"Izumi? Izumi!" Sakura calls in the house. Kioshi looks around, worry plastered on his face. The parents were scared. The rest of the Foxes had come over with rented cars and had split off into two and went off to search for her in the area.

It had began to rain, seeing as the news had told them that there was an approaching storm earlier. "She didn't even have a rain coat! What if she gets sick?! What about her cuts and bruises and-"

A knock interrupts Sakura and she hurriedly answers the door to find Riki and Angel standing there with the rest of the Foxes, Riki carrying Izumi. Tears of relief fill Sakura's eyes and she grabs Izumi from Riki's arms.

"Izumi! Oh god, we were so worried. Where did you go?!" she said frantically, holding her daughter closely. Mica steps up, holding a little ball of fluff in her arms. "I think I can answer that."

"Buttercup!" Kioshi rushes forward to take the dog but the dog wriggles from him. Pouting, Sakura laughs with tears in her eyes, giving Izumi to Kioshi before picking up the wet dog. "Where did you find her?"

"She was a few blocks from here." "Thank you so much, guys. I really appreciate this." she smiles, looking at Izumi for a brief moment.

"No problem, she's basically our niece now anyway. It's our job to take care of her." Kenshi beams, wrapping an arm around Olivia, who was wearing, presumably, the brunette's jacket. "I'm sorry for suddenly calling you here for this. It was raining too."

"Just be happy she wasn't... ahem, taken, you know?" Riki said, and the entire group of thieves nod. "Well, Angel and I need to head back to our room, she can't skip dinner. She is eating for two, you know?"

"Yeah, the stress from Su there got me," Atsumu sighs with a kind smile to the little girl. "I'm heading back, are you coming, Ceci?"

His wife nods and waves goodbye to the couple and Izumi before heading into their car. "Bye, Sakura. Take care of Izumi and Kioshi. Who knows what'll happen next?"

"Thanks, Angel. See you soon." 

"Well, we better be on our way as well," Mica grins, running a hand through her dark, highlighted mane. "We'll see you at our group picnic on Saturday. Let's go, guys. We need to let them rest."

The rest of the couples nod. Olivia, Kenshi, Takuto, Samantha, Hiro and Mica leave the porch and climb into their own cars, Sakura waving until they drove away. Closing the door, Sakura grabs Buttercup's towel from the carpet, where she left it.

The couple have been leaving the dog outside in her own doghouse, coming out to feed her. Wrapping Buttercup in the towel and placing her down, Sakura turns to Izumi.

"Now you, where did you go?" She asked, hands on her hips. Kioshi placed his daughter down, who was drenched from the rain. "I chased the puppy! He seemed lonely!"

"Izumi!" Sakura raised her voice slightly. "Don't do that ever again! You could've been taken from us! You could've been killed. Do you know how much you scared us?"

Izumi lowered her head, tears slightly showing in her eyes. Kioshi knelt down to the girl's level with kind eyes as he saw that his fiancee was shaking tears in her eyes as well.

"Don't run away again, okay?" Kioshi said kindly, hand trembling as he stroked her drenched hair. "We could've lost you."

"Okay..." she muttered in a tiny voice, falling into her father's arms. Kioshi extends a hand to Sakura, who fell into his arms with Izumi, covering her face. Izumi tried to peek at her mother's face but Sakura had hugged her daughter.

"Don't do that again... I don't want to lose my princess... What's a king and queen with no princess, right?" Sakura smiles, pulling away to look at her. Izumi nods, tears still in her eyes as she sniffles. "O-Okay... "

~*****~

"Let's go, Izumi! It's time for your first day at school!" Kioshi excitedly bursts into Izumi's room after a soft knock. He didn't find the young girl in bed but she was already up and took a shower. She was brushing her now dry hair.

"Morning, daddy!" Izumi greeted, placing her hairbrush down. She grabbed a few clips to put in her hair but Kioshi stopped her. "Mommy's coming to style your hair and help you into your uniform."

"Hai!" Kioshi smiles and gives the little girl a kiss on the head before walking out, only to have Sakura come in a few moments later. 

"Daddy's preparing your lunch and breakfast. I'll be taking you to school and we'll go from there." Sakura said, opening Izumi's closet. "Oh, before I forget..."

