Soulmate AU, where one of your senses are weakened or even completely blocked off until you've met and experienced that particular sense with your soulmate.
Aliz Sato is known for being a genius. Why? Well, it's because she can cook extremely high quality dishes but the most amazing thing about her is that she has never tasted food in the first place. Due to the whole soulmates business, Aliz has never had the sense of taste so she has never known how her food, or anyone else's for that matter, tastes and yet she could still develop incredible dishes with the use of her other senses. A genius, indeed. Naturally, many praise her for her food and yet she herself feels very empty about it.
Of course as a child, she loved all the attention she got but as Aliz grew up, she started to really question why people praise her. She gets depressed thinking of how she never got to taste anything. Sure, her deficiency helps boost her popularity; however, it doesn't matter to her anymore. Life was boring to Aliz, not knowing what food tastes like.
She also started to have mixed feelings about her soulmate. On one day, she'd be cursing them for taking away her sense of taste and on other days, she'd wish to just meet them already. Her feelings were really confusing her and that is how she started her first days at Tootsuki High.
SMACK!
Aliz's face was suddenly hit with the shirt that apparently flew off the director's chest. She gingerly peels it off as she uninterestedly waits for the praises she usually hears.
"Indeed, the flavors in your dish are very good; however, you will be eventually surpassed by the other students if you stay the way you are now. Anyways, you have passed the transfer test so work hard!"
Aliz leaves the director's room quite surprised. He didn't mention anything about her lack of taste nor did he give her any special treatment because of it.
'This place might not be as bad as I thought. Seriously, if all I do is get compliments, I might as well not go to school anymore,' she thinks to herself.
Aliz exits the building she was in and wanders around the campus. Looking at her map, she thought it'd be simple to try finding her dorm called Polar Star Dormitory but after a while, she was proven to be quite wrong. After about half an hour of walking around, she sighs, confused with where the heck she was at.
"Hi! You seem lost, mind if I help?," a chubby and kind-looking boy asks as he approaches her.
"Oh yeah, it'd be great if you can tell me how to get to Polar Star Dormitory. I'm Sato Aliz, by the way."
"And i'm Aldini Isami. My brother over here is Takumi."
"Hi," Takumi says; a handsome guy, although not as cheerful as his brother.
"Hi..."
"So you need help to find Polar Star right? Well, we were on the way there actually so you can come and join us."
"Awesome! Thanks a lot, Isami-kun!"
And so, the three of them head down to the Polar Star Dormitory. The Aldini brothers introduce Aliz to the dormitory head before they went upstairs to one of the rooms. She hears some exclamations from what sounded like Takumi-san but generally ignores it as she cooks Fumio-san a dish, which wasn't much of a challenge. The dish she served amazes Fumio-san and some others, who were apparently watching the scene before them.
"Wow! Your dish looks good!," a redheaded boy tells Aliz.
"Thanks."
"Want to have a shokugeki with me?"
"No tha-
"YUKIHIRA, you said you were going to battle with me first!," Takumi exclaims like a little blond kitten wanting attention.
Aliz giggles at this, even though she was also somewhat irked at being interrupted. The blond ignores it and continues challenging Yukihira. The red headed boy looks thoughtful for a while before saying, "Well, why dont you two battle each other out then?" with a playful grin.
"Huh?!," Aliz and Takumi say with surprise.
"Since the two of you want to compete against me, whoever wins between you both will get to. Id love to fight both of you but this is way more interesting."
"But I just said I didnt want to-"
"Fine," the blond says.
"What?"
"Lets do this. Im curious about your cooking anyways."
"...alright then."
After a while, they both had completed cooking up some pasta with the available ingredients in the kitchen and as usual, Aliz won over the judges. She figures Takumi would be either sad or angry at her but found herself surprisingly happy, seeing him even more fired up than awhile ago. He challenges her after that again and again in the next weeks to come and she wasn't getting tired of it at all. The two of them enjoy food battling each other all the time, even though the blond always loses. Because of these challenges, the two of them became quite close and would usually spend breaks together, along with Isami. She went along well with the younger brother too and they would often team up to tease Takumi; right now isn't any different either.
"Just try out my dish, why don't you?"
"Hmmmmm, no thanks, Takumi-kun."
"Why not?," the blond says with a slight pout.
Isami snickers and answers with a playful smile, "Maybe its because your food isn't good enough?"
"Thats right."
"WHAT?!"
"Well, I mean, you've lost to me everytime so I figured you're just not up to my standards."
"Now you're just playing with me here," Takumi says exasperatedly.
"Maybe I am but either way, it doesn't matter. You know I cant taste food anyways."
"Is that a challenge?"
"How so?"
"I'm sure I can make a dish so good that even you'd be able to taste it."
Aliz blushes at the context of that (since if she is able to taste it, then it means that he's her soulmate) and replies, "Well, go ahead and try. Anyways, I have to go. My next class is almost starting."
"Alright," Takumi replies distractedly, most likely thinking of the dish he would make for you.
It took about another week before Takumi thought of what he'd cooked for her and for a perfect day too. Aliz's birthday was coming up, as he had found out recently and so, he baked a very special cake, hoping that she would like it. He also arranged a birthday party at Polar Star Dormitory and the others found it cute that he was working so much to plan this day for her.
Aliz was on the way to the dorm after another day of boredom, with the absence of the Aldini brothers not helping. She wonders where the two were, especially Takumi who she usually hangs out with all the time, but as she opens the door to her dorm, her eyes widen with surprise.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY (f/n)-san!," everyone cheers as they throw confetti around.
"Wow! I did not expect this at all!" Aliz says with joy.
"Good, you weren't supposed to," Yukihira replies with his usual grin, "And thanks to Takumi over there, we were able to plan better than expected."
She looks at Takumi, who was blushing red, and smiles.
"Thank you, Takumi-kun."
"N-no problem," he nervously replies looking away.
After that, the party was in full swing. She had fun with the others, laughing at both Isshiki with his naked apron and Takumi's amazement over it. She appreciated every bit of food served that your dormmates had cooked for her, even though she couldn't taste any of them and after awhile, it was time for her to try Takumi's incredible looking cake.
"Here you go, (l/n)-san," the blond says, giving Aliz a slice of the cake.
She smiles; however, she also has a somewhat sad look in her eyes, unnoticed by the others except for Takumi. He knows she is sad that she wouldn't be able to taste it but he has hope. His heart was beating fast, hoping that this moment would show that she was his soulmate. In seconds, which felt like more, Aliz lifts the spoon and eats a piece of the cake.
...and it was silent for a while; even the usual rowdiness of the others disappeared as her eyes widen. The spoon she was holding fell right out of her hand as she feels an incredibly strong taste. It was absolutely delicious and she starts crying. Takumi looks really frantic, worrying that he did something wrong but the others know better and, with knowing smiles, leave in order to give the two of them some space.
"H-hey, are you okay, (l/n)?"
"Thank you."
"What?"
Aliz looks at the blond and smiles, which makes Takumi's heart beat even faster.
"The cake is delicious."
Takumi's eyes widen incredibly over the realization. She was really his soulmate?
She giggles and nods, a little embarrassed. It seems the blond had accidentally asked out loud and he blushes even more. It took another couple seconds of awkward silence before Takumi got the guts to hug and kiss your cheek. Aliz smiles at his sweet yet innocent gesture and then pulls him down and kisses him full on the lips. He looks surprised and stills for a moment before he starts to return her kiss. Neither of them wanted it to end but Aliz had to pull back for a breather. After realizing what they had just done, both of their blushes return and yet, Aliz still has it in her to say one more thing.
"Did you just eat cake? Because your lips are very sweet."