A Basket of Passion Fruits

Author's Notes: Hello everyone and welcome to my new story for Fruits Basket fans. The story is about a quiet but sweet girl called Ranie Asami (Pronunciation of Rainie Asami: Ray-nee As-a-me).

The idea of this story started after I have finished watching the anime series. I didn't like the ending of it at all and went on to Wikipedia to find out what happened in the manga books; Tohru and Kyo got together and Yuki ended up with one of the council members, Machi Kuragi,However, I wasn't please with the way Yuki went with Machi Kuragi, so I created my own character for him and she is bought into the story half-way since Tohru has begun living with the Sohmas.

I cannot continue telling you anymore because it would spoil the story. But I hope you will comment on my story in every chapter and enjoy reading it. Please comment on how to improve too, it will also help my writing technique.

Chapter 1: Rainie's Arrival:

"Rainie, wake up." Rainie awoke and opened her eyes, she looked outside the car window which continued to drive past a local town and into the forest. "We're here now."

The whole time her eyes were focused on her new surroundings of the rural town she was going to live in. The black car stopped upon arriving at the destination of a large house surrounded by trees. "You may go." The man next to her, Akito spoke softly.

"Akito?" Rainie said to the man sitting opposite her in the limo.

"What is it?" He answered.

She looked down for a while and then back up at the dark-haired guy. "Thank you for everything and…goodbye."

She turned to open the door when she felt Akito grab her arm. "Wait." He ordered. "Whatever you do Rainie, do not get to close to Kyo or Yuki. Otherwise, you know what will happen."

Releasing her arm, Akito watched as she walked away from him, she feared him, all the Sohmas feared Akito Sohma. Not only was he the head of the Sohma family but he had hurt so many physically that it made other family members terrified of Akito, all they could do was listen to what he told them to do and respect his wishes.

Much like Rainie had been doing, she got involved with the Sohma family two months ago. She could still remember that day when Akito bought her in to the family along with finding out about the zodiac.

-Flashback: Two Months Ago-

Rainie sat in an empty room; in front of her two men and watched as they talked while she waited for one of them to say something. One had long black hair and she knew it was Akito and the other she had no idea. He looked like Akito only his dark hair was covering his left eye. When they finished talking, they looked at her.

The guy walked away from Akito and sat down in front of Rainie but moved sideways so Akito could also see her. "Rainie, my name is Hatori Sohma." The other man said then looked at Akito who nodded. "Maybe we should show you our secret." Rainie looked at him, who pulled her quickly for a hug and waited; nothing happened.

"What? I didn't transform!" Hatori said Akito as he let go of her.

"I noticed that." He answered him getting up. "You see, she is different – I could sense it when I took her hand."

"What? How do you—" Rainie whispered attracting the attention of the two.

"We have a curse, you see. The Curse of the Zodiac. When we are hugged by the opposite sex or if our bodies are under a great deal of stress we transform into an animal of the Chinese Zodiac, I would have turned into a seahorse you see but…"

"You didn't because of my secret?" She finished the sentence as Hatori nodded. Akito got up and walked over to Rainie.

"Whatever you curse is must be similar to ours. Maybe this will help." He said.

Rainie shook her head furiously and jumped up quickly. "NO! PLEASE WAIT!" But Akito still blew on the whistle causing Rainie to scream.

-End of Flashback-

Keeping Rainie's secret, Akito and Hatori promised to look after Rainie from then on but she worked as a maid to earn her pay and was home-schooled by Hatori. Although at first Akito was nice and friendly, Rainie soon began to see who he truly was. Now, Akito wanted Rainie to live in Shigure's house for it was Hatori who noticed she was always miserable around the Sohma household. He knew that living in Shigure's house she could keep friends with the three teenagers who were also the same age as hers. Maybe then she could have a better life.

Rainie soon begin feeling uncomfortable as she knocked on the door. Who were these two boys, Kyo and Yuki that Akito spoke of? Not only would that Rainie would be living with three boys but also a girl. Rainie had heard from Hatori that she was also knew the secret too.

She waited for a while and suddenly, the door opened instantly to a tall dark-haired guy smiling at her, Rainie was a little alarmed at how fast he opened the door but she simply smiled back and bowed slightly.

"Hello, I am Rainie Asami. I stayed at the Main Sohma house; I think Akito told you about me."

He nodded. "Yes, it's nice to meet you. I'm Shigure Sohma; my zodiac animal is the dog."

Rainie smiled. "Really? I'm the year of the dog." Shigure grinned. "Please come in, the others should be here soon." He moved aside, beckoning Rainie in, then closed the door behind her and showing her to a small room.

She sat down on a small cushion while waiting for Shigure who came a few minutes later with some tea and sat opposite her. Rainie thanked him and took a sip. "So Rainie," He said, sipping his tea. "How much do you know about the Zodiac Curse?"

Rainie thought for a while before answering. "I know very little. The story and that Hatori turns into a dragon or a seahorse, that's what he told me. That's all. The rest of the time I was home-schooled."

