Sunako sighed happily, preparing dinner for the third week in a row since the kids and Kyouhei had arrived.

Kyouhei…

Things, at this moment in her mostly bleak life, were amazing. He was amazing. Why had they waited so long? She couldn't remember, what's the point in regretting what you didn't do?

"Oi! What's with the carrots?" His smooth and deep voice yelled from behind.

"Oh Kyouhei, you're so childish when it comes to carrots."

Ugh, Keiko.

Honestly, Sunako wondered what planet Keiko had fallen from; or any of the four teenagers living in her home for that matter. They were strange and alien to her. Everything was complicated and emotional. Everything was taboo; everything was "chill" and "cool."

"Chill Sunako, we were just making out."

"Did you just call me fat?"

"Don't mention my parents. I'm on vacation."

"Dating two guys at once? It's totally cool."

Well, now that she thought about it…things really hadn't changed since her own teenage years. Ranmaru had dated multiple women throughout his youth. Noi was just as emotional, and Kyouhei just as hostile. So why did they seem to be so extreme when she, herself, had been a walking bundle of tumultuous melodrama?

You're old.

The voices of everyone blurred away as the phrase reiterated itself over and over again in her brain.

You're…

Old.

OLD.

OLD.

33 is NOT old!

Surrrrreeeeeeeeeeee.

"Sunako, the chicken is burning!" Kyouhei yelled.

Sunako's eyes widened. She quickly moved the skillet away from its burner and fanned the steaming meat.

She groaned, "I lose concentration for one second and dinner is ruined," Sunako mumbled, tossing the burnt food into the trash and throwing the hot pan into the sink.

Kyouhei smiled at her behavior. Her anger had once been a force to fear, something to always try and avoid at all costs. But now…he had to admit that her creased brow, narrowed eyes, and passionate movements were attractive. He wondered how amazing it would be to kiss her while she was pissed off. He drooled at the scene playing out in his head: hands yanking his hair, vases breaking, paintings falling-

"What now?" She growled.

Kyouhei wiped away the drool that had formed on his bottom lip, "I guess that means we go out," he offered.

Sunako sighed before smiling, "American?"

"Heck yes!" He yelled, fist-pumping the air. Food would provide him with a much needed distraction. He wanted to respect Sunako's wish of abstinence. It would be hard, but for her he would do close to anything. Sex wasn't enough of a priority for him, who had been touched by an endless sea of assaulters since forever.

Besides, sex could never compare to true love. It was just a byproduct of something much bigger and greater:

Perfection.

Love is the closest thing to "perfect" that this world has. And when Kyouhei looked at Sunako…he felt everything was, for once, flawless…

…

"Are you sure that there isn't anything else I can get you?" The waitress pleaded, her hands resting on the edge of the table and her face in his personal space.

Kyouhei stared at the twenty-something girl blankly. His apathetic expression and knowing eyes made her shrink back a little bit, "You just brought us our dinner…I'm sure that when I can actually start and finish my meal, I might need some ice cream or something. But other than that, I'm fine," he answered with chagrin.

The waitress had completely removed herself from the table at this point. She nodded glumly before stalking off, her stride tense with embarrassment.

Kyouhei didn't want to look at Keiko and her death-glare, a glare that she as his god-daughter didn't have the right to have. Jealousy isn't meant to be felt by someone like her; someone too young, too bitter, and too confused to look like that on his account.

But, Sunako's face was a completely different story.

He looked to his left ever so slightly, afraid that she would notice what he was doing. He couldn't stop the corner of his lips from lifting into a satisfied smirk when he caught the cold look in her eyes as she watched the waitress talk to another table.

His ego had been rightfully fed, "Thank you for the food!" He chanted loudly.

Sunako awoke from her angry thoughts and smiled a small smile. She began to eat her American burger as Kyouhei devoured his.

She ignored Keiko's murderous expression; her eyes were still trained on their server, they shifted anxiously…like she was a jungle-cat evaluating her target's weaknesses.

Sunako rolled her eyes, her mood struggling to keep from drowning in her impatience. Keiko was a marvel. She, at fourteen, felt like Kyouhei belonged to her. Sunako recognized a lot of Aunty in Keiko. If she could get her infantile hands on Kyouhei, it would be like winning an event and receiving a trophy. Except the competition would never be held a second time and everyone would only remember her and what she'd won.

She would be the Queen forever.

Sunako set down her burger at the thought. Her fingers brushed the ring hiding in her pocket, and her emotions lifted instantly. She smiled, and was sure it probably looked evil in the eyes of anyone who noticed.

There was only one Queen here.

…

"That was a good meal," Uhei commented sweetly.

Keiko huffed, "Except that waitress, what a whor-"

"Anybody up for a movie rental?" Kyouhei asked from the driver's seat.

Keiko wouldn't be able to say anything on the subject of their flirtatious waitress, not if he could help it.

"Sounds great," Sunako said softly.

Kyouhei nodded before making his way to the rental store.

Once they pulled up the kids scattered, anxious to pick a movie that they wanted to watch.

Sunako waited at the front, already deciding to choose a film that one of the kids had chosen. Her choices wouldn't exactly nurture the young minds of her "nieces" and "nephews."

"We're letting them pick, aren't we?" Kyouhei grumbled; his arms full of action-thrillers. He knew that something was up when she didn't race for the horror section.

Sunako smiled playfully, "Might as well let them feel in control of some part of their lives."

Kyouhei sighed dramatically, hanging his head as he went to put his stack of picks back, "Stupid kids."

Sunako held back her laughter, Seiji and Etsu already back from their expedition, "Catch Me If You Can and She's the Man, huh."

