Title: Not Romeo Called

Summary: Yuki and Tohru, and how their odd names brought them together.

Genre: Romance/Family

Rating: T

Word Count: 2,708

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title."- Shakespeare

Yuki never bothered with the other children at school. He couldn't befriend any of them. Akito had forbidden it, and his mother had given him to Akito a year ago, so he had to listen to Akito, even though Akito was only a few years older than he was. Thus, Yuki found himself seated on a bench before the playground during recess, idly swinging his legs back and forth as he watched the other kids race around, chasing each other and hopping around the equipment. Sighing with envy, he dropped his chin into his hands as his mouth sunk into a deeper frown. So absorbed in his own self misery, Yuki didn't even notice the little girl with pink barrettes in her small, brunette pigtails, who sat crying on the bench beside him, until three boys came racing past him and dumped handfuls of woodchips over the girl's head and onto her light pink dress.

"Why are you wearing a dress today, Tohru Honda?" one of the boys jeered.

"Yeah! Boys don't wear dresses, Tohru," another snickered.

"I know! Tohru-kun, you can trade outfits with Yuki-chan over there!" the other shouted over his shoulder as the three raced away.

With wide eyes, Yuki stared at their retreating backs. To this day he wished he had confronted those boys. He wished he had yelled at him until he passed out from an asthma attack. He wished he hadn't been frail and shy so he could have stopped those bullies. Instead he just sat there, dumbfounded and clueless as he turned his gaze to the poor girl. Both her hands now covered her face as her silent cries became loud sobs that rocked her small frame. She hadn't even bothered to brush the woodchips off her clothes, even though he had seen her earlier, carefully avoiding puddles outside and the paint in art class to keep what he assumed was a new dress from getting dirty.

He had never spoken to her before, since she was a girl and all, but he had slid off his seat and started walking over to her before he could stop himself. By the time he knew what he was doing, he had already begun to pick off the larger woodchips from her hair. He found himself with an awkwardly formed smile and his arms frozen in between the two of them when she peered up at him through eyes still dripping with tears.

"Hi… I-I'm Yuki. Yuki Sohma. You must be Tohru-chan," he stuttered, stressing the feminine honorific.

At his words, her lower lip began trembling, and she buried her face in her fingers again, nearly shaking off the bench.

"Please! Leave me alone, please. You can pick on me tomorrow, but please leave me alone now. Please…" she choked out between muffled sniffles.

Startled he took a step back. Slowly his eyebrows lowered back to their normal positions as he took a deep breath and gathered the courage to disobey Akito. Surely Akito wouldn't blame him for comforting a crying girl, and besides, if he never told Akito, he'd never know. He warily took a seat beside her, and after a minute, he almost wished he hadn't. She didn't even seem to notice that he hadn't run off and just continued wailing. He couldn't blame her though, given his silence and how he instinctively sat several inches away from her. Yuki meant to come up with consoling words to say to her, but he found he didn't know any. No one had ever comforted him before. Then he decided that he didn't need words to make her feel better, but he couldn't hug her, so he sat limply until a ball bouncing off the asphalt pavement by their feet made her look up.

Grimacing, he scooted away, fearing that he'd make her cry again, but she only blinked and swiped at her tears.

"Aren't you going to make fun of me?" she asked in a whisper.

"N-No! Why would I do that?" he answered with another question.

"Because I have a boy's name! Everyone says so!" she whimpered.

"I don't think so. I-I think 'Tohru' is a nice name for a girl. Besides, everyone says 'Yuki' is a girly name," he admitted so quietly that he was surprised that she heard him.

"I think 'Yuki' is a nice name for a boy," Tohru told him in a gentle voice.

When he lifted his gaze from his folded hands, he found a smiling face before him. A little too close, he noticed too late. Tohru was sliding over towards him with her arms outstretched. He couldn't back away in time. She had him trapped in a warm hug that he would have enjoyed greatly had a cloud of smoke not consumed him. Shrinking into his rodent form, he bounced off her lap and onto the pavement with a nearly soundless thud. He took one quick glance at her large brown eyes and then scurried away, past the bushes and the gates. He didn't stop his paws from racing ahead, not knowing where he was headed until he bumped into Akito's leg in one of the Sohma gardens.

