Alla Prima [Painter, Arc & Lani Private - Preemptive NSFW tag]

It had been about two years or so, by this point, since the two had finally given in and accepted that they liked one another. Regrettably for both of them, however, it had done nothing to make either of them any less awkward, especially with each other. Still, they'd settled into happy little routines for a while, until Rin could no longer risk leaving the estate for too long at a time. Not only were they still desperately trying to find any trace of the missing Toromakis, at least the ones that were left, but she'd been working on the final repairs and then renovations for the estate. Between construction crews around at most hours of the day, interior decorators coming and going, and the normal business of running a household, Rin was up to her ears in too much work to be able to leave the City for too long at a time. Dates were a simple possibility, so long as they at least stayed within the state or so, but it never failed that something would start to come up again if she was gone for too long. Because of this, their push towards turning Takumi into a Death Scythe had been ground to an indefinite halt. This alone was more than a little frustrating for the woman, who was determined to make the best out of both of them; if he wasn't a Death Scythe, she couldn't blame anyone but herself. His weapon form didn't exactly allow for much in the way of autonomy. They needed each other to make their soul powers work, and she just wasn't available for that. It upset her to no end, but there was little to be done on the matter.

While all of this was going on, the endless stream of presents from would-be suitors continued, over and over again. The staff of the estate would be lucky to go more than a few days without another batch of gifts showing up. Security still wouldn't let anyone on the premises. Rin wouldn't have it. For the most part, she'd go through gifts in search of things that could prove useful --- rarely was there anything that wasn't just the latest generation of such and such technology, mostly phones --- and would donate the rest. On her good days, she'd draft a collection of fill-in-the-blank printable, "thank you, next" letters to try to stay civil while continuing to firmly reject their advances. It had done little to sway some of them, and often the ones that remained were either snooty rich boys who wanted her for her status and name or old money old men who, she had found out more than once, had horribly fixated on her slight frame. Both types set her on edge for the same reasons, and she wanted nothing to do with them. Besides, she was a Toromaki. It was always the lady's choice and the women were the heads of the household. She would not forfeit the matriarchy to some perverted swine of a golddigger, especially when she had her sights set on Takumi.

Within a year and a half, the repairs themselves were finally finished, which alone freed up a fair bit of her time. Over the next seven months, the rest of the estate was in more than fine enough shape for the whole of the place to be successfully run by staff. Taking the opportunity for some sort of vacation --- at least that's what she told Takumi --- she put her most trusted head of staff, the maid, in charge of manning the household. Even after over two years of being together, she was still confident that the staff wasn't aware of their relationship, and thus she'd tried to play things off that they were going back to Japan for some time away and she just really wanted her weapon close at hand in case something went wrong... while simultaneously shooting down any and every suggestion of just hiring more or bringing her security along. No one bought it, especially not nowadays, but she was too clueless or too delusional to realize it.

In the end, she had her bandages wrapped strictly around her abdomen, where no one could see it but she still had them on hand in the event that they were needed. Her bag was packed, she had on plain travelling clothes, and had an entire months worth of clothes someone packed neatly into a carry-on bag. It wasn't like she couldn't afford to bring more luggage, but she preferred to keep it on hand. Besides, her personal bag had her technology, sketchpad, and glasses case, with the teddy Takumi had handmade her poking his head out the top. Seated pleasantly in a... surprisingly private area of first class, Rin stretched her legs out and began to pull things out of her personal bag to entertain herself with, Takumi sitting beside her.

The two years in which Rin was pushed to being so busy as to not be able to work on turning him into a Death Scythe. Two years since they began dating, though trying to hide it from everyone else. In those two years, little Takumi found out a couple of things about himself that really made him reevaluate his stance towards his relationship with Rin.

One, those people that tried to buy her, that thought that money and things were all that mattered and wanted her to be one of a list of things that made them more powerful, people that wanted to collect her like some doll, were people that he loathed. They pissed him off. They were the subject of so much ire that at a certain point just his demeanour whenever one of the shipments of garbage arrived at the doors of the mansion was enough show exactly how he felt to anyone watching; and that was all him trying to still hide their relationship for Rin's sake, even if he didn't think it to be much more than an open secret at best. 

