"Daddy?" A soft voice whispered quietly poking Isaka.

"Hm?" Isaka groaned softly.

"Daddy?" The voice whispered poking him again.

"What is it, angel?" Isaka mumbled sleepily cracking one eye open.

"We're going to be late," Sapphire said softly.

"Late for what?" Isaka asked still not fully awake.

"School," Sapphire replied.

At that Isaka bolted upright to look at his alarm clock to find it was blinking 12:00 am. There was thunderstorm last night, so it must have cut out the power.

"Aw Fuck!" Isaka swore before violently shaking Asahina awake "Asahina! We overslept! We've got 30 minutes to get ready!"

"Eh!?" Asahina exclaimed jolting upright before checking his phone before swearing under his breath getting out of bed.

"Swear jar," Sapphire said before walking out of the room watching as her adoptive parents ran around the house turning to get ready for the day ahead. She on the other hand just took out her horror manga and started reading quietly.

"Let's take the car," Isaka said as he hopped around on one foot trying to get his shoes on.

"If we take the back roads we can beat traffic, and make to work on time," Asahina replied as they were out the door.

Soon there were halfway down the road before Isaka said "Sapphire, you've been awfully quiet back there…" Isaka glanced back before doing a double take as he realizes Sapphire wasn't in the backseat.

"Shit! Asahina, we left our daughter at home." Isaka said before Asahina hit the brakes and turn the car around.

Sapphire, on the other hand, was standing at the bottom of the apartment with her backpack and her horror manga in her arms, she had been following right behind her parents as they had forgotten to lock the door, so she stayed behind and locked the door with her key. Sapphire looked back and forth down the street before seeing her parent's car pull up and Isaka getting out looking around frantically for her.

"I'm over here Daddy," Sapphire said before Isaka scooped her up and quickly buckled her into the car.

A few moments later they were pulling up to Sapphire's school, but Sapphire refused to leave the car.

"I change my mind! I don't want to go!" Sapphire cried hugging her knees to her chest.

Isaka, who had prepared for this day, brought out a new jar of candy and said "You can have this entire jar of candy for lunch and maybe you can make new friends that way too."

"Bribing me isn't going to work Daddy," Sapphire said facing away from Isaka.

"I'll make your favorite food for dinner," Asahina said.

Sapphire turn her head slowly. "With the dessert?"

Asahina sighed defeated. "With the dessert."

Sapphire slowly stepped out of the car before holding Isaka hand tightly as the small family made their way to the front office where Asahina signed her in and Isaka finished registering her. The entire time Sapphire practically hide behind Isaka shaking like a leaf, Isaka did his best to calm her down but soon they had to let her go.

"You'll be here on time to pick me up, right?" Sapphire asked softly.

"Don't worry, I'll even come twenty minutes early if I have too," Isaka promised her.

Sapphire hugged Isaka and Asahina tightly before she was led away by one of the teaching assistants. Isaka felt his heartache slightly seeing the scared little girl walk away from him, he felt Asahina place a hand on his shoulder.

"Ryuuichirou-sama, we need to get to work," Asahina said.

"Right," Isaka nodded leaving to the school building.

"These documents need your signature," Asahina said placing four new stapled papers on Isaka desk. Isaka looked up for his laptop before going through the document before he notices the time.

"Hey, did you get lunch?" Isaka asked as he started signing a few pages.

"No, did you want something?" Asahina asked getting up from his desk once again.

"Surprise me," Isaka said waving Asahina off.

Asahina just nodded and left their shared office. Isaka continued to work before his phone vibrated, he looked at the screen to find a message from Sapphire. Isaka quickly unlocked his phone before his mouth curled into a smile. The message was a picture of her all by herself sitting under a tree with her skull candy headphones in. The message read 'I miss you and Dad, can't wait to see you guys later.'

Isaka sighed to himself before his eye caught sight of the photo frame, it was of him, Asahina and Sapphire when she first came to live with them. At the time, she still a bit fragile, but getting stronger. Isaka could still remember the smile she had on her face when she saw her room.

A year ago…

Asahina was driving their new car down through the traffic while Isaka sat in the back seat with Sapphire who was asleep. She was so excited to finally go home with them sleep didn't at all last night, hence when they came to pick her up she fell asleep in Isaka's arms. Asahina gave the pair a small smile before he said quietly "You're a natural Ryuuichirou-sama."

Isaka looked up at Asahina. "I can't believe she's ours."

Sapphire then whimpered softly in her sleep before curling up in Isaka's arms. Isaka started rubbing slow circles on her back which always seem to lure her back to sleep.

"Do you think she'll like her room?" Isaka asked quietly.

"I hope she does," Asahina replied.

They had been preparing for a month to get Sapphire's room ready so she'd feel right at home. Asahina had discreetly asked Sapphire for her favorite colors and interest, then Isaka coordinated with the designer they hired to implement some design choices. Soon Asahina pulled into their apartment complex, and Isaka carefully woke up the sleeping girl.

"Sapphire? Angel? Wake up, we're here." Isaka said softly rubbing the top of her head.

Sapphire slowly blinked her eyes open yawning, Isaka swore his soul left his body when she did that, she was too adorable sometimes. Sapphire started rubbing her eyes as Asahina parked the car before getting out and opening the passenger door letting out Isaka and Sapphire.

