It was a lovely Friday morning and the Takanis were spending the weekend with the Sagaras in their home in the beautiful Chubu region countryside. The weather had since lost the warmth of summer, now well into the temperatures of autumn, Megumi's favorite season. Sanosuke's cousins Kaoru and Yahiko, whom Megumi had met on a few occasions growing up, were also joining the party. The mini vacation was one that had been discussed a few months before and, as the parents thought, perfect for the two they wanted to push together. The day before, Sanosuke had dropped in and asked if Megumi would drive up to the estate with him as he was going earlier in the day than the rest of the party who were following after his father's meetings were concluded. Megumi's parents had no objections and in fact encouraged it, if Michiko Takani's shooing gestures were anything to go by. Megumi, deciding it would be the best start to her mission of learning more about her intended, didn't protest.

A knock. "Come in.

"Miss Megumi, Mr. Sanosuke has arrived."

"Thank you, Kaiyo. Let him know I'll be right down." The maid bowed and left the room.

True to his word, the day after their conversation, Megumi's father had spoken with the Sagaras and they agreed that this modified arrangement would be for the best. Megumi's mother was still rather upset that she might not be getting Sanosuke as a son-in-law as evidenced by her teary eyes every time she looked in her daughter's direction. Megumi was used to her mother getting overly emotional and didn't let the meltdowns bother her.

Dressed in a comfortable pair of dark jeans and a deep green blouse, Megumi gave her ebony ponytail one more sweep of the brush, grabbed her purse, and headed downstairs to greet Sano.

Her mother was chatting with Sano when Megumi entered the living room. She saw that he was also dressed casually, his long sleeved shirt a deep shade of blue which made his hair look darker than it usually was. The sleeves were rolled up, exposign his forearms. This was the first time they were meeting since he had brought her the vases of flowers three days prior. The flowers had been distributed throughout the house but a few were still left to grace the living room.

"Ohayo gozaimasu, Sano." Megumi greeted, standing next to him.

"Ohayo." Sano leaned in and brushed his lips against her cheek. Megumi felt an unfamiliar jolt at the contact and attributed it to static shock which typically became more and more common as the temperatures dropped.

"Now that you're here, say goodbye and enjoy the drive!" Michiko kissed them both, telling them to 'be good.' Both were barely able to grab their coats before they were being ushered out the door.

They stood looking askance at each other when Sanosuke started laughing as they stood on the doorstep. Megumi had never heard him laugh this way before, in fact, he rarely laughed. He laughed in company if someone told a joke or humorous anecdote, but she never heard him really laugh out of complete mirth before. It gave her a strange feeling to witness it now. It was… nice. She had to smile at his apparent enjoyment of her mother's antics. He ushered her to his waiting car with a hand against her back. "Shall we?"

~O~O~O~

The Sagara country home was three hours outside of Nagoya. Megumi had never been, but her parents had gone as guests a few times. Sanosuke skillfully wove the car through Friday traffic, Megumi comfortable against the rich leather seat.

"Watch out!" Megumi called out when another car suddenly cut in front of them. Sanosuke smoothly passed the offending vehicle without missing a beat. "That idiot, doesn't he have eyes?" She groused.

"Relax, Kitsune, I won't let anything happen to you." Sano reached across the space between them and patted Megumi on the head. She shoved his hand back to his side.

"Don't patronize me!"

"I would never." Megumi huffed and crossed her arms, pointedly ignoring him and staring out the window.

"Aww, come on, Meg, don't be like that. This will be a terrible drive if ya keep giving off that aura." When she didn't change her stance or speak up, he changed tactics. "Alright, I'm sorry. Next time I won't pat you on the head – I'll just kiss ya instead." Megumi gasped and glared. Sanosuke's grin was downright naughty.

"You keep your hands to yourself and we'll be fine." She said firmly.

