Chapter 15
Again, no excuses for the delay.
Momiji sighed but stepped back and let the two teenagers in. The girl continued to look at Alana curiously and as they crossed the threshold, the boy seemed to notice her. "Oh. You have a guest." He commented without inflection.
Momiji sighed again and reached up to rub his temples. "Yes I do. You didn't think I was going to eat all of that myself did you?" He motioned them all to precede him into the kitchen.
"No. That is why I invited us along to eat it." The boy replied still holding the food.
Alana chuckled slightly and moved to pull down more place settings and utensils and added them to the table where the other settings were. "My name is Takashi Alana. I am Momiji's girlfriend." She introduced herself with a slight bow. Momiji's face blushed lightly but also had an expression of pride on his face that she had no problems introducing herself as his.
"I'm Sohma Hatsuharu , this is my girlfriend Sohma Rin. We are Momiji's cousins." The boy replied automatically. A few moments passed in silence before he turned to stare at Momiji who had stolen the food and was setting the boxes onto the table. "Girlfriend?"
Momiji nodded, smiling at Alana. Finally they all settled down to eat and began to fill their plates, speech down to simply asking for boxes to be passed every which way. After the food had been situated, Momiji turned to look at the other couple. "So what made you drop by? I thought you guys were going to be gone this week."
"We were. But…we got a phone call and thought…well that we should stay in the area." Rin replied quietly. She looked shyly at Alana as if unsure what to mention in front of her.
Momiji blushed at the thoughtfulness of his cousins. "Thank you, but you didn't have to." He was surprised that Tohru's homecoming had made Rin and Haru decide to cancel their week to make sure he was alright.
"What do you two do, if you don't mind my asking?" Alana asked, changing the subject to give Momiji a moment to settle.
Haru turned and his lazy eyes brightened with mischief a bit before leaning forward, a dangerous smirk on his lips. "We have really good sex."
Alana fought back a blush and raised an eyebrow while Rin and Momiji turned bright red. Haru grinned when she didn't rise to the bait. "I'm sure you do but unless you both make porn movies, I doubt it is a living."
Rin banged her head on the table trying to hide her blush and Momiji grinned as well. Haru gave a deep laugh. "I like her Momiji. She's got spunk." Haru declared and grabbed his glass of water.
Rin shook her head embarrassed but said nothing giving Alana the impression that even though the topic embarrassed her, she was used to Haru's antics. "I don't work at the moment other than as an assistant to another of our cousins. Hatori, he is the family doctor and I help with filing and rounding up the random people who are due for appointments. His wife, a teacher, is pregnant and I've been helping her with grading some nights as well." Rin replied, pretending her boyfriend hadn't opened his mouth as much as she could.
"I teach martial arts to children with yet another cousin." Haru finally answered seriously after Rin jabbed him.
"Wow. There certainly are a lot of Sohma cousins running around." Alana joked. "Trying to take over the world?"
"Only every night." Haru quipped, then began humming Pinky and the Brain theme song. They shared a laugh and ate a few bites before Haru and Rin turned to Alana. "What do you do?"
Alana blushed lightly and wiped her mouth before replying. "I paint and play piano for a small gallery."
Rin's eyes lit up with interest. "You're an artist?"
Alana nodded, smiling fondly at the excitement she could see Rin had. "I am." She looked up when Momiji jumped from his seat and wandered off but he just waved her back to the conversation. "Are you interested in art?"
Rin blushed and tried to shake her head but Haru grabbed her hand in support. "She is. She draws pretty well though she hasn't had any lessons."
"Ink or graphite?" Alana asked, taking another bite.
"Both." Rin answered still pink at being the center of attention.
"I'd love to take a look at what you can do sometime. My grandfather owns the gallery I work at and he hasn't been able to replace his last ink artist since she was scoped by a large gallery." Alana told her smiling. She looked up as Momiji came back into the room with a few of her pieces, mostly the facial sketches that she had done after meeting the various Sohma's.
