It's already been five years since he graduated from Shiroken. His years in university were also already over (it turned out that when he really wanted something, he could study well enough to jump a year…or two…). He's even proven to Yamaguchi that what they've been doing these last five years could actually be called dating, and she had finally accepted that. Kuroda family has long since considered him one of their own, with the whole 'Young Master Red Lion' thing and what not. He spent most of his time over there already and it looked like he lived there more than he did at home. And it was fine. The only thing not fine, was the constant nagging. She nagged him whenever she got a chance – about going home, about staying away about not talking nonsense about being their lawyer… but still, every time he asked, she went out with him; some nights, she would even allow him to spend the night. And yet, Shin wasn't happy. It just wasn't enough anymore. Once he'd realized that, young master decided it was time he took matters into his own hands and changed the situation.

She was on a break, when her phone rang.

"I see you still remember your old schedule, Sawada." Shin rolled his eyes at her greeting.

"More like, I just know yours by heart." He commented and could swear he felt her go crimson.

"W-w-what crap are you babbling, Sawada?!" she shrieked and was about to launch into one of her rants, if not for his interruption.

"Listen, Yankumi, it's Friday." That shut her up.

"Yeah, so..?" she asked quietly and Shin smirked. God help him but even after all these years, getting her all embarrassed only made him think she's cute.

"So I was thinking. Why don't we go out to dinner tonight?" giving her a brief moment to think about it, he continued. "Pick you up at 8? Dress nice, yeah?"

"Wha.. why would… yeah, fine. I'll see you tonight." Shin smiled fondly at her tone and made all the women around him on the street swoon.

"Yeah, you will… oh and Yankumi?"

"Hmm?" she asked, propping the phone with her shoulder and mixing some milk into her coffee.

"I love you." her spluttering and the sound of something crashing made him laugh and shake his head. "thank god some things just never change…" he muttered before going into the courtroom.

(…)

"Ooooh, Oujo, where are you going all dressed-up like that?" turning around, Kumiko tossed a worried glance at the mirror.

"You think it's too much, Tetsu? I mean, he did ask me to dress up, but now I'm thinking I'm a bit over-dressed for a simple dinner…" Tetsu snickered and effectively shut her up. "What?"

"You're babbling, Oujo." He told her and she blushed, but her blush was replaced with a smile when he put his meaty arm on her shoulder and finished. "You look amazing. Young m- I mean, Shin-san will be blown away." She thanked him and went out, where Shin was already waiting for her. She felt his eyes roam all over her as she approached and fought down another blush. It was still hard for her sometimes to think of him as her b…b…b…boyfriend.

"You look…"he waited until she met his eyes, "simply stunning." He finished, pulling her close to him and giving a soft brush of his lips over hers that could just slide as a simple greeting and not thread into the 'kissing' territory. She had a lot of rules about his touching her in any way, but hey, five years and a guy learns how to use his loopholes.

"Not so bad yourself." She returned taking him in. Shin gave her a smile and led the way to his car.

After a quick drive, they got out and entered a French restaurant called "Le Petit Lapin" that during all of their years together, had become something they referred to as 'their-place'.

"Monsieur Sawada, Mademoiselle Yamaguchi." Greeted them François, their regular waiter.

"Bonsoir, Fran." They greeted him back and followed him to their table. While they were walking, Kumiko leaned towards Shin.

"Where is he taking us? Our usual table is not this way." Shin slid his arm around her slim waist and kissed her hair lightly.

"Never you mind that. We're getting a different table tonight that's all."

"Wh.." she began, but their reached the lift then and she was getting just too confused to ask anything else. After a ride to the top floor, François bowed to them and left while Shin took his date to the only table on the floor. After pulling out a chair for her and sitting down himself, Shin mentally prepared himself for the avalanche of questions that were no doubts coming his way in three…two… "Why are we here? Why's there only one table here? What's with the atmosphere here tonight, all the candles, dimmed light, that music? What's going on here, Sawada?" After he was sure that she was done, Shin steeled himself and took her hand in his, expression all pensive. Then he raised his eyes to look at her and… the words he was sure he was going to say simply froze in his mouth.

"N..never mind that, I guess that our usual table simply wasn't available tonight, is all… anyhow, how was your day?" Shin felt like he could smack himself over the head with a brick or something. 'Damned coward, that's what you are…' he thought to himself while she got sidetracked by his question and honestly started telling him about her day.

