Author's notes: Hello everyone!
Well, I'll get to the point; I'm stopping 1460 days of summer.
I'm kinda stumped and well, this will just be mostly about Lee and Fuuka.
In all fairness, it was fun writing it!
MAPOV
It was around 7:30 AM when I woke up.
Mitsuru was still asleep, so I gave her a quick kiss on her cheek and I went out to take a shower.
After I took a shower, I fixed Mitsuru and Minako a meal of cold cereal, corn pone and a platter of hot potatoes with warm gravy.
Just then, after I cooked up the meal I decided to wake them up.
Outside the room, I knocked it lightly and Mitsuru opened the door.
She had a sleepy look on her face.
"*yawn*Good morning, my dear…" she said as she yawned sleepily.
She was wearing my shirt, which seemed a bit oversized, considering my lofty stature.
"Kindly head to the kitchen while I wake up Minako." I said.
I learned to adapt to talking formally with Mitsuru.
"Oh, I see…" she said, reluctantly.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Never mind. Morning sickness, dear." She said as she smiled radiantly.
I went up to Minako's room, about two doors down and rapped lightly on her door of exotic Narra wood from the Philippines.
"Good morning, daddy…" she said as she opened the door.
"Come by the kitchen, kiddo, your mommy Mitzy's down there…" I said.
"Okay." She said sleepily as I lifted her and the both of us went down.
We ate the meal I made.
Minako liked the corn pone I made, so I readily gave her mine.
Mitsuru smiled at me.
I loved how she would smile at me like that.
After we ate some food, Mitsuru and I took Minako to school as we headed to the SEES mall, where Fuuka and Lee were waiting for us.
We spent the next hour directing Mitsuru's construction team and adding a whole new wing.
But it's gonna take some time for the mall to be open for the public.
Outside the main balcony, Lee and Fuuka were quietly talking to one another.
Understanding the seriousness of their faces, Mitsuru and I decided to give them some time to speak.
To be honest, I really wanted to eavesdrop, but Mitsuru yanked me away.
But I decided to just go with Mitsuru.
It seemed pretty important but I knew something...
That Lee was about to make a move.
LOPOV
After I worked with Minato, Mitsuru and Fuuka in helping with the management of the SEES mall, I decided to make a move with Fuuka.
"Fuuka, it's been almost a year since we first met and I want to have a romantic dinner by your place, today at 8 PM… if that's okay with you?" I asked.
She fidgeted.
"Well… I'm quite flattered, but I don't want you to go out of your way to do so…" she said.
"Fuuka… I want to do this." I said adamantly.
She smiled at the ground.
"Well… if you say so… but I have to cook to!" she said.
"Okay… and after that, I have a great surprise for you!" I said, grinning mischievously.
"Oh? Lee… I know where this is going… I'm not ready for *it* yet…" she said shyly.
"Uh, what are you talking about?" I asked.
"You know I feel very strongly about… physical intimacy…" she said embarrassedly.
"I don't follow. Just say it." I said.
"I…I don't think it's the right time for… sex…"she said.
I blinked.
"No! You got it all wrong, I don't want to have sex with you!" I said.
Fuuka blinked.
"Why not?" she asked.
"Well… uh…" I stuttered, seeing as how I said it wrong.
"Am I too skinny? Or is it because I'm too boring?" she asked.
"Baby, you've got it all wrong, I DO have a surprise for you, but it's not sex, because frankly, I need a dose of praziquantel and mirazid first before we do any Posh and Becks…"
"Wha-" she began.
"Never mind, the point is, I'll be at your place to fix up a meal, okay?" I said.
She nodded and kissed me.
"Well, it's about 3 PM, so I have to go and buy some groceries before we have any dinner."
"Bye hon, be safe!" I said as I walked her to her car.
After that, I ran to Minato, who was standing by the bailey overlooking the city.
"Dude, dude, dude!" I said excitedly.
"What, what, what?" he said.
"Guess what, guess what, guess what!" I said.
"I dunno, I dunno, I dunno." He said.
"Really?" I asked.
"Seriously, I don't know. What are you up to? You looked like you're about to do something important tonight…" he said, eyeing me cautiously.
"Well… I think I need to tell someone about this, and who else but you?" I said.
"Okay, please tell me." he said as we sat down the patio chairs.
"Alright… it's about Fuuka…" I said.
He nods.
"I've been by her place a couple of times and I never really took a look around, seeing as I've been there for only a bunch of times and always at short intervals…" I said.
"And?" he asked.
