Disclaimer: We don't own Fruits Basket, nor will we ever own it. We just own the Miyokos and we decided to write this story. So please don't sue.

A/N: Super. I'm the one they let write the difficult scene where the Sohmas and Miyokos meet. It's not a good chappie, I'm sure, but I did my best. So please, no flames.

Chapter 3:

The Sohmas Meet the Miyokos

"Ren?" Kaori pushed her younger cousin's bedroom door open. "Ren, it's time to get up. There's school Orientation today."

Kaori watched as Ren's eyes fluttered open. "What?" she asked.

"Orientation? You remember? You're going to start school at Kawaia High today."

"School? What time is it?"

"Eight-thirty," Kaori replied, checking her watch. "And Orientation starts at nine."

"What?!" Ren leaped out of bed with amazing speed. "Why didn't you get me up sooner?!"

"I would have, but Amaya and Amarante were being exceptionally difficult this morning. Now, I have to go wake Asa and Kiyoshi. Hurry and get dressed, okay?"

Ren nodded and seized clothes from her bedroom floor. Kaori pulled the door closed behind her and went to wake her other cousin and younger brother.

Once everyone was awake, they all gathered in the kitchen. Kaori made toast and handed two pieces to everyone.

"That's all for now, she told them. "But when we get home, we'll have a better meal. Now, everyone, to the van."

They all strolled out to Kaori's multicolored van. Amarante raced to the driver's side and was halfway in when Kaori shoved her clear to the other side. Then she climbed in and shut the door.

"Seatbelts," she announced. They all clicked the seatbelts into place. "There, all buckled in. Now, please remember the rules. Be on you best behavior. That goes double for you, Amarante."

Amarante glared at her fraternal twin. "What does that mean?" she demanded.

"It means none of your disgusting displays or overdoing it with your emotions. Contain the passion, Amarante!"

The van exploded with laughter. Amarante crossed her arms over her chest and glowered.

"Are we there yet?" Kiyoshi asked. Both Kaori and Amarante glared at him.

"No," Amarante said.

"How much longer?" Amaya asked.

"Two minutes," Kaori snapped. Kaori had a rotten temper, she knew, but she tried to keep it with the children.

They pulled into the parking lot of Kawaia High. Kaori pulled the van into a parking spot and turned it off.

"Everyone out. And, Kiyoshi, use the door, not the windows."

"Aw, man!" But Kiyoshi complied and filed out behind Asa.

"Alright," Amarante said. "Let's do this."

The six Miyokos filed into the building.

"I can feel it!" Amarante shouted.

"Oh, God," Kaori muttered, burying her face in her hands. "Amarante, please come back here."

But Amarante did not come back. Instead, she shouted a bit more and began to make…interesting noises. Kaori groaned and, rising from her chair, joined her twin in the middle of the room.

"Amarante, this has gone far enough. Please sit back down."

By that time, many men had flocked to Amarante. Kaori groaned again, louder than before.

"Amarante, why do you do this to me? I told you in the car to contain the passion. Why, oh why don't you listen to me?"

"Listen to you!" Amarante said. "You're over-dramatizing it!"

"Come on, children!" Kaori announced, seizing Amarante's upper arm. "Let's go look around the school now."

The Miyokos began to leave the room, but another large family stepped in front of them.

"Hello," said the dark-haired man who was in the lead of the group.

"Hi, there!" Amarante said cheerfully.

"Hello," Kaori said.

"I'm Hatori Sohma. These are my relatives Shigure, Ayame and his brother Yuki, Kyo, Kisa, Hiro, Momiji, and Hatsuharu. And this is Miss Tohru Honda, who is of no relation." He gestured to each person in turn as he introduced him or her.

Kaori shook Hatori's hand. "I'm Kaori, and this is my twin sister, Amarante. That's our baby brother, Kiyoshi, and these three are our cousins Asa, Ren, and Amaya. We're the Miyokos."

