Notes
Gosh, I wasn't expecting to really get any readers besides a few friends on here, so thanks so much for the comments/kudos/faves/whatever else! It really made my day. With all the craziness in the world right now, you'd think I'd have more time to write, but woe is me and that is not the case LOL. Well, I did put in my two weeks for one of my jobs the other day, so maybe soon :' )
Regardless, I'm bad at planning as usual, so the other two parts are probably going to be a stupid amount longer than this. I can't seem to stop myself from writing about these two, it seems. Hope y'all enjoy this chapter and stay healthy!
Not even after two weeks of joining SEES, Shinjiro could see a pattern forming. With only a day in between he found himself sitting across from Minako Arisato at Wakatsu once more. Once or twice he could understand - according to Aki, backed up by his own observations about the fact that everyone seemed to be on good terms with the field leader, she made a point to get to know everyone who she worked with. Even she and Aki were apparently pretty close at this point. That irritated him, for some reason, but he didn't want to think about why.
Instead, he shifted his thoughts, thinking about what they had talked about the other day. "This crossed my mind the last time we ate here," Shinji started, "but those guys eat on their own, right?"
Curious, Arisato looked up at him from across the table, chopsticks still holding a piece of inarizushi. "What do you mean?"
That was a bit vague, he supposed. "Well, are they doing okay?" It was obvious, to him at least, that she'd figured out how much he worried over everyone already. He likely wouldn't ever be comfortable being open about it, but if she already knew, maybe she could help but his mind at ease.
He wouldn't be there forever to watch over them. It would give him some peace of mind to know they knew how to take care of themselves without help.
Putting her food down, she looked to be deep in thought. "What do you mean okay?" She asked in return, her lips curling downwards a bit.
"Your body's your most important tool," he explained, gesturing to her. "Still, all those guys ever eat is instant noodles and stuff like that." He shook his head, turning his gaze away from her bright red eyes. "Well, Persona is supposedly the 'strength of the heart'. So I guess it might be better if they eat what makes them happy, but…" Shinji trailed off, his face warming ever so slightly. He was used to fevers, but this felt… different. More normal, perhaps.
Not like he would know.
Even though he really only knew Akihiko and Mitsuru, and he guessed Arisato a bit at that point, too, he worried. Maybe too much. He couldn't help it - back at the orphanage with Aki and Miki, he'd taken care of them and even the other kids there. He'd learned how to cook so early on for their benefit.
Constantly, in his head, was a running train of questions. Were they eating enough? Were they comfortable? Were they doing well in school? Some would probably call him a hypocrite, especially on that last point, but it mattered when it came to them. They all had futures. They all had lives to lead, things to accomplish.
He didn't. The thought didn't make him sad the way it used to. At this point, he had fully accepted his fate; that his early demise was atonement for what he had done. Whether Ken manned up and tried for revenge like he knew the younger boy should want to, or whether his suppressants killed him first, it didn't matter for Shinjiro.
The other day, he'd wondered if that had been the same for Arisato. He was used to nausea from his pills, but the sickness he felt at the thought of a girl like her dying early made him want to double early.
She, too, needed to take good care of herself. Eat properly, rest more, so she had a chance to live the life she deserved.
"You're so kindhearted," Arisato said, snapping him out of his thoughts.
Shinjiro knew that she was replying to his worries over everyone, but he couldn't help but feel like she had seen right through his silence and was calling him out on his own inner monologue. He scowled at her.
"Don't be stupid," he admonished after a moment. He couldn't help but feel something at her words, however. What that something was, he didn't know or like, but he didn't want to dwell on that right now.
There were a lot of things he didn't want to think about, it seemed. "If you get the chance," Shinji continued, "let them know. Tell 'em they need to eat better. They won't listen if it comes from me." He scowled briefly, shaking his head. "Especially Aki."
Neither of them said anything for another few moments, just finishing their plates of food. Arisato, he'd noticed, had ordered mostly fish and inari, and he narrowed his eyes when he saw that it was almost like she was avoiding her kappamaki.
"You are gonna eat those vegetables, right?" He asked, staring at her intensely. Within seconds, she moved from her inari to the kappamaki, making sure to finish the whole plate.
If he smiled again, neither of them mentioned it as they walked back to the dorm.
There was definitely a pattern forming, here.
Anytime he was available, Arisato would, without fail, come to see if he was willing to go get food with her. He wasn't sure why food was her go to, but he didn't mind. It was becoming kind of nice, honestly, but one would have to pry that thought from his cold, dead body.
