Aki's tears began running the second the apartment door shut behind her, blurring her vision. She heard the click of nails on the floor as Makkachin came over. She knelt down on the floor, burying her face and hands in his tightly curled fur, allowing a sob to escape.

As she did, a frantic voice came from the living room. "Orel'ka, what's wrong?"

She stiffened a little at her papa's question, trying her best to stop the flow of tears enough to respond. "N-nothing, Papa."

Footsteps scurried over to her, and she felt an arm descend around her shoulders. "Akiya, this isn't nothing. Tell me what's wrong."

The volume of his voice attracted her otousan's attention. He came padding down the hallway, asking, "Vitya, what's going on?"

Aki refused to lift her head out of Makkachin's fur to look at her parents. There was silence for a moment, and Aki could practically feel her parents having a silent conversation. Then her otousan said, "I'll go make some tea."

She heard his footsteps pad into the kitchen as her papa squeezed her shoulders gently. "Printsesa, come with me. Let's go sit down, ok?"

She allowed herself to be disentangled from the dog and led into the kitchen. Silently, she sat down in the chair that her papa pulled out for her as Makkachin flopped onto her feet with a sigh. No one spoke until Yuuri was serving three cups of warm tea around the table. As her parents sat down, Aki wrapped her hands around her cup and stared into it, not wanting to make eye contact.

"I broke up with Hedeon," she said quietly.

She heard her papa shift in his seat, then the rustle of her otousan putting a hand on his arm. Victor took a deep breath, then said, "What happened?"

She didn't miss the hard edge to his voice. For a moment, she debated on how much of the truth to tell them, then sighed in defeat. "He...was kinda pressuring me to do more than I was comfortable with. Not anything serious!" She added this last part hastily, looking up to ensure that her papa wasn't going to go on a murderous rampage. His eyes bore a dangerously steely glint, but her otousan still held him in check with a hand, so she continued. "Just kissing, really. But I didn't like how it felt, so I told him I wanted to stop. And today I went to his house to talk to him about what he said at dinner, but he just made another move on me." She sniffled, dropping her head down over her cup again. "So I told him it wasn't going to work out, and I left."

Her papa's voice rang out, "Well, good! That zasranets obviously didn't deserve you in the first place."

"Vitya!"

Aki let out a small puff of laughter at the exchange between her parents. "It's all right, Otousan." She took a sip of her tea, then continued. "Papa isn't wrong. It's just hard because he was really my first boyfriend. And, you know, my first kiss." Another tear trickled down her nose as she sniffled.

A warm hand descended on her head. "It's all right, Aki. Most of us regret the first person we ever kissed. And it's pretty normal to have a partner or two that you're not proud of."

She looked up, wiping her face as she looked at her otousan. "That's easy for you to say! You have Papa! He thinks the world revolves around you!"

Victor smiled his stupid heart-shaped smile. "That's because it does! Well, and the two of you kids, of course."

His husband glared at him. "Vitya, you're not helping," he growled. Turning back to their daughter, he said, "Aki, I kissed my fair share of deadbeat guys too before I found your papa. Don't feel too discouraged. When it's the right person, you'll know. It will feel right." He sipped his own tea, then added, "I've never been worried about you in that department. You've always known what you want, so I'm sure that when you want one, you'll be able to find yourself a good partner, too."

Aki felt more tears welling in her eyes, but this time for an entirely different reason. She covered them by raising her cup to her face, blinking quickly to dispel the drops. As they sat in comfortable silence, drinking their tea, she decided that no guy would be worth her time if he couldn't make her feel as comfortable as her family did. But the next time around, she would make sure she wasn't in a hurry.