Disclaimer: Still don't own Fruits Basket. But I did just borrow the anime and I keep watching the one where Hatsuharu (sigh….so cute!) and Momiji start going to high school. I swear, that one and the one where they're all at the lakehouse are probably my favorite ones. And isn't it so sweet at the end when Kyo hugs her and they're all crying and stuff! Sorry if that ruined something for you…oh! I'm rambling. Haha.

Tohru walked into Rika's room. She saw a half-filled suitcase and the comforter she had brought with her folded up and kept together with a belt that had multi-colored tassels on it.

"Oh, so you're really leaving then?" she asked. She was a little sad. She really liked Rika and had enjoyed her being in the kitchen with her.

"Yes," she said.

Tohru walked further into the room. "Would you like me to help you pack?"

Rika shook her head. Tohru thought she looked very nervous. She wondered why. When Tohru saw the look of pain and extreme nervousness in her face, she felt a little afraid.

"I was wondering if you'd look at some pictures with me?" said Rika. Tohru thought she was acting very strange, but she just sat there and said nothing as Rika pulled out a large photo album. On the cover was a beautiful picture of a Chinese dragon entwined around a magnificent star. She opened it up and Tohru saw a picture of Rika, Shigure, Ayame, and Hatori all with their arms around each other. Well, Rika was actually standing in front a little bit so that they wouldn't have to hug her, but they were all very close. They were all smiling and they looked very young. When Tohru looked at Rika, she saw a very beautiful and nostalgic smile on her face.

"How old were you?" she asked.

"Oh, we must have been about 17." She laughed. "I had forgotten Aya used to braid his hair like that all the time. He said he did it to irk that archaic principal even more." She turned the page. On one side, it was she and Ayame, flipping their hair back and laughing. They both looked absolutely stunning in beautiful dress robes. Rika's was a stunning red with a little shiny white and gold embroidered in all the shapes of the zodiac. Ayame's was much the same, but a dark, rich blue, purple, and black.

"Those are gorgeous," said Tohru. And she meant it. They were very beautiful.

"Aya would positively die if he could here you say that. He was very proud of himself when he made them and when Shii and me complemented him he just wouldn't shut up. Hatori almost left us that day because we couldn't stop talking about all of Ayame's 'creations.'"

They looked at the next picture. It had the back of Shigure's head and then only some of hers and it looked like they were very passionately making out. Rika seemed to crack up. "Oh! I had forgotten about that!" Then she laughed so hard tears actually came to her eyes. "We used to always pretend to be doing that so the teachers could see us. Oh, it made them so mad! But they couldn't get us in trouble because there was nothing in the rulebook about pretending." Then she couldn't stop laughing for about five minutes. Tohru just stared at the picture in naïve wonder.

She turned the page. Then Tohru saw her blush very violently. Having not been paying attention to the pictures and only to Rika's face, she quickly turned to the album to see what could make her blush like that. She didn't get to see all of it very good, but it had looked like she was in some crazy outfit with a whip in hand. And Ayame had been there too…They looked like they were laughing. Pretending she hadn't seen the picture or even how quickly Rika turned the page, she just allowed her to look at the next ones like nothing had happened.

It was a picture of her and Hatori. Unlike all the other ones that seemed a little crazy, this one was sweet and rather serious.

They were sitting on a porch swing and the sky behind them was pink and orange. It made them look a little darker, almost like sillouhettes. They were staring only at each other and smiling a little embarrassedly. They were also holding hands. Whoever had taken the picture had captured their feelings with much skill. She turned that page almost as quickly as the other one.

Then what Tohru saw shocked her.

A man who looked to be very tall and very handsome had his arm around someone. And that someone was Kyoko. Tohru's mother.

Without even thinking, she grabbed the album from Rika's hands and stared at the photo. Though Rika very seriously looked like the man in the photo - and still managing to look like a pretty girl - she noticed for the first time that her mother's and Rika's smile were almost exactly the same. And she seemed to have a very similar personality as well. Without the whole Aya thing though…

"I didn't really know how to tell you. I mean, I thought maybe I could just blurt it out, but that's not very sensitive is it? So then I thought, I'll break it to her gently, but then I thought if I did that you might believe me. And a picture says a thousand words! So I just decided to show you instead." When Rika finished her rambling, she realized Tohru was still staring avidly at the picture. "Did you hear a word I just said?"

Tohru looked up at Rika. She looked absolutely shocked. "Is my mother…your mother?"

Rika just nodded. The tears were back in her eyes, but this time they weren't from laughter.

The album fell to the floor with a loud thud. Tohru threw her arms around Rika. When she felt a slight wetness on her shoulder, she knew Tohru was crying as well. Rika put her arms around Tohru and the two embraced as sisters for the first time.