Hello there! I'm really sorry about the extremely late update. The previous chapter was about… two month ago? Oh well, anyway, as my apology, here I present you a much longer chapter ^^

Disclaimer: I do not own TeniPuri.

This chapter is unbetaed. You may find some typos and grammatical mistakes (maybe a lot? I hope it won't be that bad). Feel free to correct them :)

Enjoy. Here come the last part of the date.

Ch12: One Day Cinderella

Tsubaki felt her face so hot and her heart beating fast. It was her first date, after all. Wait, was it really a date? Well, she and Zaizen were walking hand in hand at the moment like a couple so… It was a date.

"Look, that guy is so good-looking." Someone said. Tsubaki looked at a group of girls across the street who giggled as they set their eyes at the hot boy beside her.

"Hot, isn't he?" She heard another comment on him. This time it was some women in their twenties who had just passed them by.

She stole a glance at him. Aww. She seconded them; he was indeed really hot. God, thinking of this made her even more tensed. What if people found her not attractive enough to be his partner? Back than at school, she wasn't a popular girl like her brother was. No one had ever asked her to go out (although she didn't really care about it because her family always came first). Was him really sure he want to go out with her like this? She began to feel uncomfortable. What if he had asked her on date only because he had pitied her? She had told him about her secret wishes and somehow he had felt sorry for her so that he had decided to help her. If it had been true, she shouldn't get too overexcited because of this date.

"Don't they look so cute together?"

"Yeah, the guy is really cool. The girl is quite pretty too."

She couldn't help smiling when she heard those statements from some old ladies that looked at them while shopping.

Really? Did they really think like that? She was really glad to hear it and felt the weight on her back disappeared. Maybe she wasn't as bad as she had thought. His sister had helped her giving a makeover and he himself had also said that she had looked good (not directly though, it actually had been only a simple yeah and a nod).

"Here we are." His voice interrupted her chain of thought.

She looked up and saw a western-styled, one story house with many dark ebony windows with black rails. There was a café sign with swirly decorations above its wooden door. She also saw some fancy umbrella tables and red flowers in white pots on the terrace. Such a cute café. A waiter who was standing by the door greeted them. Zaizen casually talked back to him and said something she couldn't hear as she was too busy admiring the building. The older man nodded politely to him then opened the door for them.

"Hey, let's get inside." Once again he took her back to the real world. She smiled sheepishly at him then they followed the waiter inside. She could hear Jazz music as she stepped into the café. The waiter led them to a table for two next to a big window. The waiter pulled the chair out for her, she sat on it and Zaizen took the seat in front of her. The waiter handed them the menu and quietly waited as they flipped the pages. It was her first time going to this kind of place so she didn't sure what to order. She glanced at Zaizen, he looked so calm while reading the menu. A moment later he looked up from it then said to the waiter, "Black coffee, please."

The waiter, smiling as ever, wrote the order down on his notebook. He then looked at her as he finished writing. "And what would you like, miss?"

"Eh," She quickly looked down at her menu. She didn't want they to wait too long so she just said whatever she saw. "Orange juice and Green Tea Cheesecake with Raspberries and Raspberry-Mint Ti… Tisane… please?"

The waiter noted her order and took the menu. "Just wait a moment, please." He said as politely excused himself.

"So…" Zaizen begun after the waiter left.

She raised a brow and repeated his word. "So?"

He leaned forward and rested his head on his left hand. The fingers of his other hand lightly tapped the table. "Do you know what tisane is?"

Right on the bull's eye.

"No. Err, I mean, of course I do!" She lied.

He stared at him for a while and concluded. "As I thought. You can barely spell it right."

Crap. He could see through her lies, couldn't he? "Do you know about it?" She asked back.

"Nope." He shortly answered.

"Ha! Then you don't have the right to laugh at me about it." She stated smugly. She thought she had won this conversation when he replied back.

"But I'm not the one who's ordering. And FYI I'm not laughing." He said matter-of-factly then added. "Whatever it is, you have to eat it up. I'm not paying if you don't."

"Eeh? But-"

"Did you even look at the price?"

