Notes:
Hey Everyone! Zancrowe Here!
Thank you for the kind feedback everyone! Do note that all your suggestions are being considered and will be used in future prompts (so keep them coming)! Also, friendly reminder that both Nouvelle and Classique have finally concluded, so make sure you've read those two stories in earnest, and be on the lookout for maybe something more. Something else. Something…BLUE?
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Disclaimer: Don't own Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma.
Drabble #9 / 101: "Frankly, I couldn't care less."
Pairing: Eizan / Shouko
It had been a long night of meetings, demonstrations and arguing disguised as civil discourse when Etsuya Eizan and Shouko Kaburagi, now the two in charge of the business venture between the Eizan family business and Stuffed International, finally managed to get away from that suffocating chamber of yes-men and bootlickers and found themselves alone in the elevator going down to where their ride was waiting for the two teens.
Eizan had his back rested against the elevator's wall, his glasses off his face so he could massage his forehead in an attempt to alleviate the incoming headache.
Shouko was bouncing about, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, more out of stress and anxiety than anything else.
"They really, really don't like the idea of you being in charge of the operations now, do they?" Shouko voiced, turning to her boyfriend, as he just let out an exasperated sigh.
"We can thank my dear old dad for that," Eizan just commented, the annoyance evident, "That man's entire modus operandi was pretend to know what he was talking about, make at attempt at sounding tough, then instantly fold the moment any of them countered his offer or claims instantly. No wonder they don't like me… I actually know what I'm talking about, and I will not settle for less than what our businesses are actually worth. I've swindled enough people to end up now getting swindled in turn."
"That kinda sounds hot…" Shouko noted teasingly, smirking at him, "In a very, very problematic sort-of way. Like… in a 'my mother wouldn't approve' sort of way."
"Does your mother dislike me?"
"…No…" she somewhat said, "…At least, she finds the version of you I describe to her and dad very charming, loveable and charitable."
He just scoffed loudly, practically a laugh, "Who the hell are you dating behind my back that fits that description?"
"Hey, I can't exactly tell them I'm dating a former… insert question mark here… Yakuza who used to topple small business for profit and took glee in destroying the livelihood and relationships of our dearest little underclassmen now can I?" she resumed, and he laughed again.
"As if you didn't assist me, or heck, tried to go even further than I did."
"Hey, I'm susceptible to peer pressure, okay?!"
"Right…"
The two remained quiet for a bit, but just before the elevator reached the designated floor, Shouko gave a small pause, and turned to him again. "Say… Etsuya?"
"Hmm?"
"Roberts oldest son, that… Mickey fellow," Shouko began, and Eizan just frowned at the name. "He was quite condescending to us, wasn't he?"
"Mickey Roberts has made his displeasure about the Intercontinental Shokugeki quite vividly clear," Eizan noted, "From, in his words, us 'making the culinary industry into a show and taking away the true art from it', to… well, all the drama that eclipsed the event itself, he is clearly not in favor of any of us having been invited to next year's BLUE."
"What crawled up his ass?" Shouko just muttered, "You earned that invitation. That's the WGO's choice, not his or his uber rich family's."
"Correction, we did."
At this Shouko froze, her head half tilted. "…Eh?"
He turned to her, in one of the few instances of him having a genuine smile, "Spoiler alert, but you're invited too. Troublesome as you were, you were technically an Elite Ten member during a segment of the Intercontinental Shokugeki, so the WGO took that into consideration."
"Wait, seriously, me?!" Shouko asked, utterly baffled, "B-But all I did was cheat, cheat again, lose, and then beg and cry. Not the… most notable of records frankly."
"It matters not," Eizan just noted, and soon the elevator's doors opened up, and he began to walk, "Next year's BLUE will be unlike any other. A Team Event, made with a squad of five or six members per team. The whole world will be involved. We changed the entire culinary industry with the Intercontinental Shokugeki, no going back now. They will literally throw everything at this event, and rumor is, winners decide the next Bookmaster."
"T-That's… not at all unnerving," Shouko muttered, slowly walking after Eizan, "But, hey, Etsuya…? That means this Mickey guy, and probably his whole family will be involved too, won't they?"
"Yes," Eizan noted, "Mickey Roberts, the son, is the victor of the BLUE held three years ago. He will be twenty-four next year, last chance to enter BLUE. Winning BLUE is the highest honor, of course, but… nobody in history had ever won BLUE twice. Seems he wants to upstage even Nakiri or Yukihira by claiming a merit even they won't manage to reach."
