AU Premise: Hinamori is a young heiress who, for many different reasons, is being tutored at home instead of attending either public or private school. Aizen is her tutor.

Note: This story contain the conjugation of irregular French verbs. Some of them are purposefully wrong and will be bolded. If any of the supposedly correct conjugations are wrong, do not hesitate to tell me.

"I must say that I'm terribly disappointed in you, Momo."

"Yes, mama." For the most part, she kept her head down, her eyes focused on shaking hands. But every few moments she would look up and cringe as she watched her mother pace the floor in her sensible patent leather shoes. Momo would feel as if she must say something but then her mother would notice her and glare her back into silence. "What can I do to make it up to you?"

"I'll decide that later. You've been a bad girl, Momo."

"Yes. I think I understand that."

"But you can be forgiven," she said, her voice slightly tinged with kindness.

"Thank you, mama," she sighed.

"It will take time though." Her mother approached her and, for the first time in the last hour, had pity in her eyes. She cupped Momo's chin in her hand and said, "And you must understand that Mr. Aizen has been fired."

The words escaped her mouth before she could stop them: "No, not Sousuke!"

Her mother pulled back, her hand suddenly poised to slap her. But she soon dropped all pretense of doing so slumped over. "Oh, Momo. Why can't you understand that what happened is embarrassing?"

"I don't understand why it's anyone's business," she said softly.

"You're still too young for such nonsense."

"But I'm old enough to be left to my own devices for days on end? Was I old enough to jet set around the continent with you and your second husband? I certainly saw some crazy shi…." Momo paused the moment she noticed her tone of voice rise. Her mother had taken the seat across from her as she began her rant and had started to drum her fingers against the wooden armrest. Her features did nothing to restrain her aggravation. Her mother was notoriously talented at letting others know how she felt without having to voice the "louder" emotions. Momo could feel herself wilting under her glower. She would have to take a different approach. She steadied herself and said, "I don't understand your reasoning. If you didn't want me to be around a man, why did you hire him in the first place?"

Her mother groaned. "I should have listened to Jyuushiro."

"Possibly."

Momo remembered the series of events that led to Sousuke Aizen becoming her tutor. A friend of her mother suggested him, noting that he had recently been dismissed from his position at the university. The friend could offer no reason for this discharge, which only served to pique her interest in an otherwise dull candidate. She arranged a meeting the next day. The time between the scheduling and interview was spent preparing for the visit. The solid, boldly colored minimalistic furniture was banished to the attic and gilded, ornately colored bits of Victoriana were brought down to substitute. The Pop Art and Expressionistic paintings that lined the walls were ripped down and replaced with works that vaguely resembled the works of Titian and Hogarth. Everything moveable was primped and primed to its fullest, fluffiest best. Momo didn't like it. It looked to her to be a shiny, tacky mess. She didn't allow her mother to do such a thing to her. So, when Sousuke arrived, Momo presented herself as a modern girl: hair bobbed, makeup minimal, and clothed like a mod, A-lined princess. She was pleased to see that Sousuke also followed a different aesthetic path, dressed in linen pants and shirt with a perfect tan. Her mother had scrunched her face and turned her nose up at his appearance, keeping their initial greetings frigid. Though she hated his look, he managed to charm with flattery and the occasional witty turn of phrase. She was so mesmerized that she forgot to ask all of those difficult questions about his dismissal. He was hired before he left the house.

It wasn't until her mother spoke with Mr. Ukitake that she discovered the answers. They weren't pretty: sexually permissive to the point of leaving multiple students emotional broken, politically radical and had staged several massive anarchist protests during his tenure, and charismatic enough to develop a loyal group of subordinates. "He's a walking time bomb and I can't fault university officials for letting him go. I can't imagine why you are hiring him." Her mother laughed it off, claiming that she had never allowed her decisions to be dictated by rumor or innuendo.

That way your screw-ups are much more organic thought Momo with a sigh.

"Are you listening, Momo?"

"Yes, mama," she sighed.

"Then you agree that we should begin looking for a new tutor as soon as possible?"

"I suppose." She looked up to see her mother's disappointed face. And though she didn't want to, she could feel her ire rising. Hadn't she begun to say the right things? What did she have to say? "I…I just don't understand the need for yet another tutor. Why can't I go back to school?"

"School has never been good to you, dear. Remember how much trouble that Toushirou would drag you into? The teachers would talk about how horrible you were even though it was clearly that little guttersnipe's fault. Besides, it seems that you've learned more on your own."

Momo didn't know what to say. Her mother was almost wrong about the entire situation. She and Toushirou had been partners in crime. In fact, he was the practical and serious minded one. Their pranks were generally Momo's attempts at getting him to lighten up and take life less seriously. She wasn't an innate prankster, so they were inevitably caught moments after committing the deed. The teachers felt more sympathy for the seemingly sorry Toushirou and had no issue with playing up Momo's participation. As for her academic performance: yes, her grades had improved but that was because she had no one to distract her.

Momo silence in the face of her mother's objections was taken as a sign of agreement. "You'll see that this is for the best. Everything will turn out just the way want."

"Okay."

