"Isn't it a little cold for this?" You asked, unsure if this was a good idea.

"See, that's what I said but my sisters thought it'd be a good idea anyway." He answered with a shrug.

It was extra chilly today, enough so that if you got to breathing hard enough, you'd see your breath in the air. As of right now, you two were bundled up in light jackets, waiting in his truck for his sisters to arrive. They apparently were also the ones picking up the kids so for now, you had some relative silence.

In front of the truck was an empty playground. Literally no one else thought this was a good time of year to be out playing in the colorful, otherwise kid friendly space. There was a light breeze coming through, making the space look all the more cold. Lucky for you, Cracker had the heater blowing, keeping it at a much nicer temperature in the vehicle.

"They're going to make the kids freeze." You frowned.

You had to admit, you were nervous about all this. You'd never had siblings and never dealt with kids. This was completely new territory for you.

"Nah, they'll get moving and they'll warm right up."

"I can't believe Katakuri gave me the whole day off for this....."

"He's on the same page as the rest of us, family is important."

"But it's not my family." You argued.

"No, but remember this whole dating for marriage thing? He believes this'll be your family eventually. That being said, you have to get to know them." Cracker turned in his seat as much as the small space would allow and faced you.

"But you said I'd just be your girlfriend in name, all this meeting your family wasn't supposed to happen."

He looked away, suddenly more interested in the view out his window. You couldn't believe it.

"You lied. You knew this would happen!" You glared at the back of his head, annoyed that his loose hair kept you from reading any subtle hints of expression you might have seen otherwise.

"I mean, I figured it was a possibility...."

"Cracker!" You groaned. "Are they going to keep expecting me to go do things like this with you?"

"..... Probably."

"I can't fucking believe you right now."

"Look," He turned his head back towards you, frowning heavily. "if I would've told you to plan on spending more of your free time with me and my family, would you have agreed?"

"I definitely would have wanted to be a part of this less than I already do but I still would have."

He had fully believed you wouldn't have answered that way. His eyes widened and his lips parted slightly, like his jaw was about to drop but he had just enough restraint to keep from doing so.

"So you still would have agreed?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

You blushed and felt your annoyance melt away, swiftly being replaced with embarrassment. "No reason."

"No, you'd have to have a reason for it. No one does something they don't want to so easily." He was pretty serious but he was moving to poke and prod at you at the same time.

"It's personal reasons."

"I wanna know."

"No."

"Pleaaaasssseeee?" He sounded like a small child as he reached across the center console to tug at your jacket.

"No, it's stupid." You sighed as he pulled you closer to him in his quest to be nosey.

"This is a judgement free zone. Nothing in here will be considered stupid."

"I somehow doubt that."

"Look, you have yet to say something stupid, I doubt that'll change today."

"You're so stubborn, it drives me nuts sometimes." You sighed again.

"I wouldn't have to be if you weren't." He cooed. He could always tell when he'd won.

"I just feel like you've done a lot for me and I haven't really done anything for you in return. I know we made our deals and you get to come over and all that as part of it but it doesn't feel like I'm actually putting anything forward. I thought helping you with this would be a good way to pay you back. Happy?"

"(Y/n), you don't owe me anything. I helped you because I wanted to, the goal wasn't for you to owe me anything."

"I know, I just feel better about all this now that I'm actively doing something beneficial for you, even if it's not the most morally sound thing to do."

He let out a sigh. "If you want, you can say no to lying to my family about us. We can stop with the act."

"No, we're already in kinda deep with it, might as well follow through with it and get it done. Besides, I wouldn't feel right leaving you to figure this out yourself, your mom is asking for you to fill out quite the tall order." You chuckled as a large van pulled up.

"If you say so." Cracker turned the truck off. You could feel the not so subtle topic change coming up. "That's them. I'm betting they're going to have me deal with the kids while they interrogate you, at least for the first part of this."

"How many of your other siblings did they bring?"

"Six." He answered as his sisters got out of the van and started pulling kids out. They paused to wave at you and Cracker enthusiastically and you returned the gesture with a smile. "They're all the youngest in the family, I'll introduce you to them when my sisters give you a breather."

"Let's get this started then." You grabbed the handle to step out and Cracker stopped you, snagging your jacket to keep you in place.

"Hold on, there's one last thing."

"Okay?" You released the handle and waited for him to continue.

"We've gotta look believable, that means you gotta relax about me being a little close with you. Holding hands may make it more realistic for them too."

"I can deal with that."

The conversation ended with a knock on your window. His sister, Angel, stood outside, waiting impatiently for you to come out.

"That's our cue." You said to Cracker before hopping out.

It was time to see if your acting skills had improved any since lying to Katakuri. For your sake, you hoped they did.

