A/N: Not mine.

Oizumi Chiyoko had been raised to be a respectful daughter, so she did not comment on her father's heightened color and terse conversation until sorbet was served at the end of the meal. "Father, are you able to share what has you so preoccupied?"

"Preoccupied?" he almost snapped. "A very pretty way to describe an afternoon of extreme frustration."

Oops! Kocho thought and quickly lowered her eyes.

"But Grandpapa," Sahoko spoke, "what could so disturb you?"

"Yes," his daughter continued, "were you not going to make contact today? I thought things were going well with the Irie acquisition."

'Acquisition'? I'll have to remember that.

"And so it would have been, had you females done your part!"

Sahoko gasped and her mother clasped her hand as she tilted her chin. "Father, how can this be our fault? You were supposed to hint to young Irie that such a fine matrimonial choice would not come his way often. Have you, perhaps, lost your delicate touch in negotiation?"

"That young whippersnapper said, 'Thanks, but no thanks' to both the money and my granddaughter…er, granddaughters."

"It must be Kocho's fault," cried Sahoko. "Why did you bring her into all this?"

"Cease your mewling!" he ordered. "She is not the Japanese ideal of a young woman, so she would have done nothing but show you up to advantage."

"Then," Chiyoko carefully folded her hands, "perhaps you might let my niece return to her savage home. If this mistake of yours," she glared at her father, "forces us to retrench, there is no need to spend money on her."

Kocho stood. "Indeed, you have the right of it, Aunt. Considering that I am barely tolerated, and then only as a negative to shine light on Sahoko, I will gladly leave this house. If," she bowed to Oizumi, "you will allow me until the weekend to relocate?"

"Done. And tell your father that everyone in the company will be getting a pay cut in the upcoming year if I cannot find another source of funds with a young heir."

Sahoko pushed back her chair abruptly and ran from the room almost sobbing.

"Did you have to be so blunt?" Her mother rose. "She was quite taken with young Irie."

"Tell her to recall her position in this family and get over him. I have enough on my plate without dealing with histrionics at home." After his daughter swept out, he stared at his elder grandchild. "And why are you still here?"

Inclining her head, Kocho spoke softly, "I am awaiting permission to be excused, Grandfather."

"Hmph! For once you show better manners than your cousin. Wait," he held up a hand before she reached the door, "what did you think of the Iries and the Pandai deal?"

"Do I have permission to speak freely?" After his nod, she said, "The company is sound and would be a good investment, but you went in with a heavy hand."

He frowned and repositioned himself. "Go on."

"Instead of treating them as equals–even though they are the company currently in need–you attempted a covert takeover. Pandai would have brought great profit for Hokuei-sha within seven years."

"Seven–!"

"By my calculations, yes. In addition, by strong-arming them into a personal family merger, you set up their…hackles, so to speak, and made them hesitant to accept what would have been an unfair deal to them."

"Unfair? You yourself would have prospered, even had you not been the heir's chosen bride!"

Kocho laughed. "The 'heir' is currently twelve years old, and by not dealing honestly with the Iries, you have stained the reputation of the Oizumis. Many in Tokyo knew of the negotiations, and the gossip columnists, seeing both of your granddaughters on the arm of Irie Naoki, were able to draw extremely accurate conclusions. What do you think will be the fallout of this in the business papers?"

The old man paled. "It would not…!"

"It might," she approached and placed a hand on his shoulder, "had not I, the unwanted scion of the family, made my own approach and proposal."

"You are to wed the boy?"

"No, to either of them," she scoffed. "I have made a contract with my own funds and shall be part of the restoration of Pandai. At least with an Oizumi in the executive office, our family may be spared a complete smear. However," she now poked the shoulder, "you need to get the other females in line. Whether that means a new marital prospect for Sahoko or a muzzle for both of them, I care not. But if you try to screw up my plans," flames in her eyes exhibited her Oizumi blood, "beware."

"Then you would let our family business fail?"

"No. Show a little bit of the historic Oizumi instincts. If you will treat Father as a true son, I am sure that he will aid you until the market settles."

"Granddaughter, I will consider your words." He looked at her with now-opened eyes. "You have been underestimated by all of us, have you not?"

Kocho shrugged. "In some ways, that can be helpful."

"As you have proved. You do not…have to leave this household."

