Author's Note: This is the first Vocaloid fanfiction I have ever written that was not based on a song. Instead, it is based on the anime, Hanamaru Kindergarten, which is really cute and worth watching. Do not worry. This will not feature a teacher/student romance, although Yuki might want it to. Please enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Vocaloid or Hanamaru Kindergarten.

It probably wasn't the wisest or safest decision to cycle full speed down the street at 7:05 am with only two hours of sleep, but Kiyoteru was late, for his first day of work no less. He shouldn't have agreed to that one final gig with Ice Mountain last night, but he felt that he had to say a proper goodbye to that chapter of his life. He didn't think that he would have been held up explaining why he was leaving the band and the music scene and having his picture taken with fans until 3:00 am. Then, he just had to sleep in and wake up at 6:45 am when the children and their parents would be arriving at the kindergarten for the entrance ceremony at 7:30 am. In less than ten minutes, he had been able to brush his teeth, shower and pull on the clothes he had laid out before he had crashed onto the bed and fallen asleep. Breakfast, however, had to be put off.

The kindergarten was only twenty minutes away from his apartment and, right now, he was more than halfway there. If he hurried enough, he could still probably get something to eat on his way and be there by 7:15.

He was going so fast that he almost didn't see the little girl in a red pinafore and black pigtails standing on the sidewalk all by herself. He squeezed the breaks and nearly crashed into a lamppost as he skidded to a stop. Dismounting, he walked his bicycle back up the street to where the girl was.

This neighborhood was quite safe, as he had been told by his landlady when he moved into his apartment a few weeks ago, but the girl looked only about four-years-old and was way too young to be out by herself.

He crouched down to her level to address her. "Excuse me, ojou-chan."

"Ojou-chan!" The little girl's eyes lit up at the word and she smiled widely. "Ojou-chan! How charming! Are you a prince? You look like a prince. You are, aren't you! Like on TV! Are you going to sweep me off my feet? Are you going to marry me? I can run away with you!"

"Eh, prince...?" he asked, trying to imagine what part of him was even remotely princely. The most reasonable thing he could come up with was that he was kneeling in front of her, which was probably prince-like enough. "Marry!?" he added, failing to notice that part the first time around. "Uh... Don't you think I'm a little too old for you?" he asked awkwardly. He glanced down at his watch. It was already 7:11. If he stayed any longer, he would have to rush even more and he wouldn't be able to eat, but he couldn't leave the girl alone. "Where's your mother?"

The girl's smile widened. "Kaa-chan just ran back home for a while to get my lunch. I live over there." She pointed down the street behind her. "But she'll be back soon and then we could tell her!"

"Tell her what?"

The girl huffed. "That you're marrying me, silly! I'll have to tell her, of course, and get her and Tou-chan's blessings."

"Please don't," he pleaded, already imagining her mother's reaction. He would be branded as some sort of sicko and probably be run out of town, and he just got here. He didn't want to pack up what little he had been able to establish and trudge back to his home town. All his neighbors would shake their heads and say, "I knew there was something wrong with that one. I always knew he would turn out wrong in the head. To think, I used to let him alone with my children! I pity his poor mother."

"I... uh..." The little girl's mother would be back soon and it was already 7:16. "I... have to hurry. Be careful, all right?" He jumped on his bicycle and pedaled away as fast as two hours of sleep and an empty stomach plus anxiety could achieve.

Yuki huffed to herself as her Prince Charming cycled away and disappeared. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. He was supposed to drop something that would give her a clue about his identity or something that would ensure that they would meet again. He couldn't just hit on her and then be gone forever.

"Oh, hey, Yuki," her Kaa-chan said, running down the street with her lunch box. "Who was that you were talking to?"

It was already 7:26 when Kiyoteru arrived at Kakome Youchien, nearly crashing his bicycle into the gate in his hurry. He didn't even stop to catch his breath, because there was no time to do anything. Without stopping and as quickly as he could, he chained his bike to the rack and ran for the main building, slipping on his apron on the way.

There was already a line at the registration table set up in front of main door and the other teacher had covered for him.

Kiyoteru scratched the back of his head as pulled he out the chair beside her, not daring to sit yet. "Ah... I'm sorry I'm late, for the first day no less."

"Oh, it's okay."

