[Action] General theory of relativity.

[nameless_book]

Her other relatives were gone, thank goodness (she thought and felt guilty for thinking), back to their jobs and lives, leaving behind more food than Naoko could eat in a month and promises to sort out all the legal issues for her. That made it much easier to get back to something like normal. She caught up on her homework in fits and starts, and

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Touya tugged at the knot in his tie. Haru slapped his hands away. "Leave it! You look very respectable."

"I don't want to be too formal," Touya said, nusing his knuckles. "I just want to be Touya."

Haru planted his fists on his hips, his spatculas gleaming dangerously. "Well you can be 'best manners Touya'," Haru instructed. "You're meeting somebody important to her so you're going to wear your tie and be presentable and polite."

"Moromoto!" Suzuki shouted, "quit fussing and flip six!"

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"And this is where I work," Naoko said, holding the door for her aunt. "Hello, Haru-san. How are you today?"

Instead of an answer, she got a hug. "I should be asking you that, shouldn't I? You're doing okay, right? Not listening to terrible music or wearing black makeup or anything?"

"I like this one," declared Amaya. "You should keep him."

Naoko carefully extracted herself from Haru's enthusiastic embrace. "I'm fine. Haru-san, this is my aunt, Nakamura Amaya. Aunt Amaya, this is Moromoto Haru. He's Touya-san's roommate."

"That's not flipping six!" Suzuki yelled.

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He dropped his face into his hand for a moment and then stood. "Hi, Naoko-chan," he said. He bowed politely to the woman with her. "I'm Kinomoto Touya. It's an honor to meet you. I'll be right back," he apologized. He nabbed Haru by throwing an arm over his shoulders and ushering him toward table six. "What the hell?" he asked quietly. "Manners?"

"She's our Naoko-san!" Haru objected, his eyes swimming. "She's brave and strong and...and...tiny like Kokoro!"

Touya took the spatculas from him and flipped six's slightly underdone food. "Shut up and pull yourself together before she slips you the poison your child made for her, okay?" He handed back the spatculas. "And do your job before you give Suzuki a heart attack. If our boss dies, we're all screwed." He hurried back to Naoko. "I'm so sorry."

[nameless_book]

If she had been with anyone but Aunt Amaya, Naoko would have been embarrassed on Haru's behalf. With her aunt, though, there was no need to be embarrassed about Haru.

As evidence..."Don't worry about it," Amaya was saying. "Naoko needs more hugs." Now Naoko blushed.

"Touya-san, this is my Aunt Amaya," she said in a desperate attempt to recover her composure. "Aunt Amaya, this is Kinomoto Touya."

"Did someone really give Naoko poison?" Amaya asked.