Once everyone was inside and settled, Tony turned to Asher and asked, "Wanna help me make dinner?"

Asher gave a swift nod and practically skipped off to the kitchen while Ayame whom managed to snatch her DS back, settled onto the couch and Tier next to her commanding the TV.

"So, how have you been, little cousin?" Tony asked, trying to start a conversation. Even before Asher's father's death, Tony and Asher were never very close. It was the downside to living in two completely different countries. After all it wasn't exactly cheap to travel back and forth. They had met a handful of times for family funerals, the rare Christmas holidays and whenever one side could scrap together enough money. But Tony was determined to not lose the last reminding connection of his family. If Asher was here, Tony would make his best effort to try and get to know his cousin.

Asher gave him a wryly grin. "Before that, you do know that you don't have to go out of your way to impress Tier and Ayame right?"

"That obvious huh?"

Asher laughed. "Well not really. It's just the reaction most people have when they discover they're meeting Tier and Ayame for the first time. Most don't realize that with Ayame's skills, she's already discovered everything she needs to know about a person before she meets them. Trust me, if there was anything to hint that you were a terrible person, they wouldn't even be here. Actually if you a terrible person I doubt they would have let me come by myself like how I originally intended. The only thing you have to worry about is not screwing with their expectations."

Tony resisted the urge to groan. First impressions were bad enough, expectations were bad enough. "Are they high expectations?" he questioned.

"Ayame's? No not really. She'll know by the time dinner ends if she hates you, tolerates you, or likes you. For the record you're shooting for tolerating, which is easy to do as long as you don't go out of your way to utterly annoy her. For the record, getting her to like you requires much more time and effort then you have as Tier and I are currently the only people on that list. So for Ayame, it's easy," Asher explained.

"Tier on the other hand is very hard to please. He's a hard person to read. Oh sure he'll give half smiles and a frown here and there, but most of the time it's like trying to read a wall. Ayame can tell from his body language, I usually just make an educated guess."