So I know I'm a little late to this fandom...*cough cough* twenty years late...BUT I am here now! I watched the Fruits Basket anime and thought it was only okay and only decided to read the manga because all 23 volumes were at my library. I had no idea I was going to become so engrossed in the beautiful, heart-wrenching story. By the end, I was stunned by how much I actually enjoyed it.

As much as I hated Akito at first, once I finished the story, Akito had become my favorite character. The entire character was so beautifully complex, and I ADORE complex characters not to mention the incredible character development.

I wanted so direly to see a story where Yuki and Akito gained a "mother figure" in their lives, but alas, I came up short. So, behold, here is that story.

While Noa put out some laundry in the yard to dry, she turned towards the gate that surrounded the grassy lawn when she heard someone coughing and gasping for breath.

The source of the noise was a very young boy with silvery hair who appeared to be no older than eight years old.

Abandoning the clean sheets in favor of helping the child, she pulled open the gate and slowly approached him.

"Hey, are you lost?" she asked kindly. "Where are your mom and dad?"

The boy only coughed in response.

Noa knelt down in front of him. "You look terrible."

She went to place her hand on his forehead, but he quickly moved away from her before she could touch him.

"I'm not going to hurt you," she said gently as she smiled.

"It's not that," the boy wheezed. "When girls touch me…bad things happen."

Noa didn't know exactly what he meant by that, but she wasn't about to just do nothing when a small child was one breath away from needing to go to the hospital. While the boy looked away from her, she quickly reached out to hold his face in her hands and make him meet her eyes.

"See?" she smiled. "Nothing happened." She lost her smile and looked at him in concern. "But you're burning up. I think you're running a fever." She took into account all his coughing and her brow furrowed. "Do you have asthma?"

The boy nodded and coughed again.

"Okay, why don't you come inside with me? I'll help you feel a little better, and then I'll go about finding where you live so we can get you home."

She stood up and held out her hand. The boy only looked at her in fear.

"Oh, my son is home. Don't worry, we're not going to do anything. I just want to help you, okay?"

Ever so slowly, the boy took her outstretched hand.

Noa smiled and began to walk back inside. "What's your name?"

"Um, Yuki. Yuki Sohma."

"It's very nice to meet you. My name is Noa Kaneko. You can just call me Noa, okay?"

Noa opened the door to her home and allowed Yuki to step inside before her.

"Yuta?" she called.

Her 14-year-old son hurried down the steps. "Yeah, Mom?"

"This is Yuki. He's having a fit with his asthma. Will you get him set up in the guest room for me?"

"Yeah, sure!"

Noa leaned her head down closer to the young boy. "This is my son, Yuta. He's going to take real good care of you."

Yuta smiled warmly at the boy. "Hi, Yuki. Come on upstairs with me."

"I'm going to make some tea."

Yuki shyly followed Yuta to the second story of the house. Maybe it was stupid of him to come into a place with complete strangers, but he couldn't find it in him to care. Even if they did end up hurting him, for now…they were showing him warmth he had not experienced for as long as he could remember.

Besides, they couldn't do anything to him that was worse than what Akito did.

Once Noa had finished making the tea, she poured a cup and went up the guest room where Yuta had put Yuki in bed with a cold cloth sitting on his forehead.

"Feeling any better?" Noa asked.

"A little," Yuki answered with another cough.

"Good. This is an herbal tea that will help open your airways." She gently handed it to him before taking a seat on the bed. "Yuta suffered from asthma as a child, so this is nothing new to us. You just finish that and rest for a little while, and then I'll take you home. Okay?"

She could've sworn that Yuki's eyes darkened at the mention of her taking him home, but she wasn't sure if she imagined that or not.

A couple hours later, Noa passed by the guest room and heard quiet whimpers coming from within. She carefully opened the door so as not to disturb Yuki if he was still resting.

The small boy tossed and turned in the bed wearing a look of pain though he remained asleep. "Akito…don't…please…"

Noa quickly went over to his side and gently shook him awake. Sleep was supposed to help his illness but it wouldn't do anything if he was even more miserable unconscious.

"Yuki. Yuki, wake up."

Yuki's eyes sprang open. He sat up in a panic gasping for breath and began coughing all over again. Noa gently took his head in her hands and wiped away the sweat on his brow.

"It's okay, it's okay, you were just having a nightmare. Take a deep breath. It's okay."

She handed him a glass of water then watched as he tried to get his breathing back under control.

"Come here."

Noa pulled him into her arms to comfort him…which was followed by a loud poof!

She sprang up from the bed and looked at what the resulting smoke had left behind. It was a rat. A white rat with purple eyes sat on the bed in place of Yuki.

"Oh my goodness!" Noa exclaimed as she put her hands to her head. "How did that even happen?! Was that my fault?! I am very sorry! Oh, what am I even supposed to do now?! Oh have mercy, what will your parents think?! They're going to kill me!"

"…Noa?"

Noa looked at the rat. "You talk?"

