getting_better

[She blushes at that, for once maybe a little bit embarrassed over the fact that she'd downplayed it a bit. Shiho actually has to be piloted around by Kaoru using psychokinesis in the morning...

But he doesn't need to know that yet!!]

Or we could have a late lunch, too. That would be fun!

[ But he would love to see it. ]

That works too.

[ Good thing he's not unfamiliar with that type so it's not a big deal. Though the other people he knows that were bad with the morning weren't his girlfriend so, who knows. Speaking of, that blushing doesn't go unnoticed and he leans over. ]

Don't worry I'm sure you're still cute even then.

[Shiho's blush only intensifies when he leans in, but she keeps eye contact even if she's pouting at him.

Since when has he been so smooth?! (Since a while, she's noticed this but still.)]

Flirt.

[But she's smiling and hasn't quite noticed in order to stop herself from smiling.]

[ 'Only for you'. It's a strange thing. He's never really had that kind of way with words but he's listened and went on enough missions with Chev to maybe pick up a few things here and there. He never thought he'd actually be using those, even subconsciously. ]

Alright, it's your turn to ask.

[ While he ponders a drowsy looking Shiho and going 'd'aww' in his head. ]

[Shiho pouts at him some more, especially as he imagines her sleepy. Sure, she's cute when she's like that and Kaoru always tells her this but it's somehow much more embarrassing when Bishop thinks of these things.]

Hm... then... what is your favourite meal you've ever had? What is your favourite place to eat here?

[ Even her pouting is cute as heck, but he'll make it up to her later for poking a bit of fun at her. Or she could plot revenge, that's totally fair. ]

Favorite meal I ever had...apart from sukiyaki, the next one that's on par with that would be a kebab I had while I was on a mission in Turkey. Iskender kebab it was called.

[ A brief memory of the dish in question comes to mind, thinly sliced roasted lamb with bubbling sheep butter and yogurt. ]

A favorite place has been difficult to find. Nothing has particularly stood out for me, though I know some good places.

[ His standards might be too high or pallete too exotic. ]

[Or there could be both, she's not opposed to revenge and him making it up to her.

It's a good thing they're on their way to food already, otherwise she'd have regretted asking him these questions and making herself hungry. Iskender kebab sounds amazing...]

Now you're just making me hungry. [But she does like the idea of going to those places he'd liked, sharing experiences like that with him.]

Yeah, I guess I am!

[ This is why he eats a lot, he's always making himself hungry. ]

Actually, it was because I got to exeprience those things on missions - even if brief - that really elevated cooking from hobby to passion. There's a lot of things you can learn about a place and their people from their food.

[ A beat. ]

Also the food in the military sucked.

[ It was a very nutrition over flavor thing during his time. He might as well have eaten cardboard and flavorless gelo. ]

On missions, huh...

[She tightens her hold a little on him, not looking at him but up at the sky.]

We never really got to go out and eat on missions. It was more of a "get things done and then go back home" kind of thing. Unless we snuck out.

At BABEL, they fed us really well though. [It's a Michelin-starred chef, many different styles of cuisine type of situation at the BABEL canteen and all throughout her childhood she had gotten as many snacks as she had wanted.]

[ 'That's surprising'. ]

You were sent out on missions too?

[ He wanted to think that was wrong but, he was a a legal child soldier at sixteen years old so who was he to comment. ]

What kind of stuff did you do on missions, if you don't mind me asking?

[ 'Unless it's a very hush hush, if-I-tell-you-I'd-have-to-kill-you sort of deal'. ]

[It is an if-I-tell-you-I'd-have-to-kill-you sort of deal but no one's here to police Shiho and Kaoru certainly isn't going to tell her not to say anything.

Besides, Shiho has also defected right now and become a criminal so it's hardly her responsibility right now to keep the secrets of what is currently Gilliam's BABEL.]

I was. Ever since I was nine years old I've been sent out on missions. [And because she was so powerful it was never on normal missions, but only on ones in which many lives depended on them, or that were just downright too dangerous for anyone less powerful.]