The man named Shigure shoved Hatori out of the way. "It is such a pleasure to meet you, Kaori."

"Thank you," Kaori said uncertainly.

The silver-haired Ayame had taken to talking to Amarante, and the children were all making small talk, carefully chaperoned by a grim-faced Hatori.

"I don't know if it's a good idea for Aya to be talking to your sister, Kaori," Shigure said.

"Why not?" Kaori looked at the pair. They were talking animatedly and laughing.

"Well, let's just say that Aya and Amarante are an awful lot alike in their mannerisms."

"Oh, God," Kaori whispered, slamming the heel of her hand into her forehead.

"Oh, but don't beat yourself up about it. Maybe they'll distract each other so much they'll leave everyone else alone."

Kaori laughed. "I don't know…Amarante had a tendency to annoy everyone around

her."

"Hmm." Shigure stood there, rubbing his chin and staring at her. Kaori shifted nervously.

"You have very beautiful eyes," he said finally.

Kaori shook her head and blinked several times. "What?"

But before Shigure could repeat the compliment, a voice cried out his name.

"Shigure!"

He turned. A young woman with short, brown hair was pushing through the crowd toward them.

"Mii?" Shigure said. He turned back to Kaori. "Gotta run!" He took off.

Just after he left, the woman he'd called 'Mii' came over.

"Where'd Shigure go?" she asked.

Kaori pointed down the hallway. Mii followed her gesture and raced down the hall, shouting Shigure's name.

Kaori went over to Hatori's side. "What was that?" she asked.

Hatori replied, "That was his editor. He won't be pleased if she finds him."

"Hmm."

Ren's being quiet again, Amaya thought. Being quiet and missing out on this fun conversation.

Amaya had instantly taken a liking to the boy Hatsuharu. His mannerisms seemed to run parallel to hers. He wore the same type of necklaces, and wore his clothes the

way she did, undone to a permissible position.

Except that her ear piercings were more extreme than his were. She had 12 rings in her left ear and 5 studs on her right.

"Nice ears," Hatsuharu said.

She nodded. "Nice hair," she replied.

He nodded in return.

Her hair, in sharp contrast to Haru's black and white, was muddy brown, streaked with lime green. The streaks matched the nail polish she wore.

Her clothes were a different matter entirely. While most of her family had dressed somewhat conservatively, she had dressed like a bum. Her pants were bright red and about four sizes too big. Her shirt was red, too, but it was more orange than her pants. She clashed horribly, and she loved it.

Asa had dressed in her normal black, and Ren had dressed in a cute little skirt and blouse outfit. Kiyoshi wore jeans and a sweater. Amarante was wearing her 'best' outfit and Kaori had dressed for the part of the 'authority figure.' Amaya was glad she didn't dress at all like them.

The little blonde boy, Momiji, was talking animatedly about nothing at all important, but Tohru, Yuki, Haru, Asa, and Kiyoshi were all listening; she, Kyo and Ren weren't. Kyo was starting to get angry. Ren was very shy around everyone, but especially boys. And she wasn't talking to Kyo.

"Damn it! What the hell is wrong with you?! Don't you talk?!" he shouted at her.

Ren shook her head slowly, somewhat startled by his outburst.

He turned to Amaya. "Why doesn't she talk?"

"Hmm…" she rubbed the back of her neck, as if pondering the question. Then she said, "Maybe if you weren't swearing and shouting, she might just pluck up the courage to say hi!"

"Kyo, you should be nice, you know. She's new to our school," Momiji said.

"I swear-" Kyo started.

"You certainly do," Amaya muttered.

Hatsuharu laughed. "You haven't heard swearing yet. He isn't even that mad."

"Well, he needs to cool it," Kiyoshi said. Kiyoshi was starting to become overprotective of Ren.

"What are you gonna do about it, you little twerp?" Kyo shouted.

Amaya stepped between the two boys. She growled at Kyo and stepped toward him. She got so close to him that her nose was about an inch from his.