"Akito bought a trio of paintings and Kisa bought one." Momiji bragged. He settled back into his chair.
"I will be painting during my hours at the gallery on Friday and Monday. My grandfather has artists a few days a week do their work inside the gallery for people to view as he believes it makes them more likely to buy if they see the work done. You would be more than welcome to come by. Or tomorrow while we will be at Ayame's store. I'm doing a painting of Kisa." Alana smiled. Rin's smile widened and her blush spread but she agreed to come to Ayame's shop the next day and watch her work with a plan to visit the Gallery another day. After a few minutes of quiet eating, Alana grinned at Haru. "So I've been invited to the Sohma costume ball. I assume you two are going as well?"
Haru laughed and nodded. "We are. Ayame already came and took our measurements. He always designs everyone's outfits. He takes it as a personal insult if we buy our own." Rin nodded rolling her eyes.
"What did he design for you? Can't be worse than ours." Momiji joked. He was having a very nice time with his cousins and Alana. He couldn't believe how smoothly everything was going. The Sohma's sometimes can be…overwhelming, especially the…odder members of the Zodiac, but everything was going very well. Alana seemed to enjoy their company and was able to relate to Rin over her artwork.
"A 1920's American Gangster and his girl." Haru smirked, his eyes sliding to look at Rin leeringly.
Rin hit him upside his head and flicked her hair over her shoulder. "What is he doing for you two?"
Momiji turned bright red but Alana just chuckled. It was going to be embarrassing she was sure, but from what she knew about Ayame, he wouldn't design something unflattering. It went against who he was to design something ugly, in cloth or on the person. "Sultan and harem girl." Alana admitted.
Haru and Rin paused, chopsticks halfway to their mouths. Haru slowly turned to bend a considering look at Rin. "Want to switch?" He continued to eat as a bright red Rin hit his arm.
The four of them laughed and continued to make small talk about the ball and the Sohma's Alana had met. The night was a success, the only hitch happening when Haru remarked that 'the rat' was going to be returning a few days after Tohru and 'the cat'. He had paused after his statement realizing how he'd referred to the others but tried to play it off.
Alana noted the names and animals, remembering when Momiji had been called 'rabbit', but shrugged it away. As with all the other mysterious things in their conversations, Alana trusted Momiji would explain to her when he felt he could. It may have been a strange philosophy to some, but Alana definitely felt that, to become close to someone, you could never push them into revealing more than they wanted. To do that, to demand they share something, is demanding that they reveal their souls.
After dinner, Haru and Rin stayed long enough to help clean up the dishes, at Rin's insistence, then headed out back to their own home. Momiji heaved a big sigh and collapsed on the couch, joined quickly by Alana who curled her legs up on to the couch and leaned into his side.
"It was nice to meet more of your cousins. I can see how close you all are." Alana commented, gripping one of his hands and pulling it onto her lap.
"We didn't use to be." Momiji admitted. "We used to be grouped together. I was probably closest to Haru and Hatori. Hatori watched out for me as best he could and Haru is my age. But Haru has always loved Rin." A soft smile crossed his face as Alana played with his fingers. "When they were small, Haru seemed to decide that they were destined. Once he even admitted that he wouldn't tell her he loved her until he was taller than she was." Momiji laughed softly.
"I envy them." Alana admitted. "And Kisa and Hiro. Finding love so young and having that love support you for all your life." She linked her fingers with Momiji and leaned her head back to smile at him. "But, there is something to say for finding it as a grown up. Look at Ayame and Mine. There is no doubting the love that the two of them share."
Momiji smiled and nodded, threading his free hand into her hair as he pulled her closer. "Very true." He smiled thinking of how happy he was now that he was with Alana. He had hoped one day he would find someone to love, but on his dark days, he worried he would forever be alone. The two of them sat contentedly together for a while, just cuddling on the couch and feeling comfort in the others presence. Finally Momiji stood and moved to the stereo in the corner of the room. He felt Alana's eyes on him as he set up soft music to play and smiled at her over her shoulder.
