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It was just another slow Tuesday for Ryouko.
She did her normal routine to set up her food stand: cleaned the front, unpacked the ingredients and kitchenware she needed to cook, and set up two chairs in front.
Ritou might be a bustling city of Inazuma but she didn’t usually have as many customers as she merely owned a humble food stand in a quiet corner that was very easy to miss. There were times when she considered relocating considering that the wealthy merchants who transact here preferred high-end restaurants, not some random food stand. Profit was low but the rent was cheap.
Ryouko only received three sketchy merchants so far today. She didn’t have the right to judge them with their business as long as they paid for their meals properly. When they left, she sat behind the stall, preparing herself to read a book she recently purchased from the Yae Publishing House until she heard two chattering juvenile voices nearing her stall.
“You gotta help me with another case next time!” A familiar voice said, catching Ryouko’s attention.
Her eyes widened upon seeing the familiar auburn hair of the young prodigy of the Tenryou Commission, Shikanoin Heizou. How could she not recognize him? The detective made a name for himself after debunking a lot of suspicious businesses and transactions here in Ritou. This was, after all, the perfect place for illegal trade to occur given that Inazuma closed off its borders from the rest of Teyvat.
Ryouko was nervous as she mentally ticked off the papers she needed to prove her food stand was a legitimate business. She already renewed her registry recently, did her taxes, paid for rent—
“We’d like two dry-braised salted fish, please.” A gentle voice snapped her out from her train of thoughts.
The white-haired companion of the detective was also a familiar figure in Ryouko’s mind. She remembered that he brought a different friend with a cat and ordered from her limited menu.
Ryouko glanced at the detective once again, who was only pouting beside his previous companion.
“Excuse me, ma’am, do you happen to have a different dish that doesn’t use fish as its protein?” Heizou asked.
“You cannot continue working on an important case without nutrients.” The white-haired lad said.
“Kazuha, you are not going to put anything healthy in my stomach.”
“I’m afraid I only sell egg rolls and dry-braised salted fish.” Ryouko pointed out.
Heizou sat down on one of the two chairs of the food stand while his companion, Kazuha, sat on the only remaining chair to his left.
“Then I’ll take the egg rolls.” The detective said, making Kazuha sigh with disappointment clear on his face.
Ryouko couldn’t help him, unfortunately. “One egg roll and one dry-braised salted fish, coming right up.” She said, preparing two pans for their orders.
She didn’t pay attention to what they were talking about, focused on preparing their meals while also anticipating the detective to question her food stand’s license but they never came.
With the fish on a pan and the eggs on another, Ryouko side-eyed Heizou sitting next to Kazuha as he explained something Ryouko couldn’t grasp. Kazuha didn’t seem to be invested with what the detective was saying but he still stared at him fondly. Probably too engrossed with Heizou’s eyes instead of his words.
If the detective wasn’t here to inspect the legality of her food stand, then he’s here for… personal reasons. One that involved his companion.
“Here you go.” Ryouko set two plates in front of her customers before she reached for a rug on the corner of the counter and began to clean the station she worked on.
She couldn’t help but overhear the conversation of her only two customers.
“Try this.” Kazuha said as he held a chopsticks in front of Heizou’s tightened mouth.
“Nmm,” Heizou protested as best as he could with a shut mouth, vigorously shaking his head while trying to avoid the chopsticks that held a small slice of fish.
“But it’s nice.” Kazuha said, seemingly more determined to put that fish in his system.
Heizou tried to push Kazuha’s hands away, finally opening his mouth to yell “No!”
Ryouko looked away and continued to clean her station. Whatever these two had going on wasn’t any of her business.
She busied herself as she waited for Heizou and Kazuha to finish their meals. They definitely took their sweet precious time eating in her food stand. It was new for her since most of her customers only ordered food and left after receiving their meal.
Kazuha and Heizou, on the other hand… these two somehow managed to balance constantly talking while eating, never running out of things to talk about. At some point, she caught Kazuha lightly reprimanding the detective to “stop talking with your mouth full” but the detective never followed listened.
“Thank you for the meal.” Kazuha eventually said once they finished their meal and their conversation. He finally stood up from his seat before reaching for his wallet, only for Heizou to hold his wrist gently.
