"Dad!" Shinichi protested as he came through the door.
Ryuske set down his glass and raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"
"You took Danika on a date!" Shinichi complained. "You don't even go on dates, but you take my girlfriend out?"
"It wasn't a date," Danika objected from her seat on the couch.
"She hadn't gone outside in a week," Ryuske explained with amusement.
"What?" Shinichi asked with worry. He hurried over to where Danika sat and leaned over her. "Why not?"
She looked up from the tablet on her lap and shrugged. Then her eyes narrowed and she asked, "How did you know we went out anyway?"
Shinichi hesitated, and glanced back toward Ryuske and then explained, "There's a photo of you two holding hands and gazing into each other's eyes with millions of shares already." He didn't mention the millions of comments.
"Seriously? From this afternoon?" Danika asked incredulously.
"Do you hold hands and gaze deeply into each other's eyes often?" Shinichi asked dryly.
She blushed and protested, "Don't make it sound like that!"
"There will be plenty of people making it sound like that," Ryuske said a little grimly as he walked over. "I'm sorry, the possibility honestly didn't occur to me. Life's been pretty quiet lately."
Shinichi straightened and ran his hands through his hair. "This is so ridiculous and frustrating. I can't even clear things up right now by telling everyone that she's actually mine!"
Danika turned herself on the seat so that she could stare questioningly at the two of them. "It's a little embarrassing," she admitted, "but it doesn't really matter, right?"
Both men turned to look at her with surprised expressions, and she fidgeted nervously with the nap of the fabric under her fingers and added with embarrassment, "When we get married, everyone will realize that he was just getting better acquainted with his future daughter-in-law, right?"
Shinichi took two steps and placed his hands on the back of the couch and swung his legs over, landing with a thump that seated him beside her. He leaned close and met her startled gaze, while sliding one hand across her waist. "So when are we getting married?" he asked conversationally. "You still haven't asked me properly you know."
Danika turned scarlet and protested, "Why do I have to ask?"
Ryuske chuckled and asked, "Should I ask?"
"No!" they protested in unison.
"You absolutely aren't allowed to ask her to marry you," Shinichi declared.
At the same time, Danika added, "We've already talked about things we'll do after we're married, so can't we just skip that scene?"
They looked at each other and started to laugh.
Ryuske grinned at them both affectionately. "I'll leave that problem up to you, but seriously, the photo could be a real problem."
Shinichi's laughter stopped first, and he admitted with a sigh, "I know."
He leaned his head on Danika's shoulder, and she sobered and asked, "Why?"
Shinichi asked without lifting his head, "Would you hate having to have a security team follow you around whenever you go out? I definitely don't want you to feel like you have to stay inside all the time. I hope that's not why you weren't going out."
"Neither of you have that," she objected. "And I just didn't have anything to go out for!"
"We do," Ryuske corrected gently. Danika looked up at him with a shocked expression, and he explained, "The security system on the building here is subtle, but backed up by a team of people who are on call. And when we are attending public events, or doing anything with our bands as a whole in attendance, a few security people are also in attendance."
"That's not every time you go out," she pointed out.
"Well, I'm mostly retired," Ryuske replied with a grin. "But Shinichi and the boys usually get picked up by the company car, so even though it's subtle, they are actually under a security team's care most of the time these days."
"I guess that you're famous enough that having all that while you're working makes sense," Danika agreed. "But why would I need to be followed around all the time just because people might be speculating that I'm," she blushed, but said quickly, "Kobayashi Ryuske's lover? Wouldn't that kind of reaction to the rumors just prove it for most people?"
Shinichi sat up and looked her in the eyes. "Danika…" He patted her shoulders, her arms, and her hips with both hands before dropping them to her legs. She looked down at his hands and then back up to meet his gaze again. "What would you do if people trapped you to question you? Or worse, tried to hurt you?" he asked worriedly. "You can't exactly run away."
She glared at him for a moment, but she honestly couldn't think of a good argument. She thought she'd considered all the consequences of being with him. She'd already realized that she would need to be indifferent to rumors involving him and other women. She'd guessed that things, like the current restriction against being seen together until Underneath's publicity team was ready, could happen.
Having to be accompanied by security in public, as his wife, had also already occurred to her. She'd watched footage of celebrity couples attending events before, but that possibility had belonged to a vague 'future'. She'd actually been thinking that the situation with the photo of the wrong famous man was a little funny.
"Danika?" Shinichi asked uncertainly. "You wouldn't need to take someone with you when one of us is with you?" he offered.
That made her laugh, and he stared at her with confusion. "Aren't you the valuable one?" she asked laughingly. He glared at her, and even Ryuske frowned at her, until she stopped laughing, and asked, "What?"
Shinichi closed his eyes for a second. When he opened his eyes, he reached up and tapped her firmly on the nose. "Idiot," he said insultingly.
Her eyes flashed with a trace of real anger, because she knew he was saying it so deliberately, but Ryuske interrupted gently, "We both care for you too much to consider ourselves more valuable."
"I love you to death," Shinichi added. "If anything happens to you because of the situation I've put you in, because I've been too greedy and selfish, it'll kill me."
She glanced at Ryuske, and then looked at Shinichi with exasperation. She knew that protesting with her real feelings, that it would be an unnecessary expense, wasn't going to move either of them. "If having one of you with me would be enough, can't I just," she wiggled her fingers, "summon one of the people who you've already got on call somewhere then, if I want to go out alone?"
"Sure," Ryuske agreed quickly.
Shinichi looked up and met Ryuske's eyes. They exchanged a short nod, but neither of them actually said anything. Danika felt left out by her inability to read the silent communication, and suspicious about the content.
Shinichi hugged her and said, "But make sure you keep your phone on you too."
"You sound like aunt Hati," Danika grumbled in a muffled voice. "When do I ever go anywhere without my phone?"
Ryuske said teasingly, "He's just warning you about his own experiences. I think Naoki still has a photo of what he looked like when he returned that time?"
"Dad," Shinichi protested mildly.