"(L/n)." Katakuri stood in the kitchen doorway and was staring you down rather intensely. You didn't like the look.

"Yes?" You paused what you were doing and wiped your hands off on your apron.

"I need to borrow you for a moment, come see me in my office."

He left and the coworker to your left immediately spoke up.

"What'd you do?"

"Don't assume I messed something up." You shot back. "I'm sure it's nothing."

The rest of the people murmured amongst themselves as you removed your apron and hung it on its hook at your workspace. You had a feeling you knew what this was about as you headed out into the hall. This development wasn't one you were comfortable with but you figured this made you and Cracker even. You had no plans to cash in his offer to "owe you one" but he didn't know that. Besides that, he didn't waste his time telling his mom he'd found a girlfriend and knowing his family, word about it spread fast.

You knocked on Katakuri's office door and were met with a muffled "come in." The room was empty of anyone else but him and you almost breathed a sigh of relief. If Cracker was here, you didn't think you'd be able to stand dealing with his presence along with his brother's. One Charlotte was already hard to handle, any more just stressed you out too much.

Katakuri sat behind his desk, leaned back in his chair and swiveling side to side slightly. His crimson eyes watched you like a hawk as you stepped in and closed the door behind you. Everything about the man exuded power, no matter how relaxed he was.

"Take a seat, you've been on your feet for a while."

It was about halfway through the workday and you had yet to take your break. Sitting actually did sound nice but not in this scenario. You'd been dreading a talk like this ever since you realized someone was bound to question you on things. So while you wanted to retreat, leave the room and possibly the building out of fear, you sat down in the empty chair in front of you. It was tall enough that you could easily look at Katakuri over the desk but he was still able to look down at you. The man was too tall for his own good.

"I'll assume you know what this is about." He started.

"Um, yeah."

"Relax, I'm not here to chew you out. I just wanted to know a few things."

"Okay." You readjusted yourself so that you looked more comfortable but in reality you couldn't shake your nerves.

"So it's come to my attention that my brother Cracker has decided to see you outside of the workplace. I'm curious as to when this.... relationship, started developing."

You and Cracker had talked about what to say if anyone asked about you for the sake of keeping your story straight. He'd agreed the best thing to do was say the truth and twist it a bit to make it less of an odd friendship and more of a romantic relationship. In all honesty, it was something he'd suggested. You didn't think he could plan ahead like that and you were too frazzled by it all to do so yourself at the time. It was nice knowing one of you was able to figure things out when it mattered.

"Well, he heard about my baking when I first started working here and came by asking if I could make him some of that cake." Your eyes widened for a moment. "Don't tell Peros I made it for him though, I think he wanted me to tell him when I made more and I didn't."

Katakuri chuckled. "He won't know a thing. So Cracker decided he liked your baking."

"I mean, I guess that started it? From there we kinda started hanging out every once in a while. I wasn't sure about it since it felt almost like I worked under him but he said we don't have any direct relations at work so it wouldn't be an issue. It isn't an issue, is it?"

"No, it's fine as long as you don't work with him directly. We don't like mixing work and home life, it leads to problems all too often. And all of this is genuine?"

"What do you mean by genuine?"

"I have to admit, the timing on this had me uncertain. Did Cracker tell you about our latest family decision?"

"If you mean your mother wanting more of you to marry and such, yeah. We talked about that a few days ago."

"Then you understand why this all seems convenient, correct? I'd like to make sure this is real and not some way of Cracker picking someone at random to appease our mother."

"This all started out as us just spending time together but I guess we decided we actually like each other. We hadn't really put a title to us until now since we weren't quite sure ourselves. But with Ms. Linlin's decision, we thought it'd be nice to give this a real shot."

You wanted to gag yourself with a spoon. It sounded so fake to you, especially since you were lying about it all. You were worried Katakuri could see right through your terrible act.

"So you aren't sure if this will even work out." He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the desk, interlacing his fingers together.

You shrugged. "Is anyone ever really sure of a relationship working out when they enter one? Anything could happen, opinions can change, things can come to light that weren't known about each other before. It's one of those things you have to try and hope for the best."

He hummed in acknowledgement. "I suppose you're right about that. Well, if all that's the case, I can assume you are both serious about this."

"Yeah." You did you're best to hide your surprise. He was actually buying it. There was hope for Cracker's rediculous plan after all.

