Just a cute little something based on my own experience with trying onigiri but severely dramatized. I like onigiri, but two fish (or sakana) ones in a row is just a bit too fishy for me, and I found myself fighting back gag reflexes to keep up appearances. Heh.
Haha, I found a way to squeeze Hiroki into this story! I watch with glee as you suffer.
Though he was starving only moments before, the smell that wafted into his nose now was strong enough (and revolting enough) that his stomach magically seemed to be filled to the brim from it. Ulrich tried his hardest not to wrinkle his nose in distaste, knowing that'd be horrendously impolite.
As hard as he tried to, he just couldn't bring himself to like this food. He loved her almost infinitely for sure, and he loved her culture with just as much vigor, but…this was something he would rather do without.
The rice. The seaweed. The fishy flavor.
It was too much.
He sat at Mrs. Ishiyama's table, hands intertwined between his knees. Fiddling his fingers incessantly, he tried to think of other things that'd push the smell from his brain. It's not that he didn't like fish, it was an alright taste to him, but there was something about the Japanese way of cooking that just made it…sickening. He'd never tell Yumi this in a million years for fear of being slugged, but this is how he truly felt.
Still he was excited at the same time as being nauseated; it wasn't every day Yumi's parents had practically invited one of Yumi's friends—a boy for that matter—over for lunch. He made his mind muse over this thought until Yumi sat down kitty corner to him after helping her mother with the quickly made upcoming meal.
"Hey Ulrich, are you okay? You look a little green—I mean, aside from your clothes," Yumi quietly teased.
Ulrich flashed a quick, uneasy smirk and looked up at her from his bowed position, his hair slightly blocking out his queasy eyes.
"Ah, yeah, I'm fine." He muttered. Yumi twisted her mouth and leaned forward.
"You sure? You look like a wreck, you know," she pointed out. Ulrich raised his head up at her, a rare occurrence of forced humor in his face.
"I thought I always looked like a wreck," he retorted, making Yumi smile. She stood up again when her mother called her up to take the plates from the countertop. Hiroki came racing downstairs raising an alarm about beating the next level of so-and-so a game as well as making it pointedly obvious that Yumi had her 'boyfriend' over, to which Yumi blushed furiously and hastily hushed him. Hiroki stuck his tongue out, and sat in Mr. Ishiyama's empty seat—a thing he always did when his father was away at work for a meal. Yumi rolled her eyes at him and when Mrs. Ishiyama's back was momentarily turned Yumi created a pig nose with her finger and curled her tongue outward as if to imitate a traditional Japanese demon. Hiroki covered his mouth to hide his giggle. Ulrich pretended not to notice.
Yumi and Mrs. Ishiyama placed a platter each on the table, full of rice balls. Or, as they called them, onigiri.
Ulrich stifled a groan. There were some onigiri there that weren't extra fishy flavored, but even if he had a plain rice ball it'd still have the salty seaweed with it that had a gagging flavor of its own. Chewy. Like eating a paper thin eraser piled a meter high with sea salt. Still Ulrich forced out a smile, murmured a sloppy "itadakimasu" and took two of the triangle-shaped 'sandwiches' as it were. He made sure to steer away from the fish flavors and went for the egg and plain ones instead. Under his feverish state he was sure everyone noticed, but everyone else didn't even notice what types he took.
Picking a plain one up, he gulped down a small amount of saliva and opened his mouth, taking as large of a bite out of it as he could and forced his jaw to work systematically with the seaweed that he had bitten. It wasn't enough to take his gag reflex to full effect, and he continued to eat it cautiously but quickly enough so as to not raise questions. He waited a while for the seaweed flavor to stop plaguing his throat as much before he picked up the next one.
It went down without that much more trouble, except for his gag reflex starting to ever so slightly act up midway into the traditional Japanese food. In vivid protest to the reflex, Ulrich swallowed much more compellingly than before. He wouldn't give in and embarrass himself in front of most of Yumi's family. (If her father were here the pressure would've probably been too much!)
A wave of relief washed over him when he finished the second onigiri without any severities, and a sense of pride started to fill him as he straightened up, convinced that he was done eating. They were well-sized onigiri and it wouldn't take much to fill someone's stomach. (Especially if they didn't want their stomach quite full in the first place.)
However, as Ulrich had learned before and was bound to learn again, pride comes before a fall.
Hiroki, after downing five onigiri, had announced that he was very much so full. Yumi's mother, who ate more daintily than even Ulrich had, said that she couldn't eat more as well. Yumi herself had faint remnants of three rice balls on her plate. Ulrich almost closed his eyes in satisfaction when he noticed the last remaining onigiri on one of the main platters.
The last remaining fish-flavored onigiri.
Ulrich stared for what seemed like an incredibly long time before Yumi broke his blankness.
"Do you want that, Ulrich? I'm full."
For once Ulrich didn't gulp anything down before he answered, shaking his head, "Ah, no thank you, I'm full too…,"
Yumi blinked twice as Hiroki left the kitchen after cleaning his plate, presumably to go play another video game.
"Really? You usually eat a lot more for lunch at school," she observed.
Ulrich's stomach lurched with a spasm, knowing she was absolutely right. He had been caught! He tried to control his newborn stutter as he quickly sifted through his mind, finding an eligible excuse.
