Pewpewpew. Here I am again! Hope you enjoy!

Yukihira Soma was lost. Completely and utterly at a loss.

"It's delicious."

The words he thought would never be uttered by those lips in his lifetime. The words that he was prepared to work his whole life for. The words that his cooking was always dedicated to hearing.

"Are you serious Nakiri?"

He received a nod in response. Just like that, he had heard the words he longed to hear for the past two years of high school. Somehow, it didn't feel as satisfying as he thought it would've. Sure he was ecstatic for the first few seconds but then he just felt… empty.

"Are you ok Yukihira-kun? Did your plebeian mind finally collapse on itself?" she teased haughtily but didn't receive the usual comeback in return.

Her words had seemed to enter through one ear and went straight out the other as he stared blankly at nothing in particular. Completely disconnected from the outside world.

Then as if a switch had just suddenly been flipped in his head, he put up a shaky grin on his face and took off the white cloth of his forehead.

"Happy to serve," he muttered as he retied the cloth onto his wrist, movements shaky even to the most unobservant person.

Erina's amethyst orbs glittered with worry now as she made her way to the redhead. She'd seen Soma in various states in the past. Complete exhaustion after nights on end of continuous recipe testing. A never ending bundle of energy as long as he was still cooking in the kitchen. An angry version that rarely showed unless something precious to him was being threatened. She'd seen many sides of Soma over the years. This wasn't one of them.

She had expected the confident self-satisfied grin that he had whenever he managed to satisfy whomever ate his food. Hounding her annoyingly with the fact that she had said his food tasted good. She didn't expect the ever present determined glint in his amber pools to disappear.

"Yukihira-kun?" she uttered softly as a hand reached out to touch his shoulder.

Soma was brought back to reality when he felt his body being shook and his eyes rose to meet Erina's worried gaze.

"I'm fine," he answered her unasked question. From the look on her face, she wasn't satisfied with his answer at all.

"How you're acting says otherwise."

"Whaddya mean Nakiri? I'm completely—"

"Do not take me for a fool Yukihira-kun," she cut him off with a sharp glare, practically daring him to lie to her again. He groaned before sitting on the floor with his back to the kitchen counter.

Erina looked down on him contemplatively before taking a seat beside him on the cold floor. Scooting over a bit so that their shoulders were barely grazing each other.

"So are you actually going to tell me what's wrong now?"

"Will you leave me alone if I don't?" he shot back with another question.

"I think you know the answer to that."

Soma sighed as he ran a hand through his hair, glancing to his side at the girl he had worked so hard to impress.

"I thought you would've been happier hearing me say that your food is delicious. Isn't that what you've been wanting to hear since the beginning?" she said before he could even open his mouth. A laugh escaped from him as he considered her words.

"Yeah… I guess. That was my only goal for the past two years. Evolving my cooking to the point that you would say it was delicious," Soma began as he looked at nowhere in particular while Erina listened attentively, her eyes not leaving him since he began speaking.

"I don't know. Hearing it made me happy for the first few seconds, but then I realized that I achieved the goal I thought I would be working a lot longer for. I just don't know what I'm going to do now I guess. If my cooking already managed to impress the God Tongue, then how much more could I actually improve it," he said as he fiddled with his hands.

The two sat in silence for a while as one of them processed the other's words while the other pondered about what would happen in the future.

"I shouldn't have said it then. If I knew that this was how you were going to react then I wouldn't have said it," Soma's eyes turned toward Erina, only to be met with a glare that could've refroze Antarctica. Quite befitting for the Ice Queen of Totsuki.

"You're being an idiot Yukihira-kun. Even more so than your usual self," Soma was just about to open his mouth in protest when her eyes seemed to flash a warning to not interrupt her.

She took a deep breath as she prepared herself to admit something that she never thought she would've admitted to the man beside her. What she was going to say next would sting her pride.

"Your food has always been delicious. Ever since that Transforming Furikake Gohan you made at the Entrance Exams and it has only gotten even better since. I was just too up on my high horse to admit it back then. If I'd said that it was delicious back then… would you have progressed as far as you did? Would you have been satisfied with the level you were at back then?"

Soma's mind was sent reeling as he thought over what she had said. She still wasn't finished though.

"I used to believe that my cooking was the best. I used to think that whatever I put on the plate would be the best version of itself. But then you came along and tore through all that. The freedom in your cooking. Your endless thirst for discovering undiscovered flavors. Combining ingredients that people wouldn't even think of putting together. You pushed me to become better. Forced me to change my way of thinking unless I wanted to be left behind in the dust. That was all you Soma-kun. If this was all it took to stunt your progress, then I was wrong to consider you my rival in the first place!" she finished passionately as her eyes seemed to glow in the dark.

Soma's eyes were wide in disbelief as he let the words churn in his head. He glanced down at the cloth around his wrist before he laughed out loud and let his head fall onto the blonde's shoulder.

"Thanks for that Nakiri. I think I needed to hear that," he said as he shifted his body so that he was more comfortable. With his head where it was, he didn't notice Erina's cheeks burning bright red at the position they were in though she didn't make any move to change their current arrangement.

"You saved me from the dark before Soma-kun. I'm not letting you fall into it under my watch," she said as she raised her free hand to run through his hair.

Soma closed his eyes contentedly at the soothing gesture. Suddenly the story his father had told him on the train back before the Team Shokugeki. How he'd gotten lost in the wasteland that was cooking because he braved the storm alone. As he felt the shoulder he was resting his head on rise up and down, he realized that he never had to go through it alone. The girl beside him had been by his side all the way. Both of them pushing each other to unbelievable heights.

"You calling me Soma now huh?" he teased as he lazily opened an eye, a cheeky grin on his face. He didn't have to see her face to know that there was an annoyed expression currently gracing it.

"Don't get used to it Yukihira-kun," she stated authoritatively as Soma laughed out loud. He could just imagine her doing her famous hair flip if they weren't in their current position.

"I'm going to make you say my food is delicious every time you eat it from now on!"

"Sure. I'll entertain you for as long as you want to," she said with a content smile on her face as she let her eyes flutter shut. She could relax now that she knew he was back to his usual self.

Soma closed his hand determinedly before letting his own eyes close again. Now knowing that as long she was by his side, he could take on anything head on.