----

"He seriously hasn't taken you out on a real date yet?" Custard huffed as she fiddled with the end of her scarf.

"Uh, no, we hadn't really felt like going out to do anything." You answered as you watched the man in question wrangle one of his little sisters and toss her in the air.

Her delighted, shrill screams rang clear over the sounds of her siblings playing in the park. You were sandwiched between Angle and Custard on a cold, wooden bench while they quick fired one question after another. It really was an interrogation, Cracker wasn't kidding about that. But at the same time, they watched the kids that weren't in their brother's direct line of sight like a couple of hawks. There was no one else here but if there were, they'd have no chance of swooping in and nabbing a kid.

"You should spend some time together out though, it keeps things fresh and fun." Angel said.

"Well now that I think about it, we did go get ice cream a few weeks ago."

"See?" That's a date!" She chirped happily, nudging you with her shoulder.

Despite their need to know so much about your life, his sisters were actually pretty nice. You were originally intimidated by how aggressively they approached you but they'd been nothing but good to you so far.

"How'd he get around to taking you for that? There's only one place he goes for ice cream and nothing compares to it. It's rare that he willingly brings someone along for some reason, says something about keeping it quiet keeps the drive thru line shorter." Custard pulled a tube of lipstick out of her purse and reapplied her already perfect makeup. You had a feeling the action was just to keep her hands busy.

"I was working on fixing my car that weekend and he was actually over to help me with it. After we were done, we went for a test drive and he had me go there."

"He let you drive? Please tell me he at least paid for it."

"My car is standard and I wasn't sure he knows how to drive that, plus I don't think he's a fan of my car anyway. But he did pay."

"Hold on, you're not asking the important questions Custard." Angel interjected. "You seriously got him to willingly work on your car? I don't think he even knows how to do anything besides change a tire."

"Yeah, I'd cut my hand working on it the day before and he insisted on taking over so I wouldn't hurt myself again. He didn't know what he was doing so I had to walk him through everything."

They both laughed and Cracker shot a nervous glance in your direction. Apparently he didn't think things would go so well with his sisters or maybe he just didn't think it was possible. His attention was immediately returned to the kids as a couple tackled him from up high on the equipment. You unconsciously smiled as he tried to shake them off.

"I'm surprised you got him to do work like that. He's usually not a fan of that kind of stuff." Custard grinned as she saw you watching Cracker.

"I couldn't get him to let me handle it. He's stubborn."

"It's a family trait. Trust me, it makes gatherings interesting to say the least." Angel hummed as one of her little brothers came over to drop a toy truck in her lap for safe keeping before running off again. They'd all completely ignored you so far but that would probably change soon.

"You have to tell us," Custard lit up with a mischievous smirk. "how's your personal time with him?"

"My....personal time." You repeated, wanting to make sure you knew what she was going for.

"Yeah, when it's just you two and you're feeling...frisky."

You blushed. He was right, they wasted no time getting down to the nitty gritty. "I–Its fine."

"Just fine?" Angel pushed. "C'mon, tell me he knows how to take care of you."

As if he could sense the situation, Cracker marched over with what looked like the youngest kid in hand and dropped her in your lap, effectively quieting his sisters. You let out a squeak of surprise as she stared up at you with big, curious eyes.

"You haven't had much experience with kids, right?" Cracker asked.

"Uh, none actually."

He grinned. "Today's your lucky day then, let's get you acquainted with the lot of them."

----

With that distraction, Custard and Angel were forced to stop their questioning as they watched Cracker introduce you to the children. They were all much younger than you thought Linlin would have but then again, all of them were technically not hers. By blood at least. The youngest was three and spent a lot of her time clinging to her older brother or waddling a short distance away from him only to eyeball you. The oldest was seven and seemed to be the wildest of the bunch.

He was definitely giving you a run for your money as he ran about, trying to encourage you to go down slides with him or climb around on equipment that was too small for a full grown adult. While you went back and forth with the majority of the kids, the older siblings watched with amusement. It had to be funny for them to see someone with no experience with kids trying to keep them in order.

At least Cracker was kind enough to see when you needed a break and traded roles with you. He'd handed the youngest, Anana, over to you so you could catch your breath and got the rest into playing a game of tag. The breather was nice, that was until she started jabbing her sharp little elbows and fingers into you constantly for her own amusement. The girl was adorable but she couldn't keep herself from pestering you. And if you let her down, she tried to dart off under the feet of her other siblings.

Custard and Angel were no help. They were more than happy to watch you struggle, occasionally shouting tips for dealing with the aggressive child over the sounds of the others' laughter. And while you were eventually able to wrangle Anana into submission, she wasn't willing to play with you the same way the others did. For some reason, that disappointed you.

