Disclaimer: I do not own Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Ouji

"It's time for bed, Yuina." Kyouya peered into his daughter's room and was surprised to find that she was already in bed. Like other children, she was active and it was always a chore to get her into bed. But tonight she was already in bed with her puppy curled on her lap. Even though she was in bed, she was looking up at him with large, expectant brown eyes.

"Story time!" She patted the spot next to her and he followed her command with a smile. He sat next to her, careful not to disturb her sleeping puppy. The previous night, they had made an agreement that he would tell her a story of her choice if she went to bed without a fight. He was surprised that she didn't have a book prepared for him to read but she was ready to sleep.

"What story do you want to hear? Beauty and the Beast?" Kyouya asked, knowing that it was her favourite story. When he was her age, his father would never read him stories so he it always amused him that he was able to tell a story by heart now.

"How did you meet Mama? How did you fall in love with Mama? How did you first tell Mama you love her?" She fired the questions at him and he could only answer the last one. The answer to her first question was unconventional to say the least and he didn't know the answer to the second question. Even after years of marriage, Erika still left him breathless for a reason he didn't know. "I want to hear Poppa and Mama's story. You promised me!"

"I'll get your mama. She can tell the story better." Kyouya tried to escape but she sat up and grabbed his arm. Yuina had the same large brown eyes as her mother and he could deny them no mote than he could with Erika's. Though he wished dearly for Erika to save him, he knew that she was in the middle of glass making. "So how I met your mother..."

"Mama told me that you saved her." Yuina urged him and Kyouya wondered how Erika told their story.

"Our story isn't the typical kind and it's far from the fairy tales we read to you. There wasn't that special moment I saw her and knew that she was the one." Kyouya started cautiously, trying to decide what parts to tell her and what part to leave out. "We met in highschool. Your momma needed a prince to help her and-"

"You were her prince!" Yuina interrupted with a grin and Kyouya chuckled at her enthusiasm. Erika had told her their story many times but her father had yet to tell his version. "You stood up for her and pretended to be her boyfriend. Then it became real!"

"Who's the one that's supposed to be telling the story?" Kyouya laughed since her enthusiasm was so much like her mother. He knew she wanted to learn something specific but didn't ask. "So you know how we met and how we fell in love from Momma. What else do you want to know?"

"How did you know you love Momma? When did you realize you loved her?"

"When she started to scare me." Kyouya answered after a moment and she looked up at him confusingly. He knew that it wouldn't make sense to her and he knew it would be dangerous if she took it too literally. "When I first met your mother, I thought she was going to be simple but I couldn't be more wrong. She was the strangest girl I've ever known."

"But how does she scare you?"

"She had the ability to control my heart." Kyouya placed his hand over his heart and she mimicked his action. "When she smiles, my heart speeds up. When she cries, my heart stops in pain. Her emotions became mine. That's how my heart knew I love her. But my brain was a little slower."

"How can your heart know but your brain not?" Yuina asked.

"I don't think it was a matter of knowing but accepting. I don't like thinking about it but there was a time when I almost lost your mother. When uncle Takeru told me that Some other guy was trying to steal her from me, I was so scared that I just ran to her without thinking. The only thing I knew was that I needed her— I couldn't lose her. I don't know how or when but she became something I couldn't live without. The only answer I had was 'I love her'."

"So you knew you loved her when you couldn't live without her?" Yuina tried to summarize but Kyouya knew that love wasn't something to be simplified. While Erika could see the brightness in love, he knew its shadows all too well. There was so much one could say about love and he wanted her to make her own choices about love. "Did you kiss momma first or did she kiss you first?"

"I kissed her first." Kyouya thought back on that day with a smile. "She asked me why I went after her and I couldn't say I love her so I just kissed her."

"Because she scared you?"

"Don't tell your mom I said that." Kyouya knew that Erika would force him to sleep on the couch if she heard he was telling their daughter that she was scary. But it was so difficult for him to explain a concept he didn't even fully understand. "Love scares me but losing her scares me more. So I stayed with her even though I didn't know what would happen. Back then it felt like the right decision and now I know it was the right decision. I couldn't ask for a better life, a kinder wife or a sweeter daughter. I love you both so much."

Kyouya saw the time and knew it was time for her to sleep. He kissed her brown hair and turned off her nightlight. But before he left, he had to ask, "What's with all the questions about love tonight?"

"Takashi asked me to marry him." Yuina told him and Kyouya staggered. Takashi was Nozomi's son and they played together often. "Momma said I should only marry a person I love but I don't know if I love him. Momma's explanation was really confusing so I wanted to ask you. I think I love Takashi and I'm going to marry him now!"

What the hell are you teaching your son, Nozomi? Kyouya's first instinct was to race to his friend's house and demand Nozomi keep his son away from his daughter.