"Well… almost a month ago, I went to her place for our usual second Thursday date and I went up to her room, to get her purse which she forgot and I saw, by her end table, several bridal magazines, three books on how to be a good girlfriend and a cook book…" I said.
"The cook book is no surprise, but the bridal magazines and the good girlfriend is pretty surprising…" he said.
"So I decided to make a big move: take her out to dinner!" I said.
Minato frowned.
"Come on dude, you've taken her out to more dinners than I could count!" he said.
"That's not all… I decided to bring her parents along!" I said.
Minato blinked in surprise.
"What?" I asked.
"If you don't know yet then I won't say anything, but just try to keep calm…" he said as he went to Mitsuru, who was calling him.
What did he mean?
Later, I travelled to Fuuka's house and I cooked some beef stroganoff, Caesar salad, cheesy bacon and some beef steaks served in a hot plate with potato pie as a dessert.
Fuuka cooked up some sushi and raw sashimi.
*Ding* *Dong*
She looked up in surprise.
"Who could that be?" she said as we walked up to the door.
I just smiled.
"You'll see…"
She opened the door as a middle aged couple smiled at us.
"Mom. Dad." She said.
"Hello Fuuka." They said.
Fuuka pulled me to a quiet corner.
"Lee, I don't think this is such a great idea… I'd actually choose sex over this." She said.
"Aw c'mon… are you embarrassed of me because I'm just a lowly chef?" I asked.
"No! It's not that… it's them I'm embarrassed of…" she said.
"Why? They seem like a good couple…" I said.
"They have extremely low self esteem and-"
"Feel embarrassed because I'm not a high class worker? I don't mind, dear…"
"They prefer the company of other higher class…" she said.
"I'll win them over. For you." I said.
Fuuka seemed convinced, but her OCD problems began to appear, because she was fidgeting and blinking rapidly. She was also rearranging her plants by size really fast.
We went up to them.
The awkward silence was deafening.
"Uh… I'm Lee. Jonas Lee. We talked on the phone…" I said.
"I'm Panzai Yamagishi and this is my wife, Yodo Yamagishi… I'm glad to meet you Lee!" he said as he patted me on my shoulder.
I shook Mr. Yamagishi's hand as Mrs. Yamagishi kissed me on my cheek.
Fuuka seemed surprised.
"Shall we eat?" I asked.
"We shall! It smells good!" they said.
The night began on a good note. We ate as we chatted happily.
"Well, Lee, I don't think much of your current occupation as a chef…" Panzai began.
"Culinary Artist." I corrected him.
"Culinary artist… anyways, I'm quite willing to overlook that seeing as how you have a high rank as a Major in the prestigious French Foreign Legion… tell me, how much do they pay you?" he asked.
"…Well, they pay me around 2078 pounds, pension added since I was wounded in action and was honorably discharged, but I'm never going back…" I said.
"Why?" Panzai asked.
"It's a long story…"
(I related the war story.)
"But still, you made a good soldier, you did what you had to do…" she said.
Fuuka was mysteriously silent.
"Fuuka, you haven't touched your potato pie, what wrong?" I asked.
She was rearranging her forks and knives, fixing her hair and touching her face.
"Oh, looks like someone is a little OCD today!" Yodo said as she laughed.
"Fuuka, what's wrong?" I asked.
"She gets like that every time she gets worried." Panzai said as he laughed again.
"Like the time she took the Doctor's exam!" Yodo said.
"Or the time she took the BAR!" he cackled.
"Don't get us wrong, dear, she passed all the tests but all ol' freaky deeky ever wanted to be was 'researcher'!"
"It's what I wanted to be!" Fuuka said.
"What? Being a researcher for a bunch of rich suits, contributing things like 'clean water tablets' for a bunch of spear chucking morons?"Panzai said.
"It's helping millions of people!" Fuuka said.
"Yeah, but for those lazy blue gums? They need to work!" Yodo said.
I had enough.
"Mr. and Mrs. Yamagishi, I'm sorry, but has anyone ever told you two that you are extremely racist and need to shove it up your asses?" I said, slamming the table.
"What did you say?" they asked.
"You heard me! I don't quite appreciate how you two are treating Fuuka!"
Fuuka looked at me like I was her hero.
"We would have never come here if we knew you were this rude!" Panzai said.
"Well, I would've never invited you two here if I knew you were this terrible! You should support Fuuka instead of bringing her down!" I said.
"This night was a disaster!" Yodo said as she wept.
"Yeah. It was. But now, I need you two to leave our… I mean her home." I said.
Fuuka went beside me.
"OUR home."
The huffed and left.
"Fuuka… I'm sorry…" I said.
