It was very late at night in Tokyo City; so late that all the 30 year old Japanese, Chinese woman wanted to do was sleep.
Of course fate had other plans...
As soon as the elevator rang, she walked inside her penthouse, legs almost dragging but before she could even make her way into her bedroom where her wife was probably waiting for her, she heard noise coming from the kitchen.
Fear of a possible enemy breaking into their home, she does not hesitate to pull out a kunai from her sash and as quietly as possible make her way to the kitchen. She stopped and pressed her back against the wall, listening in and trying to peak to see who it was but alas, she could see no one from this angle and all she could hear were cluttering sounds of glass.
Footsteps began approaching and bracing herself, the woman jumped out of hiding and raised her weapon but the sound of a startled scream, and glass shattering made her immediately freeze in her actions.
Using her free hand to look for the light while also making sure to keep her guard up, the woman switches the switch and once the lights turn on, she was taken aback when she saw not an enemy but a little girl, about the age of five, wearing her long black hair in braided frizzy pigtails, as well as purple pjs with a black kitten pattern. She stared at her with her big almond shaped amber colored eyes which were similar to her own as the woman stared back at them.
The two blink at each other, panting, both their hearts racing, clearly in shock before the woman's slight moment of fear turned into fury. "Hamato Amai, you're supposed to be asleep! What are you doing out of bed at this hour?!"
The little girl, Amai, bit her lower lip nervously. "I, um...was waiting for you." The woman sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Amai...do you realize I could have killed you! I thought someone broke in!"
Her daughter hung her head and mumbled, "I got thirsty..." The woman sighed again and looked down at the shattered glass on the floor, knowing she would have to clean it up.
Why could she never just have a peaceful night?
Shaking her head in frustration, she went to grab a dust pan and broom while Amai stood there, waiting, watching as her mother cleaned up the broken glass until her attention was back on her and she held out her hand. "Come on, Amai, I'll take you back to bed."
Amai took the offering hand and allowed her mother to lead her back to her bedroom. It was a big room that was separated by a slide door, so she and her brother could have privacy. However, when they walked in to Amai's side of the room, the woman was not surprised in the slightest to see her five year old son, curled up on her bed, his black locks of hair messed up, as he softly snored. He was wearing black pj's with a skeleton pattern. Amai smiled at him and immediately crawled to lay next to him as her mother tucked her in. "Alright, now I want you to go to sleep and not get out of this bed again, you understand?"
She turned to leave but stopped when, "Wait Mama!" Amai called out and the woman paused to look at her. "Can you tell me a story before bed?"
"A story?" The woman blinked. Usually, bedtime stories were her wife's thing, mostly because they prefer her because she would tell the children scary old mythic tales. Never have any of her children asked for her to tell a story before and now that they have, she was unsure if she could. "You know, I am not good at making up stories, Amai."
Amai frowned, looking disappointed. "Can you try? Please..." The look made the woman's heart twitch, she recognized that look. She had that look many times on her own face when he would disappoint her when she was a child. So, with a sigh, she took a seat at the end of the bed and thought of a story she could tell.
What would her brothers tell their kids? No doubt a whole punch of American fairytails and probably some stories about their adventures when they were young.
An idea came to her head then and she looked at her daughter, feeling hesitant but then with a bit of a smile she said, "Okay, I will tell you a story about an, uh, Princess and...A Dark King..."