Everything was going so well, right up until they weren't. The plan was to meet up with Aiko for a bit of training and whatnot. Made sense, what with her being one of his chunin and everything. There wasn't any shame in getting some pointers from someone higher ranked than him, right? Who knows? Maybe his secret training would impress her and he could even be the one to teach her a thing or two. But before he could do that, he had his own secret pre-practice practice to do. He had to make sure to warm himself up and make sure he was at 100% before doing anything in front of other people.[break][break]
So there he was, practicing in his secret training location outside the village when...Bandits attacked! Yeah, he was out just jumping through the trees totally just for fun, when he just narrowly dodged an arrow from an unseen assailant. And then there were like five of them. Aaaand...He managed to chase them off, but sprained his ankle a bit in the process! Yeah, that was it. He definitely didn't just fall out of a tree and roll his ankle when he tried to catch himself. Yup, that was definitely it. And this big stick he found to help him walk? That's just a cool stick he found and wanted to bring with him.[break][break]
He nodded to himself as he sorted the story out in his head and limped his way over to the designated location. It wasn't too far outside of the village, just a little out of the way spot that regular villagers didn't have much reason to pass through. The perfect spot to meet up with the crew, run some drills, set up some targets or whatever. Daichi had grown familiar with the area over the years, but rarely ever used it outside of times like this. After all, he couldn't have people knowing that he actually put time and effort into developing his skills.[break][break]
As the boy approached it was clear that something was wrong. His limp was obvious, and it seemed like he wouldn't have been able to get around much if not for that stick helping to support his weight. But still, he would do his best to put on a smile and act like nothing was wrong. It was a shame he couldn't hide his unease, the usual confidence of his smile diluted by his anxieties. He knew he couldn't hide this for long, so the best he could do was try to make it into something cool. "Heeeey! Hope I'm not late or anything. I just uh... You're not gonna believe what happened. It was super crazy. Seriously."
Arriving early was a basic necessity for her. If the meeting was at one, then she was likely there by 12:30, or maybe 12:45. It was better to be early, in case something were to happen, yes. However, such a train of thought was something she forgot others weren’t always prone to do themselves. Case and point, Daichi wasn’t late, but he certainly wasn’t here when she expected him to be. Though it made no sense for her to worry, she simply couldn’t help herself.[break][break]
Not that it was because it was Daichi, but simply because that was where her mind wandered to. Did he get stuck? Fall? Distracted? Did he forget? Her foot anxiously and gently tapped the ground as she waited. The young woman simply had to reassure herself she could worry too much sometimes, and there was no need to get worked up or something. Her hands busied themselves with unwinding her hair, then putting it back up in it’s messy bun all over again.[break][break]
Then finally footsteps. She didn’t bother turning her head as they approached, letting her eyes see who it was with her massive peripheral. Much to her relief, it was Daichi and her gaze eased. Her head turned to look at him proper, only to find the poor lad was clearly ruffled and limping towards her. Immediately she stood, a calm expression not conveying the rush of worry from seeing his state.[break][break]
She promptly approached him, furrowing her brow slightly as he so casually greeted her. “You…” she started, as if to point out the fact he was late, but she bit her tongue. Priorities, Aiko.[break][break]
“... What happened?” Her voice came out like an exasperated sigh. One filled more with worry than any hint of disappointment. As she looked him over, one of her hands drifted up to lightly pluck some fauna debris from his hair. Then she gestured back towards the log she’d been sitting on, extending an arm to offer support to him. “Come on, sit down over here. Where does it hurt?”