"For what?" she asked.
"For doing this to you…" I said.
"You helped me…" she said.
We hugged.
"Stay with me tonight." She said.
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"Yes. And maybe later tonight, I'll make you some hot coffee?" she asked.
"Sounds good to me. I have another surprise for you tomorrow." I said.
"Oh yeah?" she asked.
"Just wait." I said.
We slept the night in Fuuka's cramped bed.
Later in the morning, we went by the mechanist shop and took out my new (new to me) Ducati that Minato gave me.
After buying the correct helmets for us, I went to the bike.
I tested it for a while and when it was all checked out, Fuuka and I rode the Ducat all the way to the Mino province.
"Where are we going?" Fuuka asked after we were 40 miles away from Iwatodai.
"To Inaba!" I shouted.
"Inaba?!" she asked.
"Yeah!"
"What for?" she asked.
I stopped the Ducati.
"I'm meeting my mother. We're meeting my mother." I said.
Fuuka gasped.
"Your mother! The terrible woman who scarred you for life? The one who treated you like a dog?" she asked.
"Yes. Her."
"My parents are nothing compared to her!" Fuuka said in fear.
"Well, I need to be brave. For you." I said as I gunned the motorcycle.
We arrived, albeit with some difficulty as I relied on my memories to get here, on an ancestral mansion.
"This place is huge!" Fuuka said.
"Yeah… the House of Ichijou…" I said.
As we walked by, a young, fit lad with indigo hair playing basketball was alerted by the Ducati's noise and investigated with his friend, a young man with dusty brown hair and a scar on the bridge of his nose.
"Who are you?"He asked.
"Jonas Lee Otsuji…" I said.
"Don't know you." he said.
"Uh… Lee, I think they'd know you if you used your old name…" Fuuka advised.
"Oh right!" I said.
"Well? Who are you?" he asked.
I licked my lips.
"Hotaru Jonas Aida. Hikari Ichijou's my ma…" I said.
The boy's eyes brightened up.
He leapt at me as he gave me a giant bear hug.
"Cousin!" he shouted, tears streaming on his sweaty face.
"Yeah, now it's my turn to ask… who are you?" I asked.
"It's me! Kou!" he said.
"Kou?! You sly little bastard!" I said as I hugged him back.
After all that, I introduced her to Fuuka.
"This is my girl, Fuuka." I said.
"Hi…" Fuuka said shyly.
"Fuuka… from the Kirijo group? Man! Your cleansing pills are the greatest!" he said.
"Thanks…" Fuuka said shyly.
"This is Daisuke Nagase by the way…" he introduced the guy beside him.
"Nagase… do you know a Rachel Nagase?" I asked, after we shook hands.
"Yeah… she was my little sister… she was kidnapped a few years back… why?" he asked.
"She's at Iwatodai…"
"What?!" he said, grabbing my arms.
After I told him some important facts, he calmed down.
"You're mom's upstairs… I'll tell you, she's been worried sick looking for you. Where the hell were you after all these years?" Kou said.
"Well, it's a long story…"
(I told him about what happened.)
"So you joined the army? Damn, you got balls, cuz…" he said.
"How's my ma? Grandma?" I asked while we walked by the compound, Daisuke and Fuuka behind us as Fuuka answered questions regarding Rachel.
"Well, Grandma died a year ago, auntie on the other hand, she's fine… but you need to see her for yourself…" he said.
"In case it doesn't turn out well and she chases me out with a shotgun, here's my number." I gave him my phone, landline and address.
"Thanks, but it's gonna be fine." He reassured me as several of the servants looked at me.
Many of them bowed, not at Kou, but at me because my old nurse hugged me.
"Hotaru-sama!" many of them greeted.
We walked into a familiar set of stairs in a familiar hallway and stopped at a familiar shoji door.
"Well it's all you at this point…" he said.
I called Fuuka as we went in, the door slightly ajar, for Kou to see.
A forty-one year old lady was sitting by the window.
She looks at us.
"And who might you two be?" she asked.
"I thought you know me very well… mom." I said.
She looked keenly at us.
"How dare you insult me! Only my very own son may call me that!" she screeched.
"Your son?" I said.
"My son! Hotaru! Who was taken from me!"
"I am your son!" I said, revealing my scar beneath my bangs.
She gasped.
Kou ran in to give her a glass of water.
When mom recovered, he went out.
"My son!" she said as she hugged me.
"Mom. It's good to see you, but I'm not here to reunite with you."
"Oh?" she asked.
