Hello again! I'm sorry for the long wait...since the school year is coming to an end, I've been extra busy...but I've been thinking about fanfiction each day, so don't worry! :D Many thanks to my readers, and to my Beta!

Sakura: Fem!Child!Japan

Disclaimer: Axis Powers: Hetalia does not belong to me.

Yao decided to keep her mouth shut for the time being, as they all seemed to know exactly who this girl was.

From the short introduction, she learned that this girl's name was Mei, who bowed and expressed her pleasure of meeting her. Keeping her curiosity maintained, Yao could only smile back and speak kindly to her. Mei hadn't done anything wrong...yet.

Yong Soo was as lively as ever, talking about how pretty Yao had become ever since she left.

"But of course, you're still beautiful, da ze!" Xiang did his best to keep his eye on the menu without looking at the wedding band on Yao's finger, which the Korean obviously didn't notice. The Chinese woman, who already finished eating, but stayed for the sake of talking to her old friends, rolled her eyes and cleared her throat.

"So, I heard that you became a singer."

"I did! But all the tickets are out at the concert...I'm really sorry, da-ze..." Xiang stopped sipping the cherry shake and stared at his friends' disappointed look. Strange, the text he received a few moments ago said that there were plenty of tickets left...was he drawing her away for some reason?

"Ah, it's quite alright, aru! I need some sleep tonight, because there's work tomorrow."

"You've come here for work, Miss Yao?"
"Yes, at the request of a company." The young girl's eyes widened.

"C-could the company's name be 'Honda International'?" Yao threw her another fake smile.

"It is! Are you familiar with it, aru?"
"My boyfriend manages that company."Mei looked down at her hands, fingers twiddling one another as a shy blush appeared on her cheeks.

"Right. She's Kiku's girlfriend, da-ze!" Yao nearly on the water she was drinking. Kiku, Kiku in a relationship...? Love works in mysterious ways.
Well, if Kiku found good in her, she had no reason to keep herself from liking her.

"Miss Yao, you know Kiku, don't you? Sometimes he tells me about you."
"He was a friend of mine when we were younger. A very shy boy. It's nice to see him step up a few levels and become the head of the company, aru!" This time she laughed wholeheartedly. Mei smiled warmly, and soon the two were speaking like childhood friends.

Meanwhile, Yong Soo drew himself away from the girl talk and was speaking to Xiang.
"Like, where have you been? You really didn't call or text me all that time."
"Sorry, but it got really busy after I left Hong Kong, da-ze." Yong Soo laughed softly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Really busy.

"I bet you're still in love with Mei, aren't you?" He asked playfully. Xiang hissed, turning his sharp glance to some plant in a golden vase that sat near the entrance.

"Like, I don't really-"
"You're talking quickly, and you're hiding your face from me, which means you like her, da-ze!"
"Shh! She's right there!" Luckily for the Cantonese teen, the two were too busy in a conversation to notice.

"Like, keep your mouth shut..." Xiang muttered, face still red as he drank the water from the cup.

It was only tonight that she had met her face to face, but already she had taken a liking to her. Yong Soo told her about how pretty she was, and how he wanted to marry her someday. And of course he lied about Yao being in love with him too.

Yao really wasn't just pretty. Yao was beautiful, with a face like a peony. When she first entered the restaurant, Mei was frightened by how she seemed to be ignoring her. But now, she was happy that she was friendly towards her.

"Miss Yao, are you married?" She caught the glint of gold on her finger. Yong Soo, who had been sipping his sundae at a very fast rate, sucked too fast at the question and choked, grabbing Xiang's cup of water and swallowing it whole.

"N-now Mei-Mei! You don't have to try so hard to make Yao laugh, da-ze!" The Chinese woman frowned.

"Laugh? On the contrary, I don't believe I told you about my marital status." The boy's eyes widened as his jaw dropped to the floor.

A few minutes of silence passed by as everyone kept their eyes on the food, while Xiang had gone to the restroom.

