It had been a week or two after Riki had proposed to Aina and she had realized that he truly was too amazing of a man. He was smart, well off, had a great job, good looking, and a great cook to boot and all she had to offer was her being the cousin of MC, who was the granddaughter of the Japanese Leonardo Da Vinci. MC and her (well mostly MC) had decided that it had been a long time since they had last seen each other and she decided to invite Aina out to LRN where she had met Riki.
She had never expected to fall for him as hard as she did. She had no experience in love at all, she was always one to focus on her work rather than things like boys and dating in high school, and when the time had came when Riki had actually began courting her, she was teased heavily for this fact and is quite still in fact teased about it. Aina had felt bad in a sense, Riki had gone through the time and effort to pick a ring and take her out on a very lovely date where he proposed to her and here she was already having doubts.
Aina knew she wasn't wife material. She wasn't rich, at all. She wasn't too aesthetically pleasing, she was pretty plain looking if anyone asked her. Flat green hair and tired amber eyes, not too much to look at. She was bad at social interactions, it took her nearly three months to warm up to Riki, let alone all of the other boys who were apart of the Black Foxes, but she was proud because that's the quickest she's gotten used to anybody. The most she had to offer was her decent cooking skills, but even those fly out the window when compared to Riki's cooking.
She wanted to do something for him, to thank him for everything that he's done for her but what? Her wishes were answered when Riki had fallen ill due to overworking himself. Aina knew it was bad to be sort of happy but she couldn't help it, she could finally do something to show him that he didn't make the wrong choice in choosing her to be his wife.
"Riki, please stay in bed. You're sick" Aina pleaded. On several occasions, Riki had tried to get out of bed claiming that he was fine but the red hue in his cheeks and glazed eyes said otherwise. Aina sighed and grabbed a cooling pad from the bag, she had gone out to the store while he was sleeping, and gently placed it on his forehead.
"You know, this is the most gentle I've seen you be. It's cute" Aina blushed at his words before slapping the pad on his head, softly of course.
"D-Don't get used to it..." She muttered before standing up. Riki grabbed her hand before she could leave.
"Where are you going?" He asked.
"To make you something to eat, you've been asleep for a good portion of the day so you must be hungry" Aina said. Riki smiled and nodded.
"I can't wait to taste it" he said with a cheeky grin and Aina just blushed and left the room. Sometimes she wondered if it were alright for her heart to keep enduring the sudden rapid beating that was always caused by Riki. As soon as Aina was in the kitchen, she walked over to the ingredients she had bought for the homemade soup she was going to attempt.
"Now where did I put that cook book?" She asked herself before spotting it on the counter and grabbed it and opened it to where she could see it while she was cooking. She opened it up to a page that had instructions for miso soup. That was okay for fevers right? Riki made it for her all the time, of course his was most likely better tasting then whatever she could make but it's the thought that counts, right?
"Okay so first I dice up the greens and tofu. That's pretty simple" She said and had started to chop up the things as she was instructed. It was going well until Aina winced and she immediately retracted her finger.
"Dammit" she muttered as she realized she had cut her finger. Aina quickly rinsed it off and covered it up with a bandage and had gotten back to cutting. A couple cuts and bandages here and there and Aina had finally finished cutting the vegetables and tofu. Aina sighed.
"Why was that so hard?" She asked and just looked at the next step that was in the book. Boil some water in a pot and begin to make the broth, another simple task. A little while after the broth had finished boiling Aina decided it was alright to add in the greens and tofu but she added them in a little too fast and yelped when the broth had burned her hand as it splashed onto her wrist.
"Aina?!" Riki yelled from their room and Aina quickly told him that she was alright and that it was nothing. She didn't need him to worry, he already had enough problems. She ran her hand under some water and sighed knowing a burn mark was probably gonna be there but for right now it was mostly red. This is one of the many reasons why Aina wasn't particularly fond of cooking. It took a long time, it was hot, things like this happened, and in the end it usually didn't even turn out correctly. Well, hopefully this time around that isn't the case.
After the soup was finally done, Aina made sure to carefully poor some in a bowl. She put the bowl on the counter and gave it a once over. It seemed to be the same color as it was in the book and it smelled alright, so Aina deemed it edible. Now the hard part, actually letting Riki taste it. She knew never to judge a book by it's cover, and this soup could potentially kill her fiance. Aina was definitely freaking out as she walked into the room with the miso soup.
"Hm? Miso soup?" Riki asked intrigued and Aina nodded before placing the bowl on the stand to let it cool and sat on the bed next to Riki.
"How are you feeling? Should I change the cooling pad?" Aina asked as she reached up to feel but her wrist was immediately caught and Riki had stared at the cuts on her hand and then he looked at her other hand and saw the red hue on her wrist.
"Look, I know what you're thinking but it really isn't a big deal. They'll go away in a week or so" Aina began to reason but Riki stopped her with a kiss that made her forget that he was sick. The kiss was really gentle, one that made her melt right in her seat, or it could possibly be the fact that the kiss was overwhelmingly hot. Hot. Aina's eyes snapped open and she pushed away from Riki.
"W-What are you doing?! You're sick!" She exclaimed, red in the face. Riki chuckled and cupped her ears, which were in fact a sensitive place for her.
"Even you're ears are red" He laughed and Aina huffed before crossing her arms and glaring.
"Please try to be more careful when you cook. This makes me worry" Riki said gesturing to her hands that were injured. Aina nodded and apologized. She looked to the miso soup she had made and remembered that Riki still hadn't eaten yet.
"Hurry up and eat it..." I want to know your opinion, Aina thought but kept the last bit in her head. Riki nodded but stopped and wore a sly grin and Aina grew confused.
"Won't you feed me?" He asked and faked a couple of coughs, but of course Aina didn't realize this and blushed but nodded not wanting to make him strain himself any more than was necessary.
She shakily picked up the spoon. Aina didn't realize how nervous she was about the soup until it came down to Riki actually eating it. Her heart pumped quickly as she watched Riki take a spoonful of the soup and she immediately faltered when he didn't say anything after a couple of seconds.
"It's bad isn't it? You don't have to force yourself to eat it" Aina said getting ready to throw the rest of the bowl away but Riki quickly grabbed her hand.
"It isn't bad at all. It's actually pretty good! You've improved a lot. I'm proud" He said ruffling her hair and Aina felt the waterworks in her begin to start up. That was the first time anybody had ever complemented her on her cooking and to hear that he actually liked it, Aina sniffled.
"I-I'm so glad..." She said and rubbed the tears out of her eyes.
"C'mon now, there's no need for tears" Riki said stroking Aina's hair. She shook her head rapidly.
"I thought that if I couldn't even help you get better, than you'd realize sooner or later that I'm no good" She said quietly sniffling and Riki frowned.
"You are what's best for me. That's why I chose you after all besides what would you do without me?" Riki asked playfully and after seeing Aina's tears slowly subside he went in for another kiss but Aina backed her head away, this time being prepared.
"I want you to get better but please don't get me sick in the process" Aina muttered and Riki just laughed. Aina had ended up feeding Riki the rest of the miso soup and after she made sure he was sleeping before going to put the dish in the sink.
She was glad that her cooking turned out to be somewhat of a success. She may not have been wife material but if she could do at least this much, she was happy. Now, she just had to wait for Riki to get better to be completely satisfied.