We were usually called in to help out during national disasters, especially if the precog team predicted that there would be something happening. That was before though, now I'm pretty sure I'm an internationally wanted criminal or something.

Oh.

[ Neat, his new girlfriend is an international criminal too. ]

[ 'Wait, what?!' ]

You're an internationally wanted criminal too???

[ They've got more in common that he thought. ]

Too? Wait, you're a criminal too?

[oh wow, this is not what she thought they'd be talking about, nor what she thought they'd have in common???]

Why? What did you do?

[ That's a long story he doesn't think makes easy conversation. ]

Uhhh the short version is, my team was disavowed by my government and they condemned us as criminals so we ran and hid.

[ 'Me being the more wanted one since I know stuff' Too much stuff even by CIA standards. ]

[They really do have a lot in common, huh...]

...Yeah, that's... kind of what happened to us, too. Except we didn't really run, we made a video and called them all out and told them to bring it. Ah, but with our faces blurred out though. I mean, getting to return to being a civilian afterwards would be nice.

[If that asshole Gilliam doesn't mess it all up with his giant eyebrows and his hair that never fits in the frame, that is.]

[ Small world. ]

That was a good idea.

[ Then something just occurred to him. The Japanese government found him the moment he rolled into Tokyo seven odd years ago, but the US never so much as even sent a scout to confirm his sighting. He knows they have spies in Japan, he's not a greenhorn, so why didn't they find him? 'Something to ponder later' he thinks. ]

I take it your friend Kaoru is also of the same situation? [ A beat. ] Actually, what's her full name? I met a Kaoru here on the same day I met you, and I'm wondering if it's just a coincidence.

[Shiho had known through his own admission that he was definitely well-traveled but a part of her had never thought that it could be because he was running away. Still... she couldn't help but think that perhaps his world isn't dissimilar to hers. Many governments had all been bought at this point by Black Phantom and Gilliam and even before then there was always at least one person willing to do terrible things in the name of "the greater good" whether it was using cloned child espers as soldiers, or eliminating a powerful esper if they so much as suspected they could defect to another country. But that's something to think of later, especially because she was supposed to be on a date.]

We left together with Aoi-chan. [Because there's no way any one out of the three of them would leave the others behind.] ...And you probably have. She's about my age, has bright red hair. Her full name is Kaoru Akashi.

[ 'Ah' ]

So it was her.

[ Very small world. ]

Akashi-san...She has a very bold personality, huh?

[ He says with funny and slightly embarrassed smile as he recalls how they first met. ]

She certainly knows how to leave an impression.

[That's usually the kind of impression Kaoru leaves on people and Shiho is laughing when she sees it.]

That's one way of putting it. Kaoru-chan is a force of nature.

[But her expression is fond as she says it because no matter how embarrassing and silly Kaoru may be, Shiho loves her all the same.]

A 'force of nature' she says.

[ Unforgettable and impactful. She's not wrong in that sense. And then he remembered how friends tend to influence each other if they've been around each other long enough, and given she's known her for a very long time- ]

You, uhhh, you aren't going to suddenly hold my arm and say you're robbing me or something like that, right?

[ He actually won't mind, honestly, but how is supposed to answer if she asked him to leave his wallet or dignity, or worse? ]

Am I?

[She... reaches out to hold his arm then, gazing up at him with cheerful mischief... before she bursts out into laughter.]

Hm, but that's not my role in our friend group, so: no.

[Kaoru is the one who says "your wallet or your dignity", Shiho is the one who says "wallet! Take his wallet!" and Aoi would say "dignity can't be exchanged for cold, hard cash".]

Oh. That's great.

[ There's light playful sarcasm in his voice. The implication of her words don't escape him. She has a role in that, what it is he'll maybe find out one day. Good thing he has a secret weapon. He doesn't carry a wallet. ]

Good to know you two have your roles all figured out.

[Shiho can't help laughing when he says that, burying her face against his shoulder for a moment before looking up at him.]

Of course. We've known each other for so many years so we've got practice. [And it's very hard to deny them, especially when all three of them were together.]

But~ I'll protect you. So it'll be fine.

Edited 2020-06-21 03:20 (UTC)

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