"Misaki, where have you been?" the raven haired woman asked, placing her hand on the kitchen counter sternly.
"Why do you care?" the nine-year-old Misaki asked. "You never cared about me back then, so why now?"
"Misaki, don't be difficult with me—"
"This is none of your business. Leave me alone," she hissed, attempting to walk smoothly past her. Her mother, Minako Ayuzawa, grabbed her arm, preventing her from walking further.
"You don't need to help." she said. Misaki gritted her teeth. Her mom found out about her part-time job.
"Yes I do."
"No, you don—"
"I DO! I'm not going to let Dad take care of everything on his own!" Misaki exclaimed. "If you're not going to help, I have to at least! Where do you think all your alcohol money is coming from? Money doesn't grow on trees you know!"
Minako froze from her sudden outburst.
"I'm leaving. I can't stand this place." she snapped, shaking her mother's hand off her arm. She ran to the front door and left the house, closing the door with a loud slam.
"Mom…I'm sorry…" Misaki mumbled, a tear escaping her eye.
"Misaki! Misaki, wake up!" Sakura exclaimed, tapping her on the shoulder. Misaki snapped her eyes open, and only at that point did it become evident that she had been crying. Sakura gasped. "Omigosh, are you okay?!" she cried.
"Y-Yeah," Misaki sniffed. "I'm fine." she said. Sakura wasn't convinced.
"I'm worried about you Misaki," she said gently. "And to top it all off, I'm even more worried about how Takumi is going to react…" she shuddered. Misaki looked confused.
"React? React about what?" she asked. Sakura laughed nervously.
"We're late for breakfast—err, brunch. Well, he wouldn't care if I was, but you…"
Misaki blinked once. Twice. Only now did she realize that Sakura was a human, meaning that…
"IT'S AFTER NOON ALREADY?!" she screamed. The pink haired girl nodded in affirmation. Since they all transformed into humans at noon, breakfast started at noon as well—since objects couldn't eat and all.
"I'm so sorry Misaki! I slept in! I didn't hear the alarm go off, I'm so, so sorry!" Sakura apologized, clasping her hands together and kneeling beside her bed. Misaki waved her off.
"It's not your fault. I should've heard the alarm!" Damn it, damn it, damn it! Just when I thought that maybe we could get along! Shit!
Suddenly, Misaki's stomach let out the most embarrassing and horrifying noise. It was only expected, after all, she'd skipped dinner yesterday…
"Well…it's never too late to go down, right?" Sakura offered.
-o-
"Good morning!" Sakura cheered, waving at everyone. They were all already seated at the dining table.
"Morning," Misaki greeted, hoping that they didn't notice they were late.
"I believe you mean good afternoon."
Everyone was silent. It was unmistakably Takumi who said that. So he is mad.
Misaki sat down at the table across from Takumi, and in-between Satsuki and Ruri. She awkwardly stole a glance at Takumi, and needless to say, it didn't take a genius to figure out he was mad.
Misaki cleared her throat and faced Satsuki.
"Got any plans for today?" she asked in an attempt to make small talk. She watched as Satsuki threw a dirty glare Takumi's way and practically forced herself to turn away from Misaki. Utterly confused, she turned to Ruri.
"What's going on?" she whispered to the little girl. Ruri's orange eyes watered as she gave Takumi a pleading look.
"Taku—"
"Be quiet." he commanded sternly. Her pouted lip quivered as she gazed at her brother, Yukimura, for assistance. He patted her head comfortingly but didn't speak either.
Misaki glared at Takumi. "Why is everyone ignoring me?" she demanded. He shrugged nonchalantly, stuffing his mouth with the omelette rice almost as if only for an excuse to not talk to her.
Misaki stood up abruptly, successfully capturing everyone's attention. "Fine then. If you want to pretend like I don't exist, then I'll just leave."
And with that, Misaki bit back any extra rude remarks and purposely dragged her chair out more instead of pushing it in. She walked away, flipping her hair over her shoulder indignantly as she did so, her feet not all too gentle against the marble flooring. Takumi took notice of this—hell, everyone did, which was why Kuuga and Tora were trying so hard to hold back their laughter at her acts of disrespect. This girl seriously had to hold a record for pissing off Takumi the most within a week's time.
"Misaki, wait!" Sakura called, jumping up and running after her. Obviously, Takumi couldn't scold her for taking to Misaki, since she was late to breakfast as well and hadn't heard his previous instructions.
"Takumi, you're really a jerk sometimes," Erika hissed, her eyes narrowing at him. He furrowed his brows.
"She was late."
"That doesn't give you a reason to completely hurt her feelings like that!" Maria said. "Gosh, hurry up and apologize!" she commanded. Takumi stubbornly set his spoon down and stood up.
"I'm going back to my room. Lost my appetite." he said curtly, pushing in his chair and turning to leave. As he walked away, he overheard Ruri talking to the others.
"I bet he made Misa-nee-chan cry!" she huffed. Takumi couldn't help but feel a pang of hurt in his chest as he imagined Misaki crying because of him. I really did go too far, didn't I?
The blonde prince glanced back at the table, making sure nobody saw him as he took a quick detour.
-o-
"Misaki," he called. No sounds were heard. He tried knocking on her room door. Still no sounds. What if something happened to her? he thought. I wouldn't care. I shouldn't care. I just need her because she's the replacement rose…right?