"I have to say this. What you did to me all those years ago was very wrong!" I said.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Are you joking? You, my mother, allowed them tied me to the back of a horse for breaking grandma's vase, you, my mother, allowed grandma to beat me for spilling salt on the floor, you, my mother, branded me on my left brow for disobeying grandma! I mean, how can you justify hitting a fourteen year old boy with a white hot iron rod?" I asked.
"She… she was just teaching me to discipline you…" she said in a regretful voice.
"It was vicious and wrong!" I yelled.
She bit her lip.
"You know, ma… I only ever tried to win your approval… Everything in life, I strived just to win you over just so you'll love me even for a moment…"
"Hotaru…" she began.
"I used to think this scar marked me… the mark of an unloved and banished child, cursed to be inadequate forever. But lately, I found out that I'm actually more than I ever thought I was... Even if I'll never be free of this mark…" I said as I fingered my scar.
"My son…" she hugged me.
"Your grandmother… she threatened to have you cast out… so that's why I was like that…" she said.
"Liar. I need to know one thing." I said.
"Yes?" she asked.
"Where's my father?" I asked.
"Your father… I don't know where he is, but last I heard, he fled to the bay area." She said.
I swept my hair.
"Hotaru… I'm very sorry… I feel wretched about every part of this and very grateful that you were brave enough to come see me again, after all I've done… please say you'll forgive me?" she asked.
"I don't know, ma… the wound is still fresh." I said.
"Really? Your scar looks fully healed to me…" she said.
"It's a figure of speech, ma… I mean that, I'm still quite hurt." I said.
"Then give it some time… sleep here, with…?"
"Fuuka." Fuuka said.
"Fuuka. Yes, a lovely name. 'gentle flower' great name, dear…" she said.
"Thank you, Ms. Ichijou…"
"Please, just call me mom…" she said.
Fuuka blushed.
"Mom, I will stay the night here, but only one night." I said.
"Oh, Lee, I haven't got any clothes with me…" Fuuka said.
"'Lee'?" she asked.
"It's my new name, ma, when I joined the army…" I said.
"The army!" she said.
"Yeah, as you can see, you're five years late. I was a major back at the French foreign legion…"
"Tell me what happened."
"It's a long story…" I said.
(I told her about my experiences)
"Amazing! But as for the clothes, Fuuka you may borrow some from our spare clothes room."
"Yes mom." She said.
"Mom, I'd better go to my old room now."
"It was good seeing you, Hotaru, I'll see you at dinner!" she said as she kissed my scar.
As Fuuka and I walked along the hallway, we talked.
"Your mother is alright…" she said.
"Yeah… she's all Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, only in reverse…" I muttered.
"Yes. She seems pretty enjoyable…" Fuuka said.
"Still doesn't return all those wasted years…"
"Well, would you have met Marcel, Suemitsu, Minato, me and everyone else if you hadn't left?" she asked.
I thought about it.
"Touché."
"Still, one thing I can't quite get over…" Fuuka said.
"Yeah?"
"Why you have a room for clothes!" she said as I put an arm at her shoulder.
After she took some clothes, we went to my room, where we watched TV until we were called to the dinner room.
I was seated in the seat of honor, the former seat of grandma.
I noticed ALL our family members were there, including several of our distant relatives.
Mom clinked the glass as she unrolled a scroll.
"As per the last will and testament of our late Matriarch, Michiko Ichijo-" she began.
"Michiko Ichijo, may she rest in peace." The whole family said.
"Nuance. It is to be said, that I, Hikari Ichijo, will crown our next heir, my long lost son who has now returned, Hotaru Jonas Ichijo Aida!" she declared as she out her old heiress rong on my finger while the whole family applauded.
Several of them went forward to congratulate me.
Kou went up and hugged me.
We ate a good meal as the rest of them talked with me as I recalled my war stories.
"So, this one time, at boot camp, this guy Gomer was such a bad recruit that we hazed him by tying him on the bed and whacking him with socks filled with hard soap!" I said as the family roared in laughter.
After a while, they all went to their guest rooms.
Several of them went up to me.
"Hotaru, we're glad you're back."
As I paced in my room, Fuuka asked me what was wrong.
"Everything I ever thought these people to be… were wrong…" I said.
"It's alright…" she said as we lay down on my emperor sized bed.
I looked up my ceiling.
"Well, I'm back home."
I slept in peace for the first time in a very long time.
Author's notes: Well, that's it.
I have a hidden message about my earlier Author's notes. It's in bold, so write down all letters in bold and read the message.
Example:
All I ever did-
Sat down to fast-
Stroked me very firm-
Therefore, it spells ASS. Get it? _
