Neither Fruits Basket nor the Fruits Basket characters belong to me. They are the property of Natsuki Takaya.

A/N: Hi, I 'm back with Chapter 1. I am posting a little earlier than planned but I will be visiting my mother for the next week and I wanted to make sure I got at least one chapter posted between now and then.I have done my best to keep Shigure and Akito within character. Please forgive me if I step a little bit out of line.This is about five years after the anime. I really appreciate all the wonderful reviews I received after posting the prologue, I hope this chapter is as well received. If you normally review anonymously, leave your e-mail if you would like a response. I'll be happy to write to you. Please enjoy and leave a review if you feel it is worth the effort. Thank you.

Chapter 1 Shigure's Dilemma and Akito's Plot

The ringing of the phone on the hallway table jarred Shigure out of his reverie as Tohru picked it up. "Sohma Residence, Tohru speaking…Hatori-san, hello…just a moment and I will call him. He's upstairs working on his new novel."

Shigure was thankful that he was soon to be disturbed. His mind had been treading paths he knew he should not walk. His every thought led him to Tohru-kun these days and that was not a place he really wanted to be going or, perhaps to put it more accurately, it was not a place he should be going. He did want to be there, that was the real problem.

"Shigure-san…"

"Hai Tohru-kun, please come in."

"Hai. Hatori-san is on the phone for you."

"Thank you Tohru-kun, I'll take the call up here. I just had the ringer turned off while I was concentrating."

Shigure picked up the phone as Tohru walked out of his study. His eyes followed her as she left. "Ha-san, to what do I owe the pleasure of this call? It's not like you to call me. Usually Aya or I have to call you."

"Shigure, I don't know what Akito has up his sleeve, but he asked that I request you come over tomorrow morning around 10:00."

"Akito wants to see me tomorrow morning? I suppose I have no choice but to put in an appearance. Are you sure you have no idea what this might be about Ha-san?"

"If I were guessing, which I certainly don't enjoy doing, I think it may have to do with Tohru-kun and the research she's been doing for you since she graduated High School. However; I am certain Shigure that I will talk with you tomorrow. Good bye, enjoy Tohru-kun's cooking. I'm sure she will be preparing lunch soon."

"Do I detect a note of jealousy in your voice Ha-san? Come on now, you can tell me the truth. You wish you had Tohru to cook for you."

"Shigure, you are being an idiot. Bye." Hatori hung up the phone.

Shigure looked at the receiver after hearing the click. It's just as well Ha-san because I couldn't give her up easily to you either. Shigure shook his head in irritation. Why would he even have a thought such as that?

Restless, Shigure meandered downstairs to find his newspaper and a hot cup of coffee waiting for him. How she seemed to know exactly when he would put in an appearance was a mystery.

"Good afternoon, Shigure-san. Lunch will be ready soon" Tohru called looking over at him from a game of Rich Man, Poor Man. She was playing with Yuki, Kyo, and Momiji. Even after being out of high school for three years, it was still one of her favorite games.

"Is it afternoon already?"

He sat down at the table, took a sip of coffee and picked up his newspaper. Instead of reading it, he found himself watching the four younger people over the edge of it. From the animated expressions and happy laughter he could tell they were having a wonderful time. He would have liked to join them, but wasn't sure of his reception. He was only the much older cousin to the boys and the guardian for Tohru-kun…Grandfather Honda had made that clear from the time it was decided that she could live with him and the boys. The old man had even executed the appropriate paperwork leaving Tohru in Shigure's charge. For a man who seemed to be fast approaching senility and often called Tohru by her mother's name, he was still quite sharp in some aspects. Tohru and the boys were 21 and Momiji was now 20,he supposed there was no longer a need for those papers. He kept the papers in his safe though because they made Tohru's stay there legitimate and not something sordid. A young woman living with three men could be considered questionable, but with the grandfather's blessing, it made the situation acceptable. For the second time that day, he found himself shaking his head in irritation at his thoughts. It wasn't like him to doubt himself in such a manner.

