When next Monday eventually rolled around, Emiko had risen particularly early. She spent her extra time trying to put on her outfit correctly and neatly, not even letting her fathers' amusing bickering from down the hall distract her. By the time she finished pulling on her long socks, put on her shoes, and brushed her long hair out neatly, Nowaki opened the door, clearly not expecting her to have woken up an hour earlier than necessary. "Oh, Emiko-chan, you're already dressed," he said with his familiar smile that Emiko couldn't help but return. "Good thing then, Hiro-san and I are done with breakfast early so you can eat it while it's still hot."

To be honest, the thought of eating anything at the moment made Emiko's stomach churn even more, but she still followed her daddy out into the dining room. She, however, didn't manage to make it to the table before Hiroki made a funny sort of squawking noise and rushed over to her, frowning even more than normal. "Emiko! Your outfit is completely wrinkled and your shoes are on the wrong feet! Why didn't you get help?" She opened her mouth to apologize or answer, but Hiroki grabbed her hand and led her over to the couch before she could. "Never mind that," he said with a sigh. "Let's just get this ironed and fix your shoes."

"Hiro-san," Nowaki called when Emiko plopped down onto the couch after Hiroki took her shirt and moved to iron it. "It's not a job interview. I doubt the other kids are going to even notice an outfit; even if they did they wouldn't care."

"It's not the other kids," Hiroki snapped as he flicked on the ironer and let it warm. "It's the teachers. The secretary already thought it was weird that two men signed up a child to their school, and I'm sure we're the gossip in the teacher's lounge. They would probably go on and on about how barbarians dressed her and say that we're too busy having-" he cut off suddenly and sent a nervous glance towards Emiko. "Um, involved with each other to even notice what she's doing."

"Barbarians?" Nowaki asked with furrowed eyebrows. "Hiro-san, while I won't completely disregard the gossip part, I really doubt that the teachers will say we're barbarians for a few wrinkles in a shirt or that we're unfit to raise her."

"You wouldn't know!" Hiroki barked and began to iron the shirt. "You didn't go to one of these schools. All the parents think they're above the others and the teachers nitpick every flaw that their students have! My mother was called down plenty of times because of my sharp tongue and Akihiko's father was often called because of his spaciness. I don't care how good your grades are or how many friends you have or if your parents have connections with the teachers, your child is still watched over like a hawk is to a field mouse."

Emiko's eyes went wide and she felt the knot in her throat tighten even further. She wasn't so sure if she could eat breakfast at all now. "Hiro-san!" Nowaki admonished from the other side of the room. "Don't say things like that in front of her, you'll make her think this school is worse than it actually is. Besides, school has to be slightly different than it was when you and I were there. Not to mention, she's only in grade school."

Hiroki sighed and gave Emiko an apologetic look as he finished up her shirt and turned the iron off. "It's really not like that, Emiko," he said calmly, though his cheeks were bright from having to admit he went too far with his ranting. Emiko guessed he was just worried about her first day in a school with children who had a much different life than her. "I went to a much stricter school and my parents were constantly breathing down my neck; that's why I was so stressed. You'll do just fine."

"Are the kids all that different from me? The older kids at the orphanage always said that they didn't make friends outside of the others in the orphanage because the other kids think we're freaks." Emiko sniffed and wiped at her eyes angrily, upset at herself from getting worked up over something so dumb. "They always said that if our parents didn't want us they didn't want to be our friends either."

Hiroki's head shot up and gave Nowaki an alarmed look as he jerkily placed a hand on the top of Emiko's head, not quite sure how to reassure her. Luckily, Nowaki walked over and got on his knees in front of the sniveling child. He took her tiny hands in his much bigger ones and waited until she looked at him to begin talking. "That won't happen to you, Emiko-chan. You have a family, there is no reason for those other children to not like you. If some of them don't want to talk to you about something as little as you being adopted then they aren't good people to be friends with anyways. You're such an amazing girl and those kids will be lucky to be your friend. Remember, those who don't want to be your friend are missing out."

She snuffled again and pulled an arm out of Nowaki's light grasp to wipe at the tears on her cheeks, but a tiny smile was beginning to pull at her lips. "Are you sure?"

"Positive," Nowaki said, giving her a smile of his own. "You'll make more friends than you can hardly keep up with."

Emiko's smile widened and she nodded. "I trust you, Daddy," she said, reaching out so she could wrap her arms around his neck. Nowaki froze for half a second before he returned her kind hug and glanced up at Hiroki who was looking down at him as if he just realized why exactly he agreed to adopt with Nowaki in the first place.

-Page Break-

After Nowaki dropped Emiko off at school, alone because Hiroki had to be at the university at the same time she had to arrive her own school, Emiko was lined up with another group of students her age. Some were chatting animatedly with one another, having clearly known each other for awhile, some were beginning to talk with another child who had the same toy as them, and the others, like Emiko, were standing alone with their knuckles tight around their backpack straps and staring apprehensively at such a big place. Emiko continued to stay in the background, observing the other students silently, until the school bell rang signaling for them to start making their way to their classroom.