Shigure nodded. "I see, well then you will learn quite a lot here." He put his cup down and sighed. "Yuki is the rat and Kyo is the cat – the animal left out of the zodiac so you will see them fight at times. But on to a different matter, Hatori also tells me when you touched him, he didn't transform. Why is that?"

"Um…well…" The sound of a door closing stopped Rainie from talking and made her a sigh with relief. She could hear the voice of two boys arguing.

"Get out of my way, rat boy!" One boy shouted.

"Be quiet, you stupid cat! We have a guest here, remember?" She heard the other say, he sounded calmer than the first. Akito also told Rainie that there was another girl who also knew about the zodiac but she couldn't hear her. Could it be the two boys Akito was talking about?

"Ah! The cavalry have arrived!" Shigure said out aloud. The door slid open and a boy with purple hair came in and looked at Rainie. The boy was tall like Shigure but a bit shorter than him He was wearing his school uniform and smiling at her. He's cute. They stared at each other before Rainie got up and bowed at him.

"Hello, I'm Rainie Asami. Nice to meet you." She felt a hand on her back as she got up quickly; she looked to see it was Shigure.

"You know, you don't have to do that every time you meet someone. Just shake hands with them, ok?" She nodded at him and shook his hand then looked back at him while playing with her hair, blushing. The boy's violet eyes stared back at her.

"So you must be…Kyo?" She asked. The boy looked at her shocked as Shigure laughed.

"No, this isn't Kyo."

The purple-haired boy smiled at her and shook his head. "No I'm afraid I'm not. Kyo is upstairs, but my name is Yuki Sohma. If you will excuse me, I will just go get him."

But Shigure stopped him, grabbing his shoulder. "Why don't you keep Rainie company for now? I'll get Kyo. Would you like anything to drink, Rainie?"

"A glass of water if that's ok." Shigure nodded and winked at Yuki before leaving.

Yuki turned back to Rainie and looked at her.

In his eyes, she was attractive; Rainie had emerald-green eyes that stared innocently at him and ebony black hair that shone in the sunlight from the windows. She wore a black and white layered skirt with a green long-sleeved top. Her features were ordinary but Yuki thought she seemed like one of those quiet and kind girls but for some reason, Rainie was different, much more different than Ms Honda.

Rainie could only blush as he stared at her. He was good-looking and the more he looked at her, the more butterflies she would in her stomach. She lowered her head to hide it. "Um…Yuki?" She asked.

"Yeah?" He quickly looked at her eyes.

"Akito told me…there was another girl living here. Where is she?"

"Oh, you mean Miss Honda, she is going to be working late tonight but you may see her tomorrow ok?"

Reika was slightly confused. "Ms Honda?" Before he could explain, Shigure had come back with the other boy; he looked much different than Shigure or Yuki. This boy had orange hair and red eyes; Rainie thought he looked like one of those boys who were a rule breaker because his attitude seemed pretty bad.

"Here, Rainie." He gave her the water and she thanked him, taking a sip and then drinking every last drop in seconds, surprising the others. "My, if only I could get Kyo and Yuki to drink more water like you."

Kyo and Yuki glared at him. Shigure coughed and avoided their stares. "Maybe you should introduce yourself. I'm sure your new friend would love to meet you." Rainie could tell Shigure was teasing him but this 'Kyo', he looked mad.

"Hey!" He shouted. "Just because I live here from now on, doesn't mean you can tease me, ok?" He took a deep breath and walked forward to Rainie; she felt somewhat nervous and bowed a little.

"Hello, I'm Rainie Asami. It's nice to meet you, um…"

"…Kyo, so you're the girl Akito sent?" Kyo finished her sentence without even smiling; he sat on the cushion and folded his arms. Rainie nodded at his question. Already, the ebony-haired girl's impression of Kyo was that he was a loud and easily tempered person while Yuki Sohma seemed to be a more kind and well-mannered character.

"One question?" Yuki asked.

"Yes?"

"Do your parents know you're here or…?"

Rainie lowered her head and sighed. "They died two months ago."

"Oh, what happened?" Kyo said making Yuki slap him on the back of his head. "You stupid cat! Don't you have any respect at all?"

Shigure folded his arms and whispered to himself. "Akito never told me this before."

Rainie sighed. "It's ok." She smiled to them. "I get that a lot so I don't mind telling you what happened." For some reason, Yuki smiled back at her; most people would be sulky, upset or frown at this but Rainie seemed to not care much. She began to close her eyes, remembering the day when she found out.

-Flashback: School Corridor-

"Flight A-37 crashed this morning halfway to America along with your parents." A teacher told her in the corridor. Rainie thought it was just a normal day for her as usual, she knew her parents were going to America on a business trip for the week, trusting Rainie to be left alone but she didn't think anything like this would happen to her.

The teacher put a hand on her shoulder. "You may go home if you like." Rainie looked up at the teacher, her emerald eyes spilling tears out of her eyes. Without a word, she ran away in tears out of the school, it rained that day. Rainie wandered around the streets, soaking wet with tears falling from her eyes.