Still, looking back on the last six years, he had not expected life to be this way. He had imagined that either Kyo or Yuki would have claimed Tohru-kun for himself by this time. The two still fought over everything else, but with Tohru they always seemed to be in agreement. It seemed all they wanted to do was maintain the status quo with her. One of these days someone else was going to steal her right from under their noses. He had tried to warn Yuki and Kyo on numerous occasions but was always met by icy glares and often a punch or two as well. He grimaced at the memory of those punches. It would serve them right if he were to take Tohru for himself. He returned to reading his paper and realized he had read the first paragraph half a dozen times and nothing else. It wasn't like him to have trouble concentrating, either. Concentration in Tohru's presence had become increasingly difficult in the last few months. He frowned as he watched Momiji put an arm around Tohru as he talked to her. Even the rabbit was becoming bolder in the other two's presence. When would they wake up and realize that they weren't the only two satellites in Tohru's orbit? He and other of the juunishi were drawn to her light just as much as they were. They were going to lose out on the best thing that could possibly happen to them if one or the other did not assert a claim soon. Even he was contemplating plans for winning Tohru's love and then setting those plans aside. He was surprised he still had scruples with the trend that his thoughts had been taking lately. Calling upon his many years of experience, Shigure forced himself to concentrate on the words in front of him and to push his thoughts of Tohru into a compartment in his mind for later examination.

"Shigure-san, lunch is ready. Won't you join us?" Tohru called.

"Hai, Tohru-kun," he called from his office where he had taken refuge. At least he had finally managed to read the newspaper.

Akito heard Hatori make the phone call to Shigure so he was certain the dog would be in to see him the next morning.Shigure was never one to ignore such a summons.

He considered his options in getting Shigure to fall in with his plans. The two of them had played this game many times over the years. It was challenging and fun for both of them. Sometimes Shigure won and sometimes he won. This time Akito was determined to win because there was much at stake here. Shigure had always been the nearest and dearest of his juunishi to him and this time Shigure's happiness was at stake. Akito found it a little ironic that he would want Shigure to be happy. This was highly unusual in Akito's little kingdom. However; if he could force Shigure to accept his happiness, then his dear Yuki and the Cat would be miserable, right? It just might be worth it. It did make a strange sort of sense. He smiled as he imagined the storm that would follow if his plan succeeded. Of course the joker in the deck was Miss Tohru Honda. She was the one variable he could not control.

It had been six years since Tohru Honda had come to live among the Sohmas. In that time his view of her had undergone many transformations. In the beginning, when Shigure first told him about the outsider who had discovered their curse he had been neutral in his feelings. She was a tool to be used and had no other meaning in his world. As she infiltrated his family and began to capture the hearts and the loyalty of his juunishi one by one, she had become a threat and the object of his hatred. He had seen his family's acceptance of her as a rejection of him and his place among them. He had feared being left alone and in this fear he had vowed to make her suffer. He had been prepared to carry out his justice that one fateful night of the cat's transformation to his original monstrous form. He had come up on her in the woods with her foot caught in the roots of a tree and she was alone. His words inflicted intense pain; he had seen the self-doubt and the emotional suffering in her eyes. He had rejoiced when the light that always surrounded her was extinguished. His next step had been to inflict physical pain and teach her a lesson that would never be forgotten. However; Shigure showed up. The dog had followed her into the woods and said one word "Akito". In that one word, his name, Shigure had uttered both a plea and an order. He had left the girl there in the rain and the cold, with the hope extinguished from her eyes. He had thought that would be enough to drive her away. He had been wrong. She had come to see him two days later and the light had returned. She had really surprised him and that was unusual. It was not often that a person's reaction was totally opposite to his expectation. Tohru Honda's reactions were rarely what he expected.

Since that time his feelings had changed. She had won the friendship and respect of Hatori, Momiji, and the others without taking away from him any of the power and honor that was his due. He had fought it every step of the way but in the end her invincible love and courage had won his grudging respect. He had allowed her to stay and had come to accept her as a part of the Sohma lives. He watched with interest the firestorm created by her presence. She never even realized she was the cause. For five years now, Yuki and the Cat had competed to prove once and for all which of them was the better man. They both continued to dance at the edges of their feelings for Tohru Honda. It had grown tiresome but in the last few months things had become quite interesting once more. The Cat and the Rat were a disappointment, but Shigure was another story. While most of his juunishi were still suspicious of his acceptance of the young woman, Shigure knew the truth. The dog knew that Akito had truly accepted her and that he had given up fighting against the light of her unquenchable spirit. Because he knew Akito's feelings, Shigure had dropped his guard just a little. He spoke of her more freely and when he did there was something different in his eyes. In the past, Shigure's expression had always been bland, giving very little of his emotions away. That was no longer the case. The girl had truly addled Shigure's emotions. When Miss Tohru Honda was spoken of in conjunction with the Cat, or his dear Yuki, or even one of the others, there was a hint of jealousy. It was clear that the dog had fallen victim to the riceball. At first Akito had been jealous and on the verge of having her memories erased. However, since Shigure still treated him with the same regard as he always had, his anger had turned to amusement. Out of the amusement a plan had been born. The plan held a strange sort of logic that was uniquely Akito's own.