.

I was in the middle reading a fic that really has nothing to do with anything in this chapter when all of the sudden my muse just went, "Hey, you know who you haven't thought of in a while? MisaLee and Kado. I'll do you a favor and give you this fic, all nice and pretty in your head, but if you don't write it within the next half hour it will detonate and you will never see it again. No, I don't care if you're tired, type you whore."

Well, here you are!


Kado was in the middle of shakily practicing his calligraphy with a few of the simple characters Misaki had taught him when he heard feet loudly stampeding down the hall. He was lowering his brush, forehead scrunched in confusion and concern, when his door flewopen, banging into the wall and revealing a wide-eyed and slightly breathless Misaki.

"You have to come look! It's a miracle! It's amazing!" She breathed, hurrying into the room and grabbing onto his arm to drag him out since he was apparently moving too slow for her tastes, still frozen in shock from the sudden and alarming entrance.

"Misaki? What...?"

"You'll see!" She practically sang, dragging him into the kitchen to shove him into a seat across the table from a Lee who looked just as bewildered as Kado, but if it was possible he also looked twice as excited as Misaki, merely because she was excited.

As Kado straightened himself in the seat, face scrunched in confusion and concern as his eyes followed Misaki on her quick path around the kitchen, he suddenly realized that he still held his brush tightly in his hand, and that he'd gotten some ink onto his T-shirt. He felt like saying something, pointing it out or maybe just letting off some steam with a few expletives, but just looking at Misaki and how she was beaming made him hold his tongue, because even his third favorite T-shirt wasn't worth taking away from her when she was so happy.

"Close your eyes!" She said, her entire being—voice and body and even her hair—positively quivering with barely contained excitement and energy. Her two men willingly did as she said, though Kado shot her a bit of a resigned and disbelieving glance before he complied, and the apartment was silent with anticipation but for three clinks of some sort of dishware hitting the table, which had to be a part of what they were waiting for. They sat there for a few more silent and anticipation—a bit of trepidation on Kado's part as well—filled seconds, until finally Misaki bid them to open their eyes. And when they did, eyes falling down to the table to see what she had placed in front of them, it was to the sight of three bowls of white rice.

"Rice?" Kado asked, now more confused than anything. Lee was confused as well, and he looked to be searching the rice for what he should be making a big deal about.

"Rice!" Misaki cheered, that single syllable word busting with the sheer intensity of her joy. "I made rice!"

"Ah..." Kado blinked down at it, not all that sure what he was missing. "Okay..."

"And it's perfect rice! It's not clumpy or hard or wet or that one ball thing I found that one time. No, this is perfect rice, and I made it!" She beamed, and the two boys started to catch on.

"I cooked rice!"

"That is wonderful, my blossom!" Lee cheered, jumping out of his seat and over the table to sweep her out of her seat and into his arms, twirling her around the room and forcing Kado to duck and save one of the chairs from toppling over.

"That's great, Misaki." Kado said, sending a crooked grin over at her once the two adults were finally settled. "How'd it happen?"

"I don't know!" She exclaimed happily as they started to eat the somewhat major miracle, "I was just coming in from the bedroom since I had to straighten a few things in there, and I just felt the urge to check on things in here. Like I knew." She grinned, and then shrugged, "And it was just there, all perfect and wonderful, and so I immediately went to get you guys so we could eat!"

There were a few more compliments and congratulations and Misaki continued to beam, and a little while later when they were almost finished with their bowls and Lee was in the middle of a story about his 'cute little students', when a sudden thought occurred to the silently listening teen.

"Hey Misaki?" He interrupted, "Why'd you only fix rice? It's great rice, don't get me wrong, but isn't it a little strange?"

"Of course it is, and of course I didn't just fix this." She said, her wide eyes staring at him as she waited for him to continue so that she could figure out what was troubling him.

"Yes, okay, good. But then where is it?"

They sat there in a few moments of silence as they all pondered this truly very intelligent and necessary question, and then suddenly Misaki's eyes widened as the truth suddenly danced through her brain. Upon her discovery she immediately clambered out of her chair and over to the stove, opening the door to release the smoke that had been building up within.

After all of them had sprung into action to open windows and fan the smoke away from the fire detector in a routine that was a bit too well practiced to be healthy, they were left standing there staring at the pan on top of the stove and the horror that it contained.

"Is that..." Kado tilted his head a bit, "Chicken?"

"Yeah. I think so." Misaki answered, hands on her hips while she stared at the blackened meat as if she couldn't quite figure out how such a thing could have happened despite all the times it had happened before. It was almost as if she had expected everything to have changed with the wonder that had been the rice.

"Well, I suppose this isn't really edible." Misaki sighed, and Kado quickly shook his head before Lee could loudly and enthusiasticly say something about how they could eat it because of her youthful love energy having been put into it, or something like that. "We'll have to just stick with rice then, or I could just try to put something together really quickly... Oh! I'll just go and grab something from that nice place across the street! I know you like it, Kado-kun, and they're always quick and friendly."

Kado sighed and leaned back against the counter as she bustled out of the room to go and put her shoes on, dropping his head as her commentary continued, although he blocked it out now, her words just a murmur in the back of his mind.

"Why do we keep letting her near a stove?" He asked no one in particular, forgetting that Lee was near, something he would have thought impossible considering the presence of the man.

"Because we love her." The astonishingly green clothed man stated simply before hurrying out of the room to join his wife, and Kado heard them begin to discuss what exactly they should get to eat. Not rice, obviously.

Kado chuckled, more at himself than anything else, and rolled his eyes in a fond and exasperated way that he only used in the context of two very important people in his life. The most important people.

"That we do." He murmured, pushing himself off of the counter to go and join in with the madness.


I always had this thing in my head that since Kado is so interested in Misaki and loves her he'd get curious about what she does and how she does it so well even though she is a complete clutz at everything else in her life, and he'd eventually start learning the stuff and he actually really enjoys it (thus ends my explanation of the calligraphy at the beginning)

Someone said that they wanted to see Lee take Kado in and teach him all the ninja awesomeness, but Kado's a bit old, I think. He's a couple years past the age where the kids graduate the academy, and he already fights (though these are just street fights). Lee does help him refine his technique though, just so that he doesn't get beaten to a pulp any more (like when he was first introduced)

Plus, I had this planned out before I even started writing his character.

I'm going to the library tomorrow, where I will procure the first two Game of Thrones books. Haha!

Now, however, I am going to sleep.

Goodnight, precious ones. I hope you have good dreams.