"What a big girl you're becoming Princess! You look just like Mommy!" She laughed as her father picked her up. She spent all day making sure her room was clean for his visit. She even nagged her mother to let her wear her nicest clothes. Her father kissed her forehead. "Daddy needs to see you more often! Saiyuri, you had me thinking she'd be a little nugget of a person." She pouted. Everyone was always calling her small but she was even bigger than the last time she saw him. She had the marks on the wall to prove it!

"Why can't mommy and me just come live with you?" He ruffled her hair, hiding the expression on his face.

"One day Chise, okay? I have a big house and a huge yard and I'll even get you a puppy. A tiny puppy that can fit in your hand so you won't be scared." She was so happy she forgot to exhale.

"Mommy! Mommy! Did you hear that?" Her mother smiled at her and nodded. Even her mother was happier.

"Don't you go getting her riled up like that Toshiro. Where would we fit the thing?" A dog that tiny would fit. She'd put him in her pocket if she had to.

She'd learned her family was different long before she saw her father kissing the man on the beach. Her mother had already carefully explained that when people who weren't married had children, they had different names. Her mother also repeated several times that even though she and Daddy were only best friends, they wanted a baby so bad that they decided to have her, which was why they loved her so much. She liked her daddy's friend. He was nice to her and snuck her chocolates all throughout their vacation. Their cheeks turned red when they realized she had come back from seashell hunting, but she didn't react. Honestly, she cared more about them seeing her seashells. Her daddy made her promise not to tell anyone but her mom. She made him promise that the man would stay with them forever unlike his other special friends. Most of the others didn't seem to like her much. She didn't think she'd stop crying if this one left too. Daddy's friend laughed.

Her father didn't keep his promise. When Chise finished crying and would talk to him on the phone again, he showed up to her door and pulled a puppy out of his pocket.

She always loved when she was able to visit her dad's house. The people working there seemed to like her a lot. She'd just started fifth year, the sakura trees were blooming, and already her teacher liked her. She'd been picking up the fallen petals for a craft project (she was glad that her dad always enjoyed doing "girl stuff" with her and even found new things for them to do) when two hands shoved her face down in the grass and petals. She nearly got up when she was kicked in her side, her back hitting the ground.

"It's your fault my parents hate each other! Because of you they're getting a divorce!" Why was he shouting at her? The sun blocked her view of the boy's face, but he couldn't have been much older than her.

"Yoshitsune! What are you doing?" She was too big for her dad to pick up anymore, so all he could do was pull her up into a standing position. He dusted her off, checking for bruises. Aside from a red face, she was fine. "Why would you do that? She's your baby sister!" She had a brother? She looked up at the boy, and sure enough he was almost a copy of her father.

"Mom said she isn't! She said she's just some bastard you had because you're irresponsible!" Her dad slapped Yoshitsune. It wasn't hard, but the sound still made her wince

"Don't you ever talk back to me like that again, and I never want to hear you using language like that again. Do you understand me?" She'd never heard her dad sound like that before. It was like the tone her mother sometimes used with her, but it was far too cold. He wouldn't talk to her like that when she got big, would he? He'd never even hit her before. Yoshitsune stood still as a stone, not even crying like she was. Even on the rare occasion her mom hit her, she still at least sniffled. "Chise, why don't you go inside and ask Fuyumi-san to help you get cleaned up? Your dress is dirty." She couldn't see any dirt, but she was glad for a reason to leave.

"They have an open position in Hokkaido but hopefully I'll be able to come back and visit you tons, okay?" She almost wanted to beg her mom not to leave. Her dad could pay for both of them to live with him. She didn't want to change schools after just starting high school. She didn't want to be separated from her and leave her tiny but cozy room. They'd lived here all her life. She would have sucked up her tears if such a thing were possible. "Don't be lonely. You'll finally be living with your dad and you have Azuki! I'll call you all the time and it'll be like I took a vacation." Her dad had kept his promise about the dog, but not about her mother. Just the thought made her bite her cheek to keep from saying anything about him. He'd been breaking a lot of promises lately.

Then again, she'd realized after all these years that her mother was far too proud to take help like that from anyone- even the man she agreed to have a child with. It would probably be easier on her mother if she agreed to all this. If she acted like it wouldn't bother her then it'd be easier for her mom to leave and go where there was work for her.

"I won't." She hoped that sounded defiant. "I'll be fine. Dad's always taken good care of me." Her mother smiled at her again and hugged her tightly. "So when are you leaving?"

