16 years later

"MOOOM!" Hikaru yelled down the stairs from his room. Inora sighed from her spot on the couch where she was reading, she looked up and turned her head towards the stairs.

"Yes?" she replied calmly as though she hadn't just been screamed at.

"COME HERE!" he demanded. She turned back to her book as though the whole thing hadn't taken place. A little less than a minute later Hikaru called out again.

"Mom?" he sounded reluctantly less demanding.

"Yes?" She replied again.

"Can you come here please?" he asked.

"Of course," she said cheerfully and hopped up from the couch. She smiled as she passed the wall in between the living room and dining room, the spot where she and Hatori had marked the kids' growth since they had moved into the house. Two sets of lines starting at her knee from when they were one and going up to above her head, both of them had gotten their fathers height. She loved this house, it was very open, the living room and dining room were in view of each other and the kitchen connected to the dining room so the place seemed to make a C shape. There were two bedrooms up stairs plus a little sitting room that the kids had made into a gaming room. The master bedroom was downstairs, sort of on the back side of the house, for which Inora was grateful. That meant their bedroom was far enough away from the kids that her and Hatori didn't have to worry about noise level if they wanted to get…frisky.

She walked into Hikaru's room to find the poor boy slumped over at his desk, with his jet black hair all over the place from running his hands through it in frustration. He had his chin on the desk and was glaring at the papers in front of him with a deep hatred. She walked over and started smoothing out his hair for him and he gave a deep sigh.

"What is it sweetie?" she asked.

"Homework. I've been over this phrase a thousand times but it's just not coming out right," he grumbled. She leaned over his shoulder to look at the words he was pointing at. It was his Spanish homework. She had been surprised to learn that the school offered classes for Spanish but was happy that he had signed up. Both of the kids were fluent in English as well as Japanese. Plus, thanks to her and Momiji, they both knew German pretty well.

"Ah I see what it is. You're trying to treat it too much like Japanese; you're trying to make up for honorifics. Think of it more like English, they're much closer, in fact they have a lot of the same words," she explained. He studied the paper again and then made a few adjustments to it before grinning up at her.

"Thanks. Yeah that's much better," he said sounding almost surprised.

"My diploma isn't just for show you know," she chuckled and shoved his shoulder lightly. She taught English at the high school that the kids went to. He smiled slightly then nervously bit his bottom lip, she knew this pose well. "What do you want to ask me?"

"Next year… I wanted to look into the exchange program," he said and looked at her with pleading eyes.

"How long have you been thinking about this?" she asked.

"Since the beginning of the school year, when they talked to our class about it. I've been going to the meetings and reading all of the stuff available on it since then," he explained shyly.

"Well it seems like you're serious about it. It will be a good experience for you. Where did you want to go?" she asked with a smile.

"America. I talked to the man in charge and he said that I could go to a little town just 15 minutes south of Oregon City, so I can go see Dan a lot," he said excitedly.

"So you're doing the opposite of what I did. Try not to fall in love while you're there," she teased and he rolled his eyes.

"You and dad were a freak accident," he said. She couldn't argue with that.

"Ok, give me all of the information you have and your dad and I will look it over tonight," she said and held out her hands as he placed a stack of papers in them. "So how did that girl take it when you told her? What's her name again?"

"Actually… we broke up a week ago," he mumbled.

"Good lord. That's about the third girl this month isn't it?" she asked and he just blushed. "I think you need to talk about this… but maybe your dad would be better."

"Yeah…" he looked miserable.

"Well he should be home with you sister any second now, talk to him then," she said and patted him on the shoulder before heading downstairs again. She was about to go back to reading when the front door open and she heard a squeal.

"MOM!" was all the warning she had before Summer almost tackled her in a hug. "I got it! I got the part! It's even better than I thought, I got the lead!"

"Sweetie that's great!" she said over her daughters' giggles.

"Yeah the drama teacher, or director in this case, said that my acting was good but my singing is what made me a shoe-in for the part," Summer squealed and jumped in place a little.

"Well you do have a beautiful voice," Inora said with a grin.

"She got that from you," a deep voice said behind her. She felt strong arms wrap around her waist and she turned in them to give Hatori a kiss.