There she was, waiting for him looking all calm cool and collected. He had no idea how she managed to be so damn cool without even seeming like she was trying. Just seeing her react so calmly to seeing him in this state made his chest a bit tight. The truth was humiliating, something that he knew had to keep hidden by any means necessary. Especially from someone he looked up to. Fortunately for him, effortlessly lying was one of the few skills he inherited from his father. And so her calm concern was met with that same uneasy smile and a soft chuckle to mask the anxiety in his heart.[break][break]
”If you think this is bad, you should see the other guys.” He felt himself flustering a bit as she fussed over him, his dull grey eyes looking up as if to peer through his skull to see what she was plucking at. It seemed he was so caught up in cooking up a story that he forgot to clean himself up. Whoops. ”You don’t have to worry about me, Aiko. It barely even stings.” The words were spoken through a faint wince as he followed after her, leaning heavily on his ‘cool stick’ with each step.[break][break]
But no ruse was worth staying on his feet for any longer than he had to. He turned to sit himself down on the log, doing his best to look casual as he reclined a bit in his seat. ”So, funny story. I was out doing stuff in the woods, right? And as I was goin’, bandits appeared. Like...five of em’. Outta nowhere. But uh...Yeah. I managed to fend them off, no problem. Just got my ankle messed up a bit.” As he spoke he dusted himself off, his air of confidence growing as the story went on. Oh yeah, this tale was flawless.[break][break]
”But I’m fine, really! We can go on ahead with our practice and stuff. You know I got a couple tricks I wanna show you. I’ve been working on my doton stuff. I think you’ll be impressed.”
The other guys? Had he gotten into some sort of fight? The quip got a curious glance from her, but there he went - being dismissive and what have you when he was clearly hurt. It was something she had learned to not comment on over time of being around him. Nothing seemed to make his expression fall faster than those times she called him out for things like this. [break][break]
Though, it proved difficult to not say anything, as he was clearly wincing as he moved to the offered seat. Once he settled down, some of the tension in her chest eased with newfound relief. Weight off of that foot was a good thing, and now it was time to see what kind of damage he had done. As he started talking about fighting bandits, she moved to grab her bag and brought it closer to where they were settling for the moment. His story had her furrowing her brow a little, quite hard pressed to believe such a thing, but she didn’t care much to question it at the moment.[break][break]
“That must have been difficult,” she said, though it may have sounded like she wasn’t listening.[break][break]
Kneeling down beside him, Aiko opened her bag to pull out the aid kit she brought with her most anywhere. “I want to check your leg before we do anything else. Straining it could cripple you in the long term.” She reached for his injured ankle, before pausing and looking up at him. “... May I?” She motioned to his limb, indicating she planned to pull up the pant leg, touching him. The moment she was given permission, of course, she’d delicately work to free the ankle of fabric or shoe to get a look at what he’d done to it.
There was a brief moment of shock when Aiko so easily believed in his story. For a split second he almost felt bad for deceiving her. It felt so strange for someone to have so much trust in him, and taking advantage of that just to puff up his own sense of pride felt...wrong? But that feeling was short lived, as he quickly realized that this also meant she had enough faith in him to actually believe he took on bandits all on his own! He must've really been making some serious progress for her to think he was that strong. Sure, he wasn't ACTUALLY to that level yet, but this was definitely a good sign. After all, she was one of the people he worked most closely with. If he could convince her, he could convince anybody![break][break]
Alright, time to double down and see how she likes it. "Difficult? Naaaah. They were a bunch of pushovers, really. Even that one eyed brute with his giant axe was nothin'. I just slipped around behind and pegged him in the back of his knee with a kunai." He shot out his hand as if throwing an invisible weapon, a soft thwip slipping past his lips. "And then there was the little guy who had like...six knives. Held them between his fingers. He was fast, but all it took was a bit of dust to blind him and a single strike to the solar nexus for him to know he was no match for me." ...Did he say that right? Solar nexus? That made sense, right? Yeah. Totally.[break][break]
He was so caught up in his story that he didn't notice her going for her first aid kit, his eyes quickly darting down to his foot. "Oh...W-well...I mean it's fine, really. It's nothing I can't push through, y'know? I'm pretty tough like that." He tapped his foot on the ground to prove his point, only to suddenly suck in a deep breath as the pain immediately intensified. Ok, bad idea. "B-but I guess...Yeah. Alright. I mean, if it'll make YOU feel better, go right ahead. But only cuz you're so cute when you get all worried about me." He flashed her a cocky smirk and topped it off with a wink, which hopefully would distract from the faint pinkness of his ears as he said that. Obviously flirting was an important part of being a smooth cool dude, but man it was difficult. At least he knew Aiko wasn't the type to flirt back. He wasn't sure he'd be able to handle that.
