Aha, yes. You can actually tell which part I wrote in one go and which parts I wrote over a period of time.

It's close to midnight and I'm sick (again). I might as well roll this out before I crash, haha. It's so late, so please tell me if I skipped a mistake or something.

Kagerou Project belongs to Jin.

Haruka's mother was very much like her son. They both had the same black hair (although hers was tied in an anime-mom like fashion, and she's surprisingly not dead), the same warm eyes, and the same endearing birthmark under the same eye. It was easy to say that Haruka took his qualities from his mother – and Takane, of course, did so.

But there were some undiscovered layers to the "official mother and caretaker of Haruka Kokonose", and that…that was an event within itself.

It all started (cliché, yes, but let her be) when Haruka asked her out. Yes, that was a thing. It was rather spontaneous – and that was a given, of course, since Haruka acted on impulse at that moment. He was so anxious, and if his heart were to beat as fast as it did that day, maybe he wouldn't have such huge medical problems.

(But that would mean not meeting Takane because he wouldn't be in the special needs class. Yeah, he'll take Takane. Shush, he felt super mushy. Well, he always did with Takane.)

No, no, but listen to this – she actually agreed. Yes, you heard that right. Takane Enomoto had willingly said yes to Haruka's rather nervous-but-in-a-cute-way-and-oh-god-did-he-hear-me-say-that proposal, and was her own blubbering mess when it came to the fact that they were now officially dating. And right after that, they walked home together (hand-in-hand, because they've always wanted to do that but never had the guts to until that day) – or rather, it was Haruka's home, because while the start of their relationship was rather spontaneous, they did agree on a study session.

Which leads them to this point, horray! Shifting through his pockets, he took out his house's keys, opening it with a smile on his face. The blush, however, was something he just couldn't wipe off his face. Ah, but can he really help it? After all, who was the one holding Takane's hand in the first place?

"I'm home!" The clatter from the kitchen probably came from his mother, since his father worked late. The couple (oh god, was this true?) took of their shoes, which meant letting go of each other's hands for a minute, but that was all good.

"Oh, welcome back, Haruka!" Haruka's mom had suddenly appeared in front of them, and oh boy, could Takane feel her own face heating up at the sight of her possible mother-in-law. O – or something else…! No, she wasn't thinking of that. They just got together. Get yourself together, Takane. "And Takane's here, too! Is this the study session you were talking about?"

"Yep!" Haruka chirped enthusiastically, a laugh slowly trailing after. "Actually, ah...Takane and I are – "

"Don't tell me!" Haruka's mother interrupted, a playful smile crossing her face. "You're going to have a wedding!"

"W – w – what?!" Takane the Tsundere strikes once more. Now her face turned an even deeper color of red, and it was kind of an unusual shade, actually. "W – where'd you get that from?!"

"Lighten up!" Haruka's mother giggled, and she seemed to enjoy herself with that...what even was that? Was it even considered a joke? It had such a bad punch-line. "So, when's the wedding?"

"M – mom….!" Cue Haruka burying his face deep into his hands, the actual heat from his face radiating and scattering throughout the whole entire house. "I – it's not…we're not…!"

"You're not…?" And that's when the smile on his mother's face turned upside down (a frown, yes). "Well, what were you going to say then, Haruka?"

"W – what I was going to say was…ah…" Oh no, embarrassed and flustered Haruka was really cute in Takane's eyes. She hid her face in an attempt to contain herself, but alas, he said those words out loud. "We're not having a wedding yet! We're just going out, that's all!"

"You idiot!" If she wasn't in Haruka's house right now, she would had leaned over and pinched his cheeks. Ah, his mother was watching. "What do you mean by 'yet'?!"

"Now, now, don't think about it that much!" That's when Haruka's mother pitched in another laugh. She really did seem like she was enjoying herself. Was Takane's humiliated face giving away her feelings that easily? Really, she didn't expect Haruka's mother to be like, well, that. "I get it – you guys need time! But…"

She turned to Haruka, waving a knowing pointer finger at him. Her son – bless him, really – only looked down at it, a look of confusion dashing through his pink face. "I'd rather have grandkids after the wedding, so I don't expect to see kids this study session!"