That evening, just as he'd predicted, Arisato trotted over to him from upstairs, fresh out of her uniform and asked if he was busy. The whole dorm still stared at them each and every time they spoke, which was still grating on Shinjiro's nerves. He already felt like the odd one out most of the time, and the more eyes on him the more likely someone would notice that he wasn't… normal, but it seemed to come with the territory of being friends with the field leader.
He didn't really know what it was about her, but he couldn't say no to her.
Before he'd even agreed to her request, he was pushing himself off the wall. "Well then, let's -" He cut himself off, wrinkling his nose. "Do you smell something?" he felt like gagging.
Arisato paused, making a face that clearly showed him she did, in fact, know what he was talking about. She turned towards where she assumed the smell was coming from, and Shinjiro caught on in an instant.
"Is it coming from over by the counter?" He asked her, and the girl next to him paled.
"We should go check it out," she said, and he agreed, already heading over with her hot on his heels.
Walking into the kitchen, Shinjiro swore. The smell was atrocious, and at the center of it all was the SEES navigator, Fuuka Yamagishi. Through his few outings to Tartarus and during the Full Moon operation from earlier in the month, he'd defaulted to calling her by her given name, but he hadn't really interacted with her all that much. Just casual nods and hellos here and there.
Arisato, on the other hand, most certainly had. The two of them, plus Takeba, seemed very comfortable with one another, and the field leader seemed to be working out what to say to her friend. It was obvious that she had caused the mess, but it wasn't immediately apparent if she'd realized yet.
Deciding for whatever reason to take pity on Arisato, Shinjiro spoke up, doing his best to use his less angry voice. "Hey," he started, wincing as he spoke a bit too loud, "are you causing this smell, Fuuka?"
She turned around from her spot behind the stove, eyes wide and eyebrows up to her hairline. "Huh!?" She clanged a pot against the side of the stove, but her was was still louder somehow. "Does it smell!?"
"Fuuka," Arisato said with a sigh, shaking her head. "What are we going to do with you?" There was exasperation in there, but Shinjiro could also hear the fondness behind the words. He hadn't seen them interact much yet, but by the amount they went out together and how easily they worked together on the field, he knew it was genuine.
Surveying the kitchen revealed a lot. There were ingredients out and about every which way, and likely, Fuuka would destroy the hours he'd spent while everyone was at school the last few days organizing the damn place. Within seconds, he'd already spotted so many things wrong with whatever it was she was trying to make. And that was ignoring the horrific smell coming from in front of her.
"What're you doing?" Shinjiro cut in, aggravation getting the better of him.
"Um," Fuuka mumbled, taking a deep breath before continuing. "I was trying to make beef stroganoff."
Looking at the mess surrounding him, he wanted to groan. It was almost hard for him to believe that is what she had been trying to make. "What about the roux?" That was a basic part of beef stroganoff, after all, and he saw no fat around to use for it.
Then again, the kitchen was such a mess, Shinjiro was praying that he'd just missed it among the slew of other ingredients.
"Oh, I didn't use any!" Fuuka said, smiling obliviously. From next to him, Arisato winced. "I made it from scratch with flour."
Shinjiro sighed, rather aggressively, and from next to him, Arisato shook her head in shame. "Don't start acting all proud after you've burned it," he said, narrowing his eyes.
Almost as if a switch had been flipped inside her head, Fuuka frowned at the food around her. "Oh, you're right," she mumbled out, looking dismayed. "This is burnt… What should I do…?"
"Maybe we should-" Arisato began, but Shinji shook his head, cutting her off.
"You got any of those ingredients left?" He asked, already pulling the sleeves of his jacket up. Arisato quickly caught on, and gave him a grin and a thumbs up. He hadn't even told her that he liked to cook, yet, but he supposed he wasn't surprised that she had caught on so fast. He had spent their last dinner talking about how the rest of the dorm ate, after all.
"Oh, yes," Fuuka answered, nodding. "I bought extra everything."
Moving past Arisato and further into the kitchen, Shinjiro began rearranging the ingredients Fuuka had gotten out. "I'll make it," he said, tone of voice leaving no room for objection. "Watch and learn."
Arisato stood off to the side, leaning against the kitchen counter as she watched him. She was normally so talkative, at least with everyone else, that he was surprised she hadn't said much this entire ordeal.
