For those of you who don't know, this is a side story to You, Me, We, Us. It's a two-shot. It centers around Ranmaru and Tamao Kikunoi, also known as the Princess. This takes place before Kyo gets hurt (or while he's getting hurt) and after he's a little better. So after the next chapter of YMWU is updated, this will be finished.

If you haven't read You, Me, We, Us, then here's a small break down. If you know the story, then you can skip this, or if you don't care.

Takenaga and Noi got married. When they found out they were going be parents, they decided that depending on the gender of the baby, they would name it after their best friend. Surprise, surprise, they had twins. A boy and girl. The birth of Sunako and Kyohei (more widely known as Suna and Kyo) was everything Noi had hoped for…until they started fighting. So, during the summer she sent the fourteen-year-olds away. Suna went to Kyohei's and Kyo went to Sunako's. After a bad fall Kyo ends up in the hospital. That's where I left my readers…

And finally, I don't own Wallflower.

The Yellow Rose

He really didn't know how to feel. He hated to say that he expected it, but he honestly did. He knew that now matter where he was, on the twenty-sixth of November, he would wake up to a flower.

It had happened for years. He'd wake up to see it on his dinning room table, or even in his office. A single yellow rose with red tips. The simple card say To: Ranmaru in elegant script. He knew who it was instantly. The Princess. Though how she got it into his house or office without him knowing was beyond him.

Ranmaru let it go after a while, figuring that he was just part of the charm she had developed since he'd last seen her. Yet, for the flower to show up and Noi and Takenaga's was something else. It seemed that nothing would stop her from getting the flower to him. He had to admire her.

That morning he woke up to a yellow rose in a simple vase on his bedside table. Ranmaru recognize the handwriting easily now. It was defiantly something that'd he could identify instantly.

Ranmaru smiled as he took the rose gently between his thumb and forefinger and lifted to his nose. He'd never really liked the smell roses, but there was something about the smell of her roses. Like she spent enough time with it that it carried her own smell to him.

There was a small knock at the door. Ranmaru glanced up as Noi opened the door noiselessly and peeked in.

"Good morning," she smiled. "Like your rose?"

"Very much," he answered. "Where's your lovely husband? I really don't think that he should know about this."

"I'm going to ignore that last comment and tell you that he's at work," Noi sniffed as she walked into the room. "Which is where you should be."

Ranmaru yawned. "I'm on vacation,"

"And living here," she added under her breath as she took a seat at the end of the bed. To anyone outside their family, it would seem that they were too close to just be friends. But they had never been a normal family, not with their members. Noi actual felt nothing when she sat with Ranmaru like that.

"Just because I know you miss me." He said with a charming smile.

Noi rolled her eyes. "Who's the rose from, anyway?" she asked.

Ranmaru didn't hesitate to tell her. She'd just find out somehow. "The princess."

"Oh," Noi said blinking. "I didn't realize that you two were in contact."

"We see each other from time to time and some function or another. Every once in a while we have dinner together. Just as friends, of course."

"Of course," Noi muttered sarcastically. "So why the rose."

Ranmaru smirked, eyeing the yellow rose. "It's a…ritual of ours."

Noi looked at him, eyeing him up and down with narrowed violet eyes. Suddenly, her eyes widened. "Oh, God!" she shouted, "You didn't steal her virginity, did you? Man, Ranmaru, I told you to be nice to her. That could have really affected her. OH! You've ruined her for any other man! Because God knows you're never going to marry her!"

"Noi, catch a breath!" Ranmaru shouted back as he slammed a hand over her mouth. Noi glared but stayed quiet as his hand left.

"I didn't sleep with her." he explained. She glanced at him, clearly not believing a word he said. "Look, you can call her. I know you two still talk."

"She never mentioned you or any roses," Noi practically growled as she glared at the wall.

"It's kind of a private thing," Ranmaru answered. The married woman turned her glare to him, obviously wanting an explanation.

Ranmaru sighed and ran a tired hand through his dark red. "Every year she sends me a rose on the day we met. It's always a yellow rose with red tips; it symbolizes friendship and falling in love. It's just a reminder that she's still here. Still waiting."

Noi looked at him. "And you're making her wait?" she asked, "How rude."

"I'm not ready to be married," he muttered to himself, knowing very well that it would only server to enrage the strong-willed woman. Her favorite argument was that he was in his late thirties.

"Wait, did you say that it's always a yellow rose with red tips?"

Ranmaru glanced at her. "Yeah, why?"

"That rose doesn't have red tips," she pointed out, while actually pointing at the rose.

Ranmaru looked down. She was right. It was just a bright yellow rose. How had he missed that. A yellow rose meant friendship, but what about the love part? Didn't she still love him?

Noi left the older man to think things through. If she had known that he would have that strange of a reaction, she would have let him figure it out on his own.

She wandered back downstairs thinking about the woman. Noi couldn't deny that Tamao Kikunoi was beautiful. But, as she always thought, beauty came at a price. The weird girl was hopelessly in love with the relationship-failure that is Ranmaru Morii.

