That was a great meal, Reito." Mai sighed happily as the server took their plates.
"I'm glad you liked it."
"Okay, what are you grinning at this time?" She waggled a spoon at him. "That's definitely a smirk."
He held up his hands.
"Pax, Mai. I just like watching you eat."
Mai blinked.
"You what?"
"I like watching you eat. Is that so strange?"
"Honestly, it sounds pretty weird. But I'll hear you out, so tell me, what do you like about it?"
Reito smiled.
"It's the professionalism."
Mai blinked again. It seemed to be that kind of conversation. This time, though, she didn't have to prompt Reito to continue.
"You're a really good cook yourself, and when you eat food that someone else has prepared, you don't just eat it. I can see you weighing it on your tongue, your mind breaking down what works and what doesn't, what ingredients, spices, and cooking methods might have been used, and considering what you might have done differently if you were preparing the dish, or conversely what lessons you might take from it to make your own cooking better. I enjoy watching that expertise in action; it's so different from the other people who either eat as the rules of etiquette suggest, or just shovel it in with gusto." He smiled, then added, "Of course, as my sister shows, your cooking is the kind that makes 'just shovel it in' hard to resist. It's so good that the mind immediately demands more."
"Sometimes I wonder if Mikoto has a medical condition that makes ramen an addictive drug for her."
"That's merely your brilliance at work. And, of course, the added benefit of a connection with a person that she loves. That makes everything taste better."
Mai blushed, doubly so because of what Reito was implying about himself.
"But that is a discussion, and a meal, to be savored at a different time. The decision before us now is, do you want to have dessert? The chocolate mousse cake was always excellent here."
While Mai was not one of those women who'd say that the road to her heart was paved with chocolate, that didn't stop her mouth from watering.
"I don't know if I should..."
"But Mai, you know why the portion sizes of haute cuisine are so small, don't you? It's so you still have room when you're finished to indulge yourself freely."
It reminded her so much of what Mikoto had said that she giggled.
"See, there? It makes you happy and you haven't even tasted it yet."
"I know, but I really shouldn't. I eat too many sweets as it is."
"It's up to you, but I have to say that I've never seen you overindulge at all."
That's because it makes me uncomfortable to just dig in and pig out around you! Mai thought. It was something she'd actually commiserated about with Natsuki a year and a half ago: Reito and Shizuru both were so well-mannered (and so effortless about it) that it made Mai and Natsuki feel like barbarian clodhoppers at the Imperial court by comparison. And while Mai's best friend had gotten over her self-consciousness ("You share a house as a couple for two years and you stop putting them on a pedestal that way. Nobody looks elegant plunging a toilet."), Mai really hadn't, probably because she just didn't have the intimacy with Reito that Natsuki had with Shizuru.
"The Kanzaki family secretly has a controlling interest in the chocolate market, doesn't it?"
"You've found out my secret, Mai," he chuckled.
"Well...I have to do my part to help out my boyfriend's family fortune, so I'll go ahead and order the chocolate mousse cake, and to hell with the calories."
"They're happy calories. They don't count."
"Now, there's the difference between you and Yuuichi," Mai grumbled. "He'd probably have said something about how it didn't matter because the extra weight would go straight to my boobs."
Reito arched an eyebrow, curious.
"Although as a general rule I'm more than happy to hear you denigrate my rival for your affections, that particular complaint sounded more generic than most. Are you fighting with him?"
"Yes. No. Maybe?"
"That does seem to cover the possible answers."
He made a small gesture with his right hand, a kind of shooing motion, which only belatedly Mai realized meant that he was signaling the waiter to stay back and not approach the table so that Mai could finish what she was saying.
If she wanted to finish.
It was one thing to complain about the boys to Mikoto, Natsuki, Chie, or Aoi. They were neutral parties, as it were. It was something else again to talk to Reito about Tate or Tate about Reito, about serious things. And yet, Mai found herself unable to hold back. Was it Reito's manner, hus smooth charms? No, that was too facile, too simplistic an answer. The simple fact was, sometimes to understand a guy, you needed another guy's perspective, even if that guy was about as different from the other as two men could be.
But are they that different, really?
That was an odd thought to have.
"I went rock climbing with him this afternoon, and we got into a bit of a...I don't even know if you can call it a fight, but he definitely got angry with me."