While waiting for him to grant her permission to examine his ankle, he rolled back into his story about fighting bandits. A story that was growing rather difficult to believe, but his enthusiasm left her not wanting to point it out. The only hint of her suspicion at his dishonesty was a vaguely curious look. He had quite the imagination… “Solar plexus” she gently corrected, showing she was listening. [break][break]
However, she was mostly waiting to get a chance to look at his ankle.[break][break]
But, permission be damned when he tapped the clearly injured limb on the ground. The sight made her grimace, hands darting out in a silent want to stop him when it was already too late. Her hands hovered around his leg awkwardly for a moment, before she gave up. He could be so stubborn about the strangest things. Luckily, just as she braced herself to manhandle him slightly, he would finally cave after that, saving her the effort. A sigh of relief slid out, but once more he delayed her with his follow up flirting quip.[break][break]
She tried to not acknowledge it, but a vague traitorous pink dusted across her cheeks.[break][break]
“Tough or not… Injuries need to be treated properly. You should be kinder to your body, Daichi” she softly scolded, before beginning to roll up his pant leg. Then, she carefully began removing his sandal to get a better look at his swollen ankle; a sight that made her frown a little. “. . . Much kinder.”[break][break]
Aiko cracked open the kit she had brought, and pulled out a small jar of numbing salve. “You should hold off on any intense training today. I’m sorry you had to walk all the way out here like this. We can still work on something else though. Handsign speeds, or I guess this could be a good time to work on what to do if you’re immobilized by an enemy” she offered, not wanting his effort to get out here to be for nothing. It certainly must’ve hurt to walk however far he did to get here with his ankle like this.[break][break]
“I’m going to start applying some salve and massage it a little to hopefully ease the pain a bit. Just try and keep it relaxed.”
Shit. Solar PLEXUS. Yeah that sounded way more right than whatever it was he said. He kept his embarrassment on that little slip up hidden behind his confident smile, simply shrugging it off as if it didn't make a difference either way. Still, he would have to keep that one in mind. Especially when dealing with a Hyuga of all people. His dad always told him those 'cheater eyes' of theirs made it easy for them to figure out how the body works. He never fully understood what exactly all that meant, but he at least knew that Aiko and Hoshiko had a natural gift for this sort of stuff. Which he had to admit, he was just a tiny bit jealous over.[break][break]
He leaned forward to watch as she got to work, a soft hiss escaping him as he finally saw just how bad his ankle was. That was more swollen than he thought it would be... Now he definitely had to make sure no one knew what really happened. Just imagining how what people would say if they found out he got such an injury just from training on his own brought that tightness right back to his chest. He could already hear the laughter and teasing remarks, the disappointed gaze of the people he looked up to... No, they had to think this was a battle scar, something that was proof of his abilities rather than his failures.[break][break]
"Y-yeah. Maybe I was pushing it just a bit... I-I guess they got me better than I thought they did, huh?" A nervous laugh slipped out as he scratched at the back of his head, quietly hoping that this would all just brush over. No need to think too hard about what happened. Though her suggesting that they hold off on training was unacceptable. His eyes suddenly widened at the idea, a hint of panic managing to sneak its way into his features. Fortunately it was quickly put to rest as she provided him with some alternative options for training. Ones that wouldn't involve worsening this little injury of his.[break][break]
His shoulders drooped a bit as she started applying the ointment, his own disappointment in himself slowly starting to grow. He really messed up with this one, didn't he? "Alright. Yeah. We can uh...W-well I was really hoping to get a bit of sparring in. But I guess we can't really do that." He glanced down at his ankle, lips pursing a bit as he tried to stop focusing on the injury and redirect his thoughts to what they still could do. "Uh...Let's do that second one. Dealing with stuff while immobilized. I've always been more of a speed guy, but I still think I've got some stuff that'd be good for dealing with that."