"If you lay one hand on him, I will rip you up so bad, you'll look like ground beef."

"Oh, yeah? Well start ripping, newbie!"

Kyo threw the first punch. Amaya leapt back and connected her fist with his face. About that time, Yuki stepped in.

"Please, Miss Miyoko, don't sink to his level."

Amaya launched a kick in Yuki's direction. He wasn't expecting the attack and her foot connected with the side of his face. Yuki was knocked to the ground.

"Shut up, Sohma!" she seethed. "This is between me and him!"

She turned to face Kyo. He was staring at her in disbelief. Then, while he was occupied, Amaya landed the same move on Kyo. He fell to the ground, holding the side of his face, which was quickly bruising.

"What the hell?!" Kyo shouted. He looked up at Amaya. "How the Hell did you do that?!"

Hatsuharu grabbed her hand and shook it. "Well done," he said. "You actually beat Yuki. Good job."

Amaya nodded, still ticked. "Whatever. It wasn't much of a fight. He wasn't really ready."

Kaori stalked over before Haru could respond. She looked angrier than Amaya had. She grabbed Amaya by the arm.

"What did I tell you about fighting in public?"

Amaya's face brightened. She remembered that conversation. And she'd thought Kaori was mad.

"You said, 'If you're going to fight in a public place, do it when there are no witnesses.'"

"Exactly. There are about 500 people in this hallway. You don't want to make people feel intimidated by you in front of their friends and family. Now pick up those boys and apologize."

Amaya nodded, "Yes, ma'am."

She slunked over to Yuki and pulled him up by one arm. Then she touched the bruise on his face. He winced and she pulled her hand back.

"Sorry, Yuki," she said.

"It's fine, Miss Miyoko," he replied.

But when she moved to pull Kyo to his feet, he pulled back from her.

"I can get up by myself."

"Fine!"

"How did you do it? How the Hell did you kick Yuki's ass?"

Before he could say anything else, Amaya grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet. "What do you mean, how? How do you think I did it? I just did it."

"I've been trying like Hell to beat him and I've never done it. You just did it, and that was your first try! Damn it!"

"Oh, please, Kyo! Just leave her alone. Please?" Tohru whispered.

"Yeah," Haru said. "Lay off, Kyo."

"Oh, he's fine. I'm not going to kick his ass again. He just doesn't realize that I didn't kick Yuki's ass, I just caught him off guard. I'd rather he'd blow up for no reason to my face than keep it bottled up and end up killing someone because he can't think."

"Hey!" Kyo stared at her angrily. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

Amaya held out her hand to Kyo. "Let's let bygones be bygones, alright?"

Kyo looked uncertainly at her hand.

"Seriously, let's forget it all, okay?" Amaya rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Fine." Kyo took her hand and shook it.

"Oh, and I'm sorry I beat you up and all that junk," Amaya said sincerely, taking her hand back. "Maybe we can get past it enough to become friends. Since my family's new and all, we'll need friends sometime."

Kyo looked shocked. "You think we can be friends?!"

"Why the hell not? Maybe not us personally, but I think our families are quite similar. It could be nice." Amaya shrugged and looked at the rest of the group. "Am I the only one who feels that way?"

"I think," Ren spoke softly and everyone looked at her expectantly. She shied back a little.

"It's okay, Rennie," Kiyoshi said, patting her shoulder softly. "What were you saying?"

Ren sighed heavily and looked up. Everyone could she the terror in her eyes as she spoke out to the strangers. "I think being friends with the Sohmas might be…nice."

Kiyoshi smiled at her. "Me, too."

Ren smiled gratefully at her cousin.

Everyone looked around at his or her neighbors in the small circle. The Miyokos looked from each other to the Sohmas and the Sohmas looked from the Miyokos to each other. Tohru stared and smiled a small smile.

Momiji was the first to speak. "I do! I do! I'd love to be friends!" He was jumping up and down excitedly.

"I think that having some new friends wouldn't be bad," Tohru said.

