The characters of Heroes don't belong to me.
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Ando blames it on the waffles.
It started at a restaurant, one of the many they had been to over the past few days on what seemed like an endless and unforgiving car trip. He and Hiro had just sat down to get an early breakfast, and as usual, Hiro was eagerly scanning for waffles.
"Awesome! Waffles!" Hiro exclaims in Japanese, clapping his hands in excitement. Ando glances at him over his menu, used to such outbursts. He returns to his own menu, feeling only a lazy desire to eat compared to the apparently ravenous hunger Hiro is experiencing across the table.
After a moment, a pretty waitress appears at their table. She smiles charmingly and speaks in a slow southern drawl. "What'll ya'll have?"
"Waffles!" Hiro immediately exclaims. "Um…chocolate chip," he sounds out slowly before adding, "and milk."
The waitress grins at him and turns to Ando. "And for you, sir?"
"Coffee. And a blueberry muffin." He passes his menu to the waitress.
"Just a muffin? Are you sure that's gonna be enough for you, sweetie?" she teases before leaving to get their orders.
Hiro snickers. "Are you sure that's going to be enough for you, sweetie?" he mimics in slow and careful Engrish. Ando raises an eyebrow and looks out the window, trying to ignore the innocuously intimate comment.
His exhaustion makes it hard to focus on the already fast-paced and barely-organized novel that is Hiro's running commentary, so he limits himself to grunts and nods until their food arrives. Ando's muffin is dwarfed by the heaping stack of waffles on Hiro's plate, made even bigger by the butter and syrup Hiro is ladling on. Ando eagerly gulps his coffee, hoping for a caffeine boost to help his driving—and keeping up with Hiro.
Momentarily silenced by his waffles, Hiro demolishes two of his four monstrosities before noticing that Ando seems to be just picking at his muffin. Hiro carefully lays down his fork and knife. "How is your muffin, Ando-kun?" he asks after a moment. Ando looks up quickly from his daze, absently crumbling the piece of muffin in his hand. Smirking, Hiro adds, "Is that enough for you, sweetie?"
This elicits a blush from Ando. "Shut up! Quit calling me 'sweetie'!" Hiro laughs good-naturedly at Ando's semi-irritated glare.
"Do you want to try some of my waffles?"
Ando's eyes flick from the uninteresting spot he has rigidly fixed his gaze on to Hiro's plate, then to his friend's guileless face.
"No."
"Oh, come on!" Hiro begins to cut a hefty bite from his remaining waffles. "They're really good!" Loading the bite onto his fork and being sure to soak it in the gooey runoff of butter and syrup on his plate, he enthusiastically shoves it towards Ando's face.
Ando leans away from the sugary mess hovering dangerously close to his mouth. "I don't want any, Hiro! Just eat your breakfast!"
"Come on, come on!" Hiro persists, still trying to force-feed his friend.
This continues unsuccessfully for several minutes until Hiro abruptly withdraws his hand and sets his fork down. "Fine then," he mutters dejectedly. After a minute, he mumbles sadly, "But they're really tasty."
Ando stares incredulously at his friend. Is he really this upset about me not wanting to eat waffles? Hiro is still contemplating the remains of his meal glumly. "Look, Hiro…" Ando begins. Hiro doesn't raise his head, but his eyes lift from his plate to somewhere on Ando's shirt. "If it is such a big deal, I'll have some waffles." Ando feels a hot flush rise in his neck. "Ok?"
Suddenly all smiles, Hiro grabs his fork and thoughtfully mops up more slop from the plate, chattering animatedly about his opinions on why the waffles are so good as if he hasn't been in what appeared to be a deep depression scant moments before. Ando hardly listens. His eyes are glued to Hiro's hand—he watches Hiro push the waffles around on the plate before carefully extending his arm. Ando feels uncomfortably warm. What the hell is going on? he things faintly, unaware of the fork floating in front of him.
"…Ando-kun. Ando-kun!" Hiro's voice cuts through the roar of blood in Ando's ears. Ando looks at him sheepishly. "If you're going to eat waffles, you have to open your mouth, Ando-kun," Hiro states matter-of-factly.
His face feels as if it's on fire. "This is ridiculous," Ando mutters to himself, eyeing the giant mass of waffle. Finally, he cracks his mouth open and fixes his gaze on Hiro's face. Hiro doesn't notice his intense stare and instead leans forward slightly, intent on feeding his friend the sticky-sweet breakfast before the syrup drips off. Ando leans forward to meet him, ignoring the waffle in favor of studying Hiro's face.
Moments later, Hiro is carefully withdrawing the fork, leaving Ando to slowly chew the warm and sweet mass of waffle. His eyes meet Ando's, still focused on Hiro's face. Noticing the look in Ando's eyes that he is too slow to hide, Hiro flushes cutely. He grabs a napkin and leans back towards Ando. "You have…um…syrup…sorry," he stammers, carefully wiping Ando's chin and lips, his face a surprising shade of red.
"Do you boys need anything?" The waitress startles them both, refilling Ando's coffee while he still works on the giant bite of waffle. Hiro sits back with a thump.
"We—we're fine." he splutters, giving her a nervous smile. After she has left, he turns back to Ando.
"It's good," Ando tries to say, his words mostly muffled by the food in his mouth. Swallowing, he repeats himself.
Still faintly blushing, Hiro asks shyly, "Would you like another bite?"
Ando looks at the plate, then at Hiro. His smile is genuine and friendly, if not a little mischievous. "Maybe just one more…"
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It occurred to me after posting that most people are probably accustomed to reading some sort of author's notes or comments, so I decided to splurge and put that here. The idea of someone feeding someone else came from a Japanese exchange student I knew who insisted on letting everyone try whatever food was on hand—but she insisted on feeding them. Lesson learned from this: never let anyone shoot edamame beans into your mouth.
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