"…and then they not only dared to defy me, Shouji actually threw his book at me and that's when…" he watched her all animated and smiling, even though she was complaining about them and he put his head on his hand and simply watched her in silence, his other hand rubbing absentminded circles on her wrist. "…and so I told them that there was no way in hell that was ever going to… Sawada are you even listening to me?" she asked sounding a bit hurt. Shin looked at the woman in front of him and realized he would be an idiot if he didn't manage to get the words that needed to get out, out. Taking one last deep breath, he locked their eyes together and gave her a weary smile.

"How long have we been together? Kumiko gave him a look of disbelief.

"Random much tonight, Sawada?" Shin chuckled and shook his head.

"Five years I reckon. Isn't that weird? It feels more like an eternity…"

"Hey…what's that supposed to…" she started, trying to pull her hand free of his grasp, only to realize there was no way she could do it without tossing him out of the chair.

"And you know what I've realized recently?" he continued ignoring her attempt to interrupt him flawlessly. "I realized that I want to spend all of my eternities with you." At that she stopped her struggling and froze. Then she looked closer into his eyes and her eyes widened; when they darted towards the door Shin gave an irritated sigh. "No, you are not leaving. The doors are locked and this is the twentieth floor, for god's sake. So, you are not escaping and you have no way to avoid this. So just sit tight and listen would you?" at her reluctant nod, Shin let out a breath he didn't knew he was holding and continued. "I love you. I will love you forever. And I want you. Also forever. I know that you're not completely indifferent towards me as well, so no point in denying that at least…" he smirked when she was about to say something and then shut her mouth and simply pouted. "But, knowing you, I know that you need time to digest all this." He took out a small velvet box out of his pocket and slid it towards her with one finger. "For example, what would you say if I gave you, let's say, five seconds?" at her terrified silence, his smirk increased. "Five minutes? Hours?" he sighed and shook his head. "Well, I suppose I should have expected this. No way you would manage to respond given so little time, right? So how about I give you a week? 'till midnight next Friday. At that time, I'll be here, waiting for you. If you decide to accept me, put it on when you come. Kumiko," he added with his face completely serious, "no matter what your decision is, I will stay as you family's lawyer, so rest assured on that. However…" and Shin's face went completely blank and void of any emotion, "if you decide not to come, we are done. We're over." And with that he sighed, stood up, kissed her lightly on the forehead and left without another word. Good five minutes later Kumiko Yamaguchi blinked.

"…w-what just happen?" the sound of the little box opening rang loudly in the otherwise silent room. "oh…oh boy…" the young woman breathed when she saw the ring lying inside, it was simple – nothing too extravagant or elaborate, nothing – she noted impressed – that would cause difficulties while fighting, and yet, Kumiko could have sworn she had never seen anything so beautiful in her entire life. The young woman gulped, even she, as slow as she usually was in situations like this, understood quite clearly – she was in trouble.

Saturday

"Oujo! Dinner!" Tetsu sighed, there was no response.

"She still ain't responding?" Minoru came up to Tetsu, face all screwed up in concern. Tetsu only shook his head sadly.

Sunday

"Kumiko-chaaaaan!~~ tis time to eat, come on doooown!~~" Tetsu and Minoru were spying from the corridor as Kyo-san tried to coarse their young Oujo out of her room. She didn't respond, leaving the young Waka in tears.

Monday

"Yan-ku-mi!" Shouji, one of her students tried once again to get her to refocus. All efforts in vain, the class simply shrugged her weirdness of and left the classroom. Their teacher didn't notice.

Tuesday

"Um…Yamaguchi-san, are you…feeling alright?" Fujiyama-sensei asked, when she noticed the other female teacher pouring coffee into a cup for longer than a few minutes, thus making a miniscule flood to break out over the coffee table. At the blank stare she was given, Fujiyama-sensei knew there was something seriously wrong with her friend.

Wednesday

Sawatari-san was practically cheering aloud. His worst nemesis was completely out of it, why, just today he had seen her walking shoeless down the path out of the school. And the best part was – the school wasn't even out yet! Sawatari-san was positively joyous, not too long now, before the bald idiot (read - the school's director) will have to let her go! Joyous, joyous day indeed.

Thursday

"Yamaguchi-sensei? Yamaguchi-sensei! YAMAGUCHI-SENSEI!" Shirakawa-san finally hollered, hoping to catch the young woman's attention that way. She flinched, before turning to him and in turn making him flinch. Poor thing looked like she had just come back from a war – she had dark circles under her blood-shot eyes, her hair was in need of some serious washing, as was her uniform. She was missing one sock and she had one outside, one inside shoe on. The always-cheerful director sighed and shook his head. "Yamaguchi-sensei, please, take a few days of. They'll do you good. I'll ask Fujiyama-sensei to escort you home, okay?" After a while, she gave him a slow nod and wobbled into the general direction of teacher's lounge, leaving the director wondering what on earth could have happened.

