CHAPTER 20 : A Dinner full of Spice… and Love….

After they had gone home, both had taken their showers respectively after the other. In this case, Yuu got worried she might get sick, so she let her take a shower first. In his case, he may get into a lot of slightly life-threatening accidents, but he has strong immunity against colds.

"Can I help out?"

"Of course, I appreciate it." Aoi said with a happy smile on her face.

𝘚𝘩𝘦…. 𝘓𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘦…. Yuu thought as he received her Ok with a smile on an apron.

Apparently, Aoi said she wants to cook dinner and had left no room for Yuu to complain, so he resorted to just helping her out, as she had did yesterday.

"These ingredients…"

Yuu stared at the ingredients set out in the kitchen, ready to be peeled, diced, and prepped. The moment he saw it, as he had also cooked a lot, he immediately knew what was for today's dinner.

"Oh? You have a guess? Is what I want to say. For you, you already know what it is, right?"

"Yeah, of course I do!"

"Wait, aren't you a little too enthusiastic about this?"

Aoi was clearly shocked, as for Yuu, he kept looking at her and the ingredients with practically sparkling eyes. He immediately knew what she was about to cook by literally looking at only two sets of ingredients; the veggies, and the plate layered with different spices for curry. The specific spice he noticed was the curry powder. He doesn't remember them buying one yesterday, so he thought he made it herself.

"Of course! It's my favourite!" Yuu exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Is that so. Then, you can look forward to more curries in the future!"

"Yay! Thank You, Aoi. I love you!" Yuu exclaimed as he immediately embraced her from behind.

"Eh—! Yuu?!" Aoi, who was still holding the ladle in her hand, exclaimed as he tried to look at Yuu behind her.

"Ah—" seeming to have snap back to reality, Yuu immediately jumped away from her, "...sorry. I got carried away…."

"No, it just… surprised me, that's all." Aoi looked at him with an angelic smile.

"R-Right…. Th-Then, shall we start?"

"Mmm."

Then, the two began moving again, occasionally looking at each other.

"I just realized, Yuu. How do you like your curry?" Aoi, as she was the one cooking, immediately asked him an obvious question for his preferences.

"Hmm… I'd say I'd like it however you do it…." Yuu shyly said as he continued dicing up the vegetables.

"But that's…."

"It's fine. Trust me."

Yuu didn't say anything else, nor did Aoi asked him further. They just continued dicing and cooking all around, until Yuu finished his part.

"Thank You, Yuu. But… don't blame me if you don't like it…." Aoi shyly said as she hid her face by the post on the kitchen, separating it from the dining room, showing an entrance, but… Yuu simply chuckled. "Wh-What?!—"

"Haha— it's nothing… it's just that… there's no way I wouldn't like your cooking, Aoi…." Yuu said so sweetly that it made Aoi smile in embarrassment.

"Geez, Yuu! Just sit down, I can't focus if you keep teasing me like that!" Aoi was really flushed as she said so.

"Teasing?" Yuu with a stupefied look said, "I'm not, it was my honest thoughts." he nonchalantly said so.

"..." Aoi flushed even more, making it so that her face was so red from embarrassment, "Geez! Just go already! I'll start cooking!" Aoi gently pushed her away from the kitchen as he continued chuckling.

"Yes, yes, I'm going, I'm going…" Yuu followed the momentum of her pushing as he went out of the kitchen and sat down in the living room. He already knew that curry won't take a short time to cook, so he sat down and turned the TV on. He also played a video game rather than watching the TV.

A few minutes have passed with Yuu simply playing the game, taking glances to Aoi from time to time. They would sometimes exchange eye contacts and Aoi asks "What's wrong?" but Yuu simply replies, "It's nothing." and returns to playing his video game.

And so, after a hefty 30 minutes, Aoi called out, "Yuu, it's ready!"

"Yeah, I'm coming—!"

Yuu stood up and turned the TV off and tidied up a bit, and headed to the dining room. He went to the table, and saw two plates across each other. One has more food than the other, that being said, that plate was Yuu's. Aoi trusted his words on being a 'big eater' and served him a little more than hers. One more reason for the bigger portion is for it being his favorite dish.

