-The Secret Sohmas-

I don't own Fruits Basket… but I own Gender Switch Fruits Basket! I shall make costumes and you will all bow before me!

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Thank you, kind reviewers. Your time and your little touch of effort and praise shown by reviewing me brings me so much happiness. I'm very thankful.

I'd like to thank my new reviewer: Yanielle. I'm pleased that you're excited! I'm sorry that I lost you for a minute, but I'm going to try as hard as I can to keep it clear… which is going to become more and more difficult as I introduce more characters.

I'd also like to thank Damki for coming back to review me. You're too kind to me, and my most faithful reviewer. That chapter did have a whole range of emotions, didn't it? It was kind of strange… I hope you like this next one just as much. It should be happier.

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Since I'm writing in the Fruits Basket style, I will be making jokes and comments that would only make sense if one knew Japanese. I will leave notes to explain them at the end of the chapters.

Leave a comment in the review if there's still something you don't get and I'll fix it just for you.

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Yeah! The story has split in two! One side with the Sohma boys in the compound of the Sohma girls, and one with the Sohma girls leaving the home of the Sohma boys… EXCITING!

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Chapter 5 -

He sat there by the window for longer than he had kept count, his hand through his hair, trying to decide how much truth he needed to conceal and how much he needed to create.

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The soft brown eyes seemed sad, but they smiled none-the-less. "After a week I was starting to get worried." The figure was slim, almost frail and not all that tall. The pants were snug, the polo shirt was light colored with a smartly folded collar, and the hair was straight and short, matching the eyes. It was Tohru, only it was a guy. The Sohma boys were dumbstruck. They didn't think a male version of Tohru was possible, but there he was.

Soft-soled shoes pattered down the stairs as the boy approached. "Woh, Yukiko-san, are you alright?" The boy had come close enough to hug before he realized that this was not Yukiko. He skid to a stop, looking them all over. He rubbed the back of his head. "This is almost embarrassing. You look so much like them. Here, let me help. Hey, you're bleeding!"

The young man turned to help Yuki when he realized that part of Kyo's face was scratched up. He half panicked. "Here. Bring him up here and I'll get the kit." The young man ran inside the house and Haru followed with Yuki supported on his shoulder. The boy ran out a minute later to help Yuki up the stairs and held the door for them. The house was very western styled. The outside had a porch patio and a swing bench, all wood-finished. Inside was very western as well. There was little natural light, but the lamps and ceiling lights cast a yellow glow onto a dark, ornate rugs, large couches and lamps, and wood finished coffee tables.

Haru laid Yuki on one of the couches and stripped off his coat, scarf, and shoes. The young man joined him immediately with a cold pack. He turned to Kyo for a moment. "Are you alright?"

Kyo, holding his wounded arm, looked solemn for a moment and then nodded in Yuki's direction. "Deal with him first."

Haru took the cold pack and balanced it on Yuki's forehead.

"Is he going to be alright?" the young man asked, squatting next to Haru. Haru adjusted Yuki's pillow. "He'll be fine now."

The boy stayed squatted there for a moment until Yuki's breath steadied, and then stood and pulled the first aid kit off the table where he had placed it down.

He rushed over to Kyo who was now trying to peel off his own jacket. The young man's eyes winced slightly, now being able to see Kyo's scratches properly. He handed him a warm cloth with antibiotic. "Here. I'll let you clean that off."

Kyo eyed the cloth suspiciously as well as the boy. He brought it to his face slowly and hissed angry when it made contact with the skin. The boy busied himself in the kit to keep himself from wincing again. Kyo continue to eye him as the boy began to pull out gauze. Haru stood up and inspected Kyo. "You missed a spot."

Kyo recoiled angrily when Haru tried to touch the cloth and the young man laughed a bit as young men do, rewrapping loose gauze. "I don't mean to pry, but are you related to the Sohma girls?"

Haru turned and blinked in his usual manner so Kyo answered since Yuki was currently unconscious. "We've crossed paths."