"Good. Now go up to your room. If I need you, I'll send for you."

Momo nodded and hopped up from her seat. She offered her mother a curt bow and walked out of the room. She traipsed carefully down the hall and even though she kept her steps light, she could still hear them reverberate. The shadows loomed within pale white walls. Though she didn't hate her mother's home, she recognized it's intimidating power. It instilled enough fear in her to go straight to her room without detour.

So it took her little time to make it back to her room on the second floor. She opened her to door to be surprised by a sharp yelp. A dark blur zoomed past her and Momo watched as a young maid ran down the hall. Momo couldn't really blame her for her reaction. She was the one who told.

Momo and Sousuke began their unorthodox relationship early. Part of their day would be spent in rigorous study and the other part spent in rigorous play. Sometimes those two activities would intertwine and play would be used as an incentive to work. That was what they had been doing when they were caught. It was a little game that Momo referred to as "strip conjugation." Correct conjugation resulted in Sousuke removing an article of clothing and incorrect conjugation forced Momo to lose a bit of clothes. And so it went: "Je vais, Tu vas, Il va, Nous allons, Vous allez, Ils vont" – Correct; "J'ai, Tu as, Il a, Nous avions, Vous avez, Ils ont" – Incorrect; "Je bois, Tu bois, Il boit, Nous bovons, Vous bovez, Ils boivent" – Incorrect; "Je suis, Tu es, Il est, Nous sommes, Vous êtes, Ils sont" – Correct. After a few rounds of this both of them sat on the bed barely clothed. And though she knew that she probably shouldn't, she reached out to him and allowed him to take her into his arms. Seconds later they were intertwined, arms grasping at various body parts and legs lifted higher than had previously been thought possible. Momo wasn't necessarily used to this kind of play but she rode with it, thrusting and licking at whatever seemed closest. Like any good teacher, Sousuke willingly guided her hands and body to the places he thought would suit them both best. She soon felt her sense of balance begin to shift and knew that he would be on top of her in just a few moments. Momo relished it and burrowed herself closer to him to speed up the process. But the moment they began to tumble into the bed was the moment she detected the faint sound of the opening door.

They stopped, arms awkwardly bracing them up, and stare at the maid in the doorway. The young girl had blanched and her mouth hung open, trembling. Momo felt her body petrify as she watched the maid begin to shake. She cast a worried glance toward Sousuke. She was surprised by his aloof, blank expression. He merely stared ahead, glasses askew but eyes sharp. The maid couldn't take her eyes off of him. Momo watched as she sagged under Sousuke's gaze and, at the moment she shivered most, broke away from the doorway and took off down the hall. Momo dropped down onto the bed, momentarily relieved. She looked up to see Sousuke reaching for his pants. Her face must have registered some kind of bewildered horror because he smiled at her, saying, "Don't worry. Everything will turn out just the way you want it to."

Easy for you to say she thought while standing at her room's threshold. She looked into her room to see random bits of destruction: torn sheets and curtains, tossed clothes, decimated desk and shelves, and strange red stains on her periwinkle walls. Of course, Momo was furious but she was aware that she couldn't snitch on the maid just yet. Her mother would be too sympathetic, cooing something about how her virgin eyes had been permanently scarred. "How could she expect her to act any differently than she did?" she'd say in her most sanctimonious tone. With no other choice available to her, she sequestered herself inside her room and set to cleaning it as best she could.

It took her hours to pull her room into livable condition. She was able to salvage most of her things but a small pile of broken trinkets and collectables by her desk stood as a testament to the damage done earlier. Except for her comforter and pillows, her bed was completely stripped of the torn sheets. The red stains, however, could be removed. She would be embarrassed when she tried to explain it to everyone the next day. That, it seems, was what they all wanted. Drained and defeated, Momo sat on her bed, her back to the wall and her nose in a book. She had been called down for neither punishment or dinner and Momo did her best to keep her mind off her troubles. She just wasn't doing a very good job of it.

As night fell, she noticed the house go silent. Her mother was always an "early-to-bed, early-to-rise" sort of person and without Momo's forced presence she went to bed even earlier. She set her mind toward waiting another half hour before heading downstairs to swipe dinner when she heard a slight crunch against her window. With a sigh, she hoisted herself up and made her way toward the window. Lazily, she opened it up and looked around. "Are you ok, Momo?" asked a voice from the abyss.

Her eyes shot immediately to a form crouching inside the high grown bushes. It was Sousuke. "Yes!" she said softly. "Why did you come back?"

"I had to know how you were doing."

Momo slipped to the floor, bracing herself against the windowsill. She stared at him longingly for a moment, relishing that he wasn't completely out of her life. And yet she was horrified that he was till out of her reach. "How are you going to get up?

Sousuke smiled. "Your handyman should lock your mother's garage." He dragged a ladder into the bushes and carefully placed it toward her window. Momo grabbed hold of it and watched his form become more distinct. When his head cleared her window, she grabbed onto his ears and pulled him in for a kiss. His body tensed slightly but relaxed when he was able to place his hands on the sill. "I take it you want to resume our little activity?" he asked on release.

"I've been through a lot today," said Momo, "and I just want something good to come out of it."