves."

Kurt goggled for a moment at this sudden, strangely intelligent-sounding comment.

Does he like Keety so much that he vill study? It was a scary thought.

"Your blue rug over there could probably walk around normally without any problems at all."

I take it back. Alvers was a jerk to Kitty. There was no way he was even remotely smart. A small part of Kurt was touched, though, that the other boy considered his true form 'normal'. Of course, the moment he caught this feeling, he mentally stomped on it and dropkicked it towards a nearby trashcan. He hated Alvers. He was bad for Kitty.

Kitty scowled at Lance for a split second.

"Kurt isn't, like, a rug. And do they even, like, know about us here?"

"Nope." commented Pietro flippantly from where he had been zooming about, hopping over the little raised sections of earth from Lance's attack (Lance had been trying to get his wallet back and Pietro was just horribly energetic).

Kurt blinked. An entire country of people who didn't seem to care if the tourists had powers, but who didn't even know about mutants? Japan was a weird place.

He was going to love it here.

.oOOo.

It had been two days since Lance had suggested that the people of Japan would be completely fine with mutants if they ever found out, and no one had brought it up again. It was a tiny beam of hope, and they didn't want to extinguish it by contemplating the answer.

Kurt, Kitty, Jean, Scott (Jean made him come), Amara, Tabby, and Jubilee (they had invited her and Rahne on the trip through email, and, with much work, their parents had consented) were walking through the Kaibara shopping district. The girls had practically squealed (some did) when they saw it ("It's like the mall outdoors!"). Scott kept trying to catch Kurt's eye so they could share a long-suffering glance, but the younger boy seemed to be holding up perfectly fine. Honestly, sometimes it seemed like Kurt could be one of the girls, the way he was always caught up on gossip. Ah, well, as long as the guy didn't start freaking about the new fashions, Scott wasn't worried.

He turned his head to look appraisingly at his teleporting friend; make sure he wasn't getting too excited, and all – when suddenly he (Kurt) was wearing what seemed to be a large, lavender, flesh-colored, and yellow hat. After a belated second, he realized that it was not, in fact, a hat, but a feminine looking boy around Kurt's age.

Scott's first thought was that Kurt's neck would surely break soon, what with somebody around his size sitting on his head.

His second thought was that the boy could probably feel Kurt's fur.

Jean seemed to be thinking along similar lines.

"Hello," she said, reaching up to discreetly lift him off of Kurt with her powers under the pretense of pulling him off physically. The boy might wonder how she had been able to lift him later, as well as how she had done it in such a way that he didn't touch the blue-haired boy's skin, but for now it would be a crisis averted. However, at that moment…

"Momiji!"

Sohma Yuki felt his eyes widen as he took in the situation before him. Momiji was sitting on the shoulders of a boy with deep blue hair, much the way he had Yuki when announcing his presence at the Kaibara High fest, back during Yuki's first year. While it was against Akito's number one rule (no interacting with anybody outside of Akito's permission and then only in the way which Akito allowed), this was not very concerning in comparison to the fact that a girl with red hair was reaching up to (presumably) pull him off of her companion.

If she did that, their chests would undoubtedly touch.

If their chests touched, the curse would interpret it as a hug.

And if that happened, Momiji would turn into a rabbit.

Yuki's mind was racing at the thought of what that would lead to.

Momiji would be brought back to the main house, permanently. Haru too, probably. I would have to be punished for allowing it to happen. I'll be in that room again… Akito will decide this is a fine example of why we can't let anyone know. He'll have Hatori erase Honda-san's memories. That will devastate Kisa; Honda-san's like her sister. She'll probably slip back into her silent phase. Honda-san gave Ritsu a reason to keep living. Once she's gone…what will happen? What will happen to everyone? What will happen to…me? Without her?

Yuki's gaze shifted for a brief second to Tohru. She was wearing that concerned look of hers; the one that made her lips scrunch up into an almost-pout and her eyes go wide. It made her look horribly adorable, not to mention was a reminder of her huge heart. A heart so huge that she could reach out and unquestionably accept even a worthless rat boy like him.

She loved all of them. She loved him. And he loved her.

But now the secret was going to be revealed, and she would disappear from his life forever.