Reito's face grew serious. No, not serious, more...flat. Like he had drawn a shutter down over it, cutting off any emotions. It was his "business face," as Mai thought of it, the one he used when casual friendliness would be inappropriate for the situation.
"Oh?"
She was a bit put off by the sudden change in expression, but nodded.
"He asked me out for dinner after we were done, and of course I turned him down since I'd already made plans with you. That made him kind of mad, and I don't understand why."
"Well, you are both graduating in another month."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"I presume that you're still intending to attend Fuuka University?"
"Uh-huh." They'd talked about this before; the university had a number of programs in which it excelled nationally, and Mai could attend for free under the terms of her Kazahana Scholarship. "I'm thinking of double-majoring, with a two-year trade program as a chef and a four-year degree in business administration with a concentration in small business management."
"You're looking to open your own restaurant, aren't you?"
"It seems like a good idea, to start a career in something that I enjoy, and I think I'd prefer the independence of owning my own place instead of working at someone else's."
"It sounds like you've thought this through."
She nodded.
"Well, it is my future, so I need to take it seriously. But what does that have to do with Yuuichi?"
Reito pinched the bridge of his nose, like he was getting a headache.
"It's been two years since the HiME Festival, Mai. That's two years that Tate and I have been courting you. I'm sure you appreciate that a long-distance relationship can be hard. And it's twice as hard when you aren't even sure what that relationship is. I'm sure that as time gets closer for him to make his break from high school at last, he'd becoming more and more concerned with the state of his life. I can't say that I haven't had some of the same thoughts, though of course I have two more years before my own university graduation."
Mai couldn't help but frown.
"Reito..."
"Look, Mai, no one is trying to push you into something that you don't want to do. But it's been nearly two full years now. If you don't know by now which one of us you want to date, then really, Mai, are you ever going to know? And just how long do you expect the two of us to put our own lives on hold waiting for you to come to a decision?"
"Are you giving me an ultimatum here, then?" Mai shot back. Despite what he'd just said, it felt like she was being pushed into a corner, and she didn't like the feeling one bit.
"I'm saying that when I learn that my girlfriend was so excited for her upcoming dinner date with me that she went and squeezed in a date with another man just before it, that I can understand some of what Tate is feeling."
There was a coldness in his gaze and his voice was stern, leaving Mai no doubt that he meant what he was saying—and that he was more than a little annoyed by it.
"Both you and Yuuichi seem to think that I have to run my dating schedule by you. It would be one thing if I had accepted an invitation from some third boy, but you both know very well that I'm going to be going out on dates with the both of you."
"Are you?"
"What does that mean? I thought that was what you were getting mad about!"
Reito's gaze narrowed.
"I'm not getting mad, Mai."
You could have fooled me.
If there was something that kept getting on her nerves about Reito, it was exactly this problem: he wouldn't let her in. There was always some piece of his emotions that he insisted on holding back and not letting her have. Sometimes it was something blatantly obvious, like now, and he was stonewalling her by refusing to talk about it. Other times it was something more enigmatic and she'd be left floundering, with no idea where she stood and what he wanted.
At least with Tate, when he didn't want to talk about his feelings Mai could trust that it was because he genuinely didn't know what was going on.
"I am concerned," Reito continued. He didn't raise his voice; it just became sharper, more clipped, biting off the ends of words more crisply. "I know that you're dating Tate as well as me. But sometimes, it doesn't feel like you're dating either one of us, that we're really little more to you than friends with rather tame, family-friendly benefits."
"That's not—" How can he say that?
"Isn't it? If your heart was really engaged, don't you think you'd have picked one of us by now? Just because we're not fully exclusive doesn't give you the right to keep stringing us along."
Mai clenched her fists in her lap.
"I'm not stringing you along!"
"Maybe you're not. I don't know. But it feels that way sometimes, and the longer this...whatever it is we have...goes on, the more it feels that way."
She wanted to jump up, to shout at him that it wasn't true, but she couldn't. Not in the middle of this expensive restaurant. She felt enough like a little kid playing dress-up as it was, without making a scene to attract every eye in the place. Damn Reito for backing her into a corner like this!
"You're right about one thing," Mai said, forcing herself to keep her voice level. "This isn't a date any more. Take me home, Reito; I don't feel like staying for dessert after all."