He sat down on the chair as Aoi brought some water and sat down across from him. 𝘐𝘵𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘶, the two said in unison as both picked up their spoons, but Aoi stared at Yuu first. Yuu on the other hand took a spoonful of part curry and part rice, blowing it slightly to cool it down, and placed it in his mouth.

"..."

"H-How is it?....." Aoi asked as her face was red, holding a spoon in her hand.

"Mmm… It's delicious, Aoi. Thank You…." Yuu gratefully replied as he smiled at her.

"I-Is that so…."

"Yeah, it just has enough kick for me and the flavors are great!"

"R-Really?...."

Yuu explained it pretty abruptly, but it was really delicious, as both had enjoyed it. As Yuu had explained, the flavors were perfectly harmonizing with each other, taking the usual curry he makes inferior to it.

"Ah, that's right!...." Aoi suddenly exclaimed, with a slightly red face, which made Yuu look at her confusedly

"Wh-what's wrong, Aoi?"

"H-Here…. Ahhn—…"

"E-Eh?! A-Aoi?!" Yuu straightened up while still holding the spoon in his hand, flustered and red.

Aoi simply, yet shyly offered him her spoon, with a spoonful of curry in it. It is what you'd call, the 'feeding game' where the other party feeds you. But on their age and relationship, it is something embarrassing, as it includes one more secret to it.

"But that's…." Yuu hesitatingly said, as he gulped the words he was about to say— an indirect kiss…. He thought it was too much for him so he didn't say it.

"No buts!" Aoi shyly, yet strongly exclaimed.

"...alright…." Yuu didn't fight her any further and went along with her.

Yuu slowly pulled himself closer to her spoon, and closer as his trembling lips got near enough to blow it. After he cooled it down, he opened his mouth and inserted Aoi's spoon on his mouth, and immediately pulled away, leaving a rice-free spoon, leaving only stains of curry in it.

"It just got better…." Yuu said as his heart was rapidly beating.

"Is that so?..." Aoi said with an innocent and beautiful smile while looking down, hiding her own embarrassment

"..." Yuu stared at the beautiful smile she showed, and decided he won't stop there and admit defeat, so he picked up a spoonful of curry and rice again, and offered it to her.

"Here, Aoi. Ahhn—" he showed a mischievous, yet gentle smile that made Aoi really flustered, shrieking out noises like "Eh—", "Ah—" or "that's…" while showing her flushed, red face. Yuu kept on pushing his spoon forward with a straight face, but slight redness on his cheeks was visible, and his lips and words were trembling as she kept pushing her. Until Aoi had no hope and ate it as well.

"..." Aoi stayed red while chewing, "it really is good…." she shyly said, following with "...dummy Yuu…." with an extremely soft and cute voice that made Yuu's heart skip a beat.

"I'm just making it even…." Yuu said as he continued filling his mouth with the delicious curry.

"...I know you're just evening it out, but the sudden attack is… too much…." Aoi shyly said as she also continued to stuff her mouth.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥. The two shockingly said in unison, which made them stare at each other.

"..."

"..."

The two stared each other for a few seconds until Yuu chuckled.

"Hahaha— what a weird coincidence."

"You're right. Well, we are eating together, might as well finish together?"

"Right…. Let's go?" Yuu said as he smiled and picked up her plate.

"Ah, right. I'll dry the plates." Aoi apparently picked up on what Yuu was trying to say.

"Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that." both smiled at each other as they went to the sink and started washing the plates.

Yuu was the one washing the dishes, as he passed the plates to Aoi who dries them up with a towel, and placed it on their cabinet.

"Thank you, Aoi. You can go up, I'll brush my teeth for a bit."

"No, I'll come. I'm going to brush my teeth as well."

"Alright."

The two headed to the bathroom, in which they both picked up their own toothbrushes and added toothpaste to it, filled a mug with water, and brushed their teeths, side by side.

"Mm. (Here)" Yuu, who had just finished gargling, handed Aoi the mug and wiped himself with a face towel by his side.

"Mm. Mmm mmm. (Yeah, thank you)" Aoi took the mug and gargled as well, and used her own face towel on her side and wiped her mouth off.

"Let's go? Forgot anything?" Yuu asked her as he followed Aoi while turning off the lights.

"No, let's go."

And so, the two marched upstairs and onto their room.