I'm dedicating this chapter to Ikumi2688!
After reading her review, I literally started crying. It just made me so happy! So kudos to you for making me cry, in a good way :)

Oh yeah, I decided I'll reply to reviews from now on. (Not that there's that many cough* cough*)
I'm sorry, that was mean. I love you all, so enjoy this chapter.


It was the day after the two teens had found a girl in the woods, after desperately searching for her for hours, not even knowing anything about her. Not needing to know anything about her. These two young men have more compassion and care then most people their age, and they put it to good use. Not only did they save this little girls life, but they've decided to ignore the fact that she's a supposed murderer, and concentrate on the task at hand.

Right now, that task is to find out how to make chicken noodle soup.


"Argh! These stupid books don't explain anything!"

Natsume slammed the book he was reading onto the floor and let out a groan of frustration.
The calmer of the two sighed and picked up the book again.

"Be more careful with Mom's books, Natsume. And if you bothered to read anything inside, you would know that it does explain something."

Plop

"But only if you know how to cook in the first place!"

Luca had slammed the book down again in equal frustration.

"The recipe says to chop up a chicken breast, and boil water, and mix up veggies and what not, but not a single word say how exactly to do that! Honestly, can't they come up with something a little more useful?"

They were laying on the floor amidst piles of cookbooks. Some were stacked up neatly, and the ones they'd already gone through were tossed around the room, lying on their sides or halfway open, probably damaging the spines.

Having no cooking experience except for simple things like sandwiches or instant Ramen noodles, Natsume and Luca were utterly hopeless in the kitchen. But despite knowing this, they knew that chicken noodle soup was good for when you're sick, and so they decided to venture into their Mom's vast array of cook books for a recipe.

Not a very good idea, despite their good intentions.

Suddenly Natsume leaped up. "Alright, this is ridiculous. We already know that reading this crap isn't gonna help us since we don't understand the first thing about cooking, so how about we just wing it?"

"Right! Let's try it," Luca agreed whole heartedly. It was already noon, and both boys were in dire need of a break.

Luca heard a snap, and turned to see Natsume bending his back in an unnatural position. "N…Natsume, er… doesn't that hurt?"

Crack!

"Nah, it actually feels pretty good. More than just stretching my arms, this stretches my entire body!"

Luca sweat dropped. "I think there's a better way of doing that than practically doing a back bend."

"Whatever you wanna think. I won't stop you."

"Neither will I stop you when you break your back. Couldn't care less."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Anyone passing by the house would have thought an elephant was inside. The windows were shaking and furniture animatedly flew everywhere as Natsume chased Luca around the house, trying to tackle him.

Panting, Natsume skid to a halt in the kitchen. Upon entering said room, he had suddenly remember the reason he'd even gotten up in the first place.

"Oy, Luca. Come on into the kitchen, I'm letting you off the hook for now. Did you forget too? We're supposed to be making soup a certain someone."

Luca climbed in to the house from an outdoor window.

"Stupid. How was I supposed to concentrate when you're literally breathing fire down my neck? Seriously, you blow up over the silliest things sometimes. Did you really think I wouldn't care if you broke your back?"

Natsume turned away with gleaming eyes. "Don't be ridiculous, I was only pretending to chase you. You'd know if I was mad at you for real, because you'd be burnt to a pile of ashes."

A terrifying image suddenly appeared in Luca's head, and he glanced again at Natsume, who was laughing evilly. "Natsume…. Sometimes, you can be really scary."

Natsume stopped laughing.

"It's what I was trained for. Now on a more serious note, it's about time we started preparing some food for our guest."

Still cautiously avoiding Natsume, Luca nodded and opened the fridge. "Hmmm…. I suppose we should start with some chicken and noodles, since those are the main ingredients. Why don't you look around for a big pot?

Natsume grunted in agreement and stepped back to examine the kitchen. It was a cheerful place, with a clean and cool feel to it, kind of like a garden. It had an island in the middle, which was usually used as a seat by Natsume when he was too lazy to get a chair. The pots were usually under the counter in a cabinet, so he looked there first.

No luck.

"Hey, did you happen to use that medium sized pot recently? It's the one with the stain on the outside." He called over to Luca, who was buried in the fridge.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I set it to soak next to the sink a day or two ago and forgot about it. You're gonna have to wash it. But aren't there any other pots?"

