"Ahh..." a soft yawn emerged from Yumiko and she awoke in unfamiliar, yet comforting warmth and arms.

"What the... Oh..." she mutters, rubbing her eyes tiredly. "Soryu, wake up." she gently tried to pry his arms away, but to no avail. "Seriously...? Soryu! Wake up!"

"Mm... What...?" he grumbles, his eyes squinting as he opens them a little.

"Think you can let go of me?" "Oh..." the man, blushing lightly, tries to calmly let go of her. "Thanks. Now let's go... It's been a week so I think I can walk by myself now. I don't need your help as much."

"No way, I promised your brother I'd watch over you." "No, I'll be good, I-" "Let's go, go and get ready."

The mobster orders and the girl sighs and rolls her eyes before trudging off to do so. But the mobster scolds himself to use such an excuse to keep her around.

"But why...?"

~*****~

They were out on the streets with Yumiko wearing her trademark clothes, an over sized sweater along with black leggings that complimented the gray sweater. A scarf was around her neck, a lighter shade of her sweater. Hair in a braid bun, her venom red eyes were framed with glasses.

"So what do you want to do, Oh?"

"I don't care." he shrugs and Yumiko grins. "That's great, come with me." the girl grabs his hand, locking their fingers together. The man blushes, but he could care less when she pulled them out of the throng of people, their hands locked together, so as not to lose each other.

"Here we go!"

"What... An arcade...?" "Yup! When I was young, Yukio and I training when we were 6, our father would reward us by bringing us here. He wasn't that bad of a dad..." she frowns, perhaps remembering the news of yesterday.

"Well," the mobster's words steered her away from the sullen topic. "Go in. I'll wait out here."

"Nope! You're coming with me." "No I'm not." "You said you don't care, so you're coming!" she pouts, pulling him into the game-filled building.

She bought $50 worth of tokens, giving them over a 100. "We got it, let's go. I have a game where I trained myself while playing!" she smiles, grabbing his hand to drag him around again. It was quite out of character for the usually cold mobster and assassin to be dragged around, or smiling.

They soon arrive at what looked to be a shooting game with zombies. "I loved this since I watch horror movies and shooting... So yeah. Wanna play with me? I can't use all these tokens."

"No." "Come on! You're being boring!" "No." "Boooring... Whatever." she rolls her eyes and starts the game but then frowns. "Oh shit... I forgot it was for two... I always played it with dad or Yukio."

She sighs and places the bag of tokens away with a pout. "Well, let's go play something else then." she smiles and grabs his hand again, but Soryu pulls her back, telling some waiting gamers they were using the machine.

"Give me the tokens." "Huh?" "We'll play here." he mutters, stretching his hand out. "Really?! Thanks, Sor!" she grins and pulls out the bag of tokens after a brief hug to the man.

"Let's do this!"

Hours passed and as much as he hated to admit it, he had never had as much fun than today's events. After their zombie shooting spree, they had played several other games and the day was quickly coming to an end.

"The arcade's closing in an hour, huh..? It sure has been fun... Thanks, Oh, it's been great." she gives him a toothy smile. "We got 10 more tokens, what do you- Oh!" she suddenly gasps with an excited grin.

"What?" "Look at that! So kawaii~!" she exclaims, and Soryu follows her pointing finger towards a large white teddy bear, holding a pink pillow in its arms.

"I want it!" she cries happily, gazing at it with sparkling eyes. Oh but we need 500 tickets... How many do we have?"

"About 475 the clerk said..." Soryu mutters. "Great, I really did want that... And all the ticket games are closed for the day, the only one left is the test your strength..."

"I'm not strong enough to do that..." she mutters. "Let's get going then, Sor, we- Hey, where are you going?!" by the time she had followed the mobster, she was shocked. So very shocked. 

There he was, holding the mallet of the game and ready to bring it down. And he does. The man operating the game grins once Soryu brings down the mallet to the target, causing the bell from above to ring as a little metal piece hits it from the force of the hammer.

The raven haired mobster was given 30 tickets as a reward and women who had gathered to watch, or play with their boyfriends and husbands, stare after him with love struck eyes. Which narrow when they spot Yumiko.

