When Usagi got home that day, she couldn't wait to tell her parents all about the exchange program. She knew that with her failing grades, her mother needed something good to look forward to in her academic future, and she figured this would be an opportunity to show her mom she could do well after all. It seemed interesting enough, and she knew she had two other partners (hopefully Mako-chan and Ami-chan!) to lean on. Taking the folded paper from her skirt pocket and looking at it before replacing it again, she opened the door to her house and walked in.

"Tadaima," she called out, slipping off her shoes. Bypassing the living room to climb the stairs to her room directly to drop off her book bag, she happily skipped her way back down.

"Usagi-chan? Is that you?"

"Yep!" Following her mother's voice to the kitchen, her mouth started drooling at the wonderful smells that greeted her.

Tsukino Ikuko stood at the stove, stirring a boiling pot. Turning her head to smile at her daughter, the blue haired woman lifted up a spoon which held a red sauce, blowing carefully onto it. "Come here, dear, and try this spaghetti sauce. Your Papa thinks it's fine, but I think it's lacking something."

Walking forward eagerly, Usagi took the spoon from her mom. "Papa's already home?" she asked, taking a tentative lick. The temperature was bearable, so she took a bigger sample. A nice tangy tomato and herb taste filled her mouth, and she finished off the whole spoon.

"Yes, he is. His magazine let him off early today. So, what do you think?" Ikuko took back her spoon, holding it waist level while waiting for her daughter's answer.

"Well…" Usagi scrunched her face. "I can see why Papa says it's fine, but I think you're right. It is missing something."

A big smile beamed on Ikuko's face. "Of course! I'll make a cook out of you yet. Especially," her mother bumped her with her hip softly as Usagi had come forward to watch her add some more basil, "How you can never get enough food. I swear you have a bottomless stomach."

Usagi sweatdropped. "Mama!" she whined for habit's sake, "I'm a growing girl." Not to mention all the calories I burn fighting youma, she added silently. Hopping up onto the kitchen counter, she balanced carefully with her palms and started idly kicking the cupboards below with her heels. She couldn't stop the soft smile that covered her face. Here, now, sitting in the kitchen and bantering back and forth with her mother like she used to, the young blonde felt almost normal.

Lifting up her right leg to smooth out the school skirt bunched under her, she suddenly remembered the news she really, really wanted to share. Opening her mouth to mention it, she bit back her words before they came out. Tilting her head slightly to the side, Usagi tried to figure out if she wanted to wait to bring it up until dinner. Both of her parents would be there, which would be faster, definitely. But, cringing, Usagi pictured her Papa's reaction. Like Naru, he'd probably automatically think about 'high school boys!'

"Usagi-chan."

Not hearing her mother's warm voice, she wondered what color his face would turn.

"Dear."

Oh, Kami-sama, would he follow her to school?

"Usagi, I think you really should move."

He really didn't own the shotgun he always threatened about, did he? She didn't remember ever seeing it…

Realizing that she wouldn't get any reaction from her daughter any other way, Ikuko sighed and reached for the spatula. When her daughter got lost in a daydream, she really got lost. Without preamble, she whacked her daughter on the head.

"Whoah!" Barking out in surprise, Usagi's hands flew up to her head, rubbing away the prickly sensations that still remained. "Okaa-san," she switched to a more formal tone with shock, "What was that for!?"

Ikuko chuckled softly, hiding it behind her hand. "Dear, if you want to keep your long hair, I'd suggest you pay better attention." She ran a hand lovingly through her own dark blue tresses, proud of the fact that she managed to keep her hair healthy and long all throughout the years.

"What?" Looking down and searching left and right for where her ponytails had landed with her jump, Usagi gasped, "Gah!" She quickly pulled her right ponytail free from the butter. Bundling the rest to her chest while keeping the end hanging free and away from her clothing, she pulled her left one up for good measure and jumped down, running towards the bathroom.

Almost colliding with her father who was on his way to the kitchen, Usagi danced around him with a breathy, "Hi Papa!" and continued on.