"Ew. Can't you wait to be gooey until after I leave the room?" Summer grumbled then suddenly got excited again. "I'm going to go work on my lines!" She ran upstairs leaving her parents still 'greeting' each other in the living room. Everyone that knew the two were amused, but not all that surprised, that they were still like this with each other even after 17 years of marriage.

"Your son needs to talk to you," Inora said a few seconds after they broke apart.

"About what?"

"Another one bites the dust," she chuckled lightly and he sighed.

"Honestly I always thought Summer would be the heart breaker," he said.

"Well there's always the chance that he's the one getting his heart broken," she said gently and he winced, he hadn't thought of that.

"Alright, I'll go see what I can do," he said and started for the stairs.

"Ha'ri, how was work?" she called and he turned back with a grin.

"Still trying to get used to all the extra work, but I wouldn't trade it for the world," he said and headed up the stairs. He, being just 44 years old, had just become the youngest chief of medicine the hospital had ever seen. He was promoted to the position a month ago after Kyoya Ootori had practically insisted on it. Kyoya, who was now the owner of the hospital, and Hatori had become quite good friends since he had been Inora's doctor. All of the higher ups had been worried at first but Hatori had taken the job in stride, even though he was young everyone looked up to him.

"Hikaru?" he called through the door. He looked in to see Hikaru flying through the rest of his homework.

"Give me a second, I'm almost done," he muttered. Hatori moved to sit on the bed and watched in amusement as his son muttered things in several different languages. "Done," he said with a sigh a minute later.

"You… lost another one?" Hatori asked, getting right down to it.

"Dad, is it just me or are girls really weird?" he asked and Hatori laughed.

"They can be, especially at your age," he said. "But you have to remember that they find us weird as well."

"…did… did you know I have a fan club?" Hikaru blushed.

"Oh?...Oh. I think I'm starting to see…" Hatori muttered.

"Why would they ask me out… if they don't like me for me?" Hikaru asked and Hatori sighed.

"Son… you've grown to be an attractive young man. You are going to have to learn to distinguish which girls like you for you and the girls that like what they think you are," he explained slowly. It was true, both of his children had grown to be rather attractive. He had seen groups of girls giggle with each other when Hikaru would go by and Inora had had to restrain him on several occasions when boys would openly stare and sometimes point at his daughter.

"How do I learn that?" Hikaru asked.

"Well first of all, if you've never talked to the girl before she probably isn't for you. Other than that you just… know when a good one comes along," he smiled.

"I'll just know," Hikaru sighed at the obscure answer.

"Trust me," Hatori said as he stood. "One day a girl well worth your time will come crashing into your life when you least expect it." He left Hikaru to think and when he got to the hallway he wasn't entirely surprised to find Inora loitering there.

"'Crashing' into your life huh?" she asked as they headed downstairs.

"That is how we met. We literally crashed into each other coming around a corner," he smiled at the memory.

"Oh I remember. Not five minutes after that I was cowering in fear from you. I'm just glad you haven't had to use that memory suppression technique since I've known you," she shuddered.

"There's no reason anymore, thanks to you. But…" he trailed off.

"But what?"

"Well you know my father had that technique and he taught it to me…" he explained slowly as her eyes got wider.

"Good lord Hatori," she hissed at him. "You are not teaching my son how to erase people's memories."

"It's just… I know it isn't really necessary anymore but it seems a shame to lose it out of the family line," he said.

"What would he ever use it for? There's no curse, no secret your family needs to keep. It would just be dangerous for him to have," she said.

"Well… it's… tradition," he supplied weakly. He was pretty sure she wouldn't understand, and he didn't really expect her to. She opened her mouth to snap back but then found herself closing it. He didn't really talk about his parents much… so the fact that his father taught him this must have been important to him.

"Alright. If it's really that important to you," she said softly. "Just make sure he knows how serious this is, AND you are teaching Summer as well. It's not fair that he should get this just because he's a boy and she's a girl." Hatori almost wanted to laugh, she had gone from not wanting it for their son to demanding it for both of their kids.

"It is important to me, and I will."

"Good, now we need to talk about Hikaru," she said with a smile.

