The next morning, Akane woke up in Kogami's bedroom alone. He had woken up early and went out for a run while she was sleeping.

She opened the door just as the door across from her did. Tohru emerged from the room with messy hair and a pair of shorts on.

"O-oh. Good morning, Tohru-kun." She greeted. She was panicking in the back of her mind because she had been caught.

"Yo, Tsunemori." He yawned and continued down the hallway in the same direction she was going.

"Did you sleep well last night?"

"I sleep good anywhere." The young man stretched his arms.

Akane got a good look at him as they walked. He and Kogami were definitely total opposites. Not just in personality, but looks as well. He was not as tall as his cousin, but still taller that she was. He definately didn't work out like Shinya, but he was still toned. His blonde hair fell in little ringlets around his face and his grey eyes stood out because of his light skin.

In short, he may have been handsome, but he was nothing to compare to Kogami Shinya.

"Good morning, you two." Tohru's mother cheerily greeted as they made their way in to the kitchen for breakfast.

"Good morning." Akane smiled. "Is there anything that I can help you out with?"

"No no no, dear." The woman shook her head. "You and Tohru should go and sit down in the living area. We will call for everyone when it's ready."

"Oi, Tsunemori, maybe you can look over what I wrote?"

"Okay." She nodded and they left the room.

"What was that about?" Tomoyo asked her sister.

"Sayu said that Akane-chan snuck out of their room late last night and didn't come back." She answered with a smirk.

"What?" Kogami's mother gasped.

"It looks like they're really serious about their relationship. Did you see how casual they walked in here like they did?" She chuckled at her sister. "It looks like I'm going to be the first one with grandchildren, after all."

"You don't know that! My Shinya is still well capable."

"Face it, dear sister. My Tohru is more of a lady's man than Shinya-kun will ever hope to be." Her sister laughed and walked away.

Tomoyo growled as she stared after her. She always thought that her son hung the moon, but he was nothing but a delinquent in the end. What she didn't realize was how capable her own son was of snatching up a woman of his own. She would be the first one to become a grandmother if it was the last thing she did.

"Mother, is everything okay?" Kogami had walked in just as his aunt had walked away from her. He was worried about that angry look she had on her face.

"Shinya, I love you, but you must step up your game." She suddenly said, a fire burning in her eyes.

"What do you mean?" He asked, stepping back, almost feeling like he was being cornered.

"Your cousin's girlfriend stayed in his room last night. They're sleeping together!" She hissed. "At this rate, Aiko is going to win. We can't let that happen."

Kogami's jaw dropped. Did they really asume that Akane had been in Tohru's room last night? This was getting ridiculous. He started to say something, but his mother turned around and cut him off.

"If I don't have grandchildren by the time you are thirty, I will never forgive you."

Kogami swallowed hard and watched as his mother walked away. She was crazy. He couldn't tell her the truth about Akane, now. She would be pressing for grandchildren more then ever after that. But he also couldn't let everyone keep thinking that Akane was Tohru's girlfriend, either. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one.

"You have outdone yourselves again, darling." Kogami's grandfather praised his wife on the meal they had just finished.

"It was all of the work our girls put in, really." The older woman insisted.

"I really wish that I could have been of some help." Akane said. "I feel like I'm freeloading."

"Nonsense, Akane-chan!" Tomoyo exclaimed. "You are our guest, and you will be treated as such."

"Really, I honestly don't mind helping out. I would love to get to know all of you more."

"I have an idea." Kogami's cousin, Haruka said. "Why don't we all go shopping together while the guys go have their annual golf tournament?"

"I think that's a great idea!" Sayu grinned.

"You mean that you don't want to watch your old Ojiisan beat all of these noobs?" Their grandfather asked.

"I'm no noob!" Tohru's father glared.

"Hey, may I remind you all who won last year?" Kogami smirked.

"Oh, you're going to come with us." Tomoyo snapped at her son.

"But mother, I always play in the tourna- ow ow ow!"

She had grabbed Shinya by the ear and pulled. "You are going to come with us and carry our things. I am still very unhappy about last night's dinner."

She let go, and he rubbed his ear.

"At least we might finally have a chance this year." Tohru joked.

"It's only fair, Shinya." Another cousin said. "You did break those nice chopsticks after all. Maybe you should make it up to Obaasan by buying her something while we're out."

"You're right, Naru." Tohru's mother agreed. "He makes all of that money and has no one to spend it on."

Tomoyo glared at her sister and her sister glared right back. The tension at the table was getting really thick. Was is going to be like this the whole time between the two women?

"Girls!" Kogami's grandmother snapped at her daughters. "That is enough. Can't you see how uncomfortable our guest is? It's time to put aside your sons' love lives for a while and just enjoy being around family. Am I clear?"

"Yes..." The two ladies looked down, feeling like children from being scolded by their mother like that.

Later on that day, they had decided to go shopping after all.

