Stuff you need to know

'Telepathy'
"Talking"
'Thinking'
Titles
(me talking to you)
/actions/
/dreaming/
--Change in setting, Flashbacks or POV—

Disclaimer/sniffle/ Since most of you probably think that my story sucks right now, what makes you think that I would be able write and own something as popular as Fruits Basket?

A/N: I just wanted to say that I am not into incest or writing yaoi or anything like that, they just freak me out. Though I have nothing against people who like to read or write them.

A New Life, A New Beginning

--Girl's POV--

It's been three weeks since that day when I found my brother lying in his own pool of blood...dead, and a lot has happened. Though I don't remember most of it, everything seemed to have blurred and run together. However there were two moments in those three weeks that stood out in my mind crystal clear.

The first was right after I found my brother, I remember muttering the same phrase over and over, while staring at the red blood flowing from the wound in his chest toward the carpet, seeping into its pristine whiteness and staining it. My trance-like state didn't last long however, for the full reality of it all hit me head on like a train. That was when I broke down. My legs gave out from under me causing me to collapse onto the floor, there I curled up into a ball and cried.

I don't think I stayed in that position long, for the next thing I knew I was at the police station...or was it the hospital, I'm not sure which or even if I went to either. All I remember of that time was moving...the constant moving from place to place and the people. There were so many people...or perhaps they were the same person...I can't be too sure on that point either, they all seemed faceless to me. Though I suppose it doesn't really matter for they all did the same thing, whether it be the asking of questions or the poking. The questions, like the people, like everything else for that matter was a blur to me, I can't remember any of it or them at all. I suppose that's sad, not being able to remember days or was it weeks of one's life, but then again I really don't care.

Nothing really matters now and nothing probably ever will again.

I hadn't really started thinking like this until that second moment within those weeks, I think I was in a therapy session with my psychiatrist...I think the people at the hospital or police station or whatever thought that I needed therapy at the time to treat...I think it was my shock...But anyway this...lady...yes, yes the psychiatrist was a lady...I think...well anyway she was talking to me. I think she said something along the lines of it's alright to grieve to mourn, but I had to move on. My brother would've wanted me to...or some load of crap like that. But something she said or perhaps it was just me being fed up with her idiotic speech, triggered a chain of thought within me.

At that time all I could think about was that my onii-chan was gone, that he left me all alone in this cruel unforgiving world. But something she said got me thinking that he would never break a promise to me willingly, deep down I suppose I already knew that but just didn't want to accept it. But now I couldn't do anything but, so I continued down that line of thought and it led me to think that it was the burglar's fault that my big brother was dead. And so I shouldn't blame big brother but rather the burglar. But then I realized that if onii-chan hadn't been home at that time, then he wouldn't have died and the only reason he was at home at the time was because of me. Onii-chan had become a writer so that he would always be home to take care of me.

So in the end it was...my fault, I had killed the one thing that I held most dear life, the one thing that ever really kept me going.

That new found revelation shattered something within me, like when my sculpture shattered against the floor, it broke into a hundred pieces. That something had already started to crack but with that one thought it was sent to oblivion. I'm not exactly sure what that something was but I knew it was something important, perhaps it was my heart or maybe just maybe it was my...sanity.

After that day the tears that I would cry every night stopped flowing, it seemed as if they had been locked away somewhere deep inside me and with them I think my ability to speak and to show emotions on my face.

After that day, I became unemotional to the outside world or as my lawyer liked to put it, half dead. Dead...what an interesting thought, would being dead be any different from being as am now? Will it take away my pain? My guilt? My loneliness? Will I be better off dead than alive?

But the thing is no matter how much I would've liked to die, to kill myself and be rid of this sorry excuse of life, I just can't do it.

I'd like to think that I'm staying alive as a punishment, after all what better punishment can there be than to live with the guilt and pain of knowing that you had been the cause of the death of the person that had been the most important thing in your life, for the rest of your life. But that's a lie, I know it's a lie for in reality I know that the reason I won't kill myself is because I'm afraid. That's right, I'm coward and I've always been one, probably always will.

It's a painful thought but compared to the pain from the other: it is insignificant, a single drop of water in the large stormy sea.

"We are here," my lawyer said pulling me out of my self pity.

Did I mention before that I was in a car with my lawyer, heading toward the home of my guardian? It seems that the doctors or whatever finally judged that I was 'healthy' enough to go live with my guardian. And when I say healthy I mean that they thought that I was sane enough, and didn't need to be moved to a mental institution instead. It wasn't that I did anything to make them think that I was a nut case, but then again that was probably the problem. I didn't do anything...at all.

