-The Secret Sohmas-
What would've happened if you switched the genders?
Chapter 1 -
A young girl ran from train to train, subway to subway; always looking behind her, never looking ahead; racing desperately to escape the world that had made her who she was.
As the original Fruits Basket story began with a young girl named Tohru Honda, so shall this fanfic begin.
It was a winter's day and Tohru was finishing her grocery shopping. She was passing by through the train station after picking up whatever strange snack Shigure had asked for. It had most likely been a joke, but Tohru took all requests seriously, as you know.
She was just about to leave, quite confident with having found the snack and wasn't paying very much attention to where she was going and stumbled over someone's foot. Thankfully for her groceries she merely kicked the toe of said foot and didn't completely fall on her face. When she regained her footing, she turned quickly to the owner of the foot she had stumbled over and was about to bow manically, shouting apologies when she realized who she has stumbled upon.
The shoes were casual sneakers and the pants were loose and the t-shirt was v-necked and a leather-like jacket with a dark trim was flopped over the figure sitting rather lazily in the corner on top of a backpack. The orange hair jutting out from a hat she almost recognized made her smile brightly, though she was slightly confused. "Oh! Kyo-kun! I didn't see you there!"
Tohru grinned and squatted down to meet him, thinking that Kyo, once again, had come to meet her. A hand slipped out from under the coat and the thumb of said hand lifted up the brim of the cap so its wearer could meet Tohru's eye. When first meeting the sharp, orange eyes and stoic expression, Tohru's girly grin stayed lit on her face. But after a moment of looking at those eyes, Tohru's smile began to fade.
This was not Kyo.
Tohru's words tripped over themselves. The figure's eyes were cold and untrusting and the face showed no excitement or care. The figure's eyelashes were longer than Tohru's. Tohru was on the verge of fright, when the bright orange eyes, after meeting Tohru's for only a moment, began to soften and calm.
"Oh, umm, I'm sorry," Tohru stuttered before she could collect herself. "I thought you were someone else."
The Kyo-like figure stood, slipping the coat over her before flinging both straps from her backpack over her shoulder. Yes, indeed, this was a young girl. She stood full height before Tohru stood, and Tohru knew, before even standing, that this girl was taller than her by at least half a head.
"It's alright," the tall girl said smirking, "I thought you were someone else too."
The girl gave Tohru a hand up, and Tohru giggled as she stood, embarrassed a little. "You really do look like him, though."
"Who?" the girl asked looking at Tohru with a side glace.
"Kyo-kun." Tohru smiled and giggled, embarrassed to be telling a girl she looked like a guy. The girl twitched slightly, her eyes narrowing and Tohru was immediately concerned. "What's wrong?"
There was a pause, as if the girl was hesitant to say what was troubling her, until her stomach growled angrily. She went red in the same way that Kyo would: slightly red cheeked and a slightly angry looking side glance at the giggling Tohru. Her giggle turned quickly to concern. "Have you eaten yet?" It was middle to late afternoon and the girl pocketed her hands and replied negatively.
"Oh, well, come, please, I'll feed you something. But, oh, wait, you were waiting for a train, weren't you?"
"It's alright." The girl said, reshouldering her pack. "It doesn't matter if I miss it." The girl actually seemed somewhat relieved and Tohru smiled as they strolled out of the station.
"So, um, where were you going?" she asked curiously.
"Nowhere," the girl replied looking ahead.
Tohru blinked, confused. "So, then, why were you waiting for a train if you're not going anywhere?"
"Because I have nowhere to go. Isn't that what run-a-ways do when they have nowhere to go?" the girl looked at Tohru for that last comment.
"Oh!" Tohru gasped, "You ran away? But, what about your family?"
"Don't have any," she replied, "I lost my folks when I was a kid. Some sort of accident, not that I remember."
"So you're an orphan?"
"Yup." She didn't sound like she cared much about it.
"I'm an orphan too." Tohru's voice was soft, almost nostalgic, and the girl turned and looked at her with sympathy as well as something else that Tohru didn't catch. "But the people I stay with are the greatest family I could ever ask for and I'd be very sad to leave them."
Tohru smiled up at the girl and the girl merely looked back at her. It wasn't until the girl broke her stare and looked forward again that she whispered, "I'm happy for you."
Tohru kept smiling but she could see that this girl, like Kyo and Yuki, had a silent voice inside her that Tohru couldn't understand. "So, what do you want to eat?"
The rest of the conversation consisted of silence and food. During the silences, Tohru found herself inspecting the girl. She really did look like Kyo in almost every possible way without being too masculine (so, a bit like Uo). Her stride was tall and confident, and she walked a little in front of Tohru even though the girl didn't know where they were going. Her hair was a bit longer in the back than Kyo's, and she held the bits long enough in the back in a small ponytail. The bangs were still cut the same. She didn't seem to like the hat she was wearing and fiddled with it a bit, turning it in different directions and such. She finally took it off when they were inside Shigure's house.
Tohru wasn't sure why she had led this run-a-way all the way to her house. It just felt natural, like she really had been walking with Kyo the whole time and the girl looked natural inside the house. With a second glance as she led the girl to the main room, she felt that she could trust this girl and that, seeing the girl's eyes and seeing how much colder they were compared to Kyo's, that this girl needed someone to trust her, even if it was just a little bit for a little while.
Tohru looked around to find no one was home before she asked the girl to sit at the table as she went to make some tea. The girl flopped down heavily, though she made no sound when she hit the tatami. She didn't put her feet under the heated table, either. She bent her legs in front of her and leaned back on her hands, her head falling back at first. She didn't start scanning the room until Tohru had stumbled into the kitchen. She kept her coat on. She had loose denim jeans with a green stripe up the side that matched the sleeves of her V-necked T-shirt.