"Your first night here, our first night..." Momiji said tugging her to her feet and moving them to the empty part of the room. "Deserves a little more fanfare."
Alana giggled as he twirled her gently then tugged her in to dance with him. "You romantic, you." She brushed a kiss across his cheek.
"Thank you." Momiji smiled as they began to dance. He hadn't thought about the fact that he was or was not romantic before but Alana made him want to be. She made him want to be more than he was to prove that there was more to him. Was this normal? He didn't know but he knew nothing bad could come from wanting to be a better person.
A few songs played as they danced quietly into the night, whispering little comments about the music every now and then but mostly just enjoying the closeness. As the last song played, Momiji looked down at Alana and saw the contented look on her face and felt his heart constrict. He had put that expression on her face. She was happy to be right there with him. The feeling was amazing.
Alana looked up then and met his eyes and the world seemed to fade away. It was cliché and rather silly, but it was true. For one moment there was nothing in the entire world other than the two of them. There was a depth of feeling in her eyes that he knew reflected in his and it made him feel as if he could fly. This was so different than anything he had ever felt before, it took his breath away.
But the moment passed and Alana smiled and leaned up to kiss him gently. "We should head to bed. We need to be at Ayame's shop a little early tomorrow."
Momiji nodded and turned off the stereo before leading her upstairs. He stopped outside the room she would be staying in and pulled her close to him. He leaned down and kissed her thoroughly, leaving her slightly dazed. "Good night." Kissing her was becoming a habit and addicting and he knew that he could never get enough of it.
"Good night," She answered, her voice slightly breathless from his kiss. She turned and went into bedroom and he continued to his own room. It was amazing, the way that he made her feel. He didn't even seem to realize it. With a giggle, she quickly changed into pajamas and climbed into bed. Tomorrow would be a wonderful day.
~Art of Love~
The next morning, Alana woke feeling very refreshed and excited to get to work. For a moment she lay in bed, relishing the new room. She had a full size bed, since it technically had been one of Momiji's guest rooms, but she had already begun to hang some of her pictures on the walls. She had unpacked most of her clothing and the room already felt like home to her. She was happy and relaxed here. She practically skipped downstairs to begin breakfast once she was fully awake.
Half-way through cooking Momiji stumbled into the room following the delicious smells. Alana turned to look at him when he entered and blushed lightly at his state of dress. He wore only long pajama pants and, cutely enough, rabbit slippers on his feet. Alana herself was wearing a tank top and shorts. Neither of them seemed to be in a hurry to change out of their pajamas that morning. Momiji wandered over and wrapped his arms around her, sleepily resting his chin on her shoulder as he watched her cook. "Morning."
Alana laughed and turned to kiss him gently. "Good morning. Breakfast will be done in a moment if you want to set out dishes."
He nodded and gave her a squeeze before moving to set out plates. "So what did you think of Rin and Haru?"
"They were fun." Alana laughed again. "Haru is so shameless and Rin is definitely not." She handed him the bowl of fruit she had found in the fridge and sliced. Once the hashbrowns, the only other thing Momiji had in his cabinets, were finished she dished it up then moved to sit at the table with him. They gave thanks and dug in. "I would like to see what Rin is able to do and then send her my grandfather's way. He loves to give budding artists a start."
Momiji smiled over his food. "This is really good." He complimented her. "Rin is pretty good. She has a different style than you but I like what she does."
"Haru is your age?" Alana asked after a few minutes of quiet.
Momiji nodded. "Yeah. I will have to see if I can find photos of us back in school. I was very short for a long time and even wore a girl's uniform to school, with shorts obviously, because I claimed I looked so much cuter. Then one year I came back from break all grown up. The response was rather…strange."
Alana winked at him. "Well you are gorgeous, Momiji. If you left looking all cute and young and came back looking like you do now, you probably had a rabid fan club somewhere." She loved the way he blushed at her compliment and congratulated herself at being able to tell him he was gorgeous.