“My treat. This was a fun first date!” Heizou grinned as he grabbed his own coin pouch and handed Ryouko the mora. “Thank you for the meal.”
“Come again!” Ryouko told them. It was her standard goodbye to the customers who would leave and wouldn’t come back.
She wasn’t expecting Heizou and Kazuha to come back again the following week. And again. And again—
Until Ryouko finally picked up a pattern of their visits.
Kazuha and Heizou would go to her food stand together twice a week, mainly every Monday and Thursday. Like clockwork, they would sit on the same stool from the first time they went here (Kazuha on the left chair, Heizou on the right) and order the same meals (one egg roll for Heizou and one dry-braised salted fish for Kazuha).
Even Kazuha’s attempt to get Heizou to eat the fish was the same (she’s convinced that Heizou wouldn’t eat them because he enjoyed Kazuha’s efforts), and they would also have the same length of their stay as they balanced eating and conversing (and occasional teasing).
This Thursday, however, was when they strayed away from their usual routine.
“Kazuha,” Ryouko greeted him in surprise before raising an eyebrow in the absence of Heizou. It was her first time to see Kazuha come here without the detective beside him.
“Ryouko.” Kazuha waved at her with a warm smile.
“I wasn’t expecting you this early. Certainly not without Heizou.”
“About that,” Kazuha put down a bag on his usual seat. “Would it be too much to ask if I could use your stove?”
Now that was a request she was not expecting.
“Of course. But for what?”
“A friend of mine told me that cooking for Heizou would be the only efficient way to feed him a healthy meal. I would like to test that theory, if you don’t mind.”
“Sure. Feel free to use whatever you need.” Ryouko shrugged.
Kazuha was one of her two regular customers so of course she wouldn’t mind granting him such a small request. Business was slow today, anyway.
“Thank you.” Kazuha gave a small smile as he handed his payment. Ryouko’s eyes widened at the generous amount. Heizou and Kazuha definitely knew how to tip.
Kazuha made his way behind the food stand and readied the things he needed. She watched her from a distance, making sure that he wasn’t doing anything to burn down her kitchen. While she trusted him to a certain degree, this food stall was still hers at the end of the day.
Kazuha had the skills of a cook even if the meal he was preparing was easy to make. He seemed to be mimicking her dry-braised salted fish recipe but replaced the basil leaves with some… red leaves?
She was beginning to trust him less in the kitchen.
Eventually, Kazuha finished his version of dry-braised salted fish and Heizou finally came to the stand.
Heizou watched Kazuha put the plate of fish on the right side of the table. “Is that what I think it is?” He asked, and Ryouko wasn’t sure if she heard a tinge of nervousness coming from the usually confident detective.
“Tomo told me to try cooking for you. That’s the only way I can get you to eat something healthy for once.”
“That cat-loving bastard.” Heizou said, but there was no sharpness in his tone. He watched Kazuha slice a generous size of fish and pick it up with chopsticks.
“Will you deny my cooking?” Kazuha asked as he raised his chopsticks in front of Heizou’s mouth.
Heizou looked down at the fish, stared at it with an unhealthy amount of suspicion before finally conceding. “I won’t.”
They held each other’s gaze when Kazuha pushed his chopstick’s content into Heizou’s mouth in a painstakingly slow and obscene manner, omitting that they were still in Ryouko’s food stand.
Heizou thoroughly chewed the fish. “This is… surprisingly good.”
“Consider this as your first step towards healthy living.”
“Only because you’re feeding it to me.” Heizou joked, prompting Kazuha to get another piece.
Just like that, they fell back to their same routine. Ryouko took it as an invitation to start cleaning her station and waited for her two regulars to finish eating and conversing.
“Now you don’t have a choice but to try my version of Katsu Sandwich.” Heizou said, with his plate now empty.
“But your version is with rice instead of bread?”
“Rice will always be better than bread.” Heizou stood up from his seat before looking at Ryouko. “Thanks for having us again.”
Kazuha waved in her direction. “Thank you for letting me cook.”
“May I use your kitchen next week?” Heizou asked.
Ryouko smiled. “Of course.”
“Thanks!” Heizou said as he and Kazuha began to walk away from her food stand.
“Have a nice day!” Ryouko told them. It now became her standard goodbye to her only regulars who would leave and come back without a fail.
She just didn’t expect that they wouldn’t come back together after that.
