More deleted scenes from puppy. I decided to do a chapter abotu Nastasumi. For those who forgot, that's Mikan's mother, and her interaction with people, her problems and her past.

Nastasumi Tanaka had never been with what she called her girl friends. She had those wild women her made up her life when she lived in New york, and there was the trio of ladies in town when they had lived on the farm, she had never called them her girlfriends.

They were ladies she simply happen to hang out with, get drunk with, and have petty fights and good gossip. They weren't exactly there when she needed them, she was always just on the outside.

She didn't mind it, because her mother had taught her well. How to get along with only yourself and how to look the part of the socialite, the woman everyone wanted to be around. Oh yes, her mother had trained her well, except on how to get them to let her in. They liked her for her parties or when she would suggest a good place to eat, but-she always felt she was skimming the surface.

Then she got famous, she had more money than she knew what to do with, and she could afford her dream house, to board her horses and run a small fee for everybody else.

That's when she got serious girlfriends. The first was her, well she would call her bestfriend in a heart beat, the twins mother, Yuzhua. A most complicated woman, who when she wasn't calling her up to get first dibs on creating her next oufit so she get the free turn to show off her newest themed inspiration, was worrying about her sons.

The twins, from what Natasumi understood, governed themselves and always haved, though she highly doubted that Yuzhua had been much of the motherly figure. Her own mother had never been there when she was in the cradle.

"You need to have this hemmed." She clucked her tounge tugging on her black pant leg.

"Hem this. Hem that." Natasumi mimicked, "I'm surprised you haven't had your fingers replaced with a needle and thread."

"Trust me I would if the operation was particle." She shrugged as she ran a hand through her short cropped hair, picking up her double decaf coffee with so much cream it might as well have been milk.

"I don't understand your appeal of fashion." Tahna stirred her own glass slowly. She was the sho and jun's teacher. Natasumi originally taken pity on the woman since her sons must have driven around the bend, but she had a rod of steel that made them heel.

She was a very sensible woman, having come to Japan in order to fulfill her dream of teaching students. She apparently, as far as Natasumi was concerned, had been part of some Russian intelligence group, and was now in retirement.

It was like something out of her books, actually it wasn't a half bad plot as she pulled out the pad and took down a few notes.

"It was something I was born with.' Yuzhua dramtically raised a hand to the air, "Besides Azami completely see's my point."

Azami, the last member of their tight circle. Natasumi knew all about her, she had been Mrs. Ootori for a long time, before she left her husband and adopted her original surname.

She had long jet-black hair that she kept pulled back with invisible weave, often times very ornate chopsticks or a band. She often wore tight, form fitting clothes, they were dark in color, but not ugly. Yuzhua loved her fashion calling somewhere stuck between the traditional and modern.

Natasumi liked her as well. She was soft spoken, but most of her gestures were through her cool gaze of her eyes. She wondered if it was were Kyoya picked up the skill, from her daughter's stories, she had never seen the 'shadow lord' in action.

Together they made the coffee club and each week it was something different, something smothered in drama and gossip. This week, she wasn't really sure what it was this week. Yuzhua was usually the one with news.

"So, tell us Natasumi-did you finally an editor that will that you drive them into the ground?' Azami asked coolly, interrupting some thrilling tale about the wrong fabric five minutes before the show.

Natasumi did not have a good history with her editors as she shrugged, "I've been my own editor, but my agent swears she's found a man that can rival me-"

"Oh rival." Tahna nudged her in the side, as she shifted her legs and tore of another piece of her pastry, "Do tell. Is he handsome? Good family?"

"is he married?" Azami pushed as she blew across her own mug of black coffee.

"Oh an affair." Yuzhua nodded as Natasumi rolled her eyes.

"I have no idea." She answered as she sipped her own glass of herbal tea, as she dumped another sugar packet in, "But she did send a photo-" she pulled out the snap shot. It was a horrible photograph, half blurred.

