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| Sakura Petals |

CH12: Drop the suffix, please.

summary: [SanaSaku] Because Sanada disapproves of the way Sakuno addresses her boyfriend.

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"Drop the suffix."

"Eto?" Sakuno inquired, wondering if she has heard her boyfriend correctly. Drop the suffix? "N-neh, Sanada-san…what do you mean?" She peered up cutely, with those owl-like eyes and trademark innocent expression. This girl was too innocent; and surely — for obvious reasons — Sanada was going to use every fiber of his being to protect her innocence. He liked that Sakuno was a bit too naïve anyways.

Well, unless he was trying to get a point across to her, which was proven to be a bit difficult at times—scratch that, more often than he could count.

Of course, he did have two years of experiences ahead of her. He did know a lot more about the ins and outs of this dirty little world, coated in sweetness and wrapped nicely in a tiny little package.

And he respected the fact that Sakuno was a bit hesistant, a bit too shy, and just a tad bit too formal. It was her way of keeping that evilness from enveloping her whole and swallowing her all up, as it tends to do with a lot of high schoolers nowadays. When alcohol, cigarettes, sex, and drugs are thrown to the mix, there's no saying what it could do to you.

And Sakuno was just too pure. She could not hurt a fly; she couldn't even defend herself against stuck-up snobs, holding their noses high and scrunching up their faces in distaste every minute or so as if someone laid a horrendous fart in the room.

There was a reason they were together after all. Sanada balanced her out; filled in the faults she had with his own, blunt personality, and she did so as well.

Sanada was always a stoic kind of person after all; he was one of those chocolate-chip cookies long-overcooked. When he came out of the oven, hot and sizzling as it was in there, he was faced with a lot of complications: never circular enough, never had enough chocolate chips, never soft enough. Because of this, he was the last cookie left on the plate, never eaten because it was too hard. Whereas Sakuno, having had a good cook to whip her up, came out just too circular, just too sweet, and just too soft, being tended to delicately as if she were going to break.

But she had it easy when it came to friends, or admirers for that matter. Being "just too" of something in the eyes of the hungry cookie monsters came as a gift and a curse.

She was sweet: too much of a push over.

She was caring: never thought about herself.

She was soft: too afraid to break out of her shell.

So it was a surprise to everyone—everyone—when Little Miss Shyness and Mister Cold-Hearted formed a relationship.

That's an understatement: it was a shock.

Surely, it took a while for everyone to process this—especially the prodigy from America that Sakuno had been in love with for nearly three years—but in due time, they accepted it as fact. Many even cooed over it, especially Sakuno's obaasan Sumire, who very well threatened Sanada's well-being if he were to ever "hurt Sakuno in any way," as she'd put it.

She was an honestly scary woman.

But their relationship was strong. Sanada found himself telling Sakuno things he'd never tell anyone else, like his harsh childhood and the expectations that were held against him by his superiors. And yet, it still had its faults like any other relationship, although one particular fault was rather nerve-wracking for Sanada.

You see, neither Sakuno nor Sanada had ever been in a relationship, so were both unaware of how to go about one. In actuality however, Sanada knew a bit more than Sakuno, but it wasn't very impressive. In fact, he had thought there wasn't anything wrong with their relationship until Kirihara informed him otherwise.

"What are you laughing at Kirihara?" Sanada had asked, both curious and annoyed that this boy was likely laughing at him. Sakuno had just left them to go home, and as she entered the subway train, she called out a, "Bye Sanada-san!" before disappearing out of sight.

Kirihara couldn't contain his laughter. "N-nothing, senpai!" he had choked out through his fit.

"Why are you laughing?" Sanada repeated once again, growing annoyed. This boy…

"It's just that…" Kirihara laughed once more, "she treats you like her grandfather!"

Is he calling me old? Sanada had thought, smacking the boy on the head; it didn't stop the slightest faint of a blush from creeping at his cheeks though.

That was two days ago. Now Sanada sat alongside Sakuno in his room, a textbook spread across his lap, holding her gaze as she presumed to ask, "N-neh, Sanada-san…what do you mean?" to his command.

Sanada heaved out a sigh, and tried once more, "Please drop the suffix Sakuno."

Once again however, she met this with a quizzical expression, and now, a tug of her ponytail.

"Eto…?"

Sanada was never good at communicating. "Look, Sakuno. Why do you always address me with '–san' rather than '–kun?' I am your boyfriend after all, and addressing me as other than such is rather annoying." Sakuno raised her eyebrows at this, mouth agape slightly, before shaking her head in a cute manner and giving off a chuckle.

"It is not funny!" Sanada argued, having been reminded of the day Kirihara opted to make jokes at his own expense.

"But Sanada-san—"

"That's the thing. You address me as if I am your grandfather. Do you know how upsetting that is?"

Now, Sakuno narrowed her eyes in curiosity. "Who told you that?"

Sanada tensed; he did not want to bring up Kirihara, that annoying twerp. "No one," he provided, now avoiding her gaze.

There was a shift in weight on his bed, and as Sanada felt her breath on his neck—she was very short, and only came as high as it, even as they sat—and he felt the tingle that ran up his neck to certain areas that were deemed inappropriate to mention.

She was so innocent; how could she make him feel this way?

"Sanada-san," she began, the stutter no longer evident when she spoke. "Sanada-kun," she corrected, now tugging on the sleeve of his shirt and pulling his gaze away from the wall in front of him and toward her, "I wouldn't be dating an old man would I?"

And then his gaze shifted to her, light brown meeting chocolate ones, the light striking her in just the right moment; in that moment he felt the need to kiss her.

They had never kissed before, and it was their first: one of many other first-ofs that were to come in their relationship. It was not long, and mushy, and sexy like those you see in those dramas, but short, chaste, sweet. It still had the same effect however, and Sanada felt his insides burn.

When he pulled away, Sakuno's eyes shot open, blinking once, twice, red washing over her cheeks. Sanada felt the tug of his lips turn into a smirk, watching as his girlfriend continued to blush, promptly breaking their proximity and opting to sit on the floor, averting her gaze away from him.

She was just so cute.

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| sa katapusan |

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A/N: First off, OH MY GOSH ONE HUNDRED REVIEWS! YOU GUYS ARE SO FREAKING AWESOME!

Second, THANK YOU A WHOLE BUNCH! IT MEANS SO MUCH!~

Third, okay. I'm done with all that excitement. But I hope you all like this chapter, you're an amazing bunch of people! It really does mean a lot to me, and I hope you guys like this one, haha? ;) And look, so far one update per month! I'm feeling great today, having updated two stories. Thanks a bunch guys, and sorry for the wait of this!

xo,

sillyangelxo :)