I think they thought that the shock of my brother's death fried my brain or something, since I didn't talk, cry, or eat. Well actually I do eat, but only when the 'nice' doctors tell me to.

If I had been my old self I probably would've found it extremely funny, that or annoying, the way they kept poking me and running tests on me to see if I had become a vegetable. Which I might add I most certainly did not, in fact after awhile I was almost back to normal on the inside.

And do you know what else is funny? I didn't even know that I had a guardian: it would seem that my brother had asked one of his writer friends to become my guardian if anything ever happened to him, without actually telling me of it. I've never in my life met this total stranger, that will be taking care of me for the next six years, until my twenty first birthday when I will be inheriting the bulk of my inheritance...that is if I live until then.

I was once again pulled out of my thoughts when my lawyer opened my car door. I looked up at my new...home and step out.

--Normal POV--

As the depressed girl stepped out of the car, her guardian stepped out to greet her and her lawyer.

"Welcome, it's nice to meet you, my name is Sohma Shigure and I shall be your guardian for the next couple of years. (Does anyone else think that this is wrong? Shigure, the guardian of a pretty, high school girl...Anyway I'm done now).

"It is nice to meet you Sohma-san, my name is Ishiteki Linna and I am your charge's lawyer. All the paper work has been settled, so I shall take my leave now. Sayonara," Linna says while bowing.

"Will you not stay for a cup a tea?"

"No, unfortunately I must go, I have another appointment in half an hour," Linna replied with a glance at her watch, before turning to leave.

Soon she drove away, leaving Shigure alone with his new charge standing in front of the house.

"Come, why don't we go meet the others, I'm sure that Tohru-chan will be happy to meet you," He was met with silence, but didn't take offence for he knew that she couldn't or wouldn't talk.

He led the girl to the door, into the house, up the stairs, and to a bedroom.

"This will be your bedroom for now on, why don't you unpack now, and then come down when you're done," Shigure suggested.

His reply was a hesitant nod from his charge, so he left the room and let her make herself at home.

--Girl's POV--

I just met my new guardian, he seems like a nice guy. I suppose I can see why Akira left me in his care, and his house isn't too bad either. It's not as big as the one I used to live in, but it's nice, it has the feel of a...home, a real one not just one of those empty husks.

I slowly unpacked my things, which didn't really take long since I didn't have a lot of stuff. I got rid of most of it after my brother's death, the things I did keep were the things I couldn't bring myself to give away or sell. They consists mostly of my brother's books, the family photo album, a couple of trinkets that my parents gave me when they had still been alive, a few seeds from the rose bushes that my brother and I planted five years ago, my earlier sculptures, a stuffed cat, and a few articles of clothes.

'I'd have to buy new ones soon, I definitely don't have enough to last me for months let alone years,' I think as I finger the sleeve of one of my favorite dresses, it was the one my onii-chan got me last year for my birthday.

When everything was as I liked it, I sat on my new bed and was about to slip into my depressing thoughts once more. But luckily I remembered that Shigure-san had wanted me to go downstairs when I was done unpacking, so I got up and went down.

I was walking down the stairs, when I realized that I didn't know where I was going! What was I to do? I couldn't just wonder around aimlessly. So I stood there frozen at the bottom of the stairs, biting my lower lip, the only sign of my worry, hoping that someone would come find me.

I didn't have to wait long before a girl carrying a basket of what I believe was laundry knocked into me, causing articles of clothing to scatter throughout the room.

The girl started to apologize for knocking into me even though it was all my fault after all I didn't get out of the way in time when I saw her coming toward me.

After a while I think she noticed that she was apologizing to someone who technically she didn't know, for she blinked and stopped in mid apology.

"I'm incredibly sorry for running into you, but who are you? I'm Honda Tohru." I just stared at her with my dull blue eyes, while continuing to help her pick up the scattered clothing.

I think I made her nervous after a few minutes, but luckily Shigure-san decided to appear at the moment.

"Ah Yumi, I see you've already met Tohru," Shigure-san said cheerfully.

I nodded slowly to show that I had indeed.

"Well Tohru, this is Kinpa Yumi, she'll be staying with us for a while," Shigure-san informed Tohru.

'Talk about fudging the truth!' I think incredulously.

"Oh ok, it's nice to meet you Yumi-chan," Tohru-chan says happily.

