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[ he makes no promises, of course he doesn't. but he doesn't fight it, and she's said her intentions, and he's ( kind of ) agreed with her incredibly truthful observation. okay. there's not quite relief there, and she's still worried ( why? ), yet perhaps some of that tenseness she's feeling melts away.

she was tense?

a blink, as she realizes that. it delays her next words to him, prefaced by her gaze shifting from sousei to the side, and the rush of confidence she'd gotten from this need to have him to talk leaves her. to think she'd get this worked up over it, you'd think she was on a spyrix mission or something... ]

... Good.

[ good. though it doesn't carry the force her other words did, it's still there.

... ah, what now-- ]

I'll get the food, and you can tell me what other bad decisions you made.

[ good.

this gives her time to run off and think about what she's saying as she moves as casually as she can into the kitchen, to set the table and just... friendship.

things were so much simpler when he was just testing soup for her and she was just walking away from him in vivid while she wondered if he even had feelings. ]

[He watches her, a little more present, a little less out of it. If nothing else, her insistence has shaken him a little more...awake, as if he was asleep, going through the motions and not quite aware of everything going on around him. But now he's come back to himself, and he's realizes that she's...

...She's acting very strange, isn't she? It was nice to see her confident like that, but not she looks sheepish, glancing away, and then she moves off to get the food and he blinks some more.

Ah.

Okay.

Admittedly, even if it came at the cost of his own desire to keep these things to himself, it was nice to see her to confident and certain. It's been awhile, he suspects, since she's been like that, but he thinks it's a way of being that suits her. Proud, with her head held tall, and with the certain knowledge that what she's doing is right. There's strength in that.

(Though in this case what she's doing is looking after him, and when he thinks about that, that entire odd rush of--what, fondness? acceptance?--disappearance and he frowns slightly, pursing his lips ever-so-mildly.)

What is he supposed to even do with that?

(Besides sit at the table and wait for her to come back and stop pondering when he caved so easily to what she told him to do.)

And he knows he's going to tell her, somehow, and it's all so strange. Stop thinking, Sousei, focus on the food, it's less troublesome that way.]

[ it's a bit until the table is set. rice, two medium bowls of oden, the karashi which was obviously the only reason sousei came, and-- some tea. milla doesn't say much (or look at much, really) until everything's done, taking her place again beside sousei as she places the cups down.

( the majority of her thoughts during that entire adventure had been something along the lines of: you were way forward, what is this?, how am i going to do something like this anyway??

why. )

she's made it this far, and the distractions are finished. the little worry she may have had about the food being acceptable is shoved aside for her frustration and confusion with herself, with sousei, with. ah, everything. ]

... There.

[ but. she's made it this far. ]

Hopefully it's not terrible.

[ whether she means the food or the things he's been up to, well, that can be debated. ]

[He's going to assume the food, because why would he ever want to talk about how terrible things have been hahahaha that's so funny.

Instead, he looks for chopsticks (this sort of food should be eaten with chopsticks....) but if he doesn't find them, he's learned how to wield a fork as well in Western-style dinner parties. Either way, he'll just focus on the food.]

Thank you for the meal.

[And he takes his first bite. And then the next and the next.

It...tastes like home too. It's delicious, naturally; he was expecting that. Milla's a very excellent cook. But...

He wasn't expecting the flood of nostalgia to come just from the smell and taste of a meal he could have had back home. It's been months now since he's been there, and...it's strange. He didn't realize how much he missed things until now, with Tenka gone, and the Yamainu absent, and Milla offering up his favorite foods and flavors. He has to focus solely on the food, so that he doesn't embarrass himself with any sort of wavering.]

[ there's chopsticks, of course, she's clearly very refined in the ways of japanese cuisine. obviously.

( she isn't.... )

milla begins to eat just as sousei does, but the taste isn't entirely surprising to her. she feels silly that there's a hint of relief at his second bite, his third bite, like that really means anything--she's pretty sure that he'd continue to eat, even if what she made wasn't exactly up to par.

but he's silent, and that's something else. in between bites, she realizes she can't let that go on, and in the silence there's a: ]

... So?

[ so how is it, so what did you do, so how do you feel.

get answering, sousei. because she's looking, and she's waiting. ]

[(She tried......)

He's a little startled when she speaks, though he honestly shouldn't be; naturally a chef would want to know how the food turned out, especially when he knows that she made it in part due to him.

Which is still an odd thought, and one he doesn't try to examine too closely.

He swallows, and clears his throat, and tries to make sure there's absolutely no way that any hint of what he's feeling will get through. Thankfully, he's got practice with that, because nobody's got time for him getting sentimental.]

It is delicious.

[That's the frank truth.

After a moment, he adds to it, eyes firmly on the food:]

It tastes much as I would expect for it to taste back home.

[If he were there...this is the sort of thing that he would have liked to have eaten.]

... I see.

[ ... what a focus on the food.

it's not quite the answer she's looking most for, the thing she dragged him here for, but it answers at least one of the three. there's a raised eyebrow here, as if that's not quite what she expected him to say, or perhaps it's not quite how she expected him to say it--

--before she smiles, perhaps more wry than anything else. hearing the compliment doesn't mean as much as it should with all these background emotions, and maybe that fact is just funny to her.

even more confirmation that she's worried. how cute. ]

If it made you at least a bit homesick, I'd consider it a success.

[ that's what the purpose is, isn't it, when you make people things from home? ]

[... Well.