Giggling again, Ikuko made sure the sauce was bubbling nicely without her before she looked at the butter with a critical eye. Deciding it was useless, she opened the trash and shook the plate upside down until, with a wet plop, the butter fell in.

Her husband found her opening the refrigerator to grab a replacement stick. Leaning down to see around her what she was doing, Tsukino Kenji had to abruptly backpedal. As she hadn't felt his presence, Ikuko let out a little sound of her own, turning around to find her husband right there.

"Hi hun," Kenji smiled, "It really smells nice in here. Are we having garlic bread as well?"

"You startle me, and all you say is that you want garlic bread? Honestly," Ikuko huffed, smiling back at him anyway. "Why didn't you ask earlier?"

Moving so she could make her way back to the counter, Kenji accepted the stick of butter handed to him. Looking down to make sure he got the least butter on his hands as he could, he unwrapped and placed it on the plate. "Didn't we just have a new stick two days ago? I don't think we eat or use enough butter to need to replace it already…"

"That," Ikuko twisted the knob to turn the burner under the spaghetti sauce to a nice simmering level, snapping another one to start the burner next to it for the spaghetti itself, "Has to do with why your daughter ran out of here."

"Usagi-chan?" Reaching up to adjust his glasses, the tall blackhaired man leant against the same counter his daughter had sat on. He watched the smile on his wife's face, having no idea what could have caused it.

While Kenji rarely ever managed to make it home till right before dinner, he tried his hardest to maintain a good relationship with his family, especially his children. With Shingo, who was still at the age where he was interested in hanging out with his dad and not embarrassed to be seen with him, it was pretty easy to keep up with him. Usagi, however, was a different case.

In the past year, his little girl had suddenly become the teenager her age suggested. Suddenly, she was growing up physically, and, he shuddered, she had become aware of boys. Her grades in school had never been perfect, but they were definitely worsening each month. It seemed like she was never home anymore, and while he was glad that she was making new friends, Kenji couldn't help missing his Little Bunny. Most times, after dinner, she shut herself in her room with her cat. Chance was he wouldn't see her again until the next day's dinner.

Even at dinner, she was always distracted, which she hid badly. She would still talk about her day and eat her food with healthy gusto, but she seemed to be poised on the edge of her seat, like she might have to suddenly get up and run. The only thing he could think of that would distract her so was a boy, and he was NOT ready for some creepy little…

Ikuko interrupted his thoughts by placing the spoon of spaghetti sauce to his lips. "Here, dear, try it now."

Opening his mouth obediently, Kenji couldn't help but reach out and take his own hold on the spoon. While he loved his wife and trusted her implicitly, a hot spoon with potentially boiling sauce near his face still made him nervous. In answer, Ikuko looked up, smiling, not faulting him in the least. They both steered the sample into his mouth. Oh, mmm…. "Wow. I didn't think it could get better, but you did it."

Leaning up to kiss his cheek in thanks, his wife smiled at him, turning back to the stove. "I told you it needed something," she offered over her shoulder.

Wiping his fingers over his lips in case sauce had gotten deposited, the faint taste of butter drew him back to why his daughter had run out of the kitchen. "So, Usagi-chan?" he prompted.

"Oh, hah! Yes." Again, as Kenji drew around to stand next to his wife, she smiled that same smile from before. Accepting the package of spaghetti she pointed at, Ikuko opened it and drew out a handful of noodles. Breaking them in half, then adding them to the boiling water, and then repeating until the whole package was empty, she continued. "She jumped up to sit on the counter over there, where you just were."

Kenji raised his eyebrows; it made him happy to hear that she still did that.

"Well, she wasn't looking... No, probably she just didn't think it was important. Anyway, after talking to her for a while, I turned around and noticed something she obviously didn't." A giggle escaped Ikuko's mouth. "Dear, one of her ponytails was mixing with the butter!"

Kenji quirked a grin, finding himself laughing as well. "That's a lot of hair, isn't it?" he supplied.

"Yes, it was." As if called, Usagi appeared at the entrance to the kitchen again, her voice low. Drawing herself up indignantly, their daughter ruined it by pouting, "And I don't find it funny."