Friday

"She still sleepin'?" Kyotaro asked Kuma, who was, at the moment, on guard at her door.

"Yeah, haven't heard a peep from her room since she came back yesterday. "Don't worry, waka, I'll let you know as soon as she wakes up."

"Hn… you better make sure you d-.." their conversation was interrupted by a loud bang, followed immediately by loud cursing, coming from inside the room.

"O-ojo?" Kuma tried, pressing his ear to the door and then almost got his head split in two, by the door suddenly being slammed opened by a completely disheveled Kumiko.

"O-ojo..?" tried Kyo this time. Kumiko snapped her blood-shot eyes towards him before bellowing.

"WHAT TIME IS IT?"

"Quarter to eleven pm?" Kuma told her, already wincing in advance.

"…and…the day?" she asked, somehow losing all her spirit. Kuma dared a glance to Kyotaro, hoping for support, but seeing as his superior just stood there, frozen at how quickly their beloved girl's mood changed, he sighed and answered.

"It's Friday, Oujo, why?" she seemed to shrink even more.

"Oh…i…see…" Kyotaro, unable to stand this weird behavior of hers any longer, decided to take a stand and find out what the hell had her acting completely like a different person.

"Kumiko-chan…" he started gently, placing his hands on her shoulders. "What's going on? Why don't you tell big brother what's been bothering you, m?" Kumiko raised her teary eyes towards the older male and seeing the concern and worry for her in his gaze, broke down.

"TisSawadaheithinkproposedandithinkihaveuntiltodaytoreplyandidon'tknowwhattodoandithinkireallylovehimKyoohwhattodooooooooooooooooo…" neither Kyo, nor Kuma really got any of that apart from the 'Sawada' part.

"Um…so, this has to do with the young master Red Lion then?" Kyotaro asked in confirmation and after a fervent nodding and some unintelligible mumbling from Kumiko, he nodded. "I see… What I think you should do, my dear…" however, before he managed to share his pearls of wisdom, Minoru came rushing in and interrupted them.

"Oujo! Someone, called Shouji is on the line, yelling something about a fight and unequal numbers and…" and Kumiko had already run of, towards the closest phone.

"Well," Kyotaro concluded with a smile, "at least she's moving again."

"…where?...there are HOW many of them?... and you..?... they have what now?... now that ain't fair, now is it… do not move you idghit. And do NOT call the cops, moron. Ye, ye, imma comin'. Stay put." And with that, she jumped into her track-suit and ran off, yelling something about 'kickin' the bastards' asses, for attackin' her lovely students.' Kyotaro sniffled.

"I'm so proud of her…"

Three and a lil' hours later

"…and that makes the last one…" Kumiko grinned, finishing stocking up the bad guys into a neat pile. Shouji, who was one of the few still managing to stand, came up to her with an awed expression.

"Yamaguchi… how did you..?" she only laughed at that and patted his cheek only a bit too hard.

"No need to thank me, Shouji, ma dear, no need to thank me. Just… do not take on opponents that you cannot beat anymore, ye?" Shouji nodded fervently and Kumiko hn'ed. "We really should take care of your friends now... they still need to go to the hospital and…" and then she paled so bad, Shouji actually freaked out and started yelling that 'all the fighting finally caught up with her and OH THE HORROR she'll die and they'll be responsible…' "Shouji…" he stopped yelling when she addressed him.

"Yes, Yamaguchi-sensei?" he asked all too respectfully.

"W-what time is it…?"

"Two thirty-five am, why?" he said and then waved a hand before her eyes, because his teacher's eyes went blank. "Yamaguchi-sensei…?"

'…so I'll give you until midnight next Friday… midnight next Friday… midnight…' was all Kumiko Yamaguchi could hear at that moment.

"No. no no no no no no no no…" she mumbled as she started to run.

"Yamaguchi-sensei..?" Shouji asked completely baffled. "What about my friends' hospitalization?"

"You'll have to take care of it yourself, Shouji, I believe in ya!" she tossed over her shoulder without slowing one bit and was out of his sight in seconds.

"One crazy chick, that woman is…" Shouji mumbled under his breath and resigned to taking all ten of his classmates to the hospital.

There were no lights light in „Le Petit Lapin" when she arrived. It was closed.

"Oh…no…" Kumiko breathed, noting absentmindedly that she was saying 'no' way too often today and that wasn't like her at all. She raised her head, trying to see any sign of life in the twentieth floor's window, but it was still as well. "I…was delayed. He has to understand that, right? I mean… it's not my fault I'm late, I was planning on commin', I just…got…delayed… students…" she mumbled as she turned around and went back home step by step.