"Mom!"

"I – is your mom always like that?"

It had been five minutes since the "Incident of the Doorway" as Takane had dubbed it, and since then, the girl's face was far from the normal shade. Did she even consider her "normal" complexion to be, well, normal? She was sleep-deprived among other things, so maybe not…

Right, moving on. Haruka looked up at her with a smile, although hints of nervousness traced itself on the lines of his lips as he moved them to talk. "N – not always…! Honestly, I wasn't expecting that today!"

"Oh god, that's so embarrassing…!" Takane placed her face in the worksheets splattered across the table, and her heart picked its pace up...again. She just can't seem to swallow the sugary-sweet feeling swelling in the back of her mouth, can she? Right, blame her stupidly cute boyfriend. Oh god, boyfriend. Quick, she needed to move on before she could further herself into the pit that is sticky love –

Aha, too late, anyway. Remind her who she was dating again?

Dating. Oh god.

"I don't think so!" Haruka chipped in with his stupidly dazzling grin and stupidly blinding face and stupidly amazing everything. Calm down, Haruka-sama. "At least my mom likes you, Takane! It'll make marrying into the family much easier!"

"O – oi! What do you mean by that?!"

Nothing held her back from lunging towards the boy, who was approximately less than a foot away from her. Or closer, in all reality. The table itself had pretty short legs, so they ended up sitting on the floor, and Haruka insisted that they seat close to each other. Like, really close. They were practically touching shoulders.

Alas, the boy was rather clumsy, and so he toppled over once her weight was above his. Takane was practically on top of Haruka and much, much closer than she intended to be. Ah, but he was so warm…!

Screw this. Screw everything. They were dating, for God's sake, and she wasn't going to be embarrassed by her overly-cute boyfriend anymore. Not today, not any day. She was going to lay there on top of him and just wrap her arms around him because she was that sappy, and –

"Haruka!" A swish came from behind, and both teenagers peeped behind them to find Haruka's mother standing there.

Right, was it a perfect time to mention that they were in Haruka's room?

"O – oh!" Haruka's mother chuckled, appearing to be pleased. Ah, why wasn't Takane moving? And why wasn't Haruka telling her to get off? "I didn't think you'd be doing that this early!"

"H – hah?!" Ah, that triggered a reaction out of the girl. Takane got up in a flash, holding her hands up for dear mercy. "N – no, it's not – ! We're not…! Agh, Haruka, say something!"

"E – eh, mom, we were just studying, that's all!" Haruka sat up, hair ruffled from when Takane had dived at him. His hair was rather soft (as expected, really), but the response he gave just wasn't helping their situation. Although, he did look rather flushed himself. "Ah…but since you came here, you must have wanted to ask something!"

"But if I'm interrupting something – !"

"N – nothing at all, Ms. Kokonose!" Takane stuttered quickly, waving her hands in an attempt to sway the topic. Her ears were pretty much heated at five-hundred or something degrees Celsius, and there was no stopping the flood of the "oh-my-god-I'm-just-so-discombobulated" feeling making its way into her system.

"Oh, okay then…!" Haruka's mother cleared her throat, smiling much wider than before. "Would you like to stay for dinner, Takane?"

"A – ah? Dinner?" Taakane looked at Haruka, raising an eyebrow to see if he knew anything about his mother's plan, but as he only blinked back in innocent bewilderment, she guessed it wasn't something they'd talked about. "My grandma – "

"Oh come on, Takane! You know that your grandmother and I are on pretty good terms, right?" Haruka's mother laughed once more, as if it was something obvious. Sure they'd met each other in parent conferences, and God knows what happened in those – literally. None of the students knew, and the day after, Kenjirou always seemed rather sly. Yeah, they didn't want to know. "I'm sure she'll be fine if you stayed over a little longer!"

Haruka's hand placed itself on top of hers, and his grin was as sweet as ever. "Yeah! After all, we're going out and all! It's fine!"

"F – fine! But it's not because you said that!"

(Oh yes, it totally was.)