After school, the four of them stopped by a grocery store on the way to Shion’s house because Arisa was intent on having her barbeque that very night. Shion had finally cheered up by the end of class, and spent her time trying to drag Arisa to look at meat and more meat.

 

Arisa was slightly speechless looking at Shion getting distracted by a piece of A5 wagyu on the shelf. She glanced at the price, and discovered that it was 23,000 yen (Approx. 170 USD) per kilo… But Shion was so cute when she was drooling, and her eyes didn’t leave the piece of meat, even when Arisa tried to drag her away.

 

“Shion… isn’t that a little bit too expensive?” (Arisa)

 

“... but it’s tasty?” (Shion)

 

“We can’t afford this right now… maybe another time in the future?” (Arisa)

 

Shion’s ears flattened in sadness, making Arisa about to give into Shion’s demands anyways, until Shion suddenly perked up herself.

 

“Oh! Papa gave me this thing and said I can buy things with it?” (Shion)

 

Shion had ruffled through her school bag, and took out a metallic black card. Arisa took a closer look, and was speechless as she saw it was a card in Shion’s name. Not only, it was the XXX company’s legendary unlimited black card, something Arisa had only heard about in rumors.

 

“...Well, you can certainly buy whatever you want with that.” (Arisa)

 

“Yay!” (Shion)

 

—

 

Akira trailed behind the group while they were shopping for ingredients; she was still guilty over what had happened earlier that afternoon. Yuuga fell back slightly too, noticing Akira was troubled.

 

“You know, you can’t take back a mistake you have made. But you can make sure you don’t repeat the same mistakes in the future… No one would have known about Shion reacting that badly. Just make it up to her in the future.” (Yuuga)

 

“But it doesn’t change the fact that I did hurt Shion…” (Akira)

 

Akira’s eyes were cast down… she didn’t seem to want to accept Yuuga’s consolation. Yuuga gave a small sigh.

 

“Look, you can either keep on doing this and make Shion feel guilty about her own reaction, or you can do your best to cheer up and make her feel better yourself. And don’t say this is better for Shion, you know just as well as I do that from her reaction earlier, she doesn’t want to lose or distance herself from anyone.” (Yuuga)

 

“But…” (Akira)

 

Akira bit her lip slightly, she didn’t want to hurt Shion further, but she also didn’t know if continuing to be near Shion would hurt her further…

 

“Ahhhhh! I’ll just stop teasing her and treat her normally, I don’t have enough brainpower to figure this out.” (Akira)

 

“I mean… that’s what I’ve been saying” (Yuuga)

 

“Is something wrong?” (Shion)

 

Akira didn’t know when, but at some point during their conversation, Shion had appeared behind her.

 

“Do… you not like Shion anymore? I’m sorry for crying like that earlier… I didn’t mean to” (Shion)

 

Shion had a slightly sad tinge to her voice as she spoke,

 

“No! It’s not your fault at all, Shion! It’s all me, I just keep on saying the wrong things to you…” (Akira)

 

“No… as I said, Papa once joked that he wouldn’t go out with me cause I didn’t listen to him and ate too fast… but I reacted the same way…” (Shion)

 

Shion suddenly gave Akira a hug, looking up at her with slightly upturned eyes,

 

“If you stop blaming yourself, Shion will stop blaming herself?” (Shion)

 

“Ahhhh fine! I can’t defeat you when you look at me like that! And I already decided to try to move past it so you wouldn’t blame yourself…” (Akira)

 

“Mmm… thank you” (Shion)

 

Shion buried her face in Akira’s chest, wrapping her tail around Akira’s arm. She then spoke up again,

 

“Akira… I’m okay with you hugging me more, you’re comfortable, just don’t suffocate me…” (Shion)

 

“Are you sure? I mean– you’ve always avoided me before and I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable…” (Akira)

 

“You only had bad thoughts before… but I think it’s okay now. I trust you.” (Shion)

 

Akira gently hugged Shion back with one arm and gingerly patted her head with the other. Shion started purring, making Akira’s heart melt. She whispered,

 

“Thank you for trusting me… I hate it when you’re sad, so I won’t let you down” (Akira)

 

Arisa gave a gentle smile from afar; she was happy seeing her two friends make up.