"Then you wouldn't mind getting to know the family better." He sat back once again, making the chair lean with his body weight. There was a very relaxed, almost satisfied look on his face that you weren't a fan of. "I don't know if Cracker has told you or not, but us older siblings take turns watching the little ones. It's supposed to be a time for us to stay in the loop with whatever they have going on and give them a chance to see us through our busy schedules. It just so happens Cracker gets to see them tomorrow along with a couple of our sisters. You should go too, get to know the youngest of our siblings."

"Oh, tomorrow?" This wasn't part of the deal, you weren't supposed to have to get friendly with his whole family.

It was one thing with his older brothers since you worked under them, but this wasn't something you were sure you wanted to have to do. For a simple act, this was getting far too involving for you very quickly.

"Did you already have plans?" If you could see more of his face, you'd bet Katakuri would be frowning.

"No, I–"

"Then I'm sure Cracker would love for you to join him."

You nodded, not sure what else you could do. Backing out would look too suspicious at this point. If you were supposed to play the part of the loving girlfriend, you'd have to follow through.

"I think he would too." You forced an impressively convincing smile. "I'll talk to him about it after work today."

"Don't worry about it, I'll let him know since you'll be busy."

Your smile faltered but only for a second. Hopefully he didn't catch the slip up.

"Thanks, I appreciate that."

"It's no problem. I suppose I should let you get back to work now, there's projects I need to finish as well."

That was your cue to leave and you did so as quickly as possible without seeming impolite. So much for just being a girlfriend in name alone, his family wasn't going to let that happen.

----

"What the fuck (Y/n)?" Cracker invited himself into your house and slammed the front door closed behind him.

Yet again, you knew where this was going. At least the Charlottes were predictable to some extent.

"Look, you can blame your brother!" You shouted back from the kitchen.

"He said you wanted to come along with me tomorrow, why is that his fault?" He stood on the opposite side of the counter and reached over to take an apple out of the bowl near you.

"Because he suggested that I go and if would have said no, he would have been thinking I either hate your family or am up to no good. Neither of which are correct."

He huffed before taking a bite of the apple. "No, I'd say we're up to no good with this but I wasn't planning on Katakuri sucking you into spending time with some of the others."

He seemed to quickly accept that you had to tag along. From the sounds of it, if other older siblings were going, you wouldn't be able to skip out on it. If you didn't go, the others were sure to figure it out.

"So what now?" You asked, picking through the bowl for a piece of fruit that looked good.

"Now, I fill you in on my sisters and the younger kiddos. You're coming along, you might as well be prepared for what you're getting yourself into."

"You dragged me into this mess." You corrected him."

"And you agreed to it. But that doesn't matter, you really ought to know about my sisters."

"You make it sound serious."

"They're just a lot and since they get to meet my 'girlfriend,' they're going to be more energy than usual."

"You say it like they're bad."

The look he gave you said they were, in the sense that he couldn't always tolerate them. He placed the apple on the counter and took a moment to scroll through his phone. When he found what he wanted, he slid the phone over to you and you looked at the screen. On it was a picture of him, scowling as two women hugged him on either side. The one on the left had deep purple hair, a much darker shade than his own, that was styled into a bob. The one on the right had her hair styled a little more wildly but was a similar length to the other woman's. It's color was lighter than either her sister's or brother's.

"So those are my sisters, on the left is Custard, the right is Angel. We're triplets but I'm still the oldest."

"They're pretty......" Almost intimidatingly so.

Cracker was well into his prime which meant they had to be as well, but they didn't look it. They looked almost close to your age and now that you thought about it, Cracker was about the same. They aged well.

"Don't let their looks fool you, they're both a pain in my ass."

"I mean, I wouldn't know much, but that sounds like a typical older sibling complaint to me."

"Is not." He pouted at you and snatched his phone back. "You'll see tomorrow, just know they are probably going to make it a goal to figure everything about you that they can. I shit you not, they'll try to get personal with it."

"Personal as in....?"

"Personal. They'll want to know all the nitty gritty."

"For just me or....us?"

"Both."

You felt a blush begin to rise to your cheeks. Who asked strangers about things like that? You were pretty open with just about anything but not with people you didn't know.

Cracker snickered when he noticed your flustered appearance. "You don't have to answer every question they'll ask you. You can keep things vague or just flat out refuse you know."

"Trust me, I don't plan on answering everything."

He reached forward to pinch your cheek and you swat his hand away, making him chuckle. He was getting a kick out of this.

"You know what? I think it'll be fun to have you tag along."

"I don't like you saying that."

"Whaaat? Can I not enjoy myself once in a while?"

"Not at my expense, no." You swat him away once again but this time, while smiling.

He really was too much sometimes and you meant that in the best way possible.