Words: 200
"Nothing happened." She said firmly, interrupting him. "You never kissed me – I never said anything." She opened the kitchen window and lithely climbed out into the garden, leaving Aoshi locked in the kitchen.
Yet something did happen.
He began to cook and when Okon and Omasu came to check – they found him alone, preparing lunch.
"Dinner's ready, Aoshi-sama!" she called cheerfully, knocking. "Do you want me to bring it up for you or will you come?" As soon as he said he would come down, she was gone, leaving him in the hallway.
She chattered away just like before.
He excused himself early from dinner and spent the rest of the night in his room – trying to read, his eyes not focusing on the page.
"I brought you tea!" she said, knocking on the door to his room in the afternoon. "Some rice and veggies too – you haven't come down to eat all day." She slid the door open after a while and set the tray down on his desk, strewn with papers.
He had stayed blankly staring out the window all day, thinking.
Thanking her quietly, he looked up and she grinned – yet something about that grin wasn't real.