Disclaimer: I do not own Hana Yori Dango, but the plot is mine, as well as the character Regina Carter. Please do not copy or take.

JUST YOU WAIT AND SEE

By: Cecile Li

Chapter Three - The Turning Point

"Makino, you can't give up!"

That was the second thing Makino heard when she woke up, the first being a rather rude crash of a door being slammed into the wall. Pressing her face deeper into the soft pillow, she tried to ignore the sounds.

"Go away…" She mumbled, throwing a pink pillow at the open doorway. Somehow she knew that as long as she stayed asleep, she wouldn't have to face the new day and its problems. In her half-asleep stupor, she felt someone sit on the bed beside her.

"Makino," A boy gently shook her, "Makino, wake up."

A girl sighed prettily (if possible) in exasperation. "Makino!" She screamed mercilessly into Makino's ear.

Makino bolted upright, the look on her face the one of someone who has just been rudely awoken. Wincing and rubbing her ear, she grimaced. "Jeez, Sakurako, you didn't have to yell."

Noticing Rui on her other side, she sobered quickly. If Rui was already up, it must have been pretty late in the day.

Noticing her rumpled hair, Rui smiled. He handed her a brush. "It's not like you, Makino."

Makino forced her mind away from impending matters and concentrated on the hard bristles of the brush. "What's not like me?"

"Running away from Domyouji, allowing Regina to—"

"Stop it! Stop it!" Makino screamed, clapping her hands over her ears. The brush clattered on the floor as a sudden flood of tears came into her eyes. "Stop it! It was just a nightmare!" She shut her eyes tightly to avoid Rui's calm grey eyes. She felt warm hands grasp her shoulders. Tearfully opening her eyes, she saw that Rui's eyes were not calm, but fierce with emotion.

"We're not going to let you give up. You're not going to give up. Rui and I are going to help you get rid of Regina." Rui nodded solemnly in agreement. An evil smirk lit up Sakurako's pretty face. "And I have the perfect idea!"

Regina led Domyouji up to her penthouse suite. Watching numbers increase slowly in the elevator, she resisted an unseemly smirk. Instead, she adopted an innocently sad expression.

Holding Domyouji's hand loosely in her cold hands, she opened the oak door with her key. Hesitating, her face as sweet as sugar, her heavenly blue eyes gazed up at him. "Domyouji," she started, looking modestly at the floor, "I told you I wanted you to meet my father, but there's something I need to tell you first."

Domyouji fought the urge to roll his eyes and instead nodded curtly. This had better not be one of her over-melodramatic stories.

"My father…" At this she seemed to waver.

"Yes?" Domyouji prompted unkindly.

A tear welled up in on eof her perfect eyes. Domyouji resisted the desire to run far far away from this blue-eyed freak of nature. "My father is unwell in the head." Too busy in her act, she obviously did not notice Domyouji's expression of barely concealed disgust. "My father believes me to be the daughter who abandoned him at a nursery home at 15. You see, my older sister was well on her way to the top and didn't want an old man devastated by the loss of his wife to bother him. I was only 8! Sadly, she was killed in a car crash a few years later. As soon as I turned 18, I took him back to my home, but as I looked just like my sister, he believed me to the abandoner."

To say the least, Domyouji was shocked. Regina didn't have the perfect family–like him! And he had thought she was some prissy girl growing up wearing black Mary Jane's. He could feel his icy heart thaw a tiny bit. It was true-he was a lot kinder because of Makino.

This poor girl! To have a father who hated her! At least his mother cared for him in her own warped way. Suddenly, Domyouji felt guilty for being so sarcastic to everything she did. She was still a little girl inside.

He squeezed the petite girl in a hug. "I'm sorry. It must be horrible."

Regina smirked into Domyouji's blue shirt, her fake tears soaking into it. She had won the gamble.

"No way!" Makino protested while Rui nodded in agreement. Patting her hair as if to check it was still there, she gaped at him. "Hanazawa Rui? Even you think it's a good idea?" He shrugged noncommittally. She sighed in defeat. "But I refuse to color my hair!"

Sakurako smiled, tsking like a mother. "If you don't, the plan won't work. It's just hair after all."

Makino collapsed weakly on the bed. Sakurako's so-called plan was sneaky, under-handed, and undeniably good. It even allowed her to get some well-deserved revenge on that vixen.

Makino was to arrive in New York, preferably as soon as possible. Rui and Sakurako, would of course accompany her. Makino couldn't appear just as herself though. Regina, that intelligent seducer, would prevent Makino from setting foot within a mile near Domyouji. Makino would have to go in disguise.

"How?" Makino had asked.

"Oh, wear some contacts, change your voice… and dye your hair." Sakurako had replied idly.

"Dye my hair? But won't that be permanent?"

Sakurako smirked for the 3rd time that day. "That's why you'll use the 10 days mousse dye."

"10 days?" Makino was beginning to understand. "Re-dye every 10 days? But won't that—"

"Kill your hair?" Sakurako checked each manicured nail casually, without a care in the world. Except this brainchild of hers. "Of, course. Your hair will probably fall out by 30."

"By 30!" Makino had shrieked indignantly.

"Well, if you don't want Domyouji…"

"Fine. Fine, I'll do it." Makino sat heavily on an elaborately decorated wooden chair. If she dyed her hair, Sakurako and Rui would create 'accidental' appearances with Domyouji. Domyouji, thickheaded jerk he was, probably wouldn't even recognize her. Rui had just found out that Regina had been transferred to the New York branch of his company. With a few strings pulled here and there, he could make her go crazy. The building she lived in was next to his building. If he worked this to his advantage, he could make parrots squawk at 3 in the morning. Sakurako had received information from her sources in New York that Regina was especially lazy. If she could get Thomas and his gang of thieves to trash her place on the day her insurance expired, there would be nothing Regina could do.

Finally, she sighed. "Alright. Let's go buy hair dye."

Author Note: I'm sorry it took so long to get this up. I'm moving and one day I can't find my chapter and the next day my computer isn't plugged in. The next chapter probably won't be up for a few weeks.

Responses:

Lelepanne (I'm glad! I'm sorry this is late. Thanks for the reviews.), dolfina (Well, I do believe Tsukushi is kind of in shock. They're also in different parts of the world. I hope this is more! Thanks for reviewing!), and anonymous (I hope this is soon enough! Thanks for reviewing.)

Cecile