"…And… is that wise, for us to get involved against them? Against… him?" Shouko asked, but when Eizan just turned to her, his trademark smirk in place, she got reminded why she fell in love with this guy in the first place. It wasn't the money, the power, the intelligence. No. Etsuya Eizan was confidence incarnate, and, just the smug look he gave her as he gave her his response was enough to make her stammer and outright blush. Because she believed him when he bragged as a kid, and she still believes him now. All because, of course, his response was, what else…?
"Frankly, I couldn't care less."
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Drabble #10 / 101: "How did you get that to stick to the ceiling?"
Pairing: Akira / Megumi
"How did you get that to stick to the ceiling?" a very confused, and somewhat amused, Akira asked to a very perplexed and worried Megumi, as both of them stared at the half-baked pecan pie currently sticking to the ceiling of the Shiomi Seminar.
"…I got nervous," Megumi admitted, blushing a lot, "…And the timer just had to ring the moment I was pulling it out of the oven for some retouches, so I freaked and flung it upwards by mistake, and… well… I kinda ruined it."
"The fact that you, a Seated Member of the Elite Ten," Akira commented, "Managed to make such a rookie, and admittedly, hilarious mistake is so, so on brand it hurts."
"Don't bully me!" Megumi cried out, pouting hard, "And I may be the Sixth Seat out of necessity, but I am aware of my flaws! And I want to feel like I have earned this Seat, not just be given a freebie just cause I managed to one-up Shouko that one time."
"Stop that," Akira was quick to voice, "No need to downplay your accomplishments. We're all grateful for everything you did, and we all know it was earned. The situation here is not your lack of skills, rather, your lack of faith in said skills… which admittedly is rather adorable."
"A-Adorable?!" she repeated, her blush stronger now but for a completely different reason, "K-Knock it off. Don't just say things like that. I'm not the type of girl who'd get all giddy just because… you know… you call me cute and stuff…"
She said, but yeah, she was giddy, could barely fake it, and Akira found it even more adorable. He gave out a soft laugh, then proceeded to take hold of a mop, and began to use it to scrape the ceiling pie. "…Sure, sure, but let's first focus on getting our dessert down. You may need to do more than just a few retouches to it though."
"Oh, stop it," she said with a pout, "You know you don't have to tease me at every single instance you get…"
"I know," Akira noted, and just before the pecan pie came down, Akira gave the nearest trash can a swift kick, moving it perfectly to the spot the pie came down from and into it. He then twirled the mop in place, before he set it back down onto the Chemical Room, all, of course, absolutely flawlessly. "…It's just hard to resist."
"Show off."
"Perhaps," he outright flirted, "But what better person is there to show off to?"
And at this, Megumi stammered, blushed some more, and proceeded to just "hmph!" her way out of that predicament and conversation by turning around and returning to her assignment, all while Akira watched on with an ever-present smirk on his face. He may have lost against Yukihira in a variety of ways, but evidently not in the one that mattered most.
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Drabble #11 / 101: "I do the best I can."
Pairing: Takumi / Hisako
Hisako Arato was pissed off.
And Takumi Aldini had no idea why.
"…Hisako, Tesoro, is something the matter…?" he tried, and her pout just grew in response.
"No," she replied, very flatly. And, clearly, very dishonestly. Takumi took a deep breath, since these were uncharted waters, he clearly had no idea what he had done wrong, and Isami wasn't even here to help him be less… himself in these situations. So…
"Come on, don't be like that," he tried, taking a seat next to her in the currently empty classroom the both found themselves in. What Takumi had thought would be a nice moment to spend time with his girlfriend turned into a game of life or death trying to figure out what the heck had he done to make her mad, and more importantly, what he needed to do to fix it, "Just tell me what I did or said, because I assure you I didn't mean anything that could possibly make you feel uncomfortable or angry, and I will do everything in my power to correct whatever it was."
"See? It's just that!"
"That… what?"
"Stop being so perfect!" Hisako cried out, and Takumi had to blink thrice to even try and understand her, "I mean, gah! It's your stupid fanclub! They keep posting about you online, following you, sliding into your DMs, all cutesy and friendly and you always respond like that! A proper gentleman. And I get it, you're nice, but you have me now, so is it too much to ask to tell them to back off?!"
Takumi stared, having been prepared for a lot of things, but this one was not one of those things.
"You're mad at those girls that call themselves my…?"
"They are always drooling over you," Hisako voiced, pouting, "And is it so unreasonable of me to want you to make it clear you do not humor those little "playfully" flirty comments. Because, I swear, if they send you a picture, regardless of their state of dress, and heaven forbid they aren't dressed, I am challenging their collective asses and kicking them out."
Takumi laughed, but instantly stopped the moment Hisako's pout shifted into a real glare, and he felt that in his soul. Erina's sister, right, he best not forget that. So, instead, "…You know what? I agree. Let's put an end to that. We'll make a post on my social media pages, emphasizing how my only girl is this one right here, and any of them who don't get the memo get an immediate block from me, deal?"