"A few weeks?" It would take her that long just to sort through her stuff. "I know it's short notice, but your dad's already setting up your bedroom. You'll have your own bathroom and a vanity and a window seat- just like you always wanted. It's so pretty!" Her mother had seen the place? How? As far as she knew, the ink was barely dry on the final arrangements of her father's divorce. How he could have done all that under the his ex-wife's nose was beyond her. Then again, she'd barely seen the place her mother had managed to find all the way in Hokkaido. She didn't even know what kind of job she had.

"I guess so."

She'd expected to see a lot more of him in the moving process, but honestly, she'd probably seen more of Fuyumi. The woman had seen her cry and throw things, gingerly picking them up and only reminding her to not throw her tantrums in front of her parents.

Chise looked up at her as they rode in the car, quickly looking back down at the brochures in her lap. She'd been expecting them to send her to Saint Lobelia Academy, god knew their uniforms were far less ugly, so when she was handed the pamphlet for Ouran instead she held back the urge to gag as she saw the yellow contraption they called a uniform. It looked like the daffodil child of a normal high school uniform and a missionary dress.

"And you're absolutely sure I can't just wear a boy's uniform?" She pleaded. She'd heard of it being allowed in some schools. Fuyumi sighed.

"They had a hard enough getting you into the A class. Adding a teenage child to a family registry without a public spectacle isn't easy for a man like your father." Fuymi's tone sounded tired even though this was the first time she'd brought the topic up, owing either to the fact that she was as sick and tired of the moving process as she was, or that she was the one who'd argued for her to go to Ouran. As far as she knew, it was only a matter of a libel case to keep things quiet. No big deal once a company was big enough. Besides, unless they were standing near each other, or you knew her father well enough, you could hardly tell she was his child.

"From what I heard it was coming anyway once that divorce finalized. Of course, I still have to live with that witch's son." Chise's cheek was pinched.

"Mitsubashi-sama is having a very hard time with this divorce and please try to be respectful towards Yoshitsune-sama." She had to admit, it gave her a sick sense of glee to hear her father's ex-wife being forced to use her maiden name. Served the witch right for keeping her out of her own father's home, cutting down on the already little time she had to see him. That could just be the personal vendetta against her half brother speaking though. As long as their father or Fuyumi was around he was docile, but she'd quickly learned how vicious he could be when nobody of consequence to him wasn't there. The way he saw it she wasn't really his sister and while he'd stopped physically attacking her, they'd developed a quiet kind of psychological warfare. The difference of course was that she cared enough about their father's feelings to bury the hatchet so long as he was within earshot.

"Yes, I'll remind Tachibana-sama how grateful I am that he let the bastard child share his air," she bit out. Her cheek was pinched harder this time and she cried out.

"So help me I will twist off your whole cheek if I have to. You cannot keep acting like that. Your father has made his choice and your brother will learn to deal with it. You will act like somebody raised you with good sense and so help me if I hear about anything with school I will give you hell until it is fixed. Do you understand me?" Sometimes she really regretted the woman becoming her unofficial nanny. For such a sweet young woman she'd really turned into a mother hen when she wanted to. She'd have never thought the sweet, unassuming maid she'd grown up with could be like this. Then again, nobody thought she was capable of throwing an encyclopedia like she had.

"Yes ma'am," Chise whimpered. Fuyumi huffed.

"You're going to raise my blood pressure I just know it," She complained. Chise had the feeling laughing at the comment would get her cheek completely removed. Silence would be a good option for now.

The school itself didn't look all bad. There was definitely more diversity in the courses than at her last school. In any case, there wasn't really any turning back. She had the feeling her classmates wouldn't appreciate her returning after they'd thrown the going away party of the century. Students from other classes and even upperclassmen had shown up, following them to karaoke well into the night. There was no way she could return for at least this term- maybe in fall or winter, but not this spring.

She looked at her books for the term, not surprised that even the A class was starting off at a more moderate pace. The first term, and year in general, were supposed to be a bit easier, or so she'd heard from upperclassmen at her public school. She was glad the rule extended to private as well.

"I want you up by six-thirty so you can go to school without looking like you fell out of a haystack too. I'd better see you going to bed early unless you want dark circles." That caught her attention.

"...six-thirty?" Sure, it was only a half hour than when she should have been getting up, but she normally woke up at seven thirty. "And how do you know what I look like when I go to school? I looked fine!"