He was far too committed to his story, to the point she decided she didn’t have the heart to tell him she didn’t believe him. Not when he seemed so anxious about it, and his injury. It wasn’t like this was anything new to her though, as Daichi seemed to have hardly changed from their school days. Going off, getting hurt somehow, and explaining how it came from some epic incident that was a little hard to believe. She always wondered why, or how, he really got hurt, but never could bring herself to ask. It didn’t seem like he wanted to tell, after all.[break][break]
Sliding the ointment over his leg, she got to work gently working on soothing his injury. It provided her a good chance to work on one of her theories, at the least. As he debated the training options she presented, some of her chakra would slowly work it’s way to her hands. Rather than doing harm though, her focus was to try and better loosen up the muscles around his ankle. She only felt confident enough to do such a thing for a moment - a warm sensation probably coming from her hands, before she eased on the effort and resumed a proper manual motion. Her hands tingle from the numbing agent kicking in.[break][break]
“Okay, we’ll work on that kind of scenario next then.” To which she’d let go of his ankle and begin to wipe off the salve on a small rag from the kit. Next came the work of making a makeshift support, with bandages being firmly wrapped around his limb. “Let’s relax for a moment though, I’m sure walking all the way over here like that was painful.” Aiko then pointed to her bag beside Daichi on the log.[break][break]
“If you’re hungry, there’s a box in my bag with some snacks I brought?” Inside of the wooden box was a few simple flavor rice balls, a simple snack she meant for if or when they’d take a breather from working out. However, it felt more fitting for him to get a small snack or something as he waited for her to finish up her patch work.
This definitely wasn’t the first time he’s had to get patched up after a training injury. But it had definitely been a while since he had to endure something this painful. He would really have to be careful going forward to keep something like this from happening again. He was lucky that Aiko had enough faith in his abilities to believe his story. But there was no telling what anyone else would’ve thought about it. He had to try to keep it down to smaller injuries that could be explained away with far less grandiose stories.[break][break]
The cool ointment made his skin tingle, causing him to jump a bit as it was applied to the tender area. But it was short lived, as he would soon feel a refreshing warmth traveling through the injury. A hint of surprise entered into his features as he watched her work in silent awe. The girl really was amazing, wasn’t she? She was capable of so much, and she did it all so effortlessly. She didn’t even rub it in or show off, instead just quietly reaching out to help without a thought. It was crazy to think about. In the moment he found himself so distracted that it took a moment to realize she was talking to him.[break][break]
”Huh? O-oh yeah. I guess we can relax for a bit. I mean, I did earn it after all that.” He rolled his shoulders before leaning forward, resting his elbows on his knees. ”The walk wasn’t too bad, though. I mean yeah it hurt and all, but I hardly even noticed. I guess I just have super human pain tolerance or something, huh?” His smile only grew more confident as he casually shrugged off this simple fact of his amazingness. Truly there was no end to his natural gifts and talents.[break][break]
His eyes turned to the bag, his smile fading a bit as he removed the box from the bag and opened it up. ”Woah, thanks Aiko! Did you prepare these just for us?” All of his arrogance faded in an instant, replaced by the energy of an eager and excited boy that was just happy to see that somebody had thought of him. Without hesitation he took one of the rice balls out for himself and held the box out to her. ”Thanks! I kinda had a light lunch, so this is perfect.”