~X X X~
It will be noted that Mai Tokiha had a temper. Many people missed this because she was generally a sweet, caring person. She was also a redhead who as a HiME had been able to hurl around walls and blasts of fire, which was truth in advertising.
This it was not entirely out of character when she hurled her apartment door open with a scream of "Men!" The crash of the door on the wall combined with the shout so startled Mikoto that the cat-girl yelped in surprise and fell off the couch, her book flying to land at Mai's feet and her popcorn bowl unleashing puffy kernels everywhere to drift down like a cloud of buttery snowflakes.
"Mai?"
Mikoto waveringly rose to her feet like a shark surfacing from behind the couch. Her questioning voice might have been because she was asking Mai why she was so upset. Then again, it might have been a simple case of recognition, because the popcorn bowl had landed over her head. She removed her impromptu helmet.
"You scared me, Mai!"
"I'm sorry," Mai said, contrite. After all, Mikoto wasn't one of the three people (including herself in that count) that she was upset with.
"Did ani-ue try something bad? Did he try to steal third base?"
Mai's gaze narrowed.
"I will eat my hat if you know what that means, Mikoto."
"You don't own a hat."
Mai just raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, I don't. Nao says it. But it's got something to do with sex, right?"
"Right. And no, Reito did not try to steal any bases; the only thing that happened was a kiss when he helped me out of the car at the restaurant and that was more like an intentional walk."
"Then what's wrong? You're home early and mad."
Mai hung up her purse and sighed.
"He acted like Yuuichi."
Mikoto blinked.
"Wouldn't that make him get mad at himself?" she wondered. "He doesn't usually like that."
"Not this time."
Mai sighed. Her anger was starting to ebb thanks to Mikoto's antics, leaving a sense of resigned frustration. She bent over and picked up the book, which seemed to have escaped damage.
"He was just like Yuuichi was this afternoon. It was the exact same fight, only with less yelling."
"You mean, he wants you to pick him as a boyfriend, too?"
"Uh-huh. He said he thinks Yuuichi wants to know where he stands before he goes off to college. And that it bothers both of them that I can just arrange my schedule to make room instead of only thinking about the one I'm with. Yuuichi was mad that I ran off from being with him in time for my date with Reito, and Reito was mad that I made time for Yuuichi in the first place."
It was a measure of how drained she felt that she didn't pick up the spilled popcorn at once, but just swept aside a clear spot on the couch and flopped down. Mikoto hopped up next to her and Mai gave back her book.
"I just don't get it. I mean, I do get it, they both want to date me. But it's been two years, now; they ought to be used to it. And why can't I pick one of them, anyway?"
"I don't know," Mikoto said. "I'd tell you how Kyoko picks her guy in the book, but I haven't got that far yet."
"Oh, that's easy. I could tell who she'll pick from the back cover."
Mikoto's eyes widened.
"Really? How?"
Mai leaned back on the couch.
"All love triangles in romance books are pretty much the same." She let her head lay against the top of the cushion. "One of the guys will be the dark and dangerous type. Maybe he's a vampire, or a demon, or a yakuza guy, or a rich billionaire or something like that if it's not a supernatural story. The point is that he's somebody that can take the heroine to a new world. He can expand her horizons, show her things she's never seen, swoop her off her feet with thrills and excitement. Only, he's also a little scary for her, because he's so different, alien to her. He thinks and feels different things from her. If she goes with him, she'll leave behind the world she knew, the familiar, the comfortable, everything that she's been up until then.
"On the other hand, the second guy will be grounded. He'll be responsible. He might be human, or if he's supernatural it'll be something like a werewolf that's close to nature, stable. He might be from her own social class. You said the second guy in your book was a childhood friend, so he's like three of those at once.
"The point is, one guy represents fantasy, magic, and dreams, while the other guy represents reality, stability, trust. Which one she picks will depend on the author's message. Maybe the author likes the fantasy, that a girl should reach for her dreams and the ordinary guy is boring, dull, holding her back from, doing what she wants and living the life she could have. Or it could be the other way around, that the fantasy guy is risky, irresponsible, something fake that can never really satisfy, while the grounded guy can give her something solid and real, true love that she can base her life on, and all those airy-fairy fantasies are just a teenager's dream. You can pretty much tell right from the start which way a story is going to go."
"Oh, so it's like you. Ani-ue is the vampire and Tate is the childhood friend!"
