Haru smiled at Shinichi's confession, until her eyes met Danika's. Danika really couldn't understand why Haru seemed so uncomfortable with her, or why it would matter to her if she cooked or not. She wondered if she should try to say more, or ask what she could do to help.
Shinichi suddenly leaned on her heavily and when Danika frowned up at him he whispered, "Why are you frowning so fiercely at your future mother? I think you're scaring her?"
Danika gaped up at him, and he leaned in enough to kiss the tip of her nose before straightening and removing his weight from her side.
Danika blushed, while Haru held out both hands and protested quickly, "She doesn't have to consider me her mother, I know it must be strange."
"Why would it be strange?" Danika blurted. She remembered the way Ryuske had said, 'adding a person to your family means adding everyone in their family too.' Haru would be stuck with her for life if she wanted to marry Danika's father. She suddenly wondered if she'd said anything during her first brief meeting that Haru might have taken as disapproval.
Everyone looked at Danika with varying degrees of surprise.
"I don't object at all," she declared abruptly. It might sound like an exaggeration, but even though she wasn't sure how much she would like Haru in the future, she really couldn't think of any objection. It was actually comforting to know that her father wasn't just living wrapped in old grief, and that he wasn't lonely.
Shinichi grinned at her but Haru looked confused, so Danika opened her mouth to explain that she meant about Haru marrying into the family, but her father interrupted.
Dimitri was obviously following his daughter's train of thought, because he asked, "Will you come to the wedding? It will be at home."
Haru blushed and gazed at Dimitri with surprise.
Danika knew that by 'at home' her father didn't mean here, he meant his birthplace. She wondered if Haru's surprise was because her father hadn't mentioned it before, and she asked Haru with concern, "Are you okay with getting married so far away?"
Haru glanced at Danika and added hesitantly, "It would be nice to have more people I know there."
"You can tell him no, you know? I'm sure papa won't change his mind about marrying you," Danika told her authoritatively.
Haru suddenly laughed and assured her, "It's fine! I want to meet the rest of his family and see where he grew up too."
"I would like to visit Danika's grandparents too," Shinichi announced. "When are you planning the wedding? Is there any chance you'll wait until mid-winter?"
"I was hoping we could do it sooner than that," Dimitri told him with a startled look.
They discussed each of their schedules, and current work projects, and then ate. The food reminded Danika of what Ryuske had arranged the first time she'd had dinner there, and she thought that it would be amusing if it turned out that they'd both ordered from the same place.
Danika made an effort to smile at both Haru and her father more. After awhile, she was able to do it without effort, as the two of them became more lively as they talked about their plans together.
Shinichi left first, reluctantly, and Danika obediently contacted Sakurai before she left. When she finished, she invited Haru and her father to come visit her next time. It felt a little awkward since she still felt like she was living at Ryuske's place, instead of a place of her own. But when she tried to imagine Ryuske's reaction to her reluctance, she could only remember his insistence that she should make it into her home, and smile again.
As she was leaving, her father asked, "Should I be worried that your boyfriend can't escort you home himself?"
"Papa," she replied scoldingly, "didn't it used to be the boyfriend that you were worried about me leaving with?"
Haru hid her grin as Dimitri protested, "You were just a kid then!"
A message arrived on her phone, and Danika glanced at it, and then grinned at them both. "He's just as bad as you are anyway, reminding me to go back with the escort he insisted on, like I'd forget."
Dimitri smiled back at his daughter and said, "Well, he doesn't seem too bad I guess."
--
Danika would rather have returned home with Shinichi, although he would probably have commented on how quiet she was. Sakurai didn't seem to notice, and they traveled back as efficiently as they'd come. But as they entered the building, the woman stopped just inside the doors and turned to Danika.
Danika wondered nervously if she was supposed to be providing something for her services, until Sakurai asked, "You know, you're allowed to go wherever you want? If you want to take a detour or make extra stops, it's fine?"
Danika stared blankly at her and then asked, "Was there somewhere else you thought we should stop?"
Sakurai looked a little incredulous for a moment, but then she shook her head and replied, "No, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't making you feel restricted."
"I thought it went well," Danika assured her quickly. "I don't think I'll mind having to take someone with me as much as I thought I might."
She worried that she might have said too much until Sakurai said more cheerfully, "Alright then. I'll be the one on call for anything between noon and midnight, Kato will do mornings."
Danika frowned but explained quickly, "I feel like a shift from midnight to noon would be a pretty tough schedule."
Sakurai just grinned and agreed, "Yeah, me too, that's why I volunteered for this one."
Danika watched her walk away and realized that she'd never considered how many other people had to be awake and working too on the days that Shinichi had to start before dawn.
--
A small cat was waiting expectantly beside the door when she got to the end of the hall.
"You came for a visit?" Danika asked it as she opened the door.
The little cat sauntered through, ignoring the movement of her chair as though it had complete confidence that she would never dare to run it over.
Tora technically belonged to Naoki, but she was given free reign throughout the whole building. Danika suspected that since Shinichi and Ryuske were the ones who made sure her feeding station on the roof was kept stocked, Tora considered them to be her primary servants.
She didn't have to look for Ryuske, she could just follow the little cat through the open door into the recording studio on the first floor.
Ryuske looked up and grinned when he saw them. "Welcome back," he told them both cheerfully.
Tora pretended that she had just happened to walk into the same room and ignored him, but Danika went right up to him and leaned forward to hug him for a moment. "I love you too," she announced, "and you do great as a parent, in case you wondered."
"Was it a rough visit?" Ryuske asked as he returned her hug.
Danika released him and sat up straight. "No, it was pretty good," she replied. She heard the door into the garage shut and turned and hurried back out into the living area to greet Shinichi, ignoring Ryuske's grin.
"You made it back safely," Shinichi said happily as he crossed the room.
"Of course?" Danika replied a little sharply. He ignored her tone and scooped her up for a kiss. "Did you have trouble?" she asked when he finally put her down again.
"No, but Toshi and Nao got cornered by a reporter while we were at your dad's, and they said he kept asking for details about my girlfriend, so I was a little worried," Shinichi informed her.
Ryuske stepped through the studio door holding the little cat in his arms and commented, "That's nothing new right? So there's no need to fret at Danika."
"Yeah," Shinichi agreed a little sheepishly. Danika glanced back and forth between them and he added, "The only one they don't ask about very often anymore is Akito, because the answers never change."
Danika narrowed her eyes and considered asking why his answers had changed, but instead she asked, "Are you free for the evening?"
Shinichi narrowed his eyes at her in return and leaned down to place one hand on either side of her, putting them nose to nose. "No," he replied.
"Oh," she said with a sigh.
"I promised to help this cute little dragon torture bugs for a couple of hours tonight, but maybe I could get out of it," he suggested soberly.
"No, you can't!" Danika protested laughingly.