Home sweet home. Goddamn, I missed New York. Don't get me wrong. I'm starting to get a major soft spot for Tokyo (if Ritsu keeps showing me around like he does, it will definitely become a very close second), but this was home. This was where the family was. Where Daddy was. Where Mama is. While I'm in town, I needed to go see her. Just for the sake of cleansing my soul. It'll be kind of like when we went to the samurai temples in Osaka, only I'll know exactly who I'm talking to.

As soon as we left the airport, Daddy and I, along with Ritsu and Uncle Tony, headed straight for the castle. At least I saw it as a castle. Our house was something to behold. The top three floors of a beautiful building in Williamsburg with the most killer views of the city and they were all ours. Hot damn, I fucking missed this place. Without even thinking about it, I threw myself into the big ass couch in the middle of our bottom floor's living room. This was where all the business was done. Then, the middle floor was where we lived. The top floor had the bedrooms. And then, we had the roof, too. Oh, yeah. I'm definitely home.

"Hey, Daddy?" I wondered, "Is Uncle César coming, too?"

"Not yet," Daddy sat in his chair across from me, "He's taking care of business for me while I'm here with you. Because somebody couldn't even handle picking you up from the airport. Two seconds into it and he's already pulling a Tony."

"I'm sorry, Frankie!" Uncle Tony jumped on the defensive, "How was I supposed to know the kid was Rei's boyfriend?"

"Rei," Ritsu leaned over to me, keeping his voice down, "What's pulling a Tony mean?"

"It's when someone fucks up in a stupid way," I explained, "I love Uncle Tony, but sometimes, he's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, if you know what I mean."

"We got one of them, too," he chuckled to himself, "I got it. And don't worry about it, Tony. I'm good. I don't hold much for grudges. Life's too short for that shit."

"And you wonder why I love the kid," Daddy gave Ritsu a little nod, "How long are you sticking around, Ritsu?"

"As long as Rei will let me," Ritsu decided, "If she's not careful, I might end up staying here for our whole break."

"I was kind of hoping you'd say that," Daddy smirked a bit, "Reila…Do you know what's coming up very soon?"

"Oh…" I winced. I knew what Daddy was talking about. The thought of it put a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach, "Yeah…I do."

"Rei?" Ritsu went into instant worry mode, "You ok?"

"Just something I had forgotten about," I cringed some more, "My…My birthday is coming up."

"Why does it sound like that's a bad thing?" he wondered.

"Because," I explained, "This one's kind of special. Because this one is my sixteenth birthday. And before she died, Mama had one simple request. I remember when she and I would talk about what it'd be like and even then, I'd be kind of icky about it."

"Why?" Ritsu wasn't getting it, "Was she suggesting you have body parts removed?"

"No," I shook my head, "Believe me. That'd be easier. You remember meeting Victoria, right?"

"Not formally, but I try to forget it."

"She made Mama have a coming out party when she was sixteen," I went on, "And because it's tradition on that side of the family, Mama wanted me to have one, too."

"That's right, baby," Daddy nodded, "You'll manage. Besides, do you really think any of that side of the family would even bother coming?"

"I doubt it."

"What's a coming out party?" Ritsu asked.

"Formal societal introduction," I told him, "I don't understand it, but it's just an excuse to get together, throw a party, act stupid, show off."

"Sounds like fun to me," he shrugged.

"I don't know…" I groaned, not totally sold on the idea.

"It's one night, Reila," Daddy pointed out, "You'll be fine."

"I know," I pouted a bit, "And if it were for anyone else besides Mama, I wouldn't be doing this."

"I hate to break it to you, princess," Daddy gave me a little nudge, "But you'd have to do that for us, too. If you're going to run this family one day, they're going to have to know who you are. It's one night for you to show the other families you got bigger balls than they do."

"That's true…" I grumbled, "I do have a pretty big pair on me. But they already know that, Daddy. I have a reputation already established. Why do we have to have a party to solidify that?"

"Because Mama would come back and haunt my ass if I didn't," he argued, "Again, it's one night, Rei. You'll be fine. Now that I think about it, since this party's coming up soon, it's a good thing you did bring Ritsu with you."

"Why is it a good thing she brought Ritsu with?" Ritsu gave him a look, still totally lost.

"You'll see," Daddy had this big fucking grin on his face that both confused me and pissed me off at the same time. It's bad enough I have to do this. Now, I have to drag Ritsu into it, too. I had forgotten all about this damn thing in the first place. Given that I've been through a bit in the last week, that's reasonable. But now, there's this on my plate.

"Jetlag is kicking my ass, Daddy," I got up from the couch, "I think I'm going to go lay down for a while."