Actually, he realized, she didn't say much when he was talking at all. Most of the time, she asked questions or answered them, but for the most part she let him figure out the pace and went along with it. Not for the first time, Shinji couldn't help but wonder just how weird she really was. Everything about her was a mystery to him.
"Arisato," he spoke up again, turning to face her directly. "You okay if we have this for dinner?" He wasn't one who liked to disrupt set patterns, but he also wasn't one to just let all this food go to waste.
"Actually," she grinned up at him, "I'm really happy!" Her cheeks were rosy when she said it, matching her eyes that he had slowly come to find more endearing then scary.
Huh, he thought, trying to avert his eyes from her own but finding that he couldn't. I wonder when that happened. Not even realizing he was smiling, he shook his head. "Don't get your hopes up like that," he said, laughing a little.
Fuuka, however, started to fret again, looking towards her friend. "I'm sorry, Minako-chan," she said, bowing her head slightly. "Weren't you going to go out with Shinjiro-senpai?"
The girl in question just gave her friend a shrug. "No big deal," she told her with an easy going smile and a wave of her hand. "Now I get to eat Shinjiro-senpai's cooking, anyways, so I'll consider this a win!"
The way she spoke, Shinji realized, Aki must've let something slip. He scowled, turning to Fuuka. "Hey, let's get started."
He wanted to end that conversation before it could really begin. No way was the whole dorm finding out that he liked to cook. No matter how tempting it was as a way to get them all to eat properly for at least a night. Arisato and Fuuka were one thing, but Iori? No thanks.
"Oh, yes! Please!"
Shinji could feel Arisato's eyes on them as he worked, but for some reason it didn't feel bad. He didn't really like Aki looming his shoulder when he cooked, regardless of it was for the other boy or not, so it was a bit of a surreal experience to not mind at all. He tried to keep it out of his as he did his best to talk to Fuuka as he worked, but teaching wasn't easy when it wasn't something he'd ever done before. Not even back at the orphanage, where he mostly stuck to Aki and - and Aki, until he'd become a Sanada for all of a few years.
"How much oil did you use?" He asked Fuuka, snapping himself out of his thoughts and instead letting himself fall back into the swing of cooking. It'd been a long while since he'd had free use of a kitchen.
Technically speaking, he could've been using the kitchen since he'd been accepted back with open arms into the dorm, but with so many people around, it wasn't exactly on his list of things to do. He'd take any chance he got, though, and Arisato didn't mind - he wondered why that even mattered, really.
"I didn't use any," Fuuka said with a smile, and Shinjiro wanted to bash his head against the counter. "I thought it would be healthier that way…"
He didn't say anything to that, and continued his line of questioning. "How much red wine did you put in?"
The blue haired girl paused, thinking for a moment. "I don't know," she finally answered. "I poured it from the bottle until it looked like enough…"
Oh, God. "How long did you pour it, then?"
"Um," Fuuka stumbled, seemingly catching onto the fact that she was absolutely no good at this whatsoever. "Two or three seconds."
With a sigh, he pushed a fork into the meat a little, trying to see if any of this was salvageable by normal standards or if he'd have to pull out all the stops. From over at the counter, he could hear Arisato giggling as she watched, and he rolled his eyes. "This meat's pretty fatty," he said, words more curt with each passing observation.
"Oh, yes. I asked the butcher for the best he had."
Glancing over at the field leader, he realized that she wasn't at all surprised at the mess Fuuka had created. Now that he thought about it, Shinjiro could remember her saying something about cooking club to Fuuka before, as the two of them carried some chocolates back from school. He wondered how the hell Arisato dealt with this on the regular.
"There's so much wrong here, I don't know where to begin," he said to Fuuka bluntly. "Don't start messing around with recipes until you've improved your basic cooking skills. Seriously," he shook his head, gesturing to the blackened thing that Fuuka had created. "Don't you feel bad at all for charring all this food?"
Hanging her head down in embarrassment, Fuuka's shoulders fell with it. "I'm sorry."
Shinjiro shook his head, making his way over to the cutting board. "Now listen up," he started, and could hear Arisato stifling a laugh. "Prepare everything beforehand…"
Launching into a cooking lesson, he barely paid attention to the girls in the kitchen, speaking as if he were reminding himself of all the things he'd learned throughout the years. Cooking was something he actually enjoyed doing - maybe one of the only things, anymore. It was something that had always came naturally to him, and as someone who hated wasting food, it was kind of like a game in some ways. Back at the orphanage, he was always messing around, trying to figure out how to make good dishes from the random shit they'd always have in the pantry. When he and Aki had been indoctrinated into SEES, he knew right from the start Mitsuru and Aki would be useless trying to feed themselves, so he cooked almost every night.