She followed her line into the classroom and hung her backpack on the back of the desk that she chose to sit at. The desks were all arranged into groups of four and there was a large chalkboard at the front of the class. Crayons and other fun looking art related tools were located all around the classroom as well as other boring-looking workbooks. The teacher's desk was at the very front of the room, on the side of the chalkboard, and a teacher was already sitting there and smiling at all her new students as they went to find their seats. Emiko examined her teacher closely and ended up thinking that she didn't look too mean or strict. Her light brown hair was tied up in a loose bun and she seemed to be wearing the same kind of clothes as the other teachers outside, but her face was kind and not at all scary looking.

Two other students sat at the table Emiko was at and smiled warmly at her as they did so. They were two girls, one who had her black hair tied up in pigtails and a large mark on the right side of her face, and the other girl was a bit more chubby with blond hair. They both looked friendly, so Emiko smiled back hesitantly, preparing herself for one of them to start talking, but her teacher stood and announced herself before they could.

"Good morning, everyone! I hope that all of you had a nice weekend and stayed safe. I'm glad to announce that we have a new student here with us today. Why don't you come up here and announce yourself to everyone?"

Emiko glanced around the class nervously before she took a big breath and stood, knowing that it was best to just introduce herself without throwing a fit about it. She walked up to stand beside her teacher and bowed shallowly to her classmates. "My name is Kusama Emiko. Nice to meet you all."

"Why don't you tell us a bit about yourself, Emiko? Do you have any pets? What's your favorite thing to do?"

Emiko blinked and turned back to the class, looking up at them confidently even though her palms were sweating. "Um, I was just adopted a little while ago by my Daddy and Papa and now I live in a really big, pretty house. I've even got my own room. We don't have any pets, but my favorite thing to do is read and draw."

"That was great, Emiko. You can go sit down now." Emiko sighed in relief and stepped away from her teacher and towards her table. From somewhere to the right of her, she heard a young boy raise his voice.

"A Daddy and a Papa? That's really weird. It's supposed to be a Daddy and a Mommy. Don't you know that?"

Emiko's back stiffened and she could already feel tears stinging her eyes, but she quickly blinked them away and sat at her desk, her fists curled tightly on its surface.

"Mashita!" The teacher said sternly, her eyebrows furrowed and hands poised on her hips. Emiko suddenly realized that she could look mean if she wanted to. "What have I told you about how you say things?"

Mashita grumbled under his breath for a second before replying "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all".

"Exactly! I don't want to hear anything else come out of your mouth, or anyone else's, about Emiko's family. If I do hear anything, you will get your whole recess period taken away and you can eat your lunch on the curb. Am I understood?"

A series of grumpy "yes Kurata-sensei's" were echoed around the classroom, but Emiko sunk into her seat with her cheeks burning. She was already getting picked on because of her family, for reasons she didn't understand, and she was beginning to doubt that her Daddy knew what he was talking about when he said that she would have plenty of friends. All of these kids seemed so mean over something as simple as the people who chose her to love and protect. Why was that such a big deal?

"Don't listen to Mashita," one of the girls said the chubbier one. "He has to pick on everybody in the class, I don't understand how he even has any friends."

Emiko looked up at her and frowned. "He picks on you too?"

The girl nodded, "yeah, all the time because I'm bigger than other girls in class. He says it makes me ugly."

"You're not ugly!" Emiko said furiously, sitting up in her chair completely again. "He's dumb if he says that. Size shouldn't make a difference."

The girl shrugged, but the smile she gave Emiko held pure glee as if those were words she had been waiting to hear for her whole life. "My name is Muso Hanako by the way." She pointed to the girl who was sitting beside her. "This is my best friend Shiba Michiko."

"Nice to meet you both," Emiko said with a smile, figuring that it was unnecessary for her to introduce herself again to them. "I hope we can be friends."

The two girls smiled back but remained silent due to Kurata-sensei began to speak once again. "Today I decided we can take a bit of a relaxing day. You all have been working so hard I decided that we could take a bit of a break and do something fun. How does that sound?"

The class gave out a chorus of cheers and Kurata-sensei laughed as she picked up a stack of blank pieces of paper from her desk. "Good. So, I thought, since we do have a new student, we could all make some Profile Posters so I can all learn a bit more about you. I will make my own as well so you can learn about me as well. Sound good?"

Another chorusing sound of agreement sounded around the classroom and Kurata-sensei began to pass out the papers as well as markers, crayons and map pencils. "I want you all to use your imaginations! I know most of you can't write very well yet, so I want you all to draw pictures of what you are trying to describe to me. If you aren't the best artist, that's perfectly okay, because I still draw with stick figures I'm so bad." The class laughed. "Now, I want you all to draw a picture of your family, your bedroom, any pets you may have, you doing your favorite activity, and a favorite memory that you have."

As soon as everything was passed out and the instructions were finished, Emiko began to draw. After working diligently on her project until lunchtime, most of the class still wasn't even halfway done with it. The whole class was lead out onto the playground and Emiko stuck close to her new friends. She learned that they always ate their lunch under a tree at the farthest corner of the playground. As she, Hanako and Michiko were eating, Emiko suddenly felt incredibly curious about the red mark that took over the right side of Michiko's face. "What's that mark on you, Michiko? Did you get hurt?"