Sakura pulls out an MP3 from her pocket, along with earphones. "This is for you. I spoke to the principal and he said that there's free time everyday for an hour so if you get bored, just listen to music here. The buttons are direct so hopefully you'll know how to work that thing."

Izumi stares at the gadget with great fascination. "This is mine...?" "Yup! You're taking it to school so you have something to listen to or anything if needed." "But what if I lose it?" "Mm, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Anyway, just put this on and I'll come help you with your tie in a minute. Make sure to wear shorts under your skirt!"

She hand Izumi a pink skirt, pink cardigan and white sailor-style blouse along with a pair of white, knee high socks. Sakura steps out to quickly change into clothes before stepping back in to see Izumi dressed, slightly struggling with her socks.

"Need some help?" she giggled, kneeling down to help her adjust the socks. "Did you put on your shorts?" "Hai!"

"Good girl. Let's get your tie on and fix your hair, ne?" Sakura lead the young girl to the vanity in the corner. Sitting her down on the small stool ottoman, Sakura moved to tie the tie around her daughter's neck before fixing the collar of her blouse.

Moving behind her, Sakura quickly grabbed her hairbrush and combed through her hair gently once more. Placing a few strands and her fringe in front, Sakura clipped back the rest of Izumi's hair with flower barrettes.

"There! You look very pretty, princess." she smiled and Izumi grinned back. "Let's go, mom! Dad's waiting for us downstairs!" Grabbing her mother's hand, Izumi trotted downstairs, mother in tow.

"There you are. I thought you were skipping breakfast." "Waffles!" Izumi's eyes sparkled as she took a seat, immediately taking one waffle from the serving on the table, covering it in maple syrup. "There's blueberries, too!"

"You still need to be healthy after all." Kioshi chuckled. "Anyway, you have some ramen and rice balls for lunch. We packed you a few small pastries and a juice box. Is that enough?"

"What's ramen?" Izumi asked with a smile. "My old mom always told me it was from Japan. And my name is from there, too!"

"It's a kind of noodles. It's very good. Rice balls are like sushi but not like it. You'll find out later, I promise." Sakura said, eating her own food. 

"Okay!" Izumi replied, swinging her feet under the table happily as she finished up her food.

~*****~

"Here we are! Hibiya Elementary." "Let's go!" Izumi dragged both of her parents out but Kioshi shook is head. "Sorry, princess. Daddy's late for work, okay? I'll bring you tomorrow, I promise."

"Okay..." she mutters, a bit depressed before leaving with a small smile and kiss to her father's cheek. "I'll see you tonight. Sakura, I'll pick her up."

"You sure?" "Yeah, I have an early leave for my shift today. I'll call you if anything happens."

"Okay, bye." Kioshi leaves after sharing a kiss with Sakura and the baker smiles gently at her daughter as they walk to the principal's office. "Hello? Mr. Houro?"

"Yes? Oh! You must be Ms. Sumiko, right?" "Yes, this is my daughter. Izumi Su Tsukino. Say hi-"

"Hello, Mr.!" Izumi waves excitedly, sitting down next to her mother after the headmaster gestures to the chair. "Hello, Izumi." he chuckles, leaning forward as he opened a jar, pulling out a sweet. "Would you like one?"

Izumi looks to her mother, who only beams at her and Izumi shyly takes it from the man with a smile. "Arigato!" She opened the candy and immediately popped it into her mind, happily savoring the sweet taste.

"But anyway, Tsukino, Izumi Su... She will be placed in Mr. Hisoka's class, class A 3-1. I look forward to see how intelligent your girl is, Ms. Sumiko."

"Thank you, Houro-san." she bows her head and turns to her daughter. "So follow Mr. Houro and he'll take you to your class. I'll come pick you up after school, okay?"

"Hai! Sayonara, mama!" "Sayonara!"

~*****~

"Here we go, Izumi. Just knock and step in, I need to go so I'll check in later, okay?" the principal smiled brightly.

Knocking politely after waving goodbye to the principal, the young girl steps in once the teacher opens the door and beckons her in. "Konnichiwa." she waved, standing at the front of the class.