Two, he didn't feel like he was doing enough. He had his talents, but in many ways he just wasn't the sort of person a rich and powerful family would admit into their midst. That went doubly so when he was almost the opposite of what that family thought to be ideal. He loathed to admit it, but Takumi Amaterasu didn't have enough to show for himself even if he was mutually in love with Rin Toromaki. 

The decision was simple, and at a certain point during those two years Takumi had in a very annoyed fashion asked for one of those fancy computers that the rich folk were sending and decided that he would pettily use it to better himself and put into motion a plan that he hoped would make his existence more palatable too the Toromaki family should the time ever come that he had to be formally revealed as Rin's lover. It was lucky, then, that without being required to go on missions, and with Rin so busy that they could only manage the occasional date, he had plenty of spare time. The hate he harboured towards the rich folk gave him laser focus in his conquest. He was ready.

Part the first! Learn! Takumi was going to learn all about what he needed to know, what he ought to know to look good to those that might not accept him. He wasn't going to change himself for anyone, at least not anyone that wasn't Rin (who didn't need him changing any), but he was going to have all the knowledge that one might need to tousle with the big shots. 

Part the second! Earn! Takumi was going to make sure that he had something to show for himself. It wouldn't be good enough to know, but showing that you did know would be something. He was going to use all that knowledge and that damned laptop and he was going to use them to make himself some assets. He would use no help from anyone, he would sell his art to create enough money to start things off and then turn that carefully into an amount he can be proud of and say that he created strictly with his own head.

Part the third! Death Scythe-en! Now, this part required Rin to have time for it, but it was important. Death Scythes had clout. They were the best of the best and they were the weapons of Death himself. Becoming one, even relying one a meister as talented as Rin, would give him no small amount of renown.

Part the fourth! Burn! If he was going to be grilled for being himself, he would burn all those that would try. The previous steps would be a strict secret. Nobody would know. Not until it came time to prove himself. This, in the end, ended up being the most tiring step, as hiding something from Rin was also not something he liked to do. But he would persevere. He would be the one, that when criticised when it matters most, would be able to say, 'I'm a Death Scythe who worked for all this from the ground up. I'm more than good enough!' and not be laughed out of wherever he is saying so. 


The sudden idea of a holiday, however, was welcome. While he had been working on all of that, Takumi had still been working on his art and trying to do his best to help with the estate as he would feel bad sitting around and not doing anything. A break is exactly what he needed. It was probably funny, to everyone, seeing how rapidly he had himself packed up and ready for the trip. Spending time with Rin, alone, was going to be great. He was convinced that this was a vacation, since Rin had said so. No matter. Inside the first-class area that they had in large part to themselves, Takumi had almost immediately pulled a sketch pad and various pencils from his own bag. It was so very like him.

If she was being completely honest, the vacation portion of the whole thing was still far from a lie. She did, in fact, essentially have a private villa on one of her family's properties, passed down by some cousin or other. She was the favorite, after all. She was the perfect one. With this, they would have more than their fair share of privacy; it was small enough that she was under no obligation to keep it staffed, and they knew full and well that she could cook for herself. Even though, with traditional gender roles flipped, it was typically thought of more as men's work --- she always found that odd, almost funny, even --- she'd been her daddy's little angel first and foremost. Times spent in the kitchen were some of her favorite, she just couldn't afford the luxury of it amidst all of, well.... her life's luxuries. In the process of making the arrangements, she'd been asked multiple times if she wanted at least a butler or chef assigned to the property, or even to come by with meals for her --- them, she had specified that she was bringing a guest --- and she had turned them down every time. It would be just here and Takumi, and she had made damn sure of it. About the only staff that could be snuck past her disagreements was the security staff posted so far away from the property that a sniper scope would be useless.