"I don't know about that." He laughed. "My cousin Yuki, Ayame's little brother, he had a fan club. They went around calling him Prince Yuki. They were very upset when he became friends with Tohru. Claimed she was witch because prior to their becoming friends, he really didn't talk to anyone in school unless he had to. Of course, right after they began to talk, Kyo moved into the school and the following year Haru and I did and from there it was all kinds of crazy."
Alana smiled, getting a chance to hear more about Momiji and his family was wonderful. She noticed he was able to talk about Tohru without pausing at her name this time and felt happy. He was healing. She wondered why no one had ever noticed he was hurting before but then paused in thought, they had noticed. They had come to see him and brought him to meet her and talked with him about it. He just wasn't ready to heal then.
"I can't imagine what Ayame is like to his brother considering how he is to everyone else." Alana remarked finishing up her food. She wouldn't bring up Tohru or Kyo but just let him talk when he was ready.
Momiji laughed and nodded as he began to help her with cleaning up. "Ayame does go a bit crazy over Yuki. He loves his bruder more than anything, except Mine and their child. He's just very…exuberant in displaying that love. Yuki loves to garden and once, when they didn't get along as well, his brother followed him out to his garden and Yuki started to storm off and ripped his shirt. Ayame immediately took it and began to stitch it up. They talked pretty deeply while he was doing it and Yuki said he felt like he could finally understand his brother. Then of course, Ayame hands his shirt back and it says something like 'Ayame Loves His Brother' or something. Yuki was furious!"
Alana laughed hard as they finished the dishes. She could definitely see Ayame doing something like that. They disappeared into their own rooms and changed into clothing for the day, Ayame's a bit more casual than Momiji's since she would inevitably get paint on the clothing. When they met up back downstairs they headed out, talking about plans for the next few days. Tohru and Kyo were arriving just before Halloween, Momiji had told her and they had dinner with Akito and her husband, Shigure, tomorrow and her family on Sunday. It was going to be a busy next few days. They swung by her grandfather's gallery and picked up the painting for Ayame and Mine and then headed over to his store.
When they got there, they arrived to a lot of noise in the back room and poked their heads in to see Rin trying to fight off Ayame and Mine who were waving an outfit in her direction. "I don't want to try it on!"
"But Rin! We must know if any alterations need to be made before the ball!" Ayame was arguing while Mine was getting closer. Once she got in reach, she nabbed Rin and dragged her off to the changing room. Rin wouldn't fight her since she was pregnant. Ayame tossed the clothing into the room before the door slammed shut and turned with a wide smile on his face to Haru. "You change as well!"
Haru nodded and began to undress. Alana and Momiji jerked their heads back around the door laughing. Ayame poked his head out and saw them and the covered painting. "Good morning! How wonderful to see you both so early. Give us one more minute and Haru shall be done changing. I'll set up the light while you wait!" He vanished back into the room and Alana wandered through the fabrics, looking at the various shades and styles. She was fingering a warm brown cloth that made her think of Momiji's eyes when Ayame poked his head out and said it was safe.
Haru was wearing his gangster costume, complete with hat and chained pocket watch. The hat was at a rakish angle and he was wearing the jacket open, showing the high waist and suspenders.
"You look wonderful!" Alana exclaimed. She pulled out a camera from her bag and took some photos automatically. They were all smiling indulgently at her when she realized and blushed. "Sorry."
"No problems, Lan." Haru remarked. "Just make sure you get some of Rin when she gets out." He smirked and it made the gangster look complete.
Momiji was mouthing 'Lan' as Alana laughed and nodded. A moment later, Mine came flouncing into the room, as well as she could so pregnant anyway. Rin stomped into the room behind her and paused when she saw that Alana and Momiji had joined them. Her dress was charcoal grey. The fringes of the dress lay in layers that went down to her knees though the full fabric stopped mid-thigh. It hugged her curves wonderfully and Mine had even managed to do her long hair in an up-do that fit the time whistled when he saw her, she did look like a gorgeous femme fatale. Alana was snapping pictures of her as well, especially when Rin turned to Haru and gave a soft smile at seeing him changed. "Those costumes are amazing Ayame! You both look wonderful! A stunning combination." She took a few photos of the two of them together and promised to give copies to the couple.
