Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket. I do own most of the Shinora clan. End of story.

The Shinora Family
Chapter 5; No Hugging Allowed
Written by Lil Enchantress

The entire time while everyone was eating, Mimi tried not to keep eye contact with Momiji. She wasn't exactly sure why, but just knowing that they could hug and she didn't transform made her uneasy. As she picked at her slowly getting cold food, millions of questions shoved themselves into her head.

Could he be the exception to the curse? Was her curse broken? Why hadn't anyone noticed? Momiji couldn't be a part of the Shinora clan, could he? Maybe a distant relative? But she didn't remember him from any on the yearly ceremonies, and Mimi was sure she'd remember someone else that was half-German. Or she assumed he was anyway because he would randomly start speaking in fluent German, like herself.

The sinking feeling in her gut started getting worse as new questions started forming. Was there something wrong with her? Did Momiji maybe know something she didn't? Did Otika-sama know what was going on? Did her mother somehow release the curse when she died? At what cost would that have been? Mimi would much rather have her Sherry-mama than some lame old broken curse (even though that too was important)! All this didn't make much sense!

Mimi groaned as she held her head to calm the headache that had formed. Nik-chan looked over at this and patted Mimi on the arm.

"You okay?" she asked, concerned for her friend. Maybe Mimi was upset about her mama still.

Glancing up at Nik-chan, she noticed her other cousins had been looking at her also. It made her feel horrible because they all had the same pitying look. They didn't know why she was worried. Mimi looked over to Momiji who was innocently talking with Tohru-san. He had no idea that she was supposed to turn into a sheep. There was nothing wrong with just hugging a girl. It was normal.

Momiji looked up at Mimi, still half talking with Tohru-san. When he noticed her cousins looking at her, he stopped mid-sentence.

"Mimi, are you okay?" he too looked at her with a pitying face, and she looked away almost angrily. Biting her lip, Mimi looked down at her food. She didn't want them to pity her because her mother died. It felt… nice to know they cared, but she didn't want to think about it. There were bigger problems as of now. Like Why Momiji could hug her.

"I'm fine," she said, finding her voice was a little raspy. Clearing her throat, she repeated it to tell herself it was true. "I'm fine…"

Momiji looked temporarily pleased, but her cousins could tell there was still something wrong. Mimi never could keep her emotions off her face.

"Mimi-chan, do you want to talk about it later?" Emi piped up softly, not wanting the Sohmas to hear. She could tell that was probably the source of Mimi's emotional problem.

"Um…" Mimi looked at Emi, Nik, and Nemo reluctantly. It would be nice to just get it off her chest. But what could they do about it anyway?

"That's it, we're going!" Nemo jumped up, grabbing Mimi's arm as she walked past and pulled her up with her. She was going in the opposite direction to where the restrooms were…

"Uh, we're just going to the bathroom to… freshen up or something," Emi smiled, pushing her chair in and walking in the right direction to the restrooms as Nik went over and grabbed Nemo's arm and pulled her in the right direction, Mimi flailing behind them as a caboose. The Sohmas and Tohru were left staring at them in confusion as the Shinora friends rushed off to the restroom. What a crazy crowd…

When they were all gathered inside the decent-sized restroom, Nik let go of Nemo, and Nemo let go of Mimi. Emi was checking the stalls to make sure no one else was in there with them and gave them the heads up when she found there wasn't. Nemo had jumped up and used the counter as a seat and Mimi had plopped to the floor of the restroom in exhaustion. (a/n: eh, that's just like me… sitting wherever the heck I am and not caring how dirty the floor is.) Mimi sighed when she found all her cousins staring at her once more.

"So…" Emi started.

"What's wrong?" Nik-chan asked, leaning against the sink with one arm.

"Is it still your mom?" Nemo asked, looking at the tiles around Mimi's feet instead of at her face.

"No! It's not my mom… it's just… it's-," Mimi slumped against the wall that was behind her, leaning her head back so that she was staring at the ceiling. She sighed as she was trying to get it out in just the perfectly chosen words. "You know how we're all members of the zodiac, right?" They looked back at her with agreeing faces, but edging her to go on. "Well when we're hugged by a member of the opposite sex, we transform into our animals. That should happen, but…"

Mimi looked at the random piece of toilet paper next to one of the stalls with an intense face. She wanted to figure this out so it'd stop bothering her! "Well maybe you guys haven't noticed… but Momiji-san has been hugging me without transforming effects." It was meant to be dramatic, and she looked up to see they'd all just realized this too. Nemo and Emi immediately brought their hands to their mouths in surprise, and Nik-chan… stood there confused. Still.

