Five: Ronin needs dinner

"Do you have any idea what time it is?"

Ronin looked up to see Nod standing in the doorway to his office. He was out of uniform, so he must have been off-duty already. Actually, if the light slanting through his window was any indication, he had been off-duty for a while.

"You can feed yourself," Ronin was unimpressed; Nod cooked about as well as Ronin did, which was to say, he wouldn't starve if left to his own devices.

"There's nothing to eat at home," Nod complained.

"Then go get something," Ronin rubbed the bridge of his nose, wondering if Nod had come all the way down to his office just to aggravate him.

"You never like what I get," Nod shrugged.

"That's because all you get are sweets," Ronin pointed out.

Nod had a voracious sweet tooth, and Ronin suspected if given the opportunity, he would have lived on honey brittle and seed cake. It was why Ronin was usually the one to go to market, although now that he thought about it, he couldn't remember the last time he had gone. Actually, he couldn't remember the last time he ate at home. He couldn't remember the last time he ate, although he must have…

"So, unless that's what you want for dinner, we should head to the market before it closes," Nod said, looking exasperated.

Which was interesting, because he was the one here annoying Ronin. The fall harvesting routes were spread all over his desk, but he supposed he could work out escorts for them in the morning. They still had a few weeks before they would start going out in earnest.

Aside from that, he wasn't eager to have wagashi for dinner.

"Fine," Ronin sighed and pushed away from his desk, "let's go."

"…dragged four of them down," Nod walked backwards so he could face Ronin as he spoke and munched happily on a skewer of honey dango.

"In the mud?" Ronin absently caught his sleeve, pulling him out of the way of a harried looking vender carrying a tray full of shelled sunflower seeds.

"Yeah," Nod laughed, turning to walk the right way, "they're probably still trying to get it out of their armor."

"What about the hummers?" Ronin stopped at a stand piled high with the first blackberries of the season and picked out the one that looked the ripest.

"Completely covered," Nod wrinkled his nose, "and angry as a kicked hornet."

"Did Orion make the recruits clean them?" Ronin pulled a fruit off the berry to eat as they walked.

"You wouldn't have any recruits left if he had," Nod snorted, "the hummers would have pecked them to pieces."

"So how long did it take to get them clean?" Ronin asked.

"Four hours," Nod laughed, finishing the last of his dango, "and that was with two people working on each bird."

"I'm not sorry I missed that," Ronin smirked and passed the blackberry to Nod now that his hands were empty.

"Orion is spending too much time with you," Nod was almost sidetracked by a candy stand, but Ronin grabbed his arm and tugged him past, "he kept a straight face the entire time."

"I'm sure he won't keep a straight face when he gets around to telling me about it," Ronin picked up a measure of acornmeal and passed that off to Nod as well.

The fuller Nod's hands were, the less likely they were to go home with bags full of sweets.

"We need dried fruit," Nod tucked the meal under his arm, leaving a hand free to pull a fruit off the blackberry and eat it.

Ronin thought about pointing out, again, that Nod could have gotten these things himself, but it was nice to be out of his office and actually spending time with him. He was always busy, and Nod was getting busier. He didn't know it yet, but he was close to being offered a commission to lieutenant second class. His commanding officer had been nudging him into roles with more responsibility for a while now and had both recommended him for the commission and requested he stay with their group once he got it.

"You want cherries and apples?" Ronin stopped in front of the dried fruit stand.

"Strawberries too if they have them," Nod said around a mouth full of blackberry.

Ronin rolled his eyes and got enough diced fruit to last them to the end of the week, if Nod didn't eat it all before then. Actually, the last bag had lasted longer than usual, which meant Nod had been out with his group more and not eating at home. He hadn't been home as often either. He had seen Nod even less.

It begged the question of whether he really needed to work so late, particularly if it meant all he would see of Nod was the back of his head as he stumbled out the door in the morning with a piece of toast in his mouth and still buckling his wrist guards because he had overslept again.

"Here, take this," Nod unceremoniously dumped everything he was carrying into Ronin's arms and abandoned him for the wagashi stand.

"Hey!" Ronin managed to not drop anything or crush what was left of the blackberry.

"What?" Nod looked back at him over his shoulder, clearly laughing at him.

Nod wasn't a child anymore. He didn't need Ronin to hold his hand or make his dinner, but he still wanted him there, and Ronin would be a fool to let that go, especially after everything they had already lost.

"At least get a couple seed cakes," Ronin shot back.

"Got it," Nod laughed.

Four seed cakes and an entire bag of wagashi later, Nod made it back to him. Ronin swapped the bag of sweets for the acornmeal, the dried fruit, the blackberry, and the bread and jam he had picked up while Nod was deliberating over treats.

"Can we have dinner now?" Nod asked, trying to shift things so he wouldn't drop anything.

"Sure," Ronin helped himself to a seed cake, "it's your turn to cook."

"Really?" Nod fell into step beside him, glancing sideways at the sweets he didn't have a free hand to grab. "I thought it was your turn."

"Nope," Ronin grinned, "I'll cook tomorrow."

Nod smiled in return and managed to free a hand to break off a piece of Ronin's seed cake to eat as they walked home.

Author's note: Their armor is based on Japanese designs, so are their weapons and the way the fight and move, especially Ronin, so they get to eat Japanese sweets. Dango are rice dumplings on a stick, wagashi are traditional Japanese sweets made or rice flour and filled with sweet bean paste or fruit. The Jinn probably aren't using rice flour, and I imagine they use fruit as a filling.

If you want to see something really cool, go to google image and type in "traditional Japanese sweets" or "wagashi." You'll be hungry for days and also want to frame them and put them on your wall because they're so pretty.