Sakura opened her eyes, feeling a bit hazy from all the alcohol she had consumed the other night. There she was, on top of a fluffy bed with no idea how she got there, because she was sure that she fell asleep in the limousine that took them back home. If home could be classified as a new hotel suite every month.

She was still dressed in her green gown, now wrinkled and creased. Maybe she would tell Katsura to take it to the dry cleaners tomorrow. Right now she was feeling nauseous and needing a drink of water.

Yawning, she swung her two legs over the mattress and shuffled to the bathroom... until she felt some sort of liquid running through her feet.

Mind now alert, she could not believe her eyes as her whole floor was covered with white Styrofoam cups filled with water. The ones she had spilled were now creating a domino effect, knocking down the rest of the cups and drenching the floor with water.

Shit! her mind cursed inwardly. Shit shit shit! Instinctively she tried to upright the cups that were knocking the others down, but her clumsy actions only made the floor wetter and the situation worse.

Instantly she could point to a culprit. That son of a bitch.

"TEME!!!!!!!!!!!"

-x-

Niou was happily getting his eight hours worth of sleep and got up before Sakura did, so he took some time to get a complementary breakfast consisting of four waffles, toast with jam and butter, two pre-packaged cereal bowls, a large banana, and a big cup of milk to wash it all down. The morning was made even better as he imagined Sakura's reaction to the prank that had taken him only thirty minutes to prepare. The hotel staff were excellent to requisition a water dispenser and back again when he realized that Sakura might copy the genius of his idea. He did not like wannabes, especially the female kind.

After finishing his breakfast and then some, he dialed a call to Y.

"Hello? Who is this, and how did you get my number?"

"It's me, Niou."

"Oh. Well then, what reason do you have to call me?"

"I want to quit my job."

"..." Yukimura on the other end was starting to get irritated, what with her low blood pressure.

"I mean, I can't handle it, Y," Niou hurriedly said. "I can't handle babysitting. I'm just not qualified for it."

"NOT QUALIFIED?!?" Y roared. "I'LL SHOW YOU NOT QUALIFIED IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE IT!!"

Niou gulped. This was the part that he was afraid of. Y was generally calm. Yes. But most people only got to see the calm and composed woman behind her facade.

"SAKURA IS IN DANGER FROM ONLY PERVERTS AND NOT BEING ABLE TO PICK OUT HER HANDBAGS FOR THE DAY, AND YOU TELL ME YOU CAN'T HANDLE IT?!?"

"Calm down, Y."

"NO, I WILL NOT! You little punk, what have I been wasting my time with for 18 years?"

"Alright! Fine! I'll go on with my job, see if you don't mind me be an old man at the end of this!"

"Oh, you already look like an old man," Y's voice had suddenly switched from angry-rage-wrath mode to pleasant-voice-whenever-an-unpleasant-client-showed-up, and Niou knew that he'd better hang up soon or be standing in the unemployment line soon.

"Bye, Y."

Niou's happy mood had dissipated with the fact that there was absolutely no way out. He began to head back to the suite.

-x-

"NIOU MASAHARU!!!" was the first thing he heard when he opened the door. The next thing he recognized was Sakura in a sopping wet bathrobe ready to murder him with her tiny fists.

Niou smiled and only dodged like a true expert could.

"Now, now, it was only a joke..." he explained, trying not to snicker as she had fetched the newspaper, rolled it up and started hitting his head with it. It didn't hurt, of course, but it did get annoying after a minute or two.

"Just a joke? Just a joke? How was I supposed to explain to the janitor about the half inch of water that ruined the Tunisian carpet?" She stopped hitting him and broke into a hysterical outbreak of helpless laughter, which made Niou wince. "I hate you!" she said with heated fervor. "I hate you I hate you I hate you!"

"The same to each of us," Niou said candidly, and quite cheerfully took the roll of newspaper out of her hands. "Cheer up, I was trying to, er, inject a bit of spontaneity into your life."

"Oh yes, it's so funny I barely have room to laugh," Sakura retorted sarcastically and retreated to her room. "I'm going to take a shower. You try anything, and you're fired."