"What do you mean?" she asked, her head tilted to the side.

"Well when Momiji hugs me, I haven't been transforming. That's what I said…"

"Oh!" her face lit up in excitement of understanding. It fell quickly though as she let it sink in. "But how?"

"I don't know. That's just it…"

"I'm sure there's a completely sane explanation for everything," Emi stated calmly as her other cousins were freaking out.

"What's so sane about us anyway? Transforming into our zodiac animals… that's hardly sane." Nemo rolled her eyes, glancing back at the mirror to see her reflection.

"Do you think… do you think there's something wrong with me?" Mimi whispered almost to herself. Her eyes were clouding up with tears and she was afraid they'd spill out. Sniffing, she sucked in a deep breath of air in attempt to calm herself.

"Don't think that…," Nik crouched down beside her, patting her arm again.

"We'll figure out what's going on, just hang in there, okay. Maybe we should have a talk with the Sohmas or something." Emi crouched down beside Mimi also, rocking back and forth as she talked.

"Or maybe… her curse is broken. That'd be wonderful!" Nemo exclaimed, almost ready to hop up and dance at the idea. "Maybe you could test it by hugging Prince Yuki or something… you'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Mimi blushed, but held her eyes tight shut at the idea. "I don't know… I don't know. I don't know anything anymore. What if I hug him and end up transforming? That'd be terrible. Otika-sama would be so angry!"

"Well let's just go, okay. We can at least try to talk it over with Momiji-kun later or something. There's no need to worry about it now if there's nothing we can do about it." Emi smiled and stood up straight, walking toward the restroom door. She looked back at all of us that were still sitting there. "You coming?"

Nik-chan smiled and stood up also, grabbing Mimi's hand and pulling her up. "She's right… we'll get it all sorted out."

"Let's go! Woo!" Nemo leapt off the counter and almost skipped to the door. Who knew that someone could ever be so excited after coming out of a bathroom? Well… uh, don't answer that.

When they arrived back at their table, Tohru and Momiji welcomed them with wide, dense smiles.

"Shinora-san..s!" Tohru exclaimed as they all sat down. "Are you all feeling better now?"

"Yeah! You all ran off so quickly we were worried!" Momiji waved his arms around in the air.

Shigure, Yuki-kun, and Kyo-kun were just staring blankly at the two, trying to figure out how they could act like that. They'd barely met the Shinora cousins and now they seemed to be a big part of their friends' circle. Somehow. It was awkward for them because they weren't sure where their place to say anything was.

"Ja, I'm fine," Mimi spoke up for the group, hoping that she looked presentable. She was regretting now that she'd sat on the bathroom floor in her black kimono. Trying harder to brush any of the remaining dust and particles off, she sat down in her own seat as well. "I was just… well… everything's okay. Maybe."

Tohru seemed to let out her held breath at this and held a hand to her chest. "That's a relief." Mimi looked at her interestingly and she continued. "Well you see, my mom died a little while back and I don't think I did as well as you on her funeral day. I was worried because I realized different people are affected differently by everything and I wasn't sure how you'd take it. Just remember there are other people here for you, okay?"

She smile sweetly even though Mimi could tell her eyes were sad. So she'd gone through the same thing…

"…thanks," Mimi whispered lightly, looking down at the table. It really meant a lot to her to have someone say that for her. Suddenly a ray of light appeared in Mimi's head and an idea came to mind. Tohru! She's lived with Momiji's cousins for a while… maybe she knows something about Momiji that could be related to her family's curse! If she and her cousins could talk to her for a moment alone… then they might be able to figure something out!

"Um," Emi stood up suddenly, pushing her chair out so she could move. She looked reluctant to say what she was about to, but continued anyway. "I forgot that I told my friend Julian we would meet at the mall in ten minutes. So I have to go… gomen!"

"Oh, Julian? You mean your boyfriend?" Nik-chan laughed happily as Emi blushed.

