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Both Kana and Aqua where in the Strawberri production’s office, not really doing much, Aqua was at one of the desks just working on some of editing work Taishi had needed help with, while Kana was just sitting down at the sofa reading a book.
Since Aqua had wrapped up the editing for what Taishi needed help with, his attentioned turned to Kana. He put him elbow on the desk and rested his hand on his palm.
“What book are you reading?”
“Just a book Ruby gave me.”
Kana had turned her head to look at him with a nonchalant attitude; setting the book down in her lap.
As much as Aqua had tried to avoid her the past few months, when he finally started talking to her again, he was interested in what she had to say, even though he believed he never deserved to talk to somebody as naive and kind as kana.
“What’s it about?”
“Just some regular romance story with a love triangle.” Kana didn’t seem to impressed with it, actually she seemed a little bit uninterested in the book, although Aqua figured that she wouldn’t stop reading it because Ruby may bug her about that.
Aqua however looked at her curiously, even though he believed that Kana didn’t think of romance outside of regular crushes, or moreso himself being a crush that Kana had, he was a tiny bit curious as to tropes she may be interested in, or what she may have fantasies about.
“Do you ever wonder what it may be like to be in one?”
With that question, Kana fully had her attention to Aqua. She tilted her head a bit too the side curiously.
“Hah, that’s quite the question for you to ask Aqua, however..” she had a small pause “Well, it seems quite exhausting if you were to be in one, yknow? You’d have to fight for the other person constantly just because somebody else likes them, and ultimately there is a good chance they might choose the other person rather than you no matter how much you try.”
Aqua nodded in understanding, in a sense, Kana’s perspective on this was interesting to him, since what she had said was true.
“That’s true, love is something that you cant decide on, it’s so complicated really.”
Kana just nodded in agreeance, although it made her think about how for the past few years she hasnt been able to shake the crush she said on Aqua at all, which in a sense sucked but she also liked the feeling of being connected to Aqua in such a way, even if she hadn’t confessed her feelings to him or had even hinted them to Aqua.
However since it was around dinner and ruby was off doing a Photoshoot, Miyako was off running business errands, and Mem-cho was off at home, it was just them two.
It took a few seconds before Kana had come up with a excuse to her wanting to cook something for Aqua, but she had finally said it with her usual confident and snarky tone. She had closed her book and set it aside onto the coffee table in front of her.
“Well, since it’s getting to be dinner time, how about i go buy something and cook it?”
Kana had hoped if she had said this casually and out of the blue, Aqua would just accept it without a second thought, unlucky for her, this wasnt the case.
“Hm? We could just go over to Gotanda’s place, I’m sure his Mom would be more than happy to have us around.”
Since this was not part of the plan as to what Kana had though Aqua was going to say, she got a little bit defensive and crossed her arms trying to make another excuse other than she just wanted to cook for Aqua.
“Well..! I actually wanted to start cooking for myself since delivery for take-out has become more expensive, and don’t get me wrong, of course i have the funds for it!! I just… have standards!! As well as since you’re the only person here, it’s not like I’d be making a fool of myself to Miyako or Ruby!!”
Aqua had totally picked up on her lie. Kana afterall, was not a good liar when it came to day to day lies, Although he didn’t mind Kana wanted to cook for him, he wouldn’t necessarily stop the teasing of him picking up on this.
“Sure, but if you burn anything we’re going to go to Gotanda’s place.”
“I’m not!!”
Kana and Aqua get bundled up with their jackets and scarfs due to the weather being cold, and how there was very light snow. Kana was of course in some sort of nice expensive jacket that matched her nice barrett and clothes along with matching her scarf. Aqua was just in some still warm and good-looking but nothing to flashy jacket and just a regular scarf that matched Ruby’s because she had insisted in getting matching scarfs.
On the way there, there wasnt really much talking until they finally got to the supermarket in which kana had started looking around for the ingredients, and Aqua was curious as to what she was going to make since she hadnt exactly stated what.
“So, any idea as to what you are going to make?”
Aqua actually quite enjoyed this moment, because even though he didn’t exactly want to or like to admit it, he had sort of a crush on kana, so spending time with her like this was sort of a blessing, especially with how she was just able to forgive him for ignoring and avoiding her.
“Well,” she started off saying “I’ve been kinda obsessed with more foreign recipes currently, since i wonder as to what they might taste like. So I’ve kinda just picked a bunch of different recipes that i saw on tiktok and i want to make some of them, so some of them are like… soup, potatoes, stuff like that!”
It was kinda vague as to what foreign recipes she was necessarily talking about due to the fact all she said was soup and potatoes, but it would hopefully be like a nice surprise, maybe? All he can do is hope and pray that this girl that orders take-out can at least cook somewhat well for today’s dinner.
Kana had seemed to be buying a lot of things for the meal she was going to be making and after she had paid for all the stuff, without hesitation Aqua had grabbed them, since he knew that they were going to be heavy and that she would complain about them.
This was certainly the right move because on command Kana’s heart skipped a beat and started fluttering about, and her speech stuttered a bit at the beginning of her sentence
“You…You know i could’ve carried those ones on my own right..?”