While Takumi had done flawlessly with keeping her out of most of his secrets, she had made note that he was spending more and more time drawing. It was the worst when his idea had first taken off, but she still saw him spending more of his idle time with art than she'd expected. She'd even shelled out the money for high-end equipment for him: drawing tablets --- she had to have given him at least three different ones --- a camera (that one had actually been from the pile of suitor's gifts, but it was a higher end than her own and she didn't want it to go to waste), all sorts of paints, accessories, and brushes --- the irony wasn't lost on her. It felt like the only way to get close to him, sometimes. Even when they'd been able to sneak to each other's rooms to sleep at night, they were almost always too exhausted and more than once she'd past out on him mid-conversation. It was straining. It was stressful.

She'd made sure that she and Takumi would have each other to themselves during their stay.

What she hadn't made sure of was, well, a definitive amount of time that they'd be gone. She didn't genuinely have any idea, but the notion had crossed her mind of doing a hunt or two. If nothing else, there were always rumors of KE among the ranks of the Yakuza. It wouldn't be safe, but none of their missions ever were, and the Toromakis had the funds to buy the Yakuza's out permanently, should the need ever arise. Not that anyone would dare let that on, but not that anyone would dare challenge her willingly. She had more than one reputation back home.

Still, when she saw him pulling out his supplies, she was anything but surprised, smiling sweetly at him while she grabbed her own. Regretably, she'd fallen out of practice these couple of years. "Do you have a particular subject in mind?"

He had been spending a lot of time drawing. He loved it. It was something he'd never stop, even if he was focused almost entirely on other things. But not quite as much as Rin thought, since a lot of the time that he spent alone that he had been telling her was taken up by his drawing was in fact taken up by much less interesting things. Markets, trade, all sorts of things that he would have been otherwise entirely removed from and uninterested in were he not driven by a goal. Some of the equipment that Rin had gifted him, though always used to some extent, went underutilised so much that Takumi honestly felt bad about taking it at times. The studio he had been allowed full use of was as much a hideaway to do the boring bits that his goals required as it was a place for him to do his art. It was the reason he was tired rather often, as the things he had to keep track of weren't few. The most draining emotionally, however, was that he didn't reveal any of this to Rin. So many times he wanted to, when they had some time together, but ended up doing so on none.

So now that they had time together, he felt just a little bit silly about going straight to his drawing supplies instead of talking and paying attention to her like he maybe should have. The amount of time drawing alone he spent had somehow made him miss the fact that they could talk just fine while they were drawing, though. Yeah, he totally needed this break. He didn't know quite how 'alone' she had planned to make them everyone leave them, but any level he felt was better than not being able to get a moment for themselves. "I was thinking of drawing the clouds, what they look like from up here. Rendering practice, mostly. I am not sure if that is what I will do, though."

Rin nodded, moving to try to lean on his shoulder. It seemed that she had planned this out enough that she was on his off-hand side, leaving him better use of his dominant hand. As much as she could be forgetful and careless, even crass, sometimes, she made an active effort to remember the little things. "I was thinking of starting up my music note works again. It's been so long since I've been able to do any."

With her leaning against him, he almost automatically and immediately propped his head against Rin's. Shifting only a little for a little extra comfort in the position, he was soon settled. "I would like to see those, yeah," Takumi said, though changed his mind about drawing the clouds. He couldn't look out the window properly like this.  Oh well. Perhaps just what he was seeing from there would suffice.

She blushed a bit, set her own things aside, and curled up in her seat beside him. Hopefully, she could minimize the amount that she interefered with his work. "Is there anywhere in particular you want to go, once we've landed?"

"I would not have minded to bring you to my family, but they are mostly ordinary enough. They are very far away from where we are going, though," Takumi said. He hadn't seen his family for a while, though technology made sure he could at least talk with them sometimes.

She pursed her lips for a moment before running a mental note of where they'd be; she'd been vague on the details. "We can." Rin asserted almost automatically, mid-thought. Woops. "Do you want to? You've never talked about them much."

"If we can, then sure," Takumi said, smiling, nodding happily, then going back to his drawing. "I only ever talked about you as my meister. I didn't know if it would be okay..."