"Alright, baby girl," he let me go, "But don't think you're getting out of this because of jetlag."

"I know," I rolled my eyes.

"Ritsu," Daddy asked, "Are you going to join her?"

"Might as well," Ritsu took my hand and I helped him onto his feet, "I'm pretty jetlagged, too. Clocking out for a while sounds like a hell of an idea."

"Fine," he allowed, throwing his arms around me, "Damn, it's good to have you home, kid."

"I missed you, too, Daddy," I cuddled into him, "But I'm really tired and I'm going to go to bed, if that's ok with you."

"Yeah," Daddy let me go, "Go ahead. Night, sweetheart."

"Night," I left Daddy's embrace only to take Ritsu's hand again. We got in the elevator at the back of the house and rode it to the top floor.

"Again, Reila," Ritsu teased, kissing my cheek, "With the elevators. They have something over us, don't they?"

"And we're going up to my room," I laid my head on his shoulder, "It's like we never left Japan."

"Except everything else is different," he pointed out as the doors parted, "We're just a couple floors up from your dad. And one of your uncles. It's weird. Everything's so much different, but it's so familiar."

"Hold on," I pushed my bedroom door open and flipped the lights on.

"This isn't much different either," Ritsu took a quick look around, "It even looks like your bedroom in Tokyo."

"Yep," I jumped into my bed, "No matter what city I'm living in, home is home. You didn't think I'd have two different design schemes, did you? Ugh. That's so much effort."

"Excuse me," he crawled in next to me, pulling me into his chest, "So, about this party coming up. What's the deal with it? What's got you so bitter about it?"

"Because," I began my tangent, "All the families in this town know exactly who I am. The Queen of Diamonds does not need a coronation. She lives and breathes in the shadows where she belongs. Why I'm being dragged out into the light is beyond me. I'm sorry, Mama, but this shit's going to suck. It's going to be a four-hour dress fitting that's going to crush me emotionally and probably a little physically only to suck my thick ass into something tight and uncomfortable as hell that I'll have to wear for four hours at minimum, a formal dance that might actually be better than I expect, and a metric shit ton of people I don't know, nor care about. It's a regular barrel of monkeys. But then again, it is going to be a shit ton of local mafia. Allies, anyway. So, if shit decides to go sideways, I know damn well I'll be protected."

"I think between your old man and me," Ritsu kissed the top of my head, "You should be fine. And I hate to tell you this, Rei, but I don't know how to dance without a machine and arrows telling me what to do."

"And that, my dear Ritsu," I cuddled into his ribs, "is why you have me."

"You're going to teach me?"

"Yeah," I scoffed, "It's not like anyone else can. Except for maybe Daddy, but I think you'd rather dance with me instead."

"Absolutely," he nodded, "Don't get me wrong. Frankie's a good dude, but I'm much more partial to his daughter than to him."

"Damn right, you are, baby," I got one last kiss, "But we'll do that in the morning."

"Tomorrow morning?" Ritsu gave me a look.

"Yeah," I nodded, "This party is next week. We need to get in all the time we can. This is going to be in front of a good majority of the mafia families in New York. Can't have either one of us fucking up. Now, I'm tired as balls. Can I go to sleep now?"

"Yeah," he pulled the blankets over us, "Good night, Rei."

"Good night, Ritsu," I laid my head on his chest, "I love you."

"I love you, too."

He must love me. Because I didn't think he would've taken that so well. I had visions of that blowing up and being wickedly uncomfortable. Going by the shit eating grin on Daddy's face, I think he figured the same thing. Yet as I lay in my bed in the middle of the afternoon, I'm going to wake up tomorrow morning and teach Ritsu how to dance. It's been a while for me, but any dance I've ever done is still in my memory. For the most part anyway. There was one I had the best muscle memory for. I wonder if the equipment is still there.

The next time I saw a clock, it said six o'clock on the dot. Perfect. I was hoping to get an early morning. Since I was so used to Japanese time, I had a feeling I'd crash in the middle of the afternoon, but now, I had so much energy. However, my student was still sleeping like a baby. That's ok. Get all the sleep you can, Ritsu. Because you dance teacher is going to work your ass to the bone for the next week. Gently, I kissed Ritsu's cheek and left him a note telling him to meet me in the ballroom. I made sure to leave him a map, too.

We never hosted parties in here. Those were always away from the house. This ballroom was for me, so I'd always have somewhere to practice. Just after Mama died, Daddy kept me up here most of the time with the exception of the court hearings and the week I spent with that bitch. After that was done, I had my dance teachers come here. It was safer than going out. I spent hours in here. And I loved every second of it. Why'd I ever get out of it?