He gripped the doorknob of her room door and twisted it slightly to find that it was unlocked. Well, he did tell her to keep it unlocked at all times in case of emergency, though knowing her personality he wasn't really expecting her to actually follow his rules.
Slowly pushing the door open, he instantly freaked out a little on the inside when she wasn't anywhere to be found. She wasn't on her bed, at her desk, or on the floor anywhere visible. As far as he could tell, the bathroom door was open and the lights were off so she couldn't be in there.
He barged into the room for a better look. As soon as he spotted her in the corner of the room—asleep on Sakura's shoulder—he let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding. Sakura was, of course, sitting right beside her. She gave him a smirk, as if she had just walked in on something she shouldn't have.
She mouthed "Come here," and so Takumi took a few steps forward over to where they both sat. Sakura gently lifted Misaki's head off her shoulder and scooted over slightly, gesturing for Takumi to sit down.
"What? But I don't—"
"Shh," she quickly shushed him, pressing her index finger to her lips. "Sit." She whispered. Takumi grumbled something under his breath before complying. To his surprise, Sakura then let go of Misaki's head and allowed her to rest on Takumi's shoulder now.
"Have fun!" she whispered softly, taking great care in not waking the girl. She wouldn't want to ruin such a perfect moment and opportunity.
Takumi sighed as the pink haired girl ran out of the room and closed the door gently. He then turned his attention towards the girl leaning on his shoulder. This was the second time already he was so close to her.
Observing her face closely, he couldn't help but frown. She'd obviously been crying, for her cheeks were still tear-stained. Maybe Ruri was right—he did make her cry. For some reason, just the mere thought of him causing her pain made him angry. Angry at himself.
Feeling suddenly exhausted, Takumi allowed his head to lean against hers. He heard Misaki make a small sound in her sleep, but she didn't wake up luckily.
His eyelids felt heavy, and so he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
-o-
When Misaki woke up, the first thing she noticed was the pain in her neck, and the pressure on her head. She opened her eyes groggily, trying to recall what had happened before she'd fallen asleep.
Let's see…I fell asleep on Sakura's shoulder, and then I had a dream—no…nightmare about Mom.
She suddenly noticed a blonde lock of hair falling into her face. Probably from Sakur—hold up, Sakura doesn't have blonde hair.
Misaki gently lifted the person's head up as she sat up and stretched her legs outward. She gasped in shock and placed both her hands over her mouth when she realized who it was beside her. Takumi.
Unfortunately, since Misaki let go of his head, he woke up from the sudden disappearance of his "pillow".
"Misaki?" he asked. She blinked twice, unsure of what to do. Hadn't he been mad at her not too long ago?
"Um yeah, it's me," she said. Glancing up at a clock on the wall, she saw that it was 2pm as of now, so they couldn't have been asleep for more than an hour and a half, max.
"Good morning," he said. She felt her heart flutter ever so strangely as he said those words to her. Gosh Misaki, stop getting so worked up! It was a simple greeting!
"I believe you mean good afternoon," she mocked like the smartass she was. She laughed at her comeback, though he looked almost hurt by it. "You okay? It was a joke." She told him.
"I…" he started. "I, uh, I apologize for earlier." He managed to say. She laughed at how hard it was for him to apologize. Such words were foreign to him. "Why are you laughing?" he inquired.
"You apologize strangely," she snickered, playfully flicking him on the forehead. He caught her wrist in his hand almost immediately. Ah. Right. I forgot that we're not really close yet…
"Don't touch me."
"Sorry…" she murmured as he released her wrist. "I-I used to uh…nevermind." I used to do that to my sister, was what she wanted to say, but she didn't want him to ask about her past. She didn't want him to know more about her than he should.
"You used to?" he beckoned. Misaki cleared her throat awkwardly.
"I used to bake chocolate chip cookies," she changed the subject so very smoothly. He raised an eyebrow.
"What does that have to do with anything," he asked, although he didn't phrase it as much of a question.
"Haha, just a fun fact?" she offered. She was never a very good liar—a trait she'd inherited from her father. Suzuna, on the other hand, was an amazing liar—a trait inherited from her mother. Her mother lied a lot. Many more times than she could even count. Her mom was good at lying indeed, she just did it so often that it was extremely suspicious. She would lie about where she was all night especially. Misaki remembered eavesdropping on many conversations where her mom would tell her dad that she was out visiting her parents, or working late—which was an obvious lie since she didn't even have a job—and her father would believe it. Misaki wasn't sure if he just let her lies slide, or if he actually believed them. Maybe he really wanted to believe they were true even though he knew well they weren't.
"Hmm. Maybe you should bake them sometime. I'd like to try them." he interrupted her thoughts. Misaki's eyes were wide in surprise at his response. He actually wanted to taste them? Well, better not tell him that she couldn't cook or bake at all then…
"Yeah, maybe," she said half-heartedly. Honestly? She couldn't even boil a pot of water without burning it. She couldn't toast a piece of bread without setting her toaster on fire. She couldn't put salt in her food without ruining all the flavor. Get the gist? Yeah, she's pretty bad at cooking.
"I'm returning to my room now. I'll send Sakura back up." he informed her, getting up with a groan.
"Ah, wait," Misaki called. He turned around and gave her a questioning look. "Thank you for…y'know, lending me your shoulder," she said.
At that moment, Takumi flashed her the brightest smile she'd ever seen on his face—not that he smiled much in the first place, but this was one of those heart-stopping grins that could make any girl fall for you. Yeah, that smile.
"You're welcome."