It wasn't until she stopped in the middle of the streets that Rainie broke out in tears. She fell into a puddle and cried. She looked up to see a dark-haired man stood in front of Rainie, watching her lie there for a second, Rainie had noticed him but was a little alarmed by his presence. Then he took off his jacket and whispered in her ear.

"Don't be afraid of me."

"Why not? What do you want?" Rainie whispered back. "My name is Akito Sohma and I think we both have a secret, I can see it in your eyes. Why don't you come with me and I will tell you." She turned to him.

"Why should I trust you?" Akito smiled and held a small green and blue colored whistle. It was hers; it must have dropped out of her pocket when she tripped. Rainie tried to take it from him but he stood up and put it in his own. Akito put his hand out to her.

"Don't be afraid, uh…"

Rainie put her hand on his. "…Rainie, Asami Rainie."

-End of Flashback-

After Rainie finished, there was a long pause. Shigure stood there thinking to himself; Hatori hadn't told him about this. Yuki lowered his head thinking it was his fault for asking her about Rainie's parents. "Maybe I should take our guest to her room?"

"How kind of you, Kyo!" Shigure said cheerfully. "Rainie, Kyo is going to be a gentleman and take you to your room, he's not like that, you know? He may have a thing for y…"

Kyo yelled. "Can't you be quiet for one second?" Rainie watched as he quickly walked away, she came to her senses and followed him upstairs to a room without a word.

It was bigger than Rainie's room at the main Sohma house; it looked cozy and had a pink bed near the window.

"You'll be sleeping in the same room as Tohru ok?" Tohru – that must be the girl Yuki was talking about. Rainie thought to herself, she looked at him – he looked like he was struggling to say something.

"And, Rainie…I'm…"

"Hmmm…" She said quickly.

Kyo sighed. "I'm sorry…for asking about your parents…it was none of my business." Rainie lowered her head as if she was the one who should be apologizing.

"Oh that." There was a pause. "It's ok, forget tha—" The door closed as Rainie sighed. I only hope he's not more like this. She turned around and looked at her room that she would sharing with Tohru Honda,

Rainie could only wondered – what did she look like? Was she nice or rude? Among her thoughts, she noticed a picture of a woman smiling. She had blonde short hair and was making a 'peace' sign with her hands. Is this her? The door opened, startling Rainie a little but she still held onto the picture looking at the young girl, about her age staring at her.

"I'm…sorry, I was only looking." She quickly put the picture down and lowered her head. Why did she keep doing that when Shigure said she should stop? The girl patted on her head softly.

"It's ok." She grinned. "It's ok to be curious once a while. It's a picture of my mother by the way." She looked at it before sitting down on her bed. "You must be Rainie, I'm Tohru by the way; it's nice to meet you. Do you mind if I call you Rainie-kun? You can call me Tohru-kun if you like."

Rainie smiled, she was so nice. "Sure."

"It's good to have another girl living here too; it was sort of lonely not being able to talk to another girl about this." Tohru told her. "So you lived in the main house right?"

Just then, Yuki came through the door. "Tohru, is it possible you can start making some food please? Kyo is starting to get hungry." He winked at Rainie making her blush.

"Sure and Rainie will help me, won't you?" Rainie looked at Tohru and smiled. "Sure."

Once Yuki closed the door, Tohru got up from her bed and made her way to the door. "You can be more relaxed ok? Oh, and I picked up your school uniform for you since we have a school in the morning."

"Come downstairs when you're ready ok?" Then Tohru closed the door leaving Rainie standing there. School – Rainie hadn't been to a public school in two months, she felt pretty nervous again. Hatori was the one who told her old school she was leaving to be home-schooled and he told Rainie that some of old her friends were devastated but didn't really care. Could it happen here?

One thing she didn't want to happen was if any of them discovered who she really was. Yes, that was what she hoped did not happen. The whistle was not in the house so she was ok – for now.

Walking downstairs, she could hear whispers. "I like her but it's like she's hiding something." She heard Yuki say.

"Yeah, with all the bowing – what's with that?" Kyo replied.

"It's called common curtsey or manners which you don't have, you stupid cat!"

"You're asking for a fight, rat boy!"

"Stop it you two or she will hear you. Hatori told me several times when she jumped into him, he didn't transform. So, she has never seen a Sohma change – she may have the same curse."

There was a long pause until Yuki said. "Forget it for now. She's just might be pretty quiet because she's shy."

Tohru emerged from the door and was now making her way to the kitchen. "Rainie-kun, can you help me cook?" Upon hearing this, she quickly made her way downstairs and answered back. "I'm coming!" Rainie opened the kitchen door to a smiling Tohru wearing a white apron and handing her a spare one.

She put on a brave smile and clapped her hands together. "Ok, let's get going!"

Author's Notes: Well, there you have it! Chapter 1 of my first Fruits Basket Story.

Please review and tell me what you think about it. Hope you enjoyed reading this!