"N-no! He's my friend that's a boy. That's it." Emi stuttered, gathering her stuff to leave.

"Yeah, but the one you want to go out with…" Nemo smirked as Emi blushed harder and turned sharply to leave.

"I could never go out with him in my current state and you know it." Mimi watch Emi rush off, out the door, before turning back to her other cousins, trying to figure out what was going on.

"What was-," Mimi started before Nemo cut her off with a look that said 'don't ask now.'

"We'll tell you later, okay?" Nik-chan looked down at her own food scraps and sighed. For a minute she looked sad about the situation, but then widened her eyes, looking up at the both of them quickly. "Oh no! I told Sissy I'd meet her a half an hour ago! We made plans last month and I only now remembered!"

She jumped up also and started running towards the restrooms, which, mind you, is in the opposite direction from the front door.

"Nik, now you're going the wrong way!" Nemo called down to her, hands cupping her mouth to amplify the noise.

"No I'm not! I forgot my purse in the bathroom!" Mimi saw the restroom door swing shut once, and then swing back with Nik-chan coming towards them again, purse in hand. "I'm so sorry about this after Emi just left too, but I'm such a scatter brain. I'll see you in school!"

A small gust of wind blew in when she left, but it stopped when the door slammed shut. It seemed as if a silence fell over all of them at the sudden leaving of Mimi's friends. They were who was making most of the noise anyway. After a few more awkward moments, Tohru brought herself to speak through the uneasiness.

"So… maybe we should all go home now? I mean since it looks like everyone's done eating- not to say you are if you aren't, if you aren't then we can stay longer!" Tohru her hands in front of her chest facing outward, waving back and forth frantically, her hair on end. It was Kyo that leaned forward and smacked her lightly in the head to shut up, leaving his hand on her forehead maybe a second or too more than necessary.

"Jeez, woman…," he blushed, pulling his hand away.

"I-I'm done, are you done?" Mimi's own plate still had mostly everything on it, but she hadn't been hungry anyway. She looked over to Nemo's plate that was spotless and her face fell. "Forget I asked…"

"Oh, yeah, I finished a while back. I guess I eat fast. Or so I'm told…" Nemo laughed, standing up so they could get ready to leave. The others had all already stood up as well. Mimi stood up slowly; pushing her plate further away from her, as if afraid she was going to throw up if she kept looking at it. All the Sohmas were staring at her now and she began to feel bad for holding them back.

"Um, do you guys just want to walk ahead?" Mimi didn't really feel like walking very fast, but she didn't want them to keep slowing down for her.

"Hey! Can I come over?" Nemo's eyes sparkled again, as if saying that even if she wasn't invited or allowed she was going to come anyway. "I mean, if you don't want me to… psh."

"Oh, well I don't think one more girl will be a problem, high school girls are so fabulous!" Shigure's face turned goober happy for a moment before Yuki-kun smashed the back of his head in, and forcing him to the ground. He suddenly made a quick change of wording. "I mean, you are indeed allowed to come. Feel free to drop by to see Mimi-chan any time at all."

Nemo just laughed and watched as Yuki grabbed the back of Shigure's suit, dragging him out the door to the others. Mimi sweatdropped, silently hoping that wasn't painful.

"So?" Nemo turned to Mimi, looking at her curiously. "What now?"

"Well I guess we leave… I just want to take my time though." Mimi tightened the bow tie to her kimono, and then brushed some hair behind her ear. She realized suddenly that she'd made herself the perfect opportunity to talk to Nemo about everything just happened and about her idea. "By the way, what was Emi-chan talking about, huh?"

"Oh… that." Nemo felt bad now for teasing her. "Julian is her friend she met in middle school. She has a really big crush on him, but this year they don't have barely any classes together. Not even lunch. So they hang out a lot outside of school, but…"

"So this Julian is a guy? How can she hang out with a guy that's not a member of the zodiac?"

"I was getting to that… Emi loves him, but he doesn't know about the curse. Even if he did know and loved her back, Otika-sama wouldn't ever allow it. So she's very careful around him in every thing she does. The only problem is that sometimes it looks like she's pushing him away, so he gets the wrong idea. It's very stressful for Emi to handle…"

"Oh, that's horrible." Mimi covered her mouth, her eyes becoming distant. That's so sad… how could anyone stand that?