Eventually, Rin and Haru were allowed to change back into their clothing and flopped down on the couch with Rin giving Ayame the evil eye. Once Mine and Ayame were settled as well, Momiji pulled the painting forward and set it on the table. "Alana painted this for you two."
Alana nodded, blushing lightly and lifted the sheet from the painting. Mine and Ayame gasped and Rin and Haru's jaws dropped. The painting of Ayame and Mine was simply beautiful. The colors and style brought a sense of serenity to the painting but the expression of love on their faces was clear and obvious.
"It is absolutely amazing." Mine breathed and Haru and Rin nodded. Ayame, for once, seemed at a loss for words. His eyes devoured the painting of him and Mine. Alana thanked Mine and escaped to start pulling out materials to work on the painting of Kisa.
She was setting out a tube of paint when she was grabbed from behind and pulled into a tight hug. She gasped at the suddenness and looked up to see Ayame with tears on his face.
"I cannot express how beautiful this painting is and how much it means to me. Thank you so much." Ayame told her, his voice strong and quiet.
Alana smiled up at him. "The two of you are such a beautiful couple and the love you share is written all over you. I could not help but paint it."
Ayame nodded again in thanks and went over to Mine and wrapped his arms around her as they studied the painting once more. Haru was talking with Momiji and Rin wandered her way to Alana's side. "Hey Alana."
"Hello, Rin." Alana greeted, she turned and smiled at the willowy beauty and moved back towards the painting stand to finish setting up. "How are you doing?"
"I am good, thanks." She smiled back softly. "What kind of exciting things are you painting now?" She came around the painting and looked at the rough edges and at the pictures along the frame. "Kisa?"
"Yes." Alana looked at the picture with a small smile on her face. "Kisa is just so adorable. I had to paint her!" She glanced around for any of the boys, then leaned in to whisper to Rin. "Hiro already bought the painting." The two of them spent a few moments giggling over their cuteness. "They are such a cute couple."
Rin grinned. "Definitely. Hiro really loves her. He's dedicated almost his whole life to her." Her eyes briefly looked far away but she quickly shook herself out of it.
Alana smiled softly as Momiji had to dodge Ayame, who was now bothering him about trying things on. She turned back to her painting and began to work, keeping up a very light conversation with Rin. A few hours later, Momiji came and grabbed the two of them for lunch.
The four young adults happily chatted about different things as they ate. Family, school, friends, etc. and as they were finishing up, Alana turned to Haru with a mischievous grin. "So Haru, you went to school with Momiji. Perhaps you can settle a dispute for me."
Haru smirked when Momiji groaned and laughed. "What is this dispute?"
Alana leaned forward conspiratorially. "Did Momiji have a fan club once he switched to the boy's uniform?"
Haru threw his head back and let out a loud guffaw. After a moment he calmed. "He did! All those girls who had thought he was just so adorable before? They went crazy over him once he 'grew up'."
Alana gave Momiji a triumphant look and he laughed as he helped her out of her seat. "See, I knew you would have a fan club!"
"Yeah, yeah." Momiji chuckled and the four of them headed back to Ayame's.
Haru and Rin didn't stay much longer but made plans to visit Alana at work on Monday. Alana and Momiji stayed for a few more hours working on the painting before they had to head off to get groceries. Momiji found shopping for groceries with Alana to be charming. The two of them discussing what foods to make, what the best sides were, was something so domestic, so natural, he found himself fighting to keep from grinning like a lunatic.
When they finally reached the house, they quickly put away the food and changed into comfortable clothing for their night in. They spent the evening watching a movie, snuggled together before parting for the night. Both went to sleep smiling and had similar thoughts on the perfect day they had shared.
And this the end of the edits! Thank you for your patience and the next chapter will be up soon.