Chapter 15: Fight

"Ready to talk?"

Erina looks up from her MacBook. Soma was leaning his head through the door of their bedroom with a relaxed expression. "Yeah," she says, also letting her own features relax.

Having been together for so long and having such differing personalities, Erina and Soma were no stranger to fights. Soma was generally too laid back to ever get mad at anything, and when Soma did actually care about something, Erina was also willing to negotiate and even concede because seeing him happy really did make her happy. However, some fights were still unavoidable.

Luckily, after the second serious fight they'd had, they'd established a good system. When one of them felt as if they were approaching serious "fighting" territory, they would excuse themselves and get some space. The other person would let them go without chasing, and they would avoid each other as much as possible until both felt ready to talk. While the goal was to give each other space and time to cool down, they did still have some ground rules.

For one, they weren't allowed to storm out of the house on their own; with each of their vehicles of choice – Soma's motorcycle and Erina's Porche – that was just asking for an accident. Secondly, if they did leave, they needed to be back by 9 PM, unless it was communicated that they were sleeping over at a friend's place. Disappearing – and just generally causing unreasonable concern - was not an option, as they'd both agreed that was unfair to each other.

Their latest fight had arisen from a fairly significant disagreement. The WGO had invited both of them to a gala last weekend, and while it was technically just a social event, the WGO rarely organized anything that wouldn't include important decisions regarding the future of the culinary world. Naturally, Erina had understood the importance of needing to attend. However, it just so happened that Soma had promised Kurase Mayumi that he would help her with her charity event on the same day. Despite her best efforts to convince him to attend, Soma had adamantly refused to abandon his childhood friend. This alone was already enough to infuriate her, as - due to her upbringing - she understood the importance of attending events like this for both her own sake and the greater Totsuki network. However, what irked her more was the knowledge that Mayumi had had quite the crush on Soma for several years when they were younger.

By the time the actual gala took place on Saturday, Soma and Erina had already cut communication for roughly thirty-six hours, and being at the gala itself had only served to further anger Erina. Now it was Monday night, meaning the couple had had all weekend to cool off, and after having that much time with her own thoughts, Erina felt like she was ready to have a mature, adult conversation.

"Let's talk."

Casually, Soma enters the room and seats himself on the bed next to her. There was still some tension in the air, but nowhere near as much as the last time they'd spoken, and when Soma reaches out and lays his fingers on the back of her hand tentatively, Erina doesn't pull away. "Look," Erina murmurs, taking a moment to collect her thoughts before continuing. "I'm sorry I lost my temper. That was… immature of me to say the least, but I really need you the understand the importance of attending events like this. I know in the past your biggest reason for attending was to support me, and I appreciate that a lot, but unfortunately that isn't good enough anymore." Soma makes a face, but he lets her continue without interruption. "I know politics isn't something you ever wanted to be a part of, and you know up until now that I've done everything I could to prevent you from being dragged into them. However, you're no longer a wondering chef – even within our generation of miracles, you and I are part of a handful of chefs defining this age of cooking, so you need to be present when decisions about the future are being made, just like when you were the first seat of the elite ten." Erina pauses, and her cheeks flush at the thought of her next words, but she soldiers on regardless. "Also, you're going to be my husband someday, so it's your job to support me for stuff like this..."

Despite himself, Soma lets out a small laugh. This causes Erina to pout. "Don't laugh!" she grumbles, her voice cracking slightly and her cheeks heating further. "You are, aren't you?!"

Soma rolls his eyes and squeezes the back of her hand. "Of course, I am," he says as if it's the simplest thing in the world. "And I understand. Believe it or not, I do actually have enough brain to know all that…"

This time, Erina rolls her eyes. "Like hell you do. Megumi lectured you, didn't she? Or was it Riko?"

Soma makes a face. "It was Riko," he admits. "But I'm… also sorry," he begins. "Politics and all that is generally beyond me, you know that, so I guess I wasn't really considering everything when we started fighting." Erina nods – she had suspected as much. "You've always spoiled me on all that stuff, so I've never really had to think about it. But I did make a promise to Mayumi, and I had no intention of breaking that promise."

There it was - the impasse Erina had known would be inevitable. Soma was a man defined by his morals if nothing else. He would never abandon a friend in need for any reason, especially if he'd already promised his aid. Regardless of how this conversation went, Erina had known his stance on this part in particular wouldn't change. And by now, she was mature enough to be okay with that.

"I know," she tells him, rotating her hand so that she could interlace their fingers. "And there's no point in me being upset about that anymore. But for the future, I just need to know you understand the importance of events like this, and I need you to promise me you'll prioritize them from now on."

Soma squeezes her hand. "I understand," he tells her. "And I promise I'll be more responsible about it."

Erina nods. That was enough for her. "Good," she says, letting the remaining tension melt from her shoulders, and without thinking, she leans forward and rests her forehead against Soma's.

"All good?" Soma asks, his free hand going up to rest against her cheek.

"All good," Erina confirms, closing her eyes. They stay like that for a second, just letting the remaining tension drain away. But eventually, Soma leans forward and lets his lips lightly brush against Erina's. It's soft, little more than a peck, but it's exactly what Erina needs.

Logically, Erina knows that Soma would never leave her. Soma had promised her countless times he wasn't going anywhere. However, that doesn't stop the illogical part of her from fearing it. Both her parents had left her, and before Soma, a part of her had believed that maybe she was too broken to be loved. So whenever they had big fights like this, a part of her always feared that he would have enough and just be done with her.

While it probably wasn't a huge deal to Soma, to Erina, the light kiss was exactly the reassurance she needed that Soma wouldn't leave her – would never leave her, and she leans forward, wrapping her arms around him and holding him as close as possible. "Love you," she murmurs against his lips.

"Love you too," he whispers back, before pressing his lips back against hers with a bit more force.


Author's note: God I wish I handled fights with my exes with this much maturity lol. Anyway, hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. A little more serious than the usual fluff we serve around these parts, but hope it wasn't too drastic of a change for everyone. We are still committed to serving fluff in this establishment since the whole reason I started writing this was to brighten people's days during the pandemic, but if you guys do like this slightly more serious tone, let me know, because this was actually kinda interesting to write. Lowkey I don't have the usual commentary to provide because based on experience, I'm inclined to believe there are very few couples who handle fights this well (or at least that's what I'm telling myself to cope :P), so this was more of a "I wish this was how I handled things" piece than anything. But hey, being a writer is like 50% wish fulfillment so i apologize for nothing. Anyway, I hope everyone is staying well and I will see you all next time.