Disclaimer: I don't own the characters that belong to Sunrise.


"This is stupid," the girl grumbled looking defiantly at her reflection. In it, the same dark blue haired girl with piercing jade eyes glared back at her.

"Now, now, Natsuki, don't you want to look pretty for your birthday?" questioned her mother who was busy attending at her daughter's hair. The older woman counted the seconds before finally unrolling the metal rod from her daughter's hair. The resulting product was a well made curl which spiraled down the girls' back.

"No," the little girl replied with even more distaste as she crossed her arms akimbo. She hated it all. She hated how her mother always wanted her to wear a dress for her birthday. In fact, she could write a list about why she hated it so much. The sleeves were too puffy, the color was baby blue, she could barely run in it, but most importantly it was girly.

"It's just for a couple hours, and you know your father thinks you look so beautiful in it," her mother replied pulling a loose strand away from Natsuki's face. She had tied her daughter's navy hair up in a pony tail with her bangs embracing the sides of her face. The hair was curled at the ends, and Natsuki's mother couldn't help but twirl it in her finger and watch it spring back into place.

"Don't do that," Natsuki grunted as she swatted her mom's hand away from her hair. Her mother stood to look proudly at her accomplishment. She had transformed a previously muddy Natsuki into a beautiful little princess. She found herself a bit behind schedule because a certain now-eight-year-old girl had decided to play hide and go seek. When she finally found her daughter, she was horrified to see her playing in the mud and covered in dirt. With only thirty minutes until the party started, Mutsumi Kuga was to clean her daughter and make her presentable to the guests. The doorbell suddenly rang, and Natsuki's mother quickly excused herself to go and welcome the guests.

"Come down in a bit, all your friends will be here," and with a kiss, Natsuki's mother disappeared from the room to play hostess.

To this, the dark haired scoffed. Today was her eighth birthday, but she knew as well as anyone that she didn't have any friends. The boys and girls that were going to come were nothing but her parent's co-worker's children who had come at her parents' request. It wasn't her fault that the kids at her school couldn't get along with her. Despite her young age, her teachers could already feel the iciness from Natsuki's eyes. She was considered unapproachable and even children knew not to mess with someone that clearly didn't want anything to do with them. Even though Natsuki was born a summer child, the summer's warmth sure did not thaw the girl's glacial exterior.

Natsuki plopped herself on her bed and sighed into the soft pillow. It would be the eighth year that she would celebrate yet another miserable birthday party.

"Might as well get this over with. I hope they give me good presents at least," she said to herself in defeat. Even if she had refused to go downstairs, her parents were going to drag her down eventually anyway. With that, she swung her legs over the bed in an unladylike manner and stomped her way to the main living room. As she made her way downstairs, she made sure to tramp extra loud to let her guests know that she was coming.

As tradition, her parents would hide everyone behind the living room's furniture and as soon as she walked into it they could come out and yell surprise. Thus, after the same thing happening seven times, it no longer became a surprise. When she finally got to the middle, she lifted her hands in the air and announced, "I'm here, but where is everyone?" It was a small role that her parents always expected her to play.

And at the cue, a group of kids popped from their hiding places and yelled "SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATSUKI-CHAN." Natsuki feign shock with such obviousness that even the kids were beginning to feel a bit stupid for doing the same thing again. The kids did notice, however, a noticeable twitch from the cobalt haired girl for the use of the –chan honorific. The children swarmed around her, and Natsuki noticed how the number of kids that came this year was fewer than last year's. What was she to expect though, the parents were becoming more reluctant to let their children come to such a cynical girl's party.

"So what do you want to do today, Natsuki-chan?" asked a small, chubby girl who had her hair styled into pigtails. Her button nose and round face made her look like a pig to Natsuki and the pigtails only made it worse.

"How bout we cut off one of your pigtails?" the birthday girl spat and imitated scissors with her fingers. The other girl shrieked and ran to her mother crying. Stupid.