Since it's been ages since I last danced, maybe I should do a quick warm up. Or better yet, start on silks…No. On the floor. Then, if there's time, in the air. I pulled my hair out of my face and scrolled through my phone for a song. Another perk of the ballroom? Killer acoustics. And even better soundproofing. My head said classical or a movie score. Some kind of instrumental. But my heart on the other hand said something else.

My heart said Sia. In particular, Chandelier. It was a great song to do floor work to. Doing it on silks was an experience in itself. For today, I think we'll go with ballet instead. Something about his song felt like the ultimate form of freedom. Kind of like when I'm on silks, flying through the air. As I moved across the floor to the beat of the music, I found that freedom in my core. And I reached a true state of absolute bliss. This was all I needed.

"You weren't shitting me," a voice thundered through the room, "You really can dance."

"Goddammit, Ritsu!" I jumped six feet out of my skin and tried to catch my already shallow breath, "Don't fucking scare me like that, you asshole!"

"I'm sorry, baby," Ritsu pulled me into his chest, giving me a little kiss, "Good morning."

"Good morning." And all was forgiven, "So, how much of that routine did you see? Sorry. It's rusty."

"Most of it," he gushed, "Rei, you're really good."

"That's not all I can do," I smirked, noticing two purple spools on the ceiling and a long metal pole leaned up against the wall. They're still here, "You want to see me do tricks? Because I can do tricks."

"Sure," Ritsu insisted, "If it's as good as your ballet routine."

"It might be a touch better," I poked at the spools and watched the fabric roll down, "It's been a while since I've been able to show off."

"Please," he took a seat on the floor, making himself comfortable, "If you want to show off, baby, don't let me stop you."

"Well," I thought it over for a brief moment, not wanting to worry the shit out of him. I tied a knot in my silks and laid back on the knot, hanging upside down for a second, "I won't show off too much. Granted, I know what I'm doing, but I'm also rusty."

"Why are you upside down?" he gave me a look.

"Why not?" I wrapped my feet around each silk, pulling myself up in a double foot lock, "Is that better?"

"You're making me nervous, Rei," Ritsu admitted, "Maybe you should get down."

"Or instead," I spun myself around a little, dropping myself into a sideways flying pose, "I could stay up here."

"I'm serious, Rei," he shut his eyes, "Please come down. That doesn't look safe."

"It's totally safe," I assured, sliding down into a split, rolling a couple times.

"Reila!"

"Fine," I rolled myself back, kicked out of the foot locks, and slid down my silks, "Buzzkill."

"I sure as hell hope you don't think I'm don't that," Ritsu put his foot down, "That's not what you're teaching me, is it? Because there's no fucking way I'm doing that."

"No," I promised, kissing his cheek, "Aerial silks are my thing. It's so much fun, though. It's peaceful."

"Peaceful?" he questioned my sanity, "How is being that high in the air where you could fall and seriously hurt yourself peaceful?"

"It just is," I explained, "It gives you a better perspective on things. A different vantage point. Something about being up in the air, hanging by a thread…It's nice. Kind of like when I'm up on the roof of the building. Same principle."

"You're so fucking weird," Ritsu put his hand over mine, "But I love you, Reila."

"I love you, too," I laid my head on his shoulder, "So, shall we get started?"

"It is why I'm here," he pushed himself up from the floor, helping me to my feet, "How do we start?"

"In a perfect world," I shrugged, "We'd be doing a fully choreographed routine, but we don't have that kind of time, so I'll teach you a basic waltz."

"Is it easy?" Ritsu wondered.

"Minutes to learn," I told him, "A lifetime to master. Now, a waltz works on a three count. Two quick steps, then one slow. It'll all make more sense once we get into it. Do you have any questions so far?"

"Do we get to dance to the song you just danced to?" he suggested, "Because that sounded nice."

"No," I shook my head, "It's a four count. Unless we try a bolero."

"But…?"

"One of us would end up hurt," I figured, "A waltz is easier. I do get the choice of song, though. And since I've come to know and love a little more about my new home, I thought we'd do something by a Japanese composer."

"Really?" Ritsu gave me a look, "And what's that?"

"It's called the Merry-Go-Round of Life," I told him, searching for it on my phone, "It's a really pretty song."

"I know what you're talking about," he nodded, "Ghibli movie, right?"

"Yeah," I smiled, my heart melting a little, "You ready?"

"I still have no idea what we're doing," Ritsu freaked a little.

"Like I said," I put one of his hands on my waist and laced his fingers between mine, "Trust me. I know what we're doing."

"Is this really how it works?" he asked.

"This is right," I assured, "One hand goes in mine, the other goes on my waist. And as soon as the music starts, we're going to move with each other, got it?"

"Where?"