I wish, thought Niou. I wish.

-x-

When Sakura was done showering and popped out with a lavender robe (how many bathrobes did she own, anyway?) Niou had been reading the newspaper in the Classified section still laughing over his joke. Katsura was supposed to show up at ten, but now it was fifteen minutes past ten.

"Where's Katsura?" she asked Niou.

"Late," replied Niou and turned the page to read about a box full of poodles selling for five thousand yen. She scowled and shut her door.

A minute later, she plonked on the sofa to turn on the television. She didn't even bother to comb her hair.

Niou noticed and raised an eyebrow. "Slumming off today?"

"When he's not here, that means I don't have anything to do." Apparently she was in too much of a good mood to snap back at him.

"Alrightie then."

"Shhh. This is my favorite drama, and it only comes weekly."

Niou tore his eyes away from the newspaper and looked at the television. There was a cheery image of a girl with bangs and four extremely beautiful men. Whether they were gay or not was everyone's guess. The people were standing on the cliff, and the background song started with a voice that shouted, "Almost paaaaaaaaaraaaadiseeeeeee~!"

"Kyaaaaa!!! The F4!!!" squealed Sakura, her eyes wide and shining. "My beautiful princes in shining armor!"

Niou, whose first impression of Sakura was someone who took herself very seriously, was beginning to feel afraid. Once time Y had a "little" (only she deemed it 'little') obsession with Japanese pop idols and had started taking Niou (and Sanada) to live concerts every day. To this very day, he had made sure that Nana Kitade stays far, far, away from his guns/ammo magazines and that he keep at least five feet away from posters of Hamazaki Ayumi, whether in a cafe or the convenience stores where the cashiers like to put magazines in the window to attract schoolgirls coming home from the tedious routine of school and wearing the same old uniform day after day.

He had figured out a couple of things after the episode was over: 1) Katsura was definitely not giving them a to-do list today, 2) the drama was called "Boys Before Flowers", 3) it lasted for an hour, and 4) her favorite character was apparently this guy called "Yi Jung" who turned out to be a major player. Go figure.

Yagyuu, he decided, would probably be the perfect boyfriend for a person like Sakura-hime. He was patient and flashy at the same time, which Sakura would probably love. He probably would overlook her Royal Bitchiness because she was so freaking cute that a person like him and a gentleman of his caliber would tolerate the drawbacks of dating her.

"Mou," she pouted. "Gu Jun Pyo is being so mean~... I would treat someone so cute like Jan Di better, just because my mom said I shouldn't date her..."

"Done fantasizing now?" Niou asked in a bored tone. It was entertaining for the first thirty minutes since he was still trying to figure what was going on, but he had a short attention span and the whole romantic drama thing really didn't appeal to him. He guessed it was another girl thing that appealed to them , just like the time when Hannah Montana went to Japan. It was incredible how many people actually went to see her, seing as she wasn't so popular in the East as she was in America.

"Niou, shut up."

"All rightie, but from what I think, Jan Di is on the borderline of stupidity."

"Uh-huh. Well, have you ever loved someone so much that you were willing to move to a different city for him?"

"No," said Niou dryly. "I'm not that stupid, either."

"Of course you wouldn't. You're just a bodyguard. You wouldn't know any better."

"Hey, my boss is married. How do you know she wasn't a bodyguard?"

She glanced at him. Okay, so maybe they weren't best buddies forever, but they were making progress.

"Look, just let me go with my dreams, okay? I... I know I'm not supposed to fall in love or that kind of crap. I know Katsura tells every one of you the same thing: to not fall in love with the wrong person. I get it. So... just leave me alone about that." Sakura ran a hand through her hair, looking agitated. "That's why I don't care if Jan Di is defying logic or whatever bullshit you realists come up with. I hate it when somebody tells me that it can't happen in real life."

"But it can't," said Niou sensibly. "How many rich sons can afford to marry someone careless and stupid and annoying like her? I mean, really? There are millions of girls just like her. There's absolutely nothing special about Jan Di."