"I agree, Miss Honda," Yuki stated with a smile.

"Whatever," Kyo said.

Asa simply nodded and Amaya did the same.

"Does this mean we're friends?" Momiji asked Tohru.

"I don't know. Hiro, Kisa and Haru didn't say anything," Yuki answered for the silent Miss Honda, who smiled at him gratefully.

"I'd like to be friends," Kisa said.

"So would I. Me, too," Hiro echoed, though his face had a looked of supreme agitation pasted on it.

"So would I. Let's do it." Haru extended a hand to Kiyoshi, who accepted and the two shook hands.

"Then I guess it's unanimous. The Sohmas and the Miyokos are friends." Amaya grinned at her family.

"Yay!" Momiji shouted. "That is so great! I love making new friends! I really do!"

"Let me see your schedule, Amaya," Haru said.

Amaya handed it over. Haru grinned.

"Great! You, me and Momiji have the same class."

"Cool!" Amaya replied.

"Ren's with Kisa, Hiro and Kiyoshi," Asa said, her first words addressing the group. "And I'm with Yuki, Kyo and Tohru."

"So, we all have friends in our classes." Kiyoshi still had his hand on Ren's back. "Kewl!"

"Speaking of class," Yuki said, looking at the clock in the hallway. "We should be getting to ours. After school, maybe we could all meet up and play a game or something."

They all agreed.

Shigure finally made his way back over to Kaori.

"I'm sorry about that. Mii has a tendency to freak out if I'm not at home working."

"So she's your editor, isn't she?"

"Yes. Ha'ri told you, did he?"

"He told me she was your editor. Editor for what?"

Shigure smiled, as if he'd been wanting her to ask him that, and spoke, "Well, I'm a novelist, actually. And Mii's my editor."

"Interesting. Did you write anything I might've read?"

"Not unless you read dimestore novels," Hatori said.

"Now, Ha'ri, you shouldn't pick on Shigure," Ayame said, finishing his conversation with Amarante and coming over to them. Amarante followed him.

"That's right," Shigure said, looking rather smug. "You shouldn't pick on me."

"Shut up, Shigure."

"Hadn't we better be getting home, Amarante?"

"Do we have to, Kaori? I'm having such a nice time talking to the Sohma men."

"Well…"

"Come on, Kaori," Shigure said. "Don't you like us?"

Kaori grinned at him. "I don't know. I haven't decided yet."

Shigure smiled back and opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by Ha'ri.

"Don't start your flirting, Shigure," Hatori said. "It's bad enough having to listen to you complain without having to listen to you flirt, too."

"I'm not flirting," Shigure whimpered, pouting slightly.

"Yes, you are. And who could blame you?" Ayame said. "The Miyoko girls are very attractive."

Amarante giggled and Kaori gave him a half smile.

"Well, I could flirt back," Amarante said, winking at Aya. "But Kaori would probably hit me."

"Yeah, I probably would. But I can shamelessly flirt if I want to. There's nothing wrong with me doing it." Kaori smiled wickedly.

"That's not fair!"

"Shut up." Kaori turned her attention back to Shigure and pasted on a fake, yet passionate smile. "Shigure. You are so hot. Will you go out with me?"

Everyone laughed, except for Shigure, who began to blush.

"What, are you serious?"

"No."

"Oh, would you look over there? Momiji is coming this way with a group of children. Maybe we should see what he wants."

"Ha'ri, Ha'ri!" Momiji jumped up and down, holding onto Hatori's coat. "Ha'ri, can we invite the Miyokos to Shigure's house? Can we? Can we?"

Hatori pulled Momiji's hand from his jacket. He turned to Kaori with questioning eyes and Kaori shifted uncertainly.

"I suppose," Hatori said, looking at the faces of each of the children. "That's Shigure's choice."

A/N: Amaya caught Yuki off guard! She didn't beat him up!! Don't think that!! How was that chapter? R/R, please! Thanks! FTBC