Rin shifted a bit at that, mostly to fidget as she shifted her focus from his face to his work. That was an expected response, really. She'd been going out of her way to try --- poorly --- to keep their actual relationship a secret. It was absolutely nothing against him, and she honestly hated that they couldn't be more normally a couple, but she hadn't been willing to risk him the wrath --- or scrutiny --- of her family. While she could keep some of them in line, if only to her face, she could only do so much about the two-faced gossip they'd do where she couldn't quite see or hear. Her fidgeting intensified as she thought. She was more herself when they had first met, but he'd never quite seen her like how she was around her family. The fact that her Death City family had already gone missing before she could introduce them was evidence enough of that. The meister wasn't quite sure what he'd think of seeing that side of her. It felt like an alien, even to her, now.

To assuage her worries and to finally be able to openly be with each other. It would be clear how much he wanted to do both of those things once the time came, but for now, he would hide it in the totally-not-obvious fashion that they had been so far. Things seemed fine, as they were, but they were far from comfortable. He knew that it would mean dealing with Rin's family, and he prepared himself for it as well as he thought he could; that included knowing how someone like Rin, someone expected to be perfect, was supposed to behave and to behave in a manner that wouldn't bring any disgrace to her (not that he thought that she would ever think that). He may be surprised at the extent of what she doesn't show him but he was aware that there was probably something. 

As for his family... He knew for sure that, meister or girlfriend, they would absolutely treat her as well as any other guest and be quick to get friendly.

Her family would know that she was around the moment the plane landed. Hell, she'd be lucky if they weren't made aware the second the plane hit Japanese air space. Still, she was only obligated to stop by there within the week, so they could easily manage at least a few days of peace. One of Rin's own drivers --- a childhood friend, whose father had been her bodyguard in her younger years --- would be escorting them to her residence. He would never tell a soul, and she knew it. While "the help" was always treated more as casual acquaintances at best by most members, Rin's direct line had always been more friendly, treating them more like family. Even if pushed by his father or her parents, she wouldn't be told on, especially since they would only ask once and not another more.

Settling in to the comfort of the moment, Rin tried to clear her mind of the would-bes of their landing, her bandages shifting along her torso as she remained restless despite her best efforts. It would be unlikely that Takumi would notice it, but he might be able to pick up on the subtle fluctuations of her soul.

Takumi was unaware of most if not all of the considerations that Rin had to undertake even on what was supposed to be a getaway from things. If he had known, if he had managed to pick up on things more strongly, he would definitely have tried to offer some comfort. As it was, he was simply focused on his drawing while allowing her to cuddle against him as much as she liked. He knew he'd be doing the same when it came time to get some sleep; an inevitability on such a long flight, at least for him.

When she eventually worried herself exhausted, she ended up passing out beside him. The trip was around fourteen hours or so, on a straight shot from Nevada to Japan, leaving more than ample time to get a full night's worth of rest. It seemed that she was getting hers in early, curled up in the seat beside him and using his arm and shoulder as a pillow, slowly falling over more and more.

It took him longer than her to become tired, but once he did he was happy to set his sketchpad right aside and settle himself against her.

Rin was out like a light for far longer than she would have desired, and only ended up with a couple of hours to sketch out some paintings. She hadn't thought to request supplies be brought to the villa, so she'd likely need to do some shopping for them herself, but she hoped to get some art made during their trip. Whatever the case would be, they ended up off the plane with their stuff with no issue, and she was soon leading him out of the terminal and to the pick-up lanes. There, they'd find a plain but elegant vehicle parked with a tall, proper young man waiting outside of it. The car was sleek and higher end, but not really showy, with its white-silver paint job just dull enough to not match or detract from Rin's own silvery hair. It was very... Rin in a lot of ways. The man himself was put together but looked more to be in business-casual attire, with his dark, almost black hair slicked back and his soft amber eyes smiling.

"Miss Rin," he said, appearing to lack an accent, "I trust the trip did you well?"

"Kenta, early as always." She said pleasantly, knowing he'd likely been waiting at least nearby for a while. When she drew closer he moved to wait for the inevitable, gentle embrace she offered, kissing his cheek with some effort. He returned the gesture in kind before they parted and he took her back, holding a hand out in offer to Takumi, both to shake and to take his bag for him.

