The white cat roamed through the festival grounds, elegantly jumping under, over, and around various stalls. But when he laid eyes on a certain vampboy…
“...That’s him. The blood-mancer boy. The Master has been looking for him. Time to observe further…”
The cat strode up to a nearby stall that sold fox masks, and rested atop it, looking down at Keiji with cold pools of gold and black eyes…
Down below…
Keiji, Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon were all enjoying bowls of ramen at a table near one of the booths that offered Eastern food.
“Mm…this takes me back,” Keiji said with a smile on his face as he used the chopsticks to bring noodles to his mouth.
“You ate this all the time back home, huh?” Silver Spoon asked curiously, looking to know more about him.
“Hm? Oh yeah,” Keiji answered with an uneasy tone as he was further reminded of home. “...Whenever my mother wasn’t completely ignoring me, she made food just like this. Probably the only half-decent thing I remember from back then…”
Spoon frowned as soon as she heard that. “Oh…I’m sorry, Keiji. I didn’t realize you had it rough. If anything, I can empathize with you.”
“You can, huh?”
She nodded as she prepared to use her chopsticks, “Yeah. My folks ignored me quite a bit growing up. It’s why I latched onto DT so quickly.”
“It’s true,” Tiara added, “She and I pretty much relied on each other when we were younger…but you didn’t have anyone, huh?”
Keiji scoffed as took the boiled egg from the ramen bowl in his chopsticks. “Nope. Guess that’s why I was so standoffish, eh? But it’s thanks to ya’ll that I’ve learned to be less…irritable around other people. So thanks for that.”
“You’re welcome, but still,” Spoon went on, “I wish we could do more. Like, you didn’t deserve any of that abuse.”
“Meh--don’t worry about me,” he replied casually, “You guys just make sure you take care of each other and hold onto each other no matter what. You’re good people.”
Tiara gave an encouraging reply, “Hey, so are you ya know? Don’t sell yourself short.”
“Yeah I won’t--” he blinked and noticed that they were both having some trouble with their food. Both girls were trying to grip the various pieces of meat, noodles, and egg in their bowls but consistently dropped them.
“Ugh--” Silver Spoon huffed as she flinched from a few drops of hot broth splashing onto her face as a result of dropping a piece of meat in the bowl. “How do you do this?”
Tiara was busy flicking her tongue to get the noodles off of the stick, nearly tilting her head until it was parallel with the table. “Almost…aaaallmost…”
“...You both are hopeless,” Keiji commented flatly, then flashed a grin as he prepared to give them a demonstration. “It’s all in the muscles.” With perfect precision, he flexed his fingers and showed them how to hold the sticks properly… “Like this.”
…But that wasn’t enough. They both managed to acquire the bigger pieces of meat, but still had trouble with the noodles.
“Darn…how do the Eastern folks manage to eat any of this stuff?” Spoon complained as she adjusted her glasses.
“With a lot of patience,” Keiji replied, “I could show you by hand, but I don’t wanna make you uncomfortable.”
Tiara shrugged and said, “I don’t mind. Beats embarrassing myself. Show me how to hold ‘em, please.”
“Alrighty…”
Keiji got up and went to her side of the table, grabbing a hold of her right hand with his to show her the proper way to hold onto chopsticks. “Step 1: Firmly grasp them. It’s actually not that different from a pencil. Step 2: Thread the needle. Get all of the food you want in your grip. Step 3: Scoop it up.”
“Ohhh…I see now,” Tiara replied as Keiji let go of her hand--now she was able to use them properly.
“Ahem--what about meeeee?” Silver Spoon whined, feigning jealousy, “I dunno how to use them either!” she added with a giggle.
Keiji rolled his eyes and gave Silver Spoon the same demonstration with his hand on hers to help her adjust to using the chopsticks, guiding her through the process. After which, he sat down at his seat once more, and resumed eating.
“Alright--how’s that working out for ya?” he asked, watching their technique.
“Mmm…I can actually eat now,” Silver Spoon snarked, “And to think, we own a utensil company and have never heard of these things…”
“You should totes do that,” Tiara added, “Maybe my dad should start doing more business with the East so we can have more of their stuff all the time.”
“Yeah I dunno about that,” Keiji thought to himself as the pair continued to chat, “The Eastern folks in high places tend to be the most dangerous.”
“...Keiji? KK!” Tiara called out, snapping him out of his thought process.
“Huh? Wha?” he replied as he looked up from his bowl.
“I’m gonna go look for my dad,” she explained as she got up from the table, “You both wait here, alright?” And without a second thought, she got up and left her best friend with her newest friend.
That’s when Keiji realized.
“She totally just kinda ghosted us for a bit so we could get to know each other better, huh?”
Silver Spoon snickered, “Hm! You’re starting to catch onto her pretty well. So--tell me about yourself.”
“Holy shit this just turned into a date,” he said with a cackle, “This is exactly how they all start off.”
“No it’s not and you know it,” Spoon rolled her eyes as she pushed up her glasses by the side of their rims. “No offense--you’re cute but…anyway let’s get back on topic.”
“I like kicking ass and eating food,” the vampboy said snappily, “Next.”
“Oh lord, you’re insufferable,” Spoon grabbed the bridge of her nose.
“Yeah because I refuse to suffer anymore,” he misinterpreted her words, “I’ve actually got a future here. I might spend time documenting rare species of bats.”
“...I can respect someone who’s brave enough to do that,” she replied, “Me? I dunno…my family’s business seems easy enough to inherit, but…I wanna do my own thing. Like fund new construction projects for the city and start working on initiatives to clean up the beaches. And maybe do some things in my spare time like play video games, practice my rollerblading, and maybe take up knitting.”
“...Sounds like you wanna grow up to be a politician--don’t get corrupted like half of ‘em out there.” But then, he realized the last thing she had said. “...Did you say knitting?”
“Yeah…doing that and reading books late at night is why I’ve needed glasses.” She raised a brow out of curiosity. “Why do you ask?”
“I like to crochet,” he went on, “it’s kinda similar except it’s done with one rod instead of two. It takes way longer but the results are usually harder to unravel.”
Silver Spoon’s expression slowly changed from dubious to amazed as Keiji spoke--her eyes widening as she opened her mouth to speak. “Wow…I’m…impressed. I didn’t think someone like you would have the patience for something like that--no offense.”
Keiji shrugged his shoulders. “It’s fine. No big deal. But yeah, I used to do crochet dolls to take blood back home. I kinda…don’t need to do that anymore, so I just make ‘em out of habit. It’s like…comforting or whatever?”
“...You gotta show me your work,” Spoon asked with a husky sense of enthusiasm, “I’m excited to see what a guy like you could come up with since I’ve only run into girls who are into yarn arts.”
“...You might not like everything you see,” he answered hesitantly, then smiled, “But sure. I can do that for ya.”