A great deal of Insistence, part I
Hunger pains struck her on her way home, the loud rumbling of her belly sending to waste the naturally silent way she moved. Her hands were once again empty, no food to alleviate the pain nor give her energy thus making her usually graceful actions lethargic and slower than she was comfortable with, also grating on her already foul mood.
Since the day she saved the unfortunate guy, who ruined her bread, it seemed like her luck had ran out. The egoistic baker was more alert than ever, never leaving any scraps for her to take and keeping his eyes on the product, and the market where she tended to steal from had kind of put her on their black list because of the exaggerated warnings the spiteful fatty persecutor had spread all over the food selling sector to make her life difficult.
A sigh slipped her lips in frustration and her brows furrowed at the thought of trying to sleep with her body constantly complaining its lack of fuel to keep working, hand finding its way to her long and knotted blonde locks to release some of her feelings, trying to unknot the disaster that she called hair. Distracted as she was at the self imposed task, her feet mechanically walked to the back of the building, opening the only unlocked door just to find somebody already inside.
Her eyes narrowed, hand releasing her hair to take a position ready to strike or run with all her might to the small hole in the wall leading to her hideout if the person proved violent, as the majority proved to be towards her person. The black dressed shadowed person turned around at the sound of the door opening and, to her slight surprise it was the same guy from before, Cain if she recalled correctly.
-What are you doing here? - She inquired suspicious and cautious of the motive the stranger had for coming back. Her mood taking a serious hit at seeing him again after the downhill her situation turned to due to her stupid and out of character kindness. *See, this is exactly why you should only care about yourself* She self-depreciatingly thought already regretting what she did.
Reading her mood for what it was Cain raised both hands slowly in an innocuous manner deciding to treat the female like the untrusting small feline-like animal she probably was. The same cautiousness with which he would approach a street cat, eyes never leaving her visage, he pointed to the small paper bag deposited in the floor for the lack of a table.
-Food- He muttered, baritone voice smooth and velvety in contrast to the raspy and gruff way it was before. Still suspicious, she slowly walked towards the bag leaving the door slightly open, for a fast exit, and eyes focused on his person in case he tried anything strange while she checked if his statement was true or not. For the sole purpose of making her feel as unthreatened as possible, he even took a few steps back so there was some distance between him and the peace offering and she could see for herself with the comfort of not having him breathing down her neck.
Bending in front of the bag, she slowly directed her gaze from him to the contents of it, his booted feet in the corner of her eye, to discover an assortment of breads carefully put inside; cinnamon rolls, cheese breads, sweet breads and buns among the tasty treats that almost filled the bag to the top. Her mouth immediately watered at the sight but she shook her daze returning her gaze to him.
-What makes you think that I want your pity?- She acidly asked using the hot rage and indignity she felt at the prospect of being a charity project to ignore the deliciously tempting smell of recently baked bread. God, she could almost feel the warmth exuding from the brown paper most definitely calling her to sink her teeth in the soft and gold looking products.
At that precise moment, most possibly sensing the nature of her traitorous thoughts, her stomach decided to vocalize its disagreement with her question, making it notoriously clear that she hadn´t tasted even a minuscule quantity of substance since she left him, obviously to scavenge, four days ago. In an excruciatingly familiar way, he lifted an eyebrow with great amusement sparkling in his eyes but his face remaining in the serious expression it was in since she entered the room.
A hot feeling spread through her cheeks positively turning them deep scarlet due to the embarrassment she could practically sense exuding from each of her pores. Her brows furrowed deeply and, trying to hide her expression from him, she turned her face to the side clicking her tongue in frustration, locks flying around at the brusque movement and helping a little to obstruct his view. Even though, the gesture didn´t escape his notice, stare solely centered on her, and for a fraction of a second the corners of his mouth turned upwards finding her absolutely adorable all flustered.
Some minutes lately, composing himself, he decided that if things stayed as they were they most likely weren't going to accomplish anything so he took the initiative, knowing exactly how to placate the girl.
-It ain´t pity, you saved me at the cost of you own meal. It´s only fair for me to return the favor- He reassured averting his eyes and putting his hands in his pockets to mask, as simply stating, how grateful and hopefully eager he was for the kindness and compassion she bestowed upon him that day. His statement brought her gaze back to him, her face back to normal and eyes less mistrustful and more curious but still guarded. So, with sure and slow steps, he walked and bended right in front of her, the bag being sandwiched between them, took the first bread of the batch and gave it a small bite, swallowing it and finally extending the appetizing delicacy to her in, what he considered, a friendly way.
Nevertheless, her eyes didn´t wandered to the extended peace offering until she deemed that there was neither malicious intent nor any kind of negative effect induced on him for ingesting what looked like normal cheese bread. Only then, she allowed her eyes to fall to his hand admiring the, for her, unusual and genuine gesture of simple gratitude and goodness.
Shyness, for a change, getting the best of her she bypassed his offering, hugging the whole bag with one hand and sitting in the floor. Stealing a look at him, and seeing the puppy hurt expression he unconsciously let loose, she decided to do something she had never done before, at the potency of his hurt, explain her actions so he didn´t misunderstand and felt bad.
-That one is yours, it´ll be weird if only I ate- She gruffly explained, a small tint of pink in her cheeks and avoiding his eyes, inwardly surprised at her own thoughtfulness and determined to leave it like that whether he caught on or not. *There is a limit to how far I can go for someone else´s comfort* she stubbornly thought, not willing to accept this newfound facet of her. Still, she rapidly looked at his face.
Incredibly enough, the moment she said that, he realized just what kind of face he was making at the mere thought that she didn´t even wanted to accept, from his hand, what he was giving opting to take the bag avoiding any contact with him *Since when am I this transparent?* Nonetheless, he actually felt reassured that he wasn´t being rejected, instead being included and thanked for in her own stubborn and not at all direct way.
A small smile spread on his face, greeting her when her eyes discretely looked his way to determine his mood. A chuckle almost escaping him, but being safely muffled by biting his bread, when she rapidly turned her sight to the bag she was tightly hugging and extracted similar cheese bread, eating it in small adorable bites. The delicious flavor of the salty and gooey cheese, along with the toasted exterior of the bread and soft airy interior of it, exploding in her mouth and making her release a soft pleased sound, eerily similar to a moan.
Right then, as Setsuka savored her food with a genuine happiness he had never seen, Cain felt an unexplainable sense of calm and contentment. Yes, he didn´t particularly enjoyed eating since he was never one to look forward to a meal or at the prospect of food, but if it was under these circumstances he didn´t really mind eating a loaf of bread. In fact, he could even start looking forward to this.
AN: Hey people! Thanks for the comments and possitive feedback, I really appreaciate all this and I am constantly improving this fanfic, usually fixing gamatical mistakes and others, thus all the times I replace a chapter. So, do not fret if you read a chapter and some minutes later one or two sentences are changed. All these changes are small and only if I add something significant, plot wise or important to portraying a character, will I invited you to check out a specific chapter.
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