This story was inspired by two of my very bestest friends! I wrote this for them as a request, right now my idea is to make it a chapter story, one chapter for each 'Sohma'. Much love to you guys! To my Ein (FruitsBasketsLove) and to Lauren… especially Lauren for giving me the joy of reading Gravitation… peace… out!

The REAL Fruits Basket

Prologue – The Journalists Tale

I can still remember the old days of my career, I was one of the most popular and famous journalists of my time. Always coming up with amazing stories thought to be unreal, all of them true. It was so much fun, but time passed by and I lost my edge, fresh blood was found for my job and I was kicked to the curb. So I'm writing a journal now, just for myself mainly, so others can see my life… but actually it's not my life I want them to see… it's the people who inspired my very first story… although the article has long since faded I'm gonna rewrite it and all the information that actually went with it. This will be the detailed version of my world famous article, 'The Sohma Myth'. You all know the legend of the Chinese Zodiac don't you? How the Rat tricked the Cat so on and so forth? Good. This is an article written about people who believed… they could turn into animals...

There is a place on the outskirts of Tokyo, Japan. A place called The Sohma Mental Institute. Let me see, it was owned by a miss… Tia Horu… no… um… Tohru Honda! Yes her name was Tohru Honda. There were only 14 patients in the SMI but they were the oddest people anyone could ever meet and they had to be kept away from other people for their own safety. Now the fourteen people only had first names, but soon came to think of themselves as the 'Sohma's'. To them Tohru was their friend and savior, not the trained nurse they believed her to be.

The fourteen members of the SMI were as follows:

Akito

Ayame

Hatori

Hatsuharu

Hiro

Kagura

Kisa

Kureno

Kyo

Momiji

Rin

Ritsu

Shigure

Yuki

Now each member believed themselves to be an animal from the Chinese Zodiac, all with the exception of Kyo and Akito. Kyo believed himself to be the cat, and although part of the legend, it's not part of the Zodiac…. Akito… was… a much rarer … case? Shall we say? Although he was not an animal, or at least, he didn't believe he was, the other 'Sohma's', believed him to be the 'Leader' of their little family. Just to indulge in their beliefs, Tohru herself went along with their little 'game'. Going past their hallucinations, Akito was actually such a hazard to himself he had to be held down and seduced daily as well as put in a, although so cliché and expected, a straight jacket.

Now back to me, at this time I was having trouble believing it, but then Miss Honda asked me if I would like to stick around for awhile and see how they act around others and try to give me a feel for … their world?... yes…. It was at this point I realized the one called Shigure was a 'novelist'. Tohru told me she had fakely hired an editor to make one or two fake copies for Shigure's sake, she said eventually the editor got sick of it all and quit… she also said the editor resembled me slightly and for my own sake I should act like I was Shigure's editor just hanging about the house with 'their friend Tohru's' permission.

And so I did… more on that in the next few pages… it is late and I should like to continue my story tomorrow…