The small pause pulled her gaze from her work to study him as she worked. Had he zoned out? Distracted by the pain? She wasn’t sure, but he seemed fine once he found his words, so it was a moment left unquestioned. Her gaze returned to his ankle as she worked in the salve. [break][break]
“Pain tolerance or no, let’s just not put more strain on it” she softly insisted, resting his foot in her lap. She turned to her kit, pulling out a roll of bandages. The compression they’d offer would certainly help with the swelling and protecting his ankle for the time being. She nodded to herself at that thought, and eyed his foot to figure out where was best to begin the wrap.[break][break]
At which point he’d find the prize of food in her bag. His excitement made her sit up a little, looking up to him. There was a hint of more to her gaze for once though, a hint of curiosity as she watched him. Would he like it? Did she make it right? Had the rice dried out, or was it still soft? She had a million questions all of a sudden, but not a single one was allowed to come out. He hadn’t even bitten into one, yet, and she wanted to know if it was good or not. It wasn’t her first time making these things, but it wasn’t often those outside of her family got to eat her cooking.[break][break]
The box was held out to her, and she gently pushed it back towards him.[break][break]
“It’s no problem, I just wanted to make sure we had something to keep our energy up today” she said, turning back to get started on wrapping up his ankle. “I’ll have one in a moment. Go ahead and help yourself, though. I should be done here shortly.” Delicately pressing her fingertips and the start of the bandage to his less damaged shin, she began the cautious work of tightly - but not too tightly - wrapping him up. “Let me know if this is too much. I don’t want to cut off your blood flow, alright?”
She really couldn’t help but fuss over him, could she? It was weird to watch a girl who was usually so cold and stoic be so obviously concerned about his injuries. Most people would’ve probably expected her to have a much colder response to this, telling him to shape up or scolding him for getting himself hurt when he knew he had training coming. But Daichi was coming to realize that this girl had a softer heart than she let on. It was actually really sweet. Definitely not something that he was used to.[break][break]
A soft snort slipped out as she gently scolded him, simply taking her suggestion for now. He knew it was probably better not to push it too much. The last thing he needed is for this to turn into a more serious injury down the line. He already had enough things holding him back, he didn’t need a bad ankle on top of it all. Fortunately he didn’t have much time ot think about that, as his eyes were focused on the rice balls that were so graciously provided by his partner.[break][break]
”Better be quick. I might just eat these all up before you’re finished.” His lips curled into a teasing smile as he set the box aside for the moment, happily biting in to the rice ball. A soft hum of satisfaction slipped out as he nodded in approval, taking a moment to chew and swallow it down before speaking. ”These are perfect. Rice balls really are the perfect training food, if you think about it. We should do this more often.” Yup. Definitely not just because he wanted more free food. Strictly for training purposes.[break][break]
His face would contort just a bit as he felt the pressure on his ankle, lips pursing tightly to keep a soft hiss of pain from slipping out. He had to keep the tough front up. Daichi Konishi had an incredible pain tolerance! A simply injury like this wasn’t enough to slow him down. ”This? Naaaah. That’s as tight as you’re going? I could handle way more than that. Yup. Don’t worry about me.” He nodded slowly to himself before taking another bite from the rice ball, hoping to distract himself from the discomfort he was feeling in the moment. Even with all the numbing and whatnot it was becoming obvious to him that he pushed this thing too far. Hopefully it would still recover quickly with Aiko’s assistance.