"Saito Kenta," he introduced himself, tone no less friendly than when he'd addressed Rin, "I take it you are Mr. Amaterasu. The mistress speaks fondly of you." The gleam in his eyes as he spoke said that she had done so enough, at least with him, that he knew. Rin was always bad about keeping secrets. Takumi didn't know it yet, but Kenta was something of a common sense filter for her. Nothing got passed onto her family without getting sorted through by him first; otherwise she would have let on her true relationship with Takumi long, long ago.

Seeing the car and someone who looked very much like the sort of person to be working for the family in front of it without warning was something of a surprise to Takumi, and his posture changed somewhat for the better. It was only a partially conscious effort. He looked to relax again when he saw that Rin didn't seem tense herself, and when she addressed him casually. He was quite aware of the fact that he was back in Japan, so he would no doubt be switching to calling people with honorifics and the like; not that he would be doing so with Rin, considering that he dropped that in no time when they first met. "Saito-san," he said, choosing what he would be calling the man himself, and giving him a small polite smile.

He raised a hand to dismiss the formality swiftly, "Kento, please." The man told him, gesturing towards his bag. "Allow me, please, Mr. Anaterasu."

"Good luck with that one, Kento." Rin said, laughing a bit as she slid into the back of the car before she could be stopped or helped. "He's not too proud or anything, he just isn't used to being waited on." She rolled her window down, peering out of it, one arm laid on the open space and chin over top of that. "You're going to have to let him take it, Takumi."

"Take what?" Takumi asked through the open door on the opposite to Rin, having already made it around the back of the car while Rin was getting into her own side. Expectations. It didn't occur to him to protest. He'd learned. It wouldn't have been a very good use of two years if he messed up on something like this. He knew, more or less, where he stood as Rin's partner. Polite speech was another thing.

Rin shook her head, pulling herself back inside, mostly, and looking at him with a raised brow. Kento let Takumi into the car before moving to climb in to the driver's side. Double checking the mirror, he set about pulling away from the airport. "Is there somewhere that you want me to stop by beforehand, Ms. Rin?"

She almost wanted to punch him for continuing to be so formal. She would have, when they were children. She couldn't get away with it, now. "Did anyone stock the kitchen first?"

A knowing chuckle escaped him and he shook his head, "No, ma'am. They are still trying to coax you out of cooking. The store it is, then?"

"Please," she said with a nod, shaking her head and looking at Takumi apologetically. "I'm sorry, I just..." Rin really didn't want to explain that she wanted to cook with him. For him.

Takumi had almost moved to distract himself from the car ride, but he couldn't help but listen to the conversation between Saito-san and Rin. The idea of getting food was logical enough to him, at first, though his mind returned to the fact that rich people weren't expected to cook as such. His attention was entirely captured when Saito-san mentioned trying to coax Rin out of cooking. Rin. Cooking. He honestly looked a little too excited about it, with a big happy grin aimed straight at her. He'd never had to a chance to make anything with or for her either. Cooking was something he had to do when he still lived in the loft he had rented before Rin invited him to live at the mansion, and he figured since it was a form of art in itself, he'd at least try to get good at it. He could make anything look good at the very least.

The grin on his face had a very interesting effect on her stomach, causing it to simultaneously drop and flutter. He'd picked up the conversation enough that he realized the hidden passion she'd managed to keep under wraps until now. There was an irony to it that utterly escaped her. Still, she cleared her throat, shifting a bit in her sleep and forcibly looking away from the paintbrush as her face flushed up to her ears. "Is there anything you need...?" She asked Takumi, trying to get some input on the conversation. If they were going to buy more than just food then it would be best to know in advance.

"Not that I can think of," he said, the cheerful tone in his voice impossible to hide, if he was even trying. This vacation was going to be great. He wouldn't be convinced otherwise, lest something real bad happened; at that point, he'd count himself as unlucky despite anything that might point to the contrary.

Rin merely nodded, hoping that maybe Kento had gone through and gotten some of her favorite art supplies in advance anyway. She did manage a modest account for the estate that he had access to. "Just groceries then, Kento." She said, looking out the window like it was fascinated. She couldn't look at Takumi's face, knowing the expression that must be on it. Oh, she wouldn't hear the end of this one.