"Your fingers aren't combs and it is no longer acceptable to do your hair in the bathroom during breaks." Her face twitched. Fuyumi had to be a demon, there was no other explanation for her knowing that. And besides, if she wet her hair enough, she could have just said she was going for that whole beach look thing. "Two hours before school starts is generous. You'll finally get a chance to eat breakfast sitting down. You won't have to run out the house." Fuyumi wasn't looking at her. For somebody who was good at tricking her into things, she was terrible when it came to lying or hiding almost everything else.

"There's a catch. Yoshitsune and I are sharing a car, aren't we?" Fuyumi rearranged her facial expression so fast even she nearly had whiplash. Chise had set her off again. Why the woman had some bizarre idea that she and her brother would eventually get along completely evaded her.

"What? Are you so spoiled now that you want your own car to take you to school? Or did you expect to walk? Maybe take public transportation and embarrass your father by making him look cheap?"

"Yoshitsune's going to strangle me before I even get to school," Chise retorted. Fuyumi rolled her eyes, not even bothering to respond. "I could take the train. Nobody would even recognize me. They'd think I was a scholarship student or something. It'll be fine."

"And where would you catch the train?" She'd never really considered that. Now that she thought of it, she'd never tried to get to her father's house by anything other than car.

"I'll keep my trap shut, but I'll make no promises about his behavior," Chise conceded.

"All I'm asking."

Moving into the house was more like a welcome home celebration than she'd expected. Except for some of the youngest, most of the staff remembered who she was from her infrequent visits. There was a surprising amount of being fawned over, which made her feel more like a new baby being brought home than a half grown teenager.

The most surprising part, however, was how much she'd seen of her father. The older staff had thrown a small welcoming party, and her father had run into the middle of it looking like he'd run straight from his desk to the informal dining room. Seeing as it was only six-thirty and a Friday, he probably had. She wasn't exactly sure why she was so unprepared to see his face, seeing as she'd hoarded every news article his name and company were even mentioned in, but something about seeing his graying hair and the way he held his eyes startled her. It shouldn't have because anybody else would have said he looked great for his age. The only thing saving her was that he was obviously more prepared for how she looked now.

It occurred to her that her father's appearance had shocked the staff over the next few days as well, but not for the same reason. While the older staff were sharp enough not to say anything within earshot of her, the younger staff were both unprepared for her wandering habit and how easy it was to overlook the fact that she was in a room. Eventually she managed to overhear that he hadn't been seen in the house this much in several years, even on the weekend. Fuyumi woke her up at six thirty even when she didn't start at her new school until next week, but it also allowed her to see her father for breakfast, and every single weeknight he was home by seven for dinner. Surprisingly, Yoshitsune was at neither of these meals and she was far too cautious of the peace and her father's mood to even bring up his name. Mostly they talked about what she'd done with her day. Walking Azuki wasn't really one of her responsibilities anymore, so she'd taken to wandering the mansion until she'd had a decent grasp of its layout. There were two music rooms, the newer clearly for her seeing as it looked more like a space that several clubs shared rather than something for a single person. She doubted that the mirrored wall would see much use though. Leaving her school had meant quitting the dance team. Despite that, she still found herself practicing the last routine when her fingers were numb from practicing whatever piece caught her eye in the books of sheet music. There wasn't much else to do seeing as anyone she could have talked to or texted was in school.

What had managed to shock her was the fact that when she left her room at seven in the morning on Sunday, her father was already having coffee in the dining room. The previous day they'd engaged in his favorite hobby of dressing her up and she was personally surprised that he had enough stamina to spend money like that and still wake up this early. Then again, things were probably different when you were okay with a three hundred dollar price tag instead of nearly having a heart attack from spending that much in a week. On her side, the only thing waking her up this early was a nightmare of Fuyumi's voice telling her she was late coupled with the fact that she'd forgotten to turn her alarm off. Hearing a screaming buzz come out of her nanny's mouth would haunt her for days.

She bit back a tired groan when he told her that they were going on another outing, but she'd realized their real purpose when they got home and she immediately felt the shift in atmosphere. She could immediately see it in the slight discomfort of some of the maids. Even when they were little Yoshitsune had that kind of effect on the staff. She'd always assumed he'd inherited it from his mother. While she felt bad for them, she was also insanely glad her father had opted to dine out for dinner instead of come home. She was even more glad that their purchases and starting a new school the next day gave her an excuse to hide away in her room and avoid her half brother. Her room was the one place he'd never go near, either out of some unwilling truce or a warning from his mother she'd never really figure it out. Even better that there was no way he could have simply been passing by when she was an entire house away from him.

What she did know was Monday morning would be different. She had no idea whether it was for better or worse, or if it would be entertaining or not. Different was the best word she had at the moment.