"Why do you do that?"

"What?" I asked Kimihiro.

"Why do you keep thinking such disgusting things at me?"

Uh-oh here he goes. He starts swinging his elbows all over the place at me as he hops up and down in a parody of a grand mal epileptic seizure. His mouth hanging open in anger almost began to look like a shark's mouth with pointed teeth. I try to school my thoughts to make him a bit happier.

Kimihiro eyed me out of the corner of his eye. He had such a look on his face.

"Shut up!" he shouts at me.

I just look at him and raise one eyebrow. I believe that he is being

"I am not being unreasonable!"

I just stand up and wrap my arms around his slim frame from behind. His body is so warm from all his exertions.

"But" he started to say.

I close my eyes and concentrate hard. I concentrate on opening my mind to him.

"But you can't!"

I turned him toward me. "Yes" I said to him. "I can." I pulled him in and held him tighter and tighter while he punches me in the chest. Rather ineffectively, I might add.

"I'm not disgusting." I said.

"Wow, Doumeki. That is the longest sentence I've ever heard from you. Are you okay? Do you need to lie down? I can get you a glass of water." Then he started to giggle hysterically while he cried.

"This is just so stupid. We need to go to Yuuko and find out how much it will cost us to get this reversed." Kimihiro told me.

A high voice sounded from around the corner of the room's entrance at the temple. "There are some prices that you cannot pay."

We didn't exactly spring apart like we were guilty. I wouldn't allow that to happen. I tightened my arms around Kimihiro to prevent his escape. We aren't guilty. Of anything.

Yuuko brightened as she saw Kimihiro turn to look at her. "Watanuki!" she cooed. And then she pouted. "I want some sōsu yakisoba. And I want more Genshu."

At this I could hear Kimihiro's racing thoughts as we walked from my room to the kitchen. .: That woman is going to parboil her liver! What is wrong with her? Genshu at 2 o'clock in the afternoon? The alcohol content's too high. The yakisoba should absorb some of it. Maybe I can add some extra starches to her plate to help absorb some of the extra alcohol. If she gets plastered there will be no living with her. What am I going to do with this woman? What am I going to do with… :.

And then he looked at me. And blushed a most interesting shade of red.

.: I wish he wasn't wearing that kappogi apron over his school uniform. Then I could see how far that blush really goes. :. These and other rather lascivious thoughts just barely touched the surface of my mind when I felt this really hard smack on the top of my head.

"I told you to STOP DOING THAT!" he shouted in my ears. All I did was obligingly put my fingers in them to block out some of the sound and watch him as he raised the wooden spatula threateningly over my head. Where did he get a spatula from anyway?

"From my kappogi of course. Don't you know anything? A cook must be prepared at all times! He can't rest on his laurels like some lazy oafs that I could name. He must be able to whip up a four course meal on a moment's notice from nothing more than vegetables, a few noodles, and inspiration with the spice rack. You are so lucky that I deign to include you in the portions I make. I, the great Watanuki, will endeavor to satisfy my gluttonous employer to her satisfaction. Aho!"

He pontificated on that theme a long time. When he does that, there is nothing more to do than what I did. Let him talk. I'll give him his comeuppance (pun intended) after dinner.

Smack! went the spatula against my head again for my thoughts.

I settled in to watch Kimihiro perform that peculiar magic in the kitchen of the temple.