Her eyes drooped. "It doesn't matter either way."

"Look, Sakura-hime, you don't have to watch a drama to feel loved. Take me, for example."

"Take you?" Sakura snorted. "What are you good for, except for protecting me from some freak out there in the big bad world?"

"Lots of things. For instance, I can pick a lock faster than you getting dressed."

"Uh-huh," she said skeptically.

"Yup. And I bet I could eat a cow if I wanted to. But Momo-senpai beats me in the huge appetite category."

"Oh yeah? I bet some of my friends..."

-x-

They had spent the entire afternoon talking. And there, both Niou and Sakurakouji-hime discovered one thing, and that was companionship with the opposite sex around the same age. It was refreshing and once Sakura had dropped the rich brat act, she was actually quite nice. Niou just had to coax it out; after all, he was a bodyguard who was going to stay by her side twenty four hours every day of the week for quite a while.

"I wanted to apologize to you for yesterday."

"Oh... that. Well, I think you've kind of redeemed yourself for that now."

"The thing is, Niou, is that in my world you have to act like you belong there. Or people will walk over you."

"Yeah, I kind of got that now. Where I come from, it doesn't matter how much money you have unless you're one of our clients."

"Clients... say, that reminds me, Katsura might have a client around this hour--- oh! It's already twelve, and I haven't had breakfast."

"What happened between you and Odagura yesterday?"

She made a face. "That little rat... she got hold of my father's rough drafts and wanted to make a mountain of a molehill. She was interrogating me, but I told her I didn't know anything. I think she didn't believe me, and she kind of got tired of asking me the same questions over and over. I hated that too, so she ran out on me."

Sakura got up to change. "I'm going out to lunch. You'd better get ready."

There she was again, making the rules for him again. He had never gotten used to it and despite their new sorta-kinda friendship, he wasn't going to forgive her too easily. She was still bossy and in control. Then he reminded himself that this was the way it was supposed to be, and that he was already lucky for actually starting to be on good terms with her. Sakura-hime was still hinting, however, that she didn't forgive him yet for the prank in the morning.

He chuckled. What could someone of her brains do, anyways? He was someone who paid attention to detail, and if someone didn't feel right, he zoomed in on the danger spots, devoting his immediate attention to the problem. It was the reason why he was more or less left intact. Some members had lost parts, a finger, or maybe worse, like an ear when they were caught off guard. It was a lucky thing that they had an excellent medical staff back at home provided you got there on time.

The door to her bedroom opened again and Sakura-hime had walked out. Funny, he thought. He didn't like the word 'hime' very much anymore, and was starting to think more and more of her as simply 'Sakura'.

Don't get attached.

He flicked his eyes around, wondering who was talking to him.

Don't get attached.

He was wondering why Sakura didn't hear the voice, but the thought vanished after she impatiently said, "Well, Niou? Am I going to wait for an hour, or what?"

"Sorry, let's go now."

-x-

This time, Niou drove the car that was bought for her on her sixteenth birthday. Sakura had explained him about driving, and getting a license in America.

"Well, I know that the jurisdiction here is really different here both culturally and nationally, but when I lived in America, it was a rite-of-passage kind of thing. Dad was the one who bought me a Porsche because he didn't want me to stick out like a log. In America, I was normal; I was just another foreign exchange student."

Niou mused on how different it would be if Japanese students didn't have so much workload from day one. A great deal of them were just getting home at six o' clock, what with their school schedule and extra curricular activities. Then again, there was a reason why American students were a lagging a bit behind Asian productivity.

"So, why'd you go to America? I thought your dad was a Japanese politic."

"And study with Gakushuin rich kids? Hell no. Nah, I hate working as much as any sane person does, and what better place to do that than go on a permanent vacation? I studied in California. There's a pretty big Asian population over there, so I learned English pretty quickly. Being surrounded by people who speak it all the time helps too."

"You were a freshmen over there?"