She looked up at him and he forgot how to breathe just for a second. To say she was pretty would have been an understatement. She was beautiful in a dreamy, disheveled way, as if she had just woken up from sweet, enchanted slumber. Her hair, a shade somewhere between ash blonde, pink and white, was long and messy, almost like bed hair, further reinforcing the image of a dreaming beauty. Even her wide blue eyes had a far-off look, as if she could see things nobody else could.

He bowed, so quickly that he almost smacked his forehead against the back of the chair. "I... I'm... I'm Hiyama Kiyoteru."

She peeked at his face so he was looking at her upside down, the tip of her nose not five inches from his forehead.

"Hello, Hiyama-sensei," she said in a full, bell-like voice. "I'm Usano Ia."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Usano-sensei."

"Just Ia-chan is okay, because we'll be working together."

Kiyoteru straightened up. "Okay... Ia-chan."

Ia returned to her work and slid a stack of papers and cherry blossom patches towards his side of the table. "These ones are yours. Just hand them out."

Kiyoteru nodded and slid into his seat. "Good morning," he said to the tall blonde-haired woman that had been waiting in line with a frown on her face. "Welcome to Kakome Youchien."

A small girl suddenly jumped up and clung to the edge of the table. She looked exactly like a younger version of her mother, blonde and blue-eyed, and she sported an imperious frown to match.

"Finally!" she whined. "I've been waiting in line forever, you know!"

Kiyoteru smiled at her. "What's your name, ojou-chan?"

"I'm Kagamine Rin," the girl declared. "I'm four-years-old."

"Okay, Rin-chan, you're in the Sakura Class with me." Kiyoteru checked her name off his class list and handed the girl a patch for her smock. To her mother, he handed an information sheet. "Please fill this up, Kagamine-san."

"Thank you," the woman said with a grunt, taking the sheet from him. "Come on, Rin."

"Thank you, Kagamine-san."

Kagamine-san said nothing more to him and walked away, pulling her daughter in the direction of the playground. Rin waved at him and he waved back to her.

"Oh, hey, Kicchan!"

Kiyoteru almost jumped out of his seat at the familiar voice.

"Meiko-senpai!"

Sakine Meiko grinned down at him in the same way she did when they were in high school and she was about to get the two of them, mostly him, into a lot of trouble. She was almost just as he remembered her, brown hair cut short and practical, brown eyes sparkling with the same mischief, and shoulders squared defiantly against the world. Even her nickname for him had not changed.

"So you do remember me!" Meiko said, ruffling his hair with her fist like six years hadn't passed. "Wow, you haven't changed, have you? Still my dorky little Kicchan. So how's Hiyama-san?"

"Okaa-san is doing well," said Kiyoteru.

"And Miki-chan?"

"She is going to study astronomy."

"And you? How've you been?"

"I've been well," Kiyoteru answered. "Meiko-senpai, please, we're holding up the line."

"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot! But my kid's off at the playground. Can you just give me her stuff? Her name is Kaai Yuki."

Kiyoteru checked off her name from his list and did a double take, the name only then sinking in. "Kaai!? You mean...? You and Kaai-sensei... You really...?"

"Yes. Yes, we did," said Meiko, grinning even wider and bringing her face close to his. "Wanna come over and visit him?"

Kiyoteru shook his head vigorously, blushing. "N-no, thank you."

"We'll come visit you, then! Where do you live?" Meiko whipped out her smartphone and tossed it at him. "Oh, wait, were holding up the line! I'll stand over here to the side and we can talk after you're done. Do you mind?"

"No, it's okay, Meiko-senpai." Kiyoteru smiled and gave her back her phone and handed her a cherry blossom patch and an information sheet. "It's nice to see you again."

"It's nice to see you again too, Kicchan. I missed you."

Kiyoteru ducked his head, his ears going red, praying that she had forgotten the foolish, childish things he had said that had been their parting words.

Kakome Youchien was huge. That was what Yuki could gather from her vantage point at the top of the slide. She could even see her Kaa-chan in the distance, leaning over the man at the registration table, probably telling him how to do his job; her Kaa-chan was so good at supervising people.

"Hey, do you mind? Some of us actually want to slide!" yelled a blonde girl with a big white ribbon in her hair standing at the base of the ladder. "I'm coming up and you better go down! Or I will push you!"

Yuki didn't slide and waited for the girl at the top of the ladder.

"Who are you to talk to me like that?" she demanded, poking the girl repeatedly in the nose when she appeared at the top. "My Kaa-chan's the boss, if you didn't know!"