It had been three months since Ryouko last saw Heizou and Kazuha visit her food stand; three months since the Almighty Shogun enacted the Vision Hunt Decree.
As a non-Vision holder, she didn’t have anything to worry about other than the wave of military men storming in Ritou, preventing anyone — specifically Vision holders — from fleeing the country.
There were whispers on the street saying that the remaining member of the Kaedehara Clan was wanted by the Tenryou Commission. She heard that his friend faced divine punishment after losing in a duel before the throne, and that the Kaedehara boy fled with his friend’s Vision.
Ryouko couldn’t help but wonder how her two regulars were doing.
Dark clouds were beginning to form in the sky before the sound of thunder boomed loudly. It was going to rain soon so she took it as a sign to close her food stand for the day.
By the time Ryouko packed all her belongings and folded the makeshift roof of her food stand, a familiar voice caught her attention.
“Ryouko.”
She immediately whipped her head towards Kazuha’s direction and the first thing she noticed was the hat that a ronin usually wore.
“Oh, Kazuha. What brings you here?” She asked, remembering that today was a Tuesday and he didn’t bring Heizou with him.
Kazuha didn’t respond. Instead, he reached something from his side pocket and Ryouko noticed the two Visions on his side: the Anemo Vision she always saw, and a dull gray empty husk of a Vision.
She didn’t have the chance to ask him about the two Visions when he pulled a neatly folded paper from his side and offered it to her.
“Keep it around in case he comes back?” Kazuha said. Ryouko couldn’t properly see his face under his hat but it was impossible for her to miss the forlorn tone of his words.
Her fingers grabbed the paper and unfolded it in front of him. The first thing she saw was a neatly written ‘All-Weather Beauty’ and she immediately knew what she was holding.
It was a written recipe of Kazuha’s version of dry-braised salted fish. The one he used when he cooked for Heizou the last time they were here together.
“Kazuha, I can’t—” She looked up from the paper but he wasn’t there anymore. She never saw nor heard him leave.
On that gloomy Tuesday afternoon, Ryouko failed to tell Kaedehara Kazuha that his partner no longer visited her food stand.
Until Thursday came.
Heizou walked to her food stand all alone with heavy tear-stained eyes and slumped down on his usual seat. Ryouko watched him discard a Tenryou Commission folder on the table. He didn’t say anything. She couldn’t either.
She only stood there, waiting for Heizou to inquire about Kazuha. But he never did. The detective only stared at the empty seat beside him longingly.
Kazuha’s recipe weighed heavily in her pocket.
“He left something for you.” Ryouko said.
Heizou’s eyes brightened with hope as she reached for the recipe and gave it to him. Yet the detective only pursed his lips together before gently shaking his head.
“Keep it for the meantime, please.” Heizou eventually said, his voice sounding hoarse.
“He’d like you to have it.”
“I want him to give it to me himself.”
There was finality and a hint of hurt in his tone. She didn’t want to push him any further so she nodded in understanding as she folded the paper back to its original state, sliding it back inside her pocket.
“Can you make me some dry-braised salted fish?” Heizou asked.
“Of course.” Ryouko said with a small smile.
Just as she was about to grab an uncooked fish, she heard Heizou weakly say “For two, please.”
Ryouko’s heart broke.
“It might take a while.”
“I know. I can wait.”
And he did.
Heizou would come every Monday and Thursday to order two dry-braised salted fish, sit beside an empty chair and finish only one meal. And he would wait; wait for an hour or two like how Ryouko waited for him and Kazuha to finish their meals and conversation before; wait until the dry-braised salted fish beside his plate gets cold; wait for Kazuha to show up.
But Kazuha never did.
Here in Ryouko’s food stand, Heizou wasn’t a detective in pursuit of a criminal. Here, he was merely a young person in love, waiting for his lover to come back.
Until he stopped.
On Monday afternoon, Heizou went to her food stand and didn’t sit on the chair he often used. Instead, he opened the same Tenryou Commission folder he had been carrying ever since Kazuha disappeared.
When his fingers delicately removed the first page in the folder, Ryouko immediately saw a page of Kazuha’s file.
“Give this to him for me?”
Heizou slipped a paper on the table towards her direction. It was a recipe called ‘The Only Truth.’