Hisako let out a long sigh, as her eyes shifted a bit. "I'm… not being unreasonable, am I?"
"No preciosa, you're not," Takumi assured, "You're being a bit blind, yes, but… nobody's perfect."
"Blind?!"
"Yeah, no joke," he assured, "The fact that you can look at yourself in the mirror, and somehow think that any of those girls throwing themselves at me would make me even consider leaving your side is honestly baffling."
She wanted to argue, wanted to glare or pout, but instead, she just blushed, and looked downwards, "I-I don't distrust you, Takumi. Like… I know you wouldn't. I don't want to sound like…"
"I know," Takumi reassured, "And trust me. I feel the same way. We're both new at this. But just as jealous as you can feel, I do to. Because you don't notice it. You don't see the way everyone turns around when you walk by. The way they all give pause when they hear your voice in the halls, or see your beautiful smile that can light up an entire room. I feel the same way Hisako, and it makes sense. This is a first for us both."
"…I do the best I can," she said, blushing even harder.
"As do I," he replied, and whatever argument she had was lost the moment he kissed her deeply, and she couldn't help but smile into the kiss, because for as much as his entire fanclub wanted him, she had him, and she was not letting go.
-0-
Drabble #12 / 101: "I don't know where she gets it from."
Pairing: Loren / Nao
"I don't know where she gets it from," Loren noted, his eyes on the television.
"You don't? Gee, she's become quite fond of pulling pranks and ruining the dishes Asahi and Dove make by adding ingredients neither of them noticed," Nao added, rather sarcastically, "I have no idea who she would learn to sabotage cooking like that from… Uncles Trojan Horse…"
"I didn't teach Baby Ruth that!" Loren complained, before he reached out to grab some more popcorn, but Nao pulled the bucket away, "Hey!"
"You've had enough!" Nao barked, her eyes on the horror movie they were watching, both of them, for once, alone in the Polar Star living room as the rest of their dormmates were all scattered about. "I made these specifically because I craved it. You want more? Make some!"
"B-But I don't wanna!" Loren protested, pout and all, "And the movie is getting to the good part! I don't want to miss who the killer is!"
"I already know," Nao said triumphantly.
"Hey! No spoilers!" Loren barked back, "Did you google it?"
"What? No! I'm just a storytelling expert," she replied boastfully, "Besides, only thing I google in regards to movie is if the dog dies."
"Oh... samesies."
"Also, it's so obvious who it is. Granted," she shifted her eyes to him, and gave him the smuggest grin, "I have a talent for snuffing out fakers."
"Oh, ha, ha…" Loren just shot back, before he resorted to plan B, and began to tickle Nao's sides, which made the girl squirm, "Give me the popcorn!"
"S-Stop! Loren! Not fair! Ahahaha, st-stop! Stahahapp it!" Nao tried, but she was a mess of giggles and laughter, and in the end, for her own safety, she relented and gave her boyfriend the popcorn bucket, which he took ever-so triumphantly. "…I hate you."
"You have a very peculiar way of showing it," Loren noted, teasingly, and while Nao did pout, she still lowered her head and rested it against Loren's frame. He gave her a look, but let her stay there, because, he just loved having her close.
"…Loren?"
"Yeah?"
"Baby Ruth adores you; you know?" Nao said, surprising him a bit, "Even over Dove, Asahi or even the goddess herself, she seems to think you're the best chef of them all. It's so cute how wrong she is."
"Hey! I'm getting there," Loren countered, pouting, "I haven't gotten a strike yet, and I was selected for the Autumn Elections preliminaries. I say that's a decent set of accomplishments."
"Barely bare minimum, but…"
"Oh shut up!"
"Still, have you decided what you're going to cook?" she asked, and the softness, yet seriousness of her tone made him pause, "…I won't be able to help you once you set foot in that arena."
Loren gave it a little thought, but simply shook his head. "Not yet, but I'll think of something. Just have to see if I can make something of my own by using what I learned from you, Soma or Isshiki…"
At this Nao just kept quiet for a moment. She knew she shouldn't say much, it wasn't her place to, but still, she did, "…You don't have to hold back. To keep up appearances any longer. Isshiki, Soma, me… we're not your true inspirations, and you know this. You are Tootsuki, yes, but also, you are… something else. Something darker."
And Loren said nothing, because it didn't feel right to acknowledge that yet. Because he had never intended to last this long at this Academy. All for this girl currently rested against him. All to keep her safe. But she was right. He was a chef-in-training of two worlds. And just as he had the Tootsuki Academy uniform handing on his closet…
…so too was stored another, darker uniform, with the words "Neo-Noir" engraved into it…
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