Or was she?

Noi wondered if Ranmaru knew that yellow roses simple meant only friendship. Was this a sign? Was she wising up? Had she met someone?

Questions that ran both Noi's and Ranmaru's mind. Only his had a slightly more worrisome tone to them.

Why would she even bother to send him a flower, then? Ranmaru worried. He'd set the flower back in the vase to pace around the room freely.

Maybe he could call her…except that she was at work. He actually liked that about her. He'd never met someone who wanted to work. She could let her father pay for everything like all his women let him and their husbands pay, but she preferred to earn some on her own. It was just a small, nothing job, but she liked it, nonetheless. And she found it very important, and didn't like it when she was interrupted from it.

So that left him to boil until she got off in at the end of the day.

Maybe he could go down there and buy something, then she'd have to talk to him!

That seemed a bit mean. It would mean that he'd waste her time. She wouldn't appreciate it, but wouldn't say anything. She was nice like that. He honestly thought that she was too nice most of the time. She was a princess through and through, though. Sometimes he wished that he could be that nice to someone. Though they had similar past, she was so different from him. She was nice and cared about others, while he enjoyed dating married women. He liked that about her.

Maybe the flower store was just out of red-tipped yellow roses. That had to be it…

If she was good enough to get the stupid rose into Takenaga's guest room without anyone noticing (or at least with Noi's approval) then she could get a stupid yellow rose with red tips. She was too resourceful. He'd seen her at work before. A long time ago, one of his bigger hotels were hosting a party for a very well known man, and his manager just up and quite. The princess stepped in a saved the day. The party was a hit, but before he got to properly thank her, she had disappeared into the night. It was never mentioned again. But he love the way she had handle everything. It was probably something she learned from her mom. Either way, Ranmaru knew that he'd never be able to work like that. Not with that amount of class while still demanding things.

He was running out of excuses.

Ranmaru rolled his dark eyes. What was going on? He was acting like his girlfriend had forgotten to come home the night before. That wasn't the way things were though. Not between them. She was the girl that was there, waiting for him quietly in the back round.

Maybe that was the problem. Maybe she was tired of waiting and giving him a friendship rose was her way to saying it. She'd never really been a forward person. Maybe she wasn't in love with him anymore and was just trying to let him down easily.

Not for the first time, Ranmaru wished for Suna and Kyo. Those brats could always take his mind off of things. He loved them both. Suna with her strong-willed, loud personality. He remembered when she was just a baby. She'd always let the room know when she was in it. No one was ever not aware of her presence.

Kyo, on the other hand, had a quite determination air. He was calm and cool, but loveable all the same. Not like his father, but his own type of person.

The two could be great, if they'd just stop fighting. They used to be able to tag-team Noi before they started. Suna would burst into a room and distract her mother with every question under the sun, while Kyo would get the job done.

Ranmaru laughed. Noi and Takenaga sure got lucky with those two. Silently, ever since that one kid had shown up all those years ago, he'd wondered what his real kid would be like. Would he be more like Ranmaru or his wife (or whoever, really)? Would he be the perfect combination of both? Would it even be a he? Would he love to have a girl?

Yeah. He would.

But now his fiancé was, what, giving him up? Telling him that he's finally being released?

Suna and Noi would never take this laying down, and Kyo and Takenaga would find a way to find out what was really going on.

So would he.

--

Noi was worried. Hours had past and she hadn't heard a word from Ranmaru. He was just being silent upstairs. No stomping, no yelling, just nothing.

She really hoped that he cared enough not to go back to sleep. Whether he realized it or not, the princess was actually perfect for him. She was the perfect woman for him to settle down with. She would forgive and forget his past. She would be good to him. She would love him for all the he was, and all that he wasn't. She would give him everything.

At least, Noi hoped that she still would. The rose had affected her thoughts and feelings more than she lead on.

Noi hadn't realized how much time had gone by until her husband had come home in a huff. She hadn't even started dinner yet…forget it, they would order in.

Takenaga sat down at the table with his usual elegance, but Noi could tell just by looking at his brooding eyes that something was wrong.

--

Ranmaru was losing his mind. He had only fifteen minutes to wait before he could call and figure out what was going on.

He could just ask her straight out. There was no real reason to hid it. She knew what she's done. Or he could invite her out for dinner. He would love to look at her face as she told him the truth behind the ugly flower.

"Ranmaru," Takenaga broke into his room, breathless. "My son's in the hospital."

Or he could put his love life on the back burner until he was sure his family was okay. Maybe this could give him more time to think if he didn't lose his mind first.

So that's the first half. It's kind of weird. I jut wanted to express how much Ranmaru has actually come to like her and even matured a little. I'm not sure if it's come through the way I wanted, but either way, here it is. The second will be up after the next chapter of You, Me, We, Us. It won't be too confusing.

Hope some of you enjoyed it. It's just a little side story. I like happy ending and I didn't know how to incorporate the princess into the other. Then I had this idea for the yellow rose and figured I could turn it into a side story.

Thanks for reading. Sorry for any mistakes.