"This always happens when a girl hugs me."

"You mean…this is normal?"

"Mm-hm."

"That's a new one."

"It's not just me. Other members of my family change too. We all change into an animal of the Chinese zodiac."

"So…how long before you change back into yourself?"

"It's different almost every time. Sometimes it takes twenty minutes, sometimes five, sometimes…"

Poof!

"…sometimes seconds."

Noa's eyes widened and she quickly turned around before the smoke cleared and she saw poor little Yuki completely naked. She waited for him to redress himself and then turned to look at him. Tears brimmed in his wide innocent eyes.

"What's wrong?" she asked softly.

"You were nice to me," he cried, hugging his knees to his chest. "And now that you know…your memories will have to be erased! Just like the others! And Akito will be mad at me for revealing my secret again! But…but it wasn't my fault this time!"

Noa went back over to the bed and sat down as she gently touched Yuki's arm. Getting worked up was just going to make him sicker. "Yuki, Yuki, calm down. Nothing is going to happen to me or to you. I promise." She took a tissue and softly wiped his eyes for him. "I take it I'm not the first one to find out about this."

Yuki shook his head and sniffled. "They were my friends. I was so happy they wanted me to play with them. I was just playing a game. But one of the girls got too close, and I transformed. Akito ordered Hatori to erase all their memories because no one could know our secret. And now they don't talk to me anymore."

Her heart clenched in her chest as she realized just how lonely this poor boy was, and not by choice. It was important that something this huge remained secret, she understood that, but for someone so young to lose all of his friends like that?

And why did he sound so scared of this Akito person?

"How does this…Hatori erase memories?" she asked.

"I don't know. He just touches their forehead, and they forget us."

"Is he the only one who can do it?"

"Yeah."

"Well, Yuki…no one needs to know that I found out."

Yuki looked up at her in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I won't tell anyone, not even Yuta, if you don't. I swear to you that I'll keep your secret. And if no one knows that I know, they can't erase my memories, right?"

"I guess so."

"Well, now that that's settled, I'll be a little more careful to not hug you. Now come on downstairs. I made some lunch for you."

Yuki looked at the woman in front of him. She made him lunch? First she takes care of him while he's sick, giving him a bed and tea, and now she's made him food? Even after discovering that he was abnormal and a freak of nature?

The small boy briefly wondered if this was what normal people's mothers were like. He had just assumed that all mothers were like this, but this woman was nothing like his own mother. She radiated warmth and kindness even to someone like him.

Noa set out some rice and miso soup for him, and Yuki eagerly ate every bite, not tasting something so delicious in quite a while. The servants at the house usually only doted on Akito's desires and gave him what was left over, even if he didn't like it.

Noa took a seat across from him. "I should probably get you back now. Your parents must be worried sick about you."

Yuki didn't say anything.

"Do you know your address or how to get to your house from here?"

"It's a big place. I would know it if I see it. It can't be too far. I walked here."

"Okay, that's something to go on. Finish up and we'll drive around until we find it, all right?"

Yuki nodded, but Noa noticed that his eyes once again darkened. She also took note that he ate slower, as if savoring the time he had in her house.

Once his food was gone, she cleared the table and retrieved the sweatshirt he had arrived in.

"Come on, my car's just out front," she offered.

Yuki's steps were slow and she had a strong feeling that it wasn't because he was sick. The way he was acting, she figured he would rather die than return home. Were his parents that stern? Or could it be…something worse? Could it have to do with this Akito person he seemed so terrified of?

"There," Yuki finally said when they had been driving for several minutes. "My home is up there."

Noa's eyes widened. This wasn't a house. It was an estate made up of several houses. It was practically its own town. Yuki's family must've been extremely rich.

Noa pulled over in front of the entrance and helped Yuki out of the car. Holding Yuki's hand in her own, she approached the large set of wooden double doors. Not knowing what else to do, she simply knocked.

It took a couple minutes for the doors to open. Someone (Noa couldn't tell if it was a family member or a maid) answered and relief flooded her face when she caught sight of Yuki.

"Oh, Yuki, thank goodness! We've all been so worried, especially Master Akito!"

Yuki's grasp on Noa's hand tightened, something that did not escape her notice. She looked down at him in concern.

The maid, Noa guessed, looked up at her. "And who might you be?"

"My name is Noa Kaneko. Yuki stumbled by my house, and I took him in to get him rested since his asthma was really acting up. My son had asthma, so I knew how to properly deal with it."

"Thank you so much for looking after him."

"It was no trouble at all. I'm just glad he's okay."

The maid reached for Yuki and quite roughly pulled him away from Noa. "Come now, we must let Master Akito know that you're all right." She bowed in Noa's direction. "Thank you again."

The doors began to close, and the last thing Noa saw was Yuki staring back at her with those wide innocent eyes…eyes full of fear.

Noa crossed her arms over her chest and sighed.

She was glad Yuki was back home with his family, but somehow…it just didn't feel like the right thing to do.