"WHAT?"
"I'm sorry, sir, but you must take your leave."

Thus, the rest could only watch as the sobbing Korean desperately tried to claw himself back from the butler's grasp.

"Ah, Nii-San, I don't know if this is really a good idea..." Daisuke trailed behind Kiku as they made their way into a tall silver building. The building itself was designed to appear ordinary and dull in structure, compared to the glass and black marble corporation headquarters that made their home in Shinjuku, so that it wasn't noticed.

Let's just say it wasn't supposed to be there in the first place.

The Honda Yakuza had long wanted a stronger army of men to carry out their work. Perhaps it had been a mere coincidence that they were nearly infiltrated by a former executive of the pharmaceutical research company KORIZEN . KORIZEN had been closed down years ago after genetically engineering humans to develop almost robotic mindsets and perfection in both appearance and ability.

Instead of killing them, they decided that this executive, weakened in mind and spirit, would continue his research...but with the benefits going to the Yakuza, of course.

Daisuke himself had never been in the actual building. Daisuke didn't want to have anything to do with anything illegal. But family came first, so ceding to his brother's will was, to him, a show of his loyalty.

"They completed it?" Kiku had led them into the basement, into a room through which one could only enter through an eye examiner at the door.

The room was fairly large, lighted an eerie green as a timid looking man stood in front of a table, holding a clipboard.

"Sato-San, I assume you have everything ready?" The man nodded, turning to face the small figure draped in a white blanket.

"The genetic information from the blood draw we took several weeks ago...it seems to have worked. A-and her physical appearance is near identical to yours." Kiku smirked.

"Is she functioning properly?"
"Honda-San, she will o-only respond to your voice." Kiku stepped directly in front of the table, sweeping aside the sheet with his one hand.

On the table lay a young girl, probably no older than the age of six, clothed in a long white hospital dress. A random stranger would have guessed that she was Kiku's daughter. Hair the exact shade, eyes and skin the same color. Her hair was in a bob cut that touched her cheeks.

"Speak."

In a second, her eyes opened without fluttering. Daisuke felt something tug at his heart.

Children that age didn't have that dullness in their eyes.

"What can I do for you?" Her voice was as monotone as a device. Kiku could only smirk as he asked her to get up, turn around, wave her hand, tilt her head, and all the simple gestures.

"You will call me Otou-Sama, from now on."
"Otou-Sama."
"And you will answer whenever I call your name."
"Yes." Sato was marveling at the sight, not because of his success, but how he would still remain useful to the Honda Yakuza.

And that gave him a chance of living a little while longer.

Kiku knelt and held out his hand, smiling like a real father would to his child.

"Shall we go home, Sakura?"

Yong Soo sniffed the last of his tears, wiping them away with the back of his hand. It had been about an hour since the butler forced him out of the restaurant, leaving him in the hallway. Since then he returned to his suite, doing absolutely nothing but crying fake tears.

He was happy.

Happy that Yao was happy.
"Yong Soo, can I come in?" It was her voice at his door. Quickly he stood and opened the door.

"Yao...I'm sorry, da ze!" He wailed, hugging the appalled woman.

"I-it's alright, I haven't told anyone where I have been all this time. Of course you were worried." Smiling tenderly, she patted the crying boy's head as he led her inside.

"It's lucky, isn't it? I knew wearing the color red would bring something nice."
"You wore red here?" He dried his tears with a handkerchief she had offered, looking back at it and how it was red as a rose.

"You know what I told you back then. How red is considered a lucky color in China. I suppose it is my favorite, for whenever I wore it good would come." She looked out the window, eyes glossy as she remembered all that had happened.

"You wore red when you met him, didn't you?" He asked. She laughed.

"I did. At first I thought I was unlucky, because he annoyed me. But now, I see that it was more luck that I could imagine." His eyes caught the glint of gold on her finger.

"What's his name, da-ze?"
"Ivan Braginski." He swallowed a lump in his throat.

