Kuwabara was so scared he thought he might be sick as he stood on Yumi's front porch. He would probably have run away if his father hadn't been standing behind him making sure he didn't. Gathering all the courage he had, Kuwabara reached up with a shaking hand and knocked on the door.

There was a moment of silence before the door was opened by a man who must have been Yumi's father. He was shorter than Kuwabara's dad, and pudgy with glasses on the bridge of his nose. When his eyes narrowed Kuwabara understood that this man knew that Kuwabara was the one who had hurt Yumi.

"How dare you come back here after what you did!" the man demanded.

Kuwabara cringed, guilt and fear roiling inside him. "I came to apologize to Yumi," he managed to say.

"You think a mere apology is good enough after what you did to her?" Yumi's father ranted. "She lost a tooth because of you, you little punk! Do you have any idea how much it's going to cost me to replace it?"

Kuwabara shrank back in the face of his rage. She'd lost a tooth? Surely he hadn't hit her that hard…At least, he hadn't thought he had. Tears built up in his eyes, and it was all he could do not to start crying like a fool.

"That's enough." Kuwabara couldn't remember his father every using a tone like that before. It would have terrified him if he hadn't known it was directed at someone else.

"Kazuma knows what he did was wrong, and he came to apologize," Mr. Kuwabara said. "But if all you can do is verbally assault a nine year old child who is very sorry for what he did, then you don't deserve his apology. Let's go, Kazuma."

Kuwabara took his dad's hand and they walked away. "But Dad," Kuwabara spoke up, "he was right."

"No, he wasn't," Mr. Kuwabara said firmly. "If someone is truly sorry for what they've done, you forgive them. Anything else is dishonorable." He looked down at Kuwabara and spoke in a gentler voice. "And don't forget to forgive yourself when you mess up. If you regret something you did, resolve not to do it again and move on. Don't let yourself feel guilty forever, okay? Your mom wouldn't want that."

Kuwabara wiped his eyes on his sleeve. His dad was right; Mom wouldn't want him to be miserable forever. He needed to forgive himself and move on.

And I swear as a man, I will never hurt another girl again.

Words: 430

AN:…*peaks out from beneath a rock*…Don't kill me for my lateness? Please? I came home for Christmas break and got very, very lazy. Many apologies! As penance, I've broken my 300 words a chapter limit for you all (but only for this chapter…and maybe the next one. Maybe.). I will try my best to get the next chapter up tomorrow for you guys since I skipped all last week.

Thanks for your patience! I am not deserving!