Michiko's shoulders slumped slightly and raised her hand to graze her fingers over the mark self-consciously. "No, it's just a birthmark. I've had it my entire life. Why?"

"Oh," Emiko said quickly, realizing that she had somehow offended her new friend. "I just was wondering! I like it, actually. I haven't met anyone with a birthmark before, so I think it looks cool."

"Hey!" A new voice called out before Michiko had a chance to reply, and the three girls turned to see Mashita and three other boys standing near them. "New girl, I was just wondering if you were really adopted by two boys."

Hanako sighed and scowled at Mashita irritatedly. "Go away, Mashita."

"I wasn't talking to you," Mashita said with his nose crinkling. "I just want to know if she was really adopted by two boys, I'm not doing anything bad."

"Yes," Emiko said snappishly, taking another bite of the leftover dinner that her Papa packed for her for lunch. "I was. I don't understand why you're so interested."

"Well, I hear my Daddy talking about how two boys who are together are called "fags" and shouldn't be allowed together since it's unnatural. My Mama agrees with him, and I don't think they'll be too happy knowing that you're attending here. My Mama is the secretary, you see, and my Daddy's the vice principle. I can't believe they even let you in."

"I don't care what they think," Emiko said, her lips thinning as her agitation grew until it was simmering in her belly making her feel hot. "My parents love and care for me, and it is no one else's business, so stay out of it. It's my family, not yours."

Mashita sneered and growled something under his breath with a roll of his eyes. He began to stalk away with his friends trailing on after him. Emiko watched him go until she felt a small hand clap over her shoulder and turned to see Michiko giving her a concerned look.

"Don't worry about him. He thinks he's all cool because his parents work here and let him get away with everything. He's really just a big stupid-head."

Emiko giggled and took another bite of her food. "My Daddy says that mean people like him always get something called 'kama' or 'karma' or something like that. It means that they end up getting their feelings hurt too. I'm sure that'll happen to him so I'm not gonna worry about it."

Emiko turned back to look at where Mashita had gone to sit by his friends and wondered why he was so mean.

-Page Break-

When the final school bell rang, Emiko ran out to the front of the school after saying goodbye to her friends and was pleased to see that both of her dads' were standing and waiting for her. Her Papa seemed to look a bit uncomfortable, but her Daddy smiled widely as soon as he saw her bound down the stairs towards them. "Emiko-chan!" he said warmly and bent down so she could run into his arms. "How was your first day of school?"

"It was really fun!" Emiko said happily, nearly bouncing on the balls of her feet as she described her two new friends and her really nice teacher. "We also made a project in class today," she said and pushed her few pieces of paper into her Daddy's hands. "We were supposed to draw certain things about us. Even Kurata-sensei did it and she showed it to us before we left today. She can't draw very well, but I still really like her."

Nowaki laughed and looked over her work, Hiroki peering over his shoulder as well. "I'm glad you had such a good day. We'll have to hang this on the refrigerator so we can look at this every day; you're an amazing artist, Emiko-chan."

Emiko smiled and glanced up at her Papa while her Daddy was still looking over her artwork closely, smiling all the while. She raised her arms up towards him and jutted out her bottom lip as she looked at him pleadingly. "Can you carry me, Papa? My feet hurt."

Hiroki blinked at her with surprise before bending over to lift her off the sidewalk after giving her backpack to Nowaki. As they began to walk in the direction of home, Nowaki leaned close to Emiko and whispered "always use puppy eyes with Papa. It always works on him". Emiko laughed even as Hiroki slapped Nowaki in the shoulder with the book he was holding with his free hand.

"Don't tell her something like that, idiot! She'll end up getting far too spoiled! Not to mention she'll pick up your stupid bad habits."

"Sorry Hiro-san," Nowaki said, but Emiko could tell very easily that her Daddy wasn't sorry at all. She glanced down towards the artwork that Nowaki was still holding as her parents bantered back and forth. She stared at the picture that she drew for family; her standing between the two men who decided to care for and love her when no one else would. She decided then that family wasn't just about who you really came from, but those who love you unconditionally. She leaned into her Papa further and closed her eyes, a small smile on her face. She was lucky enough to find just that.

Sorry if the drama at school is a bit too much, but I'm not used to writing in a five-year-old's point of view, obviously. Once she becomes a teenager, and even a ten-year-old, I'll be able to write this story much more easily. It won't seem as choppy or unnatural, especially since I have many plans for her when she gets to be around fourteen/fifteen/sixteen. I hope you all like it anyway!

Also, I got a review a while ago saying that I stole Yuna Kitty's story called Happily Ever After that is about Hiroki and Nowaki adopting a little boy. I have done no such thing. I read her story a while ago and decided that there were not nearly enough stories where Hiroki and Nowaki have a child and I wanted to change that. These are my own original ideas and I would never steal another person's hard work. Thank you. (I'm not trash, I promise).