"Here." he offers her the tickets, blushing furiously as he scratches the back of his neck. "Aww... Thanks, babe~!" she teases, leaning in, as if to kiss him. The man looks away, and Yumiko gives a playful pout.

"Aww...." she giggles, and grabs the blushing man's hand. "But seriously... thanks." she tightens her grip on his hand, walking over to the counter.

~*****~

The arcade soon closed, but the two were walking down the streets, hand in hand with none of the two even knowing. It just felt natural now.

Both hungry after their fun filled day, the pair were heading a small cafe under the suggestion of Soryu.

They enter the cozy, home like cafe. People stared at them with envious, or gentle eyes as the two chatted quietly, a plushed animal underneath Yumi's arm as her other free hand held Soryu's. Te two took a table, but once they ordered...

"I'm sorry... But there's only one more of that..." the waiter mutters, a bit deflated.

"Alright... He'll take that cake, and I'll just get-" "We'll share it." Soryu's words made Yumi's head snap to him,concerned if he had hit his head or something of a sort.

"Yes, sir." and the waiter disappears, and Yumi talks to him. "Sor... Did you hit your head or something...? You're acting pretty weirdly..."

"I'm fine... You seem like you really want that." ".....Thanks."

The cake was soon served to both, along with a tea for Soryu and an iced coffee for Yumi. The two were idly chatting about their jobs and different books they had read and soon, the small cake was finished with only a strawberry left. The topping on the once complete cake.

Of course, Yumiko took the opportunity to tease the mobster. She stabs the berry with her fork and holds it up to Soryu's mouth. "Open up, Sor~" she purrs, fluttering her lashes.

"Hey-! W-What the..." once he opens his mouth, she stuffs the berry in his mouth and he turns a shade of red just like the berry fed to him.

"Haha! Man, Sor, you are so adorable." and her words cause his heart to skip a beat, a sensation completely foreign to him. "Oh! It's time!" she suddenly grins widely.

"Time...?" "It depends, you want to come?" "Might as well."

~*****~

"What is this place?"

"It's my special spot with Yukio... This is where we celebrated my 18th birthday. It was called 18 roses, a Filipino styled tradition. I studied many countries and it just seemed interesting so... I wanted that for my 18th birthday."

"What do you do at this... 18 roses...?" "If you want, it's also called Grand Cotillion Dance. And it celebrates the 18th birthday of a girl, a huge celebration marking me becoming an adult. It's where the girl picks 18 men in her life, 2 of them a boyfriend and father."

"And what?"

"She dances with them, and before each dance, each man must give her a red rose, or her favorite flower. And the first dance is with the father, followed by the 16 others and finally, the boyfriend. But since I didn't have one at the time, Yukio was my partner for that one."

As she told him this, Yumiko and Soryu stood in a marble gazebo, lit with hanging lights on each side. It was kept clean, but slightly crumbled and aged.

"But my brother, right on the dance floor, dragged me out here for the dance. Besides, the dance does happen near the end of the party so there was nothing much left to do. Just advice, never run in a ball gown." she laughs quietly, brushing her silver hair away from her face. "This is where I had my 18th dance and my 18th rose..."

"Wow... quite the story..." "Haha, yeah... And this is where he gave me my present and our symbol as twins."

"What?" Yumiko leads the mobster a few feet away from the gazebo, which was near a fenced cliff, where a cherry blossom tree stood. "Here. Come, look." she points to two charms tied with ribbons, to a branch. It was a fern shaped charm, and as Soryu looked closely, noticed both were shaped as half hearts.

"Those fern charms... They were the inspiration for this." she rolls up her sweater sleeve, which was covering her hands, to reveal the same end of the tattoo Soryu had seen before. But now, it was bared to him.

"Seriously?" "Yeah, I got it in honor of our promise and my 18th birthday." she replies with a nod, pushing the sleeve back down as she sits under the blossom tree, hugging the stuffed animal Soryu had gotten her, close to her chest.

"So you really love this place, huh?" the man mutters, sitting beside her.

"It's one of the most important things in my life."