Fifteen minutes later, Megumi's ire had cooled off somewhat. She had promised to try and get to know Sano after all. She asked him why they were driving up earlier than the others and he explained that he usually went ahead whenever the family stayed in the country to take care of estate business before everyone arrived.

"I hope you don't get bored while I'm holed up in the study with the caretaker."

"Don't worry about me, I don't bore easily."

"Good. I'll make it up to you afterwards."

"Oh?" Megumi felt unusually playful despite her earlier peevishness at his actions. "How would you make it up to me?"

He glanced at her sideways and grinned. "I cook up a mean beef itamemono."

"You cook?" She would never have guessed.

He shrugged. "I interned abroad the summer between my sophomore and junior year. I quickly got tired of the food over there so I looked up Japanese dishes and gave cooking a try. It took me quite a few times before I could get even the soups right, but it paid off. I only ate German food if I wanted to."

"I'm impressed, Sagara. Truly, I am." Her smile was warm.

"You can be impressed after you taste the itamemono."

The conversation turned to cuisine and while Megumi liked Italian and Sanosuke enjoyed Persian, both agreed that Japanese cooking was still the best. Eventually the two lapsed into silence and Megumi found that it wasn't a strange feeling to be together without conversation. It felt comfortable. The trees lining the roadside were in a riot of the golds, reds, and oranges of autumn.

"Did the information help?" Sano asked, breaking the stillness.

"What information?"

"Your father told me he was creating a dossier on me." He said, tone even. Megumi didn't veil her surprise at this revelation.

"I'm sorry, my father shouldn't ha—" Sanosuke cut her off.

"It's alright. He was upfront about it instead of going behind my back, which he could have easily done. It's also a way to make sure I am who I say I am. I could respect that."

Megumi didn't know what to say. He knew about the file and he didn't resist or resent the fact? She would have been outraged if their roles had been reversed. She shook her head.

"No."

"No?"

"The information didn't help." Megumi watched his profile. His eyebrows lowered as he considered her statement. Then his face cleared and he looked at her.

"You didn't read it." Megumi shook her head in confirmation. "Why not?"

She turned in her seat to face him more fully. "If we are to stand a chance of becoming more than what we are right now," she swept her hand between them, "I don't want to learn about Sagara Sanosuke on paper. I believe that the right way to learn about you would be to go straight to the source."

A pleased smile graced his handsome face. "More between us, huh?" He wagged his eyebrows.

"Ugh!" Megumi rolled her eyes and swatted his shoulder. "Shut up." Sanosuke laughed again as they pulled up to the manor.

Itamemono – Japanese stir fry

I don't usually write author's notes, much less ones this long, but here are quite a few comments on this chapter. Director's Commentary, if you will. (^^,)

March is graduation month in Japan. This story begins in September, with Megumi's one month to get to know Sano to end sometime in early November.

I'm going to try and add as many of the RK characters as I can reasonably handle. I'm not very good with multiple-thread stories as evidenced by my penchant for straightforward one-shots (just makes life so much easier!) so I try to keep other characters' involvement to a minimum.

I apologize if my characterization of the Japanese countryside outside Nagoya is completely wrong. I don't actually know if three hours out of the city is already the countryside… Gomen…

Seeing as how this story is on a larger scale than my usual ones, I'm being a responsible writer and actually plotting out the points I want to hit. I even created a calendar to make sure I have the events reasonably 'dated.' I'm trusting that these tools will keep me from becoming overwhelmed and giving up altogether. As I mentioned before, you, dear readers, keep me going so thank you!

Anon, I sat down and counted my first cousins. I overestimated – there are actually just 31. LoL Exactly. Megumi's request is perfectly reasonable and I honestly don't think that any of the four parents are actually dictatorial and would force their wishes on either of the two children. They just really, really, really, want this marriage to happen! I know, right? It would be too good to resist! Potential skeletons in the closet at her fingertips... But yeah, she wants to go about this with a clean slate, so to speak. Thanks for reviewing!