Chapter 2

Tsuyu was first in the door when it mysteriously opened as soon as they approached. She licked the person behind it before running ahead, disappearing down a winding hallway.

"Mama, good morning!" And there stood a petite woman, her hair dark but her eyes blue like Mrs. Miller's. She was dressed in a simple skirt and shirt, with an apron over her clothes and a bandana holding her hair back. Unlike her mother, she did not speak Japanese with any kind of accent. When she saw her mother leading in someone, she smiled. "Good morning, Ricchan."

Ritsu cringed at the nickname. "Good morning, Annie." He glanced back at Masamune, who was looking all around, taking in his surroundings. "Um, this is my guest, Takano Masamune."

"Good morning, Masa-chan!" Annie had a warm smile on her face, despite both Ritsu and Masamune looking alarmed.

Mrs. Miller sighed and tugged on her daughter's hair. "What have I told you about being so familiar?"

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Annie blushed furiously as she bowed. "Takano-sama."

Ritsu snorted at that, looking infinitely amused as Mrs. Miller just sighed. "Close enough."

"I'll let your parents know you're here." Annie closed the door, but before she could get far down the hall, Tsuyu came bounding back. She was immediately followed by a frazzled-looking woman in a skirt suit. Masamune was surprised, to tell the truth; he had half been expecting to find the matriarch of the Onodera family wearing an intricate kimono, possibly with her hair back in a bun using hair sticks.

Before anyone could start the awkward introductions, Tsuyu knocked Ritsu over again. Ritsu winced as Tsuyu licked his face. "Tsuyu, give me back my contact!" The dog spit out the lens and moved off Ritsu, but she still wagged her tail as she sat there, staring all around.

Even with one good eye Ritsu could see his mother was eying Masamune, her eyes going from the driving glasses he hadn't taken off, to the long winter coat, to the shoes that had lost their shine from tracking around in mud and snow for several weeks now. Ritsu wouldn't admit it to Masamune, but he found his boyfriend handsome despite all this. His mother seemed more hesitant to accept this, though.

"You must be Takano-san," Ritsu's mother said, her mouth quirking up at the corners in an attempt at a smile. She was a civil woman, if nothing else.

Masamune bowed. "It's an honor to meet you, Onodera-san. Your son speaks well of you."

Ritsu's mother's smile faltered. "Why do I not believe that?"

"It's not like I badmouth you or anything, Mother," Ritsu said, slipping his shoes off from where he still sat from Tsuyu's pounce. "I just have my own life, so visiting every weekend isn't possible anymore."

Masamune was ready with a response to support this when there was a sudden bang from the backyard. It scared Tsuyu away and Masamune looked alarmed, but Ritsu and his mother acted like they hadn't even heard it.

"They're already setting off firecrackers?"

"Well, you know your cousins. As soon as they get here they're in celebration mode. I told them to take it out back since there's more room." Another crack sounded, and Mrs. Miller could be heard down the hall, saying something in English that may or may not have been 'Those damn kids on my lawn.' "You can join them, if you want. Lunch won't be ready for a while yet. Annie and Mrs. Miller have been a bit distracted today."

It was as good an excuse as any to cut the awkward tension between Masamune and his mother down, so Ritsu went to clean off his contact before leading the way outside.

xxx

The scene that greeted them when they got to the backyard was mostly smoke, with the dead carcasses of sparklers and firecrackers littered around without a care in the world.

"I feel like I'm walking into a warzone," Masamune said. He'd taken off his glasses and put them in his coat pocket, but he put them back on just to protect his eyes.

"Funny, that was my thought when I was brought to the Emerald office on my first day." Ritsu gave Masamune a significant look before being first to enter the fray. Of course, just by his notoriously bad luck, one of the kids set off a firecracker near him without looking, and Masamune pulled him out of the way before damage could be done.

"Ricchan!" The young boy who'd almost decapitated him dropped the unlit firecrackers and tackled Ritsu. "Kana said you wouldn't come this year but she's stupid so I didn't believe her."

"I doubt my mom would let me get away with missing this." Ritsu had a smile on his face that Masamune wasn't sure he'd ever seen.

There was so much chaos that this little boy seemed to be the only one noticing Ritsu. He also, however, noticed Masamune watching it all and tilted his head, still clinging to Ritsu's torso. "Ricchan, who's that?"

