Fat. Beautiful. Tasty. Ravenous.

Chapter 18

I feel awkward after Taishiro leaves. Of course, Whitney also brought lunch. I recall now that I was meant to have lunch with her but I just kinda forgot about her when Taishiro showed up. It was like one second, I knew she was supposed to be the one visiting and the next, she didn't exist in my mind. His presence does that to me.

Now I just sit and watch her eat as we sit at my table.

She's come, on behalf of Tomoyo, to try and convince me to start booking jobs again.

She's been assigned to stay undercover until the victims of the trafficking ring can be traced. Jared hadn't stored any records of the girls he'd kidnapped in the apartment he'd kept me at so they're hoping he'll end up giving up the information after being interrogated for long enough (if he ever wakes up). I honestly don't know if we'll ever find them, though.

At the very least, Whitney's staying in the modelling business a little longer and I'm pleased about that despite the somber circumstances.

She never says anything to me about Fat being here. She probably has a million questions but doesn't ask a single one. Thank All Might the girl can read the room.

We sit and converse until late in the afternoon. After a while, I'm starting to think she doesn't want to leave.

I understand her concern but I'm also struggling to keep even a lukewarm expression on my face. I need to be alone. I need to process... or just dissociate. Whichever ends in me going back to sleep again for a long while.

"Fine," I tell her finally, "Tell Tomoyo to book one shoot for me next week. Just. One. If she books me for more, I won't show up."

A bright look of excitement crosses her face then. "Really?"

"Yeah," I grumble, "Whatever gets her off my back."

"Well... who's gonna take you?" she wonders, toying with her hair as though she's actually going to slip such an obvious question by me.

To be honest, I hadn't thought about it but now I'm pretty sure I should. There's no way I can ask Fat to take me.Who knows if he'll even be strong enough to return to hero work by then, not to mention the fight we just had.

"I guess... Suneater? I'll have to ask him."

At the name, I can practically see non-existent cat ears perk up on the girl's head.

"Well that's good. I mean- I'm okay with that...."

"Yeah, I'm sure you are," I say with a playful roll of my eyes as her face turns red.

She still seems unwilling to leave but is unable to prolong her visit any further. Only a few scant minutes after I've agreed to this photoshoot, I've finally gotten her out my door.

I'm able to sit back on my couch now and peel this mask of okayness off of my face.

A whiny meow reaches my ears and I see Bento hopping up on my couch, nudging his way up under my hand for pets.

"You little shit," I say, a tired smile coming to my face as I scratch behind his ears, "You didn't even come out to see your daddy. What were you doing? Sleeping on the windowsill again?"

His round, yellow eyes blink slowly at me, then he opens his mouth wide for a yawn. That's as much of an admission of guilt as I've ever seen.

"It's okay," I whisper to him secretively, "I need you for a little longer anyway."

Bento only purrs louder.

--

I thought that how I felt before was awful. Now that I'm unable to blame anyone but myself for my unhappiness, it seems to have only increased exponentially.