Chapter 19
I apologize for the wait. This chapter started strong but by the end I was no longer in love with it. But, I think I have fixed my issues with it and am working on chapter 20!

The next morning, Momiji accompanied Alana to Ayame's shop. He was certain that if he stayed at the house alone, he would just drive himself crazy. It was the first time in a while that Momiji had seen the painting, mainly when he had come, Ayame had spent time with him discussing costumes and Alana, rather than letting him sit with Alana and watching her paint. His breath caught in his throat as he came over with her. It was nearly finished. Momiji almost couldn't believe that portrait wasn't a photograph; the details were so exact, so smooth. The details on her dress, the shine of her jewelry, they were so perfect. And Kisa looked so regal and poised; it was almost like she had been raised as a real princess.

"Alana…it is amazing!" Momiji gasped, reaching out to curl his arm around her shoulders.

Alana blushed brightly. No one had really seen the painting, they seemed to prefer it to be a surprise, or maybe thought she'd prefer it that way. But she was so pleased at Momiji's reaction. A family member of the subject thinking it was well done was very different from her believing she'd done a good job.

"Have Kisa or Hiro seen this?" Momiji asked, kissing her lightly on the cheek.

Alana shook her head. "Kisa came over for me to do details on her face, but didn't want to look at it until it was finished, same with Hiro."

"Well it is looking absolutely wonderful!" Momiji declared. He kissed her again on the cheek and was about to say more when he heard Ayame's excited cries from the next room. Together, they stuck their heads out into the main room and saw Ayame fawning all over a tall handsome boy with similar hair and features.

"Yuki!" Momiji exclaimed happily and stepped out further. He moved over and pried Ayame off the other young man long enough to greet him before he was crowded to the side. A little behind Yuki was a shy, dark haired girl who stood quietly out of the way. "Welcome, Machi." Momiji greeted her softly.

Machi gave him the barest smile in return and dipped her head. Her eyes flickered over to Alana in the doorway, to Yuki being man handled by his older brother, to Mine smiling broadly at the spectacle, and around again.

"Let's retreat to the sitting room while Yuki is being smothered." He smiled and led her back to Alana. He introduced the two. "Alana Takashi, this is Machi Kuragi, the girlfriend of Ayame's younger brother Yuki."

Alana bowed in greeting, holding her hair from her face as it started to slide over her shoulder. "It's wonderful to meet you."

Machi bowed slightly back. "How do you do?" They moved to sit on the couches, but before they could continue the pleasantries, the volume in the main room kicked up again and Machi rolled her eyes slightly. "I do believe Kakeru has arrived."

Momiji hopped to his feet and bounced from the room in excitement leaving Machi and Alana sitting in the quieter room. Mine waddled through declaring she was going to fetch tea for everyone and Alana turned to Machi. "Do you ever get used to the energy levels?"

"No." Machi deadpanned. Her eyes softened at Alana's giggle. "But…it is worth it."

Alana saw the soft love in Machi's eyes and felt her fingers twitch at the sudden desire to draw the look on her face. "Umm…would you mind if I sketched while we talked?" Alana asked, not wanting Machi to feel as if she was being ignored. When Machi shook her head, Alana dug her sketchbook from her bag and began to sketch Machi. "How did you meet the Sohmas?"

Machi tilted her head slightly. "Yuki and I were on the school council together." Her eyes drifted across the room as if listening to the commotion behind her. "We found ourselves very similar."

Alana smiled in understanding. "You've been together for a while then?"

Machi nodded. "Three years." The door behind them burst open and neither did more than glance over.

Ayame led the way into the room, a new man with dark hair and wide grin following closely and gesturing wildly while Momiji and Yuki trailed behind. "Ah! My darling little brother and my disciple, this vision of loveliness is Momiji's girlfriend, Alana Takashi!"

Yuki and the new man who Alana assumed was the 'Kakeru' Machi had named bowed in greeting. Kakeru's as energetic as Yuki's was elegant. "Pleased to meet you, my name is Yuki." Yuki said quietly and sat beside Machi on the smaller couch, Momiji and Kakeru dropped to either side of Alana on the large couch while Ayame briefly disappeared to help Mine bring in things for tea before sitting on the last love seat with her.

Kakeru gave Alana a big smile. "How do you do! You may call me Kakeru. What do you have there?" He leaned over her shoulder to look at the sketches in her hands. "Wow!" He murmured at a much quieter volume. He studied the half-finished sketch and looked up at Machi, studying her as well.

