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There was no instructions that came with angry parents and how to deal with them - so Akio had decided to bide his time and wait until the start of the week to approach the subject of obtaining the alluring Aurora Willow's cell phone number.

Saturday and Sunday had passed by slowly, almost painfully. He'd been sorely tempted to try his luck out, but not knowing what Mr. Willows did for a living meant the stronger possibility of running into him over the course of the weekend. Did he have a desk job? A warehouse job? A job working as someone's bodyguard, judging by the massive amount of muscle that seemed to cover his body?

Akio really didn't want to find out, truthfully.

So he waited, patiently as possible, until Monday's arrival. As the morning dwindled into afternoon and he finished with his last class (praise Cosmos and all that was holy!), he found himself idly pressing against the brick wall of the apartment complex he'd dropped his date off at, his fingers casually flicking across the screen of his phone, which had miraculously not destroyed itself with the heavy rain.

Eyes occasionally glanced up, on the off chance that the fearsome man might show up at any moment - but it was a risk he was willing to take, because at least this time, he'd prepared himself by wearing his best pair of running shoes.

He was glancing at a Facebook post from a former classmate when movement caught the corner of his peripheral vision. Dark eyes rose to investigate out of a mixture of fear and curiosity, his awareness heightened considerably (no doubt thanks to the concern pressing against the back of his mind at being caught by the wrong individual).

The color of her hair was even more beautiful kissed by the light of the afternoon sun, but he gave pause as his eyebrows furrowed at studying the girl from the distance. His mouth had curled up into a smile at recognizing her delicate features, but the surprise didn't escape his expression as he finally noticed the orange and cream uniform she'd donned.

It was the same color as the uniform he'd remembered, a long, long time ago, back when he'd just arrived in the States and had been introduced to his foster family. They'd enlisted him to go to Meadowview, where he was allowed to remain in his former school's uniform, but the orange skirts and the appreciation he'd had for their short length had never left his mind.

But why was she wearing it?

"Aurora?"

His tone was cautious, wary. Wait - could it be that she had a little sister, perhaps? Maybe it was just a stroke of luck that the girls looked similar to one another....

Because no, it couldn't be. Aurora was graduating college, just as he was.

She couldn't possibly be a high school student.


..... could she?

As she responded to the name he'd addressed, he felt his heart stop. For a brief two seconds, his body relied on the lingering effect of previous cardiac contractions, his mind struggling to reason with the facts set before him.

She was a high school student.

His Aurora. The girl who'd bumped into him, who'd shyly sipped on champagne before allowing him to whisk her onto the dance floor.

The girl he'd stolen off with in the middle of the night, offering her kisses and dances under the moonlight.

A woman whose father had seemed irrationally angry at her early morning return.

The more he dwelled on the circumstances surrounding the predicament, the more Mister Willows' anger seemed less and less irrational. His teenage daughter had come home well past midnight, with a strange boy in tow no less.

His back remained against the wall as his eyes revealed the struggle currently going on in his mind. Words were difficult to develop, every response he desired to mutter coming out in broken English, his native tongue taking over in his brain as he calculated all of the missed signs and problems he was now faced against.

She hadn't expected to see him? But hadn't she asked to see him again? Or was that another one of her wrong impressions - had she been intentionally leading him on, this entire time?

The young woman stepped closer to him, but Akio refused to budge. His gaze moved up to settle on the same jade eyes he'd wanted to get lost in, not seventy-two hours prior. They seemed hopeful, almost.

"You're in high school."

The words were a blurted statement, as opposed to the question that followed after, his tone suspicious. "How old are you, Aurora?"

Okay, well.

Seventeen wasn't world ending. It wasn't sixteen but it still wasn't eighteen, a number he'd been hoping she'd at least offer up. It was almost a tease, being so close and yet so far - one year that made all the difference in the world, setting apart the jailbait and the safe for a twenty-three year old college student.

Still.

The phone was stowed away in a pocket as his arms crossed over his chest. He was staring at her long and hard, as if debating on what to say in this sort of awkward, interesting conversation. Which wasn't too far from the truth.

She looked saddened by the sudden reveal. Had she been attempting to mask the fact that she was - was - in high school to impress him? As she'd pointed out, she was graduating soon, officially making her a no-longer-high-school-student.

But was that enough to justify the facade?

One leg rose up and the sole of his shoe found itself steadying itself against the wall.

"You realize that I could have gotten into trouble, by giving you alcohol. And then breaking in to a city park with you."

The serious tone he'd taken was slowly lightening, almost as if he was growing playful in his approach with her. Eyes softened, eyebrows rising. "That would make you an accomplice to multiple crimes, Miss Willows."

He watched her fidget, hands moving from the schoolgirl skirt to her bag. She apologized, seemingly very sincere - everything about what she said sounded sincere. She wasn't blaming him for what happened, nor shoving the responsibility from off of herself.