It was nostalgic, to be cooking once again in that very same kitchen. But he couldn't let himself give into that nostalgia, no matter how nice it felt. He was only here until Ken was ready to take him from this world - or until the drugs did, whichever came first. Usually he didn't even have to remind himself of that.
Even so, he couldn't help but smile a little as he worked. It wasn't like he was trying to. It just happened. Arisato, from over at the counter, didn't say anything as he went about his business, but once he put everything on to simmer for a bit he caught her gaze. The smile on her face… he hadn't ever seen her look so peaceful before.
He couldn't look at her for long. No longer did he find her red eyes intimidating, but there was something else, now, that made him want to look away. Shinjiro couldn't put his finger on it - or maybe he could, and just really didn't want to think about it - but he hated the way his cheeks burned after seeing that look.
After what felt like forever of coaching Fuuka, the food was finished. Shinjiro could practically see Arisato's mouth watering the moment he plated the dish, putting it down on the dining room table.
"Wow, it looks so delicious," Fuuka said, looking at it with delight, and he rolled his eyes.
"Just shut it and eat up before it gets cold." He did not want the rest of the dorm coming in and finding out right now. He already hated the fact that they all knew he went out with Arisato for food often.
The very same girl bounced her way into the dining room, sitting herself down at a chair. "Thanks for the food!" She practically cheered, giving him a toothy grin.
Willing his cheeks to stay a normal color, he quickly looked away. "Y-yeah."
Fuuka sat down next to her friend, curious about the food but not wanting to interrupt Arisato's first bite. Shinjiro wouldn't admit it, but he was curious, too - was he still a decent cook? Did she like it? Would she ask him to cook again?
"This is delicious," she told him, nodding in satisfaction before turning around in her chair to face him. "Thank you so much, Shinjiro-senpai!"
It was such honest praise there was nothing he could do to fight the warmth that flooded into his face. Arisato, he'd noticed, was a very genuine person. Or at least, she tried to be. When she said things like that, though, so simple and without taking much time to think of it, that authentic nature really shined. Shinjiro wasn't at all used to hearing that level of kindness directed at him at all.
Just the other night, she had told him he was kindhearted. Spending time with this girl wasn't good for his health, he was beginning to realize.
"You're amazing, Shinjiro-senpai," Fuuka agreed, watching Arisato with a smile.
This was ridiculous. "I mean, anyone could do something like-"
"No, they can't!" Arisato looked up in surprise at the noise. Fuuka rarely shouted like that, he knew, even though he'd only been around the dorm for a short amount of time. "Please, teach me again! Promise!"
He shrugged, not wanting to give a straight answer. It was hard for him to make promises about the future, though he didn't want to go broadcasting that around. Everyone in the dorm was convinced that not only would all of them make it out alive, but they would put a stop to the Dark Hour. They deserved to have that hope, and he didn't want to be the one to bring reality crashing down.
Instead, he resided himself to watch Arisato eat the food he'd made. If he let himself forget, just for a moment, the way he fought off shivering and how sometimes his heart hammered in his ears, Shinji knew he would've found this nice.
Maybe part of him still did.
Later on after Fuuka had agreed to clean everything up, Shinjiro and Arisato made their way back into the main room of the dorm. From next to him, Arisato patted her stomach happily, much like a child would.
Shinji, however, couldn't get Fuuka's plea out of his head. He frowned deeply. "'Please teach me again', huh? Looks like she made he promise without letting me say anything," he trailed off, quite miffed. The way Arisato was looking at him, though, made him blurt out something else - just to get her to stop. "Well, I guess I'll make something again later."
Even he couldn't deny the idea was something he was looking forward to.
"Why don't we do a party?" She asked, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Wouldn't that be fun?"
Looking down at her, Shinji raised an eyebrow. She didn't seem it out in Tartarus or fighting, but she really was so small. "A party? Here? That's kind of pushing it," he told her, shoving his hands deep into his coat pockets.
In response, Arisato huffed, crossing her arms. "I don't think so," she argued. "It would be a good way to raise morale for everyone, if we all got a taste of your delicious cooking! Plus," she paused, her gaze turning sly, "you were just complaining about how none of us eat well, weren't you?"
She was too stubborn for her own good, he was realizing. Aki hadn't been kidding when he had said she was perfect for her job. Nobody that stubborn would ever let one of her friends die during the Dark Hour, no matter the shit she'd have to pull to make sure that was possible.
That kind of stubbornness was dangerous in its own right, though. It made him almost want to hope.
"Well, you got a point," he relented, giving her a rare smile. Those thoughts could be compartmentalized and looked upon later. "Maybe it'll be okay to do one once in a while."
Shinjiro knew he wasn't exactly doing a great job of arguing, but he couldn't help it. He had missed cooking, and seeing Arisato so excited over the food he'd made was something he couldn't deny he wanted to watch again. Besides, it was only early September. Realistically, the earliest he would go was October, if Ken decided to go through with it. They had some time left.
It wasn't much, but any time was better than none. The clock never stopped ticking, after all.
Over the last two weeks of being a part of SEES again, Shinjiro was starting to notice something. Something very particular about their field leader.
Everyone was incredibly protective over her. From Aigis, a literal robot, to Koromaru, to even Aki, he couldn't escape it. Whenever she spoke to him, whenever they even so much as looked at each other, Shinjiro would feel the entire dorm's eyes on them. It had begun to grate on him on their second outing, but the worst part of it all?
He was starting to get it.
Arisato just had this air about her that made people want to get to know her. He hadn't exactly made grand attempts at friendship with anyone else in the dorm - barring Aki and Mitsuru, who both had known him far longer. And even Mitsuru he didn't speak to much.
But Arisato? For whatever reason, she had just waltzed right into his space on day one and he'd never had a chance. He couldn't force himself not to enjoy her company. He couldn't even stop himself from making himself free on nights where he really should be doing other things. He'd stopped reaching for his pills as often, since they made his mind fuzzier then he'd like when he was with her.
Tonight was one of those nights. She had come right up to him, as usual, and asked if he was busy. Iori and Takeba weren't sitting too far from them, and he could practically feel them both burning holes into the side of his head as they spoke to each other. They weren't even being quiet, it's not like they couldn't hear her asking him to hang out.
"There's some place I wanna go today," Shinjiro said after she'd asked, doing his best to ignore the glares he was getting from the other SEES members. "You wanna come along?"
With a wide smile, she nodded. "I'd love to go!" She said, doing that thing she did often where she rocked back and forth on her feet. He wanted to roll his eyes, but not because he was irritated. It was almost like he wanted to tease her, or something.
He swallowed. He hated himself sometimes. "Great, let's get moving."
The train ride to Paulownia Mall was completely uneventful. In the late evenings like this, there was practically nobody on the trains, and it's not like either of them were confused about the route. Arisato, for once, seemed content to just watch the scenery go by instead of talking. He wondered, in the back of his mind, if she always did that on trains. He supposed he'd find out later on that evening.
Once they'd arrived, she'd followed him curiously to the Chagall Cafe, blinking in recognition. He already felt out of place, the the odd look Arisato was giving him certainly wasn't helping.
"What do you want?" He asked, shuffling on his feet, shoving his hands farther into his pockets. Money, for once, wasn't an issue - he hadn't remembered how much Shadows could drop.
Pausing, she thought about it for a moment, before giving him a small smile. "Coffee, please!"
Shinjiro nodded, making his way over to the counter. It felt like the entire world was staring at him with each step he took. He knew he looked like he didn't belong there - who wore a trench coat and a winter hat in early September, anyways? "Two coffees, please," he ordered, watching as the barista started on their drinks.
Earlier that afternoon, he'd been feeling fine, but the longer he stood waiting for his drink the worse he began to feel. His chest hurt, his throat hurt, and his veins felt vaguely like they were on fire. Coughing into someone's face while they were getting an order together was rude, however, so Shinji did his best to hold it in. Once they were sitting down in the plush chairs of the cafe, however, he let it out; bringing up his arm so he could cough into his elbow. He prayed there would be no blood today.
That was something he really didn't need Arisato seeing.
After the fit was over, he sighed, sinking down into the chair a bit more. It was what he deserved, he knew, but it was so painful. Every time.
"Do you have a cold?" The field leader asked, leaning closer to him, for some reason.
Without thinking, he pushed himself back up, just to put some distance between them. In the same movement, he pushed his hat down to cover his eyes just the smallest bit more before shaking his head.