"She said, he sent it with his resume when he heard she had been looking for someone to fill the last editor's place." Natasumi sipped at the tea again, "I know he has brown hair and is English-"

'Wasn't your last husband English?" Azami sipped quietly as Natasumi shook her head no.

"He was American as they come." She answered, as she took another gulp, "Perhaps my mother will approve of an Englishman more."

"Mother's never approve." Azami said almost bitterly, as she took another sip of her mug, clenching it with her well polished nails, "But enough about this mystery man-tell us about your new project."

"Well I was hoping to do something I started a long time ago with my first husband. A fantasy novel, again, but I'm trying to make it more adult-" She waved her hand.

"He pressed her throbbing chest to his glistening abs-" Yuzhua began, as she made hard gasping sounds, "As she moaned from the swollen-"

"No." Natasumi cut her short as Tahna suddenly began to laugh, shaking their table.

"That is very funny." She took another sip as Natasumi glared.

"No-no' She tried to stop them, but it stuck and she had to wait for the conversation switched again before she managed to explain what she had meant by adult. In the end it didn't stick and they grew bored switching again to what Azami was doing these days.

"Sponsoring small independent shops." She shrugged, "It is nothing much, but I'm hoping to create a small chain of them, with their owners pledging loyalty to me and then developing certain areas."

She was a real estate woman at heart, and it was always some new plan to develop an area. She always made way for the independents, the one she liked the most and most blossomed under her excellent business sense.

Azami, was perhaps the one Natasumi could confide in the most about her personal life. They both knew what it meant to loose it all, to be left heartbroken, and have to sacrifice everything to get it all back. She never tells the other two that, she liked the comfortable setting their group had.

"Well ladies-" Tahna stood up as she grabbed her purse, "I have exactly 40 papers to grade before Monday, so I will see you again next week."

"I have a meeting at five." Yuzhua stood up next, as she grabbed the rest of her coffee, "Choi!"

"Bye." Natasumi waved until it was just her and Azami. They sat in the silence, before Azami began again.

"So you like my idea?" She asked.

"Yeah. I like it." Natasumi shrugged, "I'm not one for real estate."

"Not many people are.' She answered, "It will be nice. How is your daughter doing? Mikan?"

"She's well." Natasumi answered as she sighed, "Hair ripping fustrating sometimes."

"Ah. I know the feeling." Azami answered, "My daughter calls me all the time, mom we had another fight, do I cave first? Its hard giving her advice, when I don't have the best history."

"How long has she been married?"

"A year." Azami shrugged, 'It was an excellent match. She is very happy, but my daughter was the most clever. My sons-blood thirsty sharks-but I don't hear from them."

"Trust me. No news is good news." Natasumi answered as she stared at her tea, 'How is Kyoya?"

"He is-difficult. We still meet for lunch, but his father has pushed him farther. It is all about honor, which I understand, but it makes me sick sometimes." Azami answered as she leaned back." He is becoming a much better person than he was in middle school."

"I know. Kagame-drives me mad." Natasumi shook her head, "I think she's found a boy though."

"That is good. What is his name?" Azami asked as she crushed her empty cup.

"She won't tell me, but she's raised the bill by making six international calls a day to New York City. Some restraunt called Period."

"Is it serious?" Azami cocked her head to the right.

"Kagame-its hard to tell, but she's never called a boy this many times." She answered, as she traced the design on the table.

"Ah." Azami smiled, as she glanced at her watch, "I must be going as well, see you on Wednesday for lunch?"

"Yes.' Natasumi nodded, as she grabbed her own bag, 'Until then. Time to survive another week."

"We can do it. I have a feeling it will be Sunday again very soon." Azami answered as she set off down the block. Natasumi hoped she was right, she liked when time passed quickly, when she had a break from her life, when she could confide in somebody.

so I took some liberties, since we never see Kyoya's parents except his father, so I figured his wife divorced him early on. Creative liberties.