"Thank you, come again!" The clerk of the latest store they had just left called to the group of ladies.

Kogami was walking behind with a bunch of bags hanging from his arms. He was obviously not having a good time.

"So, Akane-chan. What job are you hoping for the System to place you in?" Tohru's mother asked as they walked along the sidewalk.

"I don't really know yet." Akane admitted. "I honestly want a job that I know is something that only I can do."

"Ambitious!" The woman laughed. "I like that. Don't you think that's a good quality for a woman to have, Tomoyo?"

Kogami's mother glared to her sister. She was rubbing it in.

Akane sped up so that she could keep up with Kogami and get away from them. She was starting to feel uncomfortable around the two women.

"I can help you carry some stuff if you want."

"I'm not going to make you do that, Tsunemori. I can handle this much."

"Okay." Akane looked around the shops as they walked.

"Do you see anything you like?" He asked, looking down at her.

Akane shook her head. "I don't need anything."

"I know that, but do you want anything in particular?"

She looked up at him more closely as they walked. Was he trying to say that he wanted to buy her a gift?

"That shop looks interesting." Akane said, pointing out a little place on the corner. It looked old, but it had a charm that she couldn't explain.

"But wouldn't you rather go there in stead?" Kogami's cousin, Naru had caught up with them. "Come on, Akane. Let's go over here."

She pulled her by the hand to a different store and the other ladies followed behind.

It was another clothing store.

"Oh, Akane-chan! I think this would look great on you." Aiko said, holding out an orange dress.

"Orange isn't really-"

"Nonsense! It will look great on you!" She pushed Akane in to the changing room and made her try it on.

A few moments later, she came out, not really thrilled with the way it looked on her.

"I think that looks great, don't you?"

"I think it looks hideous." Tomoyo said. "No offense to you, Akane-chan."

"I think we should get a man's opinion." Aiko glared at her sister. "Shinya, what do you think?"

The three women turned around to where Kogami had been a few moments earlier and saw that he was gone.

"Where did he run off to?"

"I don't know."

"I'm going to scold that boy." His mother huffed.

"Maybe I could get a different color?" Akane suggested.

"What color would you like, then?"

Akane looked behind the women and smiled when she saw a different dress. She knew that he would like it. Not only was it revealing in the right places...

"This one." She said, walking over and taking it off the rack.

"Oh, that's Shinya's favorite color." Tomoyo noted.

"I know." Akane absently said and walked back in to the changing stall.

"Oh! She's wanting to make my Tohru jealous, I get it, now." Aiko snickered. "I knew that there was something I liked about you."

Akane decided that she would get the dress after she tried it on. She wouldn't let his family see it, because she knew the fuss that they would make. She would only be wearing that dress for him anyway, so it didn't really matter what they thought.

After seeing his aunt's reaction with the orange dress, she started to see why Kogami wanted to put off her meeting with his family.

He was even avoiding them at this point.

They moved on from the store and started to look for Kogami. It was almost time for them to find somewhere to eat lunch, and they were getting annoyed with their baggage carrier's disappearence.

"Where could he have gone?" Tomoyo had her arms folded as they walked.

"Maybe he went to the car to put up what he had." Akane suggested.

"I doubt that. My son is a strong man, and that was nothing for him."

"Akane-chan, my Tohru is much more of a man than Shinya, don't you agree?"

"What?"

"He is not!" Tomoyo snapped at her sister.

"He can't handle a simple task like holding a few bags. My Tohru would have easily been able to do it all with one arm."

"Lies!"

"Girls!" Their mother snapped at them.

Akane quickly walked over to where Kogami's cousins were watching, not wanting to get caught in the middle of their arguing.

"You might as well get used to that." The oldest cousin, Asuka, said.

"Yeah, Auntie Tomoyo and Auntie Aiko are brutal when it comes to Shinya and Tohru."

"Why doesn't she try to marry you off, Naru?" Akane asked Tohru's sister.

"You kidding? Tohru is her precious baby. Plus, my father would kill any man who came near me. I'm going to probably alope when I find the right man for me."

"Also, it's mostly because everything has always been a competition between my aunts." Haruka said. "Shinya and Tohru are the only boys out of all of us, and that just made for more competition."

"Yeah, it was a competition to see who could score the highest on tests. Who had the most friends. Even who got married first." Naru explained. "Auntie Tomoyo always comes up short."

"She did get married first, right? Kogami-san is older than you and Tohru, isn't he?"

"Oh, Shinya's father is someone that no one ever brings up." Asuka warned. "He is a total flake. He kept promising Auntie that they would get married, but it never happened. He stopped coming around after Shinya turned thirteen."

"I never knew that." Akane said, feeling bad for her lover.

"Yeah. The sad thing is, he really reminds a lot of us of his father. Auntie Tomoyo is afraid he's going to be just like him."

"Oh..."