"Yes, our darling Alana is an outstanding artist! Just look at the amazing masterpiece she gifted my beautiful Mine and myself!" Ayame gestured grandly to the far wall where he had placed the painting between two mirrors on the fittings side of the shop. They all took a moment to admire the soft water colors of the couple in the painting while Alana finished her sketch of Machi. "She has truly captured the love that my stunning Mine and myself share." He bent down and brushed a kiss lightly across her cheek as she looked adoringly up at him.

"It is amazing." Yuki agreed, giving Alana a smile. Machi nodded as well.

Alana smiled shyly back. "Thank you!"

Kakeru leapt to his feet in excitement. "That's it!" He posed dramatically and everyone but Machi turned to look at him. Machi went about getting herself a cup of tea, choosing the cup with the different design with a small smile. "I know how I want to propose to my Meat Angel!" He held the pose while everyone stared at him, some more confused than others. Yuki huffed lightly and started to fix himself tea as well.

"Your…meat angel?" Alana asked cautiously. That was certainly an…interesting nickname for someone.

"My girlfriend, Komaki." Kakeru shook his hand dismissively. "The important part of this is! I want to hire you! To draw an engagement picture for me!"

Even Machi looked up at him at that declaration. "You what." She asked lowering her cup.

Kakeru began nodding and pacing around the room, gesturing wildly. "Yes, yes this is perfect! It will be something unique because my meat angel only deserves the best, and you obviously have the talent to make something magnificent as she deserves." He stopped and pointed at her. "No don't go protesting and being humble! If the Great Ayame has such faith in your abilities, there is no way you can hide them from me!"

Momiji began to laugh uproariously and Yuki and Machi rolled their eyes at each other. Ayame and Mine both began to agree that Alana's talent was up to the task but Alana just raised an eyebrow at him before turning back to her sketch and finishing it, letting the others chatter above her. When she finished, she handed the sketchbook to Yuki and Machi to show what she had drawn and turned to the boy who was now pouting and whining at her side.

"Now…Kakeru? You want an engagement picture. What exactly is that going to be?" Alana asked curiously. That was something she had never heard of.

Kakeru froze for a moment in surprise. Either he had not expected her to even contemplate doing it, or he had no idea what he wanted. After a moment, he jumped to his feet. "You can draw the two of us as if we were at our wedding! I was going to ask the Great Ayame if he would make our clothes for our eventual wedding day so he could sketch out the outfits!" He went off with his idea and Alana turned to look at Ayame who actually looked flattered.

Momiji finally stopped laughing and stood, tugging Alana to her feet. "Well, while you two discuss that, Alana is going to get back to work. Yuki, want to come pick up some lunch with me?" Yuki agreed and left Machi to sit calmly with Mine while Ayame and Kakeru went to a corner to conspire. Momiji gave Alana a kiss on the cheek and guided her to the painting she was working on. "I apologize for the crazy. But know you don't have to do anything that you don't want to. Is there anything in particular that you want to eat?"

Alana grinned and shook her head, shooing Momiji away. The Sohma family and their friends were crazy, that was definitely true. But…she turned to look at the boys in the corner looking absolutely delighted with their conversation and the girls sitting across the room simply drinking tea and relaxing. They were crazy, but she wouldn't give up any of them for normalcy. Momiji brought a lot of passion and a breath of life into her world. He gave her a reason to love her music and art again and believe that she had the love to continue with it. She shook her head with a smile and turned to the painting and got back to work.

~Art of Love~

By the time Momiji and Yuki had arrived with an array of foods, Alana had finished the last of the big things on the paintings and had only details to touch up before letting it set and dry for good. She sat back with a happy sigh and began to clean her brushes. She heard Yuki and Momiji return but there seemed to be extra voices with them. She wandered over once she had finished and saw Rin and Hatsuharu had joined everyone. "Hello you two."

"We had planned to come by the Gallery yesterday, but we got caught up. Sorry." Hatsuharu apologized digging into the bags and setting out food.

"Are you sure you just didn't come yesterday because there was no food?" Alana teased him, accepting a small bowl of soup from Momiji. "I think every time we have seen you, food has been involved."

Everyone gave a little laugh. Rin shook her head with a small smile. "Akito asked us to drop by. She and I…well, there is a lot of history there so I wasn't sure what she wanted."

Hatsuharu shrugged when Momiji gave him a sharp glance. "Everything was fine." Momiji, Hatsuharu, and Yuki finished handing everyone their food and found places to sit. The atmosphere was light and friendly and Alana very much enjoyed it.

"How goes designing the costumes for the ball?" Alana asked Ayame as the amount of food began to dwindle.

