Jessi: Good afternoon! Er... Um... Okay! Response to reviews first!

Iris.D: Thank you!

Aquabreeze: Soon, Steph. Soon. Just wait! Haru comes in... -looks in her journal- ...later. I don't wanna give it away. Okay, okay. I won't flirt with that damn rat. And besides, that's not me, it's my CHARACTER. She likes miniskirts a little more than the actual me.

Ky0Kichi: -laughs- Well, yeah. I like stories with KyoxHaru, hence the fact that I read/loved your two. (I seem to get that "it's cute" comment everywhere...) Well, here you go!

Well, here's Chapter 2!

-chan: Referring to someone younger than you, but in Tohru's case, a best friend.

-san: Reffering to someone whom you are giving respect to.

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I was walking on the sidewalk home. But that's when my life was turned upside-down.

There was smoke floating into the sky, coming from the direction of my house.

Coming closer, I saw that my house was on fire.

"NO!" I screamed. I knew that my parents had been in our house all day, so they were either dead or dying now.

My little sister Aiko heard me crying and ran over to me. "Furiko!"

We hugged for the first time in years. With our parents gone, we didn't have anyone.

"Aiko, I'm glad you're alive!" I whispered to her.

"Same here," Aiko said. "I can't believe Mom and Dad are dead."

"Are you sure? Have the firemen confirmed that?"

"Yeah. Some went in there and found Mom and Dad's bodies a half hour ago." The poor twelve-year-old had tears on her face, too.

"Do you know anywhere we can stay, Furiko?" Aiko asked.

"Oh, right. All of our grandparents died last year, didn't they?"

She nodded.

"And then our aunt and her family live in the U.S., don't they?"

Aiko nodded again.

I thought back throughout the day... My meeting Tohru-san, Hana-chan, and Uo-chan... My meeting Yuki-san... Kyo-san waking me up... Tohru-san giving me her phone number... That was it!

"We can stay at my friend Tohru Honda-san's house!" I grabbed Aiko's hand and pulled her to a house three streets away. "I'll need to call her first, though."

"And, if she says yes, we can call the moving trucks to have them deliver our clothes and stuff!" Aiko added.

That's right, I thought. Our clothes haven't reached Tokyo yet.

I knocked on the door. A woman answered and I asked if I could borrow the phone.

"Of course!" she said, and let us in.

I took the phone number out of my pocket and dialed it. The phone rang three times, and then was picked up by a man.

"Hello?" he said.

"Can I talk to Tohru-san, please?" I asked.

"Sure," said the man. "Just a sec." He put the phone down, and then I could hear him calling Tohru'-sans name. "Here she is."

"Hello?" Tohru-san asked.

"Hi! This is Furiko Rumi."

"Hi! Do you need some help with the assignment?"

"No, but... I need to ask you something: can me and my sister stay with you at your house?"

"Uhhh...I need to ask, okay?"

"Sure! Just please hurry."

"Why? What happened?"

"My parents just died in a fire at our house."

"Oh! I'll go ask now!"

I heard her set the phone down and run away.

"Furiko, can we stay?" Aiko asked.

"I don't know yet; Tohru had to go ask." I felt sweat dripping down my face. Where would we go if we couldn't stay at Tohru-san's house?

Tohru-san came back to the phone. "You can stay!"

"YAY!" I yelled.

"What? What happened?" Aiko asked.

"We can stay!" I said.

"Who are you talking to?" Tohru asked.

"My sister, Aiko. Okay, can someone pick us up?"

"Yeah. He'll be there in five minutes, okay? Just tell me the address and he'll be there."

So I told Tohru-san the address of the house we were at, said goodbye, and me and Aiko headed outside, thanking the woman before we left.

Five minutes later, a car pulled into the driveway. The driver was a man who had black hair and was wearing a traditional kimono.

"Hello, you must be Furiko Rumi-kun," he said. It was the same guy who had picked up the phone when I called Tohru-san's house.

"Yep, that's me!" I said. "And this is my little sister, Aiko."

"Hi," Aiko said in a small voice.

"Just step in the car and tell me about yourselves."

I opened the back door and Aiko got in. I got in after her.

Tohru-san was also in the back. "Hi!" she said. "I'm sorry about your parents."

"That's all right, Tohru-san," I said, smiling. "It's not like you started the fire, right?"

The man in the front pulled out and started driving.

"Hey, Tohru-san, who's that guy up front?" I whispered.

"That's Shigure Sohma-san."

Perplexed, I asked, "Sohma, as in Yuki-san and Kyo Sohma-san?"

She nodded. "I live with them."

"So I'm going to be living with Prince Charming and Tangerine Head?" I asked, a little louder.

Shigure-san heard what I said. "Yep. It's not a problem, is it?"

"No, of course it's not!" I grinned sheepishly. "I don't think Kyo-san likes me at all, though. Yuki-san does, and by that, I mean 'friend-wise'."

We pulled onto a dirt road leading into the woods. "You live in a forest?" Aiko asked. "Does it have squirrels in it? And raccoons and deer?"

"I haven't seen any of those animals," Shigure-san said, "but there are a few stray dogs now and again."

You see, Aiko has always loved animals, and so have I. We must have gotten the "animal-loving gene" from our parents, who used to live on a farm before they had me, but the place was what they called it, "Animal Country". After I was born, they moved into Kyoto, and got a puppy. The puppy grew into a dog, and died after Aiko turned six. Pretty long life span for him!

"Yay!" Aiko said. "I love dogs!"

Normally, if our parents had been there, I would have said something really immature, even though I'm sixteen. But our parents weren't there, nor were they alive. I had to keep a lookout for my sister now; we only had each other.

I hugged Aiko. "You don't have any dogs, do you, Tohru-san?"

Tohru-san grinned. "Sorry, but nope."

Aiko pushed me off of her and sighed. "I was hoping you did." She smiled and looked out the windows, watching for something. "I want to see the stray dogs, though!"

Finally, we pulled up to a house that looked pretty traditional, in the Japanese sense. Tohru-san, Aiko and I got out of the car, followed by Shigure-san.

Shigure-san and Tohru-san lead my sister and me up to the house, and then into it. They then lead us into a kitchen, then a dining room, where Yuki-san and Kyo Sohma-san sat.

"Rumi-san?" Yuki-san asked, looking perplexed.

"Shigure, what's she doing here?" Kyo-san asked rudely.

"Well, excuse me," I said, "my parents just died; I can't help that! I called Tohru-san because she gave me her phone number, and I called her, asking her to stay here!"

"Furiko, who are they and how do you know them?" Aiko asked in a whisper.

"Classmates," I answered simply. "Like Tohru-san. You like Tohru-san, don't you?"

My sister nodded slowly.

"Then you'll like Yuki-san."

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Jessi: Um...I'm not sure if Shigure can drive...but...if he can't...he just got lucky this time...-sweatdrop- Please R&R! I only got 3 reviews last time! -starts crying-

Momiji: Aw, it's okay, Jessi. -pats her back- Hey, when am I coming in, anyway?

Jessi: -stops crying- Uh...right before Haru.

Momiji: But that doesn't tell me anything!

Jessi: -grins- Oh well!