"Not in the cabinet, and I don't know where else to look."

Natsume sighed. Life was so much easier when 'Mom' and 'Dad' were home. He and Luca didn't have to worry about cooking their next meal, or cleaning the house or anything. Unfortunately, their parents got a little bored at home with just the two boys living there, and had taken to visiting a lot of different far away places frequently.

"Oh well. Now let's see…"

He immediately saw the pot next to the sink, full of water just like Luca had said. Muttering under his breath, he dumped the water into the sink and grabbed a sponge.

"Next time you use a pot, remember to actually wash it! Do you have any idea how gross this is? All the food is grimy and mushy. You should be cleaning this yourself."

Luca laughed nervously. "Sorry 'bout that. But are you almost done? I could use your help cutting up this chicken breast I found."

Natsume nodded and dried the now clean pot with a dish towel.

"Alright, I'm done. So how exactly do you cut up a chicken breast?"

"…."

"I don't know any more than you do, so why would you even ask me?"

Luca grinned. "We really are hopeless, aren't we."

"Yeah."

"Well no matter, I'm gonna figure out how to slice this stupid meat!"


Ten minutes had passed, and Natsume was watching in high humor as Luca first got out a huge butcher knife and then proceeded to attempt small chops at the chicken breast. But try as he might, all he managed to get were little slivers and jagged chunks.

"Maybe if you try sliding the knife, it'll cut smoother."

Luca shot a murderous glare at his friend, who was calmly standing a few feet behind him, calling out comments. All of which were totally useless, since he was already doing his best.

"Darn it, Natsume! If you're so good at this, why don't you come over here and show me how it's done?"

Natsume walked over with a smirk on his face.

"I'm just trying to help, since neither of us know what we're doing. But if you insist…"

Chop!

Chop!

Chop!

Luca stared in awe at the perfectly cubed chunks of meat that were piling up onto the cutting board.

"What the.. ! All this time you've been watching me hack away, and you never once thought to tell me that you're an expert!"

Natsume screwed his face at the blast of fury coming from Luca's mouth.

"Hmmm… It just comes naturally, I suppose. You know I would never do something like that to my dear friend! I just instinctively knew how to cut this delicate piece of meat, instead of sawing at it like you did."

Luca was fuming, and pounded Natsume's head. "You jerk! It's just like you to get back at me for that earlier comment about your back!"

Natsume innocently continued to slice at the chicken breast, patronizingly ignoring his friend's rants.

It was hard not to laugh, but Luca was usually so calm that it was kind of refreshing to see his other side.
Too often they were stressed out with extra work from the academy, or worrying about the house, and over all just not having fun.
And just like Natsume had learned how to become cold and distant, Luca had learned how to remain calm in most situations until it became a part of him.
Yeah, they could use a break from the Academy. And if this glimpse of Luca's true personality was all he could get, he would take it.

Luca was still berating Natsume, who was taking this extremely lightly.

And the best part was that he was serious. He really hadn't known how to cut the meat properly - He really had just instinctively known what to do. But Luca would never believe that, so he let him yell, occasionally throwing in the odd sarcastic reply to make things worse.

How could he have thought life was better when they didn't have to do anything? That wasn't fun, that was boring. It was true they were ignorant of a lot of things, and it was time to start learning.

When Luca had cooled off a bit, he jerked the fridge door open once more and scoured the shelves for some sort of vegetable.

At last he found a bag of long carrots, and grabbed those along with some peas from the freezer. That should be good, they were normally found in chicken noodle soup.

Placing his finds on the island counter, he got out another cutting board. Still mad at Natsume, he called out a little gruffly.

"Once you're done over there, I need you to come over here and cut up these carrots. They're the big ones that are usually cut in circular slices."

Natsume sighed. "Luca, it's not that hard once you get the hang of it. There's no need for me to do it myself. Just grab a knife-not a butcher knife-and take your time just neatly slicing the carrot."

Luca hesitantly picked up a small knife and placed it on top of one of the carrots. "Ehhh… I'm not so sure about this."

He didn't hear a response, so he reluctantly continued. Slowly he pushed down on the knife. The pressure was enough to send the knife all the way through, and it startled Luca when the knife quickly slammed onto the cutting board, making a sharp thud.