"Hey, what's going on?" Kogami had appeared just as his grandmother had to step between Tomoyo and Aiko to keep them from attacking each other.

"See? I told you that Shinya could manage to carry all of those things easily!" His mother shouted, indicating his arms.

"Take this bag, Shinya-kun." Aiko shoved the things that she had purchased from the last store in to his arms and walked away towards the restaraunts.

"Where were you?" Tomoyo asked, hands on her hips.

"I was looking around for something."

"Well, I hope you found it, because you had me worried." She snapped.

"Sorry."

Akane watched the mother and son interact. Kogami may have been twenty seven now, but she still worried over him as if he were a child. Now that she knew more about his past, she was able to understand why.

They all went and had lunch at a nearby restaraunt, then went back to the mansion. They were definitely not in the mood to shop any more.

That night for dinner, everyone was gathered outside around a bonfire.

Everyone was drinking and having a wonderful time. Tohru and his father had a little too much and were singing really bad karaoke and Aiko was trying to get them to stop.

Kogami took the opening and tapped Akane on the shoulder and signalled for her to follow him on the other side of the fire where they would be unseen.

"Is everything okay?" She asked.

"I got something for you when I disappeared earlier, and I wanted to give it to you." He answered. "Close your eyes."

She smiled and did as he said.

He placed a soft box in her hands and softly kissed her lips when he made sure that no one else was looking.

"Shinya." She giggled and opened her eyes. "What is this?"

"Open it." He smirked.

Akane carefully opened the box, and brought her hand to her mouth when she saw what was inside.

"I wasn't going to get something cheesy like a heart or key. I found this in stead."

There were different strands of silver wrapped elegantly around a stone that she had never seen before.

"It's black opal." Kogami said, almost as if he was reading her mind. "It's one of my favorite stones, and I thought you might like it as well."

"Shinya, where did you get this?"

"You know that place you wanted to go to earlier?"

"You went?"

"Well, sort of. I walked by and it was closed, but I saw a store that looks like a back entrance. I went in and they were selling hand-crafted silver. You don't find things like that nowadays."

"This must have been a lot of money." Akane said. "Are you sure you want me to have this?"

"Of course. You're worth every bit and more." He smirked. "Now are you going to just keep staring at it, or can I put it on you?"

Akane took out the necklace and gave it to him, excited to wear her gift.

He unhooked the clasp and put it around her neck, stroking her spine as he reconnected it. She shivered under his touch, her face becoming red.

"Thanks for putting up with my family." He said, kissing her cheek and standing straight.

"Thank you for bringing me here." She turned around and smiled at him. "I really have had a good time. And I understand why you haven't told your family about us. We can wait to tell them if that's what you want."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." She nodded. "Besides, I'm pretty sure that your auntie's head would explode if she knew about us. She keeps trying to push Tohru-kun on me, it's so strange."

Kogami chuckled. "Just wait for my mother. She keeps pushing me for grandchildren by the time I'm thirty."

Akane blushed. "That's only three years from now."

"Two and a half, but who's counting?" He smirked.

"We'll get there when we're ready for that, I guess."

"Yeah." He smiled down at her. "Wait, what?"

She grinned and pulled him by his arm. "Come on, let's get back."

They spent the rest of the night with his family, drinking and having a good time, knowing that they would finally be back home the next day.

"It was so great having you home, Shinya." Tomoyo said, hugging her son as he, Akane and Tohru were about to leave. "Please try to visit more often."

"I'll try, but you know how work is." He returned her embrace.

Akane smiled, watching them interact. Her grandmother always taught her to watch how a man interacted with his mother when in a relationship. It shows how he treats the most important woman in his life, and if she's not being treated similar, the relationship wasn't worth the time.

She put her hand to her necklace and grinned. She was certain that being with him was worth more than the time they had already spent together.

"Are you sure you and Akane-chan can't stay one more night?" Aiko was saying her own goodbyes to her son.

"I told you already, we both have classes tomorrow." He groaned, pushing her away. "Jeez mom, quit being so suffocating all the time."

Akane frowned at the way Tohru interacted with his mother. She definately chose the right man compared to him.

"Oh, Akane-chan!" Kogami's grandmother approached her. "It was so wonderful having you over. I hope that we can do this again sometime."

"I'd love that." She smiled.

"You're going to have to talk my grandson in to coming around more often." She said. "But I guess with the life he has, it's expected that he's always busy."

"Yes, it really is. I hardly get to see him sometimes, so this weekend was a nice change of pace for us."

"I'm glad." The older woman smiled.

"You three have a safe trip back to Tokyo." Kogami's grandfather said as he walked them out of the mansion. "Come back home, soon."

"Bye, Ojiisan."

Once Kogami and Akane got in the car, they let out a breath that they felt like they had been holding all weekend.

"Are you ready to go home?" Kogami asked.

"Yes." She smiled. "Let's go."