Everything seemed to go off without a hitch.

It took Saya barely fifteen minutes to familiarize herself with the house while the others gave her a tour of her new living space. Staring with the main house and going on to end at the branch house where it was explained to her some of the lesser ranked youkai lived.

Once Saya had all of the rooms memorized she asked if she could use the kitchen, which caused her little group to balk a bit as the men each stared at her either curiously or in shock.

She wasn't exactly sure which as the man wearing the scarf stepped forward a little and said, "There is no need for you to do such demeaning work. You were brought here to take care of master's grandfather. Not serve others." He explained this with such a sense of authority and finality that she felt a little bit offended that he seemed to think her slow on the uptake or something and almost didn't tell him that by letting her use the kitchen, she would in fact be doing her job.

Honestly, people who began suffering severe afflictions of the mind usually had different nutritional needs.

Or at least that was the case in her experience. But maybe it was different with youkai.

Deciding that it might be better for her patient in the long run to simply ask before she bothered jumping to conclusions, she voiced her thoughts to her small group of companions on their way back to the main house.

To say that both of the youkai were stunned by her question was a gross understatement, though she didn't at first know why until the man in the monk robes bent down a little bit to look her in the eyes as he replied in a thoughtful manner.

"Our former high commander, master Nurarihyon is one of the oldest living youkai in the world. If we seem...a bit startled as to your questions- it is only because we do not really know how to answer them. Before now, none of us were even aware that like humans, once we reach a specific age- our minds would begin to unravel."

"As to the dietary needs of our former master, though he is a pure blooded youkai, he lived much of his life as a human does. I believe that after going so long consuming and drinking human made things, his body simply adapted to those in an effort to keep him alive. Otherwise he would have started picking off human's long before now."

She blinked at him, unsure of how to respond to his words- though there was a tad bit of an insinuation in them that worried her a little, she would simply have to speak to Rikou about her worries at a later date. Until then she would have to simply file the knowledge away in the back of her mind somewhere.

"I see." Was all that she could really think to say before once again asking the small group to let her use the kitchen.

The blond youkai wearing the scarf simply sighed and subtly nodded as the other excused himself and vanished into thin air shortly after they began walking again, starling her to the point where she actually tripped over her own feet and somehow managed to latch onto the blond before they both fell to the hard wood floor.

He with his arms around her in an effort to protect her from any possible injury.

And she shrieking as she clung to him.

(*****************************************************************************************************************************)

Rikou looked at his grandfather with a frustrated expression on his face.

Now granted that he knew his grandfather's current lack of attention wasn't exactly his fault, but still, one would think that the old man would at least try to pay attention to what he was attempting to explain to him about his live-in caretaker.

After all, he didn't want the old man to start recalling his youth as a youkai and do something inappropriate to the woman and scare the shit out of her.

Sighing for what seemed like the hundredth time in the past ten minutes, Rikou again tried to get his grandfather's attention when Kurotabo appeared.

Looking at the youkai, Rikou wondered what he wanted as the man opened his mouth to speak when a feminine shriek much different from any others either had ever heard before suddenly sounded and had both men quickly snapping to attention and running to where the sound came from.

Once the reached the area, both men paused when they saw Saya and Kubinashi both on the floor, lying on top of each other.

Huffing slightly at the sight of the woman in his former nanny's arms, Rikou took a moment to squash the weird feeling of jealousy stirring within him and walked over to the two and cleared his throat expectantly as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Kubinashi was the first to realise that his master was present and looked up at him and blanched a little, knowing that someone had better explain why he and the woman were on the floor clinging to one another before his master decided to ream the both of them.

"Good morning master Rikou," Kubinashi greeted awkwardly as he slowly pushed himself upright a little bit and then put the woman away from him. "Forgive the...uh...scene we just made master. I sent Kurotabo to speak with you about miss Saya using our kitchen and when he disappeared the miss was so startled that she tripped and took me down with her when she fell." He said, hoping to defuse whatever temper his master was about to exhibit.

Rikou considered Kubinashi's explanation and conceded that little accidents like this one were bound to happen from this day onward until the woman either got used to youkai habits of left them, he knelt down next to Saya And looked her over for a moment before offering her his hand and asking if she was alright.

She looked at him for a moment, her expression just a little bit dazed as she slowly reached out and slipped her hand in his own and let him pull her up so that they were both standing.

"Thanks." Saya said as she flushed with embarrassment and pulled her small hand from his grasp before he could even think to tighten his hold.

He gave a slight nod before asking, "What's this stuff about wanting to use the kitchen?"

"Oh! I was telling your friends-"

"Comrades."

"W-What?"

"They are my comrades. More like brothers really. But I still call them my comrades." Rikou said gently, hoping that she would understand that the dynamics within a yakuza family was far different from a normal one. Everyone within his house was ranked specifically due to either their skill set or place within a joint clan.

"Oh. I see." She didn't really understand since she had grown up differently from himself, but she thought that she got the gist of it. Sort of. "Um, well I was wanting to use the kitchen so that I could fix your grandfather breakfast."

Rikou was about to tell her that his grandfather's food was probably already fixed however paused when Kurotabo quickly explained to him the reason why she wished to use the kitchen. Rikou's expression remained neutral until the man was done speaking before turning and starting to walk away as he called out.

"Take Saya to the kitchen and help her with anything she may need. We'll cover everything else later."