I do not own Fruits Basket.

Now for Ryu. If Rogue, Ryu, and I were on a deserted island and one of us had to die because only two more people could fit on the rescue boat... I'd kill myself. Rogue is my best friend, but so is Ryu. Rogue and I will sit around for hours and watch movies and talk and do other normal best friend things. Ryu and I have a different relationship. We tease each other, threaten to kill each other, take things from each other, and do everything in our power to make the other stronger. We used to beat each other within an inch of death just to... Getting ahead of myself. That's for another time. When we met Ryu...

Risty was walking around the school library looking for the next book in the manga series she was reading. There they were, Fruits Basket. Book 1, book 2, book 3, book 4, book 5... There it was, book 12. She reached for it and her hand hit someone else's. She looked up at a dragon-demon with blue wings. Risty and the dragon girl glared at each other for a few minutes. When it was obvious neither of them was going to back down Risty began talking.

"You like Fruits Basket?"

"Duh, why else would I be getting it?"

"Some people borrow things for their friends, I don't know."

"I'm new here. I don't have any friends."

"Have you read book 11?"

"No, I just read what I can get."

"Make a deal with you."

The dragon girl watched Risty suspiciously.

"I have all of the books but this one at home, you let me read this one first, I'll let you read the rest of the series."

They both kept their hand on the book.

"Deal?"

"How about this. So I know you won't trick me. I'll get the book, and come over to your house. We can read the books there. You don't have to worry about me stealing your books; I don't have to worry about you not letting me read them. Deal?"

"I like the way you think. Deal."

The dragon-demon took the book to the checkout desk. "By the way, I'm Ryu."

Risty handed Ryu a piece of paper with her address on it. "Risty. Nice doing business with you."

It was the weirdest thing I had ever experienced. I was thinking she would steal my books; it was just my thought process. And she was thinking I would lie to her, in her place I would have thought the exact same thing. I had never met someone who thought like me before, no one had ever actually understood what I was thinking unless I explained it to them, except for maybe the redheaded boy... Again, that's another story. Back to Ryu. That evening at my apartment...

Risty pulled out her Fruits Basket collection and sat on the sofa with Kyo, Scout, Sox, and Mittens curled up next to her. Minahi was in fox form with her head resting on Risty's thigh, and Shigure was lying on Risty's feet. Someone knocked on the door and she yelled: "It's open!"

Kurama and Rogue came in followed by Ryu. Ryu stopped halfway in the door and stared at all the animals.

"Aw!" she cried.

"If you think they're cute now wait until you hear their names." Risty told her.

"Because you are obviously an avid Fruits Basket reader, allow me to guess." she stood by the cages and pointed to the seahorse tank, "Hatori," the snake, "Ayame," the rabbit, "Momiji," the gerbil, "I'm going to say, because it is a rodent, Yuki," she smiled at the black lab at Risty's feet, "Shigure, and because only one of the cats is orange, I'm going to say that one's Kyo."

Risty smiled and nodded. "Yep, these three," she pointed to each cat in turn, "are Scout, Sox with an 'x', and Mittens. And this," she pointed to the fox, "is Minahi."

"Here's 12." Ryu handed her the book and picked up book 1. "Shall we?"

Risty smiled. "We shall."

"So wait, you know each other?" Kurama asked.

"Hm? Oh, I met her at the library today and we started arguing over who got to read Fruits Basket book 12 first. Rogue, Kurama, this is Ryu-san."

"Dragon-san?" Rogue said skeptically.

"Yeah, my parents had an interesting sense of humor." Ryu explained. "Let's name our dragon-demon daughter dragon! Won't that be interesting?"

Risty held a hand over her mouth.

"Are you laughing at me?"

"Hey, only I am allowed to make Ryo-chan laugh!" Kitten scolded, walking in the door.

"Wait! I know you! You're that bitch from school!" Kitten and Ryu yelled at the same time, pointing at each other. "I'm a bitch? Oh you are going to pay for that!" they both yelled and stood up.

Ryu and Kitten glared at each other and Risty had to hold them apart to keep them from killing each other.

And that makes five. There are only a few more people and then we can get down the business. Let's see... Next was Megumi, the only person I will not consider my friend, then came Shante, good old boy-obsessed Shante and her hectic love-life, and last, but certainly not least, Dante and Kina, how a light demon and a vampire came to join us at the same time I will never know, all I know is that Kina is the only thing that kept me sane all these years... Now, Megumi...