| [Nov. 2nd, 2013|03:44 am] |
Some of the tension knotted in Katsuko’s stomach dissipated. “Sure,” she agreed. “My apartment’s a mess, anyways.”
"You just moved in," Raidou said. "How much damage can you do in three wee—never mind."
Katsuko snickered and bumped her shoulder against his arm, jostling the bags he was carrying. He pulled a face at her.
The walk back to the barracks was brisk, despite their exhaustion; hunger was an excellent motivator. Raidou’s room was as neat as ever, not even a stray sock lying about to make Katsuko feel better about her own sloppy cleaning habits. His battered guitar was still in its usual place in the corner, lovingly maintained despite its nicks and scratches. She closed the door behind Raidou as he went to dump the bags on his kitchen table and nearly dove after him, snatching up the first takeout container of udon she could get her hands on.
Raidou pushed her down into a kitchen chair and stuck a pair of chopsticks into her hand, and then dropped into the chair across from her. “Try to chew,” he said, dryly, and freed another bowl of udon from the bag.
Briefly, Katsuko considered drinking her udon straight from the bowl. Then she shrugged and brandished her chopsticks. “What if I chew really fast?”
"So long as you don't choke and die," he said, like he was making a gracious allowance, before popping the lid off of his takeaway bowl. For a man who wanted to lecture her on dining etiquette, the way he dug into his noodles was borderline ravenous.
“Hypocrite,” she said, through a mouthful of udon.
"Do you see me choking?"
“Oh, hey,” Katsuko said, remembering abruptly. “Speaking about choking, did you sleep with Ryouma?”
Raidou inhaled his udon the wrong way and nearly asphyxiated. He hacked and coughed, pounding on his chest, and finally strangled out a weak, “What?”
“Make the beast with two backs. Engage in pork fencing.” Katsuko made a detailed gesture. “Skewer the yakitori. Go spelunking. Mine for coal. Should I go on?”
"I will pay you actual cash money not to ever say any of those words again," Raidou managed, adrift on a distant sea of horror.
“That’s not a ‘no’,” Katsuko said, deeply satisfied with herself.
Raidou’s face was already scarlet from almost suffocating to death, but it blushed brighter at that. “Oh my god,” he muttered, looking like he wanted to drop his head onto the table. “I am not having this conversation with you. I am not having this conversation ever again.”
Katsuko crowed in triumph. “I knew it. I knew it. You climbed that like a tree.”
He pointed his chopsticks at her in a shocking breach of manners. "How do you know it?"
“Your faces. They did the,” she waved her hand vaguely in the air, “the whole, ‘oh we totally banged’ thing. Wait. You said ‘ever again’. Who else knows?”
"I am never rescuing you again," Raidou muttered direly. "Next time you can wander the streets alone, begging for pork buns. The lieutenant knows. So does Yondaime-sama, and yes, that was the most awkward conversation of my life."
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