The young man's eyes lit up. "So you've seen them?"

Haru answered this time. "We were with them today."

"You were? Are they alright?"

"Alive and kicking."

"That's good to know," the brown-eyed boy sighed, smiling slightly like he couldn't help it. "Those girls. They seem to cause more trouble when they're gone than when they're here." His eyes were sad, but he laughed a bit and glanced out the front windows like he was expecting someone to be there.

Kyo and Haru saw this. Kyo removed the cloth, glanced down at the dried blood on it, and stuck it back on his face. "Who the heck are you?"

The young man instantly redirected his attention, clapping his gauze filled hands together in a small apologetic gesture. "Sorry. I haven't introduced myself, have I." He bowed with western zeal. "My name is Honda Tohru." He laughed a bit to hide his embarrassment. "But the girls all call me Ru."

"Ru?"

"Yeah," he rubbed the back of his head again. "No one seems to use full names here. It's all nicknames." Ru handed Kyo the gauze to cover his laugh. Haru took it and offered to wrap Kyo for him, all with gestures and facial expressions. Kyo looked very skeptical, but Haru got him before he could say anything. "Ow! That hurts, idiot!"

Ru handed Haru the disinfectant as he tried to hide another laugh. "So who are you guys?"

"Kyo, Haru, and Yuki." Haru said quickly, pointing to each of them.

Ru's eyes widened as he repeated the names, then he smiled brightly. "If this isn't the smallest world I've ever been in."

"You're telling me."

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"Where were you?"

"We couldn't find you on the subway."

"Oh, shut-up. I was fine."

Kyoko was standing next to a cement column in the train station; head down and defiant, holding both straps of her backpack in one hand over her shoulder.

"You should apologize to Tohru-chan. She was really worried."

Kyoko looked up, startled. Tohru was partially clinging to Yukiko's bag (Tohru's not use to traveling). When she realized that Kyoko was looking at her she started waving her arms frantically. "You don't need to apologize! I was just worried because I couldn't see you, but I'm short so it's all right!"

"Okay, already." Kyoko flattened her hat onto Tohru's head in an attempt to calm her. "No need to make a scene."

Tohru giggled, blushing when she saw Kyoko's Kyo-like flustered blush. Kyoko turned, subconsciously looking more intimidating as she tried to fight off the blush. "And you're not that short."

Tohru smiled, pulling the hat off her head. She actually looked at it for the first time and the past flashed through her mind as she realized why the cap had felt so familiar. She smiled softly.

"What is it now?" Kyoko whined, angrily. Tohru just giggled lightly, handing the hat back. "It's just that, that hat looks just like that one I found when I was kid. I got lost and a boy wearing that hat found me and led me home."

Tohru hadn't finished her gentle giggling by the time Kyoko had put the hat back on. "The colors are a little different, though."

"Maybe Kyoko got it at the same place."

"Yeah. Where'd you get it?"

"Shut-up, yous! It's none of your business!"

"That only makes it more suspicious."

"Just shut-up and get on the train!"

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"Oh, Yuki-san, you're awake."

The young Ru had wrapped himself in a coat and scarf and was sitting out the swing on the porch when Yuki came out, followed by Haru. Kyo was sitting on the couch inside next to the window so his head could lean out it.

"Ru-san. Might I ask where we are?"

Ru smiled the way most guys smiled, except this was a genuine one, like all his others. "You're at the Sohma Clubhouse. The one residence on the premises not made with brick or stone."

Yuki blinked at the added note. Looking up and looking out across the road and down it, he could see that Ru seemed to be absolutely right. Most of the visible houses were all brick, the large house behind the next wall looked like a medieval fortress.

Haru and Yuki both tried to ask something at once, so Haru backed down and let Yuki go first.

"Do you live here?"

"In the Clubhouse? Yes, I do."

"Do the girls that look like us live here?"

