Again thank you to the loyal readers! A few of you regularly comment and I have to say it's so appreciated! I'd list names but I'd feel terrible if I left someone off and hurt their feelings. So just know, I'm writing this for those of you that keep sending me encouragement and I'm very grateful for your kindness.
Takumi was startled by Misaki's reaction, but he had quick reflexes and before she could make it out his front door, he'd hopped up from the couch and grabbed her.
"I'm so sorry!" he explained. "I know my cooking pales compared to yours. We can order take out or have something delivered if the left overs are that offensive."
Takumi could have been speaking Latin. Misaki's brain could not make sense of any words at the moment. But she did realized when he stopped her that Takumi was here in the room as well. She needed to save them both. She was the Student Council President and it would not do to leave behind one of the student members in this dangerous situation. Everything in her told her to flee, but she knew she couldn't live with herself if she didn't save Takumi Usui.
"There's a ghost!" She stammered, "we need to get out of here right away." She started pulling him out the door but the idiot was resisting. Hadn't he just seen what had happened? How the hell could he still be standing here? Her gaze had been intentionally avoiding the kitchen area but she had to be brave. "Th…th…there…." she looked up just long enough to spot the hovering plate and pointed toward it then looked back to the ground. What was the best way to react to a ghost? Surely it was best not to look them in the eyes right? She gave Takumi about 20 seconds to take it all in then she again grabbed his sleeve and started pulling him outside into the apartment hallway.
Takumi was a bit puzzled. "That's just a plate of food, Misaki. Ghosts aren't real. Why do you think there's a ghost in my kitchen?"
Was this guy for real? Was he trying to get them killed?! "Floating plate… outside now!" She shouted. Her fear and the urgency of the situation had overcome her shock and she'd found her authoritative voice. Clearly, he was too stunned to recognize or accept the obvious. This wasn't the time or place to gently help him come to grips with this new reality. She needed to get them to safety and if she needed to use force, so be it. She grabbed a hold of his arm and yanked it with all she had.
The jolt took him by surprised. He stumbled forward and fell into the hallway. He managed to knock Misaki over and she fell to the floor landing squarely on her rump. He too came tumbling down directly above her only he was facing the ground. He threw out his arms to break his fall and to prevent his weight from landing on and crushing Misaki. Within a matter of seconds, the two students were sprawled out in the hallway in front of Takumi's apartment in what appeared to be a very compromising position.
Misaki's earlier shouting had caused the neighbors to open their doors to investigate and the elevator doors, which were directly across from Takumi's apartment, opened up at just that moment. In short, there was quite the audience looking with shock at the two young teenagers.
A mother in the elevator shielded her child's eyes and spat out scornfully at them, "this is a public place! Wait until you're in your apartment to do that."
The college students that lived a few doors down were talking among themselves, "Man, I miss young love."
The senior citizen that lived on the other side of the hallway peered blankly over the bodies on the floor, "I don't see what all the commotion is about do you Etna?"
Misaki's mortification managed for the very briefest of moments to distract her from the horrifying event that had led to this calamity. The crowds quickly shuffled away hoping to give the couple privacy, hoping to shield their young from the indecent behaviors of today's youth, or simply because they hadn't had the wherewithal to look down and discover there was anything to observe. It was then that Misaki stammered out, "no. No…this isn't what you think… there's a…"
Takumi having figured out the misunderstanding, needed to keep her quite. She would either further embarrass them both or she would end up revealing his secret if she made a big fuss about the plate. The best way he could think to hush her up was to plant a big kiss over her ever talkative mouth.
"Sweet heart, I've met the boy that lives there. I'm sure it's not what you're thinking. They probably just tripped and you know how it goes. Remember our courtship," a man, and the woman from the elevator, turned the corner onto the corridor outside of Takumi's apartment and stopped. The man looked shocked and the woman looked triumphant. They both immediately turned back around and walked around the corner back toward their own apartment. Takumi could faintly hear an "I told you so." As he stood up off the floor.
Takumi reached down, grabbed Misaki's arm, pulled her into a standing position and then picked her up and, to her horror, carried her back inside the apartment. Her fear was palpable. Before she could scream, he said, "It's not a ghost. That was me. It's a thing I can do."
She froze in his arms trying to comprehend what he had just said. Then she had a thought. A magic trick? That was a God damn magic trick! And he put the in that position… in front of all those people… and then he KISSED HER! Her anger was at a new high. She then realized she was still in his arms and she started hitting him and demanding he set her down.
Takumi wasn't sure if he should let her go. She seemed so upset and he couldn't figure out why. He wanted to try to calm her down first. "Look," he started, "I'm really sorry about everything. I didn't think that thing with the waves and particles would freak you out so much. And I just lost my balance because you are so much stronger than I realized and you surprised me with that tug. And the kiss… it was just to shut you up so you didn't tell people you thought there was a ghost."
