Note: Even though this story is an AU, the characters are based on the anime version of Fruits Basket as I did not particularly care for most of the manga (Akito will be male here). Big thank you to my bff HotaruZala for helping me with some major plot points.

Despite it being just midday, the sky seen through the carriage window was becoming increasingly murky.

"The Wizard Shigure didn't predict any rain for our journey," fretted the princess, leaning farther out the window, until a gust of wind whipped up her hair, forcing her back inside.

"It's always like this in the demon kingdom," replied the knight as he continued to stare out the opposite window with his trademark vaguely miffed expression.

"I'm so excited to be meeting the prince!" chattered Princess Tohru. "He sounds so nice from the stories I've heard. The demons don't sound much different than us, you know?"

"If you say so," Kyou mumbled. The knight was always irritable, but Tohru could tell that something was on his mind today.

It soon became clear that as the sky grew darker, the road grew steadily more bumpy as well. The scenery slowly changed from the lush verdancy of the princess's forest home, to craggy rocks interspersed among sand.

The carriage eventually connected with a stone that was so precicly situated in the road, it was practically screaming for the driver to run over it.

"Eep!" the princess was tossed across the plush cushions and into the unprepared arms of her knight. However, those very arms…disappeared.

"A cat! Help! He's a cat!" the princess screamed. Indeed, in place of her faithful knight, there was now an orange cat in her arms.

At that very moment, a mail carriage happed to be passing by.

"Sir Kyou is a cat!" Tohru shrieked as she held the animal out the window toward the mail carrier.

"What a cute name for a cat!" the mailman replied, as he sped up his carriage, turning at the fork in the road.

Frozen in disbelief, Tohru continued to dangle the creature out of the window.

There came an audible 'Poof!', then suddenly her hands felt much lighter.

"Gah!"

Tohru heard a male voice yell as she looked back on the road. Sir Kyou, who was now a man once more, lay groaning in the dust.

"Stop the carriage!" the princess cried out.

Once Kyou had been successfully dusted off and collected back into the carriage, he began an explaination that he knew would have had to come sooner or later:

" My cousin accidentally killed a rat when we kids. We were playing ball outside and he hit it into a bush. It conked into a rat and the thing dropped dead. We both felt pretty bad about it, but we left it there and went about our business, until later that night. My cousin wasn't watching where he was going and he bumped into our maid. He turned into a rat, just like that. We took him to see a wizard and sure enough, he was under a curse. I guess maybe the rat was a witch's familiar or a human who was under a curse and passed it on, or whatever. A few days later, some girl at school tripped on the steps and when I caught her, I became a cat. The wizard thinks that maybe the spirit made me a cat in the hopes that I'll kill the stupid rat off one of these days."

"But you've touched me before... Just last week, when our carriage was being held up, you held me to protect me from the robbers. Why didn't you transform until now?" asked the princess.

"It's because we're in the demon kingdom. Magic is always stronger here."

"Welcome to Castle Sohma." A young man with black and white two-toned hair opened the main door, bowing deeply to guests.

The royal and her knight entered as prompted.

"My name is Hatsuharu, but you may just call me Haru," drawled the young footman. "Princess, Sir, please allow me to escort you to the prince…"

"Where the hell are we?" Kyou inquired ever so politely.

Quite a few minutes had passed and the trio now found themselves in a room so abundant in dusty objects that they could be expected to take on sentience and transform into some sort of furniture golem at any moment.

"Oh... I get a little lost sometimes," intoned the footman as his finger traced a smiley face on a grimy desk.

Footsteps could be heard in the hall.

"Haru? Is that you? Shouldn't you be letting the guests in?" A young man peeked into the room. While his hair color gave the princess a sudden craving for black raspberry ice cream, his most striking feature were the helical horns protruding from either side of his head. The effect was almost comical, like a child at play on the beach holding up seashells.

"Haru! Did you get lost again? The poor guests! I told you to just leave them in the hall and come get me." The purple haired boy shook his head in exasperation, then knelt before the princess, taking her hand. "This must be Princess Tohru. It's a pleasure to meet you. The bards must sing of your loveliness, my lady." The prince kissed her hand lightly, like the first snow flake of the late fall. "I am Prince Yuki."

Once the prince released her hand, the princess gave her best curtsy. "It's very nice to meet you, My Lord! I am Princess Tohru and this is my knight, Sir Kyou. Thank you so very much for inviting us to your party!" she exclaimed.

At hearing mention of the knight, Yuki seemed to realise for the first time that someone other than Haru and the princess were in the room. Kyou had remained silent during the meeting of the two royals, but his furrowed eyebrows spoke volumes.

The group had found their way out of the dungeon of banished household objects and moved into a more appropriate lavish sitting room to continue their meeting.

"I'm so glad that you were able to make it a few days early, Princess. King Akito thought it would be a good idea for you and myself to spend some time together and strengthen the relationship between our lands."

There came a knock at the door.

"My Lord, I've brought the tea." A rather demure maid entered bearing a tray. Her headdress complimented her short brunette hair very flatteringly.

"Oh let me take that!" Tohru leapt up to relieve the maid of her beverage burden.

"Oh no! I can't possibly let a guest serve themselves!" the maid held the tray away from the princess, causing the young royal to misjudge and loose her footing.

The prince, swooping in like a swan, caught Tohru around the waist, saving her from making an unwanted acquaintance with the stone floor.

"Thank you, Your Highness!" Tohru began…but the prince simply was not there. Instead, on the floor sat a furry creature small enough to fit into one of the tea cups.