"He's childish, and eats and does strange things. He looks intimidating at first, but he's really without any bad intentions. He can be strong, though." As she continued on with the further descriptions, Yong Soo heard her voice more and more as a blur. His hands clenched into fists as he looked away, searching for anything distraction.

No, anyone but him.

"You're not listening, aren't you? Listen when you're being spoken to!" Her voice was slightly raised when he finally faced her once more.
"Sorry, I was thinking about a lot of things, da-ze. I'm really glad that you're here and all, but it's boring here in Shinjuku!" Yao puffed her cheeks.

"Really? I was nearly run over by a car while crossing an intersection-"
"No, no! Why don't you go somewhere fun, like Akihabara? Or even-"
"I don't have a choice. It's work." Yao quirked an eyebrow. Was he really encouraging her to go on vacation?
"...Then you should leave as soon as possible! I'm going to leave soon, anyway! And the weather station-yeah! There's a hurricane coming up soon!" He hoped Yao didn't watch the forecast, just in case.

Yao could only look at him blankly. Had this boy never changed, all this time...?
-

Natalya grasped the light scarf and unraveled it from her ivory neck. Both hands gently held the scarf from beneath and laid it on the bed. The scarf was the present Ivan had given her for last year's birthday.
He would never know it, but she would treasure everything he had given her.
"Natalya." Yao, wrapped in the hotel's fluffy white bathrobes, was in the process of drying her hair when she caught sight of the Belorussian woman. Icy blue eyes met golden brown in a brief exchange.

"Did you see them again?"
"I did, and it was nice. What did you do? Shopping?"
"No, I just surveyed Honda International's building." Yao sighed, pulling the towel from her hair.

"Don't you take a break sometimes?" She shrugged.

"I was curious." She walked towards the window, pressing her palm against the glass.

"Rain? How refreshing." Yao smiled as she dug through her bag for a comb.

"I enjoy the sounds of snow better." Natalya smiled bitterly, her palm clenching into a fist against the raindrop-pelted glass.

"Yong Soo, there's someone I'd like you to meet." Kiku gestured with his hand to the silent little girl that stood patiently by his side.

"This is Sakura, my daughter and servant." She bowed, eyes kept on his.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Yong-Soo-san." Her voice was of a child's, but all the playfulness that characterized it-was gone.

He had to admit, for being the daughter of such a tyrant as Kiku, the girl was awfully cute. Her pale cheeks were slightly plump, her bob-cut hair stroking her chin whenever her head tilted. She wore a plain purple jumper dress and a rosy pink long-sleeved turtleneck underneath. Her eyes were stoic like her 'father's' (Kiku was rotten, but doing that seemed...out of character...) but a bit larger. Because he was taller than her, Sakura stood on her toes, raising her black Mary Janes a few inches from the ground.

"I'm Yong Soo, da-ze." Sakura, with her dull eyes wide in curiosity, tilted her head to the side.

"What is 'da-ze'?"
"Some people speak differently, Sakura-Chan." Yong Soo kept himself from cringing at the fake kindness in his voice as he patted the girl on the head.

"I see, Otou-Sama." At his touch she stopped stretching herself tall and her soles met the floor.

"You're doing an awfully good job, Yong Soo. Tomorrow, I will be at work and no one will be able to watch her for me. Please, take her and introduce her to everyone." His stomach churned.

Yet, he forced himself to nod and stand straight.
"O-of course." Daisuke, who had been sulking behind his older brother, stepped from his position and whispered something in his ear.

"I know that. Well, Sakura-Chan, it's time to say goodbye." The girl bowed, eyelids already drooping, as she covered a tiny yawn with her small palms and followed behind Daisuke, who sent him a weary smile.

"Well, Yong Soo, this is sayonara." Stopping mid-bow, he smirked darkly before turning his back.

The Korean exhaled loudly as soon as he was out of sight, turning on his heel and began his unsteady march back to the hotel.

Kiku, what are you planning, da-ze...?

Thank you for reading! Please review!