Yuki wasn't going to let that happen.

"Momiji." He repeated. The blond boy looked up.

"Yuki!" he waved happily, before addressing the boy he was sitting on. "Kurt, Kurt, this is Yuki!"

Kurt was, by now, feeling the strain of holding a sixteen-year-old boy on his shoulders. He had managed to position himself so that their skin wasn't touching, but it wasn't very comfortable.

"Um…hello, Yuki." He tried his best to smile at the silver haired boy, who quickly darted in front of Jean and pulled Momiji off of his shoulders. He then steered the blond a ways away from the group, and said quietly (but not quietly enough for Kurt's hidden elongated 'demon' ears to miss);

"Momiji, you should not be putting yourself into a position like that. If that girl had touched you, Akito would send Hatori."

This statement did not make much sense to Kurt, but Momiji seemed to understand. He nodded a bit sadly.

"Ja, Yuki."

"Oi!" A new voice interrupted. Its source was an orange-haired youth, who strode over to loom menacingly over Momiji. "Why are you taking orders from him? He's just a filthy rat ba-"

It happened very fast. One second, the orange-haired boy was standing over Momiji, shouting his head off; the next, he was sprawled over some wooden boxes across the street, groaning in pain.

"I would hardly think you one to be able to talk about filthy, stupid cat."

Kurt goggled slightly at the realization that it had been the seemingly calm, silver-haired boy (Yuki, wasn't it?) who had punched the loud-mouthed orange-haired boy. He was so startled by it that he looked around for a moment, trying to see if there might be someone else who could have done it, but only Yuki was standing in the aftermath of a hitting position, only Yuki was even now shifting his weight to the balls of his feet for easy and quick movement… All of the x-men had been through training sessions with Logan, and they could recognize stuff like this easily. But still, from the few minutes he had been in the presence of the silver-haired boy, Kurt wouldn't have pegged him for a fighter.

Of course, he thought, glancing down at his holo-watch, Appearances can be deceiving. I should know that better than anyone.

Beside him, his fellow x-men were tensing; instinctively preparing for battle (training with Logan did that to you). Boom Boom had cupped her hands together and was about to throw a charge, when suddenly…

"Um…Ah…please don't fight…" It was a sweet-looking girl with brown hair that interrupted this time.

Instantly, the two boys dropped their battle stances and turned away from each other, (the orange-haired one scowling slightly), as if nothing had happened at all.

Needless to say, the girls were impressed. They flocked to her side immediately, surrounding her and introducing themselves in a frenzy of names, hellos, and begs for her 'secret' to dealing with 'idiotic macho guys'. They then proceeded to start back to the mansion, taking with them a very bewildered brown-haired girl.

.oOOo.

Scott sighed a little as he walked up the pathway to the mansion. Jean was up ahead with the other girls talking to the brunette they had met at the shopping district. A little ways behind them were the silver-haired boy and the orange-haired boy, who had followed the girl when she was dragged off, apparently intending to protect her from anything that might threaten her (Scott wondered what their response would be if they knew that the girls she was walking with now could potentially level buildings). This had only proved to make thefemale mutantsmore ecstatic to get to know the girl.

The blond-haired boy was now skipping by the side of the boy whose neck he'd nearly snapped earlier (Kurt). They were chattering in German and gestured wildly towards people in the group every now and then. This made Scott rather uneasy.

Finally, a ways behind them all and walking in such a dazed manner that it might have been a complete coincidence that he was following them at all, was a boy with wild hair that was a combination of white and black in color. Scott wouldn't even have known that he was part of the 'group' if some of Kurt's and the blond boy's gestures weren't directed towards him.

He sighed again as Jean started to open the door. How had they fallen in with these people? Oh, well, there were more pressing matters. He'd have to warn everyone that they had human visitors…

"BOBBY! RAY!"

Oh no.

Rahne Sinclair charged down the second floor hallway, hot on the tails of Bobby Drake and Ray Crisp. Her hair was sticking up in every direction and her shirt was slightly frosty. Ice and electricity - not a good combination.

"Oh, you are so dead; Iceboy!"