"No…"

She looked down. Well, that was very stupid. Why hadn't she thought that he might pay her share as well since he was the one who had brought them here? It would be a shame if she didn't finish her meal, wouldn't it? Had he been more composed that time, she would have order something else. Oh God, she hadn't even looked at the price! What if it was really expensive?

"Pfft," she heard his voice and looked at him again. He was chuckling. "I was just joking. Whatever it is, I think it's still eatable. And it's still my treat even if you don't like it. Just don't vomit, okay?"

Although his statement sounded slightly offending, she didn't get irritated at all as it was the first time she saw him laughing. He looked like he was enjoying himself and she knew she should too. He did everything for her sake after all. Instead of musing like she had been doing all the time, she should have just enjoyed it.

And she secretly wished she could see him smile and laugh more often.

The what-so-called Green Tea Cheesecake with Raspberries and Raspberry-Mint Tisane turned out to be much better than Tsubaki had expected. It was actually really delicious even though Zaizen refused to taste it because he said he didn't like cheesecake as it was too creamy for him. After finishing their meal (he only drank coffee though), he told her to go outside and wait for him there as he paid the bill.

She stood in front a display window of a shop next to the café where they had spent their tea-time together. She looked at her own reflection and made sure that she still looked good. She combed her hair with her fingers. She smiled as her fingers touched the flower hairpin he had given her earlier. Back then she had thought that it was a rose but now she realized that it wasn't. It was another flower which looked like a rose: camellia, tsubaki in Japanese.

She had no idea that he was actually a quite romantic person.

Today she saw different sides of him. He seemed really close to his family that he didn't get embarrassed introducing his sister-in-law to her. He blushed, he smiled, he laughed… He was also even nicer than before.

It was only several month after they knew each other. He was really different from what she had thought about him before she had gotten to know him personally. Who had thought that a typical rebellious bad boy like him could have been the nicest person she had met? She chuckled as she recalled a memory on herself picking a fight with him. At that time she had only wished he could have just shut his mouth about Tsubasa's secret and now… She even had leaked about something she had never even mentioned in front of her brother: a simple wish to be like a normal girl and do what a normal girl normally do. She knew she couldn't ditch her duty in the family, however, just today… only for one day… she could be a Cinderella and sneaked out to meet her prince at the ball.

Well, speaking of a prince, Zaizen didn't suit that image at all. He was more like… a hero? No, it didn't suit her as well. He was just a boy with a different family background whom she met by a chance at the ball.

A Romeo, perhaps?

"I don't see anything funny here."

"Wha!" She nearly jumped in surprise as he suddenly appeared beside her. "Don't scare me like that!"

"Well, I don't." He said flatly. Actually he had been there for a minute or two but she hadn't noticed his present up until he had decided to speak. "So, what's so funny about the display?" He asked again.

"Eh?" She looked at him then at the things inside the display window and to him again. "Nothing?"

"Why were you smiling like an idiot then?"

"I don't- Wait! Whom are you calling as idiot?" She protested.

"It's only two of us here and I'm pretty sure I'm not an idiot so…" He replied, still with the straight face.

Geez. She looked away and pouted. Perhaps she was wrong. He wasn't the nicest person she had ever met. A nice person wouldn't bluntly refer the other person as an idiot.

She refused to talk to him again so they just stood there in silence as if they were window shopping. Well, that was what happened until he finally broke the silence again.

"Where do you want to go next?" She turned to him with questioning face. "You did say you want to go to the arcade or karaoke but I think it would be more fun if there were more people so maybe we'll just go there another time. Now, is there any place you want to visit other than those two?"

She thought for a while. He got the point. Usually people went to arcade and karaoke in group. (Had he just say another time?) Another place to go… She hadn't planned to go anywhere because she had been sure he would have been the one who lead their date so it was quite difficult. She stared at her own self. 'Think Tsubaki!' She mentally ordered her brain to work harder. There must be a good place to visit. She stared and stared at the reflection until a resolution popped in her mind at last, thanks to her reflection.

"Convenience store?" Zaizen said in disbelieve as they enter a, indeed, convenience store. Would people normally go to one when they were on date? Of course not!