Unfortunately, that day ended in tears for both of them.

They both lost who they both had hoped to be a good friend.

Tohru kept the small pair of clothes Yuki had left on the bench. She washed them at home with her grandfather and brought them to school in her plastic backpack the next day in hopes to find him, but he never came to school again. All she had left of as proof of her first friend were a small sweater and black pants with an inhaler in one pocket. Worst of all, she had to go to a wake that night with her mother who wouldn't stop crying and didn't seem to hear anything Tohru told her about her new friend who turned into a mouse. Only grandpa nodded politely, but even he couldn't smile. She didn't know what a wake was, only that daddy slept in a small wooden bed with a wooden cover, and everyone cried, leaving flowers and repeatedly saying 'sorry.' Tohru couldn't even wear her new pink dress grandpa had got her. She had to wear black like everyone else.

After that, grandpa lived with them for a while, cooking for Tohru and tucking her into bed at night. She didn't get to see her mother a lot, but every time she did, her mother was crying and didn't notice her when she hugged her. Her mom didn't change out of that long black dress for a week, and Tohru felt alone. Her dad wasn't there. Her mom didn't notice her. And her first friend was gone.

Yuki found himself in a similar void of darkness and loneliness, though he still had both his parents. Only they didn't want him, so he had to stay with Akito, who always seemed to be mad at him, no matter what he did. Akito found out he had talked to a girl when he found him in his rat form and had thrown him in the special room Akito said he made just for him. They had just painted the walls and windows with many layers of black paint the day before, and it hadn't dried completely when Akito locked the door behind him that day, leaving Yuki in puddles of wet paint. Forlorn, Yuki didn't change out of his zodiac form for a day, not even when Hatori finally persuaded Akito to open the door long enough for him to bring Yuki a tray of food and question him about his female encounter, but Yuki lied. He had never lied before, but when Hatori asked him about the girl's name so he could erase her memories, Yuki lied and said he couldn't remember, but he would never forget her name.

Tohru Honda. The girl who disdained her name as much as he loathed his own.

Yuki found himself thinking about that name every time he felt overcome with loneliness, and he felt that a lot after his parents transferred him to a private all boys school after Akito released him from the dark room a week later. Though his mother briefly visited him everyday to bring him to school, a part of him always suspected she only did this because she wanted the chauffer to drive her somewhere after, but he never questioned it. He always just sat there silently, staring out the window at his laughing cousins as they skipped to school together. He sunk back into his seat after his mother yelled at him to sit down for the third time, hoping if he behaved obediently enough that his parents would want him again, but Akito still had him ten years later.

When Shigure led him to his house in the middle of woods outside of the Sohma main house, Tohru still lingered in the back of his scarred mind. On his first day at Kaibara Public High School, however, he was too nervous to think about her and the possibility that she might be starting her first year there too until the bell rung and he nearly ran into a short girl with long brown hair as he tried to race into his classroom. He paused, gripping the door in his hands as he stared at her. She stared back. Neither moved until the teacher stepped outside with a binder in his arms and a stern expression across his face, adjusting his crescent shaped glasses.

"You must be Tohru Honda," he remarked gesturing to Yuki, and then turning to Tohru, "And you must be Yuki Sohma?"

They both shook their heads in denial before peering at each other in shock. That's why she looked so familiar. She was the little girl he had met over ten years ago, and here she was with ribbons replacing the barrettes and a warm smile instead of the tears. They didn't have time to reminisce as they needed a good whole minute to clarify the name situation with the teacher, but neither could stop talking during their lunch break, even Yuki, who had no idea how to hold a conversation, found himself enjoying the chattery girl who invited him to sit with her two friends- a Yankee and a Goth. It helped that she did most of the talking. He was relieved to find she had brushed off his transformation as her childish imagination, though she found out the truth soon enough anyways.

After sixteen years, Yuki Sohma smiled his first true smile that day.

And of course, it became the joke of the school to switch their names for their remaining years there.

After they graduated high school, they both attended the same college in Tokyo, a three hour drive from home to start anew, both more confident about their names. Having dated all through high school, they found themselves falling deeply in love, and Tohru had an engagement ring on her left ring finger before they graduated from the university.