He warned that he would eat them all, to which Aiko simply shook her head dismissively. Of course he’d joke about that, but she knew well and enough that he wouldn’t do that to her. At worst, he’d get carried away and might leave her with one if he wasn’t paying attention. Regardless, she wasn’t too concerned… [break][break]
Though when he praised the rice balls as perfect, she suddenly found she wouldn’t mind if he ate them all. A thought she kept to herself, aside from the barest hint of a small smile on her usually neutral face. Before she could consider eating, or plans to do this more often, she needed to get these bandages just right. Bandages that she subtly loosened at his loud bravado.[break][break]
Daichi really had a terrible habit of horribly lying, huh?[break][break]
Regardless, he’d find the bandages’ grip on his ankle loosened slightly. Just enough to continue offering much needed support, and avoid cutting off his circulation. She gently massaged the wound as she went, before tying it off. “That should do it” she quipped, before getting up and dusting herself off. She then started to pull off her coat, revealing a black tank top underneath, and better showing the crossbow set up attached to her arm.[break][break]
Sitting next to him, Aiko placed the coat - folded - in her lap and patted it promptly. “You should elevate the foot now, it’ll help with the swelling. You can put it in my lap while we eat” she explained, before reaching over to pluck a rice ball from the box. She took a bite, relieved by the taste being good. Though her mind picks out the imperfections, she doesn’t comment on them.[break][break]
“Is this something you’d like more often? Snacks for training, eating together?” she offered, not thinking much into word choice there as she patted her lap - a silent insistence for his foot to be propped up.
Shoulders visibly relaxed as the bandages were loosened, a hint of relief on his face as he watched her work. He would’ve never confessed that he was uncomfortable with them before, but goodness was he glad she decided to adjust. It already hurt enough without having bandages constantly squeezing the life out of him. He’d have to be careful with talk like that going forward, as he was sure someone like Koma would’ve taken his word and tightened them even further. Or maybe he just needed to make sure that if he got hurt that it was Aiko he turned to for help. She definitely had the healer’s touch, after all.[break][break]
With his newfound comfort, Daichi was free to fully enjoy the treat provided for him. He happily munched on the rice ball as he watched her, giving a quick nod of appreciation. His eyes lingered on his ankle, wiggling his leg a bit as if to test her work. ”Thanks a lot. Now that I think about it, even someone as tough as me shouldn’t leave an injury untreated. Might as well since we’re not in the heat of battle, right?” He turned toward the purple haired chunin with a pleased smile, only to find himself thrown off balance by what he saw.[break][break]
Was she taking her jacket off? Why was she doing that? No, no it was fine. She was just getting comfortable. He just had to pretend he didn’t notice. Keep his eyes on her face, plain and simple. Or better yet, look at her crossbow! Yeah, focus on her gear to acknowledge that she too is a super cool shinobi. His eyes busied themselves with examining her weapon, head tilting slightly as he actually found himself growing more curious in the weapon. So much power packed into a tiny package. Suddenly he found himself wishing he could take it apart and see how it worked…[break][break]
But the distraction was short lived, his gaze flicking back up to Aiko as she sat beside him. ”O-oh. You want me to...Uh… Yeah. That makes sense. Lemme just uh...” ...This wasn’t weird, right? It wasn’t like he was sitting in her lap. Yeah this was totally medical. Don’t think about it too hard. Daichi let out an amused chuckle to mask how flustered he was as he turned in his seat. The rest of his snack was crammed into his mouth, freeing his hands to help lift his leg and carefully lower it to rest on top of her jacket. ”Oh yeah. I can already feel the difference.”[break][break]
He reached for another treat without hesitation, only to be further knocked off balance by her choice of words. There was a moment of quiet as he looked at the treat for a moment as he contemplated how to reply. It didn’t take long at all to reach his conclusion. ”I mean...Yeah. Yeah I’d like to hang out with you. I’ll never say no to training snacks. Or just...you know. Grabbing a bite to eat together? Just to hang out? Sounds uh...Sounds fun.” He did his best to project his usual confidence as he spoke, but he could feel it wavering a bit, his eyes shifting away from her part way through as he felt the anxiety building. But surely she wouldn’t notice, right?
