I.

They had forgotten…

'Damn'.

Jake thought to himself flatly as he slipped into the over-sized suit his mother had bought for him on his thirteenth birthday. He had been intrigued to see if Haley would be willing to go with him; she being so busy with her new dance instructing classes lately; and was so genuinely taken aback to see that she had left early that morning to ride up with their parents to the hospital for an ultrasound. Jake had been even more taken aback that his own mother and father had not remembered his birthday. It was the 27th of this month.

How could they not have!.?

They had always been the ones to wake him up early, they had always been the ones to make a big deal over it and they had never, ever forgotten or gotten the dates messed up. A rare feeling of moisture touched Jake's brown eyes as he polished his brown leathered shoes and, without once checking himself in the mirror, went downstairs to see if they'd left him a note again. The teen had fallen fast asleep over his studies and had not done a thing. However, when Jake arrived downstairs he noticed something far more interesting.

His recently trimmed black hair was level with the middle of the refrigerator.

OoO

Sun checked her thin wrist to see what time it was. It had always been so frustrating to try and find a watch that wouldn't be too cold against her skin, or slip around. People would naturally assume a dragon with cool scales wouldn't mind it; but there was still part of her that cried out to hold on to her humanity whether she be a beast or not. That was another thing Sun Park had always dealt with; the struggle of whether she was a woman or animal.

Suddenly, a man who could have been in his mid-to-late twenties entered the tea shop. It was comforting to her to see someone who resembled her ethnicity. Whether he be of her Korean descent or not, Sun always loved seeing Asian-resembling people walking around the New York populace. That was something else she craved seeing; a diversified big city.

As the seconds ticked by, Sun Park began growing more worried over Jake and Haley.

"Sun Park?" a deep, slightly hoarse voice inquired.

The thirty-four-year-old woman looked up and saw that the twenty-something man from before was giving her a quizzical look. She drew back as he approached her further as if he were just a casual friend. The man was good-looking enough, with a boyish face and cutely untailored navy blue suit. Sun humored him as he scraped out a chair and sat down coolly.

"May I help you?"

"It's me, Sun." He grinned and revealed a pair of slightly sharp white teeth.

Her face fell. "Jake?"

"Yeah," his grin widened, a little flirtatiously. "Um," normalcy overtook his fun expression. "where's Grandpa?" Sun Park didn't say a single word as he placed his arms on the table and laced his fingers together like any other older young man. "I couldn't bring Hales Sun."

"Your grandfather," She swallowed hard. "Is planning your inauguration."

"Oh," Jake's sly grin reappeared on his face. "So it's just the two of us then?"

An easy smile slipped across her own. "Yes," she told him calmly. "I guess it is just us."

OoO

Jake felt his smile lasting longer then ever when he went to the bathroom to freshen up. It had been a breeze of a time talking with Sun Park. In the six months since Jake's first visit ever to Hong Kong, he had explored every archive of online databases possible in search of trivia and topics that he and Rose could discuss. And, in the beginning, she had been all for Jake's relentless pursuit of finding topic-worthy conversation. But time and events in both their lives had caused a gradual decrease in visits and even phone calls and e-mails.

However, Jake was finding it exceptionally easy to speak with Sun about everything.

The way her light, almond-brown eyes would sparkle with elder interest in his stories and how she would fill in missing pieces to Jake's occasional cut-off in sentences. It had been three hours into their initially surprised meeting, and the spark of interest that Sun and he had taken to one another hadn't diminished. In a way, Jake was slowly figuring out what was going on. He was getting older and more interested in important topics, and she was seeing his enthusiasm as a way to stay linked to her youth. For Jake, it wasn't a big deal.

They were friends. If they became closer, that was fine.

When he walked out again Jake saw that a look of discomfort had settled onto her face.

This quickly reminded him of the time Rose had been dumped by Brad and he quickly made his way over to her, knowing that he wasn't just thinking about himself and his own wants this time. Sun Park's eyes didn't rise to meet his when Jake retook his place in front of her.

A shine of tears was filming them and he instinctively reached over so that he could place his hand on her arm. Surprisingly, Sun withdrew from his touch wordlessly. Jake blanched.

"I think this visit needs to come to an end," she said abruptly and stood up.

"At least let me pay for the check." Jake insisted.

"No," the woman said with a hint of coldness in her tone, flipping up a debit card with a flick of her wrist. Jake became immediately attuned to her womanly actions. "You're just a kid." her eyes were hollow and sad for a brief moment. "I'll pick up the tab, you run along."

"I may be young," Jake replied assertively and stood up tall. "But I'm no kid."

Sun Park planted her hands together, card in fingers, and gave a little bow. "Good-bye."

"Sun!" He called after her as she hurried away, paid quickly and flew out the front door.

His dark eyebrows drew together, hurt.

OoO

Sun Park couldn't run into an alleyway fast enough to transform. What had just happened here? She had not felt such a strong connection like this since her break off from Charles eight years earlier. She thought it was over and done with. Miss Park thought she'd never feel such a strange attraction for another human being again - and not with a young boy!

Tears of anger and guilt spilled from her eyes as she changed in a flash.

She rose over the buildings of New York and quickly headed in the direction of Lao shi's shop. The man had to know. This was something Sun Park needed to bring quickly to his immediate attention so he could intervene and make things right. He would make sense out of this. Surely. It wasn't as if she had robbed some bank, she had just spent the last three hours becoming mortally attached to someone twenty years younger then herself. It was not such a sin if you tried to redeem yourself. Sun Park had read of these things before.

What made her different now was that she was going to get help right away.

"I'm fine." the dragoness muttered to herself calmingly. "Everything's fine."

"Sun." A voice said from beside her.

Automatically, her eyes turned over to meet a large, well-toned red dragon.

"I didn't get a chance to tell you my favorite part about Hong Kong." Jake smiled at her.

When she gazed out onto the horizon, a grand pink and orange-blazed sunset beckoned to them. The woman was tense at first, even on the edge of hysterical, but with Jake coming closer to her the bad feelings began to melt away. Without one word or accusation, as if it all came naturally for him, Jake held out his clawed hand for her. Comforted, she grasped it. A sense of peace and harmony flowed between the two as they flew through twilight night.

To be continued…

A/N: Now, you've gotta remember. It's been two months since Jake and Rose have been together and Jake is going through major changes. What'll happen? Just wait and see! ^^

LP