Ryouko stared at it, remembering the day when Kazuha did the same thing and left without a warning.
“Why?”
“This was supposed to be the meal I was going to cook for him. Before the Vision Hunt Decree.” Heizou explained, his eyebrows furrowed as he bit his bottom lip.
Ryouko sighed. “He’d want you to give it to him yourself.”
“I can’t. Even if I wanted to, I can’t. He knows I’m always here, waiting for him to show up, but he never does. Why would he? I’m the detective in charge of putting him behind bars. He’s not going to the place where we always met.” Heizou shook his head in defeat. “He doesn’t want to see me, Ryouko. I’m tired of being the fool.”
“Maybe he wants to see you but he can’t.”
“Of course he can’t. He’s wanted in the country.”
Ryouko glanced at the Tenryou Commission folder. “I think Kazuha doesn’t want to put you in a difficult position. One where you have to choose between him and your career. If he sees you torn like that, it would break him. Maybe that’s why he’s hiding.”
Saying it aloud was a weight lifted off her chest. She didn’t want Heizou to give up on Kazuha because she knew Kazuha wouldn’t leave Heizou behind just like that. Not after how affectionate they have been for each other. Not after the lengths he went through just to deliver Ryouko the recipe he wanted Heizou to have.
Heizou pressed his palm against his forehead. “I had a feeling you’d say that.”
“I’ll keep your recipe and give it to him if he comes here.” Ryouko folded the paper. “But promise me you won’t give up on him?”
Finally, Heizou gave her a final smile fueled by determination. “That isn’t an option anymore.”
Ryouko was happy that tourists began flooding into the country. She’s been receiving an influx of customers hailing from different nations now that Inazuma opened its borders to the rest of the world.
Because of the increased number of customers beginning to occupy her food stand, she made a mental reminder to buy more chairs to welcome more customers. When her delivery of chairs finally arrived, she glanced back at the only two chairs where her first two regulars always sat.
In the end, she didn’t set up the new chairs she got. She only stacked them in the corner of her stand, not wanting to ruin the arrangement of the chairs hoping that they would someday return together, wishful thinking it might be.
So, to her surprise, in the middle of a busy day, Heizou and Kazuha walked back to her food stand, looking happier than they did back before the Vision Hunt Decree happened.
“You finally have more customers.” Heizou said, giving a quick look over his shoulder. “Here I thought Kazuha and I were special.”
“Nothing has changed.” Ryouko said before her eyes caught the intertwined fingers between Heizou and Kazuha. “Sorted it out?”
“We talked it out over a meal.” Kazuha said.
Ryouko couldn’t help but to reminisce about the times when they were still the only customers on her food stand, bonding over at least an hour-long conversation and a hearty meal. Nothing has changed, indeed.
“I bet the menu is still the same.” Heizou teased, earning a seemingly affectionate roll of the eyes from Kazuha.
“Hey, my egg rolls and dry-braised salted fish are starting to become famous around here.” Ryouko joked before remembering something. “Oh! Your recipes are still with me.”
She was about to pull the drawer that safely kept Kazuha and Heizou’s recipes until Kazuha’s voice stopped her.
“Keep them.” Kazuha said.
Ryouko could only blink at them. That was certainly unexpected. “Why?”
“Consider it as an invitation to expand your menu. Archons know you need it.” Heizou let out a small chuckle.
“Or something to remember us by.” Kazuha offered.
“Are you two leaving Inazuma?”
“He’s gonna travel around Teyvat without me.” Heizou poked Kazuha’s cheek. “Don’t forget to write letters or I’ll make sure to finally put the cuffs on you, even without the Vision Hunt Decree.”
“The mere thought of leaving your side is already an arduous task.” Kazuha quickly stole a kiss on Heizou’s lips, making the detective’s cheeks flush in pink.
“Miss me already?” Heizou retorted back with a grin and bumped their foreheads together, their lips a few centimeters apart. “I’ll miss you, too.” With that, he closed the distance between their lips and kissed him.
Ryouko could only sigh. Not because of the long line of customers starting to form behind the couple, but because of the happy ending she got to witness in her food stand.
In the end, she never added All-Weather Beauty and The Only Truth on her menu, never cooked it for any of her customers, but still safely kept the recipes in case her first two regulars decided to visit and cook it for each other again.