"We're going to start to the right."

"Ok…" This is promising.

As soon as the music started, Ritsu moved to the left, I moved to the right, and my foot ended up under his, "Ow! Dammit, Ritsu!"

"I'm sorry!" he squeaked, "I thought you said right!"

"My right!" I flexed my toes a little bit, getting them to settle back into their respective spots.

"Are you ok?" Ritsu worried.

"Yeah," I shook it off, "Try not stepping on my feet please."

"Got it."

Slowly, but surely, we started getting the hang of moving together. However, it wasn't long until Ritsu stepped on my feet again, "What did I just say?"

"I don't mean to!" he jumped on the defensive.

"How is it," I wondered, "You're so good at rhythm games, yet you have no rhythm?"

"I told you," Ritsu reminded me, "I can't dance without a machine in front of me and arrows telling me what to do."

"Instead," I pointed out, "You have your girlfriend in front of you, telling you what to do."

"I'm trying here, Rei," he swore, "I really am."

"I know, baby," I cuddled into him, "I know. And that's all I can ask of you."

"Does it get easier?" Ritsu asked, taking things a little slower.

"Once you get used to it," I moved him with me, "See? You're getting it."

"Am I?"

"You are," I started speeding up a little at a time, "You're not completely hopeless, Ritsu. You do have potential. It's just a good thing we have a week to prepare for this."

"Hey!" Ritsu gave me a little swat to the nose.

"You're trying your best, though," I laid my head in his chest, "And I'm sure you'll be able to do this by the end of the week."

"You're so lucky I love you," he kissed my forehead.

"You want to try it again?" I offered, "Or have you had enough already?"

"I'm tapping out," Ritsu decided, "I've had enough embarrassing myself for one day."

"Look at my baby," Daddy called from the doorway, "Trying her damnedest. I'm so proud."

"Morning, Daddy," I took a spot on the floor.

"Morning, Frankie," Ritsu joined me.

"So?" Daddy walked in, "What did you two have planned for the day?"

"I don't know," I shrugged, "I thought we could just wing it."

"I'm a foreigner in uncharted territory," Ritsu brushed him off, "I go where she goes."

"Why do you ask?" I wondered.

"Well," Daddy mulled it over, "I had a few things to take care of today and thought you'd like to join me."

"Is everything ok?" I worried. Daddy hardly ever invited me to take care of family business unless he needed me for something specific. And my bat.

"For the most part," he nodded, "Just a couple of naysayers still on the wrong side."

"I'd love to," I got up from the floor, "But I need to get back in touch with an old friend. And I'd love for Ritsu to meet her."

"Alright," Daddy wrapped his arms around me, "I guess we can do that. Send the city my love."

"Will do," I promised. However, Daddy wasn't letting me go, "Is there something else you wanted me for?"

"I was wondering," he offered, "If you could indulge me for a bit."

"Sure," I nodded, "What did you need?"

"Since we are here," he pointed out, a smirk on his face, "Do you think I could trouble a beautiful young lady for a dance? I mean…With someone who knows what he's doing?"

"Hey!" Ritsu would've fought a little harder, but I don't think he had the energy for it.

"I'm only giving you shit, kid," Daddy teased, "I'm guessing you've never done this before."

"I haven't."

"See?" Daddy offered me his hand, "Well, princess? Shall we?"

With a smile on my face and a lightness in my heart, I gladly accepted, "I thought you'd never ask."

"What should we do, Rei?" he wondered.

"I don't know," I thought it over, "I've been dealing with a waltz with Ritsu all morning."

"Christmas party from three years ago?"

"Sounds good to me," I remembered that party with a great fondness. My uncles got hammered. Abuelita clocked their heads together. Daddy had a good time. It was the first time since Mama died that I actually saw him genuinely happy. I knew it wasn't going to last long, but it was nice while it lasted. And the icing on the cake was the moment Daddy and I had in the middle of the dancefloor. Normally, he would've danced with Mama, but I had to be her stand-in. And I'd be more than happy to do it again and again. And he was right. At least I got to dance with someone who knew what he was doing. Not that Ritsu wasn't trying his best.

"Hey, Reila," Daddy whispered in my ear as the song came to a close, "I got a surprise for you."

"What kind of surprise?" I asked, "I've been through enough of them in the last week to constitute a lifetime. I don't know what more my heart can take."

"Trust me, sweetheart," he held me against his chest, "It's a good one. Wherever you and Ritsu go today, just be home around noon, ok? It'll be waiting for you."

"Ok," Daddy and I exchanged our final bows and I pulled my boyfriend up from the floor, "Come on, Ritsu."

"Where are we going?" Ritsu wondered.

"You'll see."