Sapphire looked at her surroundings before tightly grasping Isaka's hand. "Where are we?"

"Don't worry, we're in the parking garage," Isaka reassured her as Asahina grabbed her bags from the trunk. The three made their way to the apartment building, the entire time Sapphire was glued to Isaka's side.

"So, this is where we live," Isaka said unlocking the front door before letting Sapphire walk in first so she could explore her surroundings. Sapphire slowly wandered from the living room to the kitchen with Isaka trailing a couple steps behind her before she when into their home office.

"Do you work from home?" Sapphire asked curiously looking around.

"Sometimes but Asahina and I try not to bring work home often," Isaka said.

It wasn't a lie, they used to bring as much work as possible home before staying up until one in the morning to finish it. However, upon adopting Sapphire the pair agree to change their habits to fit her into their time schedule. Isaka was then snapped out of his train of thought by Sapphire climbing into his chair.

"I feel…powerful in this chair," Sapphire said sitting up straighter "I can do anything!"

Isaka chuckled before bowing playfully. "My wish is your command, your royal highness."

Sapphire then looked thoughtful before saying. "I now declare everyone gets free cake now and forever." She burst out into giggles shortly after and Isaka smiled before asking "Hey, would you like to see your room?"

Sapphire nodded ecstatically before grabbing Isaka's hand again as he led her to her new bedroom. Isaka and Asahina decided to convert the only guest room in their apartment into Sapphire's new bedroom, they had discussed moving to a place with more room for a kid but decided against it but they promised to revisit the subject later. Asahina was waiting outside her room with a soft smile before saying "Are you ready?"

Sapphire nodded excitedly as Asahina open the door for her and stood back. The pair watched as Sapphire eyes like up in amazement at her room. The walls were bright red and decorated with black flowers and posters of American horror movies, her bed had a red and black diamond bedspread, she had a bookshelf with all her favorite horror manga's that had been translated into English (The backlog was insane on those), and a desk with a shiny new black laptop and smartphone sitting on the surface.

"This is amazing!" Sapphire exclaimed looking around the room before flopping on her bed with a giggle "It's like a dream come true!"

If Isaka could melt into a puddle he would have done it right the and there, it warmed his heart to see Sapphire so happy after all she'd been through.

"We should take a picture," Sapphire chirped looking up at the both of them. "Please?"

Asahina smiled softly, and Isaka smiled. "Of course, Angel."

Sapphire sat up as Asahina pulled out his phone and turn on the inside camera. Isaka sat down beside Sapphire and Asahina sat on the other side.

"Cheese!" Sapphire smiled brightly. Isaka took one look at the little girl's smiling face before vowing in his head to give her the best life possible so that she'd never frown again.

"She's going to kill us," Isaka said biting his nails nervously. The last print meeting had run a little longer than usual since Isaka had skipped out on the last one, so instead of being early or on time, they ended up being twenty minutes late picking her up from her first day of school.

"Maybe she won't be that angry with us," Asahina said. He was worried as well but as always showed little to no emotion.

"Do you really believe that statement?" Isaka asked giving Asahina a deadpanned look as they finally pulled up to the school. When Isaka didn't get an answer, he looked in the direction that Asahina was staring at only for his heart to sink. Sapphire was stand alone at the gate of the school with her uniform and hair a mess, a scraped knee, tightly clutching her horror manga to her chest, but what caught Isaka's attention was her red-rimmed eyes. She had been crying and from the looks of it quite a while too. Isaka had gotten out of the car so fast he didn't even realize Asahina was still parking.

"Sapphire?" Isaka questioned.

Sapphire snapped her head towards Isaka before rushing over to him hugging his waist tightly. "Daddy!"

Isaka kneeled to hug her hearing soft sniffles. "Angel, I'm so sorry we're late. What happened to you?"

"I wanna go home," Sapphire whimpered.

Isaka felt his heart shatter into a million pieces at her tone, she so small and scared. "Alright Angel, it's ok I'm here now, come on."

Isaka led her to the car before seeing the worried look on Asahina's face at the state of their child. Isaka carefully laid her down in the back seat before they drove silently back to the apartment. When they got inside Sapphire immediately went to her room and closed the door, leaving Isaka and Asahina to worriedly speculate.

"What do think happen to her today?" Asahina asked as he got out the disinfectant and first aid kit.

"I don't know, she seemed fine around lunch time," Isaka sighed to himself secretly starting to blame himself for not showing up on time as he made Sapphire comfort food I an effort to get her to relax and open up.

"Hopefully she'll won't want to be alone for two long," Asahina said as the pair soon made their way to her door.

Asahina knocked softly on the door. They receive a muffled "come in." from their daughter, the pair walked into the room to find her on her bed hugging her knees to her chest. At this point the both knew the drill, Asahina worked on cleaning her scraped knee, and Isaka tried to convince Sapphire to eat something. Sapphire only at a few bites of what Isaka prepared before saying quietly she had a headache and wanted to lie down. The two doting parents obliged her, Asahina setting out her comfortable house clothes and Isaka setting her bear next to her before quietly leaving the room.

Isaka let out a heavy sigh. "I hope when she feels better she'll tell us about what happen at her school."

"Give her a little time Ryuuichirou-sama," Asahina said softly "She'll tell us in the end."

"Yeah," Isaka said looking back at her door feeling his heartache, hopefully, Sapphire would come out and talk to them soon.