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Lakia’s always gotten the sense that Shouma’s someone whose heart is in the right place, but never can quite get things going the way he wants them to. He’s well meaning, if a little dumb, and Lakia’s not sure if that’s a real good trait for a kid like him to have or not. He does appreciate it at times.
Not now, though.
Apparently Shouma had taken Lakia’s admission of disinterest in humankind as a challenge, not a statement, because his next plan of action after reconciling with Valen is to drop Lakia in the hands of his human friend and fuck off somewhere.
Introductions are made- “Sachika-san, this is Lakia! He’s the one who took Takeshi-kun, oh, but don’t worry! Lakia helped get him back!” “This is Sachika-san, she’s my boss! Be nice to her, okay?” -but are mostly unhelpful in the face of awkward silence. There’s not much to say after Shouma rushes off into a backroom, leaving Lakia to suffer in silence with a human he doesn’t know.
Sachika (-san? The way humans address eachother are confusing.) is eyeing him like he’s a wild animal who could pounce at any moment. There’s a kitchen bench between them, but she’s still on guard. Shouma must have mentioned he was a granute if she’s reacting like this. Unsurprising.
What is a surprise is Sachika speaking up first. Lakia was ready to sit in silence until Shouma got back. “...Lakia? Can I call you that? Do you prefer Vram, or-”
Hearing his name is still odd. After Komell’s death, he quit his job and became a recluse, rarely interacting with people beyond gathering information on Stomach Inc. Once he became a part-timer, Laage9 became his new name. Meeting Shouma had helped Lakia reclaim his own name, what with the kid’s eagerness to overuse it. Though hearing it from a human, of all things, is a little…
“Lakia is fine.”
A smile appears on Sachika’s face, and her posture gets a little less tense. “Lakia, then! Sorry about Umasho, you know how he is; extroverts never think about how introverts feel, huh?”
Lakia doesn’t know what those terms mean, but he gets the sense he should be agreeing. Sachika’s smile gets brighter when he nods. Too bright.
"Oh! Ah, sorry, I’m being such a bad host. Are you hungry?" Then, to herself, "Do granutes even need to eat? Umasho does, but he's half human. Huh." Back to Lakia, "Can you eat human food? Wait, better question, do you want to eat human food?"
It takes her far too long to settle on that final question. Lakia stares at her blankly, enjoying the way she starts to shift awkwardly under his stare. But Shouma clearly cares for this human, so he won't tease her too much. "Human food is... edible."
"Okay! That's a start! Is there anything you're craving?" She pulls up her sleeve, flexing an arm. "I might not look it, but I'm a killer chef! I can make anything you want. Probably."
“I don’t-” Lakia pauses, unsure. It’s hard to answer Sachika when she’s looking at him so encouragingly. “I don’t know.” Part-timers weren’t supplied with food (Lakia is still surprised he lucked out with lodging as it is), meaning anyone stationed in the human world had to rely on human food if they were hungry. Nothing Lakia had eaten in his short time in this world was particularly pleasant- human food just seemed to have an odd lightness about it, and none of it ever filled him up- but Shouma had spoken about this human and her food fondly. Perhaps she would have better offerings than those ‘conbinis’.
Odd. When did Lakia start trusting Shouma implicitly?
Sachika waves a hand at him, “Don’t worry! We’ll work something out!” She winks. Lakia adverts his gaze, instead watching Doppudding and Purujelly play around with Shouma’s gochizous on the table. “Okay, how about this: salty or sweet?”
Savory foods remind him a little too much of home, even the little as he could actually afford. “Sweet.” He pokes at Doppudding as it bounces this way and that.
Lakia looks back up just as Sachika hums her understanding and starts rummaging through the kitchen. “Alright… How about this?” She pulls out a packet of marshmallows.
Way too light. “Boring.”
A laugh, then Sachika gives him a curious look. “Huh? Boring?” She thinks for a moment, then shrugs and goes back to looking. “Not boring, not boring, not- oh!” This time, she proudly presents a tray of brightly coloured cookies. “Macarons! The expensive kind.”
Stomach Inc have soured the idea of anything expensive. Who knows what humans are putting in those ‘macarons’? “Booooring.”
Sachika visibly deflates. Lakia wonders how humans feel comfortable being so open with their body languages, but thinks it could just be this one specific human who doesn’t seem to care. “Seriously? Too good for macarons, huh…” She gumbles to herself, then picks herself up and points at Lakia. “I won’t let this get me down- I will find you the perfect sweet, no matter what!”
That little speech reminds him of Shouma; they certainly are two of a kind. She’s tenacious for a human, but Lakia doubts she’ll find anything he likes. She'll be stumped, and then they can end this little facade of pretending to care about each other once Shouma comes back. In the meantime he watches the way Sachika's hair sways behind her as she flips through the cupboards, the black roots shifting to a brown-ish blonde the further down it goes. It matches his own.
"...Pudding." Lakia says without thinking. He then blinks, wondering where the hell that just came from.
Sachika turns back, "Pudding? That's what you want?" She looks him up and down, clearly not expecting that answer. Perhaps pudding was not as common of a food as Nyelv made it out to be?
When Lakia nods, Sachika puts a finger to her chin and hums contemplatively. "Huuuh. Gimme a sec-" She pauses to rummage around in the fridge, eventually pulling out a small circular container with a "Aha!"
It doesn’t look like pudding; at least, not like Doppudding. There’s a small layer of yellowish-white at the top, then the rest is a light pink. It looks… surprisingly appetising.
“I don’t have any crème caramel, but I do have some strawberry milk pudding! It’s limited edition.” Sachika wiggles the container endearingly. “Try it! if you don’t like it, I’ll run to the store and get you some regular pudding.”
Those seem like sane terms, so Lakia agrees. He knows the taste of strawberries and milk separately, but not the concept of them together. It seems like an odd combination, but perhaps no odder than the concoctions whipped up by Stomach Inc.
Sachika pumps her fist at his agreement, scurrying to grab a spoon and rounds the kitchen bench. She slides the pudding over, grabbing a chair to sit across from him. Lakia doesn’t expect her to sit so close, but doesn’t shift away. She’s not exactly intruding on his personal space, so he’ll allow it.
She motions him to open and start eating, eagerly watching him. While he’s tearing off the lid, she gets distracted by the gochizous on the table vying for her attention. It’s an odd sight, seeing Doppuding and Purujelly bouncing around and smiling (?) while a human pokes and prods at them.
Lakia’s expecting a lot of things from the first spoonful. That awful lightness that comes with human foods, or an overwhelming sugar aftertaste. But the pudding is surprisingly alright. It’s smooth, just like the feeling of transforming into Vram. The taste is only slightly sweet, not tooth-rottingly so. Overall, it's pleasant.
“Good, right?” Sachika asks, lifting her head from where she’d been playing with the gochizous. Like this, her hair falls against her shirt; yellow against pink. He has another spoonful, not looking away. “...Lakia?”
In response, he grumbles but says nothing. The licked-clean container speaks for itself, probably. Perhaps the human world isn’t too bad. Especially when Sachika laughs and tells him that she’ll buy him all the pudding he could ever want. He supposes he can live with this.