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Epilogue

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It had been over nine months since Mae started to live with Kame, the girl was like a new light in Kame’s new life. Her bubbly happy chirping voice every morning greeting him a ‘good morning’ was enough to brighten his day. With Mae around, Kame’s hands were full and he barely had any time to be sulking to himself about the loss of a certain someone. Of course the first few weeks were unbearable, leaving him in despair. He started to lock himself away and reminisced the old times, he had turned into a delusional person. Mae’s arrival was like rain on a hot day, or spring after winter. He silently thanked the little girl for her adorable existence. He had made a new promise to himself that he would protect her from any harm, she was too young to face abandonment.

“Kazu-niiiiiii~~~~”

Kame immediately woke out of his thought when Mae’s voice ringing in his ears, he turned smiling gently at the girl.

“What is it, sweetie?”

“My breakfast…” Mae pointed to the hot stove, “IS BURNING!!!!” she screamed when a fire boomed from the stove.

“HOLY !” Kame cussed loudly, running to grab a fire extinguisher.

“Here!” Mae shoved said object to his hand, Kame quickly putting out the fire.

“That..was…I don’t know…” Mae stopped her next word, seeing that Kame was definitely being scared out of his life. “Umm…I’ll get ready for school~~” the girl ran up the stairs and to her room to change. Kame only nodded in responding, still hadn’t getting out of his shock.

“Wow, I almost burned down the apartment,” Kame chuckled to himself.

Yes he now had his own apartment, no longer sharing a room with Koki or with any of his friends. With Mae as his responsibility, Kame had accepted Mi-chan’s offer to be the manager of the cabaret, the job doesn’t require Kame to be at the office eight hours per day, five days per week. He was free to come and go at any time he feels like it. With the free time he has, Kame started to take courses in management, it was a way to help educate himself in the job he having now. Just three months after the proposed post, he was able to rent an apartment in Harajuku to live with Mae. It was not a big unit but it was big enough to house two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen and a living room. He felt so much accomplishment with his achievement.

“Kazu-nii~I’m going to school by myself today? Or you will take me?” Mae’s voice rang throughout the hallway had once again woken Kame from his thoughts. He chuckled and reminded himself that he should stop daydreaming and reminiscing, it was bad enough that he almost burned down their apartment.

“I’ll take you, give me a second ok?” Kame replied hastily and quickly threw the extinguisher away before heading off to his room to change into new set of clothes. He could clean up the mess after sending Mae to school.

❈

“Ne ne~ tell me, which one do you like?” Mi-chan scooted closer to Mae and sweet talked the little girl into picking out a good looking man among her bartenders. Mae put a finger to her chin and looked through line of bartenders with a thoughtful expression.

“Hmmm…I don’t know, they all look the same to me,” Mae said innocently while Mi-chan’s hand was up to her lips to prevent her from laughing out loudly. The bartenders though felt a bit insult at the comment, sulking not so manly at the two females in front of them.

“Mae-chan~if you pick me, I’ll give you lot and lot of chocolate,” one of the bartenders tried to bribe the girl and it seemed to work!

“Really?~” the girl said with sparkling eyes.

“That’s cheating!” the other bartenders roared into an argument.

“Ne~ Mae-chan~ I’ll buy you the new edition of your favorite anime character,” other one tried to bribe.

“Cutie~I’ll get you the new arrival dress from Liz Lissa as a present,” the other one promise. And just like that, the room was filled with the promised bribes from the bartenders, making Mae-chan’s eyes sparkled in happiness yet confusion. While Mi-chan laughed uncontrollably at her employers. They were too easy to fool but it was adorable of them to try to be the head bartender at the bar.

“Shoo, shoo!” Kame was quick to come to Mae’s rescue when the girl turned utterly confused at being surrounded by layers of men. “Leave my baby alone, and Mi-chan, stop using my baby as the judge, I believe you’ve already chosen the head bartender!” Kame narrowed his eyes at his cousin, Mi-chan put her hand together and mouthed a ‘I’m sorry and I love you’ trick. Kame just rolled his eyes as pushed the bartenders away to pick up Mae and headed out of the room. Mi-chan quickly followed but she didn’t forget to add, “look forward to the bullet-in tomorrow guys”.

“You’re such a weirdo,” Kame shook his head at the girl.

“And I’m your cousin, that didn’t make you any more sane than me,” the girl stuck out her tongue at him, “by the way, I heard that you almost burned down the apartment this morning,” Mi-chan grinned and winked at Kame’s shocked expression.