"Yeah."

"So… um," Mimi was searching for a way to get off that topic. It was really depressing and she didn't want to think about it more than she'd have to. "Who's Sissy?"

"Sissy?" Mimi nodded and Nemo attempted to smirk but almost tripped on a crack in the sidewalk. "She was sick the day you started school, but she's another friend that sits with us at lunch."

"Don't tell me she's related to me too…" Mimi groaned. There were too many of her relatives randomly popping up out of nowhere. One day she barely knows one of them, and the next she knows a whole bunch. It was exhausting.

"No… her name's Sissy O'Malley. I think she's from American or something... but she's really smart so her Japanese is perfect. I think she's better at it than Nik to be honest." She laughed.

"Oh, okay then. You'll have to introduce me when I get back to school."

"Right. So when will this be?" Mimi crossed her arms in a huff at Nemo's remark.

"As soon as the weekend's over. I know I was depressed, but I realized that my mom is still with me… sort of. What I'm worried about now is how Momiji can hug me."

"Alright, I get it. Well not really, but I'll let it go." Nemo said as she started to walk backwards so she could look at Mimi while she talked.

"Um," Mimi tried to think of more reasons of why Momiji could possibly hug her. "You don't think that Momiji is actually a girl, do you? I mean, he's always wearing that girl's uniform top... and it would explain how 'he' could hug me."

Nemo snorted at the idea and Mimi looked at her with a hurt face. Was the idea really that bad? "Oh, I'm sorry… it's just. Momiji is definitely a boy. I mean. Well this boy's top I have is actually Momiji's real uniform. I asked if I could use it since we're the same size at the beginning of the year. He only agreed as long as he got my uniform because he though it was cute, and since I wasn't using it, I was like 'okay.' Well he decided to change right there and stripped his shirt off. That's how I know he's a boy."

"O-oh. Well I guess that makes sense. Not really, but okay." Mimi blushed at the thought of Momiji stripping his shirt off in front of her friend. Not that she liked him… it was just… okay, let's get off topic here. Besides, Yuki-kun was who she liked… (oi, I thought we were changing the subject…) "Anyway, I thought maybe we could ask Tohru about him or something. She's been living with his cousins so she may know something about him, right?"

"It's worth a try, I suppose." Nemo nodded in agreement.

"At least we wouldn't just be sitting around and doing nothing…" Mimi sighed at her earlier frustration with herself. She already didn't have good self esteem, and this whole curse thing with Momiji was getting it even lower. Maybe there really was something wrong with her instead…

XoXoXoX

When Mimi and Nemo finally made it to the house, they saw the Sohmas gathered around their living room doing various things but in general watching television. Kyo-kun was pouting on the one side of the couch muttering about how the 'rat' got to sit on the good side of the couch, but Yuki-kun and Shigure looked up at the sound of the door shifting open.

"Welcome back Mimi-san." Mimi blushed, but fought it so it didn't show on her face. It was quite hard.

"Hello," she managed to mutter without stuttering.

"Me too, say hello to me too!" Shigure raised his hand for attention. "I'm the owner of the house after all."

"Oh, uh, ohayo Shigure-san." Mimi looked in the other direction. She didn't trust older men that easily. Maybe it was something to do with know how they took advantage of her mother. But even so, Shigure-san was being nice enough to let her stay for a while.

"Ah, yes. Good to know you came back alright. Tohru is upstairs, cleaning up your room again right now. She's such a sweet flower, isn't she Kyonkichi?"

Mimi would've wondered who 'Kyonkichi' was, had it not been for Kyo-kun that lunged himself at his older cousin. Kyo growled in protest to his demented cousin. "Don't talk like that about her!"

"What, what? It was an innocent compliment, I swear…" He held his hands up in his defense.

"Yeah right, like half the stuff you do is innocent!"

And… well the fight began. Mimi and Nemo decided they had the perfect chance to go talk to Tohru alone if they left now, so they did. They snuck up the stair way and ran up the few remaining steps when they thought they wouldn't be able to hear over the fighting. When Nemo opened the door, Tohru was sitting on the floor, folding some extra clothes of hers for Mimi to wear. She looked up when she heard the two of them pad into the room.