"What do you mean thing with waves and particles," she asked slowing down her rate of punching slightly.
"The plate thing… you know, that thing I can do."
She was curious. She was still really mad, but she needed to know how he'd done it. "You are going to show me right now, how you did that magic trick," she informed him. Takumi relaxed a little. He set her down knowing she wasn't about to bolt from his apartment.
"Can we sit back down on the couch while I explain it?" he asked hopefully. Misaki nodded and the two settled back into the living room. "Are you hungry?" he asked. Misaki looked over at the kitchen with suspicion. So far, there was always some unpleasant surprise with the things coming out of there but she was hungry. Very hungry in fact.
"You said there was nothing weird!" She protested. "That magic trick was really REALLY weird!"
Takumi smiled and walked over and retrieved the plate he had earlier attempted to offer her. He brought it to her. "I didn't realize that was weird. I clearly still have a lot to learn. That's why I am so glad I get to interact more closely with you. You have really been opening my eyes to so many new things." He returned to the couch and put the plate on the coffee table in front of her.
Misaki put one of the pork buns that was on the plate into her mouth. It was unbelievably delicious. With the exception of the tea and fig newtons she hadn't really tried any of Takumi's cooking before. "Dear God!" she moaned, "did you make these?"
Takumi looked down and his face blushed. "I'm sorry. I'll order something. I know I'm a terrible cook."
"You must be flipping kidding me!" Misaki talked with her cheeks full of food and greedily grabbed more pork buns from the plate balancing as many as she could in each fist. "These are the best tasting things I have ever eaten!" Misaki completely forgot about being mad or scared. She almost forgot about the magic trick. Not quite… but close.
She was weighing the pros and cons of trying to eat all of them and dealing with a stomach ache later or leaving some behind on the plate when Takumi asked, "I can wrap the ones you don't want to eat now up for you and you can take them home." He wasn't sure if she was just being polite, but either way, that would allow her to avoid overeating. A part of him hoped she was being honest about his food. If she honestly thought it was okay, maybe it was because her feelings for him were marring her judgement. A smile crept over his face at the thought.
"Um…umkay" came Misaki muffled assent through her mouth stuffed full of food. She set the fistfuls of buns back on the plate and he walked them back to the kitchen. Yep... walked. He wasn't going to do anything to spook her. She was still mildly afraid of the kitchen but she was even more afraid that one of those buns wouldn't make it into her package, so she followed him to watch.
"So… you know how ocean waves are generated or how a little earthquake in the ocean can cause a tsunami far away," Takumi asked as he wrapped up all the pork buns. Misaki nodded. She wasn't sure where this was going, but she was a little pre-occupied counting how many buns were left so she'd just let him rattle on for a bit. "The plate thing is sort of like that." He looked over at her she had looked up from the food. She had a very skeptical expression on her face. "Air is made up of many gases, which are invisible, and other particles but everything is really spread out. If you compress the gases they can transform into a liquid. Liquids, if you could control their movement, can do things like pull things over and carry things away and if the liquid is more dense, than say a plate, the plate will float above the liquid. That thing with the plate, I just pushed the gases and particle together with my hands so they would act the way I wanted them to. And you can actually have a bigger force if you have some distance to work with like with a tsunami. It's really not a big deal. I mean sure, it takes some practice to fine tune it to get the air to work the way you want it to, but it's not… what did you call it… magic."
Misaki looked at him. "I know a good magician never reveal his secrets but that is the biggest bunch of BS I have ever heard." She started feeling around the kitchen for hidden wires. "You can't seriously think I'd buy that."
Takumi watched as she examined the handle of his fridge. "What are you doing?"
"I'm sure there is some little trigger or something over here. Did you remove all the evidence when you walked over here to get the buns out of the fridge? Was that food your little diversion tactic?"
Takumi wasn't sure what to say, "No. I told you how I did it. It's not a trick. It's just science that is a little more advanced than you're used to."
With that Misaki turned and gave him a death stare. "I am in the most advance science course in our school and I will have you know I am the top student!"
"Well, technically we are tied for the best student right now…" Takumi corrected. He quickly realized that he had just made a huge mistake.
"I come over here to check up on you. You then scare me half way out of my mind! You knock me down and climb on top of me and kiss me in front of all those people! You say you'll show me your magic trick, but instead you give me some lame explanation. You hide the equipment you used to do the trick. Then you imply that you are a better science student than I am! I am so out of here." Before he could stop her, Misaki flew out the front door and slammed it behind her.
Takumi was still standing in shock when the door bell rang two minutes later. Misaki was at the front door. "I forgot my pork buns!" she yelled. He ran back and brought her the package. "Thank you!" She snapped back at him and turned and marched into the waiting elevator in a huff.