“Mae~~ you’re not supposed to tell Midori-nee EVERYTHING~” Kame whined to his five-year-old adopted sister.

“But Midori-nee asked me what happened to your hair, she said it looks like you’ve just coming out from a toasted oven,” Mae whined back and Kame just snuggled her nose. He turned to Mi-chan with a sharp glare.

“Did it look like that?” He asked, quite concerning about his appearance.

“Even with all those nasty hair gel and your awesome styling skill, those burned ends are quite visible, be happy that you’re the manager so no one dares to laugh, ‘cause I would have deduct their paycheck,” Mi-chan grinned satisfied.

“Evil woman,” Kame mumbled to himself.

“Yea yea, whatever, anyway you need a lift?” Mi-chan offered seeing that Yamaa had been waiting for her at the cabaret entrance. Kame waved to the other man.

“I’m good, walking is good for us,” Kame turned to Mae who nodded in affirmative.

“Walking involves two legs, not being carried around, darling~” Mi-chan pinched Mae’s nose, who just rubbed it with a goofy smile.

“I’ll walk when I’m no longer tired,” the girl promised to Mi-chan.

“You’re so cute, no wonder my cousin is so smitten by you,” Mi-chan complimented and then waved the two off to head to Yamaa’s direction. Kame waited for the car to disappear and then off towards his apartment.

“What do you want for dinner, sweetie?” Kame asked the little girl, who put her finger under her chin in a thoughtful expression.

“Tiramisu!” Mae said happily with a silly grin, Kame chuckled at the girl’s cuteness.

“You can’t have dessert before meal,” Kame tried to be stern which made the little girl pouted but nodded, “so what you want for dinner?”

“Hmmmm Tempura?” the girl said what came first to her, afterall it was her favorite food.

“Tempura it is,” Kame smiled and patted her head gently before stretched out his hand for Mae to hold onto. The little girl happily let Kame lead the way, swinging her hand with each step making Kame unable to hold in his content.

It didn’t take long for them to reach their newly acquired apartment, Mae quickly let go of Kame’s hand and ran straight to the elevator to push the button. Kame rolled his eyes at the excited girl and made a turn to the mailbox area to check their mail. As always a bundle of envelops greeted him, he heaved out a sigh, just bills and bills, and some advertisement as he flipped through the mails.

“Kazu-niichan~~~ hurry~~~” Mae’s whiny voice called out to Kame, the girl was tired of holding the door for the older man.

“Coming, coming,” Kame assured the girl as hurried his steps to reach the elevator’s doors. As they rode the elevator, Kame still flipped through the mail, this seemed to go on forever. However, an unfamiliar red envelop caught his attention. Kame frowned upon the red envelop, turning said envelop around to see who was the sender but there was no return address. His frown was just getting deeper. He curiously opened said envelop and was surprised at the anniversary card inside.

“Hm?” he hummed a question and opened the card to read the content inside, and a smiled adorned his face when the lines in the card greeted him.

“Eh? What’s written inside?” Mae asked curiously, tilting her head to the side cutely when she noticed Kame’s expression changed after reading the card.

“Want to read it?” Kame asked and the girl nodded eagerly. Kame handed the card to her, the five-year-old struggled with the kanji inside the card, having her utterly frustrated at the hard kanji.

“I can only read ‘red’,” Mae said, handing the card back to Kame. The older man laughed at Mae’s cute expression.

“It said…” Mae looked up at Kame, waiting for Kame’s next words, “Happy Anniversary, AkaJ.”

“Who is AkaJ?” Mae asked more question.

“You will know,” Kame said mysteriously.

“How soon?” Mae pouted her lips at him.

“Pretty soon,” Kame replied just when the elevator stopped at their floor. He hurried Mae out and headed towards their unit.

“Is AkaJ a boy or a girl?” the girl went on with her curiosity.

“AkaJ is a boy,” Kame chuckled at Mae’s sour expression.

“Is he nice?”

“Yes he is,”

“Does Kazu-niichan like him?”

“I do,”

“Then I do too,” Mae grinned cheekily and then ran into the unit the minute Kame unlocked the door. “I’m hungry~ let’s have tempura and then we talk about this AkaJ boy more~~”

“She acts like a twelve-year-old talking with her girls about boy stuff,” Kame murmured to himself as taking off his shoes. He took one last glance at the card and smiled. There was a surprise he saved for Mae at later time, but the girl would know when it happened.

❤

“Happy One Year Anniversary

You haven’t forgotten about this day and our promise, right?

Took me a while but

I come to fulfill my last promise at midnight;

Can you wait for me until then?

--AkaJ”

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_The End_