Once again the only thing I could do is stare in reply, but this time Shigure-san covered for me. It seems that he knows that I can't speak.

"Oh Tohru-chan, weren't you going to go hang these outside? You better hurry the sun's going to set soon."

"Oh right," Tohru says before rushing up the stairs and to where ever she was going to hang up those clothes.

"So, Yumi, why don't we go see if Tohru's cooked anything for us to snack on?"

'What is she, your housekeeper,' I start to wonder now, but follow him to the kitchen anyway. We rummaged, actually it was more like he rummaged, around in search of something edible, and soon came up with some cookies.

Two cookies (five on Shigure's part) later, Tohru returned from her clothes hanging.

"Don't eat too many of those, I'm going to start dinner now so it should be done really soon," Tohru said with a smile.

I'm starting to think that Tohru is one of those cheerful, glass half full, people that smile at everything...it'd be interesting to see if I'm right.

"Hey Tohru have you gotten dinner ready yet," A boy with orange hair comes barging in.

'/Blink/ Wait orange hair? I wonder if that's natural.'

"Just a few more moments," Tohru replies.

"Hey who are you?" he says after realizing that I was in the room.

Me being mute just...you guessed it, just stared.

I don't think he liked that at all, because he said rather angrily, "What are you staring at?"

I think this one has an anger management problem. I hope he doesn't live here; it could get rather nasty if he does.

"Stop it Kyo, it's not Yumi's fault. She doesn't speak so she can't help staring," Shigure informed the orange haired boy, now known as Kyo.

"Whatever, so why is she here?"

"She's my new charge."

"What do you mean by charge?"

"Her brother just passed away so I'm her new guardian."

"What! That means that she'll be living here!"

"Yep."

"But she's a girl!"

'Oh it's great to be talked about as if I weren't right here in front of them. And what's wrong with me being a girl,' I thought silently to myself.

"It's alright she's from a family that's inside," Shigure-san assured.

"So she knows?" Kyo asked.

"Wait inside what, know what? This is so confusing, it's like they're speaking in code or something.'

"She should, her brother did."

'The hell? What about my brother? What is going on?'

"So, anyone have any idea where Yuki is?"

"Like I would know where that rat is," Kyo says disdainfully.

'...RAT!'

"I think he's at a student council meeting," Tohru supplies helpfully.

'Wait a rat in a student council meeting. What the hell is going on!' I think frustrated.

"He should be back very soon, but why don't we start eating first?" Tohru says while she finishes setting up the table.

We all sit down around the table and Tohru says, "I hope you like Nabe, Yumi."

I just nod and start to eat, rude I suppose but what else can I do? No matter how much I'd want to say something, I just couldn't. Not because I wouldn't but rather that I couldn't, and believe me I've tried.

The Nabe is truly delicious, and we sit in relative silence while we ate. I think I was the cause of the silence but I really don't mind, silence has long since become a well acquainted friend and I take great comfort in her frequent embraces.

This comforting silence didn't last long though for the screen door opened once more and another boy walked in. This one was as cute as the last and also had an interesting shade of hair color. I wonder if they dye their hair or if it's their natural hair color like mine.

"Welcome home Yuki, how was the meeting?" Tohru asked as she handed Yuki a bowl.

'…the rat?'

"It was fine, and thank you," Yuki says as he accepts the bowl.

It doesn't seem that he has noticed me yet, how strange. I mean how often do they get a strange girl in their house? But then again I've always been a little invisible to others.

"Oh hello and who are you? Are you one of Tohru's friends?" Yuki asks when he finally notices my existence.

"Her name is Kinpa Yumi and she just met Tohru today," Shigure-san supplies when I didn't answer.

"Oh..."

I think he was wondering why I was in the house if I weren't friends with Tohru, and probably why I didn't answer his question myself.

By this time I had finished eating so I got up, walked to the kitchen, and started to wash my dishes. However Tohru rushed in and told me that I didn't need to and should leave it there for her to wash later, so that is exactly what I did. I walked out of the kitchen and upstairs to my room, where I plopped down on the bed and commenced to staring at the ceiling with unseeing eyes and letting my mind wonder. And wonder it did until I finally drifted off to sleep.

Suzu: And that's that. /Sigh/ That was a little boring, but I really needed to set up the setting, so please bear with me for the next couple of chapters. Also if you were to find any errors please pm me or review, I'm always open to constructive criticism. Ja ne.