Seiji quirked an eyebrow at Etsu's choice, he expected her to pick something like Sucker Punch or Inception. You know, movies that were smart and confusing just like her.

"Wow Etsu, I didn't think you liked chick-flicks…"

"Channing Tatum," she responded flatly, a small flicker of mischief in her otherwise guarded eyes.

Seiji's fists clenched a little, and Sunako resisted the urge to laugh her butt off, "Gotcha," she said, winking.

Etsu smirked lightly, viewing Sunako a bit better. But it quickly disappeared when Keiko and Uhei returned, "This Means War and The Proposal. Hmm, what amazing choices," Sunako stated, deciding that there was no point in trying to hide her sarcasm.

Kyouhei had finally finished putting his movies away and now stood next to Sunako. He wasn't a fan of any of the movies picked either.

He thought that Keiko would've fished out one of those movies about an older man and younger woman, but was surprised that it was the opposite. A female boss marrying her young assistant, he wondered what Keiko meant to say with her choice. Because that's all she did their entire stay; drop hints with everything she did, and it was equally disturbing every single time. He was too close to erupting like a volcano that had been seething for weeks, itching to cause devastation.

Seiji scrunched his eyebrows, "You've already seen The Proposal, Keiko," he commented, ready to make sure he didn't have to see it twice.

Keiko rolled her eyes, "The main character fights for what she wants and gets it," she explained, her hand rubbing Kyouhei's fore-arm affectionately.

Both Sunako and Kyouhei suddenly felt sick. He wanted so badly to kiss his fiancé, wanted so badly to remedy the horrid feeling stirring around in his full of greasy-food stomach. But he didn't want Keiko to see and "fight for what she wants." Which, in that moment, would've been Sunako's head.

"Alight then, Catch Me If You Can it is," Sunako said abruptly, swallowing her spit and refusing to look at Keiko. All centrally romantic movies would most definitely be avoided.

Her eyes grazed over Seiji, who looked full of controlled, no, old rage. Like he knew exactly what Keiko meant as well, and wanted so badly to do something about it, wanted so badly to rip her hand away from their godfather. Etsu's lips were pressed into a thin and "used to it" line. Sunako and Kyouhei had mistakenly assumed that all of Etsu's attention to him was affection and to her was hatred. But…that all seemed false now, because Etsu was the designated driver and Keiko the drunken socialite with an appetite for forbidden relationships.

Kyouhei clenched his teeth, snatching Seiji's pick and stomping to the register, immediately distancing himself from Keiko's sickening presence.

Uhei could hear the cashier say the price in the background of his saddened and jealous thoughts. The longer they stayed with Sunako and Kyouhei, the more his heart would break as he realized, for the first time, that Keiko was too close to the edge. He had always been in denial, refusing to see Keiko as the instigator of every single twisted relationship that she'd had. Every boy-man-that he and Seiji fought had seemed like a venomous snake, and Keiko an innocent and wide-eyed Eve being offered delicious and mysterious fruit.

But his vision was clearing, and he hated it; hated it because he wasn't appalled, or angry, like he most definitely should've been. Any normal fourteen year old boy would've abandoned her in disgust, in hot flames of hatred. But he had no intention of doing that. In fact, his want for her seemed stronger; because she was no Eve, but she wasn't a snake either. She was a child, begging for attention. And the fact that she seemed to only want it from older men made him question the relationship between her and Takenaga.

How apathetic did you have to be as parent before your kids lost their minds? Only enough as Takenaga, he thought. His anger now directed at Takenaga instead of Keiko or any man who had laid an aged hand on his adolescent love.

Sunako sighed, wanting to either send Keiko home or cry. She was so frustrated. Kyouhei pulled on her elbow, telling her he had checked out and that it was time to go.

Sunako handed the rejected movies to the cashier, who had offered to put them back for her, and stalked slowly to the car. Kyouhei was already in the driver's seat, an angry scowl on his face as he drove a lot faster than usual. The memory of the time he had run off to a biker gang flashed in her memory and she gripped the sides of her seat.

Would he leave? He might, that's what he did when his presence was "too much" for her, and "too much" for his own mother. Would he do the same now? Too smart and in want of an actual home to remain at hers for the duration of the summer?

She gripped the ring in her hand now, wanting to either scream or beg Kyouhei to stay, kids or no kids. Once they pulled into the driveway, she waited for Kyouhei to exit the car and the kids to enter the house. She remained in her seat and, with shaking hands, found her phone. She dialed the familiar number as a few tears escaped.

"Hello?" the angelic voice rang with grace.

"Aunty?"

She gasped, "Sunako! You sound so upset!"

"This is so hard, Oba-san," she whispered, her Aunt silenced by her broken voice, "Keiko wants Kyouhei, in a way that teenagers shouldn't want grown men. She's always trying to touch him, to entice him…he might leave because he hates it…"

"That's what he does when he drives the people that he loves crazy," her Aunt quietly responded, "It's just never been this kind of crazy."

Sunako sniffed, "I know. But, what would I do without him here? I love him," she couldn't believe that she was admitting this to her Aunt of all people. But the stress and despair she had been feeling spilt out when Keiko had rubbed Kyouhei so intimately; without any hint of shame or self-discipline. She seemed so strange, so perverse in that moment.

Finally, her Aunt spoke, "I'm coming," she announced with authority.

Sunako's eyes sparkled, shocked and some-what expecting this, "When?"

Aunty laughed, like it was obvious, "Now, of course."

Sunako laughed despite herself and wiped away her tears:

"Hurry."

…

AN: Any movies mentioned do not belong to me. Neither do any of the characters from The Wallflower.