this one has been floating around on tumblr so i thought i'd put it here

prompt: last 3 minutes of the anime reworked

All sabbaticals and potentially justifiable excuses notwithstanding, if she hadn't pulled strings with the board, Yukihira Souma seriously could've been dropped from the graduating class roster.

Naturally, he waved this off with a "Yeah, yeah, thanks, Nakiri!" verbatim that he could probably have duplicated if she'd passed him an insignificant ingredient during a duos practicum.

She watched him, thinking to herself, I thought I'd always be able to cook by your side from now on. Whenever we wanted…

And then you left without telling me.

For me, that was…

Before I realized it, your dishes… no, both your dishes and you…

Became what my heart longed for.

"Wait, Nakiri, are you serious?"

Erina was instantly broken from her reverie. Did I just say that out loud? Ssshhhhiiiit.

Yukihira was looking at her with a curious expression, his suitcase long forgotten. "You really think of me that way?"

Flustered and probably redder than the grenadine she'd used for a new dish a couple days ago, Erina fibbed, "N-no! Obviously not at all! It's just I'm surprised you're here! That's—"

Before she could tell the ceiling from the floor Yukihira had crossed the distance between them and thrown his arms around her. He'd grown another three inches or so in the span of six months—not that she'd ever deigned to notice his plebeian features—and her head fit perfectly in the curve between his jaw and collarbone. She stood in complete shock for a prolonged moment before hesitantly allowing her hands to rest on his back.

"I never once stopped thinking about you," Yukihira said quietly.

He pulled away. "Never once," he repeated thoughtfully, and she couldn't keep the smile from reaching her eyes.

"You sure?" Erina asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Positive," he replied with his hallmark lopsided grin; then he was kissing her senseless. Then it was the feel of his mouth coaxing hers open and her fingers in his hair and his hands around her waist, running up her sides, pressing her closer to him as if afraid that were he to let go they'd never find each other again, closing the space that did not exist between them. It was nothing but their skin and their hearts and their thoughts and six months'—no, two years'—worth of confessions suppressed because…

Because why?

But it was of no consequence; they were here in this moment, tied through their lips by fate, destiny, call it whatever you want, and she wouldn't change their past even if she could, because that was what had brought them together, and that is how they were meant to be.

im going to attempt a nsfw prompt for the next chapter but im already cringing