"Uh-huh. And a sophomore, too. In my junior year Dad thought it would be a lot better if I went to a French boarding school. It wasn't as fun as the school in California because the students are so solemn and ridiculously serious. Luckily I had a tutor, and I combined both 11th and 12th grade courses so I could get the hell out of there."

"The idea of wearing a high-school uniform never appealed to you?"

"Nope," she said bluntly. "I'm too famous and I hate it. There's the fact that I'm a girl, too, so you have creepy mail from all sorts of people. I got a proposal from this Arab guy once."

Niou smiled. "I wonder what he was thinking about when he wrote the letter to you."

"My green eyes, I bet."

Niou glanced at her eyes. "But they're black."

"Are you kidding? These are contacts. My grandma was half Japanese, half European. These things often skip a generation. You can't believe how weird it is for random people to talk about your eye color."

She certainly at any rate liked to talk a lot, but he largely suspected that it had to do with not being able to drive. He didn't mind. It made her feel more human.

He stopped at her command, parked their car, and got out. "Where are we going?"

"You'll find out."

-x-

They passed a few passerbys staring, as the two made an odd couple--his hair being the primary culprit, and her habit of wearing large sunglasses that perched on her nose.

"Taxi!" cried Sakura, as she tried to flag one down. "Taxi, please!"

"What are you doing?" asked Niou incredulously, gaping at the girl waving her hands wildly in her pursuit of something. "We have the car---that would waste money!"

Fortunately Sakura was spared from answering as the familiar yellow car sped towards him. "Get in. I don't want to be tracked by Katsura."

"Katsura put a tracking device on that car?"

"Yeah," she said nonchalantly. "Hachiko Courts on Boulevard 39,"

The taxi driver looked at her curiously, a man who had wore a cap and smoked heavily. "Are you sure about the address? I've never heard of this street none."

"It's a bit north of the tower."

"All right, I'll just be figuring out the destinations, ma'am."

"You do that," she said, and pulled the partition that divided the front from the back. "It's great to have a day off."

"Where are we going?"

"I'm visiting a friend of mine."

"What friend?"

"A true friend, I suppose, but he might interest you. He plays tennis."

"I don't play tennis," was his automatic response.

"Liar. I read about you winning a couple of tournaments when you were a kid. That was, until..."

She gave him a dark look and continued. "I thought I had mistaken you for someone else. But I guess you were wrong after I dug up those old newspapers."

-x-

Niou had tuned out when Sakura had mentioned tennis. It had used to be a sport that he played for fun after Y had expressed her wish that he would grow up to be a regular boy. And he was, with the exception of having nine full years of martial arts training and having memorized the protocol for being well defended against possible dangers.

Then his coach had gotten a bit involved with his family history, which ended up with him being shot in the head twice.

Don't get attached.

He blinked again, feeling oddly surprised to find himself in a taxi cab and a girl besides him. The sun was making him uncomfortably hot, and his sweat was running down in rivulets down his back.

"... Niou? Niou, are you paying attention? Earth to Niou. Niou..."

"Yes?" he replied quickly, and unnaturally loud.

"I was wondering where you've been for the last ten minutes. You've been staring at the carpet for a long while."

"It's the sun," he fibbed, not wishing to dwelll too much on that bloody memory. "It's making me feel warm and drowsy."

"You shouldn't overwork," Sakura said demurely, the familiar snobbish look almost coming back to her face. "And I suppose it comes from the smoke. I should open the window..."

"Right," Niou said absentmindedly, taking out his gun to unload the bullets.

"Don't take that out, Niou!" Horror filled Sakura's eyes, and they darted toward the door. "What are you doing?"

"It's just a habit," he said and began polishing one of them with a finger, feeling the cold, merciless metal boring into his skin. He wondered what it would feel like, being shot at. His experience did not go very far with guns.

"That is so creepy. And lethal."

"There's a safety on the gun to prevent me from accidentally shooting my fingers off. Jeez, you girls are so overdramatic." He put the bullets back into the gun, feeling a bit better.

"Still, it's a gun. You can never be too careful."

"Yeah, and you can never be snobby enough to make a person sick."

"Wow, you're still holding a grudge to that?"