A few hours had to have passed when the kids started slowing down, spent from moving constantly. Cracker was right, once they got going, the cold didn't bother them any. In fact, you yourself had shed your jacket at some point, leaving only your sweater which was still a bit too warm for you.

"Alright guys, who's ready to go home?" Angel scooped up one of the other kids and they let her, cuddling in closer. Yep, they were beat.

Still, there were a few complaints from them. Even if they were tired, they weren't keen on leaving. Cracker looked relieved though. He'd had a full on workout with them and had even broken a sweat. And here you thought it was only you they were giving a hard time, it was just what they did.

Warm little breaths puffed steadily against your neck and you looked down to see Anana nuzzled in with her eyes closed. Despite her earlier torturing, your heart practically melted at the sight. She had to be pretty comfortable with you to be dozing off in your arms like that. The moment was, unfortunately, short lived. Custard carefully took her from your arms and helped Cracker herd the rest of the kids to the van.

"Can you help get them buckled in?" She asked, motioning to the car seats as the kids got settled into them.

"Sure." You didn't quite know what you were doing but thankfully, the straps and buckles were as straightforward as it got.

While you worked on one, Cracker worked on the other across from you. He glanced at you with a growing smirk as you snapped the last buckle into place.

"You didn't do half bad." He commented.

"These aren't that complicated."

"No." He chuckled. "I mean with the kids."

"Oh." You felt yourself blush. Of course that's what he meant. "Thanks I guess."

When you finished with the other kids you could reach from your side, you closed the door and came around to the side with the three older siblings. The time spent with their younger siblings wasn't all that long now that you thought about it and while it was tiring, you felt you actually liked it.

"They're all pretty cute." You said.

"Want a few yourself?" Custard asked.

"Not sure to be honest. I'd like to have my life a little more in order before thinking too much into that. But I....enjoyed this."

The sisters exchanged beaming smiles, like they'd accomplished something great with this whole meet up.

"Well it was great meeting you (Y/n). You and Cracker are pretty cute together yourself."

Angel nodded in agreement while you felt what had to have been the hundredth blush of the day rise to your cheeks. This shouldn't have been happening, this was all fake.

"Nice meeting you guys too." You ignored their cute comment as you and Cracker waved goodbye to them.

"Hold your horses." Angel huffed, stopping you both before you could really even leave.

"What?" Cracker grumbled. "I'm tired and wanna go home."

"I want to see you two kiss." She huffed.

That was it. That did you in. Your face burned with embarrassment as you tried to figure out a way to say no without it coming across as suspicious.

"I don't think I've seen Cracker show you any affection since we've been here." Custard backed her sister up.

"Is that really necessary?" Cracker sounded mildly annoyed but you could sense the panic in him. Neither of you thought they'd request something like this.

"Yes!" They replied in unison.

"(Y/n) isn't a fan of public shows of affection."

"Just do it once and we'll quit bugging you guys, scouts honor." Custard hummed.

Cracker shot you a helpless look and you knew what it meant. His sister's would be just as stubborn as he was, maybe more so. Any adamant arguements against it would only look bad on your part and probably put him in a bind. You were really going to be taking one for the team on this.

"Sure, it's no big deal I guess." You scuffed your shoe against the ground as you began feeling ansty.

If he was surprised by your willingness to go through with it, Cracker did an excellent job of masking it. He let out a sigh, rolling his eyes like it was no big deal and all this was nothing more than a slight annoyance. He took your agreement with his sisters as the okay to go through with it and bent down over you.

You expected it to be done fast but as you tilted your head back to meet him, heart pounding away in your chest, his lips lingered against yours. Long strands of violet hair fell from behind his ear to brush along the side of your face. His warm breath tickled your suddenly hypersensitive skin. There was the delicate touch of his fingers along the side of your jaw, as if he was trying to keep you in place for it. And when he pulled away, all you could think was you couldn't remember the last time you'd been kissed like that. It was frustratingly satisfying.

"Jeez, we asked for a kiss, not for you to make a show out of it." Angel wrinkled her nose as she opened the driver side door.

"Well now you won't ask again, will you?" Cracker chuckled like nothing major had happened while you felt like you were frozen in place, still processing what had happened.

"Whatever." She hopped in while Custard went around to the other side, doing the same. "We'll see you guys later."

They drove off, the kids waving goodbye through the windows as they disappeared around a bend.

"So uh, I swear I didn't think they'd go for something like that." Cracker said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.

"Oh, it's fine. No harm done."

"Right." He teetered back and forth, looking a bit more uncomfortable compared to a few minutes ago. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah."

You followed after him, feeling a lot more uncertain about this than before. It was all fake, none of this was real. Yet you couldn't shake the fresh memory of the kiss or deny that part of you was wanting more. This was going to give you a lot to think about.