Chapter Text
If there was one thing that Kusuo always liked doing, it would be making food. From the detailed bentos he and his mom would arrange the night before they were to be eaten, to dumping a packet of gelatin and instant coffee into his beloved coffee jelly machine, cooking always gave him both a temporary peace of mind and food. A win-win scenario, really.
Or at least he had thought so, until the idiots who were always following him around started to pay attention to what he was eating at lunch.
“Yo, Saiki, what’s that?”
Good grief. Couldn’t they just go back to talking about whatever anime they were talking about before, and ignore his food? Kusuo didn’t spend an hour (even an admittedly very relaxing one) meticulously arranging the food in his lunchbox just for people to notice it. He had barely even taken one bite, damnit!
Kaidou’s ears immediately prick up at the sound of Aren asking about the meal. “Hm? Is this a Dark Reunion plot in the works? They must be planning to take my second-in-command out of commission by-” Kaido stopped monologuing about his delusions as he looked at the bento in Kusuo’s hands. “H-huh? That looks really good…”
The food really does look good, in all fairness. It was filled to the brim with fluffy rice, juicy fish and vegetables, topped off with a cute, heart shaped tamagoyaki that his mom urged him to add. Ever since he was young, Kusuo has been learning how to cook and bake various meals and desserts to both help practice and control his powers, as well as a hobby. If it didn’t look attractive, with Kusuo’s years of practice and psychic powers, he doesn’t think his pride could take it.
As Kaidou murmurs about how he really wants a bite of the meal and Kuboyasu looks back from Kusuo’s food to his, thinking about the sheer difference between lunches, Kusuo decides to apply his tried and true method of ignoring them and going back to what he was going before.
Considering the fact that the people around Kusuo are practically ticking time bombs waiting for the chance to drag him into inane scenarios at a moments notice, this method works surprisingly well until Nendo appears behind Kusuo and snaps everyone out of their bento-induced trance with 9 words;
“Woah, Partner! Did your girlfriend make that for you?”
Kusuo isn’t exactly sure what was more effective in making him almost choke on his food, the fact that Nendo practically screamed those words behind Kusuo while he had chopsticks full of rice in his mouth, or whatever mental gymnastics Nendo had went through to think the cute composition of his lunch meant that he had a girlfriend . Either way, the boisterous claim and subsequent sounds of Kusuo hacking up a lung out of shock firmly cemented all of the eyes at the table to him.
Kuboyasu practically leaps over the table to interrogate Kusuo about how he got the bento and the status of his supposed ‘girlfriend’. (Ehh? Saiki, since when did you get a girlfriend? I don’t remember any girl being that close to you, recently!)
Kaidou isn’t any better, and is right next to Kuboyasu in the interrogation, though his questions have significantly more denial and Eighth Grade Syndrome peppered in. (You must have gotten it from your mom or a convenience store, or something! What if she’s a secret Dark Reunion spy?)
Quickly getting overwhelmed from the loud thoughts and louder voices of the two teens in front of him, Kusuo shuts both of them up with an index finger to both of their lips and explains the situation.
“I made it myself, you idiots.”
“Oh,” both Kaidou and Kuboyasu say with a minor note of embarrassment in their voices. As they go to sit back down, they subsequently realize that they knocked over both of their lunches in a bid to get answers about the mysterious bento.
Oh, both Kaidou and Kuboyasu think with a major note of disappointment in their thoughts. They both stare at the mess for a while before Kaidou goes to clean up the ruined food and Kuboyasu quickly follows him.
As Kusuo returns to his food and Nendo sits down to talk about something Kusuo pretends not to listen to, he notices that Kuboyasu and Kaidou are looking at his bento with crestfallen faces.
Damn, that rice looks really good… maybe I could ask Saiki for a little bit of it? Nah, it’s his. I really shouldn’t have knocked over my lunch…
Don’t fall for it, Shun! It’s probably some trick from the Dark Reunion to placate Saiki with dirty tricks! … Oh no, am I getting influenced by it now? Ugh, I really wish I had my own food as a distraction…
Abruptly putting his chopsticks down, Kusuo shoves his lunchbox in front of the two of them.
“You can have it.”
“Huh? Oh, no, it’s ok Saiki-””Hm? A-ah! I’m know of your loyalty Saiki, you do-”
Kusuo quickly glowers at them both, which stops both of their protests against free food.
“Good grief, I’m already full. Besides, I can see you two are practically begging for it, just take the bento already.”
Kuboyasu curiously picks up a piece of fish with his chopsticks, and Kusuo is starting to think about psychically shoving the food into his mouth when Kuboyasu takes the plunge and promptly thinks Oh shit, this is really fucking good. Kusuo thinks he can see stars in Kuboyasu’s eyes, and now he can’t see them anymore because Kuboyasu is shoving food into his mouth at a pace that almost equals Mera’s.
Taking this as permission for Kaidou to eat some himself, he takes a bite, and between the two of them the bento is completely empty within minutes.
“Saiki, how are you so good at this? Your food is amazing!”
“Shun’s right, this is great!”
As they were showering Kusuo in compliments, the lunch period had ended and it was time to leave, and they eventually moved on to a different conversation topic.
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The next day, there are two homemade bentos in Kaido and Kuboyasu’s locker.