"Takes a hundred meetings to reverse a bad first impression, right? Oh look, we're almost there, now we should drop the subject and talk about this mysterious friend of yours. Tell me, is another Haruhi waiting over here? Or is this another friend where people of my status gets trodden on?"

Sakura chuckled. "First, Haruhi's a bitch, so that rules out the 'mysterious friend' theory. And second, he treads on everybody because he is that kind of person. Even if he was dirt-poor he'd still think he was king of the world."

The car stopped and Sakura got out. "We're here."

-x-

To his dismay, they arrived at another enormous villa. Niou sighed. He was starting to dislike large houses because it began to counter common sense. What was the point of having a huge place when you didn't even need all that space?

"Atobe! Come out and show your ugly face! I've got a new friend over here."

"Ahn? Ore-sama is in the left wing, Sakurakouji-hime. He also does not appreciate the slur to his face."

"See what I mean?" Sakura said to Niou, as she opened the mahogany French doors with one arm (which was a bit impressive) and went inside the opulent hallway. "It doesn't matter how rich you are or how awesome you could be; he still would act in the most annoying fashion possible."

"I can see that," Niou said, eying a life-sized portrait of what he assumed to be Atobe. "It also reminds me of someone in front of me..."

Sakura smacked him playfully. "Suuuuuure, Niou, you keep dreaming."

It took them five minutes to walk over to where she thought Atobe would be. "Hmm... seems like he's been remodelling. Oh well, I know a good shortcut."

She suddenly smacked a woodpane below the staircases out of random, leaving Niou to puzzle over her behavior. Then, to his amazement, the bookcases on his left slid to reveal an elevator.

"C'mon," Sakura said. "He likes his own shortcuts; he was the one who designed all the nooks and crannies." She stepped inside, and pushed a button. Niou followed suit.

Niou was still flabbergasted. "How much time do you guys have, anyway? I mean, an elevator inside a two-story house?"

"It's not because we're handicapped, Niou," said Sakura in an irked tone. "There are some places in the villa that are visited more often than others. Those are easily accessed by staircases and main hallways. But sometimes, there are places where one retreats to have privacy, such as Atobe's west wing, that has to have an entryway that ordinary people like servants and such not go in. This is one of these areas. They are also excellent to smuggle illegal substances such as certain alcohols and things that you cannot find unless you go to the black market."

"Well, it still sounds extraordinary to me." Then, there was an abrupt shift. "Wait... aren't we going sideways?"

"Yes, we're going sideways. It's a Taiwanese invention, top of the market. The north half of the second floor is a lot like a grid."

Ding! The doors opened and Niou entered another hallway, which seemed more decadent than the tasteful decoration he had seen downstairs. For example, there was a questionable vase that had a Minotaur ripping apart a man. Another decoration that seemed too bizarre to Niou was an entire wall that was wallpapered with images of the Parthenon.

"He's highly interested with Greek literature," said Sakura, as if she had read his mind. "It's ridiculous how intelligent he is, but don't let him hear you; it'll only to serve to inflate his ego."

They reached a room with the number 101 scrawled on it. Niou glanced at the next door, which read 3015. Again Sakura said, "George Orwell reference, from the novel 1984. You should read it sometime; it's absolutely creepy and fantastic at the same time."

"I'll make sure of that," said Niou, but privately thought that he couldn't be assured of that sort of taste--and anyways, he probably wouldn't have the time, either.

She knocked on the door in a semi-circle, which he assumed it to be some sort of secret code. This whole day was getting weirder and weirder.

"Come in," a masculine voice intoned, and before Niou knew what was going on, he was struck with light.


Author's Note: YAY for Atobe's room! :D I've always imagined him to have a Secret Garden type of thing, and it's not too unlikely considering his money.

I decided not to write another 4,000 plus chapter to serve character development. Sakura's previous personality is completely fake, and I wanted to establish that fact after Niou and Sakura have a face-to-face talk. And he's already gained her respect, even if he's kind of annoying and naive to the lifestyle she's living.

Review please. :D Make them longer if you have the time!