 

“So… I guess we don’t have to protect Shion from Akira’s antics anymore, huh?” (Yuuga)

 

“Nope~ If anything, I think Akira might be Shion’s defender from now on. But I’m happy to see it.” (Arisa)

 

Akira glanced over at the other two, and noticed that Arisa’s smile wasn’t quite right. It was more of a teasing smirk than anything… wait.

 

“Ahhhh! You’re the one who taught Shion how to do that, weren’t you!???” (Akira)

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about~” (Arisa)

 

Arisa gave a slight laugh as she walked ahead of the group, with Akira chasing behind, looking for some more ingredients for their barbeque.

 

—

 

After the group finished their grocery shopping, they went over to the Kojou Estate, where each of their family members were kind enough to drop off what they needed for their weekend stay.

 

Ayano waited at the entranceway with the other servants to welcome Shion and her friends over. As soon as they came in, everyone perfectly bowed synchronously,

 

“Welcome to the Kojou Estate, I hope you enjoy your time here. It’s Shion’s first time having any friends over, so we’re incredibly happy to see you.” (Ayano)

 

Everyone except for Shion had already been shocked by everything they saw from the gate to the entrance, but seeing all the servants bow to them was the final straw. Shion didn’t notice her friends freeze, and happily ran up to hug Ayano,

 

“Aya-chan! I’m back, thank you for helping us set everything up.” (Shion)

 

“It’s no problem Shion-chan, they’re your first friends, no? We have to take care of them” (Ayano)

 

Ayano lightly patted Shion on her head as she spoke, with Shion’s friends finally shaking themselves out of their stupor.

 

“U-ummm, I hope we’re not intruding…” (Akira)

“Of course not! As Shion’s dear friends, you could never intrude upon our home!” (Ayano)

 

“Why would you intrude if I invited you..?” (Shion)

 

“Your uhh… house is a lot bigger than we thought. Like, I know we met your dad, and he’s that Hirokichi Kojou, but there’s a difference between hearing about it and seeing it directly…” (Yuuga)

 

“Umm… should I put away the barbeque ingredients in the fridge first…?” (Arisa)

 

A maid suddenly and silently appeared besides Arisa, bowing slightly while holding her hands towards the grocery bag.

 

“I can take care of it for you, Arisa-sama” (Maid)

 

“A-ah, okay” (Arisa)

 

Shion suddenly grew impatient, running back to grab her friends,

 

“Hurry up and come! I want to show you my room!” (Shion)

 

Shion led them forwards, up the staircase and all the way to Shion’s room. Upon arriving, she opened the door, revealing 4 futons set in a square-ish pattern in the space in front of her bed.

 

“We can all sleep together in my room!” (Shion)

 

“B-but I’m an alpha…” (Arisa)

 

“You don’t want to?” (Shion)

 

Shion once again weaponized her upturned eyes to look at Arisa. Her heart was critically struck, and she couldn’t help but give in. Arisa muttered, “how could you use it against the one who taught you…” and gave a small sigh.

 

“It’s a good thing I brought a pheromone patch for myself… But please wear one too Shion, and Yuu-san” (Arisa)

 

“Mm, okay!” (Shion)

 

The group spent a little bit of time hanging around the table set up in Shion’s room, finishing up the homework they had been assigned for the weekend from Kisshoin. It was around dinner time when everyone had finally finished, so they decided to step out and start up the barbeque. They ran into Hirokichi on the way to the kitchen to grab the ingredients.

 

“Papa!” (Shion)

 

Shion ran ahead of the group, giving Hirokichi a huge hug. He had a gentle smile on his face and greeted everyone.

