Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ All Stories Have a Beginning ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

"Where to start... where to start..." Tohru mused to herself. A name was a beginning, that was true, but such a small one... it was more like... an introduction.

"Start at the beginning!" Tohru couldn't help but chuckle. That was Mamoru... no, what was she saying... that was every child for you. Innocent and simplistic.

Anime/Manga: Fruits Basket Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 06.12.2005 | Updated On: 06.20.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.3K | Visits: 535 | Status: Completed

Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket, or any of the characters.

Chapter 1

"Where to start... where to start..." Tohru mused to herself. A name was a beginning, that was true, but such a small one... it was more like... an introduction.

"Start at the beginning!" Tohru couldn't help but chuckle. That was Mamoru... no, what was she saying... that was every child for you. Innocent and simplistic. Perhaps, she thought as she wound a finger around a strand of his hair, those weren't such bad traits to have. Tohru had become a thinker over the years. Chuckling a bit to herself, she thought, I never used to think so much.

Well, things change.

"Alright, Mamoru..." Tohru smiled at her small son. "The beginning sounds like a good place to start.

"I was in my second year of high school, when your father transferred..."

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“Ohayoo goizaimus!”

“Ohayoo goizaimus,” Tohru echoed, sitting down in her seat as class began. She opened her notebook, then leaned forward, giving the teacher her entire attention. To her right, her classmate, Yuki Sohma, sat straight in his seat, one elbow resting on his desk, his hand propping up his head, the other tilted at an odd angle as his arms lay sprawled across his desk in front of him. On Tohru's left, Kyo lay on his desk, taking a brief nap, his fiery red hair flopping lazily across his tan face.

She looked to her right, where Yuki's long, gray hair covered his eyes, then to her left, where Kyo's long, muscular arms covered the lower half of his face, then smiled happily. Sun and moon, day and night, Kyo and Yuki. Kyo was the sun, the day, the blazing spirit, the fierce anger, Yuki the moon, the night, calm and cool, always collected. They were polar opposites, and Tohru loved them both in different ways. One she loved as a brother, the other as something more. Or maybe she didn't. Tohru didn't have much experience with love. In fact, she had no experience whatsoever.

“Hey!” Tohru blinked, focusing her attention on the touch-looking teacher at the front of the room, restlessly pacing back and forth behind her desk as she waited for the class's attention. Tohru noticed that sensei kept looking towards the door, as though there was something behind it that no one else knew about, something no one else could see.

The class was quiet by now, and watching sensei curiously, waiting expectantly to find out what she had to say. They didn't have to wait long.

“We're going to have a new student joining us today. His name is Ando, Hideki. You will,” she added, glaring at her class, “make him feel welcome. Understand?”

“Hai,” everyone muttered, not quite awake yet.

“What?”

“Hai!” Everyone shouted, making an effort to become more awake.

“Uh… you!” Sensei said, pointing to a random girl in the front who had been doodling in her notebook before looking up with a terrified look on her face. “Get the door, will you?”

The girl rushed over to the door, probably out of fear of being reprimanded, and opened it. She stepped back and gasped, her hands covering her mouth and her heavily made up eyes widening

The boy standing on the other side of the door looked slightly confused for a second, then smiled at her. “May I come in?”

The whole class had been twisting their necks to get a memorable first glance at the new boy. He stepped past the girl and into the now-silent room. A few other girls gasped like the first girl had, and the boys looked away, but remained silent.

He was tall, very thin and wiry, a very delicate build. Like Yuki, he had very fair skin, almost pure white, which went perfectly with his gently shaped lips and a slim, graceful nose. He had Kyo's fiery red hair, only his, unlike Kyo's, was long, and nearly touched the young man's shoulders. His eyes, though, were the feature that stood out the most to Tohru. They were wide and big, giving him an innocent appearance, which may of may not be true. The color, though, was beautiful; a hazel green, with many shades of green, and even yellow, embedded into the pure hazel.

Tohru found herself speechless, neither gasping in awe like the girls or looking away like the boys. She simply stared, taking in everything, letting her eyes wander up and down. When she reached his eyes, she found that those eyes, those wonderful hazel eyes, were watching her, and seemed to smile when hers met his. Tohru felt herself start to blush, her cheeks hidden behind her long, thin brown hair, matching her gentle brown eyes, nearly always sparkling happily. For once, she was grateful for her hair, because she was sure it was hiding her flaming face at least fairly well. She gave the boy a tiny smile and tried not to squirm. Why was he looking at her like that? She was just Tohru… plain, ordinary Tohru.

Plain Tohru, with her long brown hair. Ordinary Tohru, with her big brown eyes. Plain Tohru, with her simple nose, her common lips, her delicate face. Ordinary Tohru, with peach-colored skin, neither tan nor pale. Plain Tohru, with her average height, not tall, not short, simply somewhere in -between. Ordinary Tohru, neither too fat or too thin. Simple Tohru, with nothing special about her.

She tried frantically to remember his name. Oh, she was so stupid! How could she forget his name? Tohru looked down with shame, blushing even more. In time, the boy - whatever his name was - would learn how simple she was, that there was nothing about her to like.

“Ohayoo goizaimus.” Tohru looked up at the nameless boy, and saw that he had moved to the center of the room, where her teacher had been standing moments ago. “My name is Ando, Hideki. I'm pleased to meet you.”

A few girls giggled, others smiled, some blushed at his low, soothing voice. Tohru, again, was looking at his eyes. Those deep eyes that drew her in. And again, she blushed. Again, she wondered why he was looking at her. Again, he didn't look away.

"Ando!" Sensei snapped, calling her class out of its daze. "There's a seat in front of Honda. Take it."

"Honda?"

"Ah, right, new kid." Sensei pointed directly at Tohru. "Honda, Tohru."

Immediately, Tohru stood and bowed. "P-Pleased to meet you," she said softly. Her voice, though, was drowned out by the students, who had started to whisper among each other.

"The pleasure is mine." Blinking, Tohru looked up, and gasped, straightening. Hideki Ando was right in front of her! And bowing, no less!

"Ah-- ah-- uhm..."

"Honda!"

"Uh--hai?" Tohru looked at her teacher over Hideki's shoulder.

"Will you show him around the school for the day? Don't want the new kid to get lost, do we?"

Tohru shook her head furiously. "No! No, of course not!! I'll be glad to!"

Hideki chuckled, calling Tohru's attention back to him. "I'm glad, you seem like a nice person." Then he smiled, and Tohru felt herself smiling back.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

"So that's how you and Daddy met?"

"That's right," Tohru said, smiling for the first time. It was definitely a fond memory, and she might as well tell Mamoru the pleasant ones she had of his father. "Your father," she said, bouncing him on her knee a bit, then pulling him closer, "swept me off my feet. He was the very first one to do something like that."

"Wow... he must be awesome!"

"Wa--" Tohru started, making to correct him, then stopped. No. Mamoru, after all, didn't know yet. "That's what I thought too..." she whispered instead, pulling her child closer instinctively, almost protectively.

That's what I thought too.