Over half of Usagi's right ponytail was dark with moisture, like she had dunked it in water and hadn't managed to dry it completely. While away from the kitchen, she had also changed from her school uniform. She was now wearing a bright yellow T-shirt with a macramé white bunny on the front with rainbow suspenders attached to well-worn jeans, white with many washings and even a hole in one knee. Taking her in, Kenji realized just how much his daughter had grown up. Last he had really looked at her, she hadn't been so… mature looking.

"Are you planning on going somewhere?" Ikuko asked the question Kenji realized he was also wondering.

"What? No. Of course not!" Shifting on her feet and looking wildly everywhere else but directly at her parents, the young girl looked everything but sincere.

"Ahuh." Eying her, Ikuko interrupted what Kenji was about to say, "Well, I'm actually glad you're dressed like that. Now you can go with Papa to the store to get some garlic spread so we can make our own garlic bread."

"What? Really?" Smiling brightly, his daughter suddenly attached herself to his arm, already tugging him towards the door. "Can we get some sweets, too? Some dessert?"

Chuckling a little, Kenji looked at his wife, who winked at him behind Usagi's back, "If you leave now, I'm sure it won't take you too long. I'll have bread in the oven waiting, when you get back."

"Yes, yes, c'mon, Papa! Let's go!"

"Alright, alright. I'm coming, Little Bunny."

As Usagi managed to fully usher her husband out towards the door, Ikuko smiled at the scene. She knew Kenji was missing hanging out with his daughter, and this seemed a perfect way to orchestrate an impromptu father/daughter trip. And if the food cooled a little before they got back, who cared?

Then, something occurred to the blue haired woman, and she rushed over, poking her head out the door of the kitchen to catch the young girl, who was trying to push her feet into her shoes at the same time she was pulling her jacket on."Oh, Usagi-chan? Just remember, when you ask Papa for next week's allowance, I'm taking out the cost of the butter."

"I-what? No fair!" Usagi spluttered. It was her father's turn to pull her out the door before she could think of a good comeback.

Laughing gaily to herself, Ikuko just hadn't been able to stop herself. Her son, who walked into the kitchen to complain that he had wanted to go to the store as well, looked at her oddly. To wipe the expression from his face, she offered him a taste of the spaghetti sauce.

*

Walking through the opening store doors, the cool gust of air that she sucked towards her at the entrance ruffled her hair, tickling her face and making her shiver. Tucking the dark strands behind her ear, Setsuna paused just in front of the doors, searching with her eyes for the stack of shopping baskets. She was new to the neighborhood and to the store, as her friend had asked her to pick up something for dinner. Maiko would have come with her, but she was babysitting her baby brother, and neither girl wanted to be out in public if he decided to make a tantrum.

Behind her, the doors whisked open again, and another gust of air hit her, now on her back. That tickled in its own way, and with an exasperated sigh, Setsuna took the hair tie from her wrist and swept her dark green hair into a high ponytail. Finally spotting the stack of baskets, partially hidden behind a display of the idol Aino Minako hawking what looked to be an orange drink of some kind, she went over to grab one.

However, as she reached one hand out to grab the handle of the top one, a small, pale hand went for it at the same time. Surprised, and a little miffed, Setsuna eased herself back on her feet and looked up to see who was across from her.

With surprise of her own, a short blue eyed blonde stood there, her mouth partially open."I'm sorry," the girl took a small step back, "I knew you were here first, but I thought I might have had just enough time to grab it before you did."

"What?" Setsuna blinked.

The girl bit her lower lip. "Never mind. Just, uh, you can take it." She made an 'after you' motion.

…Weird. "Okay. Thanks." Grabbing the basket and nodding at the other girl, Setsuna walked forward and around her, heading towards the side of the store.

Her plan was walking aisle by aisle until she found something that would be good to eat. Smirking at the light bulbs and appliances that she first came upon, she knew those wouldn't be edible. She quickly went to the next aisle. She soon got into the process of meandering with a purpose, mentally judging and rejecting or accepting what her eyes processed.

Still, she thought, sliding a couple packages of potato crisps into the basket, the girl did look pretty cute with those rainbow suspenders and oddball hair…