Ru laughed a bit. "The girls? They all but live here. No, they all have their own places. They visit here all the time, though. The head of the household would never dare let us live under the same roof. I don't know what he thinks I'd do to them that makes him distrust me so much."

The Sohma boys said nothing, but they were all thinking something. Kyo cut in, opening the window more and leaning out it to talk. "Do they always ditch you like this?"

Ru's foot slipped off the railing it was resting on when he started laughing, rocking the bench. "No. They hardly ever do. I'm practically their keeper. They always leave me with a guard when they feel like slipping off undetected, though."

"A guard?"

Ru ran a hand through his hair, pulling it back for a moment as he looked out down the road, still laughing. "I'm under the watchful eye of none other than Sohma Momo."

"Momo?"

"Momiji?"

"Oh, no," Ru shook his head, and waved a hand toward the leftward wall, which gate they had passed through in the car. "Momiji-san's her brother. He lives back a blockade, though Momo visits him a lot. Come to think of it," he grinned, "that's probably why she's not here now lurking in the bushes." He laughed a bit, peering over the railing to check for unseen teenage girls. "She always manages to startle me when she appears. Not that I'm complaining about a guard. I'm very thankful for their concern."

Haru also peered over the railing. "Hmm. I would like to meet this Momo-chan."

Kyo snapped back. "I would like to hit you over the head."

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The train was quiet and sky outside was hidden in overcast, but the snow along the ground was beginning to melt and as the train went, they could see patches of grass and flowers poking up through the white veil.

Tohru was sitting safely in between Yukiko and Hara. Kyoko was half sitting on the arm rest next to them with her hat pulled over her eyes, though she wasn't sleeping and didn't plan on sleeping either.

"It feels like," Hara whispered, her vision lost beyond the train window, "that it's been winter for such a very long time."

"But look at all the green," Tohru smiled. "No matter how cold it is now, spring will always come without fail. Look. It almost looks like we're bringing the spring with us." She giggled at her reflection in the window. "It's like it's following us."

Yukiko looked out through the glass, her pale reflection looked more like a ghost peering sadly at her through the window. "Spring does not follow us, Tohru-chan. It follows you."

There was a silence and Tohru wasn't sure what to say. Kyoko whispered a question from under the brim of her cap. "If you're here to bring the spring, Tohru-chan, then what are we here for?"

Hara's head appeared from behind Tohru's. "To rescue Kyo-kun, Yuki-kun, and Haru-kun."

"What? Did you forget?"

"Shut-up, I knew that!"

"You don't need to shout, you stupid cat."

"Don't call me a stupid cat, ya damn rat!"

Tohru couldn't help but laugh a bit, but in her mind her thoughts were reeling. Their hearts, all of theirs, were just as fragile and delicate as she thought Yuki's and Kyo's to be. They were trying to say something; trying to find something, perhaps. But those small voices that Tohru knew they had weren't growing any louder or clearer for her. The walls: the walls around their hearts, the same walls that muffled their voices, were different than Yuki's and Kyo's. She would have to find a different way to breach them, if she could.

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Note: In the first chapter, the cap that Kyoko's wearing is said to be one that Tohru "almost recognized". In this chapter I explain why it seemed so familiar.

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Yeah! 5 chapters down and now we've met this Ru/Honda that I mentioned before. It's so hard to think of how a male Tohru would act so I had to keep thinking back to a friend of mine when I got stuck.

Now, remember, these characters are just the original characters with a gender switch, they lived their entire lives as a different gender so their personalities, etc. may be a little different, but not a lot, 'cause we love the original people's personalities. Teehee

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It's gonna get soooo good! Thank you for reading. You're so kind.

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Hey, reviewers! Bug me about my pictures of the secret Sohmas 'cause I got line art for three of them right now (almost 4) and sketches of… six… I think… five and half 'cause one is terrible. I've also got basic plans for 11 of them. I wanted to draw plans for all of them, but I ran out of room so the last three might take a while to be drawn… but if you bug me about them I might feel motivated to draw them sooner!