Mai blinked.
"Yeah, I guess it sort of is. Wow, it's kind of lowering, really. A girl doesn't like to think that her life is so generic as that!"
"So which do you like? The fantasy guy or the reality guy?"
Mai sighed, then gave a rueful chuckle.
"Honestly, Mikoto?"
"Yeah?"
"I stopped reading those kind of books back when I was in junior high. I always thought it was kind of silly how they always ended up the same." She snorted, still a little disgusted with herself. "I never expected I'd end up living one. Maybe that's why I'm still here, two years later."
"Hmmm..." Mikoto pursed her lips, apparently giving the subject some intense thought. Given the person in question it was cutely endearing, and brought a smile to Mai's lips. It was a nice thought, a reminder that regardless of the way Mai's romantic life turned out—or, as weird as it even sounded to think about it, Mikoto's romantic future—that the bond between them would still be there. "But it's not that you want somebody else, right? You really do like Tate and ani-ue."
"I do," Mai agreed. "I have fun with both of them. But...they're right. This has gone on a lot longer than I thought it would. I figured it would be a few weeks, two or three months at the most, but definitely by the end of that first summer. But it just kept going on and on. And...it's not just the two of them."
"Oh? Who else?" Mikoto said, her puzzlement obvious.
"Me, Mikoto," Mai laughed. "It isn't just Yuuichi. I'm going to be graduating soon, too. And I...I want a real relationship. I see Natsuki with Shizuru, Akane with Kazuya, Chie with Aoi, even Ms. Yukariko with Mr. Ishigami, and I want what they have. Love, romance, passion. An adult relationship, not just kids going out."
"Adult?" Mikoto's eyes widened.
"That's not what I mean." Well, maybe it was, she thought, at least a little bit. She remembered how Yuuichi had kissed her after they'd climbed the cliff face, how it had felt and made her toes curl. And if Reito had wanted to steal...well, maybe not third, but she'd have let him take second base on defensive indifference. But that was just a sideshow, icing on the cake. She was ready for a real relationship, not two pale imitations of one.
She leaned forward, cupping her chin in her hands while resting her elbows on her knees.
"There's three people involved in this relationship, and none of us is satisfied with where it is now. If it were just the two of them, then I'd have my answer, and I'd let them go. But I want what they do, Mikoto."
"But which one do you like better?"
"I don't know! That's what makes it so hard."
"Even after two years? That does seem like it's an awfully long time. You ought to know them pretty well by now."
"I do. It's just that they're so different, like the boys in your book."
"But you said you thought those love triangles are stupid."
"They are! That doesn't help when I went and got myself into one anyway."
Mikoto scrunched up her face again, thinking hard. What she came up with actually surprised Mai.
"Why do you think they're stupid?"
"Love triangles, you mean?"
"Mmm-hm." Mikoto's head bobbed up and down. "I'm enjoying my book! I think it's fun. And you can't say it's not realistic because you're in a triangle right now. Even the magic part, sort of." Kagutsuchi whistled from his perch. "Though ani-ue isn't a vampire. Though he did used to be possessed by the Obsidian Prince, so that sort of counts, even though a vampire would be lots cooler. Um, what was I saying?"
"You asked me why I thought that kind of love triangle was stupid."
"That was it! I thought that maybe if you thought about that, it would help you sort out which boy you wanted."
"That's actually a pretty good idea." After all, a triangle was just a pattern that reduced and defined people by the point they occupied, minimizing other facts of their character. If she could look outside that pattern by breaking its importance...
Mai smiled suddenly as she considered what it was that most bothered her about that pattern.
"You know, Mikoto? You were absolutely right."
~X X X~
A/N: "They're happy calories. They don't count" is actually a line of my wife's. Hopefully, she won't mind me appropriating it for Reito! But hey, Reito is a semi-villainous guy, so he'd steal dialogue, right?
One thing I've noticed in a rather cursory evaluation of the material is that in American YA fiction, the love triangle tends to be resolved in favor of the "fantasy" candidate, while in anime (eg. Escaflowne, Fuushigi Yuugi, etc.), the opposite seems true and the exotic bishonen will lose every time to the scruffy guy (not that there aren't vampire romances and the like, but those usually tend to be one-to-one instead of standard-form triangles). I'm not exactly sure what that says, if anything, about the respective cultures.