"Mom, wears my uniform?" Hikaru called down the stairs.

"Dryer," she called back. He came sprinting down the stairs and into the laundry room. When he came back he already had his pants on and was tugging on his shirt.

"Master's gonna kill me if I'm late…again," He muttered as he forced on his shoes.

"Kyo? He can't be that tough," Inora laughed. Hikaru stared at her like she had gone mad.

"It's different, you're friends with him. But with us…" he shuddered. "Gotta go." He ran out the door without another word to his karate class.

"So what about Hikaru?" Hatori prompted. Inora clapped her hands together and bounced slightly in place.

"He wants to join the exchange program!" she squealed happily.

"Ok, I can see you agree with him going," he chuckled.

"I do. He's very serious about it and he will be going to a spot near Oregon City so he can spend time with Dan. Here's all the information he had," she shoved all of the papers at him. He read through them and was fairly pleased with what he found.

"I think it's a great idea. How do you say this name?" he asked and she looked over his shoulder at the name of the town.

"Molalla. It's a tiny little town, I've been there once," she said. He was about to ask something when Summer came downstairs and stopped in front of Hatori with puppy dog eyes.

"Dad? Can I go to the mall?" she asked sweetly.

"Do you have homework?" he asked.

"I finished it all," she grinned.

"Then I don't see why not. Do you need a ride?"

"Um… no. Someone's picking me up," she hedged causing him to instantly be suspicious.

"Who?"

"A…boy," she said looking a little guilty.

"Oh! What's his name?" Inora asked.

"How long have you known him?" Hatori asked still trying to figure out why his daughter was acting so guilty.

"His name is Ichiro… and I've been seeing him for almost a month," she explained.

"What's he like?" Inora gushed and Summer was about to happily tell her but Hatori cut in.

"Is there some reason you haven't told us about him yet?" he asked sternly. She looked to her mom for support but gave up and answered anyway.

"He's…18?" she said unsure. Hatori looked like he was going to pop a blood vessel.

"That's just two years. You can go to the mall but when he drops you off here later we want to meet him. Alright?" Inora asked calmly. Hatori was going to protest this but she shot him a look.

"Ok! He's really sweet, you guys will love him. I promise," she said and went up stairs to get ready.

"How could you-" Hatori started.

"Do I have to remind you that you are seven years older than me? It's just 16 to 18. Are you saying you don't trust your daughter?" Inora smirked.

"Of course I do. It's him I don't trust," he muttered.

"She can take care of herself. Do you think Kyo would let his goddaughter run around without knowing at least the basics of karate?" she reasoned and he just mumbled under his breath. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door and Summer came flying back downstairs and up to her parents.

"Thanks mom," she said and hugged Inora. "Bye daddy," she kissed him on the cheek and dashed for the door.

"She knows I can't stay mad when she calls me that," Hatori sighed. "Don't forget the elbow is the hardest part of the body!" he called after her just as she shut the door.

"She'll be fine. She's growing up, they both are," Inora said and wrapped her arms around his waist. He held her and kissed the top of her head.

"It seems like it's too fast," he whispered.

"I know. And by seemingly next week we'll be old. You way before me, but still," she laughed.

"That will be scary. But I think we can do it, we have each other," he said softly.

"After all these years, and you still manage to say the sweetest things to me."

"It's easy, because I love you," he said.

"I love you too." She gave a content sigh and held him tighter.

(A/N): And that's that! Not gonna lie I had some problems with the ending but I think it ended up alright. SO! I was at work the other day and I was thinking that it would be cool if there was a scene YOU wanted me to write, tell me and I'll give it a shot! It can be from ANY point in time. But other than that this story is… done... yay?

I would also like to take this time...or...space to thank all of my reviewers! Tsukiko13, Dev, Kimmytrainer,and twirlgirl.

A huge thanks to sanchezdianne and sparrowismyhummingbird for giving me awesome comments every chapter!

And a huge, HUGE thanks and a vertual hug to LyssaLoo62 for reviewing every chapter AND every chapter on the last one! You all should say thanks as well because they are the reason this sequel even happened! YOU ARE AWESOME LyssaLoo62!