The rest of college passed quickly after that. They both quickly busied themselves with work, trying to save money, planning a wedding, and looking at houses and apartments during their spare time together. It took a year, but they finally bought a small quaint house set in a quiet corner in a tiny town. Together, they sent out the invitations to their wedding, which Ayame soon took over after he received the notice, brushing Tohru aside when she tried to inform him of the cheap, plain, white dress she had planned on buying and the rest of the simple ceremony they had discussed.

Despite their protests, when they both stood at the altar, lavish decorations surrounded them. A large, full-blown western ceremony had overtaken their simple, traditional one. Expensive flowers that neither could remember the name of and silk ribbons clung to every surface in the expensive rented ballroom. A string quartet accompanied the organ player, and Tohru wobbled in her four-inch heels and heavy white dress. Seeing Tohru in that dress was perhaps the only reason Yuki hadn't lifted her up in his arms and bolted away from the priest standing before him to get eloped in a small courthouse. He had to admit that his brother had a knack for clothes. She looked more beautiful than ever in the silk gown. He was sure Ayame had overworked millions of silkworms to get enough silk for all the flounces in that dress and that it weighed thirty pounds with all the layers, the ten foot train, and thousands of tiny beads. Regardless, she looked beautiful. Beautiful, clutching those expensive flowers in a bouquet and with the flowery lace covering her face.

Mesmerized by the scene before him, he hardly heard a thing the priest said and only murmured 'I do' when prompted, though Tohru's quizzical arch of her eyebrow startled him back into reality. He could hardly panic about this and the muffled laughter from the audience before the priest turned to Tohru, and his next words clarified everything.

"Do you, Yuki Sohma, take Tohru Honda to be your lawfully wedded husband?" he asked Tohru.

"I am Yuki Sohma! She's Tohru Honda!" Yuki sputtered between coughs before Tohru could get a word in.

After a few embarrassed apologizes from the priest and loud guffaws from Shigure, they were wedded.

The rest of the ceremony went smoothly. Smoothly if one could ignore Shigure and Ayame's comments and jokes, frequently asking Tohru to take Yuki's garter off or Yuki to throw the bouquet. It was silent and peaceful, though, after Yuki locked his brother and cousin in the janitor's closet. Then they danced lovingly in each other's arms all night until Tohru grew tired. It was time to return to their new home and let Shigure and Ayame out.

When they returned from their two-week honeymoon to Okinawa, Tohru gushed over the first letters addressed to them as a married couple, even though they were mainly bills and advertisements. She finally let Yuki see them after a minute, but her smile quickly dimmed when he frowned at the envelopes. Then she noticed that all the letters were addressed to Mr. Tohru Sohma and Mrs. Yuki Sohma.

"Tomorrow, we will call them and have this straightened out," Yuki promised with a smile as he picked up their abandoned suitcases and headed to their bedroom to unpack.

A month later, half of their letters still came addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Tohru Honda, pregnancy soon distracted both of them, making them forget about silly letters and their own names as they fussed over a name for the baby and worked on creating a nursery in the guest room. The next nine months practically flew by as a blur of baby stores, streaks of light pink, and lots of laughter. The only name they worried about was their unborn baby's, and they struggled to find one that other children wouldn't tease her for, but when they were holding her and staring into her half-lidded gray eyes after a long twenty hours of labor, only one name came to mind, and Yuki hurried off to get her birth certificate made.

When Yuki showed the printed certificate to her, Tohru could only laugh with him. Under 'father,' they had printed Tohru's name, and under 'mother,' Yuki's. They had a good laugh over explaining that to the hospital and getting a new certificate, and a good many more laughs as they met confused teachers and doctors not sure who to address as who, and by the time Tohru was pregnant with their second child, they were thinking about new names for themselves and the new baby, but since the second birth certificate listed their names correctly, they decided they liked their own names enough. They learned to introduce themselves quickly to anyone new and always carefully listed their names on forms, though sometimes people confused their names anyways.

They learned to laugh through it. After all, they were in this together.

As a tiny piece of comfort, if their names were ever switched on their graves, at least one of them would be spared knowledge of it.

I don't own Shakespeare or Fruits Basket (Is this the first disclaimer in this story?). Thank you for reading. Please correct my mistakes and tell me you thoughts c: