"Morning." Hachiman yawns as he comes into the kitchen while wearing casual clothes. He sees Mei, wearing her Valkyrie clothes, humming while standing in front of the stove. She notices him entering, making her smile at him.
"Morning Hachiman. Ah, can you help me bring this to the table?" Mei holds a plate that has 10 boiled sausages stacked on it in front of him, prompting him to take it.
"Sure." He shrugs then brings the plate over to the table, occupied by Kiana, who is playing games using her newly bought PS, and Bronya, who is blankly looking at the table, though she fidgets a little. He sets the plate next to the other healthy foods that Mei had already cooked.
He looks at all of the food, though he freezes when his eyes set on a particular dish, "I-is that egg inside the tomato?" He hesitates as he points at the dish, consisting of 4 fried eggs each inside their own tomato.
Kiana blinks as she pauses her game, "Yeah? Mei said that she found this online and wanted us to try it out." She pats the seat next to her, "Come on Hachiman, let's try it!"
Just as Hachiman was about to say something, Mei sets down 4 empty plates next to him, prompting him to flinch, which she notices, "Hachiman? Are you alright?"
He tries to smile, though it only comes out as a grimace, "It's nothing, I just don't like tomatoes." He glances at her, though he quickly looks away as he sees the slight hurt in her eyes.
"Ah… I wanted to try something different for today, sorry…" Mei quietly mutters as she hangs her head, prompting him to look back while trying to ignore the pout from Kiana and the light glare from Bronya.
"Sorry Mei, your food tastes and looks delicious and all but… I just really don't like tomatoes." He awkwardly scratches his cheek.
Kiana stands up and rushes over to Mei's side, "Hachiman~ can't you see my girlfriend is sad that her effort will go down the drain?" She takes the chance to squish her cheek with hers.
He stops and lightly squints his eyebrows, "You can just eat it."
"Yeah but Mei wants all of us to taste it!" She pouts at him.
"Kiana, please stop. If Hachiman doesn't want to eat then it's alright." Mei tries to calm the increasingly agitated Kiana by rubbing her head.
"See? Even Mei is fine." His eyes twitch due to glancing at the tomato again.
Kiana pouts even harder, "You didn't say that you can't eat tomatoes before…"
"That's… Because we didn't have it before and no one asked." He sighs while his fingers twitch, "Look, can we please just eat? It's Sunday and all but I need to go to that café soon."
Kiana sighs as she stops hugging Mei, "Alright… But we will continue this later!" She points a finger at him as she retreats back to her seat.
Mei also sighs as she sees Kiana's action, "Kiana, please, no pointing." Then she turns to look at Hachiman, "Do you have any other food that you ha – dislike?"
He sighs while his face shifts into tiredness, "Only tomato. Also, fine, Kiana." He sits down, prompting Mei to also sit down.
Bronya just blankly watches the trio in silence before turning to look at the food, "Thank you for the food…" She quietly mutters, prompting the rest to glance at her before repeating her words.
"Thank you for the food." Then they dig in.
Kiana holds a tomato in the air, "Are you sure you don't want –"
"No. Thank you."
Awkward silence descends on them after Hachiman's swift and stern refusal as he cuts her off, prompting Kiana to glare at him. Mei, seeing their actions and sensing that they are being serious, loudly asks.
"Hachiman, are you sure the people at the café can help you?" She awkwardly smiles at him.
He turns to look at her with a shrug, "They claim to be ex-captain, so they should have years of experience under their belt. Also, isn't it time for your training?" He points at the clock on the wall, which is pointing at 8 o'clock before opening up a can of max coffee.
Kiana and Mei's face turn pale while Bronya uses a napkin to clean her mouth before getting up with her empty plate to go to the kitchen, "Shit!" The former yells before eating at a rapid pace, to the disgust of the others.
Mei also eats at a fast yet elegant pace, "Hachiman, can you wash the plates? Please?" She asks him with a hopeful glance while Bronya returns.
He sighs before nodding, prompting her to smile, "Thank you. Come on you two, let's go!" She quickly gets up and rushes out of the door with Bronya trailing behind her.
Kiana gets up as well but pauses, then she latches onto him, "Take care of yourself Hachiman!" She smiles as she lets go and runs out of the door as she chases them.
Hachiman wryly smiles as he sees them running through the windows, "…At least she isn't mad at me." He grimaces as he sees the amount of plates on the table, "…Well shit."
Hachiman and Creed are playing chess in the café near the door while Fu Hua watches them from the sidelines, "Checkmate." The latter puts down his black knight at the f2 square, capturing the former's king as he has nowhere to go since a bishop at f6 and queen at g1 block his move and his own pawn at g3 betrays him by being there.
"…Well damn, I expected it but it still stings," Hachiman frowns as he looks at the board, him only having 6 pawns, a bishop, a rook, and a queen left, each of which can't help him.
Creed smirks, "Don't be so down greenhorn. I actually had to make an effort to win, though I only won that easily because you played it too defensively." He knocks down his own king, "In a real life or death situation, playing too defensively will only get you swarmed by Honkai beasts."
He gets up then cracks a few of his joints, "Ahhh, always love cracking my joints, hearing that satisfying pop." Then gestures with his head to the stairs, "Come on, we will be playing an RTS game now."
Hachiman blinks as he lightly squints his eyes, "I didn't expect us to actually play an RTS."
Creed snorts, "This is just a way for me to see what I've got to work with. My previous instructor used this method with me. May her soul be a witness to our victory," His tone turns solemn near the end and closes his eyes.
Hachiman says nothing as he gazes at his face, though he soon opens his mouth, "Sor –" He feels a hand on his shoulder, prompting him to look at Fu Hua quietly shaking her head.
She leans closer to him, "Creed hates pity the most." Then leans away as fast as the wind.
Creed finishes and opens his eyes, "After we are finished, we will be doing some sparring, with this kid handling it while me and Candy will handle your commanding ability." Fu Hua nods as confirmation as she repositions her glasses.
"…Why the spar?"
"Because, a good coordinator needs a quick and adaptable mind on the battlefield. You already got the mind needed to lead but it can be better, no, the best the world has ever seen. Do I really need to give you a motivational speech?"
Hachiman cringes, "I would prefer you to not."
"Hah. Good answer."
*A...N*
Welp, sorry but I might need to take like a week break since my symptoms have been acting up again since yesterday (resulting in me not writing), but I might not need to since this new medications should help me... I hope. Anyway on to the comments!
calderoneric758 - this is the training arc, I guess you could say so fighting Honkai will be way later
XianYun - lol, funny video, even though I don't know what that anime is
bluecookie420 - you mean dangerous womanizer now lol
Renashi-RE012 - my reasoning is that she isn't normally expressive but she has been interacting with Mei, who has been trying to break her walls down for the past few days. The Bronya also got lots of things on her shoulder, making her having a vulnerable moment that Hachiman saw. I try to be real as possible with my fanfics but long story short, it's hard. Also, I don't really care if people find my grammar and sentence structure to be horrendous (trust me, I have seen some works that got over million of views and thousands of likes but it has the most horrendous grammar and sentence structure.), I would only care if you were to tell me to stop writing. This was my initial response but seeing your newer comment, I can only say, lol and no harm done
Alt Zero - *insert pleased Mei face*
BorderLand - lmao, yep Kiana with her bubbly nature, Mei with her kind heart, and Hachiman with his grouchy exterior while the inside is soft. I'll spoil a bit by saying it *REDACTED* her longer