"No," he said with a sigh. "It's not contagious or anything, so don't worry." Shinjiro smiled then, but it wasn't a nice smile - not the ones that he'd been letting slip so often around her lately. No matter how much it hurts, it's what I deserve, he reminded himself again before continuing, not liking the way Arisato was frowning at him. "It happens once in awhile. That's why I try not to come to these kinds of places often."
"Is the cafe making you cough?" Arisato asked, though he could tell by the way she said it she was joking. She sat up a little, too, giving Shinji some much needed space.
Even still, his not-real smile slowly turned to something a bit more normal before his face went back to neutral. "Hell no," he said, taking a healthy sip of his coffee. "I feel bad for the workers here if there's someone like me sitting here coughing all the time."
"So why did we come here, then?" Her question this time was a bit more serious, her head tilting as she wondered.
It was kind of cute, but Shinjiro quickly squashed that thought as soon as it'd come. "I came to buy something today," he said, gesturing off to the rack that held all sorts of bags. "Ground coffee. I need to make sure I don't forget to buy some on the way out."
Arisato sipped her own mug, and he watched as she breathed in the aroma. He had been expecting her to fill it with creams and sugars, but to his surprise, she was drinking it black. Even he didn't like to drink his black, preferring to have at least one cream in his own. "What're you going to use it for?"
Another question, but he couldn't find it in himself to be agitated by it. He had told her he wanted to go out there that evening, after all. That didn't mean he couldn't be embarrassed about his answer, he realized, as his cheeks warmed up as they seemed to do often in her presence.
"It's for cooking," he said, looking down at his drink steadily. When she didn't say anything, he kept going, narrowing his eyes at the coffee. "Hey, you're the one who brought it up," he reminded her. "You said that stuff about treating the guys from the dorm…"
Arisato gave him a smile and nodded in understanding. "I'll help you out, obviously. Since I was the one to suggest it."
It was a kind offer, but one Shinjiro didn't want to take. Without her knowing, probably, Arisato had already done so much for him - and it was even more obvious how much she'd done for everyone in SEES. "No, it's all right," he told her, shaking his head.
"But I-"
Predictably, she didn't want to let it go without a fight. Shinjiro couldn't help but laugh a little, tugging on his beanie in a failed attempt to hide his real smile. "Don't get all offended. It's not that I don't trust your cooking skills," he said, having heard all about her truffles from Aki. "It's just that, how do I put it…"
Almost subconsciously, he thought, Arisato leaned in closer to him over the table again. "What is it?"
"You won't be able to enjoy it if you help you," he finally settled on, unsure if it was the best way to phrase it but not knowing what else to say. "Anyways, we'll do it once I decide on what I'm gonna serve. Even if it tastes awful, you better be responsible and tell everyone it's great."
Much like cooking, joking with Arisato came naturally to him - almost frighteningly so. Even with someone like Aki, who he'd known since he was a little kid, it was hard for him. Maybe, he wondered, if it was because he hadn't known Arisato for too long that he could feel this way with her. It almost felt like lying to her.
She didn't know what he had done or much about his past, but she laughed along with him as if she didn't have a care in the world. Part of him wondered if she would even care if she knew. Part of him wanted to think that, no, she really wouldn't.
Hopefully he'd never have to find out.
"I'll be good, I promise, Shinjiro-senpai," she said, giggling into her hand. "What were your thoughts on dishes, anyways? I'm not master chef, but I'm happy to give an opinion, anyways!"
The two launched into discussion about the dinner party, bouncing various food ideas back and forth until a concrete plan was starting to form in Shinjiro's mind. Before they knew it, the clock was striking 10 PM, later than Shinji had ever intended to stay out with the field leader.
"Should we get going?" He asked, sitting himself up a little in his chair, thinking about everyone back at the dorm. "They'll worry if you're out too late."
It almost looked like she was pouting as she stretched, standing up from her own chair. "Don't forget to buy your ground coffee!" She reminded, wagging her finger. "That's what you came here for, after all."
He coughed into his arm again before nodding, heading back over to the counter and wishing that he didn't like listening to her talk so much. She really wasn't good for his health at all.
Notes
I might end up upping the chapter count to 5, since I'm not sure if people would dislike reading 7k+ chapters or not since that's not the precedent LOL. Let me know which way you'd prefer if you want - either two much longer parts, or three more normal sized chapters! All that said, thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time... whenever that may be : D