"It's Iceman! Iceman!" protested Bobby, even as Rahne shifted, grinning, into her wolf form. He conjured up a patch of ice on the floor and Rahne slipped, and then started chasing them again.

The lot of them stopped short, however, at the sight of their human guests. Unfortunately, momentum had other ideas. Ray crashed into Bobby, sending them both to the ground in a confused and painful heap of flailing limbs. Rahne was sent toppling over Ray, gaining her enough air to soar over the railing…

"Look out!"

Sohma Momiji raced forwards to warn the Scottish girl of her coming collision with the ground. The mutants panicked; simultaneously starting to use their powers to save the falling girl (to heck with the secret; their friend was in trouble), and the zodiac transformees cried out.

"Momiji, NO!"

CRASH. Poof.

Yuki raced forwards, grabbing Momiji and his clothes and stuffing them into a nearby hardly visible alcove made by two adjacent couches and a table. The smoke cleared to reveal a very confused Rahne, Kurt, and Kitty sprawled on the floor.

Nearly everyone was tensed, expecting their respective secrets to be revealed. The Sohmas were praying that no one would ask about the cloud of smoke or the whereabouts of their blond-haired companion. Scott, Jean, Tabby, Amara and Jubilee were fearing the humans' inquires as to the smoke (which they assumed was from Kurt's 'porting). Kurt himself was just confused. He knew he hadn't managed to 'port in time to catch Rahne, yet here she was, completely unharmed. Kitty was wondering where Momiji had gone; she had darted forward to phase him and Rahne through each other, but before she had gotten there, he was gone. Rahne was simply disoriented from falling a story. Bobby and Ray raced downstairs, concerned; they had been busy untangling themselves and had missed the whole thing. Finally, Tohru was fretting that the metamorph might be hurt.

There was a long, pregnant pause.

"So…uh…" All eyes turned to Bobby, who scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Anyone want snacks?"

.oOOo.

Well. This was awkward.

Everyone (that is, all who had been involved in the front room ruckus (sans Momiji)) was sitting around the rather spacious kitchen table. There was an assortment of food on said table (everything from micro waved pizza to carrot sticks and tofu), but no one was eating. Jean had sent out a telepathic message to everyone staying at the mansion that they had human guests and to keep powers at a minimum, but other than that, there was nothing.

After a couple minutes of strained silence, Sam Guthrie walked in and grabbed a crouton from Kitty's salad ("Hey!"), popping it in his mouth. He then sat down and looked nonchalantly at everyone.

"So, what's up?"

"Nothin'." claimed Kyo.

"Yes, nothing." agreed Jean.

Slowly, the group began to relax, and started discussing the schooling systems in Japan (hey, one step at a time; no one was about to share their life story).

.oOOo.

Meanwhile, back in the little alcove, Momiji was starting to worry. He knew his absence would not go unquestioned for long. He was also worried about when he would transform back into himself. He had no control over it, and he didn't want it to happen while somebody was in the room. Nobody had walked in yet, but it was only a matter of time…

.oOOo.

Pietro Maximoff swooped through the front door of the mansion, his usual gust of wind following. He wasn't very happy about having to share living space with the x-geeks (everyone with tickets had wanted to stick together, and everyone else wanted to stay with their friends, so they all ended up in the same place), but he had to admit, this place wasn't nearly as shabby as the boarding house.

A piece of lavender fabric poking out from behind one of the little tables placed at the joints between couches caught his quickly roving eye.

What's this…?

And that's a rap. It didn't turn out exactly the way I expected, but you've got to love the way these things tend to write themselves.

I will be trying not to use too many Japanese terms, because they're technically always speaking Japanese. When it's a different language it's pretty obvious, except for English. English is usually being used between the Evo characters when they're (to their knowledge) not in the vicinity of anyone else or they don't want any Japanese people to understand them. So when Rahne was yelling at Bobby and Ray, that was in English. So was Jean's telepathic message. The Evo gang generally uses English at home (unless there's a visitor), but sometimes fall into Japanese without realizing it. The majority of the time, though, the language being spoken is Japanese.

I will be referring to the place the Evo gang is staying at as the mansion, because it is, essentially, a summer mansion. Do not confuse it with the mansion they live at in New York. If addressed, that will be referred to as the Institute.