"Are you hungry?"
Hikari looked up. They'd been walking for a few minutes without either of them saying anything, back down the long avenue with the Spire's shadow on the other side of it now, and it was the first thing Raizen had asked her since the Hall.
"Not really."
"Good. So am I." He nodded at the corner ahead. "There's a place down there that does the nice fried rice with the egg on top. The one Arashi won't shut up about."
"...You hate that place."
"I hate that Arashi likes that place and can't shut up about it. That's different."
It got him about a quarter of a smile, which at that point he'd have taken over most things.
The restaurant was small, warm and mostly empty at that hour, a counter along one side and six tables along the other, the windows fogged at the bottom from the kitchen. They took the table at the back. Raizen ordered for both of them and then, intentionally, said nothing at all about the morning.
That was the whole plan. He didn't have a better one.