His leg was up and over, settling into her lap with little resistance. Honestly, she had expected him to be more vocal in response, saying something about how he didn’t need that or that he was really fine. Something of that degree, but it seemed he had meant it when he caved to the idea of treating his wounds more seriously. Even if he seemed a little awkward about the whole thing. [break][break]
If he was going to be so willing, a part of her wished she had suggested an even higher level of elevation. Her lap was merely the level she thought he might be more willing to agree to, but if she thought she could have her way, she probably would’ve told him to lay on the ground and put his foot up on the log or something. The higher, the better. However, there was no point lamenting on that, now.[break][break]
Aiko adjusted to the new weight in her lap, fluffing the jacket to ensure his leg was comfortably supported in their moment of rest. Now was a good time to help herself to one of the snacks as Daichi considered her offer of bringing these more often. It would be nice if he agreed to it. Definitely would be a good excuse to be in the kitchen more often, which she would certainly prefer. Plus, it seemed like a good idea to balance Daichi’s try-hard efforts with a proper snack break to reel him in every now and then.[break][break]
However, as Daichi answered her, it was definitely not the answer she was expecting. There was no hiding the little hint of confusion in her expression. Hanging out? Wait, why was he getting nervous as he spoke? Grabbing a bite to eat together? Why was she suddenly feeling anxious? Aiko blinked owlishly at the response, eyes slowly rolling over the scenery around them in search of some answer that wasn’t there. A hand drifted up to her hair, coiling some of the long loose locks around her fingers, as she found herself both confused, but not put off by his answer. Hanging out and eating together - outside of training…?[break][break]
A beat of quiet followed Daichi’s words, before she cleared her throat.[break][break]
“I’ll… I’ll keep that in mind, then” she managed, sliding her hand from her hair to tend to his foot. Once more, the warm brush of her chakra would greet his injured ankle as her hands delicately massaged the injury. The numbing salve should be helping reduce the pain by this point. “... There’s a couple of places I’ve been wanting to eat at, actually.” It felt so awkward to go to any of them alone, when she saw her peers frequently going to them together. [break][break]
“Or, well, I should ask what sort of places you like to eat at? I don’t eat out often, actually” she admitted with an almost timid chuckle.
Whoops. She looked a bit uncomfortable after he mentioned the possibility of grabbing a bit to eat together. Did he miss her intentions? Oh shit. Of course he did! She was a busy person. A super cool and skilled chunin like her probably had a super busy schedule. He was lucky enough to spend some time training with her, but to assume she wanted to spend her free time with him as well? Clearly he got a bit ahead of himself in his attempts to appear confident he went and thought too much of their relationship. Though it did hurt to think that his platoonmate wasn’t interested in spending time together, it did serve to reaffirm his need to continue pushing himself. Clearly she wasn’t convinced he was cool yet, something he would have to correct in the future.[break][break]
"Don’t worry about it too much, though.” His voice wavered a bit as he quickly and quietly tacked that on, his eyes focusing on his ankle as she continued to so tenderly care for it. She really was a sweetheart to keep taking such good care of him despite his silly little mistake there. Though it seemed like she was seriously thinking about it, even considering what places might be good to go together. Was he misreading the situation? Was she just a bit awkward when it came to social situations like this? That would make sense. What with her being a prodigy and all, she was probably busy doing her important family clan stuff and training. Not like him, who pretty much only inherited social skills from his family.[break][break]
He bought himself a few moments by munching on his rice ball, his confidence growing as she capped it all off with a soft bit of laughter. There was no way she would be faking that, right? Not everyone was trying to put on airs to make people like them all the time. Aiko was far too good of a person for that, without a doubt. With this realization his excitement quickly picked back up, his anxieties taking a back seat for the moment as he considered the possibilities. ”That makes sense. I guess when you’re this good of a cook you don’t need to eat out very often.” He held up the remains of his rice ball before popping it into his mouth with a satisfied hum.[break][break]
”But my dad and I don’t cook very well, so we usually just order out. I know a bunch of great places in the village. Have you ever been to the Kanda’s place? They’ve got without a doubt some of the best udon in the village. Really cozy place, too. Nice little corner place that doesn’t get a whole lot of foot traffic. I’ll have to take you sometime, for sure.”