The chatter dies down and children who looked to be her age, all stare at Izumi, the girl smiling back. "Ah, class, we have a new student. Why don't you introduce yourself?"

"Konnichiwa! I'm Tsukino, Izumi Su. Nice to meet you."

"Hi, Izumi!" the class greets back, smiling at her. "I hope I can be friends with you all." Izumi said aloud and everyone grins at the young, enthusiastic girl.

"Alright, Izumi, you'll be sitting next to Fuji, Akira. She's over there." the teacher smiles at her kindly and Izumi nods, rushing over to a ginger girl by the back of the class. She looked bored, one earphone in her ear as she stared out blankly out the window.

"Nice to meet you, Fuji-san." Izumi grins as she takes a seat next to the girl, taking out her new school supplies which Sakura and Kioshi had surprised her earlier with her new bag.

"Shh, keep quiet. I don't like loud noises." the girl said, laying her head down as she plugged in her other earplug into her ear. Izumi looks at her with wide eyes and stays quiet, turning to the teacher as she began taking notes.

~*****~

The lunch bell rings and some students leave the class room. Akira had fallen asleep and Izumi shakes her awake. "Fuji-chan! Wake up! It's lunch time!" Izumi grins and the girl wakes up and looks at her with an irritated glare.

"I don't have a lunch. Leave me alone."

"Really? I'll share with you! My parents made lots!" "It's fine. Eat your own food." she replies in a mutter but once Izumi opens her lunch box, the pastries and ramen immediately caught Akira's attention.

Izumi noticed her stare and quickly grabbed the top of her container and placed some food there by cutting them all in half, even her pastries. She gave the makeshift plate to her seat mate with a glad smile.

"Here! I won't be able to finish all this, anyway." she offered, placing it down in front of Akira with a pair of spare chopsticks her parents packed.

Akira looks away for a moment before looking to her with a ghost of a smile. "Arigato."

For the rest of lunch, Izumi chatted with Akira about idle things, the girl making occasional remarks about Izumi's topic. The bell rang again, signaling the end of lunch. 

Akira handed the top of Izumi's lunch box back with another thanks before turning back to the teacher, who returned and was beginning to write things down on the chalkboard again.

~*****~

As Sakura approached Izumi, who was also walking to her, she heard a few children shout at her as they ran past. "Sayonara, Su-san!" "See you tomorrow, Izumi-chan!"

But a ginger ran up to Izumi especially and gave her a quick hug before running off with a 'thanks for the food, Izumi. Sayonara!'.

"Seems like you had a good day." Sakura laughed and Izumi nodded happily. "Hai! I made new friends and my seatmate was very nice."

"Was she that girl who hugged you?" "Hai! Her name's Akira Fuji! She's very pretty too, ne?"

"Definitely. But what happened to your other barrette?" Sakura gestured to Izumi's hair, which only had one more clip, rather than two like this morning.

"Oh, a girl named Aimi-san fell today and her clip fell out of her hair. A mean second grader stepped on it and she cried so I gave her one of mine!" Izumi smiled, gesturing to a blonde in the courtyard of their school, who had a matching hairpin as Su.

The blonde saw Izumi and waved, to which the girl waved back. "Wow, that's very nice of you, Izumi. Let's tell daddy what happened today, huh? He couldn't pick you up since eh had extra work."

"Oh, okay!" "Don't worry, he's coming home now. But I have cookies and cupcakes from the bakery today. We'll eat those, okay?"

"Hai!" Sakura smiled at her daughter as they walked home. But then she frowned slightly as she thought back to some of her own childhood friends.

I like that you're being nice and all Izumi, but please, be careful who you befriend.

I don't want you to end even more broken than you are now.

~*****~

A/N:

Crap... I made a mistake XD

I just realized that it will be even harder to part Kioshi and Sakura now that they have a kid. Dammit.

My imagination takes it too far sometimes. You all understand XD

But I'll spend as much time as I can to try and see how I can bring a Soryu ending without destroying the plot as it is now. But be honest guys, who do you think is the better match for Sakrua right now? 

I mean, I'll still make alternate endings but I just want to know which guy you favor more. Probably Soryu XD

Thanks for reading!

Ciao!

~Dark Angel