Ayano paced through her house; her previous encounter with Akito was still with her in a form of bruises on her neck from where the tea had spilled on her. She thought of the offer, and began to weigh the pros and cons,

"I can't go back to the U.S., I just got back home! I even bought this house and I have a steady job right out of med school… but then again; she didn't even know if Akito knew her recent secrets. If her bond with the "God" was as strong as the legend tells, shouldn't Akito know by now?" Ayano sighs and slumps down on her couch. When she hears the phone ring,

"Hello Ayano-san?" asks Tohru who called to invite Ayano to dinner across the street to Shigure's house,

"I'll be right over, thanks for the invite Tohru-san" Ayano replies as she hangs up and grabs her things to bring over to Shigure's house, only leaving her secrets behind and locking them up until she could decide on its faith.

Over at Shigure's home, Tohru had made yakiniku (Japanese style B.B.Q.) as Ayano sat in her seat, unsettled and clearly nervous. Noticing her nervousness, Shigure sits down next to her and smiles softly,

"I've seen that look from you before: it was when we were all in school- the night you were told you made it into Harvard- that night Akito threatened you." Shigure sighed as Ayano stared down, not wanting to reveal herself even more to her friend, who seemed to know her more than she did herself,

"You've always knew what I was thinking before I did, but tonight, I don't think I can tell you my side of the story without causing Yuki to worry about me." Replied Ayano as Tohru came in with her smile and the food as Yuki and Kyo came into the dining room, they were about to begin to eat when the door bell rang.

"I'll get it," offered Yuki as he walked down the hall to open the front door, as the door opened; a stranger stood by the house and looked at Yuki,

"Hi, you must be Yuki; I heard that Ayano might be staying here" the stranger began in English,

Yuki looks at this stranger with curiosity and tries to think in English, while Ayano walked down the hall to the front door and identified the stranger,

"Shane?!" Ayano blurts as the stranger identified as Shane grabs Ayano and pushes her to the light in front of the house and begins to bombard her with a flurry of questions,

"What happened to you? Why didn't I get to see you after graduation? And now you seemed to just run back home to Japan? Can you please explain why you left without formally replying to my proposal?" Shane questions as Ayano slumps and quiets down scared to answer any of his questions. Shigure notices this and drags Yuki back in, explaining that this was now an adult conversation. Shigure now mediates between the two of them and tries to explain them to Shane in his limited English,

"Why don't you come back tomorrow, then you guys can talk after the both of you cleared your heads." He says and Shane nods, looks at Ayano who clutched herself tight avoiding Shane's eyes and touch. Shane now left and Shigure led Ayano back into the house and onto the garden as he began to take out a cigarette and looked at Ayano for an explanation for her situation.

Shigure looks into the living room and explains to Tohru, Kyo, and Yuki to eat dinner without them since they needed to discuss adult matters. He continued to smoke and stared at Ayano.

"I think you should explain some things, first off- a fiancé? When did you start dating?" Shigure snickered as Ayano stared back with a blank look, "You gonna tell Akito?" Shigure added,

"Are you?" questioned Ayano as she looked at Shigure with pleading eyes,

"No, but if you want to marry this guy, you do need to." Shigure warned as Ayano nodded, she knew the consequences of loving someone out of the family, Akito being one of the major consequences; but revealing her family secrets meant one of the consequences as well.

"I think I'm going to go home now, can you thank Tohru-san for preparing dinner? Good night, Shigure." Ayano sighed as she walked around the house to go back to her house across the street, thinking about her boyfriend, Shane. Thinking back to the times when the two of them had lived together, carelessly, though med school and internships in their apartment they shared for three years.

Flashback: 4 years ago

Fall began as Ayano was going into her first med school lectures as she drudged through the campus with a couple of friends she had gathered since her pre-med years, when a backpack knocked her morning coffee out of her hands,

"Aw crap!" Ayano exclaimed as she bent down to pick up her dropped cup of coffee; an unfamiliar large hand reached toward the dropped cup and handed it back to her.

"I…I am so sorry about that!" the guy says as we look up, his eyes widens and stammers even more, "Let me buy you another one, please let me- it's the least I can do!" he finishes as Ayano smiles and laughed at his sincerity ever so slightly.

"I have to go to class, but afterwards, I'm free- you could make it up to me then." Ayano replied as this stranger perked,

"By any chance is your class with, Professor Brennan" he asked as he finally noticed some of the books that Ayano had carried. She nodded as he smirked and pointed toward the lecture hall down the quad.

"I'm Shane, Shane McCormic" he introduces, "Nice to meet you Shane, I'm Ayano Souma." They smile and go to their first class together, both did not realize that this first meeting would mean more than they both would realize.

-One year later-

It has been her second year in med school as well as Ayano's second year anniversary with Shane. It was a Friday night and she had dressed up, shifting through her apartment she looked through her wardrobe in an attempt to find an out fit to match this special occasion, she ended up settling for a red strap dress with a ruffled train with red pumps. She was finishing her make up as the door bell rang,

"Be right there!" Ayano would answer as Shane greeted her with a smile and a bouquet of flowers, they did not greet each other with a hug or a kiss; Ayano knew why, she did not tell Shane of her family secret; and Shane accepted her secrets and allowed her to keep some distance, he was understanding and Ayano was grateful,

"Maybe… I could tell him some day…one day…" Ayano thought to herself as she walked behind Shane while he waited by his car and held the door open for her, slightly dissatisfied for being kept in the dark, but ignored it and went to the driver's side and began to drive.

End flash back: Present

Drinking seemed to help Ayano as she heard the door open followed by Hatori, Shigure, and Ayame walked in.

"So when did you get a boyfriend, Ayano?" Hatori first asked as Ayame laughed, "You do have a chance in the world of love after all my sweet sister!" Ayano and Hatori shook their head in loss of words as Shigure laughed along Ayame.

"Since my first year of med school… I…he…" Ayano began yet found no words that could fill in the space that seemed to be open for Shane.

"Well, we don't have to talk about anything you don't want to." Hatori said with his comforting smile

"Hey, we haven't had a drink the four of us in a while; why don't we formally celebrate your return back?" Shigure said as he pulled out two bottles of alcohol as Ayano grabbed the cups as the four began to talk and drink, all hoping to erase some pain that this family had caused many of them.

A couple of hours had passed and the liquor bottle began to run to an end.

"I'll go throw these away, make yourselves at home…" Ayano mumbled as she walked off to the drop off the trash across the street, as she began to walk back to the front door when she could have sworn had heard Shane, she looked around inspecting her front yard when Shane popped out of no where and embraced her in a hug.

Shigure and Hatori had stepped out to smoke a cigarette when they had noticed Ayano come back from throwing the trash away, they wanted to call out to her, to see if she'd join them when they noticed Shane run through the street out of his car and straight toward Ayano,

"Holy shit what the hell is he thinking?" Hatori said as he began to run toward the two to try and stop him from exposing Ayano's secret while Shigure stands there and quietly observes Ayano and Shane not knowing what to expect; until he saw Hatori stop dead in his tracks, to which Shigure noticed the most fearful and envious sight; looking at Ayano and Shane, and Ayano had remained a human.