"You look cute today, Kuga-san," a boy in a black and red tie said. It was Takeda Masahi, a boy in her class that had been trying to get her attention ever since he met her. For some reason the ice princess's cool exterior had captivated his heart. He was taller than her, but a lot weaker. He gave her his best smile hoping that his compliment would make the blue haired girl happy. Unfortunately for him, Natsuki was in no mood to deal with foolish boys and wanted to go outside to play.

"Why don't you shut up?" Natsuki replied coolly before swiftly walking around him to go to her backyard. Takeda was left only shocked at his crush's harsh language.

"She is so cool," he said to himself, "I will one day get her to love me!"

As Natsuki stepped outside, her jaw dropped when she saw other kids playing with her toys. A boy was riding her favorite tricycle, a girl was hopping on her pogo stick, and the others were playing with her toy dinosaurs and her toy motorcycles. Oh, was she going to let them know the meaning of pain. She was sure that they were to NEVER play with her things ever again. But just as she was going to teach them a lesson, her father scooped her up in his arms.

Ryo Kuga was a corporate executive of a well known business in Tokyo. He was successful in his job and was the main reason why the Kuga family was able to live such comfortable lives. He had, like Natsuki, dark blue hair, which was short and nicely styled. He barely had any facial hair, which made his hygiene easy to take care of because he rarely ever needed to shave. His arms were strong and Natsuki always felt secure in them. When she was younger, she loved to swing from those very arms that were holding her. She loved her daddy very much, even more than she loved her mother.

"Hello," Natsuki greeted her father shyly.

"How is my favorite princess today," he said kissing her cheek fondly, "you look beautiful today and you smell wonderful did you just shower?"

"Mom caught me playing in the mud and forced me to shower and wear this stupid dress," she told her father. Her father was actually quite the hygienist, which was why he could distinguish the soap's aroma from his daughter.

"Well you look absolutely beautiful," he said again and kissed her other cheek. Her father was the only boy that she allowed to compliment her. She figured that he was the only one that would say it and probably mean it.

Indeed at such a young age, everyone could tell that Natsuki was going to grow into quite the beauty. She had her mother's good looks, and her father's handsome charm. It was a question though where that cold heartedness came from since both her parents were so well liked.

Ryo put down his daughter and Natsuki ran, as fast she could with the dress's limitations, to her favorite tree. She loved to climb trees, and even though her mother would often scold her saying that it wasn't something girls did, she still did it. Perhaps she did it partly to defy her mother, but at the same time she enjoyed the challenge. Gripping the tree's bark, Natsuki began her climb up not caring that she might tear her new blue dress. It was a bit harder though with the dress because she couldn't get as good a grip on the trunk. When she finally got to the top she sat there watching as the rest of the kids continue playing with her toys. With her index and thumb sticking out, she curled the other fingers of her right hand to form her hand into a "gun." She took aim at the thieves and pretended to shoot imaginary bullets at them. Natsuki laughed at her new found form of amusement and remained in the tree for most of the party.

One of the guests said they had to go and immediately the rest of the other families began to make their excuses to part. Natsuki knew that they just wanted to leave. No one ever liked to play with her anyway. Good riddance she thought to herself and stuck her tongue out at the leaving guests. Her emerald eyes met with the piggy girl's and the chubby girl immediately turned to avoid Natsuki.

The only thing that Natsuki did like was the presents part, and surely enough on the living room table was a pile of presents. She was only allowed to open when the guests left as common courtesy. Her parents knew that she tended to be extremely frank with her opinion of the presents and didn't want the other children and their parents to let their presents be judged. She shredded through her presents in minimal time. A toy motorcycle was the first toy she opened. She held it high in the hair and admired its sleek body and fierce design. She had always been an admirer of the vehicle and commented that it was a good toy. She placed it gently to her right calling it the "good pile." There were other toys that went into the good pile though: a toy car, a new video game, and a helmet that had a howling wolf as its design. Most of the other toys, however, were discarded into the "sucky" pile. They were either considered too girly or pointless to the birthday girl who preferred things that were fast, dangerous, and intense.