"Hello Tohru-chan," Mimi started, sitting down next to her and smiling nervously.

"Ohayo Shino-chan, is there anything I can help you with?" She smiled brightly, putting down the piece of clothing in her hand to a pile.

"…Sh-shino-chan?" Mimi asked, confused. Was that a nickname for her? But how did it work?

"Oh, uh," Tohru put her fore fingers together nervously. "I was thinking about it and I thought since your last name is Shinora, then I could use part of it for your pet name. I did that for Uo-chan and Hana-chan too!" She looked up happily at the mention of her friends.

"Okay…" Mimi blushed at the caring thought and remembered what she was here for. "Um, I sorry, but I wanted to ask you something." She glanced back at Nemo who was sitting patiently in a quiet corner.

"Anything!"

"Well you've lived here with the Sohmas for a while, right? Then you must have found some things out about them too, right?" Mimi leaned forward just the slightest bit out of tenseness.

"I-uh, um, w-what do you mean?" Tohru looked surprised and almost like she was going to go frantic on them again.

"I mean like Momiji. He doesn't… uhm. Maybe have any animal characteristics does he?" It was the first thing that popped into Mimi's mind. After all, Mimi knew that she could hug other members of the zodiac, even if they were boys, without any transformation. So that might be a possibility too, right? But now that she said it she knew it had to of sounded ridiculous.

"W-well, eh, what?" Tohru was sweatdropping all over the place now and her eyes were huge. Maybe this interrogation wasn't that great of an idea after all. It just made Mimi look like a fool.

Mimi sighed, and heard Nemo shift her sitting position. She closed her eyes and was about to say 'forget about it' when she heard two people talking out in the hallway with hushed voices. They were just loud enough for Mimi, Nemo, and Tohru to hear through the small crack between the unclosed door.

"Momiji!" the one voice saidMimi remembered in shock that he too had gone home with them. And they were talking about him, what if he'd walked in on them having the conversation? The thought shifted away as she recognized who the other voice was. Yuki-kun! "Momiji, I told you to be careful. I don't know what's so special about this Shinora girl, but what if you'd transformed when you hugged her? That would've been really bad."

"But Yuki…," Momiji whined a little louder than a hush. "I didn't. And she was crying…"

"I know, but… you know what would've happened if you did transform. We all would've been in trouble. Normal people don't turn into animals." Yuki seemed to have saddened as he said the last sentence. It was heard in his voice the pain he felt.

Mimi stood up quickly at the sentence though. She was right. They… but… how? When? Tohru jumped up at the same time and they both ran out the door. They stood there staring at Momiji and Yuki as Yuki realized they were there. Momiji looked over and for a moment, they all looked like they were deer in front of a car's headlights. Caught.

When Nemo poked her head around the side of the door, and that was when the four of them realized that time hadn't stopped. It began again, fast, with a lot of talking.

"Shinora-san, Honda-san," Yuki still stared in awe. How much more could the day possibly get? Seriously.

"I'm so sorry Yuki-kun, they were here, and I was there, and you were here, and…" Tohru was almost crying.

"Mimi-san, you didn't hear anything! Close your ears, forget it!" Momiji hopped over and put his hands over Mimi's ears, trying to make it so she couldn't hear anymore. Not that it was doing any good because she'd already heard it…

"Ah, I was, you, I, we…" Mimi couldn't find the words and she was having trouble hearing herself think. They were all sort of talking at the same time and nothing made sense.

It was Nemo that broke the chaos, when she made a snide remark. "So? You guys transform into animals too?" It shut them all up pretty good to try and figure out what she had meant by that. Too?

A/N: And- cut! Haha… sorry. I finally decided to unhiatus this for a little while because all my friends that are in it were wondering when the next chapter would be posted. And I was in the mood… so here it is. Two new characters were introduced in this chapter! Well sorta. They are Julian who is Emi's original character and Sissy who is another one of my friends. Do keep in mind again that all names are created by the owner of the character. Just because Thinothinik is a little extraordinary, people have to fuss about it… I really don't see what the big deal is. Lol…

Anyway, until next time- Sayonara!

Lil Enchantress
Mimi

Ps: 10 pages in MS Word! I deserve a review for that… Lol. :)