"Um, Odd force-fed me some food this morning, and um I still haven't recovered," he said sloppily, his fingers fiddling with each other again.
"You had breakfast?" Yumi asked in small surprise, "You only just got up an hour and a half ago…!"
Ulrich's stomach lurched again, and he paused as Mrs. Ishiyama started to clean her own plate, stating that she needed to go run an errand, asking Yumi to clean the rest up. Yumi nodded in answer, glancing in her mother's direction before going back to Ulrich.
"Yeah uh well, that's why I'm not that hungry—," he flustered. Yumi stood up and took the empty platter and her plate.
"C'mon, you're hungry enough from fighting Xana all the time; besides I don't want leftovers." Yumi said with a hint of authority. Ulrich inwardly moaned and gingerly took the lukewarm onigiri from the platter. Yumi smiled, half in approval and half in slightly vicious victory, taking the platter from the table. When she turned around Ulrich attacked the rice ball with a huge bite so as to get this over with as soon as possible.
The stench from the onigiri invaded and nearly bleached his mouth with fish-flavor, striking immediate tears to the corners of his eyes. He fought back a wince and a strong gag, swallowing the mouthful of fishy seaweed goop without even chewing. Just as the rice was sliding down his throat Yumi's hand appeared from peripheral vision unexpectedly, taking his plate away from him. Startled, Ulrich jumped and momentarily lost his concentration on swallowing and nearly coughed the onigiri back up. Yumi chortled lightly and pulled away from him, remarking about Ulrich's anxiety. Not entirely hearing what she said as he was concentrated on keeping the rice ball down, Ulrich only glanced up and briskly nodded, a few grains of rice stuck to the corner of his mouth. A thought flashed in his mind that there was no turning back now—he had no plate to put the rest of the onigiri onto.
The rice ball went down, but Ulrich didn't take another bite until he was sure he wouldn't puke up what he had just eaten. From then it was slow, methodical digestion of what was to be quite a memorable meal. (Not in the way he wanted it, though, but he couldn't control that)
When the accursed onigiri was finally forced down into his poor, timid stomach, Ulrich let out a whoosh of air releasing fish scent into the atmosphere, and picked the rice grains off his face, flicking them into the garbage. Yumi straightened up from putting the dishes in the washer and grinned. Ulrich returned it half-heartedly, turning part of his face away. The onigiri may have been gone, but the taste was still in his mouth and he felt a little more like poisoned every minute. Apparently though, he was hiding it very well.
Yumi threw his arms around his neck in a typical Yumi-hug; warm but a little on the harmful side when it came to her tense muscles and her fierce grip. Ulrich nearly coughed in her face and fought back another wince.
"Glad you could come," she thanked. Ulrich shrugged his shoulders slightly and gave a very expected mutter of almost incomprehensible words.
"S'not like I had anything else to do…," he remarked, thinking of Jim for no apparent reason.
Yumi chuckled quietly at his statement and let go of him, walking toward the door, "Here, you better go. My mother would have a fit trying to figure out if we did anything here when she was gone,"
Ulrich's face was too red to answer her, so he just silently followed her, standing just outside the front door. He had heard stories about how Yumi's parents could get when it came to her friends, and the fact that she had hung out with three boys for years didn't help—regardless if Aelita was there. Besides, it's not like they were going to do anything, it's not like they were going out—
Ulrich had been so lost in his thoughts that he nearly stumbled back and fell down the front porch stairs when he realized that Yumi had just pecked him on the cheek. Yumi caught him lightly on the wrist and smiled again.
"Hey dreamer," she teased, "It's no wonder why you get detentions for not paying attention in class,"
"Huhrrnff?" Ulrich grunted, embarrassed. Yumi laughed.
"Come again sometime, will you? I'm sure my parents won't mind too much,"
Ulrich nodded half-absently and stepped back, nearly slipping and missing the first step down. Yumi, whose hand hadn't left his wrist yet, tightened her grip on him. He glanced up at her once before looking down again, uttering a slow apology.
"Careful, Ulrich, jeez, 'World's Greatest Lyoko Warrior' my foot!"
"Sorry," he muttered again, "Just a little…tipsy,"
Yumi smirked at him, but before she could give a sharp reply he wrapped up the already too-long goodbye.
"I'll uh…see you tomorrow then…,"
Yumi's expression softened at his awkwardness and agreed, watching as he half-ran away from her house all the way back to Kadic. She closed the door to an eavesdropping Hiroki who was soon found pinned in a master-lock hold until their mother appeared in the driveway.
When Ulrich got to Kadic he told no one of what happened at Yumi's house, not even Odd. Despite the queasiness of his stomach, he had floated all the way back to his dorm and was still floating around everywhere until the end of the day. Yumi kissed him on the cheek!
The fishy flavor of the onigiri faded away as long as he kept his thoughts on her, and soon it was gone from his mouth.
Odd had been asleep for ten minutes, and Ulrich had just lain down to try and get some shut-eye. He smacked his lips together and relaxed his body, not quite ready for school tomorrow, but there was nothing he could do about it.
A quiet burp briefly interrupted his relaxation and he would've let it go had it not been for the flavor it brought with it.
"Aw man, what the—,"