Ritsu's face immediately went red, but Masamune was leaving the introductions to him at this point. "This is Takano Masamune."

"Does An-chan know you're going out with a guy?" Leave it to children to be blunt and to the point. He didn't even seem to notice that Ritsu was completely speechless.

Finally, Ritsu managed to say, "An-chan and I agreed to formally end our engagement. She told me she supported my decision, whatever it was."

"But An-chan and her parents are going to be here later! Awkward." Ritsu's cousin slowly slid down his body until he landed, sitting, on the ground and gazed up at Masamune. "You're tall!"

"I've been told." Masamune eyed Ritsu, who pointedly ignored him and picked up one of the firecrackers.

"Aunt Michiko and Uncle Toru always have a huge fireworks show at midnight. Are you going to be here for that?" the boy asked, completely ignoring Ritsu as he tried to light the now slightly damp firecracker. "Oh and mochi!"

"Ah, I remember. Ritsu brought me some mochi from last year's celebration," Masamune said.

The boy's eyes went big. "You and Ricchan have been together that long?"

Ritsu said no, but Masamune said yes, which earned a glare from his boyfriend. "Well," Masamune conceded. "Not officially." He leaned into the boy conspiratorially and said, "He wouldn't even tell me he loves me until a few months ago."

The boy giggled. "Ricchan is stubborn."

The noise of firecrackers around them suddenly stopped, and Ritsu's cousin seemed to realize that Mrs. Miller had called lunch out to them before going back to finish the preparations. There was such a mass exodus that no one else noticed Ritsu and Masamune. At least until Tsuyu came bounding out now that the noise had stopped, pushing through the crowds. For the third time that day, she tackled Ritsu to the ground.

"Tsuyu, get back here!" It was Ritsu's father this time, pushing past the crowd and looking haggard. He was dressed in a suit and had clearly just arrived from some last-minute work or meeting. No rest for the weary was something he often said. "I'm sorry, Ritsu. You know how she is."

Ritsu sat up, looking dismayed as he kept his eyes closed, feeling around in the grass.

"Lose your contacts again?" Masamune asked. When Ritsu nodded, he leaned down and started feeling around for himself, but neither of them could find them. "Can't you see without them?"

"Not especially. It's kind of a big blur." Ritsu removed his hand from his eyes and blinked rapidly, as if that would help him distinguish anything around him.

Ritsu's father just shook his head. "Come on inside before Mrs. Miller comes out to get you. Your mother has one of your old pairs of glasses somewhere."

Masamune was intrigued.

xxx

Lunch was an awkward affair during which everyone pretty much ignored Ritsu's guest but were forever making fun of him for not being able to see. Finally, when he was done eating, rather than waiting for most people to be done, he asked his mother where she kept his old glasses. His eyes hadn't changed that much over the years, so they'd be an okay replacement until he got home. He cursed himself for not thinking ahead and bringing an extra pair of contacts. He supposed he had been thinking of other things that could go wrong.

It didn't help, though, that Masamune decided he needed to follow Ritsu and his mother up to Ritsu's old room, where a few boxes of his things were kept.

"Ah, here they are, Ritsu," his mother said, taking out a pair of glasses with small lenses and wire frames. The lenses weren't even that thick, but Masamune still had to hold back a snort of laughter when Ritsu put them on and promptly scowled at him. Ritsu's mother left to attend to her guests again, so Masamune and Ritsu were left alone in the room.

"It seems weird," Masamune said, examining a poster that had somehow kept sticking to the wall even after its inhabitant stopped regularly living there. "I never got to come to your house in high school."

"I'm not sure my parents would have let me even if I wanted to bring you home." Despite all the work he'd gone through to find his old glasses, he took them off and folded the arms, putting them on his dresser. He suddenly seemed to think of something, though. "An-chan's family usually gets here around two o'clock."

"You nervous?" Masamune grinned despite himself, wrapping an arm around Ritsu and putting his mouth to Ritsu's jaw line.

"An-chan's parents are good people. I'm just afraid they might consider throwing one of us in Tokyo Bay after tonight." He flinched when Masamune bit lightly on his neck. "And leaving your mark on me won't help prevent that!"

"Why? You already have one right there." Masamune poked a part of Ritsu's neck that was just barely under the neckline of his shirt. Embarrassed, Ritsu slapped his hand to it and pushed Masamune away.

"Have you no shame?"

"Nope."