Disclaimer: We do not own Sailor Moon or Fruits Basket.

(A.N: This is based on the manga version of Fruits Basket, so be warned. There may be some spoilers in here too, so be wary of that.)

The Tiger and the Firefly
By Yuki Snow and Silver Ganymede

Prologue

Violet eyes surveyed the scene around them with both sadness and envy as the young girl walked home from school. People were laughing and talking happily in their groups, but they all gave her a wide berth. Of course they would; to them she was nothing more than a 'freak' and while this hurt her she found herself agreeing.

After all, she was a Princess of an alien planet and a soldier who guarded life and death, rebirth and destruction; of course she was a 'freak', no wonder they avoided her. Of course, Chibi-Usa had been there for her, but she was gone now, gone back to the thirtieth century where her home truly was, and she, Hotaru, was alone again, like she was before all of this happened.

Hotaru had hoped that starting at Juuban Junior High last year would have given her a chance to make some friends, but it hadn't. People just avoided her; they could sense something was not right about her, she knew it. And now, just as she had started her second year, the bullying had begun again. She knew that their insults really shouldn't have bothered her but, in all truth, they did and they still hurt deeply. If anything, it was worse than how it used to be.

Hotaru looked up at the blooming Sakura trees that were all around her, closed her eyes, and made a wish that she knew would probably never come true. Not that she did not believe that magic existed---how could she not? She was a sailor senshi and so to deny magic's existence would be both foolish and pointless, but she just knew. She had only had one friend in her entire life and she was gone; so that's what she wished for… a friend. A friend as true and loyal as Chibi-Usa had been. She wanted nothing more than the friendship of another, perhaps one such as herself, even if she had to travel to another dimension to make the wish come true…

Little did she know that that just might happen…

She didn't feel much like going home that day. No matter what they said, she knew she was nothing more than a burden to everyone at home. Akito had said so, and she knew that Akito was always right. Akito was right, and that's one of the reasons she despised Akito.

No, she didn't want to go home, but even her home was better than school. She had dreaded beginning at the all-girl's junior-high Akito had insisted she go to; she wouldn't know anybody there. Had she been able to go to a normal junior-high at least she wouldn't have been alone this year – Hiro was only one grade below her – but because she was in an all-girl's school he'd never be there to keep the bullies away, not like he would if they went to the same school…

Yes, there were many bullies at her school, and all of them targeted her, little Sohma Kisa. And the worst thing was that no one did anything about it. It was a sad situation, and not something that Kisa could fix by herself.

'Everyone thinks that girls as 'nice' as they are and wouldn't even hurt a fly' Kisa mentally spat. 'I wonder what would happen if they saw how wrong they were…'

Kisa shook her head and directed her thoughts away from the matter; she was teased enough about her hair and her eyes and just about everything else all day long, so why dwell on it outside of school as well? It would only satisfy them more, because they would know they were getting to more than they ever thought they could.

A blossom from the sakura tree above her floated down and she caught it in her hand. Such beautiful things, the sakura blossoms were.

'I wonder how many people realise that?' she mused, staring at the delicate blossom she held in her hand. 'I know there are others that take time to look at these things. I only wish I had a friend whom I could share my thoughts with, no matter how trivial the thoughts. That's all I wish for… a friend.'

She stood up and walked away; leaving the sakura blossom she had been holding to float away into the sky.

A hall of mirrors, everlasting, eternal and filled with voids of swirling mists. Within this foreboding darkness stood a woman. Her age would have been impossible to guess, though she appeared no more than in her early twenties, her dark crimson eyes held wisdom beyond measure, the wisdom of the ancients.

She saw these two realities, these two young girls. So similar they were, both possessed by ancient spirits, both shunned and both friendless amongst their peers.

"Soon that shall change," she whispered. "Soon…very soon…" She let her staff with its garnet orb fall to the floor as she turned and spoke to the air itself, as there was no one else within the Halls of Time, "I think that it is time to pay some old friends a visit," the guardian whispered and she left the Hall of Mirrors and its swirling mists as the Stream of Time continued to flow on it's predestined course…