Ayame's face lit up in excitement. "Wonderfully! As you saw, Rin and Hatsuharu's masterpieces are finished. Many of the other family members are finished as well. Hiro needs to come for the final fitting for his Prince to match Kisa's Princess. You, Momiji, Yuki, Machi, and Tohru and Kyo are the only ones left! When shall we do your fitting?" He asked with a dazzling smile.

Alana blanked for a moment at the sudden question at the end of Ayame's gushing then gave a shy smile. "Are you sure I would be welcome? This seems like a large family gathering, I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable."

Surprisingly, the response came from Hatsuharu, not Momiji or Ayame who she would have expected. "We want you there, Alana. We have all just started to get to know you but we like who we've met and even if we hadn't met you at all, you've made Momiji so happy in such a short time we would want you there."

Rin nodded beside him while Momiji beamed at everyone. "We all want you there."

Alana blushed in happiness and gave them all a big smile. "Thank you. Then I guess whenever you like Ayame, we can do a fitting."

Ayame helped Mine to her feet and they immediately dragged Alana off. She heard the others laughing behind her and smiled. She absolutely loved how included she was in everything the Sohma's did. She had never felt so welcomed by anyone other than her family before.

~Art of Love~

Momiji looked over at Yuki who sat back comfortably with Machi tucked lightly into his side. "How's university?" Across the room, Hatsuharu was winding Kakeru up about a game the two of them liked while Rin looked on, amused.

Yuki looked over with a small grin. "It is going well. Have you changed your mind about wanting to go?" Yuki teased. They had had the conversation a few times but Momiji wasn't interested in taking more schooling.

"What classes are you taking now?" Momiji asked, sticking his tongue out at the older boy and brushing his blond hair back from his eyes.

Yuki ran his fingers along Machi's arm and looked towards where Ayame had disappeared. "Don't let Ayame know...but I did change my classes more towards small business than corporate." Momiji smiled gently knowing how excited Ayame would be when he found out. "I enjoyed my other classes and gardening but Machi pointed out that if my livelihood depended on my gardening, I would lose my love for it and the bigger firms I interned at held no appeal."

"When Ayame finds out, he is going to go all crazy on you to get you to work with him." Momiji laughed softly. He couldn't quite explain why, but having Yuki back in town filled him with a sense of comfort. Alana filled his heart with love and joy, but Yuki...having been there through so much and knowing what it was like to love Tohru, even if they had loved her in different ways, made a band of anxiety loosen in Momiji's chest that he hadn't recognized had been there since Tohru had called to say she was coming home.

Yuki gave a deep sigh and peered at Momiji from the corner of his eye. "I know it. Akito mentioned something about a party this weekend?" His eyes widened and he turned more fully to face Momiji when Momiji began to blush and play with his hair. "Well, well. What have we here?" He asked teasingly and Machi leaned forward to also peer at Momiji.

Momiji took a deep breath and smiled shyly. "Alana and I have been accepted into Matoko AGA." His hands trembled slightly in excitement just thinking about it.

Yuki's eyes widened in shock, "Momiji, that is amazing news! Congratulations!" He leaned forward and gave him a hug.

Momiji grinned and hugged him back. "Thank you. We are both very excited."

"I imagine! This is definitely worth a party." Yuki smiled at his younger cousin. "Tell me how this happened." He demanded.

Momiji settled in for a long talk and began to explain how Alana had convinced him to play in front of a scout.

~Art of Love~

When Alana left the back room with Ayame and Mine, she was giggling softly but in her normal clothes. "How did it go?" Rin asked wandering over.

"They are a lot of fun." Alana confessed as the two tailors grabbed Momiji to drag him into the back as well. "The costume is beautiful. I have no idea how comfortable I will be wearing it, but it is breathtaking."

Rin nodded. "I've felt that way about some of the clothing I have seen him create." She laughed. "I saw a dress he made for one customer; it barely had any fabric that wasn't see-through. I couldn't help but envy the woman he made it for because of the confidence she had to have in herself to wear it." The two shared a grin in understanding; they've both certainly seen outfits like that before.

Alana curled more comfortably on her seat facing Rin and asked her burning question. "Can you tell me about the ball? Is it terribly fancy?"

Rin smiled and shook her head. "Not at all. It's a fancy name for everyone dressing up for dinner and music." A hint of cloud crossed her face, as if a reminder of a painful past, but it didn't last before she gave Alana another small smile. "Years ago, we had much more formal events, but we've decided to do away with the formalities." Rin laughed and began to tell her stories of some of the goings-on that had happened in previous years. The others eventually drifted over and shared a few stories of their own and this laughing scene was that one Momiji left the back room to find.

I hope it was worth the wait. But NEXT CHAPTER is the one everyone will be excited about :)