"Thank you for the offer," she kissed his bald head, "but I believe everyone will be more comfortable if I did. However," she added, "I will be happy to share the occasional meal with my grandfather."

Naoki stood in the doorway of the penthouse apartment as Kocho expressed her thanks to the two men from the Oizumi household who had helped her move her belongings.

"Here is your key fob," he handed the device to her, "as well as a Pandai cell phone. All of the department heads are in the contacts."

"Thanks." She scrolled through the features. "This will save me having to manually add them to my own."

"Why don't I give you a chance to get things organized here the way you like, and then take you out for dinner so there's one less thing to worry about today?"

"Sure!" She flashed him a smile. "Five-thirty should take care of it."

"I'll see you then."

After the dessert was served, Kocho placed a hand over Naoki's. "Okay, you have barely been paying attention to what you ate. What is going through your mind?"

"Sorry. It's just…I'm not sure how to bring up the subject." He offered an apologetic smile.

"Come on," she laughed, "I'm an American and don't need some complicated introduction. Just say it."

"All right. With the chaos in the Oizumi household at the moment, do you think that your father will visit soon?"

"Dad?" She sat back. "He manages well enough doing his OIzumi job remotely. So, I suppose not unless Grandfather asks him–which I have recommended he do."

"I see. Look, there's no easy way to ask this, and, remember, I mean no insult, but in previous conversations you used the plural when referring to your male parent; however, not that I have heard whenever Chairman Oizumi was around. Does he not know that your father is married to another man?"

"Oh." She blinked. "That is interesting. I suppose I felt so comfortable when I was with you that I did not guard my tongue as well as I have been trained. But you must have done a bit of research to ferret that out."

"Not so much," he shrugged, "but it would be foolish to go into a business proposition blindly. I have known since not long after we met."

"And you do not disapprove?"

"Why is it any of my business who your father loves? Although knowing how conservative the elder generation is, I can understand if you don't want it bandied about."

"You are correct. When I first met Grandfather, my dads worked hard to make sure I kept their secret. Small children usually blurt out anything they know, and Dad wanted me to have the opportunity to be a part of the Oizumi family as well as the Saeki family."

"I do not understand why that would be an issue. You are of his blood, even if you have been raised as an American."

"Actually, now that you are not going to take Hokuei-sha money and also know about my fathers, I'd like to tell you about how I joined the family. Do you think we can continue this conversation in my new apartment?"

"Your fathers adopted you? I didn't think that was legal so long ago."

"It wasn't, actually. They fudged a birth certificate for me."

"Holy–!"

"They claimed I was born on one of the Russian islands where Dad and Aoi were reputedly traveling. No one really wanted to mess with that country, so the document was accepted at face value."

"I'm surprised no one has checked on that during the last decade."

Kocho shrugged. "You repeat something enough times, people will accept it as fact. Gossip rags do it all the time. Besides, once it became legal for them to marry, they undertook another adoption and managed to get it sealed."

He leaned back and shook his head. "I think it amazing that a young girl could appear from thin air, with no clue to where she came from."

"My dads showed me the documentation of their search, which," she chuckled, "was more complicated than one might imagine. They only found me when they were in the middle of the Pacific and figured I could have shown up at almost any of the stops they made on a long business trip. Really, they were thorough, because they did not want to deprive anyone of a child."

"Yes," his eyes gazed at nothing, "Mom and Dad had friends whose child disappeared. The parents never got over it."

"And that is what they wanted to avoid. They claimed that month they had the most expensive phone bill, what with calls to Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines… All major pineapple producers who were willing to trade plants to crossbreed. A couple years later we traveled to Central and South America for some more; of course by then the Great Recession had almost ended, but Daddy Dylan loves to experiment with pineapples. Naoki," she waved a hand in front of his face, "you zoned out there for a minute."

"Uh, sorry." He gave a weak smile. "Genetic diversity in plants. Were your fathers successful?"

"Indeed, and I'll have you know that the Butterfly Princess hybrid was created from that first trip." She leaned forward and grinned. "It was named after me. I loved butterflies, probably because of my name."

It wasn't long after that Naoki left, again with an air of abstraction. Kocho was ready for bed herself; she didn't often talk about her childhood before she became an Oizumi and never talked about the conditions of her adoption. She did feel a sense of relief that if someone did have to find out, that it was such a good person as Naoki.