The girl shoved her hand away and pulled herself up to stand level with Yuki, and she was taller, by just a little, but still.

"I'm Kagamine Rin," the girl declared. "And my Okaa-sama doesn't have a boss. She's her own boss. She owns a motorcycle. Why? Who are you anyway? Besides the daughter of 'the boss'."

Yuki stood a little on her tiptoes to make herself taller than Rin. "I'm Kaai Yuki," she said. "And... and..." Unable to think of anything else to say, she grabbed Rin's big white ribbon and pulled it off her head.

"Hey! Give that back!"

Rin lunged forward to snatch it back, but Yuki held it behind her back and planted her palm on Rin's face, because nobody talked to her that way.

"Give that back! My Nii-chan gave that to me!"

Rin pulled hard on Yuki's pigtails, hard enough to cause them both to stumble a few steps, and Yuki, angry and in pain, let go of the ribbon.

"No!"

Again, Rin lunged forward, but past Yuki, to the railing of the playset, leaning out precariously to catch the ribbon that was being quickly blown away by the wind. Her ribbon caught in the branch of the big tree at the center of the playground.

"I hate you!" Rin shouted at Yuki, her tears beginning to pool. "That was a gift from my Nii-chan! Now it's gone! I hate you!"

The feeling of victory was short-lived and was almost immediately replaced by shame. Yuki only just met this girl and she had already made her cry. Her Tou-chan would be so disappointed in her.

"I'll go get it," she said.

Rin looked at her, wiping at her eyes. "You'll what?"

Yuki took a deep breath and told herself she was not afraid. "I'll go get it for you. If it's so important to you, I'll go get it."

"Okay, done." Kiyoteru checked the last name off his class list and handed off the last patch and information sheet to Yuezheng Yan He and her parents.

Meiko settled herself on the edge of the table. "So, Kicchan, do you have a girlfriend yet?" she asked as soon as they left; it was a good thing Ia had gone inside already, having finished earlier than him. "Or are you married already?"

Kiyoteru blushed. "No. I mean, no, I don't have a girlfriend and, no, I'm not married yet."

"Got your eye on anybody?" Meiko leaned very close to him, conspiratorially. "Come on. You could tell me."

Kiyoteru swallowed. "Nobody."

"Well, that's okay. I have some single friends. I can set you up. How do you feel about biker chicks?"

Before Kiyoteru could tell her that, while he was grateful for her concern, he would really appreciate it if she did not try to commandeer his love life, there came several shouts from the playground, giving him an excuse not to answer.

Meiko jumped off the edge of the table. "Oh, no," she muttered. "That's Yuki."

She grabbed Kiyoteru's hand and ran for the playground, dragging him behind her in her panic. She stopped suddenly at the base of the tree, where a small girl in a red pinafore clung to a narrow branch, slowly creeping towards the end.

"Yuki!" Meiko shouted up at the girl. "Yuki, hold still! I'm coming up to get you!" She continued to shout as she started climbing up the tree, telling her daughter to keep still, but the girl continued to reach for the end of the branch.

Kiyoteru could only stand, paralyzed, not sure of what to do in these kinds of situations, because he might have spaced out during orientation. The other parents have begun to gather and even the principal, Hatsune-sensei, had come out and was rushing over to help. Then, the girl was falling.

Yuki closed her eyes as she fell, not wanting to see the ground as it came rushing up to meet her, but she was caught by something as she fell, and then that thing fell too. When she opened her eyes, she was looking up at the sky and there was somebody's arms around her. Her first thought was that her Kaa-chan had caught her, but she was cradled against a bony chest not her mother's soft bosom.

The person who had caught her sat up with a groan. "Are you okay, Yuki-chan?"

This person knew her. She turned towards him and saw him smiling softly at her, glasses askew and almost falling off his face. He had the gentlest eyes.

"You're... Prince Charming."

More Author's Notes: I named the school after the song, Kakome, Kakome, which is also the name of a popular children's game in Japan, but do not worry. It is named more for the children's game and there will be no horror of that sort in this fanfic. This is a lighthearted slice-of-life romantic comedy.

IA is spelled Ia as if it were a real name. Also, her surname is taken from Mayu's stuffed rabbit, Usano Mimi, because Mayu is her sister in this fanfic, and she will make an appearance later on. Also, Miki is Kiyoteru's sister. She too will make an appearance later on.

Can anyone guess who Yuki's father is?