"Yeah, there's something I wanna buy." She replied as she leading their way. "This store is quite good and I'm sure we'll easily find one that suits your liking."

He actually wanted to ask more such as what kind of thing she wanted to buy and what was with his liking but decided to say nothing and just see what would happen. She must have a reason why she brought him here and he would find out about it soon. He just hoped it would be quite logical and not something like asking him to help her bring the groceries.

"Here we are." She stopped in front of a shelf. He gazed at the things on it and they were all small kitchenware like spoons, plastic glasses, drinking bottles, and lunch boxes.

"So, which one do you like?" She asked, offering two lunch boxes to him; one was black when the other was dark blue.

"Lunch box?" He asked in disbelief, staring at them.

"Yep. Didn't you say you want to eat my handmade bento again? I only have two lunch boxes at home so I thought I should buy one for you so that I can make three boxes of bento at once." She explained happily then asked again. "Well then, which one do you like? Oh, there're also red and green ones in the shelf."

'I see.' He thought after listening to her reason.

He then picked a dark red one and she chose a piece of black furoshiki to accompany it. She said the two colors suited each other perfectly. After deciding what to buy they went to cashier. He was going to take her wallet out when she stopped her. She insisted she want to pay it herself.

"Is it okay?" He asked as they left the store, referring to the groceries inside the paper bag in her hand.

"Of course. They're gonna be kept in my house anyway. Besides…" She stopped for a while. Her cheeks turned slightly red as she continued. "Besides, you've treated me and gave me this hairpin. I also wanted to buy something for you in return." Yep, she had gotten this idea when she had seen the hairpin's reflection on the window.

"That's not really necessary, you know?" He said as he touched his nape.

She shook her head and grinned. "Of course it is. Say, what do you want to eat? I'll make it for tomorrow's lunch."

"Shiratama zenzai." He quickly replied.

She slightly frowned. "Geez. That again. It's not something you eat for lunch!"

"Anything is fine as long it's satiate."

"But it's a dessert."

"Then make it as a dessert to accompany the main course. Simple, isn't it?"

Time went really fast as they talked and without realizing the sky had turned into orange and the sun was setting. She had to go home soon or else Tsubasa would get worried. He offered to walk her home and she accepted it. They talked about a lot of thing like foods, sports and school while walking home. Really, she wished she could have stopped the time so that she could have been with him longer. She felt really comfortable when he was around; she also wanted to know more about him.

It was just too bad that she couldn't. She could only wait till the time they could see each other again, which was actually only about twelve hours or so from now. The school started again tomorrow and she also had a reason to see him in the morning. She completely knew about it and there was no reason to get sad. But, why? Why did she felt this way?

She looked at him closely. His black hair turned slightly brown because of the sunset. His face also looked redder because of it.

"You know," he turned to her and flicked on her forehead. "Stop looking at me with that longing face. Or else…"

"Or else?"

"Or else I even don't want to let you go home."

Perhaps…

Perhaps his reddened face wasn't only because of the sunset.

Perhaps both of them were thinking of the same thing.

Perhaps they felt the same.

What was it? What was this feeling called?

His hand slid down from her forehead to cheek. She felt his face was closer than ever. She held her breathe as the distance between their faces became closer and closer. She slowly closed her eyes and waited for a k-

"Tsubaki-san!"

They filched and he quickly pushed her away in reflect. Their faces were completely red.

"Tsubaki-san, what are you doing!"

She shivered as she heard that voice again. She really knew it. She knew whose voice it was and what it meant.

It meant doom for her.

She slowly turned her face to see the owner of that familiar voice. There she saw a woman in the mid forties. She wore dark brown traditional clothes. From her expression, Tsubaki knew that the older woman was really angry.

"Mother…"

No matter how Cinderella loved to be at the ball, she should go home before the clock stroke twelve, because at twelve o'clock the magic will stop.

Cliffhanger! XD Okay, okay. I'll try to update as soon as possible so don't kill me, okay?

Speaking of the flower hairpin… Guess whose idea it was~?

Thank you for reading and please do review and tell me what you think about this chapter :)