She seems to be onto him, not that he's surprised; it's probably pretty clear, even despite how hard he can be to read. Besides, Milla seems to know him pretty well by now (how should he feel about that, too?), so...

So all he does in response to that is take another bite, inclining his head in acknowledgement, and tacit agreement--yes, it does make him homesick, and yes, it is a success.]

... I wonder if I should consider that goal a little cruel.

[IF I MADE YOU MISS YOUR HOME, I WIN--but he knows that's not how she meant it.]

[ she actually got it, did she?

and somehow she's not even surprised, if only because what else could he be, looking down at the food so intently after she'd made it to his tastes? and during a time like this.

maybe it is a little cruel, even if she did have good intentions. and that fact just makes her smile less wry, more fond. ]

I could've dumped all the karashi in your bowl.

[ she could've been worse. ]

[He snorts under his breath at that, legitimately amused. Of all of the things to threaten him with, it's the karashi? Of course, she'd have no way of knowing, but he just arches an eyebrow in response, and--]

Karashi is one of my favorite flavors regardless. I don't think that would have been as troublesome as you would have wanted it to be.

[Sure, it'd be spicy, but it's his favorite flavor of spiciness....he probably would've been able to deal.]

[ .... he really does always find a way to squirm out from everything she throws at him, doesn't he? how was she supposed to know that? how does a guy who dislikes wasabi end up liking karashi that much?

judging from the way her lips press together and her eyes narrow, she didn't quite expect that one to pop up. but she recovers. ]

Lucky guess. Or unlucky guess here, maybe.

[ how is she supposed to torture him now?

except that's not the point of this entire thing at all, and she's not going to allow herself to get distracted anymore. ]

Let's fix that, then. Tell me what you've done, or I'll take it all away.

[ milla not!maxwell. ]

[Ah, is that what this is all about (obviously, it is, it was an inevitability....). But he just shakes his head slowly at that, arched eyebrow clearly unimpressed--

Before finally, he caves.

Yeah, he's a guest here, and she did make him his meal. He supposes she has the right to take it away from him as well, though his ninja skills for saving his meal from being taken by others are top-notch after living with Tenka for so long.]

There's no need to be threatening.

[yes there is]

...I assume you're asking after what poor decisions I've made recently, then. [a sigh, short but still mostly good-humored.]

You won't like this list.

[ she wouldn't actually have taken it away, but she has to pretend to have some semblance of an iron fist when dealing with sousei... otherwise she's pretty sure he wouldn't tell her a thing.

she wouldn't, if their positions were reversed. ]

I wouldn't have called you here if I thought I would.

[ and she's not going to avoid it, taking a sip of tea as she lets that settle.

lay it on her, sousei. it's not her issues that're being thrown out on the table, anyway, so it's not like she needs to steel herself for anything.

... but she does need to consider whether or not she'll need to punch tenka in the shoulder. sousei, too. ]

[Thanks, Milla.... thanks. Good thing you're here to make sure he can't wiggle out of things.

Though Sousei...is realizing that he can't actually wiggle out of this. they've come this far, there's nowhere else to go but to be honest about this. What a weird thought. He takes another bite, uses the time to chew and consider it, before he inwardly shrugs to himself.

Oh well.]

We both know the tours were an unwise decision. I suppose I have also gotten into more fights than were strictly necessary. [He can't even call them "spars", some of those were straight up fight club fights....

A beat.

And more quietly, and more slowly, as though he's thinking it through as he speaks:]

... I also did not expect delivering the news to Tenka's acquaintances would be quite so wearing.

[ ........ yeah, that. last part.

the word "acquaintances" next to "tenka" doesn't bring to mind a small list, in the same way that "ludger" next to the word "debt" didn't bring up a small number. the look she tosses him is a mix of unimpressed, surprised, and somewhat baffled--she's not surprised he'd bother with that, but the thought is so completely outside of any action she'd take that she can't believe someone would do that.

and fighting. she can imagine him now, especially considering when she'd met him, he'd gone way too overboard with the solo practice. she's--

--one hand, on her forehead. ]

I don't see how you'd see telling half the city that Tenka's gone as anything but wearing.

[ okay, maybe she's exaggerating. but she's just-- how does someone like this even exist. your best friend leaves, and your first response is to make sure everyone else is okay? and then you go on stupid tours and get into fights and you can't at all figure out that maybe something's wrong?

she's emotionally stupid, but that's a whole other level. abe no sousei is just a whole other level.

seeing him unravel is just-- a whole. other. level. ]

... You really do miss him.

Edited 2015-08-01 20:41 (UTC)

[She looks exasperated.

It amuses him, somehow. He's warned her that she wouldn't like it. So he just finishes his meal, eating the last of the rice (the Yamainu aren't so well-off that he could afford not to eat everything on his plate, and the Kumous too, had taught him better, and the meal is delicious) before he finally responds to that.

His kneejerk reaction is to deny it.

That's what he's been doing for days now though, and he knows it's not true. And so, simply:]

Of course. He is my partner, after all. [best friend, family--it covers a lot of bases.

Of course he misses Tenka. Last time Tenka disappeared out of his life, it took ten years for him to show up again.]

...And regardless, it had to be done. [He had to tell everyone. He has to still look out for them. That's what Tenka would have wanted, and Sousei is all about fulfilling half-made promises. A pause, and he sighs.]

Are you satisfied now?

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