Eyebrows rose nonchalantly as he watched her explain herself, defend herself and then offer him a weak smile. It lacked the oompth of her coy approach from Friday night but then again, a lot had apparently changed since Friday night.

At least, a lot had come to light since then.

Finally, his foot pushed off from the wall and he stepped towards her. She remained short, her sneakers doing her no favors in adding to her height. His six foot figure towered over her and he intentionally moved into her personal space, making things immediately more intense. More awkward. More intimate.

The dark crystal earring swayed as he paused, brushing against dark chestnut his hair that was in dangerous need of being trimmed. One hand left his chest, thumb and forefinger roughly forcing her chin to tilt upwards in his direction.

His silence finally broke as he smirked.

"So do you feel brave now, Aurora?"

Dipping his head down, he pressed his lips against hers without a second thought or allowing her time to respond. It wasn't chaste, nor was he hiding the fact that he was kissing a woman he now knew was off limits to more than such. He kissed her as he had in the gazebo and in the rain.

He kissed her because, against all the warning signs in his head that this could only lead to more trouble and possible heartache ahead, he still wanted her.

Pulling away, his grip on her chin loosened and his eyebrows bobbed gently as the smirk turned into a full-fledged grin.

"Or... how about now?"

He paused for a brief moment as she teased him - there was only one other soul that called him that and she...

Well, maybe it was just a common insult, these days.

Having Aurora lift up on her toes was all the excuse he needed to drop both arms to her sides, lifting the smaller of the two up as he turned to give her a brief spin, allowing her to land on the nearby steps leading up to the apartment complex. She now stood taller than him, but he didn't mind looking up - his lips were far too eager to return to hers, the shape of his smile giving away his happiness for her to feel.

"Maybe you deserved a little bit of worry, after startling me like that."

His words were still teasing, though he couldn't help but appreciate the fact that she was at least, by all technicality, almost done with high school. Akio had no problem with their age difference, save for the fact that it now meant strictly staying on first base with no attempts to steal to second.

He could handle that, right?

Right?

Taking a deep breath, he resolved that he'd at least do his very best to try. His heart thumped wildly for this impish land-mermaid of his and he would see this endeavor through, even if it meant struggling to keep his hands into behaving.

"I'm afraid I'm far too engrossed in this fairy tale to not see how it ends, princess." He kissed her on the tip of her nose before pulling away, leaving her standing atop the stairs by her lonesome.

One hand pulled forward while the other pressed against his back, the young man bowing dramatically in her presence.

"It would take far more than a silly school uniform to keep this knight from his dragon princess, My Lady."

"If you're asking me to wait, beautiful, I will."

His head turned to receive the kiss, fingers squeezing around hers before she parted from his grip. He wasn't going to think about her shedding off the familiar looking uniform, not the process it would take to find something else to wear. He would focus on counting the seconds it took for her to descend the stairs again and return by his side.

He was going to be good and pure for his Aurora.

Even if it nearly killed him in the process.

One hand gestured out towards the apartment's door, insinuating that he would be an obedient boyfriend and wait for her.

Boyfriend.

It was an odd sensation - the word almost foreign. Boyfriend. Huh. That would take some time to get used to.

"As long as your father doesn't make another appearance, I will be patiently waiting your return."

The thought of the burly Mister Willows reappearing in the door's frame made him swallow hard. He hadn't seen hide nor hair of the large man since their last fateful encounter on the previous Friday (Saturday??) evening and, if Akio could get away with it, he would avoid running into him again for a long, long time.

At both the mention of her father being gone for the evening and the invitation to join her within the apartment, long legs had already skipped over the first two steps after her. He paused on the fourth step, however, as she dropped the ill-humored joke, the young man wincing.

Too soon?

Too soon.

He resumed his gait after that, perhaps a bit too quickly as he ducked past the young woman and into the darkness of the apartment. While cats were still not his thing, he was more than ready to embrace the domestic life of this wondrous, mysterious woman he'd just met - and craved to know more of. What her favorite hobbies were, her favorite shows, her favorite animal - everything was unknown, a surprise waiting for the right moment to reveal itself.

Sneakers made their way towards the couch in question, the soon-to-be college graduate presuming the furniture to be where she'd assigned him to sit in the meantime. Once he took his seat upon the plush piece of furniture, it certainly did become apparent that at least one feline companion took residence in the apartment. Orange hair clung to his pants like a magnet, but he did his best to brush it off without question.

The hair's owner let out a meow from the other side of the room, startling the brunette for a moment. It looked like a small dog more than it did a cat, but judging by the noise coming out of the monster as it ambled its way towards him... well, at least it sounded like a cat should.

"Is this one of your friends?"

His hand debated moving out in offering, but Akio kept it clung to his knee... for now.