"Here's our present for you, Natsuki-chan," her parents said handing her a rather large box. The box was a bit bigger than her and she was excited that the present was going to be just as big as her. Perhaps it was the new motor cross bike that she had seen in commercials. For days she had hinted to her parents that it was the thing she really wanted for her birthday. She didn't like to beg for presents so she tried to tip them subtly. Endless days of suggesting the bike and the size of the box ensured her that it was probably going to be that very thing she wanted most. Giddily, she peeled at the blue and white wrapping paper only to find that the toy was not what she wanted but…

"A doll?" she said half disappointed and half disgusted. There in the box was a doll just as big as she was, maybe a little taller, and stared back at her. The doll had a well shaped, porcelain face, which made her pale skin look flawless. She had ruby eyes that sent an eerie feeling throughout Natsuki's body. It did not seem natural to her. The doll's hair was only a bit past her shoulders, but it was well made and looked soft to touch. It was a doll that Natsuki had never seen, not that she was well acquainted with the different kinds there were. She had to admit though that it was very well made and if she were any other girl she would have found it relatively pretty. The doll smiled gently at her and Natsuki felt as though she wanted to puke.

"You got me a doll?" the box slipped from her fingers and thumped onto the floor. She turned to her parents in utter confusion, hoping that she'd get an explanation. I hinted at that motorbike for weeks. I even asked you to get it for me. How could you get me A DOLL? The words screamed throughout her head. She couldn't understand. Her parents had always given her great presents before, so why was this year any different. It was her eighth birthday; didn't that mean to get her something even better because a decade of her life has passed? They knew well that she hated dolls, so why did they do this? She felt a bit betrayed and even more so let down.

"Oh, Natsuki, she's not that bad. You didn't even give her a chance," her mother said opening the box to take out the girl doll. When she did, Natsuki shuddered as she swore that the doll's smile changed to a more bewitching one. She's demonic Natsuki convinced herself and the fact that the doll looked so human did not help.

"It was the only one left in the store, the owner said that you would love it," her father said trying to make the best out of the situation.

"He said that even girls like you would come to love the doll," her mother further explained. So that was it, Natsuki thought, they thought I was too tomboyish so they are giving me this doll to make me more girly.

"Well too bad because I don't want it!" Natsuki shouted at her parents and ran upstairs into her room. She slammed the door as hard as she could to indicate her anger. I've had some bad birthday parties, but this is the worst! Not even mayo cake would make up for this! And even though they knocked on the door to tell her it was time to eat the cake, Natsuki refused to come out. Mayonnaise cake was another thing that she loved most about her birthday. Her mother only made it three times a year, so it was considered extremely special. It was too gross for the other kids to eat and after years of hearing "eww that's gross" and "how could you eat that," she decided that she would eat it by herself after everyone left. It would always be eaten at 8:15 because that was her birthday. But not today. Today, she stayed in her room holding onto her favorite dog plush that her parents had given her on her fifth birthday.

"See Duran, you were a good present. That's why you stay with me," She told the dog whose eyes seemed to sympathize with its master. She embraced the dog plush even harder and with nothing better to do, she fell asleep.

"Natsuki-chan," a voice whispered.

Wearily, Natsuki lifted her eyelids and looked around the room. The room was black as was the sky, which made it hard to distinguish the source. When her eyes adjusted a bit better she still couldn't find who had called her name.

"Natsuki-chan," the voice repeated and she realized that it was a lot closer than she thought. In fact, it was as though someone was speaking right next to her. That was impossible though because no one was in the room except her because it was clear that her parents were not in the room. Slowly, she turned her head in the direction and saw another girl with glinting red eyes smiling at her.

"Hi," the girl whispered happy that she was finally able to get the cobalt haired girl's attention.

It was the only time her parents ever heard their daughter scream.

Author's note: Actually, talking dolls scare me... oh well! Hope you enjoyed it!