 

“Hello again, thank you for spending your weekend with Shion. I hope you enjoy your sleepover.” (Hirokichi)

 

He let go of his daughter, letting her run back to her friends. But he noticed that the relationship between Akira and Shion seemed to have significantly changed between the last time he had seen them, so he looked at Yuuga with quizzical eyes. Yuuga quickly mouthed, ‘I’ll tell you later’, which seemed to satisfy Hirokichi for now, so he told Shion to have fun, and left to go do other things.

 

Arriving at the kitchen, the maids had already graciously unpacked all the ingredients that the group had bought, laying out various seasonings to give them options on how they would like to season their food. They knew that Shion and her friends wanted to take care of the barbeque themselves, so all they did was take care of the more tedious and annoying tasks.

 

“We have set up a charcoal grill in the courtyard for you all, so please enjoy your time cooking and I hope you have a wonderful meal.” (Maid)

 

“Thank you~” (Arisa)

 

The four of them stepped outside with the ingredients, seeing that the charcoal was already at the perfect temperature to start grilling. Shion intensely stared at the A5 wagyu while drooling, so Arisa had no choice but to put that on first.

 

“Shion… you know you have to eat vegetables too right?” (Arisa)

 

“Mm! I know, I just like meat more!” (Shion)

 

“Well… as long as you know to eat in moderation…” (Arisa)

 

The fat dripped down onto the coals, making the fire flare up. But Arisa turned the pieces of meat over with a practiced hand. Eventually, Arisa managed to get a perfect sear, and served it up with some flakey salt and cracked pepper.

 

“Mmmmmmm! It’s so gooooooood, it’s totally just melting in my mouth. I can’t believe we only used salt and pepper!” (Akira)

 

“Well, it’s wagyu and super high quality on its own already, so it really doesn't need anything more.” (Arisa)

 

“Hmmm… makes sense, as expected of chef Arisa.” (Yuuga)

 

Arisa blushed lightly, throwing out a small complaint.

 

“You can’t just tease an alpha like that Yuuga! What if I have bad intentions?” (Arisa)

 

“I mean… from how you’ve interacted with us, we already know that you’re not that type of person, so just hush and accept the compliments! You’re doing a fantastic job!” (Akira)

 

“Blehhh…” (Arisa)

 

“Arisa… your wagyu is delicious…” (Shion)

 

“Well, I guess I’d rather hear that it’s good than that it’s disgusting, although it’s really hard to mess up wagyu unless you overcook or burn it but also… you should watch your phrasing Shion…” (Arisa)

 

“Just avoiding burning the meat is hard enough already! So you’re an expert chef in my book.” (Akira)

 

“...Out of curiosity, do your parents or siblings ever let you cook at home?” (Yuuga)

 

“Hmmm… now that I think about it, every time I bring up wanting to cook something, my omega and beta brothers always have an excuse or another to keep me out of the kitchen… I wonder why?” (Akira)

 

“...Must be because they’re afraid of how addicting your cooking is, so they don’t want to get spoiled.” (Yuuga)

 

Arisa whispered quietly in his ear,

 

“Isn’t it worse to falsely inflate her ego like this?” (Arisa)

 

“Welll… it’s not our problem so I think it’s okay” (Yuuga)

 

“Talk less, eat more!” (Shion)

 

Shion grabbed three skewers of wagyu and shoved them in everyone’s mouths. They all laughed slightly before continuing to eat. Eventually Arisa did manage to throw on some vegetables like bell pepper, mushrooms, onions and other easily barbecued veggies, but Shion only ate a few before she refused to eat any more. The group peacefully passed their time chatting and having fun cooking.

 

Shion was happy that she finally had friends she could spend time with. Although she had Hirokichi there for her, it wasn’t the same as finally having friends her own age, and she was excited. There were a couple other things that Shion had in mind for their sleepover, and she couldn’t wait to try them out with everyone later…