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The Iida mansion looms at the top of the driveway like a haunted house from a horror movie, only it’s a sunny Sunday afternoon in March, and the cherry trees are blossoming, dusting everything in tiny pink blossoms.
“I didn’t know you were rich,” you gasp, feeling utterly ridiculous for walking the short distance. This is a house you arrive in by car, and not just any car, but one with a personal driver and expensive leather seats, maybe even a mini bar no one ever touches.
“I’m not rich,” Tenya disagrees, brows furrowed. His hand is clammy around yours. He’s as nervous as he was when he met your parents, though the only thing he had to worry about was getting food poisoning from your dad’s cooking.
“What do you call that, then?” You ask, gesturing at the mansion, and the park, and the multiple cars parked out front. “And don’t say comfortable.”
“My parents have money,” he agrees. “I never said they didn’t. But you know how hard I work. Tensei left me the Agency in a stable condition, but heroism doesn’t pay as much if you don’t have a face for the magazines.”
“Oh, poor you,” you pinch his cheek, laughing when he blushes. “The only reason you don’t have any ad deals is that you refuse to take off your shirt for the camera.”
“I feel so objectified,” Tenya grumbles, and you lean in to kiss his cheek. “Sorry, boo. You know I love those muscles of yours.” You giggle, feeling a little less nervous about this. After all, Tenya loves you, and Tensei likes you enough to keep you around, so you already have half of the family in the bag, right?
-
As you get closer to the front door, however, you begin to wonder.
“Are you sure we’ve got the day and time right, baby?” You ask. Behind the parked cars, you see a group of people milling on the steps leading up to the front door, champagne glasses in hand, looking over the area. “Or did your parents mention inviting extended family?”
“No, I’m sure-” Tenya stops, paling. “Oh no.”
“What? Tenya, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?!”
“It’s Aunty Abe, she must have heard something.” He groans, the sound pained.
The sound of tyres on gravel alerts you to Tensei, the tense smile on his face not helping a bit in easing your worries.
“Is it Aunty Abe?” You ask, and he nods, his mouth a firm line. “Dad let it slip that you’d be bringing your girlfriend over, and she hijacked the day.” He explains. “She’s…” Tensei signs. “She’s a lot.”
You want to ask what they mean by that when a shrill sound cuts through the comfortable atmosphere. It takes you a second to realize that it’s a voice and the voice is calling out a name. Your boyfriend's name, to be specific.
The woman who descends the stairs now looks like she might be straight from a movie. One that’s very heavy-handed with the color symbolism, maybe.
Her hair is the color of the cherry blossoms, though it loses some of its appeal from its shaggy, messy cut. If you had to guess, you’d say Aunty Abe just had a nervous breakdown and let her hair suffer for it, cutting it with blunt kitchen scissors when she should be sleeping instead. You will not elaborate on how you’re so familiar with that kind of hair-do.
“Tenya!” She sings anew, drawing out the word like an opera singer would, and waving at him with the heavy sleeves of her magenta fur coat that are a little too long for her arms. “Is this your girlfriend?” Her grip is vice-like on your shoulder as she pulls you in against her chest, smothering you in coarse magenta fur and expensive-smelling perfume. “My, aren’t you cute? You need to sit with me during dinner, I always get so bored sitting with the grown-ups. Tensei, you won’t mind switching seats, right?”
“Not at all, Aunty.”
“Good boy. Now, come inside, come inside, it’s freezing out here!”
-
Aunty Abe lords over the Iida household like a general, ordering about everyone she can get her hands on. She’s generous with the booze, too, refilling your glass of champagne every few minutes until you feel a little hazy around the edges.
“Where’s Tenya?” You ask Tensei when Abe disappears from your side for a few minutes.
“In the kitchen. I told him to switch the champagne against something non-alcoholic.”
“Good thinking,” you drop onto the chair on his left, your head heavy. “How’s Abe-san related to any of you, again?”
“She’s my father's sister,” Tenya explains as Tensei opens his mouth, slipping in surprisingly quiet for his tall frame and broad shoulders, “I’d say she got all he crazy in our family, so the rest of us are normal.” He cuddles into your side despite the chair being too small for both of you. With a sigh, you get up and slide into his lap, amused when he grins boyishly at his success.
“Just to be clear,” you point out. “You’re not at all normal, Tenya. Just last week, you tried explaining your shift rotation to my cat to make sure you both got equal time in my bed; that’s not normal behaviour.”
Tenya blushes. “He’s hogging you,” he explains, his words muffled as he digs his nose in your hair. “And he’s really smart.”
Tensei giggles. The three of you sit in silence for a few minutes, reveling in it. You know it won’t last long.
-
“Now,” Aunty Abe points at Tenya with one singular chopstick. The conversation at the table trickles into silence, and you grab his hand below the table, squeezing it for good measure. “I like her,” Aunty Abe announces when she’s deemed it a dramatic enough pause. “When are you going to propose?”
Tenya splutters. His mother laughs, a high, bell-like sound. His father grins, boyishly, just like you’ve seen it on both of his boys.
And you wonder, not without reason, if Aunty Abe had been invited after all.
She smiles teasingly, watching you like a hawk. When you smile back at her, she sends you a knowing wink. Another woman who knows you’ve got to keep the Iida’s on their toes.