"Wow, that turned out surprisingly well!" Luca was please with himself for having successfully sliced one piece, but his pride quickly vanished when he realized there was a long way to go before he was done with even one carrot.

Back at the butchering side, Natsume was pleasantly enjoying himself. Not to be creepy, but there was something fun in feeling the knife slice through the soft yet firm meat. He was content to do this for a while, and so he did, but before long the meat was all gone. Looking around he saw that Luca was slowly but steadily making his way through a carrot. That's weird, they were actually making progress.

Wondering what to do next, he found himself staring at the pot. Oh yeah, they had to put everything in there and cook it.

Well to do that, they needed water. He grabbed the pot and filled it with clean water from the sink. Next, a little less sure, he dumped the chicken cubes into the water, flinching as they splashed water all over his face.

"You almost done with those veggies?"

Luca looked up and let out a sigh. "I'm done now, but it's exhausting!"

Carrying the entire cutting board, Luca dumped it's contents into the pot. "There's some peas too, but they're frozen."

"They'll probably just thaw out in the water, once it's hot enough."

Luca seemed a little skeptical, but didn't question his friend's decision. After all, it seemed like a reasonable assumption.

So Luca put the now filled pot on the burner and turned it on. "Uh, how high should we put it?"

Natsume froze. "Oh crap, I didn't think about that! Well…. Mom usually puts water on high when she wants it to boil, so maybe we could do that?"

Luca nodded and put the burner on high.

Natsume sweated. "Hey, how come you keep asking me what to do? Just because I had some luck with the chicken doesn't make me an expert!"

Grinning, Luca looked at Natsume. "Yeah, but you're older then me, and that makes it your responsibility." He sighed, smiling sweetly.

"It sure is nice to know there's someone watching out for me, who knows exactly what to do."

Natsume was speechless with shock.

Enjoying his friend's reaction, Luca continued.

"You know, pretty soon you're going to be considered an adult, which means you're going to have loads of responsibility on your shoulders. Not to mention that you'll be getting kicked out of the house when you're old enough to rent an apartment. Sounds kind of miserable to me, but you're the one who's on that path soonest."

To describe the look on Natsume's face would be considered nearly impossible, since there were so many different kinds of irritation on it.

"You moron! What do you take me for, an old man?! Idiot, stupid, jerk! I'm only a few months older!"

Luca was doubled over, laughing so hard he couldn't even hear him.

"Ahaha, you - you're face!" He wiped away his tears and stood up, only to fall back down as soon as he saw Natsume.

A fire appeared in Natsume palm, but Luca was laughing to hard to stop. "Pbttttt! I'm trying to stop, but I can't help it! Every time I think of your face, I crack up!"

"Well if you don't want your head to end up cracked as well, I'd suggest you stop thinking about it."

Natsume was mad.

Luca hurriedly stood up and glanced away, unsuccessfully trying to stifle his laughter.

Rolling his eyes, Natsume decided the best option was to ignore his idiot of a friend.
It appeared that Luca was done with his teasing, and was currently stirring the soup with a ladle.
Sighing, Natsume opened the pantry and looked around for some type of noodles.

They were both in very high moods, which meant constantly teasing one another. How had they even lasted so long as friends? Then he remembered all the good times they had with one another. Whether it was with Aoi or on their own, they always managed to find a way to stick together and have fun no matter what. That's why they were friends. Because they were there for each other.

"Mhkkk."

Natsume turned around to see Luca bent over the counter.

"Oy, Luca. Are you alright?"

"Ahahahahaha! I thought of your face again!" Luca gasped, his body shaking so hard he couldn't stand. "Oh gosh, it was too darn funny!"

Friend or no, Luca was gonna get it as soon as this stupid soup was done!


Tadaaa!

So how did you like it? Do you like reading the slower chapters with just one main plot like this and the last chapter, or do you like the faster ones with less detail? Please leave a comment in reviews or PM me, it's more helpful then you can imagine.

Anyways, I really enjoy developing Natsume and Luca's characters. It's amazing to write out the details about why they act the way they do and whatnot! Sorry for rambling.

Please please please feel inclined to leave a review. No choice, it's just good manners to give one after all my hard work. It's just my opinion, but to me it only seems right to leave a review even if you didn't like the story. Authors don't just want to hear from people who loved their stories, they want to get the whole picture

Bye, I'll talk to you later. :)