There wasn't much to see in the room. There were no pictures on the walls and many of the doors were closed, except one room that had books scattered on the floor and the kitchen where she could hear Tohru. She was considering getting up to help Tohru when she heard an unseen door open and close. Tohru had just walked out of the kitchen with a tray of tea when a quiet call came from the next room. "I'm back."
"Oh, Yuki-kun, welcome! I just made tea!" Tohru got the tray to the table when Yuki entered. Yuki had seen the sneakers in the entryway and assumed that Kyo had also returned and gave the red-headed figure sitting across from Tohru an emotionless glance and was about to pass through the room, when the girl turned her head to him. "Yuki, huh? Isn't that a girl's name?"
Yuki stopped and turned only his head at first. Tohru was trying to hide her innocent smile. The one Yuki had thought was Kyo hadn't moved her stance on the floor, but tilted her head so that her sharp, orange eyes met Yuki's storm gray ones. The comment had been a casual one and one not usually heard from a guest. There were a few 'ice crystals' tossed about the room and Tohru became extremely worried that the girl's opinion of Yuki would be the same as the real Kyo's.
Yuki turned toward them as Tohru finished pouring tea for all three of them. "Who is this?"
Tohru was hugging the empty tray in excitement. "She's a run-a-way I thought was Kyo being slouchy. Doesn't she look like Kyo?"
Yuki didn't need to comment on the physical similarity or her personality. The girl folded her legs Indian style and picked up her tea. Again, she didn't put her legs under the table, probably because she knew she'd be hot in her coat. Yuki approached the table and stood over the Kyo-like girl for a moment, before sitting at his cup of tea. "What's your name?"
The girl took her time in answering, sipping her tea calmly. "Ko."
"Ko?" Tohru smiled. "Welcome to the Sohma house, Ko-chan!"
The girl, Ko, shot-gunned the rest of her tea and set it down a little harder than she had before. Tohru quickly refilled it before starting to stand.
"What's your family name?" Yuki asked, picking up his tea. Ko turned and took up the less formal position she was in when Yuki first entered the room, except now she was on one hand and sipping tea. "Don't got one."
"You don't have a family name?" Tohru asked, peaking her head back from the kitchen.
Ko sipped her tea and replied as casually as if she was talking about the tea. "I renounced it when I ran away. I'm through with that world." She shot-gunned her tea again and placed the cup back on the table. Tohru pulled back into the kitchen with a little sigh. Yuki just starred at the cup that Ko had placed back on the table. Ko looked at the cup for a moment too, then looked up at Yuki and back at the cup a few times. "So, are you going to refill that, or what?"
The dinner was relatively pleasant. Ko shouted less than Kyo did, although Yuki was politer to his female guest than he was to Kyo. There was a lot of talking through Tohru since Ko and Yuki didn't seem to particularly like each other, though Ko would be more bold and ask Yuki, directly, whatever questions she felt like asking him, and she asked quite a few of both of them for not talking much. They couldn't get very much out of her. She said she remembered little from her childhood, and her parents were both dead. Where she had been her whole life or any other family she would not speak of and she slipped past the questioning of them very skillfully. Though, she did say that "they" would probably come looking for her, though she did not say who "they" were. She also said that "they" didn't like when any of "us" were outside their reach. She didn't explain who "us" were either.
Nothing of particular note happened that dinner. There was conversation and Ko asked Tohru about her cooking and when Tohru let it slip that Yuki had a garden, Ko actually inquired about it, saying that she had worked in a garden once or twice.
The event of the night occurred when Kyo returned. They were all still sitting at the table chatting and finally removing the teacups when they heard him enter. He was rather loud with removing his coat and taking off his shoes.
Tohru had all the teacups on her tray, and she smiled brightly, "Oh, Kyo-kun's back."
Kyo didn't sound like he had had a very good day. "Hey, whose shoes are these? Is Haru here or something?"
Ko's head turned to see this one enter. And enter he did, looking slightly disgruntled. He didn't feel like dealing with Hatsuharu right now. But he didn't find Hatsuharu sitting with Tohru and Yuki. He found a figure with orange hair and orange eyes starring directly at him. Kyo went rather rigid, his eyes wide and he gave a sort of shout, which Ko echoed. She pulled back and collided with the table. She didn't look just surprised, she looked terrified. Her head darted from Kyo to Yuki and she fell over the table completely. Tohru put her tray down and ran to Ko as Ko was scrambling to her feet. "What's wrong? It's just Kyo."
"That's Kyo? I didn't think that they'd go to such lengths to mess with me." Ko pulled herself to her feet and ran for an exit.
"But, wait. I-" Tohru took her arm.
"I should've known it was a trap! I let you and Yuki slide, but not this. You can't take me back!" Ko ripped her arm from Tohru, throwing her as she did. Tohru looked hurt, but Ko gave her a look that looked as if Tohru had broken a bond that had been much deeper than just today.
Ko was out the shoji door. Yuki was caught from the upturned table so the extra second went to Kyo to catch the girl who had thrown Tohru to the side.
"Hey! Get back here!" Kyo grabbed Ko by the coat collar, both of them in their socks in the snow outside.
"No!" she screamed as she pulled at her coat to get it off her. "I won't go back! I'll die before I go back there!" He coat came free, but something caught in the sleeve which gave Kyo enough time to grab her wrist as it came free. Half on her wrist, half clutched in her hand, Ko held a beaded bracelet of blood and bone. Kyo, on the arm that held the girl's wrist, wore the exact same one. A shock wave passed through all of them. Kyo's eyes were locked on the bracelet until the girl's other hand came up to pull it from him. But Kyo was stronger than her and she barely pulled once before her eyes began to brim with tears and she fell to her knees in the snow.