Kana had said as she took the rest of the bags, which she knew were the lighter ones than the ones Aqua were carrying at the moment.
“Uh-huh, sure you can.”
As both of them walked back to ‘hoshino’ residence, although admittedly it was more of the Saitou’s due to it being under Miyako’s last name, they had some friendly bickering, which of course was nothing to serious until they finally arrived to the house and entered.
They set the bags onto the counter and Kana started unpacking the stuff and brought out her phone to look at the instructions and set that up as she borrowed a apron so she could cook in it for the time being.
“So, are you going to need any help?”
Aqua had stated as he sat down at the table and rested his elbow down so he could lean his head onto the palm on his head as he softly look at Kana.
“Nope! I got this so have faith in me.”
Kana luckily seemed to have a confident tone as she started to wash the vegetables and prepare those and continue with the rest of the steps for the dishes she wanted to cook.
Her heart started to flutter when she was doing this, because it helped feed her delusional fantasy of Aqua and her living together as adults and her being a loving house wife for her working husband, while of course none of this was true and she was just a teenager cooking for her crush.
After a bit of time the food was prepared and she set it on the table in a nice display. In all honesty Aqua thought the presentation was nice without bias. After preparing the table with the dishes she sat down across from him and smiled.
“Well, I’m sure my cooking is as fantastic as everything else i can do, so go on, try it!!”
“The presentation sure is nice, hopefully the food tastes just as nice.”
“Hey! I’m sure it’s just as wonderful as the look of it!! Now try it!!”
Aqua nodded and got his spoon and tasted the soup, then tasted the roasted potatoes, then the vegetables, and of course the bread. He pondered for a moment on the taste, It wasnt out of the world amazing but it tasted very comfortable and in a sense homey.
Kana was sort of staring at Aqua nervously, and she hadn’t even touched her own food, she was just waiting for Aqua’s reaction
“It’s good.”
“That’s it?!?!?!”
“Well then, i can’t give you too much praise because then It’ll go to your head and you won’t improve.” Aqua had sort of a small grin before continuing “Yes, i think it’s good.”
Kana did a small pout while she picked up a spoon, finally trying her own cooking, and well… It’s not like it was bad, but it didnt seem good, and actually, she just felt really indifferent towards it, although that would be wrapped up to it’s her own cooking and if it had been anybody else’s she wouldn’t be this indifferent.
“Well..! every great cook has to start somewhere!”
She said with full confidence, as she tries to be confident, or well, she’s just hoping that it at least tastes good to Aqua.
“Kana I really do think it’s good, so don’t worry about that.”
Aqua said in a reassuring tone, hopefully getting his point across to Kana, because he really did actually like the food Kana made.
This seemed to have really struck a simple cord within kana because she just feels happy that he’s complimenting her on her cooking, since in a sense it means that she has more worth than just doing stuff in the entertainment business, but also that’s silly because there is no way she’d want to be in the cooking industry.
“W-well..! That just means you’re obligated to continue tasting my food to see the progress of it!!”
“I look forward to it.”
Kana just took a frustrated yet flustered sip of her glass of water, it genuinely felt like her pitter-pattering heart was fluttering from how happy Aqua looking forward.
However, Kana didnt feel right at the current moment, she felt a bit calmer than usual, but her heart still felt fluttery? Actually, scratch that, she felt as if it was moreso her… lungs? Not soon after she felt a sort of extreme tickle in her throat and set down her water as she covered her mouth to cough.
Aqua looked up from his meal to see Kana coughing, he didn’t think much of it and was going to wait until she stopped coughing to ask if she was okay, but when he saw that she was nowhere close to finishing coughing, his stoic face had a worried undertone as she got up from his chair to walk over to hers and kneel next to her, rubbing her back as he looked up at her.
“...Kana? Do you need a drink of water..?”
Kana had shook her head as she continued to cover her mouth, and eventually, red rose petals, along with other shaped and colored ones he didn’t regonize started lightly fluttering down to the floor as she coughed.
Although Aqua may have been a doctor in his past life, he was unfamiliar as to what was happening, may he have briefly heard about sometimes like this on the news when he was young and reborn again? Perhaps, although he was too young to research it.
Luckily enough Kana had stopped coughing, though she was severely out of breath when she had finished coughing, so she took deep breaths to regain steady breathing.
Before Kana fully regained her breath Aqua already had his phone out to presumably search about this, since he kept muttering ‘flower petals’ over and over again.
Aqua’s eyes looked a bit shocked although conflicted, he really didn’t like the word disease, and with it being put with a word he wasnt familiar with, this wasnt something he seemed happy about, he actually started to seem panicked the more he looked and searched about it.
The fact Aqua seemed panicked about whatever was going on Kana seemed to be too, but also, quite literally Flower petals had come out of her mouth. She spotted a flower petal onto on Aqua’s head due to him kneeling, so she lightly brushed it off with her hand.
“Do you feel short of breath, sore throat, or a feeling of fluttering in a area of your chest?”
“Yeah.. pretty much..?”
“Kana we’re going to a doctor.”
“Huh?”
“We’re going to the doctor right now.”