"Paimon really loves your cooking — I think you deserve a lot of the credit for that."
After finishing his meal and settling back comfortably, Kaito said it across the table to Lumine with a teasing smile. He knew perfectly well that Paimon had always been a bottomless pit — but that was beside the point. The real point was to compliment Lumine's cooking.
"That's not it," Lumine said, shaking her head. "Paimon's always been like that. She was already eating that much the first time I met her. Every single time, mountains of food — it's really something."
She could have just agreed and let Kaito think her cooking was responsible. But she wasn't going to lie over something like that. She let out a small, helpless sigh at the thought of Paimon's appetite.
"Maybe she just got even hungrier after meeting you," Kaito continued, keeping the joke going.
"That... could be, I suppose." Lumine wasn't entirely sure herself.
Truth be told, she'd never really tracked exactly how much Paimon ate — she just knew it was a lot, without any concrete frame of reference. And it had been a while since she'd had reason to notice at all, because now it was Kaito who handled all of Paimon's meals. She no longer saw it day to day the way she used to.
"Have a little faith in yourself, Lumine."
Kaito smiled at the sight of her scratching her head, then added: "It's almost noon already. If you get hungry later, just say the word — we can head out and find somewhere to eat."
He figured Lumine had eaten breakfast early, while he'd only just finished his. He didn't want her sitting around hungry waiting for him, so he said it now, ahead of time.
"Go out to eat?" The way Lumine said it, it sounded like she had something in mind.
"What's wrong? You don't want to go out?"
She'd made congee that morning, so Kaito's first guess was that she might be thinking about cooking again at lunch.
"It's not that exactly — it's just that I bought some ingredients this morning. I was planning to cook lunch." As she said it, her eyes drifted toward a corner of the kitchen, where a bag sat clearly full of things she'd picked up.
"That works for me. I'll help out."
Kaito followed her gaze and nodded.
If Lumine wanted to cook again at lunch, he was absolutely on board. Having someone who cooked for you was not something to take lightly.
"Mm." She nodded, then continued: "Though I'm not sure if you'll like what I bought — I don't really know your tastes yet..."
"I'm not a picky eater, Lumine. Whatever you make is fine."
He cut her off before she could finish. She'd gone out of her way to buy ingredients and was planning to cook — there was no version of this where he complained.
"Good. I was a little worried you might not like it." The tension left her shoulders. She almost wanted to start cooking right now.
But Kaito had only just finished breakfast — he definitely wasn't going to be hungry again that quickly.
"I'm pretty full, actually." He pressed a hand to his stomach and decided a walk was in order to help things settle. "Want to go for a walk? Together?"
"Sure."
That invitation, she had no reason to turn down.
And so the two of them headed out together.
Kaito wasn't just wandering aimlessly — he had it in mind to swing by the Guili Plains and have a look around. So that was the direction they walked.
"Oh — Kaito."
They were already on their way when Lumine spoke up out of nowhere.
"What is it?"
He turned to look at her. She clearly had something on her mind.
"I was just a little curious — before, did everyone always eat out?" She'd lived in that courtyard with the others for a stretch of time, and not once had anyone cooked. Everyone just went out for meals. It had been sitting in the back of her mind.
Kaito had a fair number of girlfriends, after all. It stood to reason that at least one of them would cook.
Asking that question...
Kaito honestly wasn't sure how to answer.
He didn't really cook himself, which meant Kiana and Acheron didn't cook on his behalf either. But saying it exactly like that would sound strange.
What do I do...
Maybe just say Kiana used to cook but stopped?
But then how do I explain why she stopped?
The questions compounded on themselves as Kaito turned the problem over in his mind. He couldn't keep deliberating too long though — pausing too much on something like this would look suspicious.
"Not exactly — it's just that... Wendy kept telling Kiana her cooking tasted bad, so Kiana eventually got fed up and stopped. After that we just always ate out, to avoid the whole drama happening again."
He made the decision quickly and quietly offloaded the blame onto Wendy.
They were all him in the end — it didn't really matter who took the fall. As for why Wendy specifically: she looked the youngest, and her usual personality made it entirely plausible. Pinning it on her was the most natural fit.
If he'd tried to blame it on Acheron, that would have been obviously wrong. So Wendy it was. She'd just have to bear the infamy.
"Ah?" Lumine hadn't expected that at all. She looked genuinely surprised, then fell into a thoughtful expression. "I see... so Wendy has pretty particular taste, huh."
Not knowing the full picture, that was the conclusion she landed on.
But thinking about how Wendy usually was — she figured Wendy had probably said something a bit too blunt, and Kiana had simply put down the spatula and never picked it up again.
Yeah...
That's probably what happened...
"Yeah," Kaito agreed, nodding at Lumine's thoughtful expression.
He did feel a small, quiet pang of guilt, though. He was, after all, making things up about himself.
After that, neither of them said anything for a while. Each was quietly lost in their own thoughts.
I wonder...
What would Wendy think of my cooking...
Would it be the same as it was with Kiana back then?
The thought gave Lumine a small, nagging flutter of worry.
She'd been looking forward to cooking with Kiana after returning to Inazuma — but now that she thought about Wendy, she wasn't sure whether she should even suggest it. She was the new one here, after all. Offending anyone would be a bad start.
Granted, she and the others had known each other for a while — but she hadn't known about any of this until recently. That changed things.
While Lumine was turning all of this over in her head, Kaito's own thoughts had drifted to a different but related problem — specifically, whether he should arrange for Kiana and Lumine to cook together at some point.
And if that happened, how would Wendy react? That was something he'd need to think through carefully.
They were all him — but each of them would respond differently. He had to think through every angle.
[A picture of a small tanuki, looking thoughtful.]
____
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